Courtesy of Daddy Isaiah, Joey got alittle sneezy last night. She was not sneezing alot, but whenever she does, ALOT of mucus will flow out from her nose. This morning, her nose was still running a little. Am monitoring her temperature incase she gets a fever. Thank God so far okay. Please say a prayer for my little darling when you remember. Thanks!

Yes, I am talking about my beloved daughter.

Are you kidding??! What can an sweety pie like Joey do? Look, she's so harmless and innocent-looking:

Today in nursery, I witnessed and confirmed some of my fears about Joey. She is indeed someone not to be trifled with. Haha.. sounds like some secret society chief. She was playing on one of the playmats in the nursery and was attempting to push herself towards a toy lying infront of her. Along came a 'gor gor' who could walk already, and snatched away the toy away right before her eyes. She was so angry that she screamed at that boy! Oh my.. the mother, who's my colleague Serene, commented, 'Wah, your daughter won't be bulled wan hor..' I had to tell her, 'yah, she's pretty D.. (read: Domineering)'

I wonder where she got that nasty temper from. Both Isaiah and I are such sweet natured, lovely and gentle people. Really makes me wonder.

Oh, and did I mention before that she also engaged in a 'screaming act' with another colleague's son Denzel. Denzel is a cheeky but very cute two-year-old who will delights in scaring Joey. Joey would be sitting harmless on her Bambo chair in the office nursery, then along will come Denzel who will walk past her slowly and scare her with a 'boo!' Yes, kids nowadays are very smart. I've long suspected he is interested in my Joey. hahaa.. anyway, usually, Joey would break out into tears because she caught a fright.

One fine day,  Denzel came by again to try his old tricks on Joey. This time round, Joey decided to scream back at him. 'Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!' I tell you, Denzel got such a shock that he decided to roar back at Joey. 'Rooarrrrrarrrrrrrr!!!!' Joey was not to be trifled with this time round. She yelled back with an even louder 'AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!' In the end, Denzel ran away. keke. Joey won.

But seriously, you would run away too if Joey screamed at you.

Still, I think they're good friends. When they see each other in church, they would smile & play with each other. But once in a while, they will remember the screaming incident and start the screaming thing again. So funny right?!

Well, no matter what though, my Joey still has a sweet side to her when her mood is right. :)

Don't you agree? :)

Usually, Sundays are spent with my parents. After service, we would usually go over to my parents' house and just relax & watch TV until dinner time. But today, we were really exhausted, plus isaiah is sick, so we decided to go home instead. After reaching home, we did manage to catch a short nap before Joey wakes up whining again. Nowadays, with the breaking forth of her teeth, she is more whiny & frustrated than usual. We really need alot of patience & grace of God to get through this period!

Took this photo in church nursery today before service.

One-eyed mama with joey. haha..

That's Joey shaking her butt and trying to move forward. Hee..

She still can't move forward yet, but she has started to support herself on her knees and she has been moving backkwards and turning 360 degrees on the spot. Oh, and one thing I am very amazed about her is that she can stand very steadily if she holds on to something infront of her. Her legs are very strong indeed. And when she stands, she will try to lift her feet as if she's taking a step forward. Yeh, that's very good!

Since Joey is into her next stage of development, learning how to crawl, I assembled a new playmat for her. Nowadays, playmats are very versatile and can be assembled into different combi to meet the different needs of kids in their different growing phases.

This is the tunnel playmat that will encourage Joey to keep learning to crawl!

Look at Joey enjoying herself..

There is this see-through circle patch that we can play peek-a-boo with Joey. She keeps laughing when she sees us through that patch! haha..

This morning felt so hot & humid. Even though it was only 9 plus in the morning, I already felt that the entire living room was so hot! Nevertheless, my sunshine girl's mood is always so good. Many people have commented before that she is really very smiley.. and that's true!

By the way, I just noticed that her 2nd tooth on her lower gum is also coming out! The 1st one is quite visible already, about 2mm out of the gum and the second one is just about to come out. That's fast...

Her gums are very itchy, so she takes comfort in chewing on her water bottle.

After a disastrous morning yesterday, today felt like a lovely day! haha..

Going to work is a more pleasant experience nowadays because of the new stroller. Easier to push, easier to manoevour and prettier to look at. Joey is so much more comfy in it too that she makes no attempt whatsoever to get out of it. My darling looks so tiny in her new stroller, doesn't she??!

Every morning when I reach the nursery, I always can't bear to leave my Joey there and I will spend at least 10 minutes playing with her before I start work. The usual routine now is the crawling exercise.

I had a bad start this morning. As usual, was already rushing for time getting myself & Joey ready for work. Then the disaster happened. I was carrying Joey off my bed when I lost my balance and accidentally hit her bag off the bed. When I picked up the bag, I realized that her pot of porridge had spilled out! The entire cover came off and the boiling hot porridge was EVERYWHERE.

To be honest, I contemplated taking urgent leave then & there on the spot. Ha!

Then the good side of me got better of me and I decided to quickly clean up the mess so that I can finally be on my way to work. The whole bag was full of chicken porridge. The floor had a puddle of porridge. Her diapers & clothes inside the bag were soaked in porridge. Sigh.. how come got so much porridge??! I thought I only cooked ¼ cup of rice?!

And I felt heart pain because the night before, I had cooked the porridge even though I was dead tired. The thought that Joey can eat some hot, nutritious porridge drove me on. And now! No more porridge for today! So angry with myself. And poor Joey.

When I reached the nursery this morning and told Auntie that there’s going to be no porridge today, she said, ‘Huh? Why didn’t come? Joey loves to eat porridge leh. She finished the entire pot yesterday!’ Ahhh….. like a knife stab into my heart.

OK, I know I am being over dramatic here.

Well, lesson learnt: No leaving her bag on my bed anymore!!!!!!!

Joey is now in the stage of learning to support herself on her knees, shaking her butt, and moving backwards. Very soon, she will realize that she can move her knee one by one and move forward. I am so happy to see her making such improvements! She does looks like one millipede now, who crawls forward by curling up the butt and pushing ahead.

Seeing how determined she is to reach forward for the newspapers or my handphone is very encouraging. Even though I tried to imagine how uncomfortable it must be to support herself on her belly, while trying hard to reach out all the time. Yet, she never gave up. She kept going at it. That's my strong gal.

Auntie says she might start walking by 9 or 10 months. I do hope so! Although it’s going to be a lot more work by then and got to keep close watch on her, I am looking forward to see her walk her first steps.

Before I begin, let me share a joke that Isaiah told me yesterday. He has a colleague from one of the his company branches who has never met him until a few days ago. When he met Isaiah and saw that he was not a Malay, he told him sheepishly that he had thought Isaiah was Malay. As always, Isaiah told him, 'No, I am not.' Having heard that, some thoughts went through that person's mind and he told Isaiah smilingly 5 minutes later, 'So, you are celebrating your new year soon eh?' Isaiah was stumped for a second before he realised that the colleague had thought that Isaiah is a Muslim instead. Maybe married a Malay wife, that's why changed his name to 'Isaiah'. wahahaha.. funny right??!

Anyway, since it's supposed to be isaiah's 'New Year' today, we went out to jalan jalan! =)

We went to Ikea & Queensway Shopping Centre in the afternoon. Can I tell you, THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE! Still, Joey was in a super good mood.

Then we made our way to Vivo City, the latest 'in' place in town! And can I tell you again?? THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE!! Scary, people literally queue up & walk in the shopping mall. But it's indeed a very arty place. The entire architecture is breath taking, and the landscape very serene indeed. I like the place alot! Especially the roof garden.

The roof garden is like a paradise for kids. There are many large pools of shallow water for kids to play in. And there's also a large playground. From there, one can see the faraway Sentosa island and of course, the sea. Real nice!

Even Joey was amazed at the buzz of activities going on here..

And so, in such a beautiful place, we took a Kuan family portrait.

Before I end, I must tell you one more spectacular thing I found in Vivo city. I am sure you have heard of Croc shoes?? I don't know how many of you agree with me that they are ugly, but let me tell you what I think: They are not ordinarily ugly, they're super ugly.

The horrendous thing is there is actually one whole shop selling Croc shoes in all kinds of patterns, shapes, sizes & colours!

The only credit I can give to the shop is that the signboard is very colourful and vibrant.

Still, I think Croc shoes are hopeless.

Before I continue with this entry, let me first apologise for blogging so many things on a Tue morning! For those of my contacts who choose to receive email alerts whenever my blog is updated, I am very sorry for flooding your mailbox. But once I am in a blogging mood, I CANNOT STOP MYSELF! muahahahaha..

This is such an unusual Tuesday. Every week, Tuesday is the day I am most busy & stressed because it's the first day of the week for full time church staff since Monday is our off day. It's kind of like a 'blue tuesday', but most of the time, I am rushing my work & reports the whole day that I have no time to feel blue.

Today, however, is a public holiday! keke.. I thought I would be able to sleep in a little later, but alas, my little joey was up & awake, and making lots of sounds by 8am. So, what should a mummy do on a public holiday morning??

Answer: Take photos & blog.

My darling is so so so so cute!!! Don't mind my frankness.

I have a long weekend this week cos today is my off day, tomorrow is public holiday, and Wed is my leave day! So good right?! keke..

This afternoon, my dad came over to meet us for lunch. Look at the 2 of them. So adorable!

After lunch, we went to the supermarket to buy some ingredients for Joey's porridge tomorrow. Oh man, only after about one month, I am sick of the usual porridge.. carrots, chicken, green peas.. sigh... Have tried broccoli and pumpkin which are nice, but I am on the lookout for more interesting ingredients. :) It's good too, cos it will tease her tastebuds. Tomorrow, Joey will have beef & carrots porridge! hehe.. If it turns out nice, I will share the recipe here!

I also bought some teething biscuits for Joey to try. I think they taste really good, so Joey was like nibbling and nibbling on it. But because the biscuits dissolve very quickly when it come into contact with saliva, after only 5 minutes, Joey looked a real mess with mashy biscuits everywhere. Thank God I took a nice photo of her enjoying the biscuits BEFORE the mess happened.

We have yet to plan what we are going to do tomorrow. Initially thought of going Sentosa and Vivocity, but it seems that some of our friends cannot make it it. Maybe we'll make a trip to Ikea and Queensway Shopping Centre instead!

Did I tell you that Joey's first tooth is finally coming out??! Indeed, it is!

Yesterday in church I checked her gums and found that there's a white tooth on the surface of her lower gum! I touched it and found that it's indeed a tooth! I've always tried to guess which tooth will come out first. And so, it's the one of the bottom left! :) When it's totally out, i'll take a photo to show U!

Joey is getting more & more steady in sitting. It's a joy to see her sit and smile happily because she knows she is getting better at her sitting skills. =)

She is now learning to crawl. So far, she's only succeeded in shaking her butt and crawling backwards. haha.. but it's a good sign. All these are mini milestones that will lead to the actual crawling. Now, at best, she can lurch forward using her sheer strength. But before long, she would discover that if she bends her knees, she would find the strength to move forward!

Dear Dear & I would likely be making a trip to Ikea soon because we need to get some baskets to store her toys (because they're growing!) and also things to child-proof my house. Just one glance at my living room and you would see all the potential dangers - all the sharp edges of my tables, cabinets, doors etc. So, better prepare ourselves before Joey can crawl around freely. It is getting more & more interesting now.. :)

God is truly good. Just yesterday afternoon, Isaiah was telling me that the back wheels of Joey's stroller seemed to be bending sideways due to the heavy weight. Besides Joey, it usually needs to support my ton-heavy bag with my laptop and Joey's neccessities bag. Then yesterday night, I received a phone call from Sis Ting asking me if Joey has outgrown her stroller and if she needs a new one, since my usage of the stroller is super high. This is so timely! The best part is the stroller is Dayan's, and he has only used it twice or thrice, so it's almost a brand new one. And it's red! Joey's favorite colour!

So, excitedly, this morning when I reached church, I went to retrieve the stroller. Oh man, it's a super good stroller, can?! American brand and probably can't be found in Singapore. Everything about it is huge - from the sunshield to the seat to the wheels! It's a real steady stroller and one that can last Joey till at least 2 years old. God is so so good! What a great blessing! Thank you Pastor Kong & Sun! =)

In stroller category, this must be a Ferrari.

Look how comfortable Joey is in her new Ferrari. :)

When we took her out in her new stroller after service today, we got quite alot of stares. Most likely because the stroller is very stylo and sturdy and one look will tell you it's quite hard to buy it in singapore.

We were also in the photo taking mood today!

With Uncle Nick a.k.a Uncle Teddy

With Auntie Xia

With Uncle Hoe & Auntie Xia! Nice photo!

PAPA!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!

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She failed. Papa turned to the other side to continue sleeping.

Look at it closer. I love the prints!

Estee bought some cute gifts for Joey from Australia! Look, new colourful hair clips!!

Red Nike socks! So cool..

And this book which is so very meaningful for a baby! A baby's 1st year Chronicles!

This is a book that allows you to keep record of your baby's first year's life.

There're also lots of pages for me to paste her very first photo, photos of outings, photos with family & friends etc. So interesting! =) Thanks Estee!