Saturday, August 29, 2009

Imagine AN with long hair...

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Baileys' Entry: Our gallery

Why does it always have to be AN's photo updates? Are we any less adorable?

Maen says she thinks we are cuter and proves it

This is me proving our point, that we deserve as much news coverage as the aging human puppy
Has anyone noticed how she has to have her head on somewhere? On mummy's laps, on my butt..on my butt..*duh* She must really think I do not suffer from gas.

See how she thinks she is the fur princess? Even if she is, she's the one I know of who has the most exposure.

See her resting her little head on my neck, as if summer's not hot enough? Thank God the air conditioning system cools the whole place down to fall temperature!

Shame shame baby
When she finds nothing to lay her head on, she waits on

This is when she gives up waiting
Mummy's little babies thought hard.

Wierd monsoon

If u guys remember, I took a video of the heavy rain and strong winds during monsoon season last year. That was sometime in June/July. I may be wrong but monsoon seem less violent this year than the last, at least that's true from home (Mr Liow said it's still as bad where he works).

Still, when one of the stormy rain strikes, it still gets violent to a certain extent.


Right after the rain stopped, I noticed a big tree outside where Liansee and family used to stay, was reduced to this state. Sure glad they weren't around anymore coz I don't know if those fallen trunks caused any damage.

Rise and shine, a clearer view of the beaten plant


Urban Decay

UD was having 30% sales and free shipping so... hehe. They are my first set of UD cosmetics.

The eyeshadow palettes with shadow primer which seem to have almost perfect reviews. Have yet to try it out. Ampoules, or primers better?

The colours! Nice and I see bits of glitter in the pan but when I swiped the colours, those glitters did not were not chunky and overwhelming.

I like this casing! It smells nice like some wood (oak? pine? I'm not sure).

Eyeliner (they say it's for smoky eyes so it's smudgeable)

The liners in 'person' (same order as above)
Big fat mascara. Have not tried them on yet, so can't be sure if they can make the lashes big and fat.

hehe. End of loot report.

Randomness of AN's activities, again

Have just uploaded some pictures taken over the week. Enjoy :)

AN right after she woke up, went over from the other sofa onto this one, laid down and covered herself nicely under the blanket. I didn't even know she was awake and was surprised to see her lying nicely away from where I last saw her asleep at.

AN dirtied her t-shirt and while waiting for me to get her a new one, hid under the blanket and insisted that she felt cold -______-" And then when I got her a fresh top, she refused to put that on and kept telling me "Mummy Adrielle cold"..



Was reading to AN this book and her interpretation of what she saw was "Mummy, boy eating the bird".
AN insisted on putting on my jacket. It's super oversized on her and she agreed by informing me: "Mummy's jacket super big".

Bye W

W has served us well and he has smartly learnt the layout of our house. The more he worked each day, the lesser time he took to complete each cleaning cycle. He was such a great help and took so much household-work-related stress off me! I only had to ask him to start working everyday after waking up and upon reaching home after a day out. Before we knew it, the house would be clean and AN could play-act tea time sitting on the floor if she wanted. Prior to that, all her 'utensils' would have fur all over (all thanks to the static, fur sticks to EVERYTHING, even to the bottom my father's pants while he walked when he was here..). And there would even be fur on the tallest part of the slide.

We decided to send him back though.

Have I mentioned before that the beater brush melted after 2 uses when it first arrived? Irobot sent me a new cleaning head which I replaced (irobot parts can be replaced very easily, even by a layman myself) but after just one use with the new module, it seemed like the brush looked slightly distorted again. Could it be that the brush did not start off perfectly rounded while still being new. After having done its thing for the last 1.5 wks, there had been nore further distortion, but for the amount we paid, I was worried the set would not be capable for long enough to justify its cost.

Since Irobot has a 30 day money back guarantee and I had been reading that the Roomba 562 (a new Pet Series robot) is a stronger model for homes with pets, we decided to send W (Roomba 570) back and had just placed an order for 562.

