Monday Videos

Before a new day begins, here are videos of the children, taken today! Hehehe!


Nakayla was chatting away while I was working. The longest and loudest she has ever gone! But as usual, the moment the camera is out, things slowed down and became softer. Haha.



Blake came home with party favors, and he was so fascinated by this particular one! He found it so hilarious when I showed him how to play with it, but it was difficult for him to blow the strip out and make the sound. So he imitated the sound! Haha!

It's Saturday!

After our new IKEA furniture (my new work station!) was all done, Nakayla was sat in her rocker while Blake took his toys out to play. Nakayla loves watching Blake play and enjoys being near him, while Blake happily includes her in his play cos he loves to make her laugh! But this boy is very shy (so the opposite! Haha!). The moment he realizes he's being photographed, he will move away. Must maintain his "macho boy" image, I reckon. Haha!



Linking up with:

Flasback Friday #35

13 September 2011: Blake enjoys brushing his teeth! I can't quite remember when we started giving him the toothbrush with some baby toothpaste, but he enjoys it a lot! Hehe.

Bye Bye, Pacifier!

Cue Dora's mission accomplish song:

♫ ♪ We did it! We did it! We did it! YAY! ♪ ♫

Blake is off the pacifier for good! In just a couple more days, it will mark a whole month of being pacifier-free for him :D

The weaning process was rather unexpected as I hadn't planned on weaning him off the pacifier, yet.

Here's a little background as to how Blake got started on pacifiers.

When Blake was only three days old, my grandma asked me for a pacifier to comfort him with. Thankfully (or not), the starter kit we bought came with one. From that day on, a pacifier (there were always four in the house) was always within reach. Blake never fell asleep without one, and never went to anywhere new without. It was his permanent trademark, I guess. It was constantly in his mouth, clipped onto whatever he was wearing that day.


These were taken when he was 12 months old.


As he grew older, his reliant on them grew too. The pacifier was actually his motivator in all our learn-to-crawl activities, back when he was still a little baby. Nope, no fancy crawling toys worked. Only the pacifier did.


When he could walk and climb, Blake would climb up to the table just to take the pacifier and put it into his mouth. Even after the birth of Nakayla, and after I introduced the pacifier to her when I found her sucking on her thumbs and fingers, Blake would still want his pacifier. A couple of times, I caught Blake taking the fallen pacifier from Nakayla's mouth to put it into his. That's how much he loves pacifiers.

I honestly had no idea how to wean him off, and felt cruel to be doing it to him - considering Nakayla uses it on and off too. It's akin to some kind of mental torture to let him go cold turkey while seeing his sister using the very one thing he's trying to quit! But somehow, we did it!

Cue Dora's song again:

♫ ♪ We did it! We did it! We did it! HURRAY! ♪ ♫

Here's how the happy weaning surprise happened.

It all started on 15 February 2013, after Blake went to school. After my mom had taken Blake to school did I realize that the pacifier was left behind. I panicked and immediately sent a message to his teacher. I wanted to warn her of the impending disaster to come during the children's nap time. Blake can be quite the horror when he throws tantrums, and combined with his strength, things can get very tough for us adults. But his teacher replied that she will pat him to sleep. Subsequently, I received two more messages from her. One to inform me that Blake is sleeping, and another after nap time to let me know that he slept well during his nap time. I then told the teacher that maybe I should take this chance to wean him off the pacifier, and she said that they will try to not give him the pacifier while in school. And because I'm super lazy, I suggested to just leave the pacifier behind - one less thing to pack, one less thing to wash! - and she said, "Ok :)".

When Sean returned home, I told him about what happened earlier, and we decided to continue with what I had accidentally started.

The first few nights were tough. It took Blake longer than usual to fall asleep, and we had to keep occupying him so that he won't remember anything about something called the pacifier - out of sight, out of mind. After a whole week off the pacifier, I thought that maybe this was a fluke, and that surely he will want the pacifier when given. But no. The following days and weeks had seen Blake going to bed when asked to, sans the pacifier. Neither did he try to take it from the table nor from Nakayla's playpen anymore! You simply cannot imagine how happy and proud I am of my boy!

Blake went from this...


To this!


Bye bye, pacifier! It was fun while it lasted :D
Now that he's off the pacifier, I guess it's time to potty train him. I had been telling myself that potty training will only come after Blake is off the pacifier. Now, if only that was just as easy...


P.S. Blake was watching Dora when I was typing this. Hence, the 'song'. Haha!

Tint

Disclaimer: I am not getting paid or receiving any form of benefits for this review. This is my own personal review from my own experience when I chanced upon Tint while looking for an Instagram widget for my blog.


I had recently signed up for an Instagram account, @amazinglystill, and ever since then, I kept thinking of how to incorporate it into my blog. I want my blog to be the one-stop space online for people to read and know more about me and my family after all.

So I went on a Google search.

Initially, I had no idea what to search for. I just keyed in "instagram on blogs", a couple of websites with Instagram widgets (that's when I learned the term. Haha!) popped up, but instead of clicking on any of them, I changed my search to "instagram widgets" for a more accurate search result.

I started to click on each and every link on the first page to test them out. The next hour or so saw me going through each website, trying all the different types of widgets out on my blog. From what I gathered, most of the widgets seem to focus on displaying photos from the Instagram account either in a slide show, or in grids; None of which came with the captions attached to the instagram. I want my captions.

That's when Tint happened.


You don't even need to sign up with them. You can just use your Instagram account and it'll all be linked up straight away. And it's really easy to use too!




