Back from Shanghai! Happy New Year!!!

We are back from Shanghai. It was cold there. Didn't do a lot of sightseeing, only Jinmao tower, Waitan, Qipulu party cos of the weather and partly because I had blocked duct so couldn't stay out for more than 4 hours at one shot as I need to pump. But we did manage to make a day trip to Hangzhou, Xihu, I borrowed my cousin Shirley's battery operated pump. But it's not the best season to appreciate the scenery cos it was cold and misty. Shopping at Shanghai was disappointing as it's all winter wear now but we did manage to get a skirt and pyjamas set for RaeAnne at Qi pu lu. Had to buy a lot of 'tu can' at West Lake if not there'll be no souvenirs for my relatives and dept colleagues. :P

We chose to come back from Shanghai today so that we can spend New Year's Eve with RaeAnne. My brother was very nice and brought RaeAnne, Wai po and Nai Nai to the airport so that we can see our darling sooner. :) She was a bit aloof at the airport, didn't seem excited to see mummy and Daddy. Must be due to the 5 days absence. According to Nai Nai, she slept through from 11+pm to 8+am today after ye ye fed FM last night at 10+pm. BF her at 9pm and she slept around 10pm. :)

P.S. It was a good thing that we did not bring RaeAnne to Shanghai. It's really too cold there, just found out that my cousin's 3 year old gal has just fallen sick there. Flu, fever and ulcers, poor gal. Hope she gets well soon.

RaeAnne's first Xmas!

Merry Xmas! It's Xmas Eve today but the wettest one I ever remember. It rained for the whole day since the wee hours of the morning and the rain didn't stop until 9+pm. Luckily Mummy is on half day today so that made up for it. Daddy spent the morning and made a nice Xmas lunch for Mummy. There's salad, roast chicken (turkey wannabe) and bread. Technically, Daddy only made the salad since the rest were store bought but it's the effort that counts. Mua Mua Mua. :)

It's RaeAnne's first Xmas. Since our little darling cannot stay up so late for Santa Claus or it will be way past her bedtime. We let her open her Xmas presents right away when we came back from Nai Nai house at 8+pm.

Maybe she's a bit sleepy and tired. According to Nai Nai, she didn't nap at all past 10am so her reaction at seeing the presents were quite mild. She only smiled when she saw the big milk bottle. Maybe next year, she'll be eyeing her presents under the Xmas tree and will open them herself. ;)

RaeAnne's 11 Month (+1 day) Photo

As promised, this is RaeAnne's 11 month photo. Taken shortly after her dinner of porridge. :)












Brought her for some shopping at the NTUC at nearby Community Centre. :)

RaeAnne is 11 months old today!!!

RaeAnne is 11 months today. Just one more month to your birthday! :)

Milestones at 11mths

- 8.2kg and 71cm long
- Cruising quite well
- Can stand quite confidently with just one hand support or by leaning her weight on something. Stands occasionally for a few seconds
- Points where she wants us to go
- Can imitate gesture for 'bye bye', 'french kiss', 'exercise', 'no more'. Still learning to do 'gong xi gong xi'. Very impt for CNY.
- Recognises her name "RaeAnne", "Gal Gal" and "Hui Hui"(but sometimes take a while to acknowledge it if she is engrossed)
Qihui (still getting used to it)
Kay Ris (still a lost cause cos nobody calls her that)
- Recognises 'No' and 'Cannot' - will pout and whine when we stop her from putting things into her mouth. Will even cry and scream if the forbidden toy is taken away from her :P
- Separation anxiety especially during Mummy's nan nan time. But quite ok to leave the house without Mummy or stay with ye ye and Nai Nai while Mummy & Daddy go out.
- Can drink from straw, will chew on it if not thirsty.
- Self feeding, still far from it except stick biscuits. Too pampered by ye ye, nai nai and Daddy who feeds her all the time.
- Potty training, just started. Mummy bought a new 'simple' potty yesterday. The fisher price potty was too high tech for Ye ye and nai nai.
- Favourite words - Apple and Ba ba ba and Ah Ba.
- Favourite foods - Frisocrem cereal (tastes like horlicks), porridge and Apple (but must be sweet), rice, sweet fruits and whatever else Daddy and Mummy are eating (she'll stare intently at our food and her mouth will move as if she is tasting it)
- Favourite toys - Apple shirt, Apple toy, toys that make noise. She will hold it firmly if it's a new toy/object. Once she tires of it, she will throw away and look around for it. If she sees it, will make noise and point at it.

