stinky puppets?

the nice thing about living in a student co-op is tons of activities for families, especially kids. today's a sock puppet workshop.

we used to have more "happening" neighbors in our old apartment. the lady across the hallway who has shouting matches with the husband in the dead of the night. the one downstairs who knocked on our floor (his ceiling) when the kids are too noisy. the frail lady upstairs who punched her fist through the glass door. the old man across the street who waters the grass & mows the lawn at least one a day. he does win the "neighborhood's green-est grass" award.

now, it's just normal folks who have healthy relationships with their families. folks who trot by our window to the playground, share toys & chats at the community playgroup sessions & conduct cool workshops like strawberry jam making & thanksgiving boxes.

immortalising fall

Jr's free expression vs Jl's "circle of leaves"



as snow creeps into our lives these 2 weeks, it's time to remember bits of fall. the boys enjoyed a few consecutive days of tissue art from L. they requested that for craft 3 days in a row! so had to think of variations. different shapes, types of paper, paintbrushes, cotton wool & fingers.

our leaf printing didn't work out so well & leaves we picked turned crispy & could not be pasted so we turned tissue art into a picture instead. how's that for creativity?

hickory dickory dock

the mouse ran up & down the clock

the interesting note is the clock with numbers pasted correctly to precision is Jl's. (the 1st one). but i believe they have yet to discover the "direction" of numbers. & Jl would tell me, the mouse is a "naked brother" & insisted on clothes. hahah.

my dream clock is one with real gears which hands turn correctly. 1st learnt about this "practical aspect" from a colleague. so no point buying any fasteners to put in any hands. okay, i'm just lazy to accumulate stuff i won't take home in 6 mths' time. hehehe.

i hope to one day make a series of different clock faces that reflect what time they do what.

mr frosty

snowball fights! Jr was so smart. to take some ready made ones from melted mr frosty


on our way to playgroup. science lesson - why has snow melted only on the pavement?

mr frosty made by our neighbor, E & her son. the big field in front of our apartment.

grass sledding? crazy

on tue, the playground was crawling with kids. as if it was summer. M wrote in her facebook nick that the weather was amazing, she walked around without a coat.

fri morning. we woke up to a lovely sight of soft snow falling from heaven. our 1st snow showers! not enough to throw snowballs but wet enough to sled. i hurried them in their breakfast before bundling them out. no need for snow bibs or boots yet. just rehearsing with coats, mittens, scarves & fleece pants. already quite a feat, dressing 2 excited tots & keeping my fingers crossed that the snow would wait for them.

thankfully, it did. as we sang "Jesus loves the little children" before nap that day, i told Jr Jesus must love them very much. He snowed till they got indoors. the snow stopped as we were having our hot chocolate after playing outdoors. after lunch, almost all the snow had melted into puddles.

*contented sigh* the start of sledding & snow angels... :)

jack-o-lantern

the good thing about living in a uni student community co-operative is activities like this. if not, we won't think of getting costumes for the kids, rehearsing "trick or treat" stuff or carving our own pumpkin.

a neighbor told us if we scape it real thin on the inside, it can create the "lit up" effect but most people don't bother. so it's amazign how J got this real jack-o-lantern effect.

J's classmate said she loved roasted pumpking seeds. we "monkey see monkey do" & took some home too. & got a recipe from the net. not too bad. maybe a little dry from too much baking but nevertheless a little nostalgic. reminds me of green tea flavored ones i love from chinese new yr.

trick or treat

give me the cuties *above* distributing candy anytime. honestly speaking, the boys were a little spooked by the scary ones. this guy is like a wolverine look-alike with contact lenses that made his eyes dilate till they were so dark & small. scared me a little too.

there were so many kids dressed up it dazzled us. especially girls in princess costumes complete with tiaras & wands. boys are usually super heros or uniformed dudes. boy toddlers & babies in animal costumes.

our taiwanese neighbor who shared plans with us to go to the malls for some action.

heading home from the malls to the neighbors' homes. we paste a note given by the community if we are giving out candy. they were so happy to knock on doors & yell, "trick or treat". jerald pumpkin meets baby pumpkin.

our neighbor's prank. they even made the lights in the laundry flicker & smoke was billowing out from the laundry room. at first we thought the room was on fire. boo!

our house halloween decoration. jerald enjoying his candy. going to last him a year! godiva - not for the kids. too yummy to waste on their uncultivated taste buds. hahah.

interestingly, they were awake till late that night. must be too much candy. in FY's words, they were "bouncing off the walls". waiting for people to knock on our door. sadly, there were none. then again, kids here sleep by 9.

ouch, ouch

am i as tall as a giraffe? 1 inch = 2.5 cm. 1 foot = 30 cm. conversion of measurements can be really confusing.

as heavy as an elephant? 1 pound = 500g

any bird nest in there? we like this book we got from our previous doctor on check ups. a story about "brave bear" going to the doctor & what the doctor & nurse did. tons of real time photos. we always read it to them before their check ups to prep them about what to expect. their "elmo goes to the doctor" vcd helps too.

eye check up with fancy glasses

the part when nice doctor goes out & bad nurse comes in with the shots! the nurse even drew smiley faces on the band-aids. & they get a "i did great, give me a hug" kind of sticker at the end. quite a cute idea. we always let jerald do the shots 1st. he's the toughie.

medical bills here are totally mind blowing. for a simple routine check up that would cost me nothing in SG. we pay through the nose here. even with the expensive health insurance we pay, & we only pay 20% of medical bills. it's still comes up to a whooping S$200 for the 2 kids. just for routine check up & some shots. ouch, ouch, ouch!

the questions they ask parents here are different. what type of milk does your child take? how many hours of tv a day? *guilty* any vitamins? do you read to your child? how often? what form of support do you have at times when you need a break from the kids? *parents' mental health issues?*

the best thing that turned out from this check up was i went cold turkey on them & started a "no tv" on weekdays policy. so far it's been 3 weeks & we're doing fine. tough. have to keep thinking of things to occupy them. but i realised they did not even ask to watch tv, which was really nice.