Goodbye 2012...

As we enter the last hour of 2012, I just pen down what a year it has been for me.

2012 was the year I stop exercising, like totally, and got back my tummy. My weight went from 71.8kg to 79.7kg. It was also one of the most difficult phase of parenting for me, having to juggle two young boys. I did became very negative at one stage but I'm glad I'm over that stage.

The boys have also changed over the year. Lucas went from a mummy hogger to a smiley baby you can carry if you bribe him with a french fry. And he can run now, really fast. Xavier has become a big brother mentally. He beams when Lucas calls him kor kor and will sometimes initiate to lead and protect his brother. But he has also became mischievous. Just recently in school, he used his "big brother figure" (as he is one of the older children in his class) to influence his other innocent classmates to do naughty things together, somewhat like a ringleader.

This was also the year Lilian and I had the biggest quarrels, mostly housework and parenting related. But like a priest said during a recent church wedding, occasional quarrels are good. It test the relationship and strengthens the bonding. Thanks for the everything Dear. I do love you, more than when we just married.

Goodbye 2012...

Christmas Caroling 2012 - Learning Vision @ Raffles Place

Learning Vision @ Raffles Place did a short Christmas Carol at Marina Bay Link Mall and I think the children did great.

It all started 2 weeks ago when Xavier's teacher told me that they intend to bring the children around the offices of various parents to do Christmas Carols. She asked if my company would welcome such an initiative.

As it would not be possible for my company given the nature of the job, I thought the next best alternative was the building lobby where we have big decorated Christmas trees on both towers. After checking with the building manager, he replied that the use of the building lobby would be for tenant events only. He did however help asked Marina Bay Link Mall if they would be able to host the short event and the mall welcomed the school. And so, this became what would be Learning Vision @ Raffles Place first public event.

I was on leave that day and went to the performance area slightly early. Already, there were a number of parents waiting eagerly for the children's performance. So how did it go?

I think they had fun. Although it was their fourth stop and some children were getting restless (Xavier included), I think they did well. And I just love their expression at the discovery of microphones.

Saveur

Have been dying to try Saveur since I saw it on Channel U's 我爱公开！Share Something. Finally got a chance to try it during lunch on our block leave. And I forget to bring my camera along. Guess its time to test my iPhone photo skills.

They occupy what looks like two shophouse units along Purvis Street. This place is very popular and the media coverage can be seen from the multiple articles displayed at the door. In fact there are quite a number of blog posts about them. The restaurant's decor is simple and rustic. They do not take reservations so be sure to go early to put your name on the name list.

Their menu is simple with not many dishes but guess that means they can concentrate on what they do best. They do change their menu pretty often. We order the Angel Hair Pasta and Foie Gras as starters.

The Angel Hair Pasta with Sherry Minced Meat and Sakura Ebi ($3.90) is excellent. The flavours are well balanced: not too salty, not too oily, not too dry. It is really yummy and Lilian finish most of it. Well, that's because she is not into the next two dishes.

Pan Fried Foie Gras with Apple Infused Port Wine and Vanilla ($9.90) first as I do not want to have duplicate flavour of Lentils (as I ordered the Roasted Pork Belly with Lentils). This is refreshing. The sweet apple bits adds a dimension to the buttery savoury Foie Gras.

I added the Foie Gras with Lentils and Pickled Onion ($7.90) after I finish the first Foie Gras. There seem to be a strong desire to taste how different both dishes would turn out and which I would prefer. The Lentils seems to enhance the Foie Gras flavour, rich and full. But I still prefer the apple infused one.

I do prefer my Foie Gras a little more cripsy on the outside yet totally melts when you put it in your mouth. These two falls a little short on that part today.

Next comes the mains. Lilian is having the Confit Of Duck With Orange Segment And Sauté Shittake ($9.90) as her main. The duck is crispy on the outside and yet the meat and tender and moist. We do find it a little on the salty side (though my brother who had this dish for dinner that very day thinks otherwise; he gave it full marks). The mash potato is excellent though. It has little tiny lumpy bits in it that adds texture to the usual boring side dish and its yummy creamy.

