Getting ready for work!

I'm starting work next week!

The weighing scales told me I'm 4 kg above pre-ZK weight. Nvm the weight, I thought, cos I still saw a non-cylindrical shape in the mirror. Admittedly, the belly feels a tad too soft but I don't look too different, right?

Wrong! I must have grown wide overall cos I don't fit in those pencil skirts anymore :( I don't even want to try my work pants :( 

But hey, this body has popped out two kids. Surely I'm entitled to some flabbiness?

Anyway, I was thinking of refreshing part of my wardrobe and my boring look. I decided on dresses - perfect for busy mama cos no need to match top and bottoms! I bought three dresses in the past two days. One was a S from Forever 21 (I know, so ah lian..) and the other two were a 10 from Mango. I tried Lowry's Farm but I couldn't fit their L - bleah, not buying! Going to uniqlo at some point... 

Also got a new eyeliner and mascara - I figure it's easier to just draw a line and brush the lashes than to blend eye shadows... May get some blusher today as I'm running low. Now that I'm busy, I feel an even greater need to prettify myself. After all, my identity is more than a mum; I'm also the good old mf penning all this nonsense :)

Feeling fab on a Wednesday morning :)

My poor baby ZY

My poor ZY is battling his second fever now :(

He became feverish after his last feed at IFC - 37.7 deg :( But he was still smiling during his diaper change, which was good. As he measure 38.2 deg, I gave him some paracetamol and sent him to bed. An hour later, it dropped to 37.0 deg.

His first fever was only last Thursday, the day after his vaccination.

But he was still smiley and playful, though he preferred to be carried and to nurse.

And he remained strong!

He was fine the very next day. And father and son had some fun before Sito left for work :)

Close up - because he's so cute!

Sito just came home and I poured out my guilt about sleep training - both times ZY had a fever, it was after I let him cry it out :( Perhaps it was not the vaccination but the crying that caused the fever? But Sito said he probably caught something from school - he's cuter and more vulnerable than ZK who fell ill after two weeks..!

Anyway, hope ZY is good to go to school tmr. I have to make a trip to the office tmr!

My troublesome boy

Well, now that ZY is also in school, I have no time alone with him anymore. He'll have fewer photos of him and him alone than ZK =/ Can't be helped - second child!

So with that, I have consolidated my photo albums on my laptop. No more separate albums for ZK and ZY but a combined kids album. I'll also have fewer photo posts - or none! - on one child on his own. I'm getting too busy to sort them out to be very honest! I have even stopped obsessively re-aligning photos to the left since the makan post, just using the default centre alignment now.

But I have sorted out October photos so... Here they are for ZK!

On the potty at Mum's place - he simply could not poop in the potty!

Potty training has led to ZK deciding to wear ONLY his underwear.. On his bed - I was so scared!

He also wanted to cut his own fingernails. His already quite ugly nails took a turn for the worse *.* After that, I handed him YouTube and held the cutter myself!

Yes, something like this, with me sitting behind me and looking for his nails...

PS: That was a cute top from GuGu! Love it when ZK pulls the ears of the monkey :p

"Elephant..." Um, yes, indeed. Let's review hiss drawing in a few months' time. But his pen grip is not bad!

That was Deepavali, I think. Thought we would go to the supermarket as he had not been there for a while. He still remembered the little playground on the way and wanted to ride the 马! Yup, every ride-able thing is a horse...

He wouldn't let go of the peanut butter even at the cashier! Auntie had to ask him for it... Then he took the bag, so uncle at such a young age haha!

He also took photos with my phone...

He finally understood the camera - now he will say 拍照 and 照片 :) He would even smile for the camera! :)

Like this:

Not like this - he was full and tired at lunch. Check out his round belly! Love it :p

Yes, he can eat a lot of his favourite noodles... And biscuits and chocolate from Halloween! But he doesn't like to brush his teeth. Rather, he wants to play at the basin. We brought him with us to the dentist last Saturday to watch Sito and me getting our teeth cleaned, and to have the dentist tell him to brush his teeth. I try to remind him of that when he refuses to brush properly. Luckily there was a little keepsake - a lion finger puppet, 小Lion - from the dentist to act as a concrete reminder of his first meeting with a dentist.

