Both YC and I left office on the dot yesterday, and went to my mum’s place to pick up Cherylin. When I arrived, Cherylin has not changed her clothes yet. After much persuasion/threat/coax, she finally agreed to do so. It has always been a ‘challenge’ to change her, feed her, ask her to brush her teeth, etc. As always, she’ll dilly dally and take a long time before doing the things that you ask her to. Often, I had to threaten her with ‘army boy’, ‘police’, etc.

We went downstairs to wait for YC to pick us up after Cherylin said bye bye to wai po. YC planned to have dinner at IMM to celebrate my birthday. We went to Swensen’s where I had the seafood pizza and YC ordered the chicken pieces as main course. Cherylin ate ¼ of my pizza and some chicken and fries. As it was my birthday, we were given a complimentary Birthday Firehouse. Cherylin stared at the ice cream as the waiter attempted to light the candle. Then we sang a birthday song while Cherylin shyly look at the ice cream and did not sing at all. We blew out the candle and Cherylin happily feasted on the ice cream.

After dinner, we proceeded to get a birthday cake. YC bought me a fruit cake from crystal jade cakery. We let Cherylin played for a while before heading home to cut the cake. Cherylin helped daddy to put on the candle, quite a good job for a first timer. She blew out the candles (all by herself) after the birthday song. Then she proceeded to cut the cake. I had to stop her after a while else the whole cake will be ‘destroyed’ by her. She must be full then as she wasn’t interested in eating the cake. Somehow, it’s just a mini celebration for me but it’s filled with warmth. :)

Surprise from YC!

At about 10am, I received a call from the receptionist. “Hi LK, this is XX calling from the recept, there’s a bouquet of flowers for you. Please come down to collect it.” My immediate reaction was “Huh? Ok, will come down now.” Seriously speaking, I wasn’t expecting to receive any flowers (hint hint to YC: it’s been years since I received my last bouquet :P). It’s a very beautiful bouquet of two-toned fuschia roses.

Yesterday, YC told me he had already planned for something today. We will be picking Cherylin up after work today. During lunch today, he told me he intended to bring us to IMM for dinner. Cherylin loves going to IMM cos she gets to play with the coin-operated machines there. Too bad the playground is now under renovation, can’t bring her there until mid Nov, which is the scheduled completion date.

Usually we’ll leave the house before noon on Sat and proceed to town (this is our usual routine on weekends). This Sat we started out late. Left the house at close to 3pm. Cherylin and I woke up early today at 7am so she took a short 1 hour nap at 2pm while I was preparing her stuff (she fell asleep while playing with the bed rail on her bed. Too tired liao). Went to Harbourfront area to have my Canon Digicam repaired but was told that the service centre is only open on Weekdays. Thereafter, we proceeded to Chinatown where we’ll be having our pre-departure talk at 5.30pm. We arrived early at about 4.40pm so decided to have a chat with our tour consultant and make the final payment before proceeding to our briefing scheduled at 5.30pm. The briefing only started at 6pm and was conducted in 2 languages. Chris, the tour consultant doing the briefing, was a chatty lady. However, we found that she talked a little too much. The briefing was still ongoing at 7.30pm!

As we had to attend a birthday celebration of a friend’s daughter, we left without staying till the end. During the briefing, Cherylin was very restless, either talked loudly, sang loudly, or clapped as Chris was talking. She made a lot of noise saying that she wanted to go to ‘mei mei’s’ house. We had earlier told her that we are going to attend mei mei’s birthday party later the day. We rushed and arrived at the venue at 8pm (2 hours passed the start time of 6pm). The birthday cake was very pretty. It’s a farmland theme and there’s lots of little animal figurine on the cake. Cherylin was fascinated by the cake and happily took the little rooster when the host was distributing the figurines to the children. She managed to finish the slice of cake that was given to her. That’s an achievement considering she never liked cake. She didn’t even eat her own birthday cake previously when she turned 2.

We proceeded to my friend’s new house. By then, Cherylin had already warmed up and went to hug the huge elmo that was on the sofa. She happily played with Rachel too. On our way home, she said that we wants to go to mei mei’s house again. We can easily tell that she enjoyed herself that night :)

Toilet Training (cont'd)

We were home early today and hence brought Cherylin back for the night stay. I’ve been enticing Cherylin to poo on the toilet bowl without any success. Her reward: To play the bubble gun if she poos on the toilet bowl (she loves playing bubble gun). I was having my bath when YC knocked on my door and said that “Cherylin wants to poo and insist on doing so on the toilet bowl”. I was not sure if she’s kidding us. Anyway, I just let her sit on the toilet bowl (she’s able to balance herself) and indeed she poo-ed. I was sooooo happy and praised her for doing a good job (it’s the first time she did it on toilet bowl. At wai po’s house she’ll at most do in on the potty). She too was pleased with herself for doing so. As promised, she got to play with the bubble gun that night.

