Malc is 4!

I have been baking Malc's birthday cakes for the past 2 years, except his first birthday when we ordered a huge cake catered for a party. After baking his 2nd birthday cake, I told TH I will go and buy one from the store for his 3rd birthday. When the ocassion drawn nearer the following year, my hands got itchy and went ahead to bake Malc his 3rd birthday cake. There then, I told TH, again, I will go and buy Malc his 4th birthday cake next year.

This year is just like the past two years. I have been considering and re-considering for so long whether should I bake Malc his 4th birthday cake. Thinking about the hours needed from preparing ingredients, to baking, to frosting and decorating the cake, not to mention, to clean up the huge mess after that. I did not get to sit down during those hours. Baking is rather stressful to me when I have a deadline to fulfil.

After discussing with Jo and spending many hours browsing through the web, I decided to bake cupcakes for Malc's birthday this year. Jo said cupcakes will save the teachers the hassle to cut the cake. However, the teachers will not appreciate heavy frosted cupcakes as they will result messy kids. So I decided to bake cupcakes, lightly frosted with buttercream and topped with sugarpaste figurines. This is a huge challenge since I have never played with fondant, gum paste, sugar paste, whatever you call for those white playdoh thingy stuff.

I browsed through lots of photos online and finally convinced myself making bugs is the easiest choice of all, given my half-past-six playdoh moulding skill. I told myself I need to start moulding the sugarpaste two months in advance, which turned into two weeks ahead, thanks to my procrastination. Believe me, I was still playing with the thoughts of heading to a store to order a cake during those time.

Those fondant tools and cutters are darn expensive and thanks to Jo who offered to loan me many of her gadgets which I may not use them anymore if I were to buy them. (Thank you, Jo Jo! You have been a great help and thanks for all the advices you gave me!)

After 2 weeks of kneading, kneading and more kneading those 'playdoh', the judgement day has come. I have baked 26 of those devil's food cupcake, lightly frosted with chocolate buttercream and topped them with those mutated gigantic bugs....

Gigantic bumble bee...


Gigantic lady birds...


Gigantic caterpillar...


An Ensemble of mutated gigantic bugs!!

I decided to pack Malc's party goody packs full with non-edibles. Everytime I see Malc happily alighted from his school bus with a bag full of candies and chocolates, I will freak out. He will insist in eating them and I have to convince him that he will eat a couple of them now and the rest on the next day. Then I will hide the rest of the stash in the deepest most corner of somewhere.

When Malc saw the bag full of the goody packs, he was so excited that he asked for one immediately. He was more excited seeing the goody packs than seeing the cake!

Happily I was, sending the cakes and stuff to school via the school bus. The whole school sang the birthday song to Malc and two other kids who celebrated their birthdays on the same day. Malc was a happy kid that day. I was a contented mommy.

Our Boy Has Grown Up!

Recently we found a cheap and good way (thanks to Sharon!) to expend Malc's energy in the evenings - Ikea's Småland. Ever since the first time we brought Malc and Davin to the place, we totally love the idea of letting Malc play there. One full hour of fun for Malc = early bedtime. It is just a short drive there and the parking is free! Hehe...

We brought Malc there again, today after we had our dinner. Since we were there early, around 7pm plus, moreover it is a weekend, the queue to play in Småland was rather long. We had waited for about half an hour before Malc got to play inside.

This one hour of play is also the precious couple time for me and TH. We will walk around the store, have a drink and maybe a piece of yummy chicken wing, before picking Malc when the time is up.

On our way home today, in the car, we had a conversation with Malc which made us very proud of him.

Malc: Mommy, just now I mm mm at the playground.
Me: !!! You mm mm at the playground? Who bring you go mm mm?
Malc: I go myself.
Me: !!!!!!!
TH: Do you know where is the toilet?
Malc: I can find myself. I walk walk walk and see the toilet.
TH: Did you tell your friend you want to mm mm?
Malc: No.
Me: How many toilets are there?
Malc: One, two!
TH: Which toilet did you go?
Malc: The boy one. The other toilet is for girl.
TH: Who wiped your backside?
Malc: I wiped myself.
TH and I looked at each other and grinned widely....
TH: Did you use toilet paper?
Malc: Yes.
Me: Did you flush the toilet?
Malc: No. Too hard already.
Me: Did you wash your hands?
Malc: Yes.

After that, TH carried him from carpark to home (Malc always want his papa to carry), he realised that his forearm has poo smell. When he was undressing Malc for shower, as expected, Malc's underpant was stained with poo. Malc did not cleaned himself properly. But we are very proud of him as he can take care of himself when papa and mommy are not around. Guess that we have to teach him how to use toilet paper to clean himself from now on.

Butterfly Lodge

Every weekend, we have to crack our head where we can bring Malc to. Having him trapped at home is too cruel to him and to us too. Haha..

