eighteen months

God's Gift, to us

I think it was only this month that I realised my baby's not really a baby anymore! she's really more like a little adult (or a "little human" as hubbahubs would call her) in so many ways. she's definitely a whole lot more interactive, teachable and just so much fun!

Let's start with her new words and this always gets me excited. She can now say:

"nah" (NO)

"duck duck" - she would point out a duck when she sees one in her books or in some random magazine. she sometimes confuses a bird for a duck. she would also point to the fridge and say "duck duck" loudly when she wants her Lucky Duckies snacks which I keep in the fridge for freshness.

"book" - she would say "book" whenever she wants a book, or sees her stack of books.

"boat" - she can also point out a boat especially when we're at Vivovity having lunch and we're facing the harbourfront.

"choo choo" (TRAIN) - she says this whenever she sees the MRT train or hears the train passing.

"scoop" - she says this when we're feeding her porridge complete with the scooping action too.

"net" - I first showed her a basketball net at the basketball court downstairs and after that whenever we drive pass the court she would say "net, net!".

"bat" - she would point to the picture of bats in her Wildlife Wonders mag and say "bat".

"baby" - almost every kid, even not a baby, is a baby to her. she would point to a stroller, or to a bigger kid and say "baby" loudly.

"ball ball" - usually referring to her round egg balls snacks. but she would also use it to refer to a ball.

"nana" (BANANA): every morning she would stand by her daddy's side and watch him mix 1/2 a banana into her morning cereal. she would shout "nana" excitedly. she would also do the same when we're at a supermarket.

"ma-mo" (ELMO)

"eee-yah" (AIYAH) - she would exclaim this with tone of frustration when something happens like when she drops something, or when her hands/feet get dirty. to me, this is by far her most amusing word. so singaporean!

She can also point to and name the parts of her body like "neck", "no" (NOSE), "ee-ear" (EAR), "iii-eyes" (EYES). Her daddy's also been diligently teaching her the letters of the alphabet and she's getting quite good at repeating after him. not 100% yet, but she'll get there. :) Most recently, she knows that D-O-G spells dog and B-O-O-K spells book. In all her books, she can tell you where all the objects are, but not name all of them cos her spoken vocab is still quite limited. but it's just amazing that she knows so many words eventhough she can't verbalise them yet. as such, we try to find new things in her books to teach her else it's just us telling her the same things and asking her the same old questions over and over again. when left alone to read, she does it seriously! it's quite fun to watch her read. her expression is totally serious, no-nonsense. she flips to a page, looks at the page slowly as tho trying to take everything in and sometimes muttering to herself. she's a funny one! she's got this box of animal word puzzles and she can also identify all the animals, even the not-so-common ones like the beaver, racoon, skunk, moose, and walrus.

This month, she's definitely into mimickig what we do. Each morning she watches me moisturise my face while standing in her cot. Now when I do it, she does it along with me too, patting her face! When she sees her daddy wiping his mouth with tissue paper, she would also ask for one so that she can wipe her mouth too. She also wants a go at mopping the floor when she sees us doing using the magicmop, and would even look for a clean sheet of paper midway, pretending to change it. Hilarious! oh yes, she can also show you how an old lady walks - she bends slightly and stomps her feet slowly!

Her sense of association between objects and persons/event is developing. When she sees a bus for example, she would immediately say "papa" (Grandpa), because she remembers that my dad was the one who brought her on a bus ride. And when she sees an orange, she woud say "mama" (Ah-ma), cos almost each time we're at my in-laws' place, her Ah-ma would pass her an orange to play with. And when she sees a picture of a playground in her book, she would walk to our living room window and point towards the tiny view of the playground.

She can now help around the house with little tasks as she's able to understand and perform commands. Recently, I've let her help me turn on and turn off the fans by showing her which buttons to press. we've got 2 different fans in the living room so that's 2 different buttons for her to learn. I've also taught her how to turn on/off the music player. So now, before leaving home, or before we go into the bedroom for her nap, I would ask her to turn off all the fans and the music player. she knows exactly what to do and we don't have to supervise her at all. all she asks for is some appreciation as whenever she's done with 1 fan, she would turn around and clap. and we would say "thank you very much natalie". and she would smile broadly. she can also bring her dirty clothes into the kitchen and place them in her little pink laundry basket. she can do this without me following behind her.

