Sunday, 23 March 2008

I love to bring nat to places where she can enjoy herself amidst natural surroundings. One such place is the Bukit Batok Nature Reserve, which incidentally, is just beside our house, although we do not frequent this park much. So yesterday, we propped nat in the stroller and off we went. It's really interesting ... when nat's in the stroller, she is all quiet and serious. But the moment you carry her and she has a look at the surroundings, she gets really excited. Here are some pics we took in the park, as usual, gary's super duper camera has me very impressed. Check out the cool dragonfly pic ...

Wednesday, 19 march 2008

I love the times when I am off from work and am able to spend time with nat. Today is one of those days. Met my baby friends at Jacob Ballas ... I always enjoy spending time with them ... seeing the babies (soon to be toddlers). Everyone's really grown a lot and seem to be getting their own personalities and characters.

My little baby enjoyed herself tromping around the sand together with her friends, although half the time, she was trying to "eat" the sand. And these days, she's really a lot more vocal. I'll post a video of her in this entry "talking" away, although half the time, we wonder what foreign language she is speaking. But I guess, in time, she will definitely be more coherent. I can't wait for the day when we can have a proper conversation, haha, although, that will be the day she can "talk back" too!

Work has been kind of stressful these few months, and it is at these times, that I always feel like being a SAHM. But I guess, I'll just grit my teeth and stick to it for now. I must admit I do enjoy the financial freedom of having my own savings and being able to buy stuff for nat. But, well I do look forward to the day when I can just happily stay at home and spend all day with nat.

Sunday, 16 March 2008

It's been a great weekend with nat, started off not so great as I was down with flu on Fri and Sat but got much better on Sunday and we brought nat to the park for her weekly dose of nature.

Gary and I have been thankful and feel very blessed with nat's development. She's been walking since one year old, although a bit unsteadily but now she's a lot more stable. We've also been reading to her, so she can recognise some words or associate certain words to certain actions.

Today, we bought some toys, cheapies really :) no need for anything too ex as she'll just lose interest after a while. She's really enjoying them, and i guess it helps stimulate some area of the brain too, right? haha ... maybe i should be more of a dutiful mummy and read up on it. Check out the cute videos and take a look at poor bear bear that has just been strewn onto the floor.

Sunday, 9 March 2008

These are the stunning results of Gary's new camera. He had been eyeing a new SLR camera for some time but had been reluctant to committ to a purchase, so since it was the IT Fair, I finally "bought" one for him. It's a good buy, the kind of photos that you capture on such cameras show such vivid colours and realism.

Here's daddy's fave little model, she's really become a lot more active. These days, she's not keen to sit on the stroller and even when tromping around shopping malls, she wants to walk on her own, and not even hold our hand. Sigh ... we end up chasing her half the time. My little baby sure is growing up fast.

Friday, 29 February 2008

Thought it would be meaningful to make an entry on this date, since it comes about only once every 4 years. Anywayz, some updates on my baby's developmental milestones.

1. Nat is officially a toddler. What this means is she "toddles" everywhere, somewhat like a little robot, with both her hands flapping at the sides for balance. She's really quite cute when she does that.

2. For the longest time, I was wondering why nat refused to take her solid food i.e porridge or rice. Had me rather worried for a while. Then I brought her to the paediatrician who enlightened me. We had been feeding her milk every 3-4 hourly just like when she was a baby. Look at it this way, if I were shoving 180ml of milk into your throat every 3 hours, I seriously doubt you would feel like eating anything during meal time. I'm glad to report that with some slight adjustments in her milk intake, she is taking her solids once again.

3. Nat is now familiar with the following words:
ball, cat, dog, rabbit, mouse, umbrella, shoes,fish

When I ask her what happens if a cat comes along, she will immediately pat her chest indicating she is scared ... haha ... something interesting I taught her some time back. In fact, if i ask her wat happens if mummy's scared, she will quickly pat my chest as well before giggling away. We do this every day, gets me laughing and she seems to enjoy it.

