Vertical Marathon

Wyy climbed the stairs today!

Not the 2 steps between the living and dining room. That she could do with so much ease... it is like crawling on flat ground.

Not the 5 steps at Springleaf. That she conquered a few times last weekend.

BUT the whole flight of steps i say about 22 steps from the dining room to the 2nd storey!

You go girl!

The Little Mermaid

The day had finally come!
Wenyinyin had her first swim today!
Mummy xiu and Daddy chin had already bought a swimming costume (not bikini) and a dolphin float in preparation for this day!

Wyy went Cousin K's place for a swim with Cousin E, Daddy chin and Mummy xiu. Cousin K was going to join us too but was all knocked out from church and decided to take a nap instead.

All geared up, the Teo swim team went to the children's pool. Brr.... the water was cold. Daddy chin and Mummy xiu slowly lowered themselves into the pool.... Brr.... Mummy xiu had thought that swimming in the baby pool would just be like taking a bath in a very big pool - she hadn't anticipated the cold water and the prancing Cousin E. Wyy was abit scared - she never had so much water splashing around her. She was holding onto mummy xiu tightly for a few minutes. But not before long, wyy was enjoying herself walking around the pool; occasionally pointing at auntie may, Big-Gu and Little-Gu. Daddy chin and Mummy xiu took turns with wyy while the other entertained Cousin E. Mummy xiu and daddy chin tried to put wyy in the dolphin float twice... but she didn't enjoy it that much. I think walking on the ground gave her control. Ahhh... the power hungry baby.

The swim was short... about 15mins but that was quite enough for the little one.
Til the next swim.
Vietnam?

Tiny Dancer

When I watched Almost Famous in the movies so many years back. I fell in love with this Elton John song. So much that i played it every day for about 2 months. Yesterday when Wenyinyin was bouncing up and down at the back of the car, it reminded me of this song.

Wenyinyin... this song's for you.

Tiny Dancer

Elton John

Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand

Jesus freaks out in the street

Handing tickets out for God

Turning back she just laughs

The boulevard is not that bad

Piano man he makes his stand

In the auditorium

Looking on she sings the songs

The words she knows, the tune she hums

But oh how it feels so real

Lying here with no one near

Only you and you can't hear me

When I say softly, slowly

Hold me closer tiny dancer

Count the headlights on the highway

Lay me down in sheets of linen you had a busy day today

Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band

Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man

Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand

And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand

Sleeping through the night.

Wenyinyin has been sleeping very well. (A bit too well for mummy xiu) For the past 2-3 days she has not been waking up at 11pm. No matter how many lights we switch on. She will stir a little, rotate but will not open her little eyes. So at 12.30am, mummy xiu gives up and goes to bed. Sigh. No more 11pm playtime.[again]

Now mummy xiu and daddy chin only gets to see wyy for a short while in the morning. Which is already a big mad rush trying to wash-up, get ready for work, feed the baby milke and breakfast… heh. explains why mummy xiu has been late for work for the past 2 days?

We made it!

We made it!
Actually we more than made it.
We had so much fun!
A great way to mark mummy xiu’s three zero birthday. 000?
The trip was a lot more relaxed than mummy xiu’s usual. None of the leave the hotel early and come back late nonsense.

Day One

Wyy took her first plane ride! She didn’t mind it that much but was not terribly excited squeezing in the same seat w daddy or mummy and not being able to move around much. I think she liked the TV though. She keep staring at the plane moving across the ocean. She must have been wondering why this TV screen didn’t go blank after a few minutes of looking at it. (Like the TVs at home)

We landed in HCMC. Got out of the airport and into our cab easily.
Checking in the hotel was fuss-free. Easy Peasy.
We got a nice corner room. We suspect that the toilet was larger and the room bigger by studying the plan(chin) and peeping into other rooms when we walked past (me). Wyy loved it! When we got there,she immediately explored and played on the big bed and when her cot came she played in that as well.

After feeding wyy, the starving parents decided it was time to go find food and explore the city abit. With baby in carrier mummy xiu and daddy chin walked a good 20 minutes to Michael’s recommendation “Bunta – Bun is Noodles” It was a really nice place, except there were no baby chairs. They didn’t really know what to do w babies. Wyy was sleeping when we got there and they suggested we place 2 chairs together to let her sleep on it. And the chairs were the ones where she could easily roll off under the armrest! Anyway, we enjoyed our meal very much with the very good Bun.



