Beach Babe (or, Jordy in a Sun Hat!)

This is Jordy's Baywatch for Babies pose.

Lesson for the day:

If you want to feel like you're on a mini-vacation, just head to the beach or tourist trap closest to you. In our case, we did both and came away with Club Tropicana looping in our sun-addled brains. It was pure magic I tell ya!

D reiterating to Jordy that Speedos are NEVER appropriate at any age.

Jordy snoozed through our early morning walk by the beach, then woke up promptly when it was morning tea time (he had 2/3 of a Del Monte banana!) and proceeded to ogle the older kids who were enjoying the rather cool paddle pool with funky water features.

"Here comes the son, doo-oo-doo-doo, and I say, it's all right"

By 11, it got so baking hot, we decided to call it a morning and head home. And thankfully too, as the skies darkened and the afternoon saw a spectacular lightning and thunder storm. Ah well, you know what they say about making hay...

And one more for the road!

Honestly, the weekends just keep getting better!

Crawling!

We have just entered a new era in the Turnip household. This weekend, D and I are embarking on an emergency trip to IKEA to stock up on baby safety equipment. Our floor-to-ceiling glass doors overlooking the balcony are now shut whenever Jordy is awake and out of his cot. We're going to get on all fours and crawl around the house this weekend to see just what mayhem little J could get up to now that he has achieved *gulp* mobility!

Isn't he growing up quickly?!

ps: This weekend also marks our FIRST movie in an actual theatre since Jordy's birth. Our previous movie was ironically the day before he was born! Anyway, bring it all on! Popcorn! Overpriced soda! Carcenogenic nachos and cheese! Inane twitters of other cinema goers! The smell of feet! Whoopee! We're going to watch Slumdog Millionaire while Mama D babysits and feeds him his first ever taste of fish porridge.

In the Blink of an Eye

The last two weeks have gone by in what felt like a long, hard blink. I think it's because Jordy's cold took a while to abate (which accounts for the long, hard bit), and we've had a few groups of friends over as well as me starting to dabble in some part-time work (which accounts for the blink-and-you-might-miss-it bit)!

Anyway, as it's now late and I'm too tired to write much, this passport photo of Jordy will just have to do. We had the BEST service at the ICA today. From the time Jordy and I stepped into the building, it took less than five minutes for us to collect both our passports! I highly recommend the e-queue system.

Isn't it just the best picture possible though?

Moving to the Country, Gonna Eat a Lot of Peaches (or, Happy 6th Month Birthday, Baby!)

"Well, for my half-yearling birthday, I think I'll start off with a leisurely lie-in on my recliner, then perhaps some of Mummy's Peach Surprise, thank you very much."

Dear Jordy,

You are six months old today. That's half a year! You are HALF A YEAR old! That's... more than a semester at university, four months longer than I spent teaching at summer camp, five months longer than your dad and I dated before realising we were two ducks in a pond. Well, wow!

To mark the occasion you promptly come down with your first cold. It starts the way most colds do, with a runny nose, then a slight fever, and general malaise. You are such a cheerful invalid. It doesn't take much to make you smile, even though you are in obvious discomfort. I am so proud of you, my poor wee boy.

"Look how fast my hands go, wheeee!" (Note: That is the Jordan carpet in the background. The most magical carpet gifted to Jordy by his Godpa James, all the way from Quetta, Pakistan! It casts a gorgeous, almost-edible chocolate hue in our home, and will be the site of many shenanigans in the future I'm sure. Thanks Godpa James!)

You will be glad to know that your appetite remains unaffected. Or perhaps it's just that today's introduction food is pureed peach. As with all your other food, I always pop a bit into my own mouth for the mummy taste test to make sure nothing's gone bad. And I swear that the Gerber Peach Puree (I'm using store-bought for peaches as I couldn't find ones that looked like they'd be sweet in the grocery stores I checked) tastes like the orange topping on those McDonald's sundaes of old! If the label didn't say 100% peaches + added vitamin C, I honestly would've believed this belonged in the ice cream topping section! Anyway, to say that you LOVE peaches (or at least, Gerber's Peach Puree) is an understatement.

So far, the list of foods you have ingested looks like this:

JORDY SEAL OF APPROVAL (in order of preference - I judge by the amount of leg-kicking you do under the high chair)
1. Peaches
2. Pears
3. Banana (tied)
3. Prunes
4. Sweet Potato
5. Apples
6. Carrot (tied)
6. Honeydew
7. Peas

JORDY'S SPIT OF DISAPPROVAL (from most heinous to less heinous)
1. Spinach
2. Avocado
3. Pumpkin

Anyway, all in all, you had a lovely six-month birthday. You're almost on the verge of crawling now, and can already lunge forward! And, like the past few days, you played a bit of piano with me this morning (the photo below is from the weekend hence Daddy was home to be your piano seat).



All good, considering that yesterday, before I took you to the doctor, you looked like this:

"Florence Nightingale? I want Florence Nightingale!"

Ah little Jordy. What a marvellous, messy, muddling, miraculous six months so far. Here's to a multitude more!

Love you very much,

Mummy

Ten Years and Counting!

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, 2004

Today marks D's and my TENTH year together! That's slightly less than one third of my life! For those of you who wonder how the Turnips* have spent a decade... well, here goes:

1997: We meet in Dunedin where I'm an exchange student at the University of Otago (but we're just friends then). I have the best semester of my uni life, where amongst other things, I discover Midori. Academically, it's my best semester as well - both in terms of fun and results-wise. I take Intro to Latin, Romantic Literature, Women's Studies 101 and a film class covering Film Noir and Science Fiction. I LIKE!
1999: D comes to Singapore for a one-year exchange programme at NUS Law School. In February, we decide that yep, we are two ducks in a pond and so, The Turnips are born! By his own admittance, he's not sure how much studying got done, but he made it through in any case!
2000: I traipse off to Dunedin, NZ on a Working Holiday visa, pretty sure I've taken the "pick kiwifruit" route for my career! But it turns out OK after all and I become a resident of Godzone, or the Land of Hobbits!
2001: D graduates and we move to Wellington! Here starts a time of walks, cafes, film festivals, amazing books, lots of road trips and many trips back to Singapore.
2003: I touch Viggo Mortensen's hand at the Return of the King premiere in Wellington. I shove several small people in order to get to the front of the barricade. Ah well.
2005: Leave Wellington after our March wedding for our backpacky honeymoon in Egypt and Jordan. Then move to Singapore for a change of scene (and pace, gah) as well as another wedding! We Turnips don't do things by halves you see. It's all or nothing!
2006: Had my own Devil Wears Prada ephinany and move to the NGO sector.
2008: Lives turned upside down and inside out with the arrival of the Jordy.
2009: Turnips celebrate ten years. But who's counting?

A sampler of pics below. I realise we didn't own a digital camera till 2004! And when we first got together, D didn't own a mobile and I was using a pager (ugh, those hateful little things)! We lived through the Internet age, going from text-interface games to watching Obama's inauguration via FB and having webcam conversations with D's mum in NZ!

Kohukohu, Northland, NZ, 2004

Dunedin, NZ, 2005

Petra, Jordan, May 2005

Rasa Sentosa, August 2005

Central Otago, NZ, December 2007

Chinese New Year, 2009

*Turnip = Turner + Yip. Get it? Hwoar, hwoar!