Happy Mothers Day

An outdated post, but I have to put it down.

We celebrated Mothers Day this year. We got a cake (more for Kaelyn to sing 'Happy Mothers Day' to the tune of 'Happy Birthday' and blow out the candle), had dinner at Zhou's kitchen, and I received flowers from hubs and 2 cards from Kaelyn. I wasnt quite expecting the flowers, and hubs said he got it because he overheard Kaelyn telling me that she would buy me flowers on Mothers Day. Ha ha... thanks, Kaelyn! Kaelyn made 2 cards in school, 1 by herself and 1 with daddy. The daddies took an hour or 2 from work to make the card with the kids. How nice. But I have not received any notice for mummies to work on a card with the kids for Fathers Day! Its coming soon right?

Anyway, here are some pics:

Universal Studios Singapore

This is an exciting time for Singapore. Within a span of a few years, the landscape in Singapore has changed. We are always looking for new places to bring the family to, and with the opening of the IRs, there are now more things to see and do.

We brought Kaelyn to Universal Studios at the Resorts World Singapore at Sentosa last week. We also had a walk on the Helix Bridge (will touch on this in subsequent post) last weekend.

Having been to the Universal Studios in Osaka Japan, I would say that the Singapore version is much smaller, and does not have as many exciting characters (my personal view). I was looking forward to Sesame street characters and merchandise but found out to my dismay that Singapore does not have these characters. After all, I grew up with Sesame Street! and also managed to influence Kaelyn into liking it as well, ha ha.. But nonetheless we had a great time at the park despite the scorching heat and limited rides we can take because of Kaelyn.

The park is divided into 7 sections. Madagascar, Far far away, The Lost world, Ancient Egypt and Sci-fi city have rides suitable for kids like Kaelyn. Hollywood and New York are mainly for watching performances. Amongst Kaelyn's favourites are the Party-go-round in Madagascar (which she took 4 rounds), Dino-Soarin in The Lost World (which she took 5 times) and Accelerator in Sci-fi city (which she absolutely loves but sat only twice because the accompanying mum and dad have become dizzy after 2 rounds.. haha). The Treasure Hunters in Ancient Egypt is also suitable for kids. There are a few other rides which Kaelyn managed to qualify as she is just slightly taller than the 92cm requirement. However, we did not go on those because we feel she is still not ready as they are roller coaster rides, and also the queue times are at least 30 mins. The Shrek 4D show at Far far away was good, only that Kaelyn was frightened by the life like dragon when it suddenly popped out at her..

As you can see, this is not a raving review on the park. But it is still a good one day fun for the family.

Start of the exciting day at the entrance


Pol from Kungfu panda (Kaelyn's afraid of the panda!)


Popcorn cart


Party-go-round at Madagascar


A picture with the cute penguins


Donkey Live Show at Far Far Away


Dino Soarin at The Lost World


Treasure Hunters at Ancient Egypt


The gal is still so energetic when we left the park, we cant even capture a proper photo of her.

Sherryn at 3 months old

Sherryn turned 3 months old last week. This blog is to note down her developments at 3 months and to upload some photos of the growing gal.

1) She is 6.2kg and 62cm long (bigger than Kaelyn at 3 months)
2) Sleeps for longer periods at night, but still occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night for a feed. My dark eye rings are still there and there is no sign of them fading away anytime soon.
3) Survives on 5 feeds a day on average. Just these few days, she has not been able to drink much at one feeding and hence I seem to be feeding her more than 5 times. Think its the ultra hot weather playing a part!
4) Loves to laugh out loud when we play with her. I love it when she chuckles! She can also make some sounds like 'eh' 'oh', 'ah'.
5) Loves watching TV!
6) Swings her hands at a toy randomly and hit it.
7) Starts sucking on her fingers and hand.
8) Starts to roll from her back to her tummy (sometimes only) and lifts her head 90 degrees.

Looking back at these developments for Kaelyn at 3 months, they look very similar. So I guess they are developing at the same pace.

A struggling mum of 2

I am struggling... rather hard.. to be a mum of 2 (yea, its only 2, not 4 or 5!). I am struggling with potty training, sleep training, playing with/teaching my kids.

Kaelyn's already 2 years 8 months, and she is not potty trained. We have tried several times to put her on the potty, and also taught her to inform us when we wants to wee or poo. But what we only get out of it is, sometimes after she had pooed, she'll say 'I want to pass motion'. There was once while laying on her bed at night, she suddenly turned to me and said: 'Mama, tomorrow if I want to pass urine or pass motion in school, i will tell teacher Joanna that I want to go toilet'! I am not sure if I am causing her stress such that she's even thinking about it at night!

Kaelyn is a night owl, she refuses to sleep before 10pm every night. I have tried very hard to put her to bed earlier only to meet with bawls and protests from her. Sometimes she will be yakking non stop in her bed till 1130pm before she finally drifts off! I'm really at my wits ends sometimes because she has to go to school the following day and I want her to have at least 9 hours of sleep at night! And it's also very tiring having to coax / negotiate with her every single night.

