That's my baby alright!

PF sent me some pics of DN and a note of what he'd been up to over the weekend.

1. Arranging his shoes

DN removed his toys from this shelf and arranged all his shoes there neatly. He did this because the space we'd reserved for his shoes was just not enough - they were stacked on top of each other. When I saw this pic, my heart just swelled in pride. *puff*puff* That's my baby! He's neat!

2. Part-timing at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre

'Nuff said.

Day Out with Mummy

Since I'm here and DN is there, I'm going to blog about our last days together. (That sounds bloody awful though!)

Before I left, I wanted to do as many fun things with DN as I could (see zoo posts below). On Monday, I had to get a bank transfer done, so we took a bus down to town. DN loves to take the bus and he loves to tap the card on the reader.

We now make him carry his own backpack. Of course, when I carry him, it's back to square one really. -_- Anyway, the backpack's got a pack of crayons, a notebook, a small book and a tiny toy in it. It's for times when he's done with lunch/dinner and we need him to wait for us. ;)

It was nice being with DN for a few hours. I finished my errand in half an hour, then we had lunch, satisfied the shopaholic itch I had walked around Mothercare a bit, changed a diaper and then we took a cab home for a nap. Nicely timed. :)


Look at him! He's so pleased! When we got to the bus stop, he immediately started repeating, "Card! Card! Please! Please! Card! Mama!" until I let him hold it. I needn't have worried because he held onto it like it was a pot of gold.


Mighty pleased being on the bus.


We had lunch at Ichiban Boshi and had the Black Pepper Cod set - (clockwise) Chawanmushi, Miso Soup, Salmon Handroll (this was an extra order), Mushroom Tamago Rice Bowl and Hot Plate Black Pepper Cod.


DN's new shoes! I've been hankering after these shoes since DN was 1. But they're super expensive, and never on sale. Until last week! They were $20 off at Mothercare!

My shopping motto : Never think of how much you spent. Think of how much you SAVED!

I'm soft like pudding

After two weeks of panicking about my visa, I finally got the blasted thing on Tuesday. I finally flew off on Thursday, after changing my flight twice because of the blasted visa.

I'm now in the UK... alone. :( And it's the worst thing ever.

I miss DN so much. The night I left, I was all moody and grumpy. I don't know if he sensed it, but he was quite sticky that night. And as much I cannot stand that purple dinosaur, I watched half an episode of Barney with him in my lap, and it was nice. At one point, I started weeping because I was leaving him in about an hour and I knew I wasn't going to see him for a while.

He didn't follow us to the airport because it was a late flight. We said our good-byes in the car park before we drove off to Changi. I pretty much held it together and managed to smile and wave "bye" as I got into the car. He was smiling and waving too and I heard him go "BAI-YEE!".

That's when everything went pear-shape. I quickly scrambled into the car and started crying and heaving. It was niagara falls, big time. I can't even begin to describe how I was feeling then. And I never want to experience it again.

I wasn't any better on the plane. I cried while watching Made of Honor because the guy and girl finally got together, and during CSI because... hey, I don't even know why I was crying! CSI is gross! There's blood and organs flying all over the place!

At the Heathrow Bus Station, while waiting for my coach, I called PF and spoke to DN for a bit and I tell you, I lost it when he said, "Mama!". So how? Cry again! I asked DN what he was doing and according to PF, he ran away. I was like, "Yeah thanks. I gave birth to you WITHOUT epidural and you run away." But, he came back! He was play-cooking earlier and had run away to get a ladle to show me what he was doing! And he fed the phone. LOL.

Sigh, I do miss the little bugger a lot. I miss the smell of his hair when he's sleeping at night. I even miss his sour-ish 6pm smell at the end of the day. I miss how he never walks, but runs everywhere. ("Walk" wasn't programmed into his CPU.) I miss how he reaches for my hand when I sit in the back of the car with him. I miss how he will stuff everything on his plate into his mouth when you say, "Let's go!". I miss his eskimo kisses.

And now, I'm bloody crying again! -_- (I now have a little pile of wet tissue balls next to me.)

I haven't looked at any of DN's pictures since I got here because it will turn me into a useless sniffling heap. And I don't want to remember that last hug or kiss from because it'll just make me cry all over again.

