A Prize For Walking

Walked enough to redeem the 1st tier prize for National Steps Challenge. 

Bird-Bird

I think every parents dreams of that moment when their little ones looks at them lovingly and calls out Papa or Mama. Meimei and I are no different and have been waiting eagerly for the day to come.

We read in the books that babies will start saying Papa or Mama indiscriminately to both parents at about 8-9 months. Then at about 10 months they would be conscious of who they are calling out to. So you can imagine our excitement when Emily first started going "Mum-mum-mum-mum" a month ago.

However soon we realised that she does "Mum-mum-mum-mum" randomly and is not even attempting to call either one of us. I'm sure she recognises us because she would let out the most tender loving smile when she sees us and even wave or point in our direction.

She does say a word knowingly though. Meimei and I have resigned to the fact that her first cognitive words may not be Papa or Mama ... but rather of an animal that has been a bane of Meimei's life ... Birds. I'm not sure how it started but we came to realise that she notices birds as she will actively seek them out. Whenever she sees them she will let out a cry, point and sometimes wave to them. 

And bless Meimei for being the ever loving Mama ... she actually bites through her paralysing fear and brings Emily towards the birds so she can have a closer look. I suppose this may be destiny, to have Emily not be fearful of birds so she can chase them away for Mama when she grows older.

But before that happens ... we are still looking forward to the greetings of Papa and Mama :-)

Morning Joys － 喝不完的奶

躲猫猫～

哦，被你们发现了！

我喝不完，给你！

Fun At The Pool

Today's Emily's first time at the pool. Meimei's friend invited us to her condominum so we didn't have to brave the public pools for her first attempt. 

As much as she loves bathing and playing in the baby tub, I think the big pool scared her and she cried when Meimei tried to lower her into the water. It took some coaxing to get her warmed up and sitting at the steps. But once she was in the water she was fearless, she kept going to the deeper steps so we had to keep constant watch.

We bought a float at a recent baby fair and Emily finally had the opportunity to try it on. I think she wasn't too keen to be floating around, the sensation of kicking water instead of the solid ground seemed to shock her.

I'm pretty sure a couple more outings to the pool will put her at greater ease and she might enjoy the experience more. 

Looking To Move

Since the arrival of baby, I've started exploring if we could move into a place closer to my In-Laws. Its very tiring for Mama to travel to our place daily with groceries and likewise tough for baby to go to my In-laws in the wee hours of the morning when Meimei starts going back to office.

We put up our place for sale a couple of months ago and there were strangers walking into our home every weekend since. It's inconvenient to have to rush back to home every weekend to open our doors but it was a necessary evil to gauge how far we can stretch our finances to buy a dream home close to my In-Laws. And because of these, our weekends are pretty much limited to quick runs for grocery or meals and nothing much else.

It was evident early on that we were not going to fetch the same prices as the ones we are looking to buy. My In-laws stay in an old town where the prices for apartments have always been steep. The thing that gets me is that the flats there are 10 to 15 years older than the one we are staying now, yet they cost 100-150k more. And add the smaller floor space, 126 sqm versus 119 sqm, it really took me a long time to come to terms with this choice.

But oh well, there are many benefits to moving. There are more facilities nearby, a swimming pool, library, wet market, hawker centres. You name it they have it ... such is the allure of old towns. New towns are so 'planned' that you are restricted to very limited spots for any notable facilities.

Ok, enough about the new place we are looking at. The point of this post is to share that as much as I want to move, there is much I've fallen in love with in our first home. I am going to document as much as I can of the place before we sell it, to keep as a remembrance of our first humble abode. Our kids may never get to experience the goodness of the place so I hope that keeping commentaries on the blog for it can at least give them a sense of how comfortable this place is.

Meimei's Drawings

Meimei started attending drawing classes with her friends. She has talent.

10 months ... She Is Going To Be A Handful

I keep hearing about Terrible 2. Why am I already seeing it at 10 months?! She's going to be a handful ... I need to enjoy whatever niceness she gives now. Because she may give me lesser smiles once I start being sterner and discipline her more. I hope she realises it is for her own good. The best case I can hope for is that she grows out of it early and becomes obedient.

