Sunday, December 28, 2008

Post-Xmas Lunch Gathering

Finally another gathering with the sec classmates (plus my cousin) to mark the end of year 2008. Had high-tea buffet at Carousel on the 27th Dec. It was suppose to be on the Xmas day itself but Limei last min couldnt make it.

Limei and I brought our darlings along. Her princess seems so much easier to take care compared to mine! Little Yun En can sit very well without support and had no problem sitting in the high chair with mummy feeding her porriage. My girls still not very stable in sitting and we had to either carry them or put them in the stroller. They couldnt sit long in the stroller and will start to misbehave. So Hui & I had to carry them out, put on our lap and eat at the same time. It's really kind of troublesome to bring the girls out without a helper.Since it was not cheap to eat at Carousel and it was billed per head, we decided not to bring our maid along and left her at MIL's house.

Everyone had some chats, took some photos and left the place 2 hours later coz the buffet was only from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. As we were the last to arrive (due to all the feedings schedule for the girls, we arrived at 4pm), I didn't get to try everything on the buffet area as timing was too short and we had to look after the girls. Well, my friends did contribute a little by "helping" to carry them for the fun of it...but pass back to us in a short while. I think the next outing I will probably leave the girls at home. If anyone wants to see my girls, pls come over to the house instead :p
Photos taken that day:

Phyllis & Jimmy with Elsie

2 mothers, 3 princesses + 1 trainee mummy?

Trainee mummy is crying for help right after the shot ^_^

Jimmy & Daddy with Chloe

Chloe darling!

Mummy with Elsie

Little Yun En

Limei mummy with Yun En

The Chua family

Phyllis & mummy with Chloe

The finale!
Thursday, December 25, 2008

The princesses first Xmas

Didn't do much on the Xmas eve. Stayed at home the whole day to avoid the crowd. Gek Eng came over in the evening to do gift exchanged together with her hubby and son, Raphael. They stayed for just awhile before heading to her MIL house for Xmas feast! Hui and Me spent the day playing with the girls and took some pictures in the evening at home with the little Xmas tree we had.

After putting the girls to sleep, Hui & I stayed up to count down for Xmas and cut our little log cake. Just a very simple and cosy Xmas time for both of us. :)

The 2 elmo arrived from US in time to celebrate Xmas with us!
Getting the props read...

The girls with their new friend, TMX Elmo & Elmo LIVE!

I am Tow Kay Chloe Chua!

We are a happy family

Chloe sitting in her Bumbo playing with her new toy from Auntie Gek Eng

Merry Xmas to us!

Our humble choc log cake

On the actual Xmas day, we got invited to go over Gek Eng's house for lunch. When we reached her house, it was full of people. She had also invited her relatives over to celebrate Xmas. We stayed for a few hours at her house before proceeding to Robinson at Centrepoint. It was human mountain human sea! The great sale attracted tons of people and pushing 2 strollers into the shopping centre was almost impossible! Therefore we decided to bring 1 back into car and will do with 1 stroller. The queue to the cashier was also horrible and it took more than 30mins just for us to pay our items! We left the place in the evening and tabao dinner back home as the girls were very grouchy already for the lack of afternoon nap!

Nice Xmas tree deco at Gek Eng's house
Monday, December 22, 2008

Happy Birthday to Hui

Another year of birthday celebration together again. I guess this year was the simpliest celebration we both had with just simply dinner and NO GIFT for him! Both of us were on leave starting 22nd Dec till 5th Jan for him, and 2nd Jan for me. So on the 22nd, we left our girls with my MIL and maid and went to Vivocity for shopping. Bought nothing but stuff for the girls again! We then proceeded for our dinner and went home after that. Dinner place was chosen by the birthday boy and paid by the wifey!

I like this dinner place alot since I first eaten it at Chimes. The deco and food is simply excellent. And throughout the dinner, we received excellent services, particularly this young lady who is call Mei Zhen. She saw us taking picture and volunteered to help us take a photo together. I took this chance to ask her if there is any discount for any credit cards and if there is any special stuff for this birthday boy who is celebrating his birthday today. She checked upon Hui's NRIC and said the mudpie will be FOC for this birthday boy! There is a 15% disc for OCBC and HSBC credit cards holder. Wow....We've got a great deal here! She always wear a beautiful smile on her face when served our food and cleared our plates.

