My nephew's 1st month celebration

Went for Bryan's 1st month celebration on 15 Jun. We all had a good time during the celebration, enjoying the food and the company. Cherylin played with Adriel, Adric and many other children/adults who were present that day. Caught Shawn laughing happily when he saw jie jie playing with a football. Dunno why he kept laughing non-stop. Probably he'll become a soccer fan in future :P

Bring Kids to Work Day!

Yesterday was “Bring Kids to Work Day”. Coincidentally, heard of two other coys that had the same event yesterday. Started to prep Cherylin since the day I heard that my office’s welfare team will be organizing the event. Initially Cherylin said she didn’t want to go. However, nearer the date, she changed her mind and began to look forward to the day, 20 Jun. Couple of days before fri, Cherylin kept saying that she wants to follow mummy to office. Told her it’s not time yet, gotta wait for Fri.

As usual, I tried to carry Cherylin off the bed (she’s usually still sleeping and will want us to carry her to the car when we leave the house). She didn’t want to be carried, said she wanted to continue sleeping. Told her mummy bringing her to office. Immediately, she opened her eyes and said she wanna change her clothes (much to our surprise as we had prepared to change her in the car). So Cherylin had her teeth brushed and clothes changed before we departed.

While at my workstation, my colleagues tried to engage Cherylin but she didn’t greet nor answer them. So proud rite? Haha..it’s her character, what to do? She’s just like mummy. So shy when meeting people for the first time. Auntie Doris came over with a tray filled with sweets and chocolate. Cherylin happily took the sweets and thanked Auntie Doris (at least she’s familiar with Doris). She stuck to me like glue and followed me wherever I went.

The programme started with distribution of goodie bags. A mini office tour followed. Next on line were balloon sculpting (hee…managed to learn a trick or two. Not that difficult to make a balloon hat) and colouring. The last programme before lunch was magic show. Cherylin suddenly burst into tears as the magician was performing. She was scared off by the wig he put on half way thru the performance. Cherylin then pulled me away saying that she’s scared. So we left the venue and went back to my workstation. Lunch was Happy Meal from McDonald’s. Cherylin had her nuggets while I expressed my milk in the nursing room. She must be real hungry as she gobbled up all the nuggets (1st time ever).

Brought Cherylin to Suntec and we had free ice cream, complimentary from a telco whose was having roadshow then. Bought her the Gingerbread Man cookie from a café (she had been asking for it). Then, we had coffee and shopped for a while before Cherylin got tired at around 4.30pm. Could tell that she wanna sleep when she asked me to bao bao her for a while (she don’t usually ask me to carry her unless necessary – cos she knows mummy has got no strength to carry her for too long :P). My arms almost broke when I reached the bus stop at St Andrew Cathedral. Me too was rather tired and took a short nap while on the bus, with Cherylin sleeping on my laps. Felt so relieved when I reached my mum’s place and put Cherylin onto the bed. This little darling of mine has really grown up, she’s now too heavy for me to bao bao for a long time liao.

Hong Kong (May 2006)

Was tidying up pictures and saw these photos taken while holidaying in Hong Kong 2 years back. Cherylin was only 14.5mths then. :)


Making cheeky face
Milk time


Playground at the Peak
Washing bum in hotel sink


Jumping on bed
Soundly asleep in baby cot

Kungfu Panda

Brought Cherylin to watch Kungfu Panda together with YC's SIL and his niece. It's Cherylin's first visit to the cinema. I've never considered bringing her to the cinema becos she's those who cannot sit still in front of TV (ok, the only exception is when there's Tom & Jerry. She can guai guai lie on the bed to watch for 30 mins). Since I have complimentary tickets (courtesy of cordlife) for yday's show, might as well try bringing her to the movie. For the 1.5 hours, she sat beside me for 45mins (and talk to me/ask questions/say 怕怕 non stop). For the next 45 mins, she got down the chair and started to entertain herself with the steps. She went up and down the steps repeatedly. Luckily there were lots of children during the screening, so she's not the odd one out.

Am I too strict?

