working from home...

today.

It's such a lovely thing to do - don't get me wrong; we still work up at the same time, George still went to nursery at the same time - but the joy of not having to go into work is unbelievably sweet. After dropping the little one off, I went off to the supermarket and did some food shopping, nappy shopping. got home, unpacked the stuff, went and did some washing, and then started to work.

Attacked the emails first, replied to those that I had to, sent out emails to those that needed some attention. Then sat down and decided to blog - ahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... no really.

I figured I've done alot of overtime lately. Was in London last thursday for an MBA gala evening which resulted in me coming home at 1am (and G not being too impressed given that he cried his face off, threw up and then cried himself to sleep - first time in a very long time). And also working every saturday in the last few weeks. So I think I can take 10 minutes off to blog.

Work's been quite hectic - as usual. Just finished a week of intensive MBA teaching which went really well - we'd revamped things, so it was more fun - but always intensive.

George's doing a danceathon in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Trust. If you wish to sponsor him for this activity next Thursday 26th Nov, please sponsor him at www.justgiving.com/Georgesdanceathon

ok - gotta get back to work now..!
xx

the name is Allen...

George Allen! :)

This picture of G is most priceless. Looking quite debonaire don't you think? :)

G's all dressed up because we had a wedding to attend at the Ritz in London and well, we had to dress up. We ended up staying over at this serviced apartments (got a really good deal) and so we didn't really have to rush about. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and my speech on behalf of the groom went down well I think!

Sunday, we met up with Ange and had lovely dim sum at Lido - good service, good food, reasonable prices. What more do you want?! (didn't realise this but having just googled Lido, it turns out that alot of other people think the dimsum at Lido's lovely too!)

We went home pretty happy...!

Singapore...

We've come back from Singapore 3 weeks now (which means I've been back at work 3 weeks now! boo hoo!)...

George had a whale of a time back home, with grandparents spoiling him to bits, meeting so many children and having so many to play with (the neighbours' kids, the kids from the neighbourhood, kids whilst we were on holiday and of course, his own cousins)..! It was amazing. He wasn't so much interested in kids younger than him (apart from his own cousin!) but he absolutely loved being with the older kids, following them around on his trike, going swimming and hanging out at the zoo!

We went to the zoo (with Dawn and her parents), and had a lovely time at the kidzworld water park (definitely recommend it!). We also went to Bintan (again!) and had a fantastic massage/facial and George absolutely loved the pool (and enjoyed socialising with the kids there). We celebrated dad's 70th birthday party with a huge party at Furama hotel (who were very professional) and as dad jokingly said to G, 'you stole gong-gong's limelight!!'...

Amongst the food G ate, he had chapatti and curry, chilli crab, chwee kway, macaroni chicken soup, coconut juice, lots of other juices, lots of fruit (watermelon, honeydew, apples, grapes - ate them whole, to my dad's dismay), chicken rice (loved that), udon, sushi and loads more. yums!

Some photos...

"George, where's your..."

Metatarsal?"

And G will point to his foot. :) Cool huh?? lol. In case we're in any doubt where our metatarsus is, click on the word.

We went up north to visit his other grandparents over a long weekend, and fantastically, G got on really well with everyone. He even went to the shops with his grandad, without me or D coming along! Grandad was on his way to the shops when I suggested that G might want to go along, and G said 'shoe' (and we put them on him) and he went off with Grandad, hand in hand, without turning back! That was great. He also played really well with all his cousins and they absolutely loved him.

Think he cottoned on really quickly that these people were people he could trust, and so settled down really quickly. I hope he'll be the same with the Singapore family when we see them in 3 weeks!

G says...

'bless you'! :) it's funny... we've always said 'bless you' when ever someone sneezes. And now, so does G. he shouts it across the room too, if he happens to hear a sneeze. It sounds suspiciously like ''sue' (tissue) which is about right too!

I celebrated my 36th birthday yesterday... OMG - how time flies.

