The Southern Ridges

Everyone around us seemed to have visited the southern ridges. All except us. And looking at the pictures they took just made me want to go take a look. It has been about a year or so (being pregnant and being a new mother again) since I had any semblance of an active lifestyle and I miss the satisfaction after working out a good sweat the right way. This surely excludes housework, getting a good facial steam from the frying pan, yanking two kids a pram and a humongous bag out with derod. So we made a date, albeit a difficult one, with our makan buddies (who happen to be exercise gurus running marathons), got my enthusiastic parents along and off we went a-climbing.

The carrier's a real asset in times like these. Doesn't she look snug! Since Rou's right in the middle of the must-taste-and-suck-everything phase, we bought an attachable bib specially designed for the carrier so we don't have to wash the entire thing all the time.

The "before" picture.

Immediately after we took the group picture, we walked up the slope scattered with these leaves. Gabe remarked "so many moons on the floor!" I thought it was a very interesting perspective.

Beng gong and Mui por acting as tour guides -- we asked them along because they've done this route a few times.

Blues and greens. How serene. Yet this scene supports one of the economic pillars of our country.

Everyone's attention was diverted to this family of monkeys. Apparently just a few moments ago, someone agitated one of them and got hurt as a result. Gabe was most fascinated at the sight of the animals.

Check out the crowd they gathered.

Education time: Look! Look! Look!

Our attempt at a family picture.

Everyone's transition lenses in action...

Papa and his little girl. The "little" part is rather emphasized in this picture, I'd say.

Little Gabe against the grains and grooves of the henderson wave.

Our guides for the day, standing against lush greens which are not something you see in aplenty everyday.

A penny for your thoughts, baby?

Landmark!

We walked along this endless bridge, snaking through the vegetation. It was nice, breezy and quiet; very enjoyable.

There was a part of the journey where all the slopes led us down, down, down.

Beng gong took Gabe on thrill rides, allowing the pram to roll down the slopes freely. The boy giggled and squealed with delight. This is one of my favourite pictures of the trip.

Trying to get everyone together for a picture...

That's us, probably 80 metres from derod and mei, who stayed back to take this picture of the group.

The bridge in the light of the setting sun.

The "after" picture. Rou's asleep, everyone else is trying to find a place to sit. For those curious ones, we didn't return by climbing up up up all those slopes. We took the shortcut by trudging up a huge flight of steps as the sun was setting fast on us. It was fun. I'd do it again!

Lip-O-Suction

This little girl is full of cheeky faces. If she's not being cheeky, then she's just expressing herself with up-to-date Rou-signature facial moves.

The monkey face. Basically scrunching up her face when you ask her to.

The pout and squeeze cheeks face. Sucks lips and cheeks in, holds the pose.

The beggar face. Smack lips, lick lips at sight of drinks and food. Complete with coming forward to beg for food.

Partly due to all these gnawing and lip-action, everyone who sees Rou deduces that she's going through the teething phase. Let's just say that this comment started when she was about six months old, and we've still yet to see anything protruding from her gums. Well, here's mei out and about on her lip-0-suction!

Wai Gong Has a Blog!!

Can you believe it?!

http://patrickcheok.blogspot.com/

9 months old

At nine months old, Rou starts claiming ground, exerting her independence and showing us glimpses of the character in this little compact body.

She's still being bathed in her green tub and is a little cool dude. Once, she (or rather, her butt) slipped and her head went under the water for a split second but hey, no fuss from the little one.

She's crawling everywhere, and the cutest part is that once she detects that I'm out of sight, will come crawling all over the house in search of me. She exercises some form of elimination or priority over the choice of locations too, and I must say, most of the time, she'll find me at her first choice of location.

She objects when you take her toys from her, chuckles to herself at play, adds head-banging to her repertoire of dance moves, and starts to respond to instructions (sit down, clap clap, do the hallelujah).

She seems to be able to say "mummy" in a really distorted sort of way, and only when she's desperate.

gasp gasp little rou. (Her laughter is really just a series of quick gasps.)

She loves riding on the tricycle! Papa would push her around, "chasing" after gor gor, and the two will have the greatest time. Such small things amuse little children so much...

How can one be comfortable like this??? But it's a pretty regular thing, finding Rou in weird sleeping postures.

We've weaned rou and she's very happy with the bottle. Ahhhh....!

Little drummer girl

Nightly routine with Papa. Papa will get a little tub of water and clean Rou up before changing her into her pajamas, giving her her last bottle of the day and scooting her off to bed.

How's the air up there?

Contented with holding on to a little toy, as usual, but what could be the cause of such fixated concentration?

It's the one-eyed monster. Brother's getting his daily dose, sister's the recipient of collateral damage.

Don't belittle these pole-like grills. They keep her standing steady, and entertained. How, you may ask? As with all other items, she gnaws on/ tastes/ bites on them.

"Ok meimei, I'll play the drums and you'll play the guitar."

Rou looooooooves her grandfather. When we return to derod's, she'll only have yeye carry her. If derod and I are not around, poor yeye has to be around all the time. If he went to bathe, she'll be at the foot of the door, wailing for him to come out.

Firstjohn and Rou.

Firstjohn's daughter and Rou. She's been carrying Rou since Rou was a month old, and even chided her auntie for carrying Rou the wrong way!

Uncle Hoho is Rou's best friend on Sundays. He'll hold her and "dance" till she sleeps during worship, every Sunday. Some people say that if you spend a lot of time with another person, the two will grow to resemble each other. Can you detect any form of similarity between the two? ;p

Mei and Mei!

8 months Old

Rou Rou's eight months old now! I'm really not as diligent in keeping up with her progress in development but I do have some interesting snippets.

She's crawling around endlessly, targets her brother's toys on the floor. She can crawl towards you if you clap and open your arms to her.

She throws her head in the direction of where I park my mobile phone the moment she hears the chime that signals the receipt of an sms.

She's gotten into an appetite madness. The amount of porridge she takes at a single meal, and the amount of time she takes to slurp up that amount, is astounding.

She puts everything into her mouth. Like animals that need to sniff at everything, she has to taste everything. Above picture is the classic scene of Rou hanging on to the rail of her cot - you're bound to see this scene when she's in there.

See? Object: her clothes. Oh by the way, she's got absolutely no teeth yet.

Toys...

Bed time. Papa's doing an action song tonight. Gabe sings along, Rou's happily entertained while standing in the cot.

On Papa's lap as he tries to get some work done. Doesn't she look pleased.

Still loves sleeping on her tummy, though we find her on her back more often now.

The siblings looking out at traffic.

We had visitors the other day; the Ds came over and we attempted another shot of the thorn among the roses, with an increase in the number of "roses".

How she looks like early in the morning, still in her PJs.

She's been pulling herself up with other furniture, and not just confined in her cot. She can pull to stand but still has problems landing. Later on in the month, she decided the best way to go about it is to just let go and plop on her butt, but she's smart enough to do it only in the cot where the landing is softer. Here she is, examining her brother's bed.

Entertained children. Mei's head is still pretty bare. I can hardly blame the whole world of strangers who mistake her for a boy.

When reviewing this shot, Papa told Rou that she was caught in the act of smacking him on the head.