We walked some more after lunch – Central Post Office and a Notre Dame Cathedral. Actually that was about all the tourist places we visited. Not very impressive. We spent the next hour or so walking down Dong Khoi street. (supposedly the Orchard Road of HCMC) but we realised the things were not as nice as some of the shops we walked by when we were going for lunch.

After about 3 hours of walking, we headed back to the hotel. To rest and let Wyy take a break from being stuck next to Mummy. Immediately her mood lightened up when we walked into the air-conditioned room and she gave a wide grin.

That was basically all of Day One.

Day Two
Day Two started with a a nice long breakfast – the hotel’s breakfast was excellent. A great selection of american breakfast (eggs, potatos, bacon, mushrooms) japanese (mackerel, jap egg, miso), chinese porridge, prata w curry, waffles, eggs, noodles, yogurt, juices, fruits, pastry, cheeses… yummy!


We decided to search for some art galleries – since Singapore art galleries have been bringing in some Vietnamese art. It was rather enjoyable popping in and out of galleries. Wyy seemed to enjoy it too… maybe it was just the aircon.

We also went to Ben Thah Market – which took us about 5 mins. It was not really like Chatuchak. Chatuchak had the occasional student designer setting up a nice innovative stall. Here, it was really a market selling shoes and clothes to the masses. We then took a cab back to the hotel. The first taxi ride within the city. The cab fare was by meter – but the 5min car ride cost us $10 SGD! Kena cheated by cab driver.

After we got back, wyy took her nap while daddy chin and mummy xiu watched Star Wars 3 on mute. It was the saddest episode (where Anikin turned bad )…. even though there was no sound.

After the mid-day break it was more walking. Walked to the river a little… nothing much there. To Le Than Ton … nothing much there. Cao Ba Quat … nothing much there. So we decided to go by the very nice bag shop (ipa-nima) so mummy xiu can pick a bag she fancies. (She did eventually buy a blue woven plastic bag)

Dinner was at Ngoh something. A definite favourite among the locals. The food looked really exciting too. Actually the food everyone else around us ordered was interesting. Ours was really ordinary.

Retreated back to the hotel thereafter where mummy xiu knocked out in front of the TV watching the first few games of the EPL season. [Snore snore]

Day Three
We had no idea where to go.
We had walked round and round the city already.
We had visited the tourist areas we wanted to see.
Only thing left was to sniff out one or two more recommended places by Michael and Gieto.

We picked a creperie along Han Thyuen amd had a very yummy last meal in HCMC. Excellent! Our table was in a little balcony over the 2nd storey. A quiet corner with only 2 tables. The ladies on the other table tried to carry wyy… and she wouldn’t let them. She’d stare at them but when they tried to carry her… her face changed after a few seconds.

The flight back was at 7.30pm – Wyy’s bedtime. I thought she would be sleeping throughout the flight but she didn’t! She dozed of for about 20mins when the plane was about to take off but refused to sleep after she woke up. Wyy had so much fun on the plane! The SQ girls brought her a bassinet in case she wanted to sleep. She loved the bassinet! No need to be held tightly by mummy xiu or daddy chin! Her own seat! She didn’t sleep in it, Just sat in it while watching the people on the plane.

After the short 1.5hour flight we got back to Singapore.
Home sweet home.
Wyy slept at 11pm that night. Oops. Her schedule would have to be readjusted…

Standing tall

Wyy learns new tricks all the time. And no one really teaches her.

Her latest maneuver is standing (with both hands holding onto something of course). She is getting quite good at it. So good that when mummy xiu tempts her with a teether when she is standing, she will try to stand holding on with one hand and the teether with the other.

Heh. She was successful yesterday but today she fell back after a few seconds. Oops.

Mummy xiu and Daddy chin are so proud of her. She really hardworking and practices hard whenever she can find a tall surface to hang onto. Well, the target bride-to-be-sis gave is to walk on the 20th Oct 07. We’d see!

travelling babe

The family is going to vietnam! For a short 3 day trip. It was supposed to be 4 days but we booked too late and there were no flights available for the 9th August already.

