Heirloom

We were at Cobby's place having dinner when his Mom suddenly brought out two pieces of wind-up toys for Jolie to play.



Apparently these two toys belonged to Cobby and he had played with them when he himself was a child! Whao~ I thought that was pretty cool. I mean, in this day and age, who still keep their own toys long enough for their own children to play with! Well, the two toys were in perfect condition until Cobby's little niece tore out one of the bird's eye when they let her play with it, which is quite a shame.

Watching Jolie play with it was quite nice. I can imagine many years ago, her dad was as fascinated as her when he played with them. Come to think of it, I still have my favourite teddy bear, kept safely in the cupboard at my Mom's place. Maybe I can pass it on to her. But... perhaps I should wait till she's a little bigger. Meanwhile, Teddy's safe and sound in his cupboard. :)

A walk down memory lane

After Jolie's baby class, we went to Hougang Central for lunch and also stopped by the nursery to pick up some gravel and other stuff for our garden. When we left, Cobby asked me where do we go next. Since we're nearby, I suggested that we go visit my old home at Jalan Arif.

It's not the 1st time I've went back, that last time was a few years ago. But each time I went back to my old neighbourhood, it just feels so nostalgic. Of course, the place has changed, more new houses, many old ones has been renovated, new occupants. But some still looked exactly the same, so being there really brings back childhood memories. Memories of days filled with fun and laughter.

This time it's even more significant as I brought Jolie along. My old home is still there,the structure is still the same, just renovated till it looked very different. Even the street looked the same, yet different. Everything seemed smaller and more narrow. I guess when your're a child, everything looked bigger.

But what I really love and missed was how peaceful and quiet it was. The sun was setting, the birds were chirping. The only thing was, "where are all the children?" Last time, we would go out and play every evening. Now, not a soul on the streets, only a maid, bringing the dogs for a walk.

It was a great evening, walking and driving around the area. Hopefully one day we'll get to stay in a place like this again. :)

Baby Crawling!

Finally Jolie managed to crawl. The first time was during baby class (17 Oct 2009). The instructor wanted to let the babies crawl underneath some obstacles. Usually Jolie would need help to crawl forward. But that day, with some plastic balls to lure her forward, she started to crawl forward by herself! We didn't video it down but it was quite an exciting moment for Cobby and I. :)

The next day, we decided to document her first few attempts at crawling. This is one of them...



This is Take 2, a little further - note how just on 2nd try she's getting more steady.



Happy that Jolie has reached another stage in her life, but weary because she's mobile now~! :P

Jolie's favourite sound

Jolie the hunter

Hi there! I'm Jolie the hunter! Today we're going to hunt a big hairy gorilla!



Oh I found one! Shhh... the gorilla is unaware of my presence behind the papers. Let's creep up on him...



Oh no! He saw me! Quick spear it before it run away!



Oops, too "kan cheong", used the wrong end. The gorilla caught my spear!



Well, not a successful hunt, but it was fun anyway. Better luck next time!

Staying Over At Mom's

Cobby's overseas, so Mom suggest that Jolie and I stay over at her place so that she can help me take care of Jolie while not neglecting Dad. This would be the first time Jolie's spending the night at a place other than her own home, and my goodness, she's got so much stuff to pack!

When I told dad about it, he said that when we were little, Mom and Dad had to pack tons of stuff when we spend the weekend at grandma's place too! In fact, because there were three of us, they had three times the amount of stuff. Haha, I didn't even notice that we had to bring so much luggage. I guess when you are a child you don't really care how much work your parents do for your sake. Things would naturally be there when you need it.

It was fun, staying over at my Mom's place, a few years ago, that was my home. I chatted with parents, they played with Jolie, and I got to enjoy Mom's yummy meals! Dad was even inspired to whip up some Donuts!



Well, they don't look very pretty, cause he lost his metal donut moulds, he had to use a little shot glass to cut out the ring. But it still tasted great! What a treat! It's great to stay over at my Mom's place. It's nice to have another adult to talk to instead of facing baby alone all day everyday. Besides, Baby had alot of fun at her grandparent's place too!

