How We Celebrated Christmas

And this is how we celebrated Christmas..... Go to the church and then spend time together at home... Wahahaha... Well, we're not really the type that's keen on squeezing with other people in crowded places. Though the thought of going to the city sounds nice, but thinking of the no of people that have the same thought as us, woah... that'll be scary :D

[caption id="attachment_1904" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Family Photo at Christmas!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1905" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Kuku & Vio"][/caption]

Aw... why don't Singapore have something like Taman Anggrek? My sister always go for yearly photo with Santa Clause (the kind where you just need to go and get the photo on the same day). Or maybe Singapore have, but just that I don't know about it? It'll be quite cute to lay the photos side by side, year by year and see how the kids grow.. Hahahaa... Since Singapore doesn't have such thing, maybe I'll just take family photos with Christmas tree year by year.. Haha..

Oh oh.. here's the nativity scene at St Mary of The Angels church. Vio was quite excited to see baby Jesus!

[caption id="attachment_1906" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Nativity Scene"][/caption]

A Birthday & A Wedding

Ahem... This is a very belated post.. Hahhaa..

Last week we went to a birthday party and a wedding. Both on the same day! This is actually our first time bringing Vio to a wedding dinner reception (the sit-down style). We're kinda worried that he can't sit still during the dinner (with the waiting time and all), so we brought LOTS of toys to entertain him. But before going to the wedding dinner, here are some snapshots taken during the birthday party.

[caption id="attachment_1897" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Throwing the ball inside"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1898" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Vio & Caelia"][/caption]

Too bad we need to leave the birthday party early, coz we need to go to the wedding dinner. We missed the cake cutting! Sigh..

Oh yeah, the wedding dinner was at Marina Bay Sands. This would be our first time going there too! Too bad we didn't have time to go to the skypark. Would love to see it someday!

And did Vio make a fuss during the wedding dinner?

[caption id="attachment_1899" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Vio & The Chopsticks"][/caption]

Surprisingly not! He was too happy playing with chopsticks and plates and glass, making his own music! In the end, the only toys we gave him was only a book!

Oh... if I haven't mentioned.. there were fondue served while waiting for the reception room to be opened. And.. the strawberry was deliiiciousssss... It was so nice that Vio kept asking for somemore strawberry. I wonder what type of strawberry that is. I seldom eat strawberries that nice :)

Oh, before going home, we took photo of the night view from one of the balcony. It was nice! :)

[caption id="attachment_1900" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Night View from MBS"][/caption]

Merry Christmas!

HO HO HO... Christmas is finally here!! :) It's my favorite time of the year, as everywhere is cheerful and full of joy. The festive spirits are everywhere! :)

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. Here's little Santa giving out goodies to everyone!

[caption id="attachment_1893" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cute Santa"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1894" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Christmas Goodies"][/caption]

A Dream Came True

I'm practically in cloud nine now.

I just got my dream machine! I have been eyeing this machine for much more than a year now. It's a digital cutting machine. Basically it can cut any template/picture you have in your computer. It can even cut fonts already installed in your computer. Imagine! I can cut as many letters as I want to in whatever sizes, without worrying some letters are gonna finish soon! And better still.. It can work together with a printer, to print design using normal printer, and after that cut it using this digital cutter. How cool is that!

[caption id="attachment_1889" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Silhouette SD"][/caption]

Upon hearing there's 1 shop in SG selling at 25% off this month and with some freebies, I was so happy! Too bad it was only for members... But since I was quite active in this scrapbooking forum, surely some of them are members in that shop. True enough, someone nice from the forum (that I never met before) was more than willing to help me get it. So we went down together yesterday and get the machine. That lady is just so nice :)

And my review about this product so far? Once I'm home, I can't wait to install the software and this machine. Luckily Vio was asleep, so I got time to play around with it. And... it was aweeeeeeeeeesssssoooooomeeeee... I love it! Cutting and making boxes are such a breeze. I also tried cutting intricate design small christmas trees, and the cutting was just perfect! All I can say now is that I'm in love.. Hahaa :D

Early Christmas

We've thought about buying a christmas tree for our home this year. But then.. thinking of where to put, and how to keep after that, we decided to wait for 1 more year. Maybe next year we'll finally have our own christmas tree! If we're getting one this year, I can imagine all the "ball" ornament to be rolling all around the house, getting rolled and kicked by Vio everywhere.. Haha..

