Nathan@21mths

Latest milestone, calling 'mama', finally. He doesn't do that all the time, unfortunately, but most of the time when i ask him to. But, all day long, it would be 'dada',without fail. How sad it is, that I'm with him 24/7, yet he mouths about daddie the whole time.

Nathan has turned 'social' these days too. We could leave him alone at creche on sundays, and he would often be more than happy to stay in there for another hour. He has grown independent too, playing on his own alot more at home, leaving me more time to do my thing, like picking up a novel and be happily engrossed in it without interruption, which I badly needed, finding my brains alittle rusty now after staying home for almost 2 yrs!

His favourite word now is, 'No'. I wonder if I have said that too often that he picked it up so well. Even when he meant 'yes', he would shake his head. I hope his next milestone would be acknowledging 'yes' when he means it. Poor kid.

Burrr

Barcelona 9th to 12th Jan

We were in Barcelona for 4 days 3 nights, arrived 9th late at night, our b n b host came to pick us up from the airport.

Besides the price, staying in a bnb is nice becos of the personal touch you get from the host, and usually, they are family-run. This one has a little girl just one month older than nathan, we only met her on our last day at breakfast cos she goes to school from 9-5 everyday.

The lady runs it with her mum, with a helper who does most of the cleaning up. She and her husband have other jobs. They work hard, looks like the revenue from the bnb is not enough to meet the family's needs.

From our room, the view of the large city is spectacular, One morning, lc was up to catch the sun rise, and the visibility was so good, he could see right up to the sea. He was 'shouting' to me in excitement, but i was too tired to tear myself away from the comfy bed.

We walked everywhere. Going places is convenient, there are 'metro' or underground trains, just like any other crowded cities. We visited the 'must' see like the cathedral and churches, as well as walked the stretch of shopping streets - LaRambla. I particularly like the back street lanes, narrow walk ways with tiny interesting shops on both sides, selling antiques, paintings, art, food and even a barber shop where lc had his hair cut for only 7euros! Quite a good turn up i thot.

Of course, we love food - paella and black rice, which we had on our last lunch. Barcelona is good for their seafood, given its ideal location next to the M sea. Shopping is good too, cos we both shop at ZARA. They are having their post winter sales, so it's good for us.

On tours like these, the air tickets are not the 'killers', it's what we spent on food and travel.

It was a reasonable trip.

Flying with a 20mth old tod

Tip no. 1: bring food

tip no.2: bring more food

tip no.3: bring alot more food

That's what we did. For the entire 1h50min plane ride, we just kept feeding nathan to keep him hush and occupied.

First, you need to know what your tod likes to eat. For nathan, raisins and cheerios are two kinds of food that never fail. We also bought grapes and cereal bars, and plenty of water to keep yourselves hydrated esp on a long flight.

So, time flew by rather quickly, we just ate and ate.

hah, one last but most impt tip, PRAY, for God's strength and patience.

Independence

Nathan is finding his grounds these days, a fast growing independence, and a sudden realization that it is fun doing things without the need of mum. These are his latest milestones:

Drink water holding on to the handles and eat a whole pear. Seeing him taking huge bites from the big round pear and fiddling it with his little hands is a gorgeous sight. Pear has now become his do-without fruit a day. He has also decided to be rather adventurous by being more physical with his hands and legs like climbing up the sofa, standing on the high chair, and crawling under tables and chairs to hide and reach for things. He has even attempted to put on his home soft shoes into his feet!

It was really nice seeing him attempting to do things on his own. We are now experimenting helping him to eat his dinner by himself. I help him scoop the porridge into his spoon. He is able to direct the spoon into his wide open mouth. It certainly helps when he is hungry as he is definitely more keen to feed himself when his tummy rumbles.

Balls are still his favourite games, throwing and bouncing them, and now, sitting and feeling the vibration on his bums.

First Christmas present - New Bib

It was heart warming to receive Christmas cards from home and friends while we were here, never felt more home sick when it happened.

Nathan had his first Christmas present – a bib, fitted him perfectly well. He didn’t like wearing it, like any other bibs, probably felt restraint at his chubby neck line. He is at this age when he is often bothered by the slightest change and movement, such as changing nappy, or even wearing clothes, which can be a chore, cos he is now bigger and heavier, and ‘escapes’ much quicker than before. Grabbing him back in place is a tiring battle daily.

This is just part of growing up, isn’t it?

My little Sheepie

Nathan had a farewell present at departure from change airport – a soft toy sheep. He didn’t get acquainted with it until recently, he had developed a liking for it. Some of the things he does with it – talk in his own language, laughs at it and throws it about, or simply, fling things at it, he is amused by it.

The Kok family

It was nice to have a family of Christ from our home church come and visit and stayed with us for two nights – the Kok family.

The second night, we had a cook up at the elder’s daughter’s hall – popiah party! We couldn’t find larger turnips, so we used cabbage instead, turned out perfect, with peanuts and the awesome home-made chilli sauce, what can go wrong? The second dish was prata with chicken curry. Yummy! Though we’ve only been away from home for 4 months, boy did we miss these food!

Christmas Day

Christmas day was a lot more fun cos half the day was spent with friends at church.

We had a Christmas service at 10 to 11a.m followed by lunch at 12. Tables and chairs were set up in an hour after the service. The vicar’s wife was the chief chef, together with a team of helpers. I wasn’t sure what I was eating, but everything was tasty, especially the dessert, which often is the highlight of my meal time.

My Japanese neighbours came for the lunch, We sat at the same table. We sang the 12 days of Christmas, played some games and there was even a short skit put up at the very last minute! I meant the actors were chosen at the last min, but everything was planned, the narrator had a write up, there were props and music too. My friend’s 5 yr old daughter was asked to be ‘Mary’, she had simple dressed up clothes, and another Jap boy was selected as ‘Joseph’, and a dollie as baby Jesus.

The programme lasted longer than expected, by the time we left church, it was nearly 3p.m. I was quite glad since going home only meant more tv time and nothing more.

For me, this yr’s Christmas was interesting, spending time with internationals and having a traditional English lunch. That was enough to make it nice.

Christmas Eve

Unlike many other Christmas we had over the past years in Singapore, it is by far the quietest Christmas eve we ever had. I miss home, and friends and the feastings and exchanging of gifts. None of these happened today.

In the morning, we went to the supermarket to stock up on our supplies because all shops would be closed for the next two days. We returned home by noon, and all we did the rest of the day was sitting in front of the tv and watched movie after movie. First was ‘My Fair Lady’, and next, ‘Chitty Chitty bang bang.’ Both movies are classics. We enjoyed it very much, so did Nathan. Whenever the actors started singing, he would glue his eyes on them.

We had a simple dinner, no turkey or ham nor wine, just our usual Chinese meal, steam rice and fish with fried veg, like any other day.