gardens by the bay

photos from a family trip with ah-ma to gardens by the bay...a rare event trying to get ah-ma out of the house - success!!

a wild wild wet end to October!

brought aly to wild wild wet theme park last week. of course we knew aly was too young for most of the stuff, but it was free entry for ntuc members in their birthday month, free for kids under 3 and discounted 30% for daddy so it was too irresistible a deal to pass up...

left Asher with my mom and we set off for downtown east. the weather was great, cloudy, no sun and no rain too.

we spent most of the afternoon at the professor's playground, a 0.3m kids friendly pool with five water slides and a giant water dump where water pours down from a giant pail every 10 minutes or so. i even managed to convince aly to follow me on the water slides twice which she did not like as both ended with water splashing all over her face. she was terrified of the giant water dump too.

apart from the playground, there was a tsunami wave pool which was pretty gentle despite the name. aly enjoyed sitting and waiting for the waves to wash into the "shore" and tickle her feet.

the other family friendly attraction was a lazy river where one could laze on a tube and meander around the perimeter of the park. however aly hated it as she was not at all amused by the small waterfall curtains that appear every once in a while and water gets into her eyes.

so...we eventually went back to the professor's playground where we just chilled with aly doing nothing but making mini splashes in the shallow water...where she went back to being super happy. whatever works Haha.

neither mommy nor daddy tested the more adventurous rides...guess we are not so garang anymore as age creeps up. and again, we ended the adventure with macdonalds teabreak...French fries and chocolate fudge sundae. yummy!

Christmas break

Christmas without a doubt is my favorite time of the year. the  festivities start way earlier as we bring the kiddos over the Dec weekends to check out the shopping mall decors and squeeze in some xmas shopping and the happy vibes last all the way till new year's day!

this year's notably well decorated malls include tanglin mall with all its reindeers and carriages and vivo with the exceptionally gigantic Christmas tree. tanglin mall was the winner with its foam avalanche and "snow"...aly had a love hate relationship with the snow. while she wanted to see more snow, she hated it in her face, hair, eyes and everywhere. she must have also felt rather confused too when grandma told her a few days later that Singapore had no snow because it was not cold enough...but of course the smart alec had the solution ready...she told ah ma to turn on the aircon so there will be snow...

aly loved Christmas trees and stars...wherever we went, she enjoyed all the xmas trees and their sparkly lights n stars. daddy couldn't resist buying our own xmas tree for his little princess. so for the first time in everybody in the family's lives...we decorated our own xmas tree which stood in the corner of our living room. under the tree, we wrapped aly's xmas present, which she opened with much glee and anticipation this year - a little wooden piano. she tested the keys immediately by playing a convincing "twinkle twinkle little star"...

this year's annual xmas party was hosted at our place on Dec 21...earlier than usual. we did pretty well i must say...daddy watched both kids as i prepared the turkey, sausages n ham, creamed the mashed potatoes and made the pasta and salsa and fish fingers for the kiddies. mini magnums, durian puffs and xmas cupcakes from the guests gave the meal a sweet ending.

asher's very first xmas present was from godma...a packet of yogurt baby snacks which he absolutely adored...his first time trying out baby snacks too...it was god daughter hailey's very first xmas too...hailey was as handsome as asher was pretty...haha the two may make a cute couple yet!

daddy brought aly to my office on xmas eve...a half day. the little terror had everybody under her thumb with a flick of her naughty curls...after so long...its still the number one source of attention...at least not many pple ask me if i permed it anymore...

xmas day was way too fun. we took the dukw tours, boarding at the Singapore flyer. this is the second time aly has been on but the first time she was awake throughout...although she was not overexcited about it, i think she still enjoyed it overall.

we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening xmas shopping at suntec with a vengeance...i picked up quite a few work clothes for myself and some clothes for the kids too, not that they needed more...even daddy picked out a pair of gap jeans and a few items from our favorite store uniqlo.

the good cheer continues even as i return to work after xmas as bosses r on vacation and office is quiet until after new year. finally some time to catch up on backlog...without anything blowing up every other day.

finally, posting a few of my favorite xmas photos of the kiddies this year....its definitely a sweet Christmas to remember...

