Growing up too fast...

In two weeks time, little Jaime is going to embark a new journey in her life... Going to Childcare. And I am getting the anxiety feel all over again...

Was sitting in front of the home PC last night & looking through the photos taken when Jaime was born... Can't help but feel that time passes by too quickly... My girls are growing up too fast too fast!

Just over the weekend, Jaelyn's lower front tooth got shaky and I looked up the web. Oh my! She's reaching another new milestone... Falling of the baby milk tooth! Next year at this time, I would be busy with which primary school to register her.

I am trying hard to remember how was it like when Jae's a baby... How was it like when Jaime's a newborn... All are happening so fast, I'm forgetting how is it like to cuddle a baby, having the child nursing at my breast etc...

I used to worry that I will become a guilty mum... But it is so true that what you worried most will most of the time comes to past. For the past years, I'm so busy with work that I am so guilty of the little time I had for the girls. To the point, when I was fetching Jaelyn up & down her enrichment class last Saturday that she said, "Sometime is Mummy & most of the time is Daddy fetch. Because Mummy gets tired & needs to rest but Daddy is never tired..." To her, my effort is always lesser than Daddy. My husband has covered up so much of my role that Jaelyn feels its a luxury to have my company... I am so guilty.

While I do feel tired, I want to make more effort to be seen in their lives! Now, I need work-life balance!

Catching up 2012

My bad for not updating...

Some significant events to catch up for 2012...

The elder princess had her N2 concert at Nanyang Girls High School on 30 Nov 2012 & she's real good at it. I'm so proud of her!

And who can miss out on Christmas? It's the kids' favorite season & mine too! Who would mind a present?!

My Jaime is growing up too quickly!

Wanted to post some pictures of Jaime & realized I have not been taking enough photos of her! It's really not easy to snap her picture because either she will snatch the phone away or she will not look at the camera...

But still... A few pictures of my little girl who is growing up day by day...

Jaelyn's cookies

My Princess Jaelyn is in the mood of baking...

She baked some ready-mix cookies with 阿姨 but still she wanted to do cookies "that can use the cookie cutters kind" she said.

So to meet that request I browsed around for simple cookie dough recipe & decided to try one that I found in a recipe book at home.

Jaelyn was really excited after I finally rolled out the dough. She happily cut out her cookies with the cookies cutters & decorated them all by herself!

Even when I told her its time for bed & mummy will finish up for her. She replied, "You must put the M&M and rainbow rice on every cookie ok?!"

So proud of my little 4year old!

Jaime’s 1st Birthday

I am truly sorry that I owed this to Jaime for more than 4 months…

Our little girl has finally crossed her first year! Time sure flew by without us realizing it… And I think she grows up TOO FAST!

As a mum of 2, I’m constantly reminding myself that I have to be fair to both… Sometimes I get really excited over the Jaelyn, the first child, and all her achievement, when it comes to the second one, I tend to compare… Stuffs like… why is she not crawling yet? Why is she not walking still? Why she still can’t sleep through… I thought the second kid supposed to hit all her milestones earlier? Jaime has just proven me wrong! But still, I love her to the bits!

Its her first birthday! I wanted to do something special but with two kids, budget is really a constraint!

But still, we managed to give her a personalised Mickey Mouse theme Birthday! I really almost contemplated to reuse Jaelyn’s first birthday deco… Winnie the Pooh… but I felt sorry for Jaime if she has to reuse all her sister’s hand me down… EVEN the birthday theme. So I got her her very own Minnie Mouse Balloon Bouquet! Woah! It’s really nice!

I wanted to get a nice cake from Pine Garden but after sending them umpteen emails till the birthday was over, I did not get any reply. We managed to get a nice and flavorsome cake from Savoury Fare instead. And added on the nice mickey mouse shape jelly!

Though we have a small turnout for the Birthday… We are very grateful for our guests who showed up. It made a difference for us and our little princess.

Last but not least, Jaime, mummy loves you very much! Daddy & Jie Jie too!

Jaime’s First Lunar Birthday

Jaime’s lunar birthday on the 5th of the 2nd month of the lunar calendar! We did a small celebration! She tasted her first Mee Sua! And we let her “抓周”, a Chinese tradition where the child picks an item on the first lunar birthday that symbolises her future. To our surprise, she chose… “葱”which means smart (the sound 聪明)… followed by the chicken drumstick, which we all expected! LOL… Good… she is going to be a smart girl!!! Clap Clap!!!

And we brought her to Kiddy Palace to buy herself a proper pair of shoes for her first birthday! She can really shop and tell you what she likes!

