Two 'Masketeers'

I bought these mask sets for Phoebe when she was young. Like any other children, Phoebe has a rich imagination and loves pretend play very much. She likes the mask sets, especially the yellow rooster one. She would go 'pok pok pok' like a chicken whenever she disguise herself as the yellow rooster. During one of her play sessions with her brother, she decided to put on the mask and she dressed her di-di as a ladybird. Poor Reuben, not knowing what was going on, was suddenly transformed into a blur-blur ladybird :)

Lovely! I think I have beautiful children! :)

Colourful Creativity

Phoebe has improved in her colouring throughout the months. I am very proud of her development. Sometimes I will give her little workbook tasks to complete. With an adult's guidance, she is able to complete her task fairly well. In this particular exercise, she was required to colour an elephant. She did it with much care and enthusiasm. I watched her and tried to give her praises and encouragement to cheer her on to completion. My hubby saw Phoebe picking up a blue colour pencil and told her that the elephant should be grey. Phoebe was nonchalant towards her papa's comment. I asked him why should an elephant be grey. I feel that in the eyes of a child, an elephant can be in any colour that he/she likes. We should not impose our ideas on the children and expect them to conform to the norm. If we do that, we are stifling their creativity. I do not want my child to grow up trying to blend into the norm of the society. I want her to be a risk taker and a non-conformist in her ideas, as long as it is lawful. And my duty as a parent is to make a difference in her life so that she can be that difference.

I Love My Biscuit

Since Reuben likes to put everything which he could grab hold on into his mouth, I decided to buy him some teething biscuit. I got him this Nestle Prebio Rusk teething biscuit in Banana flavour. It smells really good and tastes like unsweetened butter cookies. Reuben likes it very much and he can polish off half a piece each time. He can even hold it quite well, using his thumb and index finger.

Mommies with teething babies, you should give this a try and if your babies don't like it, you are always welcome to pass the remainder to me. Haha :)

First Time On a Shopping Cart

We usually buy our groceries in Tampines Giant but we decided to visit the NTUC at Festival Market in Hougang/Buangkok. I thought Reuben should be able to sit on the shopping cart since Phoebe doesn't like to be on the seat. This is the first time we put him on the shopping cart and he looks so cute in it. I remembered Phoebe's first shopping cart experience was when she was in Alexander Ikea. She was about 6 months old and still botak :)

Quiet At Last

Last weekend, we brought the 2 little ones to Tangs Bazaar Sale in Suntect City Hall 401. It was their nap time so we could shop in peace :p No whiny baby or chatty girl. Hmm... quiet at last :)

Sit & Eat

Phoebe has been trained to eat on her high chair since young. I'm one mommy who disapproves of children running around during feeding time. It is such a hassle for the caregiver, the food will get cold, the feeding time tends to be longer and it reflects a poor eating habit. Everytime it's time to have her meal, Phoebe will know that she has to be on a high chair, even when she is out. If there's no high chair available, I'll usually stack up at least 3 stools so that she'll be elevated and cannot 'escape'. I think I'll also do likewise for Reuben when it is time for him to eat his semi-solids. Hopefully he doesn't resist.

Yummy Everything

Reuben likes to stick everything into his mouth. From pacifier, teether, toys to toes. Everything tastes yummy to him. Phoebe, on the other hand, did not have the habit of sticking things into her mouth. She didn't even like the pacifier. I reckon Reuben is teething and his gums needed some rubbing to soothe the itch. So I bought him hard teething biscuits. Phoebe, seeing her di-di gnawing the hard biscuit, also wanted some to try. I gave her a little and she said,

"Yucks, don't want. Di-di for you, you eat."

Haha. Instead of discouraging Reuben to stop putting everything into his mouth, Phoebe joined in the fun and started sticking things into her mouth too. Hmm... what a naughty role model she is.

