Graduation Concert

Jiejie performed at her school's graduation concert last Thursday and we wouldn't miss it for a million $$.. Wait, maybe we will. Hohoho. Anyway, I was really excited and was really looking forward it. It was quite amazing that kindergarten graduation is such a big thing now. The K2 students marched in and also went up the stage to collect their certificate. So pro. Then the different classes went up to perform. I was actually worried that jiejie will be frightened by the crowd, that she will freeze on stage or even cry but I was so wrong. This is her while getting on the stage. She was really excited when she spotted me waving at her. She is so different from the shy little toddler in the past. Jiejie was really enjoying the limelight.The pre-nursery and nursery students were really cute. Daddy Lim commented that kids lost their cuteness once they reach K1. I hope Lil Shauna doesn't grow up so quickly. She went up the stage 3x, the 1st to perform with her class, the 2nd to recite Chinese poems that she learnt during her Chinese enrichment class and lastly together with all the kids in her school. She really done me proud but most importantly, she enjoyed herself. :) Mummy Lim

Maid Update

So, how is the new maid so far? Well, nobody has been injured so far so I guess things aren't very bad. NRT is definitely slower and not as witty as the previous PHL maids that I had. She's not as organised too. She also can't remember clearly all the steps and procedures to do things and Popo has 101 rules to follow. If Popo knows how to write manual, it will definitely be a very thick one. Of course, the communication barrier is another big obstacle.

However, she's trying very hard and I think Popo sees that too. That definitely helped her to gain points. When she's at Centris, she's more willing to help out. She also didn't mind sleeping a little later or waking up earlier for the kids or to complete the housework. At least she doesn't rush to go to bed.

Popo also bought for her quite a few pieces of new clothes and stuff and we can tell that she's appreciative. I don't know if NRT will survive, it is still a little too early to tell. I hope. Maid changing is very tiring.

Mummy Lim

Maid

We sent MA off yday. I paid for a runner to send her to the airport. We only told her the night before about her flight details and she was very delighted to be going home. Yday afternoon, she spent a couple of hours packing and was picked up by the runner when I was out picking up the new maid. Popo says that MA was visibly happy to go. Well, I would too if I were to be away from home for a year.

I have been preparing Lil Shauna, that Auntie MA wants to go home to her Ashley, her 6 year old girl and we will get a new auntie. Lil Shauna didn't seem at all upset but only requested for a "white face" auntie. She said that she doesn't want a "black face" auntie. Haha.

I specifically asked MA to tell Lil Shauna that she's leaving before Lil Shauna goes to school and Popo said that Lil Shauna didn't seem at all affected. I didn't do much about Lil Isaac. I guessed he is a little too young to realize what is happening. Both kids are not sticky to MA and I don't think her departure will do us much harm.

Nariten, our new maid is a 32 year old Indonesian. This is her 3rd time back in Singapore as a maid, each time for about 2 years. She last went back in year 2008. She can speak English pretty alright. Maybe bcos she's experienced, she reacted exactly like a maid, respectful and humble. For a first day, she appeared to have more chemistry with Popo than MA. My only advice to her is not to argue with Popo.

She has 2 kids, aged 11 and 3 yo. When she was previously in Singapore, her job was to look after the elderly. I was a little worried that she cannot garnered the kids' favour but Lil Shauna seem to like her alright. As for Lil Isaac, he spent most of the time staring at the new auntie.

Things went fairly well for her first day but I was around to help with the kids and MA has done majority of the housework before she left. I hope she doesn't get a rude shock today. Popo has a whole set of rules and cleaning procedures. Most are totally illogical to me but I decided that I didn't want to interfere too much. Popo comes in a package, remembered? I can hear NRT still at the housework. Popo says that she's slower, less bright and more forgetful. So long as she doesn't incur Popo's wrath, things will be fine.

Mummy Lim

Lousy Driver

Transport arrangement had been difficult recently. It is either Daddy Lim has been sent to attend some courses or work outside of yard or I have to go out for external function beyond 4.30pm. Ok, I have to admit that I am pampered and Daddy Lim had been chauffeuring me around even since I gave up biking. He will usually send me to and from work. In the event that he can’t, I will rather take taxi. On weekends, if he is busy, I would rather take MRT than to attempt to drive.

It is no doubt that I got my driving license since I was 18. However, driving is alien to me. I started biking when I was 23 until I was preggy with Lil Shauna. I loved the carefree feeling while on the bike but acknowledged that it was nowhere near safe. And I realized that I felt pressurize while riding after I married Daddy Lim. It was as if I suddenly realized that my life no longer belong to just me. So I didn’t try riding after having kids. I am accountable to even more people now and I cannot imagine how stressful it will feel to be on a bike again. There are of course times that I recall those care free riding moments and wonder if there will be someday that I will ride again.. perhaps only in my dream.