We are now left with the final ‘task’ of training her to sleep without a diaper. :)

Sep is a month of feasting!

Sep is a month of feasting!

Almost every weekend I’ll have party to attend. Let me count the no. of events: 1 baby shower, 3 birthday celebrations, 1 wedding dinner, 2 gatherings and 1 seminar. Scary yah when I recount these. Imagine the amount of food that went into my stomach. Not surprising that I put on 1.7kg within 4 weeks. Ok, console myself that I now have the license to put on weight without feeling guilty :P

Cherylin is a sensible girl?...

Nowadays when YC goes to pump petrol, Cherylin will insist on following daddy into the petrol kiosk where he makes the payment. Most of the time, she will come out with some sweets in her hand and smile on her face! That day she came out with a packet of Sweeties. When I saw it, I ‘scolded’ her saying that she’s wasting money (cos there’s lots of sweets in the house where she eat halfway and didn’t finish). Told her that she must finish those sweets at home first before getting new ones. Well, being a 2.5 years old child, I doubt my advice goes into her ears.

Today, YC went to exchange his old car for a new one. As we are shifting the stuff from the old car, Cherylin kepts making noise, saying that she wants the ‘blue’ car (our old car), don’t want the ‘green’ car. She got worse as we drove the new car. Cried until so pitiful. Kept saying ‘I don’t want to seat in this car car, I want the blue car car….’. Seeing that she’s so ke lian, daddy brought her to NTUC Fairprice to get some tidbits for her. After a few minutes, both father and daughter came out of the supermarket empty handed. I was puzzled and thought maybe there isn’t anything that Cherylin likes (couldn’t be right since there’s bound to be something that will catch her eyes)? So I asked.

Me: The Yan Yan is out of stock? (Cherylin usually grabs this when she goes to supermarket)
YC: No. She doesn’t want.
Me: Why?
YC: Initially she took the chocolate flavour and on the way to the cashier, she told me she doesn’t want.
Me: Then?
YC: I told her it’s ok, daddy will buy for her. Then Cherylin replied: “Afraid mummy will scold.”

I couldn’t quite believe myself when I heard that. Cherylin actually remembered my ‘lecture’ of not wasting money to buy tidbits when she already had those at home. That’s my dear girl. Sometimes I must agree that she can be quite ‘sensible’.

On the following night, I was tidying the table and going through some receipts. Cherylin came to me and said “I’ll finish off the tidbits at home first before getting new ones.” I praised her for being a sensible girl and gave her a hug and kiss :)

Detailed Scan

Went for my detailed scan today. My appointment is at 10am and we arrived on the dot at the registration counter. Due to some emergency which arose, we had to wait for an hour before it’s my turn for the scan. While waiting, we brought Cherylin to the playroom at Mt A and daddy bought a cup of drinks for her when she gets cranky. The scan took about 25 mins to complete. According to the Radiographer, Cherylin should be getting a didi. Well, we will wait till the next gynae visit to confirm with Kenneth again.

Afternote: I did my detailed scan for Cherylin at Camden Medical Centre 3 years ago. Given a choice, I would have preferred that I did my scan this time round at Camden Medical Centre too. Both YC and I felt that the doctor there is more detailed and the scanning machine definitely is better than the one at Mt A. We don’t mind the hassle of traveling there and the higher cost involved. YC asked me to remind him to feedback to Kenneth when we next see him.

Lantern Festival

Last sun, we brought Cherylin to the Chinese Garden. It's our first time bringing her there to see those beautiful lanterns. The theme of the year is 'ocean'. There are lots of fishes, octopuses, etc around the garden. Of cos, there's her favourite dolphine too. We sometimes have difficulties taking pictures of her as she will deliberately look away from the camera. But for the sake of her dolphine, she guai guai pose for daddy to snap. We collected those traditional paper lanterns that were given to every visitor. Cherylin looked on curiously as daddy tried to light up the lantern. It's her first time playing with a paper lantern, that's why her reaction. Somehow this girl dare not hold on to the lantern initially. She held for a while as we moved along. Daddy bought a lotus flower that's to be lit up and placed into the pond. Cherylin had a great time watching by the pond side, looking at the lotus flower as it floated away. The auntie at the stall gave her lots of sweet which made her even happier. We left the place after spending about 2 hours plus there. Asked if she had enjoyed herself, Cherylin gave a positive "Yes!". Frankly speaking, if not for her, we would never have visited the Chinese Garden :P

First diaper-free trip….

