Our mundane weekends

Since we moved to BP, we very seldom went out of this neighbourhood except to Mum's place. There's everything here!!!

Last Sunday, we went to a carnival organised by their school organisation which is church-based. I think the highlight of the day was the candy floss.

Yu's first candy floss

Possibly Yang's first too

Can't remember already haha!

Kai went to get milo by himself, after some persuading

Perhaps that's why he went home from BPP on his own yesterday?! We were waiting for Sito to come back to the restaurant after sending Yu back as the kid wanted to pee. Kai said he wanted to go home on his own first. I said no coz there was a road to cross. Later when we were leaving the library, he disappeared. I looked to our living room camera and thought I heard him. I called home and learnt that yes, he was indeed home. So worrisome! 

Yang played some old-school game machines near his music school - 50cents for three games!!

And it was soccer time yesterday afternoon - they had a lot of fun though Yu had little opportunity with the ball...

Yu tried to make the same structure as me!

Yang can make a good one now

Yang has adopted Kai's signature position, which gave Kai a rough chin!

Now that we go to Mum's place every fortnight, I started cooking dinner on the Sundays we're in. We've had baked pasta and roast chicken (gotta start with something I'm familiar with!), fried noodles and today, soup noodles. So happy that my food passed the fiercest critic Kai!

Miso ramen with not enough soup, inspired by the ramen treats in Oxford

We then retreated to our bedroom coz the boys were still sweating from their game of soccer (again!). I read a cute little book from the library and Yu picked an old book which got picked up by Kai too....

Kai decided to read for us!

Today, we also confirmed our Legoland trip in June. Yup, all in all, a very mundane, and perhaps boring, weekend, with each very much like the other. But such simple happiness in our weekends! :)

Still, can't help thinking about places to bring them to... Just yesterday, was chatting with Kel and learnt how many of today's uni kids may not be familiar with our hawker delights like chwee kuey! Terrible... We need to bring them out to hawker centres more often! (I wanted to do it this morning but forgot coz sleepy :p)

Still a baby

Yu had stopped breastfeeding since January though one fine morning in I think early March, he suddenly wanted 妈妈奶奶 when he woke. I had to give in but gosh, was it painful!! Since then, it has always been 爸爸奶奶 so I guess our breastfeeding journey has really ended...

We also started him on underwear in the day. He was mostly dry. So perhaps mid March? We started him on underwear at night. It was good for a while but he wetted his bed and ours five times in 10 days! I put him back on diapers until this whole itchy eye and cough thing go away. He protested to no avail. Shall put him back on underwear when he is dry for seven consecutive nights!

Also baby enough for a botak shave

Again a model customer!

Nope, we didn't keep that :p

I checked the camera for Kai and found Yu who went back earlier to pee

This morning at my breakfast - his own selfie showing a lovely botak head

I think he has a cheeky face. Just now, when he was watching video, he was jutting out his lower lip - super beng look :p

Hopefully our last A&E trip!

I thought we might never do this again but we did. And now all three are registered with NUH!

Kai used to go in for high fevers. Yang used to go in for head issues - fell off bed and puked, three febrile fits; we managed fevers well otherwise. You fell off bed multiple times without puking, but was inconsolable with an itchy eye on Monday.

Over the weekend, there were at least two nights when he cried saying “my eye, my eye!” And rubbing one and/or the other. One was Sunday night l; the other, I couldn’t be sure.

But Monday about 7.40 pm, he started crying about his right eye. I didn’t know whether his rubbing or something was making his eye swell up. He refused his milk. I decided to bring him to NUH A&E. He kind of stopped crying so much by the time we were downstairs. And then he dozed off in the taxi! I was wondering if the trip was still needed but well, better get it checked out. Sito met us there.

Poor baby while waiting for the cab

And so we waited in the children’s section, which was peppered with baby cries every so often, but more often than not, this baby was loudly telling me that whatever was on the TV there could be found back home! And “caterpillar”! I don’t like caterpillar... and “spider”! And “I like that bear bear”...

Quite happy now

And he went around to try seats

What are these?!

Yu was a model patient! Or perhaps he was just a little shy. He just sat on me, and listened to our instructions to get his eyes and throat and ears checked. Good baby! The doctor said it was probably some viral infection related to his running nose. We thought it might also be the dip in the Furama pool...

Other eye was a little itchy while we were waiting for his eyedrops

It was quite funny administering the eyedrops. I prepared him by dropping one drop on tissue paper to show him that it was liquid, and told him that he had to blink - as I blinked, I went "ding ding ding ding ding". When I got the first drop in, he tried to rub and I told him to blink saying "ding ding ding ding ding", and he just said "ding ding ding ding ding" without blinking!!!

His eyes looked better the next morning so he went to school. Before that, I gave him some eyedrops as a precaution. Had to use gummy bears to bribe him though. Thankfully, the itchy didn't seem to have come back. Or he didn't like the eyedrop so much that he just said "not itchy anymore"!

The long awaited staycation

We last had a staycation in 2015! That means this was the first staycation for little Yu, and the first for the little family of five. This time, we decided to save $400 and stay at Furama Riverfront instead of Rasa Sentosa. We chose Thu-Sat 21-23 March coz the child care centre was closed on Friday.

Still?!

And then Google Photos threw us a photo of Sito carrying Kai n years ago. Awww....

