Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Since the day my brother told me that he needed Elaina and Matty to be his flower-girl and page-boy at his upcoming wedding, I have been happily going around doing my research for a decent dress for Elaina the last 2 days. Thank goodness boys have hardly any other selections to consider.

I am toying with the idea of actually buying online and having it shipped here. Firstly, there is a wider range of dresses from the US that we can choose from. Secondly, including the shipping charges, it will still work out cheaper by half of what I will need to pay if I buy a similar quality one from here. Lastly, those that we can get off the rack and still affordable are usually way too poofy and of a less comfortable material. I will still have a few weeks to ponder over this issue, and hopefully there will be more dresses on discount by then since I was told that the Americans don't usually hold weddings when the weather gets too cold. So if they need to hold weddings before the Autumn ends, the peak buying season for them is probably around this time.

My biggest fear for now is still whether Elaina can hold up her behaviour while walking down the isle with the wedding couple. Couple of fearful thoughts have popped up so far. She might cry when she is faced with so many strangers, she will throw a tantrum when she finishes throwing the flower petals (assuming that is what the couple have planned), she and Matty may start a fight there and then over some unsettled issues, or she might decide to pop her thumb into her mouth and suck all the way walking into the ballroom. The guests are likely to find it amusing but I am not too sure if the couple will. I don't want to start the relationship on a wrong footing for sure.

Baby is 4

Matty gets frustrated these days whenever I call him "baby". Usually he will try and correct me by reminding me that he is not a baby but a big boy. It is so tough to get rid of a nickname that I have been using on him for so long, but I think I should try and change now that he is 4 years old.

Like last year, Matty had a grand total of 3 cakes for his birthday - 1 for this classmates, 1 from my parents and another cake with the paternal grandparents. Since last weekend, we have been overloaded with cakes and I still have 2 boxes sitting in the fridge right now. Soon you will see cakes coming out from my ears.

As usual, presents from immediate family members will come pouring in not just for the birthday boy but for the little one as well. It was a good thing that I had bought a Hello Kitty mug for Elaina using my 10 dollars Sanrio voucher just the day before (because I wasn't sure if she will feel left out.) She actually asked for her present this morning. Thank goodness I was well prepared. It's not that she was being demanding or anything, but she thought that it was her birthday and this was despite our many attempts explaining to her that it was actually Matty's birthday.

Had a couple of hiccups while trying to get the cake to Matty's school this morning. The traffic was extremely heavy around Marine Parade and Fort Road area. Cars will changing route from ECP to Nicoll Highway. We didn't manage to work out what was the cause of the jam along ECP that lasted for 3 hours since 8 in the morning. Because of the diverted traffic, it took us close to 30 minutes to get from Parkway to Matty's school. I was panicking like hell in the car thinking of all the kids waiting for the cake to arrive.

Matty has been talking about his birthday for the last 2 months and he was clearly looking forward to this day. The cake cutting and birthday song singing remained as the highlights for this year yet again and will probably stay that way for a while. Kids are usually contented with little little things like these, adults are the ones who make them deviate from it. I will put off having a big birthday bash as long as I deem appropriate.

The one thing special that I did for Matty this year was that I had sent his photo in for the Playhouse Disney Birthday Book. He always had this look of envy whenever the segment comes on and has even learned to sing the whole jingle by heart. I thought it will be a fantastic surprise for him and he will be very pleased to see his own photo on air for the whole month.

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy!

The Patchwork Post

The days are floating past really fast and the fact that there hasn't been any entry here is not a very good sign. It is an indication that I have been living my life mindlessly with not much opportunity to take stock of what's happening.

This post made up of little snippets is a very lame attempt to redeem myself a little of the guilt from not jotting down Matty and Elaina's growth in the past couple of weeks.

Matty started to attend clay lesson early this month. Not trying to make him more artistic but since it is only a 2-minute walk from Mah Mah's house, it is a good place to park him for an hour or so every Friday afternoon. Keeps him occupied and gives other at home a break.

We will be talking to Matty's teacher later this week on his progress. From the report, he seemed to have taken a keen interest in arts and music but gross motor skills are still very much lagging behind his peers. I blame it on his lazy parents for not introducing enough outdoor activities to him! But one thing for sure is that his language skills are definitely improving. He is more wiling to converse in Mandarin lately. Plus, he still entertains us from time to time with his quirky reply.

Elaina continues to do "better" in being a terrible-two stager - a diva is in the making and I am not exactly excited about it quite frankly. She dishes out her tantrum like nobody's business and to think we thought that Matty was a tough nut. At least if we have the patience, we are still able to talk Matty out of certain demands. Absolutely no chance with Elaina. If she wants it, she needs to have it. Distraction, persuasion, negotiation and even threats are of no use. We have used the stick, the carrot and even both together... still it leaves us helpless most of the time. Not only is Elaina a diva, she is a drama-mama. She knows when to work up her tears to gain a few sympathy points. But there are times when the tears are as genuine as gold. Tears will start welling up when she sees someone feeling sad or if she hears a melancholic song. What an emo-queen!

Failing to Fail

This is an extremely overdue post and I have been wanting to put this down in writing since a few weeks ago because it is one topic that I hope Matty and Elaina will learn in due course. This will serve as a reminder to me in years to come.

The interest in this rather morbid subject sparked firstly because of a handful of young elitists committing suicide in a short span of 2 weeks just recently and over issues which truly in my view are not serious enough that one need to end his life for. Secondly, a friend of mine was telling me how her 8 year old son (who is above average in terms of his academic result) was taking it very badly about not doing well in one of his subject and had this huge worry that he won't be able to maintain the third position in his class this year again.

It sounds a little odd to say this, but I think one of the important lessons to be learnt amongst the many others is about failure. A child can be equipped with the highest IQ and EQ, attend reputable schools with the best schooling system, enrolled in enrichment classes from phonics to arts to music but once he or she lacks the life-skill of keeping afloat when caught in a less palatable situation (which almost always will happen in life just a matter of when!), he or she may react in an extremely negative manner.

Like all parents, I hope that my children will do well in school and generally in life but I want them to also know how best to deal with hiccups that will come along the way, how to pick themselves up and move on, be creative when it comes to formulating ways in getting themselves out of a rut and not resort to taking their own lives (touch wood!). What best way other than learning from experience?

They should have sufficient successes in their early life to help build their confidence but every now and then it ought to be dotted with little little failures to make them understand that life can never run as smoothly as they want it to be and things don't always turned out as planned or hoped for. Better to have failures come in tiny packages than in one big blow later in life.

There should be occasions when they emerge the winner to appreciate that they have the potential to be the best and hard work pays off, but there should also be times when they don't in order for them to understand that they cannot be the best in everything and there is someone out there who will beat them to it... and that it is ok as long as they know they have tried.

They need to know that they are right in what they do so as to boost their morale and lift their spirits but they cannot be right all the time and when things go wrong, they should not go around pointing fingers and pining the entire fault on others. Look within oneself and decide how to deal with ugly situations.

Failing to fail is extremely detrimental in a child's growth. So.. no, I don't want my children to live a charmed life and cruise along. They need to trip and fall so that they can learn to avoid the bigger pot-holes when they walk further down the road.

Phonics

Matty has shown a huge interest in phonics in the last couple of months and I have to say that he is pretty good at it. He is able to identify the first letter of every word almost without fail simply by listening to the pronounciation.

Yesterday I was stumped when he told me that "W" starts with "D". Took me a while to realise what he was driving at and when I did, I didn't know how to correct him because he wasn't entirely wrong either. If you think about it... "W" (pronounced as "double U") indeed starts with a "D".

Elaina is 2!

Elaina finally turned 2 on 18 March. Whenever Elaina or Matty celebrates their birthday, I always tell myself that I have survived another year of parenthood and the celebration is not just for them but me as well.

As usual there was no big birthday bash... we had lunch at Sushi Tei and followed by a birthday cake that evening. The cake is always more than enough to make the birthday girl or boy jump in joy. That was pretty much about it for Elaina's birthday. We had wanted to bring Elaina on the Ducktour but only to realise that the boat leaves on the hour and each ride takes about an hour. We would have problem getting to Matty's school to pick him up on time.

One of the major milestone that I hope Elaina will hit is to get her completely toilet-trained for the daytime. Now that the work in this area is done for Matty it is just about time to get Elaina started.

Someone got into trouble....

17 March 2009 - Matty pushed one of his classmate in school and the boy fell from the stairs.  Good thing the boy was ok... probably fell down from just a step or two.

The teacher wasn't too sure what exactly happened but she heard Matty shouting at the boy that he doesn't want to be-friend the latter.  Next thing she knew... the boy got pushed off the stairs.

Needless to say Matty got himself into hot soup and was reprimanded in school and at home.  He is still serving his sentence of "no computer and tv games" that had been imposed by Papa until this Sunday.

Perhaps the redeeming part of this whole episode is his show of remorse (it was clearly written on his face that he had done something wrong and was feeling very bad even when he got home from school) that and his admittance that he was the one responsible for allowing what had happened to happen.  

Emotions

We took the kids out to Vivo (what's new?) last Sunday and ended up in McDonalds because Marche had a queue forming even though it was only slightly after 6.

