This is probably one of Jay’s favourite places in the entire Singapore. Taking advantage of my two-week break from work, I brought him to The Polliwogs one morning!
I’ll let the photos do the talking!
He even made a mini “caterpillar” from the broken off parts of these plastic balls, and was happily showing it off to me!
It was a wonderful morning spent with my prince! :)
A HUGE thank you to my awesome cell members, who after reading my blog entry on the Lion King decided to give Jay a chance to watch the show with Nic & I as well! Woohooooo~! I was really pretty taken aback by their generosity, cos it also came with a nice pink Ed Hardy top! Haha!
Well, thanks to them, Jay will get to see the show too! Yay!
Oh, and it was such a cultural day for me – I also got 2 pairs of tickets for The Magic Treetop, an Esplanade production in a month’s time!
I have always tried to maintain my family Christmas tradition of only opening our presents on Christmas Day itself. I am such a stickler for this! Nic thinks it is kinda strange. Jay probably thinks Mommy is torturing him. But nonetheless… tradition rules, especially for this! I also think it is so much more fun to open ALL your presents at one shot rather than opening as you get them. Fun for Mommy, obviously. Jay had a harder time understanding the rationale. Haha!
I did make a small concession, and allowed Jay to choose a present to open on Christmas Eve.
Auntie Sharon would be glad to know that without the slightest hesitation, Jay decided to open the elephant puppet! He even remembered which wrapper it was in!
But Christmas soon came, and the onslaught started!
Still in his pyjamas and with bed-hair to boot, Jay started selecting which present to open. He didn’t go for the largest presents, but rather chose the presents for the wrapper! Haha!
With each present opened came the insistent, “Can I play with this NOW?”
This is just SOME of the maaaaany gifts Jay received! He is such a blessed kid, with so many good Uncles and Aunties who adore him and splurged on him. Thank you for your generosity!
… especially with my little prince in da house!
He’s getting togged out for his party at Little Big!
I think he would have ADORED a real Santa costume, but I couldn’t get my hands on any!
Even the prince gets camera-shy at times…
A close friend sent me a message on Saturday night, strongly urging me to bring Jay to the Marina Bay Sands over the weekend to catch the special open house for the upcoming musical due to open in March 2011.
I decided to heed her advice, and set off for MBS on Sunday.
It is really one of my favourite places! From gorgeous trees lining the entire area…
To pretty shops…
And loads of pretty architecture…
It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday evening! Having such a cavernous place also had the added benefit of not feeling squashed in by the crowds, as most malls are on weekends!
But our main motive was not lost…
And we soon reached MBS Theatres!
Jay busied himself looking at the exhibits on display and was immediately taken with the rhino!
We made our way into the newly opened Theatre, and caught some of the show’s highlights as well.
As you can see, Jay was pretty engrossed… for the first five minutes or so. Then his hunger pangs got the better of him! Haha!
But before we left… I made a decision to buy two tickets to the show when it opens in March! I originally wanted to get three (for us + Jay) but decided to be a little prudent seeing how each ticket costs $128…
Of cos AFTER getting the tickets, I am still considering getting Jay seats to this, seeing how he adores animals and I think he would be intrigued by the gorgeous costumes on display! Any sponsors? Hahaha!
This morning, before school, inspired by last evening’s outing, Jay took out an “old” jigsaw puzzle…
And with his usual intense concentration, completed the entire puzzle in 15 minutes flat!
This Christmas has been a season of much giving and buying and present-wrapping.
And I realised that my earlier estimate of 80 presents is off. We are truly blessed to be surrounded by so many close friends! Hahaha!
I just did a quick sum of how many presents I had already bought, and the figure came up to a whopping 56 presents for kids, and 38 presents for friends/colleagues of Nic & I. And after thinking through, I realised I still had another 8 more presents to get! Yikes… And to think I’d thought that I had completed my Christmas shopping already!
God bless our wallets!
[And no… not all the presents are wrapped yet. *sob!*]
This year, I told myself I would not make the mistake of previous years.
You know, the mistake of presents bought at the last-minute, and endless trips to the mall to get “oh-my-gosh-I-forgot-to-buy-for-so-and-so-oh-just-kill-me” gifts.
So this year, I was a real good girl.
