Skyler's 2nd Year Blog

To all Family and Friends of Baby Skyler,

Thank you for your faithful readership and for all your love for Baby Skyler. We’ve started a new Blog for Skyler’s 2nd Year. You can simply click on the link at the side bar on the right or go to http://www.skyler-2.blogspot.com/.

With Skyler’s birthday on 28th December 2006, this Blog, Skyler's 1st Year, is now complete. Please do continue to visit Skyler’s new Blog, and do leave a little message or two of love for our Little One!

Skyler’s First Birthday

Dearest Little Skyler,

IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!

You’re one year old today, Little One! Wow! Time has really flown by! Papa and Mama can’t believe that you’ve been in our lives for one whole year already!

It’s been a real experience for us, Little One. Being our first child, you really had to bear the brunt of our inexperience and ignorance. Thank God that our ignorance was ameliorated somewhat by the accessibility of information on the Internet! Mama spent so much time surfing the Net for all kinds of information about how to take care of you that we actually did not feel like we were unsure of what we needed to do most of the time! :D This is really a vast difference from when your grandparents had us. They depended almost solely on the experience of other Papas and Mamas during that period of time to guide them. And if they did not have any wiser, more experienced parents to guide them, they were left on their own to raise children with little information or none at all!

To round off your birthday celebrations, we brought you to the Globetrotters Restaurant in United Square for dinner. Of course you couldn’t eat the food there but Mama had read that this place catered for children i.e. they designed the place with families in mind - there was an attached playroom for children to play while the parents ate, they had dedicated children’s menus and the whole place was brightly lit. We had invited Kow-fu and Kow-Mo along as they really love you and wanted to be with you on your birthday too. Kow-fu got you a balloon to play with. We also took turns to bring you into the playroom to look around. (Mama and Papa were a bit discouraged by the look of the playroom so we took you out quite quickly - it wasn’t very well maintained.)

Surprisingly for Papa, Papa met up with his long-lost secondary school classmates and their families there. Uncle Sang Chong and Uncle Craig were Papa’s secondary school classmates and Papa had not seen them since we completed our secondary education in 1984! Papa and Mama had bumped into Uncle Craig and Aunty Samantha (Uncle Craig’s wife) a couple of times over the years but we never really had a chance to catch up with each other. Both Uncles have three duckies now. It was really cool for Papa to have met them. They were quite close friends of Papa’s when we were in school. :D

After we had had our dinner, we moved over to Swensen’s for ice cream. We had their Firehouse Happy Birthday Sundae in honour of your birthday. Mama fed you just a bit of it since it’s actually yours. :D But we were afraid that you might not be able to take it so we limited it to just a bit. :)-

Happy Birthday, Little One! Papa and Mama are so glad that you are our Little Baby Duckie!

Papa and Mama

Boxing Day

Dearest Little Skyler,

Today is Boxing Day, i.e. the day after Christmas. There are several guesses amongst us as to why it’s called Boxing Day but Papa’s guess is that this is the day the most people in the world who celebrated Christmas will box up all their Christmas trees, decorations, presents, etc. :D

Today was also the day we celebrated your birthday with our families.

We had your 3rd Birthday Party with Mama’s family i.e. ‘po-po’, ‘kow-fu’ and ‘kow-mo’. We were supposed to have celebrated together with Papa’s family but as ‘po-po’ could not make it at night (as per the original plan) we had to have a birthday lunch instead.

We had a log cake for your birthday cake. Then ‘po-po’, ‘kow-fu’ and ‘kow-mo’ gave you their presents! ‘Po-po’ gave you a jade chick and an ‘ang pow’ while ‘kow-fu’ and ‘kow-mo’ gave you an activity centre that made lots of noise and had lots of buttons for you to press. You were so thrilled by it. :D

Later in the evening, we had your 4th Birthday Party with Papa’s family (grandma, ‘ah pek’ ‘ah m’, ‘che-che’ Reika and ‘kor-kors’ Yujin and Kenji) plus ‘kow-fu’ and ‘kow-mo’ came back as well. Once again there was lots of food, noise and yet another cake! :D

Grandma gave you an ‘ang-pao’ and ‘ah pek’ and ‘ah m’ gave you a wooden castle (the kind where you had to move pieces along a wire frame).