I ordered the Crispy Pork Belly With Poached Egg and Lentils ($10.90). The roasted skin is so crispy, Lilian would hear the "ka-cha ka-cha" sound as I cut it, yet the meat is very tender. The Lentils seems to do a great job bring out the Pork Belly's flavour too. Poached egg, love. I <3 dish.="dish." p="p" this="this">

Lilian opt for Textures Of Citrus ($6.90) as dessert. I thought the orange bits are Blood Orange but Lilian said its Grapfruit. The dessert is sweet and sour at the same time, mixed with orange ice shaving and crispy cornflasks like bits.

I took the Chocolate and Hazelnut ($7.90). It has raspberry bits and rice pop like texture. Yumz.

I saw the table beside us being served with a similar dessert plate but with nothing both foam in the middle. Puzzled, we ask the waitress. Turn out to be the special dessert "Milk and Cookies". So unique, should have tried it. So look out for special surprises like this.

It give two thumbs up. Although I tasted better, at this price range, this is one of the best you can get. Great French food at affordable price, must come again!

HFMD Strikes Three

HFMD is back to visit us again. This time it strikes Xavier in a stealth silent manner, compared to the first time he got it and when Lucas got it earlier this year.

I first notice some very small red shots on Xavier's leg on Friday. My first thought was its probably allergy since he didn't have fever and his appetite was normal. Then Saturday the spots became more so we brought him to the doctor. That was when the doctor confirmed that Xavier's got HFMD as he had both red spots on his hands and legs and ulcers in his mouth and throat.

It seems that as long as the child has either red spots on hands and legs with either fever or ulcer, its likely to be HFMD. The strain Xavier got his time seems different from the two others we encountered before. He didn't have fever and was as energetic as before. The spots were mainly at the hands and legs and concentration near the joints. And these spots grew bigger and more blister-like.

In order to reduce the chances of Lucas also contacting HFMD, we put Xavier at my parents place. He is making the most out of the situation by asking my parents to buy toys for him when he gets well. Sneaky boy.

Xavier then recovered and got the clearance from the GP to go back to school the following Thursday. Then we got the double whammy of working parents. Lucas got HFMD on Friday and both boys are out of school again. It seems like he caught it from his brother as the symptoms were similar. We went back to their usual PD this time.

The incubation period is from 3-7 days where you can be infecting and spreading HFMD without any symptoms at all. By the time the symptoms appear, one would have already infected others. Hence Lucas could have already caught the virus from Xavier before we segregated them.

The blessing was both Lilian and I were already on leave this period and my parents were also free to help take care of the boys too. Lilian term this block leave as the "Best Block Leave Ever". :p

Bloggers Brunch with Julia Gabriel Centre - Raising the iPad Generation

I got an invitation to a bloggers brunch organised by Julia Gabriel Centre at Seb's Bristo and having enjoyed the previous Daddy Bloggers get together, I look forward to sharing ideas and thoughts on "Raising the iPad Generation".

The mummy bloggers couldn't turn up due to personal reasons and it was another daddy blogger session, unintentionally. The other bloggers present were Winston (Dear Xander & The Blogfather), Andy (Sengkang babies), Nick (nickpan) and Daddy M (Wacky Duo).

Before the gathering, I have personally banned Xavier from using both the iPad and iPhone. He is always asking to play the game Angry Bird. I have seen too many instances where parents use them as a tool to keep the kid occupied so they can do their own things. Or worse, the kid being so engrossed in the little screen during meal time and the poor parent have to feed the kid (instead of the kid eating on his own). While I know its inevitable that Xavier would use it eventually but I wanted to delay it till I figure out how to impose restrictions effectively.

During the gathering, I think all of us see iPad as a useful tool. It's interactive and it can be both educational and entertaining if correctly used. It is definitely better than television which is more like a passive tool. Daddy M's kid actually picked up ABC from iPad.

