Life of a yummy baby ... and now there are 2!!!!!

Whenever Morgan gets to receive a present, I always seem to show more delight than my son. Beaming with excitement I unpacked the wrapping, peeling off layer by layer, while he sits and looks curiously at the unraveled mess. Like most babies, he has an absolute love for playing with the torn wrapper or the empty box that comes with it.

As my fingers slowly remove the bubble wrap, I found that it's a very very cute *gasp* wooden, rocking chair with very cute clown faces on the side. Ohh, it's Morgan's very own rocking chair leh - I like!













Thank you Aunty Ann for the lovely present. We think you're gorgeous!

很 抱 欠 to keep everyone waiting for updates - it has been a terribly busy week for Morgan & mummy. We really have to start to set more regular blogging time aside everyday and to keep the updates more regular. Anyway here's the rough update on what we did most of this week :


I had to catch up with my little friends and tell them about my little trip to London.














Then it's a social afternoon for me and my group of friends.
This week we met at Jack's place because he just had his christening last weekend. I can testify that the christening cake was very yummy and delicious. I wish my mummy could bake like this!


Harry who turned 2-years-old today invited me to his birthday party. I got him a Thomas the Tank Engine story book which also includes 12 exclusive posters, because Harry turned out to be a big fan of trains - even his birthday cake comes in the form of Thomas the Tank Engine. And the amount of toys he's got - it's amazing! Train sets, cars, tractors, farmhouse, animals, dinosaurs .. you name it, he's got it.







I had such a wonderful time that I stayed on to play by myself even after Harry's gone to take his nap.

We decided to go to London last weekend to visit some old friends who have recently become newly-weds. To wish them well, we brought Morgan along to visit and also to offer them a taster session of what it's like to be parents. I am glad to say - no one's complained about the nights and it hasn't put anyone off parenting totally yet, which is a reassuring.

Morgan's first trip to London on the First Great Western.







Got issued his first train ticket too - which didn't survive very long, not surprising!

LONDON : welcome to the bright lights and big city!



It was a brilliant afternoon, we saw people ice-skating outside the Natural History Museum though Morgan was too young to appreciate the dinosaur exhibits.




We went straight to the Science Museum briefly to meet Adrian for lunch and soon after to the V&A for coffee and cakes. Gone are the days when we would spend all day at the museum taking our time, roaming about till our legs tire before sitting down to a conversation about 'What is the influence on pottery in Europe during the rule of Genghis Khan?' or 'What constitutes a Turner Prize?' Now we count ourselves lucky if we manage to browse the exhibits.










We stayed with Richard and Sue in Wallington, South London - which is in Zone 5 (the farthest of London is Zone 6). I have no problems with taking the public transport if its anything like Singapore's. But trying to catch trains on a Sunday is a nightmare! Trains are cancelled last-minute or without any warning, and get replaced by buses that arrive late. Worse - when you have to cope with changing a smelly baby on a double-decker busful of people before getting to the train station. Anyway we sort of managed a-la ugly-Singaporean-style, to leave Morgan's bag of poo under the bus-seat because I had forgotten to keep the nappy sacks handy and it was not convenient to find them at the time, which grossed out some on-looking teenagers from behind. Nevermind lah, London isn't that clean after all, I thought to myself ....

Morgan also met up with almost 3 months old Kayla - new addition of Singaporean-Brunei couple Sharon & Matthew. Both me and Morgan are in full admiration of Kayla's vast amount of jet-black hair from birth. And I checked already - Sharon didn't shave Kayla's head nor her eyebrows during the confinement period. 婆 婆 suggested that rubbing alcohol over the baby's head can stimulate hair growth but I still feel that this hair-raising issue is all down to the genes.













Perhaps I could investigate further by looking through old pictures of myself and Lewis to see what sort of hair we had as a baby - but that would have to be another post!!

Happy cyclist .... doing his very first

tour-de-living-room,

all by himself!




