Love Motivates

New family member

2008-03-05T21:12:00.002+08:00

This is our new family member! She is so sweet and beautiful, and has expressive eyes. I have never thought I could have a daughter.

Luke is adjusting well with this new member. Tried to give him more positive attention.

He is at home for two weeks before he starts school again, so I have to handle two kids now.

I am glad that he is doing well at home and in school previously. He could rote count in Chinese at 24months and could count his cars. He has recently taken interest in dinosaurs since two years birthday and I was amazed that he could pronounce 6 syllabi dinosaur names when I could not without looking at the word.

I'm trying to keep him occupied in the morning with Art, singing and books now that he is at home with me.

Happy Day

2007-10-10T22:51:00.000+08:00

I was happy to see my son's pleasant surprise whenI celebrated his birthday privately with him. I bought him a slice of cake, lighted up the candles and sang him a birthday song at home. I could see that smile on his face. He love blowing the candles but he patiently waited for me to snap a photo first. Then we dug in. He ate most of the cake. Never mind the sugars that he is eating for a day! It was great bonding time.

He has been so fascinated with transportation. By 18 months, he knew most vehicles and before he reached his birthday this year, he could classify and name vehicles like 'bullet train','garbage truck','dump truck','big rig','ambulance','fire engine','police car','sports car','motorbike','digger','tractor',etc. He learnt all that faster than he learn the ABCs : )

I have been feeling more tired in this pregnancy than the previous one, no feeling of 2nd trimester, I cannot recall having insomnia. Quite unlike the first pregnancy.

He has been throwing quite many tantrums nowadays,esp when he wants something, on top of all the whining. Mostly, I just left him alone and had to wait for him to cool down. I know if I let him win and get his way, he will do it again. I just pray that there is no limit to my patience.

Time for school?

2007-07-28T23:46:00.000+08:00

Brought my son for a MMI free trial today and realised he could learn very fast. There was another 26 mths old boy at the trial with him. They both seemed to click well.

I was rather surprised that L can finish the task using the montessorri tool faster than someone almost half a year older than him. I was amazed that he did well, he knew he had to put in the blocks from left to right and could sort out the blocks very quickly. The teachers were surprised and asked me if he was doing it for the first time and commented that he seemed intelligent and learn things very fast. I must say that L is rather alert and observant. I usually make sure that he listens to me when I talk. I gave myself a pat on the shoulder for the efforts I put in him : )

However, I don't think I can afford the time and energy to teach him with the arrival of the baby. He is always asking me to play with him or read to him. Furthermore, I cannot teach maths and sensorial using Montessorri. I have to make plans for his learning so he can maximise his current potential. I must say that the fees are steep for my consideration.

My father received Jesus on Easter Sunday

2007-04-28T15:24:00.000+08:00

I thank my God that my dad received Jesus on Easter Sunday in a miraculous way during a healing service. If God did not speak to me to bring my parents to church, my dad would have missed the chance of receiving his salvation on Easter Sunday.

I also thank God for my spiritual mom in christ who has given me lots of support. Thanks for the love of Christ within her.

Thank God for my sisters in Christ who have shown their support in praying together with me.

God has shown me the importance of unity in Christ.

CNY season

2007-03-19T12:04:00.000+08:00

A bit late in creating a post for the CNY. The CNY for us was enjoyable and passed quickly. Went to Science centre for a while but mostly, we visited friends and relatives. Wanted to take a good picture of him being the Strong man but our photography skills are not up to standard.

Strong man!

Kiss by mei-mei Ting Ting.

We cannot treat children like dogs

2007-03-10T14:11:00.000+08:00

We cannot treat children like dogs
kiss them, play with them with they are in a jolly good mood and looking cute,
smack them, hit them when they bite us or get in our path.
Children are human beings too, they have emotions, they can get affected by the environment, they can get stressed and they can get cranky when they are sleepy.

I get cranky when I am lacking sleep too. How can I expect my 16 months old son to behave when I deprive him of sleep because I need to bring him out late at night? How can I smack him when he misbehaves because he is trying to catch my attention so that I can bring him home to sleep? He is a human being, not a dog.

What I have to do now is to try my best to bring him home to sleep when he can take it no longer : )

Children are human beings like us. Seek to understand them before expecting to be understood. Praises work well on him. No words like "You are naughty!", I use words like " What you did was wrong!". I catch him doing the right things and praise him. Understand his emotions and personality. I realised my son is very much like me. I was being caned and spanked a lot when I was younger. Outwardly, I was a quiet and good girl because I feared the spanking, inwardly, I was waiting to rebel. Everythings needs to have a balance.

Now, when he knows that he is going out, he sometimes will keep his toys on his own initiative. I was overjoyed when I saw that.

