Yy watches Iron Man 2!

We brought yy to watch Iron Man 2 and he was pretty excited :)

Yy at Botanic Gardens celebrating XYY's ROM!

Wow! It was a most hectic day at the Botanic Gardens yesterday as we attended xiaoyi-yi's ROM. There were lots of couples in the wedding suits and gowns all dressed up for their big day. The Botanic Gardens is a really beautiful park but unfortunately the weather though not too sunny was a bit too humid due to the lack of moving air or wind.

Still, this did not hamper yy from having a wonderful adventure. Check out the pictures with yy posing his best :)

Yy watches G-Force!

Today, we brought yy to Tiong Bahru Plaza watch another cute and funny movie... G-Force!!! He saw the trailer on tv and had been very eager to watch it. See yy leap in imitation of the guinea pigs doing a G-Force!

The other picture was taken just now outside the house. Yy and mama will be staying for 2 nights as we will be attending xiaoyi-yi's ROM at the Botanic Gardens tomorrow.

Loving and appreciating Yy!

Me and mama discussed this several times and we are very very glad with how yy turns out as a child. We're not too sure how much he will remain the same but we do hope that he won't change too radically.

You see, yy's 5 years old this year and while I'm sure every parent would feel that their child is the best, to us, yy's really a very sensible child and we feel very blessed having him as our son, especially when we don't get a chance to see him everyday. Actually we only see him during weekends and holidays and most of the time, he's being brought up by pohpoh.

We understand from pohpoh that he's usually well-behaved but at times, he'll act the little tyrant. However, strangely, whenever yy's with us, he's usually at his best behaviour, especially with me (as I'm told) around. We think that it's good that one parent is an authoritative figure because all of us are worried of raising a spoilt brat. So papa's volunteered to be the "bad/stern" figure. But having said so, let me put on record that I am also his playmate. Normally, I'll be the one monkeying around, discussing movies/Transformers and teasing him. He'll always look for me (even at the Euro Fun Fair) but when it comes to bedtime, he'll always want to be with the missus :)

I've never raised my hand at yy (although I do admit smacking lightly his bottoms when he was a toddler at around 18 months but that was only once or twice!) but I do raise my voice when the occasion demands it. Whenever I raise my voice (usually in anger or in a fierce tone), yy's very much afraid. I don't enjoy making him afraid (I very much prefer him to be a happy go lucky child) and most of the time I am faking it but to yy, it's very real. So far, it was the right thing to do because yy's very well behaved and would not throw tantrums unlike some kids we see.

He's also very serious in his studies because I've indicated to him that he must study well. All of us could see that he took me very seriously. For example, every week, he has a spelling test and last month, he had difficulty distinguishing spelling "stamp" and "stump". Needless to say he didn't do very well. But I knew that he wanted my approval very much because just last week, I was very surprised to see him reciting to me the 2 words during one of my daily calls to him. I have not really thought about these 2 words but to my precious little yy, they meant a lot to him because he didn't want to disappoint me. I was touched and knew that whatever I said to him would meant a great deal.

In a way this is good because it means that yy's receptive to us guiding him when he's growing up, especially with us acting as a bulwark against bad and negative influences. But I also told myself and the missus that we must constantly remind ourselves to be aware that yy seeks our approval a lot and we must not put undue pressure to him.

Like what I told the missus last night, it's about balance. As parents, we need to bring him up well but yet need to give him the room to grow so that he can be the individual with the values we cherish but also be the person he was meant to be. I've seen in my short 2 years of work as a TP lecturer that some of my students were here in poly studying a course they disliked but they had to because their parents wanted them to do so. Needless to say, they usually ended up doing badly and I think it affected their morale and confidence. As a parent, I believe that their parents meant well but yet... I sympathise with these students. It's very difficult to do well in a course that one does not have interest in and I speak from experience...

Anyway, I digress. I'm writing this down because we want our beloved and precious yy to know that we love our one and only yy a lot and to let him know (when he eventually grows up and can read this blog) that we truly love him dearly. We want him to know that whatever we are doing, we want him to grow up as a good, loving and responsible adult with values we all cherish but at the same time grow up to be a person he's meant to be. Yangyang, papa and mama love you very very much!!!

Yy visits the Euro Fun Fair!

Yesterday night after having dinner at Ji Yuan with papa, mama, gonggong and pohpoh, we brought yy to Euro Fun Fair which was located at Saleng. Apparently, it will be there for the entire month of September. This was yy's 2nd visit to the fun fair. During his 1st visit, the fun fair was located at Taman Tun Aminah 1 or 2 years ago. At that time, me, yy, yehyeh and pohpoh were there but I don't think he remembered much. Also, we didn't take any pictures then.

