The Bub in the Belly

I was invited to Noel Caleb's first month anniversary of the opening of their new concept store at Orchard Central today. Ryan accompanied me. We were early - had time to look around the store and watch the first segment of their runway show.

The store carries ten labels, encompassing women and children's wear, jewellery and bags/purses. We bought this green checked shirt with tabbed sleeves and a grey hoodie for around $50 from Curiosity, an Australian label. Ryan loves hoodies, plus his favourite colour is green, so this was right up his alley.

Adding to the fun, Ryan got roped in to do a cameo on the runway, along with two other children. They were asked to walk with the models for the finale.

Here he was, front row at the show, waiting for his turn.


Doing a quick interview! The lady in the photo is Eileen Yap, the founder of Noel Caleb.


Post-runway photo!


If you're in the area, check out the store at Orchard Central, #02-24/25.

Last month, we met up with Ryan's preschool teachers for a parent-teacher conference, to discuss his progress and things like that. He's doing great. The teachers said that he gets along with everyone; he's really easygoing and he is comfortable hanging out with anyone. He reads well, writes well. He likes to draw a lot. His Mandarin, including his Hanyu Pinyin, is good enough such that his Mandarin teacher assumed that we coached him at home (we don't).


In particular, the teachers mentioned a project in which Ryan took the lead. The children were discussing plans to make a charitable donation and they were deciding which charity to donate to. Ryan took the lead: helping to document and tally the votes, writing a letter to the school office to inform the office of the final choice, leading a group of classmates to the office to deliver the letter and explain its message and even using a camera to take photos of the whole thing. I thought that was quite impressive.


Ryan is doing golf as an extra-curricular school activity; something which I think he has a love-hate relationship with. According to the instructors, he is quite good, and when I talk to him about golf, he's happy and enthusiastic. On the other hand, whenever I remind him that he has a lesson, he will tell me that he doesn't want to go (too late though as I'd already paid for the term). I know that he enjoys himself during the lesson (I sit and watch him from the sidelines) so I was a little perplexed at his reluctance. Recently, I realised the reason - the golf lesson is conducted under the hot sun and I know that he really doesn't like being in the sun. When he actually goes for the lesson, he always has a good time and forgets about the heat, but when he's at home and we dissect it, he definitely remembers the discomfort!

Ryan is still taking swimming lessons once a week. Apart from golf and swimming, he doesn't do any classes. I have a feeling we won't do golf next term though! Haha!


Ryan's modelling/acting life is pretty busy. He had a casting call on Friday, followed by an audition on Monday (yesterday) and he has another casting call later this week. Keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be selected for one or more of the roles.


These photos were taken last Sunday at the beach near Parkland Green. We'd finished our meal and Ryan and I ventured out for a walk, while Richard minded babydoll who had fallen asleep. Ryan headed straight for the beach. I was surprised because I thought he wanted to ride his scooter along the path. What surprised me even more was how at ease he was with the sand and the surf, even taking off his shoes unprompted. When he was much younger, he was not a fan of the beach at all - he hated having sand between his toes and he was very uneasy with the surf. Now, he's a pro. I told Richard that it must be because of all the training he got when we went to Bali and to Mauritius!


Ok, that's all!

Ryan spent two days last week on set for his latest project - a television commercial. That's one of his co-stars, Cana, who is supposed to be his sister in the commercial. They look alike, don't they? We are pretty excited about this project and are eagerly anticipating seeing it on air!

Interestingly, Ryan's screen daddy (Hoong) and screen mummy (Shu Qian) were the same actors who played his parents in a print commercial that he did about two years ago. What an unexpected reunion!

Another wholly unexpected encounter was when, Randall, the representative from the ad agency recognised Ryan as Ryan from this blog! It was a very happy moment for me, especially when he told me that he/his wife have been reading our blog for years and that he/his wife have found inspiration in our posts. That is amazingly awesome and I don't know what to say except thank you, thank you. I feel so grateful.

When I spoke to him, I had not posted for two weeks but our conversation inspired and motivated me to get back to blogging! Haha! There has been quite a lot happening in our household recently, which is why the blog has been on the backburner. I'll update you as we go along, yeah?

