From Bumps to Babes

Time really passes so quickly. 1 year ago around this time, I found out I was pregnant and was so sick that I was almost bed-ridden every day. Fast forward to now, I feel like so much has changed with a baby and one of it is the joy of motherhood.

It is a beautiful coincidence that in this group of gal pals, the 3 of us were pregnant at the same time and had our babies in the same year.




Our little ones were projected to be about 2 months apart -- due in Feb, April and June. However in the end, bestie Cyn delivered slightly earlier than her due date in February. I delivered 1 day before my due date in April. Char delivered at week 37 in the month of May, way before her due date which was supposed to be June. Hence, our babies are no longer 2 months apart from one another.




Another coincidence was that we were all having baby girls. And the last coincidence was that we were all Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) sufferers, or should I say survivors!

While we were suffering during our 1st and 2nd trimester, our WhatsApp group chat became our support group. We ranted and we whined and we "reported" our daily suffering on that thread. Most importantly, we encouraged one another to hang in there.




When we realised we were all pregnant, we made a pact to take a bump shot together or it would never happen again. LOL! Why never happen again? Cyn has 4 kids, Char has 2 kids and they decided they would stop at that.

As we were all so sick during the same phase of our pregnancy, it meant that by the time Char was well, Cyn might have popped. It was such an opportune time to meet up a few days before Cyn popped and sealed memories of our bump shots with so many photos.




Our photographer for that day was my Godson Jase. At 14 years old this year, Jase has grown from a sensible and well-behaved boy into a fine young man. When he was a pre-teen, I kept telling him that no matter how old he is, I would still want to hug him like always. I hope he won't be embarrassed by such a Godma. >_<




I said to him, "Why are you growing taller every day? The last time I saw you during H's baby shower, you were my height and suddenly you are so much taller today!"

So proud of Jase to have gotten into a good school after having missed quite a bit of the Singapore education system when he was over in the UK. I pray that he would do as well academically as he does in other areas of life.




Cyn is so fortunate to have such a filial son. I wish that Baby Ash would grow up to be a filial daughter too. For those who have been reading my blog since Charmaine's (my goddaughter) cancer days, you would know what a sensible boy Jase has always been!




Jase was so patient with us, having to take so many photos till we (more like I) were satisfied. And of course we 3 bimbotic ladies simply had to take a picture WITH him before we let him off to meet his friends.




Cyn said Jase is "trained" well by me coz he has such an eye for detail. After this photo, I told him to change his position to capture us at the right angle. He caught onto the flow and was a natural at instructing us to pose.




For example, could you tell the difference between the next 2 photos?




It was Char's left leg! Jase instructed Char to place her left leg out at a similar angle as what Cyn and I were doing. And that resulted in our favourite picture and the best one to feature on my Instagram.




Our personal favourite was this (even if Cyn's hubz remarked that we looked like we had stiff necks) as we were trying to recreate the pose we did about 8 years ago when we were in NYC.




Not this...




This! Coz we look cuter here.




If Cyn's hubz were to caption this collage, it would be "Still having stiff necks from 2009 to 2018."
-_-|||





~*~*~*~


After our bump shots and after we were more settled down with life, we agreed we should recreate one holding our babies in place of our bumps.




It was so difficult to recreate the exact same pose with the exact same slightly angled position with fidgety babies. Check out how many shots we took in the anigif below! Spot the photobomber while you're at it.




Mums and babes.





In the series of non full length shots, I really couldn't decide which to feature. The adults all had the same expression while the babes looked so comical! I really love the process of how Baby K went from sleeping to frowning with a cute pout and how Baby H was figuring out what Baby K was doing.




The 3 babes all affecting each other to cry.




And then Mia wanted a shot with the babes and she won everyone hands down in posing.




I'm always thankful for being blessed with so many supportive and true girl friends in my life. Also how blessed to have friends sharing the ups and downs of pregnancy, knowledge of motherhood and parenting.




Other than this group of gal pals, I have a couple of people around me (families and good friends) who also became parents all within months of one another which strongly makes me feel that everything happened for a reason and at the right time.

猴 Seh 猴年 Chinese New Year 2016

Goodness gracious! It is 5 months after Chinese New Year and here I am writing about Chinese New Year 2016. This post, together with a few other posts, has been on draft mode till spiders had already begun to spin web on it.


Let's start with my CNY gelish nail art. Some of you would have seen this photo on Instagram.




It is the year of the Monkey and I contemplated doing monkey nail art. However, it is more difficult to draw a monkey and hence also more expensive, so I decided on Fortune Cat instead. It is cuter and easier to blend in with the glittery red CNY colours for the rest of my nails.

It is the usual practice for our department to have CNY lunch together before the 2-day CNY public holiday starts. Lunch was yummy but what was more memorable was the good time spent with these friends from work. Another memorable event that happened that day was how I injured myself while playing Bubble Bump.

