Photos & Videos from Lleyton & Leanne's Birthday Party

Here are some of the better shots and clips from the event last Sunday.

Lleyton having fun before the event begins, trying out his tricycle, remote control boat, and bouncy castle in quick succession.

The stars of the day

Day at the Bird Park

This post is a little behind time, for this visit took place in September, but Daddy & Mummy has been caught with too many little things that Daddy finally decided to still put this up to share the photos and videos.

The day started with a nice breakfast outside the bird park. It was a sunny day, thus both Lleyton and Leanne were decked out in their finest caps.

The visit included two bird shows which the kids loved, as well as a feeding session. As expected, Lleyton "chickened" out of feeding the birds, whereas Leanne looked on nonchalently at the proceedings.

Lleyton had taken the panarail within the bird park to be his "Thomas" and shouted for "Thomsa" everytime he sees the panarail pass by. Thus, Daddy decided to break up the panarail ride into three parts, to maximise the fun. Here's a video of Lleyton waiting for his final ride on "Thomas".

Leanne turns 1

Today marks the day Leanne turns one! Thus a post to wish her happy birthday before the clock strikes twelve.

Mummy often likes to recall the day before Leanne was born, it being the very day of the start of her 1 week advance maternity leave, the day which she celebrated Lleyton's birthday in school, and the day whereby all 3 symptoms of labour appeared, yet not knowing she was already in labour. She had to attribute it to her high pain threshold which allow Daddy to bring her to hospital within 15 min with contractions already 10s apart. Thank goodness, labour was short and this considerate little missy arrived within 30 min upon Mummy being sent to the delivery ward.

She is probably one of the best things that happened to Daddy and Mummy, and of course, as a best friend to her elder brother. When she first arrived, the big brother treated her with hostility; today, he showed the highest level of tolerance he had for her, accomodating her sometimes unreasonable requests, which deeply demonstrated how fond he is of his little sister.

It is great fun watching the two little kiddos playing together. Leanne loves to interact with others even when she is surrounded with toys, unlike Lleyton who prefers to play on his own when he was her age. That was probably the kind of positive influence siblings can provide each other even at such a young age.

It is always so heartwarming to sense her joy and excitment when she sees Daddy, Mummy or her brother coming home from work or school, showering them with hugs and full of sweet smiles the moment they step into the house.

Today, a simple birthday party was set up for the duo, to mark this special day of Leanne and also that of her 3 year old brother. This party was smacked right in the middle of the busiest and uncertain period of Mummy's new work schedule, but she was glad everything turned out well (apart from the little blemish* created due to her lack of follow-up). Nevertheless, it is the joy the kids had which was priceless, accompanied by the great gifts and sweet thoughts from all their friends.

Leanne, may you stay sweet and adorable always. Happy Birthday!

Love, Daddy & Mummy

(* As a result of Mummy's "blurness", she only realised today that she had accidentally left out some guests in the invite list, even though she thought she had invited them. To the guests who did not get the invite, please know that you were only mistaken left out.)

Lleyton's outing in September

Mummy brought Lleyton and Leanne on a playdate to an indoor playground called Peek-a-Boo. Together with Shanice (Lleyton's classmate), the 3 kids had lots of fun.

The very next day, Lleyton joined Shanice again for the Barney show. As usual, he was watching quietly in his seat and occasionally making some comments when the dinosaurs appear. Not sure if he really enjoyed the show as Mummy did not see him singing along with the songs. Maybe he was not familiar with them? Mummy can't tell either, as she knows nuts about Barney.. haha.

More photos...

It has been extremely difficult to get Lleyton to pose for pictures. And when he does, he will give his "signature" grin coupled with victory signs (urm... 2 fingers on one + 3 fingers on the other?) which end up covering most part of his face.

Most of the time he won't even bother posing unless there are some favourite cartoon characters that he poses with.

Leanne definitely looks more natural in pictures..

Photos Updates on Lleyton and Leanne

Lots of changes and events have taken place in the past 3 months. Both Daddy and Mummy could hardly find a chance to to blog during this period.

Perhaps some pictures could do the explanation?

Swimming again?

