Celebration for Xiaolongbao! He turned 3!
Loved this candid shot of Tong gazing lovingly into Anders's eyes. Tong was quite a sweet brother. He clamoured to carry MM all the time...but he could be quite rough so we worried that he would manhandle her. haha.
Mother's Day celebration. Went to the zichar stall at AMK. Cheap and good food.
Our cutie pie who completed the family. She was adored by all the siblings.
In the quieter moments of the day when the two big ones were at school, Jun often lay beside MM on jie's bed on the floor (oh ya, had I recorded that Jie was sleeping in the master bedroom again and we pulled the mattress over from the kids' room as it was getting too crowded on the queen bed. ha)...oh so I was saying Jun would make up silly ditties and coo to his darling MM
We called you M-mee at times too...it was strange...while the other children were called by their Chinese names, mei mei was simply MM, M-mee or mei mei.
Loved those chubby cheeks and oh so tempting to squeeze Michellin arms and thighs..haha
Mama thought that papa loved MM a lot a lot as he always carried her the first thing when he came home; he posted photos of her on FB often and gushed about how cute she was...I supposed coz she was a divine gift from God and she was the last baby and reminded him of Xun Xun, his very first beloved daughter...
It helped that MM was a very peaceful and contented baby. She would gaze at the surroundings and occupy herself by kicking her legs and flailing her arms contentedly for long periods of time while Mama did chores. Amazing eh, I could even cook lunch! I had mastered some dishes like the Ramly Burger with homemade chicken patty and mac&cheese, and even Japanese doria.
We could not imagine life without mei mei. It felt like she had been with us all the while for as long as we could remember at being a family...
ha using all those pretty filters...so she looked especially cherubic..
in the cute sailor-romper given by San Yi
The top said "You are my cherry on top" but Jun always retorted by saying it should be "You ate my cherry on top"...haha coz gor gor read the cursive writing wrongly the very first time...hahah
Oh those mightily pinchable cheeks...
Fancy cap and a funny romper...
On some days, MM would actually fall asleep quietly when no body bothered her.
Our littlest angel. Jun was especially protective of her and would get irate when people teased him by saying that they wanted to bring mei mei home.
On some days, I would think that I only had 3 kids...4 was really a lot...but we were coping well without a maid. Ah Gong took the children home from school. Wai po cooked dinner for us. Mama and Papa still got couple time and went for dates on Saturdays...
You loved to imitate people's expression and coo when being talked to. It was most endearing and sweet. You were a mere 2 months plus baby but seemed so alert and bright.
Our Xiao mama. When mama was busy, Jie had to take care of the littlest one. She could even hug her to sleep! Jie could not bear to let the little one cry. On some days, Mama was really tied up with chores and would tell Jie to get on with what she needed to do and leave mei mei on the bed. Jie could not bear to hear the piteous cries and would surely rescue mei mei really quickly.
Maybe we would have two bookworms in the house.
Haha the paw patrol team...well the baby was upset...could not recall why
Snuggling together..
We still went out when gor and jie were in school...life went on, we were still adventurous, going to places like Lot 1, Jurong East, Salvation Army...
Oh a cheeky imp in a top bought by Bei Kor Po who went on a trip to Haiwaii
the play corner at the Salvation Army store. Ha, I liked browsing there as I could snag some really good buys at time. Nay, I was not deterred by the fact that the clothes were preloved...
Jun loved to build. He would create interesting structures and mumbled continuously to himself as he weaved stories of characters fighting fire or riding a super boat...he was a very creative boy. Perhaps he would become an engineer when he grew up.
Oh the alphabet book that was gifted by Xiao biaogu to jie jie some 8 years ago! You were turning 4 in October this year and had not started schooling. Well...it was logistically challenging and we could save quite a bit if we kept you at home...not that you learnt a lot in school at this age...I thought it was better that you could have time with your older siblings. but you displayed an interest in learning. You would ask me to read books...you could count, you were interested and even recognized some letters!
ah ha, we could find a nice photo spot even in our library.
