Nadine's 1st dental visit

After hearing stories of Nadine's friends having worms in their teeth, Mummy thought Nadine better go get her teeth checked, before it's too late. And Nadine has 1 front incisor that looks a shade darker than the rest of her teeth. So Mummy was actually quite nervous for Nadine.

For 2 days, Mummy kept prepping Nadine for the visit. Nadine did not like the idea at all. Kept saying she did not want to go. That it's painful. How did she know it's painful? From "Finding Nemo" - Daddy and Bibi think.

Anyway, she seemed more ok with the idea today.

Lunch before the dental appointment, with her bear menu for kids.

We brought her to Straits Dental Group, recommended by Aunty Lydia. The clinic had a tv/play corner for kids that Nadine really liked. From the look of it, they probably have a good number of children clients! They even had a tv screen on top of the dentist chair, and were playing Madagascar 2 during our turn! Very well-equipped to distract children!

We saw Dr Jeremy Cheah, a young handsome dentist, who made a lot of effort to try and connect with Nadine. He suggested that he checked Mummy's teeth first, so that Nadine could see what really took place on that dentist chair. And he cleverly tricked Nadine into opening her mouth for him to check halfway through treating Mummy. That was really good, because Nadine wouldn't go onto the chair after Mummy. Thankfully, her teeth were in good shape!

Relief!

Aaron swimming

Nadine was a real water baby. The first time we brought her to the pool, when she was about 6 months old, she took to water like a fish.

Aaron is different. The first time Mummy brought him to the pool when he was about 6 months old, he was so scared. The experience lasted all of 5 min. Then Mummy tried again last month. He was still a bit nervous. But all Mummy did was dip him in the pool and hug him close all the time .... for 10 min.

Last Saturday, Daddy and Mummy decided to 'take the plunge'. We brought him down, together with a float that he could sit on.

The first dip ....

Then a big hug from Daddy, and pose for a photo with happy fish Jie-Jie

And then into the float .... he struggled for a bit while Daddy was putting him into the float. But relented after a while, and then started to enjoy kicking the water!

And after 5 min, he's a happy fish too! 

More swimming for Aaron from now onwards!

The darnest things that Nadine says

Mummy: Nadine, wake up!
N: My eyes are painful *sulk*
M: How come?
N: I must sleep some more!

Bibi: Nadine, what do you want for breakfast?
N: I cannot eat breakfast
B: Why?
N: If I eat breakfast I'll be fat!

Daddy: Nadine, do u want Mummy to go to the Bird Park with us?
N: Yes!
D: But Mummy is scared of birds!
N: Mummy, r u scared of birds?
Mummy: Yes, will u protect me?
N: I think God loves u, so u don't have to b scared. So u can go to the Bird Park with me!

Daddy, teaching Nadine how to search for a song on the CD player, and she finally found her favourite song ...
"Mummy, I find ... I found it!"
She knows her tenses! :-)

Mummy: Nadine why r u dipping ur fries into the water? That's a funny way to eat fries!
N: To make the fries cold!
M: Who taught u that?
N: I teach myself!

 

Aaron is 1!

Aaron turned 1 on Saturday.

Maybe it's a 2nd child thing. The last 1 year with him seemed to fly by so quickly. And perhaps because we now have 2 kids, and we'd gone through the 1st year development of 1 child, so we seemed to have breezed through many of Aaron's developmental stages. But we were still excited whenever we see Aaron achieve a milestone, like leopard-crawling for the first time, then proper crawling, pulling himself up to a standing position, taking his first step, climbing up the sofa and tables, grabbing things, doing the pincer grasp, eating his first semi-solid meal, etc, etc.

Aaron's a little commando. Crawls really fast, loves tunneling under tables and chairs, and is a fearless climber. But he still is not comfortable with walking. He'll take a couple of steps, holding on to something, and then very quickly sit down and crawl instead. Perhaps speed is his top priority at the moment, rather than being upright!

While Jie-Jie was sickness-free in her 1st year, Aaron had fallen sick numerous times, no thanks to the bugs that Jie-Jie brought back from school; and even hospitalised once. So from being a chubby newborn, he became a rather lean baby - only 8.5kg now. A bit small for his age. We sure hope now that he's passed his 1st year, he'll be stronger and tougher, with better immunity against germs and viruses, and will bulk up a little!

This is a lovely pre-party family shot, taken by Mummy's ex-colleague, Uncle Noel (http://bynoelyeo.com/).

At all of Jie-Jie's birthday parties, very few photos were taken, coz Daddy and Mummy were always busy. Mummy really regret not capturing those special moments. So this time round, Mummy decided to hire a professional to take many many many nice photos! Looking at just these 2 awesome photos (yet to get the album from Uncle Noel), it sure was a good decision!