November rain

November came and went in a flash...a tumultuous month for me. i went from being a lady of leisure, spending my days taking care of little asher and enjoying afternoon teas to the other end of the spectrum...working my ass off at a new job. this change happened within a week as i joined the company on short notice at the request of my new boss. incidentally, the new boss is based in hongkong so i make my way there 6 days into the job to spend two weeks there.

the transition was harsh for the kids, mom, hubby and me. logistical challenges came up every other day...the best route to office had me hubby dropping me off at paya lebar to take a train to work. aly would wail almost immediately once i get off the car and sometimes asher would cry in his carseat all the way to my mom's at bedok. working hours were not great either, by the time i got to my mom, i had just enough time to quickly gulp down dinner and grab the kids home.

the hongkong trip was fun with the two kids but not an easy one even with mom and kwang taking care of aly and asher while i worked. it was difficult to do much while trying to keep on track with feeding, clothing, diaper changing and putting to bed a seven month old baby and a two yr seven mth toddler.

for me at work, since i was still nursing, i had to take a taxi back to the hotel everyday at lunch to pump. hongkong is not mummy or child friendly at all...the alternative is to pump in the toilet at work...to me not a viable alternative at all.

i am here in hongkong now alone this time for the second week with no logistical nightmare but now missing the kids terribly.

i am incredibly sleepy as i type this entry...i foresee the number of posts is going to drop dramatically...sigh. its hard to be a working mom and twice as hard when you've gotta start in a new job. thank goodness i can find energy for all this from the strength my kids give me! till the next post which i hope will still be within 2013!

Chinatown with asher boy

One of the best bits about not working or maternity leave is that you get to eat all the yummy food at off peak hours, which means cheaper deals and shorter queues. Of course in my case, its also great to have a wonderful hubby with a flexi schedule who drives us around and enjoys yummy eats like me!

We brought asher to Chinatown for a weekday breakfast sometime ago, this posting is a little backdated. Nothing like my favorite xiuji ikan bilis yong tau foo (half-eaten in the pic cos too enthusiastic to start eating) and teh-o to kickstart the day, rounded off with dessert at mei heong yuen.

The midautumn decorations were still not yet taken down then so i couldn't resist a snap. Colorful and pretty!

I wish i could do this every once in a while. I guess i definitely can once the kids are a bit older and they will come to appreciate mommy's favorite foods too!

Happy six month old!

With babies and young toddlers, its an accomplishment every time a new milestone is achieved. Looking back, it seems like six months really went by in a flash but at points in time, the tired mummy in me simply wished little bub will grow up faster, sleep through the night soon, start crawling / walking / talking whatever comes first. On the other hand, in a few years i know i will sigh like all other parents do and lament they grew up all too fast. The games life plays...

So asher turned six months on 21st October. Hurray! We celebrated by opening a bottle of heinz baby rice cereal that has been sitting on the shelf waiting to make its debut.

We sit asher on his high chair which we started him on last week (no food, just to play with his toys so he would get used to the idea of sitting there). He watches me intently as i mix the milk in the cereal. I give him a little spoonful and haha boy...i thought this little chubby tot would be a keen feeder like big sis alyssa but neh..."pui!"..out comes the cereal.

Its almost fascinating when you have two kids and you see how different they can be. Aly was a neat and keen feeder when she first started off (although now not at all). I hardly used any bibs or wash cloths and she always polished off her food with relish.

Asher on the other hand looks me suspiciously in the eye half the time, the other half with a complaining "what's this crap you are feeding me" stare. He spits half of every spoonful, proceeds to put 10 fingers into his mouth while feeding and when i prod them out to feed the next spoonful, he then rubs his eyes, face and hair with the same cereal-smeared fingers.