Since it is wenyinyin's first time out of the country, she needed a passport.

This morning daddy chin and mummy xiu worked together to make it happen. Daddy chin would carry the baby while mummy xiu snapped and snapped.

See the results!

The center one was the chosen one of course. As you can see.. mummy xiu made wenyinyin change out of her pjs (or actually wear this polo t over her pjs) before we snapped these pics. Wenyinyin cannot travel around the world in her pjs!

Haircut

Dear aunties and uncles,

A certain auntie said i've got charlie brown hair.... what do you think?

love, wenyinyin

moving forward

... as written on the 7th july(but not published cos the little one woke up)

wenyinyin is starting to learn to crawl.

first she will get on all fours and then start to balance herself, rocking back and forth.

she still hasn't learnt the art of alternating hand and feet to move forward, so after some time of balance her whole body of fall forward. very amusing.

well. since she figured that this crawling on fours thingy is going to take some time to master, she learnt the leopard crawl. and i have to admit she is pretty good at it.

If an object that she desires is spotted she will be there in a few seconds using all her skills. roll, rock and lunge forward coupled with leopard crawls. A great improvement from a few weeks back where she will spot an object of desire and then move backwards while actually attempting to move forward.

...

Now as of 22nd july, she is still leopard crawling around.
Slight difference is that she can manage abit of terrain now... mountainous pillow terrain, mattresses and such.

Happy 6 months!

Wenyinyin is 6 months old today!

Happy 6months to you
Happy 6months to you
Happy 6months to wenyinyin
Happy 6months to you!

Time flies. In 6 months she has learnt
1) to roll over
2) to express herself better - varied expressions of smiling, crying, pouty mouth, giggling hard, kicking legs, screaming.
3) move backwards
4) to enjoy the carseat, stroller and carrier
5) sleep on her own
6) reach for her toys
7) to recognise people and places
8) kick daddy with her powerful "wen yin jiao"
9) Stand tiptoe

... 6 months of joy!
.... we want more, wenyinyin

the fans are complaining

Heh. It's 25 June today.
The "fans" were complaining that there were no new posts.
Oops. Yes. No new posts for the last 2.5 weeks!

So much happened.
The playground trip
Grand-Father's day outing to botanic gardens
Wenyinyin learning to say "Ahhh"....
First taste of baby rice!

And the joy of coming home to wenyinyin everyday

See. It's like doing transport claims. Or logsheets.

If you don't have time to write about the first incident, when the second event happens, you feel you need to work on Both the first one and the second one and you have time for only one.... so you wait til you have more time. And then it piles up ....

ok. so i'm at work early.
And decided to get some blogging done.
(work will have to wait for a while)

it's a small world

Lyrics to one of wenyinyin's favourite songs:
[placed it here so that photog nanny can learn...]

it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
it's a world of hope, and a world of fears
there's so much that we share
that its time we're aware
it's a small world after all

CHORUS:
it's a small world after all
it's a small world after all
it's a small world after all
it's a small, small world

There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world

never again

Dear wenyinyin,

Mummy is very sorry. Never again will i be so careless.

With loads and loads of love,
Mummy

The cafe connoisseur

Wenyinyin is fast becoming an expert at cafes...
In 5 months she had visited the following cafes

In the order she visited them:

1. Book cafe , Mohd Sultan ( Feb 07)

2. Macdonalds, East Coast Park (Mar 07)

3. Cedele, Frankel Ave (Mar 07)

4. Marmalade Pantry, Palais Renaissance (Apr 07)

5. IKEA, Tampines (Apr 07)

6. Les Amis, Botanic Gardens (May 07)


7. tcc, isetan scotts (June 07)

8. ps cafe, dempsey (June 07)

But, if you ask her which cafe is the best... i think she'd say that the milke that they serve is ALL THE SAME...

shopping babe

It's so different to go shopping when you have a baby in tow.

Yesterday, Mummy xiu went shopping with Grandma and Bride to be sis.

