30th of November 2010 will always be a special day for all of us at home.

The day marks the birth of our second daughter, Lee Yee Ruu (李逸如). Our birth story was really simple. We visited Dr Chua on Monday afternoon and realised that I was already 2-3cm dilated and I will be popping anytime soon. Beside feeling a lot of discomfort while moving, I was also experience frequent menses-like cramping for the past few nights. She suggested that we should induce the baby the day after if I did not experience contraction on Monday night- just in case baby gets into distressed etc. I think it was a safer choice rather than going into delivery at work or in a taxi.

So came 30th late morning, we admitted ourselves into Thomson Medical Hospital, did all the paper works, blood tests etc etc and waited. Dr Chua came in about 1pm to burst the waterbag followed by Dr Lim who administered my "Happidural". This birth was much more pleasant almost painless compared to giving birth to our first kid cos I requested for epidural from the onset. Perhaps it was also being a 2nd time parents, we knew what to expect.

Unfortunately, my dilation kind of stopped at 5cm even though I was put on Oxytocin, the contraction became more intense (not that I could feel the full pain anyway). It came to a point that baby's heart beat became slower and I had to be put on Oxygen instead. We did freak out a little cos I wasn't prepared to go into C-section last min. Thankfully, her heart rate went up after 20 mins and all was peaceful at the labour ward.

Oh well, after about a good 5-6 hrs since the bursting of waterbag, Dr Chua came in and we were all ready to receive our little princess. The pushing was much easier this time round as Yee Ruu was smaller than her sister - She weighs only 2.92kg, a good size to be delivered naturally. It only took me about 4 pushes and she was out!

Like our first kid, hubby had the honour of cutting the unbilical cord, taking her first few photos as well as being the first to weigh her.

We were quite upset when our Town Council tore down our favourite playgound and would be replacing it with a newer children's play area PLUS a fitness corner.

It doesn't really make sense as there was already another fitness corner just around the corner. And it didn't help that the exercise machines became a nusiance as they were badly maintained. Imagine waking up at 4am in the morning to squeaking paddles or clanging bars.

Most upsetting was, they removed the neighbourhood's one and only pair of swings. When we called and wrote in to them, they informed us that they have no intention of replacing them as there need to be a safety clearance of 2m all around the swings.

Now that the playground has been refurbished, we were utterly disappointed by the bad planning in the placement of their equipment. Honestly, if the Town Council had seriously looked into the space constraints, as well as listen more intently at their resident's feedback (though they claimed they have seek the R.C's feedback, who represents the residents...No RC members have approached any of us for feedback), including a pair of swings would be possible.

Anyway, we got around the problem by puchasing our own swing. We were shopping at Ikea yesterday and came across a swing that cost only $19.90. So everytime we wanna have a go at the swing downstairs, we can simply bring down our own and hook them on a low monkey bar! Tah Dah! Boy, it became a kid magnet and brought joy to the other kids who were playing around as well. Will take a better photo of the swing during the day...

Realised I haven't been posting any blogs for 2 whole months!! Blame it all on work. Well, we got a new boss at work recently and a string of programs all lined up till end of the financial year. So on the grounds, our team have been working like mad horses, scrambling to meet deadlines.

I'm finally working on a 4-day work week as I have quite a few days of 2009's annual leave to clear. I'm often on leave on Monday mornings to get away from the monday traffic as well as the monday blues. So here I am, taking a breather from work and back tracking the happenings at home... thank goodness there wasn't anything eventful to mention about. Peaceful is a good word to use during these times.

We have been bringing Yee Sinn to Royce Gym quite frequently in Oct. (Frequently means twice in a month). Her membership was about to expire at the end of the month and we were hesitant to renew it cos she was about to outgrow the toys and games available at the gym. The membership didn't come cheap... it's about $50 per year in addition of $12 per hour of playtime. So hubby and I decided to be quiet and hopefully, our dear girl will forget about Royce Gym eventually. How wrong I was cos she actually asked us to bring her there after she woke up from her nap yesterday!

