Marymount Kindergarten Orientation for Parents

After morning's furoy at the Rise and Shine expo, P took a deep nap after she got home. I had to bring her over to in law's place at 5.00 PM so I can go meet hubby at United Square, where we had our dinner before going to attend her school's orientation. P didn't wake up when it was time to go, so I had to move her to my shoulder. I thought she will wake when walking over to in law's, but she didn't. She slept all the way to my in law's place (technically just 2 blocks away), and continued sleeping after I passed her to MIL's helper. Haha, the tired little creature... 

I took a bus to Novena to meet hubby. We had Bakerzin pasta for dinner and it fell short of my expectations. I ordered their seafood pasta (as I always do) but they definitely did it a lot better the last time I had it. The noodle was overcooked and the texture just didn't appeal to me. Hubby's Aglio Olio with mushroom, ham and bacon fared much better, but I'm not really a fan of garlic, eeks. We (well, it's more of I) beat a hasty retreat from Bakerzin, but it was still early. We found our way to Sogurt, which charges yoghurt and toppings by the weight, so you can add anything you want. It doesn't come cheap compared to other yoghurt shops where youghurt usually just come with 1 or 2 types of toppings, but I really like the flexibility of adding what I want (a lot) and what I want to try (1 or 2 pieces). 

 The orientation for parents is to be held from 7-9PM at MMK compound. We arrived close to 7PM to see that most people are already seated. They had several stations - 1 for registration, 1 giving out orientation materials, 1 giving out CDAC forms (for those who wish to pay school fees via Baby Bonus scheme), 1 dishing out water and curry puff, and 1 for school bus. When we reached the presentation hall, we found a few classrooms transformed to childcare facilities (with teachers helping to look after the kids) for parents who had brought their kids along. We didn't want to bring P along partly because of the late timings, but mainly because of the potential disruption she will cause. On hidnsight, if I had known they provided childcare facilities, I MIGHT be a bit more inclined to bring P along. 

 The principal Mrs Kew kickstarted the presentation at about 7.15PM, bringing us through the organization of the kindergarten, staff strength, rules, dismissal procedures, meals at school etc. It was comprehensive, but quite dull. She finished off at about 8.30 PM and the big group was broken up into smaller groups based on the school level of the child. The English HOD spoke to us about the curriculum, followed by the Chinese teacher. It does seem that P will have a lot of fun at this school next year. I like that they take a very hands-on approach when educating the pre-nursery children. It was close to 9.30 PM by the time everything ended. 

There is going to be another orientation for our toddlers come 27 Dec 2013. I can't wait to bring P to see her school again.

Rise & Shine Expo 2013

There was a lot of online hype regarding the Rise & Shine Expo 2013 held at Suntec Convention Hall 401 from 27-29 Sep 2013. It supposedly features 500+ premium brands, 100+ parenting talks, 50+ fun classes for little ones and many more. There was also Meet & Greet with Nickelodeon characters like Dora and Diego. I happened to be on leave on 27 Sep 2013, so decided to check the expo with P and my mom. 

We arrived at about 11.30AM to a completedly made over Suntec City, found our way (not as intuitive as before) to the Convention Center Hall 401 and saw a long queue, presumably for the goodie bag. We started at the right side of the Hall and made our way through the booths. Luckily, there wasn't a very big crowd and we could maneuver at ease. I have definitely experienced worse at Expo baby fairs. 

We came across the Anlene booth and I made my mom take the free bone density test that they made available to all. She seemed keen to get some of the products, we but decided to come back later so as not to lug the heavy products around. Slightly further down was the NTUC booth, giving away free walking pet balloons if you complete their form to join their mailing list. Mom joined the queue first with P while I went in search of the form to complete. It was lucky we queued early. By the time we got to our turn, there was a looooooooooooong line of people behind us. P was very happy to pull her walking cow (looks like a dog if you asked me) around. I signed up for the Passion Card (yes, I'm quite slow to take this up) 2 booths down, and that's pretty much what we took away (with Anlene products at the end) from the Rise and Shine expo. There was really nothing much to buy. To add salt to the wound, our biggest haul was Anlene (senior products IMO) at a kid's fair, how ironic. I guess it's to make up for the lack of things to buy, my mom kept asking me to go get their goodie bags. We headed to the entrance/exit area and I noticed the goodie bag queue has died down considerably. It was also not simply queue and get it. According to the staff, I had to sign up at the website, have 5 friends 'Like' their event on Facebook before a QR code is generated for me to collect the goodie bag. Thanks to the hype among all my mommy friends, the 5 'Likes' was available immediately, and I collected the goodie bag without much problem. 

