0uR bOnDiNg - tHe LoVe of sAm & cHaRmaiNe

Thomson Airways Safety Video 2009

2009-09-12T11:53:00.001+08:00

Kennzo Injured Again

2009-08-26T00:52:00.003+08:00

This little boy had been too prone to injuries.

Just yesterday morning when Brenda brought him for usual breakfast, he got himself injured. This time round, it is his little index finger on his left hand.

According to Brenda, he somehow got his finger stuck on the mechanism that lock the flap of the babychair when she was away to buy breakfast. There was the usual aunties area to watch over him when she went off. He whinned a little, never cried. Brenda was trying to get him out and lifted the flap up. That was when dear son really hurt his finger.

See his sausage index finger.

It's Family Day

2009-08-24T00:13:00.004+08:00

For once daddy managed to wake up early and brought us out for breakfast. This is the kind of family time I always wanted. I spoke to Sam last night about spending family time together on weekends. It reminded me of my childhood when my dad would bring the family out for breakfast and marketing. I am so touched that Sam made an effort to practise this routine as well.

We started off with prata breakfast at Pasir Panjang and then head over to Labrador Park.

The tables were full but we got ourselves a table very fast. The server was nice to get a double chair stacked up for Adel and a babychair for Kennzo. The kids enjoyed their pratas and milo.

There was not much people when we reached Labrador Park. Some people were fishing and some brought their all dressed up dogs for their daily walk. Kennzo was not afraid of the dog and he was happy to see them. We took a walk around and explore the nature reserve. The kids had alittle bit of fun at the playground as well.

We will be back for pinic one of the weekend again.

Ladies Night Out 21 August 09

2009-08-23T21:26:00.002+08:00

Finally I am able to meet the ladies for dinner session at Hotpot Culture, followed by a drink at Park Hotel (Clemenceau Ave).

I felt so bad for not being able to join in the many occassions and I missed these group of friends so much. There was only a few of us who could make it. Though not all of them could make it, we had so much laughter till everyone's cheek bone was numbed from the laughing.

Great food and great company. Let's do this again soon.

Kennzo 1st Encounter with His Coin Bank

2009-08-20T01:18:00.004+08:00

Kennzo and His Blue-Black

2009-08-19T21:31:00.003+08:00

Kennzo had been falling down flat on his face.

Just yesterday he fell again right infront of MIL.

This morning on the way to carpark, he fell flat on his face to the pavement. Adel was walking infront of us while I was carrying his pram and bags. A car was turning down the curve but luckily we were still a distance away from the car.

I had to struggle to pick him up with all the things on hands. Kennzo's right cheek and mouth area was black with the dirt. I washed his face with a tissue paper wetted with water. I told my babysitter about the fall to monitor him. This boy was still playing happily with his toys as if nothing happened.

In the evening, my poor boy had a slightly bruise right cheek and his upper lip was slightly sored as well. Luckily he still managed to play and eat well.

Clumsy Boy

It's not Hoax!!!!

2009-07-26T14:42:00.003+08:00

Allen received a call from Mac Donald and told him that he is the week 2 winner for the $10,000 weekly winner and he was still thinking that it as a hoax.

No doubt the whole crew turned up the next morning at their house and started their half day filming.

2nd sister texted me on 14th July 0931hrs and told me that and the crew was at her house. For a moment I really thought that she was pulling my leg since she has never been serious with her words.

The prints are out on email today and I can't wait to catch him on national television broadcast.

Anyway they were damn lucky and maybe their baby Bosco really bring them luck! This money really comes in handy for them for the preparation of Baby Bosco arrival, hospital bills and confinement.

This is Not a Hoax! This is Real!
Start ordering Mac Delivery NOW

Angry with Sam

2009-07-25T10:53:00.003+08:00

This man keep insisting giving Adel's medication to Kennzo despite me telling him not to since he has not taken those medication before and he has not yet seen doctor to diagnose.

My clever hubby insisted on giving same medications so that he need not waste his time waiting at the clinic and waste money since the kids are having the same symptoms.

In the end he called up the clinic and checked if he can give lower dosage and was asked to go back to the clinic for check. I really wonder if he knows that we should not self medicate especially for kids. Adel and Kennzo only shared paracetamol and ibrufen only when I checked the label to make sure that they are of the same content and labelled down the dosage for them. There were 2 medications that Kennzo had never taken before thus I would prefer that he bring him down to the clinic. For now, clinic will not take things lightly especially when the symptoms are so close to H1N1.

Why must he find that a hassle?

Isn't kids' health more important?

It's not why I must always argue with him. But it just these small little things that can lead to arguments between us.

Yishun, Here We Come

2009-07-25T09:43:00.002+08:00

We have confirmed this unit at Yishun and will be waiting for our first appointment for the paperwork to be done.

I loved this unit the moment I stepped into the house.

It's the highest floor, 4 room corner unit. We have eateries and shops just nearby and most importantly there is one secondary and primary just nearby.

It's move in condition and basically some minor renovation will do.

Now I need to find childcare for the kids and I am still wondering how can I fit them in.

Those who stayed in Yishun, please let me have some ideas. No Kinderland though.

Our first appointment for our current house is scheduled on 7 October. Likely we will be moving out to my mum's somewhere end October or early November.

Flea Market 26 July 09

2009-07-25T09:39:00.001+08:00

JuzCloset is having a Flea Market this coming Sunday.

Date: 26 July 2009 (Sunday)
Time: 10 am to 6pm
Venue: Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, Blk 332
(void deck) beside bus stop

Special offers not to be missed.
Do come and support us.

H1N1

2009-07-25T09:27:00.003+08:00

I am suspected of H1N1 despite no travel has been made. I was given 1 week of MC as home quarantine order to rest by the doctor. Adel is having high fever, cough and running nose as well. Hopefully she is cleared.

If it really is H1N1, i might have gotten it at site.
But I would attribute it to the lack of rest and water over the last 2 weeks over the Ion project that my company is handling. We were all working pretty hard over it that most of us were sick.

Anyway just 30 minutes ago, babysitter called me and told me that Kennzo also has fever, running nose and cough.

Sam is going to bing him to the doctor later.

Dating Day Out for Adel and Reyes

2009-07-05T11:30:00.004+08:00

It's Meet-The-Parents day at Appleland.

We signed up for the parenting talk (Correcting in Love - Effective Discipline Strategies That Work) at Adel's school in the morning. This talk touched on how to encourage positive behaviour and manage misbehaviour through using Love by Madam Jessie Toh. We had previously attended one talk by her and we found it good. Moreover we wanted to remind ourselves to use effective discipline strategies through Love.

Right after the talk we met up with her teachers to talk about her progress in school.

Reyes's mum attended the talk as well but she needed to go back for work. Reyes was entrusted to my care for the rest of the day and we brought 3 kids out.

At the end of the day, the kids were all tired. They slept all the way home in the car.

2009-07-05T11:22:00.002+08:00

It's always so sweet to see the siblings doing things together

Kennzo lying in a lazy position by the edge of the bed

And he is so comfortable in that position for more than 5 minutes

Our House Is Sold!

2009-07-05T09:52:00.002+08:00

Actually not really since we are in the stage of exercising the option from the prospective buyer.

Through this sale of flat, I am pretty unhappy with the agent who is serving us. No doubt he has a wide contact and brings us direct buyers, I disapprove the kind of hard sell method he uses.
Because of this, it is causing a lot of arguments for Sam and myself.

Anyway, I got him to absorb the GST of the agent commission. He relented but added on that even in GSS, we need to pay GST. From my point of view, as a friend of Sam and the high commission that he has pocketed, shouldn't he absorb it out of goodwill. He even managed to convince Sam and got himself the exclusivity of selling our house.

A lot of people has been telling me not to go into exclusivity and I did not want to do so as well.

I just want to close and move on quickly now.

Yesterday went to view some houses at Yishun.
I took a liking to 2 of them however one of them is a 3 room flat. We are looking for 4 rooms so that the kids can have their own room as they get older.
It is highly possible that we will confirm the other 4 room unit which is a high floor as well. It requires only very minimum renovation work to be done and we can move in already.

Kennzo is 14 Months old

2009-07-05T09:48:00.002+08:00

My dear son turns 14 months old on 23 June 09.

He can finally walk on his own and he loves walking up and down the staircase.
He calls me mummy or mama more frequently now (only when he wants to find me) but it still depends very much on his mood.

He will gets very excited when it is time to go out and he will walk to the hall, sits and wears his shoes (with assistance of course).

I Rejected The Offer

2009-06-12T17:01:00.002+08:00

I felt bad but at least relieved of the dilemma which I got myself into.

Now I can happily go for other job search to get that paycheck and benefits that I can compromise for.

