Need to Remember...

I think my brain cells are almost gone, just this afternoon a few friends were talking about cupcakes. That spurred me to try to recall where was Jovann's 1st birthday cupcakes from....but I think and think and I ...CANNOT REMEMBER! After researching so much on cupcakes, spent so much on cupcakes, eaten so yummy a cupcake, recieved so much nice feedback on the cupcakes, and now I cannot remember! Am I getting old???

No...wait...I nearly forgot....I am Pwegnant.

Thats an excuse for almost anything isn't it? Hhmmm...... Arrrrgghhh!!! Brain cells!

So, thank heavens for Blogs. Its a place for me to jot down the teeeenist detail about my little boy which I would otherwise forget later on. Like what is his favourite alphabet....when did he start learning the numbers....the first time he ask hubby and me to kiss (yes J asked us to kiss, funny right?)......

* Last weekend (26, 27 July), the Teo family was enjoying their fav past time, lazing on the bed with J freshly awake. Enjoying hugging, frolicking and kissing J all over as usual. A lot of giggles and laughter. J nowadays love to look for me in the bed, calling Mommy Mommy Mommy all the time. Hubby complained that 80% of his words comprise of "Mommy". That day, J suddenly keep on kissing me, by holding my face between his hands, and kissing me gently on the mouth. He has done that before, but this weekend he did it even more. Again and again. it was super sweet. Daddy asked him to kiss him too, but he only did that a few times then stopped. Instead, J suddenly asked us to "Mommy, Daddy, Kiss!" (Only he says "Diss!"). He had to repeat that a few times before we were sure we understood him. So we hugged and pretend to kiss, peeping at J out of the corner of our eyes. And he was smiling! smiling in a very contented way, with a happy look on his face. He didn't even try to separate us like he used to last time. When we broke apart, J crawled towards me, hold my face between his hands again, and kissed me a few times. This cycle repeats itself quite a few times that day...hehee it was super cute. Wonder what he's thinking of.

* 21 July, at mama's place, when I came home from work, hubby showed me how J can recognise and call out all 26 letters of the alphabet when pointed out to him on the alphabet puzzle I bought some time ago from Toys A Rus. So proud of him! Same for the bath alphabets too. Even the "R", and the difference between "M" and "N". The one that sent me into hysterics is his "W", which he pronounced "Da-der-you"! Hahaha...lovely. oh btw, his favourite letter is "B". Its the first letter he learn how to pronounce, and the letter he loves to point to, even now. Its also the favourite bath letter that sometimes he will clutch in his hands when hubby bring him out of the bathroom.

* Jovann loves swimming, and after those few weeks when we stayed off aquaducks, he's been fetching his swimming trunks from the room and showing it to me, saying "swimming". Then last Sunday, Daddy told him we going swimming, and he ran all the way to the kitchen, where I was washing dishes, called me and told me "Mommy!!! Going swimming!" I said yes we are going swimming darling, and he nod his head happily and ran back to the living room hehe.

* 22 July. He finally pronounced his name right! He used to reply with "Fo-fann" or lately "Sho-fann" when we asked him what's his name. Today he finally said "Jovann! Also been teaching him to take off his shorts himself. Will take some time but he can do it...slowly...hehehe..

* 25 July. Hubby told me J could chant off numbers 1-10 faster than the lift LCD display when going up to Ah Gong Ah Ma's house. 29 July, he did it again, from 1-13 this time! That night, when drinking his milk, he asked me "Mommy read book". I think that was his longest sentence he said so far. I was so pleased I jumped up immediately to let him choose a book.

* 28 July. After thinking about it for a day, hubby and I finally came up with an idea how to get J to choose his birthday theme this year! I collected pictures of 7 of his frequently watched cartoons from Playhouse Disney. Bought a set of plain sticker labels from Popular. And printed these pictures out! On Monday, Hubby cut out the 7 pictures, showed all to Jovann twice as an "orientation" and get Jovann to choose his favourite! I was expecting him to choose Thomas and Pocoyo, coz he seemed to love Pocoyo, and had been chanting "mas mas" when I asked him does he like Thomas or Pocoyo. He actually chose "Thomas" 3 out of 3 times! 2nd choice was Bob. 3rd choice, he chose "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" but said "Manny" instead. HHmmm.....funny boy. Hubby still scratching his head how did J develop his love of Thomas when the cartoon seldom show during his awake times. I guess its a thing boys have for engines? cars and trains....hmph. hehehe!!!