Lunch before picking up Yang and Yu from school

Happy boys :) 

Silly boys when waiting for Papa

We had a dramatic check-in. Kai and Yang were arguing and then fists flew. I was busy carrying Yu while checking in when suddenly, Kai appeared next to me all bloody! Luckily it was just a nosebleed. I put Yu in Sito's arms and attended to the bleeding boy. The receptionist looked shocked :p

I brought Kai up to clean up while the rest stayed in the play room. But then Yu peed so Sito brought him up. I cleaned up Yu while Sito brought Kai down coz Yang was still in the play room. That was the start of this whole up and down thing which we did a lot the whole stay... Once, we came down with Yu only to find no one there - the two had gone up to pee!

Finally - cable car! So much cheaper to get from Klook!

Off from Mt Faber we went!

Yu with his crooked smile

We had the whole cabin to ourselves, very relaxed

And we saw a big bird perched on a cable!

And we could look into the attractions from high above

Changed over to the Sentosa Line to get to Siloso Point. We stopped at the station for a little snack and a drink, coz hot.

Hotdog bun for Kai

For Yang

And for Yu

So nice meh? Yu had two at his excursion... Well, so long as they enjoyed it..

Coz we enjoyed our coke :p

They didn't enjoy coconut ice cream too much though..

My fave photo from our trip!

There is a new skywalk that leads to Fort Siloso. It looks like a much easier walk compared to that time when we walked like mad to get to the beginning.. But we were about halfway through when a few spots of rain appeared.

Yu: Raining! Need umbrella!

We turned back *.*

It was so sunny a moment ago!

The rain was not even a drizzle. But a school group was running the whole track so we just left to get to our next stop - animal encounters!

Sito pointing out Madam Tussauds where they went in December

"Lion!" says Yu excitedly

Wasted some time here coz we were still early for the animal show

No rain...! But when we eventually got to Palawan, and were trying to waste more time at the Sanrio fest, it started pouring! Yu and I were just about to go check if the show was on when the rain came with a vengeance.

Passing by funny mirrors

The pirate ship was closed but there were dry parts

Waiting forlornly for the other three to come out of the pirate ship area

Time for pancake dinner!

Actually all three of them had spaghetti. They didn't eat as much pancake as they made! Guess who ate them?

They love squeezing the pancake mix

Spot the little pancake biscuits?! Yu loved those and only those

When we got back to the hotel, we got them to the restaurant for some ice cream - part of our package. While they were having ice cream, I went back to prepare for bedtime! And also snapped some pictures.

Pirate theme with bunk bed to house all of us!

A treasure box like Legoland!

Sito said he could have got a box with a lock. True.... But bathtub? Ah ha!

We didn't use the tub in the end. It was a mess getting them showered already! And they loved to lie in the tub and slide down the sides. I tried to forget I did not wash the tub...

Yu enjoyed climbing up and down the ladder

Sito went to the restaurant for dinner; I wasn't hungry after all that pancake. Verdict - can skip the included hotel dinner. The boys watched YouTube and played Xbox until quite late - by their standards anyway.

Yu brushing his teeth on Friday morning

Sito slept very late the previous night coz of work. So I brought the three down for breakfast first and set an alarm for him to wake up and join us. There was a play area where the kids spent some time while I had my breakfast, interrupted on and off by one or more of the kids. The breakfast was also normal; by the next morning, I would find that they had close to zero variety.

Back to Xbox in the room!

Kai wanted to win but couldn't. He was so pissed he cried! We didn't notice Yang amid the commotion but then we realised he was so focused on the car - no wonder he could drive it! But a bit later, I found the car moving perfectly well despite Yang turning around to talk to Kai. Um, something was wrong. Think it was on auto, either from the beginning or after he had completed his laps. We were quite amused.

Yu in the meantime... Throwing things off the top bunk!

Locking things into the box!

Oh, they opened the box the previous night. Candies, colour pencils and a telescope. They were mighty pleased with the candies which we kept immediately, much to their dismay. No candies late at night!

Our first activity was Waka Waka! We had an hour free play as part of our package. The kids loved it! I think it was fun too though it wasn't too big. We were there for perhaps 50 min or so. Tired already.

Volcano slide - hard to climb up

Yu did his fair share of simpler slides

Next was Great World City. Bought movie tickets - 2 adults, 1 free kid, 1 student price and nothing for Yu who sat on my lap. Lunch was ramen, topped up with popcorn and candies when we sat down in the cinema. Yu turned towards me to nap before the show started, and only woke after it had ended - no squirming baby, phew!

We had some ice cream again before heading for the hotel pool. Kai was disappointed to find no slides after I told him about slides in the hotel pool. I gave feedback to the hotel. But we still had fun on the big swan! And Yu kept jumping into the pool all by himself and having fun :) Yang was playing mostly in the baby pool, kicking himself backwards from the wall.

Big swan in the pool!

Dinner was at Liang Court - check out our set for five!

Walked around a little after dinner. Sito managed to get a polo tee from Uniqlo while the kids were busy with whacking moles.

Cutie pie!

Again, some ice cream before going back to our room

Spent yet more time in the play room the morning before we left

Didn't stay until check-out time coz we were tired. Yu demanded to be carried most of the time and by me so my back was and still is hurting. But this has been a good trip for the kids at least. There were many firsts - first cable car ride for Yu, first movie for Yang (and Yu if you count that?!), first Xbox experience for Kai and Yang, first time making pancakes for Yang and Yu (Kai did it with his classmate at the Grandstand outlet before), first time on a big pool float. The hotel is old, and not far or near anything in particular. But I like the theme room and the play areas. Likely to search for other kid-friendly places to try the next staycation - think it's a simple holiday during short school holidays :)

The boys continued with PS3 at home :p