In For A Big Disappointment

2009-06-11T14:57:00.003+08:00

I was waiting happily for them to contact me and confirmed my employment. This job possessed a great deal of challenges and it provided me with an opportunity to venture into the advertising industry.

But I were in for a BIG disapointment when the HR came back to me and told me that it would be a 3 months renewable contract. There will be no benefits and my pay would be affected be more than 50%.

Right now, I am helping my friend in his company and he wanted me to stay on and help him. I am getting the hang out of it but I wanted to try on something that poses more challenges to me. I can only leave when I have handover to his new administrative girl but that would means that I am not able to start next Monday with this advrtising firm.

I am in a dilemma.

Should I take it up and help my friend, going around job searching and take on more temp jobs?

Kennzo and His Powerful Teeth

2009-06-10T15:15:00.003+08:00

Kennzo has a liking of biting his bolster. Can you see the little holes on the bolster?

I am more worried that his teeth will drop when he forcefully bite and let go.

And this little monster can climb up our bed and the sofa in the entertainment room by himself.
Clever boy.

Kennzo's 1st Birthday (Part 2)

2009-06-08T17:24:00.005+08:00

This naughty boy received his first present from Brenda's daughter.

See how helpful Adel is in heping him to open up his present.

Kennzo's 1st present

Not knowing what to do with this present

With the help of Adel, he 'opened' his present

Kennzo's First MacDonald

2009-06-08T17:19:00.005+08:00

One sunny weekend morning just after Kennzo's 1st birthday, we decided to bring him for his first taste of MacDonald breakfast.

Father and Son

Father and Kids

Adel has her usual kid's hotcake meal for breakfast

Kennzo spoilt for choice

my ah beng son and see how cheeky he is

Flea Market 31 May 09

2009-05-29T12:51:00.003+08:00

JuzCloset is having a Flea Market this coming Sunday.

Date: 31 May 2009 (Sunday)

Time: 10 am to 6pm

Venue: Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, Blk 332

(void deck) beside bus stop

Special offers not to be missed.

Do come and support us.

Circle Line 23 May 09

2009-05-24T00:20:00.004+08:00

Cat and I registered for the Circle Line Tour on 23rd May 09. We had to queue under the hot morning sun just outside the station with no fan. The kids were soaked wet with their sweat and they looked as if they had just had a swim.

The kids were excited about the tour and it was an experience. The last train tour I had was more than 20 years back when Ang Mo Kio had an open tour for public.

There were programmes lined up at every station with free balloons and face paintings.

The kids @ Marymount Station

Clean and bright control station

The MC @ Marymount Station

Marymount to Bartley

Wide window view of the ride to Bartley

overview of SG MRT track

There was a goodie bag at the end of the tour. It only consisted of a bottle of New Water and some brochures on the Circle Line. The kids were excited and insisted that they carried their own goodie bag.

We wanted to proceed to Thomson Plaza for lunch but Jadon fell asleep on the way and we decided to head home instead.

Grand Opening of Machida Holdings Pte Ltd

2009-05-23T23:19:00.007+08:00

Klein's restaurant held their grand opening yesterday.
Val and me went down to show our support by being his customer. Kim was supposed to be there as well but as usual always fly helicopter at the last minute.

It was crowded and this boss has been busy since morning.

Bugis Junction Food Court

Level 3

#03-30 Stall 1

From Kim and Andy

while waiting for our food

Val initially did not want to eat but ultimately gave in to the temptation of the food. Finally our food arrived. Surprisingly, Adel had a good appetite while my glutton boy goes on 'mum mum'.

Val's Bento Set C Mine - Machida Special

Sam's Bento Set

inclusive of buckwheat tea

and we cleared everything

Food court priced with generous serving. I loved their soup and salad. They do not served the usual miso soup; sauce for the salad was heaven though it was plain cabbage! Absolutely worth the money.

Updates on Me

2009-05-15T11:03:00.004+08:00

I just started my part time job with one of the language school yesterday. It's pretty interesting to be working there and the team of people were a bunch of young and energetic group of ladies. I was told that I can even continue to be a part time staff when I got myself a full time position.

This week, the schedule given to me was crazy and I am deadbeat. Plus, I have a toddler who wakes up as early as 6.45am to deprive me of longer beauty sleep.

Talking about full time employment, I have gotten a call from a friend in headhunting. She was telling me that she has a job that I can try for. It is a SME logistics firm with about 3-4 staff and the scope was what I had done previously. I will be going for the interview to see how things go for me.

The workshop by LHH turned out to be fruitful for me. I got to expand my network further and benefited from the topics brought up in the workshop. It was great and I really looked forward to the sessions with my consultant.

Kennzo @ 1 year old

2009-05-10T09:57:00.009+08:00

Kennzo has 3 central incisors (2 bottoms on the top and 1 upper tooth). The 4th one just began to sprout out while the bottom lateral insicors will be erupting soon.

He simply loves Dibo, The Gift Dragon and he can be attracted to the show when the music played.

He can stand on his own and walks with assistance, basically 'running' around the house with the Fisher Price activity walker. He can actually take a few steps on his own as well. Soon Adel and Kennzo will be chasing each other around the house.
He is also able to climb down from my bed by himself as well.

This little boy will shakes his head and waves bye bye when someone says no no and bye bye. When there is food, he will says 'mum mum'. He starts to 'sing' to 客人来 and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars" these days but the lyrics were all papa.

2009-05-10T00:50:00.001+08:00

Update

2009-05-07T16:19:00.003+08:00

I will be starting a temporary job next week.

The pay is not fantastic but at least something to pull me through during this period of hard time.

We wanted to get MIL to help us look after Kennzo for the time being. She refused and said that we reduced her allowance from $600 to $500. This miserable amount was not enough for her. Sam was disappointed that his mum could not help us out during this difficult time. I was upset that she cannot see the situation that we are in now and the economy crisis out in the market. Sam's current assignment would not be able to meet our 1 month expenses at all when we have depleted the monies in another 1-2 months.

We will relook into the car loan payment as well as housing refinancing.
I will be taking up few more temporary assignment or any contract basis jobs that comes our way.

In the meantime, I will also be attending the workshops and meetup session with Lee Hetch Harrison, a career transition programme fully sponsor by my previous company. This will be a 3 months programme and I found it pretty useful after my first session with their consultant.

Hopefully things will change for the better.

Down with HFMD

2009-05-07T15:59:00.003+08:00

Adel was being sent home on Tuesday when Teacher Alice spotted some ulcers in her mouth.

I asked MIL to bring her to the clinic but she was not diagnose with HFMD. She was unclear of the diagnose of the doctor thus I decided to bring her back for review the next day.

The very next day we went back to the clinic for review.
This time round I brought Kennzo along as blisters were seen on his palms and his bum has a number of rashes appearing. He was a confirmed HFMD case and Adel was found to have more ulcers in her mouth. Both kids were declared to be confined at home for one week.

Adel was far too active to be a HFMD case and so far no blisters or rashes over the palm or leg area. She had no issue with her diet as well.

Kennzo's rashes turned into blisters and he really had a hard time. He was very cranky since he was also teething at the same time. He did not has a good appetite and I tried to coax him into eating. All I can give was chilled EBM or latched. I tried to give him Nestle vanilla ice cream for lunch earlier on as he refused his porridge even though it was cool. All my poor boy could do was to drool and cry his lungs out.

Fiesta Brasilia, United Square

2009-05-04T00:09:00.003+08:00

I met up with Nick the very next day since I was asked to take a few days of rest at home after boss told me about my job redundancy with the company.

Nick introduced to me this nice Brazilian restaurant located at the basement level of United Square.

Fiesta Brasilia, United Square

the cosy interior

the menu

Our soup

Nick's main course and my share - and it's fabulous

the exterior

Overall nice place with friendly chefs and severs.
There wasn't much people dinning during lunch and it's reasonably priced for lunch.
Food was definitely value for money and I am ga-ga over the chili made by the chef (highly recommended by Nick). According to Nick, they served buffet dinner and it's at $60++ with life band or rather entertainment. It would be bustling with life when night falls.

Kennzo's Birthday Celebration

2009-04-27T23:18:00.006+08:00

Kennzo had his birthday celebraion afterall.

Brenda and family bought a cake for Kennzo, along with Adel and they had a cosy and small celebration for him.

The Birthday Boy

2009-04-23T12:35:00.002+08:00

Happy Birthday to Kennzo boy!!!

Daddy and mummy are unable to give you a great bash birthday party but you will always be our little darling boy.

Wishing you great health and stay happy always.
We love you.

One Bad News after Another

2009-04-15T09:29:00.004+08:00

Sam's last day of service is this week!

