Nadine cycling

Nadine's 2nd milestone after turning 4 - ride the tricycle!

Aaron - 18 1/2 months

Aaron can now say many words/short phrases:

go there

over there

let's go

sit

stuck

open

yes

eat

bus

airplane

bowl

cup

blanket

poo-poo

bye

no, no, no

pleasssssse

He now knows how to tell people that he has pooed, and when he wants to drink milk, he'll get his formula out from the cupboard and bring it to Bibi.

A few weeks ago, he was in a phase whereby if he couldn't get what he wanted, he'd sit down and cry. But that lasted for only a short while. Now, he just moves on.

We love it that when Jie-Jie snatches a toy from him, he'd go to her and say "pleeeeassse" nicely. A few times. If Jie-Jie still refuses to give the toy back to him, he'll then snatch it back. A gentleman who's not a push-over!

He's obsessed with his blanket. Needs to bring it around the house with him. Sort of like Linus from Peanuts! Very cute.

His favourite show at the moment - Cars! Very boy!

He's still very much a good-natured boy and he's been since birth, except when he's super sick. And that's happened twice in the last month already. First, he was down with a variation of HFMD, with a whole mouth of ulcers and a stubborn fever. A week after recovery, he's now down with bronchitis. Poor boy! Must find some ways to strengthen his respiratory and immune system!

Swimming lesson

A day after Nadine turned 4, she started her first formal swimming lesson. We were not sure how she'd react with the coach, and in a class of students at different levels of competency. But she responded pretty well, and had a very good first lesson. The coach did something that Daddy had not managed to do - get Nadine to dip her head into the water.

This coach, Uncle Vincent, has been teaching swimming in our condo for many many years, and apparently a lot of the youths here were taught by him. 

We could see why he's been here for so long. He interacted really well with the kids, and could definitely connect with them. Can't wait to see Nadine swimming solo!

Nadine turns 4

Nadine is 4! It seemed like just a little while ago when she was a tiny baby that we could carry with 1 hand, needy and totally immobile. She's so grown-up now, and has her own mind about everything.

At the moment, her love language is act of service and physical touch. She loves to help around the house, especially serving drinks to Daddy, Mummy, and guests who visit. And she loves to hug Daddy, Mummy and Bibi.

She's very expressive. In fact, a little too drama-mama at times!

Recently, Daddy started her on Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. And she loves all of them! Daddy is sooooo pleased.

As with last year, we organized a combined birthday party with Marcus, whose birthday is 1 week before Nadine's. This year, we threw a baking party for them and their friends.

The Gans

Our family 

Trying to get a group shot of the kids ...

Some dropped out ....

And yesterday, Nadine celebrated her birthday in school. When asked what kind of clap she wanted, she answered, as expected, "princess clap".  

Nadine goes to nursery

Nadine starts nursery this year. She's no longer the youngest in school, and has been promoted to wearing the "dress uniform", which she loves to bits.

It's been a very long school holiday. First few days of holiday, she kept asking if she's going to school that day. Halfway through the holiday, she started to say she missed school. But on Tuesday, day before 1st day of school yesterday, she cried about not wanting to go back to school.

We thought if she just have a good night's sleep, she'll be ok in the morning. But no, it was a major drama getting her to dress up. Daddy had to bribe her with a McDonald's meal after school, plus a trip to Toys R Us to buy her birthday present. After school, she was back to her usual chirpy self, and had obviously enjoyed herself in school.

Today, she made a 180 degree change. Woke up happy, and all ready to go to school, and insisted that Daddy wore her shoes for her. Such a Daddy's girl!

We hope she'll continue to enjoy school for the rest of the year, and the rest of her schooling days!

Phuket - December 2012

For our year-end holiday this year, we decided to go to a beach resort and just chill. We picked Phuket, and the Centara Grand West Sands Resort & Villas, because it has its own water park. It's near the airport, and very far away from everything else. We didn't mind because we were not planning to go out of the resort!

The kids, waiting eagerly to board the plane. The Gan brothers were also super excited that their uncle was going to be the pilot on our flight.

The water park was small but a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed themselves enormously.

 *Photo from Centara's website

Even Aaron enjoyed himself, just splashing the water, watching all the older kids run around him, and coming down the slides.

Nadine loved this spiral slide. She must have gone on the slide for some 30-40 times! Mummy took Aaron on the slide a few times too, and he loved it! Mummy's 2 thrill-seekers!

Nadine even slid down on her tummy a few times, after seeing some ang-moh boys do it

Ethan preferred the straight-forward slide. No spirals for him. 

