Small baby

Aricia never fails to get attention from strangers; they either say that she's very cute or very small. Ah...........and when I get strangers asking me how old is she and their eyes gave me a clue to what they're thinking, I'd admit "small baby right". Feeling rather embarrassed, they say "yes, but as long as she's healthy it doesn't matter" trying to be tactful.

Frankly, we do agree that she is indeed small. And although we (hubby & myself) keep psycho-ing ourselves that as long as she's healthy and happy - she's a very happy smiley baby. Well..........and 'very very very very very much' (trying to sound like Athena) active too! We simply can't believe that despite that being so normal - she's small! And kept questioning if there's anything wrong with her genes.
I can't help but worry about so many things on Aricia.
1) I worry if she has ADHD (which Athena's teacher told me - no sign of Aricia having it coz' she response very well)
2) I worry if there's something wrong with her spine coz' she simply refuse to sit when we propped her up. Dr Tan checked, said no problem with her at all. Only recently, she's adopting the tripod pose and stay longer when I prop her up, otherwise that mischievous girl will deliberately use her buttocks to move herself forward and she'll fall flat on her back; then she starts smiling / laughing. Infact, I think she found it fun & amusing herself when she kept doing it a couple of times every day - perhaps she knew she was trying to test my patience.
3) Now hubby worry if there's something wrong with her genes. Oh shit! Is she going to be short like mummy??? Argh! I hope not! Then again her length did shot up from 3 %tile to 50 %tile. It's only her weight that we worry about. Goash! Slightly more than a 5kg rice.

We tried to increase her milk but she simply won't drink much. Infact, I noticed both my gals don't drink much milk. OMG! Can you believe Ignatius is drinking 120ml or sometimes 150ml every 3 hours?? I think that's over-feeding and making his stomach big.

Master Tan did say in his life analysis of Aricia that she has good figure. I don't know what he was hinting to us, that she's probably a slim slender girl as compared to the pui pui Athena??

Research have shown that babies / young children should have sufficient rest. When they're sleeping, they are developing brain cells and they grow faster / bigger. Aricia don't sleep much, she can sleep for one hour and then up for play. (she loves to play). So now, I wonder if her size is really inter-linked??

The calafare

My ex-company called me some time last week about using a 5 yr-old child in their service campaign & if I mind using her.

So today, let her skipped school so that I can bring her down for the photo shoots. Let her have fun and frankly I do miss this thing where we don't have to work (eat snake) and have so much fun fooling around.

It's really a pleasure to see Spencer (photographer) again, after almost 2 long years since I've resigned from the company.

At first she was rather shy and was rather well-behaved. She warmed up to Caroline very fast in the bus though, and soon the little devil was out.

Anyway, I did have some photos taken on my mobile phone of her (seems like its sideview - so may not see her face afterall - sigh....) but I won't post it in my blog until the posters are out in the interchanges and buses (that's what Joanna told me the photos are for). She was having fun and soon warmed up to Connie (who acted as her mother), kept jumping from the bus to the pavement.
Mom was with me since she stayed overnight the night before, I also needed to be out after the shoots so brought Aricia out. In the end, they saw the baby and asked if I mind getting the baby & me in the picture. I passed the job to my mom since I looked so hideous in photos. So instead of providing one calafare; I had unknowingly given them two more calafares. Haha! Baby was sleeping most time as she was so comfortable with mom carrying her. However she woke up at the last part of the photoshoots, mom carried her upright. Dunno if will see face or infact have no idea which photo will be selected.

Athena enjoyed herself coz' she also had a ride in the bus for free, and it was a double decker bus. I brought her upstairs and then she kept going upstairs. See lah! My daughter's so suaku, hardly take bus and didn't even know that she can go up the bus until I brought her up. ?!?!

These are some photos of them : -

Clockwise : Mom & Aricia ; Kum Foong & Athena ; Caroline & Athena
Athena's part-time mother - Connie

Found a new way to hang onto the pole when the bus is moving

Mom with Aricia. Luckily was smart enough to bring along a portable fan. The mother (me) also busy holding the fan

Caroline : Ai yah... where did I put it (digs her bag)
Athena : Eeeks! Aunty Caroline put in a censored photo inside!!


Clockwise : Mummy I tell you.... ; just now hor I saw a (trying to think hard) ; eeeks so disgusting thing in Aunty Caroline's bag ; Caroline:-"Come Athena I give you this bus model you don't tell your mummy what you saw.

