Sze Juin is Two!

We started off the day by dressing them up even though they were just going to Amah's house.

Daddy and the girls

Mommy wanted to take photo with the girls too

We took the 2nd half off (it was very last minute planned. I was expecting one of chips to be back, so I did not apply for leave, but somehow the shipment got delayed so I could take the remaining day off). However, we did not go to fetch the kids back until rather late since I needed to decorate the birthday cake.

By the time we reached Amah's house, both of them were fast asleep. So we waited for them to wake up, bathed them and dressed them up. Where were we heading?

Yes, to get the birthday girl a birthday pressie -

since Mommy and Daddy were too busy and forgot all about it!

SY found SJ's old doll (which Amah threw away because the paint came out after SJ sucked on it), and SJ's been hooked on it the entire time there. It took us awhile to convince her to let go of that, and we're not successful until I offered to buy her another doll instead. So she settled for that doll (which she picked herself too) as her birthday pressie. Unlike Sze Yi last time when she turned two, I got her what I chose, but this time around, SJ said NO to whatever I picked for her, not even the doll of my liking! My, such strong character at 2!

And guess what Jie Jie was up too while we went pressie hunting?

She's hooked to a game of her own!

Luckily she didn't insist to have that. But she got a gift too, a pink hoola-hoop which she chose herself as well.

After we're done shopping (Amah chose a pair of shoes for SJ, and I got another Hi-5 DVD for them), we headed off for dinner.

Guess where we're going?

Yes, we went to Chilis. SY enjoying her crossword puzzles while SJ enjoying her apple juice

Our order came, and everyone's busy eating. SJ could manage everything on her own, and refused my help. On the other hand, SY asked me to feed her!

Gosh, see how messy SJ's mouth was! But she's certainly enjoying herself :)

The birthday girl finished her plate rather clean!

The birthday cake by the House

SJ was rather surprised at first when they sang birthday song to her. But she didn't cry, and was happy when everyone clapped and sang to her. (Last time when Jie Jie's 2, she cried when they sang to her in TGIF). When it came to candle blowing, she still didn't know how, so Jie Jie blew for her (SY's been asking to do that many many days before the actual day, with the excuse that Mei Mei was still too small to blow the candle).

After dinner, SY requested for some rides before going home

The Minnie Mouse Birthday Cake

I  baked the chocolate chip cheese cake on Saturday, and didn't freeze it till Monday. That's because I was not sure what would happen to the texture if I freeze a cheese cake. When I went to get some decorating stuffs from the cake shop, I was told that I should freeze it, or I should finish the cake in 3 days' time! I panicked and quickly went back to freeze it, and only started decorating it on Tuesday. When we ate it, I was disappointed to note that the orangy flavour had gone (it was still there before I froze it). I'm still wondering if that was due to it being frozen? Anyway, we didn't quite like the oreo base (last time I used the digestive biscuit base). In terms of the decoration, I was lucky that I managed to find a Minnie Mouse sugar paste, or I wouldn't know how to make a mousey cake (SJ's very fond of Minnie/Mickey Mouse, and she would pick anything with the mouse picture on it). My only regret was that I didn't apply the butter underneath it before pasting it on top of the cake, because I was lazy to wait till the butter melt. Maybe that's why I got such a crumpled effect on the sugar paste, but anyway, the kids didn't mind. So, it's still ok :)

Celebrating the birthday with their cousins and Kim Poh

SJ actually knew how to sing the birthday song in 3 languages too - English, Mandarin and Korean. And this time round, she knew what's she supposed to do when it came to candle blowing. But she didn't manage to blow the candle off, so Daddy helped her.

The girls eyeing for the marshmallows and sweets - thats what they liked best from this cake (I threw away the sugar paste since I didn't want them to eat it later)

Presents opening time...they loved their new toys!

Happy Birthday Sze Juin! You sure know it's your birthday and even sang the birthday song to youself the days before! Ah, and what makes Mommy so proud of you is that you're now taking formula milk (Pediasure Vanila flavour) from the bottle (and even cup) while at Amah's place. Bravo girl!

Now, Mommy can plan to wean you off slowly...

My First Climb!

Yesterday I had my first strenous exercise - unintentionally. You see, all the 3 lifts to Amah's house were not functioning, so I had to follow Mommy climbing the stairs up till the 17th floor. Mommy couldn't carry me, since Mei Mei didn't want to walk. Furthermore, both her hands were full as she's also carrying a bag full of 2 filled water tumblers and 2 225ml bottles of fresh milk.

We climbed the stairs counting loudly whenever we reached a new floor, and Mommy even taught me how to do subtraction to see how many more floors we needed to cover. It was fun, I enjoyed the process and Mommy even praised me for being able to complete up to the top by myself without any fret. Guess I could now sign up for the Komtar's climb, ya?

When night time came, the lifts were not up yet so I told Daddy I didn't want to go back. My buttocks were still aching from the morning exercise. Daddy had to carry Mei Mei back since she insisted to follow. Haha, I guess I made the right choice, by sleeping over at Amah's place, in case the lifts were still not up when tomorrow comes.  

A Terrible Week Has Passed

And I'm so glad that it's over. SY's suffering peaked on Monday. Luckily Hubby's on duty that day, while I was at work (I'm so glad Hubby's understanding enough to back me up, as my chip just came back, the whole world's waiting for updates and I couldn't take leave then). She whined all day, hardly able to eat as her ulcers started to grow like trees. Hubby needed to give her a koala bear hug all the time to comfort her. When I went back during lunch time, we even discussed if we should ward her instead, since she hardly ate or drank at all. Luckily I managed to persuade her to take something before I went back to work. That needs a lot of psychology talk, and I was so glad that she's willing to accept that (this won't work on SJ).

After work, I quickly air the house immediately, cleaned the bedsheet and washed her clothes. Continued to make her take more food (hubby was unable to get her to drink or eat anything earlier). I was very happy when I finally got her to pass her urine (it's been a whole day!). But not too long later, I felt feverish, and experienced the most painful sore throat in years. I quickly took some paracetamols, and we decided to let SJ stay overnight in MIL's place for that day before she got the virus too.

