The Bub in the Belly

What is it about water that delights so much? Even if it is shiveringly cold? The littles saw Ryan's bathwater from the night before (yes, I know we should have drained it away...) and made a beeline for it before I could say, "Shiver me timbers!" The water was cold from being left out for a day but that deterred them not one bit.


Ryan wanted to play with his robot fish - it is a battery-powered fish that swims through the water which we bought in Jakarta. It is a clown fish and it is very realistic! He set it off in the water and babydoll kept fishing it out - that's some real good hand-eye coordination there!


Other than that, they played with our usual stock of bathtub entertainment - foam letters and numbers as well as some animal puzzle shapes which Alicia gave to Ryan.


Splashing about was inevitable and it wasn't long before the two of them got soaked. Babydoll sealed the deal by climbing into the tub. That was when I decided to strip them both and get the hot water going, so no more photos after that!


I think we must have spent about an hour there, all in all? All this because Richard left us to our own devices while he went for his company's annual D&D. See all the fun you missed, Papa!

We spent the weekend in a very detached manner, just going through all our appointments and not exercising much brain power. I was still very much under the weather on Saturday and only started feeling well on Sunday.

There was one exciting highlight though - Ryan got called up for an audition for another television commercial! We trooped over to the studio on Saturday afternoon and it looks like he managed to charm the casting lady enough to get on the shortlist, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that he will be the chosen one. This one is quite a big job and this audition was the first audition where he actually had to act out a scene. We were not expecting much but, lo and behold, he did a great job! He understood and followed the instructions on what to do/where to go and he even put in the scared and happy emotions that they wanted for the scene - just brilliant.

The rest of the weekend can be illustrated by the photos from our phones (yes, I didn't bother carrying my camera around - that's how out-of-it I was), so here's the pictorial rundown.

As I mentioned in the last post, the weekend started with Rachel achieving a milestone - flipping from her back to her tummy.

We celebrated with a trip to KFC. Of course.


After violin class, it was a quick stop for a haircut for Ryan before his audition. Then, it was off to Vivocity for a little walkabout and dinner. We always stop by FrancFranc for Ryan to hug the gigantic giraffe in the store.


Please nobody buy this "Friendly Giraffe". You will be breaking my little son's heart. He insists on hugging it when we enter the store and hugging it again when we leave the store. And no, please don't buy it for us, you kind and generous soul. Richard keeps telling me that the giraffe can fit in our living room (we have a double-storey height ceiling there). I feel like telling him that he will get more value for his money if he spent it at the Chanel store on a 2.55 or some accessories for his wife. Ahem.

Ryan blew off his energy at the water park. He spent well over an hour there in nothing but his diapers.


Yes, I was feeling as terrible as I looked. And the dinner wasn't much better either. Suffice to say that, when you have dinner at a seafood restaurant and the best dish is the veggie dish, you won't be back in a hurry.


Sunday morning started off nicely. Ryan was so excited to be going for swimming that he insisted on putting on his gear at home (instead of at the pool). Here he is modelling at Mr Prata, where we had breakfast. Just joking, he was just getting a look out the window.


We had a curry lunch at Rendezvous at Central Mall, where we also did a little shopping.


After Shichida class, we hung out at the Shichida lounge (ie. McDonald's), where Ryan tackled his first 100 piece puzzle. Puzzle piece in one hand, french fry in the other.


Ended the day out at Great World City, where Ryan got a balloon artist to make him a red car for $7. Did more shopping, including picking up a kick scooter for Ryan from Motherworks, which he was quite excited about.

Dinner at home and that was the end of our weekend.

Here are some photos taken last year (10 December) before the weather turned soggy. It was a pleasant evening so we spent it in the pool at our condo.

This is the children's pool, which is basically a wading pool. Ryan just walks up and down and up and down and up and down.



After that, it was into the big boy's pool! Some serious swimming here!


We had the pool all to ourselves, which was nice (since the pool isn't large at all).





We came across a group of children having fun with bubbles. Ryan jumped right in.

Saturday got off to an early start with breakfast at nearby Marine Parade Central.

We came across these baskets of durians. I do not like durians and usually walk past as quickly as possible to get away from the smell. Inexplicably, Richard takes every opportunity to introduce Ryan to them. I have no idea why - could he be trying to annoy me? Nah, the man I love and who loves me wouldn't do that. Then again, looking at his expression in this photo, I think something is not right (by the way, this shot was taken with a zoom lens while I was standing upwind.)

After breakfast, it started to rain heavily so we loitered around and visited some of the shops while waiting out the rain. The aquarium and pet shop was particularly interesting. Ryan got to see lots of fish, some terrapins, some lobsters plus some guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. He was very excited.


In the late afternoon, we met up with some friends for a visit to the Singapore Art Museum, where there was an exhibition of "interactive contemporary art" for children. I'll do a separate post on that, for now I will just say that it wasn't as interactive as I'd thought. Here's a shot of Richard and Ryan with Walter the curious colossal bunny on the lawn outside the entrance (there is nothing interactive about the bunny at all, by the way).


Oh well, even if the exhibition wasn't that great, we did have a wonderful time catching up with friends. After dinner with them, our little family went for Ben & Jerry's ice cream! Great way to end our evening out!


Back home, we did some activities with flashlights and coloured cellophane - will share that in a separate post. Then, Richard went to have drinks with the guys near our home while Ryan and I took Max for a walk around the neighbourhood. After coming home, Ryan had some water play in the shower before going off to bed.

On Sunday, Ryan had swimming class in the morning. We skipped last week's lesson on account of waking up late and it being Father's Day, so Ryan was pretty happy to be in the water this week.


Shichida class was next. This is the last class of the term and there will be a one week break before the start of the next term.

Ryan got a fantastic term report - full praise on every aspect and his teacher told me, "I'm really amazed at his abilities!" One of the parents in our class also commented that Ryan is "very fast". Super job, my darling!


Tea was a muffin tin meal - cornflakes, snacks and fruit (the apple is from the Singapore Art Museum!).


The evening was spent at the playground in Telok Kurau Park, taking advantage of the pleasant weather. As usual, Ryan rode there in his little car. On the way back he wanted to be carried, which was much better because it was easier to point out little things to him along the way, like the different flowers, the different coloured leaves, the pieces of tree bark, some fallen fruit, the canal, etc.



It was a fabulous weekend, can't wait for the next!