This is a backdated post as I was too lazy to download all the photos :p

Look at the pics, Declan went dating with little Phoebe at Changi Airport plus all 4 parents who knew better but to play gooseberry.

First they went for a stroll hand in hand. The both of them was so oblivious to our presence that instead of following where the 4 adults are heading to, the 2 little ones decided on their own to stroll into Starbucks coffee outlet.

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After a long stroll from the MRT station to the airport's sky train station, all 6 of us boarded the sky train to go to terminal 1 viewing gallery where the 2 little ones stood together and went :"Aeroplane come!" whenever they spotted one landing.

After watching the aeroplane for awhile, I took out Dec's biscuits and see the little couple sharing the biscuits.

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Let's do a comparison of the growth of the littles and the aging of the old ones. The 4 pics below shows the same 4 person about 1.5 years ago.

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*sigh.....* time really flies....

Bad Eating Habits

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Who will give the kid an ice cream cone to go with his dinner?? It's none other than his grandpa... the best thing was the usually critical granny didn't tell him off and in fact she was trying to spur the boy on to finish the cone so that the ice cream won't drip onto the floor...............

This is definitely not gonna help his already very bad eating habits.......

How do you feel if you are the parents who witness this?

My Mother's Day Present

Kiat gave me this to me yesterday.

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I was wondering if I should wait till christmas before I open it since the wrapping paper was grazed by Dear Old Santa Claus.

Then again, since I had a perfect excuse to open it yesterday, since it was mother's day, I did. Guess what is in it?

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A cool white iPod nano! That's something which is on his wish list. Anyway, since it was given to me I'll share it with him as I think he'll need it more than me because he travel more than I do.

Happy Mother's Day

In less than an hour's time, it will be Mother's Day of 2006. I remembered I was wondering aloud to my colleague a few days back about when will I finally get a little pressie from Declan for Mother's Day.

I got it on Thursday! Look!

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A heart-shaped paper lolli with his pic. He didn't present it personally to me. I got to find this pressie in a very "unromantic" manner. I was checking his bag for his childcare communication book to see if there's any update when I saw this thing sitting in the bag.

I knew that it was definitely not him who did this. It must had been mass produced by the childcare teachers. The photo did't look glam at all. It seems like he got snapped right after he woke up from his nap. Nevertheless it was heartwarming :) and also very thoughtful of the childcare centre to help the little ones prepare the pressie. It's got a little magnetic strip at the back to allow me to stick it on my work station. I'll find a nice and cosy corner for it on Monday when I'm back in office :)

Oh I just figured out that the little red stuff surrounding his pic were his thumbprints.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mummies out there!

Declan and his drumstick

This boy has grown to become very picky when it comes to food. Rice, cooked at home, he'll take a few spoonfuls and start running about in the room refusing to eat. Rice, especially fried rice serve at Crystal Jade, he'll dig in like a mini excavator.... A kid with an expensive taste!

I always feel my heart lifts whenever I see this little picky eater takes an interest in a certain food. He don't usually eat alot of meat as he is a lazy "chewer". However I have to change that perception when the meat "involve" is a chicken drumstick. A spring chicken drumstick, to be exact.

Unhealthy as it might be, but I don't really care, so long as he eats.

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Toilet Training Surprise

This boy suddenly decided that he wanted to be "toilet trained" this evening.

It all started with me realising that he was without his diaper when I smacked him on the butt for being naughty. The grandma said that he took the liberty to decide to go diaperless that evening. Fearing that he would wet his pants, I brought the potty to him and "shhhhheeeee" and "shhhhhheeeeeeee" and "shhhhhheeeee" trying to make him pee. He simply stood there and kept shaking his head. I took that as a sign that he's not urgent and kept the potty. He walked a few steps and then urinated on the kitchen floor...........

After he wet himself, I tried explaining to him that if he needs to let go, he should tell me and I would bring the potty to him. After explaining, I brought the potty out again and "sssshhhhhhheeeee" him again. This time he did pee a small amount! I praised him and gave him a muak on the cheek.

After this little accomplishment, for the next 30-45mins, he actually told us he wanted to "ng ng" and the grandma would then fetch out the potty for him to pee. In that short span, he actually peed 3 times. I think he got the kick out of our praises.............. The last time he said "ng ng" he even went to the kitchen to bring the potty out on his own and peed right in.

