Monday, July 27, 2009

变脸 and updates..

Over the weekend, we brought En and Xuan to the nearby Mac for a "fries" session.
And hubby brought a happy kids meal which came long with this 小丸子变脸 freebie.


It was a normal toy till.. i found a way to use it.
I read the Babycentre emailer just this morning that silliness is good for kids and it helps diffuse the tension off situation.

So as En was stalling over his milk earlier as usual, and I was fiddling with 小丸子 next to him.. I showed him this face with me mimicking the face..



and I told him that when he finished his milk, I can be the smiley face again..

That tickled him no end and he started laughing non stop.. and in a short while, he finished his milk, in between his hilarious laughter looking at the face. So, I thought to myself, humor is quite key to relationships indeed. Be it between parents and kids, or between spouses or even friends..

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Many asked what do the kids and I do in our lives here, and it is very hard to answer as there is just overwhelming amount of things to do..

I shall just attempt to litter bits of them here along the way..

-The Confectionary-

Papa brought this set of toys for the boys on one of his trips to the baby store.

It is a really nice playset for a gal, but I guess, boys will play it their own way. Not too bad yah?


Anyway, I also believe at this age, kids's toys should not be limited by gender.. so En and Xuan do enjoy playing with it other than their train sets and building blocks.

En operates a confectionary store with this, and I will call for orders while he prepares and send them to my place. Along the way, he learns to remember where our address is as well as to remember the specific orders that I have. Perhaps in the future, I should get him a cashier as well and teach him entrepreneurship!!


Xuan loves to sing the birthday song when he sees the cake and loves to imagine himelf eating the cake. He would cut the cake and serve it to the others and ultimately himself! He is really a cookie monster!

- Houhai -


*Pic Taken by Bao En* - Photography seems really natural to Bao En..

We brought the boys to the Houhai area for a walk over the mild weathered weekend and En was really excited over the ducks he saw. He kept singing the duck song which I find really amusing.



Xuan as usual - with food, the trip is good I guess :)

The place is littered with pubs with interesting decor mix of East and Weat and is really more of an expats' or tourists' watering hole than for the family, but I am glad there are the boats and the ducks to entertain the kids..

- Rui's toys and food -



Rui is really sitting up quite well now, and can't wait to put everything he can grab into his mouth. And I am busy reading up on how to manage and tweak his feeding schedule with the introduction of solids.. in addition to the weaning recipe book for purees to make him.. Thus far, he has tried most of the stuff that he is supposed to at 6 mths and moving on to more variety each day.. (banana, apples, carrot, papapya, broccoli, peaches, cauliflower, pear, pumpkins of various varients, sweet tapocia of various varients). I am gonna work on peas for tomorrow, that is really an effort as I hate shelling the peas but I guessed he better start eating start eating his greens early.

We got a blender here for Rui's puree but I am happily making use of the juicing function to make juice for the tods as well.

The weather here is just too sweathering hot and it is a good way to have them drink more liquids as well as making sure they are getting the Vits.

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I also got myself these handy books with recipes of food for kids through the various seasons. The section on summer is particularly useful as it teaches us how to boil the various soups and use the various ingredients to combat the heat.

The best part? Each of these books costs less than 5 SGD bucks!! Books are really affordable here, the Chinese ones anyway, so I really enjoyed going to the bookstore 2 streets away to buy books for myself and the kids. The street stalls at WuDaoKou (the hangout area for students) also have "pirated" English books going for as cheap as 2 SGD dollars, with covers so authentic that you would not have tot they are fake!

Hence, I am like reading 5-6 books all at the same time, depending on what interests I have or the mood I am in. I have..

1. Marketing for Rainmakers - Phil Fragasso
2. 100 details to bring up magical boys (Chinese)
3. The Leader in You - Dale Carnegie
4. 3 岁决定孩子的一身
5. The Baby Healthy eating planner

Where do I find the time to read? When I am pumping, before I sleep, while I get the boys to do their own stuff in peace (though these moments are really rare!).. Well, if I dun accomplish anything during these long period away of work, I guess I see it as a retreat to recharge and brush up the knowledge on parenting and work. There are always tons of books that I wanted to read but just no time when I was working, so I am really indulging myself here. And reading keeps me sane. It is an adult world, and it reminds me of who I am. Being a SAHM sometimes makes me forget that there is a very much sane world out there, with meaningful adult conversations and stuff that trigger my interests!

Of course, there are really many many interesting kid moments too, but for me, I can only take so much of the kids in any given day. Any more of the quota and I go a bit crazy, seriously. And there are always the parenting books to make me think and re-think about our ways of approaching the kids..

Are we stifling them? Am I mis-understanding them? Am i decoding their signals and emotions correctly? Are we engaging in meaningless power struggles... etc etc.

Life has never been more challenging, but at the end of the day, I tell myself I may never have such a time with the boys again. The present is now, with them at these ages, and we can never do this again. So for this one chance, for the good and the bad, I must do the best I can and make the best of it. Carp Diem..

Friday, July 24, 2009

6 month milestone

Time flies..

