Chocolate chip muffins on a Friday night

Daddy was out for drinks with his friends this Friday night, so here's what the three of us have been up to at home - Baking chocolate chip muffins!

Wayne was only too pleased to be able to help. From arranging the baking cups on the tray, pouring the ingredients into the mixing bowl and whisking the ingredients to drying all the baking tools after I washed up   - those were his 'jobs' for the night. 

As for Amanda, I asked if she wanted to help bake muffins and guess what her reply was? She told me "Amanda cannot make, cos Amanda is a baby. Amanda cannot make muffin, only can eat. Kor kor can make cos kor kor is big boy." Hahaha. Funny Amanda - she had to add in the part where she "only can eat"!  Of course, when it comes to food, no chance of her missing out!

20 minutes in the oven and our muffins were done, all ready for the kids' supper before bedtime!

Happy weekend, everyone! 

Performance time!

Ever since Wayne joined pre-school three years ago, his year-end concert has undoubtedly been one of the most looked forward event in my calendar. This year, I had double the reason to be excited, with both Wayne and Amanda performing. So excited I was.. I had butterflies in my stomach the night before. Because it was Amanda's first year performing, it just added to my build up of nervous anticipation! While I knew Wayne would perform like a pro, just as he did the previous two years, I had totally no idea how Amanda would fare. Well, turned out.. she was just as splendid as her kor-kor Wayne. I was beaming with pride as I watched the both of them perform. I was so proud, emo me had tears streaming down my cheeks, which initially I thought was quite extreme until I spoke to fellow mommy friends and realised its common to feel this way - they all teared as well!

Another highlight of this year's concert was the inclusion of the K2s graduation ceremony for the first time. In the past years, the K2s graduation was held at a separate event together with the rest of the other Mindchamps centres. Although Wayne was not part of the graduating batch, it brought much pride to mommy and daddy watching the K2s graduate as we have sort of watched them grow since three years back. I love how the ceremony was conducted, with personal touches added. It certainly was quite a touching moment for both the champ as well as their mommies and daddies.. Wayne has just one more year left in the school. He has grown to love his school and teachers and has grown so attached to his gang of friends. We are indeed very happy with how he has progressed in school, and am glad we made the right choice with Mindchamps.

We could see how much effort the teachers and champs had put in for this concert, from all the artwork at the entrance to the smoothly coordinated concert, all of them deserves a huge applause.  Well, we showed our support by having so many of our family members cheering the champs on. Nine to be exact.  Haha, as usual, I think Wayne and Amanda had the biggest entourage clapping for them. 

And for both their awesome performance, it was sure worth it!! 

Starring Amanda in 'Heal the World' 

- little angel was so awesome, centre stage and able to remember all her dance steps. Right till the last moment, when she spotted mommy in the audience and burst out crying "I want mama", much to the laughter of the audience.

Starring Wayne in 'Hua Mu Lan' and "Be like the Cool Kids" 

I must have watched these videos over and over again, and each time it still makes me laugh and laugh, be it Wayne's funny dance moves or Amanda's crying moments. Enjoy!!

Forever your biggest fans, mommy & daddy

And lastly, pictures of Wayne with his teachers and best buddies in school!

My kor kor, my everything

Love this photo of the kids; Amanda instinctively hugged Wayne from behind while they were watching tv.

Big brother got attacked

Daddy's girl

Daddy says Amanda was an angel while out solo with him and is only naughty when mommy is around.

Fun with water

Another attempt to create fun memories for the kids, tire them out in preparation for a good night of sleep before those “I am so bored…” whining surfaces. Haha, so off to the balcony they went for water play while we chilled in the living room. Well, to be honest, we wanted to bring this down to the pool so that the kids had easy access to water but having spent almost the whole day out, we were too tired (not the kids though!), so this was an easy alternative arrangement. Plus it puts our under utilised balcony to good use too.

These days, mention swimming and Amanda would bug me for the longest time saying "I want wear swim suit".

Thank you Da-yi, who actually bought this waterplay table for Gabe during their last trip home and since they are back in Japan, the kids are making sure it doesn't rot. Wayne called this “his best weekend ever” (qualify : he has many “best” and uses best way too freely) - contentment comes easy to this little boy, something we adults should learn as well. But yes he has reason to say that – we brought the kids for their favourite Japanese cold noodle lunch, to the indoor playground, tea time at a café downstairs (read: ice cream), strolling by the river, a drama sampler and to top the day off with this waterplay activity at home, I guess it does qualify as “his best weekend ever”.

A bellygood deepavali celebration

Last month, the kids had their Deepavali celebration in school and we got this really cute outfit for Amanda. Ok, we didn't want to be biased, but Wayne had his Indian costume from two years back which he could still wear, so we kinda re-used that.. which of course, wasn't as cute as the one Amanda had, and which also didn't win him any best dressed prizes, cos well..all the other boys in his class had that same outfit (it was one of his concert outfits two years ago!). Hehe, ok ok, next year we promise we'd get you a new Indian outfit sweetie!

So back to Amanda's costume, Daddy had braved the throngs of Indians at Mustafa Centre to get an outfit for her two days before Deepavali, quite a feat isn't it - imagine the pre-festive period crowd! So a big thank you to Daddy who insisted on making a trip there as he wanted to create memories for his little girl. 