Blessed to Bless

I'm blessed with 4 breastpumps - 2 Medela single electric, 1 Medela dual electric and 1 Avent manual. Only 1 Medela single electric is mine. The rest were my friends. I'm not being 'kiasu'. They were very kind to lend them to me, so I have the convenience of putting 1 in my school, 2 at home and 1 in my mum's place. No need to carry it around from one location to another.

I started pumping milk in the car on weekends when we go out. I borrowed the Avent manual pump from a colleague because the batteries in the electric pump run flat very quickly. Why do I pump during the car rides?

1) The car rides are usually pretty long, sufficient time to pump a feed. So, I do not waste time pumping at home.

2) My boy does not like to latch on. Sometimes when we go out for long hours, we had to bring along bottles of breastmilk in a cooler bag, which will lose its coldness rather easily in the afternoon heat. So if I can pump out and let him have it fresh from the cow, it's more convenient.

3) When we go out for long hours in the weekends, my supply will usually drop on Monday due to insufficient pumping. So, by pumping in the car, I'm preventing the supply from dipping.

With 4 pumps, I'm blessed to bless (my son).

mooo... mooo...

Yummy Toes

Last night while playing with my 2 darlings, I spotted Reuben suckling his toes :) What a lovely sight. He has the smoothest skin, the cleanest feet and cutest little toes. He seemed to be enjoying himself very much :)

I remembered Phoebe doing the same thing when she was of that age. We marvelled at her flexibility and were amused by her action. Seems like toe-suckling is a process that every baby will go through. Mommies out there, what about yours? (^_^)

Chubby Boy No More?

Last evening, we received a letter from Seng Kang Polyclinic informing us that we had missed Reuben's vaccination which was scheduled on last Thursday 14 Aug. Seng Kang Polyclinic had a new service whereby they would sms you to remind you of your appointment with them 3 days prior to your actual date. Previously, we did receive an sms reminder of Reuben's vaccination date so we thought that we could trust their reliability. However, apparently, their sms service failed. This taught us not take things for granted and we should be more responsible in remembering the dates.

We were unable to reschedule as the appointment slots were filled up. They advised us to walk-in instead. Without wanting to delay any day longer, this morning, I brought Reuben for his jab.

Reuben is 5 months 2 weeks old. The nurse weighed him and his weight was 7.3kg. The nurse told me that he was slightly above the 25th percentile. I was surprised because my boy appeared to be chubby to me and he has been drinking every 2-2.5 hourly. He also nurses at night. Initially, when he was 4 months old, I had started him with Heinz / Gerber baby jar food meant his age. Then we stopped because an ex-colleague told me that her paediatrician mentioned that babies who were given baby food before 6 months of age are more prone to allergies. Hence, to play it safe, we stopped.

Phoebe had never fallen in that category. At one time, she was in the 90th percentile and then, fell to 75th percentile, never below the 50th. I'm surprised that my boy, who drinks more, is lighter than his jie-jie. I'm not trying to make him into a sumo wrestler. I just thought that it would be better if babies are a little heavier so that when they fall sick, they'll have enough reserves to shed.

The nurse told me that it's alright, as long as he is sleeping well and drinking enough milk. It's not an issue to be concerned with. In 2 weeks time, Reuben will be 6 months old. I'll start him with Nestle rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. Hopefully, he will take in well and his weight will increase appropriately.

"Don't worry mommy, I'm still chubby
but I think papa is the champion. Heehee..."

Together We Cheer

Last Sunday, we spent a lovely evening with our hospitable neighbours. Knowing that we also had the intention of staying at home to watch the Olympics Table Tennis finals between Singapore and China, they invited us to watch the match with them. As always so generous, they prepared a wonderful dinner for us. To reciprocate, we brought along half a soya sauce chicken and a big platter of assorted fruit.

After the dinner, we watch a little of our PM Mr. Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Speech as we wanted to know the government's incentive to boost our dwindling baby birth rate. Well, not that my husband and I want to have any more babies, we just want to find out more about the government's plans to help existing parents to cope. Having heard several of our PM's National Day speeches in the previous years, I think he has a witty sense of humour. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear much of his speech because we were anxious to watch the live telecast of the finals, wondering if Singapore could achieve their first gold in the Olympics.