I married my online shopping prowess with the mighty credit card. It was mighty then, just mighty thin now.
I scoured my favourite online shops, and actually managed to complete a good 75% of my Christmas presents online! Woohoo!
I was beaming from my amazing Christmas feat – by the beginning of December, I gloated at the thought that I had nothing to be worried about when it came to this year’s Christmas.
Nothing, that is, except the wrapping.
My convoluted list of which-present-is-for-who was written is such garbled language that I was the only one able to decipher the code. And so I was. The only one to wrap the presents. I hauled my heavily pregnant butt to sit on the floor for a good two and a half hours, and here was what I had to show for numb legs.
Wrappers courtesy of Ikea.
Roll of pretty gold ribbon.
And ta-da, the completed prezzies! I wrapped almost 40 presents in all! Yippee to me! (And that means just another 40 more to go… Lovely.)
Well, here’s hoping your Christmas preparations go smoother this year as well!
I think when my second prince comes along, Jay will have a mighty fine time talking to his little brother!
Here’s his take on certain things…
On sharing his toys:
Mommy: When Didi comes, will you share your toys with him?
Jay: No.
Mommy: Erm, how about the toys you are not playing with anymore?
Jay: Huh?
Mommy: You know, the baby toys you have in the box. Not your animals or puzzles, but those baby toys.
Jay: (considering) Hmm… OK. Can.
On playing with Didi:
Mommy: You will have so much fun playing with Didi next time!
Jay: (smiles widely)
Pause while Jay digests what I’ve said…
Jay: After playing, will Didi go back in? (Pointing to my tummy)
Mommy: No sweetheart, once Didi comes out, he is out. For good.
On Christmas Day & presents-time:
Jay: Why is my elephant puppet wrapped up? (Present courtesy of Aunty Sharon)
Mommy: Because it is a Christmas present, and you can only open your presents on Christmas day.
Jay: When is Christmas?
Mommy: Coming soon, baby. (I doubt he understands the concept of “two weeks later”)
Fast-forward to another conversation…
Jay to Aunty/Grandma/Aunty Umah (or anyone who’ll listen): Mommy says I can open my presents tomorrow!
[This is my fault. Tomorrow does seem “soon” to an almost-three-year-old!]
We went to this small little restaurant at Albert Court Hotel, called Kichn, to give a pre-enlistment farewell dinner for Jingye. It was a cosy little place, and our huge group of some 20 people overwhelmed the small kitchen crew at Kichn.
Nevertheless, there was good company and fun and laughter to fill in the waiting time.
And of course, there was Jayvon. Who slowly but surely warmed up to all the adoring aunties and uncles.
He was offered a Santa hat, and he had an initial aversion towards this furry red thing. Till I pointed out that this was Santa’s hat, and even sang two lines of “Santa Claus’ coming to town…!” which sparked off his interest in it, and he loved the hat!
Oh he really, really adored it!
My adorable little Christmas elf. (But don’t tell him that. He is Santa, you see. Elf doesn’t cut it.)
And he started belting out Christmas songs to entertain. Me, mostly, but still I appreciated the distraction from my rumbling tummy! Haha!
Here’s Daddy with Uncle Jingye. Happy NS life ahead!
And Jay totally loving his vantage point from way up there!
There is such great persuasion in social media (and in the testimonials of a friend). After reading a friend’s blog about her recent trip to Bali, I was so inspired that I managed to convince Nic to also take a much-needed family vacation there before I pop!
This pre-popping trip is important, cos I didn’t manage to go for a planned one when I was carrying Jayvon due to health reasons (Sob!), and so I am so, so, SO looking forward to my Bali trip!
I must say though, Bali wasn't my first choice initially.
I had my heart set on going on Royal Caribbean Cruise! Though it would have cost a lot more, I was so excited about it! I must have called the Royal Caribbean office twice, making specific enquiries, and when I finally got down to booking our cruise, I was happily typing in the various information required till I hit a snag.
Called their Pregnancy Policy.
Which specifically disallowed boarding if you are at or above your 24th week of pregnancy.
I immediately whipped out my past gynae records and did some calculations. The date of my proposed 6-night cruise would be on my 25th week. GROAN! I tried to see if we could get an earlier cruise date, but that was totally booked up, and they refused to budge on their 24-week policy. Sigh. It was so disappointing, and it sparked off a fresh round of research for our holiday destination!
