Days of Eliza & Emily

Finding time

2012-01-26T19:48:00.001+08:00

I wish i have more time to do craft / read / play with Eliza. Sometimes she's so engrossed with her stuff that i don't want to interrupt her. Sometimes i have chores to do. When my mil leaves, i also need to learn to put these chores aside and be there for them instead of doing the 101 chores. Then again, there are things that need to be done in the day which i can't do when they have gone to sleep!

It is great that Eliza has joined us in helping with the laundry, be it folding, or unclipping or clipping or passing me the clips. Letting her join in the chores helps though there are things that she's still too short to do or it's not the way i want to be done (like clipping the clothes on the dryer which she arranges in the most interesting way -_-).

Sometimes i wonder what keeps me so busy throughout the day which of course....getting Emily to sleep is one big amount of time taken!
- Then it's 1 hour meals
- changing Emily's diapers
- bathing the kids (i'm teaching Eliza to soap and rinse and dry herself so it does take longer depending on how much time i have that day..and she dresses herself after i have creamed her)
- meals? (for now my mil does most of it)
- playing :) (leaving the girls to play too is nice..Emily loves join in whatever Eliza is doing though Eliza doesn't always appreciate the company)
- feeding Emily
- going out for some playground play, walks or fresh air
- bedtime with Eliza (my favourite time of the day)
- reading with Eliza whenever Emily's asleep

Wondering where my chunk of time for doing activities with Eliza went to.
I'm wanting to do more craft activities with her now that she has so much fun doing these things, even though sometimes i do all of it and she watches.
We have been busy this week going out that we have put our activities on hold for a while. I need to get back to the flow of preparing her 'lessons' with more interesting craft work. And also when i feel more like it in the evenings (having 2 tough nights with Emily waking and playing...let's hope it's a phase and that she's not overtired cos she's up so much at night)

So far for our 'homeschooling'
We enjoy the singing (which includes the verse of the week song & character song)
- reading the bible story (i try to read the kid version one as the real bible words seem to slip past her, but i try to read direct from the bible at least once or twice a week)
- she's reading her sight book really well, and colouring them now! (wow to my non-coloring gal)
- kid writing (a bit slow on that because i have yet to digest how to do it)
- calender (we are writing the twenties and i think the concept of larger numbers is still new to her)
- phonics (she can name most of the letter sounds which i talk about on and off even when we are not directly learning it...and she's learning about rhyme, which a very important skill for learning reading..to listen to the sounds. For now i think she somehow reads English like Chinese, by memory)
- writing (we are at letter R already...though she still loves to write words like E, O, I)

I love you, mummy!

2012-01-25T20:58:00.001+08:00

Eliza: I love you mummy. Even if you are old, I will still love you.

*melts*

Happy new year!

2012-01-23T06:56:00.001+08:00

Mil: tomorrow I will give you a big angbao!
Eliza: I think...i can't carry it. I'm only a kid. I ask mummy to help.

For the first time this year, Eliza understood the meaning of the angbao. Last year she just put it in her bag or gave it to me. Yesterday she received one, opened it and in a surprise discovered money inside! Wow! Haha. The innocence of a kid. This time she understood that money is needed to buy things and we get money when mummy or daddy works and that she's still a kid and can't work yet.

Just nice J bought her a little Elmo purse and she could put it in. At first she said, that she has money but no wallet to put it in. Time to teach her how to divide her money and save/spend it wisely. :)

Missing the festivities and food and family in SG. It's quiet here but we'll be going out to the National Museum of Australia for some kid activities n shopping after that. Hope Emily will take a good nap later. It has been a struggle getting her to sleep this morning, 40mins! With almost 20mins of screaming and struggling. And then she's only going to nap 30mins. Time to get her to nap without me in the room. Grrr.

Oh well. Happy new year too! :) 7 more days till Ww come back, finally!

The sleep issues

2012-01-21T20:23:00.001+08:00

I love it that Eliza's sleep is a lot more manageable these days...essentially we tackle only the bedtime sleep. More or less no naps anymore unless she's really tired and falls asleep in the car.

Well it's not that she is difficult to fall asleep...in comparison to Emily, it's that we can do more fun things with her in the day without worrying that she'll get too tired. And if she does, she'll catch a short nap in the car. The moment i carry her to her bed from the car, she wakes up. The good part is also that she goes to sleep much earlier which is about 8pm till 7am the next morning. The other good part is that when my mil wasn't around, she learnt to fall asleep on her own, in her room and wake up happy. It wasn't a easy thing to learn for her, as sometimes she'll wake up at night calling for us (usually Ww cos i'm the grumpy one if i go to her room), and then it's learning to wake up without someone beside her after sleeping with us (although in a different bed), almost all her life. I anticipate some adjustments when my mil goes back, but at least the bedtime part is still consistent (as in my mil doesn't stay in the room until she sleeps). Learning independence, not that easy eh? but so essential. It was something we didn't quite teach her till we are here, on our own, without grandparents.

Then it is the lil monster!! There are good days as much as bad days. Last week she was doing so well falling asleep on her own in 10minutes! I just sing her naptime song, put her in her cot with something to play and she'll be tired (rubbing forehead and face) and eventually fall asleep! i was like super wow! Even though she slept like 30minutes only, be it morning or afternoon nap. I'm still in the room with her till she sleeps, 'hiding' beside her cot and erm...iphoning, and trying not to look up (else she'll see me and want me to carry her).

Then this week things took a slight turn for the worse..partially cos she was waking up so early at 530am and still not sleeping at 7am her rest of the day is a bit upside down. So her milk time clashes with her naptime and she ends up falling asleep nursing. Opps. Bad habit. And it happened at least once a day these few days. Opps. Encouraging the bad habit...oh dear. Good habits are hard to make and bad habits...just once or twice and she's stuck...have to unlearn it.

Past few nights she was waking up at 9+pm after her bedtime at 7pm to cry and can't be settled till i feed her! I guessed it might be that she's not eating enough for her mealtimes and i have since increased her food for her lunch and dinner. Since i nurse her, i can't quite tell how much milk she takes but there are times when she's either too distracted to drink or just too full to drink and i can't get her to drink more in the day. Then again, it could also be because she has dinner and milk so early; dinner at 5pm and milk about 6pm or earlier if she is too hungry for milk to eat dinner. So i hope it gets better the next few nights.

Her bedtime is really quite early compared to Eliza, which is also because of our lifestyle here that encourages it. Most books i read also recommend the 7pm bedtime which is something i really can't do in SG. How to, when work ends at 630pm, and it takes me 1hr to travel home. Plus, SG has such a lively night life to go out for supper and dinners and shopping with friends, that it's just a lifestyle thing. Still Eliza adjusted ok with that, maybe with sleeping more in the day, i guess. Cos she'll generally sleep from 9pm-7am and naps in the day, even when she was a baby.

I've been checking out over here on how much a baby needs to sleep and it helps to know that it's ok that Emily sleeps only 2hrs in the day, considering she generally sleeps about 10-11hrs at night (including night wakings/cryings though). on good days, she manages to sleep till 7am...else she's usually awake by 6+am. On bad days when she is overtired, she wakes up at 530am!! :O Still i push for her to sleep longer if i can or bring bedtime earler, if i can. Well...i try. Then it's up to her to fall asleep. Else she's fighting sleep, wanting to get out or wanting me to nurse her to sleep.

I'm also reading that the early naptime is good for babies, which i think works better for Emily i guess. We did try to get her to sleep later where she starts bedtime routine at 7pm but i can't remember what happened, whether it was good or not anyway. Still starting it early doesn't hurt. Plus i sent Emily to bed at 545pm today (cos she last woke from her nap at 2pm), and then she took so long to fall asleep..and eventually did at 645pm. phews!dunno if she'll do better tonight..cross fingers!

Motherhood

2012-01-12T21:21:00.000+08:00

Have been reading blogs and posts and parts of books.

From The Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic
"As you deal with your children, deal with yourself always and first. This is what it looks like and feels like to walk with God, as a mother."
"It is no abstract thing- the state of your heart is the state of your home. You cannot harbour resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender."

From Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
"“In the end, the measure of my success as a mother will not be how well I have taught my children or cared for them but whether I have been faithful in helping them respond to God’s call on their lives. Seeing my children develop a heart for God’s service and begin to find their own place of ministry in the world is a reachable goal for me as a mother, because God has designed me to fulfill this purpose. The is the true ministry of motherhood–to usher my children into the living presence of God, to nurture in them a heart for Jesus and the Great Commission he has called each of us to fulfill.”

Time for reflection

The gentleness challenge

2012-01-11T19:45:00.000+08:00

Read this from a mum's link and this year for me, I want to take up this The gentleness Challenge.

Help me remember.

Kids really test your patience, and add in stressors from anything or just a tired day and you might just respond in a less patient way. There are times when i regretted how i responded to Eliza. I always want to be firm with her, never to scold her loudly, but always to be kind and gentle. I also know what her trigger points are, sometimes she's tired, sometimes she's wanting attention, sometimes she just cannot accept the stern 'no' she hears from me. I'm thankful for the relationship we have, that despite the discipline we have on her, she will still in the end want to do what we tell her to and she'll say sorry for her misbehavior. We'll always end each meltdown/breakdown/whatever-down with a shared heart to heart talk. Though i don't want to ever raise my voice at her in a way that will demean her or become a bad example she learns from.

I quote from the page:
"It’s interesting to note that all of the fruit of the Spirit address this very issue – the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Gal. 5:22). When we walk in the Spirit – we will be gentle mothers. But when we walk in the flesh – we lack all of these attributes.

Which brings me to conclude that we must be in God’s word and on our knees daily – depending on God to help us be the gentle mothers he has called us to be. "

What Emily has been up to

2012-01-11T19:21:00.002+08:00

Ohh..this little tiger rabbit...that's what my mil calls her. She roars! haha..Emily is loud alright, much louder than Eliza. I remember her crying when we bathed her in her first two months and make our ears ring from the intensity of the screams after that. That's one very distinctive difference from her sister.

The other is on how difficult to get her to sleep. Not that Eliza was that easy either but Emily's like 9/10 on how easy she sleeps scale (10 being the most difficult) and Eliza's on the 5/10. At least Eliza will doze off, like Eliza likes to hug me and lean her head on my shoulder or chest and fall asleep. Oh well, Emily being the second child doesn't get that much of a luxury cos i don't have as much time for her as i had with Eliza. But Emily will hardly do that..she'll rub her face on my chest more likely. Eliza has been accustomed to the stroller since young and she takes to it really well (even now!)..so i remember that she'll fall asleep as i stroll to Tampines Mall or back. Emily? Nah...she finally can happily sit on the stroller when we go for our short morning walk. It is an improvement. Previously, she was just looking for me. whops!

Other interesting stuff Emily has been up to:
- Being very interested in what goes on the computer, especially when Eliza watches any of her DVDs, Emily will head towards the computer and be very excited, very. haha. Especially when we facetime or skype with Ww, Emily will fight with Eliza for a space to see, as much as pull Eliza away so that she gets closer to the screen. It's really funny but i gotta protect Eliza from the 'harm' Emily will inflict on her too.
- She babbles to sleep, when she doesn't cry to sleep. She'll go ahhh, huuuuh, uhhhh, uuuuhh...
- She crawls all around the house. This is no time to be confined to the playmat anymore.
- She doesn't put certain things in her mouth. Things like my iphone, her cream, papers (ok that's still in the learning stage..she just can't resist that). Everytime she does so, i'll sternly tell her "no-no, not in your mouth" and move it aside or take it away. Till, she nowadays either got tired of the item or learn it(?).
- She loves Eliza, ahh-ing at her and looking at what Eliza does....or taking what Eliza is playing with (it happens the other way round also, just that Eliza will want the thing i give to Emily). So much so that she can call Eliza...chehcheh or 姐姐. yup..not the most exact pronunciation but she will see Eliza can call out jiejie.
- She calls my mil "ah". haha...like calling 'ay'.
- She loves being tickled and will give a most hearty giggle.
- She loves sucking out the juice from watermelon, rock melon, pears, apples.
- If she eats something really sour, she'll give us a 'sour' face and give a 'shiver'. This must see on video..really super cute!
- She is probably allergic to raspberry or yoghurt. I tried to let her eat baby yoghurt on sunday and she didn't quite like it cos it was quite sour. After that when we were at church, her ears and feet were quite red and she was really cranky. It got better in the afternoon when she did an epic 2.5hr nap.
- She can fall asleep on her own, as in without me patting her or holding her to sleep. While it is not that often, it's a vast improvement from needing me to carry her to sleep and keep carrying her till she wakes. I learn how to put her to sleep and she learns how to sleep. she is persistent and so i need to learn not to create bad habits. Having kids really teach you the lesson about consistency! She still wakes up 1-3 times before 11plus when i go to sleep and her 11pm+ milk time. I remember that Eliza at that age also wakes up quite a bit in the hours before i sleep too, just that Eliza was not as fierce as Emily in terms of crying...so even though at times i would be frustrated, it wasn't as scary as Emily! haha.

A smaller stroller for Emily?

Happy with swinging! It was the first time she's on the swing.

Looking really fierce on the stroller...actually more apprehensive.

Playdate :D

Emily also finally sits on the trolley instead of being asleep during our grocery shopping.

Homeschoolling?

2012-01-08T20:51:00.001+08:00

Yeah we are kinda doing that..because Eliza enjoys it, and it's mummy focused time with her. She loves the craft parts, the singing and the cards activities. I'm not sure about the rest but i try to make it as fun as possible. Some activities take like one minute to finish. (that fast?) yeah...writing the date on the calender is that fast. But we'll keep writing till we see the pattern.

There's reading to learn and i'm finding that although we read a lot of books that rhyme, i haven't really introduced rhymes to her yet. And i'm not sure if she has gotten the concept. One of the activities is to do rhyme match, and it is one of the foundations of reading, that they can grasp the sounds. We'll take it slow at the reading front even though she can read some words by memory, like the way we learn to read chinese, hopefully she'll get the hang of reading phonetically.

It's great that my mil is here and she's picking up her chinese much faster now although she'll always mix english & chinese together like "我love你" or “我read这个” etc. So it does help to repeat the sentence with all Chinese and she picks it up really fast from there. She also gets her practice reading Chinese with my mil cos she wasn't that keen previously, only wanting me to read/speak english with her. With my mil, she has no choice..hehe. Finally she more or less can finish reading the 8 chinese readers from her school, so that means she knows almost 100 chinese words? She loved her Chinese teacher in her nursery class and i think that helped her got so interested in reading her chinese readers too. She was reading her chinese readers to me every night and practicing till she could proudly read the whole book (albeit with quite a 标准 accent that i can't imitate especially the "明明", if you have seen that video on FB before :P )

Still all day at home is fun for her, making her lego cities to no end...only fear is that Emily comes and destroy it or i accidently knock it down (oops!). And then it's her own craft or her play with her stuffed toys, or her house/tent/tunnel etc. Amazing how busy they can get at this age!

We need to go out more despite the crazy hot weather so it's time to change walks to mornings when it's not so hot. I am sorely missing my walks because i can drive now and will choose driving over walking! haha...

This was in March...she would want to read this book again and again and again...day and night..till she was so good at it

One of the activities was the weather graph....done in under 5 minutes! but it'll be fun to see how the weather is like over a month at the end of the month

Day 4 of creation...special activitiy for the week...here she's painting and later went on to do her other painting after all the paints have been taken out..why waste it. It will always have to end up with finger painting though.

I got this from Homeschool Creations. It was a one off printable for gardening.Arranging numbers. Very easy to us..but this one really takes quite a while for her...not that she doesn't know but that it takes quite a bit to gather that concentration. And everytime she has to count from number 1 to know what's the next number. The difficult number is 15! She'll always say 'five-teen" and completely miss it and go from 14 to 16. So we'll need some more practice. This is a game actually...to hide a shovel under one of the numbers and guess where it is. It is something she'll take out on her own and do spontaneously, thankfully. :)

Emily's 8 month schedule

2012-01-06T20:25:00.001+08:00

Just so i remember...

530-7am - wake. yes half the time she wakes up that early. it's part sun rising and part lack of sleep as they say. (she averages 2hr or less naps in the day time)
7am - I wake up! Morning stuff, change Emily's diapers, breakfast, milk for emily, send clothes to wash. The best time of the day for Emily cos she's so eager to 'say' good morning to jiejie and my mil with super-squished-up-excited-face and vigorous kicking in excitement. Really fun to wake up to a happy gal, ready to conquer the day :P
830am - nap unwinding time in her cot
9am - hopefully asleep
930am - wake. If we are not going out, usually i'll attempt to get her to sleep longer. But there are times when she doesn't want to sleep! so it's up for the day
10am - brunch. (time to shift this up later and include breakfast for her soon)
11am - milk (or later if i forget..oops!)
12pm - settle for nap in cot
1230pm - hopefully asleep. she usually can sleep longer during this part of the nap and i'll use this time to do activities with Eliza
130/2pm - wake & play
230/3pm - milk
330/4pm - settle for nap
4+pm - wake
5pm - dinner and milk. Bath after dinner.
6pm - get ready to settle to sleep (usually 1.5 hrs from the time she woke) Bedtime routine = say good night to everyone, draw the blinds and curtains, milk & prayer, put in cot and play lullaby
7pm - asleep and hope she doesn't wake up too often
11pm - dream feed (after which she'll wake about 3am+ and that legendary 5+am)

I love what she wrote at the end of her blog (and all the tips she listed too..very useful)
"The early days are tough. Let no one fool you about that! No matter what the age gap, it is always an adjustment when you add a member to the family. But when you see them playing and smiling with each other, you will know that your struggles are worth it!"

I'm amazed at many mums who can thrive so well on the tough early days, on their own (aka without grandparents live-in help or day care or maids). Now i'm a SAHM, i know jolly well i'm not that kind of mum. At least not with a sweet one who enjoys our company more than sleep ;)

I'm thankful that Eliza is enjoying Emily more and Emily obviously loves her jiejie. Sometimes Emily will call her, not exactly the word jiejie but you know she's calling Eliza anyway. Really fun watching this little tiger rabbit explore her world :)

first week of the year

2012-01-04T19:05:00.000+08:00

It's the first week of the year! We didn't do anything spectacular during new year's eve (oh we wanted to watched the sydney fireworks but not with Ww in USA...spending the new year's eve at the airport waiting for his plane! hoho). So the girls went to sleep as usual, bedtime was as usual, everything quite as usual. I heard the sounds of fireworks but couldn't see any cos it was just too far away & probably blocked by mountains.

We started with new 'activites' for Eliza
- Bible : this week was on creation. memorized Gensis 1:1 (singing to the tune of "Here we go looby loo")
- Character: Orderliness. Sing the Orderly song & read 1 Cor 14:40, arrange ABC in order (oh how i realized that she isn't that aware of the order of "L, M, N, O" cos it's sung so quickly)
- Alphabet: "A"
- Reading: Sight words mini story book - We & Will. Rhyme games
- Calender : singing months of the year song, writing date, weather chart (mainly just sunny & cloudy)
- Writing: K, L, M. Chinese strokes book, Kid writing actitivty

Looks like a lot...but really it's done in 40minutes or less and some are just done sparodically in the day, like singing etc. Or if she does an activity that's painting or crafty, she gets inspired and goes on to do her stuff.
Once i got the hang of things, i can just pull out our activity basket and get on doing stuff. I just need to have the things i need printed or 'laminated' the night before.
Yah and she's still bugging me to make ornaments!!

Still it was a peaceful new year's eve night. Nice.
New year's eve in pictures.

Changing for the day while i plonk Emily in Eliza's bed..safe enough for her not to crawl into trouble

Pre-morning nap unwinding time. Put rabbit as her bed toy...she only likes its tag, else it's flung to some corner.

Still don't wanna sleep...so happy

Preparing pizza for dinner!

Good night and tata 2011!

I got nothing done today

2011-12-30T20:04:00.000+08:00

Not exactly today today...my mil's here, so it's very different when i'm home alone with the girls and having to get things accomplished.

this is inspired from here. She has more kids than i do and i can't imagine. I have only two and it does get insane..somehow.

Still, a thought came to me as i was praying with Emily while she was having her bedtime milk: we have come this far. Many things had happened, and it took as a while to get used to be on our own (after my mil went back to sg after 1.5months with us). Actually it took me a while...i had Eliza's bedtimes to be settled so that she learns to sleep in her own room, i had a baby who barely slept unless she's carried, i had meals to be done etc. There were the stressors, especially when Emily took hours to settle at bedtime and i couldn't prepare food for the next day, or when Eliza started to act out cos of the lack of attention or not wanting to be told off. Mostly it was Emily's sleep, day and night. While Emily's sleep didn't get dramatically better before my in-laws came again, we did settle into something that we ALL enjoyed. I worked around the sleepless baby's schedule, Eliza played happily independently and enjoyed my undivided attention when Emily's awake (cos that's when Emily's not screaming! ha!)

I don't quite get much done in the daytime...as in planning stuff or stuff done on the computer. But there were pocket of times that i enjoyed, that i did nothing much with the girls but just hung around in the room and be immersed in Eliza's imaginative play. I don't homeschool like the mum does so there isn't a lot of activities that i need to do with Eliza other than reading and yup...eventually her writing and devotion time in the morning.(which is over in less than half hour...really it's so fast..sometimes 10mins)

Still trying to get the hang of things so come 2011, we'll be starting some form of 'homeschooling' following Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum, I have planned only for the first week and still am trying to remember all the little parts and get used to it cos there're soo many parts! I'm not teacher though i have soooo many teacher friends (ok and Ww is a teacher too). I remember a mum friend (who was a teacher before she had 3 kids!) was enjoying doing her toddler lesson plans. I can't quite imagine what all the lesson planning is about. More on how our week went soon...:)

what should a 4 year old know?

2011-12-24T20:25:00.000+08:00

I love this post from Magical Childhood about what a 4 year old should know. Italics mine. Discovered it as i was searching for ideas for what 'homeschooling' stuff to do with Eliza. We haven't been doing any writing practices lately and i have started it again today. Thought i gotta do do something more structured to do in the day but then again... ;)

"She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time. Eliza asks me now and then, "Do you love me?" to which i always answer "I will always love you, even when i am upset with you"
He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn't feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up. Time to learn these...socializing, especially who to talk to and who not to cos people are quite friendly here.
She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs. Eliza definitely does, she's the cheeky one, always trying to be funny. Though i think nursery school and people around do make her conform to how she should colour things.
He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he'll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud. a 4 year old play is so spontaneous, she'll play and burst into song, hear a song and dance... we taught her numbers while she climbs up the steps at home and at the overhead bridge.
She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she's wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it's just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that-- way more worthy. She sure does have lots of time to do so! Not too much shopping and she wont be so dull. ;) Else she'll be making jumping parties for her stuffed friends, Lego cities, play house, cooking, playdoh food, sand food, water play. For one, she isn't the most outdoorsy-get-into-the-mud kinda kid.

But more important, here's what parents need to know.

That every child learns to walk, talk, read and do algebra at his own pace and that it will have no bearing on how well he walks, talks, reads or does algebra. This is really not easy especially when I compare the things some other kids Eliza's age can do. Ignorance is bliss eh? But i also know that she'll find her ways to do these things in her pace...mummy must encourage and yet let her find her pace.

That the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement and high ACT scores is reading to children. Not flash cards, not workbooks, not fancy preschools, notblinking toys or computers, but mom or dad taking the time every day or night (or both!) to sit and read them wonderful books. I gave up on flash cards...too tedious and boring. But i want to read more to Eliza, more than i do now. We read every night and i want to read more books in the daytime too. I want to talk to her more, listen to her more.

That being the smartest or most accomplished kid in class has never had any bearing on being the happiest. We are so caught up in trying to give our children "advantages" that we're giving them lives as multi-tasked and stressful as ours. One of the biggest advantages we can give our children is a simple, carefree childhood. Somehow if Eliza was still in SG, she'll be learning in leaps and bounds with the other kids, stuff i won't be teaching her at home. I don't find that she's stressed by it in a way but she's a lot more carefree at home now though. Storytelling time at the library is an exciting time even though it's such a simple activity.

That our children deserve to be surrounded by books, nature, art supplies and the freedom to explore them. Most of us could get rid of 90% of our children's toys andthey wouldn't be missed, but some things are important-- building toys like legos and blocks, creative toys like all types of art materials (good stuff), musical instruments (real ones and multicultural ones), dress up clothes and books, books, books. (Incidentally, much of this can be picked up quite cheaply at thrift shops.) They need to have the freedom to explore with these things too-- to play with scoops of dried beans in the high chair (supervised, of course), to knead bread and make messes, to use paint and play dough and glitter at the kitchen table while we make supper even though it gets everywhere, to have a spot in the yard where it's absolutely fine to dig up all the grass and make a mud pit. I don't really like getting toys for Eliza unless it has 'expandable use' like the Lego. My in-laws buys lots more and particularly those electronic ones with sounds and music. I do find that it gets played a while and then no more...while some toys get 'transformed' by her into something else to play with. Oh..Eliza's craft? it's just too exciting and profound...i need her to explain it to me to understand what she's making! haha. She loves helping me pour flour/sugar etc, kneading bread (when i do make any dough!). But i can't stand the mess...she did have a phase of tearing papers into tiny pieces and throwing them happily like confetti or using them as pretend food or presents etc. Books are never enough! And different books have different seasons, she'll choose the same book for many nights till another better one comes along.

That our children need more of us. We have become so good at saying that we need to take care of ourselves that some of us have used it as an excuse to have therest of the world take care of our kids. Yes, we all need undisturbed baths, time with friends, sanity breaks and an occasional life outside of parenthood. But we live in a time when parenting magazines recommend trying to commit to 10 minutes a day with each child and scheduling one Saturday a month as family day. That's not okay! Our children don't need Nintendos, computers, after school activities, ballet lessons, play groups and soccer practice nearly as much as they need US. They do. I've always read that it's the quantity time and not the quality time that matters. Of course with two kids and a house to manage without help, it's not like you can spend 12hours with your 4yr old all the time. And Eliza will always welcome my participation in her imaginative play any day, cos i'll listen to her stories, and put new ideas about how her play can go. I love my bedtimes with her and i'm trying not to rush it; cos i'm afraid Emily will wake and i have to go settle her and leave Eliza or that she really needs to sleep cos she's tired, just a little more to chat is always nice. Today her stuffed tiger said its teeth hurt cos it bit me and i don't taste good. hahaa....

