ANNOUNCEMENT - NATIONAL LIBRARY

I am an ardent book lover. I just love to read! I think if I can't read, I might as well DIE ... haha! I'm that serious! I guess reading is a form of de-stressing for me, an outlet to "escape the realities" of life or you may call it, simply ... my hobby. I need to read (nearly everyday, really its true!), be it the local Straits Times, my constant supply of women's & parenting magazines, borrowed books & magazines from the local libraries, my precious books bought from bookstores like Borders, Kinokuniya or Popular (which I am a member of & buy very frquently from).

I am a voracious reader & I hope my son will be too! I am certain my thirst for knowledge & love for reading has helped me a whole lot in my studies, especially in the English Language & Literature. That is why I am a great supporter of reading & encourage everyone, young or senior, to pick up a book or any reading material ... & just read, read, read! I am keen to share my love for books with my son, when he grows up. Already now, I buy him tonnes of books to read & ponder. Though he's not really reading yet, I am hoping he will love to read, just like his Mummy! This is one thing I am willing to spoil him in .... a love for reading!

Since its the June school holidays, library members can borrow double the quota amount (usually its 4 but its extended to 8). So the greed in me was nearly satiated when I recently borrowed 13 + 1 hubby's books recently (using my & hubby's membership, Ryan has a card too!). Wow! we had a hard time carrying those heavy books home. Lucky, my dear hubby was willing to humour me, by helping me carry them ... hehe!

Anyway, came across these information on their website. It seems like soon (next month), we can borrow 6 items instead of 4 ... woo-hoo! (including audio-visuals too). I haven't checked out what stuff they stock, but keen to "investigate" the DVDs, CDs very soon. You can also renew your borrowed books or magazines (which I just did, easy-peasy!) on-line through their website for FREE (previously you had to pay a fee for each book). So convenient!

Their website is here : National Library

I hope everyone will come to love reading ... just like I do! Happy Reading !!!

BACK-DATED POST - MILKSHAKE TIME

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you might know that my son, Ryan is practically "addicted" to McDonald's Chocolate Milkshake. Here we are, in downtown Orchard Road and what were we doing? ... nothing much really, just window shopping & stuff. When we passed a Mc's, my dearly beloved insist on having his "Bup" (sounds like burp) - that's what he calls his milkshake.

So here we are ... having yet another milkshake! Since he won't be stopping his milkshake "addiction" anytime soon, I devised a sneaky little "plan". Sometimes (when I can remember), I request the server to half my milkshake & dispense it in 2 cups instead. This is so that Ryan will only finish up only his half-a-cup of milkshake instead of a whole cup. There are times he refuses to share his milkshake with us, being that we try to "force" him to share it with us so that he doesn't finish ALL the sugary drink by himself (yeah! spread it among the whole family ... daddy & mummy).

We're not being cheapskates here ... just using a trick or two (whenever I can). I guess as parents, we do have to employ some sneaky tricks (that we can get away with) ... sometimes we don't really have a choice. Until of course, the child turns old enough to understand that he's being tricked, straight in the face. Well, until Ryan gets this trick, we will still be using it regularly.

Until then ...

Playing with the digicam cover.

Standing tall.

There's a bird ... up there!

It's there, Mama!

On top! Really!

BACK-DATED POST (JACOB BALLAS)

I heard a lot about the Jacob Ballas Children's Park but never knew how to get there. It seemed so damn elusive! We first tried to get there when we visited the Singapore Botanic Garden's from the main entrance. Duh! the park was at the other end & it would have taken us ages to get there (not interested in doing that!). So that mission was cancelled. Second time, we tried going by the Bukit Timah way, near IE (Institute of Education) coz I read in some of the blogs that it was somewhere there. Ermm ... we couldn't find the entrance coz the only way in was through a car-park barrier (only one way in). So the park couldn't possibly be inside IE right?? Errmm .. yes it was! That's what we found out when we finally got there on our third try. I told hubby to go through the car park barrier coz my instincts told me so. I reasoned that if the park wasn't there at the most we just pay for the minutes of parking or it might even be free of charge because of the grace period. Alas, we finally found (Mr) Jacob Ballas!!!
The funny thing is this park has an odd criteria. Only children under 12 (I think) could enter the park, but they can be accompanied by adults. Adults who wish to see the park (without the requisite kids) need to make some arrangement (at the counter, I think). So any adult who wanna see the park ... go "borrow" someone's kids, if you don't have any!

To tell you the truth, the park was a bit of a let down really. First of all, there is the parking charge (I sorta assumed all public parks parking was free ... not!). Then it was the size, the park was much smaller than I expected. Thirdly, I had this impression that the park was some fantastic area for the kids to play & explore ... it wasn't! (in my view anyway). Ok, it did have a "miserable" water feature (looked like it needed some scrubbing & maintenance) that you have to constantly press (the sensor of sorts) to let the water "sprout". Ok, maybe the kids might enjoy doing that but I just found it rather irritating & unnecessary. There was also a rather small playground, some educational plant thingies, a man-made waterfall & a (only good) suspension bridge. That's about it, even if there were more, I didn't see a real need to explore further coz I felt very let down by the place. Oh, they have short vising hours too!

Maybe I was expecting too much or I let myself think that this place was gonna be sooo fantastic. Not that there isn't stuff to see or do ... its just that we took such a long time to find this place, I was rather disappointed by its "grandeur" (or lack of it), when we finally found it. A lot of people on the blogs & the kids magazines also made the place seem more interesting than it really is. Well, maybe its just me .... but I assure you there are better places in Singapore, for kids to play in.