On paper, the only differences btw a 562 and a 570 is that the 562 has 2 bins (1 standard vaccum bin and a large sweeping bin) but no wireless controller and the 570 comes with a wireless control without the large bin. Seemed like larger bin would suit our needs more but then again, since W did his job every morning (and evening sometimes), a small bin was more than enough. The only thing, if I had to point out a fault, was that fur (and my long hair) gets caught on the brushes so I would not be able to send it to do more even if the bin could take more load.

There's no reason to complain though, coz even with regular vaccum cleaners and the Iecologi, I stop mid-cleaning to clear the brush or fur and hair.

Let's just hope the 562 will be stronger like some reviewers say. I hope the brushes are stronger, or maybe the way they build it, will differ from 570. There were fur inside Wwhen I took it apart (to replace the faulty cleaning head).

Now that W is not around anymore, we sure do miss his presence. He was like a pet and Maen has gotten so used to him that she didn't even bother to move away anymore when he approached. In fact, she would at times, allow him to bump into her and then change directions. Baileys would still move away if he felt W had no intention to change path. B is one who avoids confrontation, even in this case with W, but he had come to a point where he would allow W to get closer to him than he usually allowed before deciding to get out of W's way.

Bagless vaccum cleaners have never attracted me but for the convenience an iRobot gives, I am willing to bear with the flying dust as I empty the bin. It gets disgusting though and I had to nag at AN to get out before she breathe in those dust. U can't believe how much dust there is! Every time I empty the bin, there would be a thick layer of dust. Goodness...and to think I used to vaccum every alternate days when we first came, and down to weekly before W came.

A Roomba would NOT be good for anyone with allergies given that dust still gets transferred from one place, to another as you empty its bin.

But the convenience, ooohhhhh.....I think I'd rather become asthmatic breathing in all those dust than not have a Roomba at home.

And there's this Scooba which does the mopping...hmmm...ok it makes no sense to pay over S$400 to buy a floor washing robot when a mop and pail cost less than $20. Forget it. ;p

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

AN's Art Pieces

AN goes for art lessons at Gymboree almost every week (except when we're away or when Mr Liow is on afternoon shift and I have to cook).

We used to paste her pieces on the wall but it got a little crowded now and with some '3D' art pieces that has tiny breakable pieces that fall all over, we haven't been able to put all her work on the wall.

To keep a record so that AN gets to see what she used to do as a toddler, it makes sense to put them on blogger for the time being till we have an idea how to pin them up.

This was a Happy Father's Day gift from AN:
A card with my thoughts on its left collar and AN's on its right

A photo frame. She did all the painting and pasting. I put the picture in. hehe.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Dancing baby 28 months eats an ice-cream

This dancing (and now singing) Adrielle at 28 months




I was hungry for an ice cream one afternoon and my toddler, blessed with a slim frame, decided to take upon herself to bear the consequences by devouring that fattening snack. I cleaned up the layer of almond bits and chocolate around the vanilla to 'protect' her from too much caffeine. ;p

Excited Baileys

Baileys noticed a dog outside the house and got all excited, whining and running to and from both patios just to get a better look at the dog outside.

The dog outside noticed them too (the owner was chatting with another neighbour outside our house and the bored dog was getting entertained by the 2 furclowns in our house -____-")

Maen, the vocalist, barked to communicate. All Baileys did was whine like a baby. hehe.

AN was purely joining in the fun.


I can't do it myself



AN insisting she needed help to climb up the slide

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The grown up toddler

AN's insistence to do everything by herself gets on my nerve at times but I know that she learns to be independant by doing all these on her own. It's exciting to watch her perfect a skill one after another :)

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She started wanting to feed herself shortly around the same time she started walking and I mostly gave her a little food to try while feeding her the main portion. By now she's able to feed herself properly BUT she eats soooooo slow I end up feeding her after we're done with our own meals.

This princess eats rice by the grain, noodles by the strand and every other food by its single count. You can imagine how long that will take if she is given the freedom to feed herself totally.

And the toddler chooses which cup she wants to use. She also wants to get water by herself (we are using a water dispenser. Press and hold, water flows out).

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Nowadays we have to start preparing way in advance if we had intention to go out. That's because AN wants to prepare for herself as well. She wants to take off her own clothes, takes her time to choose what she wants to put on, wants to get her new pair of pampers/ training pants and sometimes even insist on putting them on by herself. She can, with training pants but not with pampers. Takes a little reasoning to get her to understand why she won't be able to get her pampers on by herself without help. And not to forget, she wants to choose her own shoes too.

