I soooo luv to hang out with her

I must say despite all the hardwork trying to balance full time work and being a parent, I am enjoying motherhood very much. I am absolutely grateful that my first born is a girl and she has a personality like T (let's hope I don't change my mind in 10 years time when she is a teenager)

I genuinly love to hang out with T (OK, I don't know if I will still say the same if I had to spend 24/7 with her. But for now, out weekend outings have been mostly fun.)

This Saturday, with the typhoon having just past by Hong Kong earlier in the week, the skies were blue and clear of grey clouds. We enjoyed ourselves so much at the beach the previous week, so we decided to go back there again. And it was even more fun this time round. Probably due to the typhoons lingering nearby, the waves that morning was HUGE. We literally got tossed around by the waves on the surf, and we laughed loudly each time it happened. T had great fun being chased by the waves. She would be playing on the smooth shoreline and then when she noticed a big wave rolling it, she would pick up her spade and bucket and RUN! shouting "Big wave coming!!". It was funny. Sometimes she manage to escape the wave, and sometimes the wave caught her and she would try to maintain her balance as the water wrapped around her legs. There was a few times that the wave was too big and strong and would push her over face down into the sand, but she soon got used to it and just stood up and wiped her face with her bare hands, spit the sand out of her mouth and continued to play again. We spent a good 2 hours just sitting in the surf enjoying the warm water.

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I guess what people say that 2nd pregnancy will make you fatter that the 1st one is true. I don't recall being so big at 6 months preggy with T. In fact, I think I only looked this big when T was 8 months in me. Anyways, this meant that my clothes don't fit anymore and time for shopping. Luckily, the summer fashion this season has many wide flora sun dresses. I could purchase cheaply 'non-maternity' clothings that can conceal my expanding tummy and buttocks.

Daddy was kind and patient enough to accompany T and I shopping this Sunday. Actually, it was kind of impromtu. We just went out for a Sunday lunch decided to pay a visit to the fashion street nearby the restuarant. T had lots of fun browsing through the shops with me. She was able to make comments on what clothes she thinks looks nice and what doesn't. (Ok, anything pink with lots of flowers on it looks nice to her). She even suggested a few handbags to me (probably cos the bags were hanging on a low rack accessible to her). We went home with a couple of bags in toll and had fun trying on the clothings at home. T even put on a short dress she picked out for me and started dancing and twilling around the house in it.

Happenings - Week 32, 2009

T's becoming quite a chatterbox in the house nowadays. I think this can be attributed to her having her AhBeeJie all day 5 days a week to play and talk to her for the past 2 months. Its quite funny to hear her tell me all the things that happened to her in the day when I get back to work.

She's also in the phase of asking 'why, why, why'. Its not easy to always come up with an easily understood answer for her and I don't always know if she really understood. But when she asked enough of 'why' she will end the conversation with 'oorrr' as if she really got it. (and frankly, I'm relieved not to have to continue to answer the 5th or 10th consecutive 'why' in that series of questions on the same topic)

Now that she is able to communicate her thoughts much better, we also realise the importance of consistency in our teachings in the house. With her ability to ask why and vocalise what we are doing, we become more aware that she really notices the adults behaviour in the house and questions when rules are different for her than for us.

Example 1 : I have the habit of taking my multi-vitamins right before I sleep, so we have them in the bed room. One night T told me 'Mummy, dont eat in the bedroom, its dirty'. Once again, she was not wrong, I could only revert, 'yes, you are right, I'll eat it outside next time'.

Example 2 : When daddy or I am reading a book, or working on our computer, we will always ask her to quieten down. This evening, she was playing in her living area and daddy turn on his PC to watch a trailer, the sound from the PC was quite loud and distracted her from her play. So she walked up to him and said 'Daddy, not so noisy. I am playing'.

I start to learn more and more each day how having a child makes us want to become a better person.

My craving for cheesecake haven't ended, so we made this strawberry cheesecake together and I think I alone consumed almost half of this 18cm cake in just 1 day.


On Sunday mornings, we have a bit of time to occupy as we usually wake up before 8am and the english mass we attend starts at 11am (which means we don't have to leave the house till 1045). So what I try to do now is to occupy our Sunday mornings by having T with me in the kitchen busy making a late breakfast for daddy. This Sunday, we made 'doriyaki' (japanese pancake). She helped me along with making the batter, but the frying is too dangerous, so I have to let the TV keep her busy instead.

Happenings - Week 31, 2009

Great weather, daddy's at work, lazy morning. What else better to do than hop onto a taxi and off to the beach to spend the morning. Its just wonderful that our current place is less than 15 car ride from the beach. This is something else that I will miss when we move back to Singapore.

Its the first time that T actually 'swam' in the sea. On all the other occasions we've been to the beach, she's only played on the sand or walked along the shoreline. It was big fun to sit in the water along the shore and giggle ourselves crazy whenever a big wave come and push us over.

The weather recently has been mostly great. On most Saturday mornings, we try to go for a swim and spend an hour or 2 in the pool. With the light breeze, sea view and warm water its a great feeling. After a few sessions T is now even daring enough swim around the pool independantly wearing her arm floats. She used to insist that I hold her hands in the water. Now that the Typhoon season is here, I hope we will still have good luck to have great weather on the weekend mornings.

Happenings - Week 30, 2009

I had an school assignment due this week and I really needed to finish up on it. Daddy did me a favour and brought T out to Ocean Park lone ranger on Saturday so I can have the day quietly in the house to complete the assignment and submit it. We are really making good use of our Ocean Park annual pass. :-)

We also started to get back on track with our homeschooling activities, such as BFIAR unit, Montessori activities, culinery skills, etc... but I will make separate posts about them.

Happenings - Week 28, 2009

We received a mail in the post box. Time to renew your Disneyland Annual Pass it says. Mmh.... don't think so. But thanks for the reminder that our pass is about to expire, so off we went to Disneyland again.

With all these recent trips to Ocean Park and Disneyland recently, T has grown more aware of these funfilled places and actually wakes up in the morning requesting to go there.

Happenings - Week 27, 2009

This week, I can truly say that discomfort of the 1st trimester is over and I really feel much more energetic and wanted to catch up with bonding with T. So we made several outings this week. Yippee for T.

Hiking at Lamma Island. Woke up on 1/Jul (Reunion Day in HK) and the weather was simply beautiful. Light blue skies and gentle breeze. Must say our humble apartment felt like a resort that morning. Won't it be a waste to stay home on a day like this. So we made an impromtu decision to go to Lamma Island and was out of the house in 15 mins (if we miss the ferry which leaves in 20mins, we will have to wait for 1.5 hrs, which would be smack bang mid noon). Had to make a sprint between the taxi drop off point and the ferry pier, but yes, we made it in time. So nice to hike across half of the island in the gentle morning sun and breeze. By noon we reached the beach which was on the other side of the island and of course, T had no problem convincing Daddy to buy her a sand play set on the spot too.


On the weekend, the weather was beautiful again. Somehow, the humidity of tropical summer is a little late this year. So off we went to Ocean Park again. This time, we even managed to catch a seal and sea lion performance. Her favorite attraction must still be the huge aquarium. She waits for the turtles and sharks to come around and snaps away with her camera.

Happenings - Week 26, 2009

Once again sorry for the 6 weeks laspe in lack of posts. Blogging is kind of at the bottom on my list of priorities right now. With only 24 hours a day and my biological need to have at least 8 hours of continuous sleep each day to stay functional, it is tough to find time to blog. This is roughly how my time is shared each day

0630 - 0700 : wake up, get ready for work
0700 - 0800 : bus journey to work. Make use of time to study and prepare assignment for diploma I am currently doing
0800 - 1700 : full time job at work. Use lunch hour to have a quick lunch and rest of the time to research and prepare homeschool activities for T.
1700 - 1830 : bus journey back home. Make use of time to study and prepare assignment for diploma I am currently doing
1830 - 1915 : have dinner and bath
1915 - 2045 : do all sorts of activities with T
2045 - 2130 : night bathe for T and reading in bed
2130 - 0630 : sleep.

I know, I know. I should just get my lazy ass out of bed stay up till midnight after T sleeps to do my own stuff. But with such a condensed day, I just don't have the energy to get up and do anything else. For the weekends, its usually also jammed packed with doing all sorts of things with T around the house and out.

Again, if anyone has any tips to improve my schedule, feel free to advise.
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One good things about T is that I rarely had any separation issue from her when I leave for work. (OK, her separation axiety about going to school is another story). Since she was a baby, she rarely cried and whined when daddy and myself have to leave her at home to go to work. She always sends us off with a big hug and kiss. Nowadays, if she get up before I leave the house, she will bring over my bag, and open the door for me. This morning, she opened the door for me and I was in a rush so off I went to press the elevator button. Guess what. She calls after me to say
"Mummy !!! come back here so I can give you a big hug" awww... ok, so what if I will miss the bus and be late for work. What can be more important than a hug with my girl.

School is officially out and the summer holidays are here for all the kids. I haven't had enough time to plan what to let T do during her long hours at home. This week, I just randomly printed some tracing worksheets, activity worksheets and colouring pages off the internet to keep her busy.

:-( bad mummy. Must make a better effort at this.

Joint reading session

Now that T has started to self read, I can have time to catch up on my own reading too. Starting last night, our bedtime routine changed to be like this :

- maid would help to get her ready for bed. IE, brush her teeth, put on diapers, change into pyjamas.

- I will be sitting on the bed wait for her reading my own book at the same time.
- when T is done, she will come to bed and sit next to me with books of her own choice
- surprisingly, last night, she just quietly started to read by herself and did not disturb me reading my book (so nice).
- so we sad there for about 30 mins each reading our own book.
- when she's had enough, she turned to me and asked me to read to her which I gladly obliged.

It was such a nice experience. I hope we can continue this routine.

Hong Kong Disneyland - We are a family

I've lost count of the number of times we've been to Hong Kong Disneyland, but hey, we have got to make the most out of our annual passes right. Anyways we were there again at the end of May and this incident is definately worth keeping a memorable record off (pity no one was able to take a photo of it).

It was time for the fire works and we stood on Main Street enjoying the show. Daddy was carrying T and the 3 of us were standing close, swaying to the music. Out of the blue, T wrapped her arms around us, pulling our heads closed in right next to hers (left arm around Daddy's neck, right arm around Mummy's neck). She held us tightly next to her head touching head, one of us on each side. In those precious few minutes, I could really feel we were the only possessions in the world she loved and she wanted to share this moment of her enjoying the fireworks with us. I hope this bond will last forever.

1st Trip to Ocean Park

Actually we live only 3 bus stops away from Ocean Park. I still haven't figured out why we didn't make a trip there till last month. That was T's first trip to Ocean Park. On the Saturday morning, we woke up to beautiful weather and my MS seemed to be a bay for the day. Daddy suggested why not go to Ocean Park. It was 9:30 in the morning, we finished our breakfast and we had 1 hour to pack, change and leave to house by 10:30 (the park opens at 10:30). The weather was really nice. Warm, but not too hot, dry and windy. As we arrived early, the crowds were not there yet and the queues to the attractions and rides were relatively short (10 - 20 mins). We took our time in the gold fish musuem and deep ocean aquarium. T had a great time taking photos of everything she saw. Lunch was at a sea view restuarant where we had a great view of Repulse Bay (about 15 mins taxi ride from our home). I will certainly miss the beaches and view of Hong Kong when we move out. By 1 pm it started to get hotter and T was noticably tired out and needed a nap, so we headed home for a cold shower and nap time.

Happenings - Week 13, 14, 15

Sorry of the lack of post, these past 3 weeks has been soooo tiring with all the changes going on in our lives.

Firstly, our domestic helper is on her vacation so we are left to fend for ourselves. I started with some big ambitious plan of getting up early every morning to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner using our slow cooker, thermal pots and electronic rice cooker. The strategy was that I prepare the raw food every nite before going to bed, wake up early in the morning and put them to start cooking in the 'smart' cooking appliances before leaving for work. Then HB can just scoop them out from the pots for lunch and dinner with T.

I even spent half a day researching for easy recipes.

Haha... like real ! It worked for 1 day and that's the end of my great big plan.