Upper Deck - unfortunately its not the Business Class Upper Deck

" Wah..the baby so shiok. Can sleep.. I eat snake also difficult lah!"

Are they done yet? I wake up; sleep; wake up; sleep & they haven't finished it? Adults are so slow!

Athena fooling around with new staff - Joanna

You know what's the coincident thing? Joanna joined to replace Rodney who had resigned, and apparently Rodney is now in her previous company - filling up her space I suppose. And the funny thing is she's under the Media in IMH, and when I told her brother is there but he's under C.A.M.P and she asked who it is. I mentioned only his first name and her eyes litted up. Small world isn't it?

After the photoshoot, we went for Tim Sum. Didn't eat much today. After which I went to Shichida.

Shichida

Enrolling Aricia into Shichida (hopefully into the July intake since April is fully taken up) since Athena was not in the school. Will enrol her on weekday class as I need to reserve the weekends for school-going Athena.

And why didn't I sign Athena up 4 years ago? At that time (again) it wasn't that widely publicised so didn't dare to try. But now, I thought I can spend my hubby's money to a good cause - I hope, while continuing with what other things I'm doing with her.

Honestly speaking, I thought of doing this Shichida method myself but there's no way to find out whatever is done unless I join the class. And why am I always keen to do everything myself? - coz' I still think parents are the best teachers. And sometimes I thought of helping hubby save the money by DIY-g it myself so that we can retire sooner and travel around the world. Haha! But for this $780 per term fees, I can't help him save it up. Heck lah! My hubby brings home so much every month and this is peanuts to him since I don't sign up Athena in all enrichment classes in Singapore.

Why I won't sign Athena up for the course now?

1) coz' I'm going to use what I've learnt there to practice on her. And I made this funny comment to mom "since she's already stupid; let her be stupid." No lah! Athena I must admit is not stupid. She learns things from all my drilling and she's rather a smart girl. The GD works on her; all the stimulations and the games that I select for her to play somehow did help.
2) I have to make calculations on Athena's current expenditure & must be fair to Aricia:
>>YJC, which will progress into lifelong Electone Organ music lesson
>>Violin, which will be progressed all the way till her neck and arms grow long

>>Speech & Drama, which can be pulled out when I need to put her in for more academic classes
>>In school's Chinese Speech & Drama
>>In school's Computer Class
>>Swimming, which will be for as long as the 3 survival courses
>>Academic classes in the near future since we want to bring up a professional & she's starting P1 soon.

3) Aricia expenditure at this time I can think of :
>>Shichida, which fees can be replaced with total sum of Athena's current 3 Yamaha lessons
>>Gymbabes
>>Montessori preschool
>>Her future music lessons. Keen in letting her learn the Electone organ just like her sister, but just in case she tell me one day she wants to learn another instrument - I have to be prepared.
>>Swimming
>>Enrichment classes

Visit to Dentist - Athena

Everytime either hubby or myself brush Athena's teeth, she'll start screaming and crying. Nope, it's not because her teeth are falling out or we brushed too hard - but she hated the toothpaste foam. Worst still, if we used the children's minty toothpaste. She'll start 'pui pui pui'-spitting and scream "got bubble bubble (foam)" Infact, the only toothpaste she loves is the banana flavoured baby toothpaste. She's literally eating it. Goash! So now, I have to resort to spend more money by buying her Pigeon toothpaste. Even so, she'll still scream (but not as much though). I'm shock by her reaction, since she brushed her teeth in school. However, when I check with her teacher. Nope! They only used water, I specifically brought another toothpaste for her to use and it seems untouched at all - coz' it seems the teacher don't even supervise the children. So, how would she know that they're brushing correctly?

Makes me want to drag her to the dentist and ask the dentist to teach her how to brush her own teeth or pull out all her teeth (since she don't want to take care of it). Goash! She's so lazy and will skip brushing her teeth if we don't ask her to.

Any recommendation for a good children's dentist I can bring her to?

Gym

Sian.........only the 3rd PT session and I'm already dreading it. Jefferson pushes me, and I'm overstretched. I perspired very quickly and tire easily when I'm on the equipments. And it's the repetitions that is overstretching my muscles (ahem.. fats). Alot of times, I can't do a continuous 20 or 25 counts, will somehow stop halfway even if its for that less than 5 secs rest. Umm... not good leh... it's like I'm practically throwing my money into the bin.

