Christmas weekend fun (and some tears)

We've been planning for the makan this weekend :p

Veggie pasta, pork platter and honey baked drumsticks

The boys started on the cocktail sticks while the pasta was baking. I put them together coz I wasn't sure if they would like ham on its own; we used to have ham on toast... But they ended up eating everything, including the broccoli in the pasta, no complaints, woohoo!

Drumsticks before pasta

Kai came up with this idea - to wrap sausage with bacon and then with ham!

He taught Papa how to do it

Yang could do it too!

Yu enjoys it too - though food must somehow be put on the table...

It was half day for Yang and Yu. I let A bring Yu home on the stroller coz he came to my bed the night before and so lost his chance to go shopping with me. Yang and I went shopping - for a log cake! He landed on a red velvet log cake from Swee Heng.

Our Christmas Day breakfast :)

Then it was time to open up the presents! Sito and I bought the presents some weeks back. They've been waiting for Christmas for a while! The grands also got them presents.

Kai looks so pleased with his nerf gun, Yang was excited with his football robots and Yu was kind of please with his Paw Patrol toy

Transformers from YeePo - Yang managed to fix his quite quickly

DIY robots from AhYe and AhMa

"Oh it's for 8+!"

So we kept two of the three boxes. Kai started to fix his DIY robot when his nerf gun got stuck. Think there was another box from AhYe - for Yu but I wasn't there when he opened it so I don't know what it is haha! Merged with all the toys already... Later, they opened a last present from Papa when he woke - a drone! So we spent much of Christmas and the weekend charging various robots...

Yu said he was the "judge" :p

KFC for Christmas, hoho!

Hotpot dinner on a hot Christmas evening...

And so that was Christmas! Back to regular programming on Saturday except that this weekend, they didn't get their usual morning TV due to bad behaviour over TV last weekend, and that Sito didn't have to work this weekend, yeah!

Kai continued with his DIY robot - he made some mistakes and I had to help him undo a few times

Then, meltdown! Full-blown rolling on the floor and tears everywhere!

Papa just tried to fix the DIY robot for him while he was watching Chinese Paw Patrol with his brothers. Turned out that some parts were put wrong. And when he put in the battery, it didn't work! After checking that the batteries worked, he took the thing apart, and found the wire broken - first on one side and then on the other when he tried to fix it!! Too fragile for kids. Kai decided he would keep the toy nonetheless so it's sitting in front of me as I type, coz Kai is busy with Nintendo right now... The other two boxes will stay in their boxes for some more years...

Anyway, we headed out far yesterday. The kids enjoyed satay the last time we had them so we decided to go to Satay by the Bay! Unlike hawker centres etc, we can go pass the Gardens and take pictures etc, right?

Wrong - it rained!!! It was a light drizzle on and off, but we had to use the brolly so no pictures for most of the way. We managed to spot a few things though - huge plants, big dragonfly statues, bamboo (pandas' fave food, says Yang), MBS, Flyer...

Just as we left Bayfront MRT stations

We reminded Kai and Yang that they had a staycation at MBS before...

We managed to find seats near the toilet, and Sito quickly came back with chicken wings! The kids blew at them to cook them down and tore them apart while Sito went about getting more food. We also had fries, hokkien mee and of course satay :)

Kai really doesn't like to take pictures *.*

Poser Yang

Yu tried to pose but his eyes were half shut, hoho!

Super yummy!

Kai and Yu had some eight or nine sticks each. Yang had half a stick, found it spicy and gave up! But he had so much last time at a party :( Luckily he was ok with the hokkien mee so that was his dinner. Tonight, we'll get some dinner that's up his alley... The kids ended their dinner with milo dino :)

Instead of walking back to the Gardens, we went on to Marina Barrage!

It seemed destined that we can never had a decent shot with our matching bear bear shirts from the grands. Last time, Yu fell into the water at our staycation hotel. This time, he woke up sweaty from a short nap and had to change. I dried it while they went down to scoot but after he changed, he wiped his mouth on the wall near the main door - the wall where lizards crawl about!! I dragged him to wash his mouth and his shirt got wet again. Sighs.

Heading into the sunset to the viewing platform

My dino baby :)

We spent some time just standing there, watching kites and big bubbles

And of course the rains came again. So we left. It really poured as we left, lucky! It was also raining at our place. Would have been nice to have hotpot haha!

Off to the future!

Every two Saturdays when Sito doesn't have to work for a Monday report, we try to go out of the neighbourhood. The usual is Ikea - we all like the food and the boys enjoy exploring the various showrooms. 

奶爸带娃

I like to see my four boys walk together :) Yesterday, the kids all decided to walk with Papa to the bus stop. I stepped in only to hold little hands when crossing the road.

