Happy Holidays from the Lims

Wishing all a happy new year...

It's been nice having friends over for the holidays but also makes us miss our families more.

Kay has suddenly grown into a little lady. I think it's mainly her hair that's changed her image drastically. It frames her face nicely now and she looks more like a girl. So I took this opportunity to put her in dresses....and I must say she looks pretty cute.

Expressing her independence and her views quite a lot ...our little Kay is a pretty bossy little toddler. Her favourite thing to do is to ask people to "sit" on her little red chairs when they come over to our place. Uncle Paul was one of the 'victims'. That day she took my breath away when she said "bless you" when I sneezed. She is 'taking care' of her mommy now...how nice. After the holidays, she also learned a new word : "chocolate".

Here are some snapshots of friends who made our holiday special.

Happy first Birthday !

March 18, 2008
A year flew pass and Kay just turned one 2 days ago. Was meaning to post something on the day of, but like the rest of the year past, it just slipped by. Many thoughts and many emotions running through my mummy brains right now....but rest assured, they are mostly good thoughts. Would like to thank all our family and surrogate families in Toronto, Singapore, NZ, Alberta and NYC for making this such a special occasion for us.

Well, like how they would do it at the Oscars, I would like to thank:
the group of stouffville mums & kiddos (Rossana/Niall, Eilla/Mina, Maria/Paige & Rita/Caitlin) for all the good times; Samantha & Rachel (her friend since I was pregnant together with her mum Sam); Lydia/David/Richard/lydia's mum (for the support and friendship); Art & Mike (for the many dinner parties and being great neighbours); Yolande/Jason (for helping me through some tougher days); Thuwaibah (for always being there ...somehow); Paul (for all the great advice and being a dependable friend); Elaine/Gab (for sharing Kay's first sushi & museum experince); Joyce/ChungWoh (our dear friends in NYC who are so gracious hosts and such great friends); Ivana/Dan/Neil (for shoveling our driveway and being fantastic neighbours); Granny Giggles/Lynn (for the spiritual and emotional support, advice and laughs online... and off); PoPo/Judy and GongGong/Henghuat for being there during the toughest months; MaMah/YeYe for being that loud voice on the other side of the phone sending their love; Cheeyuen's siblings Laihong/Lailing/CheeHwee for taking care of matters in Singapore and giving us peace of mind to start our lives here in Toronto....well the list goes on and is not in order of importance. Forgive me if I have missed anyone out but i'd like to thank everyone who crossed our paths and made a difference.

Kay's One ! ... as I've piped it on her birthday cake....a pretty ok first attempt i should say.
She has achieved so much in a year that it makes my own progress in life a little shabby in comparison. She is constantly learning with every step, every breath, every touch and every taste. I can see why some people make babies as a hobby :) it's pretty rewarding to say the least.

Well, thanks to everyone's contribution, Kay's Time Capsule is filling up nicely with notes, keepsakes, loud-singing cards, photos, a recipe book, CD, dried up umbilical cord!, size #1 diaper, poems, bracelet/necklace, mini scrapbook...and her first pair of shoes. It will be such a great memory for her when she turns 10 and for us when we turn 60.

Maybe it's appropriate to say Thanks and wish everyone a Happy Easter too ! Enjoy the long weekend and pray for Spring to come.

A New year indeed...

The year usually only begins for me after my birthday. Many thanks for the birthday wishes, coffee treats, lunches and dinners. My indifference to birthdays, especially my own, seems to have lost steam this year. I'm unusually happy. It was something my friend said that really sunk in and tugged at my heartstrings.

Every year I get older and every birthday I celebrate, will be another year I spend with Kay....and Cheeyuen. Thanks for putting this wonderful line together...Thubee.

Our 10th anniversary marked by the birth of Kay really is an extra special milestone for us as a family. I'm saying my prayers and thanks as I'm typing these words on my new Mac book. Haha, can't help but brag about it. Yes I have been spoilt, this year and every year by my dear husband. And that special locket will contain these beautiful memories forever and will one day be passed along to Kay.