They need fathers who sit and listen to their days, mothers who join in and make crafts with them, parents who take the time to read them stories and act like idiots with them. They need us to take walks with them and not mind the MPH pace of a toddler on a spring night. They deserve to help us make supper even though it takes twice as long and makes it twice as much work. They deserve to know that they're a priority for us and that we truly love to be with them. "

Talking about death

2011-12-21T20:16:00.000+08:00

How do you talk about death with a 4 year old?

One of the night chit chats with Eliza, we talked about my maternal grandfather who took care of me till i was 10yrs old. I think we were talking about who took care of me when i was young. I don't have a photo of my grandfather with me as then, it was all printed photos not digital! And at some point i started to feel sad and cried (not bawl but tear), cos i thought about how my grandfather loved me so much and that he is no longer around anymore. He died of lung cancer and he was quite old also, about 80+. After that chit chat, Eliza kept asking me to talk about my grandfather...EVERY night she will ask "Where's your ah-gong?" and Ww's one too. so here goes the lengthy explaining about which grandprarent is which. And i dunno how but Ww talked about dying and that one day we will die etc etc. It came to some point that she started crying cos dying means no more mummy & daddy. Oops..had to stop Ww cos i didn't feel she was ready to understand the concept of death...somehow.

Nowadays, it's still ok, i guess she does understand a bit better to the extent that it gets a little too explicit cos she'll comment, "My ah-gong haven't die yet" -_-

Another change

2011-12-20T18:58:00.004+08:00

5 weeks that my FIL has been here. Time flies! My first week has been crazy and then we got used to the changes. Thankfully I managed to pass the driving test! phews! It helps a lot that i can drive.

5 more weeks to Ww returning. I really wonder what will we do in this 5 weeks! It's also time to get back to 'school' for Eliza as I've been slacking on that part. Maybe it's also cos we have been doing the Advent ornaments till Christmas and going out at unscheduled times. The only thing that makes weekend a weekend is that we go to church on Sunday. Else, we can go out anytime, to shopping, to do groceries. Feels a little too free eh?

To some extent, i like the differentiation of the weekday and weekend. Gee...seems like ever since i have kids, i like routines. After all, i watch Emily's routine and think about it all day (ok i'm exaggerating but it's always at the back of my mind). I've gotta make sure she's not overtired, especially since she can't sleep more than 20minutes, and plan our day around it. I know 20 mins is REALLY not enough for her, and unless i hold her to sleep she won't sleep more than that. She did a 1hr in the car seat that day (super wow) and one hour in my arms yesterday (actually the other 40mins in my arms cos she was just too cranky to wake up). I haven't got to the stage of getting her to learn to do a sleep hour, but i should soon, really.

And 5 weeks of a little slacking on the proper habits part..it's more difficult to get Eliza to sit still and finish her meals while my in-laws are here. She'll be popping here and there, my mil will be spoon-feeding her (something which i got her to stop doing cos Eliza can very well feed herself), and she'll be playing toys and eating (which i gotta discourage that cos my in-laws will bring toys so she can entertain herself and eat). Argh.. and other small things which start to nag me. It's the simple things that i'm glad Eliza is learning to do like putting her bowl at the sink after she finishes her food, putting her clothes in the laundry, not leaving her scissors around and always put it back in the box after using it etc. Little things. To keep doing until it becomes a habit.

Gee..when will i be organized enough to start reading the CM principles again? This is the age when i can finally use the many things mentioned in the book, and i have forgotten much of them. I don't want to be so caught up in getting things done in the house or getting Emily to sleep/eat/changed that I neglect this part of Eliza's growth. Habits of attention and obedience, this is difficult because I do find myself very distracted. If i am so, how can i expect the attention from her?

Anyway, i've been settling my problem tooth, (and the rest of the teeth to do deep cleaning) and hopefully after spending a bomb (cos of the many different appointments, which really won't be any different if it did it in SG), this issue will be settled and i will guai guai go for cleaning every 6 months. argh. it's in the genes. cos Ww doesn't ever ever floss and how come he has no problems with his teeth? i have to floss every nook, brush accurately and if i lag in anyway (like i'm lazy to floss or miss a brushing) something will happen to my teeth.

Oh well...a wonderful time to enjoy my mil's food and time for more baking with my mil around though! Yumsss!

2 weeks

2011-12-11T19:53:00.001+08:00

2 weeks with in-laws and without Ww. We have kinda gotten the hang of things. Just that I take a long time to adjust eh? Then i need to get back on spending 'academic' time with Eliza...actually writing and reading.

We have been doing our Advent activities (which last about 5-10minutes only...u know these activities look 'grand' but we actually do them really fast, not that we wanted to do fast but it is done in like 10minutes!) We took these ideas from a ebook i bought at $2.99 on BlackFriday offer from Truth in the Tinsel. It takes the hassle of the preparation which i don't have the brain and time to do. I love it that the ornaments help us (and Eliza) remember the important parts of the birth of Jesus and it has a thinking point, which we don't go into too much depth cos Eliza's not too interested. One of the problems is that after moving here..I didn't bring all my 'rubbish' and craft materials so i've gotta get them from scratch. Although some things can be improvised...really, getting ribbons or gold strings beats having to use thread...and i realize i don't have much strings at home!

On Eliza and dresses
This girl ah...is getting to be more aware of her looks, wanting to wear dresses & skirts EVERYDAY! I wonder if it has got to do with all the girls at sunday school wearing dresses all the time! gee...so we have been getting some new skirts and dresses for her to add on to her current miserable collection. she has outgrown many and we don't usually dress her up in dresses unless it's a sunday or for special occasions. It's also cos in SG, after school it's lunch and nap and probably go out to the playground to play...not the right occasion for dresses! Still hope to get her to wear her shorts too..it needs some sun! :P

On Emily and her Eczema
Yeap..that dreadful eczema is still with Emily since mid-october. Not much i can do, but keep washing her face, keep applying the intense moisturizer, bathe her in bath oil, put the cream (which helps loads and on days when i have to give it a break, her face gets worse again!), turn on the humidifier at night (and not use so much water the room drips water!). If i'm sane enough in the middle of the night i'll try to apply the moisturizer too. The nights are worse cos we sleep, she sleeps and now that she rolls all over, she'll 'scrub' her face on the bed without me knowing so that i can stop her. As long as she doesn't cry, i continue sleeping right?

On what we do usually
Go out shopping! Yeap, my mil likes the grocery shopping and anywhere air-con. The UV here is too strong for her so going out for walks isn't quite something she wants to do. To some extent there isn't quite a routine here cos any day is a weekend feeling. :P Well in a way it's not too good cos things gets a bit haphazard and I have messed up Emily's nap training cos i haven't been consistent.
Else we'll be baking! I made 2 batches of food (peanut butter muffins & pizza muffins) for church event last week, my mil has been making her favourite rasin cake from the cake mix (& modify), and today she made cheesecake (not fluffy as she used to make though but delicious nonetheless. Gonna try a hand at cookies n cream cheesecake and some jelly stuff for saturday's sunday school party.
My fil has been a great help and is kept busy chopping and cutting food (cos he's so fast and good at it), hanging clothes at the clothes hanging area, playing with Eliza, carrying Emily when she cries (cos i'm bathing), driving, vacuuming. We're gonna miss him when he's not around! My mil has been cooking...and i do none! It is definately a relief to take a break from meal planning! And i won't get near the kitchen to cook much till she returns to SG..heheh.

In laws are here!

2011-11-24T19:45:00.001+08:00

It has been a tough week. A week of much adjustments. I had a good week of sleep training Emily. (she did a record breaking 1.5hr nap the time my in laws arrived. Actually she slept through all the commotion...until my fil wanted to see her and kinda woke her up. Grrr. She was obviously upset having someone else greet her from her slumber). She managed to nap at least 30minutes. Not more but it has improved from 20minutes to 30 minutes. So i do get some quiet time to read or do activities with Eliza.

It's also a tough week cos Ww and I have been doing driving practices everyday till today when i took the test. (which i failed). I'm ok with failing it, at least i know what i did not know! I probably need more practice but i do feel a little too overwhelmed and exhausted to do so now. It didn't help that today is also the day my second last molar acted up and was aching at night at the whole morning. We had to make a unscheduled trip to the dentist (which thank God there was a slot at 1pm) to get some antibiotics. The inflammation is easing out now, and i'm still a little exhausted. Actually i'm waiting for Emily to wake up from her sleep for her milk feed. I was expecting her to do so since 9pm but it's 10:50pm and she's still asleep!

It was also overwhelming because as much as we were excited about my in-laws arrival, I realized how much I enjoyed being on our own. Yes, handling two kids isn't easy + cooking + teaching + getting a baby that doesn't sleep well to sleep + washing etc. But we have settled in our nice routines, Ww & I have found our sweet spot at night to do our stuff and chat, we got Eliza to be more independent (she wears her own clothes, can go toilet on her own..it's more challenging now without the potty and the tap that's difficult to turn, she falls asleep on her own for naps and bedtimes...etc). I have also found my ways of being efficient with the cooking and washing, something that is not gonna be the same with my mil around. She does more things to wash which i do find quite a chore like soaking the white clothes in dynamo and scrub, put all the clothes in the laundry bags (if the laundry bag is full, isn't there any space for it to be spinned and washed?), take a long time to chop the veg/meat or cook (i usually finish cooking in the mornings under 45minutes)...etc. Ww & I also know what to expect to do each time when we go out and I love the being in sync with him to do stuff....like we know what to do, how to handle the kids etc.

Gonna super miss all that in the 9 weeks he is away.

Feeling like this is a more difficult separation than the last 2 times, after having to live on our own, without having to depend on our parents for things. (yes it's great that my mil is here to cook and my fil to help out).

God give us strength in these weeks... that Ww can find what he needs to find, get what he needs to get, be safe in the freezing winter where he is going to, that I can find that peace of staying with my in-laws, and be able to survive without my FIL (our driver till i pass my driving test) after Christmas till Ww comes home.

Finding the balance and flow

2011-11-16T19:23:00.001+08:00

It does take time to find that fine balance for each day. I always wonder how SAHMs...with more than one kid, do it. I mean i read a lot of blogs where mums manage their homes with 3, 4, 5, or 6 and more kids! :O *screams* Ok...the kids do grow up and after having so many i guess you would have found that routine and balance to get things..and the food going.

So how am i getting on? I'm still learning..there are days where Eliza and I vegetate..ok not that bad but i let her run wild watching dvds (no more than 3 hours?) while i try to get Emily to sleep and stay asleep. She doesn't watch that long also..cos she'll get inspired by something and run off doing something else while the computer stays paused. cute. There are days when i feel like i have accomplished things like washed the rugs, baked, did some packing, did mini projects with Eliza (argh..which reminds me of what activites i have left to prepare for tomorrow). Despite Emily's short naps and having to carry her when she's short-napped..i still do get things done and Emily does sit in her walker or roll on the playmat on her own.

It's good to know what to expect and of course having a baby throws that 'expectation' off course most of the time but since she's on some 'predictable' schedule i can plan things ahead. It is usually dependent on what time she wakes up in the morning. Why are kids such early risers? If she wakes up at 6am it's still ok..but not when she wakes up at 5am! The best is when she wakes up at 7am but that's still rare.. This is beacuse i have to calculate 2 hours from the last time she wakes to send her off to sleep. So complicated.

Food:
I cook in the morning during breakfast time, most of the time. Emily's in the best of mood and Ww's still home. Most of my chopping/cutting etc is done the night before, with the exception of leafy veg when i have to do that in the morning. I can't help but cook everyday though...there are days when i pull out our frozen stash from the freezer and just heat up but it's not much so i try not to use it except for days when i can't or don't have time to cook. I don't quite like to cook at the time closer to lunch time cos that's when I'm trying to get Emily to nap/continue napping/she just woke from a nap (=cranky). Never a good time to cook then when i can't predict what will happen. Usually dinner will just be heated up and i have my whole day to do whatever i want or plan for without worrying about our meals.
Weekly, there's always a pasta/spaghetti dish, mostly veg or meat with rice dishes, a noodle dish, and weekend picnicable food. Sometimes we just have homemade burgers & fries on the weekends. I don't quite like to repeat the meals but i find some dishes come up quite frequently just because Eliza loves them. ie sweet and sour chicken, cauliflower (+broccoli & carrot) stir-fry, 'satay' chicken in whatever marinate, braised chicken wings, meatball pasta, ham & pineapple fried rice, spinach with ikan bilis...

Learning with Eliza:
Worship -
Every morning, even if we don't get to do any activities, we still start the day with prayer, a bible story from her children's bible and we read a verse. So far she can memorize two verses. Psalm 139:14 & Colossians 3:20 and we are working on 2-3 more. I'll read and she'll repeat after me. We'll continue as much as we can although i would want to move towards memorizing the verses the Charlotte Mason way. Gonna add some singing time to in the midst of this as well.

Writing -
We have been doing a lot of writing..learning to write the alphabets..now moving on beyond just tracing and to writing on her own. 26 alphabets is a lot to learn and we haven't even gone on to chinese words. She can write her name quite well.

Themes -
I'm starting to do more thematic stuff..so we are slowly starting on gardening & leaves and trees and flowers. There's so much resources on the web i wish i can glean through them all but doing it is more useful anyway. Eliza loves doing 'activities' and I wish i have more time to do them with her. I am amazed with mums who homeschool and manage their large household. Gosh how do they do that?

Days of the week -
Just that...we change it everyday at our fridge with the magnets :)

Reading -
As it is we read about 2 books every night and usually the same book, as per Eliza's choosing. In the day, we read sporadically and i try to read at least a Chinese book to her.

Outdoors -
We try to observe the outdoors especially now that it is spring, there are so many flowers around!

Would love to add more photos but with my 101 things to do...see my facebook then. heh.

More to update soon! my inlaws are coming on saturday and we are getting ready the place for their arrival! gotta sort Eliza's toys and her crafts cos it's all over the place!

Emily is 6 months!

2011-11-03T20:40:00.000+08:00

Emily's First foods
It has been about a week since Emily started eating her first food. Bought brown rice, ground it (not very powdery enough though cos every time i start the blender Eliza runs to the far end of the house and i had to keep blending a few batches), and eventually cook it. Not too bad. On the 5th day i introduced sweet potato to her.
Somehow Emily doesn't really know how to swallow yet and everytime the spoon goes in her mouth, her tongue will intefere and push the food out. Still she managed to eat down about a 1-2 teaspoons of brown rice cereal. Most times she'll be grabbing the spoon and chewing on it...so i'm not too sure if it's the spoon or the food..hmm. Wondering how long will it be for her to know how to eat from the spoon. Gonna introduce avocado this weekend! Then apple and butternut squash.

Eliza's sleep
Eliza has been sleeping in her own room since my MIL left and it wasn't the easiest in the first few weeks but it does get better and has been better. The first few weeks had Ww in her room squeezing in her bed with her. We had some moments when i was so grouchy being woken up then i went to the room to scold her. Oh well...it's much much better now and she knows what is expected. She no longer cries when she wakes up in the morning and our little alarm clock will come to our room to cheerily find us to snuggle in or wake us up. "can you get up now..??? wake up!" Of course on days when she doesn't cry in the middle of the night (sometimes it's cos she couldn't turn her lullaby, or there's no water, or she just needs help adjusting her blanket etc), she gets a lollipop. (yes..there's a big pack of it hiding somewhere in the cupboards).
Also she has been getting on well falling asleep on her own after all the bedtime routines. I'll still stay in the room till she's drowsy and tell her i will go out and will check on her later. She'll tell me not to be too noisy when i check on her so that she won't wake up (her room door knob is creaky). It helps a lot that she doesn't fall asleep with us in the room so that there's no expectation of us there when she wakes in the middle of the night.
Wonder if it's back to square one when my in laws come...

Emily's face
Dear oh dear...this little girl's face has been ruined by her sleeping on her tummy. We have stopped putting her on her tummy to sleep cos she'll rub her face silly till her skin becomes raw..urgh! She does that when we carry her and when i Beco her but a lot worse when she's on her tummy. So we have to pur her on her back to sleep again. It wasn't the best for some nights..not any better for naps either. The past two days i'll rock her to sleep and put her down for her short short naps and continue her nap in the Beco. For nights, it's a little unpredictable but i'm seeing a pattern, as in i need to get her to the bedtime routine in 1.5hrs from when she last woke so that she isn't overtired. Just a little and i'm settling her every half to one hour till the dreamfeed.
Her face is also much better now...we put plaster on her right side of her face and i put QV moisturiser as often as i can, the prescribed cream for eczema in the mornings and nights. but as long as she rubs on our clothes or i just put her on her tummy once, and we'll be back to square one easily.

(photos soon)

catching up on updates

2011-10-19T19:38:00.000+08:00

Gosh if only i can have a record of all my facebook statuses..that would be good enough to be a blog. It can get tedious to blog sometimes cos i have so much to write about! i don't write fast enough on the iphone and i am not always at my computer.

Anyway i was looking back at my posts to help me recall what Eliza was like at 5-6months. There are times that i wished i would have written more. Now with my scant blogging of our life here in Canberra, i hope i really can remember!

On Eliza & eating
Now that we have dropped 3 milk bottles (no more 'old' milk!), we have to get her to eat her morning breakfast of weetbits/bread w ham & cheese & spread and/or yoghurt/ pancake. Usually if she has her 180ml milk..then the next food is some mid-morning tea. As you know how difficult it is to get her to sit down and eat, we insist she doesn't go play or watch vcds or eat sweets till she has had her proper breakfast (and that's also after brushing teeth).
Oh and i discovered the magic of eating off a 'satay' stick. For the first time, she ate salmon, just like that...but only because it was grilled on a satay stick!
I do try to cook food that she will eat....so as much as i love some food like capsicans, i'll make sure i leave it out for her. But greens like spinach / bok choy will be cut up and mixed up with the rice..else it's her favourite seaweed lo.
The meals take on an average of 45-60 minutes to finish..really that long but oh well...my mum said that i also took really long to finish my meals anyway...and it's in front of the tv.

On Eliza & behavioural management
Oh and we have started the happy face/sad face system which helps her to follow the 'rules'.
- No 'buts' or 'hmmm!' when called to brush teeth / bathe
- Sitting down at the dining table to have meals
- Tidying up when told
- Helping out when she can (ie. play with Emily, put her clothes to the laundry)
- Obeying mummy/daddy's instructions and not deliberately doing what she should not do. (ie. shout or make noise when Emily's sleeping..)
- going to sleep on her own (so no mummy/daddy in the room when she falls asleep)
- no crying at night and insisting that we sit beside her (usually Ww's the one who goes to her room and ends up squeezing in her bed too...if i do, i will scold her if it is not a valid reason for calling us..yes, i'm stricter..and to some extent she is afraid i will scold her)

On Emily & sleep
After we came back from our weekend at Batemans bay, we kinda had to start sleep training all over again. After all, we Beco-ed her whenever she needed to sleep. But she slept relatively well in the nights while we were there..maybe it's because i was sleeping beside her or just that she slept well. (ok she did her usual early 5-6am wake ups like her usual self but that was bearable somehow).
Anyway i just could not tahan having her scream her lungs out even with us patting her to sleep (i really don't know why she must scream so much) and i didn't want to be carrying her to sleep. I did sense that she wanted to suckle to sleep but she would wake the moment i shift her if she nursed to sleep, and the pacifier can't stay in her mouth, and she doesn't quite suck her fingers/hand either. I really didn't know what I could give her to soothe her...or is her screaming part of her way of settling? geee...how unsettling! Sometimes she gets so worked up, i really don't know how to calm her. It's like she wants to sleep but can't sleep.
Somehow we were still taking like 3 hours to get her to sleep for the night (forget the daytime..that's another nap monster). On 2 or 3 nights i faintly remember her waking almost every 1.5hrs and/or took quite a while to go back to sleep, even after i fed her.

I tried swaddling her and one of the nights she was struggling and managed to turn to her tummy while in her swaddle (Ww was helping to settle her then). Somehow he started getting her to sleep on her tummy and it was much better! She does sleep longer on her tummy! It's not that i have not tried that before but she has always struggled so much to sleep that when i put her on her tummy previously, she seemed like she hated it. Thankfully she is sleeping much better like that! So far the past 3 nights she managed to sleep till her dream feed at about 11ish-pm. I can do bedtime with Eliza, talk to Ww and prepare food for the next day. Wow...what a super relief.

Next to tackle is the daytime naps and the nighttime sleep (after i sleep)!
Daytime naps are really tough..i have resorted to Beco-ing her so that she can really have a good nap..and i'm not sure if it's cos she manages to sleep about 1-1.5hrs on the Beco in the mid-day that she's sleeping much better at night. I have also been trying to put her down for naps in her cot, and on her tummy. Finally today she managed a 20min morning and afternoon nap...and with about 10-15min struggle though. After that i usually have to get her up and then Beco her to get her to finish the nap else she'll be just too tired. The late afternoon nap is the hardest, even in the car where she'll fuss and fuss and find it difficult to sleep. I also find that getting her to wind down 1hr 45mins after she woke up, instead of 2hrs, is better to help her sleep without becoming overtired. phews!
Even Eliza knows Emily's pattern...thankfully Eliza, when I'm getting Emily to nap in the room, i'll get Eliza to play on her own or watch a video.

On being with Eliza and Emily
So with cooking to be done and Emily's sleep to be settled, baths to be done...the rest of the time is up to our imagination. Eliza loves to play...whatever inspires her. Recently, it has been the confetti which we find it quite a mess and it is difficult to pick up. While she plays on her own, she also loves our company and I also love to be able to play with her, just that i can't do so like i used to when it was her alone. Then, i didn't even have to do any cooking or housework so i would spend a lot of my daytime freetime with her. It is so different now, even trying to squeeze 'school' time must be well planned (when Emily's just fed and happily playing on her own).
Then i also want to spend time singing and reading to Emily, even though i do carry her a lot and spend a lot of time trying to get her to sleep! but that is sooo different from playing with her. I love Emily's burst of smile and laughter when I play with her. Our little 'monster'!
So it is with the 2nd one, getting a lot less attention than the first..then again with Eliza went back to work when she was 2months old (for 3 days a week) so I did see her less somehow. But when i was home i was quite with her as much as i can. Plus she was lucky to have the attention of her grandparents. Emily's lucky to have the attention of mummy then...well at least when i'm not doing stuff with Eliza or cooking or housework or whatever.
Eliza's not the sister who is dying to have a younger sibling to play with and Emily's so young, it takes a lot of explaining how babies are so that she understands that what Emily does (the crying!), and the kicking and flinging of arms which may accidently touch her is not deliberate. Cos Eliza can be oh-so-sensitive so we need to be patient and to explain to her. It helps her a lot when we explain to her and it does take her time to get used to or understand it. Like the christmas giftbox our church is preparing, she was so upset that it isn't for her but after some explaining to her, she is eager to put stuff inside to send to the less fortunate kids.

Off cooking today cos food for tomorrow is more or less prepared. I really should plan for the week instead of almost day by day...this really does take getting used to! And estimating how much we can eat, sometimes i don't think i cook enough cos I underestimate Ww's appetite!

Nice to have my nights back...:)

More to add on soon, i wish i can write more but it's 1030pm and I'm a little sleepy. Just gave Emily's dreamfeed...which is a little early, i felt. Hopefully she doesn't wake up too soon and sleep well for the night and not wake at 5+am!

When will you sleep, emily?

2011-10-01T16:33:00.001+08:00

I'm so torn and yet frustrated. It has been 4 days trying to let Emily cry to sleep for nights. It was still ok the first two days. Actually it was great on day 2. But not good after that. Except for day2. It still took Emily 2-3hrs to go to sleep, ending with a feed and not cos she managed to settle herself to sleep! What IS wrong??
(that was written 2-3days ago. So far the last two nights Emily has slept relatively well. That is she had fallen asleep at 7ish and lasted till 12ish am! Actually one of the nights she slept till 4ish am from 8ish pm)

I wished someone can really help me here without having to pay like $100+ to get an expert. I wish someone can tell me exactly what to do when she had managed to settle and yet wake up 5-15mins later screaming again. we did the cry 12mins thing for like 4 times! Cos everytime I went in to settle her and it's not pick her up, she will eventually sleep after like 5-10mins and then wake up again 5-15mins later! That is as long as her sleep cycle is. That is how long she sleeps
each time I put her down for a nap.

On Wednesday I started to tackle the naps. she slept 30mins for morning nap (miracle!) but i wondered if it's cos I put her down in my bed. Mid day nap was 15mins only. I tried putting her in my bed but no success this time. Afternoon at 345pm she managed to sleep another 15mins soothing herself with sucking the pillow but woke up crying and that pillow sucking no longer soothed her. In the end in my desperation to get her to sleep more and longer so she can make it to bedtime I rocked her to sleep and carried her till I had together dinner ready at 445pm.

Why? I asked God why? Why won't she sleep? Last time Eliza will not fight sleep as badly as Emily. Aka scream when she wants to sleep. As much as I enjoy carrying Emily, I can't carry her ALL the time to get her to sleep and when she is sleeping! I guess it is also in her temperament that she is like that.

From day 1 her crying when she resist bathing will send Eliza running out of the room as far as she can. My mil who bathed the crying Emily said that her ears were ringing after that. I don't remember Eliza crying to be that loud! Haha.

So even as we endure this sleep training, I am also learning to be consistent. There are many times when I really do not know what to do next. Do I pick her up or settle her on her cot or let her continue her nap or what? I really want to pick her up many a times but I also soon came to realize that I am giving her mixed signals. I read somewhere that we are teaching them to form good sleep habits. I can't say Eliza was a fantastic sleeper but she was, in comparison, an easier one. But then she also had her pacifier to soothe her to sleep which doesn't work for Emily. And Eliza had the itchy problem which wakes her and me up frequently at night. Sooo every baby is really different.

