its funny...

how things work out by themselves in the end. :)

really looking forward to having more time for my boy soon! :)
and im sure dear dear and me will work hard to save up for our lovely new nest 3 years down the road.
the future looks good and im feeling contented. (",)

and so it's spending time! :)

and finally a long year of waiting, my bonus is here again! *gleeful*
as usual, ive spent in advance much of it already liao. still, that didn't stop me from spending now when its really in my bank account. hiaks.
and yah, minimal savings again lah. *bleh*

and so i spent on:
1) japan trip for mum + meself. its a bomb lor. but a treat to her (and myself :P) for taking care of baby YZ. :)
2) upcoming east europe trip with hubbi. this is a bomb too lor. lucky hubbi is paying for the expenses over there. :P and really happy to go on a trip with hubbi again.
3) a new phone for myself! yup, you heard me right! got SE P1i on saturday with hubbi's approval. its a PDA phone with everything under the sun - WiFi/3.5G/push mail function/3.2mp camera and many more lah. and after $50 discount from starhub for re-contracting + trade-in for my old SE K800i, its only $138! cheap or not!
but feedback is its abit on the heavy side (not bulky though). ha since i stash everything in handbag, not a big concern for me.
4) a new pair of shoes from gripz
5) stuff for baby YZ! i got him a pack of rompers (x5) from carters + 3 bibs (carter/baby disney) + pack of sleep suits from mothercare. im a good mummy. heh.
6) splurged on dinner with hubbi @ Dan Ryan yesterday. its a american sorta restaurant next to Regent Hotel. i used the word "splurged" cos im not a big fan of food, and really rather spend on other stuff. but since hubbi likes steak, i brought him there for his ribeye and fisherman platter for myself. plus the usual appertiser + dessert, the meal set me back $100+ ! and hubbi developed a headache after the very heavy meal. sheesh!

i think that's about all. upcoming expenses i can think of will be:
1) a dinner with my family and hubbi. still undecided on venue but quite keen on tung lok signature at vivo. anyone tries it before? good?
2) tailor-make shirt for the husband
3) more stuff for meself, of cos!

that left me with maybe $23 for savings i guess. hiaks.
oh well. one should reward oneself at times lah. really.

some fun time with the lil' pumkin

can you believe that the lil' one has never enjoy air con in our house before?
hehe.. cos he's a year-end baby so the 1st few months the weather was already very cold and too bad, his mammy is super scared of cold so we didn't on the air con at all......
TILL yesterday!

weather turing really humid + hot so we switched on the air con and dressed him in his new sleepsuit!
gotten for him from isetan private sale and its for 6-9M so imagine my surprise when he fits JUST NICE?! lucky let him wear now, if not later, he'll outgrow it again!

dear dear and me had bundle of fun with him before settling him to sleep at 9pm.
some photos!


his fav. movement when settling to sleep/middle of night when asleep. raise the legs high high then free fall slamming onto bed, scaring the hell out of me.

look ma, im doing non-standard push up!

happy baby!

i dun like to sit cos i can only do this for few s before falling sideways..

i like jumping jack game with pappy the most!!

carrot, finally the jacket

and so, i fed the lil'one carrot puree yesterday. and he gave me the puking expression at first. >.<
*sigh* wondering if its just the taste or its not soft enough? but mixed with cereal, he still managed to take like 1.5 tsp of carrot puree lah.
later will try again. hope he'll like it..
anyway, last weighed him, he's around 8.9kg. think he'll be VERY near the 9kg mark by 6mths old (which is next sat). hehe. good weight gain but really very tiring to my arms when i carry him nowadays.

went to orchard to walk walk and it was abit of a let-down. went to taka and isetan and guess what? NO SALE.
very sianz. tempted to get some stuff but kept reminding meself the GSS is so coming!! save save for that better lah.

oh oh, for all those interested, taka square having bags+shoes sale. and surprisingly i bought none there.. maybe cos limited designs i feel..

anyway, taka was really cold at 1 point so i finally got the chance to let baby YZ wear the sweater i got for him like 1 mth ago?
he looks nice in it. :)

baby YZ very happy at the idea of going out again!!

in his new sweater!! nice? abit long cos for until 9 mths one. heh

what a morning + the lady bird

its only 12+ in the noon now but i feel like ive been awake like forever.
the morning started at 7 am sharp for me when i felt baby stirring...
soo tired and being a bad mummy, i decided to ignore him, thinking that he'll drift back to dreamland by himself.
fat chance. the lil' terror has been sleeping since 9+pm yesternight and decided he has slept ENOUGH.

