happy anniversary

Today is our 2nd Wedding Anniversary! Elvis was away on our 1st wedding anniversary. We celebrated it yesterday since today is a Monday and Elvis has to work late as usual. We've both aged in these 2 years! More wrinkles & freckles!!! The air is bad here... HAHA! (Serious! It's not an excuse...u see, the chinese generally look older than their real age, right?!)

pureeee!

We went to a department store to look for the Braun blender. This 400-watts MR4050 model is ¥699/S$140. This is probably double the price in Singapore. (Another 300-watts "out of production" model/display set without the egg beater is selling at ¥599) So, i decided to buy it online instead at ¥498 + ¥15 courier charge (S$103 in total). I just searched for it and confirmed with the seller! I'll go to the bank to pay for it later, and i'll be able to get it tomorrow! Yippie!
Let's see if Joel likes purees!

new phase

Now that Joel is 6 months old, I'm thinking of introducing solids to him. This is a real headache for a mommy who can only cook instant noodles. I also wanna buy one of those hand-held blenders to puree food. A look at brands like Braun and it costs much more here than in Singapore. Tax tax tax...

When we went to see the paediatrician for his 6-in-1 and Pneumoccocal vaccinations, the doctor also suggested getting an "exercsaucer". (She also mentioned that walkers are not good coz it only teaches them to g-l-i-d-e and NOT learn how to walk) I've seen the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo in Singapore and am thinking of buying it for Joel. Hmm...but Fisher Price here dont carry this model. It's selling at US$90 in the States, and i think Singapore is selling at about S$300 ($199 at a GOOD sale). If China has it, it would also cost an arm and a leg (probably S$400 and above). I realised that most of the children items are more expensive here except for Combi strollers which can be bought for only S$200++ and for a really sturdy model with big wheels complete with kids/parent trays and all stroller accessories! But it'll weigh 6-9kg. Ironically, our expensive Combi stroller is also Made In China BUT it has an "extra sticker" that says 'JAPAN SPECIFICATIONS'. We realised that bigger wheels are also better coz the roads here are not very stroller-friendly. Our stroller seems kinda "fragile" on Shanghai bumpy streets! When going out on my own, i feel it's also better to use the carrier coz need to be alert (esp when crossing the roads). ;p

On the other hand, whenever i need to go out to run some errands nearby (dont need to open/close stroller kind), i will use this super cheap S$20-30 retro stroller. I saw a lot of people using similar netted/lightly-padded "Summer strollers", and our friend helped us to get this online. When closed, it's only about the size of a golf umbrella. Despite its small frame, it's not exactly very light at about 4kg coz it's made of surprisingly strong metal. Its weight is similar to our Combi stroller, but this is good coz i can lift the stroller up easily (plus Joel's weight) even when there's some steps/stairs. No basket, but tried-&-tested, can hang heavy things on the handles! I cannot tahan carrying Joel for very long now in the baby carrier. Backache and cannot walk fast. Using this stroller, we can get things done faster and go home! Haha! ;)

Anyway, in preparation of our Solid Food Day, i took out the spoons and sippy cups to wash. Then, i tried to test the spoon on Joel and he just wouldnt open his mouth at all! But he's been eyeing us when we have our meals! Keke... ;p

sweetie

what we've been up to...

I've been experiencing the "Great China Firewall" again, and am unable to upload anything on my blog. So glad that it's been a-OK these few days! Here's what we've been up to...err...quite backdated...

Every time when Joel is sleeping, I will try to do some things around the house. Since winter was over and we have extra storage space now, I decided to store my rainboots somewhere. Here's 3 pairs that I own. Walking in these always attract a lot of attention from girls and aunties alike. Bought the 1st (green) from Singapore, 2nd (grey/blue) from Tokyo and 3rd (brown/pink) from China. But all are Made In China. ;p




After that, I decided to store away our winter quilt. I actually had these vacuum bags for quite some time (since 2006). What u see here is actually an XL-sized bag - already folded into half.


It was sooo amazingly "strung-wrapped" that I was super motivated to do the rest of the jackets which I had already packed nicely in boxes.

