The longest day out with Joann mei2.....

As daddy's yi2 and grandson are out from Msia and daddy wanted to bring the boy out to the zoo, we took the opportunity today to bring them out as Ian's off from sch (aft the sch concert) and it was also the 1st time Joann is at the zoo....tho it was tough deciding whether to bring the infant, it wouldn't be complete if we dun go along...so here we are at the zoo with the unpredictable weather and our gal hehehe

We managed to catch 3 of the shows and actually Mervin (the boy) wanted to see elephants but it was drizzling so the show was called off and we wanted to ride the elephant but the heavy downpour came so he din get to see elephants....Joann was cooperative in the zoo as she was sound asleep in the pram except for occasional carrying for feed or too loud music so she was gd till rain poured endlessly and was a little worried getting wet but we were at the eating area and spotted this buggy fetching pple so mama went to ask if we could be ferried out as we have an infant and thanks to Joann, we had the privilege to be buggied out of the zoo to car park hhehee

And we headed to the airport for the 2 boys to run ard and to have dinner....so we were there seeing planes and 2 monkeys climbing ard....they were both shy at the morning when we 1st met and there at airport they both got so acquainted and started talking so much except that they had a little language barrier....Ian was speaking mandarin at the end of the day and Mervin was speaking English to Ian hahhaa it was quite hilarious hearing them speaking the lang which they weren't so gd in but it was a fun fun day out catching up with yi2....we were out for almost 12 hrs with our little infant and it was a challenge hahaa so we SURVIVED with her missing her beauty nap!

Popcorn, Anyone???

Coz of the PH's visit to 313 Somerset, mama happened to d/l an app for that mall and it came with a coupon for a small Garrett Popcorn and we din redeem on that day as it was super long queue and Ian did ask why we din have popcorn so told him we shall be back and today, after church we dropped by to redeem it and have our lunch....it was to fulfil that promise we told him and also some time ago when he 1st had it at GWC when we told him we will get it someday to share with gor2 and jie2....and today we were quite pleased to get that bag FOC as it was quite a big pack...enough to share with all BUT we had an issue choosing the flavor hahaha coz mama wanted caramel and Ian wanted cheese...arrgghh the lady was nice to see our little 'squabble' and offered to mix for us hahaha but telling me she will give lesser cheese hhhaaa

Back home, Ian loved both and was munching caramel too so we took these 2 pics....the popcorn has been ard in States for 60 yrs (3 generation recipe) so the pic on top says been ard for 60 yrs

But this pic says Gone in 60 secs hahaha.... it can be quite true coz its sinfully yummy hahaha but glad the boy has heart for gor2 and jie2 to share....sorry dayi, couldn't quite keep to share with u tho we would love to hehheee so today we got a little pleasant surprise all thanks to Apple's app....if u wanna try it's Sprooki app...but wonder if its still on....

Ian's 1st performance at sch concert

At Ian's sch, there is performance for everyone in every level even the youngest at the Pre Nursery and this yr it happened to be the sch's 90th anniversary (yes, Chinese Kindergarten has been ard for that long!) and it was a mega big event together with the K2's graduation and alot of rehearsal has been put in place (for the whole wk before the actual day all levels are into intense rehearsals!) so we were anticipating for the actual concert since it's our very 1st seeing Ian performing but we have an infant at tow so wonder if it would be cumbersome as it's in an auditorium....

Anw Ian was excited when he came back with his goodie bag....yes coz the actual day has fun fair carnival as well so we got more stuff like the anniversary t-shirt and coupons as well.....Ian's in a chinese kungfu dance and it was kindof fun coz he has been showing us the dance steps back at home so we wonder what kindof dance it would be

