Year In Review

January 01, 2025

Year In Review - 2024

Writing this in hindsight and it felt like 2024 breezed through so quickly, but yet it also went by quite slowly at the same time as we were eagerly waiting for E's arrival.

January:

Cayden meets Poppy and Peri!

Celebrated a colleague's wedding

Thea's 6th birthday at the zoo!

Found out we were pregnant!

Mix of skepticism (until I went to get it checked at the polyclinic), anxiety (will baby be ok?), excitement (see you at the end of the year!)

Dinner with the best team

February:

Went to some random Maplestory pop up with my Maple besties

First ultrasound and a peek at E!

Celebrated CNY and D's birthday!

Officially stopped running and started "easy exercise" (walks on treadmills, swims). Also no longer able to eat raw stuff... i.e. our post-gym Yakun is no longer enjoyable :'(

Start of very bad appetite in the first trimester, with random food cravings.

First trimester was terrible, I was lucky to not have morning sickness but my appetite plummeted and there were days I survived on purely lemon water + honey as I could stomach nothing else.

March:

Went to Adelaide (my first time in Aus!)

Welcome my baby nephew Caleb! He was supposed to arrive on leap day but he held on and only arrived in March just past midnight haha

Taylor Swift concert! Colleagues and I huddled in a meeting room to book tickets and we managed to get CAT 1 seats but they were terrible 🙃 All I could see were people's heads and phones in the air, couldn't even get a glimpse of the stage! We ended up abandoning our seats and walking to the upper levels and stood to watch the entire concert, would not do it again...

Was semi concerned about E but at that point she hasn't developed ears yet lol

N's first time trial run since he started running coaching to prep for his marathon! We rented a GetGo and drove to ECP in the wee hours, and had beach road prawn noodles after yoms

Poppy turns 3!!!

I can still fit into my skirts haha (not for long...)

Cute pic of poppy eyeing my weird craving (mackerel) - why is she such an odd cute thing? Hahaha

April:

My baby nephew Levi's 2nd birthday! SIL planned a birthday party together with Caleb's 1st month. Baked some banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting for Levi's school party, he loved the chocolate!

We also did a mini gender reveal with our families before his birthday party (my SIL said might as well since everyone would be there lolol). Everyone was so excited we're expecting a girl cus we only have nephews haha

Min's birthday ft earl grey lychee cake and Tira Misu toppers

Davina's birthday ft watermelon cake!

N's 2XU run and me as support crew hehe. N found Ray in the crowd haha. Our usual Yakun after his races!

Happy birthday Sam Lou ft carrot cake!

Got many vaccinations done, don't think I got stabbed so many times in one sitting before...

May:

Went onboard a cruise with my parents and Amanda (her first cruise in decades!)

Celebrate Mum's birthday at a very mediocre hotpot place

Happy birthday Dan ft burnt cheesecake!

Ray and Bernice's wedding!

Went for a pottery class at Polkaros! It was meant to be a wedding anniversary activity but N say save money so I went alone LOL. Since it was in the east we took the chance to go revisit our favourite food places when we were living there

Mal and Joleen's son, Isaac, turns one month! Ft full month box from their cafe The Signature Patisserie - their blueberry muffins are my fav!

Cute random photo of Poppy with her favourite mouse toy haha

Our 2nd wedding anniversary! We went for dinner at Chooby pizza and went straight home after because tired haha. Can't believe it's only our 2nd anniversary! Feels like we've been together forever hehe

June:

Dinner with Eug and Dan - I love their company!

Mel organized a cup noodle party in the office! We each brought one cup noodle of choice to taste test. I made some score rating cards hahaha. So fun, 10/10 would do it again.

Babymoon trip to Bangkok with my sis!

There was an ice cream pop up in the office and went to have lunch with Sagar hehe

Cleared GD test! Yay one less thing to worry about. The glucose drink wasn't as bad as I thought.

