Matthew opened his X'mas presents on Boxing Day. Here's a shot of all his presents.

Oh, see that Mickey Mouse train from Uncle Eric and Auntie Liyun. I used to have one as a kid. Insert a musical disc on the train and it would play a tune as it moves. What a coincidence. Matthew now has a toy that Mommy used to have!

Labels: xmas new year

Yesterday we went to my cousin's solemnisation ceremony at his new home. I was very worried that he would launch into another round of stranger anxiety. True enough, the minute I stepped into the house, he cried and cried and cried until we went to the corridor.

Then more relatives came and crowded around him, he burst into tears again! We couldn't calm him down until we brought him to the void deck. He finished his porridge there. However the minute I left him to wash up, he cried again! *sigh*

Mike brought him to the playground and he had fun there. Despite the fact that he was sick, he had fun.

After that, we went to Great World City. Here are some shots of Matthew playing on the Bob the Builder motorised car. Of course, without the coin!

Matthew turned 10 months on X'mas Day... But our poor little baby was sick with fever and diarrhea. His fever cleared by yesterday morning. However he is still having diarrhea today. This morning we brought him to Dr Dorothy Ong.

He was in a good mood today, chirpy, cheerful. He was sleepy on our way to the doctor. However the minute we took him out of his car seat and stepped into the shopping centre, he was wide awake, taking in all the happenings around him.

We were early, so we went to NTUC to shop for some fruit. He sat in the shopping trolley and had fun looking and touching all the fruit. He was very good and did not even fuss the whole time we were in the supermarket.

In the clinic, he was a good boy and sat on the scale to be weighed. He was attracted by the pooh bears on the wall. Dr Ong obviously loves Winnie the Pooh. The entire clinic is full of Pooh and friends. Everything went on well, except when Dr Ong started to examine him, he made noise, but did not really cry.

After visiting Dr Ong, Papa and Matthew had fun on the Little Tikes Slide in the clinic. Instead of climbing the stairs, Papa got Matthew to climb up to the top on the slide and slided down backside first. Matthew had so much fun, making noise that Dr Ong was wondering what he was doing. He waved bye bye to the receptionist, whom I always never get her name, but not to Dr Ong. That led her to conclude, "I'm not one of his favourite persons!" Hahaha...

Matthew's Ah Yi says Hi!!! She is going shopping for Matthew on Boxing Day and on the 27th, and she intends to get loads of clothes for Matthew!!!! :)

Matthew demonstrated what it meant to be experiencing STRANGER ANXIETY! Tianfa, Chris and Megan came first for our little X'mas gathering at home. Matthew was ok with them, as we have gone out together several times previously. After both Megan and Matthew had their dinner and Matthew had his bath, they played together. While they were playing, Mike and I took a quick shower.

It was then when our friends came. Matthew cried the minute he saw one of our friends. It was non-stop, till I finally got him distracted by reading him a book.

He played with his soft toys, peek-a-boo with his Papa. Then it was more crying.. And it was finally bedtime.

He received four presents from our friends and there are all under the X'mas tree now.

Here's Matthew after his bath!

All Matthew's X'mas presents under the tree!

Labels: xmas new year

Today I'm on leave again. Got another two days to clear, so I decided to take the remaining two Fridays of the year.

As "usual", we went to Papa's office. On the way there, I noticed that he kept looking out of the window with a question mark on his face. He must be wondering how come we were not going to grandma's house. He was quiet through the whole trip there. When we got there, Matthew had fun looking at cats, fish, birds and buses and he remembered the big bananas at the bus terminal.

After breakfast, he had fun on Papa's swivel chair, enjoying his ride, singing to himself. On our way home, he fell asleep, nap time!


We were supposed to meet Jamie and Baby Cayden, Dolly and Baby Ernest today at Great World City. But Baby Ernest came down with high fever last night and it had not subsided. On the way there, we popped by at Evon's office to pass her books from the wonderbox spree.

We finally met up with Jamie and Baby Cayden. Baby Cayden was very active and sociable. Always chirpy. Matthew was not in the brightest of moods.

We were late for his lunch, so he was making lots of noise. The moment Mama took out his Tiger Lunchbox, he kept pointing to it and sat down quickly and quietly in the baby seat. Then Cayden saw Matthew eating porridge, he also wanted his food. Matthew must be very hungry, eating a big bowl of porridge.

Both Matthew and Cayden love Gerber puffs. There were a lot of puffs on the floor, dropped by Cayden. Matthew kept staring at them. Auntie Jamie said, "Matthew must be thinking, "what a waste."" Cayden also dropped a piece of bread. Matthew also stared at it and I got to remove it to get his attention away from the floor.

