Shawn's milestone updates

Just like his sister, Shawn can walk when he's 1 year 1 week old. Nowadays he walks most of the time when he's home (except during weekend when we are outside). He enjoys walking it seems, though he may take longer to reach a destination compared to crawling.

What can he say now? He can:

1) call jie jie. his favourite word, can hear him saying that almost everyday. repeated times so more
2) mum mum - when he wants to eat/drink milk. 2 nites ago, when he cried for milk in early morning. when i carried him in the craddle position, he took off his pacifier and utter "mum mum" before i fed him.
3) wai po - it's true that my mum and I heard him mouthing these 2 words.
4) Ohh - when he drops something on the floor and when something goes wrong.

Other than the above, the usual baby talk of 'ma ma', 'ba ba', 'ehh' comes out from his mouth.

What can he do now? He can:

1. wave bye bye (he does this by clenching and opening his fist. must have learnt from me cos i did that to him every morning when i goes to work)
2. do the 'sayang' action (he'll stroke our face from top to bottom, though sometimes used too much strength)
3. do the "pa pa" sign (pat his chest with his hand)
4. point to things he wants with his finger
5. feed himself baby snacks, fruits (banana, orange, apple, strawberry - he loves the korean strawberry)
6. hold his bottle with two hands (am surprised with this because he hates to be bottle fed)
7. do the "from sit to stand position" effortlessly\
8. do the "gong xi gong xi" sign (only do this when he's in the mood)\
9. listen to instruction (e.g. when we ask him to pass something to us, he's able to understand and do the task correctly; whenever he asked for food that i'm eating, i'll tell him to sit down first which he always follows)
10. take things out from a container and put them in again
11. clap his hands
12. cry when we (me, YC, my mum, Cherylin) scold him (find it very cute - he'll first blink his eyes, then give the pityful look, blink his eyes again and look at us, if we continue to look angry, he'll pout and cry. haha)

Super busy at work!

Since last quarter of last year, work has been more and more hectic. And it's not going to end anytime soon. More news of helping Singaporeans to stay competitive and employable in the papers means more work for me. Sometimes have to console myself that at this time, it's better to have work and be busy then to be without work. Should count my blessing. Such positive thinking helps. Ohh, this is also the reason why it takes ages for me to update my blog. Simply no time to 'eat snake' while at work. :P

Diaper Free Days :)

Cherylin is now fully off diapers. Yeah! This happened like end of 2008 (see... i can't remember the date. getting old). She was off diaper for the day when she was abt 2.5 years old. We didn't train her for sleeping without diaper in the night because of the possible mess (i.e. if she wee wee in the middle of the night, imagine the hassles of changing bedsheet, wiping the mattress, etc).

I think her success is partly due to us saying "you are going to be 4 years old next year, if you are still wearing diaper to bed, the air stewardess will not let you onto the plane (haha...white lies). Then daddy and mummy can't bring you for holiday." She took it seriously, i think cos she likes to travel. So the day when she finally succeeded in not wearing diaper (actually my mum was the one telling me that Cherylin need not wear diaper anymore. As her diapers were dry in the morning in consecutive days), she was very happy and declare that she can now take the aeroplane!

Shawn's 1st bday celebration - 17 Jan

We celebrated Shawn's 1st birthday 2 weeks in advance. A couple of reasons: 31st is the 6th day of CNY, based on last year's understanding, some cake shops may not be opened then. 24th is not suitable either cos it's a day be eve of CNY. Everyone will be busy preparing for CNY. Hence, decided that 17th is the best. It's also close to his lunar birthday which was on 19 Jan.

Collected Shawn's cake from SO at abt 330pm, picking mum up at the same time. We chose a TTT theme, thinking that he can keep the toy train as remembrance (though he probably can't remember a thing. At least can show him the pictures).

Food arrived at 6pm, and most guests (mainly YC's relatives) had their food at 7pm plus. Planned to cut the cake at 845pm. Shawn was very tired and fell alseep at abt 820pm. We thought it's easy to wake him up for the cake cutting (he's usually a light sleeper). Who knows he's soooo tired that no matter how we disturb him, he continued to sleep. It's so funny that people around started to laugh. Shawn finally woke up after all the disturbance.

Step-by-step

Shawn was able to stand without support few weeks back. He started off with a few seconds. Now, he can stand for about 15 seconds (YC timed it last weekend). When he did that, he'll smile very happily, as if very satisfied with his own 'achievement'.

