Rust juice, anyone?

We brought Rosabelle for a check-up at Amcare yesterday to check on her iron-defiency anemia. Poor girl got stabbed once in the veins on both food for them to gather enough blood samples. Four nurses, and they did not get enough blood from the left foot, so we had to take from her right foot as well... rather inefficient and clumsy, I must say. We kept her distracted with videos on my phone, and she only wailed when they stabbed the needle in, but was otherwise quiet and even observing them at work. Brave girl.

We got the results in today and she has the right amounts of all the minerals in order, but still has low red blood count, so the doctor prescribed 10 days of iron tablets, which we started on yesterday. We had to mash the tablet into powder form before I added some water to mix it up and syringe-feed her. Strangely, she did not protest at all, but today, maybe I added lesser water, and the iron smell was really strong, so we had to hold her and feed. Some 'rust' juice even dripped onto her clothes, and adios to them, no amount of scrubbing could remove the stains. Rosabelle smelt quite strongly of rust after, hehe!

Hopefully the tests will come out well at the next check-up...

But we have not been resting on our laurels! The nanny added a teaspoon of sesame to her cereal yesterday, as it's high in iron content, and it made the cereal smell nice also. We also let her eat Kellogg's corn flakes for breakfast (in thawed EBM) - she liked it, especially when she could feed herself the dry cereal as well.

Think I seriously need to explore self-feeding soon (i.e. with spoon), as she now prefers adult-like utensils, only wanting to drink water from Wayne's big mug that covers almost her whole face. I've placed an order for a suction-base bowl, once that's in, we will try giving her a spoon to see if she's ready for some meal-time independance!

Some of her favourite things

Rosabelle has not really been taking well to her Avent sippy cup that we bought for her some time back, refusing to drink much from it - it's also rather heavy and needs her to tilt the cup up to get at the water, so after seeing how popular the Pigeon training straw cup is in the yard, we got her one last weekend. It turned out to be one of our best buys, ever.

Firstly, at 25% off, we got it at a bargain. Further, we managed to get a cute 150ml size that is less heavy than the other sizes - she wouldn't drink so much at one go anyway, right? Wrong.

Turns out Rosabelle likes drinking from the straw so much that yesterday, she finished off about 120 ml of water within 10 minutes!
Whenever she's hard at work drinking from the straw, we can see her draw her cheeks in and slurp thirstily from it, and when I want to keep the bottle, she will protest and start drinking again. Hmmm... anyone hear of OD-ing on H2O?

Of late, Rosabelle loves to ride on this duck tricycle, courtesy of an older girl, Qi Qi. She likes to press the buttons and dance to the music that comes out, and will often scream if we carry her out, wanting to go near if any other kid is riding on it.

Today, she hassled a two-year-old boy, Mai Dou, to try to get him off, and the boy actually lightly smacked her on the face. Our girl was very steady, and just soothed herself by patting/brushing her hand on the spot where she was hit, and continued wanting to press the buttons whilst leaning on the tricycle and on him, to the point where his mother had to carry him out as he was feeling threatened, haha! She now knows how to self-soothe, like when she hit her head against something, she will similarly brush her hand against the affected part to comfort herself before going on with her business.

Our girl also knows how to even undress herself - so scary! This has already happened twice. As we let her wear thin long pants in the home these days, many of them are rather long and big for her, so she will end up treading on the legs of the pants when she stands/cruises. This then pulls her pants down, and the nanny quietly observed her in the crib as Rosabelle slowly combined the motions of stepping on her pants, then pulling them down with her hands, to effectively remove her own pants. After doing so, she even called out 'Ah!' to the nanny and lifted the pants up for the nanny to see. So hilarious!

We'll be going to Amcare tomorrow to check on her iron levels - hopefully with the rigorous diet planning for the past 3 weeks, her anemia will be cured. I read that items like peas and lentils have high iron content, and so got some lentils for her at the supermarket today. Turns out that it's what the nanny has been feeding her, just that she calls it by some other Chinese name, duh...

I just need to really watch the nanny more carefully as she prepares the food, as I caught her adding water to the chicken stock - when questioned why, she said it was too oily, but I felt it then dilutes the chicken nutrition, and defeats the purpose of having chicken stock (might as well feed her the plain water, huh?), so I had to ask her to make sure she removes the chicken fats/skin before boiling the soup, and to ensure that she sieves out all fats in the soup (caught fat globules in the soup before)....sigh!

