Lil' Preston @ home

Lil' Preston @ 1-week young

Norelle 'jie-jie' giving a lil' kiss to baby Preston

Lil Preston @ 2-week young

The strike of the BIG 'T2'

The first week of the arrival of lil' Preston was a challenging time. Well, the problem was not with him as a newborn - so far he has been quite 'predictable'. He feeds every 3 hours, not a very fussy baby, pees and poos quite often...(well, compared to Norelle, he's much easier to handle).

Now the BIG problem is Norelle, herself. She has been quite 'difficult' and has been throwing tantrums since the day I've been admitted. She has been very demanding, stubborn, ignorant, rude, etc. She knows the arrival of her lil' brother and she will shows her affection towards him such as kissing, cuddling, and 'sayang' him. But her 'inner' self was somehow 'disturbed'. Since I'm doing my confinement at my MIL's, she also stays with me as she has never spent the night with another person (well she did spent 3 nights with my MIL when she was 4 Mos old - but she was still too young then).

And she's finding 'comfort' in her Barney. She practically asking to watch Barney 24/7 - which can be quite daunting when you are facing that 'Purple Creature' so many times a day. When we relented, she turned into a different person - wailing, screaming, kicking, fussing for the whole day. She will even 'cry out' for Barney in her sleep! We bought a few toys for her telling her that those were given to her by her 'didi'. That worked a little. But she is still very 'focus' in her Barney...

So we made a decision to bring her home (me and lil' Preston too) during the weekend. To let her 'break-away' from being station at my MIL's for so many days. She will tell us that she wanna go home as she misses home or misses all of us being together. Can tell that she is frustrated as her 'normal' routine has been disrupted. And she was better after the weekend stay at the home. But she still ask for her Barney DVDs but much better.

*Sigh......I hope this Terrible 2 phase + jealously will be over soon..........

Happy Birthday to Mummy!

15 December was my birthday - 4 days apart from lil' Preston's. So this year since I'm still in confinement, we had a rather simple celebration at home. HY bought a cake for me (hehehe..still able to had my share of birthday cake). So all of us (together with my inlaws) just had a small celebration. HY gave a me BIG pressie the night before. He bought me a Sony DSLR-A300 camera :) Didnt expect that from him though. So now I can take lots of pretty pictures of my 2 lil' kiddos (but....please dont ask me to read the manual)

My birthday pressie from hubby :)

Introducing our new addition to the family

We would like to present the latest addition to the Chew family. Our baby boy arrived on the 11 December 2008 (6 days earlier than EDD). Here's a little summary of the event:

11 Dec 08 11am - Went for check up and CTG as gynae will be away for holiday on Fri and Sat (edd 17 Dec)

12pm - CTG showed contractions every 10 mins and gynae did VE which showed I'm already 4cm dilated (didnt notice at all - no pain, etc)

1pm - Gynae said admit and said I'll deliver tht night. Was quite taken aback as didnt prepared to be admitted at all. HB sent Norelle back to MIL and went home to pack my hospital bag.

2-3pm - Still 4cm dilated. Nothing much happening as I feel 'normal' lor. But regreted that I didnt have the chance to feast before admitting.

3-4pm - Gynae came and checked and surprisingly dilated to about 6cm. So doc decided to burst my waterbag and put me on drip to 'fasten' up the whole process. Still zero feeling.

5pm - Waterbag was burst and put on drip. Waiting game again. HB was back and brought laptop. So went online in the delivery suite :P

6+pm - Felt contractions but still bearable. Decided to forego epi since already abt 8cm dilated. Still online then :P

7pm - OK...contractions getting more intense. Asked for the pedithine (spelling) jab on the buttock. Seriously to me the jab is no use lor.

7.23pm - Wah lau..the urge to push was so darn painful man...but luckily it was quite fast and after a few pushes...our boy finally made his appearance :)

Photos will follow soon....

Updated on Sunday, 21 December 2008:

Ok, here's a picture of our lil' Preston (2nd day):

Sweet Moments 1

Looking at how talkative my girl is nowadays, I came across a short conversation between her and my HY's nephew, Neils (4 YO). Both of them were playing on some puzzle blocks and this was what I heard:

Neils: Eek...eek..eek...(Grumbling as he cant fit one of the puzzles)
Norelle: Tor-tor, srow-ly (Gor-gor, slowly) - pacifying him to be patience
Neils: Eek..eek...Ngem tak geh (Why cannot eh?) - already losing his patienceNorelle: Tor-tor, man-man lei (Gor-gor, take it slowly)

Wahahahha..... so cute.

