Whiny Baby

ah gong told me today when yu chen wants to go down for a walk, he will take his shoes to ah gong and point to the door. Apparently he needs to go out at least 3 times every day or else he will whine and whine non stop (like a engine that won't start). Pity ah ma and ah gonf, this is mental torture...

Tai Tai for a day

had been slogging for my project for the past 3 months. finally the darkest hours are over(i hope so). took leave today to spend some time with my kids and to give myself a break. planned to bring my kids and oso francine to gogobambini. called the school during noon time to check if en had extra curriculum class later in the day and found out she had speech and drama class. thus, could not bring her along.

we tried to book a maxi cab(7 seater) as there were 5 adults and 2 kids but to no avail. no one wants to accept our booking. in the end, we took 2 normal cabs. gogobambini is situated at dempsey rd which is quite ulu. it was leng's 1st visit to dempsey and she loved the place, proclaiming to go there for dinner next time. the place was crowded and very popular among the expats tai tais as i think we were the only locals there. the kids couldn't wait to get to the play area but we made them eat lunch 1st. food there was not bad and price was reasonable. while the kids have fun, leng, ah ma and I browsed magazines and sip coffee. life is good(for today only lah)! the kids palyed so hard that they fell asleep around the same time. we left around 4 hrs later and the bill came out to about 120 bucks. the next time i must bring en along(maybe around national day) as i know she will enjoy herself here with the big playground. I made all the adults promise that they won't utter a word about this trip to en cos i know she will surely feel disappointed if she knew she was being left out of this trip.

p.s. unfortunately, we had some minor injuries, not the kids but the adults. Leng and Anna suffered some abrasives on their arms when they try to slow down on the spiral slide by rubbing their arms against the walls of the slides. Alamak! Leng even sprained her fourth toe, amazing...

Yu Chen is Officially 1!

today is yu chen actual birthday. daddy was so sweet to play the birthday song on the piano to the birthday boy on the strike of the clock at 12am.

at night, got the whole family together to have a mini celebration. i volunteered to buy the birthday cake as i thought i would knock off from work on time. who knows i only manage to leave site at ard 8.30pm. i started to feel gan jiong as i was afraid the bakery shop will close and i will be screwed by my family members for failing to get the cake. luckily, i managed to get one from a bakery shop hidden in one corner at sing post building (all thanks to leng leng ah yee's info). just like 2 days ago at his party, yu chen started to laugh, clap hands and bounce to our singing when we sang the birthday song.

Yu Chen's Birthday Party

today is yu chen's one year old birthday party. it's a lunch so we started preparing early. ah gong, ah ma and ah yees came as early as 10am. after a quick breakfast, all of us started on our respective assigned task. ah yees were responsible for decorating the function room(who had a hard time blowing the balloons), ah gong to chauffer me to get the cake from bugis junction, daddy to receive the toys and buffet, ah ma and auntie anna to doll up the kids, and yee zhang to get the balloons.

the party was a success! the money was really well spent on the buffet and the toys. the kids enjoyed themselves tremendously, the toys and the goody pack. they couldn't bear to leave at the end. the food cost abt $15 per head and the guests seemed to like the food as the butter rice was wiped out half way through(yp got to go to the nearby coffeeshop to buy chicken rice) and cousin huan even commented the food looked very appetizing.

when it was time to cut the cake, yu chen just woke up from his nap and was feeling blurry and grouchy. he practically fell asleep in the midst of the toys. but the moment everyone started to sing the birthday song, he brokes into smiles and was dancing to the song. the cake which i bought from four leaves was so so. aiya, cannot hiam cos it cost only$70. I didn't want to spend too much on the cake cos usually everone will be too full to appreciate the cake. ah gong, gu zhang and jiu jiu even had a majong game.

Thanks to those who made this party a success and to everyone who turned up for the party and all the ang paos and gifts! Yu Chen had an unforgettable birthday party!

Cake - Four Leaves
Toys - http://www.rent-that-toy.com/
Food - Eatz Catering
Ballons and Deco - Concourse

Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO AH GONG, DADDY AND FRANCINE'S DADDY

It's Father's Day today. There are 3 'fathers'(Ah gong, daddy and marcus) in our family. We had high tea buffet at Holiday Inn Atrium (old Concorde Hotel), Melting Pot Cafe. There is a kid corner at the cafe and the babies (Yu Chen and Francine) enjoyed themselves there. According to ah gong (it's auntie anna's off day today so ah gong is the temporary babysitter), yu chen was behaving like a road bully. In order to climb up the ladder of the slide, he pushed whatever, whoever was blocking his path. We took our own sweet time and spent 3 hours eating. The food was ok and the speed that they replenish the food was really slow but the price was reasonable.

Milestones

it's been a long time since i last blogged. I was really tied down with my project. Only recently did i manage to catch the sun when i return home from office. For the past 3 months my project team had dinner at around 8/9pm and going home around 9/10pm during most of the weeknites. Now that my project is nearing end, I finally had the time to plan for a short Taiwan trip and also yu chen's birthday party.

Yu Chen will be 1 year old next month. So far, he had been able to achieve the following all thanks to ah ma's coaching...
1. Wave bye bye
2. Blow kisses
3. Plant kisses on faces
4. Comb his hair
5. Pretend to talk into the phone
6. Do the 'no more' action
7. Do the 'twinkle twinkle little stars' action
8. Stand steadily
9. Stand from a squatting position
10.Walk steadily with support.
11.Walk 2/3 steps without support.
12. Feed himself with hands.
13.Hold and drink from milk bottle himself.
14. Point at things and people.

As for yu chen's birthday party, so far only managed to book the function room. Still haven booked buffet, cake, toys, buy his present, get decorations, send invites, create his 1st year CD...Oh no, better get all these done before I leave for Taiwan.

Recently Yu En has been biting her finger nails. Her daddy had tried all ways to make her stop this bad habbit including barred her from going swimming, beat her hand, show her his angriest face but to no avail. I even told her the story of how the worms will get into her stomach to grow there and then will come out from her mouth and ears but also no use. Everyweek, she will run away once her daddy ask to check and cut her nails. Do we have to resort to put axe oil/chilli on her fingernails just like what our elders did last time?

En En's New Piano

En's new piano arrived today. It's high time we get her a piano in order to train her fingers which is not possible with keyboard. We had a hard time deciding which model and brand to buy for her as PIANOS ARE EXPENSIVE! We are actually not sure how serious or interested is en into playing piano. Everytime we asked her if she likes playing piano, she would just answered 'yes' but without the enthusiasm in her tone. But she is quite hardworking in her practice. Since it's still early to guage her interest, we decided on a cheap model, WEBER, an American brand manufactured in China from Cristofori. Even a cheap model easily costs us $3K+ We'll switch to a better model once she is into the higher grades. The other models which we had considered are Kawai and Yamaha. A second hand model of Kawai or Yamaha can easily hit $4k+. Expensive right? Now one of my enjoyable moments is to listen to my dear daughter playing a tune on the piano.