In case you haven’t heard, this was the entry I posted last year on my blog: http://aprima.org/2009/05/28/echocardiogram

Back then, his echocardiogram report was as follow:

Early in this year, on 6th Jan, I had brought Anaqi for a follow up check-up at KKH. His cardiologists said they could still hear slight murmurs in his heart when they listened via their stethoscopes. To confirm, they did another echocardiogram to scan his heart.

He slept soundly during the whole diagnosis, which took about an hour or so to complete. It seemed as though it had gone on for hours.

Last year when Anaqi did his first scan, I wasn’t focusing on the screens and was oblivious to the beeps and readings (that was before the doctors broke the news about the holes in his heart). The images on the screen looked similar to what I’ve seen during my FA scan when Anaqi was inside me.  This time I paid attention to every single detail. His sleeping helped me focus better.

The result made me beamed a hundred dollar smile. Alhamdulillah, I was informed that one of his holes (the ventricular septal defect – VSD) has spontaneously closed! Which was surprising because the VSD was much bigger than his ASD (atrial septal defect). His ASD is still there however it has reduced in size to about 2.9mm. This is indeed great news! He no longer need to consume his medication – diuretics -  for flushing out fluid from his lungs due to the mix of oxygenated and non-oxygenated blood flowing into them. His next follow up check-up will be in December this year. I hope then it will bear even better news for us, insyallah.

His scan results on 6th Jan.

Aaaanyway, back to the point of this entry…

My extended family had a fantastic BBQ get-together and mini-celebration for my dearest grandma to commemorate her 75th birthday. Actually I was told that no one actually knew her exact age because during the old days, information printed were sometimes inaccurate. My uncle told me that Nyai (what I call my grandma) was born in 1943 (which I doubt), but mom told me that Nyai was 21 when mom was born. If that’s the case, then Nyai would’ve been born in 1935!

Whatever it is, I’m glad that God has granted her longevity, and that she’s blessed with good health!

Here’s a photo of me with Nyai.

You might ask why she’s showing a sad face? Maybe she’s gotten tired of me requesting her to smile for the camera one time too many, LOL!

My aunt and family from Perth came to Singapore for a visit (they normally do during year-ends due to company shutdown for holiday season). When they visit, we normally think of ways for the whole family to get together and catch up. This BBQ idea was their plan, I guess (I wasn’t in the organizing committee). They’ve actually brought meat from down-under specifically for this BBQ. And of course, potluck is welcome.

P & I did not bring any food though, cos we hadn’t replenished our groceries, so we did not cook, but I did volunteered to be the official photographer of the night, hurhur! And P volunteered to BBQ!

As maghrib fall, we took turns to solat cos the BBQ premise was near to my other aunt’s residence. Thereafter, we ate our hearts out, and presented Nyai with gifts after cake-cutting.

The surprise of the day was much later in the night when my family from Melbourne made a surprise appearance! I hadn’t known that she had come to Singapore for a holiday for a couple of months, and I haven’t seen her FOR AGES!! I mean seriously! I think the last time I saw her was after she gave birth to her first daughter, and now she has THREE of them, and the youngest is already running!! Yes, it was *that* long.

Another highlight of the night was when Misha made a new friend with a resident preschooler who was at the playground with her grandpa. The first thing Misha asked the girl (Leah) was, “Hello, are you friend?” Lol, too cute! And the girl even shared her battery-operated police motorbike, and also taught Misha how to work the machine and manoeuvre. Very friendly that girl! Even her grandpa did not object to them playing together.

Even though it was a Sunday (3rd Jan) it felt like a Saturday. But as much as we wanted to stay late, we had to leave early cos the next day is a working day and the kids have school.

P/s: Did not even checked on spelling and typos and grammatical errors, cos I’m getting sleepy now (Time check 1:16am SGT) *yawn*

That’s it for now. I’ll probably check how my entry looks like when I’m on my PC, likely when I’m in the office tomorrow (or today technically).

