Generally happy

To all those celebrating - Happy Helloween!!!

Yes, this is how i feel today - HAPPY. I'm pleased with my scrap progress so far. Started beginning of this week on my lil brother's ROM clear acrylic album (my 1st ever try out by myself after a class i joined early this year at MWL on how to put together a acrylic album), and as i progress very slowly (just wanted to take my own sweet time to make this album cause it's going out to very extra special people close to me), and i'm just letting my creativity flow as i go with each page design. So far, you can say i'm pleased.

With only less than 1 week to go before Jayce heads out for a 2 week long reservist, i'm doing my best to complete what i needed for me to be on time to hand over the album. After this album, it's one more altered guest book, and i will be done for the must do projects at the moment. Then it's off to LO as usual (just recently bought a new album of a brand new size (8"x8" from Making Memory) cause the current one 12"x12" one is like splitting, and i don't think i can refill it any further. So it's going to be brand new sized LO's for Kay, and would be a change. But still, on and off, I would still dabble with the 12"x12" cause it's my fave size for LO.

My earlier mention of a crop for 2 has been confirmed for next Sat, oh yes!!! this is making me very happy & excited cause i'm scrapping with my best friend - Wen. It's load of talk & scrap, but most importantly she is scrapping an album for the arrival of her nephew. I'm looking forward to this day, and it's going to be one of those days that i know i will enjoy her company.

Rest of my weekend would be doing happy stuff cause tomorrow we (as in me & the boys), will be going along to view dresses for Jianxi for the ROM. And most importantly, jayce is going to be around the whole day tomorrow with me & Kay, and he gets to see Kay in action at play school. Just great!

Till then, enjoy your weekend.

He is definitely picking up things

Real quick of a speed that is. Kay has certainly picked up stuff from here and there. Mannerisms are starting to form in him, either copying me or Jayce, or from his dear old grandma. Just this morning, he just made an angry grant at us. What used to be clenching of fists stopped for weeks whenever he gotten angry, to now just making this grant noise to show his displeasure. Oh bother, all these because my mother just the other day trying to get Kay to listen, she made the same grant. So that does it, in Kay's eyes when one is angry you just grant.

In our everyday busy life of work, there are times where when i get home, i just want to go up to Kay and give him this big hug. I would ask him how his day went, what he did today (although i know i'm not getting any responses except this smile of his, which is great for me), and if he has been good. My mom would update me of what's new cause it's just every month we have new discoverings of our very little guy, and even how little the matter might be, to me it's huge. So i've got latest this morning of his grants (which i asked my mom to better be careful of those large watchful eyes), and my mom said for the last 2 mornings, she's been having missing dirty diapers...hmmm they cannot have possibly walked away on their own. Instead, our lil guy without being asked for the 1st time, picked up his dirty diaper from the ground and went straight for the dustbin. Just cannot believe this. He is on auto mode. Just so proud of him, that at 17mths old, Kay knows what is asked of him. I'm trying not to rush into all the stuff that he ought to know at his age cause i'm not the one to say hey you got to know this by now. As how it is with my mom's generation, i can see at times she is applying the same thing back on Kay, and this i'm not too pleased about it.

Where did all the childhood fun stuff Kay should be experiencing at his age gone too? Are we parents very concern that if we don't sent them for early child development programs, they will fall back behind? I get caught at times with such questions i'm asking jayce just seem to be pointing to what sort of parent are we? Those that have already planned their child's route to take in terms of their development, or one that would just say "hey, i'm just going to go with the flow of just letting Kay have the simple fun things of experiencing what life is suppose to be like". Not that i'm a "heck care" mommy, but truly i just feel that imposing onto Kay all these of what he is suppose to know at 17 mth cause others are doing so, does not mean that he should be made to learn at once. Of course i'm concerned as to whether if he is exposed enough to the world around him, would all these child development courses assist with building his foundation that he needs for the future. Yes of course i think that they are important to him, but i simply feel that he should be able to have that breathing space for learning, he would be ready when he is, and my job now is just to not only be his play buddy, but more of letting Kay know of what's around him, and not forcing that he should know how to say it or express it. It's a never ending world of comparisons that we parents do now, especially in a society like Singapore. I must admit that kiasuism exists in me, but i suppose for the well being of Kay, i can afford to wait a while longer before i jump into the sea of child development stuff. It's still never too late.

