Couple time

We hasn't really had much time for yourselves since Nigel's arrival. Not that we are complaining but we thought we should try to spend some time on our own, with no kids on tow. So we decided to head to Bintan Lagoon resort for some golf.

Some of the rooms had been refurbished recently and their refurbished room does look much better now. Definitely more modern and cheery compared to in the past. The golf courses are still great but I must say the condition isn't as wonderful as we played many years back.

On the 2nd day we played with this Candanian born Chinese, Anson. He was a nice chap and definitely doesn't look anything close to 43 years of age! I think Seng & I better work harder in doing some "maintenance". LOL

Golf was good and I'm happy to break 100 again.. after so many years. :-)

I did it!

It's was a "lonely" race in the sense I went alone and there is no one to congratulate me when I finish my 1st 10km run (*sob*). My only aim was to complete the 10km without stopping. Of course I have a target set for my timing but that is secondary. H/E I was very happy and I not only managed to jog the entire distance, I even came in within my target time of 80mins.

My 1st attempt achievement : 1h 17m 22s

PS: Sorry if I look kinda tired coz I am! hahahaha

Hi-5!!

Today is the start of the Hi-5 performance at Taka. I'm so glad we managed to get it and Valerie had a fabulous time.. according to DH. I was busy filming down the entire performance! After the performance we Q up to have Valerie take a picture with the cast. For all the "trouble" we go through, I think it's all worth it. We would have bring Nigel along but he cry the last 2 time we watch such shows.

I also bump into Meowie at KFC after the show. She watched from the 2nd level as she thought the organiser will not be letting people in after the "cut-off" point. I was standing beyond that point as well but I tried my luck hoping that I can make it and boy I was lucky!

EARTHQUAKE!!

This time I really felt it. I was in office, busy walking around getting signatures and stuff when a colleague of mine stopped me and asked "Do you feel that the building is shaking?" I couldn't felt it at first and even joked "Was it because I walked too fast & too hard?"

But after a while almost everyone is feeling it.. and soon I felt it too! The feeling is pretty much like I'm on a boat. That lasted for like 10 secs? Not very long but not short either. It was already 6plus then and most of thme decided they will want to go home.

Not long after, the building management announced that we have to evacuate the building and most of us did. I couldn't go home coz I need to stay back to ensure that the announcement gets done. After hanging downstairs (the haze was bad!) for maybe 10 mins, we were allowed back into the office to resume our biz..

After that we heard that the tremble is the effect of an earthquake at Sumatra measuring a high of 7.9 on the richter scale.

New Camera

We bot a new camera lately and I'm dying to test out the quality. And it doesn't disappoint. :-) Brot the kids out to McDonald's @ ECP for breakfast. We haven't had Mc breakfast for quite some time...

Alonso! F1!

F1 weekend! There was a meet & greet session with the Renault drivers on Saturday and I was lucky enough to get pretty close to Fernando Alonso!

Nigel is walking!

Nigel started really walking a few days back. He had been trying to do so, walking 2-3 steps but will quickly go down on fours or hold onto something for balance. Now, he is really walking independently and can walk quite a distance too. :-)

Nigel is ONE!!

How time flies.. Nigel is ONE yesterday. We decided not to host the party in the house as it's quite a big affair (> 50 pax in total) and we wanted our guest to feel comfortable and have the space & luxury to mingle around to catch up.

So we decided on International Seafood as the food was good and the ambience is great. We were very pleased with the set up, the serving staff were friendly and the food was fantastic. I particularly like the Honey Baked Cod Fish! Our guests love it too, we actually have to reorder as it was finished before all the guests arrived :p It's not cheap but I think it's still worth it.

This year we got our cake from roomfordessert again. And again, their cake didn't disappoint. Feedback from the guests is that the cake is nice, the food too. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, so did we!

Once again.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGEL..

Duckie Duck!

Our 1st ride on the Duck! Valerie was all smiles before we ride on it, but when the journey started she became all gloomy and scared.. so scared she choose to lie on my lap and eventually she slept! Nigel basically slept from the start too! It was interesting and we behaved just like the other tourist in the boat.. clicking our camera happily!

After the ride we went to Swensen's for our lunch and the free Birthday Firehouse.. I think that's the highlight for them!

Fun day at T3!

