Updates

It's been a while. We (David, Kaelyn and I) just came back from a trip to Hong Kong few weeks back. Will write about the trip in my next blog. For now, some updates over the last 2 months...

KAELYN

Kaelyn's toilet training has been really successful. She is now diaperless (except for nap/sleeping times), which I think is a really great achievement. I never thought this day would come. I'll take it slow on the final lap of being totally diaper-free. And she is finally off the pacifier (yeah!). Yup, its really taking too long..

Kaelyn's still the natural entertainer - she loves to sing and dance, make poses for the camera even in public. She also loves to draw, paint, colour, write. Oh, and since the HK trip, she has been requesting to use our iphone camera function to take photos for us or of anything / everything around her. I have just deleted 30 over photos that she took without my knowledge..









She knows her alphabets (caps and small letters) very well, a credit to her teachers in school. And she's able to write some of those letters too, and spell her own name. I dont remember being able to do that when I was 3 years old.



SHERRYN

Our dear Sherryn is coming to 1 year old soon (in 1 month's time). Where has the past year gone? She has been crawling all over the place since 8.5 months, and has been holding on to furniture and cruising since around the same time too. She had her first tooth close to 9 months and since has 2 teeth on the lower gum and 1 on the upper gum.





As she grows, we can see her personality and character coming through - she is one stubborn and demanding girl. One really frustrating thing for us is that she refuses to drink water, not a drop at all. She would use her might to push, kick, scream, wail when we try to feed her water.. I dont understand at all why she has such violent objections to water! She still loves to play with and be around her elder sis. And doesnt like to read, unlike her sis. She's getting really naughty now, shouting and screaming to get her way.







I think she can call Mama and Papa(or at least something that resemble these words).

Sherryn at 8 months

Sherryn has been developing new skills without me realising. She turned 8 months yesterday. She is able to sit without support since 6 months, move from lying down position to a sitting position by around 7 months, and pull herself to standing position close to 8 months. I think she is going to crawl over the place in no time. She's been adopting a crawling position but has yet to be able to move too much.

Her routine is now:
- Wakes up around 7am to play.
- Drinks milk (180ml) around 8am. Then bathes, plays.
- Sleeps at around 9.30 to 10am for about an hour.
- Lunch at 12pm - she is now having either porridge or brown rice cereal with cod fish and broccoli / pumpkin.
- Milk (160ml) at close to 2pm before she zzzz again for 2 hours.
- Dinner at 5.30pm - also having either porridge or cereal with fruit puree.
- Milk at 6.30 - 7pm (150ml).
- She knocks out before 7pm every night.
- Then wakes up for a drink of milk at around 10 - 11pm (160ml).

She knows how to call for attention and stretch her arms out for people to carry her. She likes to laugh, and makes sounds when people are talking to her. We havent been able to spend as much time as we would like to with her. But she has been a pretty good girl so far, except that sometimes she can be quite demanding when asking for attention.

Oh ya, she can hold her own bottle to drink her milk too! What a clever little girl!

Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010

During the games period, Kaelyn was crazy over this:



She first got to know this character while we were at United Square, and the mascots were parading around. We managed to snap 2 photos of her with Merly and Lyo before they disappeared into the changing room. And Kaelyn ran after them and stationed outside the room asking for them to come out.

Few weeks after that, we thought she had forgotten about them, but I was wrong! We went to the Orchard Road stores to look at the YOG merchandise. And Kaelyn said 'Eh, Merly. I always like Merly...' So we bought a soft toy for her and she now hugs it to sleep every night.



We also went to the Marina Promenade to have a look, and we managed to catch the mascots again. And wow, Kaelyn was really head over heels when she saw them, especially Merly, shouting 'Merly, I like you! I love you! Merly! Merly! ha ha....' THis time, she got to hug it, touch it, follow it..




And she would pose in front of every Merly poster for her Dad to take a photo of her. Check out her cheeky poses!







David and I even went all the way down to the floating platform to take photos of the flame the day before the closing ceremony. Afterall, this is practically going to be once in a lifetime scene.






During this period, I was watching the Olympic channel almost everyday after work. And Kaelyn was learnt that YOG stands for Youth Olympic Games. As the Hockey matches were played at the Sengkang Hockey stadium which is near my place and can be seen from my living room, Kaelyn calls that stadium 'YOG' as well.

Toilet training

We finally made progress on Kaelyn's toilet training routine. She is diaper free at home since early August, but still needs teachers to remind her to go toilet in school. She also feels more comfortable pooing into the diaper than in the toilet bowl. Well at least we've made some good progress! And can save some money on diapers... finally! It's been a long journey...

Think i will start training Sherryn much earlier.

Kaelyn's 3rd birthday

Kaelyn celebrated her third birthday twice this year. Once at home, and once in school with her friends and teachers.

