And on the following evening after getting home from an Owen Seafood dinner event with Matt and family, she was chewing on the edges of her pillows.:)
Sunday evening
I must get pictures of her chewing on my fingers soon – just for the record of course.:)
Even at 9 months 1 day, Hannah’s still in that phase of her life where she’ll happily chew on everything she can get her hands on: whether it’s her pram toy, lace on her bed linen, one of our fingers, or the edges of pillows and cushions. Here’s evidence on two separate occasions: one set yesterday and the other just now.:)
Saturday evening:
Yep she looks like she’s just been caught red-handed in a felonious act.:)
Hannah today is exactly 9 months old! It’s been quite the journey as first time parents. There’s been plenty of lows points for certain. There’s been that dramatic change from being in a two person family and having to worry only about your wife, to having to worry about your baby girl and your wife now, and it pretty much pervades every decision you make – like what time you wake up, what time you leave the house, what time both of you have your meals, and that new toy you always wanted to buy has to be put aside i.e. financial prudence.
And just like this morning, Hannah did something she’d rarely done – wake the both of us up well before her usual wake-up time! She did a huge din at about 6:15 AM – we’d turn in late last night watching Watchmen on blu-ray – that was loud enough to wake even Matt up, two closed doors between her vocal chords and him.
But there’re so many more high-points in comparison: that toothless grin, her giggles and laughs when you rest your head on her tummy, her slow break into an angelic smile and chuckle when you make direct eye-contact with her, and the way her eyes dart noticing things around her and reflecting her alertness of both new and old environments. Each new day brings about new things we’re learning about her.
And there’s also that I think the both of us have become better individuals too: better discipline in spending, more efficient in what we do (at least for me anyway haha!), and better planners! And when Hannah’s carried by either of us, we just can’t resist planting kisses on those chubby cheeks of hers, and there’s that indescribable and absolutely incredible feelings of paternal affection and protection over our baby girl.
Three more months to one.:)
There’s a particular sentence that whenever I hear Ling say somewhere in the house, I’ll cringe in fear. And the sentence goes like this:
“Dear, can you come over here?
It usually only means one thing: because Ling can’t physically come over in person e.g. to the work room where I’m at, it’s probably something to do with Hannah, and it’s likely to be another baby-esque accident. One such happened again on Thursday when Hannah did a massive carpet bomb of her diaper. Even Ling was surprised at the volume of, er, ‘output’ possible from a small tot. It seemed that Hannah’s intestinal tracts must had been working on overdrive!
In any case, a furious body cleanup, a third baby bath for of the day and diaper and clothes change late, there was no trace evidence of the massive bombing that’d just occur. So we set Hannah down to play on our bed with a Nike Dri-Fit shirt I’ve got, but which Hannah hasn’t played with before. It’s terrifically fun to see her interact with new toys and items.:)
Taken on the usual Sigma 24-60mm.:)
In all my years of fumble and folly, I have locked myself out of many places: my car, my house, my office, even my bathroom. Today, however, I managed to lock myself in.
Preparing to leave Yang and Ling’s condominium late yesterday morning, it became evident that I had lost track of the house keys Yang passed me. One key is paired to the front door, the other key is paired to the iron gate clasped to the external frame encasing that door. Opening the front door from the inside is obviously not a problem. However, opening the locked iron gate without a key is a non-starter. Having left earlier in the morning for their respective workplaces, Yang and Ling took with them, quite naturally, the only remaining keys. I was trapped!
I never tire of explaining to friends the safety and security I experience in Singapore, often conjuring exaggerated circumstances under which, comparative to the US or elsewhere, I’d be a dead duck, yet in the assuring confines of Singapore one’s safety is practically guaranteed. But one thing is for sure: If you lose the spare set of house keys, they’ll lock your ass up.
