Recollection of 28 June 2005

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone of you for wishing Declan happy birthday!

28 June 2005 marks Declan’s first year on this planet. He has been giving us plenty of joy, laughter, surprises and love during the past 12 months. Our lives have never been the same again after his arrival. This little wonder rules our time and attention 24/7. His every little action and every little squeal will trigger a reaction from the people around him. All of us can’t help but be thrilled by how fast the little one is growing. In a blink of an eye, 12 months had flown by.

I miss little Dec as a newborn helpless infant, so huggable, so dependent. Over the past 12 months, he had developed his own traits and character and is no longer as dependent. He has his own thinking now and will show us his displeasure if something is against his wish. Slowly, I am seeing my little baby grows into a little toddler and in a few years time into a little boy and I bet before I know it, he’ll have grown into a little man.

Don’t ask me when is the second one coming as I am still enjoying the special moments of my first born.

One year after that special day, when Little Dec first see the world, we choose not to do anything elaborate. Instead, our little cosy family of 3 chose to enjoy some private and quiet moments at east coast beach.

We started the day by singing him another birthday song and this time we got a cake with the name spelt correctly. The cake was a gift from a family friend. It was pretty tasty!











That day was the first time Declan set his feet on a beach. He was a little frightened when we first put him down on the sand. After awhile he his curiosity got the better of him and he started playing with the sand. His dad even brought him to the coastline and let him get splashed by the waves. Not sure if he enjoyed it, you guys go judge from the photos. One thing I know for sure is I definitely enjoyed playing with the sand heheheee.










Father and son fighting for the pail


Mum enjoying herself, building her little fortress


Baby enjoying destroying mum's fortress.....

Pre Birthday Celebration

We are back again Phoebe ahhahaha

We celebrated Declan’s birthday 2 days earlier on 26 June 05 as it happened to fall on a Sunday. It’s easier to gather the family on a weekend than a weekday thus we decided to do it 2 days earlier. Actually, it wasn’t much of a celebration. We didn’t really do anything special for him and it wasn’t a big hoo ha thing. We simply collected our immediate family together and sing a birthday song for him, followed by us (the parents) helping him to blow out the candle and cut the cake.

I ordered a 1kg Tasmania monster mango cake for him. I actually preferred the baby Mickey Mouse cake, but the minimum size of that cake had to be 2kg. We only gathered about 10 relatives so we won’t be able to swallow a 2kg cake, thus the decision to go with the not so nice Tasmania cake. The worst thing was that the cake shop actually spelt Declan’s name wrongly!!!! Arghhhh!! They misspelled it as Dellan…. What a way to mark the most important milestone of my little one’s life…..



Actually I do not have any intention to celebrate for him as I find that it doesn’t make much sense… It’s the little one’s birthday but they won’t get to enjoy the celebration when we throw a party for him when he is just a year old. He doesn’t know the meaning of birthday, he doesn’t know how to blow the candle, he doesn’t know how to cut the cake and he doesn’t even know what’s going on right??!! All he knows is that one big bunch of people are gathering near him and singing loudly and making him does funny things and everyone is expecting him to smile and while all the adults seem to be enjoying everything, he is being passed around from guest to guest making him all tired and fussy. That’s my personal opinion though.

People around us had been asking about how we are going to celebrate for him. So, in order not to disappoint our immediate family, we decided to at least buy him a cake and did the birthday song thingy for him.

I will throw a proper birthday party for him when he turns 5 years old, when he will have his own friends to share his joys with and that is the age when he’ll probably know the real meaning of birthday and he’ll be old enough to play host.

It seem like Declan wasn’t in a good mood that day. He was fussing the whole time and he wasn’t very cooperative during the photo taking session. I guessed it must be due to the fact that he was hungry and not being fed on time.

Here come the photos of that day, take note of Declan’s grouchy face hahahhaha







That's Declan with Kiat's sister's family


Little Dec is jealous that his grandma is holding Ethylyn and not him hahaha


I just love this pic!! Ain't Ethylyn sooo cute??? Molest Declan and got caught red handed!










