See what I mean about Vanessa being a gym kind of person? I went to the “fitness corner” (it really is in a corner…) with Vanessa. There was a proper pull-up bar for me, and while I was doing my own pull-ups, Vanessa copied. No need for coaxing or any prompting. She just pulled up on some other bar that she could reach. Alright, she isn’t pulling yet, but she can hang from the bar and swing quite well.
Vanessa had her last dance class today. At least for now. We’re not continuing her class because she doesn’t seem very keen about it. In fact, most of the time, she simply doesn’t follow the class at all, except for the one or two activities which involve something that she likes. Running, and jumping, for example. Stomping her feet with her tap shoes too. But even then, she makes up her own variations of the routines. It’s a difficult time accompanying her for the class when she doesn’t want to listen.
As with most air travel to any distant destination, the first day is essentially spent on the plane or in the airport. So that’s basically how we spent day zero on our holiday trip to Hawaii. The flying time itself probably totaled not a lot more than 12 hours, but including the transit time, the early check-in at Changi Airport, it all adds up pretty quickly.
Just a simple MacDonald’s vanilla ice cream cone will make her really happy. There’s the more expensive Island Creamery next door, but Vanessa’s not really interested. Given the choice, she chose to go to MacDonald. Then in MacDonald, there are a variety of other ice cream choices like the sundaes or McFlurry. But all Vanessa wants is the simple 70 cent vanilla ice cream cone. Save the parents a lot of money huh.
Vanessa’s concert was on last Saturday. We arrived rather early for the concert. There were only three other cars in the car park, some of which might probably belong to the teachers or other staff of the church or child care centre. I was beginning to feel like a super-kiasu parent, although it wasn’t that we planned to be. It is probably good to get Vanessa to the child care centre early so that we could make her up, and give her some time to settle down. We didn’t realize that her concert item wasn’t till like another 2 hours later.
The little brother Ian doesn’t join us very often, that is, playing around on the bed with Papa, Mama and baby Vanessa. We’re slowly trying to make some time for everyone to play together. Of course, the little brother Ian just watches most of the time since he’s still too little.
I noticed we’re (or at least I am) still referring to Vanessa as the baby, and Ian usually as “didi” (little brother), only occasionally also as baby. The “didi” probably came about because it was easier for us to refer to Ian as “didi” rather than baby when we talk to Vanessa, otherwise she would be wondering if she’s the baby, how come there’s another baby now in the house. I imagine it was probably easier for her to understand and say “didi” than “Ian”. But actually, now she can say “Ian” too. So maybe the “baby” and “didi” stuffs can slowly be deprecated (hehe must use a IT terminology).
We went out to United Square a few days ago for some ice cream. The very budget conscious Vanessa chose McDonald’s over Ben and Jerry’s. After that, while baby Ian went to have his diaper changed, Vanessa and me waited outside. We were just at the corner where there is a Flexa shop located, which sells children’s beds. Vanessa noticed and was attracted to it. She strolled over to admire the beds. She turned back to look at me, I did not move.
No, not the first blog posting about our two year old daughter, but the first blog posting by our Vanessa. It’s her first ever post to a blog, at just a tender age of about 2 years and 5 months. Kids these days start early huh! I am totally surprised too, when I found out about the posting. How did it happen?
Well, I discovered it by chance actually. I noticed that my blog was updated. But I hadn’t posted any updates. So I checked, then I noticed there was a new photo entry in my Aside block (in the sidebar).
The two kids now have their own Facebook account. They don’t quite yet have their own email accounts though. Their email addresses are currently aliases that simply forward to my email account. It’s too bad that my preferred Facebook usernames for them have already been taken. Even my preferred usernames for them on Gmail have also been taken up. Yeah, it can never be too early to sign up for these things.
Just like what you’d expect of kids, Vanessa loves sweets and chocolates. See how messy she gets with her chocolates. Sometimes you’d wonder how they get the idea of liking certain things. It is like there is some built-in programming in all the kids. Chocolates, sweets, donuts, gummy bears…
A short update on Vanessa’s excursions to the playground. We were taking a walk again in the evening and Vanessa declared her desire to head to the playground. So we went.
I think we had 11 oysters each, from The Line restaurant at Shangri-la Hotel. It's a big buffet with plenty of food.
Lunch at Lerk Thai some weekends ago.
