Pirated Barney VS genuine Pipiyo

This week I cleared my last 2 days of childcare leave for the year of 2009... what am I up to lei.... Busy altering clothes for Charlotte! Hahhaha,....

Previous week my mil was asking where I got Charlotte that red flower dress... I said from the stall near her place... she say she wanna buy buy worried I hiam its not branded... I told her as long as the material good, no unfriendly design or material (some embroidery is prickly).... generally I am ok with Charlotte wearing any clothes...

Then after 1 week, my pil appear with 4 sets of dresses with matching panties somemore... The one I got for Charlotte does not come with matching panty... plus it was quite some time back... when Charlotte is still swimming in the tummy.

Among the 4 sets of dresses... got 1 full of flowers one which I posted in earlier blog entry... one of the flower got holes... but I am ok with it... then a set of sailor moon alike set, and one which is light blue with cherry... spaghetti top which is a bit too long and I alter the spaghetti band.

Of all, I like the print of this butterflies dress but I simply hate the look of the barney.... so pirated some more... hahaha.... so aku start to whip the needles, scissors again! Hahahha... I tried to like cut the embroidery line by line but simply too difficult... so I dismantle the top, took off the top layer which has the barney, sew another layer with one of my old clothes as backing... sew the top spaghetti to the front and iron on the pipiyo which I have kept for years! Hahahha

What is Charlotte up to!

Charlotte is busy "eating" her hand lately... Mummy bought her a lot of biting toys to satisfy her "hunger"... hahhaha...

Charlotte just finish her second jab... this time round she din scream so much at the clinic, but she scream after coming back home. I think she is angry...hahhaha she seems to know that she is going for injection that day...perhaps we have been telling her that she is going for injection and see her favorite doc tan a few days earlier. That morning she wake up with a black face and a bit "bui song" all the way.

Doc commented that Charlotte is on the lighter side and suggest that we start her on solid as soon as she hit 4 month... because she is drinking a lot of water and this will make her lighter. Doc say its least allergy to try food from month 4 till month 7... Hmmm.... Doc also say nothing to worry of her "dropping" hair as these are her "ta mao"... doc say no need to shave off.

My helper has been taking down notes on Charlotte sleeping timing, we realize that she nap from 12 to 3pm everyday...hmmm... and short nap in morning and late afternoon. Last Friday we brought her out to Tampines to find a gift for a friend's daughter then return home late afternoon where my in-law came over. Charlotte was excited and din sleep much... That evening she cry and scream non stop for an hour before she finally settled herself and sleep.

Saturday I made her sleep and sleep... had her usual long nap from 12 to 3... That evening we went to a ex col house for boxing day gathering. Charlotte behave herself and din make much fuss... All my ex col commented that Charlotte is a sweet gal... I told them, it because u gals din see the ugly side of her...hahhaha...

So we now learn the trick... want a sweet Charlotte? Make sure she has her nap and she will be sweet and nice! Kekekeke... When she is awake she needs to be entertained. Nowadays she watch cartoon or just simply play her hands and biting toys.

On Xmas eve, we had a house gathering at ah ching place and ws and james took a lot of photos... my favorite is this! Charlotte side profile again! Yes! Dun know why... I like photo of my gal side profile....hahhaha...

Can someone tell me why there are so many RULES and REGULATIONS in SG

We are just some pitiful people who stay in match box houses ... and all we ask for is easy system to make daily life more "enjoyable". Ever since we own our new place, then I know there are many things u have to keep 1 eye shut!

First is a housee with defects that never get clear despite several submission of defect list... I am just so sick of contacting the stupid HDB, the contractor who promise to return my spare key never did. Heng we gave him pad lock key.

Next we realized there is lines on the ceiling that look like water leakage... ok... close 1 eye... and of all the ceiling, 1 small ceiling in the master bedroom was not plaster properly... ok close 1 eye... then out of nowhere, one fine day when I was clearing the rubbish at the rubbish chute, I saw a crack on the exterior wall just below my unit... Woh so dangerous to see... best if close 1 eye... then lately they send a survey form... my chance to shoot them...but I doubt they will do anything to it.

In the survey form, they ask a question on naming of the place. They ask if a name as such would give more prestige to the place. Of course I say YES... but I dun think by having a nice name make your living place more atas. Why I say so... cos our car park is the most special one in Punggol, I think sooner will see more of car park like this.

