It was another long weekend with the Malays celebrating Hari Raya Haji with Korban on 31/12/06 and we welcomed 2007 on 1/1/07.


We had dinner with KS at West Mall's Sakae Sushi on New Year's Eve. We got to sit in the new section where the tatami seats were located. Matthew enjoyed his dinner of rice with pumpkin chawanmushi and cod fish kaminabe. It was a good dinner as Matthew fed himself and the adults could enjoy the food at the same time.




>> Won't you agree that Matthew looked the best in this photo? :p

New Year's Day was bright and sunny. We decided to go to Sentosa. A trip to Sentosa would never be complete without a ride in the cable car (a must because it's Matthew's fav).




>> We bought him a purple cable car key chain which he spotted at the cashier on our way out. He was really really happy and excited to have one.

We had lunch at Subway. Matthew had an egg-cheese sandwich, while Mike and I shared a footlong turkey breast subway. Yum yum.

After lunch, we took a bus and the beach tram to Palawan beach as we wanted to catch the animal encounters show. Matthew took a nap in transit. It was too hot, so we gave the show a miss when we saw that the amphitheatre was open air, with no shade at all.


>> We then made our way to Imbiah Lookout via Merlion Walk.

Not wanting to waste such a sunny afternoon, we decided to go to Botanic Gardens for a kick-ball session, after that was dinner at the Taman Serasi Foodcourt.



The next day was spent lazing around at home. We were supposed to go to the airport to welcome back my parents from the New Delhi trip (which was delayed due to fog in the area). The flight was further delayed till late that night.

These days, we try to spend as much time as possible with Matthew before mei mei pops in 8 weeks' time. I'm sure going to miss the one-to-one times I have with Matthew, especially those times when I bring out alone on outings.

Labels: BG, sentosa, xmas new year

Last Saturday, Matthew met up with his little friends, Cayden, Joshua and YiXuan from the SMH Feb/Mar05 thread. It was National Day when Matthew last met them; Matthew was recovering from gastric flu at the last Pasir Ris meetup for the Mid Autumn Festival. All the toddlers have grown up quite a bit and their characters are quite different.

Joshua is the "Lao Da". He's the oldest of the gang, borned before CNY05, so that also made him the "monkey". The rest are roosters. He seems to have enormous amount of energy, ran and ran and ran all over the place, playing with balls, even chasing dogs!

Cayden is the sociable one and the youngest of the four. He got the other kids warmed up with his Vitagen bottles.

YiXuan is the lady of the gang. Grown more feminine and so sweet and demure. Hope our little gal would be like her.

Matthew? He is the most shy, reserved, hesitant, but give him a ball, he would be all over the place, kicking, throwing.


>> all kids love balls!


>> bubble time!


>> oops, Matthew got his hands dirty


>> YiXuan, Joshua and Cayden waiting for another wave of bubbles. Where was Matthew? he was answering nature's call in the bushes!

Yes, Matthew was diaper free for the whole Saturday, even when we went grocery shopping at Carrefour Suntec. Looks like we can save the diaper money. Only a piece a day for bedtime. heee..

Read Miini-World for more on our BG outing!

Labels: BG, diaper-free, SMH

Mike had an exam at Suntec in the morning, so we went to Suntec MacDonalds for breakfast. After that, Matthew and I went to Botanic Gardens.

We made our way to the Symphony Lake and met up with Elaine, WW and Ignatius there. Elaine sat with me and Matthew, feeding the fishes, while Ignatius dragged his daddy round the pond. Before we knew it, they were already on the other side of the pond. As we were walking to join them, we came upon a family of 4 water birds, father, mother with 2 chicks. Then we saw 20 ducks in the pond, resting.

Here are some photos.


Matthew at Suntec MacDonalds


Matthew tried to shake hand with Ignatius. Ignatius "ignored" him, so Matthew turned his back on him. Hahaha...


The 2 boys happened to be wearing the same colours! Green and blue!

Labels: BG

As Papa got to attend to some matters, I decided to bring Matthew on my own to Botanic Gardens on Sunday morning to feed the fish. Just me and Matthew.

