Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Death is Slow for a Praying Mantis

It was a hectic National Day weekend. Just when we were about the settle back into mundane everyday life, who should we expect to visit but a rather large praying mantis at our doorstep on Monday morning after National Day. It looked dead to Mommy and I carried and left it on a plant so that it will still be there when Kieona and Kierra came home from school. They had never seen a real praying mantis before. And Mommy was just glad for another chance to teach them about Mother Nature - right in our own garden!

And guess what? It actually moved. It took another day for it to be completely dead. According to our helper, any insects that do not have blood takes a long time to die. What a pity though - not sure if a vet could have saved it.... The dead praying mantis - now burried under Mommy's pandan plant in our garden

Kieona's 4th Birthday in March

School celebration - are you nervous, Kieona?
Kieona ordered this cake herself - she requested for full chocolate and edible figurines
Had some of these shots the teachers at Skoolhouse took of Kieona's birthday party in school. We almost forgot about it as it was shot using one of our older digital still cameras. Well, it was still a Sony - so it will remain our property for a while.

Kieona & Kierra, & Zhor Zhor

Stella Kor Poh, Zhu Kor Poh, Zhor, Kieona & Kierra
When Daddy was away in Korea, Mommy sure had a busy time over that weekend, settling business matters as well as visiting. We visited Zhor Zhor too that Sunday. She's sort of bedridden most of the time, and is still recovering from the last stay at the hospital. The girls had a fair bit of fun "modelling", as well as helping Granduncle Steve and Dee Pek Gong cleaning out one of the rooms. Mommy is as usual a proud Mommy. Which Mommy wouldn't feel so when her kids volunteer to help out without prompting?

Well, I like to think that being there for them these few years have paid off - in the way they volunteer to help, in their behavior (most of the time), in their confidence when speaking with adults, their empathy for others less fortunate, in their level of competence in finding solutions. The feeling is just fantastic!!
For vanity's sake

Walton International Singapore Family Day 2008 - Sentosa

After a full day of fun on National Day, guess what? We're off for more stimulation at the Family Day organized by Daddy's company at Sentosa, Siloso Beach. It was supposed to start at 4pm, and we reached Vivocity early - at about 2pm as we haven't had lunch and intended to dine there before taking the skytrain to Siloso Beach. We ended up reaching Siloso Beach close to 4.30pm, but were still considered early so we went to take "The Luge" which was this kart-like thingy that you take downslope. It was akin to driving, and since it was free (paid by Walton already), we just went ahead to experience it with the girls. As they were both below 1.2m, we need to have 1 adult to ride with a child - which was just alright, since both Daddy and Mommy were around.
Guess where we are?
Mommy thinks the girls found it fun, as they were for once in a "driver's" seat compared with just being a passenger in every other vehicle they've been in. Mommy however felt that it wasn't great - driving actually beats this. Well, I guess it's just a leisurely entertainment ride for families to chill out with. Did I mention that we actually took the skyride to reach the starting point for the Luge? Well, that was way more exciting. It was so, so high and Kieona and Kierra do look a tad afraid when we were climbing up the "hill". Check out our photos - highly recommended that you try this ride if you have not been on it before. Mommy's heart nearly dropped and I was really quite afraid....
The sky ride - photo taken from our carriage
Kieona and Kierra wearing the oversized helmets before riding The Luge
After we were done with that, it was back to the party venue. We had a fair bit of fun playing at the beach, but Mommy's one BIG GRIPE about that day was not having someplace to wash up. Oh come on, Palawan Beach has got all these nice shower facilities and since Siloso Beach was supposed to be more "upmarket", why was there no shower/ change area? What a disappointment, as we all had sand in our bikinis and Mommy had to wear her wet bikini under her bright yellow dress. We were able to wash up for the girls though at a washing point and got them changed into dry clothes in the open so that they wouldn't catch a cold. As Kierra fell asleep thereafter and Mommy carried her, she still got a little wet sleeping snugly in her Patapum Baby Carrier against Mommy's body.
Kieona sipping Pineapple Juice
Kierra having fun in the sand
Beach Babes
Kierra crying - she couldn't find Jie Jie
One for the album
Girls and the Bubble Machine
Kieona with her huge bubble
Kieona turned out to have had the greatest fun, as she danced to the music and enjoyed one big plate of food while her sister napped. What a great way to spend the weekend! Boy, were we all tired when we got home....
Enjoying our dinner...
Auntie Muz, don't disturb
Beer and my Patapum Baby Carrier - don't you just love being mobile?
One parting shot...

