Chinese New Year is coming =)

On Sun being the 5th Sun it was craft work and mama was quite surprised when she saw Ian holding 2 chinese latterns when she went to pick him up and ah mu then related that he was so happy clipping the staple that he asked ah mu to do another lattern (coz most kids were having 1 lattern each) and ah mu then said he posed with the 2 latterns happily for her to capture this shot...hahaa being trained by mama to take pics huh =)

Just make us realised CNY is really drawing nearer and how the kids have grown over the yrs...never quite imagine Ian could make latterns hahaa and these 2 latterns are hung at our door and Ian would always say its HIS latterns hahaa....anyway just counting down to CNY when we could have more family time as we meet up with relatives =)

Out for picnic to celebrate dayi's bday...

For a change, we had picnic outing on a Sun noon with potluck at SBG (where we had the luxury of having the black swans just swimming in front of us) and the kids had a whale of time coz there was so much space for them to run and play the sports which we have brought along. And the finale was having the durian cake yummy....its been some time we ordered this home made durian cake...Ian loved it so much that he was eyeing on Joy's cake after he finished his slice hhmm...what a durian lover he is!

It was a gd time in the outdoor as we had the picnic mats and even a portable dining table and chairs =) it was fun with the kids running ard while the adults could catch up and recall the days we went jogging in the garden when we were real little....lots of memories but also to go down memory lane as dayi celebrates her bday....just a different thing to do instead of the norm having to be constrained by space at our homes...the kids really expend their energy running on the grass...

A little 'drama' at Po2's place!

These days u can see Ian lazing on sofa so comfortably (this pic was taken at Uncle Ben's place when we last went to visit baby Aiden, see how he can go pple's house and yet laze on sofa sigh) And so last nite, po2 called to relate to us abt the little drama they had (since Ian was staying over their place) Ian was lazing on po2's place sofa (that's the usual spot for ah gong but this naughty boy went to take over ah gong's place and was crossing his legs...somehow his leg got caught in between the wooden panels (as its the traditional kind of sofa) and he was in fact screaming for help in tears....

Both the old folks panicked and tried all means to calm the teary boy but he just couldn't keep still for them to pull out his legs and he screamed as if he were in great pain....and then po2 came up with the idea to saw off the wooden panel hahaa and she really did saw it off...sigh what a 'drama' they had on an unusual Wed nite hahaa guess this naughty boy won't dare to sit on the sofa again so much abt taking over ah gong's territory =)

We visited the Children's Garden today and....

just slightly less than a yr back when we visited the Children's garden, Ian was attracted by the long windy covered slide and he stood there for a long time before deciding to back out from the slide after trying just 1 time

today he was going endless rounds of sliding down the tunnelling slides and was having so much fun with Seth and Joy as it has been some time we shared Sat morning out together and this marked the start of our 'outingS' together again =) just looking at how the kids enjoyed the slides together just made us realised they have grown over the yrs and now enjoying the slides...wonder if they will monkey ard the slide the next time we go (like the bigger kids are doing today hhmm)

Here are the kids seated as if they are ready for some school on a HOT saturday hehee...just quite cute to see those small wooden stools for the kiddos!

Then they went on for more wooden musical instruments...hhmm wonder what musical instrument they are more inclined to =)

And we wandered out of the Children's garden to the greeneries and we chanced upon a nice patch of grass with low tide water and we could see turtles waddling in the pool and there were 4 black swans (if u could spot them behind the scene in the pic) and wat they did was quite funny they dip themselves into the water but a little of their legs up (abit like sychronised swimming) and here's daddy doing it to Ian....just demonstrating how the black swans dip their heads =) sure will come by to feed the turtles and swans again =)

Just a nice day to be out in the sun in the midst of unpredictable weather these days!!!

Happy Birthday to DADDY!!!

the day before daddy's bday we had a mini celeb dinner with po2 and ah gong as they insisted on having a tse char dinner celeb for daddy as we were heading to their place to pick Ian up....they had wanted to eat at this thomson tse char stall but the sky turned real dark and we had it at a nearby coffee shop instead but lots of memories coz we used to dine there when we were little kids so memories came back as we ate at the place.