We took 190 again. The boys are getting familiar with this number, having taken it twice this week. This time was way less crowded. The boys took separate seats, and Sito and I took turns to sit with them all.

This time, we took an excursion to the future!

アンアンアン!

I still prefer the old song :) Been hearing that song since the 1980s when Doraemon's Chinese name was still 叮当 - there's a history to the change in name. We have a little 叮当 toy at home - a friend gave it to Kai eight years ago. The head is no longer round but the kids still like it. I like it too and we all refer to it as 叮当 :)

Crazy Mama :p - taken by Yang

Yu very gamely took photos with Doraemon :)

Taken by Yu :)

Both in blue and round ^.^

Taken by Yang

Doraemon is sheltering my babies :)

Yu plonked himself on the letter box before the rest of us got there

While queueing for the どこでもドア

I realised that as a child, I didn't catch the name of this door. I only knew the Japanese name later when learning the song. It was only recently when I was watching with the kids that I learnt the Chinese name of the door: 任意门

Still queueing - he's standing on Doraemon's bell which marks waiting points for social distancing

Yeah!

Can tell that Kai wasn't interested at all *.* He wanted to come along coz we were going to have burger for dinner...

Then Yang wanted to go into the museum so we made a quick round before heading for dinner - need to get there early to secure seats!

Running up the stairs inside

Posing under the swinging chandeliers

Cannot climb so take picture

We didn't stay long in the museum. Would have been nice to check out the exhibits but we were running out of time. On weekends, we need to grab seats by 5.30 pm or queue with whiny children!

Long time no see, jelly babies!

There was a time when we came to Plaza Sing quite often. Think it was to bring Kai for baby spa. And we would take photos here :) Yang also remembers them. Yu knows coz I have pointed them out to him before.

Hotdog bun for Yu

Hotdog bun for Yang too

Bacon burger with double patties for Kai

Yes, the red and white grids - we were at Five Guys! Gosh, I love their burgers and fries! The last time I had them was when Kai was in my belly! I had such cravings for burgers then...

Sito and I had cheeseburgers

I was holding the camera so let my food represent me...

Yummy stuff! But gosh, that was an expensive fast food meal! The fries were $11 *.* We heard a lot of milkshake orders during our meal. Can try next time - I like milk shakes but not when I'm already having a big burger!

Let them run outside a bit after dinner...

Then Kai and Yu ran out of water. Time to head home!!

Sleep, my baby, sleep

Child care was closed this afternoon so Yang and Yu didn't have their usual nap. After a shower and a doughnut, they watched Kai play Zelda on the Switch. I was doing some stuff on the laptop when Yu pottered over and told me he was tired. He climbed on me, rolled his eyes back and dozed off.

My arm and shoulder started screaming with a familiar pain but I was unwilling to set him down. He had not napped on me for a very long time. Might this be the last?

We stopped him from coming to sleep in our bed at night recently. So I haven't hugged him to sleep for some time. Just last night, I was telling him I would go sleep in his bed so that he could hug me to sleep, this the only boy who would put his arms around my neck to sleep.

I looked at his perfect little face with a spot of chocolate on the side of his mouth. I touched his cute little nose. I stroked his chubby little cheek. I kissed his forehead. And I cried a little for the chance to hold my sleeping baby, my last baby...

Lucky it didn't take long to sayang him, for he woke in 15 minutes...!

Yang is so grown-up now

Yang had his kindy graduation in early Nov. I'm still keeping him in child care until end of December. I was thinking of keeping him at home since Kai is home but gosh, think the noise or fighting will drive me mad :p

We gave him his graduating gift in November too - it's a watch! Same as for Kai two years ago... Kai lost it in the first week of school so I told Yang to keep it on at all times if he's wearing it to school.

Looks like he's wearing it to school - he was so pleased with it!

Look at him - he looks like such a big boy now! Still remember his poor thing look as a baby.... I mimicked that look to Sito recently and he said 很像，hoho!

He enjoys working on the P1 book from MOE - more to do when he enters P1...

He is also learning to spread goodies on his bread

Actually, he should have been able to do that already but I've always let helper do that for the kids. So Kai is now refusing to do it, grrr!! Yang and Yu are very happy to do it though.

And talking about spread, I remember teaching Kai how to wipe his bum using peanut butter :p Should teach Yang now, in case he needs to poop in school! He can wipe a bit but um, not clean, haha!

Finally got his graduation photo! Lovely smile!

Uniforms and books were all delivered to the door. Uniforms are washed and ready to be worn. Books are wrapped and names written. Bought his schoolbag on Yang Yang day and shoes for him and Kai when we were out at Taka this week. Also did a recess rehearsal a while back - maybe should do a few more rounds...

And then he'll be ready for primary one! :)