Early Childhood Education

Sharing of a parenting book on Early Childhoon Education

I told myself to read up some parenting books, to be a better mum. I am so proud of myself because I did finish reading a book! I bought a parenting book in Chinese (as my Chinese is much better than my English and so I can read faster and catch the points better) from the Popular at Tebrau City many months back. It's not one of those top 10 books or by famous authors, it's just a book that made me wanted to know more when I flipped it through, so I just bought it. It turned out to be a good read, I am glad.

As predicted, I was able to finish reading the book in just a few hours, oh well, it's accumulated hours from many nights, after putting Hao Re to sleep (this was when Xi Yu was still in my tummy) and when I still have energy left and in the reading mood. Here I share some of the pointers taken from the book (it took me a looooong time to type it all out, since I finished reading the book in early June......). Below is the summary of a 276-page book (leave me a message or e-mail me if you are interested to know the title of this book). Here it goes:

(sorry to English readers, I am too lazy (and am not good at) translating it to English, you may want to make use of online translator...... ).

每个孩子都有天赋

- 零到六岁是多元智能发展的关键期，而零到三岁是人的一生发展最重要的时期。

- 家庭教育是对孩子最基础的教育- 重要的是父母如何根据孩子的特点，让他能够得到个性化的教育，把他的天赋展示出来, 家庭是真正的学习中心。

- 孩子的发展靠教育，教育的关键是早期教育。早期教育的核心在于开启幼儿的心智，提高他们接受新知识的热情，方法和能力，增加他们的求知欲。

- 科学的早教注重的是培养幼儿的想象力，注意力，观察力，创造力，思维力等各项能力，而且挖掘的是孩子的天赋优势和兴趣所在，不是只注重学知识。

- 早期教育的方法是生活中教，游戏中学。

- 早期教育–第一步是发现， 第二步是培养。

发现:- 可用推则法和实验法（书里有很详细的解析）。

培养:-

一，根据孩子的年龄和特点，定出与孩子兴趣一致的目标
二，一开始可由家长给于具体和明确的帮助
三，首重观察，不论成果
四，使学习逐步变成孩子自觉的行为习惯和主动要求
五，利用成功，决定进阶的教育内容和时机
六，创造条件，引导孩子各方面均匀发展

有八项能力是每个人都与生具来的，只不过有人强，有人弱，而且每个人的能力组合也不一样。
１．语言能力　(linguistic intelligence)
２．逻辑－数学智能 (logical-mathematical intelligence)
３．视觉空间智能 (spatial intelligence)
４．身体－运动智能 (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence)
５．音乐智能 (musical intelligence)
６．人际交往智能 (interpersonal intelligence)
７．自我认知智能 (intrapersonal intelligence)
８．自然观察智能 (naturalist intelligence)

发现及培养孩子的天赋:

语言天赋

- 语言是反映大脑发展状态和个人聪明的重要指标, 所以家长应重视孩子语言发展的进程和特点.

- 爱因斯坦说: "一个人的智力发展和形成概念的方法, 在很大程度上取决于语言".

- 对于幼儿来说,环境对学语言的影响非常大. 因此, 只有把大量的语言输入孩子的脑袋里, 才有可能使他有丰富的输出.

- 儿童心理学家认为, 二到三岁是孩子口头语言发展的关键期, 这个阶段孩子学习口语非常快, 会对语言充满渴望, 可说是处于语言能力爆发性成长的时期.

数学逻辑

- 天赋孩子逻辑思维的发展, 不应从外部强加于他, 相反的, 应该极力从孩子的内部去发掘.

- 要使孩子不仅习惯于他兴趣的事, 而且还要习惯于他不感兴趣的事.

- 三岁前的幼儿, 只要先建立其一到十的数字概念, 即可统筹一切, 以后再依次类推, 学会运用更多的数字.

- 三岁的孩子只能理解具体的事情, 不会复杂的分析综合; 只会直接推理, 不会进行逻辑推理. 因此对幼儿提要求要具体.

- 四岁是从直觉行动思维向具体形象思维转变的过渡期, 在这一时期会同时具有这两种思维特点, 但仍缺乏抽象逻辑思维. 而掌握 "数”的概念是逻辑思维发展的重要面向.

- 五岁的幼儿仍以具体形象思维为主,抽象逻辑思维才刚刚开始萌芽. 在这一时期具体形象思维达到高峰,并表现在各方面. 这个年龄的幼儿会玩也爱玩角色游戏.

- 到了六,七岁, 随着语言的发展和知识经验的增长, 抽象逻辑思维开始萌芽, 从这个时期开始, 孩子已开始依靠概念, 判断, 推理来进行思维了 - 会有 “打破砂锅问到底“的架势。

- 拼图是一种很适合孩子玩的游戏 - 它可以启发智能，帮助孩子养成解决事情的能力，对于孩子的精细动作，手眼协调，逻辑观念等都有帮助。

科学实验天赋

- 就所学知识展开实际行动(应用能力)和将思维变成具体成果的能力(实做能力).

- 幼儿的无知与好奇,正是开启科学圣殿第一扇大门的钥匙. 在幼儿阶段, 家长应以知识为桥梁, 达成能力的培养和情感态度的陶冶, 使孩子能够: 对新鲜事物有旺盛的好奇心和求知欲; 有敏锐的感知能力和观察力; 善于思考和动脑筋; 有灵活的动手能力; 享受探索的乐趣, 拥有成功感; 珍惜生命, 热爱自然.

- 面对孩子在好奇心驱使下的好动与好问, 家长应有耐心, 虚心, 还要有童心,诚心和慧心. 而做到这些的前提是必须有一颗爱心 - 热爱孩子的好奇心!

- 怎么诱惑孩子的求知欲:
1)抓住孩子的求异心理，鼓励想象．
2）结合生活中的情景，巧设疑问，给孩子心理上造成一种悬念，激发孩子的求知欲望．
3）提供一个充满奥秘的环境，以激发孩子的求知欲．
4）到大自然去，然大自然给于孩子智能的启迪．
5）启发孩子思考，鼓励孩子自己尝试解答．
6）言传身教，给孩子提供一个良好的精神环境．
7）设法让孩子做实验．

- 灵巧的手是一个人大脑发育良好的标志之一．

- 从婴儿二至三个月，就能开始训练抓握触摸能力．而积木最能锻炼婴儿的手的功能．训练孩子自己动手吃, 用汤匙，拿筷子是练习手部运动和手眼协调的大好机会．指导孩子动手做．锻炼孩子的自理能力．提供各种结构材料．鼓励孩子大胆进行小制作小发明

音乐天赋

- 幼教专家认为, 过早的正规音乐训练, 对年幼的孩子并不合适. 不过, 倒是可以让他广泛地接触和音乐有关的事物, 比如从游戏中, 让孩子了解音乐的大小, 快慢, 长短, 甚至是音色和音质的变化, 就已经足够了.

- 对于零到三岁的幼儿来说, 没必要一定得学习某种乐器. 让孩子玩一些音乐玩具, 当着孩子学习音乐的早期教材, 就足够了. 但购买时应慎重挑选, 乐器的音质不可低劣.

- 培养音乐智能三步骤 - 1) 引导幼儿欣赏音乐; 2) 培养幼儿的音乐结构感; 3) 律动与吟诵．

- 三岁以下的孩子，不要选择吹奏乐器，应优先选择键盘乐器，比如钢琴，数位钢琴，电子琴等．

- 要尊重孩子的兴趣-学习的动机来自于兴趣．

- 音乐是思维的源泉.

舞蹈天赋

- 舞蹈是一种以人体动作为主要表现的艺术．其本质特征是手舞足蹈地表现人的情感，它的基本要素是动作的姿态，节奏和表情，由此构成凝聚在律动之中的空间流动的美.

- 学习舞蹈，参加舞蹈活动，主要是由舞蹈的创作，训练和表演，对孩子进行德，智，体，美的教育，开发他们自身的潜在能力，对孩子的性格，气质风度，身体，情操的发展打下扎实而健康的基础．

- 舞蹈有利于促进智力的发展，培养良好的意志品质，增强形体与气质美感，培养良好的审美观，培养团体观念与竞争精神，及提高音乐素养．

- 幼儿舞蹈培养的指导原则－1）避免成人化训练，2）在游戏中舞蹈，3）多听, 4)多学

绘画天赋

- 绘画是一种技巧, 又是一门艺术. 它能培养和发展孩子的想象力,创造力, 及丰富孩子的知识面.

- 在绘画班中往往只教孩子涂鸦, 或是模仿老师的画, 没能真正发挥孩子的自主想象力和创造力, 所以幼儿专家指出让孩子自主性绘画.

- 没有知识就谈不上想象, 想象是原有知识的进行重组. 而没有想象就谈不上创造, 创造能力是在具有丰富的想象力基础之上的.

- 画画是幼儿反映自己的生活经验和表达思想感情的一种方式. 儿童画充满了丰富的想象，是客观世界在孩子眼里的曲折反映。

- 家长要鼓励孩子突破单一, 僵化的思维模式, 不断创新, 超越自我.

- 直觉性体验是激发孩子大胆想象的好办法，家长可以给孩子一个宽松，自由的空间，使其心身得到彻底放松。

- 发展孩子的的绘画创造力 - 为孩子提供优美的环境, 重视大自然对孩子的感染和熏陶, 有意识引导孩子去观察和欣赏, 不忘及时肯定, 鼓励孩子的好奇心和探索行为.

体育天赋

- 体育锻炼不仅可以使孩子发育良好, 结实强壮, 动作敏捷, 而且还有助于智力开发, 使孩子聪明活泼.

- 四岁是开始体质潜能开发训练的最佳年龄.

- 很少有孩子不喜欢体育运动的. 家长要尽可能地参与, 大力支持.

保护孩子的天赋

- 婴幼儿确实具有极大的学习潜能, 透过训练可以学会许多东西。但这些训练认他们学会的东西并不意味着就是他们在这年龄阶段应该去学习的东西。

- 知识是人类智能的结晶, 它本身就蕴涵着智力的价值. 但这不等于将知识用任何方法教给任何年龄的孩子都必然会促进其智力发展.

- 要判断"早期教育"是否成功, 是看它是否提供了有助于终生继续学习的动力和基础.

- 婴幼儿缺乏知识经验, 成人应当教给他们知识经验, 但必须是不破坏他们学习兴趣的前提下.

- 早期教育应当激发和培养幼儿的学习与创造的兴趣, 而非扼杀他.

- 科学的早期教育必须是尊重孩子的教育, 包括尊重他们的人格, 兴趣, 需要, 发展特点.

- 对孩子要坚持循序渐进, 量力而行的原则.

- 最好的早期教育是让孩子过得愉快, 孩子在这个阶段想做什么就做什么, 不要让孩子过早地揹上生活的十字架, 要让孩子自在地享受快乐童年!

- 早期教育的目的是要在孩子发展与学习的关键期给予及时, 有效的教育, 充分开发孩子的潜能, 让孩子具备各种能力, 比如身体素质, 道德情操, 让孩子奍成良好的习惯, 生活自理能力, 与人交流的能力, 具备坚韧的品质和良好的心理承受力.

- 家长注重孩子的早期教育并没有错, 但值得注意的是, 不能片面化, 绝对化.

- 父亲的角色非常重要. 专家认为,呒父亲参与早期教育能使孩子健康形成性别角色, 在自我控制, 自信心, 语言等方面发展的更好!

- 在教育孩子的问题上要学会思考, 学会判断, 学会选择.