P was probably the most shortchanged. She usually get to try a lot of snacks and product offerings at expo baby fairs, but Heinz booth wasn't at this exhibition and she doesn't take any of the milk powder that are exhibited there. To quote her, "No mum mum." We also didn't stay till 3.30 PM for the Meet and Greet, but she did have fun on the bouncy castle though. 

 Left the exhibition and went in search of lunch. Suntec is so foreign to me now. Their post-renovation look is very modern looking, and I had difficulties trying to figure out the directions. With the help of some signs, we managed to find our way to the fountain area where most of the food options are located, and even that area has changed considerably. For one, I think the new design makes the place looks brighter, probably letting in more natural sunlight. I actually like its new look. Unfortunately, it was lunchtime when we got there, and office workers thronged the restaurant queues. We finally managed to settle at Ichiban Boshi when P had several meltdowns as the lunch was eating into her nap. We took a hurried lunch and brought P home before her full blown tantrum kicks it. She didn't make it though, felling asleep on the feeder bus just 1 stop away from my house.

eXplorerKid Race 2013

P took part in the eXplorerkid Race again this year. She falls into the 25-30 months category, and is just nice 25 months and 1 day old on day of competition. Race format is to have the toddler run 2.5m to pick up a bean bag, then run another 2.5m to the finishing line. P did a great run to the 2.5m mark, but she did a touch and go on the bean bag without picking it up. By the time she went back for it, the other kids have already reached the finishing line. It was my fault actually; I ran off to the finishing line too quickly before making sure she picked up the bean bag. You can see from the video my mom took. Nevertheless, it was a great improvement from last year where she crawled halfway before sitting down to clap with gusto, haha. 

We will be back again next year!

E-chew-yee ya

After 17 days delay, Aunt Flo decided to come yesterday evening. I ran out of the bathroom, hugged hubby and gave him the news. It would have been better had it been pregnancy news, but I'm happy because we can start trying again soon! Past 2 weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, 4 negative HPT, no sign of AF and THE hormonal imbalance diagnosis. 

The downside though, is that AF came with a vengeance this time. It was as if it was bottling up for a finale, and the cramps and backaches were the most intense I felt since giving birth. The bloated-ness did not aid in my discomfort. 

P has been full of energy lately. I just couldn't keep up with her. She laid in bed  yesterday belting out her fav songs, and I was struggling to stay awake. Finally got hubby to take over and he told me this morning that she continued singing until he fell asleep. When he awoke with a start, P had fallen asleep. Now, who was supposed to put who to sleep? 

Over the past few days, P would shout at the top of her voice "E-chew-yee, e-chew-yee, e-chew-yee, ya ya ya!!!!" We had no idea what she was trying to tell us, but her excitement was so hilarious. Hubby finally figured it out yesterday, and its the song that goes "yippee ya ya, yippee yippee ya!" 

How did it get so distorted by P? 

P's Birthday Celebration with Hubby's Family

We hosted a cosy party in the comfort of our house to celebrate P's birthday (for the last time this year). The theme was Care Bears, and I had purchased some party supplies from Party City some months back. Caterer used was Delihub, and the food had great reviews from my in laws. We got her Care Bear cake from Pine Garden. 

A long week

It's P's birthday week. Quite a lot of things have happened so I'm also not sure where to begin.