I haven’t been driving for the longest time. Without Daddy Lim, it is always the public transport. With Daddy Lim, I am always attending to the kids in the car. Although I felt the nagging voice to ask me to start trying to drive again, there wasn’t any strong compelling force to push me into it until yday. Daddy Lim has to go for some external function this morning and he will be taking the MRT. He finds it stupid that he has to drive me to the yard and go home to park the car and take the MRT. Yes, I agreed that things will be simpler if I drive the car to work. So, as a prelude, I tried driving back (we were at JE) yday.

For some crazy reasons, he wasn’t in the best mood and was very dis-encouraging and it started drizzling. -.o” Our windscreen is pathetic with the rain. So I was behind the wheels, trying to remember how to drive and was shot daggers when I made mistakes. When we finally reached Centris (and having mount the curb twice while turning into Centris), Daddy Lim concluded that I better not drive and took over the wheels and said that he will drive me to work this morning. Well, that was after yelling at me as a way to inform me that I have mounted the curb, 2x. I was upset. I was really upset that he wasn’t at all encouraging when I was already a bunch of nerves. I was even more upset with myself for not being able to drive properly. I mean, so many people drive and I know of so many other people with poorer coordination than me driving on the road, so why can’t I? Boohoohoo.

This morning, I woke up at 5am to express and fed Lil Isaac his bottle at 5.45am. So I was ready for work at 6.15am and I decided that there are probably not many cars and people on the road at that time and thus safe for me and the fellow road users if I drive. And I did. The journey went pretty smoothly as there weren’t that many cars. The parking in yard was a bigger challenge. Not only was the lot narrow, the lines outlining the lot have faded and Tiguan is big. And there were bicycles parking in the car park lot. So I have to do bicycle shifting, wait for people to cross before I finally squeezed Tiguan into the skinny lot. That took like forever. It wasn’t a straight and perfect park, but my aim is to merely squeeze Tiguan into the lot without obstructing other vehicles and I think I achieved my aim, despite taking a long time to park. Hohoho.

Yes, I must start driving. I must join the many, many female drivers on the road. I think the road won’t be any more dangerous with me adding on to the less pro group of female drivers.

Mummy Lim

Classic Pose

Daddy Lim and Lil Isaac.
It was a hot afternoon at Nainai's place.



3 years back.


Same?

Mummy Lim

Mango

Does it taste so bad?



I thought it tasted quite nice. Apparently he doesnt agree.


Mummy Lim

Milk Tasters

We bought the Mamil Gold step 3 FM yday. I think step 3 should taste nicer than step 2. Afterall, step 3 is for toddlers age 1 to 3 and the FM must be tasty enuff to “retain” these targeted audiences.

I hate milk, especially those that are white in color. I haven’t touched white milk for as long as I can remember. I have tasted my BM despite my lack of keenness to do so. On certain occasions, I have to make sure that the ebm is still fit for consumption before I feed Lil Shauna in the past and now Lil Isaac. It actually tastes like glucose water, with a tint of sweetness and no milky taste at all. Or maybe the little droplets that I took barely give any taste. Still, I declared that I have done my part. I cannot bear the thought of having to taste the step 2 and 3 FM for comparison and so I turned to the newly appointed official milk tasters of the Lim family.

I made a little amount of the step 2 and 3 FM in separate cups and presented them to the father and daughter team. They tried step 2 and both gave me yucky face. It must have tasted really bad. And they both agreed that the step 3 FM tasted much better. Lil Shauna was even willing to take 2 gulps of the step 3 FM. Daddy Lim commented that the step 3 FM tasted more vanilla-ish. He was lost for words how the step 2 FM tastes, just yucky in general.

So, we have the conclusion. J
We will start Lil Isaac on step 3 today. Popo was hesitant to throw away the step 2 tin, which is still ¾ filled and also questioned about Lil Isaac being able to stomach a new FM. No problem lah. Who doesn’t like a tastier drink?

Mummy Lim

Updated: Lil Isaac refused the step 3 milk!!! I am so glad that I heed Popo's advice and didnt throw away the step 2 milk. Haiz, feeding him milk is such a challenge!

Updates on Lil Isaac

He is one year old but still not walking. He can easily put himself up to a standing position, which is an important feat so as to reach for the things on the table top. He cruises too but opts to crawl any time. He is not at all interested to learn how to walk despite mummy’s eagerness for him to do so. Chey!

