Friday, 30 October 2009

The kids spent a beautiful evening at the park with popo and their great grandfather. This was the weekend gary and I were away, having a short but romantic holiday in bangkok, when gary declared he had never walked so much in his life. Haha, I made him walk to 5 malls in one day, how's that for efficiency, not bad huh?

Friday, 30 October 2009

I am glad the kids are getting better. Yesterday, nat had diarrohoea and had to visit the loo quite a number of times. My little clean girl cannot bear being dirty and even if her diaper is just slightly stained, she will want to be washed and cleaned. After so many rounds of visiting the loo, we have established a routine. She will sit on her potty, ask for her Archie comic, close the door and chase me out. Occasionally, I get a chance to discuss the stories in the Archie comic with her, during these times, I will introduce to her the characters like Archie, Jughead, Veronica etc. Haha, looks like I got to move my whole Archie collection from my mum's place back home soon. When she is done, she will head towards the shower area and stick out her baby butt to be washed.

Today, I got her to do a bit of alphabet writing. Since she is quite familiar with all the letters of the alphabet already, I thought that it is a good time to get her to sit down to do some writing. One thing I noticed that is at this age, they still do not have good control of the pencil yet. So the alphabets come out looking quite scrawly. The other issue is that concentration is limited, so keep it short, about 10 min. Lastly, lots of motivation and praise does wonders. I was glad that at the end of 10 min, she was able to follow the tracing and scrawl out a few nice looking 'A's on her own.

She is also obsessed with owning a tutu, you know the little puffed up skirt that ballerinas wear. She saw one of the characters wearing it on television, dancing gracefully around on screen and whenever this segment plays, she will ask me where is her tutu.

Didi lucas is really a good boy. These few days, he has been a great sport and when we are busy tending to jiejie, he plays by himself in the cot, only protesting occasionally. Slowly but surely, he is picking up some words like ''berd' (bird) , "ba ba black" (ba ba black sheep) , "cat", "dog", "nana" (banana), "mummy", sometimes "daddy". I have also started doing flash cards with him, like I have done for nat. His favourite game is hide and seek and his favourite activity is playing his drums set.

My two babies love dancing. The Wiggles concert DVD never fails to get them up on their feet and dancing away. There is one segment in particular, where the little boys and girls are dancing onscreen and nat will seek for gary, wherever he may be in the house, and she says to him, "Daddy, dance with me!" I know that gary is secretly pleased and told him to enjoy this feeling, after all daddies and their little girls will always have a special bond between them.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

It's distressing when the kids fall sick. It first started with nat's fever 2 weeks ago, which subsided and was replaced by a cough. She's been hacking away since, even with medicine from the GP. Then the cough spread to me, then gary, and to didi lucas. Yesterday, we brought the kids to the pediatrician and the cough seemed to subside. Today, she woke up and viola! a fever. It's been going up and down since. She's very clingy and whiney to me, refusing to let me out of her sight. Medicine feeding time is a constant struggle with her vomitting out the medicine half the time. Sometimes, I manage to hide the medicine in her milk without her detecting and sometimes she just throws the half-drunk milk back to me. Amidst all that, I feel constant guilt as I can't care for didi, even though he too is nursing a runny nose and cough. Whenever I carry nat, he looks at me longingly. If I even dare venture towards didi lucas, nat will let out a loud wail and cry with big fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Nights are generally when the fever is at its worse and most of the night is spent sponging her down with cold water. I pray that the kids get well soon.

Friday, 23 October 2009

Today, nat spent some one-one-one time with daddy at botanic gardens, while I brought lucas to class at Julia Gabriel. The girl really adores her daddy, they shared an orange juice, pedalled on her bicycle and fed some fish at the pond. Gary was just relating the story of how he wanted to help her wash her hands after feeding the fish but she refused. She wanted to turn on/off the tap by herself. Even during dinner time, she's so cute. She will scoop a spoonful of rice, use her hand to gingerly place a piece of chicken/meat on top, before putting it in her mouth and finishing the whole spoonful with gusto! When she needs to poo, she will request for her potty and after she is settled onto the potty, she will politely ask you to go away. Then she will read her Archie comic, and will only call you back when she is done. If you even try to venture into the loo, you will be chased out by my little girl.