All the other bloggers actually allow and even encourage their children to use and explore the iPad. So how do some of them make use the iPad/iPhone were used correctly?

• Use/play together with them. This way, you can supervise their usage too. 
• Allowing them access might make them less likely to fear it. Also, they are less likely to get the "forbidden fruit is sweeter" feeling. As long as they balance it with doing other activities and exploring outdoors, it's fine.
• Setting an example yourself. If you can constantly checking your emails and facebook at the dinner table, asking your kid not to do the same is not going to work.

Should parents try to stay above of your kid in terms of the technology know-how? Not needed. Given their eventual exposure to technology, they will probably ahead of us.

Youtube seems to be a concern. Unlike websites which you can resist access, its not easy to restrict what videos they can stump onto when they are in youtube.

Nick shared with us a game app called Fashion Story which his elder daughter is currently playing. He and his wife actually uses it to instill entrepreneur ideas like the need to get stocks, taking note of factors that could affect business like the number of mirrors in store, the number of cashiers, etc. His wife is also thinking of bringing their daughter to Bangkok to do actual merchandiser shopping. Very interesting.

The gathering gave me interesting insights and has opened my mind to encourage Xavier to use the iPad under supervision. Let's see how it goes.

Xavier With His Own Ez-Link Card

Xavier has always been excited about MRT rides. He actually prefers riding on the MRT to sitting in my car. So you can imagine his excitement when we finally got him his very own Ez-Link card.

Currently 90cm is the height limit a child can travel on the MRT for free. Above that and you would be required to pay the kid's fare. The card just makes life easier as we do not need to go to the fare machine to buy a single trip card for each trip.

The process to apply for the card is fairly painless. Just need to note your child's birth certificate number as you need to complete a form at the ticketing counter. However, I do hope SMRT revised this height measurement as kids nowadays are so much taller. In fact, I would propose to only charge kids above age 5 since that is the age kids go to K1 (kindergarten 1). All kids below that should travel for free.

A Little Trip to Changi Airport

Recently bought the boys to Changi Airport to check out the Kinetic Rain. But before that we had some fun with the Millionaire Life 3D illusion by Kurt Wenner.

Lucas doing the Money Run

The 3D illusion looks so real and we had some fun time taking photos. We headed to Terminal 1 to marvel at the World's Largest Kinetic art display.

 

Its a massive art display of 1,216 water droplet shaped metals dancing in synchronised flowing manner creating beautifully soothing movements. Its so therapeutic just watching them dance.
Changi airport is fast becoming an alternative place to bring family to for food, play or just to run around in the massive space.

Xavier's First Love Bite

Xavier got his first love bite, with much tears and crying. It was given to him by his beloved brother Lucas, with fiery love.

Bruised Lee Is Back

This weekend would be one that Xavier will remember for a very long time. He got a big buluku (swallen bruise) on his head.

We still had no idea what happen. I was in the restroom and Lilian walked away to get a new bedsheet. 5 seconds later she heard a loud thump and Xavier came crying toward her with a big bruised on his head.

I used ice to reduce the swelling and applied Zam-buk after that. The swelling was gone by the next morning. What's left is a blue-black mark on this forehead. We also notice a red mark just at the corner of his right eye. He is lucky he didn't hurt his eye, miss by a cm or two.

We still do not know how it happened though. Xavier says he fell backwards. But with a bruise in front? Strange. Lilian's take on the incident: Watching over the boys is more important...Chores can WAIT!

New Word Of The Week: Trimethylaminuria

Someone have not been smelling like a baby. In fact, Lucas smelled like a fish.

Photo from Photos8.org

Recently when we pick up Lucas from his infant care center, we were greet by a "fish head". His head smelled like its been coated with Cod Liver Oil. At first I thought maybe cause he perspire alot, and he does. His teacher says that because we didn't provide shampoo for Lucas (we gave them the Johnson and Johnson Top to Toe shower gel), hence it didn't clean his head well.

