roamingglass

Best way to beat the heat...

2012-01-01T23:02:00.000+08:00

It's only the beginning of the year but the heat seems to be on in Singapore already. The fact that I'm drenched with perspiration just sitting down and doing nothing, guess that's life on the equator.

So how to beat the heat at home? Lucas shows you how. Whether u go without a towel, put in on top or put in below, dipping in a tub is a sure way to beat the heat. Feeling cooler already?

Happy New Year Everyone!

Lucas Goes Botak

2011-12-10T23:03:00.000+08:00

Lucas was born with heaps of hair (compared to Xavier which had close to none). Over the four months his hair grew to a very untidy state. I often joked that he looked abit like Chairman Mao.

And so, we decided to shave him botak (bald) so that his hair would be even when it grew again. We went to Junior League and he was very well behaved surprisingly, no crying no fussing.

And he became an instant auntie magnet with his cute level maxed out.

Even Xavier couldn't help but love Lucas even more.

I usually recommend parents to bring their kids to Junior League to have their hair cut at least for the first time. Yes its expensive but the staff there are very friendly and experience and the TV playing Barney or Thomas The Train often distracts the kids from the taunting hair-cutting experience. Then when they become comfortable with hair cuts, you are switch them to the cheaper barbers.

Lucas the Superbaby

2011-12-09T23:57:00.000+08:00

I saw this swimming costume for babies at one of those pushcart stalls and couldn't resist buying it for Lucas.

It look so cute, even comes with a cape and a swimming cap. No red underwear outside though.

Lucas must be wondering what's all this fuss about with the suit. Xavier tried to guess what superhero Lucas is dressed as.

"Don't lean over, I'm falling off!"

So what does Lucas think of the superboy suit I got him?

Xavier and Lucas

2011-12-07T23:24:00.000+08:00

So far Xavier have been a very good brother I must say. He don't exhibit jealousy in a violent manner and we feel he do love and care for Lucas.

This evening, we asked Xavier if he wanted to carry and hug Lucas and he became very excited. Time to take our my camera.

You can see how exited he is in the video.

Lucas Flips!

2011-12-06T00:58:00.000+08:00

Lucas can now flip from his back to his tummy via his left very well. Way to go boy!

Looks like we gonna be very busy now as we can't leave him alone at a spot and assume he is still at the same spot the next minute. He has been trying to flip at every chance, even as you are giving him a bath on his back or when you are trying to change his diaper. Seems like the fun has just began.

The Chairman Legacy

2011-12-02T23:36:00.000+08:00

If you are a parent of a young child and you haven't heard of Bumbo chair, you are missing a great invention. This is a chair made for babies. As long as the baby can support his own head, the chair can help the baby sit up. It comes in handy especially when you want to play with your child while he is in a sitting position or when you want him seated while she wean semi-solid food.

But it doesn't come cheap and in the case of Xavier and now Lucas, they do not get alot of mileage from it as they are big-boned by nature and tend to outgrow the chair fairly fast. The chair quickly becomes too tight for them at their thunder thighs area.

So what we do it we borrow from friends who own one. The other tip is to get second hand as these chairs are fairly durable and lasting and easy to maintain. So the condition of 2nd hand Bumbo are fairly ok. We manage to borrow one from Lilian's friend Christy for Lucas to sit.

He seems fairly comfortable in it but it wasn't long before he started to make noise as he prefer one of us to carry him. And to be frank, I'm getting aching lower back from prolong period of carrying Lucas. I posted a similar photo on Facebook and commented that we have a new chairman in the house. But Johnson replied that nobody can replace The Chairman. He nickname Xavier The Chairman as he has the big boss look.

Do you agree with Johnson?

Lucas Is Sick, Big Time

2011-11-29T00:59:00.000+08:00

One of the major concern about sending your child to infantcare or childcare centers is that they will fall sick. In fact, I once read an article about Japanese childcare center where one of the reasons Japanese parents send their kids to school is to fall sick (and build up their immunity).

Lucas started his infantcare on 14th November and we were fully prepared for Lucas to fall sick, or so we think. Lucas did fall sick soon after and is still sick. I'm not saying he got it from the center though there were a number of babies on medication at that time. I mean he could have caught it anywhere and from anyone.

Being mentally prepared still doesn't ease the heartache when you see the little boy coughing his lungs out like he was doing crunches on the bed. And how he couldn't sleep at night as his whole nose was blocked and breathing through his mouth irritates his throat further. Oh and that yo-yo fever that would not go away for 3 days. It's things like these that makes us wonder if we should not have sent him to infantcare at such young age (as if we had a choice).

I was actually thinking how to take a photo of how sick he was when, as if he knew what I was asking, he gave a squeeze and I got my shot.

His pediatrician Dr. Tan says its probably a viral infection, since his mucas is clear. What this also means is that he would not need antibiotic as that is only effective for bacteria infection. Hope he gets well really soon. The cranky baby just got crankier...

Xavier Sings and Lucas Coos

2011-11-23T00:17:00.000+08:00

Many peers have commented that being parents nowadays are alot more difficult. Some days you get hair-pulling moments but once in a while, you get heart warming moments too, like this clip that happened on Sunday.

Xavier The Attention Seeker

2011-11-22T01:21:00.001+08:00

Xavier's teacher told Lilian that Xavier been out of sort recently. And he has several disturbing incidents with his classmates (where he was the aggressor) and he is not as cheery and bubbling as before.

Lilian and I notice it too and we think he is more attention seeking since Lucas came along. He is not having those ill-jealousy towards Lucas where he would try to hurt his little brother but he has been noticeably more attention seeking.

Many a times he would do silly and meaningless things just for the sake of getting our attention. And with a difficult infant like Lucas on hand, we were alot less patience and forgiving to Xavier's silly behaviours. Thinking back, maybe we were a little to harsh on him. And that could have led to his recent behaviours in school.

So we are gonna be more mindful now on and be extra patience and forgiving to Xavier. Let's see if we can turn this around and bring back bubbly Xavier again. Hope Lilian and I can stay sane at the same time...

Lucas Starts At The Infant Care Centre Today

2011-11-14T12:47:00.000+08:00

3 1/2 months fly by and it's time for Lucas to go to the infant care centre. I didn't believe its so soon that when Teacher Mala commented on last Friday that she would be seeing Lucas coming Monday, I told her "Not so soon, think it's the following week". Blur sotong...

I remember Xavier's first day at the Infant Care was a lot more drama. Lilian and I both had separation anxiety and were wondering to ourselves if it was the right decision. Xavier on the other hand was all cool and relax, looking around curiously as they placed him on the rocker.

Lucas's first day was the other side of the coin. Lilian and I were all cool and relax as we had gone through it before, but Lucas was restless, very restless. He wouldn't finish his milk in one sitting, constantly needed attention and the teachers had a hard time putting him to sleep. Actually these were his usual behavior and probably not due to change to environment. I hope the teachers can train some routine into Lucas's life.

Filco Yellow - Adding Sunshine to My Desk

2011-11-12T03:18:00.001+08:00

Just replaced my keyboard with a dose of sunshine to brighten up my desk.

Filco Yellow Limited Edition. It's still the same Cherry MX Brown switch mechanical keyboard but with sunshine yellow keycaps. The LEDs are yellow too and the Filco logo is gold in colour. I feel so bright and cheery using it now.

Dinosaur Live! NOT!

2011-11-07T23:01:00.000+08:00

Lilian had gathering with her friends and she was gonna bring Lucas along. So I thought I'll have some bonding time with Xavier. And what would be more fun for boys than looking at and talking about BIG things. How BIG? DINO BIG!

Image from Science Centre Singapore

I been looking for an opportunity to check out the Dinosaur Live! exhibition at Science Centre Singapore and this seem to be a perfect opportunity since only Xavier and I would be going and it would probably take max about 1 1/2 hour before we pick up Lilian and Lucas.

I got Xavier all excited too. He had this DVD about Dinosaurs as a Christmas present last year and he enjoyed that cartoons introducing the different dinosaurs. And he was repeating to Lilian the whole trip that he is gonna see Dinosaurs and boasting that he is "not scared".

But the moment he step into the Annex at Science Centre Singapore, he froze and his jaw dropped for 5 seconds. Standing right in front of him was this huge skeleton of a T-Rex, with jaws open and as if looking down at him.

The next moment Xavier was clinging on to me like a koala bear, whining and crying that he wanna go home. No amount of coaxing and pacifying could make him change his mind. I didn't even get the chance to take a photo of the T-Rex skeleton as he was clinging to me really tightly. The only consolation was that I have not bought the tickets yet. In the end, we adjourned to MacDonald at West Coast Park for McHappy meal which we didn't get a toy for as it has run out, #$%!*\, and outdoor playground fun.

I didn't manage to take a single shot of the exhibits. But I did find the above photo of the T-Rex Skeleton on Flickr taken by coolinsights (Walter Lim). You can see more see more Dinosaur Live! photos from him here.

Happy Meal Addict

2011-11-06T01:22:00.000+08:00

Even since getting Xavier his first Happy Meal, I couldn't stop getting Happy Meals whenever I can. It seems so fun surprising your kid with a new toy from Happy Meal. Below are my loot so far.

The largest collection would be the Kungfu Panda 2 series. The recent collection of mini "pinball" toys are pretty cool. I like the Plarail series of train heads that lights up too.

Corner Delights Prawn Mee (at The Arcade)

2011-10-30T00:47:00.000+08:00

There are quite a number of yummy food places in the CBD area that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. One of them is the delicious prawn mee nested in the middle of The Arcade in a eating place call Corner Delights.

Run by two sisters, this place serves quite a range of food from porridge to laksa to chee cheong fun and yam cake to desserts like barley ginkgo. But the main fare is prawn mee.

My usual order is prawn kway teow dry. I do not really like soupy noodles but the soup here is thick and full of flavour. The prawns are de-shelled and sliced halved, and the chilli is excellent. Mix it with the other ingredients and seasoning and this is one great tasting prawn mee. Of course if they served it with big, fat, juicy whole prawn, it would be even better. But for normal office lunch, de-shelled halved prawn will do.

The chee cheong fun is also a must eat. You can buy them for breakfast or for tea break.

11 Collyer Quay
#01-31, The Arcade
Singapore 049317

roamingglass: Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 4: The Photos

2011-10-27T00:27:00.002+08:00

It took us quite a while to select the photos, too long in fact. We never seem to be able to find time to choose the photos together. Plus the fact that Tomato Photo had all the shots in both colour and black & white to choose from, as you can see from Part 3.

In the end, I shortlisted the photos I like and Lilian does likewise on different days. We then choose those photos where both of us shortlisted. Here are the ones we chosen.

My favourite is the black & white shot of Xavier kissing Lucas. I have updated that as my blog header. What's your favourite?

Xavier's First Visit to the Dentist

2011-10-20T23:02:00.001+08:00

Xavier had his first visit to the dentist today. There wasn't anything wrong with his teeth. We just wanted him to get a feel of going to the dentist and having his teeth checked.

I brought him to my usual dentist at ToofDoctor. He was apprehensive at first but the mention of watching Barney videos were too good to pass. So they gave him a pair of sunglasses, set him down on the dental chair and checked his teeth.

He is still short of two teeth but they should come soon. They did polishing for him. No scaling needed as they do not have tartar (so lucky). And the dentist even gave him a medal for being so brave and cooperative. He was so proud of his medal that he insist on wearing it to school the next day.

And he can't wait to go for his next dental checkup, as he kept asking when we gonna go again. I on the other hand, dread going to the dentist...

Second Kid Is Ever More Life Changing

2011-10-16T21:42:00.005+08:00

I asked an old friend, who has 5 kids, how difficult is it to raise 5 kids. His reply was, "From one kid to two kids, it was tough, really tough. But the effort is quite similar for one to three, four or five kids."

His bottomline was the transition from managing one kid to managing two kids is two totally different ballgame. After 3 months with Xavier and Lucas, I totally agree. Here are some thoughts:

- No two kids are the same (even if they are twins). I had the expectation that all babies are similar in their first few months. That expectation grew into frustration for me, as I kept asking why Lucas is not doing this and that like Xavier. So the earlier you recognise this point, the less frustrated you would be.

- Communication is key. As the saying goes, "Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups." or "You think, I thought, who confirm?". Communicate with your spouse what you expect of each other, how you want to split your tasks on hand. Do not assume your partner knows what you have in mind.

- Pay more attention to the older kid. Or at least try. The older kid had all your attention before the newborn comes along so the suddenly need to share your attention will affect him/her. Xavier is fairly good so far as he doesn't show "ill-jealousy" (the kind that involves hitting and bullying) but that doesn't mean he do not try to seek as much attention from us as possible. Like shoving a toy in your face asking you to look at it when you are carrying the newborn, or asking if you can put the newborn down and play with him.

- You would really have close to zero time to yourself. If you thought you are managing your time well with one kid and having some of your own "me" time, be prepared for no more of that and ever lesser sleep. In fact I do not even have much time to blog nowadays, preferring sleep.

Right now I'm just grinding my teeth and hoping time pass faster and they grow up faster so we can pass this phrase, though I would probably miss this stage later on. But its really really tough now. So if you are planning for a second kid, be prepared. Be Very Prepared!

