Gathering of the cousins..

Went to my mum's place in the late morning to go together to visit our aunt. Here's Caleb with po po..




Every second day of CNY, I would visit, with my family, to my 'carrot cake' aunty. I call her that behind her back as she would always cook her famous carrot cake for us.
All my relatives would gather at her place just for her carrot cake.



She stays in a very small HDB flat and so, with all the kids, it was very crowded. Thus, the kids were playing outside her unit instead.

Here are the gathering of the cousins...(By the way, I did try my best to make them smile..honestly!)



There was a lot of activity outside the flat. On one hand, Pamela was trying to feed Janine as she kept running about. It wasnt easy to feed her..I have a feeling that Caleb would be like that as well, considering how active he is now. And on the other hand, Jodie will do whatever her brother does. As for Caleb, he would be busy looking around, jumping and grabbing things.





Janine is really mischievous and active. She always give her sheepish grin.



I could spend hours watching them behave as its pretty interesting to see what they would do or say..

Here's what I mean.







Caleb fell asleep after a while as he wakes up very early every morning. About 6 am plus.



Cant wait for my cousin to give birth in March when she will have her third child. Then, visitations would definitely be more 'happening'!

1st day of Chinese New Year

This morning, woke up eagerly as I wished Vicky, Caleb and CT a Happy New Year. I love Chinese New Year as there is just so many goodies to eat and ang pow to collect as well as give. It is definitely good being a child and just receiving ang pows from everyone but I also feel happy giving them away now that I am married.

However, my relatives and my family still give me and CT ang pow, so I still get to relieve my good old days of receiving.

As usual for every 1st day of Chinese New Year, I would prepare vegetarian mixed veggies with rice for breakfast. I used to go to my grandma's place in the morning and have that for breakfast but since she passed away, we do not go there for breakfast. So instead, I cooked my own and have it with my family now. This would be the 1st tradition in the Goh's family! :)

I prepared this last night and stored it in the fridge so that this morning, I can just heat it up. Anyway, this dish is nicer when left longer as it becomes more tasty.



And just for fun and tradition, I prefer to have this dish with rice in a bowl and chopsticks. I find it tastier-psychologically...hehe. I would scoop the veggies into my rice bowl and put my mouth at the edge of the bowl, lift it up and scoop it into my mouth. Its more delicious eating this way!



Our first stop is to my parent's place at 10am plus. Here's Caleb with gong gong.



At my parent's place, CT and I served tea to them. I feel this would also be a good tradition to adopt so that I can teach my children in future to always respect your parents and appreciate them by serving tea.

After that, went to my mother-in-law's place. Here's Caleb playing...



Here's Caleb with Keelia, his cousin (2 months younger than Caleb)!


This was what they were doing after their feedings..



Look at how they sleep. Keelia open up her legs while Caleb sleeps so lady-like. Strange.



For the 1st day of CNY, we would go visiting house to house of CT's relatives. First, we go to his grandma's place and see all his relatives (mum's side), then we go back to my mum-in-law's place and wait for his dad's side of relatives to come. After that, we would go house to house of his dad's relatives.

Here's Caleb with uncle..



The last stop was at my place where they came over. Glad they came as I had so much goodies in my house that I do not know how to finish. After that, they went on visiting from house to house, but we didnt follow anymore. Instead, went back my mum-in-law's place for dinner.

Because Caleb had been out the whole day, he was perspiring. So we bathed him there.

After dinner, went to Marianne's place to visit Phoebe and Asher.

Here's Phoebe and Caleb playing! They were actually playing together. Phoebe was trying to build the blocks up but Caleb was destroying them. Ha. It was quite interesting to see them playing.



Here's Caleb on the rocking horse.


Ok, Caleb had way too much stimulations today. I am sure he enjoyed himself as he was playing quite a bit!

Celebration in School

This morning, we had CNY celebration in school as well as the first 2 periods of lessons. I have no idea why the school still wants us to teach even though the students are not interested. What's the point when more than half the class would probably not be in the mood to study? These are things that would probably spur me to want to become a principal.

Anyway, at about 9 plus am, Vicky and Caleb took bus to my school to join me in the celebration. Its really a joy to have Caleb with me in school.

Of course when I brought Caleb up to my form class during the cleaning of the classroom, everyone swarmed around him and all eyes were on him.

One of my students, Josha offered to carry Caleb. I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's him with Caleb.





Yup, if you remember in my previous blog, this is the student whom I said look like CT's cousin's son...