Didi lucas has been teething this past week, lots of drooling, on/off fever and is a cranky boy. He wakes up at 3am, babbles, gives his infamous loud slobbery kisses, and attempts to get off the bed and trots off to the playroom to play his drums/piano in the still of the night. This tired mummy follows him to the playroom, lounges on the mattress and just watches her little boy, wondering where he gets the energy from.

However, I must say, my 2 babies sure can sleep. Their afternoon naps can sometimes last for up to 3 hours. That's when my maid and I get a breather. One of my favourite activities is just sitting down in the room, staring at my 2 sleeping babies, thankful for such beautiful blessings in my life.

Saturday, 17 October 2009

This is just one of those things that you must document down, or else 20 years down the road, you forget this wonderful feeling. You know your kids have grown up when after a nap, they do not cry helplessly like a little baby for you to pick them up. Instead, they pitter patter out of the room with their tiny feet, bleary eyed and searching for you. This was the first time for Lucas and it reminded me of the first time Nat did it too. I'm so proud of them. Sob, sob ... my babies are growing up so fast.

Saturday, 17 October 2009

My little man enjoying a nice meal at Culinas at Dempsey after his Julia Gabriel class on Friday. Finger licking good!

Later, an evening stroll at Sentosa with the kids. The sun was setting, gentle breeze on our faces and the kids just plonked themselves down and played with the sand. Messy but nice. Nat chased the peacocks and didi got really excited, to him anything that vaguely looks like a bird is called a duck. Nice to have daddy with us on an outing during the weekdays, the kids love having him around.

Today, a short trip to the Istana during the Open House. We didn't stay long, and it was like an early morning walk at the park for the kids. They got pretty excited over the little children's playground set up there, though. I just love places with lots of green space, always reminds me of our Melbourne trip, when we spent hours exploring the Botanic Gardens there, and with such beautiful weather too.

Thursday, 15 October 2009

A few weeks back, I blogged about nat's cheapo trike which I gleefully bought for 20 bucks. Since then, we have junked it. My mum took one look at it and said 'That's one lousy bike you bought.' Thereafter, nat affectionately named it The Lousy Bike. Since then, I have attempted to bring nat out cycling on 2 occasions. Both times, the nuts and bolts fell out even before we pedalled very far. I spent the whole time chasing after a runaway wheel, so embarassing. After the second time, I told my maid to junk the trike. Occasionally, nat still asks for her lousy trike. The other day, I was surfing the internet, and lo and behold, here's what I found from Muji. So cool, so minimalist, so me!


There you are, that's nat's new trike. And the beauty of it is that you can remove the parent's handlebar so easily, once the kids are comfortable on the trike. Who would have thought that one could get such a nice trike from Muji, normally I would go there to check out the nice houseware and kitchenware or even stationery? Didi had a go at it the other day, and he loves it too. Sigh, I spoil my kids too much, don't I?

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Before the grand old age of one, children are like helpless little things, just clinging onto you for milk and cuddles. After one, they seem to grow up, oh so fast. They attempt to walk or wobble on their two tiny little legs and they begin to exhibit a sense of humour :) Just this afternoon, I was in the car with lucas. He had just drunk his bottle of milk, leaving a little behind. Feeling bored, he began to play with the milk, letting the excess liquid drip out from the nipple. I gave him a lecture about doing that and attempted to grab the milk bottle back from him. The naughty little boy looked at me, grinned impishly and kept the bottle just out of my reach. He was chuckling away as I damn near broke my back and lunged forward to remove the bottle from his hands.

