If I need a word to sum up Christmas this year, it will be "Uneventful". We didn't manage to have the usual X'mas get-together dinner at my place and we didn't have any turkey. So anyway, long story short, we just didn't have the energy and mood to wine, dine and entertain.
But, there's no way, we are celebrating Christmas without presents! I bought gifts for my two babies. Then I bought gifts for Jaden on behalf of Lynette and then I bought gifts for Lynette on behalf of Jaden.
So technically, yes, I bought all their gifts!
You may be thinking why I bothered buying gifts on behalf of the two kids. Well, although they may not really understand now, I still think that it is important so that Jaden will know that "Mei Mei" cares for him and vice versa. Maybe I'm thinking a bit too far but hey, they are kids and what's wrong with having more presents :P
The Great Gift Exchange! Their 'loot' for the day. Also, a big Thank You to families and friends who bought gifts for Jaden and Lynette!
To be honest, Jaden looked a little 'unsightly' for the past two weeks or so. He had these red patches on his cheeks and a slightly swollen upper lip. We don' know how it all started but we noticed that he started rubbing his shirt sleeve against his cheeks very, very often. It is almost like every few seconds. And as expected, the more you rub, the redder your skin becomes.
The doctor suspected to be an allergy but couldn't determine what allergen it was. So we diligently applied the steroid cream on his cheeks but it didn't get better. Cos' every time the cheeks get better, Jaden will start rubbing it again and the cycle continues.
So we brought him to another doctor and this time round, he gave us some anti-allergy medicine plus a stronger steroid cream. Well, the school called me two days later and said that Jaden's mouth and cheeks are very red and he seemed very uncomfortable. So we decided to bring him to KKH A&E instead (although I have to admit that it wasn't exactly an emergency.)
We were given some steroid cream (again) and medicine. Finally, the red patches cleared up and Jaden got his rosy cheeks back. Phew! We are keeping a close watch on the food that he eats and hopefully, we can identify the allergen without doing the allergy skin prick testing.
It was one of the rare occasions that we brought Lynette out without Jaden. We reckoned that we should have some bonding time with Lynette alone as she is always being sidelined whenever we brought both of them out.
This is because Jaden will be fighting with her for our attention and given that he is more 'mobile' and vocal than Lynette, we have no choice but to entertain and pacify him first , lest he makes a scene in public.
Lynette is always ready to greet you with a smile. Look at her big round eyes. Lynette: Oops, let me adjust my hair first.
Grandma was interviewed by RazorTV last week and Lynette was also filmed in the process. Ha.. my little girl's moment of 'fame'. Lynette: It is going to be my turn soon?
At first, I was still in two minds whether we should put up our Christmas tree this year. Firstly, there is the hassle of keeping the tree after Christmas is over; and secondly, I'm worried that my two babies will 'destroy' the tree. But then, how can I deprive baby Lynette of the Christmas tree for her first Christmas. So, I dragged the tree out of the storeroom and put it up all by myself! Yipee, our Christmas tree is up! Lynette and her first Christmas tree. Time to get the presents now!
Daddy is such a great multi-tasker, one hand on the vacuum cleaner and one hand carrying Lynette. Well, this lasted 2 minutes and then Lynette was back in my arms while Daddy continued with the chores :)
We brought Jaden to the doctor yesterday cos' he kept rubbing his right cheek, resulting in a red patch. When we told the doctor that Jaden was also bitten on the cheek, he seemed more concerned about the bite than the red patch on his cheek. He said that there are many bacteria in the mouth and the bite wound could get infected.
Oops... didn't know it could get so serious. Luckily, Jaden's bite wound is getting better although it still looked a little sore. But, as a precaution, Jaden was prescribed with some anti-bacterial cream for that. He was also given some steroid cream for his red cheek. Just 2 tubes of cream and it cost me $72. Sigh...
I received a call from school today. My first thought was "Oh no, is Jaden not feeling well again?" Well, it wasn't, he wasn't sick but he wasn't too good either. He was bitten by a classmate... again. This is the second time he was bitten in school. The first bite happened in March.
According to the teacher, Jaden and his friends were playing outdoors. Jaden's classmate got hold of a ball and Jaden went to him and tried to snatch it from him. So the both of them were trying to snatch the ball away from one another. Then it happened. Suddenly, the classmate bit Jaden on the cheek. Jaden went away crying and there was this teeth mark on his cheek.There was some bleeding as well cos' I can see a small scab forming.
