Swimming date again...

We had so much fun at Uncle Darius' condo last weekend that we decided to "invite" ourselves over again to swim. Of course we went with Caleb's favourite playmate Kimi and her didi Ian. Again, the weather was good and water was warm so we were able to hang out in the pool for over an hour. This time round we went to another part of the pool where there was a pirate ship with a few water slides. Caleb and Kimi went down the slides a few times, walked around the pool, and played with water.
We were more adventurous with Sarah today and brought her up the water slide as well. She seemed to like it pretty well and was quite happy when Daddy brought her to the top of the slide. It's the first time that she's sitting on a slide. I think she was a little shocked when she hit the bottom of the water with Daddy and drank some water in the process but she recovered pretty quickly and was waving and smiling again after that.

After the swim, we bathed, fed the kids and adjoined to the airport for dinner. Auntie Lorraine (the lobang queen) had 1-for-1 discounts for ice cream at swensons so we were all in for an ice cream treat after our dinner. I think the kids enjoyed themselves a lot today coz they got to swim, play with each other and eat ice cream. (Ya, Kimi had so much fun that she said she'll go home with us when it was time to leave.) And Caleb, he was soo soo exhausted by all the activities on Sunday that he couldn't wake up to go to school the next day. So I let him stay home with me and Sarah so that he could rest.

Making Plans

My son is growing up. And I can tell coz... he is starting to make plans for himself.

He started showing signs of it about a month of so. We had a series of dinner conversations and I could see him slowing changing his strategies to make his plans known to me...

Dinner conversation 1...
Caleb: Mummy, ask me what I dreamt about last night.
Mummy: Oh you had a dream? What did you dream about?
Caleb:... Oh I dreamt that after my dinner I went to watch TV you know (grin grin..)
Mummy: Oh is it? In your dreams? Ok... but I don't think we'll do that later...
Caleb: Why??
Mummy: coz it's just a dream...

Dinner conversation 2... (this is a couple of days after Dinner conversation 1)
Caleb: Mummy, ask me what I'm thinking about?
Mummy: So what are you thinking about?
Caleb: I was thinking... that maybe... after my dinner, I'll go watch TV (grin grin again...)
Mummy: Oh is it? But I don't think so...
Caleb: Why???
Mummy: Coz you've been watching too much TV already.

Dinner conversation 3... (again another few days after dinner conversation2)
Caleb: Mummy, ask me what I'm going to do after dinner?
Mummy: So what are you going to do?
Caleb: Oh, I'm going to watch TV after dinner (gives me matter of fact look)
Mummy: Oh is it? How come I'm not aware of that? I don't think so...
Caleb: Why??
Mummy: Coz we're going to do something else together...

I think he's learnt that being subtle doesn't get him anywhere with us, so he's becoming more and more direct in his approaches. On Saturday, Daddy went out for a short while in the morning and when he came home, Caleb ran to the door to greet him.

Caleb: Daddy! Daddy, I'm going to ride bicycle later you know...
Daddy: Oh really?? (Daddy's really surprised coz he didn't hear me talk about it) Mummy said that we're going cycling?
Caleb: No...
Daddy: Oh, then who told you we're going cycling?
Caleb: (in a matter of fact tone...) I tell myself... (and he skipped off before Daddy can say anymore)

Obviously he left Daddy a little bewildered. Ya, at 3 years old, he's progressing very quickly to just informing us his plans... I wonder what he'll do at 6 years old!

Swimming...

When Sarah turned 6 months, we decided that it's high time we introduced her to the water. We tried for a month to bring her to the pool but were quite unsuccessful as it was either raining or the sun was too scorching hot for her delicate skin. The only thing we succeeded in doing was to get her to pose in her swimsuit.


We finally managed to bring her into the pool when she turned 7 months. Her first experience in the pool was not too great as the baby pool at our club upgraded and they added two pretty cool water slides with water guns and all. It attracted a lot of older kids so the pool was very crowded with lots of kids jumping and splashing around, and of course, scaring the girl quite a bit.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, we went on a swim date with Kimi and Ian. We "invited" ourselves to Uncle Darius' condo to swim instead. The pool at his condo was really nice and there were very few people swimming in it. The weather yesterday was excellent as well. It was cloudy with no sun, not windy and the water was very warm.

I brought along this inflatable rubber ducky bathtub to the pool. I used to bath Caleb in this and he LOVED it. Unfortunately there's a tiny hole there somewhere and I've been trying to find it so that I can mend the hole. My strategy was to inflate it, immerse it in the pool and check to see if there's any air bubbles escaping. Unfortunately, after inflating it, we realised we had problems pushing it under water. Well I probably need to think of another strategy to find that hole.
Anyhow, since I brought it, we decided to let Sarah have a little boat ride in it. I imagine that it would be a lot of fun but half the time, she was looking around and frowning away, as though trying to determine what's going on around her.

