Blessings from Above

can't believe how time just flies by - seems like y'day that the world 'reportedly' was going to end because of some Y2K bug - its been almost a decade since! anyway, i never bother with new year resolutions because i forget them faster than u can say 'what was that you said?'... but I do wish that everyone will have a better 2009 - even with the economical crisis looming! i do not think that recessions are big deals really because 'what goes up must come down' and vice-versa. have a swell time!

and more presents! is it any wonder that children enjoy festive seasons? while they may not understand the true meaning of x'mas yet, who can resist ripping off wrappers to reveal the surprises within? dd loves chanting 'new toys, new toys' non-stop nowadays... the 1st two presents that dd received this year... see how happy li'l one is with her presents! more presents = more smiles... photo with x'mas tree at grandma's house

wishing everyone a great time filled with love, laughter, good food & lots of gifts!

its our 'usual' playdate day but unfortunately, the group size is shrinking by the weeks as more and more toddlers get packed off and sent to 'sch'! we have also decided that li'l one will go to 'school' starting from Jan - however, she will only go on two days - tue & wed *which are days that i will most probably have to go to office and there will be no one who can care for her while i'm away* so we can still continue our playdates! anyway, we wanted to go cycling today with our tods but the weather was not exactly agreeable so we ended up in an indoor playground - not that i have any problems with that - afterall, we did buy a package for use there! the indoor playground has a scheduled activity every hour so while we were there, we made a x'mas card for the gramps, listened to a x'mas story & li'l one 'colored' the snowman picture that was provided. :) i shall just leave you to enjoy the photos...

once more!! the regular meetup kah-kis were just talking about this last week... about how as we move further away from the newborn stage, the less inclined we would be to have another one! one of us even set the dateline for june 09 to hit the jackpot (its not me! i'm terrible with datelines!)! so now i have an explanation for the weight gain, the sore nipples when li'l one nurses and my craving for meat! bring me the churrascaria anytime! i now have a legitimate reason to pig out! :P on a more serious note, will i have enough love to go around? will i have the time and energy to chase after a active toddler and at the same time, change nappies & nurse every hour? how will li'l one take to her new sibling? and most importantly - will the new sibling be a 'meimei' or 'didi' for li'l one? i suppose - only time will tell!

no, we didn't put our names on a new property and no, we did not strike lottery! all we did was to spend the weekend away, in batam, to enjoy quality time together as a family. the exchange rate is approximately S$1 to 7,500 indonesian rupiah... so that explains how much we spent eh? we had a complimentary night stay, thanks to mil's hotel card again, paid for an extra night and upgraded to a king sized bed since l'il one still sleeps with us. we had no plans at all, except to relax at the hotel. this is the breakdown of how much we spent: 2 nights accommodation : 569,500 indonesian rupiah return ferry tickets for 2 adults + 1 child : S$138 (1,035,000 indonesian rupiah) including departing terminal fees of S$7 per pax BBQ buffet dinner w/drinks for 2 adults : 323,351 indonesian rupiah lunch @ Jap restaurant : about S$30 (225,000 indonesian rupiah) buffet breakfast for 2 adults : 157,300 indonesian rupiah spa for 2 adults : 375,000 indonesian rupiah Ayam Pen

y'day was one of those days when i lost count of the no. of times i had to say NO to li'l one and (almost) everything i said went in one ear and out the other! thankfully, these days don't come around very often (and hopefully, stays that way!) but the end of the afternoon, i was exhausted and completely drained both physically & mentally and was so glad that she drifted off to lah-lah land on schedule (i.e. before 8pm!) on such days, i keep HIM constantly in my prayers... Dear Lord, pls give me the strength and patience to carry out your work, in moulding C's life and teaching her the values that you would want to see in her. Amen! notes: her bottom cuspid erupted on the 24 Nov and the top followed quickly on 28 Nov! could her behavior be due to more teeth erupting? she now has 14! 6 more to go!

our precious li'l baby turned 19 months old today and i invited all four gramps along with us to the Singapore Flyer. while we didn't get the cabin to ourselves, i'm glad that it was not packed to the brim so l'il one still had the space to roam around. after the 'top of the world' experience, we stopped to have lunch @ seafood paradise within the flyer bldg - the exquisite six course lunch costed S$88++ per pax (with the hsbc 1-for-1 promotion) & my fav. dish was the yummy lobster! as usual, i gobbled up the food and forgot to take photos! :P enjoy our photos...  

i invited cindy & caitlyn to join us in our visit to the Singapore Biennale as we rarely get to see them even though they are back in SG coz they prefer to stay in the west for convenience. prior to this, i have never been to any biennale (even though i was offered tickets) or many art events largely (other than concerts & musicals) because i am just not an arty-farty kinda person. but after having C, for whatever reason, i just feel the need to expose her to different kinda experiences to enrich her life and thus actively search/look out for such events to bring her to. C was very co-operative and walked the whole time we were in the premises (except coming to me for hugs now and then) and i think that its great that there's a kids zone segregated especially for l'il ones (kindly sponsored Jet Airways)... In the 2 hours or so we were there, we only managed to explore one of the venues - City Hall. Hopefull we can find time to check out the other venues before the

