Baby Lim #3

Oh boy, here we go again! What have we done??? It appears I have a bun in the oven yet again! I had a sneaking suspicion the prolonged lack of taste when I ate over the last week wasn’t really due to a cold, that plus the fact that my period was late and I was feeling very tired.

Was gonna wait till Wednesday to see if anything changed but I had a spare test kit sitting in a cupboard so while Nick was out this afternoon, I took the plunge and peed on a stick and what do you know? Positive! 

I broke the news to him as soon as he got home, greeting him with "Congratulations Daddy!", all he said was 'Really?'

This wasn’t supposed to happen, not yet anyway, if at all!!! Talking about no.3 is one thing, but actually going through with it is another! I’m soooo not ready! This was not planned at all as you can tell…am freaking out!!!!! It’s gonna take a while to sink in….

V is for...

...The Vault.

Bernard turned 40 today and Rachel organised a surprise party at The Vault for him last night. She booked a space in the private room, and we were among the early arrivals.

Lots of young, beautiful people around, The Vault is one of the ‘in’ places at the moment I guess. It’s got a New York skyloft industrial building vibe but I just felt old, surrounded by all the hip, young things!

Rachel and Bernard came not long after and he wasn’t very surprised by the shindig, because he said her phone had been going off the hook all evening! Monica, Gerard, Yvonne, Melissa and Derong were also present and I could get some last minute tips from Mel about Taipei.

Nick ordered some sides to share, we had truffle fries and mini wagyu burgers, which were so mini, they could have been Big Macs for a Barbie doll! LOL.

Cake was a Homer Simpson air-guitar confection, flavour was lychee, quite moist and the icing was not too thick.We didn’t stay too late, leaving just past 1am…some of us have kids to attend to bright and early!

Talented Plants

Swana had signed up some of the older kids for a “Talented Plants’ program at Gardens by the Bay today and I thought since Nat would be with her cousins, it wouldn’t be an issue…but I was wrong.

My anti-social daughter clammed up and refused to release Nick’s hand and participate in the registration and her daddy also didn’t help to encourage her, so at the last minute, I substituted Nat with Sasha and tagged along, since the pumpkin would be too young to understand the tour.

 

Had to buy my own admission and escorted Sarah, Riley, Gigi, Ananya and Sasha along with a couple of other kids and the staff from GBT as they did a short walkabout around the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest conservatories.

They pointed out some useful plants including a 1,000 year old olive tree and after the tour, we went back to the education room where the kids made their own bottle trees out of plastic bottles and newspaper.

Sasha helped tape hers, while I did most of the winding.

Lunch was at the food court, we ate the Hill Street outlet. Had a prawn mee that I’m sure tasted good, but I couldn’t really tell because of my cold!

Before we left, we managed get a spare admission ticket for Nat since Sasha didn’t need one and I quickly brought her in to see the waterfall in the Cloud Forest. It was literally pose for pictures, walk 50m inside and u-turn out again in the space of 5mins.

U is for...

...Upper Thomson.

The plan was to eat ice cream at Udders last night since I was slightly better from my flu of the last few days, but the boy was in the mood for prata so I suggested Upper Thomson since they could both be found along that stretch.

However, I did not check where exactly the Udders was except that it was next to a Prata Place and directed the boy to the stretch near the Ampang Yong Tau Fu remembering there was a Prata Place there.

But there was no Udders in sight and I didn’t bother to check the location again, so we just settled for some prata and mutton soup at Prata Place. The prata was really crispy and not oily and the soup hit the spot on a cold, rainy day. 

He thought the Udders might be next to the Casuarina Curry further down the road and we swung by after our supper but nope, it wasn’t there either…it’s much further down nearer Sin Ming and I should have known better, because Mildred had mentioned an outlet there several months ago.

Was on MC earlier in the week as I battled the flu, and it coincided with the US Presidential Election Results. Yay, Obama has been re-elected. And Aunty Sarda has been discharged from hospital too, after some anti-biotic treatment.

Uncle Gavin

Nick’s boss Gavin is in town after their 2013 launch and he only departs later tonight, so we spent half the day with him and introduced him to the kids and Ma.

Picked him up at Movenpick and had told the girls not to be afraid beforehand. Nat took a while to warm up, but Sasha was like ‘Uncle Gavin, look at that’, “Uncle Gavin, look at this’ the moment he got into the car!

We went to Vivo for a spot of shopping and lunch. Gavin has a habit of buying toys for his dogs when he travels and we brought him to the pet store. He wanted to buy the girls a pet, like a rabbit or something but I firmly declined!

Lunch was at No Signboard, I went a bit overboard losing track of what I ordered. The kids behaved well enough and he showed them pictures of his dogs, but most of the time they were preoccupied with the fish tanks.

I mentioned that it was our 10th anniversary next year and we were contemplating a trip, he ruled us out from going on a UniWorld cruise, we can only take Trafalgar! He was keying in a note to himself as I was talking, so I’m not sure what he has up his sleeve but he said to leave it with him…but I told him I didn’t like surprises!

