Kristian has a new favorite movie

My wife and I went out last Saturday to do some Christmas shopping and to buy a new set of chairs for the dining table. We passed by Gramophone to look for new releases of DVDs. I bought See No Evil (by Kane of WWE) and The Omen (new version). My wife bought Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and High School Musical. I asked my wife what is a High School Musical movie all about, she said she doesn't know but kids who have watched it, loved it.

Kristian was still awake when we arrived home so we decided to unpack the shopping bags and I decided to assemble the chairs. We bought the chairs from IKEA Tampines. IKEA Tampines is a new branch in the east which has just opened on 30 November. My wife decided to put the High School Musical in the DVD player so we can all watch it while I assemble the chairs. At first, Kristian is watching me open the boxes and pull out the parts. He would also pull out some parts from the box out of curiosity or probably he thought he can play with them.

Then suddenly, the main characters in the movie started out with the first song. Kristian always likes to watch singing and dancing on television so he momentarily stops playing with the chair parts and watched the movie until the song is finished. Then he went back to playing. I'm almost finished with the first chair when we heard the second song from the movie. This time Kristian went to sit with my wife at the sofa, he of course left the chair parts with me. He somehow knows that those things are for whatever I'm doing and not his to play with. Oh, and we also bought him a toy car which he kept with him while he is watching the movie.

The next thing we knew, Kristian was watching the movie intently up to the end. There were a lot of singing and dancing of teenaged boys and girls in the movie and that's what probably kept Kristian's attention hooked on the tv. So the movie ended and I stopped the DVD player and changed the channel to something else. Kristian was still sitting on the sofa quietly. The next words he said surprised both me and my wife, the exact words were "Mama, sing?". We knew then that he wanted to watch the movie again. So we put back the DVD and played it again and there he was sitting on the sofa focused on the tv again until he finally fell asleep on my wife's lap.

Last night while we were all in the bedroom, Kristian was singing but we couldn't figure out what the words are. Although he does that everytime, if he doesn't know the words, he would think of something else that would fit the song (doesn't matter if it's a real word or not). So I kept on listening to him trying to figure out what he was singing, I thought it sounded familiar. Then he said one line that I'm sure I heard recently, it was from one song in the High School Musical movie. Now I understand why it sounded familiar.

That's it, High School Musical is officially Kristian's favorite movie to date.

Kristian saw Barney live for the first time

It was around 6:00 pm, we were in Toys R Us store in Tampines Mall. We were with Ninang Bheng, her baby Mica, and Ninang Bheng's mom. Ninang Bheng's mom showed us a Toys R Us magazine showing Barney, BJ and Baby Bop having a concert in another Toys R Us store but not in the same mall where we are. The next free concert is at 7:00 pm and we don't even know where the other mall is located. So we quickly packed our things and get into the car hoping to make it to the 7:00 pm show. My wife called her friend to ask for directions to the other mall. Luckily she was able to contact her friend who incidentally is also going to the same place, and we were able to get the directions.

We arrived at the other mall a few minutes past 7:00 pm and the show has already started. The show is free so there are a lot of people and children but we were still able to get a good place to see Barney's concert. We watched the show from the side of the stage, the location is near the stage but we see Barney's side and back most of the time. At some point of the show, Barney and the other characters will move around the stage so we also get a chance to see him facing our way.

This was probably Kristian's most exciting day although he looked more shocked and confused. Maybe he's wondering why Barney is there right in front of him instead of watching him on TV. Anyway, he still looked happy and couldn't stop saying "Barney" on our way home. Unfortunately, we were not able to get near Barney to take a photo because we need to buy at least $30 from Toys R Us and have to get into a queue and only the first 30 customers will get the chance. So we just decided to take photos with Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop in the background having their pictures taken with other people. We did not even have our camera with us that time so we used our phones instead.

Kristian celebrated his 2nd birthday in Singapore

This news is a little late. Anyway, we celebrated Kristian's 2nd birthday on 25 June 2006, Sunday at Eastpoint Green's Function Room. This was his first birthday party which started at 11 am and ended at around 4 pm. It was raining that day but there were at least 40 people, including adults and children, who attended the party.

Kristian and his friends had a lot of fun playing party games with the Wiggles' music at the background. Kristian wore a light green polo shirt so did Ellen and I. Most of the guests noticed that the three of us are wearing the same color of shirts.

Kristian in the 8th Singapore Motor Show

This afternoon, we went to Suntec City to see the 8th Singapore Motor Show. This is the first time we are going to the Singapore Motor Show. I thought parking would be quite difficult because a lot of people are in Suntec City every weekend and there could be more people today because of the Motor Show. But luckily, we were able to find a parking space in less than 30 minutes.

We were parked quite far from the venue so we have to walk for about 20 minutes to get to the Motor Show. The Motor Show is at the 3rd, 4th, and 6th levels of the Suntec Convention Center. There weren't that much people because they are charging 10 Singapore Dollars for every adult and 4 Singapore Dollars for children above 3 years old. Kristian is only 2 and a half so he was able to get in for free.

Kristian saw a lot of nice cars in the Motor Show like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Fiats, Lotus and the popular Japanese brands like Honda, Mazda, Toyota, Subaru, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go to the 4th and 6th levels. On the way to the Motor Show, Kristian had a chance to get his picture taken riding in the Wiggles' Big Red Car.

Kristian got a new pair of shoes

It has been some time since we last bought shoes for Kristian. It was during his second birthday. This is the only pair of shoes he has been using since then because the rest are already too small for his feet. And it looks like this one is also running out of space because he is growing a lot faster now.

We were actually looking for a good pair of sports shoes that he can also use when running around the playground. But we found this very good looking pair of mountain shoes that fits his feet very well. It was more expensive than what we'd expected but it looked so good on him that we decided to buy it anyway. It looks like he was also excited about the new shoes that he started wearing them right after we paid the cashier.

Registration to The Orange Tree Preschool

Today we submitted Kristian's registration to The Orange Tree Preschool. He is registered for a full-day session, 5 days a week. The preschool operates from 7 am to 7 pm so we can bring him anytime after 7 am and pick him up anytime before 7 pm. The school uses two languages, English and Chinese, in its play-based curriculum under the auspices of the Morris Allen Study Centres and Tien Hsia Language School. For more information, please visit the school's website at http://www.orangetree.com.sg.

Kristian is enrolled in the Nursery 1 program which will last for 1 year.

During his first days in preschool, Nanay (his nanny) will accompany him probably the whole day until he gets used to the new environment. He will be wearing a uniform like the rest of the children, but he would only get the uniform 2 weeks after the class has started. In the meantime, he can wear his best t-shirts and pants to school.