Bao Rui was 6 months 2 weeks back.
It was an amazing 6 months.
The time just seemed to whizz by with endless rounds of tasks to do..

In this 6 months some things stayed poignantly the same...

Rui still has very fine, little hair, almost like a botak boy. His hair has not changed.
Rui's love for sleeping remains the same as he zzz from 7-5 ish and then dozing to 7 am again..
Rui still rubs his eyes when he is sleepy, lays his hand over his eyes as if to warn off those who dare to disturb his beauty sleep.
Rui's impish sparkling smile remains the same, always lighting up the day in the morning and then dwindling off into a stubborn frown that cannot be teased or coaxed away towards the end of the day..

While other minor changes have taken place too..

He is starting to enjoy eating, his lips always gnawing excitedly when he sees us eating
He is starting to grab at everything and putting everything he grabs into this mouth..
He has learnt to flip over and sit up, and these days trying to heave himself forwards..
He learnt to laugh out loud and squeal, and he did that the first time I place a stack of stacking cups in front of him, seeming to know those as his toys instinctively..
And he has 2 cute teeth on his lower jaw, always peering out cutely when he smiles..

And I have been breastfeeding him for 6 months plus.. while I keep telling myself I will soon stop.. It is a record for me to perservere for so long, but I keep telling myself that I am not working, I feel very guilty if I do not continue. After all, it is kinda a luxury to be able to stay home with the kids for this amount of time. Much as I sometimes doubt the "power" of breastmilk, I find it very hard to stop. 

As it took a lot of effort to build the milk volume to what it is now,  particularly in this case when I did not latch him for the initial 3 days when he was first born. it was a perpetual game of catch up and mindgame to will the milk to come. I really worked hard to arrive at what it is today, not to mention all the travel and the mastitis sagas disrupting the schedule.

But at the end of the day, it is immensely tiring esp when there are 3 kids in all. 
Pumpin takes up a lot of time. And I feel very tired all the time actually.
Many times I wonder if I am making use of this period of stay at home mum time optimally..
- Have I rested well?
- Have I spent enough quality time with all the kids? 
- Have i done something for myself - those long list of things that I been wanting to do..

There are a lot of questions, but the answer remains the same .. if I can breastfeed as long as it is good for Rui, why not? 

Coupled with the paranoia with the medical system here, I am really fearful of Rui falling ill, especially when the 2 brothers are now in school and hence more vulnerable to illnesses.

Still, at some point I will have to stop.. and kinda rest.. 
I dunno when it will be yet, but it has to be sometime soon..
While my mind and heart battle over when to stop, I am happy just to see Rui grow and smile!


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Not all mummies are the same..

I read with much envy and disbelief at the report, or more precisely the photo, of Kelly Chen leaving the hospital post birth!

And I conclude that indeed, not all mummies are made equal well if you know what I mean.

She looks fab lor, I mean how to have a figure like that in the first place post birth in less than a month.

And how to have the effort to dress up like that to leave hospital leh?

I mean even if I have an army of nannies at my command, I will find it tough to look like that..
Maybe that explains why we are not celebrities bah..
It is just well, incredible to me.

Even now, as I am a SAHM, I feel really bad being a slob.
Just the other day, as we went out for dinner and I dress a tad better, it made En said "Mummy, you look nice".

So on all the other days, well, I dun look nice lah! sigh...
What, seriously, is the incentive for looking nice for a SAHM?

Or are we, SIngaporean, more pragmatic than other girls of other nations???

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Finally!!

Hooray!! Finally I found a way to access blogspot and wordpress.. beyond the great Firewall of China. However, it seems to be a trade off for the lack of access to Facebook (which was formerly accessible).

This epitomises life in China. To a very large extent, change is constant.

Building appear everyday; shops literally spring up overnight. Steps get built in the middle of the night and the next day you have shiny new steps to climb.

Regulations are evolving, what is possible today get changed and becomes impossible in a matter of weeks. That is how I end up in Hong Kong for visa extension but that is another story..

It also epitomises our life in China, it is all about coping with changes.


As Rui move into the weaning stage, his routine changes, even his looks seem to change. The extent of his mobility changes rapidly as well.


As Xuan continues to cope insecurely with all the changes, he continues to find means to adapt to the new environment.


And En continues to grow up rapidly into a mini adult - bossing over his brothers and us, playing teacer to Xuan and me and learning from the new environment along the way.

It IS overwhelming and many times I cannot believe I am living this life. Frankly.
What was planned did not necessarily turn out the same, e.g. we do not manage to find a suitable and capable nanny, and I learnt that it is simply chaotic to live a life without assumptions.

When you are in a familiar environment, you have a set of assumptions to work with, which most people will concur with and thereby they also make similiar sets of assumptions. Hence, people are able to understand and get along reasonably amicably.

In this world, I find that our old assumptions are contiually being challenged. We have to pick up new assmptions quickly or risk being immensely frustrated.

For now, I am just happily relishing my new found freedom online. I learn to really appreciate many litte thngs that we have taken for granted in our world in Singapore. And I am glad we have this chance to learn and see things that we have taken for granted in new light.

*_*

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