A Gift from Jie Jie

Since grandma has been giving both of them 'angpao' to share, Renee's been wanting to get her meimei a coin bank.  However, each time we passed by a MiniToons shop, papa would always say "come back later after dinner" but we always had to rush back after dinner... :(  So last Friday, after her violin lesson, we decided to drop by Hougang Mall for a quick dinner and when papa went to the toilet, I took the opportunity to bring her to the MiniToons and we found this :

Then, on Monday, when I mentioned about getting a bolster for meimei, this jie jie offered to pay for it again and she even reminded me about it when we were about to leave Marina Square but I told her that she could save the $ 'cos meimei doesn't seem like a bolster person, hahaha. Isn't Renee a nice doting elder sister? Awww...(hope this will last though, hahaha)

Cannot Bite Mommy!

Although it's a public holiday, still I had to drag myself up as papa wanted to bring the 2 kids for their follow-up medicine after his car's delivered - yes, you didn't read wrong, he's gone and bought another vehicle!  Buay tahan, anyway, I've already made known to him that I will NOT drive(at least not for a while), so he knew he's to sell the current one off - something I hope would be soon...

I was suuuuper tired when we got back from the physician's and quickly took a nap with Rachel after my lunch/her shower, hahaha.  And originally, we had planned to pay a visit to the Istana(I've never been there before) but it rained just before we got out of home and we went to Vivo City instead, where we bought some of Renee's and my stuffs, heee:

This shop has got some really nice shoes and dresses for kids!

 

Ok now, let's go to 'talking' about Rachel, heee...  I came out of my shower to a naughty baby shouting and shouting out of boredom(even though her papa was already carrying her) and when I took over, she was still very unhappy.  She even tried to pounce forward to bite me!  I'm not sure if that's her intention but it sure looked like it, even yunita laughed when she witnessed it.  And as if that's not enough, she even grinned when I scolded her and cried when I hit her thigh(gently of cos).  OMG, this is a 5mth old baby, I wonder what she'd do when she's older....

No School

There's no school for Renee today and tomorrow but we've all turned in early last night, at around 11pm! Yes, including myself(though I've to feed Rachel before I actually went to bed).  And probably because of this, I couldn't resume my sleep after waking up to feed Rachel when she woke up at 5:54am.  However, I must admit that I do feel fresher even though I've got less than 6 hours of sleep.  Wonder if I could up-keep this 'sleep early' routine for good?...

Self-Feed?

Nah, definitely not as titled, she's still being fully b-fed hahaha.  However, despite her stunts at spitting/avoiding the ch medicines, this naughty baby has been turning herself 180degrees(hmm mayb even 360 deg? that cant tell liao. 'cos she'd end up at e same position? lolz) on her bed(her jie jie did this during her 1st few days hahaha) and has been holding the bottle herself! - didn't bottle feed her the past months, so not sure if she could actually hold it earlier than now(5mths) - (we've also only tried letting Renee hold the bottle herself later at 6mths).

Oh oh, does this mean she's willing to take the bottle now?  Nope, too bad for me, 'cos though she'd hold the bottle herself, she still doesn't quite want to drink from it(she rejected drinking even water from it the 2nd time, preferred water feeding from the syringe!), arrrggghhh!

drinking water after ch medicine

Human Beings are sooo Practical

Although we've had nice neighbours and had also met nice and friendly people around our old neighbourhood(and the cashiers I've met at the supermarts there were very friendly to me but somehow, it's not the same), the difference we felt/encountered when we moved here is very obvious.

The 1st difference in the attitude of people was when we had to make change of address on our NRICs and now, when we cast our votes for the EP...

During the GE, we had to go back to SK to cast our votes as our old address was used for polling allocation and whilst que-ing, we were met with stern looks, instructed like we were criminal suspects waiting for inspection.  But here, oh my goodness, we were greeted with hearty/wide smiles and were addressed most politely.  Goodness me!

Home-Made Mooncakes

My sis Eileen, text me today to pick up the mini mooncakes she's made successfully(since we'd be ard her area for Renee's violin lesson).

We had 4 each of the green tea(with melon seeds) and chocolate(with almond nuts) skin mooncakes with pandan paste.  I'm not a mooncake fan especially not the snow skin(green tea worser) type but after tasting just one of green tea ones, I loved it so much that I took another!  The green tea taste is mild, the paste is not too sweet and there're enough melon seeds(unlike those sold in the retail and yet they cost sooo much!).

