Cayden's school has this lady who frequently visit his school to take portraits of the kids and then tempt the parents to buy.  Most of the parents will end up buying a few pieces.  (I mean which parent will not think that they have a cute son/daughter ?)

So...we end up buying a few pieces, scanned them and I scrapbook it into this : 

handsome bor ?

After the conversation with Auntie LM, Uncle CW and YX (http://miiniworld.livejournal.com/163098.html), Cayden told me "Mum, I am very sad. I want to go back to Singapore to play with Uncle CW, Auntie LM, YX and Ignatius."  And he was on the verge of crying.  Though, he has his little friends here in his Preschool whom he talks about endlessly, he always talks about YX and Ignatius back in Singapore too.

And this morning in the car, he told me suddenly  " Mum, I am going to bring this car seat and everything back to Singapore.  Ok ?"

Those times when I asked him whether he likes US or Singapore.  He would say "First we go Singapore...then we come back to America."  

Maybe it is time for a visit.

PS :  
to Auntie LM, Cayden said that "YX said that I am her bf, then she is my gf.  And Ike (his school fren) is my bf."  
hahahhaa...I think he is still ignorant about the BGR.  So tell YX dun trust him yet !  hahaha

Without a conducive environment to learn Chinese language here, it was pretty hard for Cayden to learn Mandarin not to mention speaking fluently. I did a quick and short Chinese lesson (15 minutes) with him 3-4 times a week to learn about Chinese culture, how chinese language comes about (古文) and reading a chinese book almost every night. In the beginning, he told me he "hates" Chinese. So, every chinese lesson is a struggle.

At the same time, I tried to converse more with him in Chinese....but more often than not, it slipped off my mind and I will speak to him in English again. But all these "hard" works pay off this morning...

Cayden : what is chinese in chinese ?
Me : 华 语
Cayden : oh...华 语 (with accents like an angmoh)
Cayden : Mum, I want ....no no no...我　要　小　黄　狗 (struggling with the pronunciations of each word but he completed a sentence ! )
Me : 你　要　听　小　黄　狗　的　歌　？
Cayden : Ya ! Mum....I know how to speak chinese ! Speaking Chinese is cool !

Wa, with that, I was really happy that those lessons create an interests and willingness to learn the chinese language. Must 加　油　!

We signed Cayden up for 6 weeks of rock climbing for kids in March. Initially, he was scared but seeing other kids climbed up the rock, he was alittle bit braver. Though, I think that Cayden was still too young to do rock climbing properly but i think he had fun. I learnt quite a few techniques myself too.

I was just cleaning up my hard disk and discovered that I did some digital Scrapbook and "conveniently" forgot to post them here....We went to Tilden Park in May (yap...four months ago) and had a impromptu picnic cos the meadow is simply too inviting.

Every weekend is the same for us for the last few months. We were either spending our time near the pool or in the mall and it is kind of getting bor-ing. So, last Saturday we decided to play tourists and visit those places we have not been before...

We went to the Civic Center. It looks like the usual with the half dome and everything else.



SFO is having this few months long event called Slow Food 2008. Basically, it is to encourage the pple here to buy fresh food from their Farmer's Market and do the cooking themselves instead of relying on instant or fast food. And cos of this event, there is a vegetable patch right outside the Civic Center with beets, spinach, maizes, long beans..... and i think the vegetable patch is here to stay. If I have green thumbs, I will grow herbs instead. hmmm....I can smell the basil and the mint already.......hmmm...



Cayden spent quite a long time in the playground (outside the Civic Center) because he is trying to learn to swing on the monkey bars on his own. He got a pretty good idea that swinging his legs will make him move forward but Joash (he is too heavy for me) got to support him alittle cos his fingers/arms are not strong enuff to support himself for long.

We went to the gay part of town. Well...it is me who insisted that we take a look since we were near there. Beside the rainbow flags which sprang out from here and there, the whole place seems to be more arty-farty.



And for the rest of the saturday, we spent it in Crissy field with Cayden scooting around with his scooter and lazing on the soft grass, gazing at the cloudless blue sky.

It is finally over. It was sooo hot and the temperature hovered around 40 degrees. I wished I was back in not so sunny singapore. My aunt Jean and her family was back for their summer hols, and that makes me feel more homesick since everybody was back in singapore except us.