His company just informed him yesterday that there will be restructuring and thus he will has no job. They will only be paying him this salary for this month plus 2 months notice period and any leave unconsumed.

I think there should be some severance package given and he has worked there for more than 5 years. Now I am looking for points to support the basis that he should be entitled to the package.

Kennzo sick for 1 week

2009-04-11T19:12:00.002+08:00

Finally this little boy is freed from fever but still down with slight running nose and cough.

He also started his porridge again this evening.

He did not want any porridge since last Sunday and Brenda gave him milk only. With his little food intake and his persistent fever, my dear boy has lost quite a fair bit of weight since. I could feel the difference when I carried him.

Now he is back to his active self and busy exploring things around him.

2009-04-04T15:14:00.003+08:00

Father-in-law has passed away peacefully @ 1217hrs, NUH.

Sam is with him now at the funeral parlour and they will be home after midnight. The wake will be held at Blk 112B Depot Road and his funeral will be on Wednesday.

Sam and I thank all of our friends and reatives for your concern for the past few days!

HDB Unjustified Fine

2009-04-03T10:27:00.005+08:00

I was mentioning earlier about this wrongful fine by the carpark attendent.

Appeal Letter

My valid coupons display

Their reply to me

FW: G92xxxxxT SxxxxxxL 14 MAR 2009
Thursday, 26 March, 2009 3:49 PM
From: charmaine
To: hdbcarparks@hdb.gov.sg, qsm@hdb.gov.sg
Cc: na2, ks19, saad2

Dear Sa'adiah,

Thank you for waiving off this fine and your prompt reply. However I would like to raise to your attention that I am appalled with the fact that I was given a fine from the carpark attendent (CA) despite that valid coupons were placed visibly on the dashboard. This was not a justifyable to a vehicle owner who had diligently placed valid coupons to avoid a fine.

I have previously mentioned in my appeal letter to HDB that I have placed 3 valid coupons (which I have given the reference as well in my previous email) on my dashboard. Yet, from your records only 2 valid tickets are recorded with a commencement time that began at 11.30am. Herewith, I have attached the coupons which I have displayed and it was cleared that the commencement time was at 11am as of what the CA had recorded.

Knowing that my event (at The Odessey) started at 10am, I would not have risked being fined and parked my vehicle at 10am with commencing coupon at 11.30am . The 3 coupons were clearly visible when I returned to my vehicle as well.

It was gratifying that the fine was waived out of goodwill. However, I would have expected that the facts were correct and justifyable from the perspective of a vehicle owner. Nevertheless, thank you for your attention to my case and have a great day.

Best Regards
Charmaine Kong

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FW: G92xxxxxT SxxxxxxL 14 MAR 2009
Tuesday, 31 March, 2009 5:53 PM
From: "Siew Lian ONG"
To: charmaine

HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT BOARD

Your Ref :
Our Ref : Date : 31 Mar 2009
TEL : 62486465
FAX : 68543222
EMAIL :

Dear Ms Charmaine Kong
FW: G92xxxxxT SxxxxxxL 14 MAR 20091

We refer to your email of 26 Mar 2009 with regard to the above parking offence notice.

2 First and foremost, we wish to apologize to you for the inconvenience caused for the wrong issuance of the notice by the parking enforcement officer.

3 Our investigation revealed that the service provider’s parking enforcement staff did not follow standard operating procedures when issuing the parking offence notice to you on 14 Mar 2009. The officer has since faced disciplinary action.

4 We would like to assure you that appropriate actions are taken to ensure that the service provider, Wilson Parking, meets the service standards set by HDB in carrying out parking enforcement in future.

5 We thank you for the feedback. Please feel free to call my Higher Administrative Executive Mr Singaram at 6xxxxxx if you need any further clarification or assistance.

Yours sincerely,
ONG SIEW LIAN
EXECUTIVE ESTATES OFFICER
HOUSING ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, I am a happy driver.
It does not matter if they really did what Ms Ong has mentioned in her email to me. However, it sure made me feel justified.

2009-04-03T10:04:00.002+08:00

Yesterday went over to NUH.

Doctor withdraw the painkillers and those medications that made FIL drowsy and he woke up. We had a chat with doctor and after some discussion, we decided to let him stay awake till last night then then administered Morphine to relief the pain so that he can rest.

There were 2 options after the pain relief is administered:

1) Maintained the BP medication and should there be a drop, we will let him go

2) Plug out his life support system and depends on heaven's will.

We decided to opt for one - let him go on his own with reduced pain.

This would be the better option for him as he would be suffering from pain if he is conscious. We saw his struggle and his tears. Seriously, I rather he go in peace with the aid of pain relief.

He has a high will to pull through this and he kept shaking his head when Sam ask him to go in peace but his body is weak. Besically, his lung is left with 15% of the functions and overall his condition is deteriorating.

It's now depending on himself and heaven's will.

2009-04-02T07:50:00.003+08:00

I can't sleep since 6am till now.

The feeling is heavy and every moment I am trying to hold back my tears, each time thinking of my FIL.

He's a nice man who slogged hard to care for the family all these years. All his life, he loved and cared for the family and giving his ever readily support to his wife who had a weird cleaningness habit. He gives in to all her request no matter how unreasonable it may seemed to be and made sure that she is happy in her own little world. This man here earned the respect of many others and it is saddening to let him go.

The only regret is that we do not have a proper family portrait that we have of him with Kennzo. He loves him alot and often tells me that he wants to carry and play with him but he has no strength to do so.

He will be leaving us for good in the next 28 hours or so as much as we would like to hold on. However it would be a furtile hope that he would make it through and we wuld only be prolonging his sufferings. Maybe it's the best decision that we have made for him afterall.

Gloomy Day

2009-04-01T23:04:00.003+08:00

Last evening. my boss told me that my job will be made redundance and Singapore office will be closing down. This could happen anytime from now and I foresee that to be soon.
I am asked to rest at home for today abd tomorrow.

One bad news after another.

FIL is on life support system now and he will not be able to make it on his own. We have come to the decision to let go of his sufferings this coming Friday afternoon. MIL still appears nonchalent about this and still can see her smiling. Maybe she is taking it well or trying to hide her sadness, I do not know. We told Adel that grandpa is going to a far far away place and he will not be with us anymore. She seems to understand yet no. Well she is still too young to know what is death not to mention Kennzo. We brought the kids in to ICU to have a last peek at their grandfather.
I felt regret for not having a family potrait of him with Kennzo. We will never be able to have it ever again.
At this moment, Sam is having disccussions on the preparation of his funeral.

Finally MaMa

2009-03-29T12:54:00.004+08:00

Kennzo finally calls mama!
Happy me.

He can speaks ba (bus) as well.

Soon, he can pick up more words.

And this boy is a glutton he can finish one big bowl of porridge and he eats fast as well. He eats 5 mouthful which is equivalent to Adel's 1 mouthful.

FIL still in NUH

2009-03-27T11:23:00.004+08:00

He had his spinal operations on 13th March and was warded in ICU for almost a week.
He managed to transfer to normal ward on last Saturday (21st March) evening but was warded back to ICU again on Monday afternoon.

His condition seems to be worse and he needs a special mask to assist him in breathing. He is having difficulties in breathing and this mask provides 4x more of oyxgen for him.

Hopefully he can recover real fast.

Sam is upset when he saw his dad suffering. He was stress as well over the medical bills that came out to more than $39k! Most of it is subsidised by government with a small percentage by Medisave and insurance. But we will still need to pay the rest.

Stress, stress and more stress.
If only we strike Toto or 4D then we will be freed from all the financial burdens.

Play Doh @ The Odessey

2009-03-27T11:22:00.003+08:00

I received an email about this event organised by The Odessey hence I signed up for it since it's near to my place.

Adel was excited when she knew that she was going for Play Doh. Sam had not allow her to play at home as he found it to be messy. The event was great and Adel enjoyed herself thoroughly and participanted in the little game. She had her proud masterpiece of a ladybird and snail at the end of the day.

We toured around the campus for awhile and apparently Adel loved it there. However I would not consider putting her there due to the money constraint. Moreover, I felt that they have little focus on mandarin.

Anyway when we got back to the car, I found myself a little summon from the dear carpark attendent. It was so unnoticeable that somehow I still managed to see the tiny folded piece of paper on the windscreen.

It was maddening as they had issued the fine at 1003hrs when I had my coupons visibly placed on the dashboard from 1000hrs till 1200noon.

My little complaint letter to HDB and, as of today, there was no reply from anyone of them.

Kennzo says BYE BYE

2009-03-24T15:11:00.003+08:00

Finally he speaks more words these days.

Just yesterday he started to say bye bye together with his waving.
I heard from Brenda that he also says 'mum mum' for his food but not often.

