Learning to Hold a Rattle

Another new skill that Mama was training Geraldine to do, so as to introduce her to an all new sensational experience, is the touch of toys and be able to grab one by herself! Removing her mittens to introduce touch to objects, other than the human body...she was positive and interested in trying it...

Geraldine: What is this thing that Mama put in my hand?

Mama let Geraldine sat comfortably on the sofa and tried putting the rattle in her hands, teaching her how to shake for sound to self-entertain. She was experiencing dropping of the rattle from her grasp, having the rattle hung on her hand without falling and even dropped beyond her wrist, like a bracelet!

But her favourite position is still to try putting it into her mouth! Haha...

After-bath

As usual, Mama bathed Geraldine over the weekend and tried a new look for her afterwards...does she look like someone from the middle east, with her hair all wrapped up in the snuggly towel? Cute...

How about a bite at her "thunder thighs"?

Geraldine can't leave her fingers alone, but constantly licking and sucking them for comfort!

Confused again? Don't think so...

Though friends have been telling Papa and Mama how alike Geraldine is, as compared to Gwendolyn when she was a baby, Mama doesn't think so...just see below. It's just getting more and more obvious who's who, right?!

Sleeping looks @ 3 months

I'm a Drummer!

Remember Gwendolyn got a set of drums for her birthday? Occasionally, she will practise her drumming skills when the musical instinct strikes! Last Sunday, she had this sudden urge to display her drumming skills and hid herself behind closed doors (forgotten to switch on air-con and shouted for Papa's help), where Gong Gong taught her to do so due to the noise level, and started her artistic drumming session.

Posing for the session before focussing on her sticks and drums

Listen...she made this up all by herself

Kiddy Ride!

How old is Geraldine? 3 months! Mama wouldn't have thought of bringing Geraldine to try on a kiddy ride, if Gwendolyn didn't ask to try out this new one @ the Paragon! Mama thought that Geraldine will be scared by the movement and music, but see...it seems like Mama was the one being scared (not exactly, but there wasn't enough space for Mama to squeeze in, in order to hold Geraldine tight and keeping her safe) instead. See. Geraldine was actually interested and enjoying it!

Geraldine: What is this red thing that I'm sitting on, which can turn round and round and moving up and down...???

Mother's Day Celebration

Mother's Day Tea Party was held at Etonhouse on 9 May 2008, from 2-3pm. However, Mama was too busy and couldn't leave office until 2pm. Hence, by the time Mama reached, it was already 2:30pm. What's worse is that Mama has just missed the N2 Paricutin performance. Gwendolyn must be really upset, as Mama promised her in the morning that she will be there!

Luckily, Abigial's mum arrived late as well and Ms Jam, ever so nice, asked the class to perform to both mums, who've missed the performance! Here we are...Mama enjoyed the performance so much, with both English and Mandarin songs to praise their mums! What's even better? The class collectively came up with the lyrics for the English song, based on the tune : If you happy and you know it. Let Mama reproduce the lyrics below, in case you couldn't hear the words in the video below:

You, make me feel nice

You, make me feel happy

I love you hugs and kisses

Your love is very precious

Thank you so much mummy, Happy Mother's Day (repeat)

Mama was so happy to hear the song, even though Lyn Lyn has already sung the song once to Mama last week...shhhhhhh...Ms Jam said that it's supposed to be a surprise today...haha...

English Song

Mandarin Song

Mother's Day Gifts prepared by Lyn Lyn

Gift from the school - a nice brooch

A photo for the occasion that Lyn Lyn took after the celebration!

Oh, almost forgotten to mention about an incident that happened the evening before the Celebration. Mama went to pick Lyn Lyn from school, as Papa was out-stationed. Lyn Lyn, excitedly showed me a nice drawing of our family + Gong Gong and Por Por, which was very nice! However, Ms Jam told Mama that : this is just part of the story, as there was something else that Lyn Lyn has to tell Mama about. Out of a sudden, Lyn Lyn's face turned all embarrassed...why is that so? Can you see the box of tiny muffins in the picture below?