Norelle @ 22 Mos

Let's look at her development so far...

Weight
Erm...should be over 10kg (didnt weigh her)

Height
Erm..seems taller already lor (yeah, I know that I am a lousy mother - I dont keep track of her vital stats)

Teeth
I think she is still at 11 teeth. Or maybe sprouting some new ones????

Diet
Eat almost everything but not a big eater. More like she is interested in every single thing which she sets her eyes upon on. Her main meals are stil rice (cheena girl) and she likes soup. Not so keen on western food - except fren fries (not surprising). I think she has flavoured quite a wide variety of food/snacks/drinks already.

She LOVES to jump! Pratically that's her everyday 24/7 routine. Be it on the bed, sofa, stairs, baby cot, door-grille, gate, car, you name it, she's done it. This girl is not afraid of height or whatsoever!. And she can jump non-stop.

She is quite good with hands - she can screw and unscrew those bottle caps since very young. She has a knack of 'dismantling' things and put them back in one piece. She can fix those big ABC playmat puzzle (correctly) and those with pictures of fruits, etc. She can hold pens/pencils the correct way - think she's a leftie. She can self-feed pretty well now.

Vocab
This is the fun part. This little chatty box of mine is so talkative nowadays and most of her words / sentences are in cantonese as that's what she picks up from her cousin brother at my mother-in-law's. She knows quite a lot of words and has been speaking in sentences more foten now. Let me list down some of the sentences that she knows (cant remember all)...

"mummy/daddy/whoever..., lei zhoum mat yeh" (what are you doing?)
"yeh-yeh/ma ma/..., sik fan lor" (come and eat your dinner)
"I want Barney water" (I want to drink water - Barney bottle)
"I watch Barney ah"
"Barney spoil chor ah? / wai jor ah" (Barney CD spoiled?)
"I want to buy ta-kult' / ti-ta-gen'" (yakult/vitagen)
"Got somemore"
"I dont like...."
"mummy, tor ji ngo" (hold my hand)
"mummy, cannot reach wor"
"daddy play tennis"
"we go kai-kai first ah?"
"ngo em moi yi koh" (I dont want this one)

And some other sentences which I can remember. But she definitely knows a lot! And I dont know where she's getting all these from. Another funny thing is she knows how to form a sentence using 'and then'. Like for instance,

Me: Baby, you pooh-pooh already?
Norelle: Pooh-pooh already
Me: Who wash your bum bum?
Norelle: Daddy lor
Me: What happen to the pooh-pooh?
Norelle: Daddy pour away the pooh-pooh and then flush away lor

She can sing a few of the nursery rhymes (not the complete song). She can sing the first 2 lines of 'Twinkle twinkle little star' quite clearly and also the mandarin version of it, 'Yi shan yi shan liang jing jing'. Her favourite song so far is the 'London bridge is falling down'. Oh, she can also count from 1-10 and some parts from A-Z.

*Sigh*..that's my girl :) Just love her innocence. So pure and simple. Yes, she is quite a handful but I just love the 'free spirit' in her. Being totally carefree and laugh and cry to the fullest. I love her being totally her at her age. That's how a child supposed to be. And they only get to be like this once...........so cherish it.

I am a little hippo drinking my favourite 'ti-ta-gen'

Hi from baby Elmo and me!

A (Very) Short Escapade

I did something impromptu last weekend. I booked a night's stay at Boulevard Hotel, Mid Valley just to surpise HY. Well, aslo as a post-birthday celebration plus a short get-a-way for all of us. Work has been crazy for the past few months and time is drawing near for me to deliver our precious boy. So I guess this little short (really short) holiday would put some sanity back into our lives.

I managed to keep this 'agenda' from HY and the night before I secretly packed the bags with our stuff and sneaked them into the car. Wahahaha...I felt so naughty but at the same time I got the thrill doing something so 'secretive'. But I did tell him not to make any plans for Satturday and Sunday. Then on Saturday morning we went for our breakfast and I couldn't hold on any longer, so I just got it out. He seemed very pleased and excited (I hope!). We went home to prepared some last minute chores and rested a while (the check-in time was from 2pm).

