Jovann & Jazreel's Page

Aussie Break - Day 1 (Brisbane and Gold Coast)

2010-08-01T00:12:00.000+08:00

8 July
We are back!!! Hopefully refreshed and recharged...hahaha but actually revving for another one.

It was a 11 days trip....eventful, fun, uplifting, tiring...all in one. I personally enjoyed the first half of the trip the most - Moreton Island, Gold Coast, Snowy Mountains... Sam's fav is Moreton Island and Canberra.

During this trip, Jovann got to feed wild dolphins, pick strawberries, rode a pony around the mountains, touched snow for the first time. He also bite a dog (not the other way round), terrorised a cat, and milked a cow. Jazreel learnt to speak new phrases and words : "Find Daddy/Mommy", "Sit down, Now!", "dolphin", "eat bread", learn to eat strawberries and sausages, and is basically a sweetie to be around.

We also realised that the older kid is not always the better behaved child, that it may not always be the children who cannot sleep on a night flight, that lugging 2 huge luggage + 3 cabin bags +2 kids + a twin stroller to and from airports is a feat only meant for the truly insane. Thanks so much to Sam's bro, Jovann's fav uncle Ernest, whom helped us tom pang some luggage not once, but twice.

We made in total 4 attempts to go harbourtown or DFO, but for some reason or other didn't make it. Bleh.

At the airport, mama and gong gong sent us off. The 2 of them snug in the twin stroller that will be serving us very well on our trip. We have 2 large luggages and 3 cabin bags, as well as my diaper bag and Daddy's allerhand backpack.

The kids all dressed for the bedtime in the air.

We had a late supper, me anxiously waiting for the lights to go out so I can put Jaz to bed.

To our surprise, the kids slept for 6 whole hours out of the 7hrs 40mins flight! Jovann on the seat leaning in the corner with pillows and blankets, Jaz 2 hours in my arms and 4 hours in the bassinet. Sam engrossed himself in Clash of the Titans whilst I tried unsuccessfully to sleep. :(

Rise and shine the next morning!

Getting ready to disembark! its 17degrees outside, yippeee! Jovann ready too with his new toys given by the stewardess.

Pure adrenalin was what kept me going like an energiser bunny when we reached, considering I only had less than an hour real sleep in total. But I was fresh and ready for strawberries! It was a place I sussed out when planning for the trip, 45mins drive north of Brisbane Airport. We arrived early within 30mins with Ernest's driving all the way, heee.

Jaz was napping but woke up when we starting picking, and in a good mood too.

Rows and rows waiting for us! You can't imagine how excited I was.

The funny twin strawberries!

We didn't know strawberries grow out from middle of the leaves like this!

You were allowed to eat only 1 strawberry when picking, yums yums. Really sweet.....

Back to the shop, bought 3 jars of freshly made strawberry jam and paid for our 2 punnets.

We stopped by a petrol kiosk for some water and to wash some strawberries for stuffing our face with heeee...

Drove back to Brisbane to catch the ferry to Moreton Island, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort.

Before the trip, I told hubby that we will be feeding dolphins UPON arrival at the island, as the wild dolphins typically come to the shore between 6-7pm to be fed, and our ferry arrives at 6.15pm. I told him that if he is going down with Jovann, then change into shorts (crazy idea right, it being winter? But that's what I was advised and apparently what I saw some teeangers did). But hubby kept thinking there's time to go back resort to change, so when we were met (very well organised) by a representative at the wharf holding a placard with my name written on it, hubby and Ernest were not ready to go down. I brought a change of clothes coz actually I was itching to go down. So its me then! get ready to shiver!!! Its winter and I need to get up to my waist if the tide comes.

To my pleasant surprise, they were renting out waterproof coveralls with attached boots. how cool! you can stay dry up to your armpits! heeee! It cost $8 AUD, of course I go for it. Can save a pair of jeans from getting wet, why not? Jovann was feeling cold, but was very game for feeding dolphins and the 2 of us excitedly waited our turn.

We got to feed a dolphin named Tinkerbell. She took the fish directly from my hand...ooooohhh.....

I was carrying Jovann very high up for fear he will get wet, but he got wet anyway coz the waves were strong and the freezing water came up to my waist. The guide taught me to bounce up with the waves when it comes so that it won't catch me off balance. Brrrrrrrr.....cold....

Jovann ended up kinda throwing the fish down in the water heeee...but Tinkerbell caught it. Jov asked for another one from the guide, and he got to feed twice.

We got a buggy ride back to our room, I gave Jov a hot bath and all of us went for a nice warm and filling dinner at the Steak House. Jaz learnt to like green peas! Sam and Ernest ate too much buffet and couldn't finish their steaks. heeeee....I was introduced by Ernest to the wonder of sourcream+sweet chilli dip for fries. Yumms.

On the way back, Jovann and Jaz had a great and noisy time running up and down the small slope of green, and we were treated to a beautiful unclouded night sky filled with gazillion stars....

Jazreel at 19months

2010-05-29T00:26:00.004+08:00

It seems like a long time ago that I blogged about my little princess. Its so fun watching her grow, watching her start to express herself, watching her try to to form more than one word into half sentences, even watching her display her tyranny over her gorgor. She's changing so fast that I feel compelled to try to record her little quirks, as they can change within a few weeks.

She weighs 10.5kg and is 81cm tall. She looks as if she has lost a bit of weight from the coughing. :(

- This girl seem to like speaking chinese, so ah gong ah ma are very pleased. She prefers to say "开" to "open", "走走" to "walk walk", "怕怕" to "scared", "坏" to "cup".

- like to re-arrange her bolsters

- She adores her gorgor so much that she will bring him his shoes first before she wears hers to go out, help him take off his jacket first thing when we come home. Even likes to help him remove his shoes, takes his towel for him when its time to bathe, brings him his water bottle when she's drinking hers, thought first of sharing the flower windmill with him when she saw it at toysrus. He's also the first person she ask me for when she wakes up in the morning. And, he first colour she learnt to recognise is his favourite colour green. She learnt it when I am preparing his medicine and she wants to help, so she has to learn how to recognise the green cup.

- But she can be very very stubborn and defiant with him too. If she knows gorgor wants to "cook" something at the stove, and she's not in the mood to let him, she will plant herself at the stove side of the ELC kitchen, and start fiddling with her toy or cup or spoon, refusing to budge. If gorgor tries to push her away, she will push back. If gorgor scolds her, she will scold back either by a loud "No!" or some nonsensical shouting. Her favourite defiant act recently is blowing a raspberry at gorgor, splattering her saliva all over his face.

- She loves brushing teeth,and will sign "brush teeth" to me every single night. And for some strange reason, she needs to hold one toothbrush herself when I am brushing teeth for her with another toothbrush. After brushing, she will gnaw on the toothbrush she's holding until its time for latching whereupon she will push the toothbrush back to me and say "mai".

- At times, she knows that gorgor wish to walk past the coffee table to reach a toy on the other end. So she will deliberately block the path, and if gor gor comes close, she will push him. If he complains, she will blow a raspberry at him. Many times, hubby and I gotta stifle our laughs in order to reprimand her.

- I have started reading to her at night again after she turns 18mths, and now she's more receptive. Every night she will ask for "book", except she pronounce it "bohh". And she has gotten this idea into her mind that she must hold and flip a book herself while I read another book idiotically to myself.

- She very enthusiastically repeats whatever we teach her to say.

- Due to the above, for about 2-3 times now, when she wanted something e.g. for me to carry her, she came close to expressing it by suddenly saying "Ma ma...I warng (want)...... 抱抱 (upon prompting).....".

- For some strange reason, she used to (around 18mths) say "1" as "bonng". I like it whenever I ask her to help me take tissue paper, she will walk towards the tissue box, pause and turn around, raise up her index finger and asked me questioningly "borng?", meaning "Just 1 tissue?". But recently, she has changed it to"Warnng". So when she repeats after us counting, she counts as "Warnng, hu, eesh....(1, 2, 3)".

- Last week, when Daddy counts with her, she repeats after him until "7", then she herself continued with "Ehh (8)". When Daddy said "8", she continued with "Naih (9)". Heheee...

- She lives to imitate gorgor in everything he does, including eating fruits, running around in circles, jumping up and down. Once, gorgor was jumping up and down and making some happy but nonsensical noise, Jaz (she can't jump with both feet off the ground yet) imitated by walking around and kicking her leg up and down, up and down, and mumbling something that sounds like "shai....shai....shai". I wasn't there but when hubby made a very close imitation of what she was doing, it (he) looked quite hilarious.

In this photo, Jovann has set up a make shift "stall" by overturning the highchair and placing the toy cash register on it. He's selling stuff. Don't ask me why is his customer sitting on a potty though.

- Just tonight, Jovann was holding onto Daddy's hands and jumping on every third count, chanting "1, 2, jump, 1, 2, jump". And when I was preparing the bed for Jaz tonight, it happened that she nearly wanted to walk to the edge of my bed so I quickly picked her up. She could somehow sense my anxiety, so she chuckled and said "warng, tuu.... dumb (1, 2 jump)!".

- She can hold conversations with Jovann sometimes when they cooking up a storm in their little eatery/restaurant. She appears to be the one taking orders and delivering the dishes, and the conversation between them can be quite amusing to witness especially when Jovann seem to understand her gibberish. Heheee...

- She can turn on her tears when she cries, you can see her squeezing her eyes tight shut and sure enough, within the next few seconds, tears will ooze out.

- She can switch off her tears like turning off a tap too. E.g. when I said yes after she's been crying for more latching ("na na").

- Nowadays, most times in the night, I let her roll in bed before she falls asleep herself. Although its not always successful.

- She has a serious nursing addiction hehee. Not that I am complaining! I love this.

- 8 May is the first time Jaz sat on the potty seat on top of our adult toilet bowl, and pooed for the very first time! Yeah! milestone! She has always been more resistant than her gorgor towards the potty, but ever since I bought her the car look alike potty, she has started getting more receptive, and that day, its a milestone for us when she really did poo inside the adult toilet bowl.

- Her favourite DVD is now Baby Signing Times.

- She's more daring at slides and tunnel slides than gorgor at same age. At Julia Gabriel, she's also more receptive to food. First lesson, initially she didn't wanna eat the raisins and papaya, and only attacked the biscuits in her bowl. When the biscuits finished however, she grudgingly started on the raisins. But as she has been eating so slowly and most of her friends has finished and the teachers need to prepare for song and dance, they encourged us to continue eating at another table in a corner that was set up for the slow eaters (only Jaz and a girl called Alicia, which happens to be the daughter of one of my ex coursemates in Uni). But Jaz refused to budge and she insisted on finishing her food standing up, me holding the bowl for her while she ate the raisins at her own sweet pace.

- She still loves her pink princess cloth book, and will pluck at the fibre when she's falling asleep holding it.

- She can multitask quite well. When playing chef at the kitchen, she can balance a plate on her arm with the help of her chin, stir the soup pot on the stove, and close the oven door with her feet, all at the same time.

Selective Listening

2010-05-26T23:38:00.005+08:00

This is something that I have been meaning to blog for months.
Jovann can be totally selective in the things he "hears". If its something that agrees with him, he will hear it fine and well. If its something that doesn't benefit him, he will pretend otherwise.

An example from a few tele conversations with him months ago.

Positive Example
(Jovann called me)
Jov: Mommy!
Mommy: Hello Jovann, have you had your lunch?
Jov: Mommy! Can I drink chocolate milk? wai gong says I must ask you.
Mommy: Yes you can.
Jov: Ok!!! *turns to ah gong and yelled "我的妈妈说可以!"*
(He hanged up the phone)

Negative Example
(Jovann called me)
Jov: Mommy!
Mommy: Hello Jovann, have you had your lunch?
Jov: Mommy! Can I drink ribena? wai gong says I must ask you.
Mommy: Hhmmm. No you can't, because you already drank a lot yesterday.
Jov: Huh? What Mommy?
Mommy: I said, NO you can't.
Jov: What did you say Mommy? I can't hear you!
Mommy: I said No You CANNOT drink Ribena, Jovann.
Jov: Huh?? What???!!!
(He hanged up the phone)

I can't believe it!!!

Then just this evening, something similar happened again.

Scene: Jovann sitting at his table, and I was sitting 3 metres away. He just finished complaining to me that Ah Ma don't let him sleep on our King bed ("Daddy's bed") during this afternoon nap. He told Ah ma that Daddy allowed him to sleep on "Daddy's bed", so she must allow him too. Ah Ma was worried that he may pee on the big bed because nowadays he don't wear diapers to sleep.

Daddy, whom is standing 3 metres away from him, starts explaining.
Daddy: Jovann, you can only sleep on Daddy's bed at night. When Daddy is around. Ok?
Jov: Daddy, my ear very small. I cannot hear what you are saying.
Daddy: I said that during your afternoon naps you CANNOT sleep on Daddy's bed, you can only sleep on your bed.
Jov: Daddy! I told you my ears very small, I cannot hear you! You need to speak louder.
Daddy and Ah Ma was quiet for a moment, thinking how to proceed.
Me (deciding to "test" him, and using the same decibel as Daddy): Jovann, you can drink ribena. Can you hear THAT?
Jovann: No I cannot hear that.
Another pause from him.
Jovann: You should say..... (raising his voice at this point) "YOU CAN DRINK RIBENA!" then I can hear.

All 4 adults, plus maid, burst out laughing.
He was smart enough to pretend he didn't hear that first sentence about ribena, but yet not smart enough to really continue pretending he can't hear! So funny lah.

Jovann is 3 years 8 months old.

2010-05-26T23:20:00.001+08:00

Aiyoh, 4 more months and its his birthday! That's fast! where have all the time went?

He's 101.3cm tall and weighs 15.3kg. He still looks so skinny, due to all the months of coughing. Sigh.

- He still loves roaring like a dinosaur. We bargain with him, only once a day. Whenver he happens to fulfil that promise, he will be so proud and tell us all about it when we get home. But many times he defies ah ma and ah gong and keep roaring, resulting in him coughing and coughing a lot after that.

- I must admit I have been quite laid back regarding his diaper training. Besides nap time, we have never let him sleep without diaper for his night time sleep...until the day he turns 3 yrs 8mths. That was the first night we did it, and managed to wake twice to pee! and didn't wet the bed. I guess that's beginners' luck, coz the next 2 nights, he wet the bed in his sleep. But 4th night onwards he managed it again.

- He can't seem to eat enough food now, always asking for more. After his dinner, if he sees us eat, he will come to the table and ask where's his food, and pitifully told us he's still hungry. And whenever ah gong ah ma reach our house, Jov will ask them "阿嬷, 你有买东西给我吃吗?"

- He likes "cooking" delicious gourmet food for me, arranging them nicely on the tray. Often during our dinners, he likes to come around my table especially to add "dishes" like "chicken", "eggs", "sandwich", "pizza" or "soup", complete with a fork and knife/spoon and wrapped in napkins (a piece of tissue).

- His current favourite DVDs are Disney "Cars" (Lighting McQueen), Jurassic Park and 101 Dalmatians. All 3 disks are all over-watched and spoilt. Sigh.

- Millenia Walk, Collecting the good bags, race number (to be pinned on the tshirt) for the Run For Water 1km Kids Dash that weekend in April.

We had lunch at this quaint little Jap/french looking restaurant that sells tiny portions of food. :P

At the 1km Kids Dash, after our run, hot and victorious hehee. He loves that medal.

- Musical instruments introductory workshop arranged by Auntie June. Held at Staccato Music School.

1st Golf lesson at Kinder Golf.He amazed the coach by fully paying attention throughout. Apparently thats quite unusual for that age. I think he's just influenced by Daddy's regular practice swings at home heee.

My Birthday

2010-05-19T23:12:00.000+08:00

Such a belated post, but been really busy and tired. Finally got down to some blogging. Wish to mention my birthday this year as its really enjoyable a day for me. Love the food, the movie, and flowers.... :) Thanks hubby!

Hubby asked me to choose the spa myself, as he knows I am quite particular when it comes to such luxury. Ngiak. I am not complaining! Decided on Auriga Spa in The Capella Sentosa. Ultimate retreat! very pampering, organic products. Excellent ambience, plush sofas, relexation lounge, perfect service. Love everything about it.

We had a tour by the friendly therapist and came across this strange ice bucket thingie. Apparently, you are supposed to slather ice over yourself after you come out of the suana/steamroom/hot jaccuzi...I can't remember which! hahaha! whatever it is for, I will NEVER put these cold things on myself!

The relaxation lounge, complete with tea and dried organic apricots. yummy.

Next is lunch. Hubby brought me to Julian Bombard. Hubby had pan seared foie gras and their lobster bisque (which he proclaimed to be the best he ever tasted) for starters, whilst I had a delicous half dozen oysters of the freshest sort I have ever tried. These oysters beat the oysters at Greenwood hands down! Its crunchy, fresh, succulent, didn't give me the "zhe lak" feeling at all. Each of the 6 is excellent. I wanted more!

On top of this, we had another starter of House Smoked Duck Breast with chopped romaine salad, which is surprisingly as sinful and fatty as the foie gras, hehee!

Roses from Poppy..! so pretty I kept looking at them througout dinner. The sweet waiter brought us a ice bucket to put the bouquet in.

For mains it was Pork Platter with briased jowl, belly and loin served with roast apple and green peppercorn sauce for me, and Spanish Paella with Chicken and Prawn with Chirozo sausage and orange for hubby. Both are delicious. Dessert was Melange of Berries with Chocolate Sorbet. Then hubby arranged a surprise for me.

We went to fetch Jovann and brought him to watch How to Train Your Dragon. We sat in Directors Seat and Jovann sat in between us,it was very fun and cosy. He enjoyed the show too. We then did some glass painting.

Lovely day! enjoyed every minute of it. :)

Universal Studios!!!

2010-03-29T00:28:00.001+08:00

Went Universal Studios as a belated anniversary celebration. Brought Jovann there too, we had a lot of fun!!!

Jovann has been asking for roller coasters and castles. But he got even more excited when we told him there's dinosaurs. I think I was the most excited among them though!!!! Here we go!!!

We were aiming for the Jurassic Park/Lost World, which happens to be at the far end opposite the entrance, checked out the map and decided to start clockwise so that we can pass Far Far Away (the Shrek castle I promised Jovann) on the way.

Taking photos with Alex and gang.

First Ride! King Julien's Beach Party Go-Round. Jovann determinedly zoomed in on Alex the lion when the friendly carousel attendant asked him which character he wish to sit and embarked on a one-sided commentary on all the animals' name. There is a carriage where parents can sit with infants too young to sit on a ride on their own.

We walked past the Far Far Away's Junior Roller Coaster "Enchanted Airways" on the way to Jurassic Park, and I told Jovann we are going to sit that later. :). Jurassic Park, here we come!!!

