Baby And Me: September 2013

Weekends are chaotic. My mom stays over but she goes home on Friday and comes to help out on Sunday night. So on weekends, hubby & I are left on our own to cope with an attention seeking toddler and a demanding little babe. Wow. You can imagine the mess the house is in. Today I took the chance to quickly sweep the floor while hubby brought Kieran out to buy breakfast and Caitlin was napping. That's about the only chance we get to clean the house on weekends! After that, its challenges after challenges to overcome. Non stop busying around until sleeping time... which is now.

Finally Yilin has patted Kieran to sleep and I've nursed Caitlin to sleep, and I have just a few minutes to do some stuff like washing the kitchen and surfing net and type this blog post here before I go to accompany Caitlin.

Bringing Caitlin out is a big challenge and through trial and error, I've realised what works and what don't. She's easily disturbed by loud noises, flashing and bright lights and cold air. So shopping malls are bad. Crowded places are bad. This cinderella needs to be home before 8pm. After 8pm, her fussy time starts to get worse and she'll scream her head off in public. So I nurse or rock her to sleep first and place her snugly in my sling carrier, hidden from the lights and shielded from the cold, and as I walk, the walking motion rock her gently in her slumber and she's nice and quiet as we bring Kieran out for dinner and walks. Today that's what we did. We went out for early dinner before 6pm. We had nice fried kway teow and laksa. And bought breakfast for the next day. Later we walked pass a playground in the neighbourhood. Kieran was attracted to the playground and we let him play. He went up and down the slide and played with the "gears" at the playground. And he also tried to interact with the older kids there. These kids are nice kids. I've met really rough ones who went tumbling all over without regards for other kids' safety. We all had fun although it was tiring. Luckily, we reached home before 8pm, and Caitlin was very cooperative. She opened her eyes when we opened the door. Perhaps she smelt "home"? Then the "concert" began. Oh well. We showered Kieran, bathed Caitlin, showered ourselves, had some time to watch the tv, talk a bit, brush Kieran's teeth, and then its sleeping time.

I hope to post pictures of Kieran celebrating birthdays of rabbit babies together at NEX. He had fun eating ice cream, playing with dogs and with his friends that day. I don't have time to upload photos on weekends. Weekdays maybe. Next week.

Looking forward to the baby fair on next Friday, and celebrating Kieran's 2 year old birthday with loved ones on next Sunday. He's going to enjoy it a lot. All the people he loves and adores are going to be there and giving him blessings and presents.

Life as a parent of two is damn tough! But at the end of the day, when the sweet babies sleep, I do feel a sense of quiet happiness. I think of the smiles and laughter that goes on in the day, and I know I will have sweet dreams of those memories at night.

Good night.

I FINALLY HAVE TIME TO BLOG!

Time to update this blog...

Phew... Taking care of 2 children isn't easy. Even with my mom here to help on weekdays.

Little baby Caitlin is now 7 weeks 3 days old.

She's a little darling. She's STILL in the eat, sleep, pee & poo phase. Thank goodness. She's a rather peaceful baby and easy to care for although there's one thing that isn't easy... When she's hungry, she don't give warning. She'll suddenly wake up from sleep, and give a sudden and loud and shrill cry which escalates to scream within minutes if milk isn't served. My mom said she's a fierce girl!

I'm a little sad that she didn't inherit her daddy's eyes and nose. Never mind, she's still our pretty princess.

She's 4.3kg at 6 weeks. Doctor said she's on 25th-50th percentile during her check up and first vaccination at Sengkang Polyclinic.

Babies grow up so quickly. She could fit into many of the 0-3 months rompers now, and even though the 3-6 months romper looks big on her, she could wear them too.

Breastfeeding is a breeze. Really easy for a second time mom who has breastfed the older child to toddlerhood.

Now Kieran.

I tried giving the breast to Kieran and once put it into his mouth and ask him to suck. He smiles shyly whenever I ask him to try. And he kept refusing. One time, he tried and I felt him sucking it like sucking the straw. He only sucked once and said he don't want it.

I enjoy hugging my little Kieran. He's so much fun! He could sing and recite all of the nursery rhymes and the poems we taught him, even the Hokkien ones! I watched him play with his cars, trucks, legos, everything with wheels, noisily making zroooom, zrooooom, beep beep sounds, and I wondered how long can he be in such adorable and innocent phase? He asked me to pat him to sleep, and he turned around to say "bye bye ah gong, bye bye mah" in such a sweet manner that my parents laughed. Sometimes he will say bye bye to his cars and trucks and tell them that he will play with them later. He held on to my blouse, followed behind me and sing the choo choo train song as he walked. When he first learnt to walk, he used to say "walk nat, walk nat, walk nat." when he hold my hand and happily walk around with me. He invented the words himself. Many months later, now, he suddenly say "walk nat, walk nat" as he held my hand and lead me into a room. He hadn't held my hand to walk in the house for a very long time since he could walk by himself. Now that he could explain himself, I asked him what he means by "walk nat". He thought for a very long time and then replied "Walk walk lor." LOL.

At one year old, Kieran could vocalise sounds to mean different objects like "ah per" for apple and "mah" for mummy.

At 13 months, he could call everyone. He could call "mama, papa, ah gong, ah mah, nai nai, yeye, gu po, etc".

Before he's 18 months, he could already name all objects correctly, and if you tell him something, he repeats after you. At first he could only say 2 syllabus like "helicopter", he would say "hop ter" but gradually, he spoke 3 syllabus. He repeats after you when you talk to him, and he will laugh and giggle, but he didn't actually reply you.

At 19 months, one day, when I was tidying the room and moving a clothes rack, he came to "help" and move the clothes rack too. I told him "it's dangerous!" Kieran turned to look meaningfully at me when I said that, and I thought he would repeat after what I said. Instead, he surprised me by replying, "No lah." And I surprised him by laughing out loud. From then onwards, he could reply our questions meaningfully. At 19 months, he could actually have a conversation with us. If you ask him "Kieran, is this a pear?", he no longer repeats "pear" after you. He would reply "Yes, pear." or "No, banana"

At 20 months, he could recite the entire nursery rhymes from memory. We were fooling around, hubby, Kieran and I at the living room, and Kieran suddenly sang "San Lun Che" (三轮车) and pronounced the words so well! Yilin and I were so surprised, we stopped to listen and clapped loudly after Kieran's done. He laughed and continued to talk and sing more. He really couldn't stop talking once he started.

At 22 months, he could talk in full sentences and he replied you intelligently if you called him on a telephone and talk to him. He could tell you what he learnt in school, and where he went, and who bought what for him, and who taught him which song.

So its a great pleasure playing with and talking to little Kieran. He loves hugs and cuddles and he'll often run to me and hug me. He's such a darling! I'm sure little Caitlin will also grow up a talker with her older brother's influence!

Kieran is 23 months, 1 week and 6 days old today. He'll be celebrating his 2 year old birthday soon! I'm bringing him to have a birthday celebration at Swenson's at NEX this Friday. Kieran has 2 other friends, Jodi and Xin Ning who were born around the same date at the same year, and they are my friends' daughters, so we mummies are going to celebrate the 3 rabbit babies' birthday together. The kids will love the ice cream cake! On 6 October, we'll do another celebration for him at Ye ye & Nai nai's house and this one will be with all his favourite loved ones. Grandparents, grandaunt, uncle and 2 aunts will be there. And on 10 October, the actual day, we are going to his school at 3pm with a cake and celebrate his birthday there, singing birthday song with all his teachers and classmates.

We're going to have lots of fun!