We got to Boulevard Hotel and proceeded with the check-in. Norelle was very excited and has been running around (and climbing up and down on every chairs available) at the foyer. Our room was located on the 16th floor and the size of the room was decent enough. Quite a good value for the price I paid. Before that I did some 'research' and read some reviews on TripAdvisor. Turned out that those reviews were quite accurate and I'm pleased with myself :)

Norelle wasted no time in exploring the whole room, pulling out all the drawers / cupboards, etc. Then she busied herself by doing 'play-pretend' in making us tea / coffee with the mugs, spoons, coffees and tea sachets. HY offed for his squash game while we got some rest (it's Norelle's nap time). She was so excited upon seeing the babycot and insisted that she sleep there and she did :) So I had the whole King-sized bed all to myself and we had a good nap.

The funny thing about our little 'escape' was, that night, we still went home for dinner :) And we kept it from our family members. Hahaha..Somehow it made the whole thing much more 'sweet' and fun. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and we even managed to do some shopping at Carrefour. So convenient. We also stayed up to watch some movies on TV (it was such a luxury for me - laying down with fluffy pillows and thick duvet while watching TV).

Next morning we headed down for our breakfast at the coffee house (Wild Rice), located on the 9th Floor together with the gymnasium and swimming pool. Norelle was very excited upon seeing the swimming pool and we promised that she could go for a swim after taken her breakfast. Food was good and fresh. A good mixture of local and international spread. We had a little dip in the pool after our breakfast - yes, me included :). Just loved to be in the water - so light :) Norelle on the other hand, was having such a fun time in the pool. She got bored with the children pool and had more fun at the adult pool. Hahahhaa....

We checked-out at 1pm and walked around for a while at the mall before going home. When we got home, all three of us took a nap (a good 3 hours!). We truly enjoyed this 'holiday' of ours and looking forward to do it again.

Hmm...let's see what I can make out of this

This is so much fun! I can do this all day long

I wonder...I wonder....I wonder.....

Did I mention that I ABSOLUTELY love to swim??

A Lazy Holiday

Today is Public Holiday inconjunction with the Deepavali celebration. We decided to take the easy (lazy) way out so that we can recuperate after our fun and tiring outing to Sunway Lagoon on Saturday. We went to 1 Utama where there's an indoor 'Rain Forest' whereby a man-made waterfall, a trail of stream with koi fish surrounded by a lush greenery (real trees). You wont realise the fact that you are in a shopping centre.

The we headed for a yummy lunch at 'delicious' where we had a wholesome (HUGE) lunch of spaghetti and Gado-gado. And to quench out thirst on this hot day, we ordered a 'watermelon lychee burst' (fantastic). We walked around for a while. Bought some groceries and finished off with a ride on a 'Barney mobile' for Norelle. What a great and relaxing way to spend the holiday :)

Hello from daddy and baby Norelle

'Daddy, those pumpkins look really big and yummy :) '

'Mummy, do you think my left or right profile looks better?'

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm driving off with Barney and friends!

A Splish Splash Outing

HY's company organized a 'Family Day' on 25 October at Sunway Lagoon Themepark. Gosh! It's been zillion years since I went there and am not sure what to expect from it. We got there at about 10+ am and Norelle was already very excited upon seeing the slides and the swimming pool. She said to me, 'Mummy, got swee-meeng pool ah, shhhlike (slides)' and shrieked with laughter.

The place has changed a lot and more 'colourful'. It's really like a GIANT playground with slides, pools, with different themes everywhere. After a short briefing, we all adjourned to a smaller wave pool where HY and his colleagues carried out their tele-match. Whereby for Norelle, it's off to the pool!. She was a bit hesitated at first (still blur) and was reluctant to get into the water. There's a slide catered for children and she doesnt want to get near it.

With a bit of coaxing, she finally climbed up to the slides and slided down into the water. Of course we (HY and I took turn) held her as she's still a lil' young to go on her own. After that, she's all set. As if she suddenly remembered that, 'Hey, I like to play with water' and she went again and again on the slide. I also took this opportunity to have a dip since I have never been in the water in ages.

I bought a jacket float for Norelle at the store there and put it on her and I brought her into the deeper level of the pool. I felt good and LIGHT! And I can't believe that I could 'move' so easily. Norelle was doing great and after a while, she doesnt want me to hold onto her. Instead she 'float' on her own (I'm still holding onto her hands though). She wanted to go for the slides (which are bigger, higher and definitely I cant go). So, we told her that we are having a break first.