So Lilian went to buy the most fruity smelling shampoo for Lucas. Oh he smell real fruity after shower. But by bedtime, his head was smelling like a fish again. And so I goggled and the word Trimethylaminuria comes out.

According to Wiki, Trimethylaminuria, also known as fish odor syndrome is an incurable metabolic disorder. Basically the body cannot break down trimethylamine present in certain food and so you end up smelling like a fish your whole life. We were going to seek clarification from his PD on the next visit but I could not help feeling sad for Lucas.

Lilian didn't believe Lucas had this condition and stick to the belief that the center didn't clean him well enough. Strangely, Lucas didn't smell like a fish on weekend. So Monday, Lilian discussed with his teachers about it and from then on, he didn't smell like a fish anymore. Safe to say now it was overreaction by me from the overloaded information from Goggle.

We still do not know how did Lucas get that smell in the first place. Could be his drool during his sleep after his fish porridge lunch that "flow" to his head. But we now know there is such a medical condition that exist so the next time someone beside you smell like a fish, please keep that condition in mind and be more sensitive to their feelings.

The Undeletable Cyberspace

The recent Amy event have re-enforced the reality that delete does not exist in cyberspace.

Once something is posted/uploaded and seen, whether its on forums, twitter, facebook, blogs, etc, it can be reproduced and will stay in cyberspace. It might fade with time and eventually forgotten but making it disappear totally is very near impossible.

Hence it is up to each individual one of us to be responsible for what we share and post. There is a price for sharing and that is once shared, you lost control of it and cannot take back.

Many a times we do not realise the danger of sharing too much. A simple and innocent example is like sharing your kid's birthday. We as parent post and share photos and blog post to celebrate the joy. But Date Of Birth is one of the questions banks use to "authenticate" their customers who calls in. So years down the road, this information might still be lingering in cyberspace. Did we just do a dis-service to our kid and make his bank access more vulnerable? Food for thoughts.

On the contrary, I just set up a twitter account after so many years. Look for me @roamingglass.

Time To Shred Some Fats

Its been just over a year since my last run at 2011 Sundown. I completed 21km, barely able to walk across the finishing line due to cramps. But its still a personal achievement to finish it below 3 hours.

One year on and I have lost all my stamina and muscles, in exchange for expanded waistline, barely able to fit into my pants (again), and some not so good readings with my bad cholesterol. Well the combination of uncontrolled feasting on rich, yummy and sinful food and the zero exercise over the year all adds up.

It is time to put a stop. Watching Sasuke Singapore on TV makes me wanna get fit again! RAWR!

Image from Nike Running Singapore

First, set a target, for without it, there is no aim, purpose or motivation. First target is to complete the Nike 10k 2012. Its almost like Deja Vu as it was the Nike 10k 2010 that I caught the running bug. Let's hope this run gets me started again. Let me know if you are going for this run too. Friends would make it more fun. More details can be found here.

Update 28th Sept 12: Registration for Nike 10k 2012 has closed.

I have also bought myself a Polygon Helios F500 flatbar road bike to join my poly friends on their weekly rides. The first time I ride with them was a 36km ride. I wasn't really expecting that and boy was it gruesome, wanted to give up halfway. But having ride a few more times it's getting more and more enjoyable.

Hope you guys find some fun activities to do and keep fit as well.

Update: Yes I complete the run in one piece. Although the timing is not great, completing it is itself an achievement.

Chain Reaction Cycles - Excellent Customer Service

When I received the replacement package yesterday, I knew I had to blog about them.

Last month when I was in my "lost" world, I bought myself a road bike so I could join my cycling friends on their weekly cycling routine. Most of the time when a cycling newbie like me start on the cycling journey, the bike cost would be the first to hit you. Later on do you realise that it is actually the accessories cost that would run up pretty high, unknowingly.

From my Online US Shopping and Online Shopping Encore posts, you would have realise that I embrance online shopping. Often the prices are cheaper and the range are more extensive. The downsides are:
1) the waiting time,
2) the lack of physical touch (on the actual products),
3) the fear of being cheated,
4) the fear of damaged or wrong goods delivered.

