And so recently, Sam has decided to go on a "bottle" strike, outright rejection of the bottle. She would rather be hungry and wait till I am available to latch her. This is a new experience for me. In the past, when people talked about "nipple confusion", I used to scoff. After all, both nat and luke never had this problem, bottle or breast, they were fine with either. Sam was fine with it for a while too, until this week. My pd advised not to force the bottle on her, just go with the flow, as she gets older, she will probably be more receptive to the bottle again, so that's what I will do.

Today, Sam had her injection, at just over 2 months, she is weighing in at 5.45kg. After her injection, she has been rather clingy, feeling a bit insecure, so I have been cuddling her a bit more than usual. Anyway, I'm looking forward to next week. It's the start of the school holidays, and I have some exciting plans for the kids.

I have become rather "domesticated" of late. By this I mean I like to go to the wet market for fresh food, love to browse the supermarket and a recent obsession, sewing. Yes, me, who has almost always nearly failed home economics in secondary school. Yet, there you have it, I have been bent over these few nights, labouring over the sewing machine, churning out pouches and pillow cases for my kids. It all started when I saw these lovely bags to keep diapers and stuff being sold on the web. I thought to myself, so expensive, I could do it myself and it would be way cheaper. So, I ventured to surf the net for some instructions, made my merry little way to Spotlight and Plaza Singapura, lugged my mum's sewing machine home and I was on my way. I have got the hang of it already, after one week. The finished product is not the most professional looking one, with seams showing and stuff but hey, that needs more practice. Meanwhile, here's one of the pouches I churned out yesterday. Applause, anyone?

We have settled nicely into a routine. Some days the kids will be at my mum's place, some days we will be at ours. In the mornings, I will either be exercising or bringing sam to botanics for a walk. Once a week, I will have one-on-one time with one of the older kids. I find it's really nice to do this, although quite tiring. While spending time with just one kid, you can actually focus your attention fully on them.

Last week, Luke and I went shopping at Takashimaya. He was quite the happy little man, chatting and singing incessantly in the car. Usually, when nat is in the car, all you can hear is her voice and just a few occasional chirps from Luke. As we window shopped in the different shops, he had fun amusing himself in front of the mirrors, and we even stopped to have a cup of bubble tea. Luke is definitely growing up, his attention span is better these days and he can easily spend half an hour in the room piecing his jigsaws together.

I met his teachers last week and was happy when they told me that he is one of the most polite kids in his class. They also showed me some of his "creative" drawings and I was amused to see that they have progressed from just scrawling to faces with eyes and nose. Even for nat, the teachers praised her for being helpful and ever ready to participate in class activities. Interestingly, when I was young, I used to view such parent-teacher meetings as sessions for teachers to complain about me. Yet, now as I stand on this side of the fence, I appreciate the meetings as an opportunity to catch up with the teachers and see how the kids are doing in school.

Happy 2 months old, Sam. At this grand age of 2 months, Sam is becoming more interactive. She loves to coo and smile, especially at night, in the comfort of the air-conditioned room. Gary fancies she keeps her brightest smile for him, haha, but I think it's more like her enjoying the air-con in the room. Her full head of hair is constantly drawing attention when we go out. She is the apple of her big sis and bro's eyes and they love to fuss around her.

While 3 kids is really a logistical nightmare at times, I feel blessed to have them in my life.

With every one of my children, I make it a point to spend some alone time with them when they are young, bringing them for strolls at the park. Did it for nat and later lucas and now doing the same with sam. It's very therapeutic, talking softly to the baby as I sling him/her close to me. We chat about everything (actually, it's just me talking, haha), about the plants, the old people doing taiji, about their siblings. Usually, halfway through, sam falls asleep. I thought that by the third kid, I would be bored of this but interestingly, it's like a new experience for me all over again. I love it!

Since today is Polling day, I thought it would be appropriate to have a blog entry on it. Just the other day, nat and I had a conversation about the elections, it went something like this:

Nat: There is no school on Monday because Saturday got voting.
Me: Voting? What do you know about voting?
Nat: It's when they give you a little card, and there are 2 boxes and you decide if you like "pop" or others.

Haha, not a bad summary of the elections from a 4-year old. It did take me a while to decipher that her pronunciation of pop referred to PAP.

When Samantha is screaming blue murder and nothing can settle her, I’m proud to say that one of those things which only a Daddy is qualified to do is the Superman Hold^TM. This provides instant relief – whether because Sam becomes perplexed at the sensation of zero gravity as she zips through the air, or because it’s a complete reversal in posture from how she’s normally carried, nobody really knows – but it does the job of shushing an irate infant like no other.


As for her siblings, one of the new activities which the kids have taken to recently is Let’s Crush Daddy Together^TM, which is something they invented while watching reruns of Tom & Jerry – quite simply pile up on Daddy and use him as a bed. Now this is all very well when they are small and cute and weigh next to nothing, but it is no joke shouldering a combined 30 kilos even on a very ample torso/pectorals.

More trademarked adventures to be added from time to time…