Dino-Soaring, think it's Jovann's dream came true, sitting on a flying pterosaur. The ride felt kinda short though!

We were eyeing the Canopy Flyer, wondering if its suitable for Jovann. Imagine yourself sitting in the Jurassic Park sight-seeing vehicle, minus the vehicle frame, dashboard, windows. You are basically sitting on the car seats and flying through the air. From the ground, the speed looks ok, and when we checked with yet another friendly attendant, she told us "its a light hearted ride, meant for kids". So we are sold, in we go!

Jovann was all smiles when we got ready. He sat with Daddy on the rear-facing seats, which I think could have upped the thrill factor considerable. I sat on the seat facing them so I can take these pictures. :P

Up up upppp they go!!!

Daddy said Jovann told him he was scared, halfway through the ride. I wld be too if I am 3.5 yrs old flying through the air and around tight bends on car seats with nothing below me!

Far Far Away. The castle look fabulous, Jovann kept saying he wish to enter. We were told of the Donkey Live show a few doors way, supposedly starting in 10mins time. But I was intent on letting him try the roller coaster Enchanted Airways, so I gave it a miss. We waited for Daddy to catch up (he went gents) while Jovann got his height measured to ensure he's taller than the minimum height requirement of 92cm.

There we go! The ride system was rather well organised. The next batch of riders are always allocated gate numbers in front of which to wait. And once the vehicle is ready and the previous occupants have disembarkd, the gates would opened and the new riders would be guided very easily to the right row. Jovann was so eager to get on that he was pushing on the gate before it opened. And when the "dragon" roller coaster came back and the occupants got off, the gate opened and Jovann rushd onto the platform and wanted to climb into the seat immediately. I got him comfortable and Daddy took a photo from the platform.

What an exciting ride!!! So exciting that Jovann kept quiet throughout, and told me "Mommy I am scared" when it ended. Oh dear...I guess no more rollercoasters for this boy. I myself was screaming (coz thats what we are supposed to do right?) and laughing (to keep the tension down for Jovann's sake) throughout, thrilled.

Next, Shrek 4D. Should I spoil the surprise by explaining the reason behind the 4th D? Heeee.....well, to put it simply, when the donkey sneezed, be prepared to get splattered with mucus. When the ghosts turn up at the graveyard, don't be spooked by some little something brushing against your feet. Hahaa. It was unexpected, but interesting.

Queueing in the castle, finally Jovann got his wish granted to BE IN the castle.

Jovy in the nerdy 3D glasses.

When we came out of the Shrek 4D theatre, we went led straight into the Far Far Away Merchandise shop, where there was a mini Ferris Wheel called the Magic Potion Spin, in airconditioned comfort. It was the smallest Ferris Wheel I have ever seen, even comparing to the one at Downtown East. It has only 7-8 cabins, and we were the last to get on and first to disembark. It moved at a slow snail speed, and you peer down at the shoppers below when you look out of the wire mesh window.

Jovann browsing the stuff on sale when back on safe ground.

Back to Lost World/Jurassic Park. Jovann complained that these dinosaurs don't even move.

I left the father and son in the Discovery Food Court having lunch,

while I ran off to take the Revenge of the Mummy ride!!! Woo hoo! A roller coaster in the dark! Thrill x 2. No one to take photos for me though so thats the only pic I have of the ride, main entrance to the dark dark dungeons below. It was a long long long walk to the platform where the ride was waiting. I was the only one sitting in the 4th row. But I was screaming along as loudly as the rest heeee....

Some shopping, some popcorn, and a rented buggy...., and we arrived at New York Boulevard.

We saw this yellow cab, and Daddy suggested Jovann making some outrageous pose by holding onto the door handle for dear life and dangling off his left feet in mid air, weight supported only by the right hand on the handle. Surprisingly, Jovann gamely did that!!! But I was the nervous Mommy who worried about him falling down and tried to remain inconspicuous beside him supporting his weight heee.

This photo of hubby and me was taken by Jovann himself heee. Not bad!

Finally, Sci-Fi City. The place I was both anticipating eagerly (coz I wish to take the Battlestar Galactica Duelling Coasters) and yet dreading (coz I do not know if I have the guts to take the Battlestar Galactica Duelling Coasters!!).

Actually, after my Revenge of the Mummy ride, while they were still in the footcourt, I ran all the way to Sci Fi City and joined the moderately short queue for the Battlestar coaster (Human). But there was an annoucement saying there's slight technical delay due to some quick maintenance, with waiting time 10-15mins. I hang in the queue for 2 mins and decided to go back to foodcourt to get some chow first. So......some time later, here I am back again! I decided to pluck up my courage and go for it! Left Daddy and Jovann on the ground, while I made my way up up up to the coaster launch pad.

Since I cannot bring any loose items with me, the camera and hp gets left behind with the boys. I was in row 3, having refused the attendant's offer to sit in the first row, heeee. I sat beside a terrified lady whom looked as if she was dragged up there by her boyfriend. We smiled at each other before the ride started.

I didn't hear the exact words of the robotic annoucement, but a friend told me it goes along the lines of "Thank you for volunteering in this mission.......". I only heard "LAUNCH". Heee. By then, my heart was pitter pattering a top speed. When the coaster started on its upward climb, we saw the occupants of the Cylon Battlestar coaster on our left. Both groups check each other out, then all else was forgotten when both coasters put on a burst of speed and seemingly FLEW to the top of the slope and before I know it, the real ride has started. I was screaming and yelling in both fear and thrill. hehehee. Thumbs up!!! I still have not plucked up courage to take the Cylon version though!

No pics. But I probably look this terrified.

Check out the video I found on the net showing the test ride.

***

Back on safe ground, Jovann asked if I was scared, and he gave me a hug.

The Accelerator....basically a high tech version of the twirling teacup ride we were familiar with as kids.

Next stop, Ancient Egypt. Jovann sat on the Treasure Hunters, which is basically a safari vehicle travelling snail slow around a track with the occupants supposedly looking for lost treasure amidst an abandoned excavation site. Jovann loved that ride as each vehicle has a steering wheel and the rider can make believe he's driving the vehicle! He simply loves it, and he was in all seriousness as he manueveured the wheel around bends, very cute to watch his focus and concentration. This is his favourite ride. He told me later that he wants to sit this "slow car" again next time,3 times, coz he's 3 yrs old. And the Dino Soaring 2 times.

The view while driving that vehicle.

After this, we went to watch Lights Camera Action in Hollywood. It was great, really cool camera stuff.

Time for Afternoon Tea. Went Celebrity Cafe. we had a very relaxing time there, being only the 3rd table occupied (The real crowd came in later, whew). ubby had a quiche, I had condensed milk thick toast, while Jovann had sausage roll. I also sterilised my pump there with the help of the friendly cafe manager, whom seemed to anticipate my needs with his first glance at my box containing the pump. Thats what I called good customer service. Impressed so far by Universal.

We arrived at Universal Studios at 9.30am in the morning, and left at 4.30pm. We have done ALL the rides except for the Crate Adventure which is not opened, The Jurassic Rapids Adventure which Jovann is too short for, we missed the show times for Donkey Live, Monster Rock and Waterworld. BUt we had fun! We will be back! heeee...

Rather impressed by Resorts World. It was well organised. Even the underground carpark that links the Casino and Universal Studios was well designed and looked welcoming. There is even a tram that brings you from one end of the car park to the other, to save you from a long long walk. How considerate!

Jazreel at 17 mths

2010-03-25T23:49:00.010+08:00

- Next to me (who goes without saying is her number 1 favourite person), her GORGOR is her number 2 favourite person hehee. Whenever we tell Jovann that its time to bathe, she will toddle to take his towel for him. When gorgor say he want to pee pee, she will toddle over to the toilet and attempt to push open the door for him. When gorgor coughs and we ask him to drink some water, she will toddle to find his bottle and bring it to him. Then she will find hers and drink it, watching him while doing it. Heeee. Super funny. They like to lie down together on the playmat or the post office house.

- She will let him hug her in the morning, not struggling as much as if Daddy hugs her.

- She loves giving him spontaneous hugs out of nowhere, just grabbing him around the middle, turning her head and lean her ear on his tummy. Gorgor will hug her back of course.

- She was all along braver than her gorgor. She is not afraid of the parrot, and will push her way into the parrot’s room when Ah Gong opens the door, unlike Jovann who don’t dare to go near at all. She will asked to “da da” (hit) the parrot (just pretending, which sadly my dad encouraged), and imitated Ah Gong stretching the rubberband and aiming at it (before you go running to SPCA, please be informed that its just for pretend and the rubber band trick is used to move the parrot away so my mom can reach the seed bowl, the parrot is not hurt at all! When there’s thunder, she hardly flinched. She’s not afraid of the dark room and has played hide and seek with her gorgor hiding in corners for many times.

- However, recently, ever since she learnt how to tell us “scared scared” by patting her hand on her chest, she’s been doing it more often esp when there’s raised voices in the house, or there’s a loud sound. Now I can’t tell if she’s really scared or she just reveling in getting attention that way heeee.

- The Chinese words she can say includes “打打，座座，走走, 美美, ”. Some words she added recently are “bowl, open (its real funny watching her say this), shoe, pain. When asked “ wu ng ng boh (did you just poo poo)?” and she hasn’t, she will go “Boh!” with a very teochew accent. Hehehe. I love the way she close her eyes when we asked her to, screwing up her eyes and pouting her mouth at the same time hahahaa. And thanks to gorgor, now she likes to roar like a dinosaur when she's playing too.
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- As to why she learns the word "美美". Well, she's quite vain. If she's wearing something nice and I tell her its 美美, she will walk out of the room and point out her clothes to every one, and say 美美. And she loves to wear my lanyard, my necklace, at times looking like a christmas tree someone forgot to offload. Look at her accessorising.

Preening in front of an ELC vanity table.

- Probably due to her "vanity", we were much pleasantly surprised when she was quite unfazed by her first haircut back in Feb. When her gorgor had his first haircut around the same age, it was a totally, traumatically disastrous experience. He cried and wailed and screamed like he's being tortured. But Jaz? nope. Aside from the initial questioning look at the hair stylist at Junior League, she sat quietly on my lap playing with the candy milk jug. Wonderful!!!

- Once recently, I came home from work and when Jaz saw me, she excitedly ran towards me. Ah Ma was mumbling that she needs to find her keys (she said that in teochew), and Jaz immediately turned back towards the dining table where she remembered that my mom kept her key pouch, and she took it, then asked my mom to carry her. She then open the pouch and selected the RIGHT key for the metal gate. This is interesting because she knows that at OUR HOUSE, in AH MA’s pouch, the silver key is the correct one, but if its Daddy Or Mommy’s key, then she know that it should be the black key. So interesting!!! She then tried to help us open the door heheee.

- Meeting up with Lucas recently at our house for a playdate.

- She's actually deliberately cheekier and more defiant than Jovann at the same age. When we told Jovann to stop touching the dvd player, he will withdraw his hands immediately. But when we asked Jaz to stop touching the dvd player, she will pause with her hands there on the button, turn and look at you out of the corner of her eye, make sure you ARE looking at her. Once she ascertains that she has your undivided attention, she will give a cheeky grin (the firmer and fiercer your "NO", the wider she will grin), and give the button a deliberate press and sit back to watch the reason from the machine and the mommy. What the!!!

But of course, its not all roses and sweet nothings. These 2 fight too as all siblings does. Just 3 days ago on Sunday, they were fighting over toys, and Jaz grabbed Jov's hand and bite it!!! Needless to say, Jovann cried a bit.

Then tonight, Jaz took one of the toy golf iron and hit Jov on the head deliberately with it, without prior aggravation. Ouch! We asked her to say sorry or sayang gorgor, she shouted "Mai!" (teochew for don't want) repeately, emphatically shaking her head at the same time. So Daddy decided to apply the time out punishment on Jaz for the first time ever. He told her "Go into the room!", and she prompty turned and walked in the indicated direction, saying "Ok!" very nonchalantly. Then she paused and look back, seemingly for further instructions. And hubby said "Go to the room I said.". So she said "Ok!" again and turned and continued walking. Both me and hubby looked at each other helplessly, me burrowing my face on the playmat trying to hide my laugh. She's acting so "xiao sa" while being punished. Moments later, she realised she's being banished for real, and she broke down crying at the hallway into the bedroom. We asked her if she's ready to say sorry to gorgor, she nodded her head tearfully and walked over to hug him. Super funny lah!

- She seem to like babies, and appear quite gentle with them so far heee. Her sitting beside Rhynnise at Clarence's place.

- She can self feed with spoon or fork pretty well now. And by this I mean that her aiming has improved and she no longer looks like she's trying to paint her face... and she loves feeding herself, at times may ask for a bowl and spoon and demand that I put some porridge into her bowl so she can self feed.
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- She came into the puppetry theatre (Child Size Festival) with gorgor and myself for a while. I was wondering if she will be noisy or out of control. But she managed to entertain herself throughout that short duration, pushing and shoving the cushions into all sorts of positions on the floor, then plonking herself down on it to test the comfort. Fortunately the theatre wasn't totally full so she had some spare cushions to play with.

- Recently bought her the Hello Kitty shopping troller, can't resist. Super cute in pink and comes with lotsa fruits and bottles and sauces. Her favourite is without doubt the bottles with caps, as usual. Hehee.

Another Mommy and Daughter outfit! heheee. We are both into tights now. :P

Jovann has turned 3 and a half

2010-03-25T23:27:00.005+08:00

Jovann just turned 3 and a half, and Jazreel is turning 17mths soon. Watching them play together always brings a smile to our face, and re-affirms our decision to have 2 kids. Its priceless, watching their interaction, their hugs, their bickering. My fav times of the weekend is when we sit down together after dinner, watching them run amok around us. I always find it difficult to get up to start their bedtime routine.

(his 2nd trip to Night Safari, this time with Gong Gong Ma Ma. He had a great time that night.)

- He’s a sweet brother at times when he’s not quarelling with Jaz. Once, I tried feeding Jaz yogurt and she happened not to like that flavour. I looked sad, and Jovann asked me “Why Mommy?”. I told him meimei don’t want to eat. Jovann immediately asked “Can I feed meimei?”. When I agreed, he took the tub and spoon from me and carefully scooped and fed her spoon by dainty spoon! Jaz, on noticing that its gorgor holding the spoon, walked over and opened her mouth wide. She ate! Spoon by dainty spoon! Hehehe. It’s really heartwarming seeing them interact this way.

- Once when meimei cried and complained in the carseat on the way out, gorgor leaned over me and told her “meimei, don’t cry ok? Later we go home I give you toys to play ok? How about that?”

- He has quite a good memory. Few days back, he noticed again the NDP decal on Daddy’s car, and he asked me what’s that, and I told him it’s a sticker. He then told me it’s a sticker that’s given by a taxi uncle when we took a taxi last time. I was struck dumb for 5 seconds until I realized it’s true! It was about June last year (9mths) when we went to JBCG and we took a cab and the taxi driver gave us 1 decal! Gosh!

- One of his favourite persons is his 3rd Uncle. for some reason, he has developed attachment to his "sa zek" during the 1 mth Sa Zek was home for his school holidays. And when he left to go back Canberra to continue his studies, Jovann cried and cried that night when Daddy told him he won't see Sa Zek for some time. So when Sa Zek came back again recently for a few days, we made sure Jovann spent some time with him before he flies off. Sa Zek bought a fab glow-in-the-dark watch for Jovann, which he proudly wore. And the box it came in is now his everyday box in which he puts his fav dinosaurs and cars.

Look how happy he looks!

- He loves watching children's plays. Recently watched Julia Donaldon's Room On a Broom with Der Nen and Amabel, he loves it but was slightly afraid of the dragon like DN.

Also brought him to Child Size (Act 3) - A Festival for the Young Ones. Its an event where everything under that roof was customised for children aged 3-7. We bought tickets for both the Playden package and the Chamber Package, but had to miss the Playden one on 7 March coz he was coughing badly. He seemed to enjoy the Chamber Package on 14 March quite a lot. It started off with some free and easy craft activities, then a puppet session lasting 45mins.I had thought he won't sit through it, but surprisingly he was riveted to the story line, about a little mouse who was madly deeply in love with the moon because he thought it was one big piece of cheese. The mouse tried ways and means (making a spring, using balloons) to reach the moon, and Jovann turned to me and commented that maybe he can use a bird, or a unicorn because they have wings. Heee so cute. The puppet show was followed by a culture dance segment, where 2 indian teachers taught the kids how to do some simple indian dance steps. But, probably because we took a break after the puppet show to eat some breakfast, Jov needed a long time to warm up to that segment and refused to participate. After that was a segment by Act 3 themselves teaching rhythm and singing, culminating in a short stage performance by all the kids on the mini stage set out in the music room. Very fun, but as Jovann was too busy playing instead of learning the steps and lyrics, he basically just fooled around on stage. Hahaa.

After that, it was some craft activities again where we played with some cut outs from magazines to make them into decent man-looking or woman-looking figures which we can then dress up with magazine page clothes. Then we went to another segment where I made him a dinosaur which he can hold up with a black stick and pretend it's alive. :P

- One of his favourite show on PlayHouse Disney is Imagination Movers. He can sing the songs, and will get down to dance wildly when the song starts. Jaz also got in the mood.

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- He can be quite a charmer, and will compliment me on my dressing if its nice, saying "Mommy, you are very pretty" or "Mommy, you look like a princess". Needless to say, that charms my socks off. And his compliments are genuine too, 1 mth ago we met up with Auntie Karen whom is a pretty korean lady. Before we left the restaurant, he told her "You are so pretty!". hehehe. And just 2 weeks back, we bumped into a neighbour who happened to be carrying a branded bag. Before we went on our way, Jovann told her "Your bag is very nice.". Hahahahaa! He's also very very observant. When I am wearing long tights recently, he looked at my tights and told me "Mommy, you are like "Nobody"(WonderGirls)", just because he's been watching the Wondergirls video recently and he actually noticed they wear tights!!!

- Had a fun evening with DN and DS recently. They came over to our place and we ordered Pastamania. Jov and DN had a romantic dinner of classic spaghetti at the table.

I Love this SIBLINGs shoot.

CNY 2010

2010-02-18T00:43:00.002+08:00

It is a very different CNY this year. Due to some recent events in the family, we are not supposed to do any CNY visiting. So the entire CNY is devoted to spending time with family, going out or to in-laws place for reunion dinner, carrying out the annual tradition of paying respects at ancestors resting places, and eating yummy food.

Reunion Dinner with Ah Gong Ah Ma.

She insisted on having a bowl of rice to herself and had fun "self-feeding"....leaving many grains of rice all over her mouth. :P

The brother and sister are in matching PJs. I love how they look in them! Who says different gender cannot have matching clothes! There you go!