Baileys and Maen gets bones to chew on when we are out, and AN wants to be the one to give them those bones. They do not obey her and it takes a while to get them to wait for her to leave the bone on the floor before they are allowed to take the bone. Given the freedom to do what they want, they will be jumping all over AN.

I'm again very blessed that BM are not aggressive and even though they badly want those treats/ bones in AN's hands, they will not jump onto her. Neither will they snatch anything from her hands. The very most that happens when they get near is, they lick her fingers together with the yummy treats/bones.

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AN likes to observe everything we do and say and try to imitate. She learns that way. For a while, I was worried that her attention span seem really short and she doesn't like to sit and watch me flash cards or listen while I teach. She has no patience for me to finish a whole story when we sit and reach together, and will always go for stories that she's familiar with.

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Oh yes, not to forget, AN saved me from being locked out of the house just now!

I needed to get our pail that got blown away by strong wind and tried to close the sliding netted door as lightly as I could. This sliding netted door at the back patio has a loose lock that drops and locks itself if one slams it close too hard.

Cautious as I tried to be, I still got locked out! My phone was in the house, Mr Liow was at work, and Liansee (Mr Liow's colleague's wife that stays across our) has gone back to Singapore!

AN was eating cheese and looking at me, wondering why I was staring at her. I was praying really hard that AN would be able to open the door for me. She might not be tall enough and she might not know how to unlock the door.

Guess what? I asked her to help me open the door and being the independant enthusiast, she left the plate and cheese on the table, tip toed and gave the latch a little tug.

AND THE DOOR WAS UNLOCKED!

I believe it's moments like these when AN felt she was able to do things us adults can do that makes her insist otrying everything out for herself. She must have enjoyed the praises, and the feeling of achievement.

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AN was watching downloaded Ice Age 3 on the computer (attached to the TV) while I was in the kitchen preparing lunch one day. I took longer than the show lasted so AN came into the kitchen to look for me and upon seeing that I wasn't done, went out and did her own stuff.

Once I was done, I went out and noticed she was watching Happy Feet!

I asked what happened to Ice Age and she told me: "Ice Age finish already. I switch on Happy Feet myself. Adrielle so smart." And then she gave me a smug look.

Be it confidence, lack of humility or simple innocence, that was quite a cute thing she said of herself. hehe.

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Everyday now beside praying that AN will not be too stubborn, I also look forward to what AN has up her sleeves to surprise me.

At this age, she's just irresistibly adorable (minus those tantrums)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tenants.

It's finally over.

The house is back in our (own people's) possession till the next family moves in mid Sept.

We didn't see for ourselves (except from some pictures of damages) but from the mouths of my bro (who's acting on behalf of us) and agent (Mr Liow's friend), it seemed the tenants didn't really bother to do much in maintainence.

They still dare tell us some of those things they broke were "already broken" when they moved in. They had 30 days to check and report damages but they did not. Come on, I know every nook and corner of my own place. I know what's falling apart and what's good. And they dare pressure my bro and agent by refusing to admit that they were responsible.

Our agent got a part time cleaner for 4 hours to clean up the house and he had to clear up some by himself. Imagine the mess the tenants left behind...We were told they actually left garbage under our suspended kitchen cabinets!

$#*^&%^%&*^%&^%#$@@#^&%^*&^%

My suspended cabinets in the kitchen is not for trash ok???? They were meant to be nicely spread with pebbles. When the dogs came, no more pebbles and Maen claimed the under cabinets as her resting place.NOT FOR TRASH PLEASE!!!

My usually shiny hob is now covered in black soot. *sob* I hope the stainless steel can still be polished to a shine again.

Sigh...

BUT

To look at it more positively, we have a good excuse to re-do what we did wrong the 1st time after we go back.

*sniff sniff*

I smell a new design coming up. hehe.

Damages are not totally bad afterall.

Where's my Play Doh?