The nanny is also adamant that Rosabelle should be eating small quantities of salt already, saying that inadequate salt intake will lead to illnesses. Bullshit, I say. All other research I read say that children below one year old should not take any salts/sugars, and even then, only in small quantities. Rosabelle already takes things like children's soya sauce, and her noodles have some salt in them, and she also takes dried kelp (seaweed), so it should be sufficient.

I even told the nanny off today again for suggesting that I do not nurse Rosabelle before her breakfast, as it would affect her appetite. I told her that my mum, an experienced nurse who teaches weaning diets, and is an expert in nutrition, advised that I feed my daughter as often as I can (as long as she's eating well), and maybe the nanny, who does not have experience dealing with a mother who has been nursing for so long (in China, they stop nursing after maybe a maximum of 6 months), does not really know what she's talking about. I put it across to her in not the exact terms, but she got it - hopefully she'd stop hassling me about this.

For the first time tomorrow, we will attempt to use the countless packets of frozen EBM for Rosabelle's foods - I will be feeding her cornflakes with EBM for breakfast, and we will make her afternoon cereal with the EBM. Hopefully she'll take well to it, or I'm getting worried that the EBM from early May will be expiring soon in November, and the freezer is already packed to the brim!

She probably won't remember this, but still...

Birthday Tickers

Wayne and I had a brief discussion this evening - I have THE party of the year to plan for, and it's taking place in less than a month. Oooh...my first mega event project since my work days, time for perfectionist planning streak in me to get ticking again for Rosabelle's upcoming birthday next month.

It won't be a huge affair - just getting some kids in the yard to come over for a gathering, but hey, it's our firstborn's first birthday, and I'm not sure how many other birthday parties we will be throwing for her, so bring it on man! I will be getting busy looking at sites like this to get ideas. Stay tuned for a fun ride!

Fall Fashion

With the Beijing weather getting chilly at times these days, I've been decking Rosabelle up in thicker clothing and layering up. There are alot of hand-me-downs from Simon and Marianne, some that we got here in Beijing, and some given by my friends.

This is her looking boy-like - the only give-away are the flowers on the pair of corduroys, and the girly shoes. I got her two pairs of shoes (one from Mothercare, and the other from Osh Kosh) in Singapore, in anticipation of her first step, and so she will not get chilly feet in the cold weather. The sweet-looking shoes have met with alot of oohs and aahs from the other mummies in the yard, but I get heartache when I see her dirtying/scraping them when she crawls on the benches, or even stepping on her own toes when standing. Ho hum - that's what shoes are for anyway, huh? And then there's the furry bunny top, which makes her look oh-so-girly like. But the other day, she got into a screaming match witha two-year-old boy. She likes looking at/playing with Mai Dou, and was sitting in her stroller, eating dragon fruit, when Mai Dou appeared in front of her on a bicycle and started screaming. Our girl also started her screams, albeit with fruit in her mouth that dropped out at times. This to-ing and fro-ing screaming went on for at least 6 to 7 times, much to the amusement of many other on-looking kids and mummies. They are known as the screamers in the yard now.

I like to layer on thick dresses, but you'll be surprised with the occasional 'Is this a girl or boy?' question I still get when I dress her up like this. (Cue roll eyes...)

A perennial favourite with the crowds in this hooded cape that makes her look like Little 'Red' Riding Hood. It makes her so soft, cuddly, and warm to carry when she dons this.

On Wednesday, we visited our ex-colleagues in their swanky new premises at China Life Tower, and the Mercedes Benz account team even gave Rosabelle a small car model - nice! Surprisingly, she only put up a slight protest when Maggie, our ex-HR Manager, wanted to carry her. She (Rosabelle, not Maggie) was donning a woollen H&M dressfrom my ex-colleague, but it was prickly for her chin whenever she looked down. Not as comfy, I guess.

Finishing the topic of fall fashion, and on to falls...well, not yet, luckily. Yesterday was the nanny's day off, and since Yours Truly was the chef, Rosabelle had simplier meals, but I made sure she still got her dose of soups, meat and vegetables with items like chicken/vegetable cereal, instant fish/potato puree, and fish floss, which she tried for the first time and I added to the cereal. Breakfast was a simplier affair, with her enjoying buttered wholemeal bread with yogurt that Vanessa recommended I get from Jenny Lou's.

