Labrador Park

Not sure why Gwendolyn has been asking to go to the beach, but the weather hasn't been good, so Papa Mama have been discouraging her from thinking of going to the beach in Singapore, and informed her that she's actually going to the beach with Summer in a few days' time! To supplement this request, Papa Mama have decided to bring her to the Labrador Park instead (not that Papa Mama know of anything fun there, but at least, it's a park that she hasn't been to before!)

Surprisingly, it was quite fun! At first, we parked at Car Park A, which was nearer to the Olivetree Restaurant. What more interesting was that Papa Mama have actually wanted to bring Lyn Lyn to play her scooter, but to find that there was a "no scooter" sign at the park! In the end, Papa has to carry her scooter all the way, walking from one side of the park to the other side of the park!

No Scooter!

As everyone knows that Lyn Lyn always equate herself as Dora, wherever she goes, she's very excited when she sees a map! Yes, Dora always asks the map for direction when she doesn't know which way to go!

We are here!

Once we reached the other side of the park, there was no longer any "no scooter" sign and Mama helped Lyn Lyn to put on her helmet to take a ride on her scooter!

Not a season player yet, but acted as if she is!

Nothing was more attractive than to see a huge playground!

Playground, here I come!

This was such a huge playground that Lyn Lyn felt excited about every bit of it. Whilst Papa helped Lyn Lyn with the climbing, Mama went back to Car Park A to drive the car back to Car Park B, a nearer car park! No doubt Lyn Lyn was born in the year of the monkey. Look at the way she climbs! She IS the monkey!

Lyn Lyn played for an easy hour and still didn't want to go! Kids are really full of energy. She finished a bottle of green tea and used the bottle to make her own maracus with the sand at the playground!

I dig, I dig, I dig dig dig!

WaRaKu

Recently, we're in love with dining at the WaRaKu Japanese Restaurant! Not sure whether it's coincidental or it really suits our tastes, we've been going to either the Japanese Restaurant or the recently discovered Pasta de WaRaKu at Marina Square!

Saturday was a shopping day: first, we went to Takashimaya to look for Gwendolyn's Year End Concert costumes: a red t-shirt and a pair of white pants. Why red? As her class will be performing the Rainbow song and she's representing the red colour! After that, we went for the Sanria Fair at Level B1 and Lyn Lyn and Mama bought a lot of Hello Kitty and My Melody pyjamas! After that, we head down to Marina Square to continue with the costume hunt, as it is not easy to find a plain red round-neck t-shirt with no pattern! Finally, Papa and Mama found one at John Little. Mission accomplished and we were all very tired! Why? Lyn Lyn didn't have her afternoon nap. So we quickly looked for the pasta restaurant that Mama discovered few weeks ago to find a table - so happened that this is one of the WaRaKu restaurants! We ordered 1 spaghetti each and an additional portion of grilled chicken! All three of us were so hungry that we ate everything up in no time!

Lyn Lyn ordered the Neapolitan (sausage with tomato sauce), Mama ordered Salmon and Spinach and Papa ordered Pork Bacon, Asparagus and Potato!

It's dessert time: the desserts were so attractive that even Papa doesn't normally ask for desserts have requested to order the Tiramisu Parfait! Yum Yum! Lyn Lyn got a special ice-cream for herself as well, whilst Papa and Mama gulped down the yummy parfait!

Lyn Lyn requested to take a picture of each with the dessert!

More on Waraku: http://www.waraku.com.sg/

Meeting with Uncle Peter

Papa Mama's friend, Uncle Peter, came back to Singapore for a home visit from UK and we went for lunch together! Mama brought Gwendolyn to look for a table and eventually settled at Imperial Treasure Teo Chew Restaurant! Lyn Lyn asked for a table for 4 and left her name at the counter. When Papa arrived, he was about to say in the name of "Paul...", then the lady at the counter asked: Is it Gwendolyn? Papa was shocked, but followed and found Mama and Lyn Lyn! When Uncle Peter arrived, he couldn't find us and haven't even thought of the table being reserved under "Gwendolyn"???!!! We had a good lunch and Lyn Lyn served Uncle Peter with some food! Uncle Peter was amazed at how Lyn Lyn could talk-back to him!

