Another FlowerGirl Dress

A last minute arrangement and we met up with Karen and her younger girl at MS.  It's been awhile and with such a short meet up, we hope to do another when they're back from their trip.

With our playdate leaving early, we took the opportunity to shop further, hahaha but this time, it's for her swimsuit(need something thicker to keep her warmer) and remembering the tops I've seen at Mothercare the other day, I got Renee these :

Then, after our dinner, we went back to KP 'cos I've forgotten to ask them to check the availability of the dresses at another branch and ended up buying the one and only piece left on the spot, lolz.  What made Renee really happy was - Papa, for no reason, picked up a high heeled sandals and told her that it's pretty nice and she took the opportunity to bug him to buy for her!  After some 'negotiations', she got her wish... :

The Flowergirl Dress

The pair of heeled sandals she bugged her Papa for... 

Although we were unable to find a suitable pair of shoes to go with the dress, we thought we should get the pair of stockings first...

The Lantern Festival

The last time I went to the Chinese Garden was sooo many years ago, and it was also during the lantern festival(free tickets from Co.'s supplier then).  I remembered the spectacularity of its lantern display and had always wanted to bring Renee there when she was younger.  However, hubby's always saying that it's far(from SK that is, plus he always went to Jurong area for work, so it's like silly to come home from there and to go there again, to him la, :D) and so we've never got the chance to do so...

This year, being nearer(or rather at the central), I decided to bring my kids there(thanks to Sharmaine for inviting us 'cos it reminded me about it!  But as we needed to go to my mom's this Sun, we went on our own tonight instead).

After her session at Berries, I let her take a nap before her violin lesson and right after it, we headed straight to AMK hub(again!) for our dinner and groceries shopping.  Renee's very excited when she learnt that we'd be going there, but it was because she had thought I meant the Jacob Ballas children garden, hahaha(that place should be visited during daytime lah!).  However, it ended up that she was still the one who's had the most fun, with the rides, :).

  

She was almost persuaded to try on these 2 but backed out in the end, :)

As for the lantern display at the CG... it was nothing comparable to the view I was greeted with many many years ago.  This festival thingy will last til 18 Sept and I wouldn't suggest for anyone to go there unless U really have nothing better to do...(hv informed Sharmaine the same, so that she won't waste her $ and time there, hehehe) :D.

Struggling

Time really flies!  So fast, my confinement period's over and my #2's also a mth old already.

Oh man, weather's been soooo hot and though I've had my hair cropped short prior to delivery this time round, but probably, due to the weather change at this time of the year, I've been perspiring like mad and with a not so easy task - breastfeeding, I've not been able to adhere fully to the traditional confinement what nots.  After the 1st shower(with boiled herbal water) about a week after delivery, I've been taking shower/washing my hair every 2-3days!  I've even had it cut shorter again just a few days ago, heee.

BF with Renee hadn't been that difficult(though I didn't latch Re much, mostly was Expressed Breast Milk - EBM) but this time round, it's sooo different and I've got mastitis the 2nd week even though I'm alot more diligent in latching-on baby and expressing!  Advices/suggestions from friends and acquintances from online forum helped and I'm now still trying my best to continue with breastfeeding.  Thanks to them whom had offered me their valuable information...

For baby's full month, we had wanted to hold a dinner celebration at Xin Cuisine(the restaurant that prepared our Wedding Banquet then) for our families and some of papa's close clients.  However, due to the uncertainty of 'how' to feed baby, we decided against it but we still delivered full month cake packages to our family members and cake vouchers to friends(esp. to thank those whom had visited us at the hospital/given gifts).  In the end, we still had a small dinner celebration at the restaurant downstairs my mom's since most of my family members had turned up.

As for Renee... due to the lack of my energy and time to supervise her, she's been slacking in most areas but we've finally signed her up with Berries, hopefully that would help her a little at least, with her Chinese.

On the music front, she's gone through Nafa's Masterclass II and though I hadn't been able to attend, I've watched the video - rather satisfactory, to me lah, lolz.   And recently, she's picked up the technique of 'Vibrato' on her own and when she played it infront of her teacher, the latter was surprised but still coached her the correct way of doing it, :).  This techique, I was told(Ms Mok), would be learnt in grade 3 but in the case of Nafa, it'd be in grade 2 - which means it would be taught soon in the next semester IF she manages to stay with Nafa, that is - I'm very worried about her theory... ^-^"

Next in highlight - Nafa's exams(both theory and practical), arrgggghhhhh...

Dinners

As promised to Renee, we went to Sushi Tei for a light dinner before we headed home for a short rest before the dinner.

By the time we got to the temple, the dinner has started. Tonight's dishes weren't as good as last week's, due to different budget(probably from the auctions).

Renee was already feeling quite sad when she learnt that her cousin XuanLe meimei won't be there and so, she was really disappointed when even her MinMin and MinNi jie jies weren't there too, but since we've been invited to her gugu's home tomorrow, she took to playing with her uncles(papa's brothers, cousins) instead, lolz.

The Opening

It's the official opening of my nieces' + friend's hair salon today. We've been informed that the lion dance will start at 11am, but we have been misled by the signage along the road(different from the street directory) and we were late... However, not much was missed and Renee still got to watch quite abit of it though she's requested for papa to bring her further away to watch, due to the loudness, :).

