Awww, I've Missed You Too...

I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a pout when I got home today from my muuuuuch needed facial treatment.

As Rachel doesn't take to bottle feeding, I had to standby papa to stay home in order to provide aid should she need to be bottle fed whilst I was away(I'd prefer to do it ourselves - that's why I'm soooo tired la! haha).  When I was done, papa came to fetch me(after she was fed) and the minute she heard my voice, she turned to face me and at first she smiled but seconds later, she pouted!  As it's been slightly more than 2 hours since her last milk intake, I picked her up to nurse her.  She did nurse, but only for 5mins and thereafter, just kept grinning and 'talking' to me in a manja way.  Awww....  that makes all the rushing worthwhile, ^-^.

*I remember when Renee was a few months old, although I wasn't bf-ing her then, she'd suckle my clothes, and once, I went out a few hours for a haircut in town, hubby told me that she's been whining the whole time and the moment I carried her, she'd suckle my blouse and went to sleep, hahaha.

The Official 1st Day

Renee has been very excited about school after that 1 week school holiday programme.  And despite my numerous reminders on the 'reality' of school when she goes back, I guess it didn't cross her mind that it'd be quite different, hahaha.

The minute she got home after school today, the 1st thing I asked was "how was school?" and Papa answered instead "she said it's no fun" whilst she gave me the 'sian' look.  So,  without saying, I reminded her :

Me : "I've told you many times before, do you remember?  That school'd be quite different from the holiday programme.  Anyway, school's not just for fun, the main thing for you to go to school is to learn, not to play, do you remember that?"

Re : "Ya, I know, but it's really no fun... Mommy, you should have changed Berries class and let me go on Fridays too, 'cos it's more fun that day"(she's overheard the teacher telling me that Fridays are more fun la)

Me : "Do you remember teacher Karen also said that there'd be 'show and tell' on Mondays, so how did it go today?"

Renee : "Today don't have, next week but I know I'd surely be the last one..."

Me : "There, next week you'd have it.  It's not necessarily a bad thing to be the last right?  Especially u're so new to the school, being the last would give you time to find out what you'd have to do from your friends and better prepare yourself"

Renee : "........."

Me : "So, do you still want to continue with the school?  It's not cheap ok, so you'd better tell me now if you don't want to"

After a few hours....

Me : "So how, Renee?  Do you still want to go to the school?"

Renee : "Yes..."

Burping Cloths

Simply love these burping cloths! :D

Oh, what's that, OUCH!

Brought baby Rachel for her 3rd month immunisation* today.

She was still smiling/chuckling happily when the PD played with her(probably very happy 'cos she had just been fed whilst waiting for her turn, hahaha), not knowing what she's in for, heeeee.

The big 'surprise' came when the PD gave her the 1st jab and the shock she experienced was rather great(> than the 1st mth's jab) 'cos she literally 'jumped'!  That caused the 'wound' to bleed alittle, poor thing... And as if that wasn't enough, she was given the 2nd one, oh man, her face was soooo uptight that it turned red.

Jie Jie on the other hand, as with Rachel's 1st mth's injection, said she didn't want to watch the process and asked to go outside.  But Papa told her to just simply turn her head away and so she went to hide in a corner, hahaha.  Thereafter, she decided that she still, would rather be outside and so I let her..., but she came in immediately when she heard her mei mei's cries and sayang-ed her, lolz...

Luckily, meimei fell asleep soon after and we quickly went over to Paragon(where we parked the car) for a quick lunch at the Big O before heading to the playground for Renee to have some fun(made new friends again, lolz) whilst I grabbed whatever I needed in the fastest timing I could achieve, :).

Renee was supposed to go for her last PRE-school lesson at the Enopi today but as papa was feeling tired(it shld be me resting!), we changed it to tomorrow.  I was supposed to meet up with her friend's mommy today when we sent both of them to the class but since I'd need to be with Rachel and she's got her jab today, we decided to change it.  However, that means the 2 girls didn't get to meet up at all this June holidays('cos they've also changed their lessons for the past 2 weeks to another day due to their other playdate arrangement), :(.

*It's not juz ouch to her thighs, but it's also ouch to her parents' pocket, hahaha.  It's sooooo Expensive for a baby to hv the compulsory jabs these days.  Just for the 1st year's immunisation package(the required ones go beyond one year, for those whom are not aware), it cost us S$1,009 and it's not inclusive of GST and the PD's consulation fees on each visit!  I wonder why we have to pay GST for medical...  So in all, we paid about S$1,200 today(and blurr me, never had the privilege of using a CDA account before, didn't know that the CDA acc needs PIN no. for withdrawal, so there it goes, we didn't get to use it today! :<)

A Short Outing

My good pal, Vicky, had wanted to come over last week but it was too last minute an arrangement and I was feeling very tired, so I've told her to re-schedule.