Elaina has always been a big fan of french fries (aren't we all?) but she couldn't even swallow her fries when it was served. Reason? There was a toddler boy around her age, seated diagonally across us being given a tongue-lashing by his folks. Elaina was so affected by that scene and started to tear. I got her to look away but it only worked for a while. By the time she got to her 2nd fries, she turned around once more and her tears started to roll again. That's Elaina for you. She has so much empathy for a person in tears. She even cried once when she heard a sad song. Not that she understood the words but I suppose the melody rubbed off her.

I grew up as a crybaby and got my mum frustrated often because I cry over nothing and everything. My brother used to make jokes out of it even until today and of course that got me crying even more back then. Thank goodness I grew out of that. It is cute to have overflowing emotions when you are 3 but not a pretty sight at 30. And perhaps it is because I learned to appreciate that no amount of crying will help at the end of the day, I want Elaina to be tougher even as a girl and not an "emo queen". It is ok to cry but definitely not ok to cry just about anything. Tears are fine but too much of it makes the person look at the world in a blurry state.

On the other hand, Matty displayed his lack of emotions in a recent episode. He "lost" his first best friend because her mum decided to put her in another school. Although Matty did tell us that he misses Jodie when he didn't see her consecutively for a few days, his life in school went about just like any other day. I probed him further this morning for fear that he might be taking it negatively but much to my surprise he has now named another boy in his class as his best friend. He told me that he misses Jodie but he isn't sad at all (with a grin on his face) and he knows that it is because she has now gone to a new school. It has become a drill that if he stop seeing a familiar face in class it is because that person has gone to a new school. Talk about bouncing back! I just wasn't expecting him to move on so quickly and accept changes so easily. This is way too much "toughness" for me to accept from a boy this young.

Am I starting to sound ironic in this post?

Change the Batteries

Couple of days ago, one of the DVD player at Mah-Mah's place went kaput. I can't help but suspect that the players' lifespan got shorten because of Elaina's half-baked knowledge on how to operate it.

While everyone was frantically trying to find out the reason why the player kept ejecting on its own, Matty came along and decided to throw in his 2-cents worth. He insisted that we should just change the batteries disregarding our explanation that not everything worked on batteries. Actually he said the same thing to me not too long ago when I was meddling with something that had failed to work. Obviously he had thought that way because whenever his toys are not working, the only reason is because the batteries have gone flat and a change of batteries will always do the trick.

Kids - they are so adorable because they think so simply and are always brimming with innocence.

Superstar Virgo

We went on our second family vacation on 13 February. This time it was a short weekend getaway on a cruise.

It was definitely not as disastrous as the last time except that Elaina is getting lazy these days and refuse to walk, demanding to be carried no matter how hard we try and encourage her to get off the "tree". She had put on quite a bit of weight lately and even though she was only in tee and overall it was so much heavier compared to 6 months ago when I had to lug a baby who was all wrapped up in warm clothing.

The food wasn't as fantastic as I remembered it to be but we managed to get quite a bit of sleep while on the ship - at least Matty willingly took an afternoon nap on Saturday afternoon without even being asked to. The excitement of sleeping in the cabin probably enticed him to do it.

I would say that the overall experience wasn't too bad. Wonder whether I will have the guts (or insanity) to bring Elaina to Japan next Spring.

Orange Juice

A question that popped up in one episode of Blue's Clues - where do orange juice come from?

Matty's reply - from the fridge.

I almost fell off my chair.

Our First Baking Venture

Matty and Mummy attempted our first baking venture today. This wasn't made from scratch in case you are wondering... we got ourselves a box of pre-mix the other day. Purpose was really to keep Matty occupied for one afternoon while Elaina takes her usual afternoon nap. The muffins (although it looked more like cupcakes!) turned out pretty well... I wasn't expecting it to be so moist for a pre-mixed cake =p

Riding High on Energy!

Busy as we may be, Mummy is proud to say that we managed to accomplish a fair bit even before we see an end to January.

We finally brought Matty and Elaina to Sentosa last evening to catch "Songs of the Sea" as promised moons ago. Lights, dancing fountain (as how we described to Matty), spitting fireballs and a minor display of fireworks towards the end, all for only 8 bucks. Not too bad a deal and a fantastic way to keep the children entertained even though it lasted a mere 20 minutes. And since we were there, we took the opportunity to bring Matty and Elaina on the cable car... another promise that was made moons ago.

The weekend before, the kids had their first go at kite-flying at the Marina Barrage. Whoopee~

I started a blog to document recipes gathered.... and of the collection, half of which would have been tested on. Guess it didn't take 20 years to get my butts moving on this one as expected. The truth is that I was forced to act on it because the OpenOffice wasn't quite as ideal as I had hope and I encountered some nagging problems when managing the document file which was created using Words. Updating the document with new recipes became a chore! I was left with no choice and had to quickly find a solution that will allow me to access the recipes whether it is from the office, using the PC or the MacBook. And so I accidentally got to check-the-box on this task. Recipes are slowly being uploaded and hopefully while I am at it I will attempt to try each and every one of the recipes just so that I can take some tantalising pictures to upload to the blog.

Over the course of 2 weekends, Mummy also managed to clean the wardrobes, pack the clothes that Matty and Elaina can no longer fit and threw out some stuff that are useless except for collecting dust. I should try and take a day off work sometime in the 2nd quarter and do a round of major cleaning to the wardrobe. I bet that underneath each drawer there is a very thick coat of dust. The only thing which I would very much want to get done before the Chinese New Year but did not get round to was to take the curtains down for dry-cleaning. It was too late to get an appointment by the time I called as the dry-cleaner was fully booked. This will have to wait until the 1st weekend after Chinese New Year.

Next... we need to get more photo paper and black ink to replenish the printer because I seriously need to fill up those photo frames before I invite people over. Do you think I will get to it before end-January?

The Accidental Milestone

8 January 2009 marks the day Matty swears off wearing diaper both day and night.

It took Matty more than a year to be toilet-trained for the daytime and hence came as a complete surprise that we didn't need to anything for him to be toilet-trained for the night. I was even contemplating toilet-training him for the night until he is much older to allow everyone a bit of space to breathe before another round of agony begins.

The day when he was fully trained for the day came as an instinct for Matty to stop peeing into his diaper during the night as well. We just didn't have the guts to put him in underwear in case he should wet his bed and so continued to make him wear his diaper to bed each night for the last 1 over month. The diaper stayed dry every morning.

The comfort he had during the day of not having something that bulky around his butt must be the reason that left him extremely frustrated the last couple of nights when he had to wear his diaper to bed. And so last night we decided to take his diaper off completely.

Hurray for Matty!!

2008 ~ 2009

Before I am able to digest 2008 fully, it has made its way into the history book and with Year 2009 making a grand entrance like the fireworks at Marina Barrage (which we missed even though it is just right opposite our apartment!).

I am sure that alot has happened in Year 2008 but most of it never got blogged about - blame it on the days that swooshed by even before Mummy could bat my eyelids. I think the most significant events in Year 2008 would be Matty starting at a new school and us moving back to Waterplace. Workwise, it was a year not worthy to be mentioned as I cannot think of any major accomplishments to boot about. I cracked my brains while doing my year-end appraisal and still ended up writing that blatant truth in my review.

As much as I would like to take things a little slower for Year 2009, I am not betting my life on it. The first 2 weeks of Year 2009 is enough to serve as a sneak preview. The days transit into the next without us realising, like the cans of cranberry sauce being removed from the supermarket shelves and being replaced with cans of soup stock for steamboat, Christmas crackers gone from display and mahjong sets taking its place. Not trying to be humourous here but it is the truth because Chinese New Year is tipping so close that retailers need to react quickly. Like the supermarket, everyone at home is quickly adapting to changes. Matty just started Nursery this year and is in the morning class. Elaina goes off to her playgroup twice every Tuesday and Thursday. New year, new routine.

Hopefully in the next 12 months after this post, Mummy will have more things to note down and not just another year that had slipped through the fingers.

Bad. Bite.

When a child displays a certain characteristic, It is either due to their genes or they learn by example. We are baffled recently by Elaina's reaction to agitation through biting!! It is not her nails we are talking about, rather her target is only and always Matty.

We have come to terms that Elaina is a temperamental and stubborn girl, it seems to run in the family but not sure where she got the violent streak in her. We have witnessed a few times in the last couple of weeks Elaina trying to take a chomp off Matty when they get into a disagreement. Good thing she hasn't quite succeeded in her attempts if not hell would have broken loose by now.

So far, we have not heard of anyone in the immediate family doing something this unthinkable, ruling out the possibility of it running in the blood. Neither can I recall any instance of someone another person during an argument (well... at least not literally), so Elaina couldn't have learnt from example as well. It this a self-defence instinct or plain naughtiness?

I can just about picture my girl being branded the big bully in school in the not so far future and the numerous times we will be summoned to see the school principal for her bad behaviour.

Power of Blogging

I have been cutting myself some slack these days at work (slacking if you prefer to call it) whenever I find the chance to or if I try hard enough to justify the need to slow down. Work has been overwhelming on most days so there is more reason to get a grip of myself before I lose my sanity. And besides that, since I hardly get a chance to surf the net at home now that I am a mummy of 2, the best opportunity to do so is unfortunately during the 5 to 10 mins break I award myself throughout a typical working day.

Yes... Mummy has been doing what I call blog-hopping - going around reading blogs of people I know and those whom are complete strangers to me. This is not new to alot of netizens just that I never got caught on with it. The habit only really started because I was doing alot of googling for new and interesting recipes to try out. The more I blog-hop the more ashamed I am of mine... I think I just don't put in enough effort to write.