With William Wallace’s last-breath cry of “Freedom!” reverberating through my bones, I faced, by means of my own stupidity, the not-so-proverbial rusty cage that imprisoned me and my people — except Irish, not Scottish. Just beyond the reach of my outstretched arms: my shoes, the elevator, the neighboring children’s bicycles . . . roti prata.
A stiff wave of panic enveloped me. Before the US consulate could return my phone call, Yang caught up with me online on MSN. We felt certain the house keys fell out of my pocket while riding in the front seat of the car the night before.
“Listen, buddy,” he wrote, “it doesn’t look like you’re getting out of there until Ling returns home from work. I’m sorry.”
“That’s OK,” I wrote.
“As you know, you have plenty of bak kwa there, and if you like go ahead and order McDonalds in, or a pizza. They should be able to stuff the food through the gate rungs.”
“I just might do that.”
“But, in the meantime . . . Look, I’ve read studies on incarceration.”
“Oh?” I replied in surprise.
“Yes, it’s very important for you to keep busy, or else you’ll rot away into nothing.”
“Is Ling returning home sometime within the next decade?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, yes, of course. But still, we should be proactive.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Yang hesitated. “I think the marble floors could use a mopping.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, I’m sure of it. You’ll find the necessary supplies in the storage closet. While you’re doing that, I’ll contact the warden.”
“The warden? You mean the landlord, right?”
“Yes, I meant the landlord. . . . Bye for now.”
With Yang’s helpful advice in mind, I took to my task. He was right, I’d decided, it really is best to have a clean prison cell to inhabit. And the work helped quell the pity for the self and the pangs of hunger quaking throughout my body.
Not long after completing my task, Ling sent me a text message. I rushed to my notebook to give Yang the news.
“Yang,” I wrote, “Ling just texted me saying she found the keys in the car! They’d fallen out my pocket into the front passenger seat, just as I expected.”
“Great news, buddy,” he replied. “Did you mop the floor?”
“Yes, it looks fabulous.”
“Great. Ling should be there within the hour. Tell me, buddy, how do the windows look?”
“I’m logging off.”
Soon after Ling arrived home to free the incarcerated ang moh, carrying with her little Hannah, an armful of various food, and, of course, the spare keys.
“I have brought your rations,” she said, smiling. “Wait — have these floors been mopped?”
“Um, yes, Yang thought it would be good if—“
“Oh! Yang is clever one. This happens every time!”
“What, you mean this has happened before?” I asked.
She remained silent and set about preparing Hannah’s afternoon bath. I chose to leave well enough alone, for clemency had been grant and there was food to be eaten in the kitchen. And after all, I had learned an important life lesson today: To get the most out of Singapore’s tourism catchphrase, “Uniquely Singapore,” one need but remember the spare house keys.
More baby faces! This was after Hannah’s dinner feed this afternoon, and taken just after I got back home. While Ling went back into the kitchen to make ready her dessert, I sneaked the opportunity to take a series of more pictures of Hannah Faces. All taken using the Sigma 24-60mm f2.8.
I wonder if she’ll continue to be as willing a photographic subject when she grows older though. Likely not nearly as much say a decade from now, so in the mean time, the more reason to take more pictures!
No post-processing aside from cropping and resizing, but colors a little duller out-of-the-box this time than the last. Most likely to do with color temperature hmm. Still, all precious moments of our little one.:)
One of the restaurants that the both of us have liked a lot and got onto on our mission check list to fatten Matt up was the Sweet Spring dim-sum eatery at AMK Hub. After work last evening, I swung by to pick all three persons up – Ling, Matt and little Hannah – got into the usual heavy and slow traffic along Avenue 5, but otherwise reached the mall uneventfully close to 7 pm.
We’ve blogged about the restaurant here before; while the dim sum range itself isn’t quite as wide compared to Crystal Jade Kitchen, what they’ve got, they sure do it very well! The spicy wantons remain my favorite (Ling prefers the chive vegetable dumplings) as do the steam barbequed pork buns. Unfortunately, the latter was sold out by this time of the hour, though we did tell Matt a return trip on his own is really worth it considering the taste of those buns. Absolutely yummy.
