Turning 3

It's a big small affair for turning 3!
It mark the real beginning of becoming a little man of the house. Mark the beginning of reasoning, bargaining and negotiating to get his way.
I don't accept tantrums at home or outside. No nonsense type of mummy. That doesn't mean I chase him around with a cane. I use reasoning and explaining first n if that don't work scolding comes next.
A friend once commented that if Zach don't ask for permission before going up for the $1 ride he'll get it from me. I beg to differ. I'm proud of my little man for asking my permission. It shows he respected me as mummy and he has his manners. No! I'm not saying her kids r ill mannered. It's just a different way of bringing up kids. 'Nuff said







Birthday celebration with my family! He had loads of fun and the endless smile on his face when he saw the cake!! Couldn't ask for more.. Thanks Aileen, Melinda, Jason, David & Rafe for loving Zach as your own!!
I had another dinner with in-law but photos are in my camera. Shall add that in later.



Turning 3 also means he's a 'big kor kor' as he always refer himself as. He'll hug Kieran and whisper I Love You Didi. I know if something ever happen to me Zach will take good care of his little bro (who btw constantly pulling and tugging him). Hilarious!


But Zach don't mind at all.



Still love him with a smile.
Gosh.. I love my little man more and more and more.

Home Reno - Part 1

Renovation started on 29 Nov with hacking of kitchen, toilets and cupboards.
All lighting points were fixed or moved. Now waiting for wet works of laying tiles and false ceiling.


No better quality picture as all the lights were gone. Will snap more nxt weekend. Hopefully by then tiling work are completed.


No fancy chandelier this time round. We do not want to spend another $1k for a light that we barely use. So we settled for this chubby transparent dining room light. All other lights are PLC. Simple and straight-forward.


Light for guest room. Gives a nice bright feel to the room.
More to come..
Excited!! I'm actually counting down to moving in early next year.

December

It's my favoriteee month of the year again!!
1. It's cooling because of all the rain.. downside? My clothes took longer than usual to dry and luckily they dun smell
2. It's Zachary's birthday. This year he is turning 3 and it is a big milestone. Cheekier (Check!), Faster (Check!), Nottier (Check!), Cute-o-meter (Sky rocket high! Check!).
3. It's our wedding anniversary and I suppose we will only be celebrating it at a later date. Busy at work-lah
4. It's Christmas and I start my quest to go around Singapore admiring Christmas trees and lights. This year will be extra special because Kieran is here and he loves shopping..I am always happy to hear him scream in delight

More time is needed

Work schedule at this time of the year is always crazy!! Back-to-back workshops.. Meetings with bosses and stakeholders during lunch time!
Good that I'm busy as a bee - I don't hv time to eat leisurely and I can feel my dresses are loose!! Woohoo..
I need more time to spend with my boys. Thinking in depth, I only spend average 30 mins with Kieran on weekdays.. Too little. This little boy is growing up too fast..
Zachary is different.. He sleep late and our time starts after Kieran is asleep and since Zach sleeps with me we still get to chit chat after lights off. I still miss him though..

New milestone

Our new milestone start today! 21 Nov 2011!
More abt it later..

The Lion King

Caught the finale of The Lion King at Marina Bay Sands! I've been procrastinating for the longest time whether to go for it or not.. and I am super duper very very (pardon the grammar) I did and I am glad I bought the highest category ticket too! I brought Zach along with me knowing he will enjoy the show as well.
I am impressed with all the thoughts put into this musical, the animals, the songs, the story etc.. exactly like how I remember watching the cartoon version.
Zach was enjoying every bits of it too and this show managed to capture his attention when the elephant emerged from the door behind and walked down the steps and we were just seated beside the steps!!! Woohoo..
Next up: Mickey & Friends, The Elves & The Shoemaker or Jack & The Beanstalk - which should I go for? Both should be equally good.. Zach is saying he wants to watch the Shoemaker..lol

Little Charmaine

Our Feisty Princess, the blog that I used to follow when I first knew of Charmaine's illness.
Now that I am a mother of 2.. re-reading this blog bring a different kind of feelings and emotions. I cannot comprehend what Mummy Cyn may be feeling now!
Each time I think about her, tears just flow.. Thinking about how Mummy Cyn is handling the situation, thinking about her final moment with her brother hugging her tightly refusing to let go.
I am sad..

