let the books feed your soul

finished 2 books last week - outliers: the story of success by malcolm gladwell & wonderful wizard of oz by L. Frank Baum.
they are both very good. :)

"outliers" is especially an interesting read.
it sort of pulls together different theories and tries to explain the story behind success.
interesting theories supported by real-life facts (which may make you raise an eyebrow or two) coupled with gladwell's good sense of humor make "outliers" really fun.
i cant wait to get my hands on his other books : "blink: the power of thinking without thinking" and " what the dog saw".

wizard of oz is of cos a popular and widely-read book. but i've never read it before.
now i understand why it was such a hit.
baum painted such vivid pictures of the place and people with his simple effective words.
the emerald city, the scarecrow, the winged monkeys etc.
i like this much more than alice in wonderland. :P
now i feel like re-reading "wicked" by gregory maguire which shows the story from the wicked witch from the west's perspective.

anyway after digging through my bookshelf, i realised i've some books not yet read.
shall try to finish them.
now im about to start "the little friend" by donna tartt.
anyone read this before?

dancing with dragons and a victorian affair

yz had his first movie yesterday! and it was with me. hiaks.
fetched the son early from his childcare and whisked him to cineleisure to catch the latest cartoon show - "How to train your dragon"!
not in 3D, of cos. abit too much for a first-timer like scarey-cat yz. LOL.

the whole thing was great.
i paid 6 bucks for myself only. we got a quiet 4-seater by the side all to ourselves.
yz managed to not shout/talk loudly too much in the theatre.
he lasted all of the 98 mins.
we can definitely do this again! with the pappy next time, perhaps.


a very happy boy posing with the movie poster after the show

and i took him for some neo-print camwhoring after the show. muhaha.

after the show, brought him home to freshen up ourselves for a wedding dinner later!
it was huiwen's wedding dinner at the gallery hotel!
we left our house and went to pick hubbi up for the dinner at 7+.

i really love to attend weddings. at least of those who are close to me.
love to feel the love in weddings!
anyway, really really glad for huiwen who is married to the sweetest guy ever - ninghao!
their love story will probably move endless girls to tears.
shant elaborate too much here. if you interested, can ask me next time in person. wahaha.

had a lovely time catching up with the girls!
im so glad to have them as friends for the past 10 years!


look how happy yz was with all the extra wedding favors!

a shot with the lovely bride and my chumps!
oh, theme of wedding was victorian. can you see it from the bride's dressing?

my 宝贝s!

yr is definitely getting more and more responsive recently.
when he's in a good mood, he can coo and smile at us for as long as 20-30 mins!
the ng family is finally able to spend some quality time together during the evening time. ha.
yr especially love yz!
his eyes will track his gor gor. and he smiles ever so readily at yz!
so its true that babies can identify the young ones from the adults. hehe.

and compared to his gor gor, yr's neck muscles is much stronger.
he can hold up his neck for quite sometimes when on his tummy.
this is something that yz only achieves when he's almost 3mths!

lets see the baby at work:


eh, can help me bring my right hand to the front. like that very hard to balance leh.

thank you very much. now what?


hey, what is that over there!?

ok, this is getting too tough. im going down soon.

and the boy loves to "interact" with his baby gym! LOL.

meaning, he will coo and "talk" to the hanging stuff toys for quite sometimes.

so damn amusing. but i dont dare to laugh at him.

so long can free up some time for myself. heh.

this is another marked difference from the elder son.

yz had absolutely no interest in whatsoever toys when he was young.

he just want HUMAN INTERACTION.

so he was in someone's arms practically all the time.

hmm. that explains the weak neck muscles too.

he hates to be on his tummy in the past.

my boy loving his toys:



hubbi was on leave today so we went to vivo for a quick dinner and some jalan jalan.

had dinner at marche and i missed the yummy food!

and yz had a chicky kid meal which was cheap and good! basically, the kid can order any mains (except for seafood and steak) just like us but it comes in kids' portion.

