My hub turns 40 with a staycation

We usually try to clear leave at the end of the year. This year in particular, we have more leave than usual due to COVID-19. So Sito took four days off last week and two days this week, though he was working just about every day, on his phone if not on his laptop or in office.

Nonetheless, the celebrations must go on!

We started with chilli crab at Jumbo on Wednesday, his actual birthday

Took a walk down Clarke Quay

Happy us!

On Friday, we headed to Shilifang where we failed to get a seat the previous week

We went late after Sito's meeting ended at 9 pm. So we started late and were also the last guests to leave; even the staff had come out with their own big pot of dinner!

We celebrated at home after lunch on Saturday!

Note 1: We had wanted to celebrate on Wednesday after dinner. But there was a little incident... 

Usually, Yang and Yu would go play at the kiddy rides at B2 for a few minutes on our way back from school. That evening, I told them to play while I headed for the cake shop. But Yu followed me to check out the cakes. I couldn't remember why I didn't buy the cake right away but I headed back to get Yang first only to find that he wasn't at the kiddy rides!

I grabbed Yu to go look for Yang, and thankfully found him just leaving the escalator at B1. I called him from B2 and he turned and saw us. The poor boy was sobbing :( He didn't see us so he left the kiddy rides to look for us! So we went home and there was no cake...

Note 2: See what Yang was holding? It was a card with drawings on both sides - little colourful squares on one side and an apple on the other. Guess what it is? :p

Yu acted very quickly to blow out the candle!

Another cake on Sunday!

Google memories told us that the kids were wearing the same tops last year hoho! They're so much more grown this year :)

After the cake, we left for our staycation at Crowne Plaza Changi! It's so far from home that it felt like we were not in Singapore :p

We had wanted to go for a staycation at the end of the year but couldn't find an affordable room that would take all five of us. Then separately, Mum had an idea to go on a staycation for Sito's birthday when school holidays started for Kai. Yeah!

Happy Yu relaxing while waiting to check in

Yu playing with a new toy while we were hanging around in our room, waiting for high tea and the other rooms to be ready

This hotel had some comms / SOP issues. First, they said they would send two sets of high tea to our room at 4 pm coz only our room was ready. Then, they said actually, we could not all stay in the same room so they would expedite the other rooms and send the high tea separately. 

The rooms were ready first. Great. But when the food came, it was presented such that two sets were to be sent to one room. We had to rearrange a couple of plates right outside our room and get the staff to send one set to Mum's room.

Our set, less one plate of cakes which we kept in the fridge for supper

"The muffin is yummy!"

Oh, Kai and Yang have chosen to sleep with AhYe and AhMa. So it's just Yu with us. He was quite happy even without his brothers. He likes to be with both parents :)

Yu pointed out the control tower on our way to Jewel

Sito's first time at Jewel despite having gone to the airport many, many times since Jewel was up

Yang and Yu were most interested

Kai, not so... In fact, he was most interested in his phone!

Taken by Yang - can spot me?

Kai tricked Yang and me - we thought he was taking a photo of us but he took a selfie!

Funny sign on public seating at Jewel

Dinner was at Burger and Lobster!

This monkey had a lot of fries and half my burger meat

He also didn't want to share the ketchup with Papa, and put it right in front of him, away from Papa. Greedy boy!

The troop upstairs

The boys shared a $8.50 ice cream cone!

Yu wanted a bath when we went back to the hotel. So I set up a bath for both of us. We played water for a little while. Yu was so happy! Gave him milk and some TV before bedtime. I fell asleep with Yu... But I had asked Sito to wake me if I did :p Woke to have the last of the bah chor mee from T3 and some milk tea while watching TV.

I don't know whether it was coz Yu was browsing old photos from Legoland on my phone at dinner time, but I had a nightmare that Sito and I left the kids to play at Legoland and took a flight to somewhere also managed by Legoland, only to realise that we couldn't fly back before Legoland closed at 6 pm! The panic in that dream woke me in the middle of the night. How relieved I was to find that it was a dream!

Yu woke at 6.30 am, unfortunately. I was hoping he could wake up later :( But he managed to stay in bed until almost 8 am. I just let him roll while I closed my eyes to rest..

Wefie at breakfast!

