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 ...