First wedding anniversary with our bundle of joy

Parent-teacher-meeting…never heard that term for a very long time.

We enrolled Cutie in an infant-care center since Dec 2014 and we had the first parent-teacher-meeting a few weeks ago. So fast time flies, Cutie has been inside the infant-care for 3 months.

I remember back in late last year, we were still discussing the care plans for Cutie once we all start work. Shall we leave her in an infant-care facility? Or leave her at grandmother’s home? Or hire a domestic helper?

Cutie is not the “easy” baby to take care of as she needs lots of care. We are aware of these and thus were quite hesistant of sending her an infant-care facility, fearing that teachers may not pay as much attention to Cutie’s various challenges as required. Cutie has sensitive skin and would have an eczema flare inermittently, she has problems finishing her milk and she was very dependant on the traditonal bab hammock to get to sleep.

We finally decided to go with this infant-care center Josiah Montessori @ Aperia, which offered 1:3 ratio and has available vacancy.

The teachers did manage to wean Cutie off the hammock after 2 weeks and it did surprise us when Cutie actually can fall asleep at night with just some patting and song humming.

Sleeping on a rocker

Cutie is always the “On the move” baby and she loves getting on her feet and on her belly to explore new surroundings, new toys and new friends. Well, Charlotte means “Free Man” anyway, so she loves to roam around freely. During the parent-teacher-meeting, her main teacher showed me some of Charlotte’s on-the-move pics which were so cute!

Walking with assistance from her favorite teacher

Enjoying the climb during play-time

Cutie can sit down to play on her own too, sometimes enjoying a quiet moment with her books and sometimes interacting with other babies. There was even a pic with Charlotte showing her friend how to play a cube!

Sitting on a bumbo chair

Attempting to read

Teaching a friend how to play

Those were good moments in school but sometimes there can be lapses in Cutie’s care during the last 3 months there. On 3 occasions, Charlotte was handed back to us with very bad diaper rashes, even though she did not have diarrhoea. Never before did Charlotte had such a bad case of diaper rash. Darling would meticulously apply Desitin cream and clean up for Cutie over the weekend and ensure Charlotte’s buttocks were back to a clean normal state during the new week in school. However during the next weekend, Charlotte will again have an angry looking Diaper rash with bad excoriations. It’s so bad that Charlotte would refuse to sit down and cries whenever we change her diapers, it was that painful. Back-and-Forth communication with the teachers finally had them realize the importance of regular diaper checks and change. Hopefully Charlotte will have no more Diaper rash days.

================================================ Chinese New Year! Charlotte baby celebrated her first Chinese New year this year! Even though she didn’t manage to master the “Gongxi Gongxi” gesture, she still managed to collect her very first AngBao! Haha. She enjoyed the festival thoroughly as there were plenty of stimulation and interaction with adults and children. She was so high daily that she would jump around on bed and “talk” non stop even when her bedtime is way over!

Cutie’s makeover during Chinese New Year

Darling managed to dress cutie up for the occasion and gave her a 格格makeover. Hahaha.

Having cutie baby around in our lives have definitely brought more laughter and joy. Cutie baby is the ONLY ONE capable of making darling melt everytime. When darling is angry or sad, a smile from our Charlotte baby will lighten her mood every time. How I wish I have that power!

 

Many cheeky moments of Cutie

 

Today marks the our 9 years courtship anniversary and 3 years actual day grand shanghai wedding anniversary. The best years of my life so far. I’m sure there will be more years better than these 9 years coming along and I can’t wait to explore the world with my darling and cutie Charlotte. Next challenge is to go overseas with them!

Cheeky Cutie Baby

Romantic dinner by our very own Punggol Masterchef

This shall be my first entry of this year!
When darling first mentioned that she will create a special menu for us on a special day, I have started to wonder when that SPECIAL day will be! Darling never fails to amaze me with her creativity and culinary prowess and this special day dinner is no exception.
Today Is THE day. A special meal from a special person. I feel so blessed.

Darling paid full attention to details, right from the table setup.
She even went to get fresh flowers and DIY a centrepiece for the table!

I sneaked a peek into the Masterchef kitchen n BOY what a sight! Looks like it’s going to be a seafood extravaganza!

