2012 1st Half of Year Recapped

2012 just came and went…

We did lots of great things and achieved lots of mile stones… Here are some recaps of what happened during the 1st half of the year…

Jan 2012

Kaden embarked his pre-nursery journey at his new school… His 1st time ever… Taking school bus all by himself to and from the school. Though he cried a bit initially due to separation anxiety, but he soon loved the trip and even made friends with the school bus auntie.

Mar 2012

We visited the zoo for the 1st time with our best couple pals, or should I say, best family pals now… The 3 kids had a rolling good time at the zoo. Daddy and Kaden even had their 1st elephant ride. Mummy with a big tummy is of course, spared from all the climbing.

 

Apr 2012

We made another investment in property. Another source of income… 3 cheers for us… We loved the new place as it is comparable to our Atrina unit… Hmmm, will it be our retirement unit in future?

May 2012

9th May 2012 marks a significant change in our life. From 3, we expanded into a family of 4. Welcome to our life, little Reyes. Looking forward to your growing journey, just like your kor kor Kaden.

 

Kaden held his 1st ever birthday celebration in school on 21st May. It was 2 weeks earlier than his actual day to avoid the school holidays. Goodie bags were prepared way before hand and cupcakes were ordered for the event. I even sneaked out during my confinement period to attend the celebration in school.

 

 














Jun 2012

Happening month for the Lim Family…

On 2nd Jun, Kaden turns officially turns 3. We had a mini celebration for him at home. We invited our caterpillar uncle & his family, our best family pals and of course, the kids’ favorite, Auntie Bao. Kaden also had his favorite care bears cake from Pine Garden. With lots of presents from the entire uncle, auntie and jie jie and kor kor, Kaden is a very happy boy.

 

Since the birth of Reyes, we had tried to shower Kaden with a little more attention as we didn’t want him to feel left out. Compliments of Ah Yee, Kaden got a chance to build a bear. He had proudly named it “Kaden Bear” and even chose a basketball jersey for the bear.

  











In June, Reyes turned one month old. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, Reyes is supposed to turn one month old on 8th Jun. Hence, on that day, we engaged professionals to shave his head (just like Kaden). After which, we offered prayers to both family ancestors. On 10th Jun, we held a mini celebration for him at our condo’s function room, where we invited our relatives and our closest groups of friends, from CLDDs and ZHSS to join us in the joyous occasion.

 We were a little more daring as 2nd time parents and so… we brought Reyes along with us and Kaden to help distribute the full month cakes to my mum as well as to Daddy’s friends in Orchard, Marine Parade and Suntec. Reyes also had his 1st outing with Mummy’s friends, the Sunshine Gang for the bday celebration at Pizitalia at East Coast. That was when we had our 1st family photo as 4.

Reyes also went on his 1st outdoor trip with both grandpas and grandmas. We celebrated Father’s Day at Canto-I at Ion Orchard. Thumbs up for the courage and efforts =D

Sunshine Present

Kaden received yet another present from Mummy friends, the Sunshine Gang this year... And it is a automatic scooter... 

Look at the all smiles Kaden and you can tell how happy he is... =D

More About Reyes... (Compliments from iPhone Apps)

Ever since Sean introduced me to apps on iPhone that can be used to edit photos, I am hooked... I downloaded a couple of more free apps to try them out and I can say I am very happy with the result... 

Here's an update of my little prince, compliments from the photo editing apps from iPhone =D

This is the little feet of my 2nd prince... Aren't the toes long? 

The grandparents commented that the "longish" toes are like Mummy more than Daddy...

Reyes had more hip-cups than Kaden when they were young. Here's a method passed down by the great great grandparents on how to curb hip-cups... 

Holding on to the milk bottle with Mummy's aid before turning one month old... Reyes, Mummy won't snatch your milk bottle away... ke ke ke... 

Finally, a picture of Reyes smiling... 

Reyes' best activity... Nap time after milk...

Kaden Turns 3

Kaden just turned 3 recently on 2^nd June and we had 2 separate celebrations for him this year.

Part 1 of the Birthday Celebration…  At School…

We had always enrolled Kaden in schools that follow the MOE time table; hence his birthday celebration always fell within the school holiday, which meant that Kaden had never celebrated his birthday in school before.

This year, we wanted Kaden to have a taste of a birthday celebration in school; hence I decided to celebrate his birthday during the last week of school term on 21^st May. It was weeks before his actual birthday and I was still in my confinement after giving birth to DiDi but we decided to go ahead anyway. I managed to sneak out for my dearest Kaden too after seeking approval from Dear, so that Kaden won’t be disappointed.

