Soon to The End?

Auntie NRT is not in Popo's good book. She is still unable to memorize Popo's 101 manual by heart and cannot follow the instructions given by Popo in her typical broken English. She is "cha tao" and forgetful. Despite everyday's routine, she still makes mistake and forgets.

Popo is definitely not patient with her and at times took over what NRT was doing bcos she was too slow and cannot follow Popo's instruction. Now I know where I inherit my lack of patience. To make things worse, she is not winning the kids' favor. The kids prefer us anytime. At Centris, Lil Isaac bullies auntie and opts for Popo. Try as she might, we have a struggling Lil Isaac in his typical "eh, eh, eh" chant under her care. Otherwise he will be screaming or crying for our attention, eager to tear away from auntie's grip.

I can see that she really tries. We were very much alright with her in Genting bcos we took care of the kids most of the time and there was no housework to be done. She was merely helping out. More importantly, Popo "disappeared" most of the time and I had peace. The moment we stepped home, my ears hurt from all the noise that Popo made from nagging, scolding and complaining. Haiz.

I don't know if NRT can survive. She will either have to buck up on the housework as per Popo's standard or win the kids' support to stay. Otherwise, it will be really tough. Popo says that she's contemplating to send her back. I am fine if she wants to. What I hate is to have Popo talking sarcastically to NRT and loudly, as if intentionally for me to hear. Worse, Popo talks sarcastically to me bcos NRR irks her. I already told her that IND maids are slower and she was the one who asked me to get an IND maid so why am I suffering all these now????

Haiz, I hope NRT bucks up soon. I really cannot take all this noise. I am already not interfering when Popo disciplines the maid. I really left it to her charge. What more can I do?

Mummy Lim

Milk, Milk, Where Are You?

I don't know what happened. My milk supply dropped. I don't know if it dropped during the Genting trip. I expressed but not according to the usual schedule. There was more than enuff for Lil Isaac bcos I topped up with FM.

I realized the reduction when I was back in Sgp. I don't know if it is bcos I was too tired. I missed my night express a few times before we left for Genting and definitely a few nights after that. Or it is that time of the month. Though I am blessed with no menses, I found that my ss tends to drop when I experience menstrual cramp.

I am of course not ready to stop expressing yet. I haven't lose enuff weight yet and Lil Isaac still doesn't take pure fm in his alert moments. I am not desperately trying to increase my ss but would be glad if I have enuff for Lil Isaac. I am a cow, I am a cow. Mooooooo..

Mummy Lim

Genting

We are back from a short Genting trip. Not many pix from the trip bcos we are too busy chasing after the kids! Cameras are a passé for us, we are only armed with our iPhones and pix are only provided that we have time to rip them out for some precious moments.

We went with Nainai and Popo via the night coach. The trip was pretty alright. Lil Shauna has a seat on her own and almost slept through except for her waking up halfway through the journey to climb on top of Daddy Lim to sleep the rest of the way. I shared the seat with Lil Isaac and was thankful that the seat was really wide.

As usual, we didn't see much of Popo during the trip. There aren't much to do for Nainai but I think she was just really happy to spend time with the grandkids, fussing over them.


The Chan family was there too, we managed to meet them for part of the trip and the girls had loads of fun at the outdoor theme park. Playmates are good. Lil Shauna loves having playmates to run around and act silly. This is us in the cable car down the mountain. The last time I took the cable car in Genting was a looonnnggg time ago.


Lil Isaac is more participative as compared to our last Genting trip 6 months ago. He went on quite a number of rides and actually enjoyed them. I am so looking forward to him walking and taking those rides on his own. Hoho.



We came back by flight on Sat afternoon. The 2 hours taxi ride down the mountain, 2 hours wait at the airport, 40 mins plane ride and 30 mins taxi home from Changi airport sound really daunting, especially with a tiger who hates to be confined. Luckily, the princess was willing to stick with Daddy Lim and the tiger took his nap during both taxi rides. We survived the journey and it wasn't bad. It is either we had loads of help, the kids are easier now or we are getting better at parenting. Lol.