B2b-sis went to an expensive shoe shop at Palais Renaissance and the sales woman totally went googoogaga when she saw wenyinyin. It was a funny experience for me cos they were sorta looking at me and yet not ( wenyinyin was in a baby carrier) Also this was supposed to be an expensive shop with atas salespersons.

Later, we went to an expensive dress shop. Same thing. The moment they saw wenyinyin, they brought in a more comfortable chair and kept smiling at her.

on the way to Palais Renaissance

Family outing on vesak day

Today was the longest trip out the new family had...

It was not just a 2 hour cafe thing...

It lasted from 11.30am til 6.30pm!

We went to IKEA Tampines, where we SHOPPED for a new shoe rack. The lil one was so excited. She was being carried by daddy chin in a baby carrier facing forward so she could see all the nice things in IKEA.

After IKEA, we went to visit Hwee nak, Tim & Kaitlyn. Lil one took a nap on the car and though she was supposed to continue to take her 2 hour lunch nap at Waterplace, she kept playing on kaitlyn's cot. Too excited by her new environment.

Then we left for Botanic Gardens. Lil one took her nap in the car again. So we drove around for an extra half hour so that she could catch up on her sleep. When she awoke, we walked around Botanic Gardens, and had tea at the Les Amis cafe. (Wenyinyin had milke of course)

It was a wonderful day!

picture perfect

We finally took pictures at the photographer's today.
And it went really well.

Wenyinyin was really happy most of the time, and when photographer matt asked for us to make some noise. Wenyin was the first to squeal in delight.

We took 27 shots and when we saw it on the computer later, it looked great

Can't wait to see the actual photos.

68

Today wenyinyin went to take her jabs at the doctor.

So her vital stats now read as
68cm
6.8kg (actually 6.79)

AND when we got there, dr was seeing no. 6
and she was no. 8 in the queue

Happy Belated 5 months!

Wenyinyin turned 5 months yesterday.
Guess what, Mummy xiu bought her a romper for her yesterday too.
A 5 month old present?

... and a pink dress at 4 months?

Heh. Mummy xiu looking for reasons to shop.

che che stella

As of 21 May 2007, Stella became a che che (i.e. big sister)

Sorta. No no... not another baby when she is only 5 months old. Mathematically not possible.

A sister to cousin Kaitlyn.

Welcome to the world!

[Recap. Stella when born. Not too many pics we took.]

united colours

At age 4 months and 3 weeks, Stella is starting to learn about colours.

We bought her a really nice book .

For the page that teaches the colour RED, the whole page is red. Including Louie's clothes, his teddy bear, and Lulu the ladybird

[See - RED]

For the page on GREEN. Yup. Everything is green, including Louie, Louie's teddybear, Cuthbert the Canary, Lulu the ladybird, Bella the butterfly and Daisy the Duck

[See- Green]

So Mummy xiu decided to put what the lil' one learnt into real life.

[See - Yellow]


[See-white]

funny sister

An SMS conversation with funny sister went like this:

Mummy xiu missed Bride2b sister's call, so she smsed her back
[Beep] Still want me to call you back?
[Reply][ Beep] Never mind. How's wenyin? How's her fever?
[Beep] Fever is better today. Highest at 37.5. See how it goes tonight.
[Reply][Beep] Send me a pic of her?


So Mummy xiu searched through her stock pics and sent the cute dutch baby one.

[recap... dutch baby picture]

Oblivious to Mummy xiu, Bride2b sister was so proud of her cute picture she showed it to PGA Grandpa commenting how good little one looked even when she was not well. PGA Grandpa agreed. It was only when photograper nanny saw it that she realised the picture was 2 weeks old!

[Reply][Beep] Hey. I heard I got conned!!!!! (yup 5 exclamation marks) The photo I got was an old photo!

oops... mummy xiu had no idea it was supposed to be an update of baby now picture... so immediately she took a picture of the lil one and sent it.

The next day morning she still felt bad so she called bride2b sis and there was no answer, but received this sms in the afternoon.

[Beep] Hi sister, you both have been very nice to me today. Sending me exclusive photos of flying wenyin. U know what? They are the same photo. Conned again. We need to review the exclusiveness of that photo. (reviewed here)

Mummy xiu was puzzled. The photo last night was exclusive it was sent shortly after it was taken!

