The Bub in the Belly

Earlier we went shopping and Ryan picked out the set of candles spelling "Birthday Boy", which you can see on the cake.


Ryan got the "tie" all to himself - as you can see, his brain is no longer responsive... he couldn't process our request when we asked him for a photo, haha! He had a few bites before he declared he had enough, as he does not usually take a lot of sweet stuff.


And yes, that's his handiwork on the table - he lovingly arranged the candles after they were plucked from the cake.


Next set of photos is from a small family gathering for Margaret's birthday. The photos are self-explanatory.




The next day we (sort of) celebrated again! Yummy seafood dinner at SS2.


My brother with Rachel.


That's all!

When Richard and I were selecting a preschool for Ryan, we agreed that we did not want a place that would stuff him with facts and facts and nothing but facts. There is plenty of time and opportunity to learn facts (plus there is always Google). We wanted to give him the opportunity to develop skills - social skills, thinking skills, communication skills - and to build character. From what we've seen, he's doing all that and we are very happy with the way things are going.

Today, I'm sharing some excerpts from Ryan's portfolio from school, which mainly comprises written observations by his teachers. These are from last term. I have only reproduced excerpts instead of everything in the portfolio. Also, I have not reproduced any of the photos in the portfolio; the photos in this post were taken by me whenever I was at his school.

"When the teacher invited the children to explore the red colour Ryan was fascinated by looking closely at the things that could be red. Ryan looked at the colour and chose "lipsred" from the list of options for his name. The children felt more confident to represent the name of the colour through drawing. On the other hand Ryan spelled the name of his colour without the teacher prompting him or supporting his writing. Ryan used capital letters for his writing."

"During the experience, Ryan developed deep understandings about the concepts of dark and light. In addition, Ryan demonstrated a strong understanding of the relationships between the colour and the light. Ryan is becoming a competent communicator. He begins to describe personal experiences and understands simple questions as well as he is developing his ability to respond with action and words. Ryan is beginning to use oral language to communicate during classroom activities, conversations and imaginative play extensively. Ryan confidently demonstrated his writing skills. Ryan was able to write the name of his colour without any support from the teacher. Ryan is beginning to use writing as a way of communicating his thinking and he wrote the name of the colour to communicate a message to a particular audience. Ryan also displayed a strong understanding of the letter formation."

I've mentioned in a previous post that, at home, I intend to work more with Ryan on writing. I get the sense that he is interested and so this would be the right time to focus on it. He is already very familiar with letter formation and is already comfortable writing words, so I am going to work with him on writing sentences.

"Ryan confidently explored materials and a new space, using verbal language to share his observations. He displayed a very positive disposition towards learning and was keen to involve his peers in his discoveries. As Ryan continues to build his understandings of light and shadow we will continue to build upon his idea of shadows having different colours."

This love for learning and this delight in brainstorming and ability to think out of the box are traits which I hope Ryan will always have. I'm really happy that his preschool encourages him in this respect. For example, when studying the rainbow, his teachers didn't just tell the children there are seven colours in the rainbow, which are red, orange, ... etc. What their class did was to talk about what colours they thought were rainbow colours and some of the children came up with silver, gold and white. The children had reasons for their theories, eg. silver and gold are rainbow colours "because they are shiny" - and the teachers didn't correct them. Then the students examined little rainbows created by light streaming through various materials and identified the colours on their own. You can see that, at the end of the day, the important thing is not knowing the colours of the rainbow. The colours of the rainbow is simply a scaffold used to help the children learn other things, intangible things - like thinking, reasoning, working together, experimenting, brainstorming, etc.

"Ryan worked confidently in a group, displaying innovative thinking as he used new materials in his representation. He used verbal language to communicate his observations, listening and responding to Yu Han and Eshal's comments. He also demonstrated an awareness that interacting, playing and engaging with others is a positive experience and a valuable part of team membership. Ryan displayed a strong interest in the light formation on the floor, reacting with delight and excitement as he saw the colours on the paper. Ryan is able to make strong connections to his prior knowledge, re-creating the shape of the rainbow with his hands to support his idea of the rainbow formation. As Ryan continues to work in small group experiences with his peers we will continue to support interactions, using his understanding that information can be shared with peers to support Ryan in a leadership position when engaging in collaborative projects."

Socially, Ryan has made leaps and bounds in his interactions. He is more comfortable to express himself now and, because of that, you can see his personality more. I was pleased to read the extract above because it mentions that Ryan can both lead a group and also be a team player. It's wonderful to know that he makes valuable contributions to the group because of his creative suggestions and his prior knowledge, coupled with his willingness to share and collaborate. All good stuff.


There is a Chinese section of his portfolio, which I haven't shared here because my Chinese is pretty hopeless. His Chinese teacher is full of praises for him so it's all good.