Time is Essence

The above saying is true!
I mentioned earlier Kieran is a much different baby from Zachary in terms of behavior. Kieran (K) is more cranky and easily irritable. I attribute it to what I went through during my 37 weeks of pregnancy. Haha
Now that he is 4.5 mth old, he's becoming less irritable. More smiley and responsive. Early morning he'll never fail to greet me with a bright cheery smile.


He recognizes me something I take great pride in. It made all my sacrifices worth it. All the sleepless nights and patience on his incessant crying worth it!
He always reach out and touches my face, at times pulling them closer to him so that he can 'chew' my lips. Haha


Of course not forgetting my hyper hyper Zachary!


Love them to the max!!


Psst.. Look at Kieran frowning.

Kieran

I'm swarmed with the daily routine to even maintain this space!
Promise I'll do it more diligently. I suppose things will get better as Kieran grows older..












Love to talk.Intro to Sophie.Loving Lamaze toys
Generally he's very smiley and fun to play with. I would say he play hard cry harder. Haha and no i will not post up photos of him being cranky though I have plenty of that.. double haha.

He turn 4 months today and I can't wait till he's big enough to sit unassisted or start on solid.

Cakes #1 Moist Butter Cake

There's a National Day celebration at Zach's school tomorrow. Kids are encouraged to wear red & white as well as bring party snacks to school for sharing.
Initially wanted to get edible cupcake stickers but I din get ard measuring my cupcake liners.
Settled with this Moist Butter Cake adapted from Little Teochew Homecooking. She made this cake twice and both time it looks yummeh.
Tried it but din get to taste it though. However the aroma of the butter was still wafting around the house hours after! I knew this recipe is a keeper.


Moist Butter Cake (fr Little Teochew Homecooking

* I reduce the amount of sugar since it's meant for children's consumption.

195g all-purpose flour
170g butter
180g sugar (original calls for 250g and Little Teochew reduce to 200g)
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
12 tbsp milk

- Mix flour, salt & baking powder in a clean bowl
- in a separate bowl, beat at medium softened butter & sugar till light and fluffy
- add in the eggs & vanilla essence and combine well.
- mix in flour alternating with milk combining well after each addition.
- pour batter in a baking pan for 40mins at 190 degree. My oven needed 50 minutes.

If the top of the cake darkens before it finish baking, cover with a piece of aluminium paper. :)


The end product! I hope all the kids loves it.

Life as a moo moo cow

With a blink of an eye my confinement is coming to an end. It's been up & down for the past 20 odd days. Stressed over milk supply, stressed over my messy house, stressed over not spending enough quality time with Zachary.
My day begins at 6.15am..
Pump for 15 mins, prepare milk for Zach, pump another 5 minutes, prepare Zach for school (brush teeth and change), wash up, rest for a while till 8.30am, breakfast, read the papers, express/latch, lunch, rest, express/latch, rest, dinner, express/latch, spend time with Zach, express n sleep!!
Alot of my time is spent with my pump! Luckily I'm taking 15 -20 mins max to express compared to an hr for latch. It looks tiring but I gotta psycho myself to endure for next 11 mths!



Kieran is very responsive to people talking to him.


He's not feeling too good on his tummy so sleeping upright is the best position for him.


That's the mouth he'll gv when you talk to him.

Decisions! Decisions!