Entrée coming up…
Fresh giant hokkaido Scallops grilled to perfection, on a bed of baby asparagus, topped with black truffles, pea sprouts n parmesan cheese, drizzled with lemon butter sauce.

Appetizer
Using Pumpkin, carrots and mushrooms combined with fresh local lobster, darling created a beautiful bisque! That tasted wonderful as well!

Main
The main dish is Freshly caught King Grouper loins, lightly grilled, complemented by sauté mushrooms n onions, served in a bed of baby asparagus. The dish is then completed with lemon butter sauce

Dessert
Wholesome chocolate pound cake drenched in yummy Hersey’s chocolate fudge

The whole meal is complemented with Glacier wine

Thank you darling for the wonderful n sweet dinner. I am loving every moment spent with u! I’m indeed the most blessed man in the world to have u as my darling!

I love you!
Ok, now to wash the dishes…

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 26 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 67 posts. There were 213 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 314mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was December 13th with 72 views. The most popular post that day was A birthday celebration in the sky.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were sylvialim.wordpress.com, singaporebrides.com, en.wordpress.com, google.com.sg, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for zhiweiandweixian, venus bridal jb, rom gown, venus bridal studio album and jb, and yog park.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

A birthday celebration in the sky December 2010

2

The Sands At Marina Bay August 2010

3

Our Story August 2009
1 comment

4

Venus October 2009
1 comment

5

Zoo pak-toh August 2009
4 comments

fresh new sporting start

Yes, today is the day we start to prepare ourselves physically for our big day!
Haha, equipped with the Asics Stratus 3 and the Asics Cumulus 12 and multiple comfortable gel packs, darling and me embarked on a journey of physical remodelling!
Darling wants to be prettier than her current state and I want to shake off the comments that I have grown fat! Darling and me shall start to run run run whenever possible….starting from today!
Dressed in my new Mizuno Kit as chosen by darling, while darling in her New balance singlet, we started to walk to Kallang Basin park to start our run. We started off with 3 rounds within the park and we are almost gone… =( really engine rusty le. After our 3 starting rounds, we decided to take it easy…then we walked through the Kallang Basin park all the way to the floating platform and the esplanade. The Singapore skyline is getting prettier by the day and with all the buildings lighted up, it is indeed a gorgeous sight!
We sat by the Singapore River, enjoying the view while cooling off, with the waves crashing below us…relaxing. Exercise just makes you feel refreshed!

Fabulous day

Today is a fabulous day and surely worth blogging about.
14 March is the day Xian’s sister went through the customary wedding ceremony, and it is also Xian’s turn to be in the 姐妹 team! The theme today is purple and all the true blue 姐妹s are in tailor made purple gowns with a big ribbon at the back.
The preparations started a day before and lasted through the night and the early mornings of the actual day, my poor darling have to stay up till 3-4 am….worse thing is, she is on night shift today! Poor little xian, have to stay awake for the night after such a tiring day and only get to sleep tomorrow.

The day started at 5-6am, when all the sisters WeiTing/Xian/Li all woke up early to self perm their hair, apply makeup, doll up themselves nicely for the nig event for Wei Ling. Creative games lie in wait for Bryan and his 兄弟s….heehee, actually I went also to see how the games will be, to prepare myself for my turn!
7.45am and car horns are sounding loudly downstairs….The 兄弟s are here! Haha, but our dear car-boy Teck Jun is still in the process of wearing his clothes and shoes….overslept…
兄弟s shouted a loud cheer downstairs and here they come for their tests! I think the games and “tortures” are quite creatively thought through. There is the traditonal 酸甜苦辣咸…
酸= yellow thick freshly squeezed and chilled lemon lime juice with puree
甜= cup of think honey, undiluted
苦= cup of freshly pounded 苦草
辣咸= seaweed with wasabei spread, sprinkled with salt
After the morning breakfast, the second task at hand is the writing of a wedding contract by Bryan…I caught a glimpse of what was written….go overseas annually, no housework, finish off all leftover food, not be like Jack Neo etc, really cool and powerful stuff.
The next is to form “I love U” on 3 sheets of mahjong paper using lips print with the 2 sticks of lipstick supplied. They will have to go downstairs and show us the from level 1. Task only completed if we can see the words from level 9.
Next when they come up, the guys are made to draw pingpong balls containing the “forfeits” they need to accomplish.
And of course, the negotiation for ang poh money, just that this time, Bryan have to draw printed ping pong balls and give according the 3 digits drawn.
Ater ther came in, Bryan was made to answer questions regaring WeiLing. Every question is difficut and Bryan and his 兄弟gang ganna cloths pegs treatment. EVerytime a wrong answer is given, a lothes peg will be attached to anywhere on the face. The clothes pegs are all connected by comskote string and the other end of the string is given to Valerie Weiling. She will then give the string 1 fast pull! Ouch! This is a very good idea and innovative way to get the bride involved! Lolz.
Yup, Bryan finally got through and the only thing in the way between Bryan and Valerie is the bedroom door….or is there something else? Haha, when Bryan opened the door, out jumps a screaming “Mr Bean”! Lolz, we got Rachel (cousin) to don a Mr Bean face mask , covered with a veil.very sporting of her!
Bryan wasn’t too scared leh…haha, but we got our shares of laughs.

The morning session ended well, we all got what we expected, cool good fun and Bryan got his wife.

The banquet is actually a lunch time affair and we got to Mandarin Oriental for the banquet. The tea ceremony was to be held in the hotel itself before the main banquet. Yup, this arrangement of having the tea cermony in the hotel is new but I feel that it is definitely less lively when done in the hotel, lost some of the fun in tea ceremony.
The banquet food is excellent! Not to mention the nice cocktail session before the banquet. Ther is free flow soft drinks with chocolate dipped strawberries!
The banquet is delicous and I got really full.

There is a really amazing montage done by Edric….I am truly amazed and I gotta up my skills in montage! Maybe next time, I try using powerpoint too?? Edric can teach me??
Bryan also has his share of fame. He made a thank you speech and then Tadah!!! He roped in his sister to the guitarist and He is going to sing in front of the 170+ guests!
Bryan changed the lyrics to “growing old with you” and is really sweet!

Darling is the official ang pow girl and I think she enjoyed it..even though I can feel some stress in her, handling all the ang pow money.

Darling, it’s going to be out turn soon! I am sure we will make it as loud a bang as our ROM! Or even louder!

Thanks Bryan and Valerie for the wonderful banquet.

ROM couple album

Hey this blog has been quite busy very lately with all the updates! Haha. I also write till shiok! It’s like spilling out all the secrets which we have been holding back during the preparation of our ROM. All for the sake of the surprise factor! Heehee.
Today, I shall review the truth about our ROM couple album!
If you have been following, we signed up with Venus bridal studio, located in Taman sentosa of JB. We wanted to have beautiful pictures taken of us, but wants it to be a bit more “wow” than the ordinary wedding pictures. We are not having an actual wedding yet, just the ROM first, so we decided to have a “couple makeover” instead =)
We initially wanted to transform ourselves into something unrecognizable, like me dressing up as darling or darling dresing up as dar dar…lolz, just joking. We wanted to present a different side of us to our close friends, to make it all the more memorable for them and us. It is also to show appreciation to them for being our close friends, by giving them something unqiue to savour.

Just to recap: We had a total of 5 outfits
1) spanish
2) peranakan
3) cheongsam
4) our own outfit –> which we chose to be a blast from the past retro with a pink pokka dot outfit complete with male suspenders
5) our own outfit –> which we chose to remember the time we first met by wearing our work uniform and darling specially sourcing out the vintage SGH green uniform for the shoot!

spanish dance

spanish royalty outfit

In this set, darling is transformed into a curly haired babe wearing the multi layered dress complete with a tiny hat as a hair accessory. She has this royalty feel when she is posing for the shoots. I am wearing this frilly willy shirt which is kinda fun. This set is pretty but not our favorite as you can see that it only occupies 2 pages of our album.