However, I realized only yesterday she has now cultivated a bad habit of standing during the course of eating, so she will suddenly stand up and rock the chair, or even clamber onto her table and want to reach out to me or the dining table. Me, with my hands already busy from having to hand-feed her the food at times, almost lost my patience a few times with my numerous 'Cannot!', 'No!', and 'Sit down!', until Wayne told me he has noticed the nanny holding onto one of her ankles at times to prevent her from standing up. That worked! Well, at least for awhile, until she got all distracted again.

She now has yet another wierd habit of spitting out her food at times, or even sticking her fingers into her mouth to grab the food out and mash with her fingers. So. mes.sy. We had to mop the floor twice yesterday as she first knocked down the carrot soup I was feeding her, and later knocked down the cup of water Wayne was feeding her. Sigh! We had to ask the nanny today to take only two days off during the upcoming October holidays, or the whole house will turn topsy-turvy!

Yet another hilarious thing that happened during meal time this week was when Wayne called me out to look at Rosabelle whilst I was in the midst of expressing milk. Apparently, she had fallen asleep midway through dinner, and the nanny was calling 'Yue Yue! Yue Yue!' as she gently patted her cheeks, but her eyes remained glued shut as she sat in her high chair, with food still in her mouth. It looked pretty funny, but I had to wake her up and called out to her and she opened her eyes after about 1 minute of snoozing, and of course cried for a few seconds until she was pacified pretty quickly by toys, heh!

Our little girl can now comprehend the little instructions we give her, like when I asked her to let Wayne see her book, she called 'Papa!', and then pointed at the spider when I asked her to 'show Papa the spider'. She will also wave her hands in a 'cannot!' fashion when she goes near the DVD, or when I tell her not to touch the boiling kettle as it's hot, or warn her about clamping her fingers in the back door of the army toy truck. Similarly, she will roll her wrists in a 'no more' fashion when we show her an empty bowl, or when something (e.g. a dog) goes out of sight.

She has strong imitation skills now - when I teased her with a toy during dinner just now by putting it out of her reach whenever she came near, she also did the same thing to me by extending the toy to me, then pulling back when I went near, complete with cheeky grin. So fun! Whenever she wants something these days, she will break into a '拿!拿!' (Take! Take!) to get at it. For milk-time, she will start chanting 'nen nen nen nen nen' (to refer to the fact that she wants a feed).

It's all quite amusing to see her progress and understand us, as well as making herself understood, with each passing day. Our girl is really growing up so quickly I don't know where all the time has gone...

I eat, I bite, and I play

Rosabelle woke up from her afternoon nap the other day in time for her late 'lunch' at 4:30pm, so instead of giving her the pig liver balls that the nanny prepared for her, we just fed her slices of the liver, which she happily wolfed down by picking up from her own plate. (Check out her out-of-bed hairstyle....)
She has a strong mind of her own now when it comes to foods. We tried feeding her some persimmon for the first time on Wednesday, but she refused to go beyond the first spoon. We tried again today, only to have her turn her head away yet again. Just as well... one of the grandmothers in the yard told me persimmons are heaty fruits, so guess we won't be giving her any(more) of it in a while to come.

When we give her orange these days, it's different from the easy days of merely squeezing half a fruit of juice for her - she simply refuses to drink the juice. In fact, she'd rather we peel the remaining half and feed her the pulp, so you can imagine how time-consuming and messy it is to remove all the skin of the peeled fruit - at least her little hands are kept busy with picking up and feeding herself bits of pulp. I now give her more Vitamin C fruits - preferably after lunch and dinner - to aid in iron absorption.

She also likes to bite noses of her plush toys (if that also includes her Dad and Mum, as she also gently bites on our noses at times) - this is her with the St. Bernard from Uncle Boa, my brother's friend.
When not chewing, she's happy keeping herself occupied with various outings. On Sunday, we brought Rosabelle out in the morning, before her lunch time, to Shin Kong Place.

Wayne and I decided to grab our lunch at Pizza Hut first, and our greedy girl nudged/grabbed my arm to get me to feed her pizza bread and tomatos/carrots from the minestrone soup we ordered. Adult food always tastes better to her, I guess...

On the next day, whilst on our morning walk, we saw airplanes and helicopters flying past, with practice runs for the upcoming PRC 60th National Day celebrations. It was a rare day of clear blue skies in Beijing and Rosabelle enjoyed looking up at and pointing at the airplanes.

