Kids day out to River Safari: Panda overload

 If you are born in the 80s like me, you'd have grown up knowing Ah Meng the Orangutan, and Xin Xing and An An the 2 pandas whom China loaned to us for a mere 100 days.

This time, Kai Kai and Jia Jia will be here for 10 years as part of forging political ties between Singapore and China.

The boys: Adam and Morgan are born just weeks apart and get on fabulously. Most of the time anyway. Heh.

Do you know what are the Rivers of the world?

Mississippi River: home to the beaver, spatula-snouted Mississippi paddlefish and the alligator gar (a prehistoric river monster that's been around for 100 million years).

 

Prehistoric fish: alligator gar.

 

 

Mekong River: pictured below are the Mekong giant catfish (the largest freshwater fish), and the giant freshwater stingray.







Yangtze river: China's longest river is home to some of the world's most critically endangered wildlife.
Catch sight of the world's largest amphibian, the Chinese Giant Salamander, as well as the rarely seen Yangtze alligator.

Yangtze alligator.



Then we went to the much-raved about Panda enclosure, the Giant Panda Forest!

Adam's Chinese namesake! Panda Kai Kai is 2 years older than Adam.

Red panda

Can't tell Kai Kai and Jia Jia apart. Can you??

Top: Zebra tank from Bugis Village
Shorts: Salmon pink scallop shorts from Love Bonito
Bag: Louis Vuitton Trevi PM
Slippers: Tory Burch

My very own cuddly Kai Kai

We were lucky that we managed to catch both Kai Kai and Jia Jia because I heard they sometimes go into hiding.

All that walking is making everyone hungry. Let's go to Mama Panda Kitchen!

Panda overload

Fancy a Panda pao?

Morgan's panda lunch set

Adam's set - Panda pao, ice-cream and almond jelly.

Hubby's panda cuppa.

Sat on panda chairs somemore.

After lunch, we walked on to the Amazon Flooded Forest, showcasing the annual flooding of the Amazon Forest. 

Piranha!

Next up: at the Squirrel monkey forest

Very tame monkeys that were not afraid to come up close and personal

Manatees feeding on cabbage

An arapaima came face to face with Adam

Otters

Pandassador at the souvenir shop

On our way out, back to the car, we came across a pair of Peacocks, with the male showing off to the female. So pretty!

 

 

 Other rivers of the world:

Ganges River in India, with the Indian Gharial, a fish-eating crocodile, and the Goonch catfish which is a maneater.

 

River Nile: the lifeblood of ancient Egyptian civilisation is a habitat for creatures both spectacular and savage. Brace yourself for the razor-sharp teeth of the tigerfish and monstrous appetite of the Nile Perch.

 

Congo river: look out for schools of rainbow-colored fishes like Congo tetra, kribernsis and jewel cichlid.

 

Murray River: featuring the Murray cod, Australia's largest freshwater fish, and the Australian Lungfish, a rare living fossil with ancestors older than the dinosaurs!

 

 

Charmaine's birthday lunch: Irodori Jap restaurant

 

 

 

My pretty gal pal turned 28 recently and we had a belated celebration with her today at Irodori Jap Restaurant, Riverview Hotel.

 

Dearest Charm, I wish you good health and tremendous joy in your life, and may all good things fill up your days so you will not feel dejection or unhappiness ever and always!

We have known one another for sooooo many years already, when you were still studying and when Royce was still a puppy, till now we are all married and became lao Aunty.. And even bought apartments in the same estate so we can be neighbours and peep at each other from balcony. Muahahaha.

Appreciate that even though you don't have (human) kids yet, but you always make effort to talk about our kids.

Enjoy our nonsense in Whatsapp always gossiping and sharing dirty jokes which never fail to brighten up a boring day at work.

Love you so much Sweetheart!

 

Love, XOXO,

[Review] Adam's swimming lessons

Adam has been attending swimming lessons for 6 weeks now (not taking into account missed lessons due to bad weather).

 

Part I - Adam's beginning journey in swim lessons, is HERE.

 

 

Here's what the kids think about swim lessons with Dolphin Swim School!

 

 

 

After lesson sure go to the water playground, then eat and sleep like a pig thereafter.

 

I was first introduced to coach Desmond from my friend.

After having engaged a bogus swim instructor from Happy Fish, which I would not wish upon any parent or child, I'm really glad I was introduced to Desmond because he is truly passionate about coaching children and very patient, which is key when it comes to working with kids.

Adam is very naughty but Desmond has his ways with him to make him listen.

Even my MIL, who comes with us to babysit Ashton, has nothing but praise for Desmond and commented that he is way much better.

Children gain water confidence which is very important to prevent drowning and develop self-esteem.

Dolphin Swim School's  schedules  are as follows:

Pasir Ris Swimming Complex

Thursday

5.00pm ~ beginner Class

6.00pm ~ Advance Class

Pasir Ris Swimming Complex Friday

3.00pm ~ beginner Class

5.00pm ~ beginner Class

6.00pm ~ Advance Class

7.00pm ~ beginner Class (Commence Soon!!!)