I'm also teaching her some parts of the human anatomy ... haha ... so far, I've only had success with the 'ear' and she is able to point to her ear when I ask her where it is.

It's been a great 1 year with my baby. Some days, I wonder how I ended up with this little bean that is so dependent on me and I have no more freedom to just take off somewhere to have fun with gary. But these are rare moments. Most days, I thank God for this little blessing in my life.

Sunday, 24 February 2008

Nat cried a lot yesterday nite, no matter how I tried to pacify her, she still persisted in her crying for more than an hour. I wonder why babies cry? I figure after you've satisfied a baby's material needs like milk, cuddling, diaper changes, if they still persist in crying, it could be just general moodiness. Just like us adults, somedays we juz feel miserable except that as adults, we control our emotions and don't end up crying. I think having Nat has really built up my patience, after the one hour of crying, I still continued patting her and speaking softly to her, didnt lose my temper at all. After all, she's only a baby.

On another note, we also met up with our baby frens yesterday. It was a good meeting as I hadn't seen all the other babies for such a super long time. Everyone has grown so much, thinking back when we first became friends in May 07, all the babies were so tiny. Now they are all on the verge of walking and look so super cute. It's great having these bunch of friends. They know what I'm going through with nat and vice versa and are a great form of support for me.

During lunch today, we stopped by this Jap restaurant at Paragon for a quick lunch. Nat seems to like the soba noodles and was busy slurping it strand by strand. However, all the activities of the day must have tired her out, she actually fell asleep in the middle of munching a soba. It was quite a funny sight!

Sunday, 17 February 2007


Baby nat is a water baby, wonder why, since i did not swim much when she was in my tummy. But nevertheless, it's great. At Julia Gabriel's she enjoys herself immensely whenever it's swim time. Yesterday, me and gary were debating between going shopping or going home to nap, when I suddenly had a brainwave. Why not stop at the Jacob Ballas Playground at Botanic Gardens? The timing was kinda odd, so it would probably not be crowded. In fact, we had already brought nat there once when it first opened but then it was too crowded and nat a bit too young to enjoy herself.

Not this time, nat had a great time, although mummy did get a little wet but I guess it's fine, all in the name of good fun for baby. I still remember a few years ago, when I was walking at Botanic Gardens with my mum, the construction of this playground was still ongoing and I often thought to myself, how exciting could a playground be? Well, I must admit, it is certainly quite an interesting place for kids and their parents to hang out. This is a place we will probably visit more often, although, I think I will keep to going at odd timings to avoid the crowd.

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

I have been doing flashcards with nat occasionally. Nothing fancy like those expensive flashcard programmes in the market, just something I bought from a kid's store with colourful pics and big words.

Today I went through the stack of cards with nat again, reading to her the word and emphasising on the phonics of each word. Later, when I showed her 3 options and asked her to pick the correct word, she actually got it correct at least 80% of the time. I'm really amazed. Maybe there is some merit in going through the flashcards with nat daily, although sometimes you really wonder if she is listening :)

Monday, 11 February 2008

It's been a while since I last blogged. I also don't know why I've not felt a desire to blog these past few weeks. Nat's birthday was on 5 Feb. We didn't have any big celebration, just bought her a cake which she seemed to enjoy. Been kind of moody ... no particular reason ... well, nat is still the sunshine in my life :) best of all, she can walk, albeit unsteadily, you'll often find her plopping herself butt and all on the floor, she's getting there though and I think she'll be running about in another month or two.

Saturday was not a particularly great day for me. We were in a hawker centre and as usual, nat was fretting while I tried to pacify her. When the maid took over, she was all smiles ... sigh I thought I had already got used to this ... but I guess not. To add salt to wound, some kapo uncle standing nearby thought he would give me his so very insightful view that "Your kid seems to like the maid better." I gave him a good glare and he shut up.