Since I am into cooking these days most of the blogs that I have bookmarked are of people who share the same interest and can be bothered to do a proper write-up of recipes, take pretty pictures and post them for everybody to enjoy. They are an inspiration! Though I am not sure when I will ever get my butts moving and move out of the "being inspired stage" and do something similar here. Let's target that to happen 20 years later.

Other than cooking tips and recipes, blog-hopping has let me keep up with what is happening in friends' life even without having to actually talk to them. Hmmm... that should really be a bad thing isn't it? Then there is another cluster of people that I only know by name writing about their struggles in life from pursuing an MBA to fighting a battle with cancer.

It is amazing how much you can learn from the experience of others just by blog-hopping... and of course an avenue for me to shift my focus when the tough gets going at work (excuses, excuses, excuses!!).

I Think We Are There (Almost!)

It has been a week since Matty has gone "diaper-less" during the day.

He has had a few accidents in the last 1 week thanks to the fact that he still refuses to say when he needs to go most of the time. We need to drag him to the toilet religiously (and has been doing so for the last 15 months)... but that is not enough because only he knows best when his bladder is going to burst.

By denying him his diapers completely may eventually drive home the message that he has to tell someone when he needs the loo. Hopefully it won't be long before Mummy blogs about Matty having zero accidents and completely toilet-trained.

34, Eczema, Playschool and Birthday Cake

Papa turned 34 yesterday and we took the day off work to spend time with Matty and Elaina (well actually more like to run errands!).

We had to take Matty to the skin doctor yesterday morning after the "outbreak" appearing on parts of his body just doesn't seem to go away completely. The doctor confirmed that he is having eczema (again!) and promptly prescribed him with some cream and a bottle of syrup with apparently stops itches. No intention to give him the syrup unless the itch becomes really bad or if we want to knock him out - the bottle has a bright red label across it saying that it causes drowsiness *evil grin*.

We even enrolled Elaina with a playgroup which starts 6 January 09. Seeing how she enjoys dancing, singing and mingling with other little people she should have a good time in the playgroup... just a matter of how fast she can get adapted to the environment and being left alone. The good thing is that due to age, for the first term she needs to be accompanied. When she turns 2 in March 09, she will proceed on to level 2 which do not require a guardian to be around. Hopefully the first 2 months can help break her in gently.

Surprisingly.... this time round I seem to be less concerned about sending a little being off to school at such a young age. I used to battle with myself (and of course the rest of the family) when we had to send Matty to a playgroup at 18 months old. It felt so cruel to "abandon" a baby to a bunch of strangers.

Strangely... I have had a few people telling me that she is too young for school. And those who didn't think it was a great idea before (for instance my own parents) feeling otherwise now.

Technically... I won't even term it as going to school. More like socialising, having a place to hang around for a couple of hours per week and getting entertained.

Elaina finally understood the meaning of birthdays... or rather the whole candle-blowing and cake-cutting business. For the first time she attempted to blow off the candle after the birthday song ended. It was really cute to see her huffing and puffing with all the might she could gather.

The New-Age Little People

How different are the children of this generation as compared to the last? The list can be pretty long but to name a few, they are no doubt much smarter, more advanced in their thinking, has a stronger personality, more opinionated and definitely a lot more outspoken. The western counterparts probably raised children like these in the last 2 to 3 decades but for us Asians I am quite certain that is not the case until the recent decade.

Back when I was still a kid (and I clarify that it was really not very long ago!) the parents dictated what we do, what we can or cannot say, what our diet should be, what we wear or even how we think. No room for discussion or the next thing you see is the cane landing on our butts for disobedience. Come the generation of Matty and Elaina - saying that they live in a revolutionary generation is not an exaggeration. Never do we get through a day without engaging in some form of negotiation with Matty.

Since Matty has had a better grasp of the language in the last 1 year, he is also starting to have a better control of every aspect of his own life. He tells us which pair of shoes he wants to wear today, that he prefers the shorts to his jeans, why he does not want to take his nap, how many scoops of milk powder he wants us to put in to the bottle and the list just goes on. To give credit to him, he is starting to grow out of the stage where his reply is a simple "no" and act like a tantrum throwing kid when he thinks otherwise from us. He engages in a proper negotiation and would offer alternatives to us to consider... "how about (this) or how about (that)?". God-forbid... I can never imagine myself doing that when I was 3... either because I was too stupid to think in that order or too worried that I will get into trouble with my mum.

In the last couple of weeks, Matty finally decided that enough is enough... porridge is not his favourite food and he will not hesitate to tell his grandmother not to include that in his menu. He even took the trouble of explaining to his grandfather that the only reason why he eats his porridge is because of the "you tiao" which we all know he has a soft-spot for. On one occasion, he had even suggested to me to get chicken rice instead of porridge... and in his exact words while offering a third option for consideration "or noodles also can".

Elaina too (in mostly her own language with a few words which the rest of mankind can understand) will not give up any opportunity to exert her own thinking as well - which in her case is of course still in the primitive stage of "yes" and "no-no"... but working towards where Matty is.

Maybe as a "new-age parent", we play a big part in molding the "new-age little people" - freedom of speech, freedom to think and freedom to choose. Hopefully we are heading in the right direction and equipping our children with the appropriate values and character to survive tomorrow's world.

Taboo Topic

As all parents would, we dread to be caught in a "life and death" situation with our children. By that I mean having to explain "where do babies come from" and "what is death all about".

We were caught in a situation which none of us were prepared for few days back. A lizard was scrambling for life running around the corridor like a headless chicken, Mummy and the maid were screaming our lungs out, while Matty and Elaina froze and couldn't quite figure out the what the commotion was about. Daddy ended the episode by stepping and killing the lizard there and then. Very soon the following conversation ensued...

Matty: Is lizard sleeping?

The adults: Ermmm... yup the lizard is sleeping

Matty: Why the eyes not closed?

The adults: Lizards sleep with eyes opened.

It was really horrible to know that we lied through our teeth... but was probably the best that we could do knowing that the time is still not ripe for us to go into a lengthy discussion with Matty on the topic of death. We were just not mentally prepared for it. Hopefully we will do better in time to come... but preferably this opportunity comes later than sooner.

I wish for 25/8

Whoops... another month has gone by without any updates to this blog. So much has happened but Mummy just simply cannot find the time to write these days. And when I finally think that I have some space to breathe... I can't quite remember most events. Is that a sign of old age?

So what have I been busy with? Budget review, filling in numbers, document chasing - a typical 3rd quarter at work. At home, Mummy has been busy looking for new recipes and trying them out with some successes and some failure. I may even attempt to bake some cake if I can work out the budget and time permits. Baking is a big investment and I don't want to dump in the money and not get to do much of it. These days I am getting more calculative. Everything is getting more expensive and feeding a family of 4 is no small business.

There is still much to be done around the house. I got to find the time to pack Elaina's old cot and put them into storage. Same goes for the bedsheets and clothes that can no longer fit. The leather sofa and head-board needs to be polished - the stain remover was bought more than 3 months ago and has yet to make it out of the packaging. I haven't even had the opportunity to look through all the photos we took during the trip. (Can you ask Daddy to stop hogging the computer?)

24/7 is not good enough. Maybe 25/8 might work.

Gone and Back, In and Out

Busy busy busy - nothing else can better describe the last couple of weeks.

It was one full week of packing before the whole family packed off to Australia (Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney to be specific) for 10 days on 12 July. Gosh... Mummy used to bring one hand-carrier for a week of vacation but this time round, the hand-carrier was only good for diapers, a can of formula milk, wet wipes and medication for the kids. It was no small feat to pack for 4 of us. The thick clothing took up a lot space and the worry that the kids might dirty the clothes with food, puke and what not made me want to pack more than less... and that didn't help again.

Frankly, I was looking forward to having a holiday (I haven't been to anywhere since 4 years ago!) but on the first day there, I so wanted to come back home. Elaina reacted quite badly to the foreign land - the lack of routine contributed largely to it. She didn't manage to catch much sleep on the plane even though we were hoping that a red-eye flight would mean that she will be knocked out by the time the plane took off... obviously that didn't happen. By the time we had the first opportunity to give her some milk, she was all puffed up from the crying and lack of rest. The milk did knock her out though and didn't wake up until mid-afternoon. By then she had missed her breakfast and lunch. The only decent meal both the kids had were dinner. I felt so bad making them starve.

Elaina spent most of the following days clinging to Mummy. She lost her appetite somehow and was always crying for attention. She did enjoy parts of the trip but her upbeat mood was sporadic. I lost my appetite because of tiredness - my back was at the verge of breaking from the carrying that I did in the 10 days. Both Elaina and Mummy lost some weight when we got back.

Matty on the other hand had huge fun. He ate well, slept well and was always roaring to go. The best part of the whole trip and probably the only accomplishment is to see Matty enjoying himself. If only we had the time and mood to bring him to more places and packed in more activities for that 10 days....

The near-disastrous trip ended on 22 July and life sort of went back to normal for less than 3 days before Matty got hospitalised for gastric flu which made him unable to keep any water or food down. The doctor kept him bedridden and on the drip for one day. My worries that he would attempt to yank the drip-off, throw tantrums were unfounded. He willingly stayed in bed and glued himself to the TV and books. The 13-hour nap he took on the first day helped reduce the chance of him getting bored. Matty was finally out of the hospital on 27 July.

