Holding my breath

This morning, I was watching the Super WHY with Cheyenne sitting on my lap. It has been a week since she eats anything besides snacks, yogurt, fruit smoothies and formula. I decided to offer her a slice of whole wheat bread. I didn't want to give her any pressure, so I casually pinched a little bit and gave it to her, she turned me down. I was pretty prepared for her rejection. Then she picked up the whole slice of bread with her two hands. My first thought was she was going to toss it to the floor. She usually does that when she does not want to eat. My hand was anticipating like a goalkeeper. I guess she was going to toss it to the right, my hand was ready. Instead, she took a bite! She totally surprised me! I held my breath, did not want to interrupt her. I watched her quietly as she chewed her first bite of whole wheat bread. I wondered if she likes it. I wished I was sitting in front of the mirror. She watched a little TV and took her second bite. Then third bite.... then later another bite. My baby is eating!!! I couldn't wait and called Eric immediately.

Day trip to Historic Mystic Downtown

Trip to New Haven

16 month Cheyenne

Loves to laugh when we laugh.

Loves to explore new surroundings.Loves to laze on the bed in the morning like Daddy.

Loves to walk or crawl around on our mattress.

Loves her new britax roundabout car seat.
Loves to look out of the window during car ride.

Loves to go shopping.
Loves her new handbag.

Loves to play with gadgets such as ipods and mobile phones.
Loves to watch video clips on it.

Loves to drink from our new Camelbak bottle.
Loves to refuse food when served.

Gugu's birthday!

Photographing Cheyenne is getting challenging. She either walks towards me when I wanna take a picture of her, or she simply looks the other way when I call out to her. Talking about talking group photo, it's a pain! But thank God there is one thing that attracts her attention - the beeping of the self timer! She will look at the camera when the beeping goes on. And she will smile when the shutter shuts!
That was how we managed to take these 2 shots.
~~~~~
Happy Birthday Gugu!

Halloween at Townhall

When I signed Cheyenne up for this Halloween event, it was merely because I wanted her to wear her costume more than once. We arrived late because we couldn't find Cheyenne's orange polka dots leg warmers, which was later found in her leggings she wore. When we arrived at the Township Leisure centre, the lazer show has already started. In darkness, we made our way to the seats. We couldn't see clearly, but the turn out was quite good. I could tell many adults and kids were in costumes. When the lights were switched on after the show, we realized we were the only Asians. And most of the people were Black. We felt outnumbered, but not intimidated though. Most of the kids were older than Cheyenne. Being the only Asian toddler at the event, she grabbed a lot of attention, many complimented her cute ladybug costume. There was a costume parade for the kids to cat walk and showcase their costumes in front of the judges. We could have won if Cheyenne did not turn her back at the judges when it was her turn. :P

The whole event was quite boring for us. I am not sure about Cheyenne though. Hahahaha..

Pumpkin painting

Testing the brush color on the newspaper.I think she was painting the desk.This was done by an Art student. This was done by us.Our complex organized this pumpkin painting event for the kids to celebrate Halloween. Sadly, only 2 kids and 1 teen did the painting in the clubhouse. It was Cheyenne's first painting experience and it went on pretty well, considered she didn't make much of a mess, except that, instead of painting the pumpkin, she painted the desk.Some pretty corners around our complex.

Swimming at home

Though she did not smile in the picture, I could still tell she enjoyed.
She protested when I took her out.

Shoe Addict anonymous strikes again

My dear friend was on a shopping spree again. She ordered numerous pairs of shoes online, requesting me to send them back for her. Gosh..and my little girl seems to like shoes too.

First Halloween for Cheyenne

I tried to get some budget costume for Cheyenne, but not much luck from craigslist. We ended up paying $19.90 for this cute little ladybug costume from TJMAXX. The workmanship and made exceeded my expectation. There were not many choices for her size, but this one caught our attention and we knew this was it. Thinking back, I am glad I got this piece as Cheyenne's first Halloween costume, because she looks so pretty in it.

Daddy helping to dress little ladybug.

That evening, when we let her try it on, she was thrilled. Walking around the room in it smiling. It was so difficult to get a good picture of her since she was moving around all the time. She even checked herself out at the mirror.
~~~~~~
Today, we went to Westfarm Mall after visiting pumpkin patch.

