drake’s blog

moving plans

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:33:27 +0800

The news is out. Yes, we'll be relocating. Very soon.

We spent a week in Sweden recently, main purpose was to find an apartment (which we did). And since both of us lived there before, it was really a 'preview' for Luca. We wanted to see how his first flight would be, and also to let him have a taste of autumn before hitting the full-blown winter in January.

So, here's our story.

Luca's first flight... no fun. But it wasn't as bad as we had imagined. We were lucky it was a 1am flight, hence it wasn't too difficult to get him to sleep. And when he was awake, Dave and I took turns to carry him, so one of us could sleep for a awhile. We had to take turns for meals too. And for the first time on a long haul flight... no in-flight movies for us.

the bassinet just fits!

first flight

Luca's first vacation... wasn't all fun for him either. Temperature was between 5-9 degrees and throughout the whole trip, he suffered from super dry skin on the cheeks and chin, was coughing and had a nose that was all stuffed out to the brim. Plus he had his first case of constipation due to the dry weather and he was possibly alittle dehydrated as well. Top it all off with jetlag... we got a real grumpy baby in our hands!

But we decided we still had to do what we had to do! Apart for house-hunting, we had to introduce some of our favourite places to Luca!

Coffee at Saldes.

cafe Saldes... our favourite

Carbonara at Spot.

Spot on! World best carbonara! ;)

my most favourite carbonara place!

<zoom in to baby in stroller> in his new jacket... finally feeling warm

Sushi at Musashi.

trying to keep Luca entertained

funny why the sushi are yummier here than back home... maybe it's the cold

Rice paper rolls and pho at Mrs Saigon.

the Chens

Of course it can't all be about food! We managed to meet up some friends too!... over food!

Dinner with Roger at our hotel's Lean Grill & Bar.

'peaceful' dinner

Linda and Nora finally meets Luca.

when Luca meets Nora

swopped!

And Karren whom Luca absolutely adores.

getting to know each other

comfortable with Karren

And then there's Isabella, all grown up now!

with Isabella and Carolina

Although I had quite abit of fun getting re-acquainted with Sweden, I was looking forward to return home to Singapore - for now, I needed to get Luca back to the humidity level he's used to.

The return flight was, in one word, painful. Luca just could not get comfortable in the plane. There wasn't any personal space for this grouchy baby with dry peely skin and blocked nose. I remember I used to get real mad at crying babies on the plane... so I totally understand how we must be the most hated family on board. I had to cuddle Luca for most of the 12 hours back home.

mama squatting down to give Luca some space to wriggle and stretch

We were all exhausted. We all came back home sick. We all lost weight.

And we have to do this all over again in 2 months time.

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Milestone: Luca @7months

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:33:52 +0800

Luca is 7 months now and we all spent it together in Sweden!!!

Weight: 8.5kg

Here's what I've been noticing....

- hates sitting without support (and still topples over after at most 1/2minute!); enjoys jumping and be on his feet more

- likes to sit up on the babysitter; no longer enjoys to be in the reclining position

- crawls alittle then lunges forward

- when placed on all fours, likes to lean over to one side to a half-seated position

- on semi-solids (diet now consists of rice cereals, carrots, avocado and apples, all pureed)

- accepts new foods really well; taking at most 3 days to accept a new taste

- can self-soothe most of the times; a (left-)thumb sucker

- his two bottom teeth are out and he's started to bite me during feeding. OUCH!!!!!

what cuteness!

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sunday brunch

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:37:53 +0800

Met up with Fredrik and Caroline and the kids for brunch at The Tanglin Tree. It serves really good food, very baby-friendly (although we left Luca at my folks'!!!) and totally laid back! Just what we needed... a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon.

queuing up for mom's lemonade...

Dave's seafood speghetti

my speghetti aglio-olio with fish

Ella can draw!!!

Edward warming up to Dave

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the latest jumperoo

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:01:23 +0800

Toys A Month sent Luca his Rainforest Jumperoo 2 days ago. This is one of the latest in the market and it took me all 3 credits for this 1 toy;) It's so fun to be him!

taste comes first!

soooo fun!!! ("no... it's not red underwear i'm wearing!!!")

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Another first for Luca: Lanterns

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:08:02 +0800

My sis- and brother-in-law are back from China for vacation and we all met up for dinner at The Central's Watami last Saturday.

Watami serves really decent stuff and service is great!