The naps are hard to tackle but we'll get there. The first few days is really tough cos I couldn't do much when I left her to protest. I would be outside with Eliza and there's once Eliza probably noticing my *i dunno what to do now* state, hugged me and said "it's ok mummy. It's ok" *melts*!

We continue to pray that Emily will learn to settle on her own to sleep and sleep longer. Ie not just 20mins only. I know it is not enough for her cos she gets tired really fast if I get her up.

To better sleep days ahead!

Sleep and emily

2011-09-24T18:37:00.001+08:00

Today we start sleep training.

Because I can't be carrying Emily to sleep OR rocking her at her rocker and standby there till she finally finishes her sleep (cos she sleeps like 10mins and will scream awake..of course there are times she does a cool 15-20min stretch, IF we don't make sudden noises)

Because she has been taking 3hrs to settle for the night! Which means I start her feed at 615pm and by the time she really falls asleep without waking up after 10mins is abt 9plus pm. It wasn't so bad before she had a cold and I also suspected she was teething. So did that extra carrying and TLC make her dependent on me to carry her to sleep...and continue carrying her as she slept. It is as if everytime I put her down on her cot to sleep it is like I placed her on an ice block and she will struggle to get out.

Because she hasn't been sleeping well or long enough in the day unless we Beco her when we are out. I had probably 5-6 times she EVER napped for 1hr on the rocker. But never in the cot.

Because I feel like a slave to her sleep.

Because I completely disappear in the evenings to settle Emily and don't get to do much evening stuff with Ww and Eliza, much less bedtimes for Eliza. It has happened a few times, I read a book to Eliza and Emily starts crying again..oh I should say scream? Even Eliza will know to tell Ww to go settle Emily while I finish reading the book to her.

Hello Because who takes 3hrs to get to sleep?!?!?! I don't respond to her immediately but then shouldn't she be sleeping when she has fallen asleep and not wake up at least like 30-40mins later NOT 10mins ltr??

Other than her lack of sleep and lack of being able to sleep, she has been quite perfect. Happy and chirpy.

and if this doesn't work out I'm almost gonna pay someone to help me.

I don't know any no cry solution cos the eventually still lead me to carrying her. We tried. Carry and pat her till she sleeps and hopefully a deep one and slowly put her down for fear of waking her up and she still does anyway. :( until at some point I do a final nursing and final rocking and putting her down and then she'll be sleeping relatively well for the rest of the night.

I'm followig Tizzie Hall method and praying this works out: that Emily will learn to self settle.

Eating or not

2011-09-13T20:23:00.000+08:00

Loves it that u can make many food from simple ingredients in the pantry...if only Eliza eats most it and eats it fast.

I've been hooked on reading recipes and choosing those which I can cook, doesn't require too fancy equipments like blending (but I'm trying that out soon) and steaming (cos I don't have the equipment other than a microwave steamer). And also food that doesn't require fancy ingredients so I don't have to buy new things with my grocery budget starting to burst and it is only the mid month. I have been mystified by how my muffins never turn out right with this oven...

So far some 'adventurous' food I've tried is making bread and pizza base.

These which require rising has been tricky with Emily when she's awake and when I'm alone with the girls. I tried the bread when my mil is around and that worked quite well. The first time I tried the pizza base it was...so so. Last night I tried it again and it gave a nice soft base wooo! I tried avocado cream cheese dip which was tad too sour (I followed the recipe!) tried salsa, and sushi which eliza will eat with gusto. The fastest she can eat which is out of the normal.

I hate getting her to eat. We tried with the tv but at some point she would be so caught up watching that she would take 1.5hrs to eat!! I would find myself nagging at her or feeding her which i do not want. Ww's much more patient but on one night he also got quite upset at how long she took to eat....and when she did not finish, she said she's hungry and asked for snacks instead. So we switched back to eating at the table. She was eating at the table but that's another long story.

So the rule now is to eat at the table and no getting down from the chair till she finishes. And i also help by letting her choose a bit...as in letting her just have rice if all she wants is rice and not the rest of the veg/meat. Yesterday was rice and seaweed..and that WAS fast.

So far it has been good and i'm trying out more breakfast varities for her soon since she no longer has her powdered milk to drink. So her calcium intake will be through yoghurt, her chocolate milk and cheese. When she had her 'old' milk to drink, she'll be full enough such that she will juz graze the rest of the morning till lunch. Now she doesn't i've got to give her more for breakfast and a good healthy one too. It doesn't help that she's sloooow (and distracted) at eating other than sweets/chocolates/salty stuff.

We have always sparingly given her these stuff until....she started school and those food in party bags are all the junk food! potato chips, cheezels, sweets, chocolates, twisties...we'll always hide the forbidden 'foods' when we get home and give her some 'approved' ones. Of course we do let her indulge and that's as much. somehow she'll forget the rest that we have hidden.

So hello cooking! I have discovered the joys of experimenting...and choosing foods that Eliza will eat. Plus cooking at the right time! (like at night) or in the morning so i don't have to cook the rest of the day, or freeze foods.

2 months on

2011-09-01T21:45:00.000+08:00

Today

Meals:
Made sweet and sour chicken and stir-fry veg (broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn & carrots). Eliza declared she liked all (except the broccoli) so she ate really fast.
Still trying to figure out the best time to cook...some stuff are good to cook at night but i prefer cooking before we eat. And with Emily's naps to consider oh well we'll go with the flow... Today i tried frying the chicken before Ww left...phews..emily had to scream for milk. (didn't she drink like 1.5 hrs ago?)
We have found a nice balance to having Eliza eat cooperatively. She watches her dvds and eats. Not the most perfect scenerio but oh it works for us. She is happy watching and eating..no complaints, no rolling around on the chair, no us nagging her...though she can't sit on her chair either...but that's her...my mil says her butt has needles..can't sit still.

Sleep:
Eliza is sleeping on her own in her room. It is better since my mil left cos she's not scratching as much. weird how my mil's presence seemed to encourage the scratching. But we have her crying when she wakes up in the middle of the night but as long as she doesn't call us we don't quite go to her. After 2 weeks she's doing better, though not perfect. She also falls asleep faster..partially cos she doesn't nap if we don't go out or that...hmm i dunno.
Emily seem to improve on her length of her naps...else her 15min nap was driving me nuts with her having to sleep in 2hrs b4 she gets overtired and give me more problems. We also have whispering time (with Eliza when Emily naps) so that Emily doesn't startle awake. Eliza has been really cooperative. sweet jiejie. These few nights though, Emily hasn't been able to settle well to sleep...or more like taking longer to settle to sleep. I'm wondering if it is cos i was stretching her bedtime later or she's teething(?) or what??? I have been getting her to sleep frm 6pm, with a feed (a looong one cos that's the time she's the least distracted) and then 1/2hr to settle. On good nights she sleeps till 3+am and then 6+am...on some nights she'll wake at 1+am which means she'll wake again 3hrs later and not sleep(!!)..like last night. yawnsz. Oddly she hasn't been up for her 'dream feed' and if she isn't, i don't quite want to wake her though...so even though i warm her milk in a bottle before i go to sleep...she hasn't been drinking it. I'm suspecting that she's not enjoying drinking from the bottle. :S just like how she doesn't take to the pacifier.

Others:
I have spots in the house to pack and sort...still not done...wardrobe in a mess generally (my version of mess = not sorted out yet)

I love grocery shopping :P

I love how the cherry blossoms are everywhere

Weekends are for going out too...with Ww, exploring the lake side places, some markets, etc. Sat a kids train ride last week.

Went to a family cell group and enjoyed the company (me mostly with Emily though, cos she had to nap) and the food :) Our church has mainly chinese people from all over, Sg, Msia, PRC, TW...We wanted to go there cos when my inlaws are here they can attend the church too and go to the chinese service (cos the one we go to is an English-speaking service). Enjoy the sermons there though. :)

Eliza:
Eliza has been crazily cutting paper and creating interesting stuff from it...like coins to buy things, made a dress, diapers for her Elmos & her...all from paper. She also creates her super interesting Lego cities and whatever...like a movie theatre. That's her 'work'.

We have started on some number writing without the guides.
We have started on learning sounds of S, T, A, I, N, P. I think she's still getting the hang of the alphabets coming together to make a word.
We have been reading some chinese books, just to enjoy them.
We have been singing MORE songs & nursery rhymes

Emily:
Has been rolly polly. :P
I hardly see her skin cos she's so wrapped. Recently I found super dry skin around her arms :( so gotta moisturize 3-4times a day and she has been much better.
She's the one who bathes the least often...cos she cries when i lower her to the bathtub, and cos she hardly really gets that dirty anyway. But i do wipe her down everyday in the evening or late afternoon.
Love her burst of smiles and mini dance when she opens her eyes and see me in the morning.
Love to hear her ee ee ehh ehh at me in a conversation only she knows.
Love to watch her watch Eliza play and her inquisitive eyes as she looks at things.

Sydney weekend

2011-08-22T17:23:00.001+08:00

This is a backdated post.. I have much to write just haven't got down to it

We are in Sydney! Like a little holiday for us even though we are sending my mil back to Singapore. Gonna miss her dearly, for her company, her food and her help with our girls. For once we'll feel what ut is like to be on our own. The real thing! Scary but also a great learning experience. The good is also that we can have lesser influences on how we bring up our kids and the habits that come along. Things like getting Eliza to do her toilet business on her own, something my mil will do for her and something I'll 'dictate' her to do and praise her for doing it all on her own after that. It's slower but a important step to independence. Actually she was quite on auto run back in SG at my Mum's place to the extent that I didn't even know she went to pee. Here, there's no potty and so a toilet cover, a stool she needs to bring in, 3 layers of pants to pull down, a tap that's not easy to turn on when she needs to wash her hands...

Anyway, coming to Sydney made me feel like the city is so crowded and busy, and that I liked the space, peace and quiet in Canberra. Although temperatures here are 10deg more at night which is soooo comfortable. Finally I can see my skin! And bathing is enjoyable. Eliza played water with her toys in the huge corner bathtub which is loads of fun for her.

Enjoying the delicious Chinese kinds of breads and food here. Mmmm. We ate so much during lunch we almost skipped dinner.

Anyway our hotel is wonderfully spacious ad Eliza absolutely loved it though she's sleeping with my mil tonight. We turned in early...like at 7pm cos Emily was tired already and Ww and I had time to chat for abt almost 1.5hrs..in the toilet mostly, geee cos our snacking was getting a little too noisy for sleeping emily...sigh this girl needs ear plugs! Ww cough quietly and she woke up crying (time like happened twice back home at night). No wonder she can't sleep in the day?

Anyway we'll enjoy the warm weather while we can.

Meanwhile I'm gonna sleep and shift Ww so that he stops snoring!!

Monday record

2011-08-08T19:00:00.001+08:00

Weather: rainy so it was cold. Colder weather this week after fantastic warm weather last week.

Morning: woke at 730am cos Emily was up at 520am for milk n took a while to sleep after that. I woke up to find myself still carryig her upright as her head on my shoulder. And Ww still asleep!
Did some tracing and cutting activities with Eliza and read a story with her while Emily took her short 15 min nap in the rocker.

Lunch: oyster sauce bok choy, abc soup frm last week (it was frozen), butter chicken frm last week.
Eliza was watching Playschool DVD on e computer borrowed from the library

Afternoon: me trying to get Emily to sleep. The schedule is all haywire when I let her oversleep. Tried to get Emily to sleep on her cot, which after the fifth attempt she finally slept a good half hour. Else I'm back in the room attending to her cries in 2mins from the time I left the room with her asleep.

Eliza was creating all sorts of stuff with her Lego and was later watching Sesame street before going to bathe.

Evening:
Ww went to do a pick up of toys from Theodore via freecycle which was sort of a let down. But we had a few toy animals, balls, an empty doll house, some books.
Emily was at her usual feeding earlier but kinda took till now, 845pm to zz...from 615! Grr. Actually she slept by 7pm but kept waking up to burp or complain. Sometimes I dunno if she is still hungry but is so tired she falls asleep drinking. Gee..gonna fall into the trap of nursing her to sleep. So I'm expecting her next feed at around late 11pm before I sleep. Bottle feeding her at that time is the only way she'll sleep a longer stretch, so much for not expressing milk. I still do twice a day (in the morning to 'drain' the excess and at night b4 I sleep)

But love the quiet evenings, especially when Eliza sleeps early. My mil will be playing angry bird (it's a daily entertainment especially when we don't have tv). It's also the time Ww and I get to talk, do our stuff, do the misc household stuff etc.

What to do

2011-07-19T17:38:00.001+08:00

Yes! What to do on the days that Ww goes to school to work? His timing is flexible but generally a 8am-530pm schedule, unless he has work. He car pools with his friend who stays in Queanbeyan so I also gotta try to sync our going out in the afternoon time with him and the weather!
We are hoping to go out tmr but the weather threatens to rain. So hopefully the sun comes out and theres's no wind cos we're gonna walk 20+mins to the city centre...and depend on Ww to drive us home. :)

So on days like today with no outdoor activity, we did some craft making a rabbit out of the toilet roll, read one book, did some drawing with Eliza improvising on her cutting to make a boat for her rabbits. Else she is playing with the iPod touch and I'm downloading some new games for her ("spell some games for me" she'd say). My mil cooked today and I was mostly carrying Emily while playing with Eliza. We try to put her down once in a while but she usually wakes up in seconds. At one point she slept 6 mins on the sofa. Which was good cos it gave me some ball playing with Eliza. I slinged Emily in The aftnn so that she can sleep and my hands will be free to do some things where we ended up looking at photos n videos.

I have more to get used to. The days when we are stuck at home and ensuring that there's food for lunch and dinner. Even if it is frozen food to heat up.

Our 10 boxes of things aren't here yet and we'll be quite busy when it is. And I will also remember what i have packed!

Looking forward to the weekend markets to go to There's a Baby and kids market in Aug! Yay! Cheap shopping for me.
Looking forward for sprig and summer to be here. Spring will bring on the beautiful Floriade which have seen in photos and hopefully the weather is better so we can go to the nature parks.
Looking forward for emily to grow up so that hopefully it will be easier(?). There are times when I do feel that comig over with just one kid is easier but we had wanted Emily so much and we love her despite the usual baby issues (sleep issues for me!). The age old problem of dividing my time between the two of them. Sometimes Eliza will ask me to put Emily down so I can play with her. And I have felt that I have grown less patient with Eliza and less appreciative of her because of the stress of handling both of them when Ww was not around for a month. Trying to scold her less and be more understanding of her.

Getting the hang of things

2011-07-17T19:59:00.000+08:00

We have more or less settled these two weeks here. There is the cold to get used to

1. Layer inconvenience.
We r in at least in 2 layers at home, 3 when we are out. Emily's in at least one fleece layer so that I'm sure she's warm. So many layers mean that sometimes I take longer to dress n undress Emily. Prefer all in ones to two pieces but changing diapers is such a chore! In sunny Singapore she doesn't even wear a pants over the diaper. Here there's 2 layers to uncover the diaper lurking inside..and if she does a poop that overflows (esp if i don't snap the disposable diaper tight enough) it leaks at the back and gets all 2-3 layers pooped. ewwie!

2. Cold water
Having to wash hands in cold water (even if it's hot) and then touch Emily! oops! she'll surely scream :O Water is generally icy. But the upside is that there's hot water which according to my mil is great for soaking clothes and washing the dishes. Water is free for this unit so somehow we don't quite care much about saving water and just let the water run...especially when we bathe. I don't want to always adjust the water temperature!
This also means that the water left out cools really fast so if we want any warm water, it's from the thermal flask or to boil more or just get from the tap! Now i understand why they have those kids thermal flask...it just doesn't make sense having those in SG.

3. Dry dry air
I have dry skin which is quite ok in humid singapore. Even so, my left hand fingers and my feet are really dry and cracked. Fingers are dry due to the detergent and feet/heel are dry if i wear slippers and open heels. It is worse here...so my fingers are so dry they..well...split. I mean my heel hard dead skin does that sometimes but here...they just have fun splitting. The feet part is managable cos i slap lots of moisturizer and plasters. The fingers...argh...it splits at those tips where i use most...so i need to cover it up with plasters else it's difficult to snap those pesky buttons on Emily's rompers.

4. Going out and about
There's not much of nature i enjoy when it's so cold...there are some nice good days when it's not windy but still i'll rather be at home. Then again...with the decision not to get a tv..we're usually left with not much to do :P Our 10 boxes are not here yet so Eliza's generally busy with her playdoh, her dancing and listening to music, playing the ipodtouch cooking, eating and recently playing a ball and box with Ww.
And if Ww's not around we have tried walking to the centre for some grocery shopping. Else the rest of the area is kinda quite far without a car. I will someday learn to drive.....

5. Cooking
I am a recreational cook...so which means i don't cook much..at least not on a daily basis. Over here eating out is really expensive...and not guaranteed to taste good. There's so much good food back in sg that is sooo cheap u can live on not cooking at home. Also many of our fav asian ingredients are more expensive here, wanted to cook yongtauhu but...ahh...no fishballs..none of the ingredients and the ikan bilis is so ex!!
I'm trying to do freeze cooking so that on days when i'm with the kids, i don't have to cook but just heat up the food. I've tried meatball spaghetti, mashed potato, pizza, beef burger (still frozen in the fridge) and cheese balls. But then none of the usual chinese stir fries that is so delicious. Most of the recipes for freeze food is very meat based. Plus fish is so expensive here! and very little varieties...no wonder they sell a lot of fish oil supplements. Gonna miss my steamed pomfret. else baking fish is really easy and nice.
Super expensive stuffs are tomatoes...6 tomatoes for $6! *cough cough* and ginger is $13 per kg. Bananas are like about $17 per kg. sigh...
Still trying to figure out and try out more freeze foods while my mil's still here so i can experiment.

6. Early to sleep
Because the sun sets about 5pm..and cos it's winter...somehow we all retire to sleep very early...eliza at her usual bedtime if she naps and earlier if she doesn't which is about the same. But for Ww and me...i'll go to zz at 10pm (also cos my mil sleeps with Eliza for now). Emily has an early bedtime too at about 7-8pm (now i understand those UK or US books talking about baby routines and bedtimes at 7pm...which is not that easy in SG cos of how awake the city is and how much activities there are after 7pm)
Ww has not been feeling well these few days and has also been retiring early for the nights. wow.

7. God
God is good...He has led us to find a church that we feel comfortable in and where my mil can go to the chinese service while we go to the english service. The children's sunday school has been quite good for Eliza even though she had said she didn't want to go, she still did and i believe enjoyed it plus her teacher Ruth was really great and encouraging. Have been reminded in today's sermon from James 3 & 4 on seeking wisdom from God. Especially when i have felt my expectations of Emily to not sleep in my arms really a stressful one...and when i have sought for help from God I may not have let him step in to take over. Still the Holy Spirit is working to help me let go and let me understand Emily better, to take it easy a little more and yet try to cultivate a ok sleep habit and routines. Our routines are a little off on some days when she wakes at 7am or 8am or 9am...but she's generally on a 3hr routine...can sleep 15mins without me carrying her and then wakes up for another round of trying to sleep (except when we are out). So I'm learning to let God take over...to listen out to Him, to read His word more regularly and to pray.

It's not easy starting out here like that....I'm still adapting and Eliza's enjoying it. :P I still miss many things in singapore but we'll see we'll see...i'm looking forward to spring. ;)

Touch down

2011-07-05T12:03:00.001+08:00

It's just end of day 2. I'm exhausted by the many things to be done and somehow not doing much cos I'm carrying Emily all the time. Thankfully these's Weiwen and my mil to do all the other things.

Ww has done a great job in getting the house ready in like 2-3 days. So much to do. The furnitures, matresses, the fridge, washer, kitchen stuff, microwave, dining table, sofa...the list is never-ending. He only got the keys on Tuesday n we arrived on Friday early morning. He also had to drive 3hrs to Sydney to pick us up at the airport at 5am and drive that 3hrs back.

Really thank God for His grace as He showers His blessings by providing a house before we arrived. Even though it is so close to our arrival date. And thank God Ww's car is big enough to squeeze in all our luggage, with one of the luggage behind the front passenger seat. And Eliza sitting behind. Eliza slept most of the journey in the car and so did Emily, thankfully.

The airplane flight wasn't that fun with Emily refusing to sleep without me walking her up and down the aisle. Eliza fell asleep after her milk. And really I wouldn't have been able to manage without my mil's help, mainly because Emily demanded so much of our attention. Emily eventually did sleep and she was so knocked out I couldn't wake her up to nurse as the plane descended. She continued to sleep so soundly when we cleared customs n picked up luggage.

Anyway, I'm still adjusting. And falling sick, I'm not sure due to the lack of sleep, tiredness from carrying Emily all the time (including slinging her when we go out), the cold and dryness, the donut I ate...having a sore throat now thar hurts everytime i swallow.

More updates when I can!

Counting down

2011-06-21T00:39:00.001+08:00

9 more days...that's the amount of time left till we leave. As much as we have been planning and preparing for this day, the reality is setting in. The reality that our new life starts then.

I have been spending the first week that Ww has been away to adjust to him not being around. And then the second and third week packing the boxes for freight. And this last week to pack the check in luggages. Hopefully the last week of 4 days will be to rest and tie up loose ends.

This packing thing is really difficult somehow. Cos there's so many things to bring and it's all sorts of things. From our fav books to clothes to household items to toys and stuff. Then I had to consider whether these things are to be freighted or packed in our luggages.

Today I started the luggage packing. Vacuum packed 2 bags of clothes which already weighs 7.7kg. There's still more. And as I pack, I discover new items to be packed in!! How? We have one large bag and the others seem just too small to stuff 23kg worth of items in.

Actually the most challenging part of packing is to find the time to do so. It's different when u have all the time in the world to do it and when u have 2 kids to demand your attention or when u don't know whether the littlest one is crying her head off cos she's hungry or sleepy. I can't quite do it well unless it's at night when they have slept or my mil brings Eliza to her place and Emily sleeps well in the evening; or when my mil is around.; or when Emily sleeps well in the morning.

Pray I can finish all these in time and in sanity without veering towards exhaustion.

Frustration

2011-06-14T00:25:00.001+08:00

Has my patience waned thin or is it just that I'm stressed or that Emily is more difficult to handle than Eliza. There are nights like tonight when I struggle to get her to sleep but either I'm just too impatient or too tired, she just wouldn't let me put her down. I get so exhausted that i would just leave her to cry. Thankfully Eliza is with my in-laws. though if eliza's around, I might have carried Emily more so that she doesn't cry and disturb Eliza.

Is it because she didn't sleep well today and it has rolled over to her night sleep? Yesterday she slept much that I was worried she wouldn't sleep at night but she did, at 1030pm. What a relief to have the kids sleep early.

Sometimes I wonder why am I so busy. There's bottles to wash and sterilize. Even my basic hygiene like brushing teeth will have to be done while my mum carries her. I have my never-ending packing. The place to sort out as in de-clutter that mess that Eliza made. Etc.

Or is it because I carried her too much when she was younger? I really dunno.

Week 6

2011-06-08T00:19:00.001+08:00

Emily is 6 weeks old! What an eventful 6 weeks! And 22 days to leaving Singapore.

On Emily
She sleeps in our arms. Loves it. And when we put her down it's like she got an alarm that wakes her up and we gotta carry her again. Else...she cries so loud our ear hurts. I didn't remember Eliza to cry THAT loud!
The past few days has been slightly better in that she doesn't cry so much when I bathe her. At least I try to find a good time to do so! She smiles a lot more when we play with her. Nevertheless, these times are short, before she is sleepy and gets cranky.
Most of the times she doesn't leave our arms and I am super duper out of the world glad when she sleeps in her bed so I can quickly do the chores or some serious packing! Else, I'm doing what I can to read to Eliza, talk to Eliza, even have lunch with Eliza, eat my bfast, drink something with her in my arms. If I had nothing much to do I wouldn't have minded but there's lots to do and I hope 22 days is sufficient for packing!
That said, she sleeps well at night, maybe it's my smell or she knows tt when I bring her to our room it's bedtime? Plus i latch her then and she's right beside me.
God bless this lil girl. We're slowly discovering what she is like!

On Eliza
She has been so sweet although there are times when she wanted me to put Emily down cos she wanted to play cars with me. Or at one point she did say she didn't want Emily. That's rare cos most of the time she'll give Emily things. And today she said daddy will scold ah-ma cos ah-ma said should throw Emily cos she's naughty. (u know how the older generation like to say tt they sell u to the garang guni man etc?)

Eliza has also improved in her self-feeding. Hugz!

God grant me the strength to get through all these. To love both my girls in a god honouring way. To pack our stuff wisely. To be patient with my newborn who needs us to hold her a lot despite us needing to get much done and spend time with her sister. God grant me rest when I sleep and enough milk for Emily.

2 kids

2011-06-06T00:03:00.001+08:00

It's tough handling two. When I think of it I wonder if I'll ever have another one. Amazed at how those get by with many kids and little help. I'm thankful that I gave both my mum and mil to help especially while Ww is away. It is not so much the elder kid that is difficult but the younger one needing a lot of attention and carrying hat's difficult. Add the unpredictability of an infant with regards to their eating and sleeping.

One as difficult as it is then is so much easier than two. I love them both but I also feel the strain of not giving them the full attention I can with one. Add the demands of the chores that needs to be done and for us, packing!

I'm really really thankful that Eliza can play on her own quite well but there are time when she wants my attention and my physical person to play with her which I can't always do so. She is doing well with changing her clothes and eating. But I'll still need to bathe her and food needs to be prepared. So if the time is just not right when emily refuses to be put down, it's really trying.

God grant me extra portion of patience and energy and grace to get through this well. I hate to lose my temper with Eliza during bedtime. But it happens. I try my best to appreciate her for the accommodations she makes for Emily and praise her for some of the things she does and says well.

