Jacob Ballas @ The Botanic Garden

A long overdue post, although Daddy started this posted on 31 Dec 08, Daddy only managed to complete it 4 weeks later. This is party due to endless partying since Christmas, then there was the new year countdown party, Mommy's Papa birthday, your TV commercial shoot and of course your birthday party. Its been one hectic month and much to Daddy's annoyance, Daddy can't piece together something that happened a month ago. But here goes, Charlene stayed over our place for the weekend and we went to the Jacob Ballas Park.

Grandpa, Daddy, Charlene & EnXi bracing overselves for the tunnel ride.

Grandpa with Charlene taking the plunge

EnXi wondering what went by after we made it out of the tunnel.

Charlene seems like having the most fun as we headed for the water themed station with water sprouting out from the ground with plenty of watering cans for everyone to water the nearby plants. In fact, Charlene was crying when we had to head home.

Heath Tip for the Day

Eat your cereals everyday and lose the fab!

1st Xmas with En Xi

This Xmas is rather special for us, being the 1st Xmas with Mei Mei. It has been almost a ritual that I will spend my Xmas with my jie-meis, also know as the 7 Princesses. This year, we have one more princess joining the club. A true princess indeed cos Mei Mei is the first baby in the group and obviously grossly spoilt by the girls. Aside from showering her with gifts constantly, she will always be the centre of focus in all our gatherings. Mei Mei was behaving very well that day, partly because it held at home groun.d. We realise that she is usually quite clingy when she is out with the girls, so we were quite glad that she was enjoying herself that day

The theme for this Xmas - Olympic Mania!

I'm the tennis babe!

The best-dressed couple - Qingwei & Yushan

Selene "Jie Jie" with the En Xi de reindeer

Umm..im quite sure my card is bigger than yours?

Thank You, En Xi

Daddy is having a hard time trying to piece together several events that happened of recent. Blogging about you usually occurs in spurts of inspiration. Trouble is having enough time and energy to stare into the laptop after a full day of staring into another laptop at work. So, more often than not, Daddy had missed out charting a few precious moments of your life thus far. Trying to link all events also prove to be a challenge as well. Then again, who cares if a blog entry is clear, concise and conclusive. But, on another note, Daddy wants you to understand what went through our lives as a family. Daddy has such terrible short memory, I'm worried that all the beautiful memories will just fade into abyss. In my own humble opinion, fading memories is the worst thing that can happen to anyone and to the people around him or her. Enough ramblings from Daddy, time to start my entry for today.

Mommy was recently ill and was down with food poisoning, so Daddy had to take care of you with Grandpa's help, as Grandma was at Uncle Eric's home taking care of your newly born cousin, Julian. For the first time, Daddy became a SAHD (Stay At Home Dad) for 2 days before Mommy recovers. I must say that 2 days sure felt like 2 weeks, cos you are such an impish elfin. The toughest part of taking care of you was trying to wash your hair. Take a good look at yourself now....

Of late, Daddy also managed to catch up with some old mates of mine. Somehow, no matter how cute other babies look, you are always the most "kawaii" to me. Here is Mommy with you, together with Auntie Elaine and Evianne.

Not to mention, you had developed the long lost skill of "Tien Chen Jao", nemesis of "Wan Fo Chao Zong". Susan and Wayne are obviously not too pleased.

Christmas is around the corner, this year is a particularly bad financial year and it seems that the financial turmoil has taken its toll on everything. Even the traditional Christmas lightings seems to be of sub-standard and shambolic. Nonetheless, we went to Borders to get some Christmas gifts and managed to catch some lights. You never fail to amaze us with your different facial expressions. Sometimes, Mommy thinks you are schizophrenia. Here are some of your personalities.

The "I'm very angry-I've horns sticking outta of my head" look

The "I'm a tribal dancer-No wait-I'm a wrestler-No wait-I like to lick" look.


This look is just stupid, but Daddy loves it, cos it always never fails to brighten up his day. Maybe, we can call it the "Cheer You Up" look.

