during one of gank duren’s latest monthly gathering at yosi’s apartment, naia and aidan (whom she called “abang aidan”) were giggling and playing in the corner. without them knowing, i shot some pictures of them together with my iphone. they were soo cute together. naia and aidan are friends since naia was still very young and just learning how to walk. she always refers to him as “abang aidan” and always fond of aidan. on the other hand, aidan is such a good boy, he would patiently wait and play with naia.

gank duren is actually a group of 4 families (ours, yosi’s, mbak shinta & mas wisnu’s, thalia & ari’s). we regularly hangout almost every month just for the sake of hanging out. it started from one event leads to another. from birthday celebration, barbequing, to just hangout for no reason, catching up with everyone’s life. we get to talk about different things, more than often, actually nothing. the name originally came because we always mention that it’d be nice to have some durian while we hang out, but it never happens. when it does happen, it was never a complete group, so it becomes our main topic everytime we see each other.

the juniors are left to play with each other everytime we gather, regardless of their differences in age. naia and aina (thalia & ari’s) are about the same age and they play with aidan who’s only 3-4 years older, while namira and alif (of yosi’s) are way older as they are already in secondary school. nonetheless, they can still hangout and play together, laughing and giggling everytime we hang out.

looking at the pictures above, i can’t help but wonder what would they think when they see this picture, 10 or 20 years from now. i just hope they – all of the gank duren’s juniors – would grow up as friends, best friends and get along together, just like we are, the parents. they are definitely our family in singapore.

i love how this picture came out. ario took this candid snapshot of naia and me, while we were visiting the observation deck of the macau tower, about 233m above the ground. the tower had plenty of actions around, like people doing the skywalk even bungee jumping. while waiting for the others enjoying their view of macau 360, i took a seat. naia came by and sat next to me and together we both were watching the people who were skywalking on the rims of the tower.

i asked her if she would be brave enough to do the skywalk or bungee jump one day. she then asked a series of questions, “why would people pay to jump off the tower, mama? why would people want to jump, mama? why? will they die, mama?” yep, she is at the stage that wouldn’t shut up until her questions are answered and she ASKED a lot of them, a series of whys. as parents, we have to answer all the questions as truthful as we can. it took me awhile to answer the above questions, even if i did answer them truthfully, she still couldn’t understand why. oh parenthood..

i will cherish this picture when she grows up to be an adult, to remember how small and fragile she was

naia has been learning to use hula hoop. she was amazed by this neighbor kid, her friend in the playground, who would play with hula hoop. so after telling her that we will get her one as her reward if she behaves well for a full week, we got her the smallest size hula hoop in orange color (they don’t have the pink color in the smallest size at the store).

she’s been practicing every evening after she’s back from school. she can only manages 3-5 rounds each time, but as it gets longer, we would applause her. i myself cannot do it, so i cannot teach her how. we can only cheer for her..

on our recent trip to jakarta, naia was sooo happy she can do this! it was the easiest way to get her to take a shower. just took her outside while my mom’s driver was washing the car, then she jumped inside the wide bucket, filled it with water, and start taking a bath using her crocs shoes as the pail *doh*

definitely not hygienic, but it sure was fun for her. i just made sure i scrubbed every inch of her body once she’s done and took the real shower in the bathroom.

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mt. alvernia hospital, singapore | january 17, 2012

big sister naia welcomes her little sister, neishia, to the world. she’s so in love with her little sister that she just can’t stop kissing her. welcome, neishia! we love you already…

old christchurch, new zealand | july 2011

taken on our recent vacation to new zealand. we realized that we both are wearing yellow boots! no intention was made from the beginning..

sky park, marina bay sands | may 8, 2011

this weekend, we took my mom-in-law who is visiting us this month to sky park at marina bay sands. this is also the first time for me, hubby & naia to visit it. we waited until the sun sets a bit so we can enjoy the view in a more pleasant weather. it has been scorching hot in singapore for the past few days.

as soon as we got on top of the skypark, we could see the singapore view. the first thing we can see was the singapore flyer. naia right away pointed the flyer and said.. “look mama, i went there.. i went there” .. she did indeed. last month, we took her to ride the singapore flyer for her birthday, because she kept on asking to ride it since she was 2 years old. my parents were in town too, so we all went there and enjoyed the view.

naia was so excited inside the skypark, she kept on running and looking around (despite the height) and wanted to view the telescope too. we stayed until the sun sets and enjoyed the nice view of the sun hanging over the singapore skyline.

century square mall, tampines

the girl loooves to go into a shop and trying out items. from shoes, clothes, even glasses. she acts as if she knows what she wants. looks like i’m raising a lil’ shophalic .. LOL!