When I got home, I was in a rather depressed mood. The more I looked at nat, the more irritated I got, why can't she recognise who is her mummy, and after all the sleepless nights and sacrifices I had made for her. For the rest of the night, I pretty much ignored her and poor daddy had to take over and pacify her.

When I awoke on Sunday, I was glad that the feelings of resentment had disappeared. After all, nat's just a baby and she really is not aware of what's going on. If the maid is her primary care giver, of course she expresses preferences for her. I told myself I will try to control my emotions better and not let jealousy get in the way. But I guess it's easier said than done. But I'll try ...

On a happier note, we brought Nat for her weekly walk at the Botanic Gardens. This time round, she really is learning to "walk". I think that at home, she is not so confident of walking without support, for fear of falling on the hard ground. But on the grass patch, she really is a lot more eager to walk. My clever little bud is really quite cute ... while walking ... if at any time she feels insecure, she'll quickly plop her little butt on the ground, to lower the centre of gravity.

I love nat and no matter how my emotions may go awry sometimes, I will still love my baby.

What is it about Little Bo Beep that my little babe has issues with? For those of you who have never heard the rhyme, it goes:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And can't tell where to find them
Leave them alone and they'll come home
Bringing their tails behind them

A perfectly harmless rhyme or so it seems. Nat has been watching a CD with all these nursery rhymes sung in the form of catchy tunes. It's quite good with all the familiar o'le songs, Little Miss Muffet, Old King Cole, London Bridge, Three Little Kittens, Mary had a little lamb. She enjoys it ever so much and sometimes even attempts to dance to the tunes. The only issue she has is with Little Bo Peep. The moment Little Bo Peep comes on screen, she gives her infamous pout and a few seconds later, she cries. Initially, I thought it was just a coincidence but I've tested the theory a few times and have come to the same conclusion. There's something about the little miss that she hates.

Gary is convinced that it's because Bo Peep is in the form of a racoon in the cartoon and nat is frightened by the 2 black eyes (sort of panda-like) but i wonder ... she really looks perfectly nice and harmless ... oh well ... I guess this is one rhyme i ain't gonna hear nat recite when she gets older.

I just cannot resist putting this video of nat here, she is so super cute, despite all the sleepless nights I have to endure, it is such times that make you remember the joy of having children.

Colour of the week is Blue and nat wore the loveliest little blue dress to Julia Gabriel. These bi-weekly classes with nat is something that I look forward to, because nat seems to enjoy it so much. Today, she did a little dance and jig as the teacher played on the guitar, impressing everyone around her.

People seem to love her hair, saying that it's hard to get this "pokey" effect without using any gel ... sigh ... looks exactly like daddy's hair.

As usual, she totally enjoyed the painting session. Today, the babies used their hands to feel the texture of salt on paint. Very fun for nat, but made poor mummy dirty with paint all over. I had to quickly whisk her to the toilet and wash the bright blue paint off her.

Of course, she enjoyed the swim session as well.

It's been a while since we visited the Botanic Gardens, so early on Sunday morning, gary and i went for an early morning walk together with nat. I think there's something about fresh air that excites babies. Nat was in a jolly happy mood, what better place to have fun and look at her three favourite things: water fountains, dogs and birds.

She squealed and she chuckled and got all excited whenever we saw a dog in the distance. Eventually, we ended up in a grassy area near the lake, where I thought we could rest and let her try walking. You should have seen my little monkey, think she's not too fond of the pokey feeling of the grass, so she kept trying to climb up my leg whenever I placed her on the grass. She made mummy all dirty as her muddy little feet stepped on my t-shirt. sigh ...

Later, we met a new furry friend, a little doggie called baby. I was rather surprised that nat showed no fear of dogs at all, since I have always been scared of dogs since young and it was only recently that I got over the fear of dogs.

Overall, it was a great day and baby nat fell asleep the moment we got back to the car.

