3 months - first visit to the zoo

brought both the kids to the zoo on saturday as h had been asking for the whole week to feed the animals. plus i wasn't sure if we would be able to visit the zoo again before her third birthday and i wanted to get a shot of her with the polar bear statue ... it's something we do every year near her birthday as a way to document how much she had grown. 

we caught the usual giraffe and goat feeding sessions, and h got a chance to pet the rabbits as well. discovered the dry play area hidden behind the kidsplash zone and h played to her heart's content while there. she also learnt about animal trafficking as part of the kid's activities that the zoo organises during the school holidays.

thank goodness for a somewhat overcast morning and early afternoon, which made bringing baby around in the carrier much more bearable. the shady play area also afforded us a bit of respite from the heat. the air conditioned nursing room near kidsplash was also a great place to feed baby. 

this was n's first time at the zoo. he probably won't enjoy such visits until much later when he can recognize and spot the animals in their enclosures, but judging by how he was quite a trooper throughout, i think we can do this again soon. next time we can visit the koala enclosure which we didn't do this time round as the waiting time to enter was a bit too long.

34 months - SCDF open house

the grandparents brought h to the SCDF central fire station open house recently. it runs every saturday at all fire stations island-wide. we brought h to one open house near our home when she was much younger, but i think she's at an age now where she appreciates such activities much more.

judging by the photos, central fire station has a wider range of fire vehicles on display. plus there's an adjoining museum to check out, so it could probably fill a full morning.

in keeping with the theme of the day, the grandparents also got her two firemen/fire station LEGO sets afterwards when they visited the LEGO area at raffles city. they indulge her so! although i half-suspect my dad gets more kick out of assembling these LEGO sets compared to h. would probably say the same for myself! haha.

3 months - check-up

took n for his first 5-in-1 jab today at the polyclinic today. the jab together with the panadol was free, thanks to the jab being added to the list of free jabs for citizens at polyclinics from 2013. 

n weighed in at 7.7kg (double his birth weight) and measured 64cm. his head circumference was over the 97th percentile, as usual. he was all friendly with the young doctor who checked that he was meeting all the necessary milestones. 

am crossing my fingers that he will be one of those fortunate kids (and i his fortunate mum) who do not develop a fever after his immunisations, just like h. it's been 12 hours since the jab and no fever in sight!! :D

34 months - a date with h

brought h as my partner for a friend/ex-colleague's wedding at st andrew's cathedral the previous saturday as i thought it would be nice to show her the interior of the old dame with its stained glass, pipe organ, dark wooden pews and the intricately carved and decorated pulpit and altar which we don't see very often nowadays.

she was suitably impressed for a good 15 minutes but when the bridal procession ended, she started bugging me to go home ("ok let's go home now!") 

thank goodness for paper, crayons, sweets and TTG's ipad which had a drawing app that got her hooked. there were still several irritated "are you blind?!!" "i told you i want red!" exclamations from her along the way when i didn't follow her instructions on what to draw/colour, but at least she kept still and didn't fuss. if she did, i am sure her voice would have carried far and wide given the good acoustics in the cathedral!!

enjoyed the wedding - there's something magical about weddings, the lilting hymns (played on a pipe organ which made it extra grand) and hearing the exchange of vows - plus it was good seeing many ex-colleagues and catching up at the sidelines ... 

we then headed to the lego play area at raffles city as promised her that morning ... she's such a sucker for lego and could probably have stood playing with the lego blocks for the whole afternoon if i let her. noticed that she has a knack of pallying up with older boys to get them to help her reach blocks that are too deep in the brick bins, and those boys bless them are obliging enough to help her. so nice!

then it was lunch at sushi tei (we skipped the wedding lunch reception) where she wolfed down lots of ramen, two chawan mushis and a scoop of ice cream. she also charmed the chefs who were prepping food behind the glass panels and also the waitress who promised her a scoop of ice cream if she returned on her birthday. heh.

we then took the train and a double decker bus back to the grandparents' home. she used her child concession card (free travel!) for the first time and felt oh so important being able to tap herself through the ticket turnstiles at the train station instead of having to hurry in with me all the time in the past. 

really enjoyed spending a good part of the day with h that day ... have been wanting to spend some quality one-on-one time with h which is not really possible on weekdays, so was glad to have the chance to do so that day. 

gardens by the bay (again)

we went to gardens by the bay this monday again. h was delighted to be skipping school for a day and was all cooperative from the get-go. n poo bombed while i was carrying him in the baby carrier so that wasn't so fun because the poo went all over his onesie as well and we had to do a major clean-up - thank goodness for the very nice baby rooms at the gardens! other than that, he was chill for most parts of the outing. again, the best part for me was the aircon :P 

we were at the gardens from 11am all the way to 5pm which is kind of amazing considering it spans h's nap time and 3 milk feeds for n. 

started the day off at cafe crema again as they serve a very good ham/cheese sandwich and bread platter with lovely homemade blueberry jam. then it was off to the two conservatories where h expended her energy running around in the air conditioned comfort, while I tried to conserve mine. the colourful blooms made for very attractive photo objects. i i i especially liked the lupins. 

afterwards, we had a late lunch at the old hill street cafe which is at the supertree grove and then h went up to the ocbc skyway with my dad and later took the tram ride with me. the tram took us past the floating baby sculpture (marc quinn's planet) which h quickly identified as a baby boy. h having been on the tram ride once before also was able to tell me what we would see along the route, including how a particular hut housed a ring of mushrooms. i think she amused the tram driver as well with her non-stop chatter.

managed to take quite nice pictures this time round of the kids with my parents so that made me happy ... 

