Ziv's 3rd Birthday

Photo blog.

Date: 17 Jul 2010

Venue: Our abode

Caterer: Chilli Padi

A few of the many play dates

Just before Ziv’s 3rd birthday, we arranged a few play dates over the weekend, mainly because they can’t make it to his birthday.

Cycling

I have to admit that I am an assiduous Mummy. I enact the role of a bouncer and often, activate the incredible hawk in me whenever I deemed that someone out there may pounce on Ziv, intentionally or unintentionally. I once held a kid by his arm because he nearly had a collision with Ziv since he was scampering like a berserk child. My face was soft while I looked at him, but my grasp was tautening. It scared the shit out of him.

So, obviously, cycling is not under my list of favorite activities with Ziv, for the fact that I do not know how to cycle and I reckon cycling as a ‘hazardous’ activity. However, the other part of me likes to splurge on Ziv to make sure that he is a happy boy and has a happy childhood, and so I answered to his request and bought him a bicycle earlier this year. It was until a few weeks ago, he started cycling outdoor. Most of the time, he was cycling indoor.

Not a pleasurable experience because he fell from the bicycle because of the damn winding cycling track. He was brave in front of the gals and did not shed a tear.

However, he was crying quite a bit when his wound got in touch with water when he showered.

Weird formation for photo-taking.

Early birthday celebration

Our ex-ex neighbor paid us a visit for the first time after we shifted like twice. We ordered KFC home delivery and they brought us cake from Jane’s Station. The cake reminds me of my bad sore throat, simply because it is too chocolaty and yet, hard to resist.

It was a scary sight to see the kids ripped open the present with their bare hands; it was like watching documentary show whereby the lions ripped the flash of a deer apart. And it was a known fact that Ziv loves Thomas the Train and before they ripped up the present, I was almost sure that it is going to be another Thomas the Train set. We had like 4-5 train set after his birthday celebration and we already had 3 existing train set, including the one he bought from Tokyo Disneyland! I told Kevin we need a bigger house for the train set.

A picture of Trisha and Ziv savouring the cake.

Assembling the train set.

Weekend Fun

Last Week's Happenings

Last week we welcomed our two first visitors to our new abode when we officially moved in. J and E.

And the boys had a whale of a time playing at the pool and eating hotdog buns.

Before the swim or rather dip...

Ziv always repines that it was too hot to swim under the blazing sun, however, he changed his mind at the drop of the hat when he was told that he would be having an aqua buddy.

Trying to operate the jacuzzi.

After the dip...

This week's happenings

On Friday evening we got our new car and we have been driving two cars on the road because there were so many errands to run. First it was getting the new car, Kev drove the new one while I trailed behind (since I do not know the way) to park it at the Performance Motor. Then on Saturaday morning, we sent the new car to fix up window film and then drove the old car to brunch and later to collect the new one... Confusing, I know. Actually all these can be solved since our the PML salesgal offered to help us run all the errands, however, Kev declined, because he can't trust anyone with his cars.

Managed to snap a picture of the gleeful driver on the way to Performance Motor in the morning. Another gleeful passanger was seated behind fascinated by the panaromic roof.

Thereafter, revisited Spruce for brunch.

Kev's brunch. Big breakfast.

My brunch... Egg benedict on sliced toasted bagel with grilled shrimps soaked in hollandise sauce. Perfecto!

Ziv had a long beef sausage for Ziv all for himself. It was almost like a practice to go down to the playground under Spruce. Even playing alone did not deter the boy from running here and there. I have to gave Kev some credits, cause these playground pictures were snapped by him, while I leisurely sipped on my latte.

From this picture, Ziv seemed to have grown taller and bigger.

This weekend, we welcomed with open arms another set of guests to our abode. J and her two chummy daughters, J and S. Ziv remembers them as 'jumping sisters', because Ziv had fun bouncing on their beds last Christmas. And of course, they were here for a swim. Just yesterday, J and I met up for MJ. In less than 24 hours, we meet up again.

J bought like 50 breads from Four Leaves for the kids and a box of nicely decorated donuts for Ziv, so much so that I decided to take a picture of them.

And by the way, our company is having a photography contest and I decided to take part in this contest. This is my photo for the competition. And the caption for the picture is 'Friends'. It is hard to capture moments like this. It will be framed up on our wall even though it doesn't win me any thing in the contest.

Vegging Out @ Home

Weekend are meant to be vegging out at home, being a couch potato and for Kevin, get juiced up. I haven't step out of our door step to hit the malls despite of the GSS ever since the World Cup kicked off. Nap time often stretched from 5pm to 8pm and by the time I woke up, all I knew was, I missed a good half an hour of the first match (damn!) and I could eat a horse.