- 尊重孩子的情感 - 每个孩子都是有感情的活生生的人, 不是父母可以随意改造的机器.

- 多才多艺并不是幸福的保障.

- 当孩子的情感得到尊重和满足时, 他会感到幸福, 因为幸福是内心的情感体验.

创造绿色健康型的家庭环境

- 根据一项家庭教育现状的研究分析，大体可将之分为四种类型: 力求完美型, 圆梦补偿型, 顺其自然型, 绿色健康型.

- 对与早期教育来说，绿色教育才是孩子们的理想家庭．

- 绿色健康型 - 父母认为幼儿期是人生发展的关键阶段，孩子的成长和发展有其自身的特点，　要为他们的成长打下坚实基础，必须尊重孩子的天性，提供适宜的教育环境，为他们终生可持续发展奠定基础．他们知道要教育孩子必须从知己做起，他们深信身教重于言教，处处为孩子做榜样，　尊重孩子的发展特点，尊重孩子的兴趣和需要，讲求科学的教育方法，经常与孩子沟通，善于发现孩子的进步，勇于向孩子学习．正确运用鼓励，欣赏，批评的方式，对孩子的教育能晓以以理，动之以情，并持之以恒．

- 如何创造绿色家庭环境 - 1) 正确看待孩子的成长, 2) 理性对待孩子的未来, 3) 还给孩子童年的快乐, 4) 实现孩子理想的发展

- 孩子的成长，离不开家庭的抚育，家庭是孩子最好的成长伙伴．

- 每一个家长都要观察了解孩子的成长特点，掌握孩子的发展规律，为他们提供健康愉快的成长环境，多给予他们亲情，多与他们沟通，常陪他们玩游戏，尽可能地满足孩子精神上的需求.

- 相信孩子的能力，尊重他们的需求，学会与孩子共同成长!

Our 23 months old boy

The two different Hao Re

Over the past months, we have discovered/experienced/witnessed the 2 different Hao Re - 1) the "good", i.e., when he is at good mood and well behave versus and 2) the "bad", i.e., when he throws (big) tantrum.

The "good" Hao Re:

He is really a dear darling when he is in good self and not trying to be unreasonable. He is just so perfect (well, every kid's perfect in his mum's eyes, isn't he :-P) that I love every single bit of him! He grows/develops handsomely, no worries for us at all!

It's getting more and more fun playing and interacting with him as he becomes more verbal. We are able to communicate with him very well. His vocabulary has grown to a very very long list, that now he knows a lot of things and able to say it, some in English, some in Mandarin and some in both languages. I guess this makes his life more interesting as well? He starts to form sentences, like 我要xx, I want xx, 妹妹哭. And he can say "I love you", and I think he understands what it mean also. The only thing that he can't pronounce properly is the words started with "h", e.g., 蝴蝶 (hu die), he pronounces it as "du die" instead, 花 (hua), he says "fa" :-) No problem with the rest. Now, I wonder - when will he start the first "WHY" and thus begins the 1001 questions :-P He starts to understand and try to make sense of things around him. He started to learn the opposite - good and bad, big and small, etc. And started to have his likes and dislikes.

His new favourite toy is THOMAS THE TRAIN! He is so obsessed with it (em, with our support) that he only plays with Thomas toys and ignored all his other toys, except puzzles. When we want to make him do something, we will "make use" of Thomas, he would then obediently do what we ask him to do. Pretty good ya :-) Don't know how long the Thomas fever will last for though. We are going to bring him to watch the Thomas & Friends Live On Stage this Sunday, can't wait to see how he responds when he sees the huge Thomas! He still loves puzzles a lot. No longer likes tv very much, though he still watches the cartoons. This is because hubby let him watch Thomas on the PC. So on weekday nights, the dad and son usually spend a good half and hour in front of the PC and thus cut down his time on tv.

He loves his MeiMei, though he can be quite rough at times. So we still have to keep a close eyes on him when he plays with his MeiMei. I do think sometimes he treats MeiMei as one of his "toys" :-) I showed him once to read to MeiMei, and now sometimes he would bring a book to MeiMei and read to her.

What else? He is, still, gaining weight steadily, though I didn't weigh him, but we can tell since we still carry him some times. He does look bigger than his peers. Plus that he has this mature look, very rare people can guess his age correctly, most would think he is older. My mum said it's not surprise if people think he is 3 years old :-)

The "bad" Hao Re:

First of all, let me clarify we don't actually label or call our kid as "bad" kid. It's just a description that we use to differentiate him from the "good" :-)

I think it's unevitable that children this age will throw tantram from time to time, as they are going through the terrible twos. It is actually very critial for us, as a parent, to learn on how to deal with him and to guide him along. I read this article "Your role as a parent" a few days ago, and the author described very well what is in my mind:

"All that we parents ever need to do is to provide generous dollops of love and acceptance to our children. In the absence of a warm and loving atmosphere, no child can ever achieve her full potential. Even discipline does not really work in a hostile environment. ......... Unless the home atmosphere is warm, caring, safe, protective, and friendly, a child cannot be self-confident. And as you well know, self-esteem is the most critical factor in achieving success in life.

We should adopt the positive parenting approach. I must remind myself not to remember the "bad" things of Hao Re. Like my mum said, for a young kid like Hao Re, when he throws tantrum, there must be a reason(s) for it. Shouting/scolding/angry with him when he throws tantrum will not solve the problem nor it will help him to learn/grow. Instead, we should stay calm and shower him with more love and try our best to understand him. As per my previous post, we have also decided not to discipline him at this age, or never, depending on if he turns out to be an angel or a monster few months down the road :-)

For the past week, things have been improved a lot. He didn't throw any tantrum at all. Though he did wail a little bit when things didn't go his way. I hope with his better communication and his ability to learn things fast, he soon will outgrow this phase. But not to worry, my dear boy, Baba and Mama are always here with you to walk through this "terrible twos" phase together!

Just one more paragraph........

There are also these 2 different type of Hao Re - he is very talkative and active and all when at home or to be more precise, when he is with just us. BUT, once he is with other kids or adults, especially when we are out of the house, he becomes timid, very quiet, hardly says a single word, and doesn't like to play with his little friends, or reacts to the adults. Most likely that he feels that he is out of his comfort zone? If he has enough time to "warm up", which takes 30-60 minutes, then he becomes talkative and wants to mix around with others. He is more of the talkative and active type when he is at his childcare, which I think it's a good thing, as this means he is very comfortable at the centre (like his second home!) and to be with his friends and teachers.

Dear 皓皓 please continue to grow happily and healthily!

Swimming, Orchard Road Christmas light-up, Singapore Flyer, East Coast Park

The long weekend well spent!

(Note on 3rd Dec 2009: PHOTO IS PENDING........ waiting for our Artistic Director to photoshop the photos...... Stories come first.........)

It's a long weekend as Friday was a Public Holiday (Hari Raya Haji). And I have a super long weekend as I was on sick leave on Wednesday and Thursday. I had sore throat on Tuesday afternoon, and decided to consult a GP immediately so that it's under control and the bugs won't be spread to the kids. The doctor was so kind and understanding, he gave me 2 days of sick leave when I told her I have a young baby to take care of. I had 2 absolutely relaxing day!

Got busier when Friday came.

Friday morning - swimming at the CSC. As usual, Hao Re enjoyed the water so much. When hubby asked Hao Re to move from the wave pool, after almost 1 hour of fun, to the kids pool, we were very surprise that Hao Re refused to go into the pool. When he refused the second time, we decided to call it a day. Only when hubby took off his swim diaper, he found out that Hao Re had pooed! That explained why he refused to get into the pool again, very considerate child, hor :-)

Friday night - hubby suggested to bring the kids to Orchard Road to view the Christmas street light ups. We had dinner at Ding Tai Feng (queued for almost 30min, and that's only 6pm!) at Wisma Atria. After that, only spent about 30min to admire the light ups. But to be honest, I think the standard dropped so much as compared to about, er, 10 years ago. Nowadays it's only lights, and not much nice decoration. It's way too crowded for us to stay longer than 30min.

Saturday morning - met up with SC and her mum, they came to visit Singapore from KL. Brought them to the Singapore Flyer. It's nice, and I think (and I hope) they enjoyed it. Hao Re certainly enjoyed it. Xi Yu wanted to sleep soon after we boarded the "car", and only drank half of the EBM. After slinged her to sleep, fed her the rest of the EBM. And she continued to sleep for the next 3 hours!!! After the Flyer, we brought them to Katong for you guess what - yes, Katong Laksa lor. Then sent them to Bukit Batok to their relative's house, and we made our way home.

Sunday morning - met up with a couple of friends and their kids at East Coast Park. The 3 kids took a long time to warm up. By the time they finally warmed up and wanted/willing to play together, the day turned grey and started to rain! Duh, before we all started to have fun, we have to pack and leave. Hubby suggested to have our lunch at Tampopo at Liang Courts. We ordered a set meal for Hao Re from the kids menu, this is his OWN very first set meal (but he didn't eat much). Xi Yu requested to sleep, I slinged her and she continued to sleep for the next 3 hours (again!). We didn't go out for the rest of the day. Maybe Xi Yu has got some sun tanned in the morning that made her very tired. She slept from about 4.30pm to the next morning 7am, only woke up for milk, then quickly dozed off again!!! She is really a sleeping beauty :=)

Right, gonna stop here.

Little chatterbox

Xi Yu chats with mummy :-)

Conversation between mummy and Xi Yu from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Shopping, swimming, music class and botanical garden

That's the activities for the past weekend

(note: Xi Yu sleeps earlier nowadays, so leave me with more time to blog (and watch tv while pumping), yeah! But to blog the stories on the same day is pretty much impossible, can only do it whenever both the kids are zzzzzz)

Saturday morning - went to JB for breakfast, shopping (for the kids, didn't have time for my own shopping, **sob sob**), lunch then came back home. There was a big play area at the Jaya Jusco next to the children department. Hao Re was so excited when hubby brought him there (for the first time). He touched this and that, but we didn't let him get on any rides/games, shall hold on for now until either he requests for it or when we lost our control :-) We were very pleased that he was willing to leave the play area when told without any fussing, phew! Then we proceeded to the Popular/Harris Bookshop. There is a big children session, with lots of space for the children to run/sit/read, and they don't stop the children from flipping the books. Bought another puzzle for Hao Re, 2 sticker books and a memory board game. And he chose a small board book (he already had a similar book with exactly the same animal pictures), and didn't want to let go of this book. Oh well, we bought it, it'll be for MeiMei.

Sunday morning - went to Bukit Batok CSC for swimming. We didn't bring Hao Re for swimming for 3-4 months already. Oh boy, oh boy, this little fella is definitely a water boy. He was so excited to see the pool and wanted to go into the pool straight away. The dad-and-son pair was "swimming" for more than 1 hour! At the end of it, hubby brought him to slide down the spiral slide and ended up in a 1 meter pool. Hao Re was immerged into the pool, we thought he was going to get a big scare. But when he came out (floated up) the water, he looked at hubby and said "还要!". Hubby lifted him high up and literally dumped him into the 1m pool, and when appeared from the water, he still demanded for more, kept saying "还要,还要!". I didn't record it down as the battery died at the very moment, grrr! We should come back for more fun. And this time round, I will make sure I charge the battery to the max to record this down!

The first photo shows when the pair splashed into the pool from the spiral slide......


Sleep, sleep, sleep and more sleep......


