Blessings from Above

talking.... its amazing how chatty my two kids are... they just go on and on... most of the time, i wish that they can be quiet for even 5 mins! obviously to those whose kids are far behind developmentally, they probably feel like kicking me. some of the words that Chace is saying right now... before he turns 16 months in 4 days' time: - jiejie, mummy, daddy, nai-nai, ye-ye, po-po, da-da (mida - my parents' maid) - bus, fish, yes, bear, ball, no, wait, prea-sh (please!), bite, meow, wooh-wooh (dog barking), aa-ghhhh (lion roaring), mil-k (milk), where? (with hand signal), mine.. in other aspects of development; - he pats himself on the chest when he is frightened - he lies down & pats himself on the bum/thigh when I ask to him go to sleep - he shakes his head violently when he says 'no' - when his sister tries to snatch away from he is holding or when I try to take away something that he is holding, he will scream 'mine!!!' and try his might to hold on t...

walking.... the ability to pull and stand and being able to walk is totally not related in the case of my children. Claire pulled herself up when she was just 7 months but only took her first unassisted steps when she was 13 month. Chace, on the other hand, pulled himself up to stand probably when he was 8 or 9 months old but took his first unassisted steps just before he turned one. Guess its obvious who has more 'balls'? I don't even have a clear photo of Chace's 1st attempt, not to mention a video. Here's a lousy photo that I manage to take on the day he decided to show us that he is now a toddler... Just for the record, before he turned one, Chace: 1) has 8 teeth 2) stopped crying/screaming during bath time (on his lunar birthday) 3) started taking his first few unassisted steps 4) is a really 'old-hand' when it comes to food - no problem chewing and drinking from straws! 5) weighs 10kg (as a comparision, his scrawny sister is 11.5kg at 3 years 4 mth...

since i wrote an entry??? almost 2 whole months!

In order for me not to field questions about favouritism when my kids are grown up, I made the effort to throw a 1st birthday party for them. The theme for both was animals (Chace's party was a little more specific - it was a Safari Adventure theme). For Claire, we booked a holiday bungalow to accommodate our guests - but with our temporary abode, we had plenty of space for everyone so I used the money instead to have a more elaborate setup for the party. We had the same balloons, goodie bags from the same source and more or less similar guests. However, since Claire is now more grown up (and not wanting her to feel neglected), we hired a face-painter & balloon artist for her enjoyment. Unfortunately, Yas Meen didn't really get to do much balloon twisting because she was just too good with the face painting - all the kids were queuing up (again and again) to get inked! View photos of the party here ...

sigh... my li'l boy is down again... the last round, we took him to KK coz he woke up MUTE on a sunday morning... the DR @ KK prescribed him a dose of steroid and some nebulizer treatment as his oxygen reading fell below the optimum level and we were out of the hospital within hours. this time round, i started noticing the 'barking cough' on tuesday... instead of going to KK (since its a weekday and not really an emergency), we went back to see his regular PD on fri (rather than wait for it to get worse over the weekend)... the bill costs us more than twice the amount incurred @ KK's A&E but there's no respite... because it is virtually impossible to get our li'l prince to swallow his medication because he has learnt to spit out (what he normally does when he has enough food or doesn't want to eat anymore). his attending PD didn't deem that his condition was serious enough and sent us back after prescribed some nebulizer treatment and some med...

Chace now has 7 (?) teeth and we are still unpacking... and still no photos of our new home yet because i cannot find the battery charger for my dSLR... :P

with our move, we now have double the living space... so over the weekend, we blew our first month rental on a luxurious massage (arm)chair for our tv cum study room! :) yay! no more body aches from carrying my two li'l precious... can't wait for the chair to be delivered!

