Flying without wings....

Ever wonder why Singapore Flyer is called Singapore Flyer? The thought came to me as I brought the gals there with my mum and mil to Singapore Flyer today. Maybe it is because it is 165m tall? Tall enough to be the biggest observation wheel in 2008 but still exaggerated if you call that flying. But still, there will never be flight turbulence at the Flyer, which is what I always hate about real flying.

We didn't get to bring Raelynn to the Flyer before she turned 3 when it was still free entry for her. Tickets are $33 for adult, $24 for senior citizen, $21 for child above 3 yrs old. Not cheap. So when our nearest CC organised the trip at discounted flat rate of $21 per pax including two way transport, I grabbed the chance since both Raelynn and my mum have never been there. Hubby couldn't make it cos he had Parents Meet Teachers session whole day.

The bus picked us up at 3pm and brought us to the Flyer at 340pm. It dawned on me that the last time we were there was 5 years ago. RaeAnne's maiden 'flight' was in Dec 08 when she was 11 mths old. That was also the year that the flyer first opened for business. Seemed like so long ago. And the flyer definitely looks different. We had time to walk around though it is very warm today, the gals fed the fishes at the new walk-through garden with mini waterfalls. alfresco asian street fare with lots of hawker stalls. There is aslo exhibition area before reaching the departure point but the kids were not really keen.

The highlight of the day for them was definitely a ride on the Ferris Wheel, as Raelynn calls it. Ah Mah was a bit nervous entering the capsule that kept on moving but once we entered the capsule, everyone except RaeAnne relaxed cos it was so slow moving. Raelynn had no fear at all and ran from point to point.

RaeAnne, however, sat glued to the bench refusing to move. I had to pull her up, hold her hand and walked her to the other bench with a better view. Then she realised that it is not so scary. She and Raelynn had fun walking around and climbing on the side rails, taking silly photos of each other and everyone else, even taking their shoes off at times. Embarrassing moments, luckily there was only 1 chinese family of 3 and a family of 3 caucasian tourists in the same capsule as us.

The ride ended at 5.15pm, we went to the gift shop. RaeAnne was pestering me to buy snacks and sweets. But I refused to buy Hello panda or sweets at super inflated prices. Though I did pay for 6 flyer photos at super inflated prices $60. But my logic is at least those can't be bought at NTUC and most importantly, everyone is in the shot and looking at the camera, plus there are 6 different backgrounds and I get the soft copies too. 6 photos divide by 3 households means 2 photos each. Not so bad right? haha.

We walked around and went to the fish pond one more time before we took the bus back at 6pm. Reached CC at 630pm. The gals were tired out esp RA who dozed off for 5-10 mins on the bus ride back. I think it will probably be a long time before we go to the flyer again. Another 5 years? Haha.

Holiday Fun (Part 2 - Little Big Club, JB)

On Friday, we rented a private MPV with driver to bring us to Hello Kitty Town and Little Big club with my cousin Shirley, her MIL and two kids. The rental costs $250 and the MPV can fit up to 10 pax. I enjoyed the convenience cos this time we don't need to get up and down at the two customs unlike our last trip in Dec when we took the coach bus.

In Dec, we did not go to Little Big club so this time we booked the 2 park tickets online. When we met Mr Lee, our driver, he told us we could have asked him to help us buy cos Malaysians get discounted rates. Oh well, next time...

The driver picked us at 8am and our target was to reach Hello Kitty Town at 10am but we reached slightly before 10.25am. We were slightly delayed cos there was heavy morning traffic at Kaki bukit on our way to pick Shirley and thereafter cos Mr Lee thought we wanted to go via Woodlands checkpoint but we told him to detour to Tuas checkpoint thinking it will be faster, hopefully less jammed. But at least we made it in time for the meet and greet session by Hello Kitty and Daniel that Shirley wanted cos it was from 10-1030am. haha.