Sigh. I don't know if I can do this. Sometimes I think I bite off more than I can chew, without thinking if I can do it or not. Maybe I'm too gung-ho for my own good. I'm really not that brave. I cried at the 5-day Girl Guides Teacher Training Camp in Serembun, on the 2nd day! What a wuss. And at that time, I was still IN SINGAPORE and there was no DN then. Can you imagine how I'm feeling now??

Sigh. I want to go home. I miss DN so much.

Oh yah, and PF too. ;)

All zoo-ed out! (Part 2)

On Day 2, we went to the zoo with Sam, WP + Jovann and Ling + Sophie (and her pink parasol). The first thing we did was feed the kangaroos at the Australian Outback enclosure. Highly recommended! $5 is a small price to pay to feed the kangaroos, pet the kangaroos and hold hands with the kangaroos! (Yes, you read right. See pic below.) Oh, I absolutely loved it. The kangaroo that we fed was called Lola and she had the softest fur. It reminded me of a kangaroo fur pouch my mom had yonks ago. Oops. Yes, Lola felt like a bag. -_-

We also saw a wallaby. Wallabies are smaller than kangaroos, have shorter ears and (very) dangly... erm... spherical private bits. Oops.

Next, we headed towards the pony rides ($4 per child). Unfortunately, none of the kiddos wanted to sit on Buddy the pony. The keeper was really really nice. He allowed us to pet Buddy and get up close, hoping that the kids would lose their inhibitions, but no dice. I bet Buddy was relieved, haha. Thank goodness I didn't say, "Can I have a go then?" because not long after, I overheard him telling someone else, "The pony ride is only for kids. No adults." PHEW! If I'd sat on Buddy, I'd probably have to pay for his chiropractor bills. For life.

We had lunch after and after that, we decided to check out the elephant rides ($4 per child, $8 per adult). Jovann was so excited because he loves elephants. I wasn't so keen because I was forced to sit on an elephant when I was little and I hated it. In those days, you literally sat ON the elephant. And Babar's not exactly a Mexican Hairless Dog. I swear I had chafing.

But as luck would have it, DN asked to sit on the elephant. (What was wrong with Buddy???) So up we went. And it wasn't bad at all! Ling said DN looked quite shell-shocked the entire time though, haha.
Our last stop was the orang utan free-range enclosure (what an oxymoron) and then we headed back. All three went home to nap. (kids, not the parents)
It was a good day. :)

DN started the day with a hearty breakfast - scrambled eggs on a bed of seaweed, rock melons (he asked for an extra helping), half a bowl of oats, a cup of soya milk and 2 chewy multi-vits.


Sophie and DN were not in the least bit afraid of the kangaroo. It must have been her friendly face. :)





DN and Lola, sharing a "moment".









They were really holding hands, er, paws, er hands!










We caught Lola doing "something" while eating. Hmm. Sophie has agreed to potty train her.








That's Gambir the elephant. She's 19 years old and also not potty-trained. Sophie's going to share some potty tips with her too.





Picture Of The Day --> Lola going, "Hello la! I'm a kangaroo! I'm allowed to pee and poop all over the place!"

All zoo-ed out! (Part 1)

Because I won't get to see DN for about a month o_o, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with him now before I leave. We went to the zoo twice this week, two days IN A ROW, and I've found my "zoo limit". No way can I do three days in a row because I will look like this.

We went to the zoo with Rina + Rae Ann and Ling + Sophie on Wednesday and my advice to all is this - go on a weekday. We've gone on a weekend and it's bloody awful. Unless you're into masochism and go to Comex AND ENJOY IT, go on a weekday. Please!

The kiddos at the entrance - fresh, dry and fragrant! (but not for long)

We had a wonderful time at the zoo because it was empty. :) We got there in time to catch the Splash Safari Show (featuring penguins, manatees, pelicans and sea lions). After that, we said hello to the elephants and then headed straight to the water playground.

I love manatees. Gentle sea cows who eat sea grass. :)

Funnily, DN is terribly wary of water playgrounds and all its bells and whistles. Here is someone who doesn't think twice about jumping into a deep swimming pool, but won't go near a shower fountain. Every time I tried to take off his t-shirt, he said, "no no no no no". So we sat on the bench for awhile. I was ready to sit there with him and wait for the two girls, but after awhile, he took the swim diaper from me and tried to put in on over his shorts, LOL. I guess he was ready!