Notice our matching tees? All five of us were supposed to be matchy matchy but right after breakfast, Yu fell into one of the shallow pools along the corridor while looking for our room! I thought he was going too fast and couldn't stop himself falling in, but Sito saw him trip :(

The poor boy was wet and crying. Thankfully, we were a few steps away from our room and quickly whisked him into the shower. He said he knocked his head but it appeared to be a light bump as there was no redness or baluku.

So he was dressed in a spare long-sleeved shirt that I packed in case it was too cold in Jewel

I took the above photo coz it was sweet. But later I also realised that the green round tiles were pretty nostalgic. I saw them more as a kid.

Time for dinosaurs!

Only shot of them right in front of a dino, but not looking at the camera

It was so difficult to get a decent shot - they weren't too cooperative and there were many people and bikes. We walked to the end, saw nothing for green, and turned back :p

Yang trying to break open a code :p

Yu wanted to do the same!

Kai holding Yu's hand on the way back :)

We decided to cab back to Jewel instead of taking the bus but it turned out the pickup point at T4 doesn't allow standard taxis?! Luckily, the Grab Car driver Jiejie got was very nice to still give us a ride, plus $2 for Yu's car seat.

Lunch at KFC!

Yu had almost the whole box of popcorn chicken plus a small drumstick! And after that, we bought two sticks of balls from OCK and each of them had two each. The walk made them hungry? :p

Next was the canopy park at Level 5. It was very difficult to get tickets for the sky net thing. The kids wanted to do the bouncing net but the tickets weren't available inside the canopy park. We were told to get it outside so Sito went out but still couldn't get them. He came back to get the walking net but there was a problem with the machine. A more senior staff led him out to the counter to get the tickets instead. Later, it seemed that the bouncing net tickets were sold out hence they weren't available inside or outside the park... Very messy comms...

Yang bombed my selfie with a flower elephant

Yu didn't make any height limit and could only play with the foggy bowls, so sad!

AhYe led Kai and Yang to play the slides while waiting for the net tickets. Later, Sito also played one round.

Yang emerging

Kai emerged

AhYe emerged welding a camera to video the whole ride!

Ok, it was a bit dark on my phone so I thought I captured the whole of Kai too :p

Kai went very fast at first. Yang was very slow on the way up. Just before he reached the top, he decided he wanted to stop coz he was scared. Sito was leading him down. At one point, they rested. Then suddenly, Yang went forward again! And he managed to go through the whole walk.

Papa was sweating by the end of it!

Papa managed a wefie during the walk

Kai turned back for his papa and brother

Later, Yang told me that he did this - made a face like grrr! - and went ahead! Then he wasn't scared anymore! Wow, we have a determined boy here! So proud of him :)

Yu was not tall enough to go on the net. He was a bit sad. The nice staff manning the walk saw him and gave him two stickers - he happily stuck them on my bag and refused to let me remove them. He also gamely and repeatedly cheered for his Papa and brothers without any prompt from us - Papa, GeGe, Yangyang, you're doing a good job! :)

We headed back to the hotel for a swim after that. While they were swimming, I was ironing Yu's wet clothes. It was difficult to dry them totally but they should be dry enough the next day. But in the end, Yu didn't need to wear them. We sent his wet underwear to the laundry though - better to wash that, and he had no spare :p

They stopped swimming when it started to rain. I didn't even have time to go to the pool for a look *.* Yu wanted a bath again so I let him.

"I enjoy..." Yes, indeed!!!

Then he decided he needed to poop. He usually goes after dinner. But the previous night, he found the potty seat too small. Indeed, we haven't used it since our last Legoland trip last December and it looks kind of small now. But it could also be that it just doesn't sit well on this particular toilet. So he refused to poop. Until now. Coz he usually has a lot of poop, hoho!

He tried the potty seat again but couldn't so no choice, I had to be the seat - I held his hands while he sat on the toilet bowl without a potty seat. I saw and smelled everything *.*

mf: Wow, that was very long!

Yu: Yes, like a caterpillar!

mf: ... I think it's longer than a caterpillar..

Yu: It's like a snake. A snake is longer than a caterpillar right?

mf: Yes!

^.^

I sent Kai and Yang's clothes to Mum who was in AhYee's room while waiting for her room to be cleaned, and learnt that high tea would be sent at 6 pm! When I came back, it turned out that the staff called our room and Sito told them to send up earlier. But in the end, they only sent up at almost 6 pm when we were on our way out. 

