Cel's wedding on 26th Dec 2009

Yes, it's a backpost again! I realised I forgot to make this December 2009 post - largely coz the photos below aren't taken by me! :) They're hweech's photos! Thanks hweech! :p
26th December 2009, Cecilia & Alan's wedding :) Congrats guys!!! Been eagerly awaiting this day!
Our smallest jiemei tuan yet, one of the culprit being me, unable to make it to be jiemei that day coz of my super huge tummy. SQ too, was in confinement, I think. But WQ made it! Look at her, so slim so quickly after giving birth. Cel, we can't wait for you to join us in mummyhood!!! ;p
Look at my Isaac in his toot toot hairdo. I'd cut his fringe a little too short, though hubbs assures me that Isaac still looks great :)
They told me I look "radiant" but now, upon looking back, I thought I looked kinda pale. Well, I was a week from giving birth to a total of 5.6kg of babies... Seriously, I had a lot of trouble walking about. But since I couldn't be jiemei for one of my best friends, then I should at least turn up for her wedding, right?! :)
Profile pix to see the extent of my tummy! :p You see the black tummy band I was wearing? Best piece of maternity wear I ever had! It enabled me to wear most of my clothes till full term - like this top. Without the tummy band, I wouldn't be able to wear my top without my mum screaming at me "NO SHAME!!!"
Look what we dressed Isaac in for the wedding dinner? Befitting, ain't it, since it's Boxing Day! :) 2nd Day of Christmas!!! kekeke... 2 turtle doves... and a partridge in a pear tree!!!
See, the classic "Photo-taken-at-the-wedding-with-everyone-but-the-bride". Yes guys, I'm Still sore about that picture you took at my wedding without me!!! ;p bleaauughhh!!! hahahha...
"Smile, Isaac!" "No no, don't smile until like that! We can't see your eyes!!!"
This here is Chloe. She likes Isaac and wants to play with him...
She actively pursued Isaac all night...
Much to his dismay!!! Isaac was actually quite stunned by her affectionate advances, and kept asking her to back off. Or rather, he went "No, no, no, dun want!!!" Go slow, Chloe! ;p
Until, of course, Isaac had competition in the form of Wei Wen... then Isaac tried to get Chloe's attention to play with him... ;p Here's the three of them playing together.
These great pix, thanks to Auntie Hweech below :)

pix above taken by Hweech on 26th December 2009
Cel & Alan's wedding!
Isaac @ 2 years and a week to 5 months

And of course, we have to have a pic of the wedding couple! :) This is the nicest one I could find off Cel's facebook! Congrats again, guys!!! :)

Fast friends?!

It was 31st December 2010, and we'd received an invitation from JH & WB to go their place for a gathering that night. I was rather glad to have received that sms invite from JH coz we didn't have any other plans that night, and I was truly appreciative of the chance to be able to get out of the house and meet up with some friends, something which I knew would be very difficult to do once I deliver in a week's time on 6th January 2010.
Actually the people and friends who'd be there that night were JH & WB's close friends from junior college - which neither hubbs and I attended with them - JH was my best friend from uni. It occurred to me that that's how close friends were - coz once you're close friends with someone, you knew all HER other close friends too! It was just like how JH knew who all my JC friends were.
Eh? Who's this other boy in the pictures, you might ask? It's our friend Xinrui's boy, Jaycee. Xinrui is JH's best friend from JC :) Jaycee is the same age as Isaac, I think he's a month younger or something like that. Memory is failing me!!!
The two boys were the only kids at the place that night. So they played together some. Or rather, they played alongside each other, bonded by their love of Thomas the Engine :p
Hubbs played with them, and then there was this movie playing on tv - the title escapes me now, but it was a B-grade movie that had lots of dinosaurs - think it was Godzilla or something like that. For a moment we wondered if it was one of the Jurassic Parks coz there were so many dinosaur-like creatures running about, but think it was Godzilla. Anyway, it certainly got the attention of the boys.
And so I was chatting with the rest, when we turned around and saw this sight! Both boys sitting on hubbs' lap, all three engrossed in the show! :) Isaac & Jaycee were playing really well together and here they were sitting together on hubbs' lap! haha!

pix taken on 31 December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years and a week to 5 months
Jaycee @ approximately the same age as Isaac :)

I think I had mentioned before how Isaac seems to have an affinity with some kids and not others, much like how we adults can clique with someone but not some others. This was one perfect example. It was the first time that Isaac and Jaycee had met each other - but immediately, they took to each other well - no snatching, nice sharing, no jealousy... nice!