With Wayne's hiatus from work, he has been able to spend more time with Rosabelle, and she has repaid by always calling 'Papa' clearly and endearingly, heh!

On a separate note, we will not likely be heading anywhere (read: vacations, touristy spots etc) over the upcoming 7-day holiday (National Day+Mooncake Festival) in China - it'll be much too crowded, and more importantly, it might be dangerous as we never know if anyone is out to create trouble. It also won't be wise to expose Rosabelle to crowded/confined spaces as she has only just recovered from her fevers... so home sweet home it is - at most we'll just visit other people's homes, and it's not as if we will get to go anywhere much as we're granting the nanny 4 days off in total (split up into two two-day vacations). Yikes, so not looking forward to not having extra help around!

It's my bird's eye view

Hey, we can't afford a Ritz Carlton suite with a full-length window view from the bath tub in the toilet, so we have to make do, right?
We air Rosabelle's bath tub and toys next to the living room window at times when the sun is out, and she spotted the items today, clamouring to get inside.

I told the nanny it's quite a suitable place to put her in if we do not want her to crawl all over (e.g. when she refuses to sit in her high chair any longer and we need to feed her), though she is at risk of toppling over any time she reaches over to take things.

Guess this is her idea of 'dry cleaning'...

Celebrating as a family

Last Friday, 18 September, was my 32nd birthday. A year ago, Rosabelle was still in my tummy, and this year, we had dinner at home and Wayne got me a nice chocolate mousse cake that read '祝妈妈生日快乐 - 玥玥', so sweet!
Our baby girl sure knew how to look a the camera to pose for photos...

Maybe she was also exposed to quite a fair bit of birthday celebrations thus far (the nanny's, three cake-cutting in Singapore - mine, my Dad's, and my brother-in-law's family), but when Rosabelle saw the cake, she immediately clapped. Here she is clapping happily as they sang a birthday song for me.

We set the camera on timer and I think the blinking lights must have made Rosabelle stare intently at the camera for this group shot.

I really couldn't wish for anything more as I bask in the bliss of lovely husband and daughter...

After that, Rosabelle even helped me to 'cut' the cake!

One more month...

...before Rosabelle turns a full year old on 24 October. Wow, time really flies. Our girl has really grown, and here she is today, sitting (or rather, standing) in another kid's stroller and eating her apple puree.
Nowadays, she will put up a mean fight and arch her body backwards when we try to strap her in, so I need to keep a hand on her whilst belting her up - she will usually keep quiet after she's inside, but yah, protest just for the fun of it, will ya? Heh!

To 'train' her for her birthday, I have now taught her to indicate 'one' with her index finger when we ask 'How old are you?' - she is pretty receptive to the training and very responsive, indicating a 'one' whenever we ask her the question in English and/or Mandarin.

She also continues to do hilarious things that never fail to amuse me - after she woke up yesterday morning， I carried her out of her cot onto our bed and she immediately went to the bed rest to grab my spectacles. Thinking she would play with it, she instead threw it at me, and next took my scrunchy and also threw it at me, as if willing me to put on my spectacles, tie up my hair, and wake up (as that's what I do the moment I am awake). Thinking it might be a fluke, I tried it again today and true enough, she again threw my spectacles at me, then went in search of my scrunchy before tossing it to me - so clever!

She has been enjoying the new books I bought in Singapore, but as I have more than 20 of them, so as not to overwhelm her, I only intend to rotate about 4 books a fortnight (or until she tires of them). So far so good, she can do alot of page turning and flipping of flaps to find hidden objects etc, and will proactively reach out for her books amongst her pile of toys.

Though the past month was frought with her two bouts of fever, I'm glad it's behind us, and here's to a happier, healthier Rosie henceforth - Happy 11th month, baby girl!

Saying bye bye

Other than catching up with my dear family this time round, the reason for our trip back was so that I could settle Rosabelle's problematic Chinese citizenship issue. After three trips to the Chinese embassy in Singapore (first time to enquire, second time to apply visa, third time to collect visa), we finally had it settled - nope, not denouncing her citizenship, but just to get her the right paperwork to enter China legally again.

