Endless birthday parties

That is what it must seem like to parents... Nate had two this weekend and at the same time slot. One is with his friend Julian from school and I had some pictures but I have now changed phones that I can't find the shots! They live in a really nice colonial bungalow, the walkways reminded me of 42 Pahang Road though the tiles are now a plain plain one.

Then we had max's birthday in their new house. A sleepover party. The whole week nate did not want to sleep over, even until the last minute but when we got there he did not want to leave... so he stayed over with 7 other boys and girls (very brave max's parents!) and they had a big tent, torch lights and apparently did not sleep till 11pm.

On saturday they had a Ben Ten play and on Sunday they had Thomas the train.... phew. I am so looking forward to our no kids bali yoga retreat in 2 more days... yay!!

A & E again...

Ike pulls down our collapsible square table and it falls on him, he cries and then passes out from over crying, he didn't nap and seemed quite tired. I wake him up 20 mins later and he says he tummy still hurts so we go and check it out... all is ok, under observation though...

Here he is as Mr. bump in bandages on his belly. Passed out.... Nate helping me peel a pomegranate and our biking trip out with uncle peter last thursday. I miss uncle peter and his thurs with the boys....

Hari Raya Haji

This morning we headed to Sentosa beach with the boys and bullet. The last time I took bullet there, he was a puppy, well maybe a year old and he ran straight into the water, paddled and swam about happily while Jake and Pistol sat on the shore looking at him.

I thought I'd take him back, well he was alot more apprehensive of the water, only until I was in did he swim in, only to want to be near me, he felt rather unsafe or uncomfortable otherwise. Maybe because there were alot of other dogs, he was also very cautious. At the beginning even a small dog chasing and sniffing him got him nervous and at one point he even rolled on his belly!!

The boys enjoyed the beach very much, even olivia got all wet. We got home, I fell asleep watching TV while we rested before the next activity... Sarah's birthday party. Its the longest one I have been to, form 130 to 530... As you can see from the schedule, the boys had a lot of activities and it was a drop off party!! yay, I came home to nap longer, I realise now that from next year onwards, the boys will have alot of drop off parties... they, well at least nate has hit the independant stage! woo hoo.

When I was gone though, apparently the kids gorged on sweeties, they had about 5 lollipops and 3 mini candyfloss things (which nate could even describe how they are made) and a coca cola... With no nap and so much sweeties, we could actually watch Ike go high and then come crashing... with meltdowns. Both passed out quickly at bedtime too. Nate has made it to age 5 without cavities, lets see if Ike would too....

Last friday... aaah

This is a shot from our girl's spa day in celebration of Yang Ping's birthday at the spa botanica on sentosa. We pile on volcanic mud from NZ like hippos... then let it dry and then wash it off. Lilin washed up earlier and so we got this shot. We all then had our massages, the thai one is really good and then a lunch affair. Nice way to celebrate but that was last friday... this friday is a public holiday...

End of term assessment

I went to the parent teacher meetings today...

Ike is doing well for his group, apparently he has gone from being quite aggressive (pushing and biting) in the beginning of the semester, not knowing the new teachers to a boy that understands he won't have friends if he is hostile. He's talking alot more and so I think not only can he express himself better, his teachers have learnt "ike-speak".

He is ambidextrous and uses both hands to color and the samples of his coloring have greatly improved. When he is doing art and craft, on the stuff he likes, he really excels. I think he has gotten alot of one on one attention and that has improved his growth. He is starting to gain lots of vocabulary including chinese but his pronounciation is still off. LIke he says Chinese as Kainese. We just need to correct him before it becomes a habit.

Nate's strengths were reiterated, he has a superb memory, very good math skills, able to put together words and soon sentences. He is gotten over his reluctance to write or make mistakes writing, he seems to fear making mistakes in writing in the past but has gotten over that hump. He also likes to please but seems to have a very black or white view of life so good and bad are black and white to him and not shades of grey. The combination results in him "blaming" others as he wants so much to be good but as a 5 year old he is also cheeky and playful.

