Leap Year!

(*Post has no link to title*) 

(**Overexposed photo with no link to post, but well, I like**) 

Taking a break from the cleaning of the house, 

sipping my cup of hot tea, looking at Ollie. 

Time flies. 

From the baby sleeping and drinking milk 

constantly the entire day, till today, 

she plays on her own in the living room while 

I clean up the house and the Papa cleans up the car porch. 

It's just barely 15 months but our little baby 

has grown up to be a not so little but still baby Ollie.

 Grow up well my precious. 

Lots love. 

(***No need comments about getting a sibling for Ollie.  

Concern and love really, sincerely much appreciated.***)

Fantastic Familicious Friday

Family time is always precious.

I'm thankful that Laogong and I are able to give

Ollie quite a bit of family time and

we can play quite a bit with her.

Ollie has been walking with her walker quite a bit

and she also has a habit of trying to use

every possible thing to be her walker.

(Note: Charcoal is glad that she has a new target - the stool.)

After breakfast, after playing, after napping,

Laogong suggested going to JPO.

Changed my supermodel and 

snapped some OOTDs for her.

I love these two pictures!

Her messy hair turned out quite stylish!

Shopped quite a bit - all for Ollie!

Saw BR and settled down for a pitstop.

She is usually too focused on the menu

or the ice cream!

Shopped on after ice cream and I have to 

try out the camera selfie function to standby for HK.

I clipped the phone to pram clip

and set the timer.

Not bad!

No need to buy a selfie stick! 

Great day!

What a Fantastic Familicious Friday!

Now-a-mornings With Ollie...

Ollie will typically wake up between 8.30 to 10.30 in the morning. 

We really can't determine when will it be an 8.30 and when will it be a 10.30.

It's always pure luck. 

However, it seems that she will always wake up early when we want to sleep in and wake up late when we are hungry in the morning! 

Basically, once she is awake, she will play in the room and upon feeling hungry, she will start to disturb us. 

Recently, she started with her morning exercise with her walker. 

Exercising and disturbing Charcoal at the same time is her morning goal! 

Breakfast is sometimes homecooked /baked at home, sometimes outside. 

Ollie eats most stuff nowadays except for oily and super u healthy stuff. 

She eats out, yes. 

Our preference :) 

Once done with breakfast, it's more playing before her first nap. 

That's about her morning for now...

Current homeschool / unschool goal: PLAY! 

元宵节快乐

It was a great day as usual.

By the time Ollie and I woke up, 

Laogong had already completed the praying rituals.

We got ready for the lion dance troupe to arrive.

To prepare Ollie for this lion dance,

let her watch some videos the previous night.

(Last year, she slept through the lion dance!).

She enjoyed the performance!

We headed out for lunch and had our final CNY 2016's yusheng.

Ollie had her favourite udon and chawanmushi.

The shopaholic also shopped and went to the arcade.

Mondays are precious because Laogong gets to

spend the whole day with her.

The rest of the weekdays, usually about half the day only.

We had ice cream at a new cafe.

Something innovative but well,

the ice cream didn't entice us to want to go back next time.

Laogong's flower bloomed again! Yeah!

Ollie and her new favourite toy, taking a walk

down the road, visiting and saying hi to the neighbours.

Dinner was at 锅妈!

Yumz!

Dear Mummy,

CNY is definitely different without you.

Life is different without you.

We miss you and love you lots.

We are going to continue living our lives well,

in your name.

Road Situation - 人间有温情

On rainy Friday, we headed home after dinner at Mustafa Centre. Suddenly, I heard a thud a motorcyclist fell on the right of our car causing the dent. The huge cement mixer beside us also stopped. Everything happened too suddenly. It turned out that the left front wheel of the cement mixer hit the motorcyclist causing him to fall. Laogong was stuck and couldn't get down to help the motorcyclist because the motorcycle was obstructing our door. We heard the argument outside. Laogong offered to be a witness for the motorcyclist. However, my main point is, the kind uncle after scolding the China nationality driver (FACT, not discrimination) (at that point in time, sure angry and scare), he told him to go and told us, "Hiya, from China, also poor thing. Come so far to work. How to ask for compensation?" There is so much kindness, empathy and compassion coming from the uncle. He still has to see a doctor for his fall and pain but he let the driver go without even taking down his identification details. Well, one dent, no big deal, just a car. 

人间有温情. 

My Cruising Ollie...

Our champion's favourite toy this week should be the walker. She has 3 of them and she loves them all. She usually has a favourite toy of the moment, and currently, since she is trying to walk, this is it! 

Anyway,  I want to share something a friend posted on Instagram. Meaningful and very applicable, at least for us! 

I am in competition with no one. I've no desire to play the game of being better than anyone. I'm simply trying to be better than the person I was yesterday. 

Paris Day 7 (11 Feb)

We got ready to go back home!

Final bit of shopping for Ollie,

she picked a Hello Kitty.

After slightly more than 5 hours of flight from 

Paris to Doha, it was a good break at the airport lounge.

We ate yummy food and Ollie had a bit of time to walk 

and crawl around.

