The Bub in the Belly

Easter Sunday was a family day for us. Ryan went for swimming class with Richard while I went shopping with Rachel at Spotlight. The boys met up with us at Plaza Singapura after swimming class and we spent a good part of the afternoon having lunch and shopping there.

Back home, we just hung out and relaxed, doing whatever the littles wanted to do. Ryan wanted to try out his new stencils which we picked up from Popular Bookstore on Friday.

Yesterday was quite a nice day for Ryan too. After violin class, he attended a birthday party of one of his classmates, which was held at The City at Liang Court. After that, we went to IKEA for lunch and some shopping. Back home, Richard and I sorted our massive CD collection while the two littles played around us. Then out for dinner and back home for an early night.

A reader asked about the addition cards and counting cubes that Ryan was using in one of the photos in Friday's post. The addition cards are from this pack published by Trend Enterprises which I got for RM4.50 in Malaysia. I bought the subtraction and the multiplication packs too. I'm not sure where you can get it in Singapore although I know that you can get it online from a number of sites. In any case, the equations are really basic, so I suppose you could simply write your own! I used these because I wanted Ryan to get used to the format of vertical equations.


The counting cubes which Ryan was using are these 2 cm cubes from this Connect-a-Cube set which I bought from Growing Fun. There are ten colours and ten cubes of each colour. The cubes take a bit of effort for Ryan to connect and disconnect, which I feel is great for building up strength in his fingers. We actually have a variety of counters that Ryan uses for math; this set is just one in our collection.

We had a little variety in our routine last weekend because Richard had to take a meeting on Saturday, which clashed with Ryan's violin class and Rachel's Heguru class. We contemplated skipping both classes but I decided to bring Rachel to Ryan's violin class so that we could at least go for that. I was not sure how it would work if I brought Ryan to Heguru, so I decided to skip Heguru. As it turned out, Ophelia graciously invited us to her place for her newborn's first month party on Saturday, which meant no Heguru class in any event! Heh heh! As I always say, things always fall into place somehow.

Photo time! Here's Ryan in violin class.

The rest of the day was spent on Shichida as well as some activities at home for Ryan.


Playground in the evening. Ryan loves this climbing apparatus and gets more daring everytime he plays on it.


We walked past this house on our way back from the playground and Ryan said it was a farm. He asked me where the farm animals were.


Ryan described this hole in the ground as a "burrow". To which I said, "That's right." He was introduced to the term in Shichida linking memory and it folded neatly into our weekly visit to the rabbit pen at St James Church Kindergarten after his swimming lesson. While we admire the rabbits, we talk about what the rabbits eat, what they do and where they sleep. Over the past few weeks, we've noticed the rabbits digging burrows. Two weeks ago, the rabbits were done and, when we couldn't spot them above ground, we had fun trying to guess whether the rabbits were sleeping in their burrows. Here, he was applying what we had been talking about so I didn't want to tell him that this was a smelly drain, and not a nice comfy burrow, and take the risk of killing his interest.


Last photo for the post - my little rascal on his wheels!

Thank you all so much for your messages/emails on my last post. Yes, I'm looking forward to 2013! Now that I have the mindset of clearing out the old, I'm really looking forward to the new. I'm excited to see what loveliness is going to come into my life now that I've made space for it.

We spent the weekend getting back into our routine of Ryan's classes. Rachel had a class too! I will post separately about that. I will also post separately about each of Ryan's classes so that I have a proper record of what's happening at the moment for him.


Babydoll Rachel is crawling well, with her tummy off the ground. Although she is still a beginner at crawling, she can get to her target pretty quickly, and given that she never seems to keep still, she needs a lot of active supervision.

Teething! Yes, you can't see the teeth yet, but if you put your finger on her gums, you can feel the little hard teeth. We'll see them any day now! She is still very cheerful, so hopefully she will coast through the teething with minimum discomfort. Ryan didn't have any problems with teething so hopefully that toughness runs in the family.


Rachel can recognise people now! She is still amenable to strangers but she does have a preference for me and gets very excited when I fetch her from her nanny in the evenings. Her vocabulary seems to be expanding, hahaha, I can make out different "words" which she repeats off and on. Richard is betting that she is going to be walking and talking very early and I think he's right!


