Last London trip Sept 6th

We've enjoyed london so much, we were back the subsequent sat. The weather was not as sunny as the previous one, but even so, we had fun eating crepes in the rain, drinking mocca at star bucks, roaming in the museums for the whole afternoon, and having duck at four seasons.

Baby sitting

Baby sitting

It was our first time baby sitting our friend’s baby. We volunteered to baby sit Audrey while her parents watch a musical in London. It was 4 hrs long. But this girl was incredibly easy. She is able to communicate, follows instructions and is potty trained!

Park was the best choice to bring the two toddlers, and thank goodness, there was a live band, and did our kids have a great time dancing to the beat. They tired themselves out running about and chasing pigeons. She fell fast asleep the moment she sat down in the pram for the rest of the hrs.

Nathan was awake the whole time, so we decided to get his face drawn at Leicester Square. He was good on the chair, sat there rather still for 10mins. Later, we had Audrey and her parents drawn too, a birthday present for her mum.

Lake District August 18-22nd

This was our second time visiting lake district, but we stayed at a different town –Keswick.

As always, travelling around in England, we hope for sunshine, and this time, we could hope for no rain, less to say sunshine. It drizzled every single day, and rained heavily on some mornings and nights.

Lake district is well known for her lakes and mountains. Depending on the season you visit, Autumn is the prettiest, where colours of the rainbow are displayed on the vegetation on the mountains. In Summer, we saw mostly green, some red and purple.

We did 2 hikes up to latrigg (400m) and Ashness Bridge (200m). These are push chair friendly hikes. Nathan went on foot half the time. This chap enjoys walking, a little slow and takes us longer to reach the summit, but patience did pay us off, watching him conquer the heights.

Norway July 2nd-9th

Spectacular! Spectacular! Spectacular!


Norway was the 5th European country we’ve visited, and by far, the most glorious one. She has the fjords, sea, snow capped mountains, alpines, steep plunging rocky hills, majestic waterfalls, plus good choices of sea food (the most popular Norwegian salmon) and friendly people.

We stayed at 4 different places. Thrice at youth hostels, and the last night at a hotel. Everywhere is clean and pleasant, cultured and peaceful. Only noises from laughter and chatting, no sign of construction or big machines. It is a paradise for cyclists, mountaineers, walkers, like us, and drivers too, esp caravans, which are seen in most hiking locations. It’s easy to get to places by bus or ferry, but be prepared for a couple of hours of travelling, nicely compensated by beautiful scenery, which made the journey quite wonderful.

I would have appreciated the Norway trip to the fullest extent if I had not been ill. Still, thankfully, I count myself really blessed to come so close to God’s creation in every way possible.

Finse

Finally, our last night at a hotel. We had no other cheaper options here, where everything is snow and rocks. At 1200 m above sea level, Finse is the highest train station in Norway.

If only, if only we had more time, both LC and I kept lamenting – that we could walk a longer distance and climb more heights in this area. Nathan even walked on ice, for a short while.

The clear blue sky made all the difference to our stay here. There isn’t every much to do around here, except biking and hiking, and sitting on a nice big rock to admire the fantastic white and blue scenery that surrounds you.

Balestrand

We stayed 3 nights at a third youth hostel. Balestrand is a nice town, with a church, an aquarium where we had all 3 dinners, and of course the sea port where the boats and ships docked. Nathan saw star fish, a few gigantic lobsters, fishes, urchins and crabs in a pool at the aquarium.

One very wet day, we stayed in to watch Wimbledon, a final match between Federer and Nadal. It was a long hard fight for 5 solid hrs!

We made a day trip to a glacier. Nathan was too young to walk on it, so we only visited the museum and watched the glacier from a distance.

Flam

The train ride was the highlight – Flamsbana, which took us from Myrdal to Flam, 800m above sea level to zero. Along the way, we saw a gorgeous waterfall.

At Flam, we stayed at another youth hostel, but we were delightfully brought back to the ‘kampong style’ of living – common bathroom and kitchen facilities, not even a basin in our cabin (hut with 4 single beds). We had a small cooking area and fridge, so we decided to make 2 breakfasts and one dinner – ham and cheese omelette and sausages with bread. What an adventure.

From Flam, we took a day out on a cruise along the one thing every tourist speaks of – The Norwegian Fjords – long and large water bodies surrounded by high steep cliffs on all sides. We saw waterfalls, billy goats and seals along the way.

Beautiful, glorious and amazing was the scenery!

Tonsberg

The first day we arrived in Norway at Torp airport. Alighted from the plane, took a bus, then another 15mins train ride to Tonsberg. First thing first, looked for our youth hostel. There it was, located right in front of the mountain!

