Underwater World, here we come!

It was a public holiday on 7 Nov 2011, and we decided to bring Le Xuan to the Sentosa Underwater World.  I had arranged with bro that we would fetch them at 8.30am but to my astonishment, I woke up at 8.20am!!! Dear also woke up with a stiff neck =/ After packing all the stuff as fast as I could and picking up bro and Xiaojia, we went to Vista Point to grab some bite. It was also then that we realised that there was a big walk event on the same morning at Sentosa, and we were praying that we could get a lot when we reached. 

Le Xuan was quite cooperative throughout the journey although she wasn't sitting on the child seat, thanks to mum. When we reached at about 11am, we went to watch a show at the dolphin lagoon. The weather was rather hot, nevertheless Le Xuan enjoyed seeing and waving to the sea lions and pink dolphins :) Dear and I were also happy that the Dolphin lagoon has been relocated to the underwater world and the audiences can now be closer to the animals.

After the show, we went in to the Underwater World. Le Xuan was so excited about putting her hands into the fish tank where she could feel the fishes, or rather she enjoyed playing with the water.  It was so hard to get her moving so that we could see the other aquariums. Me, dear, mum and even Xiaojia had to take turns to carry her while bro performed the role of "Mario" most of the time, haha. Le Xuan looked quite amazed when she saw an 'uncle' swimming in the gigantic tank and feeding the fishes. But she was also quite disappointed that she could only see but not feel the fishes. That was why she kept saying that she wanted to go back to the entrance which was the only place where she could get to touch the fishes. 

After going through the entire tunnel, Le Xuan was so happy that we were back at the entrance and insisted that she wanted to touch the fishes.  It was back breaking for me as I had to carry her and bend forward so that she could feel the starfish.

But luckily, someone came to my rescue very soon. It was the pink dolphin mascot!! Le Xuan was so excited to see dolphin jie jie and wanted to go up close to her. It was the chance for us to take some photos with Le Xuan and the mascot, and Le Xuan was so cute when she wanted to touch dolphin jie jie's hand and do hi-five with her. Hehe somehow this seemed to be the main highlight of the day =P

It was time for lunch and we decided to look for the Hot Dog King as bro said we could get discounts from his New Paper advert. We sat down at the nearby benches after buying our food but poor Le Xuan got a fright when a few peacocks went up close to her, plus the fact that she was feeling quite tired then. After lunch, we made our way home at about 1pm. It sure was a fun and exhausting trip to Sentosa! :) 

Father's Day 2011

I read back the previous year's entry before writing this, and I realised we celebrated Father's Day one day early again this year...just like last year! :) It was an eventful Father's day (eve) this year. We started off the day early, waking up and preparing to attend Ryan's birthday party. It was a long long drive to Rochester Park, but the place turned out to be surprisingly nice! I think dear and i were both delighted to see that there was a big play area for the kids. I think Le Xuan really enjoyed herself there. Especially with the big pool of balls and micro-oven with loads of fruits and food. :) I think the place was so fun that Le Xuan literally forgot to take her morning nap. But she fell asleep the moment we went back to the car. 

After the trip in the morning, we were all tired and decided to rest awhile more before we go out to celebrate Father's day proper. By the time we were all rested and ready to go out, it was already close to evening time. We decided to go Nex for dinner at Din Tai Fung again! ;) Before leaving the house, we made sure to take a nice family portrait as we hadn't taken a family photo for some time. After we're finally satisfied  with the photo taken, we set off on our journey to Nex. It was quite a long trip and dear had to entertain Le Xuan on the way there.

Just as we were reaching Nex, Le Xuan decided to give a little pressie for us. Yes, she gek sai and poo-ed just as we were going into the carpark. So the first stop for us upon reaching Nex was to look for the nursing room to change her diapers. When that was finally done, we headed straight to Din Tai Fung for our dinner. We waited awhile outside as the restaurant was quite packed. After placing our order, we decided to take another family da tou zhao before the food arrived. 

This year's Father's day was quite different from the previous year, as Le Xuan is now older and can eat along with us. We ordered steam layered Chinese cake for her, and she totally enjoyed it. She was happily asking dear and me to feed her one after another. "Mama wei, Papa wei". :) Of course, we also ordered our usual delights of egg fried rice, pork chop la mian and xiao long bao. 

