8m vs 14m

Teething Depression

P is cutting her top central and lateral incisors, 4 at one go. While she's suffering teething pains, I'm almost going into teething depression. The non-stop crying is so so frustrating that I really feel like strangling her. I don't know how to help her and my patience is wearing thin.

She refuses to let anyone else carry her. It always has to be M-O-M-M-Y. Try carrying a 10 kg around, and when you think 1 hour is sufficient, put her down and she will cry and clamber to be carried. Try passing her to a 3rd party (hubby) and get a 2s relief (5s if you are lucky), and she will cry for you to be carried. Repeat the cycle at least 5 times a day and you'll see how crazy you can get.

I kept trying to keep my cool and think back on the contents of the article that reminded me to be patient with P. It didn't help much. I almost broke down in church today because P was just too much of a handful, and the only thing holding me back was that my in laws were with me and their friends were sitting with us. How nice to have a howling toddler and a weeping daughter-in-law in the middle of mass? I think hubby sensed that I was almost at the end of my tether, and he took over.

Terrible weekend. Thankfully, I will not be facing all these next weekend. I really need a break.

Bloom School of Music & Arts

Brought P to a trial music class today at Bloom School of Music & Arts. The class starts at 4, and we were the earliest to reach. P showed signs of an impending nap, so I was quite worried whether she can last through the class. Thankfully, she did.

More about the lesson. It was conducted in a pretty small, air conditioned room. Upon entering, you'll see a drum placed in the middle of the room on a playmat. That's for the students to warm up prior to the class starting. That drum is removed just before the class starts.

There were a total of 7 students in the class today (of which P and 3 others are from my FB group), and according to their brochure, it could go up to a maximum of 10 students. Instructor started with a hello song, then used a variety of musical instruments, a doll and scarves to engage the toddlers. There was also a segment whereby the lights in the room are switched off, leaving a small light source (lamp) emitting light from the corner of the room. The song was twinkle twinkle little stars, and that happens to be one of the lullabies I use to lull P to sleep. With the lights off, slow music and me cradling her on her shoulder, I think she almost almost went into dreamland. Luckily, that segment didn't last for long and it was followed by P's favourite maracas. She snapped from her trance immediately and went straight for the basket of maracas.

The class was pretty enjoyable, and P did pretty well compared to her past trial classes at Gymboree. She is able to follow simple instructions from me (like clapping, I love you, dancing), but she still has some time to go before she can take instructions from teachers. In some parts of the lessons, she was wandering around the class and hovering at the door, as if to plan her great escape. This hasn't changed from her past experiences, she really cannot do a sit down and follow instructions type. She has to move around, and move around HER way.

I also noticed that the teacher used quite a lot of sign language, which I haven't determined whether its good or bad. P still has her Our Music Studio vouchers which my ex colleagues gave for her birthday. I'd probably go for that before deciding whether to sign up for this. Pricing wise, Bloom would be more affordable for us.

Ariel and P after class

Here's a pic of the 'lil one once she got home. Lessons are tiring yeah?

"Mama"

You ring the doorbell and she comes running out to see who's at the door. Upon reaching the gate and seeing that it's you, she went "Mama... MAMA!"

The awwww moment.

Amazonia Contest

Following my post on P's visit to Amazonia with her papa, I went on their FB page and was delighted to see that they were having a photo contest. 

Hubby took a couple of pics when he brought her there previously, but his iPhone camera is on the verge of disintegration and most of the pics turned out blurry. I took the best pic I could find and submitted for this photo competition. The result is below. Looks like P won herself another visit to Amazonia, and I want to be the one bringing her this time round :) 

The blurred winning pic

ELC Pre-Xmas Toy Sale

Seriously contemplating taking half day leave tomorrow to go for this sale. I want to get a kitchen set for P after seeing her playing with 1 at Great World City's ELC.

I like this because it's wooden, but I will need to get separate accessories (food, cutlery etc)

This is similar to the one that P played at GWC's ELC. I like it because you can play from all 4 sides, and it comes with some accessories like plates, pots, etc.

Megan's 1st Birthday!

