My Babysitter is a Television!

Recently mama has hired a new babysitter for Little Sprouts, with minimal charges this babysitter doesn't need advance scheduling, transportation and she is able to keep them occupied for hours... it's actually a television set!



How pathetic mama to leave Juan Juan staying hours infront of the tube, yet mama always discourages friends and family leaving their children to the T.V! Mama reckons when Juan Juan spends more time with T.V, she would have less quality time with mama. Moreover, spending too much time on T.V would reduce her attention span, minimize her chance for more discoveries and exploration!


Juan Juan was not allow to watch T.V until she passed a year old, but lately mama was too tired dealing with "double trouble" (Actually shouldn't be an excuse)... so whenever mama feels like taking a nap, mama would turn on Playhouse Disney for Juan Juan. She could sit infront of the T.V for hours until mama turns the screen off, sometime she would request for her favourite DVD like Baby Einstein, Sing-a-long Thomas and friends and Nursery Rhymes.

Although mama tries to be with her whenever the T.V is on, but that doesn't kill my guilt of letting the T.V babysits her for hours! So mama vows to reduce her T.V time to 2 hours per day right after this post is published (2 hours is the maximum gauge for her age)... no matter how exhausting mama is, mama will try to spend as much quality time on other activities with Little Sprouts as possible!

Ciao my 'New Babysitter'!!

Part of the activity mama planned today, making Juan Juan's favourite volcano with her.

Here comes the volcanic eruption of our composite volcano!

My Eco Friendly Baby?!

Junior was borned with hypersensitive skin like papa- papa was suffered from rhinitis and eczema back in school days! So it's part of mama daily house chores to clean up around 20 pieces of napkins per day. Junior is still breastfed, so imagine his watery "poop poop" stained on the napkins... phew!! It's so troublesome to get rid of!



Junior saving mama from buying diapers?! Errhh... actually mama already stocked up MamyPoko from size S to L, so instead of saving money it's actually wasted 2 packs of size S MamyPoko(smile). On top of that, mama found there are approximately 5 canisters(200 pieces) of babywipes "lying safely" in the store room (Excluding those in packages)... yeah, babywipes are also banned by Junior's peadiatrician due to his "terrible" nappy rash(weeps)!



Initially mama and papa were using cotton wools to clean his bottom, but now both lazy parents decided to bring him for a "warm splash" in the bath room! Then we apply his "specially prescribed" nappy rash cream( not sure whether it's cortisol, cause it smells like hydrocortisone), we are using doctor's prescription because neither Sebamed, Desitin, Drapolene nor Bepanthene was able to ease his condition (Only the kiddie doc's medicine really does a wonder)!

Junior laughing hyterically while enjoying his "horsey rides".

My Studious Boy!

Mama made an efford to read for Junior when he was around 5 months old in tummy, now he is 2 months 1 week plus... and mama was rewarded with his superb interest in books and stories!

This week mama found Junior was able to track mama's finger and follow the pages that mama showed him, when mama read aloud he would smile or giggle to show his interest in listening to the rhymes or stories. His attention spans was around 5 mins (sometimes would extend to 10 mins), which consider excellent for an infant! Whenever he turned his head off the pages or books, mama will try other activities like flash cards or play some music for him (Xylophone, musical drum, or keyboard).

These few weeks, Junior started to show his understanding of words. At night, papa normally babysit Junior in different room, so that in case if either Sprouts whined they won't disturb each other's slumber. Last night at around 3am, Junior woke up fretting and crying for milk. Papa tried to console him and he told him, "papa will bring mama over to give you nen nen (milk)!" and surprisingly Junior stopped crying and waited patiently in the room until mama turned up!

Most of the time when mama signs "milk" (specially if Junior was hungry), instead of crying or whining Junior will cheer up and smile back. One of his favourite sign is "mama"(smile), whenever he saw the sign "mama" he will laugh happily! Afterall it's rewarding learning sign language for the sake of communicating with our 'little one'!

Ding Dong!! Special Delivery from Heaven!!

Mama's joy and pride- cheerful Little Brother!

Lok Yuan Xuan a.k.a Sprout Junior was borned on the night of Qi Xi Jie, or literally " The Seventh Eve Festival"!

It was drizzling since mama was admitted, papa was standing by shivering in the car while awaiting for mama's "Good News". It showed poor signs of labor until the next evening, (after papa delivered mama's dinner and decided to go back for a shower)mama started to experience excruciating contractions that less than 1 mins apart!

