one of the gifts brought by Noushka was a small piggy bank. it made out of white porcelain and came with a few colors of paints.

a little pig. you can insert coins. and you can paint it. what a perfect gift for aina.

she's been asking us when she can start painting it since last night. so, this morning, we allowed her to paint.

"it has to be pink!", she said. ah, of course. pink. and she has to do it all by herself.

after the pink paint is done, she asked, "where are the eyes? i have to draw the eyes!"... so she did.

then, she kissed the pig... and said, "it didn't turn into a prince!"

she then put the pig on to the table and asked us if she can take pictures of the pig. here is the result of her painting and photography effort... not bad.

now, i'm thinking of dying the hair back to black.

that's a picture of aina's first night sleeping on her big-girl's bed. the picture was taken about 15 minutes ago, in her almost pitch-black room (she sleeps with lights off), quietly, using her old crib as tripod.

thank god for DSLR and Photoshop :)

i like client meetings in parks... and i don't mind meetings in Saturdays, as long as they are in a park. today, we got to have it in East Coast Park. the last time we went there was when we had a play-date with ninit/adhit family three months ago.

we decided to skip bathing suit and brought aina's running bike, instead. so while ari was having a meeting with Cuckoo guys at Vista Bistro, aina and i scoured the beach with her wearing a helmet and riding her little bike, chasing birds and playing with sands.

she's getting better at riding her little bike... at one point, she even tried to teach Steph, the daughter of one of the Cuckoo guys, to ride the running bike.

more photos in the East Coast Park 23.01.10 Flickr album.

two days ago, aina showed me her small notebook dan pointed to series of dots and lines, saying, "this is aina... and this is you, binggi*... this one is bubu*. it took me a while to see, but i finally realized that she has been drawing faces... many faces.

it has no circle around the faces, but they consist of two round eyes, a mouth made of line (some sad and some happy, she said), and hair! yes, they all have hair... i guess hair is important for aina... interesting.

since then, she's been practicing a lot. her notebooks and papers are full of little faces.

*ps: i don't remember if i have written it here, but aina calls me binggi, and she calls ari bubu... it's her version of mommy and daddy.

we took the monorail to the island. i have never seen the third level of Vivo City --where you board the monorail to Sentosa -- as crowded as today... or maybe, we just never end up in Vivo City on crowded days like today. it was just filled with people!

first stop was the Imbiah Station. from here, we walked to the Luge entrance, taking pictures with the huge Merlion along the way. we also passed by the Kampong Toys exhibition, where there was this guy who's really good at playing gasing (southeast asian version of top). i'm always impressed with people who can throw their gasing... mine always ends up up-side-down or even flies across the arena and landed somewhere else.

we then took the luge down, while the parents (ari's mom+dad+aunt) took the bus down to the beach.

whoa, the luge was so much fun! we gotta try it again! i totally forgot to take pictures of us riding the luge, so this is all i got:

after that, we all walked to the beach to meet up with the parents for lunch. if she could choose, aina would skip the meeting and lunch and go straight to play with the sand and water.

she ate her lunch as fast as she could, then ran to the nearest body of water...

too bad the beach play had to stop early and rather abruptly when the thunderstorm came. the rain poured cats and dogs, everyone piled up in the changing room, trying to shower and clean up as fast as they could. by the time we showered and dressed up, the thunderstorm passed and the sun came out again.

that's singapore's weather.

more photos in the Luge + Palawan Beach 01.10 Flickr album.

well, happy new year all (a little late, considering i'm writing this entry on the 22nd of january, oops).

what's so special about yesterday's end of the year dinner is that it was a family gathering at our house. since we live abroad, this is a rare thing fo rus.

ari's parents were on holiday. Jessi, ari's sister, was just graduated from university and on a break before she starts her work in Japan on April. ari's aunt and two her sons were also on a holiday, visiting her eldest who are working in Singapore.

so we are all celebrating the coming of New Year, at our house! the food was yummy, too, thanks to ari's mom and aunt :)

so, the day after Christmas was a perfect day to go. the sky was covered in cloud, even drizzling once in a while. we brought umbrellas for each of us, a stroller with the rain gear for aina.

the Southern Ridges has pretty long walking trail, but we decided to start from Alexandra Arch, which is a bridge across Alexandra Rd, and walk towards the Forest Walk.

the Forest Walk was awesome... we basically walk on a super long elevated walkway made out of metal bridge, so it feels like we are walking on the tip of trees. very cool, indeed. and there is a no-stairs path (well, you can take the stairs if you choose), which makes it so easy for us with strollers.

the air was fresh. and i think, the drizzles made it even nicer. the view was rather spectacular, because the further we walked, the higher we were. at one point, we could see the sea behind the trees.

 
 

once we finished the Forest Walk, we bumped into a public gym, where aina couldn't help but trying every single equipment, despite she's waaaaay too small to use it.

but that's okay... it bought us time to sit and rest our feet before going to walking to the famous Henderson Wave.

Henderson Wave is a pedestrian bridge with interesting (or beautiful) architectural details, floating 36 meters on top Henderson Road. the main reason why i wanted to go for this walk is to see this bridge... and really, it was beautiful... the pictures can't do justice. and i think, it was even better because the weather was cool. i can imagine how hot it would get up there during sunny day...

aina loved it there. she just kept running around, sliding and climbing on things... it was like a huge playground for her.

for us, we took time to relax and rest. we could easily fall asleep there (again, given the cool weather).

more photos in the Forest Walk + Henderson Wave Flickr album.

the last time i celebrated Christmas in Singapore was three years ago, and i was a few months pregnant. ari's parents were also here, and we had the same dinner (steak and mash potatoes), which i would request every year... it was sooooo good!

as usual, oscar, ari's cousin, joined us for the dinner. aina had one of the best nights of her life, to the point that she had problems sleeping (she kept talking in her sleep).

    

more photos in the Xmas Eve Dinner 2009 album :)

it's been five years...

ari's parents and her sister, jessi, is staying over at the our place, just like five years ago. except the house is about three times bigger than it was. and we now have a dog and a toddler. so, i guess we are progressing and the family really is expanding :)

i love you with all my heart, my soulmate!