One good thing about bringing Yee Sinn to Royce Gym that she was able to play with a huge variety of toys.... which means that we as parents, need not be stocking up these play stuff at home. (We are already living in a pigeon hole and am wondering where to keep her toys if we keep buying new ones for her). She particularly likes to hoard on the Barney soft toy while she's there. Her another favourite section of the gym was where they put all the cooking toys. She always attempt to "cook" or "bake" us some strange looking stuffs or make us drink some strange sounding drinks from the toy kettles there.

We have also been hanging out at the Botanic Gardens after our weekly trips to Grandma Chang's. I thought it would be good exercise for me to walk a little more to keep fit while Yee Sinn feeds the fishes with stale bread. Other favourite activites that we engage in at the garden includes kicking a football, blowing bubbles or just lying down on our mats looking at the cloud formations. It's just simple, cheap and clean fun for the entire family.

In early November, the family took another staycation at Sentosa to chill out and to take a short break as I was getting a bit too big to travel overseas. As usual, we spent our time at the beach, the pool and exploring the island. Yee Sinn got to do all her favourite things like playing with the sand and just soaking herself in the seawater. While I got to sit in the shade and just relax as hubby played with her. In the evenings, we took her to see some fireworks and laser show on top of a hill ( can't remember what it was called) to avoid paying the entrance fees. The storyline of the laser show was still the same since we went in Aug apparently. Wish the management in Sentosa could be more creative in their programs to attact repeated customers like us.

When we got the know that the Christmas light up was ready along Orchard Road, we headed down the 2nd day after the official opening by the president. What a big disappointment compared to last year's. Apparently there were much less activities and lights compared to the previous year's. The decorations were also pretty much standard with nothing elaborate. Am wondering if there was a lack of sponsors for this year's event or the management of the light-up just had a smaller budget.

Been feeling so lazy about updating my blog... It has been a month since I last had an entry!

Last week was the September school holiday so hubby managed to spend quite some time with our little girl. Unfortunately, I had so much work I couldn't take leave to join in the fun.

Hubby and Yee Sinn did the using things - going to the library, going to NTUC to pick up groceries, going to bookshops, visting shopping centres as well as going to all the various playgrounds in the neighbourhood.

The September holidays were also the time for the annual Gundam Fiesta. Similar to last year, this year's fiesta was held at Campass Point in Seng Kang.

Boy, my old man and little girl went crazy just looking at all the Gundam models being exhibited. Hubby was initially a little disappointed as some of the rare model kits he was looking for were sold out. Nevertheless, he managed to purchase model that was seldom seen and he walked away being quite pleased with himself.

As for our little girl, she had a fair share of fun inserting coins after coins at the Gundam vending machine. She walked away with 2 mini model kit which she has been proudly displaying in our TV room.

We also managed to take her to a first musical - A Sesame Street Show : When Elmo Grows Up. We knew she enjoyed it cos she was relating her experience to everyone else... from Grandma Lee, Grandma Chang and all her cousins she met after.

We were glad that we paid more for the seats at the first few rows from the stage. We had a good view of the characters and even had the opportunity to shake their hands when they came off stage every now and then.

Hubby and I were quite impressed with the stage setup. The lighting and stage props were cleverly used. It was a great experience for the entire family but I don't think we'll be indulging Yee Sinn too often as such tickets are often very expensive.

We also brought our little girl to Royce Gym to expand her energy while hubby checks out the Kinokuniya bookshop. What I like about the place is the gym always re-stock their toys with newer models. We always find little surprises with every visits.

Sadly, Yee Sinn's gym membership with them will be expiring next month. We're contemplating whether to renew it (which will cost us another $50) or just let it lapse.