Blowing out the candle on the yummy rainbow cupcakes made by Mummy's talented intern. Another good decision - no need to cut the cake, easy to distribute, and easy to store away the uneaten ones!

Can't wait to see the rest of the photos of Aaron with the many friends, aunties and uncles who came to celebrate his birthday. So much love!

Singapore Garden Festival 2012

Mummy took leave on Thursday to bring Nadine to the Singapore Garden Festival at Suntec, thinking that there'll be a huge variety of plants and it'll be a great opportunity to teach Nadine names of different flowers.

The area outside the exhibition hall was impressively decorated with all kinds of plants, props,  sculptures and huge bugs, like this ladybird.

But aside from that, the exhibition really was not impressive at all. Some of the installations were nice, but most of the flowers look tired, and the hall was so sparse. Most of all, there were no labels for the flowers! Very disappointing. Nadine was bored after a while, until we went to another hall with a playground.

Nadine had a lot of fun climbing up the tree-house and coming down the slide with Jie-Jie Joelle. 

Jie-Jie Joelle, Nadine's eldest cousin, is 14 years older than Nadine. She played really well with Nadine and took very good care of her. Mummy was so glad that Jie-Jie Joelle was there to climb up the tree-house and come down the slide with Nadine. Otherwise, Mummy would have to do it!

Nadine's 1st story

Tonight, Nadine told Daddy and Mummy her first story.

While Daddy and Mummy were having dinner, Nadine picked out a book from the bookshelf, and said, "I'll read to you!"

She then opened up the book and began to pretend to read.

"One day, there was a fish. He met a mermaid."

Mummy then asked, "are you making up a story?"

Nadine, smiled, "yes!" 

"The mermaid teach the fish how to swim. Then came a Din-Din (meaning Nadine, meaning little girl) pig. And then Daddy and Mummy pig. And then Aaron pig (meaning baby) wake up and he want to crawl. Thank you."

Close book.

Daddy and Mummy, "wow, that's a great story!"

And we really meant it! Of course we're biased, and absolutely proud of our daughter!

LSK Sports Day 2012

Last Thursday was LSK's Sports Day -  Nadine's first Sports Day. But the pre-nursery kids did not participate in any sports activities. They're probably too young. They did march into the hall with the kids.

It was quite amazing to watch all these young kids walking into the hall in such an orderly manner, even though there were so many parents around, and even though they knew that their parents were in the audience!

The older kids "competed" in a series of events that showcased the motor skills they've mastered over the last few months (years for the older ones). Their principal kept stressing to the parents in the audience that these kids had really practised hard and come a long way, and each and every one of them ought to be encouraged and praised for what they had achieved.

 There was a segment in which parents competed with their kids. It was awesome to watch such enthusiastic and supportive parents.

Although the Pre-N kids did not take part in the sports events, they participated by selling their handicraft and raising funds for St. Luke's Hospital. What a wonderful way to teach little kids to care and share, and that no matter how young they are, they can do their part for the less fortunate.

Nadine was super happy and proud to see Daddy, Mummy and Aaron. She kept telling her friends, "look, look, that's Aaron, my brother .... so cute!"

 Daddy and Mummy noticed that there was a board full of dolphins, and each dolphin had a child's name. Some had more stickers than others. Nadine's dolphin has many stickers. Her form teacher, Mrs Chiam, told us that these dolphins are to help the children recognise their names. Hmm .... do they really recognise their names, or the positions of their dolphins? But whatever it is, Daddy and Mummy are proud that Nadine has so many stickers.

Can't wait for next year's Sports Day, when Nadine will be participating in the sports activities!

Door-knocking

Nadine had been doing CP with us since she was a bb. She was always a door-opener and ice-breaker for us. With a bb in our arms, residents certainly let their guards down, were more willing to open their doors and engage us.

Now, at 3 1/2, she is no longer just a prop. She wants to participate by knocking on the door and calling out to the residents. The cell was certainly amused by her enthusiasm!

Rushing ahead to knock on the door ... but the moment the door opened, she'd quickly move on to the next door.

Jie-Jie Ching Yee teaching her to say, "hello! anybody home?" 

Nadine in her little LSBC t-shirt ... happy like a bird 

Siblings

Mummy loves to watch Nadine and Aaron play together. Nadine is fiercely possessive of Aaron and even though Aaron pulls her hair, bites her, and hits her all the time, she still loves him to bits. She gets terribly upset whenever anybody says they want to bring Aaron home. Ok, occasionally, she'd slap//hit him out of the blue. But there's still much more love than jealousy.

Here's them having fun in Daddy and Mummy's bed.