He loves the troublesome trucks from Thomas and acknowledges himself as a troublesome boy, hoho!

He has really grown so much this year, especially in terms of speech. We stopped watching Thomas for a while cos I wanted to limit his screen time. But I had to put it back on when I removed his high chair to keep him in his seat *.* The upside was that I realised that he could now sing along! He likes to ask me to sing "Troublesome Trucks". One day, I told him to sing it himself and he told me, "铠铠不会唱" - I was quite surprised as I had not heard him use 会 before.

And it's quite hilarious when I sang the song slowly - it wasn't good enough for him. "Faster! Faster!" Hoho!! And then there is the "Ready, go! The wheels on the bus...." in super fast mode! Next, "Wiper time! The wipers on the bus..." If Sito or I were to doze off while with him, he'll look at us reproachingly, "No sleeping!" It really is quite fun listening to him and chatting with him now :)

This is my baby singing a part of his fave song:

Besides speech, his motor skills are also improving. Just two weeks ago, his gesture for "good" was to point with his index finger. Then he learnt to keep that in and signalled with his thumb instead, but in a closed fist. One day, he came home with a beautiful thumb-up! And then we taught him that he is now two years old, which began as four :p By the past Sunday, he could do a "two" with his left hand but still needed help with his right. Now he's learning to stick out his pinky for a pinky promise :)

In another note, the school has a new check-in/out system by taking photos of the kids using an iPad. So every day, I get two emails telling me that ZK has arrived/left the school! This morning's picture showed him digging his nose *.* ZY had his photo taken as well but perhaps they haven't set up the emails yet. Well, that's partly why fees go up next year right?? *.*

ZY goes to school!

It's ZY's first day at infant care today.

Where are we going, Mama?

I tell you, I want to carry him up again!!

My two little boys in their respective strollers - oh, and Lion went to class with ZK as well!

ZY was sitting a little too upright as the seat was blocked by his huge pack of diapers behind, oops...

So we reached the centre at 745 am. ZK got clingy quite immediately so I let him follow us upstairs where I passed ZY to the carer and told her about his routine. ZY was smiling at me while I talked :) Gave my second child a kiss and left with the first in my arms.

He couldn't leave my arms *.* And he started crying. I sat him down to sweet talk him. The class was also just moving to their classroom at the next house. So I squeezed a verbal acknowledgement out of him, that he would stay in school while I went to work. He let me put him down in his classroom but shortly after that, he started crying, less intensely, phew! And the teacher managed to ushered him in.

And I was left with...me time!

Packed off maternity and outgrown baby clothes into vacuum bags. Repaired a bit more of our bed - more on that later, perhaps.. Hand expressed some milk - I'm growing to like using my hands instead of the pump, except that it took more time as I could only do one side at a time. And then it was off to a deep tissue massage downstairs! And that turned out to be the best massage in my life man! Relaxing and not oily at all. Unfortunately, I probably won't have the time to go back for a while...

Came back to pump cos I didn't manage to express much from the left earlier. Eventually had a late and quick lunch in town before my facial. That was probably my last facial in a long time too... And then I shopped a bit and of course I ended up at Daiso *.* By the time I got back home, I accumulated enough milk to pump out 260 ml - woot! Never had so much before!

Bummed around a little and it was time to get my babies home!

ZK started crying again when I went upstairs *.* Y pacified him. No complaints from the carers, just that he had difficulty sleeping in bed so he was on the bouncer a lot. Well, it's a new environment. Will see how he fares in the coming days. ZY started crying as we talked but was pacified shortly after I picked him up. My baby :)

Mum came by as well. When I start work, she'll be helping to pick up the kids - thanks! - cos it'd be 7 pm by the time I get to the centre from office. With her help, we can all meet at home at 7 pm.

So when we got home, I changed into home clothes and changed ZY while ZK had his dinner. Managed to nurse ZY to sleep, yeah! And had dinner next to ZK who was having his post-dinner raisins by then. And the nightmare started after his shower.

