The children grow

Phew, finally got some pictures up from my phone.

The year must seem to have been off to a super slow start, if this blog is anything to go by. But really, that is hardly the case.

Three months have passed in a flash, and I find I'm staring the end of March right in the eye. So much has happened between me going back to work, Dylan starting at nursery, E starting in JB, and G starting on solids.

Where do I even begin?

A good place to start, I suppose, is where the boys are right now.

Gareth's now almost 7 months, happy and healthy. Not just that, he'g got a hale and hearty appetite for rice and oat cereal, potato, sweet potato, and strawberries too.

Here's the picture to prove it:



A happy little chap, even at bedtime:



In January, Dylan went for his first-ever "friend's birthday party" at Kids Amaze@ Safra Toa Payoh - a nursery playmate who turned 4. And here I am still thinking of my little tyke as a wee tot who's just seen the other side of 3.

In February, we ushered in the Year of the Tiger in a new way as a family. We took our first ever family trip up north to Segamat, Malaysia - my Dad's hometown - to spend CNY there. Segamat is a small town some 90km north of JB, and even though it was Dylan's second trip there (we went when he was a mere 3-mth old babe), this was the first time the daddy and number two paid the town - and the extended Chen family - a visit.

We put up in a little roach-ridden motel, but what made it all worth it was having the two young'uns spend time with the maternal grandparents, getting to know the extended Chen family and uncles and aunties, and playing with the cousins.

For the little tyke, the icing on the cake came from seeing fireworks at night and real fire-crackers leave behind its trail of red paper all over the ground the following day.

And a real lion dance troupe performing right in front of him.

Over at the country club, he had a fair bit of fun in the playground swings too.

With cousins Sophia, Christy & Sara:


With cousin Sara:


Another first for Dylan this year - at the tennis dinner at Keppel, the cheeky boy showed off his singing and dancing talent by out-singing and out-dancing the other kiddies on stage. To the amusement of the audience, he sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in its entirety, not once, but twice!



Now that Elroy has his passport back, he's been coming home more regularly from JB, at least every weekend if not twice a week. Have to say, compared to the last half a year with him over in Australia, I'm really enjoying having Daddy around more often again.

What do I enjoy?

I enjoy returning from work, taking time to have dinner as a complete family around the table. I enjoy seeing Dylan eat his dinner because he wants to grow big and strong, "just like Daddy".

After dinner, I enjoy the family activity of taking the stroller out, plonking the 15kg boy in it, having little Gareth snug in his baby sling, and walking out to Siglap Centre and back. Daddy will talk about the psychiatric hospital he's placed at, what's happening in the course; his observations of Malaysian life through the lens of a homegrown Singaporean an endearing quirk for me, a half-blood Singaporean who has a Malaysian father. On the way home, we'd grab an ice-cream sundae from MacDonalds.

Come weekends, we've started a tradition of going out for dinner, to some place Dylan might enjoy. e.g. Changi Village, where he gets to drive battery operated cars.



Or maybe Changi Airport. Don't ask why I decided to take a photo of the boys with old Ronald himself!



That's all for now.

When I do squeeze out more time to blog again, will try to fill in the gaps of some of the unexpected twists and turns of the year thus far.

Many of which, I thoroughly believe, have been allowed by God to happen, and are blessings in disguise. More on that later.