New Year Eve's Lunch

Today, Papa and Mama brought me for their lunch at Papa's colleague, Aunty Wen Yun' s house. It was a gathering for Papa's colleagues from NIE. There was a lot of food- Chinese dumplings, Chicken Mc Nuggets, Masala prawns, fishball with broccoli and sweetcorn, salad, puddings and chocolate fondue.

I was praised by Aunty Wen Yun and one of Papa's bosses, Dr Chen. According to Dr Chen, I am the most well-behaved baby she has ever seen and she even carried me in her arms as she played her computer game.

I also got to try new experiences and food. Aunty Wen Yun and her husband, Uncle Wang Ping made me some watermelon juice and Mama let me try it using a straw as she did not bring my feeding spoon along. The straw was those kind that can be bent at an angle and Mama used it like a dropper with my mouth at the longer end while I was being carried by Uncle Wang Ping. To Mama's surprise, I actually know how to suck the juice using the straw like a dropper. I really enjoyed the lovely sweet juice and was excited to have more of it when Mama decided I had enough.

Just as we were about to leave, Uncle Wang Ping also gave me some plain marshmellow to try. He was so gentle and considerate that he actually verified that the marshmellow can melt in the mouth before pinching a small amount for me. I initially frowned when the marshmellow went into my mouth but when it melted, I showed that I liked it and was given a couple more pieces. Mama wishes the year ahead for me would be a sweet one since I had so much sweet stuff today. Have a blessed year ahead, everyone! :)

Hip Hop

Mama got these 2 pictures of me looking quite funky. Both were taken when we were actually preparing to go out. Check it out, baby! :D

Teething

Papa and Mama realised last week that I am no longer the easy and happy baby that I used to be. Now that I am able to crawl on all fours, I dislike being placed at the UFO and Mama suspects it's because there were a few episodes when I was placed there because I refused to sleep and Mama had placed me there angrily in attempts to keep me from trouble.

Also, I get somewhat feverish on and off and I like to bite at stuffs. I am also quie easily irritable nowadays. Nai nai and San Yi Po both think I am teething and Mama also feels it's about time and so she bought me some teething rusks last Sat which were too hard for me and I was not interested in them for long.

Papa thinks it would be good if my teeth appears as this means I can eat more solid food while Mama thinks I may not look so cute with teeth in my mouth. Whatever it is, there is no stopping me.... :)

X'mas Dinner

Ok, it's kind of like too late for a X'mas dinner but it's my first x'mas dinner. I had x'mas dinner with my extended family from Papa's side. Papa, Mama, Ye Ye, Nai Nai, my Gu Gu (Aunty Cheyanne) and Gu Zhang (Uncle Denton) and I had our first family x'mas dinner at Spageddies in Paragon. The food is not too bad but as usual, I had none of what the adults had but only porridge with egg yolk.

Unfortunately, there was a pantry malfunction. Mama was kind of in a hurry to pack my porridge and soon after she turned off the flame, she poured everything into a vacuum flask and put in an egg yolk. Her past experience was that this will keep the food warm. What she did not foresee was that the cooking probably continued in the vacuum flask and by the time the porridge was taken out for me, there was hardly any grains of rice and what remained was a yellow broth with some scarce sago-like grains. I had no choice but to drink some of that yellow broth which was not entirely satisfying. Perhaps Mama should have tried to empty out the vacuum flask to get more of the rice grains but she did not and as I was not satisfied, I kicked a tantrum and this surprised Aunty Cheyanne and Shu Shu.

I was kept entertained for a while with a pair of fake glasses that came with the x'mas gift Aunty Cheyanne and Uncle Denton gave me. Then I kicked up a fuss again and Papa had to bring me around for a walk. Mama gave me some milk to make up for my watery broth but as she did not make a lot of milk for me, I kicked up a fuss again.

You see, I am beginning to show my true colors... hahahaha.....

