William at 14 months

William is 14 months today. Two weeks back, he weighed 10.8kg at the clinic which was a slight drop from his 11+kg a month back. But then again, the doc said he's already above average on his weight so we needn't worry about the slight slide in his weight chart.

Little boy loves to walk, run and his favourite is to play "catch me" with his Jie jie. Lately he enjoys throwing things out of the grill door and so far he's thrown his shoes out (to indicate that he wants to go out, I guess), the remote control a few times (I dunno why, this is supposedly his favourite item in the living room) and his toy ball. He also loves to explore my kitchen cabinets, opening the doors and taking out the pots and pans, utensils and what nots.

William still can't talk but loves to babble babble mostly in a crescendo way. I think he can say "Where" but it sounds more like, "Vaaa." He used to say, "Ti kaaaammmmmm" which we don't know what it means, obviously, and when we start to imitate him on that, he stopped.

He has a sudden teeth growth spurt, with two on the bottom gums and one on the upper gums. Still adores his sister but when they want the same toy, it's a different story as boy whines and girl sulks. He has been rather sticky to me in public, so I guess I will bring him for his first play school session tomorrow.

We all love you boy boy (including your Jie jie who's stingy with her color pencils with you)!

Victoria's kindy pictures: 1st Term

Building a tower... please be very careful
Doing her work
In the teacher's office
Picnic in the classroom... why not?
Learning about beads
Project: This is how potatoes, taugeh and onions grow
Having their tea break whilst wearing the hat they made
My very own design
School outing to Dominos to see how pizzas are made

Project: Making egg sandwich
Learning how to fold their own clothes
Playtime! Row row row your boat
All get in line now
Tea break time!

In an oversized oakley's

What's a typical day for the kids?

This may be a boring entry, but I'd like to post it here so I don't forget when the kids are older.

Here's what a typical day for me and the kids.

700am William wakes. Plus minus half an hour. Boy will normally play by himself whilst Mummy tries to catch another 5 minutes of sleep, which normally ends up 10 minutes.

730am Victoria wakes. Of course this depends on how tired she is from the day before's activities. She would normally laze on the bed for a good 10-15 minutes.

800am The princess is all cleaned up. Total time to brush teeth, shi shi, change to uniform = 15minutes which is a BIG improvement from a year back. The only delay time is her slow warm up time from the bed to action, whereas William would literally bounce out of bed, and get straight into action.

805am Eat your breakfast, Vic!! William takes a small breakfast in the morning which consist of either cereals, steam fruit (apple/pear), mashed banana, dhal with garlic or once in a while he gets a treat, biscuits. Vic will have either ba chang, water porridge/rice with something from the day before eg steam pork or braised pork ribs, or nyonya kuih or fried rice or rarely, just fruits.

Before Vic leaves for school, she takes her probiotic and multivits and her allergy drops.

845am Vic leaves for school with Daddy. William hangs around in the garden then we go back in to play a while and feed the fishes. (... are you bored by now???)

900am It's bath time for William!! This boy loves his baths, and if we ever shortchange him by taking him out of the bath tub even 5 minutes earlier, he'd protest!

930am William takes 7oz milk and goes to sleep. Mummy gets on the net - MSN, Facebooking, blogging and maybe achieve a little bit of work.

1000am William is asleep.

1115am William wakes. He's ready to pick jie jie up from school now.

1215pm Vic finishes school. We all pick her up.

1240pm Vic takes out her own socks, wash legs, wash hands, then she knows she has to hug William first before she can feed him. (I invented this "rule", hehe) Lunch for everyone.

200pm Vic bathes. William plays.

300pm William takes 7oz milk and afternoon nap. I have my quality time with Vic. We sometimes play dough, do water painting, play computer games, go to the garden, coloring, and lately... play the keyboard. It's normally something which William can't do, and which Vic doesn't want her brother to be involved in.

400pm Time for Vic to nap. I take my nap too. Maybe a storybook on the bed. Most of the time, Vic is still playful at this time, and she'd find things to do in the room from "oi-oi-ing" Elmo to sleep, to jumping on the bed.

530pm William wakes. It's Mummy and baby time!

615pm Mummy bathes. William play in his cot and waits for me. This, my friends, is truly one of the BEST things I appreciate William for.

630pm William has his dinner. We do this in the dining hall. Strictly, and rarely (as in, less than 5 times since his birth) that he eats in front of the TV or in any other part of the house. The message we try to drive home is, when it's meal time, it's the dining hall.

