Samuel on bike with YowCH
Here’s the Yow-family cycling method for small children:
Entries Tagged as 'Samuel'
Weekend – Soccer games, Samuel, 2nd hand boots, box, paper-drum, holiday program
This weekend is the start of the June holidays. On Sunday morning, Joseph played soccer at Yusuf Ishak Sec Sch in the Under-7 team (the Under-9 team was also playing). David helped manage the U-7 team, and Esther was helpful in bringing Samuel about. There were 8 teams of U-7 and U-9.
While Joseph was playing, YowCH went swimming at Jurong East Swimming Complex with Esther and David. Samuel was asleep, so Grace looked after the small boy. After the swim, we returned to Joseph’s games, for the closing ceremony. Madam Halimah Yacob, MP for Bukit Batok, gave way the participation medals.
Later in the afternoon, Esther went to ballet class, and David played in a friendly match with BB East and Ulu Pandan at Queenstown Pri Sch. Joseph helped with the warm-ups and cheered for the Under-12 team.
A very tiring weekend. Thankfully, Monday is a public holiday, Vesak Day.
Here’s Samuel at KKH garden, after lunch:
With Grace at work with afternoon duties, YowCH picked up some 2nd-hand items which Grace have arranged for:
1. 1 pair of Timberland hiking boots for the children. The other two pairs were picked up some time last week.
2. 1 toy carry-box, Playmobil, for Samuel:
3. 1 Paper Jamz ultra-thin finger drum pad.
The pad has outlet, and sounds great when patched to our 40W amp! The built-in speakers are good enough for Samuel.
Lastly, here’s a look at our program for June 2015 (prepared by the children). We are fully booked!
Eco-park, guitar & drums, soccer
Last Sunday, we spent the morning at Rumah Tinggi Eco Park before our swim.
Samuel really loves to climb!
Up on the hill, it looks like some holiday scene!
Pillar hugging at the multi-purpose porch.
Back at home, Esther and David played the guitar and drums together, sounds good.
We managed to sell the acoustic drum set, at $200 which gives us $20 to cover the transportation expenses. Worthwhile for the short time we played the drums.
In the afternoon, the boys went for soccer training as usual, at Tanglin Secondary School.
YowCH ran 10km, Joseph & David shoe bags, Samuel with backpack, dinner at Porn’s
This is the first time YowCH managed to cover 10km in a run. Well, there was included about 1.2km of walks (should have persevered and walked less for better timing).
Just short of 2 minutes and 37 seconds to keep the 10km under 1 hour.
The target was originally 8km, but along the way, high in adrenaline, he decided to push to the 10km.
The swim with the family after the run (and breakfast) was very relaxing!
In the afternoon, Joseph and David went for soccer while Esther went to ballet. The boys had new shoe bags, matching colours with their water bottles.
For dinner, we went to Star Vista. Samuel carries his own backpack with water bottle and diapers and changing stuff.
Dinner was Thai food at Porn’s (Pornsak’s). Very nice!
YowCH’s run gear, Samuel’s iPod casing
In preparation for the run, YowCH got some useful stuff:
A belt pouch to hold essentials, a clip on blinker light (from his bike, for night runs), a small water bottle (advice from friend, the water point is often too crowded with people), and glucose tablets (advice from CCK, wrap in paper for ease of access).
Grace got a nice second-hand ($8) Fisher-Price iPod/iPhone holder for Samuel, nice handles and he can be prevented from pressing the screen accidentally.
Samuel’s new uniform, YowCH running, Drum set, Transformers
Firstly, we bout the new school uniform for Samuel, the smallest size XS, and yet he is too small to wear. We’ll keep them for later.
As YowCH started running again, the building up progress is good, with records up to this morning as below:
Here are some selfies of the very sweaty YowCH after this morning’s 6.0km.
Target to reach 10km before the HomeTeamNS REAL Run 2015 Sentosa run on 17 May.
Yesterday, we got ourselves a second hand drum set, Fender Starcaster, with hi-hat, snare, bass, floor tom, 2 tom-toms and a crash. All for $180, not too expensive, but taking up lots of space at home.
Esther can play pretty well, David is picking it up fast, and Joseph is keen.
Samuel was also very excited over the drums! Very loud.
We will need to sell the set and buy digital instead (for space and also lower noise).
We got ourselves Superion (Aerialbots) and Menasor (Stunticons), for Joseph and David respectively. The models are not too nice, but simple and fun enough for the boys, and rather affordable (each set about $140). Both can be posed very nicely.
A new bed for Samuel
As Samuel dislikes the confines of the baby cot very much, we decided to upgrade him to a bed. Grace found a second-hand IKEA Kritter bed ($89 new) with Vyssa Snappna mattress ($40 new) for $50 at Tiong Bahru, so we drove over to the place after dinner and picked up the bed. It is in very good conditions as the owner (small boy) did not want to sleep on the bed so the parents sold it off. The mattress is cheap and soft foam, but for Samuel, it should be OK.
It fits just nicely into the car, with all 6 of us, too! The older children were very helpful in carrying and loading/unloading it.
Upon reaching home, and while we prepared the space by clearing the old cot, Samuel was already taking to like the new bed.
After cleaning the bed and the room, we moved the bed into place, under the close supervision and occasional help by Samuel.
That’s Samuel on his new bed. He likes it. We added some cardboard under the mattress as we can feel the bed planks under the soft mattress (cheap foam).
Here’s a little story about the cot. We found the cot thrown away at Redhill Close a few months prior to Esther’s birth in 2002. Thanking God for the free cot, we took it home and cleaned it. We had to find a piece of ply-wood and cut to size, and also bought a mattress from IKEA and cut it to size. The door rails were also damaged, which YowCH repaired. Esther was born when the new paint we applied was still wet! After 13 years, we left the cot, the board and the mattress at our Rumah Tinggi ground floor, perhaps someone else can make use of this cot.
Samuel in uniform
This is Samuel in the Learning Vision uniform, the old design.
We need him to grow bigger (much bigger) to fit into the new design which we bought for Joseph.
Good Friday at church playground, Esther baking with friend
We spent some time at the Church playground after Good Friday service.
Samuel really enjoys the slides. But he likes to slide head down!
Here are the children playing.
The 4.
Esther invited her friend, Chloe, over to our place and practiced baking cupcakes for her school exams.
While waiting for the cake to bake, they played Wii for a while.
David was also inspired and he did some crepes, filled with Nutella, peanut butter or marmalade.
Samuel’s first day in Toddler, Esther’s cross-country win
Today is Samuel’s first day as Toddler. He must wear uniform now, but we let him wear the very old design (David’s time).
Esther ran in her school’s cross-country race last Friday at Macritchie Reservoir, and got 6th place under Sec 1 Girls category. She’ll be training more to improve her time and position in running.