CNY morning. She's making this face because she's lifting up her head letting gorgor tickle her neck. Jovann learnt this from hubby, coz hubby likes to trick Jov into looking up by asking him "Jovann, what's that up there huh??" and when Jov looks up hubby will tickle his neck. Although Jovann already wisen to the trick, but he still willingly lift up his neck, giggling madly all the way even before being tickled. And now he likes to do it back to us, and his meimei. Jaz loves it so much she will, without prompting, lift up her neck and chuckle. Heeeee......

Going to Ma Ma place!

Pretty Pedipeds... awwwwwww....how I love these cutesy red glossy things....
They better look cute enough for that kinda $$!

Well....they(Pedipeds) are the "Next Best Thing to Bare Feet" after all.....
...and eh....
Their philosophy is Comfort, Quality and Style.
...
and hhmmm...
They are the first children's shoe company the American Podiatric Medical Assosication awarded their Seal of Acceptance for promoting healthy foot development!
...
Ok ok! I am a sucker for pretty shoes!

Actually Jaz love her shoes very much too, she had on a pleased look when putting them on for her, and everywhere she goes she happily points out the shoes to Gong Gong or Ah Gong, and likes walking around in them once they are on.

CNY 2nd day

3rd day of CNY, went shopping at Paragon with Ah Gong Ah Ma! heeee...

Our yellow sun dresses

2010-02-18T00:25:00.000+08:00

Its lovely when you can wear matching clothes with your little girl, hehehe! SO FUN! this is our second matching wear, but bought at different times. in fact, mine is ordered during my pregnancy days when she's still inside my tummy. Hers is bought when she's a few months old.

I love this photo! Taken at Hort Park in early Feb. :)

Jovann and the Hollywood Dinos

2010-01-13T00:28:00.001+08:00

* How did he come to "play traunt"? Can't blame him, he had a good time (but worrying time for us) at home with attention from caregivers for many weeks when he's sick. On the day we sent him back to school, he kept insisting he's sick, and pretended to cough to prove his point. He even said "If I go to school, meimei will miss me". Good try Jovy.

* He loves telling me "You are so pretty, Mommy", and has learnt that saying that brings a smile to my face so knows when to use it (e.g. when I am mad at him for something). Hahahaa.

* He is very protective of meimei when out playing with friends, and will get fierce if anyone snatches her toys or accidentally nudges her. I guess only he himself can snatch her toy, sigh. But I must say he's getting slightlyyyyyyy better at sharing. Hope this gets better.

* He is eager to demonstrate to meimei how to use the nebuliser, and is very helpful and accomodated me when I asked him to dance in front of Jaz to distract her from the nebu.

* He grooves and bounces very happily when there's fast music.

* He loves "helping meimei walk", and will hold her hand or nudge her when she's taking toddling steps. I am usually torn between stopping him from making her fall or encouraging his brotherly concern.

* He likes to say "Its a morning day" when describing that its daytime...he also say "Its night day" when describing night time heheeh.

* Since he turn 3 yrs 3 months, IF he happens to wake up at night and we are still awake in the living room, he no longer cries, but will open the door, walk out of the room and calls out "Hello!!!" then contentedly gets back to bed with one of us and falls asleep again within 1 minute. This boy slept through the night at 4mths till he's 1 yr old, whereupon he started waking up.... It got better and he slept through again, then around 18mths he has these night terrors in which he started crying/screaming in his sleep and is unaware of our attempts to soothe him despite our efforts, but will soon stop at his own accord. Then the episodes dissappear and sleep through again. Until nowadays he will wake up sometimes one time at night between 12-1am, like how I mentioned above.

* He love playing with meimei more and more now, and the feeling is reciprocrated. The 2 of them had a very good time whenever they play in this submarine ball pit. Jovann is very considerate and will wear a mask when playing with meimei if he's sick.

* At SSO Babies Prom 2009. We managed to be there early this year for the pre-concert activities, which turned out to be rather interesting. Besides the free balloon arts, they also set up 4 stations introducing the different types of instruments - woodwind, percussion, string, brass, and showing where each group of musicians will be sitting during the concert by their different colour t-shirts.

* He's totally....TOTALLY...into dinosaurs. He loves them to bits, anything dinosaurs goes. He can identify and pronounce the names, syllable-perfect, of the following types of dinosaurs:
>> the more common ones...
- Tyrannasaurus Rex
- Stegosaurus
- Triceratops
- Velociraptor
- Bronchiosaurus

>> and the more obscure ones (at least to me!!)
- Pterosaur
- Ceratosaurus
- Spinosaurus
- Scelidosaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Therizinosaurus
- Duckbill dinosaurs

Thanks to him, I had a crash course whenever we read him the Dinosaurs Encyclopedia which is his current favourite book at bedtime. He has countless dino books, dino National Geographic card game, dino puzzles, numerous dino figurines, dino umbrella, dino bubble gun (which doesn't work...bleh), dino cup, personalised dino wallet (thanks Auntie June!), personalised dino bag (of course!), and of course.....tickets to the Dino Hollywood show!

But then again, that was quite a dissappointment lah, to us, NOT to him. He had the time of his life. He kept pestering us to bring him there once he knew we have tickets to a "Dino show". We bought 4 adult tickets from my corporate road show as we know he is bound to ask to go again a 2nd time. And he did! Anything dinosaurs goes...and these ones can roar and move and blink! Though he was terrified that first time and refused to touch any, but he couldn't keep his amazed eyes off them, and kept up a running commentary throughout. He kept asking for stegosaurus and duckbill dinosaurs though, which wasn't at the exhibition. The adults (us) found the show lacking in that it doesn't have sign boards indicating the dino breeds, period of existence and characteristics. Strange that such a much talked-about show lack the fundamentals. It was smaller than we expected too. However, the 2nd time we went there, the boards were up! Kudos to the feedback process!

There was this bridge that was mechanised to feel like its rocking on wild waters that threaten to throw you over into the waiting jaws of the dinosaur on the left of the bridge. I thought that bridge was quite fun heee.

Both times, after the show, he went wild at the merchandise display store...really tonnes and tonnes of dino related merchandise. I myself couldn't keep that calm that first time there. :P

In between the 2 visits, Jovann and I happened to make a handmade picture frame. Jovann did 60% of the painting himself, and he was mightly proud of it. He chose a photo we took (him, myself and a Ceratosaurus) during that 1st show to take the place of honour inside the frame. And at the 2nd visit, he wanted to bring that picture frame to show the Ceratosaurus!
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Jazreel ... The Aspiring Golfer?

2010-01-12T22:37:00.008+08:00

Its been very very long since I updated on my 2 darlings. During this period of time, Jovann was absent from school for nearly a month in total due to a prolonged cough, and Jazreel fell sick too. It was a trying time, don't wish to go into details.

During this period of time too, Jovann learn how to play traunt, and Jazreel learnt how to play golf.

Yes, PLAY GOLF. Watch her go! Introducing.....the new.....Tigressssss W@@ds!
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She cries "Dah!" every time she hits the ball. :P Though she can't differentiate a birdie from a bogey, nor tell an iron from a driver, you must admit she has the determination to get the ball. That round thing doesn't have a chance.

Actually the toy golf clubs and the ball came from this cute toy I bought. It comes with 3 clubs - a driver, a putter, and an iron, 3 golfballs lookalike but lighter, and a 4th ball that is attached to a pendulum that is in turn pivoting on a stand. Its suitable for indoor play coz whenever you hit the ball, it swings on its hinge and will not go anywhere. Cool!

* When I am cleaning her mouth with tissue, wet wipes or hanky, she loves sticking out her tongue to taste it. She also sticks out her tongue to taste the nebuliser mask. :P Yeeeks.

* She is super cheeky, can give her gorgor a fight for his money.

* She needs to hold something in her hands most of the time, especially when she's going down for a nap or bedtime. Her favourites are small kodomo baby shower foam bottles, the aluminium saline nasal spray bottles, her Angel Baby bum balm jar, wooden fruits, sometimes even medicine bottles. She loves anything with caps/covers and in bottle shape.

* She has a favourite bedtime item, a pink princess cloth book I bought. She loves it and look for it in her cot before nap or bedtime, and pick it up first thing in the morning when she wakes.

* Since she's about a yr old, she has enjoyed feeding herself. As of 13 months old,she can use fork to spear up pieces of fruits or pancakes and self feed. She really enjoys herself doing that!

* Since she's 11 weeks, she has slept through the night. Even now, she still does. Aside from the teething period on and off between 6-12 mths, and the periods when she's sick and coughing and phelgmy, or rare days when she's over stimulated before bedtime, she sleeps from 9.30pm to 7am. No longer the 9pm-9am when she's 2.5-4mths old of course since now I keep the curtains open so the sunlight filters in and she will wake when the day turns bright.

* Even on times she does wake up at night, she's relatively easy to put back to bed. Once she sees me in the room, she will plonk her backside down onto the cot, lies down, and wait for me to pat pat her bum.

* She can say "Ah Ma", "Ma Ma", "Ball", "Daddy", "Dad dad", "Water", "Papa", "Dog dog" (she loves flipping the pages of Blessings Everywhere just to reach that page with the dog and point at it), "Bear", "Star", "Yes", "No", "There", "Hi", "Thanks", "mum mum", "Done done", "Bird bird (she's pointing this out on the playmat to me)", and will always attempt to pronounce new words we teach her. And can sign "More", "Water", "Thank you", "Please", "Baby", "Eat", "Shoe", "All done", "Tired". She still calls gorgor "Baba" though. Hhhmmmm.....

* She smiles and laughs when we are carrying her and calls her name softly in her ear.

* She's affectionate and if I pout or hurt myself or pretend to cry she will come over and put her head on my body or lap, her way of sayanging me. She does that to gorgor too.

* She started a certain degree of nursing strike when she turns 14mths. Sometimes refusing to nurse during day time naps, suckling a few seconds then stopping and shaking her head. It eventually progressed even to bedtime feeding, refusing to latch at all. And thats when I started to panic. My supply!!! what if it continues??? I am not ready to wean! Fortunately....it got better. Though now she does nurse shorter period at bedtime, but at least she's eager to nurse.

* Since she turns one, she has refused drinking from milk bottles. She wants to be spoon fed. Ma Ma said she think she want to be adult. So now we spoon feed her EBM in the day.

* Bibinogs trial back in Nov. Its such a fresh change from Jovann's JG days. Friends would recall that he refused even to chew his food when he turns 2. So it was always a struggle during JG snack times. But with Jaz,whewwwwwww.....no such issues.

* So fun having a girl when you can wear matching Mommy-Daughter outfits!

* Its fun too when you can play with their hair!

* Entertaining herself at Adele and Spencer's place in late Nov.

Her new bike

2010-01-11T22:38:00.000+08:00

Love this bike, very sturdy and I like the colour combi. She likes it too. :)

Had a nice ride with gorgor at WCP one day in Dec. She was so pleased with it, chuckling and making so much noise, and kept on pressing the buttons in front to hear the music.

Another day, riding downstairs our block. She love the little "handbag" I bought for her, slinging it so daintily on her arms. :P

1st Lunar Birthday 抓调

2010-01-10T22:38:00.002+08:00

Some families celebrated the 1st lunar birthday of a child by this ceremony called 抓调. Its really fun, whereby you lay out 12-13 items for your child to choose, with the belief that the first thing he/she picks up would point to his eventual career in life. With Jovann, we didn't know much about the entire procedure, so we just let him choose 4-5 items on that day. With Jazreel, it got more fun.

It all started....with 2 giant ang ku kuehs. I meant GIANT. Not all kueh kueh shop does this, you have to specially order, its really huge and needs a box of its own. Chinese believe that if a birthday child steps on the giant ang ku kueh then steps into a pair of new shoes, he/she will have a smooth journey in life. So, giant AKKs, here we come! See the size compared to the shoes.

Seems silly to only travel so far to get just 2 pieces of red kueh. So we bought some other stuff. :P Yummy!

She was wearing a new dress and was really squeamish when stepping on the AKKs. So would I! She screamed after that first touch.

Of course, not forgetting the de facto red egg mee sua. For hubby's family, this is the must have during lunar birthdays. But in MY family, its the tang hoon soup with hardboil egg.

抓调 time! Here's the list of things we have. This is the "modern" version. It used to have items like scissors, to signify a career as a tailor. The only thing I couldn't find was wheat grass. I even managed to find the seal!

書: 會讀書，適合做學者、專家
Book: Studious, May become a scholar, professor etc.

筆墨 : 會成為作家、畫家
Pen and Ink: Writer, Artist, Publishing

印章: 有權勢，會做大官
Seal: Has Authority, Politician, Judge etc.

算盤／計算機: 會當商人、會計師，適合從商
Calculator: Merchant, Trader, Broker, Financial Officer

錢幣: 將來會很富有
Coin: Will be extremely wealthy

雞腿: 有福氣，表示一生將不愁吃穿
Chicken Leg: Prosperous, A life of satisfaction

尺: 表示將來可成為設計師、建築師
Ruler: Architect, Product Designer, Land Development Surveryor

蔥: 代表聰明
Spring Onion: Very bright (May amount to any careers due to brightness and braininess)

蒜: 代表善於計算
Garlic: Good in accounting for and calculating (May amount to any careers or personality that requires this trait)

芹菜: 代表勤勞
Celery: Hardworking and Steadfast (May amount to a personality that values hard work)

稻草: 適合農事工作
Wheat Grass: Agricultural, Horticulture, Natural careers

刀劍: 能當軍官、警察
Sword: Soldier, Policemen, careers in the airforce, navy, infantry

聽筒: 適合醫護工作
Stethoscope: Health Services, Doctors, Vets, Nurses

We will keep it to ourselves what she chose. Heeeeee!

Jaz being rewarded with the the drumstick after the "ordeal".

Jazreel Turns ONE

2009-12-30T22:40:00.003+08:00

Venue ... FIDGETS
Date ... 25 October 2009 Sunday
Time ... 10am - 12noon
Party Theme ...Princess & Unicorns
Pre-party works in progress...

I know i know...I previously promised myself no more elaborate gender/age/liking specific goody bags. But being me, I can't resist! Esp when I see ....these!!! Fairytale Unicorns (how mythical sounding is that???) bubble necklace (how fun and pretty at the same time!)

Too bad the Fairy tale unicorn goody boxes went OOS then discontinued whilst in the midst of deciding my orders. So in the end had to order the other unicorn boxes. With of course, my usual organic goodies..... :)

Sticky name labels :P as a gift and I also use one each to label the goody boxes.

Invites, my labour of love.

The scrapbook layouts I did for the guests to put polaroids of them taken that day.

Party Day - The mad rush pre-guests arrival. Hubby, under my directives, rushed around fetching stuff and putting up the posters. Dear Grace came early to help out with little Clarence, thanks dear! The FIDGETS staff were great, kudos to them for going along with my wierd requests like replacing all their offered IKEA plates and cutleries with my own unicorn theme ones. Even the napkins are replaced. I also asked them for only pink and purple and white balloons, but end up not using them coz I have my own.

Tables all set...and I forgot about the 1st birthday princess dessert plates in the end!

Posters Up!

Close up of 1st Birthday Milestones Poster, another labour of love.

I love this pic of my princess "ascending" her throne with this haughty look on her face. :P Ma ma helped me feed her the porridge I cooked that day to feed the toddler guests. It was sakura chicken broth porridge with organic pumpkin, minced pork and garden peas.

Goody bags. Hubby, right after teasing me for being so fussy about the party, proceeded to line up the bags in alphabetical order. Talk about fussiness! But must thank him in the end for it did speed up the handing out process somewhat. :P

I love this cake. I bought the figurine of Princess Belle celebrating her birthday, gave some instructions to the baker, and also requested that she make a unicorn figurine. She was fantastic....her unicorn even has lovely eyelashes (click on pic to see blown up)!!! She also added a pumpkin carriage for me, and i love the sweet flowers lining the stoned pathway up to the castle door....a castle out of a fairytale. I wanna stay! I also love the details she put on the castle turrets. But best of all, whew, the guests like the taste of the cake too!

Her Friends....

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Thank you all for your treasured presence and lovely presents!

Actual day, took leave and brought her to Peekaboo. It's really fun going out alone with her, spending two-on-one time. She loves the balls in the ball pit and scattered around the playground, always striving to have one in each hand at any one time. And she will make sure that they are the same colour too.

Daddy hiding under the balls playing hide and seek with her.

We had lunch at AkaShabu, and Jaz entertained herself as usual with the cutleries and plastic bowl.

I brought out baby jar food for her, but she didn't seem to like this flavour. We ended up giving her some of our food, and so she had grilled fish and rice for the first time. AND chewed ") *beaming*

Jazreel's 1st lesson at Aquaducks

2009-12-18T00:09:00.000+08:00

4 October 09
Was really pleased to get a back to back time slot with gorgor, but as was helping some mommies arrange Aquaducks trial, I didn't start Jazreel yet but just brought her for her trial. She enjoyed it very very much and took to the water like a happy duckling.

Picnic and Lantern Festival

2009-12-17T23:53:00.002+08:00

Some outings in Sept and Oct with friends. (Belated Posting)

Jacob Ballas Picnic
A hot sunny day in Sept, arranged a picnic at Jacob Ballas Childrens Garden with some friends. These mommies have babies all born between Aug-Nov08, and some also have another bigger child like us. We potlucked, and met at the sheltered area next to the sand pit.

HOT! Though sheltered, the weather was so hot hehehee. Jovann and the big kids had fun in the sand pit. We were baking not 1 hour after starting, but it was still fun, the bigger kids enjoyed loads running around kicking ball (we brought one), or basically just making noise. :)

My contribution - The organic snacks.

The overall feast.

The small cool ones...

The big red and sweaty ones.

Lantern Date #1
Met up with Auntie Jamie and Auntie Hsin Dee with their 3 kids at Botanic Gardens one cool evening in Sept, for the kids to play lanterns. I must say I enjoyed this, it sure was wacky carrying lanterns through the quiet and tranquil Botanic Gardens, playing bubbles on the huge grass patch near the Symphony Stage, strolling round the pond which in the day was filled with ducks, swans and tortoises, chuckling at Malcolm and Jovann's shouted conversations during the stroll, and our very very frequent stops to light a candle that went out. Very unusual and fun hehee. Many a times we laughed guiltily at the thought of the despairing looks many a dating couple must be throwing our noisy kids.

At one point of time, Jovann and Malcolm kept up a shouting commentary in chinese whether or not there was fish in the pond. And their lanterns kept going out, as that day all of us are using candle lanterns besides Eunice and Jazreel. Poor Uncle Peter was repeatedly lighting and relighting them hahaha.

