All set!

Just as I was excited to go on a holiday for the first time with Caleb, I was also pretty nervous and slightly worried as to how well he would cope. Will he enjoy the plane ride? Will I have problems putting him to sleep, considering that my helper, Vicky helps me to do that in Singapore? Will he eat well?

I guess its every parent's worry when bringing a young child overseas for the first time. Packing his luggage was also another ball game. I had to make sure I had all his stuff like milk powder, diapers, wet wipes etc.

Anyway, it helps to get Caleb mentally prepared as I showed him video clips on aeroplane take off and how it looks inside the aeroplane by going to YouTube. Initially, I thought of reading books on aeroplane to him but I figured, it is inconvenient to go library and having to find books on aeroplane may be a hassle. So I thought, hey, internet is the best and most convenient resource that I can make use of! So yup. I had to cautiously choose videos that do not show airplane accidents if not, Caleb would probably not dare to step into an aeroplane. Ha.

Now that I am packing stuff for Caleb, I had to pack much earlier so that as and when I think of what to bring, I would quickly go get it and throw it into his luggage. So I know I cant leave it to last minute.



Whatever it is, everytime when I put stuff into my luggage, I would feel excited as its like a step nearer and nearer to the day we board the plane.

Sweeter blood

I always wonder is it really true when people say, "Oh the mosquitoes bite you because your blood is sweeter." I am sure you have heard such words before. How true is that?

I also think that mosquitoes tend to choose baby's blood than adult's. Does that mean,they prefer young and fresh blood? haha. I really wonder what mosquitoes think and how they choose who to bite.

Caleb has been a target for mosquitoes since young and each time they bite him, it would leave him a scar. It doesnt heal nicely. There would be some kind of pus and all. Sigh. You can see his previous mosquito bite near to his knee, which left him a brownish mark on him. And recently, the mosquito bit him on the same spot. Must be the same mosquito I figured. Ha.



He wears long pants to sleep and this still happens to him. Are mosquitoes getting smarter that they can fly up his pants? Must I really put mosquito repellant EVERY night before he sleeps?

House of more smiles

As the day gets nearer to our trip, I have been revising with Caleb how to smile.



So here are more of his smiles..all so similar-hardly can see his eyes and so constipated.




As for Meimei, she has been smiling too. I will definitely miss her as she would be staying behind with Vicky as CT and I will bring Caleb to perth for a whole week!

Smile!

I have been teaching Caleb to smile today as we will be going perth in a couple of days time and he would probably be in most of my pictures. It wasnt too difficult to teach him how to smile as firstly, he is quite a smiley baby and secondly, he is at the stage where he imitates people. He would repeat what I would say and do what I do.

Here's his constipated smile.



After a few more practices, the smile became more natural.

Ba-la-ku

From birth, Caleb has been a very active boy. As one of a stranger I met commented that Caleb belongs to the type who is very active and curious. This group of children will have more “ba-la-kus” (blue black bumps) and accidents than any other kid because of their nature. But the positive side is that they learn a lot more since they are overly curious.

I have seriously lost count as to how many times Caleb has fallen down and hit himself on the head or other parts of the body.
Anyway here’s his recent “ba-la-ku” from falling down while running at home with his slippers.



After the fall, he immediately climbed up to my dining table chair and admired himself in the mirror. Sigh. I think I can never stop worrying about this boy’s safety.

Mini Typhoon

Tonight, I actually experienced a mini typhoon in my home. I was asleep as usual by 11 pm. But at about 1130 pm, there was a massive strong wind that forced my windows wide open. I tried to pull them back in to shut them tight, but I couldn’t. I was so afraid that the windows will come loose and drop down as the wind was so strong. CT had to come help me shut them.

When I went out of my room, we found out that the wind was so strong that my kitchen glass door was damaged. The strong force of the wind actually broke the door stopper and caused the nail to be bent!



And because the stopper broke and dropped down, the door actually swung wide open in the wrong direction. And the force of the wind actually made the stopper fly and hit my glass bomb shelter door which broke it.



When I peeked outside my window, I was also so afraid that the trees would fly because of the wind as all of the trees were swaying so much.

What an experience! We had to shut all our windows, including the toilet ones so as to prevent things in our house from being blown away.



