Sunday Brunch @ Wine Company

Mama's friend brought us to this new place near the Botanic Garden, called The Wine Company. They've good food and nice ambience. Mama was in love with the place and suggested to return for brunch...here we are, at The Wine Company for brunch!!! S$12 per pax, with a full basket of bread, fruit juice and a cooked breakfast to complete with freeflow tea/coffee! Not bad! The best is the ambience...it was quiet, without a big crowd!

Hungry baby couldn't wait to eat the bread by herself!

Venturing outside at the outdoor eating area

The breakfasts : main difference is in the eggs!

When asked about whether the good was good, both sisters raised their fingers unanimously

Geraldine Swimming with Armbands

Unlike Gwendolyn, Geraldine disliked the floaty and Papa and Mama were having some problems bringing her to the pool. Why? Because Papa or Mama must carry her around and make sure that she's above water! But recently, Mama tried her out with the armbands...miraculously, IT WORKED!!! She loved them and was willing to put them on! She even titled her legs up into a lying position for fun! Mama remember that when she was small, slightly older than Geraldine, her parents put her on arm bands and brought her to the pool...Mama hated it and was scared to death, screaming and crying loudly! Mama is so impressed with Geraldine, being so brave and kicking away!

Look at me, I'm swimming by myself!

Trying all sorts of postures...her favourite is to lift both legs into a lying position!

What's more? Papa brought a cuppa for Mama to drink at the pool. Without hesitation, Geraldine ran to Papa, peeped into the cup and started scooping the coffee into her mouth! Initially, she had a bit of a struggle, because the armbands got into her way and her hand couldn't reach her mouth. Slowly, she tried twisting and turning, until she can position the spoon into her mouth! Clever baby!

Happily sipping away! Baby, don't drink so much coffee!!!

Oscar's 3rd Birthday Party

We haven't met up with Auntie Angela for a long time since Uncle Cedric has returned to Hong Kong. It's a good opportunity to catch up with her family, during Oscar Di Di's 3rd birthday party @ Yishun Orchid Country Club's Ozone. It's a smaller version of Go Go Bambini, but the facilities were quite good for birthday parties, though a little too far for us! There were fun games with a pretty host! Most of the kids there was Oscar Di Di's classmates! When the cake was presented to the kids, all the kids were crowding around awaiting for the cake-cutting ceremony! What's more? Oscar Di Di couldn't wait, but kept digging the cream and licking his fingers!

After the games and cake-cutting ceremony, all of us proceeded to the outdoor area for some food and drinks! Since this place is a childcare centre during the week, there was a designated play area with kiddy tables and chairs. The two sisters sat down and munching away by themselves!

After a quick lunch, both couldn't wait to head towards their respective favourite game area to continue playing. Gwendolyn went back indoors for the padded playground, whilst Geraldine was outdoor going in and out of the cubby house and climbing up and down the kiddy slides!

What a fun day! If not because of the distance, Mama was considering this as the next prospective birthday party location!

Rainy Night

As with all other kids, Gwendolyn loves to use her own umbrella. She will use it even with the slightest drizzle...With Geraldine...both sisters were having fun in the "rain"...look at mei mei...she was holding her "own" umbrella, with a little assistance from Papa...

Hari Raya Monday

It's been some time since we've last had a monday as a public holiday, Auntie Ronnie and Uncle Victor came to our place for some tennis game again...this time round, Gwendolyn got to take part as well...Uncle Victor took a short while to be her coach, volleying with her in front of the net...Lyn Lyn managed to catch a few balls...not bad!

Auntie Ronnie helping Lyn Lyn to pick up the balls

What about Geraldine? She was not privileged to go to the tennis courts to play, as she was still asleep when Papa, Mama and jie jie went to the court. She only managed to take part in the Wii game and to play her favourite "chupa chup" arrangement at home...

Note: After the tennis game, Papa had a serious back pain and ended up at NUH A&E that night...what a terrible A&E experience...waited for 5-6 hours just to kill off the pain...