We're starting to see new character traits in her. For one, I think she's an affectionate baby. She would not hesitate to kiss us mostly, and also the people around her. She usually kisses us on the cheek but recently she's been wanting to kiss us on the lips too. she's so cute! she would also ask to be kissed back by pointing to her cheek. She's also affectionate to her stuffed toys and taking good care of them. She would very often feed her dolly, doggie or elmo (or whatever toys are around) her snacks when she's eating. Or let them drink from her straw cup. she would also play "round and round the garden" with them on their hands and end up tickling them too towards the end of the rhyme. she loves to teach Dolly how to jump or how to drive a car. and she's still into building a pillow slide on our bed and sliding Dolly and Doggie down the slide. sillyness! :D

This has been a really fun month for us, and hopefully for her too. Each day passes so quickly cos natalie's just someone you want to hang with, or at least I do! ;p she's a generally very easy baby, loves loves to play, enjoys laughing loudly with her daddy, entertains us endlessly with her silly ways. When I look at her, I can just feel the love, the pride, the fulfilment and the feeling of contentment in my life. Maybe this is what being a mother's all about. I love it! :)

Thank you, God, for sending Natalie into our lives.

CHANEL, at last

today I own my first (and last) Chanel bag. the decision was really hard. I don't remember thinking this hard when I agreed to marry Hubbahubs! ;)

We were at Chanel yesterday, and I tried their classic bags in different sizes over and over and over again. We left, empty-handed. I went home thinking a little disappointed but I knew I was gonna be alright as a Chanel bag is really out of my league. "No way" I said!

So when we got home, I did ironing for the first time since I got preggie. My part-time help AWOL-ed on me you see. suddenly i remembered how horrible it was to iron - all that heat, all that sweat, all that ironing that doesn't seem to end!!!

so this morning began with the Hubbahubs trying reaaaaly hard to recall "something spectacular" which he said I did yesterday. i quickly said "no, I did not do anything", quite confidently cos doing "something spectacular" is not me. he kept on asking a few more times but later concluded that it must've occured in his dream then. a while later he asked me again what I did yesterday. and then I just said "oh ya, I ironed" and he said "YAHHHH!!! that's the specatular thing you did!" wahhahahahhahahaha! and then we were off to Chanel! all that sweat from ironing paid off! :))))

this time, I re-tried ALL their classsic bags in different sizes over and over and over again. Thankfully the sales staff was very patient and helpful. and then I left cos my head was really hurting from asking myself "should I? I shouldn't right?". But the husband was keen to get the bag for me. Normally I would jump at the opportunity, but this time was different. I just couldn't. all that money??!?!

after we left the boutique, the husband pulled me to a corner, took out a coin and said we should flip it to decide. he's so cute! the outcome - TAIL, HEAD, HEAD. Heads won so I was to buy the bag!!!! we went back in AGAIN and I did what I do best, try the bags over and over and over again. but this is to be the last time cos we bought it bought it bought it!!! the sales person (melvin), together with the store supervisor, even walked me out to the door with the paper bag in his hand, handed it over to me, wished us Merry Christmas and told me to enjoy the bag. PERFECT. :DDDDDD

okay, enough of me rambling. here's the photos of my bag, also to be an handed down to Natalie as the family heirloom. ;p It's the Chanel Classic Flap, medium, with gold hardware.

all the fanciful packaging :)

you're mine!!!

photos taken the minute we got home. this is probably how I'm gonna be dressed usually when I carry the bag - casual. i'm not a glam person anyways.

i was considering the small, but hubbahubs said the medium looked better on me, stood out more and was more practical in terms of internal space for my stuff. of cos I had to listen to the man!

she got snipped

"wherefore art thou, eyebrows?"