There are over 300 units yet they build a stupid car park that can only park like 250 cars. Below the car park they have a 24 hours coffee shop and your friendly sing song supermarket... SO they expect u to walk here and buy ur barang barang and use a trolley to push home... no OUTSIDE car allow... why I say so... cos this stupid car park is chargeable all day long and all week long, it operate 24 by 7... even on Sunday and PH... ok that's still not the worse.

All the lot are painted white... but there is a red sign board that says SEASON PARKING ONLY AFTER 10.30PM. Damm if u come and visit me u cannot stay over 10.30pm.. cos your car will ganna summon... Just before we realize this stupid season parking thing, we ganna one summon of 50 bucks even though we tear a overnight parking coupon.

I manage to get this summon waived and I ask them what if I have family and friends who wants to come stay over 10.30pm or overnight. Their "friendly" reply was, please stick to our rules and regulation. Please advise your friends and family to park at a nearby car park.

Then I just bought a season parking for my vehicle... as advise by the super "friendly" poster at the HDB, please choose GIRO so that cut down waiting and q system. So the obedient me do so loh... just 2 days ago... I received a call from HDB informing that my giro application is rejected because I am not the owner of the car. And the season parking is given to priority for home owner of the place. Then I ask, what shall I do, they gave me a "friendly" advise!, PARK UR CAR ELSEWHERE.
Then I write an email to appeal. I ask if they are expecting me to park my vehicle else where and walk home just because I am not the owner of the vehicle and doesn't the home owner be given priority? I plead them please take into consideration that I have a young kid and I dun want to weather the storm and rain.

Today I received their reply... I was surprised why they reply so fast... Cos they just copy and paste their priority q system and stuff... end of the message is still I am not the car owner so they cannot sell me the giro thingy... and best of all, they advise me to CHANGE NAME for the vehicle to get the priority q for the season parking and giro!

Wat a joke of the day. Would u do a name change just because U need their F**King car park lot? I m just so fed up with this stupid system. We are just staying at some highly govt subside flat and need not set such atas rules for our area. I rather they just simply brand us as NORMAL de HDB flat.

Sotong Wannabe

Still remember the green sotong that Charlotte likes... We conclude that she might probably like the red mouth rather than the whole sotong itself.

I have the bunny (where u can insert your finger into to move and make funny movement)... I cant rem this is pass on by who...kekek... We have a lot of passing on toys... I play this bunny to Charlotte, making funny sound and action but she wasn't interested at all... continue crying and shouting..
I decided to do a trial... that is to add a red mouth onto this bunny... initially I sew the nose red... and a red line on the 2 curves.... realize that it does not look like the lip on the sotong... I expand the lip to a big mouth. But with the mouth and the nose both scary red... the "bunny" does look a bit scary...kekek... I remove the red nose and keep it black...

I decided that in cartoon like bug bunny, their ears have a inner color... so since Charlotte like red so much... I add on 2 lines of red onto the ear...

The end result??? I dun know to call this bunny or bear... cos bunny doesn't have a big mouth... but bear doesn't have long ears too...

Hmm.... but I guess as long as Charlotte likes it... it doesn't matter what this "thing" is call... I know the next thing u will ask is her reaction...

Initially she wasn't interested... perhaps she wasn't in a good mood when I show this to her... yes, this gal of mine does have frequent mood swing... kekek...

Slowly I try to entertain her with this "thing" she does react a bit by looking at it... but ultimately I think still the green sotong win.

Morale of the story? A fake can never win the real stuff! Kekekeke

Kanna Chop Carrot at the swimming place

Has always wanted to let Charlotte try swimming. Initially wanted to try when she is about 8 weeks old but she was down with fever then and dare not try. So waited until she is 3 months old.
We brought her to the "famous" swimming place at Harbourfront as I wanted to exchange some clothes from Mothercare (from the huggies diaper promotion). This "famous" swimming place used to have an outlet at punggol and recently shifted to yishun with a bigger space and bigger pool.
I check online for similar swimming place and none.. only this "famous" swimming place for baby... I saw somewhere the 1st time trial is $28.

When we reach the place, we were greeted by an auntie who seems like the matron of nurse in her pink uniform. I ask her how much would it be since it is our 1st trial. She took over Charlotte and massage her for warm up and keep telling me, U try 1st and see see...