40 weeks@ Changi Airport Terminal 3

Today, Papa brought me and Mama to Changi Airport Terminal 3 as Papa is still clearing his annual leave from work. I fell asleep on our way there but prompty woke up after Papa parked his car.

We saw a big propeller-like structure and Mama managed to capture some shots of Papa explaining things to me. You can see the happiness (or is it amazment) on my face. On hindsight, Mama guessed Papa must have taken the opportunity to tell me some Physics concepts since Papa was trained in Engineering.

We hanged around at the viewing mall where Mama tried to let me crawl and tried to help me walk. Both Papa and Mama feel the floor looks quite dirty and so I did not spend as much time on the floor as Mama would want me to.

Mama also brought me to the washroom to change my shirt as I regurgitated some milk again. Mama took some pictures of me on the changing station. This is not the first time I am on the station and you can see from the pictures I don't really enjoy being on it.

Today, I also turned 40 weeks old. The number 40 is often associated with testing in the Bible and Mama wonders if the week ahead will be one whereby I test her patience (or she tests mine). Just today, I seem to start to demand more attention from Mama. I do not want to be just left at my UFO to play on my own.

Also, I learnt to crawl on all fours last week and now I am not so keen to be confined to a small space anymore. I am also able to pull myself up to stand and have tried doing so by supporting myself on an adult bolster, my bouncer chair and even the radio left on the floor. As my leg muscles are still not too strong, I can only stand about 20 seconds or so. Still, Papa thinks it's no mean feat.

Ok, will end off here. See you again. :)

Water Baptism

Dear all,

By the grace of God, I went through water baptism yesterday, 21st December 2008. Papa and Mama decided I look better and decided I should go ahead with my baptism. As I am only an infant, this baptism is more of Papa and Mama presenting me before God and the members of our church and pledged to nurture me in Christ's holy church, that by their teaching and example, I may be guided to accept God's grace for myself, to profess my faith openly and to lead a Christian life.

When I am old enough to make my own confession of faith, I will then go through Confirmation to profess my faith openly. In the meantime, Papa and Mama will do what they can to bring me up in the Christian faith and may God help them to do so.

I was still a little unsightly on the day of baptism due to my viral rash and Mama thinks it may be God's way to remind my parents that I was presented in humility. Not to worry though, Mama and Papa had brought me to see a doctor who said my rash is not contagious and I should be able to go ahead with my baptism.

Papa and Mama can only wait for my rash to disappear on its own. Meanwhile, Papa is on leave this week again and more outings and interesting experience awaits me.... :)

9 Months Old

Dear all,

In another one hour's time or so, I will be turning 9 months old exactly... you see, I was born at 8pm. Mama remembers she and Papa were still watching the Korean drama called The Legend of 7 Princesses (actually it's a drama about ladies with 7 in their names) when Dr Tham came in and all of us started to prepare for the delivery and the TV was switched off. Cool, yah? Not like what one always see in TV with the ladies screaming their heads off. Papa said Mama didn't shout loudly though Mama remembers it was somewhat uncomfortable when Dr Tham used the vacuum to help Mama push me out.

Here is a picture of me when I was a newborn.



Well, 9 months later after that fateful day, here is a video Mama took for me this morning.

See the difference? Papa and Mama were reminded again how small and scrawny I was when they watched a video clip taken when I was just delivered. Thanks be to God who causes all things to grow, including me! :)

I Can Crawl!!

no videos nor pictures yet and this certainly did not happen overnight but Mama thought she will make an official record today that yes, I can crawl on all fours in a forward direction. I will be turning 9 months old tomorrow and yes, I can crawl before 9 months though not very well yet. there is still some refining needed but Mama thinks I will quickly be able to crawl very well soon.

Mama told Papa she thinks I have a steep learning curve when it comes to learning to crawl as I probably learnt to crawl when I wanted to overcome the obstacles (the bolsters) that were blocking me on my bed. Yes, most babies will learn how to crawl but not many will learn to crawl by trying to go beyond the boundaries set by bolsters. Haha... :)

Mor-Peng!

