Remembering Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (1923 - 2015)

Undoubtedly one of the saddest day for this young nation, our founding father has passed on today at 3.18am.

As usual, we were woken up by our radio clock this morning at 6 plus and hearing some commentaries on Mr. Lee.. so to our minds, we suspected for the worst news. Ah lou checked the news through social media and confirmed the news. This morning, I watched the live telecast of our Prime Minister delivering a public message to announce the passing of his father and it was done with great composure as he held back his tears.

Thank you, Mr. Lee, for all that you have done for the country.. your wisdom, bravery and legacy will always be well-remembered.

Family Day and Carnival @ PaPa's office - School Holidays Day 5

On the last day of the March school holidays, Ah Lou's company had organised a Kids-at-Work day and Family Day carnival. Caden and Ethan followed their PaPa to the office happily in the morning and these are the activities done during the day:



 

We realised one other boy, at the age of 8, shorter than Ethan..

 

Demo of Dentist at work

Family Day carnival in Bishan Park:

Caden tried vertical rock climbing for the first time... and failed! (he said the rocks were too slippery for him to get a firm grip).. I agree, given that it's an inflated version...

 

 

This is the highest he could pull himself

Shooting in action

Live Table Soccer game

Brothers were playing against each other

Gladiator - He lost to a bigger boy

The boys enjoyed themselves thoroughly.. but because of the hot scorching sun the boys were under for the whole afternoon, Caden felt so bad after dinner and vomited all his food!

Scouts Job Week and homework - School holidays Day 4

This is by far, the most accomplished day of this week's school holidays. Caden and Ethan had completed their weekly piano lessons by 11.30am and we went for an early lunch. They started to work on the remaining list of school homework on hand and even completed some chapters of the Chinese assessment books today.

On a weekday, it's definitely a stress-free lunch!



Always happy in McDonald's

 

 

By 4pm, Caden popped over to Aunt Peggy's place to help out simple house chores as part of the Scouts Job week. Aunt Peggy set aside a week's load of clothes for Caden to fold... and he worked on it for almost near 2 hours to complete the entire task!

This load is just part 1

 

After 1 hour.. still folding..

Ethan was just happily lazing right in front of him!

He earned $15 from Aunt Peggy for the work done.. we made a deal that he will get the rest of the top-ups in his targeted amount if he can complete our weekend house cleaning chores single-handedly..

Let's see..

Spongbob Movie treat - School holidays Day 3

I brought the boys for a movie treat on the 3rd day of this week's school holidays. Ethan woke up only at 9.30am in the morning and I had to change my plans to watch the movie at City Square mall instead since the other 2 screening times that I have shortlisted earlier were at 10.30am.

They have been asking to catch The Spongbob Movie when they watched the trailer some time back, so I took this opportunity to make use of the Golden Village promotional package - buy 2 adult tickets, free 1 child ticket (before 2 pm) to fulfill their wish.

Gosh, the movie was so boring from my perspective. Most parts of the show were in cartoon format which I can easily watch on my weekday nights at home and the humour level was almost to the minimum. However, my boys enjoyed the show thoroughly and said they loved the movie!

I wished I had the courage to put them alone in the Spongebob movie, while I watch Cinderella in the other movie hall which was also screening at the same time:

Maybe, in another 2 years time...

Bone Age Scan - School Holidays Day 2

On the second day of Term 1 school holidays, I brought Ethan to the clinic to do a bone age scan as suggested by our PD. Ethan has always been on the petite side since young and we were rather concerned that he's still much smaller in size when compared to his peers especially now that he is in Primary 2.

We visited our PD sometime before Chinese New Year to express our concerns over his growth rate and size in particular. He told us that Ethan was in the 3rd percentile 2 years ago when he last checked and 3rd percentile now that he's is in Primary 2. So technically, being able to maintain within the 3rd percentile range over the last 2 years goes to show that he is still growing. He suggested that we do a bone age scan for him to check his exact bone age before doing other tests to determine what caused him to be of a smaller built.

True enough, today's scan results has shown that his bone is that of a 5 to 6 year old child. This indicates that Ethan will probably have extra 2 years in his teen years, as compared to his peers, for his bones to continue growing. 