Lleyton showing his brotherly love

Joining Mummy at a dinner gathering

Dressed like a ballerina for a wedding dinner

Supporting YOG Singapore 2010

Daddy is an ardent supporter of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, held in Singapore. He had bought tickets for the events very early on, with plans to bring Lleyton to watch the football, and the entire family for handball.

Lleyton was very well behaved at the football game, sitting obediently beside Daddy and cheering Singapore on with his clappers. Naturally, Lleyton took the occasional break, to dip his fingers into a nice pack of raisins. It was a rather warm evening, as both Daddy and Lleyton came away from the match, soaking with sweat.

The handball match saw full support from the family, with Lleyton, Leanne and Mummy all attending with Daddy. In addition, Auntie Lingmei and Uncle TT also went along, decked out in the National red colour.

These games have probably come a tad too early for 10-month old Leanne, but Daddy felt that this is an experience of a life-time, and wanted the entire family to share this moment. Perhaps, but London 2012, the family can make a trip to watch the full summer Olympics???

Lleyton's first movie

Lleyton went on his first movie date with Daddy and Mummy some three weeks back. The movie in season was Toy Story 3. A few days before the movie, Daddy described the cinema to Lleyton by telling him that he was going to watch "Big Cartoon". That kept his interest high till the moment he stepped into the theatre.

During the movie, Lleyton was snuggled tightly between Daddy and Mummy. They had bought him a popcorn set (coke was of course kept away from him), in the hope of keeping him seated in case he got bored . Surprisingly, he was exceptionally quiet through the movie. Besides munching on the popcorn, his eyes were always fixated on the screen with a occasional smile when the adults laughed at certain scenes.

He sat through the entire movie without a stir. Finally at the end of the movie (where the credits were shown), he fell asleep in his seat. Daddy and Mummy praised themselves for the good selection of movie on his first attempt. Curiously, they wondered if he understood the plot or at least remembered the characters in the movie. Hence, Mummy went to youtube to refresh his memory. Yes, he remembered all the cartoon characters, including the "telephone", "purple bear", "big baby", "potato", 2 dogs ( 1 real dog and 1 springy dog), even the "elephant". Was there an elephant?. Yes, he said it was in the school.

There can always be a 2nd movie for him, when a good one comes along.

Talking Leanne

Leanne is now 9 months old.

Marking this milestone, Leanne started "talking", making sounds of "Dada, Dadada". Naturally, Daddy has taken this to be a premature form of "Daddy", and is pleased with Leanne's progress. This is in contrast to Lleyton who took to saying "Ma" way before "Da".

Hopefully, Leanne will be able to pronounce "Mummy" and "Daddy" soon...

Lleyton's foreign accent when speaking mandarin

Mummy decided to help Lleyton speak more Mandarin, and she thought a good way to start will be to improve Lleyton's articulation of chinese words. Hence, Mummy got Lleyton to try out a Mandarin tongue twister. Here are the results...

Daddy reckons that Lleyton has a good shot at winning the best Mandarin-speaking-foreigner contest, for his accent is so hilarious!

Leanne Standing Up

Leanne is now able to stand on her own, albeit with structural support to hold on to. This started when she was exactly 8 months old. The domestic helper screamed when she saw Leanne holding onto the edges of the cot, standing by her own. Daddy ran in and took the video above.

Thereafter, Daddy placed Leanne lying down, so as to prevent her from hurting herself, in the event that she fell. However, it was fruitless, as Leanne was soon back on her feet on her own, as shown in the video below.

Daddy with Lleyton on the bicycle at East Coast Park

Daddy on the bicycle with Lleyton at East Coast Park. Mummy had commented that Daddy and Lleyton were easy to spot as they were decked out in bright yellow and red respectively.

Lleyton & Leanne on the Merry-Go-Round

Leanne has come of age, to be able to sit upright, and as a reward, she was treated to her first merry-go-round ride! In actual fact, Lleyton was supposed to ride on the three-horse merry-go-round with Kellyn and Binbin. However, Binbin backed out, and Leanne was substituted in to fully utilise the $1 price for the musical ride.