Well, after much “turmoil”, we will be flying off to Bali from January 3-7, 2011. Yippee!
Do you remember the things you said you would do when you were, you know, older? I’m not just talking about wishing you would grow up to be a policeman or a teacher or a lawyer (though kudos to you if you fulfilled your childhood fantasy).
It’s things that you thought you’d do or be when you turned, say, 30. Like travel the world twice over, or live in some exotic cultures for a season in your life, or get on a yacht or see the inside of a Lamborghini.
For me? I had some ideas up my sleeve. Some more idealistic than others, some more materialistic.
And one of the things… which I SAID I would do once I hit 30… was to succumb to using SK-II. Yes. That much-lauded “miracle water.” Heaven knows I need whatever boost I can get.
I was lamenting to my hubby about my failure to fulfill this, despite hitting the big 3-0. Of course, being the man he is, and knowing the imminent outflow of cash it would incur, he tried to convince me I didn’t need this “miracle water.”
Hmm. Yeah. Right.
But I succumbed. The moment I drew near that SK-II counter, I could already feel my wallet lightening. And so it was meant to be, that I got my hands on these SK-II products. I immediately told Nic about it, and told him to pray… that either it works super well for me, OR it has zero effect. Hahaha!
Here’s to better skin!
A busy month of November preparing for camp after camp has kept me occupied enough to put off planning for the arrival of my second prince.
Gosh.
Now when I DO have a little bit more time to think about it… it is scary. To have to do it all over again.
The nightly 3-hour feeds. The sterilizing of the bottles. The teeny-tiny baby with the teeny-tiny clothes.
We really do need to sit and plan out what to get for Baby. Having our kids this far apart also means (1) I have half-forgotten how to care for an infant, (2) I have either thrown or given away a lot of stuff for the care of the said infant and (3) I need to get MORE stuff!
A well-meaning friend asked me a few weeks back what he could get for Baby. Without blinking an eye, I replied, “Money.” I think only parents will understand the wisdom of my words. Haha!
Lord, bless us in our planning! *Cue the frenzied hair-pulling running-like-a-headless-chicken state-of-utter-panic routine to begin soon…*
After four days in Johor Bahru for the YK District Retreat, Alicia and I made our way for Retreat #2… our Staff Retreat – UP. UP stands for United + Purposed, and it would be held at Bintan Lagoon Resorts, a gorgeous beach-front resort on this small Indonesian island.
UP, from idea to execution, took a grand total of five short weeks, which left the Committee gasping for air at times, and thanking God for smooth operations at other times! Thankfully we had very able people taking charge of the various segments of the camp (from technical details to the program flow to games…), and the Committee had loads of fun and lots of laughter in the midst of all the planning!
Having the Retreat in Bintan also meant a great deal of logistical issues to consider, from the ferry to Visas for non-Singaporeans, to the rooming configurations… so the staff were also compliant enough to help out with that. Changes abounded, as can be expected, but all was taken in good stride!
The past three days were spent hearing from our mentors, eating together, playing together, and it was an unbelievable and undeniably awesome Retreat! For this one, we decided to not bring along our maid (cos of the money we’d spent on the earlier retreat, and also because I didn’t have the time to bring her to the Indonesian embassy to get her endorsement letter done up, to save us on the $190 required upon her exit of Indonesia!). So it made things triply tiring for us, juggling sessions and having to also care for Jay.
But it was also time well-spent with him! Not too much free & easy time, but at least we managed to spend some time on the beach!
The sessions with PK and PP… the superb telematch… the people and the fellowship… what awesome memories we’ve created in the last 3 days!
I was station-master for the telematch, and I walk away with these memories…
What an seemingly innocent prop! A blue basin!
* Faces cropped out so I won’t get killed back in the office on Tuesday.
The telematch was spread out over a good part of the resort, so teams had to RUN a lot!
And at the end of the 10 stations, this was what greeted them…
And if you ever suspect our dedication to play… this picture should change your mind. We work hard, but we sure play very hard as well!
What an awesome afternoon that was! All my other more incriminating photos will of course be kept for future blackmail purposes my fond memories’ sake!