See Daddy pushing her around in the water...


Daddy pushing Sarah and Ian around in the water. Sarah looks quite unhappy though...And Ian was really funny. He had his mouth on one handle of his float and was motionless for a good 15min. Just allowing himself to be pushed around by us. Really, he didn't move a single bit! (I think only his eyeballs moved) Until Uncle Adrian came along and took him out to wake him up.


Me and Caleb in the water. The pool here is quite deep and can go up about 1.4m. Here I am, trying my best to get Caleb to kick in the water.


Me and Sarah. The water was really warm so she didn't mind me swirling her around.


An attempt to take a family photo in the pool.


And special thanks to Auntie Lorraine for helping us take all the photos.

Facial Expressions

Here's Caleb showing off all his many facial expressions along with a milk beard that's drying up on his chin and his chest.

Thanksgiving

We saw on the news last night that there was a massive bomb at Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. It was the target of a terrorist attack. This was where Daddy stayed when he went on his business trip to Pakistan 2 weeks ago. And he said that he could be in the building too if he had been there coz it was his routine to go to his customer's site and come back to the hotel to have his meals at the restaurant after they break fast.
According to the report, the attack happened at about 8pm after the Muslims break their fast, and the restaurants were packed with diners. We are sad for the people who lost their loved ones but we are also thankful that Daddy is back home safely with us.
I told Daddy that there's no way I'm going to allow him to go back there to work again. It was ironic coz his company had deemed the Marriott and another hotel to be the safer hotels to house their employees.
But thank God for His protection!

Kor Kor and Mei Mei!

It never fails to bring a smile to my face when I see photos of Kor Kor and Mei Mei together.




This series of photos were taken last month and I've been hoarding them :p





And these photos are fresh from the oven! Taken this morning...
Mei Mei was happily having Daddy all to herself and "nua-ing" him (something that she loves to do in the mornings coz Daddy is her "playboy"... According to Daddy, she only looks for him when she wants to play. And I'm her "comfort woman", coz she comes to me when she wants comfort and wants to sleep!)


Anyway Meimei was playing with Daddy's handphone whilst sitting comfortably on his tummy


And along came Kor Kor, who decided that he MUST have a piece of the fun too...


And so... guess who else started sitting on Daddy's tummy too...





The one who is the happiest?
Of course me lah, coz I got to take pix of my two kids playing together!

Thomas and Friends Live Show

We were really blessed to get free tickets to go watch Thomas and Friends last Thursday at Singapore Expo. I didn't tell Caleb that I was going to bring him for the show before hand coz I was worried that he'll be too excited to take his afternoon nap. When I picked him up from school that day, I told him that I had a secret. That got him really excited and he kept asking me to tell him what the secret was. So I told him that I'll tell him half the secret first and that is we're going somewhere after his afternoon nap with his bestfriend Kimi and Auntie Lorraine. And I'll tell him the other half of the secret after he wakes up from his nap.

(Sidetrack a bit... after reaching home from school, I found that the extra underwear that I packed into Caleb's schoolbag was all wet. I asked him why it was all wet and he said," I don't tell you. It's a secret." When I tried to probe further, he said,"I'll tell you my secret when we reach the place that you're going to bring me to." I was like... kids nowadays!!! They really pick up so fast. I tried to ask him is it wet coz he had water play in school or he peed in his pants but he said no, and refused to say any further. Ha... but I was still able to outsmart him. By late afternoon, it dawned on me that he had soiled his underwear and his teacher had washed it for him. So, anyway, when I said that to him, he laughed very cheekily and said yes. Hmm, at the back of my mind, I do wonder how many more years can I outsmart my son.)

So, back to the show. Well, it was a real treat for Caleb coz I brought him to Burger King for dinner before the show started so he got to eat fries and nuggets. Then we met up with Kimi and Auntie Lorraine just before the show started. Whilst waiting for the show to start, I could see a very distinct profile of the audience. Majority were little boys about Caleb's age or slightly older and were mostly accompanied by a parent. And most of the boys had some Thomas the Train apparel on. There were T-shirts/ polo Ts, pants, jackets etc all with Thomas the Train pictures on them. Caleb himself was wearing his Thomas the Train crocs. The organisers were very clear who their target audience were and allowed food and drinks into the hall and gave out booster seats for their little audience.

Whilst waiting for the show to begin, there were people dressed as train conductors mingling with the guests and taking photos with them. Caleb was slightly nervous but was game enough to go forward to take a photo with the train conductor.


Stage before show started


Here's Caleb and Kimi sitting amongst the audience and drinking apple juice. Through Aunty Lorraine's great connections, we managed to get seats very near the stage.


