Visit to the Art Science Museum

I heard the Salvador Dalí's works was showing at the ArtScience Museum, and I have been itching to go, but Jolie has been sick, Mom needs to take care of Dad, and I didn't know if Cobby would be interested in seeing the exhibition, as the entrance fee was a whooping S$30 per adult. But I heard in the radio that you can see all other exhibitions inside with that one entrance fee, so when Mom offered to help me watch Jolie on Saturday, I suggested to Cobby that we go see it.

Turns out that OCBC cards have 20% off, so its S$24.00. Better than nothing... I mean, the admission ticket to the Louvre Museum in Paris only cost about S$17.50!!! (grumble...grumble...) Anyway, was very excited to finally be there. It's not very big, with a exhibition hall at each level.



We started with the Van Gogh Alive - The Exhibition, which was super cool. You don't see the actual work, but they project the paintings onto all the walls of their huge exhibition hall, and it moves according to the wonderful classical music played in the background. I'm not very good at explaining, but it was nothing like I've every seen before. It's like I'm walking inside all his paintings and I just want to just stand in the middle of it. Love it.

I was actually having a cold, no thanks my baby girl, spreading germs to everyone. The museum was sooo cold! We HAD to take a break for a hot drink and get out of the air-con rooms. What a relief to be sitting under the sun, suddenly it feels like we're in Europe again, drinking coffee in the cool weather.



Next we went to the Shipwreck exhibition, nothing much, but some of the stuff they found were quite interesting! From cheapo mass produced, everyday use type of bowls, which were super ugly, to these super delicate GOLD dishes that I so love!!! PRETTY!



Next we headed to my main objective, the Salvador Dalí's exhibition. What a wonderous exhibition! They feature lots of paintings and sketches, but I was really attracted to his sculptures. So beautiful, so strange and yet so much meaning behind them too! I love them!



Ah... finally, the famous melted clocks. Signifying his rejection to the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic.



Look, I look like a super model with legs that go on forever! Hahaha...



I enjoyed the exhibition so much! I have never seen any artist's work quite like his. On one hand, it's so whimsical, interesting and thought provoking. But on the other hand, some of his works were also very dark, disturbing and a little scary. It's almost like a horror movie, you want to see it, but yet you feel disturbed watching it. hmm...

With mixed feelings, we moved on to explore the rest of the museum. There's a small area on the top floor that discuss creativity, and visitors can make their own digital art creations using huge touch screens computers. I thought that it was just for fun, so imagine my surprise later when my "art" was featured on a huge screen at the end of a short film.





After the museum we headed to the shopping centre at Marina Sands and ate a very late lunch. It's a Korean burger restaurant called Kraze Burger. Not bad, but a little expensive. There's even a skating ring made of wax right next to the restaurant! I was itching to try, but it's been SO long since I skated, I was afraid that I would fall flat on my face. Hmm, maybe next time.



There's more to Singapore than just cinemas, so I think it's fun to do something different once in awhile.

Jolie's new toy

Mom just bought Jolie a brand new toy stroller, which looks like real stroller really, made of metal and all, so cute! So when we opened it up, it was lacking a passenger, so Jolie went into my Mom's room, dug out Teddy Bear and placed him comfortably on the seat. (Teddy belongs to me when I was a child by the way)



It's so interesting watching how Jolie treats the stroller and the bear. She would gently tug the cover over Teddy and push the stroller around like Mama does. She would even sayang Teddy once in a while. So sweet!





So for the next few days, this was her fav, her BFF. She wouldn't go anywhere without Teddy in her stroller, even when we had to go to MIL's place, and even when we headed out to the furniture expo sale in the evening. I was thinking how fortunate Teddy was. During my time, Teddy never left the house. Now, he's seeing the world! Well, not really the world, but to him, how awesome the outside world must be!

Dad's Knee Operation

Finally, it was Dad's turn to do his knee replacement surgery. Mom did hers a few years back and now, Dad's knees were in such bad shape it was time for him to do it too.

