Home alone with Pirate King!

As my Mum is travelling to Japan with my 2 siblings for 1 week, Pirate King has took 1 week of medical cum annual leave to look after Claire. I can't take leave due to the nature of my work.

Today marks the 1st day that Pirate King is alone with Claire, my Mother in law will be coming over in the morning to help him out till afternoon.

So far, Claire has behaved herself well from the telephone conversations I had with Pirate King.

Will update more progress on her 1 week stint with Pirate King!

PS: My Mum & Sis miss Claire so much that they demanded to meet Claire yesterday. They even kissed & hugged her when we said goodbye!

Midnight Bump!

My poor gal has this bump on her forehead and hopefully, it will go away fast!

This morning around 1am, Claire was howling. I immediately went to the room and checked on her. She was crying in her crawling position and in the dim bedroom light, i could not make out anything.

So Pirate King switched on the main light and we saw this big bump on her forehead and it was already blue black. I carried her and tried to soothe her but her cries still continued. Pirate King put the pacifier in her mouth and her cries kinda stopped but she continued on and off.

Using the age old remedy, I fed Claire warm water. While she was drinking, Pirate King and I were discussing how she managed to knock her head. Claire was listening to our conversation until Pirate King said this, "She must have crawled forward and onto the floor. Then, she must have slipped and knocked her head on the floor. Aiya, Claire why did you crawl instead of sleeping?"

The moment he said that, Claire gave him a look and turn her face away from him. The look was one of those, "I m already hurt and its so painful. Why do you still rub salt onto my wound?"

I really ached for her when I saw that bump on her forehead. I just wish i was the one who got it, not her! Is that the typical sentiment of a Mother?

Happy Birthday!

Happy 36th Birthday, Pirate King!

The presents that your wife, me could give you are as followed:

1. To reduce the amount of tantrums threw at you.

2. To help you more in the household chores.

3. To be more tolerant of your family.

Introducing the famous pout!

Introducing the famous pout of Ms. Claire! Does her lips have the potential to be as sexy as Angelina Jolie?

Arrival of the Pikkolo!

The Pikkolo that i ordered from Tendercargo.com last week arrived yesterday! (USPS tracking system for non express parcel sucks big time as it is not updated, the last status shown for my Pikkolo is under the "Not shipped" status!)

I got the Jet design (the picture on the left), this is the design that I like best and constantly out of stock. I had washed it and going to practise on how to use it with Claire.

This carrier allows me to carry Claire in 4 positions, "front facing out", "front facing in", "hip" and "back". Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be as easy to use as my current Babybjorn carrier!

The only thing that i dun like about Pikkolo is that the straps are a bit cumbersome!

Musical Toys!

Hehe, I m so happy!! I managed to get a wooden xylophone for Claire.

The xylophone is exactly the same one as featured on the picture! Now, the next musical toy that i wanna get for Claire is a toy piano.

Blanket Project

For the past few days, I had been cutting squares from the leftover fabrics that my Mum has.

My first intention is to make a tags blanket but feeling that it might not be useful once Claire reached the toddler stage. I decided to make a 60" x 60" patchwork blanket for her.

I still need to cut the squares and I need to check with Mum whether she has any leftover big piece of fabric for the blanket backing!

Wish me luck!

PS: I m not really a craft person!

Night Activity!

This was what Claire has done last night.

I was getting ready for bed and Claire was asleep 1 hour ago.

But, she made a bit of noise, flipped over, crawled to the other end of the mattress and sat up. She was looking around in her sitting position. So, i immediately scooped her up and placed her back to sleep!

Guess what, she was actually sleep but somehow awake to do such activity. My first thought was, "Shit, if she dun get back to sleep, i will be a panda!"

Jobless in another 12 months?

On Mon, the co HR issued a notice with regards to the sale of my co. My co will be sold but the buyer has not be finalised. The highest bidder now is NOL and I bet my money on them.

In the notice, they basically guaranteed that my job will be secured for at least 12 months wef the day of buy over by the new owner and if they will to retrench me, they have to pay me to leave. However, if the new owner asked me to leave after 12 months of the sale, they dun have to give me any compensation.