Question: What are your plans after your maternity?
This q caught me by surprise. Err.. Status quo? Boys go to babysitter's house and I pick them up at 7pm?
Hb's suggestion: Continue sending them to babysitter, we get a maid so that night time there's help. Triple amount to spend. Babysitter for the boys n maid excluding levy, additional utilities, food n lodging. Doesn't make sense.
He further suggest I quit my job but that would mean I lose my financial freedom and Zach would need to stop his current school arrangement (which I bore the fees all on my own)! I can't do that to my boy.. The thought of having to get $$ from him is daunting.. How much can he give? How much I need to maintain my sanity at home? $2K? $3K? Does that mean I hv to cook? Ugh..

Kieran Tan

Born 13 June 2011 weighing 3.285kg at 50cm in length. Not bad for a 37 week baby!!
I was scheduled for c-sect on 21 June 2011 at week of 38! As how my past pregnancy is this time round, I thank God pre-eclampsia nvr found it's way nor water retention or high blood pressure. However, I was suffering from stomach hardening most of the time that walking seems so difficult.
I took urgent leave on 25/05 to see my gynae about it only to find out:
1. I'm having contractions not Braxton
2. My cervix is softening.
Gynae ordered bed rest for the rest of the week afraid that baby may decide to make an appearance.
3 days of bed rest became 3 weeks of bed rest.. I was soooo bored at home, not mobile enough to go out all the time (that'll defeat the purpose of bed rest, right?).
Nxt bad news I received fr gynae 2 weeks later is my amniotic fluid is low! And baby do not have much space to move so no point keeping baby in my tummy anymore!! Date was brought forward by a week - 14/06!
Well.. Mom being mom couldn't resist checking with a geomancer on good dates. Apparently the only good date is 13/06 or 17/06!! As my water level is dangerously low, we doubt gynae will allow c-sect on Friday.. So scrambling to call her on 11/06 morning informing her I wanna deliver on 13/06 then rush down to pay $3K in cash for delivery was no joke.. Muahaha
So that's it.. Delivery via c-sect with epidural on 13/06 between 7am - 9am!
Naturally I had a feast the day before, indulging in laksa n durian pengat.

I knew this day would come.. Zach had severe attack of wheezing last night and this morning I realized he's breathless when he talks and he's trying to catch his breath.
Sensing something is wrong, asked hb to come back n drive us to PD. Trust mother's instinct my worries came true. Dr Ee said this is quite an escalation of his usual bout of wheezing and it can be considered mild asthma attack cos of the breathlessness. Sigh.. My heart just sank!!
Recommended to nebulize him for 5 days and then he needs to be on inhaler for 2 months!!! This is prevention course. I certainly hope he's not going to be on inhaler forever.


Now as I calm down, I began to think what I did wrong.. I stopped all cold drinks, no ribena, no vitagen, no yoghurt nor cheese unless if course he took all those at nanny's place. Sigh.. What can I do abt it? There's alot of things which I don't feel happy abt like how can my son don't nap when on weekends he'll nap from 2pm - 5pm at least. Or how can she let him nap till 6pm knowing that 10.30pm he's supposed to be on bed so that he can get up well rested for school but that never happen cos he'll sleep at 12am at least.
Like this instance... Took medication at 9.30am will make him drowsy by 2pm. I picked him up at 5.30pm n I was told he din nap!!! Wow.. N now it's dinner time, my boy is snoring away.. Zzz
Drastic measure needs to be taken!!

Easy peasy

Life's so convenient with Internet connections and online shopping.. I frequent sites like Gap, Amazon, Asos and 2 days ago I realize I need to stock up on my kitchen stuffs since I'll be doing confinement in SG. It's no fun bringing Zach to supermarket and have him running around and we have to lug bags and bags of groceries! So.. It's off to Fairprice online!


