Booster car seat for Toddler Adam

I'm not sure why in Singapore we need law reinforcements for parents to realise the importance of putting their own children in carseats. In other countries such as UK, Australia and US, parents are BIG on child safety at all times. When we went to Australia, even our rented car comes with carseat rental option, and the categorise the carseats according to child weight!
I've ever seen expats put their babies in carseats to board taxis although they may not own a car in Singapore.
Yet, my own relatives and friends put their children/ grandchildren on their laps/ sit in the front/ climbing everywhere and leaving a maid to "deal" with them.
I think I will be shocked out of my life if I'm driving and have to deal with a toddler "on the loose"!

I posted about the plight of Adam's car seat few days ago.
Then I thought that since Adam is already getting too big for that infant car seat, I might as well get him a toddler booster and recycle the infant one for Baby No.2.

So in the end I bought this online:

I ordered from Aprisin and they delivered within 2 days. As a matter of fact, I got it today (Vesak Day), which is a public holiday. Quite impressed with their prompt delivery even on a PH.
It doesnt show clearly on my iPhone camera, this is how it looks like:

Adam seems to like his new car seat. He fell asleep in it soon after we got on the car.
It gives him the added height so the seat-belt doesn't cut into his neck. Not bad for a $69 purchase.

Car grooming day

yin & yang

You are a wild child. Do not let anything hold you back.

Adam drives a Cabrio !!!!

Charmaine swung by tonight to pass me some CNY cookies and she brought Royce and Tommy with her.

Adam, as usual, was excited to see the big dogs.

"Bye bye!" he said to us. His first time driving a Cabrio!

"Hop on for a ride Mommy & Charmaine ah-yi!"

my German bf got his rear assed

Yesterday, I reared Baby Mobile into a pillar with a LOUD BANG.
I was terrified and for a second I closed my eyes and my heart stopped beating, wondering what the hell I have done to my poor car this time.

But luckily, the extent of damage was not as terrible as I imagined, maybe because he is German. 1.5cm hairline dent, 1cm hairline dent, and a chip off the paint.
Anyway, Andy's reaction when I told him I gotta spend $ and time on repairs was "No need to repair lah since you always banging the car" ZZzzzzzZzzz .... Thanks for rubbing more salt in my wound, Hubby.
He said he should've bought me a Kangoo or Korean/Chinese car instead then I can go bang all I want and not feel the pinch -__-

The only reason why I rammed the car was because the pillar was white and as I was reversing, I couldnt see the pillar in my reverse camera due to the glare of the sun and the fact that the pillar was white.
Okay, no excuses for being careless. But an accident is an accident is an accident. Who wanted/expected it to happen? So anyway, I'm sending him to my mechanic early today morning first slot.

Lesson learnt: Lady drivers always get away with anything (at the mechanic's at least).
And: My hubby learnt not to buy me an expensive car.

The blue monster

For the first time in almost a year, my manual driving skills were put to the test because Hubby wanted to exchange cars.
It is loud, hard, and noisy with the BOV, boxer engine, and clanging of metals constantly ringing in my ears. Bucket seat offered zero comfort. Every traffic light and pedestrain crossing need to change gear. *sweat*
Driving it certainly needs some getting used to, but thankfully, to prove my Hubby wrong, I managed to get to my destination & back in one piece!
Sometimes, I think my husband just wants to tekan me leh.

This blue monster has come of age, but brings back fond memories of our "Before Baby" times :)

Detail Lab

You know, I am not that fanatic about cars. Apart from the fact that I do love my Baby Mobile loads and he has been my trusty companion on the roads everyday for the past one year - fetching me to work, school, home, places. That said, I won't readily spend alot of $$ on him either. Splurge on bags and clothes yes, but on cars..er...not really. The most expensive things I splurged on Baby Mobile were his Work Emotion rims which costed me about $2k. Even then I was like, I can buy a Chanel wallet and still have some change for $2k !! *gasp*
When I am feeling good, I handwash him and wax him up myself (with Hubby too), but on days when I can't really be bothered, I am guilty of mistreating him to the $3 carwash at Caltex Thomson. Ssshh.

But this week, I spent $400 to do car detailing/polishing. Come again? Who spends $400 on car grooming? But then again, who spends thousands on a single bag? Exactly. Millions of women (including yours truly here who is a sybarite)!
So yeah, I don't care if you accuse me of being extravagent but Ben (the boss of Detail Lab) is arguably The connoisseur for car detailing and the end result is definitely worth every cent.
He's really good with his hands. He uses top grade wax and his work takes up the entire day!