Thereafter we headed home and had a mini strawberry cheesecake to celeb daddy's bday as po2 was so nice to buy Ian the cake for him to celeb with daddy as he had earlier wanted to buy a cake using his own money but he could only rem he has $$ in the 'piggy bank' in po2's pl hhmm he even wants to go Aust with that $$...as if he has so much $$ in there huh....anw it was nice gathering ard the mini cake and having some fun together =)

On daddy's bday as some BIG bosses were coming to daddy's workplace so he couldn't take whole day lve and he came back in pm in time when Ian woke up from his nap and we headed out for seventh heaven which dayi has recommended for their ice cream at Cantonment there...we had homemade waffles and it was generous piece of waffle with milo dinosaur ice cream..it was so nice till Ian dirtied his shirt as he had endless licks of ice cream and waffle...

thereafter we headed to pick Seth, Joy and ah mu for dinner together....Ian could even tell them he was eating ice cream so he dirtied his shirt when he was being asked by the kids and ah mu abt his chocolatey mess on his shirt

Then we headed to Hard Rock Cafe for some 'rocking' hahaa as requested by Seth and we had such gd food and enjoying the time together for the evening =)

As usual, the bday boy was asked to do some 'tricks' and this time daddy was carrying a cake on 1 hand and the other carrying an ice cream (which was on the house) and both litted with candles and he had to ask the whole house to sing the bday song for him...it was quite hilarious seeing daddy standing on the chair and having to cajole pple to sing FOR him....anw it was a gd time having the food and fun at the restaurant and the kids loved it!

Here's wishing daddy more blessed yrs ahead and continue to be the man of God and be the patient man to our endless request by the 2 of us hahaa....

Chocolate lover got his 1st kinder JOY!

For some time, all thanks to the advert Ian has always been asking for this Kinder Joy whenever we go supermarket or when we drop by 7-11 but we always say NO coz he has sth similar back home (except mama's keeping it for health reason haha) which Uncle Kenneth gave Ian sometime ago but last Fri when we were out with dayi, this boy knows dayi will get it for him. True enough he just conveniently put into dayi's trolley and has been bugging us for it...so today we finally let him have a 'taste' of it hahaa...hhmm he was excited every moment as mama 'peeled' the egg and here's him with the chocolate egg....he ate both choc balls so fast....aiyo....

Well for that, he got a purple koala (that has a duck float) quite cute....guess this is the 'surprise' that comes with the choc (as advertised!) and he is now sleeping with it...holding it in his hands as if it were some bolster hahaa...anw thanks dayi for making this boy really happy just to have the choc and the little toy!

Ian's enjoying puzzling....

Finally cleared the toys and labelled them hehee....and now there is a whole box of puzzles and recently got more from Melaka and here's Ian trying to fix a 15 pcs puzzle. He actually did a 20 pc puzzle on his own and thus mama decided to capture down the puzzling time on video coz its such a progress to see how Ian's able to do it on his own...guess the past mth of doing puzzles has helped him to focus on getting the same colors together and then piecing them together to see the 'whole pic' well can't wait for him to grow up then he could perhaps piece a 200 or 500 pc puzzle together with mama?? hahhaaa...hope he continues to love doing puzzles =)

We went LUGE-ing today!!!

For the longest time, we have been planning to go Luge-ing. And today we went into Sentosa together with ah mu and ah baa's family...it has been some time we went out on Sat morning together and all the kids were excited to go Sentosa....here we are abt to enter the Luge area and start our 'races' hahaaa

Here are the kids with all their helmets...this is the 1st time they are all taking the rides together coz the last we took was with Seth only as the other 2 little ones were too little back then (think it was 2 CNY ago when we had Chng clan outing to Sentosa on Chu er)

Here we are all geared up for the race hiak hiak of coz Ian will go with daddy heheee so mama can speed thru the course =) the 'speedster'!!!

After the race, we took the chairlift to get back to where we came from and it was a treat for the kids coz yeah they are all over the height limit....still rem there was once we were kindof caught in the luge area and wanted to get back to the other side of Sentosa so we tried asking if Ian could take the chairlift but he was too short for the limit back then as he was barely 10 mths old?? Guess we shld see ourselves coming back more often for the luge hehee..maybe shld apply the Luge license which makes each ride cheaper hhmm

Then we explored a little of the Sentosa as we headed for lunch and here's the 'free' joy ride outside Images of Spore hehee and Seth's the driver and the 3 kids happily sat on the huge vehicle!

Here are the 3 little ones at the Nature Discovery and we saw some nice shots of nature taken by CS Ling....we had just a short brush against the nature but it was nice to be out in the sun and guess when IR is up, we might be meeting bigger crowds entering the island...till then, we shall go into Sentosa again!!!

Ian's 34 mths old

This is a relatively short mth with all the long wkends and daddy clearing lve so we had more time together as a family. Ian has displayed a strong liking for puzzles and after we got him some puzzles which he is doing everyday (yes, never bored with it and now coming up with new tricks like keeping his fav pieces and wanting us to help and yet restricting us to use only certain pieces sigh) and he has gotten more puzzles for Christmas....guess pple think this is the age to do puzzles huh but will keep till he's bored with the 4 puzzles he has every day!