Then today, felt so paiseh when all of a sudden I broke out in cold sweat. I stopped and let the blood flow back to my pea-size brain. Then continued light exercises - leg lifts. Think Jefferson can only shake his head at this useless person.
The funny thing is, after that paiseh episode he asked me if I could continue extending another 20 minutes of my time there. I did and was pleasantly surprised that I still had the stamina to go on for another 40 minutes on the elliptical without breaking out in cold sweat. Haha! Umm.. I think machines are really not for me, but if I don't use then how to turn the fats into muscles?

Umm... babies are innate genius??

Did this test on Aricia at her bath time today.

I threw in her towel, her finished Latacyd (for bathing) bottle in her bathtub. She was curious to see something new in her bathtub & I only told her once "Aricia, this is towel and this is bottle." She looked at the two items. I then asked her to pick up either towel or bottle and out of 5 times she picked the right item for me. I know there's a 50% probability that she picked it out by luck.... but she had a 100% pass in that?! So I decided to try again by throwing in her rubber duckie and rotated between 3 items and again she passed her tests.

So, is it really genius or sheer good luck?? I don't know... of course all mommies would hope its the former.
Shall try another few times the test.

Updates

Weekends

It was the school holidays, Yamaha have a term break too. So Athena haven't been attending all her music lessons & her SDrama class on Saturday. Wonder how she'll cope this coming week.

Family went for a short outing. A good break away from the daily mundane duties of taking care of 2 children. Helper at first didn't want to go, but in the end she came along. Thank goodness she went along - coz' I really need a break. If she didn't go with us, I would have to be the one taking care of them again - then depicts the whole purpose of my 'taking a break.'

Went to the Food & Beverage Fair. Didn't eat much at all - simply tempting but glad I held back. The only thing I really sucumbered to temptation was this : - Mango sorbet

Sorbets aren't fattening.. could have scooped up more spoonfuls myself, but everyone kept scooping from the side instead of the top where it's very sweet, not much left.. so I took only a few spoonful and stopped.

All the stalls looked the same almost every year. However one stood out from the rests - perhaps I should say it's because I have a weakness for desserts. I must admit I didn't try this at all. They can be found at Lot 1, Bugis and Vivo City.


Walked around after that or rather had to keep walking fast to make sure that girl don't get lost in the mall - she keeps running & hopping around.
Athena likes bubbles - yes! When a staff in Carrefour was holding onto a bubble gun, she kept looking. Didn't dare to say anything but looked. After a while, she asked to come down from the trolley and came up to me. She spoke in a gibberish language, let her play and then dunno why........decided to buy it for her. I never like to spend money on useless toys but since she loves bubbles & I'm so tired from blowing out bubbles for her - why not?!


Athena

1) This girl is really very ah-nia; very timid. Put her to sleep and she'll whine wanting to sleep with papa mama (dunno why that girl keep changing the way she calls us). And when she cries, she wakes up the easily roused Aricia from her sleep - end up we have 2 crying kids. And the hubby (if he's in Singapore) is oblivious to the noise continues sleeping. I can't sleep in the daytime; can't sleep in the night time. Should be better off becoming an immortal.

2) She can read! Make me so worried if she's having problem reading that I was contemplating in sending her for the I Can Read class. And mind you, my sessions with her is not that many yet. Only started on 2 digraphs on her which she remembered and picked up really well. Now we're outside, she'll exclaim "mummy, I saw 'sh' just now.." "what is it?" "I saw 'sh' 'o - p' " "so, can you tell mummy what word is that? "Shh..o(or)..p. It's SHOP!" "Clever girl". This is one of the instances she'll tell me, of course I'm not saying that she's a genius that she can reads every word to me she sees but when I gave her her book, a new book - she actually read it to me.
I'm so happy..... going to try that again tonight. Try to make her read another book for me.

3) Wants to enrol her in some Math enrichment classes since I got her covered in both languages (hopefully she passes her Chinese well and don't fail becoz' of me). How am I suppose to coach her, I mean daily I ask her "how much do you have here, you ate XX so how many are you left?" I'm basically teaching her simple daily addition / subtraction but I want her to do it faster - like mental arithmethic . I dunno how to teach her, but she can recite the 2 times table for me. Now struggling with the 3 times table.
So, now I'm stuck with Abacus, Enopi, MPM, Kumon. I don't even know which is good.