Actually, photographer nanny felt bad too so she mmsed a very cute flying wenyin one in the same morning. Exclusive picture. And then emailed it over a larger one later in the afternoon, but blur funny bride2b sister thought the email and mms was sent by two different sisters....

Haha.

Family portrait

Last saturday, mummy xiu and family were scheduled to take some family pictures at portrait gallery. The long overdue one from photographer nanny's graduation last year. Well... some good things came out from waiting mummy xiu thought. We can now add 2 more people into the picture. Wenyinyin and Chuanweewee.

Unfortunately, just before mummy xiu left the house with lil one, the lil one suddenly felt very warm. (She already had a cough and running nose, but mummy xiu was going to bring her out of the house anyway.) Immediately mummy xiu got the thermometer and the temperature was at 38.4 deg C. Oh no! To bring the baby or not? Mummy xiu already had the dress and shoes (shoes? for the baby that cannot walk?) ready. Panic! Mummy xiu called Daddy chin who insisted that the picture was not important. Still unconvinced, she called her family. PGA Grandpa said the same thing. No baby. [If bride to be sis picked up the call she would have asked me to bring the baby] Ok, and mummy xiu reluctantly went to take the "family" portrait leaving the lil one at home.

Fast forward to today, Thursday.
Mummy xiu was thinking hard... how about photoshopping in the little one. She could sit on PGA Grandpa's Lap. So only PGA Grandpa needed to take the picture. So she called portrait gallery. At the back of her mind she knew it would be difficult to make a realistic picture when a whole person had to be photoshopped in. Anyway, matthew graciously offered to let us take the picture again... at a small cost.

Yay! A real family portrait! All 8 of us!

... this time i'm going to bring shoes with higher heels.... and have more hair on my face so that the face is less chubby...and..... and.....

Yay! wenyinyin is going to be in... and she's on the road to recovery. Everything is going well!

guest blogger: photographer nanny

Greetings! This is the photography nanny, guest reporting on the stellar mum’s blog…

The stellar mum was down with a bad throat over the weekend and hired me to be her voice… I was to entertain the Princess because the mum clearly could not… I had to talk to the little one, sing to her, and amuse her with silly dances…

Ok, the dancing is pretty fun cos stellar mum dances together with me. The singing was quite a challenge though. I had to sing along to whatever CD stellar mum chose to put on. Never learnt that many children’s songs in one afternoon before.

For a four month little thing, Stella’s really is hard to please. Princess would frown and cry for no real apparent reason. But shortly after, she would be happy to see me and smile at all my jokes. She also doesn’t appreciate repeated jokes. (Fine, that’s my fault but it’s tough thinking up new things to amuse her after about 2 hours of non-stop entertainment you know…)

Think the hired entertainer gave stellar mum more trouble than good… Princess cried a lot more than she usually does… And it didn’t really stop her mother’s virus from spreading to her … Princess got fever the very next day… Opps…

...written on 5 may 07

sorry lil' one

Lil' one caught the virus today.
Daddy chin and I came back from breakfast at about 10.30 all ready to feed the baby...
N came up to us saying that the baby was a little hot.

True enough she had a temperature of about 37.9
Oh no! Immediately we gave her some paracetamol and washed it down with milke.
I can tell she didn't like the medicine cos she spat some of it out and resisted swallowing the stuff in her mouth.

Mummy xiu and daddy chin panicked a little... cos the pedi clinic was not open on Sundays!
So mummy xiu had to call the doctor at his home. [good thing stella's pedi is an old family friend]
He gave instructions as to what to expect and when there was a need to come in to see him.

Daddy chin and mummy xiu kept taking the little one's temperature. After about an hour, the medicine seemed to take effect and her temperature started to drop. Actually all this while lil' one was happily playing oblivious to the commotion around her. She did get a little annoyed at the constant poking into her ear.

The temperature never went back up again... but we did give her a second dose 4 hours later just in case.

To be honest, mummy xiu was feeling really lousy for passing on the virus to the lil' one. Sigh. She should have camped at springleaf longer.

... lil' one is asleep now. Just got to keep monitoring her.

also as seen on the web

Stella has also been featured in these other blogs.

