The Bub in the Belly

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.

There was no school on Friday and we went to Mita's house in the morning. Mita is a talented photographer and she shot some photos of the littles (free of charge!). Will share them when I receive the copies. (These photos you see here are my own amateur phone photos.)

We've been very busy lately. March has been an eventful month for our little family, full of big and small events. Ryan has been attending a birthday party almost every weekend and his work schedule was also fairly busy. Babydoll has been having an exciting month too - she's had a few interesting experiences.

Since the start of this year, we've had a new weekend routine. On Saturday mornings, babydoll goes for her Bilingual Playclub class at Julia Gabriel, which is two hours long. Richard usually accompanies her while I stay with Ryan. The two littles have Shichida in the afternoon so if Ryan has a linking memory test or poem recitation that day, I will spend about ten to fifteen minutes practising with him before we go outdoors to play (Rachel has nothing to prepare). I might also take some time to tidy the house, while Ryan works on some of his own projects. I usually rush through all this because I want to get to the part that both of us look forward to - getting outdoors!




We spend most of the two hours outdoors and that is the best part of those two hours. Actually one of my resolutions for 2014 is to spend more time outdoors so this is a perfect pocket of time to do it. I treasure this time with Ryan very much. We take his kick scooter out and head for either the beach or the playground. He is always happy and we always have a great time chatting and connecting.


Sometimes Ryan and I will eat lunch on our own before Richard and babydoll get out of class. Otherwise, we all eat together at home. After lunch, Ryan will have a shower while babydoll goes down for her nap. We all leave for Shichida together around 1 pm. The rest of Saturday is free and we usually spend it splashing about in our new and *very tiny* swimming pool.




On Sunday, we all go out for breakfast (usually prata) before Ryan's swimming class in the morning. When he's in the pool, either Richard or I will bring babydoll somewhere. The first time, I brought her to the Botanic Gardens while Richard stayed poolside. Since then, Richard has been her companion and they usually visit the art museums or art galleries around Dempsey Hill. The rest of Sunday is free.

We switched the kids over to the Shichida branch at Toa Payoh this term. At the Springleaf branch, they were closing Ryan's class (there were going to be less than four students in the class) and they were also going to change the teacher for Rachel's class, so we took the opportunity to get them into matching time slots which, as it turned out, was only possible at Toa Payoh. It's a little further for us to get to Toa Payoh but having the two kids go into class at the same time is such a time-saver and parking is so convenient. The disadvantage of having matching time slots is that, when one of the parents can't make it, then both of the kids can't go for class. This happened a few times when Richard had to take a meeting on Saturday. We skipped class and I stayed home with the two littles.


For next term, our schedule will change again, as Ryan's Shichida class is, again, closing. We've switched the two kids over to Sunday afternoon in matching time slots, still at Toa Payoh. Actually, I wanted to withdraw babydoll from the programme but the school said that it was too late into the term and I would have to forfeit my deposit if I withdrew her then. Since we'd already signed Ryan up for next term, we decided to let babydoll continue as well. I'll share my reasons and thoughts on withdrawing from the programme another time.

So I hope you enjoyed this peek into our weekend routine. All the photos were shot during Mama-and-Ryan time on Saturday mornings over the last few months.

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).

Please forgive the dirty T-shirt. She was touching the cars, including the wheels. And yes, I let her, after checking that the cars were not hot.

Oh yes, if you're curious about what Rachel is munching on in the first two photos - it's a chicken wing! Check out that pincer grasp! We usually toss her the wing tip to chew on and sometimes the mid-wing, after wiping off as much oil as we can. Richard, our resident chicken connoisseur, is very proud.