How to get him to eat?

2007-03-09T12:01:00.000+08:00

My son has been finicky about food since a month ago. So now I have change the menu everyday and find out what he likes to eat. Recently, I tried a new way of cooking stew beef and he loves it.
Ingredients:
beef cut into cubes,
carrots cut into cubes(and any other vege),
a small slice of ginger,
1 star aniseed.

Fry the beef in a saucepan till brown. Transfer the beef into a slow cooker pot and fill with hot water just enough to cover the beef. Add all other ingredients and let the slow cooker cook at high temperature for at least an hour.

He can feed himself now using a spoon but he loves to play with food and cause a mess. Feeding him can take more than half an hour. Cleaning up takes another half an hour.

He is a smart boy, he started speaking phrases like " More, water" and "More, please" since he was 15 months old. And now he likes to tell me the different types of vehicles whenever we are outside (i.e. taxi, bus, car).

I am glad that I don't have to specially teach him things like a teacher, he learns well when I tell him about things when we go shopping in a supermarket, walk to the MRT station, sing songs and even when we are taking a bus.

As for me, I am trying to learn to sugar-coat my words as I tend to speak my mind. Not everyone can take the truth even if I speak out of love and concern for them.

Long Time no blog

2006-12-02T21:57:00.000+08:00

I want joy that money cannot buy. I am having it now, joy that money cannot buy, even though I am not without troubles. Happiness is temporal, joy comes from grace.

Walking

2006-09-03T23:25:00.000+08:00

My boy has taken his first steps. He walked two steps unaided and then throw himself at me. Sometimes, he catches me by surprise by standing up on his own for a few seconds. I hope he can start walking independently before his birthday.

He is communicating more to me now, I'm glad that he is crying less. At least now he says 'milk' when he thinks of drinking milk, so I can understand his needs better.

After running the sheares bridge 10km run, I feel it's a pity to just stop running after that. Not only because I didn't do as well as I wanted for the sheares bridge run, I think I got hooked on jogging. I want to continue! I give myself a target now, to lose more kilos before my brother's wedding, haha!

We won the 13th prize!

2006-08-06T00:03:00.000+08:00

We had a pleasant surprise today. Luke won the 13th prize for the Best Breastfed baby contest! During the preliminary round, I didn't expect us to get into the semi-finals as there were a few hundred participants just for his age group. I was pleasantly surprised when we got into the semi-finals, then the finals, today, he won the 13th prize out of 60 finalists!

I am glad that he won this without much effort, he only needed to be himself. And as for me, I only needed to bring him to the contest to let the judges play with him. Hmm...no need for him to be the fastest crawling baby, no need for him to be the chubbiest baby, he was only required to play. Not bad at all.

He was taking his nap during the prize giving ceremony at Suntec City. I went up to the stage to receive the prize alone.

Started Weaning

2006-07-31T00:14:00.000+08:00

Started weaning my baby this weekend as it's easier to do it with Dave's help. He kept crying 'Mama' when Dave was feeding him and I had to disappear from his sight. I resisted from going to him as my heart softened when he cried for me.

The sinus infection had gotten so bad that I woke up in the middle of the night wincing in pain. Therefore, I had to start a course of medication and I don't want him to take in all these drugs. I'm pretty glad that I have tried my best so far and can wean him without feeling any guilt. Perhaps it's due to my family background that causes me to want to do my best for my child. This is something which not everyone can understand. I can see results in what I have sown into his life. For example, I really want him to be a happy baby so since he was 6 weeks old, I have been smiling, and smiling, and smiling at him to show him that I am happy to be with him. Now, so many friends have told me that he is a smiley baby as he smiles most of the time.

Two weeks ago, Luke saw baby Samuel waving at him in church and he waved back (to my surprise). Since then, he has began to wave at people when others wave bye-bye at him. He would never wave bye-bye at his own parents, he doesn't like us to leave him.
Yesterday in church, he saw some toddlers clapping to the worship music, he began to do the same too and kept clapping every now and then. I conclude that it is good for babies to meet up other children and socialize, and it is good for children to go to church :)

I had the privilege of doing consolidation duty at the church yesterday and I felt very encouraged as I met the young NUS student from Brunei who received Christ into her heart. I felt a lot of joy and as I shared with her how a Christian life is like and prayed for her. It takes a miracle from God for someone to believe in Jesus! I don't mind doing this consolidation duty once every month!

Not feeling well

2006-07-27T20:50:00.000+08:00

I have been sick for two weeks and I'm having fever again today *sigh*. My baby has already recovered but I'm still down. Not easy to take care of an active crawling baby when one is sick. I could not even put him to bed last night.