Hey all, hope you enjoyed yesterday's post about Ryan's costume party! If you have a minute to spare, could you click on over to vote for Ryan's photo on Impact Models' facebook page? They are running a contest - the photo with the most likes get a small cash prize! Vote for Elvis!

Ryan attended a costume party on Wednesday. I dressed him up as Elvis Presley!

I'll give you some details on the costume first. The shirt and the pants are the ones I made in November last year for Zoukidisco, at which he won Best Dressed. The shirt is a modified Nature Walk Pullover by Oliver + S and the pants are Jacob by Zonen 09, to which I added silver shiny gussets to make them more bell-bottom-my. He still fits into the outfit except that the sleeves and the legs were a little short so, for the pants, I added a gold trim to the hem, which added about 2 inches. I didn't have enough time to do anything to the cuffs, but from these photos, they look okay, I think.

Of course, what would an Elvis costume be without a cape? The cape was a killer project. It took me three hours just to put the gemstones on as I sewn them on individually. The inside of the cape is a Japanese tissue lame in gold. I initially wanted to sew gemstones onto the front of the shirt but didn't have enough time. I might still do that though, just for fun!

The cape caused the shirt to fall down towards the back so I tightened the neckline by adding some gold buttons, which did the trick. I only did that the day after the party though, when he went to preschool (yes, he went to preschool in costume!).




Okay, let's get to the party! The party was organised by Impact Models Studio. Anyone can sign up to attend, you just have to pay the fee. It is a drop-off party from 10 am. The children will play games, have lunch and they will also put together a runway show. They get their hair and make-up done and some photos taken. Parents are asked to come at 5 pm to watch the runway show. I think they have these parties every quarter. The studio also offers birthday party services so you can celebrate your little ones' birthday with them if you like.

Check out those sideburns!


Elvis and me. He was really happy, as you can see.





Elvis and daddy. Daddy had a special surprise for Ryan after the party ...


... he brought Ryan to watch Geronimo Stilton live on stage at United Square plus a meet-and-greet after the show! Ryan was so happy! He was dancing and singing throughout the show and, the next day, he was still singing the song from the show! We have been reading Geronimo Stilton at home and he could identify the four mice in the show - Geronimo, Thea, Trapp and Benjamin.


When we got home that night, while Richard was helping Ryan to scrub those sideburns off, Ryan told Richard, "Thank you for my surprise, daddy. I like my surprise very much." Aww.

The next day, Ryan went to preschool in costume. He also brought a souvenir from the Geronimo Stilton show and he kept talking about the show, which confused everyone because everyone was wondering how the show was related to his costume. When I picked him up after school, Ryan told me,  "Everyone thought I'm a superhero but I told them that I'm an Elvis Presley." Hahaha! Of course, I would be surprised if any of his friends know who Elvis is!

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.)

Ryan is the cover model for this month's issue of Singapore's Child! I'm completely biased of course, but I think he looks great!

Ryan also features as the solo model in a fashion spread inside this issue.




This shoot was not easy because, as you can see, Ryan had to lie down on the floor among all the props - he could not move at all. Everything was laid out with precision and any movement, even a slight one, would have messed things up. Each scene took quite a while to set up, adjust and shoot, and Ryan had to stay still the entire time. Apart from that, Ryan had to come up with the perfect expression for each scene. So basically, he had to make it look as if he was in full motion despite being immobile, he had to look completely at ease, and he had to radiate happiness, excitement, confidence and carefreeness.

Honestly, after this shoot, I had new respect for Ryan. He truly is a model with real talent.

The crew at the shoot was equally impressed. Ryan was so cooperative and so good natured and so professional - the shoot went so smoothly that we wrapped ahead of time. Of course, big thanks to everyone at the shoot for making it such a positive experience for Ryan!

Just to let you know, Singapore's Child is having their annual Fun Fest this weekend (7 and 8 June) at Square 2 from 11 am to 7 pm, where there will be several events including Meet & Greet with Sylvanian Families, an exclusive Power Rangers exhibition, "I Can Read" competition, and the Singapore's Child Superstar competition. You can purchase a copy of the magazine (with Ryan on the cover!) for $4.50 at the event, and receive a goodie bag worth more than $40 while stocks last. We might drop by too!

After the shoot, I brought him to KFC, at his request.