Blessings from Above

as always, christmas is the time of the year we enjoy the company of our extended family, indulge in good food and exchange gifts - this was done slightly earlier this year (on eve of x'mas eve) as we made plans to make it a little more special for little one.. our family was blessed with many gifts from loved ones and in return, we had a great time handing out gifts. :) on x'mas eve, we checked into the ritz to spend x'mas together as a family! coincidentally, we had to attend a wedding dinner on the same night on behalf of parents-in-law (who were away on holiday) at the same venue, which works out very well since we can save on the travelling time and catch up on some well-deserved sleep (for me, that is!). ritz is truly a 5-star hotel - we were greeted with a comfortable looking baby cot & baby toiletries was provided for little one. the room was extremely comfortable and had a fantastic view! well, what can i say? it was a wonderful 1st x'mas with our litt...

from santarina claire... :)

I've been wanting to take little princess for a dip in the pool for some time now (ever since we received a cute little swimming costume for her first month party) but the weather was always not agreeable... and on two different days, God blessed us with great weather and i managed to bring claire for her first dip in the pool... i say she's a true water baby... a little apprehensive when i just put her into the pool and within seconds, she was totally at ease and enjoying herself! 29 November 2007: 1st dip in the pool see her happy & satisfied face after her first dip! 21 December 2007: the 2nd time i brought her to the pool - this time with her brand new float!

with the festive season around the corner, we have been going out quite a bit - mostly to catch up with friends and do last minute shopping... and thus, i managed to 'check out' a few of the nursing rooms available in the local malls and here's what i think of them... Suntec City (located at level 3, near toys'r'us and where all the 'baby shops' are) what i like: changing stations just beside the sink what i dislike: no privacy - nursing corner has no doors nor drapes Forum, Orchard (located at level 1, near the washrooms) what i like: the bright cheery colors, rather comfortable armchair for nursing what i dislike: aircon vent just above changing stations (blowing directly on baby) HDB Hub, Toa Payoh (located at level 2, near the washrooms) what i like: aesthetically appealing, nice comfortable armchair for nursing what i dislike: nowhere to put things @ the changing stations, nursing rooms are too small - cannot fit in my tiny aprica strol...

my sleeping beauty! she now can go back to sitting position after crawling, walk holding furniture for support, bend her knees and sit after standing, say 'bear, ba, ma, ye, claire' (notice all the words rhyme!), climb over obstacles (namely me and dh), protest LOUDLY when you take away her toys, look for dog when we ask her 'where's chewy?', push our hands away when we try to feed her, use her tongue to prevent food from being pushed into her mouth... that's just some of the things i can remember off my head.

we have been really busy the last couple of weeks, for a couple of reasons: x'mas is around the corner and there was plenty of gift hunting to do... once the gift hunting was done, there was plenty of gift wrapping to do... its the time of the year that i send out greetings to my clients, to 'tell' them that i am still around (and in biz!) in addition, there was a x'mas party to prepare for (for claire's friends) & this year, i decided that i wanted to 'create' the x'mas ambience for my little princess (being her 1st x'mas)... so i spent some time planning and buying the appropriate decor for the festive mood. unfortunately, i was unable to cajole dh to get a x'mas tree for the house - his reason; we simply have no space and our little princess will probably 'eat' all the trinkets hanging off the tree (no doubt its true)... *sighz* but well, i did the best i can... what do you think? (dh promised that we'll buy a bigger house and ...

sorry i need 'release' my frustrations once more... about my domestic helper (NOT!!) i teach her to make spring roll and wantons; she makes spring roll with my wanton fillings i teach her to cook chicken curry and lontong (vegetable curry); she throws carrot into the chicken curry i teach her to make english and chinese tea; she puts SUGAR into the chinese tea i ask her to cook proper food to eat; she 'steals' cheezels and eat with her kopi! i say 'steal' not because i don't allow her to eat but because she had 'GUILTY' written all over her face when i came home one day and 'caught' her snacking on cheezels...

