Happy 牛 (Niu) Year

GONG XI FA CAI

Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox! We have the norms every year, reunion dinner, more dinners and house visiting, party and more parties. The happiest person has to be Chloe cos she gets to snack on all the keropoks, snacks and all sorts of cakes and cookies. Strange thing is she hates the 'ang pow' this year, so I pocket it all. Ha! :)

Raphael all dressed up and ready to go for his reunion dinner and since he is not getting any yummy Chinese food later, he shall make do by sucking his fingers this year.

'Trust me, this is better than your lo-hei and abalone.'

Waiting for the lo-hei. Chloe looooves the lo-hei, tossing and throw, this is the one time you get to mess with your food, the messier, the better. She ate 3 plates minus the raw salmon.

Very happy with the lo-hei and waiting patiently for the next dish to be served.

Taking a break

All done with dinner! Yum!

Cheeky girl going 'Don't take my picture!'

Off to grandma's place, deck out in their Chinese 'dresses'. This pink cheongsam is from last year and it fits her better this time but the buttons are falling off due to her tugging. Raphael is the angel here who lets me dressed him up without any fuss, simply because he is still too young to protest. The pink cheongsam lasted only after this picture because she complained that 'it's itchy', the collar is too high. Ok, that is the beginning of my wardrobe nightmare.

Red cheongsam? 'NO! I don't want to wear this.'

White dress? 'Nope!'

Spaghetti strap smocked dress? Oops too loose.

I was about to let her go out naked with she finally settled for the 5th piece. Gosh! She's 2 and I have to negotiate and raid the wardrobe to get her into something without her ripping it off the next minute. I need a shower by the time she is decently dressed.

The sundress that saves the day and my sanity

On the third day, we went over to Jenann and Ronnie's place. Raphael making himself at home on the couch while Chloe played with her friends.

Chloe and Caden

Milking away

Chloe is very fascinated with breastfeeding, maybe because she's a breastfed baby so she can feel the attachment and joy that comes with it. When she saw me nursing Raphael, she 'nurses' her plush dogs and bears.

And now my pump is her latest fascination. I have to hide from her each time I'm using it or rather I have to be very discreet and sneaky. It's impossible for me to leave Curious George alone, locked myself in a room and pump in peace cos she is very capable of tearing the door down with her banging and letting the whole neighborhood knows what I'm doing 'MUMMY! LET ME IN! I WANT TO PUMP MILK TOO!'

She saw me leaving the pump by the sink and not wasting a single second, she moved her potty over as her step stool and finally lay claim on it. Trying to find the right spot.

All ready... squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Here she is, pumping right away, under the sink.

Showing off to me she announced loudly, 'Mummy, see I can pump too.'

Enjoying

'Chloe is in school so I get the whoooole couch to myself. I can sit here and suck my thumb to my heart's content. What a luxury!'

'I'm practising my baby yoga at the same time, giving my hamstring a good stretch.'

'I bet you have never tried this before, sucking your thumb, chewing your romper and stretching your hamstring, ALL at the same time. This is what I call multi-tasking.'

'Ar...g...Someone help me down, please.'

'I'm done with my fingers and romper, I want to eat my 'apple' now. Bon appetit!'

Hop little bunny!

'Don't touch my ears!'

Chloe came home wearing her rabbit ears. She was beaming with pride when I opened the car's door to welcome her home. 'MUMMY! I made these!' Here's she refusing to take a picture as she is worried that I may take off her ears to change her out of her uniform. The ears are her precious treasure now.

In a happier mood now, after being reassured for a 101th time that I'm not going to touch her ears.

What's with the shirt?

Apparently, besides milk and his fingers, Raphael has found something new to suck. His shirt front. He was first very contented just grabbing and tugging it one day, then progress to stuffing the whole thing into his mouth. I thought he drooled a pool but looking at the creases on his romper, he was definitely chewing it. And I caught him red handed.

'Hi mom! This is delicious... the next best thing to my fingers, yah. Why didn't you tell me so earlier?'

'Don't you try to stop me. I love the taste of my 'recycled drool'.'

First day in school

Rise and shine... at 7.00am. This is the beginning of her early mornings and mine as well. A whole lot earlier than when she is attending playgroup at Julia Gabriel. The first thing she said when she woke up was 'Mummy, I want to eat mum mum.' I was hoping she would say something like, 'Bring me to school now!'

I have been prepping her by telling her what to expect in school, story time, artwork, music and of course we keep reminding her of the big playground, basically school is fun!

Let's hope she will not have any first day jitters, crying her lungs out.

All ready to go in her new uniform. Look at her sleepy eyes... haha.

She is very excited to wear her 'pretty dress' which is a bit too long for her.

Wheels by the beach

Breakfast by the beach! A long time since we actually make an effort to wake up early for breakfast out of the house. We are here with a purpose. See, the mummies wanted to take up skating and we planned to do this every weekend as soon as they got their gears.

I can't remember when was the last time I put on my skates for a spin, 3 years? or was it 4 years ago. My 4 wheelers are a goner now and my 5 wheelers are too tight for me. The funniest thing is I found my old skin suit in the wardrobe, they are 9 years old. I think I will look like a whale if I'm ever going to be able to squeeze inside them and that is if I'm able it zip it up without tearing the zipper.

A group of eager people waiting to get their breakfast and new skates after breakfast. I had some idly and lassi from Komala, which I had been craving for the whole of last night.

Samantha sulking in style cos she got to work for her milk as her tee says.

'Where's my french toast and milk?'

'Hmm... my breakfast...'

'My 2 girlfriends.'

Chloe waiting impatiently for the adults to finish their shopping before she can zip off in her scooter.

The mummies with their new and not so new skates.

Getting ready for school

Chloe will be attending regular school starting from next week, 3.5 hours from Monday to Friday. A new chapter for her as she will be alone unlike her playgroup where one of us has to stay in with her. Cranston and her had a lot of fun shopping and trying out their new uniform today.

'How do I look, Auntie Jenann?'

She was unwilling to try the dress so Simon had to play a peek a boo game with her into the fitting room and she had the dress on her in a minute. Sometimes, the simplest trick works.

'Don't we look good?'

They are so funny, they moment both of them are in their uniform, they went straight for the mirror to check themselves out, laughing and tagging at each other outfit. And they very willing pose for pictures.

'We are ready for school on Monday!'

'Our school cap.Red, I like.'

'Wait! My cap is falling off.'

Chloe took 2 of these pink ones off the shelf and made Cranston wear too. She was telling him, 'This is nice!'.

Yeah! You do look cute! :)