New skill- Take pic with a camera!

Some pics taken by Jared on his own!! Pretty artistic huh?

...and finally our talented photographer.. (Taken by me after he finished meddling with the camera)..Judging at the way he is handling the camera..I'm sure new one will be on the way soon..hehe..

Picnic at Upper Pierce Reservoir

Need to make good use of our picnic mat, so an impromptu decision to picnic...Unfortunately the road towards the reservoir were under construction, so didn't get to see monkeys as what we used to see..and of cos didn't have the luck of monkeys joining us for picnic too...hehe..

Weather was breezy as it was about to rain when we reached there. Pretty fun, and Jared loves the green views and also the chwee kuah we ta pau. But he don't like the chai por..would split it out.

We played bubbles too...but soon had to leave as it was raining..

Watering The Plants

How does the animal sound?

Jared was able to make animal sounds after our zoo trips..Probaly cos I sang out loud old MacDonald song when we were there especially in front of the goats, cow and pig..hehehe..

Other than goat, cow, dog, cat that were recorded in the video, he could also do pig, crow, and elephant..But hard to get a chance to properly take video, cos he would snatch my camera instead.

AMK MacDonald and Park

Finally Jared got his 18mth booster jab from the polyclinic, this appointment was changed several time due to him being sick or daddy's work schedule..He is 10.8kg and 80cm and 18.5mth, merely 25percentile...aiyo..

After the jab we went to Ang Mo Kio...There has got a Macdonald with big playground. It's a very nice Mac with it's indoor and outdoor dining area. We went there for breakfast and after that a walk at the nearby park. But the play area doesn't suits kids at Jared's age, cos need to climb up the staircase before can slide down. We do surprise that AMK has got such a big and nice park...except that weather is too hot!!

Playing at the playground with other kid




AMK Park

Evening outing at Vivocity

We went to Vivocity for a evening outing...There Jared had his home cooked dinner and we had ours too, Long John..facing sentosa.

Jared requested this pic cos he like the 10s flashing from the camera's auto taking function. He loves to yell "Yeh" after the 10s. hehe.

Jared had a happy time walking around vivo

We are Friends of Zoo!

Got motivated when I saw Rae's happy video playing at Zoo's children pool...at the same time, also got fed up by the balloting system for zoo pass from my comp...To strike it is probaly as hard as 4D... So finally we stepped into zoo again after 9 mths and got ourselves the Friends of zoo so that we could come anytime we wants and exposed Jared to more outdoor activities.

Frankly speaking, I think we regretted the decision. It was so hot and Jared's response was so-so only probaly due to the hot weather too. Of cos, compared to 9mths ago, it was much a better trip...This round Jared could recognise, Tiger, monkey, elephant, rabbit, snake, cow etc etc...Even demostrated the sound of elephant to us.

But our old bones ache even though we only managed to walk half of the park. Nevertheless the kiasu me, would certainly make the $ spent on Zoo Pass well worth..hehe..See ya soon, my zoo friend!

New look!

Finally the new blog skin is up!

Wanted to change the blog skin very much due to following reason:
1) The old blogskin is based on dull green, I get moody looking at the blog
2) Very narrow width for text entry and images
3) It's the standard template from blogger, everytime I surf to another blog having same skin as I am, I felt awkward..as if we were wearing same clothes..haha.

We also renamed the blog title to "Through the Eyes of Jared", sounds good huh? It was Kee Ping's idea..hehe

Still have some parts need modification, Lack of partition line between post to post, just couldn't figure out how to get it in correctly. But I decided to stop for the time being... cos this is too additive...hehe..Imagine I printed out the template and try to study them while having meeting?? Gosh...hope I could stay put with this skin for quite a while..hehe

Goodbye Old Blogskin!




Special thanks to the layout design by Pannasmontata-Templates.net

Blog - Work In Progress

Started to revamp the blog skin today since 5pm+...Till now, almost everything else is ok liao..except the Blog Title, no matter what, just could not get anything uploaded there...Sigh!

