Baby replica

I’ve always loved this baby from Anne Geddes. In my uni days, I practically collected every merchandise with her face on it – diary, wrapper, address book, calendar, photo album etc.  I think I still have the unused wrapper somewhere… Today,  bb S pleasantly surprised me by making a funny face while eating - almost a replica to the Anne Geddes baby!  God knows my heart :)

Domestic issue

It took me a few days to find peace with myself over what had happened in the household the past few days.

Last week, my helper shocked us by wanting to take a break and change employer. After much drama and several incoherent stories from her, we found the REAL REASONS why she wanted to leave.

1) I have not asked her to go out by herself to get groceries, hence I don’t trust her.

2) I hardly leave bb S alone with her, hence I don’t trust her.

3) I don’t talk to her enough, hence I don’t trust her.

My response

1) There is hardly any good grocery stores within the vicinity.

2) I DID trust her to a certain extent, eg. baby handling, not being too anal about our possessions (ie no safe box and having some notes/ coins lying around the house). BUT I did not trust her 100%, after all she is not my family / friend. ALTHOUGH, recently I started to let my guard down, thinking I could leave bb S with her for the next 6-9 months and quit school while I arrange to work flexi-hours.

3) ???! I didn’t even have the energy to talk to daddy M at times, let alone my helper?!

We concluded that her sudden intention to leave was mainly from the ‘comparisons’ she made against her relatives working in Sg who may have day off or freedom to run errands.

Too bad. Her day off only starts next year and I live in the whoopy whoop.

She’s good at her job, she adores and dotes on bb S.

BUT it looks like she has to work hard to gain my trust again after this incident.

If not for the recent government ban, I would have replaced her to avoid future complication.

Well, even if complication arises, I am well prepared.

Visitors wanted

Our house is packed with visitors lately, with grand-aunties especially. Grand-aunties work exactly like grand-parents.  Extra love. Extra help. Extra play time. Extra pampering. Extra ‘back up’ for bb S to turn to if she doesn’t like what daddy M and I impose on her, ie. sleep or drink according to the timetable.  I love having these grand aunties around! It has created extra warmth in the house…

What about school? What school?? That’s the furthest thing from our mind…

With my parents, sister and nephews coming to town in a few days time, I might just get home sick when all the visitors go home…

Footsie

Who needs shoes with Mary Jane socks?

I pray…

Daddy God,

Thank you for a great Sunday. Thank you for a great week ahead. Thank you for your favour and protection.  Thank you for loving me. Thank you for loving my daddy and mummy.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Photographer wannabe

This morning I woke up and resolved to improve my photography skills.  I should put daddy M’s talent into good use and learn something from him! Adding a new category to my blog - “Little things'”.

 

 I like my prata with sugar, the Chinese way as M says.

A gift from Paris - home made cup from Jeanine who is into pottery.

Toys in line.

Toys for hire

If I was creative and entrepreneurial enough, I would have thought of toys rental as a biz idea. By chance, I found out that my friend’s brother operates toysrentalworld. Parents can save money, space or heartache of forgotten toys especially if they are pricey and bulky. So we tried it out. For S$48, this Bright Starts Tropical Fun Around Station stays with us for a month (early return is allowed though no partial refund). The only drawback is limited units for the popular items, so advance booking is required.

And I realised that there are many other creative and entrepreneurs out there. Dang! I’m too late.

Rent-That-Toy

Rent-A-Toy

The Toy Rental Club

Toys4rent

Day dreaming

Results season for this quarter is finally over. End of chapter for late nights (for now). There’s a burning wish in me to be somewhere else to celebrate. Somehow, Kyoto and Paris kept surfacing in my mind. A friend once described Kyoto as “heaven on earth” and if it is true or as seen in this picture , God, please make my wish come true...

Paris oh Paris, Tu me manques! I miss you ...

* pictures taken from Narumi and Piajane

Joys of blogging

A friend asked me how do I find time to blog? Given that I ‘write’ for a living, wouldn’t I want to take a break from writing?

Nope. I enjoy blogging and I don’t know how I find time, I just try to. What started out as a monologue has become an essential part of my daily life, more so after the arrival of bb S. Blogging has made me appreciate the little details in our ordinary everyday routine, wanting to live more passionately and see good things in life rather than going through motion day by day. Each blog post is a springboard for memories, each photo taken is a captured moment for keepsake and each story shared is my simple daily gratitude.

When do I think of what to write? Although it is usually on the spur of a moment but blogging has made my otherwise spaced out time in commuting journey in a cab or train or standing in a queue less of a bore.

Blogging has also led me to some fantastic blogs from strangers, far far away, sharing their life experiences, beautiful pictures, secretly satisfying the inner nosiness in me. It’s also therapeutic to see how others lead their carefree life, a deviation to our restrictive-Singaporean style.

A few of my daily reads (there are alot more than the list, which I'll share in time to come)...

Design mom

Pia Jane Bijkerk

Karen Cheng

Label me

Bb S can spot a fabric label from far. Any LABEL. Labels on toys, labels on pillows. Even the ‘caution’ label sewn on her car seat is not spared! So we made this for her.

Little me

From 99% looking like daddy M to 80% looking like my mother-in-law, I’m starting to see some % of me in bb S.