YC said I’m too strict with Cherylin. Afterall she’s just 3 years old. Every little thing that she doesn’t do right gets on my nerve and I’ll raise my voice on my little darling (like when she don’t want to eat meals, don’t want to bathe, don’t want to go toilet, don’t want to change into her uniform, don’t want to go to bed early, etc…) Now that I think back, feel very sorry for being so harsh to her especially when I should be showering her with more love (in case she feels that Shawn has taken over her position to be mummy’s darling). Every morning when I send her to my mum’s place before going to work, she would want me to brush her teeth, help her change into her uniform, give me a hug, say “bye bye mummy” and ask me to come home early before I go off. Isn’t that sweet of her? Sigh…time for me to fan xing else my Cherylin would 1 day say she don’t want mummy :(

Cherylin had a fall

Cherylin fell and cut her lips yesterday. Poor darling. She was sobbing when I reached my mum's place yday. It must be very painful for her. So heartpain when i saw the plaster on her lips. Immediately carried her in my arms and hugged her to sleep. My mum said she was running towards her (my mum was changing diaper for Shawn in my brother's room) and must have tripped on the high chair leading her to fall and hit against the metal bed frame.

Carry 弟弟

Cherylin simply loves to carry her little brother. Look how happy she is whenever she's 'allowed' to do so (with our supervision of cos) :P

Shawn has flipped!

Shawn has been showing signs of turning few weeks back. Yesterday morning when i went into the room to check him out (as he was ngek-ing away), saw him lying on his tummy. I was so happy then even tho i didn't catch him turning.





Now, Shawn will turn to sleep on his tummy in the nite. I didn't know he did that until i was woken up by his cries for milk. Think it helped him to sleep longer as he did not make any noise from 1am till 6am. 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I know it's not very long vs bbs who can sleep for 8hours or even 12 hours at one go. But for me, it is already good enough. :)

外婆's Birthday

10 May (Saturday)

外婆with Cherylin and Shawn

Cherylin: Take out the birthday tag first....

Cherylin: ...then I cut the cake

Cake from Choz. Yummilicious....

PD visit again

Brought Shawn to the PD again yday as he's having phelgm for abt a week (with slight cough). Why so kan cheong? Cos i've been hearing frens' baby being admitted into hospital due to bronchilities (think it's something like the phelgm went into bb's lung and hence need to be admitted). Thus, I rather be ks and be safe rather than sorry. Yippee. PD declared that Shawn is alright. After examining him, PD said that Shawn has got sensitive skin (symptoms include watery eyes, rashes on neck, rough skin at back of ears, etc) and is thus more prone to having cough and flu. Just need to feed him with medicine where necessary.

Don't know why Shawn laughed so heartily while the PD was examining him. He was giggling away. PD commented Shawn likes pple to talk to him (which is true). Shawn weighed 7.245 kg and measured 65 cm.

Time flies :(

Tomorrow's my last day of leave. Gonna work wef next monday. Sob, sob. How time flies, 16 weeks gone just like dat. Really she bu de to go back to work. Will miss the time i spent with Shawn during this period. Haha.. if i'm the winner of tomorrow's toto draw, then will be a different story. fat hope. keep dreaming bah....

Notty Jie Jie!

Cherylin was very notty on the nite we visited my brother n SIL. After we came back from the hospital, my mum was preparing to get Shawn to sleep while i changed Cherylin and made milk for her. Suddenly, I heard Shawn crying out loudly. Rushed to the room and saw Cherylin crying too (my mum hit her hand i think). My mum told me Cherylin pulled di di's hair out of a sudden. Poor Shawn, he was crying so badly (those very 'qi cham' type of cry). First time i heard him crying in such a miserable state.

My little nephew has arrived!

Bb Bryan arrived on 20 May. Dunno why but i felt so excited for my brother when he updated me on his bb. We visited my brother n SIL in the evening. My SIL commented that bb looks like my brother. Hmm...i agree that the nose does resemble my bro's.

Had been telling Cherylin to be guai and sayang her little cousin. Cannot be rough to bb. Cherylin was very excited that day, kept telling me wanna go hospital to see jiu mu and bb. She was very happy that evening and even sang for jiu jiu and jiu mu.

Shawn's vaccinations

Brought Shawn for his vaccinations on Wed (14 May) and Thu (15 May). He had his Rotarix at Kidslink on Wed. Dr Heng also did the DA for Shawn. His height and weight was 64.2cm and 6.99kg respectively. Dr Heng commented that Shawn has sensitive skin like his daddy (he heard daddy sniffing away. haha). We also asked abt his frequent regurgitation of milk (even 1 or 2 hours after feed). Dr Heng said it's normal. All's well and we paid $101.60 for the visit.

Yesterday i brought Shawn to the nearby clinic for his 5-in-1/6-in-1 jab Earlier was contemplating to brind Shawn to Polyclinic for his jabs. For convenience sake, we decided to take up the vacinnation package with the clinic. Afterall, it costs only $30-$40 more for the entire 4 jabs. The package we took up costs $502 and includes three 5-in-1/6-in-1 jabs + booster (polyclinic package costs $326 + consultation for DA), MMR & chicken pox.

