Mainly about Elyssa

Standing Up

2012-01-30T23:09:00.004+08:00

Look who can now pull herself up to standing position and feeling mighty proud of it !!

Yay! That's a big milestone, baby. :)

Chinese New Year Eve 2012

2012-01-29T01:21:00.004+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai !
It's the 7th day of CNY already. Back to work again tomorrow.

Some photos taken during CNY eve this year.

Reunion Lunch at MIL's place
Yummy homecooked dishes. (steamed fish not in photo)

Our "uppity-up" coffee after lunch :)

My SIL's brand new Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) coffee maker and milk frother.
We enjoyed cafe styled capuchinos and lattes at home. Bliss!!

The girls with their favourite "ku cheh"

Reunion Dinner @ my parent's place
My mum's homemade yee sang

"Lou"-ing the yee sang
Huat ah!!!!

Just like last year, I completely forgot to take photos of our steamboat dinner as I was too busy eating. He he... only remembered after dinner.

Justin & Elyssa

Elyssa receiving angpow from Ah Ma

Baby Erin in her cheongsam
She screamed when we put on this outfit for her. She just hates changing clothes and it didn't help that we struggled a bit with the buttons and collar of the cheongsam.

My 2 princesses in their matching cheongsams.
Daddy bought the cheongsams from Thailand the previous week. (only RM5 each!!!!)

7 Months Old

2012-01-26T00:26:00.010+08:00

My little baby Erin is now 7 months old.

About Erin:

1. Weight - approx 7.8kg

2. She is still such a smiley good natured baby. BUT she hates having her clothes changed. She cries every time someone changes her clothes be it to pyjamas, short sleeve shirt, oneses, dress etc.

3. Food wise, she is still mainly on milk and cereal. Partially cos she's not too keen on food and partially cos I haven't done much in this area. (I have been far too obsessed with breast feeding!).
I just had a quick look at Elyssa jie jie's 7 month updates and realised I already introduced a rather wide variety of food to Elyssa at this age. Oh no.....mummy needs to buck up!

4. She is starting to crawl on all fours now, rather than creeping. Sometimes she moves quite fast, but sometimes she sticks her butt up really high and then her legs/hands get a little uncoordinated :)

5. She's like a little worm! Won't sit still at all on our laps. She prefers to crawl on the floor rather than being held down.

6. I'm still not too sure whether she can sit on her own - cos everytime she's placed on a sitting down position, she starts crawling immediately.

7. I love it when she smiles!

Feeding Baby Erin Solids

2012-01-19T21:18:00.010+08:00

I never had any problems feeding baby Elyssa. She used to eat anything and everything, making me feel like the best cook in the world.

With baby Erin, I kinda expected the same. After all, same genes mah, and she has been showing "greedy" signs as well. Eg: she gulps down her milk like no tomorrow, cries before the 3 hour clock (sometimes after 2 hours) and smacks her lips when she sees us eating. Plus she has been gaining weight pretty fast lately :)

So when I made blended porridge for her recently, I was little surprised with her reaction.

"Hmm...what is this? Let me try, mummy"

"Pffffft. NO LIKE !!!!!!! "

"Ok. I'll give it another try"

"Bleeeakkkk....... WHAT on earth was that, mummy ???????"

*sigh*

Elyssa @ 3 Years, 9 Months Old

2012-01-14T23:20:00.006+08:00

Took these photos before her ballet class this morning -

Awww, my first princess looks so grown up!

Not too long ago, I wrote a ranting post about how difficult it was to manage her.
Thankfully things are much, much better these days.
She's loves her role as a big sister, loves going to school, loves going to her ballet class....... so we're loving this phase too! (ok, mebbe 80% of the time. She still talks wayyyyy too much!) :)

First Day of School

2012-01-08T10:49:00.002+08:00

On the last week of December (from the time we brought back her school uniform), Elyssa woke up every morning asking me "Mummy, can I go to school today?". She was very excited indeed.

The BIG day finally arrived last week.

All dressed up in her new school uniform

I took half day leave to accompany my princess on her first day of school. Must witness such a big milestone in her life!

When we arrived at her her school, it was rather chaotic - parents looking for classrooms /asking lots of questions/ changing school uniform sizes/settling down their kids etc etc, some kids screaming and crying away, some kids with pee pee incidents, lots of people around, teachers trying to settle down the kids, assistants busy explaining the school pickup procedure etc etc.
I guess pretty normal for a first day of school.

I brought Elyssa to her classroom and gave her some blocks to play with. Settled some admin stuff with the teacher, gave her a hug, said my goodbyes and off I went!
(ok, I admit - I hung outside the classroom and peered through the windows for quite a while before I finally went home).

As expected, no tears, no fuss and no drama from my brave little girl.

Playing blocks in her class

I picked her up after an hour plus (short class due to orientation) and she proudly told me she didn't cry at all and that she liked her new school.

Yay!!! Way to go Elyssa. We are so proud of you!

6 Months Old

2012-01-04T09:22:00.008+08:00

Baby Erin is 6 months old already!

----Errr... she's actually almost 6 months and 2 weeks. This post has been sitting as a draft for the past 1.5 weeks. Better publish this before she turns 7 months. Was initially waiting for the video clip of Item 2 below from my sis's camera ----

About Her:

1. Weight: approx 7.5kg.

2. She can creep pretty far and fast now! No problem moving from one end of the living room to the other if we put a toy to entice her.
I am mighty impressed with this new skill @ 6 months old !!!!
---Will upload the video of her creeping in another post ---

3. She still can't sit up on her own.
I guess different kids are just different. At 6 months old, Elyssa jie jie could sit stably on her own, but she started creeping much later.

4. I love it that she's such a smiley and good natured baby.
For eg, took her to a nearby night market recently and it was so hot that she was practically drenched with her own sweat BUT she still smiled when we smiled at her and even fell asleep in her daddy's arms.

5. Gulps down her milk (5 or 6 oz, depending on whether breast milk or formula) in just a few minutes. He he.... got greedy genes :)

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

2011-12-31T11:21:00.004+08:00

It's now time to bid farewell to 2011. My, my, what a year it has been!!! It definitely wasn't "just another year" for me.

Let's see:

First half of the year:
1. Was pregnant!
2. Took a career break for the very first time since I started working. Had really mixed feelings about leaving my old job.
3. For the first time, I stayed at home with Elyssa almost 24x7. I loved spending quality time with her but at the same time, she drove me half nuts! I ended up being really impatient with the poor girl. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones too.
4. Strangely enough, towards the end of my break, I realised I missed the rat race.
5. Had a down syndrome scare with baby Erin. That gave me the fright of my life.
6. Accepted a new job offer.

Second half of the year:
7. Welcomed baby Erin into the family.
8. Struggled with breastfeeding and milk pumping. Not 100% successful but I'm still producing (and pumping 3-4x a day) and yes, I think I deserve to give myself a pat on the back!
9. Had a maid for the very first time. Took some time to adjust to a stranger in the house + getting her used to the routine.
10. Started new job. So far so good.
11. Bought a new family house. Sold the house we stayed in since we got married.
This originally wasn't in our 2011 plan at all. Saw the house we liked and within 1.5 weeks - arranged for feng shui consultation, got the termites people to check, called up banks etc etc for the prospective new house, got 7 viewings on a Saturday for our current house and a firm offer the very next day. Everything happened so fast!
12. Adopted a new toy poodle.

Phew, what a year !!!! Personally, I feel that I have learnt and grown a lot during this year. And I feel really blessed for what I have in my life.