The food was slightly unusual, I guess to suit the 

taste bud of the locals.

The papa and daughter played with ice to pass time!

Luckily I had a spare top for Ollie to change.

The last 7 hours of flight, Ollie slept on my lap throughout.

We had the bassinet of course but, every time the seat belt 

sign came on, we had to remove her from the bassinet.

I decided to just carry her.

7 whole hours!

I had a backache for the day but well,

Ollie is the most important!

This Paris trip was as like any other trip we took, 

a fabulous one! 

It was blissful to see Ollie so happy at Disney Land.

It was joyous to shop at the Mothership of Hermes.

It was pure happiness to discuss Hermes with Laogong, 

a new convert.

It was lovely to stroll down the different tourist attractions.

We didn't take as much photos as we used to do 

because it was very cold!

Memories are well kept in the mind and in the heart.

Paris Day 6 (10 Feb)

Early morning, we decided to take the train down to Champ Elysees

to do more shopping instead of taking a stroll.

After five days of strolling everywhere in Paris,

well, I am tired!

It was a fast ride and we got there in about 15 minutes.

Shopped away happily and purchased the final orange box of the trip

and we spotted quite a few fast cars parked along the road.

Some kind of service for people to experience driving them.

We headed to the Mercedes store to look at some cars too.

A day of triumph when it comes to shopping!

We strolled a bit around Champ Elysees and 

headed back to the apartment to put down all the shopping bags.

We headed down to Le Luxembourg for happy hour 

and dinner again.

The escargots and creme brulee were absolutely yummy!

Well, we also like their service.

(absolutely a fan of good service)

Paris Day 5 (9 Feb)

It was a rainy day so we stayed indoors

and we shopped whole day.

We had our coffee break at the Hermes Cafe at Sevres.

The chocolate orange cake was very yummy!

Coffee was nothing spectacular.

The store is very beautiful though.

Slow and easy day as usual :)

Paris Day 4 (8 Feb)

The trip to DisneyLand was slightly rainy.

Nonetheless, we had great fun and it was most precious

to see the smiles and hear the laughter of Ollie.

Nothing matters more than that.

(Really la, Birkins and whatever orange boxes aside, 

OLLIE'S HAPPINESS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT.)

That day, was the first time Ollie got to experience rides.

After watching so many episodes of Mickey Mouse,

she was really excited to see Mickey in real life!

The priceless expression of hers when we were in the queue

to take a photo with Mickey was totally unforgettable.

She didn't get to go on many rides,

but every ride that she got to go, 

made her so happy!

I think she especially love 

It's A Small World.

She smiles and dances along when I play the song

after the ride.

Laogong was very happy too.

He is a great Disney fan.

To be able to bring Ollie and me to Disney Land,

he is definitely very happy.

Paris Day 3 (7 Feb)

We love staying at Robert's place. 

His place is not too far off from tourist attractions and yet not too near the buzz. 

After breakfast,  we strolled down again to River Seine and then to the Lourve. 

It was the first Sunday of the month and the museum does not charge. 

However, the queue was horrendous! 

We made our way to the back but was surprised to see a security officer leading another family off from the queue. 

We asked and we followed! 

There was a separate queue for families with young ones and strollers! 

Immediate access! 

Thanks to Ollie, haha. 

Before we left, we encountered the infamous petition ladies. 

Two! 

One on Laogong's side and one on mine, both armed with clipboard and pen. Laogong saw the one on his side with her hand coming towards the diaper bag (no valuables) and I found the other one too close for comfort. 

Ollie was in the tula. 

Whatever they want to do, don't come near my Ollie. 

I screamed, "OUCH!" into the ear of the one on my side and scared them both (and some other people I think). 

Actually, nothing happened, I just wanted to scare them off and didn't want them to touch my Ollie. 

So... We fend them off! Yay! 

Of course, we won't let our guard down! 

Still will be conscious for the time we're here!

Paris Day 2 (6 Feb)

Love the cold weather! 

I'm sure Ollie enjoys it too. 

We took long walks... 

I think we walked a total of 7-8km.

We sightsee. 

We shopped. 

(the shopping is fantastic!) 

We enjoyed the food. 

Blissful indeed. 

Paris Day 1 (5 Feb)

We headed to the airport for our 2am Qatar flight on Thursday night. 

After 7h of movies and sleep from Sg to Doha, 3h of shopping and playing in Doha and finally 7h of food and movies from Doha to Paris, we arrived in Paris! 

We took the train to the apartment to put down our luggage and we strolled down the streets for our first dinner. 

The day needed with a fabulous sleep and we're ready to start our new day! 

Our Reunion Dinner

Dear Mummy, we had our advance reunion dinner today 

because I'm flying off to Paris soon. 

This afternoon,  we were at your niche. 

Ollie stood well and steady, smiling at your photo. 

We miss you a lot. Dinner was simple steamboat. 

Ollie ate with us as well. 

Yati took very blur photos, but who cares. 

The fact that All that I can see from the photos is the love of our family. 

I miss you a lot, mummy.

 I thought I won't cry at the niche 

 today but I still did. 

Happy CNY, mummy, lots love for you.