700pm Victoria wakes. Has her dinner. Sometimes a little bit of Mr Bean for her before she moves to the dining hall.

830pm Victoria finishes her dinner. Yes, she takes this loonnnnggg to finish. If she polish off her dinner within an hour, that's a miracle! Otherwise, towards the end it's always Mummy telling her, "Please sit down", "Sit down and eat your food", "Finish your food then you can play"... until really, I have to admit I'm becoming a nagger. And when she does finish her food, it's almost time to prepare William for bed. Victoria enjoys, and looks forward to making his milk, from scooping the milk powder into the bottle, to shaking the milk. If the maid is busy, I will clean and change William up for the night. And guess who will come help me? Yes, my little helper, and she enjoys choosing his pyjamas, socks and wearing pants for William.

900pm I bring William to the room, feed him 8oz and then put him to sleep. Victoria spends time with Daddy.

1000pm Victoria takes her probiotic and multivit, then cleans up and change into her pjs. By now, I should be out of the room, and it's Daddy-Mummy-Vic time.

1045pm Story time for Vic, and it's countdown to bedtime.

1100pm Vic, go to bed now!

1130pm Vic, go to bed now! Lie down!

1200am Vic, go to sleep. Close your eyes! Daddy's dreaming by now, and Mummy's running on reserve batt. zzzzzzzzz

Coloring.

This is one of my little girl's better coloring done in church last Sunday. I love it so much, so Victoria said I can keep it.

Victoria and her musical instruments

Victoria is all geared up for her coming JMC class, starting in July. We purchased her a keyboard to start off with, a Casio WK-110. She was really excited the day she brought it home with Daddy, and enjoyed playing on it. Even William was excited! The two kids would want to play on it, sometimes pushing the other one away.

Victoria has told us many times that she wants to play the drums, and we told her that she should start off with JMC class, then probably piano before she takes up drums. Once she told me that she wants to learn the drums first, then the piano, and finally the violin... or was it guitar first? Actually if Mummy had a chance and time, I'd like to learn the violin one day... maybe when I'm 40 and bored. : )

She love to on the music, then pretend to play it on the keyboard

Sit must have style
With the classical guitar
Aaahhh... this is heaven!!!

My kids wear spectacles

... only kiddin! Here's how they'd look like if they wore spectacles...

My daughter and her farts

My Victoria is her most cheeky self whenever she's at home. Or when she's back at her grandparents' place. On the contrary, she seems reserved, shy and quiet when outside, and needs prompting to answer or talk.

A while back as I did some stuff on my laptop, Victoria was having her dinner. She suddenly called for me and said, "Mummy my pants is wet."

Worried that she might have spilt water on her pants, or (very unlikely) that she might have accidentally let her pee go, I quickly asked her, "Where?!!"

I touched the front of her pants. Nope, it's not wet.

Then she told me to touch the back of her pants. I did as I was told.

Just as I place my hand there, this little girl, immediately and strategically let go of two of her FARTS!!!

Puuuutttt puuuttttt!!

Then she just giggled non stop.

Chechhh!!

These shoes are made for walking

I mentioned sometime back that William loves his shoes. He treats them like precious gold, and if one should take away his shoes, he will not be very happy. This boy knows how to throw his temper, and if it's bad, he'd roll on the floor and start kicking his legs. At one time, he did this almost everyday and I decided to let him be and not succumb to his demands. These days he's cut down on rolling on the floor, but he'd still kick his legs.

Back to his shoes.

I bought William's first shoes in Ikano from a little stall. These Piobaby shoes were retailing at RM39.90 with 10% discount. Later, I found out that the price was a steal, as Parkson in Pavillion and Treehouse in 1U were selling them at RM69.90!! What a bargain I got!

William's 2nd pair of shoes, were lovingly handed down by Victoria. I was checking through her shoe boxes, reminiscing about those times when my little girl would run in those pretty little shoes. Then I discovered these paif of shoes which William could wear, since they are unisex.

For sometime William has been rotating between his Piobaby and Sunbaby shoes. Then the time has come. The Sunbaby shoes were getting little tight. So it's the time again, I guess. (Shoe shopping for these kids seem to be a quarterly or half yearly affair.)

Last weekend we were at 1U and checked out the shoes at Treehouse where we normally get Victoria's shoes. It used to be difficult to find a good pair of shoes, comfortable and yet reasonably stylish when we were shopping for Victoria's shoes when she was a baby, and then we discovered Treehouse. From then on, we have been lazy and just pop in whenever we need to replace her shoes. They sometimes have sales for shoes with limited sizes, and if you do some planning and have a little luck, chances are you'd pick a couple of good shoes at half the price, or even 70%.

