25 more days

Just as I was getting comfortable with my stint as a stay-at-home mum, my colleague facebook-ed me a countdown of the exact number of days I’m due for work, awakening me from my hallucinations that my maternity leave is still 4 months left. When I realized that it's barely a month left to my just-another-day mornings, I felt intense palpitations, and the world was spinning like I had rounds of Flaming Lamborghini.

Barely a month ago, I was yearning to go back to work and missing the undivided 8 hours I would have to myself. I take back my words!!!!

I'm so enjoying the simplicity at home. 

For the only KPIs I need to run for are the percentage of dinner that Mei Mei has finished, evaluating the frequency/consistency of Didi’s has everyday (trust me, when you are a young parent, there is an un-explained obsession about our kids' poop!) and crunching numbers over the cheapest diapers with my sophisticated vlookup formula.

Daily Market Research

Looking at my to-do list for this maternity leave; 0% in the belly department and still looking like I’m in my 2nd trimester. And I just realised that I still can't fit in half of my work wear, did I just feel a cardiac arrest?

Can't imagine what's life going to be come the fateful day, I think I need another Magnum to calm my nerves.

Our blog has a facelift!

We got a new name for our blog!

We figure out that with the arrival of DiDi, we need a name that is more generic to be used for two.

(p/s mei mei, if you are reading this, don't worry, you are still the special one because this url is named after you!) 

I wanted a more sexy name, something more fun to reflect our joy (and tortures) in our parenting journey. 

So one fine day while Mei Mei is singing to the tune of 'Barbie Girl', I thought it would be very apt to have it as part of the name, since Mei Mei is quite a prima donna like Barbie ! But wait, the name got to be more unisex to cater for didi, since barbies and boys don't gel. Initially I wanted to name it "Raising Barbie and Ken..", since they always come together! How smart I thought I was, but it got trashed by Daddy, with his usual "hard truths" remarks, "You know Didi is going to hate you for this when he grows up right????". 

OKKKKKK, too un-macho right, GOT it! 

So, back to the drawing board. As I was going down my list of manly epic characters, "Transformers" seems like the perfect fit! Aren't kids pretty similar to them when they do their more-than-meets-the-eye thingie? At one moment, they can be as cute as Care Bears. And VOILA - they can transform into a screeching machine, armed with highly destructive tear-guns in the next milli-second! 

Got to run to attend to my wailing Barbie and pooping machine now, stay tune for more adventures in our next update ! 

My iPhone randomness

The Monster

Boooo!

We have a resident Monster in the family since a few months ago. If you are thinking that this is the nick we gave Mei Mei or a new pet we got for ourselves, nope you are mistaken. 

Let me tell you a bit more about this monster. He stays in our storeroom and sometimes hides in the storage boxes in the bedroom, or even under the drains overlooking our window. The birth of this character came when Mei Mei was protesting about everything, staging mealtime battles and putting up bathing struggles. Daddy decides to prey on Mei Mei's weakest link; the scaredy cat in her. He started talking about this monster who kidnaps disobedient kids. Kids who don't eat their meals, refuse to bath, or even shout rudely, the monster will catch them and locked them in a dark and scary cave! 

To convince Mei Mei further, Daddy have staged a few 'fights' with the monster in the storeroom, to pretend that he is trying to prevent the monster from escaping so that Mei Mei can finish her dinner quickly before the monster finds out. It's amazing how realistic Daddy's acting skills is, what a pity that he didn't fulfill his Star Search dream. 

The monster trick worked so well that Mei Mei is rather convinced about it's existence! I spotted her telling her classmate that the monster will come and take him away if he doesn't listen to their teacher (which her classmate gave a boring, disbelief look).  

Not sure how long she will find out that this is a coax. But one thing for sure, it is far more effective than a cane, less the pain and tears!

Appreciating our little Picasso

Since Mei Mei started preschool this year, her interest in art is becoming more pronounced.

Her teachers has been sharing with us about her flair in art, in particular a great sense with colors (and a penchant for pink). I find that quite surprising as she rarely draws at home, preferring to strip her Barbies, creating a rackus with her garang guni barang or staging the "Goldilocks and Three Bears" show for the 501th time. One thing for sure, she did not inherit those artistic genes from me, as my drawing nerves have stopped developing after kindergarten.  