I get only a few spoonfuls in before he then puts the bib in his mouth and gets impatient and starts to whine signalling the end of the feeding session. Little Terror!

On Wednesday, we brought the tots to ikea for a jaunt. Ikea tampines did a great job of re-organizing the kids dept and it now has tons more space for kids to play. Aly was busy trying out all the different kiddy chairs and crawling from one room to the other via a clever tunnel.

The ikea restaurant was even better. They now have one whole play section just for kids and there is one whole row of kitchen sets for the budding cooking enthusiasts. For the boys...a large train wooden rail on a large playtable. Nice. Aly entertained herself while we helped ourselves to chicken wings and free coffee and tea. And to add, we didn't know free gerber baby food was served at ikea. A pleasant surprise and so we proceeded to try some applesauce on asher. Hhahaha...attached picture says it all :-)

Happy six month old asher, hope you will grow up to love your foods!

Science centre...another nostalgic destination

For mommy n daddy that is...similar to the zoo, both kwang and i have not been to the science centre for at least 20 years. It also doesn't help that it is located on the other end of the island from where we stay.

So weekend arrives and again its time to search online for the next adventure destination and i thought why not the science centre? Clicking on the promotions page on its website yielded a happy find...since science centre was celebrating its 35th anniversary, all peeps born in 1977 and one guest they bring get free admission. Joy!

When we got there, the first thing that greeted us was a whopping big water park. Too bad we didn't bring any swim things, next time we will. Apart from that, there was also an outdoor eco garden that looked interesting but we did not have time to explore and also an outdoor kinetic garden. Fun fun!

True to the website, admission fee of 12 bucks were waived for all of us plus kids were under 3. We also found a buggy car for aly someone abandoned at the side that would have normally costs 6 bucks to rent. It must be cost saver day haha! Aly totally digged the buggy...

Ok so up till now you must be thinking...isn't 2.5 yrs and 0.5 yrs a tad young for the science centre? Well i thought so too but really its not the case. Although the kids didn't understand most of the exhibits, there was so much to do! Buttons to press, balls to roll, steps to climb, holes to peep, sounds lights music....etc. It was the best!!

I remembered my favorite exhibit when i was young used to be one of little chicks hatching and generally we used to be able to play with and hold the chicks. Well now the exhibit is still there but enclosed as in you can no longer touch the chicks but however you can still witness the hatching and some very wet looking newborn chicks. Cute!

Aly and asher's favorite exhibits? Probably a photo booth where we could take pics and view them in a few formats. A ball rolling slope too.Nothing too spectacular but oh well, a lot of hands on fun.

We ended off the visit with a good ol macdonalds happy meal. I remembered it used to be burger king in our days...oh well. And we will definitely go back to visit again with our wetsuits next time! The born in 1977 promotion runs till 31 dec 2013...wished we knew about it earlier! There is also a dino exhibit for dinosaur fans starting from oct 25 to feb 2014. The best part is that it is not superbly crowded even on weekends...nice!

Mid autumn festival 2013

Absolutely too lazy to head to town to buy any mooncakes this year...not a bad decision considering the inflation rates for mooncakes is higher than that of developing third world economies.

We head to my mom in law's house as usual to celebrate and turns out she already had 3 boxes purchased by the other siblings, so much that we even tapao-ed some without being contributors this year.

Soooooo the kids as usual couldn't wait to rush downstairs after dinner. There were already quite a few groups downstairs, the families as well as the usual teenagers taking the opportunity to "legally" play with fire, vandalize and destroy public property.

Aly and her two older cousins, aged 5 and 7 made a beeline for the playground. Nobody wanted to play with the lanterns! Haha...we adults were forced to carry them while the monkeys went to play.

