Mooo

Nathan makes this funny 'mmooo' noise when he plays on his own sometimes. He has quite a deep voice there.

Chickies

My dad bought him these little rubber ducks when he was about 6 mths old, and I am sure glad I brought them over to cambridge, they are his truest companion at bath time! I would ask him to look for the duckies, he would do so, then he would have his duckies in his hands the whole time he is in the bath and sometimes, even after towel dry and change, he would still be holding them tightly in his small little hands.

He particularly likes banging them together to make the 'squeaky' noise.

Climbing stairs

Climbing up stairs has been his second favourite past time now, it's not the first cos we don;t have stairs around the house, but just outside our flat, there are two flights of stairs which he loves to go up and down it. They are alittle too steep for him to do it by himself, so mummie always helps.

Those flight of stairs in the video are taken in Basel, next to the river, a twice the size of boat quay. When he sees stairs, he runs towards them, then looks up at me, as if saying, 'help me now'. Guess his next mile stone would be climbing up stairs on his own.

Stuck

Nathan seemed to have this new habit of getting himself into corners, and sometimes he gets stuck like this in the video. It's just funny watching him get out of it by himself without our help. He has also developed the 'bad' habit of hiding things everywhere too, in between the doors, cupboards, underneath the beds and drawers etc, both lye chong and i have grown so tired from hunting things, esp when we're in rush, it can get us very annoyed.

Stool

Watch Nathan carry this aged old wooden stool from corner to corner. Boy, does he look cute? he was so fascinated with that stool. In fact, it looked familiar, I had one when i was little in my old Toa payoh house.

Walk on Ice

See little boy venturing out on snowy ground. He is thrilled to see the ground all white and bright. Unfortunately, he did not have a good pair of water proof boots, else he would be jumping and running on it. I had to grab him back before his toes got frozen.

Stamping

Just want to share a brilliant smile from my little boy.

Bern

The main attractions of Bern were the Bern bear, river, valley and high bridges. It was the most crowded city, flooded with tourists, and that made the trip less exciting.

Shopping was good as there were a number of malls, and street stalls were up since Christmas is round the corner. There were as many as 3 Macdonalds, and we actually went in all three during our 2 days stay – mostly to warm ourselves up with coffee and tea from the freezing temp outside.

We got our souvenirs, postcards and warm socks for Nathan. There was nothing much to say about this city, except for the big clock, which refused to work that hour we were waiting for it to chime. We were not the only ‘goondoos’ who waited below that ‘frozen’ clock.

Last day noon, Chong wanted to catch a sight of the Bern bear. I reluctantly followed, knowing that it would not be anything to rave about. True enough, these two bears were stopping low, munching on their hay stack the whole time while we stared into their wide open bear pit.

We caught the flight from Basel at 9.45p.m. reached Stanstead airport at 1015, took a train to Cambridge and arrived home at exactly mid night. Boy, were we glad to be home.

Thun city

Beat was kind to arrange for a night stay with one of his friends – old time church mate who stays at Thun, a city 30 mins from langnau.

Chris and Lilian have a 22mths old daughter, Lizie. She is absolutely adorable, a girl full of smiles. Chris is Swiss and Lilian, a Brazilian, how cool is that?

That night, we had another swiss meal, bbq chicken with melted cheese and pineapple, salad and potatoes. We had visitors for dinner, a lady and her 15 yrs old daughter. We talked much about our small city and they were amazed just how small a country can be. We looked around us and found that there were more than 5 languages spoken at the table – Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Chinese, and of course, English – the common language amongst us.

It was special night. Thun had a match against Zurich. Everyone said Thun would lose, but the outcome, they won, 2 to 1. We had the privilege of having one of Thun soccer players for dinner, he came after his match. He was half Italian and Brazilian, which explains why he is a friend to this family.

Next morning after breakfast, we braved the cold and walked 40 mins to Lake Thun. I nearly gave up half way, my fingers were frozen although they were tuck in the jackets. Nathan was hibernating in his pram throughout the journey. I thought it was not spectacular but it was the fact that my brains could also be numb from the cold, couldn’t think much of the view – a pity.

Evening came, we bid goodbye to our new friends and travelled to Bern.

24 hr farm stay in Langnau

Third day in Switzerland. Took a train from Basel to Langnau and arrived at 12 noon.

Beat and Ann are nice to host us for one night stay at their farm house, or rather, beat’s family’s. Beat came with Naomi to pick us up from the train station, and drove us to their place, up, up, up in the mountains. On our left and right was snow. It was a glorious sight, and that was probably my closest encounter with snow in this trip.

They keep cows and pigs, grow berries and apple trees, carrots and some other crops. I lost count of the number of cats and just one half blind and half deaf dog, who always sat at the door.

We brought sunshine to Langnau that day we arrived. You could see from the pictures that the sky was clear blue, not a single cloud. Somehow the pictures turned out splendid because of mr sun. While Nathan had his noon nap, we strolled around the farm and snapped. Every corner is worth a shot.