Oh goodness, i certainly can rant on and on when it comes to Kaylen. Below are Kay's fave words at the moment-

• sheese (cheese)
• dizzzzy (his fave character dizzy from Bob the builder, and saying it each time we pass by a cement mixer)
• dad dad (oh he is good at this, but still no sign of ma ma yet)
• dag (dog whenever he sees bubbles or pinky, kaylen's furry friend)

I know he enjoys whatever he does now with his giggles & laughs although i get my fair share of whines and grumbles from time to time, but generally Kay is one happy boy, and this is what matters to me most.

Hope your day went well.

I'm just thankful...

It's the best word to describe how i feel, and i made this word part of my challenge LO for MWL. I don't have much pictures of myself, and as part of the criteria was to use multi photos of me, i decided to go with the pictures i took in July this year during my Italy trip. And best of all, i get to include as part of this memory LO of the picture which i took when i was visiting Rome's Colosseo (great historical landmark), the entrance ticket & also a part of Italy which was the Gucci ribbon which i made it into a flower, reminding me of the great shopping i had in Milan & bought this fantastic Gucci bag. So here is my take:-

Journaling Reads:-

For

- great loving parents & brothers

- a caring & doting husband

- & a little guy i can call my own

What more can i ask for.

I feel great today cause my best friend Wen, sms me to say - " I would like to scrap with you". Yes, my very 1st scrap buddy & a crop party for 2. So looking forward to this.

Oh my...

It's been the greatest weekend ever. Kaylen loves the pool we got him, especially the fact that it has all his bath time squeezes in it, and the fact that he loves to play with the water, and this time, we went slow. It was challenging getting him into his swimming gear cause once he got it on, it linked him to the terrified swimming pool experience he had 1 week ago, and was literally trying to pull of his swim top. But when he saw the pool we got him, he stopped all the tugging, and went right into playing with the water. Slowly when he was warmed up, he started to put 1 leg in, and sooner than you know, he was already in the water Just look at this dude's facial expression, and you'll know how much he loved it.

The hard part later for us was taking him out of it. Once again, he bawled his eyes out, got so mad that he cried for ages, was grumpy till my lil brother showed up to join in the water fun (not because my lil bro was playing with him, but Kay is scared of my lil brother). Yixi will always be the disciplinary master after Kay's grand uncle hiong seng (these are the 2 people Kay is scared of, and would always behave and be this sweet lil angel when he is around them). So needless to say, my bro did the job as to pacify Kay, and off we went for lunch and Kay was back again to one happy guy, totally forgetting his pool.

BBQ was a sold out yesterday, satay was first to go, followed by the yummilicious garlic marinated pork chops, to butter, basil, lemon chicken chops, then marinated red wine mini steaks all done by lil bro whose great at his hand of marinating (he is always the one in charge when we have such events, and he does one hell a job at it). We've even got ourselves special szechuan marinated thinly sliced lotus, potatos, and beef kebabs by my future sis in law. The whole BBQ was just fun, my lil bro has his friends come over, and it was definitely loads of laughter. Kay was having himself some fun playing with older kids. He was just giggling and laughing so much, and i know he truly enjoyed himself. It's good. Me & Kay just slept like babies throughout due to all the day excitement.

Decided to have a slower & much quieter day today with Jayce & Kay.

This was just this morning when i started to just give Kay his 1st try out at handling the spoon & some strawberry yogurt for breakfast. I ended with 1 messy monster at work...although he manage to successfully put the spoon with yogurt into his mouth a couple of times before ending up playing with the yogurt. Not too bad for his 1st attempt.

My pair of hands teaching Kay how to grasp his spoon.

We're heading to Plaza Singapura for dinner later, and obviously a trip to Made with Love for some supplies shopping & use of my monster card treats. Also gotten jayce to visit Daiso on our way there too cause he just love this shop so much that he is always coming out of it with things that we don't need.

Oh my, the long weekends are definitely not that long after all. Jayce & Me are just going to wrap tonight with Movies Night (rented Hulk & 007 casino royale) since both of us hasn't visited the movies since like in year 2006??? Can you belive it?? It's ever since i was pregnant with Kaylen, till now we have not have the time to watch a movie. Has it been that long??

Going full force

Spending my time wisely that's it. From sending Kay to play session yesterday morning to all the way this morning, i manage to complete most of my earlier posted "to-do" list. I'm happy generally.

Kay putting his good stars on the chart (as you can see, what started

as organised placing of star, became all over the place to his liking)

All dressed and ready for play session at Tumble Tots

Got to squeeze in minute of watching Monster Inc before leaving for Tumble Tots

Completed my birthday album for this upcoming 16year old, and i knew her from the day she was born to now a fine young lady. Before i became mummy, we use to go out sometimes with her & my cousin cause they are of the same age, and their mummies happen to be my work colleagues. This great 16yr old gal is Mei Zhen.