Mummy remembered at work that RaeAnne is 11 months today, must take photo but forgot after reaching ILs place. Too many things on my mind. Daddy is feeling under the weather and sleepy from the medicine he took so he also forgot. By the time, Mummy remembered again, it was nearly 11pm and you have already fallen asleep. Took a photo of her sleeping instead. Sorry darling, Mummy & Daddy'll take another one tomorrow to make up for it ya. For the record, you look beautiful both awake and asleep. :)

Kisses

Today, when we were at my mum's place, I was holding RaeAnne in a standing position on the sofa when she leaned forward and kissed my nose. Was surprised, and said, Darling you kissing Mummy ah? Wondering if she was trying to kiss something else and accidentally kiss me instead. But she did it two more times, almost looked as if she was aiming for my lips too. Haha, Mummy has been showering kisses on RaeAnne all this while, usually on her cheeks and forehead and hands. Can't wait for her to reciprocate and give Mummy and Daddy big kisses too. :)

RaeAnne could almost stand at Wai po's house today. She was playing with her toys and leaning on the bamboo chair but she will let go at sides when she is engrossed. Maybe she can really stand soon. :)

RaeAnne at Singapore Flyer!

Decided to bring RaeAnne to Singapore Flyer today because the discounted tickets I bought from our company union is expiring on 31 Dec 08. And we'll be in Shanghai from 27 Dec - 31 Dec. Asked ILs to go with us but only MIL was keen. Our tickets were at 1130am and we reached there at 1115am despite our best efforts to be early. Mummy got up at 730pm to cook porridge for RaeAnne.

Luckily, there were seats but unfortunately, we couldn't have a cabin to ourselves but it was still ok. Took some photos of RaeAnne in the cabin and at the Flyer mall. :)

RaeAnne at Singapore Flyer, so difficult to get her to smile cos she was so curious about the other passengers and the xmas decorations hanging at the ceiling. :P

Pensive Sir stamford raffles look with Nai Nai

Father & daughter having fun at Singapore Flyer.

Still monkeying around after the ride.

P.S. RaeAnne slept from 12+am - 6+am on Thurs night and 1am - 7am last night. Mummy and Daddy are surprised. Hope this trend lasts. :)

Carter's Warehouse Sale

Went to the Carter's warehouse sale at 43 Tampines Street 92 behind Tampines Safra after work since so near to my workplace. Bought quite a lot of clothes for RaeAnne. All for less than $50! Shop Bao4 chou2 since I didn't get to shop at all in HK. :)

RaeAnne played happily with Ye Ye today and hubby managed to capture it on video. :)

RaeAnne also went for her second flu jab at PD today. Hubby went with MIL in afternoon cos we didn't want to bring her in the evening when she'll be cranky. :P She is 8.3kg and 71cm long. She cried when the nurse held her for the jab. Looks like so far only the 3rd 6-in-1 jab which I missed, she didn't cry. :P


RaeAnne started saying 'ba ba ba' today. The other day, MIL said she called 'bo bo bo' for BIL. Looks like she's calling everyone except me, gal gal, Mummy jealous liao. :/

Happy Anniversary! Part 2

Happy Anniversary!!

Yes, it could have been better planned... :(
It was all Piggy Daddy's fault for taking things for granted...
Sorry Piggy Mummy for disappointing you...

