NagMummy

We brought M to the Singapore Arts Museum – Art Garden exhibition recently. It is housed in a new building a short distance from the main museum – SAM at 8 Queen Street. It was a rainy weekday afternoon and perfect for an indoor activity like this. Apart from a group of school children, there were not many visitors and so we enjoyed lotsa space.

As promised by their advertisement, the exhibits were designed to interest children. There were motion picture/ animation as well interactive exhibits. M especially enjoyed the Funky Forest, Daisies and Enchanted Forest exhibits where she could run around and were be engaged. She did not appreciate the motion picture/ animation as much, especially the Ringmaster, which had fighting scenes and monsters. Personally, I thought the Floribots exhibit was most intriguing.

We covered all the exhibits leisurely in about 2 hours. Definitely a fun activity for the family. Children under 6 enjoy free admission with every paying adult. It’s ending its run this week, so catch it before its too late!

Last week, we celebrated both Matt’s birthday and Fathers’ Day. Matt’s birthday was 2 days ahead of Fathers’ Day and it was actually the first time M was meaningfully involved. She went to school as usual that day while we headed to Dempsey Hill for a rare meal together – early lunch at the PS Cafe. After that, we caught a movie before picking M up for dinner

We made the mistake of letting her know we’ll get daddy’s birthday cake after dinner, as she turned out to be disinterested in her dinner. She did not eat much but since it’s a special occasion, we decided to let it go. We went to the Icing Room (another Breadtalk outfit) at Compass Point to get a ‘Decorate-it-Yourself’ cake. We had passed by once and thought it’ll be fun for M.

So, M was excited from start to stop. After I showed her how to squeeze the icing out, she was pretty much on her own. She certainly had her own idea of how the cake should look like and she can’t help tasting the icing packs. The final product was far from pretty in my opinion but it did not matter to daddy.

Fun aside, the vanilla cake we got was not exactly tasty. Not surprising since it was a normal sponge cake with a thick layer of cream on the outside; there were a few pieces of preserved fruit in between and that was about it. Not forgetting of course the heap of icing and sugar toppings on top, courtesy of M. Well, I guess it’s not the cake you’re after when you choose something like that.

Two days later on Fathers’ Day, I was trying to get M to wish Matt “Happy Fathers’ Day” but she kept insisting “No, it’s Happy Birthday!” Ever since then, she’s been bugging us about when my birthday is. I wonder when she’ll get enough of birthdays!

A couple of weeks back, our family tried kite flying for the first time and it was fun!

Somehow, both Matt and I have not tried kite flying through our childhood and adulthood. Anyway, we’ve passed by the open field around Sengkang several times and seen lots of people enjoying kite flying. And every time, we kept saying we have to do it one day. I finally got my act together and remembered to buy a kite on one of my shopping trips.

Our first attempt was on a Sunday morning. Not a good idea, we realised. We were the only souls on the field, the sun was scorching and there was not much of wind. we can’t help laughing at ourselves! Nonetheless, we gave it a go and managed to get the kite up into the sky. Not bad for a start. M got really excited about letting out the line and watching the kite soar higher and higher. But we couldn’t last long in that weather and called it a day pretty soon.

Our second attempt was definitely more enjoyable. It was a cooling Saturday evening, the perfect weather. We reached the field just before 6pm and there were lots of people there already. The wind condition was ideal and the kite soared without effort. In fact, we let the line out to the maximum in no time. M was more interested in people and kite watching this time. We bought another smaller kite thinking that M may be able to attempt on her own but it did not work well. The other professionals and their kites there proved more intriguing for her.

The best part of this activity is that its free! A rarity in Singapore… And we’ll be returning again soon!

Last week, M turned 3! And fortunately, I was well enough to celebrate with her in school. It was her first time celebrating with friends since her last two birthdays were spent with our families. It was also the first time she chose her cake – a baby blue cake with a train on top, which surprised us. I thought she would have chosen with pinky or princess-themed picture.

Anyway, we celebrated her birthday 2 days early as her school will be closed on her birthday. Since I’m always the one finishing her friends’ birthday party packs, I decided not to give them out. Instead,I baked some cookies and made some balloon dogs (just from watching youtube videos). So each friend received oatmeal, raisin and choc cookies, a yogurt drink and a balloon – nothing else.