Now the only kid i could manage to interest in the lantern was asher boy. Asher's ah gong bought him a real sweet hello kitty lantern complete with disco lights flashing to the loud tune of gangnam style...an uber cool choice for a five month old boy Haha. I turned it on and sure enough he was at it in a jiffy with all arms and legs kicking and extending. Within seconds, lantern went from grubby hands straight to the mouth...a real slurpy treat that was...oh well.

Ku-Ku brought with her bubble solution and soon became the life of the party at the playground. There is always something about kids and bubbles combined that makes instant magic. Oh well, if lanterns don't do the trick...

We only managed one decent photo taken by handphone. All in all another fun day!

Of duck confit and coffee shop bars

Enjoying some me time is absolutely fabutastic after five months taking care of asher full time. So i went for an interview today and left both kids with mom.

After the interview, i came home to grab dinner and shower first. Had a nice relaxing bath without worrying about asher bursting into tears outside...ahhhh simple pleasures. hubby was meeting customers at home, so i took the opportunity to scoot out and find some eats in my neighborhood.

No lack of choices in katong...i settled on the coffee shop - bar at the intersection of joo chiat road and east coast road...Ali barbar. A place i always wanted to try but not exactly the most kid-friendly. This was an old coffee shop recently renovated into a chill hangout that still served up coffee shop nosh in the day but converts into a cool bar at night.

I managed to get a seat, lucky considering the place was always packed. My reason for picking the place? I wanted to try the famous French cuisine stall that had been operating in the coffee shop even before the renovation - la petite paradis.

I am a sucker for ducks so naturally i order the duck confit which set me back 14.90. I could have added foie gras for ten bucks but i decided to save that for another (hungrier) day. They handed me one of those blinking devices that would vigorously vibrate to inform you when the meal was ready for self-collection. I ordered my coke at 1.60, cheapest bar i have ever been to...wished i could have ordered beer Haha.

My table faced the big tv and star sports was on (not F1 though) so i was kept adequately entertained while i waited for the food to arrive. The duck did not disappoint and the picture i tried to take with my phone doesn't do it any justice. Crispy, juicy and well seasoned on a bed of mash potatoes and salad on the side. Yum. I am sure eating the meal without time pressure and baby in arms also helped but the food was good! Definitely worth another visit to try the rest of the menu!

Afterwards, i proceeded down joo chiat road to check out the neighbourhood community centre. Yes i have one! Pleased to see 2 badminton courts available...it has been soooooo long. I popped in the reception to check on classes available for kids, unfortunately they have nothing at all for children below five, oh well...

All in all, i was out by myself for slightly over an hour. But the benefits immeasurable; recharged, relaxed and blissful :) i guess i don't need much these days...Haha. I also decided the next round when i do this again, i shall target to take on the pork knuckles and sausages at the newly opened brotzeit across the same intersection...except will take Hubby along next time!

Little Asher has a cough :(

So i was led to believe that exclusively breastfed babies below the age of one had excellent immunity against germs and viruses. Or perhaps it is true for most but here is four month old Asher, coughing away sounding exactly like me in one of my 100 day cough episodes. Poor boy :(

We brought him in to the doctor yesterday and he received a standard issue of cough mixture and nosedrops. The doctor said that very young children tend to be at higher risk of having the cough spread downwards to the lungs and developing infections simply because they are weaker and also have a shorter windpipe. Thank goodness Asher's lungs were clear for now and we were instructed to bring him back in case he starts to make wheezing sounds. So we are really praying he gets better soon!

I know its a bit silly to blog about a mild cough but it just made me think about whether it was true that the first child in the family gets the better genes (not necessarily in terms of looks or intellect but more in relation to health). Asher has definitely had more run-ins with the paedatrician as compared to Aly so far. I myself also thankfully avoided inheritting my dad's asthma that my younger sister and brother got.