DN was the driest of the three. I was pleased as punch when he finally bent down to splash some water. For the longest time, he was walking along the edge of the pool, throwing leaves into it. (?)

Picture Of The Day -->

Ling was theme coordinated! The zoo should give her a pass for her effort.

Story Time

Ever since DN was a wee little one, we've been reading to him daily. Or nightly rather, because story time is part of winding down time before bed time. We know he loves story time because there are nights when he bargains with us - "One more! One more! One more!" and if we don't give in, starts crying. So yah, I think he likes story time.

It's good to know that we're doing something to cultivate a love for books in DN, but it also means that sometimes we short-circuit after reading "Froggy Bakes A Cake" 10 times in one night and do things like this to keep ourselves sane.

Sorry for the Blair Witch Project moments in the video. Funny lah!

Duracell Bunny on Speed

DN attended Jovann's birthday party on Sunday. We also attended J's first birthday party last year, and I must say, the Teos really know how to throw a party. It was a "Thomas The Tank Engine Party" so there were Thomas mylar balloons, a Thomas tablecloth, a Thomas phwoarh-phwoarh cake, Thomas goodie bags for all the kids and even Thomas The Tank Engine was playing on the TV while we were there!

WP, I want to be your child!

During the party, DN was playing with all the toys and feasting on fried noodles, cookies, hard-boiled egg dipped in mee siam gravy, chocolate fudge cake and ribena. We also had fun with a "special" Thomas Story Telling session (details akan datang... next post!) and a Happy Helium session. Remember DN's birthday wishes last year? Well, there were 40 helium balloons on the ceiling this time, just waiting to be ingested. It was inevitable. Come to mama!

After laughing ourselves silly (the kiddos weren't very amused though), we decided to do the cultural thing and went downstairs to Ti Deng Long because it was Mid-Autumn Day. WP included a child-safe little lantern (with a little red LED light instead of a candle) in all the goodie bags so everyone was properly equipped. This also meant we could turn off the electric dinosaur lantern with the spinning belly (don't ask) that was belting out "Ai-yee-ai-yee-ai! I'm a little butterfly!" at supersonic speed, and (sadly) sound frequency. Die dinosaur, DIEEEEE!

So that was our Sunday. Until 10pm. -_-

DN was so stimulated that night, he didn't sleep until midnight! He was like a Duracell bunny on speed and 20 cups of coffee. His usual bedtime is 830-9pm, so 12am is insane for him. When we turned the lights off and put him in bed, he got out and started walking around the room and talking to himself. I even tried to be a good role model and lay down on the bed and went, "SNORRRE!" (for real actually, I fell asleep) but to no avail. DN was unstoppable. Until now, I have no idea what time he eventually fell asleep. But I do know what time he woke up. 6am! I know because the first thing he said when he woke up was, "CAKE! CAKE! CAKE! CAKE! CAKE!" For 5 minutes. -_-

Talk about overstimulation! There IS such a thing as "too much fun".

The 3 tots on a lantern jaunt. Can you see the "ai-yee-ai-yee-ai" dinosaur lantern in the background?



The CAKE!

The Big News

Come 21 September, DN updates will be on hold for about a month. I've been hanging on to this piece of news for a long time and I think the time is right to tell everyone that The Ongs will be relocating to the UK for half a year. Yup yup! I will be going back to school (argh, need to get the brain out of storage) and will be at the mercy of professors and assignments, instead of the other way around. -_-

The reason why DN updates will be on hold is because of my sillly husband certain circumstances that involve my husband and the late submission of a dissertation. ("I told you get started in June right!?! See lah!") -_- I'm flying off first (next Sunday) and DN and PF will join me goodness knows when, it's all PF's fault! later. I will miss the little DN terribly. (Note : I didn't mention PF. For a reason.)

I'm sure by now, you must be wondering the following.

• Finished packing?
• Visa done?
• Accomodation sorted?
• Life in order?

1. Finished Packing

Are you kidding me?

2. Visa done?

Hmm... it's 50% done. I applied for it on Monday (and waited 3 hours in the queue... almost strangled myself) and it takes a minimum of 5-7 working days for it to come back. Yes, I am cutting it very fine.