Staying at youth hostel wasn’t a bad thing at all. Nice comfortable beds, and we were even surprised to find a TV in the room, and of course, can’t do without an en suite bathroom.

Dropped our bags, and went out for a short hike, 20 mins up hill to a 100 yrs old Tower, where a much older castle once stood. It was the highest peak and view point of the area.

We treated ourselves to a good meal on our first night too. Salmon fillets! The stretch of restaurants strategically located next to the port was bustling with activities and people watching, boats docking, dogs roaming and sea gulls hovering above us.

We didn’t get to see this town very much, for we quickly moved on to our next more spectacular location, another 7 hr train journey away the next morning.

Visit in Cambridge

After spending a week in London, and a second week in Salzburg, Austria, mum finally got a chance to see cambridge. We brought her out for a walk to the colleges, the world renowed King's college, trinity, the Round church, and did something all visitors to cambridge must do - Punting. LC did a fantastic job, rowing us on for an hour. Thank God, everyone was kept safe on board.

Just snapping pictures of our neighbourhood was lovely. You got to be here to feel the wind yourself, looking at them from pictures wouldn't help you appreciate much of nature and the lush greenery you find around cambridge. The river that flows through it all the more lovelier.

We are going to miss this place alot.

London Trip 11-14th June

Mum arrived on June 2nd, Monday, and on wed, we took a train from cambridge to Londond, spent 4 days and 3 nights stay with karen at her host's house.

We did what tourists usually do- sightseeing tower bridge, big ben, south bank, west minster abby, Harrods mall (where i got my second bag), ate at Chinatown. We even managed to catch a musical, just LC and I - Blood Brothers! Tears couldn't stop flowing down on cheeks. Parked nathan with mum at Joy's host's house. That was our very first date since nathan was born, wow whee. Freedom indeed.

London is too busy to truly enjoy, carrying the pram and nathan up and down the tube stations was a nightmare, better to walk in parks or take a bus.

Elea and Juniper Birthday Party June 8th

What a wonderful time we had. Party started from 2.00p.m. and lasted until 9p.m. by the time we parted. We had bbq picnic, games and lotsa of fun. These lovely ladies even celebrated my birthday for me, a small chocolate cakes and a bouquet of flowers, how sweet.

The 2 yr mark

We saw a rather big leap of growth after nathan turned 2 last month.

He had a new sense of confidence to do things, like playing on the slide, running greater distances at double the speed, feeding himself snacks and dinner using the spoon, and mastering a new understanding of language use.

It is an exciting time now seeing him change so quickly. I guess it's also a time when he starts displaying acts from his sinful nature - stubborn behaviour and rebellion. We need to pray all the more for God's wisdom and patience to teach him correctly, and more importantly, to model godly behaviour with each other.

new words: dirty, chair, naughty, most body parts, most animals in bks, cartoon, please, thank you, hello, hi, counting 1-20 (missing some), wet,

I try not to lose track of his development, just so tickled whenever he can say something new.

Punting

Punting is a regular hobby amongst students in cambridge. Some of them do it as a sport every other gd day wk end. But it was our very first time.

Both LC and I had a go, but i was totally hopeless. The pole was way too heavy for me, I gave up after only 10 mins, much preferred to be a rider. LC was much better, his punt moved a great distance.

3 families went together. The lovely weather made it all beautiful and pleasant. A picnic on the grass concluded our brillant outing.

Playing on slide

Slide play is a new milestone for Nathan. We've been to the playground umpty times, but he has finally mustered the courage to slide down. Before, he would sit right at the top, refusing to move his butt, blocking other children from sliding down.

Recently we started introducing the potty to nathan, but he resisted violently. So, the video shows how far he is into potty training. We thought perhaps it is a good idea to have 'play' with the potty, getting him used to sitting in it, and learns to use it in good timing, using it correctly has to take a willing toddler, there's no point forcing him at all.

potty fun

trampoline

riding car

Sophie's bday party

We were invited to Sophie's bday party last sat. She turned 2. unlike nathan, Sohpie knew it was HER party. She blew out the candles confidently, and dashed at her mummie's home baked cake that shaped like a cottage.

Nathan had a lot fun with outdoor play, jumping on the trampoline and riding in a red car (backwards for now), and digging into a sand pit, one thing I haven't introduced him. I'm glad he didn't stuck any of the mud into his mouth, many kids have done that before, somehow they thought mud looks yummy .. beats me.

