"Enough insults for today".

And then I realize I've hurt you too. But you don't like to talk about it. Your feelings. Our relationship. Maybe if you'd talked to me before that, I might have done something about it. If I knew which words hurt you, I'd have apologized. You know I would, because in each fight since we had begun this journey, I've always, always come to you, no matter what. I always take the first step. I'm willing to reach out to you, even if you think it's pointless. But it's not. I wish you would tell me, not just react to it by walking out on me.

I really wish, one day, you would just talk about your feelings to me. Walk towards me, work towards me, not away from me.

Whoa, my little baby has turned 1 year old!

From a tiny teeny newborn whose sole abilities were to eat, sleep and pop, to an active baby who now understands my words and gestures, you have changed by leaps and bounds.

You have brought me immense joy, along with with tears, fatigue and sleep deprivation. You have also taught me patience.

Whilst taking care of a baby is never an easy job, you are definitely more difficult than many babies. I had to sleep sitting up each night for what seemed like an agonising eternity, just so you could sleep soundly. When I put you in the car seat, you screamed and wailed relentlessly, making long road trips unbearable for me. You rejected to be spoon-fed soon after you started eating solids, only wanting to self-feed the food you like. Slowly but surely, my patience has paid off. I can now happily sleep on my back and also put you in the car seat without having to suffer ringing in my ears.

Achievements Unlocked:
Put on glasses, open sliding door to escape from bedroom, kick balls, kiss

I wanted to record every bit of her growth, but it turned out that being a mother is so exhausting that I rarely find time to do anything before the day is over. So here I am, cramping months of events into a single post. Fit to say that my new year's resolution is to record her growth and milestones more diligently!

So, this little girl that I gave birth to, she's no easy feat. She's not easy to take care of and she started fussing at about 2 weeks old.

Her skin started peeling all over around week 2. Her umbilical cord fell off at 10 days of age, and I could see the lumpy flesh inside which was really scary to me. There was some pus too and I kept freaking out whether she was having a fever. Baby blues and exhaustion kept me from enjoying my new motherhood initially. I have not had a decent night of sleep ever since I went into labour and gave birth to her.

So anyways, all the newborn stuffs I bought for her were still too big for her. She was literally swimming in her clothes. I was so not expecting her to be so small since Doc kept telling me that due to my gestational diabetes, my baby would be bigger than usual.

We brought her out a lot, even though it wasn't recommended since she hasn't had immunizations, but since my mother-in-law flew 12,970 km, we wanted to bring her out to check out the sceneries of Seattle too. I was extra cautious with her and we made it to a few parks and even Premium Outlets. Somehow, whenever we put her in the carseat and bring her out, she would fall asleep and it was only when we reach home that she would wake up.

During tummy time, she would try to kick whatever she could to advance forward, even though we were only trying to let her learn to lift her head up.

She was OK with being cradled initially. But she started to only want to be carried upright with her head resting on our shoulders.

At about 2-3 weeks, she started having acne on her face. It was also around the same time that we had the "newborn" photoshoot. Bad timing, but if we delay the photoshoot, it wouldn't be a newborn photoshoot anymore. The acne was there to stay for at least 2 weeks before it gradually went away.

It was soon my birthday and the daddy didn't prepare anything for me. No cake, no present, no plans. Sadly, he also didn't take over the night duties and give me a decent night of sleep. :( Luckily SM made a cake for me so we could take a picture with Olivia.

At 4 weeks, her newborn-sized bottoms were beginning to look tight on her.

At 6 weeks, the daddy discovered that she knew to raise her legs up high during diaper changes. At 10 weeks, she also started arching her back after we've changed the diaper so that we could pull her shirt back down. Her newborn-sized clothes also looked increasingly tight on her. She also started cooing adorably and even whined when she was unhappy.

Since then, her hair started to get really spiky and would stand up even if I combed her hair after a bath.

