Taiwan trip part 1 - Happy 2014!

We left for Taiwan after Christmas, just the 3 of us- It was our longest trip alone with baby - 10 days! So there was lots to plan.. Our itinerary, baby's meals, baby's clothing (we heard it was cold and rainy), baby's medicine (in case he gets sick during the trip).. And there were decisions to make - should we bring the stroller? Should we bring frozen baby food? Etc etc..

K (the planner in the family) is usually the one planning our trips, but this time he was busy at work, and started complaining that i never plan, so I did the planning this time round and as it turns out, I did a great job! ( haha, thick skin right)..

Anyway the trip was perfect - great weather (no rain at all), excellent hotel choices, not too hectic (a not too hectic holiday with a 15 month old is already quite tiring), and everyone had lots of fun, esp baby!

We started off with a Christmasy mood at Changi airport..

And after about 6 hours, we were in our hotel in cold cold Taipei! Even more christmasy!!

Coincidentally we met uncle Terrance and aunty Lina at the hotel lobby.. so we went on a food tour of Ximending together! Yummy yummy fried ji pa and ah zong mian xian were the highlight! 

Very soon, it was time to head back to our hotel, brush our teeth and get ready for bed!

Super love this photo of Adric, he looks soooo cute!

Next day, we woke up all ready for our Taiwan adventure! We took the high speed train to Taichung.. it was really convenient, we could push our stroller up onto the train, and there was a very pretty private nursing room where you can nurse and enjoy the outside view! love the trains in Taiwan.. so baby friendly..

In less than 2 hours, we reached Taichung.. and in another 1 hour by taxi, we are at Cingjing! This was the view from our balcony! Definitely worth the travel!

At Cingjing, we visited the Green Green Grassland..

Adric and daddy enjoying the view of the grassland.. 

There were lots of sheep roaming around the grassland, and we could interact with them up close! Wanna know what Adric thought of the sheep??

Sheep sheep pls don't come near me!!!!

Oh no... he's commingggg!!!

Daddy, let's go!!!!!

He did like the big toy sheep at the minsu thou.. Hee

After the sheep, we went to Swiss garden... we were stuck at the entrance for some time, because of this..

See the little jet of water in the photo? Adric likes all kinds of water jets... he can be entertained for a really long time playing with the tap in the bathroom at home.. So, of cos we could go nowhere when Adric saw this..

See how happy he is...

Mummy pls dont go...

Finally, only the birds could distract him.. and so we managed to enter the garden...

Adric enjoying the pretty flowers..

enjoying feeding the ducks and geese..

not wanting to stop for a break... haha

After Swiss garden, we went to the 'town center' and saw that they were preparing for the new year count down party.. 

 

N we realize we could see the performance from our balcony! To our surprise, we even had an unblocked view of the fireworks! So K and I had a romantic new year count down from our balcony, complete with fireworks and a peacefully sleeping baby! Hee.. Perfect way to start 2014!

                   

No longer a baby..

Adric is really learning very fast these days.. Few weeks ago, he watched a u tube video on baby signing, and he immediately picked up the sign for baby.. He has been using it ever since.. Whenever anyone says the word 'baby', he would put his hands together and show the sign. 

Then 2 days ago, we were reading a storybook, and there was a baby in the story.. So he immediately showed the baby sign, so I said, 'yes that's a baby.. Are you a baby?'.. Adric immediately shook his head! Just like that, my baby has decided that he is no longer a baby! He is a big boy now..

Happy new year of the horse!

The first day of the horse year was simply wonderful! Adric really enjoyed himself.. more than his 1st CNY last year..

This year he participated in the reunion dinner..

He was amazing, he sat throughout the steamboat dinner (which lasted a good 1.5 hours) in his high chair! This is definitely the longest he has ever sat on his chair.. Usually he would be screaming to get out at around the 5 min mark..

After dinner we went home and changed into our new PJs..

Adric was really excited, and refused to sleep.. He just kept running around the house.. N guess what time he eventually fell asleep? 1am!! Well, tradition says daddy mummy will have long life if children sleeps late on eve of cny.. So we let him..

Adric woke up at 10am in the morning.. N it's ang pow time! Adric has to give 2 oranges to daddy n mummy to receive the red packet.. But he was more interested in throwing the oranges around than getting the red packets..

After that we went visiting.. 

Adric was the first to be ready, so he was playing at the playground while waiting for daddy..

Then we went to pai nian at grandpa grandma house..

At 2nd grand aunty's house.. There was a big garden with a mini children's playground.. Adric loves it! He doesn't look very happy in the photo cos we had to interrupt his play to take the photo.. Hee

Then we went to gong gong's house.. But no photos there cos Adric fell asleep.. N also we left our camera at 2nd grand aunty's house.. Hee.. Anyway, we'll see gong gong again tdy, we'll rem to take more photos..

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!! 

Adric in action

There are so many things I wanna blog about.. Christmas, our super fun and wonderfully planned Taiwan trip (guess who planned it? Heehee), my newfound parenting ideas (just read a few good parenting books..), Adric's cuteness (it's a mum's prerogative to go on and on abt her baby's cuteness right? Hee).. Anyway the list goes on.. Where should I start??

Adric's cuteness of course! 2 weeks ago I came back early from a work trip and got to spend an afternoon with Adric at grandma's.. I usually don't get to see what Adric does on a weekday afternoon, cos I'll be at work..

Anyway here's what he was up to at grandma's, it was non stop action..