Asher had jaundice after birth (though not uncommon and not at levels requiring treatment) so we had to bring him back for checks every other day in his first 2-3 weeks. When he reached 2 months, he developed bad ezcema and we went back to the pd once again where he was prescribed cream and shower foam. Both the items were not available in retail pharmacies and cost a whopping 75 bucks in all excluding pd consultation costs which were always in the 80-120 dollar range. We were also instructed to discontinue usage of mass market brands for Asher like Johnson and Johnson and kodomo as they would likely exacerbate the ezcema. We joke that Asher was such an sk-2 baby but i certainly hope for him that this ezcema is childhood related and would go away as he gets older...

It is quite interesting that with Asher being a boy, i seem to be worrying much more because with any minute illness, i would immediately start thinking about how he would cope in the Army next time e.g. With Asher's ezcema i immediately worry about the associated risks of asthma (with the family history) and reading about a recruit dying from an asthma attack in a gas training just freaks me out. I know army days are not for another 18 years but its funny how i can't prevent such random thoughts from creeping in.

With Aly, the daddy definitely bears the brunt of all the worrying. Daddy freaks out at every single fall, bump or scratch. Aly is only two now but i can imagine all sorts of nightmares the daddy has or will have including those involving Aly's future boyfriends and him walloping every single one of them for not being good enough. The terms "daddy's girl" and "mommy's boy" ring so true...sigh.

So anyway, i hear horror stories all the time that once kids start school, the whole family take turns to get sick and the cycle never stops. Aly starts school in January and i shudder at the high potential of flu, chicken pox, hfmd and whatever onslaughts coming our way. It seriously sucks when your kids are sick, no matter how big or small the illness is. There are simply no appropriate words to describe it especially even more so when the illness is a serious and life threatening one. Never have i been so morbid and paranoid until i became a parent...fear is an understatement.

Well...enough about the topic and i hope Asher springs back to his smiley healthy self very soon. I know there was a huge gap between this and my last post because i accidently deleted a very long post on i was writing on breastfeeding by mistake...fat fingers on the mobile phone sucks. I will try to reconstruct that post soon...

three cents on breastfeeding

and so it became the gold class standard that in order to be a mom that provides the best for your kids, you had to exclusively breastfeed for that first six months of your little joyful bundle's life...

sounds like no problem at all you think...at this point i would request persons with overactive visual sensors or friends with no kids and don't know what the hell i am talking about to just shut the screen and tune back in for the next post. sometimes ignorance can really be bliss....

so as i was saying...breastfeeding contrary to secular belief does not come naturally to all moms. There is nothing natural about fully grown women trying to figure out how to bring a biting and furious or sleepy and disinterested baby to the breast, a squirmy subject whom incidentally happens to be only a few hours old and figuring out how it works for the first time too.

Oh man, with Aly, i had to battle with milk not coming in, pressure from the confinement auntie, bloodied nipples from all that tugging and biting. All of that emotional trauma i never experienced and the sunken feeling that i possibly may not succeed at being a good mom. It literally and figuratively sucked. Thank god for lactation consultants and nipple cream! We eventually managed to overcome the initial road blocks and i managed to breastfeed Aly for close to a year (though supplementing with fm from month 5 onwards)

With asher, all the nightmares of breastfeeding which i managed to forget came back all over again. Although this time i managed to avoid seeing blood but the issue of undersupply as usual crept in around the same time as asher was about 4-5 months.

The law of basic economics is a wonderful thing but somehow in the world of breastfeeding, mommies just can't find that equilibrium which is supposed to oh come so naturally. Oversupply leads to pumping and bags and bags of frozen milk that gets eventually thrown away when they expire not to mention a higher risk of engorgement and mastitis for the mom and baby throwing up from the overfeeding. Not fun. Underdemand? A very skinny baby where parents worry and wonder if the baby is having enough nutrients.

Undersupply and overdemand. I think the most traumatic of the lot, emotionally wearing down the mummy who feels inadequate and lousy for not being able to provide and poor baby of course, always fussy and hungry for more.