Papayayas, 100% natural leather, was going for 40% discount, and we decided to get William's first Papayayas and 3rd shoe to his collection. It's great for babies' little feet when they first learn to walk and run. Victoria picked an army loafers which is quite cool. Ahhh, if only they have one in my size.

This boy would sometimes play halfway, and then go to this corner where we place his shoes, and pick his favourite. It's either the dark blue Sunbaby shoes or the Piobaby shoes and then ask us to wear them for him by holding up the shoes really high up. Then I'd ask him to sit, and he'd do so, lifting his little feet to me.

Yesterday I wore his Papayayas for him in the house. After awhile, William got his Piobaby shoes out, and indicated to me to wear those for him instead. Hhmm... so choosy even at this age?

When outside kai kai, you bet we can't carry him for long. His legs are just itching to walk!

William's first shoes. Full leather, from Piobaby which I bought when he was around 7 months old

Hand me down from Jie Jie. I still remember buying this for Vic, we let her pick between this blue and a brown. At such a young age (I think she was 1.5yo or less) she already knew she liked the color blue.
His first Papayayas. Daddy picked the design.

I miss you MOST when you sleep

Dear William,

Sometime back, our sleeping routine included you climbing all over Mummy and finding a nice soft spot (where else but my belly) to lie on, then then you'd fall asleep there. Another time you'd fall asleep hugging my chest, or my shoulders, or my neck, as if you were totally possessive of Mummy and didn't want me to go. As I lay there, I hear you breathe, and I feel your little heart beat against mine. I feel like I have the best job in the world.

A few nights ago, when Mummy put you to sleep, you finished your milk and lie on Mummy's bed. You rolled around, like you used to... laughed and climbed over me and then you open your mouth big big and tried to kiss Mummy. Of course, I quickly avoided you lar.

As you rolled around on the bed, you slowly become tired and sleepy. Then you wrapped your little arms around my neck as if you were hugging me. Mummy enjoyed it. I wish the moment did not pass. As I gazed into your tired face just inches away from mine, you look so serene, so innocent, so perfect. Then you slowly close your eyes, just as I sing you your lullabys.

Baby, you are my miracle.

Love,
Mummy

Manicure and pedicure

Vic had her first "manicure" yesterday. Since I got 50% off as a birthday treat, I decided to utilize this for an overdue pedi session. Vic wanted to follow me, and we've agreed many weeks back that she will do her nails with some cute cartoon pictures.

But unfortunately the shop didn't do cartoons and only flowers. They did rainbow for her and she loved it! She showed it proudly to Daddy when they came to see her. My daughter... getting a little bit more vain, but this is definitely good news... hehe.

I can eat this all!!

We had fried meehoon yesterday for lunch. When the big bowl of noodles was brought out, Victoria immediately said, she can eat it ALL!!


...of course she say only lar... she was struggling three quarter through her normal share.

Holiday in Kuantan

Sometime back Victoria mentioned that she wanted to go to the beachside. How she got this idea, I suspect was when her 4th granduncle invited her to the beachside during our trip back to Ipoh two months back but she didn't go then. This would be Vic's 2nd time at the beachside, seriously quite pathetic but that's also because we've never really had the opportunity. The first time was at St Kilda's beach, in Melbourne when she was 2yo but at that time she didn't like the sand in her shoes and the wind was very strong.

This time around, her excitement was built up slightly more than a week before that, as Daddy planned which hotel to stay in, and the itinery, as well as making some arrangements to celebrate the Mummy's aging. : )

By no surprise, we stayed at Hyatt Regency Resort in Kuantan, and the management gave us a complimentary upgrade to Regency Club for the two adjourning rooms.

We left at 8:45am on 6th June, last Saturday, arriving just around noon and tapaued chap fan (economy rice) lunch in town before checking into the hotel. After the kids had their lunch and bathed, we headed straight to the poolside. That was 3pm in the hot afternoon, but we got a shady part of the pool to dip the kids in. This is officially William's first time dipping into a swimming pool, as the other time in Singapore during CNY, he only got his lower half wet because the sister sprayed water at him.