It was my first night apart from her (minus the one night I went over for my sister's convocation while she's just 3 months old), and I missed her terribly. I needed to express my milk before I slept, as I felt engorged - something which I've never experienced for a long time.

The next morning, we got a call from MIL, saying SJ has already got a fever. So we decided to bring her to see the doctor, but before that I went to check for myself first. I explained that my daughter had HFMD, and asked him if I was also having the same thing. He checked my temperature and it was already 39++, so he told me that mine was H1N1, not HFMD because my fever was so high and I didn't have ulcers. I had a vey badly inflamed throat instead. He went on to give me 2 days MC and told me to monitor my condition, if the fever didn't go down, I'll have to go get treatment for H1N1.

Gosh, I was shocked, but not alarmed. I thought it was funny, and Hubby even laughed when he heard that. Anyway, I took the antibiotics (I hardly took antibiotics before this) and the paracetamol, before bringing the kids to see the doctor. SY was supposed to go back the next day for checkup, but since we're taking SJ there, Hubby thought that we might as well do it together to save us another trip to the hospital later.

The paed couldn't tell if SJ's having HFMD (no sign of spots), but when he checked her throat, he saw a very big ulcer at the back of her throat. So he asked us to proceed with the standard procedure - ECG and blood test. Everything was ok, so we were given the same medications as her Jie Jie and we went home.

Surprisingly, SJ could still eat and drink, so I thought it was not that serious. However, the only setback was she refused to take paracetamol, which explained why her fever could hardly go down. After several attempts of fighting with her, I nearly gave up and thought of warding her since she was feverish all the time. Despite that, she's as strong as a bull, and she even managed to grab the syringe from both of us while we're trying to feed her the medicine. I used force, and she vomitted out everything. It was terrible, and I was really helpless when Hubby went to work the next day, leaving me alone to handle the two kids by myself. Even though MIL was around, she couldn't help much. That was a terrible time for me, especially since my fever haven't really go down - I depended on a 4-hourly paracetamol and antibiotics dosage to keep things under control for myself. If I skipped once, the fever will come again. Luckily by then (Wednesday), SY has recovered and could start eating by herself. So that gave me more room as SJ hardly slept but hang on me 24 by 7. I only got to eat my dinner after Hubby came back from work to relieve me.

Despite all that, SJ was very adventurous and not someone who can give up easily. If SY refused food or drink of any kind due to the ulcers, SJ would ask for water in different cups (she even requested for my cup!), and take a sip. She also asked for food, and tried some here and there. She thought with different cups, or food, it might not be as painful. So, she's tried yoghurt, ice-cream, vitagen, yakult, etc. but never finished any of them. I thought I could breastfeed her, but she refused too. It was painful for her and she cried after she tried one time. So the 2nd time, she would tried to touch my breast, but kept on saying, "Don't want Nen Nen". Still, she'd pull my blouse. I offered her my breast, telling her, "Can see only ar, cannot drink ok". Only when I used this trick, she would want to try, and after awhile, she'll be nursing away, and slowly fell asleep. But that was not for long. After a while, she'd cry, saying "Dun want Nen Nen", and woke up again. I was really helpless then, didn't know how to comfort her, and was very tired and sick myself. Hubby told me it was a good time to wean her off totally, and I shouldn't offer her anymore milk. MIL was the happiest person on earth when I told her SJ refused to nurse.

On Wednesday night, I think she got hungry, and finally she asked me for jelly. I was surprised, and I wondered aloud, "Where should Mommy go find jelly for you at such late hour?" Then I remembered that I told her that the chia seeds were jellies, so I quickly soaked some in the water and let her try. She finished everything! I was so happy then. She didn't cry anymore later :)

The next day, I decided to let her see an ayurvedic practitioner, recommended by a friend. We took her there during lunch time, and from then till 7pm, her fever NEVER came back after she took his medicine (which were purely herbs)! We're both awed by the effectiveness of the treatment. Alas! It was not for long. That night, we had to force down 3 doses of paracetamol to get her fever down. And she's not been sleeping very well too. She complained of the pain (or is it itchiness) from the spots, especially at her buttocks and private area. She had less spots compared to her sister, and they grow in different parts of her body too. Not at the normal place on the hands and legs like her sister, but buttock and private part instead. But amazingly, the next day, she didn't have fever at all, and she's basically fully recovered! I think the ayurvedic herbs does speed things up a bit.

So, SY got it on Saturday, recovered on Wednesday, while SJ got it on Tuesday, and recovered on Friday. What a record. On Saturday, we even attended my brother-in-law's house warming party, and they were eating with full appetite! Praise the Lord!

 
What about me? I'm the slowest to recover. I got it on Monday night, and I only recovered on Sunday. Hmmm..... when I asked Hubby why my immune system was the worst (he was also down with a puss in his throat earlier, without fever and he recovered in a few days only), here was his reply:

"Do you know why people say a mother's sacrifices are much more greater than a father's? That's because when a Father got sick, he could sleep for 24 hours, but when a Mother was sick, she still needed to care for the children and did the house chores".

I couldn't agree more. I was up at 3am in the morning trying to catch up with work, on the 2 days that I was on MC. I couldn't log in at all when SJ was clinging to me like a Koala Bear earlier. And I even had to go back for more medicine (paracetamol and antibiotics) when my fever came back on Thursday night, but my supplies had finished. Sigh.... that's the price one needs to pay for being a mother.

HFMD Returns

It's not even 2 years yet, and now Sze Yi got it again. Anyway, it was not as serious as last time, and we refused admission.

We only noticed something wrong with her when she suddenly grew withdrawn, and refused her lunch. She wanted to sleep instead. Then, we noticed that her temperature kept rising. Even after giving her paracetamol and sponging her, the fever didn't go down. So, we decided to take her to see the doctor. Luckily the usual hospital we went too has a PD on duty that time, unlike normal Saturday afternoons.

