Wake up sleeping beauty, wake up...

Victoria takes a loooonnnnggg time to get up. She's like an old automobile, where you need to turn the ignition a few times before the engine cranks up, then allow it time to warm up before it can move... slowly.

She's never been an early riser, since toddler but her brother William is just the opposite. Eversince birth, William has been consistently waking up 7am-ish, and only sometimes past 8am due to a late night or disturbed sleep. Once aroused, William would quickly sit up and then stand up in his cot, and he'd look as if he's ready for some action. I hope he continues like this.

If I say the brother is an early bird, then Victoria is a night owl. She is our energizer bunny who can skip her afternoon nap and yet last till midnight, given a normal day at home. Everynight, it's not unusual to hear us telling her to sleep, sleep, close your eyes, go to sleep now. In the morning, we allow her 10-15minutes of gentle coaxing time, before drastic action is taken, eg make her sit up, take out her socks, some angry words.

This morning, I am secretly amused again at how she try to squeeze in a little more sleep, if only for another 5 seconds. With her eyes still closed, she mumbled, "you get the towel first" when I told her to wake up. Then, she'd say, "you take my toothbrush first" still lying down with her eyes closed.

Look, we're already late, Victoria... GET UP!!!!!

It's tough to get through the first hurdle... getting her to open her eyes. Then the second hurdle, is to make her sit up. The 3rd hurdle is to get her to open her mouth to allow me to brush her teeth. All these... whilst she's still sitted on her bed. Sometimes when I walk away a bit, she'd lie back down. Haiyaaa!

Once I've gotten over the 3 hurdles, then it's easier as she will walk to the bathroom, gargle with the water that I prepared by herself, then sit on the throne to shi shi and clean herself up. Then dressing her takes less than 3 minutes.

The brother plays or watches. Sometimes he ask to be carried. Other times, he's most understanding. We even tell him to pick a socks for Jie Jie and he does just that.

Next year we will all have to wake up much earlier.

Shoes, shoes, shoes!!

The other day I suddenly realised that Victoria's collection of "currently-can-wear" shoes have grown out of the blue. I say, out of the blue, because she used to maintain 5 pairs, then I decided to buy her an extra pair of slippers (Tom & Jerry) which she picked herself. Not surprisingly, it's in her favourite colour, blue.

A month back, she saw a Crocs "original" for sale at the night market and I decided to buy that for her. Then we kept away one of her "kai kai" shoes that she's been complaining was tight, and Daddy bought her a new sandals from the recent Hush Puppy sale.

So, it was 5+1+1-1+1=7!! On the rack, she has more shoes than me, for once someone has broken my record, and it has to be by my little girl, who's only 4 1/2yo.

Swimming at home

The haze is back, and it's getting to the kids. Vic came down with running nose that dripped like a loose pipe on Thursday, and I let her rest at home on Friday. On Friday, she seemed a little better whilst William started showing signs of flu. They were able to play in the garden because the neighbor two doors away was (and still is) concreting their fence. We only went to the mall once to run some errands and dinner and church on Saturday evening. In between, the kids seem bored at home.

On Saturday, Daddy opened up this plastic DIY swimming pool so the kids can just dip in and have some fun to break the monotony.

Vic "sleeping" in the pool, or maybe she's pretending to float.

Sharing some toys together

Vic has recovered from her flu and back to school today, whilst William is still on the road to recovery. I went to Eu Yan Sang to restock my pearl barley, grabbing all their packets on the shelf. With the crazy Influenza A(H1N1) still at large, hubby and I have to take turns watching the kids, while the other run errands outside.

Taking care of little brother

Vic loves to feed William, but lately the boy has been choosey with his food and the person who feeds him. The sister gets a bit hurt, and agitated, sometimes angry that she doens't get to feed him like those days. Sometimes, she gets to feed him when he's well behaved.

If there is any way or any thing that Vic can do for William, I can most confidently say that, with the condition that she's not in one of her bad moods, she will very willingly help. For example, wearing shoes for him, wearing socks for him, wearing diapers for him (it's tougher now coz William likes to stand whilst wearing his diapers and pants)...

Sometimes she does so much, I have to remind her to let the maid take over. Her jealousy over the brother is lesser now, much to our relief. Maybe she doesn't see him as such a "threat" now, and as William gets more independent, hopefully they can play together even more.

Here, eat your mango.
Let me wear your shoes for ya
William does this quite often to Victoria whenever he wants to manja with the sister. He will reverse into his sister, and conveniently place his bum on her lap. : )
William's favourite food. Yogurt!

What does this look like?

After bath. The maid tied the towel for Victoria this way and the little girl is simply thrilled.

A family photo shoot

Yesterday we went for my Hubby's long overdue graduation photo shoot package. I didn't buy any new clothings for the kids for this event, and simply picked one that's existing (except for the skirt that Vic's wearing, which is 1 week new).

Since I put lipstick (also I didn't go for full makeup) I asked Vic if she wanted to try. She happily nodded her head. So here she is, before we left the house. Btw, pictures taken at the studio will be ready in a months' time.

Brushing teeth

William has now upgraded from a finger brush to his first set of toothbrush. Every morning, he will see me brush his jie jie's teeth, and sometimes he will hold my and Daddy's toothbrush whilst we brush our teeth. His turn is when he takes his bath. He cooperates quite well, except for mild resistance after awhile. But it's harder to brush the front of his teeth, coz I dont know how to get him to do "eeee."

Quietly, I'm just happy that he gets accustomed to some foreign object going into his mouth, so hopefully when he does start on using toothpaste, it will not be such a trauma (like what we experienced with Victoria).

His new and first set of toothbrush, complete with a gum and tongue massager at the bottom of the handle, and a safety shield to protect baby from putting the toothbrush too far into the mouth

Fresh after his bath this morning (he's holding the finger brush which I let him play with now)...