She'd be trying out new ingredients, yeah! :)

Naughty Baby, Don't Spit the Medicine Out!

As cited in my earlier entry, little Rachel has been blowing out the chinese medicine since her 1st swallow.  Now she'd try to close her mouth tight when she sees me bringing out the syringe(but will happily open her mouth when I show her the syringe with clear water!)

So, I tried a different way - I 'squeezed' her cheeks so that her mouth wld 'open'(slightly), and this technique also prevents her from blowing the med out. However, she decided to hold the medicine in her mouth and spit it out the minute I released my hold!  Then, hubby tried another technique(one which my FIL had taught hubby when he told him how hard it was to feed jie jie in the earlier days) - pinched her nose and although she was tricked the 1st time, she found another way to counter this, aiyoh, she seems to find every alternative to counter our feeding technique, like that how?!.....

2 Kids Down...

Renee's not drinking enough water and with the weather these days, it's just a matter of time she succumbs to being ill and now she is...coughing with lotsa phelgm.

The thing is, Rachel has got it from jie jie too! and poor baby is also heaty - mommy's fault for eating >30 big bars of macadamia nut chocolate...(have to control my choco eating and drink lotsa water from now on, for baby's sake!)

Renee's cough worsened when she came into our room in the early morning, citing a nightmare and so we brought both of them to the chinese physician.

The 1st time I gave Rachel her medicine, she had thought that I was giving her gripe water and was very happy.  But she got a taste shock at the 1st swallow and started to spit the rest out.  That's when I started to hold her cheeks to try let her swallow it but she resorted to blowing the medicine out, caught unaware of this stunt from such a young baby, my eyes suffered!  Naughty girl!  Jie jie was told to video meimei taking her 1st dose of chinese medicine but she didn't manage to capture the whole episode 'cos like papa, she didn't know how to operate the camera properly but luckily, she managed to capture the last part - where meimei blew out the medicine and papa had a good laugh last night when he watched the video.

The 2nd dose was given to her at late night(around 11pm) and this time round, she didn't wait for the last bit and blew out the medicine straight away, just like this morning...

Her body has breakout of  heat rash now, due to the 'heat purging' effect of the chinese medicine(come to think of it, I rem Renee's body broke out in same rashes too, when she was recovering from a high fever once and the western doc told us it's norm).   Hopefully the rashes would be gone soon and they can both sleep better from now on.  In fact, jie jie has slept sooo well last night that she's late for school today!(but Qiuqiu still wants to play, :P)  hahaha

Fibre All Over!

The play house gym we've acquired recently was returned to the store, Robinsons, where we've bought the item.  Just a few hours after setting up the items, I noticed some 'threads' coming out of the hanging toys.  Thinking that it might be some QC oversight, I started to remove the threads and Renee helped.  However, it didn't take us long to discover that these 'threads' will not stop coming out from the toys 'cos it seemed like these 'threads' are the toys' fillings!

Quickly I told Renee to stop letting meimei play with any of the hanging toys, 'cos the latter had taken a special liking to the hanging 'boy''s feet!  I even spotted 1 or 2 strands of the fibre on her lips, OMG!

Upon 2nd thought, I decided to write to the store instead of the distributor/agent, 'cos I believe the store would act faster on such incidents.  True enough, they called me up 2days later, extended their apologies and offered either an exchange or a refund(UP for this toy set is S$169!).

We brought the set down today and got a refund for the item as we couldn't find anything that's suitable(bought other stuffs from other depts instead).  When the manager saw the product, she approached me when I was nearby and told me that indeed, it is not a safe toy for children!  I told her that I'm really shocked as it was indicated an award winner on the box!  How can that be when it lacked safety feature... I'm beginning to lose my trust in these so-called award thingy.

In any case, I must applaud Robinsons for acting fast in handling our case(we bought the item on Wednesday evening, emailed them on the day we opened up the toy set - Thursday, they replied via email on Friday that the relevant dept. will be informed and will contact which they did, on Sat...)

And, I'm not the only one. Just as we were leaving the department, I overheard a customer returning another toy set...

I've managed to take a couple of photographs on the 'threads' coming out of the toys, just to show and warn people should they come across and want to buy this brand/set of toys:

Don't Want to Sleep + New Toy

Help!  I need Help!  Or should I say, I need my rest!

Not only this naughty Rachel wants to play now, she also doesn't want to sleep much these days too!  And come night time, it's always struggle time! And who else is left with the task, MOI of cos, needless to say.  Day and night, I'm sooooooo tired...

