Never been so "Chiong" before- Hubby, Yee Sinn, Grandma Lee and I went shopping at downtown Orchard Road yesterday afternoon from 1pm all the way to 9pm! The moment Yee Sinn finished her lunch, we washed her up, packed some extra diapers, 1 feed of milk and her dinner and off we went! We don't want to miss the post Christmas sales for anything.

We started off at Centrepoint Robinson. Hubby picked up some Ashworth trousers, Grandma Lee a pair of shoes while I didn't managed to get any stuffs. We popped by at the children's department where Yee Sinn's grand aunt works. We spent quite some time there as she was made to try dunno how many sets of clothes and shoes. Apparently, my aunty was very anxious to make sure she has her perfect set of clothes and matching shoes for Yee Sinn's first Chinese New Year cum birthday. Am not too sure if she'll grow up being a vainpot next time... I hope not.

Soon after, we headed down to Takashimaya followed by Paragon. We popped by at Muji to check out some stuffs but didn't managed to buy as it was out of stock. I was pretty much tired and turned slightly grouchy by then. Soon after, we managed to squeezed through the crowd and headed home via train. Thank goodness we didn't drive cos I wouldn't want to walk back in the same direction in the mad crowd.

Not satisfied that we didn't complete our shopping trip, we went down again this afternoon, but this time to Tangs and Isetan and all within 3 hours. And nope, we didn't pick up anything this time round except 2 BPA free milk bottles bought with near expiring vouchers.

Let's hope the Post New Year Sale isn't too tempting. Hee hee.

Yee Sinn turned 11 month last Friday. We're all counting down to celebrating her first birthday - on the first day of Chinese New Year. I'm still thinking of what kind of cake we should get for her special day. (all ideas are welcome!)

At 11 month, my little girl is progressing very fast. Socially, she is able to differentiate different expressions on others' faces. She can sense when we are angry, frustrated, happy etc. She now understands words like -No, Cannot, Sit down, Stand up, Come, "Lai" (chinese for come), Mumm Mumm, Nan Nan, Erng Erng (poop), Kai Kai (Go out). She can also play simple games with us like guessing where are the hidden toys or catching. Yes, catching. She'll walk in circles around the coffee table as you try to catch her, often giggling and running in opposite directions.

She also loves going out - be it to the playground, MRT station to pick up the free papers, or to the nearby NTUC for groceries. She'll todder towards the door or to her stroller the moment she sees any of us opening the door or the stroller preparing to go out. She'll get seperation anxiety when if she sees either me or Grandma Lee leaving her behind. Strangely that doesn't happen when her papa goes out of her sight.

She also likes books. She loves to flip the pages of colourful books mostly borrowed from the library. When either hubby or I picked up a book and start to read it aloud, she'll drop what ever she's doing and plonk herself next to us. We had a few surprises these few mornings. She woke up, crawled to the bedside table, picked up one of her books and started to flip them quitely. Both hubby and I pretended to sleep while peeking from the corners of our eyes. She'll have her quiet time for about 10 mins before crawling to our bedside and start "beating" us to wake us up. That's when she'll say "erng erng" and we'll quickly take the potty and let her poop. Amazing isn't it?

Physcially, she can now todder a longer distance without support. She loves to walk- just like her papa. Her papa can't wait to be able to take her for his long walks on Sunday mornings. She can now easily wave "bye bye", clap hands, kiss papa and mama on their cheeks and can you believe it - blow the toy whistles! We are now going to teach her how to blow bubbles when we take her to the playground. Just need to check out whether our existing bubble solution is still good. We have also been teaching her how to clasp her hands together and do a "Gong Xi Gong Xi" - A very important gesture for the coming Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, she doesn't seems interested at all... all she wants to do is to clap her hands.

My little girl is no longer a smally baby like she used to be. In a fleeting moment, she'll soon be all grown up. But meanwhile, hubby and I will cherish every waking moments we have with her.

Nothing special happened yesterday- no chirstmas trees, no presents and no parties. We're non-christians anyway. However, we marked the end of Yee Sinn's infant-hood by clearing and packing away all her baby stuffs - the play pan (we decided to keep it cos she simply hates being in it.), baby stuff toys, clothes that are too small for her etc.