My little nat is a water baby, she loves playing with water. This week at Julia Gabriel, one of the activities was waterplay and she really loves it. I really treasure these times that I spend with my little baby. Some days (quite often, actually), I look back at her old baby photos and I'm just amazed at how much she has grown.


Today, Gary told me about this documentary that relates on how between the age of 0-2 years old, a baby's brain is truly like a sponge, built to absorb everything and anything. I believe it is important to offer baby a stimulating yet fun environment. Hehehe, still haven't figured out how though ... will share if any thoughts come to mind.

Today marks the first full day off since my part time scheme began and I am really enjoying my time spent with baby nat. The morning started off at julia gabriel, i'm beginning to find these classes very interesting. There's lots of singing, story telling, puppets and today we even did colour painting and water play with the babies. Of course, baby nat, the water baby enjoyed herself so much that she started to bawl when I carried her off, tsk tsk, made me all wet too. As for the colour painting, let's just say blue lipstick does not become her, haha, unfortunately i did not manage to capture a shot of my little picasso at work.

Nat is really daddy's girl, she always enjoys spending time with her daddy and pulling his spiky hair, which, by the way looks just like hers.

Yesterday was a big day for my baby, it marked the first day of school :) playschool that is. I had signed nat up for julia gabriel at evans road. I guess the aim was not really with the hope of her turning into some child genius, but just to allow her to interact more with other kids and intro some interesting activities in her life.

She seemed to settle very easily into the environment, listening intently to the teacher and giggling and chuckling when i swung her up and down in tune with the song that we were singing. It's really quite an interactive environment, with the use of puppets, dramatic story telling and singing to get the kids interested. Surprisingly, most of the kids could actually focus, at least for some part of the lesson. Although, I greatly sympathised with this poor grandpa whose grandson bawled the moment he placed him onto the mat. It was quite tiring though, chasing after nat as she tried to pull another little girl's hair ... tsk tsk ... why can't she sit still like a sweet little girl. But well, that's my baby nat for you.

These are some pics taken from my camera phone.

1 January 2008

New year, new resolutions. It's been an interesting year 2007, with nat in our lives. hectic but nice ... today we met up with our good frens for a new year lunch gathering. i'm really glad to have such great friends, we don't see each other all that much but when we do ... things don't seem to have changed much, we just carry on from where we left off, just like in jc. best of all, nat is blessed to have such doting "godmas" who love her lots and are always showering her with lovely pressies. recently, she also seems to have got over the "fear of strangers" phase, and was quite pleased to be carried. my nat loves babbling a lot, hmm, genetically this trait not from me ... probably her daddy.

Monday, 31 December 2007

It's been a while since I've updated nat's blog. another new year resolution, to be more dedicated to her blog. I dun wanna be one of those mummies who give up after a while ... will continue making an effort to record baby nat's growth and development and share my happiness watching her grow with everyone.

Today, we brought nat to vivocity and she really had great fun playing with the water fountain. nat has grown so much and every day i find i love her more and more. her cheeky smile, her babbling, even her daddy is charmed by her and today, for the first time, decided to sling her around in a carrier, unmacho as it seems to be.

Just to share some pics of nat :)

12 December 2007

Every so often, I feel upset because I'm not a SAHM. Logically, I know that nat does not really need me 24/7 and working helps on our finances ... but emotionally, I guess it's a different story. These few months, I've run out of leave, so I've been working full time 5 days a week and I am feeling the detachment from nat very strongly. Often, when the maid is carrying her, and I take over, she struggles to get out of my grip.

It's easy to say, a child will always know who is her mum. And I guess many years down the road, I will look back on this entry and laugh it off. But right now, it sure doesn't feel good.

7 December 2007

I just finished listening to nat's nursery rhymes cd in my car, quite relaxing i must say, but i come to the same conclusion as gary, nursery rhymes are inherently nasty. here's why?

little miss muffet
here you have a perfect example of a little miss minding her own biz, having had a bz day, she sat down for a meal, and the arachnid just had to come mess things up, didn't it?