Pasir Ris Swimming Complex Saturday

3.00pm ~ Intermediate Class

4.00pm ~ Advance Class

5.00pm ~ Advance Class

6.00pm ~ Advance Class

7.00pm ~ Intermediate Class

Pasir Ris Swimming Complex

Sunday

8.00am ~ beginner Class

9.00am ~ Advance Class

10.00am ~ Advance Class

11.00am ~ beginner Class

Delta Swimming Complex

Tuesday

5.00pm ~ Beginner Class

6.00pm ~ Beginner Class

7.00pm ~ Advance Class

Delta Swimming Complex

Saturday

8.00am ~ Beginner Class

9.00am ~ Advance Class

10.00am ~ Advance Class

11.00am ~ Beginner Class

12.00pm ~ Advance Class

Delta Swimming Complex

Sunday

3.00pm ~ Advance Class

4.00pm ~ Beginner Class

5.00pm ~ Advance Class

6.00pm ~ Intermediate Class

 If his venues and timings suit you, you can call/SMS/Whatsapp Desmond at 96613608 or 96613609.
**Like Dolphin Swim School on Facebook!**

Say that you are referred to by Veron or Adam's Mummy :)

The discipline issue - Part 2.

Okay, so I was cross with Adam tonight because he has been behaving like a total crap-bag.
I asked him to his room and closed the door and had a heart-to-heart talk with him (it's never easy to say "I need to talk to you" be it to your husband, colleague or even son!).

I asked him if he is leading a hard life, does he not have food to eat or toys to play with, do Daddy and Mummy always beat him and treat him badly.... blah blah blah. (Now, it seems like all the talking is one-sided).
He started wailing and said No, he has a good life, and that he has food to eat and many toys in his Play-room, and by then his sobs were really loud. I resisted the urge to burst out laughing.
My Adam can be the sweetest thing sometimes.
He behaved really well at dinner and he told me he was tired and needed to rest.
I think he must be exhausted from the day's swim lesson followed by water play, and the fact that he only napped half an hour because he wet his bed big time and woke up from it.
When he has not enough rest, he is capable of being very irritable (and irritating).
So I forgave him and I am not cross with him anymore. I cannot go to bed angry. It's bad for health.

Our evening ended quite amicably. Hubby came back from fishing with his catches and we had fresh steamed fishes for dinner at the nearby zhi-char, Hong Kong style.
I decided not to join Andy fishing in the end because Sundays are filled with lots of Mummy-admin - fetching the kids to Adam's swim lesson, getting lunch and naps in order etc.

Some photos from our evening: Fatty jumping in his jumperoo - the baby-version of a trapeze.

Adam after our "talk".

the big baby who just came back from his fishing trip earlier on.

The discipline issue.

Yesterday, my mummy-friend sent me a link of "high need children" and told me her son seems to fall under all the categories that qualify him as a "high need child".
I looked through the article and suddenly find that Adam is a lot like that recently.
He is demanding and attention-seeking, cannot self-soothe and always needs me to be around to do things for him.

Adam used to adore his younger brother so much, but lately he has been testing our patience.
He snatches whatever toy Ashton is playing with , and recently my father-in-law bought Ashton a walker which we let Adam help choose, but once we had it set up at my in-law's, Adam started claiming the walker as his and refused to let Ashton have a go at it.

He has become demanding, needy and attention-seeking. It makes me extremely fed up because I do not want to resort to something negative which may make him hate me, or worse, hate Ashton.

On a scale of 0-10, 0 being most lenient and 10 being the strictest, I am probably a 2 or 3.
Andy accused me of spoiling him from young, saying that Adam only misbehaves when I'm around because he knows he can get away with it. I think that is not true of course, and I'm very displeased with Andy accusing me like that.

It's not that I spoil Adam too much, but it's just that being a mother, it's contradictory for me to inflict pain on the very ones I'm committed to protect and love.

It's not that I'm not bothered with the boys fighting for toys or attention, it's just that sometimes I think as a parent it is important not to be too quick to jump in and take sides , no matter how tempting it is.
Anyway, these are my sulky, annoying farts...

His train fell off the track and therefore it's the end of the world. 

Upset because he has no toys to play with as Adam has snatched everything away. Sigh.

All that moaning, groaning and whining make my head want to explode.

I know Adam is jealous of having to share all the attention and toys with Ashton, but I'm extremely annoyed with his behaviour.
We (Andy, my in-laws and I) do not practice corporal punishment. Friends who visit find it hard to believe that we do not have a single cane in our home!
We try to give our children the best we can afford (not just the material things), and there is absolutely no reason for Adam to behave like such an ungrateful and annoying shit.

How in the world our grandparents have 10 kids is truly beyond me.