He wasn't very quiet during quiet time. So ZY woke. And could not be pacified by his pacifier :( So it's time for sleep training! Second time I'm doing it - first was on Tuesday, which was kind of successful though I fell asleep and didn't monitor him much! ZY slept after five minutes of crying.

ZK looked sleepy so I tried my luck. He said ok to me going off to shower and even waved bye bye. But he started wailing after I left the room! Guess what? ZY woke again :( So I let the poor boy cry again - closer to 10 minutes this time. I left the room when ZK slept.

So today, the first day of rehearsal for resuming work, was quite good, considering that ZY was alright in school, and ZK didn't fuss much - bedtime is standard, crying at the centre when I'm around is also standard *.* Just now while he was having his mil, I prepped him for tmr, that I'll send them both to school and LEAVE, and that there is no need for him to cry as I'll see him at the end of the day. Let's see how tmr.. And of course, hopefully bedtime will be better tmr too...

Kiddy routine

Failed to put ZY in bed as ZK had impeccable timing for when he decided to say something - when his brother was on the verge of dozing off. So I sent him to Sito while I finally coaxed ZY into lala land.

When I came out of the kiddy room, I found ZK and Sito in our bed, lights off. Um, didn't look good. ZK refused to budge and signalled for me to lie down. Oh well! So we told ZK that we got to do some chores outside and left the room. And he fell asleep!

It shows me one thing - ZK doesn't need to sleep with us; he wants to sleep in our bed!! *.*

Sundays can be a little challenging, putting both kids to bed together. Saturdays are the easiest cos I outsource ZK to Y while I bathe ZY etc :p Usually, I can quite easily put ZY in bed when ZK has fallen asleep.

Weekdays will be tricky. In the past 18 weeks with ZY, I showered before/after I bathed ZY, put him in bed before ZK got home, put ZK in bed. That usually worked though sometimes ZY didn't fall asleep early enough or ZK woke ZY up. But most of the time, ZK could observe "quiet time" while ZY was sleeping, which meant some real whispering and some ZK-whispering aka normal speaking in cute tone :p

From tmr, ZY will go to IFC, which means that I may have to send both kids to bed at the same time! Ok, for a start, I can still nurse ZY while ZK has dinner, and pray that ZY falls asleep before ZK gets in. But once ZY starts having dinner, it will be a mighty challenge! Let's see how when we get there...

For now, ZK's routine is pretty fixed - one mid-day nap, sleep between 8 pm and 6 am, three square meals a day with morning and afternoon snacks. This probably wouldn't change even when he enters N1 next year. Yes, he's going to be in N1! So fast...

And ZY is consistently napping four times a day - first and last at 30 min and the other two anything from 30 min to three hours! I think he may drop a nap when he settles into IFC but we shall see. He nurses at about three-hour intervals in the day, right after waking up from sleep/nap or a while after that. He doesn't really nurse to sleep, as in, I can burp him like crazy and he stays asleep but the moment I put him down in bed, he wakes *.*

Ok, I'm abruptly ending this cos ice cream is on its way :p

ZY is four months old!

Ok I'm a day late in posting this :p

I was looking at some photos from a few months back and goodness, my dear little boy has grown so much!

He can now grab his pacifier and remove it - then cries cos he cannot put it back no matter how he pokes his face *.*

So sometimes he has this I'm-going-to-cry face, or tears are already rolling in his eyes :(

I was trying to capture him napping on me but at that moment, he stirred and was unhappy *.*

But he has happy times too cos he's a happy baby!

Yes, he's our happy baby!

He's in onesies most of the time. Otherwise, he'll pull his shirt way up, yes, showing more belly than this one.

So we gave him a full haircut last Tuesday - what are you doing to my nice hair?!

See my botak baby :)

He loves being bounced on my belly. I love looking at him from lying down :)

And when burping..

I thought he looks like he was carrying a backpack or parachuting in this shot:

My little tiger-horse baby who decides to watch us eat:

He really enjoys being pampered! The lady behind is Lucy who is very nice to ZY and ZK before him.

What's with that look, baby?!

So I showed ZK a photo of himself in the above clothes and he told me that was didi ^_^

Scaredy cat? Or beginning to understand he has, gasp, hands?!

And legs!