"oh, there you are!"

the little one went for a haircut yesterday at our regular salon. remembering how she was almost impossible during the last visit, we did a trial of what would happen before leaving home. so we sat her down, and told her that she was going to get her fringe cut and that we are going to rehearse it with her now. we told her that she had to sit very still and not move her head. and then i lifted up her fringe and pretended to cut it. she was good. she listened. and then it was her daddy's turn to try. she remained good. there was hope. so off to the salon we went. when we got there, she refused to have anything around her. oh well, she'll have hair all over her then. no big deal. hubbahubs carried her and sat down while Jessica did her magic. nelly remembered what we told her earlier and I must say she was the perfect head to cut! it was all over in a breeze and she even gave Jessica a kiss. the haircut was free of cos. and we brought home a much neater and well-groomed baby whose eyebrows are visible and she doesn't need to keep sweeping hair off her face. as usual, her proud daddy promised her a present. :)

something blue

I did something for the first time last night. I ordered a dress for myself from an online store. :) not any online store, it's my friend, Jenn's, online store. I'm so happy that she's taken the plunge to do something she loves. "way da go jenn"! :D

she's just launched her glamourous collection and here's what I picked out:

the dress caught my eye immediately and all I could think was "i gotta have this...i gotta have this!", eventho i dun wear dresses much with nelly these days. but there's always dinners, and Christmas is coming up, and then it's the lunar new year, so why not!

Check out the Dressing Room and I hope you find something you like. :)

last week and this

it's just crazy when the weeks just whizz past like nobody's business! sometimes i get through the day not knowing what day it is, not that it matters. ;p but everyday is almost the same to me - fast. while natalie and I are still blessed with having our bestest husband and daddy around 24/7, we try to do lots of things with her each day. we just love spending time with her see. :)

here we are back at IKEA where there's so much to play! this time, nelly discovered the pretend kitchen which we missed the last time round. see her in action:

gone wild @ fidgets

zippin' around!

a well-deserved sunday nap after getting up early for the 830am service

just sitting around

@ gymboree for a trial class. nelly was happy wandering around on her own and just doing her own thing instead of sitting and following like the rest. she could only be enticed back to order when the teacher took out the balls or started to blow bubbles. we think she's gonna give us a hard time when it comes to school next time.

water fun @ the zoo. nelly made her daddy take her up and down the slide like more than 10 times?! twas also on this day that my canon 500D got downed by a bucket of water. SPLOOSH! of all the places I had to choose to be standing right under a falling bucket! thankfully, the D is drying out nicely and we're back to taking photos on it. :)))))

weekend shots

the iPhone with its big screen and all, is just perfect for taking photos on a weekend!

friday chillax! :)

friday spree: nelly gets new books from Borders with our 30% discount voucher

saturday lunch

sunday morning: the Wallace Education Centre @ Dairy Farm Nature Centre

we missed service cos nelly's nose was drippy

sunday evening: taking a nap before dinner at the in-laws'

the things she love at seventeen months

She loves playing silly games like pushing our bum bums as we walk along, kicking the bathroom door open with the help of her Daddy carrying her up, and placing her Dolly and Doggie on the pillow slide.

She loves being the Queen and the Boss around us. She'll tell us to remove her shoes once she gets into her carseat, and then to put them back on again when we open the door to get her out. When we turn on the air conditioner in the living room, she'll tell her Daddy which windows he should close, and also to turn off the fans. During a meal outside, she'll tell you to put food into her bowl when the food arrives. When her arm is itchy from ezcema, she'll tell you that it's time to apply moisturiser. She'll tell you, after she's pooed, that she only wants her Daddy to clean her up cos he'll fly her all the way into her room. She'll tell you that you've got an incoming SMS or if your phone is ringing. She'll tell you when she wants to have a snack (which is usually all the time) by bringing you to the kitchen and then pointing to the fridge or her snack cupboard. She'll spot some dirt on the ground and will pick it up and give it to you so that you can get rid of it. She'll tell you that her nails are long and that you should cut it for her. And you think I was the pushy one! hah!

She loves animals, I think. Or at least she's showing signs of it. She knows all her animals and can identify them. She loves looking for cats, dogs and birds in our estate and can even spot them at night. She loves pointing to a monkey in her books and then laugh. She's not afraid of huge dogs, she can stand next to them.

