Melaka Road Trip Update

Hello All, I'm pleased to report that we made it home in one piece! Melaka was great fun as both Matthew's Auntie Kim and Grandfather Goong Goong were there to show us around and babysit. We left the house at 8:30 in the morning and 30mins later (a few left turns and mucking around with the newly acquired GPS) we headed for the Causeway between Singapore and Malaysia. Although Google Maps had predicted that the drive would take around 3 hours, the trip itself was closer to 5 hours due to the queue at both the Singapore and Malaysian immigration check-points. A little more mucking around as we figured out the toll system for travelling on the Malaysian highway also set us back a little time. Sat afternoon was spent enjoying the spoils of Goong Goong's durian hunt. Wikipeadia reckons it has a 'unique' odour, but Duncan and most causasians would say it stinks :) I had given Matthew a piece of durian to try in the past and he had not taken to it, but it seems that Matthew doesnt seem to mind a little bit of durian delight in the afternoon!

During our very short stay, we manage to squeeze in a visit to a couple of the tourist sites around town and came away with a few snaps, these have been posted in the usual spot.

Matthew is 15 months old (tomorrow!)

I'm posting his 15th month update a day early as we will be heading to Malacca on our first road trip in to Malaysia. Pretty exciting as we haven't purchased any maps and will be relying on google maps on my phone to get there! Should be a laugh, maybe a few tears too, we'll see... We picked up our new car on Tues and are enjoying to freedom of driving and getting to know our new home a bit better. Matthew loves grooving in his car seat dancing, clapping and kicking his legs to the radio. He also fell asleep in the car on the way home from play gym yesterday.

Can't possibly be comfortable with his head dangling like that!

At 15th months of age, Matthew is still an EXTREMELY active and alert little person, he's on the go non-stop every waking minute. He's enjoying life very much and is still getting himself involved in everything and observing the world around him with a very keen eye. He loves to communicate to us in both sign and verbally and is adding new words and signs to his vocabulary every day. This week he signed 'Teddy' and 'book' for me for the very first time, he's only done it once so far and I'm still waiting for him to do it again! Matthew loved signing 'water' for his Nanna and Pop while they were here, and more than a few occasions would trick them into fetching his water bottle just because he could :)

Matthew loves to ...
... play with the phone and hold it up to his ear and pretend to 'chat'. He's worked out where to plug-in Dad's audio/video cables for the amplifier and enjoys pushing and pulling the plugs in and out. He knows that the mouse controls the cursor on the computer screen and which remote controls the air-cond in the apartment and loves to play with them. He loves to pull apart blocks and is a destroyer of all things that ding, beep, plays music or moves. He loves anything with buttons and has pressed the emergency button in the elevator on more than one occasion (actually, I've lost count of how many times I've had to apologise to the security staff). He loves going through my wallet and pulling out all the cards and coins too! He loves roaring like a lion and will walk around with his toy safari animals yelling 'RRRRRrrr!'. He likes drinking the water in the swimming pool :( His favourite food is still blueberries and he also loves oats and looks forward to a big helping every morning. He's still a great little independent feeder with a healthy appetite and has a well developed palette for a toddler , I've just discovered that he loves olives, balsamic vinegar, chilli (will eat chilli sauce straight out of the bottle), pepper and raw garlic. He's even tried a little bit of wine offered on my finger tip and wanted more.

I'll post some pictures of Malacca next week some sure.

Matthew 64 weeks - A visit from Nanna and Pop!

This week Matthew's been treated to a visit from Nanna and Pop from Aus. They've even coined a new nickname for him, 'Destructo' (Daddy calls him 'Godzilla') as he likes to pull apart and destroy everything! - blocks and train sets especially. Matthew's had a wonderful few days so far out and about town, by the pool and yesterday we went to the zoo. We kicked off the visit to the zoo by watching the elephants splashing about in their bath and Matthew even got a chance to feed them. We even had a lovely breakfast with the orang-utans and some other furry and not so furry friends (snakes). Matthew would have loved to have pounced on any of the active animals, but showed a clear disinterest in anything that didn't move. I've got lots of pictures posted in Matthew's week 63 and 64 Picasa gallery - certainly a week to remember in years to come.

 Pic of Matthew pinching Pop's 'news'.