Soon, my little boy can be real talkative.

Every morning I will placed him on the floor upon reaching Brenda's place. This little imp will then start to crawl to the door, hold on to the gate and waved bye bye to me. Isn't he sweet?

HKG 22-26 Feb 09 (Day 4)

2009-03-12T00:44:00.011+08:00

It's Disneyland and Adel was all set to go. There was no difficulty at all to wake her up.

The weather was hot with the blazing sun shining upon us. We got Adel a shade just before we entered Disneyland and wanted to get one for Kennzo too. However he did not like it and kept taking it off so we did not get any for him.

She was all excited when she stepped into the entrance and was greeted by Mickey and Minnie mouse who were ready to pose with all the guests. This little girl immediately dashed towards them in excitement. While queuing for photo taking with Mickey and Minnie, Adel went off to take pictures together with Goofy and Pluto and Donald Duck.

It was already close to noon when we are done with the characters and headed over to Tomorrow Land. Adel took quite 2 rides and we went over to Fantasy Land where there are more. We had our lunch at Clopin's Festival of Food located within Fantasy Land. Food was served cold but who cares as long as we filled our tummy and continued with our day of fun. They used mickey shaped disposable bowl and we cleaned it after we are done and kept it. It's more rides after lunch and photo takings. I helped Jasmine to buy 2 sets of Sleeping Beauty costumes and I was so tempted to get one for Adel. After much persuasion from Sam, I then decided to give it a miss.

Last stop was at Adventure Land where we only took the raft to Tarzan's Tree House.

We had wanted to take the train at the Main Street USA but it had already ended it's service. All tired, we just sat around and waited for the clock to strike 7pm to watch the firework display.

HKG 22-26 Feb 09 (Day 5)

2009-03-12T00:44:00.010+08:00

We are going back to Singapore after 4 days in Hong Kong.

It's morning flight and we had to wake up as early as 7am to get ready and do some last minute packing. It was pretty rush from check-in to boarding and we had to walked a very long distance from both ends.

Sis and BIL went for a puff before boarding and we arranged to meet at the boarding gate. The gate was closing soon and even when we boarded the shuttle to the aircraft, sis and BIL were still nowhere to be sighted. We were still joking that both of them would be left stranded in Hong Kong airport. Just when we were boarding the aircraft, both of them came in another shuttle.

Throughout the journey, both kids were wide awake while Sam was sleeping his way through. I had to distract them and keep them as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the rest of the passengers. Upon arrival, we spent almost another 1 hour just to decide what and how many wine/liquor/beer to buy!

Finally we reached home at 4pm and I was already tired. The kids had a snooze as soon as we reached home.
I had wanted to go over to sis home and download the pictures from BIL's laptop. I was already overwhelm by the tireness and decided to go over the next day.

HKG 22-26 Feb 09 (Day 3)

2009-03-12T00:19:00.004+08:00

It's another nice morning and the kids got up at their usual timing.

We had brunch again and started our day to Avenue of Stars. It was within walking distance from where we stayed. Weather was great and it was cooling with the sea breeze. Adel had fun taking pictures after pictures.

We were clueless of where to go and it was a long walk back to where we started out from. In the end, we decided to go to Stanley Market and took a ferry across to Central to board the express bus number 260 from Exchange Square bus terminus. The scenaries were great and we reached Stanley Market in about 20-30 minutes. We spent some time exploring the market, enjoying the cool weather and bought quite a number of things.

As it neared to 5pm, we took the express bus back to Central and got on the MTR to Sham Shui Po. Mum had wanted to go there and take a look thus off we went. We had our dinner at their local food court and took a walk in their market. Most of the stalls were mostly closed by 7pm and we bought more food back to the hotel to continue eating.

We need to have a early rest as we will be going to Disneyland the next day!

Disneyland, here we come!!!

HKG 22-26 Feb 09 (Day 2)

2009-03-11T23:59:00.005+08:00

We had a good rest and Adel is fully recharged too.
The itinerary was mainly temple visiting.

We had brunch at the local cafeteria before starting heading towards Wong Tai Sin. We got our Octopus card and started our journey on MTR. We did not bring along the pram as the steps down to MTR was narrow and always crowded but I had my forever liable sling with me.

Nothing much for Wong Tai Sin and I found it to be too commercialised and organised due to the large amount of people visiting daily.

We took the train all the way to Tung Chung for the cable car ride up to Ngoh Ping 360. It was exciting and the view was great. Adel was scared stiff initially and did not dare to move at all but soon she was used to it. BIL was the only one who has a problem as he has a phobia for heights. We soon approached the cable car terminal and were expecting the automated monkey to take a pic of us. The direction was not right and we did not manage to get the picture right.

It was a cultural village that greeted us first and then the long flight of stairs up to the Big Buddha. It was a magnificent sight and suddenly a feeling holiness engulfed me. We headed back for our cable car ride with a tired Adel.

Next destination was to The Peak but drama happened such that only sisters and BIL went ahead. I had a tired and hungry Adel and we headed back to hotel and rest for the night.

HKG 22-26 Feb 09 (Day 1)

2009-03-11T22:38:00.005+08:00

Eve
A busy day for us as we were attending a talk at Adel's CC that lasted till noon. Afterwhich we had to pack our luggage. I tried to get Adel to sleep but she did not want to. We were supposed to join Catherine and family for church service. The plan was aborted as we were still packing and need to get up 3am in the morning.

Adel slept around 8pm after coaxing her that we were going away early in the morning. Sam and I managed to get to bed only at 9pm.

Day 1
We woke up early and did last minute check before we got the kids up and get ready for airport. Adel woke up hassle free, guess she was all ready for Disneyland.
We were the first to arrive, followed by Mum and the twins (thanks to Romi who picked them up). 2nd sis and brother-in-law arrived 10 minutes after the stipulated time to meet and off we went to check-in.

Kennzo fell asleep when the plane took off and he only woke up when we reached. Adl on the other hand was all energised and playing on the flight. Upon reaching HKG, the men went on to find the way to the hotel. We took airport express to Kowloon and transfered to the free shuttle to our hotel. It was already noon when we arrived at the hotel but it was not time for check-in.

Lunch was at the restaurant few shops away from our hotel. Adel was showing signs of tireness while we had lunch. We got her to stay in the pram and walked all the way from Tsim Sha Sui to Yau Ma Tei, combing Temple Street and Ladies Market. This little girl finally slept after a long day.

Dinner was at a local cafeteria and Adel woke up for her dinner too. We decided to go back to hotel and rest while 2nd sister and BIL went ahead for more shopping.
We were all deadbeat from the early flight and all day long walking. The kids had a good night sleep as well.

Invitation to Catherine and WY Humble Home

2009-03-05T10:54:00.006+08:00

Catherine and WY invited us over to their lovely home on 1 March. There was supposed to be more people turning up but some of them could not make it last minute - either sick or things to attend to (get well soon dear friends).

The carpark was amazingly packed when we arrived but I dropped off the kids before going back to look for Jansey's dad and collect the shoe. When I returned, there were a number of lots available as the service had ended and people were leaving the church.

Lois was there already and in fact she was the first to arrive. I did not realise that the time was at 11am and we arrived slightly after 12noon. But we were not the last to arrive. Sally and kids arrived next. Amanda and Elaine came almost at the same timing and their guys were waiting for available lots to park their car.

It was a great time catching up with the girls and the kids had much fun too. Meredith (Sally's daughter) was excited and she volunteered to help me carry Kennzo. It started pouring later in the afternoon and Cat had to loan us her golf umbrella so that the guys can go and get the car.

We stayed on till about 6pm, packed takeaway dinner from the coffee shop underneath Cat's home and went back home.

We are Back!

2009-03-05T09:56:00.002+08:00

Will update on our HKG trip soon with pics.

Hob & Nob

2009-03-05T09:36:00.007+08:00

Just before I went on leave for HKG trip, I finally met up with Eveline did lunch together.

She brought me to this nice ambience cosy restaurant that was situated in Far East Shopping Centre. The food was fabulous and value for money plus the place was cosy and relaxing.

Definitely a place to go if you want to pamper yourself a little for a nice lunch.

Hob Nob Cafe Car Pte Ltd
545 Orchard Road #03-18/19
Far East Shopping Centre
Singapore 238882

Tel: 6734 0474

Yummy and creamy mushroom soup
Hot and crispy fish & chips

Kennzo Having Fever

2009-03-05T09:30:00.002+08:00

He started developing a fever yesterday.

Branda smsed me in the late afternoon telling me that he is running a fever of about 37.7 degree celsius.

I was still wondering if it was me or Kennzo when I felt the heat in the morning while carrying him. So, it was Kennzo with his first course of fever that lasted with more than 2 feeds of paracetamol/ibrufen.