And my lil bro created a stamp for me since i'm always enjoying making gifts, and i'm totally loving this stamp. Simple & a classic.

And by waking up 5plus this morning, i'm almost 80% done with my challenge LO hosted by MWL which is due 30th, here is a snippet of part of how it looked.

It's great old BBQ tonight at my grandma's place (huge variety from satay to steaks to vegetable kebabs and not to forget a chocolate fondue...yummy), and we'll be staying at my dad's cause it's only round the area, and before all these, in about 2hrs time, we'll be trying out water fun part 2 of Kay again. This time we've got him an inflatable pool, and this time we are going to go slow.

So how's your long weekend so far?

It's going to be a good day

A good & close pal of mine is giving birth today, and this very moment in the hospital awaiting the arrival of her little guy. She has been waiting for such a long time (he was to arrive on 21st Oct, but decided that staying in mommy's tummy was still much better). She is all the way in Kota Kinabalu, and i hope for nothing but the best to her & her hubby, and that all is well during the birth and will await for that golden moment that my sms will ring to say that she & baby is all well and safe. So for now, i'm staying close to my mobile phone. Oh what great news whenever it's welcoming a new life into this world.

I'm almost done with the birthday album i did for a soon-to-be 16 year old, and it's such a great age to be. Here is a sneak peek at what the album looks like, and i did it mostly using Basic Grey's latest of patterned paper. So as much as i love how it turned out, hope she will like it.

We've got a great weekend planned out with the upcoming long holiday. What i will be doing? Definitely catching up with my scrap projects (one ROM album, 1 card, 1 challenge LO & x'mas card to go), loads of together time with Kay (it's play session again tomorrow morning), a BBQ on Sunday, and i guess on Deepavali, just me & my boys chilling out at home.

To all celebrating the festival of lights, have a happy Deepavali!!

Just another crazy day

Crazy work days will end once i see this pic of Kay on my desktop, and it never fails to bring a smile to my face seeing this lil fellow. Am just thinking what on earth is going through his head when he stared back at me.

This is how my work desk looked last evening.

And each time i take a break from the computer, would be looking up at this wall of all - you guessed it right - more of Kay's pics which i scrap for my work place.

Have a great day and it's back to work for me!!

Not as how we planned

What we thought would be a fantastic time for Kay at the pool didn't quite turn out the way we wanted. We ended up with a dude whose freaking out & crying his eyes out. I mean, really for a child like Kay who does not cry much, this was extreme. It was till the extent that little rash batch would pop out on his face (this was how hard he cried), & not to include streams of mucus. He seldom would cry till this extent so it has to be frightening for him. He just cling on so tight, and he didnt want either me or Yixi back in the pool even when my mom was carrying him. Each time we tried going back to the pool for a swim, Kay would start crying again. Maybe to him, the pool is just one big blue ocean filled with so much uncertainty that he didn't want any of us going into it.

At the start, he was alright having to sit by the edge of the pool, and we thought that since he was playing with the water, he is already to venture out. But we were so wrong. This is where it all started. Not much pictures as a result of this, but we hope to be able to bring him back again soon for the next try out.

All ready and semi dressed in his swimming suite at mom, just look at this angel of mine.

One worried looking kid

On the scrapping front, finished another LO (titled "Our Time Together" last night), and i love how the colours blended cause i haven't tried such colour combination before. Materials are from the latest Studio Calico kit.

We're off tonight for a good round of Szechuan Ma-La steamboat for dinner with the family (am totally in love with this, and we have it at least once in a few months), and Kay will be going tonight as well. I still remember the last time we brought him along, he was sneezing away due to the smell of the spices. We'll see how he would react to it tonight. This dinner is just so fitting the weather now, nice & rainy, my type of weather.

Have a good evening ahead and thanks for coming by.

Good Fun

It's going to be good water fun this morning at the pool, so will be back later with photos (that's provided that we are able to get any taken with this lil dude). It's me, Yixi, mum, dad & one lil fellow.

A typical tuesday

My tuesday's are pretty standard cause it would be for me when i get home - Crime Night. Lined up with my most favourite shows - CSI & Criminal Mind, it's the best night of any day in a week for me. While Jayce snooze away on the sofa (i'm not sure what he has with such shows cause he can never stay awake watching it with me, although it's so intriguing). So i'm really looking forward to tonight after Kay has gone to bed, and i really have to be starting one of my scrap album projects very soon. Time is just slowing ticking away. Completed a LO of Jayce & Kay(titled "A Father & Son thing), and i love how it turned out. And on my scrap desk now, another uncomplete LO of us taken weeks ago at bottle tree village, and it's not even half done, so will looking at completing this before moving on to my scrap project.