that's what our li'l princess likes to say whenever we are out after a while - so for the longest time, i have been contemplating on buying a twin stroller. never mind that we ALREADY have two strollers... to me, it just made more sense to push around a twin stroller than to push around TWO strollers, one with each hand - a bit like doing stunt, don't you think? And yes, I know they sell clips to attach two strollers together but that's provided the two strollers are similar.... we have a Jeep umbrella stroller and an Aprica one so i don't think those clips works.... and i finally found my solution today! i have seen these around but all the shops i asked told me that it CANNOT fit my Jeep... but guess what, i found that there are in fact three sizes and the 'mini' one solves my problem! :) now i'm happy as can be! my hunt for a twin stroller can FINALLY end... *i just have an affinity with sweden made products for some reason

we are officially out of our matrimonial home as we handed over the house keys to our tenant today... and it marks the end of my 10 years living in a public housing estate (even though not in public housing). hopefully our next purchase will be a property in a private housing estate... :) and horrors! we are still unpacking!

our li'l (temporary) humble abode is in such a big mess! friends & family will be invited over to warm our place once we have finished unpacking! MEANWHILE, i am truly enjoying the space (while hating the unpacking!)

Chace is ... i've lamented about #2 being neglected and i'm sure by the # of posts on this blog, it is evident  - Sorry honey! But that doesn't mean mummy love you any less than jiejie, ok? So what has my li'l boy been up to? Since the last post: - 5 of his teeth have sprouted out (and I do believe a few more is on the way SOON!) - he is crawling - he is able to sit up from a lying down position and then lie back down from a sitting position - he has pulled up to stand - he has started blabbering 'mama', 'papa', 'yeye', 'jiejie', 'byebye' and the funniest one so far - 'headache'! - he waves 'byebye' while mouthing the words - he is starting to show separation anxiety when i leave for work - he first fell off the bed on the morning of 1st may 2010 while we were all asleep Other than that, he has gone for his 1st trip (to club med) and we will be travelling again end of sep to bali (i'm definitely looking ...

We had a small intimate party y'day for a small group of friends to celebrate Claire's upcoming third birthday - the actual day is still a couple of days away. In actual fact, I did not set out to have a party for her this year as I'd booked a short getaway for the family to club med instead and thus had to see to all the party arrangements (deciding on the theme, caterer, cake and goodie bag loot, etc) within a week - i'm glad that our guests gamely accepted our invitation despite such short notice! thank you to all who took time off their busy weekend schedules to come and celebrate with us! how time flies when we are having fun... and here are some of my reflections... the last one year was rather challenging - the beginning part of your third year, i was pregnant with didi. having a big tummy meant that i could not carry out many of the activities that you enjoyed, like going to the gym and having fun at the playground an...

i think its really quite sad to be #2 in the family - i've totally neglected my li'l boy. unlike when we had Claire whereby every milestone (almost) was recorded. Chace is almost turning 7 mths old already and i've barely written about his progress! so well, for the record - he has been flipping (front & back and vice versa) for a couple of weeks now, sitting upright for a couple of minutes since around CNY and has also crawling backwards slightly - don't have the exact dates that these milestones happened but his first tooth sprouted on 26th Feb 2010! and oh! he will be participating in the same baby contest as Claire (she won that 2 years ago) on 07 Mar 2010!

Just wanna do my part for my alma mater - the reasons for this fund-raising. Pls contribute in any way you can!

singa, mr courtesy has been revived! if you do, then i know roughly how old you are! haha... the jingle still rings in my head today. does it mean that the campaign was a success? i don't think so - the people here are still generally quite rude (though i am quite polite). :) *singing*... courtesy is for me, courtesy is for you and me....

that's what #1 has been chanting the past few weeks (before that, it was 'i wanna go hong kong')... courtesy of mil (and her hotel membership card), we spent two different weekends at two different local hotels in the last two months. the change of environment resulted in less sleep for the children and consequently me. #1 was excited and #2 was restless. *sigh* the nicely made room before we messed it up... :P can u spot #1? the happy camper hotel beds make good photo backgrounds! more coming up...

Happy New Year! Isn't it amazing how another year just went by like that? hopefully 2010 will be a better year for everyone! the year started on a positive note for us so far - we managed to sort out the childcare arrangements somewhat and at the same time, found ourselves an (bigger) 'interim' home! looking forward to the move! we spent the first day of the new year watching birds... :P the lazy gal just refuses to walk when dh is around the penguin enclosure more coming up...