With this scan results, it just sets our mind at peace :) 

Sentosa Port of Lost Wonder - School Holidays Day 1

On the first day of Term 1 school holidays, we made plans to bring the boys to Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) in Sentosa as the last trip made was quite some time ago. As we had a really late night on Sunday, we only got into this place sometime near noon after our late breakfast in Ya Kun.

The boys were really excited when we reached and it wasn't too crowded. Thankfully, the weather wasn't too hot either so they really had a good time playing.

Papa was dragged into the playground by them as they simply love his company to do the slides together! I had to stay out of water this round as I had a very bad cold...

For 30 Curios (the money given by POLW), they can play in the bubbly foam tub for 20 minutes. Nearer to the time of the activity, a queue was formed as they limit to first 30 children.

waiting excitedly for the bubble foam activity

at the beginning when there are lesser bubbles

After about 10 minutes, the machine started to generate more foam and bubbles and the braver children took turns to stand right in front of the cannon to get a feel of the bubbles splashing on their back... both Caden and Ethan did that:

walking in style

happily coated in bubbles

Caden added a hat on his head

The boys had so much fun in POLW. We thought Caden might have outgrown this, but he enjoyed the company of his younger brother and father thoroughly for the whole afternoon. We left the place only after 3 and a half hours later as they kept asking to play longer in POLW.

I don't know if we are still coming back to POLW again next time given that Caden will turn 10 years old soon.. but this trip has given them some good memories..

Itacho Sushi @ Changi Airport T3

Ah lou took us to Itacho Sushi in Changi Airport on one of the weekend nights. We were seated at the sushi bar due to the crowd but we got a full view of the chefs at work, which was interesting for the boys..

 

It was the first time the boys ordered their own hand rolls after seeing me eating all-time favourite, soft-shell crab one..

 

As the place was really crowded, we had to wait for some of our food after they served us a few plates..

So Caden took over my phone and starting snapping:

Selfie:

 



Pose 1

Pose 2

 

Pose 3

 

Caden's favourite selfie combination

It was ah lou's first visit to Itacho sushi (he used to like to frequent Ichiban Sushi for their black pepper beef) and he loved the salmon sashimi.. so given this, we will be looking forward to more of his treats in near future!

Ethan's Swimming lessons

 

We finally started Ethan on swim lessons mid-January this year under Coach Raymond held in Sengkang Swimming Complex. I used to believe that we should get Ethan started swimming from the age of 6, if not by last year when he was in P1. However, ah lou always think that he's way too short to get started then and finally decided to put him on lessons this year.

 

Prior to the official lessons, both ah lou and myself made some attempts to get him work on some of the basic stuff that swimming coaches adopt for beginners.. like kicking in the right manner (legs have to be straight), kicking with the swim board as part of the drills, breathing in water, putting the head in the water with the swim board while kicking to and fro, etc. I guess this helps him to be more confident when the official lessons start.

 

In Lesson 1:



Learning the right posture

The 3 new beginners - there was a young boy (5 yr old), who was so afraid of water, clinging on to the coach's back while he pulled the other 2 boys along to emphasize on the kicking posture.

Getting them to dive into the pool with the swim board

As part of the lesson routine, Ethan has to kick about 8 short laps in the pool as warm-ups. Thereafter, he has to practise his breathing while kicking with the swim board for another 8 short laps. During this process, Coach Raymond will correct his kicks or head postures along the way. By the 6th lesson, Ethan was asked to turn his head sideways on the 4th swing (which is part of the freestyle method) while kicking with the board. Each lesson, Ethan has to swim without a board towards Coach Raymond for about 5metres (the distance gets further if he can do it) as part of the training. So usually after each lesson, Ethan will be completely exhausted!

In Lesson 6:

waiting for his turn to do his individual swim

He has to swim towards coach without a board

Swimming with the help of the swim board while coach looks on

Group photo for the week (there were a few absentees)

We felt that Ethan made good progress so far. This is mostly attributed to Coach Raymond as he pushes his students quite hard. Amongst some other swimming coaches we had engaged for Caden, I think this coach seems to be the best, although I must say that he's really fierce! Hopefully by end of this year, my dear boy can swim well!