Summer holidays

The summer holidays are upon us and like many other parents who have kindy-going (or school-going) kids, I’ve been a little thrown off by the change in schedule. Mainly because every other minute is an exercise in patience, multi-tasking, mediation and providing entertainment.

So I’ve decided to approach the fact that I have 2 young children at home with me 24 hrs a day with a large dose of planning. Each day, I told myself should have 1 interesting activity, either for Littlelam, LittlerLam, or me. This is to keep everyone (ok, mainly me) from going completely insane. I wanted to sign Littlelam up for some holiday enrichment classes that Singaporeans seem to flock to, but didn’t manage to because of timing problems. So I guess I’m gonna just have to *ahem* enjoy my kids for the whole month of June.

Surprisingly, the past 5 days of holiday have already been rather eventful! Here are some snapshots of what we’ve been up to:

Day 1: bubble fun at Botanic Gardens

and getting too freaked out to walk down the slope

Day 2: Some fun at the Lego fair

Day 3: Global Day of Prayer

Day 4: Getting her very 1st tooth extracted!

Day 5: Something simple, just feeding fish and making footprints!

Red Radish ‘plant’

I rarely mention the rest of my family members in this blog because I try to preserve as much privacy as I can, while keeping this blog interesting. But I figured some of the interesting antics my Dad gets up to are quite worthy of mention, since he doesn’t have his own blog.

For one thing, my Papa is a fantastic gardener. He has the greenest fingers I know and can make almost ANYTHING grow out of a pot or in his little garden plot. And I am talking about a miserable, poor-soil type condition in tropical Singapore where a garden is a luxury. Every time I have ailing plants — like an Aloe Vera plant I named Ally and kept in my office many years ago, I would bring it back to him and within a few days of treatment from his tender-loving hands (and vast experience/ scientific knowledge), the sickly plant would soon be on the path to recovery! He even once managed to grow a tiny watermelon in Singapore — which is quite impossible, given the weather conditions.

So today, he posted a picture of his latest experiment, the Red Radish. So I’ve nicked the pic and posted it here, along with his simple instructions on how to grow your own Red Radish plant Looks really artistic too!

Red radish blooms in 3 weeks!

1) Buy red radish for $2 one week before CNY.

2) Place in dish with sawdust or potting mix in a shaded place.

3) 3 weeks later, voila! Flowers!

The Birds

It was gorgeously sunny out today and LittlerLam had messed up her schedule so much that I found myself free, with both kids awake in the late afternoon. So I decided to take them to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for a walk and to feed the birds.

We discovered to our dismay that they have since put up signs disallowing the public from feeding the fish (and terrapins) in the pond with our regular bread or scraps. Instead, visitors now must purchase fish food for the fish in the pond to ensure they remain healthy. So I guess it’s a good thing for the fish.

Well, a loss for the finned is a gain for the feathered — we ended up feeding bread to the birds! At first it started out with a couple of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Then within SECONDS, a whole flock of pigeons joined the fray. Then mynahs and even two starlings caught on! I must admit, I got a little scared at some points since they were a little over eager at times! I also made sure they didn’t come TOO near the baby! LittlerLam really loves birds, so she was so excited and squealing in delight as she watched Littlelam throw the bread scraps!

Trip to Jurong Bird Park

We’ve been making good use of the holidays to take Littlelam out, and now that we have LittlerLam in tow, we figured, why not also take her to the Bird Park, since she loves birds?

Thankfully the weather held out well for us that day (although it was super super humid), at least it wasn’t too sunny, and not stormy, phew! The Jurong Bird Park has really really improved since I’ve been there, which admittedly, was DECADES ago when I was in my early teens!! Lots of sprucing up, jazzing up and marketing has occured and in terms of child-friendliness and overall infrastructure, I kinda think it is better than the zoo! But I’ve always been a big fan of birds, so maybe I’m biased.  Some things haven’t changed though, like the iconic man-made waterfall which is the tallest one in the world. It was such a  big deal when it was constructed in the 1970s, that it made it into our Chinese textbooks and many of us still recall that chapter where we learnt about the famous 裕廊飞禽公园 and the 人工瀑布! Other exhibits that are still etched in my psyche are the Scarlet Ibis, which used to be free-flying together with the flock of flamingos at the entrance pond, and the macaws.

Blue macaws always obliging everyone for a photo

Looking at the scarlet ibis - now caged up, but still enjoying their food!

Flock of flamingos ( wait, is it spelt flamingoes? like mangoes?)

The famous man-made waterfall

The highlight of the trip (at least for me), and a brand new feature of the Bird Park was the hands-on Lory Loft where visitors got to feed the lovely Australian Lories (type of parrot, not a truck!) bird feed from a cup (that cost $3). We got to walk through a special aviary and were surrounded by fearless, colourful birds. Littlelam was also rather fearless and tried to pat one of the birds – and promptly got a warning nip! But fortunately she was unscathed and continued to feed other birds quite happily.

Littlelam feeding the birds

Look at how colourful they are!

Of course, penguins are also another highlight – everyone loves how cute these flightless birds are. Though they really look like they are flying underwater!

Checking out the African penguins which can survive in this tropical heat

Looks like an underwater blimp to me!!

LittlerLam was a dream throughout the trip – sleeping when we were at the bird show and being a good girl in the stroller. Looks like this one likes outings! Heh!

Beansprout project

Look what Littlelam brought back from school. I was a bit shocked at the mini forest of sprouts, but she proudly proclaimed, “I water it everyday that’s why it’s so healthy!” Well said!