I started to let her sleep on me so that I have a persistent backache she could sleep more and hence daddy can sleep more. I continue to get up every 2 hours when she wants to feed in her sleep. Throughout the day, she also fusses so I have to juggle housework and cooking and her all the time. Before I know it, it's dinnertime and I just feel like I accomplished nothing every day. It's been really tiring and I really long for a good night of sleep. Wonder how long it'd be before I can feel well-rested again and when my back won't hurt anymore. :(

Nope, she's not on the nice list. She's naughty and feisty, but she's angelic the rest of the time. I love her all the same and just can't resist kissing her cute little face every hour. My life now revolves around the baby and the hubby.

Happy new year to my beloved LG and daughter. I look forward to spending the years ahead with you two forever.

It's finally the due date of our baby! Will she be on time? Or will she be late? :)

The last appointment with the doc didn't go well. Doc said Olivia isn't as active as she wanted, which made me really worried.. :( Will be going for ultrasound on Monday and depending on the results, I'll have to see the doc on Mon/Tues if they're not so good. :((

Olivia please be active and healthy ok? Mom and Dad love you and want the best for you.

P.S. Daddy, thanks for getting me my first Kate Spade bag and not hiam-ing my pasar malam bags...

Announcement

I know, I know. This blog post is super overdue. I haven't even finished our wedding post! But I just got to churn this out before our new family member arrives! I'm already 36 weeks pregnant!

It didn't come as a surprise since we had planned for an October baby. We discovered early at 3-4 weeks and we were excited and anxious at the same time. We started researching on the obstretricians and hospitals, which wasn't a very fun process. It took me a while before I decided to go with my current doctor.

The first trimester went considerably well since I didn't have much morning sickness. It was fun wondering what the gender of our baby is, and somehow, all the signs pointed to a boy. There's this linea nigra that extends all the way above my navel, and the chinese gender predictor also seemed to indicate that I'm having a boy according to my age and month of conception. Soon we were kinda stuck on the idea and started thinking about which boy names we liked.

On March 11, I had a really bad scare. I called the clinic and my doc wasn't in so they advised me to get an appointment with the Ultrasound clinic. I called the clinics back and forth and broke down when there was confusion over the appointment time, so LG took over the call for me. It was a depressing morning for me and I just couldn't wait to go to the clinic but felt scared to go at the same time.

Fortunately, the teeny tiny human being inside of me was alright. The little heart beat on surely and we even saw cute wriggling motions. The doctor wasn't able to explain what happened but I felt immense relief and went home with precious prints which turned out to be my favourite prints throughout my pregnancy so far. The cute little silhouette looked like a cartoon character. Guess it was a blessing in disguise after all!

LG's Birthday

Soon, March 19 came along and I baked a cake for the first time in my life for the most important man in my life!

We also dropped by Bill Gates' house since he wanted to wish my LG a happy birthday. Had a pizza for dinner topped off with a lie that night.

The next day, we went to Space Needle for an expensive birthday lunch at the revolving SkyCity restaurant.

It was and then checking out the various personalized key chains with names. We looked at the boys' names way longer oops.

I also remember the bus ride home where we looked out the window and suggested whatever word we saw outside as the baby's name. Parking Wang was my favorite fun name and somehow, it became a precious and lasting piece of memory to me.

The first trimester felt so long to me. Even though it was still early, we went to the consignment fair at Seattle Center on April 10. I tried my best to pick clothing that were as unisex as possible - fleece outfits and a swing that I'd been coveting.

1st Wedding Anniversary

Yeap, first anniversary! No presents from LG though...*cough*

Got a momento from the anniversary though from my failed attempty to bake a cake - a nasty second degree burn that took weeks to heal and became a permanent scar. Clumsy me hasn't baked a cake since then.

We went Gameworks for some business left unfinished for 5 years - completing House of the Dead 4!

