Ai Ai's Prayer

Dear Dod, pea help Eba tay...

She meant:
Dear God, please help Eva stay...

This was what she prayed for when I asked her to say her goodnight prayer herself tonight.
Eva is her little Korean friend who is about 5 months her junior.
Eva and her parents stay next door to us, and the 2 tods have played a few times together.
Recently Eva's door has always been closed, and even their shoe rack could no longer be seen at the doorway.
We thought they had moved due to some tenancy agreement problems and I said a little prayer a few days ago hoping that they would stay longer.
Only after dropping a little note at their door did we find out from Eva's daddy that they haven't moved, but that Eva and her mommy have gone back to Korea for a month.
Whew! :)

Our new designated cameraman :)

We spent the morning at Grandma's place. Roy's brother, Ian, took some really great pictures.

Junk food for lunch?

Mum had a medical appointment today so I watched Ai Ai by myself.

After close to 2 weeks of drowsiness due to medication from my itching hives, she seemed really happy and secure that Grandma wasn't here and that I am looking after her all by myself again.

She didn't even bug me to bring her downstairs for a walk, but was just happy rolling in bed with me, fetching me books to read to her.

Finally I had to drag ourselves downstairs for some fresh air and sun.

I then decided to give her a little treat of her favourite hash browns instead of the usual boring porridge.

To make this junk food lunch a little healthier, I made a spinach omelette for her.

She really enjoyed the lunch, finishing the whole omelette and 1.5 hash browns, washing it down with some soy milk.

Good thing Grandma, being more Westernised, didn't think this lunch as being junk :)

Getting my Act together

I've finally gotten my act together and will start updating my blog... so you'll probably see lots of backdated entries :)

Beginning of 2009 hasn't been so good to me so far.
I've been falling ill quite often... flu and migraine over Xmas '08, the New Year and then again during Chinese New Year.
Living in our apartment was practically like living in Siberia during Singapore's "winter" season.
It's so cold that I had to wear slippers around the flat, and the sounds of the winds is just like the waves by the seaside.
Is this global warming or simply me aging?

And now I am stricken with a bout of horrid hives (Chinese call it "feng mo") and taking Polaramine (antihistamine) which makes me drowsy almost all the time.
Thanks so much to Mum for staying with us during these few weeks to help out with Sophie!

Anyway, we've decided to get a helper so that I can spend more quality time with Soph.
Our Indonesian helper should be here in April as we'll need to get lots of paperwork done.
In the meantime, I really should start picking up some Bahasa Indonesia.

Ai Ai's 2nd Birthday

We had a simple birthday party for Ai Ai at our home, cos I wasn't feeling too well and simply had no energy to organize a big do.
Her actual birthday on the 8th falls on the eve of yuan xiao jie, and my mum and Amy would not be able to make it, so we decided to celebrate on the 7th.

Here's everyone tucking into the yummy food from Guan Hoe Soon.

I love this shot... thanks to Ian!

Reminds of of those mommies pinning veils for their daughters on their wedding day.

Ai Ai dancing in her tutu.


Grandpa with Ai Ai.

Ai Ai chose her birthday cake... she wanted Harold!

A very generous Ai Ai allowing Chung Chung to blow the candles.

Picking on the chocolate chips and cream!

Little Aurick developing his balance.

My Little Artist

Here's my little artist at work again.
R loves her work so much that he pastes them all over the walls in the apartment!

Chinese New Year

Here's Ai Ai in her ao dai on the first day of Chinese New Year.
My good friend L bought her this from one of her trips to Vietnam... isn't it lovely?
It's sooooo lovely that it drew lots of ooohs and aaaaahs from the relatives!
Lots of relatives even asked me where I bought it from!
L, maybe you can do an import business?

"Bear Bear" Cake

Annette's (Kel's newborn) is 1 month old!
Ai Ai loves the full-month cake box which has a pink bear on it, and calls the cake inside "bear bear cake".
This is Ai Ai enjoying her "bear bear cake".

Trip to the Zoo

Here's how R looks after a morning of backpacking Ai Ai at the zoo.

And here is me, taking a turn with my "sack of rice" :)

Miss Non-Negotiable

That is R's nickname for her now.
Ai Ai wants to open the door with my key, press the lift button, choose her own clothes, insists on Hello Kitty towels to dry her hands... the list is endless!
It must be the terrible twos.

And most recently, she insists on wearing her dresses before she takes her evening bath and change into her pyjamas.
Here's a picture of her running about the apartment in her dress.

I made this dress for her first birthday, but it seems a better fit now.

Christmas!

Here's Ai Ai with her Christmas present from us.
Everyone in the family is sick this Christmas, so we didn't go to any parties... just a simple gathering with my family.
She's really crazy over Thomas and Friends now... will she grow up to be a tomboy?!

First Trip to the Zoo

We've finally decided to get our own zoo pass rather than ballot for it with R's organization.

