Port of Lost Wonder (POLW)

It wasn’t a disappointment but I was disappointed as I had higher expectations. Well, we had to pay entrance fees for the kids, so I was surprised to find the Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) to be not much bigger than one of those water playgrounds at the Zoo or the Bird Park. Adults are free. Otherwise, they would have further dropped on my ranking list.

Nevertheless, the kids were excited. The pirate ship-shape water playground is vibrantly colored. It is pretty safe and kids above 3 should probably be able to run around independently. In my opinion, older kids will probably find the playground boring. Adults can accompany the kids down the not-too-exciting slides. The ones at wild wild wet are better. Otherwise, it is just lots of silly water splashing around.

Other than the water playground, the kids are each given 100 curios coin that can be used for the various activities from foam party to gardening to storytelling. Each activity ranges from 20 to 50 curios coins. However, we went in the late afternoon and missed the more interesting foam party. We didn’t spend any of those coins and I think we brought them back. They are probably in one of those many bags. The amount of stuff that Popo packed resembled the amount that we would have brought for a 3 day 2 night trip. Maybe there was a miscommunication and Popo thought that POLW is in Malaysia. Lol. We should be able to spend the coins if we do visit POLW again. Otherwise, the coins are actually of good quality and served as good toys!
The kids were well entertained by the water playground and sand digging and didn’t bug us for more entertainment. Oh, the POLW partially sits on one of the beaches and there is plenty of sand to dig and pile. Auntie looked after the kids while they pretend to build sand castle and Daddy Lim and I attempted to camouflage into the background. The sand doesn’t taste great. Lil Isaac sampled it and told us so. Lol.

While the kids pull crazy stances and run amok, many parents sit and lie under the shade. It is a big picnic ground style and floor foam mattress were provided free of charge. For now, they are still very new but won’t be for long. We added to the mess with Lil Isaac peeing on it, me dropping some cheese fries and various stuff by the kids. I pity you who have yet to visit POLW and are intending to do so when the crowd died down. Do bring along Febreeze, especially that one with the germs-killing effect.

I was pleasantly surprised at the many sexy, bikini-cladded, super model figured mummies with kids trailing behind. They seem to have sprung out from one of those men’s magazines. Most of them were parading sexily in their bikini without getting wet. It was obvious that they were super proud and confident of themselves. Well, they should be in comparisons to mummies like me who still preserved the after child-bearing fats. It was really a feast for my eyes, so I can imagine how happy the many fathers were. If that is the reason why we are paying entrance fees, then it is definitely worth it. Fat mummies like me should consider the water playground at the Zoo or Bird Park or one of those complicated water playgrounds at the swimming complexes; it definitely will do much help to our already brittle self-esteemed.

The kids had much fun and didn’t resist when we had to leave. Will we go back again? Probably not unless there is good company. For water playgrounds, we can always go to JBP. The water playground at the swimming complex across the road isn’t too bad too. At least I won't be the only fat mummy.

Mummy Lim

Di Di

The little tiger’s vocabulary is really limited. I wonder if he is one of those with delayed speech or he is merely developing like how a boy should. His speech is made up of mostly “nnnnnnngggggg… eeeehhhhh… waahhhhhh..” with different annotation. I foresee a difficult terrible two stage. He is still very active, walking and exploring and draining our energy. It is so tiring trying to keep up with him. Oh, and very cheeky too.

Being a second child, Lil Isaac gets exposed to many things much earlier than jiejie did. He has his first bite of adult food much earlier, the first sip of sweetened drink, his first lick of ice cream. You get my drift. He is very much into Dora and Barney now when jiejie used to watch shows for babies at his age. He watches YouTube on the iPad and iPhone, play games and looks at the photo album. He uses so much of the iPhone and iPad that he thinks all screen are touch screen and attempts to swipe the page away. He can even take his own pictures. Yes, we are guilty. We do use the iPhone and iPad as distractions at times, hoping to earn that few moments of peace. We at least try to accompany them when they are playing with the gadgets.

Lil Isaac still doesn’t address us but loudly shouts for popo (or ah mah), nainai and kaka (my brother’s maid). I long for the day that he finally calls me. He shakes his head vigorously and insists “no more” whenever it is something that he doesn’t want. Only on rare occasions (probably very desperate), will he nod to indicate that he wants something. While watching the TV or DVD, especially Dora, he answers “No” to all the questions asked. Seriously cute!

Although irritating, I am secretly proud that he is sticky to me and wants to sleep with me at night. Daddy Lim calls it the “proximity switch” that Lil Isaac switches on in the night. He wakes up when I am too far away from him. He can be difficult but so lovable at times.

Mummy Lim

Jie Jie

Frequent tantrums, emo, disobedient, difficult, meltdowns.. These are what describe Lil Shauna now. Yes, you are right, she is 4 years old, not 14 years old. Even Popo says that too so they are probably not attempts to capture my attention. Almost every day is punctuated with a few episodes of such outbursts. She will either demand her way, throw a tantrum if she doesn’t get it or turned very quiet or simply refused to walk. It is very mental draining. We don’t know what is wrong. In her limited vocabulary, she can’t tell us how she feels other than “sad” and “angry”. It doesn’t help that Lil Isaac is sticky and I have to channel a fair bit of attention to him to prevent a wailing toddler adding on to the already chaotic and frustrating situations.