Nope, it's not a spelling error. I am not morphing, I am mor-peng! If Mama is not mistaken, "mor-peng" is a hokkien term which means I have spots and blemishes on me. This is due to the viral infection. Papa and Mama brought me to see Dr Loo yesterday and he said it's what the old people call "false measles".


Can you see the rashes on my face?



Clearer now?





Not to worry, I am still my ususal happy self and Mama really doesn't think I feel itchy as I am still so good-natured and happy. Still, if possible, she will try to help me up my vitamin C intake to help boost my immunity.

Papa is rather worried but there is nothing he and Mama can do except to wait for me to get well on my own. Papa really cannot bear to see me in this state and prefer not to look at me. This reminds Mama when God placed all the sin of Mankind on Jesus at the cross, He also can't bear to see His own Son and turned His face away. How great is the love of God that He should allow His only Son Jesus Christ to bear our sins that we who believe can be reconciled to God Himself!

Family Portrait

This evening, Ye Ye, Nai Nai and Shu Shu came to visit me as Nai Nai heard I had a fever yesterday. Nai Nai also brought our family portrait over. Here is a closer look.

Mama thinks the photographer did not manage to catch my happy looks and she may want to have another portrait taken nearer my first birthday. Perhaps something that is more casual and which captures my smiling face. Nevertheless, Mama still feels like pinching my image in the picture because she thinks I still look very cute despite this not being my best shot. haha.... :D

Obstacle Course

Dear all, can you spot where I am? This is the current set up on my bed when I sleep at night. Since I last rolled off the bed in around late Novemeber, Papa had placed 3 bolsters around me when I sleep at night to prevent me from rolling off the bed. In addition, there is another mattress in the foreground to cushion my fall in case I do roll down again. Mama took this picture 2 days ago. But I am proving this is not too much of an obstacle to me anymore. Just look at what follows :

Just now, I actually showed Mama I am capable of finding my way to the blue mattress even though I am placed in the middle of the 3 bolsters. Papa confessed that he is the one who taught me how to overcome the bolster to go onto the mattress. Mama also thinks I would be sub-intelligent (if there is such a word, haha) if I am still hemmed in by a bolster by the time I am over one year old. Papa thinks I am an intelligent boy and I am a fast learner. Boy, I sure am.

Meanwhile, here are 2 more pictures of what Mama found after she had left me on my bed to eat her lunch in the kitchen. Mama took these 2 pictures of me because she thinks I look so interesting sleeping on this bolster. My trigger-happy Mama.. :)



by the way, you will notice from the 2 pictures above, there are two bolsters used to cordon off my sleeping and activity area. This is the result of me showing Mama and Papa that I can actually move over 1 bolster and so Papa put 2 bolsters to make things more difficult for me.

High Fever

This morning, I woke Mama up at about 4.30am with my crying as I was running a very high fever. When Mama touched my forehead, she was a bit shocked as it felt quite high. While she made milk for me, I continued to fuss and woke Papa up who was also surprised by my high temperature. He measured my temperature and I was running a fever of almost 39 deg C. Mama gave me some milk and some paracetamol dissolved in warm water. Then Papa and Mama brought me to the A&E depratment of KK hospital to see a doctor but by then, my fever has subsided to about 37.6 or 37.8 deg C and I am no longer considered feverish.

Doctor said it was a viral fever and asked Mama and Papa to observe me for the next few days. Thank God I am feeling much better now and my fever has subsided. :)

I sat on a high chair

Another milestone of my development..I can sit on a high chair! The photo was taken in the KFC@ the zoo. As you can see, Papa and Mama were very excited about it because Papa used to be be very concerned if the restaurants are family friendly or not i.e. space for prams, tolerance for baby noises etc. With this new feat, I am free from my pram and sit with my Papa and Mama when they are dining....

First Cut!

From birth, Mama finds my hair a little long and now that I am almost 9 months old, my hair is getting longer than is good for me. At least that is what Mama thinks as she has observed me tug my ears quite a few times and da yi por said it's because my hair is getting too long and kind of tickling my ears. You see I have never had a hair cut before all this while.