Ryan had a fantastic weekend. His classes went well and he slept well. We were getting a little worried about his food intake because he had a few days of eating very little. He surprised us by walloping two bowls of rice on Friday evening and a similar amount on Saturday evening.

Ryan got his hair cut very short! He is due for his headshots soon so Richard took him to get his hair cut because this agency insists on short hair. I do not understand that at all. Everyone we know is so in love with his curls and says he looks so good with curls ... everyone except the people who are in the business of looking good. Oh well, the curls will grow back in time for Chinese New Year!

Our weekend had a surprise ending. Ryan and I went to the playground in the evening and we bumped into Alicia and her family there! Ryan was overjoyed to see his mate, Brayden! He had been asking for Brayden (and Rou Ern) very often the last few days so it must have been like a wish come true for him. The two boys played together at the playground till the sun went down and then they rode back to our place on their scooters.


It was really nice for Richard and I to spend some time with Chris and Alicia. Having adult company is always good for adults, hahaha! We had dinner (ordered in) and the boys continued playing on. Brayden didn't want to leave at the end of the night and bawled his eyes out. When Chris drove off from our place, it was Ryan's turn to burst into tears. Aww.

Ryan has an audition tomorrow so he won't be going to school. In fact, he hasn't been back to school yet for this year! He's not missing school - he has had lots of fun over the holidays and has had no time at all to be bored!

To pen off, here's another one of Ryan's bedtime stories:

"Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. The three little pigs climbed up the tree. The three little pigs sat on the box. The three little pigs drink the milk. Finished the milk. Ameena's Milk. Dropped the milk into the water. The three little pigs hold the umbrella. It's a rainy day. The three little pigs cleaned the soap and cleaned the towel. One pig took the green soap. One pig took the red soap and the last pig took the orange soap. Then they turned the faucet and finished the water. Rachel's bedtime with me. That's the end of the story. The End."

Haha! Actually, we were at the market for breakfast and to pick up some meat and vegetables for our kitchen. Yes, that's Ryan in the queue behind a stranger for the ATM in the last photo (I was queuing behind him).

I spent the rest of the afternoon studying while Richard cooked a soup for our lunch. I tried to put Ryan down for a nap but he steadfastly remained wide awake so we bit the bullet and set off for the playdate just before 5 pm.

The playdate was tons of fun for the children, as always. I do think that, everytime they get together, their friendship strengthens and they play better and easier together. Rachel was happy too. She was awake pretty much the entire time, unlike on the previous occasion we met up. 

I didn't take photos except for this one of Rachel. Chris handled the phototaking and gave us some prints on the spot. Chris and Alicia were wonderful hosts and they have a lovely place. We felt very at ease. The children were entertained non-stop and Alicia even prepared a vegetable-stamping activity for them - which ended up as a paint-the-vegetable activity instead, haha!


We ended the evening close to 11 pm and the moment we got home, I went back to studying. Only got to bed at about 3.30 am but my assignments are done! I can finally focus on Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas - here's our first Christmas tree shot taken at International Plaza after Shichida class on Sunday. Rachel is in the carrier, if you look very closely.


I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon cooking - something soothing and brainless after all that studying - and, in the evening, Ryan and I went to the playground while Richard and Rachel stayed home. Ryan has taken a fancy to climbing lately and it does scare me, although I think I have been able to hide my fear from him.


Here he is on the way home from the playground, looking very happy with his kick scooter and wearing the helmet that Ee Fann and Shann bought for him. Thanks very much for the helmet!

Ryan had a couple of highlights this weekend, starting on Friday evening. He met up with his pals, Brayden and Rou Ern, at Shann's place and they played and played and played until half-past 11 at night. It always warms my heart to see how happy the three of them are to be together.

The adults had a good and relaxing time too. It was a nice way to wind down after a work week. I was dog tired by the time we got home though, which was a result of the lack of sleep over the past couple of nights taking its toll. I finally succumbed to a phlegmy cough that night and that pretty much set the mood for the weekend - we decided to stay home as far as possible. We did get to all of Ryan's classes (although just barely for violin) - we are travelling next weekend, so we hope not to miss too many classes.