We are now back to the usual routine - Elaina is happy that her days are normal again, Matty is glad that he can finally get his normal food and milk... and Mummy is flat-out from all the running around.

Terrible 2 No More?

Matty is finally 3 and Mummy really looked forward to it because it means we have survived yet another year of parenthood and most importantly because of people around have been telling me how a Terrible 2 Toddler will miraculously turn into a not so terrible toddler when he gets to add another candle to his birthday cake.

Not sure if the theory does indeed hold some truth or because Elaina is now becoming a terror, Matty seems to be a lot more co-operative these days (except when we tell him he needs to share his toys with his little sister). I do see less tantrum coming from him lately.

Elaina on the other hand is getting Mummy frustrated. She clings to me like the cling-wrap, demands to be walked, makes a din when I try to get her to take a bath and refuses to allow anyone of us to close the bedroom door with her constant "open, open, open" when she knows that we are trying to put her to bed. I can't wait for this phase to pass through really soon, that her sniffles will go away completely before this weekend and that her teething which has been putting her in constant pain to subside. My patience is wearing extremely thin and that is not good especially when we are flying off to a holiday in another 5 days.

It is a good thing that Matty has fully recovered after his long bout of flu and cough (possibly due to Mycoplasma) and that we are finally seeing him smile a little more. Bringing him on to the Singapore Flyer made that bit of difference to his birthday and brightens him somewhat. I am sure he is looking forward to the holiday and will enjoy himself lots. Hopefully we can say the same about Elaina.

Good luck to us... we need lots of it!

Stock-Take

We have been living in frenzy for the past few weeks. The move and flu bug going around the household leaves Mummy with a blank mind on most days.

Unknowingly, Elaina is now able to mouth a few words. It didn't dawn on me until 2 days ago when she asked for "water" and pointed to her bottle. We took for granted that she babbles most of the time and never really paid attention to whether she actually meant something.

I finally took count of what she can say at 15-month old:

- open
- bye bye
- hello
- see you
- water
- that
- mine
- mum-mum (for food)
- bao-bao (carry)
- hua-hua (flower)
- apple
- pa-pa
- ma-ma (for both Mah-Mah and Mummy)
- gong-gong
- gor-gor
- shake shake (for milk-shaking and bum-shaking... in other words dancing)
- baby (referring to her Baby Einstein disc)

Actually Elaina is doing much better than I had initially thought.

The Bug is Here Again

Mummy is dozing off sitting in the office and staring into the computer. The utter lack of sleep is the culprit, and the culprit for the lack of sleep is the persistent flu bug that has been bugging us.

First, Daddy fell sick and then Matty came down with the flu. We were cleared for a mere one week before the bug stroked again hitting Daddy and Matty. Elaina has since caught the same strain of virus and is making her really sick. She hasn't been sleeping well since last Friday and Mummy has been surviving with a 3 to 4-hour sleep each night. I can hardly feel my brain except for the backache that usually lingers when I need to share the bed with Elaina.

We wake up each morning wondering if Elaina will be better tonight but so far we hadn't had any luck.

Better end-off here because I just caught myself falling asleep.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

I recalled reading an article online somewhere detailing how many words a child will know and be able to say at what age. Now that Matty is turning 3, his skills in the department of language is undoubtfully doing well and deserves a distinction at times.

Some nights ago while getting dressed, Matty was getting cranky after a long day and was saying "no" to whatever we tell him to do. When I attempted to comb his hair for him, he retorted with "No... I don't want to comb my hair... I don't want to be cute". I was getting agitated with his constant "no-this" and "no-that"... but at that moment I burst into laughter.

Matty got into the phase of not wanting to brush his teeth yet again. I was trying to reason with him why he needs to just the other day:

Mummy: Matty, do you know why Gong-Gong's teeth dropped and he needs to wear dentures? That is because he doesn't brush his teeth before going to bed. Don't you think you don't look nice without teeth?
Matty: Mah-Mah has teeth.
Mummy: Yup... because she brushes her teeth. So do you want to brush your teeth?
Matty: I want to be a handsome boy

Expressing his feeling is what Matty is capable of doing these days. He had a quirky exchange with Mah-Mah weeks before when he told her that he doesn't want to be a big boy because big boys are not allowed to do alot of things (well we tell him that he is a big boy now and therefore he cannot be doing things like throw tantrums etc) and that he wanted to be a baby. But after Mah-Mah evaluated the pros of being a big boy, for instance going to the supermarket for shopping when little babies like Mei-Mei needs to take her afternoon nap and that only big boys can eat french fries... he pondered over it for a few minutes and declared that he wants to be a "big boy baby". He obviously wants his cake and eat it too.

Of course other than saying how he feels, Matty tells us what he wants us to do or buy. In anticipation of his upcoming birthday, he has been constantly reminding us every other day that he wants a Mickey Mouse on his cake. One night after watching the episode "Birthday Machine" in Little Einstein, he told Mummy that he wants a big birthday with a Mickey Mouse cake, hats for everybody and a blue schoolbag as present. I hope the list will stop growing. He is pretty long-winded for a 3-year kiddo - doodled on his doodle board on Sunday and came running to me showing off his masterpiece. It resembled a box and he explained that it was a present. I prompted him further and he clarified that it is his present and guess what is in the box... a blue schoolbag.

Matty has started to ask "why" and not just "what" and "where". But he does it in an unusual way unlike most children I know - he phrases it with "because?".

Falling in Place

We finally (well almost since there are still some work left to be done) crossed the biggest hurdle anticipated for Year 2008 - the move back to Waterplace.

As much as we hate it, the move was an eventful one... rectification to be done at the very last hour because we found out about something really late or someone forgotten clean about it or someone wasn't using his brains in the process. A hood that failed to work just when we thought that we are almost at the finishing line. And like every move, the shopping list just gets longer by the day and up until now the list is still being revisited and revised now and then. The whole process was truly back-breaking... from the washing and cleaning to the unpacking and organising. It will not be a exaggeration to say that a gazillion hours were put in to get the place ready.

I thought that I could have managed this better since I have moved a few times in the last 4 years but things didn't seem to flow the way that I had wanted to despite all the prior planning and even the nice worklist that was composed so that we will not lose sight of what needs to be done. But like we all know, expectation and reality do not gel. The washing and cleaning took twice the amount of time that was factored for. We worked till the dawn just one day before the big move and still not all things were where it should be for "Day 1".

The amazing part of life is that no matter how bleak the situation might appear to be at the beginning, things do somehow fall in place. We got through the first night working on the basis that as long as the kids get their shower and milk, have a bed to sleep in... the rest is something to worry about the following day because by then we were all burnt out and the mind and body just couldn't work another minute. And so we survived "Day 1" and even "Week 1" despite all the prior planning seemed to have failed miserably.

We used to wonder and worry about alot of things in the last 4 years. We cracked out heads over not having the space for a cot in our room before Matty came long and how are we to fit 2 car seats plus a maid at the back of the car when we need to ferry everybody home each night. We never got an answer to how the cot is to be placed or if we need an MPV. By the time we got Matty, we were moving into a place that was big enough to fit a bed plus a cot, convert a room into a baby changing room and a kitchen big enough to accommodate a bottle sterilizer, bottle warmer, and whole lots of other baby stuff. When we had even gone through that stage with Elaina it was time for us to move in to an apartment once again. We don't have to ponder if a saloon needs to make way of an MPV because we are now comfortable with the thought that Matty is sensible enough to take the front passenger seat and making sufficient room at the back to fit in 3. We discovered that if we stack things the right way, all the tupperwares, containers, pots, pans, cutleries which used to fill 2 kitchens can now go into that one little kitchen. It seems that time and time again things will work its way out naturally and eventually much to our surprise.

It is high time for me to get used to the notion that a good plan is when we do not to have one and just let matter run its own course.

Ques: What can wreck your Sunday?

Ans: A blazing sun, 2 babies who fights over toys and attention constantly, a toddler who only replies with "I don't want...." and a coughing bug that refuses to go away.

A blazing sun - The scorching sun causes a hike in the temperature and thus making everybody cranky.

Sibling Rivalry - The concept of "sharing" and the phase of "what you have must be better than what I have" do not go well together. Inability to keep both separate can cause major damage. Be prepared for 2T and 2S (tears, tantrums, shouting and screaming) to occur as a result.

"I don't want" - The common phrase of T2 stage. Sentences instinctively will begin with "I don't want....". It is a show of uncooperativeness. Telling the T2-stager otherwise will again result in 2T and 2S to occur.

Coughing Bug - A bug that drives one nuts especially over a prolonged period of 3 weeks. Condition can worsen when the sufferer sees "sibling rivalry" (defined as above) or hears the phrase "I don't want".

An Equation to Better Skin... Birdnest or Shea Butter?

We can now conclude that birdnest does not give one better skin. Matty and Elaina are classic examples. I took so much more birdnest when I was expecting Matty but his skin is so sensitive to insect bites and heals poorly leaving his limbs with marks all over. On the other hand, Elaina who had half the dosage of it while “incubating” in Mummy’s womb has a much better skin condition.