My Mama is a former school teacher. In a school she used to teach, students with such long hair would be sent "home" to get a haircut before being allowed to return for lessons. Since Mama cannot send me "home", she sent me to a hairdresser instead.

It happened that a few days ago, there was a flyer placed at our door advertising for the services of a hairdresser who operates from her home near where we stay and Mama decided to try her out as she charges only $4 which is much cheaper compared to, say, a Malay barber. Mama's intention was for me to have my hair trimmed by a cm or two but I ended up looking like this!

Now, Papa calls me 葡萄仔 which means "little grape" because my head looks like a grape. Papa and Mama finds my new hairstyle amusing and it would take much getting used to on their part. Well, I have no sense of aesthetics yet and so this new hairstyle does not make much of a difference to me. One thing for sure, Papa and Mama have regretted having my hair shaven and they may think twice before sending me for a haircut again.

Papa also said maybe I should have got this hairdo before we go on our journeys to the zoo and the parks. Papa hopes my hair can grow longer before I go for my water baptism on 21st December.

Here are some pictures for you to do a before and after....

Do you think I look better in my original hair style? :)

Sleep in Peace

Yesterday, after coming home from the trip to Jurong Bird Park and Jurong Point, I was actually pretty alert when I reached home as I took a nap in Papa's car along our way home. Papa was tired out and he rested after his shower. Mama kept me company by playing with me and reading to me. She then gave me egg yolk with rice cereal and meshed pear for dinner.

By then, I was awake for about 3 hours and I fell asleep on my bouncer soon after. But I woke up after sleeping less than an hour and cried as I was still tired but could not get back to sleep.

Mama tried to change me out of my dirty clothes which were soiled during dinner and gave me a milk feed. It didn't work and I still cried. She tried to cuddle me and sang to me but it also did not work. She tried to give me more milk but I regurgitated it and cried again. This made Mama angry as she had run out of patience (not that she had much to begin with anyway). So she scolded me for crying, throwing up the milk, causing her to have to change me again and she put me back to bed and told me to sleep on my own. I cried even louder when she scolded me. ;(


Eventually, she carried me in her arms and sang the hymn The Love of God to me softly and I soon settled down and fell asleep. Mama told Papa she suspected that I could not quite go to sleep as I have not reconciled with her after I had made her angry and she had scolded me. It could be that I wanted to be assured that we are reconciled and she still loves me before I go to sleep.


In the Holy Bible, it is written in Psalms that God grants sleep to those that He loves. When Mama first read this verse, she did not think much of it as everyone in this world sleeps and there is nothing special about sleeping. On more thought, she realised the verse would mean to say God loves everyone because everyone in this world sleeps! :D

Also, usually those who can't sleep are usually those who are not at peace either with God or with themselves. Extrapolating this, God must really love babies, especially newborns as they sleep so much and God is the one who grants this sleep to them. What a loving God we have. Are you able to go to sleep tonight? If not, then go to the loving God who grants sleep to those that He loves and find the peace and rest that you need for your body and your soul. Good night and sweet dreams. :)

Exploring Boundary

I am not looking for gold. Rather, Mama thinks I am exploring my boundary. Recently, Mama observes that I seem to be getting interested in what lies beyond the boundaries I am given. It is probably my curiosity that causes me to try and look beyond my boundary.

For example, when Mama tries to bath me, I will hold on to the rim of the bath tub and try to see what lies beyond. Once, this action caused me to lift the toilet seat that is just in front of me by a cm or so using my forehead. Today, when I tried to look beyond my bath tub, Mama thinks my forehead ended up touching the toilet bowl but she can't be sure as she may have committed some parallax error.

Another instance is like what you see above. We were at Simply Oiishi Ramen Restaurant at Jurong Point and I am trying to see what is beyond the high chair.