I haven't ventured into the cooking part yet and that'll pose a great challenge. The challenging part is when and how to cook? I still remember how it wasn't easy to cook when Eliza was a few mths old either.

Blocked duct

2011-06-01T00:03:00.001+08:00

This never happened to me the first time round. Actually yesterday I breastfed Emily at 9pm+ and bottle fed at 10+pm to settle her to sleep as she was up all evening. (overtiredness surely). So after drinking so much she was nice and full and slept all the way till 4am. That is almost 7 hours that I haven't 'released' milk. That made my left breast have a blocked duct that hurt badly and massaging it in hope to unblock it didn't help. So it hurt the whole day. It doesn't help that I felt achey and tired which I thought was a lack of sleep. Actually after taking a panadol just now (that's like after a whole day) did I feel a LOT better. I also found that I was having a 38.0deg fever. Doesn't help that I was having a bad throbbing headache that made me grouchy to Eliza during bedtime.

I'm much better now though I don't think the milk duct has unblocked completely yet.

Managed to wake sleepy Emily (cos she was overtired almost half the day) for milk and her help to clear the block. Fed her the second top up feed (as per gina ford routine) in the dark room, swaddled her tight tight and let her drift off to sleep. Thank God she did! Phew!

Gotta set alarm for 3.30 lest emily oversleeps (which isn't all a bad thing actually)

Nights!

In between

2011-05-26T20:23:00.000+08:00

I am coming to the end of my confinement.

That means Ww is leaving for Canberra soon. He has packed 2 half boxes of books and that's all he is going to ship over..the rest of the boxes are for me to pack. And i can't do that until at least 2 weeks before we fly and also the confirmation of our visas. The thought of packing is messy in my head: what to bring, what not to bring, what to bring later....argh. I want to pack now yet i can't do so.

This also means that I'm starting to learn to handle baby & Eliza on my own...without Ww's help. I mean one kid to one adult, that's easy. But i have yet to try out 1 baby & 1 kid to 1 adult. I just needed that courage to do so. And the push is when Ww is really not around to help me, especially in the nights. Eliza has been relatively helpful so far and one of the concerns is really the nights. We'll find out our rhythm somehow. Just like how i relished sleeping with Eliza, when Emily came along i anticipated that i'll be in the baby room most of the time at night, not wanting to disturb her & Ww while they slept. So we dealt with that, that Eliza doesn't come crying (or more like wailing) for me in the middle of the night when she finds that i'm not there. After 2-3 days and the reward of 2 stars & 2 gummies, she did it! And the reward thing only lasted 2 days also. After that she didn't need it anymore. So...i'll figure handling baby at night together with Eliza in the room OR have her sleep on her own which is what we'll be working towards.

Anyway tonight Eliza has gone over to my in-laws place to stay over cos Ww is out meeting his friends for dinner. I, missing Eliza, did want her to stay home instead at the last minute which she somewhat wanted too (probably cos i was playing silly running around games with her), just that we have prepared my in-laws and i guess i didn't want to change stuff too much.

On Emily

I'm starting to follow Gina Ford's routines for the past 2 days, with some mixed success. The split feed is confusing for me cos Emily can't last half a feed for an hour...she need it soon! BUT with the split feed, she really does sleep longer, possibly cos she feels fuller...and is sleeping on her tummy. So while the night time has a split feed at 10pm & 11pm, and she's supposed to last till 2.30-3am, she has woken up earlier at 2am and then at 5am for a feed. So we're still at 2 night feeds.
The good thing is that i somehow can catch the hang of getting her to sleep. Some cuddling and rocking in the beginning to get her drowsy and then putting her on her bed to doze off. Occasionally she can doze off on her bed on her own but there are times when she really needs some TLC before being able to enter lalaland. And sleep she does...she sleeps a lot which is good. The last thing i want though, is for her to wake up at the 2am feed to play. :O

On bringing the kids out

I'm stuck. Cos i have no stroller to put Emily in and I will only get my Beco & Sarong from my friend on Saturday. While i did think that i will get a stroller when we arrive in Canberra, I realized that we'll still need it while in SG! agh! So now i'm looking for a 2nd hand one which can accommodate an infant. Gotta discuss with Ww when he comes back later...

On breastfeeding

While during my initial weeks i have been expressing milk, I have come to find it really a hassle and that it's not something i can do easily when i need to travel and have another kid in tow. Essentially it is the time taken to express milk! Sometimes I just don't want to waste time doing that! For now, i just need to practice latching her on well, even on the move. Her latching has improved even though we do struggle a good few minutes sometimes.
Few days ago, i have started to latch her on during the nights and that has helped me sleep more (and tire her out latching on, i think). Less crying too cos we don't need to wait for the milk to warm up, just wait for me to get ready. And when she's drinking, i fall asleep. No need to wake to express milk, wash the bottles and worry that she's not asleep yet. I'm starting to latch her during 2 more day feeds and woohoo...somehow, i feel a little less busy. (except that she can take as long as 20+20mins for each feed)

There's always the firsts...last time was the first time bringing baby Eliza out, going out for longer periods etc. Now it's breastfeeding on the go, bringing Eliza and Emily out, taking care of them on my own, cooking(!!!)...etc. I'm apprehensive but we'll just try and go along with the flow and get better at it.

Cloth diapers progress

2011-05-25T21:24:00.000+08:00

So i did the 2nd wash today! So far the stains got off! without me having to scrub them! yays! Well except for one which has a slight yellowish tinge..which i would have guessed was due to me washing it in hot water. (i couldn't help it, it was such a blazing hot day that the water that came out of the tap was hot!) Yes so the thing is the cold water is the part that removes the stains, hot water kinda fixates the stains and the purpose of hot water is actually to sanitize the clothing. Then the extra rinse is to get rid of extra detergent as build up of detergent is the cause of smelly nappies. And sun oh wonderful sun actually is the other stain remover. Too bad today was a cloudy & rainy day else it'll be great to blaze the nappies in the sun!

Phews...so we're likely to get our next 6 cloth diapers before the offer ends. So far so good...i've used 3 disposables in between the wash :) My one problem is that while baby can wear onesies over cloth diapers, i still find it quite puffy and if the onesies is tight like what she is wearing now, it's hard to button up.

Photos soon :)

Week 4

2011-05-23T22:20:00.000+08:00

Seems like this week is getting better in a way that I'm getting the hang of Emily's wake, sleep, feed times. She still does her 2hr milk drinking at some point in the day but the nights have been kinda better. I have started to fully latch her to BF at night so i fall asleep while she drinks and then i fall asleep burping her (oops)..so in a way she falls asleep in my arms and with me in bed. Previously i have been bottle feeding her EBM so by the time i get woken by her, i still need time to warm up the milk and after which to express the milk. So...if she doesn't fall asleep after that, i'm stuck. So i have been having a decent night sleep despite going off to sleep at about 12mn and starting my day about 6-7am. This means she wakes up about 3am for the night feed. Hopefully she'll start to stretch her nights and i can have a better night sleep.

God's idea of breastfeeding is so ingenious. :P

In the day i feed her by bottle though...so i do have to spend time expressing milk. I really wonder how can i manage that when i'm on my own :S At least Emily's fine with latching on these days..it is still a struggle with me somewhat having to 'force' her cos she'll be so flustered her hands are pushing me away and she's always pulling away.

Eliza the big sister

Eliza's been a great sport while i express milk and deal with baby stuff. Sometimes she'll want to sit in the room with me and watch Sesame street videos. She doesn't know what to do with Emily when Emily cries and will tell Emily "It's ok. Jiejie is here...It's ok!" Awww... Or she'll make things and give to Emily or say that Emily cries because she wants this or that. I miss her loads though...cos on weekends my Ww and my in-laws will bring her out or she'll sleep over at my in-laws place. And like today, my mil sent her to and from school, brought her out and bought stuffs for her, till Eliza refused to stay home with us and wanted to stay over at my mil's place. :S She did go in the end though i told her she'll still need to stay home the rest of the weekdays.

Getting ready to move
Starting to prepare for Ww's departure...:( Gonna miss him and the extra pair of hands to do stuff around the house for next 30 days. But we'll need that time away to get the house in Canberra ready and pack. Our visa applications are still processing and it is slightly delayed cos my blood tests came back slightly higher for one of the Hep B markers Fetaprotein (the normal range is <16 and mine came up to be 34). It is worrying not only because it affects the visa application but that whether I am ok. I still want to be around for my girls! Anyway i went to do the ultrasound test today which went quite ok though the doctor will still need to review it first. Pray hard I'm ok...and that maybe the marker was high cos i was eating some chinese herbal stuff? This visa application with all the medical checkups has set us back about $1.1k. super ex. The fact that if we had done it with Ww then, we wouldn't have to pay that extra $700+.

Cloth diapers

We have ventured into cloth diapers cos I read about it in YoungHouseLove about their cloth diaper experience. They make it so much easier to understand cos everytime i run into a cloth diaper web page I just don't quite fully understand how it is in a life of a family using cloth diaper. The main purpose is to save money while we are there...(although it has many other more benefits). I got those from BumGenius from a Singapore wholesaler who's having a buy 5 get 1 free promo. Which makes each diaper with 2 inserts $28.33. Actually i got only 6 pieces cos I wasn't sure if i would take to it. At most I can buy another 6 before 31st may when the offer ends. The best part is they sent it right to my door. i loOVE the colours and so far the only thing that give me jitters is not so much spraying the poop off the diaper (actually it is quite satisfying to get rid of it), but the washing part. Which detergent to use? What wash? pre-wash cold, wash hot, extra rinse. soo..many steps..and the best part is my mil in all good intentions went to soak it in the Kodomo detergent and possibly scrubbed the yellow poop stain away. It is quite unbelievable that machine washing it will remove the stain. I'll have to try it the next round. So far so good..it has leaked last night cos i just left it on so long and didn't put an extra layer.

Week 2 - phototherapy and getting the hang of things

2011-05-22T12:05:00.000+08:00

One week after Emily's arrival, we had a 1st week review with the PD. She was losing weight! :O frm her birth weight of 2.755 to 2.6+ when we left the hospital and to 2.5+ a week later. Then i was just direct latching her only and we were struggling cos she wasn't latching well at all. I have on the 4-5th day started to express milk to increase supply.
Anyway, she had to do a blood test for her jaundice level which came back to be 263 (the normal range is at 100-180). So on that day we had to bring her to the hospital for phototherapy. So goes all the packing and getting ready to go out (in the pouring rain!). I guess my bigger concern wasn't that i wanted her to have EBM and not formula so i even considered going there at night to deliver the milk. :S Later, tiredness got over me and i decided not to anyway.I have the option to stay over with her but with Eliza at home and me wanting a good night sleep, i didn't. After all i knew she'll be well taken care of there. I did go down early the next morning to feed her and actually by mid-day she could be discharged already :) Not too bad just that it cost us $550+ of which $450 is claimable by medisave.

This week was also the week to get the hang of things, the routines of feeding Emily (which is not like a routine at all...more like demand feeding!). Actually, it's the routine of our eating times, my mil coming over, Eliza coming home frm sch and having her lunch and naps, expressing milk, bathing baby etc.

I have officially broke most confinement rules. I bathed on the 3rd day. (how can you tolderate itchy hair!) It was a really humid & hot week that had me drenched in perspiration everytime i bathed Emily cos the windows are closed and the fan is turned off. I have also eaten the super yummy Goodwood park durian puffs which are frozen (not supposed to eat cold food during confinement). I've enjoyed cookies and good food that my mum buys back. I don't bother to wear slippers or long sleeves or long pants. I wash my hands and bottles and crockery all the time. I bathed Eliza. Oh well...don't other people around the world do similar stuff?
I have been good too..cos i drink all my red dates drink (and lots of water cos that drink wasn't enough for my fluid intake). I've enjoyed all the delicious confinement food. I have not really gone out unless necessary (ie make passport/visa, bring Emily to the doc etc)

Photo: Our two "E"s having their dinner :)

Week 3

2011-05-12T11:41:00.000+08:00

It's the growth spurt week!

That explains why Emily can wake up at 2hr intervals rooting for milk. At least this time we know what it is. When it was Eliza's growth spurt week, we struggled wondering why she kept wanting to drink milk.

The lack of sleep is getting to me...*yawnz*. I was super duper sleepy last night, though thank God Emily wasn't up partying. She drank and she slept. Although she woke at least twice, at 1+am & 4+am. the second round i dozed off while she was drinking milk and the next thing i realized when i woke up was that the milk bottle was on the bed and Emily was sleeping in my arms. This morning at about 630am, i went to snuggle with milk-drinking Eliza and slept again, fed Emily, said bye to school-going Eliza, ate bfast and slept again. Let's pray Emily keeps the sleeping at night going on, I don't think i can keep awake for any baby-partying!

This is also the week we collect the kids passports and apply for visa. Finally! This has taken us 2 weeks..gosh i wondered how rushed it would be if Emily arrived much later. Partly also cos it took me 1 week to somewhat get used to Emily, with her going back to the hospital for phototherapy, and the difficult of taking a passport photo of Emily, a newborn's eyes are always closed!

We are also dealing with Eliza not expecting me to be with her all the time when she is sleeping. For 2 nights, she has been waking up to cry for me, expecting me to be beside her when she wakes up. This will be the prelude to her sleeping in her own room when we go Australia. Still it is a bit hard on her and us. Some reward helps, so last night she made it through well without crying and got 2 star stickers + 2 gummies.

Week 1 - home sweet home

2011-05-11T21:18:00.001+08:00

Coming home is exciting...just because.

Actually, it's scary too...how will we handle Eliza with Emily? How will Eliza react to her?
Thankfully, Eliza was really a super duper wonderful jiejie...she was so excited to give her present she made of Emily and set to do it immediately after she after school. Thankfully too, Emily has been super sleepy when she came back. So other than her usual milk time, she has been just sleeping away. (Photo: There's Emily fresh from the hospital and all wrapped up)

The nights after Emily came home with us was like day for Emily. She was awake most of the early morning! So was I. :S Thankfully, I had enough rest and has shed the pregnancy tiredness and survived the first sleepless night home. Actually, the sleepless nights lasted another 3 days, or at least till we had to send Emily back to hospital for at least 24 hours for phototherapy cos her jaundice level was too high at 263 instead of the normal range of 100-180. THAT was when i really had a good rest that night despite having to express milk somewhere in the early morning.

With regards to confinement food, my mum cooked for me on weekends and my mil cooked for me during the weekdays. I'm not particular about the food as long as there is food to eat. :)

How Emily arrived

2011-05-11T08:47:00.000+08:00

THE birth story...finally, i sit down to write this. :P

When we changed our flight ticket departure date after knowing of Emily's EDD, I thought that 1.5mths from her EDD is enough for us to get ready. As the day draws closer, plus the fact that my gynae is going to be away from 28th Apr till 8th May...and my hoped date for Emily to arrive on 1st May was really quite slim, we opted to go for elective induction on the 26th Apr. Delivering anytime after 1st May would mean that my confinement period will stretch till when Ww is away and there is less time to apply for the visa which takes 4-6 weeks. We don't want any hiccups at that part. So....despite me feeling uncertain about having her to arrive early (but safely early cos she'll be considered full-term then), we went ahead on 26th Apr.

We were slightly more prepared that way, I could prepare Eliza and go through all the things that will happen in the days following the delivery, tell her what to expect etc. She'll definitely have to stay over at my mil's place which is quite new for her and without mummy & daddy so i was uncertain how she'll fare.

Anyway on 26th Apr, we had my gynae appointment at 2pm. I had to go eat Mos burger cos i was craving for the coffee milkshake. (I faintly remember that we ate Mos burger on the day before Eliza arrived). Dr Tan measured Emily from the ultrasound scan to be about 3kg and doing well. I was concerned that usually early induction or those that have no medical reasons ends up in c-sections and the risks. He did say that there are recent research proving otherwise, also because the babies, though full-term, are smaller and show less complications. Anyway we did go ahead with it (obviously!). That day was really quite a busy day! There were about 3-4 mums-to-be going to be induced. wow...maybe it was because my gynae was leaving the day after eh? We had to wait till about 4pm for the person before me to be done at the CTG. By then, after inserting the pill (Prostaglandin) and checking, i was already 2cm dilated. Like everyone says, that the 2nd time labour will be much faster, my gynae expected me to come back in around midnight or earlier. (after 11pm would be ideal so that the hospital charges us for the next day fees instead).

So we took a bus back to my mil's place for dinner. Eliza was to stay there for the night which at some point she found it quite fun. When we told her that Emily's going to come out soon, she laughed. yeap...laughed. I couldn't quite decipher whether she was happy that finally Emily is coming or that she can't make out what to expect, that's why she laughed. Anyway we went back home to pick up more things Eliza needs. I bathed and packed my bag. I wanted to eat curry puffs and we eventually took bus 518 and headed to Orchard for curry puff from Old Chang Kee. Oh...and to satisfy my other craving, i finally managed to drink my fav Mos coffee shake. Actually on the way there in the bus, i was feeling the contractions. They were bearable and probably about 10min apart. This time round i really felt the contractions. During my 1st delivery, I think i didn't really feel the contractions till my gynae broke the waterbag.

Anyway, we arrived at Orchard, found Old Chang Kees and I ate to my satisfaction. By the time we were at Mos burger drinking the coffee shake, I felt that the ache from the contractions and wanted to go off to TMC. I don't want to be stranded in Orchard with painful ones! At least we'll be at the hospital when it really hurts. By the time we arrived at TMC, it was only 9+pm. So we waited at the lobby....till hopefully 1030pm or later. By 1030pm i wanted to check in already...we waited at the admissions but the person in front of us took so long. Fortunately, a staff came by, asked a few questions and sent me to the delivery ward to get ready while Ww does the admissions.

At the delivery ward, I was sent to go change and strapped at the CTG to monitor baby's heartbeat and the contractions. The nurse came by and asked a lot of questions, which was asked again by another nurse. Meanwhile, for what seemed like a long time, I was just lying there and watching the CTG machine waiting for someone to come by and tell me what else to do. By the time the nurse sent me to clear my bowels, the contractions were stronger, so i had to do those breathing exercises to kind of take my mind off the pain and relief it.

By about 1215am, Dr Tan came by to check how i was. By then i was 4 cm dilated. He also broke the water bag to get the process going faster. He said that i was in active labour so should be ready about a few hours or less. Meanwhile, Ww was still doing the admissions (it took so long cos he was sent to the family room and no one called him for a long time). Ww finally came at 1230+am (i think), while we chatted, I had to stop talking and do the breathing exercises cos the contractions were really getting much more intense. It came to a point when i had to ask him to call the mid-wife and he still asked me for what matter. I think at that point the contractions were getting much more intense and I probably did feel a bit like pushing. So when the mid-wife came and did the VE, i was 6cm dilated and they finally did send me to the delivery ward. (the last time i remembered we were already at the delivery ward for quite a while).

Gosh...on the way there, even though it was short, the pain was getting worse. Somehow, i dunno why i didn't consider epidural then. Anyway, the mid-wife asked me if i wanted to use the laughing gas, and she said to keep breathing in and out...it's how it works. Basically, the gas makes you feel soooo drowsy that it takes your mind off the pain. Then again, it would say it makes one feel delirious, to the extent that i don't really know what is going on. Not that i bothered at that time...i just needed to tolerate the pain. And what seemed like moments and no pushing at all, baby Emily was out. Ww said she kinda slipped out (cos she's so small!) Later on Ww told me that the mid-wife had to hold baby's head till Dr.Tan came to receive the baby. Somehow i vaguely remembered someone say not to push yet or something...then again, i can't remember if i had pushed or not. See....delirious.

It was a great relief to hear Emily's cry and to be out of that delirious state and out of the pain. Interestingly, I didn't have the medications like the drip or any other medication like the last time round. No episiotomy either but there was a slight tear and so I still had 1 stitch. Thankfully, this time round the recovery is so much better and less painful. Except...I felt the stitching. *shivers* Probably not as bad as the labour pains, but a different pain. (I did wonder at some point if there will be any pain relief if i had to have an episiotomy, there is anyway which i later found out) After all i wasn't on any pain relief so generally i felt everything.

Stats:

Emily's weight - 2.755kg, measuring 49cm long and 33cm head circumference

compared to

Eliza's weight - 3.205kg, measuring 50cm long and 33cm head circumference

Thank God for Emily, for a smooth delivery and it IS possible to do without epidural.

Hi Emily!

2011-05-01T22:26:00.001+08:00

It's so exciting to have Emily with us :) it's like we are re-living the time we had Eliza.

And Emily looks quite like Eliza, just a little rounder and as S noticed, thicker lips. She has slightly more hair than Eliza though looking at her now se does have a lot more hair...and all over her body too. It those soft fine hair that you can't really see unless you look closer. There's even hair on her ears.

Anyway I should find some time to post up labour story soon. Wrote one halfway but the draft got unsaved. Bleah~

Waiting and when?

2011-04-19T14:40:00.001+08:00

Waiting time is here. 37th week is THE week to expect arrival of Emily. Just that we may...hmm..just coax her out earlier. Not the most at peace whether it is a good idea tho my gynae said that it is safe. For practical reasons like having to have enough time buffer to make our visas, finish off my confinement period and have baby first month celebrations before Ww leaves on 30th May. Plus having Eliza in school in the mornings during the first month also helps. The other is that my gynae is not around from 28th apr onwards till 7th may! Or shall we really just wait till at least somewhere on 2 may? Hmmm...

Pregnancy so far

2011-04-11T10:12:00.002+08:00

I'm in my 35th week of my pregnancy and enjoying the bliss of resting and not doing much. The not doing much part is that i'm really thankful i don't have to go to work. The thought of travelling 1hr to work and 1hr back everyday gives me shudders, especially when at this stage, i have found exhaustion to set in. Yesterday, i was so tired all day i wanted to sleep my day away. I am thankful that Eliza took her afternoon nap as usual and that she has been happily herself. She generally played on her own and was quite busy pasting her new stickers, colouring on the papers and making 'presents' for me. :)

Coupled with my exhaustion is that I find myself falling sick. I probably caught Eliza's flu/cold/cough, whatever you call it. So i have quite a phelgmy cough which is worse in the morning.

It's also time to take down Emily's clothes to be washed and to do some sorting.

Plus i haven't quite figured where Emily will sleep in the 1.5-2mths we are here. There's no space to open up the playpen and quite likely, we'll use the bassinet carrier that my uncle passed to us.

When we're in Canberra, quite likely Eliza will have her own room and Emily will be rooming with us. I'm not sure if that poses any problems, especially since Eliza has been sleeping with us since young. We haven't been able to have another room for her even in our old place cos my SIL stayed in the room meant for Eliza..and now there's no space at my mum's place. At least she has been sleeping on her bed though..and not c0-sleeping with us. I could not stand her kungfu sleeping positions and insisted she stays her own bed/cot all night, except in the mornings when we snooze.

My thoughts are currently jumbled up for now...so i'm not thinking much, just doing the day to day stuff. There are reads on education that i would want to ponder upon but it seems like the impending delivery and baby care will occupy me for the next few months. Not to mention my worry on how i will handle it, and how we'll manage it...eventually on our own and how Eliza will take to her baby sister.

God help me through this all, just as many mums have braved it ahead.

Handling conflicts

2011-04-07T09:24:00.002+08:00

I'm finding that as Eliza grows older, we are finding that we need to teach her how to handle other kids, especially those who are not the nicest to her. She isn't an aggressive girl at all, and at most she is very very possessive of her things or things she wants to play, so the issue of sharing a touchy one, else it is really up to her mood. And her best defense? CRY..cry very loud. Quite useful though.

School is one good platform. So other than she telling us about her crying in school of other what we parents see is normal issues, (like the first time she had her music lessons after school, she cried cos she thought she was going home after her formal school hours). She has told me she cried cos she pulled her hood from the jacket too low and got stuck, though her friend helped her out. (i wanted to laugh like mad..but couldn't in front of her). But there are times when her friend took her colour pencil/paper/toy etc...and then pinched her face...or recently when her friend took her star sticker (because she told her friend "i got star sticker, you don't have"...great..).

Generally these are small issues, part and parcel of growing up.

But on sunday, when we went to airport for dinner with her cousins, they were playing and running around at the viewing gallery, when a little girl about Eliza's age, i think, came and somehow either wanted to play with them or what...she kinda clasped her hands on Eliza's face and slapped her. It wasn't hard, i guess cos there was no red marks on Eliza's face but it was shocking to her for sure. Her cousin, Alger was there and he was trying to shield her but he couldn't seem to and the girl still got Eliza. We saw that whole incident unfold before our eyes, but we were too far (you know how huge viewing malls are), and we were stunned because it happened out of the blue. It's not like you can see a fight brewing because someone wanted something.

My SIL probably knew cos this girl did something similar to Xuanxuan earlier, and got told off by my SIL. Ww demanded that the girl (and her sister) bring us to their parents but the they seemed dumbfounded, and that little girl was covering her ears with her slightly older sister (or twin sister) trying to protect her. We probed on until Ww asked an old man (which probably looked related to them) whether he knows them, and then that old man admitted that they are his grandchildren, and that they are very naughty. Great...he is there seeing all that happen and still pretended he doesn't know them?? Anyway we told him what happened, and asked that he do something about it, and we walked away. The girl did get reprimanded cos we heard her crying as we walked away. I guess that made Eliza feel better that some justice was made?

Eliza still talked about it that night and made a joke that the girl hit her and she is spoilt...pretending to fall over. Haha...at least she got over it.

On hindsight, when Ww & I talked about the incident that night, he felt he should have gotten the girl to apologize and also that it could have been a teaching point for Eliza on forgiveness. But as first time parents, having this happen to us for the first time, we were just too blur to know what to do at that point of time.

Loving Eliza

2011-03-05T22:11:00.002+08:00

I do updates and little stories of Eliza to Ww everyday when we msg on whatsapp or talk on the phone. And Ww misses her terribly...aww poor daddy.

