Saturday, February 28, 2009

Busy busy bee

1. Woke up before 8am this morning, and logon to settle some work email, my bintan trip booking and my maid air ticket booking.

2. Finally settled everything by 8:45 am and hubby was hopping cuz I promised to send him to work. I hustled the maid to change and then we all rushed out of the house.

3. Dropped the hubby off at 9:05am (he was 5 min late) and off to the zoo we go! We dropped by the petrol station to pump gas plus get some light breakfast / water.

4. Reached the zoo at 9:30am (i think) and phew, there were plenty of lots still! So we zoomed right in and since we decided we were going to talk (no tram rides!), we headed straight to the "australia outback" with some stop overs, including the pygmy hippo (breakfast stop too!) and the white tigers.

5. We managed to catch part of a show (not the splash one) and V was quite engrossed. We headed next to the splash show but the strong fishy smell put me off, so I ran away from it!

6. We took a break at the Ah Meng restuarant, and we had chicken rice for lunch (at 11:15am). By 11:40am, we were off to check out the orang utans, the polar bears and some gibbons. By the time we were done with the gibbons, V was already in dreamland, so we decided to head home.

7. The moment V was put on the car seat, she woke up and was so awake (5 min power nap!). So we decided to drop by the mandai orchid garden (no plants to buy!) but the flowers on display were pretty. We headed for orchid ville instead since I was quite determined to get some flowers :P

8. We found orchid ville!!! Bought 2 plants, 1 Vanda Miss Joaqium and 1 er, i forgot. Anyway we bought some cut flowers since I wanted to go to the colombarium nearby to put some flowers for my Dad. V was v good, she even wave and blow kisses at my dad picture when we were leaving.

9. Reached home at 1:45pm. V refuses to sleep after a shower. She's streaking around!

10. 2:45pm! Time to go! Off I zoom with V to her playgroup at Kids Loft. Almost got lost, but I did find the place! She fell asleep in the car (for 5 min) and then when we reached, I had to wake her up since I couldn't handle everything. The teacher, Lavina, came to help and V recognised her! She follow the teacher into the classroom, and within 15 mins, back to her perky, cheeky self. Man, the way she was participating in the class, you can't tell she has a serious lack of sleep! But I credit Lavina for engaging her very well!

11. Home at 5:10pm. V is now in the room, with the maid trying to lull her to sleep, but it's been 30 minutes, and I still hear her talking and making loud noises in her room.

12. Time for my bed. Will post up some pics and videos later if I get to it =)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A pain in the butt

.. literally. With this #2, my butt muscles hurt so badly I had to call in the massage lady to give me pre-natal massage once i hit 16 weeks. I just couldn't bear it anymore. The ache is especially bad in the right side, so much so I can hardly sleep on my right side. It also affects my body so much that I wake up in the middle of the night because my body was feeling so miserable. One of the "solutions" I came up was to lean more towards the front, so the pressure is off the butt, but it means more weight will be on my tummy. I doubt I can carry this method for long, but at least it gives me a more restful sleep.

Probably in a few weeks time, I'll make it a weekly massage session instead of once every fortnight. There's only so much my body can take, especially when baby is so active now (I felt #2 kick as early as week 12) so I need all the rest I can get.

It's probably time for me to stock up on chicken essence too - been feeling really weak and tired, despite going to bed early. It doesn't help when I wake up in the middle of the night, and spending over 1 hour trying to find a comfortable position to sleep on.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Going Potty!

We have started to train V on the potty (well the throne to be exact) ... she's will to poop on the throne but it comes to the pee ... *sigh* ... we can coax and cajole her for 30 minutes, she refuses to pee while on the throne. After we put the diaper on, she turns to me, point at her diaper and say "wet". Yes, she peed on her diaper ... for some strange reasons, she just doesn't want to pee without her diapers ...

HELP!!!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

22 and almost half months old

The other day i just realised V turned 22 months old (3 days late) but I was so caught up with work I didn't really sit back and count the "milestones".

She's a bit more vocal now, crazy about chocolates still and a lot more "loving".

For Valentine's Day, my hubby got this deal off the web, he paid $10 for a night stay at a 3 star hotel. Wait, don't go "wah" yet ... his colleague got it for $1!!! I am not kidding, 1, ONE, Singapore dollar. Too bad I had a meeting that afternoon, so I couldn't take leave in the afternoon, though my boss was nice to let me off slightly earlier from work.

The hotel is new, and frankly speaking, I thought it was pretty decent, although it reminds me a little of the Japan's corporate hotels (no frills). The bathroom is tiny, but it's still bigger than what you get in Japan! The room was of a decent size, but no way we could put in a cot.

Anyway, we decided to take this opportunity to "test" market - that is take care of V on our own for 2 nights and see how it goes. This is in preparation of our helper's 2 weeks return to her hometown, and we are wondering how she will react. Needless to say, since she beds in with the helper, she was whining for the helper at night. The hubby took care of that, he brought her out for walks and they would returned with her fast asleep on his arms/ shoulder. the same thing happened on both nights, she would wake up suddenly after being put on the bed and wanted to go for the "walk" or "outside" again (based on her finger pointing). The first night i carried her and hum her favourite tune when she was a baby, that soothed her but she took a while to fall asleep. As usual, since I am blind at night, I couldn't tell if she was asleep, I had to inch my way to the light source (the tiolet) and peer at her. Anyway she was kind enough to let me sit on the bed to rock her to sleep after a while, and when she finally fell asleep, I propped myself against the bed, with her sleeping on my chest. Not that she was whining, but I missed it. I missed the times when she would fall asleep propped against my chest, listening to her breathing and smelling her hair. When I was dropping off to sleep, I put her to bed but she refused to sleep in between us for some reasons. So we ended sleeping L-shaped, and her feet near to the edge of the bed. Some sixth sense woke me later and her feet was dangling off the bed! I managed to shift her back into position and she continued sleeping. In the morning, she was quite funny - she woke up and checked "mama!" I answered her and then she went "papa!" then the hubby replied to her. Satisfied, she went back to sleep for 2 good hours, before we woke her up for breakfast.

The second night, after our expensive Valentine's dinner (I spent close to $200), we came home and she was in a good mood, although she kept asking about the dogs and the helper. When she woke up from the first walk, i asked the hubby to carry her and I promptly fell asleep. When she was finally deep enough in her sleep, the hubby put her on the bed, but she again insisted on sleeping in her way. So we ended up in a H-shaped, her head butting my ribs, and her feet landing on the hubby's face. She tossed a bit at night, so she headbutted my tummy, my ribs, my shoulders, my chest ... it was no fun, but I doubt it would be any better if her feet was on my end! I'm glad to say we survived it, and she enjoyed herself. When the helper returned home today, V was stunned for a minute when she saw her. But as usual, soon after, glued to her like a fly on a fly paper. However, I am pleased to note that she wanted me to brush her teeth for her!

She'll be heading off to childcare soon, in preparation for the #2 arrival. Not that I really want her to go so early, but for practical reasons and since I cannot possibly work part-time now, it seemed like the best solution to get her used to childcare first. #2 will arrive sometime in June/ July, and I don't think the helper can cope with 1 toddler, 1 baby and 2 dogs. Hopefully things would have settled down at work enough to allow me to work reduced hours so I can spend more time with V, but I really highly doubt so. Having 16 weeks of maternity leave is already more than what I could ask for (well I did hope for 6 months!) and given the current situation at work, I cannot extend my leave period, so let's see how things work out for these few months.

Oh and ya, #2 is along the way =)