More Baby Gifts!

We met up with more friends during our short trip in Penang over a cuppa. And as lovely as lovely friends can be, baby got more gifts!

I think we are doing well and on track in terms of baby clothes. Being a first time mom, I'm grateful for all the gifts we received.


Here is a shot of the stuff baby received that night. Jumpsuits, bibs, booties and also a book that has lovely recipes for baby food.


God bless fantastic friends!


cheryl

Valentines Day 2010

Dear hubby arranged for a nice stay at Shangri-la Hotel at the Rocks in Sydney for Valentines this year. The Shangri-la at the Rocks is easily one of the best hotels with the best view of the Opera House and Darling Harbour in Sydney.

Here are some pictures of our room. Its rather similar to most hotels but I suppose the distinction comes from the service guests receive.

The main area of the room

A rather disappointing TV. We expected better of Shangri-la.

The bath tub. There was a shower box in the opposite corner.

Main wash area. Shower box can be seen in the mirror.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Sydney Opera House.

We had a nice buffet breakfast on Valentines Day morning. Our table was at a corner next to full screen which was nice. A touch of privacy and some scenery to boot.

Courtyard view from the dining area.

We had a lovely stay during which the hotel showed its generosity by sending up a bottle of bubbly and some chocolates for the occasion.

The chocolates that came with the bubbly.

Here is the humorous sequence of hubs trying to pop the bottle.

Dear hubs also arranged for a pregnancy massage for me at the Chi Spa which coincidentally had only opened its doors a couple of days prior. So it was a spanking new treatment room.

The weekend culminated with us watching ‘Valentines Day’ on Valentines day.

Yes... we are rather cliché. :)

cheryl

Valentine's Day 2010

Firstly, I've had to alter the 'leave comments' blog because it seems odd messages are left always on queue to our blog. To avoid this, have added in a feature that means this may reduce. Sorry for the inconvenience but I hope everyone understands. :)

Everybody seems to ask what I got up to with my beloved wife Cheryl for Valentine's Day. Well... We went up to Sydney Valentine's Day eve and headed to pretty much the flagship hotel of all hotels in Sydney, the Shangri-la. Their website: http://www.shangri-la.com. Our room was the Deluxe Grand Harbour View room and we gotta say, it had amazing views of the Opera House to the bridge. Though it may not be the best for the NYE fireworks in Sydney though. Anyway, we spent the night there, relaxing and unwinding. Cheryl had a nice massage and I caught up on Idol. :P

The evening saw us head to Event Cinemas on George Street in the rain mind you to see the show, 'Valentines Day'. Everyone says its a take off from Love Actually but I haven't seen all of it so I won't comment. Let me know if you think it is though... We saw this film in Gold Class, which was nice. It had recliners and a smaller theatre with a waiter style service for you. Pre order the food and it gets delivered to you. That was nice. We had a big sundae. :)

This was Valentine's Day eve. We also got, courtesy of the Shangri-la hotel Sydney a surprise gift. We got a bottle of bubbly champagne with chocolates delivered to our room as a Valentine's Day gift. Talk about devine. Yes. There you go. That was Valentine's Day. I think and trust my wife did enjoy it. We'll see though! :)

This was part one of eight sets of flights that we're taking between now and when the baby arrives. Talk about a lot of rushed travelling!! But we cover pretty much all of Australia!

So, Sydney down. next stop: Adelaide and then onto Perth.

Alex.

Pregnancy - Week 14, 15, 16

As it so happens we were back in Penang at the end of the first trimester. And as the ends of first trimesters go, moms to be usually have their first ultrasound to check on baby’s progress. So off we went to the obstetrician where I had my first encounter with the cold gel and sound waves.

I must say the entire experience was very surreal. Those who know me know that I have never been the kind of girl who raves over babies, wanting to carry them, coo at them or even say how cute they look. I normally smile pleasantly at new parents and have zero inclination to stay chatting for more than 5 minutes. As such I was very surprised at how happy I felt when we first saw the image of baby. My heart did a little leap when the black and white screen captured a head, body, hands and feet. I was so happy to finally see the little bub that so far has spent 3 months in mommy. So cute!

I guess I now understand how it is impossible to not love your own child. During the 9 months in mommy, the bond that is forged between mother and child is so very unique. Even though I have still yet to really believe that I am now nearly a mother, I can already foresee that as the months progress I will only come to love this little one even more.

Anyways, enough about me for now. Everyone say hello to baby!

cheryl

Baby Shower!