We also marked the beginning of our annual spring cleaning installment. From now till Chinese New Year, we (or rather Grandma Lee and I. Hubby couldn't care less though) will be packing and clearing the house of junks. I managed to pack the extra room yesterday. So now at one corner are stuffs that we'll be bringing to Salvation Army. Feels excellent to have space around. Yee Sinn has been walking around and exploring the house more often so this space clearing is quite timely.

As the weather was pretty clear, we decided that Yee Sinn should have some outdoor time. We drove all the way down to Marina Barrage to check out the place in the evening. Yee Sinn was so delighted with being able to todder around with our help, though at 10 month plus she can walk quite a distant without falling on her butts. She giggled and squealed with delight as she tried to "run" away from us. There were other kids running about, some flying kites while others just snacking away on picnic mats at the rooftop. We were tickled when she looked up and pointed to one of the bigger kites and said "Burd burd!!" She was also very fascinated with the water fountains and the colourful lighting displays about the barrage.

All the walking and excitement in the evening knocked her out to La-la land the moment her head touched the mattress. We too, were pretty much exhausted at the end of the day.

I just love spending time with my family... guess that is what the spirit of christmas means to us- being with your love ones and cherishing the moments together.

We had a potluck christmas party this morning. Everyone contributed something to the festive mood. The party invitation was opened to all our other love ones so many mothers brought their kids to work. I didn't bring Yee Sinn as I was one of the main organiser.

We got the kids to sit down in one of the meeting rooms where they coloured their favourite cartoon characters. Once done, we adults helped them to stick their pictures into a home made paper bag. They then threaded the bag and put all their candies in. The kids are so simple-minded - they are so happily contented with a simple brown bag with some cheapo sweets.

Oh, must thank a friend for giving me ideas on the party games. We played pass the parcel just before the party ended. We all formed a circle (yes, with kids and all) with each of us holding onto a christmas present. When the music started, we started to pass the pressie around simultanously. Once the music stopped, we get to take home the present that we were holding. Simple fun. The picture above shows the pressies that my colleague and I received.

It was pure good fun but thank goodness christmas is only once a year. Can't imagine being a nanny to 10 over kids at one time.


Took the family out to Chinatown in the evening. We figured out that the whole world will be partying at Orchard Road so Chinatown would be a relatively safe place to hang out. As it has been raining, I decided to dress Yee Sinn up in long pants, jazzy-toes socks and threw a jacket (My friend Jo gave it to her during her 1st month.. now it fits just nicely) over her. Grandma Lee's first reaction was "Wah! Yee Sinn looks so havoc!"

Merry Christmas to all.

I was on leave yesterday so hubby and I decided to check out Horse City. We were curious about Omshiva Yoga that a friend told us about. Nice place and the price was quite reasonable. Lessons cost about $180 for 10 sessions that can be taken over a period of 1 year. We were a bit disappointed though as they didn't have couple yoga lessons that we were looking for.

After the pitstop at Horse City, we went to Turf City for lunch. We also checked out a children's playgym called Fidgets. Yee Sinn kind of enjoyed herself in the play area meant for 2 years and below. There were 3 areas meant for younger kids like her but she only stuck to one. This was because there were quite a few rowdy kids who were quite rough with their play. In the end, we didn't pay for Yee Sinn's entrance fees. I guess it'll be more suitable when she gets older and starts to walk properly.

Have been trying to upload this video since Saturday morning. Only managed to do so today... wondering if it's the connection at home. Anyway, Yee Sinn has reach another milestone - she is now trying to walk unaided. Though we are not in the hurry for her to start walking, we do encourage her to walk to us as it is part of confidence building. So today, being a little bored, I whipped out my camera and managed to capture one of her few baby steps. Cheers to the beginning of her toddler-hood.

We took the family out to Swenson's for lunch. Hubby received an ice-cream voucher for 2 sundaes sometime back and it was near expiry. We brought Yee Sinn along after we fed her at home. Yee Sinn sure enjoyed herself cos she got a free balloon from the waitress. She also got to sample Grandma Lee's chicken bake rice.