The departure lunch was our first authentic swiss meal – much loved fondue. I had forgotten how nice it tasted, since 5 yrs ago when we had it at Interlaken in summer. I still remembered we had to scout around for a restaurant which would serve us fondue, cos nobody eats it in summer. In winter, it’s perfect.

The most amazing thing about this place was, everything is home made. Talk about home-made products at commercial stores, the milk and juice we had, even the vegetables were home grown, no sugar added nor preservatives. Nathan had his first taste of cow’s milk, yes, straight from the cows. All we need to do was to bring the milk to a boil, then down his tummy, he loved it.

Nothing beats spending time with friends in a trip. Switzerland is a beautiful country, very clean and neat, and filled with the wonders of nature – high mountains, rivers and lakes. We were glad we made it.

Switzerland – To go or not to go

Monday night, we had a Singaporean family over for dinner. I prepared asian gourmet chicken curry mix and fried some veg. For dessert, we had bailey ice cream cheese cake. They stayed till past 10.30p.m. We had a good time.

But, Chong started complaining that his tummy hurts, and he was feeling cold, his teeth were practically chattering. I didn’t think much of it. I washed up the dishes, and was too beat, laid my head down to rest and knocked out in seconds.

Poor chong chong, he ran a fever, vomited and had diahorea a couple of times during the night. When we awoke the next morning, Tuesday, he was down the entire day, ate very little, swallowed panadol and charcoal tablets, and slept.

He didn’t quite recover after all the rest. Until Wed 12 noon, we were still contemplating if we should make the trip. Then, he decided, he should be gamed enough to leave. So, I started packing. Never in my life did I had such a mad rush to pack for a holiday! An hour later, the cab came to drive us to the train station. We had a plane to catch from Stanstead airport at 5p.m.

We managed. We reached Basel, Switzerland that evening, walked 10mins to YMCA hostel where we stayed for 2 nights.

We were glad we made it, visited 4 cities in 7 days.

Stock check – 20mths (24.12.07)

Well, not exactly ‘stock’, but just jotting down what dear Nathan can do at this stage of his life.

Motor skills
Wheel a car on the floor
Kick and throw a ball
Climb up and down stairs with one hand held
Stack blocks
Screw a bottle cap on and off
Shake his head left and right
RUN

Follow these instructions:
Story time ( pick up a book from the shelf and bring it to me)
Keep toys
Pass the ball
Look for his ‘duckies’ before bath time
Switch on the light
Follow the direction of finger pointing and pick up something
Do ‘cute cute’ – point his index finger at his cheeks. (got this idea from a friend)
Give mummie a hug
Kiss mummie (put his cheek next to mine, as if asking me to kiss instead)
Come
Wave bye bye

Habits
Bring his shoes to me to wear before going out
Drink water in between feeds during a meal
Eat a pear a day at tea time
Drink 350ml of milk upon waking and before bedtime
Eat cheerios and raisins on his high chair when mum and dad have their dinners (he’s been fed)

Words understood
Cartoon (bang on the tv screen)
Book (story time)
Pray (cup his hands together)
kiss

Point to body parts when asked
Nose
Eye
Ears
Mouth
Hair

Words he can say
Duck
Ball
Dog
Dada (intentionally means daddie)

Pot luck lunch

Last Saturday, we held a pot luck lunch party at our place. We invited the families whom I have bs with every Thursday mornings. We were expecting a total of 7 families, which means at least 14 adults, and about 10 children as a couple of them have two children. The turn out was 10 adults and 5 children, a very good size.

I prepared sausages on skews, there was Korean salad noodles, bbq chicken thighs, French quiche, sushi, American creamy salad and English green salad. The spread was nice.

Our current apartment is about the same size at back home, so you can imagine the ‘squeeze’, especially with two 6 yrs boys running and kicking balls around. Nathan was fast asleep, his usual nap at noon, he was awake to bid good bye to our friends.

We have been studying the bible together for almost two months, and now we will break until jan when everyone returns from their homes.

His own game

Natha still loves throwing, and the cute part about this is, when ever he does that, he seems to really enjoy it, so it is hard to discipline him on that matter. That is our problem. So, we try to teach him to differentiate between the items, balls and some toys you may throw, but not books and other larger wooden blocks which can hurt others, not sure about this, then again, he may be confused by the instructions. We just got to play by ear now, any clue about this?

daddie was making some 'funny' noises while nathan boy grins happily at him. These days, we don;t have to do very much to get his most charming smiles, when he's in a good mood, anything you do will work. And when they do smile, don't they just warm your heart?

Wk end Away

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/carisbay/WeekendAway30nov2dec

Last weekend, we joined a group of graduate Christian students to Suffolk, 1.5 hr drive north from Cambridge. Needless to say, Nathan was the only child amongst 30 people. We saw some goats, a lonely horse, all by himself, and lots and lots of guinea pigs... no pics of them. sob

It was nothing spectacular, I had zero expectation. The reason we were there, Chong had fond memories of these wk end retreats when he was an undergrad at LSE, so he persuaded me that it would be nice.

