Scenes from our home

Jake, fresh from his haircut. The husband had decided on this mohawk style and I think it's rather cute and because he has so much hair, he garners plenty of attention from many because of his hair. You can kinda make out that bald patch across the side of his head? That's his birth hair falling off naturally. Now that he's reached 4 months, I'm dropping hair too. It happened too with Kate and I'm not as scared but I cannot wait for it to stop! I wanna keep my locks please! The husband and I also agreed that this last cut is the last time we're doing it - we plan to let it grow out and let him have another hairstyle. 

Cousins in their animal outfits. I had a friend buy them from Bangkok and they're wearing their respective chinese zodiac signs.

Outfit comes with tails! Too cute!

Mucking around with her breakfast

Our mini plant experiment. The husband planted some chilli in a pot in our balcony and Kate helps him water it sometimes. She's very impatient (doesn't know any better) and asks "the flower will come out?" I introduced her green beans to plant and grow cos I know it actually grows very quickly and here she is with her grown plant.

This is the cute face I see staring at me in this position, at 7am (acceptable).... 2 / 4 / 5 am... (unacceptable!)

Mickeying around with Nainai's props

Jiujiu's birthday lunch. Jake spiked a fever suddenly and though it wasn't high, it still made us worried. We quickly popped into the pharmacy to get the cooling patch and baby panadol. That also marked the start of his full-blown flu.

Yeye brought Kate to Gardens by the Bay. Twice.

Buying kueh tutu from the pasar malam

Kate's breakfast leftover. No more cream on the top!

Bad pic, but it was a rather fun moment. We were heading home and Kate and I started to take pictures of ourselves. We were making similar faces.

Sunday morning. The husband gets to sleep in and look who's right there to disturb play with him in the absence of big jiejie 

I LOVE DADDY

The two important males in my life who mean the world to me

Grumpy Jake (who'd had enough of photo-taking by this time)

Fun with nainai - check out how happy Kate looks, and how enraptured Jake is!

Morning, before I head off to work. I love my children so much!

Kate brushes her teeth. I must admit I'm not very good at enforcing this habit. I do tell her to do so but when she fights it, I give in to her sometimes. Note to self: bring Kate to the dentist!

Building blocks. She is rather steady and can build things on her own. This is "Dora standing on top of the house"

Silly Kate

Playing together

Lazing together

BBQ

My babies and I

Kate gets to eat marshmallows because yiyi got them 

We got together to celebrate the birthday of my best friend. 19 years of best-friendship and counting

Today, we went to visit Kate's newborn cousin, Caelen who is 1 day old

Proud grandmother

Mid-week break

Time is passing in a whirl. I can barely catch my breath before something else happens.

I rush about at work, settling whatever I can within the hours in the day, racking my brains and write emails as coherently as I can; then transit home and become a physical robot where I herd my troupe to do what is required - eat dinner, shower, play, go to sleep; then wash rinse repeat this cycle all over again. I suspect part of the reason why I don't feel any break in between it all because I don't get to sleep properly. Jake is still waking up 3 times a night (these are the good nights) and my body never gets to stop. After introducing formula milk to Jake, my body seems to be less stressed and supply is picking up slightly. I think it's still a good idea to keep him on one/two feeds of powder a day, just in case (on a random note, his poop has changed slightly since he's started to consume formula. Slightly more grainy with texture).

This week, I swapped my off day to a Wednesday because I had to bring Jake for his follow-up consultation (poor boy has been on the nebuliser round the clock for 5 days consecutively) and it was a good break. I had the day to run errands and I ended up spending it with a girlfriend and Jake.

Kate spends the afternoon with yeye. I hugged her and she went off happily "bye bye Mommy! bye bye Jake!"

At Thomson Medical Centre. Actually, we look quite alike, no?
Happy that the boy is off the nebuliser already. On the mend yay!

Snooze

Coffee - he can sit like this for a short while... before keeling over

Taking the MRT. Waiting for the train nainai was in to come by

Part of the evening crowds

Rushing for the bus

Playing with his favourite nainai

It felt good to just have a baby to hug all day. Though I was a bit achey from the work out, it still felt good. It reminded me of the days before when I brought Kate out all the time! I don't have the chance to do it as much with Jake because I have more to juggle now, so it's all precious to me.

