Baby is one year

After all the celebrations we had over the past weekend and yesterday, we settled down today - Faith's actual birthday, a relaxing day with just her, Eve and I. It was a perfect way to celebrate her birthday - just having her to ourselves and she having the full devotion of Eve and myself (I hope she felt that way :)).

In all our birthday celebs for Faith (first the one at Cafe Del Mar with my side of the family, then yesterday at the vegeterian restaurant with Eve's side of the family), we were reminded of how this one year has flown by. Indeed, it doesn't feel like it's been one year. 2008 is indeed significant, come to think of it, because it is Faith's one year, and it is Eve and my 5th year wedding anniversary. Really, time just flies.

This weekend and the past, I think has been a microcosm of the one year with Faith. The past weekends have been busy weekends but they have also been weekends where Eve and I have been reminded constantly of the most important things in our lives.

In the same way, in the past one year, we've had to make a lot of decisions on how to make the best use of our time and money. Over the weekends, we've had to think about where best to do Faith's birthday celebs, ensuring that she gets to spend time with her loved ones (the extended family), and still allow us (her parents) to enjoy time with her, and yet keeping watch (and still feeling the pinch) on our budgets. I myself have had to juggle my time at work and over the weekends, as my projects have been unrelenting in their pace and with critical meetings coming this week, I've had to remind myself not to let these concerns come in the way of spending time with family.

From the time Faith was born, this juggling with time, money - essentially, our resources, has been a constant in our lives. From day one, we have had to decide on the best way to keep the family running - with Eve taking a leave from work, and me becoming the sole bread winner. And each time I get a project, I've had to make decisions on how much travel I should do. And in the past year, I've come to grips with balancing my time as a breadwinner, and a father for which there is no better way to show love, then to spend time with family. Fortunately, life has been good to us in many ways. And Faith's coming of age today has been a reassurance that we've done pretty well as parents. Not to say we have not had struggles in the past - for me for example, I've tried to work only when Faith is asleep over the weekends - and this means working past 10pm or waking up early in the morning on Saturday to work. Yet, I've also had to pull more than my fair share of over-timers - a fact that my employees constantly remind me of considering that I'm supposed to be the Work Life Balance champion in my consultancy group.

I guess the moral of the story really is that as couples and now as parents, we all need to find our way to balance our priorities. And no one apart from ourselves, can tell if we've really struck the right balance or not. No wonder they say that parenthood makes you grow up - because it certainly gives you the confidence that you define what makes you tick as a person. And when one is forced to prioritised, given no luxury in time nor money, there is no way but to be confident about the decisions you take for yourself and your family.

Our only wish for Faith is when she becomes a parent, she will feel that the experience she has is as rewarding as we've had, having her. Happy one year old, Faith from daddy and mummy who will always be there for you!

Kids say the darnest thing :)

If you'd read my SIL's blog, you would know that we celebrated my nephew, Anders' birthday on Sunday, one day after Faith's birthday celebration. Faith's and Anders' birthday are one day apart. Anders' birthday is on the 22nd Mar, while Faith's is on the 23rd. Coincidentally, Faith's original due date was supposed to be 10 Apr, which was one day after my niece, Anthea's birthday. Either ways, it worked out that her birthday was just one day after one of her cousins :)

Anyways, we had a nice meal at Zhou's Kitchen and Anders had a big 2kg birthday cake in the shape of some truck or tractor. He had been so excited about his birthday presents, knowing that he's getting 2 Transformers toys from us and his Uncle Terence/Cherry Jie Jie. According to Adrian, he's been asking and nagging about his birthday present since the week before his birthday.

My daughter did something that day to Anders that made extremely proud of her. Just as Anders was standing next to her baby chair, she suddenly pulled his shirt to drag him nearer to her and gave him a hug! All by herself, without any prodding from us. Which goes to show how much her little mind is absorbing like a sponge on the daily happenings and things around her.

After we sang Anders his birthday song and cut his cake, we were all happily tucking into the chocolate cake when Anders suddenly said aloud to me, "Aunty Eve, don't let Faith mei-mei eat my cake". That remark left both his parents feeling a little astounded and they were both asking him why not? Besides, I had already been feeding Faith a wee bit of the cake too.

So, I told my little nephew, "But you ate Faith mei-mei's birthday cake yesterday, right? Why can't she eat yours today?" However, Anders refused to explain any further despite a little more prodding from his parents.

