New Year, new start

Its New Year’s day and we thought the morning would be like any others on a weekend or a public holiday. One where we leisurely have our breakfast, bath Faith and get her ready to spend the afternoon with her Ye-ye and Nai-nai. Then, a phone call from my MIL came and they asked if they could bring Faith to the park for a walk.

Well… Faith usually has a short nap after her bath but since it was New Year and it seemed such a lovely morning, we thought why not. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to break the routine once in a while. Originally, it was supposed to be just Faith and the grandparents going, but when they appeared on our doorsteps and said that the ACEs were also in the park, Louis and I decided to go along as well and make it a family event.

I would never be caught dead going out without at least my usual shower. I guess the New Year mood has gotten to me. So, I merely brushed my teeth, draw my eyebrows and stepped out for the first time without having my morning shower ;) But I’m truly glad that Louis convinced me to go. We had a wonderful time and whoever would have thought that an impromptu trip to the park would yield such beautiful pictures of Faith with her cousins, grandparents and Dua Peh (term addressing Louis’ elder brother).

MIL brought Faith to sit on the rocking horse and the swing. Faith had a lot of fun watching the kids play at the park. She seemed to be watching and observing all the activities, trying to figure them out in her little mind. These days, she’s rather fascinated by her 2 cousins and would love to paw them or touch them when they get near enough. And usually, she would love to paw them when she has slather her entire hands with her saliva ;) I overheard Anders saying this as he scooted out of reach of Faith’s saliva-stained hands, “Eeee… Mei-mei’s hands wet wet!”. Hahaha…

Anthea and Anders were having such a blast themselves too. They were already playing at the playground of Bishan Park when we arrived. Took some pictures of the 2As pushing one another on the swing. Louis and I are looking forward to the day when Faith is able to run around and play with her cousins. I’m sure the 3 of them together would cause a lot of ruckus and headaches for everyone, but it would make for an even stronger family bond and much cherished memories as they grow older :)

We headed back home at noon to quickly prepare and feed Faith her lunch, shower and got her to my in-laws’ place as we hurried to catch the National Treasure show at AMK Cathay Cinema. With a baby in tow, its so much harder now to want to catch a show without worrying that I wouldn’t make it back in time to feed her or prepare her food. Now that Faith is getting older, things are getting a lot easier thanks to lots of help from our family.

As for Faith, this lucky little girl got to sleep in a new automated sarong that her grandparents had bought recently. It’s a terrible habit but Faith sleeps best in the afternoon when she is either cradled in someone’s arms or placed in the sarong after being rocked to a somewhat semi-sleepy state. Hence, for many months, my MIL had to carry her in her arms while she slept, at times for 1-2 hours stretch. This pretty much means that my MIL can’t do anything but watch the TV.

To resolve the issue and also for the use of future grandchildren, my in-laws have decided to invest on a sarong at their home too. Faith must certainly like her new sarong cos according to my MIL, she slept 2 hours in it. For Faith, any nap time more than ½ hour is an achievement cos she typically goes down for short power naps.

We had our dinner at the new Thai Village restaurant at Leisure Park, near the Indoor Stadium. I remembered Leisure Park (previously call Leisure Drome) to be this dinky and old shopping centre but its been renovated and now, there’s a lot more shops and restaurants. Food at Thai Village was excellent, although I’m not sure why its called Thai Village though. With the exception of the claypot sharksfin, which was Thai, the rest of the dishes there appeared to be more Chinese :)

We concluded the evening with dessert at Yoguru, an outlet that sells yoghurt that is similar to Yami Yoghurt. We sneaked Faith some of they yoghurt and she must be on a sugar high cos she lapped the yoghurt up without any of the funny expressions and shuddering shoulders she would display when we fed her organic, sugar free yoghurt.

I’m glad that everybody had a great time on New Year’s Day. Even though this year, we couldn’t do any of the partying and countdowns, its still a wondrous feeling to spend the start of the new year enjoying ourselves together as a family.