Friday 28 June 2013

The way we play with playdough

Kah Yen has a simple playdough set as a gift from a friend. It comes with plastic pizza and bread molds, plates, forks and spoons. Hence naturally, we have been using it to make pizza and bread all the time, then cut them into shapes and pretend-feed everyone in the house.

I have never played with playdough myself as a kid. So I thought that's the only way we can play with playdough, making things using the molds given. When we grow tired of making pizza and bread, I thought of buying Kah Yen a more complicated set with a big machine that twists and swirls and makes ice cream and cupcakes! I saw it on the toy store and I was very impressed.

Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe (Photo credit: Toys R Us)

The husband, speaks as if he has all the wisdom of the world sometimes, said "What? Why do you need a machine to play with playdough? Playdough is supposed to be played with bare hands!" He simply dismissed my idea with a look, that kind of look.

Oh really? With bare hands? So far Kah Yen and I always use the spoons or knives and plates come with the playdough. We have never dirtied our hands.

So the husband went ahead to show us "the correct way to play with playdough", using his own words. And these are what we have made together:


Animals made using playdough

And we had loads of fun making the shapes and put them all together. Kah Yen helped rolling the crab legs and pasting the ladybug's purple dots. I can't believe we have never thought of making animals using our playdough!

I just couldn't help thinking how toys sometimes limit the way our children can play with their own imagination and creativities.

So we are just going to buy some more colors and hopefully one day we can make things such as these:


Playdough ideas from Google image

And I am very much inspired to DIY make our own homemade playdough soon!


Thursday 27 June 2013

Welcome to the third thrimester

I don't need to look at the calendar to know I am already into my third trimester. Being the second pregnancy, I am too familiar with the signs and symtoms of the third and final trimester. Here are but a few:

Hot Hot Hot

At first I thought it is because of the haze the temperature has gone up, but now the haze has subdued, I still feel like I am inside a hot air balloon whenever I'm not in an air-con place. We usually don't sleep with the air conditioning on so I am practically sweating while sleeping, one whole night adds up to a 5km brisk walk I guess. Well on a positive note at least I am finally doing some exercise! And to cook a dinner in our small stuffy no fan and no air-con kitchen? I feel like I am running a half marathon.

I can't believe every morning when I wake up I look forward to going to work now, just so that I may chill in the air-con for a whole day, for free.


Hungry Hungry Hungry

Waken up by hunger in the middle of the night is a miserable thing. Well, having your stomach making all the noises the moment you are ready to lie down and sleep is even worse. The clock is pointing at 11pm. I know I need to quickly go to sleep so that I can have at least 7 hours of sleep, but the stomach starts to give me the signal that it is hungry. Trying to sleep while my stomach is protesting? No way! I have tried to lie down for 10 minutes and my whole body starts to irritate me. Then I have to rush to the kitchen to quickly stuff anything I can find to my mouth and force it down the throat without chewing. Such is the hunger! and to remind you I have just finished my dinner some 3 hours ago.


Heavy Heavy Heavy

It is getting more difficult to walk, sit comfortably or lie down and sleep. The worst among the three? Sleep. I spend the night tossing from left to center to right, and back again. And it is almost impossible to do all the turning without waking up, when you have a big belly.

The extra weight is also resting heavily on my bladder. The poor fellow, suffering silently at a forgotten place, till he almost can't perform his normal duty. At night I wake up on average 2-3 times to visit the toilet. In the day I have lost count of course.

And while I am writing this post. I have to stop and stretch various parts of my body for at least 3 times. I also went to the toilet 5 times to be exact.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Four more months to go

Each morning I couldn't help looking at my desk calendar and calculating how many more weeks to my baby's due date. I am now 25 weeks pregnant, 2 more weeks later I will enter into the 3rd and final trimester. I am enjoying my pregnancy so much now I can't wait for the 3rd trimester to come. Though I know I will surely be more tired, I look forward to baby gaining weight and growing in size to be more like a new born. I really can't relate when Babycenter says my baby is looking like a spaghetti squash or the average rutabaga! Can't they think of something other than fruits or vegetables!

Baby is a lot more active now. He has gone pass the stage of so called "popcorn popping, a goldfish swimming around, or butterflies fluttering" type of gentle movement. He is in full gear for aerobics every now and then. Sometimes I can't fall sleep coz the moment I lie down, he starts his practice. But I love all the movements inside, which just tells me what a healthy baby he is.

I have been watching my diet reasonally well. I have cut coffee and tea completely. I drinks two cups of milk each day and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. I am also more diligent taking my vitamins now. I am confident that's enough nutrition for the baby to grow. I am expecting him to be at least 3.5kg, just like his sister.

I look forward to holding him in my arms and smell him. I look forward to breastfeeding him. And I can't believe I even miss pumping milk! I remember how excited I was when I have gotten 10 ml more milk than the previous pump. Such are the days! I pumped milk for 14 months for Kah Yen, my goal was two years but I broke my pump when we were travelling so I was forced to stop. For the second baby, I will still try to breastfeed for as long as I can.