Say 'cheese'...

Nice picture taken by Lyn Lyn

Exercise Day!

Gwendolyn heard that Papa was going for his weekly Sunday morning jog, and was inspired to wake up early for her new exercise regime! In her conversations throughout the day, she can't stop, but kept relating to "jogging". Papa Mama knew that they had no choice, but to bring her for a "jog"! We set off in the afternoon, fully dressed into trainers, shorts and t-shirts, before setting off downstairs for some warm-up exercise:

Stretch right

Stretch left

Let's go!

Jog...jog...jog...jog

Stop by the pond to feed the fish

Let's jog to the swimming pool for a dip in the pool


I'm swimming with my life-jacket

Riding on Papa...

Final relaxation at the jacuzzi after exercising for 2 hours!

Lyn Lyn and Snoopy

13 October 2007 was a busy day...after visiting Mama's colleague for Hari Raya, we went on to Auntie Evanda's house for a visit, mainly to go and see her doggy, Snoopy! Gwendolyn fell asleep on the way and Papa Mama had a chat with Auntie Evanda before she finally wake up and took notice of Snoopy! Initially, she was a bit sceptical and asked Papa to carry her, whilst Snoopy was very excited about meeting a child! She kept crawling and trying to touch Lyn Lyn's feet, but Lyn Lyn was shy. Eventually, she let her guards down and started stroking Snoopy with Auntie Evanda! Slowly, after warming up, she offered to hold the leech and feed her with doggy snack as well!

After the home visit, we all set-off to Katong Village for dinner! Wow...Papa and Mama didn't know that there were so many eating places over there. We settled at Waruku Japanese Restaurant and after that, we bought chocolate ice-cream from awfully chocolate! Yum Yum!

Selamat Hari Raya

Mama's colleague invited us for a Hari Raya (Muslim New Year) open house. To give Gwendolyn a new cultural exposure, Mama decided to bring Lyn Lyn along for the experience. Lyn Lyn made herself at home once she's arrived and kept asking questions to Mama's colleague and her dad! We sat at the sofa and were offered cookies, crackers, etc, but Lyn Lyn didn't seem to appreciate those (she's not a snack person anyway)! Until we're invited to the dining table for some lunch, Lyn Lyn was exposed to eating with her right-hand and she enjoyed rubbing rice into her mouth and all over her face! What an experience!

My New Scooter

Gwendolyn's been asking for a scooter for quite a while. She took the chance to try it out at one of the shops at IMM, kept showing Mama that she can play very well and can balance herself. She waited for the chance to show Papa and make Papa buy for her. For safety's sake, she's asked for a helmet as well. Mama thinks that why she was so keen in the scooter was because Isa the Iguana from Dora's show has a similar "look" below:

Domesticated

Recently, Gwendolyn is addicted to helping out with washing up. She'll take all the time she need to brush and wash her utensils, bowls & plates and milk bottles, etc...making sure that they're really cleaned from inside out! Not only that, she even cleaned the basin after cleaning the above!

Lyn Lyn at work!

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

Gwendolyn hasn't been to the Singapore Botanic Gardens after she's learnt how to walk and in view of the opening of the new Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, Papa and Mama thought that it will be good to bring her for a walk, especially when Mama read in the newspapers that there's a treehouse and a waterplay area! We entered via the main gate and realised that it's a wrong move, as the Children's Garden is actually on the other end of the Botanic Gardens. We then drove behind the Botanic Gardens and entered via Cluny side! Luckily we did that...it was a very long walk...

Started off from the main entrance...

Once we've reached the Children's Garden, it was like a kid's land...since it's new, there were a lot of visitors as well! Lyn Lyn, acted as if she were Dora, went through the garden by saying: Bridge, Treehouse, Waterplay! Summarising the places of interests which she needs to go through before finally settling down at the waterplay area!

The hanging bridge was sooooooo wobbly!

Treehouse!

Kid's all time favourite...toy house!

Waterplay!

Me and my hula hoop!

Gwendolyn has fallen in love with her new hula hoop and kept asking Papa and Mama to take pictures and videos of her playing it...

Look at my stylish moves!

I can keep the hula on mywaist!