When we took her to see the PD, there's hardly any sign of spots on her body. But the moment he checked her mouth and saw ulcers inside it, he's very sure that it's HFMD. I told him that I didn't want to admit her, so he proceeded to have Sze Yi's ECG and blood test taken, as well as some sample of her saliva and stool. After all that, we could leave and came back for results in the evening.

We went home, and I gave her Manuka Honey, also applied some on her ulcers. I also managed to get some enzym from my colleague and gave her that. My colleague told me that when her daughter had that, she soaked her in enzym water bath and she got well very fast. So I also did the same for Sze Yi.

In the evening, we went back to the hospital for the results. Her ECG and blood test are normal, so I just needed to sign a letter saying that I refused admission and would bear all responsibility if anything happens. I informed her school principal about this, and she told me that she would have the school cleaned the first thing in the morning on Monday.

That night, Hubby and I took turns to monitor her, because the PD had warned us of the possibility of breathing difficulty, that could affect her heart and her brain. When her fever didn't go down after taking paracetamol, we decided to give her Brufen Ibuprofen one hour later. Thank goodness half an hour later, it went down. So we continue giving her paracetamol every 4-6 hours, while monitoring her progress.

All this while, we're rather worried for Sze Juin. We checked her, and Hubby do noticed some very faded spots on her hand and legs, and I even saw two small red spots in her mouth. But she's very active, have very good appetite and does not have fever so we decided to continue monitoring her. In the meantime, I also bathed her in enzym water and gave her Manuka Honey, same treatment as her Jie Jie. Besides all that, I also boiled the kim gin hua for them, which is a chinese herb that's claimed to be able to cure HFMD as well as H1N1. We didn't really separate them other than sleeping in two different rooms, because last time, despite all our efforts in separating them, SJ still got it. This time however, most of our attempts to separate them were futile, since SJ kept going near to her sister, she even slept under her sister's pillow to prevent her sister from sleeping!

Oh yes, the Manuka Honey that I bought for them, have active UMF of 24.5++. Hubby was rather concerned about this active ingredient, so he did a google search on that. What he saw alarmed us. It seems that my perception of the numbers was wrong - it stated that only 15-18++ is adequate, and anything higher than 20 would cause adverse reaction! The effects would be mostly on the digestive system. So, we decided not to give the kids that anymore. If you happen to know more about this, please kindly let us know ya!

The next morning, which is today, Sze Yi's fever has gone, but we still continued giving her paracetamol every 4-6 hours to avoid any sudden rise of temperature. She's back to normal until this afternoon when she complained her mouth was very painful. I noticed more spots coming out, and her ulcers prevent her from taking any solids. We applied oral daktarin gel on her, but when it couldn't really sooth her, we decided to apply some of the Manuka Honey on her again. After that, she could eat apples :)

I noticed that Sze Juin's ulcers were gone, and she's still doing well. But she's been sleeping the whole afternoon away (even as of now, that's why I could blog), so I'm a bit worried. I'm just hoping God will continue to protect my little girls for me.

Learning to be Independent

It's not too long ago that I once dreamt of being able to let my kids play on their own without me supervising them. My dreams turned into reality last month (March), this was actually a backdated post.

The girls playing the doctor game

(You can obviously tell who's the doctor, can you?)

I get to enjoy more time preparing lunch, or get the house chores done while being home alone with them. And it's fun to watch them play, laughed at their childish antics and be amazed at how matured they actually are!

Sze Yi is still as bossy as ever, while Sze Juin is as accomodating as ever. Is that why they can play together? Not really. Although I've seen SJ came crying to me because her Jie Jie always snatched her toys, I have also witnessed some events when the Jie Jie's the one who came crying to me, complaining that SJ bit her! Or smacked her! And the reason? She took her Mei Mei's toys :)

On another incident, I was amazed at how much I could trust SJ now. One day, I asked SJ to help me carry SY's school uniform for me when I fetched her back from Amah's place, since my hands were full. When we reached home, I asked her to put them back into the cupboard for me straightaway. Off she went into her Jie Jie's room. I never thought about it anymore as I went on to do my things. 

The next day, I was searching thru SJ's cupboard, and I found the set of school uniform in SJ's drawers. I thot she loved her Jie Jie's school uniform so much (she's been asking me to let her wear that on and off, even though she's only going to Amah's house and not school, or even as her pyjamas) until she put that in her own drawers. But I was wrong. Hubby told me that SJ did try to put the uniform in SY's cupboard (he's having a nap there, that's why he knew), but since SJ couldn't reach to open the cupboard, she went out. Hubby didn't know where she went. So it looks like she went to the other room to put the clothes in her own cupboard first, which she can reach!

Now, would you say my little toddler did things with some reasonings of her own?

A New Stunt

In my previous entry on the swimming breaktrhough, I didn't manage to take any pictures. Well, after that, we've been frequenting the pool quite often, mostly after work/school. So you could imagine how dark or cold the place was, and not too long later, I noticed that Sze Yi started to cough slightly and develop some phlegm. So we decided to give it a break, and stopped the swimming activity for awhile.

Until last Sunday, we decided to continue again. Since it's a weekend, we went earlier, around 5pm, when there's still some sunlight. This time, I remembered to bring my camera along. But since it's a phone camera, the quality is not as good. Still it's better than none.

The kids have progressed a lot, I would say. That's thanks to Daddy.

Sze Yi swimming on her 'own' in the adult pool

Sze Juin enjoying lying back on the waters, she's starting to dare let go too!

And guess what? SY learnt some new stunts too! She could not swim backwards, after watching how Daddy did it once. I didn't managed to capture that, but I got this one instead! She's swirling, whatever that's called! I wonder where she learnt this from...not from Daddy I'm sure!

The Milk Story Continues

Towards the end of March, MIL discovered that SJ took chocolate flavour fresh milk. That certainly came as good news to me, but over time, I'm worried if it would be a little too heaty for her, especially taken cold somemore. Still, it's better than none.

