Toy R Us Warehouse sale

Went to Downtown East for the Toy R Us warehouse sale, today is preview sale for NTUC members, Toy R Us cardmembers and HSBC cardmembers. We went there at 7+pm. RaeAnne was uncooperative, refuse to finish her dinner so this time we brought Mei Mei. In hindsight, should have left Mei Mei behind too cos she was sleepy after her bath, milk feed and dinner. Poor gal dozed off midway while we shop for toys.

Was really tempted by the Little Tikes playhouse that was displayed on stage which was on 60% off. But I checked inside and there was no sink nor cooking set unlike the Little Tikes Country Cottage playhouse that she loved at Sol cafe in Mar this year. Obviously, it was a steal at $419 cos all the units were sold out except the display unit and the display unit got sold off just 15mins after they made the announcement of it being 60% off. Wanted to get the Little Tikes activity gym with a wavy slide but hubby said no to slides cos he's afraid RaeAnne will jump off and injure herself. :P

Anyway, got a Little Tikes golf set, a post office/shop playtent, a Dora backpack, a loops game and 2 musical stuffed toys for the gals. Total damage: $97.40. A lot of good stuff were sold out but some Jan10 mummies managed to grab good buys at additional 30% off. The toys are mainly for RaeAnne cos Mei Mei is still mouthing everything so it's hard to find toys that are non felt/furry, not metal, no small parts, waterproof, washable and non toxic. Think her teether and plastic shapes are the safest for now. :P

今天不回家。。。

It's been a long time since RaeAnne stayed over at Nai Nai's house but Nai Nai asked her not to go to school today so that she can rest more and stay out of air con. Then tonight when hubby went over to bring her home, Nai Nai said keep her here and don't go to school again tomorrow. oh well, hubby has tons to mark and Nai Nai is happy to look after her, so why not? We will bring her back tom night. :)

A great dame passes...

Today, the wife of Singapore's First Prime Minister, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew passed away at age 89. There goes a great woman, a devoted wife and mother. She has 61 years of love from a man who does not appear to be sentimental or romantic but spent the last 2 years reading poems and stories to his wife who could not speak after a series of strokes. She found love that spans 61 years through sickness and health. What a lucky woman. I wish the same for myself and my daughters. :)

'To love, to hold and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part. 执子之手与子偕老。有情如此，夫复何求。 Rest in peace, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew (Mdm Kwa Geok Choo).

Photo credits: Yahoo Singapore, Fit to Post Blog, Associated Press

Raelynn is 10 months old - A Bumper Crop of Video clips :)

My honey Raelynn is 10 months old today. Honey and not darling cos 'darling' title belongs to RaeAnne. I told her I will call Mei Mei 'Honey' to avoid confusion and she supports my decision. At Nai Nai place, Nai Nai used to call her Girl or Girl Girl but now Girl and Girl Girl also refers to Mei Mei so sometimes she is disappointed when she turns around and realises that Nai Nai is not calling her. :P

Anyway, my Honey Raelynn is so sweet that she keeps puckering up for a kiss. Wonder where she learn that from, but it's already making dear Daddy worried. A fellow Feb08mummy's 2.5 year old gal has already given her first kiss to a little boy in school and her daddy is pulling out all the guns. Haha.

Forgot to measure her height and weight yet cos we went out and was too busy running after the 2 gals. Will do that tomorrow.

P.S. Raelynn is 69cm and 8.3kg (no weight gain since last month, sigh).

I have a 4 months backlog of video clips to be edited and uploaded. Super tedious but it's finally done. For the record, I finished this post at only 2.43am. Duh...

But watching and seeing how much she has grown since 6 months old, PRICELESS! :)













part 1


part 2


part 3



P.S. In case anyone is wondering, I finished the last puff too. 7 puffs were devoured in the process of making this short video clip. No, no , no.... I am not greedy, I just don't like to waste food. Like Daddy... ;)

RaeAnne is 32 months

Wanted to post this before midnight but too stoned from my cough syrup. She is now 12.2kg and 92.5 cm tall. She can talk very well and often makes us laugh with what she says.

Eg. Today, I offered hubby a nin jiom sweet cos he is coughing but he refused. RaeAnne witnessed it and said the following:
R: Daddy want to eat sweet?
M: No, Daddy don't want.
R: Why Daddy don't want to eat sweet?
M: I don't know, you go and ask Daddy lar.
R (turns to Daddy): Daddy, why you don't want to eat sweet. You must eat la4la4 sweet you know. You coughing...

