I decided to get Cheryl a lantern, something small, cute and different and I found this little beauty. I came home with it and showed it to our little girl. She was "wowing" and I switched off the lights to show her the effects.

She was so tickled! I could not get more pictures because our little spark now knows what a camera is and what a camera does. Once she saw the camera, she threw the lantern away and wanted to look at the shots. It was so difficult trying to capture shots.

She wanted so badly to get her hands on the camera so I had to resort to showing her a new trick; that I can take a shot of us while turning the screen the other way round! Only after that did she stand long enough for a decent picture. There were many taken but none as good as this.

This is a REAL party! I guess, nobody knows how to hold a party like Aunt Angie and Uncle Junming. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was done by some professionals. The chalet was so nicely done up, the birthday ambience was immediately created when you set foot into the place.

Daddy helped with the pumping of balloons... Two years back, when it was Zinnia's birthday, Daddy had to blow the balloons. This year, Uncle Junming was prepared. The decorations were all handmade by Aunt Angie's friend and they were so well done.

The timing was just right and everyone, kids and parents included were well occupied. There was a craft session where the children did some painting. Cheryl was also excited and decided she wanted to be involved. That little girl was so determined, you can see the seriousness in her face. She is one determined girl! After she was done, she had beads of perspiration on her nose, and face.

After that was games and the children were busy keeping themselves in the games. Zinnia and Yeva, the star of the night, were dressed very sexily; the Hawaiian beauties, complete with bikini tops and straw hulas!

Cheryl enjoyed and entertained herself with a hula hoop she found abandoned by the older children. By the way, the other children were busy playing games and just because Cheryl is a tad too young to join in did not stop her from having fun.

She tried to mimic what the other kids did; swing the hula hoop around her but found it impossible so she improvised and found another way to play with it; stomping her feet on the ground after she stepped in.

Cheryl may only be 17 months old but her vocabulary has improved by leaps and bounds. She can understand different languages too; English, Mandarin, Khek, Hainanese. Thanks to her both sets of Grandparents who make it a conscious effort to speak to her in our dialects. Daddy and I just speak to Cheryl in English.

Our little girl can utter several words now. Everyday commonly used words like "shoes", "dog", "bird", "milk", "there", "here" are just some of the utterances she says. She is very good with "Daddy"; her favourite, "Mummy", "Por Por", "Gong Gong", "Nei Nei", "Da Da", "Yee Yee", "Douglas" and lately, "Ju" for Grand Aunt June and "Chee" for Grand Uncle Chee. And she understands even more words and phrases like "fan", "air con", "tv", "pen", "chair", "lie down", "close your eyes", "kiss", "hug", "cream", "piano", "car"... there are just too many to remember. Sometimes, I will tell her to go put on her shoes and she would walk to the shoe rack, sit down to wait for us to help her put on her shoes or I will tell her to put her dirty clothes in the laundry and she will do just that. Or when I tell her its coffee that I am making for Daddy and she will take a deep breath and breathe out like she can really smell the aroma too.

It is really amazing!


Somehow, I have this feeling that Cheryl will grow up to be pretty articulated.

Okay, this sounds like a big name... actually it is a congenital condition where the little finger, sometimes the ring finger, is held in fixed in a flexed position. Cheryl's left thumb is always in a fixed position and we realised it sometime in June.

When I brought her down to the doc the last time, Doc advised us to give her constant massages to loosen the muscles. Because it is her thumb, it is kind of tricky as really, the hand is useless if the thumb is not functioning. Thankfully, Cheryl can do everything normally with her left hand. On rare occasions, the thumb will be in a relaxed position.

I took this pictures while she was asleep. You can clearly see the difference between the right and left thumbs.

If her condition does not improve, Doc suggested her going for surgery to "release" the tendon.

Cheryl with Friends

Cheryl loves Yeva and you can see for yourself, how she adores that little girl. Yeva, however, is not as thrilled to have her older sister, Zinnia kiss her because Zinnia can be a little rough. Hahaha!

Children with Attitudes!

Oh! Oh! Was that a little hop at the end that Cheryl did? I have been trying to get her to learn how to jump for ages!

Lately, Cheryl has learnt how to climb. We always placed her high chair at the dining table and she will squeeze her way inside to push her high chair away so that she can climb the chairs that we use.

She has also learnt to climb onto our bed which by the way is pretty high. This is good, right? It shows that she is active and she is refining her motor skills and all. But why do I feel so worried? Maybe it was because once, I had placed a cup of hot medicine on the table and I had gone to lie down for a while as I was feeling rather ill. Then I heard some familiar noises; sounded like the chairs were being moved and all. I came out of the room to see her standing over my hot cup and she had tissue papers in her hands. I cried out to her and in her fluster, she dipped her hands into the hot liquid! Of course, what followed was a shrieking wail...

She also likes to put her leg over the top of her play pen and once, she fell over, thankfully, landing on the mattress. It is tiring to have to watch her like a hawk literally because she is so quick and she runs off pretty fast too.