The "Plurrrsee give me my milk" look.

The "OMG! Mango is on Sale" look.

This is our Christmas Tree and you'll be celebrating your first Christmas Party with Mommy's best Gal friends on the eve.

Before, Daddy sign off this entry, Daddy wants to thank you. Daddy doesn't quite understand it yet, but Daddy has now found inner peace and patience. You are the beauty who calmed the beast or you can crudely put it as the ah lian who calmed the ah beng. More importantly, you had shown me how to love Mommy more than ever. Don't ask me how, I just love your mommy more now. Once again, thank you.

Daddy and Mommy in Love

Food and Mei Mei

One of the new-found skill as a parent, is the ability to gobble down our food within minutes. Especially when it comes to dining out, both of us will need to take our turns , while the other strolls Mei Mei in her royal sedan to keep her entertained.

Recently, we found that Mei Mei has taken a great interest in munching anything that goes into her mouth. It was a great way to keep her in her seat without launching a strike of cries and tears. She was busy nibbling away, like a busy hamster. The unusual obedience made me realised that it has been so long that both of us can truly enjoy our dinner, and add in a little chit chat in between too.

I'm so hungry that I want to eat it now...............

Waiter plss...I want to order

Where is my FOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD???

Finally...a full and contented angel.

I'm a 1 week SAHM!!

Mummy..I'm watching you!!

My mother-in-law will be away over the next 1 week to take care of Baby Julian, En Xi's newborn cousin. For me, This week is probably going to be one of the most challenging days since I became a mother. I will be taking of En Xi by myself, like a true SAHM. Thinking back, , I barely recall anytime that I had to do this. Not becos I'm a irresponsible mother, but becos weekends are the only time I can spend real quality time with her, even then there's alway some help from either my mother-in-law or Edwin.

Punishment # 1 - Baby SOC..super xiong ah..

Punishment # 2 - Count the no. of stars on my top. 1..2..13..oh no, which is the last one I counted?!?!!! they all look the same!!!

Just Day 2, I feel that I have just done the StanChart marathon thrice. En Xi is just like an energizer bunny - you can't stop it! Aside from her milk feeding times, there is never a still moment for her. And she doesn't seem to like to play with toys at all, and enjoys messing with our hi-fi system, trashing magazines, and laying her hands on on whatever non-baby-toy objects she can find.

Feeding her at dinner times has always been the most stressful task of her routine, cos she seems to start getting frustrated after 15mins in her high chair. It doesn't help that in-experienced mummy burnt her congee while cooking it - stress OD for the day!

A true evidence that Mummy's must have been sleeping during her Home Econs class..

Complaints aside..I'm still loving every moment with En Xi.

Princess En Xi's beauty tip of the week
Drink 8 glasses of water every day to keep your skin hydrated & supple..LIKE ME!

Happy birthday Shourei!

Today is my nephew, Shou Rui’s 5^th birthday. I always have a soft spot for him, possibly because he’s the first grandchild of our family. And, the fact that I was very involved in his childhood, it makes me particularly more attached to him.

The classic "funny face" family foto to marked our every gathering

When I discovered my pregnancy, I always think that I will prefer a boy for my first-born. Just to qualify this statement – it’s not because I have a preference for boys. This is largely influenced by the fact that I have 2 brothers, and I always thought it will be sweet if there is a big brother in the family to protect the younger siblings. I’m glad that Shou Rui is actually very fond of Mei Mei and takes very good care of her. In fact, my brother used to compare that he finds Shou Rui is actually nicer to Mei Mei than his own brother.

Why Gor Gor is so nice to Mei Mei and not me?

We had his pre-birthday celebration over the weekend. This 5-year old boy actually prefers to have a KTV session, so that he can relish this fav Jay Chou “Huo Yuan Jia” song. Of cos, the highlight of the day has to be the unwrapping of birthday presents for him. Nothing beats seeing a kid beamed in joy when he uncovers the mystery of his presents! Shiok ah..so many presents! Can play till i flip!