On the 'play' side, since the time her gum was cut by 1 of the toys attached to the play gym my sis had passed down to us during Renee's time(both my nephew and Renee hadn't got such incident leh), we hadn't got a replacement for her yet and it's getting harder for me to catch up with her stamina!  Although nice jie jie helped most of the time, but it would mean her homework and practices would be disrupted...

Showed hubby some of the play gyms available at the retailers recently but he said she'd outgrow them very fast and she might just get bored over it very soon too(I agree too...) and thus, the idea of acquiring one has taken its leave for a while but today, a last minute shopping in town and we bought this :

This Lamaze pyramid play house gym can be converted to various stages' play and hopefully it would last Rae long enough especially when toys like this certainly don't come cheap these days!

Oh my, another 'Play with Me' Girl!

Just when my sisters are about to heave a big relief from my Renee(thinking that she'd soon have a sister to play with, instead of looking to them most of the time like in the past), I wonder if they'd be 'glad' to know that there will be another girl of the same calibre joining the league soon! hahaha.

Rachel has been 'calling' to us to play with her lately and at only 4mths old, she'd actually call out to me when I stopped playing with her, turned my head away to face the laptop. And, if being ignored for longer than she's happy to be, she'd even shout out of boredom, my goodness! In this area, she's even fiercer than Renee in her 'requests', oh man! And it's sooo tiring...

The other thing is that she seems to be used to the air-conditioner. Renee has been better in tolerating the heat - but hmmm, our previous home was alot windier to begin with and we've never felt the need to switch-on the air-conditioner much, unlike here, it's on literally everyday! And I guess, she might have gotten used to the cool surrounding already, :< (she hadn't 'minded' the warmth-ness the 1st 2 months lor...)

Masterclass I - Nafa Grade II

It's that time of the semester again and today's their 1st masterclass(again)... And, as the HOD remarked, they have alittle more time available today, so there would be recommendations/corrections(to torture us, she joked, hahaha) along the way and that made all of us more 'kang cheong', hahaha.  However, thankfully, Renee wasn't stopped midway for correction which made me felt really relieved(huge *phew*), as she had not practiced diligently the past week and thus, had forgotten/fumbled on a note or so, due to nervousness...

Although we managed to take a short snack break after the masterclass, we had to rush her back to the school for her theory test, oh man, stressful... lolz.  Then it's a trip to Marina Square again and although I've warned that there shall be no going to the MS playground for her(plus she daren't ask to go, :>) anymore, I decided to let 'loose' today after all her stress, heeeee.

P1 Registration II

For the past 2 nights, I've briefly discussed the selection of school with hubby but had not come to an conclusion til last night.  After considerations of the schools' surrounding neighbourhood, academic/CCA achievements, etc, I've made my choice but,...Papa had wanted to try another school- since all schools are out of the 1km range for us now.   In any case, we've decided to wait til the last day to submit our registration this time round, so we could monitor better.

Papa's busy today but he managed to rush to BTPS to put in our registration, just at about 4pm today!  And since it's close to the registration closing-off timing and with only 3 placings left(not surprising, since all who stay around this area would most likely go to this school when they failed to get into the few popular ones), the school asked if he'd like to wait til then to find out if we'd need to go through balloting.  What, another ballot? Geez, and Papa replied "if still don't get in, I'd have to send my child to JB already", hahaha, ya man!

I've been checking MOE's web randomly since this evening but there hadn't been any updates til now!  And, I think we've got the place! Heeee, phew...  And now it's time for me to do a last minute revision of her music theory later, to see if I can understand from the book to coach/prepare her for her test this Sunday, arrrggghhh, another parental stress...

Simple Birthday Celebration

Although we've all had quite a scare this morning when Rachel had flipped and flipped and almost fell into the gap of our bed/wall(should have just left her in her cot, haiz... She has so far only made 1 turn flip and I've thought she wouldn't get til that far, who knows... shld have listened to my instinct!), we managed to have a nice quiet celebration today, :).

Renee woke up early this morning and because she had brought the purse Papa has gotten me into her room last night(duno what she's up to, hahaha), she came into the room and handed me the 'present', filled with Papa's 'extra' gift and hers, aiyoh...

As with previous years, we went to Dan Ryan's for my birthday meal but this year, we went for lunch instead and made a last minute arrangement for Elsie and Li to come over.