Cheyenne checking out the candies the lady at the shop stuffed into her handbag.Our little ladybug and DaddyWe arrived late. Most of the shops were out of candies.There was some event going on for the kids. And we met Mr Incredible.

Walking around doing "Tricks or treating" can be very tiring. Time for a rest and some milk.

At the end of the day, she only collected 7 candies cos she only visited 3 shops.
Guess we were really too late.
Be earlier next year!

Pumpkin pickin at Pickin' Patch

Fall foliage in Connecticut is amazing. Our drive to Pickin' Patch is so scenic. What makes a route scenic is the beautiful tree colors, landscape, the houses along it. These road limits are usually slow, i.e. 35 mps, making it a good ride to enjoy the view, without getting honks from tailgating vehicles. But the few experience I have on the road were pleasant ones. I didn't hear any honks so far. It is true people in suburbs have more patience, especially with such nice scenery outside, who wouldn't be in a good mood?Gugu was busy snapping pictures.

Cheyenne was enjoying the scenery.

Just a 15mins drive and we arrived at Pickin' Patch. Welcomed by these tiny pumpkins.
And more pumpkins! There are more variety than we thought.

...and a bed of collard greens.

...and some happy fake pumpkins too.

We hopped on to the free hayride to pick our pumpkin.Cheyenne's first hayride, but she was not sitting on the hay though, she was sitting on Daddy's thigh. Haha~ Maybe that was the reason she was not happy?Hay!Daddy was showing Cheyenne how to pick a pumpkin.

Firstly, sit on the pumpkin to make sure it sits level.

Secondly, the appearance must be pretty. Check for smooth and uniform skin.

Thirdly, knock the shell to hear the sound. If you are looking for a ripe pumpkin, you should expect a "hollow" sound.

Lastly, never pick a pumpkin by the stem. It will break off easily. So be sure to support/hold from the bottom. Otherwise, your feet might get hurt if you drop the pumpkin.

There were so many pumpkins to choose from.

After getting all the tips from Daddy, Cheyenne was on her own to pick a pumpkin.

but most of them were too heavy for her...and too big too.

There were more options over there.

It's ok Cheyenne. It's ok to get dirty.

Finally, Daddy had picked the perfect pumpkin.

...and Cheyenne found her perfect one too!

Don't like pumpkin? They have sweet corns too.

Time to leave!

Cheyenne's first halloween costume

little ladybug

Experiments in the kitchen

I am crazy over baked stuff lately. To me, it is very easy since you just need to pop them into the oven and it will pretty much take care of itself. I don't have to stand around to stir and flip. I tried this recipe today. Pretty simple. I told Eric that if he couldn't find a job back in Singapore, we could probably start a hawker stall selling economy fried bee hoon. I wanna to sell these as breakfast since I am a morning person and it will only be a few hours' job. I would be able to have the rest of the day to myself! Sounds like a plan. I am still trying to master my fried bee hoon recipe. Till then, Eric and Gugu will be my judges.

A walk at the park

We went to Filley park today. This park has a pond. When we arrives, there was not a single car except ours. Not a single human being, except us. We felt so outnumbered when the ducks started to approach in our direction. I was pretty sure they were coming at us. So many ducks! I was intimidated and backed off with Cheyenne. Gugu was the brave one. She went ahead to other way to take pictures.

A while later, a few vehicles came one after another. The first one was a pick up truck. The window was tinted and we couldn't see through. Then a black man climbed out. He carried a container. We were suspicious until we saw kids getting out of the other cars with their caregivers. It all became clear when we saw the kids holding a bag of bread crumbs. The ducks were waiting for these people. One of the caregivers told me that the black man comes every day at the same time to feed these ducks.

Among the kids, there was this little boy, he was so sweet, he offered us some bread crumbs to feed the ducks. He kept coming back to give us refill.

After feeding the ducks, we walked around the pond, took pictures and enjoyed the scenery. Just when I wanted to let Cheyenne walk on the grass and I noticed there were SO MANY duck poos! Everywhere I stepped on! Eeeeeee...Anti-climate hor?