Today is the first time we brought Cherylin out without diaper on. We went to IMM instead of town area as we have a party to attend in the evening. So just go somewhere near so that Cherylin could take a nap/rest in the afternoon. Glad that everything went on fine, with no accidents. Cherylin will say so when she needs to wee. Hence, this trip had boost our confidence in bringing her out without diaper in future :)

Gynae Visit

I went for my gynae checkup on last Sat. It’s the 4th visit to the gynae so far. Cherylin was crying and protesting when we entered the consultation room during my first visit for fear that the doctor will check on her/give her injection, etc. However, she became more receptive and was willing to enter the room as time passed by and she knew that it’s mummy whom Dr Lee is checking on, not her. Furthermore, she gets to eat sweets whenever she visits Dr Lee, and there are lots of toys for her to play at the waiting area.

This morning when I woke her up, I was whispering beside her ear: "Get up and we will go and see Dr Lee". To my surprise, she nodded her head and opened her eyes. She woke up without any fuss. I was surprised because she usually sleeps late and hence wakes up late. Whenever we need to visit the gynae (our appointment is at 9am), we’ll have a hard time waking her up and she’ll be grouchy and grumpy. With a little persuasion, she changed her clothings and left happily with us as we depart to Mt A.

Cherylin would demand to be out of the scanning room during prior visits, this time she stayed for a while before making noise and told daddy to bring her out. When Dr Lee was drawing blood for my triple test, she watched curiously at the door and later asked me why Dr Lee pasted a plaster on my wrist.

During this visit, YC asked if we can find out the baby’s gender. Baby was sleeping then and woke up when Dr Lee disturbed him/her a little. As the position wasn’t very right, Dr Lee said it’s best that we wait till the detailed scan at 20th week to confirm the sex of the baby.

Sis-to-be

I’ve been telling Cherylin that mummy is having a little baby in my tummy. At times, when her mood is good, I will tell her to sayang little baby before going to bed. So far, she has been quite a nice jie jie, will sayang little baby when I asked her to do so (she will sayang my tummy and then quickly cover it with my t-shirt). Last Sat, she even initiated to kiss the baby. So sweet of her.

Toilet Training

My mum started to toilet train Cherylin last Thu (23 Aug). A bit late to start, I know. Strangely, we have never been concerned that she’s still wearing diaper while kids of her age were already diaper-free long ago. Probably we were too bo chap and find it more convenient for her to wear diaper especially when we are outside.

As expected, accidents happened during the initial stage of toilet training; she wetted the bed, chair, etc. Over the weekend, YC and I did not really train her cos we were out of the house most of the time. Toilet training continued for Cherylin this week. Seems to progress quite well. She’ll tell wai po when she wants to pee. And she even took her nap without wearing diaper. Her first car ride without diaper was ok too.

However, when it comes to poo, Cherylin simply refuse to do it on potty/toilet bowl. She’ll find a spot and squat down with her pants on to do her business. I guess we’ll have to go slow with her, one thing at a time. I believe she’ll start to learn when she’s ready. Just like training her to go pee in the toilet (oops, but she’s not doing so on toilet bowl, it’s in the bathe room instead :P)

Starting a blog..

I have been wanting to do up a blog for Cherylin since she’s a baby but have been too lazy/busy to do so. I actually started halfway and did not continue with it. Now that she’s already 2.5 years old, hope it’s not too late for me to start.

Cherylin is like a energizer bunny, forever full of energy. Worst thing is she sleeps late at night, her usual bed time is 11pm+. Most of the time, I’m so tired that I’ll asleep before her. Tried bringing her to bed at 10pm plus. She’ll lie on the bed with me, toss and turn, ask for water/milk, and simply refused to sleep. Recently, she started getting down from the bed and went to play with daddy whose still not in bed. Only when both of us are in the bed, with all lights switched off will she guai guai lie there and doze off slowly. Hope her sleeping habits will change for the better else next time I can’t imagine what will happen when she goes to school!