The meal was great and the small home gathering was nice...  Thanks for dropping by & the gift of my favourite chocolates, my 2 sisters! :)

Co-incidentally, my birthday cake's a chocolate fudge(papa's fav...) one from Swiss Bake as well(din knw til I saw the baking plate 'cos the shop's name is different) and it's yummy! Renee's contributed to the cake too! (Forgotten to take a pic of the cake, heeee)

Baby Shoes & Tarts

Been asking Papa to check out the schools' website, he didn't ...  Today, we were supposed to be checking some of the schools out personally after picking Renee up from kindy, but he did not take down the addresses and we couldn't find the school, so... haiz...

We passed by a children shoes shop after our lunch at IMM and I brought Renee back to the shop, hoping to get her another pair of shoes. We did not manage to find any suitable ones for her(again, due to the rush, with papa around, shopping is never an enjoyable thing to do!) but we got a pair for Rachel instead - paid for by doting jie jie!  The size of the baby shoes seems to be just nice for Rachel, which means she would only get to wear them for just a few more times...  Good thing it's on offer and it didn't cost too much...(we didn't know til payment time, hurray!) 

Papa had gone to the car with meimei before us and when we got back, he passed meimei to me and told me to go find a nursery and change her diaper(she poo-ed!), haiz...

Oh ya, earlier, whilst papa and Renee were hving their lunch at the Taiwan food restaurant, I had to push little Rachel around the mall so she'd fall asleep and allow me some peace in eating later and whilst doing that, I spotted a stall selling a variety of egg tarts and bought these to try :

Mushroom & Chicken egg tarts, Original egg tart, Durian egg tart

 

The Carrier II

Ah ha!  Hubby carried baby Rachel with the carrier!

He must have seen me enjoyed using it(now lah, I duno if I wld still enjoy using it later, hahaha), especially with Rachel smiling sooo sweetly at me whenever I put her in it, he offered to take over the carrying of Rachel, using the carrier just now!(when I needed to go to the washroom)  Then, during dinner at Macdonald's(ey, now I suddenly rem, we've had Mac twice today - once in the morng and then the evening! hahaha, Renee la!), he had chosen to 'go take a look at the choices' first when I offered to go get the food - all because he felt wonderful with the carrier lah!  Still act smug, geez, hahahahaha.  To think that he wasn't into the idea of me getting a baby carrier earlier, buay tahan!

The P1 Registration

Today's the balloting day for those registering under phase 2C and although we weren't that excited about it, we still decided to go witness the 'draw' since it's our very first time.

Knowing the emotional characteristic of Renee, Hubby had wanted her to stay home for fear that she might cry if she doesn't get in but I wanted her to go along.  That, seemed to be a bad move, 'cos we didn't get balloted! hahaha.  Renee had appeared not affected by it but when we stopped by Macdonald's for a morning snack, she expressed her sadness.  She had not wanted to go to that school in the 1st place, so why sad now?  Well, this is just her, if a 'goal' is set and she didn't achieve it, she'd be sad.  She'd even tear at her sister's 1st flip remember?  This just goes to show hooooow emotional she can be, :).  Anyhow, she was ok thereafter(watching tortoises at the pond, hahaha) and we told her that although a school environment may play a part but it is more important for the individual to be able to strive for achievements.  In any case, we also can't be sure if this particular school's environment would be right for her...

Another thing, now as I think back, it seems amazing how being present to watch the balloting process could have such an impact on us when we hadn't really thought it's that important to get into that school!  What impact? - The aftermath actually left us feeling down for a good few hours today, hahaha.  I had not felt the disappointment initially, until I woke up from my nap...  Earlier, it was more of anger that had caught up with us.  Why?  It's all simply because, why are we Singaporeans, being made to 'compete' with foreigners, for a school place for our Singaporean kid? Their kid got in and we, the Singaporeans, have to look elsewhere further from home and this, I find, is simply ridiculous!

The other week, when we had gone to the Kwan Yin Temple(near Nafa) after her lesson, we had told Renee to seek Buddha's help in getting a place for her in the school that we had registered her with(though we had not find the school being that fantastic, given the way we sighted their 'disorganisation' of the registration process - no one is around to guide or even tell you where to go to for the registration, not even a single signage is present, geez!  I was made to push my baby in a stroller around the school from level to level...) but for myself, I've added in my prayer that should the school is deemed to be not suitable for her, then it's ok, don't have to get in.  So perhaps, this might be a blessing in disguise?  We just hope so...

