I had to run an errand yesterday to get some materials photocopied at Queensway Shopping Center. As most would know, it’s not the most baby friendly place around. Moreover, I’d had to wait around while the materials are being copied.

But I had it all planned out in my mind – take the cab, drop off, carry the pram up the tiny flight of steps, take the lift, drop of the materials to be copied (forgot to bring $$, didn’t know they only accepted cash), went back down to withdraw $$, push the pram all the way to Anchorpoint to have lunch at the Disney Restaurant, finish lunch, push the pram back to Queensway, up the steps, up the lift, collect the materials and go back down, take a cab and come home. That should take about 1 – 1 1/2 hrs. What I didn’t factor in was that even though they said to come back in an hour, they were not ready until about another 45 mins later! Imagine I had to chase Sophie around Queensway, third floor, not very exciting ah for 45mins! Plus it was almost 1pm, way past her nap time! Argh. The escalators do not allow prams so I couldn’t just go down to shop around. I had to take the lift etc…. anyways….

But I’m glad to say we made it! It turned out to be a really good test for myself and Sophie’s behaviour. Normally  when I’m on my own, I would chicken out and bring Sophie only to places that are child friendly.

Sophie totally enjoyed the Disney themed restaurant called Disney Naturally at Anchorpoint. I knew she would, considering how she is still talking about Disneyland and Mickey Mouse. I loved it too. It’s so child friendly – the environment, the service, the healthy food! She played with the computers before her lunch arrived. We shared a meal of macaroni and cheese and a banana milkshare. She ate almost 1/2 of it. It’s so good to see her enjoy the food. She said "Yummy drink!". So cute lah.

Top Left: Rows and rows of fish tanks

Top Right: Mama and Sophie feeding fish

Bottom Left: Sophie going for the durians

Bottom Right: Farm Mart

We started Father’s Day early.

Yesterday we took James to a Fish Farm (Qian Hu)! He’s into fish and shrimps these days so we thought it’ll be nice to just hang out there. Sophie got to feed some fish, pick up some terrapins (yes! with her hands!), and check out lotsa lotsa different types of fish. I think she said fish like a hundred times coz she went to every tank and pointed "FISH!" Haha.

Since James started keeping fish tanks of ornamental plants and shrimps and snails, Sophie’s been asking to see and feed fish everyday. So, she was quite happy.

After that we went to the Farm Mart around the corner. It’s supposed to be like a farmers’ market where they bring all their produce to sell. Erm… it’s a bit like Malaysia, the look and feel. Quite cool. In a retro way, that is. I like. Not so modern and altogether. They have a lot of weird products that you don’t see in the supermarket like super hot chilli (crazy hot), vegetarian inards, etc. We tried a super sweet pineapple. It was soooo good in the hot weather.

Before we left, we sat down to eat durians. Sophie tried some but didn’t take to it. But at least she tried.

After all that, we went for Ryan’s 4th birthday party and their family’s house blessing. Sophie had a blast! She was up playing with everyone until 10plus. All the other babies and tods took their shower and were all half asleep by then but she was still going around with the older ones, full of energy.

Ooo and this i must record – Kieran asked Sophie, "Would you like to go for a walk?" I almost fell over when I heard him say that and when I told his mum, she said that Kieran gave Soph a hug and kiss before that! WHAT?!?! How ah?

I’m a stay home mum right? I decided that this week we’ll all stay home a little bit more.

Sophie’s been eating too much junk food outside. She’s been playing on her own too much. And I haven’t been teaching her anything. So this week, I did some real marketing, cooked a bit more, played a bit more and taught Sophie a bit more this week and got out to do some new things with her.

Top Left: Sophie getting free rides at ToysRUs. The car’s for sale, not Sophie.

Top Right: She couldn’t stop ironing. I hope this lasts coz I hate ironing.

Bottom: Who stole the cookie" show at Forum

Yesterday, we managed to catch the "Who stole the cookie?" show at Forum that ended this week (we missed last week’s) and even went swimming at the public swimming pool today! The former was free and the latter only cost $1.50 for a whole hour of fun! Sophie enjoyed the show very much she was totally engrossed for that whole 1/2 hour. She started singing "yummy yummy cookie" on her own in her own tune. It wasn’t a song in the show, just something she made up. So cool! Swimming was nice since it was so hot. Sophie really enjoy being in the water. A few times I caught her trying to dunk herself in, like at her swim class. Scary. But it’s ok, I’m there. Best of all, it helps that we can walk home in our towels and wet clothes and bathe at home instead of yucky public toilets.

Oooo we just went for a ride on the Singapore Flyer. You must know that it’s the world’s largest observation wheel! It was really quite something, if you overlook the surrounding construction sites!

Oooooooo but my heart almost dropped many times! Sophie was buzzing around and bouncing from side to side, jumping (kinda), running (yes, she just started running, kinda). It was like she was running towards all the windows!

She was on super hyper mode. I felt so bad for the couple in the same cabin as us. They must have been looking forward to a romantic ride. Oops. Sophie was like an energizer bunny that screeched! She refused to take pictures so we gave up after a while as you can see in our pictures!

But the scenery was pretty amazing as the sun was setting and the lights were starting to come on. I saw a beautiful mosque and the hotel rooms across looked like little holes.

Verdict? I wouldn’t pay $30 bucks each for this. Good thing we got to do this free.

Top Left: Papa helping himself to the cold noodles

Top Right: Ooooo the beef!

Bottom: Happy Birthday Papa!

