Thursday 21 November 2013

24th month - HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY RAYCHI!


My gorgeous darling Rayray

Happy Bithday Rayray! It only seemed yesterday you were a baby in my arms and now you are two!

Rayray has grown so much in the last few months (and yes I slacked off blogging the last two months but it had been two MAD months as been travelling and now we are back in Taiwan yet again!) that I honestly can't keep track of her developmental progress as she comes up with new words, new sentences or even new moves everyday! LOL 

On the way back from London and she just couldn't get enough of the remote as her phone!

I can now quite confidently describe Rayray as an outgoing, friendly (on some occasions 'overly friendly' with little people she REALLY likes, particularly her dearest LoLo and of course Baby Maddie! She would say Lolo constantly if she could and always gives Maddie BIG cuddles and kisses when she sees her!), and extremely funny (well, at least in my and T's eyes) and a super attention seeker! She has always been very observant in new environments but once she feels confident (usually 10-15 minutes later) she starts to mingle with other kids or grown-ups. I am sure most kids like attentions but Rayray particularly likes drawing people's attention and this extends to people on the tube, buses, taxi drivers or even other mums and dads in playgroups!

Playdate with lovely Laurence, aka LoLo

We had a mini cosy birthday gathering for Rayray the weekend before her birthday at Sheraton Sukhothai and it was just so lovely to have her little friends around while enjoying some rather decent Thai food!

Posing with Ollie and Momo


 A delicious Dora dark chocolate cake made by Sunnie

After lunch, we all went to Joyce's place for a little playdate and the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves!


This is was taken when we first got back to Taiwan in October, just before her swimming class.

I just LOVE this photo! A playdate at Leo's and Guji's expression just makes me laugh! ''Errrr, what's HER problem? ''

Likes: 
- Rayray loves books, reading and can spend good 15-20 mins on her own flicking through books and sometimes she would come to me or T asking us to read her stories which we do every evening anyway but she can read her book at any time of the day.

At Taipei Eslite 

Daddy's sweetheart


Birthday girl looking rather pleased with a gold balloon on her special day!

Motherhood is one tough lesson to learn yet it is so rewarding and I will not change it for anything in the world.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

The 21st Month

This month, Rayray turns into a real monkey! She starts to REALLY throw tantrums, saying NOOOOO to other kids in playground, pushing other kids, pulling their hair etc etc so I often end up spending the whole duration we are in playground apologising to the mums and kids! Arrgghh, its so frustrating! But apparently Rayray doesn't do this at all at nursery???!!! Anyway, thanks to Clare, apparently this is how little monkeys show their affections!!! Not that it makes me feel better but at least I understand that they are frustrated to express their feelings hence the aggression! I honestly can't imagine if we were in Taiwan when Rayray is going through this phase as the kind of dirty looks I got when Rayray just 'nudged' other kids was bad enough!

Is now very confident on scooter

This year the English summer hasn't been the 'typical' one where most people are not sure if we were in autumn or spring or even winter sometimes! We have been getting plenty of sun hence Rayray and I are soooo tanned! We are out and about EVERY single day in the sun!

On a rather hot and sweaty day and the look of 'mummy, do you HAVE to take photos of me all the time?' lol

Rayray has settled in nursery well and just goes off to play with other kids when I drop her off and the two days when she goes, they are ever soooo precious to me!!!

Happily snacking raisins in buggy

Oh and Rayray got her chicken pox the second time this month! Can you believe it? Apparently it is not uncommon for little ones under the age of two to get it again especially if the first time round is mild! 

Oh hello mummy! Look at me being naughty standing on the chair!

ahhh, stretching out in the park! funny pose for a toddler!

My little drama queen after story time in the library

Play date with Baby Sophia!

Oops, honey! Mummy trimmed your fringe a tat too short! lol

Running around in Cutty Sark

Chilling outside of GP's surgery 

"there" is her favourite word of the month. She can pronounce most words now and is good at expressing herself when it comes to food, wanting various objects i.e. magazines, books, toys etc.

Saturday 3 August 2013

My 35th Birthday

Ever after I turned 30 I honestly don't remember what birthday I celebrate each year...sad,  I know...but I was once told that things go down hill for women after turning 30! I don't agree with that as I only started to really get to know myself after 30 and I certainly feel my life before Rayray almost seemed futile!

So this year I celebrated my 35th at The Goring.