When having breakfast this same morning at home, I had just finished my bread and Jovann wants me to play with him the badminton/tennis rackets. He pushed my butt off the chair and said "起来！”

* 27 July. Silly Auntie Brenda. Ever since we showed her yesterday on the way to JG that J tends to pronouce "T" as "F", especially "Truck", she has been asking Jovann the same question "Jovann, where's the truck, where's the truck???" just so she can get to hear some unintended vulgarity from him. Hmmph! But it was seriously super funny just hearing him say it hehehehe! As it happens, there was a truck parked at Aquaducks that day, so he said, with apparent relish and happiness so like him "Truck, there!" The adults was rolling on the ground.

Julia Gabriel - 2nd Term

Julia Gabriel - 2nd Term

Today, 26 July, is the 5th lesson of the 2nd term of JG. Actually its JG's 3rd term of the year, but my 2nd term in JG lah.

Arianne joined our class today, Auntie Brenda managing to secure a slot in our class. Hope she enjoyed the class!

Mommy stick 2 of my stickers on my forehead. I stick one on hers too! fair and square!


The Indian Boy and the Ah gogo girl.


Me enjoying my snacks. Of course, I didn't chew the food as usual.


Mommy is pleased coz now I am trying to join in even more actions and dance moves. In addition from repeating whatever the teacher ask me to repeat (greeting the class for example), of course I also recognise my own name and will collect the photocard when my name is called. I also don't mind sitting away from Mommy now, and will do the binoculars action when the teacher asked. I cover my eyes in peekaboo when the story/song called for it, and can also follow the actions of the "I Love You" song. When 潘老师 sings "扭一扭”, i shake my butt, and I nod my head vigorously to "“点点头”。But I tend to kick a fuss when they tries to pry me from my car during outdoor play, to go indoor to sing songs. The trick is to ask Teacher HuiMin to bring me out of the car, they tried twice, and it worked! I came out obligingly without crying, as contrasted to that time I screamed and kicked and refused to sing the songs after being forced out of the car.

And today, finally. Mommy has been awaiting for the day of water play, and it is finally here. For the past 1.5 terms, I always miss water play, either coz it was cancelled (HFMD outbreak), or I was sick that week. So when Mommy packed the bag today knowing it was waterplay, she brought a spare t shirt and my swim diapers, intending for me to play to my hearts desire without worrying about getting wet. :)

I enjoyed it so much! I scooped and poured, and poured over myself, some kids around me, and tried to pour on daddy. I had the time of my life playing with 2 of the 3 water troughs set up outdoors. I was wet through within mins and Mommy was glad they changed me into my swim diapers. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 15mins. :)









After the water play, it was song time. I stood beside the teachers trying to imitate their movements and show the class how to dance. :P

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Lazy Sunday Afternoon - 20 July

Jovann saw daddy lying on the playmat watching TV. So J took a cushion, put it beside his Daddy, lie down beside him and watch TV together.... can't resist taking this photo.....


Later on, dinner. Sigh....if there's one thing I complain about J, its him not chewing his food. yes, not chewing. He has almost all his teeth out, but to him, food is meant to be swallowed, not chewed. He ask for fruits yet, but he takes a bite, then either pulls my hand to him for him to spit it out, or he holds the piece in his mouth for an hour, when
- he remembers he has something in his mouth, so proceeded to swallow it.

- he is offered something else he wants to eat, so he will either spit out the first piece, or swallow the 1st piece before opening his mouth for the other. Then the above cycle repeats.