Never knew I would experience such a thing in Singapore. A day after this happened, newspaper reported that the wind was from Sumatra, Indonesia and the wind speed was 80 over km/h. Wow!

Anyway, this was probably nothing as compared to what CT and I experienced in USA as we went through Hurricane Katrina, where the wind speed was 200 over km/h! But then again, it was still shocking to have such strong winds in sheltered Singapore.

Security

I always think its really cute whenever I see toddlers carryingt their favourite smelly bolster or soft toy on board the plane or on roadtrips as its shows their ‘baby’ side.

So, as a parent now, I wonder what are some things that my children will feel secure in. What kind of soft toy wili they carry? Or will it be a nice and soft bolster?

As some of you know, so far, Caleb finds security in his belly button. He HAS to touch it to sleep. Even when he wakes up, you can find him still touching it as he keeps his finger underneath his shirt. I have no idea where he got that habit from as its just so strange.

As for Meimei, so far, she sleeps well with something against her face or head. It could be a pillow, a bolster or blanket. Just as long as her face touches it. She would somehow move and inch her way through to something so that it would touch her face. I think I am a little like her as whenever I sleep, I would hold my bolster close to my face. Hehe.



I really wonder what other sleeping habits do children or adults have. Care to share?

Old Friends Gathering

Tonight, I met up with my childhood friends for dinner at Al Forno along East Coast Road. When I mean childhood friends, I literally meant it as we knew each other since 3 years old. We grew up swimming together at Chinese Swimming Club and of course you can expect what went on during on converstation over dinner.



Yep, we were reminiscing the past about our killer training sets like 100 times 100m during public holidays or camps, our punishments that we had to go through whenever we misbehave during training or try to cheat, our competitions abroad, our memorable trip to USA for intensive training at 5am in the early morning and in evening under an American Olympic Coach- how we trained hard but yet played hard as we stayed in Disney Resort and had loads of fun!

Too bad one of our friends, Renfeng cant meet us as planned as he met with an accident just before our dinner together. So drama..

We had such a great time that we were already scheduling our next meet up in July. Deep in our hearts, we all appreciate and treasure this amazing relationship that we have as we have really been through so much together that others wont be able to understand.

Thank you guys!

Sunday rush

Today was a busy day for us. On Sundays usually, I would eat breakfast right after I wake up at 7am. Then bathe meimei while Vicky would bathe Caleb. So by the time we leave home for church, it would be about 815am. However this morning, we decided to try the breakfast at church. So we bathed the kids and within an hour, we left the house.



We will usually be the first family with young kids to reach church as we would be the first ones to reach the cradle room. Sometimes, we would even be earlier than the volunteers there.

After service today, we went home to change before going to my sis-in-law's baby's one month party at Hougang.



Here's Keane, the birthday boy!



We stayed only for a couple of hours before going off to another one month old party at Changi Sailing Club. It was my ex-church friend's baby boy, Emmanuel. He still looked quite yellow (because of jaundice) as you can see from the eyes.



The food in Changi was quite different. So we ate somemore after reaching there.



After eating so much, we decided to take a walk with Caleb as Danielle stayed on with Vicky as she was asleep.





After that, the children had fun together with play dough.




If the weather was cooler, it would have been better as all of us were sweating!

Didnt eat dinner after that. Too full.

A day spent at my parent's place

Today, my mum came to pick us up to go her place to spend the whole day there. Reason is because my neighbour who lives directly above my unit is undergoing renovation and the drilling killed me yesterday as I had to bring down the 2 kids so that they will not go deaf. So the whole day yesterday, meimei spent her time sleeping in the pram in the park down at my block.

So I decided to spend the day at my parents place to avoid the noise. We had lunch together with my parents, bro and family at Tien Court at Copthorne King's Hotel.



It was either Grand Shanghai Restaurant or Tien Court but because we havent tried Tien Court before, we decided to give it a go.





Verdict: This will be my first and last time eating there. It is not only expensive, but the service and food sucks!

We ordered our dishes and the waitress came back shortly after that they dont have this particular vegetable which we ordered. Strange because it was the waitress that told us what veggies they have. Then after the waitress went back to the kitchen, shortly later, she came back out again and told us they didnt have claypot beancurd! Sigh..horrid service as there is simply no communication between the kitchen chefs and the waitress.