despite living in the cosmopolitan country of SG, i do not have many friends outside my race - largely because of the schools that i went to. chinese was learnt as a 1st language, together with english (the main subject in our local schools) and china had yet become the powerhouse that it is today so few (outside my race) would choose to enrol in schools like mine. anyhow, its great to be invite to attend a wedding of a different sort to experience and learn more about other cultures/race - the pretty bride, izah is a great help to me in my work ; she is the diligent secretary who always does what i request for her to do and in good time! it must have been a good day in the islamic calendar as we noticed (many) other weddings along the way and even one, just a block away! C was taking her morning nap when we reach the venue and only woke up when i 'transferred' her over to be carried by dh (so that i can enjoy the yummy rendang! kekeke....). she laid against dh's comf

thanks to Aunty J & Aunty G, we had a fun-filled halloween (bbq) night with lots of yummy food & chit-chatting while the toddlers had their 1st experience of 'trick or treating'! each of us invited were supposed to bring/prepare some food/drink item, dress up our kid in a costume as well as bring a toy to entertain them & a healthy snack for the 'treats'. i spent a couple of hours scouring the malls for suitable snacks and finally selected these 3. Organix - Organic Noughts & Crosses, Laughing Cow - Cheese Snack & Marks & Spencer - Organic Milk Chocolate for the adults... i prepared chicken curry & fried beehoon (which was unfortunately too wet coz my helper didn't discard the water after soaking the beehoon) - no photos though, as we rushed out almost immediately after i finished cooking... coz i thought we *were* late! photos next... the toddlers warming up to each other & playing with the toys we prepared all th

first up, i don't think any of us really enjoyed this trip - dh was totally exhausted from all that driving, li'l one was feverish the whole weekend, i didn't enjoy the journey coz of the space constraint (times like this i always wish that we had a MPV!) and my parents had to endure li'l one's incessant whining/crying in the car. saturday, 25/10/08 we left my parents' place around 11am and was caught in a (bearable) jam at the tuas checkpoint (as expected) - made a quick lunch stop just after we crossed over to malaysia. along the way, li'l one was grumbling/whining/crying/fussing as she was running a temperature. she didn't really want to be in the car-seat and i had to carry her most of the way, nursing her so that she could go to sleep. she had no appetite for any food at all and only want (breast)milk the whole weekend. i feared greatly for her safety since the north-south highway is infamous for traffic accidents even though dh is one of th

happy 18mth old our dearest princess... WE LOVE YOU! i'm so proud of my li'l gal :- she has no bad habits (sleeps through the night, doesn't suck her thumb, doesn't use the pacifier, shares her things, says please & thank you, listens to instructions - most of the time, etc) she's a brave gal (rarely cries - even if she does - e.g. after being vaccinated or falls down, she stops promptly when i soothe her) she impresses me every day with new skills and knowledge she observes and learns at amazing speed she readily shows her affection to those who love her dearly

i've been thinking about this increasingly as we inch nearer to what people term as 'terrible twos' syndrome but before i share about my own parenting style, here's the background on the way i was brought up. i'm the younger of 2 siblings and my sis is 7 years older than me. we are not as close as i'd like to be (probably due to the age difference). as far as i can remember, my home always had more than 4 inhabitants as my parents would take in foreign students (ranging from 2 to 6 at any time) under their care and thus, we always had a domestic helper at home. both my parents worked (my mom in the civil service & my dad, a businessman) and thus i was cared for, mostly by the domestic helpers - the good ones, took relatively good care of me, the others, made me do their chores. i spent a great deal of time in school as i was in one of the top ten schools in singapore that had a full day curriculum. i don't remember much of my childhood but in high sch

can't remember how many times we have already been to the zoo this year but today, i took the opportunity to bring our domestic helper along as she has never been there before (the only tourist spot she visited so far is sentosa) - we didn't take many photos though... just a couple for the kids. and as always, HE blessed us with good weather (it started drizzling only when we were in the cab on the way home). left the place disappointed (& hungry) coz the cafe was closed and i didn't get the chance to eat my usual chicken rice - the only venue selling food inside (other than kfc) only had 4 selections (nasi lemak, fried rice, vegetarian friend beehoon & meehoon) which did not appeal to my palate (nor pocket - each pathetic set was going for S$7.50) and we had to cab home since there was no one to hitch a ride from and it costed us S$20+. don't ask me why but li'l princess was exhausted from the trip and had to take a FOUR hour nap! at the entrance wai

turning 18 months old! how time flies... (yes, cliché and i've already said it many times!) her appetite took a dip in the last couple of days (again) and all these while, i've been thinking that its her molar cutting through that is bothering her! how wrong can i be?!? its not one, but FOUR of her teeth cutting through all at once! *sigh*... my poor baby! i soothed her today with teething gel, lots of hugs & kisses and allowed her to nursed as much as she wanted and she finally drifted off to la-la land! i'm keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps up with the good job of sleeping through the night! *side note* she went from 8 to 12 teeth just like that and bad mummy did not record down the dates that the various teeth erupted!

coincidentally, children's day falls on a public holiday this year so gives us an opportunity (of sorts) to 'celebrate' it with dd. after much deliberation, we decided to take her to the nearest park & check out the stables that i've read so much about. honestly though, it was like any other weekend that we spend with her, nothing fanciful; no special treats nor presents... i guess we are just not the sorta parents who indulge our child excessively and to us, time spent together is in fact the best gift we can ever give to her, more so than any material goods. as usual, our active child was happy to be out and about! practising her motor-skills her fav. activity @ the playground - rocking rides! checking out the (smelly) pony @ the stables - maybe she can learn to ride horses when she is older! in the meantime, she will have to be contented with riding wooden horses though... :)