Overall, i salute all breastfeeding moms, no matter how long they manage to keep it going. It is not funny having a few kilograms of weights strapped to your chest every 2-4 hours to suckle. Waking up at all inhumane times of the night to latch little bub back to sleep is the hardest especially when mommy has to be fully functional during the day too. Furthermore, working and studying moms have to lug pumps, bottles, ice packs, cooler bags and detergent to work / school everyday and suitable facilities for nursing are not always readily available for all.

I was going to post this much earlier on but i accidentally deleted the post. Now Asher is already six months+ and thank god we have made it together this far and i am still breastfeeding even though i have to supplement with a bottle of formula for the last feed at night.

I am going to try to make it till a year i hope but who knows. Despite all the difficulties, the bond you feel with your child when breastfeeding is irreplacable. When you hold your baby and watch him snugly fall asleep with a satisfied "milk face", the tiredness washes away. I came across the article below on breastfeeding as well which is absolutely funny. So hoping this would spur other mommies to continue their efforts too. Kanbate!

http://ouradoptionfaithwalk.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/world-breastfeeding-week-salute.html?m=1

the emba journey begins

today marks the last day of a very long week for me. i decided to embark on further education sometime back and this week was the first week at school. i spent this week occasionally mulling the consequences of my potentially reckless decision, constantly wondering if i would emerge from this in one piece. the only saving grace was that i am still in between jobs at the moment, so work commitments have not found its way to the equation yet.

within a day or two, i soon realised balancing a very demanding school and family was going to be absolutely herculean. it wasn't just me taking an emba...the whole family was taking it along with me. mom and hubby were fully mobilized for the one week exercise, transporting and caring for the babies, milk, diapers etc on a full scale basis from 7am to 10pm. babies x 2 have to wake earlier and sleep later and neither  were particularly pleased.

i slogged through the first week of strategy, organizational behavior and statistics classes, struggling to keep up intellectual discussions or network with 37 other classmates (mostly enthusiastic alphas) wondering where all their energy come from. networking itself does not come naturally and i found it at times more demanding than the lessons itself. the lecturers were amazing and made boring subjects come to life and surprisingly i never felt inclined to doze off despite the sleep deprivation at night. in between breaks, i pump to try to maintain the milk supply but the volume dipped as the week wore on.

finally Sunday came and as i finished off the stats exam paper, a huge feeling of lightening embraced me. after lunch, we headed to east coast park with the kids. as hubby brought Aly for a walk and i sat on the bench facing the sea and feeding Asher, i decided there was no better moment to blog than now.

i pondered if i was being fair to my family for cutting short their family time with me. i wondered what my groupmates thought of me for missing part of the case study discussion as i had to rush off or pump etc. and i really wondered if i had just concocted and consumed unwittingly the recipe for disaster. cognitive dissonance was at its all time high.

as the wind blew in my face and i looked back at the week past, it dawned on me that i was seriously overthinking this stuff. who doesn't struggle in life or constantly juggle conflicting priorities? even though i have brought it up a notch personally, the core values don't change. family still always comes first to me. :)

with that, i head over to Brussels sprouts for dinner with the hungry and sleepy kids and sign off here. unfortunately no beer for nursing mummies now so i'll just have to wash down my revelations with some cold iced water. most of all, i have to thank my super mom and super hubby for supporting me in this journey despite where the road leads.

Try not to be a lazy parent

That's what i continuously try to remind myself all the time...and it is ridiculously hard not to take shortcuts every now and then. It's too easy to settle the kids' meals via takeaway, go to a mall instead of having an sweaty jaunt outdoors, shove them an ipad at mealtimes to keep them quiet or turn on the tv the whole day instead playing and talking to them. I had so many values to uphold when raising kids before i actually had any kids but many have given way to sheer parenting exhaustion. The national day "long" weekend that just passed certainly couldn't have felt any longer...to a mommy of two demanding babies.

However this long weekend, i reminded myself again not to be lazy and we were so rewarded though super tired! To avoid a super long narration of the super long weekend, here are just some highlights!