Afraid that he'll peed himself dry just for the seek of praises, I put on a diaper for him and anyway it's near bed time. Let's see if the enthusiam could sustain till tomorrow's evening or not. Oh by the way, I just realise our potty is leaking....... gotta replace one.

Result of Child Bearing Ultimatum

Phoebe, I felt your nudge. Actually it's not me who needed the nudge. It's the man. As I've expected, I forsee that he will forget about the whole thing and also as expected, when reminded, he'll claim that he didn't forget and he intend to reply me.

Anyway I've got no intention to remind him but my dear friend Jessie, decided to take the liberty to remind him during one of our gathering on Saturday 28 April.

So here's the result : I'll go for my studies.

Need I say more?

T2 add on

arghhhhhhhhhh just another item to add on to the last post.

This morning Master Lim refuse to co-operate.I thought I had an appointment at 8am in the office (turn out I remembered wrongly and it should be 830am...) and his dad was limping due to overexercising so we decided to all fetch a cab to our destinations together. We'll drop Master Lim at childcare before dropping the dad along AYE and then me at the hospital. Everyone must leave the house at around 7.20-25am in order to be on time.

This little chap wakes up in the morning and decided he wants to throw tantrum and make life hell for me. He refused to get change, refuse to drink his milk and simply wants to lie down and whine.

7.30a.m we are still at home and we only managed to change his diaper and his pants and his milk is still in his hand, untouched. Adding on to those he's crying and crying just because I pulled out his pacifier trying to coax him to drink the milk.

Arghhhhhhhhhhh finally I can't take it anymore, since the grandma is already awoken due to the saga, I left him with her, picked up my bag and walk out of the door. So, no childcare for him today!. We stay on the fifth level and when I reached ground floor, I can still hear his thunderous wails. TERROR!

T2

T=Terminator? Nahhh, close though! T= Terrible!

Declan will turn two in 2 months time and he's start displaying signs and traits of the "Terrible Two".... His symptoms are as below:

1) Acting as my echo. I've started to notice that he's echoing some of the common terms and actions which I used on him.

Example 1

As an anxious parent, I am always telling him "No" once too often and if I have to repeat that, I'll cringe my nose and try to look stern. Guess what??? He's doing the same thing to us! Whenever he lay hands on my things, I'll tell him nicely that he's not suppose to touch that and request him to return it to me. Initially, he'll co-operate, nowadays he'll go "No!" and cringe his nose at me... Instead of getting mad, I'll end up laughing and laughing.... What kind of parent am I???? *sigh....*

Example 2

During play, sometimes, he'll get a little too rough and inflict some pain on me. This childish mother will then pretend to cry and then peep under my eyelids to see if he notice. Again, I did that once too often and now it's retribution time. On and off, when he doesn't get the things he wants, he'll do the same thing for me to see. Pretend to cry, without tears and mucus and then peep under his eyelids to see if I notice. The only extra thing was the cheeky grin which he fails to hide.

2) Throwing stuffs out of the window. I didn't really notice when he picked up this habit and from who... His mum is an obedient and co-operative citizen who don't litter and yet I've caught him throwing his biscuits and scraps of paper out the window. There was once he attempted to throw his pacifier out and fortunately I stopped him in time. Hmmmm now that I've mentioned that, I suspect that he may have succeeded in "getting rid" of one of his pacifier as one of them went missing mysteriously.

3) Everyday, either me or the dad will have to half coax half drag him into the room and make him sleep. He’s into doing the same thing to me right now... He'll pull me by the hand to the mattress and make me lie down with him and goes :"Sleep" I should be happy right?? I'm not! Cos he do that at 7-8p.m in the evening... Too early for bed... and if I attempt to sneak away to watch TV, he'll be mad and chase after me and pull me back to lie down on the mattress again...

4) He'll sometimes kick up a big fuss when we want to bath him, dress him or slap on a diaper for him.

5) When we bring him out, he will just dash around and pull things off the shelves. I can no longer shop in peace. We'll get so exhausted chasing after him that we almost always end up empty handed and have to rely on a cab to send us back.

6) When traveling in a cab, he'll wreak havoc in the cab. He'll try to open the door, refuse to sit on the seat or attempt to disturb the cabbie. I won't be surprise if one fine day the whole family gets thrown out of the cab.

7) He'll throw his water bottle, milk bottle, cups on the floor for no apparent reason. He's since broke 2 water bottles and a milk bottle cap.

8) He'll ride his tricycle over his blanket or mattress and when we remove the blanket or mattress, as usual, he'll cry.