There was some dino snow thing at T3 but we only took a look and left

Kai and Yang were playing games while waiting for dinner

We took wefie :)

Actually, it was quite silly. They sat us at adjacent tables of four and five pax each. But we couldn't mix or share food. So instead of ordering a big portion of noodles, each table ended up ordering a small portion each. And the sweet and sour pork came in one size, so we ended up with a lot of those...

They did this too when they first came to Jewel last May!

Yu was quite tired on Monday night and slept before I managed to doze off. Then Sito and I just had a bit of the high tea and some milk tea. And Godzilla on TV. Then we had to sleep too as we had to wake early for an excursion.

But this morning, Yu did not wake at 6.30 am *.* I somehow got up before 6.30 am and so turned off the alarm so I didn't wake him. Washed up and woke Sito to do the same. Yu didn't wake until a while later. And he had to pee into an empty milk tea cup coz Papa was in the toilet!

Breakfast this morning for Yu was yummy toast

Somehow they ended up squashing me while waiting to depart for a local tour organised by Ah Yee - my neck was very sore!

Taking their temperature before boarding the bus

Yu's reflection in the top left of the picture made him look so big

The boys gamely responded to the guide's questions on the way, but also interrupted with lame jokes like, how do you count cows? With a cow-culator...

The tour brought us to the civic district...

And we found our tree!

The kids were terrorising a pigeon

Great pose!

Yu peekaboo!

The troop with Sir Raffles

Just the kids now

Thian Hock Keng Temple

Then Yu changed seats to be with me

Outside the Hindu temple

Now even Yang was getting tired

Kai pretended to look at the old lady in one of Yip Yew Chong's wall murals

Yang and Yu pretended to eat

Yu only wanted me to carry him so I did this when my arms couldn't take it anymore

All the boys were tired by then

Source: Our guide

Think they were too young for this history/cultural tour. They much prefer activities. Unfortunately, we couldn't do either of the other tours I contacted, to Pulau Ubin and Changi beach. Kai kept complaining about being bored. Yu was just pottering around us - or on us. Yang was very good though - he was listening to some parts! At the temple, he heard about the moon goddess on the left but obviously missed the earlier part about the sun god on the right and loudly asked who the statue was. He was also looking so intently at the White Guard that I worried if he would get nightmares...

Yu dozed off on the bus back to the hotel

His brothers also dozed off... So did Sito. I wish I could!!

Lunch was dim sum buffet at Crystal Jade at the hotel. It was so yummy and good value for money! Jiejie was with us instead of Kai, and it was a good combi as Yang and Yu both like char siew. Kai had a lot of duck with the grands.

Yu discovered that he could write/draw on the velvet covering of the chair

We checked out after that and ditched original plans to have dinner outside. We were so full! And it was good to leave at that hour too. Even at 3 pm, there were lots of cars on the road. Can't imagine if I had to drive at dinner time!

Anyway, parking was about $120 for about two full days! Lucky we had complimentary parking..

The kids showered and changed into PJs, even though my instructions to A was home clothes *.* So let them do sedentary stuff and eat less messy dinner - they watched two Chinese movies and had pizza :p Sito had some of Yu's leftover pizza. Will see if we get hungry later... But for now, we're just so tired! We even dozed off at 5 pm during the kids' first movie. I woke at 5.35 pm only coz of a work call. Hope to sleep early tonight!

Weekends with no Papa vs. with Papa

Last Saturday was Deepavali. But Sito had a meeting in office. So the four of us were left to our own device! It's easier to bring them out than stay at home so out we went!

Yu just before he dozed off on the North South Line

Btw, he's holding his EZ-Link card in Kai's old cardholder. His own cardholder was even older and the silicon was kind of sticky on the side. So that week, as Kai broke his lanyard for the second time and decided to just put his card in his wallet (big boy!!), I put Yu's card into this instead.

When we reached AMK, I had to carry Yu off the train. He tapped in but didn't tap out coz he was sleeping on me - luckily he travels for free :p But he wasn't in deep sleep. I managed to set him down when we got to AMK Hub. Thank goodness, he's already 15 kg...