Today, cooked for him stir fry french beans with minced pork and mushrooms (first time trying mushrooms), with carrot and pork rib soup, served with rice. first time using his new Toy Story food tray. He is intrigued by the presentation of the food, and the bowl of soup he keep drinking. But the rice and dish, he just hold in his mouth, or spit it out. Had a hard time feeding him. half an hour later (when daddy came back with OUR dinner), 70% of the food still on the plate. :(



I wish he makes use of his teeth soon.

Borrowing Books

At Julia Gabriel that day, we had our lunch again at Wine Company after the class. While I finished up my soup, Daddy brought Jovann to the JG library to have some fun with books, and Daddy saw a book that looks interesting and wanted to borrow for him. Although I forgot to bring his Bookroom card, the staff and librarian allowed us to borrow. At JG, every child is encouraged to "ask" to borrow his own book. So Jovann followed our prompt and did the following.

This was renacted and taped when walking back to the car park.... I simply love the way he says "please", with that funny tilt of his head. Now when he wants something and we ask him "Whats the magic word?" or "What should you say?", he will know he is supposed to say "please".

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Wan, Two, Fhwee…..?

Wan, Two, Fhwee…..?

15 July

Jovann can count! Few weeks ago, when reading to him the Potty Book for Boys, he already showed me he can identify and pronounce the numbers from 1 to 6. Then on Tuesday (15 July), he read out the numbers on the lift going down from my parents’ place that night, then counted up as we took the lift up to our own home. When he counted back “….14, 13, 12, 11” however, he only read the “4, 3, 2 and 1” and not the “-teen” behind hehee. But that’s good enough for me! We simply love his pronounciation, so super baby-ish and him and cutie!

He says: Wan, Two, Fhwee, Four, Fie, Six, Feven, Egg, Nine, Ten! And “Nineteen (19) ” too hehee.

Sometimes, at this age, I just don’t wish to be too concerned if his pronounciation is a bit off. Coz isn’t this part of growing up, of enjoying his baby hood? Oh sorry, toddlerhood already. :( He’s growing up so fast. If I worry myself over his pronounciation, then I won’t get to enjoy his Wan, Two, Fhwee. Sooner or late, he is going to be old enough to chide MY English. :( Then I will miss his “Eh-fant” (elephant), “Abu” (open), “dat dat” (scared scared), “dar” (car), “Foh-fan” (Jovann)….and the list goes on….

One fine day:

Me: (excitedly pointing at passing vehicles) that’s a “Car” Jovann, say “Cccccc…AR”.

J : (scornful look) Mom. That’s a “Taxi”. Can’t you see the “On-call” sign?

Me: ……………………………:(

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But for now....here's what I wish to remember....

sorry for his soft voice, you have to strain to hear the 2nd part coz he wasn't sure how to read 11-18 hahahaa...

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Jovann has a ba lu gu...

Sunday 13 July

Celebrated Gong Gong's birthday at Crystal Jade TPY.

Gong Gong and him


The Teo family


After dinner, Jovann was playing with his cousins Shauna and Kieira jie jies, and he loves playing with Shauna so much he chased her wherever she goes. He was wearing new shoes that day, and I think he has not gotten used to them, and he fell on his front very hard, and cried even louder. Aiyoh, so heartpain, there was a bao lu gu on his forehead after a few minutes. Ma Ma was so angry with Gong Gong for not watching out for him (Gong Gong was playing with all the 3 kids) but we felt its not Gong Gong's fault coz we know how active and fast J can be......

J ended up being very very fussy after that. Everyone fussed over him, Gong Gong carried him to blow the candle, we take turns carrying him to walk around outside. He kept pointing at the floor and telling everyone how he fell. And when its time to go to the car, he fussed and fussed, insisting that Daddy let him drive in the driver's seat. Gong Gong Ma Ma were hovering around our car, worried about him. Daddy had to appease J by putting him on his lap and driving around the car park once. Nevertheless, it was a noisy and tantrum filled ride home, only stopping when I pulled him out of the car seat and soothed him and distracted him by the cars and taxis and bikes...

Later on at our house's carpark, we fulfilled our promise by letting him "drive" around the car park once. We applied hard boiled egg on his forehead that night, and Daddy put some Zambuk too. The next day, less swollen already....

