Christmas is here again...

This is our 3rd year celebrating Christmas with Royal Highness. Our first Christmas was on 25 Dec 2007, she was just a 3 months old baby then. We celebrated at Tony Romas with a simple lunch, just 3 of us. Then I felt so amazed at myself for having gone through pregnancy and labour to bring my princess into this world. I knew we will have many many years of wonderful Christmas ahead of us. So last Christmas, 25 Dec 2008, Royal Highness was 15 months old and already a very active toddler. She was already walking before she turned 1 year and was capable of saying 1 - 2 words. Last year, we had Christmas lunch at King's Hotel together with friends and family. Following that, we headed to Jacob Ballas for the little ones to have some fun splashing around in the water play area. At that time, I just felt so thankful and blessed to have Royal Highness in my life. Looking at her developments, I had no idea I could raise a wonderful baby like that.

For 2009, no plans have been made for Christmas yet. But I am glad that this year I finally managed to put up our Christmas tree which has been stashed in the store since Royal Highness was born. She was thrilled to see the Christmas tree when she woke up in the morning as I put the tree up overnight while she was asleep. She will tell me "So beautiful!" whenever we turn on the lights on the tree. At 26 months now, Royal Highness can converse in sentences although not in perfect english. Singing is her favourite activity and we can often find her talking to herself. She has even learned the song Jingle Bells from school!


Christmas is beautiful and joyous. Christmas reminds me of God's love as it marks the day Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby. There is this song which is sang during Christmas, "Mary did you know?" and in the song it speaks of Jesus being born for the sole purpose of taking our place to die on the cross for our sins. The famous verse in the bible, John 3:16 ~ "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Thank you Father, Your love has made it possible for me to love my family and enjoy the love from them. I know Christmas with Royal Highness shall always be more and more wonderful.

Chocolate Mess

Royal Highness loves to eat chocolates! I bought a chocolate cornetto ice cream for myself yesterday and it ended up in Royal Highness tummy and all over her mouth! The problem with this is getting her to brush her teeth afterwards...recently managed to introduce a brushing routine after seeing signs of decay on her milk teeth :(

A Happy Day ~ Gu Gu's ROM

Yesterday was 09.09.09 and it marks a new stage in life for daddy's younger sis, Royal Highness's Gu Gu. Gu Gu had her solemnisation yesterday at Furama Riverfront. It was a small cosy gathering of friends and family to witness the special moment. We are really happy for the couple and wish them a wonderful journey in their marriage with lots of blessings from God.

Royal Highness stole some limelight from the newly wed couple with her pretty white princess-like dress. She looked really sweet and adorable though she was actually rather unfriendly and cranky throughout the ceremony. She was so tired at the end of the day that she fell asleep immediately in the car on the way home.

Expensive Haircut

Royal Highness had her first haircut by a professional 'hairstylist' on Tuesday. I couldn't stand the way she rubs her eye due to her growing fringe anymore. So I told daddy that we need to get her a proper haircut. Since she was born, she only had less than 3 haircuts...1st time we shaved her head after she turned 1 month old. Thereafter her hair sprouted very very very slowly until she was over a 1 year old then we saw the need to trim her hair. This was done by my mum mostly in DIY fashion.

So for the first time we brought her to Junior League hoping she can get a nicely shaped hairstyle instead of the 'bowl' which she usually gets from my mum's hairstyling skill. It turned out well and she enjoyed the process while watching Barney and playing with sweets. At the end she got her reward - a Mickey Mouse sticker, sweets and balloon.

The price paid for a less than 10 mins job was $20! Daddy says I am spoiling her again with such an expensive haircut...its true. I stinge on my own haircut, have not gone into a hair salon for months. But for my princess, anything's worth it. Even though the final look still looks pretty much like a 'bowl'.

Why do they grow so fast?

