Sunday, June 29, 2008

Severe Storm Alert

There was a severe storm warning 2 days ago on Thursday. Mr Liow happened to be on day shift that day (even tho this was his night duty week....) and I was worried he'd be caught in a flash flood on his way home.

Some shots of what the warning says:


This is not the worst in history, just the worst one so far that I happened to be near. Not that I was involved in the storm coz I was at home, safe and sound. Still, it was quite terrifying coz the sky was unusually dark and I could hear the sliding doors banging coz of the strong winds. I could even hear the wind from inside the house.

Baileys and Maen weren't too comfortable with the storm as well. They were on alert mode all the time and jumped up at the slightest bang made by the sliding doors.

Frankly I was quite worried the glass will break at some point.

Video taken from the kitchen


Taken from the living room


The baby is the only one oblivious to the pending storm, and dancing to one of her favourite commercial jingle. Leader of the pack? Or are the furkids sniffing stinky poop in her diapers?

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The baby can now do these:

Now that AN can walk, I'm not that particular about BM's pee or fur on the floor anymore.

There are new sets of problems I have to be watching out for tho.

She thinks it's a big deal that she's on 2s now, and attempts to even walk on the sofa. You know, the sofa is soft unlike walking on ground. She doesn't see the danger and to be sure she doesn't fall off, I have to make full use of my 2 pairs of eyes, cook and watch her from a distance at the same time when Mr Liow's not home.

She likes to put things where they did NOT originally come from. I'd find the remote controller in her drawer, her shoe in the remote control holder, BM's bone in my bag, her socks on BM's bed (I'm sure they were not the pranksters). Just minutes earlier, she was waving Mr Liow's used socks in the air and that wasn't the 1st time.

She thinks she knows which channel she wants to watch and does her own selection. Most times the channel she chooses appears dark with no image. If I ask her: "What happened?", she will turn on her charms, smile and pass the controller back to me with a "nah!" as if it's my duty to find her a channel to start all over again.

It's hard to be angry at things she does but for her own good, there are times I have to be firm and look stern. When she sees me looking stern, she will pretend to whine, stretch her arms out and look as pitiful as she can. If I tell her off for anything, she will plead "nen nen" and reach out for my t-shirt. That gets her out of trouble.

She knows she's in trouble sometimes. Before I realise something is wrong, I will see her walking fast towards me chanting "nen nen!" and wanting to be pacified. I've learnt that when she does that, I have to start looking around to see what she broke, or dropped, or if the TV channels are messed up, or if the CD is ejected out from the player, or ... something has to be wrong -____-"

I go "tsk!" when she goes against my commands. She will then turn to me and return the "tsk". She's since who-knows-when, learnt to walk around doing "tsk" as she walks.

She knows the only way to immediate attention is to request for "nen nen". Seeing that she can keep herself entertained (BM helps to keep her occupied as well), I go on with my usual chores and only chats with her without picking her up when she calls out to me (oh, she calls me "meh meh" and Mr Liow "da da"). Now she skips the step of calling for "meh meh" and go straight to ask for "nen nen".

She enjoys digging into my belly button and her own. She's only managed to recognise and point to her ears and belly button. Her favorite has to be the belly button. Just ask "where's your belly button?" and she will spend the next half an hour digging that body part while walking around the house.

She thinks BM eats human 'food', like remote controllers, and books and pillows and toy bears etc). And she thinks she eats dog food and chew on bones like BM do. Caught her trying to stuff their bone into her mouth many times, and this KPO human baby will be so kind to them as to make a special trip to the kitchen and leave remote controllers on their bed.

Sometimes I think she thinks she should behave like BM. She watches them, and then imitates them. She'll go on all 4s, point her head in their direction and then crawl towards them. If they are sleeping, she will go dig her head into their tummy and then tumble onto her side and sleep on their tummy. When she observes them in play, she will, after a short while, crawl fast towards them and scream in high pitch like they do when they bark during play. My parents will freak out if they see her do their play-imitation.

She knows how to stroke them properly and strokes them where I stroke them. They do not always trust that she knows how to do it properly tho and runs off most of the time.

Oh, she imitates me when I sling my bag over my shoulder as well. She puts everything with a handle onto her shoulder and starts to walk smugly around the house. As you can guess, the 'everything with a handle' she puts on her shoulder slides off and she will clumsily try to pick it up and put it back onto her shoulder.

She will give me things in her hands that I ask for tho. Just ask, and she will willingly push whatever is in her hands into our direction.