On the topic of walking, babydoll has taken a tentative step here and there, unassisted and unsupported. I won't call them her first steps though. Nevertheless, I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar that this little imp will be walking independently very very soon.

These drawers are where we keep Ryan's clothes. Ryan used to play with these drawers too, but in a different way. He liked to pull the drawers out and make patterns with them. For example, he would pull out the bottom drawer all the way and the one above that, he would pull it out a little less, and the one above that, a little less still. Or he would make align them all to the same length. He never pulled out the stuff in the drawers, which is more babydoll's objective. There was one time, Ryan pulled out the top few drawers all the way and, as the bottom drawers were shorter, the whole cabinet toppled over on him. I screamed and Richard magically appeared out of nowhere to save the day. Didn't I say he is Superdad?

Suffice to say that Ryan was no longer interested in the drawers after that. He did try once or twice but when we reminded him what happened, he would stop. At that time, Ryan was older than Rachel is now, though. When he was Rachel's age, he was interested only in learning how drawers work - open, close, learn how to keep his fingers safe. It took him two sessions of playing with the drawers, and that was that. He paid no attention to them until he was older.




Why yes, I let her eat off my floor.



Right hand, left hand. Whichever she feels like using.

I flew into Singapore yesterday evening into the arms of my littlest hero, my babydoll and my dear husband. What a feeling! "Coming home" now means so much more than it used to. It means being complete, being whole, because home is truly where the heart is.

Here's what my gang of lovelies got up to while I was away.

Richard and I tried to arrange things such that we could maintain Ryan's weekend routine which meant getting Ryan to all his classes. To try to give Richard an easier time, we asked Rachel's nanny if Rachel could go over on Saturday. Her nanny was happy to oblige and even took Rachel out with her for a buffet lunch with her family. I felt it was the best arrangement for everyone. It was much better for Rachel because she would get undivided attention and her usual naptime would not be disrupted. It was much better for Ryan and Richard because they could have some quality father and son bonding time.

Otherwise, the three of them might have had more moments like this one on Friday night when Richard picked up the two littles after work:



So on Saturday, after sending Rachel to her nanny, Richard and Ryan went for violin class and then Ryan got a haircut. Then they went to the Uniqlo pop-up store at Mohd Sultan and had a blast there. According to Richard, Ryan told him, "I had a good time!" Click here to watch their short video in the global UT Camera gallery!


They picked Rachel up around 5 pm and went over to T3 at Changi airport for Ryan to expend the rest of his energy at Singkids. Ryan made some friends there, as you can see from the photo below.


Richard said that Ryan had a nightmare later that night. At 4 am, he mumbled in his sleep, "Cake! I want to see my cake!" Then he woke up and asked for me. Rachel woke up at the same time so Richard had to put two cranky and sleepy children back to sleep. Not easy.

Richard had his hands full on Sunday but, again, he had everything under control. Ryan made it to swimming class and even to Shichida class (with Rachel in the baby carrier), and everyone got fed properly and everyone was happy.



We had to skip Rachel's classes (Heguru and Shichida) because it would not have been possible for Ryan to sit in for those classes. Nevertheless Rachel had an exciting weekend because she had her first audition for an acting/modelling role! Crossing our fingers that she'll land the part!

Her agent asked me to go along for the audition because they were also looking for someone to play the "mummy" - what a shame I couldn't make it! It would have been a nice experience to have a go at an audition!

After Rachel's audition, my little gang came to the airport to pick me up.

And that was the end of their adventure.

In conclusion - thank you, my dear hubs, for keeping everyone happy and for giving me nothing to worry about. It must have been tough at times, but you made it look easy. Shall we do this more often? heh heh.

Posting is light on the blog this week because we have been travelling! Every April we go up to KL to celebrate some family birthdays and this year was no exception. We flew up on Saturday and just got back last night.

We chose to fly this time instead of drive. It was our first time flying as a family of four!

Here we are at the airport, waiting for our flight. Richard is missing because he went off to buy lunch for us.

Picked up some reading material for the short flight. A visit to the bookstore is a pre-flight ritual for me.


Excited and looking forward to seeing his cousins!


Ryan is a very experienced flyer. Before he turned four, this little boy had flown to six different countries already. He's a good passenger - he's never had any meltdowns or tantrums in the air, and he's never had any problems with take-off or landing. He can also survive the flight without the iPad/iPhone/any other gadget, and this is true even for long-haul flights like flying to USA (via Frankfurt).








Here she is, fresh from her nap, as the plane was landing.



While Richard stowed the stroller in cargo, Ryan raced up the stairs to the aircraft himself! The crew were very amused to see such a tiny passenger looking so comfortable with everything that was going on.


Babydoll was fully awake for the whole flight this time and she flirted with everyone around us, including stretching her arm between our seats through to the back to play with the passengers behind us. She didn't have any problems and was cheerful throughout the flight.


Here's Ryan racing off from the aircraft into the terminal building - we're back!