Red quilt on the 26 April 07

Little universe on the 12 April 07

... now to get more people to blog. so that stella can be a real superstar baby!

Court Jester and Nanny

While mummy xiu was so pleased that she could create a hyperlink to another blog, photographer nanny laughed at mummy xiu. You are not supposed to have the hyperlink in its raw form.... it should read

Sister's blog.
instead of www.xxxuyyyyyssss/dsfdsf/erwerwer.html


Ok. trying again. Here's the

Court Jester and Nanny

P.s. - sigh had to ask the photography nanny aka travelling band to help to get the hyperlink thingy done

Babies

A few sundays back, the little family went to cedela for breakfast.

Mummy xiu was so delighted that she brought her camera and wanted to take pictures.

After about 10 unsuccessful shots for that perfect picture, both tired baby and tired daddy chin decided it was time to stop all the nonsense.

Outbreak!

I knew it was coming… all the signs were there. Daddy chin’s mum and dad were seriously coughing over the weekend. Daddy chin had a cough and sore throat since last Wednesday. But mummy xiu was still aye ok and oblivious to the virus flying around the house.

Last night, after dinner with moses and (no wen) yinyin, mummy xiu felt abit cold. At first she thought it was the airconditioning at corduroy and fitch but the ear thermometer showed otherwise. Mummy xiu officially had a fever.

Mummy xiu got worried. If the “tough” adult could get infected, what about little 4 month old wenyinyin. This morning, mummy xiu’s fever was still there so mummy xiu decided to quarantine herself and send herself off to springleaf. The casuality list was increasing too. Ethan had a fever too…

The plan now:
Make the bedroom very clean
Wenyin to stay in the bed room
Wenyin to only play in her cot and on the little mattress but not on our bed.
Daddy chin to sleep in the living room
Mummy xiu to sleep in Springleaf

I miss the lil’ one!

Mummy xiu@springleaf

Botak Bay(3) bee(2)

Wen yin yin had her hair cut today.

What you need to cut her hair

1. Philipshave from Carlito
2. Another shaver from Iskandar (which we didn't use cos it was too heavy)
3. Mummy xiu for baby wenyin to sit on
4. A chair for mummy xiu to sit on
5. Mahjong paper on the floor for the chair to sit on
6. A computer with lots of images for stella to stare at (actually it was just windows media player)
7. camera obscura or jason mraz cd

8. Barber daddy chin with steady hands

and most importantly .............

9. lots of powder

and the baybee of course.

Actually it was the second time we tried to cut her hair
The first time was last Sunday, but we discovered the importance of powder too late. By the time remembered the wise words of his PM (project manager) half of her head was already cut with no powder and she was perspiring so much, the cut was uneven.

This time was to just to cut half the head and make the cut a better shave.

But it was so "easy" we "recut" the other half of the head again. I think daddy chin did a really good job.

But I kinda had to stop daddy chin before the perfectionist part of him took over.

the end result

4-eyed monster?

This post is long overdue.
Well was very eager to post it but my sis beat me to it. So... tune into her blog for the story.

Let me see if I can place the hyperlink here.

http://thebemusedphotog.com/2007/04/baby-sitter-lessons/

Ahhh... seems to work. Now everytime stella appears in other blogs (hmm.. xiaomei's, teik guan, liping) ... it can be found here. [except liping's blog has an annoying signing in procedure which is very annoying when you sign in and there are no new entries .]





Post blog notes - daddy chin and I brought stella to Dan's party with loads of bespectacled people and she was an unhappy baby. Gieto even tried to make her smile by taking off his glasses too. [didn't work, sorry Gieto]

Post blog notes II - mum took off her glasses too when we were at IKEA Tampines and got the little one laughing. I think mum was pleased.

Happy 4 months!

Wenyinyin is 4 months old today.

Yummy mummy bought a fuschia pink dress for her.

Heh. and it was on sale. A real steal at $10!

Dutch baby

Sequel to dutch lady.

The making of dutch baby...

dutch baby in action

dutch lady

and the tune goes like this...