3. Accomodation sorted?

This one, I'm happy to announce - YES! We finally secured a 1-bedroom house at 5pm today. We've been looking for about a month and it's been so tough because the rental market is crazy-hot right now. Flats/houses go just like that. On top of that, many properties don't even want students or children, and we have BOTH. And they all want you to look at the property first, before they'll rent it to you. I'm like, "Yeah thanks. You just made my life much easier." Thank goodness PF's friend was able to drive to Winchester to look at this house for us. There was already a scheduled viewing for Saturday and one at 12pm today. We bull-dozed everyone aside (unapologetically) and squeezed Ian in at 10am. So there. Never mess with a kiasu-kiasi Singaporean.

Awright! I will not be sleeping in a park in Winchester next week.

4. Life in order?

Pretty much so I think. Except for an incident 3 days ago when I broke down and cried into my laptop because every flat/house I called about was taken, I think I'm handling it pretty well. No bald patches (I drop hair when I'm stressed) and I haven't strangled my husband, my polar opposite. Imagine me, with my 8 kan cheong spider legs waving in the air, looking in disbelief at my (cool) cucumber of a husband lying (he says he's not sleeping, just resting with eyes closed) on the living room floor as other more productive people are renting flats left, right and center of us. He never understands why I get so stressed.

This reminds me of that time we missed our 6.45am flight to Chiang Mai because we woke up at 6.35am. My 8 legs were in overdrive and I was crying, googling for Tiger Airways' telephone number and hemorrhaging. My cucumber husband looked at the clock and went back to bed!

I had to keep telling myself, "Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang." and "Murder carries a death sentence. Murder carries a death sentence. Murder carries a death sentence."

To bid us farewell, the Sept moms organised a little "Farewell Ongs" BBQ party. All of DN's favourite things and people were there - satay, his buddies, a playground, satay, ribena and did I mention satay? At one point, he was halfway up the rope ladder leading to the slide when he turned and saw PF sitting nearby with 3 satay sticks. Now if you were a precocious little child who loves slides, and there only 1 more kid just ahead of you, but 2 more queueing up behind you to slide down, what would you do?

Well, let's just say DN loves satay more than he loves slides. He stopped, shouted "PAPA!" (only because he couldn't say "satay"), scrambled down the rope ladder and ran towards his beloved Papa satay. He was seldom without a satay stick that night.

At the end of the night, we were presented with farewell gifts! Awww shucks. :) We each got a scarf and (my fav) a scrapbook of homemade pages from all the moms. Really really nice. DN loves looking through the scrapbook and he asks to "read" it everyday. I know he will miss his little friends terribly while we're over there.

Wait for us, we'll be back real soon. Right-O, cheerio!

DN : "Hee hee hee. While they're not looking, I'll scoff down my 390th satay!"

The scrapbook :)

L-R : Sophie, Clarence, DN, Arianne, Jovann, Clarice, Reubern

DN requested for the scrapbook during breakfast

I would like to thank my mother, father, goldfish...

I've just been given the "Brillante Weblog" award by fellow blogger, mom and amazing lunch-box-maestro, Domestic Goddess. Cool bananas. Thanks DG! ;)

So yeah, I would like to thank my mother, father, goldfish, indoor plant and Fujitsu Lifebook. *orchestra starts playing and microphone starts disappearing into the floor as I scramble to thank my toothbrush and dog*

Ahem. *puff chest* With great power comes great responsibility. I will not shirk from my duty to...

1. Put the logo on my blog.
2. Add a link to the person who gave me the award.
3. Nominate 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to the blogs I nominate.
5. Leave a message for my nominees on their blogs.

I'm going to nominate these bloggers because their blogs are such great reads. Funny, informative and they all have something to do with motherhood or parenting.

1. Ling
2. Brenda
3. Dawn
4. Dawn Marie
5. Michelle
6. Angeline
7. Wee Ping
   

ps : I've been really busy sorting my life out, but stay tuned... I have big news coming up! No, I am NOT pregnant. o_o

Movie Date

Ling and I have been shamelessly throwing our respective offspring at the other's offspring (i.e. matchmaking) this entire year. Today, we watched I-Theatre's "Rainbow Fish" with Jovann, Arianne, Reubern, Clarence and Cayden and both of us were at it again.

