We have been busy churning out cookies for this Saturday’s Little Entrepreneurs Christmas Bazaar where Mal will get a chance to run a stall, selling things. Mal and I were so sure that we should be selling cookies, and yes, we shall do that! even though Mummy will probably end up be the one doing most of the stuff.
Mal is all excited about selling our own home made cookies. For the past few days after school, you would either see us rushing to some stores to get more baking stuff or rushing home to make more cookies. So far, we are almost done with the baking and are left with decorations for the gingerbread cookies. Hoping to get everything done by tomorrow so that we can chill out at Borders after school on Friday. It has been more than a week since we went there!

Malcolm drew this the other evening with Daddy. He calls it a palm tree. Not sure why the multicolours but I sure ain’t complaining cos it is a good change from his ‘give him any colour and it will sure end up black’ painting. Oh and he wrote his name! with me reciting each alphabet

Remember 5 stones? those pyramid shape clothed stones filled with beans? Mal received his first set of 5 stones the other day. ?? had hand sewed a few sets for him. One set to leave at ??’s house, one set to bring home and another set to let Mal give away. Mal was clueless how to play the game and we seem to be the ones having fun playing instead.
Simple and inexpensive, these 5 stones serve their purpose well as toys during our childhood years, cos till today, the rules of the game are still etched in our mind.

this is how Mal play his 5 stones… balance them all on his arm!

Daddy and Mummy have been practising French at home. Mal has overheard us and surprised me the other day when he blurted ‘ca va bien’ with a big grin on his face! These were his first few french words. Now his french vocab include ‘Bonjour’ and ‘comment ca va?’, not alot but I am quite sure his french will surpass us in no time.
Here’s a french nursery rhyme he has learned from Daddy and it goes like this …

a fish cookie for his pet fish, Nina

It is rainy season here in Singapore. Dark clouds looms the sky and it drizzles almost everyday. Our little christmas tree sits in the corner of the living room. Every evening, with the lights turned on, it has the magical power to transform the house into a cozy little nest despite the gloomy weather. The rainy season creates an ambience similar to a cold winter night. We have rain instead of snow! The gaily decorated and brightly lighted christmas tree warms up the house like a fireplace. It reminds me of our christmas in the States. We had our 1st white chrsitmas 2 years back in Aspen high up in the Colorado Mountain range. Last year christmas, it was snowing when we were driving up to Flagstaff.

I love the coziness and warmth brought about by the holiday season, the rain and the cool weather. It puts me in a sharing mood.

We rummaged through the stacks of unpacked boxes in the study room. Dug out piles of baking utensils and recipe books. It is baking time again!

I have finally survived my 1 month French crash course! and guess what…I had signed up for another month of torturing! HA!

The truth is…I actually enjoy going back to school, if u minus off the homework, the test and the horrendous traffic in the morning. I am hoping that at the end of my 2 months course, I am able to converse in a decent conversation, or at least learn enough for me to survive in Paris. Working hard towards the goal and hopefully very soon, when someone comes up to me and ask
‘Vous parle le français?’
I can confidently answer
‘Bien sur!’

Here are some cool friends I made during the course. They are part of the reason for me to continue the course

Natasha, Yuan Yuan, Nicole, Cheri, Ee Lin and our teacher NordineEeLin, Natasha and Cheri

The last 2 years that we were not around. The Botanic Garden has been refurbished. With the new look and facilities, the garden seems to attract more local visitors now. I have never realised the entrance to the garden along Tanglin Road until recently. Maybe it was there all this while. Botanic Garden is one of those places where I can’t remember the last time I visit before Malcolm comes along. Malcolm seems to open up our eyes to places that we usually take for granted.

So wiith the renovation, now there is a food court in the garden. In Singapore, places with good food usually means more people. The small little carpark at the basement is packed during weekends. I would personally prefer it to be less crowded. But then it would be a pity if after all the renovation, the place only attracts tourists.

a look at how Orchids are cloned. Behind the glass is a controlled environment where cloning takes place. There are 4 sections :

1. Growth Media Preparation Room
2. Transfer Room
3. Shaker Room
4. Culture Room

Mal at the Shaker Room where all the bottles are shaking with Orchid seedlingsSherlin ?? reading Mal his Tornado book at the food court.
Mal took this pic for us

