That once-in-awhile catch-up

I brought Rosabelle to Dempsey Road Ben & Jerry's on 5 September afternoon for a nice get-together with the ex-Nanyang Girls. Meibao's girl, Sophie, is coincidentally born on the exact same day as Rosabelle, albeit about 8 hours later.

When Rosabelle saw Sophie, she was exceptionally affectionate, crawling up to the girl to caress and plaster her face on her tummy, patting her all the time. Sophie was more surprised than anything, but started crying when her Mummy carried Rosabelle. Turns out that Sophie seems to be more sticky than Rosabelle - at least the latter can be placated by my friends when I go to the washroom. I had a hard time looking for things to entertain Sophie as she wailed when Meibao left to visit the loo, aiyo! It must be because Meibao is the main care-giver, thus explaining the close attachment to Mummy dearest.
In this shot, Rosabelle grabbed Sophie's hand on her own accord. So cute, the both of them. Doesn't Sophie look like Dora the Explorer with her biiiiiigggg eyes?

It wasn't too long ago when the same bunch of them came to visit me when Rosabelle and Sophie were about three months old. Wow, time really flies (and thank goodness I lost all the weight gained)!

Meibao also broke her good news - she is now about 9 weeks pregnant again - yaaay! But I admire her for having to take care of Sophie on her own when her hubby's at work, and having to deal with her pregnancy. Can't wait to see her No. 2, am sure he/she will also have big eyes like Sophie!

That's a group shot of us, and the rest of the pack - Sharon, Jinxin, and Shumin. Bless them all for always making time to catch up when I'm back, it's nice!

In Singapore, Rosabelle also had the chance to make new friends, like when she saw my brother-in-law's nephew Christian, who was also equally excited to see her crawling around, and stomped his feet excitedly whilst following her about the house.

And what is a trip back home without a visit to my dear ex-boss Jeannie on 6 September, where we again visited their 'Disneyland' house with the kids' Princess and Cars/Soccer-themed bedrooms? Rosabelle had some crowning of her own when there...

And Marianne was so happy with the Cinderella gown that Jeannie's daughter, Rachel, gave up to her. The gown didn't look very comfortable, as the sash-like material at the chest area was rather prickly, but Marianne still managed to look very enthralled by it all, and my sis said she even wanted to wear the gown to Sentosa that week (faint!).

The kids (well, I had to go into the photo as Rosabelle refused to sit without me) took some group shots together.

And Simon, Marianne, Ryan, and Rachel took another group shot at the exact same spot they took some two years ago in August of 2007. My, my, how they've each grown! And Jeannie had her shot with Rosabelle - that's her when Rosabelle was barely 2 weeks old, then at 3 months, then at this visit to her home. It was a brief get-together as we had to leave for a family lunch, but I'm glad we managed to catch Jeannie before she left for yet another business trip to New York the next day.

On our walks downstairs, Rosabelle also made some new friends, some of whom she'd already known before she left Singapore in March this year. There's this pair of twins, who are also China Chinese, and another five-month-old girl, He Xue Ning, who has this thick nest of a hair.

The kids always enjoy sitting around the pool to enjoy the breeze and watch other kids at play, and Rosabelle even fell asleep once in Riza's arms, heh!

Other than missing Pauline and RaeAnne, I also wanted to contact my friend Betty to visit her and Baby Nicole, as I had not seen her in a long while, but unfortunately Rosabelle fell sick, but as luck would have it, when we were at Parkway Parade on 15 September, we bumped into Betty and Nicole! That's how small Singapore is! Well, at least we managed to chat for all of like 3 minutes, haha!

I also wanted to catch up with Angeline and her two boys Belden and Glendon, together with Amy, but again had to miss them. Luckily Amy bothered to make a trip down to SimsVille to pay us a visit, bringing us mooncakes and Polar cakes some more, so sweet....

Hopefully at our next homecoming, we'll be in a better condition to go around and meet up with more of our dear friends!