Mama hopes that when I am older, I will live within the boundary God has prescribed for us in the Holy Bible and not try to explore what lies beyond it. It is both her and Papa's prayers that I will grow up to be a godly man and God-willing, may it be so. Amen. :)

Guess Where?

Dear all,

Guess where did we go today? Any idea from the picture below?



How about this?




And these?






Yes, you are right! We went to Jurong Bird Park! Initially, Papa and Mama wanted to stay home today as Mama would like to take a break after having been out for the past few days but since the weather this morning looks good and they do not know if tomorrow would be a good day to go to the Bird Park, Papa and Mama decided to go to Jurong Bird Park today.

So Mama made some preparations, Papa and Mama went for breakfast and we set off for the Bird Park. I fell asleep on our way there and woke up after Papa parked his car. Mama gave me some water to drink as she forgot to let me drink more water when we went to the zoo. Although it was almost 11am by the time we enter the bird park, it was not too sunny and we managed to catch a bird show at 11am.



We got to sit at the third row from the front and had a good view of what was going on. Mama observed that I am attracted by macro stuff. For example, a flock of flamingoes came out when the show first started and that caught my attention. Some birds also flew past me and some flew over my head and these managed to catch my attention for a couple of seconds. The finer ones such as when 2 macaws competed to see which one could put 4 small balls into a metal sock more quickly did not appeal to me and neither was I interested in this green bird that could sing a chinese nursery rhyme and the happy birthday song.


After the show, Mama changed my clothes and diaper for me and let me have my milk feed. I soon fell asleep after that and Papa and Mama had to wheel me around in the pram.

After I woke up, Papa brought me to see the vultures and eagles. We also met a lady who works at the bird park. She let me and Papa touch an empty ostrich egg shell and then handed Papa an intact ostrich egg. What an amazing experience.

After we left the bird park, Papa and Mama went to Jurong Point for lunch. This is the first time we are there as a family and Mama has not been here for a long time. We ate at Simply Oiishi Ramen restaurant.

Yes, you are right, WE ate at a restuarnt. Mama did not want me to miss my semi-solids anymore due to our outings and so she brought along my lunch box and made me some rice cereal which she fed me before their food came. So here's a picture of me eating my cereal in the restaurant strapped to a high chair.



When we went home, I fell asleep on the way as usual. Mama thinks I must really be tired out by the outings. Maybe moving around so much is a tiring thing for me. ;p

Hort Park

This morning, Papa brought me and Mama out for breakfast at a coffeeshop near Yew Tee central. This is one of the rare times we have breakfast at this coffeeshop. Then we went home for a short rest and then went fetch Wai Po (my maternal grandma) after she had finished her dialysis session. Wai Po sat at the back of the car with me in the car seat and I smiled at her attempts to interact with me. In fact, I actually squinted a couple of times when she played with me and this made Wai Po very amused. I had never behaved in this way before towards anyone.

After sending Wai Po home, Papa decided we would go to Hort Park since it is at Telok Blangah which is nearer to where Wai Po stays compared to our home at Yew Tee. Also, the weather seems fine for the visit though it was already mid-day. So off we went to Hort Park.



Mama called to invite Aunty Celine and Uncle Ivan who stays near Hort Park with their 17 month old son, Luke Gor-gor to join us but it was decided that we visit them at their place instead.


When we reached Hort Park, I was quite sleepy and fell asleep soon after my milk feed at around 12.30pm. So Papa and Mama had me in the pram and wheeled me around as they walked on the Alexandra Arch





and took a quick tour in Hort Park itself. They will most probably come back here again when they are more prepared on another day.





Then Papa and Mama went for lunch at a food court near Uncle Ivan's place before we went to their place. I woke up before we arrived at their place. Boy, Aunty Celine and Uncle Ivan were sure excited about our visit. Soon after Mama pressed the door bell, she could hear Aunty Celine's excited voice proclaiming we are here.

