Seeds of Love

Christmas is here again...

2009-11-30T10:54:00.004+08:00

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

2009-09-14T17:37:00.002+08:00

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

2009-09-10T13:33:00.003+08:00

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

2009-07-16T08:50:00.005+08:00

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?

2009-07-11T14:53:00.002+08:00

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

2009-06-27T11:24:00.005+08:00

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!!!

2009-06-11T14:26:00.005+08:00

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...

2009-06-01T16:14:00.012+08:00

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:

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

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.

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

2009-04-19T15:41:00.011+08:00

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:

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

Picky on food

Keen interest in reading

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

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

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

2009-03-24T17:46:00.005+08:00

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

2009-03-09T12:37:00.005+08:00

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!

2009-02-24T14:16:00.004+08:00

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

2009-02-18T10:49:00.008+08:00

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

2009-01-30T16:36:00.004+08:00

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!

2009-01-26T17:24:00.002+08:00

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

2009-01-21T11:04:00.003+08:00

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

2009-01-15T16:17:00.005+08:00

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

2009-01-01T16:35:00.005+08:00

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!

Kids Kampung

2008-12-28T16:39:00.004+08:00

Posing with ducks.

Looking out the window of the mini kampung hut.

Enjoying herself in the mini kampung hut.

Yesterday we brought Royal Highness to Pasir Ris Farmway 1, Aqua Fauna Centre to visit the Kids Kampung. The place is designed for kids to experience the Kampung way of fun with activities like longkang fishing, feeding of fishes, ducks, chickens, goose, rabbits, tortoises and birds.

Unfortunately the weather was too warm for Royal Highness. She started to fuss after 15 mins as she started feeling uncomfortable in the hot weather. As a result, she refused to walk about and insisted on being carried. The only animals that caught her interest were the ducks as she kept saying "duck".

Overall I would rate the place only 5/10. The place is actually quite small and we had to pay $1 per head to get into the "Feeding Zone" where we each got 1 pack of feed. The animals were all caged up so there is no chance for kids to get up-close interaction. If the kids are older then at least they can try longkang fishing at $4 but for toddlers, there really isn't much activity for them except feeding fishes.

The next place on our list to visit will be the new Kids Rainforest at the zoo. Hopefully it will be a much better place for Royal Highness to see and touch animals.

Grow, grow, grow

2008-12-26T17:12:00.003+08:00

The last time Royal Highness had her vaccination was when shes 6 months old. She was due for her last dose of prevenar at 12 months, followed by chicken pox at 13 months, MMR at 15 months and lastly booster at 18 months. We had been procastinating her 12 months jab as she was falling ill every other week since her HFMD episode which happened just 1 week before her 1 year old birthday.

Finally, we took her to the pd clinic for her long overdue prevenar on christmas eve. Poor girl, had to suffer a jab in her left thigh early in the morning on christmas eve. But it was the only day I could make an appointment for and definitely do not want to delay it any further. It so happens that on 24 Dec, Royal Highness also turns 15 months! What a way to celebrate huh? But don't worry, Royal Highness is very hardy...she cried for only 1 or 2 mins after the jab. We made sure to make it up to her by offering her biscuits and a breastfeeding "buffet"afterwards.

So Royal Highness is now 15 months and 2 days old, she now weighs 11kg and is 80cm tall.

New Stroller

2008-12-18T16:20:00.003+08:00

Finally upgraded Royal Highness from her combi pram to a new stroller after months of deliberation and comparison. Don't get me wrong, we didn't spend a bomb on the new stroller (although I wouldn't mind if I had the money) as we just paid below $200 for this new one. I just wanted a more roomy and sturdy stroller that can see Royal Highness through the next few years.

We loved her combi pram lots as it was super lightweight with one-hand folding mechanism and we bought it when I was in my 2nd trimester during BHG sale at below market price. It has served us very well for the last 14 months. When Royal Highness started growing and growing, we found the pram space getting tighter and tighter. Apparently combi being a jap brand is designed for asian babies who are thought to be smaller-sized but Royal Highness happens to be on the bigger side with mum & dad. Also the lightweight feature meant that the wheels are much smaller and we could feel the frame starting to "protest" at the weight of our growing baby.

