First bite

Well, well, what happens when 2 rambunctious boys play together? Especially when both are supposed to take turns playing with a certain toy.

Look what happened to Joshie's left arm.

He got bitten by his best friend Gaspar. The boys were supposed to be taking turns playing on a mini manual motorbike. Gaspar refused to give up the toy to Joshua after going for a few rounds. Joshua kept chasing him and tried to hold back the motorbike with his hands. Before I knew it, Gaspar turned around and bit Joshua.

So did he cry?

Nope. He just stared at the mark for a while. I think he was kinda shocked. After that he was quite 'manja' and clingy to mummy till we left the playground. The next day, both boys played happily again =)

These 2 friends are so unpredictable. One minute they'll be playing happily, hugging each other and the next minute, they fight! But they patch up really quickly too. Guess kids tend to forget and forgive easily.

Here's a picture of the two good friends.

Lavish party pack

Gone are the days when party packs consists of balloons, whistles, party hats, face masks and candy. Kids nowadays are very very lucky. And I am seeing an increasing trend of lavish party packs. For Joshie's 2nd birthday last year, I gave out a very simple party pack comprising a box of raisins, a pack of Japanese animal biscuits, stickers and IKEA finger puppets. I guess this year I gotta be a bit more generous.

Two weeks ago, Joshie's schoolmate celebrated her 4th birthday in school. Besides the birthday cake and a wide array of pastries catered from Delifrance, her parents spent a lot on her friends. Each of them had a helium balloon.

And this was what came out from the party pack. A small box of color pencils, cloth face mask, cute stationary, a tub of playdough (not in picture), playdough shapes cutter, a whistle, a bottle of bubbles solution (also not in picture) and an apron.

Needless to say, Joshie was very very excited. The items in the party pack are all very useful and I think every kid was happy =) I'd better start sourcing for Joshie's party pack contents soon since his birthday is just 2 months away.

That afternoon, my boy took his nap with his helium balloon.

Babysitting Rion

My Japanese friend, Motomi has just shifted to another condo nearby as the prices here have gone exorbitantly high. On moving day, I offered to babysit her daughter so that she can handle everything without disturbance from a toddler. Poor lady, she settled everything as her hubby couldn't take leave on that day.

Rion came over slightly before noon as the movers were supposed to arrive at 1pm.

The two kids having fried rice for lunch. Rion has a huge appetite.

After lunch, I bathed Joshie while Rion played by herself in the room. Then I put Joshie down for his nap while my helper played Rion.

Luckily Joshie napped even though he knew that Rion was playing in the next room. Rion was pretty bored playing all by herself. She kept on going into Joshie's room to look at him as pictured below.

By 4pm, she was really restless, even though Joshie had already woken up. She was also missing her mom and kept on asking for mummy. I tried explaining to her but it was really tough communicating with her as she doesn't understand English. Luckily I managed to amuse and entertain her till her mummy came around 5ish.

That was my first experience babysitting a toddler for such a long period of time, 5 hours in total. Actually I was real glad when Motomi appeared at the door :)

His new playmate

So Oscar has gone back to Australia for more than a month already. And I am quite amazed that Joshie seems to understand that Oscar is no longer in Singapore and he can't play with him anymore. My mom and MIL were a tad worried about the cheeky losing a close friend. However, I have assured them that he is fine and has found another close friend as his playmate.

This is his new playmate, Gaspar who lives in the same condo =) They even go to school together thrice a week. According to teacher, they are very close. They love to sit next to each other and dance/sing together. BUT they also fight....haha. Pinching, shoving and hitting.

The boys drumming.

Their make-believe train. Their train brings them to many places..........Ca-li-li-li-fornia and Hong Kong disney are the two main places.

Fun outing. Both were singing in the stroller when we brought them to Sentosa beach recently.

Kids are really so adaptable. Say goodbye to old friends and hello to new friends easily huh?

Disney on Ice

OK, this is the best photo that I managed to take. It was a good camera, so please blame it on my photography skills. My husband is going to nod his head in agreement, right hubby?

Two Saturdays ago, I brought Joshie to watch Disney on Ice at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Went with two of his friends, Haley and Rion. Besides Mickey and Friends, the kids also saw The Little Mermaid, Lion King and Tinkerbell. However, all three of them were most excited to see Mickey and Friends, mainly because they didn't know the other characters well enough. Oh, and we were glad that we bought Category 1 tickets, otherwise the kids would be sitting too far back to enjoy the show.

After the musical, we headed to the taxi stand but the queue was just too long. Called for a cab but couldn't get through. So we walked with the kids to the nearest MRT station.

Two wobbly toddlers trying to steady themselves in the moving train.

Rion who only slept at midnight the night before was tired, hungry and cranky. Thus she was crying and Motomi had to carry her. We were shocked that nobody stood up to offer her a seat!!!!

