Wala-ing with the girls

We brought the girls to Wala Wala for the first time.

Of course we didn't go up the bar area; we just went there for dinner. Luckily for us, they have baby chairs! So, I reckon we'll be there for often for food now, since we live so near to that area. And Kae enjoyed herself tremendously as it means that she gets to eat her favorite pasta, and of course, the yummy fries!

Week #3b

And it's time for some JG loving again!

Kerri started the class in a whiny mood, again. I've noticed she only warms up after snack time, during which she will roam around the class and not snack at all!

As Kerri seems to love her swim play time, I've brought along her wet suit just in case she wishes to play around in the water again. And boy did she have fun! I could inch away from her (finally!) without her whining and crying for me.

And she's starting to show a keen interest in playing (with) the keyboard. She leaves my side out of her own accord and ignores me completely when she sees the keyboard!

Hoping for more improvement next lessons!

Smitten... by The Patissier

A very very good reason for me to not step into Takashimaya now.

Because I am too Smitten to not to.

*Smitten...by The Patissier is located at Basement 2 Food Hall, Takashimaya. Please refer to my previous post here for more information.

Week #3a

And so it's time for Play Nest again.

As usual, Kerri was very clingy to me during the lesson.

But she's made some progress. She will now lie on the mat together with the rest during resting time song.

I've not managed to take any photos, but it turns out she loves swim play! Okay, it's not exactly swimming. It's just like water play, with the additional option for the kids to go into the water to sit or stand in the water while playing; whereas for water play, all kids have to sit outside the water tank and play with their hands in the water.

Lastly, Kerri discovered the piano today! It's the only time during the whole lesson when she would go near to the teacher voluntarily. Hah!

15 months on

It's been 15 months or so.

Kerri is still not sleeping through the night. And by not sleeping through the night, I mean she wakes every 2-4 hourly (a wide range) to drink milk, and even during that 2-4 hours, she would fidget all over the bed.

I am getting tired. I can feel the energy being sapped out of me day by day. 15 months ago, I thought, give her 6 months. When she was 6 months old, I thought maybe 3 more months. When she turned 9 months old, I thought, things can only get better. But sadly, till now, nothing has improved.

And now it's kind of worse as she is sharing the bed with me and the hubs. So the hubs also cannot have a good night's sleep. Previously in our old abode, the hubs will sleep with Kae and I sleep will Kerri. But because we want Kae to learn to sleep by herself in her own room now that we've moved, we decided that Kerri should sleep with us.

The worst thing is we have to rock her for like 1-2 hours at least before she drifts off to sleep. Every single night, when time could have be better spent on household chores and on the hubs' work, he will rock her while I put Kae to bed. And I will take over when Kae has fallen asleep.

And when she has slept, I will stay up till around 2am to feed her milk. As by the time I finish my chores and bath and etc, it is already near 1am. Might as well wait to feed her milk so that she won't cry and wake everyone up when she does wake at 2am.

And if I'm lucky, she'll wake at 6am for milk, after which I need to prepare Kae for school at around 640am. But usually I'm not that lucky. She always wakes at round 4-5ish for her 2nd feed of the wee hours.

And don't forget to factor in Kae crying out at night after a nightmare etc, during which I need to rush over to pacify her.

And this doesn't only happen during the night, it happens during the day as well. She now only naps once a day, around 2-3 hours. But she will only stay sound asleep for 45-60 mins. After which is more rocking on my part till she finally opens her eyes at the end of her so called nap.

I really wonder how much time I've wasted by simply rocking her to sleep daily. Easily 2-3 hours gone like that. Just sitting down next to her and rocking her, rocking her. No wonder my butt has grown in size.

When will I get to see the light, I wonder. I am afraid I'm gonna break soon. I have been "calming" myself down by spending $ recently. It's a lot of little things here and there. I really have no idea where all my $ has gone to. Mostly on food and cab fare I suppose. Imagine my horror when I received a sms from one credit card company informing me I've exceeded 80% of my credit limit. And I didn't even get any big ticket items! And lets don't talk about other credit cards which I have. Of which, 1 has my Chanel wallet bill tagged in it.

