I want Mummy to sleep with me

Ethan said this almost every night at bedtime since I am on leave. I realised that it's actually a blessing to be able watch your lil one falling asleep beside you each night which I have been missing the last few weeks.

Bonding time with the boys

Finally I have gotten myself 2 weeks off from work since Tues and have the chance to spend some quality time with the boys. I have been working till late for at least 5 straight weeks prior to my block leave and didn't have too much energy during the past weekends to catch up on the lost time.

On Tues, it was our 8th wedding anniversary and my ah lou and myself went out together (minus the kids) for a full day out. On Wed, I brought Caden out to meet my long-time friends Glory and Wendy for a long-awaited catchup lunch and was glad to know Glory is currently preggie and has joined our motherhood club. Caden was easy to shop around with and handle over lunch (since he eats almost anything), when he had 1 bowl of prawn noodles by himself, 3 chicken wings, shared 1 bottle of 100plus, and a dunkin donut at late afternoon. I am amazed how high metabolic rate children have when I am still full with my medium sized prawn noodles from lunch. Caden was quite accomodating when it comes to shopping with me, so long I allocated some time to him for him to spend some time at the toys section. He had the most fun at the toys fair at taka atrium where he spent a fair amount of time looking at masked rider den-O collection, power rangers RPM collection and watching the live meet and greet show (some yo-gaba gaba stuff - which I totally had no idea who they are!). So eventually, I get to shop around for my clothes and some christmas gifts (selected by Caden for Eillot and Aidan) and bonded with him at the same time for the whole day out.

On Thurs, I stayed at home to supervise the boys to do some homework and managed to pack my wardrobe to clear out some clothes. In the late afternoon, I got Caden to do some rubber artwork at our nearby mall and he was happy with his accomplishment (his first attempt on rubber art).

Friday, it was homework time again in the morning for the boys and I left for my own pampering facial session after lunch at home. And we look forward to more eventful days in the coming week as my ah lou will be on leave and we can venture out to more places since the car is at our reach! (provided the weather is good to us)

PaPa's birthday!

Today is PaPa' and Grandma's birthday. We had a mini-celebration at Swa Garden (teochew) restuarant in the evening along Macpherson Rd. The food there was fantastic. The crayfish, cold crabs and vegetable with ti poh were nice, coupled with their teochew ooni (yam dessert).

We left the restuarant at abt 740pm, my father-in-law was so considerate that he suggested to leave IMMEDIATELY after our last dish so that the restuarant can cater for another bigger group for the night. Caden and Ethan both seemed to love the food as well and ate quite a lot.

We had our birthday cake cutting an hour later which is what the boys usually look forward to whenever there's a birthday celebration.




Caden wanted this pose to be kept as a momento for PaPa

Caden's Year End Concert

Caden has been keeping mum about his performing item for this year end concert. When we asked him what dance will he be performing, he would usually tell us that we will know it when we attend the concert.

We had to get them to school before 6pm as the teachers had to spend time styling their hair and dressing them up prior to the concert. This is also the last year that both Caden and Kimi get to perform on the same stage with 2 families watching together with Grandpa and Grandma at the same time (as each child gets alloted 4 tickets to the concert).

Upon reaching the school near 6pm, both of them bought new shoes for their graduation ceremony


While queuing to get into the auditorium, PaPa brought Ethan to the playground to pass time. I got some time to take some of the school's mock-up stations where the students get to do role-play during their lessons. The kindergarten has won a couple of awards from MOE which was quite honorable for their efforts put.


Ethan was elated when he was given a lollipop by an older girl who was seated near him.



Opening ceremony, where all the children came out to wave to the audience. Caden was looking for us, but not able to see us eventually before he left the stage. Caden was too shy and looked away from our direction most of the time.


His segment was the 3rd item on the list, when he first appeared on the stage, he spotted us in a short while as we were seated right on the second row on the same side where he came out from.


















finale


After the concert which ended almost near 930pm, the 2 cousins took a shot together in the kindergarten for the last time




Can't wait for next year to happen, as both Ethan and Caden will be performing at the same time on the same stage!