I believe every toddler is a charm to their parents and as much as some parents talk about how naughty and mischievous their toddlers can be, we all know it's developmental and temperament. Ww and I know Eliza better than the back of our hands, we know generally what to expect of her when she wants something, what she likes and dislikes etc even though some things change. Once Ww commented that isn't it freaky that our parents knows us so well too?

Having stopped work already and taking care of Eliza quite full time now, without Ww for this 5 weeks is really great to some point. I mean i have time for myself when she goes to school in the morning, I have time to be with her for the rest of the day. A lot of bonding time which i miss out when I have been working. We talk a lot too and I love listening to her 'stories' and comments and phrases and things that she say, even though i would say i don't understand it 20% of the time.

There are battles, needless to say.
Morning 'battles' to get her to go toilet, brush teeth and change into her school uniform on a school day. This i have learnt to get her to wake up early enough and to talk to her about it the night before so she has a good idea abt what we are doing the next morning. So I frequently do these reminders to cue her in on what we are doing or where we are going ahead of time, to have her 有心里准备 or to excite her about what's coming up.
The other battle is to get her to eat her proper meals. It is not all that bad as i may describe it to be. I believe there are worse cases and Eliza in actual fact does eat quite well...as long as i don't force her to eat stuff she doesn't eat like eggs, fish, spicy food, certain vegs. I tell her that if she doesn't at least her her main meal there's no snacks or 'eat something' food later. I really don't want her to be chanting for snacks cos she hasn't had her proper lunch/dinner. So really, there are days that we leave her to enjoy her rice/noodles only meal. And when i do prepare a meal, i ensure that there's one food item she likes in the menu. Or i "hide" the food like eggs in the fried rice. Still, she loves her fruits and cereal which i'm glad about..and her gummy indulgence is limited to one each time she requests it.

The other battle is the 'upset' battle. When she wants yet don't want. We have gotten over some minor ones like how she loves to open her bottle cap and if i am too fast and open it for her, she's super upset about it and it can't be undone. Nowadays she can allow me to redo some things so that she can do it. Doesn't have to be first. Though, today because she has taken so long to come for her bath, even after several reminders, i told her i will bathe first (normally i'll bathe her and then bathe after that). She was probably too engrossed with her colouring even though she said yes. Just as i was finishing up, she came into the bathroom, upset that i have bathed. And then she didn't want to budge to bathe nor let me out of the bathroom. Obviously, a 'battle' ensued because i wasn't gonna wait in the bathroom forever nor let her off without bathing. So even though she eventually relented, she somehow cried through her bath...with all the requests to have tissue (not the hanky i use to bathe her) to wipe her tears, requests not to use soap, requests not to wash hair, requests to drink water (?!?!)... oh well that's my lil girl. She also wanted a hug after drying up which comforted her a bit. I was quite frustrated so I had quite a stern look on my face which didn't help comfort her generally. Eventually when we got to the room to calm down and hug, she sobbingly said sorry that she made me so angry. Awwiee..my heart melted to hear her say that, to which i kissed her and told her that it's ok and that i love her. (on hindsight i should have said that her apologies are accepted...ah finally found the word)

My lil affectionate girl. :)
She did it again last night, she somehow woke up in the middle of the night to give me a goodnight hug and goodnight kiss. Sweet. :) She did it before. That night I came home late and somewhere in the middle of the night, groggily in my sleep, she woke me up and asked to hug me and kiss me...soooo super sweet.
In the first week that Ww left to Canberra to start his school, she wasn't too expressive about missing him. and would retort that she doesn't miss him, mainly because she doesn't see him. This week she has been expressing that she's missing daddy and would comment that she wants to talk to him. At one point, she got a little upset during bedtime cos she wanted daddy and when i told her she can still see his photos, she said that's not the 'real' live daddy. Talking to him on the phone helps. Plus she'll always include him in her prayers: "pray for daddy not sick in australia" at least for the past 3 days already!

Sweetie pie :)
On my actual birthday date, i bought a small...yes really tiny cake to celebrate with her which she was super happy about. She loves celebrating birthdays, as most kids do. That morning when i told her about what we were gonna do after school, she told me she will make a present for me, "do you want 'xx (sorry i can't remember what tt animal was)' or ladybird?'. wwweeee i wanna hug her so tight!

It's not hard to love her at all, really. And i really thank God for an angel like her. It has been a joy to parent her and to watch her grow. I thank God for this season before her little sister arrives, to get to know her better and to spend time with her. I love our bedtime talking sessions with her when we reflect about the day and she tells me her stories (for now it's always the 'short short man' story). I love to hear her chirpy voice and her bright smile when she wakes up in the morning to tell me the sun is up, or that she wants milk, or that she's gonna come up to my bed and has left me enough space for me, or just a good morning.

last last weekend

2011-02-28T09:41:00.002+08:00

It was a busy weekend. Last last weekend.

After that busy morning at the playground and library, we went to Esplanade with my inlaws and their parents or so Eliza's tai-po. To catch a glimpse of the water show at MBS.

This lil excited girl.

We were quite early and the concerts that were usually indoors and at the outdoor amphitheater has yet to start. She was quite eager to listen to the concerts as it has been quite a while since we have been to one. Really gotta go botanic gardens again for another outdoor concert soon. Anyway the indoor mini-concert was a little too loud and she was quite put off by it so we went out to check out the one outdoors. Alas, it was too alternative...those tunes were just too odd and scary for her appreciation. She refused to go any nearer to the music and we had to make a detour to get to my in-laws who were further down. Some ice-cream did help. And we did sit down at a place far enough from the disturbing music but when she heard me talking about it to my in-laws again, she insisted on getting further away from it as we could still hear it. Gee.
By then the water and light show has started and we did manage to walk to the furthest end where the floating stage is to watch. Thank goodness the music from the water and light show, although quite far away, was soothing and enjoyable for her. It was a song from a "What a wonderful world" that she's familiar with.
So i guess we know what kind of music Eliza likes now.

Sunday was to celebrate Eliza's cousin Augustine's birthday. We literally gorged ourselves silly on ice-cream at Swensons. There was the earthquake, a complimentary firehouse, hotplate banana custard ice-cream, and an ice-cream cake. It's insane. It believe they were all on sugar high after that. Eliza ate half of the sugar figurine from the cake. ewww...

They had a great time though...eating and running like mad at the airport.

Cute Xuanxuan watching her brothers eat fries which she's not allowed too. :)

Photos 2

2011-02-21T22:42:00.005+08:00

My cooking with Eliza. We had spaghetti which she loved (without the sauce), + broccoli & fish cake on the side + pepper lemon baked fish (for me only cos she doesn't eat fish like this) + our leftover wedges which she didn't like cos it was getting too hard.

Next day we made pizza for dinner. Love the ease of making pizza from pita bread. It lasted us two meals and some for my mum's supper.
It was the same spaghetti sauce for the base, leftover bacon from my roasted potato the day before, sausages my mum bought from cold storage and canned pineapple. Though it probably cost about $2.99 for shredded cheese (from Cold storage..that's the cheapest i can find), $1 for bacon, < $1 for pineapples which i still have half left over, $3+ for the 5 pita breads & $3+ for the Bratwurst sausage (that was quite big). That probably works out to $11 for 2.5 meals? Hmm...not the cheapest for a homemade meal though. Think i'll venture to using other ingredients next time too. :)

Spot the pizza with a face? That was our first batch. Though i realized that there's not enough ingredients for a face-pizza to be enjoyed so i added more later on. I love it with a lot of pineapples :) Eliza joined in to enjoy the pineapples which was quite delighted cos she always picks it out when we do eat Hawaiian pizzas.

Making it helps her enjoy it.

With no one at home in the evening and i need to take my evening showers, this is what i usually do actually. I leave her with her favourite BabyTV, which is about the most tv she watches, especially if we are out all day or at my mil's place. Sometimes with her drinking her before-bedtime-milk.
Actually why we're generally afraid is mainly cos my mum's place on the 7th storey has no grills *~shudder~*, so we are quite afraid that she'll climb up a chair to look out if there was some noise that attracted her or something. As much as we can, my mum's policy is to never place furniture that can be climbed on near windows. So far, she has no propensity to climb and look out, thankfully.
Still i bathe really fast and generally she's still at the same place i left her at, else she'll actually come and look for me in the bathroom and wait for me to finish bathing.

Her school has been giving out homework every fridays to be completed over the weekend. Actually the first week, it wasn't that easy to get her to finish. Especially that she'll do it halfway and hop off to do something else!
But i think it has gotten better over the weeks, also probably because they do writing in school which she enjoys too. So i have gotten activity books for her to do. I love the Kumon pre-school series and this Sticker and Paste one from Popular. It has been a week and she has finished 34 of 40 pages already! :O ok...it is really easy to do...the first handful of pages were just pasting stickers. Later pages were more like pieces i will cut for her to paste, and puzzles to paste etc.
This book isn't cheap!! especially if you think about buying all the rest of the series which includes colouring, cutting, folding. Quite good and fun practice skills for little ones like her. Anyway i have found cheaper options on the forum selling for $8 for this pre-school series...and erm...some online that i can print instead. It's the colours and illustrations that's really pretty!! So i'm thinking of cutting them up and using them for other learning stuff.

Here she is applying glue. She has improved much with her use of the glue since a few months back, when she literally smeared and depleted the glue stick in one or two sitting.

We all need some outdoor play don't we? Anyway the LUP thingy at my estate has just destroyed all green spaces and playgrounds so there isn't much places to stroll. So on saturday we went to the nice big park & playgrounds at St.21. There were very nice gardens where the residents grew fruit trees like lime & papaya & banana trees which i love pointing out to Eliza and there were 3 playgrounds to choose from!
Somehow, she isn't too keen when she sees too many kids (even if it's 2!) at the playgrounds and would rather explore other places. Still it isn't too crowded on a saturday morning at about 930am which is great.
Not sure if you can spot her here...

She was hungry after all that play so we had to walk quite a distance to the mamashop. Saw this cute pair of granite monkeys (the other not pictured here), holding a polished granite piece. It's so cute cos the monkeys were frowning! So is Eliza here...:P

After that it was a one or two bus stops down to the library where she borrowed 4 books in 5 mins and declared that she was done and ready to go. (what? when i haven't even browsed anything much!) She still did wait for me anyway, till i browsed some of the paperback children's books and my parenting books.
They brought Singa lion to the library! hoho

Photos

2011-02-19T23:10:00.003+08:00

I have been taking a lot of photos lately so that i can send it to Ww and it's really quite easy taking from the iphone and just sending it via whatsapp. Just that Ww's silly super old iphone self drains like mad cos it keeps turning itself on, so most of those photos are limited to home ones unless i'm out for a while. So we have been exchanging photos here and there and it's great :) It's how we have been communicating so far, chatting on whatsapp, and if Ww's parents are around we'll use the skype voice. Only we don't chat after Eliza sleeps cos it's like 1am for him in Canberra. So most of the time it's during her afternoon nap and the morning school time.

So some photos....Eliza doesn't seem to miss daddy now...she retorts that she doesn't miss him cos he's not around...her logic.

We play Legos...this is her photoframe or camera per se...

She and her drawing...she's into drawing 'monsters' or whatever creature. She drew something that she called a dolphin though i thought it looked more like a whale.

The first time she wore her school sports attire...not that they'll go out for P.E., sadly. nevertheless she was happy to wear it. This is how she poses nowadays

I had to practice cooking...somehow!! Can't depend on my mil's cooking and this little girl doesn't like it all the time either. So i made roasted potatoes with broccoli & fish cake

She's mad over doing the Kumon sticker and paste activity and in 4-5 days she has done 32 pages. After all how difficult is it to paste stickers??? She just cannot stop. geez.

This particular activity we were supposed to stick the flower stickers, but she wanted to colour it instead...and sticker the flowers elsewhere.

Saying sorry

2011-02-18T23:57:00.001+08:00

.

Even as a toddler Eliza felt the difficulty of saying sorry. We learnt from sign language the basic courtesy of please, thank you, sorry very early on. And when she was able to understand the meaning of sorry well, we insisted that she apologizes for her wrong actions ie hitting people, defiance, doing things she knows very well she should not.

We also teach her to say sorry for accidentally knocking or hitting someone. This though wasn't too difficult because we model it easily. It was cute to hear her, knocking into us and saying her "sori sori" in her cute Eliza manner.

But it is the wrongdoing part that sometimes takes us and her a good 5-15mins to utter those words. I guess when she did something wrong deliberately, esp out of anger or frustration, she wasn't going to relent by saying sorry and that's why it takes so long.

Initially it was only a hug to make up for the verbal sorry, then we moved on to signing sorry (cos saying it is always more difficult). And now she is able to apologize verbally or at least understand that it is part of the reconcilation process.

This evening during bedtime I was quite upset that she was still so playful after so long. My patience was also running thin. Anyway, in my frustration, I almost took out the cane. I also expressed I that I was angry with her because she wasn't being obedient too. Somehow a while later, I was surprised that she told me something like "mummy I am sorry I made you angry". Aweie, I was so surprised and touched. I just had to say 'i forgive you' and give her a big goodnight hug. She also guai guai slept very quickly after that.

Cooking and eating

2011-02-16T22:37:00.003+08:00

Today is the first day i start cooking for us (Eliza and me for now).

I've thought long and hard for something both of us will enjoy eating and that is not too much for a mummy & toddler. Of course with daddy around, the portion will be much more.

Lunch was roasted potatoes with bacon + steamed broccoli with fishball. No rice cos i thought we had enough of that the past 2 days at my mil's place (with my fav braised pork!). Eliza took to the roasted potates (which she saw it as fries) with tomato sauce...although the bacon roasted too long became too hard and she somehow wasn't too keen after 5-6 wedges. Still good progress, she had her good share of broccoli which she usually likes.

Dinner was the leftover roasted potatoes with spaghetti + broccoli & fishball and not so hard bacon + baked fish (which she obviously didn't eat but that was for me anyway). I heated up the tomato spaghetti sauce but didn't add to the spaghetti in case she didn't like. And the purist she is, she loved the plain spaghetti. No sauce added. Just like the way she loves plain rice. Though she also ate the fishball and broccoli and bacon on its own as well. It was great :) Maybe there was also no snacks after her nap & before dinner other than a few grapes. She wiped her plate clean. + almost a packet of chocolate milk. :O and much to my satisfaction anyway.

I'm kinda worried she won't eat well cos when that happens, she'll usually be wanting to eat other things i'm not usually keen on, like crackers & sweets & chocolates & some snacks. Usually as long as she eats the carbos i'm fine.

We'll see how it goes, tomorrow we're making pizza for dinner. Something i'm not sure will work out since i realized she isn't too keen on the tomato sauce. Hope the ham & cheese & actually making it will help :)

Anyway i'm back to reading blogs that inspires which i really like...check out this article on "Eat your food or else" which i felt i've been guilty of at times. Especially since now this little girl has been greatly introduced to sweets and chocolates which i cringe at times at the thought of how unhealthy some sweets are. We have kept Eliza's diet relatively healthy with a lot of fruits (which i'm glad she loves with some exceptions), well....till she started school :S and all the goodie bags with the unhealthy snacks i don't even eat entice her. I hope to continue to remember these 5 tips for healthy eating habits for no.2 too when it's her time to start on the wonderful world of food :)

Sick week

2011-01-28T22:23:00.001+08:00

Ww and Eliza is sick. I not having the same thing as them but I'm watchful.

Anyway I wasn't sure whether it was because Eliza caught a cold playing water at Vivo or she caught ww's virus. Ww has been sneezing quite a lot and when that happens, it's a sign of his low resistance. Anyway we kept Eliza home on monday due to her runny nose, obviously much to her delight. and since she wasn't having fever we let her go to school the next few days. She kinda developed a phlegmy cough and today we kept her home again so we could bring her to the doc for more meds.
at least she wasn't lethargic from fever or anything like the last time she fell sick in dec. I still remember that we were registering for her school and ww took her back halfway to see doctor cos it was taking far too long. They finished before me and I had to rush home in a taxi because Eliza refused to go home wailing "I want mummy!".

Ww on the other hand had his sore throat develop into a voiceless one. Well after talking so much the day before...and maybe also exerting his throat while clearing all the mucus.

I've on the other hand have been spotting a bit since yesterday and then this morning. And it was also with a stomachache, those when you feel like you're gonna have diarrhea feeling but yet coagulating. How confusing! I don't think it was cramps. And it didn't help that I threw up my breakfast, how sad...my fav bread and ham bfast. Plus the day before I was talking to the cleaner lady who was talking about her miscarriage at 6 months. Scare me. :S.

God please protect little one inside and those around me.

Drawing

2011-01-26T22:03:00.003+08:00

All kids love drawing don't they?

So far i'm thankful that Eliza doesn't draw on walls and floors, except when she accidently does it. Markers were the last drawing medium i introduced her to just because it stains and is hard to clean off. It has left marks on her clothes, the table and it can't be removed!!! argh!! That was an obscure marker that made me start buying the proper markers, from Crayola.

And at the turn of the year, at one session of colouring with Ww & me, she learnt to hold her pens much better. Actually it was with Ww's help...he has a great way of explaining things, especially to his lil daughter. Of course with a lot of fun and praise. After that she's the one telling us the right way to hold the pen.

After all that she was colouring like mad, and drawing things i haven't seen before...mostly faces and round people with eyes, nose, mouth, hair, hands, legs, and recently mustaches.

I think this is daddy, mummy & Eliza

Her usual painting sessions...this time she was able to draw more things and explore more...although eventually the last part is of course the hand printing part before she'll declare she's done and want to wash up.

This looks like some scary cartoon though

Some books i've gotten too early, meant for Eliza when she's older but it is discovered by Eliza..not sure if she could do it well and follow the instructions but she very quite cooperative.

The clean gal..she'll help to clean up the marks the marker makes on the floor. I'm not sure what she's drawing her though...

Now there's more writing to do, especially the homework she brings home every friday! homework for a 3year old? at least she has been quite game on doing it :)

Bedtime talk

2011-01-24T21:48:00.001+08:00

Now that we have moved to my mum's place, I've kept her playpen aka bed and used a single size mattress as her bed. She sleeps beside me for now till the new arrangement in Canberra. I'm also not sure how the arrangement will be when baby2 arrives. But I guess we'll work that out then.

Now that I don't have my mil to do bedtime with Eliza, since we don't stay together anymore, Ww is also learnt to do bedtime with her, without her "complaining" she wants my mil or me.

Anyway my little one has been really affectionate. Coming to me for big hugs and kisses before she lies down on her bed. And it's so nice to be snugly hugged by her. This evening she wanted to hold my hand to sleep, though I told her it's only for a while because I'll need to sleep too. And she said,
"mummy, hold my hand, so you won't fall down (from the bed)"
Sooo sweet of her! *kisses to her*!

Other things she tells me:
"mummy, close your eyes ok?"
"mummy, what are you doing?"
"mummy, I like you leh."
"mummy, don't sleep on my bed ok?" (cos I won't let her come to my bed to sleep at night, I'll tell her she can only come over in the morning)

My favourite recent photos

2011-01-12T22:35:00.002+08:00

I've got just too many photos that i have to periodically back them up and delete those in iPhoto so that it doesn't take up sooooooo much space in my computer.

Nowadays Eliza's favourite pose is the *twist* and she gamely always poses for us when we pull out the camera.

This is really classic...it was taken by my sis. And i love her expression here...

See...she knows' i'm taking the photo...and here goes her *twist* again.

We had a great time at our marriott staycation. And Eliza, being older now also had a blast and i felt that she was more aware than when we did staycations last time. I took a half day that day and Ww managed to get her to have lunch (Macdonald's meal..and all she ate was fries), nap and then meet me in Orchard. By the time we arrived at the hotel room, she nicely woke up from her nap. The first thing she said when she saw the room? "Wah, nice room!"

Every kid loves bubbles and her expression tells it all.

January was also the time for school. I joined in with her during the first day of the orientation which was quite fine for her and in this photo, even though i was quite a distance from her, she still saw me with my camera and gave me a pose.

She's still adapting to school but it's getting better. I'm a little disappointed that the school's music enrichment class can't start cos there's only 3 students who has signed up so far, and they need 8 to start. Eliza was really looking forward to it. I wouldn't take another day just to go for the extra lesson when the music school comes to her kindergarten to conduct the lesson, which is really great.

I miss my girl so much...i see her for halfhour in the morning, snuggle with her 15mins while she drinks milk after she wakes up, and 1-2 hours at night when i come home...hmm..seems little. So i'm looking forward to friday to spend time with her and send her to school.

Moving out and 2nd week of school

2011-01-11T21:41:00.001+08:00

GARAGE SALE
This weekend we had a garage sale in hopes of selling and giving away some brand new stuffs, books an what nots. We had a handful of people coming and a pre-sale for some friends who took a good amount of baby clothes, stuffs and toys. Essentially we're just glad to clear all these away as we do not have space to keeps these things.

At the end of the day those that didn't get sold or given away was given to the garang guni man and the papers + books sent to the recycling factory.

Eliza somehow had her own fun playing with all the knickknacks, the old key chains and cutting papers. I was glad that she was having her own fun independently, only occasionally needing some attention from us and asking to "eat something"

SLEEPING INDEPENDENTLY
I've also started her on sleeping on her own since we moved to my mum's place. I wasn't sure if it would be too much changes for her with the moving and changing school. But like the brushing teeth consistency, I didn't want to break that habit once I started it. It has only been a week but somehow it has gotten more difficult the past few days. I'm not sure if it's the changes we're experiencing or that it's just her (like how she adapts to school).

So her delay tactics has gotten longer and longer. She would ask for milk again, she would ask for another hug, another kiss, pat her for a while or hold her hand for a while. Still so far she managed to go to sleep on her own eventually. I've also recently started on the reward system which I've been reluctant to initially cos it sounds like bribery to me :S. Still hope it works + my consistency.

2nd WEEK OF SCHOOL
This morning started with a rush cos we had a late night going out for dinner and celebrating my mum's birthday. So she slept late and woke up late.

And from what we discovered, it's not good to arrive late in school. Essentially, it's cos all the assistant teachers would have gone to their classes and there's no one to help her ease into her class which has already started. Considering that this is nursery and not playschool, there's only 2 teachers to 15 kids. Her playschool then had 4 teachers to 20+ kids. I was really glad that then she had this teacher who would always be there to distract her and carry her to calm her down in the first few weeks.
At some point I felt a little regret that I didn't let her continue with her previous school. There, she is familiar with the environment and teachers. It was the timing, 1-5pm, that I felt wasn't suitable for her. While most kids her age has dropped their afternoon naps, she hasn't been doing so. It probably only happens once a month. This lil girl has a bio alarm clock that wakes her once the sun rises, which is about 7am. Rarely does she sleep till 8am. So it's no wonder she's tired by mid afternoon.

Anyway we'll see how this week goes and pray that she'll have good and attentive teachers and that she'll love going to school.

First days of nursery

2011-01-05T23:25:00.001+08:00

Eliza's nursery started yesterday and these first 2 days are orientation days so it's from 8-945am instead of the usual 8am-12pm. I took half day leave to join her in school yesterday and so far so good.

She knows I'm at the back if the class so she'll always check that I'm there. Else she was doing quite well. Only problem was that she didn't seem to respond to her Chinese name, Zhiling! If you call her Eliza or Lingling she will respond but not Zhiling. Oopss!

Anyway, as usual she was really excited on the first day but this morning after I got her changed, I explained to her that Ww or me will not be in the class with her. And that was when she started crying and almost didn't want to wear her school uniform. Thank God that she was ok when Ww said bye to her and left her at school. Interestingly of the kids who were crying on the first day, most of them were boys. Somehow I'm thankful that having her at playschool for that half year helped her a lot in adapting to school. After all she cried a lot then too.

I'm not sure how the next few days will be for her when the hours are longer. Hope she'll do ok and enjoy her school.

Food

2010-12-29T22:03:00.001+08:00

I wouldn't say Eliza's a picky eater, neither is she a great eater either. She'll eat her favorite foods but most of them aren't like staples. She'll eat her rice or noodles, veg an meats but depending on how they are cooked though.

Here is the list of foods she won't eat
- pancakes
- mashed potatoes
- burgers
- longan
- spicy or minty food

Foods that she'll eat depending on her mood and how hungry she is
- bread. Though chocolates on the bread will get eaten
- crunchy veg like snap peas, cabbage, dou4 ya2. Though she does love the stir fried leafy veg my mil cooks, even the stems which I don't like
- chicken nuggets
- biscuits. She'll eat cookies though, esp chocolate cookies

Foods she'll definitely eat
- rasins
- beans, peanuts
- crackers
- French fries
- sweet and sour pork/ fish/ chicken
- chocolates

She picks on fruits though, some fruits are probably a lil too exotic or not common enough for her to take a liking. So mangos, lychee, persimmon, longan, papaya aren't fruits she'll take much liking to. She loves strawberries, cherries, grapes, watermelon, yellow kiwi, oranges, blueberries. And ahhh...glad to say that she likes durian too!

Food - the rejected ones

2010-12-29T21:29:00.001+08:00

La la lu

2010-12-03T22:25:00.002+08:00

It's a song i heard since in was young but didn't quite remember it until recently. It's actually a song from the cartoon movie "Lady and the tramp" which i would watch over and over again on when i was a kid. Still i didn't quite remember that it was a song from that movie, maybe it didn't sound as angelic in the movie than when i heard it later on. It was also a song in the Yamaha JMC course cd that my sis had and about a yr ago i dug it out and started playing at home for Eliza cos of the nice tunes and songs like "It's a small world" etc. Somehow this particular song did get stuck in my mind when i heard it and i began singing it to Eliza. Only problem was, the only lyrics i remembered from this song was 'la la lu'.