Oscar's farewell

Joshie's dear friend, Oscar has gone back to Australia for good. They relocated back more than a week ago. Since then, Joshie has asked for Oscar a couple of times, but usually he'd answer his own question by saying "no more oscar......Oscar go back Australia".

We were sad to lose a friend but I guess farewells are part and parcel of life, especially when your friends are expats. We attended two farewells for Oscar, and the week before their departure date, the boys played with each other nearly everyday.

This was at the playground at Spruce cafe, located near Tanglin. The two boys were playing in the playground while waiting for the rest to arrive.

Hubs with both boys. He was entertaining them while we waited for our food to arrive. No pictures of the food as we were real busy keeping up to the boys' demands. I shared a banana pancake with Joshie which was delicious. Very big portion, and Joshie loved the cookie bits that were sprinkled on the pancake.

Oscar's mom also organized a farewell playdate for her son. It was held at the fountain area of City Sq Mall. Here's a picture of both boys in their swimmies, munching on homemade cookies while waiting for the others to arrive.

They had a blast at the fountain, running around and shrieking happily.

To Elke and Oscar, we wish you the very best. Do call us when you come back to Singapore for a visit.........We miss you.

Swimming

The cheeky loves playing with water, no doubt about that. However, he gets annoyed when I shower his head with water during his hair wash. And when we are at the pool, he can react in two different ways; depending on which friend is at the pool with him. If he is playing with his old time friends like Oscar and Rion, he seems apprehensive and hardly goes down the slide. He'd just goof around with them. He wouldn't even follow Oscar down the slide.

BUT, if his new friend Gaspar is at the pool, I see a different Joshie. Gaspar is his classmate and he is 6 months older than Joshie. In his company, Joshie tries to behave like a big boy and he likes to imitate everything Gaspar does. He would go down the slide together (pictured below) and wouldn't even cry or run to me if Gaspar bullies him.

Funny huh?

Anyway, here's his new Minnie Mouse hooded towel which daddy bought from Hong Kong. No more Mickey so he had to make do with Minnie instead. Joshie loves his towel a lot.

Dim sum with the kiddos

Had a crazy lunch outing last Monday................four mummies together with their four toddlers! Was quite chaotic, but nevertheless, we had a good time too........think the kids enjoyed themselves the most!

We went out for dim sum at Lei Garden @ Orchard Shopping Centre. The kids were making so much noise as they were hungry. And I was desperately asking for the menu and ordering the dim sums. Hehe, I think the waitresses were a bit dazed when the four noisy kids walked into the restaurant the moment they opened for business at 11:30am sharp!!! Managed to get all the kids buckled in their high chair, ordered food and still trying to calm and entertain 4 hungry toddlers when the head waitress walked over to me and asked if we could get them to lower down their noise volume. Oops, I apologized and then told her to be quick with our order since they are all hungry.

Some of the dim sums that we had. From left, siu mai, har kow and the Lei Garden special (some minced pork dumplings with vege). We also ordered their new item; chicken & yam spring rolls (sorry no picture taken as that was the first dish that arrived, so we quickly stuffed the spring rolls into 4 hungry little mouths) which were delicious. Also had fried rice, century egg & minced pork porridge, shrimp chee cheong fun, siu loong pao and egg tarts.

And this was our dessert - mango pudding. Melt in your mouth, with bits and pieces of sweet mango flesh. Joshie loved it a lot, he kept telling me, "Joshie like it".

My boy enjoying his egg tart.

Four mummies with four kiddos..............and four nationalities; hahaha.......Malaysian Chinese, Japanese, Australian and Japanese-Taiwanese.

The bill came up to $130. It's quite pricey but everything that we ordered was delicious, except for the chee cheong fun.

Random pictures of Joshie & friends

His best buddy, Oscar Watmore! The boys always play rough with each other but will also give each other hugs n kisses.

His 1st girlfriend, Rion Futatsuka! He's always so careful and nice with her.

His 2nd girlfriend, Haley Jones. He's not as gentle with her......see how he snatched her packet of biscuits, tsk tsk......but he loves playing with her too.

Our Saturday

Where did Joshie go today???

To the ZOO!

Daddy's bringing us to zoo today

Zoo today, zoo today

Daddy's bringing us to zoo today

We can stay all day

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

You can come too, too, too

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

Hehe, Joshie had a great time at the zoo today, especially since it was a combined outing with Oscar & family! The boys were so excited and were making so much noise in the car, singing and chattering away. It was so nice to see them enjoying each other's company.

This picture was taken at the zoo entrance. Joshie kept saying "moo moo moo".

Aww......isn't that so sweet of Oscar? He's very generous with his hugs.

Joshie saying "hi" to the ostrich.

A picture of me with the 2 boys. Gosh, they can really drain out our energy.