36 months - h turns 3

placeholder for a birthday post. in the meantime, a picture of the rainbow cake i made for h's birthday since she wanted a colourful cake. horrible baker that i am, this cake is actually a bengawan solo marble cake topped with a nutella (from jar) and fondue chocolate "icing" and mini m&ms. pretty pleased with how it turned out considering it's probably the cheapest rainbow cake around town. :D

4 months - hairy situation

postpartum hair loss is not fun. i hate having to deal with thinning hair PLUS all the clumps of hair in the shower and strands everywhere in the house on a daily basis. i can never vacuum or pick up enough hairs from the floor to keep it hair-free for more than a few hours. 

i remember being in the same situation last time and i know it will get better, but it's a pain to get through. thank goodness i don't grow thick locks of hair during pregnancy otherwise there would be more hair falling out now. 

2015 family vacation

perth's it again. 3 times in a row. heh. 

to be fair, we did explore other options, but eventually crossed them off - seoul for MERS and taiwan because of the wet weather during the august/september period. 

anyway, a holiday is a holiday, and baby n will be taking his first flight at 5+ months, much earlier than h at 16 months. glad that we don't have to worry about solids for n during the trip, which means time saved on cooking and cleaning up the mess, as well as lugging thermos containers/utensils everywhere. will have to psych ourselves up for the stuff that we will need to bring though ... 2 car seats, pram, diapers (lots!), pump, milk powder, bottles, warm clothes. exciting ....

remembering july 2014

just some memories jogged by the recent hari raya puasa public holiday ...
over the same hari raya puasa long weekend which coincided with h's birthday last year, i was on a working trip in beijing and staying at the posh china world hotel for the second time. to agree to travel on h's birthday took some deliberation, but we eventually decided that it would be okay to go as i was keen to attend the bilateral seminar, and we would be celebrating h's birthday in advance with her school friends already and she wouldn't know when her exact birthday was anyway.

it was a good trip, but i probably would have enjoyed it more if i was in a better physical state. besides feeling grumpy about my bad back and popping muscle relaxants that didn't seem to help much (slipped disc diagnosis only came after the trip), i remember thinking how tiring the trip was and worrying about my wonky period and all the spotting i was getting off and on before and during the trip. i was burping a lot, my clothes also felt a bit tighter and i felt super flabby wearing one form-fitting dress during the trip - all very depressing,
looking back, these were probably all signs that something was up, but i brushed it off as an irregular period / PMS. the thought that i was pregnant did cross my mind since we had been trying, but i didn't have clear signs that i was, unlike when i was pregnant with h - my boobs felt normal, there was no pukey feeling and too much spotting for the very pragmatic me to even seriously consider the possibility. plus, i tend to be more pessimistic when it comes to pregnancy stuff. this was why i readily downed alcohol during the trip (hard not to when hosted by the chinese) and happily had eggs benedict for breakfast every day while in china. win. it also led me to tick "not pregnant" in all the forms i was to fill in subsequently in august for my MRI and even spine operation. as it turned out, i was wrong ... i was already 8 weeks along during the china trip and 9+ weeks along when we eventually found out.
who would have thought that i would be in china just before finding out that i was pregnant both times? probably not surprising if i was holding my old portfolio, but the 2011 shanghai trip and the 2014 beijing trip came about quite randomly. oh well, china holds a special place in my heart for that reason. :D as i hardly drink alcohol EXCEPT on trips to china where it's almost rude to turn down toasts with wine and other stronger alcoholic beverages, it also means both babies got quite a dose of alcohol in their early weeks. thankfully they seemed to have survived the dousing.
the hubby sometimes jokes that baby n is "the one we didn't know about". i think i will have to be at the receiving end of such jokes for a long time to come. zzzzzz. 

4 months - STTN

because he has been sleeping till at least 7am for more than a week, i think it's safe to say that baby n is sleeping through the night (as defined by me - waking up when the sun is in the sky and not before the trains start running/it is still pitch dark outside). there's always talk about a sleep regression during a baby's 4th month ... i think ours happened before baby n hit the 4 month mark - he was up twice and on one occasion refused to go back to sleep for an hour. thankfully it lasted only for a few days otherwise i might have gone crazy.

now it is h who wakes us up every morning because she's up and about at first light (usually just before 7) and will come into our room and wake us up with her loud voice. i am not a morning person so her bursting into the room at that time can make me quite grumpy, but with both kids sleeping well and giving us quite a bit of downtime for ourselves each night, i really shouldn't be complaining.

baby n is also sleeping better in the day. we still have to contend with the "45 minute intruder", but at least he is much easier to put down after he falls asleep and he goes back to sleep if we carry him for a bit when he wakes up at the 45-60 minute mark. he is probably a better napper than h in this regard.