In the meanwhile, we just have to be satisfied with our own mini christmas tree!

[caption id="attachment_1883" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Mini Christmas Tree"][/caption]

I made it over the weekend, from a free origami website. Quite cute hor? And Vio did help in decorating the christmas tree by pasting the stickers and small pearls all over the christmas tree! Ahem... if you can notice, the xmas tree is a bit slunted.. Oh well that's what happen if you're making something in a rush. Anyway this tree is supposed to be hanged in the ceiling, so a bit slunted should be un-noticeable yeah? :D

And we had an early christmas gift for Vio: a huggable Barney soft toy that can sing "I Love You" song!

[caption id="attachment_1884" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Barney & Me"][/caption]

Vio was so happy when he first saw it and immediately gave it a biiigggg huuuugggg...

[caption id="attachment_1885" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I Love Barney!"][/caption]

Oh well, ok.. actually we already gave him the soft toy 1 week back. But the photo was taken only during the weekend. Hahahaa... In the original first-hug, it was very sincere and Vio have a big smile on his face. While on the above photo's hug, Vio did it because mommy ask him to. Wahahahaa...

And to cheer things up more, Vio wanted to sing "Jingle Bells" song for everybody! Enjoy!

A Bday Party

We went to Allen's 2nd Bday Party last weekend!

The party started at 4pm. So at 4pm, we started waking Vio up from his noon nap (after 2.5 hours of sleeping), just so that we don't reach there so late. Once he's awake, we started preparing and told him that we're going off to Allen's bday party. But.. we forgot to tell him that there will be many people there.

Once reaching the door, Vio seems to be surprised at the no of ppl already inside (though it's not that much), and he refused to come in! Sigh.. we spent a good 5-10 mins just to entice him to enter the house...

[caption id="attachment_1876" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I don't wanna go in.."][/caption]

.. and another 5-10 mins to entice him to sit down with other babies... He seemed overwhelmed by the no of people he's not familiar with. Lesson learnt: for the other birthday party next week, we must tell Vio beforehand that there will be loooooottsss of uncles and aunties there. Haha...

Oh the activity of the day was finger painting! Surprisingly though, unlike other kids, Vio didn't seem interested to do painting at all that day. Though at home he normally looks quite interested. Maybe he still feel "shocked" from meeting many unfamiliar people ya...

[caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Finger Painting"][/caption]

In the end, he mostly play with the balls while painting, instead of doing the painting itself. Haha..

After sometime, Vio started getting used to the ambience and joining other kids in climbing the sofa and staring at the busy happenings outside (read: looking at MRT and buses passing by)

[caption id="attachment_1878" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Playgroup Kids & Teacher"][/caption]

The party was great.. The food was good... and the kids were happy (with the many snacks and goodies distributed in the party).. I hope Vio's bday party will be as merry! :)

[caption id="attachment_1879" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Moms & Babes"][/caption]

Gingerbread Man

One day, Daddy came back home with.... gingerbread man!

[caption id="attachment_1871" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Gingerbread Man"][/caption]

Vio was sooo excited to see that the thing he's been seeing (and hearing) from storybook is actually "real".

[caption id="attachment_1872" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Me & The Gingerbread Man"][/caption]

He kept pestering us to open it, and once opened...

[caption id="attachment_1873" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="How to On This Thing?"][/caption]

... he said "Mommy.. On! On! Press!" Oh wow.. he thought that gingerbread man was actually a toy... I said no, gingerbread man is food, not toy. So we can't press it or "on" it. He seems confused at what I was saying. But well, I didn't wanna explain that we're supposed to eat the gingerbread man, because that time was just minutes before dinner time. If he had eaten the gingerbread man then, we can say bye-bye to his dinner. He won't even touch it!

So, at dinner time, gingerbread man accompany Vio to eat in the dining table. And... it became our dessert!

