(21, 22 Nov 15) Tim's baby shower

Yup, finally the day we had all been anticipating...ha tim's baby shower on 21 Nov 15!

baby got this romper at the very last minute on taobao with the craft materials, tim was so tiny, he could not fit into any of those hand me down clothes, and the poor tim, did not even have one new piece of cute newborn clothing...ahhaha

"You make me smile", totally true. 

galvanized the Lu sisters and their partners to help out in the decor...Uncle Alston - the first guinea pig to take the picture against the backdrop that papa made. mama had conceived this idea with her sisters...pretty easy to make and very nifty eh?

xiaoyi with tim and san yi zhang with a baby balloon

the kids were doing the craft against the whimsical decor done up by wai po

one of mama's long standing friends, auntie Karen

uncle boon chye carried tim for a duper long time while mama went back to take something from the house and went around to chat with friends..he was always a good friend, in fact, mama's very first friend in my first company. grins. he bought a bouncer for xun's first month and we passed it to er yi after tong tong and now it was back to us again.

another shot of xiaoyi

ah ma's relatives

ah gong's relatives - 4 kor po, who was always at ah gong's house on Saturdays and she looked after papa and xiaoshu when they were young

.

the kids were chilling before the guests streamed in. We tied lots of polka dotted ballons along the railing, a pretty sight, a pity mama forgot to take a picture

My favourite picture of all, mama's beloved sisters...and wai po

went back to the house with some of papa's relatives, Uncle Erwin, Aunt Johanna and ah gong ah ma

ah gong ah ma's precious munchkins. 3 is a beautiful number. The bible stated that a 3-fold cord was not easily broken. We pray that you would always be united and knitted strongly together...siblings are one's best friends from childhood, they know your best and your worst, they see you through the joys and tears...

nothing like..FAMILY

ok...finally the guests left and we had some quiet time

san yi always doted on xun and bought her this really fluffy hairband, which jie nicknamed the band-hair (she was queer like that) and she took to it immediately, and looked really loony yet cute with it

papa used the instant photo printer to print out these shots...eh...mama wondered y he chose to put the heart on his...cuckoo bird?

and jie chose to put snowflakes as she was into Elsa then

tim with his classic " I am the boss" look

On 22nd Nov

had a baby shower party just for papa's friends...well....papa declared this would be the last baby, so he wanted to invite all the people he knew...ha...it was during the school hols so many friends were on holiday and did not turn up. Glad we split into two days so it was not overwhelmingly crowded...

papa's colleagues from sembcorp..

they even had a birthday celebration for Uncle Ah then...

papa had mamy auntie colleagues and they adored you kids. There would be a family day coming up soon and some had volunteered to baby sit the two of you.

oh uncle KC and Aunt Bevian's daughter...check out those HUGE eyes...she was a beauty

Aunt Lilian was papa's big boss...that day xun  was saying she wished papa did not have to go to India so often...then mama commented that she should have told it to papa's big boss...haha

Aunt JC and Aunt Lian

Auntie Angeline

someone commented all the three of you had this tiny bud on the lips, like papa, which signalled that you would be eloquent and talkative...eh...mama realised she did not have that bud...I thought I was undeniably the most talented speaker and writer in the house? ha

one of papa's ex colleagues had a daughter who was younger than tong tong, papa shared how his friend kept cajoling the daughter to play with tong tong coz tong had a rich father...haha

papa's only friend from the army times...another friend was supposed to come but forgot all about it. SO papa made this friend do a "funny DUH" expression to take a photo and sent it to Uncle Pak

then there were some from the air force...then one couple from his uni psychology class...then aunt xinyi, uncle keith and tiffany came too...

well....lots of unpacking...the utensils, decorations...the unwrapping and keeping of presents..and the most exhilarating part, the counting of ang bao money...ha...

most exhausting two days and we looked forward to a week of fun with papa on his second week of paternity leave!

(Nov 15) The second and third weeks of Tim at home

Well, fast forward from the birth of Tim, we had reached the baby shower. We chose to host the relatives and close friends on 21st Nov Sat and papa's friends from schools and workplaces on Sun. Was glad we split up the people, coz it was more manageable and we got more time to catch up with the different groups of people.

waipo was here when uncle huimin visited tim. she made him carry tim and said he would be blessed with a baby soon.

little tong seemed to be experiencing some teeny bit of difficulty adjusting, always whining and clinging onto mummy, wanting mama to be next to him. 

oh mama missed xiaoshu's wedding, we sent you two and papa as the representatives. 