For Dad, I wasn't as involved in the whole process as when Mom did hers, as I had to take care of Jolie. So I only went on one appointment with him. The rest he went with Mom. This time round it was at Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital, which was very near our place, so everything was very convenient.

After several appointment changes, the surgery was finally set on Tuesday, 10 May 2011. I was supposed to put Jolie with MIL so that I can go to the hospital, but it turns out that Sis-in-law had to go for her check up, so I was stuck with Jo. After much discussion, everybody thinks that I shouldn't go since I had to watch Jolie. Besides, they didn't want Jolie in the hospital even when I suggested that she stayed downstairs in the garden.

It turned out to be the right decision, as the surgery was at 1.30pm, but it took so long, only close to 8pm did the hospital inform my Sis that Dad was out of the recovery room and sent back to his ward.

The next day, Mom offered to watch Jolie while I go visit Dad.



I must say, Dad seemed to take the surgery much better then Mom. He said that last night was horrible due to the pain and he had fever the whole morning, and the staff kept pressuring him to piss and threatened to insert a tube into his penis if he doesn't. Thankfully, he managed to do it by himself. o_o'

When I was there, the fever had subsided, the pain is controlled by morphine, and he looked good!



The next day I managed to visit Dad again after I dropped her off at MIL's place. When I got there I was surprised to see that Dad was able to bend his knee enough to sit upright. What a speedy recovery!



The nurses have also removed the bandages, so with the see-through plaster, we were able to see the knee itself. Cool...



The stitchings looked very neat and the wound seem to be healing very well, but it was still quite swollen. Doctor said that it would take a whole month for the swelling to completely subside!



Dad said that he had to do knee bending exercise everyday, but the physiotherapist commented that Dad was handling the therapy very well due to his daily cycling regime. I guess daily exercise does have it's benefits. :) By the time I left, it was already around 7pm, so I ate dinner at the food court with Mom before taking a taxi back to MIL's place again. Sigh, keep taking taxi, broke already lah...

It was a beautiful Friday, so after dropping Jolie off at playgroup, I took a bus to SAFRA Yishun for a swim. Oh my gosh I was in such bad shape! I was panting away with each lap I swam. But there wasn't time for lazing around, so I quickly washed up and walked across the street to the hospital and visited dad again. He was surprised to see me, but I was even more surprised as he was able to walk quite steadily with the walking stick!




In fact, he was doing so well, the doctor gave him the thumbs up and discharged him the next day. Now, he's at home, going for slow walks everyday. But we had to constantly nag at him to slow down, not to push himself too hard, fearing he'll over exert and hurt himself. In another 3 months he would be able to fix the other knee. If the next knee recovers just as fast as this one, he'll be off to Hong Kong again by the end of the year!

Happy Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day didn't start out how I wanted it to be. How wonderful it would be if on Mother's Day, a day to thank Mothers for their work everyday, that my husband would let me sleep late and make me breakfast in bed while he look after the kid. Instead, he had to sleep late because he stayed up whole night watching the election results. DUH... as if they won't be talking about it in every media possible in the next few days, or weeks to come.

Since he's slept only after 3am, it's impossible for him to take care of Jolie, so I had to wake up, wash and feed her while he sleeps. Oh well... I think we ate the bread I made the other day for breakfast, and we hung out at home until lunchtime before we move out for our Mother's Day lunch with my parents and Sis.

Since we were going to a nice restaurant, its a great opportunity to let Jolie wear her nice dress. Think she only wore it once or twice.



Sis booked a table at The Grand Shanghai restaurant. It's my first time there, and the food was quite good.





As usual, Jolie was running all over the place. I think, slowly, I'm learning to just go with the flow. If she's hungry, she'll eat. If not, just find other food for her somewhere else later. No used getting all pissed up about it. Anyway, she only ate abit before she dragged her Dad outside and ran about so much that she threw up. -_-" Sigh... Then she came back and ate some more before we left.