We are singing birthday song for him and he's holding on very tightly to his Gardenia Raisin bread. He just refuse to let it go.


Candle blowing time!

We have being "familied"

Hey I discovered that Baby Talk has been "familied".What do i mean by "familied"? ohhhh let me enlighten all of you. Nowadays it is the in kind of description you know? When you get mentioned on Mr Brown's blog we say that you are been "browned" and when you get mentioned on! Xiaxue's blog, we say you are been "xiaxued" right?

Baby Talk was briefly mentioned in July copy of "Family" magazine so ain't it right for me to say that Baby Talk has been "familied" heheh.

It was a surprise and pleasant discovery. Last Saturday, I had to take over my mum's role as the newspaper lady at our kiosk, to pass time, I started flipping through all the latest magazines. While flipping "Family", I came upon an article about blogging and upon turning the next page I saw a screen shot with the picture of a half naked baby. I was thinking to myself :" Hey, this screen shot looks kinda familiar" Then I realised :" Hey that's Declan and hey that's my blog!" hahah so fun.


Huileng! You have been "familied" too

Happy 1st Lunar B-day

Yesterday was Declan’s Lunar Birthday. His grandma was up and about in the kitchen early in the morning to prepare glutinous rice and red eggs for the prayer. By the time the lazy duo (none other than yours faithfully and her son) woke up, grandma had already set the prayer table with food including a roast chicken, a box of “red-tortoise” kuays (aka ang ku kuay), red eggs and plates of glutinous rice. It was a short and simple prayer.

The interesting part was when we had to lay out various items for Declan to pick, which according to traditions would mark his future destiny. The items we laid out included;

1) kitchen weighing scale (to replace the old Chinese type of balancing scale as I have no idea where to get one. I THINK this signifies that he will be a businessman in future. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I am not too good with all these Chinese traditions)

2) Ruler (no idea what this signifies.)

3) Chicken drum stick. (signifies that he will have enough to eat)

4) Pencil, pen and exercise book (signifies that he will do well academically)

5) Abacas and calculator (no idea why I threw in the calculator since both of them signifies the same thing, I THINK. I THINK, they signifies that he will have plentiful to count, or do they also signify that he will be a businessman also??? *confuse* )

6) Ang bao aka Red Packet (signifies he’ll be prosperous)



Before we let him off to pick his “future”, grandma said we must let him step on the 2 giant ang ku kway, which she ordered specially for this occasion. I am not quite sure what is the rationale of this act. Can anyone enlighten me please??





Guess what, mum in law said that the giant tortoises gotta be eaten by the parents... SO BIG how to finish???

After stepping on the poor “giant red tortoises” we let him roam free and see which of the above items would interest him most. Its kind of exciting to see your own kid “pick his future” wahahaha. I anticipated that he would reach for the red packet as this item was one of his all time favorite.

To our surprises, he actually picked up the pencil, followed by the pen and then the weighing scale! No interest on the ang bao at all!!







According to his choice it meant that he would do well academically and also be a businessman. It never occur to me that he would do well academically since he never show any keen interest in books until lately…. See this pic? Hahah it’s taken today.



Anyway, it is really too early now to worry about whether he will do well academically. I’ve got loads of other things to worry about.

Happy Lunar B-day to Declan!!

Nail Cutting HAzard

2 days ago, while I was sitting in front of my PC doing some work, a loud shrill from the next room suddenly broke the line of my thoughts. That was Declan crying out in pain. My first conclusion was he must have bumped his head again. I quickly got up and rushed to the next room. His grandma was hugging him while he was wailing. His grandma sheepishly informed me that she had accidentally cut his finger while trying to cut his nail…

I quickly took over him and carry him out in the living room trying to soothe him. When I picked up his hand trying to assess his wound, it really pained me to see that his little index finger was bleeding profusely. Little drops of blood were dripping from his index finger. In a short while, his pants was dotted with little red spots.

My heart really really ached… soooo heart pain… I use a tissue to wipe away his blood, but they just kept coming… His grandma gave me a plaster, so together we put on the plaster for him. I couldn’t see how deep the wound was because of the blood. Luckily the plaster was able to stop the bleeding but this boy hated the plaster. He kept trying to pull it off and I’m so worried that the might just aggravate his wound if he really managed to pull it off.

