Nathan's Transition (newborn to 3mths)

40 weeks in tummy


Newborn





1 month old





2 months old






3 months old









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Spidyman

Been nine months already! The same amount of time has passed since nathan was first conceived! It has been an amazing journey from pre-natal to post-natal and soon he'll reach the toddler milestone! Nathan is a fast learner and he has started to stand on his own unassisted! Here are pictures of him attempting to scale the wall like spiderman!

He loves to crawl all over and has the ability to climb down a 70cm high bed on his own! Of course there had been lots of occasions where he just decides to dive off head in but other than the rare slips whilst we were sleeping, he was generally well supervised. Well he needs a couple of falls to learn not to do certain things right?...now he would sit on the edge and turn his back to us before descending down the side of the bed. pretty soon he will be walking around the house on his own!
























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Happy baby

Nathan is such a happy baby! He would give us a really big smile whenever we return home from work, flashing the 4 cute little upper and lower molars! He will move his hands in excitement and reaches out to me, requesting to be carried and cuddled, reciprocating the hug with lots of pats on my back and long embraces with hands curled around my neck! I would like to think of it as an Exclusive gesture that is specially reserved for me!








Amazing little boy learnt play real fast! All the chasing and playing and hair-grabbing and fighting doesn't stop even before bedtime! He loves playing catching with natalie on the mattresses, crawling and screaming as they go round in circles chasing each other! He will use up his last beat of energy and collapse in exhaustion on his back, snoring! In the midst of the frenzies, jie jie will end up asking where is nathan when she realised that he had stopped chasing her and she too fall asleep quickly thereafter. Although they really exhaust me from all that shielding as i chase after them to prevent and protect nathan from being crushed by my active 3 yr old, it gives me so much joy to see them finally being able to play together!

An ode to mummy

To my dearest Mummy
Thank you for…
Being as sweet as my favourite cotton candy
Beautiful as Dora, Minnie and Barbie
Colourful as My Little Ponies’ Rainbow
Chasing me around like my favourite Lighting McQueen
Taking care of me and being my superhero Ben10
Carrying the surprises of Doraemon’s little bag
Letting me tumble and fall with Mario and Luigi
Encouraging me with Hi-5
Not laughing at me as I go choo -choo with Thomas, Chunggington, KoKo and Wilson
Letting me spin-spin-spin as fast as Bey blades
Allowing me to mess up like Mr Maker
Reading me my favourite Little Miss Scatterbrain and Mr Men stories
Giving me Barney cuddles when I cry
And always filling my tum-tum with yummy panda biscuits
I love you, mummy



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Mother's day

Somehow i had a premonition that we may mot be able to celebrate mother's day despite it coinciding with a sunday. And its true! However, all's been nicely etched out for us, without anticipating the unexpected episode on sunday, We had a mini dinner celebration after work on friday at grand shanghai. The food was excellent! Had my favourite sea cucumber with kailan, aubergine, peanut sauced handmade noodles and the wonderful tasting xiao long bao which had chris' chinese colleagues proclaiming that its even better than the ones at home. I have been Rewarded with a kate spade wallet, which i have been eying for a while as it had lots of card compartments. The branded ones just didnt quite work for me as they either have many compartments but w/o large coin purse or vice versa.
-Thanks daddy!

Natalie also surprised me with a father cum mother's day card that she made in school. However she didnt want to share


it with daddy. She refused to even let her papa hold it! Haha we could tell daddy was pretty jealous!






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My first butter cake

Didnt know cake making is so simple and this morning i made my very first butter cakes from scratch using a totally unconventional method ie over the stove.

As i wasn't sure if i am up to it, i did not wish to invest in a cake beater and after that left it untouched for years like many white elephants which i have in my collection of junk! So The cake that i've made is fully hand made! Fortunately utube has a wide array of cake baking demonstration so at least i had an idea of how to get started!
As a newbie i soon realised that cake making or baking in general has a whole new world of jargons which doesn't make immediate sense. For instance, instruction says cream the butter and sugar. What is creaming? Cant they just describe it as mixing or beating which i think i kind of erm know, opps or may be i should google that too. Ok creaming means mixing your butter and sugar in a manner that it looks fluffy and loses the yellowish buttery look and turns slightly palish yellow. Still unsure? Well my best advise is google.

Ok so now that i got the most confusing part completed, thinking hey things may get simpler from here but after mixing the eggs then the flour, it gets harder and harder to whisk! Cake making turns out to be a major workout and spent like 20 mins trying to get the right consistency. Grew some muscles as a result!

Tip from the non-expert when baking over the stove is to make sure you use a hard anodised wok, so temperature could go up to 300degrees. First like a convectional oven you would need to heat it for A good 10 minutes before placing your mix into the wok. Use a cake mould with a hole in the middle to speed up or even out the heat. Before placing your mix on the mould esp for chiffons, the vendor advised to wipe the butter all over the mould and tap some self-raising flour all over so cake could be removed easily when ready.