I guess I'll start with myself. Last Tuesday evening, I went to the Thomson Women Clinic at AMK Hub to see Dr. Wendy Teo for my late menses. I had tested negative again (4th time) the day before, feeling so perplexed. Gynae's diagnosis is hormonal imbalance. Sigh, didn't even know what was that. My thoughts on missed period means pregnancy, didn't know hormonal imbalance could cause that as well. She told me to give it 2 more weeks to test again. If still negative, I will need to take the medicine she prescribed to induce my menses. 

I went online to read up on hormonal imbalance and I'm really experiencing most of the symptoms. Upset, but can't be helped. Gynae will scan me in 3 months' time to check for ovulation. If its not happening, she will need to give me ovulation medicine. My previous fear has come true - fertility issues. 

On a more positive note, we have started transitioning P to the next stage formula milk, Nan Kid 4. I had ever spoken to the Nestlé helpline person and she told me Nan Kid has a slight vanilla taste and is generally sweeter while Nan Ha 3 is bitter. I was worried P can't take it well, but she gulped it down like her usual milk. I've been alternating her feeds, and looking good so far. Once properly transited, it will save us a good $9.30/tin moving forward. 

Another thing worth mentioning is that we have moved P to her own room! We bought a car-shaped bed from Full House Aljunied and have it delivered the day after her birthday. That very night, she slept in her own room while I fretted the whole night in my room. It seems I was experiencing more separation anxiety than her. We left a hall light on in case she decided to venture out and look for us in the middle of the night. True enough, at 2am, I heard her cries and came out to see her standing outside her room. In the end, all she wanted was milk. I put her back on her bed and gave her her milk. It took another 30 min of lying down with her for her to get back to sleep. 

The next day, we deliberately left the hall light off and she slept through. The following day as well! Hubby was really happy with his uninterrupted sleep, and said we should have done it earlier. I think the trick is to really give her a whopper milk before bed. Hubby didn't give any milk to her on the first night.

All that's missing now is a #2. I hope we can still be in time for the horse year. 

P's Birthday Celebration with my Family

Today marks the first round of P's 2nd birthday celebrations. We drove to Defu Lane's Seafood Paradise to meet my family for dinner. Hubby really loves their 金沙螃蟹, and couldn't resist slurping up the gravy after he finished the crab. I, on the other hand, prefer the crab tang hoon. The whole crab dish has the taste and texture of sharks fin. If wedding banquets can replace this dish, it will save a lot of sharks. Their cuttlefish kang kong was unlike those you get at zi char stalls. The veggie is fried such that it is crispy. I found the food just average, but my family really seem to like it, plus P ate a fair bit too. 6 dishes cost $234, which was expensive in my opinion.

After dinner, we drove back to my parent's place for the cake cutting. I didn't plan to have a birthday theme for P's birthday celebration with my family, but Breadtalk recently launched the Hello Kitty series of cakes that was really quite cute. On a spur of the moment last Friday, I decided on the Hello Kitty theme, which sent my mom scrambling to Compasspoint to order the cake. I bought a Hello Kitty stick balloon from Gift Greetings at Great World City. With the Hello Kitty toy that we got from MacDonald happy meal sometime back, all these set the backdrop for her cake cutting. 

Round 1 done. We'll be heading to Hello Kitty town + Little Big Club in JB for her actual birthday (21 Aug). In laws side will celebrate with her next weekend. 

The TTC Journey

Hubby and I really wanted a horse year baby, so we started trying in June, expecting that it will be a one shot one kill and that our #2 will be born in March 2014. Haha, of coz that didn't happen. It was tough with P co-sleeping with us. In short, the first month of TTC has failed. 

P was conceived some 1 month after our wedding. I only saw AF for a month before bidding her goodbye for 9 months then. There was no stress and definitely no baby co-sleeping with us at that time, but with #2, I find myself getting super upset at seeing AF last month. Thought that came to mind: 

Oh man! I.have.secondary.infertility.

Well, AF is 10 days late as I wrote this post, and I have 3 negatives on test kits so far. Very demoralising, but I'm telling myself as long as I don't see AF, I stand a chance. The tests were done

1. 5 days before expected time of AF (ya, I know I should slap myself for this one)

2. On day of expected AF

3. 6 days after expected AF

All NEGATIVE. I can think of no other way to describe my feeling. 