Later in the evening, we brought her down to the playground. She kind of anticipated it when we got ourselves ready and opened the gate as it has more or less became a daily routine. As parents, we do enjoy bringing her down to play. After all, it's free gymboree for her as she mingles with other children and learn some social skills. We also picked up some child rearing tips along the way as we mix around with other grandmothers, mothers and maids too. Hahahhah.

I must agree with other mothers who told me that daughters are very endearing. This morning before I left for work, Yee Sinn sat at a corner quietly watching me changed, packed and getting ready for work. Just as I was about to walk out of the bedroom, she crawled towards me and opened her arms gesturing she wanted to be carried. The moment I picked her up, she plonked her head on my shoulder and hugged me really tightly. Aw..... my heart just melted. Days like these just make me don't feel like reporting to work. Sigh.

On a lighter note about work, the department is planning for a potluck Christmas party next week. We have drawn up a list of staff and their contribution. I'm still thinking of what to bring. Most probably will be something savoury. Maybe I will look through some cookbooks at home and see if I can fix up something simple next week. Heh heh.

Last week, my friend Sofia read my blog and said that this blog belongs to Yee Sinn and not mine. What do you expect? Yee Sinn is now the centre (or almost) of my life at the moment. Well, I would rather blog about something interesting (like my princess) rather than some mundane stuffs. Hee Hee. Okay... so here's an entry about someone else...

Something interesting happened over the weekend. Our family friend's daugther popped by our place on Saturday morning. We spent sometime doing some craft work (a small little crossed-eye chicken for her handphone) before taking her to the Esplanade for a dance performance. The dance called "Imagine Trees", was about saving planet earth. Don't think she enjoyed it as it's pretty avant-garde. What was impressive though was the percussionist's stage. He played the entire soundtrack out recycled items and that included day to day stuffs such as a broken standing fans, balloons, broken pipes etc. I guess it's the experience of attending a performance at Esplanade Studio that made our weekend interesting.

The entire family has been down with flu the last few days. Yee Sinn has been having running nose and she felt quite miserable as she doesn't know how to blow her nose. Hubby was down with slight fever earlier in the week. He is much better now except for a lingering cough. As for me, I got hit by the virus and was on MC the last 2 days. Fever, bad throat and a terrible headache. Glad we're all recovering now.

On a lighter note, my little princess never fails to amaze me. She gave me a surprise by giving me a little wet kiss earlier in the morning. Yes, a sloppy wet kiss, with teeth bites! HAHAHHAHAH. Oh, she is now in the stage where she is curious about her toes. So these few days, she will bend forward and start biting, licking or sucking her toes. Sounds a bit disgusting I know and I sure hope this will be a passing phase.

Yee Sinn has been enjoying her bath time these few weeks. Instead of whining to get out of the water, she is now enjoying her play time in her little red tub. Sometimes she'll sing to herself, other times she'll play with her rubber ducks, whale or even the shampoo bottles. I guess this is a sign that she's ready for the pool! Can't wait to bring her to Auntie Mindy's house for a swim. Hee.

Yee Sinn turned 10 months last Wednesday. To mark her milestone, her big grandaunt gave her a new toy - $0 COE Car! We are leaving her car at Grandma Chang's house at the moment so that her cousin can also play with it meanwhile. Now she is older, we are also teaching her how to share her things - both food and toys, with other children.

We are very lucky to be staying in Toa Payoh. This is because our estate is surrounded with children's playgrounds that cater to different age. Just below our block is Yee Sinn's favourite hunt because it comes with 2 swings and slides. Also, that's where she'll meet her regular friends on most evenings.

Just across a small service road is a stretch of new 40 storey blocks, and of course it comes with newer facilities - 3 brand new playgrounds!! At the extreme end is a playground with "Spider Webs" and slides for bigger boys and girls. We will sometimes bring her to another at the middle of the stretch that was designed for toddlers like Yee Sinn. It comes with 3 slides, a few "tunnels" and a bouncy tortise and horse. Actually, though newer, we prefer to hang out at the old and rundown playground just downstairs because the kids, parents and the maids are so much more friendlier.

