Rachel Call Papa

Yes, she uttered 'papa' before 'mama'! *stare at shawn* Ha. But I'm not a vinegar pot. She will call me 'mama' in due time. :P

Turn up your volume!

Filmed on 26 August, evening

Darling Bessie

I had many pets (mostly inherited) since young and the list included birds, fishes, tortoise, rabbit and a black stray puppy that my dad brought home. Bessie is my first owned pet.

Bessie @ est 3 month old. She was so tiny!

I found her in a pet shop in Sims Ave on 19 Nov 2002. She was the only female schnauzer in the shop and she was in a corner all by herself, watching her brothers fighting over a dish of biscuits. When the shop owner passed her to me, she looked weak and hungry, and was trembling but her eyes were bright. I got her that very day! She was exactly 2 month old.

In a blink of eye, she is going to be 8 years old this Sep. We have gone through real thick and thin from the 2nd day I got her. She vomited yellowish gastric juice and had to be admitted to the pet clinic for observation after diagnosing that it was due to starvation. So horrible! The pet shop owner didn't feed her well. I should have realized that when I saw Bessie in a corner that day. Anyway, I reprimanded the shop owner on his slack care for the pets and demanded he pay for the medical bill but instead of being apologetic, he simply offered to change another dog. I declined his 'heartless' offer as I was already attached to Bessie. I decided to nurse her back to health.

Despite TLC and proper care for Bessie, she has many health problems. She had operations ranging from removing tumors, infectious womb to eye cataract. Though the bills were considerably high, I had never once thought of abandoning her. I believe God has a reason for me to have her. I can't imagine if she had belonged to some heartless guy.

Bessie will always be my dearest pet, though she may not feel so because I have been neglecting her after baby Rachel's arrival. No wonder after so many months, Bessie is still jealous of Rachel. I shall make a consicous effort to give her fair share of my attention and I hope Bessie will accept Rachel very soon! And yes, Rachel loves Bessie already!

Bessie @ est 2 year old

Rachel 10 Months Old

Rachel @ 10 months old

Gosh, I looked so 'big' beside my slim baby

2 more months to Rachel's first birthday! Oh, I haven't thought of what to do for her birthday. Too preoccupied recently with work and yes, shattered iPhone.

She is becoming very naughty these days and I mean really really naughty. She wants to sleep with us. She wants us to entertain her. She wants us to carry her. And if she don't get what she wants, she will cry. And these days, she will cry in the middle of the night but with her eyes closed. Having nightmares? We really don't know. We will pat her a while and she will go back to zzzZZZ. But the problem with me is that once I wake up (regardless of time), it's very hard for me to get back to sleep. :(

Despite her increased volume of cries, she is generally still a very smiley baby. She loves smiling and showing off her 4 front teeth. Recently, I also noticed that she likes
- playing peekaboo again (this time she pull the blanket up/down herself)
- curling her tongue back and make sounds like Rrrrrr and even Tsskk Tsskk
- chatting with me using ooOs, aahHHs and Huhhhs
- raising her eyebrows when eavesdropping adults' conversation (especially ours)
- open and close her hands
- climbing (on pillows, sofa, everywhere)
- pinching us (ouch)
- biting us (ouch ouch)
- looking into the mirror. Guess most babies love mirrors. For Rachel, she will be very thrilled just to be in front of the dressing table mirror and she loved it since 4-5 month old.
- hi-five whenever we show her our palms

And she knows how to
- put her arms up
- blow flying kisses
- offer me her toy to suckle after she did the same (it's so cute when she does that but seriously, I have to decline her offer each time after seeing how wet with saliva her toy is)
- walk with support. She would walk on the sofa (from one end to the other) by holding the back rest

Hope she continues to be as smiley, active and healthy as always! :)

My last iPhone sync?

Yes, thats my iPhone! Sigh. I wasn't really that upset yesterday after the accident. But the more I look at it, the more shattered my heart gets. I should have bubble wrapped my phone.

Finally, weekend is coming! I thought of going to M1 shop, give them the most pathetic face (hopefully my acting skill can pass it) and ask for a free replacement. Me having 'fat hope' huh? Sigh... but rather than no hope, right?

