window-shopping is my fav. activity during me-time!

why am i still buying from gg5 when >50% of the female working population around my age in sg are also doing the same? *scratch head*
think its due to its style still appealing to me.
think its due to it being accessible.
think its due to its sizes fitting me well especially the bottoms which can be so hard for a pear-shaped person like me!
but im really buying too much clothings from the same brand, gg5 no less.
some days, im decked out in gg5 from head to top (yes, shoes included). and i found myself wanting to step into a gg5 store (like again!) to check out the latest additions!
have to stop myself cos like so weird/pai seh to do so. LOL.

but today, im not wearing a single piece of gg5 so i can easily check it out. hehe.
bought 1 top & 1 shorts again! @_@

anyway, ive just renewed my facial package which means i cant shop as much as before.
somemore, not much sale nowadays. :(
still, 2 pairs of shoes from alegra (@ suntec) & a hansel dress from online shopping in the past 2 weeks keep me contented for now. :P
until the retail monster come to haunt me again!!

back in the reading business...

need to read faster if not my stack of to-be-read books will be collecting dust soon!
so after im done with "blink" from malcolm gladwell, i went back to "shutter island" again.
was halfway through it previously and left it hanging. perhaps i've caught the movie and not much motivation to do so.
hence, we should always read the book then the film.
but again, that usually resulted in the film being less impressive than it should be. hmm.

anyway, finished up the book and found the book's ending more ambiguous than the movie's one.
guess the author really want the reader to decide if andrew really regressed.
oh, one new striking info from the book missing from the show-
his 3 children's names are :
1) edward laeddis
2) daniel laeddis
3) rachel laeddis
sigh how sad, thats how the characters edward and rachel came about. :(

after this, i moved on to "the lovely bones" by alice sebold.
its saddening to see how a family can be broken up by a tragedy.
i teared a few times while i was reading it.
cant imagine how its like to lose a family member this way.
the book is a lovely read but i cant imagine how it can be translated to movie effectively.
maybe that's why peter jackson's film kinda bomb in the market...

now im starting a new book of my fav. author - "tipping point" by malcolm gladwell!
its about how the smallest things can "tip" the scale to create huge-ass trends/effects.
halfway done and its a fantastic read just like blink!
the husband commented that gladwell is a very naggy author, kept on repeating his points non-stop in a few paragraphs.
i cant help but agree but STILL! i cant help but repeat: his books are so ENGAGING! haha.

after this, i planned to move on to one of the "hotter" books on the shelves in bookstores recently.
"eat pray love" by elizabeth gilbert.
think it'll be funny & heartwarming.

ok, i cant stress enough:
reading is so good for the soul!

豆豆生病了！

sticking his tongue out in the first photo!

this is his new way of smiling!

the poor boy was down with a chesty cough for the past week.

brought him to PD this morn as his meds were finishing soon but he's not really getting any better.

lucky i did, for the PD heard some mild wheezing in him! so meds were changed to prevent it from developing to bronchitis.

hope my peanut will recover fast fast!

it has been sometime since i read to the boys.

hubbi decided to capture the moment and i like how it turn out.

though yr is more interested in tearing out pages at this stage. lol.
and pardon my unglam look. but this is really how i look 90% of the time at home. haha.

morning @ united sq

the ng family moved out to united square early in the morning.
there is a lego sale under toy r'us going on over there and the discount was said to be good!
but alas, by the time we reach (today is the 2nd day of sale), almost 90% of the discount sets were sold!
leaving only a few handfuls of lego sets which arent to our liking.
sigh.
we got the elder son a lego rubber sword in the end.

the place is kinda boring to me - too much kids stuff there. heh.
still, yz and yr had fun going out as usual.
we had a yummy lunch @ bakerzin before leaving the place for the boys' naps.

photos:

yr having a go with gor gor's sword

boobs theory

the thing about boobs are that they are the first thing to go when your body suddenly lose alot of body fats.
be it from deliberate dieting to get back into shape or from fighting a strong virus and falling sick with cold/cough/fever etc.
for after all, boobs are nothing but 2 pockets of fats.
and the darnest thing is they are the last to grow in size when you pad up the body fats.

and girls being girls, bound to go through some sort of dieting/exercising during their growing up years to fit into that dress or just to look good.