Then, last Saturday, we got a whole stack of samples from our Paed, so I decided to try it on her slowly.

Which is the Chosen One?

I asked her to choose one, and she surprised me by choosing Friso. By the way, I noticed her new style of posing - with her finger signing 1. I wonder where she picked this up.... 

Well, so I opened it in front of her, asked her if she wanted that in the bottle or cup, and she chose cup. She agreed to sit in the babychair while I made the milk in front of her. I poured a third of the milk powder into my own cup as well, and when I presented her cup to her, I told her I'll also drink mine and let's see who finished first. Well, to my delight, she took a sip, and then continued drinking that! She managed to half her cup, which was considered a great accomplishment to me. Well, after that, she started to lag a bit, dilly-dallied for a while, so I offered her the 'straw' version.

I ran out of straw, so here's my version of 'straw' cup (I didn't pour it into the original straw cup because the milk was slightly warm)

She didn't finished them all, but it was better than I expected. At least she didn't push it away like last time. In fact, I've tried the Pediasure chocolate flavour with her a few times before this, and she actually finished the whole cup and asked for seconds, but too bad, that only happened at home. In MIL's place, she never wanted to drink.

This, unfortunately also ends up the same. After I gleefully passed some samples to MIL for her to try during weekdays, she told me that SJ didn't want to drink it, even though she herself pick the brand (this time Anmum, even though I also included Friso in it). 

Well, I hope one day we'll break thru her resistant, which I hope, it's just a matter of time... 

Gone with the Wind

This Easter, we went to Church as a family again. Contrary to Mommy's expectation, I behaved better than Mei Mei. I brought a story book along, and Mommy thankfully noticed that I didn't actually read that out loudly. In fact, I was quite engrossed with my book for awhile, unlike Mei Mei who kept asking Mommy to take her see the fish, or go wee wee, etc. Luckily Mommy brought some bread along, so that kept us occupied for quite sometime while Mommy could listen to the sermon peacefully.

I'm the only one smiling...

After Mass, we went to G-Hotel for their Easter buffet lunch, and I got a couple of nice easter eggs. The next table Aunty gave it to me, and only then Mommy realized that there were actually hidden easter eggs everywhere for us to collect! I got two types, one is made of jelly, while the other is made purely of chocolates! These were placed neatly into the egg shell, and nicely decorated too. Too bad Mommy forgot to take a picture of that.

After the long sumptuous lunch, Mei Mei was tired, so we headed back for an afternoon nap. However, I can't sleep, so Amah took me shopping in QBM! Just me and her, while Mommy and Daddy took Mei Mei home. Amah bought 2 pair of shoes for me at one go, since my old ones were not that good anymore. Well, later, Daddy and Mommy and Mei Mei came to fetch us back, and guess what we did?

Can you guess what I'm doing?

Eh, Mei Mei's trying her hands on it too!

Yay, Daddy managed to get our kite up!

Can you guess which butterly is ours?

Like father, like daughters

Towards the end of the day, what did I learn?

If there's no wind, the kite won't go up.

Once the kite is up, it can come down again anytime,

All, subject to the wind's direction or strength,

Hmmm... is the kite's fate being destined by the wind?

This sure is fun, and I'll definitely go kite-flying again one day. Just that...I'm afraid my kite's not as good anymore. You see, I did 'something' to it, but luckily Daddy managed to fix it. Just, we're not sure if the performance would be as good. We'll see...

The "Swimming" Breakthrough

No, she still can't swim on her own yet, but she could swim with the floats, and without her feet touching the ground! Yes, this is really a breakthrough for her, thanks to Daddy's hard work. Before that, it's so hard to even get her into the water, as she's so afraid of people splashing her.

We just got them both a pair of arm floats each, and SY got an additional ring float. I dared not buy two sets for that, as it looked so small and I'm not sure if it would fit. Maybe it works because it's small enough, it fits at her waist without it slipping down. So she could swim in the adult pool now with all these floats, even asking Daddy to go away to swim, she could handle it on her own :)

What about SJ? She's still afraid and was clinging to me like a koala bear, kept saying "I'm scared". Then Daddy took over, and she could enjoy lying her head on the waters, enjoying the sky. Hmm... so the credit should go to Daddy yeah? :)

22 Months Comparison

When I look thru Sze Yi’s accomplishment report at 22 months, I couldn’t help comparing them to Sze Juin’s. Well, there are things that SY could do better, and vice- versa. For instance, SJ is much better in speech and vocab, but SY’s better in reading and recognizing alphabets.

They are about the same in weight and height at 22 months (although SY’s statistics showed that she’s slightly taller: 84cm vs 79cm, but SJ's height was taken during her 20 month's check up).

Other similarities:
- Number of teeth (about the same)
- Able to count up to 10
- Able to climb the stairs on their own
- Delighted in drawing (just that SJ scribbled in SY”s books instead of tables, chairs, etc)
- Able to feed themselves
- Able to take out their shoes and pants
- Could master the more advanced shape shorter (this happens to be still the same shape shorter from SY’s time), where there are more shapes and colors compared to the new tortoise one.
- Could identify different types of fruits
- Could take ice water and tolerate spicy food
- Potty trained
- Loved action songs and could learn the actions by heart
- Friendly towards strangers, greeted and waved to them as if long-time friends.
- Could memorize the sequence of songs that’s going to be played from a CD
- Displayed the sign of vanity and insisted to choose their own clothing. There’s once when SJ was so crazy about ‘mouse’ t-shirts that I had to make sure there was at least 1 set of mousey clothes on hand before I dared to change her. After that, her taste changed to her sister’s clothes, especially her sister’s school uniform!
- Could help with the housework such as passing the wet clothes to me, wiping the table, etc. I dared not venture further by letting her try the broom.
- Also a very determined person, even Mommy couldn’t get her to do the things that she didn’t want to do.
- Loved brushing and would brush on her own most of the time (but she bit on the bristles too of course)

