| Sunday, December 31, 2006 |
| A Learning Need |
My heart is aching this very moment. A while back, the kid chocked on some water that was given to her by me.
I encouraged her to hold her bottle, which she obligingly did. Initially, with one hand, then with both tiny paws. She looked happy enough, slipping water. Out of the blue, she stopped. Her eyes went all big on her tiny face. Water had gotten into the wrong tube. I watched as the kid struggled for breath and prayed with all my heart that she could. All that time, the kid had a look of alarm on her face. I was immobilized as I wondered if she had the strength of cough the water out. She did and she protested very, very loudly.
Time has slowed down then. I could not remember the last time when my heart ached so badly.
I have to learn CPR and soon!Labels: feeding, motherhood |
posted by Chris @ 8:34 pm  |
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| Tuesday, December 26, 2006 |
| Bon Voyage Colin and Eileena! |
 Colin and Eileena at our Christmas' eve gathering. Both in crazy pink - a statement of their bold move to Bangkok?
The Christmas’ eve gathering was held at our place this year. It went against the home rotation tradition: E1’s, Kiat’s, ours (in order of who got their homes first). The party could not be held at Kiat’s because a day ago, movers packed everything (cups, saucers, coasters, telly, players, remote controls, lamp, lamp shades, tissue holders, candle holder, place mats, CDs, records, books – everything) and brought them away. The couple slept on mattress without sheets and blankets, and shared one pillow and one bolster.
Their stuffs (excluding those which had been brought over for storage at their parents’ homes, and those that they will be carrying with them) have been packed in 24 boxes, and will be waiting for them in a Bangkok apartment. Kiat got a two-years stint there at his company’s Thai office; and Eileena managed to get a post in her company’s office there.
Today, one of our dearest and closest couple friends is moving to Bangkok. Their plane leaves this afternoon at 2PM. I just sent them an SMS to wish them bon voyage and Kiat’s reply said it all: “Tks! We will be missing the gang too… See you guys soon!”
Bye Kiat and Eileena. The gang will miss you guys dearly! We looked forward to our board games parties – to beat the 6-cards record in Taboo and to rule Middle Earth at Risk - Lord of the Rings verion. In the meantime, have the greatest adventure away from home! We will want to hear your crazy stories from the land of thousand smiles and city of racing tut-tuts! Labels: Eileena, friends, Kiat |
| posted by Chris @ 1:26 pm |
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| Monday, December 25, 2006 |
| Merry Christmas! |
Christmas Tree by Andy Warhol
 Dearest Santa,
Christmas came early for us this year. May to be exact. You have given us the gift of unconditional love - we gave and we received. We felt in love again, for each other and for our kid. She is a true miracle, so dear and unassuming.
We are thankful for each other and for our health. Our families have been great. You may have heard us complained, but we are thankful for our jobs.
We can't think of anything material that we would swap with our blessings. This has been a fantastic year. We are indeed grateful!
Love Wil and Chris
Hanging out late has taxed our bodies, for we spent most of Christmas sleeping. We are getting old!Labels: cerebration, holiday |
| posted by Chris @ 11:40 pm |
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| The Christmas Party |
Alyssa, Sonia, E1, Wil, Chris, Andy and Sonia (again) on Christmas' Eve (blur pics alert - the old camera seems to be acting up :( ) Christmas’ Eve was well-spent with good old friends at our place. The usual Christmas gang of E1, Alyssa, their kid Sonia (she is twenty months and this is her second year with us), Andy, Ying Kai, Kiat and Eileena. A comfortable routine has been established over the years, so much so that the gang knew what time to turn up and what food to bring. The feast consisted of:
Starters
1. Pineapple slices coated in mint sugar
2. Kiwi and strawberry punch with pomegranate
(clockwise from top left) Salmon and tuna sashimi, setting the table, Andy craving the turkey and Swedish meatballs with purple and white potato. Yum! Main Course
1. 1.8 kg of turkey breast with gourmet sauce
2. 1.5 kg Swedish Roast beef
3. 50 meatballs with purple and white potato, served in thick creamy sauce
4. Huge (I mean could-not-finish kind of huge) serving of salmon and tuna sashimi
5. Generous serving of green salad with prawns, pasta and potato
Dessert
1. Ice-cream log cake (Ying Kai’s purview)
2. 3 tubs of ice-creams – they are Ben and Jerry’s this year (Andy probably had enough of our nagging and brought in the good stuffs this year)
3. Grahams (got its name from the Grahams biscuits used between the layers of peaches and Nestle cream)
Snacks
1. Original Nachos with guacamole dips
2. Prawn chips
3. Many bags of jelly bears
Drinks
1. 1 bottle of Rose wine
2. ¾ bottle of white wine (got it from the duty-free at the airport from the Hong Kong trip)
3. 3 cans of beers
4. 4 cups of Milo
5. 6 cups of passion fruit tea
6. Countless cups of water
That night, everyone’s calorie counters went bonkers that night and ran off together somewhere. We ate and ate, and probably consumed enough to last us till next Christmas.