She's still learning to kiss us. If you recall, I've posted that she started to blow kisses at strangers that day when we were at Social Security weeks back. She has since, kissed toys, Baileys and Maen with loud "muacks" but not Mr Liow and I, not till some time mid of last week. It was cute and heartwarming to have her "muack" us the 1st few times. She doesn't do as often and we'd like her to. hee.

As a gadget baby, she knows which of our gadgets are touch-screen. Not just that, she knows which screen on the Nintendo DS to touch to get it going.

She dances to any and every type of music. From commercials, to music from her toys, to the radio, even to my singing. Some commercial jingles have been tagged as her favorites and to those, she dances EVERY single time it comes on during her waking hours without fail.

Will post pictures and videos soon. Mini me is asking for "nen nen".

Friday, June 27, 2008

Baileys' Entry: We are Singaporeans

It's been a long while since we last posted anything. Our blog, www.whenbaileysmeetmaen.blogspot.com, has been put on hold coz mummy got herself another blogspot account (this one) and has gotten too lazy to log into our old one for us to blog in. She said we have to share this one so...fine with us.

Mummy has been updating on our behalf for the past 2 months and I miss blogging for ourselves so here I am ;p

We are Singaporeans. Why so? Coz we queue up to drink.

Mummy opened up both of our crates so they are sitting in the kitchen, one of which is our 'water corner'. Our water bowl is in there and there's only one way in when we need to drink, so we've adopted the Singaporean way of queue-ing.

It's more orderly, mummy says. Makes us look like really civilised furkids. When the water bowl was in the open, we used to push each other away so that we could get a drink before the other. The concept of sharing never existed as far as we knew.

Probably watching Veggie Tales along with AN did help afterall. *blink*

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

MAC goodies!

Been waiting for the whole week for my MAC goodies and they've finally arrived! In fact, they reached half an hour ago and I spent half an hour exploring the colours. My arm looked bruised with the many blushers I bought (10 blushers, a brush-on brow, 2 mascaras). AN had a good time too, helping mummy bring out the stuff one by one, from the box they came in. So exciting. hee! I'm waiting for AN to feel sleepy so that I can try those colours on my face.

"Adrielle...Nap time", and to which AN replies "wah ..hmmm-um googaga yaa-da. Huh?" while tip-toeing and stretching hard to reach out for MY new toys. *rolls eyes*.

I know I have only 1 face and 2 days in a weekend to paint that face. Will probably never finish any of the blushers I have but I can use them professionally as well. That justifies my purchase!

And I realised I can sign up as MACPro member (with membership fees and annual renewal). Members (MUAs) are entitled to 40% off all MAC products, if they approve my status as a Makeup Artist. Thank God I brought my cert. That's the only possible way to prove I'm in the industry. And if I can shop online (applicable only in North America. Is AZ in North America? Let me find that out 1st), I don't even need to physically make a trip down (provided shipping comes at no cost).

I'm hoping to get an empty palette and choose my colours in time to come (not so soon tho). MAC colours are way prettier than the colours I'm using now (TSMU girls, you know la hor? hehe). The MUA at MAC told me I could do that and even if I din want to get all the colours at a go, I can visit them at any time to choose my colours to fill up my empty slots. *fainting from sheer excitement*

Will probably get those before I leave so that the colours remain fresh and as use-able as possible. hee.

So excited wor. *heart thumping*

Monday, June 23, 2008

HOT HOT HOT Sat, House/ Fur-cleaning Sun

Saturday
We went to Promenade at Casa Grande. Not too sure if Casa Grande's still within Tucson or if it's part of Phoenix but it was slightly more than an hour's drive.

There was a 'severe weather condition' warning the day before and we thought it should be safe shopping at Casa Grande coz we thought it was indoor shopping. The weather warning suggested we stay indoors and drink plenty of water coz it was going to be a hot day.

And then we realised we were wrong. Promenade at Casa Grande is an outdoor shopping place. We had to exit each store to get to the next one.

The weather got too unbearable and we didn't wanna risk making AN sick again (going into an air conditioned store and out into the heat again), so we left after lunch (late lunch).

It was 124deg F in the car at the day's hottest. Can die.

When we got home, I was preparing myself for the worst coz we'd been out the whole day. 1stly, I expected the toilet to be in a mess coz my furkids need to release and the toilet is only that big. I expected mess from the lack of resources, not out of mischief.

It was a perfect sight when we got home. No mess (all mess were on papers. How accurate!), no barking.

I'm really clueless as to why they (Baileys) barked previously, and that one of them pee-d on the floor and on their bed the next day? Yet they were perfect yesterday. Clueless.
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Sunday

Brought BM for a bath at Petsmart today and while they were away, we went to rent RugDoctor, a steam cleaning machine for carpets and spent the whole afternoon cleaning up our carpet.

Terribly exhausting! I did the vaccumming and Mr Liow did the steam cleaning. The machine was bulky and heavy, so poor Mr Liow being the MAN had to do the heavy chores. It's been more than half a day and part of the carpet still feels damp. Carpet feels much cleaner tho. It has to be. AN likes to roll on the carpet lately but each time maintenance guys come to service something, they walk in with shoes on.

We went back to fetch the furkids in the evening. They look nice again but do not smell better than after a professional bath by groomers back in sgp. Maen's right paw nails weren't trimmed as supposed to (her 3 other paws and all 4 of B's were trimmed), so I trimmed them on my own.

I wonder when M's quick grew longer. Do quicks grow?? I snipped the usual white tip and her nails began to bleed. Poor baby!

She looked at me without complaining as I stared hard at that bleeding nail, grabbed a towel and applied pressure on it. Heartache..all the more when I see her sitting in front of me, watching me as attentively as she always watches me (when there's no food around her).

The bleeding stopped, so I continued with the other 4 nails. The moment I left her alone, she started to lick the bleeding nail. *heartache* She trusted me, yet I failed her :( Bad mummy.

Had to keep the 2 of them in the kitchen the moment they came home. No choicr\e coz the carpet was still damp. Even AN got to walk only in the kitchen.

We had intended to clean the house another time before returning the machine but looks like it's impossible. All 4 of us (B,M,AN & I) will hv to be stranded in the kitchen for the whole day while waiting for the carpet to dry, if we do another session tomorrow.

Oh ya, Mr Liow taught me to drive just now! It was fun, but scary. Once upon a time, I drove Mr Liow's car up the kerb. That left a deep impression in me and I only looked at the kerbs while I drove just now.

I'm sure I'll improve with practice. Give me some time (a lot of time) and one day, I'll drive.hee.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Cute Baby

We really underestimate AN sometimes. She's a big girl now, with brains that's developed more than we think it is!

Brought AN to La Encantada, an outdoor shopping venue earlier during the evening before dinner and seeing that Gymboree was on sale, we walked in to see if we could get something for her.

There was a TV in the store, and 3 chairs in front of it.

By the way, AN walks on her own outside now (^_^). She doesn't need us to hold her hands anymore.

Ok, back to the TV and 3 chairs. She walked towards the TV and noticed that there was cartoon playing on the TV. With eyes fixed on the TV program, she shifted herself near to the 3 chairs, groped her way to the chair right in from of the TV (the middle seat) and pushed herself onto it. Then she quietly watched the program, turning to us when she had something to 'comment' about what she saw.

That was adorable. hee.

We didn't expect her to be interested in the TV program and even if she did, we would not have expected her to make herself comfortable and seat herself down to watch the cartoon by herself. And she sure knows which is the best seat with the best view!



It's interesting watching her walk around on her own but it's tiring too coz we now have to keep going after her. She has choices now and with her new found ability to walk, she decides where she wants to go.


Probably time to consider a baby harness now huh? hee. The baby is getting more adorable (^_^)

Instruction Permit! + Naughty Furkids

Permit to sitting behind the wheel
I passed my theory test and got my instruction permit! It looked exactly like a "Driver's License" except that mine says "Instruction Permit" instead. I thought they made a mistake and gave me a license to drive. hehe.

Up and coming will be driving lessons. Don't even need to take a driving test. Just go through lessons and my status will be upgraded to that of a driver.

Of course, a license doesn't give me the courage to drive yet so I'll need to practice. hee.

So exciting! (^_^)
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About BM
Just when I thought they've passed the stages of anxiety and have settled down finally, they decided to tell me through their actions that they really prefer to have me caged at home.

We went out for a couple of hours for dinner last evening and when we came home, there was a puddle of pee on their bed *I was angry!!! Where shall they sleep then?*

And they tore a carton of drinks we left on the floor. Just the carton (thank God they didn't finish those sweet stuff) but the mess was enough to flame the anger, in addition to the pee on their bed.

It's been a long time since they chewed anything that didn't belong to them, and the carton has been there for some time and they've left that alone till last evening. Not to forget, the pee. Why on earth did they pee on their own bed??

We went out for my theory test this morning and when we came home, there was a puddle of pee in the middle of the kitchen -_____-"

What's wrong with them? They've been behaving till now.

Feel really disappointed. :(

Friday, June 20, 2008

Feeding ourselves, and Little Adrielle and Baileys, and Maen.

It's not easy when it comes to feeding AN now that we are in a foreign land.

We managed to get rice so I can still make porridge for her BUT fish is a novelty here.

Walmart sells a very limited variety of fish (mainly Tilapia & Catfish) and they are frozen. Not knowing what sort of fish is that, I'd rather not risk giving AN those, not till she's older. I've chanced upon frozen sea bass and cod fish in the freezer department one day and was elated coz cod is good fish, and cod tastes good. I've given her sea bass as well so it's another choice for her. I'd prefer fresh if possible but seems like fresh fish is out of the question here.

After trying out all the different brands of cod fish possible, the conclusion is, frozen cod fish taste yucky. :( Frozen cod is bland and tastes nothing like cod fish back in Singapore: faint sweetness. I think cod fish sold in Singapore were also thawed from frozen right? Why do they taste and look so different? Different temperature at which they were frozen?

On the contrary, frozen sea bass tastes a little like the cod fish I know of. It's wierd. Sea bass is more costly than cod fish here (I'm talking about frozen). I think it's the other way round in Singapore right? Anyway I think I'll b getting more of sea bass for AN here. Definately makes her porridge more appetizing.

Not only that, selection of vegetables in supermarkets are also limited. Probably coz I've been looking for familiar vegetables that we buy most times.

There was once I bought what looked like the purple-coloured Spinach for ourselves and thought of chopping some into AN's food. The 'spinach' didn't smell like spinach and I thought I better not. It smell more like a kind of herb than spinach and after stir-frying it, it got soooooo pungent! Both Mr Liow and I couldn't take the taste and threw the whole plate away.

And then last weekend at Lee Lee, I saw a proper labelling to the purple 'spinach'-looking vegetable. That was BASIL!! We almost ate a plate of basil when people use a few leaves of those at a time to add aroma to dishes. -_______-"

I've tried giving her bee hoon soup, minced meat (chicken, pork, turkey, beef), celery, cabbage, and some others which she's taken before. Other than beehoon soup, the rest were thrown in to make her porridge with (or with the bee hoon soup).

I'm seriously running out of ideas what to feed her. Porridge everyday sounds really boring, doesn't it?

As much as I think it's healthier to feed her homecooked food, I've also been giving her toddler food off the shelves once in a while so that she gets more interesting food besides plain old porridge.

Toddler food comes in large chunks that she can pick up and feed herself (I've not allowed her to feed herself yet tho. These food comes in broth and she'll definately drip the soup all over herself). Most are tasty (meaning: seasoned). hmm...

I'm looking at making spaghetti for her soon. Let me go dig out the baby recipe book.

BM? They get their usual kibbles and share home cooked dinner with us now. They get AN's dinners, or when I make soups with meat that I foresee Mr Liow won't be able to finish, they automatically benefit.

Baileys looks healthier now, and Maen has lost the weight she put on at Camalot. Mr Liow says I'm evil to put Maen on a diet (she eats half of what B eats since ages ago what..). hee.

AN's Video Gallery - 14 months

Updated 29 June 2008

I just realised after taking so many days to upload the videos (there are supposed to be a few more), only one has been successfully uploaded. Will upload more in time to come.

Takes too long to upload videos la. hehe.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Singapore HOT? Try Arizona

The hottest hot weather in Singapore was...31 deg C? And alry I was hating it.

We went to Phoenix last weekend and the weather was 45 deg C (113 deg F). Phoenix is generally hotter than Tucson and yet it's been ranging between 43-44 deg C here for the past few days. I can't imagine how it's like in Phoenix (oh well, wat difference does 1 deg C when it's that scorching here...).

It's dry here, so we hardly perspire BUT it does get soooo hot that we can't help it when our bodies lose so much water they form perspiration at the rate the heat can't evaporate in time (and the low humidity didn't help either).

I don't suppose Arizona's the hottest state in USA? Or is it? hmm..

I'm looking forward to cooler weather. Soooo looking forward to it..

Oh ya, not to forget about online shopping, MAC has never been on sales in SGP right? It was on 15% sale in stores and free shipping 2 days ago! Since it's not often that we make it to stores, the convenience of shopping online is fantastic. The best was of course, the never-before sale (on specktra.com, some ladies even mentioned that they've never had a MAC on sale here for the 2 yrs they've been with them) and free shipping so that I don't have to miss the sale.

And yes, I bought quite a number of stuff, blushers mainly. hee. I hope there's another sale before I go back so that I can stock up for my MU case. Will be nice to use brands on clients that they hear of and not have to go broke before I even earn anything.

Lastly, pictures taken over the past few days.