Happy anniversary!

Today is our ROM wedding anniversary. Seemed like so long ago when we ROM at Sentosa on 16 Dec 2004, four years ago but it's our first ROM anniversary as parents. Took leave today, wanted to spend some quality time together as a couple without RaeAnne. For once, didnt' want to interfere or hint hubby about the celebration. It's the fourth anniversary after all, he should know my expectations. Was pleasantly surprised, when hubby gave me a cute looking neck massager that I can use while pumping past midnight. I hadn't prepared his present yet cos I bought a laptop for him last month while he bought me the N85 hp.

Upon hearing that I'm on leave last night, MIL said she wanted to go market and asked us to bring the baby over this morning instead of them coming over. RaeAnne was cranky last night, she slept at 11+pm (don't know if it's because we brought her to Century square to buy her Mag Mag stage 3 straw at 8+pm). She woke up many times in the night so hubby and I were exhausted. It was 10am when hubby brought her over to MIL's house while I continued to catch up on sleep, waiting for him to come back and wake me.

By the time, I woke up again, it was already 12 noon and hubby was not in. He had just come back from MIL place cos he forgot to bring the mag mag straw when he went over at 10am so he made another trip. Was a bit upset that it's already lunch time and I haven't pumped, how to go out for lunch like that. Saw LC yesterday due to blockage so including massaging and pumping, we left home at 1+pm. It was too late for the lunch buffet which hubby promised. So he said we'll play by ear and go for buffet dinner instead. He suggested lunch at Jacobs cafe but I wasn't keen cos Changi Village is so near home, feel that we can go there anytime. Instead I suggested Marche, vivocity cos restaurants that need long car rides have been out when we are with RaeAnne.

We had salad, pizza, pork knuckle and root beer. Hubby was keen on dessert but he wanted to save his stomach for the buffet dinner. We shopped around after lunch at Daiso, Page one, precious thots and Mini toons. We bought a Xmas present for RaeAnne at Mini toons. We have finally bought a Xmas tree on Thurs night and wanted to put presents under the tree. Hubby also went to Music Junction to look around, felt bad that I didn't give him anything today so I bought him a DVD as a present.

By that time, it was already 5pm and I needed to come home to pump again. Logistically, it was not possible to go out again for buffet dinner because we won't be able to rush back by RaeAnne's feeding time which is 7+ to 8+pm. So hubby called back to ask ILs to cook our dinner while we set up the Xmas tree with lights and decorations. Brought RaeAnne to walk walk at Tampines Park before walking home.

Thought she will be happy to see the Xmas tree, even had the video cam ready but she wasn't interested at all. Maybe because the Xmas tree had just the lights and no music or she's too wary of it. She was more interested in the musical greeting card we bought from Page One, though she was a bit scared when I suddenly opened the card and music came out. :P Nursed her many times, before she finally fell asleep at 10.45pm. Hubby fell asleep even before RaeAnne.


It's a first time our ROM wedding anniversary dinner was not at some hotel or overseas. Instead it was hakka yong tau foo that MIL made. Can't say it was romantic. Guess that's the difference after we become parents. Though I think we could have celebrated our ROM anniversary and relived our usual celebrations if there was proper planning from the start, instead of leaving everything last minute and lassiez flaire. Lesson learnt, Sigh.

Baby Gathering at Pasir Ris

The Piggy family went to a Baby Gathering today!

It was raining the whole day but thankfully the sky cleared in the late afternoon so we made our way to Pasir Ris for the gathering hosted by Lyn, Jan08 mummy.

We were a bit late and most of the people were already there and enjoying themselves. This time, we bought pastries from Prima Deli instead of making the usual salad.The babies were playing and 'socialising' happily on the mat and RaeAnne soon joined them. But RaeAnne was very shy and kept to herself most of the time. It was only after a while that she warmed up a little and starting playing and making noise. But even then, RaeAnne didn't play with the other kids nor the other adults. Unlike some other babies who were trying to engage and attract the attention of Piggy mummy especially when she was trying to feed RaeAnne her porridge.