Yee Sinn has made many friends since we started to bring her down. The boys there usually call her "Mei Mei" and often show-off their naughty tricks to amuse her. There is usually a group of Indonesian maids chatting at the benches and they will also look out for Yee Sinn as she plays on the slides. Since we started bringing her to the playground many months back, Yee Sinn has became more sociable. I noticed that she'll now take the first step to be near other kids instead of just sitting in a corner watching them play. Bringing her down to the playground every evening is one of the simple joy that I enjoy doing after a hard day's work.

Last Saturday was our company's Family Day at Downtown East at Pasir Ris. Hubby, Grandma Lee, Yee Sinn and I were there to support all the hardwork that my fellow colleagues put in to make it possible. Hubby's sister and nephews joined us much later in the afternoon as we had extra tickets.

It was freakingly hot when we got there around 10 plus in the morning. We should have brought our hats and sun-block. After picking up our goodie bags and tickets, we headed straight to the Escape theme park to enjoy the rides. We took Yee Sinn to a few rides but she seemed to have enjoyed the mini-choo choo train rides best. Throughout the day, she was really well behaved. Told hubby that we should go out more often now that it is much easier with our grown up baby.

We were exhausted after the end of the day, though we had lots of fun as a family.

It is almost a week since I last posted something here. Been feeling kind of lazy recently. Anyway, managed to take some videos of Yee Sinn cruising around. I would say she is quite an adventurous kid who dares to explore her surroundings. From there, many of you should be able to see how much she has grown.

I had a good break yesterday. Hubby had to clear his childcare leave so both of us took time off from work and went for a massage. We visited House of Traditional Javanese Massage along Thomson Road. The experience there wasn't too bad. We could use the jaccuzzi before our massage. Didn't really enjoy the jaccuzzi as the water was a little too hot though. I was out of the tub in 15 mins! Hubby had been having a nagging backache recently so the muscle kneading did him some good.

Feeling refreshed after our 1 and a half hour of massage session, we took Yee Sinn and Grandma Lee to Hort Park. We figured out it'll be good for Yee Sinn to burn some energy at the children's playgound so that she'll sleep much earlier in the evening. Beside, the weather was pretty cool and cloudy after all the rain in the morning.

We ended the day at Anchorpoint where we had dinner at Jack's Place. We were given a nice cosy corner where we fed Yee Sinn with her porridge, topped with excellence service by a friendly Indian waiter. Yee Sinn was constantly entertained by him as he played peak-a-boo with her. It sure helps that Yee Sinn is more sociable these days.

Not too sure what happened to Yee Sinn but she wasn't feeling very well yesterday evening. She threw up some of her dinner and some of her milk later in the night. She was also fussing the entire night and demanded me to sleep next to her. So here I am, zombi-fied over the lack of sleep. Let's hope everything will be alright when I get back home today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We spent yesterday evening at United MediCare Centre entertaining the residents with music. After practising for a couple of months, we were able to put up a decent performance. Yee Sinn and Grandma Lee were also around to support us. Surprisingly, Yee Sinn could sit quietly at the corner throughout the entire performance. She has also learnt to clap her hands after each piece was played!

Colin also popped by to lend us his support and kindly agreed to take some nice photos of the group. Below are some pics taken by him.

That's me at the forefront and hubby at the background. Think this picture was taken when we were playing the first piece "Bouree".

The 2nd half of the performance only consisted of us adults. From left, that's our teacher Joe, hubby, Marcus, Melissa, myself and Pamela. The guitarist Mr Wong and Kersin who played the keyboard were seated right behind us and were not in this picture.

Here's the whole ensemble, with the little kids who performed 3 pieces with us. We had a fun evening playing together and we hope the old folks enjoyed themselves too. We're looking forward to the another performance next year.

We went down to Changi Airpot yesterday afternoon to fetch Grandma Lee home. Yee Sinn had lots of fun watching the planes and interacting with people. Here is a picture of our delighted Yee Sinn on my shoulder. She isn't afraid of height at the moment.

