Eat, drink and be married!

How could we the fans of gardens miss out on their Children's Festival? I did not intend to visit it so many times but we made a total of 3 trips to finish the attractions we wanted to visit. Talk about hardcore and the toddler is increasingly unwilling when it comes to posing for photos.


Children's Festival had Enid Blyton as the focus, bringing across her classics in different arenas and there were a combination of complimentary and paid attractions.



Shimmery Wonders was one of the free attractions where we got to enter a room similar to Trick Eye Museum.





Asshole parenting in progress.


The other room had kaleidescopes and lights.





Which then prompted me to get tickets for the other attractions as well. Being a friend of the Gardens scored us $2 off the $12 price tag.



There was an open area with inflatables strewn and a couple of see-saws...





:) These bright smiles always make these outings so worth while.







He squealed excitedly and ran towards 'melon' and started jumping happily.





Us on a lollipop.



Even the toadstools were inviting.




Candy Party was hollering at us since it was just right smack next to the inflatables.





Turns out we had to find the blue foam to redeem for a shot at the gacha gacha machine!







Momma seems to be more excited actually.





Into the enchanting world of mirrors and dressing up as a wizard!





 



   

 Mascot sighting was also a highlight and this scaredy cat was only interested in chasing them and not posing with them.

   

 The roving balloonist however, was his favourite! Here's him and his banana balloon.

   
Toy Fort somehow had the most number of people queueing all the time. We returned twice just to complete this! And it was just a shooting game with balls. Talk about over anticipation.


 

The sweaty boys.

All in this was cheap fun and worth three weekends worth - so there! I'm a fan.

Aviva Fundae 2018 was our first encounter and thanks to all the good reviews from fellow mummy friends, I thought we'd go have some good fun. It was scorching at 3pm and boo for not taking note of that.


There were two different entrances, one for goodie bag collection and another unofficial one near The Meadow's carpark.







Branding everywhere.





So our tickets entitled us to 1 free beer or juice unchilled which was just...urgh. Better than nothing in the scorching sun.





There were loads of game stations but the catch is, which ones suited an under 2 year old.





So the boys did a lot of running under the sun, loading up the Vit D!





And when we found a game we thought the boys would be interested in - at least the men were for the free beer if they got their boys into these donuts and were willing to be dragged around.







Turns out Cyrus had other plans and wanted to drag his father in it. =_=" Ended up nobody got anywhere and we still scored beer anyway!





We chanced upon this crowd puller - BUBBLES. And no simple ones, they were huge and kinda magical.





Daddies to the rescue for catching those large and floaty bubbles!





One of them in action....and it's sucha pity they popped so early.


Would I be back next year? Probably not....until he is ready to take on water play and all the rides on his own perhaps and when he can sit down for a proper movie under the stars. With the exception of icecreams, everything else was chargeable.


Aviva Fundae 2018, done and dusted!

This was us last week, watching over the poor boy who started coughing in his sleep and then spotting a fever of 38 degrees. He slept the whole of the first day after being diagnosed with an inflamed throat and missed dinner, super unusual for his greedy self. Skipped his shower even and continued napping. When the doctor asked us what we fed him to get sucha inflamed throat, I was so puzzled. He was on homecooked food and his food was mainly slowcooked and baked very occasionally.


Second day, I checked his throat and discovered a carpet of ulcers. Got him diagnosed for herpangina and bam! There goes the whole week of school and child care leave to take. The crankiness peaked on day 3 when he could neither eat nor drink and every time he attempted, he would stick his fingers in and wail non stop. :(


Herpangina is a variant of HFMD and it's usually detected through mouth ulcers and a fever. No blisters are sighted.


If he could he wanted to be hugged all day long and sigh, what I would do to make you feel better. The 4 day ordeal was horrifying with the rude looking ulcers flaring up and he refused almost all his favourite food - watching him cry was no joke. And all the time he didn't want to be confined at home triggering off unreasonable tantrums and never ending teary high octane screeching episodes.


Finally, the day came where he took milk from the bottle without wincing and even asked for more.


Herpangina 0, Cyrus 1. We won this battle of herpangina. Fingers crossed.


I wish I can offer any form of advice apart from wishing for the best and offering as much liquids as possible - I was syringing him milk at some point, 5ml at a time. :( The usual icecream and jelly did not work its magic as it did for HFMD. I'd say this herpangina is a curse and I detest it way more than HFMD.

As we approach the terrible twos, the frequency of the tantrums have definitely increased and the patience testing games have started.

• He's gotten a lot more vocal and by means of vocal includes being heard in a play that requires silence and church when the pastor was preaching.
• "Where we going?" He asked in the most earnest and adult like fashion one weekend. I was trying hard not to laugh. Will these why questions start soon?
• His favourite breakfast item is now cereal and vegetables (refers to this vegetable snack we got off iherb and decided it was too tasty to eat on its own, so why not mix in with baby cereal which we stocked so much off!)
• We attended our first play with Act3, Aviva fundae, Children's Festival...argh, the backlog! He's at an age where all these still intrigue him so yay for us.
• The persistence is AMAZING. He wailed for a good 20 minutes outside the house just because we did not allow dirty slippers in the house - say what? He went to school in slippers too all because, shoes suddenly became the arch enemy.
• His first taste of croissant when we the asshole parents decided to have high tea one garang weekend and had to cave into stuffing him with food.
• Trains and dinosaurs are the hottest toys.
• He uses English and Chinese quite interchangeably, preferring to say 喝水 instead of drink water. 

