Universal Studios Singapore

After months of wanting to go, Eugene finally managed to take a day off and we went to USS! But we got a shock when we reached there! Tickets were SOLD OUT! I was so bewildered! After finally digging up the time to go there, we couldn't get in!

We had lunch outside the theme park and thought of where we could bring the kids instead. It dawned on me that perhaps getting the Annual Pass would guarantee us entrance into the park. True enough, we managed to get in! By then it was already 2 pm, we only managed to walk around another 3 hours before Russell fell asleep. So it was really a good idea to get the Annual Pass!Renee needs to get over her dislike of the mascots! Here she is, refusing to stand next to the Penguins from Madagascar!

The kids loved the Merry-Go-Round though and Dino-Sauring. Russell was too young to sit on the roller coaster but Renee did. She was scared but didn't cry!

We need to go again SOON!!

The weekend before Christmas

This year, because we were so busy with our move and unpacking, I feel like we had so little time to do our Christmas shopping. I'd been going for short trips to make some purchases after work while waiting for Eugene to pick me up. I can only carry that much!

On Saturday, we decided to go to East Coast to catch some prawns. It was either crabs, prawns or tilapia fish. I thought the prawns sounded much easier. After an hour and a half, we caught 5 prawns! Initially the kids were very excited and kept wanting to take over the rod but after half an hour, they just busied themselves with fighting and arguing. Next morning, Renee insisted I make prawn porridge! I did so with carrots and brocoli and while the porridge was boiling, I added the head inside to make the broth really rich and colorful! Yummy! The prawns were very fresh so they were crunchy to eat.
Sunday, we had a long day. We went to Suntec for the kids' weekly lessons. While they were at class, I went to Toys R Us to finish my shopping. Horrible! Queuing up at the cashier was a nightmare! The cashier ran out of receipt paper and the lady in front decided to apply for a Star Card and split up her purchases into 3 bills! And this was at 1 pm where I was supposed to pick Renee from her Art Class! Geez! How very stressful! Thankfully the class hadn't ended so I rushed down to put the bags in the car. We had a quick lunch and sent her back for her Art Camp which lasted from 2 to 6 pm. I went for my pedicure while Eugene took Russell around. Apparently he fell asleep and dropped one of his slippers so I had to go meet them right after my pedicure to carry Russell while Eugene walked around Carrefour to look for the missing slipper. Instead of spending the time shopping, we were looking for a SLIPPER! and then queuing up at the Lost and Found to report the missing slipper!

Anyway, 4 hours passed really quickly with the search of a replacement slipper, buying gifts for relatives and queuing up (AGAIN!!) for lucky draw coupons.

All in, we were at Suntec City for EIGHT freaking hours. I was really aching all over by the time we reached home at almost 9 pm.

We had an early night after that!

16 weeks

So the little one doesn't want to know its gender yet. Same as Renee and Russell, they were rather "shy" and wouldn't let us know their gender till 16 to 20 weeks. There was a moment when Dr. Chen said, I think you can get rid of the girls clothes that you have, because we told her we wanted to clear some space - we have too much stuff and too little space. And then little one changed its angle so that no amount of prodding would yield any results. We'll just have to wait till 31st December to find out.

I've put on 1 kg since the last check up, my appetite has been good, thank goodness the morning sickness is more or less out the door! Baby was really active and gave us a full view. Hello!

Meanwhile, life goes on in Katong. I didn't realise how fun it could be for the kids to go to the kid's pool on the second floor.....we've been going the last two Sundays, for about 30 to 45 mins each time. The pool is so small but they don't really care.

Tomorrow, we may be bringing the kids to Universal Studios. M-A-Y-B-E......depends on what time Eugene finishes his medical check up and whether the weather's ok. We won't be too garang and try to finish everything. We'll focus more on Far Far Away and Madagascar. I went to the "Rider Guide" and even some of the kiddy rides are not recommended for pregnant women! sheesh!!!

Is it December already?

Goodness! How time passes by so quickly. I was supposed to write something after my last check up. It's been 4 weeks already and tomorrow I'm going to see Dr. Chen again.

We finally moved to our new place on the 27th of November 2010. I am really happy to have my own family nucleus back to normal. Russell was very attached to my FIL for the last six months, sleeping with my inlaws almost every night. On the first day we were to stay at Katong, he bawled when FIL left our house. I was pretty sad seeing him more attached to FIL than wanting to stay with me. Renee was all for staying at our new place from the beginning. The second night, Russell followed inlaws back home while Renee stayed with us. She just LOVES it! Russell took about two days to adjust and now he is also loving the new place. Phew!

Second day we stayed over, I was "forced" to open the boxes labelled "Toys". Yes, being able to read is good but then when it involves 6 boxes of toys that I had to open after she identified them, that is pretty challenging. It took about 2 hours to open them up and then the whole living room floor was covered in toys!