Things that SJ still yet to master:
- Recognizing the alphabets. We somehow hardly went thru this with her
- Identifying colors
- Interest in reading. Blame it on Mommy who never bothered to read to her. The few times that we did, she pushed the book away so we just gave up.
- Doing the sign of cross. She refused when I tried to teach her last weekend!
- Haven’t tried singing the DO-RE-MI with her. She just knew DO, RE and MI, that’s all. While her Jie Jie knew the whole octave last time.
- Didn’t show any interest in learning how to operate the DVD player, even though she loves the remote controller. She only requested for certain songs or movies, but hardly attempted to put it on herself, unlike her Jie Jie last time
- We had never really showed her the photo albums, but she could tell who’s who when she looked at the photos displayed here and there.
- Didn’t want to drink milk from the bottle which is my greatest headache now

Things that SJ fares better than her Jie Jie at 22 months:
- Her great command of vocabulary and ability to speak in longer sentences with much accurate pronunciation.
- Able to sing some songs already
- Fully diaperless
- When posing for camera, she could smile more naturally than her Jie Jie then
- Could play on her own much much better than her Jie Jie
- Easier to handle, more understanding and able to take instructions better
- Could watch movie in the cinema already! Just last weekend, we took them to watch Alice in Wonderland. She’s been to at least 4 movies by now, while her Jie Jie’s first was when she’s ~3.5 year old.
- She breastfeed longer than her Jie Jie and have better immune system

Ya, no 2 child is the same, they grow up according to their own pace. The most important is that they grow up to be healthy and happy persons.

Milk Strike!

It's been more than 2 weeks now that SJ went on milk strike while I left her at MIL's house during work hours. Starting this month, she went to Amah's house because our contract with the babysitter has ended. The babysitter wanted to travel and do something else.

Everything went rather smoothly with this change, except that SJ didn't want to drink milk at all, and her poo poo was not that regular anymore. Initially I was rather upset, and tried all means to make her drink milk. I've tried using cup, syringe, straw, mixed EBM with milo or cornflakes, or try different brands of milk formula, etc. but all to no avail. During the first week, she would nurse non-stop after I came back from work, and during the weekend, she skipped her usual porridge but feasted on me 24 by 7.

Came the 2nd week, I managed to slowly switch her to Pediasure (chocolate flavour) when I discovered that she could accept Milo. So I passed that (Pediasure & Milo) to MIL during the weekdays, but to my dismay, she rejected it too! And I also noticed that she hardly asked me to nurse her in MIL's house unless I asked her if she wanted milk. She only asked for milk when we're in the car going home, or when at home.

Now, I ask MIL to feed her yoghurt and I'm glad that she still takes it. At least that's the only source of milk that she takes when I'm not around. I'm not sure if I could wean her off my breast completely... as my target dateline is approaching soon. She's turning two in 2 months time, and I couldn't accept the fact that a 2-year old child doesn't drink milk. If any of you know of any other alternatives to make her drink milk, please kindly let me know, ya. I'm also considering to reduce my pumping frequency soon, since now I only rely on SY to help me finish them, or else I'll donate them away too.

For now, this would be her famous phrase, "I don't like nen nen. Nen Nen no good la. I want Mommy's nen nen." Sigh...

A Passport Finally!

Everyone in the family has got a passport except me. So when we went to have our photo shoot last month, Daddy and Mommy took this opportunity to let me have my passport photo. Much easier and don't need to queue up at the Immigration Department later.

So, how do I fare?  Compared to Jie Jie's one :)

Growing Up

Mommy considered me a big girl now, coz I can bathe on my own already. But I love to play with the shower gel and shampoo, so I took soooo much longer in there, which made Mommy cross at times. Still, it's a great milestone, don't you think so? When I'm done, Mommy would come in to check if there's still soap on my hair and body, and then off I'll go to find what I like to wear and dress myself. Uh...I still didn't like to comb hair on my own yet.

I also told Mommy that after Aunty bathed me in school, I would towel dry myself, blow my hair (Mommy don't believe that I can blow my hair on my own!) wear my own clothes and put the dirty clothes into the bag that Mommy prepared. Guess going to school has trained me to be independant, yeah!

Finally Graduated!

Yay, this would be the final episode, hopefully. I'm finally diaperless, including at night too. Oh, but on and off, there were accidents (Oops!). Still, Mommy gave me my scroll because those only happened when I was super tired. So at 21 months, Mommy declared me fully potty-trained. Hurray! (jump high and throw hats...)

What we Did on the 7th Day of CNY

This free digital photo album personalized with Smilebox

Another Banana

That day, Sze Yi and Sze Juin were talking to each other about something, I can't really recall. Then when Sze Juin mumbled something in Mandarin, Sze Yi didn't quite get it and told her sister, "Don't say in Chinese, pls say in English". But of course Sze Juin don't know what she meant and continued saying in Mandarin.

And Sze Yi kept asking her sister to repeat that in English. Hubby then chipped in, "Why, you're not Chinese? Why have to say in English?"

Sze Yi replied, "No, I'm English".

Daddy's first thought was, "Gosh, another banana like Mommy!" (LOL!)

Honestly, I've seen many scenarios where Sze Yi requested us to repeat what we said in English, like the colors, etc... because she didn't know how to say that in Mandarin. And it's funny to hear her say things in Mandarin at times, her slang was like an Amoh trying to speak Mandarin!

Sigh, and we planned to send her to a Chinese school later...

My little mousey

Yesterday when I went to fetch Sze Juin from the babysitter's house, she told me that my little mousey's getting very good at getting her attention.

Scenario 1
Babysitter: Ni chiang huai dan, Auntie bu  yau ni liao
(You're so naughty, Aunty don't want you already)
SJ: Yau la, yau la, yau la (kept on saying until the babysitter have to say what SJ wished to hear)

Scenario 2
When the babysitter tried to ignore her, SJ would use both her hands to pull the babysitter's face till she looked at her

I guess she'll miss my little mousey when she finished her contract end of this month. And it surprised me when the babysitter said bye bye to her, SJ replied, "See you!" and happily trotted away after me, before she went on with our usual conversations.