Yee Sinn can still fit into the trolley. We were given a warning by one of the guards on duty, telling us the trolleys were meant for luggage and not for babies. Oh well, we thought it would be quite safe as we were not moving and Yee Sinn seemed quite happy sitting still waiting for her Grandma to pick up her luggage from the conveyor belt.

This is a picture of the porridge that I cooked for Yee Sinn. It has Cod fish, pumpkin, carrot, broccolli and minced pork. I put the pork in to cook just for the taste. I have yet to feed her with it yet as she isn't ready for meat.

It has been a long week. Grandma Lee has gone to Hong Kong for vacation so I had to take leave from work to look after Yee Sinn. It was kind of tough the first day as I had to understand her routine right from square one. But once I got the hang of it, it became more managable.

I would say that I did enjoy my time with Yee Sinn during the last 4 days. It helped too to have an understanding husband who took initiative to relief me of the babysitting so that I can have a little of my own time every evening. Yee Sinn seemed to have enjoyed herself with my company as well cos I took her out almost every day. Lucky baby isn't she?

On Thursday, Yee Sinn and I picked up hubby from school and ventured around Parkway Parade. We tried the famous Mee Siam and Mee Rebus at the foodcourt. Unfortunately, they didn't live up to our expectation in terms of quality of Food.

Friday was spent having lunch with Sofia at Junction 8. I took her there by MRT so that she could experience what public transport is all about. At this age, taking Yee Sinn out to meet my friends is relatively easy. Being her friendly self, she was able to socialise with Aunty Sofia easily.

Nothing much happened on Saturday except that we took her out to Orchard to bask in the crowd and have dinner at the Korean Stall at Meridian Hotel Foodcout. I would have shopped around longer had it not been her sleeping time. She became a little grouchy around 8 plus so we had to rush home for her shower and to put her to bed.

As for today, Yee Sinn got to meet her Papa's brisk walking friends at the roti prata stall along Cheong Chin Nam Road. They were pleased to meet and kept pesuading papa to start bringing her along for the walks. Yes, one of these days she'll be papa's best walking companion. We detoured to a nearby playgound at Grandma Chang's place. Beside meeting other children, she and papa had some quiet time bird watching.

Tomorrow will be another excursion for Yee Sinn. I will be taking her to Changi Airport to pick up Grandma Lee. I'm looking forward to bringing her to the viewing gallery to view the planes.

Though it has been tough the last few days, I would say I did enjoy every moment I had with my little girl. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her come end Nov or Dec when I'll be clearing some of my annual leave. Meanwhile, it'll be back to work on Tuesday. I hope I'm able to survive my work when I get back... Wish me luck!

Here are some of the photos that we took as a family at a photo studio 2 weeks ago. We have not chosen which pictures we want to purchase yet. These are some of those that I scanned from the printouts that the studio passed to us for selection.... which explains the low resolution.

We sure had a lot of fun posing for the camera. Yee Sinn is quite comfortable in front of the lenses. She wasn't a bit afraid and warmed up quickly to the photographer.

I came back to work after 1 week of rest at home. Kind of miss being with Yee Sinn though I'm swamped with work. I'm almost full to my brim but I thought I'll just spend 5 min on this blog.

We brought out little girl for her 9-month's check up on Saturday morning. She now weighs 8.2kg and has a height of 71cm. She's at the 75% range. Doctor Heng said she's on track for all her milestones, except her gross motor skills- She is way ahead on her peers. She is able to stand few seconds unaided, cruise around with support and pick up little things with her thumb and index fingers (and pinch people too!)

She now knows her name and understands quite a few words. For example, she will wave her hands when we say "Bye bye", she will try to give us her ball when we stretch out our hands (though she can't really release her palm just yet). She will crawl over to us when we say and motion to her "Come here". She is now an expert blabbler and will sing herself to sleep by humming every night.

I will be posting some pictures we took over the long weekend later in the day.

