Friday lovin'

6.45am. Music. The awakening sky. Me pounding at the pavement. Sweat. The best way to start a day. 

7.45am. Breakfast with my babies. Dessert. 

The best things in life are free

So last night, we did some colouring and whatnots in the evening. And K drew a rainbow for me. "Mommy, you don't see first ok? DON'T SEE YET!" (Goes on to chant "don't see" repeatedly) then shows me her masterpiece.

Seeing how pleased I was with her rainbow, she proceeded to draw the flower for me. 

Same, but different

The last same, but different comparison here.

Matchy-matchy

#totallyunplanned #redandgreen

Smashing Saturday

7am run at MacRitchie Reservoir

Brunch

Little friends jumping for joy

Swimming

Night Safari

The brother shared a pair of free tickets so we took the chance to visit the Night Safari yesterday evening. This was the only decent pic I took outside the Night Safari (in the carpark, actually) because it was just so dark inside. I enjoyed myself simply because it is always interesting to try new experiences. 

Random Tuesday

Sweet Sunday

Time out with my girlfriends. We had brunch, then cake and catching up was just so nice!

My parents helped babysit while I was out and it was so heartwarming to go back to see Kate and find this scene #thankful

And the weekend ended with our usual bedtime story session. Love how my firstborn leans on me and really, it's a sweet time (though sometimes I do get cranky cos she wants to read TEN stories)

Super Saturday

After the morning run which rightly pumped my spirits up, I spent such a lovely, activity-packed rest-of-the-day with the kids! 

Our colour-coordinated children who were active companions for breakfast

Here's Jake and I spending some alone time while Kate was engaged in swim class. It was so hot at 2pm!

Frolicking in the water for play, post-lesson

Our originally-planned playdate for the park changed to bumper-bowling instead when it rained. Turned out to be so fun and I'm pleased that the kids got to try something new!

Jake gets a try and he loved it!

The kids' (rather impressive) scores

We had dinner and the other facilities such as the playroom, arcade, and space to run about just made good entertainment for the four kids. I had a good time too.

My night didn't end when the kids slept - I stayed up with the husband who treated me to his yummy steak and it was rather indulgent, having steak and wine and chips at midnight. But, it was also a nice end to be with the husband after he was busy all day (which explained why I packed the kids out and about with so much to do, so he can have the house in quiet for his work).

It was a fun Saturday and I'm pretty sure the kids had fun too!

Hello, weekend

Alarm set at 6.10am. Snooze.... 6.25am. Macritchie Park 7.05am. Run completed at 8am. The husband did a longer route today, so I spent 20minutes waiting for him to finish. This was us meeting up when he was done (I had cooled down and swapped into slippers by then). Feeling great! 

Jake says

They say that boys are slower in speech development compared to girls. I have a very girly-girl who is extremely chatty; and a boys-boy who is climbing tables and kerbs (or any surface at all, actually) - so I guess the stereotype is true in my case with my children.

But I do think that Jake is developing well, at his own pace, and he's actually pretty good at mimicking the last word we say.

For example, "Jake, do you want to go gaigai?" He'll go "gaigai".
"Do you see the bus?"  "bus"

There are plenty of words that he understands and says on his own accord and I am pleased with his developments really. Besides proudly sharing that he's becoming quite chatty and impresses me sometimes with what he says, I also picked up that he now says his very first sentence at 17 months 2 weeks old.

"I want more" - this is said at the dining table, in the context of (what else), food. Previously, he will say "more" but these couple of days, I realise that he's saying "I want more" - no longer one word only!

So proud of you, my not-that-little-little-boy. Love you so much!

Special time with the kids

That saw me bring them to a bowling alley, which also happened to be housing some old school arcade games like shooting games and Daytona. Things which I doubt I will expose them to if it were my own planning! So it was interesting to watch how they enjoyed watching and experimenting with these new activities. And it was the best thing to have an extra day with them by my side. Felt like a bonus weekend!

