Shin Yeh

Our first visit to Shin Yeh at Liang Court. There were 12 adults and 4 kids including dd. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly chitchatting with our friends. DD entertained herself thru out our dinner by walking around and singing her off key twinkle twinkle little star loudly to all the diners at the restaurant. After dinner, there were suggestions for drinks / desserts at a different venue, but we couldn't oblige as it was way past dd's bedtime and she was already snoozing on dh's shoulders. Sigh. DD was busy 'communicating' with the korkor and jiejies at the seperate kids' table. They told me that they had no problem understanding what she was saying =P.

New

This gadget holds tetra packed drinks for the kiddos without a risk of them squashing the packet and causing a minor catastrophe. It comes with retractable side handles and a cover with a lid as well, in case the kiddo doesn't finish the drink at one go. Tho' dd hasn't had the chance to take any packet drinks so far, at $2 apiece for the item, I didn't burn any braincells thinking too hard.

Free

After sm class today, I drove to Tangs with dd for some retail therapy. I was delighted to get hold of some cult skincare products that I have been curious about, for less than $50 each (usual $233). One of them is the Stri vectin cream, of which I have heard so much about but have never got round to getting a tube.

I also picked up the dozen Bodum cups that we have reserved. These cups are meant to replace all the current cups that we have. DH has always been of the opinion that crockeries, cutleries and cups included, have to be 'matching'. The current set we have does match our crockery, but it so happens that quite a few have been broken previously so we decided to get an entire new set.

We got a free induction cooker with cookpot (just need to spend $100) for our expenses at the dept store. Not a bad deal !

Kakis

My second visit to Bakerzin in a week. Lynn and Jesmine were my makan kakis there today, together with dd and sunshine boy, Ernest. There was hardly enough time to squeeze in all our eating, yakking and shopping as well. The cheery Ernest looking a little solemn as he had missed his nap. DD was intrigued by the pacifier he was holding since she had never had one before. My loot included a hello kitty wateringcan, egg moulder, rice stampers, cookie cutters, cutlery set etc

Lingzhi

Family dinner with dua ku who's back from Hong Kong, at Ling Zhi restaurant, Liat Towers.

DD all smiles and lapping up the attention she was getting

Popo holding tightly onto dd as she stands on the chair

Crayons and a 2009 diary came into useful to keep dd occupied during our dinner. DH doing a peekaboo !

Struggle

Our struggles with dd and her naptime and bedtime continues.
She bawls her lungs out at these times of the day. Her loud bawls reminds me of a chicken being led to the slaughter =P.
Sometimes she tries the 'guilt trip' tactic on us by sobbing loudly "Poor thing, poor thing!" - obviously referring to herself. For some reason, she hates 'falling asleep' although she is visibly sleepy and tired. It is simply ironic that dh and I are mostly struggling with barely enough hours of snooze while here is a kid that battles our efforts at leading her to slumberland. There are days when I just throw in the towel and let her get her way, without any catnaps and late bed hours. Those are the days when she can fall asleep halfway through her meals for want of shuteye. But these are also the days when her sleepy crankiness will lead her to destroy as much of her play area as possible.

Praise

DD received some compliments today at sm class.
Before class started, her classmate's mummy commented to the sm receptionist that dd is the best behaved in class and her speech is very good.
During class, sensei commended dd for trying to read out loud the words on her speed reading book. She also asked the other students to emulate dd and behave themselves. DD was also commended for collecting back some blocks from everyone into a big bag and passing the bag to sensei.

I didn't find myself basking in pride or happiness. I only felt a surge of relief. Relieved that all the above must be a sign that dd has been enjoying her classes so far. Relieved that as a first time mom, I must be doing something right, somewhere. Relieved that I won't be going home to dh in a deadbeat state from struggling with a cranky and naughty dd in class, which does happen often enough. Praise God for the kind compliments.

Teatime

Coffee and desserts during teatime at Bakerzin with Justina, Dee and Maureen today. The kids had fun doodling with a no mess 'magic' crayola finger paint that is colorless unless doodled onto 'colorwonder' paper. Jesse: Hey , this looks fun, I wanna doodle too.
DD: Wow, look at how well Dillion can color. I can learn from him...

DD *concentrate very hard* on her coloring

Jesse : Wow, this is fun, so many different colors and I won't dirty my nice shirt too.

