Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A different point of view

Let's catch up on Richard's phone photos, shall we? This batch spans the period from November 2013 to February 2014. I think babydoll looked very different in November 2013 (almost a year ago). 














Monday, September 29, 2014

Adjustments

Our week, and weekend, was a strange mix of getting back into our routine and, at the same time, saying goodbye to parts of it. That is actually a good representation of our life in general at the moment. It's a carousel of hellos and goodbyes right now, and "adjust" is the catchphrase of the day.

I am still missing my cat very much. Life at home without Tiger is significantly different and this has been an adjustment that I have not been willing to make. I have not touched his things at all - everything is exactly the way he left them.

Let me share some updates on the littles. Before we went on our trip to Mauritius, Ryan's swimming coach (at Tanglin Village) told me that Ryan could graduate to their big swimming pool at Turf City. I was really happy to hear that. Firstly of course, because Ryan is progressing in his swimming. Second is because, for the past couple of months, when Ryan was having his class in the small pool at Tanglin Village, there was another class being conducted at the same time in the pool. I felt it was a little noisy and distracting to have so many people in the small pool.



So Ryan attended his first class at Turf City last week. We asked for a weekday slot with the same coach. He swam so well in the big pool that his coach said he could join a more advanced class than the one she originally intended him to join. That was nice to hear!

Funny thing was that, when I asked him, Ryan said that he preferred the small pool because "this big pool takes too long to swim to the other end" and "I can't hold my breath long enough in the big pool" (referring to his back stroke breathing technique). Heh heh. I told him that it will get easier with a few more sessions. He can already swim from one end to the other end - he's just got to adjust his mindset.

Umm... this is not a good shot, I know. I wanted to give you an idea of how big the pool is. Ryan is that tiny dark patch in the water near the side of the pool near where the red thingy is. His coach is on the right side of the photo, about halfway along the length of the pool. Ryan can swim the whole length of the pool, one end to the other, no problem.


Ryan is also easing back into preschool. It's always a tough adjustment when we get back from a trip. After many late nights of playing with his cousins, it's hard to get him to bed early and to school on time the next day. We're not quite there yet - today we only got to school at 10 am. Be that as it may, Ryan's been pretty excited about sharing stories about his adventures in Mauritius with his school mates so it's been a happy few days for him. 

Ryan attended a birthday party last Saturday. Harry, one of his best friends from his previous class, was there and the two of them had loads of fun. Harry's mum told me at the party that Harry told her that, "Ryan's not in my class anymore but I really miss him." Aww.

Babydoll started a new term with Julia Gabriel Bilingual Playclub. It is also her last term (being her fourth term) and so when we paid the fee for this new term, we also submitted the withdrawal form for the programme. Hello and goodbye. 

Last Sunday, the littles attended their last Shichida class. No more! Hello to free and easy Sundays from now on! I didn't ask Ryan's opinion at the time that I withdrew him (and Rachel) from the programme but I did ask him last Saturday and he said that he didn't want to go anymore. He's been in the programme for five years. That's long enough. Babydoll has attended for 1.5 years, which is long enough too!

As if we couldn't wait to start our new Sunday routine (whatever that may be), we spent the rest of our Sunday at Vivocity. I think we were there for about five hours doing various things, including having two meals.

Babydoll wanted to have a go at the motorised vehicles so we bought her (and Ryan) some time there. She actually wanted to sit on the animal-shaped ones but she was too small to operate those so she had to settle for the cars and jeeps. I helped her to steer but after a while, she refused to let me help her. Here she was (with my handbag hanging on the back of her jeep). 


Here are the littles, waiting for their turn on the Vivocity train. We went on it twice. The first time, we bought tickets for the first wagon but Ryan wanted to sit in the coal car and he spent most of the first ride whining about it so I bought a second ride, this time in the coal car.


Ok, that's all. More tomorrow. 

Friday, September 26, 2014

Some sweetness for the weekend





The primary purpose of our recent trip to Mauritius was to attend a friend's wedding. The couple is Indian-Muslim. The wedding was spread over four days. Richard suggested that we dress the littles up in traditional Indian costume for one of the events (the nikah). Ryan wore his kurta which you've seen before on the blog. Babydoll wore this beautiful purple and gold two piece outfit which we bought from Mustafa Centre in Singapore. She was quite the centre of attention at the party in this outfit. She loves it - she says it is a dress for a princess. 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Tiger Tiger burning bright

On Monday morning, our Tiger boy went to heaven. He was 15 and a half years old.

I miss him terribly. I don't have much that I want to say here - it's painful enough without writing about how much he means to all of us. I just wanted to put this down as a marker and writing this, I'm already crying.

We love you, Tiger. Always and forever.


We're back from our holiday in Mauritius. We lingered a few days in KL before arriving in Singapore this morning. We had a fantastic time in Mauritius; enjoyed every bit of it.

I'm doing the iPhone dump for today's post. It's Richard's birthday today so I want to dedicate today's post to some of the Instagram photos that he took in Mauritius. These are the ones that he has shared on Facebook, mainly showcasing the landscape of Mauritius. You can see a lot more photos, especially of the littles and what we got up to on our trip, on his Instagram. Follow him over there - he's "zeussoo".

I'll tell you more about the trip another day. For now, hopefully these amazing visuals will help you dream of your next holiday.




















 












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