She loves playing with our handphones. She's got a track record of changing your wallpaper, setting reminders, dialing Big Sweep, surfing the web, and deleting your contacts. But the funny thing is, since we've gotten our iPhones, she doesnt seem to pay much attention to them. Maybe cos the iPhone doesn't have the keypad appeal anymore and looks boring to her. *phew*

She loves filling up our home with her constant chatter. Her new words this month are: "ma-moo" (ELMO), "nee" (KNEE), "da-deee" (DADDY), "ma-ma" (Grandma), "pa-pa" (Grandpa), "wheeee" (SLIDE), "nine" and "ee-ah-ee-ah-oh!" (from the song Old Macdonald Had a Farm).

She loves doing actions whether it's to songs or pointing to parts of her body. She knows now how to point to her head, hair, ear, nose, mouth, neck, cheek, hand, tummy, bellybutton, knee, toes, and her bum when asked.

She loves going on kiddy rides, preferably those with a steering wheel. Those without like horses, space shuttles and trains, she moves on quickly. The best place we've found so far is at Vivocity (infront of Giant) where there's a good concentration of such cars in one place. She hops from one to the other and then starts all over again. She's happy just getting on one and steering the wheel really vigourously without having the car move at all. Good for us too cos such rides have become a dollar now! Some rides are even two bucks! What happened to all the 20 cent rides of my time?!?!

She loves climbing onto our tummies while we're lying down. She then sits there and waits for us to sing songs to her. Recently, Hubbahubs have started to sing Mandarin songs to her and even recite Chinese poems which don't mean a thing to me of cos. Afterall, you're looking at one who took her Chinese paper 3 times for A-levels, and still did not pass in the end. What a total waste of time!

She still loves sucking on her thumb. I'm torn between letting her continue cos it's so adorable and putting a stop to it cos it might give her ugly teeth in future. Should I or should I not???

Last of all, she loves giving us kisses. And then she'll point to her cheek for us to give her a kiss back! What's not to love about her....she's my cutest and my sweetest, and she's seventeen months old today. :)

IKEA fun

My mum and I brought Nelly to IKEA yesterday as she wanted to get another of those pink storage box for the toys that her precious granddaughter has at her place. It's Nelly's first time there and I thought it would be fun if she could play in the ball room. I remember how my mum used to bring my sister and I to the ball room when IKEA was located at Katong. We had so much fun there!

We got there early, like 10:45am, so parking was not a problem at all. What's better is that we found out that IKEA was giving complimentary parking with spending of $10 for IKEA friends ($20 for public), excluding eating at the cafe. And then we went to see if Nelly could play at the ball room. Sadly, the minimum height is 90cm and right now, Nelly's 10cm short. :( But it was alright as we soon found out that there was so much to do at the children's section anyway where so many toys were on display and where the stuffed toys were endless for Nelly to point out and cuddle.

Such fun! I'm happy I found another cheap place to hang out with my favourite girl. :)

he's black, i'm white

here I am, sitting directly across my fellow iPhone buddy! he bought it for me exactly a week ago and seeing how truly superior and wonderful the iPhone really is, he's decided to get his very own today. right now, he's sorting his 600 contacts (what used to be over a thousand) and then he'll transfer it all to his new phone. and then i'm sure the apps d/l frenzy will begin! so far, I've got these apps on mine. Best of all, they're all FREE!

All really cool stuff!

I'm really loving this phone. I can surf, be on facebook and check my emails all the time, on the go. Taking photos and movies is so easy with the big screen. The photo apps are really wonderful too - i can now create a photo collage easily, take fish-eye photos, and edit photos using the free apps i downloaded. The touch screen is all very intuitive too and smsing is not a problem without the usual keypad. And and, I can sync my iPhone with whatever I've got on my MacBook - all of nelly's photos, videos, my iPod/Shuffle playlist, contacts and calendar.

This is about the coolest thing in a long long time... I love LOVE my iPhone!!! :DDDDD

sixteen months

In case you're wondering why Natalie is 16 months old so quickly, it's because my earlier post of her turning 15 months old is (as usual) very late. I'm trying to keep up and this is me trying now for her 16 months update. ;p And even so, I'm 3 days late!

