Lego play

Colin enjoys imaginative/ interactive/ role play now.. he builds more sensible things with lego these days.. here are a few of his creation!

He is able to narrate his own story and hold 2 sides of conversation himself. :)

Family holiday 2015

Our Taiwan in a glance.

Kams and Changs in Taiwan

This was the first time I (and we) took flight with my parents. The holiday was awesome with 4 pairs of hands and legs chasing after our little monkey. Pics here are all taken with our mobile phones cause my Canon S100 died due to lens error on day 2 of the trip (sigh). 

We were told that the temperature was a whooping 31 degrees a few days before our trip. But.... it dropped to as low as 13 degrees while we were there. Thank God I packed extra long sleeve tees and pants for Colin. 

Cheers to more holidays! =) 

Occupation playground

We went on a playground spree last weekend. Colin usually visits this playground when he goes to grandparents Chang's place. This playground is located next to the Pandan Gardens Leisure Park, and the Pandan reservoir is about 5-10 mins walk from here.

Blk 405 Pandan Gardens

Each playground usually has a theme. And for this playground, I would think it's occupation - Astronaut, Engineer, Mathematician. It could be themed as subjects too - Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Pre-historic animals. What do you think?

Here's Colin getting excited over this slide cause he can decide to go left, right or center! There is also a swirl slide on the right and many activities to do on the platforms. Ah, I forgot to snap a picture of the pretend play store owner area at the bottom.

The other view

On the extreme right side is this see-saw!

Alexis and Colin Chang, 364 days apart. 

Here's the mathematician column. There are a few balls inside and it will roll around and fall into the different grooves of the numbers. The bottom is just counting beads which Colin and Alexis loved pushing left and right.

The gears! Keep turning it! Kids love to see the cause and effect.

There's a normal XO tic-tac-toes and a dinosaur one!

How about pretending to be an astronaut?

This playground is suitable for toddlers comfortable with steps. Location far from main road (always my concern). It's usually windy here.

Playground around our place

There are many many playgrounds around our area - Serangoon North.

We drive by this playground before entering the multi-storey carpark.
We pass by this playground to get to 7-11 and his previous childcare.
Colin is always on a look out for this playground and he never misses. HAHAH.
He shout "PLAYGROUND!!!" as he runs towards it...

Blk 504 Serangoon North Ave 4

This is a pretty basic playground with a 1 level slide, 1 swirl slide, fireman's bar, swirl steps. There's also monkey bars behind and a 'n' climbing frame. I always frown at the fact that playgrounds nowadays are lacking swings. It's mainly about climbing, hanging and sliding.

My parents dislike letting him play at this playground because the big kids are very rough and intolerant towards toddlers. They like to play a "catching" game whereby all the players will be on the platforms and the catcher will be on the ground, tossing ball violently to hit anyone on the platform to be the next catcher.

My poor boy will be the one hoping to join in the excitement and fun but.... he is simply too young, gentle and slow for the bigger kids. It's okay to exclude him, but  he can't even go up the platforms because the rest of the kids will be up there, plus the ball from catcher will be thrown anytime, which meant that either he'll be bumped off by bigger kids or get hit by the ball.

Colin can spend more than an hour here (after the big kids go home), walking up to the platforms and coming down the slides repeatedly. He will play with any toddler/dog/tricycle/ball that comes by too.

Dinosaur Playground @ Kim Keat Avenue (Toa Payoh)

Our dear son loves playground. "Playground" is like a magic word. It grabs Colin's attention under most circumstances. There was once we were running late for a playdate at Sentosa and nothing we did could wake him up subtly. Then we mentioned this magic word, and he woke up, all ready to head out! This magic word also works when he's watching TV etc..

We've been visiting playgrounds very often, mainly to exhaust Colin's endless energy. In fact, Colin gets cranky (probably too bored) if he hasn't been to the playground for too long. Just thought it would be nice to document our playground journey and hopes Colin learns more about his younger days when he grows up. 

Let's start with one very interesting playground in front of Blk 27 Kim Keat Avenue. It's widely known as Dinosaur Playground.

There is a huge tyrannosaurus with 5 eggs and a smaller tyrannosaurus on its right side. On the left is a stegosaurus modern climb and slide. Nothing fancy but was totally worth the visit when Colin shouted, "Barney! Barney!" as he ran towards the big dino. :D Maybe they should paint the dinos purple since so many kids love Barney, right? 

Dinosaur Playground @ Kim Keat Avenue

It may look boring to adults, but kids see things in different light, even more interesting when another kid joins in. Here's what Colin did at the playground!

When he was alone with us, he ran around, and around, and around. Hugged and kissed the dinos, touched their feet, tails, eggs, checked the teeth..  Tried to sit on and lift up the eggs. Asked us to take off our footwear and follow him.

When a 4 year old burmese kid came along, parents no longer exist. They chased each other, climbed up and slid down the stegosaurus, spoke and mimicked each other's language (it was really chicken talking to duck with some common egg language).

Colin (and daddy Chang) having fun!

As I watched them having fun with each other, it suddenly felt nice to have 2 kids, 2 years apart. We do our things while they play with each other. So it's true... with 1 child, they stick to you. with 2 children they stick to each other (okay, most of the time).

Here's a closer look of his friend taken by hubs.

And someone has to look after our stuff when we play right? HAHAHHA.

Colouring

Last weekend Colin saw this and kept saying 'paper'. I figured out he wants to draw. So I handed him a pen and he started colouring. I got a shock. Cause this time he tried to colour the circles and human intuitively. Colin is ready to colour! Heh

Around our neighbourhood

There is this old school swing in our neighbourhood. Grandma Ong used to have this swing in her house and I remember spending many hours swinging in it with my cousins whenever we visited grandma.

When I saw this in near our house, I had to sit in it! Nevermind the insects and maybe mosquitoes flying around. This swing will be gone before you know it.

Blk 553 Serangoon North Ave 3