24 Oct 2014 - Baby teeth and permanent teeth co-exist

Javier showed me his teeth today and I was shocked to see that his two new teeth started growing out while his two baby teeth were still intact though shaky.  I was a bit worried that his two new teeth will grow out of position.

Fortunately, both his baby teeth dropped off the next day and the two permanent teeth are growing nicely now.  :-)

19 Oct 2014 - Our Terrapins can climb tree

Today we suddenly discovered that the two terrapins that we bought one week ago can actually climb tree!  When Jerlene and Javier first told me that, I did not believe them.  I thought they were the one who placed the terrapin on the tree.  However, I saw it myself after that.  It's really amazing.

The terrapins not only can climb tree, they can even climb ladder!  This picture reminds me of "Master Wugui" in the movie "Kungfu Panda",  No wonder Javier name one of them Ninja.  Haha......

18 Oct 2014 - Jerlene's first Merit Award

After the Chinese Dance performance in school, Jerlene immediately got herself changed and went straight for her ballet class.  I'd actually told her that she can skip the class if she's tired but she insisted of going.  She really loves dancing.

In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that Jerlene had been selected by the dance school to receive the Junior Merit Award.  And today, she was presented with the actual award.

Once again, WELL DONE, Jerlene!  :-)

18 Oct 2014 - Chinese Dance Performance 2014

Over the past few weeks, Jerlene had been involved in a series of intensive Chinese Dance practice sessions to prepare for today's performance (P1 orientation).  The mini concert today is to showcase some of the school's CCAs to next year's P1 students and parents.  We went to the school very early to prepare for the concert.

Before that, the kids had a few rounds of rehearsals.

The Chinese Dance performance started at about 9am.  Here's the video of the performance.

14 Oct 2014 - River Safari

Today was our first visit to River Safari, except for Javier, who was here few weeks back during an excursion by the childcare centre.  When I asked him previously what he saw in River Safari, he told me there was a "pretend" (fake) boat on the sand.  I was wondering what's that because all I know is the Amazon River Boat Cruise but that should not be on sand.  The mystery was finally revealed today.  In the following photo, did you notice a wooden boat on sand behind Javier?  That's what he's referring to.

One thing we like about River Safari is that most of the exhibits are in shelters instead of under the hot sun.  And as it's a weekday, there was not much crowd.  It's not a very big park and we covered everything comfortably in about 2 hours.

We started going through the section of the park called Rivers of the World.  It showcase animals living in the various famous rivers around the world.  The following are Alligator Gar from Mississippi River.

This is the African Dwarf Crocodile from the Congo River.

At the back of Jerlene and Javier is an Indian Gharial from Ganges River.

This is our favourite exhibit which showcase the Mekong Giant Catfish from Mekong River.  If the catfish stands on its tail, it will be taller than Jerlene and Javier.

Here are some other animals that we saw around the park.

Next comes the highlight of the park, the Giant Panda (KaiKai and JiaJia) enclosure.  We were first greeted by a Red Panda.

And here comes Kai Kai and Jia Jia.  I've seen Giant Pandas in quite a number of occasion but this is the first time I come so close to such lovely creatures.

From the Giant Panda Forest, we walked across a bridge to the next section of the park.  Amazon River Quest is another highlight of the park.  It's a boat ride that brings us to experience Amazon River environment.

Look at my two silly kids getting ready for a "drop" during the boat ride.....haha.....

Though most of the animals went into "hiding" throughout the boat ride, all of us still enjoyed it.

The last section of the park is called the Amazon Flooded Forest.

The above is Pacu, a common species of omnivorous South American freshwater fish that are related to the piranha.  Behind Jerlene and Javier are the Manatee, also known as Sea Cows.

That's the end of our River Safari visit.  Though it's much smaller than the zoo, we all still prefer it simply because we do not have to walk in the hot sun for most part of the visit.  We will be back soon!

12 Oct 2014 - New pets for my angels

Jerlene and Javier have been asking to have pets recently and so I decided to buy them terrapins, which should be easy to maintain.  Initially, they did not know what's a terrapin.  When they saw it, one said it's a turtle and the other said it's a tortoise.  Do you know what's the difference?  I've found several explanation but the easiest way to differentiate them is to look at their habitat. If it lives in salt water (is an oceanic animal), then it is a turtle. If it lives in fresh or brackish water, it is a terrapin. If it lives on land, it is a tortoise.