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard my baby saying "Mama mama" today! I tried to get her to repeat what she just said and all she gave me was a blank look before mumbling "papapapa". I guess I'll need to be more patient before she actually understands the meaning of "Mama".

Hubby came back slightly earlier today so we had some family time shopping for grocery at NTUC. Yee Sinn simply loves sitting in the shopping trolley. Sometimes when we're not too watchful, she'll pick up bags of brocollis or carrots and place them in the trolley. Yes, we caught her doing so a few times already!

We also make it a point to bring her to the playground everyday if the weather permits. Today, she was screaming in delight as she went down the slides. I could hear her screaming from the 6th floor of our flat. She also gave a few laughs as she sat on her papa's lap watching a group of boys learning how to roller-blade.

All these simple pleasure of seeing the delights of my little daughter is only possible if I spend more time with her at home. Sometimes it is really tempting to be a stay-at-home-mother, but the financial independence is too good to give up... at least for now. *Sigh*

Yee Sinn is now learning how to walk. She has been using the edge of the tables and chairs to guide her along. She likes it when we hold her hands while she takes her baby steps. She has also been trying to stand without support, usually for a few seconds before she place her bum gently down onto the floor again. We're pretty sure she'll be toddling before she reaches 11 month.

I cut Yee Sinn hair yet last week, much to the protest of her Ah Yee. Ah Yee was so disappointed that I decided to snip off her locks so soon. She was looking forward to tying her hair with clips and cutie bands. She exclaimed that my hairstyling skills was bad as it didn't have any "Style". "Coconut shape" is also a style what!! Anyway, here are some photos that I took of my dear girl during the last few days at home with her.

Here is Yee Sinn with her "Coconut" hairstyle. I kind of like her bangs. It could have been much neater had she not moved too much.

It is such a delight for Yee Sinn when we place her in front of our piano. She simply enjoys banging the keys. She has so much energy nowadays that we often get exhausted looking after her. Sometime, a simple relief would be just putting her in front of the piano while we quietly sit next to her.

Yee Sinn has been very attached to me recently. She would wake up in the middle of the night, look around her and if I'm not in her line of sight, she will scream in horror. It doesn't work to get hubby to carry her to calm her down as she will scream even louder. At one moment, I am pleased that I remain the number 1 person in her life but on the other hand, it can be very tiring physically to be the only one waking up and putting her back to sleep in the wee hours in the morning. Let's hope this screaming phase will pass, though I do hope I'll remain the most important person in her life.

Yee Sinn's favourite sentence now is "Ah Lah Lah". If she sees you eating something and she wants a bite of it, she will go "Ah Lah Lah!! Ah Lah Lah!!". She will repeat the same phase IF we are too slow in feeding her her porridge. At the moment, we are refraining from putting our food into her mouth. She is currently on a strict no sodium, no sugar diet. Yes, she will be having her yucky porridge (yucky cos you have everything from veg to fish etc all mixed up in a bowl.. it can actually look quite gross.) till she turns one at least.

This is so upsetting. I haven't been feeling well for the past 2 weeks. Visited Dr C for a check up and found out that my uterus is in a mess. Sigh. She gave me 2 alternatives - either I go for a minor surgery called D&C for short, to clean it up, or just leave it there till god knows when.

After much consideration, I chose to go for the surgery this coming Thursday. Most probably I will be on MC for 1 week so I guess it'll be the beginning of HELL week tomorrow as I rush to clear of urgent work.

Oh well, I guess it's just one of the days when our body doesn't function normally as it should. Sigh.

I brought Yee Sinn out to Hort Park on Sunday. Apparently there was a baby event called "Babies Day Out" organised by Mediacorp.

After picking up our goodie bags, we had a simple picnic consisting of burgers from MacDonalds. We walked around the park a little and let Yee Sinn explore the children's playground. She was so delighted with the slide as well as the pseudo rock climbing wall. It seemed that she is quite a daring kid, often taking "calculated" risk as she climbed her way up the slope with big steps or when she slided herself down by pushing her bum to start of the slide. (It is "calculated" because she done all these with papa's help)

Seeing her so happy just made my day.