We have been having sleep issues lately. Must have jinxed it anyway with a previous post :( At first it was gas - he would struggle and suddenly poooooo! Then he was calm. Lately, he has been sweeping his head and even babbling like mad in the middle of the night. I just realised this time, it could be due to him wanting to explore with his hands and to talk. Even in the day, today, he didn't manage to go to sleep peacefully on his own with just a pacifier; I had to intervene by letting him grip a finger or gently holding down his hands.. I hope it gets better soon...

We think and hope he likes reading...

So as you can see, he can hold his head upright now :) If I tilt him forward, he may still have problem supporting his head, but he's getting there. Next up, flipping over!

ZK's first concert!

Since we heard that the school was organising a concert by the kids, we were all very excited. The day finally came last Saturday!

He brought his costume home on Friday - some traditional Chinese costume, which I will reuse for racial harmony day for ZY two years later hoho!

We dropped ZK off with the teachers to prepare backstage and looked at the photos on display outside the ACJC auditorium. They were taken on rehearsal day on Thursday. We bought some eight or 10 5R pictures of ZK at $2.50 each. Not too ex but the school was very smart lor.. Playgroup kids must be accompanied by adults for the rehearsal, and I was so glad I sent Y - duration was too long not to pump/nurse - cos they only needed guidance for the bus journey as the adults were not allowed into the auditorium!

We also bought a photo book compiled by a parent volunteer who took the photos around Children's Day. It's $25 for one shot of ZK but it's one full page.. Yes, we're such suckers. Anyway, the proceeds go to MILK so, ok la.

The programme - it's the school's first concert as well:

ZK is in PGB! :)

He came back from rehearsal on Thursday with his hands on his head, saying "rabbit". So we thought he would be a rabbit in 拔萝卜 as we were thought his class was preparing for this song. But I heard from his teacher before the show started that the kids couldn't move to that song so they changed it to 小兔子乖乖 - more rabbits then hoho!

Even ZK woke to watch his brother perform ^_^

The teachers were standing in front of the stage at the aisles of the seats to dance with the kids and remind them of the steps. The older kids were able to dance to the songs. The younger kids, well, it depends! There were a few memorable ones - the stationary lions, the one with a fist in her mouth the whole time looking like she was thinking and doing nothing else much less dancing, and those who shouted out MUMMY when they spotted their most important woman! They were so cute!

But nothing could compare when my ZK appeared on stage :) He was so easy to spot cos of his big and happy movements! Can you see him? :))))

And the full video! The action starts from 0:24:

His teacher told me that during rehearsal, he walked right out when the curtains opened so I was a bit apprehensive but he did so well! :) We noticed a few things - ZK loves the stage for one! Haha! So enthusiastic and happy :) He loves jumping in particular. And he took note that he should stay behind the line on the floor! He checked where he was after jumping. At one point, he was looking out for us in the audience, but he never forgot his steps!

Yes, we are so very proud of him :)

Everyone came out for the finale. While waiting for the rest to fall in, he started looking for us and cried when he couldn't see us :( I could hear him go "mummeeee..." :( We kept waving and shouting his name. I knew he saw us when he blew kisses back at me :)

He was happy when Sito fetched him from the stage. Relaxing finally...

Back to the stage with Papa!

Photographer spotted us on our way out - what a nice picture!

Source: Global Tots Facebook

That night when we went to bed, ZK kept singing the rabbit song. He went "tok tok tok" at the jumping part, and repeated the song once before going "the door close [sic]" - super cute!

Smelling my babies

I just got back from milk milk time with ZY. When I was burping him, I sank my nose into his two inches of standing baby hair - ahhh, heaven :)

Ok, so it was J&J baby shampoo but it was my baby :)

I love smelling ZY.

In the day, I'll smell his hair too but it'll be missing the shampoo smell. It just smells oily due to the remaining cradle cap on his front fontanelle. But I love it.

There are days when he is madly shedding ear wax and he smells like ear wax. But I love it, especially when his ears are a little damp from accidental sprays during bath time.

And there are times when he has green snot so he smells like snot. I'll rub noses with him so that I can smell more of his snotty smell.

And then, there are his clammy hands which smell sour from sweat and more recently, saliva. I don't know why but I love sniffing his little hands.