So many people love you so much, Little One. This whole period saw a lot of rain every day and yet everyone took the trouble to come down to celebrate your birthday. :D

We love you, Little One.

Papa and Mama

Christmas Day

Dearest Little Skyler,

Today’s Christmas Day! :D Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! As we’ve said before, this is not really Jesus’s birthday as we don’t really know when it is but the Christian leaders of long ago chose this date to celebrate His birth. You’ve heard the story of Jesus’s birth many times in the past month at Sunday School, Little Girl. We’re sure you didn’t understand what the Sunday School Teacher said then but we’re definitely going to make sure that you know it by heart when you’re older. :D

Today was also the day that we had your 2nd Birthday Party! Mama’s friends, Aunty Karen, Uncle Heng Yew, ‘che-ches’ Vera and Shana & Aunty Bili came to celebrate Christmas and your birthday! Godma Audrey was not able to come as she had gone on a holiday to Europe with Uncle Henry. Aunty Christina and Uncle Wei Lii had also gone overseas.

You spent the afternoon playing with the ‘che-ches’ but because you couldn’t walk properly as yet, most of the time you watched them move around and took part when you could. :D

We had lots of food and again ended the day with another cake cutting session for your birthday! You received so many presents today – Aunt Bili gave you a big ‘car’ for you to ride on and Aunty Karen gave you an alphabet train. You also had a couple of presents from Godma Audrey for both Christmas and your Birthday as Godma says that she will not shortchange you as they are two separate events that you deserve presents for. :D

Merry Christmas once again, Little One! :D

We love you!

Mama and Papa

Christmas Eve

Dearest Little Skyler,

Wow! Today is Chrismas Eve! The day before Christmas – the day that we celebrate Jesus’s birth! Remember, Skyler, that this is not really the day that Jesus was born. We don’t really know his exact date of birth - 25th December is just the day that the Christian world decided to choose to celebrate his birth. :D

We went for Christmas Eve Service today. We sang a few carols and had a sort of Christmas message delivered by pastor. At the end of the service, you received a ‘Mitsubishi Super Great Truck’ from a nice aunty. This was a small little model of a truck. It was a very nice gesture from her. A few of the ‘kor-kors’ also went around giving out candy that their parents had bought for that purpose. However, we didn’t take any as you can’t eat candy yet and we ourselves don’t really appreciate it so much. :D

After service, we headed off to Wheelock Place and had lunch at Fish & Co. There, we met a nice Che-che named June. She was one of the staff there. She was so happy to play with you that she kept on coming over when she didn’t have to serve other guests. She even carried you all the way to the counter to collect glasses of water for Papa and Mama and you let her! :D You are really very socialble. Just be careful in the future, ok? Not everyone is nice and safe.

We then went down to Borders to look for books to buy. We shopped around for quite some time as we wanted to get a Christmas present for your ‘Tai-pos’ as we were going to visit them and ‘Yi-po’.

It was raining quite heavily when we finally set off for their place. We arrived safely and spent some time there visiting before we headed home.

Papa and Mama used to go for the midnight Christmas service but we couldn’t this year as we didn’t feel that it was right to make you stay up so late. It’s usually quite a wonderful experience as the whole church would be packed with people and after midnight, everyone would wish each other a Merry Christmas. Never mind, we’ll bring you when you’re older and can take it better, ok?

Merry Christmas, Little One.

Papa and Mama love you!

Carollers @ The Esplanade

Dearest Little Skyler,

Mama and you met up with Aunty Seow Hwee today. It was a very interesting (and educational) experience I think for Aunty Seow Hwee. It seems that she has never pushed a stroller or carried a baby before and it was her first attempt to do both with you. :D

You all shopped around Raffles City and Mama had very little time to catch up with Aunty Seow Hwee because she spent so much time taking care of you. Later in the afternoon, they waited for Papa to come.

After we left Aunty Seow Hwee, we met up with Grandma as we were supposed to go to church to listen to some caroling. We went over to the location after dinner and we tried to feed you while waiting for them to start.

We got there at the stipulated time but slowly realised that that time was actually the start of their rehearsals for the day. So, we stayed there to listen to the rehearsals. After the event started, Mama and Papa decided to go off.