O I see

I have been finding it rather strange why Cheyenne loves to throw things on the kitchen floor lately. It didn't occur to me she was doing so to get the noise. Our floor is all carpeted except the kitchen and the bathrooms. It was Gugu who pointed that out to me. Cheyenne the explorer in the act?

Waffle with ice cream

I have been thinking about waffles after the treat from Ciso. Getting a waffle maker is not too practical I thought. Why not try those frozen waffles? I tried the Eggo frozen waffles. They are not bad! Topped them with some vanilla ice cream, strawberries and some nutella. YUM!~ Perfect dessert!

Around the new neighborhood

With Gugu around, I feel more motivated to go out. Today the weather was too pleasant to spend it at home. After lunch, we dropped Eric at work and we went to check out the local library. We spent over an hour checking out the children's section.

Train table. I myself had a lot of fun at it. Luckily I watched Thomas and Friends on TV, and I was able to tell Cheyenne a little about trains.Cheyenne was stuck at this table for the longest.

Lego tableDidn't know Will Smith writes children's book.Later, we went to a mini park next to the library to take some pictures.Cheyenne loves stepping on the leaves because she gets the "crushing" leaves sound.She refused my hand when I tried to hold her, she wanted to walk all by herself. After grocery shopping, we went to fetch Daddy. We were a little late and when I arrived, I saw 4 missed calls. He was afraid that we forgot to come. It was because the previous time, Cheyenne was napping in my arms around 5pm and I couldn't leave on time.
When he saw us, he was like a little schoolboy dismissing from school, all excited and grinning from ear to ear. Cheyenne was also very happy when she saw Daddy.Daddy's route to office is a very scenic drive. In fact, this city where we stay has a lot of scenic routes, which I happened to chance upon when I took a wrong turn. (^_^) Hope to take more pictures this fall. Fall foliage here is really lovely and amazing.

Froggy potty

In the end, I bought Cheyenne this VERY cute potty.

Fallen leaves

Cheyenne's first kitchen

I found this used Little Tikes Discover Sound Kitchen from craigslist.org selling for $10. I thought why not. In the evening, Daddy went to pick it up. When she saw it, she was excited and couldn't keep her hands off it. It kept her busy while we had our dinner. The toy was all good except the sound didn't work, even though it was supposedly a "discover sound" toy. $10 buck, which is less than 10% of the original price, we can't complain.

"Owl" Cheyenne

Char Shao Sauce pork ribs

I am trying to make use of the oven as much as possible. I tried the quick and easy LKK char shao sauce which I bought some time back. All I have to do is marinate the pork ribs with the sauce for an hour and then bake them in the oven at 350F for 30mins. That's it, so simple. I love oven cooking :) But the irritating thing that comes along is the smoke alarm at home. It sounds every time I open the oven during baking. The irritating beeping is so loud and will only stop when we open the balcony door to let out the smoke/heat. So for now, baking comes with beeping.

Warm head

While unpacking, I found her winter hat (gift from Carol last winter). It still fits.

Toothbrushing

Cheyenne was very excited when I gave her her first toothbrush. She even protested when I wanted to end her brushing session and removed the brush from her little hand.

Snacking

After the trip to NJ, Cheyenne is a changed baby. She started to snack! She just decided to put food into her mouth, but only selective ones. Cheerios, Yan Yan biscuit sticks, Gerber lil' crunchies snacks, etc. We thought Deja might be the influence. However, for some strange reasons, she only eats half of them, and threw the halves onto the floor. For the Cheerios, she would bite off half the "O" and left the "C" on the floor. Hmmm... C for Cheyenne?

Weekend trip to NJ

We took a weekend trip to NJ. This trip happened because our Heipi's inspection was up and it made more sense to do the car inspection in NJ instead of CT, to avoid the tedious paperwork. And with that, we planned to visit our friends, and satisfy some food cravings.

We stayed at Sonny's place. And it has been a while since we met the kids. Deja is walking too. Cheyenne was a little shy at first, but it took no time for her to warm up with them. She began to explore the place. She even wanted to feed Deja with the milk bottle!

