Tomorrow Ethan will fly to Bali with Daddy for a 4D3N trip which is Daddy's university Christian fellowship reunion. Father and son will have a grand time but it will be longest we've been without mummy and Talia by far. The last one was 2 years ago when we went to JB for one night. That had such great memories so we are hopeful of weaving great new ones on this trip.
Ethan loves typing away on Mummy's new iPhone. So far the notepad application is his favourite. We're hoping it stays that way as long as possible. Ethan knows his alphabet, can write almost all of the letters ("S" is still quite tough), but is of course still slow to find them on a keyboard. What was really cool in this photo was that Daddy was also lying next to Ethan wearing exactly the same shorts and playing with his iPhone...but we could not show that of course!
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...
Gong Gong is 70! We celebrated with the family with Auntie Ruth & Josie, (Grand) Uncle Donald & Auntie Junie, travelling from Sydney for the birthday dinner.
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.
The girls enjoyed it too although it took a little warming up for them to get into it.....
Fortunately grandparents are very patient people and helped the little ones to explore the beach.....
.....but the pool was the main highlight of the holiday! EVERYONE enjoyed splashing, jumping, playing and even swimming! Here is Ethan as he catches her sister in the "Crocodile Game" where she jumps into the water and into one of our arms (without her floaties). It was great to see Talia's fearlessness, Ethan's confidence in catching his sister and the sisterly trust she had in him. We were also amazed to see the fruits of Talia's swimming lessons as she paddled effortlessly around the small pool with her floats & occasional face in the water! Was nice to see her love of water & fearlessness rub off on Ethan and a little on Josie as they decided they could do it too! (well, without the face in the water bit!) 
Ethan and Talia are now 4 and 2! This year, Ethan articulated that he wanted to celebrate his birthday with his classmates "with a cake, and then everyone will stand near me!" So we had a simple celebration in his class and he clearly enjoyed the princely treatment for the day! All his friends crowded around him to admire his cake and wish him a happy birthday.....no wonder he is looking forward to his 5th birthday already!
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!
Daddy was away on Talia's actual birthday so we celebrated simply at home with some candles on birthday muffins followed by a fun-filled outing to West Coast Park. Sometimes the simple things are often the best and the kids had a great time playing with the sand and each other there. After playing out in the hot afternoon sun, they got a special ice-cream treat to cool off! Daddy happened to call us from the US while we were having ice-creams and Ethan was so excited he called him "Ice-Cream Daddy"! 
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!!!
Most kids enjoy the great fun of splashing around in pools but when I saw the sparkle in Talia's eyes when we brought her swimming, I just knew she was a natural water baby! Here she is splashing around in Goo Ma's nice pool......
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.
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!
There's nothing like getting up close to the animals and here they are happily watching the turtles swimming in the tank......
Talia was thrilled to see the monkeys, butterflies and bats in the rainforest enclosure.......most of the butterflies she had seen before were on the pages of her books!
And here's the latest addition to the zoo's impressive bat collection!
Of course the main highlight of most kids visiting the Zoo has got to be the water playground! It's one of the best water playgrounds around and no one ever gets tired of it. Here is Talia flashing a spunky grin before changing up into her swimsuit for a splashing good time.....
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!
We have a new home! After months of dreaming, talking, planning and hard work we are finally settled into our very own special place! Ethan had been looking forward to having his very own ceiling fan in his room and he proudly shows it to everyone he gets to show to his room. The kids also now enjoy their very own little table where they love to do their 'cooking', colouring and snacking. Its really cute to see them entertain their own buddies in their own corner having little tea and dinner parties there too!
It's hard work being a pre-schooler these days so Daddy has lovingly set up their own little computer corner (yes -- that's their own recycled computer complete with Skype capabilities!) right next to Mummy's. Here they are engaged in a computer puzzle that is keeping them very busy!
But their favourite place is probably their new bedroom which they now share and seem to have quite a happy co-existence in. Here is Ethan in a rare moment of affectionate passion with new roommate Talia, who is similarly thrilled with the new bedtime company...... Although there are challenges with having two young 'uns trying to settle into a restful state in the same room, there have also been sweet moments like one evening when Talia suddenly started crying after a loud & nasty motorcycle went by. I wasn't sure what she was disturbed about but her perceptive brother gently informed me that "Mummy, Talia cried because the motorcycle was noisy". 
They now love their Story Times together and the routine seems to calm them. This is followed by a race to be the first to climb into their own beds, a soothing milk drink served in a cute dog cup and the happy 'tuck tuck tuck' into their blankets.
They say moving house is a very stressful experience but we are thankful that the kids seem to have adjusted well and are loving their new home......Around that time, I came back from my long 7 week overseas study trip. Mummy and Ethan had made this fantastic "Welcome Home Daddy!" poster. It got me thinking...
Why not have a father-son project together? If Mummy and Ethan had such a wonderful time hand painting (and Daddy doesn't like arts and crafts) then Daddy and Ethan can have a father-son project. And what better project than fixing up a car? Sure, Ethan's car was moving but we could spruce it up a little....
Some of the electrical work was done without a 3 year old toddler pulling at everything, but we did other stuff together. Ethan loves fiddling with tools while Daddy fixes things. It really is doing things together and he is always careful to say later that, "Daddy and I did it!" We don't have enough pictures to cover everything, but in the end the whole body was dismantled and repainted so we had lovely black and silver convertible!
Below is the picture that is on the steering wheel, though on the steering wheel it also has the caption "Ethan and Talia's Car." When Ethan first saw it he yelled, "Talia it's yooouuuuu!" And when Talia was a passenger for the first time she kept pointing at it saying, "Ethan... Ethan!"
It gave us an extra kick when we saw the same car selling brand new in the shop for $230. Of course, our black and silver custom model was priceless as were all the memories that have been tucked away with it.