Do I look like a girl now?

样子够坏吧

Melon very nice wor~

This is how you say Love!

You want your car key? Let's talk terms ...

I ... Can ... Reach ... It .......

Are your talking about me?

Look at my silly look~!

Remembering FFXI

Just recently I went to check out the website for FFXI after Mum forced me to clear out all my remaining stuff at Hillview and I found my original box sets of the game and its expansions. Meimei ask me to keep them but I declined. I know there is no going back, I'm a dad now. 

Over the years I've occasionally reminsce about the fun I had playing the game. The thoughts usually came to me while I was playing on my iphone. Sigh ... No mobile MMO game will ever reach the depth and co-op play an online PC game can deliver.

It seems the game is still thriving with 3 expansions after I left. Sure the player base has dwindled and couple of servers were merged, but the developers were still holding events and contests to drive interest.

I'll be lying if I say I wasn't tempt to start playing again. But the time commitment the game takes (4 hours each time you team up to level up a character) always puts a damper on any hopes of picking it up again. 

And now that I've thrown away the boxes, it is the definite conclusion. The boxes holds the unique user ID key and losing them meant I can never get my character back ever again. 

Its for the best. I can always dive into another MMO when I retire ... In another 30 years or so. Highly doubt FFXI will still be running then ... So oh well. I'll just continue to dream about the days when I run free in Vana'diel in search of fame and adventure!

New Year's Resolution 2016

Can I just repeat 2015's resolution? I think I did well and met them ... to a certain extent. And they continue to be relevant this year ... or in fact every year so yeah I think it's fair to use them again.

But I will add one more to the list - Try to cut down on using the phone in front of baby.

Already she is attracted to the phone even though she doesn't know what it can do. She just tries to grab it because the adults are staring and poking at it constantly. I think she thinks its a toy. Ok ... it is a toy. But not age appropriate for her.

So to reduce this attraction I will try to use less of the phone when I'm with her.

Reviewing The Year 2015

As 2015 comes to a close, its good to review the year, especially when its a good one. Its been awesome from many fronts.

Family - Wow what can I say thats not already obvious ... Emily has lightened up our lives. Not just Meimei and me but our parents and siblings as well. All the sleepless nights and tiredness worns away immediately when I recall the days before our little one arrive. Yes we don't get to laze on the sofa and watch TV anymore. We can't go anywhere on a whim or chance a meal at a hawker centre etc. But all these sacrifices are peanuts to the fulfilment and wholesomeness we have in return. Family life just feels more complete now :-)

Work - I count myself very lucky to have stumbled on this role. Though its on a one year contract basis, its purely project work and I don't have to deal with any operational scope. That's a big plus, I don't have to stay late for closing and the hours are pretty good with only occasional calls at night. Also its just a 10-15 minutes drive from home so I go home for lunch and see my baby everyday. Most importantly, the people I work with closely are very nice and accomodating. My boss has kids so she can relate to the challenges I'm having with a newborn. My colleagues are also helpful folks who will try their best to meet whatever needs you have of them. And by the looks of it my contract might be renewed so all is good!

Could this year have got any better? Nah, I'm contended with the blessings we have had and wouldn't ask for more. I can only hope that next year is just as good if not better ;-)

Christmas Dinner 2015

Meimei's cousins and family travelled to Singapore for Christmas this year. The plan was to have lunch or dinner together at a restaurant. But the stumbling block was the request to find a place where there is a children play area for the kids.

Eateries with children playground in their own premise is an extremely rare sight in Singapore, given the sky high rentals. Any inch of space would be used for extra tables to house more patrons. You don't need to provide children facilities to attract customers.

So Meimei managed to convince them to come to our humble home instead where Grandma has a bed to rest when tired and the kids can play in the playpen. Papa and uncle can also be at ease while drinking to their heart's content and not be inhibited by public eyes.

To welcome them Meimei prepared a huge spread of food. The pre-dinner appetisers alone was already a meal in itself. Everyone was already full by the time I came back with the Zhi Char ... 