AN was looking for her bucket of Play Doh without success and asked me for help. Finally she gave up when even mummy wasn't able to find them and went back to playing on her slide, commenting casually as if resigned to fate: "Irobot eat my play doh".

hehe. That was cute.

Monday, August 17, 2009

A call for adoption

Dogs are just so non pretentious and real.

It's comical to see how the human are trying to 'sell' them yet it's the dogs' actions that speak louder than words. How not to love them?

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Shopping with Isabelle

My last post was really wordy so my activities for today had to be split into 2. hehe.

Isabelle is Mr Liow's colleague's wife who reminds me a lot of Pam (Mummy to the Yoong kiddos). She has 4 kids, the oldest being 19 years old and youngest boy at 32 months but she doesn't behave like an auntie at all. She doesn't look auntie anyway. And she speaks her mind like Pam. I see Pam whenever I see Isabelle. hehe. So familiar.

She brought her number 3, Kimberly (who's 7, I think) along coz Kim loves to play with AN and we went shopping.

AN was superbly behaved today and despite being very tired (she woke up earlier than usual and even missed her afternoon nap), sat in the car seat beside Jie Jie Kim throughout the drive without fussing to have me carry her. She finally caved in after we took too long to shop (we went to La Encantada, and then Park Place Mall..where else in Tucson can we go, sigh?) and she really needed to suckle (and sleep but she ended up not sleeping coz she was stealing glances at Kimberly). Not too bad, AN waited almost 4 hours since she started asking nicely for "mem" and I asked her to wait. Kim's presence sure helped!

I came back with these:

Lucky brand was having sales. We hardly shopped in there coz their clothes are rather pricey but Isabelle said the belts were on sale, so we went in for a look. Those belts were $69 (before taxes) but I got them for $10 each!

I got both of these in M size. Had wanted L but they were out. Have I grown fatter?

I have to use the furthest hole on this belt to have it hang nicely above my hips. It will not fit me with hipsters or low rise bottoms :(

This is one big fat belt that also fits me JUST nice.
Porcelain Pink, another of MAC's limited mineralised skinfinish (which most use as blushers). Can't help getting a couple before they run out.

So light only wor..didn't know before this. The colour appeared on me only after I tried really hard to swipe it from the pan. hmm...what's the craze over this colour huh?

Lastly, this is AN in her 2 ponytails and new capris. Thought she looked cute and most importantly, she finally agreed to have her hair tied up!!



She had the pair of gold shoes on coz she wanted to. hehe. A little loose but who cares! A happy toddler's more important.

New Friends!

I brought AN to Gymboree today and bumped into a little girl, Emma and her parents. Emma is about 7 months younger than AN and the girls used to be in the same Art and Music class of Gymboree till AN turned old enough to join the older kids.

There were the usual greetings and "Oohh Emma's so cute!", "Ooohh, Adrielle's so sweet" comments but I hardly spoke to Emma's mum (Danielle) in depth.

It was a pleasant surprise bumping into them at the same class today. I realised I missed AN's previous 'classmates' after she moved on. It seemed like there were more in common, or rather I was able to chat better with their mums (even if our conversations revolved only around the toddlers). I take a long time to warm up to strangers and just when I felt warm enough, it was time to move on -____-" Oh well, Gymboree wasn't for me to make friends in the first place.

Emma is a smart toddler. Very smart toddler. She was able to sing and speak quite well when we got to know her. She was only 18months then, and I was totally surprised when Danielle told me Emma's age. She behaved like she was AN's age (and AN like her age of 18months old then: Silent). She's super socialable and went around hugging the other mummies and even called some of the kids' by their names. Wow...WOW! Danielle said she has siblings and children with siblings learn faster. I sure hope I am not impressed by Emma because AN is slow (average is good enough for me).

AN was jumping around happily in class today and seemed to have caught the attention of Danielle and hubby, and another elderly gentleman who brought his grand-daughter to class. They commented that AN is a good jumper. They probably thought AN is a good jumper for her 'age' and that she is less than 28months. haha!

