Joel is Half-A-Year Old...

Joel is 6 months old today! Time really flies.

 

He is really our bundle of joy...

I've been staying at home with him for the past months. Initially, I wasn't comfortable and felt insecure cos no stable income and I never really like the feeling of asking money from my husband.. However, God has been very very kind to me by blessing me with some "side incomes" that enough for myself and Joel.

Taking care of Joel by myself is really rewarding and full of excitements, especially witnessing his 'first-time'... =P I've also successfully get him into a routine. With this routine, I really have more time for my own. I learn one important thing, never let your baby decides his routine! It'll be a chaos.

Joel's routine (reference):

10:00am	Wake up & feeding
10:30am	Bath time
11:30am	I'll go downstairs with Joel to buy my lunch
12:30pm	Feeding & nap time
3:00pm	Wake up & feeding Some activities: - Play cards - Watch baby's program - Etc
5:00pm	Short Nap
6:00pm	Feeding Some outdoor activities *Usually at this hour, we'll be waiting for my husband to come back*
7:00pm	Dinner *My husband will drives us out for dinner*
8:30pm	Wipe body and change to PJ
9:00pm	Feeding & Bed time

Well, sometimes not that punctual but most of the time he'll follow this routine. :)

 

His progress since 3 months old:

• Able to hold his head steadily
• Can bear weight on legs
• He loves to coo and coos a lot!!!!
• Able to grasp thing
• And will put anything that he reaches into his mouth
• Loves to blow bubbles
• Recognize his own name
• Recognize mom and dad voices
• He loves to play his own hands and feet...
• Able to roll over
• Bad sleeping positions (sometimes can turn 360 deg)
• Able to sit momentary with support
• Stranger anxiety

Rent-A-Toy

Last two weeks, I've rented a toy for Joel... It was my first time and I think it's practical! I didn't know what Joel likes, cos he still very young to appreciate toys and infant toys are not cheap... One simple toy can costs more than S$50!! What if, he doesn't like to play, then it will be a waste... Then, storing the toys is also a challenge...

In S'pore, I've found 3 sites doing toy renting service. I've chosen rent-a-toy.com. From what I know, they have been around for quite sometime and they have varieties of good toys... Besides that, their pricing is pretty reasonable too.

For a start, I've rented this educational toy: Little Tikes 5-in-1 Adjustable Gym.

There are hanging toys and a motion activated "kick pad".

Joel loves to kick cos there are sound and lights. But after awhile, he'll get bored and he'll kick the whole toy away...

Renting it @ S$22.80 per month. Pretty reasonable, right?

Tatted Doily

Gosh! The drilling & hacking sounds are driving me NUTS!!! The whole block is participating in this upgrading program. Upgrading program includes: lift upgrading, replacing toilet and kitchen piping and installing new clothes hanging rack...

The noise has affected me greatly but I have no choice but bear with it... Thank God Joel is fine with the noise. He still can sleep through the noise!!

What I've been doing for the past week? Well, despite the noise, I've completed a few stuffs... Mainly helping Betsy on an order and making something for my dear brother. Will blog about them soon. Stay tune!

This is a tatted doily that I've made during my confinement... Suppose to give to someone but I was too late... :( Will have to post over then...

I love the color very very much. It's Flora thread that I've bought from Jessica.

Spring in Singapore

Made these beautiful brooches for sales @ MAAD over the weekends. You can find out more information by clicking on this link...

I've made them in green, yellow. pink & blue. Perfect for your blouses, bags, hair bands, hats/beanies, scarves and etc...

I'm selling one piece @ S$8.00. Buy any 3 @ S$20. They can be found @ Knotty Bicsie's store. However, I won't be there because I have to take care of Joel. Betsy, thanks for helping me.

Angelic Doll for Steph

Steph wants an angelic doll... She wants her angel in white and dusty pink dress... So, I've made her an angel with white and dusty pink dress & dusty pink wings with halo of paper flowers. Hope she'll like it.

Beanie for SY's niece

I've made this beanie for SY's niece from Australia... She's one year old this year. I really hope she can wear it...

I'm using cotton yarn for this beanie...

Happy 4 months old, Joel

Joel is 4 months old today. :) Specially for Joel, mommy and daddy are very proud to have you. You are God's best gift for both of us.

Joel's progress:

• Coos a lot! Hmm... Does this means, he will be talkative when he grows up?
• Recognize his mommy and daddy, he will smile whenever he hears our voices
• Love nursery rhymes, especially Humpty Dumpty
• Smiles a lot
• Drools a lot
• Licks and sucks his fingers and knuckles whenever  he's free or he's hungry
• Love mommy's milk!
• Colorful lightings attract him
• Able to lift up both his legs
• Likes to play with his fingers
• When lying on his tummy, he will be able to lift up his buttock
• And now, he is able to turn to one side. Shows that he's going to turn his body

I think that's about all...