Yesterday, hubby allowed her to feed him medicine (GNC echinacea capsules)
D: One enough
R: Why? (already holding another capsule in her hand)
D: Daddy not very sick
R: No, Daddy, you very sick, must take two.

Me, hubby and RaeAnne are all coughing. :( She already saw GP twice so last night, we brought her to Tampines interchange Nam Hua TCM and we had to wait from 730pm - 10pm before we got to see the sinseh. Duh... RaeAnne doesn't like the cough syrup as much, she said 苦苦. Had to coax her to take it. But hope it will clear her phelgm soon.

Brought the gals to Tampines Central Park for Mid Autumn Festival. It was much better organised than the last one I attended. Maybe cos they had VIP (MP for Tampines GRC). Anyway, RaeAnne liked the popcorn very much but only gave her a little bit this time as she is coughing. Raelynn is very cute, when she heard the line dance music (stage performance), she started tapping her hand against her chest (打拍子). Very cute to watch. It is as if she can't help herself. We noticed this about her many times, think this gal is more aware of music and rhythm than her Cheh Cheh. She enjoys banging on the toy piano and can play much longer than RaeAnne who can never sit at the piano for more than 1 min. :)

Lantern festival celebration

We bought tickets to our RC (Residents Committee)'s Lantern Festival cos RaeAnne's classmate's (Jiahuan Cheh Cheh) Ah Ma offered to help us buy tickets. Last year we went to the one organised by Tampines Central CC. The goodie bag was good with 1 pomelo, 1 lantern, 1 pack of popcorn and food/game/kiddie stalls and a huge stage with singing/dancing at the Tampines Central park. We were quite impressed so thought it's good to go again with the 2 gals and invite MIL along.

The RC understandably had a smaller budget but what a world of difference in terms of the food, prog and goodie bag. Although food and drinks were included, it was not individual portions and when we went down at 8pm (the celebration started at 7pm), the 'aunties' were already rationing the obviously home cooked food from their 'food pails'. Eg. if you wanted fried mee siam, you only got to have another dessert (cheng tng). If you chose the fried rice (they don't give you the braised chicken, you had to ask for it). There was curry vegetables but the aunty was guarding it like her treasure and only gave us a small bowl to share among 3 adults (and I suspect only because we know Jiahuan's ah ma, her neighbour).

There was no stage, no stage activity, no emcee, no mike, only a lion dance gig at the badminton court doing its own thing. There was pomelo but they were broken into individual wedges and place on a huge traditional wedding ceremonial metal plate. I dread to think who peeled them and whether the person had handled the fruit hygienically. Houseflies were flying near the food and the fruits were uncovered despite the aunties 'guarding' at the food table. Strangely, the aunties were unperturbed by the flies buzzing around. Even my Filipino maid is more paranoid about houseflies than them.

Did we eat the food? Yes, we did cos we had no back up dinner plan and I didn't know ILs did not cook nor feed RaeAnne (even though I told MIL that the kids will eat before we go for the event, I only bought tickets for the adults). So, she had to eat the fried rice along with everyone else. Actually, the food tasted not bad. But hopefully no after effects. So paiseh to have asked MIL along cos the organisation/food portions was bad. Everyone was just eating at the Senior Citizen corner quickly than going home.

Actually, I cooked a lot the last 2 days. Last night, we had beggar chicken (steamed 1 whole chicken, gave ILs half a chicken and my mum a portion). This morning, I cooked half a rice cooker worth of yam rice and gave most of it to ILs cos hubby and I were going out. If I had known, I would have kept aside some yam rice and gave it to RaeAnne. Hubby and I were still hungry after we came back and we already made plans for instant noodles. :P

In hindsight, I will only go for the big community events with bigger budgets eg. national day dinners or else prepare our own food instead of worrying that RaeAnne will get a tummyache and getting our stomachs half filled. RaeAnne was bored so we just took a few photos and quickly came home. But at least she got to play with sparklers this year. Didn't allow her to play with them yet last year cos of the sparks and fumes.

Fish & chips, potato leek soup

RaeAnne told me this morning that she 'want to go Nai Nai house after school', 'Nai Nai say will bring me one' (please forgive the bad Singlish). Must be because MIL came to visit yesterday to bring us some bread and kiwi. I am secretly glad to have a mid week break away from her so I called MIL who agreed to pick her up after school.

So, I got to meet up with XY, a second time Feb09 Mummy and her 2 month old baby gal Cammie. :) We had one for one lunch deal at Swensons and both of us ordered baked rice. BFing mummies are especially hungry. Haha.

