Returning friend

Kecil's best friend does not go to the same school as Kecil. A fact that unfortunately means that they have slightly different school year.
And for the past few weeks, Ami's been spending her school holiday in her hometown, away from Kecil.
But we were very happy to welcome Ami back last week.
Guess who was the happiest about her best friend returning?

Oh yeah. Now she has her friend back, one who can go for walkies together, explore the ditch for sights of worms, centipede and such....
Yikes!

Did I just say these little girls actually looked out for creepy crawlies?
Oh yes.... these two are explorers, watching for ants, moss, snails, mushrooms... all kinds of things.
All good stuff to hunt (just don't touch them!) during breaks in the clouds.

It's been raining non-stop since the weekend, but we are sure still hoping for more breaks in the clouds, and walkies with friends (in matching outfit, no less!)
Wish us luck with the weather!

No more a Baby

This rainy season, this Mama looked up, and suddenly realized .... that her Little One, while still somewhat puny, is no longer a baby.
For a while now, she has resisted anyone calling her a baby.
Even when she was still sleeping in the morning, or dozing off at night.
Just the best way to needle this Little One, call her "my baby"....
Even half asleep, you'll usually get an indignant rebuke "I'm not a baby!!!"

Shouldn't be too surprising, now, isn't it? After all, she's been to school for a while now, on her second size of uniform.
She kind of picks up her own accessories (and me thinks that she's doing a better job accessorizing than Mama!)
She's learnt her ABC and numbers and colors and shapes. In fact, ABC is the current favorite song.

Outside school, she can already help Mama shopping, by pushing the small cart!
Although she still likes to ride in the big cart.

She tirelessly follows Mama everyday, walking the dog, rain or shine.
Although, perhaps the prospect of seeing her friends might provide an additional motivation....

She's developed a taste for exotic food, even if she still doesn't have any tolerance for spicy ones.

And of course, she is fantastic at posing for Mama!

Amidst the smart alecky comments she's learnt to make nowadays, the infinite well of energy with which she crashed through the day, it is sometimes hard to believe that she was once just a puny little baby. I guess almost 4 years on, I am finally starting to learn the truth of that parenting adage:
The days are long, but the years are short.

To my not so little girl .... may you make waves in whatever you do...

Water Baby

Eeek.. Mama looks weird!

Not much to say today, simply sharing Mama's water baby.

Especially in the light of the fact that Kecil now emphatically insisted that she is no longer a 'baby'.

Ugh... my baby is growing up.

Ship Seeing, part deux

It may not be obvious, but this Mama was not quite satisfied with the pics from the last ship-seeing trip. So when the following day turn out to be another sunny day, we jumped at the opportunity.

The pictures turn out slightly better, but thanks to the lens limitations, there was no clear pic of Kecil AND the ships. Still, can you tell if Kecil is happy about going back and see the ships another time?

On top was the Hospital ship. Unfortunately the angle did not allow Mama to get a whole picture of the Japanese ship.

It got a little bit cloudy then, so we decided to explore the park a bit as well, where we found a cannon for Kecil to pose with, ...

A memorial of some sort ....

The huge, tall flag pole and the greeneries around it ...

And of course, the beautiful scenery across the bay on a partially sunny day.

The ships sailed away through the weekend (we checked) so we were lucky we came back when we did, for it turned out to be our last chance. 

Then again, with the new ride around, I suppose we can always drop by once in a while looking for more ships. Perhaps with friends next time.

Until then!

Royal Prince and Princess

This Mama had an inexplicable urge to clean up Kecil's stash of toys that day, which turned out to be good thing, since we got company later on, who so eagerly rummage through the treasure box.

Kecil's friend from the playground came by for a visit at the end of our walkies, just to find out more about Kecil's house.
And of course, following tradition, Kecil had to ask Mama to make a crown for her visiting friend. She is 'princessy' like that, this Little One.

But I don't mind, especially since I got a picture out of it. Haha!