Some of these could be mitigrated. So if you do not need the items urgently, and you have seen or touch or knows exactly what you are getting, the first two downsides are cleared. The third downside could be mitigrated by choosing a reputable online retailer and using Paypal to pay. Why Paypal? Because if you have issues or disputes with the seller/retailer, you could raise the dispute through Paypal who can help you get your money back. I personally have used it before when I won a eBay bid for a toy, paid for it but the toy never came. Raise the dispute ticket with Paypal and they credit the money back to me within 3 weeks.

The last downside is abit of a hit and miss that happens even when you buy at local store. The issue is if the retailer is overseas, you pretty much write off the package since it usually cost too much or is too much of a hassle to ship it back to them for replacements. That was what Arthur and I almost did.

What happen was last month, I found out about this UK online store call Chain Reaction Cycles (CRC) selling heaps of bicycle stuff. The thing I like about this store is, they can display the prices in SGD, enabling easier comparisons with local prices. And if the total orders are above SGD250, they ships for free no matter how big (love this as I ordered a car mount bicycle rack). So I ordered a number of stuffs including two Blackburn Flea lights, one for my friend Arthur. These lights uses USB to recharge so you save on batteries.

The package came fairly quickly but one of the Flea lights USB charger was not working. Arthur took it as bad luck and was ready to write it off. But I felt bad as the light wasn't cheap I actually help him purchase it. So I dropped an email to CRC about the charger. The next working day CRC replied, apologising for the faulty product and said in the same email they are sending a replacement to me. And this was without asking for photos or further information. They send the replacement from UK, no questions asked.

This is what I call excellent customer service. And it is online retailers like this that eliminates the final downside. I would definitely be patronising this site again in future. That BeOne Diablo carbon bike looks so tempting...

The Will Of A Daddy Blogger Is Stronger

I have been lost, scattered to the wind, but I survived. And I'm back again.

So where have I been? If the above sentence sounds familiar to you, you would have probably guessed where I have been spending my nights.

Recently I had a disturbance within me, an anger that stirred inside me that grew suddenly and went out of control. It was toward Lucas. I just could not understand or handle this boy and he sticks to Lilian like elephant brand superglue. That drove me nuts.

I then stopped blogging totally. I confessed to Winston (Dear Xander) of this inner anger, this hatred for Lucas. I told him I do not see the point of blogging about something I hate (yes I used the word something). And so I stopped blogging.

I occupied my time with other new found activities, like buying a bike to cycle and get fit again and going back to what I enjoyed most before I had to give up due to the boys, gaming. Hardcore gaming. Bought a copy of Diablo 3 and burned my nights and sleep fighting monsters and demons. Addictive game.

Then today, I saw a Facebok post from Andy (Sengkangbabies) about a post by The Wacky Duo touching on daddy bloggers and my blog was mentioned. It sort of hit me in the head and made me think what was the main reason I started blogging as a daddy. It wasn't fame and definitely not money, but mainly to document and preserve the growth journey of my boys.

If I do not blog, we might lose that memory of their journey. Suddenly, there is this renewed purpose to blog again, to preserve the memories in words and photos.

What about my anger and hatred for Lucas? Well it has diminised over that period of blogging absense. Maybe because he becomes more responsive and fun, maybe because my gaming void was filled. Or maybe I just needed a break from blogging.

Lucas Taking Baby Steps

Following my earlier post On Your Marks, Lucas can now stand on his own without assistance.

In fact earlier this morning, he took three steps on his own before sitting down again. I manage to capture a video clip, later in the day, of him standing and taking a step or two.

Little man will be walking and running pretty soon.

Lucas turns ONE!

Lucas turns the big ONE today. As usual, we opt for the low-key celebration with immediate family.

Lilian ordered mini buffet from Yum Cha Express. The friendly uncle helped us set up our table. Excellent service. And the food is pretty good as well.

