Our J Babies

2009-06-20T17:45:00.000+08:00

“QUACK QUACK!”

Check back again later for some fun updates. :)

Grand-Aunt Xiuping Visits

2009-06-19T13:40:00.001+08:00

Jayne’s grand-aunt Xiuping (my MIL’s youngest sister) came to visit today from JB with her son Junzheng! They even brought us gifts & ang pows from the other relatives in JB. We’re so blessed! :)

Baby Jayne is aways alert whenever there’re guests in the house! =D

Yep, this is little Joey in her school uniform. We finally bought a set of uniform (unwillingly) because there’s going to be a class photo-taking session in July for her class, and everyone got to be in the school uniform. Previously, we only bought her the T-shirt sets because they were a lot more comfortable. But she looks quite cute in it la, huh? Even her ‘Unwilling black face’ looks adorable.

Joey @ The Playground

2009-06-16T18:17:00.001+08:00

I haven’t brought Joey to the playground for the longest time, so today since the weather was very good, we went to the playground in the evening. Wanted to bring Jayne along too, but she was sleeping.

There were so many kids at the playground!

My Joey looks so cute with her ‘mushroom head’! Hahaha…

Kids are easily contented. Just bring them to the playground for 15 minutes and they’ll be very happy! =D

‘Darling, We’ve Read That A Million Times…’

2009-06-16T12:21:00.001+08:00

I always wonder why my Joey keeps fetching me the same old story book for me to read to her even though we’ve read it like a million times. Literally a million times. She’s got a whole library collection of different story books, but she will always choose the same few for us to read to her.

Today I got my answer from Babycentre’s email info. See here:

This "Read it again, Mummy" phase that preschoolers go through is perfectly normal. Children love the sense of power that comes from knowing what's on the printed page, and since they cannot read it for themselves, the next best thing is to memorize it. To do that they need to hear the story read over and over. Your preschooler decides for reasons known only to him which books are to be chewed and digested, and because he can't yet read for himself, you are delegated to read the them with diligence and attention. That means you can't skip a word of the text — and don't even think about turning several pages at once!
But the 200th reading of Green Eggs and Ham can make you a little crazy, particularly if you didn't care for the book the first time through. I always recommend choosing your favorites to read aloud. You never know when a book will zoom to the top of the charts and need to be read at least once or twice at every sitting. Read new titles aloud to your children daily, but always indulge their requests to reread old favorites.

It is no wonder, then, that Joey always wants the same story read to her again and again, again and again! Right after I finish reading the story, she’d then say, ‘Now I read to you!’, and I was always amazed at how she would tell the story almost exactly like the way I told it! Now I know it’s because she memorized it while I was reading it to her! Some vocabulary I used were probably words she heard for the first time, but she would still be able to use it, even though she couldn’t comprehend it fully yet. Amazing, isn’t it?

Still, I need God to give me more patience to tell the same story over and over again. Arghhh….

And It Begins From Here…

2009-06-15T14:41:00.001+08:00

Finally, after 2 continuous nights of fussing with no apparent reason (drank a lot of milk, so obviously not hungry. Diapers are dry, so it’s not because of wet diapers. Forehead not cold, so it’s not stomachache.), we finally threw in the towel and offered her the best invention in the world of kids (& parents).

THOU SHALL BE CALLED PACIFIER.

And pacify, it did. Praise God.

** Updated (6.45pm)**

Such an endearing sight. :)

Doctor Joey

2009-06-14T17:00:00.001+08:00

Joey has started role playing some time back, and she often pretends to be a preacher (holds bible and preach from a ‘platform’ – standing on a bench) or a restaurant owner & cook (and whips up all kinds of funny dishes for us to try).

Today, she was Doctor Joey. She said, ‘Don’t call me Baby Joey! Call me Doctor Joey!’

Why is she in this yellow trench coat? Because we don’t have a white trench coat at home to act as her doctor’s robe, so we asked her to make do with a yellow one. Haha!

