First trip at the zoo @ 15mths old

 That's little Janice's first time seeing LIVE animals.

 Wouldn't want to be carried, wouldn't want to be held. She just wanna walk alone and explore her surroundings.

Grandma explains and she's concentrating on every word she say.

 Janice having her power lunch before we left the zoo that day. 

She nudge and said "Janice hungry".

 

Just the 3 of us ;)

The little lady kidnapped a giraffe from the zoo...

Blogger meetup @ Marmalade Cafe BVII

2 weeks ago, YES..it was a longggggg overdue post :p I meet up with beautiful Annie with her 2 handsome boys! at Marmalade Cafe. Annie is one of my many blogger friends whom I've been chatting with for as long as I could remember but we NEVER MET before. Blame it on me, my excuses was always "going pok thor hence no time", "getting married hence no time", "going honeymoon hence no time", "making baby hence no time"..aha! Finally, I made a point to set an appointment with her on a beautiful Deepavali morning to have breakfast :D My favourite meal of the day! Hubby drop us off at the cafe while he go look at pretty ladies somewhere waited somewhere while we have some "Ladies chat". I crossed my fingers and ordered my food hoping the little lady would not create a fuss without the daddy. Thank God she was ok until the final 10 minutes... Thank GOD daddy arrives to rescue me :D

I shall let the photos do all the talking...

Janice with her birthday presents from Fearles and Cruz..

The boys are teaching Janice how to flip her new book. Thanks Annie, she's still flipping the book while I watch like a hawk everyday because she has an evil intention to "TEAR" those pages if I leave her alone!

"Hey mom... are you SURE I can drink these???"

My breakfast.. Corn cakes donno what what... I don't remember the name :p. That happens when you're too excited meeting up with a friend and handling a toddler at the same time! hah!

I definitely had a great morning chatting with Annie and seeing her two handsome boys! Annie say I'm a very quiet lady wor.. really?! :p

I'm looking forward to meet up with the rest of the 'silent readers' out there..ahem ahem.. you know who you are :p SOON!

Once again, a big thank you to Annie for the book and puzzle. NEXT TIME don't spent so much ok???!!!??? Umph!

Janice 1st Birthday Bash (PART 2): Compilation from 6 mths - 12mths old

Janice 1st Birthday Bash (PART 1): The cake, the door gifts and the arrival of guest

THE CAKE

Baby Minnie themed 3 tier birthday cake for the little princess

I took leave on the eve of Janice's birthday to bake the cakes for the Minnie mouse theme party. Yiyi came over to my place that night and we started decorating. It took us 4 hours to complete the 2 tier decoration. The white cake with polka dots is made of Styrofoam inside ;).  Surprisingly, the difficult part of assembling the cake wasn't the making of Minnie Mouse sugar figurine but to me, it was the covering of  rolled fondant on the cake. It took us forever to do it! At 3:30am on the 30th Oct 2010, our 1st fondant cake was finally ready. *sweat*


                                                           THE DOOR GIFTS

Photo taken by Zara's mama. I was too busy that day, I terforgot to take a pic of the cookies for remembrance.

As for the door gifts for the guest, I've ordered these beautiful Minnie themed cookies from Zara's mama. I love her work and the cookies tasted great.







Each cookies we individually wrapped!!

                                                        
                                                           
                                                          
                                                         THE PRE-CELEBRATION

She woke up to receive her  birthday presents from daddy and mommy!

The birthday girl woke up pretty early at 7 ish in the morning to greet the sleepy parents. She usually wakes up way past 8:30am on a normal day. Looks like she knew something was going to happen on that Saturday.She was so bubbly and happy the moment she woke. Daddy and mommy sang her the birthday song while we were still lazing on our bed and she was clapping her hands with excitement.


                                                                  DRESSING UP

After stuffing her with a power packed early lunch, it was time for the little princess to dress up for the party.Thank God she was cooperative that day with her new shoes. Usually, she'll find ways to remove them as soon as you put them on.

Janice's dressing up 30 minutes before party starts.

Her 1st pair of walking shoes. I love them more than her. She is not use to wearing shoes yet :0

                                                                THE PARTY

Everything went well according to my expectations. The Balloons from Balloon Buzz arrived on time to decorate the entire cafe. When we arrived, everything was in place according to plan. My princess was enjoying herself looking at all the colourful balloons floating around her!



Popo(grandma) showing Janice around the party venue.



Thanks to Balloon Buzz for delivering them on time and the balloon arrangement was simple and nice!

Grand aunt FL said "I can buy lottery already, Janice allowed me to carry her today" :D

The Sun, Chew & Chanclans reunited

It was a great opportunity for the family members to gather together on special occasions like these.

