Digicam hunting

Initially, I was thinking of this

 Canon EOS500D

Or, perhaps this, slightly cheaper

Nikon D3000

After reading the reviews about this, I'm extremely tempted to own it. It's much lighter and compact than a normal DSLR, yet able to produce about the same quality photos. However the price is quite a turn-off :"(

Panasonic Lumix GF1

Finally, after considering the amount of damage that will be done to my pocket, I shall just get this

Panasonic Lumix FZ35

And I'm getting the loot tonight!!! Yipppeeee!! Shall post up some photos here after I get the hang of it ^_^

Handphone frozen

My Nokia N97 Mini was frozen to death after being drowned by my dear Yuzhe's saliva!

Practically, he just savour on it like a candy bar and I think during the process, the saliva entered through the holes and short circuited the phone. Hubby was quite annoyed when I again and again, let the boys played with my phone. But somehow, they just like to play with my phone and mac, and left alone his.

Yesterday evening, I received a call from the Nokia Care Center that the phone needs to be expediated to high level for repair. Eh, seems like they misunderstood it for just mere firmware update required. Have to wait for at least 1 week before it can regain it's life back.

So, in the meantime, I'm glad I still have my Samsung i550 around :)

My new hairstyle

Yuzhe gets sweaty so easily that his hair has this 'not-so-nice' odour at the end of the day. Since he's due for a haircut, we requested the auntie to cut it REAL SHORT. So off goes his handsome mares when the shaver mow over his scalp.

And here's how he looks like now ...

Super cutie baby ^_________^

Lazy Afternoon

Just a lazy afternoon, enjoying the breeze at the playground below our house ....

School closed for spring cleaning

So, here we are, at Vivo City .....

This is the first time Yuheng played at the Outdoor Playground.

Fidgets @ Turf City

Been hearing about this Fidgets - Indoor Playground from other mummies' blog for quite sometime. I suggested to bring the boys there for today's afternoon activity.

Yuheng, enjoyed himself so much that he refused to leave, or even break for lunch! To make things easier for everyone, hubby brought Yuzhe home for his nap first while I stayed on to wait until this playful fellow is ready to leave the place. We only had lunch near 3pm!! There's not much dining choices at Turf City and we ended up sharing a plate of fried rice in a seafood restaurant ^^.  When we're finally done, Yuheng chose to take the free shuttle bus to Clementi over a cab. And from Clementi, we switched to MRT and finally back to Queenstown. Phew! I was really dead tired by the time I stepped into the house. Yuheng, still excited over the day did not have his afternoon nap and stretched all the way until late night.

We're glad he enjoyed his day :) But, as for Yuzhe, the indoor playground is not too suitable for his age. In fact, he started crying the moment I was out of his sight, though I'm just sitting next to him. Perhaps, he'll enjoy it more when he grow a bit older.

Visting our neighouring country

Yuzhe had his passport chopped for the first time :) Ha, we just crossed over the causeway to JB ^^. Our family, including my parents, sister and bro-in-law went together. We set off at around 1pm, thinking it might be the 'least peak' hour of the day. But then, we got a shock the moment we left Singapore Customs. Oh no, the Malaysia Customs has shifted! We lost our orientation after clearing the Msia Customs, ended up nowhere near that "Taman Sentosa" -- the place we wanted to go. We stopped by a petrol station, asked the kind folks inside for directions and reverse our way back to the "starting point" and re-navigate ourselves.

Phew!!! Finally we managed to reach :)

After getting the required stuff, we went over to City Square for some light shopping and dinner before heading back to SG. The 2 little ones, overall was quite manageable and thumbs up for Yuheng, who cooperated very well throughout the lengthy trip ^_^

Nokia N97 mini

This is my birthday pressie this year ^ ^

Some shots taken using my new Nokia N97 mini.

 

I'm liking this phone ^ ^

Yuzhe -- 9 months

It's yet another month of milestone achieved for Yuzhe ^ ^

He's not crawling much, prefers to be held up, walking around instead. He likes to be carried, especially by the Mummy. Once he secured onto me, he won't let go easily when another person offered to carry him. Maybe he loves the Mummy's smell .. Ha ^ ^ He came to understand that things can be taken away from his possession and starts wailing out loud! This happens when Yuheng took away the toy car that he's playing with it. We can foresee the "toy war" going live soon when Yuzhe grows a bit older. Yuzhe starts babbling some sounds "ma ma mum mum ....", especially when he wants to savour our food too ^_^ So very cute. We've submitted his application for a new passport. So when are we going to travel? Hehe, sometime soon ..... ?

His usual weekday routine:

• 7 - 7.30am : Awake, drink milk 
• 9am : Go over to grandma's place
• 9.30 - 10.30am : Bath, drink milk, nap time
• 11.30 - 12.30am : Wake up from nap, lunch time, play time
  
• 2 - 2.30pm : Get ready for nap time
• 3.30 - 4.30pm : Wake up from nap, milk time
• 5.30 - 6.30pm : Dinner time
• 7.30 - 8pm : Home-Sweet-Home
• 8 - 9.30pm: Milk feed, Zzzz

However, he still wakes up few times a night, either to drink milk or asking for some patting/carrying. Perhaps this boy just needs more attention from us at night because we tend to focus more on Yuheng during day time.

Happy 9th month, my sweet little boy ^_*

Some updates

Yuzhe just finished his course of antibiotics.

He had a fever last Monday. PD examined and said that his throat was red. Given paracetemol and the leftose for the reddish throat. We faithfully gave him paracetemol every 4-6 hourly but his fever did not come down, remaining constantly around 37.6 - 38. Then on Tuesday evening, his temperature shoot up to a scary 39.4. Alamak, most PD clinics were closed during this time. I quickly brought him down to the 24hr clinic at TMC. The doctor-on-duty prescribed a bottle of antibiotics and requested the nurse to insert a suppository into his bum to bring down the high temperature. Due to the antibiotics, Yuzhe had rashes all over his face and some on the tummy. Oops, he looked real 'bad' and luckily these dots went off after 2-3 days.