My mum told me that Shawn could take 1 to 2 steps (without support) a couple of weeks ago. Over the weekend, he progressed to taking 3 to 4 steps. Cherylin could walk on her own when she turned 1 year 1 week's old. Let see if Shawn follows suit. Am not stressing myself nor pressuring Shawn, just want to know if they have the same rate of development at least in one area (in terms of teething and sleeping through the nite, Shawn is much slower). But i must say that it's really cute to see baby crawl..... :)

My new toy!

Bought myself a new toy last sat. Been wanting to buy it a couple of months ago. Finally decided to take action so that i can use it during Shawn's birthday celebration. Guess what is it?

It's a Canon DSLR. I've interest in photography but am not a pro. So why did I buy it? Cos my friend said it's very user friendly (when set to auto mode), just need to point and shoot just like a compact digicam. And I've seen pictures taken by DSLR. Really very nice. I especially like those focus on the object and blurry background effect.

Did some recce on the price on Fri. Went to 4 shops and found that the one at HV is the cheapest!

I probably won't be holding on to the camera on this sat: (1) have not learnt how to use it effectively yet, (2) i should be carrying shawn and the camera will be in the way. So, told YC to ask his brother/cousin help take pictures :)

Cherylin attends Nursery Class!

The pictures below say it all. Cherylin attended her first day of nursery class on 2 Jan 09. We took leave and brought her to class. No cries, no clingy on to mummy. She even talked to her teacher without fear (she was playing with some toys and asked the teacher how to fix the blocks). She happily waved bye bye to us when we left the class. Well done! My brother thought she would cry on her first day of school. Thankfully it was a breeze for her to start school again, with new environment, new classmates (well, there are about 3-4 kids from her previous class, perhaps that helped to settle her more easily?) and new teacher.

It's been 1 week since she started school. Other than being grudgy on 1 morning (cos she didn't have enuf sleep) and throw a little tantrum at my mum's place, she was perfectly ok on rest of the mornings. Brush her teeth, change into her uniform, wear her shoes - all done without a fuss. She's happy everyday when she goes to school. Even told YC she likes to go to school. :)

Farewell Party for Cherylin's Playgroup (12 Dec 08)

Oops, i forgot to blog this. 12 Dec was Cherylin's last day at her playgroup (she's going to a new centre next year). There was no class on that Fri. Instead, all kids were asked to bring a food item (potluck) for the farewell party. I took leave on that day to bring Cherylin to the centre. We brought fishballs and kueh bulu. I left after Cherylin went into the centre. Came back at 10:15am as advised by the teacher. The parents then went in to join in the party. Wow, there's lots of food. I think most kids like fishballs. Hence, there wasn't much left by then (which is a good sign).
The class took a group picture and sang their sual goodbye song.

New Year's Eve

Went back to office today for our dept's Year End Party. Yeah! Don't need to work at all. Reached office at 9am and had a meeting before heading to Vivocity for our party at 930am. Surprisingly, everything ended at 11:15am (instead of 12.30am as per programme sheet). Yippee, we were allow to leave a 11:20am (initially was told can only leave at 12.30pm which is the official half day knock off time).

Off i went for shopping at Vivocity. Bought clothes for Cherylin, YC and myself. Oops, none for Shawn again (hehe..but i did buy him a pant two days back when we were at Vivocity).

Had a coffee break at Gloria Jeans in btw shopping. I went back to my mum's place at abt 5:20pm. Gotta express milk to relief the discomfort. Wanted for YC to pick us up as his brother had organised a party at his place. Surprisingly the crowd waited for everyone to arrive before starting the makan session. It was already 8pm plus when we arrived. Cherylin had a great time feasting and plaing with her cousins. Reached home at close to 1am.

How time flies, 1 year has already passed by and CNY is just round the corner. Hmm...this year i'm going to eat all the CNY goodies till I'm satisfied (cos i was on maternity during CNY last year. Haha..

False Measles?

On early morning of Christmas (abt 3.30am), realised Shawn had fever when I woke up to his crying for milk. Scare me, quickly fed him paracetamol. Then brought him to our bed to sleep so that i can monitor his temp.

He seems ok in the day. Fever came again at nite.

I was on leave on Fri, 26 Dec. Had wanted to bring the kids out with my mum. Since Shawn was unwell, we stayed at home. In the evening, my FIL came to fetch us to YC's grandma's hse.