As for Kevin, he would rolled his eyes and lamented that the two pigs slept for 3 hours while he patiently waited for us to decide what to have for dinner. I can only tell him that the World Cup will only be a brief interlude, once every 4 years as a matter of fact, and it will end by mid of July. And his patience is very much appreciated, thank you.

And do you know, World Cup and takeaways are the best combination in the world? Food is only a phone call away and all you need to do is to use your feet to reach out for that iPhone on the coffee table and slowly bring it to your hands and viola!

By the way, I have been dialing for food orders for weekdays etc, one day it was KFC, the other days were Mac for breakfast-es and some days, I have pizza hut (only when I am super desperate...)

I have to thank C for getting me a complimentary Senso card so that I can enjoy Spizza and all other restaurants under Senso group with a beckoning 20% off the bill. It arrived last week, just in time to have a change on the delivery menu. Spizza!

I love Spizza.


Noticed the red wine beside Kevin's knee cap? He loves to drown himself in red wine with takeaways. He can drink half a bottle single-handedly. I only had a glass.

Along the same line, I have been shamelessly indulging in pizzas from Al Dente. Because they are having 1-for-1 lunch on weekdays. Last Friday, I had 7 slices of pizzas at one go.
Guess by the end of World Cup, I may have gained 4 kg!

Here's a picture taken on our way back to the office. My colleagues were joking that we seemed to be sightseeing rather than working. Who cares, when it is Friday!

How to beat the scorching weather?

Before I delve into the scorching weather, I am pleased to welcome a new member to the giant soft-toy entourage, Mickey Mouse, that is. Mickey is Ziv's latest fad, he wears Mickey t-shirt to school, lugs Mickey bag to weekend class, paste Mickey stickers all over our tops... Kids are just so capricious, you simply can't catch up with their thoughts.

Weather this weekend was extremely humid, it makes me wonder what's the number on the thermometers.

And it was pretty effortless for Ziv and Kevin to beat the burning weather. Grabbed a swimming trunk or suit, and took the lift to ground floor. Voila! I went down to see 2 animated pool dippers happily splashing water at each other. Ziv was pretty daring because he never tried being alone in the pool, perhaps the weather, it makes an aquaphobic opens up.

As for me? I still prefer Coke on ice cubes. And snapping pictures.

Long Weekend

The long weekend can either make (it enjoyable) or break (bore me to tears) me depending on what is lined up for me. And the most recent long weekend was terrific, especially that would mean one additional day to spend with Ziv.

Thursday:
I was already “intensely involved” in the mood for long weekend that I started to snake around on Wednesday. And needless to say, Thursday was just a very under-utilized working day with long yoga lesson. The eve of the PH embarked on with a lovely alfresco dining at Fish Market located at Bukit Timah, one of my most patronized restaurants and church-visit to 5 churches.

We were served with a very uniquely prepared escargots served in kueh pie ti shell in some sort of cream cheese and corn sauce, and I had the half lobster linguini while Kev ordered the highly recommended fish and chip. Everything was all well and good.

This year, Ziv went church visiting with my in-laws and he went to 6 churches in a tour bus and reached home even later than us.

The eve of PH was just splendid and the night ended young for us.

Day ended extremely pleased and looked forward to rest of the week.

Friday:
The day began late with brunch at Hatched at Evans road with the Yip family, aka, the usual suspects for brunch. Hatched has a smaller place as compared to Spruce, Jones and Jolly Frog and nevertheless, the brunch was slightly more interesting than Jolly Frog and it was pretty much less expensive and perhaps that was the reason for spotting so many local in the measly allocated place. However, I was slightly disgruntled with their incapacity to bring out the ‘Animal Farm’ pancakes for the kids and the reason given to us was ‘kitchen is busy’ and at that point of time, how I wished they can remain idle for the rest of the time when they are in business. Crap excuse! Hatched is also rigid with their menu, they refused to change my fried egg to poach egg with no reason given, and I probably be happier if they tell me, ‘the kitchen is busy’ rather than a straight ‘no’. Other than that, there’s nothing else to complain, the portion of the food was pretty substantial and value for money in the eyes of the local.

Ziv is serious about what he eats, he was making sure he is eating right. Haha.

A shot of the mothers and kids. Pale without minimum makeup for me. Don't tell me its the age.

Next, we went in search of costly Clek Ozzi (http://www.magnaclek.com/us/english/ozzi/index.aspx) booster seat designed by Paul Frank. And just in case you do not know who is Paul Frank, he is the designer who came out with the whimsical monkey character which you can see here http://www.paulfrank.com/about/. It must be the monkey which swept Ziv off his feet and he wants nothing but THE Ozzi booster seat that cost nearly 4 to 5 times more expensive than the normal Kaki Bukit booster seat!