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花

2011-10-12T23:50:00.004+08:00

We frequent Old Airport Road Hawker Centre quite often as there are many wonderful food stalls under one roof.

We been seeing crazy queues at this particular stall selling Soya Beancurd and Lilian heard of raving reviews on how smooth and different the beancurds are here. But the long queues usually put us off. It was only recently when a colleague bought them to give away in office did I get a chance to try it.

The beancurds served here are extreme smooth, and different. The usual fresh beancurds you buy are scoped layer by layer into a bowl or container before serving to you. Here stacks and stacks of beancurd are pre-packed and chilled in the fridge. The flawless beancurd greets you when you open the lid, inviting you to make the first scope and send it into your mouth.

And oh how the beancurd melts into your mouth. And if you use your tongue to "play" with it, you would notice just how smooth as silk the beancurd is. So smooth its almost unreal. In fact I have friends who relate it to eating custards. And not everyone is a fan, with some preferring the usual beancurd texture.

For me, I'm a fan. I didn't ask if I there is a "less sweet" version but the original sweetness is just right for me. And business seems to be booming. They now have two stalls in Old Airport Road Hawker Centre and one at Maxwell Food Centre. If you are wondering why there are long queues for it since it's pre-packed and served pretty quickly. The reason is because people tend to buy in 8s and 10s to give away and share with their friends and family. And when I have to queue for sometime to buy something good, I tend to overbuy just so I can giveaway too. It's a vicious circle.

You can "Like" them at their facebook page if you wish.

Blk 51 Old Airport Road
#01-127, Old Airport Road Hawker Centre
Singapore 390051

Blk 51 Old Airport Road
#01-107, Old Airport Road Hawker Centre
Singapore 390051

1 Kadayanallur Street
#01-91, Maxwell Food Centre

Singapore 069184

Thank you and Goodbye Steve Jobs...

2011-10-06T23:15:00.000+08:00

I had a shock this morning when the radio announced the death of Steve Jobs. The visionary legend that gave us beautiful typography on computers, the one who's company pioneered computer animation with Toy Story, the botak that got almost everyone going gaga over "i" this and "i" that, the magician that revive Apple from a USD13 per share company to now above USD380 per share and the best salesman in the world. I salute you.

One of the best speeches that made an impression in me was his speech at Stanford University in 2005.

There may never be another person like Steven Jobs again. Like other geniuses, they will always be unique, like the unreleased Apple Think Different commercial.

Here's to you Mr. Steve Jobs. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. Thank you and Goodbye.

McDonald’s Monopoly Singapore 2011

2011-10-01T00:26:00.000+08:00

If you been to McDonald's recently, you might have observed the crew donning red tee with a black bowtie printed on it. Yes the McDonald’s Monopoly Singapore 2011 is back for the third year and it's on now till 2nd November 2011, or when all game labels are gone.

This time round there are three ways to win the prizes. Instant Win are those tabs which gives instant prizes. Collect To Win are tabs where you have to collect all same colour tabs to win the prize. The most interesting would be the Chance Card where you get $100 cash and a chance to win all unclaimed prizes (from Collect to Win) in a lucky draw.

You can visit the official visit for more information and have a read on the FAQ.

Some tips that might not be obvious:
1) A meal give you 1 label. Upsize the meal and you get 2 labels. Do that on a weekend and you get 4 labels.

2) McValue Lunch meals also entitle you to labels. So a McChicken or a Chicken McNuggets meal upsized on a weekend between 12-3pm would give you the most value per label.

3) Each Collect to Win colour area has a "rare" tab. I have identify them in the collarge below.

If you get these rare tabs, you would probably be winning that prize of the colour bar, since the other tabs for the colour bar are usually very common.

Happy hunting...

Should We Really Be So Kiasu?

2011-09-25T23:51:00.002+08:00

How many of us flash cards to our babies before age 1? Or bring them to extra classes by age 2? I'm sure many parents in Singapore do. It's become second nature to us to be kiasu for our children, trying to give them what we perceived as advantage.

I'm guilty of this myself. So when a friend linked this blog post call What Should a 4 Year Old Know? by A Magical Childhood on Facebook recently, it felt like someone hitting my head on the back saying, "What the hell were you thinking?".

I have re-posted it as it such a good read for parents, especially Singapore parents. We live in this society that is so competitive that it consumes us. It seem inevitable that we as parents behave this way. So sometimes its good to just take a step back, take a deep breath and have a look at what's going on.

I believe that every kid has their own learning pace and it is important to let do them do things or learn at their own speed. Right now I'm just concentrating on teaching him the rights values. Just today when Lilian was trying to apply moisturizer to his feet, he used my name to reject Lilian. He actually said, "My daddy say cannot put cream." I was right outside and came in after hearing it, gave him a very hard stare and told him off.

Anyway if you are a parent of a young kid, I strongly encourage you to have a read at the blog post.

Chopsticks

2011-09-25T12:09:00.000+08:00

Lilian decides to let Xavier try the new training chopsticks today. Naturally Xavier was very excited as the training chopsticks had Percy the green train from the Thomas and Friends series.

The training chopstick has one end that is attached and three loops where the thumb, index and middle fingers go through. This guides and helps the kids get a better grip on the chopsticks. What is left now is for the kid to open and close his fingers to "use" the chopstick.

I'm quite amazed how fast Xavier grab the concept of using the chopstick. Good job Xavier.

Sharks, Tango Yankee. Out...

2011-09-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

Ever look forward to something and when you actually have it, you have a tinge of sadness? I'm experiencing that now and it's a strange feeling.

Today marks the stand-down of 650 SIR (Singapore Infantry Regiment) and more importantly my status change to MINDEF Reserve (MR). I would no longer be called back for In-Camp Training (ICT) and Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) but am still liable for NS (till age 40, the current statutory age for non-officers). Almost every Singaporean males look forward to this day, except for some like my platoon commander (PC) who have volunteered to continue his NS tour of duty for another 10 years or so.

On the flip side, we would not be able to go through the ups and lows that we have experienced together as a platoon, for over a decade, unless the unlikely button is really pressed. What we do have are bitter-sweet memories to savour. As age catches on, I hope we could still meet at least once a year to refresh each other of these bittersweet memories.

This is the final march of 650SIR. As our Platoon Sergeant Danny says, "The last march out was sweet but sad."

If you are wondering what the title is about, it's coded message which just means "Scouts, thank you. Out.".

Lucas: Sumo baby in the making

2011-09-16T15:34:00.000+08:00

Just pass one month and Lucas have shown signs of following his brother footsteps, to be a Sumo-Baby. Check out his progress: Michelin arms, thunder thighs and double chin forming...

And he also have the potential to be future parade commander for NDP (National Day Parade). His crying is so bright and forceful that I had to use these.

And I never thought I would need to dig these out other for use at the range during my reservist.

Boys and their jungle hats

2011-09-11T17:18:00.000+08:00

I was packing my army stuff for the upcoming reservist next week when curious Xavier came to "supervise" my packing. He was armed with all kinds of questions like "Why you wear this?" while pointing to the pair of army boots. Think he was having fun rumbling through my army stuff.

Then he found my old jungle hat (aka condom hat) and he asked, "Can I wear hat?". "Sure." I replied and it was photo time.

While he was having fun smiling to the camera, I was wondering how would he view the greens when his time comes??

Xavier's Mandarin Has "kang tang" Slang

2011-09-06T23:31:00.000+08:00

We been trying to speak more Mandarin to Xavier. He can repeat after us but he has this "kang tang" slang, like an Ang Mo speaking Mandarin. ಠ_ಠ

Grilling it up...

2011-09-03T23:48:00.002+08:00

I have always resisted installing window grilles. The sight of grilles makes the house looked caged. Plus my living room has almost full length windows, so it seems down right ugly to install grilles on them.

But alas the time have come to sacrifice for our boys, again. While it was manageable for two of us to watch over Xavier like a hawk to make sure he doesn't do silly things like attempting to climb onto a chair and look out of the window, its impossible to keep an eye on two boys 24/7. So I reluctantly agreed to Grill It Up, for safety reason and Lilian's piece of mind.

I got quotations from three companies. One of the companies, Legate, offers a "invisible grille" concept. Its actually very thin stainless steel wires which looks almost invincible thus you still get the view and the protection. However it's alot more expensive compared to the traditional grilles. I would definitely consider them if its for our new place next time.

The quotes from other two companies were similar and we settled for Pang Giap since I seen good reviews from the forums. And it so happen our shower screen glass doors of both toilets broke down and we got them to install new shower screens as well.

The installation was surprisingly fast and alot quieter than we had anticipated. And there you have it, Grilles...

Lucas's Lip Sucking Sound

2011-08-30T11:27:00.000+08:00

Nobody taught Lucas how to make that sound but he does it whenever he wants milk from mommy.

Or maybe he wanna befriend with girl across my block??

Mechanical Keyboards

2011-08-30T00:09:00.000+08:00

After contemplating for a long time, I finally got myself a mechanical keyboard. What the hell is that?? Well it's like going back to the old PC days when each keys under the keyboard has a key switch.

So what difference does it make? I was been told it suppose to improve the typing feel, since you do not need to "bottom out" each key to register them, allowing your fingers to "dance" while typing. I'm still getting use to it but it does feel better to type on. Maybe it just physiological. Maybe it will make me type and blog more.

Seems like the only readily available key switches are made by this German company call Cherry. There are a number of switches available from them, colour-named as blue, brown, black, red, etc. Each switch has it's own characteristically like clicky/non clicky (think typewriter sound), tactile/non tactile, and the force need to actuate (register the key).

This Mechanical Keyboard Guide contains very useful information about mechanical keyboards and the VR-Forum has a easy to understand table to help you decide which switch is suitable for you. However the best way to know which to get is to actually try out the keyboards with different switches.

The other really cool thing about mechanical keyboards is that you can change the individual keycaps and customise the way you want your keyboard to look. Of course not as power (or over!) the Optimus Maximus keyboard but good enough for me to have some fun spicing up the dull keyboard. Below is my first. :)

Daddy Bloggers Get Together Organised by JGC

2011-08-25T23:24:00.000+08:00

I got a surprised facebook friend's request recently from my university's course-mate's sister. It's surprising because we haven't kept in touch since year 2000 when she went to visit her sister in Sydney.

Actually she found me by chance as she was looking to invite daddies who blogs about parenting to a Daddy Bloggers Get Together organised by Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning. I said yes but didn't really know what to expect as I have never been to such get togethers before. I even had thoughts that it was for Julie Gabriel to promote their services since their principal director Fiona Walker will be there.

It turned out to be a great, informal and very relaxed sharing session about parenting. Andy (Sengkangbabies), Kelvin (Daddy NiVleK) and Pete (Aussie Pete) were the other bloggers who attended and together with Fiona and William from Julie Gabriel, we talked about a number of things from reading (to children) to sneaky kids who will melt your hearts (just before they get punished).

I picked up a number of useful tips and insights from the night. Here are some of them:
- Reading to your child is important, even when they can read on their own. Its a different skill set to read and to listen and often, reading to them allows them to enjoy the story more and let their imagination run while they listen to you read.

William's tip: Continue to read till they don't want you to read to them anymore. NLB has been running a program call 10,000 & More Fathers Reading and this year marks the 5th anniversary.

- Jealousy among siblings are quite common and Andy's experience is that it affects all four of his kids, usually at different periods.

Andy's tip: Explain the privileges of being older or bigger and to empower the older kid with responsibilities so he/she feels important.

- Raising a bilingual is not easy. I find it hard to consistently speak Mandarin to Xavier, even though I came from a Mandarin speaking family. Xavier only replies in English and after a few sentences, I would unknowingly reply back in English too.

Fiona says it takes a whole lot of persistency and the success stories she sees usually involves one parent speaking to the child solely in one language and the other speaking in a second language.

Fiona's tip: Set a specific time each day (e.g. dinner time) where we would only converse in the particular language.

I totally enjoyed the session and hope I can join more of such informal sharing sessions.

Lucas is One Month Old!

2011-08-22T23:38:00.001+08:00

Lucas just turned one month old and we would like to thank all relatives and friend for attending the full month celebration and for their wonderful gifts and hongbaos.

Both Lilian and I have never seen so many hongbaos before.There were also a few very thoughtful gifts, like the "cake" from Rick and Zhen Zhen.They ordered from Baby's 1st Cake and it's baby gifts packed into the shape of a 2-tier cake.

Xavier was very quick to "chope" the big blue truck on the top of the cake and readily announced it's his and the smaller purple car below is for di-di.

We had three sessions this time, as we didn't want to accommodate too many people each session in our tiny house. This also allows us to interact better with our guest. Lilian ordered from three different caterers. Kim's Kitchen failed as their Mango Sago dessert went bad barely after we started the buffet. YSL Catering was not bad, guests liked their "Braised Pork w/ Bun". We find Angeli Catering (bottom left in the photo) tasted the best among the three. Mum also made her own glutinous rice and it was covered with mushrooms.

For friends and colleagues whom we were not able to invite, we ordered cakes and cookies for them instead. The cakes were from Pine Garden's Cake, the cake shop we got Xavier's 1st year birthday cake from. Lilian liked the message "Of all life's miracles, the biggest ones come in the smallest packages". The cookies were from Happy Bakes.