My plans? Well, to tender my resignation in December 2008 and leave the co by February 2009. Then i will probably bring Piglet to Sydney for a holiday before searching for a new job again.

Another Stage

Claire has reached another stage that we called, "On opium".

Every night, we will fetch her from the nanny's place and she is very happy to see us. After a while, she will fuss and be cranky.

Usually after dinner, Pirate King & I will bring her out for a walk. During the walk, she will fall asleep and once she reached home, she will be wide awake and super active. That is the "on opium" stage.

Also, she needs to drink milk before her bedtime if not she won't go to sleep!

Camping at Bedok

Mum hurt her back last week and I took 3 days of urgent leave to look after Claire.

This week and next week, both of us will be "camping" at Bedok so that I can take over the morning duties for Claire.

Claire's morning duties are water parade, poo poo time and followed by her beauty bath! I would say, its really fighting against time in the morning to get all these things done!

This morning is the ultimate, Claire woke up at 6.30am++ and she was so happy to see Sis. Both of them played in Sis' room while Mum was nagging at me for not putting on pants for Claire to sleep last night. Yup, neglect on my part as I forget that Claire likes to kick away her blanket!

After that, I started the water parade on Claire. Boy, she wasn't crying... She was howling for Sis to rescue her! Once her poo poo is done, i put her on the walker. She cried for Sis to play with her again. Sis put her back in the walker as she needs to rush to work. Claire was crying with big tears rolling down her cheeks. I quickly finished washing my face and rushed to make her milk feed.

Once she finished her milk, she cried again (this time, it was wanting to sleep!) Thank god, Dad filled up her bathtub with water and i could bath her immediately. Once i got her clad in diaper and clothes, i put her in the sarong and within 5 minutes, she was asleep!

All these left me really tired and I gotta do that for the next 2 weeks. Even though, i dread it but its a stage that will pass! :)

PS: Seriously grateful to my family for helping out especially my dad & sis!

Claire & Javier - First Encounter!

Last Saturday, we bought Claire to Janice place to try out the Pikkolo carrier before making the decision to buy the Pikkolo or Ergo. (Cheapskate us tried the Ergo at Metro! :P)

Javier is 2 months younger than Claire. Here are the pictures taken at Janice's place.



No, we did not force them to hold hands together! Both of them have this serious/pissed off look on their face!

We tried using the Musical Cow to entice Claire & Javier to crawl. Claire crawled backwards while Javier is interested in sucking his thumb!

Finally, Javier looked up while my cheeky gal crawled even further backwards! Hehe!

Claire loves to play with Javier's Alphabet's globe and she refused to get up from the Jumperoo when we wanted her to demonstrate how to jump to Javier!

PS: I m happy that Claire gets to meet other babies! Oh, we decided to get the Pikkolo as its more compact than the Ergo!

Wedding Banquet

Claire went for her first wedding banquet last night!

I guess its really inadvisable to bring babies and toddlers to such occassions.

The wedding banquet is Pirate King's cousin one. They hosted 50+ tables and the banquet started at 9.10pm. Can you imagine the wait and Claire's crankiness during the wait?

Claire was willing to sleep after drinking her milk at 9.30pm and I pushed her in her Benz for at least 30 minutes before dozing off to sleep. We left the banquet at 11pm and once we re back home, Claire is fully awake and super active.

It was only at 12am when she is finally asleep!

Fat Bond's Passing out Parade!

Ah bond's passing out parade was on last Saturday. Pirate King managed to borrow the car from my in laws and send all of us to SAFTI to attend the parade. As we were late and screw ups from the organiser, we ended up seated at the latecomers' place.

Here is a photograph of Claire with her Yiyi (her favourite person) while waiting for the parade to start! Her face will light up whenever she sees my Sis.


Bond's parade starts at 6pm and ends at 7.30pm. During the parade, Claire is too stimulated to sleep even though she is extremely tired and sleepy. It is only when she is in the arms of her Popo (my Mum) that she is willing to sleep.

We took pictures with Bond first when she was asleep in my arms. Bond tried to wake her up by calling her name but she din. It was only after 10 minutes then she woke up.

This is a picture of her taken with her Qiuqiu, she kept on staring at him in his white uniform! Once the parade ended, we managed to give Claire a mini wash up at SAFTI. She was so happy that she had the wash up coz she was so sticky and sweaty during the parade!