Anyway, after my time with the class, I went downstairs to prepare the Lo Hei cum birthday celebration party for the staff. Ordered 10 Lo Hei boxes from Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant with salmon.



We had a great time as we also ordered cupcakes for the birthday celebration. Thanks to Zurianah who was in charge of the celebration!



At night, went my mother-in-law's place for steamboat. The highlight was the huge mussels I had. So juicy and fresh!

After dinner, went home as Caleb fell asleep, probably due to the activity he had in the day time. CT and I stayed up to wait for the arrival of the Lunar New Year.

And to our surprised, at midnight, we had fireworks just at our window! So awesome! As I was watching, it felt like the fireworks display went on forever. So I quickly ran to get my camera to get video clips of it.

Here is what I saw from my room window!



And this is another segment of the display-closer up version.



What a great start to the New Year! Makes me just fall in love with Punggol even more..

Reunion Dinner at parent's place

Went to my parent's place for reunion dinner tonight.

But before that, today, I went straight home after school because I wasnt feeling well. Have been having a throbbing headache, sore throat and feeling feverish. So, wanted to go straight home to have a good rest. However, when I reached home, Vicky told me that Caleb's rashes on the face has spread to his body- his stomach, arms and legs.

So, I quickly took him to the doctor to check it out. While waiting for the doctor, here's Caleb with the nurse.


The nurse was amusing Caleb and playing with him. Caleb was in a good mood for her to play with as he kept smiling at her and jumping.

Anyway, the doctor said the rashes is just due to sensitive skin. So he gave cream to apply.

I was initially contemplating whether to see doctor or not, but in the end, I didnt as I felt I needed a rest more than anything. So after seeing doctor with Caleb, I went home to sleep for about 2 hours and it was a much needed rest.

At night, went my parent's place. It wasnt much a reunion as it was only my family and my parents. My brother's family could only make it tomorrow while I can only make it today. So, oh well,...what to do?

But nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves as we ate together around the table and was engaging in conversations which we rarely do so as we would always fix our eyes on the TV while eating dinner every week when we go back my parent's place.

Here's Caleb having his own dinner in a corner..




We had abalone lo hei at the start..



Then a vegetable dish which is really nice as there's like a prawn ball on top of lotus root..



And lastly, one of my favourite - Hainanese pork chop! (uncut version which is great as I can take the whole piece!) And my mum knows I like the gravy separate so as to keep the pork chop crispy.

Prison...

Because I have such an active baby, I had no choice but to fix up the playpen again to place him inside, if not he would start rolling of the mattress onto the floor.

Here is Caleb in 'prison'..



How did he take it?


Not too well as after a while, he would start bawling..for someone to carry him out of this 'prison'.

Too bad..no choice. Its really for his own safety that we had to resort to this!

Recently, I took cherry orders for my staff as last week, we had African delegates coming to our school and the school ordered cherries as one of the fruits. So because of that occasion, the staff loved the cherries and so, I took orders and collected money from the staff. Altogether, they ordered 33 kg. It costs $25 per kg. Aside from that, I was also collecting money for the CNY cookies which the staff ordered as well. So, I was heavily loaded with the responsibility of collecting and keeping the money. The CNY cookies money totalled up to $1000 over.

Anyway, the whole week, I felt more like an administrative officer than a teacher.

Nevertheless, the smiles on the teachers' face is all that matters to me.

I,myself, bought one kg of cherries and when I brought it home to eat, I shared with Caleb and he loved it so much that he didnt want to let go of the cherry. I was afraid he would swallow the whole piece and get himself choked. So I was struggling to get the cherry out of his mouth.

And guess what? Because of how tight he bit the cherry and refusing to let go, the juice all came out onto the sofa! It was like blood dripping out of his mouth...I quickly took my stain remover stick to rub it on the sofa. Thank God the stain came off..

No more cherries for him! Humfgh! Here's the little vampire..

Reflective baby

I have many people who has come up to me and tell me that Caleb has this mature look. Strangers also come up to me and ask me if he is 1 year old and when I tell them he is only 6 months, they all seem so surprise!

Here are a few reasons why he looks old...

1) He is a strong baby- has strong legs as he keeps jumping and also being able to sit up straight.

2) He looks at you as if he is really thinking and studying you... Sometimes, he would just stare as if he knows what you are thinking or what is happening. (which is quite scary at times)...

Here was one afternoon in the car when he was really looking dead serious..