We rounded off dinner with a trio of desserts: of which the mango pudding mix was easily the most impressive of the lot. We had no idea the size of this particular item was more than the other two desserts put together, and between just Ling and myself there’s no way we could had finished the mountain. But we had Matt, of course.:)
Hannah was pretty well-behaved throughout, grumbled just a mite but certainly nowhere near the roof-shaking dins she’s capable of.:)
Well, after maybe more than half a dozen flight itinerary changes that started after the North-East region of American was blanketed in snow, the Ang Mo Dude is finally back. 4 days later than planned that resulted in the cancelation of the Bali and Penang segments of his stay, and departing a week earlier too, but there’s no stopping him ripping through roti-pratas now.:)
Proof of life:
Yeah Hannah looks more interested in Matt than the lens!
Nicely too; Matt’s flight landed in Singapore 30 minutes earlier at 0523, which made it possible for us to make a quick trip home after picking him up for Hannah to get fed – she was getting cranky, since she normally doesn’t wake up quite so early.:)
It’s both delightful to see Hannah learn new skills, and a mite scary at how fast she’s picking them up! Just barely two weeks ago she was still struggling to pick herself up from all fours to a standing position. These days, she can do it easily albeit by lifting herself up with support first. Just a few days ago, she gave Ling a good scare when Hannah nearly climbed out of her baby chair when Ling had to pop back into the kitchen to get some solids food ready for her.
Here’s a quick video I shot of her having fun on a chair. You can’t see my right hand, but it’s just off-camera ready to catch her if she lost her balance; she didn’t at all.:)
The video’s a little grainy as it was shot in semi-low light. And oh yes – I meant the first and not second of March in the video – whoops.:)
I’ve posted here before about a music service I subscribe to, namely eMusic. The service used to be a huge bargain with thousands of classical music albums on sale at very affordable prices. However, the attractive pricing plans were changed late last year, and while it’s still cheaper than equivalent purchases at Amazon or in brick-mortar CD shops like HMV, it’s no longer the bargain it once was.
The net effect of the price changes is that these several months now I’ve become a lot more careful about what music tracks I purchase, since albums now cost typically about USD4.80 in their MP3 versions. That means I should leaning towards acquiring new classical compositions I haven’t heard before. But ironically a good amount of my most recent purchases are still old compositions!
There’s a couple of works I’ve fallen in love of late with revisits, and in the last 2 years have picked up several performances, two of which I’ll mention here. There’s Bach’s six French Suites that he wrote for the clavier but commonly recorded today on the piano. I first heard the work on an old Decca CD recording performed by András Schiff. Most of the several dozen short pieces in the suites were unknown to me (my only exposure to Bach as a piano learner 25 years ago was his Preludes and Fugues), but the Gavotte from the French Suite No. 5 in G has a wonderfully sprightly and melody that I remember from the very old but popular Hooked on Classics albums with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from the early 80s. A Youtube recording of the Gavotte is below.
My most recent acquisition of this composition was just over the weekend was a performance by German-American pianist Wolfgang Rübsam. By far though my favorite performance of the work comes off a recording before a live audience by Simone Dinnerstein, an American-born pianist I’ve blogged about a year ago here.
The other work that I’ve spent a lot of time listening to are Mendelssohn’s two Concertos for Two Pianos. These are far less frequently recorded than the Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin or other late romantic equivalents, but they’re some of the most amazing works demonstrating collaborative keyboard artistry. There are perhaps six performances of these two concertos available for online purchase anywhere; I’ve got four of them already and I still haven’t tire of listening to them! This is music I could set to Repeat on my music player and not get tired of listening to them for hours. My favorite performance of the four sees Swedish pianist Roland Pöntinen and Love Derwinger supported by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by Lez Makiz, an ensemble who also recorded another one of my favorite performances of Mendelssohn’s twelve string symphonies.
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