Lantern Date #2.
My experience with the candle lanterns previously prompted me to get these great find - individual battery operated dome lights that could be attached to ANY candle lantern. COOL! I put this in Jovann's Thomas and Friends lantern (which I realised later that I was lucky to get, as Thomas lanterns seemed to be sold out everywhere, thumbs up for early shopping!) and Jazreel's Chang Er lantern. :) Problem solved! Very pleased!

We had dinner with Reubern and Rochelle at West Coast Plaza. At this dinner, Jazreel helped gorgor wiped his mouth for the very first time. :P

Made a quick trip to NTUC to buy some neccessities, and discovered this kinda sausages targetted at kids, containing interesting mix of fruits or vege. Cool!

Then the kids had a ride on the animal rides, before we proceeded to West Coast Park this time.

There was a happening carnival going on, but hubby didn't wanna go near there, so we took a slow stroll in the park, before retiring to Macdonalds for drinks.

Jovann accidentally spoiled Reubern's lantern (so sorry Reubern :( ) and Reubern wanted to trick Jovann into eating chilli as revenge. hehehehehe super cute.

The Busy Bee Store

2009-12-16T23:09:00.003+08:00

Cute isn't it? Brings up an image of a cute, hardworking little bee buzzing around getting busy and doing nice things. I love that name. Its an online store of a friend, and I just love browsing her Stephen Joseph products just for fun. Actually have been eyeing her stuff since early this year, and my most yearned for item was her Stephen Joseph Gogo bags. Personalised with the child's name. But as Jovann's old kindy doesn't encourage bringing bags AT ALL, no point I get one for him then. So in July, I only got him a giraffe bottle buddy instead, to hold his own mothercare giraffe bottle! It has his name prettily embroidered on the strap, very nice!

But as of Oct 2009 when he changed to a school where you HAVE to bring your own school bag, can you imagine how excited I was????? So, I got him THIS! Has his name on it of course. :)

How cute is that?? I made my order to BusyBee before realising I should have let Jovann choose his first real school bag himself. So I showed him the 20over choices the next day and let him choose, and the first design he pointed to was the DINO one! Whew. I waited in eager anticipation for this and for busybee to send it in for personalisation, and on the day I presented the bag to Jovann after school, his eyes lighted up! the next morning, he ran like the wind to his teacher and said "Ms Diana! Ms DIANA! Look? My NEW dinosaur bag!".

Was contemplating whether to get for Jazreel too. Must be fair right? But at that time, none of the designs really caught my eye yet. Until in October a new ladybug design came out in pink (prefer this much more than the old orange one). So now Jaz has a bag too!!! This new design is so so sweet. Oh yah, btw, I also got her the matching lunch box to store her snacks, raisins etc heee.

Then for Christmas, I ordered quite a few personalised books for the 2 of them, plus some friends and cousins. Had a great time choosing the titles. Jovann and Jazreel now has Dinosaur Land (what else???), Mother Goose, When I Grow Up, Bye Bye Diapers (Elmo). The dino book features a boy called Jovann who rescued the endangered dinosaurs from an erupting volcano, and When I Grow Up is about a little girl (I got one for each of them) Jazreel who started thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up, and in the end realised that whats most important is not what job she holds, but that she has put in her best in everything she does.

Our friend Auntie June is running (or has it ended??) a raffle on her blog, where you could stand a chance to win a Santa Book if you follow her raffle instructions. I think I missed it as I didn't have time to blog that week.

Jovann's 3rd Birthday - Sentosa Resort & Spa

2009-12-16T00:39:00.002+08:00

Sept 2009 (This post is belated)

This year we decided to do it differently. Booked a family suite at The Sentosa, and checked in the whole family including Ah Gong and Ah Ma and maid. Ah Gong didn't stay though coz next day he has to work.

It was exciting checking into the suite! We were all very pleased with the size and comfort. So fun!

Master bed, with a cot for Jazreel.

Living area with comfy sofa. Jovann just opened a birthday present, one we let him chose from his pile at home. This one is from Auntie Alicia.

His Dino bag!

The 2 good sized double beds next to the living area heeee...

Cute little pair of room slippers for the little ones

After checking in, we set off to have lunch at Imbiah Lookout.

My plans was to watch the Extreme Log Ride (3D) with Jovann and Ah Gong and Daddy, then go for the Luge & Sky Ride. But after lunch, we decided to send the maid, Jaz and my mom back to the resort, after which it started raining! I kicked myself for the delay, was very dissappointed. Jovann was looking forward to "sitting the black car" which he glimpsed earlier. Well, hope tomorrow can do it!

Ah Gong at Underwater World with Jovann.

We had a rocking good time in the log ride hehehe! Jovann was braver than I thought! the only time he was scared was when the "crocodiles" appeared next to our raft hehehe!

After that, back to the resort for a lazy afternoon siesta at the Pavilion with Ah Gong. We had tapas, and Jovann had his pasta noodles soup. :) He had a good appetite that afternoon! It was idyllic sitting beside the tranquil lilly pond, sipping tea and juice, and observing monkeys on the distant roofs.

Had a swim in the pool. Silly me thought I packed Jazreel's swimsuit but I didn't! Brought her in with her rompers anyway hehee. What a splash, she really enjoyed herself swimming with gorgor.

My plan was to treat Jovann to a nap-less afternoon. Hahahaa....he loves it but was very very hyper and naughty towards evening time. Especially during cake cutting!

He knocked out before dinner. Just closed his eyes and slept on the couch throughout dinner. Poor thing. Jazreel took up the responsibility of entertaining the waitresses. She made a lot of noise, but was happy with her crackers and teething biscuit.

Back in resort, wearing superman PJs for the first time. Check out the red "underwear"!

Next Morning!

Rise and Shine. A fun bath for the 2 of them!

Breakfast in suite.

Yeah! did the luge ride that morning! Very very fun, Jovann enjoyed himself so much. I was the one slightly apprehensive due to the wet floor but by the time it ended I felt it wasn't enough.

Dolphin Lagoon. Took a bus and reached there just in time for the show. Jovann enjoyed the bus ride and the show itself very much, he was glued to the show, and wanted to pet the dolphins after that so we bought the tickets for photo taking. :) I felt the dolphin carers are very responsible young people. They know that it may be risky for the dolphin if Jovann (in my arms) suddenly kicked out and hit the dolphin with his legs, so they asked us to take turns patting her. Me first, then Jovann, so that I can control Jovann from sudden movements and also to make it a calmer experience for the dolphin.

Sigh...time to check out.

Family Moments

2009-11-18T01:01:00.000+08:00

Our Family at Jacob Ballas a warm afternoon in September.
Photo shoot both for Jov's 3rd and Jaz's 1st birthdays....

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I am still here

2009-11-17T23:49:00.003+08:00

I am still here!

Its been 1.5 mths since my last post. The last few months has been quuuiiiteee crazy, draining up our time and energy totally. The marathon breaking down of our electrical appliances (fridge last yr…..TV this yr…..then washing machine last month) brought to mind the truth of a friends’s saying that electrical appliances are usually made to last 5 yrs. Well, the new TV does satisfy hubby’s desire to own a LCD anyway. Heeee…. Yep, we used to have a CRT as our first TV in our home. Why not? It works well, and our TV console is big enough! I have been refusing to let hubby buy a LCD or Plasma as I don’t see the need. But well, TV finally spoil, so what to do? heeeeee…

Then we lost our maid, exactly 2 weeks before Jaz’s 1st birthday bash. Imagine how busy I was, doing housework and planning for the party. For that 2 weeks, I slept at 2am nearly every night. Though its nice having the whole house to ourselves, and its sweet sharing housework, but lack of sleep is no joke. I look like an old witch at work, and colleagues commented I look haggard. I need a facial!!!!!

After Jaz’s party, we finally managed to find a maid. We thought we were lucky, and I gritted my teeth and paid up the $3K-$4K of loan for her. Then when the day comes to collect her passport (it took quite long for the passport to approve, for some strange reason), she decided she has that bad a gastric upset that she can’t walk and wish to go back home (she’s in the indo training centre but wants to go back HOME) to rest until she gets better. So….hubby says forget it.

Then, as if all this is not enough, our floor tiles in the living room, which has been sitting primly on our floor for the past 5-6 yrs, decided it had enough and started popping up. It started as a crack sound, then a continuous cracking sound across the entire centre of the living room. My dad thought something snapped in the kitchen and went to check. Within minutes, Jovann can play see saw on the living room floor and the sofa can bounce if you step on a tile 1 metre away. So……money again. Packing up our stuff within the weekend and moving to my ILs and my mom’s place, shifting and packing everything in the living room to squeeze into the 3-4 bedrooms so that the contractor can replace with new tiles we have hastily chosen over the weekend.

We have since moved back. That feeling is sublime when we stepped over the threshold of our home as a family. Bliss. We celebrated by ordering pizza hut that evening hehee and Jovann ate Chicken Ole baked rice....he didn't seem to enjoy it though, preferring the honey wings. :P

Will get my butt around to updating....really updating....the blog soon.....very soon!!! (I hope).

Watching theatre with him

2009-09-22T00:23:00.001+08:00

Recently, I could sense Jovann's sibling jealousy, his possessiveness of my time, and his insecurity. And I started taking leave somedays to spend one on one time with him. In the past mth, have brought him to 3 theatre productions for children his age, and we had a lot of fun. Though his precocious 3yr old behaviour does still sometimes drive me up the wall hahaa.But I really enjoy those one on one hours with him.

18 August - Boom Bah by Windmill Performing Arts (Australia)
Its a picture book that comes to life on stage, in which children spend time with a cat, goat, pig and some friends as they create music from the spoons, cat food box, cup, chopsticks, washing, and other simple things found around the house. It was funny, and Jovann laughed out loud more than once. the actors were engaging, animated, and the entire perfomance was quite personal as the audience sit on the floor, on the same level as the actors.

Jovann waiting outside for the theatre doors to open.

After the performance, the "animals" interacted with the kids and let each of them try the various instruments in turn. Jovann zoomed straight for the violin first.
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8 Sept - The Little Green Frog by itheatre
Now this one is my favourite. Its adapted from a Korean folk tale, about a little green frog called Chung Gaygori,whom refused to listen to his mommy's wise advice and nearly got into big trouble. I like it for its educational value, and more so for its fantastic music, funny actors (I love that actress who did the mommy frog, she gave such a wonderful performance and hilarious washing up dance/song routine). It was interactive as the momma frog sought the little audiences help in hanging up her wash coz her little green frog did not heed her calls.

In cab with me.

This was held at the Drama Centre Black Box at NLB, and Jovann and me were so excited on the way there.

Jovann awed by the NLB surroundings

Playing with the leapfrog toys that latched onto the green frog theme to display their wares.

Admiring the view.

Brought him to the library of course, after the show. He took down nearly every book he touched and demanded I read it. We were through with almost 8 before I declared we need to eat.

After that we has an early lunch at the cafe outside NLB, and Jovann has carbonara spaghetti for the first time and didn't protest heeeee.

Being his cheeky self

The Boy who Cried Wolf (The Little Company)
This was a last minute booking, I decided to watch it and Joanne was interested so I bought tickets for the day after. I am glad I did. Jovann was near tears at the part where the big bad wolf was putting the 10 little sheep one by one into the boiling pot to cook. I was near tears from the laughing during the first few song and dance. All in all, its a wonderful show, albeit a bit lengthy storyline for a 3 yr old. But he sat riveted throughout. At one point, little Petey (the shepherd boy) was bored and asked the audience for advice what he should do to occupy his time. One shouted "blow the horn!!", and another boy yelled "Kill a Sheep!". goodness.

Breakfast with Reubern and Rochelle

Arrived at the theatre!

Jazreel at 10mths

2009-09-21T23:47:00.005+08:00

My little girl is growing up so fast. She used to be quiet, sweet and good natured, but past her 9mths mark started showing her true colours. Now she's loud, fierce, supremely possessive of her toys, and is a doggedly determined little girl.

1. She started cruising around 9mths, and has 4 teeth by 8mths.

2. She likes baby crackers, and can munch one contentedly by herself, but usually will not finish. She started eating it for the first time on 4 Sep. She's still vomiting her food occasionally though.... :(

3. She don't dislike potatoes as much now, have not reintroduced parsnip though.

4. She chuckles out loud and laughs when we open the door to the masterbedroom and she sees gorgor and Daddy sleeping there.

5. She can't sit still, and is either crawling, climbing or exploring.

6. Since that time she called me mama 1-2mths back, recently she did it again at the dining table. Thereafter she don't do that anymore. But just last week, she yelled for my mom and called "Ah Ma!". quite a few times over the following few days...seems like not a fluke. needless to say, my mom was super pleased. Few weeks back, I even thought she said byebye when waving byebye to Daddy.

7. She hates it when gorgor or anyone takes the toy from her hand, and she will yell to make her feelings known.

8. Last mth, she attempts to catch our attention by waving her arms/hands in front of our face, but now she goes "ah! ARGHH!!" and points at us.

9. 16 Sept, climbed up the 15.5 inch high sofa by herself without aid, but grunting like a man in the effort. Aiyoh.

10. Hates anyone else washing her up for bed when she knows I am home. But she allows it if I am not home, but that only happened twice so far.

11. She is such a cia (fierce) char bor! Can't believe it. Hubby says that part of the genes' from me. HHmph.
12. She has this cheeky habit of sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, giving her a very impish look.
13. Since 9mths, she's no longer quiet and contented on the diaper changing table. She wails and screams and struggles like I am trying to torture her, and most toys won't appease her. She also has strong abs, and can crunch herself into a sitting position from the diaper changing table without pulling/holding onto any support at all.

14. At 8mths, she gave the first deliberate kiss to me, then 2 days later to Daddy. Both on the mouth hehee.
15. After her bottom teeth came out, she likes grinding her teeth. she has bitten me many times so far! Jovann has bitten me only twice during the entire 15mths of TBF! One night about 2 mths ago, she bite me when nursing, and I said "Ouch!" and pulled away. She looked up at me...thoughtfully...then grinned and started grinding her teeth cheekily! ARrrggghhh! No way am I putting myself back in her mouth that time.

16. She's so used to sleeping in her own cot in her own room that on weekend nights I bring her to our bed, its like she entered disneyland. She will sit up in bed, chuckle to herself in the dark, grin at us and touch our faces, climb over Daddy to peer down enthusiastically at gorgor. End up more often than not we don't sleep well.
17. She's just not putting on weight very well though, its been a mth and she still just reached 9kg. She's no longer as chubby as she was before that croup episode in July. I miss that chubby face. Milestones and aggressiveness are secondary, coz there's nothing else I want more than to see her grow well and healthy.

Jovann before turning 3

2009-09-21T23:45:00.003+08:00

Its been a rather long time since my last update about my two little darlings. Have been so busy with birthday party planning (for the 2 of them), ferrying them to their activities, keeping up with their busy social calendar, taking outdoor photoshoot (more of that later), and our recent sentosa stay (more of that later too). Whew...*panting*

Jovann has turned 3, he's such a nottie little boy with many silly quirks and also bad habits. He loves mei mei and always brightens up when he sees her but he still pushes her, snatches toys from her, and refused to share toys sometimes. But other times, he will get busy bringing her toys to her, and under my suggestion, try to coax her to return his toy by offering her other toys. Still have to keep an eye on them playing together. Sometimes I do feel a wider age gap would be ideal but at other times watching their innocent play together is very fulfilling as a mom.

All about Jovann

1. He dances wildly sometimes when he's the mood, both hands flailing all over the place, head shaking, throaty yell like tarzan possesed.

2. He is very sticky to me now, and wants me to bathe for him, makes him sleep, feed him, change for him, everything. I could tell there's still a anxiety in him of me not spending time with him. A couple of times he even has crying fits when I leave house for work, crying the way he used to when he was much younger.

3. He says funny things. Sometimes they are sweet. Just 1 night ago, when I was preparing to read to him in bed and I helped him do something (I forgot what), he said "Thank you Mommy, you are always the best!". Wonder where he learn that from.

4. He has picked up this irritating and rude habit of repeating Daddy's admonitions. When Daddy goes "Jovann, stop doing that!", he will repeat mockingly "Jovann, stop doing that!". Hhmph.

5. He hates bathing now, and will throw tanthrum and needs a lot of coaxing whenever bath time comes.

6. He loves black sauce chicken or soya sauce fried fish that I did for him recently.

7. He is really really into dinosaurs. His favourite bedtime book now is Harry and the Dinosaurs say "Raaaaah!". And I bought for him a small dino bitty basket to accompany that story, as the bitty basket contains the various kinda dinos and a small dino land too. He has a dino colouring book, dino figurines, dino pencils. He's also starting to like the new school scrapbook I did for him.

8. For many mths now, he loves spelling out words he sees on brochures, on signs, on cards, on anything. He knows what sounds does each of the letters A- Z makes. About 2 mths back, he was reading a book and managed to "read" the word "GUS", which is the character in the book. He went "G-U-S......Ger...Us...S.....GUS!" Heheehe! However, sometimes he sees a picture of a father, and he will read out correctly the letters "F-a-t-h-e-r" but goes "Daddy!". hahahaa.

9. Last month when reading a dino book to him, we were on the page of apatosaurus, when he told me that "those dinosaurs pushed him down, his legs pain, and people angry with he dinosaur, make dinosaur say sorry, then no pain already.". what an imagination.

10. Whenever our maid calls out to us to "makan", Jovann will cheekily tell her back "Bu yao gam!" (don't hold food in your mouth, which is something Ah Ma Ah Gong always tell him) coz it sounds alike.
11. He takes pride climbing onto the metal door frame and sticking the key into the lock, turning it, and opening the door for us. So much so that if we get there first, he will cry. So every evening when we reached home, he will be waiting for that chance to open the door for us and hear our praises heee.

The growing of his dino egg last mth.

Jovann Celebrates in School!

2009-09-06T16:17:00.010+08:00

Birthday Song
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For some reason, he has always been squeamish about crossing rope or wooden bridges in playgrounds. Today is the first time he did both without batting an eye, and he did it to "save" me heee. And he did it again and again, even the rope bridge. Don't watch the video if you will be bored by repeatitive actions, coz he did it again, and again...and again...I lost count.:P
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Our 3rd year as friends

2009-09-05T23:21:00.004+08:00

Sophie is in NZ, DN just became a gor gor the day before, and Arianne is sick. The 4 of us celebrated on their behalf. :P

The cake was massacred during the cutting ceremony, when 4 plastic knives (tied with 4 different colour ribbons) digged enthusiastically into that poor diary-free cake by ETA Sweets. The cake had the names of the 7 kids on it.

I don't understand......why some parents simply don't THINK.

2009-07-25T23:52:00.003+08:00

I am skipping quite a few posts to vent my frustration here.

Both J's are sick, and my little Jazreel is having croup. She has hoarse breathing and a nasty nasty cough with lotsa phelgm. She's only 8mths going on 9mths and she is on nebuliser.

