Aleric's First Christmas

Aleric celebrated his first Christmas with the family. It was also my first Christmas in my new home. We also brought Aleric to Orchard to see the Christmas lightings. I had to do last minute shopping after work on Christmas eve to purchase Mrs and Aleric Christmas present. As usual, we bought home Chomp Chomp dinner for our Christmas eve feast, something which we have been doing since dating time.

Preparation For Christmas

The family is preparing for Christmas and Aleric is 7 months old today.

Gold Coast Holiday Part II

 

We visit Paradise Country Farm, Habour Town, Movie World and Dreamworld in Gold Coast.

Gold Coast Holiday Part I

The family left for Gold Coast holiday last week. Our first trip overseas with baby Aleric. He has been a obedient boy, especially on plane.

Aleric looked like a big boy in this pic.

Aleric trying to snatch the muffin for his breakfast.

Skypoint and the beautiful scene of Gold Coast

Seemed like Aleric wanted the bowl of noodles too

 

 

This bottle of Suju let me had an early night sleep in Australia 

URA Draft Master Plan 2013

Night scene of the on-going construction works for Seletar Mall

Artist's impression of Seletar Mall and Jalan Kayu

The buzz in Singapore for the week is probably that Civil Servant will be getting 2.1 month bonus (including 13th month) and the URA draft master plan 2013.

The two interesting points close to us would be the Seletar Mall and the enhancement to the Jalan Kayu area by increasing car park lots and better walkways.

Ward Miles - First Year

I saw this in Yahoo Singapore and thought that it was inspirational. Sometimes, you just felt so lucky when you compared with those who had that little.

Aleric 3rd Injection + Hawker Brunch + Birthday Celebration

I was discussing with Mrs that we have been busy for the last 2 weekends and will be busy for the coming weekend too. Aleric had his 3rd / 5th month injection on Saturday. We did not wait as long as the previous time and soon Aleric completed his dose of medicine and 2 injections. Aleric has always been a brave boy when it comes to injection, short crying and he will soon smile again.

After the injection, we headed to SAFRA Toa Payoh to purchase vouchers before heading for the famous Fish & Chips store at Toa Payoh. The half day Toa Payoh tour went well until we were told by the Fish & Chips owner that they started operating at 12pm. Online source indicated 11pm. So, we decided to dine at the nearby hawker instead. It was the hakwer we went last time (before Aleric was born) for the famous but not so impressive fishball noodles. We tried the prawn noodles this time. I felt it was good but Mrs felt that it was average. We also had fried doughs and soya milk and packet duck lunch and desert home for late lunch. So, the family had a simple yet enjoying lunch together at Toa Payoh hawker. We shall find another time to try the fish and chips.

We celebrated our dear cousin, who had helped us the whole day during our pre-wedding photoshoot, 18th birthday in the evening. Aleric was slightly feverish after the injection so we left early after she cut her birthday cake.

 

Today, as usual, we traveled back Serangoon to visit Mum and let Aleric spend some time with his grandmother. We went back home, do up a bit of housework and put up our paintings finally, not that bad outcome though Mrs was complaining of the expensive 3M velcro for fixing the paintings.

 

This weekend has been busy but somehow, somewhat enjoying.

Seletar Mall Anchor Tenants

 

Shaws is good but we have to spend at NTUC Finest next time. We are looking forward to the opening.  

Aleric First Swim & Hotel Dinner

Last Friday was Children’s Day. I took a day off from work for family time. Mrs and I woke up early, fed and prepared Aleric and send Aleric to parents’ home before travelling to the Expo Baby Fair. We reached earlier and had breakfast at Changi City Point Ya Kun using the mobile AXS free coupon. By the time we walked back to Expo, it was already flooded with Mummies and Daddies who were queuing to enter into the fair. We queued for about 10 minutes and successfully entered into the hall. We bought Aleric his private pool (for the time being as he may have to share with his younger brothers/sisters in the future), swimming diapers, pillow, bolsters and many children food for him. The payment queue was long and I think we spent about an hour to queue to pay up our items. After the baby fair, we headed for the Robinsons fair in the next hall. I was wondering if the Robinsons fair was held to complement the Baby fair as they provide trolley in the fair also. This is probably why we could shop there for about an hour as we dumped all our Baby fair purchases into the trolley. We ended up spending more than $200 in the Robinsons Fair.