My crocheted dolls...

I'll like to apologize to those who wanted to see listing of dolls that I'm selling. I don't really have any ready made dolls. I made upon request. But following can be your guideline. ;)

It's better to contact me and at least 1 or 2 months in advance.

From beginning, I never like to make repeated dolls. I like to accessorized them and make them different. If you observed carefully, all my wedding couple dolls are different.

The foundation of the dolls is straightforward. It involves sphere, cylinder, square and cone shapes. So, it's up to me how to assemble them and accessorize them. With different outcome, it always gives people the 'WOW' effect and this motivates me to continue making...

I won't claim that my designs are original because most of these dolls are inspired by my buyers!! They requested and I made them. ;)

10 Customized Dolls for Ivy

Ivy has bought a pair of wedding dolls from me couple of month ago. She brought them for her wedding shoot in Hong Kong! Wah, I've not been to Hong Kong before but my dolls did! Not bad!

Photo contributed by Ivy (with the blurry couple)

Their big day is coming soon. During month of March, she contacted me and wanted me to make 10 dolls for her sisters (姐妹). All her dolls had to be different. It was a challenge then, cos I was doing my confinement and not sure would be able to deliver. Thank God her big day falls in month of June and she needed them by end of May. THANK GOD! That's mean I have 2 months to complete them.

I had no clue what to do, so I asked for her all her sisters' profiles. To make my life easier, she asked me to make 5 angel dolls with different colors and another 5 customized according to her sisters character & favorite colors.

For these set of dolls, I'm using plastic eyes. My brother was the one who suggested that I should put eyes. Since he is the arty person, I should just listen to him. ;) The outcomes are AWESOME!

Doll 1: She's married. Has a bubbly & chatty personality. Also loves beaded stuff. Well, Ivy said she like to act cute. =P

I've made a doll with a bum at a centre and tie the bum with crocheted flowers. She looks mature but at the same time, cute.

Doll 2: She loves purple. Very artistic person and always tied her hair. She loves nature.

So, I've made a doll with side bum and wears a lilac dress with small flower.

Doll 3: She is romantic and likes to dream. Her favorite colors are pink and blue.

Hmm.... Dreamy, so I've decorated this doll with lots of flowers.

Doll 4: She's a teacher and has short hair. Her favorite colors are darker colors, like black, gray and dark red. Ivy said, she doesn't like cute stuffs...

Making this doll was a challenge because I don't really like to use dull colors to make my dolls. It took me awhile to think of what I should do. Well, the outcome is pretty cool! My brother likes it a lot.

I've made a red & black dress for the doll & crocheted a cardigan for her.

Doll 5: She's love pink! She loves to bake...

When I read her profile, straight away I knew what I wanted to make. A doll with a chef hat! Ivy loves her the most. Cute right?

Lastly, 5 angel dolls... Loving all of them.

I've made crown for them instead of usual halo. Besides that, all of them hold a heart.

I'm glad that Ivy LOVES them all!!! Her mom even asked whether any of these was for her. She plans to keep one of the angel dolls, but now, seems like she needs to give it away, to her mom.

Happy Birthday, Usha... :)

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY USHA!!" Belated birthday greeting to Usha.

She is my swap partner for Birthday Swap that organized by Faizon from Shuttles and Needles group (SnN). But her birthday was in the month of March. Well, month of March and April, I was very busy coping with my new life. =P Fortunately, Usha is very understanding and had given me ample of time to prepare her gift. ;)

Usha told me she would like to have big size crochet needle that able to crochet 3/4 strings of 4 ply acrylic yarns. So I got her 3 big size crochet needles and she likes them!

Besides that, I also given her my new version of crocheted doll. Well, will blog about it soon. Then, 2 packs of button maker and also 1 pack of heart shape button since she also collects buttons.

Usha seems to like flowers, so I've also included some paper flowers that I got from Bangkok

And of cos, YARNS.... Hope she likes all of them.

Packed in a box and I've posted it FINALLY! But also with the help from Betsy. Hehehehe =P

With Joel around, I'm not able to move around freely or do whatever I want like before :( Thanks to a bunch of good friends who are always there to encourage and help me.

Wedding Dolls for Jin

My brother, Jin ordered this pair for his friend. He requested for plastic eyes cos he finds them look more real. Due to his 'last minute' order, I had to rush so, I had simplified the dolls.