The list is not exhaustive. I really hope he'll get over this phase soon and learn to co-operate with us more. Having said the above, I am not saying I give him to all the time. Usually I won't give in except for when he asks me to lie beside him and sleep.

Another Sun Filled Trip

The dad loves the beach and the sun. He'll grab any available chance to fly down to sentosa whenever there is a free weekend. Unfortunately most of our weekends are occupied with either work or piles of errands to run. 2 weeks back, he managed to grab another chance to pack us all to Sentosa again. Below are just some pics of Dec playing the little cool dude with the dad's and my sunglasses.

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They now have this water play thingy. Kids simply love it, however it's advisable for them to play with parents supervision as the timber floor was covered with a thin layer of algae and thus it's slippery.

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Time to go home and he's still acting cool!

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Child Bearing Ultimatum

The dad is an indecisive fellow. Throw him a question and he wil happily adopt an open ended deadline to get back to me. At times I can wait till the cow comes home and still don't get an answer. This time, the "hot" question is :"Do you want a second child?" As usual, his answer was :" Let me think about it and get back to you."

I waited and I waited and I waited. It has been about 2 weeks and apparently he is still thinking as I didn't get an answer. Thus, today, I gave him the ultimatum. I laid out all my plans for him clearly on the table (literally) like a nice cold dish platter. I wanted an answer by 1 week time but the dad wanted me to stretch the timeline to 1 month. Ok fine! He'll have 1 month. The plans I shared with him are as follow :

1) Yes for a 2nd child

We'll then try in Sept 2006 and hopefully we can pop one by 2007. This also means I have to shelf all further studies and travelling plans due to the lack of resources in terms of money, time and energy.

2) No to a 2nd child

I'll then save up and go for my further studies. I intend to pick up child psychology and hopefully + wishfully I will be able to pull through all the necessary stages and get myself certified as a child psychologist and get the kick out of people addressing me Dr Seah. wahahhahaa. Dream only lah ok, it's just a dream. Nevertheless, I dare to dream. The more I dream the nearer I'll get to it right????

My personal preference is to have them both. Unfortunately I know that it is not quite possible. Thus, my ultimate route will very much depend on the dad's decision. The answer will be out in end April.

huh?? Again???

Declan is down with fever AGAIN!!!! Yesterday evening, he measures 38.5 degrees, however he was still as active as ever. I fed him medication and the fever went down. Phew!

This morning, when Kiat measured him, he was 39 degrees... HOW HOW HOW???? I'm real panicky! With the news reporting that HFMD cases are shooting up real fast and a childcare centre at Jurong had to close down due to HFMD how can I don't panic?? He's just recovered from HFMD, I really hope that he don't get it again this time.....

Deja Vu

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Cute hor? My friend delivered this little bundle on 20 March and I went to visit her yesterday.

As she was describing to me her birth process via phone on the day of delivery, the memory of me wandering around the delivery ward waiting for the contractions to come in came into my mind vividly. Both of us delivered at Mt A, thus as she described, I could clearly see the delivery suite and the layout of the bed and equipments right before my eyes. DEJA VU! I really can't believe that it's nearly 2 years since that exciting day took place.

For those who've not seen my multply site in the earlier days, here's how I look on the day of delivery.

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What's even more deja vu was when I realised that the nurse who was attending to my friend was the exact same nurse who was looking after me then. She was the one who helped me relieved my bladder when I had a swollen urine tract and couldn't pass urine on my own. Then she was just a junior nurse. Now, she's already a staff nurse.

I can't help but pick the little bundle up when I lay eyes upon her. So chubby, so red! Just like how Declan was, when he was a newborn. This was how Declan looked when he was a newborn.

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Don't you think there's resemblence in the below 2 pics??

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He was 3.65kg then and she is now 3.49kg. Pretty close.

Holding her in my arms made me had an urge to have a second one. The memory of my pregnancy and delivery was a pleasant one. Now, if the dad agree, I will probably try for a second one at the last quarter of this year and if the dad don't agree I may just jolly well stay at 1 as I can't imagining myself chasing after a toddler (or 2 if we kanna twins) in my mid 30s...

Back to Child Care

He's back in childcare since yesterday. I expected him to wail when we handed him over to the teacher after resting at home for about 10+ days. He didn't. He was cool and calm and I'm real glad about it.