It's been quite a holiday season for us. Trip to New York (thanks for the hospitality Joyce & Chungwoh), first Christmas tree, Dinners, Lunches, baking and making truffles for friends. Our only regret is not having family around. Times like these make it especially hard to ignore this reality. We are seriously thinking of sending Kay back to Singapore for her summer holidays once she hits 6 years old. It will be a great way to instill some independence and get her acquainted with family and traditions there. That is not too far away I imagine :) now that she's turning one soon.

Right now I'm just wishing for this season of colds, teething and nasty coughs to be over for my precious little Kay. It's been dragging on for more than a month now. Dried up snort on her face has almost taken over her rosy cheeks and become a permanent feature. That said, nothing has dampened her spirits so far and nothing is stopping her from roaming around in quick steps on all fours. Standing up for 10 seconds on her own is the new record of the day. Maybe she would take her first steps by her first birthday. It's an extremely surreal feeling to see them gain this new independence. That baby that was so fragile, small and helpless is finally growing up. Kay is officially 10 months old today.

A month of craziness

Again time seems to fly by so quickly. There are so many things that happened in the past month that i don't know where to begin. First a quick note to say that I have fully recovered, wound-wise. The nurse stopped coming to visit me on November 19th. That makes it about 2.5 months since the first surgery. I'm glad it's over. It's been too long too painful. Anyway it's something that Kay has to be reminded of in future :)

Other then that we are also seeing many milestones for Kay. She is crawling really well now. And she is also pulling herself up and standing on her own without our help. Most mornings, I'll find her standing in the crib waiting for me to open her door. Sometimes with a big smile, sometimes screaming. But still as adorable as ever. She is a pretty happy baby, as long as she is played with, fed and rested. Not much complains except for her new found dislike for being in the carseat. It's been a struggle every time we get in and it often becomes a crying match until we reach the destination. I'm told it's a phase, so I'm just hoping it'll past soon. Oh, did we mention Kay cut her second tooth on the day my mum left for NZ? Yes,

October 27th - for the second tooth (bottom right). There is still no sign of the top teeth yet even though the symptoms seem to be persistently present.

November 22nd - Set up our first christmas tree. This year's theme is the Nutcracker & friends. Milo and Tea (our cats) have been catching the birds i put up on the tree. Every morning I find a "dead" one some where on the floor.

December 1st - Kay's first Santa Clause parade in Stouffville. It was freezing -15 degrees out there. She was mostly bundled up and quiet cos' of the cold...so we're not sure if she enjoyed it. It was a pretty big parade for a small town.

December 2nd - Kay's first encounter with Santa himself at daddy's Telus Children's christmas party. She didn't scream or cry on Santa's lap. Brave kid. It was fun...balloons, cotton candy, free food and good company.

Maybe i should start blogging with more dates....i'm realizing that I'm not recording down a lot of things and I forget.

Well, as you know the weather here is now getting pretty brutal. Snow storms for the last 3 days, icy driveways, slippery dirty roads, and a foot of snow in our backyard and garden. Now we wished we had a snow blower and a smaller driveway.

Hot summer's day

Cool dude ?


My sweetie pie...


Moving around the cot as she sleeps


Kay and Niall at Jo's

You would think that summer is good for going out, but with the heat blazing at 35 degrees we are forced to go to the malls or stay at home. It is still very hot when we headed out to the post office at around 5pm today. Kay was soaked in sweat when we reach there, and it was just a 5 minutes drive away. With all that padding and tight-buckles on the car-seat it can get pretty warm for her in the back on a hot day like this.

Just wanted to note that I've fully recovered and life is back to normal. Kay is sleeping extremely well at night, usually from 9pm to 6am and goes back to sleep after the 6am feed. And we have noticed that she moves around quite alot in the baby cot during the night. She is usually in a different part of the cot every time we check on her. Even though I haven't seen it for myself, I think she is probably able to flip back from her tummy position onto her back. She wasn't able to do that last week. This week, she has also discovered her own toes.

Wednesday, we went out for coffee at Jo's cafe in Stouffville with Rossana and baby Niall. They are such cuties together. Both of them born a week apart. ...12th and 18th. We'll try to make the meetings more regular since we all live in Stouffville. It was fun.