The place was so empty. We didn't need to queue at all. Good choice to come on a weekday ahead of Malaysia school holidays. After two spinning, dizzy rounds at HK teacups, we split up with Shirley as I wanted to bring the gals to Little Big club first since they have never been there. Thomas the train show was ongoing but RL was not keen so I brought her to Barney playground while RA stayed with Daddy.

11am was Angelina Ballerina dance lesson so I brought RL there first so that she can dress up in the tutu. Both gals joined in the dance but although RL has been taking ballet lessons, she couldn't follow the moves. Think the instructions were too fast for her, haha, RA had no problem though.


After Angelina ballerina show, we let them loose at Bob the builder indoor playground and they had fun running and playing the slides and 3d brick jigsaw. Saw Pingu the Penguin so we went to take photos. RL immediately hugged Pingu's big tummy. haha. We caught up with Shirley & co and we went up to Thomas the Train play zone at level 4 together.

The kids warmed up by then so they had fun taking the helicopter rides, school bus rides. RA tried the fast descending lift ride with daddy. I was hungry and quickly assembled a huge table with 8 chairs and 1 baby chair for lunch.

After lunch, RA wanted to sit on the bumper cars. We queued together but RL did not meet the 110cm height requirement for the bumper car rides and she cried buckets so I distracted her and brought her for the train ride. We went for 3 rounds cos the gals wanted to sit inside the only 'blue' thomas train carriage and yet another round cos RA wanted to sit in the only carriage with side mirrors.

All in all, they had fun. We left HKT at 4pm and went to KSL city for shopping and dinner. We shopped at Tesco and had dinner at Kinsahi and left KSL at 8pm. There was a jam at Woodlands causeway and we finally reached home at 930pm. But it was great that the van brought us all the way back to our flat so even though we had quite a few bags of stuff, it was easy to manage. This was the first time we hired an MPV to Malaysia and it won't be the last time as long as we can gather 8-10pax to maximise the rental, we are good to go. haha.

Holiday fun! (Part 1 - SEA Aquarium at RWS)

It's March hols again. Glad to have a breather for both Daddy and I after a hectic 10 weeks of school term. We have not been spending enough time with the kids recently. So to make it up to them. We brought them to two places this week.

Thursday, we went to SEA Aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa with some of the SMH Jan08 mummies and their kiddos. NTUC card members get a special deal, 2 adult tics for $50 instead of $29 each. And 2 child tickets for $35. Kids below 4 years old do not need to pay. The mummies decided to band together and buy the tickets so that we can all have discounted tics. Haha.


We reached the place around 10am, I took away some pastries from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf while waiting for the other mummies to arrive. The kids were all a bit shy initially. But I was proud of RA who was willing to take this group photo with the other gals. :)

Raelynn refused to join in and threw a tantrum though. Only later when we were alone, she confided in me that cos she didn't want to take photo cos she didn't want to raise her arm, she only wants to do the 'V' finger sign when taking photos.

We had to walk through the Maritime Experiential Museum to get to SEA Aquarium. Frankly, MEM is not very interested for the gals cos they are too young. They want to touch the touch screen video displays but don't know how to play the games.

When we went inside SEA aquarium, it is really much bigger than the older aquarium ie. Underwater world. There were lots of fishes and coral reefs, sea jellies (jelly fish), puffer fish, and even huge lobsters that made me think instantly of yummy lobster sashimi. There is a huge Ocean Restaurant in the middle of the aquarium where diners can watch the fishes and Manter rays as they swim by. Wonder if they serve fish and whether diners will feel guilty eating it there. hee.

But the only fish Raelynn was interested was nowhere to be found even after we had some snacks at the cafe near OCEAN restaurant. She was looking for SHARK. She kept asking me where is the shark but the shark tank was the very last tank just next to the exit. Save the best for last? Maybe for a patient kid, not mine. ;P

The cellular phone network inside the SEA aquarium is really bad so beware. I called my hubby 6 times cos he brought RA to the toilet and we were separated and his phone did not ring at all. End up, we missed joining some of the other mummies for lunch cos I was stuck inside trying to look for him.