Surprisingly, Ryan seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit (u know kids, any form of play will excite them to bits!) but Mummy really don't see what the big deal was. I guess what can you expect from a place that cost nothing (free) .. not much I guess! I think the Marina Barrage was actually more fun! Which makes me think ... hhmm, maybe we should pay the barrage a visit again, very soon.

Anyway, here are the photos. I doubt we will be there again ... but then you never know, anything for Ryan!

Ryan liked feeling the water on his toes.

Mama, where did the water go? Did it stop again?

Getting some water from the pump, with Daddy.

On tip toes.

Daddy was smiling happily!

Trying to convince Ryan that it was safe to cross the bridge.

Tiny, wobbly steps!

Hanging on for dear life!

Trying to look cool & collected!

Tried to upload the vid I took of Ryan playing with the water but 3 hours on ... the vid still didn't finish uploading. Arrgh! I thought Blogger is geting better at this. Sigh ... maybe its because the video is longer than the ones I uploaded in the previous posts. Seem like "gambling" / tikam-tikam you know, sometimes you win, sometimes it "hangs" ... haha! Well, what can you do ... just trying to live within the limitations of my life!

BACK-DATED POST (WEEKEND OUTING)

A simple lunch at Zam Zam. You can see Ryan being very intent on taking apart his Daddy's watch. Ryan's always very interested in watches, so anytime his parents are willing to humour him ... he gets a go at them. Since the murtabak took a while to get served (it was a busy day!), he got some time to explore the watch.

Trying on Daddy's "huge" watch!

The following were taken on a different day (Ryan was wearing the same shirt though). Daddy was on leave that weekday & had to run some errands nearby. As it was not convenient to have an active boy around, he dropped Ryan & me at a nearby mall to spend the couple of hours (doing nothing really). It was a bit boring as most of the shops were not opened for business yet, so I had to drag him to the supermarket. After a while of looking at groceries we were at a loss of where to go (there's only so much cheese that you can drool over). I finally took him to take some rides & later on a short spot of window shopping & we finally settled on a treat of Ya Kun bread whilst waiting for our ride back home.

Another kiddy ride with Barney!

This ride was for free as the other two seats were taken by a Middle Eastern family with kids & they asked if Ryan wanted to ride too ... ermm, why not?

Another one of those rides.

Is that Daddy?

BACK-DATED POST (MOTHER'S DAY)

I forgot to post these earlier. Its just a simple makan session (cooked by my dear mum, whom I told not to cook coz its mother's day, she should rest instead) at my sis place for Mother's Day. Sis bought a mago cake for mum (it didn't go well with the guys though, you know most guys & fruits, they don't get it). It was a change from the usual chocolate, that I always tend to buy, so its nice. Well, fruits are good for you ... so thats that!

I realised that though it was Mother's Day ... I didn't get any photos of my dear mum. Nor of the other mum's that were there that day ... duh! Shows how spacey I can get sometimes. To tell you the truth, I didn't really enjoy this Mother's Day coz I got extremely upset that hubby had to rush to work at 9.00am that Sunday morning. It was a Sunday ... for goodness sake!!! By the time he got home it was almost 5 pm. So guess who was in a foul mood! Ok ok, I know it wasn't his fault but I just couldn't help but be upet coz my so-called Mother's Day celebration went haywire. Isn't Mother's Day a day for rest & relaxation for the mother ... I guess not!

The (not-so-sweet) mango cake from Polar Cake.

Ryan having a go at his cousin's ride, wearing a big sunshade.

Shades ... too big!

My nephew, Sahmi ... holding on the the can party-decor thingy.

BACK-DATED POSTS (WEEKEND OUTING)

Just another weekend of back-dated posts. First batch of pics are breakfast time. This time there are some pics of me & Ryan. Nothing special bout that ... just that I don't really have a lot of photos with my boy. Usually its me behind the lens as I don't really like to have my photos taken these days.
The other batch of pics are of Ryan playing at the kids playground. He was having a lot of fun at the slides, so we indulged.

Blowing on the hot tea!

Cool enough for sonny boy!

Snuggling with Daddy!

Looking cute!

Giving Mummy his model pose!

Posing with Daddy.

Smiles aplenty!

Posing with Mummy.

What's that?

What's up there? Ermm ... nothing, just trying to get Ryan to pose!

Daddy stands by, to help Ryan.

Having fun sliding down the slides!

Smiling at Mummy!

Here I come, slide!

So happy!

Cheeky smile!

Daddy on stand by again ... well, you never know!

Another ride!

Bye bear ... see you next time!

Looking at these pics, it seems like most of the photos are the same or duplicates but they really ain't. Each photo is different! I do tend to have the habit of snapping photos rather fast (manually, as my digicam multiple bursts need to be programmed). This is because I realised long ago that if I don't snap fast enough, I tend to miss out on a lot of beautiful shots. And because the subject matter is a squirmy & hyper-active 2 year old who cannot keep still for long or refuse to pose for longer than a nano second, I do what I can by snapping like a crazy woman. The results is soo many similar photos but I'm not complaining. One photo can be so very different than the next. Only by doing this do I get the gems of photos. I do tend to post most of the photos here because I thought, oh what the heck ... since the pics are already snapped, why not post them. I tried doing collages earlier when I just started the blog but I realised that the photos turn out very small, not much to see. I prefer to see individual pictures so I can "savour" each & every photo.

So that's my (rather lame) excuse on putting up the thousands of photos of Ryan. I never get bored of looking at them! I'm lucky that I have just 1 kid ... if I had two, well ... there'll be double of the thousands ... hehe!