My Little Bookworm

Christian has always liked books. But previously, the books we'd read him had always some kind of novelty value.

Like Perfect Piggies  by Sandra Boynton, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

The former ends with "And these little piggies go wee wee wee all the way home!" - which is where we tickle him like crazy and he loves it; the latter has got holes for him to poke his chubby fingers through.

But recently, he's been asking for stories as we put him to bed. He likes Goldilocks And The Three Bears, Jack And The Beanstalk, and The Three Little Piggies. Ewan and I tell him these tales by heart, from what we remember as children ourselves.

Tonight, it occurred to me that perhaps it was time for him to enjoy stories because of the plot, the characters and the story as a whole.

I whipped out a few books that I knew had interesting plots -

Loved the colourful pictures in this one!

Loved the deadpan humour in this one

A beautiful tale with a meaningful lesson, by a local writer

And BOY DID HE LOVE IT!

Now I'm starting to dream of him once day curling up in a couch, getting cozy with a good book - stuff my own childhood was made of.

That would be simply incredible :)

 

 

 

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas came and went... just like that!

I love this time of the year - with all the lights, festive goodies, cool weather, shopping for presents, our Christmas tree, and of course, the anticipation of the birth of our Lord.

It's Christian's third Christmas, and Connor's first. While Connor's still barely getting a grasp on what the season means, Christian, at 2 and a half,  is fully soaking up in the festive spirit.

We put up our tree about a month before Christmas - Ewan and I wanted to surprise the kids, but they got back just as we were putting the finishing touches to the tree - which turned out to be pretty fun, cos Christian wanted to help with the lights and crowning the tree with the star.



Whatcha doin' daddy?

I pood dis heer

Blootiful!

Well, one night, perhaps a week before Christmas, I was getting Christian ready for bed. He was being rather tiresome, saying he wasn't sleepy and refusing to go into his room even though it was way past his bedtime.

So, I decided to wait in his room for him, and pretend to sleep... hoping he would eventually join me.

After some 10 to 15 minutes, I realised that it was unusually quiet outside, in the living room. I went out to check, and this sight greeted me.




Oh White Christmas!

Further damage

I caught him like a deer caught in the headlights. He managed a sheepish "The Christmas tree is so beautiful now."

And added on later, "The snow fell from the sky."

The culprit

The real culprit

 On the bright side, the house smelt like a baby's bottom that evening!

Moving along...

So, I haven't blogged in a while.

Nothing's been up, I've just kinda slacked on this blogging thing and been caught up with well, life.

For one, Connor started crawling, pulling himself up and cruising this past month - which makes things a lot more fun for us! He's realised that he can come after us and not just sit there screaming at us to pay him attention :p

Unfortunately though, he's been trying to pull himself up on everything and anything. Including our glass coffee table, chairs that aren't all that sturdy and Christian. Which can be rather stressful.

He's becoming more and more like a little boy and less and less like a little baby. I think Christian realises it, too, because the "rivalry" seems to have begun a little, especially when it comes to certain toys; but there are also those precious moments, like when he insisted on holding Connor's hand in the car (pissing the little one off incredibly in the process) and holding Connor's head in his hands so he can kiss him on the forehead.

Oh, those two are going fight like brothers, but be the best of friends ;)

Horsing around - Gallop Stables Punggol Ranch

About a week ago, I had to visit the Gallop Wagons in Punggol for a feature I was working on. It so happened that Ewan was looking after Christian that day, so they tagged along.

I was pretty excited about heading to that part if our island -punggol point- because it's always been kind of secluded. There are a few things I associated that place with: Going to OBS, the major seminary, and memories of my dad taking us there when we were kids to watch people fish.

It recently underwent some major renovations, so the place has changed quite a bit - the old jetty isn't there anymore. But back to our initial destination: The Gallop Stables.

This is the sight that greeted us. 

Gallop Stables at Punggol

Christian was taking his nap, so Ewan brought him to the eatery there, Curry Garden, while I took a walk around the grounds and spoke to the owner. There are 45 horses and ponies in total, and they offer riding lessons, pony rides, as well as stays in the "wagons" - pretty much chalet style. It was pretty cool cos everything was really rustic and of course, horse themed.

Christian soon woke up and it was time for him to go on a pony! We were ushered to the back, where the stables were, and he was fitted with a cool looking helmet.

All ready for the ride

He was all excited, but he got a little nervous when it was time to climb on the pony's back. So daddy carried him up front to get to know Mr pony a little better first.

Step by step

"The horse got so much hairrrr"

He soon warmed up to the idea and was willing to get up on the pony's back, though he still insisted on holding my hand. Still, we were off!

All aboard!

He gripped my hand pretty tight but he was all smiles... Definitely loving it!

My little cowboy

The guy who guided the pony took us one round around the area - I'd say it took about 5-7 minutes. The cost for a ride like that was $10 and I'd say its totally worth it because seriously, how often do you get to ride ponies in Singapore?!

Still grabbing my hand

Christian was thrilled and was telling everyone about his ride after that. The cool thing is that kids as young as 2 can ride (Christian is 2 and a half).

We'll be back - maybe even plan a stay at the wagons once the kids are older.

The Mahs

The gobbler

At 7 months old, our littlest has quite the appetite.

Sure, we started off shaky with avocado, (see here), but he has since graduated to greater (and yummier) things.

To date, he's tried brown rice cereal, avocados, spinach, pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, bananas, plums, carrots, potatoes and broccoli.

I'd steam the veggies/fruits using an electric steamer, blend it using a hand blender, and then freeze it in baby cubes.