Yee Sinn has been taking her formula milk well. Over the last 2 days, we have gradually increased the proportion of formula milk to breastmilk. Just last night, we fed her with 100% formula milk during her last feed before she slept. The plus point of her drinking formula milk is she was able to sleep till 7am this morning.

We still have many packets of frozen breastmilk in our freezer. I plan to give her 1 packet a day before they expires. I think it should last at least another month before she finishes them.

Just a quick update on Yee Sinn.

She has just turned 8 months last Friday and I started to wean her off breastmilk over the weekend. Initially, I replaced 1 feed with formula milk. However, she started to throw up, not once but twice. We weren't sure if it was due to the milk, but we decided to try mixing it - 50% breastmilk, 50% formula. So far so good. Hubby said she could be a super taster and detest the smell of vanilla in her milk. We hope to increase her portion slowly after 1 week of her getting used to the new taste and smell.

I'm feeling a bit sad that I have to give up breastfeeding her. Just this morning, Yee Sinn crawled over to me and started to latch herself on straight after I finished expressing my milk. I think she misses the bonding sessions over the weekend. I felt I was a bad mother when I de-latched her and told her she is now a big girl and she has to drink from the bottle instead.

Am really feeling a bit lousy because of this. *Sigh*

Last Friday was Edison's wedding. A couple of us gathered together to help out on his big day. So on Thursday night, I went over to his place to decorate his function room. (oh yah, my dear friend Jaime went over to his place early in the morning to help him to clean up his den. Typical man who leaves things to last minute. Tsk! tsk!) As usual, we loaded him with tons and tons of advice and a whole list of do's and don'ts.... One of which was on his degree of generosity. As many old folks will say, if it rains on the couple's wedding day, most probably it has something to do with his generosity. And RAINED it did! It poured for almost the entire day, flooding the ground floor of where the bride's stayed. Guess the old wives' tale was pretty accurate....*grin*

Here are some pictures to share, especially of the decoration of the room which we put in much effort.

This is a group photos of all of Edison's "Brothers" who has helped him to put together his wedding. From left to right, we have Wee Keng, Jaime, Wei Thai, Edison, ME and Angus.

Look at the rain... and this drizzle was only the beginning. It began to pour shortly after and it has been reported that the heavy rain caused flood and massive jams throughout Singapore!!

We stayed up till 10 plus, almost 11pm the night before to arrange the tables and chairs, as well as to manually tie up the decoration ourselves. We used a mixture of fake flowers as well as real roses and yellow pheonix for the entire room.

Resignation to Breast Feeding

I have been thinking about this for quite a long time. Have also had numerous discussions with hubby over the issue of introducing formula milk to Yee Sinn. We have decided to continue giving her breastmilk till end of the week. After which we will slowly supplement with formula milk. By then, she'll be exactly 8 months old. I guess it is a bittersweet decision to stop breastfeeding my little girl. I'll be able to have more time to myself and give my body a break before number 2 comes along. But I'm sure I'll miss the close bonding I have with my girl. It is something beautiful that only mother and child can experience. I'm also feeling kind of sad to say goodbye to my trusty medela breastpumps and my pumping khakis at work too....

Have I mentioned that Yee Sinn is now trying to talk? She is trying to mimic us saying "Hi". Every evening, straight home from work, I'll open the door and say " Yee Sinn... HI!!". And she never fails to response with a smile and one sweet "Hai....."

These few nights, Yee Sinn has been pretty much amused with the musical lantern that her Yi-Poh (Grand Aunt) gave her. It's a small tacky fish that has blinking lights and some music that goes "Wa-la-Wa-la". There were occasions that it was switched off accidentally. When that happens, she would simply give the poor fish a smack and the light and music will be on again.

It has been a bad week last week. Yee Sinn was down with Roseola, also known as "Fake Measles". It all started with her having bouts of high fever from early Tuesday morning. Her temperature yoyo-ed between 39.6 to 38.2 degree the following 2 days. Her conditioned only settled down on Thursday evening, when she had reddish spot-breakout through out her body.