This was the first time Cheyenne played with other kids. We were keen to find out how sociable she is, whether she will know how to play with others and such. She did pretty good.

Deja was showing Cheyenne how to operate the DVD player earlier. Now Cheyenne was doing it by herself.

Deja and Cheyenne like to stand right in front of this big TV screen. We pulled them away and they walked back to the same spot right after.

Alif is such a big boy now, but still as handsome and funny as I knew.

Citra and I. It is so much fun sharing motherhood experiences with her.

Mat. We customized this cake topper for his big day. A gift in advance since we couldn't attend the wedding.

We has lunch at Minado. Again. All time favorite. Their red snapper with mango sauce, grilled eggplant and bite size cakes are still as good.
We went back to our first home to visit our ex-landlords and now friends. It was so nice to meet them. We promise to keep in touch and we were so glad we did. They are the ones whom made us so at home when we stayed in Caldwell.
Ciso made some really yummy waffles and apple pie. The waffles were so nice that I asked for a copy of the recipe.

Cheyenne was a little shy. Pauline was really sweet as a big sister. She tried to make Cheyenne at ease, brought her toys and talked to her.

We missed the swing so much!

Sylvaine and Juliet.

The man chat.

Juliet

Pauline was showing her little sister how to operate the lawn mower.

Some fruity hot tea to keep tummy warm.We saw our scarecrow we bought Pauline many Halloween ago.

Summer is over, the sun chairs are off duty.

The sisters having fun at the swing.

They had so much fun running around.

As for Cheyenne, she had her first try on the slide. And she loves it.

Last look at Caldwell.

...And the Caldwell Diner.

Along Bloomfield ave.

Down towards West Caldwell.

The lake at Sonny's place. Beautiful color.

Goodbye route 46.

Before we headed home, we stopped by for Boom Boom Chicken and Mitsuwa for our favorite Salt Ramen. So good! We also slotted in a mini shopping trip at Kam Man at Rt 10, to pick up Kaya Jam and some Pokka Carrot juice and enjoyed my favorite Boba Milk Tea.

The decision to travel after the sun set was the right one. Cheyenne had a nice nap all the way home. We figured that she couldn't sleep well in the car during daylight. All were good. I had a good time catching up with friends and satisfying my cravings. Not forgetting the yummy delicious Indonesian cuisine whipped up by busy Citra, the happy vanilla drink we had and the aromatic Indonesian coffee. And most of all, it was the company that we are going to miss. Thank you so much!

Happy eric

He couldn't stop smiling when he woke up this morning. He could sleep more and come back for home for lunch. And have more time together in the evening. Gosh...so good. I love it too.

Cheyenne's makeshift kitchen

Cheyenne's little make-shift kitchen I set up for her. Usually, after watching me cook, she would wanna play at her "little stove top".

This green cooking and dinnerware set was recommended by Shirley. This company Green Toys are making toys from 100% recycled milk jugs, these toys contain no BPAs or phthalates, and are great for the earth. This set is recommended for age 3+. I opened it, to see if Cheyenne likes it. And that set ended up as Cheyenne's, so much so of toy testing.

The moving day 100609

I woke up around 3 plus in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Though the stay here was only 5 months, we created many sweet memories and Cheyenne had achieved many milestones here. Those images kept playing in my head like a slide show. Be it our playtime, or just quiet times, I was feeling nostalgic about leaving this place.

I am so going to miss this view. I am going to miss walks to the neighborhood library, restaurants and supermarket. I am going to miss my Thai duck fried rice and Sakae don, 60 cents cupcakes and the librarians - the blur and the not. Yet, I am looking forward to our new adventure in the Constitution State and most of all, driving again. Bye bye Queen size bed. We are going to up size to a King. This is going to the guest room.
Cheyenne and I spent a lot of time in this tiny, yet functional kitchen.
Now it is empty and clean.New England has a reputation for its beautiful foliage. Check out the color!Checking out my baby happiness level in the car seat. Still doing fine. I noticed that she could last at most 45 mins before she gets cranky.Our new viewNeighboring units.Car park view actually. But I thought this is better than facing a neighbor's window.Our budget moving service rented a budget truck for our assignment.