If you're a free user like I am, you can only choose between the 'Classic' or 'Photo' theme. I personally think that these two are sufficient. As you can see on the right side bar of my blog, I went with 'Classic'. Hehe. What can I say? I need my captions! Haha.

If you choose 'Classic' like I did, please take note! It doesn't support a good majority of emoji - so far, only the ♥ appears. The rest either don't appear at all, or will appear as a square.


After you have chosen your theme, just go ahead to 'Embed' to generate the code!

Tint is so flexible that you can key in your own preference for width and height to fit your blog just the way you like it. You can even choose the number of columns for the photos to be displayed on your widget! But if you're unsure, you can just leave that part blank, and it will automatically fit the maximum number of columns it can, based on the width you have entered.


All that's left is to copy the generated code into the section you wish to have your widget appear!



My own personal Tint widget is on the right sidebar. The above is a page I created to show you how it will look like with more than one column.

Here's the best part about Tint. This was what made me want to blog about them.

I thought I had made a mistake with the code or something, so I clicked on 'Live Chat' found at the bottom left corner of the web browser, to seek for help. Most of the 'Live Chats' I have experienced over the internet through company's websites all seem to be manned by robots. The answers given are similar to what can be found on their FAQ pages (if any), or somewhat feel computer-generated according to key words entered. But it was very obvious, from the moment Tint replied, that it was manned by a real person!

It got even better.

Things were pretty formal at first, but it soon became a friendly chat, complete with smileys and 'haha's. It was only after the chat ended, that I realized I had been receiving assistance from the CEO of Tint, Tim! We had only exchanged our names in the middle of the conversation, and he had given me his email address then. But I had no idea who he was until I checked my 'Welcome' email from Tint, after our chat ended, and saw right at the bottom:

P.S. If you have any issues while building your Tint, please email our CEO at tim@tintup.com and he will personally get back to you within 24 hours.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when a CEO of a company is willing to put himself or herself there on the front line to handle issues customers/users are experiencing personally, it shows just how much they care for their company and the service/product they provide. What's more, I was a free user. Haha.

All I can say is, not only did Tint provide a service which had what I wanted, but my experience with it so far has been nothing short of amazing.

For those who are keen on having an Instagram widget (they have more stuff, so you can check their website out) on their blog, do give Tint a try!


Psst... Click on the images in this blog post to view the larger image!

Good Morning!

Woke up super early today so that I could go to the post office to mail some stuff, and to buy breakfast home for all my babies. When I came home, Blake woke up! So instead of letting him out of his room, we played in his bedroom. From his bird soft toys to his aeroplane and other playsets to singing ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars... It's been a while since we spent a weekend morning like this, as I'm usually still sleeping. Yes, the early bird in the family is Blake. Haha! ♥


Linking Up with:

Flashback Friday #34

For Blake's first birthday, we decided to hold the celebrations at a bungalow at National Service Resort and Country Club (NSRCC), very awesomely paid for by my dad, might I add J It was also a chance for us, as a little family, to have a mini getaway (like finally!).

9 September 2011: The day we checked in. My dad drove Blake and me down, and left after we have settled and found a little corner for Blake to do his own little thing.

It's actually made up of two sofa seats, with the cushions removed, firmly wedged between the glass panels, the bigger sofa seat, and a super heavy coffee table. Hehe.

After which, I took Blake out for a stroll in the area before heading for lunch. The cafe at the golf area was simply marvelous! Great food and service! J

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get Blake to sleep, while waiting for Sean to join us after work! Once Sean reached the bungalow, we headed out for dinner, and walked around the vicinity further to see if we missed anything. It has been a really long time since we last came here!

After taking some photos, we headed back to the bungalow. As it was Blake's actual date of birth, we had a mini celebration for Blake's first birthday, with cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes!

I had bought them the day before, but some of them got squashed during the transferring from car to bungalow L

Thankfully, there were three that survived! But one melted a little too much after microwaving, so we were down to two for photo taking. Still taste awesome though! J

Watched more TV while Blake played in his corner and then, it was lights out!

10 September 2011: The day of his birthday celebration! I woke up early to receive the McDonald's breakfast I had ordered in advance, before heading home to feed our pets. Then I met up with my dad. He drove me to Aunty Yochana's where we collected Blake's birthday cake, and he drove me back to NSRCC. I know, I have a super awesome dad J

While I was out, the birthday boy had diarrhea, and Sean was busied the whole morning trying to calm him down and make him comfortable. Sean took him out for a morning walk (while I was out and about), and he calmed down. It's always good to have a super hands-on dad for a husband. Hehe. I'm so blessed to have awesome men, like Sean and my dad, in my life!

Specially made this candle party favors for Blake's first birthday - Ribbons and Tape

When I got back, things were calmed and I started preparing the place for the party that night. Sean also started work on the BBQ pit, cooking all the food before guests arrive, so that he will have enough time to wash up.

My babies! J

When guests started arriving, the birthday boy fell asleep, and woke up just in time to cut the cake! Haha.

Yup, it was a candle-themed birthday party!

The night ended with a walk around the vicinity with lighted lanterns, which I brought along. It was close to the Lantern Festival then. Hehe.

11 September 2011: The day we check-out. Packed everything the night before and sleep till it was just about time to check-out. Haha. We were all so tired! After checking out, we went back to the cafe at the golf side and had a delicious branch before heading home!

All in all, it was a great birthday celebration. So thankful for all the people who came down to celebrate with us, and all the beautiful gifts given to Blake! J