Matty now faces a condition that is worse than mosquito bites that swells and takes forever to subside – he has eczema! It started with his fingers mid of last week with skin peeling off. Initially we thought that it was a result of his handling of art and craft material in school and making his skin dry. Shea butter helped his fingers to get back to normal in 2 days. Last Friday, the skin on one of his toes started to flake. It couldn’t have been something he did in school because he goes around in socks while in the class and never barefoot. Shea butter failed to perform magic on his toes. By Sunday, peeling started to show on his other toes.

Mummy and Daddy brought him to the skin doctor on Wednesday and it was confirmed that the peeling is a form of mild eczema and most probably induced by perspiration. The word “mild” gave me some comfort. Unfortunately, such condition will come back to haunt him now and then until he is a little older (like in his teens). The not so bad part - it is so mild Matty did not experience any itchiness other than peeling skin.

There is no way to prevent the eczema from recurring except to try our best to keep his skin moisturized as much as we possibly can. Mummy have gone out to invest in a tub of shea butter cream suited for babies and resolve to make it a nightly regime to slap on some cream for Matty (and Elaina when she is a little older and have learned to stay still while being dressed!). I did some reading on the net and found out that shea butter is good for eczema amongst other things like insect bites, cuts and burns, which is probably why Matty’s fingers managed to heal.

Speedy recovery to Matty.

A Big Milestone

Should have put a note here last week but never found the chance to do it.

2 days after Elaina turned 1, she started to walk a few steps unsupported. Unfortunately the very next day she came down with a fever (caught the bug from Matty) and since then she hadn't taken any further steps.

Whose birthday is it?

Passe as it may be, I still need to say this - time flies! A year ago I was cut up the 2nd time to bring a new life to this world. It felt like yesterday when I became mummy to Princess Elaina but in actual fact it was much longer than that.

In the last 365 days, Elaina had been busy doing a lot of growing up, hitting milestones, learning new stuff and getting acquaintance with how the world around her works. Today we finally welcome her to toddlerhood as she leaves the stage of infancy. It will be another exciting year for her... more milestones to meet, search of her own individual identity and equipping herself with what she needs to get to the Terrible Two (we have the other baby in the T2 stage and it is no longer amusing when he puts the skills he had acquired in the first 2 years of his life to good use and practice!).

Like all babies do, Elaina had her birthday celebration for crossing the big 1. It wasn't a big affair... but it was a long one spanning 3 days in total. We had 2 cakes over the weekend and today Mummy and Daddy took time off work to spend this special day together with Elaina. Matty definitely enjoyed the candle-blowing and cake-cutting more than Elaina. Elaina just had this blank look throughout - the same what-the-hell-is going-on expression we got from Matty when he turned 1. I'm sure come next year both of them will fight over the candle-blowing and cake-cutting when Elaina finally realises what birthday is all about.

In my opinion the first birthday is to be celebrated more so to congratulate the parents for surviving the last 12 daunting months and to remind ourselves of what's going to coming in the next 12 (or more) months.

Before Elaina turns 1 year and 1 day old in another 1 hour and 40 minutes... here's to her - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The Aches & Pains of Parenthood

Barely 2 weeks after Matty recovered from his fever, it is now Elaina's turn to come down with stuffy nose. I hate it when the kids are sick - flu, cough, fever... it makes them ultra cranky especially at night when they are unable to rest well. They are so helpless but there is only so much that we can do to offer some relief. We can only wait for the body to fight the bug.

Mummy has been suffering from a stiff neck since yesterday - a result of co-sleeping with Elaina. In order to get Elaina to rest properly during times like this, the best way is to let her bunk in with Mummy. The princess is growing big and the bed is getting squeezy with her, Daddy and Mummy in it together. It was still ok few months ago but these days it is no longer comfy for Mummy. I think I probably didn't move an inch for 6 whole hours with Elaina on one side and Daddy on the other and end up waking to a very bad ache in the neck and shoulder area. Mummy couldn't even turn my head at all yesterday. The $10 massage which I paid for plus the medicated plasters to aid in circulation helped in giving me back some mobility in the neck area. Still hurts a little with bits of knots here and there. Talk about the aches and pain of parenthood.

Self-Feeding Finally

After celebrating the little successes that Baby Elaina had in the last blog entry.... it is now time to give a big pat on the back for Matty.

Not sure if Matty had been influenced by his little friends in school or just a natural progression, he decided all of a sudden last Friday that it was high time he held the spoon on his own and insisted that he wants to do it. He has been doing well when it comes to self-feeding with fork... but little luck with the spoon and chopsticks with a tendency to spill the contents unless of some sticky consistency.

8 February 2008 is a date to remember - for the first time ever, Matty managed to feed himself a full bowl of fried rice without much help. The idea of "self-feeding" caught on and since then he has been taking his own meal, from rice, to porridge, to yoghurt and even soup.

I admit that this important milestone was delayed due to our reluctance to clean up the mess that he is likely to create after each meal... it felt much easier for us to feed him and still keep the place in order. But come to think of it... it probably is a lot easier on us if we just let him learn to take his own meal and free up our time to do something else. Mah-mah is definitely pleased because it means she can pretty much leave Matty alone these days during meal-time... and as he is now too preoccupied with making sure that his food gets to his mouth safely, he has no time to ask for toys or tv.

Three Cheers for Elaina

Hip~Hip~Horray for Elaina!! For the 3 achievements today:

One... she mastered the skill of sliding down the bed while on her tummy.
Two... she clapped her hands when she was happy.
Three... she was able to climb the stairs.

King on King-Size Bed

Since moving back in with Mah-Mah, Matty has picked up the bad habit of climbing onto our king-size bed in the middle of the night. We forsee alot of hard work in trying to get Matty accustomed to sleeping in his own room when we move out again. As for Elaina, Mummy bears half the blame... because we know that she will eventually go back to sleep as long as she can "smell" me somewhere near here, I would always carry her out from her cot and put her next to me so that I can go back to sleep promptly while she gets her "aromatherapy" session. It has become a habit for Elaina as a result. There were nights when the bed became too squeezy with all of us on it... of course the 2 babies didn't seem to mind.

Last night, Matty threw a fit when he woke up in the middle of the night realising that he was back in his own bed. For the fear that his tantrums would wake Elaina up and make the situation even more uncontrollable, we had to let the "king" have the bed. Not for long I promise! Hopefully when we move back home, he will not find it as convenient as now to crawl into our bed, since it definitely will require more effort on his part.

For now, Daddy takes it as a fair exchange. The "king" gets his king-size bed and thrown-out-of-bed Daddy gets to sleep on the more comfortable mattress which I don't understand why Matty would readily give up for.

Slacking and Lacking

As I was browsing through the blog last night and reading some of the old blog entries, it confirmed my recollection that Matty actually started to talk (as in like say a few words) when he was about 9 months old. In fact he was able to mouth a few words even earlier than that... at about 8.5 months old. To name a few, he was able to express words like "mum-mum", "up", "down", "go", "on", "off", "clock", "bird", "car" and "flower"... and it wasn't random sounds that he was making. He points to the item and says it clearly.

I was proud that the boy was steadily increasing his vocabulary back then. I have always attributed Matty's strong verbal skills to the amount of talking that we constantly do with him. It wasn't intentional... it was never in our agenda to "groom" him in this aspect. Maybe because he doesn't really sleep a lot back then and we ended up distracting him and entertaining him with constant chattering. We carried him and walked him around the house, the garden, the neighbourhood and gave him all the exposure that a child needs - the sight, the sound, the smell.

Flip side of knowing that Matty was doing well in this area is that now I feel we haven't done enough for Elaina and the guilt of neglecting her seems to have crept back quietly. At 10 months old today, Elaina has not been able to mouth any recognisable word... probably just "mum-mum" when she sees food, which we are not even sure if she is pronouncing the word itself or just random baby sounds made. The excuse of "time is so stretched" is often cited to get ourselves off the hook when we cannot get something done for someone. To say that I have failed as a parent may sound a little too strong, but I hate to think that I may not be doing enough for the girl. I have always tried not to compare Elaina with Matty and stay away from being uptight about a lot of things.... but with that, I seemed to have slacked in making the effort when it comes to Elaina.

Probably in a few months time or in a few years when Elaina has learned what she needs to know and able to do what she needs to do... the guilt will stop haunting me. Until then...

New School

Matty has finally gone back to school after a 2-month break... except of course he is now in his new school. So far the one good thing that came out from it was that our fear of him rejecting school did not materialise. He insisted that he wanted to go back to his "old school" when we first brought him there to check the school out. That added on to our fear.... the fear that Matty needed Mah-Mah to stick with him in school for almost a month before he is convinced that school is a pleasant place, that he can face school all by himself and that he will still come home in one piece at the end of the day.

Even though we were told by the school that one parent can remain in the classroom with the kiddo for the first 3 days, the teacher - Ms Simmone persuaded us to just drop and go. Otherwise it will be very hard for her to bond with the child if the parent continues to hoover around. And so we did…. after spending 15 mins with Matty and basically showing him around the classroom just to interest him with the crayons, toys and books, Mummy left him there and only keeping close watch through the observation room. Circle time, snack time, playground, singing, free-play filled the 3 hours. He did well – not a single drop of tear! Of course, we weren’t too sure on the first day if it was because the reality hasn’t sank in yet and the tears will start to pour on the subsequent days to follow. We even pre-empted Ms Simmone of that possibility before she gets overly impressed with his “steadiness” on the first day of school.