He is doing great now except for being cranky.
This morning he cried when I left him at Branda's house. This was the first time he cried when I left. Normally he would be playing happily, forgetting me as I walked off.

The MOM Song

2009-03-01T09:37:00.000+08:00

Kennzo is 9 Months (UPDATE)

2009-02-21T09:13:00.004+08:00

Dear son ~~turns 9 months old today~~ is approaching the end of his 9 m0nths old.

2 weeks back he can spontaneously shakes his head from left to right like an adult.
Now:
* He can waved bye bye (up and down motion / left and right motion / open and close hand motion) as and when he feels like it - he is a extremely lazy boy.
* He loves to tap his head as if saying alamak
* His bottom front right front tooth is appearing while the other is still budding (and it's not straight!)
* He has BIG upper front teeth (as seen from the markings on the gum)
* He can stand up with support and walk few small steps.
* He can stand without support for few seconds
* He loves to sleep on his tummy with his bum up

* He can kicked his legs when you asked him to do so.
* He is a glutton and moves quickly towards you when there is food.
* He crawls very fast towards something he wants or across any obstacles in front of him which I have absolutely no worries for his National Service.
* He loves playing and talking to Adel and respond very well to her. The same applies to Adel as well. She actually broke out in tears when my babysitter's husband pushed Kennzo away in his stroller. She will reminds me to bring her brother home when we are leaving people's home without Kennzo. This is how much she loves him.
* He becomes very wary of strangers (can cry or shun away from strangers).
* Seperation anxiety sets in and he wants me for the rest of the time once he saw me. If I am away or not devoting my attention to him, he will cry his lungs out.
* He is on ~~one~~ TWO feeds of porridge ~~and cereal~~ plus 2 1 feed of 200ml of EBM. Gosh, big eater he is. No wonder I am always searching for food when I was pregnant with him.

Best, he will leans his whole body closer to you just like a koala bear when you call his name.
Oh boy, that was a very girlish act but it never failed to melt my heart.

2009-02-21T09:01:00.003+08:00

We are off to Hong Kong early morning tomorrow and will be back on Thursday afternoon.

Bangkok 11th - 14th Feb (Day 4)

2009-02-17T10:24:00.004+08:00

It's Valentine's Day and love is all around every corner of Bangkok.

We had our breakfast just around the corner of our hotel and went on further with more roadside food before we ended this trip. It's packed up time followed by check-out after breakfast. We left our luggages at the concerige and continued shopping at Plantinum Mall. Weiyi suggested that we went over to Central World and have our lunch at Ootoya. We decided to have lunch at Zen instead as there was not much choices of menu at Ootoya.

We shopped further and headed back to hotel as our driver called and changed pickup time to an hour ealier. Sam went over to get takeaway bird nest for me and Catherine while we collect our lugguages.

We had our dinner at Mango Tree after check-in at the airport and it's time to be back home.

Upon reaching Singapore airport, we headed straight to collect our lugguages without going to DFS to pickup any alcohol. To our dismay, our lugguages were damaged. Sam exited the gate and we had to go get the airport pass in order to go back in to the office to lodge a report on the damage. We had wanted to go back early to rest yet in the end we only arrived home at about 2am.

Tired, tired, tired.
I only managed to sleep close to 4am and got to wake up at 7.30am to pick up the kids from Brenda.

Bangkok 11th - 14th Feb (Day 3)

2009-02-17T10:23:00.009+08:00

We had absolutely no plans for Day 3 and clueless as of where we wanted to go.

In the end we decided to head over to King Power Duty Free and catch a movie at a nearby complex after having our breakfast at A&W.

We merely took a walk within the duty free mall and then headed across the street for duck noodle.

Sam got the tickets for Underworld 3 for 480 baht and we were going to catch a movie. Before the show started, we went over to Swensen for ice cream. Meanwhile Sam and I got ourselves a new pair of 'wedding band' for only 240 baht. Happy me since I can no longer wear my ring.
I was startled when suddenly everyone in the cinema stood up when the screen showed slides of the King. This act was to show respect to the King. I was still asking Sam if we should stand up as well and we just followed along.

We walked all the way back to the hotel and dinner was from roadside stall.
After dinner, it's time for Catherine and I to pamper our feet.

Bangkok 11th - 14th Feb (Day 2)

2009-02-17T10:23:00.008+08:00

We went swimming at 7am local time. The water was freezing cold and it took Catherine and me about 30 minutes before we swam.

It's breakfast at the roadside and we had the nice thai iced tea after the swim. And we walked all the way to MBK from Baiyoke Suite Hotel. Along the way, we stopped by Asia Hotel's Naraya and further damage to my wallet. I have spent a total of about 6k baht just at Naraya itself! No more Naraya for me and Sam sweared to ban me from it and nearly wanted t burn down their outlets.

We continued our walk and spent the whole day at MBK. It was Sam's favourite braised pork rice at the food court and I had my bird nest again. Catherine and Weiyi wwent to have Japanese food for their lunch. The ladies went on for our pedicure and manicure while the men went for their haircut. It costed us 500 baht for OPI's colour without top coat and base coat. We should have gone to Catherine's usual spot and do express instead. We were all done except for Weiyi who was doing colouring and treatment as well. While waiting for him, we made used of the free internet access. I got some local snacks and we called it day for shopping.

We got on Tuk Tuk and headed back to hotel.

We had planned to go to Baiyoke Sky Hotel to have a nice romantic dinner but it simply cost abit over budget and we headed back to Sky Lounge on the 43rd floor of our hotel. It was a great choice as we had the whole restaurant to ourselves at least for 15 minutes in a candle lit environment. There was live band as well.
Overall nice environment for romantic night - my 4th wedding anniversary and pre celebration for Valentine's Day.

Bangkok 11th - 14th Feb (Day 1)

2009-02-17T10:22:00.007+08:00

Eve of Departure
We quickly fetch Adel home from Appleland to have our dinner, bathed her and finished off packing her things before bringing her over to Brenda house. Kennzo was excited when he saw us arrived but he would be staying there till we are back. When we reached Brenda's place, Adel was excited and she mingled well immediately. She did not even looked at us when she waved goodbye to us when we left.
I felt abit sad but was glad that she adapted well with my babysitter.

Sam and I did some last minute packing of our lugguage and we only slept when it was 1am.

Day 1
We woke up at about 4.30am, last check on our lugguage and off we go to the airport.

Catherine and Weiyi were already there when we reached.
We checked-in and then proceeded to the staff canteen to have breakfast before we board the plane.

We were utterly disappointed with the crew and pilots of the flight we were on. They were obviously not doing their job well and were chatting among themselves. This was the worst flight that I had ever taken with Jetstar. Midway through the flight, the ang moh seated behind us suddenly hurled shutup and asked the couple seated on the same row to discipline their kids. The parents of the kids got emotional, especially the mother who shouted back at him, asking him to shutup and returned back to his own country. That was definitely not a gracious act from the mother though I agreed that the man was too much (since kids' behaviour is uncontollable). It was pretty much an ugly scene and the crew was not even awared of it. No one came forward to offer a solution.

Finally we reached Bangkok International Airport and got on the cab to the hotel. After checked it, we went over to Plantinum Mall and have our lunch. First stop to Naraya for crazy shopping, back to hotel and off to Chinatown for seafood. It was a satisfying meal that cost us 1680 baht for 10 dishes plus Singha beer. This meal was simply fabulous than the previous trip we had.
We headed next to Patpong for some drinks and we ended up with more shopping at Naraya again. It was pretty quiet or maybe it was a weekday and it's still early. The crowd was quiet, the cocktails were horrible (tasted just like medication) and the pubs were blasting their musics as if we are deaf.

We took a taxi back to hotel and ended day 1 in Bangkok.

Mass Birthday Celebration @ MOF Suntec (9th Feb 09)

2009-02-17T09:52:00.004+08:00

Finally we meet up on 9th Feb to celebrate birthdays for Kim (23rd Jan), Valerie (13th Feb) and Andy Teo (1 March).

It was agreed to be at Central but Valerie told us that there was no MOF outlet at Central thus we changed the venue to Suntec City Mall.

We were late as there was a mass traffic jam at ECP towards Rocher and we took the route from ECP exit to Tanjong Pagar.

It was just as bad.

Sam had wanted to turn into ECP again but I told him to drive via Raffles Place along Robinson Road. It was already after 7pm on a Monday night and the traffic should be less congested. True enough, there was not much vehicles after we past through M Hotel. Boy, I am glad that he heeded my advise if not we would be stuck in the horrible traffic for god knows when.