I must say it was a very eventful Father's day this year with Le Xuan and dear. It was also more interesting as Le Xuan is now more interactive and had more funny expressions and phrases. It was a totally enjoyable Father's day out with dear and Le Xuan! 

A great step forward in potty training!

For the first time, Le Xuan managed to pee and poo in her potty today!! So in other words, just to pen this down clearly, Le Xuan officially started potty training when she was 18+ months :) 

It wasn't an easy feat for mummy and por por, as Le Xuan would usually shout BU YAO whenever we asked her to sit on the potty.  Come to think of it, the potty that she's currently using was my potty 29 years ago! Omg, and it is still very much in good condition, all thanks to por por. And of cos it doesn't look a least like those fanciful cute potties that they sell at departmental stores nowadays.

An account of what happened this morning:  We came back from Dr Seow's clinic as Le Xuan developed an allergic reaction again and was itchy all over especially her scalp. Then it was time for her bath but me and mum decided to ask her to pee in the potty again before she bathe. It's been some time since we tried to train her. The 3 of us were struggling outside the bathroom as Le Xuan kept sitting on the potty and stood up the very next minute. Thereafter, I asked her if she wanted to pee in the bathroom instead (in the potty of cos).  To my surprise, she said yes and we went into the bathroom for a trial. At first, she did the same stunt of sitting on the potty and standing up again. But after a short persuasion, she did not retaliate and I could hear her pee-ing sound. Yayeee! We did it! Mum and I shouted in delight and gave Le Xuan a round of applause. Haha she must be thinking how funny it was that mummy and por por could be so amused by her pee. And according to por por, when i was out in the afternoon to work, Le Xuan made another successful attempt in pee-ing and poo-ing in the potty and she did not wear diapers the rest of the day. So proud of this daughter although it's also quite amusing to hear from por por that Le Xuan found that she wet herself in the evening and shouted EEEeeeeee =P 

Potty training operation will resume tomorrow morning. Haha. 

@ 16 months: From one to two-syllable word

A few days ago, Le Xuan showed some improvement in her verbal skills. All this while, she could hardly pronounce any two-syllable word except for words like 'yellow' and also 'purple'.  The turning point started from the word 'orange'.  Le Xuan had always pronounced the word as "O", but a fews days ago while I was encouraging her to pronounce the word properly, she amazed me when she shouted, "Orane."  Haha, although she did not pronounce it accurately, I still felt a sense of pride and achievement.  It also showed that she is learning and developing healthily :) 

Over the next few days, Le Xuan also learnt how to pronounce words like 'Ernie', 'Anana' (Banana), 'Auntie', 'Uncle', 'Okie' (Okay), and 'Ai- Pie' (Hi-five).  Haha, I find her so cute and amusing when she learns how to pronounce  these words, and I sure am enjoying every bit of her development.  

Polliwogs Adventure on our 2nd year Wedding Anniversary

Dear took leave on 8 March 2011 which was our 2nd wedding anniversary. We decided to spend time together as a family before we go out as a couple in the evening for our anniversary dinner :) And since we had been waiting for the day when we can bring Le Xuan to Polliwogs, we decided to take her there for our family outing.

Polliwogs was situated very far at East Coast, and it took us almost 45 minutes to reach there. I was glad that Le Xuan was quite cooperative throughout the car ride when I entertained her with lots of nursery songs. When we reached there, Le Xuan was so excited when she caught sight of all the colourful balls and kept urging us to go in asap. Le Xuan was very happy when she plunged into the colourful pool of balls, kicking and picking them up at the same time. Hubby was also busy taking photos of Le Xuan (and also me) with his DSLR. After playing with the balls, Le Xuan was busy walking and crawling all over the place, while poor daddy and mummy had to follow her closely and with our bodies half bent most of the time. Haha I remembered I had fun too, when I hugged Le Xuan and we took a slide down before plunging into another pool of balls.

Daddy and baobao

Mummy and baobao

We spent almost 2 hours at Polliwogs that afternoon, and we could see that Le Xuan enjoyed herself so much that she forgot it was time for her milk and nap. As it was turning late, we quickly carried her to the small cafe and made milk for her while me and dear dear ate some light refreshments.