Sunday afternoon, 4pm - went to Tanglin Mall for the Juzmusic trial. Hubby accompanied him to the class and I was not allowed to go in as the room is too small :-( Hubby feedback the class was ok, but he thinks it's pretty steep to pay $420 per term (3 months) for this. So we didn't sign Hao Re up for the class. Put on hold for now.

Sunday afternoon, 6pm - proceeded to Botanical Garden, since it's nearby. Had dinner there, and surprised to find that the food was pretty good. After dinner, let Hao Re run around the park for almost 30 min, then headed home when the day turned dark.

Hao Re enjoys his drumstick and lime juice (ya, somehow he likes the sour lime juice). And wipes his hand and face with a piece of tissue when finished his meal :-)


Can you spot where's mummy and Hao Re in the first photo? Run, run, run to daddy, quick!


The sleeping beauty finally wakes up :-)


It's a busy but fun weekend. Especially that Hao Re was pretty well behaved. Look forward to the coming long weekend, more fun awaits!!!

Ops, forgot to mention about Xi Yu :-) Well, she slept most of the time when we were out. She is a very good girl. She likes car ride. After we buckled her in her car seat, she either looked at the window or looked at me and made the "cho cho, oh oh, ah ah" sound, during the whole car ride. Once we got off from the car and I slinged her, she, almost immediately, fell asleep. Her gorgor can't wait to have fun with meimei!

Xi Yu is 3 months old

And so is my breastfeeding career :-)

We, as in the 4 of us, have survived the past month pretty well, I would say. It has been a month since my parents left and since I am back to work. Everything and everyone has settled well into the daily routine. I found the last month was dragging though, most probably due to the stress I got from breastfeeding, which I am going to tell you later. Else, everything was in good order 知足常乐吔!

So yes, Xi Yu is 3 months old now. Brought her for her pneumococcal vaccination and routine checkup last Saturday and to follow up on her TSH level. She weighed 5.7kg and measured 60.5cm in length. Her TSH level is now within the normal range, but still on the high side, so Dr Keoy advised to continue taking medicine until the next blood test (Xi Yu screamed/cried so badly during the blood taking, which is now from her hand, don't want to think of the next one in January, would ask hubby to go in with her instead).

Xi Yu is a very cheerful baby, who is never stingy on her smile. Every morning after she wakes up (usually very puncture on 7am, no matter what time she was last fed), she starts her day by some stretching exercise of her arms and legs, and then a bit of singing (making cho cho sound), and when we say good morning to her or call her name, she returns with the sweetest smile in the world :-)

During the day she is at the nanny's, she follows a routine:
8am - Bath then sleep
10am - Milk then sleep
2pm - Milk then sleep
5.30pm - Bath
6pm - Milk then sleep until we pick her up

Right, I am sure all of you working mum/dad/uncle/autie here are sure jealous of Xi Yu's life :-) Nanny said she usually manages to catch about 6-7 hours of sleep, which I think is really good. The more a baby sleep, the faster/better she grows, and the stronger her immune system. When we reach home, it is already 7pm. Play a while with mummy/daddy/gorgor. Another round of milk feed at 10pm, or dreamfeed at 11pm if she is already asleep.

Since I have to put Hao Re to bed, hubby is the one who take cares of Xi Yu from 9pm onwards, to do the milk feed, to entertain her and to put her to bed. And guess what, this very hands-on (and experienced) daddy really does a VERY GOOD job (*clap clap clap*)! I think he is far more patient than I am. I often want to rush things as there are 101 things in my mind I need to do before I can call it a day, and so become more impatient.

To be honest, I often felt I have never spent enough time for Xi Yu, right from her day 1 till now. Sigh, being a mum is already not easy, and now, being a mum of 2 is even more challenging - how to make sure that I give both of them enough (and equal share) love and care? Maybe I can never be? And I have to keep reminding myself that Hao Re and Xi Yu are 2 unique individuals, and so don't compare them (again, easy say then do), and let them grow at their own pace. But I am sure I need to spend more time on Xi Yu, so that I won't miss out her development milestones. At the same time, I have to make sure Hao Re is learning what he should be learning at this age and that I don't ignore him. I have to be even more hardworking than I am now for my 2 little darlings.

That's the update on Xi Yu. I am sure the next update will be a lot more interesting, when we see/witness many of her "first" and she might start turning/rolling soon. So, till the next update!

Come to breastfeeding....... (those who are not interested can be excused to reading second part of this post :-))

Start with a good news - yes, my boobs are still working hard to produce enough milk for Xi Yu, and I have now total breastfeed her for 3 full months! Happy (and proud), I am :-)

I made a visit to the Thomson Parentcraft Centre on the 21st October to consult one of their lactation specialists. No major problem, but to assess if there is any problem with my right boob, which is producing a lot less milk than the left one (aka "lopsided breasts"). After the assessment, it's confirmed that my right boob is indeed not as hardworking as my left one, whereby the right only produces about 1/3 of the left. Can't figure out what causes this, maybe the breast tissues of my 2 boobs are just different. So, practically, I only left with 1 "good boob" to produce enough milk for my baby. The specialist recommended me to take Fenugreek capsule (a herb that is believed to increase supply), and so I have been taken Fenugreek from that day till now. My supply seems to be ok, but the "good boob" continues to be boob, and "bad" one continues to be bad, Fenugreek doesn't do the magic to reverse the lopsidedness. But that's ok, as long as I have enough milk for my baby, that's what I hope for, I don't want to be producing a lot of milk anyway.

Talking about stress that I have due to breastfeeding. I don't have any pressure from my family. In fact, my hubby told me many times that if I am too tired of expressing (after a full day of work and taking care of the kids), I should slow down and stop it anytime and start to supplement baby with FM, he has no problem with that. I am thankful for him being so understanding, but on the opposite, this means I don't have a person to motivate me on keeping up with BF. My mum also worries that I am too tired, and once in a while, she hints that I should start supplement with FM so I can get more rest. So good thing is no pressure, bad thing is no motivation/support, duh, it's never perfect, right.

So, all the stress I have is from myself. No one to be blamed on :-) Sigh (have to let out a BIG sigh first)!!!

Yes, breastfeeding is never easy (not for me anyway). Latch on or express. Either method gives me different set of worries. I told myself many times to be relax about breastfeeding, but it's hard not to worry about it - that if I have enough milk and that how long I can go on breastfeeding my girl. Honestly, I thought about giving it up a few times already, and at 1 night, I almost opened up the tin of EnfalacA+, but eventually still dragged myself to pump....... And to think about the WHO recommendation to total breastfeed (TBF, meaning baby should only be fed with breastmilk and nothing else) baby for 6 months is already stressful. I know, if I (and WHO, etc) don't stress on TBF, then I can (I hope) be a lot more relax. Now, there is this one thing that keep me wanting to TBF for 6 months.

And this one thing is - ezcema. Reports have shown that babies who are TBF for 6 months of longer has a much lower risk of getting eczema. And this is really the only one push factor now for me to TBF till Xi Yu is 6 months. That's after seeing how much Hao Re suffers on eczema, and his is only a mild eczema. Everytime we see him scratches him arms, his hands, his legs, his body etc, we really feel so sorry for him. So yes, if TBF can help XY to not getting (lowering the risk of) eczema, I will try my very best to TBF her for up till 6 months, at least. And I hope this alone is enough to keep me going (meaning I have to deal with the stress for another 3 months!!!). I know, there is no guarenteed that Xi Yu will not have eczema, it's just a lower risk, I know, but it's worth the effort, is it not?

Though I have to say it has been quite smooth-sailing for me in breastfeeding - only get engorgement if the boobs were not attended to for >6 hours, no leaking (so don't have to worry about the embarrassment of wetting my blouser/shirt while at work), I can pump 3x a day while at work, I really should count my blessing (and no complain should be allowed). And hey, what's more, I have returned to my pre-pregnant-with-Xi-Yu's weight, most likely due to breastfeeding? But then, there are still 10kg of stubborn fat that was leftover from my first pregnancy :-( Maybe I might still shed another few kgs if I continue to TBF for another 3 months (motivations!)

Now that I am breastfeeding Xi Yu, I think I am too preoccupied with it, that I might not have enjoyed motherhood as much. As compared to when I have Hao Re, I did really enjoy more and spent more time with him (partly because feeling bad for not able to breastfeed, so tried to make up to it). Some experienced mummies told me breastfeeding gets easier and easier when baby gets older, and I seriously hope this is true.

Now, wish me best of luck on TBF, my friends!

First video of Xi Yu

It's Xi Yu's turn IN ACTION!!!

有没有被我电到 :-)

My very sweet girl from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Keep fit 要趁早 - 大家齐来做早躁！

Exercising from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

未来的歌手:-)

Singing from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Hao Re and his puzzles

One of his favourite toys

We first introduced puzzles to Hao Re back in July this year, and he started with the basic slot-in animal puzzles, which only took him a couple of days to understand the game and did it well (and learned all the animals in English and Mandarin). He moved on to the more advance 6 to 9 pieces puzzles. This set took him a long time. He played with it on and off and sometimes with our help. It took him almost 3 months to figure out how to these puzzles without any help back in early October. Only yesterday night, I finally managed to video it down.

Started with the 6-piece (a bug), 7-piece (a dragonfly), 8-piece (a bee) to 9-piece (a butterfly). He can do this effortlessly, and often sing along a song when building the puzzle :-) We bought him aother 12-piece one and this time round he learned it very fast (since it's the same concept as those insect puzzles), he can do it almost on the same day, but I have yet to video that.

Now, enjoy my darling Hao Re IN ACTION!!!

Bug puzzle from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Dragonfly puzzle from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Bee puzzle from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

Butterfly puzzle from TJ Kam on Vimeo.

"Terrible twos" and "Discipline"

Is disciplining necessary for a 2 year old?

I last mentioned about "terrible twos" about 4 months ago when Hao Re was 18 months old. I spoke too early. Compared to now, his behaviour back then was considered very easy to manage. He is much more difficult now, just another 2 months to 2 years old.

He threw tantrum again last night. Luckily this time was at the car park downstairs. So I went up to our house with Xi Yu, while left Hao Re for hubby to handle. While waiting for the pair to come back, I was thinking a lot about how should we handle Hao Re.

A lot of books/magazines are talking about disciplining. Many say if you don't discipline a child at younger age, it's even more difficult if you want to do it when they are older. I have been thinking hard and through yesterday night - should we or should we not start to discipline Hao Re?

All of a sudden, I got my answer! And the answer is NO!!!

I first asked myself, what does discipline mean? In my own understanding, discipline a toddler means to make him following an instruction or the rules. But, to make a toddler following an instruction or a rule, he must first understand the instruction/rule. Hao Re started to understand some of the things we tell him, but not everything. I feel that it's not fair for him if we want to discipline him before he can understand what we want him to do.

Take an example. We give him an instruction that you must wash your hands before and after a meal. So, at first, we must teach him and show him how to wash his hands. Then explain to him why he must wash his hands. Then test him by telling him, "wash your hands now" and see if he can follow the instruction. Only this one simple instruction, it may take months for him to understand and to able to follow the instruction. When we are sure that he can understand and hence follow the instruction, then we can talk about disciplining. That is, when we ask him to wash his hands, but he refuses to, then we can use some disciplining tactics, like "times out", etc. (note: there is no cane in our household, not now, and I hope we don't need one in the future).

I think we often mislead by the books, which the authors have emphasized too much of disciplining. I find their approaches are often too harsh. Well, it may work for some parents, but certainly not for us (I speak for my hubby but I am very sure he shares the same sentiment). We are using the soft approaches, and think this suit us better. Okay, I admit, at times we might and we will lost our temper when Hao Re throws tantrum, and feel like giving him a punishment or such. But I think I would have to remind hubby and he has to remind me to stay calm when that happens. We hope we are doing this right and we would try our best to bring out the best of Hao Re.