Monday, 12 October 2009

Kids sometimes say the most unexpected things. I have always taught nat never to put her fingers into the fan, as the blades would chop off the fingers and it would be a bloody affair. Today, I was trying to shift the fan and I guess it looked like I was putting my fingers into the fan blades. I was so touched when my baby girl looked at me in concern and said, Mummy, be careful. At night, just before she slept, she said, Mummy, sleep beside me, I will sing you a lullaby. Didi also has his way of showing affection. After pitter pattering around the house, he gets tired and climbs onto you and lays his head on your chest. My babies are the sweetest.

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Nursery rhymes are a serious business in our household. It's the only time when both kids are mesmerised, with eyes and ears fixed to the television. I just bought a new DVD from Amazon for the kids, Sing a song of Wiggles, with lots of rhymes and dancing. They love it. Only thing is that both kids are scared when Humpty Dumpty comes on screen, I can't fanthom why, though. I asked nat and she said that it's because Humpty Dumpty is scary because he has an eye patch over one of his eyes.

Today, nat was not feeling well, so we kept her at home to rest. Gary and I brought didi out instead. We began to remember just how much easier it is to bring a single 1-year old out as compared to 2 kids.


We started the day with breakfast at Jones. Lucas seemed to like the sausages, sigh, a meat person, just like daddy. He had a nap later and when he woke up, he was curious and reaching out to feel and touch all the things around him. It's nice spending some alone time with lucas, and I think he enjoyed it too. He is one brave boy, we came up close and personal with a dinosaur model. Initially, he was scared of it. However, he later mustered up enough courage to even touch the teeth. What a trooper!

Yet, at the back of my mind, I missed my little missy, so we didn't stay out too long.

By the way, did I mention that pretending to speak on the telephone is one of her favourite activities? I dread to think, a decade down the road, the person on the other end could be a boy?! Hmm, should I nip this habit in the bud now? Lay down some ground rules first? Haha, we'll see.

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Today was a fun day for the kids. In celebration of Children's Day, the Esplanade had some children's programme arranged for kids. I was particularly attracted to one of the programmes called Toying with Percussion. The band played various Disney themes using only percussion instruments. Nat had fun dancing along to the rhythm, although, she was rather naughty today, wandering off even when I sternly told her not to. In the end, I had to give her a lecture at the sidelines. Although we want to encourage her to be free and independent, we also need to instil some discipline in her from a young age. What surprised me today was didi's excitement during the performance. He was laughing and dancing to the tunes. No regrets coming to the performance, although, we nearly gave it a miss as it seemed a pretty long way to drive just for a short performance.

In the evening, we went to Botanic Gardens, where the kids ran around kicking the ball, playing with the frisbee and feeding fish. Always an enjoyable ending to the weekend. It's times like these that make me feel that I want to just spend all my time with my kids.

Sunday, 4 October 2009

I've been waking up early these past few days, so what better activity to do than to update my blog? Brought the kids to a new play gym the other day at Liang Court. This place is one of the most well equipped play gym that I have been to in Singapore, and believe me I have been to enough, to be a good judge of that. There is a swing section, numerous slides, role playing toys like ironing board, vacumn cleaners, kitchen, play houses and shelves and shelves of toys. It's really not too bad to spend an hour here letting the kids run wild and free. My kids loved the mini "roller coaster" as well. I'll probably bring them back there again in a few week's time.

Nat is thrilled to bits with her new toy, a cheapo tricycle I got for her from Carrefore for 20 bucks. The bike she currently has is too big for her, so she can't reach the pedals. This one is just right, and she loves pedalling up and down everywhere in the house. See her grinning like a Chershire cat.

Yesterday, we brought didi for a haircut. The last time we cut his hair, he didn't cry. This time, he wailed the whole way through. The hairdresser (same auntie who cuts nat's hair) is convinced that it is because he saw his sister crying the last time, so he's just learning from her. Hmm ... I wonder. Anyway, it wasn't a great haircut, too much squirming and crying, ended up with him looking a bit nerdy. Never mind la, he is still my handsome little man.