Something happened on the way to the cafe. Part of the cake was exposed to the sunlight in daddy's car, the back of the cake (lilac layer) was slighted melted. Thanks to the cafe boss for her help. She reassured me that she'll take care of the 'repairs'. SHE DID! I almost felt like giving her a big wet kiss.

Great grandpopo wishing the little party girl a blessed birthday!

Great Grand ah ma trying to let her hold the double blessings.

Grandma came to give the little sweety pie a gift while she looks on

Kong Kong trying to woo her :p

 

The birthday girl sitting among the party guest..

More photos to come....

Janice's 1st topper is ready

So our 1st baby Minnie 'passed' away. I gathered all the parts that is still usable and redo items that was totally damaged. A day later, baby Minnie #2 was born...

Minnie #2 waiting to dry before attaching the arms

 

24 hrs later, her hands were attached to the body. Yippy yay yay!

 

My sis came over this morning to give a magic touch to Minnie's face. 

To finalise the topper, we've added some blocks for baby Minnie to play. These are also Janice's favourite toy at the moment!

The topper is finally ready. The stress is finally over.I'll be baking a tiered medeira cake for her birthday because the topper is quite heavy and I need a 'steady' cake to support it.  I just hope that the topper would stay strong until the actual day. :s

The toys, the bakings and a dead minnie mouse

Toy #1 checked!

Toy #2 checked!

The cinnamon tea cake was evenly browned . Checked!

The wheat & cranberry bread was also a success. Checked!

So, now its time to start making our figurines for the ACTUAL cake

Sister came over to help me with the figurines. It was so fun playing with the sugar dough and we though 1 evening is good enough to complete the entire MINNIE...

We went out in the evening to send off the maid to the airport for a month long holiday. When I return MINNIE MOUSE was seen  lifeless and dead!!

Our 1st Minnie mouse melted. Hands and legs was amputated, head was seen on the floor (I picked it up to take a picture), The Minnie's body was flatten due to the weight of the head and the ribbon broke into 2 due to the fall. Heartache & headache! Our 4 hours of hard work went down the drain. I text ed my sis to tell her the news..

The next day, sis and I worked on our Minnie #2 with  MORE patience and more CMC was added to the sugar dough..This time, no more assembling the entire figures until they'll all dry and hard. Guess it would take days.

The parts are all drying up now and nothing is breaking apart after 24 hours. Lets pray that this Minnie would be sitting upright on her birthday end of this month. In fact, I hope the entire cake will be sitting upright  because the ambitious mom loves challenges and is about to bake a 3 tier cake.for the VERY FIRST TIME.

I'm also a PINK supporter

We went to 1U to shop for my party dress with daddi, mammi and yiyi over the weekends. A lady came over to wear a pink ribbon on me because its the National Breast Cancer Awareness month. I didn't push her away while she pin the ribbon on me because I'm the #1 nen nen fan ;p. Love your boobees ladies!!

The night whisperer

Yesterday night Janice was already asleep and it was quite late at night and both of us wasn't that sleepy yet. I crawl closer to my "Home Affairs Minister" and started a conversation like that...

Me:        Dearie, i got something to say... *evil smile in the dark*

Dearie:   Yeah?

Me:       I think I don't want to order cake for Janice birthday already. Thank God Zara's mama is helping me with the cookies but cakes, so difficult to get quotation and most of them are fully booked for the year you know. *The domestic maid continue on with her 101 reasons why we need to buy an oven*

Dearie:  So what's your plan?

*Drums rolling*

Me:      I want to bake once again. I want a new oven. Neh, the one with fan one leh, I also need a new mixer, a digital scale and... bla bla bla bla bla...*nonstop*

*Hubby pretend storing"

Me:     Weiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... I'm not finished yet wor *evil grin*

Dearie:  Ok ok..good idea. Its a good investment.

Me:      Ya lor ya lor... ok ar... can ar... tomorrow buy ar!! *evil smiles* Good night dearie.. MUACKS!

Dearie:  Zzz$zzzzz$zzzzzz$zzzzzzzzzz

Me:      *smiling in my dreams*

Yippy yay! I'm back in action after retiring from the kitchen for more than 2 years to prepare for our wedding and starting a family...

