National Day Celebration - 08.08.2008

This is a super back-dated post. I was waiting for the photos to be uploaded to the centre's website but was told they faced some problem. Couldn't wait any longer and got them to email the pictures to me instead.

This is his first celebration in the centre and surprise of all surprise, my little clean freak boy is willing to have his little cheek painted with the National flag! Look at him, do you think he looks as if being stunned by a stun gun..hahaha..

They had a lovely morning with songs, dance, musical chairs, face painting, picnic, making chinese dumplings... hmm..as usual, my little boy enjoyed the multi-cultural food! See there, he is queueing up patiently waiting for the centre's aunty to give him his share of food.

See the centre's aunty helping him with the er...what you call this? honey?

I can just imagine him saying "wow" at that very moment... ;P

Then, of course, how can any celebration ends without a cake. Here's a birthday cake for Singapore with many candles on it..

Count My Blessing

Doing the Baby Bump Tag really brought back memories of my pregnancy days and reminder that the risk we mothers took to deliver the joy of our life... In all my 3 pregnancies, all were categorised under the Emergency type which also means higher medical bills than normal C-section...

There is a possibility that all my 3 babies would not get to see the world at all if not for God's grace on us...

Imagine, Rachel having the umbilical cord around her neck stranggling her while she was still inside...gynae told us that it might have just go round her just the night before as the poo poo was still fresh...ironically, while I was still pregnant with her, I always have the fear that she will be strangled by the umbilical cord and not make it out..so whenever I don't her movement for a long period of time, I start to panic wondering if she is ok...

As for Charmaine, hers was the complete opposite...her umbilical cord was the shortest my gynae ever since in her 30 years of practice! Her heartbeat dropped with each contraction and if I wasn't there on time, she might have stopped beating totally...

Nicholas was the worst. At least for the 2 girls, I carry the pregnancy to full term with no problem. But for him, he wanted to come out so much that by week 24, I have to be on medication and complete rest in bed to keep him in there till he is safe enough to come and see the world. The delivery was smooth but still under emergency as he was born before the date of booking of the operation room. He came out on week 36 while we had scheduled the delivery to be on week 38. So what so scary about Nicholas's birth other than chances of him coming out prematurely?... Gynae came the next day and I never seen her reacting so kan cheong for the first 2 girls. She was telling me that both of us were so lucky to be alive as the uterus wall was so thin that she could even see his hair before cutting it up! To illustrate her point, she took a piece of paper and said "Your uterus is this thin! Gosh..You really got to thank God that both of you are safe..With such thin uterus, it could have ruptured anytime and not only will the baby die, the mommy will too if no medical help was available immediately!" Then knowing that we wanted to have 4 kids, she sternly told us not to have any within the next 2 years. She wants me to give my uterus a rest... and she will monitor me more closely should I be pregnant again.

Isn't all these a real blessings from above? Hope when the kids grow up and look back at the risks we mommies took to have them here, they will be more filial to us...that reminds me also to spent more time with my own mommy... we are not very close as I grew up with my grandparents and not her... so still trying the bridge the gap now...it tough but hubby said if I don't put in effort to make it happen, it will never happen...

He Is Onto Shapes Now and Speaking In Sentence

His this month programme? About shapes.

They used shapes to make a house and a bus. Nicholas was able to follow the pattern shown to him. He is also starting to become very chatty in school, trying to repeat all the words and also trying to make conversations with the teachers. Its a good start to get him talking in sentences. Since he's in the mood of repeating, the teacher made him repeat after her in sentences. Like when he wanted more snack and the teacher will ask him to say 'May I have some more please?' and he did.

See that happy face?

Did square sandwhich for Mandarin class and did matching of the shapes. Nicholas is very good at matching all the shapes and when the teacher asked him what shape that is, he is able to say 'square'. Got to give credit to my maid who had been teaching him on shapes with the help of toys and books! Thank God for giving her to me! She is really my saviour especially when I'm away...I can totally trust her to look after my kids well.

And my boy had made himself a name in the centre for having good appetite! *laugh* He can ask for lunch at 10.30am and when had 2 paus for breakfast (9am)! Wow! What an appetite! Hehehe....

Matching the shapes

Enjoying his outdoor play as usual

His Words...

He sometimes will clap his little chubby hands and says "hamburger; hamburger... coconut.. yeah! haha..I win!" I was wondering what he was doing/saying and his jiejies came in with the full version "hamburger, hamburger, ham ham ham. Strawberry coconuts banana chest"...then they go the scissor, paper, stone and then the winner says "haha..I win"...*laugh* my little sponge!