I am frustrated because I know how this happened.

Scenario
1. gor gor goes to school. meet with sick classmates who's irresponsible parents keep on sending to school. I even noticed 1 girl who sneezed out a bowl full of phelgm all over her face, the teacher just took tissue to clean, and thats it. There are even parents who claim they are "not free" to fetch their kids home when teachers call them to report their child having a fever and pls bring them back. There was a mother who was having a chesty cough and left her brain outside the classroom and enter the class filled with 20 young children, all the while coughing her nice germs into the air, without the courtesy of covering with her hand, turning away, or wearing a mask to protect the kids.

2. gor gor goes to school with these kids and gets sick too.

3. Before he shows sympthoms, he affectionately hugs meimei as usual in the morning, and puts his face close to hers.

4. Once he develops fever later that morning, we kept him from school immediately, and separated him from Jaz for the next few days. But, the contact on Tue morning already infected her. Sigh. She started a sudden phelgmy cough on friday morning, after a night of sleeplessness (awake from 1am-3am from some discomfort which I cannot sense). Saw PD that morning and as she's so young he tries not to prescribe too strong med, only probiotics, prospan (herbal), kaloba (herbal). He said however if she has high grade fever or green mucus to give her gorgor's antibiotics (gorgor tested negative for Type A and B influenza twice, so doc decides to treat it as bacterial). Her cough very quickly develop into this chesty sound when she breathes, and at times can see she has difficulty drawing in an unobstructed breath. that night itself she has 38.8 fever. :( So it gotta be antibiotics.

5. But her cough and phelgmy breathing got so bad I worried whether its wheezing so PD asked us to bring her down again. He diagnosed it as croup. So put her on nebuliser to help her breathing.

I just feel like ranting on and on, but I know it doesn't accomplish anything. We are parents who are careful with hygiene in order to minimise chances of cross infection. We are socially responsible and keep our kids at home if they are sick. And if WE are sick, we wear a mask out despite knowing we look wierd and are inviting strange looks from other folks. So why can't other people do the same? It doesn't take an arm or a leg, just some heart, a dose of social responsibility, a healthy sense of duty. What's so difficult?

I feel so heartpain for Jaz. Her gorgor did not even fall sick at all until he reached 17mths. And now she's barely 9mths and had 2 courses of antibiotics and already knows what's a nebuliser. All because of what?

People who think "it won't happen to me" or "fall sick fall sick loh" should STOP AND THINK. THINK - statistics are made up of real life humans like you or anyone else on the street. There's no such thing as "it won't happen to you". THINK - yes, YOU can afford to fall sick, but what about that poor 14yr old kid with epilepsy, what about that man with pre-existing illness? Everytime ONE SINGLE person falls sick, and KNOWINGLY goes out without wearing a mask, coughing left right centre on the MRT, is exposing someone else more vulnerable to risks. It can be a 6mths old, it can be a 60yr old, or a pregnant mom. Either way,these people do not have the kind of health he has, and may not be so lucky.

We happen also to learn from our PD that he has recently sent a 9mth old boy for H1N1 test. Its positive. Can you imagine what that family is going through???

They say the funniest things!

2009-07-03T22:35:00.008+08:00

Tonight, when Daddy making Jovann sleep, Daddy was wearing a mask coz he's coughing.

Jovann: Hug me, Daddy...
Daddy: No Daddy sick cannot hug you.
Jovann: Did you see doctor??
Daddy: Never..(actually he did)
Jovann: Why never?
Daddy: (joking) no money.
Jovann: I got money...
Daddy: Where?
Jovann: Money outside (referring to his doggy piggy bank in the living room with some coins)
Daddy: ...
Jovann: I give you 1 money ok? One money...(how stingy).

He's been saying he has money very often lately. Just yesterday, he told Ah gong ah ma that he don't want Mommy Daddy to go work. Ah gong explained to him if we don't work no money to buy toys. He insisted he got money, and ran to get the doggy piggy bank, and said a lot of coins inside.

Childhood is wonderful, with all its innnocence.....

He often say "Ah HA!" nowadays when he thought he got the one-up on us. Example, when we pretend Daddy wanna snatch his food (to entice Jovann to eat it up first), and Jov managed to get there first, he will triumphantly yelled "Ah Ha!" hehehehee...

3 nights ago, on the way home from Mama place, Jov is as usual chattering nineteen to the dozen in the car, about everything, anything, under the sun that he can see and hear. Thats the way he usually is, talk non stop during car rides. Except when he knows meimei need to sleep, then with a tremendous effort he will keep quieter.

If I never write down what he said, I will forget them 5mins after I get out from the car. I will develop a pounding headache either through attempting to recall his rapidly switching subjects, strange comments or trying to make sense of it. Heee. Thus this post.

Jovann: (I was showing him the beautiful sunset and how colourful the sky is)....mommy, got Dinosaur! got dinosaur!
Me: where? ooooh yes, that cloud does look like a dinosaur, clever boy!
Jovann: (3 seconds later) We go zoo, then go home...mommy sleep with me..(note, he knows we will pass by the zoo on way home)
Jovann: (looking at passing trees) trees....green and white trees...
Me: where are the white trees? *scratching head*
Jovann: dark blue truck (a dark blue truck was passing by)
Jovann: Light sky only....
Me: Yes, the truck is dark blue, the sky is light blue.
Jovann: Yes..
Jovann: my card at home (referring to my green atm card)...look (holding out his empty hands), don't have.
Jovann: what you doing?....card under letter...sing duck in the bear.....later the monkey.....
Mommy: .....??
Jovann: (suddenly thought of Animal Mechanicals now) Mechana Gizmo!!!
(I turned to look out the window)
Jovann: Why you turn other side actually, tell me now.

We stopped to buy dinner for maid. Daddy brought maid to choose her food, leaving us in the car.
Jovann: Where Daddy go?
Me: Daddy bring Auntie Tursini buy food
Jovann: I don't want Auntie Tursini buy food (nowadays he's always going "I don't want" this, "I don't want" that...)
Me: (patiently explaining) Auntie Tursini need to eat dinner, else she will have stomach pain.
Jovann: Wait Auntie Tursini stomach-ache, got egg (ache) come out. Aunt egg. Egg actually is a ball...
Me: ........

Finally approaching our flat
Jovann: Oooh look, we are home! Everybody's home!

And I only managed to capture less than half of what he's saying during the car ride...

They are so funny now!

Having girls....

2009-06-25T00:52:00.009+08:00

People has been asking me what's it like having a boy and a girl, any different?
Yes there are differences. Interestingly, Jaz is very girl girl when she's young now, and there's a marked difference between her behaviour, developments compared to Jovann at the same age.

* Her cognition is more advanced than her gorgor. Jovann in the first 3-4mths of my breastfeeding never looks at me during nursing, think he sees me as a mommy cow. Only at 4th mth did he held my gaze when nursing. Jazreel started gazing at me during nursing the day she turned 1 mth old. She held my gaze for very very long while I sing her a lullaby again and again. That evening was so sweet to me....
* Her fine motor skills are developed at an earlier stage. When she plays with my hair, she fingers it and plays with a few strands, instead of grabbing a huge chunk like her gorgor. But its still painful. :P
* Her gross motor skills however is slightly more relaxed. She don't seemed as eager or hyperactive as her gorgor in exploring/pushing her physical limits.
* Jaz is more manja, loves to lean her head on your shoulder in a sweet dependent gesture. And she does this very often when someone else wants to carry her. She will lean on you, and smile at the person a trifle defiantly yet with a sweet expression.
* She don't smile that readily at strangers, unlike J at this age is smiling at every uncle and auntie he sees. She's more reserved. But she will laugh unreservedly with people she loves. Ah Ma Ah Gong commented that she laughs as loud as me hehe.
* She's very obliging when having her pedis and manis. seemed to enjoy them. :)
* She is more contented and can play on her own for longer periods of time as a newborn compared to her gorgor.
* Sometimes you hardly know when she's hungry. Coz she don't outright wail for milk at all, sometimes just quietly sucking her thumb loudly, and talk to herself in the cot or rocker. Only when you pick her up and she started rooting when I prepare myself then I realise she's hungry. Many times she's like that in the middle of the night, wake up but quietly talk to herself in the cot. Its only when I sleep with her in room that I can hear that she's awake.

I count my blessings every day to have both Jovann and Jazreel. Both of them are so special in their own way.

On 12 June, her stats:
Weight 8.1kg
Height 68cm tall
Head Circumference 45.5cm

22 June She waved for the first time! Bringing her home from ma ma house, and mama was outside the car waving at her. She suddenly brought up her right hand and did a waving action, resembling her hitting the air in front of her enthusiastically. She's waving!! when we praised her, she's so pleased, she did it again. Daddy craned his neck around in his seat to watch her do it, she looks so cute doing it. We are so pleased. :)

23 June, really crawl for the first time. Got distinct, sustained and coordinated forward motion. Yeah! Daddy caught it on video (Tue morning) to show me. :)

Same day, at mama house, Jazreel was lying on the mattress when the rainbow fish CD is playing in the living room. She held up her hands in front of her and did "dancing motions". hehehee....

24 June
It seemed that she suddenly became harder to carry, and more restless and mobile when being carried. She started climbing up our chest when carrying her. hehehe...and struggles more now too. what happened to my sweet contented Jaz?

She has always been babbling to herself, but now even more of her own conversations than ever. with her cute little "ah....ah....babababa...." Daddy fancies that she's calling him when she says that. :P

The best thing about having a girl, is you can doll her up!!!

her Baby Gap swimsuit (2Y) , too big for her yet hehee.

Jovann's June updates

2009-06-24T23:25:00.016+08:00

His new favourite toy. Bought it at Isetan after a high tea with some mommy friends. Coz before I left the house I promised Jov I am going out to buy him a toy, else he refused to let me know. Oh dear, the things I resorted to. So anyway,after the hightea, Auntie Grace insisted I MUST get him a toy, and she spotted this for me coz I was looking for excavators coz J is into green Rex from Animal Mechanicals now! Although Rex is not strictly an excavator...but try telling that to a 3yr old boy. :P

anyway, he loves this! and he assembled it himself. :P NOw he calls it the "yellow Rex". :P That first night he brought it to bed with him. And every morning when he wakes up he will play.

22 June

We were in the bedroom going through his current favourite book, the N-Z workbook I mentioned in an earlier post. We were doing the letter "X", and when I prompted him for what starts with the letter "X", he went ...." mmmmm.....eXcellent!!" hahahahaa..... so funny...

23 June

This is something he's been saying sometimes. Whenever we responded to a conversation with him and said "Me too!", he will cheekily reply us "Me three.....under the tree!".

??? He can make rhymes! hahahaaa....

That night, Daddy was busy working so I made him sleep. He has gotten so used to Daddy putting him to bed these few weeks that he kept asking for Daddy.

Jovann: I want Daddy...

Mommy: Daddy busy tonight ok, Mommy make sleep.

Jovann: I want Daddy make sleep. Mommy lie up there (indicating our adult bed. The person who makes him sleep will usually lie on the floor mattress with him).

Mommy: Mommy make sleep tonight ok?

Jovann: I dont want Mommy make sleep.

Mommy: (made sad face) you don't want Mommy already? *sad*

Jovann: You know I love you OK? BUT I (still) want you to sleep up there.

MOmmy: ??????

24 June

For some reason, he took out the Gymboree bubble blower tonight and ran around the house pretending its an Olympic torch, coz he shoved the blower in all of our faces, and yelled "Fire! Fire!"

Then he suddenly put the thing on his chest, thrusted out his chest towards me, and said "Mommy drink milk!"

Ah ma was looking for tissue, and J wanted to help, saying “我帮你拿tissue", but in the process hit his lips against the corner of the table and got a mild cut. He was so manja, and wanted all of us to sayang him. he even asked me in a tearful voice to hug him and sing twinkle twinkle little star, right there in the middle of the bright living room. I noticed he's been more in need of hugs and assurances laterly. I must be more conscious of this....

Some of the letters he traced on his favourite writing book. The more unsteady ones are his of course.

He wrote the "A" here himself. As he wrote, he muttered "Up....down....across" hehehe like Daddy taught him.

A morning with my son

2009-06-23T22:40:00.007+08:00

Early June

Brought him to Jacob Ballas sand pit on a weekday morning, just like I promised him around 4mths ago.

Took a cab there, and I brought along his sand toys! The weather was hot hot hot, but he enjoyed himself all the same. We played, scooped, built, flung....yes he flung...flung some sand at some jiejies on a field trip. Hhmmm.....

Having fun fun fun....

Even the lunch was fun. Now that he chews rather well and likes fish, I was looking fwd to having lunch with him at this cafe. I ordered fish and chips, and a large cheese dog set to share. He ate like half of the huge cheese dog, and 1 of the 2 big slices of fish fillet, and some chips. I am very very pleased!

The photo of the butterfly on the table is taken by him.

Before

After

Jovann chasing birds after a satisfying meal. He even drank around 2/3 cup of orange juice, then asked for apple juice.

Later, on the way home in the cab....he was playing with my wallet, and asking me to take out the coins let him play.

Jovann: I want to play coins

Mommy: I am sorry but the coins are dirty

Jovann: (indicating my bag) got water, got water inside

Mommy: uh huh....

Jovann: take out water, use water clean coins...

Mommy: .....

Jovann: Then I can play.....

Jovann is 2yrs 9mths already? And 1st unaccompanied swim!

2009-06-23T00:15:00.009+08:00

2 Sundays ago (14 June)

Today is a groundbreaking day in swimming history.
Heeee....Jovann has his first real unaccompanied lesson at his Sunday class.

The fathers stay on the ground, burning under the hot sun, while the kids went into the pool with only the coach.

Exciting! J swim very short tiny laps, and swam with the noodle by himself.

We are ALL SO PROUD of them!
**

**

Jovann turns 33 months last week. I can't believe that he will be 3 yrs old in 3 months time.

What is Jovann like at 2 yrs 9mths old?

* Took his latest weight and height 6 days ago when we brought him and Jaz for jabs at PD.
Height = 98cm
Weight = 14.2kg

Woo hoo! 98cm?? we couldn't believe our ears. Thats like 2 cm short of 1metre? They are growing SO fast? Its scary isn't it? What happened to my little boy.....?

* He used to be a chatterbox who asked non stop questions during car rides, no end to his comments, probes, songs. But recently, I noticed that when for example Jaz is sleeping in the sling in the car, and J knows he's supposed to keep quiet, he's very nicely obliging, and is capable of keeping quiet for longer periods of time (only in the car). He can stare out of the window and watch the passing scenery for a while, or play with a toy in his hand, without asking me any questions or commenting anything. Pls note though that this only happens in the car hahaha.

* He says "here" as "S-here"

* He has become more and more sensitive to our moods, and when we raised our voices in discussion or argument, or looks upset at something, he will ask us "Mommy, are you happy?" Its his way of asking if we are angry, the way he asks seems to imply he wish to assure himself that we are happy. Everytime he ask me this, I soften and find that whatever that's irritating me is so trivial and does not warrant my son's anxiety.

* He's been asking more and more "WHY" questions now.....

* He can build things himself using the Junior Engineers set. On 11 June he build himself something he called a snake. :P

* Daddy showed J recently a photo of J in sunglasses and sports jersey, looking especially cool.

Daddy: Is he handsome?
Jovann: YES!!
Daddy: Do you know who this is?
Jovann: Yes, its Jovann!
Daddy: (teasing) No, its my new darling son....
Jovann: NOT handsome!!! (then grabbed the phone from Daddy when Daddy tried to hug the phone closer to him).

* He recently pretended to be a doctor. We were taken aback when during our bedtime snuggling, he suddenly lifted up our t-shirts and started doing tapping motions with both hands that doctors do when checking tummy for air. He did this quite correctly and thoroughly, then pronounced us "Ok!". When we continued gazing at him curiously, wondering when did he pick that up, he told us matter of factly "Like Dr Gong." hehee...

* After his that first unaccompanied swim, he came and proudly showed Jaz how he swam on his own, then asked Jaz "You saw that???" HOw on EARTH did he get the tense correct?

Jovann saying his prayers

2009-06-22T23:46:00.002+08:00

For the past 1-2months now, Daddy has been teaching Jovann to say his prayers every night at bedtime. J has happily done so, and have been repeating after Daddy every single sentence. Gradually, he has shown signs that he can remember the lines, and many a times just need prompting of the first few words before he can complete that sentence and the next.

And tonight, Daddy is SO PROUD OF HIM. Jovann recited nearly 95% of the entire 2 prayers on his own, with hardly any prompting! In his adorable cute voice....

***The Lord's Prayer***
Our father in heaven, holy be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins.
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us from evil. Amen

***Hail Mary***
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

He also does the "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen" complete with actions perfectly.

Why the long absence

2009-06-22T22:40:00.006+08:00

What's the reason for my absence? It’s been 2mths since my last post. I figured I better get my butt moving else Jov and Jaz would be teenagers and I would have forgotten their precious baby years and my fingers would be stiff with arthritis and can’t type.

The longer one “abstain” from blogging and instead spent those nights reading books OR making their kids sleep, many times dozing away with them in my work clothes, OR watching re-runs of FRIENDS with hubby while pumping (or munching Caramel Corns or icecream), the harder it is to restart one’s engines. I contented myself with scribbling and making notes of their development milestones and new quirks in my notebook and handphone in the meanwhile.

(Note: the 6 posts before these, after "Starting Solids" were post-dated)

Why the absence?

***My 200GB external harddisk is full. Yes. 200GB. F-U-L-L. I think that’s to be expected from an over zealous mom with 2 cameras at home with 2 kids to boot. So, I couldn’t organize any more photos, couldn’t edit them thus couldn’t blog, until I get my new 640GB HDD. Hahaha. And hey, now the new HDD is here, sleek and black with piano finish. Swanky…..

***I completed reading the entire series of the riveting and exhilarating vampire series by Stephenie Meyers. It got me hooked. I know, I am no longer a teenager and I have 2 kids and a piece of flab I used to call my tummy. But I am still a female right? Much as I disliked that heroine in the book when she’s human, the story line got me reading the 4 books during breakfast, lunch, dinner, on the bus, on the taxi, in the toilet, once even when nursing Jaz (hubby threw me a contemptuous look), during my lunch hour at work whether I dine in or out, during my pumping in the office and at home. And boy, was the ending worth it.

***The passing of my dear maternal grandmother. She was 79. I am mentioning this here because I want Jovann and Jazreel to remember her as I remember her. She, whom has been asking my mother 4 yrs ago whether I am pregnant yet, were not even aware that she has 3 great grandchildren before she passed away on 26 May 09. 3 yrs 11months ago, she was still an energetic old lady. Though 76, she takes public transport by herself from Redhill to BP to deliver goodies to me and my mother, eldest of her 7 children (6 daughters and 1 son). It could be something we have mentioned we like, or some little purse or clothing that she happened to acquire recently.