2 days later, my weak LG texted me from work that he was having difficulty breathing, and that he was on his way to the ER with a colleague. Apparently he had been feeling unwell but didn't tell me earlier, tsk. I rushed out of the house after throwing some chicken into the Instant Pot, and got my first Uber ride to Swedish First Hill. We waited from about 4pm to 10pm until we finally got to see a doctor. Poor LG felt better after the inhaler treatment, so it was probably asthma. Scary episode for me.

2nd Trimester

The second trimester was when the discomfort really kicked in. I was so puffy and swollen and I just couldn't move much. Even climbing the Aloha Street slope was akin to Mount Everest. I nearly passed out and LG had to help me to the bus stop where a kind soul came over and got me cold water from Pho Cyclo. My belly wasn't even showing then yet and that was the first time I came close to passing out.

After that, every time we went out, I got faint spells without fail. I had to rest every ten steps or so and had to struggle to stay on my feet and refrain from sitting on the sidewalks. I planned for a Din Tai Fung meetup with the Singaporeans and ended up being the last to arrive. Embarassing episode. I was busy struggling with to stay on my wobbly legs when the kind staff from the downtown Walgreens saw my pathetic plight and led us in for a seat and drink.

That was just the second trimester! I was filled with dismay that my third trimester would be much worse. Luckily the odds turned and I actually became more energetic than my first trimester. Odd but whee~!

Being aware of the imminent lack of freedom, I regretted my lack of activity pre-pregnancy. I've been desperately trying to make up for lost time in my third trimester, wondering when it would be before I could go to the movies or play pool (lousily, as LG would say) again. I also made it a goal to attain infamity before I delivered, and soon, LG and I were holding a poker card each. The Payday Gang of 3 is officially infamous!

Mystery Unraveled

On May 27, we went for another ultrasound appointment. It was THE appointment - the day we could finally know the gender of our little human.

The sonographer of THE day sucked big time though. Bleh. I made sure to complain the next appointment and I had this 4D print as compensation.

LG said our baby girl looks like me. I'm not sold on that, but I was hoping otherwise. :X

So the shopping for clothes officially started. Pretty bows and lace, here I come!

Naming the Princess

And we began thinking of her name. How exactly did we decide on Olivia? Was it because of Fringe? I'm not certain, but we both do like the ring of it and its meaning of strength and feminity. Haha! This part was supposed to be the easiest part to think about, since the worst part was the Chinese name, argh.

For the Chinese name, we took MONTHS. Although we're not the ban dang type, I do want to take some steps to make sure her name is auspicious by Chinese standards just in case. It was no easy feat trying to meet the criteria while at the same time sounding nice and unique.

Our first try? 秋颖. We actually thought it was pronounced as ying2, and we found out only months later that it's actually ying3. 秋's usage was not approved either. And worse, we didn't know earthworm is called 蚯蚓. Damn, shouldn't it be 土虫 or something? :X

Second try was one I really liked - 秋跃. But as I said, 秋 wasn't approved to be in the name so out it went. Other viable pleasing-to-the-ear options were 秀雯、雪盈、秀盈，斯颖、跃颖 and 跃荧. So much unhappiness arose between us during this period. I had to pull myself together and researched on the total number of strokes, the 五行, the ok's and not-ok's for a goat, and the list goes on. To the poor mothers out there who have a limited Chinese vocabulary and are going through what I went through, I have this suggestion for you:

1) Come up with names that are pleasant to your ear.
2) Try the name here and see if the results are good enough for you.
3) Find alternative words with the same pinyin or meaning if you must. Essentially, go back to Step 1.

Stress, stress, stress. Thanks to this website I found at the very end, he decided on 跃荧 and I was just happy we were done with it (for now). Pfft.

To Car or Not to Car

Having been in Seattle for 15 months, we thought we could do just fine without a car ever, and that renting cars and Uber/Lyft would be sufficient. Adding the car seat to the equation made it complex. We were late once when returning the ZipCar, and that was because the traffic was bad. If we had to install the car seat before the journey and take it out again after, we would be soooo late. Not to mention delaying the next person who reserved the car, although I had no compassion whatsoever for the super gei gao jerks who lodged 2 complaints against us. Yes, you complain kings and queen outside the Union SLU. _|_ You are one big reason why car sharing was even less favourable.