We made our way to Kovan Residences after mass to attend Megan's 1st birthday party! Her mom is an ex colleague of mine, and we hadn't met on years (except for recently at Suntec after P's Hokey Pokey session).

Party was in full swing when we got there, and the birthday girl was hopping from grandma to mommy to aunty, whoever's available. I realise belatedly that I did not manage to get a single pic of the birthday girl, only a video of the crowd singing her a birthday song. The doting parents have engaged a balloon sculpturer and e does some of the best balloons I've seen so far. Birthday theme was an animal theme, and they had a huge animal balloon sculpture which P enjoyed squeezing. Party atmosphere was great :)

Baby shower and Grandma's birthday

Attended hubby's cousin's baby shower today. Little baby Jay is so so small and fragile looking, and he almost seems like a doll. I don't recall P being that small before, so I should probably have a #2 to jog my memory. Heard that the baby's birth weight is 2.9kg, which is pretty close to P, so P must have been that small before!

There was still time left before we need to attend grandma's birthday dinner, so we went home first and managed to let P take a 1 hour nap. It proved to be a right choice, for the dinner only ended at 10.30pm, way past her bedtime.

Dinner was held at the Grassroots Club, some restaurant known as Gim Tim. When we walked into the restaurant, I thought we walked into someone's wedding banquet. It was banquet setting, and I guess the guests all had at least 3 tables each. Food turned out to be pretty good, which pleased hubby a great deal. He had second helpings of a lot of dishes throughout the night. We didn't have to be disrupted by P, for there is this wonderful thing called grandparents. Dad was still on his vegetarian diet, so he was in charge of P the entire night, bringing her to look at the live fish, the wedding banquet stage etc. My cousin's son Cody was born about 5 days before P, so they were playing together (or rather the adults were trying to get them to play together). In the end, the only thing they did well together was to snack on happy yogis (which I brought) and puffs (which cousin's wife brought).

P started rubbing her sleepy eyes furiously when we were having desserts, so that's the cue to leave. After a quick bath and a bottle of milk, she's off to dreamland.

SIL's Surprise Party

SIL's hubby planned a surprise birthday party for her this evening. They were supposed to attend a wedding together, so it was actually quite a good set up. While the couple was dressing up for the wedding, the bunch of friends and family have arrived at the BBQ pit to spring the surprise on her. It turned out to be a surprise for her, so everything was great!

P's interest during the entire party was on the styrofoam ice box. She must have been feeling really hot, for she kept going for the ice and ice water in the box. Scooped some out and started to pat it on her legs, it was funny to watch. She also managed to entertain sil's friends with the newly mastered skills like flying kiss, sayang, who's the clever girl (she will pat her chest), etc.

We made it home before she got really sleepy and cranky. After her bath and a bottle of doped (with her runny nose medicine) milk, she drifted off to lalaland.

Here's a pic that my younger sil took this afternoon. I'm glad she has sufficient hair now to carry off this photo.

Discipline and co-operation

I came across this article on Baby Center and it was really a great revelation for me!

"Your nearly-mobile, nearly-talking baby is certainly capable of understanding what "no" means, and of beginning to co-operate with adults, even (sometimes) when she doesn't actually want to. But she isn't ready to cope with adult anger when she doesn't co-operate because the reasons for the anger are beyond her understanding - it seems to her to gather out of nothing: an act of god; a thunderbolt.

Your toddler has no way of knowing that the thing she did or that just happened - milk down your clean shirt, a briefcase emptied out - was the one more minor disaster that was your "last straw". Even if she had sensed your previous tension, she would not have understood what caused it: the failed alarm call that left you late in getting up, late in getting her up, late getting off to daycare and work. She doesn't understand much about your feelings or your affairs, nor should she.

They are not yet her concern. If you scold, she may enrage you further by laughing; if you shout, she will jump and cry. If you lose your cool to a point where you actually punish her physically, shaking her, smacking her or dumping her in her cot, she will be as amazed and horrified as you would be if the family dog suddenly turned on you and took a chunk out of your leg. Until the reasons for adult anger become comprehensible, your toddler cannot learn anything useful from punishment. When the reasons do become comprehensible, she will be able to learn without punishment.

