When someone says every human being is unique & special in their own ways, he is not being cliche. It is the truth. Although I have to admit that my babies are way more special than yours.

Only I and perhaps a few other specially-selected ones know how special my babies are. But being a really nice person, I’m going to share with you the reasons today, just so you know. Not for you to judge them, mind you. It’s more for you to come to the realization that I am right. Nothing more.

Let’s start off with Joey.

1) She has a unique POO FACE

Sure, I’ve heard other mummies share about their kids’ poo faces before, but nothing beats Joey’s. And I must say it has come in super useful in her growing-up years because we could tell immediately when she’s doing her big business just by one look. Basically, she cries when she’s doing her big business. Well, not exactly sobbing kind of crying, but big tear drops will fall from her eyes and her whole face will be red, squeezed tightly together and tearing profusely. Now can you beat that?

2) She knows the programme line-up on Disney Channel better than me.

It’s no use arguing with her that it’s time for bed because she wouldn’t like the cartoons that’s coming up next. She would go, ‘Mummy, I LOVE Handy Manny. You know that.’ It takes so much out of me just to stop myself from boxing her sometimes. She’s too witty for me. She can recite the order of the various cartoons with such precision, you might think she was the one who decided the order. Plus, she can sing every single jingle of every cartoon series. Too.much.TV.obviously.

3) She has a memory size of 689270483249Gb.

It scares me how much Joey remembers of things, scenarios or happenings. Sometimes when we pass by a certain place, she would mention something that happened there eons ago and asked us if we remember it as well. It could be something as insignificant as, ‘Mummy, do you remember we shared a cheese bun here the other time?’ Ekkkks, sometimes I don’t even remember it until she mentioned it! This makes me think twice before I say anything stupid in front of her. Who knows when she would repeat it loudly in front of my friends one fine day?

OK, to be fair, I should really go on to tell you why Baby Jayne is just as special, but cos I’m tired, I shall leave that to another day. =)

By the way, thanks to Jerb’s recommendation on her blog, I had fun creating collages with my kids’ photos! You can try it too at Photovisi! Here’re a few I created. =)

Have an awesome weekend! =D

Virtue of the fact that I am one of the key-holders of the office and usually one of the first few to reach office every morning, Baby Jayne pretty much has a personal private nursery for about 30 minutes everyday.

The nursery was such a familiar place to her that she knows exactly where to go to get what she wants. Let me show some of her favourite spots today. All in the TV & Play room. =)

One of her most favourite has got to be the drawers that stores the kids’ diapers. Drawers have an unexplainable grasp on kids, I wonder why?? They NEED to open every drawer they come across. =.=

Alright. She looks surprised but she’s not at all surprised because she knows exactly what’s in there. Sigh, my drama queen.

Another of her favourite things to touch is definitely the toy basket.

The basket is collapsible so that kids can easily pull stuffs out of it. 

But sometimes she gets frustrated because her arms are too short to reach deep enough to the bottom of the basket. Ha!

Guess what she was trying to dig out?

I don’t know why she likes this plastic Mac’Donalds toy so much.

She even talks to him. =.= Very weird.

And, she adores soft toys!!!

Especially the big cuddly ones!

She adoringly calls him ‘Bear Bear’. =D

That’s how we spend our mornings everyday!

All of a sudden, I wished with all my heart that Joey doesn’t need to start Primary School soon.

I know she still has two and a half years more to go before she actually starts Primary School, but it already is starting to freak me out.

I had a chat with a mother the other day, and reality hit me on the head like a rock. She’s a mother of two Primary School kids – One 9, and other, 7, and both are studying in a rather renowned good Primary School. When she shared with me that both her kids are taking various enrichment classes during the weekends, I thought she was being kiasu. I always thought that the school’s curriculum was more than enough, plus her kids’ school was supposedly one of the better ones in Singapore. After all, wasn’t that how we grew up? As a kid, all I needed to do was to pay attention in class, finish up my homework at home and the play for the rest of the day! Weekends were purely reserved for playing!

Apparently, she was not being kiasu. She was just doing what every parent is doing now! In fact, almost all the kids in her children’s classes are in some forms of enrichment classes – Chinese, abacus, calligraphy, Mathematics, etc etc, and if any kid does not attend any enrichment classes, they will remain the average student in class and will always get mediocre results in the examinations. The fact that they will always be mediocre among their peers can have a detrimental effect on the development of their self-esteem, and that’s why parents of today dump in truckloads of cash into the ridiculously expensive extra-curricula enrichment classes. They know they are putting their kids through immense pressure and extra work, but what can they do? If they do not follow suit, they will be plagued with guilt that they are short-changing their kids and depriving them of the chance to fulfil their fullest potential.

