Mayenne's 2nd CNY

A year ago, Little Mayenne at 8 months was clueless about the excitement, loud noises and colourful deco.

A year later, a little Bigger Mayenne at 20 months can appreciate CNY a lot more. Here are some pictures to show her enthusiasm.

She wants to Lo Hei too.

Mayenne the Kungfu Kid
(and endorsing Robinsons)

Learning Lion Dance

With Gonggong, Popo, Jiujiu and Jiumu

With Yehyeh, Mahmah, Gugu and Guzhang

Mayenne

Many friends have been asking, "How come there isn't any photos of Mayenne on your blog lately?"

Guilty. Din have the time to configure the photos we've taken of her. Here's some captured over the last 2 months or so.

"Where are the rest of my classmates?"

(Mayenne sitting quietly for Shichida class to start; that's my Mum and maid behind)

"Cool-ness Highness...."

The MCC (Mong Cha Cha) look
(just woke up mah)

"Hey, give back Mummy's straw!"

Mayenne has been toilet trained since she was 11 months old
(we have upgraded her from potty to WC; and it really helps that she makes 2 distinct sounds to differentiate between "big" and "small" business)

Mayenne Loves to Read

Hope she takes to the piano soon ...... =)

Baby Car Seat

If anyone out there is looking for a car seat, I recommend Bridex's Safe-N-Sound Range, and model "Premier". It is one of the few car seats which you can use from birth (rear facing; turn it around to face front when baby is 9 months) till the kid needs a booster seat. The fabric is plush, paddings are ample, and the base of the seat is smooth and rounded such that it will not damage your leather car seats.

We bought the car seat from Baby Hypermart at Ubi on the same weekend we collected our car.
We asked the sales person to install it in the car for us so that we can also learn the steps to fix and remove the seat.

I held my breath when I placed Mayenne in the seat, almost expecting her to wail and try to squirm her way out immediately.

But no..... she looked extremely comfortable and all set for the ride home. In fact, she fell asleep as soon as we left Ubi.


One word of caution though, the seat is so comfortable that I had trouble getting her out of it, and she will have an entire episode of wailing and crying back at home, taking us at least half an hour to calm her down.

In the Genes

When I was pregnant, many people tell me about things that babies can take after their parents, and even from the extended family: facial features, skin colour, allergies, etc.

When Mayenne was almost 4 months old, we noticed that she was displaying signs of the LTWY Syndrome, which runs in the blood of the Tan family (the symptoms are more pronounced in some than others).

We manage to catch one of the moments when it happened to Mayenne. See pictures below:

Mayenne was fussing a little, so we let her watch some TV

Mayenne slipped comfortably into Daddy's arms and watched intently

Hmmm......


Going......

Going......

Gone...... to Dreamland

By the way, LTWY stands for "Let the TV Watch You" Syndrome. Cure: Unknown. =)

Our New Baby

Join us in welcoming the newest member to our family:

Chevy Tan

Over the last few days, I have been checking on Chester on his excitement level on the arrival of our new car. Didn't get much pulse.

May be to him, the car is just a transport equipment, so there's really nothing to get too excited about. But for me, it is a milestone in our lives, just like having Mayenne. It will change our lives (for the better I hope).

At the advice of Chester's uncle, we arranged to pick up the car after 11am as it would be a "good" time to do so. Dex, the Chevy guy was really nice and he offered to send the car to Tuff-Kote to do the PPS first thing in the morning, so that we can save some time as it takes about 3 hours to do the treatment.

My father-in-law and Uncle Lee drove us to Alpine Motors at Sin Ming (their workshop is located there as well) and we reached there at about 11.30am. But the car was nowhere to be seen, and Dex called to tell us that they are putting the finishing touches to it. So instead of waiting at Alpine, we drove out to Tuff-Kote (which is just a few meters away from Alpine) to just take a look. True enough they were almost done and we all then headed back to Alpine with our new car.

Then we went to ThermalGuard at Macpherson to do up the solar film. Left the car with them and went for lunch. Within the hour, the process was completed, and we went for a spin and ended up at Autobacs at Bukit Timah to buy some car stuff, like chamois and leather wipes.

I was overwhelmed and amazed by the number and type of car products, ranging from decorative (flashing dice??) to maintenance (oils, sprays, paste, scrubs) to technical (meters, exhaust pipes for znging). Subsequently we returned to AMK and went to AMK Hub to buy some groceries and dinner.

It's been a long, but fulfilling day. And I've gotta stop peering at our car each time I pass our kitchen window (which is facing the carpark) ......

Celebrating Po Po's Birthday

We celebrated my mum's birthday last Sunday, together with my brother Cedric and sis-in-law Karynn. This would also be our first outing together.

Ced came to pick us at about 10.45am (our car is not ready yet) and we then headed for my mum's place which is just a 3-min drive away from where I stay. As Mayenne has not visited grandma's place before, we brought Mayenne upstairs to jor-jor (hang around). I guess she was overwhelmed about being at a new place, she bawled and was inconsolable. However, when my mum offered her an angpow, she was calmly took it and stopped crying. Bravo.

I'm getting there.... closer....

heh heh heh..... got it
(but must still pretend to sulk)

We then made our way to Kam Boat at Marina Square for some dim sum. Mayenne was fussing a bit when we were settling down at the table, but soon fell fast asleep, giving us some peace to enjoy our food.

