A precious hour

For the past two mornings, the kids have left the house at 6.30am. This is so the husband can drop them off at his mom's before he goes to work (by 8am). [Newsflash: there has been a change in our day-care arrangement because there's a chicken pox outbreak in my aunt's; making her place unsuitable to drop the kids.] This also translates to the kids coming home later (in-law's house further than aunt's + husband ends work later) and I barely have any time to see them. Boo.

This morning, however, my dad helped out and this meant that the kids left the house an hour later - and how precious this hour is! In between me washing up and preparing for work, I get to talk and see and touch my babies. How lovely!

I get to watch Kate devour her breakfast. We never used to give her nutella until recently and she's in heaven, being able to consume chocolate!

Immediately after breakfast, she runs to the room and talks to Jake. She just rambles about nothing in particular - mimicking what we adults say to him "Jaaaake, you be a good boy, okaaaaaay"

She's done talking to him and bounces to the other side of the bed. Jake sneakily looks at me - hah!

A parting pic of my prince. Yiyi calls it the meh face.

Dear Jake

Dear Jake,

Happy three months old! (sorry, I'm 2 days late)

You are growing up so quickly! Your newborn onesies are becoming a little tight and we can feel that you're gaining weight (though I'll only know your actual weight when we go for your next check-up/vaccination this Friday). Your appetite is great and you consume about 130-140mls of milk per feed, this is nearly double of what Kate used to consume! I'm still latching and expressing milk when I'm at work, and I can only hope that the supply will be sufficient for your needs.

You did a mini latch-strike (ok, not truly a strike, more like you showing extreme displeasure when you had to suckle for milk) and that really made me upset. I don't want you to become lazy, Jake! Milk comes out immediately from a bottle and I know that it's easier for you, but latching is my one way of bonding with you (ok, I admit, it's also a lot more convenient) so I really hope that you will be a good boy and allow Mommy to feed you. After the last few days (yay to weekends) of "training", you seem to have become better. Keep it up, ok my darling?

Your personality is beginning to show quite clearly. Generally, you're mild and good-natured, though you do this really squeaky scream (yes, scream!) which is quite extraordinary, which demonstrates that you have this fiery streak within! You show your displeasure when hungry/aggravated/upset quite clearly and I wouldn't want to be the one to provoke you for you are fierce! I used to think that Kate (ala Little Miss Bossy) will bully you because you seemed so quiet, until you showed us your fiery side. Now, I think that Kate better watch where she steps - because I think you will show no mercy if she steps on your tail!

I love it when you're awake and alert - you coo and talk a lot now and I love talking to you. Being mother to more than one child takes up a lot more time, and with me being back at work, I feel that we don't spend enough time together. So any pocket of time that we have together that you coo and "talk" to me, I savour and enjoy. I love morning time (though I may be very tired and groggy and grumpy) - because that's when you are all mine (& also why I want to look after you by myself at night time though it saps my energy and makes it just that tad bit difficult to work) - and I love watching you enjoy the quiet, kicking your strong legs up and about (up to a point that you get bored or something and start to cry).

You kick and arch your back a lot (for the past month) and I know you're gaining more control of your body. I wonder when you'll actually flip. You also raise your head longer and steadier and higher on tummy time - all sure signs that you're developing well. Good job, my dear boy!

I cannot believe that I have two kids, and I know that I'm very lucky to have a lovely boy like you. I really love you so much, baby. I look forward to watching you grow each day, blooming into the young man I know you will be (a great one!).

Nearly-flip

Love your (still a little rare) smile

Love, Mommy

Spot Kate

15 years and counting

I don't know when exactly it began, but with this group of gfs, we'd started going to new places to wine and dine (and party when we were younger) to celebrate our birthdays. Between the four of us, we had birthdays in March, April, May and November. And though I'm sure we probably missed some birthdays out somewhere along the way through some years, I'm extremely happy and thankful that we are still great friends and keeping up with our tradition of eating through our birthdays. We have seen each other through fat and thin, singlehood and marriages, happy times and low moments...  

