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