When no one could muster another morsel, we proceed to the yearly board game challenge. Around one, Justin and Cynthia came to join us for a game of black jack. The party did not end like early morning. Our last guests left almost at four. Wil and I then packed the house. You reached a stage in your life when you have like three candles on your birthday cake, you feel blessed with friends whom you trust. People you meet less than two times a year (more on a good one), but who will stick with you through sick and sin. Who laugh at the same joke about how silly we were went we were younger. Who fill us up with fresh news about old acquaintances? It was a great night and morning. The kid slept through the party, to the dismay of our guests. Kiat told me to get her up as it was after all Christmas. He was ignored. The kid must have sensed that our guests were eager to see her for she actually woke up around ten. Our friends went berserk and cooed to her. She would have nothing of that. Just a couple of cool grins and blank stares. And off she went. Like Nichole Kidman on the Oscar's red carpet. Our friends all agreed – the kid is mini Wil. Those trademark ears and eyebrows. Labels: cerebration, holiday, list |
| posted by Chris @ 4:00 am |
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| Friday, December 22, 2006 |
| iDesire |
The papers wrote today that one of the top five Christmas gift people hope not to receive is a photo frame. Well guess what, I have been hankering for three year now? A photo frame. A digital photo frame to be exact. (Seriously! This is not a hint.)
I have been scouting around for this item the first time I saw it three years ago on some IT shop on TV. The frame is actually a small LCD screen that is around the size of a regular photo frame. There are slots for the different types of memory cards that are compatible to ones used in the camera. It displays digital images either with transitions or in static. Some of them have music (your choice using MP3 technology) to accompany the image display. Oh boy. The desire is strong. It used to cost around a grand back then. Checked the price out again last year (during the annual IT fair) and then at the airport this year. Quoted price was six hundred and four hundred respectively. With my budget of a hundred and fifty dollars, I guess it may be another three years of wait. Bummer!Labels: buying |
| posted by Chris @ 11:47 am |
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| Sunday, December 17, 2006 |
| Happy Holidays! |
 Check her out being out on a December weekend. Just love this time of the year - the weather is cool, there is vacation leave to clear, the family gets more time together, the mood at work is relaxed and shops are having their annual year-end sales. And have you ever noticed that out of a sudden, the cinemas are actually screening better movies? I am curious about Charlotte's Web and the Zhang Yimou's new epic staring Gong Li, who else. Then, there CHRISTMASMAS (yes, it deserves to be spelt using capital letters)!!! We took the kid out on Christmas shopping today. This time around (see last time here), I made sure to check her bag - twice, to make sure we've got it covered. Started the day at a bistro in town. We had brunch of waffles, sausages and tea, while she had her milk. Slipped a couple pinches of waffles into her mouth and that made her day. That was followed by a tour around the town's supermarket to get Guacamole dips, and whole cranberry sauce for our dinner party on Christmas' eve. Then, we got even more gifts for even more people. E1 and Alyssa will be getting Scene-It (Friends Edition), while Colin and Eileena will get the original Rush Hour - Traffic Jam Puzzle. For Andy, we got this cool pic-frame of mouse and cheese motif. Ying Kang will get this fish-themed handy hanger. We were in shop-aradise. Spending frenzy. The Christmas carols all jazzed up with new funky beats made our adrenaline flow. We were unstoppable. Our credit cards must have gotten thinner with all the swiping. Throughout the action, the kid was divined. She was lovely to everyone she met. To sum it all up, it was a good day out! Labels: buying, cerebration, holiday |
| posted by Chris @ 9:51 pm |
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| Friday, December 15, 2006 |
| Who is Yea-Yea? |
Her Yea-Yea (paternal grandfather) is 65 this year. He is no longer a young bird, that is for sure. I strongly feel the need for the kid to discover more about him. Beyond the Yea-Yea who plays with her and eats his porridge with fish. Not just a person who says "Beep-Beep" (think Road-runner) to her. I want her to see him under a different ligh. What is more about her Yea-Yea that she does not know?