A study corner for RaeAnne

Been wanting to buy a proper desk for RaeAnne since last year as she will have her own room. She loves to draw but the picnic table with a hole in the centre is not very suitable for drawing and it's also too low, whereas the crayola art table cum easel is too small. Also, the lighting at the living/dining area is a bit dim.

We went to a few places including Ikea, Courts, Piccolo house and Casa kidi, to look for a suitable study desk. I wanted a space maximising desk with storage so that she can keep her textbooks and other study stuff in future. We finally zoomed in on a Cilek study desk for $300+ at Casa kidi in a sweet pink castle design (her favourite colour) that is not too wide due to space constraint but ok to last until primary school. We got a pink acrylic swivel chair on clearance as well.

Although we ordered it in Dec, the desk took months to come and finally arrived today. She loves the table luckily cos we had no time to bring her to choose. Her CC will start having spelling for K1 kids from July onwards so timing is good. Although she will leave her carefree 'no homework' toddler days soon, hope her new desk will help ease the transition and make studying happier and more fun for her. :)

The Hungry Caterpillar

I have a limau purut or kaffir lime plant, and the lime leaves and juice are often used in tomyam soup. Can't remember when I bought the plant but it was many years ago.

Unfortunately, I never harvested any limes out of the plant. Instead, I 'harvested' many caterpillars. Don't know why they just love lime leaves. I tried spraying pesticide on them but I dun like the idea of 'poisoning' my lime leaves. So, after that, I just get hubby to get rid of it when caterpillars appear.

I hate caterpillars, worms, earthworms and anything that squirms. The fear started when I had to sweep the floor for my dad's old room in our Alexandra flat. Being a hawker, there were boxes of canned and processed food in that room. When I finally sweeping the floor, there were lots of tiny white worms squirming on the floor. I screamed to my dad. Who just matter of factly, told me to sweep into the dustpan and throw away. I wasn't even wearing room slippers at that age so I hated to see them squirming so near my feet. Ee....

Two weeks ago, another caterpillar was happily munching on my lime leaves and making big ugly holes. I was about to get hubby, our seasoned caterpillar catcher, to catch it and throw it away again. But I remembered that my colleague told me it is an excellent way for my daughter to learn about the life cycle of the butterfly if I keep it in a container with holes and feed it with leaves. Then my gal can slowly see how it turns into a butterfly and we can set it free at the end.

Sounds like an easy project to do since I got plenty of lime leaves and 'tapow' containers and it will be a valuable science lesson for RaeAnne. So, I bite back my distaste and fought back my fear for worms. Never knew such a day will come but I actually told hubby to create a home for the only creature that I truly hated. RaeAnne, see how much Mummy loves you. ;P


It was only about 1 cm long when we first caught the caterpillar. Wish I remember to take a picture then. After almost 1 week of devouring my lime leaves, it can eat up to 3-4 leaves in 1 day! The caterpillar grew very fat, long and its colour turned GREEN! Looks like it is true when they say 'You are what you eat'. Obviously, it ate too many lime leaves and took on its colour. Probably for camouflage purposes so that a hungry bird doesn't eat it up. The ingenuity of nature.

RaeAnne wanted to bring the caterpillar to childcare on the Friday before Chinese New Year but I forgot to pack it for her. So, she brought it last Thurs, 1 week later, when school resumed. I thought the CC gals will scream but I was wrong. Every kid, boy or girl, was curious and crowded around RaeAnne and her pet caterpillar. It was as if she brought a lovable kitten or puppy to school. Can't help admiring the innocence of childhood. I think the only one who was squirmish about the caterpillar (besides Me) was RA's CC teacher, Teacher Samantha. A K2 girl even took RaeAnne's caterpillar away to show off to her friends. So, poor Teacher Samantha had to get it back for her. Haha.