I'm surprised with the result. Pretty cute! My brother also find them quite cute especially with the plastic eyes. What do you think?

This pair is smaller than my usual wedding dolls. It's around 3.5" tall. Besides that, less accessories too.

Don't you think with plastic eyes, these dolls look livelier? I may use plastic eyes for my other dolls, including my wedding dolls. :)

Beanie Hat for Joel

Since I've made 3 beanies, I decided to make one 'beanie hat' for Joel... Beanie hat?? It's a beanie with a short flap so that the flap can covers his eyes from light. I'm using Egyptian Cotton yarn and it's not too warm to wear.

I took this picture while he was asleep in his carrier. The beanie hat fits well on him.... And the flap works well too...

Beanies....

Last week, I was helping Betsy to make 3 beanies for one of her buyers... Wah! Stress man! Cos all beanies had to be completed within a week. I was kinda worry whether I could deliver or not. At last, I managed to complete 1 full beanie, that means with accessories, I completed the other two but without accessories... Thank God, Betsy rushed the other two and also corrected one of them for me before delivery... =P It's a good collaboration, even though there's some hi-cup here and there. Thanks Betsy for giving me this opportunity....

Aren't they cute?!! Can't wait to see baby Chloe to wear these little beanies. Hope they fit!

New Year Exchange #2

Needle & Shuttle (NnS) has organized a swap during new year. I was excited cos my partner is Faizon! She is our tatting guru! Visit her site and you'll be impressed by her tatting works.

This round of exchange, we'll have to make a string pouch. I've made a simple crochet cum fabric pouch for Faizon. I've also bought her some button makers, hopefully she can used it for her new projects. Actually I've tatted a small zip pouch, but I didn't send cos it wasn't nicely done... I promise to make her another one next time when my tatting is better.

Managed to send it out before my delivery.

Last few weeks, I've received these from Faizon!

GOSH!!! Beautiful tatted pouch and a tatted mat... Besides that, a pair of tatting ear rings! And other stashes like needle holder, button and eyes! Loving all!!! Thanks Faizon. This is really a great exchange.

2 months later.....

It has been a month since I've blogged. What happened?? Some of my friends wrote to me asked me what's going on cos they have not been seeing me online for awhile...

I was busy coping with Joel. Since my confinement lady left, I was left alone with Joel during day time. Initially was indeed tough, I suffered from slight depression. I cried with no reason and felt so hopeless & lonely. =( Due to stress, anxiety and lack of sleep, I fall sick. I had bad gastric and severe asthma attack... :( Was on medication for 3 weeks, hence I had to stop breastfeeding Joel. Thank God, I had recovered and today I've started breastfeeding Joel. Scary huh! On positive side, I've learnt a lot from this experience. All I know, being a mom is not easy at all! There's a saying, Mother is the GREATEST, that's really true!

During this time, thank God for few of my good friends, who came over to visit me and once awhile called up to check on me. I'm grateful for my husband too. He is very supportive and understanding. Despite his busy schedule at work, he would try his best to come back early to help me and he was on night shift for the past 3 weeks taking care of Joel!  Father is also the greatest!

Joel is growing very well.... Now he is weighed at 5.5kg! He was only 2.8kg at birth!

I'll be starting a new blog on my experience bringing up Joel as a 'full-time' mom soon... Hopefully, it will help some of new mummies out there... ;)

Joel's Full Month Celebration

Joel has turned 1 month old yesterday but we celebrated his full month on Sunday together with our family members and close friends.

Early in the morning, my CL (confinement lady) who we called Auntie, made Red Egg. Red Egg (红鸡蛋) signifies longevity and happiness in Chinese custom. Auntie had made 50 red eggs that morning to serve our guests that attend Joel's full month shower party.

Then, she bathed Joel & cut Joel's hair... :)

The celebration was held at my cousin's place. We rented a function hall at her condo.

Special thanks to my in laws for preparing the vegetarian food, to my cousins for helping us out with the place, to Ngiam for taking such a nice photos, to Rei for making Joel's cake and lastly, to all of our friends & relatives for their wonderful gifts & blessings....

Family portrait taken by Ngiam... :)

Rei's Cake... YUMMY!!!

We will also like to say thank you to our confinement lady, for taking care of me and baby Joel... :) Tomorrow will be her last day and she was busy cleaning up the my place. She was suppose to leave today however, she stayed for another to help out. I'm so touched. Thanks Auntie. Both Joel and I will surely miss you very very much.

Booties from Aunt Betsy

Betsy, Michelle and Dewi came over the other day to visit me and Joel. Betsy made this little booties for Joel. He wore it for checkup the next day... :)

Thanks Aunt Betsy.... :)