Pushing my luggage around.. 

Playing with his sandals.. Adric always has a tinge of cheekiness in his eyes when he is up to something.. I love it!

Playing with the loaf of bread.. The only time he stops is when he is really really tired..

Adric is really growing up to be a fearless boy.. He doesn't cry when he falls down.. He had his first fall (complete with a wound n blood.. sobz) at the playground last week.. He just stood up, touch his knee, and went off playing again.. My brave little boy..

This is the almost recovered wound..

Last weekend when I brought him swimming, he fell into the water (with his head submerged), I quickly picked him up, and was all 'baby are you ok?'.. He looked at me and gave me a why-r-u-so worried-look, and just carried on playing..

My baby cries for many other reasons, (like when I don't allow him 'nang nang'), but fear is not one of them it seems!

All Xmas ready and other updates..

Adric is at such a cute age.. He is constantly surprising us with new skills that he is learning.. 

Like this morning, he learnt to shake his head.. We were going through our usual routine of me kissing and saying bye bye to Adric before going to work.. This morning Adric was abit more emotional, so he gave me his classic 'about to cry pouty face' that looks something like this.. 

Always makes my heart melt to see this face..

Anyway, surprisingly he held back his tears, and started shaking his head, asking me not to go! We've been teaching him to shake n nod his head for the past month, but he doesn't wanna do it.. N just when u least expect it, he does it, just like that! Haha.. It's like my baby is growing up - learning to control his emotions n using non crying ways to communicate his thoughts! 

Here's some photos from the weekend.. Was a great one after 4 days away from my baby last week (was away on work trips).. 

We woke up bright and early for our morning walk/breakfast..

As usual, It was non stop action for baby during the walks.. 

Playing w the vending machine..

Climbing stairs..

Trying to jump into the pool..

And throwing a tantrum when we don't allow him to..

He recovers pretty fast from his tantrum, and is up and about again looking for his next mischieve..

In the afternoon, we went Ivin's (again - K loves that place) for lunch..

And then we did some shopping.. 

We got Adric his first Lego Duplo set! A Disney n friends one (cos it was on sale.. Hee).. But Adric doesn't seem too interested in it.. Yet.. Hee

We also managed to get all our Xmas presents! So efficient.. Thanks to the Growing Fun sale.. Hee now our Xmas tree is complete with all the presents under the tree! 

Looking forward to Xmas now.. N our year end trip!!! Excited.. Keke

Adric's favorite activity with Grandpa

Adric loves birds - ever since he was a young baby, he loves looking at birds.. So whenever he cries for whatever reason, we would carry him to the window and show him birds - he would stop crying and sometimes (hopefully) he would forget y he was crying in the first place.. Hee hee

Recently, he and Grandpa developed a favorite past time, which combines 2 of Adric's favorite things - gai gai n birds.. Feed birds!

Whenever we mention the 2 words 'feed bird', Adric would simulate the action of throwing food with his hand - to show us how he feeds birds.. So funny..

Every morning when we are at Grandpa/grandma's place, Adric would start asking (by asking I mean screaming) Grandpa to bring him for gai gai.. So they would bring a piece of bread, n go downstairs to look for birds..

This is Adric and grandpa in the lift on the way down with their plastic bag of bird food..

On one of the mornings, i tagged along on their bird feeding trip, I realized that Adric only feed half of the bread that he brings down to the birds, the other half, he feeds himself! So he was actually having a picnic w the birds! Haha!

Updates on Adric

Woah, it's been almost a month since my last post... been busy, lots happened - some good, some not so good... but since I told myself I will only post good happy memories on this blog, I will not dwell on the not too happy... so here's some happy updates on Adric..

Adric did not win the PS Baby star contest, but we realized that he was selected top 30 finalists out of 500+ babies.. that's top 6%! haha... so it's considered a happy event! Adric baby, well done! You are doing a great job growing into a charming and cheerful little boy... you bring so much joy to everyone... everybody loves you!

Adric is starting to show some of his character, he is active, determined, playful and loves interacting with people! Last weekend, during Shichida class, Adric got bored in class (as he always does, he is the only baby in class who walks around the classroom the most, and refuse to sit on his chair for more than 5 mins), so he started playing peek-a-boo with the teacher, while she was conducting the class! He stood behind the table, and poped his head out and smiled at the teacher... the teacher couldnt help but started laughing.. so cute..

Here are some pictures of Adric interacting with the panda mascots at River Safari... he loves them! We couldnt get a good shot of Adric cos he was too busy playing and touching the 'pandas'.. hee

We also started letting Adric eat by himself - he loves it.. and he is quite good at it.. at 14 months, he can already eat quite comfortably with a spoon.. getting about 70% of the food into his mouth.. the other 30% lands on the floor or on himself.. some land on mummy too! hee

The bowl in the photo is an amazing invention - it has a non slip base, and a curved interior, very good for learning to eat with a spoon! We bought it at Mothercare - cannot really remember the brand now.. another sign of my deteriorating memory.. hee 



Last week, I had my first significant Awww moment with Adric... I was giving him his favourite biscuit as an after dinner snack - he loves the biscuit so much that he would cry like it's the end of the world when u take it away from him... So, after he ate some of the biscuits, I told him, 'Adric, this is the last one ok?' and I closed the lid of the biscuit bottle. So he took the last biscuit, looked at it, ate half of it, and guess what he did? He fed the other half to me! He was willing to share his last favourite biscuit with his beloved mummy! *Heart melt*