He knows how to reach for his sippy cup and holds up his cup to drink. He loves water, bread and biscuit but not a milk lover. We have started him on formula milk (FM) and tried to give him one feed of FM a day, which he drinks with little enthusiasm. He is only a little more enthusiastic towards ebm. He is generally not a milk baby. He is currently on Mamil Gold step 2 and I am going to move him to step 3 today after I buy the new tin. I think the step 3 milk is sweeter and hopefully this will encourage him to drink more and faster? Even Ferlin drinks faster than him. Popo sometimes have to resort to spoon feeding. Our little man is still saying “No” to mummy’s breasts and poor mummy has resigned to fate and is on exclusive expressing. Interestingly, he has almost dropped his night feed. He does stirred in the night but often goes back to sleep without demanding for milk. Popo or Auntie usually tucked him back to bed. Mummy still wakes up to express but didn’t manage to coincide with the time that Lil Isaac stirs. I have tried to latch him once and he actually appeared to try to suckle. But even before the let down, he bit me and decided that he wanted no more. Chey, don’t know how to value the good stuff.

Popo shared that Lil Isaac is definitely eating more as compared to a while back. He is probably about 9 to 9.5kg. He likes his cereal and a particular brand of puree, which Popo always mixed in food that he doesn’t like to mask the taste. For reasons beyond us, he has taken an appetite to porridge recently despite it being the same porridge that Popo cooks everyday. Well, we are not complaining. Lil Isaac is probably at the 50 percentile for his weight but we can definitely do with a little bit more of chunkiness. Oh gosh, I like fat and chubby babies.

Constipation is still a challenge. Popo has been feeding him lots of high fiber food, especially plums. He hasn’t established a regular bowel movement and he moves his bowel as frequently as every day to as constipated as 5 days. Since the last badly constipated episode, we have given him suppository once and lactulose 3x. We gave him lactulose whenever Mr Poo Poo plays the disappearing act for 3 days. It is always such a joy to hear from Popo that Lil Isaac has moved his bowel. Jiejie and mummy will break into a dance in celebration. Lol.

With Lil Isaac, I am such a hands-off mummy. I am lost wrt what he should eat and what to help him moves his bowel when Popo is not around. At least I do the breastfeeding in the past. Boohoo. Now, I have taken on the task to give him his last feed before he sleeps. It can be a bored at times bcos we closed ourselves in the pitch black room and he takes forever to drink. But I value that little bit of quiet bonding time. The other time that I have with him is spent chasing after the active tiger. He still smells fabulously babish. I can never get enuff of his baby smell. Yummy.

We wont have another kid. Daddy Lim can vouch for that. Lol. So Lil Isaac will be our last baby and I hope that he doesn’t lose his babish smell. Hohoho.


Mummy Lim

Still Happy

I am still feeling joyful that the mega event is over. I can't believe that it was just 4 days ago that I was working my life away at sdc. It felt like months ago. Although the event is over, I am still working hard to tie up the loose ends. At least I can breathe better now and there is no doomsday ahead. I can take my time to clean things up. I still fund myself grumbling at times while I tie up the ends, but I am constantly reminded that the event is over and the it didn't kill me. This makes me happy. Hohoho.

The event being over means that I finally can have more time for my daily work. And I need to arrange with Daddy Lim to clear my leave. I am left with 2 months and have to clear my 14 days of annual leave, 5.5 days of childcare leave and 1 day of off-in-lieu. I don't think I will be able to clear all these leave, not bcos I am too hardworking but bcos I just came back from maternity leave in January and had already cleared 11 days of flexible maternity leave since. I am intending to take a weeks' leave in November and one week in December. Woohoo! I need some holiday, badly...

Mummy Lim

Finally Over

Finally, the Company event is over and I am happy and relief beyond words. Just in case you are wondering, I am safe and sound. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, it wasn't my safety that was at question but that of my follow colleagues.

I was worried that a stampede might take place. My heart was really in my mouth. I will be dead if a stampede took place and somebody got injured. Not that i will be dead bcos somebody trampled over me but the need to answer for it. I have never done so much crowd control in my life and have never handle such a situation before and I was scared. I was so glad that so many colleagues helped out and things eventually turned out fine. Phew.. No injuries, thank God.

I like organizing events and contemplated going into events management when I was much younger. However, now that I have 2 kids and organizing such a mega event on top of the daily job gave me nightmares. Yes, can you hear how relief I am now that the event is finally over?

I hope I am not so suay to kena organizing the event next year. Next year's is supposed to be bigger. Crossed fingers and toes.

Mummy Lim