Aleric had his first swim on Saturday morning. It took quite a while to fill up his pool and we let Aleric swam naked since it was at home. The aftermath of his swim was to deal with the huge volume of water. We felt it was a waste of water to just drain off. We ended up using the water for bathing, mopping the floor and flushing toilet. I think we can only allow Aleric to swim once per month. The whole family celebrated Dad’s birthday at Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scots. It is amazing that we did not bypass any ERP on the way to Carousel. It had been a long time since Mrs and I had buffet together though the food there was not as good as what was stated online.

 

Fernvale Foliage TOP

When | Aleric ≠ Aloha

Aleric is not Aloha.

When you lose temper, I will supply the gentle to counter it.

When you lose your night rest because of Aleric, I will help you with the housework.

When the route gets tough, I will still hold your hand and walk through together.

New 3 Generation HDB Flat

Still feel the area is too small to house 3 generations but it seems so blissful for 3 generations to stay together under one roof

Aleric First Chalet & Haircut

We brought Aleric to chalet last Friday and Saturday to celebrate his baby cousin 1 year old birthday. It’s his first time to a chalet and to the beach. Aleric was 4 months old on Saturday too.

On last Sunday, we brought Aleric for his first haircut since we did not bear to shave his hair when he was one month old. His hair was getting patchy. So, Aleric is a botak boy now.

Family Car New Tyres

With Aleric in the family, we have to be more prudent in our spending. After considering the safety of the family, I decided to replace our family car tyres since our car ride was getting bumpier and the braking distance seemed to be getting longer. I was doing some basic research online and chose to replace the tyres at Arrow Tyres. It was not the best deal in town but the location was near to parents’ home which was convenient for me. The service was satisfactory, nothing to complain or complement about. It was not as fantastic as what was described online. Their replacement was fast though, as 3 mechanics worked on the car concurrently. So, our car was fitted with new tyres (cost me $352) and I have been driving slower lately for the tyres to run in. I am glad that the ride was so much more comfortable driving it in the morning :)

Ikea Weekend Breakfast

I decided that we should try to have a family breakfast outing on Saturday morning since Mrs has completed the housework during the weekday. We woke up early at around 8 in the morning, bath Aleric and headed for Ikea Tampines at around 930am. I was afraid that the carpark might be crowded with a lot of breakfast diners as the Ikea restaurant was always flooded with people whenever we were there. The family carpark lot was taken up but the carpark was rather empty though. It had been a long time since we had time for a nice lazy breakfast and of course this time with baby Aleric. We managed to purchase the 2nd last bowl of longtong too. After about 2 hours walking around Ikea, we called it a day and headed back home. It was a nice simple breakfast in a nice environment. I guessed it is all these small simple actions which made a simple and blissful family.

Adpating

Mrs and I had been really busy for the past month thus we have not been updating our family blog for quite some time. We shifted into our home on 4 July 2013 and spent quite a fair bit of effort to unpack and clean up the house. We are still adapting to the new lifestyle since Fernvale is less accessible than Serangoon which we used to stay with parents. We are also learning to manage our small family.

 

There are a lot of changes in life recently. We are still finding back our comfort zone.

Aleric Full Month Celebration 2

 

 

Aleric celebrate his full month birthday with Mummy parents on 14 June 13. We wish that he grows up healthily & happily and sleep through the night soon. 

 

 

Aleric + Renovation

Our family blog has not been updated for quite a while as we were busy with taking care of Aleric Shen and renovation.

Aleric is taken care by his Grandmother and Mother most of the time. He can get pretty hard to handle at times. We had his early full month celebration last Sunday with his Daddy's family and will celebrate his full month this Friday with his Mummy's family.  

Renovation should be close to completion by this week. We had 6 paints colours for our hoome and I tried to capture 5 as below.

Day 5 at Mount Alvernia – Aleric 沈坊锦

We were anxiously waiting for the call from hospital to inform us if Aleric could checkout on the Saturday. We received the first name analysis report from Master Wu on the recommendation for Aleric’s Chinese name. After some deliberation, we chose 沈坊锦.   His daddy hoped that he could lead a wonderful and meaningful route of life in the future.

We rushed to the hospital early to register his birth as the birth registration ended at 11 30pm. We planned to visit him in the nursery if he still could not checkout of hospital. While waiting for our queue to register for the birth, we received the call that he could checkout. : ) After registering his birth and settling the bills, we set off back home.  Finally, the whole family was home.

Day 4 at Mount Alvernia – Mummy’s Checkout

Day 4 was supposed to be the checkout / go-home day for Mrs and Aleric. But, at the last moment, we were informed that Aleric’s Jaundice reading was high and he had to stay for 1 more day in the hospital. His grandparents and Mrs were disappointed and worried. I felt so initially too but I guessed it would be good to get all stuffs prepared before he goes home, hopefully the next day.