Thus I started on a new stroller hunt a few months back. Couldn't bear to part with more money despite good reviews & recommendations for popular models like maclaren or high-end bugaboo bees... Finally found this at Mothercare. A new model with similar features to maclaren but a more budget version. So far have tested it 3 times and would give my thumbs up for its performance!

Royal Highness is also happy with her new seat as she can now stretch out her legs on long road trips.

My over active girl

2008-12-15T14:25:00.011+08:00

Didn't realise its been 2 weeks since my last post. I had been busy in the office rushing to complete the planning for 2009 and at the same time I attended 2 weddings in 1 week! Theres lots to update on Royal Highness as well, this girl is so active that I get tired just from watching her...

We like to bring her to the playground after dinner on evenings when it seems unlikely she'll fall into dreamland early. The idea is to tire her out by letting her use up her tonnes of energy. This usually work very well as she gets so hyped up at the playground that by the time she went home, she'll K.O after her bath. Heres a video of her at the playground.

Then one saturday while we were busy doing housechores, Royal Highness did this...

There are more outrageous stuns she had tried but unfortunately I was not in time to capture them. Daddy made the prediction that she'll fall and knock off one of her tiny teeth soon if she keeps up with her hyper-activeness. By the way shes starting to run, so I guess this prediction may really come true!

What an amazing brain you have!

2008-12-02T15:19:00.001+08:00

Almost everyday, Royal Highness will suprise us with her developments. Just like a few posts ago, where I uploaded a video of her trying to open the gate. This morning, she did something which I never expected her to be capable of at this age. Once again, she showed me how amazingly God has created the human brain.

What happened this morning was that I was getting ready for work as usual and Royal Highness started fiddling with my makeup pouch and found my hairclip. She took the hairclip in one hand, the pouch in the other and walked out of my room. Shortly after I was ready to leave the house for work and was expecting to see my pouch and hairclip lying on the living room floor. But I only saw my pouch on the floor near my bedroom door and Royal Highness was flipping her story book in another corner. Immediately I said: "Baby where did you take mummy's clip to? Can you find the clip and give it to mummy?"

I was not expecting any respond from her at all but she stood up and started pointing in the direction of our 2nd bedroom. I was excited and thought to myself, did she really understood what I just said? So I said again: "Where is it? Can you go and bring it to mummy?" This time, Royal Highness turned around and walked into the 2nd bedroom. She then emerged holding out her hand which held the hairclip and walked back towards me!

Oh my God! She is so clever! I cannot believe that a 14 month old can remember where exactly she had left an object and is able to retrieve the object. This tiny brain of hers is just simply amazing! I am so proud of her.

8 milk teeth

2008-11-30T18:35:00.007+08:00

This video was taken this afternoon at mum-in-law's place. Royal Highness is enjoying munching on her favourite fruit - apple. Although, apple may not really be her favourite fruit since she does not get to eat many types of fruits as we always offer her apples. No particular reasons, just that apples are the commonest fruit we find at home and at both grandma's house. I guess its also got to do with the fact that the only fruit Royal Highness can identify and say is "apple". So naturally, we all think she must love apple.

Anyway, back to the subject...teeth. Royal Highness only started sprouting her first 2 milk teeth when she was 8 months old. I believe she is considered late in her teething as most of her peers already had at least 4 teeth when they reached 8 months old. Due to her late teething, I have always been careful in the type of food we give her for fear she is unable to bite or chew them. Surprisingly, she has been able to handle most of her solids well including biscuits. By the time she was 12months, she was eating rice, meat and some chunks of apple with only 4 teeth (2 front & 2 bottom).

Now armed with 8 tiny teeth, she can sink her teeth into a full-sized apple on her own at last! I am so excited to see more pearlies sprouting. But that also means its time to get serious with brushing. Not forgetting more pain when she decides to give me a bite when breastfeeding her too! Ouch!

Little Adult

2008-11-26T17:26:00.002+08:00

Tiny Stroller for the Little Adult

Royal Highness is almost 100% recovered from her cough. Phew! Finally the nightmare of feeding her medication is over. She has regained her appetite as well, back to her usual greedy self. Last night, she ate rice from my dinner plate and shortly ate her favourite baby bites biscuit as snack. I am quite sure at the rate shes eating now, it won't be long before she gain back all her baby fats!