Coincidentally, the hospital staff were in the middle of "berbuka puasa"! When the officer came and broke the water, it's already passed 8 in the evening. Mama was sent into the labor room urgently, the pain turned worst after the enema and mama had to asked for a "relief" (the staff offered mama Entonox inhaler). Thankfully, papa was around all along the labor to give mama supports and consoles... unfortunately in return he was scolded and cursed by mama during the labor, thousand apologies to papa(smile)!

If any officer asked mama to rate the labor pain in scale of 0-10, I would say it passed 30!! Mama was crumpling the hair and squeezing papa's arm yet the 2 medical students that assisted mama asked mama to wait for another 4 hours before the next examination (Mama's reaction was "WHAT?!!I Don't think I could even STAND another min of this PAIN!!")! Luckily within an hour, Junior already signalled mama that he is coming... mama had an urge to "push"! The medical students panickily rushed for a midwife, after a few "straining exercises" we got to meet our "heavenly delivery"- a baby boy!

Here's Lok Yuan Xuan a.k.a Sprout Junior a.k.a Rain Boy's "Biography":

Auspicious name, Yuan- Prosperous life with empathy; Xuan- Talented, prosperous and successful in life!

Borned in 26th Aug, 2009

Weight: 3.22kg (At Birth); 4.5kg (1 month old)

Height: 50cm

Milestone: Stare at faces (Right after borned), smiles (D3), vocalised 'Ang-Goo' (D12), bear weight on legs (1/2 month); hold head steady (1 month), blow bubbles, laugh and vocalised more than 5 sounds (1 1/2); bring hands together (2 months)

Diet: Breast milk and a tea spoon of Gripe Water

Breast milk intakes: 3oz (1-2 hourly apart for the 1st 1 month); 4oz (2 hourly intervals daytime and 3 hourly intervals at night- 1 to 1 3/4 months); 4.5 oz (2-3 hourly intervals daytime and 6 hourly at night)

Favourite activities: Chatting, mesmerizing the lights, strolling around, taking bath (After 1/2 month)

Hate most activities: Tummy time

Favourite massage: Legs massage with cycling

Favourite position: Sit up

Hate most position: Lying down when cradled

Sleep better position: On tummy

Favourite feeding position: Tummy to tummy

Hate most feeding position: Lying down on bed

Favourite gadgets: Little Bear musical toy (Given by Ah Yi) and handkerchief

Dislike most: Juan Juan jie jie's bullies, forced to drink milk (Bottlefeed), and traffic jams

Favourite music: Papa's whistling and chinese classical songs; mama's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; Little Bear musical toy's lullaby

Favourite sounds: Crumpling paper/ plastic bags

Favourite books: Flip-Flap cloth book by Abbott, Big Colour Booklet by Popular publisher

Favourite colours: White, and red

Kiasu Mom?!! Sending 2 Years Old to School, but Why Montessori?

Used to be Juan Juan's Corner, now mama converts it to Little Sprouts' corner!

It's the 3rd visit to Harmony Montessori with Little Sprout, just to get her familiar with her future "playground"!

Mama reckons most kindergartens are too "academical", they place more important on children academic results over their thorough progress. Mama believes it's best for Little Sprouts to grow on their own pace, they should enjoy learning rather than being "spoon feed" with knowledges!

Montessori methods provides a chance for children to breath and grow in a more gradually pace, it guards the children through their preschool according to their own ability and specialty as every child is given in different ways! The ideal of 'spare the rod and spoil the child' no longer exist, it "diciplines" the children with proper compliments and praises... it stresses more on responsibility and commitment.

Harmony Montessori provides Juan Juan a core English Environment, in the meantime helping her in mastering Mandarin and Malays. One of the most attractive part is they teach English by using phonics rather than by memorizing the words, mama beliefs learning to link the letters together and make a sound is far more important than knowing 'A' for Apple! Besides, they stress the children to convey in complete sentenses and definitely NO 'baby talks'!

When Juan Juan was borned, papa and mama tried our best Not to talk 'babies' to her (as suggested by a few parenting articles, but it's contradicted by some articles too). Instead, we tought her some baby signs and we found the results are quite promising. Since she was 1 year old, Juan Juan keeps impressing people by her speech and most people commented she talks like a 3-4 years old (Smile)!

Beside the language part, mama loves Harmony's small class learning concept. With a low teacher and student ratio like 1:8, Juan Juan would definitely gain more attention from her teacher! The school environment is clean and condusive, foods are healthy without additional flavouring nor colouring (as described by teacher Lee). Moreover Harmony Montessori is equipped with comprehensive Montessori learning appratus, unlike most Montessori that has nothing related to Maria Montessori.