Photos my 2 little princesses taken on the last day of 2011 -

I'm happy to welcome in the new year as well. Plenty of exciting challenges ahead - moving to the new house, Elyssa starting school, travelling in my new job (my "immunity" had ended. I requested for no travel at all in the first 3 months of the job), seeing the kids grow etc etc..

Bring it on 2012 !!!

Big Secret

2011-12-28T09:30:00.009+08:00

Yesterday, Elyssa pulled my mum aside and told her softly : " I have something to tell you".

My mum got a little bit worried when she heard that. Was something wrong?

Then Elyssa whispered into her ear :

"My mummy is fat".

Oh dear......... don't know whether to laugh or cry when I heard that !!!!

Must have been from last weekend. I was trying on my pre-baby Erin clothes and told her : " I'm so sad because I'm so fat already. I cannot wear my old clothes".

I said that each time I tried on something (can't fit! *sob* *sob*) and after each time, she came and hugged me saying "Mummy, you're so sad so I hug you. Then you are no more sad already right?". Awww, my little monkey can be so sweet sometimes!!

This and That

2011-12-23T10:16:00.012+08:00

Phew....... finally have the time to sit down, relax and blog a bit.

For the past two weeks or so, I've been busy organizing our company's first ever regional conference. What an absolutely EX-HAUS-TING affair. Plenty of little things to oversee -t-shirt ordering, flight details, hotel confirmation, shuttle van to the hotel, confirmation of agenda, meals bla bla bla plus having to think of my own 3 hour presentation session, opening welcome session and closing recap session. That all happened BEFORE the event. Despite all the planning, there were still lots of unforseen things that happened DURING the event - delayed flights, traffic jams, last minute changes etc etc that needed attention.

Overall, the 3D2N event went well and boy am I glad that it's over :)

Here's a photo taken during the team building event. I was the "blind person" that had to be taken through the obstacle course :)

On the home front, we went for a family trip back to our own hometown in Ipoh 2 weekends ago. The whole "jing bang gang" of us 8 adults, 2 kids, 2 toddlers, 1 baby, 1 baby in tummy(not mine!) and 2 maids (minus my maid cos that one gets car sick even for a 30 minute journey).

Stayed 2 nights at a 5 bedroom apartment in Ritz Garden @ RM630 per night. Not much choice cos we wanted at least 4 bedrooms. He he..... one big happy family but we can't stay together for the night - I'm still breastfeeding, I can't stand my mother's loud snoring, the toddlers need to sleep with the parents etc etc.

We set our expectations really low based on some internet reviews and its past history but were pleasantly surprised indeed. The apartment itself was clean and newly renovated with flat screen tvs in each of the rooms. Breakfast was pretty decent too.

Forgot to take photos of the apartment. Some photos from the Ipoh trip:

My girls on the Tram ride to the Sungkai Hot Springs

Sis's family at one of the pools. Water temp was nice and warm.

The cousins at the Coronation Park playground
We used to go this park (then called Seenivasagam park) as kids. I loved it!

Elyssa with Jo Ern

Elyssa and Justin at the tortoise pond @ Sam Poh Thong

Family Photo

Ok, this is a bit of a "all-in-one" post. Photos of my 2 princesses taken in the past 2 weeks.

Me with my Princess No. 2
Do we look the same?? ;)

Princess No. 1
Looking sweet here, and not her normal "monkey" self :)

AND...... introducing the latest addition of our family. Already crazy busy enough, but we couldn't resist this little puppy when we saw him at a pet shop last weekend!!!!! He's like a walking teddy bear!!!! Super adorable!

Our Toy Poodle

Name still not finalised yet. Either Elvis or LV :)

Busy, Busy

2011-12-06T21:28:00.002+08:00

Been too busy to update this blog recently. My life now has been taken over by work and milk pumping!

So just a quickie post with photos of the two princesses :)

Yes, I'm still obsessed with milk pumping! I pump 4x a day. Almost 30 minutes each time which means 2 hours a day. And that's excluding direct feed at night. Plus trying to juggle a new full time job. Plus tending to a demand-a lot-of attention 3.5 year old. TI-RED !!!

5 months old

2011-11-27T20:36:00.010+08:00

Another month has passed.... baby Erin is now 5 months old !

About her:

1. Weight - 6.5kg

2.She still smiles a lot, though slightly less than a month ago. She loves to "talk" i.e. shriek away in a high pitch voice when someone talks to her.

3. She knows how to grab things now.

4. Drinks a higher proportion of formula milk compared to breast milk these days. Starting from last week it's an average of 2 bottles of breast milk (5oz each) and 3 bottles of formula (5.5oz each) on weekdays. Some days, ratio is 3 bottles of breast milk to 2 bottles of formula. On weekends, it's either none or 1 bottle of formula.
*sigh* I seem to be a on a losing battle with breastfeeding :(

5. Had her first taste of medicine last month due to slight fever and flu. Luckily nothing serious.
(I was a bit surprised though. Thought breast milk should give her better immune system. Elyssa jie jie had much less breast milk but has a stronger immune system.
But one common thing with jie jie is that Erin seemed to enjoy the medicine. ha ha)

6. She loves it when I blow into her belly button. Normally chuckles in glee!

How much Breastmilk??

2011-11-15T22:31:00.006+08:00

I'm confused...... how much milk should a 4 and half month baby take??

I've just upped my expressed breast milk from 4 to 4.5oz per bottle BUT Erin cries for more milk after approx 2 to 2.5 hours when she has been on a 3 hour cycle for quite a while now.

She takes about 5 and a half feeds a day (half for the midnight nursing) so that works out to approx 25oz per day.

My supply just can't keep up to her demand. I get only an average of 30z when I pump in the office so I need 3, sometimes 4 pumping sessions to get TWO bottles of milk.

I have been steadily draining my EBM stash of precious 21 bottles collected before I started work and supplementing with 1 bottle of formula a day during weekdays. (On weekends, she's fully on breastmilk, but I end up feeding her every 2 hours)

She just finished her box of formula, so I went hunting for another box just now. Got a big shock when I saw the required intake for her age. Enfalac - EIGHT ounces. S26 - SIX ounces.

So much? And I thought 4.5oz of breastmilk is a lot for her age. Have I been underfeeding her? Then again, my sis said her baby Jo Ern drank 3oz per bottle until almost 1 year old. Using that as a comparison, am I overfeeding Erin?

I ended up buying S26 just now. So does that mean she should take 4.5oz when it's EBM and 6oz when it's formula? Or should I increase my EBM to 6oz per bottle? (which means I need to pump twice to get one bottle. Aaaargh!)

I'm CONFUSED!!!????!!! Help!

ps: 1. She is gaining weight. Quite round these days.
2. She takes ALL of whatever offered to her.

Ipoh Trip

2011-11-11T23:18:00.010+08:00

The main purpose of our Ipoh trip last weekend was to visit hubby's grandma who had a fall in the house (luckily she's ok already). Since we were back, we also combined it as a eating and "sightseeing" trip. He hee....sightseeing in inverted commas cos this is our own hometown!

1)1st stop - Taman Rekreasi Gunung Lang
Our first time there.

At the entrance

Nice and serene place

BUT boats were not working so couldn't go across the lake like we planned to.

Only other activity was to feed fish (*yawn*)
Luckily, Elyssa enjoyed it.
She spent almost 20 minutes throwing the fish biscuit ONE-by-ONE into the water.

Baby Erin with MIL
I think this is a lovely photo :)

2) Next stop was to Ling Seng Tong cave.
I've been there a couple of times before. Nicer than the more famous Sam Poh Tong.