Bathtime play

Nathan loves bath time now cos he could actually bathe himself, except for the soaping bit. But he does it well, so proud of him.

Walk down stairs

A brand new milestone for little boy who managed to conquer his fears coming down the long flight of stairs all on his own now! Hear him count his steps as he makes his way down, really funny.

See me kick a soccer ball!

It was one of those bright sunny days in Spring, and we were out for a picnic with some Singaporeans.

One of them brought a soccer ball, and before any serious football players arrived, Nathan had a go with it. Many friends commented how strong he is to lift the ball up over his head and when he threw it, it would be a fantastic throw. Well done, boy! Plus, he kicks really well, too. We could almost see great potential in our little son in ball games.

Snack time

Nathan's Second Birthday Party

Thank God for blessing us with a lovely sunny day to enioy the party. We planned to have both food and games indoors, but everyone was so eager to get out, so we packed everything and headed for lama land (opp playground) to have a picnic, and yes, outdoor games!

7 families in all. We had a great time of food and play. Poor nathan didn't get to blow any candles cos the wind was too strong. But we did have two sticks of candles and song.

My boy is TWO. Wow, many changes have taken place, speaking more words, understanding mum and dad better, and he is quite a pleaser. Whenever he does something naughty and we scold him, he would be real sad. We continue to pray for him that he would come to know Jesus for himself, and for ourselves, that we would be godly role models for Nathan.

Nathan is Two

Health chart
Ht: 83cm
Wt: 13.5kg

Mental Developments

Frequently used words:
ball
dog
daddie
bread –favourite food
duck
eyes
mimi (for mummie)
car
bus
more –for food, esp raisins
no, no, no
yes
yeah
don’t want(s)
finish
door
shoes
juice

Identifies in books and surroundings:

ele (for elephant) –hot favourite
beep (wheels on the bus) – whenever he wants to watch tv
ar (for star) – mime actions for song
eiaow (for cat)
quack, quack …-whenever he sees ducks
s (for snake)
bear
frog
croc (for crocodile)
raow (for lion)
mouse
mo mo (for elmo)
fish
sheep
clock
bump
bee
egg
sun
row, row …(song)
pear
raisin
oyoyo (for balloons)
this
there/that
milk
nana (for banana)
grass
bird
mat
teeth
nose
mouth
brow
bye
cold
please
moo (for cow)
neigh (for horse)
pig
gate
moon
press
wo wo (for monkey)

happie

Nathan's laughter is ever so contagious. And he is a charmer too, with a cute little dimple on one cheek. I'm not boasting, of course.

Amsterdam April19th-23rd

We woke up at 3.30am, got prepared, a cab picked us up from home to the train station which would take us to Stanstead airport to board the plane at 7.00am.

Accomodation
It was a 5 day 4 night stay. First 2 nights were at a youth hostel (stay okay) centrally located at Vondel Park. Basic amenities available, big spread breakfast, 3 single beds, on suite bath rm and good heating. Next 2 nights at a BnB, Hanna Penso, located on the east side of city, Keizergracht. Large rm, self svc breakfast with everything you need – juice, milk, german coffee maker, toaster hot flask, and even an egg boiler. Fresh pastries were delievered every morning. Comfortable beds, and a cot for baby.

Sight seeing
Dutch village (Zaanse Schans) highlighting 7 man-made windmills, cheese factory, wooden toy shop, clog making museum, clock shops and several other museums and souvenir shops. Things are not necessarily more expensive. A pretty village.

Keukenof Garden
World famous flower garden featuring various species of tulips, Holland national flower. Great place for toddlers to run about safely. Picture perfect destination! Many shops and stalls to buy waffles and ice creams, benches to sit and admire the flowers, and live music to liven the garden.

Museums
Van Goth – famous paintings of the crooked house, and sun flowers.
Rijkes – featuring Dutch famous painter, Rembrandt
Anne Frank – Jewish Christian girl who got killed by German soldiers during ww2 for standing up for her faith.
Corrie Ten Boom – Dutch Christian woman with her sister and dad housed and defended many jews from the germans during ww2. They were jailed, dad and sister died, but she survived the world, toured the world and testified for Christ.

Eating places
Wilhemina Dok
Take a free ferry across from central station. The only sea facing restaurant. Good for western seafood and ships watching.

Shopping
Dam Street – city centre, most happening stores and fun fair grounds. Watch your pockets! Too crowded for little ones to go on foot. You want to whisk through quickly.

What’s nice to do?
Roam the streets and canals, sit down in a café and people watch. Walk in artistic shops selling all kinds of interesting goods, from paintings to tiles, key chains, clogs, cheese, windmill, and miffy stuff!!