Later, after he had opened both his presents, admired and showed them off to everybody, I had the chance to ask him more closely as he was showing his presents to me. At just that moment, a sudden thought came to my mind...

"Anders, why didn't you want mei-mei to eat your cake? Was it because she didn't sing you a birthday song?"

He solemnly nodded his head. Hahahah....he was a littled miffed that everybody sing his birthday song while Faith didn't :)

And so, I explained to him that Faith is still too young and can't really speak at all. She couldn't even call me. However, the fact that she had earlier hugged him was probably her way of wishing him a happy birthday without being about to say it outright. He nodded his head gravely at what I said, but I'm not exactly sure if he understood completely what I was telling him :)

It just so funny how innocent kids are with their actions and words, doing and saying what comes to mind.

Tomorrow, the ACES family are going to Brisbane for a holiday. I just read my SIL's blog that Anders had been having fever and she's not sure if she would need to cancel the trip. I hope Anders' fever is nothing serious and that the entire family would be able to go on the trip as planned tomorrow. Anders would be able to celebrate his 4th birthday overseas for the very first time :)

PS: This is a backlogged post as I had been busy with Faith for the last few afternoons since my mom has been feeling a little under the weather :) I actually have a number of backlogged posts that I really need to clear :)

Cashew & Prawn Rice

Its a slow week for posting despite my resolve to blog more about Faith. Unfortunately, my mom hasn't been feeling too well. She thinks its rheumatism and its affecting her lower back, causing her some pain when she walks. My mom insisted on making the daily trip to my house even though I repeatedly told her to stay at home and rest. Said she would go crazy cooped up at home and besides, the trip here will give her some much needed exercise and therapy for her rheumatism.

To ensure that she doesn't over strain herself, I've been taking Faith out after her lunch this week. We would usually take a slow stroll to AMK Hub, spending some two hours there before we head home for her to nurse and take an afternoon nap. While at the supermarket today, I decided to buy some ingredients to make some Indian food.

I've cooked a number of recipes from Vicky Bhogal's "A Year of Cooking Like Mummyji", all of them turning out great. Louis has been enthusiastic about the dishes that I've churned out thus far and today's Cashew & Prawn Rice was no exception. Vicky is a 2nd generation Punjabi, born and raised in London.

While my picture of the rice does not do justice to it, rest assured that its a simple dish to whip up in a very short time, yet scrumptious enough to guarantee that you will want to repeat the effort over and over again.

In fact, Louis loved it so much that he's declared that we should cook this the next time we have a dinner gathering :) I've accompanied it with a cabbage and moong dal dish to make it a wholesome meal. Unfortunately, NTUC ran out of curry leaves, so the cabbage and moong dal seemed to lack something at the end of it.

Cashew & Prawn Rice

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

250g cooked and peeled prawns

2 tomatoes, diced

handful of chopped coriander

1/2 cup cashew nuts

1/2 tsp dried red chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1/2 cup basmati rice, rinsed with cold water

1 cup water

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.

2. When sizzling, add the onion and fry until translucent.

3. Add the prawns, tomatoes, coriander, cashews, chilli, salt and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

4. Add the rice and stir-fry for a further 30 seconds.

5. Add the water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to very low, cover and steam for 15 minutes.

Hmmm... just typing this makes me wanna cook this again for tomorrow night. Hahaha... I wouldn't although its really tempting :)

Bon appetit!

Faith's 1-year old Party (Part I)

Heaven has been kind for granting a spell from the gloomy and rainy weather of the last week. On Saturday, the day of Faith's one-year old birthday celebration, the sky was bright and sunny throughout the whole day.

We decided to bring forward Faith's one-year old celebration by a week as the ACES family would be holidaying in Down Under next week. After all, Faith does enjoy being with her cousins.

