Cousins

As Oliver grows up, we noticed that he is displaying some inhibition towards strangers. Even Uncle Sunny, the cleaner at our place whom he sees almost everyday, took a long while to coax a response from him. Most of the time he will either look away or stand motionless like a statue and pretend that Sunny is not there. Quite funny. Only recently he is more friendly towards Sunny, and even allowed himself to be carried on 2 occasions.

However, Oliver seems to take on immediately to Vera and Vivien. Recently we happened to meet them while they were on their way to the van which takes them home. And both of them were holding Oliver's hand all the way from the centre to the road. We repeated that a couple of time and timed our fetching of Oliver to V&V departure. They seems to be very good friends.

Oliver is 17 months old

What happen this week?

McGriddles came to Singapore

Olympic torch enjoys smooth run in Malaysia, but bypass Singapore

DPM Wong details events on the day of Terrorist Mas Selamat's escape

Stop interrupting my sleep!

After two months, our hardship and endurance finally paid off with Oliver finally sleeping through the night and without any night feed. But wait, not yet, Oliver is still interrupting my sleep. I am a light sleeper and is easily roused, so I am not spared from night interruptions yet. Oliver is an active sleeper. We can find him sleeping facing all directions and sometimes near the edge of his bed. I am in constant fear that he will fall off his bed. Lucky, we place some pillows at the edge and that manage to keep him off the edge.

So how does Oliver interrupt my sleep now? Like I say, he moves in all direction, and since he sleeps next to me, he would give me a kick at night just to tell me how well he sleeps through the night. I decide to get a bolster and have it placed between us. How smart of me, right? Not quite I must say, he can now climb over the bolster in his sleep and get over to my side. Oh my sweet slumberland, when will I ever get there?

Oliver and his sunny smile

I really love this picture and is currently displaying on my desktop.

Dramatic Outburst

Not getting what he wants..
Still struggling like a inverted cockroach on the floor after 3 minutes

Finally getting what he wants...

We have seen quite a dramatic Oliver in his 16th month. Besides trying to vocalise his baby words, he also "vocalise" his moods through his dramatic display of tempers. The above photographs are Oliver at his worst. I try not to laugh at him, but he is really cute when throwing tantrums. We cannot help busy our hands with camera to take picture of this milestone achievement of his. Oliver, at this stage I stress, was easily soothed when I got down to hug him and ask him what he wanted.

It is time now to read more and find out how to manage these emotions.

Boon Heng's Birthday

Boon Heng celebrated his 37th Birthday. I intended it to be a surprise again this year to take out the cake out only at 12 midnight. Oliver broke the surprise when Boon Heng tried to pacifice Oliver's moody self by opening the fridge door. So we celebrated Boon Heng's Birthday with Oliver very much awake. I think that is also what Boon Heng wants too, to blow the birthday candles with Oliver, remembering last birthday, we actually took Oliver off his bed to take picture at 12 midnight.

Boon Heng at his 36th Birthday with Oliver

"Ma Ma"

Recently, I have very very short memory. I cannot remember things and even my hands seems to be out of control, dropping things at the most inapproriate times. One of the recent embarrassment was that while taking lunch order on my favourite Char Kuay Teow in my office, I totally forgot to take order for myself. I almost missed eating the Kuay Teow the second time round.

Anyway, the reason why I started saying that I was careless and forgetful is that I almost forget to write a very important milestone of Oliver's which means a lot to me. That is, he started calling "mama" a few weeks back. Although not "mummy", it was quite obvious that he actually called me "mama". You can call me a hopeless perfectionist, I can't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment when he called me "mama" instead of "mummy". I am still trying to teach him to call me "Mummy" instead of "mama". Not too sure if I can succeed one of these days, but I am sure the day will come. Poor Oliver, you have to bear with my nonsense. But I do have a reason for doing so. Perhap, one of these days when you grow older, I will share with you the reason behind this secret little fetish of mine.

Time to be Sick again

It was last month that Oliver recovered from his fever which was caused most probably by MMR vaccine. Two days back, he started to show signs of another virus infection. Yesterday, his mucus was yellowish green and was sneezing quite badly while in Del-care. But Oliver being Oliver, he was still his active little athletic self running around excitedly when we went to VivoCity to have our dinner. The only tell-tale sign was perhap his reluctance to put on his favourite shoes.
On the way back home from VivoCity, Oliver dozed off in his car seat. We were secretly pleased when he fell asleep on a car journey that took less than 10 minutes. FAT hope! He was woken up by his own coughing and was ever so active when he reached home. How can he possibly be ill? In fact, he only slept at 11pm which was one hour later than his usual sleeping time.

