Docile Sophie listening to Peppa Pig. I actually found her sitting on the chair – still and listening! Wow amazing! Haha not for long tho.

I found a good alternative to the TV! My daughter LOVES (big time!) listening to music and audio stories! If ever I needed her to calm down or just chill on her own, I just have to put on a CD!

In the morning we were out till lunchtime so I didn’t have to cook lunch.

In the afternoon, we listened to Chinese songs (Today is Chinese Day), Rainbow Fish (I love the CD! Sophie’s starting to sing some of the songs!), and Peppa Pig (This is a cartoon but I don’t put on the TV, just the sound) and she spend the entire afternoon just doing that. I was even able to cook dinner and she was fine on her own. I made easy dinner for her – porridge, just plonk everything in and cook. If not for the music and stories, she would be at my feet whining for me to do stuff with her. She really turns very docile once the CD is on. She is quite definitely an audio learner.

James and I will prob sit down to work on a outstanding project together tonite. Hopefully we can keep to no TV!

Oops I broke the rule for SuperNanny. I just had to watch SuperNanny.

Sophie did pretty alright – she asked for TV a few times today but each time I said no, she protested for a bit and went off to do something else.

Since Sophie normally watched TV when I cooked lunch and dinner (2 x a day), I had to find ways and means to keep her occupied during those times. Today she ate most of her lunch while I was preparing it – I kept feeding her the avocado that I was going to use for the salad. She ate 1/2 of it while I was cooking. That worked out pretty well .

We were out with June, PF and DN for dinner so no problem there.

Top Left: At Borders reading with Daddy

Top Right: Reading at lunch. She loves this book although we got it for Evan. If she turns out to be a bookworm, it’ll seriously be my fault.

Bottom Left: Checking out the canal. Pretty nice lah even though it’s a canal.

Bottom Right: Sunset Way

I love the weekend. That’s when we have James all to ourselves.

Yesterday we had a lazy Saturday doing our favourite things – bookshop (Borders great sale at 45% off w the coupon & card), leisure lunch, Macshop, lazy around at home and then early dinner at quiet places.

James was so sweet. He spent the morning reading to Sophie while I scoured around for good buys. After that, we had lunch and then I put Sophie to nap in the sling (Yes! I dug out our old red sling to give it a try) and it worked. She was asleep in a few minutes. But I couldn’t walk around too much, too heavy, I need to figure out how it works. We need to try this in prep for our aus trip coz we forsee Sophie’s not going to be able to fit into the baby bjorn. While Sophie napped, James happily combed thru the Macshop and I rested.

We got home and Sophie continued napping on me. I slept together with her on top of me for almost another 30 mins before she woke up! Nice!

We had dinner at the revamped Sunset Way. It’s been a while since it has been redone with restaurants like a mini Holland Village. But we’ve never been even though it’s so near to us! We like it coz it’s quiet, it’s close to a playground and near the canal where we saw many people doing their evening jogs and exercise. We liked the vibe – down to earth and casual. A great alternative to overcrowded and too hip Holland V.

Top Left: Rows and rows of fish tanks

Top Right: Mama and Sophie feeding fish

Bottom Left: Sophie going for the durians

Bottom Right: Farm Mart

We started Father’s Day early.

Yesterday we took James to a Fish Farm (Qian Hu)! He’s into fish and shrimps these days so we thought it’ll be nice to just hang out there. Sophie got to feed some fish, pick up some terrapins (yes! with her hands!), and check out lotsa lotsa different types of fish. I think she said fish like a hundred times coz she went to every tank and pointed "FISH!" Haha.

Since James started keeping fish tanks of ornamental plants and shrimps and snails, Sophie’s been asking to see and feed fish everyday. So, she was quite happy.

After that we went to the Farm Mart around the corner. It’s supposed to be like a farmers’ market where they bring all their produce to sell. Erm… it’s a bit like Malaysia, the look and feel. Quite cool. In a retro way, that is. I like. Not so modern and altogether. They have a lot of weird products that you don’t see in the supermarket like super hot chilli (crazy hot), vegetarian inards, etc. We tried a super sweet pineapple. It was soooo good in the hot weather.

Before we left, we sat down to eat durians. Sophie tried some but didn’t take to it. But at least she tried.

After all that, we went for Ryan’s 4th birthday party and their family’s house blessing. Sophie had a blast! She was up playing with everyone until 10plus. All the other babies and tods took their shower and were all half asleep by then but she was still going around with the older ones, full of energy.

Ooo and this i must record – Kieran asked Sophie, "Would you like to go for a walk?" I almost fell over when I heard him say that and when I told his mum, she said that Kieran gave Soph a hug and kiss before that! WHAT?!?! How ah?

Oooo we just went for a ride on the Singapore Flyer. You must know that it’s the world’s largest observation wheel! It was really quite something, if you overlook the surrounding construction sites!

Oooooooo but my heart almost dropped many times! Sophie was buzzing around and bouncing from side to side, jumping (kinda), running (yes, she just started running, kinda). It was like she was running towards all the windows!

She was on super hyper mode. I felt so bad for the couple in the same cabin as us. They must have been looking forward to a romantic ride. Oops. Sophie was like an energizer bunny that screeched! She refused to take pictures so we gave up after a while as you can see in our pictures!