What will you do if this happened to you? *touch wood*

1) Buy the DIY iPhone glass kit (Amazon sells for abt US$12) and try to repair the glass yourself by leaning the steps shared in YouTube

2) Pay someone $100 (an estimate got from googling) to fix the glass but risk voiding the warranty

3) Pay $350 and get a brand new set from M1 (think they do that for defective set)

4) Continue to use the phone but risk cutting your face (ok, Im putting this option for fun. No way am I risking my face!)

5) Pray for miracle that the glass heal by itself.? Perhaps my stretch mark cream can fix it? Hmm... it cant even help my stretch mark so I doubt...

I need option 6 so that I can toss a dice to decide. Any suggestion? *Hee* I just did my final iPhone sync (hope it's not) and will head to M1 paragon tomorrow to get advise on my scarred phone. The 1627 M1 hotline wasn't useful at all.

So wish me luck... I need plenty of it!

Hello iPhone 4?

My beloved white iPhone jumped off my bag today while I was entering my office's cafe for lunch.

The fall was accompanied with a loud scream from my colleague. Rolling my eyes, I picked up my white apple and calmly said: "Aiyah, why you scream so loud? I dropped before. Won't spoil one." But this time round, my guess was wrong. The screen was shattered!

Surprisely, I wasn't really upset. I was shocked initially but that was all. I could still joke with my colleagues about my special wallpaper... Perhaps because the phone was working and my data still intact *fingers crossed", which was the most important thing. Still, it was really careless of me to drop it.

Anyway, doubt there is repair centre here. Maybe I have to get a new one or leave with the scarred phone. But the shattered screen may cut me anytime so I better go for the former. I definitely won't dare to ask my darling hubby to buy me another one since this phone was a gift from him. :P

So good bye $$, hello iPhone 4? Sigh...

Lelong Lelong

Lelong Lelong means 'Auction' in malay as only found out today. Opps. Since young, I have known it as 'For Sale'.

But anyway, neither are we auctioning or selling things. We are exhibiting Rachel's studio pics from SHAPES photography! Interested in studio photo taking? Check out http://www.shapes.sg/ today!! *Hmmm... thats a form of selling too?* Ha.

Rachel and her doggy 'Creamy'


Our best gift from Heaven

Baby Shrek? Nay

"I love you, Mummy"

(p/s: she was looking at me in this shot!!! *grin*)

Active Baby

We recently broke our baby groceries record with purchase of 8 boxes (2 pkts/box) of Pampers Active Baby diapers! It was on sale at 2 boxes for $48.8 so we, being the kiasu and poor parents, lugged as many as the car could take. The boot was packed to the brim and the stroller got to settle for the front seat. But, it was worth the savings of about $160!

However, just today, we found out that Giant could do home delivery for free with purchase of $200 and above. Our bill yesterday was just $5 away and we could simple throw in perhaps some toilet papers (for ourselves of course) to make up the amount. If only the staff have told us... why didn't they? :(

Anyway, all these active baby diapers are stocked up for one active baby Rachel. So far, this diaper serves her well with no leakage.

Speaking about active, Rachel has become very very active these days. The musically incline her loves clashing her cymbal (which are actually stacking cups) and dancing to music. She will shake her head, swing her arms and now even shake her little butt. Sometimes, she will sing along too! (aka screaming)

We would let her crawl around the house after we spring cleaned the place and she would follow us around and climbed up our legs whenever we stopped. She loves hide and seek and would get very excited when she spot us in our hiding place. She would show her excitement with loud giggles and even loud claps or bangs on the nearby objects.

And today, she attempted Mount Lorenzo (our sofa) and almost reached the 'summit' if we had not stopped her. Its amazing how baby developed so fast and 'furious'. We really have to train up our physics to keep up with her. *tired*

She now recognizes simple words like 'clap' and 'arms up'. When we say and act the word at the same time, she would follow! That's the result of 1.5 mth of watching 'Your baby can read'. But some forums say that this series of DVDs is not good. Mixed reviews. Who to believe? Just watch minimum will do, I guess. :)

Rachel stood up by herself (not very steady yet)

- though she didnt look good in the pix, this is the only shot that we manage

Watching her bedtime program

Focusing ...

