The long weekend felt even longer as we somehow managed to pack it oh-so-tightly. So the boy was totally zonked out by 10 plus last night, though he woke somewhat terrified around 1am. Probably overstimulated and had a bad dream. Or something like that.

The highlight was probably his first ever picnic at Botanic Gardens. It might well be the last for a long time to come. Singapore’s weather ain’t the best for outdoor activities and we felt the heat.

Thankfully the company made up for it. And not to mention the gorgeous shots from D, our unofficial official photographer. Gone are the days when we have up to 10 different shots of the same thing from 10 different cameras. Heh.

Now pardon us. We are still recovering. Me thinks we have had enough sun for the whole year.

Well, almost baby. I last met Noah when he was a day old and still at Thomson Medical Centre. Fast forward to now, and we have a 4months plus lil Noah who is still as alert as ever.

I last met Veraday for a decent chit chat in 2007 (goodness!) and now, when we are out, we are pushing two strollers around the mall.

We headed up to Vivocity and settled ourselves down at White Dog Cafe (great service) where we had a lil teatime. I have quite forgotten that babies this small still can’t sit up by themselves (heh) and can sleep so much more than a toddler. *looks wistfully at Jayden… sleep won’t ya?* It was a good time, a little short but still good. Thanks Vera!

Jayden has shown a bit of his atas lifestyle. Preferring my cheesecake crust to almost anything else we have been feeding him with. Nevermind that he is intently studying the menu. It is all an elaborate show. He did however, keep pointing at lil Noah and going…’baby!’

Silly little kiddo. He had a great day out. A new toy (from Veraday, time to hit the beaches!) and another from us to him. Now he can doodle away and not create a big fat mess. Yay! Win-win situation. His day out didn’t quite end there… but that is for another post.

birthday boy needs an appropriate hat

Ikea is quite literally, a children’s playground. Nevermind that Jayden is still too small to join the club. He had loads of fun at the Children Ikea. And so did we.

erhmmm, what are you supposed to be daddy?

We went for a ‘late’ night trip to IKEA Tampines with my parents. Quite good considering the place was relatively quiet. And Jayden was in a good mood. Quite happy to hug and kiss and squash you. And take pictures. And explore the toys. And other furniture on sale. (I’d say his favourite is the slide.)

don’t you think this is so like the marigold milk ad?!

Though at the end of it all, we didn’t get anything for him. Even though he did look really cute with the birthday cake hat!

Last Saturday we trooped on down to Yishun for the boy’s 2nd do. He actually turns 2 today but we held the fiesta early, just so everyone could make it. The birthday boy had fun. He played the afternoon away, slurped down a good many bowls of soup, got his fingers dirty in the fresh cream of his cake and chuckled with delight at the smallest things.

Such is life. The simple things are good enough.

His great-grandma was around to join in the merriment and so the youngest and the oldest had a momento taken. I’d say he is doing a pretty good job of calling her and throughout the afternoon you could hear him chirp great-grandma, grandpa, grandma in delight. I just am not sure who was the most delighted.

And if you peeked at the photostream, you’d have noticed an influx of pictures of him drinking soup. Hard to resist because he looked so earnest and intent in his drinking that we just went a tad trigger happy. (I’d spare you all with just one picture here). So till next time, the birthday boy is all smiles and cheers.

After the initial lohei toss, he decides that other things are more interesting. So he wanders off in a bochup manner. Heh.

We had a pretty busy CNY period this year. We made some adjustments to the ’schedule’ and spent more time at each stop. Jayden probably enjoyed himself the most seeing that he was older (duh!) and more ready to interact. At each stop, he took a short while to warm up to the place before terrorising it and making himself all comfy.

Like lazing on the lil plastic chair with legs placed on coffeetable. *slaps forehead* Or helping himself to the goodies (and spitting them out when he tires of it). And the packet drinks.

Little wonder he is nursing a cough now eh?

The visitation period also provided for loads of photo opportunities.