Ben is helpful and really friendly as well, and has a Golden Retriever plus an adorable baby so we kinda have things in common to talk about.

The finished work - my Candy White GTI is lustrous and oh-so-sexy, makes me have the urge to open my sunroof, wind down my windows and go for a spin at ECP in nothing but my Bikini and sunglasses, with the music blasting. Because if cars are men's mistresses, then my Baby Mobile is my lover.
Hahahaha I'm kidding about the bikini! :P

my Baby Mobile is injured.

When out grocery shopping with Kai on Wednesday, I accidentally scratched my rim on a kerb while exiting the carpark. See the first pic, the entire circumference of the rim is scratched white?!

And also, the 2nd photo shows a nick on my bonnet, though it is teeny and you probably wont notice if I don't say, but still, it's an eyesore to me now that I noticed.

Hubby won't pay. He said that he has to teach me a lesson if not I always don't treat my things with care. Yeah right. As if I would deliberately ram my car just to spend $$ on repairs meh... Still need to bring car to garage and leave there whole day lor.. Hmmph.
So anyway today, since I'm not working, decided to send my Baby Mobile to Detail Lab at Defu to do a full grooming and touchups. Ben, the owner, uses Swissvax or Dupont PPS which is like the Shangri-La of car waxes I suppose.
Here's a thread over at VW forum which discusses about Detail Lab.

I'm not a car pro so maybe you can hop over to the discussion thread and take a look for yourself.

A Raging Bull

As if this Supercar ain't fast enough, the Murcielago has wings, perhaps all the more to make it fly faster.

With a price tag of a private property in the prime area, one sure can get used to living out of this gorgeous little monster.
Hahah just kidding :P

The youngest F1 driver in the making :P

Kai loves to drive. He has so many car toys at home, and as if that's not enough, he loves being behind the wheel of Mummy's car as well.

He even has a pair of shoes for the part. Heh heh

"Will Uncle Roland and Uncle Ringo teach me GoKarting and car-racing when I'm older?" :P

Photoshoot of my baby

An abstract from the article:
"This clean white Golf GTi Mk6 has found a new voice! Fitted with a full Cat-Back system from Borla®, the car not only saves weight and gains significant power in the mid-high rev range, it finally sounds the way it should!
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Listen to the video and hear the deep bassy growl this GTi now has - pay special attention at 00:24 - 00:30 for the rich overrun gurgle."

Full article write-up and video can be found here: http://www.burnpavement.com/article.php?id=100

Special thanks to car journalist Joel Tam for his precious time in doing the video and photoshoot.
And for giving us the exclusive chance to be the 1st GTI to review this new exhaust.
Didnt know that my Baby Mobile can take on a fierce image as well :P
All pleasure is ours :)

News to share

Ooohh we are the first GTI to review the new Borla exhaust from USA and the best thing is - my Transformer will be going for a photoshoot next week by some online car journalist, with the new exhaust installed of course!
I've washed and waxed him up real good - All shiny and sexy.

Oh pray pray it doesn't rain...

New BREMBO hugeass brakes

As told by Daddy A: "Now hon, your 100-0 will be faster than your 0-100"
what??!

Waited slightly less than a week for the stock, and had a small installation problem at first, because these brakes were originally meant for Porsche Cayenne the Big-Daddy SUV.
But thankfully, all solved now, else we have to trade these in for something else.

My new ride

Finally, some photos of Mummy's speed demon :)

In my favourite Candy White. This color wasn't an available choice and we had to wait 8 weeks for one to be shipped from Germany.

The newest 18" Work Emotion 11R matte bronze rims, which had to be custom-made for our GTI's 5-pcd.
Again, more waiting. Took 9 weeks to reach us!





Personalised with Baby Adam's first pair of booties.



Actually, it is Baby Adam's car, Mummy is just the chauffeur :P
the young master is pictured here going grocery-shopping with Mummy.

(photo taken at 7 mths)

Hubby's 27th Birthday - Part II

It was Family Day for Birthday Dad, Baby Kai & Mummy :)
We went to Vivo City for a Marche lunch, then Baby Kai went for his first swim session.

Doing warm up exercises



Being plonked into the pool

Having a ball!



After awhile, he decided that it was more fun saying Hi to the people on the other side of the glass

Happy Lil swimmer :D

He kicked and laughed and swirled inside the pool for a good 30mins, after which he was whisked away for massage and he soon fell asleep soundly.