We ordered mini cupcakes as his birthday cake from Sweetest Moments and I also prepared some goodies bags for him to distribute to his classmates.

Kaden went to school dressed smartly and you should see the happy smiles that he had on his face, while we prepared the cupcakes, Kaden blowing out the candles and him distributing the goodies bags.  

Next year, I will definitely celebrate Kaden’s birthday in school again.

Part 2 of the Birthday Celebration…  At Home…

When Kaden turned 2, we held a BBQ for him. We invited our friends and their kids from CLDDs and ZHSS. Our dear Ah Yee even made a birthday banner for him. This year, I was still doing my confinement on Kaden’s actual birthday, so we held a mini celebration for him instead.

We ordered a cake from Pine Garden and this year, the theme is carebears. We ordered mini buffet and we invited our immediate families as well as our best pals, House of Js and Baoling to celebrate his birthday with us.

Although the scale of the celebration is smaller, the kids did enjoy themselves with the beautiful cake, the scooters and all the other toys in the room.

Well, as long as Kaden is happy, we will do everything for him.

Kaden, Daddy & Mummy wish you Happy Birthday… May you 身体健康, 快高长大, 开开心心.

Brotherly Love

We had been a little worried about Kaden's acceptance of his little brother but all the worries were unnecessary. 

Coming to one and a half month since Reyes joined the Lim Family, Kaden had been very good to Reyes... Kaden is like our little helper. I guess this is what they call Brotherly Love !!!

Final moments of... Confinement... Hurray...

Today marks the last day of my confinement since I last gave birth to Reyes on 09th May 2012. Finally... after tonight, I am going to have a good bath 1st thing tomorrow morning. 

This confinement is very different from my previous one, despite the fact that I'm having the same  Confinement Aunty. During my 1st confinement, we were not staying with dear parents, hence the  Confinement Aunty had lots of freedom on handling Kaden and taking care of me. Our parents would only visit us regularly. During these visits, my MIL would occasionally expressed her dislikes over the fact that Kaden drank his milk too slowly and the  Confinement Aunty did not warm up the milk. However, all the displeasure ended during the last day of my confinement when  Confinement Aunty went home. 

For my 2nd confinement, as I'm now staying with my in-laws, before dear and I engage the same  Confinement Aunty , we actually consulted my-laws if it will be alright to engage the same Confinement Aunty. With their blessing, we went ahead for the booking. I thought I can have a good rest during my one month of confinement but sigh... That's when all the ultimate troubles began... 

 Barely 9 days into my confinement, my in-laws barged  into our room, with my FIL very angry and pissed off and my MIL super upset, with tears almost flowing down her eyes... They had a long list of things about the Confinement Aunty that they disliked... 

Here's some of the complaints... 
(1) Confinement Aunty was mistreating my little Reyes i.e. feeding him to much milk and pinching Reyes till his face was filled with red little dots whenever he emerged from bathing... 
(2) Confinement Aunty always locked herself & Reyes in the room, with Reyes crying out loudly but denying their entrance into the room... In fact, my FIL commented that the Confinement Aunty was resting more than me who had just given birth
(3) Confinement Aunty pushed all her duties of taking care of mine and Reyes' laundry to my maid. In fact, my maid claimed that the Confinement Aunty even asked her to wash her clothes
(4) Confinement Aunty is very unhygienic i.e. did not use baby liquid detergent to wash the milk bottles

The list actually went on and on and on, till it came to a point that Dear and I decided that to prevent further conflict between the Confinement Aunty and my in-laws, as well as not to make the relationship between ourselves and the parents... We decided to request the Agency to take back the Confinement Aunty. 

The agency offered a choice, either to exchange a new Confinement Aunty or just terminating the services totally. After talking to my mum, I decided to just do the confinement myself... What I was afraid of is with a new Confinement Aunty, history might repeats itself... 

In the end, on the 10th day, I continued with my confinement without a Confinement Aunty. Luckily, my mum and my MIL helped me out for the rest of the 3 weeks. My mum actually cooked my confinement meals for me, bathed little Reyes and came over at night to help me look after Reyes, so that I could have a good night sleep. My MIL would helped me to cook my soup and made my red dates drink. I, myself would look after Reyes in the day. 

With the combined power of the 3 Mummies, finally we reached the last day of my confinement. Tonight. I will be taking care of Reyes myself... **cross fingers and cross toes** 

Hope all things will turn out well =D 

On a last note, I really like to thank both side of parents for helping me out with this confinement... of course, not forgetting all the 3 Daddies who went marketing, who became driver etc etc... Will be giving all a treat sometimes next week to 慰劳 everybody =D