22 Feb 2015 - Lion Dance and Fortune God (舞狮与财神爷)

Chinese New Year will not be complete without watching a Lion Dance and an encounter with Fortune God (财神爷).  This is an annual event at my sis place.

At the end of the lion dance, oranges were being arranged on the floor and depending on your luck, you might just strike a lottery.  :-)

While the lion dance was performing, the 财神爷 started giving out lollipop to the kids.

This 财神爷 did not forget about the adults.  Each of the adults received a red packet from him and within the red packet, we were given a 4-digit number.  恭喜发财！

20 Feb 2015 - A visit to Chinatown

Javier was supposed to have an excursion to Chinatown few weeks back but it was cancelled at the very last minute.  Since then, he had been asking me to bring him there.  When Jerlene heard that, she too said that she wanted to visit Chinatown.  Since we do not have any visiting to do today, I decided to bring my whole family to Chinatown.  Jerlene and Javier were very excited.

I parked my car at Chinatown Point and we walked by the underpass all the way to Pagoda Street.  We started exploring the area where shop houses were on both sides of the street.

We went into one shop that sells many CNY accessories.  Jerlene and Javier started choosing what they like when I told them that they can each get one item from this shop.

Further down the street, we came to a TinTin shop.  I knew this comic character since I was at Jerlene's current age.  And she and Javier knew this character from the TinTin movie which was screened about 3 years ago.  This shop is meant for real TinTin collectors as one tiny little figurine costs few hundreds dollars.

Pagoda Street is not a very long street and soon, we reached the other end.

The weather was extremely hot today and by now, we were all very exhausted.

We decided to turn back and find some place to escape from the heat.  Before returning to Chinatown Point, we went up a very wide bridge that spans across Eu Tong Sen Road.  Nice decoration along the road.

By now, my two little angels had totally used up all their energy.  This does not happen when we were overseas when the weather is cooling.  We love Singapore very much. except for its weather.

19 Feb 2015 - Gong Xi Fai Cai, Happy Goat Year (恭喜发财,羊年如意)

On this very first day of Chinese New Year, we lazed at home till late in the afternoon when we started changing to get ready for some visiting.  Once again, wish all a prosperous CNY!

18 Feb 2015 - Our very own reunion dinner

It's Chinese New Year's eve today and we had our very own reunion dinner at home.  Jerlene loves 鱼生 very much and she can really mixed it well!

After "Louhei" (捞起), we had our steamboat dinner.  Jerlene started learning how to cook her own food in a steamboat and she later on helped Javier with it.

Wishing all a happy and wonderful goat year!

14 Feb 2015 - Early Reunion Dinner

My family had our reunion dinner today.  Here are some of the food that we had for our dinner.

The kids had a table all by themselves and they too enjoyed the food.

After dinner, we had a little early birthday celebration for me and my mom.  :-)

Wish everyone in my family good health and an abundance of happiness in the years to come,

12 Feb 2015 - Javier's first tooth extraction

The day has finally come.  We have been procrastinating for almost a year......today Javier had experienced his first tooth extraction at School Dental Centre (HPB).  The outcome was......my worry was entirely unnecessary as the whole procedure went through smoothly.  

I must say that the dentist was very good at handling children throughout the procedure.  She explained to Javier what she'll do to his tooth by telling him a story.  Before the injection, she said she's going to give some sleeping juice to the tooth monster so that it's easier to catch them later when they go to sleep.  I was holding Javier's hand very tightly when the injection was administered.  Javier just felt a slight "pinch" on his gum and after that, pieces of his decayed baby molar were removed from his gum.  There was not a single sound made from Javier throughout the entire procedure.  This was totally unexpected. Even the dentist said Javier was one of the best "behaved" child whom she had treated so far.  Well done, my little brave warrior!

At the end of the treatment, Javier got to choose a few Angry Bird stickers which the dentist had promised him during the last visit.  And guess what, the treatment fee is only $9.00.  Previously when we went to Q&M dental clinic, consultation alone already costs $30.

The next appointment will be in a month's time when Javier will be extracting the left baby molar.  I decided to send Javier home to rest before I return to my office.

7 Feb 2015 - First try at making fruit juice

My little princess and prince had their first try at making their own fruit juice.  Javier put in the cut fruits one by one into the juicer while Jerlene squeezed the juice out from them.  At the end of their hard work, they were rewarded by a cup of refreshing fruit juice each.

1 Feb 2015 - Shopping for presents

Jerlene's birthday was a week ago and I still "owe" her a present.  She had told me what she wants but I haven't got the time till today.  I decided to bring them to town to search for the present.  It has been quite a while since I last brought them out to shop mainly because they had always preferred to stay at home.  Today it's different as they know we are going to get what they want.