Funny faces

Kate draws faces. The brown face (best drawn) at the top is mine. I demonstrated to Kate how to draw a face.
1. Draw a circle. 2. Add the eyes, nose and mouth
The rest are her masterpieces. It shows up better when she uses different colours.
And if you notice, Kate added ears to my face when I told her to add them on. 

Fruitful Friday

Today is one of those days that I accomplished a lot of things. In one day, I managed to tick off 80% of things that I was meant to do but hadn't gone about. So though I'm tired as hell, I'm glad I went out to have done them all. Call me superwoman.

My little man - please don't be sick anymore. 

His favourite position now, besides being carried upright

On the way for her vaccination (the poor, clueless girl). If her teeth look abit dirty, it's cos they are. She'd just had an oreo

Not happy after vaccination. I was SO nervous about it because this is the first time she's had an injection at this age (this I-am-aware-age). She took it well though - I managed to distract her enough so that she wasn't frightened and she was so brave she only cried for a while.

She insisted on keeping the bandaid on ALL day. She has another vaccination to go for. I'm asking the husband to bring her to that. I don't look forward to the possible struggles and tears

Happy enough to be rewarded with her favourite "orh lu lu de bao bao"

We visited her previous school and collected all her artwork. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go through them with her properly. I zapped right out to bring Jake to his PD.

I did say that he likes to be upright, didn't I. (To the sister: check out his moo-outfit)

OTW to the hospital. Jake was quite contented with Sophie's company. nomnomnom. I love how he enjoys car rides. A total contrast to fussy, fretful, fiesty Kate before.

7.22kg baby! (MOO)

Tea with friends. This is Janelle. She is about a week+ younger than Kate.

Notice how their expressions are the same

Same & silly

Jake's new diet

Tonight, my little man tasted formula milk for the first time.

I have mixed feelings. 

I know I shouldn't compare, but I supplied enough to feed Kate total breast milk for a whole year. And I truly take pride in being a good mother, to be able to provide for my baby, in giving him the best I can. So I'm mildly shattered that I'm unable to keep up the same for Jake.

I was ill two weeks back and while I managed to maintain my supply through the sick week, my supply suddenly dropped while I was on the mend. I think being tired from lack of sleep and work becoming more hectic plays a part too. So while I was comfortably providing for Jake (slight surplus) before, I am now just providing enough. I know that even if I maintained my best efforts to express milk, it will soon not be enough because Jake's consumption will increase and there will come a point that he may not have enough to drink. I don't want to starve him, so tonight, I headed to purchase an infant tin of formula milk powder. And it was with mixed feelings that I bottle-fed him some formula milk.

I'll give him a feed of formula milk once every night to slowly introduce it to his body, to monitor and ensure that he doesn't have any adverse reactions to it (constipation).

I know I cannot take this too personally, but I cannot help but be a little emo. Sigh. Maybe it's a good thing anyway. I can let go being a cow more easily since it's not as if I had any choice, anyway.

Coincidentally, I read this article today. It's not every day that I have the time and luxury to flip the papers, so I guess it's a sign. I like to think that way cos it makes me feel a little better.

Dear Jake,

You're growing up so quick! Mommy has tried her best but I'm unable to keep up with your growth, so I hope you enjoy the new milk. You're a little ill now and I really hope that you recover soon. And you're definitely teething soon because you're gnawing especially on the left side of your mouth.

Love, Mommy

Happy birthday, Jude

Love, love, love this picture!

The moment she set eyes on jiujiu, "I have a surprise for you. It's a birthday cake" she whispers. Ha!

Date with Kate - beautiful Saturday

Dress fitting for the little girls - Gen's wedding

We chanced upon a quaint little cafe where the girl and I shared a cupcake. "I want the flower one", she said.

Yums

She was entertained by the trinkets about the store.

"I like this one!"

The girl has graduated to a booster seat and can sit beside me upfront. I really enjoyed my date with Kate. My not-so-little, little girl <3