We ended the September vacation with a little birthday party for Grandma Lee. She turned 66 this year. Yee Sinn was so pleased with herself for "buying" Grandma Lee's strawberry shortcake birthday cake (it's actually Yee Sinn's favourite and not Grandma Lee's). The kids were rather rowdy on Sunday evening but guess kids will be kids... it's better to have a home with lots of laughter than a quiet and lonely house.

It's the National Day long weekend break and the entire family was looking forward to our staycation at Sentosa's Siloso Beach Resort. We book a room for 2 nights just to chill out with Yee Sinn and Grandma Lee.

Here's Yee Sinn all ready to go on her trip. She was looking forward to the sandy beaches and the pool.

We checked in early and the room wasn't ready yet. So instead of waiting around the lobby, we decided to head down to the cafe at the resort for lunch. Though the wait staff were polite, they were generally understaffed. We had to wait quite long for our food to arrived... So long that our little girl fell asleep while waiting for her food to arrive.

We did the usual touristy thing of visiting the Butterfly Park. Well, we did give Yee Sinn a choice... whether to take part in the Luge or visit the Butterfly Park. She was pretty excited when she heard that we could see lots and lots of butterflies there.

So off we went to the butterfly park - with a 10% discount off the entrance tickets because I made used of the corporate Islander Card which I borrowed from work.

At the park, Yee Sinn was so fascinated with all the insects she saw. There was one HUGE butterfly that flew onto my head and I caught a picture of both father and daughter's excited face pointing straight at me.

There was also a section that displayed samples of the different butterflies and insects from all the different regions. There, she learnt that butterflies comes in all colours and patterns. She even noticed one that looked like an owl in disguised.

At the particular exhibit as above, Yee Sinn spreaded her arms and exclaimed that they are her wings like the butterflies... such innocence.

We were blessed with excellent weather throughout our stay at Sentosa. And because of the weather, we spent quite a bit of our time at the beach and the pool.


I do not know where our little girl got her energy from, but she just enjoyed digging the sand at the beach... she's either busy digging and digging, or bringing pails and pails of seawater for her papa for their sand castles. As for me, I just sat by the beach mat, keeping a watchful eye on our little girl in case she wondered off into the sea unattended. There were occassions when Grandma Lee and I took dips in the water.

We truly enjoyed ourselves this weekend. Yee Sinn was a little upset that we had to check out of the place after 2 fun-filled days there. But than again, our little girl has to learn to let it go. We told her we'll be back again sooner or later and promised her there are other things to look forward to for the coming week.

I took a day off work yesterday, just to spend some time with our little girl. We decided to take her to the Bi-annual Singapore Garden Festival cos it was the last day. Boy, am I glad that we went there the last day of the flower show. There were a few shops selling plants and gardening stuffs and they were all heavily discounted so that they can get rid of their stocks.

I managed to grab a few potted plants at $2 each... which was a steal. They are all sitting nicely in my office cubicle.

Our little girl really enjoyed herself yesterday. This is a picture of her looking earnestly at the rubber snake at the "Rainforest" exhibit. The volunteers there allowed us to take a walk into the exhibits and we were all so fascinated at how they put the little potted plants together to create a jungle feel! Wish I can replicate that at my lift lobby at home. Hahahhaha. If only we have more sunlight there...

My favourite picture of the day! We sneaked into this exhibit to take this picture.... after which we were promptly ushered out! But hey! There were so many people infront of us doing the same thing too!

They had a bazaar of a sort on another floor with all the nuseries and stalls selling gardening tools and plants. We came across a pot of strawberries which Yee Sinn took to a liking. We moved a few pots away so that she could come up close to the pot and have a "feel" of the plant.

Here's Yee Sinn looking intently at the terrarium that was made into a coffee table. The exhibits there were truly inspiring. In the end, both hubby and I signed up with NParks to be part of their mailing list in case they have interesting workshops on plants etc. It's nice to know that our little girl is comfortable to be aquainted with plants and nature.