SO! i would make some bold predictions for women of my age group (25-35):
1) ur boob size is smaller and you are also thinner than when you were 18
2) ur boob size is smaller and you are of same size as when you were 18
3) ur boob size is smaller but you are bigger-sized than when you were 18
4) ur boob size is bigger but you are bigger-sized than when you were 18

of cos there are exceptions where some people's boobs grow bigger while they remain the same size or grown thinner(!) over the years!
if so, pls share your tips with me!
surgery is not a reason, though.

i am suddenly depressed with all these boob talk. sigh.

was at robinson centrepoint yesterday where it's closed to general public only allowing entry for holders of robinson ocbc platinum cards.
at around 7+pm, they were having a mini fashion show whereby models catwalked along the aisles on level 2.
this is how yz watched the show.
with his right hand in the pocket and a steadfast gaze.
*hilarious roar* *LOL*
and he stood there in this pose for a good 15mins at least.
sometimes, i cannot believe my own son.

a date with the husband

due to lousy management of leave-taking, hubbi was left with a miserable 4 days leave for rest of the year!
the leave is to be reserved for a staycation in oct and a possible year-end short trip.
was feeling quite bah as i was hoping for us to take leave together to have some couple time but it seems quite hard to do so.

in the end, dear dear went to cancel 1 day leave in sept (was supposed meant to be a rest day for him when we come back from perth, hehe) and took leave yesterday with me! :)
辛苦你了！
still, i was glad to have a normal lunch-movie date with him without the kiddos. :P

morning was a slow, relaxed one.
we dropped the elder son at his childcare as usual at 8+am.
then its time to bring yr over to ubi for his usual 3D2N stay at my mum's place.
here's a photo of my handsome boy (still cheeky despite being sick):

nah, give you the remote. if you dont take it, i'll drool all over you!
check out my long string of saliva!!

the cheeky boy is able to sit for awhile without support recently.
and he's able to sort of semi crawl-lurge forward on all fours.
more advanced than gor gor who only learn to sit nearer to 8m and started crawling at 9m old!

then its off to the gym for me!
body combat - punch, kick, chop!
dragging my aching body, i met up with hubbi at paragon for our lunch.
lunch was at cova at 1st floor.
wanted hubbi to try their risotto with cod fish (which is heavenly) but sadly, its not on their menu for yesterday.

still, we had a good lunch trying out their set lunch (comes with soup/main/desserts).
hubbi tried their duck confit while i had penna with braised chicken.
their potato leek soup was good with generous sprinkle of bacons and dessert selection is good too.


i love their cheese stick and cracker! you can request for 2nd helpings if im not wrong but i didnt cos i will be too full from everything if i do so!

after lunch, off to gv europa at vivo to catch the movie of the month - the girl with the dragon tattoo!
this swedish show is a blast!
the show is quite simple - a journalist and a hacker come together to investigate a disappearance case 40 years ago.
but its such a thriller as the lead duo delved deeper and digged out more secrets of a family clan.
and the female lead, lisbert, kicks ass!
shes one tough chick who look like she can and did grab the men by the balls. haha.
show those nasty men who treat women like trash some color! totally awesome.
the characters were well developed, the show was exciting as they get closer to the truth and the twist at the end is quite a good one.
it totally deserves its 4stars review!

i urged all to catch it asap as its a foreign film without much publicity and ONLY showing @ GV, i guess its running time in cinema is limited.
still, must warn that its R21 and there are some scenes in it that even i found it painful to watch.
expect violence, nudity and some sick scenes.
the show is a good 2.5hrs but its worth the time definitely.

after the show, its already 6+pm!
hubbi and i dashed off to fetch yz and called it a day liao.
home sweet home to spend quality time with the son.
if only we could have such weekdays more often... wishful thinking. @_@

a (tiring as usual) day spent with the kiddos

peanut started eating rice/mixed grains cereal when he was 6m1w.
almost a month later than his gor gor who got his first taste of it at 5.5m old.
and that's what he had for solids so far.
with 1 more week to yr turning 7m old, i decided that hubbi and i have to get our lazy butts moving and get some purees done!
if not, the boy aint gonna taste any food soon and i would have no way to see if he has any food allergies!


so we made 2 batches of purees - apple & pear mid this week.
and we fed him pear puree today! but its not exactly a success. guess the pears that i've chosen is more sourish than sweet. @_@



spotting the new bowl containing the pear puree

scrunched up face

still prefering the plain old rice cereal to pear puree

bought the boys to the PD for jabs after breakfast.

yz had flu vaccine in preparation for our overseas trip next month and yr had his last dose of 6-in-1 vaccine.

the boys' stats:

yz weighs 15kg and measures 1 metre tall now!! no wonder he looks kinda thinner recently, he has grown taller with the weight hovering around the same. time to beef him up!

yr weighs 9.6kg and measures 73cm tall. he was 2cm taller and 0.2kg heavier than gor gor at the same age.

but he looks less chubby so it must be all coming from his muscle mass! hahaha.

after lunch, the whole ng family napped together for a good 1.5hrs!