Outside

Inside

More fish feeding
With Elyssa's ONE-by-ONE feeding, the RM1 packet of fish food (bought at our first stop) lasted very long!

Our "sightseeing" ended with late lunch at Nam Heong kopitiam for fried kway teow and white coffee. I wanted their famous egg tarts but there was a long queue so I didn't bother.

That night, Elyssa had a fun time jumping on the hotel bed like a little monkey. She happily sang the "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" song :)

Yummy Food

2011-11-08T20:40:00.003+08:00

We were in Ipoh over the Hari Raya Haji long weekend. I'm drooling just thinking of the yummy food we had :)

Springy beef balls

@row of hawker stalls near Sam Tet school

Fresh fruits and Ice cream over shaved ice
@ the same hawker area. RM4 only!

Assorted "liu" and fat crunchy bean sprouts
@ Kum Kee coffee shop in Pasir Pinji

Ipoh White Coffee
@ Nam Heong in Old Town

J&J Swissrolls
This is the 1st batch we got. Box #1 - coffee walnut & chocolate. Box #2 - assorted mini swissrolls. For the 2nd batch (no photos), we bought cempadak & durian plus another pack of assorted mini rolls.

So much good food, so little tummy space!!!

4 Months Old

2011-10-31T21:18:00.002+08:00

Baby Erin is already 4 months old. How time flies!

About her -

Weight : 5.5kg

1. She smiles A LOT!!! I don't think I've seen such a smiley baby before. Just need to talk to her and she often smiles in return.

2. She's such a good natured baby. My parents often comment that she's relatively easy to look after. No need to carry her that much and she usually only cries when she's sleepy or hungry. Not too difficult to let her sleep (baby Elyssa used to scream the house down!) and once she's asleep the other 4 kids can practically bring the house down but she'll be blissfully in dreamland :)
She's the frequent holder of the "most well-behaved grandchild" award! He hee... a refreshing change from Elyssa who normally holds the award for the other end of the spectrum ;)

3. She drinks 4oz of milk every 3 hours. I'm not producing enough these days, so she gets 1 bottle of formula a day. No problems switching between breastmilk and formula.

4. Potentially another greedy girl! Once, my mum mistakenly told the maid to feed her one hour earlier than normal : Glug, glug, glug - she finished everything.

Another time, I pumped out 5oz and since I didn't have any extra sterilised bottles for storage, I gave the whole amount to her : Again, Glug, glug, glug, she finished everything.

5. She smiles when she wakes up in the morning. A wonderful start to our day!

(Baby Elyssa used to cry if we don't pick her up immediately. Till today, she cries if we don't give her attention the moment she wakes up)

6. Last weekend, our contractor took one look at her and said "Oh, her eyes are droopy. She just woke up issit?" Oh dear! Nope.....she was wide AWAKE at that time. Not the first time we received comments like that either. Erin's eyes are rather small, especially in comparison with Elyssa who has huge and beautiful eyes.

7. She sleeps around 10+pm until around 7am. Wakes up once (occasionally twice) for milk. She doesn't take much though - just suckles for a little while then falls back asleep.

Yay! I normally get a good nights rest!

Wadya looking at?

With Elyssa jie jie

Selective Reporting

2011-10-27T13:51:00.010+08:00

When I picked the girls up from my parent's place last week -

Elyssa : Mummy, Mummy! Koko pushed me today!
Me : Oh, koko pushed you?

Elyssa : Yes! Koko pushed me until I fall down on the grass. Then I cry.
My mum passed by at that time and asked her with a smile: "Why did koko push you? "

Elyssa : (in a softer voice) Because I pushed koko!!

Ahem..... that's what I call "selective reporting"!! She only reported the 2nd part of the story!

_________
Btw, when I asked her why she pushed koko -

Elyssa : Because he was playing and playing with the ball until he was soooo tired. I asked him to rest but he don't want. Just play, play, play. So I pushed him".

Me: ?????????????????????

MV Logos Hope, Port Klang

2011-10-24T23:00:00.009+08:00

2 weekends ago, we made a visit to the floating book fair @ MV Logos Hope in Port Klang.

The main intention was for Elyssa to enjoy the experience on board a ship rather than the book fair itself. We already bought more than enough books at the Big Bad Wolf sale! (he he.....for that sale, hubby and I went together once, then after that he went twice by himself and I went once with my colleagues).

Some photos taken that day -

Elyssa with Logos Hope in the background

Queuing up to get onto the ship
Baby Erin must be thinking - "This is boring. Yawn!!" ;)

Shopping Time
The books were surprisingly cheaper than normal bookstores. But of course not as cheap as the Big Bad Wolf sale. We didn't want any books but wanted to buy SOMETHING (after the effort to drive there and queue up!) so we ended up with an inflatable Dora beach ball for Elyssa.

Little Miss Captain

At the small play area

After browsing at the book fair area, we went to the cafe for light refreshments. Elyssa played with some toys at the play area.
There was a lady doing face painting but Elyssa wasn't interested.

With one of the volunteers
She told hubby she was on a 2 year volunteer program with the ship. What a lovely concept! I will love to do something like that (err...ok, ideally one year) if I'm young and single.

Erin and I at the cafe

Bye Bye Ship!!
We didn't stay long cos it was a little warm inside the ship

Photos

2011-10-19T20:47:00.003+08:00

Took some photos of my 2 girls before going out last weekend.
Coincidentally, both were wearing pink and white striped outfits :)

Just Elyssa

She looks so prim and proper here!

Elyssa and Erin
Really "tai kar jie" pose with one hand on the armrest and the other holding her baby sis

Hugging mei mei

I love Erin's smile in this photo!

Oooops......photo session took too long!!

Mid Autumn Celebration 2011

2011-10-15T10:49:00.007+08:00

Here's another "better late than never" post :)

About a month ago, we attended the annual neighbourhood mid autumn party. Last year's party was a great success and we were really looking forward to it.

Last year, hubby's homemade lantern won the "Most Beautiful Lantern" prize. This year, he hoped to win again (or more like he said I WILL win!) and already had an idea about the material and pattern for the lantern. Unfortunately, poor fella fell sick few days before the event. Thus, no homemade lantern for Elyssa. We didn't even have time to buy a new lantern for her, so she made do with last year's lantern. No complaints from the princess though!

Some photos taken that night -

Elyssa and cousin Justin with their lanterns

They joined the procession round the block

Justin met one of his classmates during the walk

Another shot

Forgot to take photos of the food. This year's celebration was a bit more chaotic due to the light rain almost throughout the event. Also, crowd turnout was much larger than expected.

Ah Kong took part in the Tai Chi presentation -

Tai-Chi presentation. Can spot Ah Kong?

"Ah Mah" took part in the fan and line dancing presentation. We missed it cos hubby was feeling feverish and wanted to leave.
Elyssa cried and cried when we left cos she was looking forward to see Ah Mah dance! :(

Well, that's always next year!
And Erin mei-mei will be able to join in the fun. (this round, she was asleep in my sling most of the time)

She Can Turn!

2011-10-09T20:24:00.006+08:00

A slightly backdated post.

Took these photos on Sept 24 when Erin was exactly 3 months old.

Try......Try.......Try

Yay!!! Made it!

The day she turned 3 months old, she started turning every time we put her down !
A lot of effort on her part and with plenty of "ugh ugh ugh" sound effect :)

Really true that each kid develops differently. Baby Elyssa could lift up her head rather effortlessly at 3 months old, but it took almost another month before she could turn over.
I knew that timing would be different for different kids, but I was kinda expecting the sequence of milestones to be the same.

