Hort Park Hot Park

It's a great sunny day today. Took the chance to visit HortPark at Telok Blangah area. It was nice but not what I expected to be. We walked around the park, looking at the glass houses, played at the playground and took a break around the rain trees.

We walked on the bridge that leads to Henderson Waves that stretches 2.4km. We only managed 1.8km and decided to return to HortPark (yeah, we are not so game, to think of walking almost 5km both ways is enough to tire my mind and body). We walked a similar path in WA's Valley of the Giants when Kieran was 14 months old - the weather there and then was fantastically cool and it was a joy walking on the bridge amidst tall, old trees.

Back to HortPark main lobby, there some fringe activities such as Calligraphy, figurine making, dragon beard candy and art & crafts. The kids were thrilled to receive 3 calligraphy artwork with meaningful words - Xin Fu Kuai Le, Xue Ye Jin Bu and most importantly, Shen Ti Jian Kang for their grandmother (my mother), whom we will visit this evening.

A Vietnamese Tale

I read the report on Thien Nhan on today's papers with a heavy heart.

If you have a heart, please help Thien Nhan in any means you can at either here or here.

Kieran goes P1

2 January was another milestone for Kieran as he begins his primary education.

The evening before I asked him how he felt about tomorrow. He said he was scared and I shared with him how I felt the same when I was going P1 and it's perfectly alright to feel this way. The anxiety is understable and I told him that everyone does through the same as there are many new experiences awaiting for us to discover.

I couldn't sleep that night after preparing his bag and other stuff for after-school care. We reminded him to wake up between 6.45-7am the next day so that he would have enough time to leave home by 7.30am.

The next morning, before I could wake him at 6.45am, I was greeted by a wide-grinned (but blurry-eyed) Kieran with a cheery, "Good Morning, Mommy". I was pleased.

When I took him to his classroom, he was all ready. He was smiling at me and even asked us to leave after school while he was about to go for after-school care. Hubby and I then went home to dismantle Raeyen's cot and put aside their old but working toys. Raeyen then returned from his 1st day back at the Kindy. Our ever-cheery Raeyen came back in happy mood and was telling me he saw all his old classmates. After lunch, hubby and I went to the Salvation Army to donate the old toys and some clothes.

In the evening, we picked Kieran home and he was happy to see us, there was no trace of lethargy. His vice-principal was surprised that after 11 hours out from home, he was still active.

That night was the first time Kieran moved up to his double-decker bed and Raeyen to sleep on the lower-deck. Kieran was excited to be able to sleep on higher ground. We were worried if Raeyen would get used to sleeping on Kieran's bed as he has been sleeping in my bedroom since birth. But he was soon fell asleep in my arms at 9pm and slept soundly in his "new, big-boy" bed till 7.30am this morning.