That nite, Shawn temp went up very high. His whole body was very hot (compared to earlier where only his neck/body is hot, hands and legs were not). I took his temp and the reading was 40.2 degree. I didn't sleep well the whole nite as i kept sponging Shawn. Poor boy, must had been very uncomfortable. What made things worse was that Cherylin suddenly cried in the middle of the nite when she couldn't find me in her room. Went into her room to console her, tell her mummy gotta go to attend to didi as he's sick. She refused to let me go initially. When i asked again that she sleeps on her own, she nodded her head. I asked again and she nodded again. Hence, i kissed her goodbye and went back to my room. A while later, i heard Cherylin crying. She's asking for mummy (though she earlier agreed to let me go but deep in her heart she wished mummy had stayed). This time round, i decided to sleep with her and brought Shawn back to his cot.

YC and I had thought that Shawn's fever was due to teething (he had loose stool too, which is also a symptom of teething). When we saw that his temp was so high, we decided to bring him to the PD in the morning (his temp in the morning was 38.4 degree).

After asking some questions and examining Shawn, Dr Heng said it could be false measles. He confirmed that it's not due to teething as usually temp will not exceed 38 degree. We felt more at ease after bringing Shawn to see his PD (though i understand fever usually last for 3 days and it's the 3rd day when we went to the PD), even though Shawn would have recovered even without seeing the PD (which is true cos i only fed him one dose of paracetamol after that and he was ok since then).

Shawn developed slight cough. Hope he'll recover fast. Hate it when he had cough.
Hmm...maybe it's not false measles afterall as I don't see rashes on Shawn's face and body. *touch wood* - hope the rashes don't come late (cos PD said will be very ugly :)

Some updates to Shawn and Cherylin's height and weight after visit to PD on 27 Dec:
Cherylin - 100cm, 15.8kg
Shawn - 75cm, 9.32kg

I need my sleep

Cherylin will be starting nursery 1 come Jan. Her class starts from 8am to 11am. Because it's so early, we decided to let Cherylin stay with my mum and bring Shawn home on weekdays.

Peng san, me going to be a super duper black eye panda if Shawn still can't sleep thru the nite. imagine 7 days a week without a good nite sleep for at least once, how to tahan? hope i don't sleep during work else jiat lat. Shawn, Shawn, pity mummy k? can try sleeping thru the nite from now on?

what's the reason for him not sleeping thru? i think it's because he didn't get the amount of milk he required for a day before he sleeps. now at close to 11 mths, his milk intake is only 150ml max. most of the time, he can't finish his milk. my mum said he always don't want to drink his milk. wonder if it's because he prefers latching on or wat.

Pray hard that his waking up at nite will stop soon. else i really don't know how i can survive at work.

Retail therapy

Went shopping at Vivocity last Sat (20 Dec). Bought some clothings for myself, YC and Cherylin last weekend (Sorry shawn, will get something for your next time). Five pieces for about $141. Haven't been buying clothes for myself. Kept wearing the same old clothes over and over again. So decided to pamper myself a bit. With the sale going on, the clothes are quite worth buying. bought a red top and a black knit skirt. YC said the top is just nice for CNY. Good, i'll have new clothes to wear on CNY. I usually don't bother getting new clothes on CNY. So for some years, i'll just wear my old clothings.

Bought two tops for Cherylin - 1 in turqoise and 1 in purple. We had a hard time trying the clothes on her. She kept fidgeting and can't stand still.

As for YC, it's a black stripe shirt. he wanted to get maroon colour but his size is not available.

Christmas' Eve

It's Christmas eve today and I only need to work half day. Earlier was thinking if i should ask my mum to bring the kids out in the afternoon. Decided not too since i have so much barang barang to carry (my milk bag, christmas gifts and laptop). Oh, i brought my laptop home as i'll be on leave from fri till next tue. super long weekend for me :)

Am surfing net at Gloria Jean's now. (keke...not a bad idea to bring back my laptop).

Been very busy at work lately. Hardly have time to idle at work nowadays. So taking the chance to catch up with fren's blog and update mine :)

Fever due to teething?

Shawn had fever on sat (13 Dec) nite. Discovered at 12am plus when he cried for milk. Fed him medicine (got it when he last went 4 jab), and took temperature. 38.1 degree. Think his fever was due to teething. Shawn slept w YC n I dat nite. Easier for me to monitor him.