Presenting Princess Kecil and her royal friend, posing with their preferred 'weapon' on the makeshift castle.

Well, we hope for more visits in the future (as well as more pics, ha!). Cheers!

Posing with superheroes

On the same day that we went ship-seeing, this Mama also needed to bring the car to the dealer to check something. Kecil, of course, did not mind.
Not least because the dealership is currently sporting some superheroes as guardians to their entrance.

I

For someone who NEVER watch/read/generally exposed to all these superheroes, Kecil can actually recognize Superman and Spiderman. I think she learned about Superman from the boys in Skool (whose bags/stuff are generally adorned with superhero figures such as ... well.. Superman). As for Spiderman... must have been during the times we watched cartoons from other channels, which also screen advertisements for the upcoming Spiderman movies.
In any case, it's a guy wearing tight suit with a spider emblem. Spider... man.... doh?
I guess the fact that Kecil was exposed to 'Cicakman' does not help either (don't ask this Mama why, but apparently the powers that be in Disney channel viewed Cicakman as something suitable for kids. Sigh...)

In any case, while the technicians were checking the car, we were also busy, taking pictures. Haha...
And since Kecil caught me watching Iron Man, she insisted that I should take picture with him. So there I was. Cheers!

There are times when running errands is simply not fun. Especially with a kid in tow. But sometimes it only takes some creative perspective to change a simply errand into an adventure, a chance to learn something new, and of course, a photo op. Haha!
I guess we should always keep that in mind while we run our errands. Cheers!

Ship Seeing

The sun was shining brightly up in the clear blue sky the other day.
And given that we have our own ride home from Skool, we decided to do a little bit of sight ship-seeing.

The park, beach and the pier is actually not too far away from Skool.
It is, however, a bit out of the way of the public transport.
That makes the walk from Skool to this particular spot not quite feasible, especially bearing in mind the timing of Kecil's Skool.
Around 11 am, either it would be extremely hot and sunny during sunny weather, or raining torrentially.
No, walking is out of the question. With the car, however, it was a real short drive.

As an added bonus, that day there were 2 big ships mooring at the pier: a humongous US Navy Hospital ship, and a Japanese carrier. Kecil, I'll have you know, is always excited to see ship. She's funny like that.

Well, if it's not already obvious, it was pretty hot that day, so we settled with taking some pics and left. It so happen that Mama was armed with the small camera, hence we managed to take some pics ...

Just too bad that after using the Big camera for so long, the picture quality from the small one is always something that I have to 'settle down' for.
Oh well, but at least we did go a ship-seeing and we have the pics to prove it. We might just come back another day, armed with the big camera, just so we have better looking pics.

Until then!

Birhtday Party at the Lagoon

We got an invitation to attend Kecil's Skool-mate's birthday party at the nearby lagoon. Never one to pass up any birthday party, we pack our bags and got ready to go.

        

The party also proved to be a great opportunity to catch up with some friends from summer school whom we haven't met since due to different class schedules.
Can you just imagine the conversation happening above?
Hi J! Hi C! Haven't seen you for a while! Yes, I am not taking the afternoon classes.
And I am in the morning class, no wonder we never see each other anymore.
Good to see you, though, lookin good!


Something like that, I suppose.

In addition, this Mama is proud to announce that Kecil had clearly overcome her fear for big mascots (like Jollibee). She used to be so terrified of them, refusing to get within a meter of the said mascot.

Well, once the birthday song had been sung and the games played, the kids made a scramble for ... not food ... the balloons which were used for decoration. Soon enough, all kinds of games involving the said balloons ensued ...

... until the kids start to find other interesting things, such as leaves and geese feathers ....

... and of course, fish!

There were some people who came to the lagoon specifically for fishing, and watching them, some of the bigger boys came out with their own brilliant version of 'fishing'. And of course, the rest of the kids followed suit.

It was a great, enjoyable afternoon, and the kids had a lot of fun. We really thank the birthday girl for inviting us all. I think Kecil even caught a 'fish', even if it was an imaginary one: