Rising Costs, Price hikes

Inflation is the focus in today's papers. It was mentioned that inflation had accelerated from January to a 26 year high of 6.6%.

Currently, my Cutie and Sweetie are taking GainIQ and Similac Follow-on. Without inflation, these 2 products (under Abbott) are already costly enough. So far, have never for once seen them have had any promotion (in terms of price) at all.

With inflation and future GST of 7%, it is going to be costly to feed a baby. (Now my darlings consume a can EACH per week. Can you imagine the opportunity costs of foregoing a Nintendo DS and games per month? hee...). Guess the government will have to look into this, else the birth rate in Singapore will continue to dip further.

Well, some may suggest changing to a lower cost brand milk powder. But to me, I think for other stuff, maybe, but not milk powder for my darlings.

Milk is the main source of staple food to a baby. I feel that we can scrimp and save on other things, but we should never, never compromise on things that are essential for a baby's growth and development. I personally believe that the first few years of a person's life lay the foundation for one's future. From what I know, Abbott's products are the only brand that do not contain palm oil. The main point is my babies are growing healthily and well with this brand. Keke.. though do not deny that my TLC helps too.

Guess taxi drivers are one of those doing well nowadays. Quite a number of the taxi uncles in our recent rides do not even want to charge us the extra few cents on the metres. They must be doing pretty well, to even willing to forego the cents at such times? Haha... so don't be surprised if you find a female taxi driver who looks exactly like me cos' it may really be me (keke... in the past, I did think of getting a taxi driver's license).

Guess it's always blessed to be a baby, to just live in their own happy and sweet world.

My Trustworthy "Helper"

My Sweetie is now a big baby already, hence I would need to place her in sitting position when on pram/stroller. Though I can still place both in sitting position in my Peg Perego "helper", my Sweetie's view will be blocked by my Cutie who is sitting in front. So I have to think of an alternate solution.

I was then considering to let my Cutie stand on the pedals on the stroller, but I was a bit apprehensive - afraid that she might be too short or that she does not know how to hold tight etc.

However, I decided to give it a try. And wow, it was a good try.

First, my Cutie likes to stand rather than be constrained in the seat while my Sweetie gets to sit and enjoy the view. For mummy, hee... I don't have to carry any of them and everything remains status quo (hee.... just need to push the stroller only). It's great that the canopy helps to prevent my Cutie for falling backwards and also serves a backing for my Cutie to lean on when she's tired (see picture below).

This stroller is definitely one of my best buys. No regrets.

On our way back that day, saw this scooter and hence used the opportunity to teach her (she is good at identifying taxi, bus, car, lorry, van, motorcycle and bicycle, but does not know what is a scooter). See how happy my Cutie was when I let her sit on the scooter.

Cutie Cutie

Few days ago went to an ex-colleague's house for gathering. My Cutie was extremely shy and clingy to me. Hardly even talk, but look at the contrast after we left the place and went to the MacDonald nearby.

Wanna learn from my Cutie the fastest way to take off your shoes? Watch this.

Click HERE to go to my youtube video to see this young artist at work.

Cutie's 1st Swimming & Kite Flying Lesson

Learning how to float and kick

Learning how to fly a kite

[She learnt the concept of "pull and pull" from the story "The Enormous Turnip"]

Busy, busy week

The past week was fully packed with activities cos' it has been a long time since we have our family outing and also with daddy resuming work this week. Time just passed so quickly, that it's usually quite late when we went back home and we ended dozing on bed almost immediately. Nevertheless, it has been a fun-filled week with kite flying, hunting for playgroup for Cutie, car hunting, swimming, going to the zoo, and visiting relatives and friends.


From my observation, my Cutie enjoyed the swimming and the car hunt more while my Sweetie enjoyed swimming most (gee... cos' that's the only activity where she can participate other than sitting down or being carried??). This was their first visit to the swimming pool.


For me, I enjoyed the kite flying most. It's been ages since I last fly a kite and I'm surprised to be able to fly the kite so high (both daddy and mummy were initially on the verge of giving up as the kites always nose-dived to the ground). For daddy, I bet having bought a car was his greatest joy. Of course, we enjoyed all activities too.

At the car showroom, my Cutie was really excited to be able to "drive" a real car and she was like pleading and yelling when I told her it's time to go. I wonder when we got our car, will she hog the wheel and refuse to let go?

Hurray, Daddy is back.

Yes, daddy is finally back.

Went to new T3 (aka terminal 3) to fetch him early in the morning cos' the arrival time is 6.45am. My poor sleepy babies.

This is the second time that I brought my Cutie to fetch her daddy at the airport, so she seemed to be aware that she has to wait for daddy to come out through the "door".

Glad that my Cutie still remembers her daddy. As for my Sweetie, it was like her first meeting with her daddy cos' she was only 2 months old then when she last saw him.

We went to MacDonald's for our breakfast and decided to tour around this newly opened terminal. Then we went to T2 as we felt that the viewing mall is better.

We were having difficulty moving around with a trolley of luggage, 2 haversacks, newly bought dutyfree wine and beer, a stroller and 2 babies. The haversacks kept on falling off the fully packed trolley and we did not want to move around carrying the heavy haversacks.

With witty mummy (aka me) around, no problem at all.

Instead of 1 trolley, we got ourselves another trolley and transferred some of the luggage and stroller over. Then we placed our Cutie on one of the trolleys and used the straps of the haversack as a safety harness. With my Sweetie in the carrier, our hands were thus free to push the trolleys around.











Time flies and soon it was time for lunch. We went to Sakae Sushi and one of the dish was raw salmon. Mummy came up with the idea of a mini "lou hei" and we garnished it with green peas, crab roes, radish etc. It was fun.

Sweetie, Sweetie

Thanks to all who have voted for my Sweetie and especially those who had registered to vote (cos' it's these votes that counts). Glad to let you know that my Sweetie is the cover for the month of February. Though I've joined just for fun and nothing to win, it feels good to know that my Sweetie has won.

Here's a video of my Sweetie doing leapard crawl. In no time, she will be crawling around the house on her own.

Seeing her doing leapard crawl reminds me of my OCS (Officier Cadets School) training days in the SAFTI MI. The story starts from the day I had a fall at the carpark compound while doing my shuttle run for the IPPT and hurt my right elbow (a deep abrasion after falling on the tarmac floor). Unluckily, for the week and subsequent weeks, our trainings involved doing leapard crawls on the ground. Thus the wound on my elbow never gets to heal cos' before the wound can close up, another training continues. Now the scar on my elbow sets as a reminder to me (haha... of my suffering days). I thank God that I have persevered through and can be proud that I've been commissioned as a female military officer. (it's been more than 10 years ago already, haha... so naturally my current figure may make it hard for you to believe, but let me tell you I had been achieving gold for my IPPT and my standing broad jump goes more than 2 metres). However, this success is nothing compared to having given birth to 2 sweet little darlings - my Cutie and Sweetie.