Mummy is sick so just us boys went out. Lunch was at a jam packed food in Centrepoint after which we went back to Robinsons where Ethan slept all the way through the 30 min queue to pay the cashier and was a good boy all day. We found a great lunch set at Marche. This is a much needed respite after all my emotional energy was taken up battling crowds, watching Ethan, and gawking at high prices! This Marche has a great play area and being right at Somerset MRT with great $7.90 meal and drink, I think I will come back here...
אֵיתָן (ee-thuhn) solid, enduring (1 Ki 4:31, Ps 89) & טליה (tal-yuh) dew of heaven (God's kindness)
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Playing at Marche, 313 Somerset
Monday 6 December 2010
Ethan "Armstrong" Liew
Saturday 4 December 2010
Mr Preppy
Thursday 2 December 2010
Goo with Gumption
Sunday 21 November 2010
Good Boy & Good Girl Chart
Here's the latest addition to our efforts at Toilet training! Been tired of washing pee-filled pants (& socks & shoes) so we have put up a Good Boy & Good girl chart to reward Good boys & girls who pee & poo in the right place! They get a star for each successful pee & after 5 stars they can get a little snack reward! Fortunately they love it and we have already had 15 stars for Ethan in 3 days! Big change from the horrible tantrums some pple threw when it was time to go toilet.... only to pee in his pants minutes later......
Hopefully this will be the beginning of a wonderful new chapter ofless diapers & happier toilet experiences! Thanks to Roy for helpingto print the nice colour photos of what Good Boys & Girls do!
Sunday 10 October 2010
Gong Gong's 70th Birthday
Then we took a week off in Phuket for our own celebration time together! This was one of the nice dinners we had on a (steep!) cliff overlooking the sea & sunset.
The cousins had a nice time together too. Ethan took this photo of the girls while they were engrossed in picking leaves.
They loved the nice beach just in front of our hotel and spent half a morning building sandcastles in the sand. Ethan particularly enjoyed the building and made an "Octopus Castle" with his favourite octopus sand mould.
Friday 1 October 2010
Kid's Birthdays
We decided to celebrate both their birthdays together as they are only 2 weeks apart, and share mostly the same friends at this stage. Here is the birthday Boy & Girl looking very focused on their birthday cake lovingly and freshly baked by Ah Mah (it was still warm when it came!) It's in the shape of a horseshoe so both got their own corners to blow out their own candles!
Friday 27 August 2010
Discovering Our Backyard
We didn't think we would be living this close to such iconic symbols of Singapore!
Talia's a little more appreciative of the scenery than her brother is. He looked quite unimpressed -- until we found some amazing automatic doors in the underpass that open & close once you step into the range of its sensor...... You should have seen the glee on their faces when they realised the power they now unleashed on the auto doors! Best backyard in the World!
Thursday 26 August 2010
Little Tiger
Tigers have been quite popular among our critters of late. They had a great time watching the tigers at the zoo some weeks ago and Talia 'chatted' with them by roaring cheerfully back at them! She seemed to be amazed with how big the real ones were and said "Big!" with outstreched arms to emphasize her point!
We also took Tiger Airways for our recent family trip to Phuket and the kids were thrilled to be in an airplane with a tiger on it! Now every plane they see is "Tiger Aeroplane!".......They probably think that Tiger is the best airline in the world!!!
Monday 26 July 2010
Swim Classes
So we signed her up for Swimming classes at Jane Marsden's Swim School and she's really taken to it very well. In fact, the lessons are the highlight of her week and she loves going swimming every Monday! I was quite amazed she was hardly fussed about getting her face wet or even going "under" the water. (although we had to remind her to close her mouth!) Even her swim teacher is quite amazed at how fearless she is with water and its really a joy to see her in the water. Here she is happily "lying down" on the water (which is not easy to get most kids to do!)
I'm really glad we brought her for these lessons..... will have to work out some time to do the same for Ethan soon. He enjoys the water but is a tad more cautious about water than his sister!
Sunday 18 July 2010
Sausages and Rosti
Sunday 4 July 2010
First Time at the Dentist
Mister Dentist was really good! First, he met Ethan in the waiting room where the little fella was playing with all the cool toys. There Mr. Dentist "counted" his teeth using the familiar 1 to 10 that toddlers know so well. Of course he wasn't really counting, but making Ethan feel comfortable with something familiar. After this was done, he brought Ethan and sat him in the dental chair. It was a fascinating world for Ethan with the myriad of gadgets, lights and various computer screens around. He was allowed to press the buttons to lower the chair and down he went into the lying down position. Ethan got kids sunglasses to protect his eyes. "Hands up," Mr. Dentist said. Ethan stretched his hands above his head which were promptly held and used to pull him up to the right position. He looked so funny in that big chair we were stifling our laughter.
The firm yet sensitive-to-toddler instructions continued and we were amazed at how readily Ethan opened his mouth and let Mr. Dentist examine all his teeth. When it came time to polishing, he let Ethan press the button so that he could "control" the sound and not let it frighten him. He allowed Ethan to choose which toothpaste he would use. "Cars" was the final selection after which Mr. Dentist used it to polish Ethan's fingernail so he could feel what it was like before it went into this mouth. "Taste it now" he said, and Ethan did. "Does it taste good?" A quick nod was sufficient affirmation and the dental visit continued!
So it was a superb visit overall and so much better than we imagined! We can certainly recommend this dentist for your kids. He was gentle yet also firm at times so there was no nonsense from Ethan throughout! Ethan even left with a toy. "That really was fun Ethan!" I said. "Do you want to come back again?" A grin and a nod signified that was indeed an unqualified success!
Tuesday 29 June 2010
Friends of the Zoo
There's nothing like getting up close to the animals and here they are happily watching the turtles swimming in the tank......
Thursday 24 June 2010
Father & Sons of the Zoo
Just before i took this picture of us he was sitting in my lap, turned to look up at me and said, "I like daddy time with me." it was so sweet and solicited that I asked him to repeat it just to make sure I wasn't imagining things!
Sunday 13 June 2010
Lots of Learning
We sometimes don't really know what Ethan does at school (he's still in nursery class) and often wonder what he actually gets out of spending so much time there as he can't really tell us what he is learning and we only get to meet his teachers & see his work much later in the term. Sometime, though, we do get clues into some significant progress in his learning progress -- here is a funny clip of Ethan breaking out exuberantly into a recent Chinese song he learnt from school......
While he was in the mood, he also discussed some of the recent Mathematical skills he had accomplished. Quite entertaining.......maybe we can get him to tutor his sister too!