Then she proceed very fast asking us for water to feed her, massage her, took off her clothes and diaper, put on the ring... there she is in the pool already. Charlotte was initially shouting (not crying) then the auntie sing song to her and she calm down. Before long, she enjoy the water and kicking happily.

The auntie say for 1st timer, Charlotte is doing well and should not soak too long. She remove her from the water and start to massage her. Then ask us to make milk for feeding. As we dressed her up and my helper feeding Charlotte, these group of china sales woman (I m not being racist, its just their attitude) sharpen their knife liao.

They sell us a package of over 200 bucks for 10 sessions. They say per swimming session for ad-hoc is 30 bucks.. so more worth to take a package... Then I refuse to sign the package. They change attitude and say, in that case they will have to charge me for $30 plus $22 for massage... but we din ask for massage! The matron of nurse say "I thought u guys will sign package then the massage for today is free"... But we din say we want package in the 1st place... moreover I keep asking how much and she refuse to say and proceed us very fast into the whole thing...

In the end, Nick argue to them that we din ask for the massage. The cashier, a nasty china lady say she will compromised by charging us half price for the massage... Nick din want to give in, but I am totally turn off by their attitude. I gave in and paid and we left.
Just as we are leaving, we saw another couple, Chinese woman, ang mo husband being quickly move into the same process... another carrot being cut!

Another note to this was, I realize they did not drain off the water entirely... I saw in forum commenting that these places did not sterilized or clean their pool regularly... I decided to get a private pool for Charlotte. Just order 1 online and cost $65...the pool can use till 2 years old. I should have gotten it earlier...

We do get something out of this experience... which is how to get Charlotte to play in the pool and some warming up before throwing her into the water....kekekke.

Baby Einstein Toys

I got this Baby Einstein take along present for Charlotte's full month celebration from my ex colleague. I find this quite useful as I do not need to puck power supply to produce music... kekeke .... I am a lazy mummy... I tried playing music to Charlotte on speaker a few times but most of the time I am lazy to set up the speaker and stuffs.

As Charlotte grow, I noticed that she like toys with music. I got a mobile cot hanger but the music has only 1 song... she dislike it... cant get her attention for more than a minute. Due to her allergy, I keep that toy away as it has fluffy hanging toy. I got her another one which is made of plastic toys and lots of different music... Can at least entertain her for like 10 minute. But she soon lose interest... now the toy is use to distract her during changing and feeding at home.

Recently I noticed that her nanny (aks helper maid) carry her and walk around when she is awake and crying for attention... Her nanny would sometimes make funny noise and sound to entertain her, but Charlotte would CALL the minute she is left alone.

Decided to rent toys to keep her entertained. All along I wanted to buy the automatic rocker from fisherprice. I could not find a good price for the 2nd hand item. Din want to get a brand new one as I find it too costly. Charlotte has the manually rocker which cost like 30 bucks, the old fashioned kind. She used to love rocking (me as the manual rocker) in it. Sometimes I m just too tired to rock. When her nanny came, I guess the nanny can easily take over the role of rocking...kekeke So I decided to rent a play gym for Charlotte.

 
The 1st rented toy I got was the Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym. I choose the Baby Einstein one because it has a machine that play music non stop...kekeke... there are lots of sea creatures that come along with it... But Charlotte only like that sotong.


We suspect Charlotte like the sotong because of the smiling face. The sotong as a red smile. The sotong is unable to produce any music... only sound from the rattle that is attached to one of its feet. I wonder if Charlotte would missed her sotong as the sotong is due to return "home" end of this month.... kekek

 So my quest to search for a similar sotong begin... not long... I saw this similar sotong at metro. Its has the same face. Only different? the body is blue... hahhaha... I realized this sotong is from the same maker, Baby Einstein. This sotong is much bigger in size and the legs give out sound when pressed. I din buy this sotong immediately... because the green sotong haven go home yet... plus by then Charlotte might not like the sotong anymore.

The manual rocker that I mentioned earlier is now everyday empty... cos she dun like the rocker anymore... maybe because its no longer comfy? Not sure... Initially I wanted to rent the fisherprice automatic rocker when Green sotong goes home... But I change my mind now...

