Blessings from Above

new year, new schedule - 2012

2012-01-06T09:15:00.001+08:00

Another 6 months has gone by and I've barely blogged - I shall attempt to blog more often this year with my reshuffled schedule. Both children will go to school from 11am - 3pm for the first six months, though Chace will only go in 3 times a week (since Claire only went 3 times a week the whole of last year). On the days that he doesn't go to school, he will get to spend some quality time with his grandma when Claire is in school. On Sat mornings, grandma has decided that they need to spend some time with God so she will take them to attend the kids programme in her church.

This schedule will allow me to do lunch appointments on weekdays in an attempt to clear my production for the year in 6 months since I'm due end June/early July and most likely will have to take the rest of the year off to care for the newborn.

2011 wasn't very significant - but we did manage to take our first vacation alone without the kids since Claire first came into our lives in 2007. I did two 10km runs in Jul and Dec and managed to improve my timing. Obviously taking part in runs will not be very likely this year so running will have to take a hiatus. I will, however, do more swimming and also take up aqua-aerobics again to stay active. Hopefully with some exercise, I will be able to keep within the 8 - 10kg weight range that I will need to put on for the pregnancy.

Developmentally, Claire has become a little more assertive - she used to walk away whenever another child comes along to 'snatch away' whatever she was playing with; this year, she actually retaliated by biting the other child. Obviously this is not a behaviour that I agree with but I did warn the child before the incident happened that she should leave Claire alone as Claire did not want to play with her. The little girl did not listen to me and continued to pester Claire so I'm sorry to say 'serve her right!'. However, I did explain to Claire after the incident that there were other ways that she could deal with such situations instead of biting (she learnt the biting from Chace, by the way!). Chace has also progressed from biting to other forms of retaliation like shouting/pushing. Again, behaviours that I do not agree with but at least some improvement. In this new year, I resolve to help them learn better ways of standing firm. In the 2nd half of this year, they will welcome a new sibling so it will be ever more important to set them right in their behaviour so that #3 does not learn things that he/she should not learn!

Here's wishing everyone a fabulous 2012 - may you achieve all that you set out to this year and more importantly, continue to enjoy good health and happiness all through the year!

Chace is

2011-06-07T23:11:00.001+08:00

Singing!

We are just a couple of days away from Chace turning 22 months ago and he has started singing! It's so funny because there is no tune whatsoever... Just the words to his favorite song. He loves fishes and his sister learnt the song a couple of months back in school and has been singing to him.

I have previously posted on YouTube some other videos of Claire singing when she was about 2 years old... And I really enjoy watching her sing!

more than S$3K later....

2011-05-26T17:07:00.003+08:00

this is my latest 'workhorse' - yes, I really use it for work!

it is most unfortunate that we smashed two ipads in 6 months - and I'm quite determined not to let it happen again...

what happened? Oh... we folded up our stroller TWICE with the ipad1 in the basket below (I say 'we' because dh did it the first time and I did it the 2nd time). mega OUCH! instead of getting the serious-looking black folder used for my ipad1 - I got this bright and cheery one for my ipad2 instead...

so that I will NEVER miss it again (the black one blended in with the stroller basket at the bottom so it was easy to forget that its there) and oh! I will NEVER put it there again! It has been safely tucked in my bag ever since I bought it - talk about expensive mistakes!

on a side note, I found a website that sells the LCD part (for a fraction of the cost that I paid to replace it first time round) so I'm going to attempt repairing my ipad1 myself!

Another Champ!

2011-05-26T16:51:00.001+08:00

like li'l missy, Chace won the 1st prize in the healthy baby competition even though they were in a different age group category - the goodness of mummy's milk! :)

longkang (i.e. drain) fishing

2011-05-26T16:37:00.001+08:00

one of the many ways we entertain our two precious on weekends...

Happy Mother's Day - 08 May 2011

2011-05-26T15:38:00.003+08:00

this is the 4th year that I am celebrating as a Mom (in the 1st one, li'l missy was only less than a month old!)... but its the 1st time I'm getting presents... :)

li'l missy made this bracelet for me in playschool - she couldn't wait to give it to me. since she only goes to school on Mon, Tues and Thurs, I received this early present on the 05 May. Thank you sweetie! Mommy loves it...

dh got me a present too - instead of getting one for our wedding anniversary, which falls on 10 May (we've been married for 8 years now!)...

I think its really a present for himself - he has been fascinated with them since he first laid eyes on the Nespresso machines! haha... I don't even really drink coffee to begin with but this machine 'processes' tea capsules too and that's why we chose this over the Nepresso machines. But anyhow, a nice machine to have when my guests come over and I love having people over! I just need to learn how to froth milk in the proper way for cappucinos!

our usual Sunday routine revolves around breakfast, groceries shopping, fish shopping and prawn fishing... but I was asked what I would like to do today. to be honest, it really did not matter what we did as long as we were together as a family... so I turned to my li'l missy and asked her what she would like to do instead. she chose to go 'sand-castle beach' so we made our way to sentosa.

we started off at the underwater world since Chace has never been there before and he loves fishes! there are some additions to the exhibits at the underwater world since our last visit. At the entrance, there's now a 'turtle pond' with quite a few turtles - unfortunately I think there's too little space for these magnificient sea creatures. On the other side on the entrance, there was a child and his father learning to snorkel and there were plenty of rays swimming in the water. don't have any nice photos to show. :P

as usual, I am fascinated with the leafy sea dragon and couldn't help taking yet another photo of it.

we couldn't view the exhibits in underwater world in peace coz li'l missy kept bugging us to bring her to 'sand castle beach' - we gave in to her whining eventually and ended up at 'trapizza'. a nice spot where we could sit in cool comfort and sip our drinks while watching the two of them play.

Chace enjoying a little bit of sunshine (check out his tummy!)

Claire feeling the heat

she didn't last too long out in the sun though and bugged us to get home so we had to quickly tabao some food and head home - this little bit of Sun morning activity cost us about $100; anyone still thinks Singapore is NOT expensive to live in?

yikes... its been more than 6 months!

2011-05-26T15:09:00.004+08:00

can't believe how long it has been since I last posted... there's plenty to catch up... will do the posts randomly (according to my memory!) starting with our most recent family studio photoshoot.

actually even before li'l missy was borned, I made a mental note to myself about getting photos taken regularly for memory... but me being me with a goldfish-kinda memory (read: pea-sized brain for remembering things), this kinda got forgotten along the way.

even for this recent family photoshoot, it was really because I need to get some 'mugshots' taken for work and the studio happened to have a promotion of sorts and well, you know me, I can never really resists promotions so... :)

I chose to go to the studio on the day li'l Missy turned four for obvious reasons but you know what, the studio still has not sent me her personal shot (that reminds me that I really should be calling them up to check) - I've collected the rest and here are a couple:

family shot

siblings shot

me & my two precious

Chace is

2010-12-06T13:17:00.005+08:00

talking.... its amazing how chatty my two kids are... they just go on and on... most of the time, i wish that they can be quiet for even 5 mins! obviously to those whose kids are far behind developmentally, they probably feel like kicking me. some of the words that Chace is saying right now... before he turns 16 months in 4 days' time:

- jiejie, mummy, daddy, nai-nai, ye-ye, po-po, da-da (mida - my parents' maid)

- bus, fish, yes, bear, ball, no, wait, prea-sh (please!), bite, meow, wooh-wooh (dog barking), aa-ghhhh (lion roaring), mil-k (milk), where? (with hand signal), mine..

in other aspects of development;

- he pats himself on the chest when he is frightened

- he lies down & pats himself on the bum/thigh when I ask to him go to sleep

- he shakes his head violently when he says 'no'

- when his sister tries to snatch away from he is holding or when I try to take away something that he is holding, he will scream 'mine!!!' and try his might to hold on to the item.

- runs away when you say 'catch, catch'...

- has really good concentration - can watch the whole episode of Barney from start to end

- has really good appetite; eats more than Claire and still wakes up for milk every 2 - 3 hours at night

- walks really fast & steadily, climbs up and down the stairs on his own.

- has really good understanding of what we say to him; follows instructions

- has really good motor skills - opens and closes all the drawers, cupboards, etc and takes out everything, twists open bottle caps, containers and pours out EVERYTHING!

- does the forward-roll that he learnt at gym classes on his own

- loves swimming; normally i put him in a swim float and he is good to go - not afraid even when his head gets dunked into water!
- spits out food when he doesn't like the taste of it

Chace is

2010-08-23T16:37:00.003+08:00

walking.... the ability to pull and stand and being able to walk is totally not related in the case of my children. Claire pulled herself up when she was just 7 months but only took her first unassisted steps when she was 13 month. Chace, on the other hand, pulled himself up to stand probably when he was 8 or 9 months old but took his first unassisted steps just before he turned one. Guess its obvious who has more 'balls'?

I don't even have a clear photo of Chace's 1st attempt, not to mention a video. Here's a lousy photo that I manage to take on the day he decided to show us that he is now a toddler...

Just for the record, before he turned one, Chace:

1) has 8 teeth

2) stopped crying/screaming during bath time (on his lunar birthday)

3) started taking his first few unassisted steps

4) is a really 'old-hand' when it comes to food - no problem chewing and drinking from straws!

5) weighs 10kg (as a comparision, his scrawny sister is 11.5kg at 3 years 4 mths)
6) babbles non-stop; he carrys on a conversation with himself all the time, anytime!
7) fav word is 'jiejie' - and probably his fav. person too; he wakes up in the morning searching for jiejie

wow! has it been so long...

2010-08-11T20:31:00.000+08:00

since i wrote an entry???

almost 2 whole months!

Chace's 1st Birthday

2010-08-10T17:04:00.001+08:00

In order for me not to field questions about favouritism when my kids are grown up, I made the effort to throw a 1st birthday party for them. The theme for both was animals (Chace's party was a little more specific - it was a Safari Adventure theme). For Claire, we booked a holiday bungalow to accommodate our guests - but with our temporary abode, we had plenty of space for everyone so I used the money instead to have a more elaborate setup for the party.

We had the same balloons, goodie bags from the same source and more or less similar guests. However, since Claire is now more grown up (and not wanting her to feel neglected), we hired a face-painter & balloon artist for her enjoyment. Unfortunately, Yas Meen didn't really get to do much balloon twisting because she was just too good with the face painting - all the kids were queuing up (again and again) to get inked!

View photos of the party here...

Chace has croup AGAIN!

2010-06-26T22:37:00.000+08:00

sigh... my li'l boy is down again... the last round, we took him to KK coz he woke up MUTE on a sunday morning... the DR @ KK prescribed him a dose of steroid and some nebulizer treatment as his oxygen reading fell below the optimum level and we were out of the hospital within hours.

this time round, i started noticing the 'barking cough' on tuesday... instead of going to KK (since its a weekday and not really an emergency), we went back to see his regular PD on fri (rather than wait for it to get worse over the weekend)... the bill costs us more than twice the amount incurred @ KK's A&E but there's no respite... because it is virtually impossible to get our li'l prince to swallow his medication because he has learnt to spit out (what he normally does when he has enough food or doesn't want to eat anymore). his attending PD didn't deem that his condition was serious enough and sent us back after prescribed some nebulizer treatment and some medication (which I have not really administered successfully so far). i even tried mixing the medicine with his favourite food but to no avail.

any suggestions?

updates

2010-06-04T16:15:00.002+08:00

Chace now has 7 (?) teeth and we are still unpacking... and still no photos of our new home yet because i cannot find the battery charger for my dSLR... :P

the luxury of space...

2010-06-02T12:55:00.002+08:00

with our move, we now have double the living space... so over the weekend, we blew our first month rental on a luxurious massage (arm)chair for our tv cum study room!

