Ps and Bs

After a long period of babbling "pa pa" and "bear", Oliver started to say "ball". Got to wait much longer for him to call "mummy".

Oliver still cannot verbalise that he wants milk. Instead, he choose to crawl onto the bouncer or even resort to coughing to indicate that he wants his milk.

Siti's helicopter

Oliver is very lucky that he has Siti at Delcare who dotes on him. More often then not, when we fetch Oliver in the evening, Siti will be the one playing with him, which can be quite tiring as Oliver is really a reckless baby, and has recently taken to climbing and diving headlong into pillows or cushions. A look at his log sheet usually shows that Siti takes care of all of Oliver's feeding, diaper change, bath and naptime.

Oliver also knows how to manja with Siti, sometimes clinging on to her even when we are around.

On his birthday Oliver got a toy helicopter from Siti, which is really really sweet of her. I'm sure not all the babies have a guardian angel like Oliver does.

Celebrations and celebrations

One birthday celebration is not enough for Oliver. He is a popular baby blessed with a Kawai Japanese boy look. But that cute little baby face will soon change now that he turns 1.

21 November 2007 (Wednesday)
We bought a mini cake from Dome at Dempsey Hill to celebrate Oliver's birthday - Just the two of us with Oliver.
22 November 2007 (Thursday)
We brought Oliver to Changi Airport with his new tricycle. Not too successful with his attempt at the new tricycle, Oliver preferred to be carried by us. TIRED...

At night, we joined in Boon Heng's family dinner at BaliThai in Tampines Mall to celebrate his nephew's passing of PSLE. Lucky Oliver, another round of birthday celebration.

23 November 2007 (Friday)
Oliver celebrated his birthday with Nate in his school. It was quite a bad rush for all of us including the teachers there. Everyone was juggling with babies, cake and the fruit salad we prepared.
25 November 2007 (Sunday)
We were all set to lay our food on the picnic mat at Botanical Gardens when the sky started to pour. Hence, home sweet home we went and had another round of celebrations with my close friends.

Cake and more cakes

Centre Ps

Swensens

Four leaves

Dome Cafe

Home cooked from Jean

Baby Oliver is ONE year old today

For one year, our life has changed with the birth of Oliver. To think of one word to describe how our life has changed is really quite tough. "Colours" may adaptly fit into the peg.

Our house used to have the colour theme of brown and white. Now, it is a colourful theme of red, green, blue and yellow - Oliver's toy house, his stacking pails, and his latest additions (from his birthdays)of toys .. tricycle, click and clack caterpillar

and megabloks. Our vios used to be just black and sliver,and now it is filled with his toys. Frequently, we discovered food bits left over on the dining table and timber floor by Oliver after his meals. Occasionally, Oliver's poo changed colour and texture which stresses us out. Our dress sense has also changed to fit in the hectic lifestyle. It has gotten more simple yet colourful. This is especially when Boon Heng tries to act like Oliver and dress like him. As if these antics by Boon Heng is not enough, he also encourages me to dress like Oliver.

Oliver at Changi Airport

Changi Airport is a huge disappointment now that the runways and much of the docking bays are completely obscured from the viewing galleries of both T1 and T2. What's a viewing gallery if you have nothing to see? It's either to make space for more airline offices, for some stupid post 9/11 security reasons, or just to prevent commoners who aren't travelling from loitering at this so-called world-class airport.

It certainly takes the fun out of going to the airport to look at the planes like in the past, and I guess the airport authority has precisely that in mind.

Oliver is one tomorrow

Yup, Oliver is gonna be one year old tomorrow. It has been quite an eventful year, by our standards, and Oliver has also become so much a part of us. Life would probably be very strange and different now if he is not around messing up his food, his diaper and the house.

Oliverpoo is turning the corner...

but I am not so sure of the mess he leaves behind.

After a week of diarrhoea, Oliver's condition finally improves. It was down to only one poo yesterday after a record high of 6 poo per day.

Messy

So unlike his dad, Oliver can't stand the sight of things, especially his toys, being stack upright. He must send his stacks of colourful cones, containers, and books flying if they are in its "proper" place.

New tricycle

Oliver's birthday is coming and what's a birthday without presents? So we trotted down to Toys "R" Us and got him this tricycle. He can't reach the pedals yet, but seems to enjoy being pushed in it at home. Can't wait to try it out along the Singapore River or East Coast Park one of these days.

Steamboat

This popular Hainanese steamboat place at Golden Mile was one of our favourite dinner places before the arrival of Oliver. The last time we were there was on 11 Nov 06, that is, eleven days before he popped out of the tummy. I know coz I keep all receipts. The steamboat is good (of course), the beef is usually tender, the chilli is addictive, the coffee is great, the place is usually crowded after 6pm.

Until yesterday, when my mum and sis came over to visit Oliver and we ended up at Golden Mile Thien Kee again. We are often worried that it might be a challenge to eat steamboat with Oliver's mood swing. With them around, it went smoothly and it was great to be back there.