Matthew was not happy when we put Cayden next to him.

Cayden: Matthew gor gor, let me take a look at that book.
Matthew: NO!

Matthew: I want my mommy. Mommy carry me!

Matthew: I'm sleepy. Mommy pat me to sleep in your sarong carrier.

Matthew took his nap after we had fun with V-tech toys in Mother Works.

Labels: SMH

We finally set up the X'mas tree on Monday night. Since we are having a gathering at home on Saturday, we must set up the tree. At first, we were apprehensive about putting it up, because we were worried that Matthew would go and tag and pull at the ornaments. But we worried too much. Matthew was a good boy. He looked at the tree from a distance with curiosity, ignored it and was only interested in his toys and books.

Labels: xmas new year

Matthew woke up at 8am yesterday. We sent Papa to office and had breakfast there.


Then we had to go to Mama's office to get a new tin of Enfapro A+, because Mama's brain got holes, forgot to bring home a new tin before she went on leave. Matthew was ok during the trip from Papa's office to Mama's office, but cried all the way home from Mama's office. So poor thing. He wanted to play, not sit in the car seat. He met Uncle Mitch, Uncle Seng Hou, Uncle Yusof, Uncle Krishnan and Uncle Jabbar in the office. Uncle Mitch even took a photo of us, using his new Panasonic Lumix FX9.

Because he woke up later than usual, Matthew did not take his morning nap. He had his lunch quickly, a big bowl of pork porridge with xiao bai cai. Did his big business and went to nap at 12:30pm. Napped for 2.5 hours. I napped too and Matthew got to wake me up by making lots of noise in his cot!

I thought that since it was early, maybe bring him somewhere. It was either IMM or West Mall. I decided on West Mall, because I could bring Matthew for a bus ride and walk home after that.

So it was Matthew's first ride on a public bus. His first time on a bus was at Sentosa in October. Now he was almost 10 months old, he was more aware of his surroundings. He was all so curious, pointing at everything. He was quick to point to the passing MRT train on the viaduct and the other buses on the road.

We walked around West Mall and I bought some stuff at Valu$ shop. Matthew got his hands everywhere, touch here touch there.

Since we still had some time, we went to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I ordered a small Chai Latte and a cinnamon apple muffin. When Matthew saw the baby seat, he struggled to get out of my arms into the seat. He was guai guai (behaved himself). I gave him a bit of muffin to eat, but I think he still preferred wholemeal bread. He almost broke his Pigeon Magmag bottle by "throwing" it on the floor.




After that, we walked back home to get the car to go to Po po's house. Along the way, Matthew enjoyed himself watching the cars, motorcycles and buses going by and of course the MRT train on the viaduct.

Over the past few days at home with Matthew, I discovered a lot of things about Matthew.

1. He knows how to entertain himself, playing with his toys, messing around with his books, he sometimes would sit quietly by himself.
2. He doesn't crawl around so much, like in Po po's house. At my mom's place, there are quite a few "challenges" like lots of places to pull himself up, practise his skills, crawling everywhere.
3. He knows that flapping his arms = bird.
4. He plays passing the ball game with me.
5. He would show how he would sleep when I ask him, "Show Mommy how you sleep."
6. He hugs Mommy.
7. He points to ear, nose and mouth when asked.
8. He has been pointing to everything, anything, everywhere, anywhere. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out what he actually wants.
9. When I'm doing something or not near him, he would not "attempt" dangerous stunts like pulling himself to stand in areas where he would fall hard.
10. He knows that "touching" the X'mas tree in the living room is not allowed. Well, at least he had not attempted to touch it, only to view it from a distance with curiosity.

Matthew has adopted a peculiar sleeping position. Check this out. Matthew's Gu Gu used to sleep in this position too... mm.. is that true, Gu Gu?

Time flies. Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary. It is 4 years since our customary wedding ceremony, 5 years n 2 months n 28 days since our ROM ceremony, 8 years n 6 months since we got together.. so much for numbers but nothing beat it this time. This time we have our little Matthew to celebrate with us.

We went to Crystal Jade Toa Payoh for dinner. Matthew had alphabet pasta for dinner, Papa and Mama had la mian, porridge, xiao long bao, HK kailan and si chuan hot-sour soup.

Labels: anniversary

Vroom Vroom! Matthew has a new toy. Papa's X'mas gift for Matthew! It was after this morning's ride on Papa's swivel chair, then Papa decided to get one for Matthew! Look how he enjoyed the ride.