Lucas is growing well, hitting a weight of 5kg and a length of 52cm now. Looks like he become a sumo baby too, just like Xavier.

Lucas's Delivery is a Different Experience

2011-08-16T22:43:00.000+08:00

As a second-time parent, I thought I am fairly experienced and prepared to welcome Lucas. I had my hospital bag packed and ready, my mindset tuned for sleepless nights ahead and more chores to be done. But it's different this time, very different.

Lucas was delivered via voluntary C-section (Caesarean section) as recommended by our gynae (gynaecologist) for valid reasons. This also meant we can choose the date and timing we like to welcome Lucas. This sort of took away the surprise element, and waiting time, that natural birth has. It's really fast but not as "fun" (to me).

Then after birth, the PD (pediatrician) explained he wants to put Lucas under NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for observation as he seem to be grunting. When the PD tells you something like that right after birth, almost all parents would just go with whatever the PD says. Thankfully Lucas went back to the nursery after half a day as they found he seems okay after observation.

Then came the news that Lucas has G6PD deficiency. While people with G6PD deficiency can lead a normal life as long as they avoid the ban list food and medication, newborn with G6PD deficiency and jaundice are usually treated with extra care. I heard stories of friends who are only allowed to bring their newborns home after 1-2 weeks in hospital doing the photo treatment, for fear that the deadly combo can lead to Kernicterus.

So we were fairly surprised when the PD allowed us to discharge Lucas after two days of photo treatment, with no need to continue the treatment at home (like the case of Xavier). We were to go back to the clinic for a follow-up check 4 days later and if the "yellowing" becomes serious we should bring him back earlier.

When we went back for the follow-up check, his jaundice level shot up higher than norm and he was admitted back to the nursery again for photo treatment for another 2 days. Thankfully again we was able to be discharge after a 2 days stay.

Next shock was when I got all the bills together and how much more this delivery and hospital bill this was and compared to Xavier's delivery. Most of the increase was the doctor fee of our gynae, the NICU 1/2 day stay and the additional two days re-admitted.

But when you see your baby smile, you would feel that all the effort (and money) was worth it.

Here are some tips to help you "fight" and save on the bills:
1) Choose a gynae wisely: The gynae you choose usually determines the hospital you will deliver in. Also check on her likely fee for check-ups and scans before delivery as well as the fee for delivery. Some clinics do have package which was generally cheaper than pay per visit.

2) Choose your ward wisely: This would determine the cost of your bills. Some actually charge higher for the same item/treatment received/done when you are at higher ward. There are also other restrictions like if the daddy wants to stay by the wife during the whole stay (as a lodger), it is only allowed if they take a single bed ward.

3) Choose your hospital wisely: We should have done that when Lucas was re-admitted for photo treatment. The nurse from our usual PD told us that we could actually admit Lucas to a less expensive hospital for the same treatment, given that the PD attending to Lucas also goes to the other less expensive hospital.

Dadsforlife Sand Castle Event

2011-08-13T19:29:00.001+08:00

Dadsforlife organised a Meet Up and Sand Castle Event for at East Coast Park recently. I was hesitant to join initially as it would mean attending with just Xavier (since Lilian is still in confinement). The thought of sand and sea and Xavier running around just didn't gel well in my head.

But Andy was going with his four kids and he said it would be fun if we all go together. So I reluctantly agreed. And I'm glad I did. It was a fun event and Xavier thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Having to keep an eye on him also meant I didn't really have a chance to take much photos and mingle with the rest to make new friends. Well I'll leave the photos to Andy (can see more at his blog), and I did introduced to Isaiah (from J Babies' Dad) and Nick (from nickpan.com). And it did boast my confidence taking Xavier out alone and I should do that more often.

Looking forward to more Dadsforlife event and knowing more parents.

Cars 2 Akang Datang (coming soon)!

2011-08-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

Xavier loves the movie Cars. He can watch the disc again and again and never gets bored of it. And I got him all excited when I showed him the trailer for the up-coming Car 2.

This time is not only about cars and racing and drifting, there are also spies and missiles.

Now if Xavier has a spy name, think he will be called Xavier Coolman. The nurses at the clinic nickname him Cool Man after his deadly cold stares.I'm sure you would agree from the photos below.

Catch Cars 2 movie starting from 25th August 2011 and join the official Disney Studios Singapore Facebook & Twitter page!

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 3: The Selection

2011-08-10T22:04:00.000+08:00

Tomato Photo has finished the newborn photos and now is time for us to choose. I have attached the Maternity photos in part 1. Here are the photos from the newborn shoot. Which are the must-haves??

National Day 2011

2011-08-09T23:36:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Xavier like to do his part for National Day with a march around the living room.

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 2: Newborn Shoot

2011-08-02T23:52:00.002+08:00

We did the Newborn Shoot today and it was pretty relaxed and enjoyable. Well up till both boys became cracky and sleepy. Below is a collage of Hart at work.

These images are from our own camera. Hart's final pictures will definitely be better. :P

Lucas showed Hart how an angry baby cries and Xavier could stop moving as he tries to get the attention of everyone. But once Lucas sleeps, Hart worked his magic and came up with the lovely positions.

I can't wait for to see the final pictures from Hart. If you wish to find out more about Tomato Photo, click on the link.

Xavier Cycles!

2011-08-01T22:00:00.000+08:00

I have to admit I underestimated Xavier. I thought he doesn't know how to cycle but my dad has been teaching him how to cycle on the tricycle. And he could control it pretty well.

I'm impressed Xavier. But he would probably need to work on his goalie skills. :P

Jazz Restored

2011-07-30T22:01:00.001+08:00

My car do not seems to get along well with carpark pillars with red fire extinguisher boxes on them. Twice I had self-inflicted damages to my white Honda Jazz because of these pillars. And both times they were really at blind spots, so blind that I didn't see it till it was too late.

The latest was at the Mount Elizabeth hospital carpark on the last night of Lilian's stay. I reversed into a pillar while trying to turn out of the carpark and the driver's door got a fist size dent and multiple scratches. The scratches were so deep then it reached the bare metal.

I had thoughts to leaving it but the thought of rust setting onto the bare metal forced me to repair and restore it. Got two workshops to quote and the price were about the same. So I went with Khek Joo Motor Workshop. They specialise in paints and many forumers from Fit Jazz Club recommended him when they wanted to install or remove spoilers as they find his workmanship good and price reasonable.

Before repair and after repair

They needed a whole day for the job so I went early morning and only got back my car at 6pm. Boy was I impressed with the workmanship. The dented area was smooth and it looked like before. No trace of the dent or scratches at all. It costed me $160 which I thought was pretty reasonable. Below are the details if your car needs plastic surgery.

Khek Joo Motor Workshop
Blk 9004 Tampines Street 93
Singapore 528838 (Behind SAFRA Tampines)
Contact person : Mr. Ng - 96166658

Lucas has G6PD deficiency

2011-07-29T16:28:00.005+08:00

Lucas tanning in Mount Elizabeth to bring down the Jaundice level

Lucas is back in the hospital due to climbing Neonatal Jaundice level. It's actually very common for infants, especially Asian infants, to get Jaundice from Day 2 of birth. In layman terms, the baby's liver is not mature enough to remove all the bilirubin (yellow pigment that's created in the body during the normal recycling of old red blood cells) yet. This condition should peak on Day 5-9 and come down to safe level after that (as the liver matures).

Xavier doing the home photo bed treatment

Xavier also had Jaundice during his first week of birth and he was put on home treatment. We basically rent the photo bed home and "tan" him at every opportunity. The photo light will break down the bilirubin and the baby will just pee and poo it out. It's a painless process (except for the need to poke to baby's heel for blood to test the Jaundice level).

The main reason Lucas had to be hospitalised was because he also has a condition call Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, or G6PD deficiency in short. It's a inherited condition where the blood has low levels of the G6PD enzyme. So what will happen is the red blood cells can break down more easily and cause jaundice (yellow appearance of skin) and anaemia (lack of red blood cells) when exposed to certain medication, chemical or food. So G6PD deficiency plus Jaundice usually puts the doctor on high alert and they usually suggest treatment in hospital (and their machine is more powerful then the home rented ones, as it "tans" from both above and below).

People with the condition lead a normal healthy life, as long as they avoid the "ban list" (at the bottom of the page of the NUH site). The most common items were moth balls and fava beans (also known as broad beans). Moth balls and fava beans to Lucas would be like kryptonite is to Superman. And he probably have to take a different malaria pill when he goes NS in future.

The G6PD Favism Association has a FAQ on how one gets the condition. We were interested to know as both Lilian and I do not have the condition and neither does Xavier. Read at your own pleasure.

Now I like to dedicate this song to Lucas. Get well and leave the blue world soon boy.

Introducing... Lucas Lee

2011-07-22T23:12:00.000+08:00

Lucas is born on 22nd July 2011, 1406 hours, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. He is 3.525kg in weight and 50cm in length. He looks alot like Xavier when he was just born, except he has more hair.

And his cry are alot louder and more forceful.

We presented Xavier with a "present" from Lucas and hope their relationship starts off on a positive note.

Below is Xavier's reaction when he first meets Lucas.

Lee Zhi Kang, Lucas, 李智康, welcome to the Lee family.

Xavier's First Wind Instrument - Recorder

2011-07-21T23:30:00.000+08:00

I wanted to expose Xavier to music and hopefully he gains an interest it in. So I got him his first instrument, a recorder. Okay I'm not expecting him to be able to play real notes on it now but to get a feel of it. And the recorder is cheap, $5.50.

So what did he think of the recorder?

Think he had fun as he could not stop giggling and laughing everytime he blows into the recorder.

Blog Revamp - roamingglass 2.0

2011-07-14T15:25:00.000+08:00

I been toying with the idea of doing a revamp to the blog layout. Main reason is that I'm posting more collarge photos so I wanted the collarge to be bigger. However, as the old layout was a very old template (think 2004), Blogger.com doesn't support it anymore and since I do not know html codes, I do not know how to adjust the width.

New Vs Old

So the next best thing is to use the new "Blogger Template Designer" and do up a new template since its very easy to customise most things. Above is my new layout vs my old layout. I thought it might take alot of time to do it so I have been putting it off. But after reading that Andy from Sengkangbabies did it in under 20 minutes, I decided to go for last night. You can check out his post on where to find the template designer in Blogger.com.

So how do you guys find the new layout? Comments very welcome.

Xavier, 29 months on - Letting him draw his own lines...

2011-07-03T18:18:00.005+08:00

This month is gonna mark a big change to Xavier's (and our) life as Xavier is gonna be promoted to Big Brother soon. He now stands at 97cm and weights 16.7kg.

We recently attended the LV's Parents and Teacher Conference where his form teacher and Chinese teacher updates us on Xavier's progress and development and what he has been up to in school. We were pleased with the positive comments. The teachers describe him as enthusiastic, fun-loving, a big brother his classmates, helpful and able to say complete sentences.

He does have his temper when he do not get his way (which I blame it on genes) and he gets excited very easily and would unintentionally harass his friends when he does that. We also need to speak and expose more Chinese to him. He usually replies in English to his Chinese teacher and his Mandarin has "kang-tang" slang.

His form teacher discussed in details something she finds surprising about Xavier, that he seems to exhibit independent thinking. They had an activity where they have to piece the eyes, nose and mouth onto a face. The teacher demonstrated once where she starts from the eyes, followed by the nose and lastly the mouth. Xavier's classmate was next and she repeated the steps.

But when its Xavier's turn, he started with the mouth first, followed by the nose then the eyes. He seems to be able to picture the final goal and reach it by his own thinking, strategy and method. I found that interesting and began observing him a lot more nowadays.

Just the other day, he played with his numbers during his shower time where he would stick the numbers on the wall. And he did something I didn't think of before, stacking two numbers together and lining them up.

Just Friday I attended a children and newbie photography talk by Hart form Tomato Photo and one of his slide was that children are unpredictable. I couldn't agree more. We often heard of the saying "To think out of the box". I think kids are born with a blank canvas, they have no box to start with. Probably how big their canvas is is determined by genes and represents their full potential. To them, almost anything is possible. The box or boundaries on the canvas represents restrictions they have to work within and are due to our own values, social, political, financial and moral limitations.

Parenting tip: Often we are the ones who draw their box. We tell them dun do this, dun go there, dun climb, dun draw on the wall, stop running, stop lie down... etc. Sometimes it out of conveniences for us (I'm guilty of that) and unknowingly, we have draw a line or boundary on their canvas. Going forward I'm gonna let him explore more freely, as long as he is not endangering himself or others.

UNICEF Global Handwashing Dance

2011-06-26T12:22:00.001+08:00

Whenever Xavier comes back with a new dance and song, we are always curious what he is trying to sing or dance. I think after the Mum's Kitchen food poisoning incident, the school has introduced additional hygiene steps like re-enforcing washing of hands before going to the playground in the morning.

They even had a handwashing campaign and the kids are very familiar with the following dance. We may find the video silly and comical but I guess sometimes you have to be like a child to talk to a child. Enjoy.

Happy Father's Day 2011 - Good Luck Daddy!

2011-06-20T23:58:00.001+08:00

Sometimes it takes just a little gentle touch to make you day. Xavier wishes me luck when I most needed it.