Shes back to her old cheerful, curious, chirpy self. I was so glad to see her enjoying herself at my mum's place 2 days ago. My mum bought her a tiny stroller with a doll a few months back, but Royal Highness was afraid of the doll. Everytime we visit my mum, she'll only push the stroller without the doll in it. Guess shes managed to overcome her fear at last and will not only push the doll in the stroller but will also carry the doll when we ask her to.

She looks just like a little mummy bringing her baby for a walk. Heehee...so much like a little adult. Well, this little adult can now do these:

Say "no more" accompanied by hand signal
Say "no, no" accompanied by waving index finger
Say "bye,bye" accompanied by waving her hand
Say "apple, milk, ball, star"
Say "woh, woh" when she sees a dog
Kiss you accompanied with sound effects "muah" when you ask for a kiss
Point to her nose when asked "where is your nose?"
Point to her head when asked "where is your head?"
Nod her head when asked "is it nice?" after she eats something
Nod her head for Yes, shake her head for No
Walk towards me with arms wide open when I say "bao, bao"

There might be more which I cannot recall at the moment but these are the little things she does which makes me feel so proud of her. Pretty soon she will grow so fast that I cannot list all of them down in time. Good job, my baby. Keep it up!

14 months Today!

2008-11-24T12:23:00.003+08:00

Today is 24 Nov, Royal Highness is now a 14 month old toddler! Ah...time flies, I've been saying this so often ever since Royal Highness was born. Its simply amazing how a tiny infant weighing 3.5kg is now a bubbly, active, little girl. From just lying around all day on her back to slowly learning to flip on her tummy, sitting on her own, crawling on all fours, standing with support, walking independently and now attempting to climb and run! Royal Highness went through all these development in just 14 months of her life.

Besides physical growth, Royal Highness has also started to show that she is a girl with her own mind. She now knows what she likes, what she does not like and can shake her head and say "no". She is also capable of throwing tantrums in public places now if she is unhappy! Just yesterday, we brought her to Bookfest. She is a book lover and so she was terribly excited to see all the books everywhere. When we had to leave, she refused to go and insisted on staying behind by swaying her whole body, shaking her head and eventually lying on the floor kicking her legs! All these was of course accompanied by cries which became screams.

I know I am making her sound like a little terror, my friends said that Royal Highness is beginning to show symptoms of the Terrible 2. Ok, to be fair I must say Royal Highness is still a sweet and lovely girl most of the time. In fact, all the teachers in her infantcare adore her and confered her the title of Xiao Mei Nu. Most people we met said she looks like Daddy as she inherited his big eyes and long lashes. So I'm not complaining, as long as she gets the good looks in the family.

I started taking stock of Royal Highness developments last night after she surprised me with a new skill yesterday. She saw me unlocking my gate in the afternoon, we usually do not lock the gate so it was an exception yesterday. To my surprise, she found my keys later in the evening and immediately she walked towards the gate. I thought to myself, she can't be trying to open the gate as I did not teach her and she only saw it once. Guess I was wrong, she could remember how I did it and had learn to imitate my actions just by watching me once!

This experience really reinforces the idea that children see, children do. They are so observant and picks up alot of skills on their own. Look like we really have to be mindful of our language and behavior in front of Royal Highness all the time.

Sick Baby...

2008-11-21T09:31:00.007+08:00

Last night was yet another visit to the GP's clinic. Royal Highness has been done with some type of virus attack every other week ever since she was diagnosed with HFMD a couple of months ago. This time round, she had very bad cough and diarrhoea. The GP prescribed 5 different medication.

Royal Highness has a phobia of taking medicine and its always a struggle to feed her. Imagine 5 syringes of medication I need to shoot down her throat while holding her down with both legs and 1 hand! It was such a traumatic experience for her that she wailed non stop which aggravated her cough and caused her to vomit again. Seeing her suffer like that, my heart aches...I couldn't bear to force her to take anymore medication so I let her drift to sleep while I nursed her.

Royal Highness has been totally breastfed from birth right till 8 months old, after which she is still on partial breastfeeding with only 1 supplement of formula milk. Till today, she is turning 14 months in a few days, I am still breastfeeding her. I had told Daddy that I was so tempted to wean her off totally. With her falling sick so frequently, Daddy actually hope I can breastfeed her as long as possible. It is said that breastfed babies have a better immune system and should fall ill last than non-breastfed babies. I certainly hope Royal Highness is benefiting from my breastmilk. Maybe if I did not breastfeed her, she would have been falling sick more often and more severely... So weaning her off is definitely not my priority now.