We would usually have reunion dinner with kh's family on the eve of CNY but since he has overnight duty on CNY eve, we had our family dinner at Canton Paradise on the CNY eve eve.




Compare the length of the chopsticks for tossing Yu Sheng with the normal chopsticks.




Raw fish slices used in Yu Sheng were replaced with abalone slices at Canton Paradise. It was during the period of the raw fish scare when there were a few cases of hospitalisations and that the Ministry of Health (MOH) said it found a link between the consumption of raw fish and Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections.




I haven't Lo Hei with a group who knows exactly what to recite for each ingredients so this was the guide in many people's mobile phones to refer to.




I love Chinese food and I always dislike how they could never look appetising in photos like their Japanese or French or Italian or whichever Non-Chinese counterparts.














Bob Marley photobombed our family photo. Facebook actually had a face recognition tag for him!




Before I got married, we would gather at my paternal grandma's place for home cooked reunion dinner on the eve of CNY. It has been years since I had reunion dinner with my family and relatives and it was great to spend time with my relatives on CNY eve.




Just look at the home cooked food spread! Delicious and comforting!




My grandma is getting senile but the things she says still makes her so cute and endearing.




I'm never into flower arrangement so I'm pretty pleased with what I've done with this vase of orchids.




And this vase too. (Yes, they are different. Check out how horizontal and parallel to the table these orchids are.) I had some help from my youngest BIL as the flower stems simply would not stay put even with those "pebbles" or whatever you call them. It was a funny sight with 2 people trying so hard to hold the flowers in place.




I took the mini flowers free from Gardens by the Bay. Some flowers had wilted by CNY but I was glad that majority of them held up well.




All decked in red for Day 1 of CNY.




I never had a red dress in years and I bought this red dress for CNY, Christmas, National Day... Be prepared to see this dress being worn to death.

I love the collar zip of this skater dress. I could achieve different styles with zipped up mandarin collar, zipped down into a V and zipped down with collar folded.

Wefie with hubby




It is a tradition to go back to my family home for lunch for CNY Day 1 and I absolutely love my parents' cooking!

A variant of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup.




Leek and tofu.
Leek is an auspicious food to eat during Chinese New Year because the character “蒜” in its Chinese name (蒜苗/大蒜) sounds like count (“算”) in Mandarin. Due to the similar sounds, it is believed that eating leeks is an auspicious symbol of wealth (lots of money to count) in the coming year.




White-spotted rabbitfish.
The white-spotted rabbitfish is highly sought after for eating during the Chinese Lunar New Year. At this time, the fishes breed and their roe are particularly relished. Called 'Pei Tor', the Chinese believe that eating it brings abundant luck.




Ngoh Hiang.
I have never ever eaten any ngor hiang that tastes like the ones my mum makes. Pure meat and prawns and no flour in the filling at all. She also adds water chestnuts for the crunch. This dish is many of my relatives' favourite dish too. During reunion dinner, some of my relatives would actually wait for my family's arrival just for my mum's ngor hiang. LOL...




I'm so glad we could continue the tradition of The Loh Family portrait shot on the sofa. We did not have one last year because of my eldest sister suffered from a stroke and was in ICU. This year's CNY period marked her one-year survival mark!

The animation doesn't seem to be showing on my blog. Click here to watch.




Ng Family portrait.
Note to hubby and self: Lean forward when taking photos and we would look short and stumpy.




Click here to watch if the animation isn't showing on my blog.




I forgot which day it was that we had steamboat dinner with kh's paternal relatives. We also visited other relatives just that these visits aren't captured in photos.




Yummy steamboat with pig stomach soup.








CNY dinner with the VIOS gang at New Ubin Seafood.




















Super belated CNY in March with my other family (Cyn and godkids Jase and Mia).




So many happy wefies! Though there would always be one with bad angle or when somebody was blocked or did not look good. It was hard without a selfie stick.






Sweet and pretty Mia with her hair all tied up, sporting a sideway ponytail and fringe framing her cutie face by bimbotic Godma.




Jase was and is always the good older brother to his sisters Charmaine and Mia whom he loves dearly. Mia thinks the world of her beloved older brother too. To him, his half-sister Mia is his treasured sister and there is no such thing as half sister in his dictionary.




Hugz and kisses to my 2 little rascals.




Who loves doing the Asian peace sign?




Jase attempting to take a wefie.




Ending this post with a wefie with Cyn, one of my bestest gal pal ever. As I'm typing this, Cyn and the kiddos would be emigrating to the UK to join Patrick as a whole family in a few days time. It was a long and tough decision for them but everyone was glad that the whole family could be reunited after so many challenges.

I would miss you!




I thought of scrapping the idea of posting a late one but felt that it would not make my blog complete if there is a missing post for this year's CNY. I sure hope you enjoyed joining me on my CNY 2016 happenings through these photos whether they are late or not.