I am afraid. Very afraid.

Spruce with friends & Kae

I headed down to Spruce for the 1st time for brunch with my netballer friends.

I had no idea how hot this place is! There was a long queue of people just waiting to get into the restaurant. Thanks to Amy, we managed to snag a great table seat at the corner.

All of us who went except for 1 have kids. So our conversations now revolve around babies and children. And there will be a new addition to the group come February! There's always good news when we meet! The last was little Emma who is now around 4-5 months old. Heehee.

It's kinda surreal now that we are all grown up and talking about babies, diapers, milk, houses, schools etc. It seems like just yesterday when we were all playing netball together in secondary school. And that is like 19 years ago, if we count from secondary one!

Kae was visibly bored towards the end of the meal. But I am so thankful for her good behavior. I ate my meal in peace!

I can't wait for the next brunch!

Cake Shops venturing into Takashimaya

I have been quite excited about The Patissier opening a counter at Takashimaya Department Store Food Hall at Basement 2 come 28th September along with 2 other new shops. Finally in a more accessible place other than Ann Siang Road (as I don't work at Tanjong Pagar area) and Modhamad Sultan Road.

However, they will only be selling their meringue roulade instead of their usual range of cakes. Their roulades are their signature meringue sponge with a crisp crust and a soft bite roll filled with fillings. The roulades will be sold as whole rolls of approximately 450 grams at $40 and slices of approximately 4.5 centimeters at $7.

The roulades will come in three flavours: (1) passionfruit, mangoes, strawberries, (2) mangoes, calamansi, and (3) chocolate and bananas.

So imagine how delighted I was to know that Flor Patisserie is also opening a counter at the same place! I'm still not sure what they will have in store for happy customers like me. We will find out on 2nd October (if I remember correctly). In the meanwhile, I am making myself fat by having their yummy ice cheese tart!

Another Alternative!

Finally, I found an online site to purchase Pediped footwear.

The retail price for Pediped footwear is quite expensive in Singapore due to the low USD now. Previously I joined a bulk purchase organized by some kind soul to purchase the shoes from the official online site, but alas, they don't deliver to freight forwarders, eg. Borderlinx, Vpost, etc, now.

So, I am very excited that I can purchase the shoes for the girls at endless.com now. I love the shoes as they are very light and hence suitable for the girls to walk around in. Kerri alone owns 4 pairs at a tender age of 15 months, all brand new and not Kae's. Of course, she has outgrown 2 pairs already. As for Kae, she has 9 pairs in all, past, present and future. Hah!

And one good thing about this online site is that they do free international shipping for purchases above USD100.

Woohoo! Time to shop! Anyone want to buy too?

Lesson #3

It has been yet another rainy day. It seems to pour every time when she is attending her lessons at Evans Road. So sadly, there is no water play for Kerri today.

She is still clingy to me during the duration of the class. But today she managed something she didn't the last few lessons; she finally sat in the toddler chair during snack time!

For craft time, they were to experiment with corn flour and water. Of course my little tigress didn't want to participate in this dirty charade. But she did manage to put her hand into the flour once. And used a spoon to play with the flour thereafter.

I believe that her motto is "Lets take it slow". Hah!

It will be swim play next week. I wonder how she will react to that.

Tea-time treats (no more?)

The last time I went to Canele, they had this tea-time promotion whereby selected tea/coffee and selected cakes/macarons and pralines cost just $10++ from 3-530pm. The very last time i went was 10 weeks ago.

I went today, hoping to satisfy my craving for a piece of Mont Blanc. To my surprise, they increased the price by $2, and reduced the list of selected cakes and tea/coffee by 75%. Luckily for me, Mont Blanc and Latte are just too common to be striked out.

You can get more information about the promotion here.

the 2nd lesson

We attended Kerri's second class at JG today.

She was still in a whiny mood and was vey clingy to me during the entire lesson. Yes, even when it was snack time, art and craft time, she had to sit on my lap, and I had to squeeze at the small table meant just for toddlers.