His little girlfriend

Jovann and Zhi Qin

Met a pair of very good friends from Uni today for lunch. They brought along their little daughter Zhi Qin, who is reaching 1 soon. We met at the Forum after J's Aquaducks, and ate at the Jade Palace Restaurant. Jovann was very naughty that day, refused to eat his lunch that I cooked. ZQ on the other hand was so guai, finished her porridge so fast and even sat on her Daddy's lap to chew on dao sa bao! OMG. J dun even CHEW da sao bao now...he just hold it in his mouth until an hour later, remembers about it, then swallows it or spit it out. oh dear....what am I doing wrong? Bao brought along some pretty baby clothes for me and returned me my Ameda Pump, and kindly lent me her PIS for me to try to decide if it suits me. Thanks so much Bao Bao! Muaks!

J sitting in ZQ's car.....yes, the parents brought this all the way from home coz she refused to sit in stroller! I feel so bad coz the nottie boy J refused to return ZQ her car and even pushed her to the floor. :( Lucky she not hurt, she bounced back again undaunted.

ZQ lost her first kiss!

And she looks pleased about it!

Jovann's Friday Morning

11 July

I am 24-25 weeks pregnant, and today brought J to my gynae check up a 2^nd time. He had his breakfast at Delifrance, where he quite guai and fork-feed himself with scrambled eggs. After breakfast, we checked out the OCBC booth and signed up the Mighty Savers Account for Jovann. Jovann himself was exploring the rack of books on sale, and he discovered some of the books that comes with a box of accompanying character toys (this book is a book on cars so the toys are small toy cars) and a playmat for the toys, and kept asking me to “open this, open this, open this”. I told him Mommy cannot open this coz its not ours, and hubby came over and asked Jovann to thank Mommy for buying for him. I asked J if he wants me to buy it, he replied “Ah!” and nodded vigorously, eyes lighting up. With some prompting from hubby, Jovann kissed us in thanks hahaha. Aiyoh, I know this is not the right way to encourage toys-buying, but I am kinda interested in this book, looks interesting.

Back in the clinic, I had to be the one running after him coz if hubby do it, J will scream for me and risk disturbing the rest of the mommies. Today, he spent most of his time stepping up and down the weighing machine, pretending to take his weight, but actually just for the sake of touching the cool cool machine. According to the machine, he weighs 12.1kg now…hmmm…that’s heavier than when we weight him at home.

He also busied himself with the kitchen play set in the clinic, cooking stew and frying stuff, taking things in and out of the refrigerator and microwave and pressing the microwave buttons (he must have observed us doing that at home). Prompted by me, he also took a tray of his questionable stew to Daddy and asked him to eat. While carrying the tray, he was concentrating on balancing it and at the same time chanting “Daddy eat …daddy eat …daddy eat”, hehee so cute.

When returning the stuff to the kitchen...

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As usual, find the check-up much shorter than the waiting time. Jovann saw mei mei for the 2^nd time on the scan, and he must have felt it strange to see me lying there, and his eyes kept looking from me to the screen, and calling “mommy…..mommy”. Our little girl is growing… :)

Jovann is so sticky to me nowadays, hubby has started calling him “Mommy’s Boy” and my parents and even strangers are observant enough to comment that he is sticky to me. Gynae said I should stop carrying him when I feel uncomfortable doing so......but right now I cannot imagine not carrying him. When we reach home now, as J is the one who “opens” the door (read – put the key inside the locks), he will walk to the living room cabinet and put the keys ontop, then promptly search out his FP toy car/bus, sit on it and zoom around the house on it, mainly following me into and out of rooms. If I close the bedroom door, he will bang on it calling “Mommy mommy!” until I come out. I am the only one he allows to bathe for him, refusing to let hubby shower him and pushing him out of the bathroom if he tries. Even though he lets hubby carry him out of the bathroom when he’s done, he will keep on calling for me from the changing table while hubby dries up for him and puts on night diapers. When I reach him, he will pat his body with his hands and say “Dub dub, dub dub!” by way of asking for his nightly massage (I chant/sing rub-a-dub-dub when I massage him).