but trust me, the portion is enough to make me full.

only $8.90++ and the meal comes with fruit juice + coloring paper (color pencils) for the kiddo. :)

after that, let yz roam free at toy'rus.

im very proud of the fact that my boy has never whine to buy things at any stores.

actually, i never deliberately train/teach him. but yz from young has never demanded for toys purchase.

so no sitting-on-floor-bawling-eyes-out antics from him. good.

oh, and yr is very guai in pram and car seat!
very different from a young fussy yz too.
ha, so interesting to note these differences between the two sons. :)

yz n me!

bery happy yz

a day in town with a girlfriend

caught "alice in wonderland" yesterday morning with candice.
the show was surprisingly good and entertaining.
a departure from the usual tim burton's shows for me.
and its way way much logical than the books.
helena bonham carter is soo funny as the queen red. tickled our funny bones like mad. :)
depp is as usual a delight to watch!
i was weirdly touched at the scene where alice rejected his request to stay in wonderland and him retorting that she wont remember him.

anyway, we adjourned for a delicious lunchie at itacho @ ion after the show.
yummy!!!! fresh salmon sashimi after so long. :)

and then its shopping time!
been so long since i shop leisurely with a female companion!
its rushed shopping during lunch time or mostly alone since i've kids. :P
really really fun window shopping all the expensive bags and all at ion!
so tempted to lay my hands on A bag.
but the husband will nag me to death, no doubt. bleh.

still, managed to get a skirt from gg5 and (another) pair of shoes from gripz.
good enough for the week. heh.
retail therapy works for me always!

my lil' babypie turns 2 months today!

how time flies! yr turns 2 mths today!
look at him now!
rounder cheeks, hair growing out in clumps, sucking on his new found friend (his right hand!), more coo-ing and smiles, piling on the baby fats fast...
awww... he is really an angel (when he's not in his fussy mood)!

baby 仔, mummy loves you tons! though i know i can be a better mum.

the attention, time and effort spent on you pale so much in comparison to your gor gor when he's a baby.

and mummy is definitely less patient with you than i should be.

pls forgive me and i will try my best to be more patient when you are being fussy.

to put in more effort to interact with you and of cos give you all the love and care you so deserve! :)

and we started bringing yr out now. :)

so far so good. hes definitely happier in a pram than terrible yz in the past!

here is the elder son, happily waiting for his dinner at ikea.


where's the food?

note: finally the weight falls below the 60 mark. @_@

now at 59kg. 6 more kgs to go! cheong ah!

yes, hunger makes one siao.

i should count my blessings (if i remember!)

mr ng is never the romantic sort and also very bad with words.
so you cant blame me when i take him for granted at times.
furthermore, during this tiring period of continuous sleepless nights, you cant blame a grouchy me for lashing out at him sometimes.

but i know im really lucky to have this husband still.
he is always there in times that matter.
i just need to sit down and think about his virtues at times.
or, reminders from others. heh.

mum was over at my place on tuesday to help out.
after cooking, she was wiping the cooker hob and she was teaching me how to wipe to remove the oil stains fast etc.
i just gave her a blur look and said i dont know. i dont wipe the hob one.
and she was shocked and said for 3 yrs+ you guys stay here, you never wipe before?!
thats when i realised, " ya hor! yah, i really never wipe before!".
so mr ng has been diligently taking care of many misc things as such in our house all these time. :P
and as i think back more, i realised i've never mop the floor before too.
as for tying up the rubbish and disposing them, i will do so for 1 bag out of 20 bags perhaps?
the husband has always been the more diligent one in doing housework chores than me.
i really should be thankful that he never despise (i think he does at times lah. when he remembers lor! ) such a lazy me.

also, once he's home from work, he will handle all the feedings for lil' yr.
yes, include the late 1am AND 5am feeds!
really really appreciate that, even though i will wake up also to prepare the feeds for him.