P's birthday is coming up this Wednesday, and I'm going to test again if AF hasn't showed up. Wish me luck!

NDP 2013 Preview



Laughing Ger

My Gym Open House

Following my post on signing up for the free trial for My Gym at Djitsun Mall, Ang Mo Kio, the day came for us to attend the trial. We arrived at Djitsun Mall to see that the escalators are not working yet, so you will need to take the lift up to My Gym. The earlier session has yet to leave, but staff were nice enough to let P in to try some of the structures first. They had a ballpit, 2 trampolines, a playground structure and plenty of mats and equipment. I like it that the lesson area is fully carpeted and they had padding in areas where kids could bump into.

While the earlier session sang their goodbye song, P and I sat by the side and watched. She couldn't resist the playground structure after a while and I had to watch her instead. I realized I didn't get a picture of the playground structure, but it's strange because you need to take a step down before you can slide. In my opinion, that's quite dangerous for bubs wearing socks, because they could fall easily. I never really had to 'spot' P when she goes on the slide sat neighborhood playgrounds, but for this one, I have to.

The session began with everyone gathering at the red circle. The teacher sang a welcome song and we have to go round to introduce our bubs and their age. P is somewhat smack in the middle in terms of age. We have a handful of kids that are 2 years old, and the rest at about 18/19 months old. The teacher led us through some songs and patting actions. P didn't do very well with the sit down activities and at one point in time, she even wandered off to their "storeroom" where they kept balloons and a lot of colorful equipment. Yes, I think P was going for their balloons. I had to pull her back and luckily, they started the bubble session. P was jubilant, and really raced all over trying to chase bubbles. After the bubble session, we settled back down for a puppet show. The teacher handling the puppets had to do some dialogue from behind the puppet scene, but we could barely hear her voice. It would be great if they could play some sort of story from the radio instead.

The last part was an active gym session, and the part that P and I really like. There were 3 stations - Handstand, rolling and swinging - and all led by facilitators. For handstand, P had to hold something like a push up bar placed on the floor. The instructor would make sure she holds on, while the role of the parent is to lift up her hips and the other facilitator will help to stretch out her legs. P did 2 really decent handstands, and I'm really proud of her. The rolling station was performed on a gym mat that looks something like a slide. The child needs to roll forward by tucking her chin on her chest. I've done this numerous times on my bed at home, and P never fails to be amused. However, P couldn't seem to get the idea at this station, and I was too self-conscious to be giving a demo with a queue of parents behind, so we just did a flimsy one and left. Last station, swinging like a trapeze! P totally totally enjoyed this. The child has to hold onto a wooden bar (suspended from ceiling), swing 5 times and the parent has to catch her. P was laughing out loud all the way, a look of joy on her face. Parents at the side were all telling me she's super happy. Unfortunately, she didn't get to do a 2nd round on this.

And, it was freeplay after that! Lesson was shorter than I expected, but staff told me it was only a snippet of their usual lessons. They gave out brochures about lesson pricing and birthday packages. Their promotion for that day was 3 weeks free with 20 weeks sign up. Each lesson will cost $40++, which is quite expensive in my opinion. Hubby wasn't all that keen too, so we didn't sign up in the end.

River Safari

It's hubby's birthday today, happy 29th! We were thinking what to do for the day, and I suggested the zoo because I had plenty of fun there on my birthday. What's more, it's free entrance for me. Hubby said ok, so I started to pack wetsuits, sunblock etc in anticipation of going to the water playground at the zoo. Before I could complete my packing, hubby told me he has yet to recover (runny nose for past few days) and wouldn't be up to playing with water. We changed out minds and decided to check out the River Safari instead.

River Safari is the newest addition to Wildlife Reserves Singapore’s portfolio of award-winning parks. Nestled between Singapore’s two award-winning wildlife parks – Singapore Zoo and Night Safari – River Safari offers an unforgettable adventure inspired by eight of the world’s most iconic rivers. This $160-million attraction features state-of-the-art exhibit design, Southeast Asia's largest panda exhibit as well as the world's largest freshwater aquarium. Housing one of the world’s largest collections of freshwater fauna, the park features over 5,000 specimens representing 300 species. And that includes Singapore’s resident giant pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia.