Hmmm I wonder whether pharmacy sell plaster suitable for infants and toddlers. Those normal Hansaplast seems a bit overkill for the little ones.

He kept crying non stop, probably from the pain and also from the frustration of not being able to get rid of the plaster. I dropped him into his sarong and within a short while he fell asleep.

I left for work. When I got home, he had gotten rid of the plaster and I took a look at his bloodied finger. He didn’t really want anyone to touch it so that explained why it was still bloodied when I came home. Wahhh I nearly fainted, don’t know from heart ached or from shock…. The cut on the finger was so deep that if his grandma just apply a little bit more strength on the cutter, she would have sliced off the flesh of this tiny finger tip!!! That was how deep the wound was!! That explained why he was bleeding so profusely. Oh my god… my poor little boy… I don’t know why old folks are just so stubborn! We had warned her time and again not to cut his nail as her eyesight was no good but she kept insisting that she could see very well…. For goodness sake she can’t even see the figures printed on her bank book and she still insist she can see well!! I read out the figures to her and she can go :´where did u get that figure? I don’t see anything printed anywhere” and she still dare to attempt to cut her little grandson finger nails??!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!1

This was the third time his finger was cut. The first time was when he was about 3 months old and his daddy nipped him during his first attempt to cut his nail. That time I cried together with the baby. Second time, it was my sister in law who cut him, that time I was at work when it happened. This time it was the most serious and I really hope it will be the last time anyone will injure his little finger again! Why can’t they just leave him alone??!!! His daddy will cut it for him when he is sleeping so that the chances of nipping is lower as he is motionless. What about me? I got a weak heart, I dare not cut for him at all……

Getting Married? Looking for Ring Pillows?

Hey Folks!

If you are getting married and looking around for unique ring pillows do drop by Sharons's Tink's Haven. This young lady makes beautiful ring pillows and the prices are sooooooo unbelieveable!!!

Even if you are not getting married anytime soon or already married, still can go take a peep and recommend to your friends who might need them!! I simply love her pillows!!

Time Flies!

Ying Ying Ying!!! Here we are here we are!




Was it just yesterday that I bumped into Huileng’s blog which inspired me to start a blog for my little bundle?

Was it just yesterday that the panicky me was asking around for advice from experienced mum like Ying and Huileng on how to handle these limbs waggling little beings that can’t really tell us what they want except for screaming and crying to show us their sentiments?

Was it just yesterday that I am like a milk cow who needs to express milk at every 2 hours interval?

Was it just yesterday that I am walking around like a zombie due to lack of sleep for having to feed the new member of the family every 2-2.5 hours?

Was it yesterday?? Was it?? NOOOOO!!!! It’s been months since all the above happen!!!! Now my helpless little bundle has grown into an active and unstoppable 11 months old! He’ll be turning one on 28 June 2005.

From not knowing how to communicate, he now knows that he can get something when he starts screaming his head off. He can no longer sit still. Now, whenever we leave him on the floor, he’ll crawled off quickly to the nearest furniture and pull himself up and reach for whatever things which are within his touch. So, the whole family basically spends our time chasing after him and watching over him so that his mischief will not be hazardous to himself and also to make sure that he doesn’t start destroying things which he laid his hands on.

He is still crawling with his tummy stuck to the floor. He’s able to shift himself from tummy position to sitting up straight. That also means, he has his fair share of toppling over when he didn’t sit steadily and fall backwards. Sometimes, he’ll deliberately throw himself backwards, especially when he is on the bed. He’ll assume that he’ll hit the pillows and of course there are times when he missed the pillows and hit the wall. I guess you don’t need me to illustrate what was his reaction when he hit the wall.

I am watching him carefully hoping that I will be able to catch a glimpse of his first step. From what I see, it’ll not happen anytime soon. From the way he wobbles when he stands up, I think he’ll probably need another 1-2 months before he’ll attempt to stride his first step.

That’s all for now folks! We’ll be back!