The exhibits also included some interactive booths explaining about plants and their life cycle. They also had educational materials on recycling and saving our environment. Yee Sinn was quite entertained when some electronic drawing devices that were on display.

Our little girl has grown up so much over the past 2.5 years. She now has a mind of her own and very much has a strong opinion on certain things.

Her favourite colour is now pink. And she loves everything pink... She was so delighted to be given a pink kiddy cup at Riders Cafe when we pop by on lazy Saturday morning for brunch. If she can help it, she will be wearing pink dresses/shirts/ shorts or whatever pink stuffs she can lay her hands to.

We have been trying to convince her that there are other colours in the specturm that are just as beautiful... but she's still not convinced... "My favourite colour is Pink" she would insist proudly to us.

She also enjoys doing more grown up activities these days. Recently, she became very interested in flower arrangement after having a go at it at her play group. I decided to buy a bunch of flowers for her to arrange as a gift to Grandma Chang as her birthday present. She could put together a "decent" arrangement (of course with my help in cutting the flowers into the correct length).

Another activity she enjoys a lot is watching TV. Beside her usual Seseame Street, Barney and Hi-F, her favourite programs are now Ben Ten, Pokemon and you'll never guess it.... Ninja Worriors! She and Grandma Lee will be sitting infront of the TV every Wednesday from 8 to 8.30pm watching the competitors in Ninja Worriors very intently.

Now that she's much older, she is able to articulate her thoughts better. She can now communicate better with older kids at the playground and at school. She also tends to approach younger kids and tries to talk to them in a gentl way. On of her favourite playmate is her cousin. Though they seldom meet, they would be now playing happily together instead of the usual fighting and snatching of toys.

Our wedding was many years ago. The celebration continues to this day.

Happy 6th ROM anniversary!

I was on leave for two days last week. I thought I could have a laid-back vacation at home but I was wrong. Our little energizer bunny really kept us on our toes the entire weekend.

On Thursday morning, hubby had to take Grandma Lee for her medical check-up. Yee Sinn woke up late that morning. She had her usual corn-flaks for breakfast before settling down to watch her string of cartoons on her favourite Okto channel.

Just when she got bored, I took out some colouring worksheets to keep her occupied while I carry one with my chores. There were times when I had to stop what I was doing to encourage her into completing her task. The final product - A father's day crown for hubby that says "King of the Day".

Hubby was quite amused with the King's crown though... He thought that was his immunity against doing housework. I told him to dream on... Hahahha.

On Friday morning, we took Yee Sinn out to catch Toy Story 3. She has been telling us she would like to watch the show everytime she sees the thriller on TV or the colourful adverts in the papers.

So off we went... It was her first movie outing and we were not sure how it will turn out. We headed down to Cineleisure, bought a couple seat and placed a booster seat in between us for her.

There were several scary scenes during the show when she leaned towards us and asked for a cuddle. Otherwise, she was pretty entertained by the movie. It was a good show with a beautiful storyline. She could rattle off the character's name to Grandma Lee after the show when we met up for lunch.

As it was a weekday, we decided to check out if the queue at Ippudo was worth the wait. Fortunately, the wait was only 20 mins. I wasn't very impressed with their food though. Would think it has been over-rated by lots of food critics... Do go only if you got cash to burn and time to spare.

The entire family trooped down to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) on Saturday afternoon. We intended to visit the much talked about Art's Garden: Children's Season. But when we got to SAM, Yee Sinn was sound asleep in her stroller. So we decided to check out the art exhibits at the main SAM building instead while she naps. Grandma Lee came with us cos her admission tickets were free for senior citizen.

Just when Yee Sinn woke up, we headed to the next building where all the fun began. We spent quite some time at Walter's Garden where there were many small pillows littered around artificial grass. We built a small fort and had a small pillow fight with Hubby. There were 4 floors of exhibits. One of our favourite was the Enchanted Forest. The so-called "forest" consisted of beautifully illustrated pictures of animals like tigers, snakes, fishes and some imaginary animals.