As for Sherryn, she is in the danger of following her sister's footsteps. Tried to put her in bed at 7 plus pm at night but have not had much success. She'll be wide awake till about 9 - 10 sometimes 11 before she succumbs. And the girl does not sleep much in the day either! What have I been eating?

With the arrival of Sherryn, 24 hours is really not enough for me. I am perpetually tired, often shouting at Kaelyn as she throws her toys ard, refuses to sleep, bullies mei mei... Having only 4 - 5 hours sleep at night, I usually will sleep in later in the morning, while Kaelyn's away at child care. By the time I have rested enough, it is noon and Kaelyn will be back from school soon. Kaelyn will sometimes ask me to play with her before her nap. When she naps, I am most likely feeding Sherryn and trying to make her sleep. Soon after, Kaelyn wakes up from her nap and its time to split my attention again.

There's really not much time for proper potty training, teaching Kaelyn, and sleep training them. Every day just passes like that in a flash. Hope things will get better when the little one sleeps through the night and I can better manage my night pumping sessions...

I really hope to get some success in the potty training and sleep training bits for Kaelyn before my maternity leave ends. Oh, and also to clear those dark eye rings and bags, and slim down by then as well.

Conversations with Kaelyn

Many people have asked me whether Kaelyn likes her sister, whether she is jealous etc. Well, answer to both questions is yes. She acknowledges and understands that there is now a new member in the family, and mummy has to spend more time with mei mei. But at the same time, she sometimes will demand my attention and that I play with her, asking me to put mei mei on the bed.

Some conversations with Kaelyn

At Yeye/nai nai's house one day (conversation was in mandarin)
Kaelyn: I want to bring this Winnie the Pooh home ok?
Ye ye: But you already have Winnie the Pooh at home already. Leave this one here ok?
Kaelyn (after thinking for a while): I am bringing this home for mei mei. Mei mei doesnt have one at home.
Ye ye: Erm... ok!
Next day....
Ye ye: So did you give the Winnie the Pooh to mei mei?
Kaelyn: No
Ye ye: Why?
Kaelyn: Because mei mei is still small, she doesnt know how to play yet.
Very clever to use mei mei to get what she wants!

David bought a medical kit for her so one day, she was pretending to be doctor, and I the patient.
Using the thermometer on me, Me: Do I have a fever?
Kaelyn: No
Measuring my blood pressure: Me: Is my blood pressure ok?
Kaelyn: Ok
Using the stethoscope on me: Me: Am I ok?
Kaelyn: Yes, ok
Me: OK, so I can leave now?
Kaelyn: Wait mama, we forget this. (and she proceeded to feed me medicine).
I think its time for a lesson on not needing to eat medicine when you are not sick or unwell.

I think we over exposed Kaelyn to Christmas songs last Christmas. Ever since that time, whenever we ask her questions involving 'Why' ie 'Why did you do this?' 'Why are you not eating?' etc, and when she cant think of a proper answer, she will always cheekily say: 'Because it's christmas day!' (sung to the tune of a christmas song, which I dont know the name).
It goes like this: Hark thee hear the angel sing, a king was born today. And man will live forever more, because of christmas day!

Kaelyn pretending to breastfeed Mickey Mouse on my breastfeeding pillow


Kaelyn posing cheekily

Sherryn is 2 months old

Oh my, the days just flew by without me realising. I took a good look at Sherryn today, and realised that:
1) she is now too long for my breastfeeding pillow
2) her face has changed into a more 'mature' baby - her eyes are wide open for longer periods, and the red spots on her face are gone.
3) she is more responsive to people and things around her. She's starting to 'talk' to people and the Mickey mouse posters in her room. I think she will grow up to be another talkative girl, just like her sister.
4) she's beginning to chuckle and laugh
5) finger / hand sucking begins
6) she's 5.3kg at 7 weeks

Keeping Kaelyn occupied

We sent Kaelyn back to childcare for the mornings after CNY, as the chicken pox cycle would have been broken by then. That really gave me a much needed breather. I can concentrate more on Sherryn and recovering from the previous night's lack of sleep.

Kaelyn would have her lunch and nap in the early afternoon - so another free slot for me. It's only after around 4.30pm that I needed to entertain her. Actually I dont quite know what to do with her, so most of the time, I will take her lead and play her toys together with her (e.g. duplo, megablocks, doctor's kit, kitchen set etc). I am not a creative person when it comes to children's activities.

I recently got to know that her school just started a website where they post their activities, events, photos, song lyrics and various updates. I think it's really cool and good for updating parents like me who have no idea what they do and learn in school. I now know they do painting (on unwanted clothes), cut different shapes from paper, make photo frame, make toy pull-car etc.

Kaelyn painting on unwanted clothes - downloaded from her school's website:




Yesterday, I tried to do some art and craft with her - make a card. See the process and output.

First, draw the shapes and colour them with crayon





Then, cut and paste the shapes on the card



Finally, put on the finishing touches