Mummy's Birthday

Last friday was my birthday. I could not not believe this was my ''3xST'' birthday but could not deny the fact that I'm getting more and more my wrinkles around my eyes :(

Okay...Let me tell you how I spent my big day. In the morning, Wilson did not wake me up to iron his shirt! He did it himself as he said I am "off" that day. No housework and no cooking for me but these did not apply to our little princess, Valerie. Well, I still needed to cook and look after her :<

In the afternoon, I brought Valerie to Gymboree class but I missed the coffee session with the gymboree mummies as I came out from home quite late. After the class, we went to Maison Blanc, my favourite French tea house, to spoil ourselves. I had a piece of chocolate cake and Val had a mini croisant. I could tell she really enjoyed the mini crisant as she was eating it so seriously without making any noise. First time!

After a bit of shopping later, we headed to daddy's office to meet him for my birthday dinner. We went to Fishwork, a seafood restaurant in Chiswick which has a unique concept where fresh seafood is also sold over the counter.

For our meal, we had fish soup and mussels for starter. Very fresh and yummy! Valerie had spaghetti with tomato sauce but I think she was playing more than eating. See how messy she was in the picture. Daddy got for me a sumptuous main course, Lobster!!! It tasted real good when eaten with a glass of fine Italian wine.

Back at home, I got a surprise from daddy! It was a birthday cake again from my favourite tea house, Maison Blanc. I love all the cakes from there but Valerie does not really enjoy eating... probably she is not used to the sweet stuff :0 .. well no one was complaining.. guess who finished it all :)

Thanks daddy for such a wonderful dinner and birthday cake! Moooch....

Little Megan's "Man Yue" Lunch

Ohh...many of you may be wondering who is this cute baby girl. Don't mistaken okay! She is not my baby! She is the little princess of Hsien and Marvin (Wilson's colleague).

These were photos taken at little Megan's "Man Yue" lunch at Tosa, a very nice Japanese food restaurant in Chiswick. Megan is so chubby and adorable. She has a pair of big eyes with double eyelid. I thought she took after Marvin when I first met her last week but now I realise she resembles Hsien more.. Well done, Hsien! ... and Marvin of course..

Paddling Pool Outing

Last week, we went to the paddling pool, a children's water play area in Chiswick, with Hsien & Stephen, Helena, Desiree and Danielle (Helena's 2 pretty girls). The play area included a shallow pool with a fountain, sandpit and a refreshment kiosk. It was in a nice garden lined with trees and shrubs, very appropriate and nice for picnic. Although the weather was really hot (about 28 degree celsius) and windy, nothing could stop all these children enjoying themselves!

In these photos are Desiree, Danielle and Stephen...

It's Gymboree Time!!!!

We missed almost two weeks of Gymboree classes . I knew Valerie would be very happy to see her playmates again. On our way to the class at Chiswick Town Hall on the bus, Valerie woke up from her afternoon nap, rubbed her blurly eyes and started to get into her grouchy mood but the moment I told her we were going to Gymboree and sang to her "gymboree gymbo pee ka poo.".. Immediately, she covered her eyes and played peekapoo with me and changed into a smiley face. See...she loves Gymboree so much!!!

Before our class, I brought her to the Starbuck cafe to meet up with her playmates and their mummies there. This coffee session for the mummies would usually take place an hour before the class. We both enjoy it so much as not only Valerie can spend more times playing with her playmates (Gymbo lesson lasts about 45 minutes only) and of course mummy can network (not gossip okay) with other mummies there. Some more, Starbuck cafe is so baby-friendly that they even have a very spacious play section with lots of toys for kids to play. The little boy in the left picture is Noah, Valerie's "boyfriend" :) He is 3 months older than Valerie and the other boy in the pushchair is Connor. He is 1 week younger than Valerie.

Some videos of Valerie playing and dancing in the Gymboree class

Bye! Gong Gong Chang and Po Po Chang...

