Oscar Fashion

I've been out of touch, didn't even know that the Oscars- only the biggest event of the year hands down- was today until i saw some fashion updates on yahoo.com.

Boy was i delighted by the dresses this year, so much so that i am happy to take time away from motherhood to indulge in a bit of ooohs and aaahhhss...

Anyway so here's my rundown of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly...Divided into themes.

The Orientals:

Amy Adams, sexy and expensive oriental looking blue gown. Matching emerald accessories brings out her green eyes and post baby body.

Nicole Kidman is an ikebana project gone wrong! Sorry this is an F coming from an A list star.

The beige/silver coloured ones:

Actress unknown to me, and since she wore this dress she's gonna stay that way. Nuff said.

Cate Blanchett. She who can do no wrong in her choice of movie roles should apply some of that skill to choosing a dress. There's something weird about that circle right in her chest, looks like a layer of cloth she can peel open for easy breastfeeding.

Celine Dion. This is a good one. Sleek, simple, hard to pull off and she looks elegant.

Gwyneth Paltrow. Getting ready for Iron (Wo)Man?

The Maroon/Dark Purple:

Natalie Portman. Nobody can look good in maroon/dark purple. To me this is soooo auntie i much prefer her dress from the Golden Globes.

Scarlett Johannson. What was she thinking? Choosing the wrong dress is one thing, but wrong make up AND wrong hair?? Perfect way to celebrate a divorce from Ryan Reynolds.

The Reds:

I started out thinking, what's Stephanie Pratt doing at Oscars? Turns out she's Jennifer Lawrence. Thumbs up!


Anne Hathaway. Still celebrating chinese new year? Her dress looks like that piece of cloth used to wrap around flower pots.

Sandra Bullock. Scarlett take note, this is what i call a comeback after a divorce.

Jennifer Hudson. New "accessories" (read boob job)? Hot mama.

The ones who try to be Helena Bonham Carter:

The original Helena Bonham Carter, i expect nothing less from her.

Sharon stone.

Marisa Tomei.

My favourites:

Reese Witherspoon. Very ala Julia Roberts Valentino dress.

Michelle Williams.

Hilary Swank.

Mandy Moore.

Not sure of her name.

Mila Kunis.

Mean Kitty Song

this ones for cat lovers out there. It's quite stupid but quite catchy. I should do one for babies...

New girl on the block: Clemence Poesy

I have a feeling about this one... Quiet gorgeous girl with an eclectic sense of style. She'll be my muse if i were a fashion designer. In her latest project she plays Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter, and she also guest starred in Gossip Girl as Chuck's french girlfriend. Definitely want to read more about her soon.

Hello Kitty!

Are these freaking cute or what! I wanna pin them on my hair instead of eating em... Love the cuteness of all Japanese things.

Ball in the Sky

Mountain boy kept pointing to the sky and saying all day... "Ball". The pollution is so bad in Bj last few days, we're stuck at home.

A new haircut

Brotherly love

I'm starting to grow a little homesick. I must admit it's more for Mountain Boy than for myself. He really is missing out on the family attention back home. In Beijing he has no cousins, uncles and aunties or grandparents, just friends who are hardly the same and not so permanent given the high turnover for expats.

Here are some really cute moments of Mountain Boy and his cousin from Mountain Man's side of the family. The 2 boys walked hand-in-hand all day during a trip to the Bird Park. It was so sweet and they had a lot of fun.

In case you're wondering about the leash, it's not cruel it's actually safety device to help kids know there are boundaries and in the long run they will learn how to hold your hand. I get weird stares whenever i put it on Mountain Boy (although in Jurong Bird Park tourists thought the wings were cute and asked to take a picture with him), but you know what this beats losing your child, trust me it's not a feeling you want to experience. Also it's better for your back cos you don't have to keep bending down all the time!

A quiet afternoon

It's been a hectic week settling down in Beijing. Mother and son have recovered from a mean bout of flu and he is finally napping in his own crib. I am thankful for the time alone this afternoon.

Family Photoshoot (A few more uploaded)

Just a few more i left out earlier.

Us 3...


The men.

The women.

Us all...

Spme quick photos from the recent family photoshoot.

Batik theme:

Chinese theme:

My mom's delectable lunch. I wish i can cook like her.