Darling transforms into the little nyonya

This set is one of my favorite as I love the way darling lie on the sofa. She looks so cute and adorable!! We are also trying to imitate how the old peranakans would pose for the family portrait by remaining a solemn face…lolz…I think I still look comical.

re-living the old Shanghai life

black and white nostalgia, me trying to be cool

artistic modernistic feel

This set definitely has the “wow” factor…ok, at least it wowed me. I love to see darling dressed up in oriental style cheongsam, with the high slits! Ah-Wooooo…brings out the wolf in me!
Darling definitely has the sultry look! Lolz, and it makes her all the more sexy!
I am in this white suit which is quite stylo, in my opinion. I even had the chance to act cool for once…lucky it didn’t turn out too bad!
We loved the set with the photographer using a single light source and playing with shadows, creating the artisitic feel. We saw a similar portrait hanging on 1 of the walls in the bridal studio and we knew we must have a similar looking set! Haha, this is definitely something refreshing for us as we definitely do not come across as artistic people. Darling has a different dimension of sexy in this set. I love you darling, you are so dynamic!

Finally we have the own outfits!
In the retro set, the photographer is trying to get us to pose as what a retro couple would pose, with tiny details of how we need to hook our feet, stand with the tip of the toes on the ground and to adjust spectacles from time to time. He even brought along an umbrella. Of course we did our own homework by trying to synchronize our colour combi. Darling insist that my suspenders are a must to re-create the retro feel. And darling is spot-on yet again! Check this out… …

When we first set eyes on each other

Going out and sharing a tiny umbrella...we look kinda stiff, Lolz

We will go out together rain or shine, always under the same umbrella

No matter where U go, I will find you and hold your hand

Trust in me, we will open the doors to a whole new world together

Old movie theater dating

Hug me and never let me go

I will keep you smiling always

Hold me in your arms, life is beautiful

The last set is actually a “re-enactment” of how we first met. Lolz, of course we didn’t do the things we did in the photos lah. No lying down on each other, no playing with stethoscope lah, just plain simple, innocent love. Darling went all out to source for the trademark green SGH uniform. That was the uniform darling was wearing when she mesmerized me in the ward =p
The uniform actually belonged to her 2nd sister. Well, thank goodness she still kept the uniform, and that darling can fit into the uniform! We had a lot of fun for this set. Our photographer is kept entertained as well as it’s his first time taking pics for couples in uniform. He is too used to taking pics of couples in gowns etc with his various standard poses, so we posed a challenge to him =p. Well, all went well and we came away with some pretty cute and fun photos! The page layout designer even managed to help us design the layout page with such a cute background! This is one of my favorite pages in the album, apart from the retro pages.

Fun and love at work

So this is our ROM couple makeover album. This is our first time taking a photoshoot together. It has been tiring having to smile all day, it has been troublesome going in and out of JB a few times to get things done but everything is worth it! The album is truly beautiful and we are very satisfied!

Melaka trip

As the name implies…we finally went on a holiday! Yeah! After a long long time….although it’s just nearby Melaka, but still better than nothing right!

forgot anything for the trip Dear?

0730h, Grasslands bus brought us through the 2nd link into JB and up the north-south highway into Melaka!

We reached at about 1230h…guess who we saw on route??

starting on a journey, I saw darling and darling saw me...haha, of course there's more to see!

u recognize these people? Little Nyonya!

old times Ah 哥!

old times Ah 姐!

We arrived at Hotel Equatorial and checked into our RM270 ++ room! Haha, cheap cheap. Relaxed our legs a while, did some cam-whoring and set off on our food and adventure tour!

relaxing darling

can't resist a couple pic

view from 1326

We wanted to go staight for our chicken rice balls! But got distracted by some very fun stuff! Check it out!

men will always be men...so darling, please forgive my forgetfulness at times! =x I still love you

relive the A & W experience

unbelievable but true...Darling's first ever coney dog!

airplane in Melaka

牛郎 is here for his 织女

darling on a merry go round round

with heavy weight me on the other side, how can darling not fly?

happy darling on the swing

happy swinging

Okok, enough swinging! It can be quite tiring to play on the swing I discovered, as I was panting away after the whole thing….but it is all good fun! We then proceeded on with our heritage tour! The red tour….We went to the St Paul’s hill and what’s left of his church, the stadthuys, Chris Church, the red clock tower….ate some cendol and darling transformed into “DutchLady”…=)

St Paul's house on the hills

darling with the Man-now-without-a-hand they called Paul

darling with background of "eye on malaysia" and revolving tower

engine BomBa

museum we didn't go into

Oh My Goddess!

Us and Christ Church

What's the time dude?

time for cendol... ...Yummy

time for Dutch Lady Dutch Lady!!!

