Eventful Saturday

Daddy is finally back from California. We drove to the airport to fetch daddy on Saturday morning. Daddy was completely exhausted from his trip, so we rested for a few hours at home before going to Uncle Garret's place for barbecue. Mommy volunteered to drive to Uncle Garret's place since she knew that daddy did not sleep very well on the plane. However, in the end, daddy insisted that he should take on the wheels since he is back. Fortunately, it was daddy who drove the car because something happened on our way to Uncle Garret's place. Just before we made a turn into a small road, mommy heard an unusual sound. At first, mommy did not suspect anything amiss because she thought that the car must have just run over something. However, just as daddy was maneuvering through the turn, he suddenly realized that the steering wheel had lost its power steering. The car suddenly weighed like a ton and he had difficulties completing the turn that he was making at the junction. At first, he thought that he would hit the incoming car, but fortunately, he managed to navigate the turn safely. Obviously, something must have happened to the car as it was not behaving normally, Anyway, we still hobbled our way to Uncle Garret's place since we were already in the vicinity. We decided to fill our stomach first before taking a look at the car. As usual, Sheri likes to climb up and down the stairs. Daddy really has to hold on to the little girl in case she falls down the stairs. With her newfound mobility, our little girl does not like to be held or carried anymore. She prefers to wander around on her own.

Uncle Garret and Auntie Sandra prepared so much yummy food that we could not resist indulging ourselves first. While Uncle Garret was busy grilling the chickens and the ribs, Sheri had some fun running around in the yard. We had barbecued ribs and chicken, shrimp salad, potato salad, strawberries cocktail, corns , ice cream cake and lots more food, which mommy could not remember. Anyway, all of them were finger-licking good. We did not take many pictures partly because our hands were too busy feeding our mouths. Our little Sheri was completely fascinated by the turtles in Uncle Garret's house. Auntie Sandra also has some bunnies in the house, but they were too shy to come out of their favourite hunt. Our little girl was very curious about the Auntie Mary's sunglasses.

Since daddy is back, he shall take over the task of feeding our little girl.

After satisfying our stomach, daddy decided to take a look at the car. At first, he thought that the steering fluid in the car might have run low, but it did not seem to be so when he opened up the bonnet. After discussing with Uncle Garret, we decided to drive to one of the repair shops that is in the vicinity. Even though the shop was already closed by the time we reached there, the mechanic still helped us check out the car. He found out that the steering belt had snapped and he seriously advised us not to drive the car any further as it may rip off the other belt, which may cause the engine to overheat. We were left with 2 options. We could either leave the car there for him to change the belt on Tuesday or arranged for someone to tow the car to our usual mechanic. After much consideration, we decided to leave the car with him. Frankly speaking, we were very surprised to find that such problems could arise as we regularly send the car for servicing. Obviously, the mechanic did not do a good job as we feel that he should have noticed that the belt must have worn off and advised us to change it during our last service appointment, which was just 3 months ago.
Anyway, mommy really has to count her blessing that this incident only happened when daddy was around and he was driving the car on local roads. Mommy could not imagine what would have happened if the belt were to snap a few hours earlier when mommy was driving the car at high speed on the highway to fetch daddy from the airport. I must really thank god that all of us are safe and sound.

Reading habits getting out of hand !

Earlier, I posted that our little girl is an avid 'reader'. Perhaps, I should not use the word 'reader' because we do not think that she can read at her age. Anyway, mommy noticed that Sheri's interest in books has grown even more recently. Nowadays, she starts throwing books on our laps, expecting us to read to her. This usually happens four or five times in a day and sometimes at the most inconvenient times like during a meal or when we are in the bathroom. She will follow us to the bathroom, holding a book in her hand and expecting us to read to her when we are in the bathroom. Worst of all, she demands that we read to her not once, but multiple times on a same book. It gets very boring after awhile, however, amazingly, our little girl does not seem to feel bored reading the same books over and over again. I don't deny that we have fully utilized all the books that we bought or those that we borrowed from the library. Mommy can even remember the lines in the books without referring to it. I guess too much of a good thing is bad. Reading is a good habit to inculcate in kids when they are young. However, excessive reading may not be a good thing after all. Anyway, we hope to let our little girl know in the future that she was a little bookworm when she was young and her reading habits is driving mommy crazy.

Home alone with Sheri again!

This morning, we sent daddy to the airport. He is going to attend a conference at Long Beach in Los Angeles for a week. What an exotic place to go for a conference! Furthermore, he is putting himself up in a nice hotel that is facing the beach. I bet that the view must be spectacular. If I were daddy, I would also be looking forward to the trip. However, it did not seem to be so. Mommy could sense that daddy left with a heavy heart today. On our way to the airport, he told mommy in the car that he would love traveling if he was alone, but nowadays, he does not like leaving us at home especially in a foreign country. What a changed man! Given his adventurous nature, I thought he would enjoy going to places just like in the past. Well I guess man do feel a sense of responsibility when they have a family. What can be more priceless than the companionship of your wife and kid!

