Happy 1st Birthday Ray Ray!

Rayhan turns 1 on 20.10.2010 but Joanne and Tarek celebrated his birthday yesterday at Playhouse @ Rochester.




I dressed the girls in matching Gap outfits and coincidentally, me and Nick wore navy stripes. Nat and Sasha had lots of little friends to play with but Nat retreated into shy mode and refused to take part in any of the games organised. I had to hit the piñata on her behalf!

Had to take turns with Nick to eat, he and Albert minded the kids while Jane and I ate first. Germs and Ginny put in an appearance, so did Susan who had pressies for Nat and Sasha as well as some lovely biscottis. (Thanks Susan, those biscuits rock!)




Sasha was ‘kidnapped’ by Joanne’s cousin Cheng, who merrily joined in the kids’ Limbo Rock.







Swana, Kevin and Gigi were supposed to join, but Gigi did a Merlion in the car whilst parking so they headed straight to the car wash. Poor bub! BTW, some of the nicer photos you see here are taken by Jason, Joanne's brother, I can't take the credit!

In the evening, we left the kids at Membina and joined Tarek, Joanne, Jason at Movida, where Germs put in an appearance as well. I got dragged to the dancefloor without any alcohol but that was quickly rectified with a few drinks. 6 to be exact! Joanne got a little tipsy and started doing her armpit dance…charming!

Online retail therapy continues

Nat is in love with her new car seat which arrived last week via EZPZ Express. Bought online from Amazon for US60+ in mid-August and used Desmond's sea freight option, at a flat shipping cost since I knew the box would be bulky and we weren't in a hurry.

It's a Cosco highback booster, suitable from 9kg onwards and has a purple floral print and grey border. There aren't a lot of high back boosters here and they are mostly over $250 but we paid less than $150 in total. The seat is still in the house and every time someone new comes over, Nat invites them to check out her new car seat! She's so proud of it!



Some other purchases arrived earlier today...

1) Karin Stevens ITY Sheath dress - US 17.97. Liked the contrasting print, as usual am a sucker for things with border prints. Found a small run though, decided to give to Aunty Sarda instead!


2) London Times Floral Halter - US 19.97. Too cheap to pass up on, not sure whether the cutting will suit me but liked the purple floral on white.


3) Premonition Cold Shoulder dress - US 24.97. Finally something plain, but not that plain with the pleats at the shoulder...everyone needs a little black dress!


4) Marc by Marc Jacobs Pretty Nylon Hobo - US 119. Been eyeing for a bit and there was a 25% sale on PiperLime, too good to resist, retail price here is S$300. Fits everything!


5) Neti pots - I don't have sinus issues but thought these would help Nick and Swana. Let's see if they work!

10.10.10 Wedding

My colleague and friend Phyllis finally wed her boyfriend of five years last night, on what has been called the Perfect 10 date which comes about every 100 years. 10th October 2010 or 10.10.10.

Dinner was at Furama Riverfront and Lay Chin kindly picked me up. She used to live in Spottiswoode herself so was familiar with the neighbourhood.



Phyllis' gown was non-traditional, trust this clothes horse to don something different. She wore a minidress with a tulle train and a feathery hat instead of a veil. I wore my new Suzi Chin floral sheath dress that Anju brought back from the States along with my other purchases, it was a perfect fit.


Food was so-so, sound system was bad though, no one paid attention to the emcees or groom when they spoke into the mikes.

Phyllis' evening gown was a red backless number, and when she came round to take photos, I saw the back of another colleague's dress which was also red and backless!



Coincidentally, the groom's sister is an ex-classmate of mine and I managed to say hi to her after the dinner...small world!

The bubbas are 32 and 25 months

Only 4 more months till Nat turns 3, yikes, how time flies.

Off and on this past month, she continues to be pretty clingy and cranky, I put it down to teething because she’s got her fingers in her mouth each time she cries and whines.




Since Gigi came back from Australia, she’s been wanting to go herself. I asked her one weekend where she would like to go that day. Expecting the usual “Vivocity’ or ‘Suntec’, she actually requested for ‘Australia!’. Also, I asked her what she would like to be when she grows up.

Me: Nat, do you want to be a doctor?
Nat: No.
Me: A teacher?
Nat: Noooo…
Me: A pilot?
Nat: No. I want to be Natalie.

And then another day, when we were talking about trips, I offered to buy her a bag. Nick told her, “Tell Mummy you don’t need a bag and not to waste money.” She turned to me and waved her finger and said, “You cannot waste money OK?”.

Kids these days!


Nat is really into her Hi-5, imitating their actions all the time. She’s been pirouetting around the house, rolling towels and singing, “Sushi Roll” and balancing on one foot. She also jumps around a lot, making progress and actually covering some distance.


She doesn’t wake up very often for milk in the middle of the night, well, not with me anyway but with Nick she will still manja. We’ve settled into a bedtime routine of milk, brushing teeth, followed by 2 stories and lights out.


She negotiates how many stories, will ask for 5 and I will say 1 and we’ll agree on 2. She associates the number of stories with her age, saying, “I am 2 years old, so 2 stories!”. And it’s the same old stories every night, especially The Gingerbread Man or Teddy Small Behave Yourself.