Aricia

1) Wants to be carried to sleep, and since the long trip when I had to ask KZ to help me make the little one sleep while the big one keeps whining for me...Aricia has gotten used to sleeping on KZ's mattress (even in the night). Once we put her back in her cot; she cries! Now I have to insist asking KZ to put her back in her cot, we can't be spoiling that kid. If she cries, we put her pacifier back in her mouth and tap her to sleep. It's easier, since she's small - we can train her. It's the elder sister that I'm so angry/ worried about. Made the mistake in letting her sleep with us for so long.

2) The Miss Touch-Me-Not (since she cries when carried by strangers) has got very sensitive touch. Her che-che touches her to sayang her, she cries. Probably it's due to the fact that the che-che can be quite chor-lor that's why she started crying.
But it's really irritating to have one baby keep crying for no reason. Then the che-che also fed up, "I sayang you, you cry. I dowan to sayang you already." I tell Aricia off and she also don't understand, it doesn't mean that becoz' she's small I have to keep siding her, right?

Charming!

I love it when the 2 of them would co-operate with me and let me continue snapping my camera.

And they both viewed the shots together while I took these with another camera. Notice the last two photos where Aricia was trying to snatch the camera from the che-che.

Short outing

Brought Athena out to Paragon to get her easel. Finally! After talking about it for so long; blogged about it ~ it's finally brought home.

She changed her mind to the wooden one in the end, so end up paying more (but I kindda like that too -but didn't have storage space in between) bought her the non-spill container. Was tempted to get the paint brushes but I think I can save $ on that. It's not like my daughter is a good painter that I need so many and expensive brushes. Joyce helped me bring it to the car, she had to walk with me to Cairnhill carpark, couldn't even come into Paragon carpark at all. At the same time Shaz was the babysitter, making sure that Athena is alright in the shop. Well, I don't need a babysitter coz' she'll play by herself but Shaz needed to make sure that Athena doesn't leave the place with a stranger. Shaz is one staff who has seen Athena grown from a small girl to now she is. Athena later asked for a balloon (as usual) from Shaz. Umm.. I do find their toys nice, wonder if they have VIP membership. I think I'll qualify for it siah!

Had lunch at Delifrance, I ordered the d-licious set but couldn't even finish half of the croissant. I forced Athena to eat something there - I was sick of Mum's cuisine; I can't dine into fattening food - Spaggeddies. She had the cinnamon croissant and a mini eclair. She didn't finish the croissant but had some of my soup. Strange?? Normally she'd squim her face when asked her to eat western.

Popped by at Ngee Ann City. First went to Books Kinokuniya where I needed to get some books for the 2 of them. Then went over to Taka Children's Department, bought alot of Pigeon foodstuffs for Aricia; drinks for both of them; toothpaste for Athena. I didn't know they had 20% discount, if not I would have bought more.

She came home extremely happy with all the buys - mainly hers. And she gladly carried the foodstuffs all by herself. Struggling and yet kept saying "I can do it mummy.. I very strong." In the night after her music lesson, I fixed up the easel and she wanted to start painting. But it was quite late & she can do it tomorrow. She listened, didn't argue with me. If only she's this obedient everyday!

Says its for 3-8 years. See this girl! 4+ and she's taller than the easel! when I passed this remark, she overheard it and said "never mind mummy.. I bring my chair and sit down to draw."
Will have to buy chalks next time I'm there.

My promise fulfilled - Trip to the Zoo (15th Mar)

I promised Athena this about a month back, so this is a good time to bring her to the Zoo. After all the first time she went to the Zoo was on 1st Sept 2005, by then probably some old folks animals have died.

I asked helper to come along as I needed to push 2 strollers out. I can't handle with one stroller all by myself, and a baby in a baby carrier; weather hot; everyone perspiring and fretty. Worst still.. if the small one wants to be hand carried; and big one refuse to come down from stroller etc...a few hours (till mid day) excursion may turn out to be longer and frustrated. In the morning, called mom and asked her if she's inerested to come along. She came along citing that the last time she went to the Zoo was... when I was a little girl.

Reached the Zoo close to 10am. Put more anti-mozzies lotion for children and was doing it for mom when I heard someone calling me - it's Moo Han and her lovable Nathan. How I envied her - able to bring Nathan without stroller and empty-handed. The lazy pui pui girl wouldn't want me to leave the stroller at home/car. And her legs are 'tied with heavy shackles' - I'm like going for a war.
1) stuffs for Aricia - feed + diapers change
2) Wet tissues for all
3) Athena's junk food (dunno if she's coming for picnic or what..)
4) prepared for a rainy & extremely hot sunny day : umbrellas (athena's small one and mine); sunshade for Aricia's stroller; rain shield for Aricia's stroller; Athena's raincoat (if it rained, I'm gonna let her put on her raincoat and hold her umbrella) - cheapo stroller is like that one - no cover. Haha!

