I feel like I am making up for the lag in blogging during my busy Christmas season & breakdown in internet services the past 3 days!

Joey is growing well, and I thank God for that. There is a new baby in the office nursery called Zoe, so I now have some form of comparison. When people tell me all the time that Joey is an easy baby, I can't really appreciate it cos she is my first baby and i have never taken care of another baby.

Baby Zoe is 11 months old and she is my CHEC colleague's baby gal. She just started to join the nursery and perhaps because she is not used to the environment, she cried alot yesterday. She refuses to drink her milk or eat her porridge. Such a poor darling. Today is much better for her. And when I walked into nursery just now, I even found her swaying to the music playing on the TV. So adorable.

Seeing her, I realised that Joey is indeed easy. She eats and drinks all the time. In fact, if you are one second slower with the feeding of her porridge, she will grumble and whine and her hands will keep pulling you to quickly feed her the next spoonful. She will drink up all her milk and hold her own bottle. She will obediently drink her water from the bottle and even ask for more. I guess a baby who drinks and eat heartily will give less worry to the parents. For Joey, I never worry about whether she is eating her porridge, cos she finishes up everything. Some babies detest fish because of the fishy smell, but for Joey, she just gobbled up everything! Yesterday, I put in one whole chunk of the 'ngo' fish and she ate it all up with the porridge. Today's pumpkin and potato porridge also not spared.

Very soon, Joey will be able to walk. She is really trying hard now to stand by herself. She can stand very steadily when supporting onto something. She can just support herself using 1 hand. Until she finds the courage to let go, she will be able to stand firmly. Then she will start to walk. Hehe... can't wait for that day to come soon.

By next year Chinese New Year, I think she should be able to walk by herself. I have a feeling that she will be able to walk at a very young age.

Rachel says in her blog that she used to find people who praise their own babies very mushy and she is doing the very same now. I totally understand how it feels, cos I feel the same too. Every parent probably do. You can ask Isaiah, I always ask him how come our daughter is so cute. He also dunno why. Hahaha! Bias bias.

Happy growing up, baby! Year 2007 is coming soon!

Isaiah had his first taste of fatherhood on Saturday after 7 months. It was Phil Pringle weekend and all staff have to attend both services, and since I have some meetings to attend before and after the service, we decided that Isaiah will stay home to take care of Joey while I go to church and settle all my stuffs. It was literally the first time he took care of Joey all alone - without me, without his mum and without anyone! *clap clap for the courage in the first place*

I left the house at 3pm. At 10 minutes to 5pm, I got a phonecall from Isaiah. He was pushing Joey on his way to Sunplaza, because lo & behold! The milk powder had finished & none of us knew! We all assumed that there was another spare tin of milk powder somewhere, but turned out that it was the very last tin. And because he needed to withdraw cash, he had to go all the way to Sunplaza with a hungry Joey. So funny! He was practically laughing & whining over the phone! Telling me what a tough life he has and why such a thing had to befall upon him! Hahahaha... I couldn't stop laughing in the train...

By the time I reached home at night around 10plus, I found a 'half-dead' man lying on the sofa. Then he proceeded to tell me that Baby refused to sleep from 3pm to 7pm and finally fell asleep at 7plus at night. When my mother in law reached home at around 8pm, he was finally released from his tormenting job and could relax his facial muscles (from smiling at Joey & entertaining her) and arm muscles (from carrying her). Hahaha... Hilarious..

Since he was such a good boy and stayed at home to take care of Joey so that I could work with an easy heart, I decided that he should go play soccer and spend time with his boy gang on Sunday and doesn't even need to meet my parents for dinner. Hehe.. good wife eh?! wahaha.. Still, read his blog and you'd realise he came home with a bruised toe (with clogged blood inside, how gross is that?) and a painful knee. I am sure he enjoyed himself tremendously but the price to pay.... hmm.. only he can answer that.

Daddies out that, if you think taking care of kids is so easy and your wife is just doing something so terribly simple, you should try your hand at it some time. :)

Long time ago, around 30-plus years ago, Baby Isaiah slept in this sarong.

Today, it's Baby Joey's turn to sleep in the sarong.

Check out the leg.

This time I really didn't bluff you. Isaiah did slept in this very sarong when he was a baby. This is what I call - 'antique'.

Joey in her green jacket again today in church!

Good gal paying attention to Pst Phil's preaching..

Hehe.. what a cute chubby face...