To sum up, we are trying to use the 爱的教育strategy. Joining the club, anyone :-)

Let's go to the ZOO.........

Brought the kids to the Singapore Zoo on Saturday morning. It's quite a nice trip and a good morning spent (was there for about 2 hours). Xi Yu didn't sleep much this time, but to observe her surrounding. Hao Re, as usual, was very happy to be running in the outdoor. He can definitely recognised most of the animals he saw. It's very heart warming and touching to see how much Hao Re loves his MeiMei.

Don't want to say much. Let's the photos do the talking :-)

Having breakfast at the entrance of the zoo.


Left: New way of ferrying 2 kids on 1 stroller - with Hao Re standing in front of it, and he loved it, probably thinking is a new game :-)
Right: Hao Re is playing peek-a-boo with MeiMei.


The sea animals show at Splash Amphitheatre.


Photo taking time. Hao Re tried to put up a "V" sign, but could only manage 1 finger :-)


The cheerful little girl enjoying her first trip to the zoo.


Left: Arrived home. Daddy and son sharing a banana. Meimei can only sit and watch.
Right: Having a Ice Lemon Tea break.


Hao Re suddenly developed a fever on Saturday evening, at about 7pm. The fever was on till the next day, varying from 37.5 to 38.3C. Since it's mild fever, and he was very active as usual. we didn't give him any medication, hoping his immune system can fight off the germ. Fever still persisted, so gave him 1 dose of paracetamol before his nap and the fever has gone soon after that.

Didn't go out on Sunday until 5pm. Brought them to the CCK park for a breath of fresh air. Hao Re enjoyed running around.

My 22 months old boy

Discovered a different side Hao Re!

(p/s: 1 day late to post this, , as I was too tired to log on yesterday night.....)

Gonna write this down to mark Hao Re reaching 22 months.

We went to Lot 1 shopping centre for dinner yesterday. After that, I went to NTUC to quickily grab a pack of Huggies for Hao Re to try out (because he has outgrown the PetPet XL size, and PetPet doens't have XXL, duh!). While waiting for me, Hao Re demanding to get down from the stroller to walk. But he refused to put on shoes, and also we were rushing to go home. So hubby didn't allow him to get down. It really took us to a huge surprise to see he reacted this way. He wailed, but hubby decided not to give in to him this time round also. Hubby carried him and we headed to the carpark. He continued to wail and wail, and hubby really had a hard time carrying him.

While in the car, he didn't stop crying. Didn't matter what we said and did, he just refused to listen, just continued to cry and said "走走" (meaning he wanted to get down to walk), we just couldn't soothe him no matter what. Luckily it's just a short car ride. Then he refused to get out from the car. We unlatched his seat belt but he hold on the seat belt tightly and won't let go. At the end, I literally pulled him out of the car and carried a struggling toddler back home.

I let him off to the floor (with bare foot as he still refused to put on his shoes) while in the lift as I just simply have no energy left to carry him. He continued to cry and cry and cry. Then refused to go home. Tried to push me from our door back to the lift, and said "go", "走". I gave in and decided to bring him down for a walk. But this stubborn boy still refused to put on his shoes. So I said firmly "NO, if you don't put on your shoes, we won't go for a walk". He didn't listen to what I said. So I again, carried the wailing boy back home. Our neighbours must have been shocked to hear the loud crying, as this was the first time ever!

When we were at home, he went near the door and said "走" pointing outside. I offered to bring him out, but he still refused to put on his shoes. So I closed the doors. Tried offering him other things to distract him - opened the fridge to look for food, watched tv, etc. He just continued to cry and didn't want to cool down. Suddenly, he stopped crying and wanted to play with his Thomas the Train. Phew, finally!!! And with that, he had cried for about 40 minutes! This is the longest cry ever, and he had not cried this much for the past few months added together! After that, he was ok, back to normal and still went to bed as his usual 9pm.

This is what we discovered - an extremely stubborn boy we have! He is those type of 吃软不吃硬. To deal with him, our strategies have to be - distract him with something else, or offer him something, or follow what he wants for a short while then do it our way. For this incident, if hubby has had allowed him come down to walk with his bare foot for a few minutes, then asked him to go home, the whole episode could have been avoided. But well, never mind, at least now we learned a new side of him.

No matter what, he is still my dear darling boy. I feel I don't have enough time for him after the arrival of Xi Yu (side note: at the same time, I also feel bad that I don't have enough time for Xi Yu. I guess I still need time to adjust myself from being mother of 1 to mother of 2). He has been a good boy, as he always is. Hao Re, mummy loves you, wish you well, happy and healthy always!

Other than this, not much update. He is still eating, drinking, pooing, peeing, playing, sleeping, etc, as usual, and continues to talk more and more. Now we and his teachers can communicate with him pretty well, we tell him what to do and he is able to follow the instructions most of the time.

Till the next post :-0

(small note: Guess the monthly update is more and more redundant now when he gets older. Probably will change to do bi-monthly or quarterly update after he reaches 2 years old).

The charming Penang Island - here we come!

On the 29th to 31st October 2009

At the very last minute (only booked the air ticket on Tuesday night and departed on Thursday afternoon), we decided to make a short trip to Penang. Hubby was on leave and we wanted to let Hao Re fly and see what's his reaction to it. Decided on Penang as we would have free accommodation at our buddy's place and for the cheap ($0.01) ticket. Was considering of visiting KL (most of my families are there) or Kota Kinabalu (my young brother is there). But I guess the Penang food lured us there :-)

We cannot bring Xi Yu along (and we were actually glad that we didn't bring her, else it's too difficult to handle 2 kids on the plane due to the space constrain) because of her visit pass. She is still on extended short visit pass and can only apply for PR in December (a very long story). She cannot leave the country now or she wouldn't be allowed to come back in to Singapore.

I worked half day. After sending all the expressed milk to nanny, we were set to go to the budget terminal at Changi Airport. It was very rush but still have enough time. We bought a pack of sweet for Hao Re to suck on if he has built up air pressure in his ear. This pack of sweet has helped us a lot to keep him occupied during the flight, and he has had so much sweet in that hour, more than all the sweets he had consumed from birth till now :-) Oh well, either this or you get a cranky toddler wailing in the cabin. It's quite a smooth flight and Hao Re didn't feel a thing, maybe it's just like a car ride to him? Hubby did bring him to the toilet so he has the chance to walk on the aisle.

At the budget terminal waiting for boarding.


We arrived at Penang just passed 7pm. Our dear friends, Ah Fei and Ah Hiong came to pick us up. And first thing we did was of course EAT! Went to a hawker centre on the way back to their place. In Penang, most of the stalls selling nice and tastry food, so just drop by any of the hawker centres/shops would do. It's only the matter of extremely nice, very nice, or nice food. If you are so lucky to have some not so nice food, then sorry, it's bad luck :-) We have our first bowl of Penang prawn noodle and char kuay teow, yummy!

This is where our friends stay, up in a hill along Batu Feringgi. Nice view, isn't it? Better than staying in any hotel.


This trip was, obviously, free and easy. So we slept in till about 8am, without having to wake up to feed Xi Yu, that's like heaven! After I pumped and get everything ready, we went to have breakfast. For me, no surprise, it's prawn noodle and char kuay teow again, my all time favourites. Hubby has curry mee and shared a bit of my kuay teow.

First destination is the Kek Lok Si 极乐寺. We have been there many times. It's still like before. The big Kuan Yin on top of the hill is still under construction. We just walked around, donated a bit, and taught Hao Re to 拜拜.

Spent about 2 hours at Kek Lok Si. Hao Re was on his own feet most of the time, walking/running around, and climbing up the stairs. Didn't ask them to carry. Very well behaved!




Now, here comes the highlight of this trip - scumptus Ayer Hitam Penang Laksa!!! Sure we can't miss this! This is one of the main reasons drawing us to Penang. It's still like before, the stall, the uncle, the laksa, the pasar opposite, the shops around, the road, the traffic, everything remains unchanged (except now with a toddler in tow), still felt like 4 years ago when we last visited Penang.

For Penang Laksa lover, this is really yummy!


After that, we went back for Hao Re to take a nap and for me to pump. Then the rest of the day was to do a bit of shopping at Gurney Plaza. Bought Hao Re his second pair of Clarks (size 71/2). He cannot fit in his first pair (size 6) already. Dinner was at a very unique place (think only locals know and able to find this place) for fresh seafood. It's indeed very fresh and nice and the cooking style was very unique too. And with that we called it a day!

The next morning we went to the beach. Surprisingly Hao Re refused to go in to the water. Only stood in the water for a while, and then he said "No" firmly. Didn't want to play with water. Oh well, so it turned out to be sand play, not water play. Duh, as long as he's happy.

Mum and son at the beach. Daddy was busy taking photos for us (and looking around for hot babes!)


So happy playing with the sand, we got all dirty :-)




After that, went home to bath and for me to pump (ya, I know, it's troublesome, but well, some small sacrifactions have to be done for the goodness of the breastmilk) before going out for lunch. Then again, we were forced to go shopping again as Hao Re has used up all the diapers. Then we just went around the city a little bit in the car, and bought some biscuits to bring back to Singapore.

Went back to the apartment to pack. Hao Re loves their dog, Barky, who is a Bug. He spent good time playing with Barky and was obviously amuzed by the barking, the running around, eating, pooing, peeing....... He just loves dogs!

The handsome Barky and Hao Re


Time to leave this wonderful island. It's another a few months time before Hao Re can meet up and play with Barky again, when we go back home for Chinese New Year.

We have a short but nice holiday. Thanks to Ah Fei and Ah Hiong who have hosted us. It's ashamed that we would not travel back home for their wedding (on Christmas Day), but our best wishes to you all the same!

Settling in to the routine

Mummy back to work

Hello all, it's been quite some days ago since my last post. I was back to work on the 26th Oct, Monday, and my parents have left Singapore last Thursday (22nd OCt), so it's more difficult for me to find time for blogging, but I will try. And we made a last minute trip to Penang for 3 days 2 night from Thursday to Saturday, bringing Hao Re along but left Xi Yu with nanny (detail will be in the next post). Thus even less time for blogging, sorry for the long wait :-)

We have adjusted well. That was because hubby took 1 week off from work. Though his intention was to have a break from work to release his work stress, he has been a great help with the kids - plays with Hao Re, feeds Xi Yu EBM, puts Xi Yu to sleep, buys me dinner, etc, just to list a few. Without him, don't think the last week can pass so easily, the timing cannot be any better. Thank lots, hubby :-)

The kids are okay with their carers. The nanny discovered more about Xi Yu and so can provide better care for her. For Hao Re, sometimes he still cries when we send him to his school, but his teachers said once we left, he stopped crying immediately, so it's okay, not to worry. Hao Re missed his Porpor and Gonggong. For the first 2 days, when he reached home, he would look for them, but after that, he learned that they have gone and didn't look for them anymore, and the house has returned to the usual quietness, without my parents around playing (or being bullied) with Hao Re. Our night time is mostly dedicated to the kids, can't do much, once we put them to sleep, it's almost time for us to knock off already. With my mum around, we were able to steal sometime to go for a cup of coffee, guess no more luxury for us, for a while at least.

While for me, I have been pumping 3x a day while at work. And thankfully the supply is just enough to fill Xi Yu's tummy.