With her stethoscope

Her doctor’s bag full of equipment

Giving me an injection…

Taking my blood pressure…

And tapping my knee to check my rheumatism. =P

Before she even gave me a diagnosis, she was swayed by a piece of biscuit! Told her that doctors don’t eat while checking a patient, but she won’t listen! Sigh…

Cry Baby

2009-06-13T18:48:00.002+08:00

Literally. :)

Went To Meet Teacher Janet!

2009-06-13T16:51:00.001+08:00

Yeh, it’s finally my turn to attend a Meet-the-Parents session! =D

ahem.. I know my confinement is not over yet, but how can I miss the FIRST meet-the-parents session right??! I won’t miss it for anything!

So Baby Jayne stayed at home with Nai Nai, and off we went to Joey’s school this morning!

Waiting for our turn to meet Teacher Janet

I was mentally preparing myself to hear Teacher Janet tell me things like, ‘Sometimes Joey will snatch toys from her other classmates..’, or ‘Joey can tend to be quite aggressive at times…’, but turned out, in the eyes of the teachers, Joey is one of the best student in the class!

Recently, Joey has been throwing tantrums or doing some things purposely to attract attention & annoy us, so I thought she might be behaving like that too in school. But apparently, she doesn’t do any of those in school. The general comments are that she eats & sleeps very well in school (always takes a 2nd helping at least!), takes very good care of the younger ones in school & takes instructions well. And her English has improved considerably from the time she started school. She can now converse in sentences with her peers & teachers. Plus, she’s a very creative girl and colours her pictures well. Overall, a very good review, I’d say!

Share with you her mid-year report…

Man! Joey is already 17kg and 97cm tall!

A review of her physical attributes & emotional development… She got ‘Proficient’ or ‘In process’ for 95% of the attributes, but the only things she has not yet started to do are ‘Uses please & thank you appropriately’, ‘Reads familiar signs symbols’ and ‘Able to express intense feelings like fears & hugging’. :)

Some photos of her doing activities in class and descriptions & comments written by the teachers…

An overall review of her performance in school..

A compilation of some of her works.. Teacher says she colours very well for a kid of her age!

My 1st Meet-the-Parents session was a very pleasant one! So proud of my Joey! =D

It’s Starting…

2009-06-11T12:33:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, I had my 1st not-so-good experience of being a mum of 2.

So far, all the encounters I’ve had so far in the last 3 weeks or so were pretty positive. Joey has been responding well to Jayne, perhaps because we make a conscious effort to include her in as many things pertaining to taking care of Jayne as possible, and we keep emphasizing to her how important her role as an elder sister is.

But the past two days, Jayne seemed to be feeling unwell because we could hear her wheezing (though there was no runny rose whatsoever), so she was not sleeping as well as usual. She would wake up every hour crying and we had to keep carrying her and patting her to put her back to sleep again. We slept without air con last night, and she seemed to be better already. But because of the constant attention needed for Jayne, Joey showed her impatience last night.

Over dinner, my mum in law, in an attempt to get her to finish her rice fast, told her that I would tell her a story if she finishes her rice quickly. Just when we got started on the first page of the storybook, Jayne started to cry, and I had to quickly go & pacify her.

Joey came into the bedroom, and tugged at my hand and said, ‘Don’t bother about her la… you finish your story first!’ But how could I do that right? Baby was feeling unwell, and crying, so I had to attend to her first. Sigh, but reasoning does not work on a kid sometimes. And Joey kept urging me to drop the baby and continue my story-telling with her. In the end, she saw that it was all futile and left my room feeling very frustrated, ‘Aiya! I don’t like you to be like this!!!’ There.

I felt very guilty of course, because I hate to break a promise to my kid. And she obviously felt that her sister had taken her mummy away from her. Sigh, but what else could I do at that moment?

By the time I finished pacifying Jayne and putting her back to sleep, it was almost 30 minutes later. So I quickly went back to Joey and told her we could finish our story-telling. Thankfully, kids have short-term memory and Joey was no longer upset with me. We continued our story before she willingly went to her bedroom to sleep.

Phew… not easy! How do those parents with 3 or 4 kids manage?!

Off To See The World Outside

2009-06-10T12:51:00.001+08:00

Try guessing what we did yesterday!

