New Year's Eve

Another party at our place! New Year's Eve :) We had a house packed with people over for dinner, and some stayed all the way to the countdown. Hadn't seen this bunch for a long time and it was good to finally meet up again. One I hadn't seen since before I delivered!

Besides the adults, two other kids came by too - Evan and Isaac. Initially Asher was very cranky, and after refusing dinner I decided to bathe him since he appeared to want a shower. The shower did wonders for Asher's mood as he suddenly because alert and chirpy again! So the three boys reigned while the adults watched over to make sure they didn't fall, didn't hit each other, didn't take each other's toys...you know how it goes - normal kid stuff.

But then, it wasn't just the kids enjoying the spread of toys. Lets see... :)





























Anyway it's quite late at night, and I'm quite sleepy (and lazy) right now. So I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Asher on the Run

Grandpa Nair's pics of Asher running :)

Priscilla & Ryan's Wedding

I love it when friends get married :) This time around it was Priscilla!

But, don't ask me what happened during the ceremony, cos I spent most of the time outside in the foyer. It's not that Asher was mis-behaving. He was just being him, and commenting about this and that, like saying "baber" over and over cos there were so many flowers, etc - i.e., not being quiet.

So I spent the time chasing him around outside, and then trying to give him his lunch, and then chasing him. I was quite tired out by the time the ceremony ended, and was half thinking I ought to have just left, but wanted to say hi and congrats to Pris. Still, despite being occupied, I thought it was nice to have met my gal pals and chat, even if for a short while. These things can't be measured by time.


Holding onto a rose he found on the floor :)









I hear Ryan was a real sweetie though. He apparently wrote Pris a long, long, long poem about their love story :) She had on her own also prepared something for him! These two, really meant for each other :)

On the way back to the car I bumped into a tourist who was looking for a path up to Mount Faber, but he was quite far off the mark. I wasn't sure how quickly I could settle Asher into the car, so just gave him directions. Turns out getting Asher into the car was a breeze, and I looked for the tourist on the way out to see if I could give him a lift. I was thinking that if I was a tourist, lost, sweaty from the afternoon sun, and with a limited amount of time to explore a place, I'd love to hitch a ride - especially uphill! Managed to find him at a traffic junction, so offered to drop him off, since it wasn't too far off my route and Asher was settling into his nap. Turns out he's from Belgium, and was in Singapore for just 5 days. He'd just come from NZ where he'd spent a month travelling and hiking. How nice! I'd love to spend a month there!

Anyway, gave him some suggestions on where to visit and such, and he went on his way to the cable car station.

Back to the wedding.

The next day I brought Asher for the wedding dinner. Previous weddings I had gone to with Asher alone were pretty ok to handle. But that night was the first wedding I was bringing him to since he learned to walk, and things were really different. Lets just say he had boundless energy, there were lots of flowers and Christmas baubles to look at, stairs to sit on/climb, plus lots of eager aunties and uncles to ooh and ahh at him :) When I got home Jon asked me how the food was, and I said, "er...I'm not sure, I didn't really eat much". Really. I was either shadowing him, or trying to put him to sleep - which he did fall into at one point, but woke up once someone came to oooh at him...then he saw the Christmas tree, which he just had to inspect, and then he was wide awake.

Probably would have been easier to handle if Jon was available, but he was still recovering from surgery, and he was supposed to be watching Singapore Idol for me :)


The little while he was at the table







Post-note (7 Feb 10): Here's a pic Priscilla just sent to me of Asher!

Canine Christmas

We started the day slowly, lazing in (that means sleeping in till 8am...yes, that's lazing nowadays...gone are the good ol' days of waking at 11am. That's an unheard of luxury, an impossible luxury these days. But I shall end this very long parenthesis...).

Our first stop, Woodlands, for the yearly feast at Joanne's mum's place. First, an interesting little nugget (to me at least). I had put Asher's shoes on the table top cos he kept wanting to take them and bring them to his playmat. I thought he didn't know I had put them there cos they were out of his sight. But before we left the house, he tip-toed to retrieve his shoes on his own, and pointed to them to indicate he wanted to wear them for the outing! :) I was quite pleasantly surprised!













Anyway, it appears that Asher loves dogs. There were many dogs in the house, and Asher ran around following them, petting them, and sometimes just looking at them. There were one or two that he seemed to like more, partly cos they were friendlier towards him as well. These two were the ones he liked best, and he gamely pet their fur, and tried to stay near them most of the time :)












The feast on the table, and Asher below waving at the dogs










We went to Aunty Evelyn's house for dinner too, and there we saw another two dogs! And Asher again crouched near them to pet their noses and their fur :) Maybe we can consider getting a doggie in time... Jon, are you reading this???!? :O)

Ripping Wrapping

It's Christmas!












And the first thing Asher did in the morning was to attack his presents. Well, attack is a bit strong. I had to coax him into opening them. I'm sure many (a few?) years from now he'll need no coaxing whatsoever though...










The first present he opened was from TQ & SS - A Spot life-the-flap book along with a soft toy of Spot! Asher loves the book, and when we come to the end he starts to complain and I have to start all over again!

Then a present from Jane & KL - Another book! Yay! Christmas book with several jigsaw puzzles inside :) Asher's intrigued by the puzzle pieces, and like for the Spot book, when the puzzles are pieced back together he fusses, and I have to take them apart again. Hope we don't lose any pieces though!

A present from my parents - A piggy bank! Or rather, a froggy bank! Asher loves it to bits, and the minute he saw it, tested it's quality to make sure his savings will be safe from the clutches of greedy others. Yes, half an hour after opening everything, he was still lugging his bank about and putting it through more stress tests, like dropping it on the floor, hitting it against some books, etc.













