Matthias & Shannon - Our Gifts from God

My CNY Outfit..

Today we had dinner with Uncle Joshua (one of our Singaporean friends in Shanghai) and her fiancee Aunty Wendy and her family in Shanghai. After that, it was followed by more firecrackers and fireworks...

This is my Chinese New Year outfit for today...

Our First Chinese New Year in Shanghai...

It is the first time we spent Chinese New Year in Shanghai. Last night, we arranged to have reunion dinner with a bunch of Singaporean friends who were like us who stayed behind in Shanghai for Chinese New Year too. Mummy was hoping to get someone to bring "Yusheng" back from Singapore, as some of the ingredients cannot be bought locally. However, we finally found it being served at Sushi Teh. So we bought a takeaway portion for us to "捞" during the reunion dinner. Picture to be uploaded soon.

We also played a bunch of firecrackers and fireworks after dinner outside Aunty Fiona's place... Here's some videos we took... The whole night that followed was then filled with explosive noises from firecrackers and fireworks all over the streets. It was definitely an experience since we have never played with them before in Singapore... We can still see the remnants of the firecrackers lying on the streets today...

Chinese New Year Light Ups in Shanghai...

Here's some pictures of us at 徐家汇. Check out the light ups there. The 牛 year will here in a few more days... Hope that the BULL will wake up from hibernating and wishing everyone a "BULLish" year ahead... Hahaha...

Glenn Doman Flashcard Method

Mummy has heard and read lots about the Glenn Doman Flashcard method from her friends and websites, respectively. She has ordered a series of Glenn Doman books from Amazon several months back but had never had a chance to really sit down to read them. As part of her new year resolution for 2009, she finally made herself sit down and finished 2 books (still got 2 more to go). Here's the Glenn Doman series of books she got:

How To Teach Your Baby To Read
How To Teach Your Baby Math
How To Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge
How Smart Is Your Baby

After reading the first 2 books, Mummy's rather amazed at how a baby's brain can function, so she decided to try this for me. She just ordered a set of words and dots flashcards for me. Of course, before placing her order, she tried using smaller Baby Einstein flashcards for me for a consecutive one week period and I appeared to be quite receptive (although Mummy has been using flashcards for me since I was 3 months, Mummy has never been disciplined to put this into a routine schedule for me) So Mummy's determined that her 2009 new year resolution will be fulfilled. Let's check back in another 6 months and monitor my progress...

New Year Resolutions

It's that time of the year again... It's the last day of 2008... And as usual, today is the perfect time to sit down and review the past year to see if previous new year resolutions were met and make new year resolutions for the coming year. Mummy definitely remembered herself doing this last year.

Whilst it seems like the world in general is still partying during this time (as 婆婆 told Mummy this morning that she saw in the TV that there will be countdown parties at 步行街 and 徐家汇), Mummy is not too sure whether it is simply worth that celebration. After all, we have all seen how everything in the last 4 months of 2008 went downhill and 2008 is coming to an end with a lot of gloom as compared to the festiveness everyone felt in 2007. In 2008, we saw the market suddenly took a sharp turn in September when Leh* Brothers declared bankrupt and AI* suddenly announced that it is in huge financial difficulty. These news were followed by Cit*bank announcing its huge financial difficulty and then later the 3 big Motor companies in Dallas were also hit. Then, suddenly within the last quarter of 2008, the ripple effect from the banks came on to many other industries. Together with it, the stock market and property prices have plunged a big deal in the last few months.

Here in China, we also have the milk scandal issue. There are also lots of news that a lot of factories down in Guangzhou area have closed down due to lack of US demand, increasing labour costs and appreciating RMB. In Mummy's line of work, she also sees a lot of manufacturing companies suddenly turning to losses, especially with the stocking up of raw materials at high prices with the original expected demand for finished goods coupled with sudden falling prices for the finished goods due to sudden lack of demand.

Mummy reads and hears about bad news and retrenchment on a weekly basis. Such retrenchments even happened to some of Mummy's friends at church and at work. Suddenly the financial tsuinami just became so real. Many say that this is only the beginning. At least, there is some cushioning of the impact from the 1st part of 2008. But as we enter into 2009, the real downturn is here as we are likely to see many companies in a sea of red, many companies folding down, more unemployment etc. Of course, there are many who also say that the market will start to recover a bit at the end of 2009.

Despite all these gloom we see in 2008, as Mummy looked back on the past year, she feels that she still needed to give thanks for everything. After all, there have been good things that have happened during the year too.

Mummy finally got the promotion to Senior Manager that she has long awaited for

Daddy and Mummy still have a job (it is important to give thanks for this as retrenchment news are as near to us as our friends)

Although it has been relatively difficult, Mummy did manage to strike a good balance between work and family life.