This past week, her vocabulary has increased quite suddenly (is there such a thing as a speech spurt? ;p), with a keen interest to mimic the words we say, even if it's not accurate. The important thing is she's trying and I'm so happy to see those lips move. She can now say, with much consistency, "eeck" (EGG), "eeat" (EAT), "ma-meeee" (MUMMY), "pa-peeee" (PUPPY), "wa-weeee" (WOW WEE!). Our little one can also imitate sounds like "moooo", "meeeee" (MEOW), "ha ha ha", "he he he", "woof woof". It's really fun to watch her say her words. She's also into following actions and she loves her action songs. She's particularly good at doing the Christian songs "Give Me Oil in my Lamp" and "He's Able", and also "If You're Happy and You Know It".

She still has her love for books. She would usually go through 5-8 books at one sitting (on our laps). She has also discovered that she can read upside down and she quite likes to do that. I will ask her "where is upside down elmo?", she'll point elmo out to me. I'll ask her "where is the upside down bicycle?" and she knows where it is eventho it's all upside down. We're also trying to get her to read on her own independently (and not sitting on our laps all the time) while we carry on with our chores. She's been doing it quite well, for maybe 5-10mins before coming over with a book in tow asking us to read with her. It's some progress at least. :)

Her meal plan is pretty much the same, still fish porridge and cereal mostly. On Children's Day, my mum and I brought her out and I thought she could try table food together with us. We were at Sushi-Tei and I gave Nelly whatever we were eating. So she had Japanese rice with soup from my Niku Udon, topped with beef and chawanmushi. She loved it!!! yup, the soup must be a lil' salty for her so I know I can't do this often. I'm really glad Nelly's been my little helper around the house. She's always eager to help with little chores like throwing her diapers into the bin, bringing her clothes and putting it into the laundry basket, and fetcing things for us. It's very cute that she's so happy that she can help.

It's definitely been very rewarding being a full-time mom. Tiring but it's worth every minute! Nothing makes me more proud and happy than seeing and being with Natalie. I don't remember how many times I tell her each day that I'm so very proud of her. :) I'm trying to get more ideas as to what I can do more with Nelly at home, instead of going out all the time. Hubbahubs thinks it's important that she loves staying home and that it's as fun as being outdoors at the playground, the zoo or the park. Right now, we do alot of reading, music, singing, drawing, word puzzles, playing with her toys. If you've got any other ideas as to what else I can do at home, please please let me know. I do wish to expose Nelly to as many experiences as possible. :) I know I can be a better mommy and I will keep trying! :D

post morning run

this morning's run did happen afterall.

i woke up feeling quite psyched by it all. positive thinking is always good i thought. we got ready, I had a banana and yoghurt and we were out of the door by before 8am. instead of the canal run, Hubbahubs thought it'll be better if I ran on the softer stadium track since it's my first run since...forever! it's a less than 10mins walk to the stadium and I was still feeling good about it. we did our stretching, and then we began running alongside.

it was barely even 1 minute and I felt my heart pumping like crazy! it's true! is running supposed to do this to you!??!?! i carried on running and panting, i couldn't even talk to my running partner. that's like wasting precious energy isn't it? i endured with all my might for another 12 looooong minutes and then i gave up. i walked the rest of it for 8 minutes while Hubbahubs did his crazily tortorous interval training. boy, he can run like the wind! his stride was long and wide, kinda sexy actually. so he was just using me as warm-up all this time. :( so anyway, the minute the running stopped i was HAPPY, and giddy. there must be something i was not doing right cos I felt giddy. i must've pushed myself too hard! HAH!

all the way back, i was complaining non-stop how torturous the run was and why people do it and how there must be an easier way than this and if those people at the track really enjoyed running. MAD! then came the question from Hubbahubs if I was going to run again. that is really a toughie. i mean, who can ever tell what's gonna happen right?

