How important is a key? Very, especially if your baby is locked in a room all by herself.

Last Sunday, Bibi put Nadine in Gong-Gong's room to nap, and shut the door, without realizing that the lock button on the door was pressed down. Half an hour later, when Mummy finished reading the papers and wanted to go into the room to nap with Nadine, she couldn't, for her life, open the door. Panic!

Daddy, Mummy, Gong-Gong, Por-Por and Bibi tried all ways to open the door, and tried to find the key, to no avail. Thank God there was a locksmith's sticker stuck on the electricity meter outside. And thank God the locksmith said he could come within 15 min. Also thank God that the bedroom was next to the corridor, where there was a window.

By the time Mummy called the locksmith, Nadine had been woken up. But she was just quietly lying on the mattress on the floor. That didn't last long though. Soon, she was up and walking about. Mummy and Bibi then stood at the window and talked to her and played with her from there, hoping that she'd not cry and ask to be let out. Nadine seemed oblivious to the locked door, and was probably thinking that Mummy and Bibi were playing a new game with her.

That was the longest 20 min of Mummy's life. The locksmith took like 30 sec to open the door. When Mummy carried Nadine out, she (Mummy, not Nadine) was close to tears. Por-Por almost cried too.

What a traumatic Sunday! Lesson learnt - keep the room door keys outside the room!!!

15 months

Nadine is a super-active 15-month-old. She has boundless energy and can rarely keep still, except when she's reading (in a language only she can understand), eating (seated on a high-chair), and of course, sleeping.

She now has 12 teeth and 2 molars. Apparently many for a kid her age. She's also beginning to talk. She can now say

- Bibi

- baby

- picture

- tree

- rice

She signs and says words that she knows

- Dad

- Mom

- eat

- nice

- yes

- more

- night

- fish

- me

Daddy and Mummy can't wait for her to start speaking in sentences!

Tiger

Nadine's first contact with Tiger Beer ...... licking the cold can.

She loves cold cold ice. At Gong-Gong KK's birthday party, Daddy pacified the sleepy and cranky Nadine by letting her put her hands into the icy cold ice-box to play with ice. She kept doing it until her hands were red and sore. And would have continued doing so if she had not been carried away.

Girlfriends

With Luanne and her Mummy. It was a challenge trying to get the 2 little girls to look at the camera at the same time. Even harder when there are 2 cameras. But this candid shot turned out quite nicely.

Little Drummer Girl

Daddy's drum set is still in Nadine's room, so it naturally has become Nadine's toy too. And having seen Daddy play the drums so often, Nadine knows that she doesn't just hit the drums with her bare hands. She'll always pull out a pair of drum sticks to hit on the drums! Yes, if she's interested, Daddy will definitely teach her how to play. But at the moment, Daddy thinks that Nadine will more potential to be a singer, with her loud, powerful voice. Can be a drummer and singer rite?

Daddy's Entertainment

While surfing the net together, Daddy found videos of this children entertainment group called The Wiggles. 4 men singing and doing silly actions, with very good music. Nadine loves the videos! And Daddy now can't stop singing "Hot potatoes hot potatoes ..."

Daddy tapping his finger and foot to The Wiggles' music, and Nadine following suit with her legs!

Nadine & Ethan

Last Sunday, the family went out with the Gans to view a showflat ... a place that looked really nice, but was too expensive for either family. We went for lunch after that. While the adults chatted away, and Gor-Gors Gerald and Marcus played with their Daddy's iPhone while slowly eating their pasta, Nadine and Ethan had their own time of fellowship - sharing some biscuits and a book. So sweet!

Swimming II

The last time Nadine went swimming, she was only 6 months old, and didn't really enjoy the pool, even though she loved her showers.

Now, at 14 months, Nadine thoroughly enjoys swimming, or pretending to swim. She was not afraid at all, and even dared to walk around the pool on her own after Mummy put a float around her. It was so fun to play in the water with her. More swimming to come!

Float from Uncle Nelson & Aunty Rebecca (they also bought Nadine a bikini, which is still too big); and turtle from Aunty Kelly

Cute bathrobe from Aunty Sue Ern

More signs

Nadine is almost 14-month-old now, and she can sign

- banana

- bug

- cereal

- cold

- cracker

- eat

- frog

- grass

- happy

- hot

- hurt

- more

- music

- nice

- night

- peach

- pear

- socks

- sorry

- shoe

- sun

- thank you (yes, finally!)

- wash hands

and her own version of sleep - she drops her head onto the table/floor/bed and closes her eyes.

However, she doesn't always sign on demand. Need to be in the right mood to perform!

Stay-over at Gong-Gong's

Mummy went to Manila last week for work. Coincidentally, Daddy was arrowed to go for a conference in Melbourne at the same time. So Nadine was packed off to Gong-Gong and Por-Por's place.

Nadine enjoyed herself tremendously. According to Gong-Gong, Por-Por and Bibi, Nadine did not cry a bit, never fussed, ate well, slept well, smiled a lot, walked a lot, and never missed her parents a teeny-weeny bit.

She sent Por-Por to work every morning, and went to the market after that, where she touched fish, veggie and all things fresh and dirty. All day long, she'd walked around the house, climbed on the sofa and the beds, and never stopped moving until nap/bed time.

Gong-Gong and Por-Por enjoyed her so much that they asked to keep her for an extra day. Well, in any case, Nadine didn't seem very eager to go home. When Daddy went to see her on Thursday, Nadine cried and wouldn't let him carry her. Not sure if that was some kind of protest. Daddy was of course heart-broken.

When Mummy went to get her on Friday, she cried too. But she wanted Mummy to carry her. Maybe it was her way of showing how upset she was, of not having seen her parents for so many days. Daddy and Mummy spent the weekend befriending Nadine again.