National Day!

Went to the Botanic Gardens with our church friends this morning. The ladies in church catered a sumptuous breakfast of nasi lemak from Adam Road Hawker Centre... it was indeed yumelicious!!

Thereafter, we had a good time of fun and games, and we also took some time to enjoy the flora and fauna in the gardens....

As u can see, we turned up in the national day reds...beeming with patriotism at the birthday of our nation! Isaac didn't have a suitable red shirt (the only red shirt that was in his wardrobe at home was one that had the word 'Japan' in chinese imprinted on it....obviously, that is a 'no no' shirt on national day, given the past history Singapore had with Japan!!). As such, we had given him a sticker tatoo of the Singapore flag on his left cheek... : )

That evening, we 'ta bao' the famous Upper Boon Keng Road Kambing (malay word for 'mutton') Soup home for dinner so that we can watch the National Day parade on tv.. We slurpped the soup and wiped it all out with lovely white bread...another yum!!

The parade was nice. The Apaches and Chinook (army helicopter) flew past our flat to and fro to Marina for their performance....! We made Isaac stand up during the national anthem....must teach him to be patriotic from young mah!! : )

Celebrating 'birthday' with Minister Teo

It was national day observance ceremony in office today! Apart from the general celebratory singing of national day songs, our ministry also had a big birthday cake for all the august babies! Minister Teo was here with us and sang birthday song along with all of us.... hee hee hee, look at how giggly and 'silly' kath and myself looked standing next to Minister...

; )

oral hygiene 101

'Now this is how you brush those cute little teeth!'

'Daddy, I can brush my teeth and do gymnastics at the same time!!'

'Daddy, u look as if you are taking your temperature with the toothbrush! hahaha'

"My Life Flows on"

.... one of my fav hymns.

My Life Flows on

My life flows on in endless song

Above earth's lamentation,

I hear the real though far-off hymn

That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that rock I'm clinging

It sounds an echo in my soul,

How can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest round me roars,

I know the truth, it liveth,

What though the darkness round me close,

Songs in the night it giveth

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that rock I'm clinging

Since love is lord of heaven and earth

How can I keep from singing?

I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin;

I see the blue above it;

And day by day this pathway smooths,

Since first I learnt to love it.

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

A fountain ever springing;

All things are mine since I am his,

How can I keep from singing?

Our Iceland Trip 2003

Learning to self-feed

Isaac's Guitarlele!

We got Isaac his first REAL guitar today!! It was a "Yamaha Guitarlele"... its approx two-third the size of an actual guitar... We were amazed when we saw the name imprinted within the guitar, as Isaac's last chinese name reads "Le" and we've been calling him "Lele" for short...so, we took it as a sign that we've got to get that guitar for him! : )

Let us first do an intro on the Guitarlele...This is the smallest guitar that Yamaha makes. Its manufactured after the Ukelele, which itself is a stringed instrument resembling a miniature guitar, usually strung with 4 nylon strings tuned GCEA (left to right). The ukulele is a uniquely Hawaiian instrument, although its popularity has spread worldwide. Its name consists of two words in Hawaiian, most commonly translated thusly; Uku- "flea" and lele- "jumping". The Guitarlele on the other hand has six strings just like a normal guitar and the one that we've got is a classical guitar (no metal strings...which would not have been suitable for Isaac!).

This guitar, is probably the most expensive non-necessity thing that we've got for Isaac thus far...Yamaha was selling for $128 but thankfully, it has a 10% discount for Yamaha members, plus an additional 5% discount due to the ongoing Great Singapore Sale! : )

Honestly, we've been considering hard on whether to invest in a proper guitar that has a body sized right for him. He's definitely got some kind of music talent in him, as he can easily sway and clap to the beats of music. Apart from having also been playing with this stringless toy guitar that we've found abandoned for him, he has been of late also taking out Yuan Liang's full-size guitar and trying to play it...Given the relatively huge full-size guitar in proportion to Isaac's little body, the kid's hand could only touch the first two string of a full size guitar, and he has been plucking them as if he is playing a base guitar! : )

So here are some images to show the joy and excitement that a 19.5 months Isaac had when he played his guitarlele tonight... In some of the images, you can also even have a glimps of how seriously he takes playing his first real guitar!

Interesting observations about Isaac and his guitar-playing style:

a) Instead of strumming down, he tends to strum up with the base tips of his fingers;

b) He is able to press on the fret, but given his small hand, only manages the first two frets;

c) He holds the guitar like a pro - at least he's got the look and style!!

d) Given that he is left-handed, at times, he tries to hold the fret on his right hand and use his left hand to strum the guitar. YL is trying to coax him not to do so...we don't want to have to invest in a left-hand guitar for him in future, when he can get to inherit all of YLs's right hand guitars (the last we counted, there is at least 4 guitars and two violins at home...)!

Future Rocker... !

Isaac...boxer

Our friends from UK Rab and Mel gave YL a pair of gloves before we left the country... at that time, we were still expecting Isaac and Rab had already given Isaac a nick name called "Gym Genghis"... : )

SO now that Isaac is a little bigger, we tried the gloves on him....

...what do you think? Warrior? : )

Isaac gets knocked out! ...actually Daddy's stolen his gloves and using them to tickle him!

: )