Nate's birthday party

One of Oliver's schoolmate, Nate, was born today a year ago. He had his birthday bash at Colbar on Saturday and we were there. Here, Oliver had the mini inflatable pool all to himself. But he kept us on our toes by throwing the coloured balls out non-stop.

Tag Lover

Babies love tag, and so does Oliver. And tags also seems deliciously tempting too. mmm.. i wonder why.

What a Cool birthday cake from neighbour Jean

Lucky Oliver. Our neighbour Jean baked and decorated this cool looking cake for Oliver's coming one year old birthday.

Diarrhoea after recovery from Bronchiolitis

Poor baby Oliver. Just after he recovers from the inflammation of lung, he has diarrhoea. Oliver could not eat his dinner last night. He threw out his milk and water several times and had watery stools twice. Boon Heng and I keep asking ourselves what had Oliver taken that has gone wrong? or if he catches stomach virus?

Dad's teeth are cleaner now after seeing dentist lah!

Mad Rush

I miss going to fetch Oliver at Delcare after work. Only Boon Heng fetches Oliver from Delcare after work as I have to get home early to prepare dinner for all of us. My evening schedule goes like that:

630 pm - I leave office with Boon Heng
640 pm - I alight on Cantonment Road and walk back home
645 pm - The mad rush begins.. change out of office attire, wash up to prepare dinner.
700 pm - still cooking
715 pm - steamed food for Oliver ready. Cut veg into tiny pieces to add to porridge cooked since morning.
720 pm - Daddy and son reach home. Communicate with Oliver over the intercom.
730 pm - Food ready for Oliver
740 pm - Food ready for Boon Heng and I. I eat first while Boon Heng feeds Oliver
800 pm - Boon Heng eats while I play with Oliver. Or nappy change time as Oliver usually poo poo during dinner.
830 pm - Boon Heng washes the dishes while I continue to play with Oliver
845 pm - Our playtime with Oliver
900 pm - Getting Oliver ready for bedtime
930 pm - Oliver's milk time and hopefully fall asleep after drink
1000 pm - Pray hard that Oliver has already sleep by now.

But I know all these mad rushes are worth it every time when Oliver get excited seeing me.

And nothing else brigthens my day like Oliver's blur little face.

Oliver at Labrador Park

Labrador Park is relatively quiet on a Public Holiday, but not the beach below it. Didn't know that the beach is so crowded now, so much so that the carpark is packed in the evening. Another stretch of the beach, leading to almost the adjacent of the seafront of Keppel Club, is now open to the public. We were there on Deepavali for a walk and also discovered a row of rundown and quaint stalls that sell quite good and reasonably-priced Malay food, near the entrance of the park facing PSA Tower. But alas, the Circle Line MRT station will be built next to it soon, thus probably erasing all the charm and turning it into another sanitised and supposedly visitor-friendly park. The Singapore government is world-class is doing that, ie demolishing charming nooks and crannies, and building sanitised and faceless structure in its place.

Oliver at Simply Bread along Singapore River

Big Small Eyes Monster

Not very noticable to me but this bothers Sophia a bit... Oliver's right eye has single eyelid while his left eye sometimes has double eyelids and is apparently bigger.

Astons

One of the places that we like to go for dinner recently is Astons along East Coast Road, recommended by Sophia's brother. If you've been there, you would probably know why. The food is cheap and good, and the queue is long, especially if you arrive after 6pm. If you haven't you should really try it before the rest of Singapore get to know about it.

We were there again last Saturday and Oliver did his usual best to make friends with the waitress and the diners from the adjoining table.

That's baby cousin Chloe

Dunno why but she seems to be terrified of me (Boon Heng).

November Rain

Suddenly it's November already... 2007 seems to be whizzing past in a hurry. This picture was taken in May when Melissa, another of Oliver's schoolmate, was one year old.

We sneaked away from a seminar to Delcare today to see Oliver. And we noticed that Melissa (and Ian as well whom we don't really know) have "graduated" from infant-care to the childcare section. Melissa was born in May 06, and 1.5 yrs old is the age when babies are transferred over. Soon it will be Caleb's and Marc's turn. Will be kinda strange that Melissa is no longer around, as she is one of the babies who is more responsive and who frequent the centre on Saturdays, like Oliver, and whose parents are one of the first that we got to know. Melissa even went over to hug Sophia today after seeing her.

Yesterday we also learnt that baby Adam is no longer at Delcare after bumping into his mum. Apparently he is always falling ill and they decided to quit Delcare and let his granny takes care of him.

Well, November seems to be a month of saying goodbyes. Which means that there may be more caregiver:infants ratio. Not a bad thing especially since Delcare seems to be really short-handed recently.

Oliver at Ya Kun (Raffles Hospital)

His 3rd visit to the hospital in less than 2 weeks. But somehow I feel that he seems happier here than in Aglow in United Square. We also met Kate and her mum, who was in front of the queue to see the Doc. Kate is Oliver's schoolmate, and is of Korean-Taiwanese parentage. Mebbe she'll like Oliver in the future.