I had wanted to go to the basement but these three boys plus COVID-19 safe management measures weren't making things easy so I just bought some cookies and cake, and got on the bus.

Kai was excited about the new terrapins that Mother regretted buying, hoho! Think she was too bored.. Last we kept terrapins, I was maybe 11? And the thing died. I was sad.

"Why do they look dead?"

So he clapped to disturb them as he couldn't touch them, and was very excited to see them move a little!

Then he made some weird sounds. And the terrapins moved a lot! He was so excited that he went to grab Yang to see the creatures.

"I spoke 'turtle'!" Hoho! Learnt from Nemo...

But Yang and Yu weren't too interested. After a short while, Kai also left the animals to themselves... Lesson here - don't get pets for them. Or at least, don't get terrapins which often look dead!!

Yang asked WaiPo for the toys - I told him to use Chinese and he did: 玩具在哪里？

Dinner took a while and they had difficulty finishing their rice coz they had too many nuggets! But Yang and Yu proved that kids have a second stomach for desserts.

Yu wanted his cake while playing so he couldn't sit properly to eat...

Btw, the cake was from Pine Garden. I bought a slice of lychee martini to reminisce our wedding :)

Scene of the coffeeshop from the playground - 40 years on, it's finally bustling; there's even a queue of youngsters!

Sito came home after we did - with yummy snacks :p Proof of third stomach?

Finally confirmed my suspicion about this expression - he calls it 西瓜

More 西瓜 with a clearer view of the original on his shirt..

Yang also wanted 西瓜

One more time another day - so cute!

Last Sunday, I finally decided to treat them to kiddy rides - it's moving!

Kai wasn't too pleased that the game wasn't like the advert though...

Tare pandas!

I've been meaning to take this picture for some time. It wasn't until yesterday that Sito was free and I remembered :p The kids often do this to me during bedtime. Papa's turn! Hoho!

It was raining yesterday but Kai wanted to check out some books at Popular so we supported him! He also ate a lot at Ichiban Sushi - had to order more kappa maki for him.

One umbrella each

I don't know why but they really like to use umbrellas...

In a short while, we're leaving for Mum's place. We're going on a staycation together! Update later...

Yang's graduation

This is a very different year. For weeks, we couldn't go out much. For months now, we have to wear masks outside.

For graduating students, graduation is also different.

The school continued to organise a graduation ceremony plus concert. But instead of going to the church like past years, everything took place in school, with no audience. Filming took place in October and they sent us the links to the video last Friday :)

Yang brought back a flower for parents on 20 Oct after they filmed the graduation ceremony - I remember they had Kai bring flowers to parents during his ceremony too :)

On 1 Nov, I wrote my first letter to Yang - and he read it out loud :)

On Friday 6 Nov, the school also threw a graduation party for them. I think it was a bit early also coz that was Teacher Em's last day - she's taking a long break to attend to family matters back home. The kids were all dressed up and they had plenty of food and candies the whole day!

See my handsome boy! 

Kai had no school that day so I had time to dress Yang up. He told me he had to be a prince :) He was very happy with the shirt. But we took some time for the pants... The first pair was too short - off to Yu's cabinet. The second was too uncomfortable - Kai found it uncomfortable too so it went straight to the giveaway bag. The third was just nice!

Wheeled some presents to school for his teachers - forgot to take photos earlier!

I was thinking flowers and chocolates but they can't be kept. And Teacher Em was flying off. So I found plushies - so soft to hug :) I also prepared cards for his teachers. Yang told me what to write and I wrote on the inside of the cards. He was supposed to draw on them too but for Teacher Em's card, he brought it to school without me knowing! Thank goodness he drew on it already - or so he said... For Z Laoshi, I saw him draw on the card and managed to take a picture of it.

Card for Z Laoshi

And his sweet teachers made the kids a book of memories!

It takes so much heart to be a teacher! And these two teachers have been with Yang since we joined this school. So amazing to have this kind of stability! I hope after the many changes in Yu's teachers this year, he would have good teachers too to see him through kindy...

That Friday was also P1 orientation via zoom. Only the last segment of a virtual tour of the campus would be of interest to Yang. So I let him go for his graduation party instead and took videos of the virtual tour to show him - zoom anyway right? :p

We watched the graduation and concert at Mum's place on Sunday, amid many complaints from Kai... It was so nice! Too bad the video and sound quality isn't very good. Just managed to do some screenshots from the videos - happy! :)

My graduand!