Tongue twisting and footballing skills

A trait that neither me nor Sophia has is the ability to twist our tongues. However, Oliver can easily turn his tongue so that it is vertical. If you ask him to "twist his tongue", he would love to show off his special "talent". No one from my family seems to be able to do this except my nephew Sheng Kang who can twist his even more... 180 degree... amazing. So tongue twisting is definitely not hereditary.

Another skills that Oliver is displaying is kicking balls... he can kick them very accurately and also kick them while running... surely the signs of a footballing prodigy.

Gathering at Eve's place

After several attempts to arrange a suitable date for my group of 'Siao Ja Po' (a.k.a. Crazy Girl) friends from Ngee Ann Polytechnic to meet, we finally managed to squeeze out an evening on Sunday to meet at Eve's home. Yes, it is getting more and more incredibly difficult to get all of us to meet especially now that Eve spends her time alternating between Beijing and Singapore. Adam, who is Eve's hubby, works in Beijing for a contractual period now. Aileen has her no.2, Ally girl girl. Ally girl has very feminie features and is very pretty. Even for Raidon and Cheyanne, these few months of not seeing them, have grown remarkably well. Raidon has a boyish look and rosy chubby cheeks. He is now half a head taller than Oliver. Cheyanne is now taller than Oliver although they are about 3 months apart. If you are wondering if I am concerned about Oliver's growth, you can be assured that I am not worried. I am bascially very facsinated nowsday by Oliver's big appetite and his protrubing little tummy. Alan being the oldest kid around is also getting quite sociable too. I was surprised that he actually initiated conversation with me. Generally, I think I don't have that kind of face that can strike a cord with most kids. You know, my big mouth can be quite overwhelming for them.

It is really a pity that this picture was taken when Cheyanne just fell asleep. This is obviously due to my slowness in reaction that has resulted from my pregnancy. I must say that Cheyanne is very adorable. I love it when she did the jumping act with her hands moving up and down like a bird, copying Tigge, one of the Winnie the Pooh's cartoon character (her favourite toy at the moment).

Not forgeting the fathers of our kids, they have been most patience tolerating the "motherhood" talks among our 'Siao Ja bo' group. I think they are perhaps the best daddies around. You can tell by the way Andy carried Ally (I dare say better than Aileen). The porridge cooked by Kok Fai for Raidon looked so delicious (I dare not even compared with my cooking). Boon Heng also almost acting like Oliver, get himself so involved with Cheyanne's toys; and his extremely worried face like the whole world was tumbling down when he accidentally hurted Oliver's little finger when he closed the toilet door. Adeline who has decided not to have any children also adapted very well to our current topics of conversation. Adeline, being a full-time tuition teacher, has perhaps more experiences than us when it comes to dealing with children. I really appreciate her for being so understanding to the needs of this group of 'Siao' mothers to share their motherhood experiences. Once again, I cannot help but feel a bit sore that Alice has not make time for us. It will also be wonderful if we can also manage to link up with Catherine too. If only, we have more advanced technology twenty years ago to stay contacted .

All in all, we have a very nice gathering at Eve's place, and agree to meet again when Eve is back in town. Till then, we will see how our kids have grown and perhaps to celebrate our 20th anniversary of friendships. Now I am leaving you with a picture that kept me tickish all night (okay...you must use a bit of imagination).

Flowering seasons

Our home in Tanjong Pagar overlooks a row of beautiful trees. The flowering seasons of these beautiful trees come at different time of the year. Tis season, we see the budding of yellow flowers, and even bits of pink flowers from another tree around the corner. If one of these days, we have to move house, I believe this is one part that I will miss very dearly.

Oliver's buddy Sean left for the States

26 March 2008 was the last day Sean went to Del-Care. On one hand, I was happy for Rosemary and Sean that they finally moved in together with Sean's Dad in the States. On the other hand, I felt quite sad to see them go. I felt almost like I was forced to leave my comfort zone.

I could not have imagine having to cope with taking care of Oliver alone, without Boon Heng around for such long time. This would be a uphill struggle for me.

"2 + 1 Vaughans = 3 Vaughans" Andy announced

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I received an email from Andy in Philippines last Friday announcing that he now has two beautiful girls in his life. If you read his email, you probably can sense his excitement as a new daddy and how proud he felt.

Jess' baby Malaya arrived one week earlier than the expected due date on April Fool's Day. Boon Heng and I have been waiting to hear the good news ever since their last visit to Singapore. Until Andy sent us the email, we still had no idea whether Jess would be having a boy or a girl. And last tuesday night at 8.35pm (25 March 2008), Jess gave birth to a beautiful girl and her name is Malaya Asher Vaughan. She weighs at 3.224 kg and 53 cm length. In Andy's words "she is looking like a contender for the featherweight division!". But I am sure she will catch up real fast and even grow taller than Andy and Jess.

I wonder how they are doing right now. Can't wait to see Malaya.

Jess, are you still keen on the exchange deal? haha.