Today is the Monday after National Day.. lazy morning with loads of rain and Valerie wants "gai gai". After some thought, we decided to bring the kids to the airport. We parked a T2 so that we can take the skytrain to T3.

Nothing fanciful.. but it's nice to goto some place more quiet and relaxed and have some pictures of the kids taken. :)

The planes didn't actually excite the kids tho' but the coconut trees sure did! Nigel was constantly looking up at those trees, pointing at them and goes "Wa! Wa!", while Valerie goes from one chair to the other and say that coconut tree is taller than the other!

Cute!

I have no idea where this pair of plastic toy specs came from but he looked super cute with it! It's not easy to take pictures of him wearing them coz he'll take them out immediately. But he is not protesting.. it's just that he wanna wear them himself!

So cute!

Illuma? Where's the "shine"

Went to Roomfordessert to order Nigel's cake this morning. I seriously didn't know that cake prices have increased by leaps & bounds! Now the novelty cakes are at $55/kg! I'm very sure when Valerie had her 1st bday, her cake was abt $40/kg and we ordered the musical barnyard, which was a 3kg cake. Anyway, we still went ahead to order one for Nigel since we like their choc cake.

After that, we thot of going to Illuma to take a look since we've not been there.. All I can say is.. depressing. The mall is prob about 70% occupied? The stuffs there are mainly the heartland brands with no anchor tenant. But it has a very big Japanese theme restaurant and we took the chance to take some cute pictures outside.

Other than the Jap restaurant, Illuma has many desserts place! Ice cream/cheesecake/cakes etc.. all those sugar-infused kinda food. I guess the mall's main target market are the youngsters so all these sweet stuff will suit their palate.

Liverpool.. Liverpool

Liverpool is came to SG to play with our Home Team on 26th July. DH being a die hard fan would sure want to see them in action. And I, being the wife.. naturally have to be go on this date with him right? *LOL*

Well.. I know nothing much about the team nor the game but seeing the ball heading towards the goal post will still ingite some excitement in me. hahaha

The eventual score was SG 0 - Liverpool 5. Here are some pictures to share:

Milestones of Nigel

He'll be turning 10mths very soon.. he is now crawling.. has 1 tooth, cruising a little, definitely pulling himself to standing very quickly and is also babbling.

He demonstrates he is happy to see you buy 'calling' you "A!". At times he'll go "jie jie jie jie" and we would wonder if he meant what he said. He is definitely very engaging and a charmer indeed.

This is the most recent picture I have of him.. together with his lovely, bubbly sister :D

Hyatt

HB won this free night's stay during last year's D&D. Realising that it's going to expire soon, we quickly went to book for it. We thought it'll be a good trial run to see how the kids adapt to a 'foreign' place. As expected, Valerie is ok but Nigel was quite clingy initially.

Shortly after we checked in (the suite was fantastic), the kiddos took a nap. At ard 4ish, Mag came with father, mother, HX & ZK to "visit" us. After they left we headed to the pool. All these years I've seen Hyatt from the outside, I've zero idea how the hotel is on the inside. I was pleasantly surprised that the premises is actually quite big and the pool is very pretty.

It was Nigel's 1st dip into the pool and he warmed up to it pretty quickly. He did not exhibit any fear when I put him through the float (holding him of course) and glide him around in the pool. He was enjoying himself quite a bit actually.

We didn't bring our camera, so these are what we've taken using my mobile.

Mothers' Day

This year is pretty special. As with most Fridays, HB and I will go have dinner with our friends on Friday. That Friday, when we came home, Valerie was still downstairs and when she saw me, she looked very delighted and ran into the house. Next thing she emerged and passed me this little flower she has made in school and wished me Happy Mothers' Day.

Coincidentally, I got her the angel wings which she has been asking for so it ended like a 'gift exchange' of some sort. She was leaping with joy and I was very touched that she actually stayed up to give me the flower. I think I must have been smiling cheek to cheek the whole nite :D

New job

Started at this new place in May. Colleagues & bosses are pretty nice and work is ok. H/E, I do miss my old colleagues so I'll chat with YS once a while to see how the rest are doing. It seemed that everyone is getting really bz at work.

I guess the best thing that came out of the change is definitely the hours. Most of the days I leave office 7pm or earlier so being able to spend more time with the kiddos is really a huge bonus by itself.