:) yay! no more body aches from carrying my two li'l precious... can't wait for the chair to be delivered!

i cannot walk alreadyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

2010-06-01T17:30:00.000+08:00

that's what our li'l princess likes to say whenever we are out after a while - so for the longest time, i have been contemplating on buying a twin stroller. never mind that we ALREADY have two strollers... to me, it just made more sense to push around a twin stroller than to push around TWO strollers, one with each hand - a bit like doing stunt, don't you think? And yes, I know they sell clips to attach two strollers together but that's provided the two strollers are similar.... we have a Jeep umbrella stroller and an Aprica one so i don't think those clips works.... and i finally found my solution today!

i have seen these around but all the shops i asked told me that it CANNOT fit my Jeep... but guess what, i found that there are in fact three sizes and the 'mini' one solves my problem! :) now i'm happy as can be! my hunt for a twin stroller can FINALLY end...

*i just have an affinity with sweden made products for some reason

out of our matrimonial home

2010-05-29T21:58:00.000+08:00

we are officially out of our matrimonial home as we handed over the house keys to our tenant today... and it marks the end of my 10 years living in a public housing estate (even though not in public housing). hopefully our next purchase will be a property in a private housing estate... :)

and horrors! we are still unpacking!

we've moved!

2010-05-21T17:24:00.003+08:00

our li'l (temporary) humble abode is in such a big mess! friends & family will be invited over to warm our place once we have finished unpacking! MEANWHILE, i am truly enjoying the space (while hating the unpacking!)

9mths old!

2010-05-11T17:11:00.004+08:00

Chace is ... i've lamented about #2 being neglected and i'm sure by the # of posts on this blog, it is evident - Sorry honey! But that doesn't mean mummy love you any less than jiejie, ok?

So what has my li'l boy been up to? Since the last post:

- 5 of his teeth have sprouted out (and I do believe a few more is on the way SOON!)

- he is crawling

- he is able to sit up from a lying down position and then lie back down from a sitting position

- he has pulled up to stand

- he has started blabbering 'mama', 'papa', 'yeye', 'jiejie', 'byebye' and the funniest one so far - 'headache'!
- he waves 'byebye' while mouthing the words
- he is starting to show separation anxiety when i leave for work
- he first fell off the bed on the morning of 1st may 2010 while we were all asleep

Other than that, he has gone for his 1st trip (to club med) and we will be travelling again end of sep to bali (i'm definitely looking forward to that!)

Now that he is 3 months away from turning one, i have to seriously start planning his 1st birthday party... well, at least i've decided on the theme!

on the home front, we will be shifting soon (just over a week away) to a temporary abode (while we wait out this ridiculous property boom) and i will really enjoy having double the space.

Claire Turns 3 (almost)!

2010-04-05T15:29:00.001+08:00

We had a small intimate party y'day for a small group of friends to celebrate Claire's upcoming third birthday - the actual day is still a couple of days away. In actual fact, I did not set out to have a party for her this year as I'd booked a short getaway for the family to club med instead and thus had to see to all the party arrangements (deciding on the theme, caterer, cake and goodie bag loot, etc) within a week - i'm glad that our guests gamely accepted our invitation despite such short notice!

thank you to all who took time off their busy weekend schedules to come and celebrate with us! how time flies when we are having fun... and here are some of my reflections...

the last one year was rather challenging - the beginning part of your third year, i was pregnant with didi. having a big tummy meant that i could not carry out many of the activities that you enjoyed, like going to the gym and having fun at the playground and i couldn't carry you around much. instead, we spent time snuggling up in bed, sharing hugs & kisses and doing quiet activites. four months into your third year, your 'didi' joined our family - from being the only child, you are now the first born and from having 100% (of everything - time, toys, mama & papa), you now had to share with another person. i''m glad that you are such a sensible gal and did most of what i asked of you willingly (most of the time) though i know in your heart that you wished otherwise. right about the same time, you started displaying undesirable traits, like throwing tantrums, whining and crying. everyone else had 'warned' me about the terrible twos (& threes!) but i don't believe it. i know you are just adjusting to the change in the family (nevermind that other 'only child' also displays such similar undesirable traits) and i know that you will, in your sensible way, come to terms eventually.

while many of your peers have been packed off to school, you remained at home - in the comfort of familiar faces and in the care of loving parents (& grandparents). we are in no hurry to send you to school (we went to school at 5 ourselves). you showed us in many ways your intelligence through your clear speech, extensive vocabulary and inquisitive nature w/o the need to succumb to unnecessary pressure of 'kiasuism' in this country. no other teacher in the world can compare to having your parents (and grandparents) impart to you the knowledge and life skills required of this world - there will be plenty of school years to come!

in the beginning of this year, i started going back to work. we are fortunate that daddy provides for our family and there is no real need for me to contribute financially but i enjoy having the freedom to indulge daddy and the two of you with surprise gifts (like our upcoming getaway) and providing you with extra comforts. of coz, i know you'd rather have me around all the time but my job allows me the flexibility to work short hours (to fulfill my obligations to my clients) and still spend most of my time with you - MOST IMPORTANTLY, i know you can be in the care of loving grandparents while i am away. without such an arrangement, i will definitely not go back to work - you and your li'l brother will always be my first priority.

as we approach your fourth year, we will, at some point, let you go to play-school for two or three times a week (only because u have been bugging us to let you go) but we hope that you continue to remain strong and healthy and in the good care of our lord. may you finally adjust to your (not-so-new) sibling and continue to love and care for him. when we scold you, its not because we do not love you - it is because we do and we want the best from you. remember that our love is not divided but is instead multiplied by the two of you! you will both always be our babies and our darlings!

chace - 6 month's plus

2010-02-27T16:19:00.001+08:00

i think its really quite sad to be #2 in the family - i've totally neglected my li'l boy. unlike when we had Claire whereby every milestone (almost) was recorded. Chace is almost turning 7 mths old already and i've barely written about his progress!

so well, for the record - he has been flipping (front & back and vice versa) for a couple of weeks now, sitting upright for a couple of minutes since around CNY and has also crawling backwards slightly - don't have the exact dates that these milestones happened but his first tooth sprouted on 26th Feb 2010! and oh! he will be participating in the same baby contest as Claire (she won that 2 years ago) on 07 Mar 2010!

SNGS Fund Raiser

2010-02-02T17:58:00.000+08:00

Just wanna do my part for my alma mater - the reasons for this fund-raising. Pls contribute in any way you can!

remember this?

2010-01-15T04:11:00.007+08:00

singa, mr courtesy has been revived!

if you do, then i know roughly how old you are! haha...

the jingle still rings in my head today. does it mean that the campaign was a success? i don't think so - the people here are still generally quite rude (though i am quite polite). :)

*singing*... courtesy is for me, courtesy is for you and me....

i wanna go hotel...

2010-01-10T04:20:00.017+08:00

that's what #1 has been chanting the past few weeks (before that, it was 'i wanna go hong kong')... courtesy of mil (and her hotel membership card), we spent two different weekends at two different local hotels in the last two months. the change of environment resulted in less sleep for the children and consequently me. #1 was excited and #2 was restless. *sigh*

the nicely made room before we messed it up... :P can u spot #1?

the happy camper

hotel beds make good photo backgrounds!

more coming up...

is it 2010 already?

2010-01-01T05:10:00.023+08:00

Happy New Year! Isn't it amazing how another year just went by like that? hopefully 2010 will be a better year for everyone! the year started on a positive note for us so far - we managed to sort out the childcare arrangements somewhat and at the same time, found ourselves an (bigger) 'interim' home! looking forward to the move!

we spent the first day of the new year watching birds... :P

the lazy gal just refuses to walk when dh is around

the penguin enclosure

more coming up...

the insomnia bug

2009-12-31T04:47:00.003+08:00

strikes... AGAIN.

I've come to realise the pattern - I stir in my sleep because #2 is stirring (he kicks, he stretches, he grunts). I get up and offer him milk (and gets rejected). the orchestra in the bedroom keeps me awake and my mind starts working over time again.

Too much to do, too little (me) time to do.

I get out of bed, enter the study room and boot up my laptop once again.

made with love

2009-12-30T20:51:00.020+08:00

Inspired by my friend who runs a blog shop (pls support her!), i wiped the dust off my sewing machine (wedding gift from my mom, probably last used to sew for #1 when she was born) and set out to make a security blanket & pillow cases for #2 (to be fair to both of them).

here's the final product (with some help from my mom)...

not good enough to start taking orders for sure (and don't intend to - i do want to make some as gifts though) but i'm mighty pleased with the result and since i bought plenty of ribbons, i also made a adjustable nursing cover clip for myself to use if i need to nurse #2 which can also be used to convert napkins into bibs when dining out with #1.

what do you think?

by the way, its obvious that the layout looks different now - am trying a new look by creating my own blog skin... not very successful yet (afterall, I've not been coding for years now) but will keep trying!

follow on to my entry about irresponsibility....

2009-12-12T20:51:00.012+08:00

saw this in our local daily today.... well, lady if you need OFFICIAL reports to tell you NOT to leave your child unattended... here it is!

how appropriate... :P

if u need to read the article, email me - i have it in PDF.

linguistic ability

2009-12-02T05:31:00.011+08:00

I am a product of the "much-debated" bilingual policy of this country but before I go on, let me first clarify - I HATED mandarin classes. ok, maybe HATE is too strong a word but I really had no affinity with the language nor the teachers that taught it. the methods used still leave a bitter taste in my mouth because I have such a goldfish memory (no '听写' & '墨写' for me pls!). I practically slept through all the classes then - I can still vividly see my teachers shaking their heads vigorously at me because of my learning attitude towards the language. in the end though, I still got a distinction for the subject.

Coming from a supposedly '华校' (or chinese school) where taking higher chinese is the norm, rather than the exception and many even taking an additional foreign language for the 'o' levels, I have to say that this 'exposure' to the language is something I am proud of. Up till today, I can still read, write and speak fluently (when I want to). In fact, I hope that my children will also be able to communicate effectively in both languages in the future - nothing to do with the fact that China is deemed to be the future economic powerhouse and merely because we are CHINESE afterall. for this reason, I want to enrol my elder baby to my alma-mater and hopefully the younger baby will also be admitted to an affilated school with similar focus on mandarin. I'm also encouraging my parents to communicate with them in mandarin instead of (their not-so-perfect) english and have started 'exposing' them to the written word by labeling objects in the house in chinese.

Really, language is one of those subjects that you really have to fully immerse yourself (and at a young age, I read) in order to master it. otherwise, it is just not possible to become fluent in it and I should know. I took Japanese when I was in college and while many of the words are still swimming around in my brain, it will take quite a bit of effort on my part to carry out a conversation entirely in Japanese now because I've not spoken it for a while (well, I graduated from college close to 10 years ago so... ). I love to watch 'Japan Hour' for this reason - it refreshes my memory about the language, the structure and the vocabulary.

decadence

2009-11-19T06:11:00.012+08:00

I finally lost all the weight that i've gained since having 2 kids - lest you all think I've been on a diet... I did not! I eat more than the stipulated 3 meals a day PLUS decadent indulgences like this (though I do restrict myself NOT to finish the entire packet at one sitting)...

and carrying my children and going for walks are the only exercises that I have time for... so how did I do it?

