A pen for Samuel

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.

Isis repairs started

The SMRT cab company has confirmed taking full responsibility for the accident, and repairs of the Isis have started at Mova, estimated 2 weeks. Likely to change the rim and some parts of the wheel and drive shaft.

Isis accident – hit on the side

After dropping Joseph and Samuel off at the childcare (Alfa Centre), YowCH drove Grace to work, and right after starting off into Mackenzie Road, an SMRT cab drove into the side of the Isis. No one hurt, but the car right side panels were all affected. The worst is the right wheel which was knocked crooked. The car had to be towed to Mova for repairs.


The cab’s front was pretty damaged, considering that the impact was rather great.

Again, on rental car, this time a Toyota Prius, strangely silent to drive because it is a hybrid car.

Looks like at least 2 weeks to repair. Thank God no one was hurt.

TYL Family Day at RWS

We went to Resorts World Sentosa on 8 Nov 2014 for T.Y.Lin’s Family Day, and had good fun at the SEA Aquarium and Trick Eye Museum.

Click on the photos below for more photos.






Samuel update

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.

Samuel’s 1st birthday party with friends & family

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.

Bike poles

Grace bought 2 bicycle poles from Groupon, to help with the management of the bicycles. The poles can each carry 2 bikes. They were delivered to TYLin and YowCH drove them home.

Esther and David were both helpful in setting up the poles. They are supposed to be mounted by drilling into the roof and floor, but we stuck some anti-slip mats and just pressure-mounted them instead. Hopefully no accident of the poles or bikes dropping.

Here are two views of the neater bikes arrangement. The children can now get their bikes out without removing the adults’ bikes and the overall space taken is reduced by several inches.

Yows doing “That Thing You Do” – Facebook

For YowCH’s Facebook “Close Friends”, you can watch this video of Esther, David and YowCH doing “That Thing You Do” with Joseph handling the video camera.

Transformers 4 Dinobots completed with Snarl

Grace gave YowCH a surprise e-bay buy – Dinobot Snarl.

Now the set is complete with Grimlock (brown), Strafe (blue), Slash (cyan), Slug (purple), Scorn (red), Slog (silver) and Snarl (green):

Samuel’s goggles for swim

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.