She came over today and Renee decided last minute to go with us to dinner(I've arranged for papa to be home with the baby and helper, heee).

Although I've already b/fed baby before we left for dinner(@Bukit Timah Plaza, must go there again!), but as Renee's order was delayed and further delayed when we had to re-order cos her pizza came coated with mayonaise, we only got home at around 9pm.  We did manage a quick stop to the supermarket for some groceries though, *phew*.  Back home, was told that baby had cried soooo badly(til like out of breath), 1stly, she refused the bottle and 2ndly, they had delayed feeding her due to the warming up of the EBM, haiz...

On the other hand, Renee had behaved very well and the outing, though very short was pleasant and I managed to catch up abit with my gf and lent a listening ear to her.(due to the rush, we din get to 'finish our talk' outside and we had to continue at the poolside when she sent us home...)

*It was on our way back that Renee realised(overhead  Vicky's telephone conversation) that the dinner was aunty Vicky's birthday treat and had felt very bad for not getting her a present.  She then asked me arrange another date with Vicky on her actual birthday, hahaha.

Food for Thoughts

When we have all settled down after our outing, Renee suddenly asked : "The 1st person who's born in Singapore, who takes care of them('cos she doesn't know to say him or her haha)?".  Papa went "huh?", hahaha. Obviously he didn't catch the question.  She's thinking, since children needs someone to take care of them from birth, then what about the very 1st person on earth...  Deep question right, esp. for a 6yo....

*Shortly after when we both have no answer for her, she remarked : "oh I know, Buddha's fairies!".  :D

Father's Day II

We've decided to go out and had initially planned to go out as a family without our helper, however, Renee confused everyone by asking for the maid to go along.

Initially, she told me that our maid had told her that she hope to stay home, so I told her that I'd ask 'sir' if he'd like her to go along.  Then when she realised that we're also bringing baby out, she said in that case, she'd follow...  We told her that it's perfectly ok with us if she prefers to stay home but she chose to come along.

We headed straight to 'Dian Xiao Er' to que for a table before heading to the kiddy stores for me to check the baby carriers + pacifiers out and also for Renee to have some fun at the playground.

Not long later, the restaurant called and we went over before making a purchase(hubby said we could go back there after dinner).   Whilst I was at the stores, baby had cried - oh my gosh, don't tell me she's just like her jie jie, doesn't like to go out?! and papa has to push her around(in the car seat stroller) and she fell asleep.  However, when we were just settling down for our dinner at the restaurant, the big mouth restaurant manager came and commented "oh, she sleeping, very guai hor" and OMG, baby started to wail in less than 10mins' time.  Luckily I'm used to such contingencies and had finished up my dinner super fast(they were all just halfway through only) and quickly carried her out to look for a baby room to nurse and soothe her...  She can even kaypoh and looked around at the butterflies painted on the walls when we finally got to the baby room, aiyoh!

However, even after I've bf-ed her, she didn't stay calm for very long and I had to carry her to KP to quickly grab a pack of pacifiers(since she likes to suckle sooo much) and rushed home.

Back home, I quickly sterilised 1 of the pacifier and offered it to her on the 1st sign of her wanting to suck her thumb but she rejected.  Tried a few more times and each time she'd just push it out with her tongue.  Later, when she cried again, I tried to trick her with the pacifier but the second she realised it's not MOI's, she pushed it out and cried, haiz...

Father's Day

Didn't have the chance to bring Renee out shopping for a gift like before, we only managed to get simple and basic items for Papa as his Father's day present.  Due to its low value, Renee asked me to take 2x of one of the items but reminding her that it's her thought that counts(and her obedience) and not the value, one is sufficient.

As usual, she hadn't been able to contain her excitement for too long and gave way to leaking to her papa that she's got Father's day present for him and thus, I see no point in trying to hide the pressie anymore and told her that she could give it to him last night, :).

Baby sister looked(whilst sucking her thumb, hahaha) on as big sister's writing on her pressie

Papa has gone for his usual Sunday morning golf and we've just had our lunch.  So now it's just waiting for him to return home to see if we'd be going out later...

Birthday

It's our domestic helper's birthday today and we bought a chocolate cake from Prima Deli for her.

We pretended like we've not taken notice of her birthday('cos Renee kept asking us when, infront of her/loudly!) and we lit up the candles when she went for her shower.  However, the candles melted abit onto the cake 'cos she took so long in the toilet despite our pretence of chasing her to come out faster, hahaha.

Bottle Refusal? Dream Feed?

Oh no, it seems like baby is rejecting the bottle!