Here’s our little Indian princess with her sexy tummy popping out. The skirt was a tad tight so I had to buckle it just below her tummy. Haha. And she loved the costume - even did a few Bollywood worthy poses for us! Yes, memories indeed! Super love!

Sunday scooting

Scooting on a beautiful Sunday morning!

It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning, and the kids wasted no time in getting themselves dressed for some morning exercise as soon as they got out of bed. Helmets on, sneakers on, and we were all set. Didn't matter that we only had an hour and that we had not even had breakfast.   

Once we got downstairs, Wayne was pretty much zooming off by himself. Amanda, on the other hand, hasn't quite mastered her scooting skills to kor kor's level. So instead of being left behind, she insisted I push her. Speedily. Shows of her two traits - her laziness and impatience. Haha. Gotta get Amanda practising harder! I figure maybe the way to this is to let her practise solo, without Wayne. Cos when he is around he'd go really fast and she of course, wouldn't want to be left behind. She gets really frustrated when she can't move as fast and gives up. Which reminds me, we haven't even got her started on the Strider. Can't wait for her to be a pro on both the scoot and the Strider! We could then cover further distances and explore more places. 

So after an hour outdoors, the kids came home all sweaty but so happy! Love to see those smiles on their faces!

Our princess

One of the best things of having a baby girl as compared to a boy is being able to doll her in all things sweet and pink and girly. Who can resist those frills and bows which makes that already cute face a hundred times more so??? 

Ever since we knew we were expecting a baby girl, that stash of hair clips and bands have been growing, and boy did I have fun dolling her up when I was on maternity leave everyday. That we were spending our entire day at home didn't matter, it just made her look so adorable and mommy happy with all those Kodak worthy shots. So I had fun playing dress up with this tiny little baby for about nine months since she was born, when she suddenly realised she had a mind of her own and decided to yank off whatever you placed on your head. Hats, clips, bands - she refused them all! Poof.. there went all mommy's fun, and for most of the months after that, her stash of accessories stayed where it was - in the drawers. 

And for the benefit of those who don't really know Amanda, well, all these while growing up, she has never been the girly kind of girl. She plays the trains and cars with korkor, cries and screams as loud as the boys, won't allow others to bully her, scolds her korkor and anyone else for that matter when she's angry. And of course.. her size and thunder thighs aren't really princess material too.  Lol. Well...  anyway, in a nut shell, she kinda dashed mommy's hope of having a gentle, demure girl in love with pink and princesses. In fact, if I have to be objective, coupled with that character of hers, she's quite the monster. Haha.

But then... just as suddenly as she started refusing anything on her head, lately this little girl seemed to have re-discovered the beauty of them all. Lured by vanity, and influenced by the princess shows on Disney Junior, mommy is starting to see some hope! These days she chooses what she wants to wear (mostly dresses and in pink), opens my wardrobe mirror, holds up the two sides of her skirts, peers at herself, and asks me "Am i princess?".  Haha... yes, my sweetie you do look like a princess. 

So with that sudden change, her accessories are making an appearance again and seriously, I'm starting to realise how looks can be so deceiving. Quite the demure and sweet, gentle girl she looks here? Looking at these photos, I think I could almost forget how naughty she actually is. Haha. After taking this set of  photos this morning, she insisted I showed it to ah por, yeye and nainai. Sometimes I truly forget this little girl is just, two.

And yes, mommy is happy to start growing that collection of hair accessories again!

The accident

Just before bedtime last night, Amanda, Wayne and I were reading a story book when we came across a part on ambulances. “Nee naw, nee naw, nee naw” Amanda shouted as she pointed to the ambulance.

 I was reminded of the accident we had more than a month back and wondered if Amanda could remember what happened. I decided to ask her about it and our conversation went something like this:

Mommy:             Amanda do you remember the time you were in the ambulance?

Amanda:              Yes… painful.

Mommy:             Where was it painful?

Amanda:              Neck. *points to her neck* Neck painful. Doctor check.

Mommy:             What happened? Why was your neck painful?

Amanda:              Car. Car broken.

So yes, just two years old but she does pretty much know what had happened.

Anyway for the record, we got into a car accident along ECP quite a few Sundays back. It was one of those chain collisions. The kids were with us in the car and the impact from the taxi hitting our car from behind was quite strong, leaving us pretty shaken and Amanda crying from the shock. As Amanda was crying and complained that her neck was painful, the police activated the ambulance to get her checked, so off we had to go to the hospital.  After some checks and an x-ray, thankfully she was deemed fine and we could go home. We were thankful that no one was injured, just minor neck strains for the husband and for me strangely, a swollen ankle. Wayne was a bit fearful of the whole incident, but recovered well too. A reminder to us all on driving safely and to all parents out there, I guess we can’t stress enough how important it is to use child seats.

Happy halloween everyone (belated)!

Trick or treat!!

The only time i was sooo prepared for the kids schools celebration, preparing their costumes a whole month ahead.. only to realize this year, the school decided not to have a halloween party. Boo!!!

Amanda-licious @ 2 years and 3 months

Our girl of a thousand faces.