Encounters
Once, on the way back from Keukenof garden, we took a bus that went in the opposite direction, discovered only after 20 mins. A nice old man gave us very clear instructions on where to drop next and cross the road to the bus stop to take the ‘right’ bus back to where we started.

On a train to Haarlem to Corrie Ten Boom house, we chatted with a Dutch old man, retiree. He told us he was born in Haarlem, had 4 grand children. It was pleasant time.

Nathan was given free food in shops – yogurt milk drink from the owner, because little boy gave him a fly kiss. And a little toy dog at another shop.

The trip was made possible because of

Sunny weather
Safe journey
Smiles from everywhere

Amsterdam is a pleasant and pretty city, rather ideal for families if you like some sightseeing and shopping.

Laughing

Whenever Nathan plays with daddie when he comes home from school, he always at his best. He probably misses him for the entire day, and he knows daddie is going to play 'rough; with him. Sometimes, dad does nothing, he simply sits down on the floor relaxing, and nathan would walk around him throwing things over dad's head, and find things to amuse himself. His laughters are contagious, how delightful. Oh, he tried GYOZA today, jap dumplings, he seems to like it...

A friend from home passed by Cambridge and bought Nathan a brand new pair of shoes from Bata Bubble gummers - brown leather! They were lying around in the living room when he brought them to me to have them put on. He was happy trying them out, hearing the 'thuming' sounds from his stamping.

New shoes

Brushing teeth

HeadtoToes

Brushing teeth

We have started introducing tooth brushing for some time now. But only recently has he grown fond of brushing his teeth by himself after I placed him sitting in front of the mirror to do it. Kids enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror, so they would gladly comply to do anything, maybe that's a trick to get them eating well too... a little more cumbersome. Bring a portable mirror, perhaps that's more feasible.

Head to Toes

Nathan is quite confident with his body parts now. These are some which he could identify with at the moment. I love the one he could do most - his bottoms... amuses us so much when he smacks them. So, watch and laugh! Btw, don't mind his home - think he looks pretty gd in pink...

Pizza Party April 1st

Nope, it's not an april fools' day joke, we had a party at our place.

6 mums came, 3 koreans and 3 japanese ... how interesting.

Soo, a korean prepared the dough and ingredients. I merely provided the place, and drinks. We had a good time. These are the ladies we are trying to reach out and have decided to come for a christianity explored course coming May.

Parties are nice, and when carried out purposefully, it's even more enriching.

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj168/carisbay_album/PizzaPartyApril1st/

SnowingMarch23rd

Post Easter party

It was another splendid party time for us, this time, it was a family thingy, mums, dads and babes were invited to Melissa's house.

They stay in a village at the outskirts of cambridge, Matt, her husband came to pick us up. It was about 15 mins drive away. So we had a slight tour in the village.

Their garden was beautiful. We ate food prepared by different nationalities and played games outdoors. I had so much to laugh about, my voice was sore at the end of the day.

Playing games seem a distant past during days of youth. So having them again here in cambridge is helping me reliving those fond memories, what a pleasure.

Check out our fun times...

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj168/carisbay_album/EasterPartyMarch29/

Granchester Walk

Spring is here!

The sky was clear BLUE. So we walked to Grandchester. Nathan surprised us by walking more than half way there, about 3km. Well done, boy. Whenever there was a plane or flock of birds flew past us, he would stop and gaze at the objects ... made me wonder how often I have taken for granted some of these amazing moments, just watching the birds flying way up there. A tod is certainly more capable of admiring God's creation than adults, you think?

Who's reading the papers?

Perhaps nathan has watched daddie read newspapers and books enough times to model him in that. See how nathan flips and reads the papers like a man ... haha! Simple trash as such can imuse him and provide him with ample entertainment ...

Small man

Feeding dad

Reaching under

Balloon Fun

Balloon Craze

Recently we had some parties at home and we put up some balloons. Nathan had a lot of fun playing with them in his own ways, throwing, squeezing, bouncing, lying on his tummy and sitting ... all of which send terrors up LC's spine, cos he dislikes bursting balloons ... Nathan has no fear at all.

Noisy Car

munching on corn

munching on corn

From raisins, to cheerios, to pear, now corn knobs, how incredible. Nathan is surprising me everyday with new tricks of his own, i am just waking up to what he is capable of showing me each day, now nice, feel as if God is telling me, 'Caris, the adventures have just begun, yeah ...'

