ABC ....

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Nadine can now recognize almost all alphabets .... except for G which she keeps saying is H; O which she says is zero; and M and N which she pronounces as M for both. Her teacher? Signing Time dvd! Who says tv is a bad baby-sitter??!!

Christmas hat

Daddy and Mummy brought Nadine to Orchard Road last Thursday to see the Christmas lights. The streets were bustling with activities, and there were many people selling little Christmas hats. Daddy bought one for Nadine, and she loved it so much that she wore it continuously for the next few days.

Inside the "multi-sensory" Christmas tree at Ion

Back home, all washed up and ready for bed .... with the Christmas hat

The next morning, after shower, with her wet hair and Christmas hat

Christmas eve, with Luanne

Christmas Day at the Leungs

Boxing Day, in her new Christmas outfit, and Christmas hat

Christmas starts early

Last year, Nadine attended 1 Christmas service, 1 community Christmas celebration, and 3 Christmas parties/dinners. This year, even before the Christmas week, Nadine has already attended 2 Christmas events.

First one was Christmas @ Kovan, which our church was invited by the Inter-Religion something-something Council to put up a performance to create some festive atmosphere.

Second event was a Christmas party that Daddy and Mummy's cell threw for their CP residents.

She enjoyed both parties tremendously, running around, playing with the balloons and other kids. More Christmas parties/dinners and services to come. She's not even 2 and her Christmases are already so busy!

23 months

Nadine eating her first McNugget 2 weeks ago, thanks to Gong-Gong KK!

Nadine has learnt to string words together to form broken sentences. She can say "let's go", "more soup" (or more whatever she wants), "help me", "Mummy hold balloon" (or hold whatever she needs to free from her hand), "many flowers" (or many whatever she sees), "wanna watch Ponyo" (or Okto, or Shrek, or Baby Signing Time), "change the cartoon", etc.

Then every other day, she'll surprise Daddy and Mummy with an almost complete sentence, such as:

"Take me to Bibi"

"Mummy sit here watch with me"

"Mummy help me keep the book"

"Daddy I wanna watch cartoon"

and the sentence that really amazed and amused us 2 nights ago - "Ask Daddy buy ice-cream"!!!

Swimming III

The first time Nadine went swimming at our new place, she was very apprehensive and not willing to go into the water. Very unlike previous times when she went swimming. All she wanted to do was sit on the steps and kick water.

Last week, Mummy brought her swimming again, and she's totally different. Back to her old water-baby-self, happily running around in the baby pool. And last Saturday, Daddy even brought Nadine into the adult pool. She enjoyed herself thoroughly floating and kicking around. Not scared at all.

Daddy trying to patch up Nadine's turtle. Unfortunately, turtle's sustained too many injuries, and cannot be inflated anymore.

Enjoying the adult pool with Daddy

Worn out and sunned out, time to leave the pool. Not quite willingly, but luckily Nadine's not the sort who will cry and wail to get her way. She's quite cooperative most of the time.

SSO Baby Prom

Nadine went to her first SSO concert, and first outing at the Esplanade last Wednesday, together with Josh and Luanne. Of course both sets of parents were there too.

It was a special concert for babies. The concert hall was decorated with lots of balloons, and was full of babies and toddlers, and extremely animated parents trying to follow what "Uncle Peter", the orchestra conductor, instructs, so that their children will imitate them.

Uncle Peter was very good at getting the kids excited, and even better at explaining how music can portray different emotions ... of course, with the help of the orchestra.

At the end of the concert, all the kids were allowed on stage. As we were seated in the 1st row, Nadine was 1 of the first to climb onto the stage. She was a little hesitant initially. But once she saw more kids on stage, she became really gungho and started walking around freely ....

... and dancing at some point. She event climbed onto the conductor stand. At 1 point, there were so many kids on the conductor stand that Mummy was worried there'd be a stampede. And Nadine was so tiny that there were moments when Daddy and Mummy couldn't see her. Nadine probably couldn't see us either. But did she care? No! She was so happy wandering around on stage!

Nadine really enjoyed herself at this concert. Pity we didn't have a good view of the entire orchestra. But this good experience will certainly encourage Daddy and Mummy to bring Nadine to more concerts in future!

Reading corner

Nadine has a new reading corner in her new room. Her books are neatly packed in a cupboard, and her little sofa bed is parked beside it, providing a comfortable place for her to sit and read.

World Kindness Day

Nadine celebrated this year's World Kindness Day by waking up super early to go for Love Singapore's "I Love Singapore Walk".

While she usually plays well at home early in the morning, being out is a different story. Worse in the hot sun. She was sleepy and hot, and not very sociable.