Charlotte next rented toy would be a jumper for infant... She wake up more now and constantly required entertainment. Hope that the jumper can keep her entertained longer...kekeke...
Charlotte is changing her pattern very fast... I wonder what's next...hahhahah

Preparing to return to battle field

Just as I am starting to enjoy staying at home to shake legs, my maternity leave is ending soon... *sob sob....

To prepare for returning to work... I keep thinking (want to) digging out my working clothes and see I need some more stuff... But I am simply too lazy...hahha.... hate to know that holiday is ending soon...
The house is 99% done with the book shelves and bedroom side cabinet in. We got the items from ikea and easily 500 buck burst...kekke... we lug the items back on our own on trolley...and fixed till 2am....kekke... I was telling Nick that this house is really use sweat and lots of running up and down to get done one. Since we started shifting, we are like lugging items bags by bags. Our car has also faithfully serve us well... kekek... there are times we packed the car like no space left...kekeke...

I think Nick more siong cos he has been lugging items since we start preparing for Charlotte's arrival. Cot, mattress, baby items... then for reno, then for fixing up the house..kekek... At least I can help for the fixing up house... sometimes both of us felt like super man and super woman with a few bags in our hands.

We did our mass housewarming for Nick's family and relatives last Sunday. We did a few small one for friends. The one for Nick's family and relatives is a much bigger scale. about 30 pax. I cook and many are surprise... though not a very tasty one cos its my 1st time managing such a big scale, but lots of experience gained. Its quite tedious to DIY for such a big session, esp with the lugging of items from NTUC and gaint! But its quite satisfying as you can choose what you want to serve and portion. Though the comments wasn't good...but who cares... :P
Here's the menu:

Just for KidsTuna/ Egg Sandwiches - Self mix with japanese mayo
AppetizersFried hotdog - cut into flower shap
Sotong Ball - shrink when cold..kekeke
Fried Chicken Wing - fried with Kentucky mix
MainFried Bee Hoon - order from the coffee shop near my house, not very tasty
Chicken Curry - made from A1 curry sauce but add too much water, got ppl comment say its curry soup
Stiry fry mixed veg - Fail big time, the califlower turn yellow and cabbage is too dead after left to cool...next time just steam Brocoli and cook mix vegetarian veg which is dark in colour
Roast Duck - Sponsor by Nick's father
Prawns - Sponsor by Nick's father, fried with garlic and butter
DessertsSaralee Pound Cake - 4 boxes all finished ... kekeke mostly by the kids
Ice Cream
Canned Mixed fruits with peach - most perfect with the mix served in cheap salad bowl ($3.50) from ikea

The house warming session ended with cleaning up... not as bad as I expected... we have a lots of children and mostly are quite big... they are happy with playing in the study room and cutting paper and drawing... kekek... only a little boy drew on the wall.. manage to clean off with soap... highly recommended, washable paint...kekkeke

The kids have fun with the pound cake... a highly recommended for housewarming with kids...
Charlotte and Cousins
 

Children pillow fight... the study room instantly turn into a play ground! Kekekke

The play
The children are very creative... see the stage being set up with the straw paper? I watch the rehearsal version... after that they have the actual run and lastly they even have rating sheet where they draw 5 stars for you to color (to give rating)....dun underestimate the kids nowadays!


Sushi making in process
The girls ask Nick for the blanket and roll up one of the gals and start the sushi making! Hahhahah
The next big session will be for Nick's classmate in Jan. For that its no problem cos its a small group like 15 which I have managed before for friends gathering. Plus I am doing Ang Mo food for this group, which is much easier to manage.
 

Lately, I start to stock up stuffs that Charlotte needs. Recently saw some diaper sales in Cold Storage... did some price comparison. I realize that different cold storage have different price tag too! Difference can be as high as 1 buck. We tried Mummy Poko, Huggies Ultra (highly recommended by joey), Huggies Dry (free gift from a ex col), Dryer (sample). My verdict is, Huggies Ultra is the best for overnight, Mummy poko is good when bb poo poo. Huggies dry is the worse, keep leaking. Dyper caused nappy rash.


Since cold storage is having Huggies ultra sale, I quickly stock up M size. Then I saw on Huggies website that the barcode can be used to exchange for toy... hahha... Quickly grab enough packets to exchange for the toy!