I look forward to seeing his big sister interacting with him. Even now when his big sister is talking or singing beside me, I can feel him moving. He must be delighted to hear her beautiful voice. I know their bonding has already started even before he is born. I don't expect them to be the best of friends from the start, but I am sure they will grow fond of each other in no time.

I can't wait for my maternity leave to start, to have four months with my baby, to be available to him all the time. I can imagine we will be doing a lot of music and singing together. When Kah Yen was a new born the only nursery song I know of is "Twinkle twinkle little star". I remembered trying to sing songs to Kah Yen with a lyrics book beside me. Two and a half year has passed and now I have learnt a handful. I can imagine we bask in the sun together near our wall height window every morning. I can imagine we go down for a walk to the park each evening and I will show him all the beautiful things around...... It is going to be just me and him.

Four more months to go. See you soon my baby!

Monday 10 June 2013

Punggol beach

We went to the beach on Saturday morning.

Punggol doesn't exactly have the best of beaches. Not the type where you can dip yourself inside deep blue water, or sun tan wearing your favorite bikini, or even have a lovely family picnic. It is more of a port than a chill-out beach. But, for children, as long as there is sand and water, plenty of open space for them to run about and the hot sun to let them sweat to their heart content, it is already a heavenly place isn't it?

And I love that punggol beach is only 5 minutes away from our house by a feeder bus. Imagine I can wake up at 9 o'clock, take a bath and get everyone to eat their breakfast, then we can go to the beach for two hours and still come back for grocery shopping and lunch. No need to plan one week in advance. And the best part is I can bring Kah Yen alone despite my big belly. Since this is a beach feeder bus the driver is used to families carrying babies, strollers and all sorts of things onto the bus, she is extremely patient. I'd carry Kah Yen up and seat her down, carry the stroller up, and then a plus size bag filled with beach mat, sand toys, snacks and changing clothes, sit for 5 minutes and repeat the three steps again to bring everything down.

Look at the smile on Kah Yen's face while waiting for our bus, it is all worth it. And like all toddlers, she insists on carry her own property (the bag of sand toys) and let nobody touch it.




We usually feed the fish and turtles first. I never knew turtles eat bread too.



Then we spend some time on the sand playground. The weather is extremely hot, I can faint anytime just by standing there. But Kah Yen can sit on her favorite swing for almost half an hour, came down only when I asked her to.


We went to the shade to consume some milo and biscuit, before going to the beach to burn ourselves into roasted pigs.


I think she can play the sand and water for hours if I didn't call her to go home. Sometimes I wonder what children are made of!

Hope for more of such lovely mornings before our second baby is born. When that happens, it will be Daddy and Kah Yen outing most of the time.

Thursday 6 June 2013

I can't carry you anymore

So far Kah Yen has been taken my pregnancy news pretty well (or I thought so). She sees my growing belly and knows I have a baby. She pats it and say "hello" to the baby when I ask her to do so. She sings ABC song to my belly sometimes. At the end of our night prayer I lay her hand on my belly and say a quick prayer for the baby and she says "Amen" to it.

Her world has not changed much since the baby is not yet born, however, one thing that I can see has been affecting her quite a lot, is that, I can't carry her anymore.

I have always enjoyed carrying her and cuddling her, though she is old enough to walk. I continued carry her through the last four months of my pregnancy (when I am not supposed to carry anything more than 10 pounds!). Now that my belly is bigger and my back is breaking me any minute, I really can't carry her anymore.

To get her to accept this fact is not easy. As usual, I went to the internet to read what other mothers share about this. And the common advise is not to tell your toddler you can't carry him/her because you are pregnant, or you are having a baby. They may get jealous and see the baby as a rival even before the sibling is born. So I have been very careful with my words. I have been using reasons such as "You are a big girl now you should walk more." or "Mummy is very tired." or  "Mummy's back is painful." But I think along the way there must have been moments when I lost my patience and threw out words saying I am pregnant and I am having a baby!

A few nights ago, while having dinner, Kah Yen wanted to pee. I carried her down from her highchair and told her to go to the toilet herself. In the past I usually carry her all the way to the toilet, help her to pull down her pants and sit on the potty, wipe her and make sure she wash her hands, though she is already capable of doing all these all by herself. But that night, I decided to break that habit and train her to be more independent.

She said "Okay", then walked to the toilet herself. Before she went in, she stopped, looked back at me, and out of nowhere she just asked "Mummy you can't carry me anymore because you have a baby?" Then she went inside the toilet.

I was stunned. I must have said those words to her somewhere along the way. Though she is not sounding particularly sad or anything, it still breaks my heart hearing her asking such a question. I felt terribly guilty.

When she came out, I gave her a tight hug. I told her I love her and she is doing really well by going to toilet all by herself. And I told myself I will be more senstivie with my words, and I will give her the same attention and love even after the baby is born.

I can't carry you anymore, but my love for you will never change.