It has been so long since mama visited the sch coz of confinement and then Ian's on sch bus and so the teacher was excited to see mama hheheee anw we exchanged a little and took pic of the class in the same costume (tho some were later than us so not in the pic but Ian's Emily is in the pic hehhe) and the event went quite well....mama was impressed how the storyline linked all the classes up for the concert....and the graduation ceremony went quite meaningful as the principal shared of an African proverb that 'it takes a village to raise a child' and was saying with all the Tg Pagar MP and grassroot pple it meant more of 'it takes a community to raise a child' in our context and the sch was emphasising on each kid being independent when they go out of sch rather than emphasising on their cirricumlum and that made us double assured that we got Ian into the right sch coz we are not wanting a smart kid to come out of the preschool but rather one who is independent and confident kid....and the grad class sang a song which was pretty meaningful....was a chinese song but it says of how the Lord will lead each into the world which is why we wanna Ian into a church sch so that he will learn all these songs at young age and will bring him thru his growing up yrs....lately been hearing him sing 'What a mighty God we serve' and also 'In my life, Lord be glorified' and even in class time they learn 'This little light of mine' and thus we hope he will slowly grow to learn more of our Lord...guess the concert kindof give us a glimpse of the things he is getting from sch and it was real nice to be part of the sch and can't wait to attend Ian's graduation concert hahhaaa

Ian's 1st try at decorating cake at The Icing room

Some time ago, we got this Groupon coupon in decorating cake at The Icing room at discounted price and thot it might be interesting for the kids and today, being a PH we decided to bring the kids to 313 Somerset to do it and it was quite 'fun' as in we had all the stuff to decorate ur own 6' inch cake and it was quite fun to do it but the more u drew and put on the cake, it looked quite messy at the end of it hahhaa

Ian loved the flowers and put quite alot of them on it (tho there were still alot left) and on the cake we had his and Joann's name (but she can't quite eat cake yet!) and he was most pleased to be bringing his cake home coz at the end of it, the person there did ask how many candles we wanted and asked for 4 and when we had the cake back home, Ian insisted to light the candles and made daddy and mama sing him the bday song....duh and he was saying the next time we go.....hhmm we shall see but it was kindof fun for us all as mei2 was cooperative in the pram with daddy while mama decorated the cake with Ian

Joann mei2's baby shower!

Ian has been anticipating for mei2's 'party' even before she was born coz we told her of mei2 and how we would celebrate her birth and guess it has been a LONG wait for him so that morning he couldn't wait and jumped up from his bed at past 6 to tell us it's MEI2'S PARTY!! Argghh so the day started early for us and then the day goes on...

We were really glad AL gu2 offered her place's function room for the baby shower which meant more space for the guests and most impt, we din need to clean up aft the event esp now that we have 2 kids....so we were glad we have our all relatives and friends coming by to see our little bundle of joy and to end it off we had this My Melody cake (which Ian chose it coz his sis is born in the yr of rabbit!) and it was a gift from ah mu and ah baa family....we are just so thankful to God for this little bundle of joy bestowed upon us! And yes, the 1 mth has finally gone past! And we could be out soon with the 4 of us!

Ian is 4 yrs and 7 mths old!

So much has took place this mth for Ian and he's adjusting to his new role back at home. Well this last 1 week sch break was his last stay over before mei2 comes along and he was happy to be over at po2's pl (as usual!) and this time he did alot there....he completed this puzzle and did alot stuff there....well that was the wk we were anticipating our gal to come along but she din and Ian kept asking y so long...ya we wonder why too hhehee

This mth, Ian started playing with his bb blankie to be a LONG-HAIR GAL hahaaa well initially he said Rapunzel then he realised it wasn't so long so he changed to long hair gal and he started really trying to make as long as possible and then trying to comb it...sigh Ian, u are a boy leh but well we just let him imagine then....he kept asking us to name mei2 Lowell....wonder why he can pronounce the name but can't spell for us so we supp its this spelling...anw he asked y we din call him Lowell hahaa u can name ur gal in future this name lah!

Yes, day in and day out he kept asking y mei2 takes so long to be out...yes guess when we knew we were expecting, we told him how mama's tummy will grow and mei2 will grow inside and mama needs to go hosp to deliver and how he can't tag along....he has been understanding so when po2 told him he was gonna stay in hosp....he actually said NO, coz hosp for mama only...we din wanna tell him earlier there is a possibility of staying over coz we weren't sure if we could get a single ward so when ah mu told him there was a BIG cot for him, guess he was overjoyed as it meant a staycation for him esp to welcome mei2 dearest! Anw just glad to unload mei2 coz u can see mama's tummy was really huge when we tried take this pic of Ian sayang mei2 which he does quite often before mei2 came out and he tried psycho mei2 come out faster but guess it just din work hahaa

Just a couple of days before mei2's arrival, mama dug out some balloons for him to play with and he imagined some party for mei2....anw he just loves the balloon altho they were too old else mama could twist some animals for him to be 'wow' over hahaha we shall go get some new ones soon to let him play with the animals....well these balloons must be at least over 5 yrs coz rem we did bring to some church camp so it meant they were bought before we had Ian hahaa no wonder they burst so easier after pump! But simple as it is, the boy loves it all!