What a very beautiful couple.

so mama took random photos of tim throughout the month...

he was really easy at first, sleepy most of the time and would sleep soundly for long stretches...

then the terrible nights started after two weeks, it was as if he had woken up from his stupor...maybe it was the stuffy nose and narrow windpipes, probably a boys' thing, a precursor to snoring perhaps? ha...tim had that really phlegmy and throaty noise at the later part of the night, he could not breathe well, so mama had to sit up to sleep so he would be propped up

 

well, we all knew he would outgrow it someday, just like tong tong...just wishing the someday would come sooner

in the short one month with tim, tong had fever twice in the middle of the night and jie jie once. sigh...it was most...draining...

like today 23rd Nov Mon, papa was on his second week of paternity leave and we had planned to go to Gardens by the Bay but tong was vomitting and running a temperature...so...never mind, movies at home and hoped we could go to the zoo tomorrow!

saw more inspirational quotes...

well, it all boiled down to being responsible for one's decisions and knowing that all great things require consistent and conscious effort and thought...tong liked to evade his responsibilities, like it was always jie jie's fault, someone else' mistake but hardly his...so...mama and papa were drilling him that he made his own decisions in life, to own up to mistakes, learn from them...and that it was fine to make mistakes...

the two of you loved tim a lot..but I supposed you did feel the strain of not having mama's full attention anymore...well...it would be a phase...we would be soon painting the town red together, creating new core happy memories...

papa chose this photo for the display card for the baby shower cake. ha..wai po did not know it was trendy to do such a thing now and remarked to er yi and san yi that the baby on the photo looked exactly like tim. she thought it was just some random cover photo baby. ha. 

meanwhile...the two of you were becoming best pals, bathing on your own, creating lots of funny stories and games...that day, tong was really punny. I told him xiaoshu was chasing a new girl and he wanted to bring them to toy r us with the new girl. Tong asked if xiaoshu was chasing, like in running? ha. 

then we talked about christmas presents. tong queried why he could not open them now, I told him everything had a season so we had to wait. He asked "hot wheel season"? Hmmm what was that?

ya tong had this stubbornness about wanting things done NOW, TODAY, HIS way...and this irritable trait had gotten him into lots of chastisement and trouble, like that day he whined about wanting to eat his favourite instant noodles on Tim's baby shower day when every one was busy and harassed, mama tried to empathise...then set an ultimatum that if he did not know how to consider other family members' needs, continued whining, then mama was gonna throw all the noodles away. Oh Which I did, into the rubbish chute, all 7 packets. 

papa and mama took turns to be the mean guy...well...mostly papa was the vicious one, the fierce one, the authoritarian dogmatic one...but now he took the placatory role, telling tong to behave and he would buy back the noodles on the next supermarket trip. 

talking about being mean,  we could not go for the PTM and Ms yeo called mama. Nothing much on the learning part, jie seemed ok, but socially, ms yeo commented xun should mingle with the other girls more instead of hanging out with her clique - Maggie and Izabelle. Eh...apparently some parents complained that their daughters were excluded from play by this exclusive clique..which I termed the "MEAN GIRLS". Ms yeo clarified that xun was not the instigator...both mama and papa had talks with jie about choosing friends...and meaning of friendship...sigh...treacherous territory

mama loved to smell didi, the baby smell set off happy hormones...it was heavenly...didi did not seem to grow as fast and big as jie or tong..but papa believed he would be the most handsome of the lot...and be tall and hunky like tong tong

tong got to play at the bouncy castle when jie was at ballet class

then the two came to play again and explored the christmas displays

I should start a new blog post on christmas...would not be so easy to move around to catch the shows in mall this year..but we could ask friends to come and play

oh one day, jie jie went MBS for church and tong joined ah ma instead. ha...eh...jie missed didi so much that she wept when he left. He had a good time at Rick's house and even got to eat the rainbow cake Wang Ping jie jie baked. 

papa wanted to bring jie on a date but jie changed her mind and wanted to go and find tong quickly

 

there was one day tong threw a massive tantrum as he wanted this craft he took back from school and mama thought I had discarded it. Aunt Anita was around and she seemed sad that tong would be punished when she left. Sigh...the tantrums were getting frequent and wearing mama down. 

jie said these were her mickey mouse ears

which became spectacles

and tong tried too

the tired boys

ha saw this and forwared to mama's sisters and brothers in law

we tried to do some activities at home to pass the time more productively...alas...but you knew how unstructured mama was when it came down to proper learning stuff, like recognising words and reading...alas

xun played with the travel doodle cards while the other two boys napped

so...school had ended, papa would be going to India on 29th...we would try to explore Singapore on our own soon! Cheers to better days ahead, which would surely come because Jesus had gone ahead to prepare them for us.