Chloe's Birthday Part I, II, III

22 July 2009 was Chloe's first birthday. Happy Birthday Darling!

It was exciting because the rare total eclipse of the sun occurred that day. We planned to take Chloe to the zoo that morning, and I worried about the sky turning dark suddenly and whether or not the little one would be scared. Little did I learn that Singapore will only see 10% of the sun blocked by the moon, so the change in lighting will probably not be noticeable at all. Alas, it rained that morning, so we stayed home to watch the live telecast of the eclipse in China aired over Channel U. It's quite amazing! We'll all not live to see the next total eclipse, so if don't miss the re-run of the program if you didn't manage to watch it earlier.

Part I - Birthday Girl's Inaugural Visit to the Zoo
We reached the zoo at about 2pm. No sun so the weather was not too hot. I was however a little disappointed that the zoo failed to excite my baby and myself. Why? I don't know if it was the weather, but apart from the delightfully decorated entrance, the inside of the zoo was quite dull. The landscape lacked some colorful flowers to brighten up, and the glass window from which to view the great polar bear or pygmy hippo was scratched and dirty. Anyway, Chloe was probably too young to know what these creatures are, and got bored after a while.

Part II - Celebration with Brother-in-Law

My brother-in-law's birthday also falls on the same day. After dinner, we headed over to sis' place to cut-cake-sing-song again!

Part III - Lunch with In-Laws

My parents-in-law love my baby and are always raving to the relatives and neighbours about how clever-how clever Chloe is (i.e they think Chloe can understand their speech in English and Mandarin, and can respond readily to their instructions such as chui-du-du, mouth-open-big-big, pai-pai-shou, where is the lizard...?). We thought it would be nice to organise a extended family lunch so that they can celebrate the little one's first birthday, which to the old folks, is a special occasion.

We threw a lunch at Chrystal Jade Restaurant at Bishan on Sunday, 26 Jul. The restaurant was crowded and we waited some time for our table, and then for the food to arrive. But the food was really nice and the elders enjoyed it tremendously. : )

Third auntie, parents-in-law and us (camera man: eldest brother-in-law)

Second brother-in-law and kids, youngest brother-in-law and wife, and fourth-brother-in-law and wife

Chloe's Early Birthday Celebration

Some people asked if I will be celebrating Chloe's first birthday big time. Firstly, I'm clueless when it comes to organising parties, and secondly, I think Chloe may not understand what's going on! As usual, we have a small and cozy family affair. Had dinner at the coffee shop just behind my house, then came back to cut-cake-sing-song for Chloe. I will make it up to Chloe next time when she's in school, and when she has her own friends to celebrate with her!

Missing: Brother-in-law, whose birthday falls on the same day as Chloe. He had a wedding dinner to attend

It was so difficult to get Chloe to cut the cake because she was all over the cake and refused to hold the plastic knife properly.....

Bought a delicious chocolate strawberry cake from Secret Recipe

The little girl loved the cake!

My niece "sayang" the birthday girl. Aw, isn't that sweet

Chloe's First Steps

Praise the Lord - He has blessed my little girl well. She's growing pretty well, and sometimes a little bit ahead of average babies. At one month old she already weighed 5.5kg, she started to teeth at 4 months and learnt to stand up on her own holding on to the side of her colt at 7.5 months. She'll be turning 1 year old next Wednesday.

A few days ago, Chloe took her first 'independent steps'! We're so proud of her!

In the short video clip above, she was walking towards my handbag on the floor, and said "bag". This is one of the first words that she can verbalise clearly, apart from "mama", "papa", "mommom", "nai" (grandma), "car", "bird", "door" and "dog". I tried to teach her hippopotamus, but she can only manage "po-po-po-po". Ha ha ha!!

Gold on My Face

I'm quite crazy about skincare lately... don't know why but have the urge to buy and try new things for my face. It's like an addiction. I couldn't resist the temptation to buy the Bio-essence 24K Bio-Gold face and neck gel cream, since I love the eye gel so much. The packaging makes the product look like a million dollars.

Got hubby's 'approval' to buy another moisturizer (I just pushed one of my recent buys to him because my interest shifted off it liao). During lunch I rushed to get a tub. Feel a bit guilty because my credit card bill is quite high this month. But if I look all bling-bling in the face and glowing like a gold coin when you see me, it'll be worth it! : )

Of Baby and Baby Skin.....