we've had our domestic helper around for more than six months now... and unfortunately, most of the time, she's not much help. she's more of a domestic cleaner to me and i personally think we are better off just hiring a part-time cleaner coming in once or twice a week. i'm sure its hard to imagine how 'unhappy' i am to have help at home since domestic helpers have been living with me ever since i was a little gal (i was brought up by the likes of them) and i have been 'the maid' at home for my dh for the past four years. on most days, our helper makes my blood boil, especially when i have to give her instructions to do something... let me give you some examples. "Sri, cook rice" - she prepares fried rice "What would you like to drink, Sir?", Sir says packet drink: green color - she takes the yellow one. "Steam fish" - she cuts the pomfret vertically and makes soup "Sri, take out the pot" - she takes o...

i get this feeling that my little princess will grow up to be a socialite - even at such a young age, she already has lots of friends/playmates! let the pictures speak for themselves...   we (claire & i) have so much fun meeting up with other mummies and babies coz its so nice to have someone else sharing the experience. having adult conversations helps to preserve my sanity - despite the fact our conversations revolve mostly around our babies - and helps me to 'see' that i am not alone in this (arduous, nevertheless fulfilling) parenting journey.   i am finally going to fulfill my long overdue promise to write about the nursing /baby rooms available in SG - starting with...   1st on my list - Isetan's (located @ scotts & parkway parade)   why i like it: in my opinion - very 'thoughtful' changing stations with belly straps to keep baby facing up (my little princess rolls over every time we put her on h...

my little princess is 7 months old! happy 7th month baby!

what an exciting few weeks it has been... our baby 'enjoyed' her first haircut, first food, first words and first rainbow (a very big one!) Unfortunately, also her first fall thus her first bump on the forehead! she is now Speedy Gonzalez... crawling forward very fast and thus always have to be watched. i now hardly put her on the bed (unless its time to sleep) - playtime now is always on the floor on her bumper mat! i also realised, now that i have my own baby, that mankind is indeed evolving - seems like most babies today achieve 'milestones' much 'earlier' compared to their predecessors some examples... rolling over @ 2 - 3mths instead of 3 - 4mths, sitting @ 4-5mths instead of 6-7mths and crawling @ 6-7mths instead of 8-9mths. in addition to that, claire also says mama and papa (she knows who is who respectively) and we've even heard her call her own name. hehe... guess it helps that she has a easy one-syllabus name! for a while now, she has also...

everyone has been complaining how 'messy' and 'long' baby's hair is recently (i think they're just jealous of her nice locks! hehe...) so anyway, dh and I decided to take her for a hair cut @ parkway parade. S$18 gets the baby a (nice?) hair cut, his/her own screen showing cartoons, free balloon (we didn't get that), and free hair color (daddy says will spoil her nice hair so no, no!). pretty expensive if you take into account that daddy cuts his hair for S$10 (mummy's hair cut costs much more but we shan't go there... :P) we met baby's yee yee (aka my sis) after the hair cut and she said she would do a better job than the hairstylist! what do you think? dh and i also spend some time 'car shopping' this weekend... seems like our 2 litre sedan will have to give way for a MPV in the next 2 - 3 years' time since we are planning for no. 2. obviously its still too early to be going car shopping but we do want to know our options. b...

my baby has turned 6 months old! what a fabulous 6 months it has been. i never thought i'd say this but i am really enjoying motherhood! in fact, i am having so much fun with my dear gal that i really wonder why i delayed being a mother for so long! :) our whole family spent a couple of hours with Celeste of G eneration Design taking photos to commemorate the 6 month mark. we had so much fun and thanks to Celeste, we have lots of beautiful pictures to remember this special occasion! Check out the photos . here's my 6mths old baby! we love you so much dear!

now that princess is no longer 'afraid' of strangers, we can take photos of her with other people... here are some of them. with grandparents, aunt and cousins with the handsome 'bubu' and then, there's the usual shots with daddy...