She chose her own cakes as well, specifically picking the one for home and one for school. When we persuaded her against the one she had chosen for home, she was insistent that she had to have that! We gave in in the end. That was a cake with Mickey going on vacation - David said that it symbolises her running away from home!!

There is no decent photos of Kaelyn's birthday at home as she was just so energetic and jumpy.



The celebrity in school..

New routine

Work has consumed me for the past 2 months ever since I started going back. After 6 months at home, I struggled to get back into the swing of things at work. During the first few weeks, I took my time to get used to looking at the computer for 8 hours. I felt so tired at the end of each day.

I found that my memory has deteriorated. I cant remember much of the details at work - this is bad, because I need to advise people on technical accounting matters. I need to wake up early in the morning to pump, say hello to my gals before leaving for work. During working hours, I need to disappear 2 times to pump. Very good thing that my office has a very decent nursing room complete with a mini fridge, sofa and wash basin. And then at night I had to pump again before retiring for the night. I was so tired that it aggravated my ability to work efficiently at work. On top of that, I had to get used to the working style of a new boss.

Good thing I managed to work out working from home every Wednesdays to give myself more time with baby and save on transportation time.

The new arrangement while I am at work is:
- Mondays and Tuesdays, mother in law comes over to take care of them. Kaelyn will be at child care for full day on MOnday and half day on Tuesday.
- Wednesday, I work from home and Kaelyn goes to child care for full day
- Thursdays and Fridays, my parents bring Sherryn to their home. Kaelyn is on half day on Thursday and full day on Friday. My dad will fetch her to their home after school.

So far, this arrangement has been working fine as I am not involved in the ferrying. I just need to concentrate on producing milk for Sherryn, and going to work on time.

Back to work tomorrow

I start work tomorrow! Arrgh... after 6 months at home, I really am apprehensive about going back. By right, I should be starting today but an untimely fever forced me to stay home another day. See, even my own body doesnt want me to start work.

I'll need to wake up much earlier to express milk, dress up and take the MRT to work, lugging my pump and handbag. No more late nights for me, no more watching endless VV dramas on SCV, no more playing the piano for Sherryn, no more ferrying Kaelyn to and from school, no more making trips to Compass Point on weekdays, no more facials on weekdays.. and the list goes on..

So I probably will disappear from blogging for some time while I try to settle back at work and get used to the old routine.

Yesterday, when I visited the doctor for my fever and throat infection, the doctor encouraged me to quit my job and work from home via the internet. She even gave me a website to explore and recommended me a book to read. She said my recurring illness (throat infections, fever) is a result of lowered immunity due to lack of sleep. And going to work and being away from my children will add stress and aggravate my condition. And that there will be higher risk of cancer etc. She made it sound so serious! Anyway, I will visit the website to explore alternatives. But for now, its back to work for me.

I am Sherryn

Yeah, I finally have a say in this blog. I have been waiting for a long long time! All thanks to Mama's friend who allowed her babies to speak on her blog also. And Mama got the inspiration to let me talk too. Thanks to Auntie Eliza!

Mama is going back to work next week and I can tell that she is soooo reluctant. She started taking out all her work clothes and shoes just last week and tried them on in front of me and kept asking me whether she looks fat in this and that. Actually I do think she looks kinda plump and flabby but good thing I still cant talk or else I would really hurt her lots. She said its jie jie and I who caused her to look so fat. But I think its a pretty unfair statement cos I noticed she ate lots of ice cream, and cakes and biscuits and was raiding the fridge like 3 - 4 times a day for things to eat!

Anyway, I love mama to be around in the house, although she drives me nuts sometimes.
When I am hot and sweaty, she thinks I have pooed. When I have pooed, she thinks I am hungry. When I am really hungry, she thinks I am tired. How can she still get it so wrong after being on the job for 5 months? And I thought she was a graduate?!


As for my jie jie, auntie says she is a Vuvuzela. Although I dont really know what that is, I guess it must be something very loud cos jie jie loves to scream and shout. Jie jie always says I cant do the things she does and play with her toys cos I am still 'small'. I want to drink more milk to grow bigger so I can do all the things jie jie does. Then sometimes I hear Papa and Mama saying that because I am still small, I am excused for crying loudly, hitting my arms around, spilling milk. So it's actually better to be small then? I am so confused.


I seldom see my Papa as he is out working. But he will try to play with me when he's back from work and when I am not asleep. He loves to take photos of me with his DSLR camera and when I am in the mood to laugh or smile, I hear the camera click like a thousand times.


Ok, I think I have bored you enough with my view of my family. Although I seem to be complaining, I actually do love them all!

Conversations with Kaelyn

Kaelyn came back from school one day and volunteered updates from her school.

Update 1

"Mama, teacher Jay is not around today. Teacher Joanna says Teacher Jay is pregnant. She has a baby. She went home to rest. Her friends look after her."