(Top to bottom): Spinach, pears and carrots

Sweet potato puree, ready to be frozen

Here's a video of him gobbling up broccoli puree.

Love my little foodies!

Legoland Malaysia Waterpark

We received an invite to Legoland Malaysia's new water park last week and I was all excited about bringing the boys when I realised that Connor didn't have a passport yet! Doh!

After realising that Ewan's passport was on the way to expiring as well, we quickly sent the online applications to ICA and kept our fingers crossed that the passports would be ready in 10 days - and they were!

So, on Saturday, we happily packed ourselves into the car, along with Marra, my mum's helper who'd help us out with the kids.

Christian was super duper excited, having seen the Legoland ad on Okto the previous day and my parents had told him that he'd be going tomorrow.

Super psyched

The drive was pretty smooth and easy all the way to the checkpoint at Malaysia where there was a bit of a jam. But once we got past that, it was really easy to get there. Took us about an hour in all.

The walk from the car park is a little long, especially if you have kids. But we later discovered that there's a drop off point for passengers too, cutting the walking distance.

We also spotted the "dry" Legoland area, which we'd been meaning to check out some time soon, and the almost-ready Legoland Hotel. Would be a blast to get a room and check out both Legoland sites!

Walking towards the park

Entrance to the main Legoland

And walking by the Legoland Hotel, still under construction

Entrance to the Legoland Water Park

The first thing we did when we got there was to have lunch! It was really tempting to just get going straight into the water but the kids had to eat and it was already half past noon. We had chicken and cheese sandwiches at the Brick Bay Cafe - RM25 for a huge Focaccia sandwich, fries and a drink.

Marra and Connor at the Brick Bay Cafe

There, we ran into my colleague Jass and her family. They'd gotten a cabana and invited us to share - perfect! I forgot to take pics but the cabanas cost RM150 for a day's use, and comes with deck chairs, a safe, and cooler to keep your drinks chilled. It was a great idea and alternative to just renting lockers. There were even Cabana hosts who would take your orders for food and drinks and have them sent directly to the Cabanas, saving you time and effort queuing for food.

Right in front of the Cabanas is the Wave pool. This was perfect for the bubs, because it was shallow - even Connor could sit comfortably in the water.

Enjoying the wave pool

Big C perpetually trying to wrestle Daddy

For the little Kiddos, the Duplo Splash Safari was perfect.

Riding the croc

There were Duplo characters that had steering wheels, water spouts, etc, and Christian absolutely loved it.

He also majorly hogged the mini-slides - which meant Ewan had to do them with him some 20 times.

Wheee!

One of the slower slides, but he loved it anyway

Even Connor had a go!

There was a build-a-raft river, which was pretty much a lazy river kind of ride with a twist: There were these floating foam bricks that riders could collect along the way and attach it to their tubes.

Enjoying mummy time

Till this happened

Connor was having fun sitting on my lap, till we went through a water shower - My bad, I didn't even know there was one on the ride! It gave him quite the shock, and he struggled quite a bit, so I had to take him off the tube to calm him down, haha.

So, we completed the river like this, much to his delight.

Happy again

Proud to have completed the river, sans tube

Daddy and Christian, meanwhile, had a blast, collecting as many bricks as they could.

Brick hoarders

Champion hoarder

The larger rides looked awesome as well, but well, we've got little kids and there was more than enough to keep them occupied.

 We also loved the Lego models, scattered around the park, which just added to the atmosphere.
 

Can't believe even this guy is taller than me

Poke-ty poke

We ended the day at the shop, which didn't have much, but we did pick up a few minifig magnets for RM6 ($2+)... what a deal!

The ones Christian decided were "his"

And the others

We were lucky to have left slightly earlier, at 3pm+, as the kiddos needed their naps - and thankfully we did, as it started storming shortly after. We kids were so konked out their slept all the way back to Singapore.

One with bricky

 Looking forward to our next visit there - probably at the main Legoland!

The outdoors

We love taking the kids out on weekends.

But more often than not, because of our humid weather, we end up retreating to a nice, air-conditioned shopping mall.

Yes, along with half of singapore'a population. Which means huge crowds, lotsa noise and no space for strollers.

Well on Tuesday, despite the heat, we decided to suck it up and take the kids to the Marina Barrage. We'd been here before, but never spent much time just lolling about, enjoying the sunshine and breeze.

Kite spotting

We forgot to bring our kite, didn't pack our picnic mat, nor did we bring a basket of goodies, but the impromptu-ness of it all was part of the fun.

Baking in the sun

We discovered there was a little shop selling kites - but they cost an unearthly sum, starting from around $25 for a teensy one! Instead, we bought a bottle of bubble solution and an "old school" spinning wheel toy and headed for the roof.

Bubbling

As daddy and big C ran around chasing bubbles and spinning wheels, I settled down with lil C who was simply in awe of everything going around him.

Teensy picnic mat

He sat on his diaper changin mat (no picnic mat, remember?), watched the colourful kites soar, the older kids (including his brother) run around, and dug into the ground, exploring the grass and soil. He got his chubby little fingers all grubby, which in my opinion, was absolutely adorable!

Bros

Christian had a brilliant time (attempting) blowing bubbles, watching the kites and chasing the spinning wheel.

Mickey kite's up there somewhere

At times he simply wandered off, observing his shadow, soaking in the outdoors.

That's my shadow?

It was a really pleasant change from being cooped up indoors with air conditioning and digital devices all the time. Great way to spend a couple of hours. :)