Suppose your child pulls a glass off the coffee table and breaks it. You may justify your angry scolding on the grounds that she should not have touched it because you have told her not to many times - and anyway she should have been more careful. But think a minute. She touched the glass because it was there: her vital curiosity told her to examine it and her memory and understanding are not yet good enough to tell her which things are forbidden. She broke it because her manual dexterity is not yet adequate for handling delicate things gently. So was the accident really her fault?

If the glass was really valuable, what was it doing left within her reach? She is being punished for being what she is. A baby.

Now suppose that she tips all the food out of her dish on to the freshly-washed floor. In fury you say that "she ought to know better". But ought she? A few minutes earlier you helped her to tip all the bricks out of their bag onto the floor. Is she supposed to share your ideas about the difference between food and toys? As to the clean floor, she probably watched you sloshing bubbly water over it. Is she supposed to understand that soapy water cleans things, but gravy dirties them? Once again you are being cross with her for being the age she is and for behaving as people in her age bracket are meant to behave.

Whatever other people may sometimes suggest, going gently with a baby this age cannot "spoil" her or create behaviour problems for later. In fact the more consciously you love her, and enjoy the way she loves you, the better. If you let yourselves realise and reciprocate her inexhaustible desire for smiles and hugs, it will be obvious that the last thing she wants is to displease you. It will be a long time yet before she can understand what pleases you, though. Your pleasures are not the same as hers. You don't like gravy on the floor...."

I think I really need to be more patient with P and manage my expectations. Many times, I have treated her as if she's more than a baby, but apparently, she's nowhere near. In this aspect, I have to admit hubby is ahead of me.

Hmmm, food for thought for the weekends... BBQ at my SIL's place tonight, Happy Friday!

Dong Dong Dong, 123

Hubby brought P to Great World City's Amazonia in the afternoon to spend some quality time with her. I'm very impressed that he did that! He wanted to head to eXplorerkid at AMK hub initially, but we've misplaced P's membership card (actually I suspected it was P who misplaced it while playing with my wallet), so I suggested for him to come to Great World City to wait for me to knock off. I joined them after work, and the place wasn't as huge as I expected. Heard from hubby that the play wasn't fantastic as well, but I would probably try to bring P on my own another time just to be sure.

P at Amazonia

We left Amazonia after I took a bird's eye view of the place. Hubby had to go meet his colleague for a while, so I brought P to Early Learning Centre. There was a kitchen set at the play area, and P had a cooking blast! I realise that she likes to use a spoon to stir around in a container (either cup, bowl or frying pan). She is also mildly interested in dolls, and keep wanting to sayang one of them. It took me a lot of distraction efforts to get her out of the store. After a $1 kiddy ride that she picked out herself outside the cinema, we rejoined hubby.

We celebrated hubby's almost-end-of-reservist with a feast at Great World City's Kuishinbo. Yeah, dong dong dong, 123, we are Kuishinbo! It was ladies night, and ladies enjoy a discounted price. My lil' one joined us for the feast. She started with some fish maw soup, followed by a chawanmushi all by herself, rice mixed with fish maw soup, grilled dory fillet, a small slice of cake and a vanilla ice cream to round it off. We estimated she ate about $10 worth of food.

Made our way home after stuffing ourselves silly (there goes my gym effort for 1 week). P is still a bit under the weather. Her nose is blocked and you know just from listening to her laboured breathing. I just applied some Vicks vapour rub on her bag and stuck a nasal patch on the front of her romper. Hope she can recover really soon, for hectic weekend is coming!

Shower Schizophrenia

Yes, I'm sure a lot of mommies can identify with this picture.

I burst out laughing when I saw this pic because I experience it every time I take a shower when P is asleep . It first started during my maternity leave when I was the sole caregiver of P. With a newborn, every chore is shelved and bath/lunch time becomes a luxury. I would put her down to nap and began a whirlwind of activities (chores and bath and what's not). The trick is to take a shower the moment she sleeps, else you can forget about it until another caregiver (hubby) comes back. Even so, the above phenomenon will keep playing in your mind and drives you crazy.