After lunch, he insisted on getting some toys for the girls so we went to Toys R Us and they each picked out something. Nat chose a pop star/princess Barbie that she had seen the cartoon the day before, and Sasha a baby Dora sleeping/talking toy plus doll stroller. How kind of him, I made sure the girls thanked him.

The kids fell asleep just as we dropped him back at the hotel, and Nat skipped Chinese class. Once back home, I baked some apple cinnamon muffins to use up the apples I had. I think my streusel topping was too soft, but overall they were quite yummy.

Nick had dinner in the evening with Gavin and Robin, and I stayed home with the kids nursing the beginning of a cold. Ma then called to say Aunty Sarda was not well and on the verge of passing out, and Swana was out.

Good thing Kavi and Aunty Gowrie had been hanging out at Membina and helped to arrange ambulance etc. Think she’s picked up an infection.

Sasha at 31 months

Sasha just never ceases to amaze me! In spite of her temper, she does have a sense of humour. Over the last month, she’s taken to ‘blessing’ us, by dipping her fingers into the water collected on the bottle drying rack and then making the sign of the cross on each of us, saying ‘In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit’ as she goes along.

She also makes funny faces when I try to take her photo, deliberately crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue.

 

She’ll wake me up in the mornings by coming round to my side and saying, “Wake up Mummy, it’s a beautiful day” but more often, she will just slap my bum or tickle me awake. When we part in the mornings, she’ll ask for the ‘butterfly kiss’ which is an eyelash kiss, or we’ll do feet or noses.

She says the darndest things, one night as I was patting her to sleep, she basically told me to get lost, “Mummy, go away. You’re in my space, you cannot understand?” She has vivid dreams, resulting in me getting kicked in the middle of the night, she will say random things like she dreamt of a blue moon, or that “Daddy is handsome” in the middle of the night.

She’s getting really vain, saying she wants her hair to be like Rapunzel and when she releases her hair from a ponytail, she flicks her head like in those shampoo commercials. She loves to twirl and will ask anyone around to see her ‘ballet dancer’ impersonation. She also likes to stuff her dolls up her t-shirt and pretend to be pregnant!

The girls have all taken on Disney princess characters, Nat is Ariel, Gigi is Belle and Sasha is Snow White. She picks up really fast, after watching a short video of Riley and Sarah singing a Chinese song on my phone, she’s memorized the words and movements and performs it at least once a day.

She’s started spelling out words she sees, albeit backwards but I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it in no time.

She’s getting assertive with her dressing, preferring to choose her own outfits these days instead of going with the flow. At night she likes to remove her pyjama pants, and she will complain her back is itchy, but only when she’s really sleepy and I will gently scratch till she falls asleep.

The fall she had in October doesn’t seem to have slowed her down, she’s still super hyper and cannot sit still for a minute!

School will be ending for Nat and Gigi in a couple of weeks, they’ve made good progress since they started at the beginning of the year. Their handwriting has improved, Nat is better than Gigi though, who needs more practice. Nat has started to draw proper pictures i.e. flowers with clouds and butterflies instead of just single objects, and she’s proud of her drawings too…as am I.

Nat managed to go to school twice in Oct without Gigi, but she’s still not fine with it. Every morning now she panics and asks if Gigi is going for the day.

They had their school concert a few weeks ago, really surprised that Nat didn’t suffer from stagefright and in fact loved the limelight so much, she lingered on stage after everyone had left! I think it was because she got to wear make-up!

She hasn’t let up on her bride phase, she’s been requesting for a wedding gown! Her blankets have become veils and she walks around the house in her plastic high heels and any bangle or necklace she can lay her hands on.

Ma bought a sari for Deepavali and Nat has staked her claim on it! She loves to dress up!

Marie is 1!

Mark and Grace celebrated Marie’s first birthday today at the Singapore Poly Staff Centre. There is a restaurant called Food Haven there that serves a lunch buffet, looked quite old school, the kind Mildred might enjoy!

We didn’t know anybody there, all the others like the Lees, Nathans and Gomezs had attended a different party last week while we were at Ray’s one.

The food was not too bad, not sure what their prices are like. Mark’s brother shot souvenir photos for guests to takeaway, nice to have a professional photographer in the family!

Halfway through our meal, a couple with two young kids joined us. They seemed nice enough, we chatted for a bit, the hubbies exchanging corporate travel stories. Their kids were 5 and 7, and they were only just going on their first couple getaway post-children for the first time in 7 years! I don’t think I could hold out that long!

One of Mark’s cousin’s looked familiar then I realised he had been to our office to quote on a project earlier this year. Small world!

Had a quiet evening at home, I made ribs and mashed potato. Ok, the ribs were not my creation, all I did was dump them in the oven. They came pre-marinated from Foodie Market Place, so cheap about $5 a slab and for $10 I fed 3 adults!