CNY Madness

Typically, Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations lasts for approximately 20 days: 15 days of actual CNY celebrations plus about 5-7 days of preparations and reunion dinners. That's a lot of feasting and getting fat!

While I'm not going to attempt to cover all 20 days of celebrations in just one post, I will do so for the first week =)

Starting with our annual family reunion dinner on the eve of CNY. Following tradition, we had steamboat at home just like we did during CNY last year.

Annual reunion steamboat dinner

The mum-in-law wanted an easy clean up since she wasn't feeling too well so I helped to lay out aluminium on the hot-plate as well as the plastic sheet and newspapers on the table and floor.

Unlike last year, it was just the four of us this year because baby girl's cousins were vacationing in Tokyo (which was why we had an early reunion dinner with them 2 days earlier) and her great-granddad and granddad had passed away.

The mood was definitely not the same as last year but we tried to be positive about it all, knowing that he was with us in spirit.

Because of the recent deaths in the family, we were not allowed to celebrate CNY (i.e. no visitations, exchanging of mandarin oranges, giving of red packets, etc) according to Chinese traditions and customs.

But that didn't stop me from dressing baby girl in a cute 'ching chong' outfit on the 1st day of CNY.

"Happy Chinese New Year!"

Even if it's to go see her granddad at Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium. After spending the rest of the afternoon snoozing at home, we joined my aunt's (mum's sister) and my family for a nice dinner at a restaurant nearby.

As usual, it is a must to 'Lo Hei' (Prosperity Toss) some 'Yu Sheng' (literally means raw fish) at every meal for good luck and fortune.

Lo Hei

It's like tossing a coin in the fountain and making a wish. Only we get to eat the coin and the fountain! *laughs*

After a nice but ridiculously expensive meal (all Chinese restaurants jack up the prices before and during CNY due to the high demand), we headed back to my mum's place for some games.

Going to Popo's (maternal grandmother) house

Of course, the day is never complete without a family photo right?

My lovely family
(Miss you daddy! Wish you will come home from China soon..)

On the 2nd day of CNY, the next day, we were awaken by the sound of clanging cymbals and pounding drums. It was a lion dance troupe performing at a shophouse downstairs.

Tok tok chiang chiang chiang chiang chiang chiang CHIANG!

The Chinese believe that Lion / Dragon dance will bring good luck and prosperity to the one that engages it. This is a very common sight in my old school neighbourhood and needless to say, I had a great view of all the action from above in the comfort of my own home =)

Lion dance (left), Dragon dance (right)

It was quite a celebration and many onlookers gathered to take pictures and congratulate the boss of the shophouse. We then spent the rest of the day shopping at Ion Orchard, which was one of the few shopping centres that were opened in the whole of Singapore (and even then not opened completely).

On the 3rd day of CNY, the hubby and I were back at work and I had a super hard time keeping my eyes opened! It was really tough getting back into work-mode after a long week of celebrations! Nevertheless, we still managed to bring baby girl to Tiong Bahru Park in the evening after work.

Baby girl's 1st time at Tiong Bahru Park

I know it is strange that I have lived almost a third of my life (11 years to be exact) in Tiong Bahru and yet, have never been to this park. Sure, I've passed by this unique playground structure a million times and yet have never been in it.

Topsy-turvy train playground

Until now. Well.. better late than never. We discovered that baby girl absolutely loved the swings! =)

1st time on the swings

As it was her first time on it, I didn't know how she will react to it and whether or not she will be able to hold on tight. But hold on she did and thoroughly enjoyed herself =)

We also tried the old school merry-go-round and climbed into the train structure.

Merry-go-round (left); inside the train structure (right)

But baby girl wasn't as thrilled by it as she was the swings.

A self-taken picture with baby girl

It turns out, she was developing a fever! Apparently, my mum-in-law never got to see a doctor since the eve of CNY (as all the clinics were closed) and passed the virus to her.

Baby girl developed a high fever in the middle of the night (39 degrees celcius) so I had to take leave today to bring her and my mum-in-law to see the doctor, who said they might have a viral infection and prescribed a ton of medication.

Sound asleep after taking the meds

Both are feeling much better now and I'm praying they will get totally healed soon.

Braun ear thermometer

Incidentally, the forehead thermometer we bought was spoilt so I went out and got this ear thermometer, which was definitely more accurate, easy to use and reliable (but also more expensive!).

