Papa Ngai's first visit with Alba to her first preschool today. I think Alba still has no idea that she will soon be left here on her own for whole days at a time soon. Breaks my heart.

On the bright side, there still seems to be some construction going on at the preschool (it's a brand new preschool that has been built and will not open for another few days yet), so I've managed to talk Mama Ngai into pushing back Alba's start date for a month as I don't want Alba to breathe in any chemical fumes that might be left over from construction, or for her to get into any dangers that might not be ironed out yet at a new facility.

Papa Ngai's first visit with Alba to her first preschool today. I think Alba still has no idea that she will soon be left here on her own for whole days at a time soon. Breaks my heart.

On the bright side, there still seems to be some construction going on at the preschool (it's a brand new preschool that has been built and will not open for another few days yet), so I've managed to talk Mama Ngai into pushing back Alba's start date for a month as I don't want Alba to breathe in any chemical fumes that might be left over from construction, or for her to get into any dangers that might not be ironed out yet at a new facility.

Over the past couple of weeks, Bella has noticably started to interact with us a lot more than before. She can now have long periods of eye contact - and she loves it! Bella's definitely enjoying it (as are Papa Ngai and Mama Ngai), as can be seen by her bright smile when we hold her up and look her in the eyes.

Wow. Well over a year since the last post. Way, way too long. This is just the prompt needed.

Bella Noelle Ngai arrived into this world on the 10th of February, 2014. Another welcome addition to the Ngai family. As 'usual', the place of arrival was Westmead Children's Hospital. Doctors, midwives and nurses were all wonderful as always.

In other (unrelated) news, Alba tried Indomie Mi goreng for the first time today. As expected, she loved it.

Alba's first year has come and gone all too quickly. In a couple of days, she'll turn 1. For the convenience of everybody, Mama Ngai organised for Alba's birthday party to be yesterday (03/11/2012) so that it falls on a Saturday. Although Alba won't remember this day, I hope that when she's old enough to read this post she'll look back on the many photos that Uncle Andy and others took and smile, knowing how many guests were there to celebrate with her. Alba, also remember how much your mummy loves you to have organised so much for you. Although the wet weather meant that we couldn't have the party at the original location (Holroyd Gardens Park), it was still a lot of trouble for mummy to rush up and down from our apartment on her own birthday! I hope you'll also be happy to know that daddy was the one to hold your little hand as you cut open your first ever Birthday cake (a generous gift by Auntie Queenie).

Wow, it's been a hectic couple of months and it seems myself and Mama Ngai have been too busy/lazy to post!

The bad news, no photo to go with this post.

The good news, last week Alba learnt to crawl!

It doesn't seem like much, and it's probably a little late (better late than never though, right?), but Mama Ngai was understandably very excited!

Hmm, it does now mean that Papa Ngai has to think about even more safety precautions around the apartment (like sealing off those stairs!).

Long time no post. Time seems to be flying by so quickly, and along with the flying time Alba Ngai is also growing up too quickly! Sometimes Papa Ngai wishes that little Alba could continue to be a happy little baby forever.

Mama Ngai was very sick today (most likely caught the flu from taking little Alba to visit various childcare centres), so Papa Ngai returned from work early to take care of little Alba. Papa and Alba spent the whole afternoon playing, smiling, playing, laughing...

Unfortunately little Alba's movements are too quick now, and as can be seen in the photo below, Papa Ngai could only manage a blurry photo while trying to track Alba's moving head!

Finally I have a moment to post about today (well, yesterday). I woke up to the voice of Mama Ngai telling me that little Alba had an elevated temperature. We called the community nurse and the dialog was something like "Does she seem lethargic? No. Is she having trouble feeding? No. Does she seem particular cranky or irritated? No. Etc..." and despite little Alba not having any of the many problems she asked about, she ended by telling us "I suggest you take her straight to the emergency ward at your nearest hospital. (-_-)

Just to be safe, we proceeded with that advice and drove little Alba to Westmead Hospital. The medical staff here were very nice and did some quick tests to make sure there was no emergency, and then directed us to Westmead Children's Hospital down the road and told us that any children up to 16 years of age can go straight there next time.

We waited quite a while to be attended to at Westmead Children's Hospital, but once they finally started taking care of us, the medical staff here too were very nice. The only major negative from the experience here was that they had to take blood from little Alba THREE times! The first time was a heel prick, and apparently the amount of blood they took wasn't enough for their machine to get a reading. The second time was a needle in the arm, and they failed to get hardly any bloody at all, so they decided to heel prick the other foot, and fortunately they were able to get enough blood in this third attempt. After another long wait to get the results from the blood test, and yet another long wait to give some time for them to observe (by "observe" I mean they pretty much left us sitting there for a couple of hours and then sent a nurse to check little Alba's temperature and heart rate) little Alba, we finally went home.

Papa Ngai then had to rush off to his mum's birthday dinner (mum doesn't know about this blog, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM anyway!), while Mama Ngai tried to get some well-earned rest at home. After Papa Ngai arrived home, Mama Ngai could finally rest more peacefully knowing that little Alba would be well looked after while she was asleep.

It is now well into the next day, and both Mama Ngai and little Alba are sound asleep (Alba, stop urinating each time the moment I take off your nappy!). After posting this post, replying to some work emails and paying some bills, hopefuly it will be Papa Ngai's turn to get some sleep. If not, I've got plenty of Nespresso coffee capsules provided by the wonderful Sam Yoon to keep me going (little Alba, forever remember that uncle Sam provided you one of your first boxes of Huggies Nappies to keep you dry and comfy!).

The first time little Alba has been back at home since coming out of Mama Ngai's tummy. Her cot is definitely prettier than what she was sleeping in at the hospital.

Full Name: Alba Michelle Ngai
Date: 6th of November, 2011
Time: 8:03am
Weight: 2.825kg
Length: 48cm
Head Circumference: 32cm