Here's Erin trying to lift up her head @ 3 months :

Aaaarghhhhh!!!!! Head too heavy!

Can lift up sliggghtly ;)

My Birthday

2011-10-06T13:43:00.012+08:00

Early this morning, I had the following conversation with Elyssa -

Elyssa : Mummy, I wake up already!

Me : Good Morning Princess No. 1 ! It's mummy's birthday today.

Elyssa : Mummy's birthday? Elyssa buy you a cake with strawberry ok? And a big, big present. (then she went on and on for the next 5 mins or so about the cake and present)

then - *silence for 5 seconds*

Elyssa : But Mummy, you must give me money. I am a small girl only so I have no money. When you give me money, I go and buy cake and big, big present for you.

Ha ha..... might as well I buy my own cake and present :)

Managing Elyssa

2011-09-29T17:50:00.004+08:00

----- Warning: this is a ranting post! ------

I have to confess that these days, I often think that Elyssa is irritating - she talks too much, she talks to loud, her pitch is too high, she whines too much, she cries too much and she doesn't listen to instructions.

*Sigh*. Then I try to remind myself that my poor girl is dealing with major adjustments - to a new baby sister and to me going back to work.

Elyssa's nature is such that she just loves and craves attention. The more the better!

But these days, I just don't have the time and energy. Need to wake up early to pump milk, then go to work, then rush home to pump milk again and then one round of direct nursing before I go to bed exhausted. If only there's more time!

I think Elyssa genuinely loves her baby sister, but doesn't like sharing the limelight. She's probably acting up so that she gets more attention. And of course the more she acts up, the more irritated we get. I try to do what I can - when I come home from work, I greet and kiss her before baby, I try to give her plenty of hugs, I tell her bedtime stories, after I scold her I try not to talk my baby talk to Erin (so that she doesn't get jealous) etc....... but it's just not enough :(

I feel like she wants a lot more than I can give!! *sigh*. I can't even go up or down the staircase without her tagging along, sometimes with her insisting on holding on to the corner of my t-shirt.

(I hate it when this happens during the morning rush to get ready for work - I run up the stairs to get my phone, she follows while bugging me "why, why? why are you going upstairs". Then I go down again.....then realise I need my breastpump adapter. I run up the stairs again with her going again "why, why, why" while holding on to my shirt.......Aaargghhh...Annoys the he** out of me!!!)

Then sometimes while nursing Erin at night, I read my old blog entries of her as a little girl...... and I'm transported back to the times when I regarded her as my precious little darling, when I was truly happy just by seeing she was happy.

Then I feel like I want to cry. What has happened? Why is it like that now? Then I resolve to spend more time and be more patient with her.

But....then the next morning begins and before I am fully awake, she starts to whine AGAIN. And I get irritated AGAIN.

So, that seems to be the cycle for the past few weeks. When she's with me, I feel irritated by her. When she's not with me, I feel guilty (during lunch today, I bought her a Hello Kitty pyjamas set!)and miss her. Go home, feel irritated when she whines again.

What should I do????

First Week of Work

2011-09-25T11:07:00.013+08:00

Phew.......just completed my first week of work. It has been absolutely EX-HAUS-TING!

A couple of reasons I suppose - a) 9 months of not working b) first few days was more of orientation so people from different parts of the business were explaining their stuff to me - whole lot of things to absorb since it's a completely new industry for me c) Waking up at 6.30am to pump milk daily - this is a pretty big deal since I've been waking up 9+am for the past few months.

Work wise, it's still a little too early to tell but I like what I see so far. *fingers crossed*

Pumping milk wise, that's another story. It's definitely not easy to balance work and milk pumping. I have plenty of respect for those who succeed! These days, my output is wayyyy below Erin's input. I pump twice at work, getting between 2oz to 3.3oz only. And during the time I'm away, she takes 4 bottles of 4oz each. My frozen stash is depleting very, very fast!

Hopefully my milk production in the office will increase soon. So far, my timing has not been consistent (I had scheduled meetings during the 3 day orientation) and emotionally, it has been difficult to get into the pumping mode in the midst of all the "newness" around me.

But I am really thankful that I have my own office so I can pump comfortably inside (Yayy!!! No need to pump in toilet) and my boss is supportive (his wife pumped for 1 year at work).

May not be an easy journey, but I'm gonna do what I can for the sake of this little princess:)

-photo taken 2 weeks ago-

Going Back to Work

2011-09-18T17:09:00.005+08:00

9.5 months just flew by........I'm going back to work tomorrow. New job in a new company some more!!

I have been dreading Sept 19 for so long, but a part of me is excited as well. I kind of look forward to "reclaim" part of my life again. Staying at home the whole day with a temperamental 3.5 year old girl and a 2.5 month old baby is rather stressful in its own way.

For my preparation to get back to work, I have done stuff like -
1) Hair Rebonding - so that I don't have to worry about my hair having a mind of its own in the mornings.

2) Mini Shopping Spree for Work clothes - not because I wanted to but because I HAD to. Still can't fit into most of my old clothes. Isn't breastfeeding supposed to make me lose weight?????

3) Mentally preparing myself for work again - ha ha...one of the things was to force myself to read non fiction books like on Obama and Jack Welsh. My brain cells have been growing mouldy!

4) Building up my frozen breast milk supply - here's a sneak peek of my freezer:

21 bottles in total! Ranging from 3.5oz to 4oz. Each drop was painstakingly collected over the past few weeks. May not seem like much, but I am mighty proud of my efforts! After all, I could never pump more than 2oz for Elyssa last time, what more a full bottle.
[ pssst : Got to admit that I cheated a little. Some mornings I gave Erin formula (with a personal limit of 2oz per day) so that I can build up my frozen stash ]

One of the things I worry now is about pumping in the office. Preparing myself for worst case scenario of having to pump in the common toilet :(
Plus, will need to explain to my new boss (male!) and colleagues that I need to disappear twice a day to pump.

Lots of challenges ahead! *Breath in, breath out ; breath in, breath out*

Sleeping Princesses

2011-09-14T10:49:00.002+08:00

Elyssa jie-jie hugged Erin mei-mei to sleep. Awww....... so sweet :)

Elyssa's Food Strike

2011-09-12T23:33:00.015+08:00

A few weeks back, I had my very first experience of Bribing Elyssa to Eat. A very big deal indeed since it's normally the case of Bribing Elyssa With Food!!

A recap-

Thursday night
Poor girl vomited 3 times. But after each time, she seemed perfectly ok (proudly and loudly announced that she vomited, then went back to sleep)

Friday - Day 1
Quieter than usual in the morning. Around 12pm she vomited again. She said she wanted to stay at home (she normally goes to Ah Kong/Ah Mah's house in the afternoon). Went to sleep without eating lunch. She woke up around 3+. I let her play with the Ipad next to me on the bed then I must have dozed off for a while. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised that she went back to sleep again. She slept until 6+pm.

She didn't have much appetite during dinner. Hardly ate her rice and soup. But was back to her normal self (i.e. talking a lot!). After dinner, we went to the nearby Speedmart to buy some groceries and she was happily walking around as usual.

Saturday - Day 2
She didn't want to drink her morning milk. Purged twice. Hubby brought her to the clinic. Doctor gave medicine for wind and diarrhoea. When she came home, she refused to eat anything. For the first time ever, I had to bribe her to eat since she can't take her medicine with an empty stomach. Words like......."If you finish this biscuit, we can go kai-kai, If you finish this Strawberry Rocky, we can go swimming today".
Also resorted to threats "If you don't eat anything, you will vomit" [She refused food cos of lack of appetite plus fear of vomiting again]

Took me a full hour to get her to eat 2 small pieces of biscuit and 2 sticks of Strawberry Rocky! *faint*

She was rather active the whole day, but still hardly ate anything during lunch and dinner. She kept asking to drink water only.