Since RaeAnne is not home for dinner, took the opportunity to cook Fish & chips today. All the deep fried food that is not suitable for RaeAnne and taking up space in my already cramped freezer compartment. Needed a soup to go with the western meal so I decided to try making potato and leek soup cos I had a lot of potato and leek at home. I took charge of the soup since it's a new online recipe and the maid doesn't know how to cook it while the maid fried the french fries and NTUC tempura fish fillets. :)

Hubby said it looks si4 mo2, si4 yang4. So, how's the taste? I will leave him to comment since he said he reads our blog. ;)

After dinner, picked RaeAnne up and sent MIL for her karaoke session at Bedok and went with RaeAnne to Tampines Interchange cos there was a pasar malam and Uncle Ringo theme park rides. RaeAnne wanted to sit on the boat ride. She made a brave attempt to hand paddle the boat but she was too young to steer. A well meaning aunty looking on commented that she is too young and told us to just move the boat along the side of the pool instead of letting her steer in case she stands up and falls into the water. So, that was that. Daddy was spooked enough to bring her out of the water. Luckily it was just a trial run cos no one was around to collect $3 for the short 1 minute 'ride'. She didn't want to go for any rides and was happy to sit in the 'unmoving' train. In fact, she said she want the train not to move. Duh... Not a very adventurous little gal. :P

Bought a dress for Mei Mei for my cousin's wedding and her birthday party in Dec. Kiddy palace was out of size L (up to 10kg, 80cm) so I ask them to order & reserve for me in the early afternoon and they were very prompt. Asked me to collect by evening time. Daddy joked that Raelynn is getting married cos it was way too long for her. Deliberately not including the pic of the dress so that it won't spoil the surprise for our guests.

Looks like I got to stick to Size M (up to 8kg, 70cm) though Mei Mei has already exceeded the weight limit (she is 8.425kg 2 weeks ago). Cos Mei Mei is only 67cm and I don't think she will sprout by another 10cm in 2 months time. But I'm afraid the chest area will be too tight. Duh... so difficult to find clothes for her. :P I'm tempted to make 'Strawberry Shortcake' the theme for her 1st birthday party but hubby protested that I'm 'cursing' her. Touche! ;P

Independent Raelynn...

Raelynn has been cruising more and more. She can 'walk across' from the kitchen sliding door to our fridge though they are about 40cm apart. Standing, holding both arms above her head, then jumping is her favourite activity. She can stand quite well now (about 1 minute before squatting down). She is also trying to walk by holding her hands apart but she tumbles after taking just 1 step. It is difficult for me to remember that she is not even 9.5 months old yet. Why are my 2 gals so different in terms of development? :P

RaeLynn tried mashed peach last Mon (courtesy of my cousin Julie who brought the peach all the way back from Japan), she loves it. Let her try mashed banana on Saturday (cos yeye cooked the porridge too watery and she was still hungy). She loves it too. Decided to buy a punnet of fresh small sweet prunes from NTUC. Hope she likes it too. :)

Mummy's HP

Mummy left her HP at Ah Ma's place today. When RaeAnne heard this, she offered to help.

RaeAnne: Me go and take HP for Mummy.
Daddy: You know how to go to Ah Ma's place?
RaeAnne nodded her head.
Daddy: How?
RaeAnne: Daddy drive to Ah Ma's place. Me sit in Daddy car.
Daddy: ...

Barney Space Adventures

Brought RaeAnne to her first stage performance today - Barney Space Adventures. She was super grouchy when we rushed for the 5pm show cos we were all tired after visiting my 2nd aunt and wake up late from our afternoon nap. RaeAnne refused to change nor pee. And we were so rushed that we brought RaeAnne out in her T shirt and panties and just put on her osh kosh overalls in the car. Luckily her mood improved in the car and she got a bit excited when I pointed the numerous kids walking from the carpark going for the Barney show like her.

She was more interested in the Barney popcorn than Barney. Think the show too 'cheem' for her plus she's not a big Barney fan, refuse to clap or dance. Maybe cos she's too young? I only recognise the Barney 'I Love you' song. Luckily, I only bought the second cheapest $38 tickets (before 20% discount).:P But at least she didn't cry and was guai guai for the whole 1.5 hrs show (with the help of the popcorn). I think she may be ready for the first movie soon. Haha.

After that, we went to our favourite Jap buffet restaurant Momoya for dinner cos Expo was too crowded and Tampines was too boring. RaeAnne dines free so it was easy for us to just order for her without thinking too much. She loves chawanmushi and had lots. :) But hubby was busy feeding her and we were a bit full from eating half of the big tub of popcorn so didn't eat as much as usual. :P