Interesting article on TODAY

Defiant or just irresponsible

The author wrote about the difference between the 2. If a child is playful and breaks things along the way, forgot to bring his/her books back or left the bicycle out in the rain, this is known as "childish irresponsibilty" and is inevitably during the early years. As this does not constitute as direct challenges to authority, they should be handled gently.

In comparison, if a child shouts at his/her parents to "shut up" or put up a battle against his/her parents, this is known as "wilful defiance". It shows the child's refusal to accept parental leadership. And when such confrontation occurs, the parent must stand firm as the child is challenging "Who is in charge here?"

Is it therefore important for the parent to show and have the courage to lead.

I think the above article is very meaningful. Many times I hear of friends complaining/lamenting how their child is 'climbing over their head'. Some says their child treat them like maids, demanding them to do this & that. I cannot comprehend why and how such a situation can happen. Now I think I know why, because they relenquish their parental leadership to their child.

I think it's neither right nor wise to do so as the child is young and immature. They need our guidance and our advice. If they do not even respect us from young, how can be possibly teach them the values and virtues that is so needed in the society?

Birthday song

Many new kids in the school.. and this year, Valerie is not the shortest already :D

Happy Birthday to Valerie!

Valerie is 4 today! As we didn't pre-order any cakes for her school we went to purchase 2 1kg cakes for her. We got this from Jack's Place (pretty last minute I must say). The kids were very excited as it's TWO and not ONE cake. I guess the kids only goes by quantum rather than size.

:p

Here are some pictures taken

But poor birthday girl didn't managed to eat her cake :( She kept insisting she wanted the choc cake but as she has phelgm and is allergic to choc, one mouth is all it takes to send her coughing (the choc mousse is quite rich btw). In the end she vomited out that single bite she took and after that she didn't want to eat the cakes anymore. :(

In the evening, we brought her to Swensen's to have her free Birthday Firehouse and she attacked the scoop of choc ice cream immediately! Luckily it didn't cause her to cough much. :p

Happy birthday Valerie! I hope you did enjoy yourself! (I shall leave out the part about you throwing tantrums on you birthday :p)

Hamsters

Maggie & family are going to Korea for 1 week holiday and so we offered to take care of their 2 young hamsters for them. Anyway I thought since Valerie is so excited about the hamsters, we can at least 'satisfy' her for the time being.

But it's not exactly the best move.. for many nights this week, she woke up brawling, probably from some nightmare. It's hard to calm her down and each 'session' lasted for like 1-2 hrs. HB is really tired from this ordeal. We are very perplexed what was giving her all these nightmares as HX is out of town (meaning no one to fight with her).

Finally one of the night, she managed to calm down quite quickly and allowed me to cuddle her.. and I tried to probe to see what's bothering her.. so it went

Mom: Is it the school?
Val: no.. (very softly)
Mom: Is it the teachers?
Val: no..
Mom: Is it Nur (our maid)?
Val: no...
Mom: Is it hamsters?
Val: yes...
Mom: Why? (*shocked*)
Val: always fighting...

I was really taken aback. Ya, the hamsters fight.. the black one is very domineering and always pounce onto the white one when the latter comes out to eat/drink. Alot of times, the black one will even seek out the white one and they'll bite on each other. We've separated both hamsters on many occassions as the white one is getting thinner.

I dunno her peace-loving nature is a good thing or a bad thing. It pains me to see her so affected over 2 hamsters fighting. I hope she can learn to cope with such situations as life is definitely not a bed of roses..

Happy birthday Kaeden & Shanice!

How time flies! It's April 18 again and SC invited us to her kids bday! It's also a time to catch up with some other forum mommies (e.g. Angel, Peggy, Kathy etc). It's been ages since I saw them and their kids. Most of them have grown so much! Of course, Valerie has grown as much too. But seeing her daily, you just don't feel it.

As always, the cakes are fabulous! Especially love Shanice's cake as it's very very beautifully done. Kaeden's cake is nice too, with all the M&M placed in the carts of the Thomas's train.

So enjoy the pictures here!

Oh so constipated..

MIL had been telling us his poop is much harder since he started on cereals, but I thought nothing of it. Today, on our way to work, she called saying baby's poop is so hard he is having a hard time pushing it out. So I headed home immediately.