Flowers

Flowers are lovely around here. I seem to be getting alot of them from friends who visit for tea and meals. These are daffodils and blue hayacinth from my jap friends' gardens... how nice, they got them fresh from their back yards! Something i really appreciate about England's weather, you get more than just pale pink flowering plants hanging from the overhead bridges back home.

White Easter

It’s finally here – Snow fall.

We’ve been waiting for snow fall the whole of the winter season. And just when we were least expecting it to happen and about to welcome Spring, the wind changed its direction and blew the clouds from the arctic to Cambridge!

It snowed rather heavily for two full days, reaching 3 cm deep. That’s very good news for England, where snow is scarcely seen. We’re very lucky this yr.

Easter Party 08

We hosted an easter party at our place last Tuesday. We had finger painting for the 3 yr olds, and origami for the mums an younger children.

It was splendid!


http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj168/carisbay_album/EasterParty08/

tickle tickle

Ever since nathan recovered from his cold, he's been on an eating spree. He put on a good 1kg over a wk. seeing him eat his food by the mouthfuls always warm our hearts!

He started calling us now - daddie, and mimi. I'm happy with that for now.

He also understands no and yes perfectly well, and expresses these words by nodding and shaking his head, sometimes, he verbalises them.

now, i'm beginning to understand what it means by toddlers being sponges, soaking up everything around them - things they see and hear.

New found hobby

It's BAKING!

Back home, i had all the baking equipment necessary to bake, but I hardly had the chance to use them, and those few times I did, they turned up horrible - too hard, or uncooked, so i sort of gave up, thought that i simply lack the talent to bake anything.

This has changed since 2 weeks ago. many mums have inspired me greatly - they can really bake! From traditional cheese cakes to chocolates, muffins, buns, pies and quiches, you name it, they have it. So, I decided to try it out again, and perhaps I have a bit of beginning's luck, I did it.

My recipes are derived from Super baby food by Ruth Yaron. I have been following it consistently for Nathan's first yr for food, and now, pleasing a toddler's taste buds can be ever more challenging.

To date, I've tried butter biscuits, flap jacks (euivalent of muesli bars), pineapple muffins, peanut butter muffins and fruit pie.

There are plenty of opportunities to try out new recipes because of the many little parties we have at our place and around every other week.

Tomorrow, we have another farewell tea party at our place for a Japanese family. So, I'll be trying oatmeal cookies and carrot cake. Looking forward to it.

What has LC got to say about this new hobby?? He has every good thing to say - glad you have found a new feminine side of yourself. Hmm ...

The best part about baking is I find it very theruputic. Plus, nathan enjoys them, and my very friendly friends.

Nathan @ 22 Mths (24.02.08)

Here’s doing another update of what Nathan can do, and likes to do.

Nathan can

a) Climb up and walk down stairs unaided. We have 2 flights of stairs at our flat, which provides plenty of opportunities to practice. But sometimes lazy and tired boy refuses to conquer them himself, prefers to be carried instead.
b) Fix individual shaped puzzles – wooden and cardboard.
c) Recognise shapes and fit in different shapes in a sorter.
d) Doodle with a pen on paper or magnetic board. This is cool for occupying him while we dine in at restaurants.
e) Use crayons and colour on paper. But his attention is short for this activity. Somehow, he prefers writing with pen than colouring, no state of art maybe.
f) Pick his favourite vcd and put it in the cd player. He knows the right button to press. Hmm, not taught, this is learnt through imitation.
g) Sings ‘row row row …’ stops there, but he gets the tune roughly right.

Nathan likes

a) Playing with his 4 wheeler plastic red fire engine. He brings it with him wherever he goes.
b) Playing with any 4 wheelers – truck and bus and car.
c) Finger puppets. He talks with them and likes putting each one on our fingers too. Great for pretend play, and we can bring them wherever we go.
d) Watching cartoons – wheels on the bus, sesame street, barney.
e) Climbing up the sofa. Often claps his hands when he gets up there.
f) Eating raisins, cheerios, plums, pears, corn, yogurt (anytime). And drinks water from his new red bottle.
g) Lying and rolling on the floor. Sometimes to show his frustration, but most of the time just relaxing on the carpeted floor.
h) Opening and closing drawers and cupboards. Won’t take No for an answer.
i)

Some attempts at developing his interests:

a) Prepared a biscuit dough and have him play with it, but he has absolutely zero interest in baking … oops.
b) I love crafts – cutting and making cards. So I’d hope Nathan would enjoy a bit of craft too. At play groups, they always have time set aside for craft for kids. But all Nathan does is mess up other people’s work, or dip his fingers into the glue. Sigh, perhaps I should put craft on hold for the moment.