Father's day on Sunday passed without much fanfare other than celebrating my niece Yu En's birthday. I have been totally drained from fixing up my new PC.

It started probably a month ago with all the reading up and getting up to speed with the new technologies and terminologies. But even then, the assembly of my PC on 10th June didn't go all that smoothly. Somehow the PC has a mood of its own and would not start up when it do not feel like it. And the almost nightly troubleshooting since then yields no clear indication to what was causing it.

So that left me drained and dejected. That also tells me I'm no longer young and now lack the passion and energy to troubleshoot a DIY PC. If given a choice, I would have just spend more money and buy an iMac. At least I know it would work out of the box and I do not have to spend precious time troubleshooting when I should be spending on my family and sleep. Yes sleep is a very precious commodity nowadays.

Then came Monday when everything changed for the better. Xavier gave me the Father's Day artwork from his school (better late then never). It was a horseshoe coloured in blue with the wordings "Happy Father's Day and Lots of Luck for Daddy!". And somehow I seem to figure out what might be the cause of my PC issues.

With the need to troubleshoot out of the way, I can once again go back to me usual activities like blogging and hopefully get more sleep. There is no such thing as too much luck and I would certain need all the luck I can get. Thanks Xavier.

Xavier's First Movie: Kungfu Panda 2

2011-06-12T23:53:00.003+08:00

One of the parent of Xavier's schoolmate, Oliver, proposed a Kungfu Panda 2 movie outing for the boys when the movie opens. I thought it would be fun for Xavier so I showed him a trailer of the movie.

Well somehow it backfired as the staring part freaked Xavier out. For the next 2 weeks, whenever the TV was showing the Kungfu Panda 2 movie advertisement, he would run and hide behind my back, shivering in fear. It took me quite a while to change his impression of Bo (the Dragon Warrior) and I did it just before we were to watch the movie. He went from super scare to super like.

As Lilian wants to rest at home, Xavier and I had a boys' movie day. We took MRT to Plaza Singapura and it was also Xavier's first MRT ride. MacDonald were smart to cash in on the Kungfu Panda craze and boys were happily going to the movie with action figurines in their hands.

All the parents went in early as we want to get the booster seat for the kids. Xavier scan the cinema as it was his first time in one. He then point to the curtains at the side of the cinema and asked, "Kungfu Panda inside there?" I laughed and told me no no, it will appear at the screen in front of him. From then on, he stared at the screen very attentively, waiting eagerly for the movie to start.

He was pretty well behaved throughout the movie, although there were a few moments he wanted to sit on my lap instead of his seat. And somewhere in the movie he kept asking where the baby panda went, among other questions. So hard to ask him not to talk in the movie when he didn't understand what's all this fuss about keeping quiet when in the movies.

But I think overall he enjoyed the movie very much. Will definitely bring him to more movies in future.

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 1: Maternity Shoot

2011-06-11T21:24:00.001+08:00

We signed up for a Maternity & Newborn photo shoot with Tomato Photo as Lilian like to keep some nice memories of her curves (since we both want to stop at 2). The first part of the shoot is more on Lilian and her glorious bump and the second part will be when the boy is born.

We chose Tomato as our previous session with him was very enjoyable. Xavier was totally under his spell and we had some very good shots. This time was no different. Although Xavier is a lot more active and cheeky now, somehow Hart is still able to "control" him even better than we could. That's a priceless skill and it made our session so relax and enjoyable.

Below are most of the shots from the shoot. Its in contact sheet format so probably you guys need to click on it to enlarge it for better viewing.

Once again, thanks Hart for the wonderful shots. So looking forward to the newborn shoot.

RSAF Open House 2011

2011-05-29T15:46:00.003+08:00

Every boy dreams of flying a plane in some phase of their life. I too had that dream when I was young. So when RSAF had their open house this year, I thought Xavier too might be keen. Indeed he was.

We went on Saturday morning and thankfully it was an overcast morning. On display right at the entrance was the pride of the RSAF, the F-15SG (bottom right of the collarge). F-15SG is a variant of the F-15E Strike Eagle, one of the most versatile fighter aircraft even built.

There are many photo enthusiasts at the open house with all kinds of gadgets. I took a photo of this man with a super extended mono-pod with trigger mechanism. The open house also have sections where you can sit in the aircraft, probably the closest non-pilot can get to flying it (beside the Flight Simulation Centre). But the queue for it is crazy, at least one hour for the not so popular aircrafts.

The main highlight is the open house is the Aerial Display. We went 10mins earlier and the seats were already filling up fast. Manage to get front seating. Was initially afraid it might be too loud for Xavier and might scare him but he kept pushing our hands away when we try to cover his ears.

Before the start of the Aerial Display, the pilots came by and threw some pins to lucky people at the back. The display showcase the ability of most of the aircrafts in RSAF, including the F-15SG, F-16D, the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter, Super Pumas, Chinook, C-130 Hercules.

Took multiple shots of the F-16SG taking off and soaring in the sky and piece them into a single photo below.

F-15SG fighter aircraft taking off

After the Aerial Display, we went to check out the helicopters on display. I was particular interested in the Apache, influenced by the 80's show Airwolf. There is also a S-70B naval helicopter on display.

We left shortly after noon as it was starting to get really crowded and the sun found its way out of the clouds. Overall a fun open house. Got Xavier a jockey cap before leaving.

Sundown Half-Marathon 2011

2011-05-28T23:54:00.001+08:00

This would probably be one of the most hard-earned medal I have crazily earned.

I signed up for the Sundown 21km run end of last year, when I was still in good shape and had a passion for running. Fast-forward five months and it was a different story. I had lose my motivation to run and the last time I wore my running shoes was for the Compression Run in April. So it was pretty close to suicidal going for a 21km run with almost no training at all. But I told myself to just go and have fun, take it as a leisure jog. Or walk.

Surprisingly I enjoyed the run, well at least the first 15km of it. Running in a large event with so many other runners makes the event fun and enjoyable. And I was able to draw strengths from other runners. I lasted till the 15km mark before I finally walked instead of jog.

At 16 km, the soreness and pain on different parts of my legs were there, yet bearable. But another form of distraction hit me. I was hungry, really hungry. Every time I pass by a volunteer of the event, I wished they were holding out a banana to give to me.

Determine to finish the race so I can have supper (I was trying to turn hungry into my strength), I did a mixture of slow job and fast walk. Then at 18km mark, the tightness on my thighs threatened to give me cramps. I had to do more stretching along the way and walk more to prevent the cramps from coming up.

Having looked at the timing on my watch, it seems like I could still do it under 3 hours if I hasten my pace a little. With a focus aim in mind, I started to pick up my pace again. Then at 20km mark, the thighs gave up, tightening up so much that I couldn't jog anymore. Even fast walking proved to be a teeth grinding affair. That was it, I could only hobble on towards the finish line.

As I approach the last 300m to the finish line, it seems like under 3 hours is still possible. The competitive mind then took over and pushed the wasted legs on towards the end. And I did it under 3 hours.

I'm gonna hang up my shoes and take a break from running, a break of at least two years.

Cold Storage Kids Run 2011

2011-05-22T23:47:00.001+08:00

Xavier thrilled with his first medal

Xavier did his run today and got himself a participation medal. I signed him up for the Sunny Family Chase" category and accompanied him for the run.

And boy was it a hot day. We were melting under the scorching sun while waiting for our turn to run. Xavier was all excited about the run on our way there but when it came to the actual run, he became all whiny and needing, and kept asking to be carried every few steps. Maybe it was because of the huge number of unfamiliar faces all around us during the run. Pretty overwhelming for him I guess.

We took a break at the water point and while resting, we saw his classmate Thomas. And all the sudden he had a 180° change, and was running after Thomas and having fun and laughter. He suddenly seems so confident. My conclusion, peer pressure works well on him and he is quite a show-off. Ha.

Here are some of the other photos. The carnival atmosphere from the line of proud parents cheering their family on and taking photos and videos is just wonderful.

Xavier, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Green Monster and The Skeleton Dance

2011-05-17T23:24:00.004+08:00

Xavier pick up things like sponge these days and flood us with things he learn in school. And it left us scratching our head figuring out what he was trying to say or do while he feels frustrated (at us not knowing what he is trying to expressing).

So it's good to know what the school is teaching so that you can relate with your kid when he tries to express to you what he has learnt, be it by singing or dancing or trying to tell you the story he learnt.

Image from Wikipedia

I heard of this very famous children book call "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. And I have seen this big book at Xavier's classroom and it seems like his teacher is using it to teach the kids as I see artworks of eggs on leaves, butterflies and hanging cocoons.

Classroom artwork with eggs on the leave, hanging cocoons and butterflies

Then when we went Kinokuniya, Xavier grew very excited about this same series of caterpillar books, showing us the various food the caterpillar has been eating and amazingly, he can rattle off the different food the caterpillar eat in exact sequence. We decided to get him his own book.

What's interesting about this book is that it has holes in some of the pages where the food are illustrated. And the kids can wiggle the tip of their finger thru them as if the caterpillar was eating them.

And this is the clip where can list the food the caterpillar eats followed by the stomach-ache acting. In case you are wondering what he is blabbing about, "One chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one cheese, one salami, one lollipop, one cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, one watermelon. Tummy-ache!" This book also teaches counting and how caterpillar can turn into a cocoon and finally into a butterfly.

Xavier is crazy about this song now and want us to sing it again and again and again. I told him if he is scare and anythign else, like Kungfu Panda, just sing "Kungfu Panda Go Away!".

Xavier has also been doing this dance sequence while trying to sing the tune but we had no idea what he was doing until I chance upon (so lucky) the Skeleton Dance clip. He was sitting on my lap and when I played the clip for the first time (for me), and he was rushing to get off my lap. I thought he was scared and wanted to run away but he actually wants to get down and dance!

Cold Storage Kids Run - Race Expo

2011-05-14T23:04:00.002+08:00

We sign Xavier up for the Cold Storage Kids Run '11 just so he can get some exercise to hopefully do away with his tummy... just kidding.

Thought it would be fun to go for such runs just for the fun of it, since Xavier's "Sunny Family Chase" category is just a 800m "run" with an accompanying parent for age 2-4 years old with no prize. We went to collect the goodies bag today and there are quite a number of stuffs in the bag I must say. Things include race tee, milk, snacks, wipes, milk powder, stickers, drawing paper with colour pencils, backpack, etc. The expo also has activities for kids to engage in like a mini obstacle course and balloon sculptures but Xavier was sleeping in the car while daddy went to get the stuff.

Xavier's number for the race ends with "007". Do you think he looks like one with his poses below?

Happy Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T23:15:00.001+08:00

This year's Mother's Day artwork from Xavier is very different from last year's. This year has two cookies in it together with a hand-paint artwork on a green straw that looks like a flower.

Xavier was all excited to present it to Lilian. And he seems even happier eating the cookies. Happy Mother's Day Lilian.

Xavier the Broccoli Singer, 27 months on...

2011-05-07T22:24:00.000+08:00

Xavier is now 91cm tall and weights 15.80kg, which means I have to buy him MRT and bus tickets and pay for him to watch a movie. :(

Polling day today and Mother's day tomorrow. Xavier has entered the "I, me, mine" phrase. He is not into sharing yet, and is proud to declare things as his. So you would often hear him say my car, my bread, my mushroom, my apple, etc. He would even detail to you, "Not daddy's, not mummy's. Mine!"

He would also be very impatient such that when you tell him to wait or can we do this first then do that, he would kick a big fuss. And sometimes he would totally ignore your instructions and do the opposite of we asked of him. And the best part is, when I get angry and scold him, he would turn to Lilian and say in those sad puppy tone, "Daddy angry" as if trying to get sympathy votes from Lilian.

When he is in good mood, he would break into songs out of the blue. Or he would just be silly and laugh at little things. Below are two videos I took during one of the supermarket trips where he suddenly decides to use the Broccoli as a microphone and sing "Lalala" and be silly.

Thomas's Birthday Party @ The Polliwogs

2011-05-07T21:55:00.003+08:00

Xavier was invited to his classmate Thomas's Birthday @ The Polliwogs. He's been very excited about going to birthdays and going to Polliwogs, so you can say he was doubly excited this time. But probably because we were late (having to vote in the morning), Xavier took a very long time to warm up, to the surprise of even Lilian and myself.

But it's not his birthday and as long as the birthday boy and all the other kids are having fun, that's all it matters. There were party coordinators doing activities with the kids and they even got Thomas's daddy and Gabriel to join in the fun (as super heroes?). There was also a balloon entertainer chunning out very well sculpted balloon characters. I'm impressed by the red pokka dots octopus, yellow bus, Barney, Elmo and Cookie Monster that he made, among others.

Cake cutting time and it was Thomas favourite Cars character Lightning McQueen. And boy was it a big cake and kids were trying to get their hands on it. I know Xavier was as I had to fend him off as he exclaimed excitedly "Car! Car! Car!".

After the kids got their tummy filled, they were running around with a balloon sculpture each, filling up the room with laughter. What a fun filled day!

Xavier brought his Cooke Monster balloon home to join his collection of other cookie monsters.

Psst... Where is the Y.O.G.?