And when the last dish - Mudpie was served, it came along with a candle. She also mentioned certain days there will be live band and customer can request the band to perform something for the birthday person. Too bad we did not come at the right time as the band do not perform on Monday. I would have asked the band to help sing a birthday song on my behalf if the band was here that day. :(

A feedback card was given to us before we left and ofcourse I commented on the service of this pretty young lady for her friendly and wonderful services. We left the place feeling full and delighted UNTIL we reached the carpark only to realise we were not given the 15% disc despite we paid with OCBC credit card! We only checked on the free mudpie and forgotten to check on the disc!! What a waste!!

This year I did not get the gift in time for the birthday boy because I couldnt think of what to buy. The thing that this boy wanted was too expensive that I do not wish to spent on it. Therefore no birthday present for him on the actual day. But I promised a gift will be coming on the way...a belated present!

An early celebration on the 18th with his family at home.
Cake from Pinegarden.

Hog's Breath Cafe@Vivocity

Our dinner!

The birthday boy with his wifey

Couple shot

Birthday boy getting ready to blow his candle

*Blown*...time to eat the sinful mudpie with ice-cream!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

没有老公/爸爸的日子,第三天,晴

It's been 3 days since Hui left for Paris for business trip. It is also his first time not able to see us for so long since the girls were borned. I had to take 1 week leave as well in order to look after the kids at night and rest more during the day while my MIL took over the shift in the day time. It will be hard for me to concentrate at work if I had to "entertain" the girls in the middle of night (IF they throwing temper) and work during the day. Therefore I choose to take leave since I got so many leaves to clear by end of this year.

So far the girls are still quite good to me. Never fuss much in the wee hours..hmm...if yes only for awhile. I had to make sure I wake up in the middle of the night to pump my milk before the girls are awake for their feed. If not by the time I feed finish both of them, I would have die of severe engorgement! When Hui was around, usually he will feed the girls around 6/7+am while I do my pumping. But now since he is not around, I have to be the one feeding so I need to pump first before I can feed as my last pump is always around 11+pm/12am. It's really hard to resume back to waking up in the middle of night especially when I had sort of "train" myself to sleep through 5-6hours before the next pump since few weeks ago!

I want to say a great THANKS to SIL for covering the role as a "Ai Ya Daddy" for Hui and sleep with me at night so that I could pump my milk in peace incase the girls cry while I'm pumping! Truely appreciated deep in my heart :)

To Dear:
3 more days to go and I'll be seeing you at the airport together with your darlings. Come back safely! Cya in 3 days time! The girls have something to say to you too....
*Click image to view larger*




Sunday, November 30, 2008

Happy 6th Months!

Today mark our princesses 6th months birthday! There is a birthday cake today from Pine Garden, but it is not meant for our girls. It is for their Shu Shu, the birthday boy. The whole family (except FIL) went to Owen Seafood Restaurant at Turf City for lunch to celebrate Hui's brother post birthday (his birthday falls on 29th). This is also the first time we met his taiwanese gf...his first gf..Finally he had found his special other! Guess this year birthday is really a very special one for him as he can celebrate together with his love one. Happy for him :)

After the lunch, everyone went Bugis for shopping. I wanted to go back BHG again to see if I could find any Xmas gifts for my friend's son but couldnt find a suitable one. Hence left the place empty handed. Everyone separated around 7+pm and went home feeling tired.

Some pictures taken:

Owen Seafood Restaurant at Turf City

The birthday boy together with his birthday cake from Pine Garden
and his special other, Ya An

Elsie and Chloe with their 2nd Gu Gu and Gu Zhang.
*The girls are circulating around the table for photo taking..so famous :)*

Elsie and Chloe with Da Gu Gu and Gu Zhang

Elsie and Chloe with Shu Shu and "Shen Shen??"

Mummy feeding Chloe!

Daddy carrying Chloe
Saturday, November 29, 2008

Spending spree during recession

Elsie says...






Daddy had been telling mummy for the past few weeks to save more money because of recession and everywhere is retrenching. He wanted mummy to cut down on the online shopping spree and TRY not to buy anything unnceccessarily especially clothing because MeiMei & I had too many clothings to wear. Mummy heeded Daddy's advise of reducing the purchase of buying clothes, but in the end spent those money on getting toys and accessories for us! Let's look at some of the items bought recently by mummy specially for us which is worth mentioning...

Leapfrog Learn & Groove bilingual Drum
Mummy bought this at a great deal! Thanks to Auntie Gek Eng for recommending this online seller to mummy. Retail price at $49.90, mummy bought this at $25 and the drum is BRAND NEW! Although I didnt show much interest in this drum, but Daddy use it as a lullaby to lure me into sleep at night! This toy has now become my sleeping companion. Listening to the music played from the drum makes me fall into deep sleep. Zzzzzz...