LACTATE! Truly, bfing is the best way to lose weight! I lost abt 12kg so far (put on 7kg for this pregnancy) but alas, still far from the 'Heidi Klum league'!

next target? pre-marriage weight!

irresponsible with a capital I

2009-11-10T10:03:00.007+08:00

we visited kids explorer @ downtown east y'day, together with mummy D & jesse. half way through our playtime, i noticed a familiar face... he was running amok all by himself at the indoor playground for a good half hour and we are talking about a toddler here, who has yet turn 4. i'm appalled that there was no adult around AT ALL to supervise him. at first, i thought it was his play school that brought him there and was wondering which irresponsible school would leave a toddler to play all by himself but found out today, that it was actually his MOTHER who left him alone to play there (while she went to get lunch). granted, there are other adults around but seriously who would be bothered with another person's kid if they have their own kid(s) to mind, until the accident (if any) happens? of course, you may say that the indoor playground is relatively safe but ACCIDENTS do happen, otherwise why are they called ACCIDENTS and why would the playground have a 'no liability clause' in their rules & regulations? obviously it is possible to get injured (e.g. from falling from heights) no matter how 'safe' the place looks.

obviously motherhood has not changed this person a single bit - she declares herself as an 'animal lover' and used to always bring home strays animals (including snakes), only to have her mom be the one who looks after these strays and when she got tired of them, her dad would have to be the 'evil' one to get rid of them. this same person DEMANDED her mom to look after her child (now children) after giving birth.

talk about irresponsible... how i pity her children!

Remembering Chewy

2009-11-06T07:20:00.003+08:00

our beloved fur-kid left us for a better place last evening and i've created a blog to remember him forever....

http://chewyourbeloved.blogspot.com

strawberry milk?

2009-10-27T00:29:00.016+08:00

warning: graphic post

i've always thought that bfing gets easier (& better) with subsequent children - because you are supposed to know what to do already!

unfortunately though, i am still dodged by the same problems 2nd time round... its largely because my li'l prince decides that night feeds are not important & me, being the 'lazy' one, choosing sleep over clearing the milk ducts... now i'm in so much pain that i'm close to shouting out my entire vocabulary of expletives at the top of my voice! doesn't help that dh doesn't appreciate nor empathise with me!

and oh, that's milk tinged with blood by the way & not strawberry milk! i had to use needles to poke and try to find the blocked ducts - that's the reason for the blood. no fun at all... i gave up after 15 mins w/o finding all the spots.

back entries

2009-10-10T09:33:00.003+08:00

sorry i've been so slack in posting entries - can't really find the time to do anything else amidst caring for 2 kids and getting enough sleep. i shall attempt to complete these back entries (not in chronological order) over the weekend... so check on back later!

- Chace's full month parties
- swimming playdate
- Jvel's birthday party

- polliwog playdate

- swimming playdate @ the club

same same but different...

2009-10-10T04:37:00.009+08:00

Are you very different from your other siblings? My two babies are as different as chalk and cheese! Both in appearance and in behavior… but why? from the same factory leh...

They may look identical but Claire is fair skinned, petite & lightweight whereas Chace is rather dark skinned at this point, tall, stout & heavyweight. In fact, Chace’s face is now almost as big as Claire’s (He is 6kg+ now @ 2 months’ old). As DH aptly put it – lucky the girl is thin and the boy is fat and not the other way around. We do want to marry Claire off some day!

Claire used to wake up every hour or so for milk in the initial months, thus totally disrupting my sleeping schedule. She is a ‘small-eater’ as she takes sips of milk each time she nurses whereas Chace tanks up each time he does. As a result, he is (almost) sleeping through the night from as early as a month ago, waking up only once or twice and its not even to feed – he won’t even open his mouth when I offer him milk – he just wants to look around and will easily drift back off to lala land. Sleep is apparently more important to this little boy – he remains in deep sleep even when I change his diaper. His willingness to sleep is much appreciated and I have managed to sleep for good 5 hours stretches, which in my opinion is fantastic with an infant around. Unfortunately though, he is rather noisy even asleep – making grunting noises when he stretches and I get awaken anyway because I’m such a light sleeper! The other ‘downside’ of him sleeping through – the ‘milk factory’ doesn’t get emptied and causes me to be really uncomfortable so I end up ‘reporting’ to the inanimate pump at the unearthly hour instead. Its difficult for me to understand why some mummies choose to pump instead of latching on since they want to breastfeed... I'm totally hate emptying my milk ducts using this method... not to mention having to get out of bed to wash & sterilise the bottles & pump parts half-asleep!

this morning's 'output'

Nursing is definitely easier the 2nd time round – without breaking a sweat, I pump out almost 200ml of milk in less than 10 mins and I do not even bother emptying the milk factory as I'm hoping my little prince (or princess) will wake up for a night snack.

I suspect their characters will also be opposite of each other but for that, only time will tell…

Claire turns 30 months – reflections...

2009-10-09T06:28:00.003+08:00

The last two months was probably very trying for Claire as she adjusts to the addition of a new family member – heck, I think it was trying even for us!

Once the only child, she is now an elder sister. She has shown clear affection for her little brother – fussing over him (“mummy, didi is crying”), giving him heaps of hugs & kisses and even helping us take care of him (bringing wipes & diapers when he needs a change, drying his hair after his bath, etc) but having to share our attention ‘so suddenly’ is probably something she never really expected even though we made an effort to prepare her right from the start.

As a result of this ‘shared attention’ or maybe to her - ‘a lack of attention’, she suddenly turned into this annoying, attention seeking little gal who cries and whines over every little thing. We have lost our tempers at her numerous times because of this behavior and when that happens, I sometimes wonder if we expect too much from her? She is after all, just a little gal. I still do not believe in the terrible twos or terrible threes that everyone talks about and think that all she needs is a little time to adjust and accept that things have changed. When that happens, I’m sure my little angel will return.

She has grown leaps & bounds since the last time I wrote about her development. Physically, she is finally past the 10kg mark – although Chace’s arrival caused her to go on a food strike and she dropped below 10kg for 2 – 3 weeks.

Speech wise, she has been speaking in complete sentences for a while now – she can even narrate incidents to us. Often, we doubt what she tells us but so far, it has all been truths. E.g. one Saturday afternoon, she told me that ‘nai nai (paternal grandma) bang her car at the church!’ I thought she was just imagining and probed further… asking her where and when and what happened. On Sunday when I met my mom-in-law, I asked her about it and true enough, she really reversed into a pole at the church. On top of that, she has an extensive vocabulary (though not accurate pronunciation at times) because I never believe that any word is too difficult to be taught, even to a two-year old.

Mentally, she has a fantastic memory and really absorbs information – good & bad - like a sponge! This is truly the optimal age to introduce new concepts and I have made the effort to start teaching her to recognize Chinese words, starting with the objects around the house – I printed out names of things around the house (e.g. television, wardrobe, mirror, etc), laminated and stuck them on the various objects. I can see that she enjoys learning too as she will point to the different labels and ask me ‘What is this, Mummy?’ continuously! I hope to give her a good start to learning mandarin since we plan to send her to a school with a strong Chinese curriculum in the future.

Socially, we can see that she has started to play with other children, particularly those she sees frequently. She is also willing to share her food & toys with others. However, at the same time, she has started to become ‘wary’ of unfamiliar faces, often hiding behind us. I have to constantly remember (and remind dh) about not labeling her as ‘shy’ but rather encourage her to acknowledge the other person (or people) and say ‘hi!’ instead.

Unfortunately though, many of her little friends have started going to school or rather, playgroups… leaving her very little interaction opportunities. Dh does not believe that it is necessary for her to go to school until she is 5 since that is the age that our generation started ‘formal classes’ so I guess I will have to continuously seek out other mummies & their toddlers on the same wavelength to arrange play dates for Claire.

All in all, it has been a fabulous 30 months… I just hope that ‘acceptance’ will come soon and she will revert to our darling little angel.

May God continue to shower you with his blessings and keep you in good health always. May He guide you to become the gracious and loving big sister (and darling daughter) that we know you can be. We ask Him to also give us the strength and patience to help you along your learning journey and show us how to become better parents. We love you, our precious little angel – although we scream and shout at your nonsense sometimes. Happy 30 months old!

deja vu

2009-10-08T06:50:00.005+08:00

many years ago, a little girl got bitten on the face because she disturbed her sister's poodle...

NO PHOTOS AVAILABLE

twenty four years later... her daughter gets bitten on the face because she disturbed the family shih-tzu...

immediately after being bitten (slightly bruised on the cheek)

two days later (visible teeth marks - bruised cheeks)

yes, the little girl was me... moral of the story, never disturb dogs (no matter what breed)! don't call animal control, the human was at fault. fortunately, Chewy didn't bite down hard and Claire didn't bleed. dh is of the opinion that Chewy should be castrated because of his recent aggressive behavior but I'm not so sure...

reminiscence time...

2009-09-28T10:14:00.004+08:00

can you tell which baby is Claire and which is Chace?

mid-autumn festival

2009-09-26T22:45:00.012+08:00

our group of mummy friends finally managed another meet up after a REALLY long time - our 'excuse' this time? to celebrate mid-autumn festival together again (its another week away actually). our li'l ones have grown tremendously since last year & its great to see everyone again... and some of our families have grown larger too! let's hope we can continue to do this many more years!

last year

this year

spotted any difference?

went through my old entries (and photos) and realised that i didn't write about this last year (neither did i take any pictures!) - wonder why?? anyway, we had a pot-luck session like last year and everyone contributed yummy food - unfortunately, the satay/otah/muffins did not make their 'appearance' coz two families didn't turn up!

Jvel's 1st Birthday

2009-09-21T14:48:00.008+08:00

we were off to sentosa this afternoon to celebrate Jvel's 1st birthday - mummy T obviously put in a lot of effort planning the party - from choosing the venue, to preparing the goody bags for the kids, down to dressing up (herself & her babe) and not forgetting, (trying) to co-ordinate the ice-cream orders for the guests (tough job i know!). i believe that it was a special & memorable afternoon for all, as we celebrate Jvel turning one... hope the birthday gal enjoyed all the attention and the presents showered on her & thanks for inviting us - we had fun!

above photos 'borrowed' from mummy T's faceboook photo album

swimming playdate

2009-09-18T12:17:00.005+08:00

li'l J loves 'splashy' and we love having mummy D and li'l J over! most of our li'l friends have started school (or playgroup) or stay too far away to join us so that leaves just the four (now 5!) of us for playdates most of the time! i do wish the others can join us some time...

today marks the first time Chace is joining us but since he's too 'young' to swim, all I did was dip his feet into the pool water but the minute his feet touched the water, he started screaming and crying - he hates bathtime too, just like when Claire was his age; must be an infant thing! so he spent the rest of the time lounging by the pool side with me!

Chace's full month parties!

2009-09-13T09:39:00.007+08:00

Like Claire, Chace had more than one full month party - only because both of them are blessed with so many people who love them. At our place, we hosted our friends & (my extended) family in one session (as opposed to two when we had Claire) because its just too tiring to be entertaining for such a long stretch of time. At my in-law's place, we had another session to host hb's side of the family.

When the crowd started streaming into the function room, we were able to take photos with some of our guests but once it got too crowded (and busy), we totally neglected the photo-taking so thousand apologises to those who came but did not manage to get a photo with us! Its funny how I got so busy the whole morning (cooking for the children as I couldn't find any caterer that would also provide food for my little guests) that I forgot to get my helper to collect the party balloons - the lady boss was frantically calling and trying to reach me the whole afternoon. I didn't even carry my phone with me so she only managed to reach me AFTER the party.

Over at our in-laws the following day, it was a small intimate affair with just under 30 guests (we had close to 100 guests at our place and we didn't even invite everyone due to space constraint). i'm hope everyone had a great time catching up with each other, over the delicious food.

