It was our long awaited turn to host the Sept parents and tods in our little tiny 3 room flat!!! We had a total of 12 adult and 6 little kiddos running and stepping over each other last nite! What chaos but oooo what fun we had!

We set to prep as soon as Sophie went down for her nap. We had to move the furniture around a little for more space and hide all the mess. When Sophie woke up, I roped her in to dry the dishes for the kiddos coz she was fussing. Yes, the best way to eliminate fuss? Involve them!

First to arrive - the Teos! With all their barang - 2 kids, 1 humongous tiramisu in a even more humongous pail, etc etc… hee… Super amazing coz they are the only one with 2 kids but the first one to arrive! And the last to arrive?????? Grace, CL n Clarence coz prince Clarence woke up late! Hee but he was in a good mood when he arrived! And they brought the very very nice fruit punch too!

While waiting for everyone to arrive, we had a conference call with the Ongs! We got to see little DN who is miles away in the UK! Oh how we miss the Ongs at parties!!! Unfortunately that didn’t turn out well coz we didn’t have MSN video on our side to support the call and June’s hardware couldn’t support Skype. But at least we got to see them and hear their voices for a bit! So cool!

While James went with Tony to pick up the dinner we ordered, the kids started feasting on the noodles that Joanne prepared. YUMS! Sam and Shawn took turns to feed Sophie. (Thanks guys!)

The guys finally arrived with dinner. The menu for the day was

1. Chefs Salad w Cherry Tomato Olive n Artichokes
2. Grilled Veg Platter
3. Mushroom Aglio Olio
4. Roasted Chicken thigh w Italian Sausages
5. Oven Roasted Meatballs and Mozzerella Cheese

Left: The Spread Right: The Tiramisu

YUMS!!! We finished all the food pretty fast and quickly went onto the famous Tiramisu that Sam made! Each couple had a 4"by5" piece! I’m serious. It was huge! The kiddos had a bowl of Haagen Dazs Berries ice cream each.

That was the best time to take pictures coz we got all of them to sit in a row and they were sitting as still as they possibly can! Bren and Shawn were going a bit crazy singing and making silly actions to get the kiddos to look up so that the rest can take pictures! Aiyo super funny!

Towards the end, we took a group picture. At the end of it, Sophie stood up and started singing and dancing in front of all of us! And the girls joined in and then Clarence and Jovann all joined it and they just all started jumping up and down and laughing. It was so funny to see our kids "performing" for us!

Finally we had the exchange of presents and they presented us with a special present for a reason which we will reveal in a bit on the blog. It was so sweet……. we got a calendar which Grace made with all the kids’ pictures and winter stuff like gloves and scarves. Cool beans, just what we needed!

I really had so much fun and I think the kiddos and everyone else too.

Dearest Sophie,

You are now 27 mths and you can still sit in your bumbo. That is amazing because most of your friends outgrew theirs long time ago.

This month you have been spending a lot of time with your Mama and Yeye and as a result picking up more Mandarin. You can now recite Tang poems like Chuang Qian Ming Ye Guang (Bed Front Got Moonlight… hahaha) and offered to teach me. I can’t believe it - you are two and you already are better than me in this area.

You stayed over at your grandparents’ for the first time this month. I’m glad to see you enjoying that. It’s hard to let you go but we know that it is a necessary part of growing up. And we know your grandparents on both sides are DEFINITELY ENJOYING IT! I love hearing their stories about how you are with them - sometimes it makes us laugh and sometimes it makes us proud.

Your current fav foods are Century Egg Porridge (Pei Tan Juok), donuts, yakult, Auntie Genie’s mushroom and minced meat pasta (You actually go over and ask Auntie Gin if we’re having lunch there), peanut butter sandwiches, pancakes, etc….. argh you have a sweet tooth just like me. WHICH MAKES ME SUPER GLAD THAT YOU FINALLY ENJOY BRUSHING YOUR TEETH! With toothpaste and you can spit! Woo hoo!

It really doesn’t matter that the only alphabets you recognize are M and O (which coincidentally spells Mommy’s hanyu pinyin surname Mo!?!), or you can’t tell 1 from 4 from 10, or wear your shoes by yourself. What matters is that you are growing well and healthy in body, mind and spirit. For that we are so thankful.

We love you dear one.

Love
Mommy

Day 5

Sophie learned John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son."

Day 6

We were invited to a Christmas at the Lawn charity party organised by Brenda from Little Gastronomy! We had a great time just chilling and hanging out with other mummies and babies. There were carolling, face painting by Queenie, good food and just great space for the babes to run around!

I think Sophie’s fav was the face painting! She kept asking Queenie to do more. In the end she had a candy cane, gingerbread man, heart on her face and a necklace.

Day 4

Today we celebrated Christmas at Jean’s n Howie’s with a bouncy castle for the kiddos! It’s so good to see all the kids in full force. Normally when we go for cell at night, it’s just the parents and all the kids are sleeping at home.

