Jacob Ballas Children’s Playground

Finally, a trip to this famous playground!! The last time we came here, it was closed for the day (it was a Monday)! This place is really cool in a sense that it is only open to children. Adults without children aren’t allowed in, which ensures the place isn’t overly crowded with the Botanical Garden crowd.

It was quite a large garden, with many play areas as well as educational corners. There was this area explaining photosynthesis.

And an area showing how this wooden instrument could make music..

.. which was all cool, but mommy & Wayne were more interested in the play areas!!!!

First, we played at the playground, all equipped with Wayne’s sand castle tools. Stepped onto the sand, and our little boy’s reaction? “Eeiiii… mommy, my feet is dirty!!!” “Rub it off, rub it off!” Look at his expression!! Good thing that lasted only for 5 minutes, after which he forgot about it and started digging at the sand with his rake and played like how a boy should. Phew.

Next came the water area… We came all prepared, with extra clothes for Wayne so that he could play at the water area. Alas…. Our little boy didn’t dare to play with the water!!!! Hahahaha…. After all mommy’s excitement at the thought of playing at the water area with Wayne, Wayne Wayne didn’t even dare to touch the water… mommy was so disappointed. Hahaha.

And so, after a hot 1 hour in the sun, which by this time Wayne's fringe was 'plastered' to his forehead, it was time for some cool ICE CREAM!!! Yum yum, Wayne is starting to know how to enjoy ice cream! *I want more!!!*

Hooray! Dad’s back!!

… With presents for Wayne & mommy!!

Mommy & Wayne waited patiently for daddy to appear at the luggage conveyor at T2.. Although it was past Wayne’s bedtime, today was an exception cos daddy has been in Hong Kong for the past 4 days and mommy & Wayne Wayne misses daddy lots!

Sleepy Wayne was all quiet & glum while waiting for daddy.. until he saw daddy through the glass window and immediately broke out in a grin!! “My daddy’s HOME!” And when daddy was out & pulled Wayne’s present from his bag.. Wayne gave such a BIG BIG smile cos it was DONALD!! Wayne’s favourite Donald Duck! Another one to his collection!!

We’ll add Minnie, Daisy & Pluto and Wayne’s collection will soon be complete!

And that’s not all that daddy brought back for Wayne! There was also a Mickey Mouse themed water bottle which Wayne so loves!

As for mommy.. hehe.. mommy had a figure hugging dress.. wow.. daddy bought a dress for mommy! And it fitted perfectly! *Impressed*

Thanks Daddy! Do you want to go away on holiday again? =p

Wayne's photo albums are still empty!

Embarrassingly enough, these albums have been lying under the table... empty.. for at least a year now. Meant for Wayne's photos, mommy has been unbelievably lazy and has not developed photos of Wayne till now... *utterly ashamed*...

And the longer mommy procrastinates, the harder it is to do so cos there are just too many photos now. Month 1 : Day 1, Day 2..... till now Month 19 : Day 22.. Shucks.. How is mommy going to even start combing thru all the folders and choose photos to develop??

Another one to mommy's "To do list" for December.

Growing up well @ 19 months

At 19 months, Wayne took his Hepatitis A and 5-in-1 booster jab. Mommy never knew there were that many jabs to take in the first 2 years! Wayne must have had at least 8-10 jabs so far since birth???

Wayne is now 83cm tall and weighs 10.6kg. Wayne's now at the 5oth percentile, up from the 25th percentile he was in. Good job, Wayne!

Hmm, at 10.6kg, mommy's back is already on the verge of breaking.. mommy wonders how those other mommies with kids at the 75th-100th percentile cope with the weight????

Reading is fun!

Reading is really one thing mommy & daddy hopes Wayne would grow up loving! This morning, after our healthy breakfast at Cedele @ Wheelock, mommy & daddy brought Wayne to Border's where there were rows and rows of storybooks for Wayne!

What caught Wayne's interest was of course the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse storybooks!!

Wayne really enjoyed this book. There were buttons on the book, which when pressed would play songs from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon. Whenever Wayne pressed the "Oh Toodles" button, he'd do this 'shouting' action, just as how Goofy does in the cartoon!

Wayne would do his funny shaking action (his way of dancing) whenever he heard this opening tune..

Wayne says... kla & bo!!!

We have been encouraging little Wayne to speak by asking him to say the word out when he asks for something. For example when he wants his milk, he'd always do the drinking action with his hands, so now we'll ask him to repeat the word 'milk' after us. Wayne still can't really say any words clearly... but he is making some good progress by saying...

...the words 'BO' for BALL and 'KLA' for CLASS!!!!!

And he says the words with such gusto, our little drama king!!!

Wayne has ramen!

Since Wayne turned a year and a half, mommy & daddy has been more lax with the food that we let him eat. While in the past, we tried to give him only organic food and absolutely no 'outside' food, now we have been letting Wayne try bits and pieces of 'adult' food.