We figured that chances of getting the pass is so slim that Ai Ai would probably be 6 yrs old before we visit the zoo ;)

It was really quite an eye-opener for her as she's never seen so many animals in real life and in such close range before.

Guess the $360 is better money spent than going on road trips to Malaysia where she spends most of the time in her car seat!

My Babi Assam

Here's a Babi Assam that I made from The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook.
Looks fatty... yeah, cos R mentioned that the last Babi Pongteh I made was too lean, and asked for some belly pork this time, so I used a mix of belly pork and "twee bak".
Colour and presentation looks so-so, but hmm.... it tastes really good and very appetizing with the sourish assam flavour!

My Supermodel

Mum helped us babysit Ai Ai this afternoon while R and I attended his colleague's wedding.
It was really nice to get away by ourselves for just a few hours.
This was the dress I wore - a bustier knee-length dress.

When Ai Ai saw me all dressed up, she kept saying "Mommy, dress" and had to be cajoled to eat lunch by letting her wear her tutu.

In the evening when she was about to take her bath, she got hold of my dress and walked around with it.

So I pinned it on for her using some clothes pegs on the back of the dress, and she was happily modelling it for a few minutes :)

Roadtrip to Melaka

We decided to take a roadtrip to Melaka to satisfy our craving for Nonya food.
But our Ai Ai, who is not a foodie, didn't really enjoy it that much I guess :P

This is the "I want to go to the playground" tantrum

Ai Ai not wanting to sleep at night (too excited?)
She spent 1 hour walking around the room in everyone's shoes
And 1 hour climbing all over R and I on the bed in a darkened room.
Finally we had to put her on the separate single bed we requested for so she could go to sleep.


This is Ai Ai at St. Paul's Hill,
more engrossed with honing her "crossing the drain" skills than in the ruins itself.

Ai Ai sleeping in the car on the way back

Ai Ai's new love - chocolates!

I am so inspired by The Little Nonya drama on Channel 8 that I dug out my New Mrs. Lee Cookbook from the shelf and attemped a Babi Pongteh last week.
But I wasn't sure if the dish tasted right, so we went around the island sampling Babi Pongteh from different restaurants.

Ivins: Tough meat that is very salty with no hint of any flavours except taucheo... they should rename it Babi Taucheo
Guan Hoe Soon: Pork is tender with a slight hint of some spices in the gravy. Taucheo is not overpowering. Savoury compared to my cookbook version.
My cookbook version: Sweeter than Guan Hoe Soon's, and taucheo taste is not too strong. R likes both my version and Guan Hoe Soon's :)

Next to try would be Dulukala's babi pongteh and then I may attempt a babi assam.

Here's a picture of Ai Ai enjoying her dessert - Cadbury chocolate from Auntie Jenny of Guan Hoe Soon.
She was promised her chocolate if she finished her dinner.
When she finished eating, she pointed to Auntie Jenny and said "chocolate", but Auntie Jenny was busy on the phone.
She started crying, thinking we had broken our promise.
When Auntie Jenny got off the phone, she immediately came to Ai Ai and gave her the chocolate :)

Ai Ai the Builder?

We're fixing a taller shelf in Ai Ai's room to accomodate her every-growing collection of books and toys.
This is Ai Ai "helping" R.

Ai Ai's war medals

I brought Ai Ai to Dr. Lee for her MMR jab yesterday.
She's dropping out of the chart for her weight... in the 10th percentile now at 9.5kg.
But her height and head circumference are OK near the 50th percentile.
Dr. Lee is worried that Ai Ai is not getting enough calcium and fats for her growth as she does not drink milk at all, so I got her some liquid calcium supplement.

In the evening, as I was showering her, she wouldn't allow me to tear out the little round plaster on her thigh - her war medal :)

Happy "Birtday" Daddy

Yep, that's how Ai Ai pronounces it as she hasn't learnt how to pronounce "th".

We had a birthday lunch with Mum, Dad and Ian at the club.
She was so happy that she did not display any signs of her usual crankiness (due to being overtired).
And she was overdue for her noon nap, and what's more, she had a really bad sleep last night due to nightmares and the rain.

Ai Ai's new shoes - pretty glittery silver ballerina flats given to her by her Auntie Annie from Perth.

The shoe queen couldn't wait to put them on, and once in the car, insisted on wearing them.

Here's the Ai Ai fighting to play with R's birthday present.

My Crafty Weekend

Here's what I made this weekend - a chair sling/portable babychair with the pattern taken from here
I don't think Ai Ai will fancy being strapped down to a chair like that though :)


I made a little modifications to the pattern - replaced 2 straps with a velcro. Which mommy would have so much time to tie so many straps?
Added some loops for safety reasons too.
Here's how it looks from the backview.

And a little pouch to complete the look.
Overall, it's a little more bulky than Dinky Diner's, cos I used a sturdier material in case the toddler using it happens to have Neanderthal strength.