3 months - cow duties

baby n is drinking 5.5oz of milk per feed (5 feeds) nowadays, excluding whatever he drinks when he latches on if he wakes up at night. thanks to him sleeping through the night most of the time, i have managed to increase the amount of breastmilk n gets for his feeds. we now use about 4oz of formula per day and i usually am able to accumulate enough for 1-2 bags of 5oz breastmilk per week that i freeze so that n will have a steady supply even if we go off for a holiday without him and also to provide some buffer for when i start work.
still relying on domperidone (6 tabs per day, down from the 8 tabs full dose) to keep the supply going. having a huge bowl of no-cook oats everyday has probably helped with the supply as well. no-cook oats are great! it's easy to prepare - all i do is to fill a bowl with rolled oats, chia seeds and soy milk and leave it overnight in the fridge and i will have a cold bowl of oats to eat the next day. having this on a hot day is especially welcome.
when we are out and i can't pump, and since my boobs don't make 5-6oz of milk per 3 hour session, i usually pump just before we leave home in the morning, feed n using a bottle of mixed milk for the 11am feed, and then have n latch on for the 2pm feed. we usually get home by the 5pm feed so that i have a chance to pump/latch on again. really would have loved to just have n latch on for each feed every time we are out so that i can save on bringing out bottles of milk in the cooler bag and also hot water to heat up the milk ... but it could mean n eating more often since he won't get his fill and that would take time away from whatever we are doing since i am still not comfortable nursing in public and would need to head back to the car or find a nursing room.
maybe it's because i am more chill this time round in general, including using formula as necessary, and because n us generally more laid back and less impatient at the breast compared to h, breastfeeding hasn't been as stressful this second time. at times, it is even enjoyable latching n! wonder when n will decide that the bottle is better than my boobs ... h was quite clear about her bottle preference quite early on - she used to bite me and then look at me like it was a joke when I tried to latch her for the first feed of the day - so i never enjoyed the flexibility of latching and using the bottle for very long with h.

gardens by the bay

visited the two conservatories at the gardens by the bay on monday with the parents and two kids as seniors can enter free and bring along a companion (me!) for half-price. the kids being below 3 also entered for free so we landed up paying $10 for 5 people. what a steal! it was no surprise that we saw many grandparents with their grandkids that day. anyway, who can resist free aircon during this sweltering month?!

had a very hearty breakfast at cafe crema before starting our day ... h got a lot of joy spreading jam on bread for everyone. 

the flower dome was all whimsy with the flowery fun times display on for the school holidays ... various nursery rhymes were being recreated among the flowers with the key recognisable ones (for me) being the old woman who lived in the shoe, mary mary quite contrary, baa baa black sheep, humpty dumpty and eensy weensy spider. h isn't too well versed with many nursery rhymes, so i don't think she appreciated the displays as much as i did. but she did have fun running around in cool comfort.

the cloud forest dome was also fun to re-explore ... we came here for h's first birthday and i still recall her, having only just learnt to walk, tottering down the winding ramp on her own like a boss. also, her trying to jump. 

the orchids growing on the vertical core structure at the cloud forest were beautiful.

n slept like a pro in the baby carrier for the whole time that we were in the conservatories ... he loves being carried and being on the move so of course he had no complaints. also managed to check out the very spacious and clean nursing room at the cloud forest when it was feeding time.

this was probably the first time that n was out for a full day and he was rather well behaved even in the car seat. looks like he has earned the right to being brought for more outings by the grandparents going forward since he was such an easy going baby that day. 

34 months - reading

we have been frequenting the newly renovated library almost every week because h enjoys picking out books there and it gives me a chance to be more selective with my rampant book buying on bookdepository. now i try to check out the book first at the library to see if h enjoys it first before making a purchase.

some favourites now which she makes me read every night:

1. giraffes can't dance

2. happy birthday hugless douglas

3. the snail and the whale

4. go to sleep gecko (PM read this to the kids during his library visit! good one!)

5. the biggest muddy puddle in the world (not surprisingly a peppa pig story)

6. wibbly pig has 10 balloons
7. what the ladybug heard

8. the gruffalo

have also gotten her a few lift the flap usborne "see inside" series books, after seeing how she liked the see inside your body one, especially the section about the digestive system. the airport book is her current favourite. it's largely general knowledge stuff but for now she gets to also learn the subject matter vocabulary and spin some stories while having fun with the flaps.