My parents and Sis helped watch Jolie while Cobby and I went for our salsa lessons. As usual, it was really fun and we felt so invigorated after the lesson. We went home to find Jolie still sleeping. We were supposed to go to MIL's place for dinner, but sis-in-law was still under the weather and MIL didn't have to mood to celebrate, so we didn't go to MIL's place that day.

Mom had already cooked some simple dinner, so we just ate there and went home after Jolie has taken her bath. A simple celebration. Happy Mother's Day!

General Election 2011

Today is the day! After weeks of debate, today is finally the day we Singaporeans make a decision. Our polling station was located at the school behind our block, so after breakfast, we walked there.





This was my 2nd time voting, but still, it's very exciting to be part of something so important!



This was the very first time for Cobby, so you can imagine how excited he was.



We decided take turns as we couldn't bring Jolie inside, and I went 1st. I must say, the inside of the school was very nice! Feels kind of nostalgic really, I miss being a child with no worries. :)

Honestly, I was undecided even as I stood with the poll card in my hands. The last time I voted, I was in my 20s. I have just started working and didn't give a damn about politics. This year, thanks to the Internet, the Opposition parties have done a great job in putting doubts in my mind, forcing me to think about what they were so agitated about.

I read about the rallies and discussions almost on a daily basis, and suddenly, my loyalty was wavered. Suddenly, the Opposition parties were no longer crazy old uncles, screaming illogical complains about the government at the MRT stations, and our government doesn't seem as white as we thought they were! Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how vocal and passionate my friends are about politics. I had no idea! People were attending rallies, waving flags, wearing badges and even volunteering for the opposition parties! Such bravery, such conviction!

Personally, I finally understand what the Opposition parties are about now. They may not be the majority in Parliament, but they are necessary in keeping our government in check, a voice for the people. But... I vote like how I do appraisals. Did the ministers in my constituency do what they promised? What do are their plans for the next 5 years? Am I happy, as a citizen? I'm not a very good writer, but I found someone who was able to express exactly how I felt.

So I heaved a sigh, wrote a 'X' on my poll card, dropped it inside the box, and walked out to my waiting family. Well, that's that. While Cobby was voting, I found rabbits!



I think they belong to the school. Poor rabbits, the weather was freaking hot, and even in the shade, I can imagine they must be boiling underneath their thick furs. When we're done, we brought Jolie to Mom's place as usual and headed out for lunch at Carl's Jr. We were so hungry we managed to finish everything, which was rare!



After lunch we watched Fast and Furious 5



SUPER COOL SHOW!!! It's the same director as Tokyo Drift, so if you love it, you will love this show. Full of action and a great cast! I'm a fan of Dwayne Johnson (THE ROCK), so this show was quite a treat.

**stay after the show, there's more!**

After the movie we hung around the place for awhile before we decided to go back early. The weather was so fine that we thought it would be nice to bring Jolie to the open field near Mom's place to go fly kite!



Strangely, we couldn't get our kite to fly. I blame the kite, must be something wrong with it. -_-



The whole field was full of prickly mimosas and their torns were torturing my feet as we walked through it. When I found out that Jolie had blistered her toes, we called it a day and headed by to Mom's home. Sis was here for the weekend, so as usual, Jolie got new toys and gifts.



Mom cooked a sumptuous dinner that night, even got chilli crab! YUMS! What a great way to end GE2011!

Interesting people at my new hangout

Now that Jolie spends 2 hours a day at playgroup, I have developed a dislike of hanging out at home. Instead, I would drop her off at school and cycle to the nearby McDonald's. Free Wi-Fi, free air-con, food and drinks are not free, but available within a few steps away. What's not to love about the place? In fact, right now, I'm sitting at Mac, typing away.

There's this girl just now who was sharing my seat. She bought a Breakfast deluxe, which as you know, consist of a full Big Breakfast, plus 2 slices of pancakes. She requested a clean piece of the wax paper, the type they wrap burgers with, and carefully assembled herself a burger.

