30 Apr 08 - A swimming star is borned

The reason why I say that is because Jerlene has started learning how to kick her leg in the pool. Not only that, she also seems to learn how to trap water, and how to swim backstroke etc etc. When I let her lie flat on the water surface in a backstroke position, she always tries to bend her head backwards so that her entire hair is submerged in the water. While in the freestyle position, she will start kicking her legs. Also, she kept wanting to jump into the water whereby it is much deeper than her height. She totally has no fear even when her head is submerged in water for 1-2 seconds. Probably that's because she knows I'm around and I will never put her into any danger. Having said that, I must really be extra alert now in the pool since she dun know what is danger.

Too bad I forgot to bring my camera down today. Otherwise I can show you all how she enjoy in the pool. But stay tuned as I'll try to capture some videos and images of all those fun moment next weekend.

29 Apr 2008 - My little "Ah Lian"

You must be wondering why I'm calling Jerlene "Ah Lian". Look at this picture and you will know. She was squatting in front of the TV and watch her Hi-5 video. There is proper place for her to sit but she prefers to squat instead.....sigh.........

26 Apr 2008 - The Vain Girl

Recently, Jerlene is becoming more and more vain. Whenever she combs through her toy box, one of the "must" item to pick up is her mirror. And when she stands in front of a mirror, be it in the lift or in shopping mall, she will smile at herself in the mirror. Furthermore, Jerlene no longer reject us from putting on a hairband for her. She used to pull it off the moment we put a hairband on her head but now, she does not pull it off anymore. In fact, she will stay very still so that we can put it on easily and after hairband has been put on her head, she will clap her hand and smile radiantly. Not only that, sometimes when she saw the hairband lying around, she will pick it up and try putting it on her head all by herself. Haha....very cute. Below are some cute photos of her with the hairbands.....

23 Mar 2008 - Bottle Tree Park (am) / Pool Play (pm)

After breakfast, we brought Jerlene to Bottle Tree Park for a walk. As Jerlene woke up super early today (around 6:30am), by the time we reached there, she was actually quite tired and sleepy. However, Jerlene would not want to sleep whenever there is opportunity to play. She will force herself to stay awake and play till she is physically exhausted. This is exactly what happened this morning. Initially, she was still having lots of fun walking around the park but after sometimes, she started to walk wobbily and almost fell. And that is when we decided to head home to catch some rest.

When we reached home, not sure what gave Jerlene the energy whereby she became very active again and refused to go to sleep. We tried to force her to sleep but she kept struggling to get out of bed and play. Sigh.......come to think of it, maybe this is the reason why Jerlene is so small in size. How to grow when she always use up all her energy playing??? She finally fell asleep at about 2pm.

Jerlene woke up about an hour later and it's time to play again. We decided to bring her down to the playground to see if she enjoys it. She does not seem to be very happy at the playground and kept looking over to the pool. As such, we brought her up and change into her "bikini". Yes, it's pool time again. She really really loves water play and whenever she's in the pool, I will have a hard time to ask her to leave. After about half an hour in the pool, I carried Jerlene out of the pool and wrapped her with her robe. She kept struggling and pushed me back to the pool. So I decided to let her play in the pool for another 5mins. She went wild again and after 5mins, I tried not to be soft-hearted anymore and forced her out of the pool. We had a great time once again and I'll try to bring her to the pool whenever possible. :-)

22 Mar 2008 - Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

The Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at the Bukit Timah Core of the Singapore Botanic Gardens is a specialized garden dedicated to children. Through play and exploration, children will learn about the importance of plants and conservation. Experiences in the garden will stimulate a sense of wonder for the plant world and provide happy memories for our child visitors. This is the first garden of its kind in Asia.

When we reached there, Jerlene was sleeping. So we quickly catch a bite at the Kidz Cafe right at the garden entrance. As we were about to finish eating the fish and chips, Jerlene woke up. She looked around and found herself in a strange place. As we entered the garden, Jerlene was very uneasy and refused to get down onto the ground. There were a number of activity stations in the garden. We went to each of them and slowly Jerlene started to get used to the place. The moment Jerlene felt more comfortable walking around, I have no chance to carry her again. As the sky looked quite dark after a while, we decided to leave the place. We will be back here very soon since Jerlene enjoyed her short moment here.