Dinner with fellow Singaporeans

Yesterday, we invited three of our fellow Singaporeans to our house for dinner. It has been quite some time since we have friends from Singapore in our house. The last time we had them was in last Spring when mommy's good friends, Oranna and Yinshan visited us. Time flies. One year has passed in a twinkling of an eye.
Anyway, these fellow Singaporeans are from the Singapore branch office of daddy's company. Well, it's always nice to chat with our fellow countrymen to keep us updated about the latest developments in Singapore. For one, the population density seems to have increased somewhat as they were complaining about the number of people that they see on the streets nowadays. From our conversations with them, mommy gathered that they seem to love the suburban type of lifestyle here, but of course, they still miss the food in Singapore. On our part, we tried to make them feel at home by preparing food that they can relate to. For one, we treated them to sambal chili sauce, which according to daddy, is like 'liquid gold' since it is difficult to find them here.

We tried taking a picture before we started eating. Poor Sheri! She was in all tears. It seems that our little girl is still suffering from stranger's anxiety. She was so attached to mommy that mommy could not leave her in daddy's arms for a second just to set up the camera.


I guess our little girl just needs some time to warm up. She was perfectly fine after awhile and she gamely took a picture with Auntie Jocelyn and her husband after the dinner.

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

First of all, I would like to wish all mothers a belated 'Happy Mother's day!' Hopefully, it is a day of rest for many of them who have selflessly committed themselves to take care of the family. This year, I gave my mom a surprise by sending her a bouquet of flowers besides the usual 'red packet' that I asked my brother to give her on my behalf. When I called her early in the morning on Sunday to wish her a 'Happy Mother's day', she told me that she knew the flowers were from me when she first saw it. Well, I guess all mothers know their kids the best.

Over the weekend, we also celebrated 'Mother's day'. Daddy has been very busy recently. He is out for business trips most of the time. in fact, we just sent daddy to work this morning and he will be back only on Wednesday before he leaves again on Saturday for the following week. Anyway, daddy was around to celebrate mother's day with mommy over the weekend. We went to one of mommy's favourite Japanese restaurant for lunch. That was the restaurant that we patronized frequently when mommy was pregnant with Sheri. So, it always brings us fond memories when we went there.

It's difficult to take pictures of our little girl as she is always not looking at the camera. This was the best shot that we had in the restaurant.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mommy ordered shrimp tempura bento box. It's pretty sinful eating the deep fried shrimp, but mommy shall indulge herself on this special occasion. Daddy ordered Nabeyaki noodles , which was certainly much healthier. Well, I think daddy is a bit sick of outside food with all the wine and dine during his business trips.
After a hearty meal, we were off to Kohl's to shop for a Mother's day gift for mommy.

I love Huggies!

As mentioned in the earlier post, mommy and daddy always finds it very amazing that our little girl can flip a book in the right way at a very young age even though we did not deliberately teach her the correct way of reading a book. We only realised this when we observed that she is always flipping books in the correct way when she was 7 or 8 months old. Even our neighbour's daughter, Je-En finds it very intriguing when she saw Sheri flipping the books in the right way. Acording to Je-En's mom, kids usually do not know the correct way of handling a book when they re 7 or 8 months old. To them, a book is just another object that they can play with. Being unconvinced like us, Je-En tried testing our girl many times by giving her books that she has never seen before. Surprisingly, our girl managed to pass the test every time. So, mommy and daddy always think that our girl knows how to handle a book in the right way because of where the spine of the book is located. Frankly, we do not believe that she can look at the letters in the book and know the right way to read the book when she was 7 or 8 months old. Well, at least, we believe that we were not capable of doing that when we were at her age. To prove our hypothesis, we tested her a couple of times in the past by giving her stuffs like, pamphlets and documents, which do not have a spine, so there is no cue for her to rely on how to handle the stuff correctly. Amazingly, she passed all the tests, so this proves that our hypothesis is incorrect.

Recently, our little girl loves to say the word 'HUGGIES' when we apply the 'HUGGIES' baby lotion on her after bathing. When we passed by a stack of 'Huggies' diapers at the grocery store on Friday night, daddy decided to ask our little girl whether she knows the word 'HUGGIES' on the diaper box. For your information, we do not use the 'Huggies' diaper, so daddy is just trying to test if Sheri can recognise the word 'HUGGIES' on another item. Without much hesitation, our little girl said,"HUGGIES".