A 'spotty' Yuzhe

Been real busy and tired these few weeks that I neglected this blog. We did not go anywhere over the weekends, just merely bringing the kids down to the playground / void deck / stadium to cycle and sweat it out. With 2 kids, it's hard to gauge a good time to go out. By the time we've settled with their food, it's time for Yuheng to nap. And when he woke up from his nap, it's time for Yuzhe to have his dinner and the routine goes on and on .... Argghh, looks like if we really want to venture out, we need to get out of the house early in the morning !

Learning Vision : First Excursion to West Coast Park

The little ones had their first excursion to the West Coast Park on 14 October 2009. They assembled at 8.30am early morning, had their breakfast and set off at 9am. Thanks to Teacher Daya, who sent us the photos and brief update on the trip.

Cookery Book for Infants & Toddlers

If you're running out of ideas what to cook for your dear boys and girls, ranging from 6 to 18 months, this book may be useful to you. I've bought it from the Popular Bookstore, recommended by my colleague. So far, I've tried out :

• Tofu with White Bait Fish
• Tomato with Minced Meat
• Tofu with Egg yolk
• Cabbage, Onion and Carrot soup
• etc etc

And the verdict is ....

My Yuzhe loves it ... Thankfully ^__^

Learning Vision @ Work - Review 1

It's about 1.5 months Yuheng started full-day class at Learning Vision.Within this short duration, we're glad to say he'd made good progress.

Most of the days, he looked forward to go to school in the morning. (Yes, there're days when he still lament over Teacher Rose and wants to go MMI instead) He's able to tell us the names of his friends, roughly what happen in school, activities they did and the food he ate. He's able to self-feed and not picky about food in school only. I confirmed this with Teacher Daya and she told me Yuheng is able to eat by himself and swallowed the vege also! (BUT, he's still very picky about food at home, only eats that selective group of food and refuses all vege) He enjoys the playground and gets very excited to tell us about it whenever they have outdoor play. I still don't know why, but he refused to bath in school, wanted me to bath him at home early in morning. My guess is that the school doesn't have that bath tub which he insisted to sit in it to bath every morning ^ ^

His conversation skills is improving also, building up more vocabulary. We converse mainly in Mandarin, at times mix in some English. We believe it's important to let them build up a good foundation of their Mother Tongue. Usually, when kids started off with English as their first language, they find it harder to master their Mother Tongue later on. Ha .. another reason is because hubby and myself are more comfortable speaking Mandarin with each other. Wouldn't it be weird if we speak English to our kids and the next moment we blurted with each other in Mandarin >_<

Err, it's been sometime the teachers promised us to send some photos of Yuheng in the school, and we're still waiting for it ..........

Children's Day Gift

Yuheng received a present from Learning Vision only a few weeks after Children's Day. Hmm, perhaps the supplier couldn't make it on time? Well, it's always late than never. He likes it very much and started 'role-playing' with the doll -- feed, bath and bring him on a ride on his buggy car ^^. So sweet of him.

Homemade Bags

Recently, I ordered 2 bags from the online spree. The L-size wet-bag cost $22.90, which includes shoulder length fabric straps and waterproof lining. The diaper clutch cost $14.90, sufficient to put about 4 pieces of diapers and a packet of wet wipes. The selection of fabric is so pretty that I don't know which one to choose! But it gets out-of-stock so fast that actually I'm left with only a handful of choices.

How I wish I have green fingers like them. They're able to transform a piece of simple cloth into useful and pretty things. Anyway, I'm lousy in sewing. I asked my mum to help me with those sewing assignments during the Home Economics days. But sometimes, I wonder what would it be like if I'm to go get a sewing machine and start again? Will I be able to accomplish something decent? Errr, but with my current "packed-like-sardine" schedule, I think I better don't waste money buying the machine and later on become white elephant again ^^

Look Ma, I Can Stand

Yuzhe in free-style standing position -- since he's around 7 months old. He likes Mummy to hold onto his hands and walk together. Haven't learn to crawl, wants to start walking now ^_^

Me Time

What's the best way to de-stress yourself from the kids frustrations, work commitments and undone chores?

For me, I prefer to take a break -- be myself even just for a couple of hours. It's a good way of relaxing and rejuvenising. I'll pamper myself by indulging in a wonderful shopping spree. If tired and hungry, just pop in any restaurant, order food from the menu and savor them slowly and peacefully. By the time I'm done, I should be more or less recharged but then, I'll be lamenting over the unnecessary spendings that I bought on impulse due to the 'de-stressing' part ^ ^

Anyway, the best de-stressing weapon in the world is my boys' laughter plus lots of hugs and kisses. And not forgetting my DH's one as well lor ^___^

Time for a haircut

It's time for Yuzhe to have a proper haircut, since 7 months ago, during the Full-Month celebration. Yuzhe is a 'sweaty' boy. He perspires a lot especially when drinking milk. So, by the end of the day, you can imagine what kind of smell his hair is like as it grows longer ^_^

Last Sunday, I actually dared to bring him alone to the salon myself. Ha, I think I wouldn't have done that during Yuheng's time. Maybe when you have a 2nd kid, you're more seasoned already or don't bother to think too much. Anyway, the haircut was a smooth one, except Yuzhe was feeling quite uncomfortable and moved about towards the end when his face and neck was covered with hair.

Now, he's looks handsome and tidy ^___^

A not-so-happy Yuheng -- having a cough