Some family shots and happy shots.

Getting ready for the cake and candle blowing. We chose baby Bugs Bunny as Lucas was born in the year of the rabbit. Xavier seems more excited for his brother.

And everybody sing...


We have a tradition where we would lay items for the one year old to pick and what did Lucas pick first? $Money$. Xavier picked that first too when he was one.

Wishing Lucas grow up healthy and wealthy. Happy Birthday Lucas.

Xavier's New Ride

We thought Xavier would find it fun to ride on a bicycle so we bought him one with training wheels from this neighbour bike shop call Scootz. The Ang Mo Kio store house the children biking stuff.

Here's Xavier going around on his "Police" bicycle. His helmet is also pretty cute.

Posing with En-En jie jie on his new bike

ye-ye teaching him how to power the bike with his legs

Xavier getting the hang of it and gaining speed. Police bike, don't play play

Except for one time when he turned too sharply and toppled the bike, he seems to be doing pretty well. He could even power up slopes on his own. Hope he will gain confident to ride without the assist wheels soon.

On Your Marks...

Get Set... STAND!!!

Well almost. I think Lucas is getting ready to stand without support soon. He has been positioning his butt upwards, getting ready for the big moment.

Mummy got him his first pair of shoe in anticipation that he will be walking about very soon. No worries Lucas, take your time, no rush. I just hope I'm around to capture that moment when you stand on your own without support.

Father's Day weekend with Bubbles and Owls

I booked tickets to the Fan Yang Gazillion Bubble Show for the Saturday show without realising it's the Father's Day weekend. Thought any kids would love the bubble show, I mean, we are talking about bubbles here, heaps and heaps of it.

It's an interesting show. Seeing how Fan Yang makes bubbles within bubble with ease, how he combined and split bubbles with a flip of his hand, and even saw a square bubble. Xavier seems to enjoy it too, though there were some section of the show where we have to highlight to him what Fan Yang was trying to showcase.

My only regret was I should have gotten the stall seats instead of the circles seats. There were activities like passing and pushing giant balls around during the interval and the flooding of the whole stall area with what else but bubbles. Sadly there were none for us, as we are at the circle seats and its too high up. And Xavier keeps asking why we do not have bubbles at our area.

Took a bubble photo for memory sake. Pretty unique experiences of what is life like inside a bubble.

On Sunday, I brought Xavier to an English play.

It's call Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. Danny recommended it saying how his son enjoyed it and its a must watch since they extended the show days.

The venue is a pain as we can't park at the place itself and cisco were hardworking at the lane outside. So I had to park at Balmort Plaza which is a 10mins walk.

The play fortunately was very delightful and enjoyable, even for adults. There were many interactions with the crowd , like throwing soft toys (supposingly baby owl's poo) at them, spraying water at them, teaching them how to make sounds and actions to resemble the different fireworks.

In fact I dare say its one of the best kid's play I have been to. The three artists from the Blunderbus Theatre Company are a real fun bunch. I hope they come to Singapore again. It's a father's day treat to myself.

Braun BET1000

One of the most essential tool for parents with babies and young children is a thermometer. You have to have at least one at home in the event the young ones run a temperature.

Back in our time, the most common thermometer widely used is the mercury thermometer. You know, the versatile thermometer that can be used under your tongue or under your armpit? Well it has come a long way.

We been using the Braun ThermoScan 6022 ever since Xavier was born. Its an in-ear thermometer that give you the reading in a matter of seconds. It can be a pain to use especially when you are trying to get a reading from a sleeping child. Imagine someone trying to poke something into your ear while you are sleeping. And I find it annoying when it gives you a reading of 37.5 degrees which is mild fever and the PD would say "Oh the in-ear thermometer? its a +- 0.5 degree so he's not really having a fever." It's almost like the device is only giving a ballpark figure.

Given that it recently started to give us some issues, we decided to get another thermometer. We were considering the forehead scanners but those are pretty expensive. Then I came across the Braun BET1000.

