We went out

Somehow we always end up at bookstores or libraries when we go out. I love the open space at the National library, but it's just too bad Eliza can be quite reluctant to leave my arms to enjoy the expanse of space. Still, chasing daddy was good progress.


The children's section at the national library is quite spacious too with interesting chairs that Eliza likes.

this was at Odeon towers...nice water feature that Eliza was obviously very interested.

Fun to sit!


The sunday with a lot of stuff to do.
This was on our way to church...

In the playroom during service. Eliza loves this space where we usually go after the music worship part. She could still enjoy & sway/dance to the music but i really can't expect her to be silent & still during the sermon. Most of the time Jospeh is there too...he's such a cherry & bubbly kid and he's always super attentive if i have food with me.


Had lunch at my mum's place.
I should really consider bringing more toys/books over to my mum's place. Most of the time she loves playing with my sis's TKGS doll, our piano, the toy keyboard which is now faulty, magnets at the fridge and this:


Somehow it's hard to capture pristine photo moments...this is Eliza in her top that's a bit short and yet too long for a nice skirt/shorts, plus it's a bit big for her and ok i don't expect her to bother about her state of clothes.


Her cousins arrived after we returned from lunch at my mum's place. Obviously she's super duper excited.


Later we headed off to Fidgets at TurfCity. Gosh..it took us a while to find that place in turf city itself! But it was the largest of the indoor playgrounds that we have went to. There's a nice toddler one which Eliza started out with.


And came down the slide which did look quite steep.


After we warmed up at the mini-playground. I brought her to the big-kids one where her cousins were playing at, well...2 out of 3 of her cousins. One of them backed out at the sight of it. Daunting? Some are, esp when i think of whether to let Eliza down the super steep slide. Her older cousin got accidentally pushed down the slide when he was sitting at the top...and he went head down actually; ended up with a blueblack but it didn't stop him.
Eliza didn't have the kind of concerns i have, obviously...and the only thing she's afraid of is the kids, in particular those who are rough and just going too fast. At some straight slides, i looked down at the steepness and wasn't sure if i want to let Eliza down that and so have to divert her away to something else. She only got hurt twice, once was when she was at the bottom of some triangle level ladder thing (she always loves to hang around where people land), and got kicked in the eye by some boy who was coming down but can't see her. The other time she didn't get her footing well at the same ladder thing and skipped a level, luckily managed to catch her when she landed on the next level. (sorry the bad description...i couldn't bring a camera in mainly because i had to chase a super hyped up toddler)

No photos. My arms and legs were so busy just trying to keep up with her and diverting her...15mins in there and i'm beat.

Weekend to ourselves

We're having the weekend to ourselves. Well...Ww, Eliza & me only. And this being the holidays, we've been out quite often.

Even wednesday, when i took a half-day off, was a day out with Ww & Eliza. Bought quite some books at Techman cos of the sale. Popped by the library cos Ww wanted to check the reference section stuff. Walked over to Chijmes and some building with sleek water feature. It was quite a stick-hands-in-the-water-feature-day. Happy girl.

Thursday, we meant to drop by Ion cos Ww hasn't checked that place out yet. I arrived at noon at Wisma and went to have lunch with Eliza which failed cos Eliza didn't want to eat her usual fav rice. (i didn't cook her meals that day cos we woke up at 845am which is v.rare and she also tends to waste her meals when we go out to eat). So we settled with half her milk and we dozed off while on our way to Ion. And being the lazy us who just prefer to sit over coffee and chat, we found a cafe in Ion and stayed there till Eliza woke up from her nap. Then we dropped by Borders and after that made our way to Botanic gardens, ending our trip with dinner at the cafe there.

Friday, I washed the bedsheets and cooked lunch & dinner. Thank God Eliza woke up late (8am?) which gave me time to soak the bedsheets and prepare the cooking stuff. Eliza & I made a trip to NTUC to buy stuff and the overambitious me bought a bit too many things that are heavy. It doesn't help when 10.5kg Eliza insists on being carried most of the way home, even on her favourite overhead bridge. (remind me often that favourite things do wear off at some point of time for these unpredictable toddlers) I had quite a weight lifting workout! :S

Oh well...i love the going out with Eliza, (which kid doesn't love going out?)
the staying home with Eliza, (home is her safe haven and wrecking a lot of things place)
the eating well with Eliza, (when she watches Elmo and has her porridge with her fav soup + extra meat/veg; or when she indulges on nice stuff while we eat)
the sleeping Eliza (so i can catch up with watching House(S5) that's clogging up the SmartTv recordings),
the going-to-bed-well Eliza (patience with a toddler who doesn't want to sleep and is bouncing off all 6 walls of the room, and nice snuggles and singing or patting to sleep)
the playing Eliza (she sure does play well and entertain us too).