We are at home today! I'm a SAHM mommy for today and the next five days. Today wasn't too bad. In the morning, we sent Papa to office and had breakfast at the interchange canteen. Matthew saw cats, fish, birds and big buses. We also saw huge bananas on a banana tree. In Papa's office, Papa "drove" Matthew around on his office swivel chair. He sat so still, but was smiling and enjoying the ride! Too bad, I did not have my camera with me.

Matthew was very good on the way home. As it was near his morning nap time, he fell asleep when we were near home. He did not even wake up when I picked him up from his car seat to go home.

After his nap, we played with balls and read books. He finished his lunch in doubly quick time (<15min). He had a good afternoon nap, hardly stirred.

We went to West Mall to return our overdue library books. Matthew was not too happy about the trip, maybe because of the stranger anxiety phase that he is going through right now. If Papa was with me, I think he would be better, as there is another familiar face.

Well, today was not too bad. I'm sure we would enjoy each other the next few days.

Last Saturday, we brought Matthew to East Coast Park. We thought now that he could sit very well on his own, we could bring him cycling with us. I think he knew that something exciting was happening. On our way home in the car on Friday night, we told him about the trip, he was very happy and excited and made really happy noises, clapping his hands. Well, of course Papa and Mama were excited about it too, because it has been a while since we went cycling at East Coast Park.

I got to prepare all the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Friday night, as we would all going to be out the whole day. Breakfast was pureed apple and pear with Nestle brown rice cereal. Lunch was macaroni with carrot, meat and broccoli. Dinner was pork porridge with spinach. Yum yum!

Matthew woke up at 6:30am, as usual. So after his morning milk feed, we changed him and packed to go. We left the house at 7:45am and reached East Coast Park at 8:15am. We gave Matthew his breakfast, which he finished in double quick time. Then we were all ready to get on the bicycle by 8:45am.

But Matthew was apprehensive at first, refused to get into the child seat. Papa cycled around to show him the fun! Only then he was willing to be "strapped". Boy, did we have fun! We cycled eastwards towards Bedok Jetty. Matthew was happy. He was SINGING! So cute! Papa realized that Matthew did not like it with the sun "shining" down on his face, so we decided to aim for Katong Jetty instead.

It was almost half an hour Matthew sat in the child seat before he started making noise to get out. By then we had reached Katong Jetty. So we took him out for a breather. Now that he was nine-and-a-half months old, he was very aware of the surroundings and he saw the water (sea)!!! Papa took him to the beach and let him walk on the sand and the waves washed up and tickled his feet. He wanted more, but we said "no no". Next time, Matthew, we will bring you to the beach for more sun, sand and the sea.

We made our way back to the bicycle shop. This time he had no problem going back into the child seat. He enjoyed the ride, looking at the sea, ships, birds, cats, dogs, people etc etc.

It was time to leave and time for his nap. We managed to get him to nap in the car and we went to this little place near my workplace for breakfast. He woke up from his nap and we washed and changed him at my office. We made our way to Suntec City, where Papa was meeting somebody.

We settled down for Matthew's lunch at MacDonald's. Suntec MacDonald's was recently renovated to accommodate McCafe. It was their grand opening. There were balloons for the kids and Matthew had fun with the balloons. He had a big bowl of macaroni for lunch and it was obvious that he enjoyed it, because it was not the usual porridge. He loves chewing. I was so glad that he liked the macaroni. While we waited for Papa to finish his work, Matthew and I entertained ourselves with the people, the balloon and his Fred's Fire Engine Book. At one point, we were looking at his animal picture book and he was roaring like the lion and tiger. The lady sitting behind us kept turning her head to look at Matthew. Matthew stood up and smiled at her. Ha, he charmed the lady!

There's a koi garden in Suntec, so Matthew and I toured the garden while waiting for Papa to put some stuff in the car. As usual, he wanted to play with the water and touch the fish. Of course, that's a "no no".

Papa managed to coax Matthew to sleep at 2pm. We put him in the sarong carrier and I had to give him his milk sleeping. That made me wonder how babies drink milk when they are sleeping. Funny, right? Somehow they could do it.

Matthew woke up with a cry, when he was almost finished with his milk and he refused to go back to sleep. We put him in two of the coin operated cars and he enjoyed himself turning the steering wheel. Only thing was that he did not want to stand or sit on the seats. He sat down on the floor of the cars. *Mama slapped her forehead*

We went to Toys R Us again! It was so fun watching him play with the different toys. He did not like to play with toys previously and he would chew everything that he picked up and only books were the "toys" he wanted. Now? He knows where his toys are kept and he has a mind of his own - he decides what he wants to play. We bought a big ball for him. He chose it. We showed him two neon balls, yellow and orange. He chose the orange and we showed him another ball, this time with a plane cartoon on it, he chose the latter. When Papa put it back into the bin to choose a better one, he made noise!

