Wan Qi on puzzles again Yipee

I actually felt sad that I dampened Wan Qi's spirit doing puzzles when she was 2. So I decided to help her build her confidence again by going to puzzle shop and let her choose one.

It's a 40 pcs which she had stopped back then when she was 2. She chose an Alauddin one and it's ex $12.90. But nevertheless I bought it.

And she did it instantly. I was hopeful but didnt dare to buy more pieces to try out. Then that day, my dad bought him a 120 pcs puzzle. I was a bit apprehensive as I thought if Wan Qi finds it too hard, history might repeat itself. But Wan Qi insisted and did it on her own. In fact, she was so determined to complete it that she insisted on finishing even thought its 12 midnight.

And yes she is having fun with puzzle again. :)

Wan Qi having fun with lego

There is a 20% sales in Metro (confirmed by Gui Fen. Hee)so we went to Paragon to buy the thermo bottle. But Paragon Metro doesnt sell cooking ware. :P

So in the end we went to kids department and bought Wan Qi a box of lego which we always wanted. But it's ex so with the discount of 20%, we bought a box immediately.

Back home, Xihong played with Wan Qi while I rest. Yes I havent recover. Gosh still having headache, faceache, gumache even though I am on antibiotic. Gosh!!!!!!!And cannot take MC cos we are having oral the following days. Sign.

So Xihong taught Wan Qi to look at the manual and completed one post office, one jail, one helicopter, one police car, one provision shop and people. Not bad for a beginner.

Wan Qi asked me to teach her but I know nuts about lego. No matter how I tried it still cannot make it so I give up.

Wan Qi drew a clown all by herself!!!!

I was sick last week. I was having a terrible headache, gumache, faceache ..... so cannot get up to entertain Wan Qi. I left her alone to do her reading while I slept.

Then I heard her telling Xihong that she had drawn a picture. And I heard Xihong literally shouting. Wow, very nice.

Upon hearing that I sprang up from bed cos judging from Xihong's loud voice, it must mean that it must be beautiful.

And she colour it by herself too.

Wan Qi's 1st trip to MacRitchie Reservoir & Milky's 7 year old birthday

Wan Qi cant help laughing when I said she is sitting next to her friend - the monkey
And can you see the poor chap - Mr Yeo standing far at the other end cos our dear Milky kept barking at the monkeys so he got to stand away from the monkeys.

Wan Qi looking up at the 3 monkeys on the branches. Look out they might poo. hee!

We are squatting and observing the monkeyssss. I was wearing the dangling beaded shoes.

Apparently, these monkeys are very curious about my shoes. Think they thought is fruits.

So two monkeys actually come and touch my shoes. So cute and funny. And a caucasian is so worried that he kept telling me your shoes your shoes.

Stopping once a while to catch our breath and looking at the fishes, pondskator, dragonfiles and eeeeeeee lizards at times.

Decided to bring Wan Qi to MacRitchie Reservoir to breathe in some fresh air. And because today is my little Milky's 7 year old birthday. Milky loves walks so this is her birthday treat. I told her tomorrow will be her birthday. Guess what today she barked us up early in the morning. Believe it or not, she is one smart doggie. Never promise her one night before her outing, the next morning she will kept barking at you if you dont fulfill the promise. No kidding.

So off we went to MacRitchie. I wanted MacRitchie rather than Botanical Garden as I assume there are lesser people. Xihong said otherwise, he said that the walkway is very narrow at MacRitchie. I was like hah have you been to MacRitchie or not. Then Xihong protested by saying he always bring his students to MacRitchie and he knows better. I argued that I had been the champion for crosscountry at MacRitchie during my schooldays so dont argue with me.

Hee but that was ages ago. True enough it was quite narrow - the board walk. And guess what we walked for 2 .5hrs hours. After walking for 1.5hrs, Wan Qi said she was tired and I piggy backed her but not all the way. Breathless so I asked her to walk on her own. She then act as the MRT gate where we have to say "TITI" everytime when we passed her. So that made her forget that she is tired. We had short races on and on so in the end we made it to the exit. Phew!

Tiring. Then the self claimed IRON MAN - Mr Yeo Siak Hong was so strong that he said that we should go for another round. I siad NO, I am dead tired. So I asked him to carry Wan Qi since he claimed that he is so fit. And he did one hand carrying Wan Qi and the other carrying Milky. :)

See Wan Qi couldnt smile anymore. She is truly exhausted and hungry after the 2.5hrs of walking.

Singapore's Old Place - Dakota Crescent Playground & Provision shop

This is the type of playground below my block of flats when I was young. I used to play with my cousins or my classmates. As the slide's surface is very rough, we always took the cartons boxes from provision shop owners and sit on them to slide down the slide. We were so naughty last time that I remember it's either me or my sis actually climbed up to the beak of bird and got stuck there. Can go up but cant come down. And have to ask my mum to the rescue. Cant imagine if Wan Qi were to climb up to the beak, think she will get canning after that. Hey my mum was definitely a much more lenient mum hor. hee hee

Pretending to be locked up in jail.

