Today Tomorrow

30 Mar

Woke up to beautiful weather. And after secretly grumbling about how I felt "cheated" of my 1-hour sleep due to Daylight Saving Time, we ended up leaving the house at 1130am for quick grocery shopping (2 hours to chinese gorcery shop and tesco).Today is also officially British Summer time (but wait a minute, what happened to spring??).


Lunch was postponed from 12pm, to 1.15pm, to 2.30pm. We arrived right on time at Gold Mine for the duck I've been looking forward to the whole week! SIL Alicia arrived 10mins later. After lunch, we headed to Whiteley's for a quick look-around. I even managed to grab something from H&M.


Headed over to her place. She was cooking Hainanese Chicken Rice (it's authentic because we are hainanese) for us tonight. Teehee! I had a haircut appointment at 430pm near her place and Etsuko, the hairstylist did a great job too! Alicia's chicken rice is da bomb!! (Besides my grandma's hainanese chicken rice) I asked her for recipe but she mumbled about "just put alot of ginger and garlic". Hmmm... somehow I don't think it's as easy as she described. Her rice is infused with the aroma of ginger, garlic and spring onions and one mouthful of it is "like eating nectar from the heavens" (*). I think she is keeping the recipe a secret. Hubs thinks she should cook it every fortnight for us - I agree. If only Alicia will buy into it too.

My haircut

BEFORE

AFTER

After dinner, she asked if we wanted dessert. (If you know me, you'd know it's pointless to ask - OF COURSE, BRING IT ON!) She then brought out a box - inside of it was, as I was about to find out - the birthday cake! Awww, I'm so touched. She has taken great lengths to buy it, looking at Selfridges first, and then Harrods and a few more before finding the right one at Fortnum and Mason. She described the cake but my mind was not there, I only heard it's got mascarpone cream and blueberries. Whatever, it was delicious and did not disappoint!

(My smallest (and probably the most expensive) birthday cake; 3 is a very big number?)

Anyway, tomorrow will be my official day of turning the big 30. I am not prepared for it. It feels like I'm stuck in a time-warp, wanting to forever stay 23! I remember when I was fresh out of uni and first started work, I permed my hair to look more "mature" (to look 30)... and then now, at 29/30, I've still got my hair permed. I think it's time for me to change my hairstyle so I can look 23. :)


31 Mar

Also, I've decided to change the header/banner of TsuLin ++ to incorporate what this blog is about - the life of SW! Thanks again Praveen for the birthday gift (my domain name).


(I actually wanted to write something really witty and funny about turning 30. But it's late and I had a long day and yeah, it's probably only an excuse ;P)

(*) : from Fluff-friends feed descriptions.

PS : Those of you in M'sia, please turn on your tv-s and watch Yvonne Foong talks about Neurofibromatosis. Please support this brave young woman's cause.
(Click on image to get more details!)

Spring is here..

SPRING was brought into our home by these lovelies

Mini roses in a pot

This was delivered early Saturday morning, as I was coincidentally chatting with SK on MSN! I love it! Thanks a bunch ML, SK and baby Tobey! (I have a feeling John Lewis is their ultimate shopping place)


Shean Wenn kept wanting to touch them when I was trying to take a photo of it. All photos, btw, were taken with my spanking new SE K850i - 5Megapixel cameraphone. But really ugly fugly exterior, and somehow I find the phone not as user-friendly as the previous SE's I've had. Well, we'll see, I can always go for the Samsung 5MP phone....

Lounger?

She seems like she's just lounging around the house having a laidback time playing. In reality, she was screaming for me because she got trapped under the chair just minutes before I took this photo (I was too slow with the camera). She must've been up to some mischief - my guess is she was trying to fiddle with mommy's bag.

She's 9 Months Old!

June 24th 2007 was 9 months ago... how time flies! Seems just only a week ago that I was in labour pain and trying to push her out of my system :) (And what a long labour it has been!)

(Shean Wenn and I at home)

SPEECH DEVELOPMENT

("Mommy, where are you bringing my food?")

She develops at a rate where I am trying to keep up. One day she loves reading, the next she just wants to babble and listen to me talk.

These days, her vocab consists of bababababa/dadada, mamama, mom-mom-mom-mom (eating), ter-ter-ter-ter, sher-sher-sher, etc etc.

I've noticed that she makes meaningful speech, although when I told this to Meng and Sis-in-law (SIL) Alicia, they dismissed it as she's just making "noise". Buy I really firmly believe that Shean Wenn does understand what she is saying.