SJ: Mommy ah, Daddy leh?
Me: At home
SJ: Jie Jie leh?
Me: At home
SJ: Aunty leh?
Me: At her house too
SJ: Oh, ni kan, Aunty chuan, mei mei (Oh, you see, Aunty wears, pretty - pointing to her blouse and pants)

Recently the babysitter had given SJ and SY some very nice clothes and shoes too, which SJ happily paraded in front of MIL (she really turned round and round, with one hand holding her buttock, in front of MIL). What a funny sight - we couldn't help laughing as she kept saying, "Amah, ni kan" (Amah, you see) and turned until MIL paid attention to her.

My Potty Story Episode 2

Now that I have been successfully potty trained during the day time (@ ~19 months), Mommy's hoping that I could graduate fully for the night as well before my diapers stock ran out. The last pack was finishing soon, you see, and if she buy a new one, it would take me ages to finish that. Jie Jie's unfinished one was passed on to me after she's fully potty trained, and that was XL size. I'm still in L size currently. So you know how early my graduation would be compared to Jie Jie's if I could make it this season :)

My potty progress as of now:
- I could hold my wee wee/poo poo until they find a suitable place for me to do my business
- I refused to use the diapers when there's really no choice, so there're times when Mommy even made me wait until we went home coz it's hard to find a suitable place
- I could take off my pants on my own and go to the potty when I'm at home
- I've never wet the bed during my afternoon naps so far

How nice if could stay dry during the night time too...

There were nights when my pampers were dry. So Mommy would recycle that and use it for the following night. But that's the most that Mommy would dare to venture so far, as she's not sure if there'd be side effects if she recycled for more than 2 days. Hence, I would get a fresh one after Day 2. Oh, have I told you that I'm allergic to all types of diapers (including the bum genius cloth diapers) except Mamy Poko? So, before I was potty trained, I would wear lampin (the traditional cloth diaper) at my babysitter's house, and Mamy Poko at home - Mommy had experimented with several different types of cloth diapers and disposable diapers but to no avail. My skin seems to like Mamy Poko better.

Even though it's been a few nights in a row for a few weeks that my diapers were continuously dry, Mommy's still dare not take the risk yet, or else she'll have lots of cleaning to do. Now that I hardly wear diapers during the day time, I refused to wear one at night too. Sometimes, I even slept without any diapers or pants on throughout the night, ooops! (Yeah, that's when Mommy gave up fighting with me, and she also dozed off after I fell asleep). But if I accidentally wee wee on the bed, I would quickly wake Mommy up, and she would bring me to the potty. No doubt the bed's a bit wet, but at least I saved her further work (no need to clean the bed protector, just the bedsheet would do) since the potty's also quite full by the time I was done. Mommy always praised me for my ability to hold my wee wee.

If it's not due to a few accidents on and off, Mommy would have declared me fully graduated. It's been close to a week when she consecutively found my diapers dry after waking up in the mornings. But during the recent KL trip, I was diaperless throughout the entire trip - except for using 1 diaper at night which gave me away. You see, last 2 weekends, Mommy and Daddy took me to KL to attend a close friend's wedding dinner. And you know what? Daddy didn't want to take Jie Jie along because she's naughty!

How did I survive?
- I could wait until Daddy found a resting point when I announced that I wanted to use the toilet, while we're travelling
- I poo poo at the hotel toilet bowl coz Mommy forgot to bring my potty along
- I went to the ladies (ahem, yes like a big girl) 2-3 times during the wedding dinner
- and NO accidents!

Ah, but my diaper that night was rather heavy, coz I slept until 10.30 am the following day. Too tired from the whole trip, I missed my afternoon naps and I was really very tired. That gave me away.

But this week, I have been dry all night (even though I've been drinking milk and water in the middle of the night). Mommy found a solution - if she could make me use the potty before I sleep, I would made it till the next morning. Just that at times, I threw tantrums and refused to use the potty before sleeping.

So, hopefully my next potty story would be the final episode. And that better be before my diapers stock ran out!

When A 20-month Old Spice Up Her Vocab...

Recently, Sze Juin picked up a lot of slangs in her vocab. Some, I'm not sure where she picked that up from, like Mommy ah... Daddy ah.. etc (which she kept saying sometime in Dec last year), but obviously the rest were from her sister. For the past few weeks, she added 'lo' and 'lah' into her vocabulary as well. It's funny when you hear a 20-month old speaking words like "bu yau la (don't want la)", "mei you la (don't have la)", "no lah", mommy lai lah (mommy come la)", "sorry lo!", etc.

There's a funny incident that happened last night. She was very excited and it's hard to put her to sleep. She stood on the bed, folded both arms, and kept saying, "Angry!". When I paid no attention to her, she called her Daddy, "Daddy, Ni Kan... Angry!" (Daddy, you see.. Angry!). Then, she lay down with her butts facing up, put both her hands at the side of her face, and imitated her Jie Jie sulking pose, while swinging both her legs in the air (her knees touching the bed). I wished I had taken a video so it saved me all these description. Anyway, she sulked there for awhile, and when nobody entertained her, she suddenly said, "Sorry lo!".

That went on for awhile, so I took Sze Yi out with me to sleep in another room, since Sze Juin was disturbing her Jie Jie from falling into sleep. But I heard her disturbing her Daddy from the other room, and when Daddy didn't response, she called out, loud and clear, "Boy! Sorry lo!". If you've read this post earlier, you'll know why she called her Daddy Boy :) And that's the first time I heard her called him that too.

Numbers to call

Now that I’m a big girl already,
I am well prepared if I ever get lost.
Why?
Daddy’s taught me to memorize by heart
the 2 most important numbers –
his h/p number and also our house number.
So, if there’s anything,
I can always ask people to help me call these numbers.

I can sing

Can you guess what my first song is?

Clue – it’s very close to my first sentence!

Bingo! Yes, my first song is Ke Ren Lai (in Mandarin). It goes like this:

Ke Ren Lai,
Kan Ba Ba,
Ba ba bu zai jia
Wo qing ke ren xian zhuo xia
zai jing yi bei cha!