Yes. These muffins. These are supposed to be the collective efforts by the N2 Paricutin children, prepared as a token for all the mothers of the class. Whilst waiting for them to cool down from the oven, Lyn Lyn, in all good intents and purposes...fiddled with them, after she's just played with glue. Since HFMD was very serious in the last few weeks, the school is observing strict hygiene protocol that these muffins cannot be shared amongst other children any more...the children must have been disappointed and Lyn Lyn would have learnt her lesson...with no choice, Ms Jam has to report to Ms Jo, the pre-school director about the case. So, Ms Jam has to spend some time in baking some new brownies for the celebration tomorrow morning to replace all these tiny muffins and not to waste these muffins, Mama has to bring them home. Well, at least Lyn Lyn's learnt her lesson about making mistakes and learning to forgive. It's a good lesson, but what happened to these muffins eventually? Mama brought some back to work as breakfast for the next day...and shared with Papa when he returned from his business trip!

Lyn Lyn: Papa and Mama support you...and hope that she's learnt her lesson well this time.

P.S. At least she's m0re conscious of washing her hands with soap before she touches any food item, subsequent to this incident!

Hanging Sea Creatures

Upon reaching 3 months, Mama noticed that Geraldine has become more aware of things happening in her surroundings and be able to visually see more things and being stimulated...Mama placed the baby play gym "sea creatures" to the "day-napper chair" for her to see...she really stares at them, observe them, try touching them and even started "talking to them"! Nowadays, babies are truly amazing at such a young and tender age!

Kick, Baby Kick

Geraldine is working up her leg muscles...see how strong her kicks are!

Frederick Di Di's Birthday Party

This year's Frederick Di Di's birthday party was held @ Costa Sands Resort, Pasir Ris. Auntie Adele and Uncle Kim Siong arranged it on Labour Day holiday and we went for an evening BBQ party! When we first arrived, we noticed that there were many children and baby and most of the babies and mummies were hiding inside the chalet, as if we've entered a childcare centre. So funny...whilst Mama tried feeding Geraldine milk, Gwendolyn was still napping on Frederick Di Di's bed, as she was sooooo tired and fell asleep along the way from home...once Lyn Lyn woke up, she started playing with Frederick Di Di and running around!

All of us had some food and cake-cutting was at around 7:30pm, as next day was a working day! Wow, surprise surprise! It was a football field birthday cake, with 2 goal posts! Lyn Lyn, as always, would stand as near to Frederick Di Di as possible...appearing in every picture...like last year, as if she's one of the family members! Papa and Mama was too busy with Geraldine inside the "childcare centre" and didn't have a chance to take their real family picture...until everybody started singing the birthday song!

Nice cake...even have the words: OLE! GOAL! OLE!

Standing in a strategic position and be in every picture taken with her, as if she's also the birthday girl!

After cake cutting, Lyn Lyn was helping Auntie Adele in distributing the cakes to everyone! Oh yeah...apart from Geraldine, her new born friend Liv was there too...what an opportunity, both Papas were carrying their babies...com'on dads...say CHEEZ...

Doing their paternal duties! Cheez...

After finishing our slices of cakes...it's time to go home...as expected, Lyn Lyn slept along the way...she was sooooo tired...

New Dress

For some time, Gwendolyn has bought a pokka dot red skirt and a red t-shirt with many tiny hearts on it. She loved it so much that when Papa told Lyn Lyn that he's going for his "flying work" (business trip) in Taiwan, she made a special request that Papa needs to find her a one piece dress, with a pokka dot bottom and a "heart" top. She emphasised that it has to be a one piece dress! As she's made such a specific request, Papa had no choice, but to go out and hunt for the dress. Though he couldn't find one with all the fine details...instead of many small hearts, a big heart on top...he even called Mama to confirm Lyn Lyn's dress size before buying the dress!

When Papa returned 2 days later, Lyn Lyn, remembered very well that Papa was supposed to by her the dress. When she saw the dress, she had a smile on her face, but she was a bit disappointed that the dress was not exactly what she's asked for. Oh well, she's a person with strong principles...but Papa managed to convince her that her specific request is not easy to achieve and next time, he'll try and find again! In the end, she happily took a picture with this dress and accepted it...to Papa, it was soooo closed to failure...haha!

Posing for the camera with her new dress!