Personally, it was great to see loved ones and old friends - many of whom we have not seen for a long time. Would be great if we all could meet up more often but unfortunately, we are all caught up with our own busy lives and the only opportunities we get to meet up are festive seasons, weddings, baby showers & sadly, funerals. So I guess in a (sad) way, I do appreciate social-networking tools like facebook - afterall, they do help us to 'see' what the others are up to in their lives although I'd much prefer finding out in person. However, I've found and rekindle so many friendships & family ties via facebook that its hard to imagine being without it.

Thank you all, who were present at our parties, for taking the time to come and say 'hi!' and for your generous gifts. Hope you had a great time (like us). well, 'nuff said... here are some of the photos of our parties.

Chace is one month old!

2009-09-10T07:23:00.003+08:00

4 weeks have gone by in a flash! look forward to partying the whole weekend!

what have we been up to?? adjusting mostly - trying to fit one child's schedule into the other. not easy...

will blog when we finally settle in with our new schedules...

updates

2009-08-21T12:38:00.006+08:00

i armed myself with 3 confinement cook books (+ bookmarked a couple of websites with confinement receipes) this time round since i anticipated no help whatsoever but until now, i have not really had the chance to use them. i've had someone bring me food (almost) every day. i feel really pampered and blessed to have so many who care for me (and my stomach). interestingly though, i do not really feel hungry even though i am nursing two. nevertheless, i enjoy slurping the soups (though they makes me perspire profusely each time) & yummy food that have been lovingly prepared by my mom (actually her helper), my mil (actually also the helper) and even my sis' mil (herself)!

other than that, i am so thankful that my parents willingly looked after #1 for me every morning last week (dh was then on half day leave) and having my mil pop by every morning this week to entertain #1 for a couple of hours, which gave me some time to breathe (& rest). going forward though, i will need to figure out how to care for the two of them on my own.

i took #2 for his scheduled DR appt this morning to check on his jaundice level and i'm glad that its coming down without having to do the phototherapy suggested by his PD. my li'l milk monster has put on weight again - 4.05kg; at this rate, he will be same weight as #1 in no time!

post delivery - 10 days on...

2009-08-20T11:11:00.005+08:00

without a doubt, my life has changed drastically - from the mom of a 2 yr+ toddler to a mom with a newborn & a 2 yr+ toddler. i have to work on my daily schedule from scratch - fitting in the newborn's feeding & sleeping timing with #1's schedule. fortunately, #2 has been good so far - he feeds well (bfing seems easier with subsequent children) and sleeps well - hopefully, it stays this way.

i'm tandem nursing the 2 children - even though it feels slightly weird to be nursing #1 coz of her size. overnight, she just seem to have 'grown up' - she now lies on my lap awkwardly but nevertheless, i still enjoy the bonding time and her sweet smile when she detaches and say 'mmm... i love mommy's milk - so yummy!'... with her, i don't need to be a slave to the pump because she helps to relieve my engorgement & clear the milk ducts - this allows me to have abundance of milk for both of them - evident from the weight that #2 is clearly putting on. when we discharged from the hospital last Wed, #2's weight was 3.4kg+ (dropped from the 3.6kg+ when he was born) and on Fri, when we went back for the Bili test (to check the jaundice level), he weighed 3.7kg+... the numbers definitely speak for themselves.

i feel immensely blessed with these two beautiful children - they are definitely the bestest gifts that God has given me (hopefully i still feel this way when they are teenagers... haha!). #1 shows clear affection for her younger sibling even though we can see that she is also adjusting - we try to give her as much attention as possible but when she acts up, we still deem it necessary to discipline her (to avoid spoiling her). adjusting, adjusting, adjusting... we need to do plenty of that in the next few weeks.

weight wise, i'm glad that i've already lost close to 10kg (meaning i already weigh less than when i found out about the pregnancy) and definitely already feel lighter... would be great to lose another 10kg though! :P glad to be able to fit into all my clothes once again!

we have a guest!

2009-08-19T11:39:00.005+08:00

or rather 2! it was really nice to have company after being 'confined' for the past couple of days... yes, I didn't stay in all the time (went grocery shopping, went over to my mom's place, etc etc) but it is nice to have some decent adult conversation (although it revolved around our children) while being stuck at home.

thanks for visiting and I'd love to have more company anytime!

birthing #2

2009-08-12T10:29:00.011+08:00

With God's grace & blessings, we welcome #2 to our family on 10 Aug 09 (lunar birthday: 20th day of the 6th month) - 0501hrs. Chace (meaning: Hunter) weighed 3680gm and measured 54cm at birth. see how happy Claire is, with her new sibling!

The Birth Story

I started feeling contractions around 2am on the morning on 10 Aug 09 - not knowing how regular or frequent the contractions should be, I decided to log onto the Internet to find out. I found a useful contraction timer online and used it to monitor my contractions for an hour. At 3am, I decided that I was indeed already in active labor and proceeded to wake dh up. fortunately, it was a public holiday and dh's mom was able to come over to watch Claire till morning while we headed for the hospital. by the time we reached the hospital, it was just past 3.30am. The nurse on duty did a VE for me and determined that I was 4cm dilated while dh saw to the hospital admission. Not knowing how long more I have to go and deciding then that the labor pains were already unbearable, I decided to ask for epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived around 4.15am and proceeded to insert catheter to relieve me of the pain. Shortly after, my water bag broke. The OB probably arrived just after 4.30am and after a couple of pushes, #2 was out.

Short & Sweet, isn't it... I'm glad that I did not have to be induced this time round but at the same time, disappointed that I have to depend on epidural again to relieve me of the labor pains. So my pain threshold is not as high as I thought after all...

new toy and new photos...

2009-07-26T13:19:00.009+08:00

happy birthday to me... :)

another year has gone by in a flash... hopefully i've also become another year wiser... july has always been my fav. month in a year since both our birthdays (dh & i) and our ROM anniversary fall in this month... with another few more days to go, we might just have another reason to love July... i.e. if #2 decides to come early. although we both would prefer not since we still have uncompleted work to do.

sweet DH got me the dSLR that i wanted as a pressie this year and we spent the morning having fun, taking photos as a family. its so nice to have crisp & clear photos as compared to what you get with a PNS camera - there's just no denying that u get better quality photos with a dSLR and here's the photo evidence!

as you can see, even our pets got into the (photo) action... i did macro shots of our fishes and it has been a while since chewy has nice clear photos (since he's such a bundle of energy and we only get blur photos trying to capture his movement!) and he clearly enjoyed being a photo subject!

home run...

2009-07-22T10:45:00.006+08:00

we are less than 3 weeks' from the arrival of #2 - in fact, our OB 'predicts' that i will go into labor next week based on the fact that #2 is already 60% engaged - i am totally not ready since i still have plenty to do at work.

on homefront, we are more or less ready - the baby cot was set up for C's use so that she will not roll over didi at night - and she has been co-operating by sleeping into the cot since it was up last weekend. i also spent some time sewing pillow cases for my 2 little babies last weekend - need to find more blue cloth though! we also bought a pack of newborn diapers to standby - anyone who has had a baby will know how much diapers they use in the initial months!

it has become increasing difficult for me to move around, no thanks to the bulge... even turning from one side to another on the bed is a chore! not to mention the numerous times i have to wake up each night to pee with the bb constantly pressing on my bladder. 38" is (hopefully) the biggest that i've ever been in my whole life - now i wonder how i'm going lose all those weight after delivery... *sigh*

sleepless again...

2009-07-17T06:14:00.004+08:00

another 4am and i'm up again - this time, awaken by the dog's sudden barking...

C has been exhibiting terrible behavior the past few days - whining and crying excessively for attention and refusing to co-operate at all! where has my li'l angel gone to? Coupled with my overloaded schedule & pressure to clear my production before i pop, i lost it too many times - screaming and caning her when she refuses to stop! i'm a BAD mother!! *sigh*... she is clearly testing our patience - is this the 'terrible twos stage' that so many talk about or is it because we are nearing the arrival of #2? i had the afternoon off today to think through the events of the past few days.

Her behavior is clearly attention seeking and us losing our temper definitely doesn't help at all! i refuse to end our day last night the same way we did the past few nights so we made that extra effort not to scold and speak gently to her at bedtime - it is evident that the gentle approach works since she did not cry nor scream in her sleep; something that she has been doing the prior few nights.

My poor li'l baby - i refuse to believe that there is such a thing as 'the terrible twos syndrome' and feel strongly that her behavior is due to jealously and insecurity, so I must remind myself of that constantly and not lose it anymore! It is no fun carrying such a big tummy, being short of sleep and having a punishing schedule - so i've decided to take a step back to breathe now... and savour our last few weeks together as two, before #2 arrives. Proritize, Proritize, Proritize - that's exactly what i need to do now!

sleepless in SG...

2009-07-14T04:36:00.003+08:00

Its 4am and I'm up again... I simply cannot understand why I have to keep waking up at unearthly hours - had a full day of training in the office today (my brain cells were ALL killed in the process) and by the time dh came around to pick me up, I was practically a walking zombie! We went to bed slightly after 10pm so that means I've only had 6 hours of sleep... *sigh*

I'm glad that my activities today will revolve only around C and not work... that would give my brain cells some time to recover! The upside of waking up at unearthly hours is that I usually find quiet time to clear some of the things that I need/want to do - today, I finally managed to sort out the (printed) photos from C's 2nd birthday party - a large # to be discarded as they are either duplicated or of 'unpleasant' angles. I want to continue working on the scrapbook but these printed photos are of the 'wrong size' so I will need to 'get them' to be of size that I want! As for her studio session, I still have not found the time to sieve through and select the ones that we want.

Considering that C's birthday is more than 3 months ago, you can probably imagine the amount of backlog that I have to clear - both on the homefront and my work! doesn't help that my all-in-one printer/scanner decides to conk out on me at this time!

With the impending arrival of #2, I really doubt I will be able to clear the backlog of work and we haven't even set up the baby cot! Over the past few weekends though, dh has done a great job repainting our living room area (C used my work rubber stamp and 'decorated' the walls)... I know it is hard work for him, simply because he is not born to do such 'laborious' work and I really appreciate the effort that he put in for us (normally, I would be the one who 'volunteers' for such chores, simply because I enjoy doing them much more than him!)

daddy's birthday

2009-07-11T06:26:00.011+08:00

C's daddy, i.e. this is the 3rd year that C is celebrating with her daddy - as for me, well - we've known each other since 1997 or so... so i can safely say, more than 10 times? hmm... next year this time, there will be four of us. :)

we are not that into big celebrations - usually its just dinner together as a family (and another two with the extended families) and we haven't even had a cake in years (dh is not a big fan of cakes)! thanks to a dear friend though, we have a cake this year! :P

so here's our feast for today - the in(famous) Sin Huat Crab Bee-Hoon (Lor 35 Geylang) with garlic prawns & some healthy vegg... yum yum!

close up of garlic prawns

dh's slice of mango cake (excuse C's messy hair - she just took her bath!)

some may argue that it is different when you do takeaways - maybe its the lack of ambience (of a dirty coffeeshop or waiting hours to order/get your food) or not being ripped off (the ave. bill per head drops to S$50 or less if you do takeaways as opposed to eating there and being hackled to order more food - sssshhhh!! dun tell danny i said that!). me, however, enjoy eating at home more coz i really don't fancy waiting for food, being ripped off nor 'fighting' with the crabs in public - though i must add that danny does a great job with the crabs and not much 'fighting' is required.

insomnia AGAIN!