The only painful part? I was so tired by the time we were home but the kids were bursting with energy! I was willing the time to pass faster and the kids to sleep earlier, both unsuccessful. Boo! I can't be more glad at bedtime.

Now that we are back, it is only right that we plan for the next trip. We do need to look forward in life, right?

Mummy Lim

On Leave

Daddy Lim and I are on leave today in desperate attempt to clear leave. We must be real bad planners. We heard of many lamenting about insufficient leave and here we are making weak final attempts to clear ours at the end of the year before the company forfeits them.

We are now reading newspaper and sipping hot coffee in Macdonalds and raking our brains about what to do for the rest of the day. Yes, poor planning again. We only know that we should take leave but didn't think of what to do. Lol. We are now basking in the without-kids quietness. It brings us back to those dating no-kids days. Hoho.

Of course it would be great to laze around the whole day without the kids, especially when Lil Shauna is in her frequent-tantrum mood triggered by that irritating flu bug. I am sure we can manage that easily provided that we can get past our guilty conscious. Oh gosh, the kids would love to spend the day with us. See what I mean?

So, we could do a movie with jiejie in the afternoon. At least we fulfill half of our parenting responsibility. Or we could bring the whole lorry load of people out in the afternoon to venue unknown. It is school holiday and we have in total 5 adults and 5 tiny people to squeeze into Tiguan. Hohoho.

We'll see how.

Mummy Lim

Good Job!

I started Lil Shauna on her phonics with LCentral (LC) on 21 Aug 11. To date, she has completed almost 2 terms of the most basic class (aka Foundations). The Foundations focus on the first sound. Other than the actual phonics, the kids also do lots of colouring, cutting, song and movement and games during the class. Lil Shauna loves the phonics class and asked to go to Teacher Rebecca’s class all the time.

The classes are seriously expensive. However, I was really glad to see Lil Shauna enjoying herself. I was a little sad that I don’t get to participate in the class with Lil Shauna like how we used to but I was also glad to have free time to run errands and read a book during that 1.5 hours that she is in class.

I managed to speak to the teacher during the last lesson 2 weeks ago and was told that she’s performing really well and is able to hear most of the 1st sound. Teacher Rebecca also commented that Lil Shauna is starting to open up and is beginning to speak up more during class. She thinks that Lil Shauna can be “promoted” to the next level (LaunchPad) next year! I am so proud of the princess.

Last Sunday, while I was at the school, the admin made arrangement for Lil Shauna to move this coming January and was telling me that she is really fast. It usually takes 2 to 3 terms for them to progress. The admin also conveyed that Teacher Rebecca was impressed and commented that Lil Shauna is really small but is really good. LaunchPad is usually for K1 student, Lil Shauna will be in Nursery next year. In fact, Teacher Rebecca says that Lil Shauna can be promoted now but thinks that she lacks self confident and recommended for her to move next year. I think so too. It can be very daunting for her to be in a class of bigger kids. The last thing that I want is to kill her interest.

I was a little sad for Lil Shauna bcos Felicia just joined her class. Lil Shauna really enjoy going for such enrichment classes with Felicia. It is also a cute sight of the 2 of them interacting during such classes. I hope Felicia will pick up quickly and join Lil Shauna soon. I bet Lil Shauna would like that.

I am in the league as the rest of the Singapore kiasu parents. Next year, I will want to sign Lil Shauna up for swimming and abacus. Of course, I will have to work hard on Lil Isaac too. I will be signing him up for My Little Gym next year. I seriously think he should burn some energy during such classes.

Mummy Lim

Walking

Lil Isaac is cruising a lot more now. He sometimes cruises instead of crawls when trying to get to one place to another. He can also stand unsupported for like 5 sec. On Saturday, Lil Isaac took his first step or what appeared to be his first few steps. Actually, it wasn’t really walking. Daddy Lim and I were about 1 m apart and we were trying to coax him to walk from one of us to the other. Lil Isaac did try. We will encourage him to stand unsupported and urged him to walk when he is ready.