And we finally have a decent family shot after, hmm, almost a year I think (yes we are that tardy).

So… that kinda summarises our CNY.

letterpress stationery card by Sweetbeets @ Etsy

Like almost any family with a young child, we have a full set of alphabet mat, abc book and, I think, dvd on the alphabets. However with Jayden’s short attention span, he doesn’t quite sit still long enough to actually learn his abc’s. So we have taken to reciting them and getting him to repeat after us.

So far, his diction is passable on most of the letters (stumped by ‘W’! haha) though I think his sequencing is still way off.

in earnest discussion of what to have for tea

We went to town for a cuppa tea (and some shopping) on Wednesday. Jayden and Lynda met again. Quite a while since they last met. Heh. This time round, we tried the little quiet corner @ Kinokuniya. Of course, it was not quite quiet anymore when we went in.

Jayden demanded a drink, a bite (ok, maybe more!) of nachos (no dip) and banged the table to make sure he got our attention. *sigh* This little tyrant!

So we did the most plausible thing.

Pull his chair further away from the table. I contemplated turning the little corner at the foot of the stairs (leading to the now defunct outdoor area) into a ‘naughty corner’. But I didn’t. Not in the end. Not this time anyway.

We’ve been lazy… and kind of busy so the updates are somewhat few. But here’s a (mini) bumper load of photos that capture some of the highlights in the last week or so. We have had quite a bit of fun, wedding dinners, birthday celebrations, jaunts about town and dim sum lunches. Yay to them all.

First up is the dinner at Trader’s Hotel, 21st Dec. Where you can tell he was having a ball of a time. He has a VERY cheeky face that helps get him out of trouble. Throw in a sloppy kiss and a hug, and he usually can buy you over. He has taken to carrying odds and ends around with him. So if you look closely enough (not in these images), you’d notice that he was carrying two discount cards. At other times, he would be stuffing his pockets with Mentos sweets. He simply likes transferring them from one pocket to the other… and not eat them. Hoarder really.

Next would be the mandatory Christmas tree pictures that any child would have growing up. We didn’t really ‘deck the halls’ or ’shop the malls’ so this bauble laden tree at Forum was about the closest thing we had to a decent tree. He was more interested in his reflection naturally. *poke poke*

We went for a nice dim sum lunch thereafter at International Building where erhmmm, Mister High-Class decides to open his mouth for restaurant made porridge. And only finishing his milk feed when you feed him with a spoon! (So so wrong!) Ok, he probably thinks anything fed in a spoon is soup. And soup is his all time favourite.

Lastly, grandma’s birthday on 27th Dec. Charmer boy was relatively well behaved. He power-napped before everyone gathered, just in time to play when grandparents came. Sat throughout the dinner (although he did reject food) and sipped at his barley drink.

And so with the updates done, right now on the last day of 2008, we’d just like to say ‘bur-bye’ (as Jayden would say) and we’d see you again in 2009. In exactly 6 weeks, the little boy turns 2. Sounds fast and then again not.

Enroute to Sim Lim, we stopped by a beadshop just for fun. Sometimes, you just got to put the boy to work. You know, when you run out of dough to pay for your huge load of supplies…?

In all seriousness, I think the guys at Bead Workshop had their place turned upside down by two little kiddos. We bumped into Simone with her lil darling daughter there and the two young ‘uns hit it off quite readily. We have our suspicions… we think the two might have met somehow. They are so alike in their mischief. Not to mention (bad) sleeping habits.

… turned 3 on Monday and we went to join in the party at the Ranch home. Food, icecream and drinks, music and people to party with was all Jayden needed to have a great time out. We were given the wristbands on entry but you know who’s hands are way too small.

He was all over the shop, climbing chairs and tables, paparazzi-ed, carried by various staff-ers and having a jolly good night (whilst being chased by us all).

We placed him on the stage (there was a fashion show hence the catwalk runway styled stage) and he was quite happy parading there. He caught the eye of TK and the two ended up doing an inpromptu dance number. Funny!