Told Wan Qi this is the type of playground I played during my times. And both of us rushed to it.

Remember the TYRE swing. :)

Haha there we go again. Exploring Singapore's old places - Dakota Crescent. Xihong said I always have crazy ideas. haha and he was being lured to go or rahter forced to go. :P

This time round we took some time to find the place. We drove around Dakota Cresent but didnt see any sign of the old playground so we decided to walk and look for it. And tala we found it. It's in front of an elderly day care centre.

Again we were chasing one another at the playground. Playing the witch thingy. Finally, Wan Qi wanted to go wee wee so we went back to the car. Yeh we had a portable potty for her. It's so much more convenient. Haha we placed it in the car with clean plastic bags. In this way, she can wee even when we are travelling. My great idea when we went for our travelling.

On our way to the car, I spotted an old provision shop. So another crazy idea. Go and buy some biscuits and take pictures there. Hola I did it. I even complimented the old man that his shop is so authentic and beautiful. haha And Wan Qi followed me saying:"Your shop is very pretty"in Mandarin.

Since Xihong accompanied us to the old payground so I also grant his wish - go to Pulau Ubin. His favourite to cycle and eat seafood in the afternoon. oh but it's hot hot hot.

A short walk In Chinatown - Mid Autumn Festival

This is a beautiful sight too but different from shopkeepers hanging

the traditional translucent paper lanterns though. :P

I always love Chinatown. I used to live near here - Outram Park to be exact. It used to be my shopping paradise. Not anymore though. Chinatown somehow has lost its charm - I feel with all the modernised things. But perhaps its inevitable.

Last time during Mid Autumn Festival, one will see the provision shops hanging long strings of coloured transulcent paper lanterns. It was a beautiful sight. It's a pity nowadays kids can no longer see that. :(

We went for a walk in Chinatown today - to feel the Mid Autumn FEstival mood.

Mid Autumn Festival @10Sept2010

My mum bought a Mid Autumn Festival ticket for Wan Qi from the RC. So on this day, we went there puntually as I was always fond of such event. It reminded me of my own childhood times. I used to join such RC mid autumn festival when I was young. Those day Mid Autumn Festival was a big event. Last time, the whole basketball court will be filled with children. We will then proceed our lantern festival walk. And it s a long long way up at the Pearl's Hill .However, I dont think there is even fifity children joining that day. (Or perhaps its an old estate)

Nevertheless, Wan Qi and I were excited about this Mid Autumn Festival held at kallang RC. When we were there, most of the children had paper lanterns. Wan Qi brought along her tiger lantern bought by my dad. Hee my dad bought a lion lantern last year and this year a tiger lantern. I thought paper lantern has more FEEL and Wan Qi kept looking at the paper lanterns so I asked Wan Qi if she wanted a paper lantern. But she said no. Then when we were about to proceed for the lantern walk thingy, she told me she wanted a paper lantern. URRRRRG this girl. So I quickly brought her to buy a paper lantern.

By the time we lighted the lantern, the children were gone. Wan Qi started to cry and shout"Where are they? Why they didnt wait for me! They are so naughty and bla bla complaining"

Then the naive and dodo mummy thought they will still practise the traditional way of walking the lanterns - long long walks hence quickly run outside of the RC together with the lantern and Wan Qi (looking extra stupid). But they were no where to be seen. I thought wow super fast. Then I thought shouldnt be hence proceed back to the RC. Then I saw the children and realised they merely walk one round the RC. :P This is no fun. But Wan Qi was relieved to see the rest.

After that we took a group photo and went into the hall to watch a magic show. Surprisingly it was a nice one. The magician made the children very happy by turning stuff toy to real bunnies, pigeons and birds.

Wan Qi who was seated with the rest of the kids near the stage will always run to me (I sat at the back) whenever the magician turned some stuff into animals and asked if I saw that. I thought that was sweet of her - Remembering me. haha

Then my cousin and my niece came to look for us. I forgo the lucky draw and brought Wan Qi and niece for another round of lantern walk.

