Time for a little update on what we've been up to or, more accurately, what Ryan has been up to. Ryan went back to school last Monday after having a good solid break. After a week of school, we had this conversation on Friday night:
Ryan: Mama, I want a holiday.
Mama: You want a holiday? What are you going to do on your holiday?
Ryan: Stay at home and play with my Magna-tiles.
Mama: That sounds fun.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't need so many "school*".
Mama: How come?
Ryan: Because "school*" takes a long time.
Mama: Ok, why do you say you have so many?
Ryan: There is one hundred "school*".
Mama: Well, how many do you need?
Ryan: I need only twenty. Twenty is enough.
(* Ryan actually said his school's name here. I've omitted it for this post.)
Well, luckily for him, the next day was Saturday and he had a long weekend coming up, as Monday was a school holiday. On Sunday night, after dinner with his aunt, he brought up the topic again and told me that he wanted to go to his other aunt's house (in Malaysia) for a holiday. He packed his backpack into his luggage and declared himself all ready to go. I asked him if he'd like to pack some underwear and he said nope. Heh heh.
Speaking of his backpack, I introduced him to his new Thomas the Train backpack, which was a gift from Sue (thanks Sue! Ryan loves it!). It was an essential part of his outfit, as you can see here.
Well, you can't really see the backpack as only the straps are showing but you get the idea. The pants are the W Pants which I sewed for him, which you've seen in this post. The T-shirt with Thomas the Train on it was bought from Mothercare a long time ago, but worn for the first time in this photo. I'd always thought that this turquoise blue was a difficult colour to coordinate but the pants and the T-shirt look like they were made for each other. He was pleased as punch with this outfit.
We were at the Night Safari when the photo was taken. This was the Friday before last. Alicia planned the outing for our two families and we had a great time. Happiest of all was Ryan - he had such a great time with Alicia's son, Brayden. Babydoll managed to see quite a number of the animals too, before she fell asleep at her usual bedtime. Richard and I took turns to carry her. It was a perfect night for the safari. The weather was good and the animals were out and about, basking in the moonlight. By the time we left, it was close to midnight!
Ryan met up with Brayden again last Saturday, when we went to check out the "Titans of the Past" exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre.
Ryan has seen a few dinosaur-themed shows and exhibitions before (including Walking with Dinosaurs - the Arena Spectacular and the dinosaur exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History). So he wasn't particularly impressed with the dinosaurs although he had quite a lot of fun playing with the exhibits. Babydoll, on the other hand, was quite impressed and she actually said "Woah..." a few times as she pointed to the exhibits. Ryan was more engrossed with these dinosaur-shaped puzzles and did them a few times before he was willing to move on.
When we got outside after finishing the exhibition, Ryan tried the Lazer Maze Challenge. He said he was scared, but he still went through it so I'm pretty proud of him for being so brave. The ticket pays for two tries, for two players playing simultaneously. I went in with Ryan and, on our second go, we actually made it to the top ten scores on the board (for easy level!).
In other news, Ryan had an "IQ test" during his Shichida class two Sundays ago. The parents were asked to stay outside the classroom while the test was being administered so I have no idea what sort of questions were asked. I was also not told how he fared on the test. No materials were given to prepare for the test. I was a little concerned that it would be worksheet-style and timed, which is not something that Ryan is used to. Alicia was kind enough to pass me some worksheets before the test so that I could show him a few things like "read the instructions", "erase your answer if you think it is wrong and write the answer you want", "don't worry if you don't know the answer", etc. I do not know how the test was actually carried out but, listening outside the classroom with the other parents, I could hear the children shouting out the answers at certain points, so I guess they worked through the questions together.
Yet in other news, we are planning a short family holiday at the end of the month. So Ryan's holiday is not too far away (although he doesn't know it yet).
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