WE BROUGHT BABY OUT SHOPPING!

ok ok, before you start scolding me a playful mother, it was my mother in law who suggested it and persuaded me to do so! I’m telling the truth!!

I was really quite apprehensive about it, because Jayne is afterall only slightly more than 2 weeks old. But my MIL said it’s alright since we’ll be driving there and we won’t stay too long outside! Oh well, so off we went and this is Jayne seated comfortably in her car seat (Thanks to my colleagues who contributed to this gift!). Her 1st trip out! woo hoo!

We didn’t do anything much.. just brought Joey to eat Mac’donalds while waiting for Papa Isaiah to cut his hair, bought some things before making our way home. It was quite a challenge bringing 2 kids out along with a huge diaper bag. Without my MIL around, I don’t think I can manage! I need to get used to this soon, man.. Hahaha!

Quite a lot of people stared at me carrying Jayne though. Either they were thinking how come the parents would bring such a small baby out, or they must be thinking, how come a full month baby looks so tiny?!

Even though we were out only for a couple of hours, I was totally exhausted by the time we reached home. =P But I was glad for some fresh air outside.. :)

The Green Kimono Romper

2009-06-07T14:18:00.001+08:00

Nice romper eh? :)

Baby Jayne looks so adorable, and I love the splash of colors! (She has been wearing mostly white clothing since day 1.)

My 1st photo with 2 two girls! =D

Us! =D

Nai Nai & the babies!

Baby Jayne lost her patience & we had to end our cam-ing.. =P

See How She Turns Her Head

2009-06-06T10:49:00.002+08:00

See.. She can really turn her head! :)

At Jie Jie's Voice

2009-06-06T10:38:00.003+08:00

Check out what happpens when she heard Jie Jie's voice in the background! :)

The Roller Sponge

2009-06-05T14:28:00.001+08:00

Passed by a shop a few weeks back and bought Joey a roller sponge painting set. Today, she had fun painting!

First, you take the roller sponge..

Roll in a pool of paints & start rolling away on a piece of drawing board… Simple!

The textures on the sponge creates patterns when you roll it on the paper..

The set also comes with 2 other sponges with different textures…

Roll away! :)

A Very Healthy Photo!

2009-06-05T14:19:00.001+08:00

I took a SUPER GOOD photo today, and thought I should share with all of you!

Ta da! Jayne’s poo!

Such healthy-looking poo with such a healthy colour! Hahaha…

You must become a parent to appreciate such things. =D When you see them poo-ing with such ease, you feel happy because you know it means they’re healthy!

Joey, for one, is still too young to appreciate that.

“ekkks… what’s that? So gross looking…”

“Ahhhhhhhh!! Smelly!!!”

(No la, actually, I made joey do that pose. Babies’ poo don’t really smell, cos all they drink is milk and nothing else.)

Baby Jayne Is 2 Weeks Old!

2009-06-04T14:40:00.001+08:00

So fast, it’s been 14 days since Jayne came into this world! =D

I adore her so much!

Her slender fingers…

Her tiny feet…

To commemorate her 2 weeks as a human being, her stump dropped off today!

I’m gonna show you what the stump looks like:

Quite gross, I know.

Incase you don’t know, babies keep a portion of the stump still attached to their belly buttons after birth (I don’t know why though) and it will dry and drop off by itself some time after birth. Got to keep the area dry and got to disinfect with alcohol swipes everyday to avoid infection. Now that it’s dropped off, it’s one less thing on our minds. Joey’s stump dropped off about 2 weeks after birth too! Check out the entry I wrote then:

http://www.jbabiesinthedaisies.com/2006/04/stump-has-dropped-off.html

Now her belly button looks nice and neat. :))

This Little Drinker

2009-06-03T20:55:00.001+08:00

The new missy in my house really can drink.

Tomorrow, she’ll be two weeks old, and now, she drinks a whopping 120ml of milk! I know this does not mean anything much to most people, especially those without kids, but hey, that’s a lot of milk for a newborn ok?! Furthermore, she’s a girl who only weighed 2.7kg at birth!