This is out of context, but there was one funny night when I was carrying him a while before putting him into his cot, when he was resting his head on my shoulders for a few minutes. It was a quiet time, the room was dark, and he should be feeling sleepy. But he suddenly lifted his head, raised both arms and started dancing, swaying and wriggling in my arms. I had to control my impulse to laugh, and merely smiled at him and asked him to dance another day, now is sleeping time. It was so funny, how such urges overtake him and he just dance with such a cheeky look on his face, swaying quite sexily hehehe. He asked for water, and when holding the bottle with one hand, the other hand was still waving around in his dance moves.

Jovann Photography

Jovann Photography - 27 June 2008

Forgot to blog this. It was my cousin Angelia's Wedding, she looked resplendent in her wedding gown that day. The dinner was at Grand Corpthorne Waterfront Ballroom, and Jovann was there of course. Part of the stuff we did to entertain him was to allow him to grab our camera when we were attempting to take photos of him. This boy has been playing around with our camera recently, I had to pry it away most times as I was worried he may accidentally delete precious photos or videos. Tonight, I allowed him to play with it, and guided him how to take photos. Basically, we just say "hold it like this, no no...not like that!" and "and press the button......yes THAT button......harder harder...." and stuff like that.....

And YEAH! He did it! First photo taken by Jovann that night! unaided by me (as in, my hands not on the camera at all). Hehehee...not bad for a first time yar?


2nd one....... the model looks fat...

Rhythm In Me & The Hunt for Preschools

*** Rhythm In Me & The Hunt for Preschools *** 10 July 2008

Took leave today to bring Jovann for a trial at Rhythm In Me, and check out some childcare centres and kindergartens with Brenda. The trial was a long-planned for thing where I am concerned. Coz ever since I got preggie, have been planning to take weekly half day off a week to spend more time with little J before his baby sister come out and we have less time for him. I want to treasure J’s toddlerhood especially now he is super responsive, eager to learn and please. Rhythm in Me came up coz J has always been fond of dancing. He moves in his own way to music, and often in the car will nod his head to Daddy’s cds or shake his body when a fast track plays. Just the other day, on Tuesday, on the way home from Ma Ma’s place, Daddy played 2 songs by JJ. Jovann tried to sing along with the songs, and the result was a high pitch mix of tuneless “vocals” that was nevertheless sweet to the doting parents ears. When the 2^nd song “dou jiang you tiao” is playing, he repeated the last 2-3 chinese words in EACH line of the song especially during the chorus. Both of us were enthralled listening to him, and laughing too hard, to remember to tape it down! Some of the words he sang/repeated, quite distinctly, are "烦恼”，“油条”，“最好”，“到老”，“美好” and even the “woooo oohh…” haha so funny.

The day before, also on the way home from Ma Ma place, Hubby actually proudly showed me something he recently discovered J can do. Hubby sang the alphabet song, and randomly paused at intervals for J to fill in the D, E, S, I, P or Z…and he did it! I was listening, amazed, never imagining that he can do that, but he did. We recalled how much he love the ABC vcd that last Sunday he actually kept asking for it, and excitedly climbing up the sofa when we put in a vcd, only to lose interest when he realise its not the ABC vcd (we left that at Ma ma’s place). And on Monday and Tuesday at Ma Ma place when he can really watch the real thing, he can sit through the whole vcd again, spell bound. Its funny isn’t it? But I am glad he is absorbing and not just staring blankly like I thought hehe.