Thinking of where to bring your kids during the school holiday? Try Jacobs Ballas Children’s Garden, the first Asia children garden. It is located within Botanic Garden and is dedicated to all children of Singapore. Few weeks back, we brought Mal to the garden. He especially loves the playhouse tree with ropes to climb and slides that look rather challenging. A good place to bring your little ones if you are sick of the bustling city. Also a good way to let them learn about plants in a more interactive way.

all about how plants make food

a lot of effort has been put in to make the garden looks and feels natural, take for example this wooden log bridge.and the cave with waterfall
long long ago when people cannot afford flower pots…a picture of Mal with his favourite food, mushroom! rustic shelter for a restwith ??his favourite playhouse tree
heelllllooooooo, anybody there???here I come

this was the fun part, even Mummy was excited, a little suspension bridge.
Mal mustered a lot of courage to walk on his own

Splash parks are getting popular in Singapore. After th long walk around the garden, Mal was happy to get himself all wet. He no longer complained about how small and little the water sprays were.

We love hanging out at East Coast during weekends. Last weekend, we found a new activity to do at the beach. Fly kite! Mal tried flying layang (malay for kite) for the first time. Thanks ?? for the kite. Tugging at the string was easy for Mal. It was more hard work for Uncle Eddy who was picking and throwing the kite each time it hits the ground

what a pose!

Halloween is over and since we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We decided to put up the christmas tree as soon as Halloween was over. I was glad that the tree and ornaments still look presentable and intact after being left in the store room for the last 2 years. It was a small tree, much smaller than those we had when we were in US. Sparse leaves, no fresh pine smell, not real. Still, Mal was delighted and I am happy, cos this year, we can finally spend Christmas with our family.
(p/s : will miss the cold weather and the snow at Flagstaff though, guess Mal will too if I show him the video)

so what was it that made him tear so badly

was at my parents’ place celebrating ??’s 55th birthday when we found this beetle. A pretty common type of beetle found in Singapore. I wasn’t aware of my son’s ‘macho’ side until the moment he picked up the beetle with his bare hands and played with it so gently, one would think it was his long lost pet. He urged us to let him keep the beetle. We agreed. It was a quick and hasty decision. We wasn’t sure what we had gotten ourselves into.

The thought of having a pet made Mal so happy and excited. He hugged his ‘bowl’ (we use one of those take away bowl to put the beetle) the moment we got into the car and even gave the beetle a name. He called it ‘Chloe’, the name of a friend he misses in Phoenix.

Reality set in. We realized that we might have to take back our words. He can’t keep the beetle for the simple reason that we do not know what it eats. We told him that he has to let it go. We could see the disappointment and sadness in his eyes the moment we told him that. He pleaded with us to let him keep the beetle. We agreed and spent hours searching the internet for an answer but to no avail. We found out that there are 350,000 species of beetles out there and they feed on different things. We couldn’t even identify the one that we have, much less its taste in food.

The next morning, we told Mal that he needs to let the beetle go so that it can go find its own food. Our last resort was to try to feed the beetle again, also to convince him. We plucked a small leaf and flower, hoping that the beetle will eat. Our agreement with Mal was, if the beetle does not eat, it has to go.

He watched a while and then burst into tears. He turned to me, choking back tears and said
‘I want to let the beetle go because it is not eating’
He wailed even louder
‘Bye bye beetle. Mummy I am very sad!!’
‘Bye bye beetle!’
I couldn’t hold back my tear too, seeing him so sad.

We were largely at fault…giving him promise that we couldn’t keep.

We decided to buy him a fish to keep as pet…and later that afternoon, ?? got him a colourful fighting fish. So Mal now owns his first pet. He calls it Nina this time, sister of Chloe, even though it was a male fish.

Has been wanting to bring Mal to Sentosa since we came back from the States. The island has special meaning to us cos it was where we had our wedding! We used to pamper ourselves with weekend stay over at Rasa Sentosa and consoled ourselves that it was our ‘overseas’ holiday afterall. Heard that the place has changed alot, with monorail going round the whole island, new Vivo and Harbour Front city, the Integrated Resorts coming up. I was excited to bring Mal for the cable car ride (actually I was quite excited about taking the cable car myself)
So during one of the Sundays, after our brunch at the Nasi Lemak store outside NUS, we decided to cross over to Sentosa. The highlight for the day was the short hike up Mount Faber and the cable car ride to the island.this was at Mount Faber, we parked our car some distance away from the cable car station…the steps may look daunting to us but Mal loves going up and down stairs. With his mallet in one hand and bino around his neck. He was all geared up.
Our house is on the tenth floor and many times, he would rather take the stairs than to take the lift. The first time when I let him try, I was prepared to carry him half way through. My worry was unfounded. He did it all by himself and could even walked and talked at the same time. I was astounded by the stamina he has. Don’t think Daddy and Mummy has such genes.

his National Geographic binoculars bought from Target were put to good use

a closer look at the cable car before we board one

we got a yellow cable carghee..am I excited!