Trip to Cold Storage (without Lyn Lyn)

Gwendolyn was t00 tired after the morning swim and fell asleep, "hibernating"...Papa and Mama have decided to cook dinner at home and brought Geraldine to the Jelita Cold Storage, where they have the kid's trolley for the kids to use. This time, without Lyn Lyn's intervention, Geraldine had the trolley all by herself...she was cruising happily on her own!

After the pushing...Geraldine was so tired...she asked Mama for "der der" and curled up her legs to enjoy her water...just look at how she positioned her feet...she really knows how to enjoy life!

I Only Want My Swimming Costume!!!

Gwendolyn has swimming lesson every sunday morning and usually, Geraldine will join jie jie after waking up from her long sleep. This special sunday, as Geraldine was not very well, having some cough and runny nose, Mama tried avoiding her from thinking about going to the pool. But, being a stubborn little one, she insisted...how did she? She refused to get change into any other clothings/costumes, except her swimming costume...Mama wondered how she knew it was Sunday, as she didn't see Lyn Lyn change and head down to the swimming pool...Anyways...Mama had no choice, but to get her to change into her swimming costume...not to the pool, but to feed the fishes. Mama brought bread along and let her feed the fish by herself...she's actually doing quite well...after feeding, on the way home, she insisted that Mama bring her to the pool to find Jie Jie...and guess what? Without a single question...she requested Papa to bring her down and play in the pool...

After the short 10 minute session, she was all happy and smiled at Mama to say "pay pay, der der" (which means play play water)! She was contented to be bathed and change into her normal clothings...

Results From Comex

The annual Comex show will attract a lof of IT followers, do really splurge on the IT sector. So happen this year, Mama needs to but a netbook and Papa wanted to buy another DVD recorder for her mobile arrangements. In the end, we rushed there and stayed for like 1 and a half hours, trying to finish buying everything before Geraldine wakes up from her nap...we managed quite well, as we've bought all the things that we've planned to buy and everyone is happy : Lyn Lyn's DVD player, Big monitor for Lyn Lyn's laptop, Mama's netbook, and even a new DVD player which has a USB port, which is supposed to be able to play "downloaded" shows directly from an external device on the TV. Sounds good, but hasn't tried yet. Just a snapshot of the few things that we've bought!

Whilst Papa and Mama were trying to open the boxes and setup all the necessary, Geraldine was posing at the kiddy sofa...she looks so "mature" and tall in this sofa and posture!

Emiko Art @ IMM L3

Gwendolyn hasn't done any art work at Emiko for a long time and finally, Papa and Mama brought her there for lunch! This time, not only Lyn Lyn was all excited to do this art work again, but Geraldine was all set to help too! The 2 sisters co-ordinated well : Lyn Lyn has chosen one with both Mickey and Minnie, where she said Geraldine likes them; and Geraldine, pull 3 hairs from the bench, preparing for the 3 of us to sit down for the art work together! How lovely!

Whilst Lyn Lyn chose her favourite colours to create her art work, Geraldine held the paint bottles with Mama's help, in colouring parts of the art work...

Geraldine attentively watching how Mama held her hand and the bottle in filling up the gaps!

Little Helper Geraldine : putting back and retrieving the different paint bottles

Trying her best to lean forward to put back and remove the paint bottles!

After the creative art session, both girls jumped onto Cookie Monster for a quick kiddy ride! But observing from Geraldine's face, she didn't really enjoy the squeezy space shared with Lyn Lyn...it's too cramp for 2!

Dinner @ Ju Shin Jung

16 was Gu Gu's birthday, all of us went to Ju Shin Jung for dinner, at West Coast, Yess Centre! As usual, Papa has booked a table next to the "playroom"...the kids were over-joyed and jumped straight into the "playroom", refusing their dinner/to eat! Except for Lucas, who had no choice but to sit down and had his diner first!

A sumptuous meal...so much Korean Appetizer...

Apart from the BBQ meat that we've ordered, there was ginseng chicken, korean seafod pancake, all were extremely yummy!

What about the babies? The babies were playing in the "playroom", throwing balls, climbing up and down...enjoying the fun!

Instead of picking up the balls from the floor directly, Geraldine chose to bend down...there was another "sumo" baby around....really sumo!!!

Geraldine was trying to be funny, she kept washing her hands in the "sink"...whilst showing Mama how "clean" her hands are!

