Sleeping babies are the cutest

Haven't written about their sleep for a long time.

Nowadays, Kai sleeps on his own in his room unless the next day is not a school day. He sleeps better when he's on his own, with no disturbance from his brothers. At most, he wakes when we are still working to wonder whether it was time for school.

Though he has accepted the arrangement, I don't think he's happy about it, mainly coz I can't 陪 him much. His brothers want to be with me so they end up in his room. He doesn't consider that as me 陪-ing him; it's got to be exclusive. So now I give Yu his milk only at bedtime so that he stays in his bed. I make Yang stay in his room else he loses his video(s) the next day. And I stay with Kai for a bit. Honestly, I don't think it's enough too.

On Sundays, I get more time with Kai coz his brothers are occupied with YouTube Kids; Kai cares less for that these days. But I was in the bathroom for longer than usual this evening and it was 8 pm by the time I was done. Coz I want Kai to sleep by 8.30 pm, I spent only 20 minutes with him. One little gem came out of it - he didn't like PAL lessons coz "you gotta do a lot". I just googled what it was - outdoor and sports?! I was surprised. Sito said maybe there was some discipline involved. Sighs, my son...

Then it was Yang and Yu's turn. The milk was quite warm so I got them to count trains first. We started this a couple of weeks back and it was a useful settling-in activity. We can see six LRT tracks from the window and count to up to 10 LRTs each night. Then, it's goodnight time :)

Tonight, I asked Yang to lie down on Yu's bed and promised to carry him to his bed later. So I sang with one boy on each side of me, with my face facing up to be fair. Soon, they were both quiet. I turned to Yu who was lying on my left arm. He was facing me but was looking to his left with a cheeky grin. Ok, sing some more...

Then I turned to Yang. He was facing down with his eyes closed. I sayang-ed his head. He gave me the white of his eyes a bit before continuing to sleep. Poor boy, tired since evening time coz he did not nap. Rest well....

And I turned back to Yu. His fingers were wriggling above my shoulder. I wondered why but only for a short while - coz his forefinger went into a nostril..!! True enough, he started wriggling his fingers after that. Gosh... Just how much snot is there lying around the house? He dug a little while more as I turned to face him.

Then he turned more towards me and faced down on my arm. I felt... tongue?! I lifted him gently and found a wet spot on my sleeve! Ok, no more arm. I pulled my arm out. He gave a little "Mama.." and dozed off. I gave him a bear and went off to put his brother in his bed.

That's Yu napping this afternoon

I realised he was wearing underwear while he was still awake but he refused to change into diapers. Big boy, no need diaper. Oh ok.. Sure? Big boy, no need diaper. Ok. Luckily Mum still keeps a pee pad - the useful thing was from Kai's time and well used through three boys. But it wasn't so useful today...

Boy can shift!

I took a photo and dozed off besides him, not daring to stuff the pee pad under him lest he woke. But he shifted again of course, back on top of the pee pad but with only the legs in place; the bum was sadly out of the pee pad. So when I woke, I found a wet patch just above the pee pad. Grrr... As I continued to wake him coz it was late, he peed again!! Not quite a big boy, baby...

If Yu is like his brothers, he would be three before he could sleep through, no more crying for Mama in the middle of the night, just walking over to my bed and continuing sleeping. He can do the latter but he still cries for me in the earlier part of the night.

If they can all sleep well, I don't mind a couple of nights a week when all are in our bed :) It's really nice to watch them sleep when I'm not too tired...

Baby of the family

Sito said that he found Yu super cute even though he was sleeping on our bed, which means no good sleep for us. I had found Yu looking super cute even when he was crying with his crooked crying look. WHen Yu woke and I had to put him back in bed, I couldn't help but took a few more looks at him before I left the room - such a cute chubby face!

We wonder, if it was because for the first time, we are able to enjoy a 2yo without having a newborn in our arms. It's... really nice!

Some recent shots of this growing boy.

The boss

Happy with a broken water gun

Don't talk when your mouth is full of food - but you can smile

He loves having his photos taken too

DaGeGe said the dominoes were taller than him; he then showed the dominoes that he didn't need to be tall, and ran away!

Being bullied by his brothers, but he soon ganged up with them to bully me instead T.T

Happy Piggy Year!

Celebrations for us started on Friday, 1 Feb, in Chinatown! It was date night and festive shopping combined as we had a quick dinner at Chinatown Point and went onto the streets to squeeze with like-minded people.

The main display

Outside the temples

Found this at Chinatown Point - we were shocked to see the display showing 40+ while our queue ticket read 70+

Bought quite a bit of LNY goodies partly as gifts and partly for ourselves. By the time we got back by train, it was very late. And we weren't successful in getting a foot massage along the way :p so we were very tired and aborted the plan to do grocery shopping.

There was no music lesson last Saturday so I went out early to get steamboat food - we bought our first induction steamboat set!

We had arranged with Mum to have reunion dinner at her place on Monday. I thought we would go to Mother's place on Sunday but she said she would be busy cooking (not for reunion dinner!) so we decided to have our own reunion dinner - our very first and our first steamboat at home!

Still missing the fish and prawns in the fridge

"Can I have some bah kwa, please?"

We hurriedly shifted the bah kwa away coz they were eating too much too fast

Yang couldn't recognise the tiger prawns - the black stuff in picture above - coz "prawns are red!" Ah ha! That's why I purposely got prawns with shell to show the kids!

Helpful boys put food into the steamboat

Bubbling and yummy!

And that was only the first wave coz there was no space for leafy vege, seafood, shabu pork, and another box of balls. But it was enough to start dinner. Except that Kai refused to join us - he said he didn't like rice or steamboat. It was with much scolding (for his bad attitude) and the promise of some "prawn magic" that he finally stayed and had some food.