Chinese - CHINESE! - emcee introducing Yu's item :)

Yu in finale - third from left

Yang in finale - bottom left; he's also in another group doing the same thing coz his class was short of kids so we got to see more of him! :p

Enjoy the last few weeks as a preschooler, my dear Yang!

Happy shopping day!

I have been randomly taking PM leave here and there to clear leave from last year coz I could only bring over up to 50% of remaining leave. Yes, I have that much unused leave! Even though now they would commute up to a certain number to cash, I decided my time is worth more.

So yesterday I headed to town. I had wanted to head to town last Wednesday but decided to walk around the nighbourhood instead. What a great choice - better to walk in very slight drizzle than in the blazing hot sun like yesterday! In town, I was indoor mostly :)

First stop was Macs. I didn't have breakfast so was hungry. Thought I would have a curry puff at OCK at Paragon but since I passed by Lucky Plaza, I thought of trying the salmon burger. Unfortunately they didn't have that there :( So I left after wasting some time queueing.

The curry puff was satisfying - I haven't had that for ages!

With food in my belly, I went on my first errand. I wanted to use my Mont Blanc pen the other day but found leaked ink and a broken pen tip. The salesperson was very nice and asked me to return in 30 min while he tried to clean it for me in-store; sending it in for service would cost money.

I thought of having a Starbucks so I spent some time queueing for that, and then strolled around the basement looking at food while sipping the thing. Yeah, relaxing!

The most fascinating stall was Chalk Farm - they have such a beautiful array of cakes! And I tried a few of their cakes before, so good! I noted that the prices are higher now than when I bought them. Now that I think about it, I bought them when I was there for obgyn checks with Yu?!! 

Ok, I'll skip the sweet coffee and grab some cakes when I go back to collect my pen!

So anyway, the nice guy had both good news and bad news - he managed to clean up the pen but found that the twist mechanism wasn't working! I could hear the excitement in his voice in the former and the disappointment in the latter. He also explained the cost of fixing the pen. It's not cheap. But it's a present from Sito and I like it. So I went ahead.

Next stop was Brooks Brothers. Two weeks ago when I was in town with Na for breakfast and catch-up, we went to the outlet in Taka. But the selection was small. And at that time, I only knew Sito wanted one with a pocket; I didn't know Sito was fine with button-downs. I didn't realise his shirts were getting tattered until I finished sewing on two buttons and saw the fraying collars *.*

Na and I in front of the shop where we bought shoes 20 years ago!

Yesterday, I thought I would shop for a present if not a shirt. Then I remembered there's an outlet at Paragon, yeah! And it was a big one, double yeah! Met yet another nice salesperson and I ended up with not one but three shirts! And also learnt about the difference between two cuts that Sito wears.

And finally, Daiso!!! I thought of going to Ion but realised it's quite small. So I bus-ed down to Plaza Sing. Gosh, I spent more happy time shopping :) Even though I didn't manage to find a suitable box to keep our passports and foreign currencies - I recently found the old bags covered in dust *.* Anyway, I found a zipbag today and transferred everything over.

But I wasn't done yet. I was going to pick Kai up from CCA. But a look at the bus arrival time told me I might be late so I traced my steps back across the road to take the train instead. To avoid the sun, I dropped off at Stevens to take the bus instead of Newton :p And I was early, woohoo!

Met A at the bus stop - asked her to go too as I wanted to show her the way home via Little India, which is a dry route on rainy days. Next time when the boys can go home on their own, it's also a safer route. Kai was surprised to see both of us :)

The traffic was pretty heavy at that time so we took 10 min longer to get to Little India, compared to the time I took on rainy mornings. But ok, safety trumps everything else.

We reached home past 5 pm, and I rushed to cook pasta sauce for baked pasta. Since A couldn't be home to cook our regular 三菜一汤 I asked her to cook the pasta before leaving and I would finish up the sauce in the evening. Popped the pot into the oven and left to fetch the younger ones. And dinner was a success! Except that it was pretty flat as A didn't add salt to the pasta water and my sauce is a salt-less one *.*

A memory of yesterday - I only wished I didn't give my Daiso bag to A so early!