2011-05-01T00:14:00.000+08:00

Lilian reminded me that I should shall this tip on the blog.

Xavier is better at expressing himself now and understands most of the things we tell him (although sometimes he chooses to ignore us).

There are instances when we do not want him to know what we are talking about, we would use codes or spell the word out. Actually it was my mum who started it first and we found it very useful.

For example, "Psst... Can you take the Y.O.G. (yoghurt) out of the fridge?" or "Put the A.P.P. (apple) on the table first." If we were to use normal words, he would demand to have it immediately. By spell out the word or the first few alphabets, he still has no idea what we are talking about. *snicker*

RWS Staycation - Day 3

2011-04-29T23:14:00.001+08:00

Xavier seems to enjoy the pools alot so we decided to hit the pool after an early 8am breakfast (to avoid the crowd).

After a short rest we changed to our swim gear and headed to the Hard Rock Pool one last time. No pretty girls this time so Xavier got bored after a while.

So we head back to Festive Hotel's pool since we haven't been here yet. The waterplay area is of a smaller scale and somehow the wooden floor is pretty slippery. Xavier manage to regain his balance the first time but wasn't so lucky the second time round. Still he was giggling and having so much fun.

I asked Lilian to take a video of this scene as I wasn't sure if he wanted to be a fireman or a gardener.

The pool activities really drains Xavier's energy. He was stone when we return to the hotel room to pack.

We double confirmed that Xavier just need a place with swimming pool and he will be satisfied. Maybe its time we bring him to Seng Kang swimming complex.

See the pool fun on Day 1.
We visited USS for the first time in Day 2.
View more photos at my Flickr.

RWS Staycation - Day 2

2011-04-28T23:56:00.007+08:00

Today is USS (Universal Studios Singapore) day and I have bought tickets for my parents to join us. No rain clouds in sight so we are not likely to be wet, or so I thought.

In case you are wondering what the above photo is about, well I gonna give you a very important tip of staying in Festive Hotel: Go for your breakfast EARLY. We went at about 8:30am in the morning and there was a small queue of 10 mins. But when we were finished and leaving the restaurant, the queue was all the way to the lift lobby. Madness. And to add salt to wound, I overheard one of the manager tell the very agitated guests in the queue that the restaurant was closed for breakfast and they are trying to accommodate all in queue.

We thought it might be an influx of guests that particular day but when we came the next day for breakfast (at 8am just to be safe), the long queue again stretch to the life lobby when we were leaving. So you have been warned.

The breakfast buffet spread was not too bad but it was the same spread for both days (kind of miss Club Med's daily changing menu). What got a little on my nerve was that they were playing upbeat Salsa/Merangue music. For the record, I love Salsa music. But two straight days of Salsa music at breakfast felt as if they were rushing me to quickly eat and finish my breakfast so that they could clear the queue outside the restaurant.

After my parent arrived, we set off to USS. The huge Universal globe was under maintenance and many people had to content with taking photos with a picture of the globe instead. I rather not take. Ha.

We took the anti-clockwise route, going from "Hollywood" pass "New York" to "Sci-Fi City". There were many sights to see, performances to watch and mascots to take photos with but Xavier wants none of that. It was nearing his nap time and he was getting cranky. And he seems to be scare of mascots, any mascots. We wanted to take photos with the Madagascar crew but he was screaming and crying as if we were offering him to the Alex the Lion as lunch. So we let him take his nap in his stroller while Dad and I went for the Battle Galactica roller coaster.

There are two rides you can choose from. The Human ride is a seated coaster where you get drops, twists and turns whereas the Cylon ride is a suspended coaster including cockscrews and cobra rolls. Both rides starts out at the same time and there will be some moments where they looked like they would criss cross each other. Dad was only game for the Human ride and being the "safer" ride, the wait time was longer. After it was done, dad joined the rest while I went for the Cylon ride alone, twice (as there wasn't much of a queue for it yet). By the time I was done, I was drench in my own perspiration (not sure from the adrenaline rush or the freaking hot weather).

When Xavier woke up from his nap shortly after, he too was drenched in perspiration (so its the freaking hot weather) that we had to change his tee. We decided to look for an air-conditioned place to have lunch. Skipping pass "Ancient Egypt", we wandered into "The Lost World" and settled for local fares at Discovery Food Court. Tip: You can use the $25 gift voucher from the package to cover the lunch cost.

After lunch we backtrack to "Ancient Egypt" to ride the Treasure Hunters. Its a slow and controlled jeep ride young kids would love. Tip: If the queue time is too long, I suggest to skip this. We then went back to "The Lost World" for the Dino-Soarin ride. Xavier loves this ride as you can press the white button to make it "fly" higher. If not for the 30 mins queue time we would have gone again.

I wasn't in the mood to try other rides mainly due to the weather. Queuing for rides in this heat and humidity is a party spoiler. So we went for something air-conditioned next, Shrek 4-D Adventure in "Far Far Away". Lilian and I been to the same show at Universal Studios Hollywood so I kinda know what to expect but my parents had heaps of fun and surprises. Xavier however was so scared of the 3-D spiders 5 minutes into the show that he cling onto me for the rest of the show and refuse to watch it. I would be scared too if I was his age. Imagine spiders right in front of your eyes and getting closer (due to the 3-D effect). Tip: There are stationary seats in the middle of the theatre and you should use these if your kid is too young.

Last stop for us was King Julien's Party-Go-Round at "Madagascar". Xavier chose Alex the Lion the first time round then Gloria the Hippo the second time round. And finally a ride Lilian can join in.

We head back to the hotel to rest before heading to Vivocity for dinner.

My overall impression of USS is that it's pretty small and the heat and humidity of Singapore didn't help make it fun at all. If you are bringing a young kid like Xavier's age (2 years plus) and a pregnant wife, you might not enjoy it very much as there are many rides which pregnant ladies can't participate and there are only a few rides for young kids (but then again Xavier's entry is free as he is below 4 yours old). I personally would not be returning to USS for a long, long time.

Here's the link to Day 1.
Want to see what happens in Day 3?
View more photos at my Flickr.

RWS Staycation - Day 1

2011-04-27T23:36:00.004+08:00

We are expecting a new addition to our family at the end July so we thought of going for a vacation since it will be another 2 years plus before we can (practically) travel again.

Initially we had Hong Kong Disneyland in mind but the logistics involved for an overseas trip with a 2 year old toddler and a pregnant wife sort of put me off. So we settled on the next best thing which is a staycation at RWS (Resort World Sentosa). It will be a vacation without the trouble of travelling overseas.

I booked the 3D2N Ultimate Fun package which cost SGD788 net. The package includes the following:

1) Two nights stay at Hotel Michael Deluxe Room, Hard Rock Hotel Deluxe Room or Festive Hotel Family Room
2) Daily Breakfast for two
3) Two one-day adult passes to USS (Universal Studios Singapore)
4) Resorts World Sentosa gift vouchers worth S$25
5) Complimentary welcome drinks for two

Accommodation, breakfast and USS ticket are all free for Xavier since is is under 4 years old so it seems like a pretty decent deal. We chose Festival Hotel as it was more "family friendly" with what seems like a bigger room on picture with additional loft bed and a long sofa bed.

We start the staycation with dim sum lunch at Tung Lok Signature, Vivocity. The dim sum is pretty good and the above photo shows some of the dishes we had; Aloe Vera Honey drink, Fried Silver Fish, Salted Egg Prawn, Glutinous Balls with Black Sesame Filing Coated with Peanut and Fried Taro Strips with Pumpkin.

Fried Taro Strips with Pumpkin is interesting as the taro strip crust was very crispy but the taro and pumpkin filling in the middle was soft and fluffy. The Glutinous Balls were also lovely, very soft but packed with a punch when the black sesame filling burst in your mouth when you bite it. I find the prawns so-so (find the salted egg taste bland) but Lilian loves them. Xavier of course love the silver fish thinking they were fries.

Xavier was so excited about celebrating Lilian's birthday. He talks about which cake mummy likes and about blowing candles.

We checked into the hotel and true to the picture the room was larger and the ceiling was higher than most hotel rooms we have been to. The loft bed wasn't suitable for Xavier but if you have older kids, I'm sure they would love it. The main bed is a queen size so it was quite a squeeze with three of us sleeping on it at night. And like most hotel beds, it was too soft for me and I woke up with an aching body.

The toilet is pretty big and we absolutely love the "Raindance Air" shower head by Hansgrohe. Even Xavier had fun showering with the rain-like droplets. (He wanted the same when we reach home and I tried to imitate by inverting my shower head so the water falls like rain but he looked at me and asked, "No more rain?").

The view from our room was nothing to shout about. But being family friendly, they do have kids size comfort items like bedroom slipper and bathrobe.

The beauty of RWS is you can use the facilities in any of the hotels (I think). We heard so much about the man-made beach at Hard Rock Hotel that we brought Xavier there instead of our hotel's pool.

The sand is clean and the water ain't salty, it's a good way to introduce beach and sand to kids. Xavier also had heaps of fun at the waterplay area.

Sometimes being silly is fun when you are with your kids. We had fun at the waterplay area of Hard Rock Hotel. Unfortunately the water slide was under repair. Xavier seems to be extreme friendly to girls when we are on holiday. You will see two-thirds into the above video where he tried to make friends with a French "jie jie" (older girl) by offering his watergun.

And then literally chase after another "jie jie" from Hong Kong next.

We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Xavier totally knocked out after the swim. I ordered the Hickory Smoked Pulled-Pork Sandwich and Lilian had the Grilled Hawaiian Chicken. Had a Kilkenny since I wouldn't be driving.

Xavier woke up in time for dinner and he became the fries machine, finishing each of my fries in 30secs while dipping into my BBQ baked bean sauce in between bites.

We took a walk around the waterfront area after dinner. There was a fountain show at 9pm but we missed it.

We ended the day by celebrating Lilian's birthday in the hotel room with a mini cake from awfully chocolate. Xavier was so eager to blow and cut the cake.

Link to Day 2: USS day.
Link to Day 3.
View more photos at my Flickr.

Xavier starts to sing...

2011-04-26T23:02:00.001+08:00

Xavier is at a stage where he would start singing songs on his own without prompting, because he wants to and not because we told him to. Although there are usually missing words and we sometimes take awhile before realising what he is singing, we thoroughly enjoy it.

However, getting him to sing on video is a different matter and despite all the coaxing and asking and begging, he has never finished a song on tape. Here are the "NG"s.

Ba Ba Black Sheep NG 1:

Ba Ba Black Sheep NG 2:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star NG 1:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star NG 2:

I'm A Little Teapot NG 1:

I'm A Little Teapot NG 2:

A Dance He Learned In School:

Hup Seng Duck Rice

2011-04-23T23:43:00.000+08:00

Hup Seng Duck Rice is my favourite stall when it comes to braised duck rice.The perfect balance of the oil, the fats and the dark sauce never fails to make me drool.

Popular coffeshops usually have one super stall that majority of patrons will order from. As the chinese saying, 一山不能藏二虎, having two super stalls in a single coffeeshop is a rare sight. Unless they complement each other. And complement they did. Lilian and I would always order a plate of Hup Seng braised duck to go with Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh. And we would usually order Hup Seng's duck porridge for Xavier.

We love Hup Seng's braised duck as it is juicy and tender. One bite and you feel like you are in paradise, as the aroma oozes out from the meat. Like Lilian says, "很入味". The other popular dish is the Salted Veg Duck Soup. We are not a fan of the soup but we always see many patrons ordering it.

Blk 22 Sin Ming Road

Eng Ho Hup Coffeeshop, #01-258
Singapore 570022

Tel: 6454 3810

Smile! :-D

2011-04-21T23:57:00.001+08:00

Time seems to fly by this year and before I know it, one quarter has passed. I recently bought a new AIO (All In One) printer and was excitedly looking through my photos to print some out and test the print quality.

I then realise that I didn't take a single photo using my Canon 50D and S95 for the whole of March. In fact when I took out my 50D last weekend to take some photos of Xavier's first self-assembled Lego robot, it took me a few minutes to familiarise with the camera again.

Anyway two photos below are one of the few that I really really like. The few that I go "Wow" and couldn't believe I actually took them. Enjoy.

Xavier's First Lego "Robot"

2011-04-17T23:20:00.001+08:00

Lilian proudly declare to me this morning that Xavier did this Lego "Robot" all by himself. Well done my boy.

Compression Run 2011

2011-04-10T23:55:00.001+08:00

I signed up for the 12km Compression Run 2011 as a means to force myself to be ready for the Sundown Marathon 2011. Before you look at me in disbelief, no I didn't register to run a 42km marathon. I signed up for the 21km half marathon.

The Compression Run and the Sundown is about 6 weeks apart so I thought it was a perfect "checkpoint". But I have been slacking with my run preparation, procrastinating from Chinese New Year to my reservist to 2 weeks before the Compression Run before I did some real running. And even then it was just a 4km and a 5.5km run in that 2 weeks. So I was not having high hopes of completing the 12km run in 1 piece.

But the actual run went pretty well. I guess when you are running with so many other runners, you tend to get motivated. Weather was cooling and there was a slight drizzle during the run. A few eye candies help to make the run more bearable. And I finish the run in 1 piece with a timing I'm very happy with.