The caterpillar turned into a chrysalis last Fri. Googled and found out that it can take up to 2 weeks before a butterfly will emerge from the cocoon (chrysalis). Wow, quite a long wait. Meanwhile, we have removed the container cover and upgraded the caterpillar to a bigger home, our old fish tank. I hope it survives the metamorphosis so that we can finally see what is the colour of the butterfly... ;)

Colouring and doodles by RaeAnne

RaeAnne was very happy on Wed night. And it's because her art teacher (Globalart) said she did a good job colouring a bird so she will put up her colouring on the wall once it is completed. I thought the bird's colours are nice but blending effect is not very good. But maybe because I can see the different blocks of colours on close up. From far, it does look quite nice.


I like her drawing of the frog that she drew on Wed and the rainbow picture kept in Yeye's file folder even more cos I thought both pictures looked very happy. I also like the cat drawing that she drew for Raelynn cos Mei mei loves cats.




After 5 months of art class, can see that she is more confident in copying a picture and drawing it herself and blending of colours. She will even give art homework to yeye and Mei Mei to do. But it is definitely more important that she enjoys going to art class. Haha.

Double celebrations

It's our 8th wedding anniversary today. But we celebrated RA's 5th birthday in school. Even though these two special dates are 1 day apart, but we decided to bring forward RA's school celebration cos last Fri, we were informed that there will be an outing to the Science Centre for the Nursery and K1 kids tomorrow, 22 Jan, RA's 5th birthday.

So, hubby and I scrambled to change the cake delivery, re-organise our time cos both of us cannot afford to miss any lessons. I had to take a few hours time off after my afternoon lessons, while hubby had to 'fly' back from Marine Parade to Tampines after his last lesson in the afternoon.

The party finally got going at 4pm and RA's classmates were so hungry that a lot of them asked for 2-3 helpings, I have never seen a 1.5 kg cake wiped out so fast. But it's great that they enjoy the cake cos hubby and I are not big cake eaters.

Since today is a weekday and both of us got to work, we celebrated our wedding anniversary by having a simple lunch together, fried hokkien mee and sambal stingray. haha. So simple compared to the extravagant meals we had before kids. But it is more important for us to spend time alone. With 2 kids and no maid, plus a hectic schedule during school term, we hardly have couple time nowadays.

Hubby took the effort to get me a present from my favourite shop. Sad to say, I have been so busy with work nowadays that I do not have time to plan and get him something nice. Here's to many more years together and hope we will always make time for each other. :)

Happy birthday to Daddy!

Today is Daddy's birthday. But it is not a good day for Daddy cos he sprained
his back on Fri after bringing Raelynn to toilet in a tight cubicle. It got worse over the two days and he had to lie down most of the time and could hardly drive so he went for tuina at maguang today.

Nonetheless, the 24 hr on duty Daddy still slept with the gals last night though he had difficulty getting up and going back to his own room. He also chose a kiddy Madagascar tiger cake, something that will make the gals happy. When he asked for 3 candles, the cashier thought it was really for a kid's birthday and gave him 3 tiny candles instead of 3 big ones. haha.

Wishing that Daddy will get well soon and stay healthy always. :)

2 Jan 13 - RaeAnne's 1st night alone on a big bed

We have been wanting to buy a single bed for RaeAnne so that she can sleep in her own room. Main reason is because Raelynn takes a long time to fall asleep and as a result, she disturbs Cheh Cheh who is a light sleeper when they are both in the same room.

First, we went to Fullhouse, Aljunied, their beds are not bad, a princess heart bed costs only about $350 and it is PINK. But we decided to get two pink Princess Emily beds from Piccolo house since the pink beds were on offer (usual price $799, now $703) because the quality is better (solid wood instead of compressed foam wood). Also, they are modular beds, so they can be converted into a bunk bed when the gals are older, maybe in upper primary. I am sure the gals will be thrilled cos I always wanted to sleep on a bunk bed when I was in primary and Secondary school but my mum just keeps bluffing me next year followed by next year when I pestered her so I never got to sleep in a bunk bed in the end.