Last wkend, he insisted going dayi's hostel when dayi came by to bring him out and he brought back this popsicle maker and we did make some ribena popsicle which he loves it...guess its easy and cheap hahaha so it was his 1st ice cream making and he was happy...it's really ICE only I guess hahaa some thrills to make him happy with our confinement period

Ian loves to see his beloved mei2 and he loves to see it real close in case mei2 cant see him hahaaa so every morning he will wanna wake up to laze beside her....and sometimes when mama is feeding her, he will ask if mei2 can face him but tried telling him mei2 gotta face mama when feeding coz the mouth is there....arrgghh guess he's slowly understanding but he just loves seeing mei2...initially he was coughing and he can so considerate that he told mama that he's thinking carefully whether to kiss mei2 coz he doesn't wanna spread the cough to mei2 but now that he's not coughing he doesn't consider so much hahaa guess he can't wait for the day mei2 can play with him

The time of the day he loves is when mei2 takes shower.....he will be there saying 'clean ur eyes, clean ur face' and sometimes even making some band there with his tamborine and flute coz he knows he can make noise then as mei2 is most awake then....then he will busy helping with the diaper and wet wipes and everything else.....sometimes he will insist mei2 bathes first so he can be there watching....well our nites become quite short coz Ian goes wo nap so he sleeps abt 830pm and mei2 sleeps even earlier, straight after her bath!

And at bedtime, Ian has this routine of praying short, medium and long prayer so we take turns...it used to be with daddy but these days daddy has much to clear up so Ian will wait for mama to be done with feeding mei2 then we do our prayers. And Ian's getting quite lengthy in his prayers and he tries to rem to pray for everyone in his prayer...sometimes he even remind mama din pray for so and so who is not well....hhmm he becomes the prayer warrior huh....so if u need prayer, let him know....except sometimes mei2 doesn't sleep so fast and Ian might just doze off and mama just need to keep him in prayer for the day to go on well with him and mei2 at home!

This is the 1st official Children's day for Ian coz now that he goes sch and they celeb so he was so so happy to be back with so much goodies from his teachers and he came home laying them out and wanting to eat this and that and for the children's day celeb, they went Jacob Ballas Children's garden...wonder how it went and will wait for pics to be posted on their blog then....that is his 2nd outing and he enjoys going outing and kept asking mama when is the next one...guess it will be his K1 yr already...so fast another 6 wks to go and it will be term break again

This is the mth to mark Ian transiting from an only child to gor2 and he is still adjusting as we all can see and we hope we will all adjust well as this is also our transiting mth since we just had a new addition...it's never easy but we will get there with God's help....in Him do we trust! There has been alot of ups and downs in this mth but we gone thru the downs with every step of faith in God and we are sure He will lead us thru every step of journey!

A little miracle from God!

Conceiving this little one has been a true miracle as we only discovered at wk 13 and the whole 1st trimester has just breezed past without our realization and we could only praise God for seeing the little one growing in mama as there were incidents (now that we look back) that probably would have taken away our little blessing.At the onstart of our gynae visit, (we went back to the same gynae who delivered Ian coz it was near our place and his clinic's operation hrs just made it easier for our regular visit) and on the 1st visit, he did tell us he might not be ard during our delivery as he would be away ard Sep but we sticked on to him coz of the convenience. And at wk 20 when we did the detailed scan at TMC, she was on a breech position (lying diagonally) and we raised the concern to our gynae buthe told us the baby is still small and she could still be turning and the latest is by wk 36 that she must be heading downwards so that kindof put us at peace that it wasn't something to look out for. BUT at wk 28's visit, the gynae said she's still at breech position and again our concern is by wk 36 she must be engaged downwards facing (guess this was NEVER our concern when we had Ian as he turned downwards pretty early or rather we din quite bother abt breech at that time and din know what turning downwards mean) so we started praying for the little one to turn downwards and she did at wk 32's visit and we were truly glad she did the right thing! haha and we got our admission letter to Mt A shld she decides to come out earlyAnw what we din expect was at wk 36's visit (ie 26 Aug 2011), the gynae actually said the scan showed her going to diagonal position again (ie breech) arrgghh just when we were preparing for the day she went to turn again when he said it was almost highly unlikely for her to turn to face downwards and he would be away and gave us an amended admission letter to show that she's in breech position and shld she be ready to deliver, we ought to rush to hosp as it would be dangerous to deliver her naturally and told us he would be back on 6 Sep and if she's not out then, we need to consider c-section which he usually does at 38 wks which is the wk he would be back. And on 6 Sep when we visited him, we were anxious but were just happy when we found out that she has turned downwards again and this was truly a miracle since he told us it was unlikely so this must have been the hands of God at work! So now, we could only wait for her to come out naturally!On 13 Sep, we visited the gynae for the 39th wk check and he told us if she's not out by the next visit, he would only allow max of 3 days past the EDD and we would need to induce her out. Our prayer now is for her to come out at God's perfect timing and that since we have experienced God's miracle already, there was nothing we could do but to trust in God's goodness and timing for indeed her life belongs to God!