She’s incredibly strong for someone of her age. Do you know she even attempted to crawl forward today? Of course she didn’t succeed, but she could lift her head up facing front, and her hands tried to push her body forward!

Just a side-track: See this romper Jayne is wearing? It’s one of Joey’s old rompers, and when Joey saw it today, she almost pulled it off Jayne, screaming, ‘That one is mine! That one is mine!!!’ Took like 15 minutes to explain to her that she could no longer fit into it, and so now it’s Mei Mei’s turn to wear it. Sigh, headache.

Bright colors are supposed to stimulate their eyesight right now. The rubber duckie soap dispenser comes in handy. :)

Never Drink On An Empty Stomach

2009-06-02T20:24:00.001+08:00

Never, ever drink on an empty stomach.

This morning I had a late breakfast at 11am, so by lunchtime, I wasn’t hungry enough to eat my lunch, so I only drank the soup that my MIL boiled for me, and thought it was good enough. Then I went on to drink a whole glass of DOME diluted with water. Bad move.

I was completely drunk in a matter of 5 minutes! I could literally feel the alcohol kick in, and my head started to spin. I couldn’t even walk in a straight line! I had no choice but to lie down and my whole body felt so heavy that I can’t flip my body from one side to the other side. My face felt stiff, and when I tried to smile, it felt very hardened. It was terrible.

Baby Jayne woke up 15 minutes after, and I couldn’t get up to carry her or feed her. Thank God my MIL heard her cries almost immediately and came into the room to help me with her. She could testify of how drunk I was.

So scary, I’ll never drink on an empty stomach anymore.

I Sneaked Out

2009-06-02T11:43:00.001+08:00

Wahahahahahaha!

Well, I had no choice! I was literally penniless, & I needed to go withdraw money from the ATM to pay a repairman who’s coming to the house these few days. So this morning, I went to the market nearby to my house & did what I needed to do & bought breakfast.

Well, strictly speaking, I did not sneak out. I asked my MIL and she felt it was okay for me to just go out for a while. Anyway, we needed money.

I have been cooped up in the house for close to 2 weeks, and my legs felt very weird and wobbly when I stepped out into the corridor outside my house. It was like I was doing something I haven’t done in a long while! I know it sounds exaggerated, but it’s true.

I must say it was good to walk in the sunshine. Oh man, I almost forgot how that felt like! I wished I was sun-tanning on Sentosa beach right at that moment. haha!

Anyway, I beseech you NOT to tell my mum about it. Promise???!!!

The Big & Small

2009-06-01T23:06:00.001+08:00

My Joy

2009-06-01T19:19:00.001+08:00

…. comes from these 2 little ladies in my life. :)

So adorable! =D

I Had A Tiring Afternoon

2009-05-31T17:03:00.001+08:00

Didn’t manage to catch a nap this afternoon because Jayne was not able to sleep well. She had a long sleep in the morning after her bath till about 1pm. I fed her milk but she fell asleep only after drinking one-third of the milk, and no matter how I tickle her, shake her or twitch her face, she refused to wake up to drink any more. No choice, I let her sleep, knowing she’d wake up in an hour’s time probably for another feed.

True enough, at about 3plus, she woke up crying again. This time round, she finished majority of her milk, and I even burped her successfully twice. But not sure why, she regurgitated the milk and I had to change her diaper cloth, her clothes, her diapers… Let her lie down on the bed for a while, and she regurgitated again! Sigh… all in all, she regurgitated three times! By now, she was hungry again after throwing up most of her milk, so I had to feed her again. 4plus by now. Finally, after this last feed, she went back to sleep and is now, thankfully, soundly asleep.

In between while she was lying on the bed, I could do nothing except take photos of course! Hahaha…

These were taken after I wiped her face & hair with a wet cloth. Her hair looks weird, I know. Haaha..

Day 11.

She’s Very Scared of Cold

2009-05-31T12:29:00.001+08:00

The air-conditioning in my bedroom has always been set at 25 degrees Celsius because I heard before that it’s the most comfortable temperature for a bedroom. But apparently, it’s too cold for Baby Jayne.