I'm beginning to think about what i want to do after this year ends. With the EI running out, I'll have to do something for sure, even though I'm really enjoying my time with Kay and would love to continue looking after her. But it must be pretty stressful for Cheeyuen to be shouldering all that financial burden. It's hard to find romance in our lives when we're both tired at the end of the day. (Read : we just want to fall asleep in our bed) But Kay is always there to cheer things up and bring the love back into perspective.

Both Kay and Cheeyuen are fast asleep now as I'm typing this blog. It feels really nice to have some time to myself and just reflect on the day that went by so quickly. Right now, I need to find myself back again...start reclaiming my body, mind and soul. I feel as if I have given them all to Kay since she came into this world. Never thought it takes so much to be a mother. There's really so much to learn.

canada day weekend

Kay and Rachel



July 1st celebrates Canada's 140th birthday, and also Kay's first as a CBC :)
We could see the fireworks from Stouffville's Memorial Park from our own backyard...isn't that cool. It went on for about 15 mins at 10pm last night, while Kay was sleeping.

We had friends over the night before to have a BBQ and also to enjoy the strawberry festival in Stouffville. Turned out that no one made it to the festival, which was really lame with nothing more than a few stalls with miserable baskets of tiny strawberries and shops selling sunglasses. The BBQ itself was pretty fun though. Nice company good food.

Samantha, Rachel and Sean came in tow with their yellow Bumbo seat, which Kay seems to love as well. It's a great little stool, especially for little ones learning how to sit upright. Rachel has grown into a playful little baby with a great head of hair. She is almost 2 months older than Kay. Hmmm...I wonder when Kay's bald spot in the back of her head will grow hair ?

Lydia and David are the excited new parents-to-be. About 15 weeks into their pregnancy they are just at the beginning stages of trying to learn all about the journey ahead....diaper changes, types of strollers to buy, what baby needs for the first days at the hospital and listening to my ranting/ complaints about breastfeeding and stuff.

Zahra brought us a cheesecake for dessert and told stories about a drug bust in our old condo and her 99cent dinners. Well, she is our ex-neighbour at Avondale. So apparently, the guys in the flat next to us might be involved in the drug bust in some way...the story didn't really have a conclusion. And she is pretty upset by me saying that she didn't have a good photo in her Facebook profile. :) ...we were just teasing her and she fell for it. Anyway, she will be moving to Sudbury in August for a new job.

Well, as for Kay i think she is beginning to notice food that is not breast milk. She makes suckling motions with her mouth when i hold an ice cream stick in front of her. But i didn't work with chicken wings...so i think she's going to have sweet tooth like mummy.

it;s finally summer

Big kiss for the princess




The boss...sitting on our new sectional sofa



Knowing her ABCDs



Keeping cool.



The big Discovery


hey i never thought i'd say this, but the good ol' warmer season is here. Days have been hot and humid, but i guess not quite in the same intensity as in Singapore. It's still bearable if you turn on the fan.

Kay has finally hit the 3 month mark and made quite a few milestones along the way.
On June 2nd, she slept from 11.30pm to 7am....the longest ever. Then after that it is back to the 4am & 7am feeds. But it's a start and we're happy. ..sorry i meant I'm happy cos' i'm the one waking up :)...sorry hon.

The next weekend June 8th, she has also started discovering her own little hands and few days ago ...her feet. It's the most amazing thing to see her explore and inspect her little fingers and finally understanding that they belong to her.

2 nights ago, she actually fell asleep without much effort on her own baby crib, in her own room. Yes, the first steps to a little independence, we hope. Well, she's been sleeping in her stroller next to my bed all this while.

Well, as she gets more alert during the day, keeping her occupied becomes eminent to my sanity. She gets bored by the same scene/ toys more easily now. And guess what, she has started to watch the tele. In fact, we went through 85% of the movie "Happy Feet" yesterday on the computer. Currently, her favourite book is "Peekaboo" by Sesame street and "Abra Cadabra" the online storybook.

Also, thanks to aunty Kate for starting her on the ABCDs...and the ACDCs. She looks like a really cool rock-chic.

She's feeding on my left arm while i'm typing this.

Spring is here !

March 11th... we move the clock forward to mark the arrival of spring.
This means we are closer to welcoming the arrival of Baby Kay. She is growing big and kicking a lot....