We spent most part of our summer in the estate pool trying to keep cool and also hid in the library. Cayden had his end of summer party last week. Their class did a hawaiian dance. And Cayden was out of sync most part of the dance. Hahahhaaa.....

(youtube has some problems doing the uploading.will do that later)

By the way, Cayden has finally decided on his halloween costume for this year.

First, he wanted to be one of the characters in Wonder Pets (a Nick Jr cartoon). Can you imagine him in a hamster or a duck or a turtle costume ? hahahhaa



Then he change his mind to Whyatt in Super Why ! (the boy in green)


I was trying to entice him into something more commercialized like pirate or cowboy so that I dun have to make the costumes for him. You know...just buy and wear. And heng hah.....he found his Superman costume yesterday and declared that he will be Superman this Halloween. And now he cannot wait for Halloween to come...kept asking me ...when is halloween ? When is halloween ? I am going to die from his nagging....he is worse than Joash and my mum put together.....Urghhh !

Dated 15th April
We were eating choc spread on toast. The choc spread was given by my sister's fren who is a pilot. I told Cayden that uncle Chee chuan will come and visit us next month. Cayden asked : He has a ticket to fly here ?
No, he is a pilot. He dun need a ticket. Do you know what does a pilot do ? He fly the aeroplane.
Cayden : Fly the aeroplane ? He sits in (the) front of the aerplane, mama ? (holding up his toy airplane)
Ya...
Cayden : I want to be a pilot. I want to fly a rocket.
I told him that The person who fly a rocket is called an astronut.
Cayden : an astronut ? I want to be a astronut.
I tot you want to be a pilot ?
Cayden : I want to be an astronut, then a pilot, then a pirate.

Dated early May 2008
After watching the Wriggles DVD on Cowboys....he told me " Mum...I want to be a cowboy !"
I thought you want to be an astronut, then a pilot, then a pirate ?
After thinking for a little while, he said " First, I want to be a cowboy, then an astronut, then a pilot, then a pirate."

Few days back....after the fire department visited his preschool and give each of them a fireman helmet and a sticker badge, he came home announcing that he wanted to be a fire fighter.
I want to be a fire fighter !
I thought you want to be a cowboy first then an astronut, then a pilot, then a pirate ?
Hmm....I want to be a cowboy, then a fire fighter, then an astronaut, then a pilot, then a pirate....

Pretty ambitious, I should say so.......

I was in Michael's looking for some art and crafts items with Joash and Cayden. On the way out, Joash related this incident to me. Just now, while waiting for me, he saw a little girl slightly older than cayden running to her mum saying that a boy was teasing and laughing at her. The mum just replied : Show him the finger next time! And the girl nodded her head.

I was speechless....

oh....o..k..i....

I know I haven't been updating......but it seems that there is always other things which creep up.

Anyway...just to ease into blogging ....here is an old entry which i have written but not post it yet ......

We went to Dublin, CA for their infamous St Patrick celebration. Everything was green... the flag, the music stage, the chips (potato) and even the beer ! The live band was playing some irish music and lots of kids and adults were dancing to it.

New year
New beginning
New decision
New photo




Happy New Year !

Joash finished his project, hence we decided to be tourist-y nd take a little road trip around california especially when the leaves are changing colours.

We took a 3 day road trip to Yosemite. The car journay take about 4.5 hours, terribly long for a toddler. We stopped every 2 hours to stretch our legs and let cayden exert some energy. We had lunch at Mariposa at Happy Burgers. We did not know that it had so many good reviews but I had the best mushroom burger there. Yum....:)



Pretend we are still par-toking since cayden is sleeping in the car...heehee....




Yosemite is really very pretty during Autumn with yellow, red, orange leaves. Cayden fell in love with the colourful leaves and he was very happy just stepping, jumping, throwing the colourful leaves.




Our family photo


see the view behind cayden...isn't it beautiful !!!


Cayden adores Joash and loves to mimic his father. Whatever his father is doing, he wants to do the same. Joash was resting on this rock and Cayden wanted to do the same.


Cool Joe


Cool Joe with Cool Mum


My Favourite Picture