DD: There, my coloring looks abit better now

After our chitchat, I browsed around the mall while waiting for dh to come and pick us up. Got a new oral B stage 1 toothbrush for dd, her favorite huggabears, crayola heads/tails crayons, her first Barney CD and some alphabet cards.

Library

After our zoo trip, we decided to head to the library. It was dd's first foray to the library. DD was excited to explore the place and the first thing she said was "So many books! Mummy buy books for Maishia". I explained to her that we were in a library and books were meant to be borrowed not bought. I picked up some books for her, and since I still had 'space' to borrow more, I borrowed some old parenting mags for myself. I was thrilled to find the same mag that I had been trying to get my hands on a few months earlier but couldn't. It had had some recipes that I wanted.

After I finished browsing, the next hurdle came. The last time I borrowed anything from the library has been about a decade ago, so I was completely clueless how to 'checkout'. Fortunately there was a man just finishing up at one of the many checkout machines and he must have noticed me struggling with the machine. He kindly volunteered his help so I was able to borrow dd's books. But I had to go to the counter to 'reset' my library card because according to the library rules, my card had apparently been 'locked' because I haven't borrowed anything for donkey years.

Zoo

An impromptu zoo treat for dd today as dh surprised us all with a day off from work. Arriving at the zoo, We started off with lunch at Ah Meng Restaurant. DD had a lunch comprising a mix of fish&chips and chicken rice.

After lunch we visited the elephant rides where dd looked on enviously as others climbed up for a ride.

We also took a tram ride where dd was able to identify the common zoological animals such as kangeroo, giraffe, hippo etc

She also visited the horses, ponies, and

even the goats which were just about to get fed by the zookeepers. DD decided that she had to pose a smile since the goats were looking surly as usual.

The grand finale was the water play! DH got in with dd for the slides since it was her first time on a water slide.

Splash! The area was kept safe by a marshall who kept an eye out for unsafe play

DD had fun just exploring the different 'stations' at the water play area

Some were indeed very interesting and intrigued dd

O, whats this.. a young boy coming to share some water fun with dd. Protective daddy decides its time to change station

Time to go home.. we certainly had fun! DD thanked dh for the trip before promptly falling asleep on the car ride home.

Kneel

On a whim, dh and I decided to visit the car showrooms. Hearing that car prices are at an all time low, curiousity got the better of us and spurred us to visit the importers along Leng Kee area. We were amazed to see some of the showrooms really packing them in. After our browse, we headed for mass at St Ignatius. DD surprised us when she suddenly dashed out from our grasp and knelt down just like she had seen the other parishioners kneeling down. We have never taught her to kneel although she knows her 'amen' and 'hands clasped in prayers' position very well. We watched her with pride, kneeling so readily even though she didn't have a kneeling cushion as we had seated ourselves outside the airconed indoor seating.

Lemongrass

The Lemongrass restaurant on south bouna vista road is one of our favourite dining places. Always ensured a seat since its usually rather quiet and the service staff friendly and obliging. During the days when I was pregnant, dh would often drive alone from home to this restaurant and tabao my favourite dishes home for me. Their dishes were amongst the few foods that I had an appetite for. DD fiddling with the restaurant's plastic wares. It was a nice touch on their part to have the full set of plastic ware even tho' we don't usually use those to feed dd.

Lights

DD is fascinated with this new pair of shoes from Fisher price. Its only a simple pair of track shoes but she just loves the lights at the heels.

Amusing

More amusing 'bursts' of speech from chatty dd:

1) Going to ah ma's house, dd recognised the route and announces triumphantly 'ah ma's house, ah ma's house' repeatedly .
When I had parked in the driveway and lifted her out from her carseat, she suddenly started yelling " PA, PA, PA, knock knock, PA, PA, where are you, open door." I was so tickled, I almost dropped her. Some weeks back, when dh had driven dd to ah ma's house, dh had done his usual, parking the car then called 'Pa' (ie dd's ah kong) through the front windows. And no, dh doesn't say 'knock knock, or where are you' =P. Those words were improvised by dd.

2) When dd saw me give a big fat yawn yesterday afternoon, she promptly announced "mummy tired" .

3) DH was trying to wipe perspiration from dd's forehead, and she told dh that it was "sweat" .