Next up, Sundown. Hope I can get some 10km runs before the attempting the 21km.

Cookyn with Mervyn: Our Tribute To Japan

2011-04-02T23:39:00.001+08:00

Cookyn with Mervyn organised a "Our Tribute to Japan" session today to raise funds for the unfortunate events that have happened in Japan. Mervyn and his team shares their Japan experiences as well as cooking skills and all proceeds from the session will be donated to Red Cross.

I had thoughts of donating to Red Cross myself for Japan disasters and when Cookyn with Mervyn decided to hold this session, I signed up myself and Lilian without hesitation. This session prove many firsts for me: first time attending a cooking class, first time doing real food preparation work (like cutting fish, peeling potatoes, making my own seasoning, etc) and first time seeing such "power" kitchen appliances (more on that).

We prepared four dishes in the session; our starter was "Hamachi Salad with Calamansi Dressing", with two main courses, "Cold Soba with Smoked Duck" and "Oven-Roasted Potatoes with Mentaiko Mayo and Seaweed Powder", and "Orange and Sochu Jelly with Whipped Cream" for dessert. Kitchen Culture sponsored their kitchen space and boy was the kitchen huge and beautiful. Huge island table top with mixture of induction and gas hobs set in marbles and with an equally impressive wet area at the back, littered with cool kitchen appliances and flanked by two rows of oven and a super cool fridge. Mervyn starts off by proposing a toast with Sochu courtesy of the ingredient sponsor Greengrocer.com.sg.

Then it's off to work. First up, our dessert as it takes the longest time to "set". We needed to dig out the orange flesh and mix it with gelatin powder to form the jelly then pour the mixture back into the intact orange "shell" before chilling it to form the jelly. It normally takes 4-5 hours for the jelly to to be firm but Kitchen Culture have this machine which can quicken the process by "blast chill" (sounds uber).

Next up, potatoes. We split the job with some of the class peeling the potatoes and some cutting them into wedges. Then we season them with canola oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper and its off to the high-tech ovens. The traditional way is to blanch in salted boiling water followed by airing them to dry and thereafter putting them into the oven. These ovens however, will steam the wedges followed by oven-roasting them to perfection, all by the touch of a few buttons. And they also come with high-tech price of slightly above $10,000.

High-tech oven at work

While the ovens does their job, Mervyn demonstrated with how to do the dressing for the salad and prepared the sauce for the cold soba. While he was on the topic on how to Flambé (French for flaming or flamed) the sauce to burn off the excess alcohol, he shares what not to do.

Once the sauce is done, we were left with the easy job of twilling the soba into the plastic shot glass, placing slices of smoked duck to the side and adding the sauce, topped with sesame seeds and chives.

Mervyn went on to prepare his version of the salad, explaining how we should try to slice the fish as thin as possible. On the left is Mervyn's version of the Hamachi Salad with Calamansi Dressing. Nice thin slices of the yellowtail kingfish and blue fin tuna drizzled with the calamansi dressing. And on the right is my interpretation of the dish. Thick sashimi slices soaked with sauce. Can see that I'm either very hungry or not playing attention to the words "thin slices" and "drizzle".

As we are enjoying the first two dishes, the golden wedges were taken out from the oven and ready to be served for the next dish. So crispy on the outside yet soft and puffy on the inside, it is paired with the yummy sauce made with mentaiko and Japanese mayo. This dish is just so irresistible that almost all of us went for second helping.

Finally, the desserts are all chilled and set. Top it with a dash of whipped cream and orange peel strips and it's ready to be served.

We sat down and while enjoying our dessert, we shared our experiences in Japan, what we liked and admired about them and what Japanese food or restaurants we love. It was an enjoyable and light-hearted session and with the $3,000 raised, we hope to help Japan in our little way. Gambatte Japan!

Xavier Starts Toilet Training

2011-03-29T22:22:00.002+08:00

Xavier starts toilet training today at his school. His form teacher called Lilian to let her know that Xavier is very enthusiastic about it.

Image from Amazon.com

We been gearing Xavier toward toilet training by reading the book "Big Boy Potty", getting him two potties (one the usual potty and one that enables him to sat at the normal toilet bowl) as well as asking him to tell us when he wants to pee or poo.

But we didn't get any success as he doesn't like to use the potty and usually keeps silent about his poo, even denying he had poo when I smelled it and ask him.

The book is an interesting read as it tries to relate Michael, the kid in the book, to your boy.

Let's hope he is fully trained by mid of this year.

Update 31 Mar 11: Xavier seems to be progressing well. He is able to hold his pee and ask us to bring him to the toilet to pee when nature calls.

Still the most interesting car combo I have seen yet...

2011-03-24T23:44:00.001+08:00

As I was going through the photos taken during our trip to Japan in 2007 for the "To Japan: Gambatte!" post, I came across these few photos that made me pause my search and take a second look again.

It was our last day at Hokkaido with the tour group before we head to the airport for our flight to Tokyo. The tour guide brought us to the Chitose Outlet Mall, Rena just at the outskirts of Hokkaido's Chitose Airport. The coach stopped right beside the most interesting car I have ever seen, a Mini with a half Mini "Caravan".

And it's still the most interesting car combo I have seen yet.

To Japan: Gambatte!

2011-03-18T01:29:00.001+08:00

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Friday, 11th of March 2011. This followed by an unfortunate chain of events including tsunamis, afterstocks, snow, bad weather, and a nuclear crisis. Yet, the people of Japan has won nothing but praises (from various reports, facebook and twitter posts) for their willingness to help each other and the calm and orderly manner they have exhibited in times like this.

Japan has always been my favourite holiday destination. Lilian and I been there twice (in '07 & '08) and it's still the first destination that pops up in my mind whenever we have thoughts of going on a holiday. Aside from the wonderful food, we love the sincerity and warmth the people of Japan exhibit and they are always willing to help.

I remember on our first flight to Japan, Lilian was sitting beside a Japanese middle-age man. I got a little worried and defensive when he tried to struck a conversation with Lilian. But upon learning that it's our first visit to Japan, he was very passionate and eager to introduce the Yuzu juice to us, insisting that we must try it on board the plane. I felt like a childish boy (for being defensive) after that and it changed my perception of people of Japan.

They also take strong pride in their jobs, whatever their jobs are. Their sky-high service level makes you feel like you are king. I recall on our visit to a Salmon farm, I was so amazed by this old man in the toilet. He was the cleaner for the toilet and he was brushing and cleaning the sink with a toothbrush. You can see the pride and joy (of how clean and shiny the sinks were) written all over his face. If only we see 10% of that on our food court cleaners.

And in the face of disaster, the people of Japan was still calm and orderly, whether it's exiting the building (during earthquakes) or queuing for water ration. There were no looting or stampedes reported. Salute to you people.

If you wish to lend a helping hand to Japan by donation, you can do it through Singapore Red Cross Society or Mercy Relief. And I am sure there are other channels to offer help to them. I have done my part and I hope you will too. And I hope Japan comes out strong from this.

GAMBATTE JAPAN! Glico Man and myself will be behind supporting you!

(Dis)Band of Brothers

2011-03-10T23:53:00.001+08:00

This is where it all begins...

10th March 2011. This day marks the day 650 SIR (Singapore Infantry Regiment), 8th Mono Intake 3 SIR, Scout Platoon disbands. A number of brothers have received their MR (Military Release) and will no longer be call up for reservist.

Scouts are a special infantry breed. We operate in small teams and are required to walk longer than the rest of the Battalion on loads heavier than most infantry soldiers. And we do travel on "speedy" mode, often with little rest. And when you do that for over a decade with the same people, going through thick and thin and all things in between, you become as close as brothers.

I feel a little sad that it all ends so abruptly. The news that there will be a number of brothers who will receive their MR this ICT (In-Camp Training) were only told to us on the second last day of training. All the sudden I felt lost at the fact that the platoon has disbanded.

I would thank all the brothers for the wonderful bitter-sweet memories and it's my privilege to have walked/slept/eat/drink/fight/shot/run/chased after/hor-lan/swam/drove/recce alongside with you guys. All good things must come to an end. Though we will not have a chance to "cheong sua" as a platoon anymore, I believe we will still keep in touch. Let's try our best to meet up at least once a year.

54 Delta DY, over and out.

The Polliwogs Town - Kid's Paradise

2011-02-27T23:48:00.000+08:00

We recently had a gathering at The Polliwogs with some of the other kids and parents from Learning Vision @ Raffles Place where Xavier goes. I thought it a great opportunity for the parents to get to know each other while the kids play.

The Polliwogs features an indoor playground, an outdoor play area, a troddler play area, a chilling area for parent with a mini bar serving finger food and drinks and a few function rooms. The indoor playground is pretty huge, almost like a mini obstacle course complete with slides, mini balls area, rocky bridges, tunnels, 3 air cannons, a swing and a ball blower, among other things. Parents are welcome in the area and all the Daddies had a great workout chasing the speedy kids.

I had some fun running after Xavier, even ending with a blue black on my left hip from the slide (due to my oversized hip). Warning: Watching this clip may cause nausea as I'm running after him with the camera handheld.

After a few rounds, I decided to stay at the center of the playground while Xavier play on like the Energizier Bunny. He was pretty ambitious going for the spiral swing at level 3 and the way up seems like he is going through the baby version of "Ninja Warrier".

The outdoor play area consist of a bouncing castle. I didn't have my camera with me when we went out but it seems more suited for older kids.

While the Daddies were busy inside, the Mummies were socialising at the chill area.

We find this place pretty suitable for Xavier and he definitely enjoyed himself there. The cost is $18 for 2 hours inclusive of a free coffee/tea. His "battery" was totally drained after the session that he knocked out the moment I start my car. We will bring him here again.

Xavier's shack face

Xbox Kinect gets everyone on their feet

2011-02-13T12:40:00.001+08:00

During this year's CNY visiting, we had a chance to try out the Xbox Kinect's at Kelvin's place. I dare say this is the future of gaming, that is, getting you physically involved playing the game.

Nintendo Wii started it years ago with their motion sensing controllers, luring traditionally non-gaming adults and children engaged in simple yet fun filled games. And though its specifications and graphics were behind both Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, it sold more than both machines by tapping into the huge non-gaming market. This forced both Sony and Microsoft back to the drawing board to come up with similar offerings to tap into this market too. While Sony now offers something similar call Playstation Move, Microsoft went one step ahead with their Kinect sensor.

What Kinect does is it captures the full body movements of the players and uses it to control or play the games on Xbox 360. And its done with no controllers at all. So effectively, your body becomes the "controller" of the game. This enables even young kids like Xavier to have a go at playing the games.

But one have to be careful not to allow non-players into the "area" as one can be so engrossed in it that accidents happen, like what happens below.

Overall I'm pretty impressed by Kinect. I wished Sony came up with something similar for PS3. There are also rumours floating in the air that the next generation Wii will rock the gaming industry yet again. We should see.

Xavier's 2nd Birthday - Inside Story

2011-02-09T23:30:00.003+08:00

Even heard of Murphy's law where "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"? Well we had a small taste of it on Xavier's 2nd Birthday, the "eventful" day.

I collected the balloons for the party the day before. And boy was I glad I took some photos of Xavier playing with it. He was in cloud nine when he saw the Jumbo Cookie Monster that he brought Cookie Monster for a tour of our home.

Sadly, Cookie Monster decided not to join the party in next morning. He exploded with a hole on the neck area (probably due to change in temperature in the morning). Sms Lyna from Babyterror for a replacement but was told that was their last Jumbo Cookie Monster. So settled for Jumbo Elmo and a much smaller hand-held Cookie Monster. I told Xavier Cookie Monster fell down so Daddy have to invite Elmo.

But I still want to find a Jumbo Cookie Monster for the party. Afterall, Cookie Monster is the main theme. Then I remembered on Auntie Yochana's blog there is the contact for the balloon and party shop at Parkway level 2. Sms Richard from Partywell and he confirmed he has a brand new Jumbo Cookie Monster.

So rushed in the morning to pick up the Elmo from Lyna, buy the Cookie Monster from Parkway, pick up my brother, pick up the cake from Auntie Yochana and head back home. To my utter misbelief when I open the boot, the brand new Jumbo Cookie Monster has also exploded along the journey, and again its the neck area that gave way.

Cookie Monster Twin.

So Xavier, if you are wondering why you have a Cookie Monster birthday with Elmo, now you know. Happy Birthday my boy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Xavier!

2011-02-06T23:58:00.000+08:00

Xavier was all excited about celebrating his 2nd birthday. He would grin from cheek to cheek at the mere mention of birthday cake, clapping his hands trying to sing "Happy Birthday" and ending with blowing the invisible candle and then turning to us and ask "Cut cake?"

And so we celebrated his 2nd birthday today in a day filled with events (more on that later).We invited just the immediate family members for a cosy celebration but the "mini" buffet for 10 pax from Mum's Kitchen was enough to feed 20! So we called Gabriel and his family over for the celebration.

As it was the Chinese New Year (CNY) period, the buffet was a CNY set. Lilian replaced the Yu Sheng with Kweh Pie Ti as my mum will be preparing a plate of home-made Yu Sheng to toss. Anyway more food is a happy problem.