Sunday - Day 3
Again, hardly ate breakfast and lunch (Even with Ribena as a bribe, she took forever to eat only 4 fishballs). When we returned from lunch/shopping trip in Pavilion, hubby and I were really tired and wanted to nap......but this girl was jumping around like a monkey. Where on earth did she get the energy from?????

Ate more during dinner.

Monday - Day 4
Regressed. Only ate a few spoonfuls of rice during lunch. Slept a lot.

Tuesday - Day 5 onwards
Progressively got better.

____
The whole food strike episode lasted slightly over a week. What an unpleasant experience!!! Really broke my heart to hear my greedy, eat-like-no-tomorrow girl saying "Actually, I don't want to eat this. I don't want to eat ANYTHING at all. "

Even after the food strike, it took a few more days before she ate reasonably well (i.e. can finish her portions with gentle coaxing). Now, she's back to her normal self (i.e. after finishing her portion, it's not uncommon for her to say "but I'm still HUNGRY!!").

For breakfast these days, she can take 1 full bottle of milk plus TWO pieces of bread with cheese. That's almost equivalent to my breakfast portion! But after the food strike incident, I'm thankful she's eating well :)

Carrying Mei Mei

2011-09-09T00:10:00.014+08:00

Elyssa was thrilled when I finally said she could carry her baby sister!

She stood right in front of me with her arms outstretched and happily said "Mei mei come. Jie jie carry you".
Ha ha.... my dear Elyssa, you're not ready for that yet!!
I told her can only carry while sitting down on the bed with her back against the headboard.

Attempt 1

Baby Erin bawling away. Oops...wrong timing cos she was hungry

Attempt 2
Baby Erin fed and changed. Head flopped a bit so Elyssa jie jie tried to hold her head.

Attempt 3
Baby not crying and head not flopping down.
Yay......jie jie was soo HAPPY. Just look at the smile!

BIG smile until cannot even see eyes :)

2 months, 1 week old

2011-09-04T22:05:00.003+08:00

Baby Erin is now 2 months, 1 week old.

Smile

Serious

Smile again!

Some short updates :

1. She loves it when people talk to her! And we love it when she smiles and coos in return.
I don't remember Elyssa being this responsive at this age. Hubby loves the way she responds and has officially named himself "Erin's Personal Clown". Speaking of names..... that makes me "Erin's Personal Cow". :)

2. A verrry light sleeper. She always wakes up whenever the auto gate opens. She's ok with white noises such as tv and people talking.

3. Physically, she doesn't have her jie jie's big eyes and deep dimples. But she's much fairer and has a small dimple on her right. She has "chang moh" hair i.e. hair that sticks up, just like me when I was a baby. :)
She has long fingers and toes, also just like me. Got potential to be a tall girl!

4. She has pulled her own hair a couple of times. Poor baby screamed while she pulled on a tuft of hair so tightly that it was difficult to unclench her little fist. I'm sure she had no idea it was self-inflicted pain!
Thus, need to make sure she has mittens on all the time. (ok, another reason for mittens is that mummy is too scared to cut her little nails)

Peace n Quiet

2011-08-29T23:59:00.002+08:00

When we are out shopping, the most relaxing time is when BOTH princesses are fast asleep.

Bliss :)

Father's Birthday

2011-08-23T23:43:00.002+08:00

Celebrated my father's birthday last Saturday night. We went to the Nyonya Imperial restaurant in Puchong so that we could drop by the Math Monkey Centre there.

No food photos since I was busy stuffing my face when the food arrived. Sure enough, baby Erin woke up screaming for milk halfway through my meal. Aaah.... the "joys" of breastfeeding! But thanks to my baby sling, I managed to nurse her in the sling while continuing to eat with one hand :)

Managed to take some photos during the cake cutting session -

Ah Kong cutting his birthday cake
Elyssa was sooo happy, as if was HER cake!

Ah Kong and Ah Mah with their 5 grandchildren
(plus one child who had to hold up His child)
Ah Kong insisted : "Must take photo with all my grandchildren".
Ahh.......how the lucky kids adore their grandparents!

Another shot with the grandchildren

I couldn't help looking back at my old post. Just 3 years ago, Justin & Elyssa were the only 2 grandkids. How the family has grown since then!

Happy Birthday again, Papa!
Hope you enjoyed your birthday and looking forward to loads more :) He hee....wonder whether there will be more family members next time.

Breastfeeding Journey - Week 8

2011-08-19T15:00:00.010+08:00

I have been getting good progress in my breastfeeding journey!

In my first breastfeeding post, I lamented how difficult it was to sometimes get 1oz. In my second post, I was happy that I was consistently getting 2oz (while nursing). These days, I consistently get 3oz (while nursing). Yay!

And a couple of times, I actually hit 4oz while nursing.........Yippee Yayyy!!!! So happy until must take photo. Ha ha.

I was smiling from ear to ear looking at the 4oz :)

Happy baby after Milkie Milk session

No fat fleshy tights yet (my target!!) but not as skinny as before.

At least I'm now assured that I'm producing enough for baby Erin's daily needs. Next challenge is to build up storage of expressed milk cos I'll be starting work in a month's time.....ok, gotta take things one step at a time!

Little Ballerina

2011-08-14T10:12:00.004+08:00

Elyssa went for her very first baby ballet trial class right after my confinement ended. She enjoyed the class and we signed her up immediately (promised her earlier she can join if she likes it since her Gymboree sessions have ended).

She has attended 3 classes so far. I love how she looks forward to each class.
And I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE seeing her in her little ballerina costume!!! :)

My Sweet Little Princess

Cheeky Princess

Breastfeeding Journey - Week 6+

2011-08-10T15:39:00.015+08:00

Thanks for all the breastfeeding advice in response to my previous post :)

My breastfeeding journey is getting better now. At least I can now consistently get 2 oz (sometimes 2.5oz) out of the pump while I'm nursing baby Erin. Not sure how much she takes directly.....baby is supposed to be more efficient than the pump but this little one keeps falling asleep on the job!

But I reckon she should get at least 1 oz by herself, so with the pumped out 2 oz, that's at least 3oz per feed. Yeah, she takes ALL that I pump out during each nursing session. Was hoping to get extra to store but there's always no leftover when I offer her the bottle of expressed milk. Extra would be nice (I have 6oz stored up) but my immediate concern is to fatten up my little one - her limbs are still so thin and lanky .....when oh when will she have fat fleshy thighs???

What I'm doing now -
1) During the day, I nurse and pump at the same time. Approx every 2-3 hours interval. Each session takes approx 45 mins.
2) Night time, I nurse her directly lying down.
3) Take GNC Fenugreek tablet twice day. And 2 calcium pills (leftover supplement from pregnancy) in the morning.
4) Drink loads of water!
5) Try to relax and just focus on getting enough milk. Everything else is secondary for now. (let hubby worry about stuff like buying/selling shares, interest rates etc. He heh)

Am going to persevere in this breastfeeding journey!! Wish me luck!

Some photos of Elyssa & Erin -

My Life Now.....

2011-08-03T13:46:00.010+08:00

My life now pretty much revolves around breastfeeding baby Erin.
I'm obsessed whether she's getting enough! My google search is all about breastfeeding - how to increase milk supply, latching, pumping, positioning, green poop, tips etc etc.

