Moving on...

Hello Hello.. we are still alive! Thought I should update a bit since it shall no longer be "Atrina Journey" soon. We are bidding farewell to Atrina in about 2 months' time. Our new house will be at The Topiary. More updates on our moving/reno/new location soon  :)

Children's Day 2012



Children's Day is on every 1st Fri of October instead of 1st October now. On this day, XY stayed home with didi and me. We had ramen lunch at Ajisen, a Barney kiddy ride afterwards. Right before heading home, she had a slice of cake of her choice to bring home. A simple day but I think she enjoyed staying home with us :)

Her current fav pose

 

 

宇轩's Firsts

He got his first haircut at the neighbourhood hairdresser and his first 2 lower front teeth :)

姐姐抱弟弟

To a parent, the happiest that could be is: Your children live is peace and harmony.
Nothing else matters.

The lovers of Sengkang Central

The family went out for mooncake shopping. Very tiring indeed!!
As usual big sis requested to be carried by Daddy cause lil bro was using her pram haha.
So Dad's solution is put big sis in the pram and carry lil bro. Much lighter!

 

Teething fever

He's so tired he fell asleep while holding on to his "toys".

 

My kids

It's sheer bliss when they get along together well :D

Initial semi solid trial

Started him when he was about 5.5months old. He was fine with pumpkin, pear and peach puree. Then all of a sudden, he rejects all kinds. Very frustrated so I decided to stop him for a while. And this "while" has been ongoing for a long time. at 8.5months he's still a 100% milk baby!



Pumpkin puree was yummy...

Precious moments

Firstly, very sorry that my pics are jumbled up and not according to sequence. Somehow I forgotten which should come first.

These are the scenes of how my elder is accepting her younger sibling. I cannot help but to tear a little. It is very amazing when it happened right before my eyes. No sense of jealousy, no throwing of tantrums, no badmouthing of her younger brother. Well done my little girl. No one can ever replace the place of her in my heart. With the addition of the little one, it just makes my heart grow bigger to accomodate another lovely child.







The first few days. She let didi use her toddler bed and revert back to her cot. How sweet is that!













 



She learns to show affection for her younger brother.

One of those days she stayed at home with us. Quite chaotic but nothing I can't handle.



1st shopping trip with 宇轩 at 2months+

It's hard. It's tiring. But I finally plucked up enough courage to leave the house. Went to Plaza Singapura for lunch and some shopping. That was the day I realised the nursing facilities in that mall sucks big time. Perhaps I am too used to Orchard Road mall style. Private, clean, well-maintained, stylish nursing rooms with comfortable seats, hot water dispenser, ergonomic diaper changing area. The best ones (in my humble opinion) are at Taka, Paragon and Isetan. Hands down hands down. It's a stretch to call that 1 and only miserable small room in the whole of the mall a "nursing room". Needless to say eversince the last visit in May, I haven't been back at all. 



Some buys from Mothercare. He still refused the pacifiers.





Pampers on offer 3 for $36 I think





1 of my favourite shops these days: Daiso









He doesn't like to sleep in the cot







宇轩 at 2 months old

The drama starts. I extend CL for additional 1 week (most worthwhile $$ paid of the year!) cuz I wasn't sure if I was able to handle YX on my own. I wasn't wrong. He's a tough nut to crack!

 

Yu Xuan at 1 month

Confinement lady was still around so it wasn't that bad. In fact I didn't know it was going to be so bad!

Yu Xuan's full month celebration - A pictorial

* All pictures courtesy of Miss PY the 自拍女王.
Uh I can't find the food pics...

Stay-at-home-mum again...

