Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Sunday, 28 December 2008

I am glad that I have instilled in nat a love for books. Her bedtime ritual involves me reading to her the favourite bed time stories before she is off to bed. Everyday, she surprises me and it's really amazing just how fast children learn. I think some time back, I blogged about this Chinese reader on spiders that I have been reading to her. She really enjoys it and can now articulate various insect names in Mandarin, her favourite being the cockroach... Eww! As for English readers, her favourite is still Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar. Just this morning, I was reading to her again, when she suddenly took the book over from me and read a whole sentence. I was totally shocked and quickly asked Gary to come over and listen ... sigh ... she did not want to repeat the sentence again. I was asking Gary if she really did read the sentence using phonics or if it was based on memory. Gary thinks it's the latter.

While I do not have so many interesting stories of didi lucas, he is still my little sweetheart. His daily chuckles and laughs always melt my heart. Recently, he has been trying to flip, no success yet, but he's getting there. Try harder my little man, mummy's rooting for you :)


Saturday, December 27, 2008

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Time flies and how fast the children grow. This is how nat looked in Dec 07 and the second pic shows how she looks now.


Thursday, December 25, 2008

Thursday, 25 December 2008

A very Merry Christmas to everyone :) from my two darlings :)


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

A few videos of my 2 darlings and the activities they like to do when they are bored :) Didi lucas has a really loud voice, I don't think I have ever posted it online, so here goes. As for nat, I caught her playing hide and seek with her own reflection. The things you do at that age :) haha.





Monday, December 22, 2008

Monday, 22 December 2008


Today, we brought nat to the National Museum. The children's exhibition was over, so the visit to the museum did not seem as interesting as before. However, nat did have a good time checking out the digital pictures of the owls. It's kind of creepy actually, the owls move from time to time to various positions like sleeping, turning right and left, you can feel their eyes on you, from wherever you are standing.

Monday, 22 December 2008

Please do admire nat's new pyjamas, I got it for a steal at a recent sale on kid's clothes, so the "auntie" in me grabbed a few for my babies. I also managed to capture some videos of nat dancing as she enjoys her Barney VCDs.

Nat is such a cutie, I just witnessed her trying to climb onto the tv console. Halfway through, she said to herself " No climb, mummy scold", then she promptly clambered down. Sigh ... what a sweetheart.






Sunday, December 21, 2008

Sunday, 21 December 2008

I know that one has to be humble and all, but I can't help but post a pic of my pretty little girl here. She can be the poster girl for the umbrella company, what do you think? haha! I also included a video of my baby girl at the peak of her tantrum. Enjoy!




Saturday, December 20, 2008

Saturday, 20 December 2008

Baby nat has reached another milestone in her toddlerhood. She now engages in role playing games. She likes to swaddle her soft toys using the cloth diapers and rocks them to sleep, much like what we do to didi. Once, when she was drawing, I told her little mousy would like to draw too. Immediately, she picked up her mouse soft toy and pretended to manipulate his hands to draw. It's really interesting to watch her. Every day, she surprises me pleasantly by the things she says and does. Just yesterday, I was commenting that Daddy has a slight paunch. She looked at Daddy and then said Daddy has a paunch, then she pointed to her own tummy and said nat nat has a paunch ... that really got me chuckling, while gary looked mildy peeved, insulted by his own daughter :)

Nat is still going through her tantrumy and rebellious stage. Some days, she refuses to get out of her car seat. Instead of hauling her out and having her cry, I sometimes just leave her in the car for a few minutes, moving out of her visual range. She will look around for me and when I reappear, she is usually more agreeable to get out of the seat. Yet, for some other behavioural problems, I am still trying to figure out a solution. At the shopping mall, once out of her stroller, she refuses to get back in. You can just picture the scene she makes, struggling and screaming as I try to put her back by force. You can't imagine that a little girl, barely 2 years of age can be so strong. Yet, it requires both my maid and I to put her back in the stroller. And then seconds later, she has figured out how to squirm out of the harness. Sigh ...

Didi lucas is an attention seeker. He loves it when you are talking to him and will coo back to you in appreciation. He enjoys going out and is always curiously looking around when we bring him to new places. Thereafter, he will usually fall asleep in the comfort of the sling. He likes to grab things and hold them in his little hand, his favourite, being the little bolster.

Enjoy the pics, an early morning walk at the park with my mum :)


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

My little boy is offically just over 3 months old and how he has grown. We brought him for his 3-month appointment with Dr Terence Tan today and Lucas is 6.5kg and 60.5cm. Nat is 11.5kg.