Papa, Mama, Uncle Ivan and Aunty Celine had a good afternoon catching up with one another after Aunty Celine showed Mama around the house while Papa joined in at certain parts. As it was Luke Gor-gor's nap time, we did not get to interact much with each other. However, he did get a little jealous at the attention showered upon me by Aunty Celine and Uncle Ivan who took turns to carry me. Since Luke Gor-gor soon went to take his nap, I got to play with his toys and Aunty Celine even took out some memory cards to show me. Boy, she was really good at flashing the cards and my attention was really captured by her. Papa and Mama could also tell I was interested in what she was showing me. When we came home, Papa actually took out some old memory cards given as a free sample and he found the DVD of the memory cards he had bought for me. Looks like my brain will be getting more stimulation from these cards in the days to come.


Aunty Celine also gave me some clothes that Luke Gor-gor has outgrown. We had to leave at around 3.30pm as I seem to be getting hungry and Papa had promised to be at home for the air-con man to come and service the air-con. Before we left, Mama, Papa and Aunty Celine and Uncle Ivan decided to meet up again when Papa is on leave again. Mama sure looks forward to more play dates with them! :)

38 Weeks @Singapore Zoo

Today, Papa realised his desire to bring me to the zoo.

Papa has always wanted to take me to the zoo. Since Papa is clearing his leave this week, he decided to bring me to the zoo. As it was raining almost the whole of yesterday, Papa and Mama prayed to God last night that it would not rain today. This morning, Papa decided we would go to the zoo by faith even though the sky did not look too promising in the morning. It turned out that the weather was really great for the zoo trip and it became warmer and sunnier as the morning went by. God also gave Papa and Mama more than they could ever asked or imagined : I was the only one in the family who was not bitten by mosquitoes. Mama and Papa were both bitten. Mama believes God has protected me from the mosquitoes. :)

We left our house at around 830am but I looked a little tired when we reached the zoo. Still, I went around with Mama and Papa. Not long after we arrived, we took a short cruise from a dock in the zoo to another dock. This is another first for me as I had never taken a ferry before.




I became more alert on board the ferry as there was new sights to see. There was also a guide who showed us exotic stuff like dried iguana skin and a crocodile egg shell left behind after the baby crocodile in it has hatched.


Near the dock where we alighted, there was a large children's playground. The guide on the ferry said before the playground was built, children who came to the zoo were interested in seeing the animals, but after the playground came into the picture, the children were no longer interested in the animals. How sad this is.

Well, I was also interested in the playground with so many children there and they were splashing around, having fun with the water. In fact, after Mama brought me into the KFC near the playground, I was still very interested to look at the playground through the glass windows of KFC.


Talking about KFC, this is the first time Mama brings me to KFC. As usual, no KFC for me to eat but for Papa and Mama to recharge before moving on. There were not many people in the KFC and Mama took the opportunity to let me try sitting in a high chair. Another first for me! I can actually sit in it and Mama was so happy that she took many pictures of me. Papa said we can show one of these pictures next time we go to restaurants so that we can request for a high chair. Yeah! Bye bye to sitting in my pram when we eat at restuarants. Now, I can see what Papa and Mama are eating.




We then went on to watch other exhibits. At the Jaguar exhibit, we managed to catch the feeding time of the 2 big cats in the enclosure. We were very near to the jaguars and were just separated by a pool of water and a glass panel. One of them pounced in my direction as a piece of meat landed in the water in front of me. The jaguar caught its meat as it splashed through the water as well as my attention but that was the LAST straw for me. Mama soon put me down in the pram after she had enough of watching the jaguars feed. I fell asleep in less than 5 seconds almost literally at the drop of a hat. By the way, though I was tired, I was NOT cranky. In fact, I was just following Papa and Mama very quietly though I was sleepy. Don't you think I am such a sweet darling? Mama certainly think I am! :)

We left the zoo at around 1pm. I actually fell asleep on our way home but when I was taken out of the car, I woke up and only took my nap at around 220pm after Mama has bathed me. Nevertheless, I had a long afternoon nap and only woke up at around 5.20pm. It has been long since I last took such a long afternoon nap based on Mama's memory. I must really be tired out... :p