For example : In the mornings (usually at 730am, yes, on the dot) she will cry her lungs out from her playpen (I put her out to play when she wakes up at 7-ish) crying "Mom-mom-mom-mom". To me, this indicates that she wants her milk. And I don't notice her saying mom-mom during other times besides meal-times. She will also say this during dinner time when she sees that I am bringing out her dinner.

Another example : She will call out to her dad when she sees him or hears him. When hubs calls out to her, she may even turn towards him calling out "dadadada/babababa".

Well, it could well be coincidence, but as her mom, I truly believe she is making meaningful speech here. Maybe this is what is known as "selective believing"!!


CURIOUSITY

Her curiosity is still bountiful! Just this morning, as I sat eating my very wholesome breakfast of sliced banana with cereals (at ground level), she came crawling and upon reaching me, held up onto my legs and stood up. She peaked into my bowl, at the same time licking her lips, and kept trying to bump her lips onto my bowl - trying to get a taste of what mommy is eating! I said "No, Shean Wenn, this is not your breakfast, you just had milk." She persisted. She put her mouth on my bowl, trying to sip my cereal & milk. How am I to finish my food like this? I hurriedly ate and made some baby cereal (oat cereals and avocado) for her.

"TECHNOLOGICALLY-INCLINED"

Looks like my little girl may just need her very own laptop soon (She does have a toy one, present from her grandparents). Look at how adept she is using the mouse and keyboard.

(Her favourite key on the keyboard is the spacebar)

March = Spring = March

SPRING

(Shean Wenn @ 8 Months 4 Weeks old)

Spring is the start of something new. And some regard the first day of March as springtime, hence March is also a time of change.

For me, March has been a thoroughly busy month, eventhough I'm just halfway there. Made a leap into the unknown and slowly learning to thread in the new territory. For the past 2 weeks, I have been learning new things, and developments - some have been fast, some just so slow. Many a times, I see myself (not literally, thankfully) bumping into a brick wall. But thankfully, there's a good partner to balance it out. She - fast and furious, trying to "steamroll" and move things along (it's a good thing usually!). Me, slow and steady and weighing the pros and cons, and ups and downs, many times. Scenarios playing in my head - should it be done like this, what if we do it this way instead? Would the outcome be more favourable? I do not know. There are no answers yet! Well, they say Rome ain't built in a day. And to succeed, we need to really research and find out.

Although scary and challenging, it's also been really (and I use this word loosely)exciting!

And the past week, with Meng working late and only reaching home at 11pm, it also means dinner and my bath being scheduled around SW. I have dinner at odd hours, sometimes after her bedtime (830pm). After baby's tucked into bed and I finished up the household chores (washing up, cleaning the house), I have had more time to "think" and plan better. But still, the effects of waking up early - Shean Wenn "demands" to be let out and be given her milk at 730am, no later - usually takes its toll at midnight. So my days have been 7am-12midnight, taking care of Shean Wenn, the house. I'm past tired now.

Well, good thing is, it's Easter long weekend. Weather's going to be crappy though,which usually means we stay in, or spend time indoors.

On Good Friday, the weather looks extremely well despite the weather report saying it's cold and chilly - in the morning, the sun was shining oh-so brightly.. so we decided to go to the park, get some nice fresh air! But the sun played hide-and-seek with us, when we reached Thames Barrier Park, it was cold, gloomy, extremely windy and the wind factor caused me to shiver in my jacket!


Shean Wenn sitting in her new car seat, what a big girl she is now

At the Thames Barrier Park - too cold to walk around so we headed back after walking one round at the park. Brrrrrr!

We then drove off and went to our favourite shopping mall for tea. As you can see, Shean Wenn has really grown. She is a big girl now and chooses to sit on her very own chair (it's leather seat too, good choice, dear!).


Big girl now, she sits on her very own (leather) chair.


Today, the weather continues to be cold, chilly and wet (it even had a mini hailstorm in the evening). We decided to go indoors - to the mall. Bluewater it is.

When we were in Melbourne, she can be quite a handful when going out - always needing to be carried and especially during mealtimes, she will want our attention. I dreaded to bring her out when we return to London. But thankfully she has been pretty well-behaved most of the time. In restaurants, she will sit in her own highchair while we eat, only fussing if the meal has dragged on for more than 45minutes or so. So it is still quite a good 45 minutes of enjoyable dining without needing to carry her. I'm pleased. I guess it's also partly that she enjoys feeling that she is "one of the adults" - having her own chair and sitting at above-table level looking at us enjoying our meals.