He would not bother about us and just continues to stare outside the window and seemes so reflective..Hmm..what is going on in his mind? I really wonder.



Glad he doesnt do that all the time if not I will get a little worried for having such a serious baby. Haha..

When finally I got his attention, here is Caleb breaking out of the reflective mood.


And yes, managed to capture his smiles! Since I have named him "Jie Le" (chinese name), I do wish for him to always have the joy of the Lord in him in all circumstances!

Early reunion

Last night, I had an early reunion with my relatives at a coffeeshop in Bedok. We had 2 tables since we have more babies now, with my cousin, Shermaine contributing the most - having 2 kids and one more in her tummy!

I felt the place was too noisy and squeezy for me. Not to mention the ceiling fan directly above our table which kept me cold throughout the night as the weather has been quite chilly due to the rain.

Anyway to make up for it, glad the food was quite nice!


The roast chicken dish was different as they had like the chilli crab sauce over it! Quite innovative.



Caleb was very cranky that night as he was probably, cold, tired and hungry. Poor guy. He was practically screaming his head off! Thank God the place was quite noisy such that his screams were quite muffled. Hehe.

Here's Jody, coming to 2 years old, digging into her ice cream after dinner. It's really a joy to see her eating as she makes everything seem so delicious.



Here's her brother, David, standing tall on the chair in orange as well, same as his sister.



Really cant wait to see how my cousin's third one would look like..

Day at the car shop

Went to the carshop on Saturday to order the car. So, this would be what my car would look like. The CNG tank is behind Caleb and Vicky. As you can see, the boot space is still quite decent after installing that.



At the shop, Caleb was enjoying his lollipop. He is just happy sucking the wrapper.

He would always take a look at what he is sucking and then placing it back into his mouth.





He does that to his pacifier at times as well and this would be the outcome..do you find anything strange in this picture?



Well, if you notice, his pacifier is upside down. That is because he takes it out of his mouth, stares at it and then places it back in. However, he places it back in upside down and he is still happy with it. So we leave it as that.

Anyway, after ordering the car, I dropped by my parent's place to pay them a visit and collect the pomelo skin dish which my mum cooked as I love eating it. Not many people know that you can actually eat the inner skin (white part) of the pomelo. My mum cooks it with dried shrimps, dried mushrooms, pork. If you like bittergourd, you will like this dish. Hehe..

Here is Caleb sitting on the child's seat for the first time! Am really happy he can actually sit in it!


At night just after his sponge bath, we were playing with Caleb and I know this is really mean, but its a good time to do it before he grows up and knows how to reject or complain.

Doesnt he look sweet? Aw...

Carrot and Corn Puree

This is one of Caleb's favourite food- corn! I guess most kids love corn, that's why you can find it in MacDonalds!



He loved it so much that he couldnt wait for me to feed him that he snatched away the spoon from me. Guess I was too slow..



And this is the kind of mess you should expect..sigh..so dirty! Must keep reminding myself that he is just a baby...so mess is inevitable!

New car ordered

Over the weekend, we have finally decided and booked for our new car- Honda Airwave.
The reason why we got it is that its not only fuel efficient, there is also a big boot space even with the CNG (compressed natural gas) tank installed.



It looks like a MPV but it's not. Anyway, we have no intention of buying one because we feel that a 7-seater car is not useful as I have asked around and those who got 7-seater car all end up not using the back 2 seats. So, in the end, they use a 7-seater car as a normal 5-seater car and moreover, a 7 seater car does not have a big boot space. So I would rather get a bigger boot space for a 5-seater car that looks like an MPV.


Another thing good about Honda Airwave is the flexibility of the seats.


Here is what I mean..







And this is the dashboard interior..


Initially, I was worried about putting a CNG tank behind the car as we thought it is quite unsafe since its a gas tank. However, the newspaper recently reported that it is even safer than a petrol tank.

Another thing is that each time you fill up the whole tank with gas, it will costs only $10. So, its so much cheaper than petrol. And just by clicking on a button, you can easily switch your car to run on petrol.

One thing good about the shop we went is that there is not extra charge if we pay the car in full amount straight up. Usually, shops would want to earn extra commission from the charging of interest when we pay by instalments so they would charge about $2000 more if we have the amount to pay all upfront. But this particular shop we went to doesnt have this requirement. So we are able to pay up full amount witho no extra charge/interest.

The car should be arriving sometime in March/April. Am pretty excited about it but not as much since I wont be the one driving it as often.Sobsob!