It's such a breeze! I'm more organized because the site is organized so no impromptu & impulse buying!!
Total spent: $100 including $7 delivery charges..
My items were delivered today packed neatly in boxes (no plastic bags = environment friendly)

Long weekends

I love long weekends! It made time passes by quickly *I know I am crazy that I want time to pass! But as long as it flew past, I can look forward to my delivery and maternity leave*

I love the month of May.. Labor's Day fall on Sunday so Monday was a public holiday, Polling Day is on 7 May which we get a day off so I am flying back to Malaysia to celebrate Mother's Day with mommy dearest and at the same time utilizing the day off for Polling Day as well as additional day when I came back for testing at the wee hours! Not forgetting Zach's Sports Day is on 13 May which I am on leave again and then 17 May is Vesak Day! Woohoo..how not to love May? Muahaha

We went for our usual staycation at St Regis over the Labor Day weekend. St Regis again? Well, no choice since I get free night stay with complimentary buffet breakfast (nothing fantastic to shout about) and free usage of all their facilities with wine tasting every night..it comes with The Astor card that I signed up for and renewed for the 2nd year..will not renew it for another year since I am kinda bored with the same thing though the service was impeccable each time we stayed there..time for another membership..keke

Zach is definitely growing up fast! I can remember our first staycation, he is still a young baby that doesn't really know where he is but now, he knows we are staying in a hotel, he knows he can enjoy bubble bath, watch TV, sleep late and wake up late, swim at the pool, R&R etc.. he is practically charming everyone in the hotel! Hahaha.. He ordered his own food..sheesh..wait till he knows the price difference..hehe It is definitely a much enjoyable experience this time round and I am sure there are many more to come. :)

Random Ramblings

We came back from Hong Kong more than a week ago and I've yet to regain back the loss of sleep!! The tiredness is taking a toll on me, my back etc..

Zach with his collection of Angry Birds

I began to wonder how my body is functioning with 3 hrs of sleep for the past months, I kinda lost count since when I start waking up at 2.40am, 3.30am and not being able to sleep till 6.30am, which is a mere 5 minutes snooze time for me since my alarm is set at 6.35am on weekdays!

Tried all kinds of method to fall asleep, eating less, waking up for hot drink like milo or horlick, reading, Bejeweled (temporarily gotta ban this at wee hours cos it is causing my brain activity to peak), flu pill..only thing yet to try is downing Dom or Yomeishu which I don't think I should since I am preggy at this moment.

Well, good thing about this is that I am more or less prepared for #2 to come in about 10 weeks time!!! Woohoo.. guess it will be no problem for me to moo moo at ungodly hours, attending to his whims and needs or mabbe my body clock is weird, after I pop I will be so tired out that I need at least 10 hours of sleep daily? Muahaha..that will be so ironic and WEIRD.

Finally, after sucha long time I get to meet up with a few friends that we used to meet every Saturday. It was a busy busy weekend since the start of 2011. We had dinner at HRC, RWS with the initial plan of going into USS after hours but shelved off when it rained heavily!! Missed the 9pm fireworks but vowed to be back again for it.. Zach had fun of course meeting up with his 'older bro' Darrell. He rarely play with the other 2 peers..I wonder y..lol

Having hotdog for dinner - triple tsk to mummy for allowing that

I gotta give him more activities before I deliver and gotta be confined for the whole of 1 month. I can only think how boring it would be for him on Saturday and Sunday.

It was a tiring but fun day for me & Zach. Having stayed home for 4 days with each other, we went out today!
I applied leave much earlier since it's his school holiday (1week). I had gynae appointment in the morning followed by lunch (we tapao-ed) and Zach took a quick 2-hour nap. We rushed out to Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch Disney on Ice.. I'm so glad I splurged on rinkside tickets cos I don't know how those peeps or little kids can even see fr high up.
Zach was very enthu abt the whole show! He said he wanted to watch again.. Haha. I too enjoy the show because I'm a true blue Disney fan.
He was a happy boy after the show!

My very musically inclined son! Modifying Wheels on The Bus with his own version!!

Dinner @ Ippudo because I wanted to go to the baby fair @ Taka. Zach loves the tamago while I heart their deep fried gyoza.. Yummy yum tum!

Entering 23rd week

I can still fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes!! That's because I have not been putting on as much weight as I should be; comparing with me preggy with Zach too. Hehe.. So far it's only 4kg!! Hopefully by the time I deliver, it'll be < 10kg!


My little attempts to make me less frumpy by wearing some accessories.