Both classes do not emphasize homework at all but learning thru play and they seem to play all day, I think they will like the Finnish school system! New literature on writing and reading apparently do not require rote copying. Hmmm... wonder how that would work for chinese.

I feel like Ike is ok where he is, in fact the school and small classes are beneficial for him, whereas Nate may not be challenged enough as I think he could do more but I guess as children they should be playing, so play they shall...

While waiting between the meetings... I spotted that the school is building a pool, maybe there will be swim lessons in school? I got to spend 30 mins with both teachers per class, ie and hour in total, was told by my cousin that they only get allocated 5 mins per child and if their report card says they are doing well for their grade, the parents don't even come in to see the teachers.

Moving library

Ah... its peace and quiet now as both boys have passed out. Nate is enjoying his jewish school as he has a new friend called Elliot. We've decided to hold a midday hanukka party on the 19th of dec.

This is a picture of the moving library, I usually take ike to the library when nate is in jewish school, this week we were particularly productive, I was able to pick up some auction catalogues, walk to the library, he checked out the moving library which is actually a bus (his yellow shirt makes him blend into the library), he was happy to find a thomas book and borrowed it (its nice also that we can return the book at any library and there is one near our home, on top of that they send me an sms when the book is almost due).

We then went to a chinese bookstore and bought "danao tiankong" (big chaos in heaven), a chinese classic cartoon movie, I think it was done in the 1940s? and apparently was the 3rd full length cartoon film released after Disney's two earlier ones, these were done by my granddad's friends, the Wan brothers (animation directors) and the the Zhang brother (artists). I watched it with the boys tonight before bedtime (the last time I saw this was in 1977), its still quite good! Guess what everyone is getting for hannuka!!!

What a week...

I think I sometimes don't realise what we have done in the week till I do the blog posting and see all the different pictures... So if I haven't said this, Uncle Peter is in town and has been a great help with the kids, he takes them on Thursdays, "uncle peter day" and a week ago I think the went to the discovery center and last week to the science center. The boys also got big presents... (their lucky month!). Here is Nate with his star wars vehicle. He even brought this to school for show and tell as their module is to talk about transportation.

Its been raining tonnes here that there was even a flash flood (apparently a once in 50 years occurance), that bukit timah was flooded, even some basements of luxury apartments and a ferrari and a porsche were totally submerged. Wonder if insurance covers these "acts of god".

Then we took the (south african zippy) bikes yesterday to the botanical gardens, the boys had a good time going down the slopes but then ike didn't make a turn and crashed out. A bit in shock, a scraped forehead, elbow and knee but overall quite brave. Then I had to subject them to a dentist appointment, which wasn't bad at all as they have not been traumatised by a dentist yet, both have shiny shiny teeth now... loren had a conference so we also did the science museum and then sushi and they got to see the orchard road christmas lights, well actually only the tanglin mall Xmas display, with fake foam as snow...

Sunday Brunch

I think the brits here really like their champagne brunches! Not only was the St. Regis full, we could barely get into the Fullerton. We did however manage to find a car park spot across the road at the museum which was free vs probably S$10 bucks.

Then I took the boys to watch Astroboy the movie and yesterday, the boys were at the american club terrorizing the bowling alley and the games room.

I have now set up another blog called http://niubizi.blogspot.com. Its my prelim attempts to document the adventure of discovering things about my granddad... today after having a session talking about how we are going to do the Niubizi traveling exhibition in China, I get in my in box.... an email from the son of a famous cartoonist who was also a friend of my granddad. Very nice! also that they are building a China Museum of Cartoons... he will link us up... woo hoo. I will stop hijacking this blog...

Bollywood - Kranji

Finally took the boys up to the Kranji farms on the weekend. Its like the countryside of Singapore, lots of farms, from organic farms to a goat farm to fish farms, we managed to only go to two...

The pink stuff is eggs of some creature am not sure what but they look poisonous. Ike got bitten by mosquitoes and wanted to be carried but nate was quite gung ho. At the fish farm he even tossed the water snails back into the pond.

Will take Ter and the boys there when they are in Singapore, reminds me of the places dad used to bring us.