DS Turns 5!!! (Part 1)

DS is now 5 years old! How time flies! This year, DS asked for a Little Einsteins birthday cake so that was the theme of the day. :)

In the morning, we had DS' friend and classmate over to play.

Being boys. :)
Presents!!! :) DS was thrilled with the presents from Aunty Vivienne and Rowan's Porpore. He spent the rest of the day playing with the Playmobil ambulance set.

The first of 2 cakes for the day - a honey dew melon cake! :)

The Increasingly Vocal DD

DD turns 30 months old today (exactly 2.5 years old). DS was 30 months old when DD was born. :) DD has become increasingly vocal in the past month and even her favorite snack (mom juice, ie breastmilk) is not spared her acute commentary and questioning. I find this really entertaining because I've never heard these comments from DS about my breastmilk before. I guess that's probably because DS only breastfed until he self-weaned at 27 months old, not quite old enough to make such acute observations and verbalize them yet!

Examples of DD's questions and comments include:

"I have finished your milk from this side (pointing to one breast), now I want to drink from the other side (referring to the other breast)."

"I have finished all your milk."

"Why is your milk warm?" (DD has been saying that she likes cold milk when referring to cow's milk)

"Your milk is very hot" (In the middle of a particularly cool night)

And this is my absolute favorite of them all. Too precious!

"I like your milk!" (after saying this she latches on and goes "mmmm"!)

Well, DD won't be breastfeeding forever so I really treasure these interesting moments. :)

We Were Out at Night WAY Past the Kids' Bedtime!

We attended DH's cousin's wedding over the weekend. Gasp, yes, we were out WAY past the kids' bedtime again. We only did it once the whole of last year (when we attended my cousin's wedding on Christmas Day), so I guess we've reached our quota and will not be going out at night for the rest of the year! :P

The kids really enjoyed dressing up for the wedding, especially DS, who was so excited to be wearing a suit to "match" Papa's suit. DD loves her velvet dress which had a big bow at the back.

DD being carried by Ah Ma. :)

DS was really excited to go on stage to do the "yum seng" together with all the other kids.



And finally, a family picture. :)

King and Queen!

We attended Rowan's birthday party recently. Rowan is DS's classmate and friend. :) The kids had a wonderful time and they left with "crowns", kindly knitted by Rowan's mummy. They fit perfectly! Thank you, Aunty Vivienne!!! DS and DD have been spending their time playing "King" and "Queen". :)

Custom-Made Wetsuits

The kids' custom-made wetsuits are finally ready. They chose the colors themselves. DD, of course, wanted pink. Yep, her favorite color is pink. She says she wants a pink car when she grows up, and for now, she'll like me to buy her pink dental floss (!!!), pink tissue paper, and pen with pink ink.

We also got DD some arm floats since she's just a dare-devil in the swimming pool. She loves plunging into the water and "swimming" like her big brother.

Here's DS with his swim-mate Colette, and our estate's favorite swim coach, Xavier.

Here's DD trying on DS's goggles when he wasn't looking. She has been asking me to get her a pair of goggles too, in pink color, of course! But I still don't think there are goggles made in her size!

And here she is, thinking that she's got the goggles on correctly. :)

The Emergence of the Final Consonant S

DD talks a lot, but many people have difficult understanding her. It's because she makes many articulation errors that are normal for someone of her age. This means that she may leave out certain sounds in words when talking. For instance, she may pronounce the word "bread" as "bad" and the word "telephone" as "teh-phone".

The final 's' sound, i.e. the 's' sound that is at the end of a word, has been consistently omitted by DD as she cannot yet pronounce it when it's at the end of a word. For example, "bus" will become "ba", "nice" will be "ny" and "rose" will be pronounced "row".

But since Saturday, she has been able to pronounce her final consonant 's'! Yipee!!! :) This is very exciting for me as I have been awaiting the day that she can do this. OK, this is obviously a hazard due to my professional background, but almost everytime DD talks, my mind automatically compiles the errors that she makes and the sounds that she's able to produce. It used to be worse when I was in Uni. I used to phonetically transcribe people's speeches as they are talking.

Below is a video of DD taken a month back. That's where the kids do most of their reading (just kidding!!!). See if you can make out the story that she is reading. :) The book is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

Exercising with Papa

The kids just love to do whatever we adults do. DS has been wanting to exercise so that his muscles will "grow bigger". Hehe.