At a small corner was some tables and art materials where the kids could colour butterflies and paste them along the other exhibits. Yee Sinn was so engrossed with her artwork at one point in time.

We also spent quite a bit of our time at "Daisies" exhibit. It's an interactive exhibits where movements will cause the flowers projected on the floor to disappear. All Yee Sinn did was ran round and round in circles, enjoying herself with her burst of energy.

There was a dedicated activity room on the 2nd floor where the kids could get really hands on with artwork. As it was supposed to be Father's Day the day after, the volunteers had Yee Sinn to make a Father's Day picture. They helped her choose a picture and decorate it as she likes.

Strangely, our little girl has been fascinated with monsters. She told me that Papa loves monsters. She coloured its teeth pink and eyes blue. She also stuck many colourful feathers around her monster. When hubby asked her what does her monster eats, she replied most innocently "Monsters eat cookies!" I think she has too much of Sesame Street. Hahahahha.

Sunday was the usual at Grandma Chang's place. We decided to have a quiet father's day this time round. Evening was spent lazing at the botanical gardens. After feeding the fishes with stale bread, we headed down to the the open lawn near the Tumbusu Tree.

Father and daughter played a bit of football while I looked out for squirrels on the trees.

When we wished hubby a Happy Father's Day in the morning, his rely was " I'm happy to be your father every day"

Hubby was telling me how fortunate he is to be able to experience the growing up of our little girl. Simple things like Yee Sinn's little gestures of kisses and hugs that made us forget all the frustrations and terrors she has given to us.

Saw this in today's newspaper.

Happy Father's Day to All!

It's the June school holiday! School has been out for Yee Sinn for the last 2 weeks of June. But meanwhile, she's having a whale of a time with her daddy. This was what she has been up to so far....

There are lots of free shows at the malls around Singapore. She has already been to Marina Square for Doremon, Plaza Singapura for Transformers and United Square for Ben Ten. She has been asking hubby to bring her to see Digimon and some other cartoon characters which I'm not familiar with.

There were days where they simply hung out at the shopping centre, just to bask in the Great Singapore Sale crowd- Robinson, Takashimaya, OG and City Hall! Bascially anywhere with a Toy Fair! But thank goodness most of the time the both of them are just window shopping or crowd watching.

Hubby and Yee Sinn has also been hanging out at Liang Court. Little treats like 1 hour of play time at Royce Gym for Yee Sinn while hubby indulged himself with books at Kinokuniya has also became a norm.

Yee Sinn also had plenty of outdoor fun. These includes her regular trips to the nearby playground, as well as other places such as hortpark, botanical garden and to the beaches.

Hubby will be reporting back to school in another 1 week time. I'm sure our little girl will miss all the special bonding time she had with her Dad. But meanwhile, I'm just as curious where else my boy and little girl will be adverturing next...

We were at Downtown East on Saturday morning. Hubby had some free tickets from the Teacher's Union for a Mayday 2010 carnival by NTUC. So thinking we had nothing else to do, we decided to check out the place.

We tried our hands on several carnival games and was disappointed to find that most of the prizes were the same... Pencils with erasers and colouring face mask for the kids. Some station games had so long queues with people hogging the games with stackloads of free game tickets. Wonder how they managed to get so many free tickets in the first place.

After walking around for a while, we decided to buy a ticket for a train ride that Yee Sinn was eyeing on since we came. This kiddy ride was not part of the free tickets that were given by the union. Oh well, I guess it is money well spent cos she was simply so delighted with the ride and kept posing for a picture everytime she comes round near us.

We ended the day at Wild Wild Wet. It was nice having to dunk into the cool water after a hot humid morning. However, as we approach noon, there were more and more people streaming into the pool area, making the place a little over crowded and chaotic. The ladies showering area was CRAZY...the crowd was so bad that I told hubby to take Yee Sinn to the guys shower area to get her cleaned and changed. Luckily, hubby managed to get into the handicap toilet that came with shower facility.

