The Year 2009

It's the last day of 2009 and looking backward, I'm glad that its a peaceful year for us.

Reading my first post of Y2009,  the only thing that I wished to do and was actually done was bringing ZY to Korea. Other than that, my so-call resolution of doing a craftwork with ZY per week was not that successful..hehehe, no excuses here, just plain old lazy mum! ZY sudden change of behaviour and having nightmares at night also left me no choice but to pull her out of her playgroup after Semester Two.

I can foresee that the Year 2010 would be a very busy and challenging year for me as Bay Bay will arrive in end Feb. I really had no idea how I'm going to handle a newborn baby plus an active 4 years old all by myself at home but I'm sure with my supportive family, I can do it. ZY will also be attending Nursery One next year and hopefully she will like the new environment and enjoy herself in school.

Lastly, I also hope that MW and I can go for a short trip to Bangkok maybe during the end of next year as I'm sure by then, both of us will need sometime to be alone together and recharge ourselves without the kids. I've already hint hint ZY about this "planned" trip and hopefully she has no problem leaving me and staying with my mum for a few days by then...

Hereby wishing all my family and friends a very Happy and Fruitful Year 2010!!

Cerise Jie Jie Birthday Party

We went to my friend's daughter, Cerise's 6th birthday party today. ZY loves to attend birthday party as she got to sing birthday song and also help to blow out the candles.

Though this place is specially reserved for little kids, an uncle some how managed to squeeze in...

ZY fell in love with this double decker bed. When I asked her if we bought the same beds for Bay Bay and her, where would she like to sleep,  on top or bottom? She answered, "On top, because I don't want to smell Bay Bay's buttock!" Hahaha!

ZY loves this moment!

She also loves to cut the cake. ^_^

Hereby wishing the birthday girl A Very Happy & Blessed Birthday!

THE DAY (a.k.a ZY's Boxing Day!)

(PART ONE)

ZY had been waiting for today for a long long long long time...

Ever since we had put up our Christmas tree a month ago, and starting to put her Christmas presents under the tree, she had been counting down to THE DAY.

So, not surprisingly, even though ZY had slept every late last night, she woke up at about 8a.m. today with bright eyes and a even brighter smile. Yes, she remembered.

However, the 'evil' mummy purposely dragged on and said that she needed to eat her breakfast and bathe first before she can opened her presents. ^_^

When the time finally arrived, she happily opened her presents according to this sequence (firstly, pressies with unknown contents then lastly those she had longed known its contents)

These are what she had this year. (Her Yr 2010 supply of toys)

Same as last year, she is allowed to open and play one toy out of all these and keep the others for the rest of the year. For the record, she chose the Playmobil Nursery Room Set bought by her Gu Gu and gamely named the baby playmobil figurine, Bay Bay!

(PART TWO)

It has been our annual tradition to go to the nearby Sembawang Beach on Christmas Day. Luckily, the weather was super nice so we proceeded to the beach right after ZY's nap and snack.

The place was very crowded with many families setting up tents and having BBQ. The smell of the sea and the BBQ foods was fantastic!

ZY took off her shoes and enjoyed her little dip on the beach.

After that, we went to the playground with the nice swings which ZY had remembered playing a year ago.

We have brought ZY to this beach for the past 4 years on Christmas Day, next time this year, we would be bringing Bay Bay with us too!

X'Mas Party with Friends

My friend, Aivinn invited us to her house for a Christmas Eve Party. The kids had fun playing with each other while the adults spend our time catching up on each other lives.

Enjoying the dessert - Mini Connetto!

Gifts Time! ZY loves to unwrap present but as I had already told her she can only opened all her presents on Christmas Day, she obediently obliged and did not request to open her presents immediately. ^_^

The kids had so much fun that we left Aivinn's house about 11 plus, way past ZY's sleeping time!

Winter Solstice

This is the sumptuous dinner prepared by my mum today. The traditional must-have Braised Sea cucumber, Mushroom and Fatt choy, Shark's Fins Soup, Steamed Chicken, Steamed Fish (Cantonese Style) and Stir Fried Vegetables.

I did not eat alot of rice as I had to leave some space in my stomach for my favourite Glutinous Rice Ball with peanut filling. ^_^

ZY loves to make the glutinuous rice balls and had a fun time "helping" us. She even tried to eat some mini glutinuous rice balls and drank all the sweet soup!