Hope you had a better CNY than we did (although we really did enjoy slacking around and doing nothing)! Enjoy the rest of your CNY celebrations! I know I will =)

CNY Reunion Buffet at Carousel

We had an early reunion dinner last Friday with the hubby's family at the award-winning Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts.

Carousel @ Royal Plaza

We decided on this place having heard all the good reports of spectacular seafood and wide range of desserts. And boy were we not disappointed!

Carousel's seafood bar

They have almost every shellfish you can think of! The hubby's loves all kinds of shellfish as his logic is that any meat that requires protection from a shell MUST be really tasty stuff! And if you think about it.. it's actually quite true.

Needless to say, the hubby was in heaven!

Herbal prawns

We took bowl after bowl of herbal prawns as well as plate after plate of large oysters, Alaskan king crabs, scallops and my absolute favourite.. lobsters!

All-you-can-eat-lobsters!

I think I ate 10 half lobsters at a go! Very tasty. Probably the only thing I ate for the whole dinner *laughs*

And then on to my favourite part of any buffet, the dessert tables!

Dessert tables

They had three different flavour of fondue: chocolate, white chocolate and dark chocolate! It's no surprise which one I went for.. dark chocolate of course! When dripped on Movenpick chocolate ice-cream, it's like heaven! =)

My other favourite is the chocolate cake, which was so good even the hubby and mum-in-law (two people who really don't like to eat cakes) liked it! Said a lot about how good it was!

Baby girl was so crazily eating prawns, cakes, macarons and ice-cream cones that she dirtied the whole floor and her traditional Chinese Cheong Sam that we bought in Shenzhen last year.

Looking really lady-like in her pretty Cheong Sam and sparkling shoes

It was still too big for her then but totally fits her like a glove now! Very cute right? *smiles with pride*

Her 二哥哥 (second elder brother) put himself in charge of watching her the whole night, making sure she did not eat from the floor, touch the plates or fall down and get hurt. And he did a really great job! Elder brothers are so sweet to their 妹妹s (little sisters).. she's so lucky to have two sweet older brothers =)

Some nice pictures with my pretty but unwilling baby girl

At the end of the evening, we were so full we almost couldn't walk! Nevertheless, we still had time for one last family photo!

This one's for you, 阿爸 (dad-in-law).
Wish you were here.

We'll definitely be back! =)

P.S: Apologies for some of the blurred pictures. I forgot to charge my camera battery so I had to use my iPhone camera to take most of the pictures. I've been finding that this happens to me a lot these days.. *sigh*

Prepare for CNY with Disney Junior

With Chinese New Year (CNY) approaching, I'm sure many of you are busy tidying up and decorating your houses in preparation for the lunar new year.

For those of you procrastinators who wait till the last minute and are still figuring out what to do for your CNY gatherings, Disney Junior is once again coming to your rescue!

Remember the microsite 'For Grown Ups' that Disney Junior unveiled to us last month? Well, this time, Disney Junior is bringing you new party ideas to create a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed Dragon festival for your family and visiting relatives and friends.

Disney Junior Asia, For Grown Ups - CNY party planning

You can print out and make ang pow (red) packets, greeting cards, mandarin orange bags, lanterns and even firecrackers with your children. Incidentally, Disney Junior sent me some of their nice ang pow packets and I must say it looks really unique and cute =)

For those who are a master chef in the kitchen, there are many Lunar New Year recipes on the site including the Mickey and Minnie Prosperity Dragon 'Yu Sheng' dish, Mickey's fortune rolls and many more. There are also lots of fun activities that you could do with your kids for entertainment.


Disclosure: A complimentary product from Disney Junior Asia was received for the purposes of this review. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.

Baby Girl's 1st Visit to Her Dentist

If you've been following my blog, you'll know how I keep harping on the importance of bringing your children to see their dentist when they are young.

As I'm not a person who does not practice what I preach, I finally brought my baby girl to see her dentist (who also happens to be one of my girlfriends' future husband) at Tooth Angels & Co. Dental Surgeons.

Baby girl's 1st ever dental visit

Having never been to a dental clinic before, her dentist let her take time to get use to the environment and play around in the usual dentist chair.

Next, he introduced her to his equipment by letting her touch them.