We rest for lunch and later HY brought her to the other area where there are lots of stairs, slides, and kids everywhere. And me just watched them (with my camera) from the bottom. Norelle wanted to go on the slides but those were too 'dangerous' for her. Then we came to a slightly smaller slide and let her have a go at it. Still, to me it's pretty scary for a child so young. But to my amazement, Norelle didnt fliched at all. She slided down the slide with water splashing all over her face and she was getting emmense joy from it. She went again and again on that slide. I seriously wonder where she got that courage from????

Then we adjourned to the bigger wave pool as I wanted to 'float' for the last time before we go :P Norelle of course no problem with that. And this time, she doesnt even want to wear the float. So we stayed at the level where she was able to stand.

We all have a wonderful time there and I was grateful for the opportunity to 'relieve' myself for a short time from all the heaviness and achiness of my body. Mind you, at 32 weeks, carrying a 2.3kg baby plus anything else in my body, it was indeed heavy.

All ready for the BIG adventure

'What are you looking at? Get your own float. This is mine!'

Ready or not, here I come!!!!!

Commando in training

Daddy, can we get one of these install at our bathroom???

Mummy with a BIG tummy :P

The Chew family

Norelle @ 20+ Mos

Norelle turned 20 mos on 30.10.2008 and it's such a great joy to have her by our side. She's getting more and more responsive and she is getting more and more curious. She can express herself pretty well. She's on 3-word (sometimes more) syllabus. And it's amazing sometimes the words that are coming out from her mouth.

Mummy: Baby, do you want to go to class? (her kindermuzik class)

Norelle: Want

Mummy: So, we better get going.

Norelle: Mummy, late jor lor (we are running late)

Mummy: -_-!

Guess she must have picked it up from me as I was always rushing and telling HY that we are running late :P. Another of her favourite sentence is, "Ah Mi, I watch Barney, AHHHHH?" (with a super sweet and smiley face when she's saying this). She is OBSESS with that purple he/she creature! She asks for it day and night. First thing in the morning, before nap time and before bedtime. If we dont give in, she retaliates by screaming, kicking as if it's the end of the world!

Besides tons of DVDs, she also has other paraphernalia like a soft toy each of Barney and BJ (another character), a water tumble and a small velcro sling bag. The best is, she was being introduced to Barney only a couple of weeks ago. That purple creature sure knows the way to the little ones' hearts.

Other than that, she's all good and loves her 'didi' very much. She will constantly kiss my tummy and put her ears to it and strokes it. Awwww...so sweet. But I wonder whether she really understands that I'm actually carrying a lil' human being inside me??? I have less than 10 weeks to go before she actually meet her baby brother and right now, HY and I are spending as much time as we can with her. And I still cant believe that I will become a mother of 2 very very soon. Another thing is, I am still ponder whether I will have the same amount of love for my baby boy as I have for Norelle? I know people say of course, you will love each one of them 110%. Hmmm...we shall wait and see.......

3rd Anniversary

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on 24.09.2008. And it was a coincidence that I was on leave as I was due for my check-up. So kinda kill two birds with one stone :)

So in the morning we went to SJMC for my check-up. I was 28 weeks and our baby's doing very well. He weighed about 1.27kg and according to my gynae, at 28 weeks the baby should weighs at least 1.2kg. So, he is doing perfectly fine.

Then we went to Sunway Pyramid for our 'anniversary' lunch. It's much easier going for lunch when you have a child with you. So we settled for Sushi Zanmai for some Japanese feast. Norelle had the whole cup of chawan mushi and some rice too. And I, had too much of everything. HY still amaze how I can actually eat that much. Hahhahaa... well, I'm eating for '2' right? Thank goodness for this pregnancy I didnt gain as much weight as the previous time :)

Genting Trip

On 20 September 08, Saturday, we decided to go for a short trip to Genting Highlands. We took this opportunity as it did not coincide with any school / public holidays. It's been ages since HY and I went to Genting and it would be Norelle's 1st time there.

We took off at about 10.30am in the morning and went for tim sum breakfast at our usual place in Damansara Uptown. Then the journey up to Genting only took 45 mins and we reached the 'peak' at 12pm.

The weather was colder than we thought - about 19 deg. It's Norelle first time being in a natural 'cold' environment (apart from air-conditioned places). We headed straight to the ticketing counter and purchased tickets for both indoor and outdoor theme parks for HY and myself as Norelle is (still) young enough to enter FREE. And the best part was for my ticket, I only paid half (kiddie price) as I'm pregnant and a lot (mostly all) of the rides are deemed not suitable / not permitable for pregnant woman. Better still, save more $$$...

