I think I must be just ooozing Mummy…… we were having dinner at a friends' and this little boy just came up to me and plonked himself on my lap and sat there for the longest time!!!!!

He's SO CUTE!

At least he didn't puke or poo. Good boy this one!

Left: Nelson and the flag

Right: Curry chicken, oyster omelette, stewed pork, stir fry beef, bittergourd with egg

Happy National Day one and all!

In true Singaporean style, we cooked up a storm for our new Singaporean friends Nelson and Gina. They brought the flag and the patriotic songs. Gina was a preschool teacher and she seriously had a compilation of THE SONGS.

I really like this picture.

Kristi, who is 6, really likes to play with Sophie very much and they play really well together. Last weekend before Kristi and her family left for Auckland, I got them to take this picture. I was quite glad Sophie was actually keen to take the picture with Kristi coz sometimes she’ll just run away.

It’s hard when friends come and go on the base after each school ends. This time round, we made sure that we talked to Sophie lots before her friends started leaving and she was ok saying bye. I hope we handled all the farewells better than we did the last time.

Sophie loves being an older sister and I hope this carries on when baby is born.

She was so cute. She let Eli sit on her lap to watch TV together. They sat like this for quite a long time! He’s just turning 2 but they are almost the same size.

Having Eli here is great coz Sophie has to learn how to share, how to deal with someone else stomping on her toys and how to love Eli for who he is.

We’ve been having a great time hanging out with the Chiangs. They just got married a few weeks ago and are here on their honeymoon!

Sophie really loves her godma and I think she’s really sad that godma and Uncle Jasper are leaving tomorrow.

Last friday, the whole school went out for an outing.

We had lunch picnic at McClaren Falls (about 1/2 hr from the base) and then to the beach at Tauranga for fish & chips in newspapers for dinner.

Having fish and chips wrapped in newspapers is a very kiwi family thing to do apparently. Seems like most kiwi families have fish & chips for dinner on Fridays when they were growing up. It’s like the thing to do.

I really like this picture.

Sophie’s really into being a doctor/nurse these days. She’s got this book called Nurse Nancy (one of the Golden books) and she loves it! She’s been making us read it every day! I’ve had to hide the book so that we can read other books. Anyway that explains the bandages on her head. I got her a box of kiddy plasters from the $2 shop in town. She loves them! Gin got her a medical kit for her birthday. I think she’s gonna have so much fun.

I also love the way she hugs Eli. Reminds me of how I used to put my arm around my bro when we were kids when we had to take pictures. Always looked like I was strangling him.

We had quite a crazy day today.

In the morning, James caught an eel using a self-made eel trap and he made unagi! Check out the process on our flickr site. I’ve uploaded the pictures of the trap and stuff!

Later at night, he found a calf stranded by the river (later we found out that the calf was two days old and it had slipped down the slope towards the river when the mother cow gave birth to it. poor thing!). After dinner (we had a massive Chinese food feast at our home and invited some friends over), he went back with our friend Stuart to rescue the calf and brought it back! We got the farm next door to come over to collect the poor calf. The kids were kinda sad that they couldn’t keep it as a pet. Hiak!

What a day, what a day!

See you friends. Gonna miss you all so much!

It’s been so good to catch up with our friends the past week!

Left: This was Sophie and Skyler last July, still stuck in their Sack & Seat (which is a great buy for jetsetting kiddos from 6 mths – 24 mths) in Hong Kong.

Right: That’s Evan and Sophie snuggling last Sept.

Bottom: That’s Evan, Skyler and Sophie eating chicken rice on their own, on their own table and kinda chatting with each other, kinda… and with a lot more hair.

P/s: in case anyone thinks that they are super proficient in their self feeding, let me share that there is a wad of newspapers under the table. It helps. Hee but it’s more for Sophie than Evan coz Evan is super neat. Hee!

We went to West Coast Park to meet up with DN and R today. It actually poured big time! No way! But…. it kinda cooled down the weather so that was nice.

Sophie was quite happy to dig her feet into the sand and pick up sticks along the way, just like in Vanuatu. I think she really missed that.

Thank God my mum came along and she was happily (er… I think) hanging out with Soph while I caught up with the other mummies!

P/s I really love this pic of my mum and Soph. They both look so happy! It helps that Soph can smile and pose on command now, somewhat willingly. Check out the stick she picked up. It took me almost 5 mins to convince her to let it go before we got into the car.

We received a lovely surprise gift from Perth last week!

It’s this beautiful handmade skirt that Sophie is so happy to wear. Once she opened up the gift, she immediately put it on, on top of everything she was already wearing! Thanks Pris!

P/s Thank you to everyone who have sent lovely presents to us while we’ve been here. Esp Mama and Yeye, Sophie loves all the books and puzzles you sent! And a shout out to Grace for the lovely bento box! It’s been such a blessing to receive snail mail. Thank you for your love and thoughtfulness.