Introducing her to the equipments

I'm not sure if that is even allowed but it totally put baby girl at ease. It also helped that there was a nice TV playing cartoons for her to watch =)

But she wasn't really interested in watching cartoons, since there was a ton more things to explore! Her dentist then decided to read her a story about children visiting the dentist to get rid of monsters in their teeth.

"Look at all those monsters!"

Both her dentist and I doubted if she really understood what he was saying but she listened so intently, I suppose she did understand something. Because next thing you know, her dentist asked her to open her mouth wide and she did so even though she looked really apprehensive about it.

"Open your mouth wiiiiiddde!"

As she was still young, he didn't do any cleaning. He did, however, advise me to brush and floss her teeth regularly as plaque was already starting to get stuck in between her front teeth. "OMG!" I thought, "already?!?" He promptly took out some string and flossed some right out of her teeth as if to prove his point. Oh man, looks like there's no running away from it.

I have to say, I used to be very 'on the ball' with her nightly brushing routine but ever since I started work, I've been really slacking on my mama duties in this area. I've since turned over a new leaf and has been brushing and flossing (yes, flossing!) my baby girl's teeth every night =)

Baby girl has also learnt a new action since her visit to her dentist. When asked, "how do you brush your teeth?", she would mimick her dentist's finger-horizontally-placed-at-teeth-and-moving-left-and-right action! Cute ttm (to the max)!

You should schedule a visit to your dentist no matter whether you're young or old if you want to keep your teeth white and most importantly IN YOUR GUMS!

Oh, and I know a good child-friendly dentist if you need one for your kid. Just saying.. *laughs*

Tooth Angels & Co. Dental Surgeons is located at 587 Bukit Timah Road, Coronation Plaza, #02-34, Singapore 269707

Disclosure: I was not paid to do this review but since I wasn't charged for baby girl's first visit (which is really damn smart of her dentist since I'll be in his future wife's bridal party and he certainly don't want to be in my bad books just in case I bully him on his big day *laughs*), I thought it is only right to say something nice and promote his services =)

The 18th Milestone

Baby girl is 18 months old and I can't believe how fast time flies! This time last year, she couldn't even crawl yet and had to be carried everywhere. Nowadays, she can do much more than cry whenever she doesn't get what she wants.

#1: Walks very well although running is still a challenge
Just 5 months ago I was worrying that she is a slow walker but then she took off and never looked back. These days we have to keep a keen eye on her when we're at the malls or risk having to shout out for her when she's out of sight (which unfortunately happens a lot). Thankfully she hasn't progressed to running yet so she's never far whenever we go on a frantic hunt for her (gave me a heart attack each time!)

#2: Insists on feeding herself
She has now reached a point in her development where she refuses to let mummy feed her if she can help it. In the past I used to peel off some bread and put it into her mouth. But now she will refuse to eat it from my hand, insisting to hold the bread and eat it herself instead.

Eating a banana on mama's bed

I suppose it's time for me to let go and let her be more independent!

#3: Has a vocabulary of about 100 words
She can recognise and point to many pictures of objects and animals. I'm not sure if it's a result of watching all the Your Baby Can Read DVDs but I'm still proud of her nevertheless. Her favourite words include: eat, food, yakult, milk, 奶嘴 (pacifier), 臭臭 (stinky stinky = nickname for her favourite pillow), walk and (surprise, surprise.. as if..) NO. She also likes to scream for her 奶奶 (paternal grandmother) and MAMA whenever she needs them at her service.

She can't read yet, unfortunately, but I'm not worried as she loves for us to read to her! Every night she will tug at her daddy's hand, telling him "read, read, book!" and then pulling him to her favourite sofa to read. Besides, she has always been a slow starter for everything but once she starts, there is definitely no stopping her! =)

#4: Understands simple instructions
She responds to us now whenever we ask her to do something. "Throw this in the dustbin," I'll say, passing her a dirty tissue and she will promptly dump it into the bin. "Show me how you cry" her dad will say and she will give you the saddest, most pathetic look that she can master (great actress this one). But her latest action (and my favourite) has got to be this:

Mama: "How do you act cute?"
Baby Girl (points at cheeks): "Ack kuuute!"