so he flipped here and there, and finally succeeded in waking me up for good when he rolled from his cot and ONTO me. lol.
his cot is lowered to the lowest level and placed next to my bed (level aligned) with the side removed so if he roll and roll, he will end up on our platform bed.
and that's what happened just now. sigh.
so i got the husband to go prepare milk for baby.

after feeding, we brought him out for (our) breakfast. he was so happy to go out!
definitely inherited "flower legs" trait from me. hiaks.
and it only hit me as strange when i realised back home that hubbi ate chicken rice (?!!?!) at 8+am in the morning? really siao!
i ate kaya bread and egg, if you are interested in knowing.

and then we played with baby after he napped a short 30mins. read newspapers.
made new batches of purees - carrot + green peas.
bathed baby.
and now he napping again.
like done alot of things liao hor?

anyway, brought out this new toy that ayu and gang got for baby like when he's 2 mths+?
its basically a map with various "stations" + "activities" for baby to navigate while on his tummy..
and so we put him on it.. and i think he seems to like it. lol.

the results:

why you put me on top of this??

i think i getting the hang of it leh.. i can rotate to see which "petal" of the flower i wanna explore.
sidenote: baby YZ is abit too "long" for this toy.. see the difference between him and the baby in the background?

this is fun! in case you are wondering the thing im lying on is a lady bird!!

Definitely, maybe? Definitely!

went to catch this show with hubbi on wednesday night and find it to be quite good for rom com genre.
even the husband enjoyed himself! *surprise surprise*
as like the daughter character says " this is a romance mystery". :)

nice show lah, go catch it.

choices choices choices. never easy.

baby updates.

baby is terribly smart (@least to me) nowadays!

he seems to know im mama. at least he seems to look at me when dear dear and me chanted "mammy leh? mama leh?"
and he stretches out his hands towards me when he sees me coming back from work (while seated on hubbi's lap). awww....
and he loves his apple puree! hope he will like the carrot + pear purees thats coming up!
he makes little frustrating noise that is oh-so-cute when he doesnt get his way. :)

coming 6 mths old next sat! why is he growing up so fast?!

FRS - the long lost friend

back with the FRS recently. feel very familar yet very remote.
just like you've just joined a new company and among the strangers' faces surfaces a familiar face. ah, your ex-colleage who you spoke lesser than 5 sentences last time happens to be in your depatment of the new company!
so you snuggled up to strike a conversation only to remember why you only spoke < 5 sentences to him back then.
yup, i do officially still hate FRS.
okie, bad analogy above. but you get the drift.

oh, to rub-it-in. tax is part of the big family too. -.-

well, well. but its okie. with a few guidebooks, i'll take to them like fish to water (hopefully..).
okie, on to better topics.

2nd try @ solids, friend in town

let baby has his 2nd go at rice cereals today at noon. he did GREAT.
managed to finish all 1 tsp of rice cereal! :)
the only problem now is he hasnt poo-poo for 2 days and today is already the 3rd day.
if this continues for 1-2 more days, RED alert! will have to bring him see PD, i guess.
his longest record of no shit is 2 days only.

hoping to increase to 2 tsp this weekend and includes purees by mid week. hopefully, the fruit/vege purees will make him poo-poo more regularly.
talking about purees, hubbi and me are hardworking parent this morning!
we actually made apple, pear + carrot puree.. enough to last us till next week. :)
hope baby will takes to them well. :)

mammy + baby!

and frances is back in town!! so happy to see her and the rest of dow gang for dinner just now! :)
its really like back to the old times. i guess i'll always miss dow.. *sob*
and nice to see GS too! i love her rump!
i guess i do miss the preggy tummy! lol.

had a really fun time having dinner with them and franny room in intercon is very nice lor! :)

me+ franny!

solids! and the husband is sweet.

and so the little one was introduced solids today! i've planned this for like the longest time and was SO excited to execute it!
but the whole thing was over before i can even shout "solids"! heh.
so the plan was to let him have a taste of heinz rice cereal (just a few mouthfuls) before his 11am feed.
but as usual, 人算不如天算。at 11+am, he was still napping. >.<
so at the risk of missing even his own milk feed, i was about to accept that heinz has to wait till tomorrow.