We both agreed that because of this, the Singapore Education System is flawed. Simply because it has created an unhealthy situation whereby the kids from poorer families will lose out to the richer ones because they can never afford all the enrichment classes. It also instils the spirit of competitiveness in the kid to always need to get ahead of his peers in everything he does. Not exactly a very nice trait in my opinion.

How do I strike a balance between developing my kids to their fullest potential and letting them have a wonderful and fun childhood? Kids should be allowed to dream, imagine, soar and do whatever they want. Keeping them within the boundaries of a structured and regimental education system is hardly my idea of fun.

I wish things were as simple as it was during my time. Sigh.

More and more of my friends have become parents and because of that, gatherings with friends now are usually gatherings for the little ones as well. I’m pretty cool about that though it may become a little rowdy and out-of-control at times. *laughs*

Peaceable & no-fighting children gatherings are the coolest of all. This was at my colleague, Serene’s house. She has a whole section of the house dedicated to her son’s toys (mostly cars of all sorts), and it just feels like a playhaven for any kid who steps in.

See the shelves and shelves of toys and trucks? I’m not surprised if there’re a 1000 vehicles in there. Julian’s really blessed! =)

Baby Jayne was contented holding one car in her hand and just fiddling with it. :)

Jennan is Francis’ girl, and they are both hyperactive but peaceable girls. Haha!

Staring at a cartoon that was playing on the TV. =)

The boy jumping is the little master of this house, Julian. =) He was playing with Baby Jayne and I think Jayne could really feel the difference between a big brother and a big sister. Haha.. The way a boy plays is different from a girl!

It was nice that we could leave the kids to entertain each other while the adults fellowshipped. =) Absolute Coolness.

Kids have the most angelic faces, don’t you agree? :)

My photographer member took these photos at our CG gathering last week at a member’s house, and I love them! The house was beautifully done up and was a perfect venue for photography.

Chernise is one month older than Jayne and they’re great companions for each other in the cell group!

It’s heart-warming to see them ‘talk’ to each other. :)

And this one looks really like a professional studio shot doesn’t it???

Every family also took turns to have their family photo taken at this spot. Here’s mine! Lovely lovely! =D

It’s so wonderful to have so many families and kids in the same cell group!We have 13 of them in total! The kids have lots of fun (and fights of course!) together, and they literally grow up together too. =) I love every one of them!

Last Saturday was special because we went to visit the 1st cousin my kids have on Isaiah’s mum’s side of the family!

For the last few years, my kids were the only 4th generation kids at every Chinese New Year, and now we have a new addition! =D BIG CONGRATS to our cousins - Adrian & Esther on the arrival of their baby boy Christian Choong!

Baby is so adorable and big! He doesn’t exactly look like a fresh newborn cos’ he’s a whopping 3.6kg! =D Looks like he’s going to be an easy baby to take care of.

Sleeping peacefully. =)

It’s going to be a more rowdy Chinese New Year family gathering next year! =D

I wonder if Baby Jayne knows that’s a real baby… (compared to the doll her sister’s been carrying everywhere with her recently)

 

Before we made our way to the hospital to visit the girls’ little cousin, we popped by the Singapore Discovery Centre to meet up with some friends. It’s such a peaceful & quiet place, I love it!

There is a man-made reservoir at the outdoor cafe area. Lovely.

I’ve been wanting to bring the kids to somewhere in the nature, and have a healthy long walk of some kind. Apart from Sungei Buloh Reserve, is there anywhere else I can explore? Somewhere full of natural goodness and lots of stuffs of the natural habitat to see and learn about?? Suggestions?

I’m not kidding you. My girl can recite the bible Psalms 23 in Chinese! I bet many of you can’t do that! Haha…

Impressed? =P

Just for your reference, cos some parts she was just rushing through!

詩篇 23

耶 和 華 是 我 的 牧 者 ． 我 必 不 至 缺 乏 。

他 使 我 躺 臥 在 青 草 地 上 、 領 我 在 可 安 歇

的 水 邊 。

他 使 我 的 靈 魂 甦 醒 、 為 自 己 的 名 引 導 我

走 義 路 。

我 雖 然 行 過 死 蔭 的 幽 谷 、 也 不 怕 遭 害 ．

因 為 你 與 我 同 在 ． 你 的 杖 、 你 的 竿 、 都

安 慰 我 。

在 我 敵 人 面 前 、 你 為 我 擺 設 筵 席 ． 你 用

油 膏 了 我 的 頭 、 使 我 的 福 杯 滿 溢 。

我 一 生 一 世 必 有 恩 惠 慈 愛 隨 著 我 ． 我 且

要 住 在 耶 和 華 的 殿 中 、 直 到 永 遠 。

The sad truth is: Babies are unisex-looking.

As mummies & daddies, we spend the first year of our lives as parents tortured by insensitive & ridiculous remarks by strangers and by-passers. Somehow, people always think our girls are boys and our boys are girls. To be fair though, since both of my kids are girls, I had a less harsh deal than those parents who’ve had to endure their sons called girls.