As my delivery date drew nearer, we started researching cars and dealerships and stuffs in early September. It was madness and I was overwhelmed with all the research and uncertainty. It felt like I had only a few days or a week tops to research before we actually purchased one.

The man had only 2 candidates in mind - Mazda 3 and Subaru Impreza hatchbacks. It kinda worried me that the range was so limited and there could be more suitable cars out there but no, the man was set on 2 options. The kiasu shopper in me sweated profusely inwards and went along with the man.

On Sept 3, we went for a test drive at University Mazda before my doctor's appointment. The man wanted a Mazda 3 Hatchback in Deep Crystal Blue, and I wanted the safety features (Blind Spot Monitoring & etc) which would make that at least an iTouring build. What the dealership had in store was a Blue Reflex Mazda 3 iGrandTouring hatchback and a Deep Crystal Blue iTouring 4-door sedan. Tough choice between practicality (cargo space) and style (colour). I also felt claustrophobic sitting in the rear of the sedan. After the test drive, the man almost wanted to decide to get the 4-door on impulse (for the deep blue colour:X), but we both knew we shouldn't give the nod yet. The dealer immediately 变脸 when we expressed our thoughts that we wanted to test drive Subaru Impreza before we make a decision. Before we left, he made sure to let us know that Mazda is the #2 on the safety chart displayed at the entrance, compared to Subaru at #8.

After our doctor's appointment, we went to Carter's Subaru at Ballard. The shopping experience was more pleasant with the motherly figure dealer. We had a few test drives on a few different trims of Subaru Impreza and then Legacy. The man said he preferred Impreza to Legacy because Legacy was bigger and harder to control ("limpeh gia", the man said :X). We went back with quotes of Impreza Limited and Premium 5-door wagons. As exhausted as we were after a full day of adventure, we went back to do some more research and a lot of thinking.

Early next day, we went for 2 newborn classes at Swedish - Newborn Care and Infant Safety & CPR. We were late for the morning class due to Car2Go's stupid problems (which kinda affirmed the need of our own car), but we didn't miss much. In fact, the $50 spent on this class felt like a waste to me. I was expecting hands-on exercises on taking care of a baby, but it was mostly just listening to advice (most of what I had already researched) and watching a 20-minute video (on stuffs I had already read up online). The only hands-on that was mildly useful was about how to bathe a newborn. The other hands-on was swaddling - which I've already watched tons of video clips on. I kept yawning throughout the whole class and couldn't wait to get my hands on a cuppa joe since I didn't have a good rest at all thinking about the car and loan and insurance and stuffs.

In the afternoon, the kiasu kiasee shopper in me asked the man if he wanted to give Honda/Toyota a chance. He didn't want to, so we went to Sarducci where I did math on the car prices and stuffs. The Infant Safety & CPR class was up next shortly, and luckily the coffee machine outside the class entitled me to a rare day full of caffeine.

Another exhausting day ended and we went home to contemplate about the car. It spanned over to the next day and we were really conflicted over the car deal and when we should go back to Subaru. I lost even more sleep being the usual imsoniac I was, getting up early in the morning just to get more car insurance quotes and stuffs. Nightmarish, come to think about it. Pregnancy doesn't go well with insomnia and stress! Couldn't have been good for the baby in me!

Well, (luckily?) it didn't take TOO long though since we really made the decision in a matter of a few days. After consulting First Tech, we had a very serious brunch at Serious Pie talking seriously about the car decision. The food was seriously less than impressive and we seriously wondered if we should go back to Subaru on that same day. So... we seriously did. We took bus 40 and I was wondering if it was gonna be the last day we're taking a bus in Seattle. Conflicted feelings since I enjoy long walks and journeys with the husband.