Tummy Time for Jaime

This is the final week of my maternity leave… My last few days with Jaime.

Though she is suffering a flu & having a bad cough… She still enjoys her tummy time.

Jaime: Hello Mummy!

Jaime: Reading on my tummy!

Every child is a different experience for mummy

I realised that being a second time mummy does not necessary makes me more experience in handling kid.

There are just things that I have never encountered before with Jaelyn that I am experiencing now with Jaime. For instances, I have absolutely no idea how to counter the cradle cap that Jaime is having. I bought the Dentinox cradle cap shampoo that many mummies recommended. They said the cradle cap will fall off within a few days after washing with that shampoo. But after two weeks, the cradle cap is still there and it looks quite bad and don’t smell that good too. In the end, I use baby oil to massage on the cradle cap everyday 30min before bath and wash off with the cradle cap shampoo and viola! The cradle cap fell off within a few days.

Jaime also has eczema and I really hated it. After seeing pediatrician twice, applying the creams prescribed, it just doesn’t go off completely and it actually got worse when the weather is hot. (Singapore weather has been crazily hot and humid lately) So what did I do? I actually bathe Jaime using breast milk. It helps at least clear off the rashes on the face and keep the rash on the neck to minimal. The wonder of breast milk!

My cutie pie Jaime girl

My 2 Princesses

They are my pride and my joy!

“I gave you one already…”

Lately conversation with Jaelyn has been rather interesting. She has grown so much and talking to her can be rather amusing.

Just the other day, Daddy bought Jaelyn a packet of marshmallows. As usual, she can’t wait another day before she opened up her treats and started munching… So I asked her, “Jaelyn, can I have one please?” She replied, “Ok!” and quickly pop one marshmallow into my mouth. After a while, I asked her again… “Can I have one please?” and her reply…

“Mummy, I gave you one already!”

My big baby is so cheeky!

Jaelyn turns 3!!!

Time really flies… My princess is already 3 years old!

I wanted to have a fun party for my princess but it’s difficult to do that this year given my situation. I feel sorry for my little girl. But I really tried my best. I’m thankful enough to be home for her special day. Hope she can understand.

This is the first time Jaelyn gets to celebrate her birthday in school! As her birthday falls exactly on the 2nd day of CNY, so we celebrated her birthday earlier on 31st Jan 2011. She chose the Baby Bop’s cake herself!

Of course, given her love for Disney Princess, you can imagine how she has been bugging me for a Princess birthday cake. Firstly, it’s hard to get one and secondly, seriously not much online baker will bake on the 2nd day of CNY. Anyway, I ordered Swensens' ice-cream cake with Disney Princess design for her on her actual birthday.

It was a very impromptu birthday celebration because I just made it home a week before this big day. We wanted to keep it small as I needed bed rest most of the time and can’t have a big group. We have both our families and a few close friends to celebrate her birthday on 4th Feb 2011, her actual birthday. She really loves her Princess cake! It was a small celebration  and she had a great time playing with her cousin, Gabriel and her favorite Auntie Grace and Auntie Fengyi.

I’m very grateful to our family members who make an effort to come celebrate with us for Jaelyn. And special thanks to Grace, Fengyi, Suzy, Chevy & Angela for popping by within such short notice. How can we live without family & friends?

More of Jaelyn

After turning 2, my princess enters into the famous “Terrible Two” period. It isn’t that terrible, in fact, life is getting really exciting for her and for me!

Chinese New Year 2010, this is Jaelyn’s 3rd Chinese New Year celebration. It also reminds me that she was borne 2 days before Chinese New Year… (Can you imagine confinement right into the festive season?) Anyway, she has really grown. She likes to carry her small “Little Pony” bag wherever she goes. She can put on her own shoes and sometimes her socks. She is also showing her princess syndrome, she used to put her shoes nicely back to the shoe rack but these days, she just left them where she took them off. Hmm…

During the Chinese New Year period (after the 3rd day of CNY where normal working life resumed), my parents went Thailand for holiday and so I have took leave to take care of Jaelyn while they were away. I really cracked my brain how to spend 5 days with her. I really want to spend quality time with her. So I decided to bring her to “eXplorerkid” at Downtown East since we got the vouchers during our stay at Downtown East chalet. It’s a huge indoor children playground! Jaelyn had lots of fun there. Going through the mega playground, climbing up, sliding down… after 3 rounds and I’m dead tired with a blister on my arm. Phew!!! Needs lotsa energy to take care of a 2 year old. We ended the session with a MacDonald treat for Jaelyn!