random: this is drawn by yz. this is hubbi by the way with big big ears as explained by yz. LOL.

after our nap, time for the ng family to move out.

the objectives of the outing are to get a walker for yr and new vacumn cleaner for the house but mission failed.

bought nothing in the end. :(

went marina square to check out kiddy palace but found the walkers all too expensive.

not too sure what's the market price as yz didnt have one last time so we didnt want to just commit to one on the spot.

we even walked over to raffles city from marina square using the new marina/raffles link!

but robinson over there didnt carry any walkers. sigh.

hubbi was undecided between different vacumn cleaner models.

i leave it up to him since he's the one and not me using it. :P

yz wanted to sit on this but after i've exchanged for the token, he chickened out!!

geez. even when i offered to sit with him(this thing can take up to 100kg! haha), he still refused.

he had better time playing around at the indoor playground outside kiddy palace

placed my lil' 宝贝 in an exersaucer at robinson and he was soooo happy.

that is...until a jie jie (about 1 yr plus) came along and said hi to him only to make yr pout and cry like 杀鸡。@_@

reached home at 830+pm and finally settled both boys in an hour time.

yr was kinda cranky as he was down with a low-grade fever from his jab and over-stimulated from going gai-gai.

*yawn*

finally sometime alone with the husband.

want to show him some rubbish clips on youtube. wahaha.

ok, later!

NDP 2010

its singapore's 45th birthday!
given a choice, i would have preferred to stay home with the boys to avoid the crazy crowd out there.
no matter how much i love to be out of the house too.

but, SIL booked a room at marina sands and we were asked to join them for the evening to see the NDP parade from the hotel room/skypark @ sands.
it would be lovely to have this opportunity to visit sands & its skypark.
on a normal day that is, but definitely not on national day!
from its website, hubbi and me noted that the parking fees is atrocious on public holiday - around $28 -$38 and sands is notorious for having its car park full.
so driving there is not an option.
public transport is also out as i cant imagine lugging big baby bag with possible cranky toddler or baby or both in tow!
as i said, given a choice i would have preferred to stay home.
but well, life works in such a way that compromise is very much a big thing at times. @_@

it just irks me at times that inconvenience for us never crosses the minds of some.
who needs to risk the massive crowd in the trains/cab queue after the parade? us.
who is concerned that my son has a wholesome dinner? us.
who cares about my baby turning super cranky at his bedtime of 830pm as we are stuck waiting to squeeze into the train/in the cab queue? us of cos.

in the end, the plan is to leave the place before the parade ends to avoid the crowd and to reach home early to settle the boys to sleep.
ok, we are good to go!

camwhoring as usual:

my 宝贝 acting pissed. think its due to us paying slightly more attention to didi... haha.


still pissed! wah, 狭小的心胸！


yz decided not to take photo with didi!!

slightly happier him..

yr knows the concept of "gai gai" recently.
he will kick his legs with joy and has this big toothless gummy smile plastered on his face! hehe.

anyway, the evening was kinda disastrous if you ask me.

the whole experience is definitely not worth the hefty price tag of nearly $600!

well, im not the one paying so i shant say much...

when we reached the hotel at 4+pm, they have yet to check in!

due to huge no. of people checking in for NDP, the rooms were not ready in time for check-in at 3pm.

what a joke.

and the carpark was full too including valet parking. cannot imagine.

we decided to walk around sands shopping strip in the meantime.

quite abit of shops are not opened yet... and sands has surprisingly very little restaurants!

rich people no need to eat one?!

i was getting worried about yz's dinner as the only few restaurants operating have long queus at 4+pm already!

in-laws finally checked in at 5+pm (can you imagine?!) and the room is situated on the 7th floor as opposed to the 33rd floor (horizon view rooms) that was previously reserved!

another joke.

SIL went to complain and after ding-dong here and there, finally they were relocated to another room on the 31st floor.

but its facing the wrong side so no NDP parade can be seen from this room.

gosh, what a screw-up.

the room is spacious and nice but i really dont see why its worth that kinda room rate.

especially with this kinda of screw-ups. public holiday aint an excuse as sands should be equipped to deal with influx of crowd from such days right?

tried calling room service for our dinner but no one picked up the call at all and i gave up after 10 mins of music.

yucks.

and the only decent chinese restaurant in the lobby is booked to the brim when we did our enquiry.

saw lots of people with ta-baoed food like chicken rice/nasi lemak as they sat in the lobby eating!!

very "world class" indeed.

hubbi and i decided to take a stroll at the skypark and leave after that.

turned out to be a wise choice indeed.

us at the skypark! the view is really really nice.

but not the crowd! nothing exclusive at all today. look at the hordes of people!

and most of them already "chopped" seats either by half-submerged in the pool ( i can imagine how wrinkly their skin will be at the end of the evening!) or perched themselves on the wooden seats lined along the skypark.