Update 2 (she spoke in Mandarin for this)

Kaelyn: Mama we have a new lao shi (teacher) today.
Me: Oh is it? What is her name?
Kaelyn: I dont know..
Me: Is it Chen lao shi? Or Li lao shi? (just randomly throwing some names in the air)
Kaelyn: No. It's lao hu (tiger) lao shi. Ha ha ha...
I thought the teacher must be very fierce to earn this title. Half an hour later,
Kaelyn: Ah I know. The teacher is Hu lao shi! I remember!
So Hu lao shi is lao hu lao shi and hu li (fox) lao shi.. Children are so creative.

I love these updates she is giving me. I hope we will continue having such conversations as she grows up.

Sisterly love

I love to see Kaelyn and Sherryn interact.

Mama, Sherryn is very heavy!

Sherryn is my 'hao peng you' (good friend)

Sherryn, let's dance!

Come Sherryn, I read to you

Kaelyn's childcare update July 2010

We seem to be making some headway in Kaelyn's food intake in school. She now finishes the small portion that the teachers giver her and is able to eat on her own. Before, she would refuse to touch the food even when the teachers feed her. She just didnt like to eat.

We havent been making much progress on the napping and toilet training routine though. Guess I really have to take one step at a time. Because she sometimes skips are naps in school, we are now putting her on half days on Tues and Thurs so she can rest properly in between the school week.

I have also restarted intensive toilet training. I think she understands that she has to tell us when she needs to pee and poo but not sure why she doesnt do that. I now accept that she is a slow developer in this area...Think she still cant really tell whether she needs to go until she has let go. Within 3 hours, we can change as many as 5 - 6 training pants and bring her to the toilet 3 times. Really tiring but will try to persevere! Hope she is able to go to toilet on her own in school soon.

However in terms of other developments, her teachers say she is a fast learner like recognising patterns / sequencing, sorting balls / coins based on attributes etc. I guess you cant have it both ways!

Touring Singapore Attractions

I realise that Singapore is not that boring afterall, especially with the opening of the Flyer, RWS in Sentosa, MBS in recent years. Since it is not convenient to go on long overseas tours with the 2 kids, we have embarked on touring attractions around Singapore. Below are the places we have been to recently.

(1) The Singapore Zoo
We've been to the Zoo many times with Kaelyn, though we have not brought Sherryn there yet. Personally, the highlight for me is to bring her to the Rainforest Kidz World right at the other end of the zoo. I am not a huge fan of animals so I was always looking for the shortest route to the kids woeld. But at least we did point out to her the tigers, monkeys, otters, zebras, kangaroos, giraffes etc etc along the way.

Pictures from the Dec 09 trip





(2) Sentosa

I like going to Sentosa. There are various things to see and do there. We stayed a few nights at the Shangri la Rasa Sentosa when Kaelyn was a baby, and went to some of the attractions (see http://our-angel.blogspot.com/2007/12/our-first-holiday-after-kaelyns-arrival.html). We also went to the beaches several times with the 2 kids.





Recently, we brought Kaelyn to the Universal studio (see http://our-angel.blogspot.com/2010/05/universal-studios-singapore.html).

I would like to go back to Sentosa again for the Luge ride and go up the Merlion.

(3) Duck tours and Singapore Flyer

I had always wanted to go on the duck tours whenever I see one of those plying the streets. We finally got to do that sometime in May. I got free tickets to the Flyer too, so we did that on the same day. It was a great outing, although the kids were grouchy on the Flyer.















(4) Helix bridge

This newly opened bridge connects the Marina floating platform to the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. There is a nice little garden next to the floating platform.







(5) Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort

David and I had some time to ourselves last week and we sneaked to the newly opened IR for a peek. I wasnt too impressed with the look of the interior. It looks like another shopping centre to me but selling more high end stuff. There is a 'river' in the centre and they had boats on it. If this was to replicate Venice, then they would have failed terribly. But I later saw a sign that says those were some king of Samsui boat. Ok, then that makes sense.. but really it wasnt a pretty sight.

There were also staff in red uniforms stationed at each escalator and also walking around. We had no idea what they were doing. There wasnt a lot of people in the mall and they were just standing around, which was quite strange. But we made use of them to ask for directions to the hotel side.

We had a peek at the casino, and I was surprised that it looked quite packed inside. There really are many gamblers around.

At the hotel side, we managed to get tickets to go up to the sky park for 360 degrees view of Singapore. At S$20 per pax, it was really worth the money. View was superb. Again, at the sky park, there were also a number of staff walking around and one even voluntarily offered to help us take a picture. Talk about job creation by the IRs! There is also a beautiful infinity pool on top.











There are lots of other places to go like the Jurong Bird Park, Botanical Gardens, Merion Park, Hort Park, Alexandra / Henderson Wave, Science Centre, East Coast Park etc all of which we have brought Kaelyn to when she was small. We will be bringing the kids back to these places again in the near future.