After a short nap and feeling refreshed, Mayenne was all energetic and ecstatic. May be she's just thrilled on her first shopping day; may be she's just glad she's out of the house. Here are some happy moments she shared with Grandma.



Here's one for the album.


I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable and clean the nursery room was at Marina Square. The changing table was padded and there was ample space to manoveur within the room. One thing that could be improved would be to make the door to the room swing outwards, as I was nearly hit by the door when someone barged in, thinking it was a toilet (and of course, no apology was offered).

It's been a long while since we (I mean I) shopped, so we walked quite a bit, venturing between Marina Square and Suntec. Mayenne was rather cooperative, drifting in and out of sleep in her stroller as we pushed her along. It was only towards the end of the day when she got cranky and was refusing her milk though she didn't drink much the whole afternoon.

All in all, I enjoyed myself on Sunday, but was pooped at the end of it. And this is with my mum's help. With more practice (after getting our own car), I guess I should be able to manage without my mum, and could start going to more adventurous places, such as parks, beaches etc.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to stick to air-conditioned places with nursery rooms.

Mayenne's New Tongue Exercise

Step 1: Lie on a comfortable surface

Step 2: Do warm up exercises by sticking tongue out just a bit

Step 3: After warming up, swing tongue to the right

Step 4: Then to the left

Step 5: for the more experienced, you can stretch the tongue further

Be careful not to overdo as you may experience cramps

If that happens, just repeat from Step 1 to Step 4

In 4 weeks, you should have firmer and chubbier cheeks!

More photos of Mayenne

Mummy, where's the milk?

Are you looking at me?

The Donald Duck Look

Do I look like a boy or what?

Mayenne with Uncle Cedric and Aunty Karynn

Mayenne & Daddy

In one of our conversations on parenting, my MIL was relating how little my FIL participated in the initial stages of Chester's babyhood. According to her, he hardly carried the baby, what more change a diaper or bathed him.

I guess back in those days, men are viewed as sole-bread winners (point to note though is that my MIL also works) and child bearing and rearing are left to the women.

How times have changed and am I glad it did. Here are some stolen moments I caught of the father and daughter, spending some quality time together.

Mayenne's New Hairdo

(well, it's actually my mum behind her)

Mums & Babes

There have been a lot of arguments (friendly ones) as to who Mayenne resembles more, Chester or me. While trying to find evidence to support my case, I found some of my own baby photos and came across this one that my Dad took of my Mum and me in front of my paternal gramma's old house at Highland Street many many years ago. If you look closely enough, the date on the photo says Dec 1973, which means I was 3 months old then, about the same age as Mayenne now.

Feeling nostalgic, I took a photo in a similar pose with Mayenne too.

Me and Mum

Me and Mayenne

Here are some photos of Chester and me when we were tiny. What's the verdict, does Mayenne look more like Ches or me?

Baby Chester

+

Baby Angie

||

Baby Mayenne!

Happy 3rd Month, Mayenne!

Mayenne turns 3-month old today!

Here's looking at you!

But her mum had to "celebrate" this day by arranging for her to take not one, not two but 3 (!!!) vaccinations. Honestly, it was unintentional as the PD said that the jabs have to be administered when Mayenne is around 3 months, and it so happened that the appointment (booked a month ago) fell on her birthdate (24th).

As before, Mayenne cried only momentarily when the doctor injected her. Either she's a very brave girl, or she has inherited my thick-skin gene. For the videoclip of Mayenne's ordeal with the needle, check out Chester's blog at blog.chester.sg (Yes Sir! Yes Sir! 3 months full).

To make it up to her (or so I claim), I bought her a new Aprica stroller to replace the harsh-looking, totally uncomfortable, and unbelievably heavy Maclaren, and we used the Aprica today for the PD's visit. Mayenne seemed to have enjoyed her cushy ride and Mommie couldn't be more relieved that I don't need to lug that Maclaren piece of artillery equipment anymore.

Check out my new ride!
(I'm happier than I look, really)

Many people say that Mayenne looks more like a boy than a girl. So Mommie tries her very best to make sure that people don't mistaken her for one, like by getting her a red stroller, wearing pink clothes etc.

Today, as we were getting out of the lift at Gleneagles Medical Centre, Mayenne, sitting quietly in her red stroller wearing pink t-shirt and pants, caught the eye of a lady in the same lift as us, and she exclaimed, "What a good looking boy!" I replied, "Thanks, but she's actually a girl!" I think she got out of the lift at the next level.

After the PD's appointment, we bumped into my primary school music/choir teacher, Mrs Chin. It was actually my mum who pointed out her to me (my mum knows all my primary school teachers and vice versa - that's another long story for another time). Mrs Chin was the person who taught me how to sing, and placed music into my life. I remember her as a very dedicated teacher who relentlessly made sure that we believe in the songs we sing, and that we sing with our hearts. She still looked great after all these years (what, it must have been at least 20 years).

Anyway, back to Mayenne, I asked Mrs Chin if she thinks my baby was a boy or gal. She took a long hard look and confidently said "BOY".

I'm just short of making Mayenne wear a top that shouts "I'm Not a Boy!" and a wig.

Help!!