In the last couple of weeks, Matthew has been doing lots of baby talk and his favourite word at the moment is 'brue brue' which means blueberries, his favourite food. We avoid mentioning the word 'blueberries' as he'll run to the kitchen and attempt to open to fridge door to get at the blueberries. 'Brue' can also mean food in general, and at dinner time he'll yell 'brue! brue! brue!' lots until you feed him. He's also started saying a 'nose' which sounds more like 'news' as he'll say it when pinching his nose at the same time so it comes out very nasally (very cute!).

Singapore's 45th Birthday & Hungry Ghost Festival

Singapore celebrated it's 45th Anniversary since gaining independence from Malaysia on Monday, for us, this meant that Duncan could enjoy his first 'long weekend' since arriving in on this little island country YAY! We enjoyed lots of family time together and even squeezed in a few of play dates and swims with Matthew's friends Charlie (3) and Lizzie (nearly 2) and new friend from our building Hayden (1). We stayed away from the celebrations to avoid the heat and crowd by lazing by the pool at a friends' place. The only thing which made National Day any different from any other weekend for us was the armored tanks that came thundering down the road that night and the fireworks display we could see in the distance.

On a more interesting note, Tuesday was the start of the Hungry Ghost Festival. According to Chinese tradition, the 15th day of the seventh month (I know it's August, but keep in mind that Chinese New Year was celebrated on Feb 14 this year) in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits including those of the deceased ancestors roam. On Ghost Day, ghosts and spirits are believed to visit the living. On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to amend and set free the sufferings of the dead. Sounds a little scary doesn't it?

This past week with Matthew has been a bit of a blur. Matthew is back to his bad habit of biting again. My shoulder is covered in little Matthew bite size bruises. Saying a firm 'No' doesn't seem to cut it and he thinks it's funny when I pull the 'Mummy's angry' face. He often does it when he's overtired although he does sometimes like to nip at you when you least expect it. I guess that's why they call the 'ankle biters' (yes, he's bitten me on the ankle before).

Oh yes, .... between visits to the playgym and pool over the weekend, we managed to take a look at a couple of cars. It looks like we will have a little Honda Insight, which looks remarkably like our old car in a couple of weeks.

Matthew 62 weeks

I made this compilation of pictures from Matthew's first year and Matthew just loves sitting on my lap and watching it with me. Besides using it as a tool to get Matthew to sit still for a few minutes, I use it also to point out the people in his family so he remembers faces and names while we are living away from home.

This is the edited version so it doesn't run too long and small enough a file so I could post it on here. Enjoy :)

Matthew 61 weeks

Here is the little man enjoying some time in the sunshine by taking a stroll with his Dad this morning.

The photo shoot yesterday went well and we managed to get some amazing shots of Matthew which will be ready to be picked up in 2 weeks from now. The shoot with the photographer didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped but in hindsight, knowing Matthew's temperament of not being able to sit still for very long I should have had an inkling on how the shoot would go. We still had a good time nonetheless and were both very very tired by the end of the day. We arrived at the studio on time and were met by Yvonne (Matthew's agent) who helped decide which outfit Matthew should wear and eventually picked out a bright green tee and shorts combo. Next was hair and make-up, Matthew had his hair combed (with a comb) for the first time ever and had some blush and lip gloss applied. Matthew thought the strawberry lip gloss was particularly delicious and wanted more! The shoot itself took about 10-15 mins which I'm sure to Matthew felt like an eternity. After the shoot, Matthew had his height, chest, waist and feet measurements taken so that this information could be printed on his model card. Can't wait to see the official pictures as the raw pictures already look very cute :)

Matthew is 14 months old today!

...and is looking so much like a little boy and definitely no longer a baby (although he'll always be my baby).

To celebrate, I took him shopping, not that he enjoyed it much. We needed clothes in the next size up and also for a photo shoot Matthew would be doing tomorrow afternoon for his modeling portfolio. Yes, Matthew will be a pint sized model. We auditioned last week with a modeling agency and they just loved him because he was so friendly and cheeky (and of course cute too!) Matthew has an agreement with the agency for the next 15 months, which means that they have exclusive rights to his professional images, representation and will collect commission on all assignments he completes. It's just a bit of fun on the side to make life here a little more interesting. I'll be sure to post pics of his photo shoot, provided that I'm allowed to do that!