Back home, we started preparing all the stuffs, taking out all stuffs which he would need and sterilizing all his equipment.

Day 3 at Mount Alvernia – The Turnabout

I slept longer on Day 3 and reached hospital at around 9am. It was the day of the turnabout of negative feelings as I saw Mrs getting a lot better. She managed to walk to the toilet herself even at night. Aleric’s baguette head has much recovered. However, the paediatrician tested him to have Jaundice. So, he got to be left in the nursery for the UV ray treatment most of the time.

Day 2 At Mount Alvernia – The Hard Truth

Since I was not allowed to stay in the hospital, I woke up early on Wednesday morning and drove to hospital early. I was hoping that I would be the first person Mrs see when she woke up. However, Mrs was already awake using her iphone when I reached her ward.

I felt very negative in Day 2 as I saw Mrs seemed to be a lot weaker. She could not move her legs well to get off the bed herself and had problem urinating. It was the day when It struck me if we were really happy welcoming Aleric and if we would want a second child.

As novice parents, we were very anxious about Aleric. He cried really loudly in the night before I left and we were both lost of what to do. We were lucky, with the help of a nurse; he managed to latch onto mummy for breast feeding. The hard truth about having a baby was that it really took a lot of effort, sacrifices and commitment. 

2nd Special Week of Our Life

This week is the 2nd special week of our life as we stepped into parenthood. Baby Aleric was born on 14 May 2013 at 8 19 pm after delayed for 11 days and unsuccessful induction for natural birth.

 

 

Mrs Shen and I woke up at about 5 30am on 14 May, had Mac breakfast before leaving for Mount Alvernia. The check in was fast and soon Mrs Shen was on the induce medicine. I was hoping that it will take about 5 hours (around noon time) and baby boy will be out by then. Midway at around 10am, dear felt very uneasy and I could see her really in pain. It was really hurtful to see your loved one in in pain yet you could not offered any help. In the end, we decided to inject epidural to ease the pain.

 

We waited 12 hours till 7pm and the dilation was not as flavourable. Mrs Shen tried a few pushes but the gynae still could not access to the baby and it was too dangerous to vaccum the baby out. I saw quite a fair bit of blood flowing out of dear too. I decided that we would go for the C section to get the baby out and helped mummy got off the pain.

 

The nurse asked me if I would want to accompany my Mrs in the operating theatre (OT). I just did not want to leave her alone. So, I changed into the OT suit. The doctors tried to talk to me before the operation but I guessed I was too distracted to communicate with them. The operation was grossing. I sort of saw the doctor taking some stuffs out from Mrs and putting it back later. I guessed the doctors were proficient. Soon, I saw the gyane pulling baby Aleric out. He wasn't crying initially. Mrs was in a daze and I had to tell her that Aleric was out. Soon, we heard his loud cries. When I took a close look at Aleric in the OT, I was very worried to see a big lump on his head. His head is like a baguette. My heart sunk as I thought he had a odd shaped head which prevented him from normal delivery. I asked the nurse if it was alright and she assured me it was a normal feature for newborns. The feeling when I saw Aleric out of the womb, his odd shape head and Mrs enduring the pain, lying on the operating theatre was really too overwhelming. Too much for me to handle despite being trained to keep a cool head in OCS. The nurse tried to bring Aleric for Mrs to take a look but she was feeling too cold, probably due to the loss of blood. Thus, the doctor had to order to bring Aleric away and give her warmer to keep her warm. 

 

I followed the nurse to the nursery when the nurse conducted baisc checks on the baby to see that he was normal.  He was big and long as compared to other newborns, weighing 3.72 kg and 51cm long. Mrs Shen was very amused by this photo which I took. She said that Aleric looked surprised to find his baby neighbour so small size. Probably, he did not realise that he was a baby giant.

 

 

I saw the pediatrician in the nursery while waiting for Mrs to be wheeled out of the OT. She reassured me that the head lump was normal and his head would grew back to normal in time. Mrs was finally wheeled out and I met her outside the lift. She told me she saw me though there was a big group of Indian family standing near to the lift. I was very proud of Mrs and I told her baby was fine as she laid tiredly resting on the bed. She wanted to take a look at the baby but the nurse had to clean up baby Aleric before bringing to her for breast feeding. 

 

We started the day 14 May 2013 early at 5 30am with 2 of us and we ended the day welcoming the additional member Aleric to our family. Love Shenlafamille.

Starhub Home Hub Classic vs Singtel MioHome

So, which plan should we choose?