Popo thinks that we should tell her to behave and put those tantrums away. Well, if talking works, it will save us plenty of heartaches. We coax and we threaten. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This is her in one of those emo moments. She was still willing to pose for a picture but looking all emo and pathetic. It is a growing phase, right?

Mummy Lim

Sleep

Dear little boy, if you are tired, why don't you just nap. It is a mere hour, at most two and the world will not pass by while you nap. Yes, you needed the nap, I can tell that you needed it.

Don't deny, don't pretend that you do not. Otherwise, why are you so cranky, fussing over every little thing, over nothing. Please nap. It is for your good and mine. I needed that peace.

Your dearest mummy

Visit to the Jurong Bird Park

Life is very interesting. I had wanted to bring the kids to Jurong Birdpark (JBP), especially on weekend mornings with fantastic weather. The sun appears to be smiling at me and JBP calls out to me. The desire was so intense that we actually bought the Family Annual Membership that allows our family free entry to JBP for the entire year. There are so many sunny weekend mornings. We will definitely fully utilize the membership, right? Amazingly, the magic dissolved right after we bought the membership. Now, I am either too lazy, or a sunny morning means it is too hot. Lol.

To make my money worth, last Sunday morning, Popo, Auntie and I brought the kids to JBP. We took a cab there and back. We rented one of those pull carts and the 2 kids happily sit in them while auntie and I sweat and took turn to pull and push the cart. Mad effort on a “sunny” Sunday morning.

Lil Isaac can better appreciate the “birds” now. All of them are birds to him except for the penguins. Those that swim in the water are all ducks. We walked the park, looked at birds, chased some really big crowned pigeons and fed the lory birds at the loft. The crowned pigeons are as big as a fat rooster and they roamed the enclosed area even in close human proximity. The kids, especially Lil Isaac, were so excited and attempted to catch the pigeons with their bare hands. Their dear mother freaked out, trying to grab the boy before he grabs the birds and yelling at the girl to stay away from the birds. I seriously worried about us making the newspaper headline about abusing birds or kenna pecked to death by crowned pigeons. Well, we made it safely out of the enclosure. We are safe and so were the pigeons.

We then headed to the lory loft. Lil Shauna wanted to feed the birds and we got bird feeds. Daddy Lim always feed the birds, that is his job but he was at work and I had to take over. The birds must be really hungry bcos they were all over us. Arrggghhhh.. Lil Isaac was scared by the bird mob and cringed on to auntie. Lil Shauna wanted to feed the bird yet wanted to hide behind mummy. I was like a tree….

We headed back after about 2 hours. By then, I was sticky and tired but we had fun. Happy kids, happy mummy.

Mummy Lim

Auntie Lekah

Let out the fireworks! It has been ONE month and Auntie is Lekah still with us! Woohoo! Yeah!

Of course we are worried. LK is our 3rd maid for this year. Not only are we inching towards the MOM’s quota of 5 maids a year, maid changing is both frustrating and expensive. I have also promised myself that we will do without a maid if this one still couldn’t make it and the kids will go to Childcare. This, I made very clearly to Popo. Popo’s standards are way too high lah. Truthfully, I think some of the maids left bcos of Popo. They are maids lah, they get a miserable salary. They will not work their ass off for us lah. If they are really that good, they wouldn’t be maids.



I guessed it helps that my brother’s maid is also an Indonesian and they can chat while they are at my brother’s place. After so many maids (LK is our 6th maid), we have also learnt to close one eye. When the need arises, we close both eyes. It doesn’t matter that she may not be very efficient in housework or choose to look after the stroller more than the kids while we are in the shopping mall. So long as the kids don’t hate her, she does the minimum housework and she provides an able pair of hands when we are drowning, we are fine. So relax. Life goes on, a little bit of dust in the house won’t kill; the kids will still grow up anyhow. Not that LK is that bad, just that we have learnt how to let go and not to be anal about certain unimportant things. I can’t say the same for Popo. I just have to constantly remind her that LK is the last maid for now.



I hope LK will stay for at least her 2-year contract. Things will be easier on the caregivers when Lil Isaac starts going for his 2-hour playgroup in the later part of the year and join jiejie next year. Yes, I still look forward to the time that we will be maidless. However, unless the kids go to CC, otherwise it will be when Lil Shauna enters Primary One.

Mummy Lim

Birthday Celebration

Our princess is turning 4 this May! We wouldn’t be throwing a birthday party but the Mummy is already thinking about the different mini celebrations with the different group of people. Exciting!

Excitement bubbles filled my head as the date draws nearer and I am all geared to celebrate her birthday in school. I assumed that she will be as excited as I am about the school celebration. Well, I am escalated at the thought so she must be as well, right? Which kid doesn’t like to have his/ her birthday celebrated?