Seeing Morgan on the bicycle reminded me that I have totally forgotten about the entry on Owen's birthday party just before Christmas. We arrived at this party on a tandem with Morgan in the backseat. What was more impressive to us was that he was not worried about the ride at all, neither did he complain! After looking at these pictures, it looks like he's happier when he's in charge than taking a backseat!

Daddy & Morgan get on the tandem .....










Jacob (10mths) and Morgan - Morgan and Elliot (1yr) vying for the wheel.











Jacob is walking around by pushing his baby-walker while Elliot has just started to take a few steps on his own.




Morgan says Happy Birthday to Owen, who also goes to the same swimming class every Thursday.




Lots of fun on the bouncy-castle and even a goody-bag to take home! Groovy!!








The beginning of this week has seen some unusually mild weather in the UK this winter. We had been getting some rainy and foggy days but nothing serious like frost or snow yet! On Monday the temperature was like 11 degrees and sunny, unbelievable! I shudder to think that this could be a sign of global warming. Nonetheless it's happy days for little Morgan!

This week Morgan has worked hard on eating his meals all day. Ok, this is my Singaporean side coming out - going on about Morgan's eating all the time. Eating is not just a favorite past-time for Singaporeans - I truly believe it runs in our blood! As the Chinese saying goes - 能吃是福! I can now fully understand how parents want their child not just to eat, but eat well ..... because the ability to enjoy life is the ability to enjoy one's food. How very true! Although I am no Jamie Oliver (UK's pro-organic chef) or Annabel Karmel (baby-food expert), I have done my healthy-parent bit to boycott MacDonalds and Chinese take-aways. This is a sample of Morgan's home-cooked food (next to favorites like paper, shoes and telephone wires):

1. Swede,barley,lentils and rice
2. Broccolli, potato and celery soup
3. Sweet potato and carrots
4. Fish pie
5. Banana, grapes and rice cakes
Bits of cheese, biscuits and toast make great finger food and act well as 'decoy'!

... at the National WaterFront Museum of Swansea.

Life is truly energetic for an 8-month old baby. When Morgan wakes up in the morning, his happy face lights up as if to say: TODAY is going to be so exciting! I wonder what fun I'm going to get!




He looks at his mummy and goes 'babababa' as if to say : 'What shall we do today? Are we swimming, singing, walking, or going to the ball park?' So no matter how tired I feel (which seems like most of the time), I will drag myself out of bed and get on with the day!

Most people (especially dads) seem to think that being a mum is like having a dream-job. I think it's because mums seem to be able to get up late in the mornings, have coffee breaks and naps throughout the day and don't get told off by anyone. Of course dads feel that this cannot be worse than them being at work (but at least they're paid!). But a mother's job is so much more , and it's wageless too .... simple activities like feeding - can easily take up all day. Now that he's on solids, there's the preparation, the cooking, the freezing and de-frosting ... so many stages! Sometimes I wish that I could breast-feed forever. At this stage, they are not just messy but slow eaters too! At other times they can be messy with a strop!

Then of course the daddies come home smiling and looking forward to play baby-swinging activities while mums have been putting up with the whinging and crying all day long.

And if anything there's also the tidying, cleaning and washing (especially with smelly nappies urghh!) to catch up on in between - where got time for naps? So the going-out-and-having-fun option is sometimes better than the staying-home-and-going-mad option. Afterall, dads can be mums for a day but mums can never resign from being mothers.

New Year was spent in Swansea, South Wales, with Kay - Lewis's ex-landlady. Lewis used to live there for 4 years when he was in the University of Swansea doing his phd. We were hoping to take Morgan for his first walk along the Gower on New Year's Day.


During the summer, the Gower is a lovely place to enjoy the sea but it wasn't a very nice day for walking. The weather was grim and the sea was clouded over by a blanket of fog.











Shortly after getting to the beach, we saw these winds sweeping up the sands, high up onto the shore.







Daddy and Morgan braving the winds!







That sums up our walk!