"dutch lady, dutch lady, ne ne ne ne ne ne

dutch lady, dutch lady ne ne ne ne...(repeats)"

... lil' one is so amused when we sing this to her

Mall No. 2

So yummy mummy and dad and baby didn't go to east coast park as planned... cos it looked like it was going to rain. [hmm... sounds like the wednesday before]

So guess where we went?

IKEA Tampines! For free coffee instead, Parking at an extra spacious family carprk lot and some shopping.

Last of the 4 day work weeks

Today is the last wednesday off. No more maternity leave! Sigh.
Initially yummy mummy was planning bring stella to visit to caroline at mount alvernia and then home for her nap and then tea with my dad...

busy busy. then she thought about it abit more, not so sure about bringing 'lil one to the hospital... the birth ward is fine, but the rest of the hospital always has patients. So now the day has reduced to just tea with dad at east coast park.

Yummy mummy will then have to head off to office by 5 to be yummy architect.

yummy mummy outing part 2

Yummy mummy and baby stella met up with london girl for tea on wednesday.
Yup, on yummy mummy mid-week break day.

So yummy mummy dressed up baby stella in her new gap top and got her only pretty coral bottoms to match. Very pretty and yummy mummy was really pleased with herself. She decided to also get changed. Oops only 3 nursing tops. Eventually yummy mummy picked one that was also in white and coral.

Guess this is what you get

Well, we were headed for botanic gardens when the sky got darker and darker while driving on the PIE. So we made a detour and headed for marmalade pantry at palais renaissance. Stella's first visit to a mall. A che che one at that.

Tea went well. Though in the first 45 mins, there was no conversation between london girl and yummy mummy and the waitress had to place our banoffi pie back in the fridge. [ london girl had to call london on visa matters and stella wanted her nap and yummy mummy had to coax her to sleep]

Stella was really fascinated with the new place and kept looking around (even when it was time to feed). Overall she was quite a dear and won over london girl with her guai-ness.

Hmmm.... where to go next week? The last of the yummy mummy mid-week break

afternoon nap

It's 1.42pm
Lil' one has taken her afternoon nap well today.
Slept at noon til now. She's stirring slightly and making cute noises, ooo ehhh ew ahhh , but has not cried.
She seems entertained by her own voice.

I'm trying to type quietly now so that she thinks she is the only person in the room and go back to sleep.
That's the Gina ford theory anyway.

I'm hardly even breathing now.
oops. the noises are escalating.
but i'm still typing.

wen yin yin go back to sleep.

Chronicles of tummy times

8 March 2007 - a geek in the making.

12 March 2007 -still struggling but i thought it was pretty great!

23 March 2007 -look at the determination in your face

28 March 2007 -lifting the head well but abit out of balance

31 March 2007 - looking very comfortable and pretty

3 April - Learnt to flip over

4 April - Learn to flip over and back again

I did it!

The day 3 April 4am.

Mummy xiu heard stella crying and went over to feed her as usual.
The cry was not the same as the usual cry...wait...cry it was CRY!CRY!CRY!

Lo and behold the lil' one had wriggled herself out of the blanket and swaddle, moved to the edge of the cot and flipped herself over! She has learnt to flip herself over! I knew it was coming! Wow!
She must have felt so helpless. "Help! somebody! Mummy! Daddy!" must have been what she said.
Mummy xiu was so proud she woke up daddy chin [yup at 4am] heh not so much worried that she seemed a bit suffocated with her head pressed against the mattress and cot bumper

And of course, the first thing in the morning she messaged her whole family in the morning [xin if you are reading, i almost sent you guys smses at 4am]

Mr Curiosity

26 March 07.

I have to write this on the blog now.
9.20am. Work time.

I just plugged into the internet radio and it started playing “Mr Curiosity” by Jason Mraz.
And I immediately a warm feeling came and I thought of little stella.
That association surprised me too. But I like it.

A few months back, I made Mr Curiosity my phone alarm and so every morning at 7.05am for the last 3 months I have woken up to Jason Mraz. A gentle reminder to wake up so that I can wake l’il one up to start the day. Knowing that I have to wake up to see Stella makes waking up so much easier.

Ok. Back to work.

[posted 3 April cos i didn't know what website to log on to...]

midweek break

I'm at home! And it is only Wednesday.
I am so glad I decided to go back to week 1 week earlier so that my last 5 days of leave will be spread out into 5 weeks. I would then be able to see wenyin develop.

