25 months - negotiated outcomes

we had an eventful saturday at toa payoh SAFRA. a value for money $5 breakfast at Eden (2 eggs, 2 sausages, baked beans, coleslaw) followed by crazy times at the kidsamaze indoor playground.

h is at a stage where everything is a negotiation and we have to do a super good job before we can convince her to do something which she'd otherwise not want to do. like having breakfast BEFORE heading to the indoor playground. 

trying times ahead.

11 weeks - swim

started swimming today to try to reap some of those back/core strengthening benefits now so that my back can subsequently take the extra weight from baby. 

for starters, i could fit into my swimsuit (!!) and i also managed to get in a decent number of laps in the SAFRA toa payoh pool considering that i don't usually swim and i haven't done much cardio exercise in the past year *shame* may have done 10 laps or more (i wasn't really counting as i was just focused on doing as many laps as i could).

the weightlessness actually felt quite good and there seemed to be less pain afterwards. what a relief!

while i swam, the hubby took care of h at the huge indoor playground within the same complex. so everyone got some exercise :D

think swimming is going to be part of my weekly schedule from now on.

afternote: went swimming again on sunday and did 20 laps with breaks in between each lap. here's the belly in the morning at 11 weeks 3 days (going by the first ultrasound)

11 weeks - pukesy

oh the nausea has arrived. i haven't puked so far, but it has been gagging galore every morning less in the afternoon and some more in the evening. fun.

we were at our doc's today to close the loop with him that we intended to proceed with this pregnancy even with the slipped disc. there was no reason at this time not to if the baby was healthy. we also got another look at baby who has grown to 4.23cm from 2.88cm in just over a week. CRL puts baby at 11 weeks 0 days today. 

i somehow managed to lose 2kg in between gynae appointments, which is crazy. i haven't had much of an appetite (prob due to the nausea and worrying) but i didn't think it would make such a big difference. perhaps it was also because i was in jeans the last time. doc didn't mention the weight loss though, so i guess it's not a concern. oh well, am pretty sure the weighing scale will move up at the next visit a month away, and so long as baby grows, it probably is ok to put on a bit less this round ... might be easier on my back as well!

24 months - uncharacteristic monday

this is the first time since her first week at school that we left baby in tears and still crying at childcare in the morning. she is usually too busy to care about us and will not even give us a proper wave because she gets sucked up in the flurry of the drop-off and is too eager to get started with her school day. like this:

but today, she was ok all the way until she put her shoes in her cubby hole. but then she burst into tears after i said goodbye, be good ... and didn't stop even after i gave her another hug. 

and in the afternoon, the school called to say she didn't want to board the school bus because she didn't want to sit with the other kids .... she's been saying for awhile that she doesn't want to sit with J but i thought that was settled after there was a switch in bus seats.

well, apparently not. 

haven't managed to dig out the real reasons for her behaviour this morning and also how she reacted at going home time. will need to observe a bit more, since she hasn't been acting any differently at home the past few days and even after school today.

24 months - zoo revival

we've been visiting the zoo more regularly this past month, and her interest in interacting with the animals and spending time watching them seems to have grown.

the crocodiles, giraffes, goats and the falabella (small horses) have captured her interest and attention. the first because of the mention of crocodiles in one of her fave nursery rhymes (row row row your boat), second and third because of the feeding sessions which she thoroughly enjoyed, and the fourth because the falabella made a brrrrr noise that she's able to imitate. now she will say "falabella, what are you doing?" whenever she gets near the falabella enclosure.

but in the end the best pictures are taken of her with the animal sculptures scattered all over the zoo. ah meng is probably her favourite.

what a week

24 months - zombie

since she found out how to open her bedroom door, we've been having very interrupted sleep every night. 

at 6am almost like clockwork i will hear her fiddling with the door and before long she'll be at our door and asking to join us on our big bed on her "soft pillow". this means one of us has to get up to turn off the aircon in her room and also help her get onto our rather high bed because she can't clamber on herself as yet.