During the trip to Melaka we got more puzzles and see how this boy just happily went on bed and started doing his own puzzles....hhmm more puzzles time huh

And now Ian knows what is Christmas...guess his 1st truly Christmas that he can appreciates and train till now he knows he must stand in front of the tree for us to take pics hahaa...anw this is a gd time with family and he sure spend alot of time with daddy till he wonders when daddy's working and not coz of his clearing lve so he sees alot of daddy so sometimes in the morning when he wakes up he will ask 'Where is my daddy??' Guess daddy would have feel so warm hearing these words hhmm he never ask for mummy hahaa guess take it for granted mummy is ALWAYS there huh...but he still loves to 'bully' daddy like when we come home, he will sit on his 'throne seat' and tell daddy to take off his shoes...sigh still training him on that part on doing things on his own

Ian just loves animals and he has been asking quite a fair bit of Australia coz he knows he can feed many animals and have lots of fun there....there was once dayi fetched us back he asked dayi to go Australia hahhaa....for the recent Melaka trip mama prep him abt going holiday but he din wanna go till mama said u will be home alone coz mama and daddy are going away....then he said he wants mama and daddy but he still wants Australia hahaa....so we try to go SBG more often to feed the swans and his fav birds and turtles...

For some time Ian wasn't keen on bike so mama just left it there but daddy checked out on tricycle each time we go hypermarket and then daddy said why not let him try on the tricycle to paddle 1st....anw it turned out on 2nd bike trip he was able to manovere the bike quite well he could cycle on the corridor on his own except the bike is making some noise and he will get down and ask why is the bike so noisy.

This mth Ian has been able to verbalise more...coz when we 1st got the bike back home, mama instructed him only can cycle outdoors and so when he was caught by daddy cycling back home he could tell daddy 'Mama said can cycle ard here' which is true coz he was so tempted to cycle and mama told him he could cycle near the gate since we closed the door already. Hmm so now he could 'defend' for himself....which makes things easier coz he could explain his stand like the last Sun he went Sun Sch and daddy thot he was fine so left him there but later we learnt from ah mu he was sobbing....hhmm mama din know our boy can sob hahaa coz thot he could only burst into tears which can scare pple off....then after asking him then we realised coz Joy had Chloe and Seth was with John so Ian felt abit left out so he was sobbing quietly hhmm it was gd Auntie Winnie came in time to take him over...he's so comfy with this teacher sigh and she won't be in Sun Sch for 2 mths...wonder how...anw gotta train him to be independent when worshipping God...hhmm not easy for a kid who has yet to turn 3 but he will learn...

ya 2 more mths before this boy is gonna blow his 3rd bday candle...daddy has a task for him which is not to be carried after he blows the candle....we gonna drill this more in him coz he's asking the daddy who is ever giving in to him asking to be carried till he knows mama cannot carry and even not want mama to carry him...hhmm wonder how come he can walk with mama but not when we are with daddy hhmm

Anw its gd to see how the boy is growing and each wk he goes po2's place, po2 will comment that he has grown so much just over a wk hhmm that's an indicator hahaha

A B C....

For some time already Ian has learnt his 1-10 and we have been teaching him A-Z and with the aid of his A-Z puzzle he is reciting the song again and again which made mama decide to video down for keepsake....there are some letters missing but its a gd start and now he knows Apple starts with A, Basket starts with B (coz recently mama read some notes abt not teaching kids A is for Apple coz they will be stuck that only Apple starts with A hiak hiak!! So we have been learning wrongly all along hhmm) and his fav is Jumping Rope starts with J and Yoyo starts with Y....will teach him O so he will learn a word JOY which is his beloved JOY jie2's name....anw hope he will grow up with much joy learning from home

Guess this is the time most kids of Ian's age is busy adjusting to sch or childcare life but mama's glad to have him back home 1 more yr of learning and guess next yr this time we will be fretting whether he will adjust well to sch...well that can wait in the meantime its happy learning time back home =)

Our bikes are here and....

off we went cycling!!!On the road trip we came across a little tricycle which will help Ian to learn cycling and so we went on a cycling trial along the Alexandra Canal....alot of memories there coz when mama was preggy she went there to brisk walk while daddy went running ard the canal training for his IPPT and so here we are on a Sun noon after Ian's nap for his cycling trial coz he's been so excited abt cycling his bike....gd try coz after the 'trial' he was in fact getting gd control of his bike and guess he shld get better each time he is on the bike and perhaps we could get him a real bike soon...he was excited abt 'chasing' mama or daddy with his tricycle as we took turns to ride the foldable bike which we got it from the Subway challenge