I've been meaning to update my blog. I mean it. Really. I wanted to do a pictorial on YX's full month celebration before anything else. I like to do things in sequence you see... Like having a girl.... then a boy. To make a “好” 字. hehe I haven't lost my sense of humour afterall. Ok next post will be on that then continue on blogging about our lives. Stay tuned :D

Birth announcement of Yu Xuan

Not sure is it due to being a 2nd time mummy or is it that I'm blessed to have engaged such a good confinement nanny that I "found" energy to host a full month celebration at home. Yes, home is my limit. I don't think I'm up to those chalet-style celebrations. Even feeding my boy round the clock, 8 feeds of 30min each or longer each time, I feel more "in control" than my 1st one. Engaging a good confinement nanny is SOOO important I think. I'll miss Auntie a lot when she goes back this Sunday. I'll miss her cooking, her help, and most importantly - HER!! Well... she has her own life too you know. I should be thankful enough she was able to extend 1 extra week for me since she's expecting her 1st grandchild coming April. No matter what, Auntie, you are the best helper ever and I will never forget you. Keep in contact!

Since we are having a celebration at home, I decided to distribute cakes to colleagues and friends who were not invited. Saves us the transportion time to drop by every relative's place too.

Yu Xuan's cakes are from Choz Confectionery. Sorry I don't know how to pronounce Choz hehehe.

The complimentary card that was included in every box. Pic was not pro but at least it was better than the one I took during XY's time. I laminated a few and gave 1 to Auntie. Then she'll remember our family :) Oh and I forgot to ask them to remove the wording "Baby Shower". Full month is not equivalent to Baby Shower. Misconception among lots of Singaporeans...

We ordered 2 different varieties.
This is with chocolate cake.
Lesson learnt from XY's time: MUST order additional items, else the box would have an empty slot which will be filled with the confectionery's leaflet.



Close up - looks quite presentable.

This is the other variety - with marble cake.

Close up view.



Ok this is totally irrelevant but I thought it's cute - Dad doing the dishes in the kitchen while the daughter goes under the dining table doing pretend-play :D

The Hiap siblings bonding time

I feel very blessed that my elder one is showing affection for her younger brother since day 1 of his birth. Our earlier worries totally uncalled for. But then I'm not sure as the days go by, how will things change...

This was taken about a week ago. XY kept wanting to lie beside her baby brother. She loves to pat him but I'm so worried she doesn't know how to control her strength and hurt Yu Xuan haha.

This is the pic I will show to the kids when they are having arguement in future. *See how che che used to dote on didi and see how didi loved to be pampered by che che* :D

Our last threesome Valentine's Day

Due to my fear for natural delivery, we had to schedule for a elective Caesarean section 2 weeks prior to my EDD. We were given the dates 15th or 17th Feb. I chose the 17th which is not that near to V day and also because 17th is a Fri so it would be more convenient for K to bring XY down to the hospital over the weekend. Just to digress a little here why I am afraid of natural delivery... For my 1st pregnancy, I live in fear everyday after gestation week 37. Fear that my waterbag will leak during my sleep or contraction pain would come anytime. I will NOT even go into the details of my birth story which consisted of initial planned natural delivery but ended up with a emergency C section which resulted me to stay in MAH for 6D 5N.

Anyway back to the topic. I had the few days off before my operation date to prepare for last minute baby stuff, me-time and to do a bit of cooking before the little one comes. So I decided to make use of my new HCP to cook a simple dinner for Valentine's Day. *If you do not know what is a HCP, pls do yourself a favour by searching on youtube or switch on to Channel U on weekend mornings before the actual programme starts.* The good mummy in me also bought a slice of Cedele cake just so that my little girl can sing her "Happy Birthday" (I tried to tune it to "Happy Valentine's Day" but it didn't really work with her), blow the candle and eat the cake.

Dinner in preparation.



HCP at work.



And that's our V Day dinner. Not at all romantic but at least it's something different (Read: more interesting) from my usual cooking.



Family of 3 finished all the food. Thank you my sweet daughter for your kind support for the yakitori. Your sweet mum marinated the chicken thigh meat and mid joints 1 day before ok.

Just in case you are wondering... I was inspired by Shin Kushiya's Kushiyaki but not very inspired by the price so I tried my best to replicate it at home :D