Generally, it was a fun day, except for the crowd. But guess this is Singapore and as long as it's free, there will be truckloads of people queueing for them.

As usual, the entire family was zonked out the moment we reached home.

My first Mother's Day present from my little girl!! She came running to me with this bunch of flowers in a cup with both hands the moment she saw me at the door on Friday evening. It was such a delight for me cos this is the first time I'm receiving something from someone so special.

Yee Sinn is now learning about flowers at her playgroup. So to keep within the theme, the teacher got the kids to arrange a small pot of flowers in a disposable cup, with ribbon and all, for their mothers. It was a little thoughtful gift that brought smiles to me. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Once again, we were at the Zoo over the weekend!

Here's a picture taken at the Zoo entrance with the parrots.

We were at the hippo enclosure for quite awhile. Yee Sinn was amazed with the size of their teeth when they yawned.

Another favourite exhibit of ours is the polar bear. See both father and daughter observing the bears doing their swim strokes.

This was one of Yee Sinn's favourite activity that day- feeding the giraffes. We paid a good $5 for a bowl of carrots. A real rip off but seeing how delighted our little girl is, we soon forgot the pain in our pockets.

We ended the day at Kiz-World. Though Yee Sinn was already quite tired, her energy came back in an instant the moment we changed her into her swim suit.

Changi Village Hotel was having a 1night + 1night free promotion so we managed to book a staycation over the Easter holidays. This time round we decided to bring Yee Sinn and Grandma Lee over as well… after all, it was meant to be a family vacation. Unfortunately, Grandma Lee had to go for her polyclinic checkup on Saturday morning so she only stayed over night on Saturday.

It was a good break for all of us and I guess staycations have it’s plus points – no need to change currency, no need to do research for places of interests, no need to pack too many things (but do check out our luggage that we brought! We were too lazy to look for a smaller bag so we just simply dumped all our stuff into luggage that we brought to Penang.)

Good Friday was spent checking out the food centre nearby as well as playing with our little girl in the pool. I think Yee Sinn is a real water baby… she could stay in the pool for 3 hours straight! Either aiming her water pistol at both of us or just simply kicking the water to get from point A to point B. Most of the time, Grandma Lee and I were enjoying ourselves at the jucuzzi.... massaging our tired muscles away.

Oh, our little girl is also very much like her PaPa in another way - both of them love soaking in the hotel bathtub! Each can bathe for a whole half an hour!

We went to Changi Beach on Saturday morning… lugging our picnic mat, spades, pail and forks. It was terribly hot so I insisted on setting up the mat under a huge shady tree that was further away from the usual beach area. Though it was facing the jetty where to water wasn’t so clean, I didn’t want any of us to be exposed to too much sun. Also, Yee Sinn wasn’t too interested in going into the water… she was more interested in digging the sand and making imprints of pokemons and hello kitty with her sand moulds.

We went back for a shower before Yee Sinn had her nap. We wanted to check out the broad walk in the evening but it was drizzling so we all decided to hit the pool instead. A little crazy but our little girl just love the pool… and after all, even if the rain doesn’t get her head wet, all the splashing in the pool will.

On Easter Sunday, all of us had a nice slow breakfast at Salt Water. They were having a 25% discount for in-house guests. Yee Sinn ate for free and all she wanted was bread with cheese. Guess she and her dad are not buffet people. No prize for guessing where we all went straight after breakfast – to the POOL again!

We were sure Yee Sinn enjoyed this little holiday with us. Just before we left the hotel, she asked us why were we not going back up to the hotel room but instead, going to our car. We could sense that she was a little disappointed so we assured her that we'll be back there again soon.

We're all looking forward to the next long weekend holiday. Hee.