We decided to bring him to Hay Diaries to feed the goats. After a long drive to Lim Chu Kang, only to find that they no longer let the visitors feed the goats. After sharing a small bottle of chocolate-flavoured goat's milk among the three of us, we left the place disappointedly. A 30-minute drive for a less than 15-minute visit, what a way to waste the car petrol. Tsk tsk tsk....

Obviously Malc wasn't satisfied with this pathetic trip at all, so we had to think hard where else we can bring him to. Then I remembered about this Butterfly Lodge place and off we went. The Butterfly Lodge is located in Oh's Farm at Bah Soon Pah Road. It was a very quiet place and we did not see any visitors' cars parked at sight. We almost thought we have gotten the wrong information about the place. After asking around, we were relieved that we were at the right place afterall!

The Butterfly Lodge is a 4m by 15m L-shaped flight cage which houses up to 15 species of local butterflies. The admission fee is $3.oo per person but the lady did not charge Malc's admission fee.

We had the Butterfly Lodge all our ourselves and had a jolly good time snapping photos. I am pretty happy with the photos taken, especially they were taken with my handphone camera. Heh!

We bought a caterpillar kit home, selling at $3.00 each. They looked cute, yet creepy to me, thinking that I have to clean their 'house' for them daily.

The Butterfly Lodge is located at Oh Chin Huat Hydroponic Farms, 14 Bah Soon Pah Road. Open Daily, 9am - 5pm.

Complaints

Went to school to pick up Malc today. Been wanting to meet up with his form teacher, Mrs Chong, to ask about celebrating his birthday in school. Finally managed to see her around today. After discussing about the birthday celebration, she moved on to telling me about Malc's behaviour in school.

During our first parent-teacher meeting session, she has full of praises for Malc. She said he is a very tolerant boy especially towards one of this particular classmate who was quite disruptive in class and this boy happened to be seated in the same group as Malc. She also said that Malc was very quiet and shy in class.

Oh well, that was for school term 1 and 2. During term 3, I have been hearing feedbacks from both Mrs Chong and his Chinese teacher, 吴老师, commenting that he is starting to get playful and talkative, especially after a reshuffle of seating arrangment. In this red group which Malc was seated from beginning of term 3, there is this boy named Ryan. Malc is rather friendly with Ryan, since they take the same school bus and seat next to each other in the bus too.

Now, at the mid of term 4, today, Mrs Chong told me Malc has became so talkative and playful. A huge contrast as to the previous term. In order to stop Malc from talking and playing too much and concentrate more on his work, she has to separate him and Ryan and make Malc sit in other group. Oh boy, upon listening to her 'complaints', I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to feel embarassed.

What a bump!

I received a phone call from Malc's form teacher this afternoon, during school hour. To me, receiving phone calls from teacher, especially during school hour, is bad news.

Mrs Chong said Malc was pushed by his classmate while doing exercise. He fell and knocked his forhead, resulting a big bump. Though he did not cry on the spot and kept telling Mrs Chong that it was not painful, but he started to cry when she tried to put the ice pack on the bump. Since Malc has enrichment class after the school, Mrs Chong asked if I would prefer him to skip the class and have him sent home straight after school. Since I did not know how bad was the fall, I requested him to board the school bus home after school.

Boy, I got a shock when I saw him. Really a big bump. The school bus aunty said she told the grandma of the boy about the incident and even showed her Malc and his bump. I felt heart pain when I saw the bump, it must have been a nasty fall. However, I think this is just kids' play, and it is common.

Then I called TH to tell him about the nasty bump, and passed the phone to Malc to talk to his papa.

Malc: Papa!! I got bump on my head.
TH: Oh! Is it painful...?
Malc: I hit Ethan..... then Ethan pushed Malcolm and Malcolm fell down....

Wait a minute, Malc hit Ethan? No one told me about that!! I took over the phone...

Me: Did you hear that? He said he hit his friend.
TH: Yeah, I heard. In that case, he o-b-good lor. (he deserved it.)

Yes, if that is really the case, I think he deserved it too. When Malc overheard our conversation, he started to walk really slowly and he had this 'oh-oh' expression on his face. I guess he really did hit his friend and causing his friend to push him in retaliation. I think they were just playing, playing too rough though.

I wonder how long will it take the bump to subside... sigh....

Learning Numbers...

Malc learns best in an unique way. He learnt his colours by asking us the colour of EVERY car we passed by in the carpark. He learnt his numbers from 1-16 (since we stay at 16th storey) by looking at the LED screen in the lift while waiting. Now he has advanced his number learning to hundreds. So how did he learn the numbers?? By looking at the numbers on the bus.

At first, he learnt the numbers from the bus in tens, as in 26, 37, 62... And once, he saw a three-digit-numbered bus and asked me what is that number. I told him it was one hundred and thirty-one. Then, many moons later, we drove past the same road and saw the bus. Malc pointed to the bus and said, "one hundred and thirty-one bus!!" We were surprised! There then, he started to learn the numbers in hundreds and he learnt them pretty well. But now, he is a little unsure about the numbers from 11-19. Weird huh??