I think Rayray was staring at the cake! lol

Photo session before food arrived

I loved the ambiance and food. (we were busy chatting and taking photos and drinking, I completely forgot to take the photos!) It was airy, bright, and very spacious which is absolutely essential for us now with a baby in tow. I thought the service was impeccable. The kept the drinks flowing and even got Rayray a soft toy! 

My personal photographer 

Tao was busy taking photos and looking after Rayray (yes since I was the birthday girl, I was allowed to relax and drink!) that we didn't get to take a photo together as a family!!!

Mr Superstar

Yummy Russian cake from Joce!

Sadly Jocelyn had to work that day so she couldn't join us. Though I was really touched that she got a cake for me and it was the current favourite in the Vale! (as we live in Crosslet Vale) I don't even know how to describe the size of the cake! It was massive! It must have been 10cm thick and a size of a MacBook Pro! (actually I would say a bit wider than the notebook) Basically it is a honey torte with LAYERS of honey sponge cake soaked in luscious caramel creamy filling. I have only tasted from Harrods so I don't know what others taste like but this is soooo good that we actually finished the whole cake!


It was such a glorious day and I felt truly blessed! I might be a year older but I certainly feel a year better! 

Sunday 21 July 2013

The 19th and 20th month



I have been a really bad mum not updating Rayray's progress last month BUT my excuse is that we had  only gotten back to London so we've been busy settling and enjoying the wonderful summer here!!!!! To the point that it actually gotten so hot last couple of weeks that the government issued heat wave warnings!!! (hilarious!!!)

Anyway, before we came back I thought about putting Rayray into a nursery for a couple of days a week.  I know I'm now a full-time stay-at-home mum and why would I send my baby to nursery when my job is to look after her? Well, I do want to get back to work and have a few projects I'd like to get done. So the search of a nursery began and I must have trolled through ALL of the outstanding nurseries from OFSTED and finally found Zoom to be the one I'd feel comfortable to put Rayray in. She has never spent any time apart from me since birth, ok maybe for a few hours but NEVER more than 3 hours so not only this will be a challenge for her but its more about how I'd feel not seeing my baby for that amount of time!!! We started off with three settling days and she really enjoyed playing with other kids but when we started on a Thursday as her first official day, she got a bit upset seeing mummy leaving and I think that was when the novelty worn off. And I was almost in tears but had to hold it back as didn't want teachers there to come and tell me she would be ok....when all I thought was 'have I made a wrong decision?" Last week was her second week at nursery and she seemed to settled well, she started to eat better and was 'ok' when told mummy was coming back later to pick you up whenever she pointed at the door saying mama (gosh, hearing this from the school really really broke my heart!)

Poor Rayray got chickenpox

Other than that, Rayray somehow managed to get chickenpox right before we started at the nursery but luckily, it was mild. She was fine apart from spots on her torso and they weren't even itchy. She still had good appetite and lots and lots of energy!

Rose Garden in Greenwich Park

We just absolutely adore the summer here! It is simply pleasant and as it doesn't get dark till 10pm we love sitting in our garden chilling in the evening!

Obviously we didn't miss the Wimbledon, either!!!

Eating her favourite dish at Scalini 

Favourite spot in Greenwich Park's playground

Getting ready to go shopping!

We have had a lot of play dates since we got back and I just love it!!! Probably more than Rayray does! hahaha It makes the day goes by quicker than it already is and I feel so much more of a 'human being' again. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Rayray but I do feel I need some grown-up conversations too!

Toy Kingdom with twinnies!


Colouring at her favourite restaurant - Bar Boulud 

Homemade espanola tortilla


Scooting in Kensington Garden

After months of pushing rayray on the scooter, she has finally learnt to ride it herself, more steadily. I can't wait to see her whizzing around on it! 

Play date with Sophia in the South Bank

I love this photo, walking out of nursery and gosh, Rayray looked all grown up!