Last weekend, we brought the kids to the East Coast Park - first time to venture out without my parents's help. It's been great, but quite tiring, to be honest. Hao Re has had a good time playing with the sand, and Xi Yu has some fresh air too. We will try to bring them out over the weekend so that Hao Re can continue to enjoy the great outdoor, just like before.

No photos of Hao Re (wait till next post - our short trip to Penang).

Some nice photos of Xi Yu - she is a very happy cheerful little gal, never fail to give us a warm nice smile when we talk to her.

Xi Yu goes to East Coast Park for the first time. Managed to take some nice photos of her before she dozed off.


Some many different expressions of Xi Yu. Love her smile!

Xi Yu is 2 month old today

Just some notes to update baby Xi Yu is doing very well:

- Xi Yu settles very well at her nanny's place. We are so glad that Hao Re's teacher introduced this nanny to us. She is very good, extremely caring, organised, knowledgable, detail, shows her genuinely love to Xi Yu (as she always wanted a girl, but she has 2 boys and no girl of her own), and not those calculative type. I can have a peace of mind to leave Xi Yu under her care.

- Xi Yu drinks well and sleeps well. In fact, for the past 2 months, she has never made any noise during night time, after 11pm. Even if she wants milk, she only makes a very light "eh" sound, and that's it, never cries out. Amazing, right? And this is extremely important for us, because if she cries, Hao Re would be waken up by her crying, and none of us could sleep :-P

- Her neck is getting stronger and stronger. When she is being carried now, she would ask to be carried with the upright position, and her eyes roll non-stop to observe her surrounding.

- She is very responsive to sound and people. When we talk to her, she usually responds with a very sweet smile :-) She likes to play with us. My mum said it's amazing for baby this age to make loud sound to attract adults to play with her :-)

Well, we don't ask for anything else, but for Xi Yu to grow up happily and healthily, just like her big brother :-)

(p/s: to add on a quick note on Hao Re - today is the 4th day he goes to childcare, and guess what, he didn't fuss anymore when I sent him there in the morning, already got used to his "old" friends and teachers and the school environment. We are glad. And this little boy really dots on his little sister very much. We are super glad!!!)

Will upload some photos in the next post. Till then!

My breastfeeding journey

Change of the "Operation Mode"

I am so blessed that up till today, just 2 more days to 2 months, I am still able to total breastfeed my baby girl. Honestly I've never thought I would be able to do it for this long considering that I am not a hard working mum when comes to breastfeeding.

As of today, I have changed the "operation mode" from latch-on to pumping, as Xi Yu goes to nanny full day now. And when I am back to work next week, I will continue to pump, and can only latch baby girl at night and early morning. Maybe I would still latch her on dering weekends so to keep my supply stable.

I hope I will have the perserverance to continue (total) breastfeeding for at least the next 4 months, until Xi Yu is 6 months old, as sugested by WHO. Wish me luck!!!

So far, only have accumulated 5 bottles of expressed breast milk in the freezer, showing how lazy I am to pump and to do all the extras to keep my supply up :-)

A message for Meimei

Hao Re Gorgor said to Meimei:

"Yu-yu, can you please grow up faster so that you can play with me? We will be having lots and lots and lots of fun! Drink more milk and exercise more, okay!"

Hao Re and Xi Yu go to childcare and nanny

Slowly getting back to routine

It's 16th October 2009 today, mid month. And today it's the day we decided to send both of the kids to childcare/nanny.

First we sent Xi Yu to her nanny. We spent about 30min there as it's the first day so have to brief the nanny about her routine, what's dos and what's don'ts. I forgot to bring the expressed breast milk, so while we were chatting with nanny, hubby has to make a trip back home to pick up the milk :-P Nanny seems to be a very caring, detailed and organised person and we sincerely hope Xi Yu will be growing up healthily and happily under her care.

Next was Hao Re. After dropping off Xi Yu, Hao Re became very quiet in the car, and wanted Porpor to hug him tight, which he had never asked to. Kinda strange. We thought he might have guessed that he would be the next one to be dropped off.

When we reached his childcare, his little and big friends warmly greeted him. But he didn't accept the warmth. In return, he cried, really cried very hard, like going to cry his lung out :-( A few teachers offered to carry him, he let them carry but couldn't stop crying and eventually passed it back to me. At the end, we went in to the room where his classmates were, and they continued to soothe him with the program showing on the PC and gave him a sweet. Nothing soothed him. I have no choice but to leave him to his teachers and left the centre. We can still hear his crying after stepping out from the house.

We then fetched Hao Re at about 6pm. And guessed what - he refused to leave! Duh! Anyway we take it as positive sign, and hope that he would be settling down to his school next week.

Then we picked up Xi Yu. According to nanny, everything was fine. She drank well (it's the first time I let her drink thawed frozen EBM and she was okay with it) and slept well.

We look forward to a better week :-)

Activities for the past weekend

On Saturday, after Xi Yu got her jab, we went to Ion Orchard (on my dad's request) for a walk. Only have time to have a lunch there and walked around a little bit, as I was not feeling well. A bit feverish and feeling very tired. So I asked hubby to bring us home and left my dad there to explore the place on his own. I was still active and well when reached home, so the kids' routine was not disturbed. Luckily my fever was gone over the night without taking any medicine, just poured in tons of water.

Hao Re exploring the mall. He likes to use the escalator on his won.
He insisted of using the pair of chopstick, so cute :-)


On Sunday, we stayed at home for the whole day until Hao Re woke up from his nap at 5pm. We made a trip to the Chinese Garden at Jurong, to visit the Live Turtle and Tortoise Musuem. Amazingly Hao Re enjoyed a lot, and it made our trip all worthwhile! We spent a short 1.5 hour there. We didn't walk around the Chinese Garden, though I would wish to, but the day was getting dark. On our way back, we stopped by at our favourite "cher zar" stall to pack the salted egg crab home for dinner, yum yum!

The naughty Gonggong is teaching Hao Re how to make the turtle turn upside down :-P Hao Re was excited to see so many of them. He has a good time there.


- Daddy was busy taking photos for us that day. Xi Yu was, again, sleeping for the whole outing. Hao Re really enjoyed going out very much.
- See the last picture on the bottom right corner - Hao Re thinks daddy may be tired already, so he wants to carry daddy to the carpark :-)

Vaccination - Xi Yu's first 6-in-1 jab

We brought Xi Yu for her first 6-in-1 (jab) and rotavirus (oral administration) vaccination yesterday. The vaccination was supposed to be done when shereaches 2 month, while yesterday she was only 6 weeks and 5 days old. This was to coincide with my very last post-natal check at Dr Tan (everything is fine with me :-)). Dr Keoy said the jabs can be administered as early as 6 weeks, so the timing just right, and saved us 1 trip to Thomson.

(p/s: for information on the vaccination schedule, refer to previous post here)

And thanks godness that she didn't develop fever afterwards (that's why I only post this today as Dr Keoy said the fever may come om the next day). So now it's confirmed that she is well. Xi Yu is a very brave girl. When Dr Keoy poked her, she only let out 1 cry for a short few seconds, and that's it. And for the rotavirus vaccine, since it's already close to her feeding time, she happily drank all the vaccine without any fuss.

As of yesterday, 6 weeks 5 days, Xi Yu weighed 4.85kg and measured 55cm in length. Quite a big size baby. My mum and I feel that our hands get tired quickier now carrying her.

Some of her development captured:

Xi Yu starts to smile to people. She is a happy baby and it's easy to get a sweet smile from her (probably these photos can't show very clearly, will try to get more of her smiley photos)


She can grab things with her fingers. See how well she picks up the ball (for a few seconds). We don't let her wear mitten very often so that so can explore/sense her surrounding using her fingers. She can definitely grab our finger tightly.


How fortunate she is to have a loving big brother!!! Hao Re has fully adjusted himself to accommodate Xi Yu. And he does really love his little sister. We are very pround of him!


For other developments, wait till the next update :-)

Hao Re is 21 months old

A monthly update of our darling boy

(p/s: 3 days late to post this blog :-)

Main development, still, is on the language skill. Hao Re can pronounce almost every word and any word! For some of the words, he understands what it means and can relate to the object/person/action and able to use/say it correctly. For some other words, he is repeating it after us without knowing the meaning of it. We are now communucating with him verbally with less and less body language or baby language and he talks to us too, though at times, we still have to guess what he is saying. It's fun, for now, to have a talking toddler. We are hoping he would further improve this skill and thus able to communicate with us better.

He loves singing too! I really don't have a clue how could he remembers the lyrics of so many nursery rythms, he just can. Of course it's not the full lyrics, but to sing along with us filling in as many words as he can remember, and following the tone quite accurately. For examples, for the songs of "客人来" and "三轮车", it goes like this:

Those in blue are the words he can remember and sing along:

客人来 看爸爸 爸爸不在家 我请客人先坐下 再敬一杯茶

三轮车 跑得快 上面坐个老太太 要五毛 给一块 你说奇怪不奇怪

It's easier if I can record it down then to explain it, but once I put up the handphone for recording, he refuses to sing :-( He can sing probably 30 Chinese nursery rythms now but not more than 5 Englsih ones, since daddy and mummy grew up with Chinese nursery rythms and none of English ones.

Hao Re is very observant, learning fast and has good memory. My mum said (and we agreed) he is a very mature toddler, that his physical and mental development is already on par with those 2-3 years old toddlers. So at this stage, I think it's easier for me to note down what he still can't do rather than what he can do (he has acheived all the milestones listed on the healthbook).

Still NOT toilet trained yet - he shows signs of readiness, but we just haven't started him on this. I will try while I am still at home these few weeks.

Still NOT brushing his teeth everyday - ok, think this has to blame on us. He kind of knows how to brush already, but we don't insist that he has to brush his teeth everyday. The bedtime routine is such that he drinks milk, then sleeps. We have to be more hardworking to get him brushing before his milk time.

Still NOT sleeping on his own - even before his sister arrived, he has been co-sleeping with us. I think it's very difficult now to move him away from our bed. Probably have to wait a few months later before we try again.

Still NOT falling asleep on his own - to be honest, I have never sleep-trained him. And I don't think I would start to do so soon. Reason being that I love that very special time putting him to bed to bond with him. We sing, we talk, we hug, we kiss, we roll/play on the bed (this is not RA, okay, I am not talking about my hubby, but with my Hao Re :-)) Sometimes it makes me mad if he doesn't want to sleep after spending >30min in the bedroom. But that only happens once in a while. I selfishly want to keep this special bonding time with him and delaying the sleep-training as long as possible (or never).

We brought him to the CCK park to have some fresh air. Xi Yu went with us also, and for the first time, I breastfed in public (of course, covered with a piece of cloth).


And he has got a haircut - this is how my boy looks like now before and after the haircut, any difference? Daddy said after haircut not as handsome as before :-P

Hao Re the Poo-poo KING!

Daddy was amuzed the whole day

Let me tell you this funny story (well, at least we think it's funny) of Hao Re. And er, mind you, it's actually a bit gross, so stop reading if you are feeling uncomfortable :-P

As I mentioend before, Hao Re poos everyday since birth except 1 day a couple of months ago. So we crowned him as the "Poo King". This Poo King broke his record again last week for not pooing on Thursday, then pooed 3 times (very big ones!) on Friday. Then he didn't poo again on Satuday. Then came Sunday......