We were not the last to arrive and we ordered a table full of food. After dinner, it was cake cutting time and distribution of presents to the birthday guy and ladies. Kennzo was cranky throughout the dinner. He was tired and wanted to sleep but he just couldn't fall asleep despite putting him in the sling and latching him on. He only managed to fall asleep when we were almost done with the cake and dessert and he missed out on the Fountain of Wealth.

We went over to the Fountain of Wealth and walked 3 rounds. By the end of it poor Kim and Andy were both wet as I kept splashing them water from the fountain as we walked.

I was already deadbeat when I reached home. I actually fell asleep with the kids while putting them to bed and woke up at 1am to shower!

Tired mummy.

BKK 11th - 15th Feb 09

2009-02-11T01:07:00.002+08:00

I will be heading to the airport in another 4 hours time and here I am still blogging!

The kids were already at the babysitter's house. Gosh, Adel totally ignored us and waved goodbye to us without looking at us. She was playing happily with Brenda's grown-up daughter and son.

2009-02-11T01:00:00.000+08:00

Cat's House Warming cum CNY Celebration

2009-02-11T00:59:00.008+08:00

Catherine and Weiyi invited us over to their home for housewarming cum CNY celebration.
The hosts prepared steamboat while I brought over yusheng for lou hei.

It was great to catch up especially with Zoelle and Misha (they just came back from Isarel) during this gathering. We had great company and the food was fabulous. A pity that few of them could not join in last minute but there will always be the next one.

Invitation to Nick's Home

2009-02-11T00:46:00.006+08:00

Nick invited Anessa and my family over to his home. He was going to prepare his specialty dish - Tom Yum Kung for us.

We reached sightly earlier but the security guard was not around. We had to wait for quite awhile before the security guard came and opened up the gantry for our car to enter.

His condo was different from those that my friends stayed in. It was more like an service apartment. Nick was not home and he was stil at his grocery shopping. Again, we were stranded at the main gate.

Finally he rushed back and we went up to his apartment. It was a small yet cosy unit, just right for a bachelor like him.
Anessa and Raindias arrived shortly and Raindias hit it off with Kennzo very quickly.

We celebrated Nick's birthday as well and later proceeded to the poolside. Initally we had no plans for the kids to swim thus we did not bring along any swimwear. It was impromtu and thus the kids went into the pool without any clothes.

Overall, we all had great fun including the kids.

Drive along KPE

2009-01-31T01:16:00.003+08:00

Yesterday went over to visit Pauline again.
I decided to take the route KPE (TPE) towards KPE (ECP) myself and get a feel of driving at 70km/hr.

I must admit that it sucked!
I have to control my speed in order not to be caught by the 3 speed cameras within the tunnel.

LTA should seriously consider to revise the speed limit to 90km/hr.

Labrador Park

2009-01-29T00:39:00.005+08:00

We left from Pauline's home after visiting Jermaine and her. On the way back, I told Sam to try and take the route via KPE (TPE) to KPE (ECP). Sam was hesitatant because of the speed limit of 70km/hr. Nevertheless, we took the routing and the journey was fast and smooth. Sam was grouching as he drove but to me that was a pretty good journey.

We headed to Labrador Park to explore a little since the time was still early to pick up Kennzo from the babysitter.

Part of our exploration led us to discover one Malaysia car parked at one corner of the hidden road. A couple was kissing inside the car at about 4.30pm and the area was brightly lited and not really secluded! Luckily Adel did not see it and ask me what are they doing.

We drove over to the other end of the road, leading to the beach. We did not stop and explore and turned back home to fetch Kennzo.

Jermaine Heng Has Arrived

2009-01-29T00:38:00.007+08:00

Congratulations to Jeffrey and Pauline on the arrival of their 2nd Bundle of Joy - Jermaine Heng

Princess Jermaine Heng has arrived on 21st January 2009 with a birth weight of 3450 grams.

Lunar New Year

2009-01-29T00:17:00.005+08:00

Day 1

As usual the kids woke up pretty early and I got up as well. MIL passed Adel her red packet and gave her Kennzo's as well. My dear princess has not even washed up and I quickly passed her 2 mandarin oranges to greet her grandparents. Adel took the oranges and went up tp her grandparents and greeted them with her new year greetings taught in Appleland.

I got myself ready and it's my turn to greet in laws before we went out for visiting at about noon time.

1st stop was to TTSH to visit my grandmother who was admited for nearly a month due to stroke. She seemed to be more alert than my last visit.

2nd stop was to visit my grandfather at my uncle's home. Adel fell on Kennzo's back when she missed her step (too engrossed with playing that she did not notice that Kennzo was behind her). Of course my dear boy cried when she landed on him. He soon forgot about it and was playing happily again.

Last stop was to Sam's aunty home which was near to our home.

Day 2

We went over to my grnadmother's place despite her still in the hospital. All the elderly will be back on the second day. I met up with my sisters and we arrived at about 5pm. We were the only ones who were there. The rest of my cousins would not be there that early. We sat for awhile and distributed the red packets before we made a move. We headed back to my mum's place and spent the rest of the evening at her place.

Lunar New Year Eve Reunion Dinner

2009-01-28T23:59:00.004+08:00

It's day 2 of spring cleaning.

We are going for dinner at Crystal Jade at Great World City.

Sam's cousin told us cannot make it the day before because her son vomitted. Alright so we shall go without her and the kids. It so happened on the eve at about 3pm, my FIL said that he was not going as he was not well. Sam was upset over the whole thing since he wanted to have the whole family to be present in order to have reunion dinner. Thus we suggested that we changed our plan of going to the restaurant to take away 'peng cai'. Upon heaing that, it's MIL's turn to flare up to say she that she is not happy and do not want to eat; she would rather cook maggie mee as her dinner. She was not happy over why cousin can give excuse of not joining in so why can't she. It's all plain stupidity wasn't it? I knew she was not happy because we mentioned about getting the 'peng cai' back. She was just worried that she has alot of cleaning up (double cleaning up from our spring cleaning as well as from the dinner). Sam rebuked her saying that she can choose not to do any cleaning up and let us do it instead. If in future, there is any cleaning, is she going to come back and do for us?

After he managed to persuade all to go for the dinner then ILs are not going again because FIL is not feeling well and MIL is staying home to look after him. What we can do was to pack some of the food back for them and they ate only about 10pm.

Sam was upset all because the reunion dinner was not complete without them.

Next year I doubt I will want to eat together with them. Likely I will suggest to eat at home but I doubt my dear MIL will want to. I can't wait for them to move out then we can have the say and invite them over for reunion dinner and can do our spring cleaning in peace.

Spring Cleaning

2009-01-28T23:53:00.003+08:00

This was the 2nd year that I am doing spring cleaning and I loved having a spring cleaning.

It symbolises a new beginning for a great new year.

Well, some might not agree with me and thought that we do not need to follow the need to do a spring cleaning every year. In fact spring cleaning was a daily affair in my family. Yeah and alot of places are not cleaned, with oil stains and thick coat of dust can be seen in several places. So much for spring cleaning when it's hell not clean at all.

Well, no prizes for guessing who has this thinking.

2009-01-28T23:45:00.001+08:00

Kennzo's bottom 2 front teeth is coming out soon!

Kennzo is 9 Months!

2009-01-23T13:03:00.005+08:00

Dear son turns 9 months old today.

2 weeks back he can spontaneously shakes his head from left to right like an adult.

Now:

* He can waved bye bye (up and down motion) as and when he feels like it - he is a extremely lazy boy.

* He can kicked his legs when you asked him to do so.

* He is a glutton and moves quickly towards you when there is food.

* He crawls very fast towards something he wants or across any obstacles in front of him which I have absolutely no worries for his National Service.

* He loves playing and talking to Adel and respond very well to her. The same applies to Adel as well. She actually broke out in tears when my babysitter's husband pushed Kennzo away in his stroller. She will reminds me to bring her brother home when we are leaving people's home without Kennzo. This is how much she loves him.

* He becomes very wary of strangers (can cry or shun away from strangers).

* Seperation anxiety sets in and he wants me for the rest of the time once he saw me. If I am away or not devoting my attention to him, he will cry his lungs out.

* He is on one feed of porridge and cereal plus 2 feeds of 200ml of EBM. Gosh, big eater he is. No wonder I am always searching for food when I was pregnant with him.

Best, he will leans his whole body closer to you just like a koala bear when you call his name.

Oh boy, that was a very girlish act but it never failed to melt my heart.

Reunion Dinner @ Sis Love Nest

2009-01-22T14:37:00.007+08:00

We had our reunion dinner at my mum's side on 17th Jan at 2nd sister love nest.

Mum had wanted to eat out but I suggested to have steamboat at sister house. Mum was apprehensive about it as Allen and sister were moving in to their love nest the day before. However, both of them were agreeable since I will be preparing all the neccessary ingredients for the steamboat and bring over to their home.