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He is usually the first to be ready whenever we are going out and his 2 slow tortoise sisters will always be laughing among themselves and taking their own sweet time putting on their shoes and getting ready. Think it really makes my little impatient man pissed and he told them while standing at the door "hurry up! quick! let's go! come on!" hahaha...this only makes his 2 crazy sisters laugh more.

Brillante Weblog Premio 2008

Angeline and Little Princetagged me on this.

Here are the rules that come with the award:
The rules are these:

1. Put the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Add links to these blogs on your blog.

5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

I am nominating :

Queenie

Ling

Ping

4malmal

Darren's Mommy

Little Chumsy's Mommy

Reese Matthew

Blogging Friends Forever Award

Angeline and Joanne awarded me this BBF GOLD CARD! Thank you! Couldn't wait to use it! *Muack*!

Borrowed a phrase from her...the rules are rather tough to follow, ‘cos there are soooooo many of you out there that I want to give this to. So if you are not in my list below, please don’t be upset with me ok, I still love you *muack*!

Rule

Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award
4 of them followers of your blog.
One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

So here are the lucky 5:

Allthingspurple

Catlover

Mommy to chumsy

Kole

U.Lee

Baby Bump Tag

Got this tag from Ling.

Post a picture of yourself when you were pregnant. Tell us something about that picture or some memories of being pregnant.

Rules:

1. Copy from start through end.
2. Add your blog to the list.
3. Tag your friends. You don’t need to be tagged in order to join. Feel free to join the fun.
4. Don’t forget to let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment here so I can add you to the Pretty Momma list.
5. Come back regularly to update your master list! You never know. This might help improve your ranking!

Pretty Preggy Momma’s

1.FunFierceFabulous 2.Me,Myself+2 3.Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 4. Momiespace 5.Because Life Is Fun 6.Bits and Pieces 7.The Shopaholic in Me 8.When Silence Speaks 9.Everything About Deye 10. Etc Atbp 11.VanityKit 12.MindBubbles 13.Stripe&Yellow 14.Something Purple 15.Em’s Detour 16.Living the Healthy Life 17.Juls Random Thoughts 18. Me and Mine 19. Creative in Me 20. Little Peanut 21. Pea in a Pod 22. Sugar Magnolias 23. Life is What we Make it 24. Dancing in Midlife Tune 35. Life’s Questions 36. Photoblog 37. PinayWAHM 38. Teacher's Corner 39. Simple Life, Simply Me 40. Come Tour with ME in San Diego 41. Wife of a Warrior, 42.Marilyn 43.danah 44. Jenny and Belle 45. Growing Up Together
46. All About Baby Nicholas

Took this picture when I was about 38 weeks pregnant with my eldest girl. Being first time mommy, the contraction was unbearable even though I was only 1cm dilated! The torture went on from 2am in the morning till 7am and after 5 hours of contractions, I was only 2cm dilated!!! Rest of the birth story is here.

As for my second pregnancy, totally forgot to take any pictures of me with my big bump. For the memorable part...hmm...as I wanted so much to try for natural birth, gynae put me through a series of tests (CTG to check if my heart is strong enough; X-ray to see if my pervic bone is wide enough...) as she doesn't want to risk me rupturing my uterus as it would mean deadly for both mom and baby. Obediently went through all these but still didn't get to do it the natural way. Here's why.

This was taken on the day of delivery before heading to the hospital at week 36. Cool erh..? still can take pictures. His birth story is here.

I would love to see the beautiful bumps of LZmommy ;P

5 Awards

Sometime back, I was so honoured to receive a total of 5 awards from Ling.
Thank you so much! :)

This is a very over-due one so I think most of my blogging friends should have these by now. I'm passing these awards to everyone who visit my blog! Pls feel free to take it!

Thank you for sticking by me throughout this year! *muack* to all my friends!

First Pet - Hamster

These are his first pets, actually not really his. Grandma bought the female one and daddy bought the male. (My girl passed her Bronze Survivor test and thus the reward.)

I was so against the idea of having additional members in our small tiny house but apparently, both grandma and daddy felt otherwise...I should not grumble any further, just hope my 2 girls will take care of these 2 little creatures and they are able to survive for at least 1 month under their "care".