Guess who we saw when we first arrived?

Hubby and P got in free, so I was the only one who needed to pay to enter. They are offering a discounted price of $25 (adult) at the moment because the River Safari boat ride and animal exhibits along this ride will not be available until later this year. Upon entering, the staff sang hubby a "Happy Birthday" song, and helped to take this picture for us.

Paiseh moment for hubby, so he hid his face

The river safari was super easy to navigate. It basically one straight path that you walk through, and view the exhibits along the way. One word of caution is for you to head to the washroom before you start to explore, else the next nearest toilet is at the panda viewing area, which is like halfway through the park. There was too much fishy exhibits at the beginning of the trail, and P was somewhat disappointed, telling me "I want see animals," We pointed out various crocodiles to her and she remained unfazed. She only brightened up when we got to the panda viewing area, and it really does help that the panda area is airconditioned. It might have been the weather on that day, but we endured a breeze-less walk almost all the way (hand held fans might offer some relief).
 

The 3Ps - P, Papa, Panda

After the pandas, we took a bathroom break and found a restaurant right outside. It serves panda pau, how cute! On hindsight, this pau is really expensive and tastes no better than any red bean pau you find outside. Well, one of the touristy things we can do in Singapore :)

 

The River Safari took us about 3 hours to complete, which wasn't too bad. When the River Safari boat ride and animal exhibits open in future, you should defnitely buffer more time. Surprisingly, hubby told me he really liked the tranquil feel of the place and won't mind coming back in future. I will be back when the new attractions open.

eXplorerkid Baby & Junior Race 2013

The eXplorerkid Baby & Junior Race 2013 is back!

It was a memorable event for us last year, when P was still so babyish and took part in the crawling contest. Hubby was surprisingly gamed when I told him about this year's race, but he did comment that a leopard will not change its spots, and that P's reaction will be the same as last year, haha.

When browsing Downtown East's website to find out more about the race, I chanced upon this video which featured myself and P at slightly after the 1 min mark.

Come September 22, P will be hitting the 25 months mark, which puts her in the Toddler category of 25-30 months. Yep, no age advantage. I think they are supposed to complete some tasks before racing to the finishing line.

Due to the loyalty discount, we only paid $12 (inclusive of processing fee and mail) for this year's race. We're all looking forward to it!

My Gym at AMK

My Gym was created in 1983 by William Caplin and Yacov & Susi Sherman, who opened their first two My Gyms in Santa Monica and Van Nuys, California. Utilizing their experience in the fields of sports, dance, early childhood development, kinesiology and gymnastics, they developed a program and facility where children actively participate in a variety of structured, weekly physical education classes to gain social skills and self-esteem.

I'm quite excited to know that they will be opening a branch at AMK! We had previously gone for a trial at their Tampines centre, and I think they are quite well equipped with ball pits, climbing structures, attachable swings etc. P must have less than a year old when she went for that trial, so I'm quite keen to see how her motor skills have evolved since then.

I received an SMS on my phone yesterday, and this is what it says.

How can I pass up a chance to explore their new centre? I responded my interest and got a call from the centre shortly to confirm a slot on 14 July. Fast and efficient service.

The AMK branch is situated at the newly constructed Djitsun Mall (don't ask me how to pronounce the name, I'though I suspect it's a silent D, so that makes Jit-soon Mall). You can see it when the mrt is plying AMK - Yio Chu Kang. It's still a fair walk from AMK Hub, but it beats having to go Tampines to attend the classes. The last time we passed by the mall, it looks as if it wasn't going to open anytime soon. They had some banners showing some of the tenants, and it includes Sakae, Khongdon BBQ, Watsons, True Fitness and a few other children educational facilities. When speaking to the My Gym staff to confirm the slot for P, I asked if the mall is already open, and the answer was no. I wonder if My Gym is going to be the first tenant to open on 13 July.

Counting down to 14 July...

14 years of Friendship

Reserved a little time for friends tonight.