Although the results were pretty predictable, the 4 parents glued their eyes to the screen. The 2 little girls played together, a little squabbles here and there but having good fun in general. The 2 aunties chatted, helped each other in cleaning up and babysitting.

My little Reuben? No one to play with, no programme to watch and nothing to do... I guess he knew that sleep was his best option :)

Long Time No Blog

When I looked at my blog, I realised that my last entry was a week ago! How time flies and I didn't even realise it. The days and weeks just zoomed pass me. Everyday is a tiring day, many things to do, leaving little time for myself. At night, I can only blog after my children and husband are asleep. I will usually lay on the bed with them until they fall asleep and then get up of the bed to blog and do my own things. Sometimes, I cannot resist the Zzz monster and the four of us will drift into the Zzzland hand in hand.

Of course, many things happened within this week and I shall backdate my records one by one, with or without pictures. So bear with me as I rattle on...

The Choo Choo Train

Phoebe's school is near to my mom's place. However, I need to walk quite a distance from my place to her school, about a 15-minute walk. If we allow Phoebe to walk to school, we'll probably take half an hour instead. So we'll always wheel Phoebe in her stroller and Reuben, in the pram. However, sometimes halfway through the journey, Reuben would cry and want to be carried. Auntie Nia would pick him up and I'll have to push a stroller AND a pram, both at the same time. How is it possible ? Yes, it is possible. I'll tried it but it was tough! We're blessed with a hand-me-down 2-seater pram. It is great because if Reuben cries along the way, Auntie Nia can carry him while I only need to push one pram instead of two. Phoebe loves this 2-seater pram. She calls it The Choo Choo Train. Sometimes, she'll choose the front driver seat. Other times, she would prefer to give her little brother a better view :)

Little Teacher

Phoebe saw Reuben sitting there idling, not doing nothing productive. She decided to teach him something from her boxes of flashcards. She said,

"Di-di, listen to jie jie. Di-di, di-di, listen to jie jie."

Phoebe was keen to teach but Reuben was relunctant to learn. Isn't this scene somewhat similar to our classroom situations? :)

After a while, sensing the boredom of Reuben, Phoebe gave up and ran away to play her toys. I wish that I can run away to do my own things when I am facing the same situation in school too.

Tripod Sit

Today, I've just discovered that Reuben, at 5 months 1 week old, is able to do a tripod sit for about 3 minutes. Somehow, Reuben's physical development seems to be faster than Phoebe's. I vividy remember that Phoebe only do her tripod sit at about 6-7 months old. Reuben's umbilical cord also dropped off earlier than Phoebe's. His dropped off on the fifth day while hers took about 2 weeks. Subconsciously, I always use Phoebe's progression as a benchmark to gauge against Reuben's development. I always hear people saying that boys and girls are different and boys tend to be slower in linguistic development as compared to girls. But both my kids started babbling when they were 2-3 months old. Now, Reuben could babble "mamamama" rather clearly, much to the delight of my mother :) I guess every child is indeed different.

Reuben, 5 mths 1 wk, with 2 hair-cut experience, in his tripod sit position


Phoebe, about 6-7 mths, still hairless, in her tripod sit position

Let's Pig Out!

Yesterday was a school holiday, in lieu of National Day which fell on Saturday. Phoebe had no lesson too. We stayed at home, lazing around, playing toys, doing colouring, watching TV, basically idling. Then I suddenly remembered that I had bought a decorate-it-yourself piggy bank from the Metro Expo sale on Sunday. I took it out for Phoebe to decorate. It was simple and fun. Phoebe was engrossed in painting the pig pink. She also coloured the purple pig's snout and one of the ears. I helped her with the flowers and eyes. It was good teamwork and here's our piggy :)