2009-07-10T03:26:00.006+08:00

i seriously need to stop waking up at unearthly hour like 2, 3am in the mornings - i mean, i will probably to do lots of that when #2 is out but for now, what i really need is good sleep. i've been running on overdrive the past few weeks - first, with the two darlings at home falling sick, then with me realising that i am seriously running out of time to clear my work for the year. i end each day exhausted - either because 1) i've been training the maid 2) i've been spending heaps of time with #1 (and in my current state, it just totally tires me out) or 3) i've been seeing clients/running to the office to sort out my admin work. i collapse on the bed and just zone out in front of the tv, doze off and get woken up abruptly (either because i need to pee real badly or due to dh's snoring) at approximately the same time (almost) every night - 2am to 3am. then i am unable to fall back asleep - talking about vicious cycles!

you would probably suggest that i nap when dd naps but its just out of the question - when i am home with her, it normally means that i have tons of paperwork to sort out or that i am training the new maid (yes, new still - less than 1 month with us) so when dd naps, its usually the best time for me to 'accomplish' as much as possible. i love it when she takes 4 hours nap but that doesn't happen very often - if i'm lucky, once a week. the rest of the days, she will take an hour nap or the most, 2!

i have been getting a lot of questions about the new maid (mostly due to concern) since i've not posted much about her - well, no news is good news, isn't it? she's been relatively good as i've said in my previous post - doing what i need her to do (mostly)... but she is a bit of a grouch. i know she misses home (and her daughter) coz she has been crying herself to sleep and i really empathize with her so i encourage her to write and call home... dd is probably a constant reminder to her about her daughter (who is just a year older). it doesn't help that she doesn't have very much to do - so her mind has plenty of time to idle. i try to keep her busy and take her out when we go out but there's only so much i can do... sigh, anyone has 'homesick remedy' for her? i'm not sure if she can last 2 years at this rate.

writer's block

2009-07-01T07:16:00.002+08:00

I’ve always enjoyed writing – it serves as an outlet for me to express my thoughts and more importantly to record my memories; very important if you have a goldfish memory like me. I’m one of those who have cluttered thoughts almost all the time – too many random thoughts and by writing them down, I somehow get organized. This also applies to my work – I have to write down the things that I have to do all the time, otherwise they just get ‘forgotten’ amongst the clutter in my brain. Yes, I am a product of the multi-tasking generation…

Of late though, I find myself suffering from writer’s block – I just don’t know where to start. It doesn’t help that there’s not a lot going on in my life – with the latest H1N1 virus going around (& school holiday crowd everywhere), we’ve been staying home most of the time. At my present state, I fall into the ‘high-risk’ category, together with dd, and really, it is the last thing that we want to get infected with.

At the same time, my two babies at home took turns to fall ill so I have been ‘paying off’ the sleep debt together with them. We practically spent all our afternoons napping in the last one week!

With just over a month to go before we welcome the fourth member of our family, things are starting to get pretty busy – at work, I have to clear as much of my production as possible, sort out all the necessary admin work that I can and complete the training hours for the year. At home, I have to sort out those clothing that #2 will be able to inherit from his sister, get them hand washed by the maid and teach the maid some basic culinary skills so that she can help me out with the cooking during my confinement.

And ah, talking about confinement – its interesting how ALL the folks at home only worry about my meals when that is really the last thing on my mind. I mean how difficult can it be to brew some nutritious soup (just throw everything into the slow cooker) and whip out a dish or two (I don’t eat a lot remember?). I am a master chef after all. What I am genuinely concern about, is how I am going to take care of an active 2 year old who sticks to me like superglue when we are home, a newborn baby, breastfeed and get enough rest? Rest being the ‘KEY’ reason for doing confinement, isn’t it? I definitely welcome any help to come over to entertain my 2 year old during the 28 (or 40, if you like) days that I am supposed to be resting. Anyone?

On the home front, I am glad that we finally have a relatively decent domestic helper – I won’t need to worry about the cleaning in the house. She is Filipino and she understands us (though a bit slow to catch sometimes and a tad too forgetful). As per my previous posts, we are not fastidious employers – all we want is someone clean (we’re talking about her own personal hygiene – the previous one was really a disaster), honest, able to complete our list of chores with minimal supervision and understands us. She’s been okay so far – ‘cept for 2 things:

1) dd has not quite warmed up to her yet. I don’t need her to take care of dd 24-7; as long as dd is willing to play with her for short intervals (20 – 30 mins perhaps?) during the day, I would be able to get some breathing space. And that is all I need.

and

2) if you don’t give her instructions to do something, she’ll just sit there. So after she completes her morning chores, takes her bath and have her lunch, she’ll take afternoon naps. And she goes to bed at 8pm (its now 6.15am and she’s still not up yet) – good life working for us, isn’t it? I think she gets more sleep that I do!

#2 updates – at approximately 35 weeks’, I have put on a total of 5.6kg & #2 is estimated to be 2406g. He still refuses to let us do the 4D scan (to see his face)… and we still haven’t decided on his name!! Would it be Caleb, Corwin, Chase or Clyde?

battling the zzz monster

2009-06-11T17:11:00.007+08:00

we have been getting this a lot lately - li'l gal just refuses to sleep (whether its naptime or bedtime); she will happily battle with the 'zzz' monster until she can fight him no more and then conk out. that would be fine except that on some occasions, she is so exhausted that she will just whine and cry on and on... unable to fall asleep!

it happened again today - her normal nap time if we stay home is around 11am but she requested early in the morning to go over to my parents' place and i obliged her... and over there, her 'normal' nap time is closer to 1pm (since her cousins go to school at 12plus). however, up to 3pm today, she was still not willing to lie down for her nap (both her cousins were home since it was school holidays) so i did the next logical thing - i brought her home. she played by herself for a while, while i sorted out my emails and correspondence... and she came to me asking to watch telly - in order to get some peace (to complete my work), i switched on the telly in the living room and walked back to the study room. Less than 5 mins later (around 4pm), i walked out to see this...

talk about being exhausted... fortunately, our playdate today has been postponed!

updates on the domestic front

2009-06-10T11:54:00.009+08:00

if i've been quiet the past couple of weeks, its largely because i dun have time to post - the hired help is hardly any help - you can't imagine how glad i am that today will be her last day with us. i really pray and hope that the next one will be a genuine help instead of a burden like this one! some of her nonsense that i had to put up for the past few weeks:

- her 'attempts to get lost' - she was day-dreaming and did not get off the train when i did. i had to get the help of the station control staff to locate her (i was late for my meeting as a result!). they sent a message to all the stations to look out for her and fortunately, we found her! apparently, it did not scare her at all as she happily 'shopped' when i shopped - she was busy looking at the items on display and price tags instead of following me closely at the crowded malls. in a similar incident, she took an hour to get home from my mom's place when it should only take 30 mins max because she was again 'day-dreaming' and forgot to get off at the correct stop.

- her 'attempts to fall to death' - first time, she climbed on the parapet to hang the laundry as the laundry rope was damaged ; that incident freaked me out and i immediately called up the maid agent to ask her to explain in her language NOT to perform such a dangerous stunt since she could fall to her death. the 2nd time, she climbed up the ladder to remove the curtains for washing with the windows WIDE OPEN! enough is enough - i really don't want to wait for any accident to happen before taking action.

- her 'attempts to burn down my house' - she placed the tingkat (metal food container) into the microwave oven to warm up the food despite us already warning her previously never, ever place metal into microwave ovens.

i'm genuinely running out of time when it comes to finding help and if the next one that comes along is of similiar standard, then i seriously think that we will be better off with a part-time cleaner. God, pls help me!

update: she had to test my patience even on the last day with us - she didn't get off the bus AGAIN when i was on my way to 'return' her to the agency - i had to call DH and together, we drove along the bus route to try to locate her - we eventually found her at the bus depot (thankfully the bus doesn't go to woodlands checkpoint!). think her next employer better leave her at home or get her to wear a leash when they go out!

bb #2 scan @ 32 weeks

2009-06-09T11:39:00.002+08:00

our cheeky li'l boy covered his face the whole time during scanning and this was the only time he 'removed' his hands from his face... so we'll have to wait for the next visit to try the 4D scan!

for the record, i've put on about 5kg+ to date and based on estimate, our li'l one weighs in at 1916g - i'm very glad that most of the weight gain goes to him, instead of me!

another song

2009-05-22T13:14:00.002+08:00

one of the many songs that li'l one loves to sing

2009-05-21T10:51:00.003+08:00

waste of air, space and everything else...

2009-05-14T10:04:00.013+08:00

some of u will probably think i'm very elitist for writing such an entry... i apologise... but i can't help it. to me, people like my current domestic helper (imbeciles, i'd call them), are total waste of space, air, water, food and whatever else you can think of (resources, if i have to choose one word). seriously, why do such people exist in the world to compete with the rest of us with the limited resources that's available?

like a robot, she moves (i'd hardly consider her working) non-stop, from the moment she wakes till the time she goes to sleep at night. to the average person, she would appear to be very hardworking, cleaning all the time but is she really? my floors - still sticky after she finishes mopping... the crockery in the kitchen - still stained and dirty after she washes them... there is still dust in my room after she has finished sweeping and mopping! i seriously feel that she is wasting my water and detergent since she is unable to perform her most basic job requirement - cleaning.

she hears but doesn't listen - i've been telling (in fact, showing so it cannot be that she doesn't understand) her EVERYDAY since she started here to:

1) close the water containers tight so that it will not leak when you attempt to pour water out

2) put things back where she found them so that we can find them

3) not walk into the room with her dirty feet after she has mopped the floor

4) the list goes on...

but after 3 weeks here, things remain status quo. i'm exasperated, to be honest... to the point that i cannot be bothered to 'scold' her anymore. its just a total waste of my energy... Dear Lord, please just give me a new helper soon!

Maid woes revisited

2009-05-11T05:45:00.010+08:00

warning: extremely long entry

I bought the local papers this afternoon and read the article "My Maids of Horror – The New Paper” with great interest as it was definitely a topic that I can relate to (while mine is not as dramatic as the story reported). It has been two years since we employed our first domestic helper and we are already on our search for the fourth one. Before you ‘accuse’ us of being fastidious employers, please read on.

The Job Scope for our domestic helper:

- Cleaning/up-keeping our slightly-bigger-than-1,000 sq ft apartment

- minimal cooking (mainly for herself)

- caring for our 2 year old when we are busy (i.e. a couple of hours per day when I am at work); feeding, changing diapers/toileting and playing with her.

- caring for our small house dog (walking him once a day, ensuring he has his meals & water and bathing him twice a week)

- laundry and ironing

- washing the car once or twice a week (depending on her workload for the week)

She is paid the market rate for inexperience domestic helpers, with 1 off day per month (decided by the agency).

That’s it. Are we asking too much?

Let’s go back to the 1st domestic helper we hired – she was an Indonesian from the kampong (countryside), barely spoke and understand English. In fact, dh and I were picking up Bahasa much quicker than her picking up English, if not out of sheer desperation to communicate our instructions to her. I even bought her 3 translation dictionaries (Bahasa to English & English to Bahasa & a basic instruction communication book for domestic helpers) & sent her for english classes to help us communicate.

Truly, we understood that she was from the countryside and would require some ‘adjustment’ to our high-rise society and we gave her ONE WHOLE YEAR but there was still no improvement in her work. We give her credit for being hardworking (always cleaning) but that was it – nothing else we can give her credit for. After one whole year, I was still ranting over the same mistakes she made in the beginning. And when we sent her back, we found our things among her possessions.

We then moved on to the second domestic helper – this time choosing instead, one from the Philippines, after deciding that our 1 year old would need someone who can speak English since she was starting to talk. This lady was about 10 years older (we don’t like young helpers) and as a result, she was frequently ‘complain’ about body aches and headaches. In addition, she was really forgetful (she puts it to her age) and hardly (bothers to) remember our instructions. She was also really emotional and would burst into tears when we reprimanded her for doing anything wrong (heck, she starts tearing even when we praise her!). On the upside, she was rather quick in her work and the house was relatively well kept. To that, we definitely give her credit.

