This is Duncan's FAVOURITE photo of Matthew at the moment. (I wonder why??)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
16 Months old today!!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Matthew 69 weeks
Matthew's Goong Goong and Poh Poh paid us a short visit a couple of weeks ago, and the little guy had a great old time asking for 'Sheee' (Cheese) and 'Brue' from his grandparents while I wasn't watching. He also got to spend one on one time with his Poh Poh so that I could duck over to Malaysia for the day to run an errand. Matthew missed me only a little and asked for his 'Nya nya' (Mama) only at nap time, other than that he was totally fine not having me around for the day.
I've recovered from my cold and finally regained enough energy to keep up with Matthew. Gosh he's such a handful some days! Always up to something naughty. His language and communication skills have really taken off these few weeks and is such a delight to interact with. He's always making me laugh throughout the day with his little antics. He is growing not only in stature but also as a person. I've got a couple of new videos on YouTube for your viewing pleasure :) One of the new videos is of Matthew swimming solo with his floaties, kicking his legs furiously. We had an impromptu swim lesson a few mornings ago and the swim coach gave me a few tips to encourage him to swim.
Life lately has been pretty relaxed for Matthew and I, a bit of shopping, play gym, play dates with friends, swimming and lazy lunches... Duncan however has been extremely busy at work. We are all looking forward to taking a holiday together in Cebu in a couple of weeks. There is also talk of Matthew and I joining Duncan on one of his business trips if that eventuates. Our firmer travel plans entails a trip back to Sydney for a couple of weeks in November and in December a short holiday in Hong Kong staying with some of our friends.
Our next visitors to Singapore will be Matthew's Grand Aunty Ade, arriving in a week and Uncle Tim arrives a few days after that. It's really nice hosting family from Aus.
a haircut might be in order...
I've recovered from my cold and finally regained enough energy to keep up with Matthew. Gosh he's such a handful some days! Always up to something naughty. His language and communication skills have really taken off these few weeks and is such a delight to interact with. He's always making me laugh throughout the day with his little antics. He is growing not only in stature but also as a person. I've got a couple of new videos on YouTube for your viewing pleasure :) One of the new videos is of Matthew swimming solo with his floaties, kicking his legs furiously. We had an impromptu swim lesson a few mornings ago and the swim coach gave me a few tips to encourage him to swim.
Life lately has been pretty relaxed for Matthew and I, a bit of shopping, play gym, play dates with friends, swimming and lazy lunches... Duncan however has been extremely busy at work. We are all looking forward to taking a holiday together in Cebu in a couple of weeks. There is also talk of Matthew and I joining Duncan on one of his business trips if that eventuates. Our firmer travel plans entails a trip back to Sydney for a couple of weeks in November and in December a short holiday in Hong Kong staying with some of our friends.
Our next visitors to Singapore will be Matthew's Grand Aunty Ade, arriving in a week and Uncle Tim arrives a few days after that. It's really nice hosting family from Aus.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Matthew (I've lost count of how many weeks)
... I'm going to apologise in advance if this blog makes no sense and for the lack of photos these few days. I'm sick, Matthew was kind enough to pass his icky germs to me over the weekend. Little Man however bounced back after 24 hours of mild temperatures last Thursday and is back to driving me crazy with his pointing and bossing me around. Normally I'd find this pretty amusing but not this week, not when I'm sick.
I suppose I can now post that Matthew was shortlisted to be the cover model for a parenting magazine last week and attended his very first 'casting call' on Wed. I was informed that it was 'highly confidential' and was sworn to secrecy - I still don't really comprehend why? - hence refrained from telling the world about it. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut which in hindsight was a good thing as Matthew had a temperature the next day which was the day a 4 hour photo shoot had been scheduled. It would have been a very bad 'stage mummy' thing to do to make your sick 15 mth old toddler 'work'!
My side of the family arrives this weekend - hooray! I'm looking forward to Matthew spending lots of time with his Goong Goong (Grand-dad)and Poh Poh (Grandma) and Auntie so I can take a rest.... ZzZ ZZ ZZzz Z
I suppose I can now post that Matthew was shortlisted to be the cover model for a parenting magazine last week and attended his very first 'casting call' on Wed. I was informed that it was 'highly confidential' and was sworn to secrecy - I still don't really comprehend why? - hence refrained from telling the world about it. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut which in hindsight was a good thing as Matthew had a temperature the next day which was the day a 4 hour photo shoot had been scheduled. It would have been a very bad 'stage mummy' thing to do to make your sick 15 mth old toddler 'work'!
My side of the family arrives this weekend - hooray! I'm looking forward to Matthew spending lots of time with his Goong Goong (Grand-dad)and Poh Poh (Grandma) and Auntie so I can take a rest.... ZzZ ZZ ZZzz Z
Monday, August 30, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 27, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Friday, August 20, 2010
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.
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!).
Pic of Matthew pinching Pop's 'news'.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 6, 2010
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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Matthew 61 weeks
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 :)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Matthew is 14 months old today!
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!
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