help has arrived!

The second helper arrived yesterday and so far so good. My boy knows my cousin has left and that someone new is here so he is putting the second helper through a series of tests ... mainly she has to talk to him so he can coo back. He can smile when he wants to, and sometimes when I chit chat with him or he see his sister, he will smile. Occasionally he will giggle too, and I find it so highly amusing, especially when he does it after he has left his half digested milk on someone's shoulder.

#1 is still sick, and slightly feverish plus her cough doesn't seem to go away. So I off-ed her bedtime milk which may be why she takes such a long time to sleep (hungry) but milk (FM or BM) worsens the cough, so my poor gal just have to be hungry a little. #2 has a slight temperature too, so we are still observing.

With the additional help and that the hubby is at home too, I managed to churn out 3 batches of cookies. 2 batches of butter cookies, one original flavour (which my hubby prefer), the other is irish cream coffee flavoured (which I prefer) and 1 batch of oat shortbread. Personally I think my first recipe is good enough to be called a shortbread. The oat shortbread recipe which I took from a recipebook was somewhat oily. I am sure if I tweak on the original butter cookie recipe I have, the oat butter cookie would have been better - less oily and just the "melt in the mouth". I couldn't find my small kenwood mixer (think I left it at my mum's place) so I took out my brand new Braun food processor (I bought it as an excuse - on behalf of my hubby', a present for our wedding anniversary in a month's time) and worked with it. It wasn't too bad, but it's definitely not cut out for cookie dough work. It would have been great for something in a batter form, but nonetheless, the texture of my cookies turned out great too. I would say on par with my kenwood mixer.

#2 has turned 2 months old and I did take some pictures. Just that I've just gotten my new PC and the only time I get to logon is 1) bedtime - when I'm on my bed 2) pumping milk - I've set up a temporary station at my pump armchair with the old powerbook - so I haven't been able to download the pictures from my HP or my camera. He's now 6kg - I'm happy with his progress so far. The only thing that upsets me is that he tends to be colicky, and his tummy has lots of wind ... We can only try to massage his tummy as often as we can or cuddle him to sleep (with his tummy on my tummy) to soothe his discomfort. Otherwise, he is a happy baby. V is also very loving towards her brother, and often we have to stop her enthusiastic acts of love towards #2, especially now she is coughing quite badly. More often than not, she gets so upset when we tell her not to go so close to her didi that she bursts out crying. So we let her pat him a little and then bring her away to play her toys or do some colouring. V is of course upset when she sees me carrying him at times, but she would only display acts of unhappiness when she is sleepy or hungry. I'm not complaining about their relationship and how V is handling it. I think she is coping a lot better than I am, and I am very proud of her. Now, if I could only get serious about her potty training - I lost steam after she peed in the cardbox house I made for her and I had to throw it away.