His fever was gone on Tue morning. :)

The Coffee Nations

Haha...promoting for my brother in law. He opened a cafe called The Coffee Nations in Aug 08. Officially opening was in Sep 08. Though newly opened, his cafe was featured in the newspaper at least 2 to 3 times so far. Not bad huh for a new start up cos it's free publicity for him. Too bad it's location is not that centralised (it's at Bali Lane, diagonally opp Gateway/Raffles Hospital), else i would bring my friends there for coffee when we have our usual gatherings. There's a coffee that's quite unique, it's laced with peach liquer and honey. Too bad i can't drink too much now cos I'm still breastfeeding. :)

Toothless no more? Soon...

Shawn is already 10.5mths old, and is still a toothless baby (when majority of his peers already have at least 2 teeth). This weekend, YC discovered two white buds on Shawn's lower gum. Hmm.. both me and my mum didn't spot it at all (some more, YC is the one who spent the least time with Shawn and yet he can see :P). True enough, when i look closely, i can really see the buds. Yippee! Shawn will have his teeth soon. And that means he'll be able to eat more types of food. Shawn always make noise when he see us eating and he was not given any. Since he has go no teeth, we are more wary of letting him try our food. So, i always tell him "you can't eat cos you go no teeth. next time when you've teeth, mummy will let you eat, ok?"

What should I do?

I was reading the blog of my fren whereby she commented that she’ll allow her kid to enjoy herself/be herself (i.e. let the kid do whatever that she likes) as long as the kid doesn’t overly disturb others. She doesn’t want her kid to grow up being shy or timid. After reading this, something struck me. Whether I had been too restrictive on Cherylin’s behaviour when she’s outside.

Nowadays, YC works late every day till 11pm. Hence, I will bring Cherylin home on my own. We will take a direct bus from my mum’s place. Cherylin likes to sing loudly when she’s on the bus. Afraid that she’ll disturb others, I always ask her not to sing so loud. She doesn’t like it when I said so. She’ll be unhappy and ask me why she can’t sing loudly on the bus. This is one of the reasons she quoted for not wanting to follow me home lately. So, I tried to turn a deaf ear when she sings. Somehow, when she gets really loud, I can’t help but to stop her again. Do you think I should let her be and ignore others who may be annoyed by her? I thought I shouldn’t. Just want to know opinions of others…

Dental Visit

I went for my yearly dental visit on Mon, 24 Nov. Heehee...it's been more than a year since i last visited a dentist. Blame it on my laziness, excuses. High price to pay for skipping 1 visit last year. Do you know how much it cost me just to have my teeth cleaned, polished and two fillings done (and 1 of the fillings is really very minor). A whopping $300! My most expensive dental visit to date. Haha..i think the clinic assistant was also paiseh when she told me the charges. Want to know the details? Here you go:

1) Consultation $20 (this is the minimum amt that the clinic charge. think the other items are too ex hence they decided to charge bare minimum? why did i say that. it's because the whole process took me 1 hour, so logically consultation charges should be high for such long duration)
2) Cleaning $80
3) Polishing $40
4) Fillings (for 2 teeth) $160

YC said it's very ex cos the clinic is located at Orchard. Perhaps bah cos I've been visiting the clinic for the past few years when they were at Raffles Place (cleaning and polishing only cost me $40 back then). This is the first time i go to them after they've shifted to Orchard.

What can Shawn do now?

Shawn is 9.5mths now. Let me note down his developments:

1) Sit very steadily
2) Crawl very well and fast (he can crawl to me real fast when he spot me at a distance.)
4) Listen to instruction (a little - if he holds something on his hand and you ask him to pass it to you with hand stretched out, he'll do it. Tried and tested by my mum, me and a relative)
5) Stand with support
6) Cruise with support
7) Clap very well (he can understand too when i ask him to clap. hee.. very cute)
8) Still bo geh, but he likes to eat. Will make noise/cry loudly if we don't feed him what we are eating. (err...YC said my mum fed him fried rice when we went to food fair last weekend - will tell mum not to do so in future. other stuff that she fed, like rice, bread, fruits, i'm ok.)

I can't recall if i'd hug and cuddle Cherylin (when she's a baby) as much as i do now to Shawn. Somehow, can't resist hugging him. One thing for sure, i kiss both just as much :)

Sick

Cherylin had many episodes of fever since Apr this year. I can easily count the number of times she fell sick. Apr, Jun, Aug, Sep, Oct. OMG, five times to date. Not sure why her body is getting weaker now. She was stronger when she was a baby. Could it be due to her going to playgroup (started this year)? Could it be due to her not wanting to eat her meals (thus not getting enough nutrients to stay healthy)? Hope she doesn't fall sick so easily again.