Saturday, November 26, 2011

Bottle

When Bunny was 10 weeks old, I decided to introduce the bottle to her. 

Feeling rather confident that the rapid flow problem is under control, I am no longer as worried as before that she may prefer the bottle to nursing. 

In the morning, I hand-expressed a small amount (about 25 ml) into the Ameda Lactaline bottle and hubby gave it to her in the afternoon.  

I must admit I had butterflies in my stomach when I handed over the bottle to him for the first time. I watched her from a distance, making sure she couldn't see me. 

The first two tries were met with lots of crying. My heart broke. We stopped trying after ten minutes and she was whizzed back into my arms to be soothed.

I didn't have the heart to do this everyday. 

Earlier today, we gave it a go again. Our fifth try. 

After ten minutes of licking the teat and tasting the few drops of milk that hubby dripped on her lips, she started protesting. Softly at first. Very soon, it escalated into big wails. 

I couldn't help myself and started inching forward to watch her expression. Just as I was debating within myself, trying to decide the moment to stop her 'torture', she spotted me. Our eyes locked and I panicked for a moment. I stepped back and hid from her view. I felt like I had betrayed her trust (seriously!) and was a little guilt-stricken. What would my little baby think? Of course she won't understand. 

Then hubby asked me to come and stand next to her. What was he thinking? It's common knowledge that the mummy must not be seen/heard by the baby at this time if we want to introduce the bottle with any success. 

But I did as I was told. I stood by her side. With the teat halfway into her mouth, she uttered a soft 'ng' sound at me and I saw her change of expression. I wondered what that meant.

Instinctively, I held her little hand and whispered to her 'It's ok, little one, mama is here'. 

The most unexpected thing happened. 

She started sucking furiously and drank the whole 40 ml within seconds! In that whole time, her eyes were locked in mine. Her tiny fingers squeezing my fingers tight. 

I couldn't help feeling a wave of emotions. Tears blurred my vision. 

Aww... my little baby.  

She moved me. So, so much. 

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Taken this afternoon. Looking a little serious as she stared at my camera. :>











Friday, November 25, 2011

Boys' Share of Chores

Well-meaning friends often suggest that I engage my boys with more housework to lighten my load.

I'm the kind of parent who believes that children must learn to help out at home and that the earlier they learn to be independent and responsible, the better it is for them. 

But sometimes I look at the kids and wonder what exactly can I train them to do at this age.

I know of friends whose kids are already washing the dishes, operating the washing machine, hanging up the laundry, washing their own school shoes, helping out in cooking and cleaning the floor on a daily basis.

Their kids are the same age as mine, but mine are not anywhere near as helpful.

Ok, to be fair to the boys, we still haven't removed the kitchen gate that prevents them from entering the laundry and kitchen area. Even when there isn't any cooking going on, E forbids the kids from entering the kitchen.

Frankly, I don't need the boys to load the laundry into the washing machine and pressing a few buttons to start a cycle either. Besides, they can't reach the place that I use to hang the laundry, so taking them down is out of question too.

Umm.... my boys are feeding and dressing themselves. They drop their dirty clothes in the laundry basket. They brush their teeth and pack their own bags. M showers himself. On some days, they need reminders and barking from me before they remember to pick up their Lego mess and tidy their room. Surprisingly, little Chip is the one with more initiative in this area.

And there is one thing that they do which always makes me smile - how they make their beds.

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Stuffed animals hugged lovingly by rolled up blankets. :) 

I think Grandpa taught them to do this when he was here in May and the boys have been doing this ever since.

Perhaps soon, I shall get the kids to put away their own laundry and M can start scrubbing his school shoes. 


Sunday, November 20, 2011

When He is Alone

On weekdays, there are a few hours in the morning when Chip has to play on his own.

It is something I always encourage him to do and he has been good at it. 

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He built these with Jenga blocks during those mornings. 

When he is not playing, he will read, draw or write stories. 

Before Olivia was born, he used to be able to entertain himself and keep busy for hours. 

But lately, I notice a change. 

He asks to be played with several times a day. He tells us he is bored. He asks for the iPad TOO many times a day. He stares out of the window a lot longer. He seems lost. 