She likes to draw human faces. I like the drawings she does as we are always part of her composition. It might not look proper to some but that's what I like about it! Her style is rather quirky, somewhat looking like aliens most of the times (since they always have big heads). Just a small problem we noticed; she tends to draw with very firm grip, causing her drawing materials to suffer from total and permanent disability after the first use.


Here's some of my favorites:

Her first few drawings  - usually characterised by 2 big dots as the eyes completed with 4 dangling limbs.  And she started to add some hair on the head, cos Daddy said it will look nicer.

My personal favorite - when I asked what is the big patch of color at the bottom of the face, she said it was chinny chin chin (her lingo for Daddy's goatie). The lollipops-lookalikes are floating balloons. 

The big blue face in the middle is Daddy, because he wears glasses. Awwwww... 

This is a portrayal of our family and her classmates. Mummy is the saugsage-looking thingie on the left. 

Guess what this is?
Answer: It's a spider (we thought she was drawing Lion King initially)

Posing with her pink masterpiece and her classmate, Nathaniel. 

Along came Didi

3-day old En Jun

My first post after Didi En Jun arrived! Didi is now sleeping longer in the 2nd month, which allows me to sneak in some time to work on this blog which has been sitting in my draft box for the past few weeks.

Spot the difference

It feels very deja vu with the arrival of Didi. Everybody attest that he strikes a stark resemblence to Mei Mei when she was young. So it seems to bring me back to the time when Mei Mei was first born and reliving it once again. The difference is that now we are more savvy parents and less kang cheong since Mei Mei has put us through a stringent boot camp training then. 


With a fussy Didi who needs to be nursed almost waking hour in the evening, there is very little time I can spare for Mei Mei. I'm grateful that Edwin offered to take 6 weeks off from work to jagar Mei Mei during this trying month. He is now her undisputed BFF, so much so that he is always the first person she runs to for anything and everything. The house is always buzzing with, " Daddy..can I...", "Daddy, I want...,". I'm getting quite jealous to be honest. Their bond is so tight that even when it's just me and her, she will unconsciously address me Daddy. I just hope that Didi can get more settled down soon so I can reclaim my BFF top seat soon.


Before Didi came along, we were quite worried that Mei Mei might be hostile towards him. She surprised us by handling this new transistion very well, thou there are some emotional moments at school during the first weeks. In fact, she turns out to be a very caring Big Sister towards Didi. Some of the very endearing moments;

A smirky Big Jie Jie

• When Didi is up for night feedings, Mei Mei will wake up and ask "What happen to Didi??" and instantly crashed back to sleep
• There was once that Didi was wailing frantically during his bath, sweet Mei Mei actually put her water pistol into his bath tub, prompting us to use it to calm him down (something we used to do to coax her into bathing)
• No matter how loud or rough she usually is, she's instantly transformed into a gentle angel when talking to Didi.
• During one of our car rides, Mei Mei even requested that we stopped talking as Didi is sleeping (something that totally stumped me!). 
• She always ask me to feed Didi when he's crying, claiming that he's hungry thou he just finished his feed 5 seconds ago.

I'm glad that both of them has started on the right note. Fingers crossed that this continues for as long as it lasts!

Cooling Off

Around Us

Today is Cooling Off Day. The country is in the midst of a 10 day election campaign and all campaign activities will cease today for voters to recollect their thoughts before voting tomorrow. Ironically, today's weather is scorching hot and there is hardly any cooling off with all main stream news and the Internet media buzzing with accusations and politicking. Politicians are playing up our emotions and pulling our heartstrings by pressing on touchy issues such as, "Do you want a better future for your children? Don't be afraid! Vote for XXX! Majulah Singapura!" Sometimes, I wonder if they understand the meaning of Mahjulah. For the record, although I'm a civil servant, I'm not partisan and I like to believe that I got a pretty good idea of what is a better future for my children. Though my one single vote matters, it remains valid for 5 years before a new Parliament is formed. So, my answer to a better future, though it may seems irrelevant at this point, is my commitment towards fostering values and character building in my children.

Some light humour, see video below.

About You

You have made progress towards your potty training! Good job Champ! Albeit the occasionally accident, you have done well so far and is only dependant on the diapers during sleep. However, you remain to prefer using the diapers to settle your big business. Whenever, you feel the 'big' coming, you will steal your diapers without us noticing and change into it to finish off your big business. This normally happens in your room and when we enter the room, you will (see video below):-

You are 3 years and 3 months old

Its been 5 months since Daddy last blogged. Rest assured that I still care a lot about you, its just that human beings are habitual creatures. I have 'nwuah-ed' for some time now due to the relaxed pace of my work (my boss better not be reading this) and have also spend a fair amount of time on personal reading in the nights. Since you started full day child care this year, also meant going to bed and waking up earlier for Daddy and Mummy as well. Okay, I know, enough excuses, I'm just plain lazy.

