We were given a set of 'activity' books by a church member and although, their youngest child is already in Primary 1, the books were kept in very good condition. Most of them seemed untouched although I had to do quite a bit of erasing for 2 of them. But even then, it was only for the first few pages. Otherwise, they are as good as new!

1 of the books stated from ages 3-5 but I'm not too sure whether K is up to it yet. In the books, K can trace the alphabets, do colouring, join the dots by connecting the numbers and so on. But she hasn't quite managed to hold the pencil really well yet. Sure, she loves colouring and has improved from colouring the entire page to within the picture. But I do not want to take the fun away from her by putting my hand round hers while she grips the pencil and colour. At this point in time, I would rather she does her colouring her way and enjoying it while she brings the blank picture to 'life'. I recall Josh not liking to colour at all at K's age. So it's nice to see K asking to be allowed to do her colouring and be left alone at that. Because she shows interest in the on-line colouring pictures that I had printed, the hubs went to buy 4 colouring books for her!

Having said that, K told us last night that she doesn't want to wear her diapers  to sleep anymore! Somehow, her diaper leaked on Monday and Tuesday morning and I'm not sure if that is the reason why she doesn't want to have her diapers on or if she's feeling uncomfortable. Or could she have been upset by what I may have said? So anyhow, I told her we can try to remove her diapers during her afternoon nap first.

Last night, I asked if she wanted to clear her bladder before we slept and she did clear quite a bit. And I told her, we'll start off with this practice every evening now and also before her noon time nap at home on the weekends so eventually, we will get there. Diaperless at night that is. 

The hubs and I took the day off yesterday and went shopping across the causeway. Both of us sent K to school and she asked us why were we dressed up like we were while we were waiting for the lift at the car park. I tried to contain my giggle as we were going without her. As it is, we headed straight to the causeway after sending her to school and were already trying to pack it all in. We left the last stop at about 4.30pm and managed to pick her up about 6pm. And to think I was hoping that the hubs would relent to my request to leave at about 5pm.

I bought 1 pair of flats but didn't fancy any office heels that I saw. We bought quite a bit of goodies for CNY, 4 pair of pjs for K and 2 water bottles. We also checked out a lighting shop at JB.

And today, we finally managed to drop by the Bird Park! I've bought tickets from Groupon back in December but we didn't have any free Saturday to visit the park until today. We aren't exactly bird enthusiasts so the hubs summed it up by saying 'it's pretty forgettable'. But I think it is good to visit it at least once. There is also a water-play area, just like the zoo. We didn't know about it so we didn't pack anything suitable for K for the water play. 

The bird park is smaller compared to the zoo but still we spent quite a considerable amount of time there. We were there at about 10ish and left at 5pm. I reckon the next time we'll visit the zoo will be at her new location in Mandai. Thankfully the weather is still good so it was quite a nice day out today.

We're in a bit of a fix now, with a road bump ahead in getting our keys for the new place. The sellers require an extension, which was not made known to us previously. Their agent only brought it up to us slightly before our first HDB appointment. By then, we had already settled the official sale of our place. We had already done an extension to the handing over of our keys to our buyer. On our side, we played our cards well, especially since Zul did the time planning for us.

It looks like we might have to look around for temporary accommodation after we officially hand over our keys till the reno completion of our purchased unit. And it's not easy finding one for probably about 2 months. So, even if the sellers are willing to pay for our short-term accommodation and storage, it's really the availability that's the problem now.

While the seller has told the hubs that they will try their best in search of temporary housing for themselves, we hope they really do. As much as they have 2 school-going children, we too have a toddler. 

Now I understand the importance of having a proper agent to advise you. Theirs was crap and who lied to us that their block underwent a 'House Improvement Project' which was not the case at all and now we have to change the ugly cast iron pipes. Thankfully, they can be changed and another contractor that the hubs arranged to view the unit is able to get it done.

We officially hand over our house keys in April and I guess till then, I will post random pictures of the neighbourhood I love so much. But I'm sure the hubs, K and I will have no problem adjusting to the new location. The landscape at the Lake District has changed so much that other than the distance to work, it will be so much to look forward to.

K and I had our hair-cut at the salon on Friday. She did hers first and this time, without any struggle. The hubs decided that he has enough of frustration trimming K's hair and so we have been talking to her about going to visit my hair-stylist. On Thursday, we dropped by but she was too busy and so we had to go by on Friday again. While having her cut, K reminded me that I had promised her that she could watch hi-5 while at it. After her hair-cut, I trimmed mine and the hubs and K had to wait for me for a good hour, which they spent a good part of in the library and the newly constructed playground near the salon.

Yesterday morning, the 3 of us hopped down to Woodlands, to a whole stretch of food suppliers. So many people were there too, presumably shopping for CNY. While the hubs drove off in search of a proper parking lot, K and I trooped off for some food testing. We had ice-cream, sorbet and red velvet cakes. We ended up buying 3 packs of Norwegian Cod Fish, 2 packs of salmon collars, 2 packs of frozen prawns, tandoori chicken, pizza base and a whole lot more. We bought so much that we had problems storing them in the fridge! K did her best by allowing us to enjoy the shopping without asking at all to be carried. Going in and out of warehouses and then in and out of the sun isn't all the fun. So we're really thankful the weather's still nice for now.