1. 7 august grandma's (ah ma) birthday. Aly made her very first birthday card for ah ma by herself (though instructions, layout and 10% help came from me)

2. 8 august - supposed to have a marina barrage picnic planned with 12 adults and 10 kids but rain dashed the plans. Wet weather program was activated at changi t3 viewing gallery where a few sloping structures and lots of open space to run kept all 10 kids ridiculously happy for free...

3. 9 august - playdate at godma house where we stuffed ourselves silly with mee siam, tongheng eggtarts, homemade cowboy caviar super yummy salsa and chips, home baked chocolate chip cookies and more. We ended the day with Aly watching her first ndp on tv although we had to keep stopping her from trying to switch the channel to okto Haha.

4. 10 august - off to ah ma's house again for a big family reunion. My mom wants to bring all her siblings together by having cookouts once every two months. Great idea :)

5. 11 august - hanging out at parkway parade, great lunch at ichiban where Aly happily ordered her own meal informing the waitress that she wants the children's set B. Followed by mommy indulging in fabulous finds on clothings 50% off at mothercare...hello kitty pj grab! Peppa pig swimsuit grab! We followed with a stroll around our katong neighbourhood and picked up a box of macarons to bring to my brother-in-law's (dua pek) house. We ended the day with a great swim session with Aly and her two cousins at dua pek's. It was the first time we got Aly floating by herself with the two star armfloats and the ring float she refers to as "zero". Happy!!

Oh dang...i still ended up with a super long narration! Oh well...but the super happiest part of the weekend was hearing Asher laugh for the first time! A real proper laugh! :) kisses to the boy who has already stolen my heart with his coos and smiles!

Hello Asher!

Asher ng jing kai is baby number 2, now just a teeny 3 month old. He was born on 21 April 2013, weighing in at 3.19kg and 51 cm (almost the same measurements as big sister 3.17kg). With his arrival brings the number of stubborn taurus babies in my family to the grand total of two!

Asher whom we like to call Asher boy, also has a head of showstopping hair drawing bountiful comments from aunties young and old... "wah his hair a lot hor!" is most frequently heard, followed by "girl ah?". Alyssa at the same age was almost always mistaken for a boy, even when fully decked out in pink ruffles. The naughty curls didn't appear until after she was one year old.

Asher is always full of smiles, whenever anyone smiled at him, he always gave a big grin back! But he always saves the biggest, gummiest and toothless wide smile for mom and dad. I guess that's our reward for the mountains of diapers and poop ploughed through to date :)

Asher being so social and all, is terrible in the carseat, unless you had the energy to talk to him throughout the whole ride...thank god Singapore is small. Asher is also a uber light sleeper which makes putting him down for naps oh so tough. So glad for the miracle blanket again which Aly also loved that keeps him asleep for longer at night!

We look forward to crossing all the baby milestones with you too Asher boy! Stay oh so dashingly cute!

Introducing Alyssa

Alyssa ng jing xuan is two years and three months. She is my beautiful first child, arriving on a pleasant Friday, 29th April 2011. She has natural babydoll curls, which is rare for a Chinese baby and those charming curls seems to have a way of stopping passerbys in their tracks. She also has a very small face, very round eyes with long eyelashes, a cute button nose and a small pink mouth. Looks every bit of a chubby angel but screams louder than a fire engine when agitated.

Alyssa is advanced for her age, she can read and spell many words, write a to z and 1 to 10, draws cats and even can memorize the times table. She doesn't attend school now so all these skills were picked up from home. A very small and scarily smart little girl indeed...

On the other hand, Alyssa is not such a friendly kid. She doesn't like strangers to go near her and doesn't like to be cuddled. She doesn't like to play with other kids and prefers to be on her own. We intend to send her to kindergarten next January and we hope she likes it and surprises us by making friends there.

Two days ago, she declared her favorite colour to be green and favorite number to be two. A very assertive little lady who knows exactly what she wants and makes sure you know it too.