BET stands for Behind Ear Thermometer. And that's basically where position it to take the temperature. Press for 1 sec and the reading appears in the LCD screen complete with coloured backlight. So it's almost fool proof as the colour will indicate to you if you are not having a fever (green), having mild fever (orange) or having fever (red). As you only need to position it behind the ear, it would be able to take an accurate reading without the thermometer touching the sleeping child.

The thermometer is manufactured by Kaz USA Inc. Strangely when I tried to Google for more information via the Braun sites, I could only find it under Braun Korea. Braun USA does not seem to carry it. Kaz.com has a similar product on their website but its marketed as another brand Vick, the company behind the famous VapoRub.

Anyway from the site, it explains that "the measurement site in the hollow behind the ear is very close to the carotid artery, which carries blood to the brain. This is an ideal external site to measure temperature."

I seen these for sale at Robinson and heard that Courts also carries this. For us, we are just happy we found this lovely thermometer.

NDP 2012 - Building a LovingSG

This year we will be celebrating Singapore's 47th birthday. I'm sure many of you have balloted for the NDP  or preview tickets. Congratulations to lucky ones who go the tickets.

This year's celebration also has an interesting component call Building a LovingSG. Its a project to recreate the Marina Bay Floating Platform using Lego bricks under the leadership of Architect Eugene Tan. Measuring 12m by 9m, this massive Lego structure will use about 200,000 Lego bricks to build. It will have the exact same number of seats as the real Marina Bay Floating Platform, all 27,000 of it in the exact same colour setup.

I came to know of this project from two forums (Hardwarezone EDMW and Lego Users Group Singapore). I was keen to join and be part of it. But like the Chinese saying, 心有余而力不足 (got heart but no energy). The project was completed yesterday and after reading horizonsky's forum post on her experience on this 13 days project, I really kudos to all the people who made it possible with their perseverance and sacrifices.

There were people who took their annual leave to help in this project, people who came after work and build till midnight, and even people who brought their kids along and everyone take turns to babysit them. And although the AFOL (short for Adult Fan of Lego) volunteers from forum were only needed for the first two days to kickstart the project, they stayed throughout the whole 13 days when the going gets rough and things do not go as intended.

Now you too can be a part of this project. With a donation of $5, you will get two Lego minifigures of which one will be put onto the Lego Floating Platform to represent you, and the other to be kept by you as souvenir. There is a limit of 10 pairs of minifigures donations per NRIC but you are welcome to donate more. All money will be going to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

Below are some photos from Hardwarezone EDMW forum, Lego Users Group Singapore forum and PlaytimeSG flickr. They are not my photos and all credits goes out to them.

This photo should give you a sense of how big the whole project is.

Fixing each of the 27,000 seats, one seat at a time.

Will one of your minifigures you donated be seating here?

Lights


VIP Box

Group photos of some of the AFOL volunteers.

Fun shot of minifigures on the platform.

I have reserved a seat at the Lego Floating Platform. Have you?

Updated on 16th June 2012:
HWZ EDMW has its own section on the platform, special thanks to horizonsky for organising this. Below are some photos of the "unique area".

"EDMW assemble!"

My Lizardman sitting beside Spiderman.

Parade Commander "Sedi Ya!!"

Xavier Turns (Talkative) Three

Xavier turns 3 and he suddenly becomes very talkative, coming up with his own stories and songs every now and then. Its like his "talk" button is always pressed and boy can he really talk. 我们快给他烦死了.

Lilian did point out the irony part. When he grows older, the tables will turn and he would be the one finding us naggy.

We stopped his swimming class as he don't seem to be ready yet. He's having fun in the water but to take instructions and learn strokes is a different level altogether. Will probably revisit that when he is older.

Xavier is able to change lyrics of songs to his own version and we were surprised by him. We started him on music class and so far he seem to be enjoying it more. Let's see how long he can stay interested.

Below are two videos of him trying to tell a bedtime story I read to him quite often and singing a Chinese song he learnt in school.