When everybody's stomachs are filled, its the moment Xavier's been waiting for, to cut cake. I made the mistake of opening the cake box in front of the kids as it became chaotic with the kids (especially Xavier) all wanting to grab the Sesame Street characters. So a tip for parents, if you want to take nice photos of the cake (in peace), do it in the kitchen before presenting the cake to your kid. We were pleased with how pretty the cake was decorated. Thanks Aunty Yochana.

I totally forgot to get someone to shoot a video when we sang Xavier the birthday song. So happy Gareth took the following video with Winney's iPhone.

Xavier definitely enjoys his 2nd birthday more than his 1st as he knows what's happening around him. He is able to clap and sing along, cut the cake and pose for "cheeky" smile photos. More photos available at my Flickr.

CNY 2011 - Chinese New Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-05T13:11:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year has always been my favourite time of the year. When I was younger, it was because of the hongbao I'm gonna receive and the new year goodies that I can stuff myself with. Now its because we meet up with family and friends that we hardly see throughout the year and the yummy feasting.

Despite this year being the perfect days in terms of calendar (two public holidays followed by the weekend), I felt it seems to be more tiring than last year. Probably because we have to watch over Xavier during the house visitings like a hawk, stopping him from running and jumping all over the visiting house, eatting the goodies and drinking cold drinks as he just recovered from cough.

Tossing Yu Sheng at my 大舅舅 place is usually one of the highlights of the first day of Chinese New Year. This is usually done after feasting on numberous yummy dishes cooked up by various relatives. The energy level of this year's tossing is lower than usual as it was done at almost midnight. Note for next year, remind my mum to bring the yu sheng earlier.

Before the night ends, we would take family portraits for memory sake.

More visiting on Day 3, this time to cousin Harry's new house. It's nice to meet up with cousins that we haven't meet for some time over more yu sheng.

Here's a short clip on Xavier doing his Gond Xi Fa Cai.

How I wish Chinese New Year would last longer. More photos can be found at my Flickr.

Yu Sheng

2011-02-02T13:22:00.003+08:00

I love Yu Sheng (发财鱼生). I feel it's the one dish that really symbolise Lunar New Year. You can find Bak Kwa, Pineapple Tarts and Love Letters any time of the year but Yu Sheng only appears during the first 15 days of Lunar New Year.

And I have the privilege of eating really yummy home-made Yu Sheng prepared by my parents. The ingredients for Yu Sheng are really simple. The ingredients my parents use this year are:

鱼生 Yu Sheng
柚子 Pomelo
红萝卜 Carrot
白萝卜 White Radish
青萝卜 Green Radish
七彩锦菜丝 Preserved Mixed Melon
碧绿瓜英丝 Preserved Melon Strip
正宗中国茶瓜 Cucumber Strip
酸姜丝 Pickled Ginger Shredded
红姜丝 Red Ginger Shredded
桔饼丝 Shredded Kit Pan
柠檬瓜丝 Preserved Lemon
海蜇丝 Shredded Jelly Fish
薄脆 Crispy Cracker
鱼生胡椒粉 Pepper Powder
鱼生五香粉 Five Spice Powder
鱼生花生碎 Grounded Peanut
鱼生炒芝麻 Sesame Seed
鱼生酱 Yu Sheng Sauce
梅酱 Plum Sauce
柠檬酱 Lemon Sauce

The process of preparing the Yu Sheng is fairly tedious. I know because years ago I helped them before. They would shred the carrot, white radish and green radish, grind the peanuts, and peal the pomelo themselves. It's hard work. My parents have "upgraded" to a semi-automatic machine that now requires them to turn a lever to shred the carrots and radish. And this year they buy items six onwards ready-made from Tungsan Food Industries (I got the names of the items from their pricelist so if it sounds funny, dun blame me). Many have replaced the raw fish in the Yu Sheng with fancier alternatives like Salmon, Salmon Belly, or even Abalone.

My parents love to decorate their Yu Sheng. This year being the year of the Rabbit, my parents made a rabbit with the white radish. The bigger version is the first photo you see above and the smaller version is below.

Xavier's Videos - Jan 2011

2011-01-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Below are videos of Xavier taken recently in Jan 2011.

Xavier entertaining himself with the mini slide at Toys 'R Us. He must have slided at least 10 times before I took this video.

Xavier having fun with the Leapfrog Leaptop. It states on the box that its for age 2 to 4. I wonder if it's really useful for Xavier at this age. But he sure knows how to move to the beat.

But one doesn't seem to be enough for Xavier. He shows us what "multi-tasking" means to him. Feels to me like a DJ spinning different turntables.

Xavier loves to express his thoughts now and he would keep calling out to us till we give him our full attention before he talks us what he want to say. We had a talk about balloons for his birthday and he insist it should be pronounced as "bul-ing".

Gran Turismo 5: The Beginning of the Baby Racer?

2011-01-26T01:11:00.003+08:00

You may recall in my earlier post about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (NFS: HP), I briefly mentioned about the driving simulation game, Gran Turismo 5 (GT5), and how people would buy PS3 and steering wheel just for that game? I did that too! Well, for 1 day.

I can only (barely) afford to play one game at a time and when many of the NFS: HP players switched to GT5, I went along with the flow. GT5 is a driving simulation game where it tries to simulate driving in the real world. They have an A-Spec part where you play the driver and win races for credits and cars. Then there is the B-Spec where you play the manager of a racing team, supply the cars and hire drivers to win races for you. There are also other aspects of the game like Online (where you racing with your friends), clearing Licenses (for cars and bragging rights), Seasonal Events, Special Events, Arcade mode, etc. Its one of those games that will probably have a long lifespan and its a very involved game.

Its double the fun when you have both the car model and the virtual car in the game.

So involved that I followed what my geeky heart told me and ordered the Logitech G27 Steering Wheel and Apiga AP2 Wheel Stand. I convinced myself that the G27 wheel would allow me to have fun playing with the Clutch and H-Shifter driving all those dream cars in Manual (as my current ride in real life is Auto). And the foldable feature of the AP2 would make storing ideal as it would not take up alot of space. So when all the stuff arrived on Saturday, I happily spent the night setting it up.

However, once I played two races, the "practical" side of me begin to feel the "After-Purchase Guilt". And it was so strong that I sold off the whole set the next day. My reason for selling were as follows:

1. The high price tag (SGD750) for the wheel and stand doesn't quite justify the small amount of time I have to play the game. Plus I would probably not have time for games at all after July.

2. Its rather tedious to set up the stand and wheel (need to move aside the mat, plug in power and usb, position the chair and stand), play about 1 hour then collapse the stand to keep. It's very heavy.

3. Storing it without collapsing is bulky and since I did not get wheels for the stand, its heavy to move it around for storage.

So off it went to another happy gamer at Bukit Panjang. But not before some photo opportunity for Xavier, the baby racer!

I would consider this setup if I have a dedicated entertainment room and the "cockpit" and wheel can be in a permanent position, all ready to play whenever I have the time. Till then, I will make do with the convenience wireless controller of PS3.

The Making of Xavier's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-01-19T12:38:00.001+08:00

Xavier's birthday is coming soon and preparations are ongoing as I'm typing. We decided to keep it to immediate family members this year (just like last year), main reason being its very close to the Chinese New Year period and people might still be doing their visiting.

And being so close to Chinese New Year pose other challenges. Pine Garden's Cake, with whom we ordered Xavier's 1st birthday cake, is closed during that period. Catering options, balloon and party providers and are also limited for the same reason. This sent Lilian and myself into a little panic initially. But it also force us to explore and consider other options.

First things first, the theme. Xavier <3 his Cookie Monster soft toys more than the others so I decided to do a Cookie Monster and Sesame Street Theme. I love Sesame Street myself, having grown up watching it and Xavier seems to enjoy watching the Sesame Street now.
* Left image from fanpop.

Second and probably the most important, the cake. Since Pine Garden's Cake is out, we looked to the other more established cake shops (since they are likely to be open). However, only Polar Puffs & Cakes has the license for Sesame Street and their minimum order was too large for our party. Design wasn't impressive as well.

So I went to Google for some home-based bakers in Singapore and to my surprise, there were quite a number of them with very pretty cakes. Shortlisted three bakers: Aunty Yochana, Yummyumkins!, All That Matters. Decided to order from Aunty Yochana as she reply my emails and queries fast and was available to make the cake.

Aunty Yochana makes very cute and pretty fondant cake and customised characters. We love feasting our eyes on fondant cakes but find it too sweet for actual consumption. So we requested for a sponge cake with fresh cream and will provide her with the cake toppers. I don't know if she will still customise some characters but I leave it in her good hands.

* Left image from ourpartyshop and right image from Amazon.

As for cake toppers, I found these two very appropriate (especially the Cookie Monster with a "2") and decided to use both. Aunty Yochana has the set on the right and I got the Cookie Monster from the eBay store ourpartyshop.

Babyterror was where we got his balloons last year (see how much fun he had walking about with it) so we got abit worried when we saw they are closed beginning of February for relocation of warehouse. Fortunately Lyna was still able to accompany my order despite te relocation. We found them to be very accomodating and their price very resonable.

As for party favours, I went back to order from Kidz Party Store where we got last year's Pooh Bear cake topper. Was initially thinking of making our own treat bags by printing Cookie Monster images and pasting on coloured paper bags. But laziness got the better of me and I decided to get the Cookie Monster and Elmo treat bags from them instead. What's gonna be in there? We will keep it a secret for now.
* Above image from Kidz Party Store

Lilian is coordinating the catering and we should finalise it hopefully by this week. Now to keep our fingers crossed and hope everything goes well.

Yu Jie's Baby Shower

2011-01-16T22:17:00.000+08:00

Steven (my brother-in-law) celebrated my nephew Yu Jie's baby shower today. I took my camera there to take some photos but Xavier prove quite a handful so my camera was t-loan to Lilian's cousin. So most of the photos where taken by her.

Red eggs are a must for baby shower with rustic calender as background.

The many faces of our star of the day.

Here's Yu Jie taking a nap.

Everyone having a turn carrying the baby boy.

The other kids keep themselves occupied.

Mang Kiko's Lechon

2011-01-15T23:04:00.002+08:00

Most of the stalls in Lau Pa Sat serve average tasting food at pricey food court price (in my opinion) but there are a few rare gems there that serve great tasting food. Mang Kiko's Lechon is one of the rare gems.

This stall serves mouth-watering Filipino Roast Pork and Chicken. The big roast station on the left of the stall rotates rows and rows of pork and chicken over the white hot charcoal. The sight of the oil oozing out, coating the meat itself and eventually dripping into the charcoal and smoking the meat a heavenly sight for meat lover like me. My stomach is making noise now as I write this post.

I have tried the both chicken and pork before. The chicken portions are generous. The chunks of tender white chicken meat and that oh so tasteful chicken skin is a must have for chicken lovers and for those who are more health concious. I remember when I was trying to increase my protein intake, I just to order 1/2 chicken no rice.Yummy.

The roast pork however is where the money is. Generous portions of tender roast pork with charred skin is an irresistible sight. Sink in your teeth and the grease, the charred skin, the BBQ aroma filled your mouth all at once. It's so good it always makes me sit back and chew slowly to salvage every bite.

There are a number of sauces to go along with your choice of meat and my favourite is the brownish-greenish one. It adds a sweet touch to the meat. They recently added chilli sauce too (probably by popular demand to go with the chicken). It also comes with free soup if you dine there.

Lau Pa Sat, Stall #27 (near Wendy's)

Xavier, 23 months on...

2011-01-08T23:10:00.000+08:00

Xavier is gonna be two years old (or "two old" as Xavier would say) next month. Just a little update for 23rd month.

He has a mind of his own now and he wants a say in his life, from the kind of food he wants to eat, to which colour matching clothes to wear, even down to which animal cartoon is on his diaper?!?!

He still doesn't like to cut his hair at the normal malay barber (like Sri Nada), preferring Junior League which shows his favourite cartoon while he gets his haircut. Bad news for us cos the latter cost more than double. :(

His cartoon preference has also changed and his order of preference is now Bob The Builder, Thomas and Friends, Barney and Friends. He also seem to like his Cookie Monster soft toy alot, insisting on bringing one of the two Cookie Monster soft toys to school.

He has a liking for books which is great. He would ask for one of his books to be read before his last milk feed. Lilian also recites ABC and 123 with him and he is able to repeat after her pretty well. He also loves to dance to and "sing" Jingle Bells, Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider, though I'm trying to think of a CNY song to teach him.

My mum also started Xavier on a Barney jigsaw puzzle recently and surprisingly, he enjoys it. He is able to put the simple puzzle together on his own, then flip it all out and start again. To date he has 4 jigsaws. But most of the time he do not have the patience to complete it before moving to another toy.

He absolutely hates brushing his front teeth. Whenever we finish the back teeth and wanna brush his front teeth, he would shun away and shut his mouth, much to our frustration.

He can open doors and climb onto our bed on his own now. He is also able to eat on his own, although it usually ends in a mess. His favourite food includes mushroom, cheese pancake and raisins.

We also started him on the concept of savings and to put all SGD1 coins into the giant Hershey's bottle. But to him now, its just getting coin from daddy and mummy, putting them into the bottle and peeping through the hole so see where it went to.

