Eat, drink and be married!

 C has a habit of putting things back exactly where he took (hooray cos both his dad and mom are horrible at this so none of us can lay claim on this attribute). And one such morning, I gave him a toilet roll to be entertained while I dressed up for work and then told him casually to put it back - literally meaning to put it on the chair outside the toilet. He nimbly made his way into the toilet, found the toilet roll stand and placed it gingerly back.


Oh. My. Heart.


He even removed that bit of toilet paper hanging and made sure it was where it was, before I niftily removed it.


What goes on in his mind really? Baffling.

The header of this entry could be a sweeping statement somewhat but my view of older children and interactions with them have definitely changed after this particular encounter.


I once mused about gracious older children who took him on as a little brother and included him in their games. The nice ones..and of course in any real world, there will be the big bad wolves, the nasty ones and...we finally met one. The purpose of even documenting this isn't to glorify anything but remember what we taught him.


So there was no swim class and we brought him to the children's pool which has slides, water fountains and all the fun bits. He was initially fearful of the fountain and went on a slide even...and we decided to just let him have some fun at the waddling pool. There was another family of 4 there, the dad, mom, older boy and his younger sister.


We were always minding our own business until the older boy came by to playfully splash water at C...and we all assumed it would be child's play. He even proceeded to give C a playful hug and I've always encouraged him to be friendly to other children - until he got his cheek scratched.


A whole slew of emotions followed after - bewilderment, shock and of course C could not process what was happening and bless him for not remembering anything because I, was hurt. Hurt by the actions of the boy who masked his intentions with a hug. Playful or not, it was not to be condoned and even if apologies were made and he tried to give C another hug, what was done is done.


We taught him to be friendly, even to people who may not reciprocate with the same friendliness and now, we teach him to say no if he is ever bullied.

I chanced upon this really interesting toy whilst taobao surfing and got it carted out almost immediately. Then came assembly, who should do it? HAHAHA. The default has always been the Hubba and I decided to unlock the achievement.







There, finally assembled though it took me a fair bit of figuring out how.







And it entertained him for a good two days until battery ran out. I'd not forget the glee in his eyes, the little dance he did when the animals went on autopilot around the circuit.


To more achievement unlocked!

 

 Purchasing the Gardens Annual Pass has to be one of the best buys when we get to check out festivals like Sakura and Poinsettias over Chinese New Year.

What I did not expect was our nation's obsession with this Japanese import, the first weekend it was launched the carpark was so full we gave up. Subsequently every other weekend seemed so full to even attempt based on other likeminded families who braved the crowds and having their photos photobombed by every other sakura fan.

So, we decided to take leave for this. Weekday morning, 9am and it was so empty and cold!

 

 There were a few species on exhibit and only after our visit did I start matching what we saw!


   



   



   

Prunus yeodensis is also known as the yoshino cherry and produces white flowers with five petals.

   

Prunus Kikushidare has large, light pink flowers that resemble Chrysanthemums, hence “Kiku” in its name, which means Chrysanthemum in Japanese

 

I want a sakura bouquet please, kbyethx! 


   

 In its full glory, without the crowds.

   
The mandatory shrine shot at the entrance.



Cyrus gets very excited at the gardens for some reason, perhaps we have a botanist in the making. 

   

 Thank god for timer and I love how it captures him smiling! Such a rare snap.

   

Little poser! 





Walking with the dowager, haha! It's moments like these that I appreciate him being little. That reaching out for my hand to grip it really tightly and never quite letting go unless of course he gets enticed by something fun.

How long do these moments last? 
   

Until we make it to the streets of Japan during Sakura season, this is sufficient! 

   


We had heaps of fun with all the photogenic corners, we cannot wait for next year's Sakura season already!

The exhibition runs till 8th April...which leaves not much time if you haven't checked it out yet! 

Wow, 21 months.

The months keep flying by and the days...are long. Sucha contradiction sometimes. And where are we?

• I'm so thankful for the chinese immersion class we put him into, he can understand chinese now, his name and reply when he fancies. Some improvement is better than zilch!
• The word associations are going on super strong - Papa's car, Ah Gong's car, Sai Sai scared (good lord, when did Cyrus become Sai sai??), Mama pat pat! I love how he can complete the songs and our favourite bible verse together: Jeremiah 29:11.
• He can articulate his thoughts and feelings alot better than just screaming and rolling on the floor (we scored our first roll on the floor in full public eye at Decathlon no less. Hooray, milestone checked. Hurhur).
• Swimming is his favourite weekend activity, we got it so bad when he was asking to swim every other minute of the day. Coach thinks he is progressing well - he dares to dip his head under water now. :)
• "Same same" matters, from food to drink to...wanting to be an adult. 
• We introduced him the scooter and the helmet! 
• He excitedly points out his friends to me in school (and gets ignored mostly. sigh!) and names them at home too. We're all so happy he loves school more than home ahha!

3 more months to the big two!