being a sahm (stay-at-home-mom) means i have plenty of time to organise social activities for my little one... and activities we have plenty! on an average week, we spend time having lunch & high tea with other mummies & babies, have a great time @ gymboree, go shopping and have lots of walks in the park. at home, we have a playmat (finally! after waiting TWO whole months for the stock to arrive) for my little one to roll, crawl, sit and play on. i read and sing to her everyday and show her flash cards to expose her to the ABCs. i love every minute that i spend with her - she smiles at everyone but reserves for me, her biggest smile and her loudest laughter. not to forget, she's such a headturner! so many times when we were out, passerbys would back track just to steal another glance at her and she always rewards them with her smiles! i believe even HE adores her... it always STOPS raining when we want to go out and starts to pour again once we reach our destination. i ...

we went for a party today and i met many other babies who were born in april, just like me! it was such fun - our mummies & daddies enjoyed the delicious buffet food, we had a beautiful cake to commemorate the occasion and we took lots of photos together! here are some photos of me taken recently... my very own bumbo seat! mummy & me enjoying the marine fish tank @ home ps: how time flies... i'll be 5 months' old in another 15 mins time!

after almost three hectic weeks of running around with my baby to prep for this week long training at work, its finally here. i take a ride from mil to her place in the morning, read the papers, spend some time with my precious one before my mil whisks her off for a walk in the garden in a bid to get her to take her morning nap before i cab to office. y'day was a trial-trial since it was a short training conducted by our partner firm. today was the trial as i had a full morning training, followed by a whole afternoon of meeting outside of office (my afternoon was totally chaotic, no thanks to the IT fair @ suntec - bad weather plus traffic just drives me crazy). tomorrow is the real deal... i have to be in office the WHOLE day (from 0930 to 1730). i have to bring expressed breast milk (which princess is most likely NOT accept) to mil's place and bring my breast pump and storage cups to work in order to AVOID engorgement. i am so thankful that i do not work fixed and regular hou...

my efforts in the last two weeks have paid off... my little princess now allows my mum, my dad, my sis, my bil, my mum's domestic helper and my mil's domestic helper carry her (mil and fil still not very successful). she's also willing to take her nap in my mum and mil's place! i count my blessings and thank the lord! as a reward for my 'hard work' (hey, its tought travelling from home - mil's place - home - parent's place - home EVERY DAY ok!), i finally went for a hair cut and treatment today - now i feel so lightheaded (literally)! in addition, i also managed to get my neck, shoulder and back massaged! thank you for being so co-operative my sweet little angel! my little angel with my mom (hmm... can you believe my mom is almost 70? ssshhh.... don't tell her i 'exposed' her age) little angel enjoying the bumbo seat

other than listening (and singing along) to music, flash cards, reading and exercise time, i have been searching for an 'organised learning' play time for my precious one. through my observations, i know claire loves music and massage so i wanted a place that provided both. there are numerous 'enrichment' centres around that boosts to have the best equipment and knowledge, researched curriculum for infants and toddlers but not that many that brings everything together nicely. claire and i went to babies n cream last month and she definitely enjoyed herself but its pretty far for us to travel there. hence, i started looking nearer and decided on gymboree . the 'classes' are tailored to different age group (by months) so claire is now on level one class. we went for the 'trial' class today and claire had fun 'making friends' with Gymbo - the colorful clown - who is gymboree's mascot. i decided to sign up for the membership after today's c...

lack of posts! i've been so busy lately... wow! its been almost a month since i last put in an entry! time really goes by in a flash! my precious one is almost 4.5mths old now! why am i so busy, you ask? here are a couple of reasons: - little one is awake more than ever and when she is awake, she wants to be entertained (haha... actually she entertains me with her funny antics)! i sing, read her stories, flash cards and exercise with her and of course, we go shopping every day. plus she has 'learnt' to flip since around 2 weeks ago so i really have to constantly watch her (in case she 'flips' off the bed) - i've been running up and down my in-law's (and my parents') place to 'familiarize' little one with her grandparents. she started 'recognising' people from around 11 weeks, refusing to allow anyone else (other than mummy and daddy) carry her. - i've been organising (and participating) in online shopping sprees from US. c...