JJSB & Epoh got Asher a wonderful set of cars, planes and helicopters. Asher has since learnt that aeroplanes go "wheeeee" and helicopters make some other noise (I have no idea how to spell that sound! Anyway, Asher can't say that one yet :) ) I find it adorable how he'll wave the plane about and go "wheeeee" in his baby voice :)

What else did he get?

PS got Asher crayola drawing materials! I've yet to break them out cos I'm saving them for a day I need to keep Asher occupied! But it's a set I've been wanting to get too - the markers that only draw on the special crayola paper - that means, no stains on the wall/floor/table!

Chye & Celia got him a driving toy, which he straightaway put his hands on to steer about :) I think he's seen Jon and I drive so often, he knows how the steering wheel works. But it'll take a while to get the hang of all those signals. Good thing for him, baby cars don't need licenses!

He had several other presents as well - from school (there was a gift exchange), neighbours, and other friends and family.

What did we get him? Board books! I have been looking high and low for some good Christian baby board books, and I finally found some! I pray that these books will be treasured by Asher, not just because they are from us, but because of the message these books bring. Asher, remember, Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was spent at our place with my family, and in the run up to it we were reminiscing a little about how my parents used to hold a big Christmas party every year. I have many fond memories of Christmas spent together with my family and family friends, feasting, playing bingo, listening to the adults joke and chat, playing with my cousins and neighbours, staying up late, etc. I remember the pile of gifts under the Christmas tree that my mum and I would put up together, and my dad picking up each gift and announcing who it was for and from whom, and each person opening the gift there and then :)

It's the first time we had a Christmas gathering with the little ones, even though technically it's their second Christmas. Last year they were too young to really know what was going on, especially Aidan, since he was born just about a week before Christmas!

But one year on, what a difference! The two of them toddling about, babbling, gesturing, playing :) Asher was too sleepy to stay up, so he only received and opened his presents the next morning. But Aidan happily opened his presents to unravel toy trucks and books!

My mum had lovingly prepared dinner of aglio olio pasta, creamed cauliflower, potato gratin, sausages, fresh salad, and TQ brought minestrone soup. All very hearty and healthy. But we eventually moved on to more sinful pleasures like chocolate lava cake with ice-cream, fruit cake and such.

Christmas with family feels right, and I'm glad we spent time chatting, and finding out more little quirks that each of us have (like toothbrushing idiosyncracies...) ;)

Lets keep up this Christmas tradition!

p/s: TQ - pictures!!

The Boy In The Hat

The school bag was packed,
All set to go.
The boy was dressed,
But what do you know?
We took a while,
There was a delay,
He was just so cute,
I can't help but say!

The hat was out,
It's old, it's worn.
Was a little too big,
But we used it that morn.
On his little head
We popped it over,
He tried to pull it off,
But it went lower! :)


Halp! I can't see!










He soon learned to bear
With this thing on his head
And went about playing
Beside the bed.












But we had to go,
It was getting late.
Mummy needed to work
And he hadn't ate!


Before going up to school







On the car ride home
He played with the hat.
"Put it on your head", said Mummy
And he tried to do that!













Peek-a-boo!
Yoo Hoo!
See what I can do!













So that was the day
a special day was that.
The day we found out Asher
Was the boy in the hat!

Christmas Tea

Headed to Dawn's place after church with Asher (sans Jon since he was still recuperating at home). Asher had fallen sounded asleep on the way there, so went for a short detour to Macs to pick up a double cheeseburger cos I was absolutely starving!! No breakfast! Got to Dawn's place and decided to let Asher continue napping while I left the windows all open and stayed within eatshot in the house. It was a nice cool day and the birds were chirping in the garden, so I figured the car was as good a place as any to nap in. He naps a lot less nowadays, and whenever he does nap, I'm inclined to not move him and let him sleep for as long as possible. Meanwhile, Dawn and I had a good time catching up cos it's been a while since we sat down to chat.

In the end, he woke up at about the same time as Austin, and the tea time fun began. Dawn had brought down the playpen and dubbed it the "zone of fun". Evidently the two tots found more fun running around outside the pen. Asher himself has never actually been in a playpen, and it was not unexpected that he wanted out quickly. Austin was a bubble of smiles, and true to Dawn's description, becomes completely awake from a nap in an instant. Nicky, the son of Bryan's schoolmates, was there too. He's a sweet boy, and very polite and well-mannered. I think I might have startled him with the bursting of balloons, though. I was attempting to do some balloon sculptures when I burst my balloon - twice!

There were lots of toys, and they took turns playing with the balls, the racket, the spade, shovel, cones and cups. Some of these were newly opened cos Dawn gave them as party favors for the kids :)

It was a good afternoon, having iced tea and home baked yoghurt cake while chatting about Alien and Aliens (did you know there was a difference? Did you know there is no Alien 2?!), and other random, but interesting things :)

Warming Up A House

The Wees have moved, and to a lovely place at that!

We trooped over for lunch and I was the driver/porter for the day - lugging our stuff, the cake we brought, and presents too, plus Ergo-ing Asher at the same time. Why? Cos Jon was still on crutches! Reminded me of the time we went to Iceland and I was carting everything around as well cos of his other injury :)

Very lovely place they have, and I think it doesn't need us to warm the place cos it's already filled with lots of warm and loving touches :)

Anyway, some pictures Del took that day (thanks!):


Anya being cher-kek-ed by my Dad :)









Coaxing Asher to sleep, but he was just teasing me























The two grandpas and their grandkids :)












Anya showing Asher her toys








Playing with Ah Zou








See the beansprout sticking out of his mouth?? Hahaha, it's as if he's eating a worm! One of the popiah ingredients we let him try :)










Trying to escape from Anya's cot (or from Anya?)