PS: I think Claire has not seen her Qiuqiu for a while and fascinated by his white uniform (Bond is clad in all white from his cap to his shoes!)

Her First Tooth!!!

Claire is sprouting her first tooth!!! I did not pry open her mouth to see it yet but I use my finger to feel it!!



Her first tooth is sprouting from the bottom left!!!! Could Claire be a leftie like me???

Values to teach Claire

Yesterday, a kind lady gave up her seat for me & Claire on the train. Her daughter was quite pissed off as she wanted her Mother to sit besides her. As usual, Claire likes to kick her little legs and she almost kicked the gal besides me. This gal wanted to hit Claire's legs but her Mother stopped her and chided her for doing that.

What i did was to stop Claire from kicking so that she won't irritate this little gal sitting besides me. This little gal's action is very typical and I m glad that her Mother knows how to teach her the right values.

This reminds me of an incident that happened 18 years ago when I was a Primary 6 student. I took the double decker bus home and sat besides this little gal. This little gal was whining and complaining to her mother that was seated infront with her younger brother. She basically dun want me to sit besides her.

She started whining, then crying and followed by pushing & pinching me. Her actions were simple, just to get rid of me. Me, being a stubborn one, refused to budge as I did nothing wrong. Guess what, her mother instead of discipling her brat scolded me for not giving into her darling daughter! Even with her mother's scolding, I refused to budge. That brat continued her pinching and pushing behaviour. That was the worst bus ride of my life!

If such things will to happen to Claire, I will tell Claire to leave the seat and report to the bus driver of the horrible behaviour of the mother and daughter. Whether will anything be done to right such a wrong, its immaterial. At least, I dun want Claire to be subjected to such disadvantage and let her know the realities of the world by herself.

As for that Mother and Daughter, I only hoped that the Mother did ensure that her daughter dun turn out to be a brat.

Things to do

1. Buy an organizer

2. Treat myself better

3. Let go of things, free negative thoughts

4. Save up $$ to go for trips

5. Watch Piglet grow

De-cluttering

I need to de-clutter. There are a pile of my clothes for ironing, a pile of items in my wardrobe, a pile of stuff in the storeroom, a pile of thoughts in my brain, a pile of bills waiting for payment and a pile of money waiting to be saved.

Just that above statement needs to be de-cluttered!

Bills -> die die will be paid, dun want to incur extra charges imposed by the legal Loan Sharks (BANKS!)

Clothes -> will iron them, if not no clothes to wear to work!

Items in my wardrobe -> Rearrange them and throw out/give away those I dun need.

Stuff in the storeroom -> Rearrange them and throw out/give away those I dun need!

Thoughts -> Trying to find a balance and let the negative thoughts be thrown away with positive thoughts flowing in!

Money -> Gotta save for a rainy day and my future travel plans.

I wonder will it be so easily done?

Melting Tear drops

Claire gave me big tear drops (the size of a pea) that utterly melts aka breaks my heart today.

We went for lunch at Mum's place in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival but i guess this is Dad's excuse of a gathering!

After my lunch, its Claire turn for her lunch (over due for at least 15 minutes). I made rice cereal for her and it was too watery. Halfway into feeding her, she protested and cried big time, suddenly these tears just came. At that moment, i felt so defeated, I felt that I had failed her as a Mother for unable to provide her with a simple rice cereal that she loved.

Mum & Sis came over to check on her and reassured her. Claire continued her intake of rice cereal and with those tear drops on her face. I told her this, "Even if you dun like the rice cereal, you should not cry in such a way. The way you cried is as if Mama abused you"

The truth is, i felt like telling her, "Claire sweetie, you broke Mama's heart." And i felt like crying too upon seeing her tears. Guess, i still have a long way to go in raising Claire!

The Motherhood Fair

Went to the motherhood fair yesterday. The aim is to get cheap disposable diapers and milk powder.

Well, ended up buying 2 tins of milk powder and 1 packet of Huggies Ultra disposable diapers.

There is nothing much there, thus it won't warrant for a 2nd trip.

Weird Relationship

Yup, i have a weird relationship with my only Sister.