Finally, after another request from eliza to sing this song today, i got down to find the lyrics of this song...pretty :)

La la lu, La la lu
Oh, my little star sweeper
I'll sweep the stardust for you

La la lu, La la lu
Little soft fluffy sleeper
Here comes a pink cloud for you

La la lu, La la lu
Little wandering angel
Fold up your wings close your eyes

La la lu, La la lu
And may love be your keeper
La la lu, La la lu, La la lu

you can also listen to it at youtube

I don't remember much lullabys frm my very young age...but i remember the lullaby my mum would play for my sis when she was a baby, it's those tunes that get stuck in our heads. Even my sis had fond memories of those songs. I still have the lyric book for that album but somehow can't find those beautiful songs anymore, it's a cassette tape..and i guess that tape has gotten misplaced or got moldy. Would love to find the cd version of it one day.

Good night baby eliza

2010-12-02T21:31:00.001+08:00

Eliza dons the baby receiving blanket's hood over her head.
Eliza : mummy, say "good night baby"
Me (disgruntedly cos she always talks so much b4 she sleeps that I try not to respond too much, else she can't sleep): good night baby
E: ok thank you mummy, thank you mummy
And plops onto her bed to sleep.

Pi-sai

2010-11-29T22:17:00.001+08:00

Eliza: *digs her nose during bedtime* mummy, eeee pi-sai (aka nose dirt)
Me: throw it away
E: *gets up from her bed* ok, done.
I guess she must have flung it out of her bed :S

Zoo trip!

2010-11-24T22:29:00.003+08:00

I would love to bring Eliza to the zoo again. This trip with her school was really quite fun as her friends and teachers were there.

I kinda just recovered from my 1st trimester nausea & exhaustion so i'm really thankful that I'm able to bring her there with good enough energy. Of course she was excited :)

I kinda realized after a while that she wanted to see monkeys! She was completely uninterested with the white tigers. No wonder she was doing so much monkey 'oo oo's prior to the zoo trip.

We went to watch the dog and cat show which was interesting but i would prefer the larger animal shows though. We had a photo taking session before the show with all the kids lined up..

After so many photos of her, we just gotta take one together ya

She was quite game to go stroke the dogs....while other kids went gaga over the bubbles further behind this photo. She did too...later on.

After the show was lunch and free time which she obviously took the opportunity to head off to the waters.

After drying up and changing into dry clothes we went to check out the farm animals. She was quite excited to see these kids...saying hello to them and talking to them.
\

A photo with the horse

I tell you this is the first time she sat on the moving car without jumping off...her friend Ariana rallied her to join in the car and i guess she also didn't want to get off. She was holding on to my hand at the steering wheel quite tightly initially.

Had a photo taking session with some of her classmates and this is the Marcus i often hear her talk about. See lah...she has to hold his hand just like how she does with her cousins. Later on i learnt from her teacher Nur that he being quite mature for his age has kinda taken care of her at school like a big brother, which i guess that's why Eliza talks about him so much.

That's her other friend Ariana i heard of before...she's quite vocal & sociable and i always hear her calling Eliza.

Trying to update

2010-11-24T22:21:00.002+08:00

I've been so lazy updating anything. I think it's my pregnancy syndrome where all I want to do is just....nothing much. I'm also oh so lazy to go out. And with my being less active, I am quite reluctant to bring Eliza out on my own, to minimize having to carry her. She knows that when we go out, she walks. When we go out with Ww, she'll always ask him to carry her which he'll gladly oblige anyway.

Thankfully, my first trimester is over and all the nausea, extreme tiredness is more or less over. I felt so unlike myself during that period and I felt as if I was sick for weeks which isn't like me at all.

I hope to post up more things as there's also so much happening with Eliza that i just don't want to forget all these stuff that has been happening. So to more blogging days...i hope :)

Updates

2010-10-16T21:26:00.003+08:00

I wish i can write more...there's so much to write about Eliza who has been so charming.

The 'in' thing for her to do now is make 2D houses on the floor which she'll invite us to come in. Sweet. Her passion for arranging things has developed to arranging a large shape which she calls her house.

I'm thankful for Eliza who has been relatively cooperative and for Ww who has been taking over much of the playtime with Eliza from me. They're really a lot more energetic, loud & hilarious, which i think is great for eliza from the way i see her enjoy her playtime with daddy so much.

For the past 3 weeks, i've been running on low energy because of the surprise arrival of cutie pie no.2! We've been waiting for no.2 for so long (ok a little past one year?) and when he/she arrived we were a little surprised but delighted. No.2 is God's gift in God's own time. I wondered if we were foolish to still try for a baby so close to next year's changes but if God gives, He will, if not He won't. It's a little complicated because of the many changes next year but if it all goes well, no.2 will be born in Canberra. If all goes to plan, it may not all be that bad...i can't imagine going through my first tri all alone with Eliza & Ww, if we had conceived one there...and i kinda didn't want to wait till Eliza was 7 yrs old to have my next one. Maybe 2 kids is all we'll have..just nice. hmm?

It's a little crazy because this time round, i feel a lot more exhausted, more throwing up, more lethargy than i remember during my first trimester with Eliza. I'm asleep by 10pm which means i haven't been doing my usual online stuff for weeks. I can't seem to eat fruits/milk and all the healthy stuff, but i'm eating all the really sweet/salty/oily stuff. There're days i wish i could lie in bed all day. So i'm just praying this hormone thing stabilizes and i can be back to normal....somehow.

Nites

Sticking thing up her nose

2010-09-08T23:06:00.001+08:00

Yesterday I came home late after ladies sharing and BS, but i still got to listen to my mil recount the day's dramatic events.

Well, after lunch while my mil was eating lunch in the kitchen and Eliza was playing her toys in the living room. Eliza came running to her saying "I can't breathe" (I'm surprised she even said that phrase!) of course this made my mil anxious and she eventually found out that the candle tip from her cake toy came off and Eliza curiously stuck it in her nostril!

So my MIL and SIL tried to help her get it out. The tweezers were too big, and even asking her to blow her nose didn't help. Eventually they found an ear-digger stick and slowly shifted it out. All the while Eliza calmly let them get the little red plastic candle tip out of her nostril. And with a little help from Eliza to blow her nose, it finally came out.

Later on my MIL chided her and reminded her that she should never ever stick small things in her nose or ear or mouth.
In response to all that, Eliza replied, "I put in my eye" -__-

Great, my little one is getting cheekier with her words.

( oh and this is not the first time Eliza has stuck something small in. The last time she stuck a soya bean and a green bean in her ear. The green bean came out quit easily, but not the soya bean. I can't remember what my FIL did to get it out)

Anyway, My MIL concluded that Eliza's just too cheeky and too giak xiao. My sil said nothing like this happened to her 3 sons either. Oh well, that's Eliza for you! She surprises us always. :)

Sleep talking part 2

2010-08-14T23:38:00.003+08:00

Eliza tend to rouse around 12midnight to 1am and in before that she tends to sleep talk. Usually we hear it when we're in the room..though nowadays, it seemed to be much louder.

On one of the nights when i was staying up, i heard her call out "Where's mummy?" which she would do if she is sufficiently awake and don't find me in my bed. So i answered from the study that i'm coming while i turn off the computer, thinking i'll go to bed anyway, since it's so late. I found her fast asleep when i went into the room to check. So was she sleeping or awake?

Oh and i'm starting to wonder if she has started to have nightmares / night terrors....she'll suddenly wake up crying really loud and somehow seem inconsolable. Though it could be that she was feeling bloated and it is really uncomfortable. Tonight i rubbed some ruyi oil and it seemed to help. It happened on other occasions..just that this time she was saying "i don't want, i don't want". Maybe a mix of both eh?
Still pray she'll sleep well and not have bad dreams.

National day weekend

2010-08-10T14:50:00.001+08:00

Eliza has been sick for at least 3 weeks. In between there was a few days of no runny nose or fever etc. And after that 3 days we heard her cough at night and knew that it isn't a good sign. Meanwhile Ww's sick too, after being in a meeting with 2 colleagues who has flu and sneezing beside him.

This time round I thought I'll bring her to the doc earlier on Friday afternoon since it's so packed on Saturday and closed all weekend. $68 later she started to develop a fever that night that lasted till Monday morning. We brought her to the clinic near home and thank God it was open with our fav chatty doc. She was prescribed antibiotics (again!!) and given a tablet in her butt to bring her 39.5degree temp down.

She was so seh the whole day, took a 4 hour nap and watch a lot of hi-5. This time round she was REALLY sick. We haven't seen her so sick for a long while. She also haven't eaten much for 3 days and her extra 300g she gained recently was all lost. I also see signs of her usual irritability when she's sick but we try to give her lots of TLC and firmness.

Pray she gets well soon by Friday cos we've got lots of fun stuff to do in the coming weekend!!

Starting school and babies

2010-07-25T23:17:00.003+08:00

Eliza starts school
Ww mentioned that Eliza's school uniform looked just like Elmo's...i just had to take a photo of her & Elmo. Got me laughing crazy when Ww pointed that out, days after we have gotten the uniform...and i didn't realize it at all.

Oh this was quite a while ago already...since the beginning of july. Except that she missed almost one entire week cos she was sick and we were worried that she will pass it on to other kids, since she herself got it from another kid.
So far the separation has been much better. During the first 2 days she was quite happy to go to school, after that it was downhill for a week. Everytime my mil brings out her uniform she'll run away...and she'll cry her way down. The good part is that she'll be sooo chirpy and happy when she's coming out, it's really quite fun to pick her up after school. The playschool is just 2 blocks away so it has the advantage of being so nearby.
We hadn't planned to put her in school so early, but seeing that my mil is so busy during the mornings, plus not always being able to guide her in her emotional & mental growth...hmm..in a way. We felt that getting Eliza to start some 2-hr playgroup would be a fun thing for Eliza (since she has been so 'on' about going to school). And at the same time it would be a good relief for my mil. Would have loved to put her in another school but it's so far away at Kembangan.

Every time we ask her what she learnt at school, she'll say some meow meow song (everytime!) so it's really hard to decipher what she did at school, other than the timetable we have from the school. This weekend, she told me of watching fireworks and i kinda caught her singing some song that sounded like the National Anthem..hahaa..this girl ah...always singing.

Eliza loves her older cousin but is apprehensive of her new baby girl cousin

I thought she did seem kinda disappointed that her cousins weren't here this weekend. My SIL needed to rest after her delivery so it's not a good time for them to come either.
Then we also realized that she is really not very warmed up to the baby either. She's really not a fan of babies and younger kids. She'll acknowledge the presence of the baby like "who cry?" but don't dare to get near the baby. Sometimes, i wonder if it's some bad experience with younger kids in the past or lack of exposure with younger kids and babies; or it's just her...that she's not a fan of babies at all.

The heart issue + dealing with a sick toddler

2010-07-21T23:18:00.002+08:00

The heart issue...
Parenting is a heart issue. I love reading from this homeschooling mum, her insights on parenting, the stuffs she does with her kids. It's like learning from a mentor. I've learnt much from her and i love some of the things she writes in this entry.

"Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
This is the secret formula to the successful passing on of values: the parent must have his child's heart. By that, I believe the Bible would be alluding to the child's affection, adoration, deep respect, and importantly trust that you love him and always have his welfare at heart. It is only when we have the heart of the child that the child will happily obey and observe and follow our ways- even when their flesh and sinful desires tell them otherwise. And when a child will be wise to obey his loving parents, therein will he find safety and protection and blessing. It is no coincidence that God also wants His children's hearts. "

"Importantly, love each child as unique individuals who have different talents and abilities, different weaknesses. Do not fall into the trap of measuring everyone by the same yardstick because not everyone can measure up the same way."

She also writes about dealing with a child hitting when he's angry, and for me it's Eliza throwing things when she is upset she's not getting her way. (no wonder we say people are childish when the get angry and throw things...i see a child in action like that!)
I realized that i have been focusing on her throwing things and i neglected to address her anger at not getting her way. This has been such a timely reminder about addressing the heart of the issue and not the behavior.
It's like an eureka moment. Thank God for guiding me to her blog, to reading this and i learn from it. Really. God's amazing.

At the same time i was also reading the Pupose driven life devotional today and the verse was also on the same matter.

A man's heart reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19 (NIV)
"Where did those interests come from? They came from God!
God had a purpose in giving you these inborn interests. Your emotional heartbeat is a key to understanding your shape for service. Don't ignore your interests; consider how they might be used for God's glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things."

Dealing with a sick toddler...
I wonder if being sick makes Eliza more irritable, more impatient, more prone to tantrums, sudden impulses, waking up more times at night etc. I feel like i tread the delicate line of giving her more slack cos she's having a runny nose/blocked nose and to still not give in on some of the rules and basic manners that we expect of her.
ie. she refuses to let me make the bed cos she wants to do it on her own...i let her, though not without her almost breaking into a upset-almost-going-to-fly-into-tears-and-rage mess. That little time frame between me saying and backing away from the issue at hand is sometimes just not fast enough. and her displeasure is only accented by her not being able to get what she wanted to do in the first place.

This is what i meant her being so touchy and ready to explode anytime.

Nowadays with more demands from her to do this, eat that, watch this now, do this now etc. There's a lot of distraction to be done, a lot of "No. Now now"s. I find myself being the bad guy around (as compared to my in-laws who are a lil more likely to give in than me).

This week is slightly better. I'm just praying that this is only a phase of due to her sickness and not so much of her character. Still it's a learning point for all of us, for her as well.

I just pray she gets well soon...it has been slightly over a week since she got sick last tuesday, and despite her cough and phelgmy-ness cleared, she's still having a slight runny nose that's disturbing her sleep at night. (which means my sleep gets disturbed too cos she'll keep waking up even after she has gone down for bedtime.) tonight she has woken up at least 4 times since she fell asleep earlier.

Nonetheless, she's still the cutie pie and full of fun :)

Learning to play together

2010-06-21T22:58:00.002+08:00

I guess it is a part of growing up. Learning to socialize, to share, to play together. Even as i see Eliza's 4 & 6yr old cousins play, they're still learning! A lot of times we have to mediate between them and guide them to play without ending up in a fight or a load of complains.

I wonder if it's some of Eliza's experience with other kids who are younger than her, that she was very protective over the things she plays, or it's a developmental phase. She doesn't like to hang around younger kids or sometimes kids her age, as if she's wary that they will take the toys she's playing. Then she'll get very upset about the whole situation.
Or she'll take what a younger kid is playing and a whole tense situation will ensue as we'll be disapproving of her actions and get her to return the toy which she'll throw it or hold on even tighter.

Most of the time it ends in tears.

Now, what helps is to prepare her for the possible situation when some sharing while playing together is required. We help her to understand that she can say no to another kid who wants to take her toy or she can give the toy. And when she wants another kid's toy, to wait for her turn, to ask or to find another better toy, or to play together (a concept which i think will take a while to master).

It's not that she doesn't play nice...she'll generously pass a toy to another kid when encouraged to and when the kid isn't being mean or threatening to her. I've seen her wait really patiently for a little boy to finish playing the train tracks. The boy was playing forever...and when his parents tried once to distract him away he almost broke down. But Eliza continued to wait...she told herself, "wait for train". I think the parents was paishe that she was waiting so long that they eventually carried their son away from the toy to something else, not without protests from the little boy.

With some practice, with some guidance, with some wisdom, may God grow her to be a good friend, a kind and loving one.

Updating

2010-06-21T22:35:00.003+08:00

Zoo Trip
We made 2 zoo trips this june holidays. One with a group of cell bro&sis (not our cell though but we join them in their outings from time to time), and another with Ww's school teachers for their recce for a school programme.

It's always fun to visit the zoo and see all the animals...i taught Eliza the song "we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo" and the next day she's pestering me to bring her there again and pestering me to sing it to her to sleep. If it wasn't so far and expensive, i would be one of our regular weekend outings. ha!

Marriott Hotel stay

We thought we'll try staying at Marriott Hotel instead of Ritz Carlton this time round (using the Marriot rewards points). And had fun time mostly at the pool. We figured since we're STILL in singapore, we might as well make full use of the facilities, in the room and at the pool side so it's pool play as much as we can.

The wonderful thing about the pool is that the shallow pool part is quite a large portion and Eliza had great fun exploring, playing, "swimming".

We had my in-laws pop by before going for dinner together. I guess kids bring out the fun in grandparents eh?

After dinner we found that the chambermaids have so thoughtfully put the Marriott tiger beside Elmo on the bed, with Elmo's arm around the tiger too!

Eliza declared that the tiger's Elmo's friend :)

Eliza & painting
Almost a weekly or fortnightly activity we do on my weekends. We have progressed from just hand painting (or you can call it hand smearing), to using the paint brush, to painting the paint palette (or plate), to sponging (i only used one sponge and have yet to find a cheap nice sponge to cut shapes), to using the cookie cutter that i got for playdough-play to do stamping. see even i evolve during painting class...

She has also started to draw 'smiley' mouths to paint out a happy face.
Painting is a way to learn how to use the tools more than drawing real stuffs. I have been trying to teach her to hold the paintbrush properly (same goes for all other crayons and pens). She's also getting better at the "hand-printing". Now i see the handprint!

Eliza & Drawing
Eliza will ask us to draw things or we'll just spin out whatever doodles.
Here is daddy's drawing of Eliza driving a car...and Eliza wanted him to draw mummy, daddy, ah-ma, ah-gong.

So now you know why the people behind are so small

New stage of socialization

2010-06-06T22:14:00.003+08:00

Just so i don't forget....from the time Eliza was aware of the people around her, not much people are lucky enough to carry her, or at least without her protesting violently. I kinda accepted that and didn't try to force her away. So if she takes to anyone carrying her, that's good; if she doesn't that so be it.
Recently after a visit to a friend's house, Eliza let my friend's hubby carry her...willingly. We told them, they must be really lucky. And then from CNY onwards, she was friendlier to people than she used to before. Nowadays, if you request to carry her, she would generally oblige.

This somehow just shows that on some things, kids just have their timing, as in when they are ready, they will be. Still it's not that easy to determine which are things that we let them naturally be ready to do stuff and which are the things we decide that they should do so. Take potty training, they will learn it when they are ready, yet if we don't provide the environment, will they learn it?

How about reading? I read stuff where people say that the right age is 6yrs, that we shouldn't rush them into it, that we should let their interest help them and not force them when they aren't ready. I've also ready stuff where many others say that the earlier the better. I like the earlier the better, but i guess 2.5yrs isn't the age they are ready anyway. I'm also starting to teach Eliza to listen to me finish reading the page, before flipping the page. We have enjoyed lots of spontaneity while reading. Nowadays, with familiar books, she tells me not to read them while she's readying -_-'

Stuff we do

2010-05-26T23:40:00.003+08:00

"Very good very good"
Yesterday, Eliza had a trip with my in-laws to NTUC to buy groceries and they passed by the toy section. I'm not sure if my mil had planned to buy the toys for her or that she saw her so excited at seeing the toys that she wanted to buy something for her. Some of the toys must be quite high up so my mil pointed to a ironing toy set and asked her if that's the one she wants and Eliza replied "yes, yes. very good very good".
My mil was so amused by her that she just had to recount it to all of us a few times. I think Eliza must have found it quite fun to say that so I've been hearing it the whole day (or more like b4 i go out for work and when i came back)

SCO Children's Concert
This is Eliza's 2nd 'formal' concert. The first one was at Victoria Concert Hall with complimentary tickets given by Lynette. She was only about almost 12 months then...i think. When i saw one organized by SCO at quite an affordable price of $12 per person (yes Eliza has to pay too!), i just had to bring her. I know she loves music and somehow orchestras seem to captivate her quite a bit with the big group of people playing instruments together.

So i prepared her the night before, telling her that we're going to the concert etc etc. Too bad it was a friday, else Ww would have joined us as well.
Anyway the concert teaches kids about the terms for fast and slow in music & about conducting. Eliza wasn't paying much attention when all the talking was on, but when the music played she was moving or conducting away. The only 'inconvenience' was she saw the kindergarten kids going out of their seats and she asked me where they're going. I said that they're going the toilet and she wanted to go too! We went. She sat on the toilet bowl and declared that she was done. No pee. geee..
She had a good time i know. When i was explaining to her about an advertisement with an outdoor concert, she declared that she wanted to go to a concert. So now she has gotten the concept of a concert.

Helix Bridge Walk
So we did the usual stuff that most other Singaporeans did, walk the Helix bridge. We were just finding somewhere to go and something to do. It was a nice walk anyway, with Ww carrying her quite a bit cos she was scared. I can't remember what of.

Art park

Some hexagonal step lights that captivated her so much she didn't realize we were so far away.

Sungai Buloh
Yes we went there...i can't believe it is in such a ulu part of the world. Even the drive in was so ulu. My sil & her boys were there for a walk. And we were to join them though we were quite late.Eliza was still napping then but woke up after 1hr of nap cos the terrain was just too bumpy as we pushed the stroller. Anyway we saw squirrels, horseshoe crabs, lots of fishes, lots of monitor lizards. It was fun tho the route was just too long. I'll probably plan for another trip there someday. the 5hr walk to the freshwater pond sounds quite intimidating though.

Drawing
We're doing a lot of drawing...or more like Eliza giving us the crayon/colour pencil and asking us to colour/draw. It's her super favourite time cos maybe she has our attention during the drawing time.

I try to take photos of the drawings that we've made...usually with scribbles added by Ww, my mil and me...occasionally her cousins or our guests.

Recently she has taken a full love for painting...she super loved it when we did it during the parent-toddler class...now she'll mention it almost everyday, especially since we have been doing painting (from finger to hand to sponge to paintbrush painting) at home.

Stuff Eliza says and does
- She'll pat hers or our tummy and say "tummy big big" in her very funny way. So much for daddy getting her to say i'm fat!
- She saw the floor outside the kitchen toilet to be slightly wet and she asked "why so wet?" in the tone my mil would have said
- I was telling her that i'm going to work and she said "mummy come back", as if wanting me to come back immediately. so i had to convince her that i'll be back, at night.
- she/we farted and she'll in her very amused manner ask "who poot poot?!"

It's such a joy seeing my little girl grow up, hearing her talk (and hearing myself through her cos what i say, she picks it up and takes after me somehow), learning with her and knowing her. Ww & I will swoon over the stuff she has done that day and is obviously proud of her, like every parent would be.

Sleep talking

2010-05-11T23:24:00.002+08:00

We always sleep around 3 hours after Eliza goes to sleep and i wonder if it's like the peak time for sleep talking because many-a-times we have been surprised by her talking in the middle of the night. Sometimes we can't make out what she said but we have heard her sing (jingle bells & the gongxi song). Ok the singing is just one phrase but it was hilarious enough for us to stop and try not to laugh too loudly. Awww...she's soo cute. I wonder what goes on in her dreams.

Recently, Ww and I was going into the room to sleep and we heard her longest sleep talk.
"I want to go playground. I want milk. I want to pee. I want to 大便." Oooohh!! hahaha! so cuttte :)

Well you can guess what we have been talking about all the time. :P

Sunday & Monday

2010-05-04T23:23:00.002+08:00

Sunday
- church service at 830am.
I've gotten used to not bathing her on sunday mornings (except for washing her butt else she gets rashes from sitting in her wet diapers at night), cos we just don't have time, esp if i factor in us waking up late / i haven't packed bag / Ww is on duty. No zipping out of the house in record time like 15mins, cos there's always 101 things to do, and even when i leave the house i just wonder if i had forgotten something. I've got to also factor in Eliza's morning milk, changing and getting her ready, it's never a good idea to rush a toddler or stop one from her task in a swift manner, it's just a recipe for an unnecessary meltdown.

- For logistics and routine sake, we were always at the 1st service which is, on sunday terms, quite early. Since there's no sunday school for toddlers during the 830am service (i think there's only 2 or 3 toddlers in this service), i usually prefer that we stay through the worship part and move off to the 'cry room' during the sermon, lest she makes too much noise. But, if Amos is there, she doesn't want to go in, so i'm left to hang around outside with her. Now that she is more able to understand the meaning of being quiet, i'm able to stay in the service with her and listen to the sermon quite peacefully (that is on good days lah). I don't expect kids her age to understand much of what goes on in the service so it's finding ways to keep her occupied. Well...actually she usually has her morning snack during that time, and just this sunday, i realized i could bring crayons & paper! why didn't i think of that b4. *slap head* She was really quite busy colouring for almost 30mins! after which we had to go out for some stomping on the grass and plucking flowers/weeds.

- Mother's day lunch with mum & sis @ Paramount Tung Lok. yummmsss...and Eliza almost finished the peanut snack. gosh. she 'mmmm-ed' the delicious Ee-fu noodles, till she somewhat choked on it and didn't want it anymore. By the time we were finishing, she was quite tired out. Anyway, we had a good meal, walked about Parkway before making our way to Danny&Shuyi's housewarming to hear great news :)

Monday
...is our cycling day.
The plan was to cycle from Changi Beach to East Coast and finish off with play at Polliwogs. We started late cos we woke up late (8am...that's late on Eliza's terms..and usually if we can sleep in, she's always the first to wake up). I also had to wash clothes!! So by the time we set off it was 9am.

- Changi ride to ECP was a more leisurely one than the 1st cycling trip. The only discomfort is the sweltering hot sun...i could feel myself being tanned away! Eliza has it easiest of all and other than the very loud planes landing and taking off as we cycled past the airport runway, she nicely hid in daddy's shade, eating her cheerios away.
As usual, she was singing away, or putting her fingers in her ears, waving hi to me, ringing the bell, 'pushing' daddy's peddling thighs.
I wonder where we're going next!
(photos in the hp which i can't transfer out yet)

Friday and Saturday

2010-05-04T00:26:00.004+08:00

We have had a great weekend!

Friday:
(ok this part wasn't so great, cos i had to go for my dentist appointment that cost me $400)
- Went to expo to check out the Borders sale / Metro sale / Baby fair. Kinda disappointing. I also bought finger paints there for Eliza that i later realized was cheaper at Toy R' Us :S
Realized that Eliza spots things i don't usually see, and sometimes it's a challenge to figure out what she says cos it's either not the most accurate pronunciation or she's at a different height from me.
Anyway she saw Clifford the dog mascot at the Borders sale walking around, and kept trying to point it out to me, but it took me like forever to realize that.
- Went for a date with Ww which didn't start out too well cos he was quite upset about the exorbitant price the dentist charged...he felt that it was way overpriced.

