Weekend celebrations

It’s been a sweet weekend of family and friends time and my heart is warmed, even in the midst of stress mode preparing for YA Camp msgs. This is the first time I am speaking two msgs back to back in a camp context AND with a baby in tow. You can say I am relying on God’s strength cause there aint much else to sustain me!

We celebrated S’s birthday on Sat and even though the biggest surprise was that it became a non-surprise, it was still nice to have all of BANG gathered for a weekend lunch. It was rare and momentuous, and visually quite arresting as we did some crowd control with our kiddos in the Gohs’ living room.
I really love this capture of us which sums up our ongoing challenge of taking a photo where EVERYONE is looking into the camera haha.

 
This is Ethan rekindling his love affair with his bouncer. Not sure he recognized it but how big he’s grown since then!

And then more baby action at Sat Svc thereafter. This is E hanging out with his pal Luke who has the most awesome thigh action and cheeks going for him. Pinch!

The following day, I was treated to breakfast lovingly made by one of my MG girls and I was filled with this pride and joy considering this moment that I am seated in her own home, being cooked for, reading a note of appreciation she had written to each of us. I hv led them for about 10 years now & even before I became a biological mother, they have given me a taste of mothering and its a good place to be. I hope my spiritual & biological children will greatly surpass me and bear much fruit (:

UBUD

Guess who’s going to UBUD!!!

After a month of trying to work out travel dates between the hubbs and I, we finally agreed on 6 to 8 July yesterday. Looking forward to staying by the rice fields and soaking in lots of greens 😀

Walk walk walk in the light

Now that E can walk, he’s walking everywhere! So far, I hv only allowed him to walk in enclosed or indoor areas but this morning, I didnt have bread and was dying to try C’s mum homemade kaya so I decided to walk out with him to the Caltex station to pick up a loaf.

Maiden trip with a walking tot = him touching every leaf & pebble along the way. Also he has an obsession with stepping on anything he sees on the floor. Sorry, bug.

Gd thing he still allows me to hold his hand instead of dashing off on his own. Though once I released him with the petrol kiosk shop, he was hands on picking stuff off the shelves at his eye level. Think maltesers and m&m’s.

He also now knows how to cup his hands during prayer except during long prayers. He would sorta start doing his own thing until we end off with “In Jesus name we pray…” then he would proceed to cup his hands again. So cute.

Look who’s walking!

In just one week, Ethan went from crawling to walking!!! I had been trying to get him to walk for the longest time but he wasn’t too keen. Took maybe 1 or 2 steps and then continued to crawl like a speed monster. Last Saturday however, he started walking a fair bit during cell time after service and then..he just kept walking each day!

Over the weekend, he walked 70% of the time during service and was definitely bonding with his pal Luke over torn newsletters and entering restricted zones 😀

Only issue is he wouldnt wear shoes cause he isnt used to having them on. Everytime I put them on him, he would start crawling. Haha. So this week’s mission is to get him used to wearing shoes/sandals.

His feet is still small compared to his walking peers so I hv not been able to find too many walking shoes. Most are prewalkers. Headed down to Mothercare & bought these pair of shark sandals after I put them on him & he tottled all the way out of the shop!

The hubs languished that both Ethan & him have the same issue of “cannot find his size” when they go shoe-hunting; one’s too huge and one’s too small. Just as well or I will be tempted to spend more $$$ on super cute shoes. Why.are.small.people.things.so.cute

Mama’s Day – the 2nd

My second Mothers’ Day and one year on, I feel more confidence and joy at parenting Ethan alongside my very able hubby. E is learning to exert his will increasingly at 16 mths old and his sudden flashes of temper really reminds me of myself. I guess our kids are our truest mirrors!

So the hubbs and baby came to pick me up after service and presented me with my favourite flowers.

We then headed to my mil’s who as usual whipped up a storm. Best way to commerate mothering is to whip up something that reminds your children why they cant do without you 😀

For dinner, we headed to my folks where my mum also cooked and then we excitedly gave her our gifts. She was delighted with them & proceeded to put them up immediately.

I love making all these personalised gifts and I sometimes wish I could just design so I can do so much more. Thank God there are people in my life who can do that instead! Pls check out my incredibly talented friend @kisspapermonsters on instagram who is great with decor, design, styling & more.

On Tuesday, we took my mum out to the Pan Pac for tea. The food was quite good but the overall experience wasnt great. Firstly, no lift from carpark to lobby. Followed by no baby chair and very slow service even though we were the only ones having the tea set. Ethan who is ever the crawl monster started crawling all over till his knees were blackened. So now we know that the Pan Pac carpets are way dirtier than BBTC’s haha.

A great gift this mothers’ day has been that Ethan is finally able to walk quite a fair bit. He has been covering entire lengths of rooms before falling down & we look forward to him walking much better by YA Camp!