when we got home, he quickly took out my iPod and charged it, hoping it'll motivate me to run again. he's so funny! :D for me, I need way more motivation than that! maybe like an Alaskan cruise...that would be nice. :))))))

all laid out

i've just taken out my running gear from the uppermost cupboard where all my clothes from HK are kept. my bag of clothes are all up there cos I STILL can't fit into them! anyway... if all goes well, at about 8am tomorrow, my first ever post-pregnancy, post-delivery, post-nelly-is-15-months-already run will take place. hopefully. i'll be following Hubbahubs on his usual canal run. he tells me it's 3.6km one way. i've never even done that much in my life! Natalie is staying over at my parents' tonight and tomorrow morning wil be my free time. the run must happen. or will it?

her new ride

Our little girl loves anything with wheels that she can turn left and right and left and right and around and around. Be it a wheel that's attached to a car, or a wheel that's attached to a wooden boring board, or a wheel that's simply attached to a part of a playground, she loves them all! So we thought this toy was perfect for her! I can't wait for her to get the hang of using her feet to push against the floor so that the car can move. Not sure if my good neighbours below will like that very much tho'. ;p

the one where nelly sorts shapes

a few weeks ago Nelly got us all excited with her ability to sort shapes! About time! Here's a video of her in action. She's looking kinda bored at the end of it cos I've been making her doing it over and over again. I'm so scared she might forget it that's why! ;p

fifteen months

Just when I thought life couldn't get better, IT DOES! It really is our joy and privilege to see our little girl grow each day. She's 15 months now and ALOT has happened. 

At her 15th month visit to her doctor, she weighed 10.2kg, and is 80cm tall. Both are in the 75th percentile. Her head circumference is small though, only 45cm, which puts her in the 25th percentile. Tiny head she's got! I'm hoping hard that there's no head-brain corelation! She also received 2 jabs - MMR and chicken pox vaccines, one on each thigh. We were told that the side-effects (fever lasting a few days from MMR jab, and rashes outbreak from chickenpox jab) would kick in from Day 5 to Day 12. True enough, Nelly had a temperature on Day 5, but thankfully it only lasted the evening and not days like the doctor said. At around the same time, her chest, tummy, back and face also started to break out in rashes. The rashes cleared in about 3 days. They did not cause her any discomfort as they were not itchy. Her next and last visit to her doctor would be in 3 months' time when she's 18 months old. 

She can walk really steadily now and takes quck steps when she walks. In fact, I've never seen her walk slowly before, always briskly. She also walks backwards and would turn her head back to check where she's going. She lurrrrves climbing stairs and would be drawn to one like a magnet. As much as we love to see her exercise those climbing muscles of hers, it makes us very tired bringing her up and down the flight of stairs 10-20 times! Her stamina is amazing while ours is just wavering. Spare your folks Natalie! ;p The good thing about the stairs is that it makes her so tired after that that she falls asleep so quickly. 

She's begun to say a few words more clearly now. I think her very first real word is "more". A very useful word for Natalie and that's why she said it first. She would use it whenever she wants more food, or when her water in her cup runs out. She would bring the cup to us and say "more", or after her last bite of whatever she's eating and say "more". She can also call us now. She doesn't say "Daddy" fully, but only the first part of it, ie. "Dair Dair". And she calls me "Ma Ma". Unfortunately for me, she says "Dair Dair"  much more frequently than "Ma Ma". Whenever she sees her Daddy walk through the door, or appear from out of a room, she would run towards him excitedly and say "Dair Dair" repeatedly. And when he's in the bathroom, she would stand outside the door, knock on it and call out "Dair Dair". Very heartwarming! Just 2 days ago, she said another word - "Ba-bu". This is her way of saying "Bubbles". We've been using this word quite alot, especially when bathing her (referring to the foam that her shampoo makes). And then recently my mum bought her a bubble gun. She would be so excited seeing the many bubbles and that's when she finally said "ba-bu, ba-bu"! Oh yes, and then she has a common sound for all the other words in this universe. She says "Maaa" for everything else. If you ask her "can you say Book?", she would say "Maaa". Can you say Cereal, she says "Maaa". Can you say Lion, she says "Maaa". Hilarious! 