At the China customs, before we left Beijing for Singapore, I showed the officials both her passport, with the expired visa, as well as the exit permit we'd applied for her. According to the officer, he said there is no need for us to apply for an exit permit for her as she's not a Chinese (but if we had not done so, she would have been deemed as an overstayer since her visa had already expired). So confusing, right?

So, when I got back to Singapore, I made a trip down to the embassy (actually wanted to do it on the Friday we got back, but Rosabelle just refused to take her afternoon nap, and was too sticky to me, so I had to resort to going the next week). It was afternoon time, and they did not process any applications, so I could only enquire with the security guard, who suggested I return the next morning to enquire. He was helpful enough to inform me that if I wanted to notarize her birth certificate for use in China, I could go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on that day to get the copies stamped. So off I went and took a 15-minute walk to MFA and paid SGD10 per stamped copy.

I went again to the China embassy the next morning, and the receptionist was also puzzled by the fact that the Chinese officials in China deemed her a Chinese national, and referred me upstairs, so I waited to first get her birth certificate notarized (SGD30 per copy). The officer told me as she does not have a Chinese passport, she is not deemed a Chinese national, especially when she already has her Singapore birth certificate and passport. O...kay.... all Chinese people, but in each country, they are telling me different things.

Next, I stood in queue for about 20 minutes to enquire about the paperwork to get her back to Beijing (Singaporeans can stay for 15 days without a visa), and the woman told me I should apply for a tourist visa for her, and then go to the relevant authorities in Beijing to request for an extension of this visa. When asked how I should go about applying for this tourist visa, this B*TCH of a woman said she has many people waiting in queue, and I should go enquire with the receptionist. Cursing under my breath, I went down and the receptionist said all I needed to do was to fill up a form and submit with Rosabelle's photo and passport... so that B*TCH of a woman upstairs couldn't tell me something so simple, and I had to stand in line for yet another 20 minutes to submit the application to her. So. in.eff.i.cient.

Not to mention that I needed to pay yet another visit a few days later to collect the notarized documents and passport/visa - I chalked up more than SGD100 in taxi fare on those trips down, not counting my precious time wasted! Grrr....

So, now, Rosabelle entered on an 'L' visa granting her 60 days of stay, and Wayne will then have to find out from the folks here if there is a need to extend her visa (by right, if they deem her a Chinese, she does not need to do anything, and the next time we leave Beijing, we just need to get another exit permit). Worse comes to the worse, we will then denounce her Chinese citizenship in Zhengzhou since we have the notarized birth certificate (problem is, Rosabelle needs to appear in person in Zhengzhou - although we can most certainly explore just carrying any other kid in her place as they can't recognize her anyway...).

Such bureaucracy is such a nightmare, I tell you...

Anyway, this marks the last of my posts of our Singapore sojourn. On 16 September, my family sent us to the airport, where we only barely managed to squeeze one big luggage, the Quinny Buzz, and a big carton box into the car, with 4 adults and 3 kids in tow.
Rosabelle was her usual, sticky self, clinging on to me, but at least let my mum carry her long enough to get a last shot with her.

There were F1 activities going on, where we could take a free family shot (they printed out copies for us), and the kids thereafter took part in racing games.

As we said our bye-byes, I surprisingly did not shed a tear (unlike the other time when we left in end-March) - maybe it's because this time round, the stay was only two weeks, as compared to about 7 months the last time round. And also, I was uncertain then about whether Rosabelle would adapt well in Beijing, but this time I know she's going back to something familiar, and of course, her doting Dad who missed her much and went on walks to play with other kids the days we were not around, heh.

Although the trip was marred by Rosabelle's fever, I'm glad we managed to make this trip home. I know that we're always welcomed back, and I am certainly looking forward to the next homecoming and reunion!

Kor Kor & Jie Jie

Simon and Marianne have always been very excited about their dear Rosie, and are forever eager to play with her (well...mostly...that is if they are not distracted by other toys or TV programmes - strangely enough, Rosabelle wasn't very keen on watching the TV even when the kids switched it on; must be the strict no-TV regime in our home, hehe!).

Back home, they had the chance to spend time with their small cousin as we all went on walks downstairs together.
Simon, being the Big Brother, was eager to show and teach her new things, and as my brother said, Simon has a rather perverted/besotted way of calling 'ROAAA....ZZZZIE', with alot of love and tenderness in his voice.