Today I had lunch again with my long-time best friend from Uni days. Went to the Japanese restaurant opposite our office (her office is across the street from mine) and tried the charshu ramen. The bowl was super huge it was like eating out of a kwali! I think I still prefer the ramen with collagen soup at International Plaza. The soup base there is tastier and the charshu slices melt in your mouth. [Mouth watering already.....]

My dear girlfriend and the super huge bowl of ramen!

I love having lunch with best friend 'coz we'll always include skin care and beauty product updates in our long list of topics. We are quite obsessed with our skin because age is catching up and our 'canvas' is deteriorating quite quickly. I shared with her my latest fav - the Bioessence 24K Bio-gold lifting eye serum. This is the first time I buy drugstore brand of skincare, as I am so intrigued by the sparkling gold flakes floating in the bottle, I had to get one to try. And surprise! it's working really well to tighten my eye bags, even better than the Clinique/SK II/Dr Hauschka etc. that I've used before.

Not only do we share skin care tips, I have learnt a lot about pregnancy, care for babies and now kids upbringing from best friend. [Among me and my 3 best friends from Uni, I'm the last to have a baby. One of them has 3 kids liao!] We ventured to talk about having another baby soon as we both acknowledge (sadly) that we're not young anymore! I will seriously think about it. I mean - I'm getting SO FAT these days, being pregnant could give me an excuse to look like that. Well, given my health condition then, Chloe was a miracle. I'm not sure whether my hormones are behaving well now to enable me to have #2 but will leave such plan to God and his timing!

Anyway, we always 'overrun' the lunch hour(s) because there's just so much to yak about! I got back to my desk only at 2:15pm. Shhhh.... don't tell boss ok?

Cartoon Sticker Cards

I was having a dull headache yesterday morning. It didn't clear up after taking synflex/cafergot. Silly me - I was not having migraine, of course the drugs wouldn't work. It's like taking gastric pills for flu. At 3pm this afternoon, I decided to walk over to Watson's to grab a box of Panadol Extra.

At the traffic light, a man with only one arm approached me with a bunch of ball-point pens and mumbled something about 'giving people a second chance'. His lady sales partner quickly walked towards me, and with a clearer sales pitch, asked if I would like to buy some sticker cards to help the poor families. I was having a headache and in no condition to probe more about their fund-raising efforts, so asked her how much it was. She said $10 for 5 cards so I took out my money. I realised later on that I could buy one card for $2 (I have absolutely no use for those cartoon sticker cards), and that I did not ask if they have licence to tout. But whether or not they are authorised to tout, the man did have his arm amputated, and the pair did have to stand in the hot sun to be rejected by many passerby.

Once, a "blind" woman came round the tables at the hawker centre to sell tissue paper. I was quite sure she took a peep at the one-dollar coin I passed to her (maybe to check if it was a real coin?) before dropping it into her pocket. She also managed to skirt around the chairs to avoid knocking into them, her walking stick obviously redundant. It all looked quite suspicious to me whether she was really blind.

On another occasion, I was at St Andrews Cathedral at lunchtime to pray (I do that occasionally). A pitiful looking, unkempt Indian lady, who was there to pray as well, suddenly came and sat beside me, and said that God wanted her to ask me to pray for her aching knees. I did not question why - I did feel the Holy Spirit quite strongly as I laid my hand over her knees to pray for God's healing upon her. After the prayer, we chatted a little. When she was leaving, she asked if I could give her $10 to take taxi home as her knees were painful. I gave her $20 instead.

I wondered if God was testing my faith, obedience and compassion by making me pray for a stranger and part with my money. I also wondered for a while if she was a con-woman, although she didn't look like one to me. Anyhow, I was in God's house, and if she dared cheat on holy ground, God bless her soul! So the point I'm making is, whether or not people are out to cheat others, they are answerable to God themselves on judgement day. We just need to keep a clear conscience in our actions. God is watching everyone's heart.

A Morning at McRitchie

On Sunday morning, we took Chloe to McRitchie Reservoir for a walk. I have not visited that place for more than 10 years. It has certainly changed a lot since my last time there! But we weren't prepared for the boardwalk or anything adventurous, so we just spent a lazy morning having a drink at the pavilion at the top of the hill.