Especially for the sessions, what I’ve been taught and caught is much too much to share now, but suffice to say, we are sufficiently recharged, renewed and re-energized to end this year on a high note and to begin 2011 with much anticipation! God will come through!
I think a 3 day 2 night retreat is much too short, so maybe next year we can something a tad longer? ;)
What an awesome past seven days it has been.
Awesomely spiritual, awesomely fun and also awesomely tiring! While my friends and co-workers took extremely good care of this pregnant woman, I must admit that the past few days of walking and sleeping late and all have taken a toll… on my poor back! Having bad back-aches now! Haha! But it is ALL WORTH IT.
Summarizing will hardly do the past seven days justice. But I want to pen as much down before I forget.
The YK District Retreat was from Nov 27-30 at Pulai Springs, JB Malaysia. The theme of the Camp was Eat.Pray.Love, and man, we sure did all three to the max!
I was on the planning committee, and helped in the administrative portion of the camp. Some of us committee members went to JB a day earlier to settle the work before the rest of the campers arrived, and so Nic, Jay and the maid also went in. We spent a good part of the Saturday settling in, checking into the rooms, and also went to Jusco to get some supplies and logistic items for the camp. By the time we returned back to the Resort, it was evening, and we quickly settled for dinner and it was down to WORK.
That first night, we all slept at 3 a.m. The second night was nominally better – 2 a.m.! And we thought the last night would be a breeze, but a decision to change the schedule kept WL, Von & I up till past 3 a.m. printing out the revised schedules and placing them under each camper's hotel room door! The accumulated lack of sleep was all worth it at the finale session, when Ps YK asked the members to share what they had learnt and experienced from the camp. I was so, so touched by the testimonies of the adults, as they shared candidly and frankly about their marriage struggles or fears, and how the entire camp brought the family together, and helped them so much!
Ps Tan even made his way down to JB to share with the couples on marriage, and he was at his mind-blowingly best (as always)! It was the session I most enjoyed, and learnt the most from too!
Most of my CG members shared that they were most impacted seeing 30-, 40- and 50-year olds giving their best during the telematch, as it gave them the opportunity to see how living a life as a Christian should be – living well, and living for God!
It was two years since our last YK District Camp, and while the preparation work is hard hard HARD work, seeing lives transformed and changed make it all worth it!!!
And, in case you are wondering at the sheer number of words I’ve written with nary a photo… well, I did bring my Canon camera, but I was much too busy scuttling about to take any photos. Sad, I know… Sigh!
I managed to whip out my camera more for the next Retreat though… coming up in my next post!
Jayvon never had a soft spot for mushrooms till we went for a visit to an organic mushroom farm a few months back with some kids from RAYZ. Apart from walking around the farm, we were also treated to some freshly cooked mushrooms… and he adored them!
When the good folks at Vibes Communication invited me to try out a range of bottled mushrooms, I jumped at the chance, knowing that it would be right up Jay’s alley!
Six bottles of mushrooms, with a variety of mushrooms and flavours.
I decided to activate two very willing participants. And once they were ready, we started our mini mushrooms fiesta!
Boy-o-boy, they were such willing participants!
Jay was so amused with the small bottles, he was overly enthusiastic when it came to the taste-test.
Just a tad too hungry, as you can see.
Well, we soon managed to pry the bottle from his fingers, and decided to try the YIFON Teatree Mushrooms first!
The verdict?
It boded very well! Both Daddy and Jay agreed it was yummy.
And then it was a full-out feast! Daddy tried the YIFON Spicy Bailing Mushrooms next.
Daddy quite liked it, though we decided Jay should skip it cos of the spiciness.
We opened the YIFON Bailing Mushrooms (the non-spicy version), and it was much better (for Jay)!
To end off our little mushroom party, Daddy tried the YIFON Spicy Nameko Mushrooms, which he felt was pretty appetising and would go well with some porridge.
If you pop by any major supermarket, you’d be able to get your hands on these new YIFON bottled mushrooms for an affordable $1.95 a bottle. Of these 6 bottles, there is also YIFON Assorted Mushrooms, which are unflavoured, and perfect for cooking.
For me, this is a quick and healthy meal add-on for Jay!
To end off, check out a short video of Jay enjoying his mushroom mini-meal!