After shower, hubby noticed that Hao Re looked a bit funny and seemed to be focusing so much like wanting to poo. So hubby asked if he wanted to 大便. And he said yes. Hubby gave him the potty (but he hasn't been potty trained yet). He wanted to try but the poo couldn't come out, which annoyed him and he started to cry, which surprised us as this had never happened before. I was halfway feeding Xi Yu, so couldn't help. Asked my mum to help. We then realised that he could have been a little constipated, so probably a very hard solid piece of poo waiting to come out. Both hubby and mummy gave him "encouragement" to push. After a few miutes of crying and pushing, that evil piece of poo was finally out - it's hard, big and long (hubby was so regretted for not taking a photo of it), so hard and big that it made his anus bled!

And it did not end here. After that, hubby brought him down to the shopping mall for a walk to cheer him up. When they were looking at books at the bookstall, suddenly hubby saw a piece of poo on the floor, and he said to himself "OH NO!", thinking that it could be from Hao Re. His initial though was to quickly walk away from the bookstall. But a lady stopped him and said "你儿子的大便". Hubby asked how could you tell it's from my boy, and she said she saw that piece of poo came out from Hao Re :-) So no choice, hubby had to pick it up. When they reached home, hubby quickly cleaned him (before that, he told me what's happened and kept laughing, and again, regretted for not taking a photo of it), and realised that he was so lucky because only that drop-off piece was solid one, the rest was watery poo - imagine if he has to clean that in a shopping mall! What happened was that Hao Re pooed so much that his diaper just simply couldn't retain it all, even his pant was soiled! And he pooed, also a big one, another time in the evening.

Ok, ended this gross story. Don't you think Hao Re deserved to be crowned as the "Poo King" :-)

On a serious note, we couldn't figure out why Hao Re was constipated since he drinks a lot of water and have pretty good fruits/vegetables intake as usual. Hard to figure out. Just continue to give him more water and more fruits/vegatables, and hope this won't happen again, at least not at the shopping mall :-)

Xi Yu first "official" outing!

Orchid Garden @ Singapore Botanical Garden on 26th September

(p/s: this is a back-dated post)

I said this was an "official" outing, because 2 weeks ago, when Xi Yu still had 2 days to go before reaching 1 month old, we already brought her out to JB for quite a long day :-)

My mum loves orchids. Everytime she comes to Singapore, we bring her to the Orchid Garden at the Botanical Garden to admire the many different species of orchids. We brought Xi Yu along since botanical garden it's a nice place whereby she can have some fresh air and get tanned (though she already looks a lot tanner than her brother :-)



It's a nice trip. Funnily, Xi Yu slept all the way, from the minute we started the car till the minute we reached home, only woke up (half-waking up) to have 1 feed. So all the attention went to Hao Re. He was so happy and excited as this was the first time he went out to play with Gonggong and Porpor. Running here and there, jumping up and down, talking non-stop, giving instructions to the adults, he walked almost the entire time there, until he exhausted himself and demanded to sit in the stroller. We spent a good 2 hours there. Later when we were heading to have lunch, he already knocked off in his car seat within a couple of minutes :-)

Now, let's the photos do the talking instead :-)

Hao Re tires Gonggong and Porpor out, he really moves non-stop....... I think the grandparents enjoy very much too :-)


The great dad doing the feeding job (mummy has done her part by expressing the milk out :-)) Look at the photo at the right bottom, where Hao Re trying to do the "V" sign for photo-taking, unsuccessful attempt though :-)


Xi Yu, the sleeping beauty, she just sleeps, sleeps, sleeps, and continues to sleeps. While Hao Re, the super active kid, jus plays, plays, and continues to play!

First family photo of 4!!!

And some added notes (and photo) about Xi Yu's full month

Forgot to post a photo of Xi Yu on her full month on the 21st September 2009, so here it goes!



And to add that it was a real simple celebration, if we could call that a celebration :-) My mum cooked some dishes, plus the red egg and ginger, and we celebration between us, my sister and our dear friend, Batman Shushu :-)



No traditional procedure has been done. And no, we DIDN'T shave her hair bold! Hubby has made it very clear as soon as Xi Yu was born that no one can touch her hair, he wouldn't allow even a little trimming of her hair! Even last time when we shaved off Hao Re's hair to do the "胎毛笔" , hubby was heartpain for quite a while as it look quite a long time for his hair to grow, and now Xi Yu's nice hair, I can understand why he doesn't allow trimming/cutting of Xi Yu's hair :-)

LOVE is in the air.......

In the Kam household

First, let me show you the very touching photos of the big brother "sayang-ing" his little sister :-)



Our dear Hao Re certainly adores his little sister. But for a merely 20 months old boy, I don't think he is able to express his love to his baby sister. Thank godness that his jealousy has improved a lot, that gives me a lot of breathing space. He would pat (with our supervision of course, since he could be very rough at times) his sister once in while and would climb at the edge of the cot to look at his Meimei. When Xi Yu is crying, he would stop whatever he is doing for a little while and said "妹妹哭" :-) I know for sure, he would make a good Gorgor!

More photos of our dear princess Xi Yu and prince Hao Re. Any chance they look alike?


For us as the proud parents, we certainly couldn't have loved them enough! I was once worried that how could I possibly divide my love for the 2 of them? A very capable mummy of two shared with me that love doesn't have to be divided, in fact it is MULTIPLIED!!! True enough, we would never run out of love for our children, it's forever self-multiplying :-)

I am so blessed to have a pair of great kids, and of course, not forgetting my dear hubby, my love to you is forever increasing :-) I have a just perfect family, nothing in the world beats this!

Confinement month is over, hurray!

Xi Yu is ONE month old already :-)

Time really flies. My confinement month has ended. It's definitely NOT a "torturing" month for me like many other mummies under confinement since I don't follow any of the "confiment rules" - I bathed every day, I washed my hair twice a week, I don't wrap myself up with long sleeve shirt and long pant, I don't wear shocks, I used tap (cold) water to wash bottles, I moved around the house everyday to look after my 2 kids and not just lying on the bed, etc, etc. I was grateful that my mum is also supportive (and she doesn't nag) of my "modern confinement", and her cooking is the mild type, i.e., she didn't use lots of ginger and sesame oil and certainly my confinement is not too heaty type. In short, my confinemnet days were just like any other usual day at home (only different is without hubby's accompany). A lot of people, including families and friends, neighbours, and even those I am not very close to, kept "warning" me I shouldn't be like this, I should follow the "rules" strictly, else I would regret when I get old, they said only when I am old then all the illnesses would appear. Oh well, for me, I couldn't care much on what would happen when I get old 30-40 years later, like backache etc as I think these are bound to link to old age and not necessary a result of poor confinement. Plus, having an easy baby certainly helps. People told me girls are easier to handle than boys. For our kids, yes, this theory is true, Hao Re was more difficult to handle when he was this age.

But I know, and I have to admit, sometime I am a bit over the limit :-) I have gone out for shopping started on the second week - of course for baby's neccessities and groceries, not for my own shopping pleassure, and to bring Hao Re for a short walk/fresh air downstairs when he gets really bored being confined within the 4 walls. And went to have a nice cup of coffee with hubby a couple of times :-) Plus to go out for the must-do, i.e., for my gynae checkup and to bring baby for PD checkups, and to go to Malaysia High Commission of Singapore to apply for Xi Yu's Malaysian birth certificate and passport. Next week we still have to bring her out to ICA to apply for Singpaore PR. Not that naughty lah, or am I :-P

Xi Yu went fo PD checkup on Friday. She has gained weight nicely. Has put on exactly 1kg since the day of discharge, she weighs 3.9kg. And all those nutrients come from my milk factory - I have been total breastfeed for 1 full month already, kinda proud of myself :-) One downside is Xi Yu's jaundice will only subside at least 1 month later, according to Dr Keoy, so for now, we would still receive comment from people (and even passer-by) that baby is yellow :-( After the checkup, Dr Keoy informed us that Xi Yu still has high TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level, and we have repeated the test 3x since birth, and so will need to get her on medication :-( Will go and consult Dr Keoy next week. As what I googled and learned, this high TSH level can be controlled using medication and will be outgrown when she reaches puberty.

(p/s: For you information, screening test of TSH is one of the compulsory screening tests for all newborns in Singapore. So if your PD never mention this to you = good news).

Other than this, everything is fine. She starts to smile to you and seems to respond to sound better. She can turns her head very well (according to Dr Keoy, girls develop faster than boys). Before the visit to Dr Keoy, she seemed to breath heavily at times. Even before I asked, Dr Keoy has detected that and helped to clear her nostril, used like 5-6 sticks of cotton buds to dig out a lot of stuff (see, I told you Dr Keoy is a GREAT PD!) Since the first week, she didn't wake up that much at nigh (lucky me!). Usually wakes up once during 2-4am, then another round in the early morning, 5-7am. And most nights, she falls back to sleep immediately after feed, while some nights will take longer. Although I am the only one on night duty, it doesn't seem to be a big job.

All in all, mummy and daughter are very well, happy and healthy! We are marching into the 2nd month and look forward to an equally good, or better month :-)

Still, first thing people would say when they meet Xi Yu for the first time would be - wah, so much hair!


CW Yiyi (on the right) and CL auntie (left) came to visit Hao Re and Xi Yu.
(p/s: update on Hao Re in previous post)

Stay-at-home-son

How does Hao Re pass his time at home?

Oh well, after 1 month staying at home, our dear boy has got sooooo bored, at times :-P Though he has me, grandma and grandpa (and hubby on weekends) to accompany him, still, sometimes we also run out of ideas on how to entertain him. We play with his many toys a few times a day, and we, kid and adult, all get so bored with the toys already.

Last week, my cousin CW Yiyi came to visit and stay with us for 3 days. Hao Re was so excited with a new person to play with, and that made him very happy that weekend. This weekend, my sister came to visit and is going to stay with us for 4 days, and again, he is delighted to have someone else to play with.

We didn't buy new toys for him. All his existing ones, which he used to love, building blocks and puzzles, do not attract so much of his attention anymore. Though he still play with it, it's only for a very short while. He doesn't love books that much now, probably because he gets more rough now with grandparents here, so cannot sit down for long and hence can't focus. I am aiming to buy a new toy for him - a train set, those type which they can build the train track, but I have yet to see one.

For now, just need to be creative with whatever we have at home. Bought 2 cheap-ish sticker books ($1 each) for him, and that have taken a few hours of his times, peeling off the sticker from the book, sticking on the drawing board, and then peeling it off the board and throw away. Quite a good entertainment. And he likes to help sweeping the floor, vacuuming, hang and collect laundry, etc. He would just do anything to keep himself entertained.

One bad(?) thing is he is now spending more time on TV, really unavoidable for now, especially when I am busy feeding baby. But I still manage to limit 1 session to 30min most of the time, and a few times stretch to 1 hour, but definitely not more than this.

Though I was not able to do most of the things I wanted to do with Hao Re since I spend a lot of time feeding my little baby, I still appreciate that I can simply spend more time with Hao Re. Definitely a special month for me :-) And hope we can still keep this little monster entertained for the next few weeks until he returns to childcare.

Trying out his boaster car seat before hubby brings it down. He seems to enjoy and like this new car seat :-)


He gets so bored that he starts to read newspaper, sends SMS his daddy, locks himself under the cot, and of course, his favourite pass-time activities - eat (fruits especially!)

Another week........

Xi Yu is still a happy contentend little one (finger-crossed!)