Haha as expected, Le Xuan totally concussed when we made our way home. Once we reached home, she was so refreshed and awake again, so glad that por por was there to take care of her as dear dear and I were already very tired. Hehe, but instead of napping, dear was so excited looking through and editting the photos that he took at Polliwogs. At about 7.30pm, it's time for couple time! We went to NEX for our anniversary dinner, and guess what, we went to Ding Tai Fung, again :P  Not just the same place, but the same food that we ordered as well, haha :P (and that's pai2 gu3 mian4, fried rice, and xiao3 long2 bao1).  But we sure were happy and satisfied after the meal. Dear even accompanied me around after dinner to shop for some cosmetics before we went back home. It must had been very tiring for dear as he clocked almost 100km of mileage for that day.  As for me, I had a lovely day spending quality time with hubby and Le Xuan on our 2nd year wedding anniversary :)

Our Anniversary Dinner @ Nex Ding Tai Fung :)

Little Princess's Developmental Milestones

Hee, this lazy mummy of Le Xuan has decided to pen this down in case she forgets her little princess's developmental milestones.  

Le Xuan got her 1st tooth when she was 8 months. It was a terrible experience for all of us as she had serious diarrhea before that, as much as 20 times a day, to the extent that her skin peeled due to abrasion and acidity of her loose stools.

Le Xuan started slithering on the floor like a snake when she was 9 months old, and eventually mastered the art of crawling when she was 10 months. Haha can't stop laughing at the funny videos of Le Xuan when she first learnt how to crawl. 

If I did not remember wrongly, at week 40 (also around 10 months), she was able to push herself up from lying to sit up position, although she was able to sit quite steadily since 7 months. Very soon after, she was able to pull herself up to standing position and support herself against her cot. She would enjoy her little walks in her cot, but I was quite worried about the way she walked as she kept tip-toeing. Besides her cot, she would limit her walks around our coffee table only. Other than that, she would just bend her knees whenever we want to pull her up to standing position. I guess she was not ready then and was afraid of falling down, so the easy way out for her was to crawl, hehe.

When Le Xuan was turning 1 year old, there were instances when she was willing to stand when we pulled her up to standing position with no support. This was all thanks to Playhouse Disney Channel as she was so engrossed in the TV show that she forgot about her fear and decided to stand or sometimes even dance along with the music. However, this was short-lived as she lost her balance the moment she tried to move forward. At 13 months, Le Xuan was more interested in learning how to walk. We would entice her with a colorful pen and she would walk a few steps before falling into our arms again, but as usual, she was tip-toeing most of the time. As time passed, Le Xuan seemed to gain more balance and was more enthusiastic about walking around although she would fall down quite a number of times.  Now, our little princess has turned 14 months and is happily walking around at home all day with little or no tip-toeing :)

Christmas 2010 with Le Xuan

Christmas fell on a Saturday this year, and we decided to bring Le Xuan out to see the Christmas lightings at Orchard Road. Woah, I could still remember that Le Xuan was just a soft and wriggly 1-month old baby when it was Christmas last year. Time really flies...

While waiting for our dear little princess to finish her dinner, I quickly packed her barang barang before changing into a pretty lovely blue dress that lao gong bought me for my Christmas gift :) Haha as usual, my dear lao gong suggested taking a family photo before we left the house. 

It was raining that evening but we went ahead with our plan, and asked por por to come along too (with  hidden agenda, hehe) There was some road closure somewhere at Orchard Road and we decided to park at Wheelock's place before making our way to Lido via the underpass. When we reached there, Le Xuan was fascinated by the purple and blue lightings along the road and hubby was excited about carrying her around to see the lightings.

It was time for dinner, and we decided to just walk into the Lido building to find an eating place. There wasn't much choice and we went to the crystal jade restaurant at the 3rd floor. After getting ourselves seated, Le Xuan was happily playing with an empty bowl and spoon, while por por fed her her favourite biscuit. The food was so-so but nevertheless we enjoyed the dinner.

After dinner, it was another short walk along the road before we make our way back to Wheelock's place. Yup, not to forget a da4 tou2 zhao4 with lao gong to round off our short evening trip. Looking forward to our next Christmas together :) 

Our da4 tou2 zhao4 :)