and im pretty sure he has alot more good traits to him.
just that i cant remember any now (again!). hehe.
so hopefully, my memory will serves me well the next time i get upset with him for the smallest thing! :)

we are going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

our friend's daughter was holding her 1 year old birthday party at zoo and we were invited!
so hubbi and me brought yz to the zoo yesterday!
it was yz's first time going to the zoo and boy, was he excited!
so we woke up bright and early and went to my mum's place to let her take care of yr for the day.
poor yr, missing all the action but im sure he will have his chance next time! :)
then we cheong-ed to the zoo.

reached at 930am and thought we were early. thought wrong.
the carpark was almost full!
so alot of sg families go to the zoo during weekends huh!?


a very gleeful yz on the ben & jerry's cow


we had brekkie at the ah meng kopi outlet @ the entrance
and yz had his first half-boiled egg too. heh.

once we entered the zoo, can see that yz was a lil' apprehensive and he kept wanting to be carried!
only after he was sure that the animals were all enclosed then he dared to walk by himself.
tsk tsk.

our first stop was to the polar bear exhibit as its near and its feeding time to the bears at 10am!


yz's forced smile. he was not very sure what awaits him.

we enjoyed the session. for yz, he was just fascinated with the sheer size of the bear and how it jumped in and out of the water eating stuff.
for the adults, an interesting session on some facts of the animal.
do you know a baby polar bear weighs only around 450g at birth?! gosh, thats so tiny.
amazing how they grow up to around 550kg as an adult!

next, we took the tram.
the easy way to tour around the zoo. keke.


us on the tram

yz enjoyed the ride tremendously. we saw some of his fav. animals along the way namely, zebras, giraffes, monkeys etc.
and it suits him well to see the animals from afar. haha.

we alighted at stop 3 to catch the splash safari show at 11am!


us posing with one of his fav. animal - sealion!
he knows it from "happy feet". :)


very happy to see cut-outs of sealion, seal, penguin etc!


took photo with the penguins while waiting for the show to start


we started waiting as early as 1030am to get the better seats.
the place was swamped and closed off by 1050am!

again, im impressed with the standards of the zoo.
the show was entertaining as well as educating. and most importantly, im really glad that yz finally get to see these animals (sea cows, sea lion, penguins and pelicans) in the flesh!


sea lion at work!

next, we went to see the white tiger as demanded by yz.
personally, i always have the innate fear of beasts escaping from their enclosed areas when im visiting the zoo.
i remember i even had nightmares the night before i visit a zoo when i was young!
so, i was getting the jitters when we were here at the white tiger exhibit. @_@


not helping my fear when the male tiger was pacing all the while.
kept on having the feeling he's gonna jump over to our side.


white tigers are rare!! only 1 in 10,000 tiggers is a white!


yz likes his tigers!

after this, we slowly made our way back to the entrance to take the prezzie from the car boot and also to prepare taking the boat ride to kidzworld where the bash was being held.
we saw some more animals along the way and it was all great fun to the son. :)


there is something obscene about this shot. heh.


yz posing with the fake otters after seeing the real thing


he had fun browsing the various stuffed animals at the main shop


he actually thought the elephants were real for a moment. LOL

and then its time to take the boat to kidzworld!
boat rides is something new offered by the zoo where it takes around 15 mins for a single trip and allows us to take in the scenic view of the reservoir!



finally, we reached kitzworld at 1+pm.
by then, can see that yz was a lil' tired as its his nap time.
still, he went on to mix around with some of the kids there before tucking into a yummy kfc lunchie with us.

then it was water play time for him!
i actually managed to go into the water play area with him and coming out unscathed (ie. dry)!
haha, the place is full of boogy traps to get one wet!


happy yz at play

we left for the exit via tram at 3+pm after we got him dry and bade farewell to the host.
the poor boy was so tired that he fell asleep sitting on the tram. haha.
though its just a short 6hrs spent there and we didnt cover much of the place, i think its really a good first time for the son already.

we shall revisit the place soon, im sure!

crazy heart is .....