Matt and I arrived at her school around 10am. The teachers brought the students into a classroom and got them to sit around a table. Next was lighting the candles, singing the birthday song and blowing out the candles. And then eating the cake. Since the students were supposed to have lunch pretty soon after that, the teachers gave them small servings. Because one of the student had an ‘accident’ – pee in her pants, the teachers were kept busy for a while. And after the children finished their cake, they lined up to wash hands and go for lunch.

A very short affair, really. Maybe because we did not prepare any activities too. Anyway, M was happy and that was enough. We said goodbye to M and she was ok… Even her principle was surprised she did not attempt to follow us. We decided to let her stay on so we can catch up on some rest and couple time. Keke…

On her birthday, we brought her to the zoo in the morning. We were really lucky that it only rained around the time we left. In the evening, Ah-ma brought cousin S over to play and have dinner. It was always challenging managing the girls. Nonetheless, it was a good experience to teach M about sharing her toys. 

Now, will someone tell me what comes after the ‘terrible two’ year?

Chinese New Year (CNY) has to be about food, food and food. A lot of the significance of this festival to me is linked to the food we eat around this period. Growing up in an extended family, this most important festival to Chinese is also my favourite. And it’s got to do with how my Teochew family celebrated it when I was young.

Besides spring-cleaning every nook and cranny of a 2-storey terrace house (an enormous task for the household of 14 people), the food preparation leading up to the festival is also a very memorable one. I always tag along whenever my mum goes about her marketing and really enjoy the air of festivity at wet markets late at night – CNY is the only time they stay open this late. My mum and aunt home-made dishes like ngor hiang (seafood rolls), kay koy (vegetarian duck), cheng teng (a dessert) and even bake kueh bahru (a snack) the traditional way with metal moulds and charcoal fire.

After the reunion dinner where my other uncles and their families will join us, all the kids would line up to receive our angbaos from my grandfather. We had to say a festive greeting in order to get it. On the first day of CNY, we kids had to offer festive greetings to all adults first thing in the morning. After that, it’s a busy 2 days of receiving guests and then visiting relatives, which means lots of pok-chwee (carbonated drinks), sweets, snacks and of course angbaos!

Even though we no longer celebrate it to the same extend as in the past (after the passing of my grandparents), I still look forward to this festival every year. I hope M will enjoy it as much as I do and I’ve been telling her about CNY as we go around. Last week, we put up some CNY decorations while she was in school and when she reach the door, she asked “Mummy, why is there a sticker on the door? It’s upside-down??” It was an inverted 福 with pictures of a boy and girl. 

She even surprised me with “恭禧发财”the other day, I asked her who taught her and she said 老师. Yesterday, she held two mandarin oranges together and said “恭禧恭禧”. She can even sing part of the “恭禧,恭禧,恭禧你啊”song!

How fun… I’m looking forward to bringing her around already!

新年快乐!

This is the second time we brought M out of the country and the 4-hour flight to Taipei proved too long for her. She was not very interested in the inflight entertainment, surprisingly. Perhaps it was because the headphones were too big for her. Anyway, I was happily enjoying myself one row behind as Matt & Mum ‘tackled’ her.

It’s my first time in Taipei and it reminded me of Hong Kong and Seoul but getting around was definitely easier as they spoke Mandarin. We were on our own so we took things at our own pace. Plus it’s not the peak season so we did not have to wrestle with other tourists. We had three days of good weather and had to braced rainy weather the other three days.

Here’s what we did during our 6D5N there.

Monday – PM – Arrival into Taipei 台北. Transfer to Beitou 北投 – Spring City Resort 春天酒店. Nice spacious room with everything we need. Went to Danshui 淡水 – Fisherman’s Wharf 漁人碼頭 and watched sunset. Proceeded to Danshui Old Street 淡水老街 for dinner and some shopping.

Tuesday – AM – Went to Yangmingshan 陽明山, walked around the park. Saw the first cherry blossom and reached a waterfall area. PM – Lunch at a local restaurant at Beitou. Back to hotel and tried the hot spring tub in the hotel room. Can’t stand the sulphur smell! Dinner at local eatery at Xin Beitou 新北投.