Finally, we managed to get him to sleep in the sarong carrier. This is something which I had not done before. At least I did not need to carry him with my arms, if not my arms and back would suffer. He managed to sleep in the carrier for an hour! So comfortable.

We went to Ah Ma's house for dinner. Matthew had his porridge, but crawling all over the place, because there was no high chair for him. When he finally finished his porridge, he was bathed and changed and it was time to go home.

Matthew had a long day, so did Mama. He slept, so did I. Exhausted! We all had fun!

Labels: east coast park

I brought Matthew home on my own today, as it was early and I didn't want to tire out my mom who was looking after Matthew the whole day. He was a good boy, sitting quietly in his seat, biting his teether and watching the "scenery". I also discovered that he has learned to listen to the children's songs that I always play in the car.

When we were in the lift, I asked Matthew "which floor?" and "where is number 8?". He actually pointed to the correct button. I was so so so surprised. I cheered "yuppie". He turned around to look at me and smiled! So smart! It must be because we have been showing him the buttons which we pressed when we go into the lift.

We also noticed that he's interested in looking at numbers, like the big number plate that showed the unit numbers outside the lifts. Maybe it's because of the big number chart we have at home. We bought this chart quite some time ago, more for the pictures, like bus, elephant etc. So maybe he has started to associate these numbers...

Well, we never know how much he knows till he starts talking. All the breastmilk, DHA, SA, ARA etc etc. No wonder babies nowadays are all getting smarter. Who knows, we may have a genius in the making. Maybe it's God's way of "compensating" for Matthew's hard of hearing in his left ear. Who knows. Only God knows.

Good night Matthew my boy.

I found Matthew bathing outdoors when I reached my mommy's place today. He was in the basin with his clothes on and the water hose running. He was having so much fun splashing water, creating bubbles. At one point, he realised that his index finger could "fit" into the water hose. He kept his finger in and taking it out. He made unhappy noises when I took him out of the water. click here to see Matthew playing with water

Another day dear, another day when the sun is out and hanging high!

Finally managed to capture this on video last night. We observed that he has learned how to flip a little cup with his index finger. He has this set of 8 stacking cups. He has tried to flip all the different sizes, but realised that it would only work best with the smallest two cups. click here to see Matthew in action!

Now let's talk about Sunday.

Sunday started with a bang. We brought Matthew to MacDonald's for breakfast. He had his Nestle brown rice cereal with grated apple and pear, yum yum. He finished it very fast. Papa and Mama had Hotcakes and Big Breakfast. We let Matthew try some hotcakes and he enjoyed it. He was a good boy, enjoying the environment and keeping himself occupied. Boys will always be boys, playing with food! check out the video on the sidebar.

After his nap, Matthew had a good lunch of porridge with steamed fish and chye sim. He finished all his food and that made me feel very proud of him. After lunch, I brought him to the market to buy some lemon for salad dressing and not forgetting Papa, we also bought some biscuits.

He finally went down for his nap at 2:45pm, which was a little late, as we were planning to bring him out at 4pm. So we woke him up at 4:15pm, changed him and we were out of the house. We were at Botanic Gardens before 5pm. The theme for this SPH Gift of Music Series concert was X'mas accapella.

The weather was hot the whole day, but it started to cool down, just nice for a picnic. We settled down and Matthew occupied himself crawling around the mat. He has now grown older and become more aware of the surroundings. He watched a dog play catch ball and he liked to feel the grass blades in his fingers. Then Papa brought him to the Symphony Lake to look at fishes, ducks and water hens!


Chris, Tianfa and Megan came. When Chris and Tianfa spread out the mat and settled down, Megan wandered off on her own with her ball and Mike got to chase after her.

Matthew met Jan's Cheng En and Lih Miin's Yi Xuan. It was the first time I was meeting the mommies from the SM forum. It was good as now I could put a face to the names. Cheng En was very bubbly and active, very sociable too. Yi Xuan was shy, as a girl should be and very cute.



The babies all had fun, playing with soap bubbles which I was blowing. At one point, there was a little girl with her bubble gun and was shooting lots of bubbles. The concert finally finished at 7pm.


All of us had fun. Tired, but we think that it was all worth it! We should bring Matthew to SBG more often and also meet up with other babies too.

Labels: BG, SMH, sunday