She's supposed to do it with both fingers on her cheek and her head tilted like how mummy taught her to do it but she only does it 10% of the time (which explains why I didn't manage to capture it on camera). She loves the reaction she gets when she does it and now readily 'acts cute' when anyone asks her to. Oh man, I love her at this age! =)

#5: Calls out to you when she sees you from afar
I can be a million miles away but the minute she sees my hair she starts saying "Mama, Mama!" to her 奶奶 (who's carrying her) and she will be wondering where I am since even she can't see that far!

#6: Shows affection more willingly
Though not often, she is now more generous in showing you her affection! When asked to give you a kiss, she will pucker up and give you a BIG FAT JUICY KISS! When asked for a hug, she will go "big ugh" (i.e. big hug) and hug you.

I'm that sucker who needs the kiss and hug before I start my day at work and after I get home from work! Obviously she's not always obliging but I treasure whatever she gives me! =)

#7: Takes an interest in playing with dolls
Her 奶奶 bought her this cute doll a long time ago and she wasn't really interested in it until recently.

She calls her "妹妹" (little sister)

Now she is so attached to her, she calls for her everytime she eats, sleeps, watches TV, etc. The only thing she hasn't done with her doll is go out with it as I've heard lots of horror stories of mothers losing their kid's favourite toy only to have their kids get so upset that they can't eat or sleep. I ain't gonna risk letting that happen as they don't even produce this doll anymore (was a clearance item)!

So it's hide the doll and distract her with the shoes whenever it's time to go out. She's so excited about going out that she can totally forget all about her doll once she's out the door. True story.

#8: Sits still for a haircut (albeit for only 10 minutes)
After a bad experience with bringing her to the salon for a haircut, I decided that I'm better off cutting her hair at home. So with the help of my mum-in-law and a hair-holder-thingy..

Getting ready for her haircut

..I cut her hair in the room while she watched TV. It was going really well at first, with me trimming and trimming away. That is, until I came to the fringe. She hated all the hair in her eyes so she was all squirmy and moving about.....

Let's just say the fringe did not look like what I had pictured in my mind *sigh*

Oh my baby! You really do grow up fast! Mummy will totally miss you once you're passed this stage so please don't pass this stage so fast ok? Pretty please? *smile*

Mama loves you ^-^

P.S: Sorry for the blurred pictures. She's so fast I only have time to whip up my iPhone! *laughs*

P.P.S: Our Ipanema Beach Pack giveaway, which is happening right now, is ending in ONE week's time! Don't forget to take part =)

Celebrating Baby N's 1st Birthday at His New Home!

Girlee's little friend Baby N turned 1 year old last week!

Baby N's 1st Birthday Party

I think the birthday boy knew this was his very own special day!

The smiley birthday boy

To kill two birds with one stone, his parents decided to make it a 1st birthday plus house warming party! They had just moved in to their brand new flat, Natura Loft at Bishan, and was proud to show off all the work (and money) that they had pumped into the renovations.

The first thing that catches your eyes when you walk into their 5 room apartment is their gorgeous balcony with a beautiful view.

The amazing view from their balcony

In tiny, high-rise-filled Singapore, having a nice view of any kind is a great luxury. But my favourite part of the house had to be the walk-in closet and the master bathroom with the beautiful view.

(Clockwise from left): His mummy's beautiful walk-in closet; loads and loads of pictures of Baby N everywhere;
the amazing view from the master bathroom

It feels like we walked into a hotel! Beautiful job W&E =)

After checking out their house, we of course had to take some pictures with the Big Star of the day. But both kids seemed more interested in anything but take pictures.

Baby N is really more interested in hitting his own balloons than to entertain us with a picture

Finally, no birthday party is complete without the birthday cupcakes.

Baby N's super-duper-animaley birthday cupcakes

Of course baby girl wanted more than one but she only got one, the one with the tiger because her daddy said she was born in the Year of the Tiger.

We had a great time, thanks for having us and once again,

Happy Birthday Baby N!

Girls' Night Out at Artease

I was supposed to blog about this last week but since I started full-time work, I've been finding it hard to blog as regularly as I used to.

Anyway, my gal pals and I met up in the last week of December last year for a post-Christmas dinner/gift exchange. They introduced me to a very nice cafe in Esplanade known as Artease.

Artease Cafe @ Esplanade

Its creators put tongue-in-cheek in the way they do cafes. Instead of regular menus, you get fun and wacky ones which you can take pictures with. The wall is covered in cartoons and a TV on the wall flashes animations featuring their famous bubble tea.