Together with her in the artiste room was Christian, Pst Aries' boy.. when I asked him if I could take a photo of him together with Joey, he gladly obliged to take together with Auntie Shirley too!

Then we also met Denise on the way out!

Guess what was the first thing Denise told me when she met me?

"Auntie... that day Joey pulled my hair..."

Hahaha... kids... so cute, and I tried to explain that Joey loves to pull people's hair now, but Denise gave me a look that seems to say, 'Does that make it alright for her to pull my hair??"

Look what Joey just did. She was sitting on the sofa, but decided that it was too hot and she needs the fan. So she grab the sofa and stood up all by herself. When the wind blew on her face, she was so happy & satisfied. :)

Since the weather is so hot & stuffy, we decided to bathe her. Makes her cooler. She loves water!

Recently, we started to pour water over her head to let her get used to it first before we bring her swimming. She really knows how to enjoy the water. When we pour water over her head, she would close her eyes and tilt her head slightly upwards & 'feel' the water coming down her head. No joke!

She also likes to soak in the water. Sigh... girls are girls... they will always enjoy spa and jacuzzis.. hehe..

Look, so happy!

After a good bath, it's time to watch TV!

THIS IS LIFE.

The office nursery is a place to de-stress. While everyone is working hard in the office, just a few steps away, you will step into a world of laughter & innocence. During lunch today, I went over to look for Joey cos I missed her! It's a joy to watch her do her crawling exercises!

She is quite gleeful cos she can now crawl quite fast...

And she likes to play the 'catch' game with me. She will look back at me and pretend to quickly crawl away. To play along, I have to pretend I am chasing her and catching up with her. Then she will laugh and laugh as she hurriedly crawls away... very funny,,,

Finally, after alot of crawling, she is hungry so she must eat her porridge..

It's chicken, carrots and green peas porridge today!

I took a black and white photo of Joey just now..... Fancy my photography technique? Can make it look so antique and old! hehe....

BLUFF YOU!

That was Isaiah! keke..

Ever since Joey was born, I think i've had at least 500 people ask me this question, 'Who does she look like?? You or Isaiah?' The truth is I could never really pinpoint the correct answer cos I really feel it's neither. She has a look of her own. UNTIL TODAY.

I can finally tell people very confidently that she resembles Isaiah and looks exactly like him when he was still a kid!

Another cute cute photo of Isaiah....

Very cute right?

Now I know where she got her cute looks from...

But I have to admit that Joey is a teeny weeny bit cuter than her daddy. Haha...

The past few days, I have been feeling the urgency to pray for the personality of my daughter. It seems that recently, her display of character and personality has become more obvious. She is not a typical guai guai little girl. Infact, she is very mischievious and cheeky. She has a temperament that says, 'If you don't give it to me NOW, I will SCREAM!' And trust me, she is a woman of her word.

I used to think that kids are all like that. They are curious and always want to explore new things. They cannot keep still and will keep fidgeting. Yet, I also see kids who are very well behaved and can sit still in a chair and contented playing by themselves. Joey, however, is quite different. Although she is only 7 months, it is scary how she seemed to understand what we are saying or communicating to her sometimes.

If we pat her backside and say, 'Naughty girl', she would make an irritated sound and kick her legs and frown until we relent and say, 'ok lah, good girl lah..'. When she doesn't get her way, she will whine and scream. Oh man, don't tell me we have already spoilt her unknowingly?! I mean, if we dun do something about it now, she might turn into a tyrant!

Sometimes when she is concentrating on some new toy she got her hands on, and we try to call her name, she would hear us but refuse to acknowledge. Once in a while, you will catch a glimpse of her taking a quick look at you from the corner of her eye. She just won't turn her face to look at you, cos she feels that the toy is much more attractive. I mean, how scary can it get? She's only 7 months old and she knows how to do that? I am seriously amazed.

And if you have seen her engage in a screaming fight, you would know what I mean better. If you yell at her, she would yell back at you, even louder. And makes a face, attempting to scare you away. It's very cute lah, frankly, but makes me wonder where she got her violent & domineering streak from?

I must really pray for the gentleness of God to come upon Joey and pray hard that she will grow out of this stubborn stage soon. Hopefully this is just part of her growing up.

The only time when she is not a tyrant is when she is sleeping soundly. haha..

I wonder how many of you have got such a chair? It's made of rattan and if you flip it one way. it's for adults to sit as a normal chair. Flip it the other way, and your baby can sit in it like a baby chair. Nice eh? The best part is Daddy Isaiah sat in this very chair when he was a baby!

Brought Joey to see the Christmas lights at Orchard last night. Poor gal, she was so sleepy but her excited mama, papa and nai nai keeps taking photos of her!

Here's Joey when she was still wide awake when we set off...

I like the decor at CK Tangs the best. So colourful. Here's a glimpse..

We went to CK Tangs to buy some new pacifiers for Joey. Then we headed for dinner at Mirama Hotel. Ala carte buffet! Joey & my MIL at the restaurant...

At Mirama Hotel, my MIL saw this nice flight of staircase and wanted to take photos there! So there we were, like tourists...

Look at what this girl is doing to her mummy's head....

Of course, Joey was all attracted by the red lantern outside the Japanese restaurant

Then, off we went to Orchard for our gai gai...

The Signature Takashimaya Christmas Tree!

Again, like curious tourists, we all took photos with it.

Joey with Daddy Isaiah

Joey wants a solo too!

(You didn't expect her to stand there by herself, do you?)

Orchard is a nice sight at night. Lots of fountains & lights everywhere.

Look at the 2 of them, looking at different directions in their own world each...

Also spotted the 'statue' people performing on the streets.. I am amazed by the little number of times they need to blink their eyes.

Even Robinsons is celebrating Christmas..

The way I take care of my baby is different from the way my MIL does it, though I mimic alot from her since she taught me most of my childcare skills. The way my own mum does it is also alot different. I guess there is no one right way of doing it, but it really depends on what the mother feels is the best. Everyone wants the best for the baby, but I do not think there is only one right way of dong it.

My mum has a very liberal way of raising kids and taking care of them. Like how she took care of me, she would want to do it the same for Joey as well. She always tells me that ever since I was just a few months old, she would feed me with lots of different foods so that I can taste the different tastes and smells. She would cook peanut or black bean soup and use it as base to cook porridge for me. She would add seasoning like soya sauce, salt or sesame oil just to make my food taste good. When we are out with Joey, she would always want to feed her with the sugar cane juice we are drinking or bits of the food we are consuming because she wants her to experience different foods and texture (which I always stop her but to little avail of course).

In my era today, however, I firmly believe in giving Joey only natural food as far as possible, and that means I do not add any seasoning into her porridge and I do not give her bits of our food when we go out cos inevitably in every dish, there are bound to be MSG and lots of unhealthy seasoning. Her porridge is always sweet with the natural juices of meat or veggies. Frankly, when I told my mum I add no seasoning to her food, she was very sad for my daughter, almost to the extent of thinking that I am torturing her and depriving her of the great tastes of this earth. After I explained to her that since Joey has never tasted anything salty before, she would not know or expect food to taste like that and would be very happy with her natural porridge, she kind of understood where I am coming from.

Now that Joey has crossed her half-year mark and approaching 8 months soon, I am starting to allow her to take some outside food. Only a little bit, I must emphasize. Cos I still thinking MSG is real bad for her. If it's bad for adults, what's more for kids? Still, I have decided to let her have some sense of involvement during meal time because whenever she is sitting at our dining table with a whole table full of delicious & colourful dishes, she would stare longingly at the chewing movement of our mouths. So, at last night's dinner, I gave her some of the kaya paste in the longevity buns we were eating. She didn't look like she was craving for it, but at least she sat very quietly & obediently in her chair. When my mother told some of the old aunties at the same table that I do not add any seasonings into my baby's food, they got into a 10-minute long conversation about how the way they did it was so different last time, compared to young people now.

My mum didn't understand how come I had to be so strict with her diet, because I grew up pretty well under her set of rules too. But she understands that I have the final say when it comes to MY daughter's diet. Haha. I never expected myself to be stricter than my own mother.

Joey is a very driven girl. I guess all babies are. Once they set their hearts on something, they will keep trying till they get it. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to progress from crawling to walking to running because inevitably,they would have fallen thousands of times to get to the final stage. They just never give up. What a great virtue.

My MIL was feeding Joey her bread dunk in milk when....

She crawled away because she saw something..

Oh I see.. she's going for her little shoes..

Finally, she reached her little shoes. Wonder what's she going to do with it. Put them on herself? That would be a miracle, in my opinion.

The verdict is out. She thought they were CAKES.

Oh well, I can understand that. Cakes are nicer than bread.

(Don't fret. The shoes are brand new. Never been worn before.)

What a rare moment. She's posing for my handphone camera!