The choice of a celebration dinner at Cafe Del Mar in Sentosa was an unlikely venue more for the sake of the parents' enjoyment than the fact that a one-year old baby would enjoy the sand, sea, hot bods and babes :)

This would be the first of two celebrations for Faith's birthday, involving Faith's paternal side of the family. Another one would be held next week with her maternal side of the family as my mom, i.e. Faith's grandma and weekday care-giver, is a vegetarian :)

After much discussion and also advice from a few friends, Louis and I decided to keep the celebration low-key for a few reasons. Firstly, Faith still suffers from some amount of stranger and separation anxiety and a big crowd might be overwhelming for her. Secondly, she wouldn't be familiar or be able to play with most of the invited guests at this tender age. As host, we might be spending a lot of time with others instead of the main "attraction" for the day. Finally, the chief reason is that Faith is happiest when Louis and I devote both our time and attention to her completely. Hence, if the gathering is only a small group, we would be able to spend quality time with her. Really, that's all that matters to this little baby of ours at the current moment :)

We figured that as she grows older and develops into a social butterfly, she would better appreciate birthday parties, comprising of both her friends and ours :)

Rub-a-dub-dub, a baby in the tub...

Here's Faith in her bathtub, in the living room with all her clothes all :) Naah... there's no water in it.

We usually wash Faith's clothes once every two days. At times when the load is heavier and there are more items, my mom would haul out Faith's bathtub and dump all her washed clothes in there for hanging. Of course, our little baby gets really excited whenever she sees her tub out. She loves her tub.

She would usually crawl on over, yank all the items in the bathtub one by one and haphazardly strewn them all over the floor before climbing into the tub. She did the same yesterday when my mom took out her bathtub of clothes.

I decided to take some pictures and capture them for posterity.

Vertigo

Vertigo, or dizziness, is a symptom, not a disease (I stress). The term vertigo refers to the sensation of spinning or whirling that occurs as a result of a disturbance in balance (equilibrium). It also may be used to describe feelings of dizziness, lightheadedness, faintness, and unsteadiness. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, about 40% of people in the United States experience feeling dizzy at least once during their lifetime. Prevalence is slightly higher in women and increases with age.

Vertigo is what I am experienced tonight at the Singapore Flyer. I am not a woman so I can only guess it is due to my age. Lao liao.

Eve and I have been looking forward to this evening of fun - essentially a day out for us and Faith on a weekday on the Singapore Flyer. I came home earlier today - at around 5:15pm and by 6, we were all set to go, with Faith's food and all in tow.

The trip was a little eventful to say the least.

First, it was pouring when we reached the car park of the Singapore flyer. All the time, we were keeping our fingers crossed that we would get to see the magnificient skyline of Singapore in spite of the drab weather.

While we were keeping our fingers crossed, our little girl answered our prayers by deciding to wet her pants. So we spent sometime changing her in the car and lo and behold, by the time we changed her, the sky had cleared. So it looked promising definitely - this trip on the Singapore Flyer.

We happily strolled her into the Singapore Flyer and asked if there were places we could feed Faith before we went up to the Flyer. Our tickets were for 7pm and we were told to be there by 6:30pm, so we had arrived there earlier to feed Faith. There was a nice usherer who showed us to the reception (whereupon she found to her dismay, there were no seats - well, at least she had the kind intention), and then to Popeye restaurant. We promptly settled down to feed Faith, but not before the usherer gave us a useful tip - it did not matter that our tickets said 7pm - we could take any "flight" we wanted, so we didn't have to rush. That was great news.

But being the clever consultant I was, I had asked the usherer - then would it mean that we would wait for half an hour to catch the next "flight"? After all, one trip was half an hour. To this, my dear wife looked at me with dismay. It's like a ferris wheel - the wheel doesn't stop - you just hop on when the bubble comes past you - if not the wheel would have to stop each time it picked up passengers, silly. Ah, so. Let me remind everyone I have a Stanford Computer Science degree and an INSEAD MBA and blah blah blah. To save me from embarrasment, the usherer had tactfully kept her mouth shut.

By the time we finished feeding Faith, the rain had pretty much stopped. This was great news. And we happily packed our stuffs and went up to the ride. But first, we had to check-in our pram -no prams aboard. (I kept using the word trolley, but Eve kept correcting me - it is pram. Again, I remind you that I am from Stanford). You could tell this was a new establishment, because the usherer very happily ran to us and gave us a check-in chit for our pram (see I learn fast). She had taken this chit from this table where all the thick wad of chits were lying. I could tell immediately that they rarely issues such chits. Trial-runs. I could imagine this usherer doing next-morning reporting "I issued No 7 chit to a couple by asking the guy his name, writing down his mobile number and then tagging his pram (not trolley). Very smooth - no operational issues. No need to streamline further".

After we cleared "customs", we promptly walked up a ramp and was ushered into an express queue. We sped past some baffled onlookers who seemed to be waiting at some other queue and we were wondering why we had this special treatment - perhaps due to Faith in tow.

