Auntie Sehmin's place

Last Wednesday, Auntie Sehmin invited us to her place for tea. The two Korean sisters were delighted to meet Sheri after they came back from school. They could not wait to play with Sheri, so mommy left her in their care while I enjoyed chatting with Auntie Sehmin.

They were so sad to see us leave that they voluntarily walked us back to our apartment. Sheri is indeed fortunate to be loved by so many of us.

Unbearably warm weekend!

Recently, the weather has been extremely warm. Accordingly to the weather channel, we are experiencing a heat wave. Actually, this is the kind of weather that we used to experience when we are back in our home country. The only difference is the humidity. It is certainly less humid here, so even though the temperature is approximately the same as in Singapore, we do not perspire as much as we do in Singapore. Perhaps, we have been here for quite awhile, daddy and mommy are finding the heat wave to be quite unbearable. What could be a better place to be than in the pool in this scorching hot weather.We met the two korean families in our apartment complex. They adore our little Sheri so much that she became the centre of attraction when she went into the pool.

It's time for some serious swimming!

This is a good way to let our little Sheri stay afloat. We just have to hold her hands in the pool.

Singaporeans' gathering at Auntie Jocelyn's place

Last Sunday, Auntie Jocelyn and her husband invited us to her place for dinner together with other Singaporeans. As mentioned in the earlier post, all of them are employees of the Singapore branch office. They are here for business for a short while. It is rare to meet Singaporeans here, so it was a nice gathering with fellow countrymen.
The food was real yummy too! What could be more appropriate than savoring our local delights. We had curry chicken, chili crab, stir fried broccoli with baby corns, stir fried prawns with onions, and ice cream. Thank you, Auntie Jocelyn and her husband for organizing the gathering!


Sheri kept herself occupied by playing with the remote control.

Sheri loves to play with the Auntie Jocelyn's camera.

2-ring pool!

Since the weather is warmer nowadays, we thought it might be a good idea for Sheri to have some fun playing with the water outside the house. So, we bought a 2-ring pool for her last week. We had the first opening ceremony on last Sunday. Our little Sheri was so anxious to get into the pool that she went in even before daddy could fill up the pool.

Frankly speaking, we were a bit disappointed with the size of the pool because it is a bit small. We should have bought a 3-ring pool instead so that we can all go into the pool. Well, I guess Sheri can enjoy the pool all by herself for the moment!
Along came the two Korean sisters who were keen to join in the fun with Sheri.

Affectionate Sheri

For quite awhile, Sheri has been kissing her teddy bear by bringing the teddy bear close to her lips. Nowadays, she is practising on real human beings and her first guinea pig is....... mommy of course! She will bring her lips close to my face and say the word 'kiss', and then she will chuckle in embarrassment. I guess that is her concept of 'kissing'. Nowadays, she kisses mommy every night before she sleeps and sometimes, she does it so many times that mommy has to ask her to stop and get back to bed.
As for daddy, she prefers to head butt him, but she does kiss him occasionally if her mood is good. I guess 'head butting' is her preferred mode of showing her affection to daddy.

Sunny day at the park

It was a bright and sunny day on last Friday. Thinking it might be a good day to take some pictures, mommy took Sheri to the park after putting on the summer dress that Auntie Linda bought for her. Here, we really have to dress for the season. We only had a few days of warm weather in Spring, so there are very limited opportunities for mommy to put on sleeveless outfits on Sheri. Since summer is officially here, mommy will seize every opportunity to show off some of her baby skin. Hee hee hee!!!

Argument at Mazda service centre

After visiting the dentist on last Thursday, we charged to the Mazda service centre to lodge a complaint about their service standard. If you have followed my earlier posts, you should know that the sepentine belt in our car was ripped on the day daddy came back from his business trip and we strongly feel that the incident could have been avoided if our mechanic had advised us to change the belt during our last service appointment. We spoke to the manager and presented our case to him. As expected, he denied responsibility and even tried to cast doubts on our case by telling us that the belt could have possibly ripped by a stone on the road. The probability of that occurring is obviously minimal as we do not drive on unpaved road. I must give daddy some credit for arguing with the manager as he is usually very mild-mannered. Amazingly, Sheri did her part too by sitting still throughout the whole session. In the end, the manager offered to foot half the cost of replacing the belt at the repair shop. So, the case was closed. Actually, we did not expect them to offer to pay half the bill, but I guess they know very well that they could be partly responsible for the incident even though they were adamant in admitting it.