Kieona - The Loving Big Sister

Kieona feeding Kierra breakfast
Need I say more? With kids like these, life is a wonder!

National Day - Singapore's 43rd Birthday

National Day happened to fall on a Saturday this year, so all the enrichment classes Kieona is going to were halted. Mommy had envisioned it to be a very relaxing weekend. How wrong I was. It turned out to be one of the most stimulating weekends we've got for a while.

On Saturday itself, we visited Uncle Hsiang Hui and Auntie Hwee Ming's home and met their baby, Ee Sheng who was already four months old. He was such a lovely young boy, with smiles for everyone. And boy, he looks really happy. What a joy! Kieona displayed her sisterly love for babies again - by going to talk to him and trying to "sayang" him. Kierra was her usual self - just playing around and trying to engage the two younger boys.

Little Ee Sheng
Uncle Hsiang Hui and Ee Kiat
We went home after lunch so that the girls could nap before we visit Auntie Wendy's house to see her newborn. Although Auntie Wendy was Daddy's cousin, we don't meet very often and even though Nathalie (Auntie Wendy's elder daughter) and Amanda (Auntie Audrey's daughter) were around the girls' age, they didn't really play. Perhaps they should be meeting a little more often. We only stayed a short while, as Mommy had arranged with Antoine's Mommy for a playdate cum fireworks watching party.

As this was the first time we were meeting out of gym classes and it had been a while since we last met them, everyone was a little slow to warm up. But we soon did, as we had our dinner and chit-chat while the kids watched the Playhouse Disney channel. Of course, from time to time the Daddies and the kiddos were just happy to catch the aerial displays - fighter jets and helicopters and what not. When we were almost done with dinner, we were wondering if we still can make it to Marina Bay area to catch the fireworks. Uncle Oliver (Antoine's Daddy) suddenly said that we if we want to, we need to quickly get out of the house to catch the bus to his office. So all of us ran and ran to the bus-stop. It turned out that he had checked for the bus schedule and it was arriving in 7 mins when he checked. Poor Maria (who was carrying Kierra) almost did not make it. What a sight - the way we were all running with kids in tow.

First explosion
Blue and Yellow - one of Mom's favourites
Looks like CNY, doesn't it?
It gets cloudy with smoke
We ended up watching the fireworks from Uncle Oliver's office. It wasn't quite as fantastic - as the display was a short one. But it was overall still quite an experience to go together. The after-fireworks part must have been the kiddos highlight of the day. They held hands - Antoine, Kieona and Kierra - and ran ahead of us, played catching and climbed around. Of course, that also had us adults worried as they ran like crazy and it was quite difficult to rein them in. Then again, no harm done at all and the kids certainly enjoyed themselves as we made our way back to Antoine's house by foot.
Kierra, Kieona, Antoine looking cheeky
US & O in OUB Building
Little kids enjoying night life
Happy children - fit for a commercial?

Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 4 (Pupa to Butterfly)

Daddy had said that the pupa would have become a butterfly before he comes back. Having done some research first on the Internet, Mommy doubted so. After all, Daddy left Singapore for Korea just one day after the caterpillar turned into a pupa and the metamorphosis process usually takes about two weeks. And Daddy will only be away for six days.