But the scenery was pretty amazing as the sun was setting and the lights were starting to come on. I saw a beautiful mosque and the hotel rooms across looked like little holes.

Verdict? I wouldn’t pay $30 bucks each for this. Good thing we got to do this free.

Top Left: Papa helping himself to the cold noodles

Top Right: Ooooo the beef!

Bottom: Happy Birthday Papa!

Papa is an amazing man. He’s a man of charisma, energy and lots of different hobbies and interests. He’s a sought after speaker both in his industry as well as a bible teacher. He turned 66 yesterday and we celebrated his birthday at Aburiya, Japanese charcoal grill restaurant. IT WAS SO GOOD.

The Waygu beef was to die for! And of course, it’s at our doorstep, almost. The atmosphere was great – very Jap. We were the only locals there actually. If you want good Jap food, go to where the Japs go.

More family time at HK n Sharon’s wedding last nite. I was helping out with the reception so didn’t get to take much pictures. We managed to take some at the end of the dinner.

Left: The three of us – Sophie was still awake at midnight!

Right: My immediate family – sis in law, younger bro, dad, mum, younger sis, me, james and half awake sophie.

My cousin Sharon got married today. They have been dating for 7 years and we’ve been waiting for this day!

We had to get up really early to join in the traditional breakfast and bride negotiation at Sharon’s house. I actually dragged Sophie out of bed at 7am, made her down her breakfast, bathe and changed her so we could get out of the house by 7.30am. Sophie enjoyed dressing up. In fact, she grabbed hold of my handbag to complete her outfit.

Sophie’s cousins returned from UK for their aunt’s wedding. They looked so cute in their kilts. Their mum’s Scottish. Sophie had so much fun playing with them. Daniel, 4, on the left was such a sweetie. He kept bringing toys for Sophie to play with. That’s Colin, 7, on the right.

My siblings and sis in law are back too. That’s my sis in law on the left photo. On the right is Mom, Rachel (my sis) and I.

Sophie’s first lo hei!

Before & After

The Chinese New Year started early for us this year.

We’ve already had 2 reunion dinners, which kinda makes the first one a reunion dinner and the second one a rereunion dinner? We’re having one more on Wed (the real CNY eve)! What’s that? Hahaha… just great opportunities to eat great food and dress up our lil princess!

James and I are SO enjoying our Sundays.

What happens is, we arrive at church for the 11am service, we hand over the baby bag stuffed with extra clothes, diapers, lunch and tea and my parents take over from there!

Sometimes they take her to the park, most times they just bring her back to their place. She will take a short nap on the way there in her car seat, wake up, have lunch, play, watch TV w my dad (their fav thing to do), disturb my mum in the kitchen, and the best part – she takes a real long nap! She’s averaging 2 – 2 1/2 hr naps at my parents’ place! I don’t understand why she only does that there. Must be Rach’s comfy bed. My mum had to go wake her up today coz we were going out! The last time, I had to go check on her coz it was just too weird that she was napping so long! And she actually finishes ALL her food without any fuss! Hmmm… i’m beginning to think she’s bullying me! Oh well, I’m just really glad that she’s so easy to look after and doesn’t give my parents/in laws any problems when she’s out with them. WHICH IS ULTRA GREAT coz they love taking her out and looking after her! WHICH MEANS more date time with James… hiak hiak…

We went to the newly revamped National Museum to see the Greek Masterpieces brought in from Le Louvre. We got there just in time for the guided tour which was great! I strongly recommend!

For a stay home mum, that’s such a luxury! Most times when we go out at night, my mum in law will come and babysit but it’s just so nice to go out in the day time for a longer period of time. It’s really such a blessing to have family around and that Sophie’s so comfortable with them.

Sophie’s cough took a turn for the worse on Saturday. She woke up with a fever and her nose was dripping again.

We were supposed to have a full day with 2 weddings and Daph’s 21st birthday dinner. We made it to the two weddings, stayed for lunch and then went home to rest. We had to give Daph’s dinner a miss coz we all needed to rest. Both James and I also caught a bit of the bug.

She’s not much of a water guzzler. In order to get more fluids into Sophie’s lil body, I had to go creative. It turned out that Sophie loves soup! So, I made a couple of different soup – chicken soup, zucchini and watercress soup etc. All of us love the zucchini and watercress soup. Here she is insisting on feeding herself soup and getting all of it on her bib and top. Somehow I had no heart to fight with her coz she’s so sick. Just bathe after ah.

We brought her to the doc on Mon and she’s on some meds to clear the phlegm. Btw, she asks for her meds before sleeping. She says "meds".

Sigh… what a way to start the year but it’s ok, she’s such a gem. A bit fussier but still active, feeding and sleeping well. In fact her appetite is getting better. Thank God for that.

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As a result, we missed all the parties and stayed home watching Brothers and Sisters.

Oh… but we managed to make ourselves get out of the house for dinner last night. We had yummy dinner at Marmalade Pantry. It’s just downstairs ah.

Sophie was so good. She just sat in her pram playing with the New Year gift bag, eating bread n bits of my SUPER YUMMY salmon teriyaki and soba noodles. She got a bit grouchy towards the end but we ate pretty fast so by the time she was grouchy, we were ready to go. Quick but super enjoyable.