Halloween Night

It's our 2nd visit to Woodlands Grove this year for Halloween. This place seems to be the traditional area where owners were seated by their houses and giving out treats to children or teenagers who were there for the night. Caden and Ethan each dressed up in their Batman and Spiderman costumes and were set to gather their share of treats from them.

We reached there at abt 715pm. There were already many people walking around the region and dressed up in their halloween suits. Some of them were really funny, I saw 2 boys in their teens in white tops and white pants with blood like fluid splashed all over their faces and costumes. Others were mainly in black capes with horrendous masks and some girls were in gothic like costumes which seems kinda of weird for this occasion. My personal favorite was a young gal in her wonder-woman suit and she even wore skinned leggings, her cape was filled with sequins and it really glammed up the whole look. Caden and Ethan were too shy to have a picture taken with this gal so we didn't get to capture her picture.

Caden and Ethan were generally very well-liked by the owners (I think predominantly they are Americans), as they are one of the younger ones spotted tonight. One of them actually asked to take a picture of them for his momento. Other aunties actually spoke to Caden for some time and when we asked him what has the auntie asked him, he said when he walked up to her and said happy halloween, she asked him what else does he need to say, he then continued with "trick or treat" (and he could articulate these words quite well), she then told him that, "that's the way to get your sweets!" ..we could see that the boys were very happy to get these treats tonight.

We called it a night at 810pm, when Caden started to say he wants to go home - I think he couldn't wait to get home to start eating on his sweets. But probably he's was already sweating and tired as we had a jog this afternoon before our early dinner. We probably may plan for another trip here again next year, depending which day will halloween fall on.

posing for the night



this is one of the first few houses they visited


subsequent ones where it was damn crowded


We waited outside the house and kept an eye on our lil ones


the most challenging spot to collect the sweets (these gals were seated on the top of their gate boundary)


some of the interesting home decors that we liked





counting their rewards

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turns 3 today. I have taken off today in hope to bring Ethan out in the morning for his favorite bowling game. However, PaPa fell ill and had taken medical leave so we are home bound. I couldn't do any outdoor activities with Ethan due to the haze level so we decided to send him for his usual morning class at 1030am.

I have arranged for a dinner at Dining room at Sheraton Towers. The good part about this buffet dinner is that kids below 6 dines free. I wanted to book Melt and Aquamarine (both around marina area) and they had been fully booked till Sat (blame it on my last minute planning), despite the high charges. We thought of trying out Cafe Biz at Trader's but PaPa decided to opt for Dining room for it's waterfall feature. To be honest, since I am a local food lover, we realised that we have not had buffets together as a family for the last 8 years!!! Most of the time, we would dine at Ding Tai Fung (all time fav for the boys), Crystal Jade or other Dim Sum chinese restuarant, or Mac's, KFC for the kids. Or otherwise, we would settle for my fav chicken rice, bbq chicken wings, hokkien noodles, fish soup, prawn noodles, zi char or ngoh niang somewhere.

We reached the hotel around 650pm and were really hungry. Ethan and Caden were fairly behaved at first since they needed to fill their tummies. Caden surprised me by wanting to tag along when I told them that I'll help to get some food for them, and he brought along his child plate. Caden was adventurous to take some food from the sashimi counter, salad bar and some english bread (and his small little plate was already fully filled). PaPa got some ee-fu noodles for Ethan and he enjoyed it happily. I specially like the fried shrimp wantons but PaPa like the ee-fu noodles most. Generally, the food selection was quite wide and their desserts were good. Throughout the whole dinner, there's a live band singing soothing melodies at the drinking lounge which is located near the Dining Room. So the ambience was good. We probably come in for another round of dinner before Caden turns 6 next year (to take advantage of the child limit charges!).

Dinner scenes







Ethan's half-filled and started playing with chopsticks


Caden offered to take a shot for Mummy when he realised that I was snapping for everyone


Caden giving some brotherly kisses to DiDi for his birthday



and Ethan returning some


the waterfall feature and live band completes whole celebration