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?!

Selamat Hari Raya!

Wishing all Muslims a Selamat Hari Raya! Yes, my kids do have a Malay heritage & every year we are as busy for Raya... See if we get to all dress in the same color costume next year!

The usual weekend for me...

Weekends are the busiest & the most valuable because I get to spend time with my love ones... The two beautiful princesses & my handsome king.

Strangely children drag to wake up on weekdays but they have no problem waking up early on weekends! By 7:30am both girls are ready to rise & shine!

And the day begins... Milk for both followed by breakfast. Thank God for mums, my mum had given me some vege & meat last night as she's going away to Msia for the weekend. This save me a trip to the supermarket which can be another episode in the morning.

Once breakfast is over & the girls are watching their Disney Junior channel, Daddy & Mummy are busy brewing soup & cooking mixed vege rice for their lunch. Gotta do it early as Jae has her ballet @ 11:30am.

When lunch is in their respective cooker cooking, it's bathing time for the girls. Then one feed of milk for Jaime before we head out to Kovan for Jae's ballet class.

While in the lift... Oh! Jaelyn! Why is your hair so messy??? Goodness... Rush back to the house, grab a comb & few rubber bands and out again... In the taxi ride, I have to tie her hair & entertain meimei at the same time & I still don't know how to tie a nice bun for Jae.

Anyhow, we got her to the class... Slightly late as usual... 😜Went to the NTUC nearby to grab nuggets & wedges... Got a pot luck party at my boss's house today. After the fast grocery shopping, we fetched Jae & went home.

Then feed the girls, had our own lunch & time to get them to nap. And usuallt follow by dinner preparation, feeding, bathing, changing & get them to bed. That's our usual weekend routine.

But might be slightly different tonight cos we will be going to a party! Yeah~

Pictorial Fun!

Just discover some new apps in the app store & there you go... Nice photos in frames!

I use InstaPic Frame & Frame Your Life.

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!

Jaelyn turns 4!

It’s been almost a long long while since I last posted… But I just can’t miss this one…

My Princess turning 4 years old!

Her Birthday request was to go to the zoo! So we brought her to the zoo on her birthday morning! She totally totally enjoyed herself!

And we have a small family celebration in the evening. She is one happy girl! I’m so proud of my Princess… It seems like just yesterday we had her in our arms and now… She is all grown up… Mummy loves you and wants you to be this happy forever!

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

Jaelyn & Me Time

I always wanted to spend quality time with Jaelyn especially now that Jaime is taking up most of my attention.

But with the freaking hot weather, going outdoor is really a no no for me. So last Sunday, after Jaime KO for her afternoon nap, I brought Jaelyn to Compasspoint Swensen for an ice-cream treat!

We had a short one hour together, eating fries with ice-cream & a machine car ride. Then we hurry home in case Jaime wake for feed and I turned down her request to shop for a story book… now I feel bad… I wanted to hurry home because of meimei… Wonder if that quality 1hr counts? Really not easy to be a mummy of 2.

Mother of Two

It’s really not easy handling two kids.

Jaime is a baby and needs a lot of attention. Taking care of her is almost taking up all of my time. Feeding 2 hourly is tiring me out. On top of that, my very jealous Jaelyn is constantly fighting for attention as well.

Even bedtime is challenging. I have to “feed” Jaime to sleep and she can’t fall asleep when Jiejie is talking all the time. And Jaelyn refused to leave the room, saying “I want Mummy to sleep with me.” I felt so torn apart!

However, when Jaelyn is in a good mood, she can be very nice to meimei. Seeing my two girls together just bring a smile to my face.

My 2 Princesses

They are my pride and my joy!

Our new addition - Jaime Chua

After a long long wait, finally we received our family’s latest addition with great joy.

Chua Jing Yi Jamie, clocked in to earth on 9th March 2011 at 12:23

Mummy went on natural delivery WITHOUT epidural!!! And the whole delivery took about 4hours plus. I was warded in the morning at 8am with 5cm dilation. The nurse induced me at 8.45am. By 11.20am, I’m 8cm dilated with contraction far apart. My induction dosage was doubled and I went through hell for the next 45min before Jaime was out in 5 pushes.

Glad that the delivery went smoothly and Jaime forever reminds me of God’s faithfulness!

My Accomplishment for today…

This morning, I saw Klessis updating her blog on how easy it is to make Muah Chee and she posted the recipe online.

So I decided to try it since I’m so free anyway…

And viola!!!

Not bad huh?! Takes less than 30min to get this done.

Recipe as follows:

(Adapted from Klessis’ blog, http://klessinthedaisies.blogspot.com/2011/03/microwave-muah-chee-recipe.html)

Ingredients (Dough)
1 cup of glutinous rice flour
2 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil
150 ml water
Peanut coating:
1 ready pack of crushed peanuts (Camel brand)

Method:
Mix well flour, sugar, cooking oil and water in a microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute. Bring it out, stir it well and cook on high for another 1 minute. It should be cooked by now, but if it’s not, microwave for another minute (Kless’ tip: A cooked dough looks pearl white in colour). You may choose to let it cool before cutting up into small pieces with scissors and coat with peanut coating, or you may start coating it immediately out of the microwave.

My Little Jaime at week 37!

Finally…. we made it to week 37!

I’m just so thankful to God that we survived! I think it is really a miracle to go from week 30+2 to week 37 with 3cm dilation. My gynae was so sure that I will deliver early and baby is not going to make it to term. But we did it!

The last 7 weeks were not easy. Lying down daily and worrying constantly over the slightest blood stain, the slightest contraction & pain felt. I ate so much hoping that Jaime would put on some weight and then worried if I’m ever going to lose the extra weight I gained.

I pray all the time for her lungs & organs to be well developed, pray that her arms & limbs will be well formed, etc… Of course I also pray that she will be pretty & fair. Lately I pray that she will not have jaundice.

Then I nagged and nagged at my hubby to buy all the necessities for baby, to wash all the baby items and get her cot ready & all. I really tired him out. There were moments that we just got so frustrated with each other that we just don’t talk. But he is really a tremendous hubby & a great daddy! He is under so much stress, taking care of Jaelyn & me and putting up with my on-off nonsensical requests.

If you ask me now, I’m still not quite prepared for delivery yet but I really hope is anytime this week. I do not want to drag any longer. Hmm… shall see what my gynae will say at my next visit this coming Tuesday.

Picturing my boredom…

“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?