Turning 6 & 3!

Another year has passed, how time flies. the kids are now a year older
and starting new phases in their lives.

 Jill is starting primary school next year, a new experience for her, new
school environment, teachers, making new friends, more activities in
school and after school.

Jen will now be alone in Seeds, without his big sister around to watch
over him. I am sure he will do fine being the more independent one,
but he does have his moments especially when he does not get what he
wants.

We always want the best for both of you and just want both of you to
be happy, healthy, study hard and be the best that you can be.

 The days are long but the years are short, both of you are growing up
so fast and we treasure each and every moment we have together.

My daddy & my son

Recently Jen has been sticky to my dad, wanting only him to hold his hand, wanting to drink milk only on my dad's bed with my dad lying next to him... I think it's incredibly sweet and I hope both of them will continue to share a strong bond together...

Daddy bonds...

Usually when I ask the daddy to babysit the kids, it's often the case where each kid will be having their own tablet and either playing games or watching some video on You tube with him as the supervisor on his own tablet. Pet peeves I admit but nothing serious... over the years, I've grown accustomed to this. This is how daddies are and it's not unique to him. I see this happening to other daddies & their kids at malls, at the doctors', everywhere... Of course I do wish that the daddy can do other stuff with them like teaching them ABCs, doing art & crafts, reading etc but that doesn't happen without specific instructions from me, the terrorizing mummy. But that's the difference between him and me and instead of trying to pick on this difference, I've learnt to appreciate it and be grateful for daddy's presence which I know is a very privileged one as not all children have that.

Nonetheless, it's always a refreshing change when I see the daddy and children bonding over stuff other than tablets. Like how I was out one night and I received photos on how he was bonding with Jill. And, just the other night, after my usual nightly revisions with Jill, I walked into the bedroom and was pleasantly surprised to see father & son so warm & loving! Such a rare sight, that i just HAD TO take these photos sneakily for keeps!

Happy birthday kiddos!

Girl turned 5 & boy will be 2 in a couple of weeks. We had a small joint party for both of them at home, with the minions as party's theme. Both totally dig the bi do bi do creatures! 

Jill has been an extremely caring girl, always concerned for mommy, daddy & grandparents & not forgetting her baby brother. She's always looking out  for Jen, wanting to hold his hand when walking & showering him with hugs & kisses. She is a conscientious child in school who enjoys reading & watching movies. She tells me she wants to be a doctor so she can cure sick people. She tells me she wants to buy a long car so she can ferry her patients. Sometimes she tells me she wants to be a vet, so she can take care of sick animals. Every night, we will have pretend play with her doctor set and we will end the night with story telling sessions.

Jen is everybody's darling at home. Whilst we constantly "scold" him for his mischievous ways, deep inside, we love him very much & never fail to be amused by his antics. He's so cheeky and seems to always have some tricks up his sleeves. Being the 2nd child, he has grown to be independent, finding ways to entertain himself, such as running round his pirate toy ship for 5 mins continuously and trying to cycle backwards. He is talking quite abit now and we are starting to have conversations with him since he is generally able to communicate his needs & wants.

 Happy birthday my lovelies! Both of you are as different as chalk & cheese and it's precisely because of this that makes both of you so special & so dear in our hearts. You both are growing well and I pray that both of you will continue to progress as loving siblings, with God's guidance & love.

Jenson @ 1 1/2 yrs

19 Months to be exact!

Time really flies so much faster when you have 2 kids... One moment no. 2 was just a newborn, being cradled & nursed in my arms and the next, he's such an agile toddler, wriggling from your arms as you try to cuddle & kiss him.

My little boy did not have a chance to attend classes like his older sister but yet, I do not seem to see him lagging behind in areas. In fact, I do think his motor skills are naturally way better than Jill's! (On hindsight, all those baby enrichment classes may all be nothing but fanfare afterall! - just my 2cents)

Last weekend, My GYM had an open house. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring Jenson there for an hour of free trial. True enough he had a whale of a time, running around the carpeted area, climbing up and down. He enjoyed music & movement circle time, clapping his hands to the music beats, he was intrigued by puppet story telling time and he loved the toys that were poured out onto the floor for him to explore.

Still deliberating if we should sign him for this.....

Baby Shrek

I love it when they are at this age cos I can TOTALLY do anything I want to them, even if its for just 3 minutes before they get irritated & yank it off. So there I have it, my ultra cute baby Shrek!

Just so adorable!

He came back from cool Hanoi with super rosy cheeks, just can't stop gushing over his cuteness!!

A little sad

Today was Jill's appt with her eye doctor and he wrote a prescription for her. I felt really down when dw called to tell me that. At age 4, she's way too young to put on glasses! At least that's what I think! I'm not really sure of what's exactly happening. I was too confused to ask dw to repeat what he just said. I'm just sad.

On a brighter note, didi had his 1st video arcade adventure on X'mas day... he seemed that he had a good time.. guess his dad is determined to start him young..

