stress

I'm overdosing on milo due to stress... & I dunno what it is, I guess its just stress.

Maybe... perhaps... a bit of post natal blues too. Sigh.

One month plus of sickness!

Kieran had been sick for more than a month! Last month, he had flu with fever. He stayed home for about 2 weeks, fever gradually got better and he was left with a bit of runny nose and cough, so we celebrated his second birthday and sent him back to school but after 3 days, he was down with fever AGAIN! I was so stressed up and exhausted. Taking care of a sick toddler and a newborn is no joke!

I didn't go anywhere to have fun for one whole month. Every outing is either to the clinic or to grocery buying, and occasionally to the grandparents' home. Worrying sick everyday for Kieran and worrying that he'll spread it to his sister too.

Today, his grand aunt and I brought him to Yu Guo for Tui na (TCM Child Physiotherapy). He was given tui na on head, back, stomach, hand, given oilment on nose, do gua sha on back and then given a herbal packet to be placed on his navel for 24 hours.

I cried nearly everyday for the past few days and I had knocked my head on the wall due to frustration. Really so agonising for everyone when the child is sick. Hubby was also very tired. I'm so glad he's on the road to recovery. I can't imagine if one of my children need any surgery. Really salute those mummies whose babies need to go for surgery or treatment soon after birth.

Kieran's Happy Elmo theme Party

Kieran turns TWO on 10 October 2013.

On the Sunday before his birthday, we held an Elmo theme party for him at grandparents' home. He loves his Elmo and would hug him to sleep every night.

Kieran's present from Papa & Mummy - a Ybike! 

Little Caitlin is all dressed up for the party & she gets a nice present too - a sweet baby seahorse which sings soft lullaby music. Doesn't it look like her?

Kieran enjoyed the celebration and he even asked me, when we were home yesterday, whether we could go to grandma's house and have another birthday party.

Expo Baby Fair

This is certainly the last expo baby fair that I'll ever go to. I'd rather spend a little bit more and just buy from departmental stores.

REALLY EXHAUSTING!

I went alone to shop around for what I want first and then wait for hubby to come and buy the diapers together. The diaper queue is amazingly long and the cashier process payment not as quickly as we wish it to be, so the queue just dragged on.

The worse buy is the medela bottle exchange. I thought its an exchange for a full medela bottle with teat but its only for a milk storage bottle. Waste my time to queue. Still feeling a bit sore over it.

I bought Baby One thermal milk bags, a nursing wear, a new manual breast pump, Y bike as present for my son, and Merries and Mamy Poko diapers.

Shopping therapy is really not for me. I feel nervous whenever I spend money. I wonder why I always feel this way after spending large sums of money. After effects of some childhood experiences I supposed but I don't remember what. I need hypnosis to reveal that, really.

It doesn't help that I have one stack of bills to pay and that I've really no time to make payment, and one credit card bill of 1k+ to pay... 1k because its insurance rider deduction, and some other buys which I forgot what. But anyway, the following months, we've got to be more prudent with money.

Anyway this is the last last last time I'm going to baby fair at expo. I swear. The crowd, the queue, the large purchases... all these are making me anxious and nervous, even now, few hours after coming home from the fair.

I was anxious partly because I left my children with my parents to go to the fair to buy stuff, and the queue was delaying our time to go home. When we finally reached my parents' home its 10pm + because we went back to Punggol, our own home to put down the stuff first. Really need to thank my good buddy and her hubby for driving us to Punggol and to our parents' home. Otherwise we will really die waiting for the cab. As I was in the car going towards my parents' home, I was suddenly reminded of myself as a teenager, reaching home past 10pm and feeling butterflies in my stomach because my dad would be at the corridor waiting to scold me for coming home late without calling. I didn't like to call because he would shout at me if I had called to say I'll be home late, and if he shouted at me, my mood will be bad, and I might as well just go home, and not continue to go out with my friends. And if I don't call, at least I'll be happy until going home time. Well, that's the strange logic I had as a teenager. But even though I know I'll be scolded, I still want to reach home late because well, all my other friends too went home around that time. Sigh. I can understand my dad worrying about his daughter but being too fierce just simply backfires. I didn't like to talk much about my thoughts and feelings to my dad last time because most of the time I get shouted at and lectured unless what I said was what he wanted to hear, and how many thoughts and feelings of a teenager is what her dad wants to hear? After some trial and error, I just filtered it out myself. I only talk about neutral stuff with him. Nothing personal, nothing that challenges his ideas. But I'm really thankful my parents and my mother in law helped out today. And they helped us a lot a lot today. Otherwise it would be impossible for us to buy anything from the fair. I saw parents bringing toddlers and babies to the fair. That's just crazy. Poor kids and babies had to tolerate boring long queues and shopping booths. A lot of crying and tantrums went on around me.

I'm glad my darling Kieran and Caitlin were good, and ate well, and slept well while I was away. Kieran went to open my bag, saw that I didn't buy any toy for him and said "mummy 没有买东西叻". So cute! But it stabbed my heart coz I really should buy a small present for him for being so nice and obedient to spend long hours at ah gong's house without mummy.

I'm looking forward to Kieran's Elmo theme birthday celebration at parents in law's house this coming Sunday. Luckily he has almost recovered from the eye and nose infection that he got last weekend. Poor Kieran had to miss the children's day celebration from school because of that illness.

Got to accompany my little Caitlin to sleep now. Good night. A whole new challenge lies ahead tomorrow. I hope I will survive another day!

Quiet happiness

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.

Updates on the kids!

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!

Kieran during Lantern festival held by Ci Ai Education Incubator, his Childcare centre.

At the playground during the Lantern carrying walkabout.

Peekaboo!

One of my favourite photos of the night.

Kieran and mummy!

Caitlin 3 weeks old

Here is Caitlin at 3 weeks old! 

TGIF! Looking forward to Papa spending more time with us!