Mr Liow did some packing over the weekend. The sofa was getting messier by the day coz of the little messy girl. This is before he packed.

Isn't it MUCH neater now?

The mess is now contained, and AN has noticed it too. She's been opening up the drawers and drawing everything out. Then I'll be dumping everything in once she naps..
Baby yogurt! Tastes good, unlike the adult version which can be really strong. She didn't like it the 1st time I fed her this. I've been giving this to her about twice a week and she's since gotten used to it.

She's still taking baby cereals but I've also 'upgraded' her breakfast to by adding something more big-kid. She can chew but is lazy to and expects me to still give her mushy food that she can swallow without chewing. With this, she has no choice. hee.
Another typical day of the 3 kids. 2 KPO girls wondering what it was that AN picked up.

And they try to find out

AN going around helping me with household chores, except that she was helping to give me more work to do.

Baileys with the headless chicken that Mr Liow bought for Maen from Aust last Oct.

See what I mean when I say AN force-treats BM. She doesn't agree that 1 headless chicken is enough for Baileys to play with.

Maen creeps up to check on what AN has to share

Seeing that Baileys has no interest in the white bone, AN decided to feed him what he liked from the start.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Adrielle the Social Butterfly

We went out to Phoenix yesterday, to Arizona Mill, Ikea and then Lee Lee again.

Didn't buy much from Lee Lee this time. Many of those stuff we bought the previous stuff went mouldy. I thought someone told me things do not turn mouldy here. hmm.

It was a long day but nothing much to talk about, except that AN did something cute which I'd like to remember in time to come.

Wasn't anything fantastic tho.

We met Mr Liow's colleagues at Lee Lee and MR Liow introduced them to me. It was the usual shake-your-hands, say "hi" and such. We chatted a little and then AN stretched out her hand to touch Mr Liow's colleague who was standing right next to her as if to introduce herself. Then she stretched out her hands again, far out towards the colleague's wife like one would when one wants to shake the hands of another.

The colleague's wife was surprised and commented that she's a friendly girl.

Mr Liow and I were really pleasantly surprised that she behaved so 'cultured' there and then coz just a while ago, she was still a little grouchy from us waking her up from her nap on the car.

Mr Liow commented that he was glad she didn't 'throw his face'. haha! I was just tickled by her giggly smile when the colleague's wife took her hand and shook it.

She's getting better at imitating us.

hee. Cute.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

From Mr Liow's camera

Some pictures of his car taken late in the evening. While he was shooting, a neighbour walked by and whispered to his partner, loud enough for Mr Liow to hear (he probably thought Mr Liow didn't understand English?), something to the extent that he hopes the pictures will turn out fine (coz it was dark). Mr Liow replied (and that neighbour looked surprised when Mr Liow replied) that the pictures looked great!


Dating WAY WAYYyyyyy back to the day our cartons arrived. Credits to Mr Liow who did most of the unpacking while I put away the foodstuff, mine, AN and BM's stuff into their new respective places in the house. Took quite some time to be done but thank God packing's finally completed, or at least 90% of it. Poor Mr Liow had to put away his own stuff tho. Sorry dear. I still love you.

Part of the mess. We clear the mess, she puts the mess back.
Her high chair and walker. First day in ST.

More cartons

When they 1st came.
There were more upstairs! We wonder how we're going to squeeze every box back in to Fernvale when we go back in 2 yrs' time. We're very sure the number of cartons we bring back will at least double when we return!

"I want mummy! *SOB SOB*"

Mr Liow making an attempt to distract her.

And she's decided it was fun to see papa upside down.

Literally "shifting house"

At Edwin's place (before we got the keys to ST)

Father and daughter's bonding time



That weekend when Neigi came over. Ahgerl, doesn't this oversized sunnies look cool on AN? haha!

The telephone salesman?
"Uncle Neigi, your hair parting's messed up."
Dear, you said you forgot to take pictures with Neigi. You didn't. ;p

Bubble gums! Banned in Singapore, legal in Tucson! Something new to baby girl.

"Papa has a sore tongue" *gives disgusted look*

"Where did that tongue go?"
A pathetic impersonation of "Kung Bao Ji Ding" (Kung Bao Diced Chicken) in a Jap restaurant we went to.

Pretty in white

Baileys with Mr Liow at LA airport that fateful day of 25th April 2008. Mr Liow said Baileys attracted lots of attention from passerbys. I'm not surprised. Look at my handsome boy (^_^). Maen would have gotten attention too if she was the one who was stranded alongside Mr Liow.

I'm sure Baileys enjoyed every bit of the cool weather at LA Airport as well. I did. (^_^)