Saying 'please'

One of my proud moments had to be the time when Ash first muttered 'please' to me. I started getting her to say it when she asks for help or wants something from us and when she finally uttered it (after weeks of me trying to get her to verbalise it), I was so happy at this little milestone, though her 'please' really just sounds like 'peaceee'. From then on, I would ask her "What do you say?" whenever she wants something and she would bow a little and say 'peaceee'.

Today, after my Drypers Family Man event at Milennia Walk, I went to my in-laws' to bring her home. The moment she saw me, she immediately said 'ah peaceeee'. I was baffled! There was no indication of what she wanted before the magic word appeared! She usually would make some sort of indication but there was none this time round. I looked at the little angel and said "Tell mummy what you want, mummy don't know...." but she just kept saying "ah peaceee..."  -_-" I looked around, having no idea at all what she wanted until it hit me! Hmm... probably she wants my necklace... I put it on for her and the little imp was so happy she couldn't stop posing for the camera... hahahah... what a little vainpot I have!

Something funny she did

Just a short entry to share something my little imp did today. Just when we were about to get out of the house, she turned around and took my sewing kit bag (which I've left near the door), slinged it like a tai-tai and proceeded to walk out the door. Funny how she wants to bring a bag out when she has nothing to put in it...

My Birthday!

Hubs took leave today just to keep me company on my birthday. I wanted to have pancakes meal (no, not Macca's!) and upon a little research, Hubs decided to bring me to Food for Thought at SAM before we bring Ash out for the day.

Yummy brunch



Proceeded on to bring Ash out for some fun at 313@Somerset



My little Ash is really quite the stalker. As we were playing at the playground, there was this other boy (slightly older than Ash) there with his parents as well. Most of the time, he was on his own, exploring the different elements of the playground. Ash, upon seeing him, started shadowing his move and would move on to whatever he is playing. I think that scared the boy a little who then started to look over his shoulder whenever he moved on to something new. Ash would be smiling at him and imitating what he was doing. Eventually, the little boy just ran to his parents and didn't want to play on his own anymore. Haha...

Was glad that Ash figured out how to fiddle with the items at the playground without much prompting from us. A couple of cute pictures:

The trip

For the longest time, we have been wanting to bring Ash overseas but we lack the confidence in doing it ourselves (Hubs and me). In addition, we were worried about her not being adaptable to another country's climate/food/lodging so we kept holding back the idea. As http://www.deals.com.sg/ is all the rage now, we chanced upon a Batam deal that to us seemed rather attractive and distance/duration-wise, we find it OK to bring Ash there for her first "trial" trip overseas. We decided to ask along Alvin's side of the family if they would be interested (they are more game for group trips than my parents) and boy were we surprised by the response! It eventually came up to 15 pax for the 2D1N trip to Batam!

This trip marked a couple of 'firsts' for Ash:

1. besides milk, she ate 'outside' food for all her meals
2. first time donning swimming costumes
3. first time dipping in swimming pools
4. first trip overseas

Packing wasn't so much a headache as I would expect it to be. The things I packed for her were:
- 2 swimming costumes (yes, she has 2 even before she started any swimming!)
- 4 sets of clothing
- 1 bath robe
- 2 towels - 1 for showering and 1 supersized to cover her mattress
- a toy or two
- her blanket
- her pillow
- milk powder
- 4 milk bottles and 1 water bottle
- sunblock lotion
- diapers
- medication

One thing that worried us was whether she would get seasick or restless from the ferry trip. Good thing was, neither of these happened on the trip there (she fell asleep halfway through) but on the trip back? She was super restless and kept wanting to walk on the ferry (which was rather dangerous considering the water is a little choppy)! She refused to sleep and we had a hard time 'subduing' her. She screamed when she couldn't get her way and she had to be passed around so each one of us can take turns to entertain her with different antics and items. That 1.5 hours seemed like eternity to all of us. Good thing there were so many of us, else Hubs and I would probably be at a loss at how to handle her.

Having said that, the family trip was quite fun and relaxing! When we brought her to the pool and dipped her for the first time, she let out a "WOOooo" and held back, trembling a little at the temperature of the water. It wasn't too cold but I guessed she weren't used to being in water colder than lukewarm. After the initial "WOoo" and reluctance, she warmed up to the swimming pool and had such fun kicking and "walking" in her float! She even attempted to drink the pool water by lowering her head between the float to drink it! The float she was in was a birthday present (in addition to the strawberry swimming costume) from XY and Esther. She liked it very much and can even identify the cartoons on it by pointing and saying "ish...ish..." (which translates to "fish...fish...") She cried a little when we lifted her out of the pool after the first session. Seeing how much she liked it, we brought her to the pool again the following day (before we checked out) for one more short dip. The water was colder than yesterday so we didn't stay too long before we prepared ourselves for the trip home.

Here's a summary of the trip:

Some of the cuter photos which I felt needed captions of their own:

getting all geared up for a trip to the resort

"have we brought everything?"

roomy playpen provided by the resort - Ash slept well in it!

in her 2nd pretty swimsuit courtesy of XY and Esther

she was so terrified of this mascot she cried when the mascot moved in for a picture!

hahah... Hubs had to resort to reading on the ferry to keep her occupied

Seeing her performance on the trip back, Hubs is a little hesitant on bringing her on longer trips with just the 3 of us. As much as we would love to bring her around, we thought she would be too young to enjoy herself on trips and remember anything. Besides, we do not want to risk her falling sick overseas at such a young age due to inadaptability. All in all, we thought that it would not be enjoyable for both adults and the child alike if we really do bring her for longer and further trips, so, we would most probably wait till she can verbalise and understand instructions better before deciding on another holiday destination for her. Meanwhile, Ash has to just make do with Sunny Singapore and possibly day trips to Malaysia :)

Celebration for me

Dinner at Hippopotamus

Drinks at Level 33 - awesome view!

Dinner and drinks with this bunch of friends (including Lynette who's not in the pictures) was good. Thanks y'all!

Qing Ming

Ash tagged along for the praying session - she insisted on that necklace before we left the house

enjoying her bread while the adults do their stuffs