True to literature, our little pet pupa was still a pupa when Daddy got home, and it remained so until the day after National Day. On Singapore's National Day morning, we found out that Tong Tong's butterfly had come out of its cocoon and was waiting to be strong enough to fly away. Mommy woke Kieona and Kierra up from their sleep as she was afraid they may not get to see the butterfly. It will then be such a pity. They were rather happy to see it, despite being still bleary-eyed. Since it was something new to them, they asked to have their breakfast alfresco along the corridor, so that they can watch the butterfly strengthening up its wings. Well, girls of leisure - they sure have the makings of people who know how to enjoy nature when the opportunity arises.
How the butterfly looks like
Looking for the butterfly
Alfresco breakfast...
Since Tong's caterpillar turned into a pupa one day before ours did, Mommy expected ours to turn into a butterfly the day after National Day. Although we came back home late on National Day as we had gone to watch the fireworks, Mommy woke the girls up once she found out at around 8am in the morning that our butterfly is now out of its cocoon and ready to fly. This time, the girls were really amazed, as they could go close to see the butterfly since it was enclosed in the hibernation box Mommy made. Kieona was a little bit upset as we had to release the butterfly. She had wanted to keep it but Mommy explained that it could die if we kept it, as it deserves to be free and to eat. She reluctantly agreed and learnt that in life, sometimes the best way to love something is to let it go. Sounds profound? Well, Mommy sneaked that in when explaining the reason about letting the butterfly go.

What a great home lesson learnt!
Can you see the butterfly paterns forming?
The empty cocoon - the butterfly beside it... looks slimy
Our butterfly, but now we have to let it go
Kieona and Kierra, happy that the butterfly has finally come out of its cocoon
Isn't it amazing?

Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 3 (Caterpillar to Pupa)

As promised, here is the much awaited photos which Mommy has been procrastinating to put up. The caterpillar we had on our lime tree was getting fatter and one day after our neighbor's caterpillar turned into a pupa, ours did too. Noting that this batch of caterpillars seem to prefer hanging by a hard surface, away from the plant which was its home and food for the first two weeks of its life, Mommy fashioned a box to keep our very fat caterpillar.

It turned into a pupa on 30th July, a day after Mommy put the caterpillar into the box. Kieona and Kierra both had gymnastics practice earlier and we noted that the caterpillar looks like it was turning into a pupa with its shortened and fatter state when we left the house at about 4pm that day. When we got home at around 6pm, it had already turned into a pupa. Daddy described the changing of state as an "explosion". How does the caterpillar covering turn into the pupa like stage? We had totally missed the process. Did it "explode" and just change within seconds or??? Then again, we're glad to be able to deduce that the skin actually came off to reveal its pupa covering state. Check out the photos if you got lost from my explanation.

Caterpillar hanging on the mesh cloth before turning into pupa
It had turned into a pupa! Look at the original skin at the tail end!
Our neighbour's pupa, which had climbed onto the stand for Mommy's pot

Monday, August 11, 2008

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Daddy in Vogue Magazine!
It's been an eventful weekend on Singapore's birthday. August 9 this year happens to fall on Saturday and since there was no enrichment lessons for Kieona this weekend, we thought it would have been a weekend of idling around the house, apart from catching the fireworks near Esplanade on Saturday.

Daddy had just been on an incentive trip to Korea with some of the other managers at his office the week before. We didn't tag along because it was strictly for office bonding. He only came back on August 5, and we had a good six days of co-sleeping without him. The girls both enjoyed it very much and Mommy was pretty surprised though that they didn't cringe when Mommy announced Daddy's homecoming on Tuesday morning itself. Clearly, the girls both missed Daddy a lot, even though they didn't say it outright. Kieona and Kierra both on separate occassions asked about when he was coming back, despite us having a lot of fun when he wasn't around. Perhaps it was because of this that it made this past weekend an even more enjoyable one for the family.
Is that Daddy?
To add to the joy, we visited a lot of people on Saturday and attended an evening party on Sentosa on Sunday, and amongst all, the little pupa we had turned into a beautiful butterfly on Sunday morning! Stay tuned as I put up the entries one at a time... it's a laborious process sometimes, you know.