May 2003

Hi all !

I am a bit late in wishing you all a happy new year this year, many apologies for getting through a quarter of the year already and not one frosty website update.
Full blame for this goes to Joe who takes up every minute of my days at the moment!

2003 certainly started off like no other yet for Frosty and I. On New Years Eve I was busy making dinner while we were going to settle down to staying in and having our quietest New Year to date. After being in labour for about 5 hours we decided we would watch the last episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet that we had on DVD before we tried to get a taxi to the hospital, which is no mean feat at 1am on New Years morning. After a very painful labour (no drugs!) Joseph Xander Frost was born at 7.16am 1st January 2003. I must say I found the whole thing so exhausting and painful that I wasted my opportunity to scream at Frosty! One of the first things out of my mouth was he's ginger! If the media had been in the hospital that morning they would have been convinced that Joe was the clone baby. He was mini Mike!

Coming home was a bit of a shock as the pair of us really had no idea what we were doing in the beginning. Just as you think you have one thing under control another crops up. Joe is 4 and a half months old now. He can hold up his head, although very wobbly still. He can sit up if you help him, but as soon as you let go he bends in the middle and falls over. He has just started to grab his feet which is keeping him fascinated at the moment. Everything now goes in his mouth. He is like a big slobbery dog and everywhere gets covered in dribble. He is constantly soggy but doesn't seem to care. He has already managed to scare the life out of us by being allergic to formula and needed rushing to the doctors to get an injection to counteract the effect. He is noisy and always alert and loves going out to new places so he can look around. He has a very cheeky face when he is smiling.

We had lots of visitors in February, most can be seen in the photo section. We had both sets of grandparents, Mike's sister Rachael, my auntie Shirley and cousin Ann who were on their way to New Zealand, my cousin Lisa and Paul who were emigrating to Australia, Squeaky has been a couple of times and Sean also. Joe's godparents, Uncle Mawf and Aunty Karen along with Mark also came to see Joe when he was only about 3 weeks old. Joe's first meeting was with a very drunk Uncle Mawf and he is supposed to be a role model! Mawfy was seen the following night buying dodgy suitcases at Lucky Plaza to take back a supply of Boddingtons and assorted crisps from the supermarket. Thank goodness Joe has Aunty Karen to balance things out. It was great seeing everyone and hopefully will see more of you again as soon as the SARS travel ban is lifted.

In March we took our first trip with Joe abroad to Bangkok to Phil and Noi's wedding. Packing and organizing was a logistical nightmare. My suitcase consisted of the exact number of outfits to wear and the rest was taken up with all of Joe's stuff. This was fine as we were only going for a few days. I have had to warn Frosty that when we make our 2 week trip to the Uk in the summer that he will have to forgo taking the usual 3000 shirts and t-shirts he normally packs and give up some of that space for Joe. We will see how that goes! Joe was great on the plane. He loved turbulence and the attention of the air stewardesses. He knows how to turn on the charm with the ladies already.

We were greeted by Mawf who whisked us off straight away to Phil's house where the henna ceremony was going on in preparation for Phil's marriage to Noi. One of the wedding ceremonies was in a beautiful Sikh temple in China town and we also attended the reception at the New Conrad Hotel, where by chance my god daughter Kerryann was staying for the night so I got to see her and her mum, another Noi. We stayed with Mark and Karen who is Joe's godmother. The four cats had a good nose at Joe, next time they will probably be running away as he will no doubt try hanging on to their tails and terrorizing them. We also had time to see Eric and Ruby, the whole Chewts family, Anthony, Big Daddy, Phil and Carol. Rather disappointingly I never got time for a lovely relaxing massage or visit my favourite Thai restaurants - next time! Joe now has his own Thai elephant from his Aunty Karen, we have named it Eric! I certainly saw Bangkok from a different perspective with a baby. It was impossible to push the pushchair around the streets, too many potholes, people and noodle stalls in the way. Singapore has that to its advantage, it is easy to go for walks around the streets and there are lots of parks all over the country.

We haven't had much chance to get out much these past four months due to being exhausted a lot of the time, the SARS outbreak and trying to get Joe into a bedtime routine. Joe has been a regular though at curry houses around town.
We have a few new friends here, all with babies! How different is our lifestyle now! I have made some new friends through a mother and baby group we have formed which is also good for Joe as he gets to meet other babies and I get to keep my sanity by talking to other mums going through the same things. Joe's mates can be seen in the photo section.
We were also sad to say goodbye to Jemima and Richard who left Singapore in March to head up to Hong Kong. I let Mike loose with your lawn mower Jemima and he massacred the lawn. Frosty has been making it his mission to grow a lawn for me out the front so I can sit outside with Joe (after much nagging). At the moment it resembles Joes head. It is rather patchy and bald in places.

Birdie x x x