When the show started, the lights were dimmed and the story teller (who's an ang mo) came out in a tweed suit and tried to "ra-ra" the crowd by asking for audience participation to help to look for Thomas. That's when Caleb kinda lost it and started crying "I WANT TO GO HOME! I WANT TO GO HOME!" I had to try my very best to calm him down. Thankfully the music started and the curtains rolled and we saw Thomas and he got distracted. And after a while, he didn't feel so scared and went on to enjoy the rest of the show.
(I was kinda prepared for his reaction though coz the Sunday before, we had gone to the zoo with Kimi and family and watched their new rainforest show and Caleb had the same reaction. The zoo show was really loud and there was an angmo who pretended to be a bad guy who wants to cut down the rainforest. Caleb was frightened by the loud sound system and the bad guy in the zoo. He cried buckets for almost 20min, demanding to go home the whole time. So before we went into the hall, I actually tried to prepare Caleb that it might be loud but if it's too loud, I'll help him cover his ears. Unfortunately it didn't quite work and it also didn't help that the story teller looked like the bad guy from the zoo.)

Well, after the show, we were in for another treat coz Aunty Lorraine got very good "lobangs" and had gotten us a slot to the "meet and greet" session with the trains and the fat controller. They only allowed about 10 families in and we were the very lucky few. Actually the "meet and greet"session was more of a photo taking session with the trains. We were led backstage and waited for our turn to stand beside the trains featured in the show. But it was good enough for Caleb and he told me after the photo session that he likes the fat controller.

Diesel the Truck


Percy, Fat Controller and Caleb


Me, Caleb, Fat Controller and Thomas the Train


Caleb and his best friend Kimi posing with the show's poster after the show.


I think Caleb really did enjoy the show except for his initial reaction. He still talks about it and would relate certain parts of the show that were more exciting, like when Percy got trapped at a quarry and Thomas came to his rescue. Hopefully, after his experience here, he would react better when he watches other shows like this.

This morning...

For Daddy who misses his kids...

Caleb who has just woken up and getting ready for school...


Making monkey faces early in the morning...


With Daddy away, Caleb has been coming to my bed to sleep with me and Sarah. His reason for doing that? "There's nobody sleeping on Daddy's side of the bed so I can sleep there." He promised to go sleep on his own bed again when Daddy comes home... but we shall see...

Sarah, doing her morning exercise...she hung on to the top of her cot bar to stand but unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to capture it.


And Sarah and me telling Daddy we miss him.
Sarah gets all excited at the word "Daddy" in the video.

"Playdate" at Godma Mei's

Yesterday morning, whilst Caleb was in school, I brought Sarah to Godma Mei's house to "play" with Jude. I say "play" coz Jude's just turning 4 months so they're really not "playing" with each other at all. Rather, it was more of Sarah staring at Jude and Jude just staring back. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable time for me and Godma Mei as we just hang out, share and catch up with each other. It also provided me with a break as Caleb's constant demand for attention this week was starting to get to me.

So here's presenting my chubby Godson Jude!
Though he's 5 months younger than Sarah, he's almost as long as her.


And when Mummies get together with their babies, inevitably we try to take photos of the babies together. It was really tough coz Jude can't sit up by himself yet and Sarah was busy making an her escape each time we try to sit her down.

Here's us trying to get the kids into position.


Godma Mei with Jude and Sarah


Me with Jude and Sarah


Godma Mei with Jude


If you notice, the kids aren't exactly smiling in the photos coz they were harressed by us trying to get them to sit properly and look at the camera. So after a while they were just frowning at us. Well, at least they're not at the age where they can voice out their protests so as long as the Mummies are happy, I think that will do for now!

His grace is sufficient

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." - 2 Cor 12:9a.

Indeed, God's grace is sufficient for all of us. For me to go through my day here in a foreign land. For wifey to handle the children on her own. For Caleb to have to go through the day without his daddy. For Sarah to cruise while her legs are weak.

He is good, He is gracious, He is powerful. Thank God that He is with me and my family.

We Miss You Too Daddy!

So, it's mid week already and we are definitely missing Daddy.
I spoke with Daddy on the 2nd day that he left and poor Daddy had a torturous start to his biz trip. Well his torturous encounter started when he managed to arrive in Pakistan at about 1am sing time and he was only able to settle down to sleep at about 2am sing time. Got woken up at about 3am by the hotel staff coz they thought he needed a morning call. Then at 5am got another morning call from the hotel staff. (Both of which he didn't ask for...) After that, he barely settled back to rest and then he got a call from the airline telling him that his domestic flight into another city that morning got delayed to a later time. He then spent his time trying to find alternative means to get on another flight and change his customer meeting to a later time. By then it was already morning and he decided to just get to the airport earlier. He wanted to get himself some breakfast before leaving but realised that they had posponed their daylight savings timing so instead of a 3 hour time difference, it was 2 hours. And because of that, he missed the breakfast timing so there was no food for him. He went to the airport and managed to eat some biscuits. Caught his domestic flight, went to meet his customer and attempted to get himself some lunch. Unfortunately it's the fasting period so there was no lunch available at all. He had to wait till late afternoon, go to his colleague's hotel and try to ask the kitchen to cook some food for him. Thank God they obliged. And then he had to go back to the airport and catch another domestic flight back to the city at night. My poor husband right? I told him I've not heard of a worse biz trip than his. Travel non stop, work non stop, not enough sleep and got no food to eat!
So anyway, we managed to skype for a while tonight and he reported that he had a slightly better day today. So thank God for it!