The weekend started off well, with D and G going off to the supermarket to do the weekly shop whilst I stayed at home and hung about (read a few pages of my book, and basically did the laundry!)... Then we went to BlueWater shopping mall (big big place) and I managed to get some clothes (just as the shops were closing really) and had nice food - 'Leon's http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk/ and spanish tapas in the evening http://www.latasca.co.uk/

Then on sunday, we went to church but were slightly late as D and G were busy baking a birthday cake for me! It's hilarious - will post some pics up here soon. Turned out ok though after alittle bit of a boo boo (daddy turning on the grill rather than the oven!). Hurried to church (G loves sticking his hand in the holy water and crossing himself - he sometimes drenches himself!), and then had lunch at Wagamama's where he finished quite a significant amount of my fried rice and some of Dan's curry!

Off to the park where he played in the labyrinth and the slides, and then back home where he crashed out (as did I) and Dan got on with decorating my cake. We then headed off to a surprise dinner where my friends gathered (Paola, Jesse, Victor, Chris, Nat, Chris, Lorraine and Euan) at a new chinese restaurant! It was yums and everyone agreed it was good food.

I received an acupuncture treatment from D and G, a lovely top and earrings (which I need to locate!) from PJV, and two pampering sets from CN and CLE. thank you everyone! :)

G's hair cut...

official first hair cut, took place last friday, 26th June 2009. His fringe is no more!!! will post photos soon. He was very good though, sat quietly in his own seat (boosted) and let Jodi get on with cutting his hair. ... He looks like a little boy now, and not my baby!

Prata...

G had 1 whole roti prata (well, except for maybe 2 bites?) for breakfast yesterday morning. Talk about big appetite! :) He also likes chicken rice, pasta with corguette and pancetta, tortellini, yoghurt, , shreddies/cheerios/rice crispies, juice (diluted with water!), ice cream, and chocolate. He also eats grapes by the punnet, blueberries (at one point he was finishing a whole punnet by himself), cherries and rice cakes. He loves fish (absolutely loves grilled salmon with oyster sauce and garlic), cod fish and chips (doesn't quite like the chips), mixed vege of carrots, brocolli, corn, peas. He's had onion bahji, toast.

Typical day:
Breakfast: Shreddies/cheerios/rice crispies/weetabix with milk. Sometimes with Toast.
Mid-morning snack: rice cakes, fruit, biscuits
Lunch: Pasta (tuna pasta bake, or pasta with corguette and pancetta, tortellini), fish and chips, chicken with rice and vege. + yoghurt, ice cream, cookie.
Mid-afternoon snack: rice cakes, fruit, biscuits.
Dinner: the same as lunch or anything else really.

Is that a diet for a 16 month old?!?! I think he'll have a bit of feast when we go back to Singapore for our summer hols!

More words...

George is a rather chatty toddler - except when he's confronted by the phone (and that's when he gets stage fright and doesn't speak - but still waves and blows kisses). Some of his words include "what's that?" (wahh zat), "hiya", "no... nono", "yes", oh doh", "duck", "dog" (woof woof) and the cutest one..."WOW WOW!" (when he's shown/given something he desperately wants).

His favourite books are 'The Gruffalo', 'The Gruffalo's Child', 'Going on a Bear Hunt' and any other book he can get his hands on. He loves books. When asked to show us where the X is, he knows where they are. He points to the Gruffalo, the mouse, the bear, the dog.. the monkey, the giraffe...

I'm sure he says other words too, but I can't remember them. But we sure do understand him...!

this brought tears...

to my eyes...

Sent to me by my old old friend since we were 4 years old.
She writes...
"What struck me was the mom knew about the Trisomy 18 diagnosis before baby was born and he attitude was:

"We knew from day to day that we had that day," Ginny says. "I would tell Matt a lot: 'I'll be sad later. I'm going to enjoy every second now.' So even though his diagnosis never changed, we just decided we were going to enjoy every second that we had."
http://www.oprah.com/media/20081001_tows_99balloons

Building Lego...

apparently G loves building with his lego/duplo blocks. Which is great. We've got photos of G doing that in nursery. His nursery teacher Paula thinks it's fab. We think so too... Paula then said, "aren't you impressed?"... we said.."sure"... she said, "no, you should be very impressed... building towers of more than 3/5 (I can't remember) is something babies of 30-50 months old do!"...

cogs starting moving... "oh really??!".. and G, bless him, is only 16 months old! hehehe...

Dan thinks G builder-meister of construction now - and of course, G got them building genes from him!