Lamaze Fly & Chime Friends
Daddy and Mummy were shopping at Toy "R" Us at suntec city and mummy chanced upon this chime mobile to be hang onto our stroller. As MeiMei & I are very attracted to chime sounds, mummy thinks this might be useful to keep us guai guai inside the stroller. Mummy also likes the bright colors and by pulling the centre chime, the wings of the butterfly will flap as though it is flying! But I prefer to pull whichever that is nearer to me and trying hard to bring it down into my mouth!Mummy will also hang it inside the side bar of the car to make us sit still in the car seat. This works for MeiMei but NOT ME! Yes, I am the naughtier one..:p







Your baby can read VCDs
Mummy had been listening to a few friends saying how good these VCDs are. She is very tempted to buy the whole set but it cost $59.90 for a set of 5 VCDs (starter, Vol l, 2,3 and review). So mummy decided to turn to getting a preloved one. She tried searching in the forum to see if anyone is selling but none of the price offered or condition meets mummy's expectation. After waiting patiently for the right seller, mummy finally found one which is selling cheap yet is a brand new one. So her patience does pay off as she managed to pay $35 for the whole set which is still wrapped in plastic when collected. After watching the starter vcd together with Daddy and us, Daddy agreed that this is a good buy! Mummy is soooo happy she's got a great deal and it's definitely worth the money with ascertain from Daddy as well!

The photos says it all.
Elsie and Chloe LOVE YBCR! ^_^


Combi Teether Stage 2
Mummy had been observing Chloe & I for the past few weeks. She noticed we had been drooling alot recently and whatever that comes into our hand, goes into our mouth. As we are now able to grab things better, so she thinks it's time to get a teether for us. But she is very cautious about getting a good teether because this thing will eventually goes into our mouth. So the quality and safety of the teether is the important factor in choosing one. Mummy had been looking around in shopping centers and online BP/Sprees and had a big headache because there are too many teethers selling outside the market. Finally mummy decided on the teether from COMBI brand. But just by this brand there are a few kinds. After careful selection, mummy got this Combi Teether Stage 2 for us at BHG Bugis (It was having 20% disc storewide! :)).
The size and slim profile is perfect for little hands to hold. The whole teether is soft so it will not get hurt if we hit onto our face. There are 3 different textures on the yellow nubbies and is small enough to fit easily into our tiny mouth. It also have little beads in them that rattles around. The colors are bright and it's easy to clean. Most importantly, it comes with a cover so it's easier for storage everywhere we go.

Look at how Mei Mei loved this teether!



Pigeon MagMag
Mummy thinks it's time for us to switch from bottle to cup for drinking water so we could train how to hold our own for drinking. Mummy is an ardent fan for Pigeon brand. My milk bottle, bottle teat, bottle cleanser, clothes detergent and many many are from Pigeon brand. But mummy did not know Pigeon have this type of training cup and nearly settled for the Nuture Pure brand until she saw it at BHG when she went shopping that day. Without hesitation, she bought the whole set which consist of nipple, spout and straw drinking style. She find it's the perfect training cup for us. We are used to the Pigeon teat and starting off using back Pigeon nipple cup probably might make us easier to accept drinking from cup. Again, this was bought together with the teether which was entitled to 20% disc. Mummy left BHG that day with a bill of $70+ but she was so satisfied with the things bought!







Items on the way to Singapore...

Whoozit Wiggle Ball
Mummy joined an overseas spree and bought this item from a US website. She havent found this toy in Singapore yet and fall in love with this ball. This is an award winning toy and the vibrant contrasting colors provide us with visual stimulation. It have six easy-to-grasp handles and the dangling bug provide vibrating effect to the whole ball. It also have many taggies (the colorful ribbons) attached to the ball for us to fondle upon. I can't wait to put my hands onto this new toy!