I still can't believe it's already December. This year seems to have passed by exceptionally quickly.

Write more soon....

Girls in Pinafores

I realise that as a 4 year old, Renee isn't so conscious of wearing a skirt and unknowingly flashing her undies. This is one of the only decent shots I got of her on Chinese Drama presentation day. The rest of the photos aren't really appropriate to display. Plus, I think the kids were kind of alarmed having all these parents, grandparents and siblings suddenly attending Drama class with them. Renee didn't want to sing or dance as readily as she normally does. Zhou lao shi was saying that all the kids didn't behave the way they usually do. Sigh. That was the point that Teacher Margaret brought up to me in a phone call explaining why they didn't have a performance day for English drama. "The children are not trained for acting on stage" she said and I totally agree. Plus all the cameras and video cameras don't help one bit!

I think I only became conscious of wearing a skirt for my school uniform when I was in secondary school. Maturity and also being a co-ed school definitely helped me realise that! So I guess my girl's got some way to go....

Chinese Drama performance

No, it's not till next Thursday but Zhou lao shi made this invitation card to pass all the parents. I was so tickled by it!

Next week, I will have some pictures of her performance. I am holding my breath! Chinese and Renee in the same sentence!?!?

Nah! I'm sure she'll be wonderful!

I suppose I need to rename this blog huh?

So.....I'm 9 weeks and 5 days pregnant, according to Dr. Chen.....last week's check up was smooth. We got a glimpse of baby's head, torso and saw the heart beating. Three weeks ago, we spotted stumps that were apparently baby's limbs. This round, morning sickness really got to me. The days following Russell's hospital stay, I was nauseas all day. I think I was affected for three straight weeks and the toilet was my second home. Dr. Chen said it was the tiredness that aggravated the pukey feeling. Plus all my favorite foods were no longer my favorite. I found my favorite fruits sent me to the my second home everytime. When Dr. Chen gave me MC last Friday, I was a bit bashful about it, considering the many days of leave I took to bring Russell for his check up at Dr. Vas'. However, that morning, I slept 15 mins after I got up! Napped an hour, got Renee ready for school, came home, napped another hour. After lunch, I napped another THREE hours! Geez, all the sleep deprivation finally came to this! Saturday and Sunday were no different. I was flat on the couch for hours the whole weekend!

This round, doc says I have a bit of high blood pressure but it is supposed to come down over the next few months, so she won't treat me for it. Been too busy with two kids to get any exercise done - that's my excuse. Hopefully it was only because I had been too stressed over Russell's illness.

What made us decide to try for another child? Yeah those weeks of nausea, I had that question on my mind each time I glared down the toilet bowl. Ha ha, awful feelings aside, we look at our two kids all grown up and filling our lives with laughter, we knew we could have enough love and joy to share with another little being.

So now as we await the revelation of the baby's gender, Renee decided she wants a sister while Russell wants a brother. Eugene and I just want a healthy baby and me myself, a smooth pregnancy. Oh yah, and also, I hope to fall in love with the fish ban mian from Amara food court again!

Tired with a Capital T!

Russell's been falling sick almost every month. Coughing so regularly. We brought him to our GP each time and he would get better. I had been wanting to send him to Dr. Vas to find out why he gets sick so often and last Wednesday I did just that.


Upon hearing his chest, she shook her head, and said he needed to be hospitalised as he had an infection. I tried to keep as calm as I could as Kelly the nurse called Thomson to check on the room availablility. I was alone with Russell and I could feel the strain of rushing to the PD at 9 am only to find out that she wouldn't be coming in till 11.30 am. I went home, sent Renee to school and headed back to Parkway. By 12.30pm, I just felt like collapsing already. Exhausted from running back and forth.


MIL followed me to Thomson at 2 pm while FIL went to pick Renee from school. At around 3 plus, Russell had his chest X-Ray, blood drawn, drip inserted and some mucus drawn from him. The poor active boy was attached to a drip and the only place he could move about was this single bed, where we'd be sharing for the next 3 nights.


Dr. Vas came every morning and every evening. His condition improved, then he had a little relapse and his medication was upped and he improved again. He is soooo talkative, soooo active, I pitied my neighbours. The nurses loved him and came in every few hours to take his temperature and give him his nebuliser session. They would make fun of him saying they could hear his "complaints" all along the corridor!