I can sing the whole song on my own already. And I’m now moving on the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which was Jie Jie’s first song). But I sang it differently. How? Yes, in Mandarin :)

Yi san yi san liang jing jing,
Man tian dou shi xiao xing xing
Kua zai tian kong fang guang ming
Hao xiang xu duo xiao yan jing

Yi san yi san liang jing jing,
Man tian dou shi xiao xing xing

No more tears!

I learnt that doctors were not scary monsters during my scheduled checkup last month.

Mommy went thru the steps with me (breathe in, breathe out, let the doctor check my ear, take my temperature, open my mouth, etc), while we’re waiting for our turn. So, when our turn came, I did as what we rehearsed earlier and made Mommy & Daddy really proud of me. I didn’t cry, though I nearly burst out when the doctor asked me to lie down to check on my tummy (ahem, that part was not rehearsed!) Anyway, I only cried when the horrid needle poked me, and that was understandable, so Mommy and Daddy still thought that I performed really well. Compared to previous visits because I would cry immediately when we walked into the doctor's room, and burst out when the doctor tried to check on me. And guess what I got as my reward? The doc gave me a lollipop!

During my 2nd visit last week, we saw a different doctor, and I surprised him by greeting him when we entered. He even praised me for being very friendly :) And recently during my JE vaccination yesterday, I saw another different doctor. Again, I didn’t cry but co-operated with her all the way, including when I knew the needle was coming. Ah, but it’s too painful for me, so I cried very pitifully after that. When Mommy asked me to wave bye bye to her, I hesitated a little and pointed to my painful arm, before finally waving bye bye to her. Hmm.. I still find it hard to comprehend why I needed to be nice to her after she hurt me, aww!

All in all, this is a great milestone for me :)

Breastfeeding Humour

I didn’t realize that I have such influencing power on my kids at such an early age when I chose to breastfeed. Why did I say so?

1. At ~2.5 year old, Sze Yi insisted to bring a nappy cloth everywhere together with her Ernie, sat down, pulled up her blouse up, put the nappy cloth underneath, and nursed Ernie, imitating the way I breastfed Sze Juin. That’s because I was very leaky then, so I had to use the nappy cloth to suppress the leaking side while nursing. She did this outside, even in front of the babysitter, although I told her that Mommy didn’t breastfeed in public.

2. At ~20 months, Sze Juin would put her baby doll at my breast, asking me to breastfeed her baby doll too!
I sure hope when they become mommies later, they will follow my steps to breastfeed their children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another side note, SJ would be in all sorts of positions when she’s nursing – sitting, standing, lying on top of me, or even squatting in front of me. She could also turn 360 degree while nursing, I didn’t know how she did it. One day, she was turning round and round while nursing, and I felt very painful, so I told her to stop.

Me: Juin Juin, can you pls stop turning round and round? You’re hurting Mommy.
Sze Yi: Haha, like a sharpener!

I couldn’t agree more!

Separation Anxiety?

Starting last week, Sze Juin cried and protested everytime I dropped her off at the babysittter's place in the morning before we went to work. That was after the 2 weeks of consecutive 3-days-weekend. She said she wanted to go to school like Jie Jie.

Maybe we took her out too frequent during the holidays? I wonder why only now she started to show this separation anxiety.... I've always admired her for being understanding enough since she's a baby, she never cried when we left her there. She did cry when we left her with Amah during the 1 month when the babysitter's away, but maybe that was because she didn't want to stay at home while everyone's going out. Even when the babysitter's back after 1 month, she still willingly accepted her, no crying. And now - at 19 months, she started to show this separation anxiety? Hmm... hmmm... hmm... It broke my heart having to leave her despite her crying so pitifully...

Well, at least today she didn't cry, as if knowing that there's no point crying afterall. Poor baby, I hope she'll get over this phase soon.

Of Movie and Parks

We ushered in the new year with another movie - Alvin and the Chipmunks 2! We watched it on the 2nd day of 2010, and this time, even Sze Juin stayed up to watch until 3/4 of the movie.

I was expecting Sze Juin to doze off after a while, since she haven't had  her nap yet, but the chipmunks got her interested. She stayed on till the chipmunks' presentation on stage (yeah, the most important part!), before she finally dozed off to the chipmunks-land...

As for Sze Yi, she watched the whole movie till the end, of course! This was her 5th movie (including the Christmas Carol which she watched with her friends during her school holiday programs), while the 3rd one for Sze Juin.

After the movie, Sze Juin woke up (because I took Sze Yi to the toilet so I had to pass her over to Daddy). So, instead of going home for them to continue with their nap, we took them for a swinging time at Youth Park.

More workouts to follow...

First Day of 2010

We started the first day of 2010 with a healthy exercise at the garden where we stayed :)

They had just installed lots of new 'toys' sometime during Christmas for us

After we had our bath, we headed over to a party. Nope, not a new year party, but a new year birthday party! You see, my cousin Sarah's birthday is on New Year Day.

Birthday girl ready to cut her Ben10 cake

Me, Samanta and Sarah

You must be wondering where's Mei Mei. She's still sleeping in Amah's house, too tired from the morning exercise just now. So when she finally came over, we've finished eating and were playing bubbles outside the house.

Everyone's busy with their bubbles

Mei Mei found something to play on her own

The 4 cousin sisters eating their bananas and trying to say banana when mommy snapped :)

Well, we're all tired after the party, and went home to rest. However, that night, I complained to Mommy about my tummy ache. Since my complaints were rather persistant, Daddy and Mommy got worried and took me to see the doctor. Luckily it's not appendicitis, as they feared. Just something minor - somehow I've eaten some bad germs, causing the wind in my tummy to be stucked so my poo poo couldn't come out. That's the term the doctor explained to us :) She gave me probiotics so that the good germs could fight those bad germs and also some medicine for the gas in my tummy.

What a way to end a new year day. Anyway, as long as everything is fine, that's all that matters, right?