Lleyton's Cookie Making Session

Mummy accompanied Lleyton for a cookie making session, where Lleyton moulded and decorated tiny cookies. Here's his works, and Lleyton washing up after the event.

Lleyton Biting into His Large Lollipop

As part of City Square Mall's promotions, sweets are given away. Lleyton was the lucky recipient of a large multi-couloured lollipop. Look at him biting at the lollipop.

Yes...biting...as he has not understood how best to ingest the huge sweet.

Photos from the Past Month

Daddy has finally decided to give up on the 2 year old macbook, in favour of the pc. Here are some of the photos from the past month..

Lleyton's New Bicycle

Lleyton has a new bicycle!

Daddy had wanted Lleyton to start learning to pedal, so and gradually cultivated his interest in cycling through a stepped process.

First, Daddy brought out the tricycle that Lleyton was handed down, and accompanied Lleyton for a short pedalling (or rather pushing) session in the garden.

Subsequently, Daddy brought Lleyton to cycle at the East Coast Park. Lleyton sat in a child seat in front of Daddy, as Daddy zoomed up and down the cycling tracks of ECP, showing Lleyton the sights by the sea, and how to use the bicyle's bell. Lleyton was hooked.

Next, Daddy brought Lleyton down to the basement carpark where the estate's bicycles are kept. They went from block to block, to look at each of the children bicycles, and probed Lleyton to find out which colour will he want his own bicycle to be in. Lleyton's bicycle is simple, "blue". When Daddy questioned "why not yellow? Yellow will be nice." Lleyton answered practically "No. Yellow bicycle is too big. Lleyton want small." He is obviously referring to the adult yellow bike which is clearly too large for him.

Finally, with Lleyton hooked, and his preferences known, Daddy went with Mummy to buy Lleyton his bicycle. Now, Lleyton is the proud owner of a 12" blue bicycle with a loud bell!

Parents-Teachers Meeting

On Friday, Daddy and Mummy went to Lleyton's school to meet the teachers. This is the first ever formal Parent-Teachers Meeting (PTM) that Daddy and Mummy have had to attend. Both took a day's leave for the event.

The sharing from the PTM were largely as expected, that Lleyton is generally okay. The details include comments that Lleyton is more talkative now, and a bit too much that he chats with his classmates when lessons are on-going or when the class is doing an assignment. He is also inadequate in colouring his worksheets, and he gets disinterested when the lessons were revised or repeated.

Nonetheless, Lleyton has shown immense enthusiam in physical activities, and listening to stories. He is also very eager and curious to find out more about the aftermath of stories (even after the stories have ended). Lleyton is sociable, and and communicate well with his classmates. His teacher has also commented that she is surprised that he can recognise all the mathematic numerals even when those have yet to be taught in class. On the same note, Lleyton has demonstrated great strength in his academics, especially in maths.

From the session, Daddy has also found out that Lleyton does conform to the normal diet and sleeping routine in school, despite recently being picky about found at home, and not wanting to take afternoon naps on weekends.

On the whole, Daddy is pleased that Lleyton has developed well over the past year that he has spent in school. Keep it up, young man!

Lleyton's 1st Mathematics Class

Some weeks ago, Daddy commented that since Lleyton is able to rationalise and think logically, he should be ready for mathematics. Hence, Daddy gave Lleyton his first Mathematics class this evening. It was a 45 mins intensive session during Lleyton was first told to lay out all the number cards (1 to 10) in sequence, next to identify all the cards of the same number, before arranging them nicely. Subsequently, Lleyton had to go through a stack of 12-15 picture cards, each with different number of objects (from 1 to 7), count the objects, before picking the corresponding number card.

Daddy has set out to stop at 5, but Lleyton demonstrated an ability to go further, so Daddy went along. From the number 7 onwards, Daddy could sense that Lleyton's attention dwindling, hence decided to stop at 7. At this juncture, Lleyton began to lose focus and could not count properly; his fingers were not following the objects on the card, and he was merely mouthing the sequence from 1 to 10. Daddy decided to round up the session with the final phase, which required Lleyton to redo each of the number matching that he had gone through earlier in the class.