We were at Toys-R-Us, Suntec.  I gave them a budget from which they can choose anything they want but must be within the budget.  Jerlene already had something in mind and very quickly, she found what she had always wanted.  As for Javier, he went round and round because he cannot decide what he wants.  It took him more than half an hour before he finally chose two items, which added up to be within the budget.  After we happily made the payment, I bought an ice cream cone for them and they loved it, just look at Javier.....haha.......

Jerlene bought the a Little Pony Princess Twilight Sparkle set (below) while Javier bought a bag of all sorts of vehicles and a play mat with roads on it.

When we reached home, they can't wait to unpack the presents.  We have been "ignored" for the rest of the day.  Anyway, seeing them happy, I also happy.  :-P

30 Jan 2015 - School Dental Centre (Health Promotion Board)

Last year when we brought Jerlene to her school dental clinic, we asked the dentist regarding dental checkup for pre-schoolers.  She said that we can actually make an appointment with School Dental Centre, which is under Health Promotion Board (HPB).  As such, we had arranged for an appointment today for Javier to check on his tooth.

Last year, when the dentist at Q&M told us that Javier's decayed molar tooth requires a root canal treatment, we had been procrastinating whether to put Javier through that.  So now, we wanted a 2nd opinion from another dentist.  After the visual checks as well as X-rays taken, the dentist said that the decay was quite bad and root canal may not help now.  Which means the only option is to extract it.  In fact, both the molar at each side had already decayed.  If we leave it there, the main worry is that it may affect the permanent tooth, which is already developing in his gum.

So we made an appointment 2 weeks later for the extraction on one side.  The dentist said if Javier cannot "cooperate" during the extraction, there are 2 options.  Either General Anesthesia (GA) or we hold his hand down and push through.  I am very wary about GA.  So I really hope that Javier is brave enough to get through it smoothly.

25 Jan 2015 - Jerlene turns 8 today!

Jerlene is 8 years old now!  Oh my.......really?!?  8 years have passed just like that!  But this 8 years have been an amazing journey for us.  I am sure there will be more wonderful moments for many years to come.  I've consolidated a list of Jerlene's photos over the past 8 years below.  These images will always be in my memory.  :-)

2007

 2008

 2009

 2010

 2011

 2012

 2013

 2014

 2015

15 Jan 2015 - A question that I have no answer

When I was driving home with Javier today, he suddenly asked me a very "tough" question.

Javier:"Papa, where does a baby come out from?"

Me:"That's easy, from mommy's stomach."

Next question is the tough one......

Javier:"But at the beginning when there is no people, where the first baby come from?"

Me:"........."

I think and think, finally I said.......

Me:"You go ask your teacher tomorrow, ok??"

:-P

10 Jan 2015 - Great swim, Jerlene! Keep trying, Javier!

Jerlene is getting better in her freestyle swim while Javier still need a lot of practice.  Having said that, both of them are now very comfortable in the water.  At least they have both discovered their own ways to have their head staying above the water, though sometimes they still give me a shock!  Here's a video of their swimming lesson today.

4 Jan 2015 - Sembawang Park Playground

This morning, we decided to bring the kids out to have some fun.  Sometimes ago we came across a playground in Sembawang Park which looks fun.  As such, there's where we are heading to.  Unfortunately, part of the playground was under maintenance today.  Having said that, both Jerlene and Javier were still having a lot of fun there.

We left the park around lunch time and we had our lunch at Prata Place along Sembawang road.

2 Jan 2015 - School term starts today

Today the first day of school in the year 2015.  Jerlene and Javier have been "promoted" to P2 and K2 respectively.  One big difference starting this year is that we all got to wake up early because Jerlene is in morning session.  In fact, Rosyth has started single session this year,  Initially I thought that I will have a hard time waking my little angels up.  To my surprise, they woke up earlier than me.  They are probably excited about school after a long break.

I knew that the traffic to the school will be bad but I never expected it to be THAT BAD!  It took us about half an hour to reach the school by car.  If we chose to walk, we'll probably reach in 15-20mins.

Javier was glad that he can reach school early because it means he will be able to have playtime before breakfast.  :-)

When Jerlene came home in the evening, she told me excitedly that she has been appointed class monitor for the first half of this year.  :-)

1 Jan 2015 - HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another year has passed and I am into the 9th year of blogging since 2007.  I hope I can continue with the same discipline to constantly post interesting updates of my little princess and prince.

For my first post of this new year, I just want to wish all of you a wonderful and prosperous 2015!  :-)