Harmony Montessori's open day is fall on the 21 and the 22 November, 2009. Juan Juan will be started her 3 days a week schooling in December (from 9am-11:15am), and official schooling on 3 January, 2010 (from 8:30am to 12:15pm)!
So, is mama kiasu?! Well, just trying to provide my best to my children like other parents do and hoping the best for them... love you both!

WWIII at Home... What a Nightmare!!

Mama, Juan Juan and Junior were trying to stay in peace... but in reality it was totally chaotic!!

Here's mama daily routine when Juan Juan and Junior around... Juan Juan wakes up around 7 in the morning, mama gets her a bottle of "123" and sterilises Junior's feeding utensils while he is still asleep. Sometimes we manage to catch a quick breakfast, and get the laundry done before Junior wakes up!

Junior normally wakes up around 8am, mama will breastfeed then bathe him before Juan Juan(as Juan Juan requested). While mama dealing with Junior, mama lets Juan Juan watch her favourite "Good Morning Mickey"(half hour show). After morning bath, mama prefers to read 1 or 2 short stories for both Little Sprouts and shows Junior a few pages of touch and feel book... everything was sailing smooth until time to send Junior for a "short nap"!!!!

Mama had to cradle Junior in arms until he fall asleep, and once mama placed him on the matteress, he started to fret and whine while Juan Juan kept hopping around us and shouting like a Red Indian! Mama tried to rock him in a bouncy net, but without a few seconds he was awaken by his "soprano" sister!

When mama keeps attending to Junior, Juan Juan will whine and ask mama to carry or do her lots of flavors. If mama refused, she will keep crying until she throw out... it's a chain-reaction, when Juan Juan cries, Junior will cry out loud as well (Together they make out a "remarkable" Duet)!!

At last, mama decided to sling clingy little Junior all day long. Mama tried not to leave Junior crying unattended for more than 5 mins, lacking attention during his early months would impact his brain development, slowing down his speech besides leading him feeling unsecure and unconfident when he grows up (according to an article from Johnson & Johnson)! But after a day, mama's shoulders were tensed and aching... Ouch!

Mama can't blame Juan Juan for her mischievous, it was Junior's fault too (who is a light sleeper and doesn't settle easily)! Although mama doesn't like to use spring cot, but mama has to give in ... it's darn tiring to settle 2 little rascals at the same time!!

Siblings Rivalry!

2 years old is actually the least prefect interval between siblings, as 2 years plus toddlers are best known to be more jealous and self-centered! Papa and mama took the risk, and so we have to face the consequences as well.

Juan Juan was under depression right after her little brother was borned, she told me a few times that "mama ran away, mama doesn't want Juan Juan and papa sent Juan Juan to stay with Ah Po (Gandmama)". Perhaps we had made the very wrong 'move', of sending her to Ah Po during confinement. We thought these would help mama to take care of the "double-troubles" hence mama could have enough rests during confinement, but it has inflicted pressures and pains into this young lady- Juan Juan!

For the past few weeks since Junior was borned, Juan Juan refused to come home. She was clingy to her Ah Po, she kept repeating she doesn't want mama. Even when she was alone with me, she kept asking for Ah Po and her voice turned horseness whenever she talked to me. There was one night when Ah Po sent her back, she pushed away my hand when I offered to send her to bed. My heart was crumpled and torned apart, I could see anger and hatred on her face... imagine the child you loves and cares since she was in your womb, was now totally pissed on you!

After discussed with papa, mama decided not to send Juan Juan to Ah Po's house even if she requested. Mama tried to spend as much quality time as possible with Juan Juan, and sometimes mama send Junior to Ah Po if mama really tired babysitting both at the same time.

This week mama and papa found Juan Juan was less clingy to Ah Po, moreover she didn't whine much when we leave Ah Po's house. 2 days back when Ah Po asked Juan Juan whether she missed Ah Po, she replied she missed mama instead (Mama was so happy)!

Besides, she started to show her kindness to Junior and stopped bullying him as much as before. Previously she tipped over the bouncy net when Junior was lying on it, wet the nappy linear and place it on junior's face, poked his eyes and squeezed his feet and head! Now she assisted in bringing Junior's stuff, rocking him when he was crying, kissed and stroked him and yesterday she tried to feed him apple (Luckily mama noted and stopped her in time).

Mama reckons things take time to settle, and wounds take time to heal. Although we are still able to smell some jealousy, mama believes eventually the bond between Juan Juan and Junior will become strong as mama always tell Juan Juan "Together you are strong"!