Being unconvinced about the result, daddy decided to carry out another test on our girl to see if she really knows how to read the word'Huggies' or it is just purely a coincidence. This time, he decided to ask her the same question using another brand of diaper box. Our little girl did not utter a single word when she saw another brand of diaper box. To further investigate the matter, daddy decided to do one last test on Sheri. He wrote the word 'HUGGIES' in front of her and asked what the word was. "HUGGIES!", exclaimed our little girl.

Finally, we can either conclude that our little girl really knows how to read the word"HUGGIES"or the company that markets the baby products 'HUGGIES' has done a very good job in choosing a name that kids can relate to.

The word 'HUGGIES' is a new addition to the list of words that our little girl can recognise. So far, she can recognise her own name and words like 'cat', duck', dog, ball', 'hat', 'egg' very well. We firmly believe that every kid has their own special ability and interest. The onus is on parents to recognise them and try to help them develop to their fullest potential.

For our little girl, we find that she shows a keen interest in reading and she knows how to handle books in the right way at a very young age. She also has a keen sense of numbers when she was one year old. She never fails to recognise herself in pictures ever since she was 7 months old and she loves to watch her own productions. Mommy hopes to document this so that our little girl can read about this in the future and perhaps be amused by her own special ability.

Playing ball with mommy and daddy in the park

We spent most of the time at home in the last weekend since daddy just came back from his business trip. Nevertheless, we went to the park and had fun playing ball with Sheri.

Happy Birthday to mommy!

Yes, daddy is finally back to celebrate mommy's birthday on last Sunday. This year, I have to commend on daddy's effort in baking a 'shoofly' pie for mommy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, 'shoofly' pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch delight. Legend has it that the process of baking the pie will attract the flies that you have to shoo them off, thus giving its name the 'shoofly' pie. It has been quite some time since daddy baked something. The last time he did that is about four or five years ago when he baked a banana cake. So, mommy should feel deeply honored when daddy wanted to bake something for her birthday.

The 'shoofly' pie is pretty unusual in its taste. I guess it is due to the molasses that is used as part of the ingredients. Frankly speaking, we have not tasted a 'shoofly' pie before, so we do not know its actual taste. Anyway, the pie that daddy baked turn out to be pretty okay, well at least, it is edible. Thank you!

Home alone with Sheri

For the past two days, mommy has been home alone with Sheri. Daddy is out on a business trip. Fortunately, our little girl has been quite cooperative with mommy in her daily routine of sleeping, eating and playing. I wonder if she knows that her daddy is not at home for the past 2 days as he is always the one who bathes her everyday when he comes back from work. Well, I guess mommy has to learn to be more independent in taking care of her and bringing her out on trips as daddy will be going away for a couple of times in the months to come.
Even though daddy is physically not with us, I guess mommy and Sheri are always in his mind as he calls back frequently to check everything is fine at home. Today, mommy was elated to receive a bouquet of roses from daddy for her coming birthday. This was a pleasant surprise for mommy as daddy did not mention anything about her birthday in his recent conversations with her. Mommy thought that he must have forgotten her birthday since daddy can be quite absentminded at times, especially with his busy work schedule. Well, I guess it is always nice to receive surprises like these once in awhile to spice up our lives. Thank you, daddy! Mommy and Sheri are waiting for you to come back to celebrate mommy's birthday together.

Hands-on-House and Amish Village & Farm House

Last Sunday, we went on a day trip to Lancaster County. It took us about an hour to drive there and by the time we reached the Visitor Centre, it was time for lunch. After collecting some information from the Centre, we settled down for a quick lunch outside the Visitor Centre. We had some sardine sandwiches, which were specially prepared by daddy in the morning.
Mommy and daddy were surprised to find that one end of the bench was slightly elevated and it had a back rest too. We guessed that it must be specially designed for kids. What an ingenious idea!

After having our lunch, we visited the Hands-on-House, which was the main purpose of our trip.Sheri playing with the maze.

What was our little girl doing in this costume 's room where you can dress your kids up in different outfits?

She seemed to be very keen in putting this huge pair of spectacle on.

Our little girl happily ringing a bell on a pirate's ship

Let your kids' creativity run wild. They can creat e toys with different faces at this station. This was daddy's creation!

Sheri: Can I bring the toy with me?

Mommy loves this mini grocery shop where kids can learn to shop and check out at a cash register.

This greedy little girl was caught munching on cheese again!

Sheri: Hmm! How should I choose the fruits and vegetables?

Sheri: Can I catch the lobster?

Sheri: Can I eat the fish's tail?

Laying her hands on some tractors in the mini farm exhibits.

Our little girl trying to drive a tractor. Obviously, she is too short to tur n the steering wheel.

Sorting out good and bad eggs at the eggs' counter

Playing with some construction toys with daddy.