The only time she seemed to be enjoying herself was during the sing along time towards the end (like she did during the last lesson) and during water play! Yes, she was having a whale of a time surprisingly. And did not even made a sound when she was made all wet by the super excited boy next to her; he was splashing water all over the place.

Here's hoping to a more receptive Kerri this Thursday!

a cried out Monday

Kerri went for the MMR vaccine today.

I suspect she remembers that she had the injection there before. Once we stepped into the Raffles Children Centre, she started to look scared. And wailed the moment I placed her on the weighing scale. It was as if she knew what she was in for. And she did wailed and struggled, the entire time we were there, especially in the PD's office.

This is her, all cried out after we left the clinic. You can see that her eyes are red from the crying.

On another note, there is a growing resemblance between the 2 sisters. Maybe it's because of her newly cut fringe, but doesn't Kerri look like little Kae in the pic?

And here is the naughty Kae!

Happy 15th Month day Kerri!

And Kerri is now 15 months old.

Which means I have been napping for 15 months.

Happy 15th month day Kerri! Here's wishing you will start to sleep through the night soon!

my latest Obsession(s)

I've been pondering over these 2 bags for the longest time.

Tods' D Bag:


Mulberry's Alexa:


Which among these two is your choice?

Of childhood past and present

We are going to miss the second lesson at JG today. Kerri is sick. She's been sneezing non stop since tuesday night and her mucus has been dripping. She is not s very good patient. She will be very clingy, do not eat much and do not sleep much whenever she falls sick. So these few days are gonna be hell. Kae on the other hand is a very good patient. It's like she's not sick even when she's on medication which is supposedly drowsy. She will go on as if nothing is wrong.

I was reading a friend's blog and was looking through a few friends' albums on Facebook. It was just the mid autumn festival on Monday and surprisingly, people still celebrate this day with the traditional lantern and fire sparklers. Or maybe people have been celebrating this way all along, it's just that photos have never been posted. Heh.

This brings back sweet memories for me. We always go to my maternal grandparents' place for the mid autumn festival. We would all gather to eat moon cakes, and us and the cousins would then carry our paper lanterns together with the fire sparklers and walk 1 round around the neighourhood. It was an absolutely beautiful sight for me as a child, to see all the lanterns and sparklers brighten up the very dimly lighted neighborhood, as we were not in a brightly lit HDB estate. Instead it was along a line of houses on our right, and an empty field(then) on our left.

That was the kind of childhood I had back then. I suppose for most of us too. When we play with toys, run all over the place, play outdoors with our neighbors and friends. What did we know about computers then? I remember the first time my dad bought a computer was when I was in primary 3 or 4? Very few families have computers then. And instead of doing our projects and typing out the reports, my friends and I spend the whole afternoon playing with computer games instead. We played till the computer died literally. Seriously! Something burst inside, and luckily the purchase was still within the warranty period. You can only imagine how scared I was for killing the computer then.

As the years go by, hand held game consoles became the rage. No, I'm not talking about playstation. I'm taling about the individual game console. My favourite was the brick game. I do not know if any of you remembered that. I loved that so much I brought it everywhere. Until one fine day, when I lost it while playing poisonous ball with my primary school classmates at AMK park. I was so upset, that my friends actually pooled a sum of money and bought a brand new one for me! I was so touched by their gesture, as you know, we don't get much pocket money as kids, and they were willing to forgo their pocket money for me.

That is my childhood. And I loved it. Yes, I did attend extra classes, but only one class on Saturdays. And the classes are more for interest. I remember I attended drawing classes, speech and drama classes etc. But no academic tuition classes for me.

Look at the kids now. Their childhood is so different from us. They are the iFamily generation. Find me one kid who doesn't know how to use an iPhone, iPad or iTouch. It's almost impossible. Yes, I'm guilty of allowing Kae the freedom to use the iPhone and iPad whenever she likes. Especially when she is in a whiny mood. I get very irritated with her when she behaves such. So I use the iFamily to shut her up.