I love... feeding her

Too many things I love about my little girl and I just can't finish blogging her everyday stories. So, I shall filter just some of my favorites to share to prevent backlog. And these faves will appear in my new blog series 'I love...'. :)

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

My 1st 'I love...' blog is '... feeding Rachel'. Ask me what's there to love about feeding? *shrug* I'm not too sure actually. :P

I didn't really enjoy feeding Rachel during weaning stage, perhaps it was because she didn't seem to like the cereal, and after each meal, the feeding area will look like a war zone with mountains of tissue (sorry trees!) and cereal stains everywhere. But now, I love feeding her with anything from milk (record time 6 mins for 180ml) to porridge to Gerber graduate puffs.

She opens her mouth wide each time she sees or senses the food. Once, some porridge dripped onto the side of her mouth, she kept on opening her mouth, thinking it was the spoon touching her mouth. What a cute sight! And she can hold biscuits using her thumb and 2nd finger very well and put them into her mouth. Several times, we saw her passing the food from one hand to another to get them into good position for self-feeding.

House @ Dempsey on 8 Aug 2010

p/s: her mouth looks like Shawn's, not mine. :P

A pity I'm not able to share a video of her enjoying her grandma's porridge, taken on 26 Jun 2010 as it just failed to upload (after many attempts). Still, I'm amazed with the warmth I get simply by watching her eat.

WIth the increased intake/ appetite these days, I hope Rachel will put on a little more weight. Just a little more will do... :)

KL Berjaya 30 Jul - 1 Aug

The success of our first family trip (to bintan) gave us the courage to embark on our 2nd trip (to KL). However, it wasn't as easy this time round.

Warning to my #1 fan: This post is likely to be another long read. So please gear up with pop corns or come back when your brain needs a long break.

Day 1

We woke our little princess (something that all parents dislike) at 6.15am, changed her and caught a cab to Golden Mile complex to board our 7.30am coach. We travelled to KL by Transtar First Class Coach (www.transtar.com.sg/firstclass.php). It was our first choice simply because it is comfy, has entertainment and has pipping hot meals on board served by steward/ess. Most importantly, we don't need to worry about not having enough hot water to make milk for Rachel because they have!

After feeding her, we were served Hainan chicken rice for breakfast. It was a bit oily for breakfast so I didn't finish (surprisingly).

The spacious seat makes feeding easier.

We reached Berjaya Hotel, KL at around 1pm. A little late because the coach waited for late-comers *furious* and it was raining in the morning. Nevertheless, we all felt revitalized the moment we stepped into the clean, spacious and modern hotel lobby. I knew about this hotel many years back when my ex-company implemented ERP for them. I have no discount but I love the hotel for its spacious rooms and convenient location. However, I shall explore hotels near mid valley next time since my friend commented that shopping there is great.

After we checked into our room, unpacked and rolled over the king size bed, we headed downstairs to the shopping complex (Berjaya Times Square) for Japanese food. How I missed non-oily rice!

Hotel lobby > On our bed > Jap restaurant

Recharged with late lunch, we walked around the shopping area for couple of hours. Nothing attractive and prices were almost the same as Singapore. I only bought 2 free-size polo (not the Ralph Lauren) tees that they won't let me try, and they turned out to be a little tight for me. Sob. Never mind, I shall either stretch them or slim down, whichever is easier. (Shawn, don't you laugh and ask me to go for the former option!)

We also got some baby carrots and chicken breast meat from Cold Storage supermarket to cook porridge for Rachel. We brought along our mini rice cooker after learning that my colleague did that on his recent trip. We love copying fantastic ideas (that works!).

Since we had late lunch, dinner didn't come to my mind until 8pm, and it was then when there was a room service call at the door and SURPRISE... Shawn planned a in-room candlelight dinner without me smelling a rat at all. I was so touched. And the idea of in-room dining was brilliant because Rachel could continue her kiddy entertainment while we appreciated a leisure fine dining, served by 2 waiters the entire night. But it was kind of weird having waiters standing outside our room, waiting for our cue for the next course.