**Oh well, as long as the "tummy-oven" doesn't start baking for the whole 9 months so soon, I believe I've got plenty of time to play with my kitchen toys now  ;)

The night owl

She'd her last feed and a pacifier in her mouth but she ain't ready to fall asleep yet. She was playing in her cot and you guys just LOOK at the tsunami she'd just created behind her!\

Janice no longer falling asleep super early and leaving daddy and mommy plenty of time watching DVDs and playing FB doing their chores now. She would want us to chat and play with her until way past 9pm. Yippee yay! Oh yeah lah.... Yay and FUN for the first few nights when it happens but now I think I've changed my mind :p. I wished she could sleep early on certain days when I arrive home super tired or having alot of house chores to complete. I believe daddy agrees with me Gezzz...

We're still sticking to the night routine of giving her her last feed for the night, pillow talk, reading some books to her and giving her less stimulating games before we call it a night but when the lights are off, she would continue playing. She would be rubbing her eyes but she would force herself to stand up and started talking and playing. *Sweats*

When we're too lazy to layan her, that's what she would do until she's super tired and falls asleep.....

Janice starting to show interest in trains... She's holding on to Percy, the No. 6 green engine.

Lots of reading flipping!

Does the Saturday fever dance moves as part of her gym activity to maintain her 'figure' *rolled eyes*

Finally... the night owl would call it a night

The night owl still in dreamland. She wakes up way past 8am in the morning since she'd partied the night before. One thing good is that we're not required to wake up super early in the morning to entertain her like before. :p Zzzzzzzzzz...

Janice the girly girl's reaction towards surprises or was it because she wanted a taste of it?

My usual weekday evening routine, pick the girl up from the nursery, drive home, strap Janice in her feeding chair and zoom straight to the kitchen to get the very hungry girl her dinner and water.

When I reach home yesterday, the room was slightly cold. Eh? the air con was already turned on.Everywhere looks clean and proper and when I turn my head towards the dining table... I saw a lovely bunch and a message written on the laptop screen waiting for my arrival. The typical me which is very afraid of surprises stood still for a while, don't really know how to react as the loukong walked out from the kitchen to welcome the ladies.

The reaction from our little princess was cute. She was staring at the surprise daddy brought home with her big round eyes and after staring for a long long time, she looked at me and said "Oooooo Oooo Ohhhhhhhhh" twice.

"Eh?!? What's that on the table? can I take a bite?!?"

Oh yes...she's still staring at the flowers this morning as I was carrying her out from the room. I guess she's waiting for the right opportunity to take a bite.

Blogging is good for the forgetfuls

Feeling a little emo this morning after browsing through my old blog reading about all the events that had passed me by. As I was clicking the "Previous Post" button again and again, I arrived at this page whereby I wrote about my ROM two years ago.Now I can actually recall that my ROM anniversary day was also the day I was admitted to the hospital to deliver my little princess. WOW..and now that's a day worth remembering. *Guilty for forgetting major events in my life*

Motherhood had took a big chunk of my photographic memory and energy. I was pretty good at remembering things before the kid came along and I used to be an Energiser bunny.... but now... sigh! My brain is just so tired by the time I rest my head on my pillow.

Actually I don't remember my ROM date and most of the events that took place in my life. I almost forgot my actual wedding date when I was filling up The Loaf membership form the other day. I don't know, it just slipped my mind for a while... the memory came back when I got into the car. Now that's bad!!!. The places I've been, the holidays and the seasons of life I was in and everything was written in my old blog like a series of soap opera. I was shocked and abit sadden because I don't remember.

With that, I've reminded myself that I MUST continue to blog because I'm very worried I'll forget everything by the time I turned old and grey. Blogging is also a place for me to read about my past and it brings a little smile on my face whenever I am feeling abit down and under. Oh yes...Beelibaala  is about to be resurrected soon...

She's 11 months old

"Aiyaks...mama caught on camera !"

That's our girl at 11 months old. She's very cheeky now and play time with her is so much fun! She shows her excited by opening her mouth wide with a big smile. It melts our heart whenever she does that. Her new words would be "Oh ho...." whenever she drops a toy, she had a fall or when we suddenly turn of the TV. She calls out for "mum mum" repetitively whenever she is hungry and she would say "Meow" whenever she sees a cat in her favourite picture book.

 "meowwwwwww"

She could recognise the clock and cabinet so whenever we ask "Where's the clock or Where's the cabinet?" she would turn her head looking at the clock or cabinet. Other items would be the television, the computer or the window. When her mood is good, she would point at it. That's the activity daddy does with her whenever she's cranky waiting for her final feed at night before her bedtime. That few minutes would be just nice for me to count 1...2....3.... scopes...4....5.. 6 DONE!