It makes me sad.

I know he seeks our attention more often now than before, which is totally understandable. He seems to whine a lot more, over the tiniest things. And he writes us I Love You notes almost on a daily basis. 

E warns me about the middle child syndrome when we were discussing our plans to conceive and during the pregnancy, he reminded me often. I was confident that we will be able to handle it well and my middle child won't feel neglected. 

Obviously we aren't handling it well enough. We have to do better! 




Sunday, November 13, 2011

Olivia: 2 months old

I can't remember if my boys were the same at this age, but this baby loves being cradled and will protest when we put her down. 

During the day, she can nap a long time in my arms but will wake the moment she is placed on any beds. Once in a while, she may continue napping for another 10 min but will wake up crying, supposedly realizing she is no longer in the same place. The moment she is back in my arms, she returns to snoozing. 

Her feeds in the day are getting quicker; usually she seems to have enough after just 5 to 7 min of nursing. If I offer more, she threatens to throw up. Unfortunately, this is probably why she needs to be nursed every 2 to 2.5 hours. Only occasionally will she nurse longer and even take my offer of the second side. 

At the moment, her bedtimes and night wakings are still all over the place. On a good night, she goes to bed before 9pm and will wake once between then and 6am. Otherwise, she calls it a night between 10pm and 11pm and is up for two brief feeds between 2am and 8am. 

One of her favourite activities is face-time. She loves to be talked to and will smile and coo back throughout the entire 'conversations'. 

She likes Marcus, who is very good at calming her down with his voice and gentle touch. 

It is so much joy to take her out for 'sightseeing'. So far, I've brought her out on my own to run errands, grocery shopping, strolls around parks and have lunch dates with friends. She enjoys our outings and will nap in her pram when we are out and about.

It's so rewarding to see her growing and fattening up on mummy's milk. :>

IMG_4546Pouting.... in a seal-like pose. Grandma was burping her very, very gently. We used to see this pouting a lot more a month ago. She seems to have stopped recently. 


IMG_4549Woo.... showing off her chubby arms in a cute Cesar top from one of my favourite shops Chateau de Sable. I love this top! :> Thank you Aileen (and Muse)! 


CIMG1127Her baby hands in mine. 

CIMG1132Dozing off in her own comfy 'couch'. Her roundness in this photo cracks me up! 


CIMG1155Looking solemn in a hand-me-down PJ from Chip's time. Actually she just woke from a nap in daddy's arms. 


CIMG1167Smiling at Marcus who was singing to him. In a super soft onesie from The Children's Place


CIMG1170Cooing and conversing with Mama. One of my favourite photos!


CIMG1173Chubby, chubby arms! Makes me laugh! 





Saturday, November 12, 2011

On The Way Up

I am a lot happier this week. 

And this is possible only because of the most wonderful emotional and moral support I had received during the days when I hit bottom

All the heartwarming text messages, emails, MSN chats and blog comments from friends and blog readers to encourage and comfort me have made such a positive difference during the difficult period. Thank you so much!!! 

It means so much to know that friends (and even strangers) care enough to take time out of their busy lives to write to me, so much so that I got emotional (in a good way!) every time I read a note or message. 

When I had my boys, I felt really alone with no one to talk to. I could have talked to my girlfriends back then, but they wouldn't have understood since they were all unmarried or married without kids. Perhaps that was why it was much easier to spiral into depression.

But this time round, I feel so blessed that I am surrounded by a group of super supportive friends who patiently read/listened to me 'pouring out my woes' day after day and reminded me with comforting words and wisdom to put things into perspective. 

It also helps that I have managed to resume part of our routine and find time on a daily basis to do some home-learning with at least one of the boys. It definitely makes me happier to feel that I am 'achieving' more than just nursing baby all day long. 

Another reason to cheer - according to my bathroom scale, I have only 3 kg left to lose. Yay! Not bad at all, considering it's been only 2 months post baby and it's without dieting or exercising. Just breastfeeding and doing housework. Lots of floor mopping since I am the only one in the house who mops the floor. 