Unless we wake her up midway from her sleep to feed, else she wouldn't drink from the bottle and would insist on being breastfed!  Some would tell me to keep on trying but this strong headed baby can go on for hours!  How to, when she's still so young and your heart would ache if you hear her cry(til voice hoarse and even choked). OMG...  This means - no more outing without baby, oh man!

I've managed to clear almost all of the EBM(expressed breast milk) from the chiller yesterday due to this and because of it, my bmilk supply seem to have dipped - 'cos of not wanting to store anymore EBM(since she doesn't quite like warmed up chilled ebm), I had not expressed and tried to let her finish up the balance ebm stored in the fridge.

Bfed her just before we(baby and I) head off to bed last night and instructed the maid to bring her to me only if she wakes up for milk from 5am onwards.  When I woke up at 6am, I quickly expressed when noted that baby has drank at 3:55am.  Then, at 7am, upon a quick check on her, I quickly changed her diaper and as she was fidgeting, I picked her up and dream-fed(like her jie jie) her with the freshly expressed bm, heee.  At this rate, I think it's gonna be very very hard to wean her off breastfeeding and that certainly leaves me with no 'movement freedom'(I had to rush back home on Sunday, simply because she didn't want to drink from the bottle and by then she had cried for quite a while already...) - oh no, what's gonna happen to my badly needed facial treatments?... Do I have to foresake the package?... :(

The Result(Nafa Grade I)

We've been neglecting in our mails collection since we've moved here('cos we need to go to the mail box which is near the guard house) and suddenly remembering that we should be receiving the results to Renee's Nafa internal exam, hubby went to retrieve the mails last night.

The results aren't satisfactory, with only A- and B+ in all the sections.  Renee was happy that she's been allowed to go on to the next level with Nafa but when she realised that the result's not very good, she was very sad.  Well, for not practicing hard enough, this will definitely be the result, isn't it?  She cried last night but there's nothing we nor herself could do and the only thing I could do was to remind her again that she'd really need to buck up if she wants to achieve better results the next semester.

*With such results, I've asked her to seriously consider if she'd really like to continue learning the violin.  She really sat down and pondered for awhile before giving me the answer - "yes". And to my question if she'd really work hard from now on without my repeated urgings, she's also answered "yes" after thinking over it for sometime(to this, I really have to wait and see if she'd be able to keep to her words...)

A Wonderful Day

Ya, perhaps it's really a wonderful day - that is, in Renee's context, :)  Well, why wouldn't it be?...

Ever since we've moved here, I've been wanting to go for a swim but when I'm finally given the green light by my gynae to do so, it's been raining each time I wanted to do so!, Finally today, we managed to have our 1st swim together!(good thing I could still fit into the swim suit set I've ordered from Japan >a yr ago!) and with chicken wings and ice-cream thereafter... She's definitely enjoyed herself, hahaha

The School Trial II

Today's the last day of the 1 week school holiday programme and, wanting to have a word with the Principal about Renee's progress/level of learning with the school, I went along with papa to pick her up.('cos I've heard from Renee that the Principal has been working with her personally)

Parents/guardians were already waiting outside the school when we arrived and I've overheard some parents commenting to 1 of the teachers that their kids had enjoyed the holiday programme very much.

Unfortunately, the Principal had already left for London today but luckily, teacher Karen is aware of Renee's progress and thus, I managed to get a brief idea of what/how Renee's been doing so far.  English is quite simple but  I find it ok for her to re-enforce(as long as she's not complaining of being bored) but the mathematics concept is pretty similar to E.nopi's and as such, we might drop her off Enopi when she starts school after the June holiday.  To re-enforce Renee's Chinese, we were encouraged to let her take on extra lessons and for that, I told the teacher that since they provide the option, we would most likely choose the 4days a week school schedule with the school(more costly in terms of value) so that we could keep to her Friday morning Berries class.  Teacher Karen recommended that we should let her come in for the Monday classes if she's to 'miss' the Friday classes 'cos there're 'show and tell' session on Mondays - that's no problem at all, since we're going for the Mondays to Thursdays schedule.  Renee was alittle upset at first when she learnt that we're opting her out of the Friday classes(she's overheard the teacher telling me that Fri lessons are more 'fun', that's why) but was comforted when I reminded her about their 'show and tell' session on Mondays.

There's also an option of 'creative art' on Friday mornings and they actually outsourced this to Nafa arts!  OMG, imagined we had to que up at Nafa arts in the past, hahaha but in any case, we're opting out of the Friday classes so there's no issue here...(perhaps if we're still staying around here, our #2 can go there! heee, but oh, I don't like their phonics, hahaha, nvm, still got a few more yrs to go before we have to think abt this :>)

What's Renee's reaction to the school, well, she said she likes it and would like to go back after the June holidays(even though I've reminded her that it may not be as 'fun' as the holiday programme anymore), :)