A Happy Family

I was blessed to have such an understanding husband who always tries to make my wishes come true. Even though he’s not a Catholic, he made every effort to go to Church with me during special occasions. This year was no exception. He fulfilled my dreams to attend the Feast of the Holy Family together as a family – with the kids too of course.

This feast means a lot to me, as it signifies the unity of a happy family. I especially love these phrases, which were extracted from Col 3:12-21:

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Can you see us receiving the Holy Communion out there? Well, Sze Yi wanted to receive It so badly, even though I've told her that she's not big enough yet. She went back to her seat angry, with both arms folded when she didn't get anything. Poor child, I hope she'll understand things soon.

The kids loved the Christmas Crib so much, and kept requesting to have a look at it everytime we passed by...

Well, we left right after communion as the kids didn't behave, but that's more than I could ask for. It's always nice to be able to attend Mass as a family. And it was a special day because we could ask for special blessings for our children and also a happy marriage on this feast day. Well, that would be my wish for the coming new year, and I sure hope yours will be fulfilled too. Happy 2010, everyone!

Christmas 2009

This Christmas we went back to my parents house in Ipoh. I was contemplating whether to bring them to the midnight Mass or the morning Mass. In the end, I decided to bring them to the midnight Mass since SJ has quite a long afternoon nap. However SY didn't sleep at all in the afternoon, but I decided to take a risk since she hardly slept in the afternoon at times, and could still stayed up till quite late.

Furthermore, my mother's choir team would be performing that night, they would sing a few Christmas songs for about half an hour before Mass started.

The church in Ipoh that we went to was rather strict with children. They would not tolerate children that made noises, so they had a special room for children - they call it The Cry Room. So, you could imagine that all the kids would be there, but it's actually quite small to fit that many people. Anyway, when the church's choir sang the Christmas songs during the Pre-Mass, the kids were very excited and joined along. Sze Yi learnt a few Christmas songs from school, some of which I didn't even know. So, when she sang along with the choir that night, everyone including the parents could feel the Christmas atmosphere. It was so jolly, especially when you hear the children's voice trailing along. Even SJ didn't want to be left out and wanted to sit on the top of the pews like her Jie Jie and the other girl.

Little Carollers in action

However, I didn't get to really concentrate in Mass that night since the kids were not behaving. I used biscuits to distract them, but in no time, SY had finished distributing them to the kids and they asked for more. In no more than 10 minutes, things got noisy again. After awhile, SJ kept wanting to go out for milk (I didn't want to breastfeed her in there, since I didn't bring my coverall, and SJ would still pull it up anyway) while SY got sleepy and lay down on Daddy's lap. So we left after Holy Communion, but since our car was blocked by another car, we waited in the car until Mass finished. At least they were more manageable in there.

How did we celebrated Christmas this year? Well, we spent most of the time at home, or dining outside. My father was not very well, so we had to be selective on the food we ate. Anyway, we had a great family time all the same, especially the kids. Other than tormenting their Aunty and Uncle, they enjoyed feeding the fish and playing in the garden.

My father enjoyed gardening so he planted some vegetables and fruits in his little garden.

A simple lanscaping in my dad's garden

A small vegetable plot with some fruit trees and other plants

Apart from that, Sze Yi also enjoyed feeding her Mei Mei...

 

She's such a little busybody, she created so much mess for me. And, surprisingly SJ preferred being fed by her Jie Jie rather than me. When I wanted to feed her, she would resist and prefer to eat on her own!

We went back on boxing day, and let them opened their other presents that night (of course, they had opened & played with the presents from my family earlier in Ipoh).

Sze Yi enjoying the unwrapping most of the time, while SJ didn't really bother.

She's more interested in her lu lu chia

 All in all, we sure had a merry time, and a great get-together with my family too!

My Potty Story

I'm now considered potty trained during day time, even when we're outside or when I'm having my afternoon nap. During the Christmas holiday, Mommy took me out without diapers, and I went to the toilet with Jie Jie like a big girl!

Also, I could sleep thru during the afternoon nap without wetting the bed. Mommy has let me slept diaperless at home, and also in Poh Poh and Gong Gong's house while we're back in Ipoh. No accident!

But at night, I'm still with diaper. Mommy's not that brave yet, considering the amount of cleaning up needed. I'll update you when I've fully graduated, ok? Wish me luck!

How Old Am I?

This year my chinese birthday falls on the Feast of the Holy Innocence. However, Mommy didn't take me to church on that day to receive blessings for children.

Amah asked Mommy to cook mee suah (representing 'long life', it is customary to serve a person Mee Sua soup on his or her birthday in Nyonya homes) for me, and prepared a hard-boiled egg for me to peel. So, I got to peel the egg in the morning before I went to school, and shared the egg with Mei Mei as my breakfast. On normal days, I just had milk before I went to school.

I also got ang pows from Amah, Mommy and Daddy on this special day.

So, I'm actually 5 year old now in Chinese calendar. Hmm.. and in 4 more days, I'll be 1 year older soon! How fast time flies. Oh by the way, I had eaten dong zhi last week, and according to Amah, I would be 1 year older after I ate that. So, now I'm really confused. How old am I now???

Dec13 - English Birthday
Dec 22 - Dong zhi (add 1 year old after eaten dong zhi)
Dec 28 -  Chinese Birthday
Jan 1 - Add one year old

So, I'll be 7 years old come this Jan? Scratch head!!!

Counting

I can count from three to twelve already :) Why from three and not one? Because everytime Mommy, Daddy or Jie Jie started with 1, 2, I would continue from 3 to 12 without stopping. Mommy tried to ask me to start from 1, but I didn't want, and would only start counting after I hear 1, 2.

Before that, a few months back, I was doing skip counting. Daddy would say, 1, I would say 2, then he said 3, me 4 and we continued with this until 10.

Well, that was in English. I could also count in Mandarin, though not the complete order too.

Guess it's still an accomplishment although it's not a complete one, yeah? :) One gau (bravo in Hokkien) for me, hehe! :)