So tired after playing for soooooooo long...let me rest for a while before I start again!

Not forgetting to drink some water!

Cycling

Saturday afternoon, after returning home from lunch, Gwendolyn saw our neighbour preparing to bring the kids downstairs for cycling. Haven't cycled on her bike for long, she immediately went into the house and looked for her bike and said she wanted to cycle. Mama brought her downstairs for a short cycling session...during the 30 minutes session, 10 minutes was spent on the bike, whilst 20 minutes was spent at the playground, with her learning how to come down from the vertical pole and pretending to be the "grumpy old troll" from Dora's show. She's a true blue Dora addict: this moment pretending to be "Swiper the Fox" and the next moment pretending to be the "Grumpy old troll", with most of time, insisting that she's "Dora the Explorer"!

Lyn Lyn was trying to cycle "up the slope", but she didn't have enough strength and keep rolling backwards

Look at me! Smile!

This is my favourtie playground!

See! I can climb down the pole all by myself!

Climbing down

Pretending to be Grumpy Old Troll and jumping out from under the bridge

Summer's Birthday Party

This year, Summer's birthday was held at K Box Marina Square, over lunch. Initially, we found it weird to have a kid's birthday celebrated at a karaoke. But it turned out that Gwendolyn was the most excited and was the one singing most of the times. What did she sing? Mostly kids song, both English and Mandarin...so funny...adults just went to eat and select songs the them!

Upon arrival, Lyn Lyn couldn't wait, but to grab the mic to sing!

Kids songs...

An icy cold cake with frozen strawberries!

Happy Birthday to Summer : THREE!

Let's blow the candles together!

Art-cum-charity Fundraisier

Gwendolyn's school embarked on a fundraising project with a group of students from Hwa Chong Junior College, to have the kids at Etonhouse to draw / make a 3-D craft, for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. In order to expose Lyn Lyn to some charity work at an early age, Papa and Mama signed her on for the project and had her drew 2 paintings for the event.

When being asked on what she's drawn, she described the following 2 pictures as follows:

The one on the far right is herself, dressed as Dora (pink t-shirt and orange shorts) and to her left is Mama, standing next to the elephant (remembering her good time at Krabi!)

The one in the middle is herself, playing on the swing in school

After the event, she was given a certificate for participation!

My Family

Expressive drawing in school...if you've noticed, she's drawn Mama on the left of the paper, occupying most of the space, with Papa on the right, with a smudged face (apparently because Papa was wearing sunglasses!). Herself being the smallest at the bottom of the page. How would you read this?

Not a bad drawing for a 3-year old child!

A Day with Auntie Maria

Auntie Maria came for training during mid-September and she spent the whole Saturday with us! She's Mama's close friend and was one of her "sisters" during her wedding! We started off lunch at the Jewel Box @ Mt Faber! It has good view and Gwendolyn quite enjoyed that place. We ordered 3 set meals and Lyn Lyn ate quite a lot...maybe next time, we need to order 4 sets, in view of her "adult-ish" appetite!

When we're done with lunch, Lyn Lyn, as usual, asked to feed the fish...she knows the place very well and even know where to buy the "fish food"!

After lunch, we went to Vivocity for shopping. Though Auntie Maria's been to Singapore so many times, she hasn't visited this "new" shopping centre...whilst Auntie Maria and Mama shop around, Papa carried an extremely tired Lyn Lyn for a short nap.

After her power-nap, we saw an exhibition by AIBI, the gym equipment company having a roadshow at Vivocity, there was a designated trampoline area for kids to "play". Lyn Lyn waited patiently for her turn, as only 2 kids were allowed in at the same time. She jumped herself mad when she had the opportunity and liked it sooooooo much!

When she's done with the trampoline, we went to Burger King for snack and drinks. Then after that, Lyn Lyn nagged Papa to bring her to the playground right outside of Burger King! What they've found is a new "animal" area at the other end of the playground..."riding" on "animals" charging by time! Lyn Lyn chose the tallest one amongst the smaller range and enjoyed herself with the "self-drive". Whenever people walked past, they'll comment that it looks very funny and the kids have to work very hard in order to navigate the "animal" around!

A video illustration of how much strength required to navigate!