She even looked hostile when Eu Lee barged in when Mummy was taking a photo of her and Daddy.

Actually, we didn't quite walk. Immediately after the flag-off, we went off to Daddy's office's Family Day at Labrador Park.

Nadine fell asleep on the way there.

It was even hotter at Labrador Park, and there was no cold drinks! Nadine did enjoy chasing after bubbles, and the playing with her flower balloon.

Masak masak

Last week, Daddy and Mummy came home to find Nadine had laid out all her stuffed toy friends around her carpet, many of which had a bowl and spoon in front of them. She was having a party with them! And she was feeding them one by one. At 22 months, Nadine has started playing "masak"!

This photo is of a much smaller scale party, with only 1 friend.

22 months

Nadine's a little parrot now. More than a parrot actually. She mimics everything she hears, sees and watches. She repeats what people say (most of the time, not accurately), imitates the neighbors' dogs and cats (sound and action), and follows the actions of all the Baby Signing Time and Signing Time dvd program. Her favorite dvd for the past few months - Ponyo. And she mimics most of the actions in this movie too!

And about her squint - she's seen a specialist, and specialist has confirmed that it's a "pseudo squint" - meaning it's "fake". The excess flesh around her eyes give the impression that she has a squint. But that should go off as she grows bigger, and the flesh stretches out. $80 to buy a peace of mind for Daddy and Mummy!

Nadine's garden, and friends ....

Nadine's new room is so much more spacious than her old room. It's bigger, and does not include Daddy's drum set!

Daddy and Mummy kept the furnishing really bare, so that Nadine will have lots of space to run around in the room, and so that when she's older, she can pick her own furniture!

The wall decal and carpet were bought separately, months apart. Coincidentally, both have quite similar color scheme, and have butterflies!

Packing

Not sure if Nadine understood what was happening when we were packing to move. But she sure enjoyed seeing us pack, as well as playing with the boxes.

Nadine's garden ...

... in her new room.

Aside from this garden wall, the rest of the room is still bare, as of today. But in 2 days' time, when Nadine moves in, this room should be complete with wardrobe, bed and pretty curtains!

Daddy and Mummy can't wait to show Nadine her new room!

Girlfriends III

Another attempt to take a group photo of the girls. While the 3 mummies attempted to take some nice photos of the girls, Luanne's Daddy clowned around to make them smile, and Vera's Daddy attempted to stun the girls with a shout. His rationale - that will get them to keep still for a second. Did it work? No. But if it did, wouldn't the girls all look stunned and scared, rather than pretty and happy, as the mummies would have liked?

When will the girls all sit still, at the same time, to pose for a nice photo? Hmm ......

Class Monitor

Charis, the big sister among all the toddlers who are regulars in the nursery, helping Nadine to take off her shoes. She was also going round telling the little children what they can or cannot do. Her parents say she is the class monitor. So cute!

Growing...

Mummy measured Nadine's height while she was sleeping in this position 2 mornings ago. She's now 83 cm - grew 2 cm in the last month.

Her first proper 3-syllable word is "butterfly". Previously, she pronounced it as "b-lye". And she's also beginning to string 2 words together:

- wash hands

- eat porridge

- let's go

- drink milk (feeding imaginary milk to her stuffed toys)

- Mummy watch (when she wants Mummy to watch tv with her)

21 months

A few months ago, Mummy noticed that Nadine seems to have an occasional squint, especially when she's watching tv, stoning or sleepy. Told Dr Kevin about it, but he didn't think it's anything serious. Afterall, babies' eyes do take a while to stabilize.

But in the last 2 weeks, both Mummy and Daddy have noticed that the squint is a lot more frequent, and a lot worse. It still only happens when she's watching tv, stoning or sleepy. But it's really worrying Mummy and Daddy.

Daddy said "such a pretty face, it'll be terrible if she develops a permanent squint!"

Got a referral from Dr Kevin to see an opthamologist. Hopefully it's something that can be treated very easily. Or better, her eyes are just not fully developed yet! Pray, pray!

Acrobat

Nadine loves playing with the urn at the balcony. Previously, she would throw little pebbles into the urn. Once, she tried to climb in. For fun, Bibi put her inside, and she seemed to enjoy that! Now, she can climb in and out of the urn herself, without any help!

Snooze

During the last 2 weeks that Bibi was away on home leave, Daddy and Mummy took leave to look after Nadine, and the family went out a lot - mostly to buy things for the new house, and to check on the renovation. It was quite tiring actually. Tiring for Nadine, coz she didn't get her regular naps. Tiring for Mummy coz she had to cook (for Nadine only), clean, wash and look after Nadine. Tiring for Daddy coz he had to entertain Nadine a lot, a lot.