3 months - update

quick update so that we capture baby n's growth and development for posterity.

when it comes to developmental milestones, there has been plenty going on this past month! baby n is so much more responsive nowadays. he has a ready smile for anyone who bothers to engage him but i would like to think he reserves his widest smiles for me. he has been "talking" a lot more ... to us and to himself. his monologues can go on for quite awhile.

he is grabbing at stuff on his playgym and also his toys in the bathtub. these then immediately head towards his mouth. his aim is getting quite good although he will let go of stuff that he grabs and then get really frustrated because that item disappears from his sight, or is too far for him to grab again. heh. he has also been holding his own milk bottle but i still lend a hand for stability.

he can flip from tummy to back albeit in slow-mo. he can lift his head at a right angle to the mattress while he is on his tummy. he can sit up supported by his own hands for a few seconds before toppling sideways. used to keep track of these more diligently for h, but baby n gets 2nd kid treatment so i only remembered that these are key milestones when we brought baby for his vaccination earlier. :D

he seems to be able to recognize and anticipate certain day to day occurrences. when i bring a towel towards him at bathtime, he knows to open his mouth for me to wipe his tongue and gums. when we walk towards the lift lobby or when i bring out the baby bjorn he gets excited and goes "uh! uh!" because he knows we are going out for a walk. in the lift he likes watching the floors zoom up/down and always turns towards the door so he can catch sight of the movement. he enjoys watching the leaves move in the wind. he loves to have ruyi oil rubbed on his tummy and chest.

he poops after the morning milk feeds. i only bring him out in the baby carrier after he poops so as to avoid any poo explosions.

temperament-wise, he is quite unlike his big sis. he is milder and much more patient. he can sit in his baby chair or play on his own in the playgym for so long that i feel guilty about leaving him there. h would have been yelling for us and for some attention almost immediately. in a way, we really got what we hoped for for each kid - they are quite true reflections of their chinese names! one is all fire and passion (殷) and the other is calm and chill (安).

on a separate note, n is SUPER CUTE!! his expressions are priceless, his smile warms your soul, and there's something about him wanting to snuggle in your shoulder that makes him extra endearing.

35 months - feed a rhino

i am glad we caught the rhino feeding at the zoo! we usually miss it because we are hanging out at kidzworld or are already making our way to the exit so that h can nap at home. however we only headed to the zoo around lunchtime yesterday so the rhino feeding at 1.15pm was the most convenient for us.

we were very lucky again. there was quite a crowd at the feeding area by the time we got there and as usual the last basket of fruit (honeydew!) went to a solo guy tourist just in front of us. h of course was disappointed and so was i because the row of 3 rhinos waiting to be fed was quite an amusing sight which reminded me of goldfish ... but i had to assuage her about how we would feed the goats and that we could catch the rhinos again next time knowing that the "next time" explanation tends to fall flat on her.

guy tourist ahead of us probably took pity on me and asked if h would like to help him feed the rhinos and when she said yes, handed her a slice of honeydew. so nice!! zookeeper was skeptical that h would be daring enough to feed the rhinos but of course she proved him wrong :D 

we ended up at the kidzworld dry playground again because h discovered a fireman's pole on one of the play structures and wanted to go back again.

we still haven't been to the koala enclosure - waiting time was 20 minutes today and it isn't on the usual walking route we take at the zoo and we were too lazy and hot to make a detour. but i managed to catch h climbing a eucalyptus tree with some 2D koalas! 

very trick-eye museum-ish. will try getting a good picture of n here next round. after all when he is my koala and i his eucalyptus tree every time we are out and about with the baby bjorn. 

down with the flu

this is the worst flu i have had. and i can't take any antibiotics because i am breastfeeding. i hope recovery isn't a long drawn process and that n doesn't catch it from me or his sister (patient 0!)