Surely, not forgetting the "custom-made" slide by the restaurant management, so that the kids can slide into the pool of balls! See how Geraldine was enjoying herself. She wasn't scared at all...just by looking at how fast she slide down (her hair is all over the place when sliding downwards) and how eager she was to keep going up and down the stairs to the slides!

Lastly, not forgetting to mention this old-fashion kiddy ride, where it goes round and round like a wheel, with the seat being able to swing side-ways...Mama didn't have any coins for Geraldine to try going round and round...she created her own game by shaking sideways whilst sitting on the seat...with great laughters :) Brave girl!!!

Ion Orchard

Recently, there were a few new or newly revamped shopping malls on Orchard Road...since we haven't been to Orchard for a long time...yes...we haven't been for THE LONGEST time, just imagine that we didn't really go for the Great Singapore Sale and missed 2-3 Taka member sale...that's considered LONG...

On the way, Geraldine refused to sit in her car seat, as always...she asked Mama to unbuckle her from her car seat and tried to sit at the normal passenger seat. Mama buckled her with the adult seat belt and she as a little lost whilst Mama tried to buckle her up...

Auntie Rachelle told Mama that Itacho Sushi (same as the outlet at Festival Walk) was very nice at Ion Orchard, the latest hip iconic building on Orchard, jointly developed by Capitaland and Sung Hung Kai, Papa and Mama decided to go for a try! First comments about Ion is that, the car park was horrible and the car park lift sucks...it took ages to wait for the lift...those who were waiting at the lift lobby were cursing and scolding about how terrible it was...

Finally, we managed to take the lift down into the main shopping areas...L1 to L4 are the high-end super branded items, e.g. LV, Miu Miu, Valentino, etc...which most people wouldn't be patronising. For us, we dived straight underground to B1-B4, where there is almost a whole level of food at B4. The one that we're looking for was at B2...it took us like 15-20 min before we managed to find it...

What a coincidence...Auntie Taky, Uncle Michael and Miky were at the table behind. All of us heeded advise from Auntie Rachelle and went there for lunch on Sunday! Papa was so excited when he saw the BIG raw scallop sushi on the menu and quickly ordered to verify whether it was the same as the one that we tried at Festival Walk...BINGO...it was the same! Thank goodness...finally, there's nice and affordable Japanese food that Mama likes...guess what? Gwendolyn was interested in what Papa and Mama were eating...when Mama told her that it's scallop, she said she wanted to try (as she likes to eat braised dried scallop)...after one tiny strand, she told Mama that she likes eating that scallop! Wow...this is the first time that Lyn Lyn tried raw food and she's in love with it! No doubt she's Mama's darling daughter, with the same food taste as her picky Mama...haha

After the sumptuous and satisfying meal...all of us proceeded to take a tour around the shopping mall. First and foremost, from the list of tenants at Ion, Mama concluded that it's not a child-friendly shopping mall, as there was barely and shops for kids! Since it's still new, there were loads of people crowding everywhere and it wasn't very pleasant to shop there, especially with these 2 very active kids around...but Mama can tell that these 2 sisters really enjoyed themselves at the shopping and displayed their affection towards each other so well...Geraldine insisted on holding Lyn Lyn's hand whilst shopping...she cried, when Papa carried her to go onto the escalator, as it was too dangerous for her! Aren't these sisters lovely?

Poolside BBQ @ Home

It's been a long time since the group last met for a BBQ...imagine when was the last time? Apparently, it was more than a year ago, back in June 2008...that time, the 3 baby girls : Geraldine, Felicia and Liv were just between 3-6 months! Now, look at the 3 baby girls, they've changed so much and now, ranging from 16 - 19 months...time flies!

Geraldine and Felicia are aquainting themselves, happily holding hands to walk with each other

Surprisingly, the Papas and Mamas prepared food that was just nice for everyone to prevent wastage! Our all time favourites are : chicken wings, fish ball, sotong ball, otah, satay, sausages, golden mushrooms, corn on cob, prawns...this time round with teriyaki sotong included, as Mama couldn't buy stingray!