not so crazy after all. but instead quite subtle.

went to catch this film yesterday after parting my ways with the husband.
the plan was alice in wonderland initially but i missed the timing so settled for this one instead.
this film was not on my radar at all until jeff bridges won the little golden man lah.

some reviews compared this to the liking of "the wrestler".
personally i could see some of the similarities where the leads are both losers in need of cleaning their acts up, some attempts to reconcile with their children etc.
but to me, crazy heart is as subtle as its dramatic for the wrestler.
and oh, it has a good ending as compared to the poor wrestler who died. heh.

jeff bridges could sing! and he is really just good for the role.
i cant remember what shows he did previously so i did a quick check on imdb.com when home.
surprise surprise! he's the botak villian in iron man 1.
he looks so different in here!

and maggie gyllenhaal! looks so much like her brother.
keep having the weird feeling im watching jake gyllenhaal acting with a wig. LOL.
oh, colin farrell has a small part too.
my fav. eye candy and boy, he can sing too!

ok, my review is bo liao and full of rubbish but crazy heart is actually gonna worth the dollars.
so go catch it.

the child in me.....

is lost along the way.

i've finished "alice's adventures in wonderland" by lewis carroll.
sad to say, i did not enjoy the book much.
to me, its not much of a wonderland at all where all the characters speak in riddles and make no sense totally!
no wonder alice is in a bad mood most of the time!
and its super annoying when it comes to alice's antics of shrinking/growing for n times!
argh!

now im on the sequal "through the looking glass".
so far the first 2 chapters make slightly more sense and more enticing than the previous book.
but again, maybe im just getting used to the nonsensical way the "wonderland" works.
i shall see.

oh, hubbi managed to borrow "the lost symbol" by dan brown from his colleague for me.
finished that early last week already.
was really excited initially for it starred our fav. robert langdon again.
and the pace is so fast that it leaves me breathless turing the pages lor. haha.
but the ending is such a letdown.
im lost somewhere as the "truth" is slowly revealed to us and robert.
true, everybody loves a conspiracy theory.
but the theory this time is just too far-fetched. bleh.

still, good to read as reading feeds the soul!
alongside with movies and travel of cos. wahah.

a morning spent with the husband

with 2 kids, its much harder to make time for the 2 of us.
so the husband decided to take AM leave to spend some time with me (or isit the other way round? tsk.) yesterday.

as like the previous thursdays, both sons were deposited at childcare and my mum's place respectively. teehee.
had a simple brekkie at a kopitiam near my mum's place.
menu: milo + kaya lo-ti.
been ages since i can enjoy my breakfast slowly which chatting with the husband lor!

after that, hubbi whisked me away to the megacarmart near my mum's place (@ ubi) to look at second hand cars.
yes, the man is considering changing car. @_@
oh well. anyway, think he had fun browsing all the cars there.
men and cars. tsk.

we left for cineleisure where hubbi said he's gonna bring me to a new place for lunchie!
i kept on thinking hard what new restaurants they have at cineleisure that i do not know of?
in the end, the sneaky man brought me to triple one instead!
its the old singapore power building which has a facelift and a few new cool eateries being set up there!

we went to applebee's for lunch.
food is more skewed towards mexican style?
think i saw a few fajitas and quesadillas in the menu.
the food aint bad and im glad that hubbi took the effort to bring me to try something new. :)



me and my lunch - mushroom soup and mini burgers with roast beef and cheese in 'em

the most neglected beauty routine..

is a proper face scrub + mask.
used to do it diligently once a week.
but with the hands full from handling the 2 boys, im always bushed at the end of the day.
sometimes, i even go to sleep WITHOUT going thru the normal skincare routine (aka eye cream, moisturiser and all.)!!
*gosh*

so tonight with the elder one away at my mum's place and yr sound asleep since 9+pm, its time for some pampering for my face.
exfoliated with my sisley gentle buffing cream before slapping a skinfood mask on my face for a good 20mins.
this is good. :)

my lil' darling/terror

yr is a very fussy baby. though not as much as yz when he was younger.
but to deal with the same set of shit for the SECOND time round is not funny.
in fact, its downright irritating.
well, i guess im not a natural maternal person in the first place.
if i've to take care of yr alone for 24/7 (though in reality its almost so for almost 4 weekdays in a week! at least until the husband comes home at 7pm!), i would have pull my or his hair out!
but of cos yr is still a botak, so harder to do so than said.