Anyway, we arrived at about 9pm and were there till 10pm. There were quite a number of rides but as yy was still too young, we only brought him to a few rides:
- a series of children cars with wild animal themes. This was yy's favourite and he took the ride twice.
- a mini roller coaster that looks like a caterpillar. This was yy's 2nd favourite and he also took the ride twice.
- a ride that went up and down in a circular fashion with a spaceship theme.
- a ride that's shaped like a small little squarish hot-air balloon.

It was a very fun and cooling night. Check out some of the pictures here :)

Yy out on his birthday trip at Jusco Bkt Indah!

We were supposed to celebrate yy's birthday yesterday by buying a small birthday cake but unfortunately, papa was down with food poisoning and was practically bedridden since Fri night and was advised by the doctor not to consume any milk-based food :(

So poor papa had to forgo his favourite activity of hugging yy and loving him as papa feared he might passed on his illness. Thankfully papa was feeling much better (thanks to mama's ever loving and tender care) and today, we went out to Jusco Bkt Indah with pohpoh for a family trip. We had a wonderful dinner (with papa feeding yy) and before papa and mama left for work, yy gave papa a big tight hug and mama a sloppy wet kiss. Yy confided with pohpoh later on that he missed papa a lot... Yy, don't worry, once papa's new house in Singapore is ready this December, we'll bring you and pohpoh to Singapore and we'll live happily ever after.

Yy will always be together with Papa!

Yy gets birthday gifts from Jie Jies!

Both ta-jiejie and xiao-jiejie were waiting for yy to come back to Bkt Indah so that they could personally give yy his birthday gifts. But unfortunately, we arrived at Bkt Indah too late and the jiejies have since gone back to Singapore. They left both gifts with pohpoh and yy was very happy to receive them - a Transformers 2-themed jigsaw puzzle and a study kit (pencil case, etc.). Looks like everyone knows what yy loves.

However, when posed "If you can only choose 1, would you choose papa or all the Transformers?", yy still answered without hesitating "PAPA!!!" :) Good baby! Yy, we love you!

Yy's Transformers Birthday Gifts!

Although yy's birthday is in 3 weeks time, we decided to get him his birthday presents first. Papa and mama contributedRatchet (yy's favourite Transformers character) while popo, gonggong, all the yiyis, yizhangs and jianwei shushu collectively got him Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Ratchet cost $52 while Optimus Prime cost $110 and Bumble cost $70.

Papa had to go 3 different places (Tampines Mall, Takashimaya and Suntec City) in order to buy Optimus Prime because Optimus Prime was sold out :( Anyway, enjoy the various pictures :)

Yy's Ice Age 3 collection

It was a tough race. A race to collect all 8 MacDonald's collection of Ice Age 3 toys. A race that spanned 4 weeks across 2 countries! No kidding! Apparently both Malaysia and Singapore sold exactly the same set of toys but thankfully on different timings! Phew... It was a big relief because we couldn't get the female squirrel, Scarette in Singapore on the final week but luckily it was sold in Malaysia. Yy was waiting so eagerly for it. There was one week when papa called yy to happily say that papa managed to get Diego and Rudy on Sunday (papa went to MacDonald straight away after arriving in Singapore from 2nd Link). The following days when papa called him every day, yy would keep asking papa whether if it's true that papa really bought both of them. It was as if yy was afraid that it was all a dream! LOL!

Anyway, here they are, from left to right: Rudy, Momma Dino, Buck, Scrat, Scratte, Manny, Sid and Diego :)

Yy goes to school!

It's been awhile since I updated this blog. I'm glad to say that yy has been going to school the past few months since April.

Yy watches Ice Age 3!

Last week, it was Transformers 2 and this week, it's I.. C.. E.. A.. G.. E.. 3.. - yy's 2nd favourite movie (for the the moment). As usual, he sat on our laps while watching the movie. We're planning to get the whole range of Ice Age 3 toys from MacDonalds for the next weeks and will post once yy get his hands on them :)

Yy watches Transformers 2!!!