See, there's now even space for 2 more jackets in the box! The best part is, it looks difficult but it's actually very easy and it takes only about 1-2 mins to flatten it! I really enjoy this kind of "housework". HAHA! ;D


I decided to strink these 2 other super thick jackets in another L-sized bag...and they went nicely into another box of jackets. Too bad, these are the only 3 bags I have. ;/




I spent another 2-3 days putting up these photos which we developed sooo long ago...into the 3 frames we bought sooo long ago. Finally it's done! Paris-Japan-Spain. I'm so happy and we decided to buy another of the same frame to do all of Baby Joel's frontal shots. He has few expressions - blur face, fat face, sticking-out-tongue and the recent dunno-learnt-from-where pout. ;)




Other than collecting funds for the Sichuan earthquake, Daddy's company is organizing a flea market/auction too. It's by staff, to staff. All the proceeds will be donated. I thought it was a great idea coz people can buy/recycle and help Sichuan at the same time. I found these new things which we can sell. It went quite well, we managed to sell/"donate" S$180 for everything except the Victoria's Secret body-mist & the BodyShop body-butter. The 2 very interesting Men/Ladies toiletries sets were gifts from our friend Becky (which we couldnt bear to use). When I told her that we're donating it out, she's glad she's indirectly helping too. Phew! ;)





On "Duan Wu" festival (Dumpling Festival as what I call it), we decided to go to "Cheng Huang Miao" to take a look and eat some dumplings. There was still a lot of people there despite the "mourning mood". The rest of the day was followed by more desserts and food... It felt kinda "weird" coz we ought to be spending money wisely now with the recent earthquake. It kinda felt "sinful" to be shopping and eating (too much) now...well, at least in China. I saw on TV that those people who were shopping in Chengdu/Sichuan were interviewed and they also felt very "paisei". Keke... ;p

6 months & same boy

This is Joel's usual blur face...and cute face!

He's 6 months old and (just) reached new milestones! He can sit up supporting himself with his arms for more than 1 minute...err maybe 3 minutes... Muscular man at 8.5kg! Keke... ;)

Height: 64.5cm

fat boy

Everyone calls me a fat boy.

byob

China has banned the use of plastic bags from June. I'd like to think it's a good excuse to buy more of these cool looking shopping bags (and what's shown here is not even the complete range)!

byob : bring your own bag

tictacs

We watched Juno the other night and really enjoyed the songs in the movie - esp the last song. The movie was good too. Go catch it!

P.S. We bought the DVD not knowing what movie it was, but becoz the cover looks like one of those silly movies Elvis loves to watch! Haha!

512 1428

All of you back home in Singapore would have read some of the sad stories about the Sichuan earthquake on 12 May. In fact, it's a very sad time in China with EVERY tv channel reporting about all the first-hand news in Sichuan. These are some of the pictures that touched me.

The first picture is of a 3 months old baby being held by a soldier. This baby was found with his mother about 3 days after the earthquake, and she was kneeling down and protecting him with her own body. Sadly, she had died when they were found. A cellphone was found wrapped together with him...and it in, there was a message that wrote, "BABY, IF YOU CAN SURVIVE, REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU." When I saw this news on the tv, I cried.

In fact, there were too many moving stories in the earthquake. It was really sad for me to watch the tv every day. A week after the earthquake, i was out with baby Joel. Suddenly walking on the big overhead bridge, i realised many people stopped and were looking down at "something" (which is not uncommon here in China for people to do that). I then realised that it was almost the time of the "mo ai" mourning hour. The flags outside the buildings were lowered and there were a number of police cars and motorcycles at the road junction. The vehicles below also stopped and sounded their horns. So, i stood still and held the sleeping Joel tighter coz the noise was very loud. It was 19 May, 14:28. I didnt think that this 3-mins of "mo ai" would be so touching - the siren, the horns and the people standing around - that i would even shed tears for the people i didnt know.

BRAVE CHILDREN OF CHINA:
2nd picture: A little boy saluting the soldiers who saved him. He was badly injured and am recovering now.
3rd picture: When this girl was found in the rubble, ALL her limbs were broken. But she told her soldiers to be brave and not to cry. (I believe that many of them cried when they saw her). This is a truly beautiful face.
4th picture: I dont know the story behind this, but this girl sure looks very contented and happy eating her food after the earthquake.

strawberries

We did manage to go to the strawberry farm after all! Elvis' new colleagues were mostly family men and women. Kekee... It was the last week to pluck strawberries though. Some of our friends wanted to go the following week but the season has ended.

Also check out our MayDay photos! ;)

godsent

Yippie! This is one of the rare times i can see anything blogspot. China has blocked eblogger somehow (and the same for YouTube at the moment). I have to use some free proxies like YouHide.com to view our friends' blogs but cant sign-in to my own account. It's weird coz there's a thunderstorm outside - lightning & thunder - and this thing actually works now! ;p

If anyone is wondering about us...we're good, we're good. Joel should be 8kg now. We've all grown fatter too (must be the food)! Daddy Elvis is desperately trying to lose some weight with a new gym membership, and weekly Sat badminton sessions (like now). So Mummy Jo is still putting on the pounds sitting in front of the computer...and oops...there's my tummy! ;p

Have a great weekend! ;)

xoxo

P.S. This is his current fav action - POUT!