The boy seem to love it. He didn't resent the water, though that's no surprise since he's always loved his bathtime. But after awhile, he started to whine out of fatigue. I brought my new "baby" laptop down to the poolside, thinking that I could do some surfing whilst the kids squeal in delight in the waters, but I ended up snapping pictures away and then hurriedly sipped my coconut drink. The maid and I took William back to the room first to clean him up and put him to sleep, and I tapaued the two coconuts back too. Vic who said that she didn't want to swim, ended up in the waters with Daddy.

Victoria thought she'd just join in the fun by the pool side and not get wet... but... ...

... ended up all wet! "Don't come near me, I will spray you!!"
Don't take my ball! William wouldn't let go of his precious ball
Fresh coconut

Swimming lesson no.1: learn to float...
My little hunky boy

At 4pm, I went for my spa which Hubby booked for me. Somehow, for a major hotel chain with constant flow of tourist, the masseur didn't do a good job. The lady who subsequently gave me additional complimentary 15minutes massage for my arms did a much better job than the masseur who serviced me for the initial 1hour. Anyway, feedback given, and I appreciate hubby's thoughts for giving me this time to myself.

We headed to the beach in the evening, and Vic overcame her fear of getting near the waters, although she'd not dip in it. I'd say this was the highlight of our trip as Victoria laughed and laughed and William quietly observing all the new surroundings. If it was not for the skies getting dark and the thought of getting dinner, we'd stay another hour.

Enjoying a quiet time with Daddy under the evening moonlight
My baby girl... not so baby anymore..

Don't worry, Daddy will hold you! Watch out for that wave!!
Family time
My angel laughs, my heart sours
Wind in her hair
Coconut tree don't fall on me

For dinner, we ate at this seafood restaurant with open air concept, but because it was so crowded (oh, and I forgot to mention that the traffic to Kuantan was rather heavy) we had to "fight" for a table indoor, and then "fight" for chairs, then "fight" for baby chair, then "fight" for a captain to come take our food order, then during the dinner, asked why our dishes came so slow. Business was really good for them. Poor William was really tired, whinning quite a bit and totally restless, Vic's appetite was more than great. We expected some "bleeding" when the bill come, but it was reasonable, I would say. Phew.

William slept in the car on the way back. Vic wanted to go "kai kai" somemore but we told her we have to call it a day. Back in the room, Daddy conked out with William, whilst Vic hanged around till nearing midnight.

During breakfast the next morning, the hotel brought in a complimentary birthday cake for me. So this is the "surprise" that we've been waiting for!! After that, we wanted to go to the beach and poolside again, but the skies were getting gloomy. So it was a quick time at the beach again, then back to the rooms, bathed the kids and pack up.

Bollywood? William under a coconut tree

My surprise birthday cake... rich chocolate moist cake! I wish I can share this with you, Vic

All ready for another great time at the beach... surveying the place first

William played in his cot whilst we packed up (he's so understanding) and cleaned Victoria up, and later Victoria jie jie fed him his cereal lunch. Throughout this trip, he didn't have much of an appetite for milk.

Playing in his cot whilst having his lunch

Activities introduced to Victoria

I've been a kiasu mum lately.

It suddenly dawned upon me that my daughter's reading skills is not quite "there" and she'd be expected to read next year, so why not start now. Maybe she already does, on a few simple words but I've not had the confidence to confirm that yet as I'm not sure if she's reading from memory.

I've been doing some simple activities with Vic. Almost everyday for the past one week, we work on an alphabet workbook, practicing her writing. Then we move on to writing numbers up to 30.

I tried this game with her once, it's self created and I call it Facts and Stories. Really it's to teach the girl the difference between telling the truth as it is, from making up stories or jokes. Sometimes she gets too creative and makes up stories that result in us believing her, or she'd joke with her grandparents on certain things they asked, but failing to tell them it's only a joke!

Facts and Stories also builds the child's creative mind and teaches them to be observant. When it's Facts Time, I start easy, by asking her to tell me 5 things she saw or did. When it's Stories time, I allow her the freedom to create any stories she wants, as wild or crazy it may sound. So far, the success rate is poor, cooperation doesn't come by easy.

The other game I started with her was to take a write up from any magazine, and ask her to search for simple but common words eg the, at, on, you, etc. This encourages the child to identify and recognize words, and in the process they become more detailed, well... hopefully.

There's no research to all these. I just make them up as we go along. What to do... mummy who's never been creative trying to be creative for once. Dunno if this will bear fruit but if anyone has any good suggestions, drop me a line.