Tong's friend's mum gave him a box of biscuits and the box listed the Chinese names of some of the common animals. ha...tong had wanted to memorise the names and test the uncles if they knew the Chinese names of these animals...lol but he forgot their names himself.
Ah...a funny story. I went to the supermarket with Jun and he saw a packet of nuts and wanted to buy it. I agreed...we ate some at home and found them rather raw and unpalatable. Ah gong saw the nuts and told us that they were raw nuts! ha used for soups. so I made Tong crack the nuts while I went to nap with MM. He managed to convince Xun and Jun to do it with him and they devised ways to do it faster, like using some toy or plate or random object to crush the shells. haha...then we asked to whom should we give the nuts to and tong said ah ma...later we found out that it was because wai po would use the nuts in soups and force him to drink it while ah ma would usually not force him to do anything against his wishes...haha the sly one
oh this old picture popped up on FB. Our little Xun...she was just two at that time, we were staying in Maysprings
Look at this lass now. She talked like a teenagers sometimes and did not like those fluffy tutu dresses anymore, going for those short shorts...ah....
Ha mama mastered the ramly burger. the secret ingredient? Just use lots and lots of sauce...
When little MM was still very teeny and could fit in this sling
all cozy and snuggly
Well gor gor absolutely loved being with her...aiyo, all of you liked to pinch her chubby cheeks, squeeze her hand when she slept and poke her backside...
oh...more pictures of the synchronized poses by the boys
amazing eh? It was like they were posing deliberately for the photo, except that they were really asleep and managed to somehow pose the same way! How incredible.
Typical sighting, I did not fathom why you had to sprawl yourself out on the really quite big and there was surely enough space for us bed.
Mirror image
The little jun who loved jie to bits too...ya if tong was sitting behind with jun, they would fight and make so much noise...so sometimes, we separated the boys hahaha
yes, 4...complete
Easter Day at church
Jesus is alive!
Had magnets with bible verses for Mother's Day. They were very pretty.
Went to the Bird Park and coincidentally, JJ's and Kaysen's families were there too! Ha.
The boys were already decked in their swimwear. As it was the Easter public holiday, there was an Easter egg hunt! We had to go to different spots within the aviary to hunt for them. At first, we thought the egg hunt was to look for eggs all over the entire park so we did not want to participate. One of the kids chose to go to the aviary so we went and realized that the egg hunt was conducted in the aviary.
Then we were scanning the place very carefully for eggs amidst the stones and bushes..only to realise that there were designated egg spots where we could just collect one and move on! Ha
The prize was a pin.
We even went to the Night Safari with Kaysen's family! Mei was at ah ma's house as it was a Friday night. It was a good thing that mama was still on maternity leave so we could go out on a Friday night without Mei mei.
Ah...the amazing thing was papa and I actually had more couple time with the birth of mei mei. Well, in the past, mama was very reluctant to go out as I felt I was neglecting the children or not being the best mum I could if I went out. What nonsense. It was important for me to still go out to have a breather and spend time with papa so we could have a strong marriage.
We went to a mookata restaurant in remote Changi. A very idyllic place with live music and balmy breezes and mouth-watering BBQ food. YUMS.
Oh, so papa and I went for a walk at Changi Beach after that and we saw a rental kiosk that had a promotion for the go-kart on weekdays before 6. We asked ah gong to bring us here, YAY. We were there at 530, phew, so we managed to secure the promotion.
The big ones took turns to drive the small one...
The place was so serene and rustic...
We saw an awfully old boat being towed by a tug boat...gosh, I wondered where did this antiquated boat come from?
The playground was fun.
Lots of structures to explore..
The athletic jie climbed all the way to the top...
Even saw a heart-shaped stump in the tree trunk
heh...my darling mei mei...I had been experimenting with this filter recently, it made our skin fairer and smoother...and the face sharper...I wished I looked better in photos...haha
Thankful that ah gong could bring us out on outings...
for us to enjoy the park when it was not crowded and when the promotion was available...