Before your child was born, you can take 20-minute showers. Now, if you can do a 2-minute one, it's already a luxury. That's motherhood.

Bishan Park Water Playground

Went to check out the Bishan Park Water Playground yesterday morning. It was a 10-15 min walk to reach, and I wanted to kill myself for not going to my in law's place to get her Quinny Zapp Xtra. In the end, I'm the one who did a 20-30 min walk carrying a 10kg load, ugh.

I was quite surprised to see a lot of kids with their bikes when we arrived, and my first impression is that they gather every Saturday morning to do cycling together. When I neared the water playground, I realised there's actually a Bike Hike against Rotavirus going on.

How about some Happy Yogis while we wait?

The water playground was empty at first, so I wasn't really sure how to "play" it. Decided to watch a bit of the Bike Hike while waiting for kids to start playing at the water playground. After a while, P got really restless and I thought "argh, ok, let's just go into the water".

I carried P over to a slab of rock which has water gushing out from the top and placed her next to it. The water trickled over her feet and she didn't know what to make of this whole experience. She stood and look at the rock, look at her feet, look back at the rock before she finally decide to touch the trickling water. From there, the existence of mama is forgotten. She splashed her way around the rock, getting the front of her romper wet within 2 seconds. Later, I brought her over to another fountain like structure and she had great fun with that one too. Check out a video here.





The only bad thing is that the water was pretty cold to touch, and with her wet clothes and the morning breeze sweeping across the park, it seems like a recipe for immediate flu/cold. We played for about 10 min and I decided it was enough exposure to the elements. As with kids, it's not always the parents who decide when to end the game. P threw a huge tantrum when I carried her to the side to change her out of her wet clothes. I had initially wanted to change her out of her diaper too, but the struggling was too much. After the change, I realized I had forgotten to bring her wet bag and had to walk home holding her wet clothes, her sandals, and the whole of her 10kg load. What a great exercise!

The next time round, I'll be sure to come with a car (inclusive of hubby). That will make life so much easier. And it's also probably time to invest in a thermal swim wear for her.

U Picnic

Reached Marina Barrage at 4.15pm to find the main car park being blocked off (I guess is full), and we had to do a HUGE detour to find the other car park B. It didn't help that the signage to car park B was quite terrible and we were amongst one of the cars which drive to a dead end and had to do yet another detour. After all the effort in trying to find the car park, we finally arrived at the barrage to find the place already bustling with activity.

Registration supposedly starts at 4.30pm, and the queue was still manageable when we got there. After about 10 min in the queue, I managed to collect our picnic basket. You could find kid activities like face painting and ballon sculpturing at level 1, and the picnic location is at level 3. Mom and me joined the queue for balloon sculpturing while dad brought P around. Got a flower and dog balloon for P and we made our way to the 3rd level to find a picnic spot.

Stage performances started soon after we found a spot (away from the speakers). I forgot to take a picture of the picnic basket, but it looked pretty decent (as in the basket itself) and contained light snacks like chocolate biscuits, some Indian cracker, etc.

All of us were new to the whole picnic experience. I was complaining to my mom that we didn't have any picnics before, and she agreed that this is quite a brand new but great experience. She even told me that we can join next year if they have it.

There are plenty of kites in the sky. There are booths selling food. There are kids running around. There are families relaxing (and some even sleeping). P had lots of fun roaming around, plucking grass, eating grass (yeah, didn't manage to prevent this in time), and mostly just watching the action around her.

Great place to be on a Saturday afternoon! We left at about 7.15pm coz I sense that P is getting sleepy (true enough, she fell asleep in the car) and more importantly, there are too many beetles flying around for my comfort. I wouldn't want to bring any back with me especially when hubby is on reservist. My phobia of beetles is caused by a beetle bite on my neck (which is super painful) when I was still staying at my parents' place. Luckily the beetles at barrage only came after the sun set, else I think I would probably just collect the goodie bag and leave.