Since morning, many friends, hubby's clients and sibling, had quickly text us about the results and we thanked them for their concerns.  A couple had offered nice suggestions, which we really appreciate and may give them some considerations.  But, a few even asked, if we had moved to Shelford Road for the main purpose of getting Renee into this particular school.  Hmmm, to that, we wouldn't agree nor would we disagree...  The main reason for the move had actually been cited much earlier in our blog and hubby had felt, since we have to move, we might as well make the move a little more 'meaningful' and give the schools we thought we wanted a try.   So here we are...  However, after being here for a few months now and having heard soooo much, I had been hving 2nd thoughts but it's already too late, we've already moved here, so hubby said we just try lor, since it is afterall a known school.

Actually, to be balloted in or out of the school have both their pros and cons and we hadn't been hard-fast about getting into the school(s) here.  If we had been, then I think we would have quickly pulled out from this school last Friday and registered her with another(equally popular), as the latter had a much higher chance of being balloted.  To be balloted in, it'd save us the trouble of having to go search for another school(but now, it seems like all the 'good' schools are already full) but being not selected gives us more flexibility in acquiring our next home - it need not be a private property nor must be it around this area which is pretty inconvenient...

In any case, the ordeal of balloting is now gone and after an evening of shopping(and topped up my supply of chocolates! heee), we now have to brainstorm about the next school over the next few days, which might prove to be a challenge since we are still unsure as to where we would be moving to...

An Early Birthday Outing & More...

As my good pal Vicky is not free next week, she's arranged to pop over today, for an early birthday treat from me.  However, as I'd need to lug my baby along wherever I go now, she said she doesn't mind eating at home and I suggested a dial-in lunch.  But, since we both don't really feel like eating order-in food, I asked if she'd be ok with home-cooked food 'cos hubby had brought home roast duck, roast chicken, roast pork and she took it up.  So we had a simple but nice porridge meal this afternoon, :).

Thereafter, she drove(if we had known she'd be driving, we'd hv gone out to eat!) us to Cold Storage @ Jelita for an ice-cream and coffee break at Gelateria Venezia(she even wanna pay for the snack but luckily I managed to stop her) and for me to get my groceries and diapers, heeee.

When she's learnt that the Naraya baby bag she's got for me when I had Renee, was damaged, she bought me another on her latest trip to Bangkok!  Luckily she's informed me about her purchase before I got to buy another from the store, especially when this new bag she's gotten for me is sooo sweet!  She even bought 1(not from Naraya but from the airport) for Renee, knowing that she has to go to classes and may need such a bag.  It's perfect!  I've been wanting to get Renee 1 of such bags 'cos all she has currently are mainly backpacks(those that can carry her books) and the ones I saw in stores are either too big or too 'long'.  So, both of us are very happy, hahaha.  Thanks, Vic!

Exact same design as the previous one she gave me, the cover opens up to a soft changing mat:

This is Renee's

And, before we started on our grocery shopping, she spotted the Swiss Bake shop and insisted on getting me a cake, awwwww... Renee chose this but I told her I won't lit the candles til the actual one on my birthday, hahahahaha :

Yummy!

Also, I've finally used the baby carrier today!  I had been wanting to try it on with Rachel in it but as her PD had advised during our last visit, that we should wait for another month or so(when her neck control is much better) but hubby remarked that she seems to be about ready for it.  So, this morning, I tried and she seemed very happy, smiling at me all the time(unlike the time I put her into the Baby Bjorn carrier at Mothercare) and that was the booster! hahaha.  Happily, we went out without the stroller and although it's my very very 1st try carrying my baby with a carrier(gotta rem to still hold on to the back of her neck though), it had turned out to be a rather smooth one!(thks again, to Karen, for the carrier, :>)  Does that means more outings?  I hope so, heeee.

Another thing...  as Rachel's awareness of 'strangers increased, she has so far, not shown any 'fear' even during her very first meet up with my in-laws but today, suddenly, she cried(short one) when she saw Vicky, hahaha.  I tried to get her to 'play' with Vic after calming her down but the latter was fearful that she might provoke another crying bout but luckily it didn't... well, at least not til she woke up from her nap, hahaha.  But this time round, she even chuckled(a number of times) when Vic played with her, with her eyes and nose still 'red' from the cry, hahaha sooo cute!(to me lah, hehehe).

The Plant

Renee has been telling me about the bean sprouts her friends and her had planted at school last week and today, they're finally able to bring their 'work' home and she's very very excited!  Carried the 'cup' of plant wherever she went and kept wanting to water it, oh man! hahaha.

Things have really changed/advanced sooo much, I remembered we only did this experiment much later during our formal school days and they're already doing it at K2!...