She nagged, she scolded, she mistrusted people. But she has a heart of gold. How else could you explain how a woman would singlehandedly (my grandfather is not the fatherly type) bring up 7 kids, only 1 of them her own flesh and blood? 2 of these kids are adopted, and the other 4 are fathered by my grandfather. No complains that I can hear of, no discrimination that I can see, just simple love and care for all 7, and all their children, her grandchildren. I admire her resilience, her enthusiastic attitude in life. She didn’t receive education, but one doesn’t need education to teach others how to love.

Then, the hours of panic and frantic searching 3yrs 11mths ago when she went missing. The eventual find at the scene of an attempted robbery gone wrong and violent. She was bedridden since then, no awareness of her loved ones, no recognition in her eyes, no speech. For 3 yrs 11mths. She didn’t even know I was pregnant with Jovann half a year later, didn’t know that the great grandchildren she has been waiting for are now born. Not 1, but 3 (2 boys 1 girl).

Jov and Jaz will never see her travelling from Redhill to BP delivering goodies, never taste her CNY steamboat which has been my favourite event every CNY for years of my life, never see her bustling around making sure all of us have enough of our favourite ingredients, making sure the soup is full. Simple love but so warm and true and many times just taken for granted. I trust my kids will be old enough to handle this reality by the time they can understand this blog. I just want them to know they have 2 great grandmothers who would have loved them had they known their existence.

My paternal grandmother has passed away many years ago, but I still remember her vividly as the grandmother who brought me up when I was a baby and toddler, before my mom stopped work. I remembered how, even in my sec and JC days, I will go to her house to stay nights, and she will zealously go market to buy my favourite foods to cook all 3 meals for me. I remember how I crave her home cooked simple and nutritious teochew dishes, how we shared the same tastes, how I persuade my dad to cook the same way.

I definitely also remember how she cooked dried noodles every day for my breakfast, using instant noodles but her own concocted sauce that got me salivating at 1st whiff. How we sat at the ledge between her kitchen and living room and I taught her how to fold hearts and cranes from bus tickets and papers. How I gazed intently when she wrapped her homemade cigarettes, how she fan herself with her rattan fan when the weather’s hot, how we settle down on the sofa to watch TV together. Remember her disappointed eyes when I said I am going back home the next day. Worst, I will always feel indebted and guilty towards her, for not spending more time with her when she’s around.

I hope Jovann and Jazreel will grow up to be children and adults who will not take their loved ones for granted when these loved ones are alive, and be respectful, loving and filial. May they be true to their hearts, and do nothing that would leave them a lifetime of regret when someone leaves them. I hope my children will live rich and fulfilling lives and emulate the very qualities they want my grandchildren to have.

All about my 2 darlings in June

2009-06-22T14:15:00.011+08:00

**************Jazreel*****************

1 June, Daddy called me on the phone and told me he win again. Turns out Jaz started off by calling Daddy first before Mommy, same like Jovann! Brrrr!!!! Just now when she playing on her back in the living room at Ma Ma place, she suddenly said "pa pa pa pa" for the first time. I am jealous! Hhmmph.

4 June, when she woke up in the night (before our own bedtime again), she was complaining when I got to her cot. At one point, she said "ma ma ma ma" hehehe y heart melted quickly carried her up and soothed her that Mommy's here.

She has been clasping her hands together under her chin, in front of her chest, when she laughs. A adorably unique gesture of hers that’s so girlish and endearing. Hehehe.

The 2 siblings adore each other. In the morning, when they see each other e.g. in her bedroom, she will squeal with delight at her gorgor, smiling at him through the bars of her cot, and he would be calling “meimei…meimei…”, “hello meimei!”, “hello Jazreel….”, "I want to hug meimei……”, sometimes making the cluck clucking sound we sometimes do to play with her, and if she fusses, he will say “orh lah orh lah” in the same way we do when soothing her. Its really warming and cute to see both their eyes light up when they see each other. If Jaz comes to our bed in the morning, Jov will want to bao bao her, and will imitate each and every action that she does like flinging himself down on the bed, down to the squeals and “aaahhhhh!!!” that Jaz makes. At times like this, hubby and I are blissfully contented lying in bed observing the 2 of them playing.

3 kids riding bike.

Jaz has always love having something tickling her face, be it my hair, a pillow case, our small pillow (when playing peekaboo without Jov present), fabric. She will laugh, squeal, and kick her legs so energetically when we do that.

Saturday 6 June 09
**Jaz first time deliberately dropping toys from the high chair. When feeding her, she picked up a toy, lifted it over the edge of the table, and dropped it onto the floor with a crash. She peered down to watch its downward motion. Hehehee…

**She has started rocking on her knees, when on all fours, as if preparing to spring forward 5 metres. Very cute watching her do it, wondering when’s her next action.

**And on the changing table, she loves it when I feign pain or shock when she kick out and her little feet connect with my tummy or chest. I often do that now to soothe her coz now she sometimes fuss when put on the changing table unlike last time.

Photo taken by bo liao Daddy on a Monday (15 June) at home with the kids.

11 June Thursday
She moved into a sitting position from her back all on her own the first time today! She’s 7.5months old. I think the reason why she only did it only now is she has always been quite a contented baby, happy in her position and had no urgent desire to stress herself. To her, the world looks interesting enough from her vantage point on her back or tummy, and of course she has learnt how to sit unsupported since 6mths. But now that she discovered this ability to move from tummy down to sitting up, she soon waste no time lying down. :P Its so fun watching her do it again and again. I missed it the first time, and the 2nd, 3rd time, but eventually saw it on the playmat on an evening when Ah Gong, Ah Ma, and Jovann was all around the mat, watching Jaz. Many times I cheered too early and she lost focus, but eventually she “performed” it for me. :P Her way of doing it is different from Jov, she pushed herself backwards and her 2 legs hardly get stuck under her bum coz they are wide at the sides.

We recently noticed also that she loves shaking her leg, especially her right leg, either when she’s drinking milk, when she’s eating, or sometimes even when she’s being carried. This is so me! When I was young, my parents told me I shake my legs under the table when eating something I enjoy. :P

***************Jovann*********************

15 June 09 Monday
I was wearing the flowing patterned skirt, and when I reached home that day, he touched my skirt, looked up at me, and asked me “Mommy, are you princess?” Awwwww……… I don’t know is it coz he linked princess to flowy ball gowns, or did he just suddenly find me exuding poise and elegance (the latter is highly unlikely, as he was looking more at the skirt than me), but it sure feels good when someone, your own son lagi better, ask you that question. Or am I just hopelessly vain? Ok, humour me. :P

22 June 09 Monday
The past week, he has been bringing his latest favourite book to bed with him. Its the N-Z alphabet workbook which I bought from second hand bookstore near my work place. Its so cheap, but so fun. It has stickers of objects starting with letters N-Z (I can't find the A-M one), big letters with tracing dots for the kids to trace on (he trace with his fingers), and words of objects too. We play "find the word" games with him, and he also love looking for the right picture sticker to go with the word on that page. Its fun to him, so it makes us happy too. For the past 3-4 nights, he's been asking to bring the book to bed with him when I make him sleep. Just last night, Daddy was the one making him sleep again and he wanted to bring the book to bed. Initially Daddy desist, then Jovann told Daddy "Mommy say OK". Heeee....

The same night tonight, he had brought his Bus and sponge into the bathroom with him. He left them in the shower area after he's done with the bath. When being towelled dry by Daddy, he looked towards the shower area and said "B" and "S". Daddy looked confused for a moment, and J repeated "B" and "S". Then Daddy realised that J was telling him Bus and Sponge starts with the letters "B" and "S". Hahaha....

When reading the "When you Give A Mouse A Cookie" book for him tonight (its been a long long time since I read this), he insisted on reading it himself, and he started every 3-4 stories in the book with "Once Upon A Time....", and made up stories as he went. So cute. :)

The Tooth Fairy has come! And other of Jaz's May Milestones...

2009-05-25T22:29:00.004+08:00

Tooth Fairy

12 May, Jazreel’s 1st tooth is out!!! She is 6.5months old! 5 days ago, both of us saw it nearly peeking out, and today, ah ma called us when we were at work, telling us the maid said Jaz’s teeth is really out! So exciting, what a milestone! I was peeved though that I was not the one who saw it. My guess that she would cut her first tooth earlier than 7mths was right. Interesting. :P

24 May, 7mths old. 2nd tooth is out too! Now she has officially 2 teeth in her mouth, and is officially non-bohgey. :P I was previously peeved that I wasn’t the one who noticed her 1st tooth, so I was determined to be the first to notice her 2nd tooth! Hahaha.

Playing with gorgor the day her 2nd tooth came out.

Many precious things about JAZREEL…

Around the time she turned 6months, I started massaging for her at night. Initially I used Buds Baby Lotion, and now I am using California baby after I finished Buds. But I still prefer the texture and scent of Buds. Hhmmm….so I just bought another tube. :P Jaz loves being massage. Initially she gazed at me curiously, wondering what I am doing to her. Then, she started to smile when my palms move around her chest, her hands, and her legs. After that, every night she will know what’s coming when I start rubbing my palms together to warm up the cream. She will pause what she’s doing (usually chewing some changing table toys), gaze at me, and once my hands touched her, she will smile, esp when I massage the thighs haha. So sweet. But when I do her little feet and toes, she will flinch and pull away hehehe. Ticklish.

A few days after my previous post about her waking up at night (before we sleep) and demanding to be carried, her pattern changed. She still cries many times before we sleep (she used to stay quiet from her 9pm bedtime to 8plus am the next morning), that is, between 8.30pm-12midnight, but once she sees you in the room and feel your hand on her, she turns to one side and continues to sleep. She just want the pressure of the hand on her, the knowledge of your presence. This is her pattern betw 6 to 7 mths of age. :P

She loves sleeping on her side now, many times when putting her down for nap, she will even turn in my arms when I am putting her down halfway, resulting in her stuck in an awkward position in my arms heheh. Even the maid commented she’s suddenly easier to put to nap. She may cry out when she hits the bed, eyes half opened, but within seconds will turn on her side and doze. Very cute.

This is the way she turns around in her hairchair to follow me when I go into the kitchen, and her endearing way of tilting her head such that it rests on the table, peering at me.

20 May Wednesday.

Ah Ma told us about this when we reached home. Jaz didn't like the lunch she was having (parsnips and spinach) so she turned her head when the spoon came. She kept doing this but it didnt work, so in the end she decided to flung her head down on the table, so there's no way they can spoon food into her mouth!!! hahahahaaa!!! so clever... :P

She has a label festish! Noticeable since she turns 6+ months! She likes to find labels or label-like attachments on toys, be in fabric, plastic, Velcro, and she would chew very enthusiastically on it, contented-like. Just like this photo, this is one of the 4 cubes in the toy, but she always search this blue cube out determinedly because that’s the only one with labels. The poor cube doesn’t have a chance.

25 May, she has started to lunge forwards on the playmat in her attempt to reach something in front of her. A sudden lunge that would propel her 10-20 cm forward. Guess it’s a prelude to crawling…

Things she does on the high chair and her jubulent mood in the morning. :)

27 May

The maid carried Jaz out of the room after a failed attempt to make her sleep. Jaz was so happy when I carried her over, that she turned back to smile at the maid, with mouth big big. She did this 3 times, then suddenly shouted distinctly and triumphantly "Ah Dah"! Her first deliberate words?? hehehee!

Jovann is 32 months old

2009-05-18T20:53:00.011+08:00

He's growing up and he say's the darnest things:

## When I ask him to go and sleep and when he wakes up we can go ride bike, he will argue and negotiate "ride bicycle first then sleep!!!"

## When I accidentally knock onto him and I exclaimed and wanted to sayang him, he assured me "its okie, its not your fault"

## The evening I asked him to help me play with meimei while I have my dinner, he said "OK!" obligingly. But a minute later, he called the maid over and said "Auntie, sit down here......., look after meimei ok?? Ok! Byebye!" and ran off to watch TV.

## I love you very much you know???

## Told meimei (when she don't want to finish that last 100ml of EBM) "meimei, Mommy make milk for you to drink. Milk good for you!"

## Asking us "your sure" only it comes out "you fhwa"?

He's better with colouring within pictures now. Though his strokes are still rough, but he tries to colour within. These are colouring pages I have downloaded off the net on his favourtie cartoon. He was super excited to see them.

somemore...

He's been singing these songs at night and asking me to sing with them. I love the way he sings them in his off pitch voice, and sometimes making up lyrics hehee.
* Skinamarinky Dinky Ding, Skinamarinky Do....I love you.... (except he sings it "Shinga shinga The Ring, Shinga Shinga The Ring....." hahahahaa!)
* Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
* 一闪一闪亮晶晶
* Sing a Rainbow (the enthusiastic off pitch way he sings the chorus always tickles me no end)
* "Jesus song"
* Incey Wincey Spider
* This Little Piggy

When he wanna ask us to wait for him to do something, he will say "Wait Daaaahhh!" with his palm out twds us.

When I draw open the curtains in the morning and the bright sunlight suddenly comes in, he will cover meimei eyes with his palm, in an attempt to shield her from the sudden glare. Only his aim is so bad he usually end up clasping his palm on her forehead instead. But the idea is there. :)

He is always happy to see her in the morning and will give her a hug

He loves to have me lie down my head on his lap when we sit in the car, if meimei is not with us. Then he will stroke my hair, play with my hair and head gently.Daddy always get jealous coz J dun ask him to lie down nor will J be so gentle hehee.

Since a month ago, Daddy started using tooth floss with the bedtime teeth brushing routine, and surprisingly Jov likes it! Every night, he will ask for "tooth floss". Thanks Rina for that idea!

There are jealous times of course. When I carry Jaz, sometimes he will gaze at me with that look on his face as if trying to find a word to what he's feeling. After some internal struggle, he will look up at me and ask "I want mommy baobao".

He made up this funny rhyme himself a week ago, bits and pieces from 2 original nursery rhymes.
"6 little piggies went to the town!
upstairs and downstairs
wee oh wee go home!"

1st Real Bike

2009-05-18T20:50:00.007+08:00

Jovann got his first bike on Sunday 9 May 09. How excited he was! We were in the bicycle shop watching the uncle fix up his first ride, and he actually stay riveted throughout. He only fidgets when trying to get closer to touch the bicycle parts or finger something on the floor. We had a hard time preventing him from picking up every single piece on the floor, or keeping him calm enough for the whole of the 40mins which was the uncle’s estimate need to put the bicycle together. Never have I seen him so focused on something haha.

I think in this photo he's trying to imitate Uncle doing the screws and bolts.

Yeah almost there!

Finally, he’s done! A new shiny blue bike with the words “BMX” on the handlebar, complete with a little basket and a cute little bell. J kept ringing that bell more than riding it initially. We let him do his antics all the way to our car.

His first ride on a real bike.

That day, went downstairs to let him practice riding his bike. We spent an hour downstairs, part of which is at a playground, but he spent most of the time pedaling backwards, and refused to listen to us teaching him.

That evening, we took a step back, took a deep breath, and let him play on his own, restraining ourselves through a huge effort from “teaching” him, since he so obviously didn’t want like it. He told us in no uncertain terms “I want to learn myself!” and “I don’t want to listen.”. So we let him do that. Interestingly, within 10mins, he figured out how to pedal it so that he can move forward. Steering on the other hand has never been a problem, and now he can move. The only thing is, he is only pushing down with his right foot, meaning the pedals only get to go halfcycle all the time. :P Nevermine, let him “learn himself”. Better for our blood pressure anyway.

We still have lotsa fun riding outside the gate in the lift landing. He has a kick out of chasing after me, and he’s quite fast even with 1 pedal. :P We even bought a nice blue bicycle helmet for him, kid size. He simply loves it.

But in the shop he kept pretending he wants the pink helmet instead.

Then one day, on 15 June, about the 5th time he rode his bike, he figured it out. Now he’s faster and he’s really cycling!!! He was so so pleased. Hubby called me on the phone to tell me the news (It was Monday and hubby was the house daddy that day), and I praised Jov excitedly and asked him to show me when I get home. He was so proud of himself. :P That evening, he got so excited he was jumping up and down and yelling “Yeah! Yeah! I want to ride bicycle!!!” when I prepared the bike and put on that nice blue helmet for him heee.

***

***

Happenings in May

2009-05-11T20:52:00.012+08:00

Labour Day Long Weekend

Friday - Went swimming at SCC with Ah Gong and Ah Ma. Was so fun, though Ah Gong was not familiar with J's comfort level in the water and was too protective resulting in increasing J's anxiety level and him swallowing some water as a result. :P Ah Ma had a nice massage in the changing room while I washed up for Jov. We had lunch at the cafe again. Had dinner that night with Ah Gong Ah Ma too.

Saturday - Brought Jovann to breakfast at coffee shop. Then we went to Greenridge and bought a dinosaur kite for him, he was so excited. :) Had a motorcar ride at the Plaza.

Had a great time with Reubern and Rochelle that evening at Sentosa's Songs of the Sea!!!

Do you know why he's standing there so lost?

Because of the speakers behind us, can you see? He said it looks like "an angry face"....he was appraising it warily throughout that pre-show 30mins.

Daddy has been the official pedi and manicurist of Jazreel ever since my clumsy attempt few months back where I took off a tiny bit of her flesh together wth her nails. :P I admit hubby has been better at this than me. I am more squeamish than calm, and my nervousness probably translated to mistakes. But Jaz is a Good customer. She hardly fusses when being trimmed. Look at her sitting so prim and proper on Daddy's lap while getting her nails done. :)

8 May weekend

Sunday:

That night, brought him down for the first time to the motorcar ride in Greenridge. The uncle was hesitant at first to let him take the car when he heard he's only 2.5yrs old. But he was amazed J can steer properly throughout that 15mins. J having so much fun but he has this bad habit of staring at other kids/cars and not watching where he was going! A few times hubby gotta intervene to prevent him rushing headlong into someone. But there were a few times J did deliberately brushed shoulders with some gorgor on another car, for the thrill of it.

Jaz has started to crawl forward, but very subtly. She will push herself fwd on her legs but still lack the strength to move more than 2 inches fwd. But she's moving a bit at a time. :)

16 May

Jaz's first time on the potty.:P See how miffed she looks, you can tell she really don't like sitting there, unlike her gorgor who loved it at 5mths.

Daddy servicing his princess in her weekly manicure.

Brush with UTI?

2009-05-10T22:29:00.000+08:00

Jaz just recovered from a bout of suspected UTI.

She woke up at 3.30am on Wed (6 May) morning with a 38.9degree fever.