My Ramli burger supper and the dragon fruit craze

Last nite Vic went out with Daddy to buy me a surprise supper. I say it's a surprise, because earlier on I told Hubby to warm up half the mushroom cabiata sandwich in the fridge for me as I was still feeling hungry even after had my dinner. I brought William to the room to put him to sleep and only then realised that the two of them left the house.

After William slept, I was bathing, and Vic sneaked into the bathroom, holding my burger in a bag. She told me to smell it, and my my... it smelt soooo good! Even Vic told me the same. Then she added that it's her favourite and she wants me to buy this for her when she gets well. (She always say this whenever she like to eat something but can't)

She insisted to feed me the burger and I let her. (She also always do this whenever she wants to eat something but can't) This morning Hubby told me that whilst they were out to "tapau" my supper, Vic wanted to be carried out of the car and not walk because she doesn't want to wear her slippers. (She's just manja with Daddy). When Daddy said no, she sulked.

The sulking continued until Hubby got the burger back, and she held it, and smelt it... her facial expression suddenly changed to one of happiness! (What a bluff, hor!) She said, "Wow Daddy! It smells sooo good!" She also wanted to eat it, and said the same to Hubby that when she gets well, she wants him to buy burger for her to eat. But she added, "When I got no more allergy, I want to eat burger everyday until I get allergy again!" What a joker.

What about the craze for the dragon fruit? A week back, I let William try this fruit, and he immediately took to it. He loved it so much that whenever he's finished his share, he'd "ask" for more. Vic's love for this fruit has been off and on. She used to like it, then for some reason she totally abstained herself from it so I stopped buying. Then when I started to buy the fruit again since it's in season, she liked it again... especially when it's chilled.

One day, after William finished his share, as usual he wanted more and I was hesitant as he's been having dragonfruit for the past few days. How much is too much? I thought. So, I tried to distract him, but to no avail... finally I gave in and said, "OK OK, I'll get you a little more" and William stopped crying. Just as I turned to pick one up from the container, Vic went straight to the container first, and quick as a flash, gobbled up the last piece.

Nnnnooooo!! I dramatically screamed. (I do that sometimes to humor the kids, ahem!)

Just then, William must have understood what happened and he started crying again! Sigh. That was the last dragonfruit in the house.

That evening itself, I went out to the pasar malam and bought five more. That was last week. Yesterday I went out to buy another five more. The craze is still on, and Vic and easily eat one whole fruit to herself, so the strategy is to take our share first before leaving the container to her. She once finished off everything cheekily knowing that Daddy hasn't eaten, then gave me the red-lipped, victorious smile.

Luncheon at Lemon Garden and face painting

Hubby came home from his outstation business trip yesterday late morning, just in time to bring us out to Shangrila's Lemon Garden Cafe for buffet lunch. Every Sunday the Cafe have activities for kids such as face painting, balloon sculptures, clown, sand art, etc. Vic wanted to do face painting and she mentioned this to us a few days back, but I didn't thought of making a booking until yesterday morning itself. At first they told me that the cafe is fully booked, but will get a manager to call me back to see if they can slot us in. In the meantime, I told Vic that the place was fully booked and we may not be able to go. Vic replied, "It's OK... then we go another day."

As it is, they got a table for us, at a nice corner away from the crowd but near the aquariums so William got occupied with that for a while. Vic had two types of rice, brown and white, and steamed "chat sing pan", dhal, beef satay, braised lamb cutlets and assorted fruits. She eat for free, btw since she's below 5yo. Hubby and I enjoyed the selection. I didn't eat much as half way during lunch, I went out with Vic to do her "face painting" and get somemore balloons. Vic decided she wanted a scorpion because she saw two boys before her did that, then she changed her mind to spider, painted on her arm. Phew!! I think I like this better than a scorpion!

William had a difficult time finishing his porridge with so much distractions. When he was done, he was like a little boy who has not been out of the house for a month. The kids enjoyed walking near the fish pond, watching other kids, playing with the different type of balloon sculptures, and Vic insisted on feeding Daddy and me ice cream. She also helped me put my strawberry stick into the chocolate fountain. I assured her that when she is fully recovered from her allergies, Daddy and Mummy will let her eat all these food.

After close to 3 hours of gluttony and fun and only paying 50% of our bill, we headed home. On the way back, we drop by our friendly fish shop and got two more fishes for the aquarium as two or three fishes died sometime back and we have not replaced them.

The process... it's painless! Victoria's first body art

Here's my new tattoo... is it cool???

Playing with his umbrella balloon
Enjoying a moment with jie jie

At the pond checking out the koi fishes

He loves walking...