Goodbye Miss Snake; Hello Mr Horse!

Today is the last day of the Year of the Snake.. I know that Mark for one, is happy to see the tail of the snake slithering out of sight. This had been a rather rough year for him for he lost his father and grandmother in the span of a few months. For me, this is the year I have attended more funerals than I have ever attended.. Overwhelming year it had been.

Hoping that Mr Horse will be kinder to us than Miss Snake. I don't need 'good' things to happen, all I ask for is a smooth and uneventful year. Oh please, please let this be a better year than the last. 

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, all the shopping malls have their festive decorations out.. fresh flowers, artificial flowers, Chinese lanterns, gold coins, the God of Fortune... I came across this pretty pot of colorful hydrangeas (they are real!!!). I love hydrangeas but unfortunately they do terribly in hot weather (this pot was found in one of Singapore's many freezing shopping malls, hence it was thriving well). 

Mark and I will not be able to 'celebrate' Chinese New Year this year cos his dad passed away fairly recently, hence it is deemed as a taboo for the family to celebrate anything of any kind (birthdays, wedding, festivals, etc). 

Happy little bun on his way home after school. He's wearing the t-shirt that we bought during our Melbourne trip. Now Mark has grand plans to visit Melbourne again this August with not one, but BOTH boys. I am very apprehensive and have serious doubts about his newfound confidence (and optimism). 

Before we embark on that plan, we will start off with something shorter as a testing ground. We have booked to go to Hong Kong in late March!! This trip is mainly for the boys cos we will be sending 2 nights at Hong Kong Disneyland and only 1 night in Hong Kong island. If we survive that trip and live to tell the tale, then perhaps we can plan for the Melbourne trip.  

Looking mighty pleased with himself (reasons unknown). Maybe he just decided that he likes having his photo taken!

He still has very (very) little hair.. no idea why. Some people have commented that it's because we did not shave his head during his full month, but my argument is he didn't even have hair to shave when he was 1 month old! Oh well, I was a rather bald baby/kid too, so I guess he takes after me in this aspect. 

Took my little 'boss' out for a stroll in his little ride (a hand me down from little bun). Frankly I have no idea whether he enjoyed the ride or not cos he had that same 'couldn't be bothered' look on his face throughout and sat there looking like, well, a boss. (I always pride myself as being good in reading other people's facial expressions/ body language, but I am stumped when it comes to my son).

My little musician to be?? 

Little Bun is 27 Months Old!!

To (sort of) celebrate little bun's 27th month, we made a trip to the beach!! Hard to believe but I think this is only the 2nd time we brought him to the beach (the 1st time he was too little to know what was happening). 

It started off innocently enough. Initially I thought we'd have breakfast followed by a leisurely stroll along the park which overlooks the beach. Then one thing led to another.. I found little bun and myself ON the beach (we were not geared up correctly for it.. I was wearing my Salvatore Ferragamo sandals and little bun was wearing track pants, non waterproof sandals and without his swimming diapers on).

The weather was wonderful that morning.. cool and breezy.

Happy bun running along the beach..

.. without forgetting to turn back to check that I am there behind him

Then he wandered further and further into the water until his shoes and pants got really wet (and sandy) so we decided to take them off.. What the heck right? The happy and excited look on his face is priceless.. 

Not forgetting Den-den and daddy who were observing us from a safe distance away without getting their feet wet.

I'd say it certainly pays to always make sure you carry a spare set of clothing and diapers with you no matter where you go when you have young kids!!

We brought the boys to the pool and while one was happily splashing away with his daddy in  the pool, the other one was clinging onto me like a baby koala. He tensed up whenever I dipped his little feet into the water and scrunched up his face, so I didn't want to upset him further and we ended up taking selfies sitting at the edge of the pool.

Den-den doesn't seem to enjoy water as much as little bun.. I don't recall little bun ever crying or showing any resistance/ discomfort when we brought him to the pool when he was younger. Hmmm.. guess we need to put in more effort to take Den-den there (or maybe the reason is as simple as he doesn't like cold water like me??).

Little Bun #2 is 10 Months Old!!

Den-den is 10 months old today!! My not-so-little sunshine baby has suddenly gone very serious and all grown up on me. Sometimes he looks like he has got all the world's problems on his shoulders and has this cute, unique worried expression. He is also less generous with his smiles  and they are mainly reserved only for those near and dear (especially me, me, me!!!)!

Personally I also think he is looking more and more like his gorgeous momma **ahem**. I do see myself in him (or should it be him in me??). I guess it's like how Mark feels when he looks at Kyran. Ok, so Mark and I have one little cookie print each, and in my humble opinion, the world is all balanced up now!

Happy 10th Month, my sweet darling boy... You are such a lovable baby and we love, love, love you so very much!

The same story this morning... Poor baby brawled his eyes out while we were dropping him off. Good thing is that his teacher told me he stopped crying not long after I left. Happy to see he was able to enjoy the activities (art lesson, outdoor playing) despite the rocky start to the morning.

Ok today did not start out well. Little bun brawled while we were dropping him off at school. It totally broke my heart to walk away (well, I didn't actually walk away, I was sitting outside the classroom out of his sight but could clearly hear hear him calling out for 'Papa'-80% and 'Mommy'-20%). I sat outside for a good 20 minutes before I went home with with my heart in pieces and close to tears.

Last day of orientation and all seems to be well and on the right track. **cross fingers** He seems to be enjoying himself. The only little hiccup is that his nap time is now disrupted. He usually takes his afternoon nap around 11.30 am but his classes don't end till 12 noon, so by the time we pick him up and get him home, he is one crabby and cranky boy. 

My Den-den has the cutest expressions ever!! Simply love his puzzled look in this series of photos..  

Day 2 went even better than Day 1! Mark was able to sneak away midway through the class and little bun didn't even look for him once! I hope this means that my baby is enjoying himself and having a good time there. 

The teachers also send me photos taken during the classes/ outdoor activities.. I didn't know that they'd do this so it came as a pleasant surprise when I received them. At least it gives me some form of assurance that my baby is coping ok and I have a glimpse of what he did in the day while I was at work.

Not sure now who is the one with the separation anxiety.. The mother or the son?

My baby boy's first day in school! Mark and I were mentally prepared for him to have a major meltdown but the first day went swimmingly well. Little bun was a little confused and uncertain at the beginning with the new place and all the little kids (many of whom were brawling their eyes out), but we managed to successfully distract him with a sandpit (LOL!!)... 

Mark accompanied him in the class throughout the 3.5 hours (we were allowed to do that cos the first 3 days are orientation and one parent is allowed to accompany their child). The best thing I found out was that his class size is very small (5 kids) and they have 2 teachers and an assistant! Don't know how the ROI works for this childcare, but I certainly am not complaining cos this means that little bun has a lot of people looking after him! 

Looking at myself in the first 2 photos was totally depressing.. it may not be very obvious here but when I saw the photos on my phone, I almost fell off my chair in shock. I HAVE crows feet below my eyes.. yes.. at the ripe old age of 36!! It is darn freaking bad. Not kidding.

Of late, my dearest hubby had also making casual remarks that I need to take better care of myself, blah blah blah.. 6 weeks ago, he even bought me an expensive bottle of serum thingy for my face. (I think back then he was trying to be diplomatic about it, possibly his way of hinting to me..)

Ayden: "Oh noooo.. My mommy has crows feet!!"

On a separate note, my baby is looking all grown up. WHY do they grow up so fast? (He's wearing a hand-me-down from little bun.. getting a lot of wear out of the clothes!)