I'm glad everyone enjoyed themselves ... or at least I think they did hahahah. Alcohol usually helps hehe and when you have a big group people tend to find company to chat with. And if they don't they can always play with the kids.

So I would say the get-together was a roaring success. There was a lot of food left though after ... enough for complete meals for a couple of days!

Dinner At Otto Ristorante

Its been a long while since I've enjoyed a dinner with folks at work. This group are nice cordial plant types, not the corporate crafty sort. So I was excited to join them for Christmas dinner and celebrate the year. 

My manager managed to get a pretty big budget (@$150/pax) for our get-together so we had a healthy choice of up market restaurants to choose from. Eventually the vote went to Otto Ristorante, an italian outfit along Maxwell Road.

We met up for pre-dinner drinks and finger food at a bar nearby so we arrived for dinner in good spirits ... And already half filled stomaches! So even though they were serving the 5 course Christmas set dinner, we opt for ala carte instead. 

Ripe Italian tomato, Burratina cheese and Pio Tosini Parma ham

Dill marinated amberjack with orange jelly and crunchy fennel salad

Crispy assorted mushrooms and goat cheese parcel with potato veloute

We had 3 sets of 3 anti-pasti to start, together with the fragant bread. And with white wine for drinks I was afraid everyone might already be done before the main course. 

Thankfully all the chatter and nicely paced serving help the starters to settle before the mains arrive. I ordered the Atlantic Tagliata and a colleague was kind to trade his suckling pig. 

Atlantic cod Tagliata with black taggia olives crust and sweet garlic sauce

Crispy “suckling pig” lacquered with acacia honey and balsamic vinegar

Seared Tuna on beetroot carpaccio with stracciatella cheese

Grilled lamb rack cutlet with comfit shallots and purple potato mash

I didn't get pictures of all the main courses, I recall someone ordered the Linguine with Boston Lobster and another had the Beef Tenderloin with bone marrow sauce. But that's ok ... it wouldn't be nice to go all the way across the table just to get a picture hehe.

Bergamot crème brulee with vincotto marinated raspberry

Warm chocolate cake with Haitian vanilla ice cream

Apple and pine nut crumble with chocolate ice cream and cinnamon sauce

I ordered the Creme Brulee to test it out for Meimei. I'll go for the warm chocolate cake ... it was heavenly heheh ... I know cos two colleagues gave me half each of their cake. So I actually had 2 servings of desserts!

The place is on the pricey end but not anymore far off than other reputable Italian restaurants. I'm definitely bringing Meimei here for a nice candlelight dinner soon.

Waking Up To Cooing

It just happened. We didn't expect it to happen so soon. A constant soft cooing sound woke us from our slumber. 

We woke to find her standing up on the crib and calling out to us. She has somehow learned to heeve herself up and hold onto the railing. And her call wasn't in distress but rather a soft mellow coo coo, trying to wake us. It just warms our heart hearing her yearn for our attention. 

This is the golden reward for all the sleepless nights. Now I can look forward to waking up to beautiful cooing every morning, at least before she learns to shout papa and mama hahaha.

Since she knows how to stand with support, I'm pretty sure she will soon be running unassisted through out the house. Already she attempts to let go of a hand and balance on her two feet. 

She is a daredevil that knows no fear or pain.  Somehow that scares me abit but yet I feel encouraged that she is not afraid to try things on her own. Her sense of self discovery is strong and that can only aid her in her future mental development. 

An Indian Wedding

Neighbours invited us for their daughter's wedding.

Stubbornness Showing At 9 Months

She's showing her personality more as she reaches the 9th month. Very stubborn and bad tempered at times. She is going to be a handful. I was reluctant to be the 严父 but she is leaving me with no choice. I still love her to bits but must establish boundaries before she goes wayward beyond control.

Little Miss Sunshine

Aiyah ... Cannot see~!

我没坏蛋！

我不吃～ :-P

点虫虫，虫虫飞～！

Zzzz ... Nom Nom Nom ... Zzzz

My 淑女 Look

Fishes Fishes Where Are You ~

赌神wannabe