It's even more amazing and great that we manage to keep this up since our lives have changed in the past years - with 3 of us having children which totally (totally!) makes having "me-time" harder. So last night, I went out for dinner and drinks with my dearest girlfriends.

We had dinner at the lovely Boat House - ambience was great, food was interesting and pretty good, though what really rocked the night was the company.

Happy birthday, Eve!

We adjourned to the rooftop for drinks after (ok, they had one each. I had none) and continued conversations of past, present and the future. We had great laughs and the few hours we had just to devote to ourselves to one another was priceless.

The view was pretty good!

So here's to more girlfriend-moments, always.

PS: Thanks to the husband for helping babysit the kids so that I could go out with my girls!

Lesson time - B

Following last week's first session of "lesson" with Kate, I prepared more worksheets to do "B" with Kate. It didn't go as well though, and I barely managed to get Kate to sit still to do some bits of colouring and activity.

And truth is, though I kept repeating in hope to drill the letters B (capital and small) to her, I don't know if it worked because she still mixed up the small letters "a" and "b".

The distracted student in a rare moment of concentration

A lesson I learnt about lesson time for Kate; the last time, I conducted this in the morning, whereas this time, I slotted it into a sudden pocket of time that I had alone with her in the evening. Not sure if this affected her concentration but she was definitely a lot less focused and a lot more fidgety. Will stick to morning lessons.

I feel a bit bummed that I've hit a rut already in week two of teaching her, but I will not give up! Hopefully next week, we will get going again and with her being more receptive to doing work.

Fun day out

The bestie proposed an outing to the Marina Barrage to celebrate her girl's 1st birthday. I gladly said "YES" because I always feel that I don't bring Kate out into the sunshine enough. We were a little concerned about the weather because it's been erratic lately, but after the storm last night, the skies were clear today and we were set to go!

Cheeky monkey otw to the barrage

Kate was very taken by the kite - watching intently as it's being assembled

YAY! Kate flies a kite!

The kids

Jake was not left out

Love sandwich (the bestie held her wedding at MBS - seen in the background!)

Happy birthday darling Jaz!

Happy camper

My babies and I

Kate & Jaz - snacking as it was nearly lunchtime. We packed up and headed for lunch at the cafe.

After lunch, we headed to the water-play area. The kids with their war faces!

Kate totally enjoyed herself!

We were all pretty burnt (literally) by the end of the outing. I'm thankful that I was vigilant in applying sunblock for Kate, because I'm suffering some burns right now. Boo. But I'm glad Kate had some sun and she truly seemed to enjoy herself!

It's an awesome day.

Looking forward

To spending time with my babies! Weekend, come already!

Singing words

I don't remember when it was exactly (probably around the time she stopped signing “milk” and when we were hardworking enough to do flashcards activity with her), but I made up this jingle to sing "M-I-L-K" to Kate, so that she’ll know how to spell it. And because it’s such a part of her life (she still takes at least one feed till today), she sings it when I ask her “how do you spell milk?” Here’s version awesome of the song:

Till date, she also knows how to spell her name K-A-T-E, and she also knows how to sing “L-O-V-E”. The former because it’s short enough and we show and say it to her enough times so that it’s kinda drilled into her brain (yay to short-easy-to-spell-names!) and the latter is credited to hi-5, it’s one of their introduction songs and Kate loves watching hi-5.

Our offsprings

It didn't seem too long ago that bestie 2 (we were secondary school friends) was first to deliver her baby in August 2009, about a month before I delivered Kate. And I found out I was pregnant about the time that the bestie delivered her baby. Over the weekend, the bestie organised a luncheon with family and close friends to celebrate her daughter turning one. All our firstborns are girls, with the first second-born (mine) being a boy. Wonder if they will have sons for their (if they have) number twos.