I asked if it was the same person who bit Jaden. Well, it wasn't the same person. During the first bite, it was a younger, smaller-sized gal but this time round, the teacher said that the intensity and strength of the bite was stronger as the classmate is of a similar built as Jaden. When my colleagues heard what happened to Jaden, most of them offered advice on what Jaden should do next time, which is to - FIGHT BACK! Well, I wouldn't teach Jaden to bite the person back but definitely he should learn how to push the person away and protect himself.Ha ha, I was also surprised by what my colleagues did when they were young. They have their fair share of 'bullying' classmates as well and one even pushed a classmate into the science garden pond! :D
Jaden seemed a little moody today. Maybe he was still a little shocked at the drama today. Daddy was worried that he will hesitate to play with friends next time. Sigh, I hope not... Cheer up, my little boy!!
I brought Jaden to a wedding dinner two weeks ago and I can totally understand why wedding dinners and kids don't mix. Even before the dinner starts, Jaden was already getting impatient and even the ipad fails to entertain him for long :(
Then there's the issue of soft drinks. As he was still recovering from his awful cough (yes, his cough has returned once again), he was not allowed to have any soft drinks at all. Well, he was upset that everybody at the table has a 'colourful' drink except for him. So he made a huge crying fuss when we refused to give in to his pleas for the soft drink.
Well, all this happen before the dinner started. And when dinner started, he refused to sit down and went wandering outside the ballroom. At one point, I just felt like scooping him up and leave for home. Sigh...
Jaden attended his first wedding dinner when he was about 4 months old. We left after the 3rd dish as he was fussing non-stop. For this latest dinner, we managed to stay till the last course but the fussing this time round was much worse especially during the pre-dinner. In order to keep my cool and remain happy during such events, I would 'ban' Jaden from all wedding dinners unless absolutely necessary.
As for little Lynette, she stayed home with Daddy cos' her bedtime is 8pm and we didn't want to disrupt her routine and frightened her with all the yam-sengs.
This post is a continuation of our little trip to the reservoir park. On our way home, Little Lynette was still pretty active since she wasn't playing much at the park. She found her socks a 'hindrance' and wanted to yank them off. But since she wasn't so nimble with her fingers yet, she decided to use her mouth to try to get the socks off. And she succeeded! In the end, she managed to pull off both socks and started playing with her toes. Ha ha.
We had an unexpected but pleasant find last Friday. We had went to Orchid Country Club to check out the indoor playground "Little O'zone". Ha, yes, the visit was part of my recce to source for suitable venues for Lynette's birthday party. Oh well, I admit I'm being kiasu but hey, it is better to take my own sweet time to do the preparations rather than rush things through in a frenzy. Okay, I digressed.
Back to our unexpected find. We were on our way to Botanic Gardens after the recce session when Daddy spotted a pretty nice park with walkways leading into the waters while driving along the road. So we decided to check out the place and it turned out to be Lower Seletar Reservoir Park.
It wasn't a very big area but it was a nice place for the family to chill out and take a little stroll. Plus, with the cloudy weather on that day, I just felt that we were a little lucky to find a nice spot for the kids to join some outdoor action.
Jaden, as usual, was estatic over the water playarea and jumped straight into the action. But as we didn't bring an extra set of clothings, we have to remove his clothes and he simply played on with just a diaper on. Oops :P As for Lynette, she missed most of the fun and just have to be contented by being in Daddy's arms.
Oh, and for the record, I'm not holding Lynette's party at Little O'zone. So the search continues!
Jaden is definitely one of them. We will usually have a difficult time getting the iphone out of his hands. But I have to admit that it is the most effective tool to distract Jaden (like 'bribing' him with the phone when he refused to leave the playground) or getting him to behave while we are having dinner. It is a most effective 'babysitter'.
In the article, someone said "Please... just say no. It is not too hard to distract a toddler with, say ... a book.”. I can't help but rolled my eyes. I'm willing to bet anytime that a toddler will choose the iphone over the book. Not that I'm against books, but somehow our kids today (yes, babies included) seem to favour electronic gadgets over many things. Lynette is already staring into the iphone screen whenever Jaden plays with it. I'm not too concerned about the excessive usage yet cos' only Daddy has iphone now and hence Jaden can only play with the phone when Daddy is around. Phew.