From an infant to a little lady...in a blink of the eye. Everyday she learns something new, acquires new skills, speak a new word, try new food and the list just goes on. In another 2 months, Royal Highness will be 2! Must say that I am very proud of myself and daddy of course for doing decent job in raising Royal Highness for the last 20 + months. It was not easy, oh no, definitely not simple...from struggling with breastfeeding, bathing her and battling with waking up in the night to stressing over her falling sick, dealing with her tantrums and teaching her values...it has been a journey.

I looked back at her photos and was surprised to find that even her look has changed. She is beautiful then, now and will forever be in my eyes. There are times when I wish shes still a baby that needs to held in my arms especially at times when she is over active. But I really miss the cuddly little baby so much that I secretly hope time will stand still and stop her from growing up. Children do grow very fast, its simply amazing. Thoughts of having a second baby have surfaced many times. I know I want to experience pregnancy and childbirth again for sure, but I just don't know when it will happen.

For now I just enjoy watching Royal Highness play grown-up with her stuffed toys. She will cook and feed them. She also knows when they made a poo poo and will change their diapers! Haha...and all these actions and the words she uses are inmitated from me! Oh my, so thats how I sound like when I ask her to change her diapers or sit properly in her chair...what revelations I get by watching her play.

Signature Smile

These days Royal Highness will flash her signature smile whenever we take picture of her. Say "smile" and she will give you this look... Its so hard to take a proper picture of her like the one in the photo frame shes holding above. That photo was taken by her childcare teacher and she did up the frame for Royal Highness. She was so excited about this gift from her teacher and wouldn't let go of it. She will go "Aiyoh!" now when she sees the frame or any of her pictures and videos. Thanks to me because she picked up the word "Aiyoh" from me! Sounds so auntie but very cute too.

Yesterday was her last day at Learning Vision. Although she doesn't know what is happening, all her teachers were sad and couldn't bear to see her leave. When we picked her up last evening, her class teacher was waiting for us with a file containing all the records of her learning and work. Her teacher also made a special DVD for Royal Highness containing a photo montage of her in school. At that moment, I felt my heart wrench...her class teacher really adores her and will miss her terribly. Royal Highness will definitely miss her and all her classmates too. We left with a bag of presents after Royal Highness hugged and kissed her teacher for the last time. The teachers from her infantcare and also her chinese teacher bought her farewell presents too.

See...still giving her signature smile when I took pictures of her with her farewell presents last night. Next Monday will be the start of a new chapter in her life, I pray that she will grow to love her new teachers and classmates. And they will love her just as much too.

Sick sick AGAIN!!!

In my last post, a fellow mummy friend commented that Royal Highness has grown chubby. That was true 2 weeks ago...she was weighing 12.6kg. Now, shes down to 12kg after another week of battling with the stupid virus! She caught some stupid virus from childcare again and came home last Thursday feverish. The next day started having bouts of diarrhoea and this actually continued for 5 days. As if this wasn't serious enough, she developed cough and running nose on last Sunday.

The whole ordeal has left me and daddy very very very SICK and TIRED of her falling ill because of going to childcare. Definitely not going to regret pulling her out now. Best is she passed the bug to me and I vomitted at least 4 times in a row.

Oh and I forgot to mention, she had a fall in childcare AGAIN! Apparently her teacher said she was too excited over drawing that she fell from the table. She had a swollen cheek and bruise as a result.

Updates...

I am so behind in keeping this blog updated...feel so bad about it as this was supposed to be my online diary to record Royal Highness's growth and milestones. Today I finally found myself having spare time to upload recent pics of her to facebook but the website failed me! Tried 4 times and the error message still reads "Upload failed". Argh!!!

Shall have to try again later, now to quickly post some new developments:

1. Royal Highness started wearing school uniform 2 weeks ago. She looked so adorable in the slightly oversized uniform!



2. The irony is that we have finally decided to transfer her out of her current school. So she'll be wearing this set of uniform till end of June only.



3. She has developed a very very keen interest in drawing. She will come up to me and tell me "draw, draw" almost immediately after she wakes up in the morning!
   