Tiny Love Sunny Stroll
This is another item which mummy bought hoping to keep us entertain in our stroller when bring us out for shopping. It is gotten from the same source as the wiggle ball and mummy saw it selling at BHG for $59.90. Including shipping charges, mummy estimated she would only need to pay $20+ for this. Another good deal! It have the following features:
-Flexible, adjustable arch
-Rattling butterfly ball
-Transparent sun prism
-Baby-activated bird propeller
-Dangling ball with silky teether ribbons
-Dangling flower mirror
-Dangling, crinkling butterfly
-Attaches to stroller or baby carrier
Let's see if mummy will succeed in keeping us still in our stroller with this new item. *cheeky smile*

Fisher-price TMX Elmo Extra Special Edition
As Ah Yi is residing in US, mummy got her to help us buy this TMX Elmo which I heard will keep laughing and do all sorts of funny action. This toy was sold in Singapore previously but was out of stock when mummy wanted to get it. Daddy asked the Toy "R" Us salesperson and it seems Singapore will not import in this toy anymore. Therefore mummy had to resort in asking Ah Yi to purchase it from US. But when Ah Yi tried to get from the Toy "R" Us there, they also say it's out of stock and no longer will be manufacturing this toy. Mummy was very disappointed but Ah Yi gave her some hope again few days later. Ah Yi found this toy on the clearance sale section at Toy "R" Us website and it was selling at a discounted rate of USD$24. It was selling $99 in Singapore! Ah Yi help mummy to purchase it online and sent to her US address. She will then ask her friend to pass it to mummy in Jan 09 when he coming back to Singapore. I am so excited about playing with this new friend!

Fisher-price Elmo Live!
This toy was probably the reason why fisher-price stop manufacturing the TMX Elmo special edition toy. I overheard mummy told daddy that this is the latest robert toy which they come up with just Oct this year. Thanks to Ah Yi for telling mummy of this toy existance. This Elmo Live can tell story/jokes, sing song, dance and many more other actions. It's like a upgraded version of the TMX Elmo. Singapore just started selling around Nov at leading stores like Robinson and Isetan costing at $129 promotion price (UP: $149). Again, mummy asked Ah Yi to get for us at US for a price of USD$60! It's still much cheaper than getting it in Singapore! Daddy is very excited about this toy and nearly wanted to get it locally instead of waiting till Jan for the Elmo to reach us. Mummy stopped daddy as she thinks it's too expensive to get it here. So daddy, mei mei and I had to wait patiently for another month before we can see Elmo performance!

PS: Mummy wants me to clarify here that it was Daddy's idea to get both the Elmo. So this time it was Daddy who wanted to spent this money. Infact mummy only wanted to get either one of the Elmo only. But ofcourse I will fully support Daddy's idea! So I got more toys to play with!! Hehe...

Items pending for purchase...

Evenflo ExerSaucer Triple Fun
At the BHG that day, mummy saw a few different type of exersaucers displayed near the car seat section which allows little kids to try on. She then put Mei Mei and I into the most expensive one (Evenflo 3-in-1 exersaucer) for us to try out. Oh My, I loved this big toy man! Surrounded me are all interesting toys waiting for me to explore further. But I seems too short now to reach those hanging above me. It have 3 adjustable height for different stage of growth and fits newborn to 24months with a max height of 30". But mummy thinks the size is too big to fit into our room now and would only consider until we got our own house. Mummy, Mei Mei & I want this big toy!!


Look at how happy we are playing with this big toy!


Maclaren Twin Techno
Daddy & Mummy brought us out to Suntec for shopping 2 weeks ago and saw a couple pushing this stroller. They also had a pair of twins (1 boy, 1 girl) and both were sitting in this comfortable stroller side by side. Mummy was attracted to the compact size of this stroller and looks very easy to push around. After back home, mummy had been thinking about getting it for us because she finds now that it's kind of troublesome to push 2 strollers during shopping. So she went to Maclaren website to read about the specs to find out more about this stroller. The more she do the research, the more tempted she is to change stroller for us. Last Friday Daddy & Mummy decided to bring me out to Baby Hypermart to try out the stroller. Yes, ONLY me because I refused to sleep and is making too much noise which woke Mei Mei up :(
But because of this, I get to go shopping again..Yeah..
Mummy put me into the stroller and I was happily smiling inside my new chair. The size is also just right and very easy to manipulate around. However we left the place empty handed because the stroller was quite expensive even after the 15% disc. Daddy says they need more time to consider about this purchase and mummy had to sell away the old stroller before he agrees to getting this new one.
........................
After some consideration, mummy decided to put this stroller on hold till we are about 1 year old because this stroller is non-reversible. Gu Gu gave mummy some golden advise of the importance and effect of having young babies facing parents when pushing the stroller so mummy thought it might be better to have this new stroller when we turn ONE. Our current Capella stroller have this reversible feature so mummy thinks it's better for us to continue using it now.