Thank goodness all is well now. Everytime Yee Sinn falls sick, the next person who suffers most is me. Usually I'll be the one taking leave to take care of her and in doing so, freeing up Grandma Lee to do her own things such as running her errands etc. And because I'm the one staying at home, I tend to wake up in the nights to monitor her condition. Tired, yes indeed. But I guess these are part and parcel of motherhood.

Hope Yee Sinn knows that her mama is the best. :-)

The weekend passed swiftly. Hubby and I spent sometime at home playing with Yee Sinn. We also brought the family out for a spin over the weekend. We went to a shop called "Tai Sing" along North Bridge Road to purchase Yee Sinn's Combi car seat. She seems to like her throne and have been failing asleep every now and then during the rides. I got myself a combi stroller so that it'll be easier to bring Yee Sinn out. Combi's range of products are not exactly cheap but their designs are beautiful and functional. The shop assistance threw in a free Combi toilet training set (a.k.a The Potty!) as their products are all controlled price.

We intend to take Yee Sinn out to the parks during the weekends. Hopefully, she'll learn how to appreciate nature, just like her papa and mama.

Books and magazines never fails to excite my little girl. Every evening (we try...) we'll read her a book borrowed from the library. Hubby will read a Chinese story while I'll be reading her English stories. Her favourites are usually books with different textures - pages with furry images, rough and bumpy pictures or sometimes glittery ones too.

Her fascination with magzines, usually old copies of 8-Days, also include crushing the pages and tearing them into bits and pieces.

This is one of my favourite picture of my daughter. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, Yee Sinn is a very curious girl who, like her Papa, loves gadgets! She has learnt the art of ransacking my handbag and picking out ONLY my handphone. I've lots of other stuffs in my bag but she seems to be only interested in my handphone.

She is attracted to the screen saver as well as the differnt ring tone that comes with the phone. I told her Papa to get ready to buy her a PDA very soon.....

Yee Sinn never fails to surprise hubby and I with her motor-skills. Some people says that boys develop their motor skills much faster than girls. However, we are very sure that our little girl is progressing very fast in that area. She can now easily pull herself up into a standing position and is now not afraid to fall flat on her butt. Some people asked us how we train her to do it... very simply, we just let her tumble and fall. Yes, there were numerous times she fell flat on her face, knocked her head or even slipped while crawling. However, all we did was to tell her it was an accident, pick her up and sayang her for awhile. Once the wailing stops, we'll put her back onto the floor (hard cold floor!) and encourage her to explore on her own further.

There is also a small pearlie tooth showing on her lower left jaw. Perhaps that explains her refusal for milk (either that or the breastmilk is now pretty much tasteless) and her constant gumming on all things that she can lay her hands on.

Yee Sinn is now officially 7 months old. She has achieved many new milestones recently. They are:

1. Able to say "Dah-Dah". She says "dah-dah" for almost everything and anything.

2. Sit up, roll around and crawl. She can sit very well since she turned 5.5months. But for some strange reasons, she kept "kok-ing" her forehead yesterday while in a sitting position.

3. Pull herself up into a standing position.

4. Throw tantrums. She'll scream and kick around when she doesn't want to be placed in her playpen... not even for mere second.

5. Eat semi- solids. She has increased her intake of porridge during the last 2 days. She can proudly eat almost half a bowl. Unfortunately, she still hates water.

6. Recognise her papa and mama. She can so endearingly crawl to either one of us for her cuddles. She will show her anxiety when an unfamilar face carries her.... she's immediately becomes upset and sometimes cries when she looses sight of us.

My dear girl is growing up very quickly. Hubby and I treasure all these precious moments we spent together, watching her grow and showing all the cuddles and kisses onto Yee Sinn.

We bought Yee Sinn a high chair last week. We thought it would be good to get her used to sitting on proper chairs while having her meals. We want to train her so that she'll learn how to sit still while having meals outside. She has been really well behaved so far. She will just concentrate on eating while seated firmly. Sometimes we'll put her in the chair so that she can watch us eat and part-take in our conversations. The only bad thing about the chair the fabric on the seat is waterproof so it can get a bit warm if Yee Sinn sits on it for too long.