Rock-a-bye baby
now, which kiasu Singaporean mum would willingly put the cradle up on a tree? first of all, in Singapore, trees are grown mighty high, would need a freaking ladder just to climb up. second of all, if i had to balance a baby in a cradle as well, think i'll be the one falling off. thirdly, if i wanted the baby to have some breeze, you know what i would do, switch on the air-con!

Sing a song of sixpence
this one doesn't really make sense, if you baked four and twenty blackbirds in a pie, birds would have been cooked by the time you were done, they sure ain't gonna sing no song when u open up the pie. next, wat kind of class conscious bird is that, choosing only to swoop down and peck the maid when he's got free choice to have a go at the king and queen too. after all, if it ain't dead after the baking, i assume the bird's flying ard the castle, right? haha

i've got a lot more interesting ones, will update along the way. enjoy. but jokes aside though, i kinda enjoy listening to them, even more than baby nat i think :)

5 December 2007

Baby nat has a cold, past few nights, she was cranky because of a stuffy nose. Kept waking up in the night to whine. Everytime I picked her up, she was fine. So i concluded that in an upright position, her nose would not be blocked. Anyway, brought her to doc yest. All's fine now, really glad for that.

Sunday, 2 December 2007

A busy weekend for nat, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly. On Saturday, brought her to SITEX at Singapore Expo. Me and gary wanted to check out some stuff there, mistake to bring her, the place was crawling with people. Luckily we also had the foresight to bring our maid along. So at least she could look after nat, while we were pushing with the masses.

On Sunday, met up with nat's baby frens. We went to Tanglin Mall Gymboree where the babies had a great time crawling around exploring the place. I love these baby gatherings and so does nat. She always enjoys herself. It's great to see how my friends' babies have grown. After all, they were born around the same timing and all seem to be reaching development milestones together.

Here are the pics of my baby nat.

Sunday, 25 November 2007

It's been a great weekend with baby nat and gary. last week, i was not home much during the weekday nites, so nat seemed a bit "upset" with me and did not want to be carried. sigh, i hate it when that happens. over the weekend, i spent as much time with her as i could.

We checked out a new breakfast place called Choupinette along Bukit Timah Road, quite nice. Gary and I also bought her a gadget that blows bubbles (she's not too impressed by it, though), some new clothes as well as a decorative reindeer and Christmas lights to make the house more festive in celebration of baby nat's first Christmas. Nat's quite thrilled with the lights and I will take some pics of her admiring the lights soon.

Thursday, 22 November 2007

Baby nat is one smart gal ... hmm ... wonder who she takes after? little o'le me? nyah, most probably her daddy. anyway, today i went home during lunchtime. Me and nat chit chatted all through lunch time, her babbling to me about her morning activities and me showering her with kisses.

She can now recognise words. Her fave words are:
1. bird bird (she will turn her head to look into the garden)
2. banana (she will point her finger in the direction of the bunch of bananas hung in the kitchen)
3. fish (the infamous red fish that she loves throwing onto the floor)
4. dollie ( costs my mum all of $1.90, a musical lantern in the shape of girly doll)
5. duck duck (my family of ducks in the cupboard accumulated from the annual duck race)

Thanks to my mum, who talks to her a lot, repeating the words again and again. Was just telling mum that if she had done this with me when i was nat's age, i might have turned out to be a genius! you think? ...

Monday, 19 November 2007

Daddy's favourite little girl. Nat and her daddy have a very special relationship. When he is sleeping, so is she. When he wakes up, so does nat. It is no wonder that gary's new sweetheart goes by the name of natalie ong. boo hoo, my that was my position in the past :) but it's alright, because nat is my sweetheart too.

Friday, 16 November 2007

My little nat has grown so much and now has a whole new bag of tricks up her little sleeves.