How I wish I have jets of milk like some mummies! My max production so far is 2 oz from one side (that's when I feed her on the other side) in the morning. But sometimes, it takes forever to just get 1 oz.

These days, I prefer to pump out milk because when I nurse her directly:
1) I don't know how much she's getting
2) Each nursing session can take very long, sometimes up to 1.5 hours. (she always falls asleep halfway thru) So, if I take the "nurse every 2 hours" rule, it's time to nurse her again in 30 minutes! And I feel as if my milk has no time to "refill" itself in that short time.
3) Sometimes, even after her super long nursing session, she cries the moment I put her down. Aaarghh!! Still hungry or just want to be carried???

But does choosing to pump rather than nurse directly affect milk supply? (my new approach is to nurse her one side, pump the other and then either store or feed her the pumped out milk straight away). Any other tips on how to improve milk supply? (I'm taking one cup of Earth Mama tea daily). I also worry about the foremilk/hindmilk imbalance cos she often has green poop (I get so happy when I see mustard yellow poop. I never ever imagined that the COLOUR OF POOP can affect my mood so much!)

Elyssa's PigTails!

2011-08-03T13:11:00.006+08:00

Elyssa's hair is finally long enough for 2 cute little piggy tails!!

I was smiling from ear to ear when I saw her new hairstyle (done by MIL) -

But unfortunately, it's time to go for a haircut soon. She dislikes hairbands or clips on her head so MOST of the time, she looks like this -

Little "mop" head

I jokingly told her that we can use her head to mop the floor. She loved the idea tho!

Ok, one final picture of her pigtails before the haircut this weekend!

Erin's Full Moon

2011-07-31T16:33:00.003+08:00

My confinement period is finally over! Felt much faster compared to Elyssa's time :)

No time to write much (baby sleeping now but I still have a list of things I want to do), so here's some photos from Erin's Full Moon dinner at home with family members -

Star of the night

"Hmmm.... what's with all the food? If it's up to me, we should have a MILK party. Aaah.... milk, glorious MILK. I can just drink mummy's milk ALLLL DAY"

Food Table 1 - MIL's Vinegar Pig Trotters, Curry Chicken, Yellow Rice, Fried Long Beans and Store bought Satay n condiments, KFC, Fried Bee Hoon, Fried Rice

Food Table 2 - Assorted Kuih, Boiled Red Eggs with Pickled Ginger, Fruits, Mashed Potato and Coleslaw (from KFC)
Sis, Baby Jo Ern and maid digging in...

Elyssa jie jie polishing up TWO containers of KFC mashed potatoes.

Elyssa's Tea Party

2011-07-23T12:14:00.010+08:00

Hubby took these photos during my first week of confinement.

I just love 'em! He was trying to keep Elyssa busy so he suggested a tea party with her little friends :)

Her Work Station

Preparing for Tea Party

Must bake a cake for the party

All ready! Winnie the Pooh.... here's your cake and bun

Little Brown Bear..... here's your share

Blue Bear.... and here's yours

Some biscuits for Tigger

Not forgetting you two little bears!!

Hubby said the tea party took more than 2 hours!!! ;)

Baby Erin @ 3 weeks old

2011-07-17T17:21:00.005+08:00

At 3 weeks old, what she does is - drink milk, look around a little, sleep, pee, poo and cry. Aaah... the simple life of a young baby!!

Top on her list is drinking milk. I'm breastfeeding her and at times, I feel like she's perpetually stuck to me! She's got this habit of falling asleep during feeding (despite all efforts to tickle and move her limbs) but then instantly wake up when she's put down. Or sleep for half and hour only then demand to be fed again :(

But some days are better than the rest. Like today, she took a 3.5 hour long afternoon nap! And luckily she's pretty well behaved at night, ranging from 2.5 to 4 hours of sleep at each interval.

Yup, my life pretty much revolves around her feeding routine now! Time for the next feed, so just some photos before I end this post -

3 weeks old

With Elyssa jie jie

Erin's Birth Story

2011-07-07T10:58:00.000+08:00

Erin is 2 weeks old today! Thought I'd better record her birth story before I forget.

------ Warning : detailed and rather gory post ahead! ------------------

Baby Erin, fresh from the oven :)

June 23

8+pm - Not really sure, but thought I was having regular contractions. To go to the hospital or not? Contemplated for 1 hour plus.

9+pm - Decided to go to the hospital. Called my parents to take Elyssa and maid over to their house for the night. Warned them could be false alarm and we may be home soon.

10pm
-Nurse confirmed 4cm dilation! Phew, I was relieved it was not a false alarm!
- Nurse asked about pain relief - injection and laughing gas or epidural. Was feeling a little gung ho so I said to try without epidural first. (gynae previously mentioned that 2nd delivery should be much quicker and I could try without)
- Nurse gave enema and injection (supposed to relieve pain by 10-20%)

June 24
12am - Already groaning with each contraction. Nurse checked : 5cm dilation. Oh no.... 2 hours for 1cm??? And definitely not so gung-ho about the "no epidural" option. Asked for laughing gas.

12.30am - 5 to 6cm dilation. Painful contractions.

1am onwards - Ok, things started to get blurry from this point onwards. Drowsy from the effects of the injection and laughing gas. Vaguely aware that nurse said 6 to 7 cm, then 7 to 8 cm.
- at some point, realised that my gynae was already there and am surrounded by more nurses and midwife.
- at some point, heard some shouting. Delusionally, was relieved for a while cos thought that baby out already. Then realised gynae's hands still empty...... Then realised the shouting was too loud to be from baby.....Then realised it was ME screaming like a mad woman. (and I thought they exaggerate in movies!)
- screamed and hung on tight to hubby's hands during contractions. Too blur to handle the laughing gas contraption so hubby held it to my mouth for me.
- at some point, heard the mid-wife saying "can push already!"
- more screaming from me. In serious pain!!! Gynae kept saying I wasn't pushing right. (I was silently cursing her at that point. Kept thinking - easy for you to say only!!)
- felt I had no more energy to push and asked for vacumn.
- saw Gynae took out the vacumn equipment. One final BIG push, one bad burning sensation (like the most gigantic poo) and then............ baby is OUT!!!!

Time of birth: 1.40am.

Post Delivery
When I gave birth to Elyssa previously (with epidural), the birth story pretty much ended after she came out. But without epidural this time, there were a couple more unpleasant experience - 1) delivery of placenta 2) gynae stitching me up and 3) manual removal of blood clots.

No. 3) was by far the worse. Just when I thought it was all over (when I finished the one hour rest period after delivery) nurse came and pressed my tummy area and said there were still a lot of blood clots. So she reached hands inside me and practically pulled them out..... clumps of warm clotted blood fell out each time. Yuck and super Ouch! (she did it three times)

After Thoughts
I still can't quite believe I managed to survive the labour without epidural !!! He hee..... I'm rather proud of myself ;) Painful, painful experience but phew, I did it! Looking back, the very intense pain was probably less than half an hour (though it felt reaaaallllllly long).

HUGE plus point is the recovery after labour. No backache at all (I had bad backache for a few days last time) and aside from the minor discomfort of the stitches, I felt almost back to normal the day after the delivery.

Introducing..... Baby Erin

2011-06-27T10:55:00.009+08:00

After the looong wait, my 2nd princess is finally here :)

Weight : 3.69kg

Delivery method : Natural birth assisted with vacumn. NO epidural !

When Oh When???

2011-06-17T11:16:00.003+08:00

When Oh When is baby going to come out???