Anyhows, we arrived at the destination and struggled to compile our research at the last minute before we went in. We took some screencaptures and they ended up being the bane of our negotiation. We asked if there was a Deep Sea Blue Pearl Impreza (the man was obsessed with the colour :P) and it was in stock as a Sport Premium build. We test drove that and tada, he wanted that car. Next up - price negotiation. Tired as I was, I couldn't bring out the most aggressive negotiator in me. We didn't manage to haggle a good deal for us, but well, at least it was his DREAM colour. The financial manager Mr Jackass was a total douchebag, but being tired as I was, I didn't treat him with hostility like I should have and now deeply regret it.

Since we hadn't settled the car insurance yet, we couldn't take the car back and so we took the bus home again(yay!).

There, there, the deal was done and over - we bought a car for the first time of our lives. What was left is me getting more insurance quotes and also renters' insurance quotes. Just a little more to go before I could finally get my well-deserved momma's rest.

So glad the ordeal was over when we finally confirmed the car insurance on Wednesday after my intensive research. On Sept 10 after our doctor's appointment, we went to Subaru and the new car owner drove us home and then out again to Kent for a spin at Ranch 99 & Winco. :)

Feeling relieved that it was all over save for the logistics of the loan to take care of, I was back to being a regular imsoniac. I hope my poor baby wasn't affected by all my stress hormones over the course of the car nightmare period.

Pregnancy Thoughts

As for the best part of the pregnancy? Feeling baby's movements inside me. I was anxious for this but it wasn't until after week 22-25 that I started feeling her subtle movements. It makes me feel so connected to her, something that the father will never be able to comprehend. So I try to get LG to feel my belly when I feel her move, although sometimes he finds it troublesome and tiring to put his hand there waiting for the slightest of movements.

Her movements have become more prominent than before, and I feel so happy whenever I feel her kicking, wriggling and have bouts of big hiccups. I never expected to have such intense feelings for someone I haven't even met. The joy I feel is indescribable and sometimes I just wish that I have the ability to see through my belly and peep at what she's doing.

It's amazing how an entire human being is growing inside of me, from a tiny embryo the size of a poppy seed at week 4 to a 6 lbs 6 oz mini human at week 38.

It's a waiting game, they say. But I keep telling people that I'm really carrying a timebomb now, unsure of the countdown timer before I boomz! It's kinda fun this way though. At this size though, Olivia has outgrown her father who was born at 5 lbs. Her mom was exactly 6 lbs 6 oz at her time of birth, so Olivia has outgrown her mom too! Wow, hope I won't have serious tears when it's time for her to come into the world. :X

After watching the video on male labour simulation, in which one dad talked about seeing his wife's intestines being laid out on salad bowls, made me so scared of C-section that I actually had a nightmare about it. It also dawned on me that I've only been preparing for her arrival and haven't thought about myself, like how I would deal with the labour pain and the postpartum care stuffs. So I made some padsicles for myself (sadly) and hope the delivery would be smooth and as painless as possible. Wishful thinking, I know.

Tick-tock-tick. When will our little human decide to meet us? :)

We went to work today, and it was a great start to the day for me!

We had our usual Friday date tonight... The moment we got together after work, you told me that you read an article about a google engineer commenting on the state of client-side programming these days.. about issues across platforms.. about javascript, jquery and css..

It's not something that hasn't happened before when we meet after work...but today, I just realised how cute it is.

This something we have? I think it's special. I feel really happy thinking that we connect. Even if it may not feel that way to you...but I do!

After all, not like every girl can understand what you're talking about, and even if they do, most would just get bored and space out while you drone on and on about the technologies... :P

Being the gamers we are, we went to Bugis. You wanted Coco Ichibanya and I wanted Ma Maison, but since we had to wait if we wanted either, we went to the less popular restaurant situated between these 2 - Bon Chon.

looks good, but...looks only.