In the early evening, we went to another warehouse sale. And this time, bought an air-fryer from Meyer. My Manager was telling me on last week about the fried crab-stick she tried and how nice it tasted. And apparently, fried crab-stick seems to be all the rage now amongst the many CNY goodies for sale. 

First it was the Happycall and now we've got a new toy! I can't wait to play with it. :)

As my work load has returned to normal, my mind started running with a different kind of 'stress'. Which, kept me up till almost 1 am this morning! Yes, unbelievable! I was thinking of what to do for K's 3rd birthday! Lol.

I have made up the guest list, well sort of because I only want it to be with friends and the hubs asked how about his family, which in turn had me asking him if I mentioned anything about mine. So, NO family. Just friends and their altogether 10 children. Although there are only about 3 other kids around K's age.  

So what can I do to ensure that the bigger children will have fun as much as the 4 younger ones? Do I need a theme then? When we attended Shereen's birthday a few weeks back, she had a Frozen theme party with the costume and yellow braided hair. K is still very much into Elmo, Barney and the likes so no frozen theme for her here. Besides, she's still a toddler. Not big enough for Frozen yet! But I liked that the Pannu's hired a balloon sculptor and face/body paint artist albeit for an hour each.

We're probably going to take the cue from them to hold the party from 3-6pm, tea-break time so to speak. But I am not keen to hold it as the Victor's club, which is the far away Changi Beach Club. I don't mind the suggestion of booking a bungalow chalet at the NSRCC but we've terminated our membership already. I remember the only times we booked it were for Ivy when she celebrated Clayton's first few birthdays. If we do manage to get a holiday chalet there, I could split the birthday into 2 days. 1 for family and the next for friends.

What cake shall I get for her? Barney or Elmo? What items for the Barney pinata which we have bought? What to buy for the goodie bags? Now I know why they said to plan at least 1 month ahead. I do hope everyone who will be invited will turn up. If you have any cheap and doable ideas, please let me know. Meanwhile, I'll be googling.

We went on a staycation, this time compliments of Resort World over the weekend. We were booked into a family room at the Festive Hotel and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, just the 3 of us. The occupancy rate appears so much lower compared to the last time we were there and subsequently upgraded to the Equarius. 

The room is fantastic! With a King size bed, a bunk bed and a sofa bed, it can easily accommodate a party of at least 4. Our room faced part of the pool belonging to the Hard Rock Hotel and even the passageway to the rooms were thoughtfully designed. Although the hotels belongs to the Genting group, a lot of thought have been put in to make each of them unique. You can also imagine the amount of logistics that goes on, as guests can go to any hotel's swimming pool and guests at the Festive have their breakfast at Michael's if they have it as part of their package. As we were given a night's stay, we feel that an additional day would be better. Of course, we'll gladly pay for the additional night. 

I guess we had missed out the evening's activities as we were invited to the Victor's for dinner as 1 of their cousins were going back to Perth. One of the families that we went to Phuket with. Initially, we were of 2 minds whether to go but wanted to pass the family a gift so we ended up being there from about 7 to 9ish.

K doesn't recall the last time we had a staycation at Sentosa. Even though we've had at least 2 there. So it's true. Children don't remember much of what they do when they're very young. So I'm glad to have photographs for memories. We spent the first day lounging at the pool at the Festive and for the second day, hopped on to the shuttle to Hard Rock's pool. We definitely look forward to going back again and the next time, will spend ad additional day to walk around the beautiful Resorts World and the rest of Sentosa.

Conversations with K

This happened a couple of weeks back, when we were in the car with K being her usual chatty self and talking to me while I was giving her the usual obligatory answers like 'em, Oh, Yes and so on'. And then what she said next made me laugh.

K: Mummy, listen to me!

Me: I am listening to you.

K: But you are not looking at me! Look at me, Mummy!

Me: Ok, Ok, What do you want to tell me? (Turned my head to look at her)

K took a purposeful turn to look out of the car window and starting talking gibberish. This tod knows what she is doing! And then she giggled! *faintz* As if it was tit for tat!

Yesterday evening, while cooking, a big drop of steaming hot water dropped onto my arm when I lifted up the cover of the rice cover. Both the hubs and K heard me cringe and while the hubs asked if I was ok, K quickly ran to the kitchen and asked if I was alright. She instinctively opened the drawer where I kept the oven gloves and made me wear them! She said:'Mummy, wear this ok then you won't burn your hands.' 

When I recounted what she did to the hubs moments later, we were quite amazed that she knew where the gloves were kept! And her actions were so automatic! Like she knows exactly where everything is kept in the kitchen.

Days with K. How'll I'll miss them.