I can't remember now when we started to show her books, but Nelly loves all her books very much. Our many trips and money spent in Borders is paying off. She never gets sick and tired of her books. She gets bored with a toy after some time, but never with her books. When she gets out of her room in the morning, the first thing she'll do is to go to the living room, pick up a book, and bring it to any one of us so that we can read it to her. At first, we found this really cute. But after some time it got to us because we would usually be busy in the kitchen trying to prepare her morning cereal and reading to her isn't our priority, yet. HAHA. So what the husband did was he would hide all her books from her in the morning! But really, we're happy that she loves books and making us sit with her to read it. She can now identify almost anything in the books. She can point to objects when we ask her to, even the smallest of objects in the book. She's also able to identify shapes, and can finally do shape-sorting. I have a video of her sorting her shapes and I'll post it after this. She amazes me! She's at a stage where's she understands everything that we say and is so very teachable. 

She loves music and songs very much too and we try our best to expose her to different kinds of music. Whenever she's into one of her crying fits, I find that singing a song to her is one of the best and surest way of calming her down, the other being food of course. I must tell you how greedy she is after this. So yes, she's surrounded by music in the house and in the car. She listens mostly to her Christian CDs, and sometimes classical music, and sometimes to Lady Gaga. Yup, my daughter listens to Lady Gaga and she dances to it. She's got the funniest dance move of doing a half squat and then moving her bum bum up and down and up and down. How to go to Zouk like that?!!? ;p Me and Hubbahubs sing alot to her. Whenever we sing, she would keep very still and just enjoy. Not that we're fantastic singers! We usually run out of songs to sing so we end up repeating or making up silly sonngs. Action songs are very fun to do with Nelly cos she's able imitate the actions now. For example, when I do "If you're happy and you know it", she's able to clap her hands, clap her feet, touch her nose, touch her ears, touch her head...etc. Very fun! 

Now to how greedy she is. If she's got a choice, I think she'll choose to eat the entire day away! She loves to munch and snack. Her favourites are the Baby Bites longish biscuits, Gerber puffs (altho she's kinda getting sick of these now), Cheddar Cheese Lucky Duckies, and most recently those tiny roundish egg balls that I used to it when I was a kid. These egg balls, she can easily finish the entire packet of 100g at one sitting. For the Baby Bites, she's got a peculiar habit which I must tell you about. Each pack contains 2 of those longish things (by the way, she can eat 3-4 packs of those, which is 6-8 rusks at a go). She would take one, eat it until it's about 1/2 to 3/4 in length. She would then give it back to me and ask for the 2nd full-length rusk. She would eat it until it's about 1/2 the length, and ask for the first one back again! She must always have the bigger piece! Wherever she learnt this from I don't know cos we certainly don't have strange eating habits like hers! 

Apart from her greediness, she's got discerning taste too. The egg balls that I was talking about, we've been buying those made in Japan. Those are quite costly for something quite basic so we thought we could get the locally made ones that you can buy from a big biscuit tin and in the weight you want for 1/3 the price. I was happy of course! I gave these to Natalie, thinking I am such a brilliant mother for saving money. She puts one in her mouth, bites it, gives a funny look, but swallows it anyhow. I give her another one, she takes it, puts in her mouth, doesn't bite it this time, and takes it out of her mouth immediately. I give her yet another one, she refuses it completely! "I only want those made in Japan, Mummy!!!!" AHAHAHAHAHHAHA. So now we're back buying the Japanese-made egg balls. Anything to make my baby's tastebuds happy. But I never learn my lesson and here's what happened. Natalie takes Yoplait's Petit Miam Yoghurt every night before going to bed. A week ago, we switched to the big tub, same brand but just more economical with the big 1kg tub. Few days ago however, I saw that the big tub of Marigold Yoghurt was on offer and so I bought it. Hubbahubs gave it to Nelly that night and she gave the funny look and then refused it altogether! The next day, we ran out to the supermarket to get the Yoplait brand again (which wasn't on offer!!!!) and our daughter ate it all happily again. What can I say... has she got discerning taste or what. LOL. 

I can't wait to see what the following month has to bring. She's full of surprises and makes us laugh so hard with her cheeky and funny ways. We love her so much and she's a miracle which I thank God for each day. :) 

You are my Sunshine , My only Sunshine 

You make me happy, when skies are grey 

You'll never know, Dear How much I love you 

Please don't take, my Sunshine away