At the start of the year, we decided on 3 New Year’s
resolutions and the following is our report card thus far.
1. Do more
outdoor activities, such as Zoo trips, walks in the parks, camping by the beach
and etc.
Numerous Botanic
Gardens Trips, Numerous Farm Visits in the West (Hay Diaries, Bollywood
Veggies, etc), 1 x Night Safari Outing, 1 x Water Play @ Jacob Ballas, Kite
Festival by Act 3 International, a 5-day Vacation @ Club Med, Bintan.
2. More arts
and crafts activities when we are holed up at home.
Lantern
making, drawing and painting.
3. Sticking to
a regular routine and stay at home on Sun evenings to prepare for the week
ahead.
Done.
From our report card, it is clear we had done fairly
well for outdoor activities rather than indoor activities. However, En Jun is at an age where more
adventurous activities are deemed unsuitable for him. So, in some way, En Xi is shortchanged in the more fun stuff
like going to the Zoo or walks at the Henderson Bridge. This is exacerbated by the different
afternoon nap times for the both of you.
En Xi typically naps at or around 1-2pm, while En Jun struggles from
11am.
Nonetheless, En Jun is growing from strength to
strength and is very much stable in his walking. I think we can do more adventures in the near future
soon. This year also saw 2
vacations for us. In June, we
visited Club Med, Bintan, Indonesia and WOW! What an experience! En Xi thoroughly enjoyed herself with
the mini-club that houses the kids throughout the entire day. At the same time, this gives us, Daddy
and Mummy some breathing space to chill and do some relaxing activities with En
Jun. In fact, we even had a
babysitter for En Jun for 3 hours, so that we parents could enjoy a spa
treatment massage. Subsequently,
next week in Nov, we will be going on a Royal Caribbean Cruise to Phuket,
Thailand. I’m sure we will have
loads of fun since it has a Club Med concept.
About En Xi
Our proud moment.
(We
were extremely proud of you, En Xi at Club Med. You are by nature,
what Mummy term as 'closet extrovert'. i.e. You need to be comfortable
with your surroundings before you exhibit your extrovert nature. You
did something extraordinary when the event host asked for volunteers to
sing a song on stage, you actually raised your hand enthusiastically
despite having no one raising their hands. Then, the moment came when
you muster your courage to sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.)
Your linguistic ability has increased at least by 2
folds in my opinion and our daily conversations go by how our day went by and
the many exciting moments you may have had. Recently, one morning before I head to work in my uniform,
the conversation between us went like this:
En Xi: Daddy,
today you go shoot monsters with your friends. (Cos I have a badge on my uniform
that is a rifle)
Me: Ok, I’ll do
that if I see monsters at work today.
En Xi: If your
friends don’t want to and you are angry, just walk away. (??? Go Figure. Mummy taught you how to handle difficult
moments with your friends)
Our routine with En Jun is changed now with Mummy
taking over patting him to sleep instead of me. Hence, I now have more time with you, especially at night,
where I read to you every night.
You are still into Barbies and fairyland stuff. Recently, Mummy bought you and Charlene
to watch the movie, ‘Brave’. You
enjoyed the experience tremendously and we are toying with the idea of doing
this again for your birthday. In fact, sometimes you introduce yourself as 'Merida' to new friends.
About En Jun
You are getting cuter by the day and walking very
well, you seem to be talking better too.
Ah, the wonders of being the 2nd child and having your sister as a role
model. You definitely like to play
with your sister and En Xi is still trying very hard to come to terms with you
messing her stuff around. You love
ball throwing and pulling toys with wheels on it. Also, for no apparent reasons, you have this fascination
with opening and closing doors (with safety stoppers of course) and sliding
windows back and forth. You can go
on and on for a good 15 min. More
importantly, you are sleeping better and only wakes up once in the early
morning. This itself provides a
lot more sanity for us.
About Us
We also did a family studio shoot. We’ll probably do this again in 3 years
time or sooner, depending on the rate that my hairline recedes.