How do we know the cake is cooked? Simply by watching the water droplets that appears on the lid. Once the beads of water starts to drip, this means your cake is cooked! How amazing! And it worked!








First attempt: Pure butter cake




2nd attempt : orange butter cake




Heres the recipe




I must say the kitchen with its soft Lighting does make it look quite cosy and romantic! Haha




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How Contagious Is Pneumonia?

Interesting extract:


http://cold.emedtv.com/m/pneumonia/is-pneumonia-contagious-p2.html

How Contagious Is Pneumonia?

A person with either viral or bacterial pneumonia is contagious. However, that person's germs are more likely to cause an upper respiratory infection (such as the common cold or the flu) in another person than pneumonia.

Many of the viruses and bacteria that cause pneumonia are the same ones that cause upper respiratory infections. These germs are usually found in the mouth and nose of the infected person. They can be spread easily to another person, either through the air or by touching a contaminated surface. Most often, they enter the person's body through the mouth, nose, or eyes.

When this happens, a battle begins. The person's immune system tries to kill the germs, while the germs try to multiply. The germs also try to spread to other parts of the body, such as the lungs and blood. In most cases, however, the body prevents this, so if a person does develop symptoms, they are usually limited to where the infection entered the body (see Cold and Flu Symptoms).

Why Do Some People Get Pneumonia and Others Don't?
While the body has an advanced system for getting rid of potentially harmful substances that make their way into the lungs, it is not perfect. In some cases, so many bacteria or viruses get into the lungs that the defense systems are simply overwhelmed.

In other cases, certain diseases can make the system unable to function as well as normal. This can be from chronic diseases like diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or diseases that affect the immune system, such as HIV or AIDS. Other times, the particular bacteria or virus is just so potent that the body can't handle it.

With any of these situations, a person has a greater risk of developing pneumonia.

How Long Is a Person With Pneumonia Contagious?
The time that a person with pneumonia is contagious will depend on what germ is causing the infection, although scientists are not exactly sure when the contagious period starts and ends.

For certain viruses, the best guess is that a person becomes contagious about two to three days before developing symptoms. This period can last until the person no longer shows any symptoms. So in theory, a person with pneumonia is contagious for about two weeks, although they tend to be most contagious when symptoms are at their worst -- which is usually around day two to four.

What Can I Do to Limit My Chances of Getting Sick?
You can limit your chances of getting sick by practicing good prevention. This includes:

Washing your hands regularly
Keeping your hands away from your nose, mouth, and eyes
Limiting exposure to infected people
Not sharing glasses, eating utensils, or other items that are easily contaminated.

Pneumonia

Natalie has been having phlegmy coughs and developed a fever yesterday. We brought her to the gp and was advised to admit her to A&E immediately. She was placed on case 9 which is a super fast queue that is expedited for urgent cases. She was preliminary diagnose to be having mild respiratory distress.

Doctor had to conduct an xray and blood test in order to determine if its bronchitis or pneumonia. He said her cough is definitely phlemgy and has gotten to the lungs. As natalie did not recall what a blood test entail and how it feels like she felt pretty important that everyone is showering her with so much attention. See the cheeky little face in the photo...







Below pics were taken after pricking her little finger for blood sample! She was crying and crying ! Kept saying that she doesnt want injection! And she wants her hand to be beautiful again! Poor little girl! My heart aches for her and she refuses to wash her hand and disapproves of us touching her right hand, holding it in a way as though the entire elbow area was fractured!

Dr had to take her xray and here's her crying throughout the whole treatment!









Finally lab results were out and apparently its pneumonia. Despite the pneumococcal jab that she has taken she is still infected! Doctor gave her loads of medicine! Poor little girl had to complete 10 days course of antibiotics!





Facts about pneumonia:-

Pneumonia is a lung infection that can be caused by different types of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Symptoms of pneumonia include cough with sputum production, fever, and sharp chest pain on inspiration (breathing in).

Pneumonia is suspected when a doctor hears abnormal sounds in the chest, and the diagnosis is confirmed by a chest X-ray.

Bacteria causing pneumonia can be identified by sputum culture.

A pleural effusion is a fluid collection around the inflamed lung.

Bacterial and fungal (but not viral) pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics.


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Sales tactics

Hub sent this across and i thought its pretty appropriate to add this on my blog just to serve as a reminder and not fall for a "magic stone" trick or you know that next sale or limited edition item which i find it super hard to resist!

4 Common Sales Techniques People Fall For

By Ben DeMeter

"That color really brings out your eyes."
"We don't know when we'll have them in your size again."
"They only made this specific model of laptop in a limited run to test the market."

In some ways, sales representatives are the masters of consumer psychology. Tasked with turning window shoppers into paying customers, they employ a series of techniques that can persuade even the most grizzled consumer into making a purchase he or she hadn't planned on. From our vanity to our fear of missing out, sales reps have figured out how to key off on the driving forces that lead us to commit to a purchase. The scary part is, many times they're so good at persuading us to purchase that we don't even know we've been had until it's too late. For example, here are four common sales techniques that most people keep on falling for without realizing it.