But I would still like to be able to get into some exercise regime soon. Can't wait to tone up and regain some strength and fitness. 

Three weeks ago, I could only fit into one pair of pre-baby pants and none of the skirts. Today, 10 skirts fit perfectly. The challenge is to find blouses in my wardrobe that can accommodate the expanded chest. :P So some shopping is badly needed. 

Anyway, things look rosier right now. And I know, it will only get better. 

This article helps a lot too. 



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Our Maths Games

This is one area of our homeschooling that I don't blog much about because I find it really boring to write about the teaching of Maths.

But it doesn't mean that I neglect coaching the kids on Maths. In fact, we started laying the foundation since the boys were barely a year old.

I don't use library or assessment books to teach Maths concepts. Neither do I find it necessary to buy a set of Montessori materials or Maths curriculum just for home-learning.

While books may give some parents ideas of what and how to teach, and some kids may be keen to read such books, they put me off. I find the dumb-downed language found in most of such books very annoying.

For preschool Maths concepts, I still find it best to use concrete objects that we can find in our household.

Since the boys were tiny tots, we have been introducing Maths in ways that are meaningful to them using real-life examples that they can relate to. Throughout our daily routine, there are always tons of teachable opportunities to encourage application of Maths concepts.

On top of that, we play plenty of games, both store-bought and home-improvised, to discover the boys' strengths and weaknesses.

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Playing snake and ladder with his soft toy.

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Like the Monkey Maths game, this Bus Stop game teaches simple addition and subtraction. The boys played with it for a while when they were under 4 years old.

I still think that to master Singapore Maths, as long as a child is strong in English, it is more than half the battle won. So I don't spend much time coaching the kids on Maths.

With M, I only began more serious sessions this year when he started Primary One. Since the bulk of his school work this year is a revision of Kindy 2 materials, I decided to introduce heuristics and the more challenging questions at home to keep him on his toes.

Chip, on the other hand, has always had a keener interest in Maths than Marcus since young. But I didn't do much with him till he was nearly 4 because I don't believe a child this age will benefit that much to be advanced in Maths. So what if he can divide big numbers or understand fractions or do algebra at 3 years old? He will still have to go through the Maths lessons in kindy and be totally bored by them.

So instead, I focused on our trans-disciplinary thematic learning and lapbooking that will open his mind, teach him to be inquisitive, help him develop critical and creative thinking skills, as well as strengthening his mastery of both languages.

By the time Chip was about 4, the age when M was fascinated by Geography and we were spending lots of time exploring related themes, I channelled the same amount time playing home-made Maths games with Chip.

I remember it was during one of our weekly strolls to M's school on tennis days, perhaps in February or March, when Chip decided to rote count all the way to 1000. Then he counted backwards. That was followed by counting in Mandarin. It became one of the games that he would play every week as we strolled in the hot afternoon sun.

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That was about the same time when he started learning addition and subtraction up to 100 with a simple game that I prepared.

I like it that it is so scalable, cost me nothing (I already own those pegs) and so easy to get ready.

With this kit, he learnt the concept of Tens and Ones. I taught him to 'visualize' the pegs in his mind, a skill which I think is key to mental calculation.

A few months after we started playing this game on a weekly basis, he masters addition/subtraction up to 100 and work them out mentally. He loves quizzing us with his own set of problem sums and in the process gets plenty of practice. Then he proceeded to explore negative numbers, fractions and took interest in skip counting.

The last I played any Maths games with him was a few weeks before baby's arrival.

It's time to resume.





Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Buckets

I haven't looked through the very old blog posts for a while. 

Missing my little Chip who is now in dreamland and having a little me time while baby is sleeping, I did just that. 

Can't believe I cried buckets just reading this post. My little Chip was a mere toddler then. So short! So cute! 

He still looks about the same, but has lost most of his babyishness. 

Where did all the time go?

It is so odd to feel as if I have missed out on his growing up years. Maybe it is the little regrets I have of not doing even more with him before baby's arrival and the thought that while I get busy with baby in the months and years to come, I am going to miss out more. Before I know it, he will be as big as Marcus.

I must cuddle him more. 


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