Next we went to Singapore Post as Tracy needs to buy a new pair of spectacles frame. While Tracy was choosing her frame, Jerlene started to get wild again. She kept pulling me towards the escalator and wanted me to go up and down the escalator with her. We then went to This Fashion before heading to Coffee Bean outlet and have some cakes and Mocha. Jerlene was showing off her dancing skill therre again.

21 Mar 2008 - Jerlene walked non-stop at Expo

Today is Good Friday. There is a 3-days Mother and Baby Fair at Expo starting today. We went there in the afternoon and the whole place was packed with cars and people. Probably because there were quite a few events (Baby Fair, Book Sale and some Christianity talk) happening at the same time. There was a Baby Idol contest at the Baby show. In the chubbiest cheek contest, there was this baby who is 5 months old and weighs 11kg!!!!! My goodness, Jerlene is only about 8.2kg now and she's almost 14 months old.

We did not buy anything from the Baby Fair because it was either very long queue or those items that we want have run out of stock. We left the place after about 40mins and went to another part of Expo that is not so crowded. When we reached a big open space, Jerlene just walk and walk by herself non-stop. She enjoyed her walk very much and refused to let me carry her. When I tried to hold her hand, she actually squat down and refuse to leave the place. So we have no choice but to let her walk around the entire place, and make friends with people. There were a few couples sitting at a nearby coffee bean outlet. Jerlene walked towards them, stood in front of them, waved and smiled at them. That is how Jerlene makes friends. :-)

18 Mar 2008 - Jerlene always wakes up at the wrong timing

You must be wondering what I mean by the title. You see......during weekends, when finally Tracy and myself can sleep longer, Jerlene will always wake up very early and come over to disturb us. When she's awake, she will not allow us to sleep as well. And during weekdays when we have to rush out to work, she will usually tend to sleep much longer. Not sure whether she did it on purpose, one reason we can think of is she knows weekends are "ghai ghai" (outing) day.

16 Mar 2008 - A day at the Zoo

Today is Jerlene's 1st time to the Singapore Zoological Garden. We met at the zoo entrance with quite a few of Tracy's colleagues. They got the corporate zoo passes so we have free admission into the zoo.

At the entrance, we took a picture with the parrot. Jerlene simply cannot get her eyes off the parrot. We then walked towards other exhibits and I tried to hold herself and let her walk whenever possible. It was quite a warm day so we put sunscreen lotion for Jerlene. After walking around for about 2 hrs, Jerlene fell asleep. We slowly make our way to the Splash Amphitheatre where there is a show at about 2:30pm. Jerlene somehow knows the time and woke up just when the show starts. However, she did not really know how to appreciate the show.

After the show, we walked to the other side of the zoo and saw the grave of the late Ah Meng. Since then, Jerlene started to get very active and kept wanting to walk by herself. We saw the feeding of Jaguars and Polar Bear before we headed to the exit. It was a long day and not just Jerlene, both Tracy and myself are super tired.

When we reached home, I quickly gave Jerlene a shower. After that I fed her with porridge while she's watching Hi-5 as usual. However, she was so tired that she fell asleep while sitting on the baby chair. And she was still sleeping now while I am updating this blog. Most likely she will sleep till next morning. :-)

15 Mar 2008 - Fun time in the pool

We went to Causeway Point for lunch today. We ordered porridge for Jerlene but she does not really like it. She seems to prefer the porridge cooked by Tracy. After lunch, we went to Kiddy Palace as usual. The moment I let her down, she walked from toys to toys, touching every toys and pressing every buttons on those toys. When we wanted to leave, she refused. In the end, we bought a doodle board and let her bring out of the shop. :-)

In the late afternoon, we had great fun in the pool. It has been quite a while since we last brought Jerlene to the pool. Initially, she was a bit scared and the water was quite cold. However, when she got used to the water, she started to become very wild.

At one moment, Jerlene slipped and her head was totally submerged in water. I quickly carried her up and surprisingly, she wasn't scared at all. After coughing out some water, she continue to splash, splash and splash...... This girl really dun know what is danger now.