And in 2 days, our family of 4 are taking off to Hanoi, a trip off the beaten track, with 2 kids in tow. Not sure how smart of an idea that is ..

Christmas is here again!

Yipee! My favourite time of the year is here again! It's the season for indulgent gorging and excessive spending. Just perfect for someone who suddenly finds herself swarmed with so much work! Way too much! AND yes, I'm talking about MYSELF.

So amidst this dampener, I yearn for that joy that Christmas brings... and on Jill's non-stop insistence that the X'mas tree must be put up NOW because the shopping centres and her school have put up the X'mas deco, it went up last weekend. This is alot earlier than we usually put it up. For DW, 1st week of Dec is just nice. But just to avoid further nagging from his precious princess, he decided to give in and he got himself a little lady elf as an assistant this year. NOT ME.

Her theme: she wants streamers in red & gold, little X'mas balls in red, gold & ?? blue ?? They don't go, but what the heck, as long as she's happy.. This is the kind of innocence that make little children the envy of adults.

And there was also this little boy who had a field time trying to rip the little deco hanging on the trees and trying to eat them. This boy gets his hands on anything & everything. And eats anything & everything he gets his hands on. So if you do notice, my tree is a little bare this year because he wrecked a good number of deco. BUT totally NOT blaming him! It's a perfect excuse to restock on new items. Just gotta find the time to do so..

(pardon the bad photos It's tough trying to take photo of a toddler who just cannot stop moving!)

Now you see it in his hands... (notice the lost puppy look he's giving me, the "I'm so not planning to do anything evil" look)

Now you see it in his mouth...

Happy 1st year Jenson Boy

By DW

My dearest Jenson

A year has now passed since you arrived, it has gone past so quickly and it is a joy to see you so happy and cheerful, crawling all over the whole apartment, or just zipping around your walker like a bumper car.

Your mum and I are learning more about you and are sure you are also eager to start learning more about everything around you. We eagerly await you taking your first steps and speak your first words, it has been a wonderful first year and we look forward to many more firsts with you.

I look forward to you growing up, together with your jie jie as one big happy family. Both of you must learn to take care of one another and cherish each other as siblings, you will have the happy times, and of course the times where you will have your arguments, but always remember that as siblings you have to also learn to be there for one another.

Just like your sister, you are our gift from God, and remember that Jesus will be there for you, just like your mum and I will always be there for you, to protect you from harm and give the best that we can.

Love Daddy

short moment of peace

This is when we know we, as parents, can slack abit more.. when we can leave our kids to drink their milk on their own and we 2 can watch a little more tv, in peace.

Our kids have grown :)

My Duplo Baby Boy

Jenson's coming to 11 months and I've been sending out the invites to his birthday party for the past week. We'll be having the usual 1st year party for relatives and really close friends.. And many people's reactions were, wah! didi's going to be 1? So fast! Yeah, I'm with them on that one. TIME SURE FLEW BY ALOT FASTER FOR NO.2!

Just 3 days short of 11 months, this boy can now crawl as fast as lightning.. he knows what milk is.. if he's on the floor and he hears us say "it's milk time", he will immediately crawl over to the little table where his milk feeds are. He knows where the aircons are, the fan and the clock. He understands simple instructions like clap your hands, twinkle twinkle little stars and the song ABC - Z. He is still at the cruising stage, has been for the longest time, and we really wonder when he's going to start walking on his own. He can take about 5 steps on his own now but I guess that doesn't really count, as more often than not, he still prefers to just lunge forward haphazardly.

We are still getting used to his little antics. He pulls stunts that we have never experienced with Jill. He crawls up on you when you carry him, he flips and scampers away when he's being changed or diaper is being changed. If he doesn't want to sleep, he wouldn't just lie there quietly to enjoy your patting. Instead he will yell his lungs out and he will crawl all over his cot just so you can't pin him down. I take that as a good sign, that he has excellent motor skills.

He's extremely adorable and I'm grateful to God for His gift to us.

Time for Didi's passport!

It's time for us to apply for Didi's passport. In less than a month, he's going to make his 1st trip out of town. We've been trying hard to get a good photo of him. Given how this little baby is so much like spidey, hardly having a moment of stillness (except when he's sleeping which obviously wouldn't work either since his eyes are closed), we have been snapping & snapping since months ago. None of the photos were satisfactory enough so we just held back.

We knew that we couldn't delay it much further, so we decided to just send in the best of the worst! But of course deep inside we knew that they just couldn't make the cut. True enough, ICA email came back: REJECTED.

So last week, we activated the entire family, DW, me, Jill, Ah Kong, Ah Ma & our helper to distract didi so we can just get that 1 photo. Pots banging, old folks calling out "didi here, didi here", cheh cheh screaming: "didi look at me!", whatever that worked, we tried. Basically the household was in RARA mode and it was chaotic. I was so relieved when I received the email from ICA: your child's passport is ready for collection.