Pouring on the Honey
The most commonly used technique in any sales representative's arsenal of tactics is flattery. Consumers, by nature, want to be validated for their purchases and no one is more willing to pour on the compliments than the attending salesman. They're always the first to tell you that the dress you're trying on is stunningly slimming or the car you're test-driving makes you look like an executive.
The surprising thing is that, even when customers know the flattery they're receiving is insincere, they still fall for it. Last year, a study at the Hong Kong University of Science revealed that all forms of flattery, sincere or otherwise, create a positive image of the flatterer in the mind of a customer. As a result, we unconsciously begin to trust the sales representatives more and make ourselves easier to push into making a purchase.

Perceived Scarcity
Nothing motivates a consumer to commit to a purchase like perceived scarcity. For example, I was recently in a shoe store where a customer was trying on a pair of designer high heels that were about $100 over her budget. After about 20 minutes of pacing through the store in the top-shelf shoes, the customer was still reluctant to buy them. The sales representative then told her that she should purchase the heels even if it meant returning them the next day, because they were the last pair the store would get in her size for the foreseeable future. Then a second representative came over and told the young woman that she passed over a pair of similar heels by the same designer in the past and it took her six months to locate the same shoes again.
If the young woman was thinking objectively, she might have realized that she could very well have found the same pair of shoes online for less than the store was charging. However, since she was already flirting with the purchase, the sudden manufactured fear of missing out on the shoes forever was enough to make her commit to the purchase. A study by Stanford University has shown that a fear of being "jilted" decreases our overall satisfaction with a piece of merchandise, but dramatically increases our desire to buy it. Stores know this, so they run "limited supply" sales to generate that kind of fear that drives people to buy. Even when you book a hotel online, you'll see the "only two rooms left" tag attached to some reservation links. So, the next time you're tempted to buy something stop and ask yourself if you'll really never see the product again, or if you just think you won't.
The Discounted Markup
Many times, a store will dramatically mark up the price of its merchandise just so it can offer a convincing discount when it comes time to make a sale. This occurs most commonly at car dealerships, where the sticker price on some vehicles can be more than $2,000 above the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). This way, the dealership can allow customers to talk down the price of the car to the MSRP so that they think they're getting a good deal when really they're just paying exactly what the dealership had hoped for all along.

Obligation Through Reciprocity
Our feelings of guilt and obligation can be powerful motivators when it comes to buying a product. Studies have shown that people naturally have a sense of reciprocity that leads them to believe that after something nice is done for them, they should do something nice for the benevolent party in return.
To capitalize on this, sales reps will often create a "give and take" scenario where they make you feel that they've done you a favor. For instance, if you can't find a pair of jeans in your size a sales representative will search through the stock room for multiple alternatives that you might find appealing. It's a simple gesture, but as a result, you'll feel more obligated to make a purchase from them.

The Bottom Line
If you want to control the amount of money you spend on shopping trips, you need to learn how to recognize these common sales techniques. Once you're able to see through a sales representative's pitch, it will be easier for you to make an objective decision about the worthiness of any potential purchase. As a result, you'll be able to buy less of the things you don't need and save more money on the things you do. It might not be rocket science, but it's certainly smart shopping.

On the bus

It was nathan's first public bus ride and we were all super excited!

Here's an eager natalie showing off the bus tickets!

Triple three bad rating

Brought the family over to Triple Three last friday and food was abysmal!!! We were so looking forward to a sumptuous international buffet with Live cooking stations and indulge in fresh Sashimi and all else that was promised on the website ie roasted Australian Rib-eye of Wagyu Beef, seafood on ice, Asian wok-fried favourites, piquant Indian dishes and mouth-watering desserts.

I must say other than the usual desserts which at least my darling Daughter enjoyed, the spread is not worth the full price that we've paid for! There is no oysters, no live cooking stations, cant even order a good pasta other than the seafood aglio which comes with chilli flakes and placed in warmers! I dont quite understand what the management is thinking about as we certainly dont recall eating a buffet this bad!

would definitely boycott it going forward!

Pre-nursery

Natalie has started pre-nursery at dayspring and she has been loving it! Unlike her attitude towards the childcare centre, where she would find a hundred and one excuse to not leave the house and gives gong gong a grim face when he sends her to school, she looks forward to school every morning! She would prepare her uniform at night and tell me what she has done in school before she goes to sleep!

Having her favourite green as the main colour of the school uniform and school bag (provided by the school) definitely helps! She would show us her little ribbon on the front of her uniform and ensure that mimi does not misplace her name tag! I am so glad she is loving every minute of it!







Gong gong who is so proud of the brave little girl as she boards the school bus on her own!


Here's nathan waiting for the bus together with natalie! He simply couldn't resist tugging the ponytails!








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