We love our little Aly...a super special star in our eyes...like her favorite song "twinkle twinkle little star" goes... "then you show your little light, twinkle twinkle all the night..." You light up mommy's and daddy's lives my precious star!

We love the weekend!

It is Sunday morning and mommy gets a few minutes break to drink her cup of tea after breakfast and blog as Daddy brings A1 and A2 along the corridor for a morning walk. Aly loves to walk outside, even if it is just along the five-foot way outside our house. There is an amazing amount of things to see along the 100m path back and forth; she will look out for the neighbourhood cats including her favorite orange Margaret mao, watch the fishes swim in the tank and stand beside the water spout and pretend to be "incy". 

Daddy makes french toast for breakfast but fussy Aly eats a small 1cmsquare piece and refuses more. It is funny how she loved it so much a couple of weeks ago as she polished off the whole plate, but now doesn't like it at all. We are going to 112 Katong Mall for lunch. Aly loves her weekly trip to 112 mall as she gets to run around in an air-conditioned environment...Aly is a very sweaty baby, as soon as we hit the outdoors, she withers.

Yesterday, we brought the whole family out to the NTUC UFamily Event "Baby's Day Out 2013, baby's first national day" held at the outdoor lawn next to MBFC. There were tons of activities for the kids, Asher and I participated in the mass breastfeeding event which was pretty cool. Aly got to make her first NDP keychain, sit on a carousel, play tikam tikam like catch rubber duckies with a net, throw a ball down the bowling alley at milk bottle pins and even won some prizes too. She also sat very quietly to allow a "jie jie" to paint a little white kitty with a green ribbon (she requested) on her face and a lovely yellow shiny star on her hand. And she finally allowed me to put on her pretty red dress for her because I told her it was National Day and all had to wear red, what a sweetie pie. As for Asher, he totally enjoyed lying down on the picnic mat with the cool breeze blowing and did a mega big poop right there and then!

Although we were all absolutely tired out at the end of the day, it was a totally enjoyable day with the kids. I hope Aly and Asher had as much fun as we did. On the flip side, Aly was still freaked out when the National Day Preview fighter planes thundered over the airspace and when the fireworks lit the sky at the finale. She also refused to sit the choo choo train and helicopter kiddy rides but she did very well already by getting on the carousel ride all by herself. I can't help but look forward to the same time next year and see how little Aly and Asher have blossomed by then :)

Blogging Day #1

So it seems today will be finally the day I start writing a blog again after possibly 7 years...so the 7 year itch is true. This time round, my purpose and inspiration for blogging is my two little tots - Alyssa and Asher. I told myself many times, I simply will not forgive myself if I don't start a blog soon to record all these lovely memories of them growing up. Parenthood is indeed fascinating and much more enriching than all my travel and work life stories before and I know once the little terrors have grown up and one day eventually leave the nest, I can look back on these precious memories with joy, because they are all mine (and my dearest husband's) to keep!

My only regret is not starting earlier as Alyssa (we call her Aly) is already 2 years and 3 months old and Asher is now 3 months old. So occasionally, I have promised myself to detract from the usual timeline diary and go back in time to pick up some highlights and milestones of what has been missed and put them up here for all (...the folks loving Aly and Asher) to remember! 

I promise to try as much as possible to keep committed to posting and also at the same time, this will be a great logbook for the wonderful photos taken by my hubby! Being day #1 blogging again, this is all very exciting for me, I just pray that time permits me to keep on track and make sure this projects develops into a decent blog!

Finally, I really thank God for my two precious subjects - Aly & Asher for being the content providers for this project. I dedicate this blog to both of you, a gift which one day you may appreciate and laugh at and imagine what fun we have had with you. Remember that Mummy and Daddy will always always love you very much (not to mention Grandma(s), Grandpa(s), Aunties and Uncles...) and wish you both a happy and beautiful life ahead.