Migration

Hey there to those loyal readers of my blog - I think only 2 or 3 of you lah :)

I'm currently maintaining 2 blogs (I don't really know how that came about) and have been dutifully posting the same write-ups on each. To simplify my life, I'll be closing the doors on this blog and maintaining only Burpette's World. So to stay tuned to Jonah's antics and adventures, come visit Burpette's World :)

The many aspects of Jonah

This is what Jonah gets up to when mommy's at work...taken from grandma's camera:

Fun in the Sun

Jonah loves the water - be it taking a bath in the tub or splashing around in the baby pool, he cries every time he has to get out of the water. He can stare at fountains and trickling water intently for ages, mesmerized by the flowing water. So on the 2nd day of CNY, we decided to take advantage of the hot hot day and head to the club for a swim. And he really had fun! Even clambered out of his baby float to climb up the steps to play with the water spouts. Need to buy him new swim diapers but they cost $35!!! Even more expensive than mommy's bikini! Hmmm...can he swim naked ala the Nirvana water baby?

Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Ni...

Coming back to work after the nice long CNY weekend was especially painful... it was super difficult to drag myself out of bed this morning with the thought that another excruciating discussion on KPIs and budget awaited me first thing in the morning. I need to take leave to recover from CNY....

But it was a great CNY - managed to catch up with family and friends, and Jonah collected his first ang pows. Despite my resolution not to deck him up in some cheena costume, hubby dragged me down to Chinatown on the afternoon of CNY eve to buy Jonah a little festive outfit. So I settled for something that was not ang pow red and I must say he looks very much the part of a little china boy :)

And here he is after the first day of CNY, tired out from all the fussing and carrying by the aunties and uncles:

He also caught his first lion dance at Tanglin Mall and was pretty much indifferent to the loud noise or jumping lions. He was more interested in the kiddy ride (it was $2 to play - what happened to the 20 or 50 cents ones????!!!) - a bright red convertabile, so like the daddy, right down to picking up chicks with it! :P

Here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous year of the Rat!!

Sunday morning in the Gardens

It was one of those very rare days when we actually woke up early (ok, Jonah woke up at 7am climbing onto mommy who then forced daddy to wake up) and stayed up (usually we snooze and laze and snooze some more...) and decided to go for breakfast and a stroll. So we headed down to the 24-hr prata place near the Botanic Gardens and had a yummy brekkie - warning: do not try the garlic prata unless you absolutely adore garlic or are trying to kill an army of vampires coz it was super duper garlicky!!! Jonah fell asleep during the car ride and woke up only towards the end of brekkie so we had the luxury of a quiet comfortable meal :) Jonah wakes up really early, insists on waking everyone up, then goes back to nap like an hour later...by that time I'd be wide awake (being forced to rise & shine to keep an eye on the lil' one) and ready to start the day but he'll be nicely snoozing away... why couldn't he had just continued sleeping and give mommy another hour of precious shut eye??

So after brekkie and with Jonah re-energized from his power nap, we headed off to the Botanic Gardens. It was surprisingly not crowded and we managed to get parking easily (usually it's madness with pple trying to make it for the cafe's breakfast set before 11am). And the weather was cool but not overcast so we were quite motivated to take a stroll :) We meandered along 1 of the paths and ended up at the Evolution Garden - where it explains the formation of the earth and the type of vegetation that evolved. Daddy was quite impressed that he managed to learn something from that :P Jonah on the other hand, seemed more interested in looking down at the wheels of his stroller go round and round...his favourite is looking at water - cascading water, trickling water, gushing water etc. I can't wait for him to be able to walk and run on the grass, but I know that will present a whole other set of problems, like running into the water :P

When we got home it was only 11ish in the morning - usually Daddy would still be in bed then. Yesterday he commented that the day felt so long coz he woke up early - duh... We shall try to have many more Sundays like this :)

Jonah's First Trip

Big hair - check. Evening gown with bling - check. Immaculate make-up - check. 3 essential ingredients in a lavish over-the-top Indonesian wedding. We recently made a trip to Jakarta to attend Ekman & Wen's wedding and it was a visual spectacle. It's hard to imagine the work and effort that went into transforming the huge ballroom into a glittering garden. We were easily the most under-dressed guests at the wedding, but with baby in tow and all the baby stuff to pack in, we really had no time to play dress-up. The wedding couple looked beautiful but were so exhausted, and they're expecting a little addition to the family in August :) Never thought I'd see the day so soon when Ekie got hitched, not to mention become a daddy! Congrats to the happy couple! Also visited their new home of palatial proportions - their master bedroom is as big as my 5-room flat!!!

We got a good deal with Jetstar with $49 fares (each way excl. airport tax) and Jonah was charged $40 (with no airport tax). He was such a good boy on the flight - minimum fussing, no crying, entertaining himself with the air stewardesses. But then again, it was only a 1hr 20min flight. I don't know if this could be repeated on a 7hr flight to Melbourne - what's he going to do in the airplane for 7hrs??? And travelling with baby has its privileges - we got first row seats on board and got to jump the queue at immigration :)

There wasn't very much to do in Jakarta, with the bad traffic and bad pollution, and we couldn't venture to our usual shopping spots with Jonah (too rowdy, too crowded, too smoky), so we spent most of the time in the hotel and the big branded shopping centres. But we're happy that we made it through our first travel with Jonah with no problems, and we plan for many more travels to come :)

Fish Spa

No, it's not a spa for fish....Fish Spa refers to the supposedly therapeutic soaking of your feet in a pool where small Garra Rufa fish nibble off the dead skin from your feet, leaving your skin smoother. There are now 3 such places in Singapore offering such treatment, and we even got a special mention in an episode of Ugly Betty - "If housewives in Singapore can handle this, then so can I."

One adventurous Sunday afternoon a bunch of us decided to venture to the far end of the island to the Qian Hu fish farm to try it out. It was a communal pool and cost $10 for 30min to dip your feet into the pool. Me and hubby decided to split the 30min between us - and it was a good idea coz I couldn't take more than 5min of the nibbling fish!! It was an unnerving experience feeling the little fish gnawing at your feet...I couldn't help but think of the pirahna...*shudder* But everyone else seemed to enjoy it, and MadShu even complained that there wasn't enough fish and nibbling :) Apparently, some people even buy the fish home to have their own personal fish therapy - a small Garra Rufa fish cost $10.

But the Qian Hu fish farm was an interesting visit and there were quite a number of people there on Sunday - you can check out the many varieties of fish and the kids can go catch longkang fish. Lots of colourful fish that managed to occupy Jonah for a couple of hours, of course not forgetting the uncle and aunties who entertained him too :)