1,2,3

About 3 weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised by SP who counted without prompting, "un, two, tree, five, eggs, air-ven, egg, nine, ten". No typo error there, four is missing. And he carried on, "derteen, twenty".

Amazing, he learned it all by himself by watching Sesame Street and Brainy Child videos. So the boys have been playing hide-and-seek with SP covering his eyes and counting faithfully when it is his turn to seek.

Now 3 weeks later, the counting remains the same and uncorrected. Shame on me for totally neglecting my duty! Ah, but there is now a Chinese version which goes, "yi, er, san, si, ba, jiu, shi". He probably learned that from preschool. I am so not inclined to correct him, it's just too funny for words and I'm enjoying every bit of it.

Happy Birthday Popo

1 May 2009

My mum is born in the year of the tiger. In ancient China (not so ancient actually, it was still practiced by some families 2 generations ago ... and not just in China, it happened ... surprise, surprise,.. in Singapore too. Gate of Hope, CHIJ), girls born in the year of the tiger, especially those born in the evenings, were killed (unthinkable, cruel, but true), abandoned or given away as they were believed to bring harm to the family. What about boys, one would naturally ask. Oh, they are too precious to be the subject of superstitions ... Luckily for my mum, my late grandpa loved his daughters as much as, if not more than, his sons. As a matter of fact, he doted on his granddaughters more so than his grandsons.

Things We Do Together

"Row a boat"

At other times, the bolster is a "giant carrot" and each will tug one end whilst i sing the Chinese children song, ba ro bo (literally, pulling out the carrot).

What Big Can Do, I can

Peanut at his craftwork:

Sweet Potato at his art & craft work:

Peanut dancing in class:


Sweet Potato dancing in class:

Peanut making music:

SP making music:



Peanut, the policeman


SP, the MI5 agent:


Peanut and his footprints:



SP and his graffiti on the driveway:

All photos courtesy of Pre-school By-the-Park

World of Tarzan

29 March 2009

Our 2nd trip to the zoo - this time without Ah Meng whose reputation was synonymous with the Singapore Zoo for as long as I can remember.

This trip, I got wiser. Instead of trying to cover the entire grounds, I just focused on the animal feeding sessions - first, the polar bear, then the giraffes, followed by the jaguars - and the occasional animal exhibits (white tigers, zebras, flamingoes). With tram rides and lunch in between. And ended at the new Kidz world with a grand playground for water play - just what we needed on a typically hot day in March.

In case you are wondering about the conspicuous absence of Sweet Potato in the water play photos - he was not asleep but he was so afraid that he was either clinging on to Wati or to me. Too crowded and water was like splashing everywhere, much to the delight of the older kids. Plus my camera ran out of battery ... alamak!