Visit to PD next day and tested her urine (only traces were collected in the urine bag coz it took a long time for her to pee and some leaked) and found presence of bacteria. As UTI is left untreated in young children may damage kidneys, PD's SOP is always to start them on course of antibiotics first before the full urine culture comes out.

So poor Jaz took her antibiotics, and her mommy feel so heartpained.

However, when the culture came out, the following Monday, it says "mixed bacteria". It didn't say the name of any predominant bacteria but at that moment we didn't know the significance of this. By now Jaz's fever has already gone since 24hours after that 1st antibiotics dose, and we went back to see PD at the end of her course as instructed. He explained to us the necessity of further invasive tests, and another 28 day course of antibiotics as a "preventive measure" before these tests. By now, the terms "radioactive dye", "DNSA", "MCU" etc etc already rings a bell due to all the reading up the past few days.

Reluctance to submit her to such tests and that extra antibiotics prompted us to spend the whole day seeking 2nd opinions. We had length conversations with 1 other PD, and personally visited a 3rd PD, both of whom are nephrologists (kidney specialists). What they said put our mind at ease, and helped us realise the significance of the urine culture results, or lack of. And we made our decision not to do those extra tests.

It was a draining 1 week, and during the period before we spoke to these 2 paedestric nephrologists, hubby and I felt so lost and bewildered and pained, at the thought of putting her through those procedures which has such high amount of radiation.

This is Jaz's temp monitored those few days.
The pink squares are when paracetamol was administered and the orange ones are nurofen.

Starting solids

2009-04-30T23:08:00.006+08:00

25 April Saturday.The day Jaz tasted something else other than breastmilk for the first time.I was so excited and happy about this weaning, and approached the day with anticipation and curiousity. Keen to find out her reaction to food. I even took 3 day's morning leave for the following week to be with her for this.

Her first foods.

1st Day-2tbs of Brown Rice Cereal

She gave me a funny face when she first tasted, but thereafter continued opening her mouth for it. She even grabbed my spoon to put into her mouth!It was a messy business, cereal all over her mouth, questionable expressionon her face, laughter from me. Even my maid was looking on and chuckling.Fun! She finished all.

I like her with this funny expression. :P

Day 2 - 3tbs of Brown Rice Cereal

Same as the day before, finished it all!

Day 3 - 4tbs of Brown Rice CerealFinished it all!

Day 4 - After 3 consecutive days of cereal. Time for something else! 4tbs of Brown Rice Cereal + pureed pumpkin.

Oooh...what a face she made. hehee. She was taken aback at the sweet strong taste of pumpkin I think.

Now, 23 days after she started weaning, with a 3 day break in between when she wasn't feeling well (more of that later), she has tried and given verdict for the following foods. In order of sequence of introduction.

Those she likes and can finish easily :
*Avocado
*Banana
*Papaya
*Broccoli (but this one depends on mood)

Those she DON't like (made a face, turned away, pushed away spoon, refusal to open mouth, gagged almost every spoon) :
organic pumpkin
fresh organic scrapped apple
steamed organic pureed apple

baby organic yogurt

Those she's neutral to OR cannot tell her preference coz she starting showing signs of tiredness when eating halfway OR like it one day but lukewarm the next :
fresh scrapped pear
Organic Carrots
pureed steamed pear

butternut squash

Tried Butternut squash, same family as pumpkin but I am banking on the more buttery texture (which I gather she likes from her preference for avocadoes and bananas) to score a point. But, dun seem enthusiastic leh.

I have also changed to Healthy Times Oatmeal Cereal and Billamy's Baby Rice instead of the HT Brown Rice, in case that's whats causing her hard stools which started on 3rd day of weaning. Also feeding her more water now.

No more nice smelling TBF "tao suan" stools. :( Although her TBF stools, unlike her brother's back then, is more smooth in consistency and bright yellow in colour, with a distinct tangy aroma. Hahahahaha pardon for sounding like a lousy food connoiseur, but I have a certain parental interest in how my kids TBF stools are like. :P

Sigh...somehow after the recent fever episode, she seemed more fussy about food. She used to open her mouth willingly for nice cereal, but now she will only open her mouth to things she really likes.Avocadoes so far are a fail safe. Even papayas also dun score a point every time. Tomorrow will be trying bananas again, as its the first fruit she tried and finished completely during 1st weaning. Hope it dun disappoint.

Not sure if its the antibtiotics that made her lose appetite. I really hope its not. I already feel heartpained as it is.

She's unlike her brother in that if she really don't wanna eat, she really will stubbornly keep her mouth close. Even if you make her smile, she's cautious. Even when she's protesting and "crying", she can cry with her mouth clamped tight shut, with the upper lip even slightly curled down over the bottom lip. Her brother at her age, despite now being quite a fussy eater, was easy to coax to open his mouth by making him laugh or when he's crying hehee.

Sigh...to think that I was even gleefully anticipating that she's much easier to feed considering her interest in our food at a young age, and considering her enthusiasm at the start. :(

Diaper Cakes

2009-04-27T22:36:00.005+08:00

6 months ago, I recieved a lovely diaper cake from my teammates at work, for Jazreel's arrival. I gazed at it everyday, and it was the centrepiece at Jazreel's full month celebration. Silly me even left the tulle protector on when taking photos. drats.

2 months later, I ordered one for a friend who has just given birth to her first child - Ryan. As her hubby is a Man U fan like J's daddy, 2 of us friends decided to get for her a Man U theme diaper cake. It's fully customised and looks super cute!

Then, last mth, another friend from our same group had her first child, Lucas. Diaper cake again! this time it was "requested" by the mommy herself before her birth. Both her and her hubby wants their son to be healthy and sporty when he grows up. I asked the lady to customise a brand new mommy+sports theme for her.

Baby Spa

2009-04-26T16:03:00.010+08:00

The day (27 April) after Jaz turns 6months, I am on leave. In fact, I took morning half day leave for the next 3 days to ease Jaz into her solid feeding routine. I want to be the first one to introduce solid and new foods to her. :)

In fact, I had grand plans. In the next 3 mornings, I planned to do the following:

- Introduce solids to Jaz

- Bring Jaz to baby spa swimming

- Bring Jovann to play sand at Jacob Ballas

- Bring Jovann for trial art class

Ambitious? no what. but due to rain on Tue, Jacob Ballas was shelved. Then due to Jaz waking up late from her nap on Thur, I wasn't in time for the art class. So we only managed to do the first 2 on my list. Heee...

Jaz waking up in the morning, fresh in her new yellow daisy PJs from the night before. :)

Baby Spa! The jiejie massaged and played with Jaz to warm her up physically and emotionally. According to her, this is to get Jaz used to her and the environment, so she won't be too fussy later on when we lower her into the water.

Jaz looked miffed when she put on the neck float for her though, but who would want such a thing around the neck. Her resistance melted however when she entered the luke warm water. She floated there quietly for some time, then discovered she can create funny motions when she kick her legs, and she started kicking with a vengence. Very soon, she was enjoying herself so much at times she bounced off the walls of the tub.

That night, brought J to try the new jap ramen near our place. Yummy! and we ordered a kiddy meal for Jovann. Its the FIRST time we did that. Perhaps this is not uncommon to other parents with a 2.5yr old kid. But as J refused to chew until recently, this ordering of a kiddy meal is a first for us. So it marks an event worth remembering hehee. He has his own homecooked soup, and this plate of teriyaki chicken with rice.

I wanted to take pic of the car itself but J wanted to pose hehee.

Jazreel's 6months!

2009-04-26T16:02:00.024+08:00

Jazreel turned 6months old on 26 April. Its a Sunday!

True to the tradition of how babies in our family turn 6mths (eerrr.... so far only Jovann lah), I treated the 6mth old princess to a milk bath. :) Hehehe!

She was fussing when we put in, coz its one of the rare times we bathed her in the bathroom, and also the first time the bath water is white. But once she's in the water and realised it feels nicely warm and watery, she relaxed and enjoyed herself tremendously. There's 3 little new sailboats bobbing in the milky depths.

Fresh after her bath, I placed her on the bed to let her practise sitting. Today she can balance so well! She will wobble precariously, sometimes finding her balance by pushing herself on the pillow beside her, sometimes falling backwards with a smile hehe. Love the way she wobbles.

Next, balloons galore!!! Daddy blewed up these balloons, and after I sat Jaz down in her bumbo, Jovann happily helped me carried all the balloons from the tv area to this cosy corner for meimei. one by one. Then helped her play with them. Jaz wanting to grab the pretty coloured balloons to have a munch.

I started her on solids yesterday, so today is her 2nd time enjoying it. Its 3 tbps today, and she finished all of it again!

Off we go to Lucas full month!

The peranakan spread was yummy, and I fed Jovann his food while Jaz lie contentedly in her infant carrier. Auntie Hanzi came to play with her after a while, and chided her for being so unladylike with her legs. Heee...

I took this 2 lovely photos of Daddy and kids. Eh, not easy to get both of them looking and smiling at the cam at the same time leh.

That night, we ordered pizza delivery as we wanted to watch the Star Awards hehee. After dinner, Jaz and Jov played balloons together, with me carrying Jaz to hit the floating balloons with her hands. She enjoyed it, but I later realised she loved laughing at gor gor play with the balloons without me doing anything. She chuckled and gurgled and squealed with delight hehe.

***

Jazreel wobbling on the sofa tonight.

***

She's 7.6kg today.Daddy weighed her. :)

Daddy also took a photo of her thunder thighs earlier today when playing with her on our bed.

Daddy playing catch-the-caterpillar with her to make her crawl. She has been making this free style swim stroke, or what babycentre calls the tumbleweed motion, for 2 weeks now.She started it 2 weekends ago, when she could, by way of rolling left and right seemingly at leisure, she could read a toy placed a distance away on the bed or playmat. Her gorgor started with this too before crawling. ;)

She's really really kaypoh. I cannot nurse her outside when there's distracting things for her to see. Even if we are in an empty room, she will cran her neck and arch her back to look around her and observe her surroundings with curious eyes. If I wish to nurse her, I usually will have to do it in the privacy of the car, and sometimes even need a nursing bib to cover her inquisitive eyes. Else I risk getting exposed.

This is what she usually do.

When she's 4.5mths, she has started on 180ml of milk per feed for the 3 EBM bottle feeds a day. And around 2 weeks before she turned 6mths, I increased her bottle to 200ml per feed and she can finish it sometimes. I still has not idea how much she latch from me in the morning and at night, though I am guessing around 80-120ml (morning) and 200ml at night.

My pumping amount in the morning is still 200-240ml and at each of the 2 work pumps around 180-200ml.

She no longer fall asleep quietly on her own at night. :( Now around 10-15mins after putting her down, she will wake up and cry. At this time, she will ask for only me, and don't want hubby or the maid for some reason. She will stop crying once I carry her over. After some soothing she will go back to sleep. Though I wonder what changed, I do treasure this night soothing time hen I feel so needed.

She used to be able to sleep 12hours straight at night from 9pm-9am remember? Now she wakes up earlier, around 7plus am, making her nighttime sleep down to 10hrs. Her nap still remains around thrice a day on weekends though, ranging fronm 1-2hours each.

For some reason, she hates pumpkins!

She is also so used to sleeping alone in her own cot she can't sleep well when in the room with us betw hubby and me. I try to do this on weekends, but end up all of us don't sleep well as a result. Heee.

She also has her gorgor's cheeky smile, and seems to be starting to bully him by kicking him, pulling his hair etc. But gorgor don't mind. Sometimes he asked "I want meimei kick me" and laughs when she does that.

All about Jovann

2009-04-26T16:01:00.014+08:00

Few days ago, I just finished reading a parenting book (it dwells on the question of how a child's emotional capacity grows in his first 3 yrs and the ideal kind of environment, home or childcare, it needs), which happened to mention that a young child's discipline is best shaped by a person he loves, since that person's opinion and approval holds some weight in that child's heart. If anyone who just has a casual or short term aquaintance with the child tries to discipline him, the effect of that is not lasting. As the child does not wholeheartedly seek that person's approval, the image of that person's dissapproving look in that child's mind influences his long term behaviour less than if that person is someone he loves. Disciplining by fear is less effective than disciplining by love. How true.

As with most parenting materials, almost every chapter of that book reveals something new that sends a light bulb going on in your brain. But I must admit when I read that chaper, that I harboured a slight cyniscm. Afterall, its not everytime that Jovann reacts positively to my admonishments, although I am positively(arrogantly) sure he loves me and hubby above everyone else. Hahaha...

So, that set me thinking, what can we do better? I spoke to hubby on the way home regarding some revealations and study recommendations highlighted in this book, and we decide to broadly realign certain parenting quirks/decisions from now on.

So its interesting to note that the next day at home in the evening, Jovann showed how true that discipline observation in that book is. We had just finished dinner, and he had just grabbed a piece of papaya in one hand, took a small bite and threw it back onto the plate.Then he ran off, with his sticky hands, and cleaned it on his clothes, on the cosy corner, and the cushions.

I was yelling at him to stop and let me clean his hands, but it went unheeded. So when the cushions got their share of papaya, I caught up with him and chided him for not listening to me. My voice was very angry but initially he seemed unfazed, still with the cheeky smile on his face. But after washing his hands, he suddenly said softly, with a trembling pout in his lips, "I don't want Mommy angry". Awww....at that moment I felt guilty, what the heck with papaya stains. So I hugged him and explained why I was mad and it has nothing to do how I love him.

Some recent quirks of Jovann.

+ Nowadays instead of saying "I love mommy, I don't love Daddy", now he says "I Love Mommy Daddy...". :)

+ He's back to his "bicycle ooh!". But now he asked us to hide underblanket, then when he "found" us, he will straddle us and pretended that he's riding a bike and bounced cheekily up and down, saying "bicycle oooh!, bicycle oooh!". I have no idea where he learnt that from!

+ He's been so sweet about protecting me. Yesterday hubby pretend to be a lion and wanna bite me, I yelled in pain and Jovann threw his little body over me and say "I protect you!" and shoo-ed Daddy away. Awwwwww......

Last Friday night, when lying in bed waiting for him to fall asleep, he turned towards me and held my right arm, saying "I wanna smell your t-shirt." He then took a big sniff and commented "so nice".

+ This boy has always hated blankets, kicking it away whenever any of us tried to cover im even a teeny weeny bit with it. But recently, he insisted on drinking his milk with the blanket all over him. together with the warm milk, this made him sweat buckets. Funny boy.

+ His word puzzle

+ There's something he has done for very very long time, but I have forgotten to record it. He has this little chant he likes to chant, the words may change, but the tone and rhythm don't vary.The original version goes "pi ka pi ka pika pika pi!". So funny! I don't know why he did it!

Ice Lollies

2009-04-26T16:01:00.013+08:00

Made Icelollies 2 weekends ago. The lolly mold has been bought for months, but I hadn't had the time nor the energy to do it until now. Thanks to June who did it first, I got the urge to start on some!

Took out the brand new Moulinex blender for this purpose.
Jovann had fun pressing the huge blender knob to hear the whirring sound. Hehehe....he helped me blend all the flavours.

Yeah! done!

J helped me put the sticks in, then we put it inside the freezer...

The next day, we took out the mango and I let J try. .......................He didn't want it!!! Sigh.

Nevermine, we tried the next weekend. I pretended to take out the lolly and enjoy it myself, and that was when he decided that it must be yummy. So he wanted it from me licked the lolly for quite long. hehehe.

Ooooh...this is my favourite, the strawberry yakult one, just the right combi of sweet and tangy sour!

Spencer's 1st Birthday Bash

2009-04-26T16:01:00.008+08:00

Spencer turns 1! his birthday party was held at Little Ozone, which Jovann loves.

Spencer and Jazreel

I was so happy too coz today I can dive into the ball pit with him. The previous time here I was carrying Jaz who was asleep so hubby had the fun. When poised on the edge of the ball pit, hubby gave me a huge shove and I went tumbling in, to the chuckles of Jovann. So fun! we played alligator chase hehehehe...no photos on this coz I was having too much fun.

Hubby eagerly spending time with his precious little girl.

I was more excited than Jov about him getting face painting. He was apprehensive, but he wanted ME to be painted. Better mommy than me. Hhhmmm....so I had some pretty flowers painted, thereafter he decided its not painful after all since I didn't scream or yell, so obliged to have a spider painted on his hand.

With Reubern and Rochelle

2009-04-26T16:00:00.008+08:00

Visited Rochelle at her house last weekend, and Jovann had a great time playing with Rochelle, Reubern and Uncle Tony whom is the self appointed children entertainer and very good at what he does. Jovann likes him so much he sticks to him and prefers him over Daddy that night!

3 kids feasting on fruit cake. There were 2 cakes that day coz we bought over a cake too.

Jovann really enjoyed making a mess and gorging together with 2 other kids who are so obviously enjoying their food.

Jaz was asleep in the sling at this time....then Auntie Joanne kept lifting up the nursing bib protesting that she must be so hot underneath! Jas was sweating in fact, but woke up soon coz there's too much noise for her kaypoh nature to ignore for long.

Today is exactly a week before she turns 6months old, and its her FIRST time sitting SO LONG unsupported!!!!! She sat in this position for at least 10 whole mins! I think she's really in shock to see so many faces trying to make her laugh and smile, and she just woke up a few seconds ago, so she couldn't smile at all. She stayed that way for the longest time hahahaa...seldom see her like this.

Starting to smile already. :) Love this skirt of hers. Its for 6mths old but am hoping its versatile enough to last longer. The top she's wearing is for 1 yr old though, but the neckline it soooo tight she pouted and whimpered after I pulled it over her head when wearing it for her just now. Lucky I took it out today.

Auntie Joanne nowadays have a hard time deciding what to eat. Daddy was craving for KFC, and surprisingly she was keen, so we went searching for the nearest KFC. Whew. its still there!

Joanne in a pretty good mood coz the food was to her liking. :P

Sumptious time. R and J shared some fried rice, then ate chicken.

Went for some icecream at Macs. J asked for chocolate sundae and ended up not liking it. As hubby and I both don't like that flavour, I decided to order another strawberry sundae to let J try. R by this time was already halfway through his! I was keen to convince J that not all icecream taste bad (he obviously think the chocolate one does), and I ended up chasing and coaxing him to take even one small spoon of it. He refused flat out. I think the passersby must be raising their eyebrows at this wierd parent who is PERSUADING their kid to take icecream. Can't believe myself.

Jazreel, surprisingly still in a sweet mood despite it being her bedtime.

After we all walked back to the car park. R wanted to pee and when he was doing it, Jovann kept staring at him, and finally decided to poke R's belly button, hehehe! All the adults kept laughing... R kept talking about it for days afterwards.

Pre-visit, was trying to take a decent photo of Jaz in her cute orange skirt. :P

Fish Fingers

2009-04-26T15:59:00.003+08:00

Last weekend, suddenly had the desire to make bento again. Coz I wanted to make fish fingers for Jov (he loves fish) to try, and decided to put together some things to make it more presentable hehee.