The food was great and we had an enjoyable early reunion dinner.

all prepared by yours truly

After dinner, Adel loved to roam about the house and what excite her the most was the LRT that was within her eye level. She would call out to us whenever there was a LRT that went past. Kennzo had a great time crawling about the house as well.

Pathetic Dipped in EBM Supply

2009-01-22T12:21:00.003+08:00

I am extremely upset with my drop of supply. Now I can only pumped supply for the next day feed and can only filled the glass bottles up but not the 8 oz milk bags. . I really regretted trying to decrease my supply back then and not diligently expressing. Just take a look at supply from 2 months back really depressed me.

Kennzo is drinking 400ml (2 feeds) plus one meal of porridge at the babysitter's.

Looking on the bright side, I have been total breastfeeding Kennzo for a good 8 months. This was considered very good. Adel was on partial breastfeeding from birth for a jolly good 18mths. What I can do now is to drink more water, soups and red date tea plus expressing 3 times instead on just once. Hopefully I can still continue with it (I am loving the bonding) and increase my supply.

one week supply in my office fridge - 20 Oct 08

Room Revamped

2009-01-22T11:20:00.004+08:00

The day before I only managed to sleep for only 4 hours. Every night I can only managed to sleep after 12 midnight, with 1 to 2 night feeding. The best part was that Kennzo woke up at 6.30AM!!!

Kennzo was practically crawling about the queen size bed, talking to himself in his own baby language and terrorising Adel who was sleeping besides him. This little fellow is waking up earlier and earlier. I have to stay awake to grab him before he crawled or rolled over to the edge of the bed and fell off again or playing with the lights on and off switch.

If this goes on, I will surely become a panda. I would need to stock up on my concealer to camouflage the dark eye circle that I had.

Last night told Sam about it and I wanted to put his playpen inside our room. He pondered and then started to take out his feng shui measurement tape and started to get down to work. After working for about 1 hour, Kennzo's playpen was shifted to the room and I need not have to worry about him waking up early and falling off the bed. However, I need to diligently carry him out of the playpen and nurse him. Adel can also co-sleep with me on the bed and no more mattress for her.

I will be going to revamped the kids room after Chinese New Year when I am on leave.

Huggies Photo Contest

2009-01-22T11:15:00.002+08:00

Pls vote for ME

I'll plant a big wet kiss for my dear voters as a gesture of Thank You

More of Kennzo

2009-01-22T01:10:00.006+08:00

Taking possession of Adel's milk bottle

Waiting to go into the pool

Lovely sleeping position of Kennzo that I can't resist to snap it down

Happy Boy

Kennzo boy attempting to stand up on his own

Dinner at Waraku

2009-01-15T22:37:00.002+08:00

It's another night out with the ladies. We have agreed to be just the ladies night out without kids. In the end, Amy said that she will be bringing along Manfred and Romi would be joining us as well. I decided to bring along Adel and Kennzo, asked Sam to join in as well since WY and Janine would also be going. The daddies can sit at another table and have their own chat; the kids on their own while the mummies catched up with each other.

We proceeded to Waraku at Hereen. The menu offered pretty much of a selection and I could not make up my mind what to have when everything seemed so tempting to me. Food was fantastic and not forgetting the great company. Amanda's hubby and son joined us later as well.

Amy had a pleasant surprise for Romi. It was his birthday the following day and Amy arranged for a birthday cake for him. The kids were far more excited and they were looking forward to the singing of birthday song and cake cutting. Maverick's visual had never once left the cake.

The kids had so much fun together that all of them went out of the lift together with Catherine. Even Amy and Romi did not realise that Manfred had followed them out of the lift. We should have more of these meet up.

Complimentary Eye Treatment @ True Spa Cuppage

2009-01-15T22:21:00.010+08:00

I was invited for a complimentary treatment: eye treatment or back massage at True Spa Cuppage. I brought along Catherine and we opted for the eye treatment as we will be having our 2nd wasabi wrap and massage end of January with Subtle Senses.

usual form to complete

It was a great disappointment for both of us and a complete waste of time.

1st the receptionist was not friendly and in fact she was showing us a black face when we arrived.

2nd the sales representative, J told us that the slots are full and we need to wait. We were already given appointment for eye treatment and yet they told us priority given to their members. We understand that as we would also prefer such priority given if we were members. However it would be much appreciated if they can called and informed me of the tight schedule they had. They done nothing of such and kept making us to wait. J tried to persuade us to change from eye treatment to massage, but we also has to wait for an available massuer.

3rd, J did not update us how long we had to wait. And when they finally have the masseurs ready, J still did not update us until we asked them. Both Catherine and I wanted oil free massage. The massuer and J exchanged glances and told us that we have to wait for another masseur who can massage without oil.

waiting area

relaxing on the Osim massage chair

In the end, Catherine and I decided that we have enough of waiting and we left after waited for almost 30 minutes from our scheduled appointment.

We headed over to Orchard Point 2nd floor for Japanese dinner.

*the restaurant*

*our yummy meal*

2009-01-15T21:01:00.004+08:00

A night at The Cage to support Melvin for his soccer practice after our kickboxing @ Amore Bugis Junction

Kennzo fell off bed twice in a day

2009-01-03T23:14:00.003+08:00

First was in the morning with no warning sign.

I just woke when Adel called mummy. With eyes open and seeing just Adel on the bed, Kennzo boy must have fallen off the bed.

He fell head down without any knock nor cry. Luckily the mattress that Adel slept on was still on the floor, thus not much impact.

Second fall happened in the evening.

Mummy never watched over him properly, resulting him falling from the sofa in the entertainment room. He let out a loud and unconsolable cry because he knocked onto the plastic table.

Billboard at SG checkpoint

2009-01-03T12:31:00.003+08:00

It was not there previously and I happened to saw that yesterday when we were coming back from JB last evening. I reckon that was put up so that we can watch while waiting to get into SG checkpoint for clearance.

Going into MY was pretty smooth as we went in about 12 noon. Coming back was smooth as well until we reached MY old checkpoint and we took about 30 minutes until we cleared immigration at SG.

Kennzo Haircut

2009-01-03T11:33:00.003+08:00

Kennzo's hair is getting longer and I wanted to bring him to the salon and cut his hair real short. I asked Sam to bring Kennzo for his haircut while I stayed with Adel for her dinner. When she was done with her dinner, we went to find the father and son duo.

I was shaking my head when I saw them. There was no difference at all before Kennz went for the haircut. This daddy actually asked aunty to trim his hair and NOT cut it short. I wanted it short so that it wont grown back so fast for cny. I carried Kennzo over and told Sam to go back home first with ILs dinner. Adel followed me and we went back to the salon.

First thing that I told the aunty was to cut it real short.

Kennzo boy did not cry this time. He whinned abit but was still alright when aunty used the shaver to cut his hair real short. Aunty said that he was a good boy when mummy carried him and he cried throughout when daddy carried him. It was also easier for her to 'shave' his hair than trim since Kennzo boy moved alot.

Happy mummy but not daddy.

He frowned when he saw his Kennzo boy. I told him that he can style whatever hairstyle he wanted for Kennzo when he turns ONE. Now Kennzo can only keep his hair real short, and it's those NS recruit kind of short that I meant.

Before and After

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

2009-01-01T21:27:00.003+08:00

A small town by the sea.

Five year-old Sosuke lives high on a cliff overlooking the Inland Sea. One morning, while playing on the rocky beach below his house, he discovers a goldfish named Ponyo, her head stuck fast in a jam jar. Sosuke rescues her and keeps her in a green plastic pail.

Ponyo is fascinated by Sosuke. Sosuke feels the same about Ponyo. He tells her, "Dont worry, I'll protect you and take care of you". But Ponyo's father Fujimoto once human, now a sorcerer who lives deep under the sea forces her to return with him to the ocean depths.

I want to be human! Ponyo declares, and determined to become a little girl and make her way back to Sosuke, Ponyo escapes. But before she does, she empties the Water of Life, Fujimotos precious store of magical elixir, into the ocean.

The sea waters rise. Ponyo's sisters are transformed into enormous fish-shaped tidal waves that climb as high as Sosukes house on the cliff. The chaos of the ocean world envelops Sosukes little town and it sinks beneath the waves.

A little girl and a little boy. Love and responsibility. The sea and life itself. In an age of nervous anxiety and uncertainty, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA is Hayao Miyazakis unreserved depiction of the story of a mother and her child.

Cast: Tomoko Yamaguchi, Kazushige Nagashima, Yuria Nara
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: Animation
Language: Japanese
Release Date: 1 January 2009
Running Time: 101 minutes
Movie Code: 2654
Distributor: GVP

Kennzo is Crawling

2009-01-01T19:00:00.003+08:00

I am excited because Kennzo is crawling now.