Cld be due to his wet diaper, Shawn was only 6.75kg when Dr Lawrence took his weight. He ngek ngek for 2 to 3 times when the injection was administered. Overall, find that Dr Lawrence was quite detailed with his assessment. Gave Shawn a dose of paracetamol as advised. So far, no fever. *touchwood*

PS: His injection was due 2 wks ago. Delayed till yday cos he only recovered fully fr his cough (which lasted for 2 weeks) last fri, 2 May.

Cherylin's "chop chop"

Finally collected Cherylin's 'chop chop' today. Arranged to meet my mum and cherylin at city hall today. Hence, i went to collect the stamp before heading down to town. When I handed over the stamp to her, Cherylin was very happy and immediately took the stamp out and posed for pictures :)

Day out on 29 Apr

Re: Chop Chop

YC was on leave yday. We took the kids out to town together with my mum. Had lunch at Zhou's restaurant before heading to Suntec. On the way to Suntec, Cherylin kept asking for her chop chop. She chose the design of the stamp and we selected the font for her english and chinese name. It'll take a week for the stamp to be ready.

Re: B&J Free Cone Day

We went to raffles city and joined in the fun for the free ice cream. The queue was rather long as there were lots of students in the afternoon. I was carrying Shawn while YC was pushing Cherylin in the stroller. Suddenly, one of the staff came up to me, gave me a signed brochure and told me to redeem the ice cream at the counter, no need to queue. Same case for YC. :)

As Cherylin was still coughing, we didn't let her eat too much ice cream. Shawn wanna eat too? Haha...wait till he's older then :P

Fever

Cherylin's fever came back again yday afternoon and in the nite. The fever subsided after I gave her medicine in the afternoon. But for the one that came in the nite, it simply refused to go away despite 3 doses of medicine being administered. Her whole body was so hot in throughout the nite . Poor girl. Must be very miserable for her. Later gg to bring her to see doctor again. YC went down to collect a queue number. It's gonna be another hour before it's her turn to see doctor. Hope she gets well soon. *Darling, mummy promised to get you your chop chop when you recover, k?*

Visit to PD

Brought Shawn to Kidslink at JE yday. YC had wanted his father/SIL to drive me to the clinic. I insist on travelling on my own via bus/MRT as the place is quite accessible. So no need to trouble others. I took a bus to the clinic and came back via MRT. I was just telling W & J during our dinner that there was once no one gave up seat to my mum who was carrying a sleeping Cherylin while on the MRT. J was saying next time can ask someone nicely to give up their seats. keke.. but i don't think i dare do so. Interestingly, when i dashed into the MRT with Shawn yday, a middle-aged man saw us and immediately asked me to go over to his side. Then he pointed at a young man and asked him to give up his seat. I was quite paiseh then. At the same time, was grateful to that man and kept thanking him. Hee.. should have more of such kind soul around mah. :P

Ok, let's talk about Shawn's visit to PD. Dr Heng examined him after I told him that bb is having cough. Feel good with the way Dr Heng carried out his examination. Feel that it's very thorough. He checked from his back to his front, check the ears, mouth, hands, legs, etc. Then told me his diagnosis: common cold. Dr Heng also commented that a kid gets infected by a sick mummy more easily than a sick daddy. I suppose cos mummy spend more time with the kid? Shawn was given cough and running nose medicine. His weight and height? 6.515kg and 62cm. No wonder my arms are getting tired faster nowadays.

W & I were complaining that most of the PD charges are v ex. The consultation charges itself can easily starts from $60. For yday's visit, Shawn's bill came up to $67.90 and I thot it's ok. Not too ex considering it's his first visit. :)

Sick

I had fever 2 days ago due to blocked milk ducts again (ya, the other time when i had fever, it was also due to blocked ducts). My fever went up to 39.5 degree. Felt really miserable then, having to fight the fever, pump, and take care of Shawn in the morning when my mum was not around. Luckily the fever went away yesterday. But the stubborn ducts are still blocked as I'm typing away...

Cherylin fell ill too. She had fever in the middle of last nite. Gave her a dose of paracetomol and she was ok in the afternoon. She didn't go for her playgroup as we didn't want her to infect the others (to play safe since HFMD is on the rise recently). While i was out for dinner with my friends, YC called me and told me Cherylin was having fever again. Brought her to see doctor and the temp was 40.9 degrees. Doctor said it's just viral infection, nothing serious. Gave her nurofen which is meant for fever that is more than 38.5 degree. Got to sponge her too during the nite.

As for Shawn, he's still coughing, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Notice he has slight blocked nose too Poor boy. Probably bring him to see PD later (even though won't be giving him medicine since he's so small).