Like today, mommy & daddy went for dinner at Marutama (yummy!) and Wayne had his share of ramen as well. Mommy ordered plain ramen for Wayne plus a bowl of meatball soup.. which was rather delicious!! Wayne ate two meatballs plus lotsa ramen!!

Was that yummy, baby??

Meeska, mooska, Mickey Mouse!

Wayne's all time favourite character is Mickey Mouse (with Goofy coming in a close second!).. and one day, while watching his Mickey Mouse cartoon, Wayne Wayne started getting all fidgety, pointing to the TV screen, shaking his head vigorously.. and finally bursting into tears!!!

Mommy & daddy got all worried and quickly went over to him, and guess what Wayne was getting all upset about?

It was Pete, the bad character, disguising himself as Mickey Mouse!!! Hahaha, mommy thought that was awfully cute!! Wayne was getting protective over Mickey.

The next time we played this particular episode, even before we got to this scene, Wayne already started shaking his head and crying. So, for now, the episode's banned. Hmm, I wonder what his reaction would be if mommy wore a Mickey Mouse suit? Or daddy. Haha.

Cute.

Come & play hide and seek with me!

Eversince grandma and grandpa moved into their new home, Wayne has found himself a new game to play.. Hide and seek behind the curtains!

Can you spot the little rascal??

Everytime you shout "Where is Wayne Wayne?", he'd quickly run out from his hiding place laughing away...

Quality time.... finally!!

After the past 3 months of slogging hard at work, finally work is slowing down (I hope so!).. just in time for the year-end holidays.

Mommy & daddy will be taking leave from work a few days on and off till the year-end so thats something to look forward to! Havent been having much fun time with Wayne, either mommy was too busy at work or mommy was just exhausted from the late nights. Sorry Wayne! Daddy have been really understanding & thoughtful this period, helping with caring for Wayne at night, fetching Wayne to and fro nai nai's house each day, bringing Wayne for class & all.... & all the while, not complaining at all. Thanks Daddy!

So now, mommy is going to plan a few fun places to bring Wayne to! Look forward to it darling! Yay!!!!

Ting ah yi gets married!

Ting and JJ got married, and the family was all excited for this event! The wedding dinner was held once in JB and another time in Kluang.. In JB, it was at Pulai Springs Resort and that turned into a mini holiday for the family as we all stayed over in one of the family suites. Wayne Wayne was also the boy to open the bridal car door!! Wayne's first time!

Ting ah-yi is one of mommy's closer cousins.. and this girl.. she has one of the kindest hearts mommy knows! Now that she is all grown up & found someone whom she loves & someone to take care of her, mommy feels very very happy for her. Mommy wishes Ting and JJ lots of happiness in this special union!!

The princess!

Mommy & Wayne with Mommy's granny and auntie.. What is Wayne laughing at??

The family..
Uncle Ken & San-yi with Ting yi!

Wayne & his funny expression again

For the wedding, mommy was in charge of the red packet box as well as corsages for the sisters! Mommy enjoys making these kind of things so mommy was more than happy to help Ting with this task! Mommy just loves weddings, never fails to make mommy happy!

The red packet box mommy decorated!

And the corsages, in the red and white theme..

Bye darling-s!

Bye wayne darling, Mommy's going away for a short trip, mommy will miss you n daddy lots! You broke mommy's heart with your screams as mommy left! But mommy will be back very very soon k! Daddy will take good care of you & bring you to lots of fun places! Love you both!

Ps: dear, I will take good care & find that life jacket! :p

Hello Hello Hello!

Wayne's favourite past time is chatting on the phone, yakky yak yak yak yak....

Looks like daddy needs to save money from now for when Wayne has a girlfriend and chalks up a hefty phonebill for daddy to pay...

You are beautiful in our eyes!

Mommy absolutely adores this photo of Wayne! Thanks Yi yi!

Mommy's 30 & we had a wonderful celebration!

This must have been one of my happiest birthdays. Every year I say that but I really was very very happy this birthday… Mommy loves birthdays. Mommy always feels so loved and happy and pampered.

First, mommy received this awesome birthday gift from mommy’s family.. a night’s stay at MBS where we had so much fun! Thanks all, you guys are the best!!! I loved this present!!

The view was breathtakingly awesome.. once we stepped into the room, the curtains drew open and wow, the view was of the city, with Fullerton hotel and the river in front us.. it was superb... and the night view even better with all the lightings..