Breakfast with Ms Angeline

It's been a long time since Ms Angeline met up with Gwendolyn to catch up with each other since December. Mama supposedly suggested a time after her confinement, but with a new baby, things were so unpredictable. Before she realise it, she was about to return to work. Finally, Mama managed to arrange to meet up for breakfast @ IMM again...well, just the nearest place for us both! This time, we head to Cafe Cartel for breakfast and Ms Angeline was so kind to have bought Lyn Lyn a birthday present. THANK YOU Ms Angeline!

When Ms Angeline saw Geraldine, she was a little disappointed, but not exactly...since Geraldine looks soooooooo big in the blog pictures, but when she saw her in person, she's not really that big afterall...Yes, believe it or not, Geraldine is just an average-sized baby (in fact, when Mama traced back Gwendolyn's growth records, she only start growing out of the national chart after 3 months!).

Anyway, Lyn Lyn had a good time with Ms Angeline and we did some grocery shopping together! When we bid farewell, we didn't forget to take a picture for the occasion! Cheez everyone!

Sand Art

Gwendolyn has been eyeing on the arty area on 3/F of IMM for a long time. Previously, she was only doing the paint art and did one winnie-the-pooh and one hello kitty with my melody. This time, together with Gong Gong and Por Por, she asked to do the sand art...without second thoughts, she quickly grabbed Gong Gong's hand and dragged him to the arty area...chosen the one that she wanted to do and asked Gong Gong to pay...not wasting her time at all...

Trying to scoop the sand by herself, with Gong Gong helping to peel off the paper

Lyn Lyn's chosen all the colours by herself, with Mama taking over the peeling role from Gong Gong

Proud to show everybody that she can do it all by herself!

By the way, where's Por Por and Geraldine then? Busy chit-chatting at the other side of the shopping centre!

So engaging!

Gwendolyn's Birthday Party - School

Same as previous 2 years, Gwendolyn had a birthday party for friends and a birthday party in school. This year, she has chosen an Ariel, The Little Mermaid, cake for her school party. Initially, she has selected one with the featuring the entire mermaid, which weighs a minimum of 3 kg...after several rounds of persuasion by Mama, she's been psycho-ed to accept one which only has the head of the mermaid, weighing 2kg!


As agreed with Ms Jam, the party was to be held at 12noon, after they have had their lunch...since Mama has forgotten to inform Papa to apply for leave, the party didn't start until Papa arrived from office during lunch time! Whilst waiting for Papa, Ms Jam hosted some pre-party games for the class and Lyn Lyn distributed the party bags to her classmates calling them to collect from her one by one!

Sitting next to the whiteboard, Lyn Lyn distributed her party bags to her friends!

Playing "bean bag on my head"

Soon after, Papa arrived at her school and we started sitting all the kids down, with the singing of birthday song and cake-cutting afterwards!

Mama cut the cake and Lyn Lyn distributed to her friends. She's even distributed to all her teachers, assistants and aunties in her school!

The 2 sisters are focussing on the cake, rather than the camera!

Lyn Lyn carried Geraldine to take a picture!

Lyn Lyn: Hm...the cake tastes soooo nice...it's chocolate sponge cake with chocolate crunchies!

Look At My Biceps

After Mama bathed Geraldine, Papa couldn't help, but to take a picture of Geraldine's biceps! Her biceps are so big that when wearing the rompers of size 0-3 months bought from Mothercare, the sleeves were too small that she cried when putting them on! Wow...supersized baby!

Gwendolyn's Birthday Party - Home

This year, Gwendolyn's birthday, 21 April, falls on a Monday, so Mama decided to host her birthday on the previous Saturday, i.e. 19 April! As usual, Gong Gong and Por Por flew to Singapore to celebrate Lyn Lyn's birthday and Lyn Lyn has made a lot of effort in planning ahead. She had even drafted a guest list, which she was the only one who understand the special codes used! In addition, she has asked for a magician, a 2-tiered cake (1 layer for adults and 1 layer for kids) with a Dora theme and contents to be placed in her party bags! Wow...

Since Mama is still on maternity leave, she booked the magician referred by her colleague, ordered a cake from Pine Garden (which contains a layer with lychee martini for adults and a layer with triple chocolate for kids) and delivered the Dora figurines to the shop at Ang Mo Kio and purchased all party bag items from Bugis! Everything set for her party. Oh yeah, not forgetting to mention us going to Centrepoint's Party shop to buy all the Dora party stuff, including backdrop decoration, party plates, party napkins, party bags, etc!

