A Very Camel New Year to You!

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My first creation of 2011. This could get addictive!

Last Sunset of the Year

We just came back from witnessing the last sunset of the year at Labarador Park. It was truly beautiful. Reminded me to take stock of all the good things in life and try not to get sucked into the national pastime of complaining!

It also reminded me to just sit down and write a blog for goodness sake! Though the blogging has been sporadic at best, so many blog-rich things have happened this past year which never made it to the pages of The Camel Diaries. Much like how many of life's best moments aren't captured on film as you were too busy, well, living.

So in the spirit of rememberances of things past, and of tomorrow's fortunes told, here are some life events which never made it to blogland, but should have!

1. Awesome holidays - Turnip staycation in Swissotel, Bintan family trip to celebrate gong gong and mama's 40th wedding anniversary

2. Jordy in the news - Meant to post the wonderful piece Janice wrote about Jordy in The Straits Tiimes. Aside from capturing Jordy's personality in an uncannily accurate way, what was most special to me was the obvious bond the two shared. They are both introverts (and I mean this in the best possible way) and I am blessed to have them in my extroverted life.

3. The Jordy Language Explosion - from single words to quirky phrases, and now to full on sentences and semi-conversations, and even the daily word game, this is one journey I really regret not capturing in more detail. How did the child who started off saying "car!" to everything now make all sorts of random statements like "fountain is hiding behind the bush" and "Jordy don't want to go play school. Jordy want to go gong gong and mama's house. Gong gong and mama's house this way!" (said in car seat while pointing in direction of expressway). And just today, we were revisiting some old PowerPoints he used to love, and he shocked me by being able to recognise and say all the alphabets and all the shapes in the slideshow, yes, including pentagon, hexagon and trapezium (though he pronounces it poot-pee-zium, which I suspect is a little insider joke of his.

4. The meaning of Christmas = patience - we put up our tree on 17 November and Jordy never once insisted on opening any of his presents. His first present under the tree was a red package from sheepie and dragon, and he was so thrilled that they rememebered. As the days wore on, the red box got buried under the growing pile of presents. On Christmas Eve, D and I told Jordy on the way home from his cousins that he could open one present when he got home. As we pulled into the carpark he was extremely jaunty, and did his self-satisfied waddle back home. As soon as he got in the door, re ran to the tree and fished out the red present from under the sea of brightly-packages, and said "love, sheepie and dragon" - D and I were amazed and very moved.

5. Dora the Explorer - she has become the fourth flatmate in our already cosy apartment...

6. A fine balance - still finding my feet in the working world, but feeling very buoyed by several professional firsts for me, all involving unprecedented media coverage of volunteerism and philanthropy in Singapore. Of course it's not all due to my efforts, not by far, but I did play a pretty crucial role in making it happen, and I am so pleased with this addition to my portfolio and CV. Definitely something to be proud of. Also, I feel like I am moving in the right direction work-wise, and I feel very lucky to have negotiated successfully flexible work arrangements. Not normal for a local organisation, so I'm counting my blessings.

7. The Wire - D and I finished all five seasons and dare we say it, we actually think it ranks as top of our list of TV series in a long time. So much so that when we went back to watch The West Wing, we astonished ourselves by cringing now and again at the hokey-ness of some of the scenes. BUT The West Wing is still very much up there for us, and will suffer no more criticism from me again. Just this once, ha ha.

8. The Ipad - D gave me one for Christmas. I love it (and him) very, very much.

9. Many more, including an awesome visit from Godpa James, my first visit to Universal Studios Singapore, Jordy's lovely, blossoming relationship with his cousins, Jordy being promoted to nursery 1 (!), Jordy spending his first night away from us - and now asking to go to gong gong and mama's for sleepoveers, oh and a pretty lovely Christmas party we threw for a bunch of friends and kids (that saw me cooking a kinda three-course meal to suit vegetarians and pescatarians, which I had a blast doing and so wanna do again), awesome books I'd like to recommend like Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, and now my stomach is rumbling and it's new year's eve so I'm going to get me some sparkling grape juice and cookies.

In short, blogging declined because I was too busy with life. Help! But I have also realized that blogging is a fun part of my life at least and I resolve to do more of it in 2011. Which brings me to... Resolutions. Won't be many this year. Still mulling, but will post them in the new year.

May 2011 be filled with happiness, joy, peace and tiny miracles. xo.

Walk This Way (Talk This Way)

I think it's quite official. Jordy's walking!

And by walking, I mean he's gone from shuffling one or two steps unassisted, to today's whopper of an effort walking from the ipod to the piano. For those of you who have never been to our apartment, that's about 15 Jordy steps!

Most times, he still prefers to hold on to one of our hands, and, like so, can walk around rather confidently for a good 10 minutes.



To honour his new found feet, I brought him to Clarks for his first proper shoe fitting. He is a 5G. I got him a sturdy pair of cruising shoes, which looked breathable enough for Singapore weather as well as our year-end trip to New Zealand.



It really is lots of fun walking around with him. Think this ushers in a WHOLE new era Jordy-wise, not to mention metabolism-wise!

Boys and Sandpits

Two boys, one truck = Recipe for disaster?

What is it with boys and dirt?

I decided this week to see if Jordy would enjoy a stint in the sandpit at Labrador Park and he loved it so much, I took him back the next afternoon! And coming along for the ride was Jordy's Gymboree buddy, Isaac.

Oooo, sandy...

Anyway, some finer points about sand:

* Sand is to baby as toffee is to apple: little granules stuck everywhere and in every single crevice.
* Sand is to dump truck as swimming pool is to Jordy: they just GO.
* Sand is to Jordy's mouth as KFC is to people-who-like-that-greasy-stuff (i.e. me): finger lickin' good
* Sand is to mums as err, sand is to mums: you have a love-hate relationship with it; you love that your kid loves it but you hate the mess it makes!
* Sand is to Jordy's diaper as box of chocolate is to Forrest Gump:you never know what you're gonna get!

Jordy's signature move - the side swipe.

Anyway I really hope sand is ok for babies as, err, it's a bit too late to worry now. Jordy's ingested a pretty decent amount of the grainy stuff, along with his afternoon tea. So far he hasn't seemed to mind it too much, and it's made his diaper, just that little heavier! Haha.

Poster boy for the "Eat Dirt" Campaign

And since we're on the topic of firsts, I am SO SO happy to announce that Jordy had his first drink of formula yesterday afternoon (80ml - not bad for his first attempt in a sippy cup)! That's right! You heard me, we are officially starting the weaning process people! Woo hoo! Here's to no longer being slave to the boob and to no longer feeding a sometime-feral child with teeth! Sorry Jordy, sprouting teeth is good for eating cake and lasagne, but not for mum's boobs. *Cuddle*

PS: Thanks to Isaac's mum Constance for the lovely pics :)

"What's all the fuss about?"