She uses the English muffins for buns, placed the sausage patty on one bun, placed the scrambled eggs on the other bun, trim the egg till it's round and fits the bun nicely, seasoned it with pepper and chilli sauce, and carefully out two buns together. Then she folded the paper around her burger and tug it neatly away on her food tray. Satisfied, she proceeded with eating her pancakes and the remaining egg trimmings.

???

I wonder what or who the burger is for? Maybe she planned to bring it home for someone to eat? Or maybe she wanted to save it for lunch? I don't know.

Potty Training, a messy business

On April 19, I finally took up the courage to start potty training Jolie using panties. I have been procrastinating for so long, but can you blame me? Just thinking of moping up her pee and poop made me want to delay her potty training for another day. But there's no escaping this stage of motherhood, so we started.

The potty was no stranger to Jolie, we tried letting her use the potty a few months back, but it didn't really take flight, as we still stuck with diapers. So this time I let her wear regular cotton panties, so that both she and I would know that she has wet herself.

I really felt like a broken record! All day long, I would keep repeating over, over, over and over again, the same few sentences.

"Jolie, if you need to shee-shee or poop poop, please do it on the pot-pot ok?"
"Jolie, do you need to shee-shee?"
"Jolie! NO! Don't shee-shee on the floor! Shee-shee inside the pot-pot! Shee-shee here(indicating panties or floor) bad! Shee-shee here(indicating potty)!!"

So the next few days were pretty stressful. In the beginning, I think she don't get it. But subsequently, I think she understand, but doesn't know how to control her "flow". Like they said, "when you gotta go, you gotta go!". Why I think she understand? She would actually stand somewhere beyond my line of sight, like behind a wall, and wet herself. And when I find her, she would look so guilty, and compensate by taking off her panties and sitting on her potty. Hmm... a little too late isn't it?

I tried not to scold her, afterall, she's still learning. But I need to let her know that wetting herself is wrong! Sooo... it's more like a stern, nagging. Sigh... so it's kind of a repetitive thing:

- asking her if she needs to pee(she would always say NO)
- her peeing on the floor, once she even pooped in her panties (Ewww...)
- me cleaning up while nagging at her
- repeat

It's not always bad, sometimes I would encourage her by making her seat on the potty, even give her a book to read. You never know, maybe after squatting for awhile, something might come out right? Most of the time, nothing. She would sit for awhile, then say "Nope!" and get up. Sometimes, with a book, she would sit longer, and would produce "results". Haha...

One day, on the 29 April, I was in the kitchen preparing lunch. She was begin very quiet in the living room, so I went to check on her. Surprise surprise! My girl had actually taken off her panties herself, sat on her potty and peed! When I got out, she was actually taking the potty dish out. I was so proud of her as I helped her flush away her pee into the toilet. Just when I thought what great progress it was, she surprised me further a few minutes later by producing me a potty of poop! All by herself!

OH JOY!! I was SO PROUD of her as I kissed and hugged her, and telling her what a good girl she was. Still I didn't think it was enough, so I rewarded her further with yummy cupcakes! But just as I thought that the potty training has completed, she wet herself again that afternoon. Sigh, I guess this stuff takes time, but I'm glad there's improvement.

So this is the situation now. We have our hits and misses. Sometimes she would just take off her panties herself and sit on her potty, but nothing comes out, so I don't know if she needs to go? Or maybe my positive reinforcement tactics was too effective that she hopes to be rewarded? Or she just likes to run around the house half naked. -_-

Anyway, it's really great to potty train your kid, diaper usage has reduced, so soon we won't be needing to buy diapers. So far she's only wearing her panties while at home. She still wears her diapers to her playgroup and while sleeping. I thought we should take a step at a time. :) We've gotten her to wear diapers at my Mom's place too, same, there were hits and misses, but it was a necessary evil.

I wanted to take some photos of her on her potty, but it seemed wrong to post half naked photos of my baby on the web, so I gave up on that. I wonder how we're going to potty train her when we're outdoors?