at 1130am, he woke up and gave me this BIG smile. *grinz* seeing him in good mood, i decided to go ahead with the feeding!
so we put him in his high (now low) chair and played abit with him since he just wakey up.
while hubbi was busy entertaining him, i quickly went to prepare the cereal. totally clueless.
scooped 1 teaspoon of cereal and prepared 30ml of milk. and suddenly got this HUGE puddle of rice cereal awaiting to be fed. madness. no way can he finish that.
what a waste. but no choice leh. 1 tsp of cereal + 30ml of milk is like the minimum that can be prepared...

and so we fed him!
sorry baby, pappy + me not very fast in execution so the cereal went cold relatively fast. not sure if u find it bleh but personally i hate cold cereal lor.

and so the results....


throughout the whole feeding process, he didnt lean in eagerly for more. he also didnt turn away from me and give yukky expression. lol.
he just gave me the same suspicious look during the whole time and took in whatever i offered him from the combi spoon.

but i managed to feed him ard 8 spoons (and decided its quite enough for the 1st time) and maybe 4-5 spoons of water. not too bad for the 1st time, huh?
i would say ard 20% of what i fed dribbled out.

hopefully, today we will manage it better! :)

p/s: my boy hair like lalang hor.

oh, and i used my blue label sling bag for the 1st time (finally!) today.
so GS, heres the picture! (very blur, courtesy of hubbi)

nice? strap abit long hor? adjusted it after this shot.

and lil'pumpkin is getting cleverer each day! baby, mammy really love you to bits!

wee! we've the same eyes. nice droopy eyes. lol.


my face looks huge here and its really huge lor.
baby lips really v thick like hubbi....

and we went isetan scotts today to walk walk. as i got $15 vouchers from the last private sale, was keenly looking out for something to get for baby.
and we bought this in the end - - - -

a wet suit for swimming! :) there was a sale going on and so its only at $19.9 (original $34.5) and after the vouchers, cost us $4.9 nia. somemore got 5% disc using isetan card.
*sweet*

and i was looking out for eyecream for my sad sad puffy with fine lines eyes. decided on estee lauder (used it eons ago and results not too bad. or maybe that time young so eyes look fine anyway. no mind, shall give it another try now).
they have this promotion where you spent more than $180, you'll get quite a fair bit of freebies thrown in.

so the husband was telling me to get somemore stuff to be entitled for the free gifts. a very broke me reluctantly looked around to top up the purchase to $180 for im very interested in the freebies..

in the end decided on a moisturiser that promises to lift my saggy skin. (p/s i still have 1 moisturiser + toner + make up remover from shu uemura unused before..i really should stop stocking up on skincare.) AND the husband makes my day by telling me after that he'll sponsor my purchase. *sweet sweet* :)

and i was questioning where is he coming from.. did he sneak glances at other girls' behind my back? lol. he said just want to give me nice surprises once in awhile.
and also because today is the 12th. :)) which marks the 6 years 2 mths anniversary of our relationship. haha. we used to celebrate every 12th before we got married but slowly we ceased that to be replaced by 25th (our wedding date).
but even that ceased when baby comes along. sigh.

just want to say that every marriage needs effort to maintain.
though sometimes we still bicker, but im glad that at least we are still willing to put in effort in this marriage to make it work.

*puke* all the above just cos he bought me some skincare. ha.
anyway, was really happy with his gesture. as he was saying, he always give me nice surprises while i always give him rude shocks! lol.

okie, hubbi will try to do something nice for you once in awhile too.
(i thought i got you alot of goodies from my recent trip? hmm..)

from left: the moisturiser + the eye cream. the rest are freebies! can you believe that?!

okie. off to spend some quality time with the husband. the baby has been asleep since 9pm.
heh.

getting lucky or too early to say?

baby YZ has been very good when it comes to sleeping.
not VERY VERY good but i guess i should be counting myself as one of those lucky few who managed to get some good quality sleep at night. :)

i went back to work on 18th Jan.
and from what i recorded in the baby journal, he started sleeping through the night (from 11+pm - 6am then) on 7th Jan!
very sweet hor, let mummy has her beauty sleep ha.
though he'll sometimes stir alot once/twice in the night. but mostly eyes still shut and just some patting will do the trick.

but the bad thing about him is he NEEDS to be rocked to sleep everytime.
we tried the CIO (cry-it-out) method for few times.. but i always feed very bad after that cos he seems so pitiful crying, lying on the mattress. and all i need to do is to carry him and he'll promptly fall asleep ever so fast.
all he needs is some body warmth and comforting body smell, i guess.
and so we stopped the CIO as fast as we tried it.
but the fear that he'll rely on our rocking stuck on.