and then she'll ask for milk. which we usually give in to, and she'll lay in the dark with us until the first light streams in through the window around 7am .. this somehow seems to wake her up fully and she'll clamber down the bed and do her usual "see! 太阳公公 wake up already. it's time to wake up already! EVERYBODY WAKE UP!"

dies.

as if that wasn't bad enough, there was one night where she came over at 3am! and woke again at 6am all energized and ready to face the day while we could hardly get ourselves out of bed. spent that day feeling like a zombie at work and my brain really shut down. even resorted to taking a nap under my table (thank goodness i have a room!).

we've found a way to prevent her from opening the door though thanks to the husband's brilliant two pens and rubber bands contraption. i heard her trying the door at 6am and after she tried to no avail and realised that all her mummy yelling wouldn't bring mummy to her while it was still dark, she turned on the light and played on her own / messed up the room until i went to "release" her at 7+. finally after a week of broken sleep, we got to stay in bed until 7+ this morning. :D it makes such a difference to energy and attention levels!

9 weeks - SURPRISE!

so .... 

and to think i suspected but brushed it off because i had too little pregnancy symptoms unlike the last time and it was never really very consistent plus i thought the slight spotting i was experiencing during a rather busy time for me at work was either a period or that the stress had screwed with my cycle.

guess it saved me some of the worrying in the interim though, being the worry wart that i am. also what a relief to know that i was getting slightly chubs in my middle for a valid reason and not because my metabolic rate had taken a hard hit! it was all the early pregnancy bloatedness to blame! :D

our doc's reaction was quite priceless as we had gone for a consult with him only because my MRI (which i did because of a suspected slipped disc which the MRI confirmed to be a rather serious one sigh!) also showed up an extended endometrial cavity. so when our doc saw the blob pop up on the screen, he didn't tell me anything but just said "can i get your husband to come??" and only then broke the news. our doc must have thought me the world's biggest idiot for not realising that i was pregnant for awhile already. sigh.

when i saw the blob i more or less guessed at what it was (all those little signs from before started to click in place), but it still took awhile for the doc's words to sink in. we have been planning and trying for #2, so while we were surprised by the news, it was in a good way.

9 weeks 4 days as at the visit on monday (18 aug). there's quite a bit to sort out and decide on since there's the complication of the slipped disc. :( 

24 months - lemon lantern

she's learning about fruits and vegetables in school this month, so there's been lots of artwork and songs related to the theme. 

the school gave us parents a homework project "parent-linked assignment" in the lead-up to the mid-autumn festival, which was to make a lantern based on a fruit theme (the older classes were assigned vegetables, leaves and flowers, which i thought were infinitely easier!!). 

after some internet research we settled on a lemon print lantern. wasn't sure if poster colours would stay on tracing paper, but it did, and the printing turned out bright and attractive. it was easy to get h involved too, given that she's familiar with veggie stamping in school and had done it before at home too. [tips for using citrus fruits for printing: dig out the pulp from each segment of the halved lemons/fruit; leave in fridge to allow the cut / pulped lemons/fruit to dry out somewhat so that the fruit juice doesn't water down the pain]

did the rest of the lantern artwork myself since it involved cutting out a paper bag and sticking the tracing paper into the paper bag like window panes. so actually the lantern could also have been a very nicely decorated paper bag. heh.

given the results, am quite tempted to do this lemon printing thing on some kitchen towels for gifts next time ... but will need to find fabric paint ....

the last time

sigh, this was probably not the best thing to read just before reaching the office …..

a reminder to treasure even the moments where she wanders into our room while it's still dark outside (before 7!), waking us up from our short sleep and asking to lie down on the "soft pillow" between us.

From the moment you hold your baby in your arms you will never be the same
You might long for the person you were before
When you had freedom and time
And nothing in particular to worry about
You will know tiredness like you never knew it before
And days will run into days that are exactly the same
Full of feedings and burping
Nappy changes and crying
Whining and fighting
Naps or a lack of naps
It might seem like a never-ending cycle

But don’t forget….
There is a last time for everything
There will come a time when you will feed your baby for the very last time
They will fall asleep on you after a long day
And it will be the last time you ever hold your sleeping child
One day you will carry them on your hip then set them down
And never pick them up that way again
You will scrub their hair in the bath one night
And from that day on they will want to bathe alone
They will hold your hand to cross the road
Then never reach for it again
They will creep into your room at midnight for cuddles
And it will be the last night you ever wake to this
One afternoon you will sing “the wheels on the bus” and do all the actions
Then never sing them that song again
They will kiss you goodbye at the school gate
The next day they will ask to walk to the gate alone
You will read a final bedtime story and wipe your last dirty face
They will run to you with arms raised for the very last time.