We started taking Norelle on a slow cable ride (indoor) and after that we took the journey to outdoor since the weather was still good and sunny. HY accompanied Norelle on most of the rides and she was having fun. She doesnt portrayed a slight fear towards all those rides - be it bumpy rides, escalating high up and plunging down or being few hundreds (I think) meters high up in a ferris wheel.

She even went on a few rides on her own and she totally loved it. And there I was holding my breath fearing that she would cry her lungs out without either one of us accompanying her. Nope. I was totally wrong. Those fears that I had were not neccessary. What I saw was my girl was all grown up being able to 'handle' the situation by herself. And she did great!

We had our lunch there and it was our lucky day as there was a 'Thai fair' at the outdoor theme park and some stalls selling thai food. Well, at least better than those food inside. But I have to admit that there are lots of new (maybe not anymore) shops / eateries like Old Town Kopitiam, Hainan Kopitiam, etc..so I guess food wise would be much better now.

Finally we conquered most of the rides and it was time to go home. We never have the intention to spend a night there as nothing much left for us to do. So at about 4+pm, we bid farewell to Genting. Within 5 minutes in the car, Norelle fell asleep all the way back home and continued sleeping until about 8pm.

There....a day well spent. Just the 3 (or 4) of us.....

Mid Autumn Festival 08

We celebrated the mid autumn festival a.k.a. lantern festival last Saturday (13 September). We went to Norelle's poh-poh & kung kung's house to have a small gathering. We bought a fish-shape lantern for Norelle and she loved it.

There were lots of food to go around and everyone had a great time including Norelle. She finished her dinner and the ebst of all, we got ourselves a 'baby sitter' (my cousin's girl - 9 YO) to accompany her. The weather was fantastic that day but it rained the next day (the actual day of the festival). All in all, it was a great night.

'Can I set the lantern alight?'

Spotted with a new haircut - NOT mummy's idea!

The scrumptious spread for the night

Norelle with Kah Yan cheh-cheh

My 'Kay-poh' girl

See what she did when she spotted a 'displayed' vacuum at a shopping mall??? She was 'showing off' her domesticated skills. Mummy was proud of her 'skills' but would be good if she shows it off at home instead.

'I'm a goooooooooooooood girl, mummy'

Norelle @ 19mos

'Hmmm...where's my food? I'm hungry' 'See, I have perrrrrfect table manners'

'Hey, it's hard to eat a watermelon with spoon, ok!' 'Don't look at me like that. I'm just trying to have a decent meal'

'Wave like a Queen' 'I've gotta go. My shinning stallion is here to take me away'

2nd Singapore trip - July 08

Here we are again in the lion city. The occassion for this trip was to celebrate the wedding of Uncle Howard and Aunty Joyce. For this time around, we stayed for 3 days and didnt do much cos not much time and nowhere else to go. But of course everytime when we make a trip there, I make sure that we wont come back empty handed. So for this trip I managed to get a Maclaren Ryder, light-weight stroller for Norelle and also a Graco infant car seat for our Prince-to-be. Oh, and also not forgetting mummy's loot from Aunty Jaslyn AGAIN...hahahha. Bought some Gymboree clothes for Norelle through the website. The last time was Old Navy. Hahahhahaa....Cant help it when the bargains are too good to let go. I hardly buy clothes from the stores anymore once I got to know the price the brands offer online. Cant imagine before this I used to pay such a high price for those stuff.

Back to the trip. Unlike the last trip, this time the weather was much cooler and it rained almost everyday when we were there. This time we stayed at Novotel, Clarke Quay and we loved the place. I think they have refurbished the hotel as it is very 'ultra-modern chic' look. The room was spacious enough and the bed was extra wide :) The hotel is right next to (more like attached) Liang Court whereby there's a Japanese supermarket (Mediya) and lots of Japanese frequent this place. So it's very convenient for us.

The three-day getaway ended very quickly and how I wish we get to stay longer. The next day when we got back to KL, we went for my routine check-up with my gynae. I was 20 odd weeks and the baby had grown quite a bit. According to doc, he seems to have a set of long and lanky legs :P And of course we were made certain once again about the gender. Haha...my boy doesnt seem to be 'shy' in showing us his asset in every visit.

Hi Singapore, remember me? I'm here again :)

You think this pose is ok? Can charm all the hansome leng chais in Singapore ah?

'Daaaaaaaaaaady, please grip me tight tight or...dont drop me into the pond. I just had my hair done.'

My best time during the entire trip - Pool time!