First visit to the dentist

Our little Sheri is now 18 months old. In order to inculcate the importance of good oral care, mommy started brushing her teeth when she was about one year old. Fortunately, our little Sheri has been quite receptive to the idea of brushing her teeth. Well, at least, I can stick the toothbrush into her mouth without much difficulties. However, I must admit that it is not easy to help her brush her teeth cleanly. Even though I brush her teeth twice a day, I could still see some tartar on her lower teeth, which could not be easily removed. Hence, we decided to bring Sheri to see a pediatric dentist to clean her teeth thoroughly. So, Sheri had her first visit to the dentist on last Thursday.At first, she was still in her usual bubbly self when she entered the room, but we could see her fearful look once we put her on the chair.
Those bottles with colourful labels at the back are the fluoride paste of different flavours. Mommy chose the strawberry flavour for our little girl since she loves to eat strawberries.

Mommy: Here's the mickey mouse for you to cuddle !

In order to alleviate her fear, the dentist started by introducing her to the clearning tools as toys for her to play. However, our little girl seemed to know what was in store for her. So, she started crying the minute she saw the tools. I guess you know what happened next. She refused to stay on the chair to have her teeth cleaned. She struggled so hard that even the dentist was amazed by her strength. In order not to hurt her during the cleaning process, mommy had to wrap her legs around her waist and hold her hands down. However, that was not sufficient to keep our little girl in place. Even daddy had to render his assistance by holding her legs down.

Sheri: Finally, the grueling process was over! Cheese!

At last, our little girl is back in daddy's arms!

It's time to say bye bye to the dentist.

Sheri: Bye! Bye!I have a clean set of teeth now! See you in 6 months time!

Auntie Hoppe's visit

Last Wednesday, mommy invited Auntie Hoppe to our place. Auntie Hoppe is just staying across the road from our apartment and she has a five months old son.
Seeing small babies always brings back memories of how mommy and daddy took care of Sheri during that period when she was so little. To this day, we are still very proud of ourselves for having a newborn baby in a foreign country without any domestic help. We did it! Three cheers for mommy and daddy!

Look at the funny gestures of our little ones!

Pool is finally open!

The swimming pool in our apartment complex is finally open on last Saturday. Since we were 'carless' over the long weekend, we thought it might be good idea to bring her to the pool to have some fun playing with the water.

Furthermore, mommy bought an inflatable toy dolphin for Sheri during one of her shopping trips last week when daddy was not around. So, she could not wait for her to have some fun riding on the dolphine in the pool.To our surprise, Sheri does not seem to have any fear for the water anymore. She rested her hands on the side of the pool for support, turned herself around and plunged her legs into the water. That was how she went into the pool herself without our assistance. I wondered if she knows what the consequences would be if daddy did not run after her and catch hold of her in time.


Even though it was a very sunny day, the water was very cold. We let our little girl equilibrate with the water temperature before bringing her into the water. Somehow, she enjoyed kicking the water at the side of the pool.


Unfortunately, our little Sheri did not seem to be too keen on riding on the dolphin. Never mind! We shall try again the next time.

Auntie Esther's visit

We just had a long weekend. It was the memorial weekend. That was the much awaited weekend as there are just very few holidays in the States. Auntie Esther came to visit us from Boston on Sunday. She was mommy and daddy's classmate in the university.



Mommy met up with her in Boston last year when we tagged along daddy for his conference trip. Sheri was about 8 months old then. Time flies. Sheri is now 17 months old.

This time, Auntie Esther brought along Uncle Raymond who seems to get along quite well with our little girl. She was happily playing with Uncle Raymond while mommy and daddy were chatting with Auntie Esther. That was a rare sight as our fussy little girl is usually not so easy-going with strangers. Anyway, mommy must really thank Uncle Raymond for babysitting our little girl.

Auntie Esther also bought a cute little 'sort and splash' whale for Sheri and some ready-to-cook Singapore meal kits for mommy and daddy. I guess only Singaporeans who are overseas can appreciate these meal packages as they do help satisfy our craving for local delights. Thank you, Auntie Esther!

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.