Although Marianne does not show her enthusiasm that much, she also had alot of fun showering love on Rosabelle, and in fact, after about a week, Rosabelle knew to call Marianne 'Jie Jie' quite a few times. Nowadays, on our walks downstairs, she will spot older girls and call 'Jie Jie' quite clearly. She only called 'Kor Kor' a few times in comparison - looks like she likes to play with her own kind.

At times, Rosabelle will go up to Marianne on her own accord and start to hug her, putting all her weight onto poor Marianne, so much so that the latter will at times go, 'Yiyi, maybe you can take Rosie away now'.

This is Marianne trying to take on the role of a teacher, telling a story to a very undisciplined, young student who is trying to harrass her...

During meal times outside, the children clamour to want to sit next to her, and it doesn't help that she is very quick to grab their food and utensils...

The three of them even tested the Giant hypermarket trolley with their weight as the older kids all wanted to clamber in with Rosabelle.

This is a typical scene during the afternoons when they take their naps at my sis' place. Doesn't it look like my mum's operating some illegal work-from-home daycare centre?

On this trip home, it could be due to the influence of watching older kids at play, but Rosabelle babbles even more than usual these days. The other day, whilst muching on a corn cob when I was feeding her dinner, the nanny and I both distinctly heard her say '阿姨，给给!' as she pushed the corn out in the nanny's direction, wanting to give the nanny. She even repeated quite clearly '水杯' when the nanny told her the cup she was looking at was a '水杯' used to hold water for changing her diaper. It's all quite shocking and hilarious at times to make out what she's trying to say.

My mum told me when Marianne got home on Wednesday afternoon after sending us to the airport, she started crying and wanted to call us up to speak to Rosie. Late at night, she even took the phone to my sis to get her to call us, but it was already too late. When they were having prayers that night, my sis said to pray for Rosie, and Marianne's eyes started to water. My sis said she wept herself to sleep, wiping away tears as she laid on her pillow. How sweet of dear Marianne Jie Jie!

It sure is nice to have our own dearest family around as playmates...

Learning best through play

Thank goodness in spite of her bout of fever in Singapore, Rosabelle still pretty much enjoyed exploring new surroundings and playing with my family members. She was at first very sticky to me in the first few days, bawling when my mum wanted to help me bathe her, and immediately stopping her wails the moment my mum stepped out of the bathroom. So naughty - especially when it was dear Popo who helped bathe her in the first 5 months of her life in Singapore. Strangely enough, she let my brother-in-law carry her, and was fine letting me out of her sight and being alone with him... could it be a case of mistaken identity where she mistook tall men for her Papa dearest? Haha!

At least the moments I could let her out of my arms, she enjoyed the expanse of space in crawling around, and laying her little fingers on things to explore. As there are many sharp edges and glass furniture around my mum's place, we really had to keep a watch on her at all times.Every little item was new and interesting to her, and playing with people around her made the experience all the more fun.

She especially liked this Dora the Explorer doll, which was supposed to dance, but had run out of battery, so she would clap and dance happily whenever I shook the doll around. She would put her arms up in the air and shake herself when in a sitting position, even pulling Dora close to her to 'love, love' it, kissing/biting its hair and patting its body.

My Dad made a paper crown for her, and successfully thought her the concept of up and down, so that she will now raise her arms whenever we say 'up'.

In this instance, she was dwarfed by the big, blue elephant buoy, much like David & Goliath, huh?

My sister specially took this shot of Rosabelle in the below photo, to compare with Simon at 7 months in the above photo. She thinks that Rosabelle's side profile at times looks like Simon's when he was younger. I think the Xiaowanzi alarm clock has withstood the test of time and severe manhandling by the kids...

My sis also had fun at Rosabelle's expense by putting my mum's curlers on her... she wasn't exactly pleased with her perm, especially when she was still having her fever and feeling cranky from the medication...

That's me trying my scissor-twist skill on my own daughter...

Every evening, we will go down for a quick walk downstairs, and at one time kicked a ball around with Simon and Marianne.

We also visited the playground, and luckily Riza helped me to carry her (or my arms would seriously give way).

My sis loves to play around with her dear Rosie alot - don't their mouths look similar in the picture on the right?

This shot, with its awkward angle and upper-heads-lopped-off frame, was taken by Simon, who loves to practise his photography skills.

Though most of the time, even at play, Rosabelle pretty much just wanted to be an extension of me and cling to me like a koala bear...aiyo!