When I reached home, he managed to poop out some. They are really hard and because of that, he sufferred a bit of renal tear. He was sleeping, totally exhausted. MIL says his digestive system is not cleared yet so I decided to bring him to Dr Low.

While in the clinic waiting, this boy was all cheerful and stuff. But after the supportistory went in, he cried angrily and pitifully. He managed to poop some but not much. But in the afternoon, he managed to clear much of the 'leftovers' after taking medicine.

Poor boi, the renal tear must be quite painful. :(

We'll try to feed you more fruits and maybe introduce you to prune juice. Hopefully that'll help.

Finally...

We have talked about buying a car more than 2 years back I think. But we never did purchase one. Finally on Sunday, we placed order for our 1st car.. a Honda Civic 1.6. I guess the information that I'll be entitled to free parking at my new workplace just makes the decision alot easier.

Comparing the 1.6 & 1.8, I'm so so tempted to get the 1.8 due to the finishings and interior. But HB feels that a 1.6 is enough and it's not worth paying an extra $4.5K for accessories and add-ons which we do not use.

On the same day, we traded in dad's Mazda 3 for a Honda Fit. We both managed to get our COE on Wednesday so probably by the end of the month we'll be having our new shiny zroom zroom!

Will definitely post pictures when we collect our car!

Baby Galore!!

Big big congrats to April & Jee Lien on the arrival for their little bundle of joy! Both of them coincidentally have the same EDD but Jee Lien gave birth to baby Brandon on Sunday and April to Kaeus on Monday.

Rest well buddies!

It's my birthday!.. Not!

My MIL told us to come home for dinner on Friday night.. as it's Valerie's birthday (based on lunar calendar). So after work, HB & I went to get a small cake (hey, what's birthday without cake right?). We got 1 from Breadtalk and it's their cake of the week so there was 20% off and it's not a choc cake, so it fits our requirement.

Naturally Valerie was delighted that it's her birthday today. So we sang birthday song, cut birthday cake etc etc and Valerie was very happy..

Here are some pictures we've taken that day.

Updated: 20/04/09
H/E, after like a week or so.. my mom reminded me.. Valerie's lunar bday is actually on the 14th day of the 3rd Lunar month and not the 8th (we celebrated Valerie's birthday on the 8th).

And I was like :-O

LOL. Anyway, we are a few days early.. it's ok.. so long as Valerie is happy :D

The "Window"

That's what Valerie calls the Singapore Flyer. Everytime we travels on ECP, she'll look at it and says "The Window!".

Finally we found time to go. MIL refuse to come along as she is afraid of heights. Such a pity because the view was fantastic! The weather that day was absolutely fantastic. Not too hot but yet bright enough to see miles away as well as take fabulous pictures!

Just before we start on our ride, the staff asked us to stand in front of the green screen for a picture. Naturally you know this is to be sold to you at the end of your ride. At the end of it, we were given 2 scenes to select - Day & Night. 1 picture for $18, 2 pictures for $30. We took the night scene as our ride was in the day and the pictures turn out pretty well.

So here you go..

For the rest of the pictures taken, feel free to check them out here.

Balloon always makes her day

Valerie simply loves balloons. Almost all the time when we are out shopping, she'll say she wants balloon. We were at PP after the downpour to get from toiletries as well as get Val out of the house so that Nigel can at least have some nap.

There were some events going on and a lady dress in clown were there making elaborate balloon sculptures (for a fee of course). This is what we got for S$5..

She was simply delighted!

My lil charmer

This is my boi.. my lil' charmer. His smile is always so subtle it just melts my heart.

Decided...

Finally.. a decision is made! I'll be making my move!

I'll miss my colleagues for sure and I seriously hope that everything will turn out fine.

Wish me luck!

In 2 minds

Since Monday.. it has been a roller coaster ride for me.. in alot of sense.

1) I was offered a job.. higher salary, a promise of shorter hours.
2) When I tendered, I was informed that I am to be promoted this coming Apr and that they have been (or at least started to) recruit someone to cover my duties after I am promoted.
3) Even if I do want to leave, I'm not allowed to clear my leave, meaning I have to serve 2 months notice.
4) The new coy is unable to wait that long

I like where I am now, colleagues are nice and I'm comfortable here. My only issues is that work load is rather heavy becoz there is just no one I could really delegate my work to. At times, I do wish my boss could be more open with HR issues? When I did communicate with her that I couldn't cope and need a shadow so that I can at least go on leave, she didn't tell me that they are recuiting. I felt that information should have been shared then, not when I tendered.