However, after being with us for about 10 months, she insisted on returning home – she said her mom was terribly sick. We did not have the heart (nor the reasons) to hold her back and thus allowed her to return home 3 days after she made that request, without finishing her 2 year contract and leaving us without a domestic helper once again.

In case you think she was great, she wasn’t. On her 1st ‘off-day’, she sneakily brought home a mobile phone, even though we had clearly expressed from the beginning that we were against her owning one. I found out only after a couple of days when I caught her texting someone. When I discover the mobile phone, she claims that her cousin gave the phone to her and that it was a damaged set - she could only text and not talk with the phone. I confiscated the phone (since it was understood from the start that she would not be allowed to own one) but allowed her to have it back when she went for her next ‘off-day’ so that she could communicate with her cousin & family (she had bought a pre-paid card for the phone after all and it was be a waste of her money if the credits expire). The 2nd ‘off-day’ was when she came back and told us (in tears) that her mom was seriously ill and made the urgent request to go home. Thus, I allowed her to keep the mobile phone by her side so that she could be updated on her mother’s progress and ‘miraculously’, I noticed that her mobile phone was in working condition and she could talk to her brother for hours.

Despite her imperfections (we know that its not possible to find a perfect maid), we did not have major issues keeping her with us until her contract is up. We even gave her the option to go home to see her mom and returning to work for us. She was, however, adamant about not coming back as she was unsure of her mom’s condition (her mom has since passed away).

Onto our 3rd domestic helper – one from the Philippines again since our 2 year old is now capable of communicating her needs/wants clearly in English. My family has hired domestic helpers for as long as I can recall (both my parents worked and I was left to the care of these ‘foreign talents’ since young) and I have never met a Filipino who did not speak and understand BASIC English (she calls a ball – balloon and doesn’t know what is a pail/basin/bucket) like this helper that we have now. It is clear that this lady is from the countryside and did not receive the much-touted training the agent claimed to have given. E.g. she used one piece of cloth to clean my entire house, i.e. the cloth was not washed at all. I had to repeatedly ask her to carry a small pail with her so that she could rinse the cloth after wiping surfaces. In a separate incident, I SHOWED and EXPLAINED to her twice how to switch on my washing machine. Its no rocket science, really – there are 2 power points in my yard where the washing machine is located – one clearly with the washing machine wiring connected. All she needed to do was to turn on the power point, press ‘on’ and followed by ‘start’ – that’s all, 3 steps! The 3rd time, I asked her to show me how she would do it and she turned on the power point WITHOUT the wiring and attempted to press ‘on’ on the washing machine!

In the past two weeks, we have tried speaking slowly and using simple words, and even actions but she still doesn’t understand us. We can’t communicate with her, my parents can’t communicate with her and Claire sure can’t communicate with her (in fact, I think Claire knows more English than her – to think her bio-data states that she was educated in English for TWELVE years) and we are not about to start learning Tagalog.

So we are now on our search for the fourth domestic helper – this time round, insisting on interviewing them over the phone before deciding.

So do we have too high expectations? Are we fastidious? Or are we just unlucky to get such ‘quality’ helpers? I do beg to differ – everyone I know who has gone through the agony of hiring domestic help has a story or two to share.

I really do think that the industry needs to be more regulated. My nagging thoughts:

- How did these maids get ‘short-listed’ to be domestic helpers or is there no short-listing criteria at all?

- Are we really getting the ‘leftovers’ since countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan is reputed to pay these domestic helpers more?

- Why is it that they can pass the English test set by MOM when it is obvious that their English standard is hardly there? Is it because the maid agencies provide them with the ’10 years series’ to memorise? Shouldn't it be an oral test instead of a written test since employers hardly communicate with their helpers in writing?

- Shouldn’t there be some form of training provided by these agencies that take a payment from us every time we get a maid from them? Basic training like how to switch on power points (since they are mostly from the countryside), how to mop floors and clean houses?

- How much truth is there in the ‘bio-data’ provided by the agencies since that is really our only point of reference without the opportunity to meet and interact with the maid in person (except for transfer maids)?

we've been married for....

2009-05-10T07:50:00.005+08:00

... 6 years today (counting from the customary date)! over here, many people have 2 wedding dates - one whereby they are legally married and another whereby they are 'recognised' as married by the older folks. we normally celebrate the 2nd date since the 1st date falls in our birthday month and there's just too many celebrations in that month... (just to satisfy your curiousity, with that date in july - we would been married for 7 years this year)

so this was us 6 years ago at The Fullerton Singapore (where our wedding banquet was held), sans kid(s)...

Happy Anniversary Laogong... looking forward to many more happy years being married to you!

grandpa's birthday...

2009-05-01T14:57:00.005+08:00

can u count the # of candles on his birthday cake? Dad was very happy to celebrate his birthday with his 3 grandchildren... :)

happy birthday dad! may you always be happy and healthy!

unfair maid agency practises and lousy maids

2009-04-27T10:41:00.010+08:00

first up, is there an avenue i can complain about maid agencies to?? pls email me if there is.

forgive my ranting, just have to get these off my chest (you can ignore this post if u don't want to read abt my complains)

there has always been a lot of press about employers who treat their maids unfairly/unkindly... but how come i hardly read any about unfair practices to employers? unfair practices include those by the maid agencies and insurance companies - i'm sure i am not the only one putting up with such nonsense.

we 'collected' the maid on saturday afternoon so effectively, she has been with us for 2 days. for the first time in my life, i met a filipino with sub-standard english. the agency INSISTED that that was the english standard of ALL filipinos. are you kidding me? my parents have hired filipino domestic helpers for more than 20 years and i have NEVER met one who has such lousy understanding of english (my previous one was also from philippines and she speaks/understand much better english!). in her biodata, she indicated she studied for 12 years (which meant that she completed college) in ENGLISH - hardly believeable! my two year old li'l princess probably speaks/understand more english than her. in addition to her atrocious english, she is slow as a tortoise - we left her to clean the bathroom y'day morning to have our breakfast downstairs (at the coffee shop) - 45 mins later when we came back, she was still cleaning the bathroom. in the afternoon (at 2.30pm), i gave her some clothes (mainly dh's work clothes) to iron and we went out at 3.30pm. before we left the house, we told her to prepare her own dinner and have her dinner as we were dining out (and showed her all the necessary equipment/food she would require). But when we came back around 9pm, she was STILL ironing AND hasn't had her dinner!

update: the owner of the maid agency called and asked us to give this maid a 1mth trial - offered us a FOC replacement then if she is still not up to the job.

good timing...

2009-04-17T12:30:00.005+08:00

my li'l princess went down for her nap at the right time today - she must know we'll be heading out; going for a complimentary 'positive tots' trial class with one of her mates later. i expect her to be up in another half hour or so and i'll have plenty of time to give her lunch + get her ready to go out. i even managed to complete filing my taxes (the hard part, i.e. consolidating the receipts for claims, was done early in the week) and had my own lunch.

so what else were we up to y'day??

i gave her her first 2-year old haircut! :P

how does she look? she has been 'complaining' that she feels hot but refuses to let me tie up her hair. i'd love for her to grow her hair out so she can tie her hair into a nice bun when she starts ballet classes (next year when she turns three) but obviously, this gal thinks otherwise. oh well, anything to make her happy!

i also made a call to the agency to get updates on our new domestic helper and seems like she might be in by next week! let's keep our fingers crossed that she will be a good one... frankly, i am quite tired of changing and training helpers!

what a morning!

2009-04-16T14:56:00.006+08:00

the maid's gone home - nope, i didn't send her back; she wanted to go back - she SAYS her mom is terribly ill and so she wants to go back and see her. she told us on sunday after she came back from her rest-day, we booked her a ticket on monday and she was off y'day - just like that. that leaves me without a domestic helper until the new one arrives (we went to the agency to pick a new one on tuesday).

i've not done the household chores for a while now (since last july when this one arrived) so it took me a while to locate the necessary 'equipment'. i'm glad that li'l one was co-operative and 'allowed' me to go about doing my chores while she 'entertained' herself... i managed to do the laundry, mop the house, change the bedsheets, bathe the dog (i couldn't locate his towels and had to use the rag instead to dry him) and cooked lunch for us (li'l one & me) and dessert for everyone - not bad for someone who is 6 months' pregnant but has a tummy which more closely resembles one who is due soon, eh? li'l one has been asleep for almost two hours now and i'm hoping she naps for another hour... that would give me some time to rest!

to digress a little, why isn't there a 'penalty' for domestic helpers who break their contracts? afterall, they leave their employer high and dry - not everyone has the luxury of taking time off work just like that to run their household when the domestic helper takes off. shouldn't the employers be 'protected' in some way?

birthday party @ Frisk n Romp

2009-04-11T09:40:00.008+08:00

i had thought long and hard how to celebrate Claire's 2nd birthday :

- a small, intimate home party with some close friends? -> then i'll need to prepare food (not sure if i'm up to it in my current state)

- book the function room and invite the whole kampong? -> not sure if its a good weekend to have a function since its close to Easter and most pple will probably need to be in church.

in the end, i decided to just invite Claire's regular play-date kahkis and some of my colleagues. for the children, i organised for them to spend some time playing at Frisk 'n' Romp (indoor playground with scheduled hourly programme).

my next headache - the food! as the party room for Frisk 'n' Romp is only available between 3.30 - 5.30pm (and the food provided is only for the kids), i had to think of alternatives. i enquired at all the food outlets within the complex and finally decided on Starbucks since they had an outdoor dining area on the same level as Frisk 'n' Romp and would be more convenient for the guests to move from one area to the other. i was worried that it would rain as it had been raining around the same time (almost) every day for the past few weeks - and it did! thankfully, God made his presence felt once again - the rain cleared up once the food was ready for our guests! i'm glad that dh took some time off work to play with Claire inside Frisk 'n' Romp - that allowed me to spend time doing the decor and set up with the Starbucks staff! Many thanks to mummy G who brought along her rented helium tank and helped me with the balloons! what do we do without good friends like her?

haven't got the full set of photos from Albert - here's a preview (some photos were taken by me - clearly you will be able to see the difference with a pns camera vs a dslr as well as skills of an amateur vs a professional!)

many thanks to all who took precious time off to celebrate with us! hope everyone enjoyed the food and had fun!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2009-04-09T21:59:00.005+08:00

My li'l baby (yes, she'll always be my baby!) turns TWO today! Happy Birthday sweetheart! May you always be healthy and happy.... Mummy & Daddy LOVES you!

party photos coming up soon!

what's happening today?

2009-04-09T01:16:00.005+08:00

- Opening of Tampines One (3rd shopping mall in Tampines Town) - my wishes came true : i had hoped for a cold storage for groceries & a HSBC bank branch to do my banking! no need to travel to parkway parade anymore!

- Screening of 'The Sniper' starts today - starring the 'Nude Photo Scandal' Edison : i think many young gals swooned over THE photos (and wished that they were the ones frolicking with him)

- Screening of 'Fast & Furious 4' - once upon a time... I love fast cars and quick action - now that I've become a mother, I have to value my life and consider the risks that I can take! (wished I had sky jumped in uni. days! doubt i'll ever have a chance to do that in this lifetime)

Most importantly... my baby turns TWO today!

birthday celebration part #1

2009-04-07T06:35:00.009+08:00

she loves the barney cake (actually she chose it)

with her two cheeky cousins

with my sis aka her godma

family photo (incomplete)

serving cake to her godma

since Barney cannot be the main lead in the main party, I decided to order a small cake featuring him and his friends for our family celebration - my sis' two boys are in afternoon session so they all cannot join us on the actual day and thus a separate celebration. it was nothing fanciful, just a simple cake cutting and present opening session at my parents' place... (in case you are wondering, two 'men' are missing - my BIL has evening classes and dh was away for reservist training)

anyway, i think kids enjoy their birthdays tremendously since they are in the limelight (okay, maybe not all kids - some are shy by nature and only like to be surrounded by familiar faces) - Claire is definitely one of them. :) she keeps chanting... birthday cake, happy birthday to me, open presents... etc.