Her Yea-Yea:
1) is a true-blue Teochew and proud of it! He insisted that she carries the middle name of her generation. He likes is Teochew porridge with steamed fish. He took his auntie (who staying in the UK for many years) to his favourite Teochew restaurant in Chinatown. His current mission is to teach her the Teochew dialect.
2) made sewage clean - the oxymoron is most fitting as he was deeply (pun unintentional) involved in changing sewage into clean drinking water. He retired most gracefully from this job 6 years ago.
3) is a dedicated son, husband, father and grandfather. The breadwinner to his parents (the kid's great-grandparents), wife and three kids. He paid for all of his children's university fees. He brought his family to overseas trips.
4) keeps a set of rubber stamps from his father's (kid's paternal great grandfather) company.
5) loves karaoke. From Abba to ZZ Top. Songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s - he knows them all and bleats them with great enthuse.
6) loves her to bits. She makes him happy with her wide grins. He said that he is happy to have a grandkid with a simley face : )
I wonder what else does Yea-Yea wish for her to know, and I wonder what conversations they will have. I know blood is thick and in her family, it is really viscous.Labels: family |
| posted by Chris @ 10:11 pm |
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| Wednesday, December 13, 2006 |
| "See How They Run" |
Took the day off and brought the kid to the new Ikea. Dad drove us as the car was with Wil (he had to work). One of the rare opportunity to be out as a three-generations party. Think Dad is happy too because he was looking at kid's furniture and accessories.
Treated Dad to the famous Swedish meatballs - twelve of them to be exact. He mentioned that he was used to eating like three beef balls (together with his beef noodles). Got a feeling he will not be ordering them again. Ops! That aside, the kid got a treat too. She shared some of potatoes from Dad's plate. Been feeding her things from our plates to expose her palette to what adults eat.
Half-way into the meal, I got up to make milk for the kid. To my horror, I realised that the milk power was not in her bag! Initially I looked around and thought of begging other mommies for milk donations. However, I am not sure if it was a good idea to feed her milk of another brand. On that note, our outing was cut-short. It was a mad rush through the store, to the check-out counter, out to the parking lot and store exit! We must have looked really ammusing because all of the sudden, people around us started to move really slowly while we were like Neo in Matrix. We took off! All the time, we were expecting the kid to scream or show her displeasure.
Either the kid was not as hungry as we expected or that she was distracted by all the bright layouts, for she was cool as cucumber throughout our rush to get back. Phew! Milk was served 30 minutes late. She took it quietly.
I kicked myself again and have to say it once more - she's a great kid!
Note to all. Check baby's bag before every outing - they have baggage issues.Labels: buying, family, feeding, motherhood |
| posted by Chris @ 8:56 pm |
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| Friday, December 08, 2006 |
| Bedside Manners |
*Repeated Blog Themes*
This entry is on sleep. I have an inherent obsession about sleep. I talk about when I have too little/too much, disrupted/blissful, dreams-filled/dreams-free, same bed/different bed, whatever. I read before I sleep, is chirpy after I sleep, my body manifests into a time-telling instrument in sleep (Wil tells me I turn around the bed very much like the hour-hand of a clock). This site was conceived when the kid was asleep (see here). There used to be a banner that hinted to those of you who follow this blog on how little sleep we were getting. Well 6 months later, I have even more to say about sleep.
According to good old Gina, the kid should not sleep for more than three-hours in the day. So, we follow a certain schedule to ensure her days are filled with different activities (drinking milk and bathing are part of them). This is to ensure she could sleep through in the night. I have to say she has been rather cooperative for she has been sleeping through since she was 6-weeks old.