I am glad that he likes numbers, unlike his mommy who hates numbers and failed her math from primary three all the way to secondary three. (though I passed my PSLE math ^_^) LOL!! Now, he knows how to spell "O-U-T" and "IN". Guess where he learnt that from? The carpark. LOL!!

Why are you dreaming??

We went to my mom's for dinner on the past Tuesday. Malc was trying to talk to my sis, Jas, but did not manage to get any response from her, because she was spaced out (as usual, LOL!).

Malc: "Mommy, why xiao yi doesn't want to talk to me?"

Me: "... because xiao yi is (day)dreaming..."

Last night while TH was having his late dinner, I overheard Malc asked his dad, "Papa! Why are you dreaming???!!!" I was shocked. I have totally forgotten about our little conversation on Wednesday, it was only when TH reminded me what I have told Malc about his xiao yi's dreaming then I realised he remembered what I said.

Later in that evening...

Me: "Darling, why did you say papa is dreaming??"

Malc: "Because papa didn't feed me soup (while papa was too engrossed in watching tv and eating his dinner at the same time)"

During bedtime...

Malc: "Good night, papa!"

TH: "......." (guess papa was drifting into the slumberland...)

Malc: "Good night, papa!"

TH: "......"

Malc: "Papa! Why are you dreaming!!!"

TH : "Oh, good night, Malcolm."

Malc: "Good night, mommy!"

Me: "....." (wanting to see if I will get the same response from him.)

Malc: "Good night, mommy!!"

Me: "...."

Malc: "Mommy, why you didn't talk to me??"

Me: "Good night, darling!"

I concluded, he just wants to bully his papa. Hah!

Funny Kid's Talk

On our way to my mom's for dinner....

Malc: Mommy and Malcolm go to mah mah's house. Papa, you go work.
Me: But papa wants to eat dinner at mah mah's house...
Malc: Malcolm and papa go working...
Me: You and papa go working together? Then how about mommy?
Malc: Mommy, you go shopping and buy food back for Malcolm.
Me: (delightedly) Oh, okay. So you and papa go working, earn a lot of money back, so mommy can go shopping, ok?
Malc: (pondered a moment) Papa, you go working. I go shopping with mommy.
TH: @#$%^&^#@

Wahhahahahahaha......

Bike Ride @ East Coast Park

(Backdated Post - 4 April 2009, Saturday)

Recently mom bought Malc a bicycle. I never thought we have to teach him how to ride the bicycle which runs on FOUR wheels. I thought it just come naturally for us to pedal on circular motion. Boy, I was so wrong. When Malc first tried on the bicycle, he was pedalling forward and reverse, forward and reverse. -_-" On his first 'training session' with me, he managed to ride the bicycle but, he still pedal forward and reverse from time to time. On the second 'training session' with TH, he was able to cycle pretty well. So we decided to bring him to cycle at the East Coast Park on a 'nothing-to-do' Saturday. After 2 'training sessions', he can ride the bicycle like a pro. A 4-wheeled bike though. ^_^

Zoo Trip

(Backdated Post - 20 March 2009, Friday)
Many mommies have plans to bring their kiddos to attend plays, workshops, etc. These really made me feel guilty for not making full use of the holidays. Hence, as a compensation to him on my part, I decided to bring Malc to the zoo, on my own, taking buses.

We left the house at 12pm. Took a bus to the Hougang, had our lunch there before we continue our bus journey to Ang Mo Kio and take a bus to the zoo. We reached the zoo at 3pm. -_-" By the time we reached the zoo, I was already half-dead. On the other hand, Malc was all hyped up.

We took the tram ride and alighted at the first stop to the Rainforest KidzWorld. Malc had a jolly good times with the carousel rides and water play. Luckily, having to anticipate that we will be going to the KidzWorld, I have packed his swimming trunks and towel into my fully equipped haversack.

I had a tough time keeping an eye on Malc at the water play since the place was crowded with kids and they all looked similar with wet hair. At one point of time, I lost sight of Malc and he was nowhere to be found and I got panicked. Finally when I got hold of him, I told him that was the end of fun. He was very disappointed but I didn't want to risk having to lose sight of him again and to run around the pool looking for him like a mad woman. Sigh...

On our way hunting for the nearby tram station, we saw the boat dock and decided to take the boat ride since little mountain tortoise has not taken one yet.

By the time we got off the boat, it was already 4pm plus. We walked a bit, watch some animals, managed to board the tram again and we headed for the exit at around 5pm. While waiting for TH to come and fetch us and knowing my son will run around, I bought a rare treat for him - ice cream, to 'tie' him down. Hiak hiak... I even brought drawing block and magic ink for him to scribble just to keep him on his seat.

It was a nice, but very, very tiring experience. Maybe I will bring him to the bird zoo during his next school holiday. ^_^