Danielle and hubby asked if I bring AN to any gymnastic classes as they watched her jump (from slide to mattress, from one soft 'frog leave' to another, up the 'air-log' into the barrel . Nope. AN learnt to jump from Gymboree and practises it a lot at home, that was all. hehe. And when they heard AN sing, they had the "OMG" look, as if AN was some super-kid. Only after clarifying did they realise AN was older, thus 'smarter'. They are so sweet for still insisting that AN is smart. But being the humble Singaporean that I am, I went "no la, you better, you better.". Not those exact words, but you guys know how you will respond too if you were me, right? hehe. Moreover Emma caught my attention since the first time I saw her (and I kept repeating to Mr Liow how smart this 18month girl in AN's class was)

After classes were over, Danielle told me about the playgroup that some of the mummies in their class (AN's previous Art & Music class) has formed. They sometimes meet up during weekends too and asked if I'd like to join them.

YES! I WILL LOVE TO!

Emma's dad also said that they will be having a birthday party for Emma in Sept (I distinctly remembered the date but forgot it once we got into the car...hmm...was it...20th Sept?) and invited us to join them. Theywill be having one of those big air castle for the kids and he said AN will surely enjoy herself jumping. Danielle got my email address and will send me the details (of the playgroup meetings and Emma's birthday party I guess).

OMGoodness..

My first ang mo friends. After 1 year and 4 months in Tucson, I finally found some ang mo friends. That really goes to show how slow I warm up to people, ya? So my dear friends, please do not forget me ok? If I lose you, I will have to move to an isolated island and live there all by myself forever. It wasn't easy finding you guys, so please do not leave me ok?

*Muacks*

Friday, August 14, 2009

It's a better day today

There were some toddler tanthrums this afternoon (over her insisting that I carry her and not wanting to be on the car seat) but after we got home, she nursed a little and turned into an angel again.

Unlike yesterday, she asked nicely, smiled a lot and was chatty. She was also persuadable.

Sigh...if she never has to go through toddler mad-mood, how nice...

Am ending this post with AN's sleeping style. She still sleep-moves sometimes (some of u might remember I posted some time when AN was ... 8months old (?) that she slept-crawl).

The following picture was taken in the early evening yesterday when she was interrupted from her nap, sat up, slumped to her left and hugged Minnie Mouse as she returned to dreamland.


She sat up again last night (quite freaky) and slept as she sat, upright. Mr Liow saw her and told me AN was sitting up. I didn't even notice and if none of us did, I wondered if she would have slept through the night sitting upright. hmm..

Baileys' Entry: No packages for us

Not this time. The box was filled with shoes: 4 pairs to be exact according to mummy but in doggy terms, it's 2 pa-w-irs (of 8 shoes all together). None of them will belong to us.

Tell me, how does a dog smile to that? Maen says the only way to respond is to pout.

It's been a while since we posted pictures of our typical day.

It goes like this: We lie down

I get up

We get up

Mummy's little babies thought hard

Shoes: Past, Past Participle, Present, Phuture

Shoes of the past (for AN's first year of life but the pair of sport shoes were the only ones she really wore coz those fit her when she started walking. The others were only to match her outfits)

Shoes of the passing-out present and her favourites. They are the 2 pairs of brown shoes I mentioned earlier that we had to hide to get her to forget about them.

Shoes of the Present:
~ The pink covered sandals (I thought I rotated this but anyway, it's the pair at the bottom) are her current ones which fits her exactly and will very soon be tight before we know it.
~ The blue pair just arrived today and is in size 7 which is obviously not true to size, from this picture, and in real! She can put them on anytime now before she outgrows them ( (she's a 5.5 now by most brands).
~ The white ladybug sandals are her rejected ones -_______-"
~ The pair of gold coloured mary janes are also in size 7 but bigger than the blue coloured size 7 ones.

A closer look. hehe. Seems to me toddler shoes these days look so much better than those in our days hor.




Shoes of the Phuture:
Piperlime package their shoes like this! Everytime I open up those shoes, it felt like I was opening birthday presents. hehe. Shiok.

If you find this pair (and the following, familiar), it is because they are. hehe. They are on sale, so I got them in larger sizes. I know, very auntie. hehe.

This is in size 8.5 (the silver coloured option of her gold coloured size 7 pair)
Metallic lime-green in size 7.5 (the blue one, remember?)

Pearly white in size 8