We only have 3 rooms in our 5 room flat so it was a long work in progress for the past few school holidays to clear out the study, give away our dining table so that we can move the bookshelves to the living room and convert the study into RA's room.

The bed finally arrived on 28 Dec 2012. First night wasn't so good. RA didn't take to her new bed cos the mattress was too hard (from Seahorse, $39) even though she chose it herself. And because I didn't have time to wash her new bedsheets (having bought them from Aussino just the night before). So the bedsheets was hard like starch and smelled strange too. She asked to sleep in her old bed because she said it was softer, more comfortable and the bedsheets were smoother. After we insisted that she must sleep in her new bed, and hb slept beside her on the floor, she finally KO at 11.40pm. Not an early bedtime that we wished at all.

I took the effort to wash and iron her bedsheets during the weekend. Put lots of softener too. The bedsheets definitely felt and smelled much better after that. She liked her new bed much better after that. We have a book 'My first time in a big bed' and we have been reading this book to RA on and off for about 2 yrs. Last night, we read it to RA again and told her that if she can sleep on her own in a big bed, we will give her the certificate and stickers that are at the back of the book.

She was quite confident and said yes, she will sleep alone. But 5 mins after I kissed her good night, she went to Daddy for SOS and got him to lie down beside her on the floor because she said she heard strange noises. I went in again, asked hb to leave the room, reassured her that there is nothing strange in her new room. She had already slept in it for the last few days and nothing happened right? Even if there are any flying insects, we are just next door so she can walk over and tell us.

She cried a bit when I insisted that she try and sleep alone, but she didn't protest when I left the room again. 15 mins later, when I checked, she was sound asleep at about 11pm. Today, I gave her her certificate and blutacked it on the wall of her new bedroom. She went to sleep on her own again tonight.

Really proud of her and secretly, I do feel a bit guilty as if we are forcing her to grow up at just 5 years old. Actually, we have been procrastinating on sleep training these few years cos there is bonding at bedtime when all 4 of us fall asleep on a queen sofa bed and a cot bed for Mei Mei.

But now that I am working and will still need to do marking after the gals sleep, I can't be lying down and pretending to sleep from 930-1130pm every night cos it really takes too much time. Also, I don't like the idea of them sleeping so late every night cos they don't get enough rest. Also, I know of parents who sleep train their kids when they were babies ie. sleep in a cot in a separate room since the baby is born. Compared to them, sleep training RA at 5 years old is not that exactly young.

We still read bedtime stories to them together but either in RA's room or RL's room when they are drinking milk. After which, they will brush their teeth then go back to their respective rooms to sleep. But to compensate to RA, I spend about 10-15 mins talking to RA, before I tuck her in and leave the room.

I have to spend a much longer time with RL because she still doesn't get the concept of closing her eyes to sleep. Her eyes are always open and she will roll about or play in her little cot bed and KO suddenly around 1130pm when she is really very, very tired. Will need to find a way to make her sleep earlier too.

Slowly, one challenge at a time... ;)

First day at school....

For me, not the kids. Facing a new class of 30 and talking non stop for 2.5 hrs to brief them on the new term, queue position, seating position, toilet location, rules and regulations is no joke. After 1 month of rest, I really had to crank up my rusty bones. Haha.

Luckily, the gals are in childcare so they go to school everyday even when Mummy and Daddy are having school holidays. Imagine having to coax them back to school after a 1 month break. I think they will whine non stop or evey cry for 1 week. So bad of us ya? Hehe. But I do feel guilty sometimes so I let them 'ponten' school quite often this Dec holidays cos we went for RWS staycation, Legoland 2D1N trip then Star Cruise 3D2N. As a result, they keep whining about having to go back to school after we get back. Told hubby that I think one long holiday trip is better than 3 short ones. Less disruptive. But definitely, it will be more expensive. Haha.