Dealing with Kid's Demands

2011-01-05T13:07:00.006+08:00

Xavier will be turning two next month and he is already starting to ask for things. And he is also getting more whinny and his fake cry acting is getting more polished. There was once when he was crying and whining about wanting to play with my remote control car and when I finally agree, his face changed 180 degree from crying to beaming.

As parents, we have to stand firm. I've been drilling into him that crying gets him nowhere. If he wants something, he has to ask nicely and he may get it. If he cry, we would not be able to hear what he wants so he gets nothing.

The other thing I learnt is to stop his crying first then reason with him. He usually cry after I pick him up and ask him to stop crying. If I try to reason with him while he is crying, nothing goes into his head. He would crying louder and I would usually lose my cool.

And both parents need to work with each other. Sometimes when Lilian see that I'm losing or lost my cool, she takes over and vice-verse. One very important thing to note is both parents stand must be the same. If its different, do not express it or intervene in front of the kid. Do it away from him. Kids are very smart. If you were to do in front of him, he knows the "authority" can be challenged.

If you have other parenting tips, please share them. :)

The good things about Childcare Center

2011-01-01T16:32:00.001+08:00

Xavier has been attending infant and childcare classes since he was five months old. Being almost two years old now, we see the merits of putting him in a good centre. Like today, we were watching TV in the living room and it was showing a programme with butterflies in it. I engaged Xavier by telling him that's a butterfly. To my surprise he did the following:

Lilian and I didn't teach him that so he probably learnt that from school. His school also recent gave us a file of his artwork that he does in class. There is a bear made from toilet roll cardboard, a caterpillar from egg carton, a sheep with shredded tissue and many others. Pretty interesting.

We also get constant positive remarks about how Xavier loves interacting with strangers (after some warm up), listens to instructions (at times), independent and generally well behaved (only in the presence of outsiders). Being in school parts a part and peer pressure also helps to bring them up the curve earlier. We are happy with Xavier's progress so far.

But there is always a price to pay and being sick often tops the list. There were times when Xavier catches another bug before he recovers from his existing bug and we had thoughts of pulling him out school. Let's hope this year Xavier is stronger and more resistant to sickness.

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-01T09:58:00.000+08:00

Another new year greets us this morning. Wishing everyone a healthy 2011 filled with joy, laughter and hopefully wealth. Xavier would also like to wish everyone a good year ahead.

2010 has been a roller-coaster year for us. We had some good moments and some really bad moments that we can't wait to put behind us. Let's hope 2011 would be a year to remember, for the good things to happen. HUAT AR!

ABC with Xavier

2010-12-28T15:33:00.000+08:00

Lilian have been secretly training Xavier. I was surprised when Xavier could call out animals or things that some of the alphabet represents. Moments like these bring a smile to any parent's face.

Lilian: "A for"

Xavier: "Apple"

Lilian: "B for"

Xavier: "Boy"

Lilian: "C for"

Xavier: "Cat, meeoowww"

Lilian: "D for"

Xavier: "Dog"

Lilian: "E for"

Xavier: "El-phan (Elephant) *proceed to do the elephant trunk action"

Lilian: "F for"

Xavier: "Fish *proceed to do the fish action"

Lilian: "G for"

Xavier: "G-raf (Giraffe)"

Lilian: "H is for"

Xavier: "Horse *proceed to gallop around"

Lilian: "I is for"

Xavier: "Ice-cream *pretend to put it in his mouth and eat"

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T23:07:00.003+08:00

Our tree is filled with Christmas gifts this year, mostly for Xavier. And he would like to says a big THANKS to all the generous uncles and aunties by doing a song, a dance and some piano playing.

First, a Christmas song. Xavier would sway to the Jingle Bell song and shout out two words of the song.

Next, a "piano performance". We went to my cousin's place for Christmas feast and Xavier seems to be having fun with the piano.

Lastly a penguin dance. We head to my in-law's place to visit the newly arrived nephew (born one day before my birthday). Xavier gamely don the penguin suit and did the penguin dance.

Hope all of you like what Xavier has performed.

Let's dress the Xmas tree

2010-12-24T19:30:00.000+08:00

It's almost Christmas again and this year, Lilian decides to bring out the Christmas tree and dress it up. And we have a little helper Xavier.

Actually we had the tree up a month ago but I been slacking on doing the photos. And I said to myself I better have it posted before Christmas. So here it is.

Xavier did a little dance in front of the tree when we were just starting. He then choose those ornaments he likes (mostly the balls) and put them onto the tree. Actually Lilian did most of the decorations while I was busy taking photos.

Xavier did the honour of putting the star onto the tree. Now what's lacking are the presents...

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Challenge - Not Good Enough

2010-12-19T23:38:00.000+08:00

The Hot Pursuit Challenge has ended today. I believe the winning timing remains at 1:21:22 and top five were below the timing of 1:46. The best I did was 2:15 during the contest which is not good enough to win the Bravia TVs. But I did walk away with a PS3 Move Pen that blinks. It's perfect for times when Xavier is whining and crying in the car.

A Page on Xavier's Milestones

2010-12-12T23:01:00.000+08:00

Everyday passes by so quickly and before I realise, its almost the end of the 2010. Xavier will turn two soon and although I try my best to document his interesting moments on this blog and on facebook, the facebook entries gets erased after a week or so.

Hence I decided to add a page on the blog where I could put in one liners about Xavier's milestones or interesting day to day comments. You can go to the page either from the header above titled "Xavier - Milestones" or you can click this link to go to it now.

I will try to recall the previous milestones and document it.

DND 2010 - Shanghai Night

2010-12-09T23:01:00.001+08:00

This year's dinner and dance is one of the best I been to. Funny MC, 8-Course dinner, fun games and heaps of prizes in the lucky draw, it's hard to go wrong. This year's theme is 夜.上海 Shanghai Night. A few colleagues of mine decided to go for the group best dress.

Unfortunately the Nerdy Girls not only won the "Chicken, Water, Stone" game (full body movement version of Scissors, Paper, Stone) against our table, they also beat us to the group best dress.

Nonetheless I did win something in this year's lucky draw, a MontBlanc coin case. Although I wished for the Macbook Air, the iPads or the Japan holiday, a coin case is better than not winning anything.

Project "Get Xavier off our Bed"

2010-12-04T23:13:00.000+08:00

Xavier is used to sleeping on our bed before we transfer him to his cot. And almost every day in the wee hours he would wake up and call for us to take him out of his cot to our bed to sleep.

However, Lilian and I gets disturbed sleep as Xavier likes to kick us. And his kicks are becoming the "back-breaking" sort. His usual bedtime routine is milk followed by brushing of his teeth, some water then sleep. Today I manage to make him drink his milk, brush his teeth, drink some water and sleep, all in his cot.

I think partly was because he has been naughty today and got an earful from me twice, so he didn't complaint when I told him "You are a big boy now, you have to sleep on your own". Although Lilian still bring him from his cot to our bed in the morning, I think it's a good start. Let's hope he starts to sleep in his own cot very soon. After this, next stage would be to move his cot to his own room.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Challenge

2010-12-01T21:49:00.001+08:00

In case you are wondering what I been busy with, I been practising for the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Challenge. EA Singapore is giving away 5 Sony LCD TVs to the top 5 timing for the course "Snake Pit".

Basically you play a cop and try to bust 5 racers in the shortest timing. Not an easy task. The current fastest timing is 1mins 52sec but people have been posting the possibility of sub 1min 30sec. To get a timing below 2mins need a certain amount of luck.

So far my fastest timing is 2min 11sec. Below is a Youtube clip so someone in luck and doing it in 1min 22sec.

Will give it a shot this weekend at Compass Point Best Denki.

Thank you Dads for Life!!!

2010-11-24T16:33:00.002+08:00

Christmas came early for us. I joined The Joy of Being There contest organised by Dads for Life and my entry won both Ikea and Crystal Jade vouchers. The Ikea vouchers were from the pick of the week for week 2 which was chosen by the Dads for Life panel. When I picked up the vouchers, a staff from Dads for Life said she liked my ending "I'm still learning the ropes on how to be a better father but whatever happens, I will always be there for him, for better or for worst."

And the Crystal Jade vouchers were from being one of the top 15 highest voted entry. Like to give a BIG thank you to all those who voted for us on Facebook and Dads for Life for organising the contest. Xavier couldn't be happier. THANK YOU!

Richard Franiec S95 Grip

2010-11-23T21:39:00.000+08:00

The S95 grip I ordered from Richard Franiec's Camera Accessories just arrived. It looks like a shark's fin on first look. Made from aircraft-grade aluminium, you will feel the weight and the quality of this product once you have it in your hands.

Essentially what the grip does is it allows you to hold and operate the S95 using a single hand. There are two common methods people use to hold the S95. The Pincer Style using both thumbs to support the base of the camera and gripping the top using the index fingers or adding the middle fingers against the front of the camera body for added support.

The grip allows the right middle finger to warp around the camera body natually and grip the camera in an assuring way. Now one hand operation is possible and the grip makes two hands operation more comfortable and less tiring. People with a DSLR and using this as a second alternative camera will definitely welcome this grip with open arms.

JJ SalsaRengue @ SISF 2010

2010-11-22T01:05:00.000+08:00

Singapore International Salsa Festival (SISF) 2010 happened last weekend while we were in Bali. If you missed it like we did, below are some of the video clips.

Seeing these guys performing on stage makes me wanna dance again. I would definitely want to salsa (and maybe tango) again once Xavier is much older and more independent. Maybe I might bump into Xavier on the dance floor. If you wish to move like those dancers on the video or simply learn something new and make some friends in the process, JJ SalsaRengue is the place to go.

Crumpler The Grub

2010-11-21T23:45:00.005+08:00

Front of The Grub (L)

I wanted to have a look at Crumpler's Thirsty Al (M) as a possible pouch for my Canon S95 but they were sold out. My eyes however caught a red hot sleeve with an orange imprint of a retro camera on the outside, The Grub (L).

Tried it and it fits well on the S95. It wraps the S95 like a glove and there is also sufficient space for the Richard Franiec's grip which I have ordered pending delivery. This would be the new home of my S95.

Back of The Grub (L)

Front with S95 inside

Top with S95 inside

According to the staff, this sleeve is a new arrival to the store, so new that I could not find any information about it on their website or Google.

This is NOT a Kaka

2010-11-21T15:08:00.027+08:00

This is not a Kaka, it's just a black particle on the floor.

I am referring to Kaka as in insect (in Hokkien) and not the super rich and handsome soccer player from Brazil. Earlier in the after I spotted a black insect about 1cm long. Thinking it would be good to teach Xavier a new term and that he shouldn't catch it and put in his mouth if he sees one, I brought him near the insect.

Xavier was smart enough to stay a distance from the insect and ask me to catch it. So mission accomplished and I caught the insect using a piece of tissue and dispose it.

However, moments later, he began calling out to us. Thinking he spotted another insect, we came to his "rescue" only to find that he is now pointing out every single dirt and black particles on the floor thinking it's an insect. And he actually climbed up the sofa to get pull out tissues to pass to us to "catch" those particles.

These are the moments we didn't know whether to laugh or to pull our hair...

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

2010-11-20T23:21:00.000+08:00

I bought a t-shirt with the above graphics from Bangkok many years ago but it still puts a smile on my face whenever I wear it. Guess it sums up what a Geek I am.

I haven't been playing much games on my PS3 ever since I decided to use the time to shred some weight. I am on my mandatory leave these two weeks and decided to gathering some friends over for a PS3 night after some super value, yummy and sinful dinner at Tung Lok Signature (we used the voucher from the Nike 10k Run race pack and the total bill come out to only SGD83.55 for four adults and 1 troddler).

As I do not have much games on hand, I thought it would be nice to have a new racing game so we can have some high speed fun. There are two highly anticipated racing games out this November; Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Gran Turismo 5 is only launched in Singapore on 24th November 2010 so this game is out. To say that the whole PS3 community is waiting for this game is an understatement. I heard of XBox fans vowing to abandon their XBox and buy PS3 and the Logitech G27 steeling wheel just for this game. This is the closest gaming experience ever to real driving experience. With over 1,000 cars to choose from, it would probably take you close to three years to try out all the cars if you play a different and unique car every day (simplified thinking). I will want to buy this game at a later stage, probably on secondary market when some rich kid gets sick of the game and wants to sell it off.

So that leaves me with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. I bought this brand new as it just launched 4 days ago and nobody is selling their copies yet. Turned out this game is heaps of fun. You can rise in rank playing either as a racer or a cop and the cars featured in this game are all the super fast and exotic cars which would cost many, many, many times my annual salary, if on sale at all. So imagine the pleasure of going over 250km/h in these cars and crashing them in spectacular, slow motion fashion. Currently I addicted to this game (having played it till 4am for two consecutive days) but I am going get a hold of myself from tomorrow onwards and play this in a sensible fashion. I must fight my geeky side!!

Anyway check out the following awesome promotional video using real cars. Remember to wipe your saliva after that.

Dads for Life Turns 1

2010-11-19T23:15:00.001+08:00

Dads for Life turns 1 today and they had Ms Erika Chen perform their commemorative sandart piece for their Dads for Life 1st Anniversary event. I have only seen sandart performed on Taiwan variety shows but never knew we have a sandart artist right here in Singapore.