On our part, we do our best to let her rest in the night. The TV's volume is tuned really low because she is such a light-sleeper, she gets awaken easily by telly noises. We grumbled to each other that we had to read the subtitles or lip-read simply because the volume is rather inaudible. At times, I wonder why I was whispering to Wil. Sure, all that beats having to rock her all night long.
 
Despite our best efforts, the kid has taken to waking up in the middle of the night. She wakes up because she has moved herself out from the preferred sleeping position (PSP). She gets out of the PSP once or twice nightly and the kid announces her wakefulness with an urgent cough-like sound. She wants you to put her back to her PSP. You have got to turn her and POOF! Just like the light, back to sleep again.
I would like to think I have been rather patient about this. This phase has been going on for like a month. I think she must learn to get back to sleep on her own. I am not keen to be awake by her demand to be turned. Sure, I know this is an easy phase but it sucks to be awoken nightly.
Truly wonder what other tricks has she hidden up her sleeves. For such as small kid, she sure has lots of tricks. Boy, I am so not ready for them all.Labels: motherhood, routine, schedule, sleeping |
| posted by Chris @ 5:58 pm |
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| Wednesday, December 06, 2006 |
| They come in pairs |
This is Kwua-Kwua. Kwua-Kwua has been to two places. The kid's bed and her mouth. When I got home from Hong Kong on Sunday, I noticed that the kid has got two tiny teeth peeping out from her lower gum. Hah hah! So our "hypothesis" on her recent bout of *cranky-ness* (see below) was proven true. She was not "much ado about nothing". Those pearly white incisors had finally cut through (ouch right?) her pink gums. We have not figured out if we should (a) brush them and (b) how to do (a).
Currently, we do not have a picture of those teeth. If she could keep still long enough, with her mouth opened and gums exposed, perhaps we could get a close-up? Perhaps.
I would like to take this opportunity to do a progress report for her (something I swore I will not do as well). Over the past month and a-half, we are proud to say that the kid is progressing really well. She is able to:
- sit, tripod style - crossed-legged; with hands in front and on the floor,
- sit, unassisted - good thing as she can play on the play mat for over 30 minutes,
- creep - on her tummy and squirming around (can do around the same period as #1 and 2),
- do push-ups - similar to push-ups while on her hands and knees,
- crawl - getting better and better
- stand up and stand, with someone supporting her hands - she is steady for a minute or so,
- stand up and stand, on her own - leveraging on certain pieces of furniture
- hold on firmly to her toys – even the balls!
And now, the teeth! They are really entertaining things. She makes soft, scratchy sounds when chewing on the apple. Wil thought they were one of the most amusing sounds he heard. I will describe it as similar to using a spoon to scrape an apple or a potato.
Can’t decide what else to feed her : )
* Included in her list of "cranky" actions are:
- crying multiple times in the middle of the night for no apparant reason
- biting everything from pillows, kwua-kwua, thumps and fingers (hers and ours), teats, toys
- leaving drool-lines across places she crawled, sat, carried on
- fussing furiously in the car-seat
- chewing on either or both lips
- sticking her tongue like a snake
Labels: motherhood, routine, schedule, teeth, teething |
| posted by Chris @ 8:34 pm |
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| Monday, December 04, 2006 |
| (Our) Little Miss Sunshine |
 I caught myself looking at other people’s kids in Hong Kong. I stopped myself from going up and taking them in my arms. I missed cuddling my own kid. I need not get a permission to do so. A cuddle is free and the returns are huge!
In their simplified world, babies asked only for a few things, however the love they give back to you is so great. A smile, a laugh and a look dissolves away feeling of anger, frustration and hurt. It is the simple things that count, really.
I look back upon those days away from her and I realized that I missed her for not just what she is but what she has been giving back to us – A purer meaning and feeling of love.
Dear Kid,
We would like to say thank you for being you. You are like a little bundle of happiness that fills our lives with even more love and joy. We are thankful to have a happy kid who beams at everyone around you. You made us happy and proud parents. You brought bliss to your grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins. You are a great little kid.
Love, Us
Labels: letter, motherhood |
| posted by Chris @ 11:47 am |
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