Sometimes, I think words can't describe the love you feel towards your children. I love to look at them sleeping, so contented and sweet. And then when they are awake, the chaos running through the household. When they say "I love you", when they hold their little hand in yours, when they look in your eyes while you are carrying them ... these are feelings that will forever be etched in your memory, even when the children are all grown up.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Happiness is when you successfully lull your kids to sleep after hours of wakefulness. Today, my maid was off and gary and i had to mind the kids on our own. We were just lamenting that life changes when one has kids. In the past, after a morning out, we would jump into bed for an afternoon nap, without a care in the world. Now, look at the time, and I still haven't even had my nap yet :) haha.

Happiness is when you were feeling miserable at the thought of your dwindling milk supply, when suddenly it increases. After I started work again, my breastmilk supply seemed to be decreasing, which was rather depressing, considering how eager my little boy is to drink "fresh milk" daily, haha, it's nice to have an appreciative customer, you know. So, I made a more conscious effort to drink more water, pump more regularly and hey the milk supply seems to be increasing again. I'm glad for that, still targetting for the 6-month mark.

On Saturday, we brought nat to the Terminal 3 airport. Ran out of interesting places to go, didn't want to be a mall rat, so we thought, why not bring her to the airport where there is so much space for her to run and look at the planes. It was a great decision ... she had fun running around ... and they had a VISA promotion whereby nat could go into a candy house and have her pick of candies. We ended off the visit to the airport with a kiddy ride on the train. Interesting isn't it, we enjoyed these activities when we were young, and when we have our own kids, we enjoy them all over again. I must say, Mummy had lots of fun too :)




Friday, December 12, 2008

12 December 2008

My thoughts on "educating" the kids :) I had initially thought of sending nat to a nearby Montesorri from next year, however, I did a trial class for a day and decided against it. Nothing wrong with the school, it's a nice place, great teachers, the only problem is that I feel nat would learn more at home than in the school. At this tender age of 2, I think that the school serves mainly as a childcare facility. As there are many children in the school, you really can't expect the teacher to provide your kid with one-to-one attention all the time. At home, at least my mum reads to nat daily, sings to her, recites nursery rhymes, it's almost like a little kindergarten :) Yet, I would still like nat to have some social interaction with other kids. Have decided to send her to Julia Gabriel next year for the Mandarin Playclub. Let's hope she has fun.

Meanwhile, I'll try to teach her new things on my own. The internet is actually a great place for resources, many helpful mummies have posted useful materials and templates online. I feel it's really best to adapt different teaching methods to the way you feel most comfortable. People often say flash cards need to be flashed to the kids at top speed. I have often questioned that theory. For me, I don't really do the quick flashing method, instead I show nat the cards, I let her touch them and she often asks me "what's this?" when she cannot recognise the picture. We take our own sweet time ploughing through the cards and it's something she enjoys. So to me, there is really no hard and fast rule to learning, just go with the flow. Most importantly, let the kids have fun.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Tuesday, 9 December 2008

Today, nat gave a big sneeze and then she gave me a big grin and said 'excuse me', every day she surprises me with cutie things like that, really makes my day.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008

Nat is truly a water baby :) She enjoys her weekly swimming lessons and when you ask her if she likes swimming, she will immediately lie down on the floor and show you her swimming motion. I am very proud of my little baby, she is not afraid to put her head underwater, we even managed to capture the pic of her swimming below. Over the weekend, we went a hunting for a new swimming costume for nat, as her current one was getting a bit tight. Finally managed to find a nice one with a sweet little octopus print, i'll take a pic of her in it the next time we go swimming. When I put it on for her, she refused to take it off and promptly walked around in her swimming costume for the next hour. I do think that Singapore doesn't have enough nice swim wear for kids ... surfed on to some of the Australian kids swim wear sites and the designs are really nice, i just love the beach culture there.

This weekend, I also went a bit mad buying clothes for my two babies. They now have enough clothes for both of them to last through the new year or even after. I told Gary to stop me from buying anymore, but can't help it la, this is the season when all the sales are out in full force and it is so worth it to stock up on clothes for them.

My little Lukie has also progressed on to certain interesting milestones. He loves to smile and whenever he smiles at me, my heart just melts :) He likes to blow bubbles with his saliva and hugs his bolster when he sleeps. He loves going shopping and looks ever so handsome in his shirt and pants. Daddy says Lukie always kicks him when he sleeps so yesterday, we swopped sides on the bed, heehee, Lukie still ended up kicking him.