Papa is an amazing man. He’s a man of charisma, energy and lots of different hobbies and interests. He’s a sought after speaker both in his industry as well as a bible teacher. He turned 66 yesterday and we celebrated his birthday at Aburiya, Japanese charcoal grill restaurant. IT WAS SO GOOD.

The Waygu beef was to die for! And of course, it’s at our doorstep, almost. The atmosphere was great – very Jap. We were the only locals there actually. If you want good Jap food, go to where the Japs go.

We are pretty much West End people. Yo. James lived in Jurong most of his life and I’ve been North and mostly West too.

We were up at Upper Serangoon (North) yesterday at St Paul’s Church. I love it! No tall building in sight and a clear sight of the sky and clouds. So nice! The church is an old old building, nice!

Oooo except the big no entry sign, not nice.

Yesterday we went with a few friends to the countryside. Yes, we actually do have a countryside!

Sophie got to feed goats, guinea pigs, fish, rabbits, geese etc… And best of all, it’s free and all you need to pay for are the feeds.

She got a bit scared when the goat grabbed the carrot stick and gobbled it up in less than 5 seconds! But it was so cool to see her face light up when I told her it’s a goat. I could see the her trying to make sense of her picture books and seeing it live. A bit puzzled but very amused at the same time.

Er…. thing is, I’m afraid of animals. Even little ones. The whole time, Sophie was braver than me (I was pretending), she even tried to feed the guinea pigs using her hands. I just pretended and threw the food in. Sigh… I hope I won’t transfer my fear to her too much. She’s not all that brave but I was glad she was trying and enjoyed herself.

For those interested to go check it out, it’s at Seletar Farmway. It’s a place called Animal Resort where they also groom and house animals. It’s lovely. If you have a car, definitely worth a visit!

Making friends during our shopping trip on Sat….

Ikea’s kids’ section was like a giant playground for Sophie and Evan today. They took turns to climb up and down, walk here and walk there, made friends, touch this touch that. We spent a good hour there. And we get to sit down too. Super!

Sophie’s quite well now, except for a lil lingering cough. But we miss going out SO we’re going out with a vengance!

My meeting got cancelled last min SO I messaged a few friends yesterday morning to go for a picnic instead BUT apparently they all sleep in late! Hahaha… so one hung up on me (coz she was still sleeping) and the other didn’t reply me till almost noon time (hee you know who you are!)!

Anyways we went. Took a bus, without the pram. Packed in a mat, some toys, a fav book, diaper, wet wipes and off we went! I actually forgot to pack snacks! Bringing a toddler out without snacks? What a disaster! But thankfully, there’s food everywhere in this food crazy country so we had breakfast at the food court first. She had cheese & toast.

After breakfast, we walked to my fav picnic spot – yes walked! Sophie’ll walk if I hold her hands. Took a SUPER long time. But that’s part of the point right? To get Sophie to walk more… hiak… she wanted to see EVERYTHING and we had to stop to say hi to EVERYTHING – fish, birds, ants, leaves, kids, old people…

After sitting a while, she got bored and wanted to see the fish. So we went to see the fish. Then, we had this conversation. She said duck and I said no, swan. She said duck and I said swan. She said duck and I said swan. I think she was thinking it must be a game! Anyways, it went on like 10 times! Finally she said swan and I said yes! And then she said duck. Ok….

It’s really quite nice to just slow down and really enjoy the things around us with her.

This is SO COOL. You need to see it – it’s a photo essay on "What’s on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe?". The photographs are by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet".

It’s so interesting to see what people eat across the nations and how much they spend per week! One family only spends US$5 but their spread looks about the same as ours! The German family had loads of beer and wine. The American family spread was filled with junk food! Actually most families had loads of junk food except the poor ones. Plus the photos are so nice to look at. I love to see pictures of food and people’s lives.

I’m half tempted to print the photos out with our new laser printer and play Spot The Banana with Sophie. They seem to all eat bananas. Cools. Sophie’s fav food. She can spot it a mile away.

Here are our stats:

Singapore: The Lim Family of HV

Food expenditure for one week: S$235, inclusive of eating out or US$142

Favourite Foods: Sashimi, dried mango, sweet & sour pork, soya sauce chicken, banana

My in laws took us to the the Jurong Bird Park on Sat. See ah… my father in law works at a tourist attraction SO we get to go to most of the tourist attractions FOR FREE! Up to 3 pp. Hiak… membership has its privileges. That explains why we’re at the Underwater world so often.

Sophie fell asleep once we arrived. It’s really funny coz we were walking in and saw other mommies carrying sleeping kids – I guess it’s just the morning nap time.

She napped in her new pram for a bit and when she woke up she was surrounded by a mock up rainforest enclosure with lotsa birds! They even mocked up a thunderstorm – pretty hilarious I must say! The birds were all flying around trying to keep dry. So poor thing lah. I actually got a bit wet trying to walk thru it and we had to open up the umbrella for Sophie.

They had a playground area where we hang out for a bit. Sophie LOVES playgrounds. She goes "WAH!". The playground at the zoo is much better tho.

I think Sophie really enjoyed herself. Saturday was the first time she wore track shoes, like proper walking shoes and she did walk a bit with us holding her hands. She was so thrilled with the freedom of not being in her pram.

Unfortunately, her nose started dripping again just when I thought she’s fully well. I suspect it was because of the water play on Fri and food sharing with Evan who was still having a running nose. Oh wells… I’m starting to get used to this. She’s fine, a bit more cranky but she’s focused on trying to walk so that’s kept her occupied. She can walk about 5 steps on her own – mostly towards me. Super cute. We stayed home most of the weekend – missed a birthday party, church, dinner at friend’s place and prob giving mums grp a miss today.