Let Sito discover the bag when he returned last night :) Early birthday surprise! :) He tried them all and all's good - two to wear now and one for LNY, yeah!

Jalan jalan in the neighbourhood

I took the PM off on Wednesday coz I had to give up a PM leave last month. As Kai had CCA until 4.15 pm, I had three clear hours before fetching him. So I decided to use a Swensen's voucher from AIA before walking it off by checking out the flats around us.

Alas, the first activity didn't happen. The queue was too long coz everyone had the same voucher which happened to expire yesterday. And I was hungry. So I hopped into the foodcourt instead.

My walk started shortly before 1 pm and end just before 3 pm. I clocked over 12,000 steps!!

Anyway, years back when we bought our current place, we didn't think about how our kids would get to school... We were lucky to end up here coz there's a straight bus from downstairs, via expressway. Even though HV is much closer, the journey to school takes the same time as from BP! 

So now that we're considering moving, we figure that we'll stay put in BP coz of its accessibility to primary and both prospective secondary schools. 

Now, where did I go?

1) Jelapang Road

This is the furthest but I saw a number of large flats with nice floorplan in this area online. So I noted down the blocks and off I went! The first block was kind of far from the main road. I had difficulty making my way around to find the 972M bus stop. 

I walked down the road to check out more flats, taking photos of the unit layout and even taking the lift up to take pictures of corridors :p

Then I was unfortunate enough to walk into dismissal time at Greenridge Primary School. Unlike Kai's school or even my old school with a large space for waiting parents, this school had only the usual pedestrian walkway outside the school. It has been rainy so no one stepped onto the grass which is anyway too near the road.

So crowded...

Somehow, I wandered back away from the main road again to check out other blocks. Then I hit a drain. Guess it was time to end this part.

Google Maps told me to follow the drain so I did.

So pretty!

2) Fajar road

But I didn't quite know where I was despite the map :p So I was kind of surprised when suddenly, I saw Pang Sua Pond! Waited for R to come down from her place to return my cable. She heard what I was doing and sent me her real estate agent. Good contact to keep until we're ready!

Didn't check out this spot much though. Don't recall any floorplans from this area.

3) Senja Road

I was debating whether to check out Bukit Panjang Ring Road but figured I wanted to go nearer to home as I was quite tired by then. So Senja Road it was.

The flats here are near a 960 bus stop and another MRT entrance, which is great! But the floorplans aren't fantastic. I went up for a look and decided maybe not. But there seem to be different layouts further in. Think I'll check online first.

Went to get some barley etc at BPP before sitting down at the prata place downstairs, resting my body and having a nice cup of iced kopi C kosong :)

I was supposed to bring A to fetch Kai, to teach her how to go by the Little India way home. Useful for rainy days and also safer for Kai - intend to let him come home on his own next time... But we were on the bus when I got this major stomachache. I sent A on her way and alighted just before we hit the expressway. 

The nearest toilet should be at the coffeeshop but I almost fainted after crossing the road! A kind passerby supported my arm and pointed me to the toilet. Apparently, I caught the eye of some customers coz a guy at the toilet asked me if I was ok when I came out *.*

At times like this, I'm super thankful that we have toilets everywhere and this one in particular was clean enough!! My impression of coffeeshop toilets isn't too great...

Walked a little bit more to the bus stop to grab a bus home. I thought of walking but my tummy was still uncomfortable. As the bus approached home, I thought I could check out a few more areas next time. There's still two more areas I shortlisted this round - BP Ring Road and Gangsa Road. Can add Petir Road to the list. Going to check out HL's place across our place in 30 min - excited!

Update in two hours

HL's block is super accessible. But I saw floorplans with a bomb shelter and wasn't sure if I wanted to shortlist it. I reached out to HL on Wednesday and she invited me over today. The bomb shelter turns out to be in a good location in the kitchen. And the space, gosh. There's also much corridor much to be utilised. Can shortlist :)

Bo-gay!

After a lapse of over one year, Kai lost teeth again!

It was PSLE marking week. I brought him out for lunch on Wednesday, 21 Oct, and even convinced him to try something new at the prata place right downstairs - nasi lemak. He barely started eating and my mee rubus just arrived when he gave a sneeze and - yup! - the tooth came out!