Saturday:
- Breakfast at Cartel. More for us than for her since she doesn't really eat bread and egg. So only the hashbrowns was a hit with her.
- Finger painting! It was a mess! Still it was super fun for her to have free reign of how she wants to mess the paper with the paints.

She's giving me her very sweet, i'm-all-ready smile :)

Kids are really more unreserved with mess...i would only use my 1 finger, (also cos i was taking photos). At one point she even used her foot! ahhh!! drove me nuts for a while cos after that it was on the floor!

I thought i only wanted to use two colours, and it got more fun as i added on the colours. Here's her finished product. You'll know which is done by her and which is done by me.

- Actually finger painting was really quite a short activity to do, even though there's still like cleaning up to do. Her cousins were over at our place but when she woke from her nap, they were going to take theirs so we had quite some time to spare.

Eliza started playing on the sofa, playing "where's eliza". Of course, having loads of fun.

- As some of the stuffed toys fell on the floor she started to arrange them and getting them to sleep. It's the beginnings of a lot more imaginative play, we've seen it on and off the past few months but now she's like great friends with her toys. She gets them to sleep, wakes them up, asks them if they "want to pee?", cleans their butt (by pinching it using her fingers. the first time i saw it, it was just tooooo hilarious!), kisses them etc. Gosh, it's so much of a reflection of what we do day in day out at home, and she's reenacting it with her toys.

She sleeps with them too. :P

- We had a good dinner and she ate till her tummy was quite big! :O on many a days when i don't cook, (except for this week), i would go to the coffee shop to buy 菜饭. It's so much better than buying noodles and i can choose to have a good variety of veg to meat. Just last week, she declared to my mil that she doesn't want to eat porridge and would rather have ruce, so our slow cooker has retired to the storeroom.

- After that we sent my mil off to the airport as she was going to Hokkiado. Which means that i'm home all week!! Anyway, the airport is a fantastic running space...which Eliza made us 'exercise' by running and running and running. If we didn't budge, she'll come back and nudge us at our thighs (that's how tall she is). Gosh i had a mini workout, but i guess she had a bigger workout!

Our mini cycling excursion

2010-04-10T14:09:00.003+08:00

One fine day on one of the library outings, we went across to Sunplaza park where Ww saw the PCN bicycle rental kiosk. He suggested we could do a cycling trip with him cycling with Eliza in the seat. It took us like weeks (maybe months) before we really got down to do it. Sometimes it was the weather, sometimes i didn't think i really want to do that. My hesitation is mainly on whether Eliza will cooperate and sit in the bike, with daddy. I didn't think i would be able to cycle another weight of Eliza + have that seat in front of me.

Anyway during the Good Friday weekend, we really did it! We got Eliza excited about sitting in a bicycle and so there we went.

The cycle to Pasir Ris was quite a breeze, especially as we followed the PCN route. On and off Eliza need to see me as there isn't always space to cycle side by side. We were really thankful that the bell at the front of the bicycle kept her quite busy in the initial part of the ride when she was still warming up to the actual experience.

Ww would point out the flowers / kites / canals etc to her and sing with her to keep her entertained. Great daddy-daughter bonding time :)

Most of the time i could only take photos at the traffic junctions when we stop so there! This is just after Downtown east, at the big field where a lot of people were flying kites. After this part, somewhere towards Loyang, there was at least 1-2km of gentle upslope that just we too much for me. After that i was just too bished out. It was still manageable as long as there isn't any upslope.

Eliza playing with the gears now. Anyway, Eliza kept herself busy singing 80% of the time. Ww also joined in with her till she turned around to put her palm at his mouth, signaling him to stop signing. Funny girl!

The initial plan was to cycle till East Coast Park but by the time we reached Changi Beach, i was quite spent by the 2 to 3 major slopes in the route. In all i think we cycled about 10km? They have the distance markers on the ground and i was getting happier and happier as the numbers decreased, meaning that we're getting closer to our destination. Anyway, I was so super duper relieved that there was a PCN bicycle rental at Changi beach to return the bicycles else we'll have to really cycle all the way to East Coast! :S phews!
Btw, the last place you would want to be on a weekend for some peace and solitude, not to mention parking space....is Changi Village. Really the cars are ready to park on top of each other we were thankful we were on bikes and taking public transport.

Anyway it was just about dinner time and i was also glad that we didn't have to delay Eliza's dinner time. She chose noodles for dinner that day (no the photo doesn't show it cos by the time the noodles came we were eating the fried rice halfway..delicious!).

Oh and we ended the evening with ice-cream at Blic our current favourite after dinner/ dessert
place, especially for Eliza. Wonderful part of it is that it's just a 5mins walk away from home. So far we've been eating toddler safe ice-cream (ie no mint / no liquor / no sourness ice-cream). Maybe I'll pop by with Ww someday for the non-toddler safe ice-creams that i love too.

Sharing

2010-04-05T00:12:00.003+08:00

Oh the woes of toddler sharing. Somehow, this year, she wasn't too nice on playing with other kids her age, well..in particular Amos whom we usually have playdates with. I've been scratching my head on how to deal with the offensive reactions & emotional outbursts she has towards kids coming to take her toys she has in her hands.

We were at Pollywogs once when a toddler boy, probably younger than her, came towards her and pulled the big ball she had in her hands. She threw herself onto the ball pit and wailed bitterly. Gosh...i was a bit taken aback by her reaction but on hindsight and after some reading up, I'm thinking that it was because she hated the little kids coming to snatch things away from her. We don't like it either if it happens to us. Somehow she prefers older kids cos they don't do that to her...i think it's more like the other way around...she snatches things from them (like when she plays with her cousins who will lovingly give it to her) or is too afraid to go near them (if it's a older kid she doesn't know).

She also doesn't want to play with other kids, which means, if she's playing a toy, she wouldn't let the other kid touch any part of the toy, else she'll throw the toy or snatch it away...and that can be quite aggressive....the throwing the toy (so far she hasn't hit anyone, thank God!) and the pushing the kid's hand away from the toy. But kids this age is always interested in the other kids toy.

I think she particularly dislikes playing toys with Amos cos he'll always be interested in what she's playing and they always end up in some mess with Eliza pushing Amos away or crying and Amos hitting her (ok that only happened once or twice). But if it's doing stuff together like running about, playing outdoors, they're quite fine. i guess there's no toy to fight over?

Anyway, i've told her countless times that if she wants something she "must say 'please' " & "cannot snatch" which she'll chant that phrase to me...but can't seem to do it. Seems like this isn't working out. I understand that this is a common phase that toddlers go through and i wonder when this will end.

Quote two mums' reply which i'll try to use:
"Something we have been told is not to share but to say turn. Lily had an older child to learn behaviour off (sometimes great - sometimes not so). So when she snatched a toy we don't say "share nicely" (well, not anymore), but we say something like "Lily, it's Jane's turn. Lily can have a turn after Jane".
And yes, we also tell Lily not to throw, if you do it again I will take it away - and we always follow thru. She is starting to get the message.
We are seeing the benefits of this now as Lily has just started saying "turn" when she wants something that we've got and she wants to play with. "

" It doesn't mean the toy has to actually belong to them, but when they are playing with it they perceive it as theirs. It is healthy and appropriate for children this age to take turns rather than share. If your child is the one with the toy, tell them "Jenny wants to play with that when you are done. Can you give it to her when you are done?" Then, when you see that they are done with the toy and put it down, remind them "Are you all done? If you are all done, you need to give it to Jenny" and help them hand it over at that time if they are still having trouble. If your child wants a toy that someone else has, teach them how to ask for it. Give them words if they are too young to have any. "You want to play with that? Ask Mike if you can have it when he is done"

Another from justthefacts.com
"When a playmate suddenly snatches your child’s toy, it’s important not to jump in and start scolding or comforting. Instead, act as a mediator and teach your toddler to speak up for herself, says Schafer. You can check in with your child and ask her, “do you like being treated that way?” And if she says no, tell her “then you need to speak up,” says Schafer.

Teach your child to communicate with her playmate by saying something like: “Can you tell your friend how you feel and say ‘I’m not done yet?’” Follow this by saying “your friend is asking for a turn when you’re done, can you find him and give him the toy when you’re finished?” This puts the control in the hands of your child instead of you simply saying “It’s his turn now,” and handing the toy over.

Toddler friendships can be a bit rocky at times and if things seem to be getting out of hand, it’s okay to step in as long as you do it without overreacting. “Hitting, biting and other aggressive behavior are often a sign that children are trying to connect,” says Schafer. “They’re just trying to figure out how to play and haven’t quite got it yet.” Your knee-jerk reaction may be to want to separate them, when sometimes you just need to redirect them toward cooperative play, she says. “You can say something like, ‘it looks like you really want to play with this boy, so how about we build a fort together?’”

Talking, Sleeping, Scratching

2010-03-29T23:47:00.006+08:00

On Conversations and talk

"Last time, mummy"
I heard myself in her these days. She'll repeat to me what i've said to her, in relevant conversations, even if it's something i said a day ago. This evening she was arranging her Legos on the cover and after pouring it out on the floor she wanted to do it again. I was telling her that it's time to keep her Legos as it's bedtime. She nonchalantly told me "Last time, mummy". I was a little surprised by her request but let her play it one last time before keeping it away.

"What is this, mm?"
Really, until i hear her say some things i really don't know that I have said it to her....even on a daily basis. Sometimes when i catch myself saying it, i would feel a little embarrassed. Actually, some phrases are quite harmless...more silly and funny to hear her say it anyway.
The best one was on one of the weekends when her cousins were at our place and she took her flashcard, showed it to her youngest cousin (word facing him and picture facing her), and she asked him "What is this, hmm??" the "hmm?" is those high pitched tone which when Ww and I saw it played right in front of us we wanted to laugh ourselves silly. After that i realized she does that very often to her Elmos and stuffed toys too..she'll ask them if they want to sleep or whether they want to eat etc etc. Plus it will end with a "hmm?"
geez...i do that all the time with her...know you know why.

"Eliza so happy"
This says it all. She'll announce to us that she's happy...when we're going out, after we had a good time out, while we're playing tickle and making the bed, while daddy's carrying her to fly and she laughs her heart out, while she's singing heartily (i think she sings like half of her awake time) etc.
It's really nice to her that from her. Makes mummy happy too :)

Her fav play - helping me make the bed...or more like mess the bed. She'll tell me "Lingling go to sleep. Lingling wake up le". Sometimes we'll play rolling around and hiding under the covers. Nowadays she's really good at helping me smoothing the ends and making the quilt cover neat.

On Sleeping
I always feel Eliza can sleep herself longer but somehow on average she gets 10hr nights and less (esp during those late nights + early mornings), and 1-2hr naps. It varies quite a bit. But somehow, the bedtime has felt easier these days. For now, after brushing teeth, bedtime diapers, and prayers, it's goodnight and off to sleep. I've skipped the reading before bed somehow cos she's very good at extending the reading time and it ends up becomes a tool for her not to sleep + a crying spat if it doesn't end off well. I try reading at other times of the day then, or if i have time, before her bedtime milk / brushing teeth.
Anyway, nowadays i've told her that she doesn't need me to pat her but i'll sing or hum a song while i read some stuff. If she starts standing up or scratching the bed netting or whatever, i'll stop singing and ignore her. Normally she'll realize i'm not singing and start ranting that she wants me to sing, which will only happen when she's lying down trying to sleep. So i'll hum & read, while she tangtang and tries to sleep. It's less a struggle and she settles to sleep faster.
Though i realized she always have to keep her eyes open until they're so tired she has to close it, and sometimes takes forever (exaggerated obviously..but it feels like it). I have to remind her to close her eyes so that she can sleep...gee..once she closes her eyes voluntarily, she's off to dreamland in seconds.

On night scratching
I wonder if after months of pondering over, rationalizing, ignoring the issue, resigning myself to the sad fate of waking up to Eliza's night frustrated scratching; I might have realized something that could ease or eliminate her itching. I'm not sure if it's the way she's going off to sleep (I tell her "mummy's not gonna scratch for you. you know how to scratch on your own" + "mummy don't need to patpat you to sleep. Eliza's a big girl now."), or if it's the bathing. Eliza's has, since 1yr plus, been afraid of the shower because somehow she always opens her eyes when water goes over her face or she breathes in water, she has always bathed in her bathtub. The problem with the bathtub is that after all that soaping, i'm still rinsing her with the same soap and prob the same dirt (not that she's that dirty anyway, but still). Recently, i've used another batch of clean water to rinse her hair and her body before she gets dried. I wonder if that eased the night scratching.
I didn't tell my mil that but today's bedtime she was scratching and scratching, just now she woke up and whined cos she was itchy (though, i just waited and listened, and eventually she rolled back to sleep). Maybe it was the bathwater.

Picnics, Cutting hair, Flashcards

2010-03-22T00:29:00.003+08:00

On outdoor concerts
I think sometimes we run out of places to go but on weekends when there are concerts in the park, we just love it. I think it's part enjoying the music and part letting Eliza run loose to check out other kids. (i don't quite enjoy the feeding Eliza part...cos picnicking dinner means we're on the groundsheet and nothing to hold her in). At this this time round it was quite ok since she was quite hungry.

tickling her and she happily let Ww do so

We listened to swing jazz, ate dinner under the cloudy sky, Eliza ran off to play bubbles with another kid and his helper, then she later dragged me off to see two boys playing baseball. it was quite a wet day and there wasn't a lot of people, not the best since you get all the wet grass stuck to you. Still, we love picnics like that...bliss!

On cutting hair
Before

After

My mil commented on how did i let the hairdresser cut her hair so short which wasn't the nicest, though we all agreed it made her look cheek-ier. I loved her previous hairstyle (or whatever there was in a mess), and my mil enjoyed clipping her hair in all cute manners. Still at least a shorter fringe will allow me to not have to cut her hair so often, after all it's the fringe that's a bother.
Thank God she was super duper cooperative during the hair snipping, to the extent that i think she enjoyed it! I'm always afraid she'll be afraid and will bring my ipodtouch as a backup plan. This time she sat on a 板 so that she's elevated (instead of on my lap previously), and we tell her that she's going to be 美美 after that.
I guess it must have been fun for her cos this evening during bedtime she was covering me with her blanket, just like when we go to the hairdressers, and telling me that she's cutting my hair, while using her fingers to pretend that she's cutting my hair. She even had to ensure that my shoulders are covered, like the real thing. She had such a kick at doing so that i had eventually tell her that it's night time and the shop needs to close. my cute girl. i just had to tell Ww what she did after that.

On creating her own sentences
It's really interesting to see and listen to how their conversations with you and others play out. A lot of it is learnt from what we say to her and she develops from there. It's amazing how God made toddlers to be language experts (well almost...after all they pick up language at such an amazing rate).

mosquitoes & brushing & others

2010-03-04T23:21:00.006+08:00

It's the end of the work week for me and somehow i'm so looking forward to this weekend to spend with Eliza. The past two weeks has been busy with outings and visitations etc so I'm looking forward to some peaceful home time and simple outing, downstairs at the playground + park and to the library with Eliza.

Meanwhile....
- Daddy's away in Perth on a work trip and i wonder what Eliza's reaction will be when we go pick him up at the airport tomorrow. So far we've told her that daddy has taken an airplane to Perth for work stuff.

- Eliza's bitten by the mosquitoes 5 times 2 nights ago. 3 on her cheek nearer her ear, 1 on her forehead and 1 near her elbow. Everytime she gets bitten it swells into a large hard lump and sometimes there's like pus inside. Gee...poor gal... The last time she got bitten it was on her heel and she was so uncomfortable that she refused to bathe, cos she was afraid it would hurt and she walked weird for a half-a-day. Sigh...seems like i have a resident mosquito and so far the mosquito repellent didn't seem to kill it, even though it may have warded it away when it's turned on.

- Toothbrushing
It has taken me about 2months+ to get her aquainted with her toothbrush and about 1 month with her brushing her teeth (or more like tongue) on her own and for a few weeks, me helping her brush her teeth. This was not a i-force-you thing to do cos i sensed it would backfire, moreover i didn't want to be brushing the teeth of a struggling and adamant toddler. So far it has been quite good until recently, somehow she would stand beside me while i brush my teeth but wouldn't let me brush hers after i'm done. the first time it happened, i talked for 10mins (trying out all kinds of tactics) before one worked. And it worked like a gem. The crying toothbrush which was sad that it didn't get to clean Eliza's teeth of all the plague. She opened her mouth immediately. And it worked so well, i'm using that everyday. :) I hope we do this so often that toothbrushing becomes a habit....minus the frills which are for now quite fun. Now i'm worried when that tactic will backfire...oops!
Still, our toddlers are such unpredictable beings...you never know what silly stuff tickles them silly or makes them more agreeable with you.

- Insisting nicely, consistently
I have been conscious to be consistent and to insist on some things which i didn't want her to develop a bad habit in. Eliza is very cooperative when it comes to keeping her toys and she can do it well, except for times when she's flying from one thing to another and can't seem to concentrate on the task at hand. She'll do it and flit off to another thing. This is one thing I'm trying to insist on, to finish what one starts. That when it's time to keep toys, we get the task done.
Sometimes, she won't agree on doing it. ie today halfway through her brushing the room door opened (cos of the wind and cos i didn't close it yet) and she suddenly wanted to go say 'night night' to ah-ma again. It took some wailing (ya bad enough for my mil to come and ask what happened), and protests before she could calm down and finish brushing her teeth (or at least come to the mummy-brush-your-teeth part). It would have been easier to let her go but i knew it would be harder for her to come back to continue brushing, and it was a good opportunity to teach her the value of finishing one's task (or more like not to be so distracted).
It was a bit of a struggle whether to insist as i didn't know if she would eventually cooperate and brush her teeth or breakdown into a pile of messier tears and worse, vomit due to crying too hard. Hope this little lesson/activity will help her in the long run. :)

- Schooling
Eliza has been expressing interest in going to school and i haven't really moved to really find out more about the playschools. Party because of all the things i've been reading regarding sending toddlers to school at such a young age. But i'm hoping to try out Charis Montessori's parent toddler class which is on saturday. Too bad it's not the nearest from home, else i would even consider their 2 or 3 day preschool. So far from what i've gleaned from the website, i like the small class size and the Christian focus it has. Still gotta go check it out to find out more. I have told Eliza beforehand that when she goes to school, mummy/daddy/ahma/ahgong will not be there, just teachers and her friends. Is she ok with that? So far she repeats after me. Still we'll try out the parent-toddler class first. My only problem is that it's not near my place that's all. More updates soon.

Playing Legos today

I'm so lazy to post + Talking & Singing

2010-02-20T01:05:00.003+08:00

The title says it. Most of my photos are now posted on facebook with captions which makes things easier so I think i'll give up on posting photos here until i feel like it.

Meanwhile...

There's not much going on just that we've been going out, doing our usual walks and play downstairs etc. I'm not planning to send her to any playgroup since she's still quite young and I've read more bad than good about early schooling. So while the very common question i get from friends and strangers are whether she's attending school, I do say that maybe when she's older. So home life is quite good enough, and we meet up another family for playtime on alternate weeks.

The other option is exploring homeschooling but with me working (even if it's 4 days a week), my home time with her is very limited. And while it's wonderful that my in-laws stay with us and help us take care of Eliza, sometimes i would like to experience a bit of hmm..challenge (?) like handling the home/cooking on my own. I'm not complaining and I really love that she enjoys the company of my mil, fil, sil + bf, cousins. My in-laws love her to bits...so it's nice to see her so showered with love. I'm quite pampered with the minimal amount of cooking & housework in need to do really.

Talking...
Eliza's talking a lot a lot more these days, and while not everything is that most accurate and understandable, it's loads easier to communicate with her, except when her calmness breaks down into a whiny tantrum. She speaks some Chinese too and 75% accurate cos some words sound quite English which is quite cute. We've been 'practicing' saying 晚安 for weeks at least and nowadays she can say it more accurately. Previously, it was wan1an3. She picks up some sentences too, like "阿妈戴眼镜".
Her hokkien can't be any better and the "ai" (yes) & "mai" (no) is so stuck she uses it for all her yeses and no-s. Many times we will overhear her talk to herself, " ai mai? ai" It's hard to undo it when it's still quite a common word heard around the house, esp when my in-laws talk. I've heard other words like "mai cha" (don't disturb) & "mai jia" (don't want to eat) from her before. Amazing!

Singing....
This is the age they LOVE to sing. At least Eliza does. She'll break into her No.1 hit song "ABC song" anytime. Her top 15 hits in no particular order (except for the abc song), cos it really depends on her moods.

1. ABC
2. Jingle bells (or sung "Jingle bars jingle bars" it has sounded much better closer to the word nowadays)
3. 恭喜 song
4. This little light of mine
5. Twinkle twinkle little star
6. Tinkle tinkle little pee
7. Round and round the garden
8. A-choo song
9. Ah-ma song (self composed...the words go "ahma ahma ahma ahma" in her own tune)
10. Ring-a-ring-a-roses
11. With Christ in the Vessel (i use it for going home..."driving driving home" or "walking walking home")
12. He's the Lord of the Sunshine (the part with "Pain" used to send her nuts giggling cos i'll sign it and look really pitiful)
13. Jesus Loves me (amazing how she caught it so fast cos i've been singing it to her since day1)
14. Colours of the Rainbow (baby signing time song...and the only one i can remember)
15. Row row row your boat

Other than these and those i can't remember, she'll generally hum some tune and follow the last words of the song. She remembers some of the words of the lullaby music that i always play for bedtime. Repetition is key, huh? But interesting how for some things, i need only to do it once and she gets it or remembers it.

She doesn't really sign nowadays but when i do sign some things like "sleep" cos i don't want to talk when it's time for her to zzz, she definately understands. She also knows that the animal skunk / owl / fox / badger / eagle etc are animals that she learnt from her BSL.

Guess you really can't measure how much your child knows isn't it? It's all hidden treasures, only known to them & God. It's up to us to open the doors of enjoying and knowing these things that they learn.

Potty progress

2010-02-02T21:55:00.006+08:00

It has been almost 3 weeks since we have started potty training.

There's so many stages to go but we'll take it step by step. Anyway she's fully potty trained on home ground (obviously minus the sleep times...kids this age still pee in the sleep..i wonder why). Just that she'll run to the potty and give some indication that she needs to pee. I'm in the process of getting her to learn to say it. She'll only pull down her panties/pants when we tell her to tho 50% of the time we do it for her...somehow depending on what she wears her panties/pants always gets stuck at her bottoms cos she only pulls by the front of the panties/pants.

I'm trying to teach her to wipe dry after she pees but the toilet paper is too far and i always forget until she has finished her pee. By the time i go get it, she would have jumped up and done something to her pee or scrutinize it. I think it's also time to put it nearer to the toilet or in it. So far she has poured pee on herself, stepped into her potty with pee and on more helpful times, helped to pour the pee away into the toilet bowl. Nowadays, she'll sit on the potty base while i go clear the pee and wash the potty part, and i'll usually say 'excuse me' to ask her to move away. I didn't know it was her 'magic' word to get out of the potty base cos my mil told me that Eliza didn't want to stand up and told her to say 'excuse me' to her before she would budge.

Training part was mostly done by my mil though cos somehow i don't have enough home time with her and when i do, she doesn't want to sit on her potty. My mil's the better person at coaxing and distracting her till progressively she was able to sit on it for as long as 1/2hour...or at least till she pees. Ok sometimes it's giving her something to do while we wait for her to pee...like playing some music.

That was the ardous beginning stage...getting her to get used to peeing in the potty. Of course, sometimes while trying to get the right feeling to make a poo, it helps to do some reading or watching tv...

So far so good, there has been no accidents this week at home. And she can hold her pee for a good 2hrs...though it also depends on how much water she drinks.

Oh but it's the going out that's more challenging. We have gone diaperless at my mum's place but that was still the early stage and i have had the potty there yet. So i had to hold her while she sits on the toilet bowl and wait for a pee. Somehow i think i asked her too often and she kept saying she didn't need to pee but after that wet her pants. Another time she was playing to crazily with daddy that she forgot she needed to pee and it was too late by the time she reached the toilet bowl. We tried her going diaperless for a playdate and so far so good..she did pee in the potty there. I also tried for her going diaperless during by short outings to the library with her, though she was too nervous with the noisy flushing in the public toilets to want to pee...so i think she held back till we got home.

She's still on diapers for long trips out so the next stage is to overcome the fear (both me & her!) of her peeing in the public toilets. I can't be bringing the potty everywhere i go! Yeah i should try it on sundays when we go church this week!

Play

2010-01-22T00:50:00.003+08:00

It's really fun when now that Eliza's older and she can play better on her own.

Read an article on NPR that "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills". Play is quite a hot topic these days isn't it? While i'm planning to plan things for Eliza to play, she really doesn't ever come to me and complain that she has nothing to do. She'll just hop on to another activity, regardless on whether it's a ok thing to do or a no-no (like opening the fridge to check out its contents, we have recently put a child-lock on the fridge to prevent her from doing so cos it was becoming too electricity wasting and distracting). Sometimes she'll ask me to play with her and sometimes she's quite happy on her own. Most of the time i realized, we are the ones who join in on her play. I'm asked to play when she is threatened by another kid nearby, or legos which we have always been playing with her on it.

Anyway to quote that article:
"Organizing play for kids has never seemed like more work. But researchers Adele Diamond and Deborah Leong have good news: The best kind of play costs nothing and really only has one main requirement — imagination. "

It is isn't it? Imagination.
I do think that Eliza's only on the early stages of imagination and it's too early to expect that from her but she has her own ways and ideas of playing without me even guiding her. While she does a lot of copying from us, somethings she does surprises us.

""It's interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys," says Chudacoff. "Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object."

Though at home i wonder what activity she can do other than tinker with her toys. She loves playing bouncing/throwing/rolling balls and it always sets her really excited. I do find that when i bring her downstairs to the playground and the park she also has her own ideas about where to run off to, with some prompting from me on what can or cannot be pick up. Once i give her the freedom to do so she'll be more or less of to her devices. Else, at times she's a little afraid of somethings like bugs and big kids and even adults.