Anyway, back to my leave. It was drizzling when I carried J to wait for a cab to go fetch B and A, but no cab was in sight. I was struggling between carrying him, and getting him to help me hold the umbrella upright enough so both of us are covered. I resort to standing on the centre media kerb (it’s a proper kerb lah), between traffic directions, so I can catch cabs on either side. Our trial was 10.30am, and there I was at 10.17am still without a cab in sight! Well, there were cabs in sight, but they were either on call, or stopped just to ask me where I am going and zoomed off after hearing UE Square. That was the 2^nd time in my life I lost patience with taxi drivers, for I was always patient and understanding with them as I know most drivers just want to make a living like my dad. B was frantically trying to call for one too, but with no result. Then I met my saviour. There was a pregnant lady on the other side of the road who is also waiting for cabs. An on-call cab stopped in front of her, apparently his “caller” has disappeared and he is stuck with the on-call request. She gestured me over, and asked me to tell the driver where I going. The driver said yes please get in, and I turned to thank her with my heart full of gratitude, feeling so blessed and glad that there is someone so kind and selfless when I needed it most. She herself is pregnant, but she gave up the cab to me probably coz she saw me struggling with a tummy and a 21mths old toddler and an umbrella. Whatever it is, I am very grateful to her, what she did make me feel so hopeful of human nature. I asked if she is going anywhere near my destination as I really wanted to give her a lift, but she said no…

So we picked up B and A and off we go. As our luck would have it, PIE has a jam and we took the longer route and ended up at RIM 15mins before end of class. :( So we decided to just stand and watch the class instead of paying and participating for only 15mins. Jovann and Arianne observed quietly for about 5-8mins. Then Jovann got into the mood and started dancing and waving his arms….he looked really keen on the music, and I like the fact that the teachers just placed the kids on their laps and continue playing their piano. At the closing tune of Ice Ice Baby, I saw J tapping his feet hehehee. I think I may sign him up, or at least make sure I am punctual for trial next time. Hhhmmm….

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We then proceed to Raffles School House, our first destination, bringing the kids along. We left the kids playing while we explored the first floor. Jovann won’t let me out of sight for long, calling for me and asking me to carry. We dropped the kids off after this, and went for lunch. Then visited another kindy near our place before hubby finish his golf and came to pick us up. We visited 3 more kindys before wrapping up for the day.

Falling Sick

Falling Sick - 9 July 2008

Been feeling under the weather past few days, ever since Sunday. Suspect Jovann passed a virus to me as he had a fever last Wed, which went away within a day, but he started having runny nose on Friday and Saturday. That’s why we couldn’t bring him to Julia Gabriel (which is a blessing in disguise, coz JG called and informed us a kid from his adjacent class came down with HFMD after the class, and anyway the water play was cancelled coz it was raining). Anyway, Jovann’s runny nose stopped running on Sunday. But on Sunday, when I felt a sore throat, I started downing myself with lotsa water, salt gurgle (I gurgle before I sleep and leave a cup of it near the bathroom for when I wake up at night and in the morning), eat lotsa cooling fruits like watermelon, asked my mum to stop brewing herbs this week, and drank luo han guo drink. 2days later, though the sympthoms didn’t get worse, but it didn’t get better either. I cannot afford to fall really sick with flu else I will have to take medication that is not good for baby. So on Wed, I went to see GP, who said I have mild viral infection, gave me some safe medication to reduce the inflammation, and an MC to rest at home. Initially, had wanted to go to work to settle some issues before coming home to rest, but hubby insisted I better rest at home as it defeats the purpose of the MC if I go to work.

So I reached home at 10am, called up the office to settle some issues, and fell asleep at 10.30am. Thought of setting up handphone alarm but decided to let my body rest as much as it needs to. The next thing I know, it was 3.20pm when I woke up! One of the longest nap I have ever taken!!! Gosh! I must have been really tired without knowing it! I even missed lunch! I quickly prepared quick snack of Post Maple Nut Crunch with milk, then called up office, and settled some work issues through some emails. And it was time for hubby to reach home and off we go to interview maids again.

Sigh….so far, no luck on maids…….it really depends on luck isn’t it?? Sigh…. I really need a maid. Though in the 2^nd trimester now and able to cope better than 1^st trimester, but I miss being able to nap in the afternoon and leave the house to the maid. Now, I barely can nap as there’s things to wash and things to tidy and clean. On Saturday, felt so tired I actually napped 1.5 hours with Jovann without planning to. Then I jumped up to prepare his dinner when he woke up. Poor boy has been having late lunches and dinners recently.