BUT BUT BUT, ever since last week, he has been falling asleep by himself when we put him in his cot at 9+pm everynight!
i just need to put my face beside him, give him his beanie + pacifier.. stroke his head n face abit.. and he'll drift away to dreamland!
its that easy, no kidding!
i think its because he's growing up and recognizing stuff and seeing me beside him is all he needs to be comforted for sleep. *sweet* (",)

let's hope this is not a flute of luck but a permanent basis.
*fingers crossed very tight*

the singapore flyer

was cruising along ECP this lunch time and noticed that most of the capsules were empty. and for the rest that were occupied, only 1 lone person standing in them.

is it me, or you find something wrong with this too?

still my love, disneyland?

tokyo disneyland got to be the worst disneyland i've been to, in terms of crowd! not that i've been to many but 3 so far..but the crowd is ATROCIOUS! they really should limit the # of people in the park at one time, really!

so many people that its either you chose to forfeit sight-seeing ard the whole park and just spent time queuing up in long snaking queues. or, just venture round the park taking in sights, shopping in shops and enjoying 1-2 rides max.

we opted for the latter for i really hate to queue up and each ride average ard 1-2 hrs with hot, fav rides taking up to 3 hrs! madness if you ask me.

spent the most time at toontown since its like the nicest land in the park and it has mickey mouse house which is lacking in the other disneylands i've been to!
and yes, we queued up a good 2 hours before we got into mickey's house!!
but its worth the wait! soo cute and nice inside his house. and we got to meet him in person too! lol.

okie, photos!

happy me. still unaware at the no. of pple ard me!

cute trolly ride in toontown

in mickey's house - here his study table. lol.

one of his room

using his telly.

with the mouse himself! *wee*

to be fair, tokyo disneyland is by far the nicest out of the 3 i've been to. HK one is a lil' small and the merchandising in its shops are abit not delicate. think rough/blunt designs.

Paris one is a lil' old and soo huge and sprawling, you've problem combing it.

but the crowd really sucks in tokyo. mayb japanese are hardworking by nature for the park was PACKED by 9+am & fast pass tickets out by noon!! tell me, how mad is that! siao.

okie, back to work for me. its just a wednesday today. *sigh*

falling snow, wasabi, asakusa temple & *drums roll* sakura!

and when i thought im damn lucky to see snow the other day @ the waterfall area (not supposed to see snow for japan is officially entering its spring season. but oh well, the cranky weather conditions nowadays work in my favor i guess), i saw falling snow the next day! :)

woke up in my hotel feeling *brr* cold and when i looked out of our hotel window, everything was covered in white! nice!

near my hotel area (Mt-Fuji area)

happy me frolicking (literally) in the snow!

made a side detour to a wasabi farm before hitting tokyo from Mt Fuji. quite a nice experience, seeing all those wasabis rooted in water. it takes an average of 2 years for a wasabi to grow into a sizeable size! tough work.

finally arrived @ tokyo for the last 2 days of our trip! tokyo, sent nice fuzzing feeling to the tummy when i reached. memories have their special way of making it to the heart, rendering it to jump to an irregular beat. crazy beat, if you ask me. whatever. its been 7 years and as they said, facing the past exorcises it. how true.

me @ asakusa temple. the famous temple with the big red lantern. missed it when i was in tokyo last time. nothing special but it made the mother happy. esp. the sourvenir shops ard it. :)

and then the SAKURA. in their full glorious bloom! wonderful. took a stroll down a river, with all the sakura around me. shiok lah! :)



okie, more on my fav. disneyland tomorrow.. such japan commentaries posts are getting sloppier and shorter. lol.

snow. finally at 27.

ohhh... did i mention i see snow for like the very first time in my life!!!
yup at old age of 27 somemore (okie, 26 year 3 mth old okie!)!

mummy, bro + me visited a local market at Takamaya before heading to a waterfall ( i cant remember the name, though..oops) where we saw snow!!
very happy lah.. i let the photos do the talking bah.

a river running besides the local market @ takayama

*wee* snoW!

moi playing with snowballs.

me with the tiny snowman built by me!

a very happy me posing in the cold!

Tojimbo, Kenrokuen Garden 兼六园 & Shirakawa village

and so we visited more UNESCO sites during the trip. the temperature started dipping the further we got away from OSAKA.. esp. when we were @ Tojimbo (Awara area) which is essentially an area where you got to see spectacular cliff shaped by waves over the years. but nope, this aint under UNESCO. though such natural wonders can only be viewed in Norway & Korea other than here at Tojimbo.

mummy_+me freezing our ears off in the wind!

