I dun usually blog about unhappy events but after thinking thru I felt that at least for close frens who read my blog will have an idea of what was going on. In fact I only shared this with a good fren and didn't mention at all in other occasions. It has been such an emotional roller-coster ride for me for the past few weeks. Happy and unhappy events happened one after another.
Mixed feelings.
Disappointment.

And now its gonna end. Today marks the last day of The Braised Kitchen. I know some of you will be very surprised as we recently had a good review from 8 days and business was picking up. Well, sad to say that it's due to some internal issues that cannot be resolved. We have tried and did our best but the best solution seems to be this. It's very difficult to continue a business and make it work when not all the parties agree with one another.
I would like to thank my frens who supported us for the brief 4mths in the business.
If you ask me, it surely is painful cos' we put all our heart and soul into it. But it will be even worse should we continue this business. Let this be a good lesson learnt for all of us.

But we are optimistic cos there are greater plans ahead for hubby and myself.

Hub and i've Been busy searching for our dream home recently and we have sort of found a pretty good place (not exactly the purr-fect kind) but its spacious and we can actually create 2 smaller rooms out of the existing 4 bedroom HDB flat. To us space is very important and we are glad that we somehow can manage to create the following spaces:

- master bedroom with attached bath (existing)
- 2 bedrooms for kiddos (Mischa's bedroom will be used as a playroom till she is ready to sleep alone)
- mum's room (mini size)
- utility cum maid's room
- study room (also my craft room, yippe!)
- a decent sized kitchen with a baking corner for myself
- fish tank wall (8-9ft fish tank to house 2 Aros)
- huge living and dining hall

this time will be a major overhaul and transformation. If there are no hiccups, we should expect to move into our new nest by early 2010...gosh, seems like a long wait....

Meanwhile I have started searching for ideas or plainly just admiring some of these designs I have searched and kinda like them...might be able to apply some of these ideas into my home then.

Hubby n I were elated that Favian got a place in Nan Chiau Primary school! We were really blessed and lucky at the same time - cos i wasn't a volunteer parent and had to join all 190 applicants in the balloting scheme under Phase 2C 'vying' for a pathetic 73 openings...and thats less than 50% chance per applicant.

I reminded myself to witness the ballot at 9am this morning since last week. But becos we caught a late night movie last night, woke up late this morning and had to rush 2 kiddos to their schools....hubby only remembered about it at abt 930am! So we rushed back to Nan Chiau hoping to see the results and we were glad we did!

I went up to the hall immediately while hubby went to park his car. On the board were a total of 73 balloting slips and Favian's was the very 1st piece....I wasn't sure at first and checked the informattion on the slip over and over again...LOL
I must thank the parent who drew Favian's name with her lucky hands - and I hope her child got a place in NC pri too!

No words can truly describe how we felt at that moment. I urged all of you who wish for a good school for your children to be a parent volunteer to increase our chances of getting into a good school cos' I was kinda living in regret when I knew my child had to end up in balloting for a place in the school. I really count myself lucky and count my blessings too.

This will be the most meaningful gift I receive for this year!

Mischa @ 21mths

I haven't been updating Mischa's growth and progress for a really long time. She just turned 21 months and had her first haircut since birth. This Lil Princess can get quite vocal these days and just for keeping records, these are some of the words she can express/say already-mostly are day-to-day words for communicating with us:

addressing family:
daddy (hubby nvr fails to melt whenever she calls out to him)
mummy (most of the time she calls me 'Mama')
dor dor ('Gor gor' in her own words)
婆婆
Ah Ma (my MIL)
Ah 'Dong' (my Dad -note that she had problem pronouncing 'D' in this case, Gor Gor n Ah Gong)
Godpa
大舅
干爹
姐姐
uncle
auntie

Action words:
open /close
on the light
go there
go downstairs
what's that ? (recently she's very curious of her surroundings)
i want
i like
don want
put CD
drink milk
sleep my room (means : sleep 'in' OUR room)
off/on
brush teeth
go out
go outside
sit pram
please
shower
walk walk
run
eat
yummy
wash
cry
here
pain pain
take out
nice
okay
inside
come
see
door
itchy
hot
no more
gai gai (go shopping/outdoor)

Animals/ fruits/ objects/ others
baby
flower
twee (tree)
nana ('banana')
apple
hello kitty
pram pram
dog
cat
mouse
bird
toy
train
car
ball ball
balloon
ta-too-ee (Ratatouille is her favourite animation)
Dora
shoes
hair-kip (hairclip)
pee-ty (pretty)
bag bag
sock-s
sweet
toc lat (chocolate)
i- cream (ice cream)
backside
black black (refers to dirt etc)
water
school
playground
bear
ahbbit (rabbit)
lion
book
bear
like that
spider
pooh bear
piglet
body parts (hair, leg, hand, nose, ear, eye)
One to Ten (she can recite 1-10 pretty accurately although sometimes needs prompting)

Mandarin words:
要， 不要
那边
这边
快快来
拿
怕
喝水
面包
洗手
饭
鞋
有
是，不是
好
妹妹
美美
饱饱
躺躺

Songs/ rhymes she can do some actions with:
Twinkle little stars
拔萝卜
Itsy Bitsy Spider
2 Little Black birds

In the speech department, this girl is rather advance probably because of an elder brother at home who speaks to her as much as we do :) We are glad that communicating with her is much easier nowadays.

New haircut today!
I'm proud that my 2 kiddos NEVER shed a tear or move about for their haircut. Favian always love to have his haircut and I am glad that Mischa is not bothered by it at all too!

BEFORE


AFTER

It was the 1st off day hubby had for the entire month and we decided to head to the Jurong Bird Park since Mischa can understand more now


2 cuties at the entrance of JBP


Kawaii!


we rented a pull-cart for the kiddos instead of putting Mischa in the pram..its fun but tedious to pull them wherever we go!


Flaming red...


Sexy posey girl....







Hahaha Fat Mama having a cuppa & taking a break!


Tired and sleepy after a long day ......




hahha finally a family portriat



Having fun





Favian loves the outdoor fun!