Yesterday was a sad day for Val as her favourite gong gong Chang and po po Chang finally flew back to Malaysia. We went to Hearthrow airport to send them off. When we reached the airport, I told Val her favourite gong gong and po po were leaving us. She seemed to understand and pointed to a old lady in the lift and called her "po po"! When we met Chang family on our way to the departure hall, they too realised that Val seemed to be very quiet and looked sad as normally she would get very excited and make a lot of noise when we meet them. Don't know whether if she knew they were leaving and felt sad. Probably babies and toddlers nowadays are more sensitive to separation anxiety not only to their parents but also to the people who were very close to them. After our coffee chit chat at the cafe, they finally had to go and Val kept waving her hands to them just when they went through the security and to our surprise, she seemed to say her first "bye bye" to them!

Val got really close to the Chang family. We met up very often especially when gong gong and po po Chang were here. The 3 months they were here just seem so short. They not only prepared for us many sumptous foods but also taught us many home-cooked dishes with their secret recipes. When we went out together for trips, they helped to look after Val and also gave her the opportunity to interact with "granddady" and "grandnanny" which she doesn't have too many opportunities to do so in her toddlerhood since her grandparents are all in Malaysia..we would like to say a big THANK YOU to them and hope to meet up again soon.

Valerie: Bye.... gong gong and po po. I will definitely missing both of you. Moooooch!

Playdate With Vivi

We took a bus to High Street Kensington to meet up with Pam and Vivi last friday. Our original plan was to have dim sum at Bayswater and to go to the park after tha. But often it is so difficult for mummies to stick to the original plan as it really depends on the mood of the girls. We were supposed to feed the girls before we meet up but I didn't get to so cos Val was taking her mid-afternoon nap and Vivi didn't eat well cos she was very grouchy when Pam was trying to feed her. So ended up, we had to feed them in a cafe at Whole Food instead. After a bit of shopping, we decided to go back to Pam's apartment so that the two little girls could play together. In her apartment, Val, as usual got very excited when she saw so many toys laying around in the play yard and quickly picked up a soft toy to play with it. OH NO! It was Vivi's favourite toy and also her comforter before settling into bed or when her mummy was not around. She looked so grieved and almost in tear when she saw Val holding her favourite toy. So, we had to quickly get it back from Val before they fight over it. After that, Vivi she was so scared of Val and we noticed something very funny.. every time when Val tried to approach Vivi to play with her, Vivi appeared very frightened and screamed very loudy and ran away from her. Val of course screamed back and chased after her. You can't imagine that how noisy it was inside the apartment with these two little girls' screaming, shouting and crying. To keep our sanity, we decided to separate the two of them. One went into the play yard and the other one stayed outside. Even though we could not bring down their screaming and crying but at least we could eliminate some hitting, pushing and snatching between them. It was really fun to see two of them playing and although sometime there were some "physical contacts", I think it's all part of their learning and interaction :)

Making Friends (Part 2)

Today when I told Valerie that we are going "kai kai"..she got very excited and kept trailing me up and down the house, to the living room, bedroom , kitchen and even to the toilet! Probably afraid that I might go off without her. When I asked her to wait for me at the main door, to my surprise, she could understand and did just that.. what more she even took out her shoes from the shoe box and handed them over to me. Further more surprise, she sat down quietly for me to help her wear her shoes. For her good behaviour, she got a star for her reward chart.

We didn't meet the Negro sisters-mummies and babies at the field today. However, there was this other boy about 4-5 yrs old, playing football with his grandmum. Valerie as usual got very excited the moment she saw the football, running towards the boy and kept saying ''ball..''Again...she tried to catch the ball while the boy was kicking the ball. The boy's grandmum was kind enough to stop her grandson so that Valerie could play with the ball. At first, the boy was quite willing to share and play the ball with Valerie but after a while, he was more interested in disturbing Val. Touching her head, pulling her jacket, beating her backside, tripping her and even trying to use the ball to hit her. OMG! It seemed more like bullying rather than playing. I quickly carried up Val and brought her away.


When we reached another field, there was this other group of older kids playing. This time round, the kids were very nice and simply adored Val. They sat in a circle and took turn to roll a ball to Val and she in turn rolled the ball back to them. They were all having a terrific time when all of a sudden, Val decided it was time to go and walked out of the circle waving her hands goodbye, with a big smile of course :)