And with that, we are gonna turn 2 so soon! GASP.

Like all eager beaver parents, we signed him up for Heguru at a grand old age of 1 year old. Here's how it went for us, there were no trials to test and it was upfront signing up of a term and wham you swim or float or drown. (OK, not so serious since it was parent accompanied).




It is no secret that there is no hard selling, they know it works and is effective hence the whole "you know it's good since you are here" attitude. So fine, without a clue how a proper lesson in Singapore is conducted, we signed up for a term.


After 10 months with them, we called it quits.




60 minutes of flashcards, songs, games




It is intense. As an adult, I could barely catch up and I expected my 1 year old to. What an irony, if anything the fidgety little one was engaged enough at the start. And what more he was able to get some of those questions right so that kept our interest high.




Teachers matter, for the kid


In a span of 10 months he had a change in teachers and friends and I saw a noticeable change. He was less engaged in class somehow and I tried enquiring about his favourite teacher's class.


So then, with this declined interest came my dwindling interest in enrolling him for yet another term.


Right brain training until 3


Sure there is a lot of theory about this, theoretically the brain absorbs the most from 0-3 and beyond that? They have classes till 12...I mean really? At that age when the golden age is over, it still benefits?


Different outlets, different management styles


Under this franchise, there are two different groups governing this and they are managed quite differently. We went to the group under Mr Kuah Eng Liang, came with a briefing session and no deposit required, neither did we have to attend a "counseling" session to dissuade us from withdrawing Cyrus from the classes. It was rather fuss free and thank god for that, I cannot handle dramatic farewells.


I'm sure we benefited somehow from these 10 months and gave the programme enough faith I feel...he can complete iroita puzzles when he feels like it, has a pretty good memory yet whether or not it can be directly attributed to Heguru remains a big question and unless you're going to sit down with your child all the time to revise and reinforce then really, it really is just another enrichment class to check off the list.


Honestly, we could revisit this a year or two later but for now, we are quite done with Heguru.

 

 Thank you for making me a Mom and until you think getting sloppy kisses from your Mom is uncool...:) Let me just enjoy these moments.

Mother's day came and went and in true fashion...it was just chaotic.

645am He headbutted off the bed and landed with my pregnancy pillow cushioning his fall and the husband literally leapt out of bed and I barely woke up.

730am The bub attempted to gouge the Hubba's eyes and yank my hair out. I finally woke up to my second mother's day.



9am For the first time in yonks we arrived on time for service, sunday school and made it in time for my cake pickup at 1045am. Oh gosh, the precision really in planning all these appointments.

11am On time for Mother's Day Brunch...hooray!

1230pm Cyrus was relatively well behaved for most part of the brunch until....the last packet of quinoa and beet snacks was empty. I'm thankful I had 75 minutes to digest lunch.

330pm Nap up and the bub was ready to burn all of his energy and mine. We played toddler bowling, sorted pasta and lego before it was time to prep to dinner!

6pm Mother's day dinner and it was definitely not complete without drama. The helper put the ice bag into the car without the cake. HURHUR.


   

So back home we went to sing songs as if it's our birthday and it's time to eat cake! He had his first taste of chiffon...and he LOVED IT.

That kinda of wrapped up my Mother's Day with three cards. Two from Cyrus and one from the Hubba, three dresses and another celebration to add to my memory bank. 

With just 2 months shy of the TWO big celebrations we have lined up for him....I am getting a tad emotional listing all these milestones...

• This month he surprised us with his linguistic progress - he is officially bilingual (fist pump), not a biggie but in my household where Chinese is hardly used (though we as his parents are effectively trilingual)...and if you've followed us, you'd know I hardheartedly enrolled him in a Chinese immersion programme for childcare. He can reply in Chinese and tell us what he wants occasionally in Chinese.
• He went "mama buy strawberries" one evening...
• There's still a lot of babbling going on - it amazed me how I did a mini shoot of some food items and he was NEXT to me with a box of paints and he actually had a full conversation by himself and the helper without touching my photoshoot items. *impressed maximum*
• He is a major observer and he knows what belongs to who...and mostly where they belong to. His OCD streak amuses me mostly.
• Somehow this month he developed a fear for water (damn!), he likes swim classes but there was one particular class he wailed nonstop and we had to stop it prematurely..
• This month we stop Heguru...more of that in a separate post.
• Throwing food across the table is his latest pastime, apart from the fact that he can aim pretty well (and I would've chuckled if not for the severity of the situation), off he went to the naughty corner.
• The meltdowns are so real - we dealt with one on the car floor, a kicking and wailing toddler and...two very exasperated parents. More to come I suppose?
• He can name us by our English names and had a field day calling his dad by his first name.

 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.

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!