I also smelled his breath the other day. It's like baby, so sweet :) And so is his skin, so...baby :)

The past couple of weeks, I have been rubbing ruyi oil on him at almost every diaper change (instead of upon waking and after bathing) as he;s been gassy. Every so often, the smell floats into my nose even when I'm not actively putting my nose on my baby. When I smell it, I blow raspberries at his belly and take in more of it.

Heck, I'd even smell his butt when he poops! In part to confirm the poop, in part cos his poop is infinitely nicer smelling than his brother's!

How can this baby not smell nice??

On the other hand....

ZK typically smells like (1) sweat, (2) snot, (3) saliva, (4) pee and (5) poop.

Throw in a sixth one - whatever he's eating.

(That used to be a butter cookie..)

But after a shower, ZK smells really nice, like J&J and fresh linen. But when he snuggles up to me as he falls asleep, he still smells like the first baby I know, and that's one lovely scent :)

Foood!

Thought this is a good thing to break the series of posts on the Sito babies :p

So ever since our first date night in a long time on 21 Feb 2014, we've had other date nights:

There's the western food at the Chang Cheng kopitiam on 25 April:

Omakase on 9 May - super yummy burgers that should have been twice as large for more shiokness!

Ma Maison on 13 June cos Ikea happened to have an event and was too crowded for us to dig into meatballs... This is my burger, with cheese on top:

And Sito's burger grill:

Dessert on 20 June where we ordered a pop rock cake...

... and a yummy waffle from 2 am downstairs:

There were a few other date nights as well - went for ramen, hor fun etc.

This was earlier this year when we managed to get seats at Tim Ho Wan at Plaza Sing pretty fast on a weekday. We weren't impressed. The char siew polo buns were good but the rest were rather bland - I had to use chilli on my dim sum for the first time ever!

Used a coupon at Yoshimaru in ZY's early days - without ZY! Some sesame sauce ramen, rather salty...

Sito got them when he returned from Jakarta on Wednesday :) Today, I offered the cute Halloween one to ZK who only liked the chocolate bits *.*

These are other food I had - on my own or with non-Sito :p

I had a lot of bah chor mee when pregnant with ZY - I couldn't drink water so I drank loads of pork soup! Auntie kindly gave me a big bowl of soup and even gave me a big bowl of noodles at no extra charge! I found out only when I went with a colleague and compared... I thanked her and said no need extra so she gave me her usual portion of noodles but always topped up with more ingredients. So nice right?

I've always thought it silly to order instant noodles outside but I did it once when I wanted some spicy soup...

Some nights, I made it myself - topped with a slice of cheese!

This is post-ZY when I was out running errands one day - Nam Nam:

Quite recently, tea at Provence downstairs:

And of course, Children's Day ice cream! For free from Swensen's cos of their weekday special! Was with LS at the airport - nice to have Children's Day ice cream again, and with a friend!

Just a bit of fuzzy history about Children's Day ice cream... The idea started back in secondary school, when we were given ice cream for Youth Day one year. One year in JC, I can't remember which now, I remembered about that Youth Day ice cream near Children's Day, I think, and that was it - Children's Day ice cream was born!

Just last week, with Mum at Curry Times at Westgate. I love the decor! Others give peanuts; they give little gems. In fact, we can take them ourselves from a big container at the payment counter. I had fish cutlet while Mum had dry laksa (not in picture). And dessert was bor bor cha cha! Omg, when was the last time I had that?! I remember Ah Yee used to make it some Sundays when we were younger and could consume all those calories on a fairly regular basis..

And then there were relatively massive cooking, i.e. more work than instant mee, like muffins!

Chicken pie and omelette with spinach and cheese when CW and family were here:

I made at least three banana cakes (link updated) this year as we kept having over-ripe bananas for a while. This one was cooked in the rice cooker - very easy!

Hmmm, I should really update my cooking blog (link updated)...

And the latest - 100 旺仔小馒头！They tasted quite different from the commercial ones though. Will put up recipe on my cooking blog later as well...

Hope to post more non-kid stuff! After all, "mama" is my most important title but it's just one of my many titles :)