Also missed out the lilypie banner..

Will update again soon!

Tagged: Meaning of Jared's Name

I've been tagged!! Tagged by Tricia's mummy for the meaning for Jared's name.

This is the story..

After 12wk scan, Dr. Ang(my gynae) says probaly we'll have a boy....I went thru all kind of baby naming website to study the names..Short listed a few..but can't remember most of them now. Deepest impression should be Ezekiel..But daddy didn't like it as it sound so much like EZlink our daily bus card. hehe.

One night while we were watching tv together, one of the participant's name caught daddy's attention. Jialat forgot the show name..Confirmed with daddy it was his favourite tv program, American Idol...No, that Jared didn't win the contest....He loved the name as it's not common in Sg, also look and sound nice...

But still I couldn't agree with daddy..hoping 1 day I could change his mind..to the EZ name hehe.

So we were addressing the little baby as ah b all the way till he's borned. When Baby was borned...We have no chance and time to do the re-thinking as we were too busy coping with the newborn. After 1 week (time to submit name for birth cert), we just name him...Jared hehe.

A search on the webbies, showed that the name Jared originated from Hebrew and it means "One who rules"

We've feedback that Jared looks / sounds like:

• Past tense of Jar
• Jia Lat (Occasionally, we will call him this when he make us angry)
  

Chinese Name: 祥毅

Jared's chinese name need to be named after 祥 due to 家镨. My MIL came out with so many name, 祥锐, 祥亨...and finally both me and Kee Ping quickly make up our mind to decide that he should be name 毅 before more o-biang names come into their mind. It means determination(毅力)... Judging from the condition he was in, having a space tank on his head, and leg and fingers kena poke till blue black, we need him to have the determination to over come all the pains.

Similarly, we want him to grow up have determination to goes through all kind of challenge in life.

English name: Siong Yee

English name translated to Siong Yee for Fuzhou/Hokkien Dialect. Kee Ping wanted Yi at first, but I preferred 3 character, so chose Yee instead.

Half yearly date with Doctor

I'm pretty sure this is not coincidental anymore...Every half yearly Jared need to fall sick and this is the 3rd time it's happening...

First time visit to doctor happened on the day Jared turned 6mth old. He fall sick for the first time after he was borned for 6 mth, down with runny nose and slight cough..we got panic, took urgent leave to send him to his Pd that afternoon.

2nd time happened just 1 wk after Jared turn 1 yr old..Down with stomach flu. Action: 2 days after sick

3rd time which is right now also happened 1 wk after Jared turn 18mth. Started with runny nose, and finally bad cough with flame..Action: 1 wk after sick..longer time to take action huh? hehe

I sort of forsee that this would come..Hope Jared would recover soon, else no swimming, no outing, worst, no air con at night..

Maybe I should not complain .. I should be thankfully that he is so healthy and only need a visit to Pd once every half yearly...

Hmmm..He missed the 5in1 booster jab, we re-schedule to coming Fri..Judging at the way he is recovering now, probaly need to re-schedule again...Poor boy!

Last Birthday in May!

Finally it's the last birthday in May...Moving forward we will start looking towards Jared and my birthday! hiak hiak!

We celebrated mei mei's birthday at Nihon Mura, Revenue House. Probaly the cheapest sushi on conveyer belt in town 99cents only...nice environment, and special way of ordering food too ..make us felt as if we are having buffet. They doesn't have any menu, we got to take the sushi we wants from conveyer belt ourself (but we not seated beside the belt), for the rest of the items, we got to take something like ice-cream stick with the dish name indicated on it, and place on a cup on the table. The waitress will then help to place the order.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Jared is 18mth!!

We had a small celebration for Jared’s 18mth birthday. Got Jared to choose a cake for himself..and my smart boy chose the most ex, strawberry short cake out of the rest from the cake shop.