The good thing about booking the poolside BBQ bit was the close proximity to our flat (just in case we've forgotten to bring certain things) and the nearby children's playground, so that the parents can observe the kids! When the kids have finished eating, they can't wait to dive into the playground again for mor fun, the little ones including...

After the BBQ, everyone went back home and Geraldine had a quick bath with Felicia...Liv was a little shy and cautiously observing the other 2. Isn't it cute to put them together in the following picture and observe what they do with each other?! Liv...it's time for you to catch up with the 2 jie jies and not be so shy!!!

Singapore Zoo

It's been a while since we've last been to the zoo, after joining as Friends of the Zoo...Uncle Chee Keong asked for a trip and Uncle Don and Auntie Lena are able to join too...Yippee!!!

Without fail, the girls would want to "ride" on the Ben & Jerry's cow upon arrival...

While the babies laze in their respective strollers, enjoying each other's company!

Evern since the zoo accident, the white tigers have become all the more popular than ever! But Mama didn't know that tiger swims too...

Look at how Papa took some "back view" of Geraldine's bare back shots from behind, whilst walking along the trails.

Before the rainforest show starts, Geraldine was patrolling up and down the stairs as she was bored!

Taking a rest after many rounds of going up and down...

Trying to join in the fun with the 2 jie jies, to be seen as "included" in their group, just by trying to hang around the "older" ones!

Wow....spectacular "opening" by the white peacock! Truly never seen before, especially a white one!

The zoo trip wouldn't be complete, without the kids visiting the Rainforest Kids World! Geraldine knows very well what she wants to play and when she had enough exposure to the water...she'll ask jie jie to bring her away, when she thinks she's done with the fun!

Cold Storage Kid's Run 2009

About a month or so ago, Mama heard about the Kid's Run event and called up Auntie Lena to see whether she's interested in registering Summer for the same event, so that both Gwendolyn and Summer can participate in the non-competitive event for their age group : kids born between 2003-2004! Both mummies agreed and separately registered for the girls! Finally, 24 May 2009, the actual day of the event! It was a real hot and sunny day...the girls were expected to report at the hold-up area by 8:45am, half an hour before the event were due to start.

In high spirit @ the hold up area before the start of the race

The 2 eager participants didn't arrive until 9:00am and were due to enter the starting point. Luckily, theirs was not a competitive event, which required registration and collection of a time recorder...so both girls leisurely did some basic stretching and warm-up exercise (basically for 10 seconds), before the race officially began! Whilst waiting...Papa spotted Uncle Leon and Maximus Gor Gor within the same vicinity...as Maximus Gor Gor entered the same race, under the same category! What a pleasant surprise!

Turn left, turn right, stetch up, squat down...warming up for the race

The first 100m was a good attempt by both, trying to keep up with the rest of the kids! Lyn Lyn was trying to lend a helping hand to Summer by holding her, so that they could run together, but it wasn't a good idea at all!

Three, Two, One...Start...running as fast as they could

After the initial 100m, both girls have started to shown tiredness...and it was so obviously that they preferred walking for the rest of the race, than to continue running...still in good spirit, with cheering Gor Gor and Jie Jies at the side of the track, cheering for the young runners not to give up and to finish the race! Along the way, Mama kept encouraging Lyn Lyn that it doesn't matter even if she cannot win or cannot continue running. Most important of all is that Lyn Lyn has to finish the race...once she's started on something, she must complete it, despite how difficult it's going to be! Lyn Lyn repeated to herself and told Summer the same...

Low battery...walking slowly after the 100m sprint...

Eventually, when the girls spotted the green balloon arch, they knew that they were near the finishing line and hurried towards the exit...both couldn't wait to complete the race and collect their goodie bag and medal!

Yeah...we did it! We've completed the whole race!

Well done, Lyn Lyn and Summer! Both girls have completed a 700m track with a combination of running and walking!

The proud runners showing off their medal!

After the hot morning race, the kids sat at the bench to relax for a while, before receding to Raffles City for some brunch! Initially, both parents were thinking of bringing them for the carnival, but there were really too many people and it was really way too hot...in the end, all went lazing in the air con for a long brunch...the tired runners were eating at their own table, enjoying a relaxing time!

Sharing the result of good work...sharing a bowl of noodles after the race!