Journalling Reads:-

It's daddy's wish to be able to dress alike and his dream

came through on this sunday morning where you two are dressing

almost alike and are going everywhere together.

This is definitely a father & son thing.

Till my next post, have a great day ahead!!

I have...

Loads to do.

1. Complete 1 birthday album due for mid nov (which i have not started at all...screams...)
2. 1 congratulation card for a soon to arrive (anytime now) lil boy of one of my close pal in KK + packing up a congratulatory gift package to go with the card
3. ROM photo album for my lil bro before mid dec
4. 1 challenge LO (i have yet to even develop the photos) before end of this month
5. X'mas cards to make
6. Clear up my entire scrap area (which is the dining table, of course)
7. Make space in my study area to house my scrap supplies
8. Prepare the house for upcoming guests in early Dec

And is this all possible....all in 2 weeks time cause my dear hubby is going away for 3 weeks in Nov for reservist, and i will be at my parent's place so i don't even have November to do some of the stuff which i thought i had. So, it's super yin wen from today onwards...

How have your day been so far?

Totally Beat

At least for now. It's been a rather tired work week cause we're having 2 of my colleagues going outstation to UK, and it means for the next 1 week till they are back, we are loads busier with everyone needing to cover certain of their tasks. So i'm seeing myself getting busier with upcoming week before having to take a break over the next public holiday + an upcoming BBQ next weekend. With another month left for scrapping cause i would be required to take a break from scrapping in Dec as we are having visitors coming to stay at my place (my lil bro's future in laws are coming for the ROM), i have already been given the stern warning by "the hubby" to start packing my stuff. My place is usually rather neat (given that i have one toddler flying all over the place leaving me with opened drawers. and stuff on the ground, and yet the place is still looking not too like a rubbish dump). It's only my scrap area that is always so hard to be neat & organised (it's a scrapper's headache at times), so i might have to do some packing tomorrow.

Over the week, i completed an album which i mention earlier before in my post, and here are the pictures. My pal JJ loves it, and so does her lil ones who apparently got to the album before she manage to have the album for closer looks. If you see her precious darlings, C & R, you are actually looking at their parents. They are just so alike them. C is so like mommy, & R, just like daddy. They are a bunch of sweet little ones that Kay enjoys playing with when they came over a month ago. It so seems that Kay loves hanging about older kids...hmmmm. Album title - "We Love You".

And from completing the album, i also manage to almost complete a LO which i have the sneak peek below till my next post early next week for the finished LO outlook. It's one with daddy & Kay, and one which i waited so long to scrap cause it's about my much much earlier post of my 2 look-alikes. I just can't resist the pics, got to scrap them once i gotten them from the photo shop.

So how has your day been? Hope it wasn't as tired as mine today (went for morning playgroup with Kay, then back to the office in the afternoon fo about 3 hours + loads of playtime again with Kay when i got back from the office & after dinner walks). Am looking forward to tomorrow cause it's SUNDAY!!!, and it only means, my time with Kay the whole day...yipeee. Nothing plan yet except for the trip down to our good old playground which i promised him today, and hey, he enjoyed watching "Monsters Inc". His first ever movie!

Till the next post, thanks for popping over!

Hello Thursday!

It's already Thursday, and days closer to the wonderful weekends, and playgroup time for Kaylen again, and i wonder how he would take to it again for this week's PLAY session. He will also be getting his very own personalised Tumble Tots T-Shirt wear he would wear to playtime each week. We have also started him this week on his very own "Star Chart", and he is doing well getting what we call "GOOD" stars for his behaviour. There are times where he is like an angel, totally listening to what you say, but nasty times where he would totally ignore us completely. All part of growing up, and he understands and shows his anger at times, and having his little sessions of being angry. So, we thought, why not have the stars to show him that he has been a good lil boy. So we have these "Star Charts" made up for both at our place and at my mom's , and there are little "to-do chores" that gets him his stars. He is also able to stick the stars himself onto the chart, so we're pleased as to how Kay is taking to all these.

Onto my scrapping, completed LO for Kay on his ever so cute couch potato pose which is so much like daddy when they are glued to "THE BOX". Materials were from Qtea's latest October kit which is loads of fun and such a guy sort of kit cause it has these little robots + rest of the materials from MWL. So now, I've gotten myself 2 such potatoes laying at home. Hmmm...

Journalling Reads:-

You have gotten into this pose so naturally!