On the day, Papa made an early morning trip to the function room downstairs to bring all the stuff prepared by Mama the night before...Subsequently, after Mama has bathed Geraldine, Mama went down to decorate the room with Gwendolyn, including the Dora backdrop, balloons, banners, table cloth, etc...by 11:30am, the caterer arrived and setup the food in the room...

Preparation time...Gong Gong preparing paper sticks for a candy floss machine that he's specially bought for Lyn Lyn for her birthday

At 12 noon, our first guest started to arrive...the magician came at 1pm and he waited for another half an hour before starting the magic show, followed by a puppet show and balloon sculpting for all the kids. Don't be surprised, even some of our adult guests were asking for sculpted balloons!

Lyn Lyn enjoyed so much that you can hear her constant laughing

Whilst the show was still ongoing, Mama quickly setup the cake for the cake-cutting ceremony...when Mama opened the box, everyone was impressed with it...it looked really appealing! Mama only provided the figurines to the cake shop and they designed the rests!

After the shows, the magician hosted the cake-cutting ceremony...it was so fast that Papa and Mama didn't have time to stand beside Lyn Lyn to take a picture and blow the candle! She even cut the cake all by herself after blowing out the candle...

The Cake

Lyn Lyn: I love the cake so much!

The cake-cutting ceremony was so fast that Mama has to stop everything for some photo-taking...Lyn Lyn didn't even have a chance to take picture with all of "her guests"!

Some snapshots taken during the party!

Same as all the previous birthday parties, Auntie Suzie helped to cut the cake and Lyn Lyn delivered them one by one to all her guests! You can tell that she really enjoyed her party and was so happy throughout!

After transferring all the items back at home, Lyn Lyn was too excited to take a nap, but decided to unwrap her presents! Without any surprises, there was no Dora-related birthday gift, as most of the aunties and uncles know that she almost own "all" the Dora items.

Before

After

What's her favourite presents?

NDS from Gong Gong (requested for pink)

Drum set from Auntie Carolyn and Uncle Thomas

Roller skates with helmut and knee guards from Ralston Gor Gor, Shannon Jie Jie, Brenda Jie Jie and Dillon Di Di...

Thanks for all the well wishes!

What's more, she was soooooo tired that she almost fell asleep in the car when we're on the way to IMM for dinner...everyone kept stimulating her during the car journey until we reached IMM and she has finished with her food...once we left IMM car park, she immediately fell asleep on the way home and couldn't wake up at all...what an enjoyable day!

Too tired...

Smile, Baby Smile!

Though Geraldine frowns a lot, but when she smiles, she looks sooooooooo lovely and sweet...especially when she's looking at her Sesame Street musical mobile or when talking to someone!

Cheerful baby!

Sleepy Baby

Geraldine looks so peaceful while she sleeps...so cute as well...Mama just took some shots in the last few weeks to share with everyone!

Napping at grandma's house

Napping at Ikea whilst Gwendolyn was playing in the "ball pool" place

Sound asleep at home in pyjamas!

Hiccupping...

Geraldine seems to hiccup a lot and for quite long each time. Normally, after finishing her milk...too full?

Playroom @ Ikea, Alexandra

Ever since Gwendolyn has been to the playroom at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, she misses the "ball pool" place...it's not easy to find one of those in Singapore, but it happened that there is one available at Ikea, Alexandra. She wasn't interested previously, but in our recent visit to Ikea, she requested to go in and play all by herself! So Papa registered her and she just dashed in and enjoyed herself! The time limit was one hour and when the first hour has lapsed, she requested to go in and play again! Is that really fun? According to Lyn Lyn, it seems so...and what did she call this "ball pool" place? The Kid's Club, something like what she's been to at Club Med!

Seems to be so much fun!

After playing for one and a half hours, she was hungry and thirsty!

Passport Photo

Mama wanted to apply for a passport for Geraldine and had dugged out her first portrait taken at Thomson Medical Centre on 13 February, as the package includes several passport sized photos. Mama reproduced it below...see...she looked quite "steady" at 1-week old!