Herbie to Henrietta (Hercules)

Our beloved "first child" Herbie was given up for adoption today, and in place, we got ourselves Henrietta (or Hercules). It was a good 3 and a half years with Herbie. We went places. We did many things. It was the first car that we bought together after marriage. It was the first car that G drove after passing. It was the first car that brought Granny places that she liked... like Changi Beach to watch the aeroplanes as they are landing.

Look how big Herbie has grown to. He's really a grown up boy and shall now be called Hercules (G hates the name Henrietta!):

Friends From All Around

Phew. This was an extremely busy (and probably fat laden) weekend. But it was fun, catching up with old friends from all around.

CI came back from the States recently and we finally met up. She wanted to play with Russy and K so she came over on Saturday morning. Had yummy ice cream at Ice Cream Gallery to counter the blazing mid day heat. Here's a photo of K and CI:

Met J & D at Mimolette for lunch. They came back from HK for J & W's wedding. Whilst waiting for them to arrive, lo and behold, bumped into L, he who is the reason why my basketball jersey (which I am coincidentally now wearing to sleep). He just finished lunch and was hanging around in the al fresco area. Small world. Anyway, lunch was good, Mimolette was thankfully relatively quiet and K, as usual, charmed the waiters and some patrons. We had a great time . Pity we couldn't hang out with J more cos J & W's wedding at Sentosa was scheduled to start at 5pm.

'Cos Mimolette is located at the Saddle Club off Bukit Timah, Lil K saw her first big horsey! Lil' K in her bright orange Aussie-inspired hat:

Went to check out the latest property launch, Breeze at East Coast, to be located at where SC used to stay. The place was nice (but then again, aren't all showflats nice?) but it was way way too expensive for the area, I thought.

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Slept in on Sunday. Good thing we have trained Lil K to do the same. Nice lazy Sunday mornings are always best! Met J & C & E for lunch at Parkway and to do grocery shopping. Needed to stock up on Lil K's food for the week. Checked out My Gym and signed K up for the Tiny Tykes class, hopefully that would help her motor skills a little. We start next week. Can't wait!

We're giving Herbie up for adoption tomorrow. Its been a good 3.5 years with Herbie. He's never given us any problems and has always been an ever-reliable boy. Hopefully when Herbie becomes mature tomorrow (and becomes Henrietta? Ha. G hates that name and insists it'll still be Big Herbie), it'll be as reliable and trusty. Can you spot Snowy, the guardian of our car?

Decided to brush off the layers of dust on my piano (I have not really played for the last what... 15 years at least? Not counting those times that I tinkered on it just for fun...) and try to impress Lil K with my sub-standard piano skills. Bones have all hardened and fingers are definitely creaky. Managed to bang out a couple of tunes. Tried to bluff my way through sight reading. Lil' K wanted a piece of the action too!

S came over after his run in the evening. He's my bestest male friend ever! He'll soon be flying off to Oslo and Geneva for a super duper shiok fake-work-and-mostly-play overseas posting in less than 2 weeks time. Haven't seen him in ages cos he's been flying around for work like crazy, always disappearing into black holes, I always say. We've always been hanging out loads since we first met in the same OG during orientation camp in Raffles Hall way back in 1997. I hope things still remain the same after he gets back at the end of this year... by then Lil K should be able to totter around like a drunken sailor. We'll leave Uncle S to totter after her and chase her then.

Oh, of course, we had to celebrate Lil K turning 7 months. Cake is a Maple Walnut Cheese Cake from SSC. Yums.

Since we are losing Herbie tomorrow, we decided to bring Russy out to East Coast for a walk. Its been at least 7 months since he's enjoyed a car ride and the air con that comes with it. Poor Russy boy. He enjoyed himself today though he went slightly hysterical when we first arrived at East Coast and we were backing in to park the car. As always, he tried to terrorise the cats along the way. We ate at The 360, the restaurant at Ski 360 at East Coast lagoon. That was the rest stop during our Saturday night Husky Walks (now defunct). The restaurant looks like it underwent a change of management. The food now sucks big time. It was beyond not-that-great, the food was AWFUL. How can anyone get pasta wrong? Geez. Even I can cook better pasta! The presentation looked promising, but it just tasted real bad. Here's a photo of Russy waiting for us while we tried our darnest best to stomach the food.

Growth Updates at 6 Months+

Our little pumpkin is growing up so fast. We brought her for her 3rd and final dose of vaccinations a week after we returned from Japan. We decided to give her the pneumococcal jab as well, so poor little pumpkin had to endure a jab on each (chubby) thigh. And I am proud to report that Lil' K didn't cry for either of the jabs--though I have to admit that it was a close shave for the penumococcal one...

Weight: 7.7kg (75th percentile)
Height: 67.5cm to 68cm--depending on height of hair (75th to 90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 42.7cm (50th to 75th percentile)

At Long Last

Its been more than 7 months since we took the photos for YP-Nippon feature for Kaelyn's room makeover, and we FINALLY got the photos today. After much angst (after all those empty promises) and them needing a favour from us (HA!), here are the photos:

Moshi Moshi

Lil' K is one lucky chick. Only 6 months old and she's been to Tokyo twice! Ok, fine. The first time was when I was expecting her... but still...!

I was initially a little concerned about how K will take to take off and landing cos she's still too young to know how to yawn to equalise the pressure in her ears. I was afraid she'd be one of those babies that cry non-stop from take off till landing and the other passengers on the plane might hate us, especially since we took the red eye flight and many of them are probably catching up on sleep. K was an absolute darling and didn't seem to feel any discomfort when I tried to feed her during those crucial moments. The challenging thing that I encountered was timing. The plane was forever on the tarmac, taxiing into the runway. Landing was even trickier. The descent was gradual and took like half an hour. How to feed her continuously for half an hour?

Our first stop was Nikko, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Quaint little town full of ancient temples and shrines.

Overall, the trip was good, other than K falling in during one leg-- at Hakone. We only got to see the hotel room for 2 days (and nights) straight. Didn't manage to see Mt Fuji, do shopping and stuff. Oh well. At least we managed to enjoy the Onsen at the hotel.

Tokyo was as always bustling. We gorged ourselves practically everyday. J, C and E and their parents were in Tokyo at the same time to catch the Hanami so we hung out a couple of days. That was really fun, especially cos they love Japan so much, they brought us to some really cool places.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, here are some photos of the trip:

First Foods

K has been eyeing our human food for the longest time. She was exclusively b-fed for 6 months, up till we got back from Japan (only cos it was simpler to just boob her while travelling). Everytime we ate, K would stare and salivate, so we promised K that we'd feed her her first solids when we got back.

This is her first foray into solids--she absolutely loved it! This was also K's first time in the bicycle. Not sure whether her glee was from the bike or the food... or both =) *chomp*

Decided she was big enough to start watching educational DVDs. We let her watch Baby Einstein's Baby Mozart, a musical DVD with puppets and toys. Think she takes after G--potential TV addict! Check out how engrossed she is! G finally has competition over the remote. I foresee potential fights in the future...