On our way back from the pet shop, I asked Jerlene and Javier to name their pets.  Jerlene named hers (the one with lighter color shell) "Rosie" while Javier named his "Ninja".  What a name!   Haha.......

12 Oct 2014 - Performing a new song (感谢) learnt from Childcare

Javier is performing a new Chinese song (感谢) learnt from his childcare centre.  This song is supposed to be performed by K2 students during the year end concert but since K1 students seem interested, the teacher decided to teach them as well.

Below video is the full song with actions.

11 Oct 2014 - Self Training after lesson

In today's swimming lesson, the coach started teaching the kids freestyle strokes.  Most of the kids have one common problem.  When they moved their arms, they forgot to kick their legs.  When the coach reminded them to kick, their arm became frozen.  Guess it'll take them a few weeks to get it right.

After the lesson, Jerlene and Javier decided to continue training by themselves.  Good to see them so diligent.

4 Oct 2014 - Second swimming lesson for the kids

Today's swimming lesson repeated some of the exercises that they did last week.  There was clear improvement for all the kids.  Jerlene and Javier can now stay in the water with their heads down for about 10 secs.  Last week they cannot even hit 5 secs.  Good job, children!

After the lesson, the swimming coach gave each of the kids a candy for Children's Day.  Thanks Coach!

3 Oct 2014 - Miss Photogenic

Today is the official Children's Day and there is no class.  However, Pro-Teach student care is still operating and they have organized several fun activities for the children.  Jerlene had been looking forward to the party.  One of the activities was a best dress contest.  Jerlene did not win the contest, but she won the "Miss Photogenic" title!

Take a look at my pretty princess.  :-)

2 Oct 2014 - Children's Day at Rosyth: Fitness for Food

Rosyth School was having a Children's Day celebration today.  The theme was "Fitness for Food".  Over the past few weeks, Rosythians had been donating food for the less fortunate.  Other than doing charity, the teachers reminded all that health and fitness were equally important.  As such, there were two sessions for today's program.  First was a Hip Hop session and then followed by a series of physical exercises.

The following video feature Jerlene in both sessions.

1 Oct 2014 - Children's Day Celebration at Bright Juniors

To celebrate Children's Day, the childcare centre organized a "Make your own Sandwiches" session in the morning.  Parents were invited to participate and had breakfast together with their kids.  Initially, I told Javier that I will not attend as I got an early meeting later but after seeing his "disappointed" face, I couldn't bear to leave and joined in with him.  I spread the butter over the bread and he put slices of tomato himself.  Happy Children's Day to all!

27 Sep 2014 - First swimming lesson for my little ones

Jerlene and Javier started their swimming lesson today.  Jerlene had been looking forward to this day since one month back.  As for Javier, he's quite unwilling to attend swimming class initially.  However, after seeing our neighbour's girl also joining the class, he decided to give it a go.  The first lesson is simply some basic kicking and getting used to the water.

There are different exercises such as Starfish and Mermaid.  Jerlene had been doing pretty well considering this is the first lesson.  Javier on the other hand still need to build up on his courage to overcome the fear of being in an adult pool without a float.  孩子们，加油！

21 Sep 2014 - Bricks Restaurant, Puteri Harbour and Dragon's Apprentice Ride

Breakfast was included for our stay at Legoland Hotel.  From some forum, we heard that usually after 8:30am, one may need to queue for a table.  So in order to beat the crowd, we went to Bricks Restaurant at around 8am.  Once again, there are many Lego models all over the restaurant.  The breakfast spread was pretty normal but at least there were waffles, pancakes and soft boiled eggs that the kids like.

After breakfast, we went straight to Legoland.  As annual pass holders, we were able to enter the park half an hour before the normal crowd.  We left the park at about 10:45am in order to check out of the hotel by 11am.  Instead of re-entering Legoland, we decided to drive to Puteri Harbour where we had our lunch at a Japanese restaurant.

We returned to Legoland after lunch as "demanded" by the kids.  As it's not very crowded on a Sunday (which is a working day in JB), the kids got to take their favourite rides over and over again.

All this while, Jerlene dare not take the roller coaster ride.  With her cousin around, she decided to give it a try.  First she requested me to accompany her.  And after we did one round, she seemed to have overcome the fear and said she can do it by herself.  From then on, there was no stopping and she took the rides continuously for close to 20 times.

It was a great weekend at Legoland and everyone enjoyed it.