After the Hands-on-House , we also visited the Amish Village and farmhouse . We went on a guided tour to learn about the lifestyle of the Amish folks. Unfortunately, it was then that we realised that our camera 's battery had gone flat. No more pictures! What a disappointment!

Sheri's laughter

Our little girl was in a laughing mode when she was having her tea-break after we came back home from the library on last Saturday. She seemed to be very amused by the 'ouch' sound that mommy made. Enjoy her laughter!

Last Saturday-Gym and library

As stated in the earlier post, mommy and daddy have been looking around to enroll our little girl in a gymnastic class. Auntie Galy recommended the gym class at Parkettes. So, last Saturday, we brought our little girl to a trial class at Parkettes. Unlike the Little Gym, the kids have more sapce to roam around and there are more activities for the kids to be engaged in.

Sheri: Here I go!

Sheri: Here, I come!

Sheri balancing herself in the foam bath.

Sheri: Here, I go again!

Sheri: I'm being turned round and round!

Rock and roll for Sheri!

Sheri jumping on the trampoline with the instructor.

Sheri: Can I do it myself?

Sheri: Oops! I fell down!

The class ended with sit-ups. Daddy made our little girl do 20 sit-ups instead of the usual ten that the rest of the kids did. Hee! Hee! Hee! Poor Sheri! Daddy has decided to add sit-ups to her daily morning exercises.
The instructor dished out some cookies to the kids. Of course, our little Sheri could not wait to put the cookies in her mouth. What a greedy girl! I guess she must be famished after all the twists and turns.

After the gymnastic class, we went for lunch before going on our tri-weekly trip to the library in the afternoon.

Look how engrossed this little girl is in flipping through the books that mommy had selected for her.

Thank you for reading! That was how we spent our last Saturday!

Water, water, everywhere!

Mommy is always thinking of ways to keep our little girl entertained. Fortunately, the weather is warmer nowadays, so at least, we can have more outdoor activities to spice up her life.
Last Friday afternoon, mommy let Sheri have some fun playing with water outside the house.

Sheri: I'm trying to squirt the little duck like what daddy and mommy do during bathing time.

Sheri: Is the little duck edible as well?

Well, at last, this little girl can splash for all she wants without wetting the bathroom floor.

16 months checkup

Today, we brought our little girl to her 16 months physical checkup. Now, she weighs 22.13 pounds and she is 32 inches tall. That brings her to 50 percentile in terms of weight and 75 percentile in terms of height.

In the video, you must be wondering why mommy asked Sheri whether she was ready for the barnyard dance. Well, it came from her favourite animals' book called 'Barnyard Dance'. It describes the animals dancing in the barnyard and it starts off by asking the animals to clap their hands and stomp their feet to get ready for the dance. Sheri loves to do that in front the mirror.
Later, mommy also asked Sheri whether she had done her morning exercises . Thanks to daddy. Her concept of morning exercises involves swinging her arms because that was how daddy helped her do her morning exercises when she was a baby. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MADH6a-Tg5w

Last weekend

By the time we got home from Princeton on Friday, it was ten o'clock at night. All of us were completely exhausted by the trip and we fell asleep very soon after we reached home. To our dismay, we found out that our little Sheri had teary eyes and a runny nose the next morning. Actually, mommy noticed that she started having a runny nose in the late afternoon when we were in Princeton, but the runny nose seemed to have gotten worse the next morning. Fortunately, there was no fever and our little Sheri was still as bubbly as ever except that she would get real messy when she started rubbing her nose and eyes. Obviously, mommy could not stand her being in such a big mess, so mommy was always running after her with a tissue to clean her up. I suspect that she was suffering from some form of allergy.
We kept her at home the whole day on Saturday to prevent her condition from worsening. Mommy had to force her to sleep a couple of times in the day and drink plenty of water. Sleeping in the daytime has always been a perennial problem for our little Sheri. She would get real mad with mommy when I forced her to sleep in the daytime. Fortunately, drinking water is not a problem for her. Every night, she will gobble down one whole bottle of water before sleeping. I guess that is her recipe for keeping herself healthy.
Fortunately, she became better on Sunday afternoon and we brought her to the playground in the evening.

Mommy was surprised to find that she could rock herself back and forth on the 'dolphine' now. She was not able to do it when we were at the playground last week. Good job, Sheri!

Mommy and daddy saw this swing which we have never seen it in our home country, so we could not wait to put our little girl on it.Too bad! It's too big for our little girl. It's for 5-12 years old kids.

On our way home from the playground, we stopped by daddy's office to pick up something. Mommy saw the magnolia trees in full bloom at the carpark. The flowers that had fallen form a flower bed on the ground. I thought that was a beautiful sight. Crazy mommy could not resist taking a picture of it.