*gag*

hubbi and my moods were getting more and more irritated with all the people around us.

we have to queue up just to get into the lifts all this while, you know!

sooo many godamn people in sands! argh.

we were so glad to leave the place around 630pm and thank god there was a free cab just as we exited sands.

hopped into it and came back to good o' tiong bahru in 10mins time. :)

dinner @ coffee club was a peaceful event. goody good.

the evening was chaotic and not really enjoyable if you ask me.

but at least we managed to take a peek at how its like to be on top of sands.

oh well, life's a compromise i guess.

random random

taken @ my mum's place when peanut was down with HFMD, can you spot the rashes on his forearms?
and check out the string of drool! hiaks.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

最近迷上这几首歌：
1）房祖名- 假动作
2）石康军 - 不完美的完美

还有，还有，觉得曹格的声音非常撩人。
听了《天使嫉妒的生活〉，你就会明白我的意思了。

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

finished reading "what the dog saw" by malcolm gladwell.
very inspiring book. profound truths lie in the most mundane stuff!
halfway through reading "blink" by gladwell too.
interesting book on how the subconscious mind work.
i really like his style. easy and engaging!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


me with my boys!
do the brothers resemble each other?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

瞎拼真是一件美好的事！
上个星期买了一件上衣，是我非常喜爱的品牌之一 - club monaco!
虽然老公尽泼冷水，说物非所值．Bleh.
国庆大热卖也来得正是时候！
GG5８５折，一件上衣与短裤．不多也不少！
dressy ８折，连身裙买的划算！
to have the spoilt-for-choices feeling when deciding outfit for the day is one of the greatest joys in life！
啊，多肤浅的我！呵呵．

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

its the little things in life that count:
told the husband that my mouth is itchy and i want some supper.
in 5 mins time and a trip to the 7-11 downstairs, he came back with my fav. jack & jill potato chips and pokka green tea.
:) i felt loved.
time to feed our muffin tops!
yumyum!

i've my own gaga!

i like this photo! a very focused yz gazing ahead. LOL.

hubbi took leave to accompany yz to east coast for his school activities this morning.
some telematches and they belonged to the green team!
the worm is drawn by hubbi. wahahah.
he can be so irritating.
i dont know how he did it, but apparantly he persuaded the other parents to agree to use the worm for their team.
i wish i could join them.
it must have been fun.

scary HFMD episode

it all started when yz came down with a fever on the last day of our cruise trip.
thinking that its just a normal case of sore throat or catching the chills for him, we fed him paracetamol and planned to bring him to the PD on saturday.
on saturday morning, saw some red dots in the inner parts of his lips but thought nothing of it.
those are actually the symptoms of HFMD!
when the PD told us that yz got HFMD, my heart sank to the pits.
im worried for yr already since he is still so young.
PD gave us ulcer drops and asked us to keep yz hydrated.

then start our week-long nightmare.
over the weekend, yz was very difficult. throwing tantrums and rejecting milk/solids feeds.
and to make things worse, i started to develope fever too.
so heartpain to see yz crying out in pain whenever the food touched a sore part of his ulcers.
and he ate/drank very little during the 2 days too.
by monday, his appetite was slowly back to normal which is a good thing but i was confirmed as having HFMD too. @_@
and the ulcers in my throat was fucking painful.
either my pain threshold is super low or yz got it milder than me.
i was in such terrible pain that talking hurts and the wrong drink/food can bring tears to my eyes. :(

my pain escalated on wed and yr came down with fever too!!
by thursday, i was ready to kill anyone who irritates me cos the pain in my throat is just too much.
and yr, unfortunately, was diagnosed as having HFMD too!
wed to fri was the worst period for yr and us the maincaretakers.
he was literally crying on-off throughout the day/night till his voice was hoarse. *sob*
and he rejected his milk feeds and we've to force-feed him milk via syringe to keep him hydrated.

by saturday, finally we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
my throat was almost good and i can resume eating normal food once again.
yr's appetite is back and he's back to his smiley self. what a relief.
though he still has some angry-looking rashes on his limbs now.
but those will fade in time, no doubt.

been a really harrowing week for hubbi, my parents and myself.
so glad we pulled through it.
hopefully, our immunity will be much better after this round of battle!
i lost another kg and my weight is finally back to pre-preggy weight. like last time, i did it with the "help" of falling sick. PUI.
so far for 2010, i've been sick twice.
once in feb coming down with flu which triggered my asthma and this HFMD in jul.
hopefully, with proper diet and exercise, i can keep viruses at bay for the longest time!