Round the world with Renzo?

A few days ago, Renzo shared with me that his classmate Kaleen went to Disneyland in Japan, well that's how interesting topics among toddlers get nowadays in school. It's not just about Hello Kitty or Mickey Mouse anymore, they do share their travel experience and you will be surprised to find out, almost every one of them go for overseas holiday with their parents very frequently. I always believe overseas travel is an eye opener that allows children to experience different ways of life. And the great thing is they won't even realize just how much their little brains are soaking up, all without a book or classroom in sight!

Renzo went to Australia with us in 2008, when he was barely a 3 months old fetus inside my tummy. And at the time we brought him along to Phuket for his 1st year birthday celebration, he couldn't even walk on his own. Last August, he enjoyed a 2 weeks holiday with us in China, it was definitely a tough trip for us as he was trying to cope with a new life without his auntie AyeAye. He gave us all kinds of unreasonable requests from eating up a big icecream cone on his own (that's when he had his first taste of icecream), to opening windows in the plane (yes he meant literally opening the flight window, not just lifting up the blind). For the past one year, we have not been traveling around due to the arrival of our Baby Rynus, but we have been trying our best to arrange for Staycations at local hotel. And it seems that Renzo loves hotel stay even though it's not an overseas travel.

How do we know that?
He remembers which floor we were staying at during our last staycation, and when he commented that my office is NICE, he added, "But, my hotel is NICER, Ritz Carlton Hotel Mummy!!"

Daddy Chan and I decided immediately to keep our Marriott Vacation Club membership, which allows us to stay at more than 2000 hotels under Marriott worldwide (including Renzo's favorite Ritz Carlton of course), after hearing this comment from Renzo. Although we were pondering about selling it off initially since we do not have much time to travel with small kids.

So up next, where should we bring little Renzo to, for a better family bonding experience??

- The States? Most likely I am going there again for business trip next year so the family could tag along, but the 20 hours travel time is still my biggest concern..
- Bali? Our best friend is holding his wedding dinner there next April, but how to "drink, drank & drunk" with little Renzo around??
- Abu Dhabi? Renzo knows that daddy's brother and sister-in-law are there, we could have visited them together with my in laws earlier this year, if I wasn't pregnant with Rynus..
- Phuket, again? The villa under Marriott property is a great place for relaxation, I won't be surprised if Renzo could still remember that place..
- Australia? I have 3 cousins there so for sure we could get some "babysitting service" while enjoying our couple time, but wait, aren't we talking about family trip here? LOL...
- Taiwan? A place Daddy Chan and I both love a lot and maybe Renzo will appreciate the food there??
- HongKong? Well every time we plan to go to HongKong, I get pregnant.. so.. OUT!!


I realized that when mapping out an overseas trip with young kids, nearby countries are always favorable due to convenient location and comfortable weather.

And maybe, I should plan a trip to Universal Studios with a night stay at one of the RWS hotels, since not just Renzo, even Daddy and Mummy have not visited USS so far, LOL...

Renzo's trip to the animal farm

Renzo has been hinting me that he wanted to go to the Zoo in recent days with liners like "Daddy, you have to drive the car and bring Renzo to the Zoo. Then Renzo can see the Zebras", while bringing his little chubby hands up to his eyes to make an pair of imaginary binoculars. But despite having a helper to look after Rynus, generally Mummy Chan and myself still prefer not to be out of the house to too long a period of time and even if we do, we are usually pretty near home (able to reach home within 30 minutes).

So as an alternative to satisfy Renzo's craving to see animals, we decided to bring him to the Pasir Ris Kid's Kampong at Pasir Ris Farmway. Not only was it soooo much closer to home, but it is a hell lot cheaper too... (but of course, ducks and fishes compared to tigers and pandas... Zoo wins hands-down).

It was to Pasir Ris White Sands first for a hearty brunch at Pepper Lunch. It being one of the few times that we actually dined at Pepper Lunch, I didn't even know what was on the menu. Spent quite some time there deciding what to eat and ended up with the first item on the menu, something which I usually do when visiting an eatery for the first time.. (on the assumption that the first item is usually a dish that the establishment is most proud of...lol)

After the meal, we headed to the Bus Interchange to catch Bus 88 which would bring us to within 10 minutes walking distance from the animal farm. The journey after getting off the bus wasn't the most pleasurable. The roads, though wide and empty, were strewn with dead snakes that were run over by passing vehicles... we were even 'lucky' enough to come across one that was 'freshly crushed'... the poor reptile in a struggling slither, trying to maneuver in its pathetic state... disheartening sight.

A couple of turns left and right later, rain starting pouring... and all we were armed with was a little foldable brolly in Mummy Chan's bag that would have to shelter us all the way to the farm. Thankfully we made it there in a relatively dry state and when we did, the pouring rain subsided to a drizzle.

We inspected the place a little and spoke to the usher whom advised us that because of the rain, the visit might not be as fun as it would be during sunny afternoons but we could still buy the packets of feeds and let Renzo have some fun feeding the little animals. And so we did. For a mere $3, 2 adults and 1 child gained admission and given 3 neatly packed animal feeds (1 for chicken/ducks, 1 for fish/tortoises and 1 for bunnies/rabbits)

First stop was the over-populated koi pond with hundred of always-hungry fish. Feeding them was pretty fun and it was interesting to see the fish rushing up to the edge of the pond, all eagerly anticipating Renzo's handful of fish feeds to hit the water and they'll rush at them in a frenzied state.