Going Home: Jakarta

We haven't been to Jakarta since Dec 2008 and that was before Mountain Boy was born so I was really looking forward to bringing Mountain Boy back to my hometown, as i loosely call it these days.

The supreme authority who is my mother was definitely happy to have her little grandson visit her for the first time. He even called her "popo" which of course gave him extra brownie points. Unfortunately contact between the two were mostly verbal because Mountain Boy didn't allow Popo to carry for some reason, so no pictures.

Jakarta is quite fun for kids! Do you know they have choo choo trains IN THE MALL!!??? Mountain boy was so crazy over them. What a great concept!

We were there for about 1 week. Mountain Boy got to spend time with his 4 older cousins and i think he had a blast. Although it took almost 2 hrs for him to warm up initially, he was ready-get-set-go till 11pm on most subsequent nights. (Photos of the cousins coming right up so stay tuned!)

CNY Eve was spent at this hotel ballroom in the most traditional ching-chong style complete with a "getai" like performance by this Taiwanese singer that the guests pretend to know off but don't quite care about. We had fun though, catching up and speaking very loudly over the rest of the crowd, 300 tables of them.

Mountain Boy sleep early so he missed the closing lion dance performance.

With my sister, niece and sister-in-law. Guess who's who.

With the supreme authority.

The 3 musketeers. 20 years ago we took a picture just like this, but i was tiny then so my siblings were towering over me. Look at us now!

Frankly i was surprised by how sad i was to leave JKT. I missed and love my family very much. Each of us have our own family now and don't live under the same roof anymore, so we don't get to chit-chat and talk nonsense all night long like we used to. But good thing about family is that they are always around, out there, somewhere. So i am thankful for the relationships that i already have with them and this trip is good enough, at least for now.

Happy 17 months

I'm a few days late with this update. Our resident energiser bunny is now 17 months, Yipeeee! Half of the 16th month was spent in JKT-SG so i'll update more on that later.

His speech has developed the most this month, well it's about time. He says a number of words regularly now, like "ball", "bye bye", "hello", "hi", "没有", "不要”, "no no"... With the increasing ability to express himself comes the realisation that he doesn't have to comply to all my demands. I used to get him out of his bath relatively quickly in the past but now a simple "say bye bye to the bathwater" won't suffice. I need to do a 3 minute countdown, say the "bye bye" and take away all his bath toys to prevent him from lingering.

Sometimes I am in awe of the amount of things he understands. One day i told him that i didn't have money so we couldn't go out grocery shopping, to my surprise he gave me his "money" from the cash register! Good habits start young, hehe.

"Ka-ching!"

Physically he is nearing 10.5kg and about 83cm tall about 1 month ago. I haven't measured since but i know he has grown because he can climb all over the place and turn the handles of our doors! So we must make a mental note of always locking up behind us in case he barges in while we do important business.

Deep within, Mountain Boy probably yearns to be adults like us. He has been trying on our shoes, hats, sunglasses... brushing his teeth with our electric toothbrush, and just now he took Mountain man's electric shaver and tried to shave his "beard"! I took a picture of it but i haven't uploaded yet.

Over the past month, i've also been given a preview of the upcoming Terrible Two. While i was nanny-less, he really spared me no mercy. Case in point, he got his hands on a tub of flour, spread it all over the kitchen and took out all the utensils and made a "muachee" (a singaporean dessert made of glutinous balls coated in peanut powder) of everything. After that he'd walk round the house leaving flour footprints. To make things worse, the lack of housework experience on my part caused the gravest error of trying to clean up the mess with water. FLOUR+WATER = bad combination for clean-ups, trust me.

The self-feeding is improving by the day. In the past he'd projectile spill from his high chair over a radius of 2metres, now it's down to 1metre and on a good day no spillage. He still likes eating with his hands but accuracy of bowl to spoon to mouth has increased, but still he doesn't eat enough according to the kiasu parents standard so i do have to distract him and stuff a few mouthfuls at the end.

He likes noodles more than rice. Once i served him 3 meals of rice in a row and by the 3rd meal he flung the entire bowl unto the floor before the meal even started. Thankfully i mustered the patience to not smack his little head. In the end, he went to bed without dinner because i decided not to offer alternatives.

"Yummy yo-plait!"

Despite both our transgressions in the 16th month, amazingly we're still holding up well. Let's hope the new month will be full of interesting adventures.

Happy 17 months my dear!