She’s decided her favourite colour is blue, while Gigi’s is yellow. The two of them play masak masak all the time, making us ‘coffee’. They are better at feeding themselves and Sasha loves it when Nat plays with her and makes her laugh.



Since turning 2, Gigi has changed a little bit, turning into a little ‘yahya papaya’. Think she’s chuffed she’s a big girl now, and behaving like it, cleaning up her toys when asked etc. She got even sassier after her haircut!



She can jump off the ground and parrots Nat occasionally. She has so many teeth now, all coming out at the same time. Still facing pooping issues, holding it in for 2-3 days out of fear.



She terrorizes Nat by waving toys in her face and saying, "Mosquito, mosquito". I have no idea why Nat is scared of that, especially when sometimes Gigi is waving a stuffed dolphin! When they fight or she pinches Nat, Nat will try to control her tears while telling Gigi to go face the wall.

I wish they could remain this age forever!

Coconut head

Just got back my hairdresser, I feel a lot better now. Hair was a mess.

I brought Nat with me too for her first professional haircut. Actually Mummy brought her to a hairdresser at Everton yesterday for her first shop haircut ever, but it had disastrous results, hence I had to bring her to my appointment with Selina today to repair the damage.

It all started last Sunday when I trimmed Nat's fringe and back. Her hair was really long and getting into her eyes. This is the before, I didn't take an after however the cut by me didn't look so bad, but Ma insisted she looked like I had put a bowl over and trimmed. I had only shortened her back by an inch or so, it just touched her shoulders but was still thick and blunt.


Gigi had been to trim her hair recently so Ma said she would bring Nat to the same shop to shape it up. But a different person from Gigi's was assigned to Nat and she fluffed up the job.

I was livid when I came home from work yesterday. Not only had an additional 3 inches disappeared from the length, the fringe and back were very obviously uneven. Her left side was a good 1 cm longer than the right and the shapelessness remained.


I think Nat herself agreed it was a bad job and didn't protest when I said I was bringing her to cut again, in fact she repeated to me that her hair was crooked whilst waiting for a cab.

At Selina's, Nat was very well-behaved. She sat on a custom-made stool for extra height and while waiting her turn, made funny faces and kept fluttering her eyelashes in the mirror.





She couldn't keep her head still though once Selina started cutting, curiously peering all around her and following my movements. But the deed got done eventually, and now she has a sassy mod-looking bob. Worth my $20 bucks!






BTW, Germs was hospitalised at SGH yesterday after getting into a car accident in the morning. She collided with an Audi at the junction near Guillemard Road, causing the airbag to deploy. The impact winded her and she felt some chest pains so was warded for observation. I visited her after work, thank goodness she's okay.

Pumpkin Pie is 6 months!

Amazing how half a year has just flown by. Sasha is already 6 months and growing everyday.


We are starting to get a taste of her temperament, which seems to be just like Nick's i.e. impatient and a light sleeper, plus his head shape. She sure does complain a lot and loudly when she doesn't get what she wants, which most of the time is milk. If we are late with the bottle, she will bawl her eyes out.

Between her first whimpers of hunger to full-blown crying, it only takes a minute. And once she sees the bottle, she starts kicking her legs and can't wait to grab it from us. She holds and feeds herself too but doesn't know how to tilt it when the levels drop.


But most of the time she is a sweet-natured and smiley baby, wonder how long the gummy grins will last. The excessive drooling from teething continues but nothing has popped out yet. I rub her gums most nights and she bites down really hard. Oftentimes, she'll grasp my finger and bring it to her mouth, then shake her head as she attacks, like a little Tasmanian devil or shark tearing at its prey.

Her grip is improving, she will hold her toys and wave them or pull out her pacifier then put it back in. She can grab hair and glasses so beware. She loves to see the hand actions when you sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or any other action song, and occasionally tries to move her fingers along.



She's a regular TV addict, I don't encourage her to watch but she'll twist her body when in her rocker or being carried so that she can see the screen.

She can roll continuously on the bed, but only to her left. She's in the habit of sucking her toes, something all babies do I'm sure, yet the old folks take that as a sign that there's going to be another sibling. Too bad, factory's closed. I think.



She's getting pretty vocal but mostly it's a screeching noise, nothing that remotely resembles a word. She's starting to recognise herself in the mirror and likes to scratch her head when sleepy. The poop frequency is still about once in 2-3 days and we've switched formulas to Enfalac. This is her pooping pose/face.



She drinks about 120ml per feed, every 3.5 - 4 hrs. I am still expressing so she's 50/50 between the boob milk and formula. She has somewhat settled into a routine of a 1hr morning nap, and a 2hr afternoon nap. Bedtime is usually between 7.30 - 8.30 pm and she'll sleep for 11-12 hours till the next morning with 2 feeds in between. Once at 11 or midnight while I'm still awake to feed her in her sleep, then she wakes up again around 5 am and on most weekdays it's Wendy feeding her.



Mildred just can't leave her alone when she's napping, flipping her from side to side to even out her head, irks me no end because she's a light sleeper like Nick and will wake up.

She's a regular mini-Nick and Nat is a mini-me. Funny how things turn out...