Our little impish jun and his silly antics
On another Friday, we went to the Jewel terminal with ah gong. It was breathtaking. The majestic man-made waterfall cascaded mightily down...the place was so cool and lush with beautifully landscaped terraces...it was as if we were in the cloud forest, except it was free!
The queues at the restaurants were long though..
We strolled around to see what else the Jewel had to offer...
gorgeous backdrops for photos all over the place
Ah...one shop piqued their interest...the pokemon centre. Boy was it crowded. The plush toys and merchandise were costly!
I was amused when I found out that this magnificent sea creature evolved from some puny insignificant pokemon.
plush toys here and everywhere...some were really unique...xun and tong did not even know some of them...
Tong spotted this bag and wanted to use it as his school bag next year. It was $75! I found one on Taobao that looked like this but was of canvas material and not the soft velvety material...oh well, the Taobao one only cost $10...
Went to Toa Payoh Amaze with You you as er jie had some passes that were expiring so she treated us! We even met Tong's best friend from Arise!
Speaking of Arise, Tong had expressed that he wished Jun would go to Arise so that he could see his teachers. Ha...I brought Jun to a PAP kindy to check out the environment...but Jun insisted that he only wanted to study at Arise...so I supposed...we would be going to Arise again! I told the big kids that perhaps they could take the bus back together next year so ah gong could fetch Jun back as taking the bus back from Arise was really challenging, having to cross the gigantic expressway and we had to walk a far way before we could reach the bus stop...Tong broached the subject to Ah Gong, who dismissed it by saying it was still too far away so we would discuss next year. ahhhaha
Our little Tong as the goalkeeper...
The younger boys played for the Charlie 11 team and even won the championship!
Ha, Tong had lots of areas to improve on so we hoped he would grow as a player!
He liked to be the goalkeeper so that he did not have to run so much. Ha, the indolent one...
Yay, the first taste of success.
Jie's team was at the bottom of the table...well, it was heartening to see them win the last match as they had been losing or drawing...
Tong's own team Alpha 12 started out on a strong note but did not keep the lead and emerged as the bronze medal winners...oh well... there would always be next year!
Ha, the cute soccer water bottle from Smiggle was Tong's newest water bottle. It was certainly very cute and apt for a soccer player.
We went to support Aunt Qin at her Karaoke Appreciation Night on 18 May. Ha even mei mei went. I was worried initially as the music was deafening and they were singing oldies which the kids were unfamiliar with. However, the kids sat through the 1.5 hour concert!
We bought flowers (and the money would be donated to charity) and went onto the stage to give it to Aunt. She was SO popular and received so many flowers. She was supposed to be no 35 but there was a misunderstanding and the organizer did not put her name into the list. She became the last one to sing and we stayed for the lucky draw since we had to wait till the end anyway.
She gave us tickets number 22, 23, 24, 26 and 36. ha, #25 was called and Aunt went up, ha. She gave that ticket to her daughter...we lamented but were glad that Aunt got a prize. papa said he had a premonition that we would win a prize...
and we did win the FIRST prize in the end! A standing fan. How nice, as the one in our room was not working as well so it would be a perfect replacement. YAY. The two older ones ran up onto the stage to get the prize, and in our jubilance, we actually forgot to take a photo for them!
Here, outside the theatre, we took a photo with our beloved confinement nanny. How sweet to have an enduring friendship to blossom out of that confinement period.
On the way home, Jun was whining about something and we were really confused. Turned out that he had wanted the cooking pot lucky draw prize. We guffawed and teased him for being SOOOO silly. ha...oh well, what an amazing night.
Phew, finally did up this post after procrastinating for such a long time. Xun had been reading the older posts and told tong the things I wrote about their childhood...I laughed and said I wrote the truth on the blog and did not embellish any account...I wish...someday when you read the blog...perhaps years later when you are a parent...or grandparent...when papa and mama were not around anymore, and have a smile on your face as you reminisce on those days...
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