Mummy also had the wonderful experience being a first time mummy. There has been definitely a lot of firsts. But Mummy is glad that her trial an error methods coupled with her reading up of information work most of the time. And I believe this is an experience that Mummy has had and would not trade for anything in exchange with.

As we move into the beginning of 2009, Mummy's new year resolution is to be able to continue to spend more time with me so that she can help me develop my language, motor and mental skills more effectively as I move into the toddler stage. She is preparing to start looking for a half-day school to send me to so that I can start learning more skills and 婆婆 can also have more time for herself.

Mummy's Breastfeeding Journey

Influenced by the websites and the Nov 2007 mummies, Mummy is a strong advocator of breastfeeding because of its benefits. Here's a list of benefits (for both Mummy and baby) that Mummy has found from Baby Center:

In fact, despite being a working mother that has crazy deadlines at times, Mummy kept hanging on to the thought of breastfeeding me. In fact, Mummy's supply for milk for me has gradually dropped after breastfeeding for 13.5 months.

Originally, Mummy's aim was to breastfeed for 12 months. And now, certainly she has more than fulfilled that aim and she will stop from 2009 onwards. Nevertheless, I am very thankful to Mummy for doing this for me. I want to tell her I really appreciate her for it.

Our Winter Getaway to Macau and Hong Kong - Part 3

Here's my favourite part, Disneyland. I was so excited that I hardly slept in the day when I was there. I was busy taking rides and exploring the streets of Disneyland and making friends with the Disney characters...

Can you guys guess what I am looking at and smiling away?

Here's what I was looking at. The chipmunks... Hahaha...

More photos of us...

Here's some pictures of my favourite Disney rides, characters and the parade...

Here's how we ended the night in Disneyland, with snow falling from the skies...

Our Winter Getaway to Macau and Hong Kong - Part 2

Here's some photos of the casinos we visited. But Mummy's most impressed by the Venetian, which has a terrific theme. The shopping area had an ambience as if one was shopping and walking on the streets of Venice, with gondola rides in the middle. I couldn't help but practise walking on these streets and strolling into the individual shops...

Daddy also took some nice photos of the exterior of the Venetian. Will upload soon.

Check out some of the photos we took...

Here's a photo of us at DFS Galleria. Mummy used to be managing this client when back in Singapore... and here's me making a "funny" face...

Here's our Spanish tapas feast (or rather should I say Daddy's and Mummy's) whilst my feast was my milk...

Our Winter Getaway to Macau and Hong Kong - Part 1

Shanghai has been really cold for the last month, currently, temperature ranges from -4 to 8 degrees every day. So Daddy was convinced that our winter getaway had to be to a place that is down south. Mummy had originally wanted to go to places like Hokkaido, Seoul and Beijing, but her suggestions were totally turned down by Daddy (who was afraid of cold) and of course, his reason was that I cannot go to a place that cold, hahaha... We then decided on Boracay Islands cos Daddy wanted to give me some sun, but we decided too late, so we had problems getting hotel and flight reservations. In the end, we decided to go to Macau and Hong Kong instead, since both Daddy and Mummy have not been to Macau and they wanted to bring me to Disneyland.

So our first two days was in Macau. Here's me watching sesame street in our hotel whilst Daddy and Mummy decided where to go.

Here's me trying to help Mummy read the map to decide where to go...

Here's some performances we saw at the various casinos. Of course, Daddy and Mummy did not gamble, although they took turns to visit the casinos to take a look whilst the other babysat me in the lobby.

Here's some photos we took at Senado Square...

Finally the famous landmark of Macau.

Here's a portuguese feast at 九如坊, a famous local portugese restaurant.

Weaning Off the Pacifier

Mummy realized recently that I have become a real pacifier addict. Whenever I spot the pacifier lying anywhere in the house, I would reach out for it and put it in my mouth and start sucking it. So Mummy decided since last weekend, that she should start to wean me off it. To date, I have successfully not used the pacifier for one week. However, Mummy secretly still carries a pacifier with her whenever we go out, just in case she was unable to handle me...

Matt Taking His First Unassisted Steps...

It was another exciting week for Daddy and Mummy as they witness me take my first unassisted steps. It appeared to them that I was rather cautious at first, not willing to let go of their "one finger" that I hold on as I walk. But they were very encouraging and was there to support me to take more steps. Check this out...

Here's an update during our Winter getaway. Matt's walking steadily now... He made huge progress within the one week during our Winter getaway. Since our return, he's been walking around the house on his own...

My latest Doraemon Tricycle

To reward me for being diligent in making attempts to walk, Mummy decided that she will get this for me. In fact, she has been searching for the "right" one for a long, long time, but never bought anything since she could not find the one that steals her breath when she sees it. So today, she saw it... And she knew "This was it!!!" In fact, this is Mummy's favourite cartoon since young... It will arrive during the weekend and I certainly look forward to it... Hahaha...