You may have noticed that this past week's pictures have been full of Matthew with various 'Aunties'. They are some of my girlfriends that I've reconnected with since arriving in Singapore. Matthew just laps up the attention on turns on the charm at every opportunity. Such a boy!

Mucking about on iPhoto

I had a surge of energy and finally sorted out the study, hence Matthew and I decided to celebrate by mucking about on iPhoto :)

Matthew 59 weeks

Matthew is getting more naughty everyday. He loves to rummage through the kitchen drawers and cupboards and pull everything out. He also loves anything with buttons and will press them 'on' and 'off' and 'on' and 'off' and 'on' and 'off' and 'on' and 'off' and 'on' and 'off' .... well you get the picture.

He's officially down to one sleep a day now, napping usually around 11am and will sleep for anywhere between 1.5 - 3 hours. Lunch plans are normally placed on hold until the little emperor wakes. This week he's also learnt to shake his head from side to side (as if to indicate 'No') and I thought him how to hail a taxi yesterday :)

Over the last few days Matthew has grown attached to a white teddy bear and we have great fun doing a little role playing with Teddy. We've been showing Matthew how Teddy likes to lie down in the cot and go to sleep. Last night Matthew did as he was told and laid down and place his arm around Teddy and went to sleep. So sweet!

This past weekend was all about trying to get a little time to relax for a change. Saturday was family time at home and a little shopping and a late lunch afterward.

On Sunday morning we were invited to a party that was hosted by the parents of one of Matthew's friends from his play gym. Left is a picture of Matthew having fun on the slide. After the party was lunch with friends, who were also kind enough to help us do a little car shopping. We hope to sort out the logistics of getting a car and start driving sometime this month so we can do a little more exploring!

Matthew 58 weeks - Uh Oh

Matthew's favourite word this week has been 'Uh Oh'

Probably because Mum said 'Uh oh' when was told that the lovely 3 seater Italian leather lounge was not going to fit in the lift nor the stairwell and therefore sadly could not be brought up to our 8th floor apartment. Aside from that, the move has gone well. The relocation company sent a team of people to deliver and unpack all our belonging and take away all the boxes which made it relatively stress free. Having someone else unpack meant that I spent the first few days searching for things as I had no idea where things had been placed! The new place is lovely and spacious enough for the 3 of us. As I mentioned in the previous post, the walls were all freshly painted and I'd arranged for a handyman to help me mount our paintings and pictures to make the place feel more like home.

We live in a suburb called Ang Mo Kio (AMK), it's so large you can consider it a little town in itself. The train station (MRT) is a 15 min walk away for me with the pram or 9 min walk for Duncan with his much longer legs. On the way to the train station there is also a wet market (meat & fish) and another which sells local fruit and veg and also several cafes & hawker stalls selling local fare. The nearest shopping mall (AMK Hub) is located right next to the train station where you can get everything you need. The mall houses a very large grocery and department store and loads of smaller specialty stores. With so much variety available nearby,  you have a choice between a SGD$27 steak air flown from Australia or a SGD$3 bowl of noodles for dinner for example. The facilities at AMK is definitely catered toward families, after all this is Singapore's suburban heartland. We are geographically located in the centre of the country, but you've got to remember that Singapore is a small island so getting to anywhere from where we are is generally no more than 30 mins. To put things in perspective, it takes Duncan 30 mins to get to work on the train and the main shopping district Orchard Road is 6 short stops on the train which takes 13 mins.

We've already had our first visitor to the apartment, my sister Kim came to stay with us to help watch over Matthew while we attempted to tidy up a bit more. However, much of the weekend was spent lounging around the apartment or by the pool and dining out once or twice :)

Duncan and Matthew trying out the water slide at our condo complex

Just so Matthew and I could do something fun together and get out of the apartment for a while, we ventured to the Singapore Art Museum yesterday. Matthew had a fabulous time! He was completely enthralled with EVERYTHING he saw and was giggling and smiling and yelling and running around (when allowed to) the entire time. I highly recommend this for children and adults too of course!

To coincide with the art theme, Matthew completed his first piece of art work in crayon. I call it 'A Study in Blue, Green and Red' and hangs proudly on our fridge door. Later this week I plan on taking him to visit his Great Grand Aunt, one of the very few relatives we have in Singapore.