Underwater World at Sentosa

3 August

Another school excursion organised by Sweet Potato's class without parents' participation - the first was to the Art Garden @ SAM which I recommended to SP's teacher.

The trip was made as part of the lessons surrounding the theme on sea creatures. SP obviously enjoyed himself - he repeated his tale of adventure to each family member after he came home. "I went to Underwater World. I saw dolphins, fish, turtle, sharks." Here's a photo of the excited kids:

The touch pond:

Having their packed lunch:

Hmm, can I have some of yours?

Yeah! We made it without incidents:

How was your weekend?

Fabulous! The nation celebrated its 45th birthday with a bang. Our family spent the long weekend battling new enemies.

It started last Friday night - this new activity which was to occupy us for an hour everyday for the 5 days that followed: "Kutu"-catching. To our horror, we discovered head lice on Peanut! Poor boy was subject to treatment shampoo that reeked of pesticide and manual removal of nits - Wati had to pull them out from individual hair shaft one at a time with her nails. And mind you, this boy has a full head of thick hair. Then there was the Paracetemol alternated with Brufen for the fever. To add to the discomfort, he had a bad break-out of rashes due to allergy from the treatment shampoo. Here's a photo of Peanut getting treatment at his salon:


I have only one word to describe Peanut - stoical. He took it all in his stride with hardly a complaint, except when the hair-pulling hurts. He was his usual active, cheerful, playful self.
So thankful that Sweet Potato was spared - all he had was a runny nose and cough.

And all these was just 2 months after Peanut caught the HFMD bug from school. Well, life goes on. We had it worse before - the fear is still so real that I have difficulty putting the experience in words. Another time, maybe.

Pretty In Pink

We beat the batter:

and beat some more:

We baked a cake. I don't have a photo to show.

But I can show you what it did not look like:

Happy Birthday to mama:

Warning: Do NOT count the candles! Or else, ...

Sweet Potato turns 3

9 July - 3 years ago this day, we welcomed our new family member, S.P.

What a happy kid!

This time round, S.P chose to have Bob the Builder over Thomas the Train for his bd cake:

May you grow up happy and healthy - the universal wish mothers have for their child - so basic but so profoundly hard to achieve! Illness is part and parcel of a child's growing years but still we fret each time a child falls sick. As a friend of mine with 4 children (15 y.o to 21 y.o) puts it, "The day I became a mum, I no longer know what it means to be carefree!" Heard of this Chinese proverb that loosely translates to: Raise a child for 100 years and worry for 99 years. Wise words, if only I had paid greater attention to what my mum said during my younger years. In case, you are wondering why mothers are let off for worrying for a year - of course not! I suspect it has to do with how a newborn is a year old by the Chinese way of counting age.

Jungle Day

30 July - Fun Friday celebration in Pre-School. Theme: Jungle Day

29 July - The Night Before

The boys having fun stuffing their tails:
You should have seen the shock followed by a wincing painful look on Wati's face when I snipped off the first sock. I had to explain and rationalize that the socks cost $2, with each tail costing a dollar. And that was after I demonstrated to her that I could not possibly make another tail from the remainder of the cut sock. You know something - she made me feel guilty like I had committed a crime of some sort; afterall, they were a pair of perfectly good, not to mention new socks.

Fooling around:

The finished products:

Check this out - Peanut slipped on the remainder of the severed socks to add length to his short sleeves: