Happy 3 month-old!

Our little precious is exactly 3 month-old yesterday! Since his visit back to Malaysia over the Chinese New Year, he seems to have grown tremendously in the aspect of social interaction. Observation of his development: starts laughing when he's been tickled on his chin and chest, expressing his preference for a rocker and smiles at us without being teased. Now I can sort of differentiate his cries; the genuine ones due to hunger/sleepiness from those for attention only. How cute! Just last week, he made a great discovery ie. his pair of hands! Mittens are constantly in a wet and stinky state.

 Zach boy is a star this trip back with everyone welcomed him home cordially. He's always swarmed and happily entertained by cousins/uncles/aunties at every waking moment. Bet he must have enjoyed the attention judging from his interaction with them. This Chinese New Year celebration was better than expected. It was practically like house moving though. The atmosphere in Tampin, Zach boy's great grandma's place, was very thick indeed with blasting red crackers, fireworks, lion dance. Zach slept through on the eve despite the loud blasting noise from fire crackers. Early morning on the 1st day of CNY, hubby brought him out to watch the lion dance. Uncertain if he could truly see the lion dance, Zachary remained quiet throughout the performance. hahaha.... So that's Zach's 1st Chinese New Year. :)

And here's our 1st precious family potrait taken on 1st day of CNY with Mel's polaroid and artistically retaken by myself. *proud* :)

A Date with the Centenarian

The oldest person in Singapore has passed away. It's not something recent. But I just learned about the news some 3 weeks ago. It wasn't announced until 5 days later. She left quietly. Hubby had wanted to bring Zach to meet her. When I was 5 months pregnant, we visited her home at Hougang. She was a cheerful, 113 year old centenarian born in 1898. Together with her caregiver, Bro Sharana Rao (who happens to be a yoga master), we lunched at Swensen which serves her favourite vanilla ice cream. She was a midwife in those days. When we met, she gave me 3 good advice on healthy pregnancy; read good books, get soaked in the morning sun and think positively. Nevertheless, we still visited Bro Sharana last week. Also to pay respect to Sis Teresa Hsu but subsequently we found out that her wish was to leave nothing and the only way to pray to her was through our hearts.... For those who do not know about Sis Teresa Hsu, her life and her contributions, please google. .

Look, how simple she wants her meaningful life to be. Looking at my wardrobe-full of clothes, bags & shoes, I feel guilty. Yet, yet, yet, I need to have those things to make myself "ME"....hehe... Oh and this has just reminded me that, I have yet to shop for new year clothes! Ok, hopeless, I know. I will try to buy fewer items from now onwards....

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2012: 10 weeks on

Happy 2012! It's the beginning of the 10th week of my motherhood. In another word, it's the end of countdown at clubs & parties and late nights hangouts. Oh well, at the very least, hubby & I attended a bbq party on the 31st evening but we left before 11 pm.

Life is definitely more manageable now with the help of our new Indonesian helper. So far so good but hubby thinks she's wasting too much time and water  on laundry and house cleaning.. Isn't that what she's employed for??? She came a day after Zach boy's 2nd full month party on the 18th Dec 2011. We had one earlier on with just family members. So little boy had already 2 parties specially held for him. Approximately 1 grand was spent on these 2 events which include food & beverages, cakes & cupcakes, photographer and rental of the function room. Speaking of which, the photographer named Ray sucked at capturing moments. Regretted that I did not get my very own friends to do it for me which I believe, would have turned out much more satisfactory. By the way, here's the website and I do not recommend it to anyone unfortunately. http://raynmagphotography.com/about/  Perhaps Mag could do a better job but I really am not sure as this is the very first time I engaged their service and also the last time. Oh well, at least the food we catered from Neo Gardens was good and the cupcakes from Sweetest Moments http://www.sweetestmoments.com.sg/ were very pretty. Steep though.

 

Anyway, on the last day of 2011, we took him for the 6 in 1 vaccination at a neighbourhood paediatric clinic which costed a whopping S$ 202! Nevertheless I was very pleased to learn his current weight to be 5 kg at his 9th week which means he has doubled his birth weight at the start of 2nd month. I think it was last week that Zach boy has started to coo while maintaining some eye contacts. Today he smiled when I talked to him. Aoowww...how cute!! This makes me forget about the episodes of milk bottle strike at his 6-7 weeks when he drank only some 200-300 ml of my hard-pumped breast milk and drove me crazy as I was worried that he wouldn't grow! Babies are really strange little things. They are different every single day.

I am glad that life seems more within control now with Zach's schedule and temperament appear more predictable, FOR NOW. My life went UPSIDE DOWN, INSIDE OUT when I took care of him all  by myself for a while after the confinement nanny left on 4th Dec (see, I remember precisely when the nightmare began) before help from family members came in time. It was the most challenging time in my life and I really thought I was having post natal depression. Looking back, I think it was just baby blues that derived from stress and the inability to adapt & cope. How lousy, I know. I never admit I am good in this. 

Now, it's time for me to figure out what I want to do in the next few months. Come on, sit down and do some plannings!! Life is too short to just stay home and pump milk!

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A very different 1st week @ home

Zachary boy is home with us! He came 3 weeks earlier on 1/11/11. Contrary to what most people would have thought, we did not choose his birth date. It was a natural delivery instead of a Caesarian birth. So the post natal ward and nursery were full house, let alone choosing the type of rooms we wanted. Well even though we weren't able to secure a single room, everything else went quite smoothly and that's more important than anything else.

With the great help from the confinement nanny, things are going quite alright and I'd say I am tolerating confinement days pretty well. The only complaint is too much time spent on "breast-related" activities. I pump & nurse all day long due to overproduction by my mammary glands. Apart from the regular nursing, I can still express some 3-5 bottles extra to be stored in the fridge. I'd like to store them for future use but, but, but my confinement nanny will use them up when I am just too lazy to drag myself up for the midnight feed. Nothing surprising hehe...

Pain and aches from childbirth are gone but still feeling exhausted and definitely need a good back & hands massage to soothe soreness from breastfeeding posture. I suppose I won't be blogging too often from now onwards but the pregnancy journey til the day of Zachary's birth is definitely worth another entry! Will probably do that in the next post. Last but not the least, here's Zachary....

Preparation

Another 2 weeks have passed. Not much done still. Received a rocker which also seemed to be able to double as an infant car seat at first. Look how hubby was trying to get it fixed onto the passenger seat.

Finally decided on a cot which will be delivered next month. I'm so tempted to have the baby's room decorated with jungle theme which is gender-neutral but just too much work! So, will leave it as it is for the time being other than making more rooms for the cot. Perhaps adding a chest to keep the baby's stuff if necessary.

Last but not the least, look at what I've been consuming to nourish the little fella! It's homemade concentrated chicken essence steamed with Chinese herbs for 3 hours before adding in birdnest to be further steamed. It's very yummy actually! Love it!

Clearing Clutters

This is exactly what I need to do now, especially when the little fella is arriving soon and I've yet to make much preparation. I don't wish to keep buying and end up with no space to store them. Til this moment, I am proud to say I still stay very level-headed, practical as in not to over-purchase things that I simply think they are cute....Can't believe that some possessions which I've always wanted to reorganize or even discard are still sitting comfortably in the house after years and years! How ah? Get help? Anyway, am so glad that my niece came over last week to help with the heavier chores. At least I've 3 vacant cubicles in the wardrobe now. *pleased*

I am racing against time. I am getting heavier, bigger, less mobile to get things done yet clutters are piling up and new essential things have yet to be bought. *sigh* Most weekends are packed with activities all the way til ..... I don't know, just before I pop? We shall see. And nope, I've no spare time to blog about my Scandinavia adventure in more details.....Not in these few weeks....

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Greetings from Copenhagen!

It's my 2nd weekend in Scandinavia and I think it'd be nice to have at least 1 blog entry written from here! Weather has been kind at times with much sunshine on the last day in Stockholm and Oslo. It was forecasted that it'd shower in Copenhagen yesterday & today but I am really grateful that weather has been pretty kind, not expecting too much sunshine but good enough if there's no rain. I wonder if the Nordics even know how's a truly good weather like. *sigh* Quite sad to be living in a land that's always freezing half the time and with summer that has so much rainfall. I miss the bright and shiny weather back home....

Enough about the weather. Itinerary still has to go on no matter what the weather is like. At least we visited almost 90% of the attractions that were on the list. We didn't do the other 10% not because of weather but more so because of time constraint. The hotel accommodations are much better than what I've expected as I've been reminded time and again that, say, a 4 star hotel in Scandinavia isn't the same standard as that in other parts of the world.Well, agree to some extent. But everything here is so clean and in good working condition. So, no complaint. 

I'd be blogging more about my trip in detail and so,not adding too much details into this entry. Good night! A few photos from Denmark, Sweden and Norway..... :)

Heaven on Earth, great fjord of Norway

One of the archipelagos of Stockholm where Skansen is situated

Who doesn't know her?? The Little Mermaid at the harbour of Copenhagen!

Nyhavn @ New Harbour of Copenhagen
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Hardworking....

Here I am in the library, doing research for my upcoming trip. I am running out of time!! I have yet to finish packing, printing e-tickets, buy the necessary stuff.....arrggghhh..........

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Kids!!!

How fun to see those childhood friends' babies growing into toddlers and start interacting with each other! Too cute I tell you! Look at this pair, the boy is 2 and the girl just turned 1. I wish this pair is mine! Bunny year is just so productive that I easily have at least 10 friends who is welcoming a new born this year. Gathering with the childhood friends will never be the same again with these small fellas coming along....

Hubby's Bento

That's a very healthy bento, isn't it? Loads of fresh vegetable salad, stuffed capsicum with mashed potatoes & celery and egg sandwich. :)

Special Swim Session

Weather was scorching hot! I had a relaxing swim after being dormant for a while. Today's swim is a special one because I wasn't swimming alone and the little fella was enjoying its very first swim very quietly... :) I am definitely hoping for the same level of cooperation when we head for Scandinavia in weeks to come. Tomorrow, this little fella will be officially introduced to all the aunty friends. Oh my, time to have some noise tolerance training....

Best Tart in Town (in my opinion)

I'm no big fan of egg tarts but this has to be one of the best that I had tried in recent years! The traditional egg tart always make me feel "jelak" after just 1 piece but this mini egg tart with super crunchy crust comes in bite sizes. Not just that, it comes in as many as 8 flavours! Well, I still prefer the original one and I've tried the green tea flavour which isn't too bad either but for such a small tart, S$ 1.40 is really not that cheap. Where did I chance upon these mini tarts? ION basement. :)

But, these tarts can never beat the apple pie from Cafe De Amigo @ Funan IT Mall but, but, but, sadly, the chef has left and I was told that I could never find this apple pie in town anymore because the chef moved to Cafe Le Chateau which since has also closed down a year ago. I texted the restaurant owner and his reply was "you can find it no where and no amount of money can buy you this apple pie anymore". Not very helpful. :( If anyone of you stumbled upon this blog while searching for Cafe Amigos apple pie and have some clues........please, please, please drop me a message! I so miss the Amigos apple pie!

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Hubby's Bento

Menu of the day:-

Grilled salmon & stuffed mushroom with bed of broccoli, cauliflowers and cherry tomatoes.

American Idol

I am no longer so hyped over AI though I still follow. Season 8 was superb, season 9 was dull and season 10 is hmm....alright. I miss Adam Lambert's weekly performance on AI. His live performance of "Mad World" still mesmerizes me and it was just yesterday that I noticed that he actually sang the lyrics incorrectly!!!! Don't believe???

http://youtu.be/PfR0JGWX62E

Listen: At 1 minute : He sang, "going no where with the daily races, going no where, going no where...." That's not the right lyrics!

Now listen to the finale version which is the correct version. He sang, " bright and early for the daily races, going no where, going no where"

http://youtu.be/20zZZvDJp4k

Still don't believe? Go listen to original version by Gary Jules...

http://youtu.be/4N3N1MlvVc4

Does it matter? No it doesn't. Adam Lambert's performance was simply so captivating that so few people actually noticed this. And that's the beauty of it.....Perhaps he realized but continue to sing his own version at other live performance after AI!! haha

Month of May

I am so way behind time. Half the world is already using iPhone and it's only last month that hubby got me an iPhone while he's still using his antique Nokia cellphone. You know the ultra basic type with no additional functions other than calls, texts, alarm clock and extremely poor quality photos. You can no longer find it in the market, not even the 2nd hand market....LOL..... Anyway, the iPhone was too sophisticated for me in the first few weeks that I practically didn't explore any other functions apart from sms-ing and calling. I even missed about 8 calls from my ex-coursemate who was in town to visit me who didn't have international roaming and had to rely on public phones for every call made! Poor her... When we met up, she spent the entire lunch time giving me iPhone tuition and installed some useful applications for me too! It was a pleasure to have her visit me all the way from east Malaysia. That's a good 2 hours flight. Just this afternoon, I received another guest from Penang who's my ex-coursemate too. Once again, I was at Orchard Road, window shopping and more importantly, had some good catch up session! It's always good to meet up with old friends. Wish I could visit them at their respective hometown too!

  New iPhone case! I know, it's childish but at least, it's leather and not the bling bling kind. I said before I was gonna get a Hello Kitty phone cover and I would and I did! I know my town friends are gonna puke when they see this. LOL...oh well, I am happy with my pink toy. That matters more.  *pleased*

 1st May with Karen @ Din Tai Fung, Paragon

                                    19th May with ST @ Coffee Club, Takashimaya



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