Here’s a few photos taken from my blackberry. Better quality ones can be found on my Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157623173115758/.

**edited: urgh, photo size is too large when posted from the blackberry, so I had to re-upload them on my PC.

Majority of us contributed food – P prepared Sambal Udang (Chilli Prawn), Chicken Wings, Mixed Vegetables and Beef in Oyster sauce; Liz brought Aglio Olio, prepared by Liz herself (It really tasted good! I should try making that sometime); Yati brought pudding with lychee (I had numerous servings of that! *yum*); Sahril & Eileen bought some yummy donuts; and P’s friends brought drinks.

But the best contribution of all was definitely Juliah’s & Azhar’s Nintendo Wii, hands down! It was my virgin try. Felt awkward at first, but once I’ve got the momentum right, I just (felt like) didn’t want to stop *lol*.

These guys, on the other hand, are pros! Look at the amount of effort they put in on BOXING! Haha!

Even Misha wasn’t spared. In less than a day, she’s able to ‘BOWL’ (and ‘PLAY GOLF’ the next day!). Way to go, Misha!!

Guys, thanks so much for your company, we had a really great time that night, no doubt! To Juliah & Azhar, thanks for loaning us the Wii for another day! We tested enough to make us want to get one for ourselves, heh.

More photos on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157623004915391/

So what were on our agenda?

24.12.2009 (Christmas Eve)

The plan was to meet up at Changi Airport T3 for lunch. At Earle Swenson’s to be precise. With the kids! P asked me if I was able to handle all three by myself. I told him I’ll manage somehow. And in fact I did! Of course once I’ve met up with my girlfriends, I’ve had HELP (Thanks a lot, babes, you know who you are!). So as ‘janji melayu’ goes, the meeting time of 1pm somehow became close to 2 in the afternoon, haha! But at least we’re clear off the lunch crowd (at least I thought there would BE a crowd, but then again it’s Christmas eve, so there might not, yes?)

Anyways, when we reached there, we managed to get seated somewhere near the middle near the salad bar. Some of their meals entitle us to free-flow of salads! *yay* So all of us ordered steak! (I think Yati ordered chix, but yeah, majority ordered red meat). We get to talk (erm, not much, to be honest) in the midst of eating and minding the little children. Heh. At the end of it all, after an almost full stomach, we had the yummiest of all desserts. For the life of me I can’t remember what it was called. It sizzled just like the banana crumble ice-cream, but something else.

Mandatory group pic

The trio

Me and my kids, Mika and Misha (sans Anaqi, who was in the pram)

After lunch we headed right opposite Coffee Bean where there’s this mega-huge Bouncy Castle. But the kids did not play AT the bouncy castle (cos the queue was super long!), but instead right next to it where there’s a mini-playground. We let the kids run free. Too free, in fact! There was a time when some of them ran loose in directions all over! As for Mika, I caught him run off to a nearby elevator! Thankfully he did not follow some stranger INTO the lift, haha! Oh, but he did get lost for a while, and when we searched, we found him already climbing onto the bouncy castle, cutting all queues! That sneaky little boy, he! (Ok, too much exclamation!)

Soon after we all had to part due to individual plans, but we plan to catch up some days later when time permits us again. Without the kids next time round.

Many times when we meet up with relatives, those from my side of the family tend to see that they resemble me or my parents. Those from P’s side would say they look more like him. Similarly, his friends would say they follow his features, and my friends mostly say they follow mine. Then we would either vouch for or go against their comments.

To avoid any form of disagreement, I’ll post up these pictures side-by-side and let you be the judge.

P vs Misha

Sarah vs Mika (I)

Sarah vs Mika (II)

P vs Anaqi

The initial plan was to send my 3 kids over to my parents’, but because of the whole kitchen/bathroom renovation going on at their place, we decided it’s best to let them stay home, and my siblings come over to babysit them instead.