Then came the second day. Unexpectedly, Matty’s enthusiasm for school started to show. Right after lunch, he insisted that he wants to leave for school even though it was still way too early before the class starts at 2 in the afternoon. He puts on his shoes and waited at the door for Daddy to send him there. So he ended up waiting for the class to begin in the deserted school… because it was only 1.30 and all the teachers were still out for lunch.

It has been almost a week and Matty seems to be enjoying his new school. Guess our worry was an unfounded one. Glad to be proven wrong in this instance. If not it will be another stressful month for everyone.

First Blog for the New Year

Couldn't bear the thought that the blog hasn't been updated at all since we crossed over to 2008. Just gonna write something for the sake of it. Let's see...

Matty and Elaina caught the flu bug from Mummy a week ago and are on their way to full recovery. Other than the 2nd night which was really bad and resulted in Mummy only getting 3.5 hours of sleep that day.... I think we were pretty lucky to say that the babies were not as cranky as what we thought will be. Maybe we should thank Dr Chan for the "magic green potion" which can even knock Matty flat out.

Elaina is starting to get very demanding these days. She throws her tantrum more often and over minor things at times. We can hardly strap her to the car-seat lately. She will cry as though something devastating had happened. Elaina is definitely more daring as compared to her brother. She had been letting go of her grip without much thinking and can actually stand unsupported quite well. Everybody is betting on her walking real soon. I guess we will find out eventually.

For Mummy... it has been alot of money spending despite the end of Christmas. Now we need to start buying clothes and shoes for the Chinese New Year. I can't help but feel that my pocket is burning a big big hole... and will only get bigger when we start getting the red packets out.

I think that's about it. Time to knock out. Nitezzzzz

BAD

BAD dreams - Matty obviously had a nasty dream last night when he kept mumbling for 15 whole minutes "my... my.... my Yizong".

BAD throat - Mummy is down with a sore throat and flu. What a way to end and start a year.

Princess' First Christmas

Well... this year's Christmas is nothing more different than the last 2 years - Same Christmas tree, same honey-baked ham from Marriot Hotel, lots of food which we couldn't possibly stomach in one meal, lots of presents under the tree. The only difference is that we have our princess to share the joy *beams*.

Mummy is in a generous mood this year and splurged a little more on the presents this year. It has been a good year for Mummy... a promotion, a great increment and a salary adjustment. But after this (or probably after another round of spree at Old Navy if I can lay my hands on that hooded-toggle overcoat for Matty!) I really need to give the shopping a break before I break my bank and deplete it completely. Somehow I can never convince myself that Matty and Elaina have enough new clothings for the coming Chinese New Year even though what's hanging in the wardrobe can last them past the 15 days plus the eve of Chinese New Year.

Anyway back to the topic... Matty and Elaina each received a grand total of 8 presents. Most came in big boxes so much so that some were presents under the tree and some become "presents behind the sofa" because we ran out of space under the tree. After much anticipation, Matty finally got to lay his hands on the presents. I must salute him for the perseverance in continuously and consistently pleading to allow him to open the pressies and the patience nonetheless for actually holding out 3 full weeks before he get to see his toys. Elaina surprised us by her ability to stay up late that day. 2 hours past her bedtime and there was no sign of crankiness from her - the wonder of Christmas or should I say toys (lots and lots of them).

The person who got the most expensive toy is none other than moi. Daddy bought me a new mobile phone because the old one had been wonky for a while. It had done well to survive this long despite the many knocks and drools from Matty and Elaina in the last 2 and half years. To prevent the new phone from going through the same ordeal... we are keeping the old phone for those long car rides when you need a gadget or 2 to entertain the 2 kids.

Round One ~ Fight!

Yesterday marked the first war between Matty and Elaina.

Both of them never played well together - Elaina will try and grab whatever that the big brother is playing with (despite all the efforts that we try to distract her away from his toys) and Matty will push her hands away while trying to protect his territory. Understandably... since most children only learn how to play with peers at around the age of 3. The ignition of the commotion? Elaina actually snatched a toy out from Matty's hand when she would usually just take things that Matty leaves on the floor. Matty burst out immediately as though the whole world did him some big injustice. I reprimanded the little princess for her doings and gave the toy back to the big brother. She ended up brawling too. Frankly, as the mother... I can only say that both were in the wrong. She should not have played rough and he could have avoided the whole episode if he had agreed to share his toys with the little sister.

As much as I would like not to deal with situations like these, it will not be the last unfortunately... especially tonight when they get to open up their Christmas presents. I can just about imagine Matty trying to have a go at Elaina's toy while she lacks the ability to stop him... and her trying to get a feel of his toys while he tries hard to keep her away. I can only hope that not much tears will flow and end the Christmas eve with a not so nice note.

We All Get There Somehow

Weighing 8.1kg, our little princess will be turning 9 months old in a few days. Time seems to be creeping extremely fast since Elaina came along. Unknowingly she has hit many milestones as well.

Elaina is now a professional when it comes to changing position. Rolling over, sitting up, going onto her tummy, pulling up to stand and cruising... are no longer challenges to her. The only challenge is when we try to keep her still.

Mummy tried getting Elaina to drink through the straw yesterday and she actually did it even without being "formally trained" with any training cup and spout... unlike Matty. But of course Matty was able to drink through the straw at 7 months old. Maybe this is a good illustration that a child will somehow learn new tricks even without the parents nudging them to... other than the reluctance to do it when they are older and that they know how to express their unwillingness.

I can now fully understand why a second-time parent will start to get more and more relaxed about alot of things unlike with the firstborn. It will start out as the lack of time to worry too much and gradually you realise that the kid will still grow up and go through the same phase with or without the anxiety that parents go through.

With Matty, during the first year of his life we wonder about alot of things - when he will stop waking up for night feeding, how to make him sleep better and wake up later in the morning, is he napping enough hours, if he should be eating food that are more chunky to get him to learn to chew, if he is getting enough practice in self-feeding, is he hitting his milestones, if he knows how to wave bye bye, do we talk to him enough so that he will say his first word and the list just goes on and on and on. When it comes to Elaina, fortunately and unfortunately... we are thankful if she goes to sleep at some point, that she eats something regardless what texture it comes in, that someone actually remembers to change her diaper.

Siblings Rivalry

If Matty and Elaina can communicate (in a better way) with each other, here's probably what they will say to each other....

Matty to Elaina:

Mei-Mei, I really love you as a little sister and I will give you all the hugs and kisses that I can, but there are some things which I do not share - Mummy, my toys and my ex-toys which by some miracle now belongs to yo, and all the new toys... even though some may belong to you (or so I was told by the adults).

My little bimmer and F1 car belong to me too... I am only letting you have it because it sounds more fun when I have you in one car chasing after me while I am in the other.

By the way, you are not to touch or smell my books... including mouthing them. In case nobody has told you this yet, yes those books belong to me. Likewise for my mega blocks and lego blocks.

Yes, there are times when I will allow you to set your hands on my toys and books only because I was told that otherwise I will not have access to your toys in the future.

Elaina to Matty:

Gor-Gor, you are my role model. I look at you in awe whenever I see you jump and run about on your own. I can't wait to grow up and be like you.

But growing up can be a painful process especially when you refuse to let me have a go at your toys and books. They look yummilicious. I'm sure that it is the same reason why you ate my biscuits... the whole box of it when I only managed to eat one.

I want to learn from you... including how to switch the discs and press the "play" button. At least next time when you take out my Baby Einstein discs and load in your Blue's Clues I know how to get my Baby Einstein back. I can't understand a word uttered by Elmo, Blue, Big Bird or Dora... so can't we stick to something more universal like Baby Einstein?

By the way, the feeling is mutual when it comes to me having to share my toys and Mummy with you. I will not take it lying down from now on and will not hesitate to scream at you like I did yesterday morning when you tried to play with the button on Mummy's shirt while I was at it.

Sticky Superglue

Not only has Elaina picked up the habit of waking up in the middle of the night for milk, she has also morphed to became a clingy baby like Matty. She sticks to Mummy like glue and will cry her lungs out if she sees me walking away. Not only that she will refuse the first feeding in the morning and the night-feed unless Mummy is the one cradling her and feeding her.

Our king-size is also shrinking - because on most nights these days, only the smell of Mummy can calm her and lull her back to sleep (aromatherapy??). So naturally she ends up sleeping in-between Daddy and Mummy... but mostly closer to Mummy's side. Some time ago, Matty also decided for some unknown reason that the best place to sleep is next to Mummy... and he ends up next to Mummy too.

Mummy is flattered to know how Matty and Elaina adores the person who brought them to this world... but in the middle of the night when I can barely keep my eyes open or in the morning when we are rushing like mad to get ready for work... you would wonder if this is a good or bad thing.

Maybe I should just enjoy this phase while both of them are still willing to be my koala bears and me their big gum tree.

Christmas Toys... Where?

Christmas Toys... Where?
Those were the exact words from Matty one day after the Christmas tree is up. Talk about efficiency!

The Tree is Up Once More

Our Christmas tree sees the daylight yet again. Unbelievable how the year has zoomed past. It didn't feel like that long ago when Mummy was last shopping for Christmas pressies and decorations. This Christmas will be another meaningful one because it is Elaina's first Christmas. Somehow she doesn't seem to have taken notice of the tree though.

This year, Mummy has Matty buzzing around while putting up the tree. He still remembers that all the balls and bells need to go on and was frantically trying his hand on hanging the stuff.