It's weekend again, meaning that hubby is at home with us. So looked forward to the weekend. Though the week had passed smoothly without any major hiccups :-)

One major "incident" was on Thursday night. Hao Re went to bed as usual at 9pm. Xi Yu slept too much during the day and still stayed awake at 12 midnight. When she almsot fell asleep, Hao Re woke up looking for me (could be having a nightmare or something). Hubby had a bad day, he was dead-tired, and already in his deep sleep. Though he try to help to soothing Hao Re, Hao Re refused. He only wanted me (while for the past weeks, he already accepted daddy, don't know why?). Hubby had to take over Xi Yu while I soothed Hao Re. But it's the feeding time for Xi Yu coincidently, so she was crying for my breasts. Hubby didn't manage to soothe the hungry little girl, and Hao Re couldn't go back to sleep because of MeiMei crying. Eventually my mum woke up to help soothing Xi Yu. Finally Hao Re slept and I was just in time to take over Xi Yu as she was already out of control because of the hunger! When I went back to the room, Hao Re woke up again! I was like "OH NO!!!", I really didn't know how can I handle the two of them at the same time! Luckily, for don't know what reasons, Hao Re didn't insist on me carrying him, he just lied down by my side and fell asleep while I nursed Xi Yu. Phew, what a night!

Sleeping time is the only time that I scared of, especially night time. I am not suppose to wake up my mum as she needs a good night sleep for the challenges of the next day. I just hope this won't happen again (or don't happen so often). But well, this really is not something I can plan or control. So just go with it, just stay positive, positive, positive, I have to keep reminding myself, since I did think negatively at times and made myself depressed for a bit :-(

Coming back to Xi Yu. She is really an easy baby. If not because of that we keep Hao Re at home, this confinement will be such a breeze for me, think could even be too bored for me :-) Plus that my mum is so capable that she takes a big load off me, lucky me :-) I was chatting with my mum yesterday night and we joked that if I were to get a confinement lady to help me, she will be so lucky, as there is really nothing much for her to do.

I think we are really blessed! Hope our little girl will grow up healthily and happily (and quickly, so can keep Hao Re accompanied :-))

Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of Xi Yu......

Our sleeping beauty!

Precious bonding time with GongGong and PorPor

The happy, overly active and excited little monster!!!

Hao Re loves his grandparents, for their accompany and that they always give way to him. They allows him to do (almost) everything and anything he wants to do, making this already very rough boy becomes a little monster!

And that's when GongGong and PorPor are around. When only us and Hao Re at home, he would revert to become the normal self, and can focus more on what he is doing. For example, when playing with the puzzles with GongGong and PorPor (especially GongGong), he can never finish a puzzles, starts to throw the puzzles away, or gives up half way and do something else. But when he does puzzles with us, he can always finish at least one round, and more often can do a few times.

That's why a lot of mummies shared that if grandparents are the main carer, usually the kids will be spoilt in one way or another. For us, it's good (and bad) that grandparents don't live with us, they only get to see Hao Re once or twice a year, so just let Hao Re get pampared for the short period of time is actually a good thing, I hope. After all, who doesn't like to be showered with love?

So, let Hao Re enjoy the love from the grandparents as much as he possibly can.

Outing to the West Coast Park for the International Kite Festival


Outing to the Army Open House at one of the camp. A cool young boy and a cool old man :-)


Helping PorPor picking the vegetables. Is he more of a good little helper, PorPor?


This is more of the "quiet" Hao Re. The wooden bicycle is a gift from his little sister, cool right :-)

A little girl's life at 2 weeks old

A happy and contented baby :-)

Yes, the fact that I have time to blog, means that life has not been too bad for me, as a mum of 2 :-)

Some update about my baby girl. I think we are lucky, as so far, Xi Yu has been a really easy to take care baby, thankfully. She is a sleeping beauty, she simply loves to sleep (sure she will change her sleeping pattern sooner or later, but meanwhile, I just enjoy this!). And she doesn't cry much, almost didn't cry for the whole day. Her typical day is sleep, wake up, drink milk, sleep, wake up, drink milk, and this cycle repeat for 7-8 times a day. Oh well, that's what a baby does, doens't she :-)

The good thing about Xi Yu is after she wakes up from sleep, she won't cry. She usually make a sound to notify us she is awake. As long as someone carries her and feeds her before she gets very hungry, she won't make noise. We don't use rocker or "yao lan" to put her to sleep. We let her sleeps in her cot. Sometimes she demands for us to carry her, after she falls asleep in our arm, we then transfer her in her cot. Sometimes we just put her in her cot while she is awake, she would just turn a bit, roll her eyes left, right, up, down, and then fall asleep on her own, amazing, isn't she :-)

Even night time is, still, a breeze. All 4 of us sleep in the same room, with Hao Re co-sleeps with us (sleep in between us) on our bed, and Xi Yu on her cot, by my side. Xi Yu has already adjusted her clock to our timing a few days ago, i.e., she sleeps longer at night, so far she can sleep for a stretch of 5 hours, if I am lucky, usually it's about 3-4 hours. Even if she needs to wake up for milk, it's only 2 times a night. Most of the time, she falls back to sleep immediately after feeding. But of course, with a young baby like her, some nights her eyes are wide open looking at me after the feed in the middle of the night. Thanks to the fact that I am a very light sleeper (while hubby is totally opposite), I would be woken up by Xi Yu even if she only makes a tiny bit of noise. Once she does that, I would bring her out of to the living room, and latch her on. That way, Hao Re and daddy won't be disturbed and can continue to sleep soundly :-) So far so good, except for the first 2 night, Hao Re has been sleeping through, thankfully!

Our little princess says hello to all! This little baby shows us many different face expression, just CUTE!


Such a contented baby lying on Baba's chest, and Baby enjoying the bonding with his little princess :-)


Some notes on the operation of my milk factory. So far so good. I am very glad that finally my breasts can be used for one of its primary funcations - produce milk to feed baby! I am still on total breastfeeding. I think I am on the right track now. Baby Xi Yu has gained 400g in 1 week, isn't it great? And she pees a lot also. We can monitor the frequency of her pee-pee since we are using cloth nappy, she wets the nappy >10 times a day! These 2 are very good signs that she is drinking well.

I have got a Ameda Dual Electric Breast Pump, which really helps me in expressing milk, especially shorten the time by half so that I can spend time with Hao Re and other things. I latch her on most of the time, and will bottle-feed her expressed breast milk 1 or 2x a day, when I need to rest or too lazy to get up from bed, and also 1x just before bedtime at night, and daddy will have to exclusive right to do last feeding of the day. Though it's easy to just latch her on (no need to do washing up etc, just lift up the shirt), it's on the other hand, a great thing for daddy to get involved, and my hubby is definitely enjoying that (for now, and when he is not too tired after back from work).

I shall continue to try my best making sure my milk factory in operation as long as possible. Not going to worry too much or think too much ahead of time.

Can't resist to say a bit about my dear boy. I am glad I am keeping him at home and not to send him to childcare. Though there are some tough times, when 2 of them need my attention at the same time, but my mum is here to help and hubby is also around at night and during weekends. So we are coping well. Honestly, I definitely can't do it without my mum, she is a WONDERFUL MUM!!! Having said that, I don't really have much time to do much with Hao Re, just accompanies him whenever I can to play. Just for the fact that I can see him for the whole day long, makes me feeling happy :-) He is a pretty good boy most of the times, only that

Till the next update, whenever I have time. Ta Ta for now!

Hao Re is 20 months old today

A special month for Hao Re

Now my life is changing with 2 kids. I gonna blog whenever I find time to, and most likely not able to blog as often as I was :-P

It’s a different month for Hao Re because he has a little sister to play/bully/take care/dot on (don’t know which one applies, yet). For now, he knows for sure he has a MeiMei. Mummy always put that little MeiMei to her breasts, who occupies a lot of mummy’s time. Sometimes we show him MeiMei and let him pat and kiss MeiMei, as we don’t want him to feel being left out. He is happy to do that, but often quite roughly (can’t blame him, he himself is still a very young toddler), so we don’t show him that much, and have to watch him closely.

Also, he has 2 extra playmates this month – his GongGong and PorPor. It’s amazing that when he saw his grandparents on the first day, he took them immediately, and called them GongGong and PorPor (after we taught him once). From the second day my parents were here, Hao Re has become even more active and happier, and there are surely more laughter and screaming around the house. All 4 of us play with him in our own way and he certainly is happy with the differences he is exposed to – PorPor is forever patience and usually play with him the way he wants and how long he want to; GongGong is forever impatience and usually can only play with Hao Re for a short period of time (a few minutes) and in a very rough way and usually don’t want to follow Hao Re’s way of playing.



Also, this month, is his stay-at-home month. He is not attending childcare. I asked my mum, and she said we should be able to take care of both Hao Re and Xi Yu. So we decided to keep him at home. For sure we (or rather I, since daddy goes to work as usual) will have more time to bond with him, and also for him to spend some great time with GongGong and PorPor. I hope he enjoys he stay at home. Surely will take him sometime to readjust to schooling 2 months later, but well, let's not worry now.

The only problem we face, so far, is meal time. We have been letting him to self feed and join us at the dinning table at every meal. He has been eating pretty well, at least he eats sufficiently to fill his stomach. But recently, he didn’t eat well, he is more interested to play with his food. And worse, is that, he is not willing to let us feed him (especially me, yes, he is bullying me). That made me worry, and made my blood boiling! But I have learned to let it go. He has so much fat to be burnt off, so it’s okay if he doesn’t eat as much now, just let him pass this phase, and I am sure he will soon be the little monster again, swapping all food into his stomach! Meanwhile, I will stock up with all those nutritional tidbits to fill up his stomach out of the meal time, and give him lots of fruits also.

Despite the decrease in solid food intake, Hao Re is still so chubby. Just these couple of weeks, we suddenly realised his hands and legs have become so "muscular" and his big tummy is still there. It's certainly not easy to carry him now, and thanks godness he doesn't ask us to carry him that much anymore. Didn't weigh him this month, but I guess he must be over 13kg now.

The main development for this month is his speech. He has been talking so much and he can say almost everything now. He can count from 1 to 10 in both English and Mandarin (though can do better in English for now), recognize all 26 alphabets (can say almost all, but some not very precise yet), can say a lot of animals (in both English and Mandarin), can repeat and understanding what we say, sometime can tell us what he want verbally not just pointing. Basically he is talking now, though still needs more practice to perfect it. And he really likes singing, he can sing along with us many songs already. Should record down some of this soon, if we miss this, will miss it forever.

For the puzzle, he can do so well with the animal puzzles till the point that he can teach his GongGong and PorPor how to play :-) He has also learnt the ABC puzzles, able to slot in all 26 alphabets in minutes, and through this puzzles, he learns to say the 26 alphabets. Now he moves on to the much more advance 6 to 9 pieces puzzles. Amazingly after a few rounds, he can do it already! This little man can concentrate very well when he is really into something that he is interested in. I can also see that he is getting bored with the toys he has, gonna think of something new for him.

I have to think of more think for him to do, since he is staying home with me. I will try but I doubt I can do much since I still have to take care of Xi Yu. Let's see how it goes. But one thing for sure is time spent on tv will definitely increase as tv is the only thing that can make him sit and calm down. Never mind, just take it as treats for him since these 2 months will be his holiday :-)

Just 4 more months, and Hao Re will be 2 years old already. When Hao Re sits beside Xi Yu, I really can't believe my boy has grown from such a little one to his size now, amazing!

