Tuen's Blog

On Monday, Ren’s playschool organised a visit to Chesterfield farm, a small farm not far from where we live. I think they cater specially to tourists and kids.

This is not the first time we brought Ren to a farm. The first time was when we visited the Lims in New Zealand, and Jean brought us to a farm which was quite a bit larger than Chesterfield.

Anyway, Ren had a good time with his schoolmates and because this was not his first time, he had no fear at all in approaching the animals to feed them.

There was also a short and interesting farm show, and it was the first time we saw a sheepdog in action rounding up sheep. It was really fascinating!

Some photos here. Video below:

Download Video

I came out of the bedroom this morning with baby in tow, as usual. This time though, I forgot to take something with me and went right back to my bedroom only to find the door shut and worse, locked! I thought someone had gone in and I called out if anyone was inside, but immediately, Ren told me that he had locked it coming out!

I was so mad at him I gave him a good telling off. Of course, I felt a little bad after I’d cooled down and made my peace with him; poor fellow was quite subdued and I suspect he won’t do that again.

Anyway, the door to our bedroom, for Lord knows what reason, is unlike the other bedroom doors, and has a lock set that is usually used for front doors rather than bedroom doors. And we had never had the key to this lock, because the previous owners said they had never used the key either and didn’t know where it was. I had told myself numerous times before to get the lock changed just in case something like this happens, but human nature is such that many of us tend to procrastincate…

So thinking that I would try to save some money, and because I had successfully picked locks before, I had a quick browse of the Internet to refresh my memory, scrounged up a makeshift torque wrench and with a paper clip, set to work. Unfortunately, after more than an hour, I was not successful.

So I surrendered and called the locksmith who came in later in the day and charged $110 for picking the lock as well as changing the cylinder so that we would have new keys for the lock.

Sigh.

Our little one never ceases to amaze me. In his videos and television shows, he has come across the tooth fairy and what she does with kids’ teeth when placed under the pillow.

Yesterday afternoon, whilst taking him to the loo, I accidentaly pulled off his pants ‘hook’ or whatchamightcallit; the little metal item that holds the waist of his pants together.

Then yesterday evening, he came to me and said, “Dad, I’ve put my pants buckle under the pillow so that the pants’ fairy will come”!

I couldn’t help laughing out loud. He had made the transference from tooth to pants on his own, and it’s quite marvelous that he can do this at the age of 4. Anyway, the next morning, we left a lollipop in place of the metal piece and he was absolutely delighted.

My hopes for a doctor or lawyer or other highly regarded professional in the family are still alive! (This is no insult to my other kids; not much anyway…  :))

It’s hard to believe that our little bundle of joy, which came unexpected and unplanned, is now 4 years old and has become so much a part of our lives that it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without him.

We had two celebrations for him. One was on the Sunday before, where we asked the Chongs and the Chias to come over for a meal, and to cut his birthday cake. The second celebration was for baby to invite some of his pre-school friends to come over to play and celebrate his birthday with him. In the end only two of them could make it, and they came with their mums. Ren enjoyed both parties very much.

Photos can be found here.

Below is a photo of baby with his ‘girfriend’ Katherine.

During the Singapore Day last year at the Sid Myer Bowl, Mary had met an old friend from Singapore, Fang Fa (or Christina as we had known her), whom we had not been in touch with for more than 15 years. Turns out she’s living not far from us with Friteof (may have gotten the spelling wrong here) her husband.

We caught up last Saturday and had lunch at Olinda. Then Friteof brought us to a bird sanctuary at Sherbrooke forest, where Ren had a whale of a time feeding the birds and collecting bird feathers. I must say that Friteof was very good at interacting with and teaching Ren about the birds, trees and nature in general. Some photos can be found here.

Download Video

Ren received his first official invitation to a friend’s birthday party today. Catherine is celebrating her birthday today at Amber’s playhouse.

Here’s a photo of Ren carrying Catherine’s birthday present.

Ren with present

Gern took this photo of baby.

Baby with guitar

Today, we attended the open house for baby’s preschool. Ren seemed to have enjoyed himself, to the extent that he didn’t want to leave when it came time to go home.  

The Open House allowed us to see his future classroom and playground, toys, equipment etc.  They even provided a free sausage sizzle; yum!  

The two girls and Gern accompanied us there.  They even had a raffle draw with pretty good prizes.  Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything.

Ren at Open House

 A few more photos can be found here.