Two years later, a little more responsive when she sees animals but more irritating too! She wanted to snack and kept saying "I much hungry now!" Refused to let her snack before lunch, she complaint. The 3 adults were like her ah-sum like that "ma-ma open this for me. Mummy, I want you to push me, Aunty Zet to push mei-mei" blah blah. Whole trip - hear her voice.

Was happy she's looking at the animals until.... she realised I had the map with me. So kept asking for map. And the funny thing is when we walk from one enclosure to the next; she'd look on the map. Then when I exclaimed "Athena, did you see the giraffe?" She'd look on the map. "Athena, does the giraffe have short neck or long neck?" "Let me see....(looks at map) giraffe have long neck." Found it amusing, "mummy bring you here to see the real animals. You see the real animals not the map!" She did that a couple of times.. quite irritated with her but found it funny. The funny thing is when we were at the Children's World, I spotted a squirrel climbing up the tree. "Athena, did you see? what's that on the tree? Neh neh (pointing to her)." "mummy squirrel is not on the map leh!" Wah piang eh........like that also can. Might as well ask them to map down all the ants as well! But she was happy there, I was surprised that she wanted to touch the goat herself. A mother came prepared with kangkongs and carrot to feed the goats. I asked from a little girl a little and gave it to Athena to feed it. She was so happy and kept talking to the goats "hello.. goat. Hello.... say hello." "Athena goats say meh meh." She then proceeded to touch the cow and pig.

We went to a rainforest thing - wrong move. Just outside they had this small exhibition on all the pests you see.... eeks! cockroaches. Damn big! I'm going to use up cans & cans of insecticide. And we had to receive a souvenir the moment we stepped in. I spotted 2 quails (I think so) but not sure coz it has slightly different colour, walking with us; then we looked up to see another dunno what. KZ was stuck to the floor coz' she saw bats in the distance and was bloody afraid of them. Then mom said "look there's 2 birds directly above us. Quick move otherwise gonna shit on us." I told KZ "KZ walk ahead first, birds above us. Quick quick quick." Think she was still stunned from the bats; turned "huh" and next minute PLONK! Kena sai! Thank goodness it was on the sunshade not on the stroller itself. People behind us were laughing when I started scolding "ji dan wan ban dang.. da pian zai zhe li". If only I'm that lucky with lucky draws. Then I was so bloody scared anything else might just shit on me.. we were the only fools to open up our umbrella. Haha! Then I was more scared of the smallest thing - the fluttering butterflies. I was scared to move when more was flying around us. Athena kept her head ducked down and opened her umbrella. Then as we were walking out, one flew on KZ's shirt. Mom walked forward to tell her before she bring it out with her, as she left me alone to push Aricia out - one bloody butterfly had to rest on my bare shoulder (keh kiang lah! should have covered my whole body). One child heard me shreaked out got scared and told me "hurry walk..so I can go out!" Anyhow there was a big space he could have just walked before me while I was struggling with the stupid chains (before the door) and the stroller. Athena was so scared and angry with me, nagged at me "mummy, who ask you to go inside? Why?" (I'm that terrified that I had a dream of myself being lost in the Amazon. I dreamt that predators were calling out; only to be woken up by Aricia's cries...?!)
Just before we left, saw flamingoes and then pointed it out to her. "Athena you remembered you asked me about the pink colour birds we saw on TV? Was it a documentary?" She looked at the group of flamingoes and then said "no mummy.... I saw it on Wonder Pets." Then started singing..." and ming-ming too...." *slap head* she paid so much attention on cartoons.
We spent a good whole 6 hours there, longer than planned. We were lucky coz as we got into the car it started to drizzle and then pour about 5 mins later on our way out. On way back, I realised that I could have used a shorter and faster route from home. TPE/SLE exit at Upp Thomson. Turn right towards Sembawang. Go a few blocks and then turn left to a road that will lead to Mandai.
Oh well! It takes some discovery. And Athena also made this funny remark when I was briefly looking at the map to get there "mummy, how come you need the map? How come you dunno how to go so many places? Daddy knows how to go so many places." I joked with her "yah, mummy only knows how to go from Tampines to Punggol, so now we go back to Punggol ok?" She knew I was teasing her; started smiling.