Can you tell from the picture that my baby has grown? No more a baby, now a cutie pie, a real toddy!  She is slacking and snacking away…

Some still moments of my princess. Isn’t she sweet even when she’s sleeping? My sleeping beauty!

Once again, ending of with, “Mommy loves you!” Really!!!

Jaelyn turns 2!

Jaelyn's 2nd Birthday from Sheryl Dua on Vimeo.

Jaelyn’s 2nd Birthday!

Having a kid makes me realised how much effort is needed to prepare for a Birthday!

Some people prepare for their kid’s Birthday as early as half a year in advance. Me? Hmm… I think about 1month or less???

Jaelyn’s birthday is just 5 days after Daddy’s. So every year, end January beginning of February is a busy period for me. It’s just me alone, planning for 2 birthdays! This year, Daddy really wanted to have a chalet BBQ and frankly, I have no idea what to do for Jaelyn. I mean she is just 2 years old! She has no much friends, neither do I have many friends with kids. It’s really hard, trying to figure out 5 kids to invite for her Birthday, I only managed to get 2 toddlers (Jayden and Claire) and 2 other babies (Gabriel and Nat). Good enough, really! I thought to myself, would she even remember she had a birthday party when she was two?

My sister-in-law has generously blessed us with a chalet unit at Downtown East! Vincent is totally excited about his BBQ birthday and me? The Birthday cake of course! I love cakes!!!

Well, you can see that the father and daughter are enjoying their birthday party! My daughter actually enjoyed satay! One of my favourites too!

Love the cake! I ordered from Pine Garden and it tastes FAB!!!The design is nice too! Just that the pink wordings can’t stand out, can’t really see JAELYN…

Jaelyn was enjoying the chalet so much that she cried and kicked the taxi door the next morning when we checked out to go home. But you bet she had a great time unwrapping her presents when we got home!

I make it a point to celebrate her birthday again on the actual day - 4th February. Look at my princess, she wore a crown and a top with many colors!!! Another tasty cake from Bakerzin. Yummy!

I just want to say, “Jaelyn, Mummy loves you! Always!!!”

(Missing her dearly now…)

Missing my Princess…

Let me showcase my princess Jaelyn’s growing up pictures!

Jaelyn’s 2nd Christmas! Look at her happy face with all her presents!!!

Christmas with Claire!!! Her very few childhood khakis!

There was just this once when Jaelyn was sick and I told her, “If you get well by Sunday, Mummy will bring you to the zoo.” Then my princess woke up on Sunday morning and said, “Mummy, zoo!” Though she was still having abit of running nose, we brought her nevertheless. It was a crazy 1hour queue to get the tickets and she was so upset with the heat. Her first zoo experience was only about 4hours long, with 1 hour spent on queuing. No more zoo on Sundays…

Jaelyn & her best friend, Barney! It’s amazing how all kids love Barney and how popular is the “I love you” song!

I hope you like my daughter’s first masterpiece, titled “Drawing on the wall”! Sometimes she will come to me, points to the wall and said, “Mummy, drawing! Who draw?!” See her cheeky glance?

One of her favourite phrase is “mei mei” (nice, pretty in Chinese). So when she saw this hairclips at Punggol Plaza she said to me “mei mei” and I bought for her, 3 for $12! And to date, none of them is in one piece. Hmm… Talks about Terrible 2…

Jaelyn cleaning the floor

Jaelyn magic cleaning the floor from Sheryl Dua on Vimeo.

Kids at this age is super good at imitating…. Perhaps a good time to train them to help out around the house….

Some Pictures Update of my Princess…

My honey pie discovers her womanly instinct - 爱美!

Jaelyn in pink Mickey Mouse T-Shirt

Jae’s all time favorites – Her Rocking Chair and Rocking Horse

At the Art’s House – Auntie Xiaowei’s wedding

Jaelyn @ the Little Neuro Tree

Celebrating Ah Gong’s birthday last weekend @ Auntie Alison’s house – Love the cushion!

Taken today… Jae Jae feeding her toy doll!

She’s so FUNNY!

We brought Jaelyn to Toy’R US on May Day to let her choose a new toy for herself. She spotted this toy pram and started pushing it around the whole store with a doll sitting on it. She pushed it all around that people thought the toy pram is hers… So we decided to buy one for her.

And when we reached home… Guess what???

I did buy her the doll to go with the pram ok!!! But ended up, she wanted to sit inside that pram to be push around AT HOME!!! Argh… *LOL* She is so FUNNY!!! Sit until cross legs somemore…