We had to get the lights replaced... since quite a number of bulbs have blew. I wonder how long more will the tree last before we need to get another new one.

(Oh and for the records, Elaina only put on 50 grams in the last one month although we swore that she felt a lot heavier than that!)

What Happened?

Oh dear... it has been 2 weeks since Mummy last updated this blog. Let's see what have we been doing for the last ten days or so.

Matty's playgroup at My Gym finally came to an end.... I think he is starting to feel very bored at home with no where to burn his energy.... which probably explains why he seems to be screaming alot more (not like he wasn't capable of doing it in the past!!), messing up the place by throwing his books all over the place and so on. Perhaps all these help to channel his energy out from his system.... which inadvertently also causes everyone to be drained of energy. Now that he has given up his afternoon nap (because Mah-Mah has given up on making him take his afternoon nap) he has even more time on hand. Quite often he ends up spending the afternoon in Parkway for one reason or another. Talk about loitering the shopping mall... here's a true blue Singaporean in the making. We are starting to be a little bit concerned about his eyesight. Not too sure if it is a result of skipping the afternoon nap or overdose of the television, he seems to be rubbing his eyes alot more lately. Anyway the issue of watching too much television is an aged-old one. With Matty... alot of things cannot be helped. How else to make a hyper-kiddo sit down for even a minute so that you can at least get some rest yourself or even to have something entertain him when he use to wake up at 5 in the morning while his (poor) parents needed that extra one-hour of sleep before getting ready to work.

As for Elaina, she got her 2nd tooth shortly after sprouting the 1st one. However even with her 2 lower teeth in... it doesn't seem to deter her from sucking her thumb. Hopefully we won't need to resort to the unthinkable. She is starting to crawl her way around. Not quite the commando-style though like most babies. She will dig her feet and elbow into the bed and push her way forward. Elaina is also starting to be able to stand with support. Because of that.... she fell while in her bumbo seat just the other day. Yes... she tried to stand up and reach out for a toy and fell over. Lucky thing that the bumbo seat was on the floor and not on the bed.

Mummy is again busy with work, work, work and more work. I can't wait for the day when we can finally get an admin person for the department... provided if I am not made redundant in the coming re-organisation. Other than working... I have been busy doing retail therapy. Elaina seems to be growing fast and furious since she started taking solid food.... which means she needs more clothes (not like I hadn't been stocking up). It has gone to the extend that Mummy had to "abort" my plan of buying more pretty dresses until we get more pink hangers. So now what??? Found some sites that sell clips and custom-made bows. I think I must have spent almost a hundred bucks in 2 weeks on hair accessories for Elaina. Since she has so much more hair as compared to most babies of this age... why waste it right?? And since she has got so many pretty outfits of course we need clips of different colours and designs to match the outfit.

What about Daddy??? What else other than busy with his online game *rolleyes*

First & Last

FIRST.....

Elaina finally sprouted her first tooth on 18 October 2007... at her bottom left front. Exactly on the day she turned 7 months old. Mummy thinks it is so cute when the baby has a little tooth to show off.

She's weighing 7.7kg at the checkup last Saturday and able to sit and balance herself without support... although she still topples when she forgets that she needs to keep her balance

LAST...

It was Matty's last day at the playgroup on Friday. His favourite teacher, Lara (or known as Teacher Wa-Wa... due to his lousy pronunciation) was almost tearing. She even reminded him to come visit her whenever he passes by to get to the post office.

Diving Yet Again

It was just 2 weeks ago when Mummy wrote about Elaina's first dip. She took another dive over the weekend... albeit that it was a "dive" from the bed unto the floor. The first fall (and definitely not the last!) that Elaina suffered. Naturally... she cried buckets and it was made worse because she was hungry and tired then.

Should have been more careful and put up some "barriers" to protect her. Blame it on Mummy's over-confidence!! I was only walking away to drop something into the laundry bin and I didn't think much about it since it was only going to be a split second. Besides she usually rolls toward her right and she should have rolled towards the pillow going by the natural course that she takes.

We never quite worked out where exactly she bumped because until today there is no visible bruises on Elaina. But one thing for sure was that being a seasoned mummy... I picked her up from the floor in a matter-of-fact manner and tried to give her some comfort as though it was just another fall (actually come to think of it... it is and it will be). When Matty first rolled off and fell to the floor... I almost broke in hysteric and broke into tears myself. It was devastating. Not sure if its a good thing that I have grown used to such occasions and became immune to it.

Sticky Affair

Matty's latest craze - stickers!!! I think we all do fall in love with stickers at one point in time in our entire life... so yes Matty is in this stage of his life.

His first sticker books were freebies we get from buying his milk powder, Dr Chan's clinic... and bits and pieces of sticky stuff that we just stick on his hands for fun. Somehow he got caught on with it. Now the stickers serves as reward for every successful "business deal" that he seals. We are toilet training him at the moment... get the picture?? Or to distract him from whatever distress that he goes through... like being denied access to the computer. Mummy bought some Blue's Clues (another love of his love at the moment!) sticker books online recently. I hope he will be thrilled when he receives them.

Anyway... the stickers have become his life, his world, his everything. Nothing else is more important than his stickers. Just the other day while rolling all over the bed, Elaina nearly crushed Matty's sticker book which was placed on the bed. It was a near miss... Matty pulled his sticker book away from Elaina in the nick of time. Last night, he actually screamed at Elaina when she tried to grab the stickers. I don't think Daddy's effort in trying to educate Matty after that episode that he needs to learn to share saw any results. Even his mummy dearest (moi) wasn't able to persuade him to give me one little sticker. Biscuits, crispy, ice-cream... yes he will willingly give me a bite... stickers?? Nay! I think we now know where we stand in his list of favourite things.

Big Dip

Nope... the "dip" we are talking about is not some lucky draw but the Elaina's maiden swim. She took her first dive (head above water dive to be precise) last Sunday - 30 September, at the club's pool. Its been a while since Matty last swam... in fact it was one weekend before Elaina was born. That was how long ago!

It was a last minute decision to bring both babies for a dip because Mummy hasn't been able to find the time and opportunity to scout for Elaina's swimsuit... eventually Daddy did manage to get one at Kiddy's Palace after he got his haircut on Saturday. Although Elaina didn't shrill in excitement like Matty did back then.... she did enjoy the big "bathtub" on the whole.

Matty on the other hand couldn't contain his emotions. First it was the anticipation of jumping into the pool but later he ended up brawling... I think he wasn't too used to seeing so many people at the pool. Took a bit of pacifying to get him smiling again. Somehow he doesn't mix well with strangers... takes him a while to warm up.

Daddy is planning to bring Matty and Elaina swimming again this weekend. Let's see if Mummy is up to it... a short swim requires one hour of preparation and another hour of washing and cleaning thereafter.

Matty's Cover Version

Matty re-wrote (or sing to be precise) 2 well-known children's song one night while trying to fall asleep... talk about inspiration! The lyrics in Matty's exact words...

Oh MacDonald Had a Farm

Oh Mac... e-ya-e-ya-yooT (note the distinct pronunciation of the letter "T")
And a moo moo here and a moo moo there
And moo and moo and moo and moo
Oh Mac... e-ya-e-ya-yooT


Alphabet Song

A-B-C-D-E-F-G
H-I-J-K-L-M-OH-OH-P
Q-R-S
T-U-V
W-X-Y and Z
Now I know my ABC
Next time (2-seconds pause).... single me

Textbook Baby

We have a textbook baby on hand! Everything that is written in a textbook is as good as describing our little princess.

Just when Mummy was wondering when will she do her first flipping over... she finally did it 2 days before she turned 5-months old... hip hip hooray!! According to the health booklet this is something that was "scheduled" to happen at 5-months old. Mummy got a bit worried initially probably because Matty was able to roll over (all over the place!) when he was only 3 and half months old but all the tummy time that Elaina had didn't seem to spur her on. Then again Matty is a bad benchmark because he was really advanced in some areas but slow in other aspects. It never happened on the dot or around the dot for Matty. With Elaina it was a different story.

Elaina started to sleep through the night at 2 months old as "predicted" by alot of books that I have come across without even the need to replace her night feeds with water. It never worked with Matty no matter how hard to try to deny him the milk. Elaina's sleep cycle is usually very regular. She will need to take another nap after being awake for 2 hours. At night, she needs her bath at 8.30 pm and followed by milk. By 9.30 pm she will be off to lala-land until 8 the next morning. Matty's sleep and nap time was a guessing game. It took us forever to get him to sleep (still does) and staying asleep was a big challenge.

The only problem is that when we are out... it is an uphill task to pacify Elaina. She will be tired and cranky but unable to sleep because she is not in a familiar environment. A textbook baby needs to have all things constant which can be tough on certain occasion... and when it is nap time she better get her nap otherwise all hell break loose. There is no room for negotiation. On the other hand, we don't have to worry about Matty feeling cranky when we are out of the house. As long as there are things to keep him occupied he will be a happy baby... much happier than when he is forced to sleep. When the zee monster gets to him... he will just doze off in his stroller easily.

We are lucky in a way that both of them are opposite in this area... at least we only need to deal with one cranky baby be it out or at home.