On the home front, Sarah's been very good. Caleb's been very attention seeking. I guess Daddy's absence has a larger impact on him. I wanted to bring the kids swimming to work out their energies or to the park but it's been raining so we haven't been doing much. I brought them to go hang out at Yeeyee's house so that Caleb can play with Nic and Nat. Unfortunately, Nic and Nat are into barbie dolls and make believe princesses so that's what Caleb has been playing with. Pretending to be the prince while Nic is Cinderella. Not exactly my idea of a macho rough it out activity.
But thank God for little blessings. Kimi's mummy smsed me today to invite me and Caleb to go with her and Kimi to watch Thomas the Train at expo tomorrow. They've got some free tickets so Yeah for us. Think God knows that Caleb probably needs more one on one time with me during this time so that's what we're gonna do. I'll probably bring him out for dinner, just the two of us, and then we'll go watch the show together. Hopefully, we can spend some quality time together tomorrow.

Sarah @ 8 months!

Sarah turned 8 months on 30 Aug. This month she has become increasingly mobile. Other than dragging herself around commando style, she's also crawling a lot more on all fours and she's actually able to push herself up to stand whilst holding on to her cot bars. I think we unwittingly created a mini gym for her when we decided to remove her cot door and join her bed to ours. She was waking up once every night to cry and demand to be placed on our bed to sleep and I was getting tired of carrying her over into our bed. So I thought that perhaps if I joined her bed to ours, she'll stop waking up coz technically, she'll be sleeping next to me already.
Well, when I joined her cot to ours, she went on this mission to try to climb onto my bed. All it took was 3 days of trying persistently and I noticed that her limbs seemed stronger after that. Her bed is about 15cm lower than mine and from not knowing how to prop herself onto my bed, she tried so many times that she could do it after 3 days. And during one of her crazed moments of trying to escape from her cot, she actually discovered that she could hold on to the bars to stand and walk around. I pretended to sleep whilst peeping at her and was shocked to see her do that. She's still very wobbly but she's definitely got the idea of cruising round with support. Looks like she'll probably be an early walker. I'm actually worried that her legs are not strong enough to support her weight. Also I seem to have read somewhere that it's better for children to crawl around longer. Can't remember the exact reason but think it's something about helping their brainwaves connect and help them multi task better next time. Oh well, I guess she knows her body best so she'll probably stand and walk at her own time.
This month, she's also learned to wave at people. We were out and some aunties were smiling at her and she actually smiled back and started flapping one hand at them when they waved at her. So now, when we wave at her to say hi or bye, she'll flap one hand up and down. Sometimes, she'll open and close her palm. But she doesn't do it all the time. She's got a mind of her own and waves only when she feels like it.
I'm pleased to announce that she's much better during mealtimes and willing to drink more water. So we've kinda nipped the constipation problem in the bud. She loves to eat avocado, papaya, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. Still doesn't like to eat apples and pears. Loves pork porridge, ok about chicken porridge and don't really like fish porridge. We kinda joke that she likes pork porridge the most coz she's born in the year of the pig. Her taste buds actually differ very greatly from Caleb so I'm actually trying out lots of different food that I didn't give to Caleb or which Caleb didn't like.
I was looking back at my old entries on Caleb at this age and I remembered that I sang a lot more to Caleb than I did with her. (Caleb could sign to dedicate songs that he wanted sung to him at her age) Guess now that there's 2 of them, I really can't give each of them as much attention as I would like to. Anyway, I made an effort to sing more to her and she really enjoys the action songs that I sing.
I've been slacking in taking photos of her this month. Partly coz Daddy's not around and I'm quite tired out trying to keep up with the two kids. I did manage to take a video of her in her cot. As usual she's attempting to make her escapade out of her "cell".

Missing FamiLEE!

Just one day and I'm missing my famiLEE already. It's been tough here. Travelling around is difficult, and food is not readily available (it's Ramadan now). But most of all, I miss my wife (who's always around to take care of me), my son (who's always around to talk to me and play with me) and my daughter (who's always around to "nua" me and smile at me). I can see all the faces now in my mind. Nevertheless, I know God will take care of them, just as He takes care of me now.

Missing you guys!