I made these singlets as gifts for the babies. I got Rachel my sis to buy these special fabric button makers from Aus and Bonds singlets. With the fabric stash that Nyet passed me some time ago, I managed to make some pretty cool looking buttons that look vintagey! It’s so simple and so cool! Total time taken to make all four? Prob 2 hrs the max while watching TV. I think I must make some for Sophie too.

Plus I made these gift cards to go with the packaging. Real simple. Using Sophie’s massive fingerpainting exercise as the base pattern, I cut out stars and hearts and pasted them on colourful ready name card sized cards (as usual from Popular). Pity I didn’t take pictures of the final packaging. I put them in brown paper bags with a ugly monster toy. So fun! 

Day 3

We spent yesterday helping out at Christmas@Dover event which our church organised for the Dover residents. There were free food, fun and entertainment for all ages.

Prior to the event, we packed up a lot of our stuff to contribute to the flea market for this event. Some of our stuff were still in very good condition but we figured we can’t keep hoarding stuff so we decided to give it away. I actually felt quite happy seeing one of my favorite shoes being bought by someone, being able to bless someone with something so pretty and so new at a low cost.

Sophie had a moment when she spotted one of her old toys in box for sale and she wanted to take it back. When we had to explain to her that it was for someone else and we can give it away, she actually said ok and put it back. We are hoping that thru this Sophie will learn to bless others in her giving and sharing.

Other than that, Sophie had a great time being showered with lotsa attention from her godma and Yiyi and everyone else. She REALLY enjoyed herself.

I’m still in shock. A while ago, we casually asked Sophie if she wanted to go home with Grandma and she said yes. I thought she was just saying it for fun coz we just asked for fun. See, she’s never slept over at Grandma’s before, only at Mama and Yeye’s house. Even that, she’s only done that twice so far. And the whole night she kept wanting me to carry her and be with me. So I was really shocked when she really wanted to go with Grandma.

Hmmmm… I think she’s really enjoying this. I’m really glad that she’s so flexible and enjoying the company of her grandparents. And of course, the best part? I don’t have to wake up early tom! Yey!

P/s Update - I know why she loves going over to her grandparents’ place to sleep - they pat her to sleep and they let her stay up until she knocks out. Ah…………

It’s starting to feel a bit more Christmasy around our home. I finally got down to planning a countdown for Sophie to help her understand the meaning of Christmas! Instead of a 24 days Advent calendar, I have the improvised quick fix one - 8 days! Hahaha! Better than nothing!

Day 1
We started Day 1 yesterday by fixing up our Christmas tree! Ok not we, just James and Sophie, I was busy taking pictures! Finally! Just 1 more week to Christmas! With all the boxes lying around, we had to dig out a space to put up the tree. One of our family traditions (er ok, we only have 1 so far… hiak!) is to buy a new Christmas ornament every year. We got this in Brisbane for this year.

Day 2
Today is Day 2. We got down to making Christmas cards, somewhat. All my grand plans of making different types of cards with Sophie turned into one big fingerpainting exercise. Oh wells!

 Prints for Christmas

The other thing we did was to set up a Nativity scene……….. er……… with our multi purpose Happyland Farm set! Wah hahahaha…. the Farmer is now Joseph and his wife is Mary. Pretty convenient huh? I handmade (Hahaha!) a star using origami paper and it really looks like a nativity scene. My original plan was to make the scene from scratch. Ya right. Maybe next year if I start now. But I love it. It sits next to the tree and it served as an excellent teaching tool for Sophie to learn about Christmas. She tried to put baby Jesus to bed.

Nativity scene next to Christmas tree

And finally, we try to read different versions of a Christmas story to Sophie every night - traditional, modern interpretations, the bible itself etc. Oh yes, and we’ve been playing Christmas songs all day. I bought a Veggie Tales Christmas soundtrack off iTunes yesterday - it’s ok, quite funny! She’s now able to sing Jingle Bells and Away in the Manger, sometimes she mixes up the lyrics from the different stanzas but it’s super nice to hear her sing them!

Join us for the countdown….

Sophie had some girl friends over yesterday morning and they had a blast!

Sophie’s latest "trick" that my MIL taught her. She poses when you say "Mei nu (pretty girl)". So funny

Someone just came to buy No 6 on our toy sale list. And I suddenly feel sad.

I’m normally quite heartless when it comes to spring cleaning. Ask Clem - he still remembers that James and I restricted ourselves to 20 pieces of clothing each when we last cleared our things. But this time round it’s Sophie’s childhood. What if she misses these toys?!? I feel nostalgic. Every piece of toy has it story. Like this Butterfly Alphabet toy - we got this at Turf City and the narrator sounds bad BUT Sophie loves it! They love these electronic toys. I’m going to miss the awful sounding narrator.

Maybe I should keep some. Or not. Maybe the photos will do.

I have a retro chick at home. She’s into vintage too.

This dress is a hand me down frm I forgot who but it’s lovely! I love the red buttons. Looks great w the handbag.

P/s Excuse the mess, major spring cleaning.

She’ll do anything for him. Almost in awe. I’m so glad Sophie has a great godbrother to look up to and who treats her so well.