1. She loves to poo poo in the car, happened on quite a few occasions already.
2. She loves to dance to music. Every night, I play the "Can-Can" for her on my Mac and it never fails to get her standing up and boogieing away.
3. She loves throwing things on the floor. Give her anything, a towel, a toy and off it goes onto the floor. In fact, if she sees u hanging around waiting to pick up the toy, she'll pretend to put it in her mouth and once your head is turned, there goes the toy onto the floor.

But really, I enjoy every minute of my time with her. There are those rare moments, when she falls asleep in my arms and I just look at her sleeping. I am sure these moments will pass by in a flash and I will now just savour the moment.

Sunday, 11 November 2007

Babies are the cutest little things on earth, and they sure know how to tug at your heartstrings. Today, we were at Starbucks having an early morning cuppa coffee. Nat, as usual got restless, squirmy and noisy. Gary decided to give her a little smack, just a tiny little tap on her thighs. Immediately, Nat gave her signature pout, tears shimmered before she gave a loud wail. Sigh, immediately, our softy daddy picked his firstborn up and showered her with lots of kisses.

One thing i was telling Gary though, is that as Nat gets older, we must never let her become a brat. You know, those irritating pesky rude kids that run around, screaming and acting cute. Hopefully, we will bring Nat up well.

Friday, 9 November 2007

I saw in a documentary that a baby can absorb and learn a treasure trove of information so it's good to start them learning young. So yesterday,I placed nat in front of my mac and showed her the alphabets from an interactive kids' website. My first thought was that she would be distracted and try to crawl away. To my amazement, she sat there right through from A-Z. Then I played some music for her and again she was very focused on the music.

I'm happy that this week, I'll be able to spend 4 glorious days with nat, thanks to the deepavali hols. Yesterday, she was juz a dynamo and ball of energy. After the zoo outing in the am, both gary and i came back home and slept. So did nat. But at night, she refused to sleep and we had to amuse her till midnite. Gary kept asking in disbelief how a baby could have so much energy haha.

Anyway, like i said, not had an good photo taking opportunities, which explains the lack of nice pics. We did take some nice ones yesterday, so check it out.

Wednesday, 7 November 2007

To bring nat or not? Tat is the question? Something that has kept me up for the past few weeks. Should I bring nat with us to Perth?

On the upside, it's a great time for me to spend some time with her. These few months, I've not been able to take as much leave as I would like to. And I'm feeling kinda miserable ... So having her stuck to me 24/7 would really be nice.

On the downside, nat really does need a lot of care and attention. This means that it won't really be that much of a holiday for me and gary. Probably won't be able to do any of that horse-riding,hiking, spa type thingey that we enjoyed when we went to New Zealand previously. Also, it's hard to sit down and enjoy a nice dinner with a squirmy baby in my hands.

I change my mind constantly, much to gary's irritation. One day, I'm determined that she is not coming along, one day I'm convinced I need to have her with me. Well, will decide soon. As everyone has rightly pointed out, if nat comes along, it's more for me then for her benefit. After all, who remembers where one went at the age of 10 months old?

Thank all for listening to the ramblings of an obsessed mum.

Sunday, 4 Nov 2007

Baby nat can talk. While it vaguely still seems like baby talk, I'm convinced she can say "Pa Pa". Gary denies that it's a great achievement, but you can see he is secretly pleased.

Bringing nat out is certainly getting more difficult. Once out of the sling, she squirms non-stop. Gary and I feel absolutely wiped out after a day out with her. But you know, at the end of the day, it's all worth it!

Her little dimpled smile and chuckle, her "scaredy cat" behaviour - when u bring her near to something she does not like, she clings on to you for dear life but once you move away from the scary item, she will strain her neck just to catch sight of it, everything about her just makes me love her more every day.

These few weeks, we have not gone anywhere with good photo taking opportunities, which explains the lack of stunning photos of my beautiful baby. No worries, good things can afford to wait one la hor!

I'm glad that my good friends all love nat. As gary says, she is the only member of the family that is universally loved. We may irritate each other once in a while but for nat, she is loved always :)