Days on the Beach

Last weekend, we decided to bring Chubbs into Sentosa on a whim because it had just rained and the weather was really cool. Which meant that we didn't have his swimmers, change of clothes and towels with us, nor his sand-play equipment. But Chubbs was introduced to Oscar the lionfish, whom he was immediately taken with.

He watched with envy as kids played with buckets and shovels in the sand. Soon, he devised his own game, and started grabbing sand with his fingers and tossing the sand into the ocean everytime a wave broke. He was cheekily hurling sand at Daddy too.

He had a blast, and we promised that if the weather permits, we'll be back next week with his gear and he can play on the beach again. We left exhausted but in really good spirits :)

This week we kept our promise and went for our family outing to Sentosa again; more prepared this time with a tarp to sit on, pails and things for the sand, slathered sunscreen on Chubbs, the right attire, and even brought a cooler bag with juice and water.

It was such a great time spent becuase there's little more I like doing than sitting on the sand, watching the waves and watching the boys play. Chubbs simply loved being on the beach, and he also enjoyed splashing in the water fountain feature for kids further up the beach. Beautiful times!

Chubbs and Mommy watching some boys toss a frisbee around in the water.

My boys busy building sandcastles.

Cooling off at the kids' water play area before cleaning up and leaving for the day for a snack of ice-cream and French fries.

My Bike's Name is Puky

We currently have five kids bicycles at the house. Two were the twins' (Chubbs' oldest cousins) old bikes, and three are what the boys are currently using. We've been wanting to get Chubbs a push-bike for a long time now, and tried to transform one of the old bikes by taking the chains out. But they were just so rusty that we decided to just splurge and get Chubbs one.

A week ago, we got him the Puky push-bike with front and rear brakes, and in XL size, because we wanted to use it for as long as possible. It's for kids from 95-cm tall and Chubbs is there right now. He loves it, and pretends to be a fire-fighter when on it, but he still has to stand on tippy toes to reach the ground, which makes him slightly apprehensive to zoom around in it. Nonetheless, he's been making practise runs around the house with it, and hopefully soon, we can include bicycling as one of our outdoor activities.

Sick at 2 Years and 7 Months

Chubbs' been down for a week, with flu, cough, lots of phlegm and an on/ off fever. He hasn't really had much fun and has been missing out on school a bit too. But the amazing thing about my son, is that no matter how oozy he feels, how much his nose is dripping, how high his fever is, he is never bad-tempered, nor cranky. He still remains mild-mannered, cheerful and always cracking jokes. So much so that people around him hardly realize that he's sick, until they hear his chesty cough, hug him or put their hand to his forehead and feel how warm he is. For that, I take my hat off to him.

Now that my boy is slightly past two and a half, he definitely learning a lot faster, and his thirst for knowledge is voracious. The only tricky thing for me is how to keep up with him. I find myself using Wikipedia very often, and I'm so thankful that I have a phone that allows me to Google things on the spot when he asks. He's currently into dinosaurs (a topic I hardly am familiar with), and through books and the Internet, he can now say the names of and easily identify basic species such as diplodocus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex, yingshanosaurus, pterodactyl, spinosaurus, allosaurus, baryonx, etc. He surprised Fuzzy with a new dinosaur name pretty often, when he returns from work in the evening.

Goofing around before bath time in less sick times.

We Went for a Hike

Fuzzy and I love Bukit Timah Hill. Maybe it's because even when we went for a hike on Sunday afternoon at 12pm, the shade of the forest still kept the air surprisingly cool. I had fully expected to be obliterated by the heat and humidity.

It was the first time we busted out our new professional hiking poles to help get us up the initial steep slope and to keep our balance on the rocky paths within the forest on our way down the hill. The poles are extremely necessary for Fuzzy, since he carries 15+ kilos Chubbs up all the way to the summit in the hiking harness. Tough work, that.

We fashioned a toddler-sized hiking pole for Chubbs too.

For the first time, Chubbs walked all of the long way down from the summit to the foot of the hill. And he used the pole to help with his balance on the rockier paths. I was more-than-usual proud of my son that day.

More Artwork from School

I saw this and said to the teachers, "Wow, you got them to paint a flower." They said that the kids were not told to paint anything in particular but Chubbs managed this.

Finger-painted mask.

I love this one. He actually glued on real sand at the bottom.