It might not be something great to rave about but to me it is exciting as Adel skipped the milestones of crawling totally. Thus it was something new when Kennzo boy showed signs of crawling few weeks back.

Now we have to catch him before he crawl to reach out for things.

Eve of 2009

2008-12-31T16:58:00.008+08:00

Sam and I dropped off the kids at Appleland and Brenda's before we headed over to Vivo City to catch Ip Man. While waiting for the show at 1150hrs, we went over to Starhub to apply for the free home line and walked around.

countdown part @ vivo city by mediacorp

the party venue

The mall was already ready for the countdown party this evening and everyone from the mall management are busy with all the neccessary preparation. Sam and I decided to stay away from the crowd. We were here once for 2007 countdown and it was so crowded and suffocating. Thus we decided to stay away from the crowd and will be going to Punggol to countdown with my mum and sisters tonight.

***************************************************************

The movie is adapted from the life story of Ip Man, the grand master of the Wing Chun style of Kung Fu and Sifu (master) of legendary Kung Fu superstar Bruce Lee.

Ip Man - martial arts unyielding follower, whole-heartedly devotee to the free learning of Wushu. The fight to be top between the Wushu schools in the southern and northern regions of China did not stop him from goodwill matches with other practitioners. Nationalistic bad feelings and racial hatred did not lessen his respect for Japanese Kung Fu warriors. In a great era of hate and tragedies, Ip focused only on Wushu. His enthusiasm for martial arts saw led to devastating street fights with various elite practitioners.

To this date, neither movies nor publications about Ip Man exist. This movie is the first important record of the masters life. Ip's persistent devotion to Wing Chun is a classic example of the love and respect for Wushu and the freedom and spirit it represents.

Cast: Donnie Yen, Lynn Hung, Simon Yam

Director: Wilson Yip

Genre: Action / Drama

Language: Mandarin

Release Date: 18 December 2008

Running Time: 107 minutes

Movie Code: 2659

Distributor: Cathay

Overall a must catch movie, not to be missed.

Vivo City was already crowded with people when we came out of the theatre at 1400hrs! I just wanted to get out of that place asap. The car park was full of cars waiting to have a lot. I am glad that we were out of the place and fetched the kids back home.

2008-12-31T16:58:00.005+08:00

Welcome 2009!!!!

Post Xmas Gathering @ Swensen

2008-12-31T02:12:00.006+08:00

Finally met up with my dear friends last night.

It was supposed to be last Saturday but one of them could not make it and our original plan was aborted.

We met up at Northpoint, Swensen.
Oh boy, the place has changed so much that I lost my way navigating around. We finally found our way to Swensen and met up with the cool people. The queue was long and we waited for approximately 15 minutes before we got a table.

Overall the service was disappointing. The service crew got our order wrong (spahgetti aglio olio with NO additional prawn topping) and they DID NOT serve the ice cream cake first despite we have asked them several times. The ice cream cake was not even served when we are done with our meals and bill was asked for.

Never mind about the poor service. We had a great time catching up with one another and a post xmas gift exchange. Next meet up with this bunch of great people will be in Jan, just before CNY. So looking forward to meet up with them again.

Post Xmas Gathering at Eunice's

2008-12-31T00:49:00.002+08:00

It's post xmas gathering at Eunice's home.

A time for adults to gather and the kids to have fun together, not forgetting the gift exchange for kids.

Fidgets 27 Dec 08

2008-12-31T00:48:00.001+08:00

Sherlyn and I met up at Turf City for lunch at Sol Playground Cafe before heading to Fidgets.

It wasn't really pram friendly and the building is not linked up. We had to walked from the outer building to connect to the next entrance. Luckily Sam was with us and he helped with the pram and kids.

Food was great at the Sol Playground Cafe and the portion served was big. There was balloon sculpting and face painting for the kids as well from 12 to 2.30pm. The kids had fun at their indoor play area as well as the outdoor playground. Great place to dine out with especially with kids.

We headed over to the Fidgets and met up with KH, mum and Matthias. Valerie and Adel were both excited when they saw the play area as they have been to Bambini. The kids soon had fun running about and climbing up and down. Shyann and Kennzo had their fair share of play as well at the play area meant for them. Seriously the play area for infant was pathetic and not much for them to play with. In terms of space and activities, this is definitely a much better place compared to Bambini.

2008-12-31T00:39:00.003+08:00

Adel simply loves to put Kennzo's pacifier and teething toys into her mouth

Walk on Henderson Waves

2008-12-27T11:15:00.008+08:00

Adel's CC was closed on Boxing Day. Sam and I decided to bring her up the Henderson Waves after we dropped off Kennzo at Brenda's house.

We started up the stairways (just behind Adel's CC) which lead up to Telok Blangah Hill. I regretted passing a casual remark.

Me: Daddy will there be snake?
Adel: Daddy carry, I scare snake
Sam & Me: ~sweat~

In the end, Sam has to carry Adel up when we walked up the long flight of staircase.

We finally reached the top and I was happy, thinking that we have reached the Henderson Wave. It was still a long way to go. I was still thinking that the bridge linked from Alexandra to Mt Faber but I was wrong. It was only a bridge connecting the different hills together thus making it mainly cement pavement and hillside walk. Nevertheless, it was an experience and pretty fun to engage in a walk together as a family.

As we went downhill, I noticed that some people actually burnt joss stick and left their 4D and toto on a piece of tree bark. I had wanted to take a pic but decided to leave it as it is.

We headed to Mt Faber Safra at the foot of the hill for breakfast at Ya Kun and had a long walk back home.

Kennzo Prefers Adel's Milk

2008-12-27T09:20:00.007+08:00

Xmas Day and Presents

2008-12-25T18:46:00.005+08:00

See the excitement on Adel's face. It says all.

Kennzo still has no clue what is going on. He will for next year.

Invitation on Xmas Eve

2008-12-25T17:35:00.006+08:00

Catherine invited our family along to her church for their event last night. We went over to fetch Sam's cousin before we headed over to Expo and had our dinner there.

Adel and Her cousin (younger than her by 2 months)

Weather was not good and it was raining cats and dogs but that does not dampen the excitement. Though it was 7pm, there was already a huge crowd and we made our way to the children's church area. We settled Kennzo and Jadon and registered both Janine and Adel at the Playgroup.

Kennzo and Jadon at the Nursery

It was a different experience for me as I have not attended church on Xmas eve before. I enjoyed the play thorougly though I was at the nursery with Kennzo. Sam was with Adel and they had some games, songs and handicraft done. She was given some snack as well. Adel enjoyed herself as well at the playgroup.

the girls

her present and xmas sock made at the playgroup

Adel's Ear Piercing

2008-12-25T01:37:00.006+08:00

Finally brought Adel for her ear piercing at Tiong Bahru Plaza on the eve of Christmas.

I chose the stones of her birth month for her and it cost S$22.

Before

After piercing and Her reward of ice cream

2008-12-25T01:11:00.002+08:00

Merry Christmas & Prosperous 2009!

Kennzo's 1st Word

2008-12-24T13:59:00.005+08:00

I am 'jealous' that his first work is 'jie jie'

Amore Free Spa and Mirabel's birthday

2008-12-24T12:33:00.004+08:00

Catherine and I went for our free Amore Spa before the voucher expired on 23rd Dec. We really enjoyed the serene environment as well as the special treatment. Both of us were rejuvenated after the massage and all fresh to attend Mirabel's 3rd Birthday celebration.

Both of us headed over to Plaza Singapura to do some shopping while waiting for Sam to come and picked us up together with the kids.

We were greeted by the pretty birthday banner once we stepped out of the lift. The birthday girl was overwhelmed with the guests who turned up as well as their gifts and ang paos. It was great to be able to catch up and thanks for the invitation to share the celebration with the family.

SG Flyer 22 Dec 08

2008-12-24T00:16:00.003+08:00

Sam and I are official on annual leave from 22 Dec onwards. We decided to hopped onto the SG Flyer since my mum and sisters are not working as well.

We picked up the kids from Appleland and Brenda at about 4pm and headed off to pickup mum and sisters. Adel was excited when she knew that we are going for the SG Flyer. After the ride, we headed over to Marina Square and had our dinner at Imperial Treasure La Mian Xiao Long Bao.

We were lucky to have taken the ride on Monday. The SG Flyer''s service was disrupted on Tuesday. I was still jokingly saying that the SG Flyer's service was disrupted as Adel had jumped inside the capsule.

Glutton Kennzo and Rice Grain

2008-12-18T22:06:00.003+08:00