7.23kg

It was a happy reunion as I came home on Wed evening and after a good night’s rest, we were off to SGH for his pedi checkup. Dr Vijay is truly a godsent and the first thing he said when we entered was “how was yr trip to Perth/Penang?” cause he remembered we were going on a family trip. It was Perth. He looked E over and told me to put him on the floor so he could see what he would do. In keeping with himself, E dashed crawled to the different corners of the room and started climbing on chairs, trying to exit..etc. Dr Vijay quickly went over to get him back and said quite evidently that he is alert and developmentally ok, nothing to be worried about (in contrast to the registrar who saw E before this). Height-wise he has caught up at 72cm and is now 3rd percentile while weight-wise he is 7.23kg, in keeping with his birth situation.

E is also walking unassisted alot more now. He had already begun to take a few unassisted steps before I left home but now he is able to do more and consistently! He loves people and having people ard him seems to motivate him to want to stand up and walk.

In my time away, the hubbs also taught him to nod YES and to smile on cue. Check out his awkward smile ala the father:

Because of his extremely social behaviour, he has also recently begun to not want to sleep when there are guests in the house. Previously he would sleep through all our dinner parties. Oh man. Not sure how I can “re-train” him at this point.

Robeno

After May day fun of catching up with the Chens and playing with our boys, I headed off to Robeno to visit M. It was my first solo pastoral visit and the second trip in which I left Ethan behind. While I knew I would miss the boys, I was also looking forward to catching up with her and to see how she lived and worked.

She’s involved in a project which brings together villagers from different parts and together they translate a panorama of the bible. Her bit comes in after the oral translation where she will then help these different language groups build a script, akin to alphabets, and thereafter begins the written translation process. It is a gruelling, tedious, mind-breaking & sometimes back-breaking work. The village she is assigned to is 2 days away from the city and to get there, she takes a 10 hour bus ride followed by a
river boat. Once, I texted to ask if she had crossed the river and she replied “crossing!” Amazing that she had reception but that was the last I heard fr her for the next week when she was in the village.

For a young, mid-twenties single girl to be out there using her linguistic genius to serve God in this manner is something I greatly admire and as her pastor & mentor, am very proud of her. The least I could do was to not just support her in prayer, finances & raising awareness, I had to make sure she was being soul-cared.

I almost couldnt make the trip due to some miscomm on her employers’ side so when I finally got there, it was both a joy & a relief. My first Robeno experience began with heavy rain at the airport tarmac & I was glad to hv paid heed to M’s advice to wear rubber shoes & travel light.

At the baggage collection pt, I was wondering how ppl knew which belt contained their bags since there were no screens, when someone yelled through the start of the belt, “GARRRUUDDAA!” then everyone dashed over. Lol. That works too.

The team lives humbly back in the city and generously gave me free shelter and food over the past 4 days.

Check out her cute iron & beading handiwork! Also the raised entrance to our room is to prevent mice fr dashing in.

Robeno hospitality is fab & though I could only utter a few phrases, they were so warm to me. I could see why M didnt hv any major homesickness; she had a second family here.

In just 8 mths, she had also mastered the language & was able to translate almost everything for me. Super awesome.

And here is us doing the only tourist stop of the trip – visiting the Equator! Hahah. As if SG aint hot enough. Honestly felt no difference in heat level.

Also got to eat from a street stall selling beef noodles M loves plus did a spot of shopping for my lil E & that pretty much completed my trip. Since one of my love lang is gifts, I was most happy to ply her roommates and her team of 40 pax with all the chocolate I could carry fr SG. Her roommates accused me of making them fat but we all know food is the international language of love so what more to gain friends but through food 😀

Her roommates also amaze me as they hail fr Brazil & Mexico and they learnt English & the Robeno lang only when they came to this country 2 years ago. No chance to go home, to eat their comfort food but no complains either.

Thats compelling purpose for you – passion for Christ.

Tulipmania

Tuesdays are always fun days cause I get to hang out with E and maybe meet up with a friend or two. Jenn & I had arranged way back to go to Tulipmania but the Nepalese earthquake happened and she was called to duty. There will always be tulips another year; more pressing is the matter of getting aid to those in need. Check out Touch International if you would like to help out in any way! I hv heard too many stories of aid getting stuck at the airports or with corrupt officials and I always prefer to give to a source that is already on the ground.

So incidentally my mum was also going to Tulipmania with my aunt the same day so we decided to crash the flower party. Of course E was delighted to hv so many ppl love on him (;

This year’s theme was fairy tales and they had some really scary construction like this:

Seriously?! Just show me the tulips thanks.

I always feel so relaxed strolling through the (air-conditioned) gardens and it was a welcome respite from the busyness of life. If God can take the time to shape and create each delicate flower so intentionally, surely He is a God who watches out and cares for our every need. There is nothing too “fluffy” for Him & I m honored to hv Him watching my back.

Looking forward to my next Gardens outing! Or maybe just lunch with the hubs to milk my Gardens membership 😀