Today we brought yy to watch his favourite movie of all times! T.. R.. A.. N.. S.. F.. O.. R.. M.. E.. R.. S..2...!!!! The cinema was really packed! We were very very surprised because the last time we went to see Bolt, there was only a handful. The movie was also very very long, about 2.5 hours long. It was so long that we had to go to the toilet twice. But yy loved every single minute of it. He was so immersed in it that he would start chatting and asking papa questions about the movies. So much that papa was a bit worried that people would be annoyed but luckily it was so loud that no one paid any attention. Anyway, check out yy and his transformer's pose! BTW, just to let you know that he's Ratchet and papa's Optimus Prime while uncle wenzhi is Megatron and shi-yiyi is the Fallen! :P

Yy doesn't want to go to school... :(

We are not sure why but recently, yy simply refuses to go to school. Pohpoh tried cajoling, bribing, threatening but to no avail. We are quite sad because of this... Hopefully this is just temporarily but if it persists, we may have to let yy stop school for a while.

Yy watches Bolt!

We brought yy to watch his 3rd movie, Bolt! The cinema started off with about 7 people and by the time it ended, there were only 3 of us left! It was kind of weird but I jokingly told mama that it must be the most worth cinema visit because we paid for 2 seats but had the whole cinema to ourselves!

Yy loved the movie alot and when I asked him to rank between Madagascar and Bolt, he unhesistatingly chose... Bolt! But sadly, when asked, he still's afraid of dogs! But only non-white or big dogs! LOL! Well, at least it's an improvement... Here's yy and his imitation of Bolt!

Yy watches Madagascar 2!

This would be the 2nd time we are bringing yy to the cinema. We went to watch Madagascar 2 at City Square. We didn't tell yy in advance because we were afraid of disappointing him (e.g if he's sick, raining or something unexpectedly crops up, etc) so he was most pleasantly surprised. He also looked awed because there were so many kids in the cinema and he was also very excited. He would whisper to me a couple of times to ask about certain scenes and he would also join in the general laughter at times (with a slight delay that we were sure he didn't quite catch the joke but couldn't resist joining in). We also bought him a separate cinema seat but unfortunately, he was too short to see properly so after a minute a too, mama carried him and he sat on her lap.

After the movie, which was very very entertaining (better than the 1st episode), we were ravenous and we then had a sumptous dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. As you can see, yy had a most wonderful day!

Yy learns music!

Yy was very envious when all his jie-jies were learning piano so when the topic was brought up, he quickly chipped in to say that he's also keen. We asked but it seems that at his age, the music schools all felt that they should learn how to appreciate music first before graduating to specific musical instruments.

Here you will see candid pictures of yy (in blue T-shirt) enjoying his music class. His class is on every Sunday 5pm to 6pm. While yy's in the class, mama and papa would then sneak off for a date, which was very difficult since kids joined the household :P

Yy and the bully!

We brought yy to Jusco yesterday and he had a swell of a time riding his "car". Until he was bullied. A rather obstinate and violent child used his car and bumped his car at yy. Yy was shocked! The boy bumped again for the 2nd time and yy got out of his car fuming.

At this point of time, yours truly was startled and was wondering how yy would react. So guess what yy did.




Yy got out of his car and raised his fist and punched the air a couple of times letting of his anger. He did not once hit the bully! On one hand, we are glad that he had good anger management but on the other hand, we're not too sure if that's the right way to handle bullies... We made up our minds then to make sure that we send yy for martial arts training when he gets older...

Yy attempts to read time... unsuccessfully!

Yours truly was enjoying his warm bed on a typical Saturday when yy marched in and demanded that papa wakes up as it seems that the day only starts properly when both papa and mama are awake... yawn!

Papa then tried to buy some time by teaching yy how to read time. Papa told yy that if this long needle moved from the bottom, i.e., at the 30 minute mark, to the top, i.e., the 60 minute mark, then papa will wake up. Papa had hoped to get another half an hour of sleep.

Yy said ok and proceed to stare studiously at the watch. Papa had just adjusted his pillow and was about to continue his handsome sleep when barely half a minute later, yy loudly exclaimed, time's up! It looked like yy was looking at the second hand and not the minute hand.

After demolishing yy's hope and educating him on the finer points on the mystical art of watch reading, papa then continued his handsome sleep. Several minutes later, yy the shook papa up again and said, "Why so slow har? It's not moving."

Hearing this, papa gave up and felt that it's easier to just wake up!

Yy in his first undies!

Wow! This sure is a week full of firsts. After the short adventure on yy and his bicycle, we are pleased to report that grandma bought yy his first set of undies, with yy proudly displaying it to papa and mama :)

Yy drives his bicycle!

Finally! Yy has finally done it! He finally learned how to ride his bicycle last week. Previously, he could only half-cycle, i.e., his feet will go on half a revolution to propel his bicycle forward.

Unfortunately, grandma reported that he had suffer a fall and broke one of the bicycle's brake handle before achieving success. This serves to remind yy that... failure is the mother of success :D

So, never give up Yy!!! Papa and mama always behind yy :)