Cheryl, together with Zinnia, Yeva, Aaron and Emma and of course, Uncle, Junming, Vincent, Aunt Angie, Poh Hoon and us had a wonderful time at the Botanic Gardens. Daddy read on the papers that there was a carnival going on there and we decided that it would be a great way to spend Sunday afternoon; with good friends, fresh air, some sun, nature and music.

Indeed it was a terrific time because Aunt Angie revealed that Zinnia and Yeva have yet to go to the Botanic Gardens. There was a huge crowd there and a lot of excitement because there were clowns, jugglers, stilt-walkers, musicians to entertain us. Zinnia, Emma and Aaron even did some paintings. We had sandwiches and snacks and we were very pleased that all of us enjoyed ourselves.

Cheryl, the first thing she did when we got there was, she laid down on the mat and looked upwards at the sky and the tall trees. This girl sure knows how to enjoy a good view. Needless to say, Yeva shared the same sentiments. Just look at their faces! Oh, I forgot to mention; of course they look pleased, they just had a change of diapers!

Here are some more shots!

We went for our weekly dinner at Grandparents' place. After dinner, there was watermelon to eat. Cheryl has become very interested in food lately, rather she has become very inquistive about the food that WE eat. This is good, I mean at least she is keen to try new food but I am worried that she may become just a tad too greedy.

Of course, back to the watermelon. Several months ago, I gave Cheryl watermelon and she ended up with diarrhoea hence I decided that she would not eat it until she is much older.

Oh my! Our little girl threw a tantrum and she even lost her temper at me. Can you imagine? She refused to let me carry her or touch her. She clinged onto Daddy and when I walked closer, she turned her head away in fury with a "hng". Many "hngs" in fact.

Daddy then carried her away to a corner where he spoke to her. When both of them returned, Daddy told her in whispers, "How can you be so rude to Mummy? Kiss Mummy now." It was only after numerous times before she finally relented and reached out to me.

This is only watermelon and she reacted so adversely because she did not get it. We must check this behaviour, stop it from getting worse and risk incurring her wrath. Ah, the pains and difficulties of parenthood but Cheryl has to learn that she just cannot get her way every time, all the time.

I guess the saying, "Being cruel to be kind" is very true! We don't fancy rearing a brat, not now, not ever!

For the past week, Daddy and I have been tucking Cheryl to bed. Well, not exactly. We just laid beside her on the bed and she would toss and turn, grap Daddy's bolster, my pillow, climb on top of them and hug them like a koala bear or just turn from left to right and then back to left again or right... you get the picture.

Point is, she is really learning how to go to bed herself, without all the carrying and singing. I would let her do her stuff then I would tell her I am putting her back in her cot and she won't protest. Once inside, she would fall asleep like in 5 minutes.

Last night, she decided to fuss close to mid night and she demanded to sleep on our bed. Okay, so I put her there. When we wanted to turn in, I wanted to transfer her back to her cot but she refused to budge. She pushed my hands away and even turned her head another way, all these while sleeping.

So all three of us slept on the same bed! Daddy and I slept almost motionlessly! But the good thing was, this was the second time in the week that she has slept throught, without waking up for her night feed. Honestly, Cheryl should be weaned off that already as she is so old. I have been giving her lesser milk during her once-a-night feed in the bid that she would stop waking up to drink. I don't know if it is out of habit that she is waking up.

This morning, after sleeping for a good 9 hours, she woke up smiling at me. Ah, the tight squeeze was all worth it! It would even be better she can sleep on her own in her cot. It happened once though and I am hoping that it will happen soon again. We are waiting for this day because then we can transfer her to her own room.

Cheryl and Daddy building sand castle

Daddy decided that a good day like this should not go to waste so we went to the beach with the new sand castle building tools that I got for Cheryl.

As you can see, Cheryl had a great time. Daddy also had fun using the tools. It is not easy building and moulding the sand castle but given time and practice, (which means there will be more trips to the beach) I am sure Daddy's architectural skills will improve!

When we first got there, Cheryl didn't like the feel of sand at all but it was only for a moment before she got used to it. In fact she got so comfortable, she was sitting on the sand!

We all had a wonderful time there though it was only a short 2 hours. Cheryl was exhausted and fell asleep in the 15 min ride home; re-charging for part 2 of the day where we went to Baby Heidi's full month celebration.

Here are some shots I managed to take of Cheryl and Lucas.

It is definitely a "love-hate" relationship! One moment, they want to share toys and food, the next, they want to get away from each other. Lucas is definitely very possessive of his Bob and Digger and I even entertained this thought of bringing toys out in the future for Cheryl. (hmm.. then again, this is not really something I want to cultivate.)

Cheryl has finally called me "Mummy". No, it was not "Mi Mi", or worse "Eh" or any noise that comes out of her throat. It is "Mummy", loud and clear.

But she has her moods and "mummy" is not something she readily spills out. After asking her repeatedly to call me, then she will do one single "mummy" and no more. But it is a different story when I ask her to call her darling "Daddy". Daddy will laugh so heartedly when he hears her address him; so sweetly while ignoring me.