Adventures of our very last attempt:

Oh my! What's all that ruckus for???

So should I laugh or cry?

I've no idea what these people are trying to do, but it's incredibly boring

I'll give it my best shot now and they had better stop the noise.

Didi at 7.5 months

I've been guilty of not keeping track of didi's milestone achievements the way I did for Jilliane. but somehow because I'm not counting every second of what he's doing, he seems or rather he IS achieving them ALOT faster than Jilliane! I'm really glad for this as this means that he's pretty much on track with the other babies of his age.

He attempted crawling at 6 months, backwards.

He's doing little push ups on the floor perpetually. Preparing for army or what, i dunno.

And he's wheeling himself all over the house and the little mirror at our entrance is now his favourite destination. He ends there and stares at the mirror for sometime.

I really wonder what's going on in his little mind as he does that, is he thinking, who's that little baby over at the other end? Is that really me? Sometimes when I carry him and stand in front of that same mirror, he looks at our reflection and then he looks at the real me then he looks back again with a perplexed look on his face. I figure he's just confused! LOL! Babies & innocence, they're just so lovely!

My 2 sweeties

Jill's very loving to didi now, though at times she will complain "Didi kicked my hand!", "Didi touched my dress" and I will always try to explain that it's okay because Didi is still young and doesn't understand and cannot control his actions and seek her understanding. And she will say "ok, I understand". But before I can cheer on this, it will be followed by "I want mummy to scold Didi now"... ??!!

Jilliane vs Jenson

My 2 kids at 4 months during tummy time... Do they look alike??

Jilliane


Jenson

Being Beachy

The gloomy, wet weather has finally come to an end. November to December last year was no fun. We were literally stuck at home. We didn't dare to venture to places that didn't have a sheltered carpark lest the 2 kids got drenched which will then lead to fever & what else not. As such apart from shopping centres, there was hardly anywhere to go. It was always Parkway, Parkway & more Parkway. (note: I12 was not fully opened yet at that time).

New Year was a long sunny weekend and we finally got the chance to head to the beach! It has been a long long time since we went there, given Jilliane's month long illness. It was our 1st outing to the beach as a family, 4 of us. And we're glad Jenson didn't fuss much and we did have a great time, playing, strolling & feasting at the East Coast Hawker Centre.

Getting our hats ready to shield us from the hot sun!



At the beach

Arrival of Jenson Dylan Wu

Never in my life have I ever dreamt that I will go through actual labour without any pain relief. But with my son, I did just that. The whole experience was different from Jilliane's birth and now I finally can get tell people, what labour actually feels like, being totally conscious of the pain & noise around me.

After Cheng's wedding on 24th Sept, Dw & me sent Jilliane home, washed her up & prepared her for bed. We left the house close to midnight and headed to Mt Alv. We checked in abt 12.30am and we ended up in the same delivery suite as I did for Jilliane. Best part was, both occasions were on Sundays.

Midwife checked my cervix, not dilated so proceeded to insert the induction pill. If there's any advice that I can give to potential mums, I'll say, NEVER opt for this route. It's disatrous! Once the pill took effect, the contractions came, at intervals closer & closer. Unfortunately, these contractions do not cause the cervix to dilate so at 3am, whilst I was in terrible pain, I could not opt for epidural as I was not dilated. The pain was unbearable, I was biting myself, pulling my hair, basically inflicting more pain on myself in the hope that it will distract me from my painful contractions!

3.30am - nurse suggested giving me a pain relief jab on my thigh - pethidine. Ok, whatever that works, just bring it on! Sadly, it NEVER relieved me of any pain, but I did keep wanting to drift off to sleep. This drug is scary, I can't even control my eyelids. One moment I was awake, the next I was knocked out. Then the pain kicks in & I'm awake again.. & yes, NEVER eat or drink anything once you are jabbed. I puked like mad just after a sip of water.

5am - Pain just kept on increasing. Nurse suggested to check cervix again to see if epidural could be administered. But I refused as midwives checking cervix is 100x more painful than my lovely, gentle gynae. Afterall Dr Fong was coming abt 7am, if i weren't dilated at 3am, how much difference would it be at 5am right?! Wrong!

6.45am - Urge to push, told DW & the nurses. Had to check cervix and I was 10cm dilated!! Piangz! My heart sank, I knew this means no more epidural was allowed. Goodness gracious me. But a very nice Indian midwife very patiently taught me to use the gas at the right timings and God was definitely there with me, as the gas made me so high that the pain was alleviated and I started hallucinating about Bach & music scores. This beats alcohol anytime!

7.30am - Pushed as hard as I could, baby just refused to come out until Dr Fong threatened that he was going to send me for emergency C-sect.. oops, I panicked, that would bring my bill up to more than $10k!! no way! I pushed damn hard, and finally Baby Jenson was born.

True labour indeed... how did those folks in my grandma's generation manage to go through this 10x?!! I'm done with 2 kids!