Wednesday – AM – Went to outdoor hot spring in hotel with Mum while Matt chilled in the room with M. Much better experience in the open and with the different treatment pools! PM – Checked out and transferred to Taipei – Hotel Royal 老爺大酒店. Smaller room but with luxurious bedding and a fully automated toilet bowl. Went to Shilin Night Market 士林夜市. Got lost getting there from the Shilin MRT station, realised we should have gotten off 1 station before – Jiantan 劍潭. Anyway, had some nice snacks and boy, it was crowded!

Thursday – AM –  Stopped by Longshansi 龍山寺 and then quick lunch at the mall nearest to the hotel – Shin Kong Mitsukoshi 新光三越. PM – Booked a local tour to Jiufen 九份. On the way there, visited some rock formations. Was raining by the time we reached Jiufen and made walking along the steep old street 九份老街 difficult. Also, we did not have much time as the tour guide gave us around 50 minutes there only to bring us to a local jewellery store later where we were coerced to buy something Dinner at a local restaurant near the hotel. Matt brought M back to hotel while Mum and I shopped around longer.

Friday – AM – Lazy morning as we were all tired. After late breakfast, we were not sure whether to go to Yeliu 野柳 to see more rock formations or a sunflower farm – Sun and Green 向陽農場 – I had read about online. As the weather was forecast to be rainy, we thought it was perhaps not a good idea to go to Yeliu. But as we got on a taxi to go to the sunflower farm, the taxi driver explained that the sunflower farm was going towards to direction of the airport and after chatting for a while, he suggested that we go to Yeliu that day and go to the sunflower farm enroute to the airport the next day. On the way to Yeliu, it started to rain and when we reached, the strong coastal wind made it extra cold. Because of the rain, we did not stay long. Taxi driver brought us to buy our favourite Taiyangbing – Sun Buscuit 太陽餅 from 犁記 on our way back! Dinner was at a Hong Kong style restaurant, Matt couldn’t take any more local food, he wanted to go Mac’s!

Saturday – AM – Same taxi driver came to pick us up and brought us to the sunflower farm. It was raining and not exactly enjoyable. We saw only one plot of sunflowers as the peak is sometime in April. Headed to the airport for a quick lunch before boarding flight back.

Overall, we felt more tired than our previous R&R trip to Langkawi. Matt suffered aching arms as he had to carry M most of the time. We were lucky that M’s cough did not worsen there but neither did it get better. She threw up some milk two nights so we did not really sleep well. I wished we had more time for shopping, we hardly did any real shopping, which is always a challenge with M.

On the flight back, M was very engrossed with the inflight entertainment, watching Dora 4 times. She did not manage to nap and was grouchy. Mum was tired out so she sat between Matt and I.

And we’re definitely happy to be home and it’s time to nurse M back to health…

M seemed to be suffering from the most common effect of starting childcare – falling sick more often. Perhaps she did not recover fully from the last time she fell sick in late December. She started coughing again on Thursday morning in the first week of 2010. Since we still had medicine, I self-medicated her and she stayed home for the day. She got better but still coughed infrequently.

The following Wednesday, she came down with a slight fever and her cough seemed to have gotten worse. I brought her to the GP who prescribed the exact same medicine as the last time. The fever went down pretty fast but the cough persisted. We decided to keep her home the rest of the week to get better before our holiday to Taipei the next week.

By Friday, we got really worried because her cough was not getting any better. We did not know whether it was advisable to bring her to Taipei because of the colder and drier weather there, not to mention the threat of the H1N1. We decided to consult her paediatrician but the though of the Saturday morning wait especially without appointment really put us off. Hence, we searched online for another paediatrician nearby and found a few around Bishan.

And so we brought M to The Children’s Medical Centre for the first time. We were the first patient of the day! The pd thought her condition was not serious enough to warrant pushing back the trip. She prescribed new medication for us to bring along. The clinic is open on Sunday mornings so the pd told us to bring her in if her condition worsens. She also said that if M’s condition worsens in Taipei, we should consult a doctor there.

It was assuring hearing that we could go on the trip as planned. We had been in quite a dilemma those few days whether to postpone the trip which would involve hassle and money.

Here we come, Taipei!

Monday, M fell sick again this Monday despite after our efforts to boost her immunity. However, we believe she did not get it from school. She came home fine on Friday and stayed well till late Sunday night, when she coughed a few times. I was not overly concerned then.