2nd birthday photoshoot

2009-04-04T10:10:00.002+08:00

preview of our studio photos...

pregnancy discomfort

2009-04-02T01:36:00.003+08:00

I’m awoken again – this time, by bad stomach cramps. As my eyes slowly get used to the darkness, I search for the numbers on the clock – its 1 am. This is the 2nd time this week that I’m getting the stomach cramps. Is it something I ate today (and that day) that didn’t quite agree with my stomach or that steep flight of stairs I was forced to take during today’s seminar (I felt cramps too while climbing up those steps)? Or worse, a sign of something unfortunate impending? I don’t know.

I popped a couple of bismac (hoping that its because of something I ate) but just can’t get back to sleep… so here I am again. Our friend’s 1st IVF procedure was unsuccessful and they are going to try again. Yesterday, another good friend shared about her ‘missed miscarriage'. I feel deeply for them, even though I have never been on such a roller-coaster ride. You and I cannot possibly understand the pain and heartache they are going through because we have simply never been there before (unless you have – then my heart also goes out to you).

I think about all those who abandon their babies/children and those who so desire to have one of their own but are unable to – and I can’t help but feel unjust even though I know God has plans and reasons for everything.

I was not ready before but He granted me my desire when I was - TWICE. At the back of mind though, I get reminded of a family member whose foetus stopped growing at around 5th month (where I am currently) and I can only pray and hope that this pregnancy will be smooth sailing and I will carry His child to term.

birthday presents

2009-03-31T11:32:00.005+08:00

since li'l one's birthday is just over a week away, she has started receiving birthday presents... first one was from dear daddy (kitchen set from toys'r'us) & the 2nd one is from aunty audrey who flew the present all the way from OZ, together with some supplies of rafferty garden! thank you aunty audrey! have a safe & fun trip to africa!

busy weekend!

2009-03-31T10:40:00.006+08:00

what a busy weekend it was!

we started off with JK's early birthday celebration on fri - a small, cozy home party which we feel honoured to be invited to! it was such a heartwarming sight when mummy L and daddy BK took photos with the 7 toddlers that were present - it almost felt like mummy L gave birth to all 7 of them!

on sat, we attended Glady's big birthday part held "with a pinch of salt" - what a cute name for a cafe! dh and i passed by this cafe previously as we frequently visit the marine fish shop located in the vicinity for our supplies and we have always wanted to try it. mummy G and daddy E booked the whole place and we enjoyed an afternoon of good (junk) food - definitely a place to visit again!

we ended off the weekend with yummy lunch @ one of our family's usual haunts - keppel club's chinese restuarant: peony jade with the in-laws and another small, cozy BBQ party at dinner time held in the bungalow at our club to celebrate Jesse's birthday. actually i love small parties - you get the opportunity to interact with people on a 'deeper' level as opposed to bigger ones. unfortunately (or fortunately?), since i have a large circle of friends and that time is a luxury to me - it is virtually impossible to have small parties without 'leaving' anyone out!

thank you to all 3 families for including us in the joyous celebrations and we hope that all the 3 kids enjoyed their special day and love the presents we've picked!

and photos next!

好

2009-03-27T14:33:00.005+08:00

i've been asked this a lot recently - what's the gender of #2? when i give my answer, i usually get this response 'good! can close shop already...' funny how we have been 'brain-washed' by our gah men that 2 is the magic number (that was what our parent's generation were told) and the consequence? we have to import 'foreign talent' now... to make up for the 'lack of offsprings' - so much for having foresight!

so i say, if you can afford it - have more! i know that we all want to give the best to our young ones - but i believe that we can make the most out of the limited resources that (almost) everyone has. we (dh & i) are far from wealthy but we do have the luxury of me not having to slog it out to contribute to the family finances (as with many of my friends who are SAHM). this allows me to spend time with our li'l ones in their formative years - sure, we can do with a bigger house, a bigger car or more luxury goods, who doesn't? but i believe material things can come later and being there for my child(ren) in their first few years is far more important. sure, C is not enrolled in the best school, doesn't have the best toys nor the most expensive clothes but at the end of the day, does all these matter? i believe that the times we get to spend together is worth much more than all these, don't u?

counting blessings...

2009-03-27T08:13:00.001+08:00

Its 4am and I’m awoken by my usual urge to relief myself – as I get up and walk to the bathroom, my dreams are still twirling vividly in my mind – my dear friend, you write so well!

I read a good friend’s blog earlier today and after going through some of the entries, felt like kicking myself – how come I did not pick up her unhappiness in the last few months? We normally catch up over messenger and while I noticed her ‘quietness’ online, I wrote it off to ‘busy with work’ and ‘strict company policies’ (many companies do not allow ‘social tools and websites’ – think chat tools, friendster and facebook) – never did I expect all that heartache she has been going through and I feel really bad about not ‘being there’ for her.

My dear friend, you are the reason why I am still bfing my li’l one today, the one who gave me heads-up how tough my bfing journey will be when I just started and the one who gave me the support and strength to carry through up till now! When C was having eating (or rather, not eating) problems, you too shared your wisdom with me! While it has since been a couple of months and your ‘wounds’ are probably slowly healing, I’ve started praying for your recovery and that God will answer your heart’s desire in good time as he has answered mine. Please slow down your pace and take good care of your health in the meantime!

Later today, we (dh & I) will also probably find out if another one of our good friend’s IVF procedure was a success (there is a 2 weeks’ waiting period). I pray for them – for the implantation to be a success and for the wife to carry the baby/ies to full term.

It is in times like this that I slow down (even at 4am!) and thank the Lord – it is so easy to take Him and His work for granted in our hectic lives but He has blessed with me in more ways than I can possibly keep count of. While I grumble about my weight and the constant need to scratch and pee, don’t be mistaken… I AM GRATEFUL! I KNOW that the Lord has been kind to me.

‘Dear Lord, thank you for all the good grace you have shown me! Please give me the patience, strength and wisdom to carry through in my daily responsibilities of bringing up the children that you have given me. At the same time, please watch over all the expectant mothers so that they may all have smooth pregnancies & healthy babies. Please bless those who desire with the same blessings you have given me. Amen!’

birthday celebration preparation!

2009-03-23T13:03:00.006+08:00

how time flies... our li'l darling will turn 2 in less than 3 weeks' time! so what else can i be up to, other than planning her birthday party? we (actually, yours truly) decided to have a beach themed party this year - starting with a play session for the li'l ones at Frisk'n'Romp, cake cutting (since some of C's fren will be going home after that play session) and followed by a BBQ by the beach!

i'm still in the midst of consolidating the guest rsvp list, personalizing the goody bags for C's frens, finalizing the cake design and confirming the food order so if you've been invited, pls rsvp the soonest (and NO GATECRASHING pls! - i will totally make you feel out of place and uninvited! :P)

what do you think of these cupcakes?

party season begins!

2009-03-21T13:14:00.002+08:00

its the time of the year where we start getting truckload of invitations to birthday parties since we hang out largely with others whose children are born around the same time as C. Ju Xian (cousin of C's cousin) has the honor of being the 1st birthday boy we celebrate with for this year... we had a great time at Gogo Bambini - thanks for inviting us!

lunar birthday

2009-03-18T09:53:00.004+08:00

according to the chinese, li'l one should be 3 this year... and her lunar birthday is on the twenty-second of the second month, which is today!

some of her li'l frens had planned to visit the zoo and we decided to 'gate-crash'! our annual zoo pass will be expiring at the end of this month and dh is not in favor of me renewing since i probably won't be able to go too often in the later part of this year so this may well be our last visit to the zoo for the year - i wanted to let li'l one try out the new water play area within the children's section of the zoo at least once. interestingly, even though she is quite a water baby, she didn't really enjoy the water play area (maybe its because my helper was the one accompanying her instead of me!) anyhow, we can always resume our membership after #2 turns 6 mths (which is when li'l one will turn 3 and will not enjoy FOC admission anymore)

after our zoo outing, we headed to town for some retail therapy as i wanted to buy some items from Daiso (a japanese concept store which really sells things from china for a cheap S$2 p/item) before heading home to cook the 'customary' mee-sua for li'l one.

as always, photos...

bb #2 gender update

2009-03-17T13:34:00.002+08:00

can you spot the spout of the 'teapot?

recent photos...

2009-03-01T00:30:00.004+08:00

cheeky gal at her fav. playground (or maybe just the most frequently visited one!)

macro shot at the same playground

my li'l gal is growing up...

2009-03-01T00:13:00.008+08:00

*sniffles*... we have been co-sleeping for almost coming to 2 years now - and it is only a matter of time to move our li'l gal to her own room/space. our bedroom/bed now feels empty w/o her - strange even! but with my growing need for space and that impending arrival of #2, better now than later! afterall, i read that its common for #1 to feel insecure and regress when #2 arrives so i want to give her plenty of lead time. its been almost one week (we started on mon) since she started to 'sleep on her own' - the first 3 nights, i slept in her room with her and for the past 3 nights, i returned to my own room once she fell asleep but went back to sleep with her around 6+ in the morning so that she still 'wakes up with me'. i simply cannot explain the joy that i derive from getting her hugs and kisses when she awakes in the morning - its not as if she doesn't hugs and kiss me during the day but her big, lovely smile, the first thing in the morning, just brightens up my day!

recently, many people have been asking me if i am still breastfeeding so once and for all - yes! i am... and i don't intend to wean off li'l one until she is ready and i'm even prepared to nurse both my babies together (yes, #1 is still my baby and will always be - only a parent will understand that). at the same time, i am also prepared to end my nursing journey with her if she wants to - i've started giving her fresh goat milk as an alternative - while she is willing to drink it, she still prefers nursing so for now, i'll just keep going... no matter how tired i am or how sore i feel - i will not shortchange her in any way - because she is my dearest baby!

herd instincts?

2009-02-25T01:20:00.006+08:00

heard 2 pieces of good news today - 2 of my colleagues will soon join the ranks of 'motherhood'! i'm VERY happy for both of them... interestingly, they are due one after another (so that makes 4 consecutive months AGAIN)! seems like the baby dust is making another round in my office (when i had C two years ago, there was also one birth every month for 4 consecutive months!)

*dear lord, pls keep all of us safe throughout our pregnancies and help us to birth strong and healthy babies*

favourite words

2009-02-25T01:16:00.007+08:00

li'l one's speech development is quite impressive (at least to me) and her favourite words currently are 'AGAIN' e.g.

- Claire run away AGAIN

- don't want aunty AGAIN

& 'Claire DO' whenever she wants to do something on her own.

taking time to...