My 2 lovely princesses

* More photos will be uploaded in her blog *

Started on solids - a little later than planned

We've finally started Aricia on solids on one of her main meal - dinner- this week.(will gradually add for 2 meals and then 3 meals + milk & snacks in between) Of course as all Chinese would do - the first thing to do is to introduce brown rice porridge (yesterday was white porridge with dried scallop). It was supposed to be introduced to her earlier but due to the 'sunning of rice' late; she fell sick we had to temporary halt all brown rice..so.. only after the clearance from Dr Tan she had her first porridge this week.

Well, infact I wouldn't say this is her first solids because Aricia is a greedy girl. Whenever we're eating, she'd looked on and stick her head forward; open her mouth and wants to eat. Looked on and fret (or rather complain a little) before we have no choice but to give it to her. Then when we start feeding her, she's very impatient. Before you can stretch out your hand to scoop another spoonful; she'll make noise. We've since given her small teeny weeny bits of fish; bread; chicken; tofu etc.. whatever we were eating. Infact have introduced some foods except vegetables and fruits. ?! ARGH! I do not want a (No.2) fussy eater like Athena. Better introduce everything to her..

I bought her Frisocream - meant for breakfast but haven't let her try it.... coz' I'm afraid once she starts on something sweet she might not want the bland brown rice. But I dunno what the heck I was thinking a few weeks ago when I just felt like buying something for Aricia to eat.I was that keen to start her.

I may have to bring out this book now : -
which was lightly utilised in Athena's time. You may like to go into her website here too. If I keep introducing more western food sekali.........end up bringing up an angmoh kiah. That time headache - go on holiday have to find one bloody expensive Chinese restaurant to feed Athena and then another to feed Aricia.

Things I need to do now :
1) look for non preservatived apple juice, maybe I should try organic?
2) try to stock up apples; pears as her dessert. Too early? Too much food?
3) find baby crackers

What I did with Athena was - with the skin peeled and cubed apple/pear. I add a little water and cook it over slow fire. Mashed it up and then she'll be served with a nice warmy apple/pear dessert. I probably did the wrong thing too, coz' when I started introducing apple on its own to Athena; she refused it (thinking it is alien food). But then mom (old folks) will always say "serve a baby warm food not cold food blah blah...." Hopefully better second time round.

How is it that....

..when the child is sick, the whole family (father, mother and helper) goes to the clinic together. This is what I've observed from the suay days in going to the clinic. Even if its just the mother or father alone, she'll/he'll bring the helper along. And then they look at me so pathetically - all alone by myself with 2 kiddos.

I don't know leh.. it is tough but I can manage. I will nag at Athena, but still can manage. Perhaps coz' I'm quite independent. I can even travel all by myself (long-haul flights) with Athena in tow.

Helen has asked me "Mike says you are so capable. You can manage the kids all by yourself. How did you do it? Positive attitude or drink what magic potion? I can't manage Amanda all by myself."

So what is it I don't know. Is it really positive attitude? Is it coz' I'm independent?

Our big che-che

Athena , can't say she's extremely naughty or ill-bred, coz she does play the role of a che-che well.

With Aricia, she does take care of her; try to carry her (in a rough manner) when she cries; talks to her; nag at her (using the same words as I do); brings the diapers or whatever she can reach for us. But.........sometimes she ignores her sister; pinches her or disturb her. It's like when I give something to Aricia, Athena sees it will say she wants it and take it from the sister, mei-mei cries, we ask her to give it back, she pinches her sister's leg when she thought we didn't see, mei-mei cries in pain.
With Iggy, she's also carrying out her duties well. Mom says she's like a small mummy, talking to Iggy and even sing song to him. She has never bullied him in any way at all. I wonder why..... could it be coz' she knows that mei-mei and her share the same mummy.. so she's fighting for attention?

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She's supposed to go to school today. In the morning, she called me and told me I forgot to pack in her school uniform in her bag. And then started grumbling to me. Haha!
In the end, she didn't go citing that she didn't want to wear her afternoon T-shirt & shorts to school. (she probably wants to feel she's in the same group with everyone wearing the same uniform)

Anyway, I don't know how keen I am to bring her to school this week. Coz' the number of HFMD cases has gone up to 7 - although none from her class; mainly the younger children. Frankly, I don't mind her being at home when she's feeling okay and not sick; but she does drive me up the wall too! And it hinders my gym-ing.