So in the morning of Dec 20th, my siblings had come over (Thank you Dhiah, Ana & Musli!! Luv ya all!). We made sure we covered all their needs and made them comfortable (I hope!) with Internet, DVDs, baking ingredients, etc. P even cooked up a meal for them early in the morning – Ikan goreng sambal and sayur kicap with beef!

First itinerary of the day was to head down to StudioPerfect to have our couple makeover shoot. Bookings were made weeks earlier, and we’re both very excited we’re doing this again, many years after our previous makeover at CoverLooks.

I had my make-up and hair done by Diah and Nurul respectively (and yes, P got powdered too!), and photography by Nurul. It was a superfun shoot, and I’m not kidding! We laughed so hard till our tummies ache (Okay, at least mine did!)

Here’s one of the edited photos I snagged from their Flickr. (Nurul, hope you don’t mind…)

Ta-da!

Will post more photos as soon as they’re ready.

If you’d like to have your own makeover shoot at StudioPerfect, do email them to make your bookings now. For more details, visit http://etrangle.net.

After our shoot we headed down to Lido to watch the all-hyped movie, Avatar. The initial plan was to have our car parked back at our residential carpark, and take public transport to Orchard. In P’s words, “Dating naik kereta macam tak ada ‘feel’ gitu” (No ‘feel’ when you go on dates by car). Then he babbled about how I would be busily tweeting in the passanger seat while he drive and engage in minimal, or sometimes no, conversation throughout the journey. Haha!

But ultimately, the idea was scratched because we lost track of the time (don’t we all when we’re having fun, no?), and figured we might not reach Orchard in time by 3pm when we’re still at Pasir Ris at 2.30pm!*gasp* So zoomed down we did in our little red car, and by God’s will, we managed to avoid the heavy traffic along Orchard Road – the norm during X’mas season.

Generally, Avatar’s a great movie to watch (in my opinion at least). I love the whole storyline, and of course, the action-packed stuff. The whole magic mushroom journey leads us to believe James Cameroon may potentially be a hippie, hurhur!

Anyway…

Post-movie, we went for dinner. We wanted to have dinner at Carousel initially, but no thanks to a late reservation weeks earlier, they were not able to accommodate us. So luckily, we’re able to reserve seats for two at Straits Kitchen, Hyatt!

We ate to the brims of our tummies! I managed to stuff myself five plates of their buffet spread, while P only had two (he blamed the large popcorn he had during the movie earlier that he couldn’t consume more).

P enjoying his Indian meal

…my second serving…

After a full stomach, it was time we headed home to reunite with our kids. It has been a very fun and enjoyable day for the two of us, and we wish to have more of such outing in future, especially more so once we have a helper around, insyallah.

At Hyatt Hotel lobby.

I also came to know that the groom is a very close cousin of my office colleague. Talk about small world!

To Syiq and Zainal, a brand new chapter in your lives has begun! May Almighty grant you all the happiness life will bring.

More photos can be found on my Flickr site: Syiq’s Wedding Photos

At the moment, it is hosting mismyra.net. It’s a small gallery I initially put up using PHP webpages – it has a couple of albums including my best-friend’s wedding (Yati), my engagement photos, and also my wedding and honeymoon photos. But sometime ago when I had signed up for a multiply account, I had migrated these photos (or mostly) there.

So if you haven’t got a chance to view them yet, here’s your last chance before it goes down permanently. You can view them at http://mismyra.net before 31st December 2009.

I would still retain the domain for future use.

My personal favourite is their Mudpie Baby Buds and Gifted Initials Tote (see pictures)

Mudpie Baby Buds

Gifted Initials Tote

Do feel free to check out their range of products here: http://suuchicbaby.multiply.com

If these adorable items are your cup of tea, go ahead and start making your online purchase now!

So smart, huh? For REAL OR NOT?!