Tojimbo cliffs

Kenrokuen garden is one of the top 3 gardens in Japan to visit. it's massive, used to belong to one of the feudal lords in the past. we spent some lovely time in this picturesque place, adorned by many pretty flowers (though i know none of them..lol).


one of my fav. place for the trip got to be shirakawa village! its a very quaint village whereby you feel you are back in time. look like a scene out of anderson tales! :)
but its like freaking cold there for we can still see lotsa snow around...!

i love the atap-style huts there!


and there is this lucky mascot for this place @ Hida (where the village is) which is called Sarubobo which is lucky monkey if loosely translated. but the thingy looks nothing like a monkey and it has no facial features! weird, if you ask me. still, i took a pic with one of it below.

the one im holding is Sarubobo!

okie the lil'one is asleep! going out to look for hubbi for some couch-potato time. :)

mamalove high chair!

and the high chair has finally arrived!

and baby loves it for he can follow me to wherever i am in the house! *wee*

frivolous baby bag - but really again, do you even care?

tada, decided to use the new baby bag i got from japan today.
or rather, the bag is bought with the intention of being used as a baby bag.
*ding ding* presenting my new blue label burberry bag. a very nice + comfortable size! :-)
(loaded to the max with all kinda of (un)believeable baby stuff)

nicey?

oh, and i got another blue label sling bag for myself too. will upload the photo if i got the time. yah lah yah lah, spent on bags again lah. the husband has officially accepted that bags and me are synonymous. :P

and so we went to walk walk ard centrepoint area for a lazy saturday. the lil' one is spoilt. few moments in the pram and he'll decide to wail for our attention. and wail till pitiful somemore. but once picked him out from pram, he 'll then flash you his mega-watt smile!! *faint*

hubbi+ me got ourselves mega-blocks spiderman set! yay, getting ready to build it this wed when baby is over at my mum's place. heh.

*yawn* waiting for baby high-chair to be delivered soon.. okie later!

me+ baby YZ!

still dont want to smile at the camera. baby, be more like mammy, not pappy!

USJ, Kiyomizu Temple & spooks

the 1st attraction spot i visited in japan was UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN @ osaka! *wee* didnt regret the my choice of choosing it over the osaka castle. :P though we spent only a mere 5 hrs+ over here, we enjoyed ourselves immensely. USJ is decidedly so much smaller than disneyland, hence making it easier to explore.

despite the lack of time, we managed to slot in 1 ride (which we queued for an hr!! if you think this waiting time is ridiculously long, wait till you see my tokyo disneyland entry!). and that's *drumsroll* the amazing spiderman ride! lol.

me=a huge fan of peter parker, okie! and its totally worth the wait! as we snaked our way for the ride, we were presented with Daily Bugle (JJJ"s office) and we even see PP's cubicle! lol. its adorned with Mary Jane's photos of cos! (you've to be familiar with spidey to know what im talking about anyway)

and the ride is a 3D simulator ride (actually i feel its 4D for when the baddies get to us, we actually feel the heat of fire, droplets of water & big wind blowing through our hair) which is simply AMAZING! very surreal and most of the time, i really feel my vehicle is being flinged around by bad Dr Oct and there was this scene where we were brought up to those high NYC building and being flunged down. that was so real n the height really scared the hell outta me! but of cos, spiderman to the rescue!! haha.

okie, in all. enjoyed my time there. showing some photos below:

elmo!!

the ride!

in USJ

jaws!!

in snoopyland!

USJ!

we visited the Kiyomizu temple (清水寺) @ Kyoto too. its a UNESCO world heritage site and i got the major hots for UNESCO stuff lor. like these sites are going to disappear ever so soon and its really great to see them before that happening.

the part where we climbed upslope to reach the temple was fun too for the road is narrow & winding and lined with nice (touristry, no doubt) shops. mum seemed to enjoy it better for we were very lucky to chance upon a geisha and took a photo with her too!

@the temple


happy mommy with geisha

oh, and one of the nights we were actually staying over at this onsen (hot spring) place and seriously it freaked me out just that little. the place was quite old and our group seems like the only group staying in the hotel at that time. *errie* and though our room was big (i have this thing about big hotel rooms, too much space makes my hair raise!), it feels cold & when we opened the sliding door of a cupboard, there was this big gaping hole on the inside wall, peering into unknown darkness! eeks.

okie, abit over the top here but was really glad we survived the night and i was never happier to check out of a hotel before. :P

okie more on other places later!