Aiyo, why 3 out of 4 of us fall sick leh (if includes my mum whose having cough, will be 4 out of 5). Hmm.. Let's hope tomorrow will be better! :)

Cherylin & Playgroup

Ever since Cherylin started her playgroup this year, she's changed quite a lot:

1) more sociable - last time she'll pull me along with her when she wanna play with her cousins/aunties/uncles. Now she'll happily play with them on her own.
2) likes to sing - she sings everyday, even when outside, she'll hop and sing as we walk.
3) speaks more english - my MIL used to worry abt Cherylin not speaking english. but now Cherylin will speak in english automatically. sometimes we find it funny when she says something in english (probably cos we are so used to her conversing in mandarin)

Cough Cough

Last nite heard Shawn coughing away while sleeping. Poor boy. Wonder how come he kenna cough. Feel so sim tia to hear such a small baby cough. Hope his cough will go away soon.

EBM

I've been pouring away excess EBM as there's really no more space in my freezer. Have tried to use up the EBM I kept in the fridge (max can only store for 48 hours) by giving it to Cherylin. Still I ended up pouring away the EBM when the 48 hours are up. Sometimes I even pump and throw the EBM away if I had drank coffee earlier. Yesterday, YC drank up 240ml of my EBM so that it's not wasted (cos I told him I'll be throwing away). Yikes, I myself dare not drink leh. :P

Shawn's growth development

Better note down his growth development before I forget:

3 Mar 08 (4w4d) - 4.49kg, 56cm
17 Mar 08 (6w4d) - 5.35kg (didn't measure the ht then)

Currently his milk intake (if I were to feed him ebm) is about 120ml. Sometimes he only drinks 100ml.

外婆 home alone

My mum was alone with Cherylin and Shawn again last evening as YC and I went to attend my company's function. Shawn didn't want to sleep since afternoon. He wanted to be carried. When I left the house at 5.30pm, Cherylin had fell asleep. Luckily she slept cos it means that my mum only needed to take care of Shawn. We came back at 10.20pm and mum was still carrying Shawn in her arms. He didn't sleep much for the past few hours when I was out of the house. I immediately took over Shawn from my mum and asked her to go to bed. So for last night, Shawn slept with daddy and mummy (so that 外婆 can have a good nite sleep).

Must be due to the coffee I drank during the dinner, I couldn't sleep till almost 1.30am. By the time I wanted to fall asleep, Shawn woke up for his milk. In btw, he cried on and off. Very tired when I woke up this morning. Guess I have to 'tong' the tiredness till Monday afternoon when my mum is around to catch a nap.

Zhou's Restaurant

Brought my mum to Zhou's Restaurant at Far East Square for lunch yesterday. As we were approaching the entrance of the restaurant, Cherylin said "在这里吃团年饭". I was surprised that she actually remembered the place where we had our reunion dinner with YC's family. Kids nowadays sure have better memory than we had when we were young.

Bath by Mummy

Yesterday was the 1st time i bathed Shawn. I've never dared bathe a small bb. So when Cherylin was a baby, the task was handled by my mum and YC. I only started to bath Cherylin when she's much older. Why did I try bathing Shawn then? Cos the weather was hot and he was perspiring all over. If I were to bring him out (met my mum and Cherylin in town) in that state, he would feel very uncomfortable. Hence, I decided to give it a try and luckily everything turned out ok. :)

Family Day @ East Coast Park

We went to ECP to attend YC's company's family day. It was raining earlier the day. Luckily the sky had cleared when we reached. The weather was just right then. Only complaint was the muddy field. Our legs and shoes were all covered with mud. Cherylin was having fever the night before. Not sure if it's because she's just recovered, she did not seem interested in the ice cream that I offered her. Cherylin appeared bored too and was asking to go home at abt 4pm plus. YC brought her to the game stalls and they came back with little prizes comprising five stones, paper aeroplane - basically those toys that we used to play when we were young. Buffet dinner was provided. There were Cherylin's favourite food such as satays, longan desserts. Too bad she fell asleep while daddy went to get the food. :P We left at abt 6pm and headed home to freshen up before heading to YC's grandma's place.

Trip to Bollywood Veggies

Luckily I recovered just in time to join YC's family for a visit to Bollywood Veggies. There are many types of fruits, veggies, etc and the kids enjoyed roaming around the plantation. We had an early lunch at the cafe. Simple and tasty dishes. Cost $85 for 6 adults and 3 toddlers.

We proceeded to Hay Dairies Goat Farm where the kids, except Cherylin, had fun feeding the goats. This timid daughter of mine only dare to watch by the side while her cousins feed the goats.