We all went over to the Esplanade as Mama had wanted to bring you around there the whole holidays and we were running out of time. While we were at the main entrance, we saw a sign that said that the ACJC Choir was going to perform carols at the Esplanade so we decided to stay to watch it. As we climbed the stairs to the designated performance area, you decided that you wanted to climb the stairs too! Of course, Mama had to help you up the stairs, but you were so determined to make it up yourself, taking big steps as you went along.

When we got to the top of the stairs, we sat around and waited for them to begin. On time, they came out and they performed several classical and contemporary Christmas carols and songs. They were quite good.

It so happened that the choir mistress was Mama’s school friend whom she had not met for years! It was quite a coincidence.

When the performance ended, we set off immediately as it was getting late and we had to send Grandma home before heading back to ours.

We love you, Little One.

Papa and Mama

Mama’s & Papa’s 14th Anniversary

Dearest Little Skyler,

Mama and Papa celebrated our 14th Anniversary of being together as a couple today. It’s interesting to Papa that Mama and Papa were together for 7 years when we got married and then it was another 7 years before we had you. We’re so happy to have you here to celebrate this anniversary with us. :D

We decided to go to the Zoo today as the weather was quite good in the morning. When we arrived at the zoo, it became a bit cloudy and Mama wondered if it would rain but it cleared up a bit so we carried on into the zoo.

We walked around to look at the residents there and as you are now a bit older, it was so much more fun as you reacted to the animals a lot more than when we brought you previously. We covered quite a big part of the zoo today and watched lots of the animals. There was also a vegetable patch in the zoo where we could see lots of local vegetables grown. It was quite fun for Papa as he’d never seen most of these vegetables in this form before. However, you missed out on this as you’d fallen asleep by the time we got there.

When you woke up, we headed for the Children’s section of the zoo as there was an animal performance about that time. However, when we got there, it started raining very heavily. Everyone there headed for shelter at the horse stables and we got to watch the ponies and horses close up. When the rain slowed a bit, Mama and Papa decided to head for the exit as it would have been pointless to stay at the zoo in that condition. And we also had to leave as we had dinner plans.

After we left the zoo, we took you to Kow-fu’s & Kow-mo’s as we had asked them to babysit you for us as we wanted to have a bit of private time for ourselves on our anniversary. Thus, you spent the rest of the evening with them while we went to Ritz-Carlton hotel for a buffet dinner. While we wanted some time just for ourselves, we were constantly thinking of you and wondering what you were doing, Little One. You’re so much a part of our lives!

We went back immediately after we’d eaten to pick you up and head for home. Kow-fu and Kow-mo told us that you’d not slept a wink from the time we left and you’d played with everything in their home! :D

We love you, Little Girl!

Mama and Papa

Skyler’s 1st Birthday Party with Mama’s Former Colleagues

Dearest Little Skyler,

We had the first of what turned out to be several birthday parties for you today, Little Girl. Mama invited her former colleagues to our home for a Christmas-cum-Your First Birthday gathering today. :D We’d invited Aunty Doo Guat and her son, kor-kor Matthew, and Aunty Rachel and her son, kor-kor Isaac. They were particularly special to us because they had helped to take care of you before when both of us could not be around. We’d also invited Aunty Patsy and Uncle Han Chung’s family (you remember them don’t you - we’d gone to the zoo with them and che-che Nicole and kor-kor Ethan) but they couldn’t make it as che-che Nicole was unwell.

It was raining quite heavily today but both aunties still took the trouble to come. And even though they couldn’t make it for the gathering as they had to care for che-che Nicole, Uncle Han Chung still came later in the evening bearing gifts for you and the other little ones! They love you so much!

We had prepared ham and cheese sandwiches for snacks and Papa walked out to get some heavier food for our dinner. Aunty Doo Guat arrived with kor-kor Matthew as Papa was leaving and Papa met Aunty Rachel and kor-kor Isaac on my way back. :D

After Papa got back, we laid out the food. Then Mama and the aunties caught up with each other while the kor-kors and you played. :D It was only after we had eaten that Uncle Han Chung came with their gifts. He could not stay as he had to get home to help care for che-che Nicole.

We then got out your first birthday cake and everyone sang you the Happy Birthday song and Mama helped you blow out the candle and cut the cake.

You were so tired out by then, Little One, that you went to bed quite immediately after our friends had left for home.

Happy Birthday in advance, Skyler. :D

We love you!

Mama and Papa