We had quite lots of fun. We went to the Symphony lake and sat there for almost an hour. Matthew was very happy to feed the fish. Instead of eating the bread, this time he happily threw pieces of bread into the pond to feed the fish and the oversized terrapins. After a while, he got hungry as well and wanted to feed himself with the overdue bread. Of course, I brought his bread along and he ate his bread while I continued feeding the fish. We saw ducks too, flying around, and lots of mynahs and sparrows. Of course there were the dogs which were there with their masters for the morning walks.

Here are some photos to share...

Labels: BG

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

It was our usual first Sunday of the month outing at Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) for SPH 160th anniversary concert. The theme for this concert was Rhythm & Blues (R&B). We met up with Chris, Tianfa and Megan at SBG for a late afternoon tea picnic to enjoy the concert and for the kids to play around. My mommy came along too.

I made salad, coleslaw and baked some chicken nuggets and sausages for the picnic. Despite only have an hour plus, I managed to put everything together! Chris brought focaccia and olive oil / balsamic vinegar as dip to go with. Forgot to take a photo of the picnic spread. I must say that it was all not too bad, you know... ;o)

I finally managed to get some photos of Megan and Matthew sitting together.





Matthew has his dinner and pumpkin soup, as well as half a banana. yum yum. Both Megan and Matthew love the Gerber Fruit / Veggie puffs! Here are photos of Mike and Matthew kicking Megan's ball and Matthew with his pumpkin soup!

Labels: BG, sunday

My sincere apologies to all who have been following Matthew's Little Blog. Let me update you on the happenings in the last 10 days or so.

1/10 - We went swimming again, well, trying to make it a weekly activity. Unlike the last two times we went, Matthew was more aware. The minute he opened his eyes (he was taking a nap) and saw the pool, he was excited and made lots of noises. He just loves to play with water. He slammed his hands on the water, played with the sprinkler and fountain and floated on water. Lots of fun!

2/10 - He tasted orange for the first time. He took an orange segment and used his gums to squeeze the juice out. I think he enjoyed the taste to the last bit. He even grabbed the "remnants" of the orange segment after we took it from him.

We went to Botanic Gardens for a puppet show staged by SPH for their 160th anniversary. Chris, Tianfa and Megan joined us there. We fed our kids and then they had fun with their fathers. Megan played with soap bubbles. A little girl, a month older than Megan, joined in. She made contact with Megan and they hugged. So cute! But too bad, I did not manage to get a photo of that. Mike was "walking" Matthew on the grass and the both of them had fun!

3-7/10 - Matthew has learned about "cause-and-effect". He would grab something and drop it. This generated sounds. He would then pick up the thing that he dropped and it would start all over again. He can also now pull himself up by grabbing hold of chairs or our legs and arms etc.

8/10 - Chris and I have been planning a Sentosa day trip since a month ago and the day finally came and we were all excited. Matthew enjoyed himself very much, especially at Underwater World. He was attracted to the colourful marine fishes, but not the dull grey sharks and eels. He wanted to grab the swimming blue fishes, so kept hitting the walls of the aquarium. We settled down at Palawan Beach for tea break and we had hot dogs, tuna, apple cake, dried apricot, prunes and raisins and hot tea. Matthew sat in the Bumbo Seat (courtesy of Chris) and had his teething rusk, which he kept dropping on purpose. He also had a piece of apple to "chew", some prune and banana. Megan got a rubber ball from Underwater World to add to her ball collections, but poor little Megan fell sick with fever at the end of the day. Oh, just to add, Matthew took his first bus ride. He was all curious, looking out of the window and enjoying the ride.

11/10 - I have established a bedtime ritual with Matthew. Thanks to Chris for passing me the magic theatre. At the end of the day, we would go into the room and I would breastfeed Matthew on one breast. I would then read him his bedtime story (Little Bunny's Bedtime). Last night, he made me read it 3x! Then off the lights and on the magic theatre. I would breastfeed him on the other breast. After a cuddle, he struggles to be put into his own bed. He now knows that he has his own bed. Every time I ask him, "Where's Matthew's bed?" He would look in the direction of his bed. Almost as soon as the pacifier goes into his mouth, his eyes close and he would sing himself to sleep. The whole routine last about 30 minutes.

BUT...

He has been waking up in the middle of the night to play! I would find him standing in his cot, big eyes - wide-awake. Happy Matthew, Poor Mommy. He would stay awake for 1-2 hours. *sigh* It's just another phrase of growing up. He has learned new skills and won't waste a chance to demonstrate.

Labels: BG, sentosa