Bread society

This morning as I left the house, I was slightly disappointed that my helper has made peanut butter sandwich (again) for my breakfast to work. I counted that out of the 120 working days since I returned from maternity, I have had 70 peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast as I am a person who can eat the same food over and over again…BUT I guess 70 is the threshold.

To my pleasant surprise, I found this on my table as I stepped into the office.

Yippeee.. It’s one of my favorites- Tom Yum bun from the Bread Society from my cubicle mate (aka the colleague who sits behind me). I am blessed with nice colleagues :) The aroma of fresh baked bread probably has drawn some envy from other cubicle mates...

Oh what a nice start to end the long work week!

Now now...let's see how should we settle the peanut butter....

Whatever, Ask, Believe, Receive

Mark 11:24-

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Key words:

-Whatever

-ASK

-Believe

-Receive

PS: The picture has no correlation to today's post. I simply like sunflower and sawthis on Etsy.

Where’s Minnie

 

A few days ago, our nice neighbour gave bb S a big Minnie Mouse balloon, wishing her a speedy recovery. It backfired. She grabbed on to us tightly and cried each time she saw Minnie. We had no choice but to move Minnie to the attic. Strangely, bb S seems to know where we hid Minnie and would look up to the attic if we ask “ where’s Minnie?”. She doesn’t cry anymore though we wouldn’t want to risk it . Maybe Minnie can stand in as a gate / barrier in time to come when we need to prevent her from crawling upstairs. Tsk tsk tsk , bad parenting.

Auspicious eight

8 months old with 8 new things.

1. I’m 6.58kg
2. My hair is getting long that it impairs my vision occasionally but I don’t know why my mom still doesn’t want to do anything about it…
3. I have started using the potty
4. Daily slogan: Papa… mama… papa…mama…
5. I need at least 30 minutes to get over stranger anxiety
6. My full-time job: tastemaster. I taste everything that is given to me or within my reach
7. I can wave (with my fingers pointing inward)
8. I hate tissue paper and people wiping my nose

Quinta

I’m an Asian food lover. Western food is only for times when I have no other choices, special occasions or for work. With that, I don’t like Pizza. My uni housemates used to order pizza when I was not home for dinner. BUT I guess that’s because nobody had introduced me to Quinta then…

Quinta, one of Spizza’s thin-crust pizza has changed my perception on pizza… This is exquisite! The mozzarella, sunny side up egg and black truffle sauce topping makes the whole idea of eating pizza sound like having the other all-time favourite of mine, Chinese Tze-char Moonlight Hor Fun.

Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to it :)

Tag team

During our wedding, we asked every guest to pen down a secret recipe for a happy marriage. We got pretty good response with a few humorous ones as seen above.

Apart from the normal jazz like understanding, communication and etc, TEAM SPIRIT would be one my essentials. It sounds totally unromantic but believe me, there ain’t any romance if there is no team spirit… I see it more now with bb S down with HFMD, crankier than usual and me burning night oil with reporting season. M and I, we are ONE team. We have to help each other out. We are a team that see each other through thick and thin, through our best and worst, on happy days and on rainy days…We tag each other :)

HFMD

We have been well trained in church to spot for HFMD symptoms – fever, spots on fingers, feet, mouth, tongue… Week in week out, we conduct health check to ensure the children we take in are free of such symptoms…

BUT there are other ‘hidden’ or ‘subtle’ symptoms like sore throat, diarrhoea, crankiness that we can miss.

BB S had bad diarrhoea yesterday with 14 change of diaper. Doctor diagnosed as stomach flu and attributed the spots on her abdomen as viral reaction. We also secretly blamed the introduction of soft-boiled egg as the culprit.

Today, we thought her unusual cranky self today was due to her tummy. BUT in the evening, daddy M spotted some pox on her feet and off we went to the A&E again… The doc instantly diagnosed it as HFMD and washed his hands twice in the span of 10minute we were with him!

Thank God, her appetite is still good and there’s no fever. She’s sound asleep now… it’s been one long day.

Tomorrow will be better.

Peh Leh Di

 Uncle 4 passed on this morning. One is never well prepared for a death in the family, regardless whether it’s sudden or expected.

We had been warned earlier given his deteriorating health. Family living overseas were told by uncle 2 that the funeral would be a short one (if it happens), hence no need to rush home. Uncle 2, who has been taking care of  uncle 4 all these years believes in showing care to a person while he is alive and not after he’s gone. So I’m glad that we brought bb S home recently to visit uncle 4. Although he couldn’t talk during my last visit, I believe he recognised me and probably wanted to tell me that he’s happy to meet his grand-niece.

I’m sad but relieved that he’s with the Lord now, walking on streets of gold. It’s probably a release for him, who has been trapped in a body that couldn’t move about freely and lost the ability to talk over the past few months.

To our peh leh di (aka uncle 4 in Hainanese)…

A well-loved uncle by all of the nieces and nephews. You were never mad at us, no matter how naughty or silly we were. You just laughed.  In fact, you laughed all the time, even to those who were angry at you. You enjoyed walking so much that you walked miles and miles everyday  to the beach, the mountains, the city as if your legs were powered by engine. Some say that you would have achieved so much as a lawyer had you not gone into depression. But I say that you have lived a great life to your content.