Prior to his return to childcare, the centre actually sent a rep to visit him at home and they even bought him a pressie. The centre gave him a little toy train and a pack of mini milo drinks. The pressie even came with a little greeting card which his teachers penned down their well wishings. Need I say more about their great services and their care for the little ones at their centre? I doubt so.

See how this boy is enjoying his milo drink.

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Despite my hope to keep HFMD confine to just him, I was informed that 2 other little ones went down. Fortunately, they are also considered mild cases and one even recovered faster than Declan and was back at the centre before him. Thus now the record is 3 cases in that centre. Let's hope it'll just stop at 3.

1, 2, 3

Declan : neh neh neh neh!

off went dad to make a bottle of milk for him. Instead of drinking his milk, this boy held the bottle and started rolling all over the bed and of course spilling the milk.

Me : Declan, you better lie down and drink your milk at the count of three ok?! 1..., 2... (and before I can proceed to the next number)

Declan : TWEE!!! hahahah!

........................... -_-"

Until last night then I realise he had learnt to count to three...... When you start counting at 1, he'll know how to go on to 2 and three. However, I think if I place 3 apples in front of him and ask him :" How many apples?" I don't think he knows how to relate numbers to objects yet.

HFMD Update

He is well on his way to recovery. It was fortunate that he does not have many ulcers in his mouth. Fluid and food intake is not an issue at all. phew! He still gets to enjoy the ice cream and cold soya bean milk which we already bought though. He's a happy todd! No child care, no need to wake up early and a few tea spoon of ice cream twice a day. The only thing which he needs to endure was the itch on the rashes for the first 2 days and of course the confinement at home.

I will think that, most folks will shy away from him since HFMD is contagious. However, it's not so. Our neighbour right opposite (they are actually kiat's uncle and cousins)don't seems to mind his condition, probably it's because his rashes isn't that bad after all. They still invite him over to their place, still come to our door to say hello to him and even attempted to hug and kiss him. I sweat as I watch them do this. I always wonder do they really know he's got HFMD???

Another hero is the grandpa, he still dare share his food with him despite my repeated warnings.... He'll go :" Never mind, it won't spread.." *shrugs*

HFMD

sigh... I guess you all will have guessd from reading the title what I am going to lament about....

Yes... I dread to share that my boy is down with HFMD.... Though the Mt A doctor put him as a suspected case but looking at all his tell tale signs, I think the doctor can safely classify him as a confirm case.

He started with fever on Wednesday night. Thursday night, the fever still hovers at 38.5 degrees... I also noticed little red spots surrounding his lips, tiny spots are also showing up on his legs and palms. I am not too sure whether there are ulcers in the mouth as he refused to let us check. What I do notice is that he will keep his saliva in his mouth and he looks like a hamster with a loot of hidden food in his cheek.

I am glad that he's still active and lively. He's a little clingy though. I've got to coax him back to sleep this morning before taking a cab to work. He wanted us to hug him to sleep.

This will probably mean he'll have to stay at home for the next 2 weeks... I am now really concern about the rest of the little tots in his playgroup. I have communicated with the centre and have also offered to help them with the disinfecting of the place. Let's hope that it's just confine to him and let the rest of the little ones be spared from this dreadful disease...

Custody of child

CY: "If I am a woman, I will definitely not want the custody of the child should I be getting a divorce."

Read more here

Declan's Potraits

Ok here comes the long owed potraits. Ignored the quality of the resolution if you can. The lazy me just can't summon up enough energy to scan the photos.. so I took the easy and lazy way out. I simply snap the pages of the album with my handphone camera and uploaded the photos. Thus, what you are going to see, is not the true reflection of the actual quality of the photos. So here you go!

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We've yet put up the montage big potrait. When we get it up, I'll snap a pic and post it again.

The package has since been raised to 900+. Frankly, I believe there are better packages out there.

Childcare Updates

This boy no longer cries when we hand him over to the teachers. He will even automatically lean towards them during the morning "handover". I must say he's pretty well love at his centre and the centre's owner was describing how they were playing peek a boo with him yesterday and he was trying real hard not to laugh but ended up bursting in laughter. The teachers have been really patient and loving towards him. That really takes a great load of my mind. I'm not paranoid when I'm at work ,worry over whether he will be abused or bullied.

You guys have not seen him in his uniform right? Let me show you some pic. I think buying him the uniforms does help him to gel better with his classmates. By wearing the same thing, at least he won't stick out like a sore thumb.

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