Think RaeAnne is not used to socializing because she seldom go out especially on weekdays when she is looked after by ye ye and nai nai. Also, when Daddy and Mummy bring her out on weekends, it's always to Wai po house and she doesn't get to interact with other babies nor strangers. Since it's been difficult to convince Ye ye and nai nai to bring RaeAnne out, maybe it's time to look out for some enrichment classes for RaeAnne on weekends.

Here's RaeAnne playing with herself.


Warming up a little...


The Group Shot!

RaeAnne Fell from Bed...

Poor RaeAnne fell from bed the second time today.
Daddy Piggy feels very guilty. Happened so fast that Daddy Piggy had no time to react. Poor RaeAnne cried so loudly and pitifully after that. Had to take Mummy Piggy's sayang sayang to calm her down...

RaeAnne is sleeping soundly now after drinking milk. Hope she has a gd night sleep and wakes up happy tomorrow and has no 'ba lu ku'.

Good night! :)

RaeAnne can drink from Straw!!!

Wanted to train RaeAnne to drink from straw for the longest time. When I tried giving her the Mag Mag cup with stage 3 straw when she was 8-9 months old, she didn't know how to suck the water up. See her so kelian so change back to stage 2 spout. Ever since then, we didn't try again. Was motivated when I read that a Feb 08 baby can drink from straw so last night brought some cheap plastic straws to MIL house and ask her to cut into two and train RaeAnne. Today when I went after work, she told me RaeAnne immediately knows how to drink from straw, no need to train at all. Faint! When I got back, I upgraded her Mag Mag to stage 3 straw and true enough she's happily sucking the water. I still have 2 Avent trainer cups who were bought and not used. Looks like got to sell or give away liao. :P

Oh ya, RaeAnne has been shaking her head since 2 weeks ago. Wonder where she learn it from. But she'll shake her head from time to time, quite funny to see her do it actually. ;)

Back from HK trip. :)

RaeAnne has made her maiden journey to Hong Kong and back. :) Super drama man, reached airport on Sat one hour early cos already contacted customer service to book seats on Friday. End up the 11+am flight was overbooked and they bumped us off to next flight with compensation (SGD197, USD$75 onboard shopping voucher and $15 lunch voucher per pax). Was a nightmare cos next flight was 4:25pm, 5hours away.

The aunties were not keen to travel back home, end up got to come back to airport again so my poor RaeAnne had to eat and sleep at Billy Bentley pub at T1 cos that was the only place with a couch. We reached our hotel only at 11pm and I only got to sleep at 130am cos had to nurse RaeAnne and she had difficulty falling asleep that night. Probably new environment and after the drama at airport. Didn't put my baby in the bassinet in the end cos only 1 seat was available and don't want to sit alone with baby. Anyway, the check in staff said bassinet is more for babies below 6 months. If baby more than 12 kg, may not be suitable. My baby haven't hit 10kg but I think she'll attempt to crawl out of the bassinet. But very tiring when baby wants to sleep lor. Got to hold her while eating my airplane food, juggling act. :P Weather was cool and dry there. A bit cold on Sunday but Mon and Tues were ok. Hotel was not fantastic, walls too thin but it's clean and they lent me a baby cot which was very useful for RaeAnne to stand. The room had only twin beds so I had to sleep with RaeAnne cos I had to wake up and feed her in the middle of the night.



We went on city tour on Sun morning and went to Causeway Bay to pray. Disneyland tour was on Monday and it was a very sunny day. We were not seen anywhere without an umbrella at the aunties' insistence. We spent more time at Fantasyland where RaeAnne went on the carousel and the teacup rides. Our little gal enjoyed herself.