It's the first time I am getting a gas stove! We ordered our King size mattress from Amazon.com. For shipping of $10.99, we got this mattress delivered on the day of our arrival. This 47kg mattress was waiting for us at the door. I was really amazed how the rolled up bundle spring up to become a flatten King size bed.

Our mattress is out of the box!

Finally. We Moved

We moved over yesterday and this time, we used some money and got some help. It was so much easier to get movers to do the work and we just stood around to "supervise".

The 2 hour drive from Boston, MA to Bloomfield, CT was surprisingly pleasant for Cheyenne. Perhaps it was the new Britax convertible car seat which Daddy bought it on her 15 month.

Boxes everywhere in the room. Lot of unpacking to do...and lots of backlog blogposts and photos to share. Stay tune ok?

Gee, wanna guess which house we chose?

Little kitchen Helper

Cheyenne loves it when I hold her hand on the spatula and do some stirring in the pan. I caught her smiling to herself many times. And then, she would turn to me and smile at me sweetly :) Even though cooking in the kitchen is no child's play, I so love that smile.

Perhaps for this reason, she loves to watch me cook. She wants me to carry her. And one time, I asked her to fetch the babysling, so I could carry her while I cook. I said it not expecting her to take directions. I was wrong! She went away, looking high and low for the sling and then returned with one! She proudly held it up to me. I was so touched. When I put her into the sling, you bet, she was beaming with smile.

mooncake

Gugu reminded us it was Mid-autumn festival. We decided to buy some mooncakes from Kam Man to enjoy. We are not so much of a fan of mooncake, but it is nice and fun to enjoy some over some hot tea, the traditional way. As for Cheyenne, she just wanna feed us. That's her kind of fun lately.

A day around the neighborhood

Chewing teething biscult

I was preparing dinner with Cheyenne in my hotsling. As I was getting some ingredients from the pantry, I found a leftover pack of teething biscuit. She always loves to hold something in her little hand, so I gave it to her. This is my method of keeping her hands busy in the sling, and not reaching out for things on the stove top.
Just as I was turning my chicken wings in the pan, I heard something being tossed to the floor. It was the biscuit wrapper, it surprised me that she knew how to rip off the wrapper. I looked at her and gave her the disapproving look. Her eyes met mine and held the biscuit up, offering it to me. Cheyenne has never tried a teething biscuit. I showed her how to take a bite. She used all her 10 fingers to grab and bring the biscuit to her mouth. She took her first bites. It was a tiny bite and she continued to take her second one. I watched this moment in awe. I couldn't believe my eyes. We almost concluded that our girl doesn't like to self feed, even though she enjoys feeding others. She was happily chewing her biscuit and I actually held my breath, fearing I might distract her.

Gugu and I also noticed that she loves to share her food. She chewed another bite and she offered it to us. Turn by turn. Gugu, then Mommy then Cheyenne. Just like how she loves to feed us grapes. But this time, she got her own turn.

She did not finish the biscuit, but finished "EAR", which I considered as an achievement. I have to suppress my urge to call Daddy immediately. We recorded it on video to show Daddy in the evening. I also kept the remaining piece of biscuit, just for him to re-live that moment.

Gugu's mouse

She was trying to find an USB port to plug into...

..she moved on to look for another. This one doesn't fit.She tested it on the bathroom floor. This is my favorite. She figured she could hang it around her neck and walk with it.

***

Why is Gugu's mouse so different from Daddy and Mommy's? Gugu's is a USB mouse which has this dangling cable which Cheyenne can pull along with her, whereas Daddy and Mommy are using wireless mouses. That makes this her new interest.

House Hunting V

We used a few websites to find apartments. Namely Apartmentguide.com, rent.com, forrent.com, mynewplace.com and craigslist.org. For choosing which city to stay, we took some advice from Eric's co-workers as well as city-data.com. From city-data.com, there is also information on sex offenders living in that city. Even their photos can be found along with their addresses. Also we read reviews from apartmentrating.com to see if the recommendations and complaints by current tenants or ex-tenants.