And she is attending classes other than going to school. Only ballet for her now as she is quite interested in dancing. We've decided to put on hold her speech and drama classes as she doesn't seem to like the teacher and is not learning anything much I observed.

And we are the typical "cosmopolitan" family. My way of saying, we only go to indoor shopping centers. Every weekend, we would bring the girls to shopping malls, eat and shop for toys and clothes. The only outdoor places we bring them to would be the beach and gardens once in a while. Are we depriving the girls? I've been bugging the hub to bring them to places like marina barrage, or even to the children festival at the SAM (which ended end august). Just to let them have a different experience and enjoy other activities. But we didn't make it in the end.

I've heard and seen (from Facebook) parents bringing their kids to all sorts of children's events the moment they are available. They go to every exhibition, every concert, every activity play attraction, etc. I know every family is different. But am I depriving the girls of a somewhat all rounded experience by not doing so? I always feel guilty thinking about this.

H&M finally?

And so, 11 days after they opened their first flagship in Singapore, I finally visited the H&M store located at Orchard building.

And I was quite disappointed to be honest. With all the hyped up publicity about the store opening in Singapore finally, I expected more. The clothes were really not impressive. I don't know. Maybe they cater to the younger crowd. The casual wear was really casual, nothing striking. The formal wear was average. I can get better finds at Mango and Zara anytime. The range in the men and children section was quite pathetic. And there I was, prepared to spend tonnes of money on my virgin trip, but ended up instead buying a basic tank top and a cardigan, together with 2 hello kitty tops for the girls simply because I wanted to justify my 20 minus of queuing time.

The selection in Hong Kong is definitely better, or has their standard dropped too? I thought the selection should be the same across the board? Even the range in Paris from what I remembered was better.

Or it may just simply because I was put off by the throngs of people in a 3 storey shop space. I think this must be it. You see, i am a person who can find nothing to buy during sales and at shops whereby there are too many customers and where the clothes are simply too cluttered to be found. You bet I won't be going back anytime soon. Maybe just to buy some stuff for the girls as I am not going to queue for another 20 minutes to wait for a cubicle.

Kerri's 1st class

Kerri attended her first class at Julia Gabriel today. Unlike Kae who attended the Playclub class upon turning 18 months old at Forum, Kerri is now attending the Playnest class, soon to be 15 months old this Saturday, at Evans Road.

Perhaps she is overwhelmed by the number of people in the class; there's 10 other toddlers and their accompanying adults, 3 teachers plus 2 of us. She was quite clingy to me during class. She's afraid to venture out on the playmat and interact with other children. She had to sit on my lap during story time, and was not even listening to the story.

As suspected, she doesn't take to craftwork at all. Kerri is quite a cleanliness freak for her age. The moment she sees the paint, she started to wail. Even after I dipped my own bare hands into the paint and tried to show her how fun it was, she wasn't convinced. So, with her hands flinging around frantically after I forcefully put her fingers into the paint, her neck and hair, and my arms, hair etc were covered in paint. Hah!

So you can only imagine how well she reacted to sand play. The moment sand was slowly poured to her feet, all hell broke loose. in the end, she only played with the bucket and spade, without the sand of course.

And during snack time, she was in such a defiant mood that she threw the slice of papaya not once, not twice, but three times to the floor. What a waste of food.

In the end, she finally opened up and enjoyed herself during the last segment: sing along time.

I am hoping she wil be more responsive in the coming classes. Let's see how she is this Thursday.

It's been a while

My blog has been dead since April. I have a long list of backlogs in my draft folder as I type.

It is very tiring to keep the blog alive especially when my only free time now is at night after the whole family is asleep. Even then, Kerri will wake up every now and then. Plus all the household chores I have to do at night, I really am too tired and lazy to blog.

But then I realize if I don't, I will forget all that has happened. My blog serves as a memory bank for me. My memory has been getting worse ever since I've become a mother.

So, I will try to blog everyday on weekdays, and once on weekends. As a friend pointed out, I can just upload a picture of what happened or what is going on in my mind even if there are no words. So, here I go.