I'm at 38 weeks, baby's head is engaged and am 1cm dilated since Wednesday morning. When the gynae said 1cm, I thought I could go to the hospital that day itself but she said could take up to a week or maybe more. Oh no....... can't wait, can't wait. Feeling like such an oversized whale now!! Hopefully baby won't be like Elyssa jie jie who was still happily in the womb at Week 40 and had to be induced.

I'm not really into pregnancy shots (since I feel like a whale) but I realised if I skip this, I'll never have a chance again to take a photo of Elyssa kissing her baby sister in my belly.

So here are 2 self-taken shots :)

Kissing baby sister

"Sayang"-ing baby sister

3 years, 2 months old

2011-06-13T14:50:00.009+08:00

Elyssa is now 3 years, 2 months old!
I planned to stop her monthly updates already but having a bit of "withdrawal symptoms" so here's one more..... :)

Photos taken right after her pre-school class today

About her.

1. Weight -to be updated

2. We can finally get rid of the two potties in the house. She insists on climbing up the toilet bowl by herself when she wants to pee or poo. No complaints from hubby or myself cos it saves us the step of emptying her potty contents!

3. She is definitely very, very UN-hygenic. Despite all our nagging/scolding/smacking/pep talk etc, she still has a bad habit of touching the soles of her shoes (and other dirty stuff), then putting her fingers into her mouth, then touching her shoes again, then mouth again. Ewww!!!

4. Luckily, despite item 3 and being exposed to plenty of germs (we go out a lot and I humbly admit I'm far from being a clean freak) her immune system is pretty strong. A better track record than hubby and myself with only one dosage of antibiotics and one bout of vomiting for the past 3 years.

5. She loves going to school. During the recent 2 week school holiday, I had to tell her that all the teachers have gone on a holiday cos she insisted on going to school! And she's now pestering me to send her to "dancing class". I'll probably send her to baby ballet once her pre-paid Gymboree classes end next month.

6. She is very stubborn and likes to have things her own way so much that I sometimes wonder whether she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)!
I give in to the routine stuff she insists on -eg : must climb up the baby chair on her own by using a normal chair placed next to it, must climb up her car seat on her own, must wear her own shoes, I must sleep on the right side of the bed with her while daddy sleeps on the left, when I refill her water bottle it must be almost full and not just half etc etc.

But I normally blow my top when there's ad hoc unreasonable demands or just a series of demands eg: must place item X in position Y, must do this, must be exactly that, must sit in a particular spot etc.
So many scenarios and here's one from last night :
She cried and wanted to wipe her tears.
I asked - Tissue? (which I had ready right next to me)? "Don't want!!" -cry-
Handkerchief? Ok -still crying-
I dragged myself out of bed to get a hanky. "Don't want Big one. I want Small one!!"-CRY-
Arrrghhh!! I started scolding. - CRY- -CRY- -CRY-
Decided to drag myself out of bed again to get another hanky. "Not this small one. This is the Wrong one. I want Another one". - CRY- -CRY- -CRY- -CRY-

I ignored her and she ended up crying for the next 30 minutes or so. Aaarghhhh!!!

7. Since I've touched the topic of "behaviour", I can really go on and on and with loads of her naughty scenarios. It's not unusual to have daily meltdowns or even a few a day. But then this will turn out into a loooong ranting rather than a monthly update post! Suffice to say that I think Terrible Twos is NOTHING compared to the Horrible Threes. But then again, I could be wrong- it may not be the Horrible Threes but a reaction to "Baby Sister is Coming Soon so Position of Queen of Universe may be Affected".
*Sigh*, then I feel guilty for being hard on my little girl.

8. Even though things may get ugly during the day, it almost always ends well. During bedtime, I try to recap the key highlights - the good (she smiles proudly at this) and the bad (mixed responses - could be a solemn nod/promise not to repeat, or a "sorry mummy" or insisting she is still right or she just acting blur!). And no matter how much I've scolded/smacked her during the day, she's always generous with her hugs, mouth to mouth kisses and "I love you mummy. I love you baby sister. Sweet dreams". That's the favourite part of my day - especially with the lights out and nice cool air from the air cond. Then mayhem starts again the following day. Hahhh!

Daily "Mathematics Homework"

2011-06-06T21:59:00.003+08:00

When we were at Popular Bookstore recently, hubby passed by the kids section and suddenly had a brainwave of wanting to teach Elyssa a little bit of maths everyday. So he bought a pre-school maths workbook for his little princess.

Daddy teaching Elyssa

Look how engrossed she is!

Beaming with pride :)

So far, both daddy and daughter love this nightly activity together!

Elyssa has been proudly announcing to my parents that "you know, at night, daddy is a teacher."

It has just been a week so I hope it's not something that either of them will eventually lose interest. But I've lovin it so far - it's great that Elyssa is learning something new but I think the best part is the daddy-daughter bonding time :)

Math Monkey, Bandar Puteri Puchong

2011-06-06T16:10:00.000+08:00

Want a fun way for kids to learn mathematics? A good option is the Math Monkey academic achievement programme for kids from 4-12 years old.

It's a pity that Elyssa is still too young for this, but this is something I will definitely consider when she turns 4 next year!

What is Verdic Math?
Math Monkey’s curriculum is based on the mathematical techniques of Vedic Math. Vedic Mathematics is the collective name given to a set of 16 sutras (or formulas) stemming from the Vedic period from 1500 to 800 B.C. These sutras were originally written in Sanskrit and are build on the foundations of rigorous logic, thereby helping to guide and hone the human mind into approaches of logical reasoning. By mastering these sutras, student s are given numerous ways to work out a problem and many problems can be easily worked out mentally and quickly.

What makes Math Monkey different from other learning centers?
There are many differences. First, it's a game based program and the children have fun while interacting with other children. Fun is the key to learning! Second, we are based on the ancient Indian art of Vedic Mathematics. The short cuts and tools used in Vedic are second to none and open the door to a new way of learning for children. The combination is truly phenomenal.

Hop on to this site for more info : http://mathmonkey-puteri.blogspot.com/

Still not sure? Try the FREE trial class, enroll only if you and your child like what you see!
Call Caterina @ 016-2094341/017-359 3302 or email mathmonkeybdrputeri@gmail.com to register.

____________________________

<< Note : This is NOT a paid post. Hmm.... but mebbe I can get a free meal out of this. Ahem....... ;) >>

What's in My Tummy?

2011-06-01T23:34:00.006+08:00

Well, Elyssa thinks my 36 week pregnant belly is so big because her baby sister is getting bigger (that's what I tell her) plus two other reasons :

1) there are a lot of TOYS in my tummy that baby plays with;

AND

2) when baby is not playing with toys, she's sleeping in her BABY COT.

I wonder what else she thinks is in my tummy???? I think she imagines that her baby sister is fully-clothed and living in a fully furnished room inside me!! ;)

Oh yeah, on a side note, she insists that I don't need a doctor cos : " When Baby sister is ready, she will crawl out by herself. Baby sister so clever hor?? And then Elyssa jie jie will clap clap and carry her to the car and then we all go home together."

1st week of Pre-School

2011-05-25T17:49:00.009+08:00

As of today, Elyssa has attended pre-school for exactly one week!

I have been toying with the idea of a pre-school for quite some months now, but signing her up was quite a spur of a moment thing. I must admit that the key reason is a selfish one - I wanted more time for myself. Taking care of a whiny 3 year old almost the whole day, with no maid and being 8 months pregnant plus doing cooking, laundry and light cleaning proved to be emotionally and physically taxing. Something I can do (and did!) but I realised that hey, I'm probably in a once in a lifetime career break, so I want to enjoy it as much as I can. Visions of me taking a leisurely breakfast or a mid-morning nap or reading a book or watching tv whenever I wanted to was not really happening. Well, I tried to..... but kept getting interrupted by "Mummy, can you read to me??? Mummy what is this???? Mummy why??? Mummy pls wake up! etc etc or worst still Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! (loud wailing with mucus flowing out type) Arrrrghhh!!!