Daddy took this shot of Mummy and Nadine, who both fell asleep in the car on the way home one day, after running errands.

Daddy's birthday

Last Thursday was Daddy's birthday. Mummy decided on Tuesday that the occasion calls for a staycation. Very impromptu. So on Wednesday, the family checked into Hard Rock Hotel at Resorts World, Sentosa.

Check-in at the hotel was actually 3pm. So we went to Underwater World first. Nadine was absolutely fascinated by the small, big and humongous fishes swimming around.

At Sentosa, Nadine also got to ride on the bus, for the first time. 'Bus' was one of the first words that Nadine could sign and say. So Daddy and Mummy have been wanting to take her on a bus ride. But Nadine didn't seem to enjoy the ride. In fact, she seemed a bit nervous.

After walking through the entire Resorts World (except Universal Studio), Daddy and Mummy concluded that it's a boring place. Mish-mash and mismatch of shops and decor. Really gave the impression that Genting was only interested in the casino business and nothing else.

There is 1 interesting shop though, where Nadine and Daddy went crazy in - Candylicious! Mega candy shop, which charges mega dollar for their candies! They have little trolleys for kids! Nadine had so much fun pushing 1 around, and putting stuff into the trolley, as if she's really shopping! Mummy snapped so many photos of Nadine in the shop. And it was only before leaving the shop that Daddy saw the sign that says 'No photography in Candylicious'!!! Perhaps all the staff thought Nadine looked so cute pushing the trolley, so give chance!

Oh, and why did Daddy go crazy in the shop? Not because of the candies that Nadine might want to eat, but because of the amount and variety of candies he can eat! He bought almost $50 worth of candies!

And one other thing Daddy and Nadine enjoyed at the Hard Rock Hotel - swimming, or rather, playing in the pool. Mummy forgot to bring Nadine's float, so Nadine was a bit nervous in the pool. But still she was ok with submerging a little into the water, and drinking some chlorinated water.

Look how happy father and daughter are!

Luanne's birthday

We celebrated Luanne's 1st birthday last Sunday at a wonderful party. Luanne's Mummy is great at organizing superb parties, and this party was certainly one enjoyed by adults and kids.

Mummy and Luanne's Daddy have known each other for more than 20 years, and have enjoyed each other's friendship very much. Mummy hopes that Nadine and Luanne will also enjoy a long and lasting friendship!

20 months

Weight: 11 kg

Height: 81 cm

Many strangers who see Nadine think that she's much older than her actual age. Maybe it's coz she has long hair. Everybody loves Nadine's lovely hair. But it "catches" all kinds of food, and causes Nadine to be hot and sweaty and warm days. Still, Daddy and Mummy can't bear to cut the hair off. It's so precious! Maybe when it gets really unbearable .... maybe.

Nadine can now recognize 1-10 very well, and enjoys pointing out the numbers that she sees everywhere. She can also count from 1-6. 7 is always a stumbling block coz she cannot pronounce it properly. And thanks to Signing Time's "My Favorite Things" dvd, Nadine can recognize colors of the rainbow - blue, red, orange, green, yellow, purple + black and white.

Despite her having been such a good eater since young, Daddy and Mummy realized that she's not very good with outside food. Whether it's Chinese food, pasta or burger, she didn't seem to like any of them at all. But she'll happily eat her rice and dishes, porridge or pasta at home. Or is she too distracted outside to eat properly?

Her favorite fruits, besides banana, are pears and apples, like Daddy.

Strangely, Nadine likes sour stuff!

And at 20 months, she's become very assertive on what she wants. She chooses the dvds that she wants to watch, and tries to decide what she wants to do when she wants. Of course, Daddy and Mummy are not allowing her to have her ways all the time. Must let her know she's not the boss ... yet!

Two-word & Numbers

Nadine's 1st two-word "sentence" is 'WASH HAND'. Hopefully, it reflects a sense of good hygiene, but not a sign of OCD!

And she can now recognize most numbers from 1-9.

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 - not a problem for her at all, altho she can't pronounce 7 properly

5, 9 - she always mistake them as 6

3 - she pronounces "tree", and signs tree

8 - she pronounces "eat", and signs eat

But it's still good progress. And Daddy and Mummy are definitely very proud of Nadine!

Girlfriends II

At this age, it's so hard to get the girls to sit down and pose for a nice photo together. This is the best Mummy could manage last Sunday. Gladys is 6 days older than Nadine, and Esther is 3 months younger than Nadine.