After two matches, Lleyton lost focus again, and started playing with the box (from which the cards come) instead of matching the cards. Thus, Daddy took away the box, and told Lleyton to resume his counting. At this point, Lleyton broke down into tears, and lamented that Daddy was scolding him...Daddy was soon able to soothe the young boy's nerves, and made Lleyton complete all the matches. The reward for Lleyton's first mathematics class? A chilled bottle of vitagen!

Daddy has realised that this is hard work...from the design of the curriculum, the delivery, to the management of the boy's emotions, all require forward planning and deep thinking. No wonder, Daddy felt so fatigued after the class. Now that the stage has been set, the next class on thursday night should be easier...we hope!

Why there are fewer photos and videos recently...

Many followers will have noticed the drop in photo and video count recently, as more posts become text-based. This is primarily due to a technical problem with Daddy's macbook. The battery has appeared to be damaged, and thus the macbook can only be operated when connected to a power supply. Hence, syncing of photos and videos are done at a less frequent basis.

Furthermore, the battery issue has resulted in Daddy using the lenovo thinkpad more often instead of the macbook, where the photos are stored.

However, Daddy is aware of followers who will like to see Leanne's recent photos and clips of Lleyton playing with Leanne, and will endeavour to put those on the blog as soon as practicable.

Lleyton's Swimming Progress

Lleyton has been attending swim classes for the past month. Although, Daddy is not pleased with his lack of progress, Daddy has been convinced by Mummy to give the swim coach some more time. Hence, Daddy will extend the probation of the private swim instructor for another 4 lessons.

Daddy's main quip is that Lleyton's level of proficiency is largely still the same as he was before he started lessons, and that there is no clear sign that things will improve in the coming weeks or months. When probed, the instructor has replied that the kids can only go further after they know how to hold their breathe in water, otherwise they will just be put through "water confidence" exercises. That really irked Daddy, as Lleyton will not need a private swim coach (charging moderately high rates) to let Lleyton play in the pool, as Daddy and Mummy have been already doing that for the past two years. To worsen things, the instructor has told Daddy to teach Lleyton to hold his breathe. Daddy has been thinking hard, if Daddy is able to teach Lleyton to do so efficiently, what will the swim instructor be necessary for?

Daddy has quietly decided that he will inform the swim instructor this weekend that he has 4 more lessons to show some improvement in the kids' standards, or his employment will be terminated. Daddy is adamant that when a private coach is hired, his training regime and pace has to be customised according to the standards and competencies of the student, rather than impose a slow common pace to all his students, in the hope of dragging the lessons over a longer period.

Lleyton's Progress

Whilst Leanne has been growing quickly, Lleyton's physical growth has plateaued. In fact, after a serious bout of illness where he spent 3 days in KKH, Lleyton's weight has dropped from 14+Kg to 13+Kg. Coincidentally, Lleyton was allocated the same ward and bed as he was one year ago (for pneumonia).

However, Lleyton is now able to engage in meaningful conversation with Daddy, and is able to demonstrate good memory in his replies. For instance, on the way home today, he saw that it was raining, and he told Daddy "Raining, no outdoor, cannot play swing". Daddy concurred "yes Lleyton, raining, cannot play swing". Fifteen minutes later, Ah Ma was about go out to buy dinner and Lleyton wanted to follow along. Daddy counter-proposed that Lleyton follow Daddy to play the swing instead of going with Ah Ma. Lleyton cooly replied "Daddy, raining, cannot play swing"!

Daddy was taken aback but yet impressed with Lleyton's reply, and registered a point to be mindful of all future conversation with Lleyton, for the young man has shown wonderful memory and meticulous attention to detail.

Another example to cite...there was once when Daddy (in uniform) carried Lleyton, and Daddy's badges pressed into Lleyton, causing Lleyton some discomfort. The next day, when Daddy fetched Lleyton from school, Lleyton's opening remark was "Daddy clok (he meant clothes) pain pain, no bao bao".

Daddy was surprised by Lleyton's ability to reason, and make decisions logically based on his observations. If a child can already think and verbalise logic at 2.5 years old, can he be trained to do maths soon?

