We got a second hand play yard (like an animal pen, or cage) for Samuel to confine him in the living area so as to not attack our hi-fi, DVDs, books, bicycles, and other items within his reach.
He seems happy enough in it for a while (about 30 minutes) and then he’ll ask to be carried out.
Samuel still cries, but his cry is so fake that it is obviously seeking sympathy or trying to get his way. Nevertheless, his voice is now hoarse due to excessive crying.
YowCH later on brought him to the playground, and Samuel likes the rocking horse. He is able to sit and rock (very gently) by himself.
Today is Samuel’s birthday, he has just turned one. We thank God for blessing us with Samuel and we celebrated with a small party with family and friends. Grace’s parents and sister came, so did YowCH’s sister and family, and even Chee Kean and Ming Meng came all the way from PJ. A large contingent of our church care group members came, too.
This is the boss of the day:
The entire family started working on the lunch party from 7:30am. Esther cleaned the house, David helped prepare garlic, Grace made porridge for the children, Joseph bought coffee and chilli (from chicken rice shop).
The Goldhill chicken rice guys gave Samuel a birthday drumstick!
Grace’s mum made great yam cake (salty) and water chestnut cake (sweet) for Samuel’s party. Very nice!
There was much to prepare, Esther chopped mint for mojito drink, YowCH fried macaroni Cantonese-style, Joseph prepare the petai and David made great sardines (with lime and chilli).
Here’s God’s blessing to us in our lunch spread. We had Cantonese herbal soup, baked chicken and grilled prawns, too.
Here are photos of Samuel’s family and friends.
The girls led by Esther were busy making lots of great drinks.
We then had the birthday song over the water chestnut cake, and a black-out candle:
This is Samuel in his suit for the day:
Grace and YowCH got him a size-zero Adidas football.
Happy birthday, Samuel.
We went for swim again today, and took a pair of goggles from swim coach for Samuel. Matching colours with his swim suit.
He really didn’t like it.
Here are some photos of Esther, David and Joseph in the pool during lessons:
And that’s coach Francis Tay, nice guy.
We noted that some condensation formed inside the underwater casing of the camera, but it wasn’t a leak. Probably due to moisture trapped in the case when we sealed it, and then the heat from the camera body cause the condensation to happen at the coolest point, that is the lens area which is furthest from the body.
We went to a small French restaurant in Thomson V Two, Black Sheep Café (Café Les Muitton Noir). The food was nice, not too expensive (but not cheap either) and we had a great lunch as a family celebrating mum’s birthday and Esther’s upcoming baptism.
Then we put Samuel on the car…
Joseph received a wood craft ship from his classmate Katelyn. We built it on Saturday. The sails were plain white, so we printed some pirate design instead!
David also suggested painting the ship. We’ll see how to go about that.
On Sunday, Joseph played at The Rainforest again, friendly matches.
David was at the neighbouring Centaurs Sports Park with five other West Coast boys on loan to the another team that was short of players. Good exposure and made new friends.
Samuel had 4 teeth erupting over the past week (with fever) and missed one week of school. He was having his teething holiday with grandparents at Moh Guan. Now he has 6 teeth!
Esther will be baptised this coming Saturday.
It is a long weekend, with Hari Raya Haji on Sunday, Monday becomes a holiday.
Joseph went on an excursion to the hydroponics pond and the brought some plants back.
For Children’s day on Friday, Samuel dressed as a ‘farm animal’.
Samuel is also very fast in crawling and climbing, as seen here with him inside his toy box. Rather dangerous. But he has yet to learn to stand up and walk.
David and Joseph had soccer training, even in the rain (as long as no lightning risk).
Esther has no exams and no ballet, so Grace, Esther and Samuel were at soccer training.
Lastly, after soccer, we had dinner with Yan’s family at Brotzeit, Star Vista.
It is October Fest. We had knuckles, rosti, grilled pork and a beer mix. Samuel had some pork knuckle meat, too.
Grace was working overnight shift on Saturday, so YowCH brought the children to the swimming class, 8:00pm to 9:00pm, after Church.
The pool was absolutely empty by closing time, 9:00pm.
On Sunday, Joseph brought Samuel along with YowCH to buy breakfast, and Samuel was in the Maclaren pram.
After this photo was taken, YowCH did some wheel swapping to balance the use, as the back wheels are practically fully worn out.
Then the boys went to soccer and Esther went to ballet. After our showers at home, we went to ARC for dinner, and ate at OKG Express. Rather nice food.
A little update on the swimming progress.
Grace is now swimming her 10 laps in breast-stroke every week. YowCH was having bad back-pains since last Monday (probably due to work stress), so he didn’t swim laps, but was floating and diving in the water to help relieve the back pains (and it helps!).
Samuel is more tolerant to the pool now, and quite enjoy the swim. Drank some water, though, when we threw him about! He can kick himself back to the surface from under water.
Joseph is practically swimming now, but the stroke is not perfect, and his playful nature makes it hard to teach him. David is as playful as ever, also making it difficult to teach, but he can swim well now. Esther is swimming great, but needs more build on her muscles to carry the distance, and she can handle the life-jacket, clothes and somersaulting 4 times in the water.
And here are our non-Dinobots from Transformers 4 range:
Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, Crosshair and Lockdown (the Lamborghini Aventador).
We are probably not getting anymore, perhaps rusty Optimus Prime and Stinger. Galvatron is not very nice as a toy. With recently gotten Slog, we are short of 1 more Dinobot, Snarl, and the set of Dinobots will be complete.
David climbed a tree near home! This is really fun.
We bought a plastic planter box in Malaysia and transplanted our mint plants. With fertilisers and soil, we hope that the mint will grow and gives us endless mojitos.
Dinobots! We got Slog (silver), the tall guy on the right. This adds to Grimlock (brown), Strafe (blue), Slash (cyan), Slug (purple) and Scorn (red). Last one to get is Snarl (green) which is not yet on sale.
On Sunday morning, we went to Shuqun Sec School at Jurong East for friendly football match with Yuhua and BB East View. A nice cool shady morning and had great fun playing. Esther was helpful in taking photos.
Samuel had a great time rolling about the artificial grass. And the football friends were all very happily playing with him.
David and Joseph both played very well. David was either defender or goal keeper, and defended very well. Joseph was playing striker and scored a goal!
After football, we went for our swim. Grace is regularly doing 10 laps now (with rests in between) and YowCH is pushing for 10 laps in less than 15 minutes, but so far only got to 15’35″.
In the afternoon, Esther had ballet for 2 hours and we shopping in Funan Centre. Then we had Brotzeit dinner at Star Vista.
Thank God for a nice weekend.