I was so exhausted at the next day that a big bad flu bug got the better of me. This bug was really big and bad. It had our whole family coughing and feverish for a whole week. I took MC from work, but couldn't do much at home except sleep. Lucky for us HB was the stronger and was still able to take care of T and I. We had to visit the doctor 3 times that week to get more medic and leaves. Due to my present condition, I avoided taking the medics and just relied on bed rest to get better. T took her medics and took about 10 days to recover. We let her skip school and stay home those 2 weeks as she was coughing incessantly and having a running nose too.
It was so tiring to have to clean up her vomit from the bed after her chokes on her night bottle. I think we changed our bedsheets and blanket cover almost every night that week.

It was also these 2 weeks that my MS became stronger. I wouldn't use the word worse, cos it is really nothing compared to when I was carrying T. With T, it was morning, day and night sickness. Puking several times a day and feeling down all day long. Really can't complain much this time. Was feeling perfectly OK until 2 weeks ago when appetite dropped and mild urges to throw up occasionally. It was only made worse when it was coupled with my constant coughing. Whenever I cough, the urge to throw up became stronger. I guess the flu virus + the MS peak during 6 to 12 week was a unlucky combination.

As such, we were really unable to do much at home the past weeks. No outings, no homeschooling, no activities. We were just 3 lazy bum bum, sitting in front of the TV all day long and taking 2 naps a day. Cooking was minimal, as I also can't stand the sight or smell of it. We ended up catering most meals. Both T and I lost a bit of weight.

T is now fully recovered. She is no longer coughing. I still cough at night (makes it really difficult for our bedtime stories). Our domestic helper is back and she is such a god bless and the kitchen and toilet is clean once again. I pray that my MS will start mellow down and I can regain my appetite and energy and restart our homeschooling.

On the bright side, I have managed to make a new arrangement at work. By re-structing the department, I can now transfer out some responsibilities, start and finish work 1 hour earlier, cut down travelling time by half and reach home by 6:15pm. YIPPEE !!!

Happenings - Week 11 & 12, 2009

These 2 weeks had been super busy with work with preparations for year end closing, so we were not able to do too much at home. No new games or homeschool activities were introduced since I didn't have time to prepare any.

On 11/Mar it was the Parent Child Activity Day at Rosaryhill School. It means 1 parent can join the child in class that day. I took the afternoon off to attend and it was really worth it. We were really able to sample the full curriculum of a normal school day for T. I must say that after attending this day, I am more sure that we have made the right choice for her school. For the 2 year old pre nursery class they don't do too much of academic stuff, but there were lots of music, dance, story telling, craft work, etc... I really enjoyed the 3 hours spent there. It was great fun to see the little children play together and I even could chat with the other kids in T's small group during craft time.

That weekend was our office stock take so that means no time to spend with T.

Just last week we had lots of foreign visitors to our office, so that means lots of late night for me. Almost didn't see T until Thursday night. I think we really missed each other. She was like a baby koala on me the whole evening, but we made up for it over the weekend.

One of the best time to bond is our shower time. We would sing in the tub, scrub each others back and play with the suds. I hope our next one will also be a girl so the 3 of us can squeeze in the tub together.

We also had a playdate with a Singaporean boy on Sunday. Augustine and his family lives in the same estate as us. His daddy teaches at the Singapore International School. We made choco chips cookies together. Again, I was too focused on the kids and my hands were too dirty to use the camera, so no photos. Sorry.

Happenings - Week 10, 2009

AhBeeJie, T & I watched another full lenght ballet on Saturday. It was the performance of "Alice in Wonderland" by the English National Ballet. The show was really colourful with lots of characters and sets. T was very excited when the show started and kept trying to talk to me about scenes. It was until the usher came over and 'shh' her that she kept quiet. Still I think she did pretty well for a 2 year old. Next on the list is a Canto children play and Swan Lake Ballet in April.

T & I made these together on Thursday night. I purchased a Mickey cake mould when shopping for bento stuff and T just loved the looks of the cake.

I did not manage to take any photo of the process as we were too focused on getting the cake in the oven by 9pm so T can wash up and go to bed.

She can only see them baking in the oven and had to wait till the next morning to have them for breakfast.

Happenings - Week 09, 2009_Rosaryhill Games Day

It was the Rosaryhill Kindergarden Games Day on 25-Mar. I recall my own games day on our primary school and they were very fun memories. It was exciting to wait for this day to join in such innocent fun again. I love seeing T's classmates and all the little children playing together.