Construction going on for the much-talk-about IR.

as usual, how can he miss out playing at the beach making sand castles

the trapeze at Siloso beach caught his attention for quite a while. Ask him if he wants to try…he answered with a quick and firm NO!

he was too tired by late afternoon and missed the cable car ride back to mainlandhe was so upset when he woke up and Daddy had to make a trip back to somewhere where he could see the cable cars again for him to say goodbye

Conversation 1
Mummy : Is mummy or ?? older?
Mal : ??
Mummy : How do you know?
Mal : there are stripes on ??’s face.
I think what he meant was wrinkles. wahahah!!!

Conversation 2
I was eating some Japanese snacks brought back from Japan by ??
Mal : Mummy, let me eat. You cannot eat so much
Mummy : why ?
Mal : because you have fat tummy. I can eat because I am still growing.

Conversation 3
Today, we were walking outside Borders at Wheelock Place when we passed by a man afflicted with dwarfism. Mal stopped, fixed his gaze at the man, looked at the man from head to toe, puzzled. He turned to me and asked
Mal : Mummy, why this auntie so short?!
the man was as tall as Mal. I was too shocked and was afraid that the man would hear him. So I ushered Mal away without offering much explanation.
I shall explain to him about dwarfism first thing tomorrow morning.

There’s nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child. ~Frank A. Clark

It was a week before Mal started school, I realized that I gonna miss going out with Mal on a weekday. I will miss going grocery shopping with him in the morning, miss window shopping with him, miss having long breakfast with him at MacDonalds, miss bringing him to places that are too crowded to go on weekends. Miss doing all the fun things with him on a weekday while the rest of the world are working! There was a part of me that dreaded sending him to school.

So what we did was…on the week before his school started, I brought him out almost everyday. We went to the airport, visited Science center, went to West Coast MacDonald to have long breakfast and then hang out at the playground. We go out like there is no tomorrow. I realized once again how lucky I am to be a full time mum.took the sky train in Changi Airport from T1 to T2…then from T2 to T1 again
the viewing mall at T2 was a total let down. The place seem to be forever under construction. We were so disappointed cos we could hardly see any planes from there. It shall be the last place I will bring Mal to see jumbo jets, at least not until the construction is completed.

Mal at West Coast Park playground

Mal trying to cross the bridge. He was apprehensive at first but he soon managed to overcome his fear.

checking out the many exhibits at Science centersee how strong am Iall about lightning and thunder. There were alot of kids from school. Mal was one of the few who visited the science center with mummy. I felt so lucky

Mal at the not so impressive space and planet exhibit. Make me regret not bringing to a NASA center when we were in US

finally lunch at MacDonald in Science Centerthe water park in Science Center, a much better one than the one at Vivo city, but still far off from the one we used to go at Goodyear Park. Kind of pathetic, even Mal complained that there is too little water

still he managed to find things to entertain himself

a picture before we go…

I don’t really recommend this place for a 3 year old. The last time I visited this place was when I was in primary school or secondary school, can’t remember much details of the place but one thing that hasn’t changed after so many years is…the place is still as ‘gloomy’. The lighting is very dark and dim everywhere, probably for exhibit purposes. It makes the whole place very ’sad’. Maybe it’s fengshui or just me. Personally I prefer a more colourful and cheerful place. Mal is too young to understand many of the exhibits. The only thing he was interested in and anxious to see was the space and planets display which was located at the same building as Omni theatre (yeah, they still have that after so many years) but it was such a disappointment, many of the display were not working!

a picture with the planet. Take pictures with all 9 planets, situated around the island, send in your pictures to Science Center and you get chance to win 1 year free membership to Science Center and a goodie bag. I was thinking of letting Mal participate and had managed to take pictures with 3 planets on the west side of the island, but after this visit, I think I change my mind.