We started scouting for new childcare last week and have now decided to enroll her into good old My First Skool or NTUC Childcare as it was known for many many years. The location is now going to be further from our home. But the school fees is half of what I am paying now! Plus the principal is a very nice lady and I totally trust that herself and the teachers there will do a great job. It was not an easy decision to make, afterall Royal Highness has been in her current childcare for over 1 year. She knows all the teachers there and they love her too. But as parents, daddy and I feel that they have disappointed us many times in the way they handle things. Since we are not getting premium even though we are paying premium, we decided to switch.

Hope this new centre will be a wise choice. Most importantly, Royal Highness must enjoy going there and she will be well taken care of.

Like mother like daughter

Recently I can't help but tell myself and daddy how much Royal Highness is like me. I am not talking about physical similarities. In fact, its rare to get comments that she looks like me. From the moment she was born, friends, relatives and even strangers would tell us how much she takes after daddy. I am ok with that, as I can proudly declare that Royal Highness shares my likes & dislikes in life!

You may be thinking, isn't it a little too young for her to say for sure what are her likes & dislikes? Ah huh! Thats what I thought too but this little tod has such a strong opinion and character (which by the way is inherited from daddy again) that she will insist and persist on her demands till we give in!

So back to the point on how I am assured that Royal Highness is truly my daughter. These are salient findings from my observation:

1. Loves to eat french fries, chicken wings, fishball, braised egg (lu tan)


2. Picky on food


3. Keen interest in reading


4. Musically inclined - loves song & dance and is able to sing along to nursery rhymes


5. Hello Kitty fan (although Elmo seems to rank higher these days)


6. Shoe & bag fanatic - her fav section in shopping malls is shoe & bag dept

As she grows older, I'm sure I will have more to add to the list. Its not surprising since she spent 9 months inside me while I indulged in all my favorite food and hobbies!

Happy but sick 18

Today is 24 March 2009. Royal Highness is officially 18 months! Again I am having mixed feelings...so happy and proud with this little girl's growth and yet a little sad shes no longer my little baby.

It was suppose to be a celebration for her 18th month tonight with a nice dinner out but sadly, Royal Highness is down with fever. She started running a fever in the middle of last night while we were all in slumberland. Before that she has started developing a cough and running nose so we took her to the GP in the evening. Did not expect her to run a fever too, and a high one at 38.9 degrees!

My dear girl is feverish and has blocked nose which made it difficult for her to sleep. Thank God she managed to take a 3 hour nap just now. Shes still her usual talkative and cheeky self despite being sick, thats the most amazing thing about her. I hope her fever will break tonight and we can bring her for a belated 18 month celebration tomorrow.

Obsession

ELMO. This four-lettered word has become Royal Highness favourite. She is in fact obsessed with ELMO! All these started when I bought her a $1 Sesame Street colouring book from a book stall in Suntec. Never did I imagine the seemingly cheap and simple book could lead to such an obsession.

At first, Royal Highness was not thrilled with the book as she was not a fan of Sesame Street. I had bought a Sesame Street vcd before but she was not really interested. Then one day, I decided to tell her a "story" using the black n white images in the colouring book. From then on, she was hooked! The moment she comes home from school, the first thing she search for is ELMO and will insist on me reading the colouring book! She will also insist on holding onto the book at all times! You cannot take it away from her or else you will have to deal with a very upset toddler. We have had to let her bring the book to school otherwise we can't get her to leave the house!

Since the start of this relationship with ELMO, Royal Highness has also been introduced to ERNIE. Yesterday, she "adopted" a small ERNIE figurine which was one of my Mcdonald collectible years ago. Last night, she refused to shower as she didn't want to let go of ERNIE. This morning, she grabbed ERNIE the moment she found him on my dining table and showered him with kisses. As expected, she wouldn't let go of ERNIE and also her ELMO colouring book which she was holding in the other hand when we wanted to leave the house. So no choice, I wrestled it from her and took off with a crying toddler.

What a love hate relationship this is!

I'm Lovin It!

Its official! Royal Highness is a Fries-lover! Haha... She has been introduced to the world of junk food (although I was reluctant to give it to her, really) and is currently hooked on Mcdonald's french fries.

