Botanical Gardens

It was a fine morning and a good day to go to the Botanical Gardens. A couple of bird watchers had their super big and pro cameras all set up, lenses pointing up at a tree and about to shoot some amazing photos when the following happened:

All the birds flew away. The bird-lovers could only look dejectedly at one another, and carried their heavy cameras to another spot. Sorry guys!

Scene 2: A Causasian couple was enjoying the serenity, reading their papers when a hurried "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" startled them.

Looking up, they commented, "What a good way to track an active child!" Haha, Mama So had intended to buy a pair of silent shoes but there were too many people at Bata that day, plus Xuan was rather grouchy that day to choose properly.

We went on to feed the fish. Xuan is very generous with her fish food (bread), sometimes tearing too big a piece for the fish to swallow. And we saw a HUGE soft shell turtle! (鳖bie1)

On to the grass patch...and run like the wind!

Another happy day at the Botanical Gardens!

Happy Chinese New Year 2009

Colin's first ang pow~

(at Mama's HCJC track gathering. Great seeing u guys!)

Happy family~

Haha...Xuan gets the ang pow but Mama is the ultimate "winner" :P

Xuan's new (annoying) hobby

First day of school

My 2 little darlings

They do look alike, my 2 little darlings :) (Hmmmm Chern's hair seem to be a little long now)

Innate sisterly love :):) The Pooh bear is given to Chern by Xuan, which is her favourite bedtime buddy, cos he was crying. And the Pooh bear, coincidently, is a souvenior from LA Disneyland which was bought during Papa and Mama's honeymoon trip :):)

Imaginary tea party

She can climb the ladders quite confidently now. Toyed with the idea of enroling her in Tumbletots but lazy mommy thinks that playground and rolling on the bed is good enough :P

Long ring fingers

Mama So made an interesting discovery today: Baby Colin's ring fingers are longer than his index fingers!

Right hand

Left hand

Papa So says Mama So is "very free". Well, the reason why it's of any interest to me is because this was on Yahoo News:

"Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England report that men with longer ring fingers, compared to their index fingers, tended to be more successful (in high-actively trading that calls for risk-taking and quick reactions in the frantic high-frequency trading) in the London financial district......The same ring-to-index finger ratio has been associated with success in competitive sports such as soccer and basketball...

...The length ratio between those two fingers is determined during the development of the fetus and the relatively longer ring finger indicates greater exposure to the male hormone androgen, the researchers noted......Previous studies have found that such exposure can lead to increased confidence, risk preferences, search persistence, heightened vigilance and quickened reaction times..."

Let's see if it's really true in 30 yrs' time ;)

Cute little boy

One of Mama So's fav :)

"Huh?"

"Hi!"

Can you guess which one is Melody and which is Colin?

Chuckling

Little boy is chuckling and coo-ing and charming all the ladies. Whenever I carry him on my shoulders, he attracts the attention of people behind me with his bobbing head and I hear a lot of "So cute!" and "How old is he?" when I do turn around. He's going to be a heart breaker when he grows up! :P

The fact that didi is here to steal attention away is setting into Melody. Being sick recently, she is really whining for me everyday and refusing everyone else :(

Her toilet training is going well, she accepts her "little potty cover" on our toilet bowl happily and always claps after she finishes her business. She has her own fashion sense now and we let her exercise her "independence" by offering her choices ("Which pants do u want to wear? A or B?"). She sang "Rain, rain, all the way (yes she sings it that way), come again another day, little Melody/Mummy wants to play guitar" when we were playing last night. I'm amazed that she is grasping her grammar [动]+[名] subconsciously and forming phrases correctly. She has other "funny" sentences though, like “妈妈坐椅子这个”. I should really make a conscious effort to capture the way her speech is evolving.

Botanical Gardens

We went to the Botanical gardens today! Strolling in the park early in the morning feels good. Just taking in the fresh air and enjoying the greenery is so refreshing. When xuan grows a bit older, we can probably bring a canvas for her to draw. For now it's still simple activities like sitting in the pram :S (she refused to run around) and feeding the fish.

In the afternoon we went to the library, and she seem to be more active there. We have raised a potential book lover! :) After reading for a while xuan decided to be neat and stack up the books, whether or not Papa So is still reading his book...and dunno why she has to go one big round the table.

没良心的妈妈

Where to sit

We all have our places in the car, and xuan has the spatial intelligence to visualize it on the toy car!

West Coast Park and sing-alongs

Our first family trip to WestCoast Park! :D But see what happened?

Heavy down pour!!! :(:( So Xuan enertained us all by singing her made up songs and Baby Chern did what he does best:

On the way to West Coast Park she sang “客人来，看爸爸”，then started singing "客人来，看妈妈/萱萱”and when she got to “客人来，看弟弟”, she changed the lyrics from "弟弟不在家”to “弟弟睡觉……”but there's one more note and she doesn't know what to sing to that, so she looked at mem trailing off, so I helped her “弟弟睡觉啦。我请客人先坐下，再敬一杯茶”I'm impressed by how she knew which words to substitude. Reminds me of how I sang ”爸爸/妈妈/五姨听我说，我不是一个坏女孩”when I was...4?

On the way home she continued her singing mood:

It used to be "Row, row, row your boat, ti ti ti ti treeeeaam" so she's made a great improvement :D

And this is a song that I will listen to every year :):)

And it was a happy day :)