We decided to widen our search scope by a higher rent and another city. We decided to go for a city where he works. In this way, he could make up for those hours of sleep he missed over these period. Also, we could have him back home for lunch. In the evening, we could spend more family time together. With all these pros in mind, Eric went to check out Complex HGR, 10 mins drive to his workplace.

Pros:
10mins drive to workplace
Nice open floorplan.
Big kitchen
Washer + Dryer in unit
Has balcony
Spacious
Nice and new amenities in the complex.

Cons:
High price tag.
Car dependent.
Read some bad reviews on this Complex regarding college students staying here and playing late, thus making lot of noise.
The unit we wanted is on the 2nd floor. stairs = not stroller friendly.

Verdict: The floor plan won my heart. I don't think car dependent is a problem since I could drop Eric off at work and use the car. We are running out of time and options. We may have to convince ourselves to fork out more if we choose this place.

Last shopping at Kam Man

Stocking up 3-in-1 coffee mix.

(Photo taken by Gugu's canon IXUS 120IS - small and pretty good!)

We went to Kam Man 金門市場 (@ Quincy) to stock up our 3-in-1 coffee supplies. We were so happy to find our Gold Kili 3-in-1 instant coffee mix back in stock. We also bought Yeo's soya bean drinks, just in case we could not find these in Connecticut. And we already knew Kam Man has no branch there. During our stay in Caldwell NJ, we had one branch which was 20mins drive away. This time we chanced upon this one when we were driving to Walmart. It was a pleasant surprise. Later, we also found out that Kam Man only have branches in 3 states, namely NY, NJ and Massachusetts.

As much as I love broccoli and watercress (available in the local supermarkets), I do crave for xiaobaicai, caixin and taiwan cabbage at times. Variety is the key. Asian grocery stores are so essential to satisfy our Singaporean appetite. I still remember the happiness we shared when we saw some "Product of Singapore" in the store.

One thing I learned is to check the expiration date. We ever discovered some expired products on sale. Just be mindful and check the print on the packaging. We usually skipped those which do not have an expiration date. Also, we avoid products Made in China if we can help it. Sorry China food manufacturers, you really need to buck up and regain our confidence. Milo and Yeo's has made in China and made in Singapore. It is no-brainer that we pick the latter.

Kam Man.... byebye... A-dong*..we are coming!

*A-dong is a asian grocery store in West Hartford CT area.

Boston Walk II

View Larger Map

We are tour guide today! Gugu wants to take some pictures, so we brought her around Harvard Bridge and Newbury Street.

On Harvard BridgeWe thought this topless runner was insane! It was chilly!Newbury street

Walk around Harvard Square

Hmmm.. Harvard or Yale? Or maybe NUS?3 of us with a stroller, took the Red Line to Harvard Square. From my place to Harvard Sq is a stroller friendly route. Ramp. Elevator. Smooth. Very good. This is my 4th time in Harvard Yard. Every time with different company and every time it was cold. Daddy said he hopes Cheyenne can study in Harvard in future, because he likes Boston very much and would love to come back. What do you say Cheyenne?

House Hunting IV

Complex CV is located downtown next to the highway. The building was dated and the lobby had many steps. The lift was tight and probably could not fit our sleeper sofa. The corridor to the available unit was narrow and dimly lit. The layout of the unit was longish. The window has a good view of the Connecticut State Capitol, but also overlooking a highway.

I am not so keen on living here, if I have a choice. But looking at the options at hand, we have no other options. The tenant at Complex V has informed us his change of moving date to end of Oct. Thus, Complex V is out, unless Eric is prepared to do the 2hr drive for another month.

Apartments available for rental are many and the price is much lower as compared to Boston. However we are looking for short term leasing, we have limited choices. Many of the nicer apartments offer only 12 month lease.

Pros:
Downtown, walkable to deli cafe on the first floor of the building.
Walkable to parks and museums.
Renting directly from property mgmt, thus the unit will be cleaned before we move in.

Cons:
Next to highway.
Neighborhood - not to my liking.
Old amenities
Washer and dryer on every floor. (but read from reviews that the dryer usually needs 2-3 spin to dry the clothes)

Verdict:
I have to convince myself to live here. I really don't fancy living in this apartment. It's just gut feeling. I think we should expand our search to other cities instead.