Cheryl has developed a love for drawing. Some of her "masterpieces" were done on the wall, sofa, mat... so I decided to give her proper writing materials instead. She was so engrossed doing her pictures, she sat at the table for a good 2 hours. Daddy was so impressed with her patience.

We wanted to go to Vivo City and after we alighted from the car, Cheryl was "wow-ing" because it was the first time she saw ferries. Daddy also pointed out to her the cable cars and the faraway Merlion at Sentosa Island.

Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Vivo City because we didn't know how to get there. So we ended up walking around Harbour Front and eating dinner at Han's. Daddy and I were wondering if it was opened already because from the outside, there were still a lot of construction going on. Then on our way home, I suddenly recalled Aunt Asrina said there was Espirit (Mummy's favourite store) there so I told Daddy that I think it is already opened. Daddy said he gathered as much too but it was a pity we couldn't find our way. Okay, there are always other opportunities!

Oh, I took this before we went out... Cheryl always has a thing for shoes but nothing beats this! Daddy was packing his boots when Cheryl decided she wanted to try them out herself. Of course, Daddy let her try and I won't let such "candid camera" moment pass!

See Cheryl's right hand? Make a guess what she is doing? She is digging at her navel. Yes, it is a bad habit and she developed it several months ago. She absolutely loves to touch it; she touches it when she is drinking milk, she touches it when she is being carried, she touches it when she is watching television, etc. We tried to stop her like give her something to hold so that her hands would be occupied.

Once, I decided that I should touch it and find out for myself what the fascination is all about. Her navel has a piece of loose skin that slightly covers it. Actually, it does feel nice to touch it! Haha!

Lately, I checked her navel and found it slightly bruised from all the touches. It was red and her nails had cut into it even so I decided we must go to Plan B! So I got her hansaplast and taped her belly button. Initially, she protested but I had to trick her and say her belly button looks really good! Only after that did she okay the plaster over her navel.

This was how Cheryl looked like on the night of the hives attack.

Can you blame me for reacting the way I did? I seriously thought she would be scarred for life!

Okay, this is what happened to the Powerpuff Girl handicraft that Aunt Margaret did for Cheryl. It is very nicely placed next to Cheryl's other favourites; Mickey and Minnie Mouses ... on the wall of the bathroom.

Mickey and Minnie have been on the wall for several months now because they act as a distraction when Cheryl takes her bath. Now, everytime after I shampoo her hair, she will touch her hair to get the foam and then she will clean Mickey and Minnie and lately, Blossom. Cheryl is very excited when she steps into the bathroom and she will say "Pow! Pow! Pow!"; her rendition of Powerpuff Girl, before breaking out in chuckles.

After the hair shampoo, she will ask to sit on my lap while I brush her teeth. Then she will help me to rub the rest of her body. After all is done, I will rinse of the soap off her body and she will point to the wall to tell me to rinse Mickey, Minnie and Blossom.

Aunt Margaret came to visit for the weekend and we decided to spend the afternoon with her. She was so sweet and said she wanted to get Cheryl a little something. I thought it would be really nice to get Aunt Margaret to "make" something for her so we went to the handicraft store and did a "PowerPuff Girl" for Cheryl... We got the colours wrong though. This is the problem with adults; we can't seem to remember details like this.

After that, we went to Kiddy Palace and Daddy got Cheryl a huge toy; a kitchen set! Toys nowadays are so realistic, but you know what? We get to play it with Cheryl still.

At Grandmummy's place, Daddy played some games on Uncle Ben's XBox and Cheryl was mesmerized... glued and totally paralysed by the screen.

Gamester in the making...

When we got back, Cheryl had already fallen asleep and we thought it would be an excellent time to fix up her new toy; her surprise tomorrow morning. But the surprise didn't come in the morning.

Thank you, Daddy!

Cheryl woke up suddenly and to pacify her, we showed her her new toy. She was of course thrilled and couldn't stop smiling. Uncle Junming, Aunt Angie, Zinnia and Yeva came up and all of us had a great time playing with Cheryl's new toy. Children are always more excited about playing toys that do not belong to them!

Daddy has been home for a while now and I thought it would be a great idea to have dinner with Aunt Angie, Uncle Junming with their little ones, Zinnia and Yeva together with Aunt Colleen, Uncle Zixian and Bernie. The last time we had dinner together was late last year during Uncle Zixian's birthday.

Aunt Angie suggested Globetrotters and I must say, that place was a god-sent! It was not just a restaurant, it also doubled up as a playground for the kids. Cheryl, after sitting on the high chair for a good 40 min decided that enough was enough and she wanted to play. There was a play room there and the many other children in there was company to her. Of course, Bernie, Zinnia and Yeva had their fair share of fun!

Well, the food they served ranged from the very local Singaporean dishes to the exotic Mexican, Jamacian food. Daddy had a difficult time deciding what to eat probably because of the great array of dishes available.

Who would complain? We had good food, and great company!

Everyone was enjoying their food, even our little ones!