The other highlight for Ryan was trying out his new kick scooter. We bought it some time back but only set it up for him this weekend. He has been watching other children on their kick scooters with a lot of interest and so we thought it would be a good gift. True enough, he was very excited and happy that he had one of his own to play with. We took it out for a spin to Telok Kurau Park and back, with Ryan grinning the whole time.

I sewed up another circle skirt for Rachel - double layered this time. I quite like the pop of green.


Nothing much more to add so I'll just post some more photos of Rachel. These photos give me the impression that she's dancing and twirling in her skirt.

After that, we went shopping! Picked up a load of children's clothes at the Club 21 collectibles sale for kids at Forum. Also picked up a load of educational stuff for children at another shop in Forum (great for learning at home). Ryan had a short nap at home, after which we went out for dinner. Richard took us to a new spot - Picardy Garden - where we ended up in Momoya Japanese Restaurant. Enjoyed ourselves there, service was faultless and the food was good.

Here's Ryan (and Richard) playing while they waited for me to finish my food (after they finished theirs).


Back home, we spent hours doing educational stuff with Ryan (both Shichida and non-Shichida stuff). Significantly, we went through more than two hours of deskwork, ie. Ryan remained in his seat for more than two hours without getting up - that boy has really got stamina and focus! Richard and I had to take turns! Richard and I surrendered before Ryan did and we decided to end the night with ... dancing of course! We put Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on the CD player and Ryan got down to serious business with it!

Sunday morning, we finally turned up for swimming class! Yes, after missing five lessons in a row due to travelling and social commitments, we finally found ourselves poolside. And whaddya know - it was Awards Day!

Aquaducks were so concerned at our missing so many classes that they sent me an email last Friday to ask if there was any problem. Sigh. Richard was laughing that, first we kept getting to class late (or missing class altogether), then we got switched to a lower level class (at a later time), then we "ponteng" (that's Malay for "cut class") so many times that we got a letter from the school, then we turn up on Awards Day and "flunked" some of the test exercises! We are really terrible! Heh heh! But look at this photo - who can resist faces like these? Ryan always gets special treatment from Coach because Coach thinks he's so adorable. He gets away with everything!


There is a mistake in the certificate that Ryan is holding - it says Level 3 but Ryan passed Level 3 long ago and got his Level 4 in June 2011. We'll get the correct certificate next week... if we turn up. Heh heh. This programme consists of 6 levels. At Level 6, the children will be able to swim the length of the pool independently. Ryan is nearly there!

Anyway, the present time slot does not seem to be working out for us, given our other commitments, so I am looking into switching time slots. We are definitely going to keep plugging away at the classes because knowing how to swim is a must. It is a skill that could ultimately save a life (it is actually the only sport that can do that) and there are a host of other practical benefits, which I won't go into because I'm sure everyone knows how important learning to swim is and nobody can reasonably deny its value.

For lunch, we went to one of our regular hangouts - PappaMia at River Valley - and, coincidentally, our friends, Ee Fann, Shann and their daughter, Rou Ern, were there having lunch - what a nice surprise! The parents chatted and gossiped while Ryan and Ern had fun playing together. I am always amazed at how children this age naturally gravitate towards each other and play happily (whether with or without toys). Their happiness multiplies simply by virtue of being together.

After lunch and an errand, we went for Shichida class. Ryan was in such a good mood throughout the class - I think it must have been an effect of his unexpected playdate! After class, we went for a walk around the Esplanade shops, then it was back home. Ryan didn't want to nap so it was off to the park!







From the park, we went straight out to dinner. We drove out and Richard and I were chatting away in front, when Richard looked towards the back ... this was what he saw.


Richard and I had a good chuckle! We didn't want to disturb him so we got some takeaway and ate in the car, chatting softly while parked in an open air carpark as dusk turned to night - romantic eh?

As I am typing this, Ryan is sound asleep upstairs in our bedroom, Richard is watching footie and I am ready to hit the sack. It was a great weekend for us. In particular, I think Ryan had a fabulous Sunday - it was packed with his favourites - swimming, noodles at PappaMia, a surprise playdate with a member of the "Ern gang", Shichida, McDonald's French fries after class, a visit to the park - a wonderful, wonderful Sunday.