It was not competitive at all. I guess the kids were too little to compete in sports. The school organized several stations have interactive physical games (throwing bean bags, transferring toys, etc...). Every child just did them at their own pace, no worries about how and what the team next to you is doing.


Once again, T was a little slow to warm up to the crowd and the noise, but we did manage to complete a few exercise together. By noon, the weather was too hot and both T and I were starting to feel lethagic and worn out. She practically dropped the tools on the track and walked off when she had enough of it. Poor mummy could only apologise and run after her.


We went back to the shaded podium and sat down for drinks and snacks. At this time her Japanese classmate's mummy took out an authentic Japanese kiddy bento and ooo.... what was inside was so cute. Seeing an authentic japanese kiddy bento in real life by 'real' mummy made me decided that it is something I can try to.

Happenings - Week 08, 2009

Singapore airline had promotional fares and our family made a weekend trip back to Singapore (S$900 for 3 pax). T did rather well on the flight. I think she has gotten used to travelling now. She is most eager to pull her own small luggage. We put her water bottle, snacks, toys in there. This time, she asked to carry our passports helps us pass the paperwork to the counter staff at all stations. She received alot of smiles as she dragged her luggage down the aircraft aisle to our seats.

It was a very short trip, but we managed to spend some quality time with the family. We even managed to squeeze in a visit to the zoo on Sat morning. Met up with September babes Ari and Cay. Thanks Bren for taking time out to meet up.

This was T's first trip to the zoo. I think she had a wonderful time looking at all the animals. She surprised me when kept quiet on occasions and just listened out to animal sounds and asked me what they were. I didn't think she was able to be that attentive. She also asked for our camera and took some photos of tigers and leopards by herself.

Now that I have learnt how to take the bus from mum's place to the zoo, I am sure we will go again the next time we are back.

Happenings - Week 6 & 7, 2009

We went to watch the play "The Gruffalo". Found this play quite 'abstract' as the costume was really minimal and required alot of imagination from the kids to identify the characters of the mouse, owl, Gruffalo, etc... It was a 50 min play and T started to get bored after about 30 mins, but she managed to stay seated with minimal fussing. I think she prefers watching dances. Really regret I didn't manage to get the tickets to UN Ballet's performance of Alice in Wonderland. Well, we are on the wait list. Hope someone will call soon.


AhBeeJie was doing her homework in our house one evening and had this posture and look on her face. When she left, T did her painting and replicated the same posture. Reminds us once more that we must be ever so careful what we do infront of little children.


Saw a show on TV about local Taiwanese food. They talked about a "black pepper pork bun" and it sounded so yummy. I flipped through my recipe books and found a simple recipe and had T help me make them. We made a dozen and hubby and I finished all of them over the weekend.

Outing - Lamma Island, Hong Kong

It was beautiful weather today. We slept in till after 10am and seeing the bright sunshine and clear blue sky we decided impromtu to make a day trip to Lamma Island. Its so nice to have a relaxing day, taking a boat ride, strolling on the beach, looking into small curio shops and not having to hear the hustle and bussle of the city.

Hope this good weather will last the whole weekend. Perhaps we might make another day trip to the Maipo Marshland.

I love this 2 pix of father and daughter just silently enjoying each others company.

Happenings - Week 04, 2009_Chinese New Year 2009

We handmade some Chinese New Year cards. This time round we were more realistic and made only 10 cards for her classmated and teachers in school. I also choose a craft that required less work (less cutting and pasting). The dot dot painters that we bought during christmas came in very handy when we painted gold and silver fruits for the mandarin orange tree.

It was Chinese Cultural Week at school and that means that they have to wear a traditional chinese outfit for each day. I love having girls to play dress up with.

Happenings - WK 01, 2009

One of T's favorite breakfast food is "Ma Lai Koh". Found this easy recipe from Aunty Yochana's site and we tried it out together. Yummilicious !

These days T is also able to hold a simple phone conversation. In the past, she used to turn mute once the phone is put next to her ear, but now, she is able to ask "Mummy, where are you", "Mummy, Mickey on TV". So cute. Now I can really call her from the office and hear her voice.