Then there were the ducks (or were they geese?...seems too huge to be ducks) enclosure. Honestly I have no idea how to feed these guys on a rainy day. Their feeding bowl was flooded with muddy water and there was no way I'd let them eat off Renzo's hand, anyway, Renzo was too short to reach over the fence. So in the end, Renzo just throw the corn feed all over the muddy floors and also into the flood bowl, but they (ducks/geese) seem happy enough to gobble the food up anyway... =/

Next came the rabbits and bunnies, which I found more fun as them being mammals, they seems to really have a high level of intelligence and generally look warmer and more huggable than fish and fowls..lol... Many of them perched up against the wire mesh cage, seemingly really crying out for food. But judging from their large sizes, I'd say either there were plenty of visitors or the owners really do feed them well. Renzo gently rolled the food pellets into the funnel and watched as the pellets rolled down into the food bowl in the cages... and into the mouths of the little critters.

Lastly the chicken coop (which we failed to notice on our first round around the feeding area). And housed in it were aggressive roosters and hens. If I understood their language, I'm sure I would have been hearing curses and swears for Renzo not giving them more corn.

So after the last bit of corn was dropped onto the floor of the chicken coop, we headed to the lobby and tried to book a cab. But turns out that the rain stopped before we could even confirm a booking. With that, we made our way out and back onto the main roads on foot, with Renzo mischievously jumping into every puddle that he came across. At the bus stop, we realised that there was a direct bus that would bring us directly back home and the first thing that Renzo did upon boarding the bus was to nestle into mummy's cradle and sleep throughout the journey home...

Renzo loves Maths!

A few weeks back, Daddy Chan and I decided to introduce a little more Maths concepts to Renzo. Frequent followers of Renzo's blog definitely know how much Renzo loves alphabets, but in fact, his interest in numbers is just as strong, or even stronger.

Renzo could recognize numbers and count from 1 to 10 when he was 1 year 4 months old. By now, he can count to 100, and understands the concept of hundreds and thousands. He loves to count 2 by 2 to 20, 5 by 5 to 50, and 10 by 10 to 100 in a speed that even I have a little difficulty following. And he has been doing simple addition by counting his fingers for a few months, and randomly, he will ask us 2-5 times a day the similar kind of question, "Mummy and Daddy, THREE plus FOUR equals, what number??"

So, we decided it's time to go a little deeper and teach Renzo how to do addition without counting his fingers. I have to say there's probably no hard-and-fast rule to teach besides practicing repeatedly. So I've bought a Maths sticker book, which Daddy Chan uses to teach Renzo his basic addition. Although Renzo loves the book and asks for it almost everyday, knowing how short children's attention span is, Daddy's home maths tuition wasn't that successful from beginning and all of us just resorted to a much slower pace until the recent two days, magically, we caught Renzo doing his own addition and here are some examples of what he told us:

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4
3 + 3 + 3 = 9
1 + 2 + 0 = 3
5 + 5 = 10
6 + 4 = 10
7 + 3 = 10
8 + 2 = 10
9 + 1 = 10
34 + 0 = 34

I am impressed that he doesn't need to rely much on finger counting, instead, he knows the answers by heart. And if you notice, there are some patterns here and he has somehow grasped the concept of "which 2 numbers add up to 10" and "any number plus zero equals the number", which are the emphasis of Daddy Chan's "home tuition" weeks ago, so our efforts didn't go down the drain, although he's still far from solving maths problems on his own, Renzo is definitely picking up slowly, but steadily!!

Renzo Kor Kor, please love your Rynus Di Di as much as we do

From the very first moment Renzo looked at Rynus in awe, through the baby bassinet in my ward at Thomson Medical Center, it's been exactly 5 months!!

It was pretty tough for Renzo to understand the fact that he has to "share" his daddy and mummy, and all attention on him with his little brother, but it didn't take too long for him to accept the new addition to our family with huge curiosity and enthusiasm.

Being the 2nd child in the family, I have to say honestly speaking, Rynus is already at disadvantage since birth, because no matter how hard we try, there's no way for Rynus to get our full attention like what Renzo was receiving from us in the past 3 years. So as a mummy of the 2 lovely boys, I could only wish that Renzo will love Rynus and dote on him as much as we do.

Renzo said Rynus di di is handsome and cute, BUT.. "second" cute only, because, Renzo kor kor is "first" cute!! But just a few days later, he decided to become the "second' cute in the house and wanted to grow shorter and smaller like a baby, so he could be like Rynus baby and have his mummy back..

Renzo also said Rynus di di's daddy is Renzo's daddy, BUT.. Rynus di di's mummy is - nainai (his grandma), because, mummy (me) is Renzo's mummy!! He even had to highlight to Rynus, "No, don't beat MY mummy, cannot do that huh.." while Rynus accidentally hit my arm with his little hand. But look at the bright side, at least he didn't say Rynus di di's mummy is auntie Jonalyn, LOL..

Siblings are siblings after all. Renzo will kiss and hug Rynus occasionally for no reason, and voluntarily takes care of him when he cries or whines. But it's still a long way to go to build a much stronger bonding between the boys, for that, we have to work harder together for sure!