so a typical home-alone day for me starts when hubbi and yz biding me farewell at 8+am.
-try to play with yr with him lying in his cot/mattress
-fails as he starts to bawl to be carried
-carry him in my arms while seated, continue coo-ing to him like an idiot
-fails as he starts to bawl to be carried with me pacing the house
-pace up and down the small hdb flat, continue pointing out stuff to him
-fails as his wails escalate (either due to hunger/sleepiness)
-quickly make milk and feed him
-place him down on mattress after burping to see if he want some quiet time/self-sooth himself to sleep
-fails as he starts to bawl to be carried
-carry, carry, carry till he dozes off
-put him gingerly down (may repeat for n times if he got woken up in the process) and rush off to do stuff (ie. bath, poo, wash/hang out laundry, wash+sterilise bottles, tidy up the house, surf the net, power nap, reading whatever novel im on currently etc)
and then the cycle starts again when he wakes up. @_@

fussy baby hor!

everytime i read those baby-books claiming all these hard work is worth it when the baby starts becoming responsive and smiles/coos back at you, i roll my eyes.
no lor, not true.

.................ok true lah.
during the happy moment only. after that, its nightmare facing the lil' terror again!
bleh. heh.

and for today, the magical moment is after his 430pm feed when he started to be nice.
for all of 30mins.


ok, im in the mood to play

haha, your face looks silly!


im so tickled!

hahahaha

so cute lah. made me slightly happier nia after a long day of taking care of him.

of cos half an hour later, the pattern comes out again:

.........................

lost in the reel world

hubbi and me have been catching up on movies like crazy for the past few days!
am so glad to do so. :)

1) 十月围城
for a mandarin film, its really not bad.
almost all the actors were casted well and demostrated adequate acting skills (with the exception of leon lai)!
the plot is somewhat realistic and believable since the background of the story is based on actual events and persons.
BUT, as usual spoilt by some 夸张 action sequences lah.

2) The hurt locker
never heard of this movie before until the oscar buzz recently.
personally, i feel its a little over-rated for its high rating at imdb.com and its rave reviews here and there.
rather intense and realistic show giving a protray of a bomb squad at iraq.
the show was directed as it is, without any additional fanfare.
but also, because of this there is not much of a climax to it and rather bland if you ask me.
still, a show worth watching.

3) up in the air
i enjoyed this the most out of the three.
geroge clooney is totally perfect for the leading role - one who relishes being alone with no strings attached to him.
expect alot of witty banter between the roles as this is the same director who brought us "juno" and " thank you for smoking". i like. :)

now, what show should i catch next?
without a doubt, it will be alice in the wonderland!
but before that, i hope i can finish the book first!

random updates

this is hubbi drawn by yz.
ok, he played cheat by using the shapes magnet for the eyes, nose and mouth.
still, what a wonderful picture drawn by my darling!
i love the ears, especially!
good job, baby!


of cos the "papa, mar'10" is NOT written by yz.
by the husband.

we brought yz to parkway parade for a short "yz time" today (aka w/o yr, heh).
the husband was in a good mood apparantly.
for he bought yz a floating dog balloon. somthing he termed as frivolous and expensive in the past. :P
anyway, yz was attracting many people's attention as he walked his "dog".
heehee.
very cute sight.

now at 9+pm, the doggie has lost 1 ear, left alone and forgotten at our foyer.

tsk tsk.

me in my shorts jumpsuit.

so damn hard to find appropriate clothings which flatter my fat ass nowadays.

this seems to be one of the better solutions.