My nice sister Debbie and nice friend Macy organised a baby shower for us in February during our short trip back to Penang. We had a fantastic time. The baby shower was a little early but hey, since we won't be heading back to Penang for the next 1.5 years, February was the only time to celebrate baby! We had lots of laughs and it was nice to catch up with friends on a slow, lazy Sunday afternoon.

Simple finger food my sister organized for tea


My mom and sister's pretty arrangement of fresh fruit

Macy organized the baby shower invites and the party was held at her house. She made the pretty invite below. Trust Mace to come up with pretty, cutesy little things.

The invite envelope and cover

Inside the invite

Debbie my sister organized the food and the games. And boy did we have a good laugh with the games. The first one we played was 'How well do you know Pa, Ma to be and who do you think the baby will take after?' Each of us were given a list of qualities and the person who had the most matching answers in comparison to the answers of the mother, wins! You might be wondering why it was matched against the answers of the mother not the father. Well, all I can say to that is since the mother is the one doing most of the hard work, she gets first dibs :)

Laughs and smiles everywhere

The second game was pictionary. This was the funniest! Here are some pictures of our expressions while at the drawing board.

Looks of confusion, bewilderment and amusement.

Here is Pin trying really hard to get the picture across

Here is me having a go

Here are some of the drawings. See if you can guess what each picture means.

This was 'Barney the purple dinosaur.' We couldn't guess this. You would think the purple ink would somewhat help give the drawing away.

This was 'Big Bird' .. Oh yeah, BIG bird. Still smaller than the cloud next to it. Hahahaha...

This drawing had the biggest laughs. This was Alex's idea of a 'Breast Pump'. I don't know which department store he has been visiting....

Everyone had a good time and it was great catching up with friends at an informal party. Food and laughter is never a bad combination. At the end of the baby shower, as custom goes, we got gifts! I'm glad everyone didn't wrap their gifts because I would be sitting there taking ages just removing gift wrappers and everybody would be itching to say " Just rip it will ya??" Hahaha...

This were party favors Mace made - nicely tagged Cheryl + Alex = ? Pink for a girl and blue for a boy.

We received some really lovely things and I must say thank you so much for organizing, coming and blessing us with your friendship :) I so miss everybody I know back home!

cheryl

Backdating Posts

I'm still trying to catch up with blogging on entries from the second week of January. I have put up 2 backdated posts so far.. I will continue to put up some more posts over the next couple of days.

So for now do scroll down past the next entry below to read my updates. Hopefully I can catch up by the end of the week.

cheryl

To Our Friends in Penang

While the last 8 days has been rushed, to us I think it has been quite rewarding because of the amount of things we accomplished, not to mention the things we bought for a cheaper price compared with buying it in Australia. Yes, we definitely went overboard with the amount of things bought for the little one (little Alex as I call the baby since we have yet to ascertain the gender - be it Alexander or Alexandra) but in the end, I think it was worth it. Cheryl will definitely be a pretty hippest mum on the block when little Alex arrives.

It has been a rushed trip but it was great to catch up with the friends that we met up with. It's nice to see familiar faces in a city that I have been to now for about 7-8 years (I think that's when I started dating Cheryl... :P). Anyway, I know that it meant a lot for us to be able to chat about everything again. The meals we had, the fellowship we shared, thank you.

To my sister in law Debbie, Ying, Macy and Pin our dear friends, thank you for organising an amazing baby shower for Cheryl during our quick visit here. We had some hilarious moments and to this day, I'm still amazed that my masterpiece was guessed correctly within the allocated time. Seems like my drawing ain't that bad after all! :P Hopefully there will be more baby showers to come. They are fun. :)

8 days have past since we arrived in Penang. 8 days since our last adventure on Air Asia X, 8 days since we last saw Australian shores. I know in a way it'll be great heading back to Canberra and getting back in the swing of things but in another way, I wish holidays like these would never end... I think that I have developed a liking to Penang over the past 7 trips. It seems harder to leave every time. Guess I better come back more often! There is one thing I definitely won't miss. Its the traffic and the drivers that go with it. Sorry guys, but Penang drivers can be nuts!

While our next trip to Penang isn't planned yet, that doesn't mean that you guys can't come and visit us in Canberra. Little Alex may not make an appearance in Penang for a few years, but everyone is welcome to come visit the newest addition to the family. There's plenty of room. I can help with looking for cheap fares!

So thank you, my dear friends in Penang for a memorable trip. Thank you for the gifts, well wishes and memories that we'll be taking back. Until next time when we hit the shores of Malaysia... God Bless you all. :)

Before I forget though: GO TEAM FOETUS!! :D

Alex and Cheryl, +1 (the newest addition to the family)

PS... I'll post up photos of the trip soon.