Yoga fun with my baby girl

Last Saturday evening, we had no activities planned. The girl was restless and I was feeling lethargic and needing some exercise (none for that day - opted for a movie date with the husband instead). So when the husband brought the son out for a haircut, I had an idea of doing some stretching yoga with the daughter.


I took the phone out and started googling for images of 'mother and child'... boom. Found plenty!



Referencing images

We successfully tried many, many poses

It was pretty fun! I broke out in a bit of sweat from moving about and stretching parts of the body where I needed it, the girl had fun (and so did I), and most of all, we giggled and had fun together. Win win win!

Birthday celebrations this October

The sister and her busband celebrate their birthday in October. Their birthdays are only 3 days apart, so we combined their birthday meal together. This year, the sister requested for the Mother's super steamboat meal and her wish was granted (as was ours - my mom's steamboat meal is legendary). We had this meal some weeks back, as the newlyweds are now away on their honeymoon, and I thought it's about time to put this up given that today is the actual birthday of my new little brother.


The evening was simple, noisy, full of happy bellies, laughter and love as we all gathered together to be with one another - nothing beats being with family.


To add to the fun of the evening, the sister (as per her usual brilliant suggestions) thought of this fruit theme and I helped her execute it. Simple prep, great output! Here are some of the silly, fun-filled pictures we took of this night.

Our silly, fruity family

Everyone say LIMEEEEEEE

That cake - matcha chocolate cake from Cedele - was quite the bomb!

And this marks the last of the birthdays in our family, for the year. Our next celebration will be Christmas, which is exactly 2 months away. What a year, 2016.


Happy happy birthday to the sister and her busband, such a happy and celebratory year for you both; and I wish you both the best of health, wealth and happiness - doubly happy now that you both have each other.

Jake and his brilliant smile

Love this pic. Our little bundle of dynamo, full of energy,
loud beyond necessary, forever curious and adorable to bits.

Lego Family Day, year 2

How quickly time flies... it felt not too long ago that I invited my family to the office for the first time last year. In this  year, I've gone through quite a lot at work; both in terms of learning as well as challenges and learning to deal with life... but yes; I digress. This is about the lovely afternoon where the family had the chance to have fun, together.


Oddly, while there's a change in our schedules for Saturday, it turned out that J and I ended up going to the office together alone, again.

In the lifts, going up!

After collecting our name tags and door gifts (the children received a t-shirt each, such a lovely gift for them!), J and I headed off to explore.

First game station - ball dart

Second play station

Third playstation

As J and I arrived on the dot, there was little crowd and this made the game play very smooth. We managed to try several counters all within half an hour.

Kill the alligator!

At about the half hour mark, the husband and K arrived. We went to meet them, and took our family picture :)

LEGO Family Day, 2016

The girl was keen to get started on play, and the husband and I swapped roles to cover boy/girl team respectively.

Colouring station

Last year, I was so frantic trying to run from station to station (FOMO, yo) that I was exhausted (yes, I tired myself out). This year, I reminded myself that this was an experience for everyone, and there was no real need to rush, or 'conquer'; just enjoy. So when the girl opted for a colouring station (which I thought was boring), I obliged as this was as much, if not more a time for her; and so we sat down. I also took a sheet to colour.


When she was ready, we moved to the other play room where we got to play with bricks...it was a simple game. Build anything you want and test it on the ramp to see if it'd work! Simple genius.

Testing her vehicle

In between play, we took pictures, ate our lunch and spent most of the time back at the building room as the children enjoyed building, rebuilding and testing their vehicles.


After 2 hours, it was time to leave. Here's our parting shot:

Nothing not to love with children and pets

The children are familiar with the office this time, having been here before, and they were so comfortable roaming about. I also loved how it was a simple afternoon where the family got to be together in a different activity than usual.


So thankful for this opportunity to share this lovely space and play-time with the family. Hopefully, until next year!

A momentous occasion: the husband graduates!

4 years. That's the amount of time it took for the husband to complete his undergraduate studies; and after accompanying him through the journey of his classes, tutorials and late night assignments, he is finally done with school. Everyone say, HOORAY!