I opted for a 2 bedder room, which on hindsight, I shouldn't have. The first two days I had ok room mates. On the last night, I had the room mates from hell. This couple came in with their maid and their 2 month old daughter. They left their night light on the whole night, left the main door open the whole night and the baby kept crying off and on. I am such a light sleeper that I stayed awake the whole night. By 6 am, I just covered my face with my blanket and started to cry, I wanted to get out of the hospital so badly. At 12.30pm, Russell finally went down for his nap, I was so happy cos I could finally sleep too. But no, my neighbour from hell had visitors who chatted for 3 hours! OMG! When Russell finally woke up at 3.30pm, the female-neighbour-from-hell wanted her nap. Sure, now she wants to nap but my boisterous son wouldn't let her! wahahah! I was silently dancing in my head. At 4.30 pm, Eugene came to "relieve" me so I could get grab a shower. At one point, I heard female-neighbour-from-hell moan, "Oh God" from my son's noisy outburst. I was doing the chicken dance I tell you!


Eugene and I decided to let Russell walk outside the corridor with his drip. Mr. Russell was dancing and yelling with glee! Being couped up in a room, on a bed for three days will do that to you! I let female-neighbour-from-hell rest, see I'm such a nice person!

I wasn't wearing my glasses and outside I let my frustration rip at Eugene. I said that if Russell had to stay another night, he'd be the one to stay and make sure he snores as loudly as possible! At that point, I realised that male-neighbour-from-hell was standing 5 feet away from us and heard everything. Oopsie! Oh well.

Thankfully Dr. Vas said we could go home that evening, we had to continue the 4 hourly nebulising through the night, which I so willinging agreed to, and give him his medication.

$5000 later, we have been to Dr. Vas on Monday, Tuesday and tomorrow there is another follow up, he still sounds phlegmy and has to switch to soy milk, avoid fruits and cheese.

Waking up at 12 am and 4 am is just torturous, but it is all for my darling baby. I hope he remembers all our sacrifices when he is older.

Away from my lovely kids

Well, one week has come and gone and here I am at work again. Last night jetlag was particularly bad. I fell asleep at 9.30 pm and woke up at 3.30 am, and couldn't get back to sleep. Thankfully I am not lying at my desk yet....

First day I arrived at USA, I called back home and Renee asked me, "Mummy, wat you buy for me?" Geez.......second and third day, I did all the shopping, you should see the stack of receipts. It's not pretty....

Anyway I had a great time with Tony and Julie. Their house looks amazing after all the renovation work. Spencer is a great baby, warming up to me almost immediately.

The meetings started Tuesday evening with a reception, and continued on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. By afternoon, I headed to Woodfield again to resume shopping. In the evening, I met up with Ofelia, Marlen and Armando for Mexican food - my choice - cos I missed Ofelia's cooking. I ordered the chicken mole, which is Mexican curry made with chocolate. Super yummy!

I did a calculation: I left Illinois exactly 10 years ago. Amazing how time flies!

Anyway, the morning after I arrived, Renee came bouncing into our bedroom at 6.30am and started telling me about her week! However, first question she asked me, "Mummy, wat you buy for me??" Wahahaha, I had to stall her for about an hour before she could take it no more. At 7.30am, she dragged me downstairs to open all my suitcases! I tell you, it was like Christmas morning.....in SEPTEMBER!

Near accident

Last Saturday around 8.40 pm, Eugene and I, with Renee and Russell were crossing the traffic light along Outram Road. The green man had already been showing for at least 5 seconds. All the cars on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lanes were already stopped for pedestrians to cross. There were no cars on lane 1. We were about to walk past the car on the second lane when a black car (license plate 861) whizzed past us. He had missed the red stop light and just continued forward without slowing down. At that point, I could only think of cursing him for nearly hitting Eugene who was on the left most side, closest to the cars that were stopped.

It was only when we reached the other side of the road that I took everything in. Had we walked just a little bit faster and had Eugene not noticed the car approaching, we would have been hit by the car.

I was holding on to the two kids very tightly, being the kiasu parent that I am. However, no matter how cautious or careful I am, we are still at the mercy of any reckless or careless driver.

I realise the need to be very mindful when crossing the roads, even if it us our right of way, in our case, the green man indicated it was safe for us to cross.

Right now, I am just thankful that the kids were unharmed. We just have to be even more kiasu from now on.

Sports Day 2010

I didn't load this post in August because I was too busy and was still trying to figure out our new camera. We got a shock-proof and water-proof one. The last three were damaged when the focus lens was extended. Courtesy of the kids, of course!

We brought Russell along for the National Day celebrations at Renee's school. She took part in the race, along with all the kids from their respective classes. So fun to watch and definitely brought back so many memories of my school days!

The field!

With her best friend, Charmaine I'm-A-Girl. Ha ha!

Russell sitting down with Renee's classmates. He was trying to make friends with them. So funny to watch!

Russell, not sure what is going on.....

Waiting for their turn to RUN RUN RUN!!

Her team won first prize.....it was a white board.....which she started her drawing on.....but after Russell tried to snatch it and sit on it, it soon gave way.....sigh.....