Coincidentally, it was Mid-Autumn... and Luca's grandpa bought him his first mini lantern!

trying to get a taste of his first lantern

We were lucky to get a window seat and managed to catch the fireworks on the promenade of Clarke Quay!

fireworks.... but Luca had fallen asleep

Back to lanterns. Lanterns these days are just so amazing. I thought the ones with music are pretty trendy... but check out this (very raw!) video! It's one of the twin's lantern... this bug not only shines, it sings, moves, and flaps its wings!

Luca's first encounter with the bug!

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a day at the gardens

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:43:18 +0800

Last Friday, mama Carol took a day off cus it was Children's Day at the infant care for Ethan. We decided to bring the kids out to the Botanical Gardens.

Luca getting impatient waiting for Ethan! hah hah!

Had a really nice lunch at Casa Verde although Luca needed to be carried all the time!!!! But I'm used to his 'clingy-ness'... and it wasn't so bad cus he soon fell asleep on my lap!!!

Carol with Ethan... and that last piece of pocini pizza!

A nice stroll around the gardens after lunch.

Luca looked comfortably bored!

the not so small babies....

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a very expensive lesson

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:38:20 +0800

Citibank has a service called Globeshopper where one is able to shop at all the US online stores. Especially for stores that do not deliver to Singapore, this is just fantastic! Once you sign up for the service, you'll be assigned a US address. You can then accumulate all your purchases at this address and deliver it back to Singapore in any combination of parcels via DHL. All you need is a Citibank credit card for the shipping from this US address back home.

So last month, I spent alot of my time online. Shopping. It was crazy. There was a 50-75% sale at Gap and Ralph Lauren and the baby apparel were all so gorgeous! And then there was this minimum amount you needed to spend in order to enjoy free shipping to the US address. So of course, I'll buy till I hit the minimum amount! Online shopping is super fun! And since I'm at it, I even decided to get a birthday present for a friend from Ralph Lauren which I then thought, "why not opt for free gift wrapping?"... yipppeee!!! Free is good!

So there I was... happily clicking away. 2 parcels were already delivered to my US address, and after this 3rd parcel, I thought I had better start shipping the stuff back... since this friend's birthday is coming up! And guess what, to my horror... the shipment cost for this parcel is more than the purchase itself!!!! The stuff cost USD205 and the shipment cost USD248. Can you believe this parcel weighed 44kg!??!?! Isn't this like the weight of a super skinny adult!??!!?? And then I realised how very stupid I've been. What was I thinking? Gift wrapping?!?!?!?

So came Monday and my 3 parcels arrived - 2 small, 1 huge.

the arrival

In the huge box was my friend's really nice BIG gift box, and some of Luca's clothes. Only half of the space was used. Argh.

whooooo hoooo! the result of a crazy mom!

3 lessons I've learnt:

(1) Never (ever!) opt to gift box any item.

(2) At checkout, request retailer to reduce/remove any plastic sheets and stuffings and compact pack the stuff into the smallest box possible.

(3) Avoid buying bulky items like bags and shoes.

Okay, that was my first globeshopping experience.

It'll be awhile before I start my crazy sprees again.

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bumwear

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:36:14 +0800

Before Luca was born, we weren't too sure whether to go 100% disposable diapers or cloth diapers. So we decided on the combo; bumwear for home and disposables for outings.

But for the last 6 months, we have not gotten a chance to try out the cloth diapers, cus we have such a reliable source of diapers providers! Thank you mommy!

Now that Luca's poop frequency has reduced to about 3 times a day, we decided it's time to have him give bumwear a shot!

my little reader...

I don't think bumwear is very flattering, but it seemed Luca likes the fancy cloth diapers! Although more washing to do, but there's no 'elastic rubber' biting into his skin, so I suppose it should be more comfortable for those play times at home.

comfy green dino diapers!

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1st haircut

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:20:59 +0800

No more floppy hair over the eyes... trimmed Luca's fringe last Saturday.

He's now spotting the Oasis' Liam Gallagher look!

after bath...

trying to take a pic for his passport!

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Sarah's baby shower

nobody@vox.com(drake) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:32:55 +0800

My niece Sarah celebrated her first month over the weekend.

I swear she feels weightless in these arms that are so accustomed to Luca....

baby Sarah

2 other pics from the day!

my folks' grandchildren

Luca stroking Sarah's head!!! soooo cute!!!

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