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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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.

Friday, 7 November 2008

Whenever possible, I'll bring nat and lucas together with my maid to the park. It's nice to just have a stroll and enjoy the fresh air together with the kids. Recently, nat has just started to call didi baby lucas ... it's really very sweet ... and she gives didi a big fat kiss before she sleeps every night.

Tuesday, 4 November 2008



Today was a fun day for nat as I brought her to Dempsey for her free Aquaducks trial class. This is basically a swim programme for kids, from 6 months old. The instructor Coach David is young and energetic and nat had a lot of fun with him. Classes are kept very small with only about 3-4 babies/parents per session. I was quite impressed when this little boy (he looks about 10 months old) dived underwater to pick up a toy (of course with the help of the coach) and came back up unscathed. Nat had a screaming good time and learnt a new nursery rhyme - Humpty Dumpty. It's so cute, when we come to the part when Humpty has a great fall, the kids are encouraged to jump into the water. I'm beginning to bring nat out a bit more on my own, just like the old times, something which I really miss since didi came along. I'll probably continue these swim classes for nat for a term at least, and me and my little swim baby will have lots of fun together. How fast they grow up!

Another new milestone ... my sweetheart speaks in sentences ... When confined to the stroller against her will, she instructs mummy, saying "I come out!". When didi cries, she gleefully tells me "Mummy scold didi." When she wants her favourite ribena drink, she says "I am thirsty." It's really cute listening to her.

As for didi, we had a sleep breakthrough with him yesterday. Instead of his usual nocturnal ways, he actually nodded off at 10pm yesterday. What a good boy! Let's see if we can get him onto a routine.

Sunday, 2 November 2008

This weekend has been quite fun-filled for both our kids. Yeah, you heard right, both the kids. Decided to bring didi along to our outings, first to West Coast Park on Friday evening and later to Hort Park on Sunday morning. As usual, nat had a great time, running around, screaming and generally having lots of fun. Even didi seemed to have a good time. He did not cry much and after that slept quite well when we got home. Outings seem easier to manage when we have our maid along to help us.

I also did a spring cleaning of my wardrobe. Boo hoo, realised that I can't fit into lots of clothes anymore, like those nice cool board shorts I used to wear to the beach. Sigh ... the sacrifices of motherhood! Luckily, managed to squeeze into some of my old skirts and bermudas, so there is still some hope yet.

Oh yes, I have found yet another nice place to bring kids to. Since it's renovation, IKEA at Alexandra has a new play area for kids right in the middle of the restaurant. This way, parents can sit down and have a cup of coffee and relax while watching the kids enjoy themselves at the mini activity station. Quite an ingenious idea I must say.