I love my kids, tantrums and all :)


Friday, December 05, 2008

Friday, 5 December 2008

I look at my 2 kids every day and feel really blessed to have such lovely children. As I always tell gary, one should never take these things for granted and we must always be thankful for such blessings in life.

Didi's features have changed quite a lot, from a scrawny screaming newborn to a handsome boy. He continues to drink a lot of milk and I sometimes have difficulty keeping up with his demands. He is a lot easier to handle at night and on good nights, he sometimes wakes up only once. The only thing is that sometimes when I am too lazy to change his diapers in the night, he will stain the bed and gary will wake up totally scandalised over the bright yellow poo on the bed hahaha. He is ever so alert, with his bright twinkly eyes that once can't just help loving him and showering kisses on him.

Nat, my little sweetheart is growing up so fast ... she is no longer my little baby but more like a little girl already. Like me, she has strong opinions on everything. While she can fly into one of her tantrums, which I usually just ignore, she can sometimes touch you by running up to you and saying : I love you, Mummy" ... I tell u, these things just make your heart melt. Her towel obesession is still going strong and I always have hankies ready all over, in the car, in my pocket, at popo's house ... everywhere and I'm ever ready to fish it out once she demands her towel. She is ever so conversant, telling me about snakes and monkeys in the jungle during car rides. When you play a tune that is not to her liking in the car, she will say "don't want" and request for a change of song.

We also went for a playdate with nat's baby friends this week. Interestingly, I think the kids are gradually reaching a stage where they can actually play together such as catching, drawing, building blocks, etc. It's nice to watch them and I'm really glad for these group of friends which I first met on the forum. Over the past year, we have grown to be firmer friends and it's great to have mummies and daddies with kids the same age to hang out with and share experiences and frustrations together.



Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thursday, 27 November 2008

One of my weekly routines with the kids is our trip to Botanic Gardens. If the weather is not too hot, nat runs to feed the fish at the lake. If the sun is too strong, we stay in the shade of the visitors' centre, where there are many nooks and corners for her to explore. Didi will enjoy the nice cool breeze in his stroller and drink his milk. It's nice ... even better when daddy join us, occasionally.





Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Didi lucas is getting a lot more interactive these days. He loves it when we talk to him and often coos back to us. He is actually a very good boy, brought him out last weekend and he is usually fast asleep in my baby bjorn sling most of the time, only cried when he is hungry. Most nights now, he wakes up about twice, but falls right back asleep after feeding. Only thing is that during weekends, when I am with him most of the day, he rejects the bottle. Somehow, when I am at work, he realises that he has no choice and drinks from the bottle, albeit reluctantly.

He sure is a screamer though. When he wants his milk or wants to be carried, he has no qualms about letting out a shrill cry. I should capture it on video one of these days. Gary says the grouchiness comes from me, i beg to differ haha.

I am so proud of nat. Today, she had her swimming lesson with Coach David and she managed to hold her breath for a few seconds while retrieving a toy underwater. The pool was heated today and felt relatively warm. When we dipped into the pool, she commented "The water is hot." Her comment got me chuckling ... it was said in a very matter of fact voice. Well, we look forward to more swimming lessons.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Monday, 24 November 2008

This weekend, we brought nat, our little water baby to the Downtown East water theme park. Had a free entry pass for the family, so I thought why not make good use of it. Was a good decision because nat had a really wonderful time there.

I'm not really a theme park kinda person so I was more like the official photographer for gary and nat. As I looked at gary running having fun with nat, I felt happy that nat and her daddy have such a close relationship. Nat adores her daddy and is always full of smiles when she is with him. He took her for interesting thrill rides on the slides at the theme park, while mummy the coward looked on haha.








Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

It's official, my baby nat has reached the terrible twos at the age of 21 months old. She screams, kicks, bites, scratches and throws tantrums up to 10 times a day. Naughty things she likes to do include: switching the TV on and off, climbing on the chair to tap at the computer, playing with the telephone etc. If you stop her from doing these things, immediately, she throws herself on the ground and gets into one of her crying tantrums. I've been wondering what to do? Scold her? Ignore her? Reason with her? I do hope this is just a phase she is going through. After all, I told myself I would not want my kid to be throwing themselves on the floor in public places throwing a tantrum, yet this is precisely what nat is doing. Maybe I should follow Super Nanny and try the "naughty corner" theory.

