Estelle Estelle Little Star

With the GREEN sleepy Ah Yi

With Ethanosaurus

Yeah… Estelle spent some time just lying about, rolling around at the pool. Right at home don’t you think?

Posing for the perfect shot….

right in her daddy’s footsteps.

There’s been heavy thunderstorms here each afternoon. Although that means that we can’t really venture out in the evenings, it also means that we have lovely morning fresh air. So this morning, the gang took advantage of that and went to Upper Pierce Reservior for a walk…

Now… what can they be staring at? (Click on photo for details)

And Estelle’s keen ears also picked out something in the sky… (Click on photo…)

We also saw lizards and monkeys and heaps of flowers.

And now… family photos… heh heh.

Question: How many birthdays does a 3 year old boy need?

Answer: As many as his mum and aunts can conjure up!

SSAY bought this yummy brownie cake from Polar and after a very noisy dinner with the gorgeous Chua girls (we need to have more of these!) it’s cake time!

Here’s the happy happy boy!

And especially for Uncle Max, check out what Ah Ma did right after this. Oops! 

And I quote Estelle… “What fun!”

Mid-Autumn celebrations at the Clubhouse at 29 began with some wet fun. And later, it got pretty sizzling with the barbeque…

Happy Birthday Wenz and Jason!

Cousin Ethan is CRAZY about Dinosaurs… poor Ah Ma can’t get her tongue round the pronunciation.
All I hear is somethingsaurus, somethingraptor, somethingdon… (good thing I have girls…) hahaha.

We (DaddyO and I) had a “discussion” about dinosaurs (or rather, he griped, and I listened… heh heh).

He thinks that there is no point teaching Estelle about the dinosaurs as the “facts” we have about these reptiles, are merely theories, and interpretations of few scientists. And these theories keep changing. True… I don’t really want Estelle to explore fantasy YET.

He thinks that there are some features of the dinosaurs that just doesn’t make sense. Evolution can’t have made that much of a mistake. Especially for the super-predators which boast of flaws (such as T-Rex’s tiny forearms) which would have seen their extinction waaaay before the end of the Cretaceous Period. Well… that makes sense too…

And to be honest, DaddyO continues, we actually know NOTHING about dinosaurs, save for a few bones. Their colours, their appearance, etc, are all fictional. Can’t argue with that…

Apparently DaddyO himself was really interested in dinosaurs when he was young (during his “encyclopedia boy” phase) but he was deeply disillusioned when all the “facts” that he read just didn’t match up.

Still, I think it’s pretty useful to know about them if Estelle is interested… but in the age when we are reduced to just having 8 planets by a bunch of scientists, it’s hard to buy the theory of dinosaurs.

Estelle and Ethan have been moved to the Thursday Playgroup at MyGym. This group has kids who are closer to age 3 rather than 2, and are more involved with the activities and with the teachers.

And for the first time… I think my darling Estelle has slowly become a preschooler rather than just a toddler.

The first quarter of an hour was still pretty much madness, kids hopping and jumping and doing heaps of stuff around the gym during free time. A lot rowdier and a lot chirpier.

But when it was circle time, all of them sat down and engaged with the teachers, followed instructions. And during Story Time, they asked questions, fought to be the first to answer questions and to identify the objects in the books… altogether a more mature and vocal bunch.

There wasn’t any clingy whimpering young ‘uns, and no run-off-and-do-my-own-thing toddlers, and instead of merely tolerating each other during play time, they actually talked to each other and sang songs together! I even caught Estelle asking a boy for his drum, and the boy later exchanged it for Estelle’s xylophone.

But of course, Estelle still prefers cousin Ethan… Spot the difference. These photos were barely 5 seconds apart.

On the Menu:

Ice Milo and Wanton Noodles

Heaps of Toys in the Playroom

Time at the Playground

It’s Teachers’ Day and we celebrated by bringing our hardworking, slave of a teacher out for a much needed break (that is after she hopped back to school early in the morning for goodness knows what.)
We went to United Square where they had these rides for $2. Ahem, Ah Yee, paid for the ride… can’t you tell by the monstrously GREEN giraffe the kids had to sit on? Such is the stuff nightmares are made of!

And much later… after some shopping… we joined the crowd and watched the Clifford Show!

And after the show, the kids went on stage and posed with the Big Red Dog.