Nevertheless, it was an excellent dinner, especially my Black Cod Fish! Years of hinting him of the need for surprises has paid off! I suppose a big diamond ring will be the next surprise since it has been a hot hint for years. Ha *kidding, please don't waste money on that unless you got millions to spare!*

Our Set Dinner:
1) Smoked Duck Breast served with Mushroom & Asparagus Salad

2) Cauliflower Cream Soup with Green Zucchini & Sea Scallops

3) Strawberry Sorbet

4) HER: Black Cod Fish Fillet with Kalamata Olive Crust served with

Fresh Tomato, Coulis Tomato, Sauteed Spinach & Saffram Mashed Potatoes

HIS: Grilled Angus Beef Tenderloin served with

Potatoes Spring Rolls, Butter Vegetables & Truffle Oil Jus

5) Passion Fruit Delight -

Panna Cotta, Cibouste & Ice Cream

6) Coffee or Tea &

Non Alcoholic Sparkling

7) Chocolate Pralines

Rachel's 'Dessert'
Watching her educational DVDs in the complimentary play pen

Day 2

After a lazy morning and buffet breakfast, we brought our little boss to KLCC Aquaria, a 2.5 million litre "Living Ocean". We initially thought it was just a big aquarium for public viewing but it was not. Instead, it felt like Singapore Underwater World. Since we already got there, we paid and went in. Fortunately, little boss enjoyed looking at the fishes.

Little Boss comfortable in her high-chair > KLCC Aquaria

Our back ached from carrying her the whole morning and we happily hopped into Toys"R"Us (when we spotted one) to let her try on toy cars so as to rest our almost twisted spines.

She looked like a big girl, riding on the toy cars. Apart from entertaining Rachel, Shawn and I had a good time sparring with styrofoam swords. Luckily, we didn't break the swords. Hee.

Toys"R"Us > Shopping ard KLCC > Taxi to Hotel > Family pic in lift mirror > Collapse in bed

We, the new 'hunchbacks of notre dame', treated ourselves to dinner at Hard Rock. I had very good pork ribs in Hard Rock, London but HR in KL doesn't have since they are Halal. So I tried their beef ribs which was equally fantastic.

At Hard Rock, Kuala Lumpur

Day 3

We had a drama morning. At the breakfast table, our princess self-entertained with a spoon happily (shots 1 to 7), got upset suddenly & banged on the table (shots 8 to 10) and then stopped crying after a few seconds (shot 11) automatically. Sigh. Mood swing this young? Now you wonder why our white hair grow so fast these days.

We left KL at 2pm on our Transtar First Class Solitaire (which we preferred to First Class). Lunch on board was sesame rice with marmite chicken, vege and egg. Simple but delicious.

Ride home was bad for me as I developed motion sickness. Not sure was it due to watching movie (for hardly 15 mins) or juggling our Ms Duracell who climbed everywhere, pulled everything and licked anything.

Pictures above show Ms Duracell still in charging mode.

We reached Singapore at 6.40pm which was considered pretty fast. Back home, we had simple dinner and all (including Ms Duracell) went to dreamland by around 10pm. All that carrying (of Rachel) was super exhaustive.

Next trip, we will bring our Quinny Zapp, no matter what!

Double Happiness!

Rachel's set of teeth has doubled to 4 with tooth F slightly more protruding than tooth E (both are upper central incisors). The first 2 teeth P and O (lower central incisors) are fully emerged. We discovered these newly additions last Friday, on the first day of our family KL trip after I got bitten by her. Naughty girl!

And finally, her weight has doubled from her birth weight (4.055kg). Babies usually doubled their weight at about 4 month but what to do, Rachel is not any Baby. She is Supermodel Baby. Still, we are glad that she is finally past 8kg (at 9 month and 13 days, checked in TMC yesterday). Despite being a lightweight, Dr Ang Ai Tin says she is healthy and smart. Parents love hearing this, aren't they? Hee.

Dr Ang was accessing Rachel's physical development and complimented her when we listed her recent achievements including pulling herself to stand (easily) and crawling over daddy's big fat bolster. Just today, we saw her standing on the huge pillow (that is suppose to act as cot bumper) and trying to climb out of the cot. Arghhh. Heart attacks are pretty common for us now. Shawn suggested helmet and even harness for her but I guess astronaut's suit is a better bet. *kidding*

So with double the doubling joys, its the best occasion to celebrate... by sleeping earlier... Yawn.

Dr Ang gave her biscuit after her Influenza 2 jab