Sophie sat next to DN during the play and I actually caught them "pak tor-ing". (Success!) Halfway through the show, I saw Sophie lean over and try to rest her head on DN's shoulder. Wahahaha! A little while later, I saw DN's little hand reach out and grope for Sophie's hand in the dark. Aiyoh!

DN : "If I put my hand here, maybe she will hold it."

Sophie : "Not on a first date, buster!"

Sophie : "Okay, maybe just this once."

DN : "Sorry, wait, my butt is itchy."








This was DN's first play/show and I had no inkling of how he would behave. Will he sit through the entire thing? Will he be afraid of the dark? Will he throw a fit and scream the house down? I was prepared for the worst and was ready to sit outside the theatre with DN, waiting for the rest, but it went quite well! The only hitch was when this horribe pong wafted over from DN and I brought him to the toilet because I thought he'd pooped. He didn't. It was just a fart. -_- And we missed part of the octopus's song because of that.

We all trooped over to Taman Serasi for lunch after that and even though we all know better, the optimists in us still insisted on taking group photos WITH kids. Getting 7 of us to look at same camera is already a feat in itself. Throw in 7 very squirmy 2-year olds? o_o

This was the best shot from our camera. The trick is to take 100 shots, haha. ;) And honestly, we were sitting there for a LONG time.

Happy Birthday Der Nen!

Yup, DN is 2 and I must say, this 2nd year has been great fun, way better than his 1st year. I know I'm going to sound as heartless as those hamster mothers who eat their young, but DN in the 1st year was really boring! He couldn't walk or talk and was always drooling and pooping. Okay, strike the 'pooping' because he's still capable of pooping 4x a day if he eats a lot.

The worst thing about his 1st year had to be the nights and the breastfeeding. Now I'm going to sound as heartless as Colin-the-baby-whale's mother, but honestly, I never really got the whole breastfeeding thing. Many moms talk about how wonderful breastfeeding is because of "the bond" with the child, but unless they meant the literal, physical "bonding", sorry, no comprehendo senor. It was embarrassing when DN signed milk in public. This was also usually accompanied with him reaching into my top. It looked like I was raising another Hugh Hefner!

So yeah, I'm liking DN's 2nd year so much more.

• He's more or less sleeping through the night now. ROCK ONNNNN!
• He's moved from signing to talking (a little).
• He pretty much understands everything we say and we can even reason with him.

I guess what I like the best about this year is how his personality has emerged. He's quite a funny chap.

• He's a "think big" kid when it comes to toys and playing. He has no patience for puzzles and he finds them utterly boring. He won't sit down to figure out a shape sorter, but give him stools and chairs to stack and he'll be there.
• He quite an amiable and sociable fellow. When we meet up with his buddies, he's usually a koala for about 10 minutes, observing the rest. Once he's warmed up though, off he goes, socialising and playing with the rest. He'll wave at uncles and aunties on the street and is always ready to give his trademark (fake) smile.
• He just LOVES to eat. He will never say no to durians, suckling pig, fries, prata and grapes. He's not that fond of nectarines, tofu, cakes and potatoes though.
• He can be quite anal retentive at times. Sometimes he gets strangely fussy and things must be done a certain way. For eg, only I can take off his diaper and only PF can wash his bum. Sometimes (unfortunately for me) it's the other way around. -_-
• He LOVES sports and guitars. Yeah, it's so funny. We've caught him "playing" tennis and volleyball, sprinting, bowling and even doing gymnastics.

We didn't do anything fancy for his birthday this year. We just had a BBQ party for the little gang because they're all turning 2 this month. It's so nice to see how all of them have changed and grown. They're now so comfortable with each other and they know each other's names. Now I can't wait for them to be 3!

The kiddos LOVED the cupcakes! They were all excited when we opened the box and ALL of them wanted to touch the cupcakes. DN kept going, "cake! cake!" for about 45 minutes.


Here he is, opening his presents the morning after the party...


... and playing with the gifts immediately after breakfast.

DN, Sept 2006

DN, Sept 2007

DN, Sept 2008

Happy Birthday DN! We love your trademark smile! :D

Thanks Aunty Dawn, Gong Gong, Aunty Grace, Aunty Brenda, Aunty Wee Ping, Aunty Megan, Aunty Joanne, Aunty Ling and Aunty Carla for all your presents. :)