About You

In preparation for your baby brother, we decided to send you to a full day child care center in 2011, so that Ah Ma can have time to take care of Di Di when he arrives in this world. You stopped your enrichment classes at YKidz in Nov 10, but your teacher, Janet was kind enough to invite you back for Xmas celebrations. For memories sake, here are some photos with your teachers and friends at the party.

Your cousins, Ri-Ann (L) & Ricole (R)

Your best pal, Audrey

Your Principal, Ms Ng Yu Kai

Your form teacher, Ms Janet

Your other teacher, Ms Jasmine

Your new school is in MindChamps Toa Payoh, no more school bus and Mummy can now (with Daddy occasionally) bring you to school daily. This is something we enjoy and cherish very much as your mood meter is in the 'happy' zone in the morning and we get your almost undivided attention in our conversations. Ye Ye fetches you from school (at times Daddy when I get an off day or 'twang' from work).

Getting really excited for your first day in MindChamps

Initial impression up til now (3 months) shows that you are happy with the new school and your form teacher, Ms Leah (your form teacher) has managed to encourage you to eat on you own confidently. Whenever Daddy and Mummy gets an opportunity to pick you up from school, we are always thrilled to hear you say, "I'm so happy today!" We never quite figure out what you are happy about as you never quite revealed when queried and is often in a hurry to showcase your classroom stuffs to us. Your potty training is still in the works, but at least you can now inform when you want to do your 'wee wee' & 'nrgh nrgh'. So that's a good start.

I'm happy to see you grow up with a great sense of humour. Albeit at times you are shy with people you don't know, we know that there's always a cheeky side of you awaiting to throw us off our chairs.

Our Continuing Struggles

Convincing you to bath seems to take an eternity and has proved to be a challenge. We are not sure how this came about. Could it be due to a/several bad experience or just plain playfulness? Seriously, we don't know and its growing to be a little concern for us as its time and energy sapping for us all in the family. It takes a good 15 min to persuade or trick you into walking into the bathroom, another 15 min to play in the bathroom and lastly 15 min again for the right choice of clothes, which naturally has to be pink in nature. We are mostly late for appointments and what follows is a frantic march to the car and frenzied drive to our place of destination. I've officially demoted Mummy to '2nd grade princess' in the family as there can be only 1 princess in the family and that's you, our spirited child. So, again, good luck to the guy who marries you, not only does he got to contend with your feisty temperament, but also your never ending time wasting antics with 'mor' here 'mor' there.

Our Travels

Before your baby brother is born and looking forward with the next vacation seems so far away, we did a short road trip to Desaru up north in 'Boleh-land'. We had a little fun with the water park and managed to visit the fire flies river trip and ostrich farm. As always, you had the most fun and was indulged with your favourite biscuits. You are still talking about the trip til today.

Getting ready for the water park

The farm worker communicating the ostriches

The ostriches eggs were huge and almost impossible to crack

Weird looking cross bred chicken that had a bad hair day

This one had a hard day at work and was soundly asleep, its not dead if you are wondering

Was this imported from Pandora in the movie Avatar?

Some Fatherly Advice

Recently, Daddy went for a church wedding and the pastor gave the newly weds 3 words, Commitment, Contentment and Consecration. While, I can relate the need for the former 2 qualities in a relationship, no offence to you if you are ever going to be a Christian, I think the last C should be Conscience instead. Why? Consecration is to be holy through a relationship with God, with a good relationship with God brings you a good relationship with your spouse. If you are not a Church go-er, this might sound 'bulls**t' to you, but think carefully, search deeper and you realise by having the same conscience (values, principles or ethics) with your spouse towards life will quite frankly provide a meaningful relationship. So, to crudely put it, to me, God in this case is but a tool for 2 person to share common values (I chose the word conscience cos it started with the letter C, but you know what I meant) in their lifes together. Whether, you are reading this when you are 15 or 25 years of age, I hope I make sense to you. With my infamous short term memory, I hope I can share with you more in future.

Love, Daddy