Can't wait to move

It's been 4 months since we've moved to my inlaws. It is so much more relaxing cos I don't have to do a lot of things. The only thing I need to do is to wash my own clothes and iron them. Getting a bit fat! Ha ha.

On the negative side, I can feel the kids are getting very little discipline. I can see Renee has changed quite a bit and it is very worrying. I think my FIL is going into panic-mode cos he now wields the cane whenever their behaviour gets too obnoxious to bear. He was too soft before and never would consider using the cane, nor raise his voice. MIL is still the cave where Renee will run too when she is getting disciplined. I hope to get back some normalcy when we move back to Katong in October.

In the meantime, I'll be in Illinois next week for a meeting. I really feel a bit sad that I'll be gone the same week that Renee's school is out for the school holidays. Oh well. Anyway, she's been very whiny, "Mummy, I wanna go 'Merica' with you....." Wahaha, so funny!

Finally managed to find an art school that I can send her to while Russell is attending GUG on Sunday. She had her evaluation session yesterday and I was plesantly surprised it didn't turn out too bad.

The lesson is from 12 to 1 pm, which gives me 1 hour to walk around Suntec City. I haven't been able to walk around at a leisurely pace all this while because she's been bugging me to do plaster painting and sand art. I hope she's better at art than I ever was!

Catch up Photos

Renee painting a plaster butterfly! I love that she's so into art and craft!
At Popo and Gong Gong's House

At Uncle Christopher's new house. Do you know how difficult it was to get 10 heads into ONE picture?!?!?!

With their new Toy Story 3 T-shirts!

They get along - SOMETIMES......

Russell likes taking photos

Yes, my boy is fascinated by the magic of cameras! Always asking me to take his photo......here are some......I realise the normal camera has so much better results..... Yes, I was watching the episode of Jay Leno in which he was interviewing Robert Pattinson, doing his rounds promoting Eclipse - yeah, love me some vampires!

Here, Russell insisted we take a photo together, he was so tickled by the results. Do we look alike?

School holidays

It's the last week of Renee's 1 month break and mummy me has been rather lazy updating this blog. Eugene was away for a week last week and I decided to take 2 days off as well to do something with the kids. We've been living at my inlaws for almost 3 weeks since we moved out of Telok Kurau.

Last Tuesday, we visited the Singapore Art Museum. It was raining the whole morning so by the time we got there it was already 11.30 am. This is the first time I've been to this museum so I had no idea what to expect. These two months it was supposed to be catered for children. There were only 4 floors, with 1 or 2 activities on each floor. By the time we got out of there, it was almost 2 pm.We headed to the cafe after that and I have to say the food was super yummy!My MIL had the Full House - a complete breakfast but it is served till dinner time - SUPER YUM!

My FIL had the crispy curry with spicy fries - YUM!

Me? I had the potato gratin with soup of the day, but of course I had morsels from here and there - hee hee......

On Thursday, we went to the Singapore Science Centre. Did not take any photos as my camera is a bit koyak and the iphone is just not that wonderful for pictures.

The kids sat through Toy Story 2 in 3D. It was pretty cool and my inlaws will be bringing them to watch Toy Story 3 tomorrow. We spent almost 5 hours there and then headed to IMM for a quick dinner. Renee had a short nap while we ate and after that we headed back home for an early night.

Last Monday, I brought the kids to Uncle Yat Bin's birthday dinner at Shangri-La. The kids were pretty much well-behaved except for the last part where they got restless and started climbing and running around.

Eugene missed Father's Day as he only arrived late on Sunday night. But we headed to Robertson Quay for some yummy ramen with my BIL, SIL and PILs, together with the kids. They enjoyed their pork shabu-shabu ramen and Black Forrest Cake while the adults had their spicy char siew ramen - SUPER YUM man!

Parents Day

Can't believe it, had to meet Renee's teachers last Friday. She's only 4!!! Anyway, we got pretty good comments from Teacher Regina (her form teacher) but so-so comments from Bai Lao Shi (her Chinese teacher). We have to buck up on speaking to her in Mandarin. Chia Lat man...

But she's enjoying her Chinese Drama lessons in school, trying her very best to master hanyu pin yin. Here's some of her art work in school.

Art and cutting

Our little girl is into cutting now....my FIL got her a real pair scissors (don't ask me why) and she's been cutting ever since. She's gotten pretty good at it and I went out and got her some craft glue as well. While at Spotlight (my they've got lots of stuff there!) I saw some foam cut outs. So cute! The fish/dolphin/starfish one is already all over the house and she took the monkey/tree/banana one to paste all over my in-laws's wall! Pretty straight line don't you think??

Super cute trees have some glitter even!

This is the sand art she's been bugging me to do. She picked Dora and next week, we HAVE to go back and do Sponge Bob. Sheeesh!