It was about $30-40 per person. We ordered:
1) Sea Scallops with asparagus - $64 !!!
2) Beancurd with crab meat - $24 (I did enjoy this dish because of the crab roe)


3) Soup of the day -Black chicken ginseng soup. (ordered 3 individual portions) - $21
4) Frog Leg Porridge (for the children) Gosh! It came up to be like teochew porridge where the rice is still visible. And the taste is like some chicken porridge. Super horrid! - $28
5) Xiao Long Bao (not as good as Din tai fung) - $14.40
6) Char Siew Bao - $7.60
7) Beancurd skin with prawn and chives - $14.40 (this was one of the nicest dish)


8) Chicken claw - $7.60
9) Deep Fried Mango Roll - $14.40 (yucks! Felt so oily)
10) 2 plates of pickles which was already on the table - $7
11) 8 cups of chinese tea - $24!! (crazy!)

Be warned! Dont ever go there!

Anyway, after a very full lunch, we went back to my parents place where Caleb had his afternoon nap. Meimei woke up shortly after lunch and started playing.




She was trying to push herself up. She was also smiling and playing with my mum.



Janine also stayed at my mum's place. So after Caleb's and Janine's afternoon nap, for the very first time, they played together in the 'swimming pool'. My mum bought this with the intention of having her grandkids over at her place and spend the whole day there, playing together!





Meimei also had her go at the pool but she didnt like it. She was crying. Maybe the water was too cold for her.





Janine was the first to come out as she didnt want to stay on already. But Caleb didnt want to leave. He wanted to play forever if he had the choice. So he played a while more by himself.


And of course when I took him out, he was crying. Anyway, glad the cousins had the opportunity to play together!

Colouring fun

Caleb spend most of his time colouring. He could sit on the chair for about half an hour to an hour, just colouring. He likes it.



What I provide him with are colouring pages which I print from various websites. Many websites offer free colouring sheets to print, including websites like mickey mouse clubhouse, thomas the tank engine, bob the builder etc. So I go to these websites to print out for him to colour as he loves watching these cartoons.



I print them out and put them in a file so that when we bring him out, I could just grab the whole file and colour pencils. So, I do not need to buy any colouring books for him as its more fun for him this way to have different cartoon characters which he likes as I specifically choose for him to colour.



Well, as for meimei, since she cant do much at the moment, I just put her in the bumbo seat and watch korkor colour. Ha.

Ashley my darling..

Ashley has been my favourite dog ever! I have been having dogs since young. I used to have a bull terrier, Max which ran away from house after my dad scolded him.(Didnt know dogs can be so sensitive)



And the next one I had was a rottweiler, Angie. She was a darling, unlike common fierce rottweilers. Angie was very gentle and had good temperament. She was also a very good guard and very responsible. She even killed a snake before, if my memory serves me well. Very agile and faithful. But too bad, she had cancer and was suffering as her toes were rotting. So we put her to sleep. Sigh.





Then one day when my dad was driving and we were near SPCA, he suddenly suggested if we want another dog. Then I said, "Yes!!" (as I love dogs). So it was a quick decision and reaction that landed us at SPCA where we got Ashley. When we bought the dog, we were deciding on the name and I saw my dad's Ashworth shirt and I suddenly told my family, "Why dont we name her Ashley?" And they all loved it. We chose Ashley because out of the 2 dogs that we saw-one black and one brown. We called and only Ashley ran towards us and was very active and cheerful, while the black one was lying down. So of course we chose the one more active.

Ashley was about 3 months old and like a furball when we first got her. She was so playful, which I liked. Haha.



But as time passes, her features were more distinct.



Ashley was not only pretty, but also friendly and agile. She was also a good guard dog.





She knows when to be on alert mode as her ears will stand up as she looks to the gate.



After I got married, I had to leave Ashley behind at my parents place since my house is too small to accomodate her...and after I got children, sad to say, she has been neglected. Whenever I go my parents place every week, she would be the first to greet me at the gate but after a slight pat on her head, I would quickly proceed on inside the house and do my own stuff. Poor Ashley.

After I watched the movie "Marley & Me". It reminded me of Ashley and I felt convicted to treat her better. I felt guilty for neglecting her.

So, I do try to spend more time with Ashley now when I am at my parents place. Though of course, my kids still have to come first. But at least, I would pat her more and talk to her. She is now 10 years of age and I really hope she will stay on for long as I love her a lot