Brthday Dad:


with a sleepy monmon after a good workout




We did some more Xmas shopping today. Our Xmas shopping should almost be complete now!
Toys for Baby Kai - checked
Designer clothes for Baby Kai - checked
More Baby Kai's stuff - checked
L'Occitane bath, body & face pdts from Hubby to me - checked
Zara Men leather bag from me to Hubby - checked
Philips steam iron for Andy's mum - checked
and we are expecting even more more more Xmas presents from my brother Jay & his gf Liping from their HK trip next week. So excited!


The drive home after a long eventful noon with Baby Kai enjoying the breeze.

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By the way, Daddy's birthday present this year:


Work Emotion 18-inch bronze sports rims.

Custom made and still being shipped over from Japan (it takes 6-8 weeks for the make-to-order for GTI plus shipping) . Too bad they cant make it in time for Hubby's birthday, but for the price I paid, it'd better be worth the wait!
I still cant understand how guys justify spending thousands of dollars on rims.. I mean, they are RIMS and not even tyres.. and they just sit on the exterior and roll on the roads.. Zzzzz.. I can buy a bag with this money... but anyhow...
Decided to splurge on Hubby this year since he has been a good boy thus far. Hehe..


HAPPY 27th HON! I LOVE YOU :)

Toot Toot

I am really amazed and impressed to learn that the new car has Automatic Rain Sensor function which will automatically activate the wiper when it rains, and it also has a built-in turbo timer.

Me to Andy: Eh dear, the engine is still running even though I switched it off already.
Andy: Yah, that is why you dont need a timer. Everything is automated. It will decide for itself how long it needs to cool down before switching off.
Me *genuinely amazed and grinning*: WOW so brilliant! This car is a Transformer right??
Andy *looking at me blankly*: No, the car is not Transformer. You are Toot Toot. (Blur blur)
Me: 0__O

Apparently, I'm very suaku according to Andy. -__-

A quiet Sunday for 3

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Baby Adam went to Changi Terminal 3 for the first time today. He fell asleep while Andy & I had late lunch and woke up just as we were about to bring him to the Organic shop to browse his Toothiepegs and puree.

Before that, we brought him to Baby Hyperstore to check out a new stroller which we intend to buy as a spare - Maclaren Quest Sport.
I'm in love with its fuss-free simplicity and quality.


People who dont know us might think we're having twins! Because we always end up buying 2 of everything - one for each Grandparents' home.


Here's a simple shopping list for the new car:
- Baby rear-view mirror (innovative invention for letting driver see their babies in the carseat)
- Hang toys
- Car polish & wax (Yes, I really do take good care of my belongings!)

By the way, speaking of car polish, this is what happened yesterday...
Me to Andy: Wah Honey, it is only Saturday and the car is dirty already. So fast need to wash.
Andy: Yah, because you drive so slowly that's why the dust settle.
-__-

Baby A's new ride.

Received call early this morning from the car agent saying that our new set of squeaky wheels has reached the showroom and is ready for us to go take a look.

Baby A had his cereal and greens.

Then waited for the folks to get dressed.

At the showroom: The youngest driver around.

Our new ride was waiting in the showroom for Master Kai to test drive :)
He loves the sunroof, among all things, and is fixated on the steering wheel.
Andy & I are both delighted to know that Baby A likes his new car.
He'd better, since Daddy bought this car for Mummy to bring Baby A out and to drive to work.

I, especially, love the reverse-camera which activates automatically when the gear hits 'R', and you can see what's going on in the LCD screen. No excuse for being kayu!
Actually, I've been very contented taking the MRT to work all these years, even though we already have 3 cars at home, because Lazy Me loves to sleep on the train and not having to worry about annoying drivers and traffic jams.
So with this new car, I told Andy...

Me: Dear I don't wanna drive it to work lah.
Andy: Huh, then what's the point of buying if you just park it at home???
Me: I'm very happy sleeping on the train and you also know I'm very blur.
Andy: But I want you to save more time so you can come home early everyday.

Didn't expect Hubby to be sooooo sweeeeet... I'm so touched and surprised, maybe because I didn't ask for it, not to mention I least expect it.
Some women want all their lives to marry rich men and lead the Tai-tai life, but I'm very happy with my lot in life, happy to have a loving family and a healthy Baby.
I'm really easy to please :)
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THANK YOU HUBBY. You're such a good man. I must've done something good in my past life to deserve someone like you.
I love you so much!

Love,
Your wife and Baby A's Mummy