This morning he woke up for his feed at 4:30am and I could not fall back to sleep after that. Maybe it's God's will, for I spent the time praying and fell quickly back to sleep at 6am!

Recently, he has been 'dancing' quite a lot when he hears the music :) And I was surprised that today he said 'duc' which is actually duck. Then for the rest of the day, he has been saying 'duc duc'.
So far, his first words were 'Mama', 'Dada', 'ah-ber' (apple) and 'duc' (duck).

I'm enjoying his company more each day. He is really responsive now and my mom-in-law is also very enthusiastic about helping me to take care of him. Thank God for her, but I'm a stay home mom after all.

I'm rather disappointed that I won't be able join the cell group girls for the SAFRA 10km run. There is not enough time to continue the training now since I'm still sick.
I must get well soon!

Working people

2006-07-18T16:35:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, CNA interviewed someone from a job agency while reporting on skills redevelopment of workers. The representative from the job agency commented (not in exact words) that
"we Singaporeans have to show the world that we are good workers, workers who can work long hours....".
I had quite a strong reaction towards her statement. As if our working hours are not long enough! If that is the mentality of most employers in Singapore, then we may be in trouble.

It seems to me that many employers in Singapore have mistaken long working hours for productivity. An employee working long hours may not mean that he is productive and good. He can spend the time day dreaming, surfing the net, going for long tea breaks, taking his own sweet time to finish a task. He might as well work short hours and be productive in his work and then go home early to spend time with his family!

Do the employers in Singapore these days treat workers as machines or human beings? Everyone needs a good family life, spends time with spouse, kids and parents. If one's personal life is not in order and is not living a well balanced life, can he/she concentrate on being a good worker?

What about value-adding at work? What about creativity at work?

French workers are some of the most productive workers in Europe despite their short working hours of 35 hours. What's more, they are some of the least stressed and happiest workers (BBC news reported).

What is happening to our children today as parents have to work long hours? Most children in Singapore have little time with their parents. Many may grow up being insecure, lack of parental love, lack parental guidance and encouragement. Some children only get to see their parents during the weekends. Are we going to expect them to take care of their parents since they have not much time together and building up parent-child relationship?

Today's special

2006-07-07T00:42:00.000+08:00

My baby gave me a fantastic birthday present. He called me Mama. Though I heard him call mama a few months ago, I wasn't sure, yesterday I was sure. As I was walking away from him, he anxiously cried out 'Ma.......Ma....'. Dave heard that too! That was a pleasant surprise. My efforts have paid off, every few days I kept telling him "I am Mommy, call me mommy".

He also has been trying to kiss us on our lips recently, has been rather affectionate until we have to dodge his french kiss :)

Had a good birthday celebration. Had a good buffet lunch, had a good nap (have not had a good night sleep since I got pregnant), and had a good COMPLIMENTARY facial together with Dave :B

Chronicles of a stay home mom?

2006-07-05T23:42:00.000+08:00

Goodness! I caught my sis-in-law red handed for stealing my son's first kiss on his lips! Yucks! On account of her love for him, never mind this time. However, I have asked Dave to watch over him when we are with our relatives in case anyone tries to kiss our baby on his lips again.

My baby boy walked seven steps today as I held his hands. As I praised him when he walked the first two steps, he smiled and took another few more steps until he gave a shout and sat down coz he was tired.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm writing 'Chronicles of a stay home mom' in this blog...

Went to the central library last Saturday, surprised to see that there is a parenting room. Wow, babies are welcomed in the library! Singapore is getting more and more baby friendly.

First day blogging

2006-06-30T22:26:00.000+08:00

Months ago when I was still working, I would not have considered creating my own blog. Thought it was a waste of time, too busy, blah blah blah...I disapproved of those who blogged during working hours.
Now that I'm a stay home mom, things have changed, my mind has changed too!

Thank God that my baby slept till 9am this morning, quite unusual, probably because he slept at 11pm last night. So my morning was short as I had the luxury of sleeping till 9am, hee!!!

By 2pm, I was famished, quickly rushed out to have my favourite Hakka Yong Tau Fu (authentic) and then to the library. My boy now weighs more than 8kg so carrying him was really tiring but I persisted. He was a good baby, at the library, he only cried for a while when he was hungry or sleepy. I even managed to get 30mins reading time while he was sleeping in the carrier.

My boy has been crawling around, standing up on his own and cruising a couple of steps. I wonder when I can see him taking his first step. I'm looking forward to seeing him walk. One thing I lack is patience.

He is a gift from God. I remember praying to God to ask for a child who will be a God lover and He answered my prayers really quick. Two months later, I realised I was pregnant with him.