He didn’t really walk. He sort of fell and then staggered his feet while he fell forward. Well, at least it looked somewhat like walking and he was pleased with all the excitement that he created. So he “walked” and “walked” from Daddy Lim to me and back. I remembered doing that with jiejie too, just that jiejie walked so much more steadily then and not merely “falling”.

Yeah, our tiger will walk soon. I am really looking forward to that than to have to carry a struggling baby when we are outside.

Mummy Lim

Rain Rain

It had been raining so much recently. Actually, I prefer the cool weather than to be under the hot sun. However, it would also mean that outdoor plans are scrapped and I think it is raining a little too much recently.

Yday, Daddy Lim was driving us on PIE when we were caught in this big rain. Part of the expressway started filling up and mini floods started appearing. I was so glad that Lil Isaac was sleeping then cos I felt this need to help focus on the road and scream at possible hazards. Well, not that it will help Daddy Lim but I just felt that I need to do so. I had to keep reminding Daddy Lim to go slow even when he was barely doing 40km/h and all the other cars were this slow too on the expressway. At certain point, the visibility on the road was so bad, barely 2m. I couldn’t make out the road, it was simply hard rain coming down on our already pathetic windscreen and everything appeared grey scale. I bet all Daddy Lim was doing was to follow the tail light of the car in front. We drove past this big canal that was ¾ filled with brownish water. I was surprised to see how choppy the water was in the canal. It was similar to the waves at Phuket. Really, no kidding. No wonder people get washed away in canal by flash floods. The whole thing was scary and I was so glad when the rain finally lightened. Lil Shauna was happily talking and singing while Daddy Lim and I sweat over the road condition.

This morning, it was bad too. It started drizzling when we left the house and rain soon poured. Traffic was a snail crawl. By the time we turned into the road leading to the yard, the water level was rising, overflowing the drains. At certain parts, we could no longer see the drain, only the green barrier that separates the drain and the pavement sticks out.



I saw this man waddling in ankle high water, trying to pick up his fallen motorcycle which he has parked on the pavement. For a moment, we celebrated that Tiguan is a tall car and we have less risk of having water entering the engine via the exhaust. Daddy Lim even asked me if this is the start of the end of the world before correcting himself that God will not use rain to kill mankind. But it does feel like one of the scenes in one of those end of the world movies. Scary.

Interestingly, the sun was shining brightly shortly after the rain stops. -___-“ The earth is really sick.

Mummy Lim

Maid Saga

So, how is the maid? Well, I don't really know. I haven't spend enuff time to observe her to assess for sure. I only know that I am so much softer on her as compared to the previous maids. I don't know if it is bcos I don't want to get caught between Popo and the maid since Popo is already teaching and disciplining her or that the kids are easier to take care now and I can handle them better on my own.

But NRT definitely falls short of Popo's expectation. Again, Popo expects the maid to be humble, clever, initiative taking, flexible and also good with kids and housework. Where to find? It really takes a fairly clever maid to understand Popo's broken English and also follow her 101 rules step by step without lapses. MA is witty but it also means that she's prone to argue her way out. Naaahhh.. Out!

So, Popo has been complaining about how slow and inflexible NRT is. Of course she is unable to go on auto-pilot mode and fulfill the 101 steps without lapses, much to Popo's displeases. I kept reminding her that IND are definitely less clever than FIL and getting a good maid is really like ti-kam. Apparently, this cannot get into Popo's head. I return home at the end of the day to hear Popo complains about the list of things that NRT didn't do properly or wrong and also hear her scold the maid.

Tonight, Popo insisted that I asked the maid if she understands Popo, which I get a "yes". So I was forced to probe further on why then NRT didn't follow the instructions. There wont be an answer lor. If she can explain her actions, then she won't be a maid. And Popo insisted that I asked the maid what she did wrong this morning, which left me confused after her explanation. It was pretty obvious that the maid is not very sure what she really did wrong to incur Popo's wrath.