Are we bad parents?

Although I do miss Athena when she's over at mom's place, I also hate it when she's around. Not hate as in hate her .. but rather I hate the whole evening process with her.

When she's not around, the whole household can work in a systematic way. We can solely pay attention to the little one without having to scream at the older girl. When Athena is around, I have to nag and scream at her for being disobedient; for dilly dallying. When Athena is not around, hubby and I always put Aricia to sleep with us on the bed. We love having a baby between us, so we'd smile happily and say "put her here since Athena is not at home."

Are we bad parents?

We do love Athena but she does drive us crazy.

Aricia watching TV

Started playing Aricia her baby video when she suddenly stopped playing with her book & pushed herself up from the sofa.

She did the mini push ups a couple of times. (She's so much better than me)

She displayed so much interest in the video. After she was tired, she was crying to be carried. I had to carry her on my lap and watch it with her.

Aricia follow up

Dr Tan said Aricia is definitely much better and asked if I wanted to let her phlegm reduce by herself or if I wanted anymore medications. I left it to her jurisdiction - afterall she's a doctor. So no more prescription for her and she asked if I still had any Mucosolvan and Zyrtec at home. If not, she'll prescribe it to me. Well, it's good that I normally stock up medications for Athena so these are what I always have at home apart from some other medications. Umm... I can be a doctor, since I know what to give her. Dream on Lily! If you are clever.. how come your older girl coughed so badly after that?

Anyway, it's a good thing that she's been given the clearance from Dr Tan. But she (Dr Tan) definitely had to be careful afterall it's a young baby that we're talking about here.

1) There were some doubts on the Pulmicort that she had given Aricia to put in the neubalizer. I remembered hubby had the turbuhaler. When I checked it, I was shocked! Hubby's - 200ug per dose, Aricia's 500ug per 2 ml. Scary man! Anyway she assured me its okay.
2) She's not sitting (refused to sit).. any problem with her spine or what? No problem but she's surprised that I'm so kan-cheong over her learning how to sit. Said it's probably about 7-9 mths they can develop the skills. But I remembered Athena can sit on her own when she was about 6 months. (maybe very pui so got enough muscles)

Back to Step 1

Can't believe that while I was trying to warm up my "full of fats" body (was aching - good!) and then I was bounded at home with 2 kiddos that demanded much more energy; cardio and lungs (screaming) exercise.

Made my trip down to gym today after sending Athena to mom's place. I think I must be crazy, my first day back at gym and I made appointment with Jefferson (my PT). I dunno what shit I'm getting myself into. But I was getting so enthusiastic in losing those flabs.
First equipment, I almost peng-sang. Wau lau if you talk about stamina or at least some muscles in my body working - I had none. Only 20 repetitive and I was dying. Then kept jumping equipments to & fro. I had to stop halfway through each equipments - so useless! Jefferson gave me encouraging words "never today's your first day. It's okay... keep going." Yah! Now he can say this, if halfway through my session he still say this - means something is wrong with me and nothing is worked on at all. While he was counting, I was swearing to myself "what shit was I thinking of?" "why so siao sign for PT to suffer?" "wah lau eh.... 11 more torturing sessions." Umm, maybe once I see some results then I'll think differently. As for the time being, I really need to work out alot. Few more kilos and I'll be Mrs Singapore - hahaha! Crazy mother!

Shh.... silence in the library please.. / Her funny English

Brought the 2 kiddos to the library, Athena was bugging me "mummy, you so long never bring me to the library." Since it was an impromtu decision, I only had my IC with me; thankfully hubby had his in his wallet )he normally don't bring his IC out) so we could borrow 8 books.

Aricia was so excited when she saw the books that she kept 'talking' inside and then she was engrossed in a book and 'talked even louder'. We kept asking her to keep quiet, ssh-g all the time. She laughed at us and continued 'talking' as if nothing happened.
The librarian walked over "I was wondering who was making so much noise. You're so small but you've got a loud voice, my dear.." chuckled and walked away. Anyway, we were relatively pai-seh even before she said that, and were on our way out when she came by.

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I was telling Athena that she still has 6 more stickers to collect before I can buy her easel. And we might not be able to get it this week if she insists on staying overnight at mom's place. Then she said "it's okay mummy, I do well-er in my music then you put more stickers for me lah! Tuesday I come back, you give me lesson ; you put 4 stickers. Then Wednesday you put 2 more then can buy already lor..... Like that you dunno." OMG! Did she realise that she's talking to someone who's supposed to be smarter than her?? Anyway, had to ask sister how the heck am I going to teach her this "good, better, best" - now what's this called?? Sometimes she speaks correct, sometimes she makes funny sentences. Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh with her word usage afterall she's only 5. ?!?!