Jared’s progress for the past 1 mth:

-More vocally and easier for us to understand his needs

- Say “抱我” (carry me) when need us to carry. Progressed from last month's bao4 only. We are trying to teach him to say, Daddy/Mummy bao4 wo3. Watch out for next mth's update!

- Say “sit” and point to where he wanna sit, it can be stroller, chair, car sit, bicycle

- Say “喝” when he wanna drinks water

- Say “还有” when there’s remaining of milk in his milk bottle

- Say "高" to describe high building, double deck bus anything high

- Sing a long with me for Twinkle, Twinkle Star and Hey, diddle

* Purple: Jared will sing the part of the song, when I paused there..

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are
Up above of the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Note: Daddy happened to realised this after he got back from OT in the afternoon of 18May

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle,
the cow jump over the moon
Note: I happened to realised this when I was trying to sing this song on 18May in the car ride after our eveing outing..cycling at East Coast...but forgot the lyrics, Jared happened to respond to the song almost spontataneusly. Till now I could only remember the first 2 lines..Jared also can sing the last word "spoon" at the end of the song.


- Sing e-i-e-i-o

- Immitate us say aiyo

- Say curry, rice...Both of these word only need to taught once, he could follow next..Cos we had home cooked Jap Curry today..

- Loves to say "daddy", occasionally he would take photo frames at home, and point to the pic and says daddy

- Say "Whampoa" and "sambabang"..errr something similar lah, Sembawang is pretty challenging huh?

- Knows opposite
Start vs Stop
Inside vs Outside
Black vs White

Happy 2nd Mother's Day!

Jared presented a carnation to me during an activity in Mygym. I thought it was a pleasant surprise..

He was supposed to stand at a white line and walk across to hit 2 balls hanging around before pick up the carnation and pass it back to me…He didn’t give me the flower…I snatched heheh..

Best pressie Jared gave me this year..probaly is calling me "Mummy" ...He was able to say "Mummy" since last week, but he hardly calls me leh. Also at the same time, he knew how to call KP daddy already! He likes calling daddy, sometime when he wake up in the middle of the night he would say "daddy"..probaly he knows I would definitely ignore him...hehe..

I remembered both KP and me went to Outback Restaurant for a small celebration last year without Jared hehe..but really doesn't look mothers day celebration even though we enjoyed the dinner a lot hehe...

So this year, I insist of bringing Jared along..We celebrated the event at Pasir Ris Park..at a restaurant by the beach. Not many restaurant there, but the children’s playground at the park looks good...The stroll after dinner was a nice one, we made Jared walk quite a long way, and as he walked he blahs at the same time, real cute..probaly was scolding us why we don't want to carry him. hehe.. We really need to exhaust his energy so that he could sleep better in the nite..

Multi purpose dinner

The dinner has many fold of celebration..

1) Popo's 80th birthday (Main) 23 Mar-Lunar Calendar
2) Mother's birthday 9 May
3) Mother's day celebration 2nd Sunday of May
4) KP's birthday 29 Apr
5) Wei Ming's farewell He left for Germany the next day and left poor meimei at home..haha

Hehehe..but the kiam siap me still choose a simple place for dinner..at Jumbo Seafood restaurant..so that I won't get heart attack when bill comes..

Nevertheless we had a good dinner..loved their black pepper chilli crab, probaly the 1st time which I get to try black pepper crab...but KP didn't get to try any crab at all (none of the 3 crab we ordered)..cos he's busy entertaining Jared...

Muffin - Taste like Heaven...

Haha..Definitely exaggerated..but this round, our baking was a success! After 2 failure on ready premix cake mixture..we switch to start from scratch instead..although almost back up a few times when we were shopping for the raw materials..