There was nothing much to entertain Chloe, so after posing for a few pictures, she fell asleep......We promise to take her to the zoo on her 1st birthday. Hope that will be more exciting for her.

Crazy Over Beauty Blogs

Lately I've gone a little crazy over blogs - reading beauty and makeup blogs, to be precise. It started when I wanted very much to try BB creams after reading about it somewhere, so went online to do a little research. [Ha ha... I used to think BB creams are some cream to enhance the 'frontal profile' of ladies, that's why I did not pay much attention to it when the fever was on about a year ago.] Little did I realise it's a blemish balm cream which is supposed to soothe and regenerate the skin while providing flawless coverage at the same time, like a treatment foundation, only lighter. I Googled for BB cream reviews in the hope to read which is a good brand to try (yup there are thousands of brands carrying this cream now) and was led to a dizzy world of beauty blogs!!!

There are thousands of blog sites by girls all over the world who write about their experiences with various beauty products. I find these product reviews more credible than those found at official product websites. The blogger will write about some products after using them, and dozen other readers will add in their comments too, so we can hear real views from real people who have tried the same products before.

I am a junkie for beauty products! I love to buy and try new beauty products from facial cleansers to creams to makeup, and I almost never finish using them. My hubby and sis can testify to that. I would either keep them long enough to throw away without feeling guilty, or pass them to my sis to finish up for me, or to my hubby if it's something he can use. So in the last 3 weeks, I have added to my beauty trial-chest Skinfood BB cream and eyeshadow, MAC loose powder, Origins Night-a-Mins lotion and charcoal mask, Ginvera marvel gel, Bio-essence 24k Bio-gold eye gel, and checked out the Origins body lotions, Bobby Brown makeup brushes, Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder mineral powder, and Laneige sunblock (will probably buy these when I amass sufficient funds). I would spend one to two lunchtimes surfing these blogs, then shop during the next lunch to check out the stuff. Pretty crazy huh?

I used to half-joke to my friends that I would love to work as a cosmetic counter-girl. The reasons stopping me are namely the shift hours, low pay, and gosh, I must be over-aged! My dream is to open a cosmetics/toiletries shop (like SaSa, Beauty Language etc). Looks like the more "in" thing to do now is to start beauty blogs and blogshops, where people order products online instead of opening brick-and-mortar shops. This is my lifelong passion and interest - not banking supervision! Well, ok I'm still interested in and am proud of my job, but it's just a daytime role I play. I'm 24-hours in love with toiletries, skincare and makeup products!!!

A Pound of Flesh

To give myself a bit of due compliment, I think my driving skills have improved somewhat. I feel a little more confident on the road, a little less panicky at lane switches, and most important of all, I am now able to reverse-park the car on an average of 3 adjustments instead of 7! I still have not tried much of parallel parking - and I think some of my seasoned-driver friends also avoid it if they can. : )

I am eager to be able to drive independently. On a few occasions I drive alone around the estate, or hubby sits at the back. But the courage thing is quite difficult to build.

Part of the reasons why I'm not totally confident of driving is because of the car. I feel that it's too advanced / powerful for me. The steering, though heavy, is super sensitive and the accelerator is too responsive. A little step on it sends the car vrooming away! Sometimes I feel the car is controlling me instead of the other way round. Ok, ok, I'm not driving a Lamborghini, but for a scared new driver, handling a BMW is quite a challenge. Furthermore, my hubby so pampers his beloved car, that I feel some pressure driving it for fear that I'll smash it into a lamp-post or something.

Yesterday my fear came to past. While coming out of the parking lot at the office car park, I over-steered and scraped the rims along the kerb! The damage was not severe, but I think a pound of flesh was carved out of hubby's arm along with the rims. He wasn't mad at me, but I think he felt very sad as "the rims are not perfect anymore". I'm quite sorry too. This was my first damage inflicted on the car. I don't hope many more will come and I'll be more careful next time.

Good and bad things happen in pairs. Guess what?! This morning, while reversing into a lot, hubby backed into a low reinforcement bar!! My poor car, kena disfigured 2 times in a row. Ouch! On reflection, this may just be God's way to remind us that we should not prize material possessions on earth that much, and focus on the treasures in heaven....