The thing is, you won’t even know it’s the last time
Until there are no more times. And even then, it will take you a while to realise.

So while you are living in these times, remember there are only so many of them and when they are gone, you will yearn for just one more day of them.
For one last time.

24 months - in conversation

she's a little miss bossy:

"you cannot eat this yet. i must put in the oven first. you have to wait ... this is hot you cannot eat, must wait until it is not hot then you can eat!" during a pretend cooking session where she made an elaborate affair of putting a felt fish onto a tray putting it into the "oven" (the dining table) and telling me i should not eat it until later.

"you wait here for awhile, i don't close the door. i will come back later."

when i turn off the lights - "you talk! and tap tap my bu-bu-zhai (backside)!" and when she is about to fall asleep - "don't talk! sleep!"

and in other school tales

"h cry. because h push cedric, so h sit in chair and cry." - that was time-out for her in school

24 months - national day

thursday night was spent racking my brains and memory over whether there was anything singapore flag-red in h's clothes drawers. having concluded that there wasn't (except for a stanfurd onesie), spent friday early morning in a slightly mad scramble to find a suitably red and white outfit for her school day ... finally resorting to a dark pink top and a pair of white skorts which is getting quite snug for her already.

will buy a red top for her the next time i see a nice one - it will serve us for CNY and national day next year.

spent national day itself watching the parade on tv, including the pledge taking section. when the national anthem was played at the end of the parade she was all serious singing along and halfway through decided to put her hand on her heart (pledge-taking style) and subsequently did a salute without any prompting from us. her earnestness amused me but also made me realise that she attached some level of respect and seriousness to the whole NDP business. not a bad sentiment to keep for the years to come ... afterall this day is about remembering our past, how far we have come and all the opportunities afforded us just by virtue of being born here/being a Singaporean, and contemplating how we can all do our part to bring our country forward in the years ahead.

24 months - snippets

"we are going to take photo at the studio!" - my sister's graduation photoshoot in which h was a highly cooperative photo subject listening to everything the photographer asked her to do ... great for a formal photoshoot and i didn't even need to tempt her with sweets!

"you are too big. you cannot climb. it is dangerous you will fall!" - telling me not to try the playground climbing structures while she herself masters clambering DOWN the rock wall, backside first like we've always told her.

"majulah singapura!" - or the whole national anthem which she mastered without being familiar with any of the words. and which she sings whenever she spots the national flag. just in time for national day.

"別怕鸭宝贝!" - the storybook from beijing that she has taken a liking to and insists i read every night. anything for her to enjoy Chinese. 

"you haven't finished telling the story!" "mummy you forgot!" - she says that all the time during our bedtime story sessions when i trail off without completing stories or when i tell her the wrong stuff (that a boy couldn't find his socks instead of his shoes). she has an incredible memory and will correct me when i get my "facts" wrong. she can also tell me from memory what are the colours of the items she has seen in her books - like the school bus in peppa pig videos, shoes and bag in a story about a messy boy who tidies up his room.

"h wants to sleep on the soft pillow" "the soft pillow is not properly" because horror of horrors she has learnt how to open her bedroom door and now wanders into our bedroom at daybreak (7am!!) and so for the past few days she had been getting access to our bed and taking over my soft pillow while she has her morning milk and we try to snooze some more. thank goodness for our king size bed!

"see! 太阳公公 wake up already! mummy can wake up already!" because we always told her she has to go back to sleep if she wakes up in the middle of the night and it's dark outside, while she can get up when it's light outside. now she applies the same principle to OUR waking times. wurh. thank goodness there are no summer days in singapore and the sun rises at a godly hour!