The Bub in the Belly

 

And yes, she is carrying three handbags.



Her gold bag and her pink shoes are from Accessorize. I wanted to get her a new handbag and she wanted to pick up a new pair of shoes, so we ended up with one of each.



I've been at home for most of this week, babysitting some workmen doing some work on the house, and some more men are coming tomorrow to do some more work.

I took the time to sew some outfits, plus tackle some of the neverending housework. Also, Ryan has been confirmed for another commercial and he had a fitting done yesterday, which was a lot of fun for him.

Have a good weekend, I'll see you back here on Monday. Next week - resolutions for 2014! Do you have any?

Christmas 2013 was a very, very quiet affair; the most low-key Christmas that we've had in a long time.

The first thing we did on Christmas morning was to check for evidence of Santa Claus. The children had set out biscuits and a drink for him before they went to bed and, in the morning, Ryan was excited to note that the food and beverage had been half-consumed.



In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, Ryan visited Santa Claus at T3 Changi Airport twice. The first time was when he was filming a commercial at the airport. After we wrapped, and had dinner, Ryan wanted to go to Singkids but, having already spent the whole day there, Richard and I weren't keen on spending another two hours at the airport plus we had to fetch babydoll from her nanny. So we brought him to the Spongebob Squarepants pineapple house. Next to that, was Santa's lodge. Ryan was pleased as punch to see Santa. Ryan called him "Mr Santa".


The second time Ryan met Santa Claus was when we met up with Brayden and his parents at T3 for dinner and play. In addition to the pineapple house and Santa's lodge, the boys jumped around in the gigantic Spongebob Squarepants Bouncy Castle. After that, all of us took a ride on the airport shuttle train. The boys had tons of fun, as always.


Anyway, back to Christmas morning. The next item on the agenda, after checking Santa's leftovers, was to check the Christmas stockings. Ryan was over the moon to find a pair of yo-yos in his stocking. He opened the packet up straightaway and spent the next half hour learning to play it.

The rest of the present-opening followed the same pattern. Ryan would open a present and excitedly insist on playing with it straightaway. Some of the gifts involved assembly, like a scooter from his nanny and an inflatable football goal, so, as you can imagine, we took forever to get through his presents. In fact, we didn't open all of them and some are still unopened even now.

We went to church after that and, for Ryan's benefit, we went to the contemporary service - he enjoyed dancing and singing along to the music and survived the entire service. Babydoll needed to walk about a bit so I took her for a short jaunt around the grounds during the sermon.

We spent the rest of the day at home. For dinner, we chose a quiet meal at Cafe Melba, where the staff were very taken with the two littles and spent most of the evening trying to catch their attention.

So, that was Christmas 2013. Quiet, mellow, and peaceful.

The thing about blogging about your family's adventures is that, taking a break from blogging means that there's a lot to catch up on when you get back to it. Let's start where I left off. Somewhere in mid-December ...

One of my uncles came into Singapore on Thursday and we put him up in the Fairmont. He left on Friday but we still had the room for another night so we packed an overnight bag and hopped over there with the littles for a quick staycation after work.

Before we could get to the hotel, we had to sort out a little problem at home. After work, we came home to find that the planter next to our living room was flooded! It was a bathtub! Apparently, the bamboo that was planted there by the previous owner had overgrown and, assisted by the planter's substandard design, its roots had choked up the tiny drainage outlet. The previous weeks' worth of rainfall was all in there. Richard and I hauled pails of water for what seemed like forever before the level of water subsided just a little. I got a taste of what it must feel like to be in a sinking ship.

We didn't clear out the whole thing, just enough to make sure that it would not overflow before we could get someone to fix the problem. It was fortunate that Richard and I had come home to pick up our luggage (we were toying with the idea of going straight to the hotel from work). It was also fortunate that the littles were still at their nanny's, otherwise it would have been a really frustrating and messy affair. I really got the feeling that God was looking out for us.

All's well that ends well - we managed to find a specialist contractor to come on Sunday to dismantle the planter and we're getting it decked over this week. The bamboo had to go, which was a real pity.

Saturday was a busy day. After lunch at our usual bak kut teh place, we went to watch Hi-5's latest live concert - "Hi-5 House Party" at Marina Bay Sands.


Yes, that's Ryan dancing along in the aisles. He had a wonderful time, and I think the show re-kindled his love for Hi-5. Babydoll watched half of it and slept through the second half.

Incidentally, I asked Ryan a few days ago whether he wanted to take dance lessons. I'd asked him before and he'd said no. I was, however, feeling inspired after attending a charity ball where everyone was dancing ballroom-style, and so I asked him again. After all, children change their minds often, right? His response was, in a slightly offended tone, "No, I don't want to learn. I already know how to dance." Okay, okay.

We ended the day with a Christmas party/surprise birthday party hosted by Richard's boss at his lovely home. I was a little surprised that Ryan was so comfortable with everyone. He knew nobody yet he chatted and played with no reservations and entertained and charmed them all, especially the ladies. He had a really good time. Babydoll stuck with me for most of the night.

All right, that's all for now - next post will be about our Christmas!

Please forgive the poor photos of babydoll today. They were taken in poor light and I didn't bother to edit them at all. I wanted to do a quick and dirty post because I'm not quite ready to come back to the blog. Life for us in 2014 hasn't properly begun. Ryan only re-starts school next week and when we remind him, he protests, "I'm on holiday!". Both Ryan and Rachel have new weekend schedules, but that routine only half-starts tomorrow. It will be fully implemented the weekend after. Work at the office is still a little slow and half my mind is on plans for Chinese New Year, which is about four weeks from today. Plus there is the little man's birthday coming up. The big 0-5.



The more I didn't blog, the more I didn't feel like blogging. Having said that, now that I am back at the blog, it feels good to be back, even if I'm not fully here yet.

I plan to get things revving again next week. I want to still have this last weekend; to absorb every last bit of this semi-holiday feeling; to ease ourselves slowly into 2014. So, have a good weekend, be good. See you back here on Monday.

P.S.: I know some of you are waiting for responses to your email queries, and I promise I will answer each and every one of them. I usually answer the quick and easy ones first and save the ones that require more thought for later. Some of you have really tough questions that require a fair amount of pondering!