The thought of 3 hours of peace and quiet in the morning had me on Cloud 9. :)

Anyway, back to Elyssa. As usual ,before any "big" event I start the pep talk one or two days before. Told her that she will be attending a big school like cousin Justin, that mummy cannot be there, that she cannot cry etc etc. Based on her track record at Gymboree, I guessed she should be fine with school but of course this was still a big step cos it's an entirely new environment.

When I dropped her off on the first day, she waved bye-bye to me then started to play with a toy which the teacher handed to her. In my heart, I was thinking...... err, like that only ah?? Yes, I did tear up AGAIN when I walked to the car alone, but not as bad as the previous time in Gymb oree. Hee he.... mummy is improving!!

For the past week, I have been getting consistent answers from my questions to her teachers - "No crying at all", "She participates in the activities", "She talks to her friends", "She's very independent", "No problem at all". "She's doing well". And no pee incidents too!! (I send her there without diapers).

Yayyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Bravo my little princess! You made mummy so proud again. :)

She enjoys the classes too. I love the big smile on her face when I pick her up. And getting her ready in the morning is really fast and fuss free - she climbs out of bed almost immediately when I tell her it's time to go to school. Ha ha..... if only she will continue to be this enthusiastic about school for the next 18 years or so. ;)

2 photos that I managed to snap last week -

Eating a light snack at the waiting area when I was talking to the teacher about school fees

Next time I turned around, she already climbed on a stool and was washing her own plate!

Another Weekend Getaway : )

2011-05-20T10:30:00.012+08:00

During the Wesak long weekend, we went for a short 3D, 2N getaway at Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya. Just a nice relaxing getaway - minus crowds, travelling and traffic jams :)

We didn't utilise our Marriott Vacation Club package, but a separate package that hubby bought which is applicable just for the Putrajaya hotel. I think it's a pretty good deal - RM488 for 12 months. For that, we get 50% off all food and spa packages, standard rate of RM240 nett per night including breakfast and a pack of vouchers which includes stuff like one night free stay, buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner vouchers, upgrade to Exec room for RM80, free whole cake etc.

Similar concept to what a lot of 5 star hotels are offering, but I like this package cos of the location (somehow being in Putrajaya makes me feel like I'm really far from the city!) and the food and spa prices are not too overpriced to begin with, so the 50% makes it pretty good value.

Anyway, for this getaway, we basically just stayed in and enjoyed the hotel facilities. We were either in the hotel room, exec lounge, kiddies room, spa or swimming pool :) I just lovvvved the brand new kiddies room -

Huge kiddies room

Elyssa playing with some puzzles

What's the red pod-like things on the left hand side?

On the right, the doors are for the mini library and mini cinema room

Play Station 3 !!!!

Rack of fancy animal costumes

My happy little lion

Who turned into a busy bee...

And then a little elephant :)

Playing basketball with daddy

Little boss

They even had Wi-Fi access in the kiddies room so I could use my Ipad :)

We also went to the swimming pool everyday. Can see she's more confident in the water now!

Elyssa and I

First time I went into the pool for ages, and I don't know why I refrained myself from going earlier. (ok, mebbe I do know why - cos I didn't want to display my huge pregnant belly). Anyway, the feeling of "weightless-ness" in the pool felt fan-tas-tic!!

In the hotel room

On one of the nights, we took the complimentary night tour of Putrajaya. We were the only ones, so it was became a private tour :)

Brightly lit buildings at night
The buildings were pretty impressive...... good use of tax money, ahem.

Err... dunno what pose from Elyssa

We were planning to utilise the buffet meal vouchers but ended up not using a single one. He hee.... for eg, on the first day, we had a heavy buffet breakfast so for lunch, we just had a simple pizza (about RM17 after discount). Then around 5pm, we went to the exec lounge cos we were told they serve food at that time, on top of the light refreshments available all day. Wasn't expecting much so was pleasantly surprised with the good spread - lamb chops, fish fillets, sandwiches, cakes, pastries, fruits etc. We pretty much had our dinner there :) Then had a simple supper of fried noodles and soup in the chinese restaurant that night. (about RM38 after discount). Less than RM60 for a whole day's worth of good food with 5 star service!! Not bad indeed!

We definitely enjoyed our relaxing weekend getaway :) Will go there again soon, but by then it will be our little family of four!

Baby Sister Conversation

2011-05-17T22:19:00.005+08:00

I talk to Elyssa about her baby sister pretty often, and sometimes the conversation can really make me chuckle. Good for me to record them! Here's what happened just now :

Elyssa : Why baby sister still not out yet?
Me : She's not ready yet.

Elyssa : When she's ready, Elyssa pull up your shirt and take baby sister out, ok?
Me : It's not so easy. Need auntie doctor to take out baby sister. *thinking this would be a good time to tell her I need to rest after delivery* - When auntie doctor take out, mummy will be little bit pain pain, you know.

Elyssa : *worried look*. Got blood ah?
Me : *thinking - did I go too far???* Yes, got little bit blood.

Elyssa : *very worried look. then she suddenly smiled* Oh, like last time Elyssa scratch the leg until got little bit blood. Then Saran (bro's maid) help Elyssa to wash out the blood.
Mummy....... when auntie doctor take baby sister out, Elyssa bring Mummy to the bathroom and Elyssa help to wash out the blood. Then no more pain pain loh!!!! Yay !!!! *big smile*
Me : *speechless for a while*

Elyssa : Elyssa so clever, hor??

Hmmm...... if only child birth recovery is so easy :)

Family Trip to Tanjung Sepat

2011-05-12T22:25:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, we finally went for a short family trip to Tanjung Sepat (2D, 1N)
"Finally" cos we talked about this since my first time there in November last year. Getting a common date where all four sub-units in my family are available for the entire weekend is just not easy! Gosh....... almost 8 months!!

Even then, there were last minute glitches when the two babies in the family fell sick. But on the morning itself (after calling off the trip the evening before) we decided to just carry on with the trip, minus 3 family members.

We stayed in the same bungalow, and pretty much visited the same places - mushroom farm, "pao" shop, longan farm, Lover's bridge etc. Added 3 new places tho - chips factory, birds nest place and dragon fruit farm.

It was nice to spend family time together and I especially loved seeing Elyssa and cousin Justin enjoying each other's company :)

Walking hand-in-hand after lunch

Watching sunset together

So sweet hor??? They were mostly good buddies throughout the holiday but as usual, they had their little disagreements as well. Ha hah.... on Sunday morning, they fought over which dvd to watch (Elyssa wanted Dora, Justin wanted Cars) and they both ended up with sour faces and on separate ends of the sofa!!! I should have taken a photo of them ;)

Didn't really take many photos this trip (since already taken the last time) -

Daddy with Elyssa on the lovers bridge

Birds nest place

Bought 2 bottles of premium instant birds nest (RM138) which came with a free gift of 4 small bottles of instant birds nest with rock sugar. First time taking and hopefully baby will have smooth and fair skin :)

Chips factory

Really cheap, especially for chips in bigger packs. The trolley-load of goodies below is JUST my sister's portion!

An enjoyable family holiday, but looking at how long it takes to plan things, it will probably be another year before we finally go on another holiday together :)