Anyway, it was all quite quick - before you know it, we were ushered into an oncoming capsule with two other couples - both younger than us. They were quite lovey-dovey and as an "elderly couple", we felt it our entitlement to ask one of them to take pictures for us. Err, can you take pictures for us. And the guy was just getting into the mood. Alamak he must have thought. But in all sportsmanship, I had offered to take their pictures as well. The couple nicely refused and went on to take their own pictures with outstretched camera...

The trip started quite nicely, and as the capsule was rising, I had looked out the capsule and looked at the view. Quite nice. A bit blocked by the remnants of rain outside the capsule, but nonetheless quite nice. The nice thing about this timing was that we had the chance to see the day and night view. At this moment, I was carrying Faith and she was a little bit her usual self wanting to crawl on the floor etc. I decided to keep her occupied while Eve busied herself with the photo-taking. It must have been only five minutes, when I looked up from holding Faith, that I realised...hmm, quite high ah. I think at that point I had thought - better stay where the benches are and not venture too far. Vertigo sinking, sigh.

What made the trip more uneventful was that halfway up, Faith decided to poop. So essentially, we were in this air-tight container so many feet above ground with two other couples who were probably hoping to smell more love than poop. Oh well, c'est la vie. Eve and I decided in our good sense to not change her in the capsule. See, we're so considerate.

Anyway, half an hour later, the trip ended. I was a bit woozy when I came out - not the spinning kind of woozy, but the kind of feeling you get when you know you are not completely normal - a little out of sorts. But it was fine. The attraction had a $15 picture of us, taken when we were at the entrance, which we promptly rejected - a bit touristy for us.

My verdict: Was really glad that we had the chance to go up the Flyer and experience this for ourselves. Glad we're doing this in Singapore first and not London - supporting our local attraction. Will we go again? Err..probably not too soon. I think a break for now will be in order given that I'd be going up a helicopter during my reservist in two weeks time.

The protective father

Is it normal for most couples to argue, bicker and quarrel over the responsibilities of parenthood, the kids themselves or the different styles of parenting? Something along the lines of say...once every 2-3 weeks? I sure hope so, or otherwise, it would appear that that we' the odd ones out in this parenthood thingy.

Sure, the two of us have our usual arguments and quarrels though we make up quite quickly. Our wedding preparations was a breeze, as we had the same ideas and perspectives on how we wanted our wedding to be. Maybe its becos we were straddling between this honeymoon stage of couple hood and impending marriage. Hence, we were both more accommodating of each other.

Choosing the right home and agreeing on the styles of how we envisioned our ideal home to turn out became a surprise to us becos we started to have differences in opinions. Each of us wanted to preserve our preferred themes, style, furnishings and fixtures in what would become our cosy little haven. Eventually, we managed to strike an amicable compromise without going at each other's throat.

Parenthood, however, presents a different ball game. Of course I'm not surprised that we would bicker. On the whole, we share very similar views about the upbringing of our child(ren) and the values we hope to be able to inculcate in them. So far so good, yeah? Well, that represents just about all that we agree upon. The finer line on the day to day nitty-gritty details seem to be where we choose to "pick our fights" :)

Hahaha... anyways, this wasn't meant to be a serious post, neither are we both encountering any grave discord between us. Its just a wondering-aloud type of post :)

A case in point to illustrate our "differences" in parenting style is the picture above. Maybe Louis is more warm-blooded than I am, but I'm always feeling warm, or glowing (read perspiring -- I believe that women do not sweat or perspire, that's for animals and men ;) we glow ;)) from the humidity of Singapore's weather. I loved going out in the cold when its winter (but am not insane enough to enjoy blizzards).

Thus, I'm always of the opinion that Faith would feel warm whenever I feel that way. Whereas, Louis is of another opinion. We usually require a 3rd person's opinion to confirm which of us is right. So that we can decide whether Faith should wear a jacket or not ;)

I was feeling just right yesterday night, but Louis felt it was a little chilly in the house. Since I was washing the plates and stuck at the kitchen sink, he took the liberty of grabbing a blanket and wrapping our little baby in it :) Hahaha...

I like to think I'm right most of the time. And I take pride in telling him so, especially when shortly after, Faith's hair was all drenched in golden dew (read sweat), and her back was a little clammy, while she was nursing for her bedtime feed ;)