We were in a huge villa with many rooms. 30 international students lived, ate, played games and sang together. There was only one Sunday morning talk, the rest of the time was entirely free and easy. Sat afternoon, we drove to a seaside small town, the coast was raging with very strong winds, reminds me of Peter in his boat when he met Jesus, such faith - he wanted to walk on the waters… not me.

Surprisingly, there were 3 other Singaporeans, all girls, including the president and Vp of the graduate union, both doctors, finishing up next yr. What does this tell you, well, the Singaporeans are the enthusiastic lot, aren’t we?

The talk left me with a challenge, to allow God to use me, whatever I have to his glory and for his gospel sake. To me, that bit was worth the going.

2nd christmas party

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/carisbay/ChristmasParty


Friday, 30th Nov, we had a Christmas party at the University Centre. This is the Friday play group we go to every week.

In case you’re wondering why we r having so many parties so early in the month, well, most of these students will actually return home when term ends, last day of school is the 30th Nov.
I didn’t take many shots of the surroundings, deco was simple, I took Nathan involved in his usual favourite activities, like the kitchen top, slide, and push cart, these are the 3 things he would look out for each Friday at the play group. There’s another picture of 4 kids on a red riding horse, two of whom, the Korean boy and white Belgium girl’s mums are in the same bs group as me. We have become good friends now. It’s a pity Nathan can’t sit in with them, he’s too young to balance himself.

1st women evangelistic nite

This was organized by the Thurs morning mums BS group I go to weekly. We thought it would be timely to invite our friends since Christmas’s around the corner.

Only 10 of us, all mums, our babes were left at home with dads, how nice to have a night out with my friends without Nathan, for the first time. We made chocolates together!

Thereafter, an American lady gave a short explanation about Christmas – basically, the reason for the birth of Christ to the earth, and what he had to go through so that all men could have the chance to be saved. It was short and sweet.

The party ended around 10p.m. when I got home, Nathan was still sound asleep.

1st Christmas party

This afternoon was our very first Christmas party in Cambridge. There was a puppet show, and some singing, ended off with some fairies who distributed little gifts to the children.

I must say the only thing Nathan enjoyed was chewing on a balloon. He found the puppets too scary, I agree with him, they were low quality hand made puppets, definitely amateurs. The room was too dim, and the crowd was rowdy with too many ‘bigger’ kids, and only a handful of small lovely ones like him.

It was not only unpleasant for him, also for us. I met some friends there, had some good chats, but was having Nathan on me much of the time, it was darn tiring. We left shortly after an hour.

7 to 7

I used to think that having Nathan sleep by 7 at night is an impossible task, but not so these days. I’ve heard from some friends back home that they start training their kids to sleep through the night as young as 3 months old, I couldn’t believe my ears then, even remembered borrowing Gina Ford, the famous author of a parenting book who advocates good feeding schedules as well as sleep hours, but still, I wasn’t able to carry out as planned.
Since we arrived in UK, esp after we have settled down in Cambridge, Nathan has been sleeping well, minus those days when he was coughing hell. This past week in particular, after he totally recovered from cough, he has been sleeping by 7 and through the night without waking up at all. That is incredible for us, who have never experienced such quietness in the nights for as long as we can remember

Good Apetite

Nathan have had very good appetite for a good long week now, started the sat ago. Usually, I had to have his favourite cartoon switched on and he finished his meal, now, I don’t even have to do that, he would obediently stand right next to the table, and finish his meal, to the very last mouthful, his portion now, one and a half rice bowl of porridge, mixed with meat and veg, and marmite, can’t do without it, a good substitute for soy sauce.

I thank God that I don’t have to worry about him eating or not eating, he eats most things, , a cup of yogurt with rolled oats for breakfast, one banana at lunch and milk, then porridge for dinner. I try to put in different types of meat and veg over a week he has a good intake of different types of food.

Perhaps it’s the cold weather that contributed to his good appetite, cos both chong and I couldn’t help eating more each day too.

First word

I’m not sure if that was his first word, but it was the very first time he intentionally called something – duck!

See, we walk that same route every other day to the supermarket or to the city centre, and to the play groups, and we see ducks along the way – either swimming or sleeping, making a lot of noise. We fed them once, and Nathan adores them. Then came that day when he pointed at the ducks and said ‘uck’.

One friend commented that Nathan actually spoke ‘hokkien’ before English or Chinese, strangely, neither of his parents r hokkiens.

Another day, he did the same for ‘dog’, dropping the‘d’ at the front again.

Sadly, he hasn’t called me ‘mama’ yet, often calls ‘dada’, for everything, not just for daddie, so that gave me a little comfort, well, even if he does calls daddie first, no big deal la