Well, next up - stealth succeeded! :P

Andddd shopping! I headed towards the shops with swift steps every time you didn't hold my hands, but you were patient with me. Remember how you always told me that I could shop alone? Well, the lovely carousel experience is the best counter-argument!

Went back to the fateful arcade. We managed to play my favourite arcade shooting game - House of the Dead 4! Always play until cannot feel my fingers due to numbness, but I feel so happy playing with you. :) However, we didn't manage to complete the game as usual. Damn, the last two bosses are so difficult to defeat!! Rahh! I think my new year resolution is to complete the game with you! It's been so long since we started playing the game, until now getting married le still cannot complete even once?! How can?! Let's make it a goal!!!

And let's never stop dating, ok? :) it can be so magical...

we bought kenny on 30 April 2012. on 2 May, i succumbed to zombie's innocent looking face and irresistable fluffiness.

"what? it's tiring to be cute, you know?"

zombie was a white snowball, but very soon, he showed his fangs and turned out to be the complete opposite of how he looked - vicious and bitey!

roars!! i'm ferocious! nom nom

he was a fussy eater, and loved sunflower seeds the most. every time i refilled the bowl, he would grab a sunflower seed from the variety of grains and start munching on it skillfully. he also liked broccoli and pumpkin seeds.

he loved sitting in his food bowl when he was little. here's him trolling kenny.

"hey! i wanna eat too!"

"excuse meeee!"

his days of being buddies with kenny were short, but these were evidence of them being ok together.

just chilling.

his snowcoat gradually turned into a light grey colour. we were puzzled. he slowly turned into a dark grey and stayed that way ever since. luckily, zombie was beautiful even after turning grey.

he loved to sleep in the crampiest of places.

and the strangest but adorable sleeping positions.

doesn't he look like he was smiling in this picture?

there was no denying it. zombie was a fierce lil thing. he often tasted our blood, and even sank his fangs into kenny once. i had to take the poor bleeding kenny to the doc that fateful night. that lil furball nearly lost his life. then, we knew that these two lil fellas just couldn't live together.

separating them into two diff partitions of a tank was the best move, although that meant a life without a furry companion.

we always joked about how fat he was compared to kenny, but the later half of last year saw him turn skinnier than kenny. we didn't think much about it.

last night, there was this conversation about how the winter white hamsters have a life span of only one year. i didn't believe it, but the very next day, i returned home to him motionless next to the bowl, an unusual location for him to sleep in. sensing something amiss, i looked hard for his heaving chest, but it wasn't heaving today.

poking him with a cotton bud but he didn't respond at all.

yup. we have lost another dear hamster.

this one, so close to my heart.

i was still joking about how we had the slowest hamster on wheel. he'd been running the wheel a lot the past few days...and sleeping in his favourite position the past few months...

turned frail, huh...? should've known when he became skinny... :(

this is the last we saw of him, with an oblivious kenny digging into his food happily beside him.

we'll miss you, zombie. :,(

Happy New Year =3

Our love will blossom even more, and better things are to come =)

Love <3,
Eddy

i have only one word to describe our past weekend - awesome!

after all, we got to play l4d as l4d (and not l3d) with fred and cedric! was interesting to have your friend ask me if i were you.

enjoyed the heisting with you and fred as well! actually, to be honest, i was reluctant to switch to l4d on saturday, lol. but i didn't regret it though, since we had one full day of heists the following day! i'm starting to feel like payday 2 could just be my next favourite game, i don't know. l4d has held the throne for like 3 years!

and i'm really glad my husband-to-be plays video games with me. :) maybe not as good as me but oh well it's ok! (okok just kidding):P

this weekend is strong evidence that even if we don't go out or do one of those outdoor things, we can still enjoy ourselves. and i enjoyed the gaming and sunlight deficiency tremendously.

so now you can say:

"i we played ytd and tdy, my wife damn pissed happy."