Truth is, the husband has always been so busy with work and/or school that I had nearly forgotten what it was like when he was home just playing the role of husband/father. Random things I remember include revising with him for his exams in the initial years; attending a lesson with him once before (yes, I went into the lecture hall with him), swinging by school for him to pick up his school books, asking for his school schedule so that I'd know when he'd be late in coming home, him taking block leave from work to study for his exams, his coffee-drinking-day-and-night-become-the-same-periods as he studied late into the night and slept in the day, his hibernation periods at the library....


A key take-out I have from him being such a busy person, is that I have grown increasingly independent. Not to say that I enjoy doing things alone, it's definitely better to have a partnership and I welcome the husband back into our daily lives. Not that him being busy has changed... but hey. Small steps in achievements, big results with being flexible and maintaining some sense of sanity in our lives...


To celebrate his graduation, I initiated a dinner for us two. Nothing too fancy, a date night, with a legitimate reason to fill our tummies and enjoy a new experience at a restaurant we had never been to together before.




Celebratory dinner - it was not bad, the food was fine, the ambience was a bit dark, but it was a nice time for us two nonetheless. We planned it for the eve of the convocation.

Celebratory graudation dinner + date night

The convocation was held at the school compounds and it was quite a regular affair. With two tickets only, the husband invited his mom and I to the event with him.

Proud Mom

With me

The convocation itself is just a ceremony, and I felt very proud of the husband for his achievements. Truly, it's not easy balancing everything and for him to accomplish it is definitely commendable. Having said that, I am glad that he's done with this and I am so happy to say, Congratulations baby! Woot!

Sharity Elephant and playing our parts to spread care

Yup, Sharity Elephant - remember him? I do! I remember him as a mascot/carton of sorts, and this jingle that came along with it, encouraging us to share (from the same era of Singa the Courtesy Lion and the worm from the bookworm club...) I digress. So anyway, besides jolting a whole bunch of memories back from my childhood, I quite enjoyed working on this piece of craft with K. It's part of Children's Day, where while the children get to celebrate a day off from school and receive little gifts, they are also reminded that there are children who are not as fortunate who require help.

Building Sharity

The assignment was simple, we had to build Sharity and I helped K with it. That was not the difficult part - what was annoying a challenge was how she had to bring it to school... and those ears kept falling off. Thankfully, besides some disgruntlement and frustration in needing to fix the ears for 300 times, we three made it to school in a piece; no one was hurt.


The other part was a donation and because we had 2 envelopes, I requested for J to make a donation too. How did they contribute? When I first knew of this donation, I told K of it and told her that her savings for 2 weeks will be donated. She was agreeable. At the end of 2 weeks, K had saved $5. I told her that I'd top up the same amount of what she donated and so, she ended up donating $10.

Doing our little bit for charity

The boy doesn't have pocket money, and he did get quite upset, 'Mommy, I don't have money how?!' - so I assured him that I'd help him, and I asked him earnestly if he wished to make a donation to others in need (we read the envelope content of a boy and his predicament) and the boy nodded earnestly. I told him that I'd make a donation amount the same as his sister so that it's very fair; and that when he starts to receive pocket money and save, he will be able to donate his own money.


These activities are quite enforced, but in our busy lives; I cannot truly say that I am doing my part to contribute actively, so I do appreciate these efforts (when they are legitimate). It's also a great opportunity to involve the children and pass on educational life lessons so that they can hopefully learn and become truly good citizens of society.


Happy Children's Day.

Uno obsession

I think it's a set of UNO cards that belongs to the sister. The children started playing it (J being the more blur between the two) at my mom's house, then they became so keen on it they brought the cards back two weekends ago.


Since then, I think they have played it with me/the husband/each other/the helper/anyone they can locate within a radius of 3metres - only like, I don't know, maybe something around the count of 4,852 times.

Another night of UNO

I don't think it's bad. It's an excellent source of entertainment, that takes them away from screen time (be it TV or tablet) which is super. The downside is that they have developed bad habits like cheating (a. they always want the +4 and manipulates the card distribution so they get it; by that I mean they openly cheat by looking at the cards and taking what they want! b. they brazenly peep at others' cards); but after several rounds of severe telling off, they are a bit better. I try to tell them the joy is playing and not only about winning. Tough when truly, the human nature is competitive and we all do wish to win.


From playing UNO, I also see the way their minds operate. J is still young and simple,  he doesn't play it properly always (he messes his cards up because he doesn't see the macro picture) and K is the older one who is way more aware of how the game should be played.


This UNO exercise is very healthy and I quite like it. Even after I have to play it the 4,853th time.