We re not exactly close but she is always there for me. She might piss me off with her blunt words or actions but I know that she mean well for me.

She is the one who consistently took pictures of Piglet and posted them on Facebook. She is Piglet's fave person. Piglet will give her a big smile whenever she sees her Yiyi. Nope, i m not jealous! I m blessed that Piglet has a Yiyi who loves her unconditionally!

In fact, I feel that i should swop my place with her. She should be the elder sister whereas i be the younger one. In any case, i m going to miss her dearly if she s really going to London or Sydney for work during August!

Then & Now

Both pictures documented Claire's growth. In a span of 3 months, she looked utterly different.

The blur picture of her (left) was taken when she was 4 months old. She was running a temperature and her eczema flared up due to the fever. She looked so funny with the pacifier and the fever patch plus Doggie as the prop.

Back then, i was worried sick about her eczema and fever.

Now, looking at the picture on the right, my notti gal has outgrown her eczema gradually. She still gets outbreaks but its not as bad as that blur picture. She is now a curious cat on the prowl and she loves to play with us, she hates being alone. Somehow, i feel that Claire will be a tomboy like me but with more feminine traits than me!

I m counting down to the days when Claire will be 1 year old!

Milestones or skills acquired?

By now, Claire has mastered the art of the below:

1. Playing with saliva - she will make "Boo boo" or "hiss" sounds with the shower of saliva from her mouth! The best part is she will take a deep breath before doing all these!

2. Running amok with her walker - She literally sped with her walker in Mum's place and her fave place is the kitchen!

3. Sitting unsupported - She can sit unsupported for a while before she decides to topple over. The only time she won't topple is during bath times!

4. Rocking back & forth - She likes to rock back and forth on her 4 limbs and sometimes she will even lick the floor!

5. Crawling in progress - She is learning how to crawl and usually she will crawl backwards. Today, she made a progress. Pirate King and I enticed her to crawl forward to us. This silly gal did but protested after a while!

6. Lethal kicks - She likes to kick her legs and especially her left one. She even kicked it before she dozed off to sleep!

7. Many more but i can't remember!!!

Basically, watching Claire's development is quite an experience and this will take away all my troubles and worries just by watching her grow!

Red Eye Shadow Gal

Claire has a red eye shadow on her right eye!

This gal of mine was crawling on the mattress, i put Clownie (the Roly Poly) on it to train her crawling skills.

I guess she must have been too sleepy (she simply refused to sleep despites all our efforts) and in the midst of it, she knocked her eye lid on it. A loud wail was heard later on....

I have no photographs to show it but it was quite funny to see the red spot on her eyelid. My Mum told her that she is just putting on red eye shadow!

Virgin trips!

Claire went for 2 Virgin trips on last 2 Saturdays!

On 24th May 2008, we went for Pirate King's SPH Family Day at the Singapore Discovery Centre that is located at the Far West of Singapore (Boon Lay - That's the place i went during my University Days!)

Well, the trip is so-so.... Claire got really cranky when we watched the 3D show there and 30 minutes into the show. We quickly made our exit. Overall, i will say there is nothing much at that place and if not for the free food and stuff, I doubt we will go again! :P

Last Saturday, 31st May 2008, its Claire Virgin trip to a church wedding! We prayed hard that she won't make much noise but our prayers aren't answered. Halfway through the service, she got all cranky as she wants to sleep. She refused to sleep and i got "tortured" for half an hour before going back to the service. Pirate King used the fan to distract her while i fed her water. After that, she fell asleep in her Benz!

Bringing Claire out is a total challenge these days, she refused to sit in her pram and wants us to carry her. Furthermore, she will show her displeasure more outwardly than before!

Nevertheless, she will make funny faces when interacting during our trips!

Weekend!

This weekend was quite a busy one.

On Sat, we went to attend Pirate King's NS friend wedding followed by dinner with Mum, HK Auntie & Doris.

Today, we gave HK Aunt a treat at Long Beach Seafood, followed by window shopping at Parkway Parade and back to Mum;s place. Later on, Mum & I met Pirate King at Bugis for dinner. (Pirate King went for his basketball game today!)

Now, i m just too tired to sleep and i hate tomorrow coz its the start of month end closing again!