Have a good Thursday!!

My Blessing...You!!

Nothing else that lights up my life than you Kaylen....live & love your life baby!!

xoxo, mommy

It got me thinking..

Speaking to a good pal of mine today and loads came off talking to her that got me thinking. Life is precious, and it would be one day that all of us would leave this world and at the end of the day, it's the memories that we hold with us of our loved ones that matter in life. It's memories that we bring with us in our hearts, those memories that we pass on to the next generation that counts. What is there to hold on to when memories are only blur and vague. Are they even memories at all? Life is all albout living it to the fullest, experiencing and living it to your expectations and having your loved ones with you, and friends that last your whole life through. At least, this is how i see my life to be. To have the memories created as we grow, and hold on to these moments as i walk my way through life. I want to be able to leave world one day saying that i live the life i wanted, filled with memories of all i love and cherish, and having my memories handed down to Kaylen and for him to know of those whom he did not have a chance to meet.

Went through life for the past 30+ odd years, and only when i was turning 21 that i lost a very special person whose is very dear to me and his philosophy in life is still running through our lives. This very person is my grandfather whom has passed on for already 12 years, and there is never one day that i never thought of him, and wished so much that Kay kay would have this chance to meet this great man that once lived. A man of few words, but always been a warm hearted and generous man whom i think that my lil brother yixi & my dad has this straits. He has always doted on me since young and we always have our time with grandpa where he would always bring us to the "mama" shop to get our regular fix of tit bits. Till this day, i hold on to the memories which he left me which are still very fresh in my mind, and precious lessons that i hold to teach Kay with as he grows up, and although he never got to met this great man, i will have loads of stuff & photos to show and tell him about. Memories are keeping my grandpa alive in our lives, and never forgotten.

How you live your life is to everyone's form of interpretation, at least i know how i want to live my life holding on to all the memories cause nothing is more important than having these memories with me till the end. Sad as it gets to have them leave us one day, life still has to go on, and it's never too late to say " I love you". Life is indeed precious, and i take it to those i love that i treasure their prescence, knowledge that they are safe & sound at home and the care and love i'm getting showered everyday, and most of all watching Kay grow up each day which is a joy & blessed to be his mommy. I come back home every day from work to have this lil guy smiling back at me and knowing that he does miss me is what i love about my life and i treasure all these moments i have with him, and opening this new chapter of memory in the making of having Kaylen in my life.

Life is just so precious that we should never take our loved ones for granted.

P.L.A.Y (Part II)

This post would be of more pictures than words. They are the ones taken from Kay's trial playgroup at Tumble Tots last afternoon, and we had a blast and ended the session with a very happy toddler & physically drained out mummy after all the PLAY we had. Like every toddler, Kay was all over the place and apparently having the time of his life, ignoring any possible instructions which are given by the teachers. At his age, it's not so much the singing of rhymes, or actions which was asked for, it's the fun i love seeing him have. Of all the different stations of PLAY, he had the most fun with the multi coloured balls. I better say all types of balls that was there. So from next week onwards, he will be there for once a week, enjoying himself for 45 mins and it's me & my stamina keeping up with him (i see it as my form of exercise). At Tumble Tots yesterday, they teach Kay as to how to properly be climing up & down of stairs & slides and this is important as he would be needing these skills for the playground in the very near future. So, will be updating myself with the learning part of FUN & PLAY. Just see the photos and you will know how much fun Kay was having.

On the scrapping front which i hope to complete a gift album for my pal's kids, i'm very close to finishing it and should be able to have it done by tonight (provided that i do not have any disturbances from the TV), and i would be moving next to completing a birthday gift for a 16year old gal coming up next month. So, it's going to be exciting as i start to think about how i wanted the album to be like, and suited for a great 16yr old.

Below are only snippets (will only have the full album posted only when i have passed it to my pal cause it would spoil the element of surprise for her), and since it's having both her lil one (a girl & a boy), it wasn't possible to have the album turned out either very "girly girl", or "guy oriented", had to have a "between" these 2 elements. So you can see, a very wide scope of colours used. I enjoyed the making process of the album, cause i know having an album of nothing but your precious kids, it's worth all my time on this cause it would bring a smile to someone special to me. So, JJ hope you would like what i have put together for you.

So it's off to some relaxing time now for myself before Mr Kay awakes from his afternoon nap (i spent more than 1 hour making him go to bed) and it'll be preparing dinner time for him them. So i better sneak in as much time as i have to rest awhile before all the action starts again from my re-charged energiser rabbit from his nap.

Cherios!!!