The room was really spacious and nice, and the toilet simply huge with this stand alone bath tub that mommy loved.. The view from the 39th floor, taken from our room.. In the evening.. I think we must have spent most of our time by this full length window taking in the view... =p

That night, daddy together with mommy’s family gave me a surprise dinner celebration at Oscar’s at Conrad Hotel. Mommy and daddy got married here so anything to do with Conrad brings back special memories. Mommy thought it was dinner with just daddy and Wayne…so when we arrived at Oscars and mommy saw grandpa, grandma, mic, terry, viv, ken and elaine all there, mommy’s heart when jumping up and down!

Wayne enjoying his 'buffet' dinner too.. of many many different kind of biscuits (but this long stick was his favourite!!! He must have had at least 5 that night!) and fruits!

One, two, three and four.. mommy & my beautiful sisters! My pretty birthday cake! Designed by Viv.. all from the buffet counter!!
Wayne helping mommy blow the candle!
Thank you daddy & Wayne..
Thank you everyone!! 10 of us in our beautiful family!!

After dinner, we headed back to our room at MBS and then came the most touching part of my whole birthday celebration.. mommy was on the bed playing with Wayne Wayne when mommy’s eye drifted to the television and mommy saw the caption “Dearie’s 30th birthday” on the screen.. daddy had prepared a video montage of mommy’s life in the past few years before turning 30!!!! Photos of mommy and daddy dating, all our holidays together, our wedding, honeymoon and of wayne wayne joining us in the world and our lives together with wayne… it was so beautiful. Mommy was really touched by the effort daddy had put in in making this video montage….. Thanks daddy, that was truly awesome.

And mommy’s birthday card from daddy and Wayne, it was made by daddy and had photos of Wayne Wayne and daddy all over! Mommy loves it so much!!!

Mommy's VERY impressed you managed to get our impatient Wayne to take so many photos together with you!! My best birthday card ever!

The next morning on mommy’s actual birthday, we had breakfast at the MBS café and then headed to the skypark and infinity pool which was so beautiful!! It was on the 57th floor and had the most spectacular view of the city!!! Wayne Wayne enjoyed playing in the pool!

The view from the edge..

And when Mommy thought my birthday celebration was over.. there was more! But this time, with daddy only! Daddy had sneaked in some romantic couple time with mommy! In the evening, daddy and mommy dropped Wayne at grandma’s and daddy brought mommy for an Italian dinner at Basilico’s!

It was a semi buffet meal.. appetisers and desserts were from the buffet counter while mains were from the menu. The food was good and the place quiet.. it was perfect as mommy just wanted to enjoy the night with daddy... Mommy ordered risotto for the main..

... while daddy had his steak!

And mommy's birthday present from daddy, a bag!!! *happy happy happy*

Thanks daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks daddy for planning so many things for mommy!! It was a really beautiful celebration. After this, you are officially the best husband in the world!!!!

Thanks mom, dad, mic, terry, viv, ken and elaine too!! Turning 30 with the awesome view at MBS was wonderful!!!! I loved the stay, I loved the view, I loved the skypark and pool and I love you all!!!

Happy happy happy birthday to me!!!

Mommy’s 30 & it feels awesome

Mommy turned 30 this Monday, the big 3-0 age that all woman moan and groan about…. but for mommy – I just felt really happy and contented on my 30th birthday as I reflected back on my life all these years.

I have so many things to be thankful for and so many things that make me happy in life. I can’t help but be very grateful for everything that I have going for me in my life.

I have the most loving husband, who makes me laugh each day, who warms my heart doting on me, loving me, making me feel like this really awesome woman.. when I’m just me, with my flaws and all. No one makes me happier than you do. Thanks for tolerating all my nonsense, cheering me up when I am down and reminding me to keep my chin up when the going gets tough. You are my pillar of strength and my soul mate. I will always remember the day we exchanged our wedding vows, the day you made me the luckiest woman around. I love you lots.

My little precious Wayne, my sweet little boy, who makes mommy’s heart go all soft and mush each time I think of you and see you. You are so affectionate and loving, always so generous with your hugs and kisses, which mommy so adores. You fill mommy’s heart with happiness and complete mommy’s life. You teach mommy the meaning of life and you have taught mommy what it means to love unconditionally. Mommy will forever love you with all my heart and will always be there to protect you and stand by your side no matter what happens. Mommy loves you more than you will ever know, my little boy.

My beautiful family – mommy, daddy, mic, terry, viv, ken, elaine – I cant ask for more. I know you guys will always be there for me should I need you and for that I’m so thankful and blessed. Thanks for loving me, hk and wayne wayne the way you guys do. And to my mommy & daddy, thanks for always giving me your all.

I’m thankful for the good health we have now, and pray that we will all remain healthy, each and every single one of us.

I’m thankful that financially we are all doing well and pray that we will all continue to be blessed, each and every single one of us.

I’m thankful that each day when I wake up, I have a whole world waiting for me.

My resolution as I turn 30? I’m going to live life to the fullest, love the people I love to the fullest and make a choice to BE HAPPY each day!