The search for an inspired one was fruitless and we were left with no choice but to drive over to Great World City to buy it and only to realized that Ziv is underweight and age for the seat. Left empty handed from the store. Anyway, we realised that the booster seat was tagged at this price for a reason, the Clek™ LATCH system locks the booster seat into place quickly and easily using your vehicle’s LATCH anchorage system, unlike the rest of the cheaper seats, they can't lock to the car seat and the kids may end up sliding left and right when a car turns sharply.

In the evening, we went to St Joseph Church where most of the Catholic congregate.

Day ended with all of us being lethargic.

Saturday:
Just when the boys were getting more and more comfortable with each other, the brunch ended and so, Emily and I planned a play date cum swimming session for the boys. After Macs for breakie, off they went for the dip. Ziv hasn’t had so much fun in the pool for a very long time, because Kev and I were too lazy to douse in the pool with him.

Here's 2 penguins at large...

Anway, after the half day of fun-filled activities for the boys, I learnt that you can’t put 2 boys together for too long, cause they will start to fight for the slightest things and they can be violent.

After the activities, Ziv had a good nap and by the time he woke up, we were arranging tables for our fave pastime, MJ.

Day ended at 3am and I was $150 poorer and Kevin $80 richer.

Sunday:
Shichida as usual in the afternoon and went to my mum’s place to let Ziv entertain my old parents and thereafter Easter Sunday buffet dinner with my in-laws at the Zhou Kitchen.

Day ended feeling fat and wonder why Monday has to come so soon!

According to J, this is the last long weekend for the year! How sad is that?!

Weekend Roundup

Ziv is 9 mth old

How time flies... Ziv is now 9^th month old and in 3 month’s time, he will be 1! I am ecstatic about his first birthday plan and witnessing him achieving all the development milestones (although not first hand).

So far, this little restless rascal has achieved:

1) His finger will meet mine just like ET

2) Play with me by putting pacifier in my mouth when I open my mouth and just when I wanted to bite it, he will remove it away with a loud chuckle.

3) Make Mummy and Daddy laugh by making weird facial expressions and when we laugh he will laugh with us and follow up with lots more expressions each time ending with a smile.

4) Stand for a while without support.

5) (Unfortunately) His first word is ‘papa’. But he is oblivious of what ‘papa’ means.

6) Wave ‘bye bye’.

7) Know that the object is a telephone and will put it at his ears.

8) Drink from sippy cup.

9) Picks things up with thumb-finger pincer grasp.

10) Indicates wants with gestures.

On the 19^th, Jayden and Ziv met up on this Saturday morning (9am!) for breakfast at Café Cartel at Serangoon Garden.

See! No more P Plate!

I had my driving license for exactly 1 year. But that doesn't mean I am a pro driver. Being overly protective, Kevin has limited me for driving his car on many occasions, especially he changed his car during the early of the year. He deemed that I will scratch his rims, his body kits etc... whatever, he is just paranoid!

Trips Planned

Trips have been planned during my break from this company to the new one.
11 May - 13 May - Angsana Bintan with Kevin and Ziv
14 May - 17 May - Macau where Kevin and I will transform to King and Queen of Gamblers

Will start work on the 26 May.

Sunday

Buffet at Royal Plaza Hotel Carousel was canceled. What to do? We did not go cause Ziv is having flu.

Church opening at Sembawang. Later, Kevin and I are attending Sebawang Church opening, the Father invited Kevin to the opening as made their curtains, blinds etc.

Mahjong. Its been a while since my last windfall. Its time to perform my MJ skill in front of those amateur players (hao lian hahahaha...) . After the church will go for MJ therapy and not to worry, Ziv is under my MIL's care.

Weekend?!!

Yippee!! Weekend is coming. My high-spirit is definitely not dampen down by the heavy rain and gloomy skies outside office. In fact, I am counting down to 6.00pm when I will officially walk out of the office light-footedly to enjoy my night after a week of “torture” in the office. I have already planned my weekend a few days in advance and certainly that it is going to be fascinating (if you consider shopping is fascinating). Well, if not, at least it is undeniably going to be better than working…

I am going home to play xbox, The Sims. I have been searching in every nook and cranny for this game for the past 2 weeks. Finally got it in Yahoo auction! Sometimes I think that auction websites are really very beneficial to us. Personally I have got several items from the auctions and they are rare items ok!

Opps… five minutes to 6pm… I should be in the lavatory to touch up my makeup. Weekend, here I come!!