Lynette loves to watch us eat. She was looking longingly at Daddy's apple and Daddy decided to offer her a "lick" (since she has no tooth yet). Look at how she hold on to Daddy's hand; she doesn't want him to take the apple away :)
I have an important task to do this week. But I'm not going to share it here :P Those who know will know about it without me saying much. Although my efforts may seem minuscule and probably a long stretch, I hope that it will at least set people thinking and ideally, evolve into something positive.
Singapore is experiencing haze once again. There is haze every now and then, but it is never that bad. We can smell the faint burning odour when we step outdoors. And, the PSI hit 108 today - the unhealthy range!
Well, I'm concerned about the PSI reading and I have just bookmarked NEA homepage. As you know, my two kiddos have sensitive nose and their noses and throats will act up whenever there is strong smoke in the air. The 7th month is when we are most paranoid cos' we are just worried that every cough or sneeze will escalate into something worse.
Now, the haze is back and it is making me worried. First, the haze is much thicker. Second, we are not sure when it will end. Third, I can't keep my kids indoors all the time. (They will get too edgy or perhaps, i should say I will get too frenzy trying to keep them occupied.)
Already, Lynette was not sleeping well last night and she only slept more deeply after taking the ventolin. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't hear any cough or see any signs of runny nose from my two babies.
Mummy had a good lunch and chat today, catching up with good old friends, Denise and Mingzhu. Auntie Denise had came back from Australia for a short break. It was nice to have girls talk without the interference from hubbies and babies. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures. But not to worry, we will have another get-together next weekend, this time with the hubbies and babies in tow.
You may be wondering what's with the title of this blogpost... Ha ha cos' somehow, the issue of where to get canned pig trotters received significant airtime in our conversations. Denise has been tasked with buying 50 cans of pig trotters for his brother's wedding and she has been scouting several stores looking for the best deal. For some reasons, the Narcissus pig trotters are really elusive.
I find this aspect of our conversation really entertaining. It was really fun discussing where to get them and then scratching our heads over why the Narcissus brand is preferred over the Gulong Brand. Well, to some, it may seem like a 'bo liao' topic, but hey, that's what buddies are - we can talk about anything under the sun :) It's great to have great buddies with you.
Lynette has started on cereal recently. While she has not officially reached the 6 month mark, she seemed ready for it as she would look with us with longing eyes whenever she saw us eating. And, we just love to eat in front of her... ha ha.. So, we started her on rice cereal. Well, the first try was a bit of a disaster. She didn't know how to eat from a spoon and soon she was crying her lungs out. As the saying goes, practice makes prefect, after a couple of feedings, she got the hang of it and now, she looks forward to meal times. It's lunch time! Yummy! Can I have more? Slurp! Frankly speaking, I was feeling a bit 'rusty' when feeding Lynette. It has been a while since I fed cereal to a 5-month-old baby and was reminding myself to keep to small mouthfuls when feeding. Guess, I need to start practising again :P
School has officially been given the order to shut for 10 days so as to break the HFMD transmission. Well, I guess it was just a matter of time that this happens since the cases keep appearing every few days.
So it is a 10 day break for Jaden but a super tiring time for us. Argh, now I know why parents are always up in arms when childcare centres are shut for one reason or another. But the school has prepared homework for the kids. Yes, homework for the toddlers. Frankly speaking, I think it is homework for the parents. Hmm, I shall try playing teacher and see how cooperative Jaden is.
I hope that I wouldn't be the one doing the bulk of the homework in the end.
I have created a Blog book which is essentially a collection of my blog entries. Well, I decided to compile all my blog entries into a book because i don't know how long Blogger will be in existence and I didn't want to risk losing all my entries.
It took a while for me to layout the text and pictures. Although Blurb allows you to slurp your blog entries into a book instantly, you definitely still need to re-arrange the pictures and text to have a more coherent flow.
So, here it is: Book I of Little Rookies. I'm 90% done with Book II and will be starting on Book III soon. Book III will start with Lynette and hopefully, I can get the book done before her first birthday. I reckon it would be nice to share her pictures and stories at her birthday party.
But, there's no way, we are celebrating Christmas without presents! I bought gifts for my two babies. Then I bought gifts for Jaden on behalf of Lynette and then I bought gifts for Lynette on behalf of Jaden.