We spent about half an hour in the pool. We decided to leave when it becomes a bit windy. I dun want Jerlene to catch a cold.

9 Mar 2008 - A Birthday Party and Wedding Dinner

We attended a celebration for my cousin's son's one year old birthday. He is one month plus younger than Jerlene but his development is considered quite advanced. He can also walk like Jerlene though not very stable because he tends to walk very fast. Unlike Jerlene who is always very cautious while walking. Maybe that's the difference between a boy and a girl.

In evening, we attended a wedding dinner at Orchard Parade Hotel. This is Jerlene's 3rd wedding dinner and once again, she "survived" through the dinner without giving me much trouble.

8 Mar 2008 - A day at Suntec

There's an IT Show at Suntec today, so we decided to go early in the morning so that we can find parking. We had breakfast at Killiney in Millenia Walk. After which, we walked over to Suntec and we can start seeing the crowd coming in for the IT Show. As we were walking past the Suntec fortune fountain, I decided to bring Jerlene close to it. She dun really dare to touch the water but she's definitely very curious.

Then we decided to "squeeze" through the IT Show, thinking to let Jerlene experience the crowd. After walking one round, she became very tired and sleepy. So we left the show and find a place to feed her before Jerlene took her nap. When she's awake, she started unleashing her energy by walking non-stop. I tried to carry her but she kept wanting to go to the floor and walk by herself. She's really in the walking mood.

I find the below video clip quite cute as Jerlene walks towards the camera and smile before making her way to "facial"......:-)

4 Mar 2008 - Jerlene bruises darken but recovering

The bruises on Jerlene's face seems to turn darker these few days and started extending to around her eyes. I was so worried that I brought her to see a doctor tonight. However, after the doctor saw the bruise, he said that it is actually recovering as it has started turning yellowish. And when we asked him how come the bruise got extended to around her eyes, he said that's because the skin around the eyes is very thin and it becomes very obvious when blood flows to that area. He said the bruise should fade away in about a week's time.

Since yesterday, Jerlene also started to have running nose, so we got some medicine from the clinic as well. In the clinic while waiting to see the doctor, Jerlene kept walking around the whole clinic. And not just that, she started walking to people, smile and waves at them. Some wave back at Jerlene but I can see some who are not sure how to react. A bit "pai seh" look........haha....... This little girl really 不知天高地厚.

Jerlene still kept smiling even when the bruise looks so bad. I felt so heart pain whenever I see the bruise. Jerlene, plse recover quickly and be a pretty princess once again, ok? :-)

2 Mar 2008 - Jerlene's new sleeping position

These few days, Jerlene started sleeping in the position shown in the above picture. No matter how many time I turned her over, she will switch to the above position after a while. Actually Jerlene need a really large bed because she "moves" a lot during her sleep. One moment she can be at one corner of her cot and the next moment she's on the other far end of our bed. Even when I put several pillows to try and block her from coming to our bed, somehow in the middle of the night, she will appear sleeping beside us. I have seen her a few times whereby she sit up and crawl to me with her eyes closed. And that's the reason why she fell down from our bed twice during her sleep. So now I have to put mattresses around our bed during her sleep. Otherwise, I have to train her to sleep in her own room on a mattress. :-)

1 Mar 2008 - Poor Jerlene knocked on her face

After gaining mobility, Jerlene is now more prone to "accident". And it happened this morning when she was knocked on her face by the leg of a chair. You may have known from a few past blogs that she loves treating chairs like walkers. The moment, she sees a chair, she will hold onto it and push all around the house. I'm sure one day I will get complaints from my neighbour downstair for making too much noise on their ceiling.... :-) Anyway, she was happily pushing the chair when suddenly, the chair toppled and she fell together with the chair. It's actually quite fortunate that the leg of the chair did not hit her eyes. But even so, I'm so heart pain when I see the bruises on her face. Jerlene cried after the fall but very soon, she seems to have forgotten about it. She still can laugh at me when I tried to rub her bruises. I guess it's always the parents who feel more pain whenever such "incident" happens........

Can you see the bruises on Jerlene's face? It's more obvious when you see her in person. However, a kid's recovery is really fast. She fell in the morning and by night time, her bruises have already faded by more than 50%.