We went to Jonker street to walk walk see see. The area was part of chinatown and they were mainly shops selling ornamental stuff. Jonker street is also lined with peranakan houses on both sides of the street. The road is small yet the traffic quite busy and crowed. There are also antique shops, artist shops etc scattered among these. The baba nyonya heritage center is also situated on this street. It’s here that “小娘惹” shot most of its scenes =)

Of course, how can we not have some authentic cendol, chicken rice balls and satay celup?

Jonker street

We had chicken rice balls before continuing our journey! Yum Yum! Biong Biong!

Me and my rice balls set!

Xian equally impressed with her Biong Biong...the biong biong she's holding on to...and her biong biong of course

It’s 小娘惹 time!

House of "小娘惹"Juxiang.

front of Baba Nyonya heritage museum

notice the "square" on the ceiling? It can be opened so that the owner can see who's at the front door from the comfort of his bedroom and pour urine on the "unwanted guest"! Shiok! Pee time!!

place where Juxiang ganna beaten

the elaborate staircase leading upstairs

corridor upstairs

scenes from Little Nyonya

peranakan marriage bed...a pity I am not in the picture

we continued walking along the nice old street then....

we chanced upon this wonderful dessert store which is also a peranakan house!

can't resist some pics of the nice interior

the other view from inside showing the lanterns

"Dar Dar, are u done taking photos? I want dessert =("

"sayang darling, I bought U nyonya assam laksa ok?"

"ok sayang, I got U some more baba cendol and baba ice kacang ok"

nice old feel about this picture, so serene... ...

lots of meaningful wall displays, protraying love

lovely couple taking pic in front of love banner

darling, I think you are same level, if not prettier than these retro beauties! 😡

when night falls....jonker street transformed into pasar malam street!

we even caught a karaoke competition cum Ge Tai!

The Ge Tai show was hilarious! It’s actually a resident get-together session with karaoke lah. We initially wanted to just sit down a rest a while, but there is this uncle who came up to the stage and really entertain! He was the only with costume and dressed for the occasion, and he was jumping, dancing, swaying his hips along to the song “热情的沙漠”! Really made the whole place high! A pity I can only show his picture coz cannot upload video here.

shiny bow tie up!

The Melaka superstar!

It’s getting late…but it’s not time to go back to hotel yet, coz we still missed out 1 important food in Melaka….guess? Give up? Kekeke…. It’s Satay Celup! And no one does it better than…….

Yup Capitol Satay!

step 1, get the original sauce base...

step 2...add lots of peanuts

step 3...keep stirring and we have the legendary satay celup sauce!

more satay please!

full and satisfied customers

Filled to the brink of out tummies, we retreated back to our hotel room and rested for the night…hee…we really slept like dead logs till 1130am the next morning! Kekeke….

Breakfast/lunch time! The only thing left to try is…..Peranakan food! How can u leave melaka not having had peranakan food?

Dar Dar on a food hunt!

nice interior, don't waste. Let's take pics while waiting for our food!

wonder if we can take our wedding pics with this sedan...looks nice!

nice picture?

Food is finally here! Udang lemak nanas everyone.....pineapple prawns, the signature dish here in Restoran Peranakan

Next up, another crowd favorite...Ayam buah keluak!

the dish that always satisfies....Nyonya chap choy!

last but not least...the firey slightly spicy Otak otak!

It’s really a filling spicy meal….as darling can testify. She ate so much that she became a “merlion”. Poor darling… …

Lucky that made her feel much better. A lesson learnt…never eat too spicy food when holidaying, and must always bring along gastric medicine when going on any trips. Darling, sorry for forgetting the medicine and allowing u to suffer like that. Next time we go eat peranakan food again k. I bring u eat again, well equipped with losec!

Too full and too tired to walk back, we engaged a trishaw….

Not too bad an experience but costs RM15. well, we are tourists mah, and tourists should do what tourists should do. Try out new things and boast about them! Hahahaha…kekeke

A final conclusion on our Melaka trip...a colourful ride back home

Bye bye Melaka

Melaka has been a yummy trip and is a good short getaway. Whether I will come back again? I don’t know…but I don’t mind stopping by for some food lah.

This short trip is FUN! All trips together with darling is FUN! Thank you darling for making everything fun and beautiful!

Can’t wait for our ROM!