Again, it was great that the kids that Isaac had a natural affinity to - were very nice kids! :) Jaycee was one of the sweetest kids we'd ever met! :)

It's Christmas time again!

It's Chrismas time and so the Chanders are back in town again! Yay! :) The boys look all grown up, and now there's little Caitlin too! The cuzzies managed to arrange for a high tea session at the Goodwood Park Hotel where we managed to catch up (a bit!) with the Chanders...
These pix, taken in church after Christmas Day mass. From left to right: Jarrod 6+, Caitlin 9 mths, Zachary 3+, Isaac 2+, Isabelle 4+ and Rebecca 6+. Natalie's not in the picture coz she was cranky and would let go of her Mummy to be in the pic.

pix taken on 25th December 2009

As usual, the hols were over all too soon, and the Chanders had to fly back to Australia again. They missed the birth of the twins by all of 2 days! dang! But they did catch the birth of Daylin! :)

Isaac's last day of school

It was 24th December 2009. It was to be Isaac's last day of school at The Enrichment Classroom. Come January, we had enrolled him at the St Francis of Assisi Kindergarten for pre-nursery class. This was nearer to our place and we thought it would be good for Isaac to follow this institution through to kindergarten.
We first enrolled Isaac in The Enrichment Classroom circa Sept 2009, in a once a week - Saturday morning - 2 hour class which had a parent sit in with him. Hubbs did so most of the time while I went to swim 10 laps in the public pool. It was great exercise for me coz it took the weight off my bones for that 45 minutes or so. Ah... bliss! Till I get up from the pool, that is!
Isaac took to the sessions very well and enjoyed them tremendously, so we transferred him to a Monday to Friday 2 hour session. These he enjoyed very much too. We actually started him on these lessons as we wanted him to get used to being in a school-like environment before his pre-nursery starts in January. Coz, coincidentally, the twins were due in January - we did not want Isaac thinking that we were packing him off to school coz of the babies.
Before Isaac started attending these lessons, he'd already knew all his ABCs, colours, shapes etc. But attending lessons taught him to sing songs and reinforced his alphabets and all. Lessons also gave him a chance to do fun little art & craft items which he'd bring home everyday.

pix taken on 24th December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years 4 months plus

Overall, we had a very good experience with The Enrichment Classroom, and would consider it again next time should we need to send the twins for something similar. We would also have no qualms about recommending this place. In fact, we were kinda sad to have to pull Isaac out, but life moves on yeah :)

Dinosaurs!

Can you see the fear in his eyes?! ;p Yes, Isaac was actually kinda scared when he saw the huge dinosaurs at the Bird Park limited period dinosaur exhibit. Apparently our friends' sons Hay and Yu were scared too - guess the transition from cutsey dinosaurs in books and on tv to huge scary and loud dinosaurs takes some getting used to.
Again, I skipped this trip and stayed home to sleep :p very tired you know... as Dr Ang says... I am supporting three hearts in my body!!! :p
So without me, hubbs had to make do with taking his own pix...
Or having awful pix taken of him and Isaac by helpful passerbys... :p
ROAR!!! :p

pix taken on 23rd December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years 4 months plus

Isaac's school Christmas party!