US Strawberries, grapes

Fish fingers, fried egg aeroplanes.

He likes the fish fingers, but its probably too much for him, he ate only 1.5pieces. As for the egg, he decided he didn't much fancy it in aeroplane shape after all. Took 2 bites and thats it. No go for the strawberries. Heee...

Well, I tried.

Splash @ Aqua

2009-04-19T22:18:00.009+08:00

As we would be coming home immediately after the swim, we decided to leave Jaz home for her nap while we bring J to his swim. Since my hands would be free, I brought our SLR along. Had fun snapping photos of J having fun.

He is REALLY having lotsa fun these days in the pool. Today, hubby suspected he deliberately fall of the kick board again and AGAIN coz he loves the thrill of falling splashing into the water and paddling wildly hehehe.

Being thrown in the air when singing "If You Are Happy"

Coach taught them how to paddle their arms in free style and frog style today. I missed that part coz I was checking my cam, but the mommies told me J did very well with frogstyle and moved forward a lot! Jovann and Anna making frog style strokes.

Coach showing them how to dive into the water with his hands closed above his head. J trying to imitate.

Taking a rest

Those moments on the kickboard

LIFT OFF!

These series of 4 photos is hubby and Jov waving byebye to me, then hubby slowly submerging J and himself under water for 5 seconds. J will emerge laughing and slapping away the water from his face hehe.

Jumping into the water through the hoops

Being thrown as an aeroplane! For some reason today, both the boys (Jovann and Justin) refused to do the upside down throw.

He swims like a caterpillar under water at one moment, haha.

Photo of Anna, she was making faces for the camera, too cute to miss.

Animal Mechanicals

2009-04-19T22:03:00.006+08:00

I didn't know Animal Mechanicals is J's favourite cartoon now, until hubby told me. I have heard J said he wanted to watch this cartoon sometimes, but as he also asked for Mickey Mouse, Dibo etc, I didn't know it's his recent hot craze.

On the ride to Aquaducks this morning, J started going all excited punching the air with his right arm and shouting "ReeXx!" When hubby asked him what's the colour of Rex, J said "green!", apparently Rex is a green mechanical dinasaur in the cartoon in which all the mechanicals has a great time solving problems. Hubby had to assure me its nothing violent, as I think I looked a bit concerned when J was behaving so macho-ly and shouting so triumphantly when punching the air. And when hubby prompted J with "Rex is animal mechana ------ ", J finished off with "STRONG!!!" and flex his toddler muscles.

Then from the burst of animal mechanical language that follows betw the 2 of them, I found out that the character Rex is Mechana STRONG, Unicorn is Mechana FLY, Mouse is Mechana FAST, Komodo is Mechana GIZMO, Sasquatch is Mechana STRETCH! And Jovann knew all that! Each of them has a special trait!

Hubby told me when the opening song for this cartoon starts, J will go all excited and does all the actions and hand movements together.

The rest of the car ride was filled with J punching the air with his right hand and going "REXXXX!!!!!"

or flexing his muscles and screwing up his whole face to say "STROOOONG"

Or just triumphantly shouting "Mission Accomplished!"

Daddy close your mouth

2009-04-17T23:00:00.006+08:00

Bought 2 more puzzles yesterday for Jovann. He was excited about guessing what's behind my back when I reached home. Then he insisted on playing the aeroplane puzzle. When he's fixing it, trying to find the correct new pieces, Daddy pretended to say "I see it...I see it...can you see it??". And Jovann replied "Daddy, stop talking...."....then when Daddy continued trying to disturb him "There....there....!", J repeated "Daddy, I say stop talking....close your mouth.....".

Can't help it, I burst out laughing. Daddy really stopped talking, for 10seconds, then pretended to struggle to remain quiet, which made J laugh.

He loves his aeroplane puzzle too. :)

Jovann's recent puzzle craze..

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(Jovann has these 2 books with titles "You Are Special, Little One" and "I Love You". The 1st book shows all the animal parents telling their little ones in the many ways he/she is special to them, while the 2nd book has 5 little stories on all the ways parents show their unconditional love for their child. I bought them around the time when Jaz was born because I feel these loving books will help Jovann in his self discovery through those challenging times when he's starting school and learning to accept a new sibling).

Later last night, Daddy was putting him to bed, and J asked for one of the books. "Daddy, I want Special..." The "You Are Special, Little One" book was outside, so Daddy said "Tomorrow ok? Tonight Daddy read "I Love You" book."

After reading some books, it was brush teeth then lights out. In the dark, J suddenly turned around and asked "Daddy, how you love me?".

And Daddy replied, "I love you for your cheekiness, I love your affection, I love your 'AKA', I love you even when you are naughty, I love your laughter....."

J considered for a while, then asked again "Daddy how you love me?", and Daddy told Jovann again all the little ways in which he holds a place in his heart.

I find that such a sweet way to end a busy day...

Brother and Sister

2009-04-15T23:50:00.003+08:00

Its funny how alike they look at the same age! The biggest difference is their eyes...I think....you reckon?

Jazreel's 3rd 5-in-1

2009-04-13T23:30:00.002+08:00

Brought her for her 3rd 5-in-1 today, and 2nd/final dose of rotarix. She was sleeping with her mouth opened after some milk, in the sling, when the doc put in the rotarix. She protested and woke up, and it took some time before all the rotarix went in. Then I plugged in the milk bottle and she calmed down. Later on during the jab she cried and looked at my accusingly for 5 seconds.

As usual, she's all smiles and peering around at us smiling, contented-like, when on the weighing scales.

Her latest Stats!!!

Weight - 7.4kg
Head Circumference - 44cm
Height - 65.5cm

Swim Race on floats

2009-04-13T22:54:00.003+08:00

Recently during swimming lessons, coach taught them to float and swim using 1 kick board under each arm, and Jovann can do it and kick himself quite a considerable distance without losing balance. But he will topple sideways if its only one board. Funny. Think its a balance thing.

Caught this video of the 3 kids having a mini race, so funny! Apologies for the video quality, I was holding the cam with my right hand and holding Jaz and nursing her with my left (she's in the sling too lah). So a bit unsteady. The protesting squealing at the end if of course....Jaz...hehee..

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Relegated to 2nd place.

2009-04-13T22:30:00.002+08:00

He used to love coming with Daddy to fetch me from work, and will go all excited when going into the car, and when I come out of the gate he will screamed out "Mommy!!! I come fetch you!!". But today, fetching me gave way to other pleasures. HHmmph. At 5.30pm, hubby called me to say he can't fetch me coz our son don't wanna leave the TV (showing his fav Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Still naively confident of my own attraction, I asked J to the phone and talkd to him:
Jovann: Hello mommy!
Me: Jovann, do you wanna come and fetch mommy?
Jovann: I wanna fix dinosaur puzzle....fix puzzle...
Me: Then you not coming to fetch me?
Jovann: After this okie? After this...
Daddy : (in the background) but we gotta leave now....
Me: Don't you wanna come and fetch mommy??
Jovann: No, I wanna watch Mickey.
Me: But Mommy miss -----
Jovann: Bye Bye, Mommy! BYE BYE!!! (and quickly passed the phone to hubby).
(defeated) Me: ???????????

Updates on my Princess - First Flip & First Sit!

2009-04-13T22:17:00.010+08:00

Her FIRST FLIP!!

31 March (Tuesday, 5 months 5 days) flipped once. Ah ma found her on her tummy in the cot, complaining. Hehehe. Didn’t flip anymore that day, or the next day.

2 April (Thursday) flipped again. 3 more times. Ah Gong managed to video her in one of the flip. The 3rd flip he was not fast enough. Before he has taken out the camera and pressed the button, she has flipped oredi. I finally managed to see her flip when I reached home that day. Her 5th to 8th flip (4 flips in quite close succession). Hooray! After she did it I will applaud and praise her well done, and she will crane her neck and smile up at me, looking very proud and pleased heheee…

Video by Ah Gong...

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I love it when in the morning I nursed her lying down, after she had enough she will crane her neck up to look at me, and smile. :) how I wish at that moment I don’t need to go to work.

Whenever I put her down on the bed to prepare to nurse her lying down, she will try to flip with grunts and near misses hehehe.

Recently, she has started moving all over the cot, in the morning she will be in a totally different position and orientation from the night before.

6 April morning, she woke up 3 times in the middle of the night. Think her appetite has increased and she’s needing solids soon. But as she cannot sit upright unsupported yet I am not going to start her, although the rest of the signs like showing interest in our food for example, has been satisfied.

She prefers me to the maid, and the maid to anyone else. It sure takes a long time to win her favour, only after 1-2 months in close contact with the maid does she started accepting her. But even so, nowadays, when the maid wash up for her at night but Jaz knows I am home, she will cry and scream for me! So sweet lah. Poor hubby though, when he tries to soothe her at night nowadays, she will cry for me. Last time he’s able to soothe her without any problem, I think now Jaz will request for specific persons. I am just so glad she’s close to me despite being looked after almost totally by the maid in the day.

Jazreel was introduced to gorgor's leapfrog activity centre on 4 April Saturday. She immediately took a liking to it! Her fav is the microphone, and once I saw her turning the disc too.

Jaz: Munch munch munching on my hand...

Jaz: Mommy, you like to smell my saliva right?Naaaaa!

11 April. Supported herself and sat for like 5 seconds before toppling over and smiling. Tried it again the next day but she was distracted with the toy.

Taken with Auntie Joanne at a dinner together...

Updates on my little Prince

2009-04-12T23:04:00.016+08:00

All About Jovann

He has this cute habit of asking us “you sure?” when we answered his question or when we say anything in particular. He as usual asked it with a slight pitched to the “sure” that’s so cute, I always smile when I hear it. He’s quite a pro with the 7-9piece dinosaur puzzle now, putting it together with speed. He knows some of these dinosaurs are Triceratops, Bronchosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Velociraptor.

Just bought a 25 piece zoo puzzle for him last Mon (6 April), and that night when he played it for the first time. We were eating dinner and J was so excited about the puzzle he started on it quickly. He first focused on making the animals take shape individually, one by one, starting with elephant,then tiger, than lion etc.....he eventually finished the whole puzzle within 30mins, although at one point he didn't know he can put the individual animals together. He then took it apart and tried a 2nd time - 25mins. HHmmm....think I should buy more puzzles. Just today he told me "I love puzzles"....cute lah!

He loves his food now. New things he has started chewing recently are:
- rainbow frosties
- pork (he started this during the recent dinner with Uncle Tony, Auntie Joanne and Reubern at Crystal Jade)
- vege (he seem to like them more now)
- beef

His current favourites
- chicken wings! The first time he tried chicken wing was a month ago, 1 buffalo wing from Pizza Hut, he finished it then. And 6 April evening he polished off 2 chicken wings from the western store! How pleased we were!
- sausages! And since we discovered he likes, I have been buying the deli cheese chicken cocktail sausages from cold storage, coz I figured at least there’s cheese and not just processed meat. I grilled it with butter and he just happily eats all 3 up one afternoon in the car when we were out.
- Fish
- Fishballs (he can ask for this for 4 consecutive days! nowadays he will say "I want fish ball and rice" when asked what he wanna eat for lunch for example.
- Fries. The unhealthy version. I tried making fries with sweet potatoes, but he didn't like. :(
- Rice (he can request rice for lunch, dinner...and then breakfast the next day!!)
- Animal vitamins or his Vitamin C.

Actually I recalled this day at the Novena Foodcourt where he chewed some toast, and I took this photo of him with a piece of toast in each hand. That was such a rare and long awaited moment I just had to snap a pic.

For some reason I recall with fondness the evening when 3 of us mommies attended a parenting talk and our kids came with our hubbies to fetch us home at the end of it. Tony and my hubby reached first. Jo and I were eyeing the buffet table to see what could be eaten fast coz I gotta rush off, then I heard Joanne laughing and looking towards the main gate in the far distance. I looked up and the first sight if of 2 cute little boys, just tiny specks in the far far distance, standing at the gate, both waving their hands frantically at their mommies far far away. Its Reubern and Jovann. Both of them were waving happily and calling "Mommy ....mommy!!!". I picked up one huge fried fishball and rushed out towards Jovann, and he ran flat out towards me, colliding happily with me and hugged my legs calling loudly "Mommy, I miss you!", and the ladies at the counter smiled indulgently. I gave him the fishball and he later finished it in the car in delight....still can't forget the sight of those 2 small waving boys....how nice to see them at the end of a busy day....what can be more important than this....

For a long while now (forgot to record down), he has this funny word he uses very often, that cannot be found in the dictionary. The word is “Aka”. Pls dun ask me what it means, I think he’s trying to be funny, and it pops out when we asked him something to which he don’t know the answer, he will just reply “Aka!” with a cheeky grin. Hehee…

He is such a doting little brother. He talks gently to meimei, handles her gently, and loves to smell her hair, her feet, her hands. Once he asked her "妹妹要不要吃mee sua? Gorgor cook for you!" Awwwwww.......

But he still shows jealousy of course. After putting Jaz to bed I will go into our bedroom to take over hubby to put J to bed. Many times Jaz will suddenly wake up crying and I will ask J nicely to let me go back to meimei to sayang her. Usually he will hesitate and didn't want to but will allow quite soon. But once when I told him that meimei is crying and scared, Mommy need to go and sayang her and I promised to come back, he told me "She wants Daddy...I want Mommy".(when in fact it was hubby who was carrying her and calling for help)" I continued negotiating with him, promising him a round of hide-under-blanket when I am back, before he relents amiably. When I come back after that, I praised him for being a loving gorgor.

Just last night, when putting him to bed, he told me "I Love Mommy..." then afterwhile he said "I don't love Daddy..". When asked why, he said "Because....because...Daddy easy to see....". Hubby and I discussed it later and suspected he likes people to play hard to get. ????????? probably coz I am usually the one who is needed by Jaz so has to be away from him, while Daddy will remain with him. Well......will take note hehehe...

He loves having surprises, and I use that to make him do something. Whenever I say I will have a surprise for him if he finish this or that, he will start guessing. "Is it....animal vitamins (he always start with this!)?? If I shake my head no, he will continue "Is it.....vitamin C?"...."Is it......yakult??" and so on...but of course I won't give it away. :P

Mommy's Birthday

2009-03-31T22:56:00.005+08:00

Of course my birthday is to be spent with both my darlings.

Hubby surprised me by letting Jovann bring me a stalk of rose in the morning, when we were just fresh from our sleep. Hubby whispered something to J out of my sight, on J's mattress, then my little boy walked over with this rose, and told me "Mommy for you. Happy Birthday Mommy!". Its a glorious day already!

Then when Jaz woke up, hubby quietly carried her out of her room, with her "holding" another stalk of pretty red rose, and I had my 2nd rose from my other darling. So sweeeettttt.....love that lovely image of Jazreel, bright eyed from sleep, smiling and holding out that rose to me.

The prettiest 2 roses in the world.

We had Jovann's 1st Edudrama class that morning, then we went to Botanic Gardens for breakfast. Look at our spread!

Today marks a momentous occasion for us. Jovann self feed hashbrown, scrambled eggs, sausage, and then crossiant! What more can I ask for? Except for him to chew with his molars of course....heheee...But I am a happy woman then.

I then went with J and Jaz to the pond to feed fish, ducks and turtles, after buying fish food from the vending machine which Jovann saw before I did. He had real fun throwing down the fish food as usual.

That night, had a super yummy dinner at 汤点王 with my mom. J had homecooked soup (with fish) as well as the lotus baked rice and white rice and stewed mee sua there. I love every single dish.

Its just spending time with the persons I love most in the world. Thank you my 2 darlings for coming into my life, and thank you hubby for being so sweeeeeeeet! Does that mean I can have Spa Botanica every year??? I won't get bored of that you know? *GRINs*

Interview by Today's Parents

2009-03-30T22:38:00.006+08:00

A few weeks after I delivered, Di approached me to ask if I would mind being interviewed by Today's Parents for a piece on alternative birthing. At that time, I was still fresh from birth, and quite free at home besides resting (it was still my maternity leave), so I agreed. Anyway it was all done through emails.

Few weeks ago, the editor informed us that the article is out. It's in the annual publication of their Pregnancy & Babycare Guide. We were asked to produce a photo, but at that time, I couldn't find any photo of the 4 of us without me looking like a panda without makeup. So in the end I only gave a few of Jaz's pics. For anyway, SHE"s the hypnobirthing baby, not either of us heee..

New Moms Retreat

2009-03-30T22:06:00.006+08:00

The spa retreat I have been looking forward to, for the past 2 years. Ever since I gave birth to J, hubby has promised me this New Moms Retreat, but I didn't get to go, until my birthday this year!

How I look forward! I love this retreat coz Spa Botanica uses oils from Aromotherapy Associates (UK) that is suitable for nursing moms. Plus, its Spa Botanica! I have been there before but I meant to try their spa pavilion this time. Who wouldn't be excited!

I had my spa lunch alfresco to begin with, with a book in hand, lazing beside the pool.

Then the heat got the better of me, and I retreated indoors.

Spa cuisine

Treatment time in the pavilion.

2.5hours of bliss.

Jovann turning 2 and 1/2 yrs old...and back to JG!

2009-03-30T21:55:00.007+08:00

He's 28 months old! What a milestone. And the day he turns 2.5yrs old, was the day after he's discharged from the hospital.

I must say that there's been much changes over this past month. For one, J has started chewing. Not ALL the time, but some of the time. Not with his molars, but with his front teeth. but we are STILL overjoyed! The things he now chews are :

+ coco crunch
+ biscuits
+ fish
+ rice
+ noodles
+ chai tao kuay
+ fishball

We can finally bring him out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, without cooking! hehee. :P But I still prefer him to eat some homecooked food on weekends as well.

He has also become even more affectionate towards mei mei. Ever since buying him the doll to play with and nurture, he has not hit Jaz at all. Yeah! it works!

He has also become even more sticky to my after his bout of illness.

His sentence structures and getting better everyday, and he still has this charming habit of asking us "understand??" with a high pitch intonation at the "stand" whenever he explains something to us.

He has developed this irritating habit of rubbing his eyes and nose however, and we are trying to rid him of it.

Turning 2.5yrs also means he's now eligible to be enrolled for JG's Edudrama, and we got a spot on a weekend. It was really fun, and nice to be back to this place. The teacher this time is an energetic Indian lady, who hugs every student at the end of the class after telling them what each individual has done well that day. Edudrama also serves to develop their confidence in speaking out loud, sharing their thoughts, verbalising their feelings and also some pre-writing skills. As such, each student is to bring an item every week to class, to be discussed about during the lesson. How fun!

J in class...

Me waiting outside with little Jaz....