Ignatius 1st month celebration

Celebrated Ignatius turning of 1 month old in the evening. And we were late! All thanks to Athena who simply refused to wake up when I tried; then dilly dally around. Want to clean her face she say "I cannot walk, I very tired." Want to dress her " I cannot move, my legs very tired." Want to tie her hair "my head very tired". Was nagging at her; aggitated blah blah.
Heart was 'poot poot poot' - beating fast; kept looking at watch. I was red in the cheeks (no need blusher) Felt very kan-cheong, sms-ed brother to inform him but dad called.. so told him I'll be late. Never thought of it, my mind wasn't clear at all - should have asked them to continue without us.
In the end, we were there 20mins late! It is too much for me to take coz' I'm a punctual person. But you can't blame if the stupid child wants to dilly dally when you're in the rush to go out right? Sister commented "wei, not shy huh.... so late, want us to put red carpet out or not, VIP!" Was feeling very pai-seh to have 4 tables waiting for us, and it's not the first time that we are late due to a un-cooperative child- we (the hosts) were late for Aricia's full month celebration too! Next time must wake that girl up one hour earlier.

Food is fantastic. Warms my heart when I eat the Teochew food. I didn't eat much, basically coz' I'm watching what I eat. (But I had a bowl of yam - umm... very Teochew dessert and my favourite too!) Secondly, the children seems to be out of the restaurant all the time, so had to make sure they're okay. And a while later, Athena and Anya warmed up to each other. Anya is a few months younger than Athena and she's my cousin's daughter. So.... can we say "she's my niece?" Cousin Benson was commenting that Athena is very tall, considered that they are only 3 or 4 months apart from one another. But I must really kudos to Anya who is able to sit through the dinner and eat all the dishes. Athena, on the other hand, was a barbaric girl kept running between our 2 tables; refused to eat this and that. (I suggested sending her to Ethopia since she don't eat this & that)

Hubby was so surprised at how much Ignatius sleeps despite the noise. He is a very good baby. And Aricia must be the difficult baby!!

Photos at the happy occasion :

Baby Ignatius, you're one month old!

Anya & Athena

Can you believe my paternal grandmother is 99? She's a little forgetful but otherwise she's very good. Must ask her what she eats to stay so healthy... umm... that is if I can converse with her in Teochew.

Our family photo. Dunno why my auntie's maid had to crop both hubby & myself!

Ah-gou and family (with my father- the half bald man- popping his head in the middle). I forgot about the photos until 2 other cousins (Ah Yong & Benson) had left first.

Dad say I look like him? Eeeks! The last thing I want to hear is that!! Think of his receeding hairline... do I have it too?

The favors they prepared for each guests. To think that years ago on my wedding, I had wanted to put favors for the guests and she nag & nag at me. Saying nobody does it at all. True enough, at that time favors were not popular. So I had started the ball rolling. Now she has nothing to say but to say putting favors is nice.

Her 1st Speech & Drama class

Athena attended her first Speech & Drama class today, she had missed last week's lesson coz' she wasn't feeling well.
She was excited and jumping around when we prepared her in the morning .. all the way to Crestar. She only started to panic when the studio is in Kinderland itself. She thought I've sent her to a new Kindergarten and started whining "mummy, let's go. I dowan to go for class." Then she thinks of any possible excuses to be out of the place. When the teacher is about to start the class, I spoke to him first. Then as I was walking out of the class, she started to well up some tears in her eyes.
A check with her teacher later, she is very quiet and afraid in the class. They had to 'drive around in an imaginary car'. First time he carried the pui pui girl to go around the class; the second time she refused. The story : Little Miss Tiny by Roger Hargreaves

And he chuckled as he related that she promised him the next lesson she will talk this much (using thumb & second finer to measure length). He extended his fingers and asked if she can talk that much, and she said "no, it's enough already."
* A consolation, the teacher speaks very well. He speaks as well as Dr K.K Seet. *

I pretended not to know the title of the book they did today. But Athena told me "mummy, we read Little Miss Tiny today. Dua-kim have the book leh..."
I hope she'll not cry the next lesson. Umm.. I always have to worry about the scare-dy girl.