New Bikini

2008-11-16T21:54:00.003+08:00

Royal Highness got her 4th piece of swimwear last week. Yup, I couldn't resist buying another cute little bikini for her. Her swimwear collection so far consists of a 1 piece swimming suit, a bikini, and a therma suit. This is her 2nd bikini and since she grows so fast, I'm sure she'll outgrow this soon. Then its time for her 3rd bikini and 4th piece of swimwear. I can't wait cos I had to take awhile to decide on which one to buy last week. All of them look so tiny and cute! I wished I could buy all of them. Well, since I can't fit into any bikini anymore... after birth stretch marks just don't go well with a sexy bikini. So I guess I can only fulfill my itsy bitsy bikini dream on Royal Highness!

Jacob Ballas Childrens Garden Carnival

2008-11-11T20:39:00.005+08:00

Last Sunday, we brought Royal Highness to Jacob Ballas Childrens Garden at 9am. Yes, we were there at 9am...not because we were so eager to go to the garden but because I had to report for work at 9am. My organisation was participating in the Carnival with a stall selling children's arts & craft items. As a result, I had to be there early to setup shop and Daddy wanted to practice his photography skills so Royal Highness had to tag along with us.

I thought we were going to be the only crazy parents to be bringing their children there so early but it turned out that many parents actually decided to be early birds too. We saw many arriving at the garden even before us with children, babies in strollers and maid in tow. I guess its really a norm for parents with young children to wake up early even on weekends! I never got to sleep past 8am even on weekends ever since Royal Highness came along.

And so the morning started with families arriving and greeted with bubbles in the air at the carpark. Royal Highness enjoyed chasing the bubbles and walking round the carnival stalls, touching everything she can reach. By noon, she was so tired and sweaty that she fell asleep for 2 hours in her stroller. Yet, till then we have not even brought her into the garden as I was still busy at the stall which was at the carpark.

Finally at 3pm, after feeding Royal Highness with the hotdog bun bought from the Hard Rock Cafe stall we stepped into the garden. This was actually the second time Royal Highness has been to the garden. The first time she enjoyed walking around the place but was scared when we took her to the water play area. The huge jets of water was terrifying to her and kept wanting me to carry her.

With the last experience, I decided to let her just stay at the area where the low water jets are. It worked, she had a great time feeling the water jets with her hands. But as the weather was simply too hot, she started fussing after 15 mins and we took her out. Royal Highness gets very cranky when she feels hot and she perspires very easily. The next time I will only let her play when theres no sun, probably in the early morning or early evening. Hopefully she will do better than 15 mins on her third visit.

celebrating婆婆birthday

2008-11-05T17:23:00.003+08:00

We celebrated Royal Highness's 婆婆 birthday last Sunday with a yummy marble cheesecake from secret recipe. Royal Highness enjoyed eating cheesecake and kept asking for more.

For dinner we had teppanyaki at Sakae Teppanyaki. It was a great meal complete with foie gras and oyster! 婆婆 loves foie gras and oyster so it was the perfect place to enjoy both delicacies cooked to perfection right in front of you.

birthday girl

2008-11-03T12:24:00.002+08:00

This was taken on 24 September 2008. Royal Highness turned 1 year old on that day.

We threw her a party a few days before that and just had a private celebration for her on her actual birthday. She was smiling as we sang her a birthday song and I felt so happy that she is growing up to be such a brillant little girl.

my 1st post

2008-11-03T11:06:00.000+08:00

I am typing this with a certain nervousness...I have never been good with words and often find myself searching for the right words to express myself. Setting up this blog is definitely a huge challenge I am giving myself.

So why the challenge? Well...although the blogging nation has long since created a huge wave on the internet, I have never been attracted to it. I guess things changed and so do people. After reading many blogs by fellow mummies who diligently recorded their darlings growth and milestones, I find myself inspired.

Is it a little late to start now? Afterall, my daughter whom we call Royal Highness is already 13 months old now! I believe its never too late or too much to tell someone how much you love her and I will continue declaring my love for my Royal Highness through this blog. I hope to document all the wonderful times we have together so that we can all laugh over these fond memories when she is all grown up.

There you have it, my first post and more to come.