Not long after the buffet caterer's arrived with the spread, CH also arrived with his family and that's when I began to lose sight of my Renee - playing outside the salon with her cousin, JX. She must have played so hard that even her papa came in awhile later, asking if I've brought extra clothing for her 'cos she's perspired quite abit but I haven't(although I could just pick one from the bag of new clothings Elsie's gotten her but they aren't washed yet, so it's a good thing her top wasn't that wet, according to papa)...

Soon, it was time for her to go for her art class but I decided to stay behind to chat with my sisters since I wouldn't have anything to do anyway, going along. We finally left the salon at around 4:30pm when hubby brought her back from the lesson.

Hubby rested once we got home and we both began to tuck into our packed dinner(there was tooo much left over from the buffet) when he went to meet his client for dinner. It's been really warm tonight and I thought it'll be a treat to indulge ourselves to some 'coolness' in the hall whilst enjoying our movie and so, I had the air-conditioner switched on after our showers, ;P. Renee was elated and had almost dozed off whilst watching the recorded(whilst we had our dinner/showers) Shrek II, :)

Oh no, Tar Tar sauce too?

It's the holiday-in-lieu for school attending children today and it's also my FIL's '49th day'.

Whilst chatting, we realised that most of us(hubby's sis and 2nd bro's families) had gone to the Helix bridge on the same day - Saturday! - but we didn't meet one other, :)

As we needed to go down to Nafa's office today, we headed to Bugis Junction for our lunch after the prayers and, at the same fateful restaurant where Renee had her most serious allergy reaction(e maiyonoise sauce seved with the baked potato), she had another bout of attack today... This time round, it was their tar tar sauce that's served with her fish & chips meal. Good thing I've stopped her from consuming the whole 'piece' of fries when I noticed abit of the said sauce at the tip of it. However, the spot that the cream had touched, swelled within seconds and she began crying - complaining of pain in that area. Quickly got her to drink more water(this was what I've got my niece, Pearlyn to do too, when she had a seafood allergy attack during 1 of our family dinners when she was a young child) and with the consumption of her meal, the swell and pain soon subsided, *phew*.

The Wake/Funeral

We had been busy at my Father-in-law's wake/funeral for the whole week and it had been extremely tiring(only a few hours of sleep everyday) for all of us since we stayed the furthest and we weren't able to leave til the last of guest did.

There had been quite a number of occasions where some 'unhappiness' arised amongst all and though none has came outright to spell things out, myself was in a difficult spot a couple of times during the last few days, especially yesterday, which was the Funeral day.

However, on the frst day, Renee had, upon learning about her gugu LeeLee's sadness, gave her this piece of artwork which she did most recently(added the background colouring on that day):

Today, we collected my late Father-in-law's 'remains' and from now on, there are a few rules(like not being able to attend any 'red' occasions for 1 yr('white's' for 100days?, I can't rem), can't distribute 'angpaos' though we're able to accept, some praying rituals, can't return to my mom's for 49 days, etc).

P/S : Our appreciations and thanks to family/friends who came to the wake and those whom had contributed.

A Turn for the Worst?

Our usual family shopping day had unpredictably turned out to be quite a rushing one today.

My FIL's current hospitalisation(rather frequent lately) apparently showed that his condition had taken a really bad turn(predicted actually, though we've not really expected it to be this fast and hubby said he had seemed alright on Fri) and so, after sending us to Paragon, hubby went to visit him at the hospital. At close to 7pm, he came over to meet us and just after we've finished our quick dinner, he got a call from the hospital that his father wasn't responding and he rushed over. I was still contemplating whether if I should just take a cab home with Renee as he's instructed or just loiter around in case we'd need to rush over as well. A quick check with Renee and we stayed on(obviously...) which was a good thing 'cos half an hour later, hubby phoned when I was about to make my payment for the merchandises and told me to go over (yeah, due to the staying on, we had bought more things, haiz)- mainly Renee's new melamine cutlery set from 'Hello Kitty'(I've never expected her to like this 'old' brand of character, probably becos of te designs and I guess she's also long outgrown the age of 'Dora'. Anyway, this is def alot better as compared to 'Barbie'!). Here're some :

Unexpectedly, there was a loooong que outside TSC(I've thought it'd be ok since the festival season's over) and I still couldn't get hold of a cab booking despite being put on hold for a long time. I had to give up holding-on to the phone booking confirmation 'cos my mobile's battery was super low and I needed to save the last bit to contact hubby.

45mins later and we were still in the que and hubby said he'd come pick us. The irritating thing was, when we came out of the que, it then started to move, aiyoh always like that!

When Renee had first learnt the news and that we're going to visit her ye ye, she was sad that he had became so ill. Then whilst we were que-ing, she was even more anxious about the long wait and had even teared... But when we got there, she kinda clamped up and didn't say what she thought, haiz...

Short while later, hubby sent us home and instead of the initial plan of him going back to stay overnight at the hospital with the rest of his siblings 'cos bro Chuan called to inform that they'd be adhereing to FIL's request for a discharge.