Its really not easy being a working mum

The last time I signed into this blog was in Jan. Everyday has been hectic for me ever since I started work after CNY break. Each day I stepped into the office, I had to work non-stop for 8 hours. I feel mentally & physically drained by 6pm and can't wait to drag myself home. I believe every working mum feels the same...you wish you could just lie in bed with your baby each morning instead of having to jump out of bed to get ready for work.

Honestly, I don't think I would be a good stay home mum. I salute those mums who stay at home and home school their kids. It takes a lot of discipline to follow through on their child's learning. I will probably end up hanging out at malls and playgrounds everyday with Royal Highness if I became a stay home mum.

So my life as a mum who desperately needs to strike a balance in work and family will continue into the future...unless a miracle happens and Daddy's business grows to unimaginable size! Back in the real world, the moment I look forward to each day is when I step into my front door. The sweetest sound on earth is Royal Highness greeting me "MUMMY!" and a huge smile on her face. At that moment, I forget that I am sleep deprived and overworked. Instantly I feel refreshed and energized as I cuddle Royal Highness in my arms.

That is the power of LOVE.

CNY 2008 vs 2009

CNY 2008 - 5 months old

CNY 2009 - 16 months old

This is the 2nd year Royal Highness is celebrating CNY. So much has happened in 1 year that I almost cannot believe that my little baby girl is now a little girl. When we went visiting on CNY, we were reminded of last year when she was only a 5 month old baby and could not do much except lying on her tummy.

This year, she is able to greet everyone with her Gong Xi Gong Xi hand signal and also receive the angpaos herself. The best part is that she has become a little junkie over the CNY. She is in love with new year goodies and especially love letters!

We are in Mother & Baby's Feb 09 issue!

So happy to finally see our interview published on the Feb's issue of Mother & Baby! An old friend of ours happen to be writing articles for M&B and he approached us for their Fab Dad section's interview last Dec. This article shall be a wonderful keepsake for Royal Highness when she grows up.

Swinging Good Time

Had always wanted to put Royal Highness on a swing. The opportunity came last Sunday when Daddy had to meet a client at Mcdonalds in AMK. There was a park with playground and they had swings for toddlers! Royal Highness loved the swinging so much that she kept saying "woah! woah!woah!".

I remember I used to love going to the playground as a kid and the swing was my favourite too. In our land sparse Singapore, there seems to be fewer & fewer of such playgrounds for children to enjoy. Now we only see a tiny space in HDB estates dedicated to building children playground and the facilities are not very exciting...just a couple of ride-ons and no sand! If you are lucky, you can find slides but definitely rare to see swings or seesaws.

Sweet Lil' Baby

I love watching Royal Highness when shes asleep. Her sweet little face is even more angelic when shes peacefully in dreamland. It makes me feel like kissing her, hugging her and many times I can't help caressing her face and smelling her hair. I'm sure most mummies behave the same as we can never have enough of our babies.

Royal Highness is not only melting my heart when shes sleeping...these days her favourite word is "Ma Mee" which is her way of calling me! She calls out "ma mee" to me all the time and the word just sound so sweet, it makes me melt. Hearing her call mummy is the best reward I can get and my efforts in breastfeeding her is all worth it!

Ist working day in 2009

Todays the first working day of a brand new year. Somehow I don't feel any different from last year when I woke up this morning. Still dreading the pile of work waiting for me in the office...but thats life, no work no $.

Anyway to keep my spirits up till 6pm today, I am going to post some cute pictures of Royal Highness. Actually was intending to post something on the new year countdown but it did not turn out to be very eventful. In fact, Royal Highness slept through the journey from Clarke Quay MRT till exactly 12 midnight when the fireworks went off. She woke up due to the noise from the cheering crowd at Boat Quay and managed to catch the fireworks.

My new year's wish is for Royal Highness to be healthy and more obedient! She is getting real good at throwing tantrums these days. The terrible 2 is really approaching! Argh!

Look how "Cool" my sunglasses are!