We had gone to a friend’s place for dinner last Sunday. M was happily chomping down her favourite noodles and pizza and we did not suspect anything wrong. I must say though that on the 19th floor, SQ’s place was quite breezy but it did not feel too cold. (M is especially susceptible to oncoming cold winds and sudden changes in weather.)

But when I heard M coughed in bed again the following morning before we picked her up, I had a bad feeling. To be on the safe side, I added some cough medicine to her milk and we headed for school. In fact, she was going on her first school excursion to the Hay Dairies goat farm and I was tagging along too. When we reached school, her temperature was still normal.

By the time we reached the goat farm located at Lim Chu Kang, M was beginning to feel warm. Nonetheless, she still got excited watching the milking session and taking a tour of the farm. Luckily the farm was a small one because by the end of that hour, M’s forehead was feeling hot!

On the bus trip back, she was really tired and grouchy, trying to sleep in my lap with the background of noisy children banter. Once we reached school, we picked up her bag and left. Her fever went down by Wednesday and she’s still coughing slightly.

Yesterday morning, we brought her to the Pasir Ris Park. And in the evening, we had dinner at a relative’s place and M was again back to her usual self. Let’s hope this will be her last time falling sick in 2009.

Happy Holidays!

Last week, we brought M out for her first overseas holiday. After our previous 2 hotel stays in Singapore, we felt we were ready to venture further. Still, we wanted to take things easy. We finally decided on Langkawi, Malaysia because it was one of the nearest beach holiday destination. Matt and I have been there 10 years ago when we were dating.

The 1.5 hr flight was pretty ok, with the distraction of food, soft toys and games we had prepared. She wasn’t too happy to be strapped in by the seat belt though. We were hoping she would take a nap on the plane but that did not happen. Instead, she fell asleep as we were disembarking and woke up when we reached the hotel room.

We were surprised we managed to do a fair bit of sight-seeing. On our second day, we did a half-day tour which included a mangrove tour, watching eagle feeding and visiting a bats’ cave; and finally lunch at a floating restaurant (aka kelong). M actually fell asleep on the bumpy boat ride to the kelong!

The third day we took a scenic cable car ride to the top of a mountain and visited a waterfall. M even said "”Wow… amazing” when she saw the waterfall. It was only that afternoon that we managed to bring her for a dip in the pool and also went to the beach to watch sunset. In fact, M was so contended with the bathtub that we almost had to drag her to the pool!

I would say the trip turned out better than expected. We liked the spacious hotel room at the Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort and the place being less commercialised than Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. I thought we would have spent more time in the pool or at the beach though. My mum came along so it was nice having someone else to help out.

The only lowlight of the trip would probably the junk food and improper meals for M. We often had to use biscuits (her favourite) to get her to move along or sit still in car rides. And M did not seem to like the food there. She did not eat well for most meals even though we tried to order chinese style food. But since she finished all her milk feeds, we decided to ‘close one eye’.

So all in all, a good trip and we’re glad to be home safe and sound

I’ve been putting aside ‘useless’ things for M to play and explore since she was a baby. That can be pamphlets, boxes, packaging, price tags, toilet paper rolls… things which we would otherwise discard. And most of them turn out to be interesting only the first time round.

We were doodling one afternoon when I happened to spot a few toilet paper rolls I had set aside earlier. I suggested drawing on them and M got excited at doing something new with them (besides looking through them). When we were done, I took out some tape to stick two of them together and she instantly took it as her ‘camera’.

She would ask me and her soft toys to ‘smile’ for her and proudly announce afterwards that she had taken pictures with her ‘camera’. Because she always wanted to hold on to our digital camera whenever we wanted to take pictures, she was very happy to finally own one.

Anyway, her ‘camera’, turned out pretty useful during our recent trip to the zoo. As we prepared for our trip on that Saturday morning, M wanted to hold on to her ‘camera’. When we were in the lift, she was showing a neighbour her ‘camera’ and telling him that she’s going to take pictures of the animals in the zoo (of course mummy had to act as her translator). The neighbour couldn’t control his grin and commented that her ‘camera’ was really ‘hi-tech’. LOL

At the zoo, M was happily snapping pictures with it, and we could finally take some clear pictures of her! (which is quite challenging these days) It was really amusing watching her do that. I just couldn’t stop laughing! I actually felt bad watching M make a ‘fool’ of herself after a while.

But oh well, it’s all for some good, clean and cheap fun that’ll probably only happen once!