Anyway, back to the hamster and my boy. I brought the cage down today so my boy can have a look and play with it. Surprise of all surprises, he's not at all scared of the furry animals and even dared to stick his little fat hand in to catch them while his 2 sisters gave out those girly scream "har!", "Don't!"... he ignored his 2 timid sisters and managed to catch one of them and carry it! His 2 sisters look on with "how does that feel?" written over their face and only dared to stroke the furry creature. *faint* this means I have to look after the hamster for them?!

Resolute that I'm not gonna take over the caring of these creatures, I took the other one out and get the 2 girls to hold it. After the initial girly behaviour, they did fine...*phew* Succeeded. This means I don't have to clean the cage for them.

Another Crying Session Over Hair Cut

After dinner, daddy offered to do something to ease my pressure (I was coaching my 2 girls on their school work). Was really grateful that he moves his butt to help. But he got no idea what to do with his little prince and asked me for my opinion if to bring his boy down for a walk or go for the long overdue hair cut.

Told him not to bring little boy for hair cut as I will do it when I got the time since my dear prince still have the phobia from the previous round. Whenever we asked him if he wants to cut his hair, he will shout "No!" very clearly to make his stand clear.

So after half an hour, received a phone call and all I can hear is my poor boy screaming at the top of his lungs crying...the more I try to pacify him over the phone, the louder he cry. Knowing that the more he hear my voice, the more he would cry, so I hanged up the phone and waited for his grand entrance.

Once back, took him over from daddy and consoled him. It took him a good 10minutes to finally calm down. Scolded daddy for not listening to me.

Before bedtime when he was washing up, he looked into the mirror at his new hair style and admired it. Though he doesn't like having his hair cut, but he does agree that it nice.

Missing Mommy

Today, when I dropped him off at his school, he cried "mommy, mommy"as I started to walk out of the centre. My heart wrenched to hear him calling me this way...Think he still wants to spent some more time with me. I would love to spent the day with him too but need to go back to the office to clear all the stuff before I got to fly off again on Friday.

Teacher emailed saying that he didn't cry for long. It was what they term as a grouchy moment.

While in class before the lesson starts, he was caught staring at his family photo (on his classroom wall). When the teacher came to talk to him, he proudly pointed out his family members and told the teacher who is who.

For lunch, I glad he is now able to adjust to the school's menu. Today, they had fish and vegetables with rice and accrording to teacher, Nicholas had his usual lion appetitie!

For tots English, Nicholas had to color a rainbow. Teacher used sentences like "Try the red now." "How about blue next?" etc. The idea was to reinforce the colors to them and be familiar with words like "first", "next", "another". Initially, Nicholas was only attempting to mark some lines on his paper and would rather mess with his friend's. After teacher said, "Now what should I tell Mummy ? ...." He started frowning and decided to put in more effort! =)

On Our Way Home...

After "disappearing" from my boy's life for 2 weeks, I was really glad to know that he still recognise me. Sound silly, right? I always have this phobia that with him still so young and if he didn't see me for a long stretch of time, he will forgot how mommy looks like. So you can guessed how happy I was when I saw him running towards me once I stepped out of the departure gate! He gave a a BIG HUG on my legs as mommy me was a little slow to react (that is to drop the luggage and bend down to hug him).

During the car ride back, he cradled like a baby in my arms (ok, I know its against the law, but i really missed him very much) and occasionally tries to interrupt his 2 jiejies conversation with me.

Like when Rachel mentioned the word "Hamster", my dear boy sprang up and said "mama, hamster" with his big round eyes trying to express the excitement of having a pet at home (Grandma bought them the hamster when I was away).

When I asked if the 2 girls missed me, my boy quickly said "I missed mommy!" and he didn't even paused! Its comes out so smoothly from him! Aiyo...you can imagine how many kisses I planted on his chubby cheek that very moment!

I'm Back!

Just got back today after 2 weeks in BKK. Missed my kids so much!!
I'm so happy and surprised that my darling boy can still recognise mommy.


Anyway, got lots of work to clear so will visit all my dear blogging friends once I sort everything out.

Yummy Steak In 30 Minutes

Sometimes, when I ran out of what to cook for dinner (Chinese food), I will just go western. Its so much easier to prepare and less time consuming. From preparation to ready-to-eat, it took me less than 30 minutes....

All I need to do is to put the beef steak (marinated with all necessary spices) into the oven to grill.

Scrub the potatoes and make a cross on top. Put it in the microwave, set it on high for 10mins, take it out, put some sour cream and bacon on it. I usually fried the bacon but used the ready-fried one for this...taste not as nice but passable.