The best part? Despite Popo's limited English, she refused to scold NRT directly and tried to be sarcastic. Hello, the maid really doesn't hear the "suanness" lor. NRT greeted Popo "good night" before turning in, Popo sarcastically told her that she don't have to greet her, that her job in Sgp is not simply to greet people and she will be more than glad if NRT doesn't make her angry. NRT gave a puzzled look and asked Popo for affirmation if Popo doesnt want her to greet her in the future. -.o" See??!!!????

I told Popo that I am prepared to change the maid anytime so long as she asks me to, but she doesn't want to change. I am not sure if it is bcos she doesn't want to be the bad guy. But I am not God, I cannot change NRT's character lor. So, I have to brace myself for more complaints and nagging. Then again, maybe the maid will quit on us soon? Choy!

Mummy Lim

On Leave

This entry was created on the Tuesday that just past.

Ah yee brought Popo for her medical at nuh this morning. I took leave to babysit the kids. I was so glad when Lil Shauna left for school and Lil Isaac took his nap. This full-time mummy thing cannot be on a permanent basis. To me, it is more stressful than work. Lol. This is my reward.



This sweet tiger is really sticky now. He is constantly fighting with jiejie for my attention now.

I dated ah yee for shopping in the afternoon. It has been a long, long while. We used to do that, even when I had Lil Shauna but it is almost impossible to do so with 2 kids now. It felt so good.

We went shopping at bugis. We didn't buy much but it was just walking and lots of talking. It was as if she was filling me in with all that I missed out of her life during this void period. She made me feel really old, as if our age gap is more than just 4 years old. I think I must do this with her more often, especially when she's going to shift out soon.

I went for my kickboxing in the evening before completing my day. Oooooo, it had been such a long time since I felt fulfilled. Yes, yes, yes, I need to take care of myself more.

Mummy Lim

Milk and Bottle

Lil Isaac has definitely given up latching. I tried and all he does is to close his mouth on my nipple before pulling away to smile at me. I didn't dare force him, not when he has 11 teeth now.

I had been complaining about Lil Isaac's low milk intake and also how slow he drinks. This is the case even when I used the fastest flowing teat that I can find in the market for his Dr Brown bottle. His wide neck milk bottle is also irking me. It is always leaking and it is a messy affair trying to feed Lil Isaac especially when he is not cooperative.

I was really frustrated that I used one of jiejie's old narrow neck bottle but a new L size teat on him. Apparently, the flow is much faster and he didn't reject the "new" bottle. After a few attempts, he is a pro and finished his milk in record time! I threw away all his Dr Brown bottles.

The good thing is that he drinks really quickly now but he often finishes his milk before he falls asleep. He ended up kicking up a storm, leaving him wide awake. No fun. He used to drink 140ml with the Dr Brown and often cannot finish his milk. Now, he takes merely minutes to down his 150ml and cries for more.

This late morning, I was trying to tuck him for his nap and gave him a bottle of 150ml fm mixed with ebm. He finished the bottle and was angry when I pulled the empty bottle away. I made him more fm but he rejected it. I had a hard time trying to make him nap again and gave him another bottle of fm mixed with ebm when he was dozing off. So he actually polished off almost 300ml of milk.

Just now, Popo warmed up about 140ml of ebm for him. I topped it up with another 60ml of fm. I didnt want risk having an angry tiger. Again, he polished the entire bottle in mere minutes!

Oh, he poo poo both yday and even 2x today too. I am starting to question if he "was" a small and slow drinker bcos of his bottle? Is his constipation a result of his low milk intake? Anyway, I am glad that he continues to drink well and moves his bowel. I am even ok to buy bigger bottles to replace the 2 brand new narrow bottles that I bought yday, so long as he drinks. He has been stuck at the 9kg mark for the longest time!

I am so glad that he is taking his fm. He doesn't like it "pure" unless he is in a half-awake mode but at least he takes it when mixed with ebm. At this rate that he is drinking, I definitely don't have enuff for him. Phew. Mooo...

Mummy Lim