BUT, the husband said its not helping much given my rear view.

BOO! PUI!

can you spot the sleeping baby?

oh, here is the chio adidas flats that i bought few days back!
still trying to break in the pair.

*ouch*


sui bo!?

its me-day once again!

yesh, in a twinkling of an eye, its thursday once more!
was actually counting down to it from start of the week liao!
yup, time to deposit yr at my mum's place so i can have a day of my own activities!
ok lah, im not such a bad mummy ok.
i did occasionally whip out the phone to stare at my boys. :P

as usual, day packed full with planned activities.
morning was super hectic:
home->childcare for yz->mum's place for yr->workplace for hubbi->
and then finally im in town again. alone. *gleeful*
930am. shops all not yet opened. pui.
never mind.
armed with her world, i settled at mac for a hearty breakfast.
*yesh, not helping the expanded waistline at all.*

then its onwards to shopping at 313! 1st time there (can you imagine how cooped up i am at home?!) and i found it relatively refreshing though it does not house enough of my fav. brands for me to keep returning.
anyway, months of non-shopping has turned my 2hours there into a frenzy shopping state.
muhahah.
damage:
1) 2 skirts+1 dress from zara
2) 1 top from GG5
3) 2 dresses from forever 21

hubbi was decidedly not happy when he saw me with all the stash when he met me for lunch.
oops!
oh, and i collected 7 books that i brought online from a spree for yz too!
yup, yz is gonna be a bookworm like me when he grows up!
reading is good for the soul!

so, its robinson sale starting from today!
went there to shop with the husband since he's a member.
didnt manage to get anything for myself *blinkblink* but some baby stuff and toiletries only.
had lunch @ cineleisure before hubbi went back to work.

good thing our car was parked there and we can throw all the stuff in!
cant imagine lugging them ard with me.
by then its already 2+pm. again, where did the time go?!
never mind, its time soon for my fav. activity again!
yah lah, movie lor.
march is choked full of good movies! no time no time.
even if i watch a show every thursday, i cant finish what i want to see.
perhaps, 2 movies at 1 go next thurs?

still, before the movie started, managed to get a pair of shoes from adidas.
wahaha.

caught "dear john" today. ok, i'll admit here. its like 99% because of channing tatum!
he may soon be listed in my FB's random list. :)
anyway, the show was quite a letdown even though the 2 leads have such good chemistry.
they look so good together and very convincing in their love to each other.
tatum can act so much better here compared to his performance in GI JOE (thats a nightmare).
but the plot was abit thin and there aint much character development.
tatum's john character is about the fattest role in the show and we dont know alot about him at the end of the show still. so.. there goes.

kinda disappointed. i didnt get to use the tissue paper i specially brought there.
haha.
the only time i actually teared (once) was because of the r/s between the lead and his father!
gosh. really, compared to nicholas sparks's previous works adapted to screen like "the notebook" , "nights in rothedan" and of cos the famous "a walk to remember" all got me crying at some points for the couple.

alrighty, enough of dear john.
my to-watch list just grow longer as i saw more trailers. @_@
1) up in the air
2) shutter island
3) alice in wonderland
4) the hurt locker
5) a single man
will i manage to catch all the above?

ok. got to catch up on the winks now that yr is zzzing.

weight updates #2

another sign of old age: weight loss is slower than last time round.
6 weeks after delivery of yr: im now at 60kg.
a good 7 kg from my pre-preggy weight of 53kg..
*gasp*
checked to my previous blog posts, i was 60kg when yz was only 4 weeks old.
tsk tsk.

i managed to shed the fats to a 58kg when yz was 7 weeks old.
given this, maybe im only able to do so when yr is at 2mths old?
ok, that is being overly optimistic. haha.

what to do? what to do?
still must eat healthily lah. can only wait.
no need so gan cheong since my deadline to meself is the same as last time: 9 mths.
wish me luck (+ very high metabolism rate)!