She talks alot now. Making ggg, aye, hai, heh, sounds. Very beautiful little voice if you ask me.
Working is not that bad at all. I think yeechin prefers that I work (Right yeechin?) so that I had more varied thoughts instead of just thoughts baby, milk and of course breastpump. Now I talk of site progress, piling works and things in the office.

Work is actually quite good. WA has become more family oriented. Pan actually asked me if I needed to leave when we were in the middle of a discussion at 7pm. Wah. And Weiwei actually dropped yeechin and I a note through the mail to ask about us.

Ok.. will stop rambling and get back to princess.

working monday

2 more days before I start work again!
Today and tomorrow will be transition days.

The trial so far has turned out pretty good.
Wenyin woke up at 6.52am and so did I.
Before 8am, I managed to wash up and feed her. I even changed a T-shirt as a gesture of getting ready for work. Went downstairs for breakfast and finished it by 8.10am... ready to go to work.
I was just short of taking the car to the MRT station.

For more real working days, I thought of even preparing my clothes and packing my bag in advance cos after not working for so long i don't even really know what to wear to work anymore. Plus i don't want to go to work in my "maternity" clothes... so have to think back on what I wore a year back!

This morning I called the contractor for the house renovation and started working on the AUTOCAD drawings just like starting work! But it is 9.20am only and I am feeling drowsy already. Arrgh. I foresee withdrawal symptoms of not having my nap and missing the little one already. YAWN.

back to work.

Milestone - 1yr 8months

Yesterday, Mummy xiu, Daddy chin and baby yin went to mummy xiu's ODAC friend's house. It was the first Mum and babes playtime organised by the veteran mummy huilin with 3 kids.

The turnout was small but we learnt alot.
Who were there:
Huilin w her 3 kids - Isaac (3yrs), Leanne (1yr8mths), Jayson(3mths)
JJ, Desmond with their 2 kids - Luke (about 2+), Isabelle (8 mths)
Yeechin, me and our 1 kid - Stella (2mths)

Leanne totally impressed us.

Event 1 - Washing hands
Huilin and Kelvin had set up a little makeshift sink in the playroom toilet that was low enough for the kids to wash their hands on their own. So little leanne went in to wash her hands which went something like this.

On tap. Wash hands. Off tap
Press soap. Rub hands together
On tap. Wash hands. Off tap.
Dry hands on towel.

Event 2 - Taking bib
It was lunchtime and huilin, yeechin and myself chatting in the playroom when leanne suddenly appeared. Quietly she went to this chest of drawers. The drawer is about slightly less than 1m wide. She pulled open the lowest drawer. Took out her bib. Closed the drawer and went out quietly. Not disturbing our conversation and never asking for mummy.

Event 3 - lunchtime
Leanne was sitting in her hair chair. Eating ALL by herself. Sometimes with a spoon and sometimes with her hands. Whichever works.
Lunch had soupy rice with prawns, vegetables and other stuff....
Well, the floor around her was abit of a mess but who cares!
Apparently she was able to eat a chicken wing on her own the other day.

... we hope stella will be as independent as leanne too. At least we'd try to get her to be so...

the day stella giggled

1st March 2007 2.55pm
It started out as a simple conversation.

Mummy xiu: Stella, the ducky on your pants dropped off
Baby yin: Eh [Smiles]
Mummy xiu: Stella, the ducky on your pants dropped off!
Baby yin: Ah [Smiles]
Mummy xiu: Stella, the ducky on your pants dropped off
Baby yin: Eh [Smiles]

.... 5 minutes later ...
Mummy xiu continues to make stupid conversation with baby yin replying to each one with a oo eh or ah acommpanied with a smile ...

suddenly out of nowhere she let out a giggle
Baby yin : heh heh heh [Smiles] ....

it was so amazing mummy xiu teared.
Now the ducky is kept in her baby record book together with her manyue baby hair.

Exclusive images

Happy Baby!

Time to burp!

Stella's reluctant to go home

A big grin from e little one

Stella's day at the Bedok Park

Here are some of my favourite Stella shots. Enjoy!