He tried rinsing out in the toilet but was still bloody so I sent him upstairs to bite on a handkerchief while I finished up my lunch. Gave A a call to alert her to prepare the handkerchief. Then I packed his nasi lemak which was luckily placed on waxed paper, and his milo, and went up. In the end, he decided it was too yucky to eat in his state *.*

One gone!

Five days later, I don't know what he doing but he fell face down on Yang's bed - yup, another tooth dropped into his mouth!

Bo-gay now!

These two had been loose for some time now. Very gross to see him push them with his tongue *.* But when they came out, Kai thought it was too ugly! :p Well, his new teeth are showing through his gums already so hopefully he'll have his two front upper incisors again!

Funny Sito baboons, I mean, boys

This morning on the way home after sending Kai to school, I got a call from home. I thought it was Yang but it was Yu - Yang helped him call me.

Yu: Mama, just now I cried...

mf: Oh, why?

Yu: Coz I want you...

Melt!

Both were sleeping when Kai and I left the house. Sometimes, Yu would cry a little. But this was the first time he called to tell me.

Other times, he may not be so sweet... He was a bit rude with Kakak the other day.

Yu: You ah... (to Kakak re something about the shower..)

mf: Hey hey, you ah, you ah...

Yu: Are you a parrot?

Tsk!

Kai was another one. He was doing his composition for tuition when he suddenly went on a totally unrelated train of thought.

Kai: I don't have a phone. When you're dead, can I use yours?

mf: ... ok, you may have it when I'm dead...

Kai: How about the password? Will you remove the password?

mf: .... you may put my dead finger on the phone!!

We had a good laugh over a painful composition - more pain for me than for him...

Yang came home with a printout of his head - bigger than the real deal!

大头娃娃！

Yu also wanted to join in the photos

Taken by Yang :)

We headed to Jcube two Saturdays ago. The idea was to let them take an overground train. Sito and Yang also found a nice little playground when they were last there. And we thought we could have dinner next to the ice rink but Aston was quite full even before 5.30 pm so we didn't get a nice seat.

The playground was quite fun but gosh, black hands and bums!

Yu's first burger was bigger than his face!

He finished over half of that. Good for him! His leftover was my dinner... But I topped it up with a bit of you tiao later when we passed by a stall on the way to find a toilet for Yu.

These kids can eat quite well outside. We did have some meltdowns in the past month. It seemed like Yu was too tired coz he decided not to nap, so he was whining and crying before we sat down for dinner. Thankfully, that passed soon enough.

But at home, they turn into freaking baboons every dinner time. Kai and Yang - but especially Kai - would look at each other and laugh! Over what, I don't know! They laugh until they couldn't eat. And Yu keeps moving around, trying to lie down on my leg or stand up on the chair etc. So they often don't meet the 30-minute deadline. Apparently, this is normal behaviour - I cross-checked with JY; her two older boys are older than Kai and Yang respectively. Or maybe all our boys are abnormal!

Today, I even got a bonus after none of them finished their dinner - they somehow started chasing one another, half naked! And Yu fell and hurt his nose. Had to wipe blood off both nostrils, with one side worse than the other. Thankfully, he didn't feel any pain when I checked again after shower.

Yu looked like this when he fell... They call this one-eyed minion!

Last Saturday, I managed to stay awake and played some Mario Kart with them. Kai was often first and Yang around 5th or 6th while I was placing 12th, i.e. the last, all the time :( When Sito took a break from work, I told the boys Papa would do better than Mama!

Yu gave his all in supporting Papa!

And yes, Papa did do better than Mama :) In other news, I think this sofa won't last very long...

Yu seems to enjoy cheering people on. We were at the kiddy rides a couple of weeks back. A little girl older than Yu but younger than Yang started playing air hockey. Her mum let Yu play with the girl. When Yang was playing, Yu was cheering him on! So cute! In the end, Yu lost twice and Yang won twice. All three kids were happy :)

My koala is a sweet one

Koala can write too!

Yesterday morning, we also had an assignment - Yang was to record a talent show with two family members! Yang had wanted to do some break dance spinning thing but his brothers weren't keen. So I suggested, um, their bedtime magic show... I'll try to upload when I could but it involved a blanket and some pseudo magic :p Took us eight tries to finally confirm it and send to his teachers! It's part of his graduation party apparently. Shall go more into that separately...