"It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children's private speech declines. Essentially, because children's play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because kids' toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren't getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, says Berk, the results are clear: Self-regulation improves.
...

"Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time," Singer says. "I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills."

It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all."

I remember one of the most fun things during my pri school days was recess and after school when we do manage to beg our way out of the house to play downstairs. I do remember always teaming up with my cousins to beg our grandparents to let us go downstairs, to the school nearby to play at the physcial fitness equipments and look at the small farm that was there. We threw leaves into the small drain that was teaming with the after-storm water to see and chase it while it floats away and improvise from there. We played a lot of chasing games though and i always lose out to my very nimble cousin, that made the challenge more exciting and rewarding when i did win him though.

Oh well...i'm not sure if that helped us in anyway, but it was really memorable. Still can you measure play? I don't really think so and the results aren't always the most obvious. I do believe it works with a secure home foundation as well.

thank goodness our pre-schools here aren't going to be regularized. Cos after that it's not as fun when the exam stress comes in.

Obviously i knew who was the one who did it. She left me this "straw chair" after taking out the straws in the drawer, poking it in there and ran off, leaving me to find this. I was quite amused.

Education

2010-01-12T23:51:00.004+08:00

We have on and off always been talking about education in SG / for Eliza. And some of the books i've read have been really an inspiration. Ww is not for early schooling and if possible homeschool or have her in a good school (not the usual ones you can find in SG unless it's a International school..but then again, i have no idea what and Int' school is like anyway).

Still, it is hard to resist comparing with or keeping up with the educational flow that's going on here. A lot is about the results. (ask a teacher and the many awards their school they go after) Somewhere in pri school, i also knew that it was the results that i needed to achieve, it wasn't good getting below 75marks. It's hard to draw the line between the real learning or the learning to get the results. And we didn't want to put her in a system like that, that it is all about succeeding, getting the grades (yes even when the school is not blatantly saying it's about the grades). And me being part of the system, can't help but feel like that at times too. Now that Eliza's still young, these things are far far away. Still it's one of the major things we'll be going through as she gets older. I am not too certain whether i want to send Eliza to playgroup/preschool, but Ww is sure that she doesn't need to till she's at least 3. (any hopefully if we do go overseas, i may have no choice but to do pre-school homeschool..which isn't all that bad).
When i read an article from a mum's blog, and showed it to Ww, the more he's sure school isn't necessary for Eliza at this age. (check out the 2 links which the mum put in the blog). I remember him mentioning about it that kids pick up bad habits from kids and it is the adults that they pick up good habits from, even before he read it.

“We find that attendance in preschool centers, even for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which young children develop social skills and display the motivation to engage classroom tasks, as reported by their kindergarten teachers” (Loeb et al 2005).

We might guess that the problem lies with poor quality preschool centers. But even high income children—-who presumably attend the better preschools—-showed increased behavioral problems if they had attended at least 15 hours a week (Loeb et al 2005). Moreover, the effect is dosage-dependent. The more time children spend in centers, the worse their behavior becomes.

Researchers found that the more time kids spent in non-maternal care during the first 4.5 years of life, the more behavioral problems they developed."

Anyway, on another note, I love the principles by Charlotte Mason, quote:
"Her method, the Charlotte Mason method, is centered around the idea that education is three-pronged: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.

By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.

The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.

For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.”

She taught spelling by using passages from great books that communicate great ideas rather than just a list of words.

She encouraged spending time outdoors, interacting with God’s creation firsthand and learning the living ways of nature."

Sounds quite fun actually. The schools that follow CM's methods have schools in the morning and the afternoons is left for play outdoors. If education was like that, would not it be so much more fulfilling? would not it be so fun? You've got to read her books to get a better sense of what this is about.

I'm currently reading "For The Children's Sake - foundations of education and school" by
Susan Shaeffer Macaulay.

Hmm...the next thing I'll need to do is to quit my job.

Potty training prep

2010-01-05T00:08:00.002+08:00

Here we go on another potty training trial again. I mainly left it there after our last attempt...cos she was refusing to sit and i didn't know what to do. I thought i'll try again after our phuket trip so as to save me the trouble of potty training during the trip.

Last week, we got a new potty so that i can put one in my bathroom and one at the kitchen bathroom. And we tried sitting on it when i went to the toilet. She did sit twice that day. And the next day twice as well. The problem with that was that she didn't allow me to close the toilet door! And i had do that if there were people in the house. By the third day, she already blatantly said no and ran away! any further attempts ends up in tears.

There's no way i can force here to sit. It'll be a super bad idea.

I've read many articles that the child has to be ready too for potty training but honestly, some signs are hard to tell. She can somewhat pull down her pants but her big diapers always add that extra barrier. She can't be dry for 2hrs! by 1hr she would have prob wet her diapers big time. Really, i've got no idea how ready we all are. I just guess we'll give it a go.

I'm trying to get my mil to help me in this, but i'm not sure if she has done it yet. Cos now that i'm back to work, i really don't have the time to do so. So i'm gonna get my mil to practice going to the toilet with Eliza and getting her to sit on the potty. So hopefully by friday, we can start potty training more formally. At least i'll have 4 devoted days to do it. So no outings for this coming week.

this is kinda scary for me cos it's new territory but i'm prepared for all the bribery and praise and rewards. let's hope Eliza is too.

Sleep

2009-12-31T00:36:00.002+08:00

How interesting God created us and wired us all so differently yet so the same. My sleep patterns for now has been quite hmm..normal...in the sense that i sleep and wake up at about the same time all the time. Obviously my wake up times is pegged to Eliza's one. But i still sleep at anytime from 12-2am. Hardly earlier. Maybe at 11pm+ on some days when i'm really tired.

We aren't made to be robots. Really. When Eliza went to quite a predictable patten for bedtime, i was already wondering when she'll start changing her pattern.

After saying good night and hugs and kisses to everyone in the house, we'll start with picking her books for bedtime read to be left on the bed.
3. Then we'll go brush teeth (today i added a sit on potty to 'pee' with me).
4. Then switch off lights and close bathroom door
5. Read books. (nowadays it has expanded to 3-5 books lasting anytime from 10-20min of reading! i mean it's great la..but i wonder if she is just prolonging bedtime)
6. Pray...with Elmo too
7. Switch off lights
8. Go to window to say goodnight to whatever, whoever (moon, star, car, ah-gong's van, gugu's car, everybody, gorgor jiejie, etc etc)
9. Draw the curtains and take cream
10. Jump to bed, put cream, turn on music
11. Finish of milk and water
11. ZZzzzz

These days after we came back from Phuket, she seemed to develop a fear of sleeping with the lights out so Step.7 is skipped. We also skipp step.8 & 9. which i usually use to transit her to go into bed. So these few days i'll continue the book reading in her bed till she finished her books. and it's time to sleep.

Somehow the book reading has extended bedtime about 15mins longer than usual...and she has been waking up at 6am+ for milk, falling back to sleep till about 8am+. I kinda like that cos i get to sleep in this holidays. :) Just don't know how long this will last!

Phuket!

2009-12-28T22:30:00.008+08:00

I felt like i was busy all the way to Christmas, or i just didn't have much mood to update the blog cos there was other stuff to do. We had a great time at Phuket, so much so that we felt that the trip was just too short! The resort was really just too fantastic and even if you don't go out exploring the island like what we did, you could stay there all day. The pools were so relaxing & fun, the beach so enticing!

We could have gone to the more popular places but somehow we did a road trip thing and drove all around the island (and got lost a few times). Ww loved the Honda Jazz that was rented for 1200 baht a day, we topped up the 1/2 tank of petrol but the car was so fuel efficient that we only used 1/4 tank! argh. We basically checked out Patong beach, the Viewpoint, Phuket Aquarium, TongSai Waterfall and some beaches.

We'll love to go back there again and check out the more ulu but beautiful beaches, Phiphi island & stay there a night, stay a few more days at Maikao beach (the Marriot resorts there are super huge!), check out the other waterfall and maybe try a trek (we couldn't cos Eliza was zzzing in her stroller), maybe go see the Sunset at Sunset bay. If we don't go overseas for studies next year, i may try to convince Ww to go. hoho.

Thank God it was a short flight, so i whipped out all my bag of tricks to keep Eliza occupied. Of course the eating part was the most fun but accident prone part (think food and spoon all over the place).

My driver.

My backseat buddy...mostly sleeping for long drives.

Courtyard at Surin. comfy and huge. of course the water slide was fun for all of us. Eliza refused to stop...she kept wanting to go down the slide even after we did that countless times.

Lunch at Surin. Don't u love those pretty umbrellas...looks quite japanese. Eliza was snatching the fries before we gobble them all up. We didnt' expect out food to come with fries and Eliza was still recovering from her cough/runny nose...so she wasn't supposed to eat them.

This is Surin beach, the sea literally roared all the time. So we admired the beach from afar most of the time, wasn't too keen on dipping, also cos it was not recommended to swim. Still u see a lot of ppl in the sea anyway.

The few rare photos of us swimming in the pool, we were just too busy, especially at the slide

The first and last time Eliza wears the robe....cos it signals that it's time to get out of the pool, which she obviously doesn't want.

Jungcelon, Patong very big mall. We stopped there for dinner and to stock up on water. anyway we realized we were such water guzzlers that we needed 4litres a day...almost.

Day 2
We stopped by at Kamala beach.

Ended up in the late mornign at Patong for a swim and sand play. Eliza was picking up sea shells.

After Patong beach we were going around the island, popping by at the Viewpoint, some ulu beach which we thought was the Sunset viewpoint, drove along the east side of phuket and to phuket town. We got quite lost trying to find our way to Phuket Aquarium cos i couldn't gauge the distance in the map and the wasn't much road signs to guide you. We eventually stopped at the petrol station to ask for directions. haha..so amazing race.
this is my fav fish at the phuket aquarium...cos it was quite silly. 2-horned cow fish. Many funny silly fishes that put us in awe of God's amazing creation.

Our fav thing to do...coffee and dessert after Eliza falls off to sleep in her night stroll. She wouldn't sleep in the bedroom cos she'll either be too distracted or too afraid. So we stroll her to sleep. thank God she's back on routine back home after all the cut backs in our routines.

Day 3
We had to walk Surin beach again...this time in the morning when the sun isn't so high in the sky

Walked across the floating jetty...and we walked all the way to the end cos Eliza insists on walking all the way to the end.

Kids world at Courtyard at Surin. How could we miss this? If only we had more time for Eliza to hang around there.

Ball pit & slide!

The disappointing Tong Sai waterfall. disappointing cos we couldn't trek up further and that it cost us 200baht per person per entry. Not cheap!

We left her to continue to zzz while we trekked off to the other waterfall. (she was still within our view)

Checking in at JW Marriott with flower garlands and refreshing drink. We were quite early and had to wait about 2hrs for our room to be ready. So we went to have lunch and explored the place a bit.

Our room!! Larger than the one at Courtyard

Going for a dip at MaiKao beach, the waves were really strong but we enjoyed it loads. Eliza was laughing at Ww for being 'crashed' by the wave. Some were so big you could see the rip curl. Quite exicitng!

How could we miss a dip at the other pools...this is only one of the 3 pools at the resort. Eliza loved this steps part.

We'll be back again! I'm not sure if Eliza remembers all these but at least she can see the photos next time and know that she was there...and really enjoyed it. It was a happy day everyday, really, imagine snacking all day, swimming everyday, playing in the huge toylands.

We had a great time too, especially with Eliza. There were places we would have gone (the Island tour) or done without Eliza along and our schedules were shorter to accommodate her sleep times; our luggage was mostly her stuff (food, clothes, logistics, stuff), but with her it made the trip all the fun. I loved playing at the Kids world with her too! Nevertheless, like we always say, we can't help but want to bring her along to travel wherever we go, cos she's so fun to be with and we know she'll enjoy it too.

Daddy sleep~!

2009-12-13T00:52:00.004+08:00

I love snoozing on weekends (which starts on friday) even after Eliza wakes up at about 7-730am. I'll usually go to the kitchen, make milk for her, and plop back to snooze/sleep while she finishes up her milk. Usually she'll pop off outside to read her books or play with her toys...and i'll enjoy my snooze for 1/2 to 1hr more.

Since last friday, she would gave me my spectacles to wear, and try to get me out of bed. She'll say: " mummy come out~~~" (in her Eliza way of saying...sound kinda deh~)

And Ww was also still in bed so she looked at him while i was trying to get up and commanded him: " daddy sleep~~ "

obviously, Ww was happily plop back to enjoy his privilege to sleep.

there goes the end of my snoozing mornings.

Eliza's 2nd birthday

2009-12-13T00:47:00.002+08:00

We celebrated Eliza's birthday 3 times. mainly with Ww's side of the family

and my side of the family,

and another bigger celebration with our cell groups and '81 gang of friends.

So much for the practice...she got the gitz of birthday celebrations.
More photos in my facebook account..i'm too lazy to double post. :P

the boring mechanics of sleep

2009-12-10T00:08:00.004+08:00

I've always been quite particular about getting Eliza sleep enough and in routine. Of course, like every other human being, we deviate from the norm sometimes. Still...i do enforce the usual nap & sleep times, which of course Eliza doesn't complain about cos she is tired by then anyway. The problem with sleep is also that Eliza's growing and her sleep needs changes as she grows so we've gotta make adjustments here and there.
I think one of the fears is that her lack of sleep will make everything and everyone else irritable. Of all the 365x2 days we've been though, i have tried and test (in a way), and agree with what many books/experts say about lack of sleep.

"When they become overtired, they have a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep, and they get up earlier than if they were put down at an appropriate time." -Jill Spivack

Saturday afternoons are the worst...cos when Eliza's cousins are here and they don't nap, it is quite a challenge to get her to her room to sleep. She'll want to join them, and hearing their shouts and loud voices outside her room doesn't help a bit at all. Somehow kids don't quite have the capacity to control their volumes is it? We always remind the boys but they still shout across the house. So we always end up with Eliza crying and throwing tantrums cos she's not allowed to go out and play. Still she sleeps eventually, after being so exhausted from all that tussle.

Bedtime
Eliza used to eventually fall asleep at 10pm+. (that's after taking 1hr to fall asleep) and yet wake up at 7am. So if i start bedtime later, she falls asleep even later. That also means that i have less 'peaceful' time before my own bedtime. Nowadays, since she has dropped her 2nd nap, she's able to be sent to bedtime at 8pm and fall asleep by 830pm, and most of the time wake up at 7+am the next day. So sleeping early doesn't always equate to waking up early. Really. That was one of my mil's concerns when i set her off to sleep really early. And that's one of the not so logical thing that i've learnt.

Early bedtime also means that i do get less time with her after work. The earliest i can get home is 730am. And like today when i'm home slightly later at 8pm, i'm left with so called 1/2hour to bathe, eat dinner, play with her, get her to drink her milk and supposedly go to the room for bedtime by 830pm. Oh but i missed her so much that i played cooking with her a little more till 9pm. It was more difficult to sleep, compared to her super smooth bedtime the past few days. She wanted to go out, wanted to ask for my mil, wanted daddy...etc requests which i had to deflect and distract. I knew letting her out of the room is a recipe for disaster (ok i'm exaggerating..but it just gets her excited again and result in the nap example i mentioned earlier).

Night wakings
I honestly think that i'm one of the selected mums that has her kid wanting to make contact in the middle of the night, even at 2yrs of age. Eliza on an average wakes up 1.5 times. There are good and bad times. Of course there had been exceptional days when she slept right through, there have also been days when she wakes up and makes a din.

One of the the problems with the nights was her scratching. We've been through this scratch to sleep period which is now a rare occourance, by the grace of God. This really cuts down the time she takes to go to sleep. But she still wakes up at night to scratch, though much lesser already. The key to this was partially, the heat. We turned on the air-con everynight nowadays (except these few days cos our air-con is spoilt). That helped. Though i think she somehow grew out of it and God answered my prayers. She still scratches when she wakes up and takes time to fall back to sleep....but at least it's not as often as before.

The other night wakings was her request for milk. It was an issue before and recently she has been asking for it again. Sometimes i do give her milk cos she has missed her nighttime milk or i felt she didn't eat enough during the day. Else, i would go out and give her water in her milk bottle.
Recently, after a discipline issue that Ww and I had a disagreement on, when Eliza was defiant on keeping her toys, i realized that i forgot all about the "staying put" method which we did use when we were going through the 'night milk wakings' previously. I tried it again with the night wakings for milk; Stayed put and refused to go out to get milk until she was tired of crying and struggling. All the while, i was carrying her and hugging her, occasionally telling her that there's no drinking of milk in the middle of the night. I knew she doesn't want milk and all she wants was to go out of the room, and the only way for her to do so was to ask for milk. Eventually she'll lean her head on my shoulder while i sang and rocked her till she's more calmed down and ready to go back to sleep.
It was a tough 2 nights but we had much better 2 nights after that. I was prepared to do that for a week! but i guess she got the point after 2 nights. Still i'm prepared that she might forget it and we have to do that all over again.

I guess we have to suffer a bit before we can have a break through...else we'll be suffering for life! (ok almost) Ww told me of his friend whose 5yr old daughter still waking up at 5am+ for milk...i don't want to be still doing that when Eliza's 5yrs old! That should keep me on my toes.

I'm learning still, learning to let go, learning when to stay firm, and learning to be consistent.

Speaking & Singing

2009-12-08T00:09:00.003+08:00

Eliza's been doing a lot of narrating & pointing out things that she sees. It quite fun listening to her talk to herself or sing to herself. Her Elmo song goes like this "lalalalalalla Elmo song....lalalalalaalal Elmo song" quite like the song anyway, just that it's not exactly the tune.

She's also practicing singing/saying her abcs. So i'll catch her saying the end part of it or the middle part of it or the front part of it. She misses some of the letters in between, though with some practice, she managed to add in the 'E,F,G' letters. She's also reciting her numbers, mostly in english though, as i don't always count in chinese when we walk up / down the stairs.

Even so, there are some pronouncation that gets lost and she probably hasn't reached the developmental level to say it correctly yet. Even the most commonly used word gets mished mashed up in the babbler that sometimes i don't understand that she's saying 'milk'!
So it's really important for me to label things, as in tell her what this is or what the action is etc, so that she can identify and tell it to me, if needed. She really catches on fast anyway. And with practice, she picks it up very quickly.

The funny part is her Chinese...she does get some of the 音 correct, i like "爱你" (which daddy has been practicing hard to get her to say). and some words like "晚安" sounds like wan1an3.

Of course her fav words are "Ai Mai?". and she has been talking to herself the past few days saying "Ai Mai? Ai"

I just wonder whether some of the intonations and style of saying things are caught on from me when i speak to her. Cos sometimes she sounds quite singsong in her talking...i'm not sure how to describe that...i guess u just gotta hear her to know.

Reading

2009-11-25T00:36:00.002+08:00

I've recently been reading articles online and reading about education and many ideas are challenging what i would usually expect. We all know early reading program is in the rage these days, even i bought the "You can teach your baby to read" vcd series. I've been half-hearted about teaching it though, partially cos Eliza is only half interested in the vcds (except when the songs come on). That books series was fun cos it was a flip up book and Eliza loved seeing the pictures in it...so we talk about the pictures, though she flips it so fast i don't quite get to say much.
While Eliza loves her books, i'm not sure i want to push her to start reading so early now. And reading from these books, the time will eventually come when she is ready to learn reading.

i chanced upon this book
A Home Start in Reading by Ruth Beechick

Prereading
"...when and how to begin teaching 'reading'. First let's take up the question of when. That's very important. ...The early starters have read books about how to teach their baby to read. They have labels on furniture, appliances, and doors all over the house. Their baby plays with word cards every day. The late starters are more relaxed. They read books too-the 'late is better' variety. They read to their children. They teach them to cook and garden and help fix the car. And they won't be upset if a child doesn't show a desire to read until age eight or so.

Which of your friends are right? ...In walking between the extremes, we probably lean more toward 'late' than 'early', not because there is anything especially wrong with the early systems, but because we have seen more damage done to the early children. ...but it's too often an over-anxious mother pushing for it.

It is trus that some children can learn to read remarkably early. But the fact that they can does not necessarily mean they should. Should is another question. One school district set up an experiment to help decide this question. Some kindergartners in the district received extensive instruction in reading. Others spent the same amount of time learning science. They melted ice. ...Books and pictures were available for these children if they wanted them, but no formal lessons in reading were held.

What did the school district learn? By third grade the 'science' children were far ahead of the 'reading' children in their reading scores. The reason? Their vocabularies and thinking skills were more advanced. They could read on more topics and understand higher level materials. The reading children, by starting earlier, used up a lot of learning time on the skills of reading, while the 'science' children spent the time learning real stuff. And when they did begin reading, they were older and knew more and learned in a fraction of the time that the others took.

...They drive home the fact that each child has only a limited amount of time in his early years. That time can be squandered in trying to teach reading before the 'optimum' time for it. Or it can be used wisely in teaching 'real stuff' that the child is read for. ...

The real stuff your child learns does not have to be only science. Science is a natural because children are curious about the world around them, and you can capitalize on that curiousity. But you can teach also about music, art, literature, money, work, safety, God, people, and everything else you and your child are interested in.

All such teaching is 'prereading' instruction. It is getting ready for reading. Everything your child learns increases his vocabulary and develops his thinking skills.

Prereading instruction, then, is wider than the whole world. Teach about the cooking and cleaning going on in your kitchen. Teach good eating habits, nutrition, care of teeth. And teach about the stars and the God who made them. Solve problems. "

This is quite a old book...printed in 1985. But somehow i find these wisdom from books such as these really refreshing from the many education 'methods' today. (i'm also reading For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay)

God help me to reflect on these things i'm learning so and learn to apply it in our lives.

Randoms

2009-11-23T23:54:00.002+08:00

Pear Juice
It's the age of "i want this and i want it now" (sometimes i think we don't outgrow it...how awful). Last night, we were at my mum's place having dinner and her fav thing at my mum's place is the Pear Juice. I wouldn't allow it till the meal is over, else she'll be too full to eat anymore. Somehow, a few more spoons to the end of her meal, she remember it and started asking for it. We had to come up with stories on why she can't drink it yet...and she wanted it so much she broke down into a pitiful cry-plea. I really don't know how to describe it, she wasn't jumping up and down or throwing herself about...and somehow halfway through we all started to find her expression so hilarious we started laughing. Anyway i wasn't going to give in and told her that she's able to drink it after she finishes her meal. amazingly she did. She asked for it again and wow, you should have seen the super-delighted-this-is-the-best-thing-in-my-life-look on her face when i got up to get it and opened it right before her eyes.

Quick cry and stop
There are times when she wants something not the most desirable to play with (like the long plastic rolls, or rice, or water in the cup..) and i'll allow. But there are times when doing or taking or playing somethings are an outright no-no. Depending on her mood and how much sleep she has had, she'll, at the mildest, cry and then stop immediately. At the worst, she'll throw a tantrum...or more like throw herself around and bang her head on the floor. (i come to find that this happens when she is not sleeping enough or when it's close to bedtime)

I think she was crying cos she was using the pen to rip the paper and then draw on the table, so i took the pen away.

And she stopped quite immediately to see the camera.

Play
It's quite fun to see her at play and the really interesting stuff her little mind comes up with.
I think she was walking Lion and getting him to go out to walk.

Nowadays she's talking more and she'll narrate her own play as well...somehow...i don't always understand what she's talking about.

lazy updates

2009-11-21T23:43:00.002+08:00

There's too much happening with too little time to update.

Been quite busy doing some design projects at nights but not busy blogging.

In short:

Out to Orchard :)

Daddy & Daughter enjoy nuaing in the ball pit

We loved the outdoor concerts, of music, bubbles and food. We'll try to make it to as many outdoor concerts at botanic gardens as we can :)

We're a family of bus-riders. Goes with practice...so Eliza does quite well on buses.

I've got to plan a bit for Eliza's mini bday celebrations next saturday. Finally am free to do it. phews.

Letter B

2009-11-07T23:30:00.004+08:00

We were on letter B for 2 weeks cos there're so many B words!

I didn't find any much B songs cos the star one was Pat-a-cake but i substituted it with the letter E. One or two i tried didn't quite catch with her. as her A song (the A-a-a-a-choo song)

We did Ball, Bubble, Balloon, Boat, Binoculars, Blue, Bean.

Anyway we started the letter B with colouring, as usual, which she'll happily scribble some few strokes for me.

This is our 'wall' which Eliza will paste the words and colouring for me.

Beans were a hit with her cos she could play with it and cook it..and...

Feed Elmo with it...ok it looks like he's intoxicated with green beans.

And we grew the green beans. Not that Eliza could really understand what growing is about till..

few days later when it bloomed. Actually it was a little neglected for the inital days cos i was working and i left the beans outside which made watering more difficult. After that i brought it in and got Eliza to touch the leaves and water the plants.
She super loves watering the plants, it's the water thing. Playing with water is the draw.

Making sure the water got in.

I should try putting these beans in the soil.

Then we folded paper boats like we folded aeroplanes. But silly me saw an activity to put paper boats in water and i did it....not that it lasted long anyway. I think the paper in the activity used was better ones. My coloured papers turned the water purple and yellow!! And it sank quite fast...esp when Eliza, in excitement flooded the boats.

On another day i tried to make plastic ones instead but it didn't look so boaty and i guess she couldn't quite tell from it. Got her to help me paste the sticker.

The fun was in stirring the boats with the stick

we try to water the green beans everyday

Got her to colour stuff to paste on the binoculars. I didn't exactly teach her the word but i thought it was a fun 'toy' to make.

tadaaa!

Bubbles was an activity we did for the week when our kid neighbour comes out to blow bubbles for her...which she super duper enjoys. And she could point out the word bubble for me. haa..i guess it's easier when you like it yah?

It's been fun learning or more like playing with her but i'm still learning to do stuff that's more age appropriate for her, so not too many dramatic or crafty things yet. Look out for letter C soon!