Took her some coaxing but she did step away from the safety zone of pottering with these balls and did a few gutters with me! Poor Jake kept wanting to participate in bowling too but he was really too young. He could, to my surprise, lift up a 6" ball! And rolling the ball on the ground didn't interest him at all. Couldn't even bluff him - he wanted to get at the pins!

Bad girls with guns! Here, you also see the arcade gaming machines in the background. 

The hot favourite - Daytona. Life-like simulated driving with gears and steering wheel. What's not to like? Check out Kate's kanchiong face. She wasn't even playing it for real, but the moving screen kept her well-entertained! 

And of course, here is Jake looking chill and confident behind the wheel. This little man is going to be such a cutie when he starts chasing skirts! 

After bowling, we hit the pool for the kids to finally have their share of fun and it was quite enjoyable. 

Am thankful for this day of leisure to be with my babies. 

One of those days

Where my thumb hurt like *beep* and throbbed so bad I could not sleep properly. And the daughter chose this same night to play instead of go to sleep and I was in such grief, I could not be bothered and let her be (I think she only slept close to midnight!) 

Suffered for a whole day until I could get off work to see a doc for the pain in my hand... Only to learn that there is nothing much that can be done with tendonitis in such a swollen state. I was given some meds to help the body cope with the swell (aid. No painkillers!) and the Chinese medicine put on my thumb is meant to help with the swell too. 

Then my clumsiness (plus my sheer carelessness) had me not closing my water bottle properly and it wet my entire bag. Which resulted in my ever-trendy -not one, not two but THREE plastic bags to contain the wet bag, the meds and my personal belongings. 

Win! I would do a victory sign... Except that my fingers are cramped and I can't. 

A fuzzy-kinda-warmth on this wet and cold Tuesday

To see this little girl doll herself up and just pick up the activity book all by herself #growingupsoquick #spottheearrings #princessambitions

Endorphins rock

Clocked two runs over the 4-day holiday #feelinggood 

I'm so lucky that I have family and friends to take over babysitting duties so that I can go do my own thing. Totally a bonus to know that they are having a rockin' good time too!

Adults-only-kinda-night

Double date!

It was a chillax night and fun - love how everyone of different nationalities and races bonded!

And then someone had to have this awful idea of Jagerbombs. Boomz. 

Red and white

Another red-and-white effort to celebrate our National Day. Here's one of the Seah cousins

Happy National Day, Singapore

Very thankful to have a beautiful place we call home. Spent the morning with good friends on a play date.  Tribute was our dress code of red and white - we tried. It was a very fun morning!

Clara and Kate

Clara, Jaz, Kate, Jake - didn't manage to get all four kids to stand together 

Here's a funny one of Jaz and Jake - "wassap"

Down the slide

Sandplay

3 ladies and a little man. Love these ladies, my BFFs the last 20 years! 

This is just cute - Jake and his bum with the red-polka-dotted hat

Dads who are involved always make me smile. The sturdy trio of our husbands watching over the kids

Spot the duck - it's that black thingy in the pic

Four kids and a hollow trunk

Happy National Day, Singapore!

Thurs-ur-day

Ok, that sounds bad but I was trying to piece together Thurs-and-Satur-day; because today is a Thursday that totally felt like Saturday. LOVE IT!

So the morning started pretty lazy, and because we had quite a lot of bread that's expiring today, I got it in me to make french toast! To those who know, I'm really the world's most undomesticated person, but this is a pretty simple thing to make and I was more than happy to let Kate be part of the process.

First, you whisk the eggs.

Then you dip the bread in the egg, and place it on a non-stick pan

TADAH!! I'm pretty pleased about it, truth be told!

And here's a happy camper. 

I had no plans at all today, so turned out that Kate and I had some alone time while the husband and Jake slept. She wanted to take the train so I brought her on public transport to the nearby mall where we had lunch and did some shopping.

The day ended with a trip to the park where the husband and I took turns to jog a little before heading off for dinner.

Precious moments with my babies