Short cuts

Just the many little things i can't seem to categorize about Eliza

Talking
- Today, i heard her saying more 2 worded phrases. ie ah-gong's van, mummy sit, ah-ma's pants etc

Alphebets
- she reads the alphabets in all sorts of order, usually i hear 'e', 'i', 'm', 'o', 'b'...her favourite letter is 'O'. She spots it everwhere i go (hey it rhymes!)...especially the carpark roads where it writes "nO parking". I'm trying to get her to say the other letters too but she's less than interested in those. I didn't realize that she recognizes the alphebets till when we were at the carpark and she kept saying "B"...only to realize that it's the B1 painted all over the wall of the carpark. Hmm...carparks are good classrooms eh?

Walking up and down stairs
- Since few weeks ago (gosh i really can never remember when these things happen), she has always insisted on walking up and down the stairs...ie at our house cos we need to walk one storey up to the lift lobby or over overhead bridges. She'll fling herself down to the floor if i'm carrying her. I remember thinking to myself that i need to factor in 10mins to walk up and down the overhead bridge the next time i go out.
- Recently it has been escalators. And it's not that easy trying to restrain a determined toddler while going up/down an escalator amongst a sea of people. She doesn't even let us hold her hand. So we have to be adamant in holding her hand, insisting that she doesn't walk up or sit on the steps and doing the jump or carry her when we reach the end.

Counting
- We like to count the motorbikes at our house carpark. We always count when we walk up/down the stairs. And Elmo counts too (watch Elmo's world). We count butterflies / fishes / bugs in her story books. So after doing weeks of counting up/down stairs, coupled with her growing capacity to talk, she starts to utter after us but she mostly loves to say 4 & 5 (in english) and 7,8 & 9 (in chinese)

Favourite character
- She knows Barney, she knows Hi-5, she knows Seseme street, especially ELMO! Soo....now our whole household has become Elmo fans. She's relatively half-hearted watching the rest but with Elmo, she'll watch the whole dvd, with her utmost attention. Well...sometimes she goes off to play with her toys or read, but usually she'll be leaning all over the sofa or hanging between the coffee table and the sofa. Plus, she'll cry if i switch off the dvd halfway though the show. So we usually need to transit nicely by saying bye to Elmo or just go off elsewhere and quietly switch off the tv without her knowing.
- So yes we have become Elmo fans, considering Elmo teaches quite good things like counting and good daily habits like sleeping, getting dressed, brushing teeth, going to potty.
- How it all started was quite accidental. It was one of the few (really a few) toys that was at my mum's place, my mum pulled out the Elmo for Eliza to play and we brought it home. It has become her bedside companion and her fav character. She has Elmo spoon/fork/plate/bowl/colouring book/building blocks/shirt that's now too small.
Talk about how powerful favourite characters are!

Updating old photos

I'm still updating photos....

It's fun when kids help out at home thought my fil wasn't too keen on her helping out. She was actually putting all the bean sprouts back into the basket when she think it belongs. it's a saturday morning, if you can see Ww doing his usual saturday morning read. Eliza now only occasionally disturb him, she has somewhat gotten used to everyone in the household reading newspapers and minimize her tramping on it.

One of the weekends when the boys were here and we had my sil's little car to zip about, we took a trip to GogoBambini to check it out.
It's Eliza's dream come true....swimming in a ball pit.


checking out the toy house...

This is part of the big kids indoor playground area. She didn't quite like this part of the playground and wouldn't go there after the 1st round at it. (i realized later at other indoor playgrounds that she had grown much more daring and would try anything!)

Eliza had such a good time and worked out so much that she slept in the car on our way to Vivo for afternoon coffee & cakes at Bakerzin and all they way home.
Didn't quite like the indoor playground at Gogobambini cos it was really quite cramped, in particular the cafe and corridor areas. And Ww couldn't stay in the maze for long cos it was quite low for him and he had to keep crawling or bending down in the playground. So most of the time i was there and what a work out i had with Eliza cos she was zipping everywhere and sometimes i turn around and would 'lose' her for a few seconds.

One of the weekends where we went to West Cost Park. Great place to watch kites and for older kids to play at the playground. Eliza wasn't too keen on the sand at the playground so we ended up checking out the seaside.