There's always lettuce and cherry tomatoes in my fridge, so just wash some and put on the plate. Open a can of baked beans and that's it!

How's that?!

Finally..He Got It Right!

This is the sweetest sentence any mommies would love to hear, especially at this age where they have no hidden agenda...don't you agree?

That's It For Colour Theme

After the month long emphasis on colours, what better way to wrap up the theme on colours other than showing the kids the colour of rainbow...and I really mean RAINBOW!

The teacher brought the little ones outdoor today and showed them the rainbow with the help of the gardening hose! The teacher pressed onto the nozzle and out came the water and with some touch of "magic", rainbow appeared...can you see them?

Then, the little toddlers proceeded into the class for some sorting work...see how he managed to sort the colours according to the label!! To say that I'm satisfy with the centre does not justify it...I must say that I'm very, very satisfy and glad I found them...thank God for that too..He answered my prayer for a good school for my boy.

And that happy look from that face told me I'm right! Agree? : )

Stir-fried bean-sprout with slice fish

Easy and healthy dish. It's a little like the Sang loh Hoy Fun...

Ingredient:

1. Sliced snakehead or any fish of choice

2. Beansprout

3. Spring onion

4. Sliced ginger

Method:

1. Blanch the snakehead in boiling water. Remove and set aside. I usually keep the water to be used as gravy later.

2. Fry ginger in a little oil, add in the beansprout.

3. Add in the spring onion, stir well.

4. Add a little Maggi Seasoning sauce or any soy sauce (just a little for flavour), mixed well.

5. Add the cooked fish, gently tossing to mix well.

6. Add some water from no 1 and cover for a while. We like our beansprout "well-done"so I let in cook a while more.

That's all! Easy and healthy. One of my picky hubby's favourite.

You Make My Day!

I'm pretty much a very lazy person...that's why I'm a sloth in the survey...very lazy to doll myself up...especially after giving birth to him. (excuse and excuse)

For convenient sake, I would just put on a T-shirt and jeans/ bermudas and out I go. But, today for a change, I decided to put on a skirt, one that I used to wear more than 2 years ago! And guessed what my dearie boy said when he saw me that morning?

He came out after his bath and walked passed the kitchen where I'm rushing to make breakfast for daddy and pointed to my skirt and said "NICE!" Then, what surprise me comes next. "Mommy Pritti" (Pretty) I didn't fully comprehend what he was saying at first as I didn't expect that from him..but he repeated himself again pointing at my skirt.

Wow! Tell you, I put down whatever I'm holding and give him a BIG Hug and muaks! So young and can sweet talk liao! aiyo..whatever Monday's blues all gone! So happy that I forgot to record it. Then, tried as I might when I return home that night, he would not repeat what he said in front of the camera.

Then came Sunday, I gave myself a new hair-do (actually just added a clip) and he said that again! This time, I didn't forget to record it. Immediately when he said that, I dashed for my camera and get him to say it again, pointing at my clip! (Do let me know if the video couldn't be viewed, ok? I can access to any video file over here....thks)

The Bookworm Tag

I got this tag from Allthingspurple and LZmommy. Thanks



This is a long one. Here goes :

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
Hmm…I actually fell in love with reading when I start having all the overseas assignment. Back home, there’s totally, absolutely no time for leisure reading.

What are some books you read as a child?
Enid Blyton, and some detectives books…couldn’t recall now. O! Of course, not forgetting comic books like Tintin and Archie’s (if you count them as book) : P

What is your favourite genre?
Fiction.

Do you have a favourite novel?
Nothing in particular…but I do read “P.S. I LOVE YOU”more than once.

Where do you usually read?
I read anywhere whenever I’m overseas…read in the hotel room, coffee club…

When do you usually read?
Like I said earlier, only able to read when I’m on overseas assignment.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
I will borrow a few books enough to keep me occupied when I’m overseas….without them, I will be like a walking zombie after “work”.

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
Nope.

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I will borrow from the Library to bring overseas. If I finished the books and I’m still stucked there, will run to a bookshop to grab a few.

Do you keep most of the books you buy?
Yes, in the bookshelf. As for the Enid Blyton’s collections which I read when I was a child, is currently be used/read by my eldest.

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
Yes. Enid Blytons

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
No.

What’s next?
Now reading a book written by Barbara Delinsky called First, Best and Only.

What books would you like to reread?
Nothing at the moment.

Who are your favourite authors?
No specific one, but I find Barbara Delinsky’s book rather interesting.

And I love to pass this tag to :
Angeline
Ling
Jenny