The Bub in the Belly

We had a long and lazy weekend. Ryan went for all his classes but in between we did very little. We lazed about, relaxed and just slowed down.

My weekend actually began on Friday evening, when I joined some mummies for a steamboat dinner at Chongqing Hotpot at Tanglin Shopping Centre. As usual, it was a noisy and happy affair.

On Saturday afternoon, there was PlayClub. Ryan is so familiar with the class routine that he knows when his participation is required and when it isn't. So for example, he will help to find the magic box and he will tap the magic box as it goes around, but when the teacher goes through the "guess-what's-in-the-magic-box" routine (which is more or less the same act every class), he doesn't bother to watch - he only looks up when the item in the magic box is revealed.

Again I got the feeling that, although he is happy enough in class, he is no longer challenged and there is nothing new for him to learn. I think he will be happy to move on to Edudrama next term.

This term we finally got around to using Ryan's Chinese name in class. For the past three terms the Mandarin teachers have been calling him "Ryan" because we were not able to tell them what his Chinese name is! We know how it sounds in Cantonese but we do not know how to say it in Mandarin and we do not know the Chinese characters for it. We finally got around to copying it off his birth certificate and bringing it to class, together with a photo for his fun pass (yes, his fun pass has been without a photo for three terms too). So this term, the Mandarin teachers have been calling him by his Chinese name, which is completely alien to him (and to us). Well, at least now we know!

Swimming class on Sunday was interesting. Coach showed the students how to lift up their heads to breathe while doing the breast stroke. I feel like they are really swimming now!

Managed to get Ryan to revert to his heads-and-arms-first dive into the pool. Still, on the very last jump, he did a flying leap feet first into the water! Hahaha!
For lunch, we went to Seb's Bistro at Rochester House. Ryan had some indoor play at The Playhouse, while Richard and I took turns to eat. After that, we drove to Ngee Ann City. I went to Art Friend to pick up some craft supplies and Richard popped into Kinokuniya. As for Ryan, he fell asleep in my arms so I had to carry him while I picked out my stuff. After that, it was time for Shichida class.

It was supposed to be Shichida term break but because Ryan's sensei went on leave two weeks back, she arranged a make-up class for us. Like last week, only two students showed up. Actually Ryan's class this term has only three students, including Ryan. I'm not sure if the third one has dropped out as well now. Anyway, the sensei said that for next term, Ryan's class will be combined with another class whose sensei is leaving. She said that she was not sure of the quality of the students in that class and she asked us if we'd rather join her earlier class at 12.15 pm. She said the students in her earlier class were quite well-behaved so it would be quite conducive.

She also mentioned to the two students in class (Ryan and his classmate) that, of all the two year olds that she was teaching, they were the best! That is such a wonderful thing to hear! Between the two, Ryan is definitely the better one - his concentration and skill at doing the activities are much better. The other student's mother actually asked me how we managed to get Ryan to be so focused. Her son still runs about in class sometimes and she said that she thinks it's because her son joined Julia Gabriel's Eduplay. I told her that I didn't think that was the reason because Ryan is also in Julia Gabriel's Eduplay programme.

Anyway, we decided to join the 12.15 pm class for next term, which will be good because we will have more free time in the afternoon.

Went home and, as Ryan didn't seem to want to nap, we brought out the sprinkle mat for some splashing fun. Hope you remember our video back in October last year of Ryan splashing about in the mat!
Ryan hardly napped during the day so it was not surprising that he wanted to call it a night shortly after we got home from dinner.

On Friday evening, I joined a group of mummies for dinner at Hanabi. With the end of Chinese New Year, it was time for some non-Chinese food! There were 13 of us, and we ate and chatted non-stop. We discuss the same topics everytime we meet up: children, husbands and sex (making more babies) - hahaha! Well, I guess parenthood brings so many unique experiences, no matter if you have one child or five, so there's always something "new" to talk about.

On Saturday, we brought Ryan for PlayClub. They had Parents' Chats this week. This is our third Parents' Chats and we really didn't have anything to ask. As usual, the class photo was taken after the chats, so that was the only thing we were interested in!

Class photo - we are standing in the middle (my mum is standing next to me, wearing red)

Today, the contractors finished erecting the covered pergolas on the terraces at our new unit. There are three - one downstairs and two upstairs. The terraces are pretty generous (by Singapore standards) so we want to make sure that we can make full use of them. The covered pergolas achieve that result - they let in the light but keep the rain off. We went to check them out after Ryan's Playclub and we are very happy with the finished product.

One of the two pergolas on the upper terrace

We decided not to place timber decking on the terraces because we wanted them to be "dirty" play spaces for Ryan and the pets. The tiled floors can be cleaned more easily and, if there are any "accidents" (eg. pee/poo), they can be easily taken care of. We have visions of Ryan playing on the terraces with his little cars while we read the newspaper and can already imagine Ryan splashing around in his wading pool while our pets lounge about ... happy times await!

Well, as it turned out, we couldn't wait! Once the contractors left, we brought out the water play mat, hooked up the hose and let Ryan loose. He had a whale of a time! Here's a video that we put together.


Music for the video is "Toes" by The Zac Brown Band. If you are interested in the play mat, it's the Fisher-Price Deluxe Sprinkle 'N Splash Play Mat.