The banana walnut muffin turned out to be soft, moist and so tasty..Jared also like the muffin a lot..Next we look forward to bake scone, plain cake..and more muffins. But our cheapo mixer spoilt during the last stage of mixing (heng ah)..think have to wait for sometime before we could start the engine again..hehe..Sharing the recipe:

Banana Walnut Muffins (Yield 7 muffins)
To sift together as (A):
1 cup plain flour
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 cup oil (corn oil will be good)
1/2 cup sugar 1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 bananas, roughly mashed
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Stir oil and sugar together
3. Beat in egg. Mixture will turn gluey.
4. Mix in (A)
5. Stir in vanilla essence, bananas and walnuts
6. Fill muffin cups up to 3/4 full
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 20mins.

p/s: My contribution to the muffin is only mash the banana + chop the walnut..KP did the rest..hehe.

Hay Dairies Farm

We visited Hay Daries Farm on Fri. Thought it might be awkward if there were only 3 of us to watch milking session...didn't expect to bump into so many group of kindergarden kids. Quite fun...free entry and only need to pay $2 for the food to feed the meh meh..Jared refuse to say "goat" ..said meh meh instead..hehe.

We also tried the goat's milk(choc flavour)..but not much taste..pretty plain.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Today is Daddy's big 32nd Birthday! We had a small celebration at home last night, 3 of us.. DIY everything including the CAKE!?!, pasta, and lamb chop.. I was the one who suggested maybe we should bake a cake..but in actual case, Daddy bake the cake..for himself! hehe.. I'm not good in handling mixer + the complicated microwave for its oven function.

Daddy has been really helpful and loving since Jared was borned. He did all the bathing of Jared during weekend, and clean Jared's butt when he poo and wake up for all the night feeds ever since I stop breast feed..No complains even though there was a period of time Jared could wake up 3x in the night for feed.

Today we just wanna tell you, We Love You So Much, Thank you Daddy!

Birthday Video

I Hate Hair Cut!

Jared's hair was way too long, the fringe going to stab into his eyes soon..From the hair cut experience just before CNY, we promised ourself never step into a salon unless its necessary!..That time I proudly promise the hair dresser from Junior League that Jared won't cry..In the end, he almost tear the shop down..hehe. This round, I got myself more prepared..tell the hair dresser first thing..He would cry when you start shaving..so everyone are ready for the grouchy Jared..and yes, he did make noise!..

Had a change of hairstyle for Jared. Nice? hehe..Been wanting to try the mushroom hairstyle leh..But daddy always say his hair too thin to look nice in it..I find it turn out not bad..although occasionally look sha2 sha3 de4 (stupid? blur?) Jared could say these words too. hehe.

p/s: Jared tends to address Daddy as "papa" most of time, Strange we hardly use Papa but he still managed to learn it somewhere.

Jared's stunts from MyGym

Hey, check out Jared's stunt at MyGym..

Stunt 1:

Stunt 2:


Jared simply loves these stunts..will kwai kwai wait for his turn to do them..hehe.

p/s: My comp. blocks youtube, found photobucket not bad for videos..easy to use, faster speed too.

Jared is 17 MO!

- Development of Jared over the mth

1) Pro in these few words required our action
- 抱 (carry)
- 开 (open)
- 要(want)

2) Like to walk in circle, sideways, reverse...like dancing..Whenever I see him doing that, I'll offer him a dance of cha cha..of cos I dunno how to dance..but anyhow also he happy hehe..

3) New words learnt
Animals : cow, niu2, horse, roo (for kangaroo), goat, sheep
numbers : 1, 2,4 ,5,6, 8, 9
Vege : onion, carrot
alphabets : A, B, C, K
Ppl : baby, Uncle, Aunty (still no daddy in his dictionary..hehe, mama also sometimes anyhow use)
Others : thank you, Perth, holiday, yes, no, OK, pain, cold, button, plane, cloud, book
and many many other words, occasionally he will just pop a new word and make us excited!

If asked Do you feel cold? Jared's reply is always..."cold cold"...so we don't know if he's cold in the end..heheh...

4) Loved to sit at drivers seat in the car and play with the stearing ever since he successfully climb over once. and so now, its always a painful experience in the car nowadays..cos he could never sit still anymore in the car seat..Find everyone chance to get over to driver's seat.