Our little spark has progressed to sleeping on her own and in the dark too. She does not want me to carry her at all. She wants to lie down on the bed and fall asleep herself. So I just need to be around her, to make sure that she is asleep before I turn on the lights. Once, I thought she was asleep, I switched on the lamp and as she had Daddy's bolster covering her face, I thought it would be wise to remove it. I lifted the bolster lightly and she opened her eyes to look at me. I quickly switched off the light before she started talking because once she started talking, she would not want to go back to bed any time soon.

Life is easier now that Cheryl knows certain routine.

We love it when she tries to tickle us. When Cheryl sees our feet, she will automatically put her hand, move her fingers and say "kuchi, kuchi!"

This is undeniably one of the best shot I have taken of our Precious!

When I laid my eyes on the boots, I told myself I had to get it for Cheryl. She really looks good in it!

Today was definitely an eventful day!

We met up with Uncle Junming and Zinnia for lunch and Uncle Vincent, Aunt Poh Hoon together with Aaron and Emma came along too. It must have been ages since we last saw the Wan family! We had a good lunch at Downtown East and after that, the children played themselves crazy at Explorer Kids; a kind of a playground for children.

These shots were taken at the restaurant before the food arrived. Hungry faces!

The newly opened playground! In the past, these balls used to be coloured but now with this white, opaque colour, the children looked like they were playing in one huge tub of bubbles!

Cheryl managed to get her hands on 2 of balls. See the glee on her face? Aunty Poh Hoon was so amused by her chuckles that she couldn't contain herself!

After all that play, we went to Uncle Vincent's home where he packed up some stuff. We spent some time there and ...

Daddy has always wanted 11 children; his very own soccer team where he is of course, the coach! Here is an attempt of how a team or 37% of a team would look like.

We brought Zinnia back to her Grandmother's place and Yeva, who was in her play pen, grinned at us when we entered.

Grandmother told us that Yeva had just fallen and bruised her left cheek. That was when Daddy laughed and said Cheryl fell yesterday and bruised her right cheek. You can clearly see the red patch on poor Yeva's cheeks. As for Cheryl, the bruise has subsided and is not as obvious. But this must be classic to have the two of them stand side by side and have each of their cheeks bruised.

Children has this thing about Barney, the purple dinosaur. Zinnia needs it to fall asleep, and Yeva and Cheryl, well their eyes were glued to the television.

Last week, Cheryl went for her MMR jab and Doc warned me that she might run a fever after that. I was expecting her to fall ill a few days after but she was alright. Then on Sunday, I found Cheryl burning up.

I was wondering if the fever was brought on by the jab or something else. I called the Clinic and the doctor's assistant told me it could very well be because of the MMR vaccination and if Cheryl's fever persisted, I have to bring her in for a check up.

Today is Thursday and up till the wee hours this morning, Cheryl was still having a fever. So if she is not well tonight, I will make a trip to the Doc's tomorrow afternoon.

One thing I am very pleased of is, Cheryl loves books. She has even learnt to flip the newspapers like we do and she seems interested enough to go through the entire papers, albeit tabloid. Hey, she has to start somewhere and the size of the Newpaper was just right for her small hands to manage.

When she came to pictures, she would pause and talk to me (although I am still trying to make out half the things she says) while I pretended to understand her.

Cheryl has 4 teeth on the top and 2 below, and there are 2 cutting through on her lower gums too. I started getting her to brush her teeth because her breath in the morning was no longer as sweet as in the past.

Besides, I thought it was a good habit to start early. When she was younger, I was already brushing her gums so I figured brushing teeth was only natural. I do it when Cheryl is in the showers. I will tell her that I am preparing her toothbrush and I show her when I squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush. Then she will sit on my lap and open her mouth wide. She is patient enough to last the whole session of my brushing of her lower and upper teeth and then she will close her mouth tight with the toothbrush inside.

Then she will start sucking on the brush because the toothpaste is of banana and apple flavour. She has even learnt to rinse her mouth!

I brought Cheryl for her immunisation at Dr Loke's clinic and while we were waiting for her turn, Cheryl was already making friends. She was trying to plant kisses on a baby girl and when she found enough courage to walk around the waiting lounge, she was teasing 2 other boys. If you ask me, she is WAY too early to start giving so much attention to boys!

One of the boys was giving Cheryl toys from the toy box and Cheryl happily took it and then tried to return it to him. But when he reached for it, our naughty girl pulled her hand back and laughed much to the amusement of the boy's mother.

When Cheryl was called into the room, she impressed Dr Loke and her assistant with "Want to go up!" ; up on the examination bed. Dr Loke asked me if she was speaking a lot these days and I said yes but before I could tell her that I do not understand Cheryl, I saw Dr Loke write on Cheryl's card that she was speaking in sentences, and the comments, "very good" at the end. I quickly added that she was not that advanced but Doc's assistant cried out from the back that she heard the same. So, I modestly smiled.

What can I say?

Grand Aunt Susan gave Cheryl many toys; they used to belong to Uncle Oliver and Aunt Dallas. Oliver and Dallas sure sound old but in actual fact, they are only 10 and 6 year old respectively. Well, they were very generous to pass down their toys to Cheryl.

As you can see, Cheryl had a ball, erm... block of a time!

Cheryl was throwing the blocks all over the place. Daddy came in and she was playing demolition.

Daddy had to do this really fast so that Cheryl could see the end result and not be as destructive.

She was in awe! Daddy always saves the day! She kept the blocks in this state for quite a while.

10:00:00 am / Mummy N / 0 comments /