Baby Market Exhibition

Bad bad choice to go. Huge crowd and plenty of goods out of stock by the time I got there. Huggies was totally cleaned out, and most of the diaper brands are out of L size diapers which P is wearing. The Avent bottles I intended to buy were out of stock. Merries was out of stock. Now, I have to find time to head to a department store to get the things I need, grr!

I only came back with 2 packs of Drypers Drypants (probably the only brand with L size left), a pair of Medela teats, and a box of fm milk bags. Even with my mom taking care of P, I still find it very difficult to shop. At one point in time, saw P at one of the booths playing with Mother Garden toys. Super cute and tempting, but a tad expensive, so I didn't get any.

P however, had a feast at the Heinz booth. They had sampling for Heinz cereal bars, and we kept going back for more. I think she had at least 1.5 cereal bars if the small sampling pieces are put together. On top of that, they also had sampling for Heinz baby fruit juice, which P also had a few rounds of.

Not too sure if it's the sugar effect, but she decided to stick to me at bedtime. Literally stuck to me. She would fall asleep with her head on my shoulder, and after making sure she is sound asleep, I put her down. She immediately jumped up and started crying, only to stop when I carry her again. Then, she will promptly fall asleep and the cycle repeats. 5 tries and I didn't succeed. Just when I thought I'll give up and sleep with a 10kg load on top of me, I manage to adjust her slowly onto the bed. Ahhh, finally got it!

iherb

Received an email announcement from iherb today, and it makes my day!

"iHerb has added a new shipping method exclusively for Singapore customers called Euroasia Express. It includes tracking information and costs a flat fee of only $8 for orders totaling more than $60!
This shipping method takes 4 - 8 business days (6 - 10 days total). However, the more orders we ship using this method, the faster the delivery will be - as we need to meet a minimum quota of packages to use it."

I'm relatively new to iherb, and has only made 3 orders so far. It was an attempt to try out more organic foodstuff for P, and trial and error requires a lot of patience to know what works, and money to know what didn't work (you throw it away if your child reject). 

Anyway, P's recent craze is the Happy Baby's Happyyogis (yoghurt and fruit snacks). 

(Click on the picture to bring you straight to the product page)

If she sees a packet lying around, she would go for it at top speed, pick it up and pass it to you. Then she will point to the pack in your hands and expect you to feed her. If you don't do that, or you do not do it fast enough, she starts her crying fit. Sometimes, she would try to open the packet on her own and the look of concentration in her eyes is really admirable. Of course, she won't succeed and will start the cycle of passing to an adult.

I have also bought the Super Puffs from Plum Organics for MIL's side, and feedback from my MIL's maid is that she likes the puffs too.

(Click on the picture to bring you straight to the product page)

I've ever smelled the contents of the strawberry ones and it was heavenly. Now I'm thinking of buying more to try feeding her myself.

With the new shipping method, the cost is reduced even more. I'm a happy mama!

 To save $10 off your first order of $40 or more (or $5 off smaller orders), please use my coupon gift code: DIW190

October Fun

My October weekends are almost full. It's going to be a busy month socially, especially next weekend.

5 Oct 2012 (Fri)
Who's hitting the Baby Market exhibition this weekend? I'm heading there after work tomorrow with my mom and P. Mom told me she will be bringing P to the airport first, and proudly proclaimed that she went to the airport yesterday to recce so she knows where's the best place to see aeroplanes take off. The extent she went for P, I really have to applaud her. She also told me that P is able to imitate sounds of planes flying as well as gesture with her hands how they fly. It was pretty funny to watch.

Anyway, my shopping list includes Avent bottles, Medela teats, fm milk bags, Merries diapers and socks. Hope to get great bargains there!

6 Oct 2012 (Sat)
U, yes U! U have to go to the U Picnic. Organised by U Family, U Picnic promises to redefine your picnic perception and bring you nothing short of "Food.Fun.Experience"! Tickets cost $15 for NTUC members ($30 for public), and it admits 4 adults. Children under the age of 2 gets in free. I was deliberating whether to go for this, but decided to go ahead because I've never been to Marina Barrage and also because I know that P will like the crowd and barrage of activities there. Tickets were purchased under the assumption that hubby would be able to book out during his reservist, but this is not to be. Hence, I will be going with my mom and probably sister. Dad needs to help out in a temple on that day, so he will only be fetching us there.