His 2 older brothers were off to more exciting stuff.

Gerald went on the 4-storey-high "splash jungle" slides many times, chaperoned by his poor father who had to climb 8 flights of stairs just as many times!

*Photo from Centara's website

Aside from the water park, the kids also enjoyed the pools (the big main "public" pool, and a small pool in our penthouse) and the kids' club.

Food and service at the resort was lousy. So on the 3rd night, we decided to venture out. We tried Kindee Restaurant, a highly-rated Thai restaurant on Trip Advisor. It was a somewhat rustic place, with pretty good local food.

As the adults enjoyed the dinner, the restless kids entertained themselves around the restaurant. And we caught Ethan and Nadine having a quiet moment together, discussing about the moon! 

We actually did go out on one of the days, to satisfy Gong-Gong KK's shopping craving. Went to the newly-opened Premier Outlet. It was laid out like the Premier Outlets in US and Europe, but aside from Nike, Adidas and Levi's, the other brands were not impressive at all. Having said that, Mummy bought 4 pairs of Nikes for Aaron (different sizes), at a really good deal. No sweet pinkish girly shoes, so didn't buy any for Nadine.

Daddy was really sweet to volunteer to stay back in the resort with the kids, so that they can play (and not be bored by the travelling and shopping), and Mummy can shop in peace. The 2 older Gan brothers decided to stay back too, and apparently, they had a splashing good time in the pool and at the kids' club.

On our last night, we went to Nai Yang Beach for dinner. It was the typical seaside dining experience, with a stretch of restaurants by the beach. We walked the stretch, and went into a random restaurant that was ready to serve us (we were quite early for dinner - 6ish). And that turned out to be the best and cheapest dinner we'd had in Phuket! Didn't even take note of the restaurant's name!

Overall, it was a pretty good holiday for us. All the more because we brought Bibi along, relieving Daddy and Mummy of having to do all the caring, babysitting, feeding, showering and changing. But after 2 beach holidays in a row, both the Lees and the Gans (the parents, ie) will probably plan for something different for the next holiday!

Christmas lights at Orchard Road

Brought the kids to Orchard Road to see the Christmas lights last week. We'd driven along the stretch a few times already, but thought it'd be fun for the kids to run around a little and soak in the festive atmosphere. And they sure did run! Got so excited and ran so much that it was too difficult to take photos of them. Didn't help that it was extremely crowded too. So here are the few photos we took.

Nadine, copying the sculpture's pose

Aaron, in a still moment, before he burst off again

Nadine, taking a breather beside a couple of Christmas trees, coz they're decorated with her favourite purple color 

Clever Jie-Jie

Yesterday, Aaron repeatedly asked for "car-car". Bibi brought out all his car toys, but they were not what he wanted. Got him frustrated and he started crying.

Then, Nadine cleverly opened the DVD drawer, and took out a Cars DVD. Aaron immediately stopped crying and signing "yes"!

How brilliant of Jie-Jie, to remember that her brother likes the Cars show, and to realise he's asking to watch the show!

Dinosaur Train

Nadine loves the American animated series, Dinosaur Train. It's one dinosaur show that is a lot more educational and intelligent than Barney, and the toys are also a lot more fun than just a stuffed Barney. So Daddy has been downloading the shows and buying the train sets for Nadine. His rationale - Aaron can play with the trains too when he's older.

Last week, we went to see the Dinosaur Train live musical at Marina Square. Our very first mall show!

We went an hour early, and saw that a few people had already started queuing up. Mummy decided not to be kiasu. So we went off to the little playground on the 2nd floor to play for a bit.

Aaron zoomed in on the batmobiles almost immediately. So boy! 

The show started with some warm-ups with the "paleontologist", and Nadine enthusiastically followed all his exercises. She was also able to answer all his questions about the colors of the dinosaurs.

 It was quite an entertaining show, with Buddy, Tiny and King, singing and dancing. Both Nadine and Aaron enjoyed themselves tremendously .... especially the McDonald's meal after the show!

Christmas tree

By the end of November, Christmas decorations are up everywhere in town, and a few of our neighbours have put up their Christmas tree. Nadine got really excited whenever she saw a Christmas tree. Last week, we finally put up our Christmas tree.

This year, Nadine's old enough to help decorate the tree, and she did it so enthusiastically. She made sure that there were decor all round the tree, not just the front.

It was a surprise for Aaron who had gone to sleep before we put the tree up. When he walked into the living room the next morning and saw the tree, his face just lit up. Priceless!