Bubbles Bubbles Pop Pop Pop

After Sophie's MIM lesson, we let her play with bubbles near the function room. She has always been fascinated by bubbles during her bath and she loves her board book on bubbles (with Elmo on its cover). Today, Sophie went berserk, chasing and bursting the soapy balls.

Papa even bought a gigantic bubble-making wand for Sophie. Too bad we were all amateurs and we could not really make huge bubbles. The wind also kept blowing them high and away; Sophie tried very hard to rech them, but she could not and got frustrated.

In the end, I carried Sophie so that she could touch the bubbles as Papa made them. I also had to position us in such a way that the wind could blow the bubbles towards us. Not quite a flattering sight, but who cares?! Sophie still enjoyed herself.

Singapore Flyer After Upper Peirce Reservoir

We must be possessed today. After all the excitement of MIM class and bubble-making near the pool, we still wanted to take a walk at the Upper Peirce Reservoir before our Singapore Flyer ride. I guess we wanted to push ourselves to our limit (or breaking point) and resurrect as heroes. Well, that did not actually happen.

I took the London Eye once in December 2003 and I was totally unmoved by the experience. Frankly, it was a waste of money... all 33 pounds. Today, Ah Gong wanted all of us to take the Singapore Flyer in the evening. I was not very keen at all, considering that I hated the London Eye and Sophie's schedule would be wrecked again. Still, we went ahead. There was a 20% discount if we pay by POSB Everyday Card, plus an original discount for senior citizens (for Ah Gong and Ah Mah)... so it was a consolation for us.

After the 30 minutes of ultimate claustrophobia and boredom, we were clearly unimpressed by the Singapore skyline (where got?), but Sophie seemed to have enjoyed the see through glass windows. We then took a walk around the building. Lots of empty restaurants and senseless shops... not a good sign on a Saturday night. Then our nightmare began as the junior lion dance troupe suddenly beat their drums and clung their cymbals with much vigor (maybe anger)... Poor Sophie was totally freaked. Ah Gong suggested a tour round the lantern exhibition before we headed for home and we obliged even though Sophie was dead tired already. Suddenly, We realised (Dear Lord, no more please!) that we were at the "end" of the ChingGay Parade route... Chaos... Chaos... Chaos... We literally made a dash for some sort of serenity (if any)... You should have seen me run with Sophie in my arm. All in all, Sophie slept through the mayhem (after the flyer ride); we were lucky.

MIM - Jump Start (Lesson 3)

Yet another uneventful lesson... Sophie was rudely woken up (after an hour of nap) to attend her lesson so she was not a happy baby. In fact, she gave us quite a hard time, running around and throwing tantrums when we restrained her.

Of course, I must admit that the program was not engaging enough for toddlers and the teacher seemed unable to keep the pace. We will give this programme another chance... by June, we would decide if we should continue for Sophie.

3 Days 3 Schools

For the past 3 mornings, we have been visiting childcare centres. Prior to this, I have already seen a couple of places (surprise visits). We did not want to overwhelm ourselves so we limited our visits to one per day.

The first one we visited was Raffles House Preschool. We love its philosophy, curriculum and demographics; it was a pity we did not get to talk to the teachers though. Judging from the way some of the toddlers cry, maybe they do not get to talk to the teachers much either. The principal was very young but clearly proficient in answering any possible questions I could have ever asked. In terms of facilities, we were quite disappointed. The place is quite rundown; the staff also left "dangerous" looking cardboard boxes around and their rubbish bin was easily accessible to the young toddlers. For such a "upmarket" preschool, I would expect the facilities to be a little more impressive. And of course, they are so far that their school bus does not come to our place. If we intend to put Sophie there, we must make Toa Payoh (my MIL's place) the pick-up/drop-off place.

The second one was Cherie Hearts Kids-At-Play (award-winning childcare centre). The location was much better (as in... nearer) and transportation via school bus can be arranged. This particular branch only opened last August, so the facilities are new, clean and pleasant. When we were there, we spoke to the branch director who was heavily pregnant. She told us that she could give us very good discount as we were "new" parents. Frankly, I like the place but the curriculum seems a little sketchy and too "flexible". For instance, everyone was at MacRitchie for a nature walk when we were there, a last minute arrangement due to CNY apparently. When they came back, we saw another heavily pregnant teacher. My first thought was that they would have staffing issue soon. And the children looked a little unkempt and bothered. Again, we felt disappointed, after all it is supposed to be "AWARD-WINNING".

The third one was Kinderland (Yio Chu Kang) which is an ideal location (very near... even if I have to drive...) for us. The school ground is HUGE! Their playground is really a playground (not just the front porch of a semi-detached or terrace house) and the children are playing happily. We got to see the actual playgroup and their teachers in action and I also spoke to both the principal and the teacher-in-charge. They looked candid and they answered my questions very honestly. I love the fact that the teachers have been working there for a long time (probably good work environment etc). However, the place is not as "upmarket" or impressive in terms of the classroom facilities. We did not really see any expensive toy kitchen, costumes or plastic bricks. Also, they warned me about mosquitoes (especially during rainy seasons) and the use of insect repellent.

Perhaps, there is still beauty in simplicity after all. I saw little happy faces at Kinderland and the staff seem more authentic and committed to their vocation than the previous two childcare centres. We still have not decided where we should go from here... We probably should visit a few more centres before we make up our mind. But after seeing Kinderland, I think I will not put Sophie in those small childcare centres at shopping malls (e.g. Little Skool House / Learning Kidz Eduhub at AMK Hub) or HDB lobby (e.g. Appletree Playgroup/Talent Plus Playgroup); even Learning Vision at The Grassroots' Club. Their centres are just too small even though they may have very attractive furnishings and excellent advertising.

