2!

On 11/1/11, Nadine turned 2!

It's amazing how 2 years passed by just like that. From a little bundle, she's become a little grown-up who decides what she wants to wear, eat, watch, read, play or do; and can be quite persistent in asking for what she wants. But she is also now able to sit through the reading of a short story, listening intently to Daddy or Mummy read. Previously, by the third word, she'd want to flip the page to look at other pictures already. And she speaks pretty well for a 2-year-old, able to string words to make short sentences. Hopefully, this means she'll not go through "terrible 2"!

Her birthday present from Daddy and Mummy - a bike! German, nothing less!

Days before Nadine turned 2, Uncle Eu Lee came to take photos of the family. Here are a couple for sneak preview .... before getting the full CD of photos from Uncle Eu Lee.

Our happy family at the start of 2011

She was happily spinning when this shot was taken

To celebrate, Daddy and Mummy threw a small birthday party for her, inviting Daddy and Mummy's close friends, and their children, who are Nadine's regular playmates.

Happily waiting for her friends to come. At home she kept saying "i go happy birthday party"!

With Ethan, one of Nadine's favourite friends, and Uncle Mel, who probably wouldn't mind a 4th child if it's a daughter, even though he wouldn't admit it

Zia, who enjoys jumping and dancing with Nadine during worship

After this birthday party, Nadine had another celebration at Gong Gong and Po Po's house. Po Po bought Nadine a birthday cake that was too big for us to finish. She's so blessed to have so many people who love her!

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.