Learning to stand up on the mattress...



Grabbing everything on the coffee table...



She loves to play with paper and tearing it up...



Basically likes anything new, even this mooncake tin is fascinating to her!



Of course, her favourite, zipping around the house in her walker...



And spending some quality time with her grandparents...



At night Jolie and I slept in my bro's room so that she won't disturb others when she wakes up at night. We retreated into the cool comfort of the air conditioned room but she wasn't sleepy yet, so we played for awhile.



She was in such a giggly mood.



I'm so glad that my parents are around when Cobby was suddenly sent away for work. It was a fun staying over, I think we can do this more often!

Mooncake Festival

Both Jolie and I were still not feeling well on Sat, honestly I would love to just stay home and sleep. But since it's mooncake festival we cannot miss the reunion dinner with the family. So off we went to Mother-in-law's place.

We hung around the house before heading out for dinner. My expression in this photo looks funny, but I like Jolie's look. She has really grown into her own look as she grows up. She has abit of us both but also her own look. So interesting!



Jolie's aunt bought her a big pink ball. Obviously she's still too small to play with it, but she'll have much fun with it when she grows bigger.



We expected the restaurants to be packed, so we wanted to eat early so that we can still come home and let Jolie play with her lantern before her bedtime.



We ate at Jumbo Seafood restaurant at East Coast. As expected, it was packed! Luckily we arrived early and managed to get seats before the dinner crowd came in. The food was absolutely delicious! We had crispy baby squid, spinach, mini yam rings with a whole scallop wrapped inside, drunken prawns and kung pao frogs. YUM~!

It was drizzling when we finished, but Jolie was quite curious of the area, so we took out our umbrella and strolled around for awhile. See how she loved to hold the umbrella? So cute!



We headed back when the rain started to get bigger. Jolie just recovered from her cold so I don't want her to be outside for too long. Back home we let Jolie play with the lantern that her grandma bought for her. It's a colourful bird that makes this loud screeching noises! Thankfully Jolie wasn't too timid, if it's other kids, probably they would have ran away crying from the horrible noise it makes. Haha...






When we got home the rain has stopped and I saw families playing with candles and lantern at the garden near our home. So Cobby and I brought Jolie there for a short walk. By then Jolie was already quite sleepy but still, she was quite intrigued with the other kids playing with candles and fairy lights.



So ends our 1st mooncake festival as a family. Next year Jolie would be able to run around by herself, then I guess would be another adventure altogether.

Sick

Baby has been feeling a little under the weather for a few days, so I just gave her some of the medicine that doc gave her the previous time we went to the doc. But instead of getting better, she seems to be getting worse! When she started to have those phlegm cough, I decided to take her to the doc.

When we got to the Thomson medical centre and declared that both of us (yah, Jolie gave me some of her virus too) was having flu-like symptoms, the nurses gave us a worried look, gave us both face masks and asked some guys if we can pass. I was worried that they were going to quarantine us both! But thankfully they let us pass.

Surprisingly Jolie agreed to wear the face mask (but only for awhile), much to the amusement to all the nurses. Everybody was like "SO CUTE...!" Haha, Jolie always spread joy to everybody we meet!




The next few days has been PURE HELL. My illness got worse and worse. I didn't see a doctor (can't remember why). I felt so sick and so tired due to my illness, but I can't rest as she's so clingy to me during the day and keep waking up during the night because of her discomfort. I wished someone could come rescue me and help take care of Jolie, but Mom's still in HK, there's no one but Cobby! Well, he tried he's best...

We were so sick that we didn't even go to Marl's raya lunch. I think it's better this way. Not nice to go spread germs during this festive season right.

Well, Jolie's feeling all well now, I'm still coughing abit. Cobby was suddenly sent overseas for work. Thankfully I'm feeling better and my Mom came back from HK. This has been the worse experience for me ever!