Fever fever go away

Was down with fever yesterday. Temp went up to 39.1 degree at one point. Hence, I had to take paracetamol to lower the fever. I ever heard that it's safe to continue breastfeeding even when you have fever/taking paracetamol. But being ks, i dare not bf bb. Hence, bb was on fed ebm yesterday. I latched him on a couple of times (which was more than 6 hours after i last took my medicine). I continued to pump out the milk else supply may drop. As I dare not feed my bb with the ebm, in the end threw away more than 1 litre of ebm. So sim tia.

This morning found out from a fren that it's ok to continue bfdg even when taking paracetamol. She has been taking it as a pain reliever since giving birth. That sets my mind at ease. So, I'll continue to bf my bb and not waste the bm. :) Temp this morning ranges from 37.1 to 37.6 degree. Hope I'll get well soon.

Mummy's milk milk

My freezer has run out of space to store anymore ebm. Throwing away the ebm is such a waste. Hence, we've been adding my bm to Cherylin's milk lately. First time we added 60ml to 120ml. She didn't notice it. Second time, we added 120ml of bm to 60ml of fm. This time round, while drinking her milk, she commented to my mum: 有妈咪milk milk 味道。 Nevertheless she continued to finish her milk. keke.. :P

Posed like a model

Took a candid shot of Cherylin on her way back to my mum's place after her playgroup. Somehow, managed to capture the model-like pose :P

Mossie mossie everywhere

Ever since i gave birth to Shawn, my place seems to be swarmed by lots of mosquitoes. Previously we only encountered mosquitoes once in a while. Now, we are bugged by these irritating mosquitoes almost everyday. Yday, we killed more than 10 mosquitoes! Horrible right. I really wonder where these creatures came from. Have checked the possible breeding places in our house but didn't find clue. Poor Shawn, kenna badly bitten by the hateful mossie. And for me, i hadn't been having a good nite sleep cos I will be awake a few times in the middle of the nite to catch mosquitoes (not forgetting having to wake up to bf Shawn). :(

Full Month cum Birthday Celebration - Part II

PG couldn't deliver the cake to us at our preferred time slot. Hence we had to travel all the way down to AMK to collect the cake. We left the house at 830am. When we arrived at the shop, we were told that the cake will only be ready in 20mins' time. Due to the delay and the distance, it's already 10am plus when we were back home. Gotta rush to bathe the kids and get ready the stuff for the celebration in the afternoon. Haven't even decorate the function room when the first guest arrived. Anyway, we don't have much deco. Haha, just some simple wordings that I've spent 1 whole day making and balloons for the kids.

The caterer came on time to set up the buffet. However, when i saw the quantity provided, I had a shock of my life. It's so miserable (as compared to the caterers that I've used before). Well, there's nothing we could do then. Just hoping that there will be enough food for all the guests. (afternote: blame myself for being geh kiang and wanted to try something else. so had a tongue lashing from YC after the event :P)

It'll really be the first and last time we'll use this caterer. Not only is the qty and quality of food not up to standard (don't think our standard is too high cos the other caterers were really much better in both areas), there's also several hipcups:

i) the guy did not light up the warmer and wanted to leave the place
ii) he claimed he did not have lighter with him and wanted to borrow from us. We have none unfortunately and he had no choice but to get from his van
iii) he did not provide us with laddles and tongs!

Aiyo, the hipcups above shouldn't have happened as these things are not something exceptional for a buffet setup. I really blamed myself for choosing this caterer. humph.

Full Month cum 3rd Birthday Celebration - Part I

We decided to have a mini post birthday celebration for Cherylin when we hold Shawn's full month celebration. It's to make her happy too in case she wonders how come didi has so many presents, etc when she has none.

Birthday cake:
PG or SO? We can't decide which bakery to choose. One wins in terms of cake flavours while the other has nicer design especially for kids.

In the end, we decided to go for PG. Got a 3 kg cake for her with slight modification to the cake design which the cake shop has emailed to us. After gathering feedback on the more popular flavours, we went down to the shop and bought Lychee Martini and Triple Layer Choco to sample. YC, my mum, Cherylin and myself all voted for Lychee Martini for its refreshing taste (i suppose it's something unusual from the normal choco/vanilla cake that we have).

Buffet:
Wanted to use back our all time favourite caterer but i wanted to try another caterer. In the end, we chose YLS cos I heard of good feedback from pple who have used them. My MIL was not very keen to try a different caterer and kept commenting what if portion not enough, food not nice, etc. Knowing my character, YC went ahead with my preference :P