2009-02-23T01:34:00.004+08:00

stay fit! prior to having my li'l princess, i was a regular gym-goer/swimmer. it is in my blood to keep moving (or just walking) as i cannot bear to be over a certain weight at any time. unfortunately, since she came along, my own fitness has taken a step back (in fact, even few steps back). i just cannot find the time (or sometimes, the energy) to exercise. its something i deeply regret and that i always agonize over!

even though i am not the sort who'd make a new year resolution and stick to it (lack of determination mostly), keeping fit will be one of my focus for this year - largely due to the fact that i've come to realise that my stamina has really declined with age and it totally freaks me out. hence i've taken the 1st step by enrolling in an aqua-aerobics class (bearing in mind that at this stage, there are not many exercises i can carry out safely!).

i had a great hour today, doing a relatively comfortable workout and boy, does it feel good! i am looking forward to the next 11 sessions & who knows, i may even continue to do the classes until the day i pop (that would be exactly 2 rounds of enrollment on my part)! since my exercise regime has been practically non-existent in the last two years, i am not pushing myself that hard but i am slowly working towards a regular 3x a week exercise schedule all the way to my due date!

baby #2 updates (i)

2009-02-16T00:07:00.007+08:00

saw 2 OB for 2 consecutive weeks - last week to do the OSCAR (one stop clinical assessment of risk) test for down's syndrome and today, for my 'regular' scheduled visits. the OSCAR test is really not compulsory and i was really not keen to do it - the OB, on the other hand, 'encourage' me to do so for a piece of mind, despite the fact that i really do not fall into the 'high-risk' category (its really good money for them - cost an additonal $500 - almost!).

anyhow, to make my 'money's worth', i asked the OB last week if he could tell baby's gender - his answer? 'i'm right 80 - 90% of the time and i think u're carrying a boy but... there's still a 10 - 20% chance that i'm wrong'!

on my scheduled visit today, OB tried to scan for the gender as promised in the previous appt... unfortunately, li'l one wasn't too co-operative and kept the legs closed - after 'disturbing' li'l one (by tapping on my womb) for a good ten minutes, he spotted a li'l bird and said 'i'm guessing its a boy (he's 60% sure only)... but don't tell anyone yet!'...

so let's poll... should i believe that #2 will be a boy?

milestones and more

2009-02-09T00:38:00.003+08:00

my li'l princess is fast approaching her 2nd birthday and i realised that i've not been tracking her milestones for some time now... so i'm going to 'attempt' listing down (from memory) all the way from my last record in Oct 08 till now... starting with the good ones

tells 'stories' in both mandarin & english - she speaks in sentences (though not always grammatically correct and probably cannot differentiate between the two languages) ALL DAY LONG - yes, the only time i get peace and quiet is when she is sleeping
puts on her own clothings, e.g. pants, shirt, socks and shoes (though not always correctly, e.g. sometimes both legs on the same side of her pants)
answers questions correctly (e.g. 'what is ur name?', 'how old are you?', parts of her body)
feeds herself (though really messy)
plays imaginatively with her toys ('talks' on the phone, 'feeds' her dolls/bears)
knows her (frequently seen) friends by their name
has an amazing vocabulary
completes familiar songs/rhymes
recognise familiar words on the flashcards
tries to count
differentiates her story books (know which book contains which story)
weight is finally back on the percentile charts (at abt 15%)

as for the bad ones (fortunately, a short list and hopefully, will not get longer!)

started displaying 'terrible two' syndromes (which i largely ignore in an attempt to 'discourage' the behavior) e.g. cry/scream/whine for something - i'd ignore her until she stops
started 'complaining' - all of a sudden, start to dislike the maid and want her out of her sight (i'm not sure if this is a sign that the maid is mistreating her and i'm actually quite wary now to leave her alone with the maid)
refuses to let the maid give her her meal

liverpool supporter

2009-02-06T10:35:00.004+08:00

dh 'insists' that li'l princess must be a liverpool supporter so he bought her her very own jersey...

hong kong/macau trip

2009-01-30T08:59:00.002+08:00

we usually have our reunion dinner with our respective families earlier and take off for a short getaway during CNY as dh hardly has any opportunity to take leave during the year (he goes to work even when he is unwell and on mc). after much deliberation, we decided to travel to hong kong/macau to see how other 'chinese' cities celebrate CNY, which on the hindsight was a great decision (we booked our holiday in sept) since i'm still in the 1st trimester and really shouldn't be doing long distance/3rd world country travellling.

we really packed light this trip as compared to previous ones - one luggage for ALL our barangs (it was less than 23kg) and we didn't even bring along the stroller which is a mighty amazing accomplishment considering that we had to bring along li'l one's cooker, food, diapers and multiple change of clothes + winter wear for everyone!

i believe it was the cold weather that 'helped' increase li'l one's appetite as she managed to finish (almost) the whole bowl of noodles by herself! li'l princess' highlight of the trip was definitely meeting mickey mouse 'in the flesh' - and as for us, just spending quality time together as a family was great!

as always, let the photos do the talking... enjoy!

a whole load of fun!

2009-01-29T08:13:00.006+08:00

GONG XI FA CAI everyone!

hope that CNY has been great for everyone so far! we are still in stanley ho's land and i'm overloaded with 'wanton mien' - probably something i'm not going to touch/order for the next one month!

the weather is fantastic (i *love* cold!) and its great to be enjoying quality time with dh and li'l one - this will probably be our last vacation in a long while unless we can squeeze in one more trip in my 2nd trimester (and i'm thinking 'taipei'! right now)

we'll be on our flight back tonight and photos will be coming up soon!

the best job in the world

2009-01-19T15:23:00.004+08:00

some time last week, this article came out in the local papers - the queensland tourism board is looking for someone to be a care-taker for one of the islands on the great barrier reef! within hours of news break, the site crashed due to overwhelming response!

if this position came about a couple of years back, i would jump at the opportunity! afterall, who in the right mind will reject a pay packet of A$150,000 for 6 months, with paid accommodation, transport and return airfare - mainly to blog about the fantastic island living?!?! i love the gorgeous beaches, relaxing lifestyle and mind-boggling number of activities available down under...

go apply for the job, if you don't have a care in the world and dun mind being paid that obscene amount of money to enjoy yourself for 6 months!

baby #2

2009-01-16T11:00:00.002+08:00

we were unable to see baby #2 during the 1st visit scans as there were 'interference' with the signals - even the heartbeat was inaudible - and as a result, i was worried for 2 weeks! fortunately, we had clear scans today - Dr Tan even did the 4D scans and gave us a copy of our li'l caterpillar. he claims that he will be able to tell us the gender at our next appt in 4 weeks' time! :)

here's what baby #2 looks like at 9w3d...

heartbeat : 167bpm

size : 4.09cm

1st day at (play)school

2009-01-06T10:29:00.002+08:00

the original intention was to have li'l one go for playgroup twice a week when i need to go office so we enrolled her in the school, got the new uniforms and even paid the fees. this was her on the 1st day of (play) school - so happy and at ease - i felt very relieved that she took to 'school' so well! she actually woke up on time and the 1st thing she said was - 'go school, go school!'... but i believe that having a familiar face around definitely helps!

UNFORTUNATELY, the weekend after the 1st 2 days of 'school', her grandma (婆婆〕was shoved at a crowded place, fell and broke her thigh bone as a result. after several days of consideration, i decided to delay school by another term or two so that i can go over to take care of mom until she gets better.

1st zoo visit of the new year

2009-01-04T09:22:00.004+08:00

we have 3 months more to our zoo membership so we will have to fully utilize it - since the weather was wonderful, i managed to convince daddy tan to bring us to the zoo today. my intention was to check out the newly opened 'kidzworld'. i like it - the facilities look really fun and i definitely will bring li'l one to come back and play on a weekday (so that its not crowded). we also took the newly opened boat ride - surprisingly, we had the whole boat to ourselves despite being a crowded sunday at the zoo!

1st day of the new year

2009-01-01T09:11:00.002+08:00

since we stay in such close proximity to the airport, it is one of our fav. haunts - there's aircon (for hot days), good selection of food choices and plenty of space for li'l one to run around - what's not to like?

we decided to have our breakfast there and also take the opportunity to bring li'l one to check out the mickey mouse display that so many of her friends have already gone to visit. see how happy she was to take photo with the mickey mouse!

happy new year!

2008-12-31T06:09:00.000+08:00

can't believe how time just flies by - seems like y'day that the world 'reportedly' was going to end because of some Y2K bug - its been almost a decade since! anyway, i never bother with new year resolutions because i forget them faster than u can say 'what was that you said?'... but I do wish that everyone will have a better 2009 - even with the economical crisis looming! i do not think that recessions are big deals really because 'what goes up must come down' and vice-versa.

have a swell time!

presents, presents...

2008-12-30T10:25:00.008+08:00

and more presents! is it any wonder that children enjoy festive seasons? while they may not understand the true meaning of x'mas yet, who can resist ripping off wrappers to reveal the surprises within? dd loves chanting 'new toys, new toys' non-stop nowadays...

the 1st two presents that dd received this year...

see how happy li'l one is with her presents!

more presents = more smiles...

photo with x'mas tree at grandma's house

merry x'mas!

2008-12-24T16:49:00.004+08:00

wishing everyone a great time filled with love, laughter, good food & lots of gifts!

the day after...

2008-12-18T20:48:00.008+08:00

its our 'usual' playdate day but unfortunately, the group size is shrinking by the weeks as more and more toddlers get packed off and sent to 'sch'! we have also decided that li'l one will go to 'school' starting from Jan - however, she will only go on two days - tue & wed *which are days that i will most probably have to go to office and there will be no one who can care for her while i'm away* so we can still continue our playdates!

anyway, we wanted to go cycling today with our tods but the weather was not exactly agreeable so we ended up in an indoor playground - not that i have any problems with that - afterall, we did buy a package for use there!

the indoor playground has a scheduled activity every hour so while we were there, we made a x'mas card for the gramps, listened to a x'mas story & li'l one 'colored' the snowman picture that was provided. :)

i shall just leave you to enjoy the photos...

i've been blessed...

2008-12-18T06:53:00.004+08:00

once more!! the regular meetup kah-kis were just talking about this last week... about how as we move further away from the newborn stage, the less inclined we would be to have another one! one of us even set the dateline for june 09 to hit the jackpot (its not me! i'm terrible with datelines!)!

so now i have an explanation for the weight gain, the sore nipples when li'l one nurses and my craving for meat! bring me the churrascaria anytime! i now have a legitimate reason to pig out! :P

on a more serious note, will i have enough love to go around? will i have the time and energy to chase after a active toddler and at the same time, change nappies & nurse every hour? how will li'l one take to her new sibling? and most importantly - will the new sibling be a 'meimei' or 'didi' for li'l one? i suppose - only time will tell!

we spent more than 3 million this weekend!

2008-12-08T12:24:00.007+08:00

no, we didn't put our names on a new property and no, we did not strike lottery!

all we did was to spend the weekend away, in batam, to enjoy quality time together as a family. the exchange rate is approximately S$1 to 7,500 indonesian rupiah... so that explains how much we spent eh? we had a complimentary night stay, thanks to mil's hotel card again, paid for an extra night and upgraded to a king sized bed since l'il one still sleeps with us. we had no plans at all, except to relax at the hotel. this is the breakdown of how much we spent:

2 nights accommodation : 569,500 indonesian rupiah
return ferry tickets for 2 adults + 1 child : S$138 (1,035,000 indonesian rupiah) including departing terminal fees of S$7 per pax
BBQ buffet dinner w/drinks for 2 adults : 323,351 indonesian rupiah
lunch @ Jap restaurant : about S$30 (225,000 indonesian rupiah)
buffet breakfast for 2 adults : 157,300 indonesian rupiah
spa for 2 adults : 375,000 indonesian rupiah
Ayam Pengyet dinner w/ drinks at local mall : about 150,000 rupiah
lunch @ chinese restaurant w/drinks : about 220,000 rupiah
6 J Co donuts : about 27,000 indonesian rupiah
1 pkt mamypoko diapers : about 75,000 indonesian rupiah
1 polo t-shirt : about 219,000 indonesian rupiah

that's all I can remember... but grand total : 3,376,151 indonesian rupiah... so there, we spent like a millionaire this weeked so enjoy our photos!