I was trying to get down to organizing the celebration, looking out for goody bags, cakes and all, reminiscing about how her happy she was when we went to her school to celebrate her 3rd birthday. Lalalalala… I was on cloud 9 until my baby girl threw me the bomb. Nope, she doesn’t want mummy to celebrate for her in school!!!!! What????? It can’t be, I must be hard of hearing. I must have misunderstood her. Or maybe I didn’t get my point clearly across to her. So, I asked her on 2 other occasions and she gave me the same “no”... and I can hear it echoing in my head. Boo! She only wanted the cupcakes and goody bags, mummy is in excess and can be done without. -.o” Daddy Lim has to rub salt on my wound, teasing me that I must be an embarrassment to Lil Shauna. NOOOOOO!!!!! My baby girl is 4, not 14. She loves me to bits. She adores me. Pui!

To make sure that she’s firm, I asked her a final time. She’s such a nice girl and finally agreed to let mummy celebrates her birthday for her in school. I bet she can see my broken heart and hear the thud when the broken pieces fell onto the floor. But she still opted for the goody bags and cupcakes (without mummy) when given a choice. So it shall be. There will be no mummy. *sulk*

We don’t know why she wanted no celebration. She couldn’t tell us a reason but agreed when we suggested if it is bcos none of her classmate celebrated their birthday in school. I called up the school to ask about the make-up of the class and the administrator (or maybe it was the teacher that I spoke to) commented that Lil Shauna is generally shy and maybe that was why. She also agreed that there was no birthday celebration thus far for her class.

It is ok.. breathe… we will have plenty of opportunities in the future. We can have other celebrations outside of school. Breathe…

Mummy Lim

Growing Up

My little girl is growing up.

Incident 1

When Lil Shauna is much younger, she will tell us that she has a tail, just like her soft toy Mike the Mickey. When asked where her tail is, she would gamely point to the invisible tail on her backside. It was so cute.

Few nights ago, we were playing pretend with her soft toys including Mike and Lil Shauna mischievously tied a ring to Mike’s tail. We haven’t asked Lil Shauna about her “tail” for a long time. We asked her and she told us that she has no tail. We reminded her that she would tell us about her tail when she was little. She paused. So we suggested that maybe her tail has dropped off now that she has grown up. She thought about it and replied, “yes, no more glue already”. J

Incident 2

Lil Shauna is very into make-up now. She loves to put on blusher, glitter and lip gloss and will frequently request to do so before we go out during the weekends, sometimes even to her phonics class.

Last Sunday, Teacher Rebecca was sharing how Lil Shauna will chat with Gracie (her friend) about the make-up that she has! Teacher Rebecca was teasing that Lil Shauna can go on about make-up the entire lesson if she’s not stop. Errrr… *nervous laugh*

Mummy Lim

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am 33 years old. Well, I feel about the same. There was no grand celebration, but I asked for a birthday card from Lil Shauna, who enthusiastically worked on one. She is very into cards and drawings for Daddy Lim or me now.

She asked for help to fold the drawing paper into half and started drawing what she wanted as hearts. Then she went on to a big birthday cake and asked me how old I am. I told her 33 and she needed help with that “big” number. I told her to write “3”, which she proceed to draw 3 candles and another “3” and she added 3 more candles. Then she counted the candles and proudly proclaimed that Mummy is 6 years old. Lol.

Thereafter, she added us into the picture, standing at both sides of the big cake. She was standing beside Daddy Lim and I was carrying Lil Isaac, standing at the other side of the cake. She went on to colour the picture and I took the opportunity for her to practice her writing.

Lil Shauna is very proud of her card. I am too of her. She went around showing off her card. J

Birthday somehow seems less important as we busied with life. I asked Daddy Lim for my bday present and he reminded me about my udivine. Chey! On Monday, Lil Shauna decorated my birthday cake. She was happier than I was about the cake. She had been asking to do this cake decoration thing. The kids enjoyed candle blowing very much. Lil Isaac saw jiejie blowing out the candle and tried to imitate too. However, it does look more like him trying to put out the flame using his saliva. Yes, imagine the amount of his saliva on the cake and it was Lil Shauna was eventually blown out the candle and added her share of saliva too.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Mummy Lim

To the Hairdresser

Lil Isaac hates to have his hair cut. He cried bloody murder during the last 2 occasions. Sadly, hair grows and boys have short hair. It is time to go to the hairdresser again.

As expected, he was very upset to have his hair cut. It didn't help that jiejie was in a midst of a tantrum. Lil Isaac screamed and struggled and cried bloody murder. He particularly hates the electrical razor and wasn't happy even when the hairdresser changed to only using scissor. It was fortunately that the salon was empty and the other lady hairdresser helped to distract Lil Isaac with sweets.

The eventual result wasn't fantastic but at least it can last us for a while. Hmmm.. Looks like mummy should go pick up hairdressing skills too. Save us some money and more importantly, some heartache. Lol.

Mummy Lim