4) When I stubbed my toe accidentally, dd came up and patted me on the arm and said "there there"

Balls

DH sprang a lovely surprise on me today. He cooked some 'tang yuen' secretly and served them to me with a 'Happy chinese valentine's day' message! I didn't even realise that the last day of chinese new year had this significance. These 6 little peanut coated balls really touched me =).

Lo hei

Our annual CNY extended family dinner at SICC. This year we hosted it in the function room at Bukit since we couldn't get the private room at Hong Yuen. In our hurry to get there on time for the lo hei, we completely forgot to bring along dd's porridge =P. We made do by ordering food from the ala carte menu for her. She was delighted with the tasty table food and gobbled up almost the entire bowl of rice. The lo hei with abalone.The 'younger generation' had a table to ourselves, seperate from the older folks.

Foodcourt

A sign of the times? Today we decided to give the foodcourt at Vivocity a try for our dinner. One of our rare attempts at foodcourts ever since dd came along. We were pleased to find that the foodcourt was relatively spacious and we could 'strap' dd to the chair with the harness. Unfortunately the food was so-so only. O well, there were quite a few stalls there, we shall try them on our next visit! DD taking her thermos-ed dinner at the foodcourt

Laughs

These days , dd says/ does the most astonishing things that makes us laugh....

When she is stuck in her cot and need someone to rescue her:
DD: Daddy, daddy where are you? Knock knock, Daddy . Daddy , help !

When she wants her morning milk :
DD: Daddy go make nai nai for Maishia.
(There was once, I made the morning milk for dd even though she had specified dh to make for her. DD refused to drink when I came back with the milk. DH had to pretend to go kitchen to make a fresh bottle of milk before she was willing to drink it)
In case you are fretting about 'baby-talk' and words like 'nai nai' which means milk to dd. No sweat. Yesterday I told dd that dh had gone to buy milk powder for her. She promptly corrected me that its "nai nai" =P.

Today sensei saw dd taking off her shoes by herself outside the classroom.
Sensei: Maishia, you have taken more than 4 mins just to take off your shoes. Can take off anot?
DD : (looking miffed) very hard
After lesson, dd rushed out of the classroom and picked up her shoes from outside and got me to help put them on. As I was still busy chatting with the other mummies, I didn't bother getting up from my chair while she was waiting for me outside the door. Next thing I knew, she found my pair of fitflops, brought them into the classroom and plonked them right onto my lap. Talk about getting the message across!

New

DD is completely into playdoh these days. From dawn till dusk, she can be asking for her playdoh. I managed to get these lovely new tools for her playdoh. They were first used during our sm class and we enjoyed ourselves then. They are playdoh shape cutters and shape stampers for use during painting time.

Desserts

DD and I met up with Sylvia at Paragon for some delectable desserts at Bakerzin. We headed over to Taka for some shopping after we were stuffed with choc cake and profiteroles. Sylvia and dd got on very well and both were playing and laughing away. We were so engrossed in our shopping and chatting that I was pleasantly surprised when Jesmine called out to me. We chatted for abit since we haven't met up for some time. We wish her the best of health for 2009 ! DD admiring the orange fruits on this huge four seasons lime plant.

Jing

This is about the 7th consecutive year that a bunch of us have had this 'lo hei' lunch together. Each year there is the mammoth task of fitting some 16 of us onto 1 jumbo-sized table. Last year's was really successful and held at Fullerton hotel's Jade. This year, we are holding it at Jing, at One Fullerton. Jing comes under the same ownership as the Majestic, Chiharu, Braise, etc.

As the private room wasn't available, we had no choice but to reserve a table in the main dining hall. Unfortunately, the table arranged for us was just a regular table with 15 chairs squashed together. It was apparent from first glance that there was no way that 15 adults could squeeze onto that table. We were disappointed but had no choice but to split ourselves into 2 tables. The wine we ordered was also a total letdown. DH was very blunt and told them to take it back as it tasted more like vinegar =P. The manager tried it and apologetically admitted that dh was right. Fortunately Win Yen and Valerie both brought along a few bottles of wines and champagne so we were spared the trauma of ordering again. Parking our car via the valet at Fullerton Hotel before taking a stroll over to the restaurant.
Outside JingDD was intrigued by the little pumpkin used as a soup 'bowl'. Her swipes at the bowl were thwarted by dh. This is one of the last pics I managed to snap before the camera died on me.