Ending this post with some photos of our little boy :-)

The REAL challenge begins

Daddy went back to work

The past 10 days have passed by quite easily. Baby Xi Yu is, so far, is an easy to take care of baby (hope she will continue to be, finger-crossed :-)). With my mum and dad around, and hubby also around, taking care of both Hao Re and Xi Yu has not been a problem. Hao Re is still jealous of his little sister sometimes, especially when I breastfeed Xi Yu, probably that takes too much of my time? The other challenge is during night time, as Hao Re only wanted mummy at night. Fortunately he adapted very well, and since Day 2 Xi Yu came back home, Hao Re already accepted daddy to soothe him back to sleep should he wake up in the middle of the night. This is a very good for us, because if he wakes up during the time when I am breastfeeding, I simply can’t cope with two. Day time is not a problem, as he is happily playing with whoever has time to play with him.

Today, daddy returns to work. Besides missing his accompany, I am also (a bit) worry that it would be too tasking for me and my mum to take care of the two little ones. Well, maybe I really shouldn’t think too much, just move on and see how things go. My mum and dad said Hao Re is a very good boy, he is very active and always on the run, but he is also very cooperative and willing to listen to us (of course not always). If, only if, we really can’t cope, we can always send him to the childcare centre. So yes, I should stop worrying and enjoy these precious time with my little ones.

Baby Xi Yu has been a good girl, so far. Drinks milk and sleeps, wakes up and drinks milk. These few days, she wakes up for a longer stretch of time, and when she is awake, she is so alert, that her two eyes rolling left and right, as if scrutinizing her surrounding and trying to follow the voice/noise. Started yesterday, she seems to start adjusting to our day and night time. If she really is doing that, I would be so delighted. Right now, she usually wakes up at 2 – 3am, and is not able to fall deep sleep again until 6 – 7am. Surprisingly I am still energetic despite the lack of sleep and only need a short nap to recharge.

I will definitely miss hubby dearly. I don’t really enjoy staying home without hubby around. Last time round, I almost developed post-natal depression after hubby went back to work. I am sure I won’t be this time round, I promise :-) (besides, I have the super active Hao Re to keep me accompany, no time for me to feel depress). I will do the best that I can for these 2 months, to take care of my 2 beautiful ones, and enjoy the time bonding with them. And I always look forward to the weekend when daddy is at home with us :-)

With this note, yes, I am all prepared for the challenge ahead, bring it on!

Sharing of my breastfeeding experience

The opening of a privatize milk factory :-)

I failed to breastfeed for my boy 19 months ago. I was very sad back then initially, feeling that I was not able to provide for my baby. I did read up a lot, attended antenatal classes, and thought I have had sufficient knowledge about breastfeeding. On top of that, the healthcare professionals kept telling me it’s EASY to breastfeed that you are born with it, and as a mum, if you can give birth to a child, there is no reason why I cannot breastfeed. I was brain-washed by them. I was too over-confident and have never thought that I might fail to breastfeed. I insisted to let my boy on total breastfeed when he was born, despite that my mum did advise me to supplement him with water or formula as he was crying a lot. A WRONG DECISION MADE! Being a first time mum, I failed miserably, because of the lack of my milk supply, it led to my boy having very bad dehydration and extremely high jaundice (to the point that his pediatrician was getting ready for a blood transfusion if necessary). My poor baby had to be on drip when he was barely 1 week old. Can you imagine how much it hurt me? I blamed myself for it, for that not only I can’t protect him but to make him suffer. Thanks to my supporting and understanding hubby, I finally got over it and moved on. But after that, I told myself and my close friends that breastfeeding is definitely NOT easy, not at all. At one point, I even told myself I would not attempt for breastfeeding if I get pregnant again. After all, my boy grows up beautifully drinking the formula milk. Having said this, I have never doubted that breastmilk IS the BEST milk for baby.

Fortunately, my mind changed. All thanks to the wonderful world of internet. From one of the forum, I met many fellow mummies, who are all of very kind soul and heart, who are so willing to share their experiences (thanks my dear fellow mummies, if you are reading this J). From there, I learned that actually many of them have successfully breastfed. That did give me a huge lot of confidence. It’s much better and reassuring for me to learn from these “life examples” than reading those theories from books, if you know what I mean. What’s added on and boasted my confidence about breastfeeding is through a dear old friend of mine at KL (yes, it’s you, KM, if you are reading this J), who is a very career minded woman, and not at all prepared for motherhood, but she breastfed successfully, so I thought it must be me who hasn’t tried hard enough.

Now, 19 months later, I gave birth to my lovely girl, baby Xi Yu. I told hubby I would definitely try breastfeeding again, and hubby supported me. Even my mum who was a bit worried (though she didn’t say it but I can sense it) about putting baby on total breastfeeding, she respects my decision and sees me through it.

And yes, as the title said it, I have succeeded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the starting point of the second round of breastfeeding, the first thing I did was to have a positive (but not overly positive) mindset. I told myself, breastfeed is doable and it’s proven by many friends and fellow mummies of mine. But on the other hand, I kept reminding myself, breastfeeding is not easy, and one has to be persistence and determined to do it. My take is I will try my best, and will not stubbornly insist on it should I fail again. I am practicing the relax attitude – if I can do it, good, give myself a pat on the back (and claim a gift from hubby, maybe J); if I can’t do it, just let it be, after all, as I said before, my son grows up wonderfully with Enfa milk, doesn’t he?

First thing that made my breastfeeding journey on the right track was that I have a very short and smooth labour this time round. It helped because I have a lot of energy reserved, so I latched on my baby within 30 min after she was born when we were still in the delivery room. Second thing is I have a cooperative baby. She latched on and sucked well from the beginning. After that I just kept latching her on, every 3 hours or so, and she seemed to suck well on it. When baby Xi Yu had to stay an extra night for phototherapy for jaundice, I took it easy, I didn’t insist of breastfeeding, we let her be fed with Enfalac and left her of the care of the nurses, while we have a good rest at home.

When baby Xi Yu finally came home, it’s actually the real starting point of the breastfeeding journey. Her reserve has started to depleted, and so she is depending fully on my breast milk. It’s actually stressful for me because of my first experience, and I still hasn’t gained my confidence. Even hubby has become more cautious, he checked on baby’s pee to make sure it’s not thickening (a sign of dehydration), and he did a good job in supporting me (without him knowing he is actually doing it), I do really appreciate it a lot. Every time she peed it’s a good news for us, as it reassures that baby has taken in some milk. On Day 5, all her meconium (baby poo from her reserve) has gone, and she started to make her own yellowish poo. That’s even a better news, telling us baby is taking in food (breast milk). And I can feel my breast is changing from time to time, empty and full, empty and full (thanks goodness no engorgement so far), signaling I am producing milk and baby is taking the milk. And when milk started to leak out from my nipple, it’s such a wonderful thing to see!

Talking about my dear fellow mummies whom I met on the forum, a huge thank you to you all! I quickly log on to the internet and posted them with tons of stupid questions about breastfeeding whenever I was in doubt. They gave me lots of good and practical advices and share their own experiences with me. That certainly helped me a great deal. I owed them a big one. It’s very precious to have this group of friends though I haven’t met a lot of them J

Now is into Day 8. Baby Xi Yu was admitted yesterday due to high jaundice. We again, take it easy. She was on Enfalac again since I haven’t stored any expressed milk. On the second day, I delivered 5 bottles of breastmilk for baby Xi Yu, and also latched her on once.

Baby Xi Yu came back home this early afternoon. I still haven’t latched her on, as she is a very sleepy baby, we still find it difficult to wake her up for her milk feed and hubby thought it’s better that we bottled feed her the expressed breast milk so that we can monitor how much milk she takes in. When she was at Thomsom the last 2 days, she has been drinking 70 – 85ml of Enfalac every 3 hourly, and that’s a very good intake for a 1 week old baby, and this certainly helped her to clear off the jaundice.

So far so good! I hope that my breastfeeding career can go on for as long as possible, but I will, again, take it easy and see how things would work out, especially after I return to work 2 months later. And I have also prepared myself that I might eventually have to do exclusive pumping eventually. Wish me luck!

To share some of the things/thoughts that I have learnt for the past week:

- When you read the books, most of them are talking about after the milk flow has kicked in. So everything seems and sounds so easy. But less info on what to do in the first few days to have the milk supply started. For this, I strongly recommend to talk to experience mummies, as many of them as possible, since every individual experiences differently, and so you want to learn for many of them, hoping that one of their method works for you. Or consult a lactation specialist if necessary, I haven’t talked to one, but according to my fellow mummies, they did help greatly.

- One has to have perseverance and determination once decided to breastfeed. It doesn’t happen naturally, it’s not like milk will automatically flow in after you give birth. A lot of hard work needed. For first time mummy, it can be very stressful for the first few days, worrying if baby has enough milk or not, until the milk finally flow in. My way of judging this – just press your nipple softly with your fingers, milk will flow out immediately when you press; if milk flow hasn’t started, you need to press very hard and there might be only a tiny drop of milk comes out, and for the latter, you need to work harder to either latch on or pump more frequently. Another way is that you can feel the change in your breast, full and empty, i.e., hard and soft, signaling milk being produced and milk being emptied by your baby.

- Baby has food reserve for about 3 days. If you milk hasn’t started to flow in after 3 days, by Day 4, consult a lactation specialist if you are serious about breastfeeding. Don’t wait and delay it any further.

- Clean your breast before you latch your baby on. Yes, baby will reject your breast if you don’t smell nice. I experienced this myself. My baby rejected my breast though she was crying hungrily for milk. I wondered why. Then I thought I have perspired a lot since it was in the afternoon, so I clean my breast with a clean wet cloth, and after that, she immediately latched on!

- Having a breast pump if very important, for the initial stage at least. Most often than not, a newborn baby is not able to suckle long enough to empty your breast, or she may not want to suckle both sides, or she just doens't wake up to be fed. Emptying both breasts is especially difficult if you have a sleepy baby, and my baby is one. After latch on, I need to pump to empty my breast. For breastfeeding, supply = demand. If you don’t empty your breast, your body won’t produce much milk. Only the breast is empty, then the hormone will send signal for your body to make milk again. My fellow mummies told me a manual/hand pump is better for initializing the milk flow. But an electric one will be very handy, especially if you need to pump more often than latch on due to whatever reason.

- To judge if baby is taking milk, the pediatricians will say monitor if your baby wet 6-8 diapers per day. When they say "wet", they really mean wet diaper, thoroughly, not just a tiny bit of urine on the diaper. We use the nappy for better monitoring. When baby latched on for the first few days, we can tell she peed, but can hardly fell the wetness. When she drinks more, the nappy was wet as in you can feel the wetness immediately when you touch the nappy, like some water has been poured onto the nappy. And monitor the colour of the urine, it should be clear, light yellowish, if the urine turns dark yellow, or pinkish, don't wait, bring him to pediatrician and start to give your baby water, as that's a clear sign of dehydration.

- Engorgement and having lumps are almost inevitable. Don't be afraid, maybe painful but it can be solved. Latch or pump to release it. I haven't tried (and hopefully don't have to) using the cold cabbage method yet, so don't know how efficient is that. Also, crack/sore nipple is almost hard to avoid in the intial stage, get a nipple cream to soothe the pain when it happens.

- Nipple confusion. That's what the books said. For my girl, no problem at all to switch her from nipple to bottle or from bottle to nipple. For medical reason (e.g., when my girl was hospitalised for jaundice, we don't hesitate to let her drink from bottle as fluid intake is crucial at that point) or for spouse involvement, it's okay, for me, to let baby drink from the bottle. My hubby was so delighted when he finally can be involved and fed his little princess a bottle of expressed milk. That's priceless for daddy, similar as direct latching for mummy.

This is what I can remember for now. Purely my personal experience. Wish all mummies have a enjoyable and fulfilling breastfeeding journey!