Finally she walks !

Just three days before Rou turns one, she walked unsupported confidently. Finally, no more garbage into her mouth. Such a great relief to both of us, her paranoid parent. We have been watching her so closely when she crawls. Why ? Just because Rou has the habit of picking up minute things on the floor and put into her mouth. She has been eating a lot of dirts, fallen hair... whatever she found on the floor. Because of her, we have to sweep the floor every few hours just to make sure there isn't anything like coins, buttons which falls out of our shirts or pockets that she can easily get choked.
And finally, she walks ! Here's some shots of Rou walking back and forth. The story goes like this:

Mommy : Rou, give mommy some bread, please
(She understands "give mommy" and "bread")









Walked towards her bowl she used to eat bread









Walked back to mommy with an empty bowl instead of bread.
Rou : (Mommy, Rou Rou finished all the bread, no bread only empty bowl)




Whatever she gives mommy, there is always a big smile in return !

My action items for the next two weeks

1. Eat a lot of good food. Food in Singapore is just too healthy for me. I really miss my nasi lemak wrapped in real banana leaves from the road side stall, char kuey teow at Pasar Malam, authentic Tom Yam in Kampong Bharu and yes for sure my mom's cooking. How I wish I could delete Thursday off from my calendar. I can't wait to go home.^_^

2. Go shopping. Oh...how i missed my weekend shopping. Back then in KL, shopping used to be one of my favorite activities. I could shop from MidValley to One Utama and ended up in Ikea, all in one stretch. I could dumb my hubby at home ( he would love to be dumbed rather than go shopping with me) send my lovely daughter to my mom's place and enjoy my day hanging in the shopping malls for hours and don't mind to be alone!

3. Watch my cantonese Hong Kong Series in cantonese. I still cannot get use to hearing my favorite Hong Kong Actors speak such fluent mandarin (All Hong Kong shows in Singapore's channel are dubbed in mandarin). It is just too good to be true.

With the above action items, is 2 weeks enough or not ? Haha..lets not be too greedy. Maybe after a week, I will miss Singapore for the serenity, tidiness, and cleanliness which I shall never get in KL.

Rou @ 11 month 3 weeks

Rou is learning to balance herself this few days. When she attempts to walk, she will make sure it is not too far from her walker. So if she lost balance, she could quickly hold on to her walker. At her age, she already knows how to protect herself. Never under-estimate kids these days.
These are pics taken after an outing to Orchid Garden and the only few shots of Rou in dress. I love to see her in dress as I always want my daughter to look feminine and that is also why she was named "Rou". (Rou in Chinese means Gentle.)
5 more days, Rou will turn one. Wow, time flies...Hope she will have a lovely birthday back in KL.
Looking forward to this Friday.... Mommy is a bit home sick now.....

You call this a thinker ? Or a day-dreamer ?

Since Rou was born, we have been taking her pictures almost every other day. Being a parent, I think the most enjoyable thing to do with our parents is to share with them what Rou has learned today, how happy she is and every pics that I sent back to them is a story that they will share with the neighbours and relatives. While they happy in viewing photos, I also become addicted in shooting photos, guess what ? I now master the skill of taking photos with my hubby DSLR camera.

Just today, I took this photo. Rou always has this pose. She loves to put her hand holding her head as though she is thinking of something or day dreaming. I personally feel this is a funny shot for a baby at her age..Don't you think she looks mature ?

Do you think Rou will be an athlete ?

Rou was born with big frame. Both me and hubby are above 5' 5" and considered as tall so a lot of my relatives said Rou will grow up be to a tall girl. Perhaps she has inherited our genes. Even before she was born, she has been very active in mommy's tummy and most of the time when we visited the gynae, we saw her moves a lot in the womb. When Rou was born, she has never stop kicking her legs when she is awake. When Rou was 1 month old, she is able to hold her head up and she can slightly flip to the side. She started to stand when she was 4 months old and now she has started to walk.Most of my friends said she has very strong legs and will be an athlete when she grows up. What do you think ?
Below are some shots of how Rou played with her baby basketball.

Living in Singapore - Episod 2

A lot of my friends asked me what are the major differences between living in Malaysia and living in Singapore. Well, after living here for a few months, let me share with you some of my experiences and some jokes (only if you find it funny).
1. Zebra crossing
In Malaysia, whether there is zebra crossing or not, before we cross the road, we will make sure there is no car / bikes. If we see from far there is one, we will stop and let the car drive through far away then only we cross ? Right ? Well, in Singapore, all vehicles will slow down and stop when they see pedestrian crossing the road. I was such a fool when I first came here. I stop at the zebra crossing was waiting to see the taxi drive off, but he seems to wait for me to cross. We both stared at each other until he has to wave me off. It was such an embarrassing moment.

2. Toll house and ERP
In Malaysia, we have so many tolls but i couldn't find one in Singapore until one day I tell my hubby, "Singapore is such a generous country, they don't build tolls to burden their citizen and my hubby had a good laugh and tell me :"Darling, we just paid one. In Singapore, they don't have space to build it on the road, thats why they build it on top. See... smile at the camera up there..."
So stupid me, just keep quite.....
In case you are wondering how the ERP gantry looks like, here's a pic from Wikipedia :
ERP stands for Electronic Road Pricing. It is an electronic road toll collection system. Each vehicle in Singapore has to install a device call In-vehicle Unit (IU). When a vehicle drives pass the ERP gantry, the sensor will deduct the toll fee from the cashcard installed in the IU device.

We have a new Sofa

When we first moved in, our living room was empty. The sofa which the landlord left us was old and is not safe for Rou. We then asked the landlord to remove the sofa and we bought a new one. It cost us SGD 450 and yes I do like the sofa. The colour is bright and it really cheers me up when i see some colours in my house. Our daughter likes it as well. See how happy she is when we place her on the sofa.

Living in Singapore - Episod 1

Well, there isn't any special skills required for one to be qualified to stay in this country, but the moment you started to live in this country, you better be prepared, life is not a bed of roses anymore, for me, I mean !

Have you seen this before ? Do a wild guess. What do you think it is ?

Here in Singapore, most people stay in HDB (Housing Development Board) flat. Due to space constraint, the only way to "sunbath" your clothes is to hang it outside your flat. Each unit has these "bamboo stick holders" mounted on the wall outside the flat and we supposed to insert the bamboo stick and hang our clothes like this :

Don't underestimate this task as it really requires some techniques. Firstly you have to select which are the ones you need to hang under the sun. Each bamboo stick can only hang 3 pieces of clothes. The one shown in the pic definitely has violated the rules. Secondly, you have to make sure the heavier item is being hung inwards otherwise you will loose balance when you put the bamboo stick out.

I got a great shock when I tried to hang the clothes the first time. Nearly thrown myself out from the window..Shhh...don't tell my mom. She will get heart attack.