It's been amazing watching how we have all grown, and yet stuck together through the years. Good friends are hard to come by and I'm thankful that I have these beautiful friends whom I love with all my heart.

My "first" weekend

Now that I've started work, weekends feel like weekends again. It was kinda tough to feel much difference between the days when I was still on maternity leave since I was with the kids 24/7. 

Here's a capture of my "first", very fruitful weekend.

Kate played up the night before but I was a lot more forgiving because I knew I could laze the next morning. Though I was still awake by 7am (no more sleeping in once you have children!) it just felt better, simply because I could stay home. That's Kate still sleeping because she was tired from her cranky act in the night.

Lesson time with Mommy.

Brought the little man out for a dinner with some girlfriends. We spent hours eating steamboat, talking and laughing. It was past midnight when I made my way home. No disruption to Jake's schedule though, he pretty much slept his way through the night, waking up for two feeds.

My happy camper on a Saturday morning.

Lunch (SHIOK sushi, recommended by the sister) - a rare family picture. This is currently my phone wallpaper and it cracks me up seeing how grumps Jake's face is!

The retro-looking cake shop with my multi-coloured daughter

The sister and I

Audi Fashion Festival for...

Ended the night hanging out at the grandparent's

Sunday - birthday lunch

That's the  birthday girl saying "HEY" (heh) - she turns one

Family <3

Exhausted girl post-party

Sunday morning

My little man turns 12 weeks old tomorrow

Lesson time - A

A few of my friends are very disciplined about educating their children and after seeing how it really isn't that difficult (materials readily available on the WWW), I figure I ought to attempt to spend some fruitful time with Kate. After all, I have been feeling terribly guilty about the amount of time she spends on YouTube watching videos and with my Fridays off, it's the perfect opportunity for me to use this day to do some educational engagement.

I think alphabets are a good and simple way to start and I searched for some worksheets for the letter "A". I introduced to her big/capital letter "A" and small letter "a". 

Colouring the letters. Kate's not that great with colouring nor drawing (nothing structured or that makes sense)  but I do see some slight improvement when I actually sit with her and watch her colour. She attempts to colour within the perimeters and I think this is some progress compared to mindless and wild stabbing at the paper.

I also found worksheets that featured "a" items (apples, alligator, ant and acorn) and the worksheet activity was to colour the largest/smallest item. Happy to say that Kate is able to identify large/small items quickly and is able to follow instructions to colour only that biggest/smallest item. 

This worksheet below was a bit of a waste because I could only use one row out of the rest of it - I didn't want to confuse her so I stuck to the letter "A". I still had her identify and colour in the right small letter "a" though - but this is a good one to use for revision, I reckon. 

My mom's been awesome and taught Kate colours, so when I do these worksheets with her, I constantly refer to colours. "Can you please colour this in (fill in colour)?" 

Ta-da! Mommy, you see I draw nice nice.

I'm so happy that I embarked and accomplished this short "lesson time" with Kate. Truth is, it really isn't that difficult and while I could have done a lot more way before this, I'm just happy that I began at all. Now that I've started, I'll keep at it! I also learnt a few lessons about identifying better worksheets and I hope that Kate and I will both enjoy ourselves. The lessons didn't take all that long but it's knowing that I've taught her things formally and being able to let her apply the knowledge she's learnt when I see opportunities when we're out and about. (Say, I see some huge signboard, I'll try to have her identify the letters from there) I also photocopied an extra set of worksheets so basically I let her attempt the same activity twice which was a great idea because she wanted to do more after we finished one set of worksheets and rather than introducing more new things, I let her re-do the same things; which I hope helped to reinforce what I was teaching her.

Yay! I'm so proud of myself (ok, I know this sounds lame me congratulating myself but I'm just so thrilled!) - and I'm looking forward to more such interactive and engaging sessions with Kate.

Another bonus was also seeing Kate show off to her father proudly her completed worksheets - "PAPA you see, you SEE!"


Heh