She's still crazy over stars and she can listen to that Twinkle Twinkle little star song over and over again in the car and also from her Baby Galileo VCD at home.Guess I'll be able to sing  the song in a reverse order soon :p

She's still at the stage of wanting to have a taste of everything under the sun. Papers, plastic bags, toys, dust..just to name a few. Oh guess she just swallowed a tiny piece of paper napkin at the cafe recently. I tried to dig it out from her mouth but its gone! Oh well.... hehe

As for her appetite, she prefers solid over milk. Her appetite for a 7oz feed per session has dropped to 4-5oz now. She prefers warm meaty meals and vegetables. Thus far, she'd tried quite a variety of vegetables and fruits. Apart from that, she is quite familiar with the taste of herbs in her meals namely oregano, cinnamon, thymes and rosemary. She is also quite used to having garlic with her fish porridge and also small onions in her baby pasta. She snacks on Cheerios, teething biscuits and rusk. I'll be introducing cheese sticks to her this month as finger food. The fruits which I've been avoiding until she reaches the age of 1 would be oranges, strawberries and pineapple.

"Mama's not watching...I shall open up the container and throw all the contents out of the box!Muahahahha"

Baby Janice is getting more and more curious and active these days. She don't like to sit in her walker anymore because she prefers cruising and walking (with support) from one furniture to the other. Hiding under the table and trying to climb on boxes and stools. She would lie flat on the floor or sitting still for a long time exploring the wheels on her push car or the walker. She would find ways to open a box or exploring our fax machine. I'm wondering how long will I be able to sustain the lifespan of my fax machine. I'm also wondering if we're going to have another engineer in the house in the future... Mmm..?!?

She knows that I'll whack her palm whenever she misbehave by touching things she shouldn't touch. Now whenever I saw "NO", instead of me whacking her palm, she whack me first and mimic my angry face! 0.o. So now I've to say "NO NO" and followed by "Cannot beat mummy ar!!..." Rolled eyes.....

*Oh Lord I need more wisdom to bring up this child leh!*

That's our little baby girl at 11 months old, a toddler by end of this month.

My 1st & last time visit to a toys warehouse sale

Here's my story...

Mattel had a warehouse sale at Atria and since I'm a first time mommy and I've never been to any toys warehouse sale before, I heard there's going to be a great bargain there. Sounds perfect since I wanted to get some toys for my girl's birthday, I thought why not I get it from there. I call up my sister to come along with me since loukong need to work 2 Saturdays ago. I arrived at sister's place on time and the journey to Atria was smooth.

The moment I arrive at the Atria carpark, I was shocked. Atria carpark was almost full and the time was not even 10am. As I was looking for a place to park, I could see people walking out of their cars rushing towards Atria.. Mmm... "It can't be that crowded right????" I told myself :p

WRONG...!

That's what happened the moment the shutter door open up. These parents (I assumed)  rushed to get empty boxes piled up near the entrance. Next, they pushed each other and stepping on other people's toes just to sweep whatever toys they could find placed on the tables. As I was walking in, 2 man nearly exchange punches and people are yelling "Don't PUSH!!! and Ouiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" from all corners. I freaked out and I wanted to make a U-turn to the nearest exit because my daughter's in a baby carrier and I was very worried she might get hurt. I hug her close to me, I turn around and these bulls people kept pushing me forward. I've no choice but to move towards a safe corner. By the time I reach the end of the room, that was what we discovered....

EMPTY TABLES

Oh yes! Everything was cleared from the display tables in less than 5 minutes! There's nothing to see, there's nothing to buy. Everybody was carrying their boxes full of toys and looking for a clear spot to sort out their toys and see what they've actually grabbed from the tables..

Let the sorting begun...

That's her response when I said to her "BABY, NO MORE TOYS TO BUY" :D

The situation in the room was calm  because everybody was quiet for a while, guess what my sister did? She took an empty box and walked away for about 15 minutes... While waiting for my sister, a trolley of toys arrived at one of the tables and parents rushed to that table, reaching out their arms to grab a box of whatever they can grab. Again I could hear people scolding each other and pulling each other's shirt just to grab one! Total madness...

15 minutes later, my sister came back with a box of toys. I asked how and where did she get those toys. She said she asked each and every group of people if 'they've any toys they don't want in their boxes'  0.o

Like that also can?!?

For the sake of her niece, love has blinded her for a while and she went all out to get her niece some toys!

Yes, we've a box load of nice toys for Janice effortlessly but we ended up leaving empty handed. Reason? The queue to pay was wayyyyyy too longggggggggg!

I believe this would be my 1st and the last time going to a toys warehouse sale. I'm truly disappointed with some people who would actually fight with each other just for TOYS! Its not even food we're fighting to sustain our lives. Its only Toys our children can live without. From now on, I shall return to my neighbourhood toy store and I can wiggle my backside all the way to the cashier without the risk of being hurt!

The end