Easing of workload has been promised before, when I 1st tendered 2 yrs back. It had improved somewhat after GYC came on board, at least I need not review AN's work anymore. But frankly, bulk of the work still stays w me. Now 2 yrs on and seeing no major progress.. I thought, why not give the other coy a try. It's a big name as well and seemed to have a more efficient work process.

But now.. I'm not sure anymore..

To make things 'worse'.. news of Ben's retrenchment... I know it doesn't concern me directly, but I can't help but think if I do change job, does it make Seng's parents worry about my job security? Frankly, I think I'm safe. But do they feel the same? I think they are already worried for their daugther. Do I want to add to their concern?

Tomorrow is Monday. I want to and need to have a conclusion on this. To inform my coy that I'm staying or going. And I'm still torn.. not sure where I want to be...

Fireman Nigel?

We were supposed to bring Nigel for his injection at Pheng's hse this morning. But Seng just came back from Chennai and didn't managed to sleep for 24 hrs (the economy seat is just not condusive to sleep) so we decided to wait till late morning before making our way to Pheng's clinic.

Since we have some time in the morning, I played with the kids.. and see what Valerie did! She insisting that Nigel wears the fireman hat and my god.. he looks so darn cute!

Isn't he a charmer? At least in my eyes.. he is..

Shocking news...

We all know the economy is in recession. News of people being retrenched is printed everywhere. But frankly, it never occurred to me that it'll hit home. At least maybe I was too busy to think.

Friday, after I came home from work.. mother told me.. Ben has been retrenched as the bank is closing down their asset mgt division. I was in shocked. Having 2 young kids and 2 housing loan.. such an unfortunate event is really.. I dunno.. unthinkable.

I didn't get to speak to Hui directly, but she did talk briefly with Seng. Now Ben still needs to go back to office to clear up the loose ends. So as of now, they have to start tightening their belts considerably. At least now, Ben will still be drawing some salary while the bank settles all the outstanding stuff before officially closing down the division.

Really pray hard that Ben finds a job soon.

6 months old..

How time flies.. Nigel is already 6 months old. I've been horribly busy lately, reaching home past 9pm almost on a daily basis. Other than weekends, I hardly have time for him. As valerie sleeps later & later, I do get to see her (at least say good nite to her) everyday. He turned 6 months on Thursday and frankly, it totally slipped my mind :-(

To Nigel my dear boi:
Mommy is sorry dear.. I just pray & hope that going forward, things can be better and I can spend more time with you.

Yummy Yogurt!

We were at PP today and Valerie spoted people having balloons. As always, she'll want them so we went around finding and trying to figure out what was printed on those balloons. Finally we found, it's a new yogurt joint (bosses all looked incredible young!) located in the basement of PP (near to the fresh fish plc). And since we are there, we bought her 1 to try.

It's quite delicious in fact, it's yogurt but less of the sourish taste as compared to Yummy Yogurt. NICE!

Happiest mom on earth

There are many things money can buy (sounds familiar? :p) but this.. is simply priceless...

Nigel's growth

Since I did one for Valerie, I wanted to do the same for Nigel. For only a 5 month old baby, naturally he didn't change alot :p

Valerie over the years

Currently the forum mommies are posting their babies' growth over the years and I thought it's definitely good to do a 'recap'. And so, this is Valerie from birth till now. Her look didn't really change much, just getting slimmier over the years.

One feature that really didn't change is her infectious laugther. Simply love love love her bubbly character and I hope that no matter what challenges she faces when she grows up, she'll always stay positive and never stop laughing.

Bath time!

This boy l-o-v-e-s his bath. He'll sit inside and kick the water until we are all wet! I must remember to wear a poncho next time!

Lazy Sat morning

It's a lazy saturday morning and everyone wants to sleep just a little longer...

What a charmer

Such a smile always brightens up your day...

Fun on tummy!

Nigel is almost 4 mths old and didn't know how to roll over (as yet). He did have some attempts but he still lacks the final push. So I decided to let him have a little more tummy time and he seemed to be enjoying it lots!

PS: Well, I guess all these tummy time works as he managed to roll over the very next day! Too bad I had to work late and I missed it :(