12 Oct 2012 (Fri)
SIL's birthday

13 Oct 2012 (Sat)
Hubby's cousin has given birth and will be hosting her baby's full month party. On that note, my FB is flooded with pics and news of pregnant women friends and newborn babies. I guess a lot is attributed to the Dragon Year, but all these postings are making me wonder what's all the fuss about birth rates. I mean, it can't be that bad if new babies are popping up on my FB every month right? Haha, yeah, I know it's too superficial to base it on my FB.

Will be attending my paternal grandmother's birthday party in the evening. Not very close with this side of the family, but I can't get out of this one.

14 Oct 2012 (Sun)
My ex colleague has invited me to her daughter's 1 year old party. I haven't met this colleague for a very long time, and the duration that we worked together was relatively short because it was a contract role. We got along pretty well when we were working together, but I was still surprised to receive her FB invitation after so many years. Then again, I think I surprised her even more by telling her I'll be attending. Hubby and I will nv attend such parties if we didn't have P. Now with P and knowing her love for playing interacting with children, we are more inclined to attend such events.

Dinner - SIL's birthday celebration

20 Oct 2012 (Sat)
Bloom School of Music and Arts! One of the Sep FB Group mommies has organised a trial class for our babies to attend. I will be bringing P for this class that costs $25. Heard from other mommies who have gone for trial class that the school uses a lot of musical instruments as teaching materials. I can't wait!

26 Oct 2012 onwards
I'll be in Korea with my mom!

There's my October. Recalling the song 'Wake Me Up When September Ends". October is much more hectic!

Stitches be gone!

I finally removed my surgery stitches yesterday night and went back to gym today after a 1 week plus hiatus. It's amazing how 1 week of being a couch potato inactivity can make a difference to one's fitness level, and I barely survived the 30 minute session on the cross ramp. With my upcoming Korea trip, it's going to be another week-long break from the gym, plus the classic 买东西-吃东西-买东西-吃东西, I think I will come back a fat pig.

P has been spending days and nights at my in law's place due to hubby's reservist. It's driving me crazy that I can't have my girl with me. The only thing that brights up my day (and probably hers) is the moment I arrive at my in law's door, and she will come to me muttering "mum mum, mami, ma ma" as she walk. Can I survive another week like this?

Diaper Woes

We had plenty of diaper leaks in the past 2 weeks, and it's starting to get to me and hubby. I found P in a pool of pee on our bed in 2 occasions, and she's totally nonchalant about it. She just lies there with wet clothes and the pee surrounding her, quietly sucking her thumb as usual. If I hadn't want to pick her up, she could have been lying in the pee the entire day. Ya, gross right?

Anyway, I attribute the diaper leaks to the change of diaper brand, because we've ran out of the brand we usually use. With the Baby Fair coming up in less than 2 weeks' time, it doesn't make economic sense to stock up now. Besides, the leaking diaper brand is a reputable brand which she uses at my in law's place. It used to be able to last P through the night, but now it couldn't. I went on their FB page and saw feedbacks on the poor quality of the diapers, so I'm even more convinced that it is the diaper instead of P's pee output increasing. There's only 1 way to find out, to make the switch back to our usual brand come the Baby Fair this Friday.

Amidst the diaper leak woes, I read an article (World diaper output may take a hit) in the papers today regarding world diaper supply. Apparently, there was a plant explosion in Japan where they manufacture an ingredient used in diapers. Boy, our usual diaper brand is a Japanese brand, I hope it won't be affected much.

Hubby is on reservist till 12 Oct 2012, and it includes a 7-day outfield which he couldn't book out. I think P will be spending most nights sleeping over at my in law's place. It will be hard for me to prepare for work in the morning if she's around. Ideally, she will still be asleep when I wake up to prepare for work, but all mothers know that the outcome is often the opposite of what you wish for. I have no desire to start my day pulling my hair out to get ready for work and handle a stick-to-me-like-glue-mini-me at the same time.

Also, I don't think I can handle another diaper leak (and bedsheet change) by myself ;)