Vio's expression when he saw Daddy biting the gingerbread man was just... priceless.... He frowned his forehead, looking confused and looked like he pitied the gingerbread man... It's like he's saying "Daddy... Why are you eating the gingerbread man?" At last though, he started joining Daddy eating gingerbread man, though his forehead still frowning, just like saying "Poor gingerbread man... I'm eating you now.."

Finger Painting

Ok I've wanted to do this with Vio at home for a loooonggg time... But scared of the mess it'll get, I never really buy the finger painting set. Until I saw it's on sale in the internet, that is. With my current shopping mood, I decided to buy it for Vio. Anyway, I read that good toys for his age now are puzzles, role-play, play doh, and paint.

[caption id="attachment_1867" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I'm Painting!"][/caption]

At first, Vio was skeptical seeing his fingers getting dirty from the paint. But after sometime, he started to enjoy it! For the next few days, he kept asking mommy to bring the paint out for him to play. And how did he do it? He's singing his normal song, changing the lyrics himself to: "Use your hand.. Use your hand.. Vio vio use your hand.." while pointing to the drawer in which I kept the finger paint! Wow... he's so smart ya...

Heeee.. I hope the artistic side of him will be "awaken" :D

Ps: surprisingly, it wasn't that messy afterall!

The Clean-Freak

On Sunday afternoon, we brought Vio to Jurong Lake Park, and then we see that there's a... rainbow! Wow.. I seldom see rainbows in Singapore... Even though only a little bit, it was worth commemorating :p

[caption id="attachment_1861" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rainbow in Singapore!"][/caption]

And as usual, we walked to the ABC water fountain... That day the timing was just nice. It was on!

[caption id="attachment_1862" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="ABC Water Fountain"][/caption]

And since we haven't brought Vio to play in the playground there for a long time, we decided to bring Vio to play in the sandy playground that day.

As you might have known, Vio is one definite clean-freak. When he went to the sandy playground with his Crocs shoe, he'll stop every 2 to 3 steps to ask us to clean his shoe, because some of the sands went inside his shoe! Tsk tsk.... This round, however, he was wearing his sports shoe, so the sand didn't go inside. But guess what? He walked tip-toe-ing all the way... Coz the sands are "dirty"...

In the playground, we encouraged him to climb the steps, but he hesitated, seeing that the "destination" is full of sands, and he need to put his hand on the "destination" to climb. He keep pointing to his hand that's a little bit covered with sand and say "dirty! dirty!" arrrrggghhh!! We told him that it's ok to get himself dirty in the playground but he still looked hesitated. He even closed his hand in a fist, and point the fist upwards when climbing, so that he didn't dirty his palm with the sands. He's a bit too clean-freak, eh?

[caption id="attachment_1863" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Ahhh I'm touching sands!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1864" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Going Down The Slide"][/caption]

Ok I know being clean have its own advantages (not easy to catch diseases, etc). But I do hope that Vio can stand being dirty once in a while and enjoy playing like other kids in the sandy playground. They will run here and there, climb here and there in the sand without worrying getting themselves dirty.

Maybe (just maybe) he's behaving this way coz we're sheltering him too much? When his hands or other parts of his body get a bit dirty, we'll clean it up directly for him. So maybe he's hoping that his body will always be clean all the time. Hope he knows when too make the right exception! Hehe ;)

A World of Barney!

Undoubtedly Vio's fave character now is Barney! Despite having only 2 Barney movies (and 1 is missing... so left 1 only), Vio's watching it almost everyday.. tsk tsk tsk.. and it's always the same show!

So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw that there will be Barney show in United Square. And the timing was just nice too... Right after the detail scan last Saturday. I told Vio in the morning that we're going to see Barney show that day. And you know what.. during the whole journey (going from home, inside the taxi, while waiting for detail scan.. and also while going inside for the detail scan) Vio kept saying "See Barney! See Barney!".. Wah he so can't wait! Haha..