In December 2009, Isaac was still attending The Enrichment Classroom at the Jurong West Sports Complex. They had a Christmas party for the kids!
The kids didn't have to wear uniform that day and could wear home clothes - party wear! hahaha... They made party hats for them to wear as well.
Look at this girl below - she's the same age as Isaac but a whole head taller than him!
hubbs actually took quite a few videos of the kids having fun, singing, dancing... But they were kinda long to be uploading right here.

Isaac and family says "MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!" :)

pix taken on 22nd December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years 4 months plus

Hubbs playing with the kids

Twice a week, we'd go to my mum's place. I believe it's the highlight of Isaac's week, coz he gets to play with his cousins. However, kids often like some structured play - where there's an adult to guide them through some activities.
Hubbs is very good with kids. He's able to play with them, and at the same time control them so that they don't fight amongst themselves whilst playing. Here he is in action with them! :)

pix & vid taken on 18th December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years 4 months +
Natalie @ 2 years 1 month +
Isabelle @ 4 years +
Rebecca @ 6 years +

A day of fun!

Pictures taken on 12th December 2009...

At this time, I am very advanced in my pregnancy with the twins, and my tummy's huge. Consequently, I've much difficultly walking much, and would want to rest all the time.
So, on weekend mornings, like this one, we find a neat compromise by going to West Coast Park, have breakfast at Macs (my fast food craving during this pregnancy), and hubbs would bring Isaac to the playground while I stay on at Macs reading the paper or something.
Isaac loves going to the playground. Usually he'd climb the structures and do the slides etc, but this morning, he was into the sand. Literally! :) hubbs told me that he wanted to bury his own legs in it, and asked hubbs to help him do so too.
There was one time when I showed my Mum these pix, wanting to show her how cute her grandson was, and do you know what was the first thing she said? "Ah yoh! Wait get sand fly bites ah!!!" :p
After a nice morning in the park, we went home, took our baths, and went to Jurong Point for lunch. hubbs quickly took Isaac and went to queue to enter the audience area for the Bob the Builder free show at Jurong Point. That's the good thing about staying so near Jurong Point, they have many such promo shows all year round.

pix taken on 12 December 2009
Isaac @ 2 years 4 mths plus

We once took Isaac to see the Barney show at Expo before, which had other characters, one of which was Bob the Builder. But having tried that, and these free half hour promo shows, we think that these are so much better! Yes, it's free, to begin with!

But, also, it's so near our home - we don't have to travel all the way to Expo or Suntec or wherever for the show. And besides, children's attention span is only about a half hour or so anyway. We found that whenever we brought Isaac for shows, he'd tend to get bored after 45 minutes or so.

It's just little things like a trip to the playground, or a half hour show with a huge Bob the Builder that can make a child's day. Ain't that wonderful!? :)

YellowCube gathering

We had been out of action on the Playback Theatre front for a long time. Stopped since I delivered Isaac. Wow, that's like coming to three years already. Despite this, we're still firm friends with our YellowCube Playback group members. So now and then, we'd have a gathering. The gathering, this time round, took place on 28th November 2009, at Jo's place. Was very nice of him to host us again. We kinda practically forced him into it, coz his house was most central being in Bt Timah. We weren't keen on travelling to Ruth's Punggol place, and think the rest weren't keen in coming all the way to our Jurong West again. So Bt Timah was a just compromise :p
As you can tell, we'd forgotten to take a group pic. Sighz. In fact, the only pix we had are those Angie took of Isaac! (there were many of Isaac and his foot!). I simply must remind myself to be more assertive and proactive in taking pictures. I find that nowadays, people tend to be very paiseh about taking pix. Perhaps they don't want to appear narcissisitc or something.

pix taken on 28th November 2009, by Angeline Cheong

Isaac @ 2 years abuot a week to 4 months

We kinda miss playback, a lot. But with the twins now, we know it's kinda impossible to do playback at the moment. We simply don't have the time nor the energy. But, we can see Isaac's growing bigger and we're gradually playing simplified theatre warmups, or theatre games with him. So we have hope in our hearts. We're looking forward to do playback theatre with our kids! yes!!! :) How nice, that would be!