5) Finally, could sit still on stroller again!!...Since newborn he never like to sit in the stroller,like to push it instead...make us wonder if its the brand of the stroller that's not comfortable? After the long wait, finally he realised its so comfortable sitting in stroller while waiting for us to push him...Think we have not used the stroller for at least 6 mth before this.

7) 1 nap in the day only, usually its around 12pm after lunch. But when we go mygym, he will sleep right after the class..too exhausting..hehe..

My Conversation with 17 Mth Old Jared

I showed Jared the pic of him at the ball pool in the last posting.

Me : Who's that? (Me pointing to his face)
Jared : Jared
Me : What's that? (Me pointing to the balls)
Jared : ball
Me : Do you want to go there?
Jared : I want
Me : Is it nice?
Jared : nice!
Me : ok, we'll go there on this sat. We missed last sat's class.

Sooo sweet to be able to communicate verbally with my little baby!

Day 6 Kings Park and Home Sweet Home 21 Apr 07

Have read a lot of reviews Kings Park is big and beautiful and is a must for visitors coming to Perth. So we included a picnic itnery at this park. Jared have fun walking in the greens...but it was pretty hot under the sun.





Took the 3pm flight home..arrrrhhh..trip was too short..and we started talking about when to visit Perth again!

With Jared along, even though it meant more work and less time to rest & relax for us, but the joy he brought us ...was more than everything. He showed his appreciation to the natures with lotsa of wows and 美..which is more rewarding than anything else.

Try asking Jared this..

Where did you go for holiday?
Jared: Perth

So cute right? At 17mth Jared knew that he is away for holiday..and enjoyed every part of it together with us!

Perth Trip Pics

Day 5 Caversham Wildlife Park + Fremantle 20 Apr 07

We drived north to Swan Valley to visit the Wildlife Park, about half an hour's drive.

Its much much bigger than Sunflower Animal farm we visited at Margaret River..and look more like a zoo. I loved the hand feed kangaroo area in the park..So many big and small kangaroo around. We also saw the wombat, both daddy and me manage to try carry it..a 28kg 8yr old wombat. Jared woke up from his nap when we were there..He thought its a soft toy..keep shouting wa wa...hehe..Daddy also had a try on camel ride..and lastly we saw the koala..was allowed to stroke its back only.


See Jared got kissed by the kangaroo.. In fact the kangaroo also kissed his lips..hehe. The kangaroos are bigger and taller than Jared!



After that we drived south to Fremantle...to taste their famous fish and chip. The Fremantle and E-shed market were pretty dissapointing.

Perth Trip Pics

Day 4 Cowarumup and Donnybrooks Fruit Orchard 19 Apr 07

The day started with an half an hour drive north to Cowarumup town for the famous Margaret River Chocolate Factory and Cape Lavender. Reached too early at the MR Choc Factory, so we went to visit the Cape Lavender first. Think its not the lavender season, not a lot of lavender around. But check out best pic of Jared taken there. Its the nicest pic throughout the trip.

MR Chocolate Factory got this free flow of chocolate chips, which Jared get to choose from milk/choc milk/dark choc. Jared's fav is the choc milk. Managed to try their chocolate drink, which they boast to be the best in the world which I thought so so nia wuh.
Then we visited the Candy cow-candy shop and MR Dairy Company..which were on the way..before the long drive back to Perth.

We took an alternate path back to Perth so that we could stop by at Donnybrook's Old Goldfield Fruit Orchard. Even though it make the journey back to Perth almost longer by 2x...its worth the trip.

We saw red ripen apples..lotsa of them on the trees..So excited..and Jared busy munching the apple, and me? busy trying and picking the apples loh. We also saw some plums (daddy's fav) and pear. Had a hard time searching for edible plum, its end of season, so most of them almost rotten..but it's daddy's fav fruit..so I took some time to look around and managed to find a few. Very sweet plum. The apples are a bit sour though.

Perth Trip Pics