I guess the search still goes on...

Corrective Work Order @ YCK Playground

We decided to do our grocery shopping today instead of the weekends in hope to beat the crowd. Papa said that Sophie could climb up the stairs of the slide at our playground and I just had to see it to believe it. So armed with my camera, we stopped by the playground to let Sophie demonstrate her new skill... To my horror, she really climbed up the stairs, stopping occasionally only to pick up dried leaves (and put into her mouth) and look into my camera. Gosh! She was unstoppable! I think if I put a pile of leaves on top of the stairs, she would have climbed up a lot faster...

Of course, she had to crawl through the tunnel after her corrective work order (leaves picking). Fortunately, we could station ourselves at each end of the tunnel...

Soccer @ The Botanic Gardens

The Chinese New Year has destroyed much of our almost already established sleep routine for Sophie. She cannot nap well in the day and she wakes up too early.

Desperate and tired, we decided to take her out to the Botanic Gardens for some fresh air and perhaps tire her out enough to induce a good night's sleep. We stopped at a field to let Sophie walk and play soccer with Papa.

We told Sophie to go after the bird and to our surprise, she did just that! She kept walking towards the bird, but she was so slow that it did not even bother to fly away from her... Occasionally, Sophie would also appear "running" in a particular direction... Actually, she was going downhill and she could not stop herself at all.

After spending almost an hour at the field, we headed for home. It was quite a walk back, especially when we were all tired and hot. However, seeing Sophie run amok was really fun and I think she really needed to run around freely, every once in a while.

Chinese New Year (Day 2)

We actually did not intend to do any visiting today because of Sophie's schedule and all, but somehow the festive mood clouded our judgement and overcame our good senses. We first stopped at Ah Gong's place for some cheesecake, but ended up with "kueh lapis" instead. As usual, Sophie was chasing after the cats and enjoying the attention from Ah Gong and Ah Mah.

Then we visited Papa's Auntie (my mother-in-law's elder sister). Sophie was starting to show her tiredness even though she was determined to explore and play with everyone. By the time we left for home, she was shaking her head and tripping over with fatigue.

The rest of the day was downhill all the way... She was cranky and too tired exhausted to fall asleep... And when she eventually and finally did, both Papa and Mama were dead tired and quite literally collapsed into our bed (with Sophie in between).

Chinese New Year (Day 1)

And so began the day of overstimulation and lots of "ang bao"s for Sophie. 'Tis her second Chinese New Year, we had hoped (more like prayed) that it would be much better than last year. She was barely 2 months old then and the whole day was filled with tears and sweat for all of us. Today, we were armed with a positive mindset, a rigid schedule and lots of contingency plans.

We started the day with Ah Gong's place ('cos it is nearer) after Sophie's morning nap. Then we rushed home for her lunch at 11.30 am before heading for Naenael's place. We had intended to let Sophie nap (at least a little) in the car... but with God's grace, we were stuck in traffic due to some accidents, so she got to nap for an hour instead. So far so good... The rest of the day went past rather quickly. We kept monitoring Sophie's "fatigue scale" so that we could manage her better. By late afternoon, she was obviously tired. We decided to head for home in time for her dinner at 5.30 pm. Although we must have appeared rather silly, we knew that Sophie could only take so much of stimulation in a day and we did not want to stress ourselves out when the curtain fell.

Chinese New Year Eve

The reunion dinner for Loy Family was held at Cathay Restaurant this year. We had dined there a couple of times and we found the food quite good; although more importantly, it is spacious and well-organised (aka peaceful enough for Sophie). We made reservations at 6 pm in hope that we could head for home before Sophie got all tired and too cranky.

The plan was to make sure she had good naps in the day so that she could eat her dinner at 5 pm. However, Sophie (with her own agenda in mind) was difficult to manage even before we left home. it took us an extra bit of coaxing (and threatening) to clean up her bowl. By the time we hit the road, it was already 6pm. Sigh! Even then, as we were the earlier batch of diners... things went rather smoothly (better than what we thought would be) for the rest of the evening.

Eve of Chinese New Year Eve

This year, we decided to have our reunion dinner with Ah Gong, Ah Mah, Ah Goo, Ah Ghim and Zixin (Pyo Zye) on the eve of Chinese New Year Eve. As usual, we had a feast of steamboat, roasted chicken and duck (of course, we could not finish all the food...). Although Sophie still had to eat her own porridge, cod fish and apple/prune puree, she was able to join everyone... Finally!

Because we went to Ikea this morning and bought her a highchair (to be permanently placed at Ah Gong's place). We deliberately chose red as that is Ah Mah's favourite colour. We also bought a white one (Naenae's favourite colour) to be placed at Naenae's place, too! Ha! Call us "KIASU" but when it comes to mealtime, Sophie is the QUEEN. She has to sit and eat in a highchair or nothing at all. And today, she was very sweet. She finished up her food quickly, with almost no resistance at all. Trust me, that is rare and worth mentioning.

Somehow Sophie loves cats. She squeals and runs after any cats she sees. Now, I have two very eccentric cats at Ah Mah's place. They are fierce, highly and easily agitated and they prefer to be left alone most of the time. Sophie's enthusiasm was not well received at all. In fact, they hissed and growled at her (scaring the living daylights out of us). Still, Sophie loves cats! Maybe, like me, she likes them because they are "different" and not everyone can actually love such animals.

Tonight, Sophie's bedtime was much later (9 pm). We probably have to encourage a longer nap tomorrow, but 'tis alright. Just hope that tomorrow's Reunion Dinner will be just as smooth...