Here's daddy and Ian on a cycling 'challenge' hahaaa well was a nice spot to cycle coz the canal usual track is closed for devt and we were on this closed lanes which we could just park our car and ride our bikes....guess will be our weekly activity before heading to ah maa and ah gong's place for dinner =)

Daddy clearing lve #6 - Daddy and Mama's wedding anniversary trip 31 Dec - 2 Jan 2010

We just thank God for daddy's lve and we had planned for a Melaka getaway trip also to celebrate our 4th anniversary as well as do countdown together....hhmm it was daddy's idea to lve on 31st Dec so we won't get caught with the jam going into Msia...and we set off at 6am+ (while Ian's still in dreamland) so he could continue his sleep in his car-seat! He did really well and got up in time for our breakfast along the highway =) guess he was surprised he was going for hols in his sleep land hahaa....did tell him the nite before but he still wanna go Australia and not holiday hahaa...this spoilt boy anw glad we made it for this trip coz when we were away daddy had a big held up at his work so if we were to lve on 1 Jan we might not have made it for the trip so we thank God for the possible trip and also a safe and happy trip there! It was a totally uninterrupted family trip (except for the many calls daddy had to make on 1 Jan am)

Here we are at the Hotel Puri...a real cool boutique hotel and this time we got a bigger room (been here twice) and Ian had so much space to run ard and the best part was it was a BIG thing to do countdown for the new yr in this small town and they had lion dance, fire crackers and even fireworks (which we could have viewed from our room's window) guess we shld be back for more countdowns in future hiak hiak!
Here's Ian in the cool room away from the heat which we had to walk along the jonker but it was nice rather than the rainy weather so we had gd 3 days there and started raining on the last day we came back!

Ian's only story book hahaaa....he took this door notice as his story book so what he did was asking mama and daddy to tuck into the bed together with our legs and he will start reading the book to us...but the story is always abt Jesus Christ story booko and something abt jie2 and blah2.....we had so much fun in the room coz Ian was busily running ard and making 'calls' to daddy (while daddy went to park car and get food) and he had freedom to open the fridge and all

And here's the Cendol we came for ahahaa...think we tried 4 diff stores and there is still a fav store which is always so long queue even for their noodles!

Here we are at the 88 Jonker dessert store which they were almost closing and we made it to have the last 3 bowls of noodles hahaa....see how we got the thumbs up for the yummy and cheap noodles....just loved the asam laksa and Ian's fishball noodles is as cheap and good hehe

The next day we learnt our lesson so sent daddy to buy back the noodles and we could enjoy it in the air con hotel room hahaa....and we even got the cendol coz the previous day it was sold out....can't imagine pple will queue under the hot sun....but we tried the curry chicken noodles and Ian had prawn fishball noodles!

This was our fav shopping Jonker walk hahahaa guess we were there almost by day and by nite and nite was happening with more vendors and it was open specially on 31st Dec nite coz usually its only open on wkends....so we had a gd time along the walk it was kindof Spore flashback many yrs ago coz they had real antique stuff like 'Happy Family' and 'Donkey' games so mama bought so much stuff back and there was Crocs sales hahaaa so it was grabby time!

Nite time was alot better coz it was cooler and walking along just to buy snacks was a cool thing....guess it is better now that ian's bigger and he could walk abit and also eat ALOT! hahaa so we had snacking along the way and shopping as well.....

we had a dinner along the Jonker walk and we are just so glad Ian's ok with the food and he was in fact tucking into every food and finding which he likes most and here's Ian with wanton noodles hahaa and we had fried oyster, fried kway teow, sweet potato soup and this ABC dessert soup....it was nice with the karaoke stage singing all the old songs....hhmm therapeutic?? haha

And every nite we dabao supper back coz it was just a stone throw away from our hotel and here's Ian with his dim sum hhmm we made sure all the food we took was hot so its not too dangerous for the little tummy and Ian was eating alot of the dim sum and BIG PAUS!!!

The 2 nites were crazy time together in the room enjoying our food hahaaa guess 1 of the things we dun do back home and will take all kinds of pics on the bed....no food allowed in room back home hehee...here we are taking the pau and making cheers for the new yr as we were in the final hrs before entering the new yr and of coz it was into dreamland time!

Heading back was easy after shopping and lunch but Ian still din wanna sleep so he was playing with the GPS while we were on the road and soon he dozed off and had his beauty sleep....guess it was gd drive back with alot of rain and 2 hrs drive was gd for Ian to just sleep and rejuvenate!

we did hit the Tesco getting stuff before coming home and got Ian's 1st bike...he has to learn paddling before we could get a real bike! Just a great trip and so glad Ian's now bigger and easier to travel esp in terms of sleep and food.....as we usher into the new yr, here's the Iong family wishing best of health and more blessings to come along the yr!