Mummy..why no present for me?

Shou Cong you must be a tough guy ok! Follow me..hor hor hor hor hor hor hor..

Finally..my turn to sing..

Eh-lo? Why no sound?

Mei Mei finally crashed after a day of fun. For the record, she slept for a straight 3 hours without stirring!

Days without Mei Mei

It's funny how a kid can become one's focal point in life. I always thought and had Rei and myself believe that our marraige should come before anything else. In fact, I was always ranting to my wifey about the importance of having "couple" time together. I preached the notion of starting each conversation after work, talking about one another instead of mei mei. But sub-consciencely, I don't think I had walked the talk.

I checked the photos stored in my iPod touch, a total of 19 photos. Of which, 1 was Charlene, 1 had the 3 of us (Wifey, En Xi & me) and 17 were all single portraits of Mei Mei taken since birth. Truth is Mei Mei is the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I think of home. When I chat with my friends, I talked about my kid most of the times. I can recall myself saying I miss my kid, but not miss having dinner with my wifey.

Is there no couplehood after parenthood?

3 weeks without Daddy

You wanna play with me and my new toy!!

Little En Xi is getting more responsive over the past few weeks. A significant change we noticed is that she is becoming more vocal with her emotions. Especially when she spots the first signs of going out ie prepping her stroller or taking out the keys, she get extremely excited and starts to displayed her excitement by yelling at the top of her voice. She is such a chatterbox too, babbling non-stop from the moment she wakes up, so much so that I don't even need an alarm clock now.

God-Auntie Xiujun came to visit..I want to be as pretty as her when I grow up

The key challenge is also to bring her out of the house single-handedly. Without Edwin around, it has been an arduous task to keep her still within the stroller. Having a peaceful meal without her protesting in her stroller is almost impossible. Funny thing is, my in-laws never have this problem cos she seems to be much more obedient when she is out with them. So double standard!! Obviously, someone is trying to bully Mummy...sob sob...

En Xi's moment of the week

Shou Rui: En Xi, let's pose a really ugly face.
En Xi: Huh? I don't know how to be ugly.....

1st week without Daddy

To prevent Mei Mei from potentially forgetting how Daddy might look, we came up with a brilliant idea to put together a short home video of Daddy. Inspired by "Star Wars", Daddy decided to transform Mei Mei's favorite toy (our remote control) into the light sabre in this context. It's really funny I must say (which unfortunately we can't share at this point in time as it's exclusive to Mei Mei), at least whenever Mei Mei is cranky (esp during the challenging dinner time), it's the sure-laugh antidote that Mummy can rely on.

I also plastered the house with posters of Daddy, so that Mei Mei can see them constantly and be reminded of Daddy whenever she are. It seems to o work. cos we often see Mei Mei gazing and pawing at his pictures, and sometimes uttering "Ba Ba".

Daddy..are you locked inside? Come out pls..this is not funny

The first tooth of Mei Mei has emerged a couple of days back. But her teething woes continue as the 2nd teeth is battling through the ridges. This long weekend seems particularly long, cos it's the first time I had to manage Mei Mei all by myself. It doesn't help that Mei Mei is going through teething, and can be very "schizophrenia".

At one time she can be as sweet as an angel..

















...the next moment she will be a cranky monster if I leave her sight for more than 0.0001 seconds.























I was determined to bring her out today, so that I can take some attention away from this fussy princess. But unfortunately IT HAD TO RAIN BIG TIME!!!


















I want to go out..rain rain go away

We end up stranded in the house cos it was impossible to go anywhere with this weather. I was entertaining her with "peek-a-boo" most of the times (cos this never fails to amuse her, even when she is cranky).





















10, 9, 8 ,7,...Mummy I'm going to catch u soon ya..

She also seems to find great joy in shredding my magazines.

I'm going to be on the cover some day..

Counting down to Daddy's return...3 more weeks to go!!!