How's the gor2 doing??

Guess alot pple are concerned abt Ian when mei2's out and well we are doing well and this gor2 truly loves his mei2....altho there are still ways he could help, he has been trying his best to keep his volume down (really tough for a boy who has been the only child for 4 yrs and been noisy all this while so we are still teaching him) anw he's been gd from the day we had to go hosp and he was gd to stay home and zzz and go sch as normal (except skipping sch on the day we discharged from hosp coz guess he din sleep well in his big cot in the hosp!)

And since coming home, he's been wanting to follow mei2 wherever she goes and even din wanna go out but aft mama assured him that mei2 will still be home when he returns then he is fine abt going out without mama and mei2 tho his often asked question is 'mama, when can u and mei2 go out again?' hahaaa this is a qn mama also keep asking and counting down sigh...why need to do confinement! arrgghh

And Ian loves being the little helper....from the day he observed how daddy cleans mei2 and bath her, he loves to be there whenever mei2 is taking her bath....he wanna be the one taking out the cotton wool for daddy to say 'clean ur eyes and clean ur face' hahaha and he even mimic aft daddy and he will wanna take the wet wipes and diaper and lie it there....and then he will be busy watching then followed by getting the mitten and bootie ready....it's quite heartwarming to see how our little 4 yo son is wanting to help out in every way and also this is the time we allow him to make alot of noise coz to keep mei2 awake but within a wk, mei2's so accustom to bathing and doesn't cry anymore, guess we are all adjusting well!

Yes, this confinement period mama brought out toys that have been prep for this period and he could play beyblade with daddy but he kept wanting to show mei2 so we allowed a while to ensure the beyblade doesn't fly off and hit mei2....anw he's gd wanting to share with mei2 every little joy in his life!

We went to enrol Joann for the library....hheee hoping to be the youngest lib member of the mth anw daddy borrowed some baby books for mei2 and Ian wanted daddy to read to him 1st and well we did and soon he picked up the words and wanted to read to mei2....well he's doing well with everything he wanna share with mei2 and each time he comes back from sch, church or outdoor he will wanna go and sayang mei2 and sometimes we wonder if mei2 will wanna ask where he goes coz it's so so obvious when he's home and when he's not coz of the volume of noise at home hahahaa well its been a gd 2 weeks start coz daddy has been back to work and we thoroughly enjoyed the quality family time we had for the 1st wk coz daddy was there to play with Ian while mama gets used to feeding mei2 and getting accustomed to the endless tiring nites again

Ian starts sch bus with mei2's arrival

Yes, it has been agreed that with mei2's arrival, Ian will start taking sch bus....he only agreed upon arrival of mei2 and when we asked the sch bus uncle, there was only space for his return trip which means daddy gotta fetch him to sch every day for the rest of the 7 weeks of the term or either ah maa could take bus with him and he will take sch bus home. Today was the 1st day and he loves his sch bus ride home....he was sitting with his classmate and tho he said dunno his friend was talking abt in mandarin, he enjoyed having someone he knew on the bus and he shld have his grp mate Isabelle tmr for sch bus as she stays next block but today there is art class aft sch so she is staying later....well gd start for a boy who din want to take sch bus and he was asking when he could take bus to sch as well....well well next yr we guess since by then its tough for mama to lug mei2 together to go sch on bus on rainy days!