Moving On

It was an extremely crazy period for Mummy the last 2 weeks... moving both house and office. In between, I had to get a root canal treatment, nurse both Matty and Elaina back to health from a nasty flu, deal with a bad throat and runny nose myself and not getting enough rest due to the constant late night crying and screaming from both babies (a result of blocked nose and new environment). The good that came out from this episode was that Mummy lost 2 kg in just one week. Haven't been able to get on to the weighing machine over the weekend... hopefully I managed to lose (at least) another half kg. Guess I will know if I should find the time and energy to replace those dead batteries in the weighing machine.

To Mummy... it was mixed emotions to move out from the place that I knew so well. Even though it was only a short two years in Sea Avenue, it was a place where lots of memories held. Matty's first dip in the pool, the 3 flight of stairs where he learned to first climb, the kitchen where I first learned to make baby food, Matty's first Christmas party... and the list goes on. I was initially worried that Matty will miss "home"... but the truth is that it didn't bothered him a bit. We walked past the house just last Sunday and he didn't even stopped to look at it. Somewhat glad that Matty was not the least bit concerned... otherwise it would have been tough trying to pacify him and explain to him why we are not allowed into the place which he used to call "home". As it is... we are having a tough time dealing with his tantrums every night getting him to go to bed. He now has his grandparents around him 24/7... see the link?

Changes in life are inevitable... we somehow survive it all no matter how reluctant we are to move on initially. I'm sure we will continue to have many more happy memories to add. It is who we have that counts and not where we are.

Boys will be Boys and Girls will be Girls

There was an episode in "Child of Our Time" which touched on the topic of girls going for girly stuff and boys doing the boys' stuff. It is amazing how each child is borne with an innate ability to have a preference over what is deemed "appropriate" for their own gender without being told.

Like most boys, Matty has a love for cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, tractors... of course there will be others who prefers airplanes or trains. When we are on the road, it thrills him to see all the transportation machines going by. He has cars on his shirts, shorts, bedsheet and toy cars in all sorts of form, sizes and colour. You name it... he has it. If you think Formula 1 is an adult's sport.... you are so wrong! The Formula 1 race is something that Matty watches other than his usual dose of Baby Einstein and Hi-5. I think it is not hard to imagine that he will share the same dream car as Daddy (for the record... it is Ferrari we are talking about) in years to come. Of course that shall remain in his dream... how else would it qualify to be a "dream" car.

We had loads of soft toys that we received as presents when Matty was only a newborn but he instinctively chose car over the stuffed toys even when he was as young as a few months old. It wasn't deliberate... it just happened to be this way.

Elaina started to show interest in her cot-mate yesterday morning. The gaze in her eyes, her cooing and her sweet smile gave her away. Anybody could tell instantly how she adores the Pooh Bear that shares her cot and watches over her every night while she is away in lala-land. Whereas Matty never ever notices such stuff at this age.

So we can conclude that girls will be girls and boys will be boys... if they behave otherwise I think we probably will go into panic mode.

Checked!!

Both babies were back at Dr. Chan for their jabs last Saturday. Luckily there were no tears this time round.

Matty's weight remains stagnant at 12.5kg, "towering" at 88.5cm tall with a head circumference of 50cm. As for Elaina, she has only put on 500gms in the last one month... bringing it to 6.3 kg in total. Looks like she will be one petite little princess. Height was measured at 60cm and a head circumference of 40.5cm.

Thinking that Elaina can finally start taking some cereal after her check-up, we were told to hold it off for at least another month because the recent recommendation from World Health Organisation was to start semi-solid only after the baby turns 6 months old to lower the risk of developing allergy to certain food. Looks like it will be a while more before Elaina get to taste some yummy stuff.

In the meantime... our little piglet doesn't seem to make much effort to try and roll over. Mummy remembers that Matty will be frantically trying to flip over when he was only into his third month. Then again... Matty is always so impatient about alot of things and tries hard to get ahead in everything. Elaina enjoys just lying around and wait for something to happen. Hopefully it also meant that she will have a milder temper and more patience as compared to the rest of us in the family.

(For the record... Matty caught the fireworks of the National Day Parade rehearsal when we were dining at Pan Pacific Hotel last Saturday!!)

Dump the Diaper and Take a Dump

After months of agonising over when Matty will take to using the potty... we are finally making some headway!!

In the span of 1 week, he actually managed to poop into the toilet bowl 3 times. We didn't manage to get him to the throne on time yesterday and he had to let it out in his diaper. Before last week, he will cry and scream and hold back his bowel everytime we take off his diaper and attempt to put him on the potty. The mere fact that he knows that he needs to poop and pee and can hold back in when we show him the potty... and let go the minute the diaper in on his butt again is a sign that he is can be toilet-trained. Somehow he just resisted the idea of letting go except into his diaper.

Hopefully it won't be long before he decides to pee into the potty... that will surely save us a lot of money getting disposable diapers.

Matty Turns 2!

Yesterday was Matty’s 2nd birthday. Can’t believe how time flies. It wasn’t so long ago that we could still cradle (a lot of cradling done in those initial days!) him in our arms.

Again… there was no big bang celebration this year. We didn’t think it was necessary because he will just end up having a lot Mummy’s and Daddy’s friends at his birthday party. It would have been quite pointless. Maybe when he is a little older and has got little friends of his own.

We did however got him two cakes like last year – one strawberry shortcake and another one which was made up of many many many small cupcakes. One for Mummy’s family and the other for Daddy’s family. The lady at the pastry shop reminded that it won’t be long before we will need to get three separate cakes when he starts schooling. Hmmm… guess we will deal with it when we get there.

Matty got to enjoy his favourite Fish and Chips on his birthday. I didn’t think he would be very pleased if he was to eat some boring stuff on such an important day.

Wai-Gong bought him a pair of cool Reebok shoes that lights up with every slap on the bottom of the shoe (yes he was literally hitting the soles with his palm) and Daddy got him a Transformer toy… which Matty calls it a “robot truck” (I wonder who it was actually meant for…). And more ang-pows to add on to his five-figure digit bank account. Sounds like a Christmas and Chinese New Year all rolled in to one… minus the Christmas tree and Gong-Xi Gong-Xi that he was forced to say every time he gets an ang-pow.

Hopefully Matty had a great birthday even though he may not recall this day years down the road. At least I think he did from the grin on his face when we sang him the birthday song. Oh yes… he managed to blow out the candles on his cake this year.

While we take joy that the boy has grown another year older and celebrate this important day… it is also to mark that Mummy and Daddy has survived another year of parenthood!

No Big No Small

Matty is a true blue ang-mo. Not only does his Mandarin come with an ang-mo accent... he started calling his elders by name. Mah-Mah is now "Ya-Mei"... Chek-Chek is now "Kai Teck"... Gu-Gu is now "Kai Ling"... and Ah-Yee is now "Ah-Zhen". Amusing it may be... we hope he will not continue to do that. Afterall we are still Asians.

Sucker!!

Elaina is a sucker... thumb sucker I mean.

Whenever she is bored with nothing to distract her, in goes her left thumb. Sometimes in the middle of the night she will instinctively pop her precious lollipop even though she is only half-awake.

We woke up one morning to find her little nose covered with dried-up blood - the result of her thumb sucking. While the thumb goes into the mouth, her other four fingers will rest on her nose... which will end up scratching the nose every time she takes a suck.

Elaina is now back to wearing mittens for the night. The mittens didn't stop her from sucking (we know cos there are times when the mitten is soaked with saliva the next morning!!) but at least it helps to prevent her from scratching her nose badly.

Leaps and Bound

In the last two months, Baby Elaina has put on a whooping 1.7kg... which is pretty much on target. At least Mother Cow's efforts had not gone to waste. Now we just need to wait for her first milestone to come.

As for Matty, he has been picking up new words so fast that we have totally lost count how many words he has added to his vocabulary. On days, he will surprise us with words which we never knew he knew. At times, he will repeat our words back to us... and stringing words together is no longer a challenge to him. BUT the fact that he is conversing mainly in English and has not been picking up Chinese is something we cannot comprehend... because we do use a mix of both languages with him since Day One. Even if he does try to speak (rarely) in Mandarin, it comes with an accent that sounds like an Ang-Moh grappling Mandarin. I can't help but laugh when I hear the Chinese words that come out from Matty's mouth. I think I have given birth to a "kantang" (which so happens to be one of Matty's favourite... cos that's what french fries and hash browns are made of !!).

Day to be Remembered

Elaina is finally turning 1 month old in a few days time. As we celebrate this special day... tomorrow is also a day of remembrance of our two angels.

Our family picture is now complete with the birth of Matty and Elaina... but yet it seems so incomplete.

Weekend Schedule

Here's a glimpse of a typical weekend for the past 2 weeks...

he-eats, she-eats, she-eats, he-eats, I-eat, he-eats, she-eats, she-eats, he-eats, I-eat, she-eats, she-eats, he-eats, she-eats...

Mummy is getting all burnt out trying to satisfy the hunger-pangs of both babies. The whole day is spent feeding away. Can just about imagine that when Elaina starts having solid food... "I-eat" will be dropped completely out from the equation!

Little Professor

Matty understands the benefits of "starting young" and had recently given his little sister her first lesson to build up her language skills...

(Matty shows toy dog to Elaina)
Matty: wow-wow

(Matty shows toy truck to Elaina)
Matty: truck

***

Matty is into addition lately as well but he still has a long way to go

Us: 4 plus 4 equals... ?
Matty: 8

Us: 1 plus 1 equals... ?
Matty: 8
Us: No... it should be 2

Us: 4 plus 4 equals... ?
Matty: 2