Babies generally cannot take the cold very well. Even in a room ventilated only by a fan, she will also sneeze if we don’t cover her with blankets. Jayne is that scared of the cold.

And so, in order to give her a good sleep, we adjusted our air-conditioning to 27 degrees Celsius and it seemed comfortable for her, if we pile on 2 blankets at least. Haha.. no choice, she’s just too frail and small right now. Without the air-conditioning though, it gets too hot for mummy to get any sleep at all. =P

By the way, do you think Jayne has put on some weight? Her cheeks look more chubby to me now. :) Hope she’ll gain weight faster and soon hit the weight that Baby Joey was born with. Haha.. what a big gap… but I think she’ll catch up soon. She now drinks close to 90ml of milk at every feed. I think that’s quite a jump from the 30ml she had been drinking in the hospital, and she’s only slightly more than 1 week old now.

I have to get used to the feeding time she takes to finish one bottle of milk though. I am so used to Joey’s super speed that now that Jayne takes one hour to finish one bottle of milk including burping really takes a toil on my patience, especially during the night feeds because I just want to get back to sleep! Imagine spending one hour to feed & burp, then sleep for barely 2 hours before the baby wakes up again for another one hour of feeding & burping. Siong! But thank God Jayne’s timing so far has been quite good. Before I sleep, I would feed her either at 12am or 1am. Then she’d sleep and wake up for just one more night feed at 3am or 4am, then she’ll sleep till the morning around 7am or 8am. It’s very good already! At least I just need to wake up once during the night!

1st The Bad, Then The Good

2009-05-30T11:59:00.001+08:00

How does this look to you? Pretty innocent huh?

Look closer.

I don’t even know how to describe how BITTER this thing is. It’s some tonic that will supposedly purge the toxics from my body and let my body recover to pre-pregnancy state as soon as possible. But doesn’t even the look of it put you off?

Super yucks, I tell you. And it does not help that it has to be drank on an empty stomach. Imagine waking up in the morning to this thing? Not much of a motivation eh? Still, I had to drink it because firstly, it’s good for me. Secondly, it was boiled over 2 hours from 3 bowls of water to 1 bowl of water. I don’t even want to go into how concentrated the whole liquid is.

Thank God, after a super yucky and bitter tonic, I got rewarded with something I really like.

Ginger & Chicken Fried Rice!

This is super yummy! So fragrant and every mouthful bursts forth with the fried garlic, ginger & shreds of chicken! I don’t mind having this everyday!

The Same Pattern

2009-05-29T11:15:00.001+08:00

The 2 sisters are pretty similar in many aspects. Let’s look at the LOOKS department first:

The same kind of yawn.

The same sleeping style.

The same angelic face.

Other than their looks, their PERSONALITIES are somewhat similar too. Even at such a young age, I could already tell that Jayne’s going be a very determined child. Here’s how I knew.

We had been letting Jayne sleep chest down so that it provides a greater sense of security and she’d sleep for longer periods each time. Of course, that would mean that we need to keep watch over her incase she flips her head and gets stuck with her face down buried in the mattress. It was a little nerve-wreaking for me the first few days because I kept worrying whether she’d get suffocated. To my amazement though, at 5-day-old, she could already turn her head & navigate so that she can flip to face the other side! I was shocked to see her facing one side one moment, and the next moment, she was facing the other side! Strong neck she’s got! And strong determination!

But of course, being 2 very unique individuals, they have their special traits & differences. Joey, for one, finishes her milk at record timing, but Jayne drinks a lot slower and takes her own sweet time to pause, look around & dunno-do-what. It could be due to the fact that she’s much smaller in size compared to Joey too though, so I am not too sure about that yet. Joey is also not as 小姐 as Jayne. She would not complain if her diapers are wet or soiled. Jayne, on the other hand, cries immediately when her diapers are a little dirty. Talking about their crying volumes though, Joey definitely wins hands-down, even though she is not as cry-baby as Jayne.

I have alot more to discover about my 2 girls as they grow up day by day. What an adventure. :)