Chomping on a bread roll happily on the DLR

On the way to nursery and she HAD to have her miffy 

Development -
  • Loves and HAS to feed herself most of the time, including cereals! At first I was rather hesitant as didn't want milk splashing everywhere but then thought it was actually a sign of my baby growing and being independent!!! 
  • A little helper - loves cleaning the dining table for me after each meal, I also got her a set of brush, broom and mop so she can clean around the house while I do the dishes! Also loves binning rubbish, getting nappy from her nappy basket for me and list goes on! Ahhhh, how lovely I now have a helper! hahaha 
  • Knows when she has done a number 2 and would tell me 'mama, botbot' ie, mummy, it's time to wash my botbot! hahaha
  • She can 'count'! She can say, 1,2 3 and then 6 and 9! I guess all the counting when going upstairs and downstairs on daily basis really helped
  • I told her to call Jocelyn 'JoJo' when we got back and now it seems JoJo is one of her favourite people as she calls JoJo A LOT and goes to her room to wake her up in the morning! She is now more confident about saying new words and this month, she can say
- mummy instead of mama
- dada
- JoJo
- Chair
- Door
- Ball (all time favourite word)
- Ba (for ballon)
- Bro (for broccoli)
- B (for beetroot or bee)
- A (for apple)
- Moon
- Pool
- Nu (for noodles as JoJo cooks her noodles almost every morning!)
- SheShe (Thank you in Chinese with the nodding gesture)
- Ta (Thank you)
- More
- WoWo (for dogs)
- Buuuuu (when she sees cars)
- Baba (for baby or sheep as we sing baba black sheep)
- MooMoo (means cow)
-baobao (as 抱抱 in Chinese but she only says it when she wants to be lifted up or carried)
-niuniu (as 妞妞 in Chinese and she knows that's what daddy calls her)
 There are probably other few words I have left out but it just to show that she has improved her vocabularies! lol

Rayray has cut through four more teeth at the back, both top and bottom and so has been rather miserable and dribbling lots and lots! Though she looks a 'proper' toddler with all that teeth and I sometimes just struggle to believe the baby in my arms is no longer a 'baby' but a toddler that runs around and understands what we say and responds in simple words or her little funny faces!

I have also discovered that Rayray can be quite possessive. I know it is probably human nature but for example, when we are in playground and if she gets onto the slide or a climb ing frame first, she would push other kids who want to get on after her! She also gets terribly upset if she sees someone else 'touching' her buggy especially when we are at restaurants! 

My happy pumpkin

Tuesday 21 May 2013

The 18th month

My baby turns 18 month old today and my, this month I do feel she isn't a 'baby' anymore she is a little person that I can have conversations with and she actually understands things I say!! She truly is a bundle of joy to be with!

Look at my little poser!!!

This month we moved houses as the old flat is now going through major renovations which will take up to 6 months to complete and thankfully Rayray being a total adventurous explorer, she settled well and finds granddad's place another new playground for her! lol

A play date with baby Maddie and it cracked me up to see them lying side by side!

Height - 81cm 

Weight - 11.8kg

Eating - Still loves her fruits and BROCCOLI!!!!! (I am guessing because it is MY favourite veg and I ate so much of it while I was pregnant?!) I am grateful that she eats well even though sometimes she gets fussy but generally she likes her food. 


I love this photo as she still looks so sausagy and her innocent baby eyes!

Sleeping - I have now cut her LTN to an hour and moved her bedtime forward to 6.30pm so she doesn't take too long to settle in the evening. Generally sleeps for a solid 12 hour at night but obviously with occasional glitches of EMW.

mama, let's go shopping

Development -
  • A really obvious spurt in physical development as Rayray can't seem to get enough climbing of furniture and just loooooves playing ball with T. She also loves rolling on my bed ENDLESSLY, basically just leaps about!
  • has learnt to RUN and boy does she like running! It is as if she HAS to run everywhere she goes!
  • She loves dancing whenever she hears music and has learnt to twirl! 
  • She would 'talk' to herself when she plays and it could go on and on and on!
  • Rayray is fond of cleaning after Lorna started looking after her in the morning! YES! After 17 months of looking after her 24/7, I finally got a helper even though Lorna works part-time but I already can feel the difference and most importantly, Rayray adores Lorna! So Rayray would pretend to wipe the floor using ummmm ANYTHING she can get hold of so I guess it's time to get her own dustpan and brush and possibly a baby vacuum cleaner.

Looking rather puzzled before Kindermusik which she loves!

Looking so serious on escalator

mama, look at me!

Little happy reader in car

Whenever Rayray calls mama, it melts my heart, instantly! My 'concern' which isn't really a concern YET but she isn't talking as much as a 18 month old and I put it down as we speak both English and Mandarin to her so she needs more time to adapt.

Anyway, Happy 18 month Birthday my little dumpling!