We went shopping at Harbourcity but didn't buy much but Xmas decorations and the view at Star Ferry was nice. Pity we didn't manage to meet Mylife, Jan MTB, at HK. Was at Elements waiting for her to call but she was busy with the baby. Couldn't wait indefinitely with the whole kampung who were waiting for me to go to Harbour city. Poor hubby didn't get to go to HMV to buy his DVD though it was only 100 metres away.



Nursing and baby rooms are sorely lacking in HK. Better off wearing diaper pants for babies, at least easier to take off and replace. Elements shopping mall has a very nice baby room with 3 changing areas and even 1 cubicle that can be locked for breastfeeding. Too bad not all shopping malls got same standard. At the airport, I had to BF RaeAnne in the toilet, couldn't find the baby room anywhere. :/ The aunties were very helpful during the trip to bathe and feed RaeAnne. Brought milk powder, cereal, Heinz jar food, pigeon baby porridge to HK. End up she only take BM and fresh porridge which 2nd aunty made every morning. Overall, it was a good trip cos I had a lot of family support though I came back with a headache and sore throat due to not drinking enough water in the dry weather and lack of sleep. :)

Special request from the Feb mummies. Packing list for RaeAnne's trip. Don't faint, it's a long list cos I wasn't sure what she'll need so this kiasu mummy brought everything. ;P

Things to bring Diaper bag
1. 1 cardigan/jacket
2. 1 extra set of clothes in ziplock bag (top, bottom, socks)
3. 1 pair of long socks
4. Diapers (day & night)
5. 2 Diaper pants
6. 1 Bib
7. Tiger Hot water flask
8. Milk powder dispenser (tiered)
9. Pigeon mag mag bottle
10. Pigeon feeding bowl with spoon
11. Extra baby cutlery set
12. Pink thermos food jar
13. Baby biscuits
14. Bottle warmer with 1 clean milk bottle inside
15. Small wet baby towel in ziplock bag
16. 1-2 toys (cloth book and toy camera)
17. Baby medicine (eg. Panadol syrup, forehead plaster, what else?)
18. Baby bjorn carrier
19. Clean cloth diaper
20. Baby hat

Baby luggage Bag
1. Electric bottle warmer? (didn't bring in the end)
2. Bottle brush? (didn't bring in the end, but would have been useful )
3. Sponge in ziplock bag
4. 1 hat
5. Hair clips (didn't bring in the end)
6. Baby Bottle detergent
7. Baby clothes liquid detergent
8. Milk powder (put in lock & lock airtight container with spoon)
9. Baby cereal (bring whole tin or put in lock & lock container with spoon)
10. Pigeon porridge/baby food/jar food
11. 1 extra milk bottle
12. Extra bibs
13. Extra diapers (day & night)/diaper pants
14. Extra tissue/wet wipes
15. Baby clothes (long sleeves, rompers, pyjamas, long socks etc)
16. 4 Baby face towel (2 for feeding, 2 for bathing)
17. Non slip bath mat (small) (forgot to bring in the end)
18. Ruyi oil
19. Baby lotion
20. Baby shampoo
21. Baby comb
22. Baby shower gel
23. Baby bath towel
24. Baby waterproof changing mat?
25. Mosquito repellent lotion?
26. Plastic container (use as water scoop?)
27. Tiger thermos food jar? (can cook porridge in short time, didn't bring in the end)
28. Travel kettle
29. Ear thermometer
30. Something familiar for bed time? Pillow? Soft toy?
31. Bedtime zipper sack
32. Breast pump (mini electric plus cos it's most portable)
33. Stroller? (didn't bring in the end)

Swimming on Sunday

RaeAnne went for a swim on Sunday. Ok ok, she didn't really swim. Mommy piggy held her and she was happily splashing and playing with the water. Unfortunately, the session was a short one as dark clouds soon brought rain and we had to quickly scurru to Nai Nai's place to take shelter and allow RaeAnne to be bathed. V good experience for her!!