and

i can tell people this with a straight face:

yeah i had a nice weekend! was doing the usual, u know? weekend robbing banks and malls. :)

and i'd appreciate LAN parties. a payday 2 LAN party would be nice.

okok, gaming aside. let's get to the more serious stuffs..like...

okok, just kidding. i simply love this meme, don't know why, so i had to incorporate it somewhere permanent. :P

looking back, there were 2 major events in 2013. one of which you missed out - our BTO!

behold the progress of our future love nest (as of x'mas):

the other is as you mentioned - our photoshoot on 16 dec. that was one of the most exhausting days i've ever gone through, maybe worse than those school marathons i hated. but the photos turned out to be the key word of this post as well - awesome!

and i know i will never regret or neglect the photos (unless some amateur screwed them up in photoshop) no matter how much time has passed.

cos that is economic appreciation. :)

the x'mas log cake was awesome. our gathering with my parents at the aquarium was awesome.

did you know that my dad mentioned twice about how they went to bangkok's oceanworld but never visited singapore's attractions before? i'm really glad you agreed to have them with us. and i'd also like to plan trips to USS and River Safari with them next year! :P

i hope you can see the light in 2013. there have been unhappy events, but if you see past the superficial level, both of us have improved vastly and that is worth being happy about. just read the past posts again and you can tell.

about our parents (all 4), i'm worried too. i'm more of the "cherish quality time with my loved ones, and sometimes games" person, but it took me a lot of courage to follow your ambitions.

2014 will be a better year. have that faith, don't just hope. hoping doesn't give you strength to make things better. faith does.

and don't let squabbles get to you. couples do quarrel, be it trivial matters or not. but strong couples get back together stronger, not weaker! sure, we feel worn out after that, it's gonna be sore, but hey, don't let it take a piece of our relationship, ok?

have faith in us. in 2014. in our wedding. in our marriage. :)

looking forward to the day i can call you 老公. :)

or my prince charming :P

We spent the weekend playing Payday 2 with Alfred. Was nice spending time with a friend, but we may have made his wife pissed lol. And Baby, thanks for the steam gift =)

I planned a few things for this weekend. Some of them technical related. I did learned quite a lot, at the cost of spending time with you. On retrospect, this is the last weekend of 2013, I probably should have set those aside to make this weekend more memorable for us? Our hamsters' cages are finally cleaned, and I did managed to strike off the task of inviting our Justice of Peace, and you managed to reserve our ROM venue =)

Time for us to invite our guests.

The year passed by so quickly. Looking back, one of our significant achievements this year is definitely our Pre-Wedding Photoshoot on 16 Dec. It was tiring, and you may think that your hair was not done nicely enough, but I feel that you look absolutely stunning in the photos.

I know we have differing opinions when it comes to spending money on photos, but I agree their value will be more appreciated in future.

This past Tuesday I also met with Thomas, a good friend whom I lost contact with. I thought you should know that we used to hang out often during secondary school through polytechnic days. We were gamers, and together with Heng Boon, Kheng Mun, Delon, Jeiel & Justin, we used to hold LAN parties often, playing Counterstrike and Warcraft III. We were probably more knitted back when IRC was more prevalent, we would chat online whenever we were home. I remembered we only got off IRC when GalaxyNet was spammed badly by bots.

I hope you enjoyed Christmas at S.E.A. Aquarium with your parents =) It was impromptu, but I'm sure you appreciate time spent with Mom & Dad. I hope the log cake was delicious too =)

This may or may not be my last post for the year, so I end this post with a brief summary of the year. Mixed feelings. Was not as bad as 2012, we took the next step in being officially wedded. It's less than 2 months time, Honey =) but dad was admitted into Khoo Tech Puat twice. It sort of reminded me of our mortality. There's uncertainty, but we probably shouldn't remain in present because of that and stop shaping our future and working to realise our goals & dreams? I hope 2014 will be a better year. One motto I would like to start living by is, "live your day as though it's the last". That way, I will make choices that I wouldn't regret in future.