I sometimes find myself getting frustrated and losing my temper at nat, which is something I shouldn't do. At the end of the day, as I look on at my sleeping baby, all frustrations melt away and I remind myself just how much I love her.

On a more interesting note, I finally bought a table and chair set for nat. She has been sprawling on the floor while drawing and I thought that it is high time she got a proper "work" area. So this evening, I was assembling the table and chair for her. Being highly curious, she joined me. Look at the pic and admire her work of art. I was quite impressed that she even managed to put fit the screws and washers in the holes.

Nat has been continuing her swimming lessons and I'm really proud of her. She can hold her breathe for a few seconds underwater and can even blow bubbles. She really enjoys swimming, which is rather odd, considering she is always protesting during her bath time. Anywayz, check out her funky new hairstyle, courtesy of my mum ... haha ... this is called the bowl hair cut.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Been an interesting weekend. On Friday, I went to the Croc's sale at Singapore Expo. Innocently, I thought that it was a weekday morning and not many people would be there, so I brought nat along with me. I was thinking we could just whizz in, pick up some nice cheapie shoes and whizz out again, maybe even drop in at the East Coast beach. I was so wrong. The whole place was filled with people, grabbing and shoving and nat certainly did not like the crowd. Since I was all the way there, I was determined to get nat a pair of shoes, 2 pairs actually, with some shoving. nat was so frus at being squeezed in the crowd, she bit me ... my little savage ... sigh ... i gave her a lecture later on how she should not bite people. She did look slightly remorseful.

On Saturday, we brought nat to the nearby community centre. I had high expectations as the banner had publicised a night of puppetry and music. Unfortunately, the puppets scared nat. The moment the puppets came out, nat whined to go home saying she was scared. Yet, as we walked out, she kept turning around to glance at the puppets. The truth is, I thought the puppets were a bit frightening too, so I was glad to go ... sigh ... aren't puppets supposed to be sweet and cute?

On Sunday, we brought the whole family, including didi lucas to the Hort Park for a walk . I enjoyed myself, I like the after effects of a good walk or workout, makes u feel energised and refreshed. Although bringing didi out is sometimes very troublesome, I like to make the effort as I feel that it is important for us to do things as a family.

Photos to come later ... too lazy to download now.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thursday, 13 November

Been having sleepness nights quite a lot this week due to lucas's crankiness. Finally succumbed to the dark side of the force yesterday and gave him the pacifier. It seemed to work, kept him quiet, just before he slept, he seemed calmer and happier and he woke up only 2 times in the night as compared to 4-5 times.

Check out the video of big jiejie nat taking care of her didi.



Monday, November 10, 2008

Monday, 10 November 2008

A exciting weekend for nat. A trip to the zoo, the Sentosa beach and on Sunday, she met her baby friends at the Jacob Ballas carnival. It's no wonder that every night, she falls asleep really fast in bed. But it's great to see the smile on her face and see that she is having a good time.

Her favourite animal at the zoo is the tiger. She will imitate the growling sound of the tiger in an attempt to "scare" mummy. My little sweetheart also adores the beach. Place her on the sand and she runs around screaming straight into the sea and the whole entourage of us end up chasing her to make sure she doesn't fall into the sea. It's nice chilling by the beach in the evening with the kids. It's different from the past when gary and i would hang out by the beach in our board shorts, sip a magarita and look at people. With the kids, all our attention is focused on them and their cute antics. Didi lucas slept for a while, enjoying the sea breeze before waking up to look for milk.

Some updates on nat's development:

- she can recite the rhyme one two buckle my shoe ...it's quite funny, when she gets to the last line, nine ten, she very matter of factly tells you it's a big hen. Never fails to crack me up ... i should try to capture it on video.

- she is attempting to sing. i've been watching the sound of music cd with her occasionally and she likes to hum and sing the do-re-mi song. you've got to try really hard to decipher it though because she is way off pitch. The other song she likes to sing is Happy Birthday, courtesy of the baby songs cd i have in my car.

nat is also obsessed with towels, luckily she is not attached to any particular towel, her only requirement is that it has to be nice and clean. we offered her didi's smelly vomitty towel , she took a sniff at it and she flatly rejected it. Sigh, my baby has high towel standards.

How old is Nat?

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How old is Lucas?

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HOW OLD IS SAMANTHA?

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