Leanne's Progress

Daddy is happy to inform all that Leanne has been growing well, and developing fine. She is now able to sit, flip, and crawl. These few days, she has been attempting to stand on her own. Although she is not stable in her stance, she is able to stand for a couple of minutes, if there is an object in front of her (for her to hold on to).

Most incredible of all, Leanne is now able to clap her hands. She does that whenever she is happy, or when told to "clap your hands". Not bad for a 7.5 month old.

First Swimming Lesson

Last Saturday, Lleyton had his first swim lesson. This came about as Daddy had wanted Lleyton to receive proper coaching to hone his swimming abilities. Hence, a private class was convened for Lleyton, and cousins Weiwei and Binbin. The photo above showed the trio getting ready for class.

The swim coach turned up 40mins late for the first lesson! Just as the kids were about to get restless, he arrived, and soon the class was underway. The class started with basic water confidence drills and kicking exercises. Thereafter, the coach brought the trio for a familiarisation "swim", or paddle in the pool, with their floats and boards. This was way too much more flotation than what Lleyton is used to, so he seemed pretty relaxed and at ease with the swim.

Lleyton soon got bored, and wanted to try out more...he wanted to "blow bubbles". However, the new coach misread his intentions, and told him not to drink the water in the pool. Obviously, stubborn Lleyton did not take it lying down, he subsequently tried to practise his bubbles blowing at least 10 times, at the coach's dismay. Lleyton's over-confidence was too apparent; in the familiar kick-about, he wanted to swim to the far end of the lap pool. A audacious goal for a two-and-half year old, on his first swim class! Naturally, the request turned down, Lleyton responded by breaking into a song whilst swimming!

Daddy was left wondering how Lleyton has developed his over-confident self...Perhaps it is time to let the young boy learn about the perils of the water...

Hike to Iluma Bugis

This was taken during a recent hike to Iluma Bugis.

The journey from home to Iluma had taken approximately an hour. Unfortunately, at the end of the hour's walk, the kids discovered to their dismay that all the shops (less coffee bean) at the Iluma were closed. Hence, Daddy suggested taking the overhead bridge to cross over to Bugis Junction instead. There weren't many shops that were open, and J Co happened to be one of the very few. The party of five settled at J Co for breakfast. Lleyton argued for Leanne to be seated with him, and look at him hug his little sister.

Breakfast was a spread of six sumptuous doughnuts, coffee and mocha. The video below showed that Lleyton certainly loves his doughnuts, to the extent of neglecting his image....

This was not the best part of the hike. Daddy decided that the family should take the bus ride home, to provide Lleyton with the added experience of being on a bus. That proved to be a big hit with Lleyton, for he savoured every moment of the bus ride. He remembers the ride so well that, he will now call out "Bus! Lleyton sit on the bus!" every time he sees a bus! Thus, the hike has been a fruitful and refreshing one, as Lleyton managed to pick up some new experiences, and Daddy & Mummy managed a slight work-out.

New Driver in Town

There is a new driver in town, and she is only six months (going on to seven months) old...

Look at her wide smile, when driving her brother's flashy red car without a driving licence! Daddy certainly hopes this is not an early omen for things to come 18 years later....kids nowadays...sigh...

Starting Young...

Daddy was amongst the first amongst his peers to start playing with the computer some twenty over years ago....he was about 9 or 10 years old then.

Lleyton started using Daddy's iPod when he's barely two, and has now mastered many games on the iPod, at the grand age of two and a half.

Leanne is looking to outshine her brother, as she has now started on the iPod at six months old!! Her great prospects are also enhanced because she is being coached by the former brilliant protege Lleyton!

Lleyton down the Water Slide

Last Saturday, Daddy brought Lleyton swimming, and after several minutes in the waddling pool, Daddy allowed Lleyton to try out the water playground. Here's Lleyton's third attempt at the water slide...he likes it so much that Daddy has to yank him away from the slide. It certainly looks fun, isn't it?

Leanne with a blur look

Leanne was caught on camera with a blur look, wondering what Daddy is doing...Daddy is taking a photo of Leanne!