"Gingerbread Man"

Technically speaking, they are not gingerbread man cookie as I did not use any spices in the dough. They are just plain Chocolate Cookies disguised as gingerbread man. ^_^

It took me about 2.5 hrs (from starting to cleaning up) to finish the whole batch and it yields about 6 packets of 4 cookies in total. It had taken me longer than usual as ZY had insisted on decorating each and everyone of the cookies!

Pregnancy @30 weeks

Went for the routine checkup today and complained to Dr Wee regarding my lower pelvic pain. Luckily, he said that it is normal as Bay Bay is now still in the breech position hence he is sitting directly on my pelvic bones asserting pressure on it. Unless Bay Bay changes his position soon, the pain will increase as he grows... @_@ But luckily, the baby is on the average weight of 1.34kg now, so Dr Wee predicted that the situation will not be as bad as some of his patients who are carrying babies weighing over 4kg at birth.

I had gained about 5.8kg so far and I've still about 9 weeks to go before Bay Bay is born (so fast hor). I was given some fish oil supplements today as it is good for the baby's brain and eyes development. Even though I hate to swallow tablets, I'll endure for the sake of Bay Bay. ^_^

Curious George Christmas

ZY always love the Curious George series of books by Margaret & H.A. Rey's. We recently borrowed two Curious George books @ Yishun library and one of it is in line with the Christmas season. So what's better than painting a Curious George portrait to celebrate the Christmas!

I realised today that ZY has better control of the paint brush and is able to manoever and paint all those tricky parts, for eg, the face. Instead of the usual "tapping" method of painting, she has now learned to paint using strokes.

It's Time For Christmas Shows Again!

Ever since we brought ZY to Marina Square for the Sesame Street Christmas Show last year, she has been asking us if we could go again this Christmas. So after checking out the different show schedules in the different malls, I realized that the Barney & Friends' Show @United Square (near my mum's place)and the Sesame Street Show @Northpoint (near our place) are most convenient for us.

Firstly, ZY and I went to United Square on Wednesday for their 7p.m. show. We needed to produce a S$30 receipt in order to get a photo pass and its only for the first 50 families. However the response was so good that even for weekday the pass was long taken up by the parents 1 hour before the show started! =o= ZY was quite disapointed as she has told me that she wanted to stand on the stage and take a photo with Barney all by herself..
Anyway, since ZY insisted that she needed to sit down infront of the stage in order to watch the show, we started to queue at 6p.m. I'm really surprised that my girl could wait patiently for an hour just to watch the show! ^o^

Instead of taking a photo up on the stage with Barney, she took a photo infront of the empty stage...and infront of the Barney & Friends standup board...Hehehe, no fish, prawn also good!

We were luckier the second time round at Northpoint today. Even though we did not manage to get the photo pass again (though we queue up half an hour early), a foreign maid accompanying a little boy gave us their pass towards the end of the Sesame Street Show as the little boy was getting cranky and wanted to leave. ^_^

ZY was so happy that she finally gotten her wish to go up the stage and had her picture taken with the Sesame Street gang. Although she told us she wanted to go up the stage alone, we were abit apprehensive as we did not know if she would back out at the last minute. However to our surprise, ZY walked right up to the stage and hugged her favourite character, you guess it, ELMO! We were so proud of her! She even told me after the photo shoot that Elmo talked to her, hahaha!

So that's about it, we had done our part. With my growing tummy and the increasingly aching back, I have to say I could only bring ZY to these two shows this year. Sorry, dear!

Hakka Mian Foon Ban (a.k.a 面粉糕)

One of my mum's拿手好菜. I simply love this wholesome and healthy homemade dish. The deliciously milky ikan bilis and pork bone soup plus the slightly chewy ban mien is just a perfect match. Not forgetting to add some red chilli padi for some kicks! ^_^

A Friend's Wedding

MW and I attended our secondary school friend's Meihoa wedding a couple of weeks ago at Meritus Mandarin Singapore. We have known each other since Sec One and has keep in contact ever since. In fact, most of us in this photo were in the same class for all the four wonderful years in our secondary school, Tuan Mong High. The three ladies sitting in front were our school teachers and I'm surprised that they did not age at all! ^_^