Their food was also surprisingly affordable and very tasty. I particularly loved the honey and aloe vera drink and wasabi dips (for the fries)!

The whole set ('bento', drink & dessert) costs only $20

We were so full that we couldn't even finish our food even though we really wanted to! We exchanged gifts after that and I was really blessed by all the nice presents. Thanks gals!

Gift exchange

It is really rare for me to hang out with my gals without baby girl so that I could really focus on them instead of always being distracted by baby girl. I really treasure these moments we have together =)

Love you girls! ||^_^||

I hope that even as we build our individual families (two of the four of us are engaged to be married next year!), we will never forget to spend time with each other. Next time we would be hanging out at swimming pools and art schools and gossip while waiting for our kids to finish their swim/art classes.

Can't wait for that day =)

Artease Cafe @ Esplanade is located at Esplanade Mall, 1 Esplanade Drive, #01-13C, Singapore 038981. Other outlets include Artease @ Tanjong Pagar located at 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, #01-35, Singapore 082001 and Artease Cafe @ Cineleisure located at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, 8 Grange Rd, #01-03, Singapore 239695.

Mother-Daughter Sandals by Ipanema (Plus Giveaway)

Originating from Brazil, Ipanema is now available in more than 90 countries all over the world and exclusively sold in Royal Sporting House (RSH) stores across Singapore. RSH recently contacted me for a review of Ipanema's latest sandal collection, Ritmos II, and offered to send me two pairs of sandals (one for me and a matching one for my baby girl).

Mother-daughter matchy-matchy sandals? I was totally on board right away! (You know how I love me to dress her like a mini-me. I mean, that's the whole point of having daughters isn't it? *laughs*)

I chose the blue Ritmos II sandal (left) for me and the pink Flores Barbie sandal (right) for baby girl =)

When the package finally arrived, both baby girl and I were excited to try them out! Baby girl was surprisingly more excited than mummy.. I suppose women's love for shoes is innate? Poor daddy (literally).. *laughs*

Trying out our new Ipanema sandals

Mine fits like glove. Baby girl's on the other hand was still a little too big for her so she'll just have to wait till her feet grows a little larger to really walk well in it.

Nevertheless, it did not stop us from wearing it to IMM's water playground, one of our favourite places to go.

At IMM's Water Playground

As Ipanema is inspired by the beach, its sandals have been created to withstand dirt, water and wear so it's perfect for water activities.

Perfect for water fun!

The waterproof nature of the sandal is my favourite part about it. Sure, it is comfortable, fashionable and very pretty but I still like the fact that it dries up as quickly as it got wet so that my feet would not have to walk in soggy footwear for the rest of the day.

You don't find this 'drying speed' in other kinds of footwear, not even my absolute favourite kind. With the rainy season upon us these days, this is an absolutely vital quality to have!

And in this new year, with the sun coming up again it's all the more important to gear yourself with footwear that would not suffocate your feet and feel as good as it looks.

And here's the best part!

We will be giving away three Ipanema Beach Pack (worth $49 each) to three lucky readers!

Ipanema Beach Pack consists of a Ipanema Beach Mat, a Ipanema Beach Towel & a Ipanema Water Bottle

This is what you have to do to take part:

1) 'LIKE' MadPsychMum's facebook page

2) LEAVE A COMMENT either on this blog post and/or at our 'Ipanema Beach Pack' photo on our facebook page, telling us where you will use the exclusive Ipanema Beach Pack.

3) SHARE this blog post on facebook for additional chances to win!

It's that simple!

This giveaway will end on 20th January 2012 (Friday) and is only open to readers residing in Singapore.

So what are you waiting for? Now that Christmas is over and spring is coming, the Ipanema Beach Pack would definitely be very useful for you and family to enjoy =)

Also don't forget to check out Ipanema's Ritmos II collection which is in RSH stores now!


UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who took part! We will be announcing the winners soon so stay tuned =)

UPDATE (2): I've finally picked the winners (apologies for the delay, there was CNY and baby girl's illness to deal with)! And since I don't trust random.org (no offense to those who do), I did the old school/ancient way..

..by drawing lots!

Congratulations to Eugenia, Ai Sakura & Lidia!

I'll be contacting you soon =)

Disclosure: Complimentary sandals were received from Royal Sporting House for the purposes of this review. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.