Bringing her out is also quite fuss-less. She can sit in her stroller for a good number of time before fussing.

As you can see, she is having alot of fun at Bluewater today.

Out with mommy


While her parents are having drinks at Costa...


Counting her fingers..


Defnitely daddy's girl : "Daddy, please carry me"


After Bluewater, we headed back to nearer home and stopped by at Tesco to grab a few things. We put her on a shopping trolley. The whole time while shopping, she did not fuss!! A far cry from when we put her in her own stroller. As usual, her "inquisitiveness" shows - wanting to touch and pull at everything that comes across her path.


Daddy's girl : "Daddy, please buy this for me, pretty please??"

More on her development this month on my next post!


HAPPY EASTER to those who celebrate!

8 Months Updates

Standing (supported)

Although she still needs support standing up, she has also been busy practising standing without support. Sometimes, I will be on my laptop, back facing her and when I turn back, I see her standing, clasping something in BOTH her hands, WITHOUT clinging on to the bars of her playpen. And of course when she knows I'm watching her, she gets excited and tries to do so many things : laughs, shakes with excitement and trying to show me what's in her hands.... that she will fall on her bum! Well, 2 seconds of free-standing. I sometimes feel such immense pride watching her growing and developing into such a cute and cheerful baby!

I have not managed to caught this act on camera, but here are some of her "chilling" while standing...

(..before releasing her shoulders, free-standing for 2 seconds and falling down).

Curiosity

She is also a very curious baby. I have often found hub's hankerchief, inner wear-things in her playpen. How did it end up there? Well, one day I turned around from working on the laptop to find her reaching out to the laundry that were left to dry near her playpen!

("I need to help mommy out with household chores. Lemme help her fold daddy's clothes")

HER STATS:

So I have mentioned this before : we do not bother going back to the Health Visitor.

In UK, Health Visitors (HV) are like health advisors who has the knowledge and ability to support parents with newborn. They take note of your baby's wellbeing, eating habits and will discuss with you if you have any issues with taking care of your baby. UNFORTUNATELY for us, we have an absolutely lousy one.

(the page of SW's Health Record where the HV signs after her "pep-talk" with me about SW)

Look under the column "Name or Initials" - Do you even blame me??? I often wonder why does she signs off like that? Can someone translate her name/signature? It certainly seems to me that it is spelt as "Nude As." If I am not mistaken, her name is Christine. I dunno, I could be wrong.

Photojournal : 7-8Months

The hoodie fashionista enjoying the day out with mommy and daddy.

We went for lunch with a couple of our friends, and at the restaurant, Shean Wenn charmed some "uncles and aunties" at the next table. But she was still mistaken for a boy by one of the uncles... until one of the aunties told him, rather obviously that "The baby is a girl! She has a skirt on!", in cantonese (they were from Hong Kong, from their speech).




Weather this week has been chilly! Too chilly for spring (due to Arctic winds blowing across the UK). But yesterday, yesterday there was a break in the chilly weather and instead the temperature "soared" to 13 degrees celcius. I decided to bring her for a stroll around the neighbourhood. When she's out of the house, she gets quieter. Maybe she was lulled by the chilly winds (it was still pretty windy when we went down), but she was quiet and seems to be in a pensive mood throughout our 15minutes walk.

(who's that peeking out from SW's outerwear?)

Why, it's "Mr Owl" - I am still quite smug that I managed to find this set of pyjamas at Gap for £5!




The Fashionista ala Sarah Jessica Parker.

("Mis-match is so matching! :P")

We bought a playpen for her last week and filled it with toys so that she will settle down to play in it. She has been doing well. Sometimes she will sit in her playpen (which can convert into a safety gate if you so choose) for half hour to an hour, playing or reading. One of her favourite activity is reading. So far, she has 2 favourite books - "Baby Senses" by Dr Miriam Stoppard and "Baby's first Animals" printed by Hinkler Books.

Both books are gifts from friends.

In "Baby Senses", when I turn over a page and says "Fluffy fluffy, Shean Wenn, where's fluffy fluffy?", she will reach out and "feel" the teddy's fur. There is one where I'll say "Touch the crinkly brick, SW... Crinkle crinkle", she will reach out to scratch the touch-and-feel patch.

These books highly stimulate her senses and is so important for her brain development.

(Shean Wenn reading "Baby Senses")

(Behind bars)

Note : All photos taken by my Sony Ericsson cameraphone.