Blessings from Above

Claire has been doing spelling since the start of this year - are there specific methods to learn to spell? I teach her to recite the letters and then the word as she writes them so that they 'register' in her brain. Is this a good method?

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!

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! :)

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 t...

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 mth...

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 ...

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!

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 li...

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.

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 ...

y'day was one of those days when i lost count of the no. of times i had to say NO to li'l one and (almost) everything i said went in one ear and out the other! thankfully, these days don't come around very often (and hopefully, stays that way!) but the end of the afternoon, i was exhausted and completely drained both physically & mentally and was so glad that she drifted off to lah-lah land on schedule (i.e. before 8pm!) on such days, i keep HIM constantly in my prayers... Dear Lord, pls give me the strength and patience to carry out your work, in moulding C's life and teaching her the values that you would want to see in her. Amen! notes: her bottom cuspid erupted on the 24 Nov and the top followed quickly on 28 Nov! could her behavior be due to more teeth erupting? she now has 14! 6 more to go!

happy 18mth old our dearest princess... WE LOVE YOU! i'm so proud of my li'l gal :- she has no bad habits (sleeps through the night, doesn't suck her thumb, doesn't use the pacifier, shares her things, says please & thank you, listens to instructions - most of the time, etc) she's a brave gal (rarely cries - even if she does - e.g. after being vaccinated or falls down, she stops promptly when i soothe her) she impresses me every day with new skills and knowledge she observes and learns at amazing speed she readily shows her affection to those who love her dearly

turning 18 months old! how time flies... (yes, cliché and i've already said it many times!) her appetite took a dip in the last couple of days (again) and all these while, i've been thinking that its her molar cutting through that is bothering her! how wrong can i be?!? its not one, but FOUR of her teeth cutting through all at once! *sigh*... my poor baby! i soothed her today with teething gel, lots of hugs & kisses and allowed her to nursed as much as she wanted and she finally drifted off to la-la land! i'm keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps up with the good job of sleeping through the night! *side note* she went from 8 to 12 teeth just like that and bad mummy did not record down the dates that the various teeth erupted!

my baby turned 16mths old roughly two weeks' back and i note that i've not been doing updates on her developmental progress for a while now - largely because i am very busy due to my work commitments. i still spend majority of my time with her and even if i need to work, i make it a point not be to away for more than 4 hours in a day (that gives me time to make a trip to see one client and then return to my parents' place to her). its great (for me) that my parents are no longer helping out my sis in her business and can help to look after li'l princess two/three times per week, thus putting my heart at ease. in addition, i'm glad that my new domestic helper turns out to be a rather good help *as compared to the previous one* so my baby has 4 adults (my parents & 2 domestic helpers) looking after her needs when i am away - and occasionally that number increases to 6 (when my sis returns home after school w/her husband) so it all works out very well for now. w...

disclaimer 1st - i am not trying to 'show-off' my child's ability (no doubt i'm proud of her) prior to this month, i have been constantly bugged by my mom and dh to start potty training li'l princess and the truth is, i never really bothered. we bought a potty, yes... and i did some reading, even looked out for story books on that topic but i never really got down to it. one of the main reasons for my 'lack of interest' is that the materials i read all indicate that the 'appropriate' age to start potty training is between 2 to 3 years old (just do a search on google for 'potty training' if you are keen to read more), plus, some kid in the family who is very close to his 3rd birthday is still far from being toilet trained - so obviously to me, there is no rush since she is still far from her 2nd birthday. what i have been doing though is observing claire's bowel movement schedules as well as allowing her to 'watch me in action...

happy 14th month my dear baby! she now: - do the signs for brush teeth, comb hair, twinkle twinkle little stars, dance, music, scared, smelly - points to her hair, head, nose, teeth, shoes accordingly when asked - loves dressing up - understands and obeys instructions (most of the time) - babbles continuously (her speech repertoire include words like ba (bus), pla (plant), per (up), turtle, bir (bird), nana (banana), apple, mao (cat in mandarin), xie xie (thank you in mandarin), nai nai (paternal grandma in mandarin), po po (maternal grandma in mandarin), gai (going out in dialect), pamper (for diapers), sta (for star), mumm mumm (for food), neh neh (for milk), ta (for toys) - these are only some words i can remember off-hand) - knows which remote control is for what

you brush your teeth, brush your teeth, brush your teeth... our little princess is learning about personal grooming now - other than combing her hair, she is also able to brush her own teeth.... :)

our little princess finally took her 'first' unassisted steps today! we're so proud of her! she is officially promoted to a toddler now! :)

i've been nursing claire for more than one year yet today, i relented and allow hb gave her a bottle of FM. today, i broke down and cried continuously - all because she has not been eating well. those who meet us regularly never fail to 'comment' that claire is 'not growing' and i believe many pple think that i'm starving her! for the record, she is growing - her height and weight has been increasing steadily since birth (albeit slowly) - there was only 2 periods that she lost weight: when we went to thailand during CNY coz she was too busy looking around to eat and NOW - she fell sick for the 1st time on Thursday - her temperature went up to 39.3 degrees celsius on friday midnight/sat morning but by sat afternoon, she was well again. unfortunately with the fever, her appetite that stopped by to visit us when she turned 10 months took off. and if you know how active this bb is, you can probably understand how hard it is for her to put on weight coz in order to...

champion of the inaugural Baby Singapore 2008 Healthy Baby Competition (Category B : 6 to 12months), organised by Young Parents Magazine : our little princess Claire! can you see how natural she is, donning the crown and clinching on to her trophy? she wins for herself $300 cash, a $50 photography voucher and a hamper worth $138 (7 packs of diapers, some pamper wipes and a 'Mighty Saver' hamper from OCBC bank and princess also enjoyed her 2 seconds of fame on our local news... More photos below! and coincidentally, our darling turns 11 months today! countdown to her 1st birthday bash begins!