So after the detail scan, we walked to United Square, reached there around 12:40 pm (the show is supposed to start at 1pm). And woooooowwwwww.... the number of kids already sitting down in front of the stage was amaaaaazzziingggg!! There must be LOADS of Barney's fans in Singapore yeah... The place was so packed that people can't enter into the area already. We quickly find a good place to stand to watch the show. Sadly, all good places were already taken. So we stood on the side, with view to the stage a bit covered by speakers. But that's better than nothing ya ;)

And while waiting for the show to start, we walked around the area and saw loottss of Barney theme items sold there. It's quite rare to see lots of Barney's items at the same time..

[caption id="attachment_1852" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Kissed by Big Barney"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1853" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Can I bring all home?"][/caption]

And then.. the show began...

[caption id="attachment_1854" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Barney & Friends"][/caption]

When first seeing Barney came out, Vio was excited and he screamed "Big Barney!"  However halfway thru the show, he seems to half lost interest in watching. Maybe it's not so comfortable coz he can't sit down and enjoy the show. Daddy must carry him throughout the show.

We also videotaped part of the show. And now, he likes to watch it very much. He'll call out "Big Barney! Big Barney!" again when he watches the show again. Hehee.. I think overall, he quite like the show ;)

Oh and before going home, Vio also posed with picture of Barney & Friends!

[caption id="attachment_1855" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Barney & Me"][/caption]

Week 20 - And.. it's a...

It's been confirmed! The baby is a ..... GIRL!!

[caption id="attachment_1848" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It's A Girl!"][/caption]

Oh I was so happy to see it :) Now I can start buying girlie stuff... cute PINK clothes and accessories... cute socks.. hohoho... Can hardly wait to start looking at them! :D

On the other side, I have forgotten how long we would need to wait for the detail scan (since this is 20th week, we're having detailed scan to see whether the baby's organs are developing normally). I even got quite worried that we won't have time to catch Barney's show in United Square at 1 pm! (since it was already close to 12pm and it still wasn't our turn). Luckily, everything goes smoothly and we still have time to catch Barney's show (but that'll be in another post), though it means that our lunch time will come after the show.. Hehee..

Anyway, the results are all good for the detail scan.. Yay... the baby seems to be developing normally :D

I'm also having relatively high energy lately, as compared to the 1st trimester, even more when compared to the 3rd trimester that's coming soon! And good news is that I have no more buttock pain. Probably that's because I've stopped carrying Vio at all. Except in very urgent cases, and that'll be at most few minutes each time.. :D

Green Tea Macchiato

Today at lunch time, we went to join the queue at Koi Cafe, a famous bubble tea chain from Taiwan. I was so sure I want to order Oolong Tea, right until I'm standing in front of the cashier.

I saw they have big banner of their new drink launching: Green Tea Macchiato and Black Tea Macchiato. Wow, the name surely sound nice, and so does the picture! Without much thinking, I decided to give it a try. I always wonder what does "Macchiato" means anyway..

Apparently the tea comes without bubble, and I'm not supposed to mix them up or drink it with a straw. They provided me with something to cut open the lid, and then I'm supposed to drink from the cup directly.

First taste... CREAM.. wow I'm drinking pure cream! After sometime, I can start to taste the green tea (which was nice). But mixture of green tea and cream? Hmmm.. I don't really think they go along well together.

Well then, I suppose next visit to Koi Cafe, it'll be the good old Oolong Tea/Milk Tea again ;)

An Old Friend

An old friend of us was on transit here in Singapore before going back Indonesia. We had a dinner with him in Jurong Point! I guess we haven't seen him for more than 1 year liao. An amazing thing is that.. he doesn't change at all!

[caption id="attachment_1839" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Attendees Part I"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1840" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Attendees Part II"][/caption]

We sure hope that we'll see him again, hopefully in Australia (since he's staying there now)! Haha..

We didn't chat with him for too long, as we need to catch our Harry Potter show! Yay.. been a while since I last step into a cinema (the last one being "Inception"). We bought yummy yummy popcorn, and managed to finish the big box throughout the movie. Ah well, I think it'll be long time before I can eat popcorn again.. hahaa..

And here's a rare photo of 2 of us in front of xmas tree decorated with Precious Moments (rare as in: Vio is not in the photo with us, as he was busy eating his papaya). Isn't it beautiful ;)

[caption id="attachment_1841" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Just Us"][/caption]