Our dear Papa peeling prawns for us - but only Yang tried it. Key word was "tried".

Yang and Yu ate lots of fishballs and meatballs. And bah kwa. Kai left the table after a small bowl of rice - at least he asked for one more piece of shabu. Sito and I cleaned the pot! But we cheated by scooping out some to keep for the next day...

Only the soup left - clear dashi stock that thickens with every ingredient, but most the dumplings that disintegrated :p

Nannied by YouTube while the adults washed up

For the first time in years, my boys did not take LNY eve photo before school coz Kai had to be up and gone way earlier. So I took photos of Kai, and got N to take photos of Y&Y.

A little grouchy in the lift coz he was anxious to catch the earlier bus

Two cuties with zero notion of time

I had to go to office for a meeting that to my horror, ended at 1 pm, with calls from home and N via WhatsApp about Kai leaving the house for BPP to get balloons - more on that next time. I couldn't get a cab so I got to child care 10 min before closing time. Glad I wasn't the last parent though!

All in the same gear for reunion dinner!

Reunion dinner spread

Enjoying his keropok

Y&Y - major contributors to the emptying of the keropok can

Only evening of the day when the boys could stay up!

Yu having "papa nainai" on my leg

We were reading and watching TV and I don't know what until I totally forgot about the melon seeds I bought to share with them. In any case, Kai dozed off quite early. When Sito carried him to the bed, his brothers decided they wanted to go to bed too.

Papa carrying Kai out of our room

Two of us stayed up quite late watching TV, drama and playing games - all at the same time hoho!

Good morning baby! Why are you playing with your sleeve?

Dominos dominated their mind and time for part of the morning

And then we took 15 min to go out of the house coz of photos and shoes. Took more photos this year!

On our sofa - too much legs hoho!

My baby is so cute!

This with the words in full - and cute smile by the baby!

Another cutifying shot of Yu

Awww, I melted...

Shocked hare look - so cute! He was trying to sweep the ears off :p

A picture of just us!

Clan Sito's annual shot!

We had a change of routine this year. Thought we would go to Holland first thing in the morning coz Mum stayed in Singapore this year, and then AMK before landing in TPY for lunch. Turned out that Mum was preparing lunch so Sito and I decided to go to AMK, and then Holland before landing in TPY for yusheng instead. I called Mother and Ah Yee after reunion dinner so they knew what time to expect us. Also turned out that Ah Yee was not doing steamboat this year so she could actually cook less, phew!

The boys insisted on going to the playground before going up

Little baby was happy with his drink..

... and with his snacks

Yang went around with various cans, one at a time

We think Yang singlehandedly gobbled up a third of a can of soft candies.... Together, the three had half the can.... And they had lots of Rocher too - I had to get Mother to just keep it. And love letters, and pineapple tarts. I closed both eyes, oops...

Yu fell asleep on the way to Holland

So did Yang - he has his baby look here :)

Yu woke when I carried him out of the car - "到了??" So cute! Sito carried Yang up while Kai and Yu played downstairs for a while. By the time we got up, Yang woke too. With all those snacks, they didn't eat as much as they would have otherwise. But all of them had to poo poo at Mum's place hoho!

Trying the old-school way coz the toilet was occupied!

Mum and Dad tried a hard one with a pail

Sito took a nap. I took a micro nap. The kids played. And then we were off to our last stop. Like before, we took a pit stop at the playground downstairs.

Playing with slime with their cousin

Homemade yusheng with no fish!

Kai was in for yusheng! His second time in two days :) But he didn't eat it :p

One more round of playground before we headed home

And they couldn't wait to open their hongbaos!

We spent the whole of day two at home. I had a sore throat over the weekend. I lost my voice after an afternoon of scolding kids on the eve. It got better by day two morning but one day of scolding kids, well, I lost my voice again!

We watched Thomas in the morning - old steam engine still charming!

Coz Kai was repeatedly nasty to Yu and repeatedly ignore my instructions to stop, he didn't get to go to the pool. The remaining four of us had a blast!

Our next and last LNY visiting event was my annual gathering with my old workplace. I had wanted to bring only Yang. But as we were wearing shoes, Kai lamented why he couldn't go and so he came along. I warned them to be good and not ask to swim but alas, they went straight to the pool to dip in their legs and hands, and made the area all wet! I whipped out my phone and kept them quiet on the sofa while I joined the adults at the dining area. That didn't stop them from coming over in turns to ask for bah kwa and pineapple tarts, coz it was tea time *.*

Today, we just had our last LNY do - steamboat at our place again, this time with Mother, YQ and XW; MZ couldn't make it and in-laws opted out. This time, we managed to do grocery shopping after date night - maybe coz we had foot massage? Hoho!

Yang waiting to put food in while watching a Chinese dinosaur movie

Kai totally enjoyed playing with his uncle and aunt - "when are they coming again??"

Oh yes, the real dominoes finally arrived past LNY! But Kai thought they were not like the ones on TV - indeed, these are made of wood and those we saw on TV were made of plastic. But still fun!

His brothers were happily holed up with YouTube Kids :p

This LNY saw a few firsts for the kids - they took part (or kind of) in yusheng; they had steamboat; they saw prawns being cooked; they had free rein of the goodies (ok, with some limits) even at home; they opened their own hongbaos; and they tried their best at greetings in Mandarin, even little Yu who was least against the language, perhaps even the most accomplished!

I do think I need to do a better job at telling them about LNY next year - it's not just about food and hongbaos!

Over at the workplace, the team had our yusheng lunch on 1 Feb; my team is having one with our partners tomorrow; and the division is organising a hotpot on Friday. And I think that's it for this LNY!

But I think our stash of LNY goodies can last for another two weeks at least :p