July:

Alvinah's house warming! And meeting Abby for the first time!

Setting up E's cot! It was from N's sis and both our nephews have used it hehe

There was a week I was really craving for food at ABC market so went there multiple times a week.

Pepe turns 3!!!

Happy birthday Mel ft lychee cake!

Colleague from Taiwan visited and we went to KEK!

Su came back to SG for awhile and we went to have fish curry which was so. spicy. N chickened out and got chicken rice instead hahaha

N finally visited the office!

Toto came for a staycation! N calls him his "godson" but it's one-sided, Toto's parents never agreed LOL

Aug:

Isaac is two!

Rare movie date cus we had free movie tickets for Deadpool & Wolverine

Journey to the East for brunch with Jun!

Fu En's housewarming, somehow this is the only pic I have lol

My first (and last) time in N's office lol

Babymoon staycation at Raffles Hotel!

Went for a Stardew Valley concert! Super random but I saw an ad for this while waiting for my OB visit and immediately texted my bro if he wanted to go with me. But the seats left were all VIP and expensive so we decided not to. I found ONE ticket at a cheap-ish price so I grabbed it and went alone lol.

I love this game sooooo much! My bro introduced it to me in 2018 and I was obsessed, playing every waking hour. Being fun aside, it helped keep me distracted and get over a really bad and toxic relationship back then. Dramatic but this game changed my life.

I listen to the soundtrack all the time while working, E probably hears it too and she was kicking in my belly during the concert hehe.

Goma came to visit!

Finally went to have the new pizza place at Raffles City. Verdict: Nice but not worth the long queue.

September:

E's EDD was expected to be in September. N got a slot for the Sydney marathon and we were meant to head over together but it was too close to her EDD so he forfeited his spot 🥲

Happy birthday N!!!

Last day in office :')

Lunch at my favourite fish soup place in NUS after OB visit

I forgot to close the freezer door properly one day and RIP everything in freezer including one whole drawer of ice cream.

Prepping for E's visit, washing clothes and sterilizing bottles hehe. Lots of love from friends and family, we got most things as hand-me-downs!

Dearest colleagues planned a baby shower for me :')

Start of mat leave! We were expecting her in September but she came late so I had 3 weeks of funemployment lol. Most days I'd wake up, do some morning pre-natal yoga at home, watch some KDrama, head out somewhere for lunch, come home and take a nap and wait for N to finish work, have dinner, back to sleep. It was the most chill 3 weeks I've had in a reaaallyyyy long time without anything to worry about.

Last terraforming game with O and WT. We used to play it every week when Everett was a baby, and when O was pregnant with Stellan. Omg time flies...

Headed for OB visit and brought our hospital bag, thinking I would've been checked in. Got sent home instead hahahaha

Our last dinner and lunch out together with just the two of us!

Wasn't sure if N was gonna make it for this Singtel Run because it was so close to when we were expecting E, but he did! My last support crew moment haha

October:

Hi E :) We've waited all year for you!

Confinement nanny's constant cooking shattered our glass stove top (too much cooking and too hot) so we got it replaced with the same brand, but stainless steel instead lol. Fortunately nobody got hurt!

November:

1st month! We survived!!!!

The first week was so hard I cried so much, possibly more than the entire year lol. The hardest part I think is the sleep deprivation, going from 10+ hours of sleep daily to waking up every 3 hours and dealing with clogs.

Finally cut my hair after close to 2 years lol.

Did a newborn photoshoot!

Final gathering before we move. Feels a bit sad my grandma can't spend that much time with E...

Byebye cats :( Relocation company came to pick them up for their flight

Loo and Amanda came to help me watch bb while I pack. It was a crazy one week solo parenting without N, alternating between good and bad days (defined by how well she sleeps lol).

Bb's first flight! I'm so thankful she was so cooperative. Slept through most of it, woke up to feed and poop (twice...) with minimal fussing. She only woke up when we passed immigrations. Yay.