So in our attempts to minimize fit attacks and spiralling into depression, we parents typically dress our kids up in the stereotypes commonly accepted by society. And that means boys wear blue & jeans, and girls wear pink and lace. Still, that does not completely stop the remarks. Can you imagine that even when my girl’s in a pink frock, mini skirt & pink leggings, people still had the audacity to ask me straight in the face, ‘So cute! Girl or boy ah?’ =.=

Therefore, that whole chunk of intro is just to explain to you why the following is a rare sight:

Baby Jayne in blue.

I forgot to bring her jacket one day and I had to borrow from another baby in the nursery. Tsk Tsk… I thought she looked like a contractor of some sorts!

In terms of active-ness & love for adventure, she won’t lose to a boy for sure!

Seeing the way she scales those staircases freaks me out, but she really likes doing it!

She looks cute alright, but I think I still prefer my girl in pink. Ha!

That pretty much sums up what this entry is all about.

Baby Jayne may be petite and thin, but she super eats a lot. So either she just has very good genes (like her dad & mum) or there’re worms in her tummy that eats up all the food so that she doesn’t grow fat. Either case, it’s a scary thought, so I’ll think about it only tomorrow.

Since she was an infant, her milk intake was already scaring most people when I told them. She could down 180ml at one go when she was barely 4 months old. Now, on top of her three meals of porridge/rice, she still drinks 240ml each time now.

Her interest in food is encouraging, even though she remains thin and petite. I cook close to one cup of rice everyday for her plus all kinds of ingredients like pumpkin, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, chicken, pork, beef, etc and according to the nursery workers, she goggles down her food at fast speed, clocking records in the nursery even compared to some of the older ones. Which is a good thing, really.

By the way, I’ve always been curious about why kids can always recognise FOOD. The food can be in any kind of packaging – in a bottle, in a bag, in a container, whatever. They somehow know that a particular thing is food, and not just some inedible rubber or plastic objects.

So, like most kids, whenever we are eating, Baby Jayne needs to have a share as well, even though she may have just downed a bottle of milk prior to that. I have friends who are very liberal in this area and they let their babies pinch any of the food they are eating, even if it’s char kway tiao or hokkien mee. For me, I only give her ‘safe’ food like rice, porridge, potatoes etc. Any other foods that are too oily or fatty, I dare not let her try yet. Think about a tiny gastric trying to digest all those lard & oil! ekkkkssss.

Food also is the Number 1 item on my sacred list of ‘Always-work items to keep baby from pulling my hair out’. Just give her food and she sits still and be happy. Gives me 5 minutes of peace and serenity.

I am a good food lover, and I am glad my kids are too. =) Once in a while, Joey would refuse to eat certain food or have bad appetite and that gives me immense headaches because I know she needs super a lot of nutrients at this stage of her life. So, I never take for granted the good appetite of my kids. Some parents I know are perpetually tortured by their kids in this area, and I pray that I never have to go through that!

These 2 little people have an interesting way of communicating with each other.

They laugh at the silliest things. Like all girls do actually. And play silly games and laugh at them. Like all girls do again. I would know – I was in an all-girls school for 4 years of my prime teen years.

Check out this video, which just cracks me up!

We’ve heard so much about the newly opened SCAPE Youth Park (behind Cineleisure), but haven’t had the chance to check out the place yet. So, we went yesterday!

SCAPE may be a venue specially crafted out for the young people and for promotion of street culture, but the moment you step into the complex, you know that it’s actually a pretty atas place targeted at rich people. The shops are mainly on street culture of course, like street wear, gadgets, street music, collectible toys, etc, and most of them are priced mid-range and up. But I must say most of the stuffs sold there are nice & eye-candy!

One of the happiest things during that visit was to spot Red Mango! They serve up one of the best yoghurts I’ve ever had. Not too sweet, just the right tinge of tanginess and very fresh!

 

We ordered Redcurrent Yoghurt (flavour of the day) with granola!

Yummy!!!! Joey loved it too!!!

There were quite a few outdoor restaurants in SCAPE – Fast food, chill-out bars & cafes, ice-cream parlours, small eateries etc. A really nice chill concept, perfect for young people! =)

And there are also several carved-out areas like this that allows groups of people to congregate and just hang out.

Baby Jayne was excitedly walking here and there, having loads of fun!

Joey was also busy climbing up and down together with her mei-mei… It was like one big playground for them!

Baby Jayne….

..loves…

… to..

…drink…

..Mac’donalds milkshake. =)

I attempted to take a photo of jumping Joey in the air. Haha, thank God for a sporting girl who kept jumping at my command until I caught the right photo!

Snapped too slowly…

Snapped too fast! Aiya!

PERFECTO! =D

Time spent with my family is the most precious and relaxing, even if it’s just loitering down Orchard Road, not knowing where to go. =)