Excuse me, can you please go away.:>

Today, I decided to log into ask and learn and let Wan Qi played for a while. We did a comprehension passage together and bravo.She got all the answers corrected.She laughed and clapped loudly when she was being applaused for her good work. Haha what a cute and funny sight.
Then I let her tried the maths activity. Remember seeing one that has an activity on putting the fishes to the tank. However, Xihong came back and he was not very happy that I exposed Wan Qi to all these at a young age. He was concerned that Wan Qi will not be interested in books anymore if she were exposed too much to all these computer activities. But I told him its only for a while. In the end, we played for about 30mins.
I told him that I understand his concern as this is also my concern. However, it seems unavoidable as next year Wan Qi will be exposed to all these computer learning activites too in her kindergarten.
As we didnt expose Wan Qi to computer games so she had some problem using the mouse- to click on the fish and drag the fish into the fish tank. So you know what there will be this cartoon guy popping out at the side of the tank and asking,"Any trouble?" And the mischievous Wan Qi will lean over to the guy and said "Yes, I have a problem." and started to laugh.
Initially, Wan Qi had difficulty dragging the fish into the tank and so this irritating guy kept popping out. The impatient mummy wanted very much to say "Shark, very irritating" but controlled as I dont want Wan Qi to be so impatient like me. Hence, I endured it while it appeared a few times. Then the funny Wan Qi leaned over to the cartoon guy and "Excuse me can you please go away" plus the hand gesture of asking the guy to move away from the screen. It was so funny that I laughed and laughed and of course together with my cheerful bubbly girl.
Then I realised she understand the concept of her addition and subtraction. As in when she is required to put 9 fishes in the tank, after putting 6 fishes, she can tell me that she needs to put in 3 more fishes.
Umm I consider this not bad. haha

Teacher's Day - What a hectic night for mummy and I

It definitely is a hectic day for me - the mummy. Not because the mummy had too many presents to receive but because mummy need to prepare for Wan Qi 's teachers' day present.

I cracked my head for it and had little time to think about it.

Though I had already bought bag hooks for the teachers. However, Xihong asked me if the teachers will know that is a bag hook. That set me thinking if I should get another gift. But I have too little time to think. Cos I went for eyelash implantation and a little shopping for myself and oohs have too little time to shop for the gifts. And the queues at the gift shops are super long. Anxious parents like me are getting last minute gifts for their children too.

In the end, I found myself in Precious moment shop(not sure if thats the name). Saw this series of dolls which I fall in love instantly. They are not cheap though. A small note book cost $15. I wanted to get the cards as teachers day cards but they dont sell that. So in the end I thought I will just ask Wan Qi to draw for the teachers. So I bought a folder which I thought was very cute and just ask Wan Qi to copy.

I rushed to Popular to get the cards. Oh my gosh long queues again. No choice, in the end I reached home at ten. And got Wan Qi to draw the cards. Yes we took a long time to finish one.

I thought Wan Qi to draw the doll step by step. I will ask her to draw a u shape for the face followed by the hair. For the hair I asked to draw squares but she insisted drawing it zig zag. I thought so be it dont have to follow the pic. Then follow by the eyes which I insisted she must draw big eyes. And she did it cos she will normally draw small eyes for her dolls lately. Then I thought her to draw the dress which was just triangle. For the hands, I told her to follow the picture but she drew them too long so I asked her to correct them. The most hilarious part is when I asked her to draw the fingers. I told her to make sure there are five fingers. She did them but the whole palm became elongated. And I cant help but burst out laughing. She followed too.

By the time, we finished colouring the card, it was already half past eleven so I asked Wan Qi to do one more half a card before she goes to bed. She insisted to continue but I say its really too late.Will just wake up tomorrow to continue. Within minutes, she fell asleep.

So I decided to help Wan Qi coloured the back ground of the cards. Hee cheat a bit. Then I wanted to help her wrapped the bag hooks for her teachers. After searching for 1.5 hrs, I gave up just couldnt find. Decided to go and sleep and ask Wan Qi the next day.

The next day at seven, I woke Wan Qi up and asked her to finish her cards for her teachers. She sprang up from her bed and continued drawing.(Wow, I thought she will whine but not a bit. She was enthusiastic)I asked her if she sees the bag hooks and she told me its at my mums place. I nearly fainted, wasted my 1.5hr of beauty sleep last night. And its really a rush as we need to leave the house by eight. I quickly cooked her breakfast while Wan Qi continued to draw. But I accompanied her as I am afraid she cant do a good job. And true enough she dont know how to draw the dress so I had to teach her again. Then I smelled something. Gosh my cereal. Cha da. Burnt. No choice will have to buy bread for Wan Qi when we are downstairs.

Wan Qi nearly finished her last 2 cards. When I asked her to write her name. She got it all wrong. She could not write lower case a and she got it mixed up yang become ynag and wan become wna. Furious. I scolded her. (sorry I know its bad of me but really hot tempered nowadays)

Well, in the end we still managed to reach school at 8:20am. :) Bravo. And three of the teachers got their cards and bag hooks. Didnt manage to take the last card as it was really done in a haste.

:P last minute mummy. But I told Wan Qi that it's important to show our appreciation to our teachers on this day especially because ZUN SHI ZHONG DAO is very important to Chinese. :)

I told her to wish the teachers "Happy Teachers' Day" and give them a great big hug. But she told me she wished them but forgot to hug them. :)