Whale lazing away

Just when Anya was recovering from the little flu, I got it from her. That was over the weekend. Presently, we are all pretty recovered, except for an occasional drippy nose.

My energy level, however, is going down. Comparing this pregnancy to the last one, it is a case of you gain some, you lose some. Without the vomiting, I am gaining weight like any other normal pregnant women. Right now, I count myself as the no. 1 anti-anti-gravity. Up-slopes irks me. I know I said this before, but I cannot help but whine here. The lower part of my body feels as if I have completed a cross-country race and NAFA test at the end of everyday. My pelvic area sore, my legs aches. Occasionally in bed, I have to sit up and readjust my sleeping position because I am unable to turn from one side to the other. I am back to being a light sleeper on most nights.

Therefore, I am blog-stipated. I don't feel as bright as I usually am. Words just do not flow. My eyelids somewhat start to feel heavier whenever I click onto "new post" on blogger. Then, as if hallucinating, I hear my bed calling out for me to cuddle it.

Which is why I am ending this entry.

Flu-bugged

The Tod is down with flu. With a voice and an increasingly stronger mind of her own, I realised that taking care of my child when she falls sick has become a different ball game.

Yesterday, she insists on wearing her cardigan to bed, then refused her dinner midway instead wanting "VVVAAArrNNEeee!". It took all three of us (The Husband, The Helper and myself) a good ten minutes of head-scratching before we realised she meant "Barney". She has been refusing to sleep during naptimes, only to fall asleep later during playtime. Refuses to have her nose wiped, but becomes irritable when the mucus comes streaming down her nostrils, tickling her. Today, she insists on wearing a jacket pretty much the whole day (not a bad thing since the weather is cold) and her plushy bag. The latter, I suspect, is because of its cushy factor.

In her cardigan with her peek-a-boo face

Her mood is erratic and she changes her mind every so often. One moment, she wanted her milk and signed "please" to Aunty (The Helper). The next moment, she decides that milk can wait as she wanted to lie down on Daddy & Mommy's bed and snuggle with Eeyore. But her milk was ready! So concession was made - she got to have her milk while snuggling with Eeyore on our bed. 

Breakfast in bed

Many times, she used her fingers to dig deep into her mouth, causing herself to gag. The family doctor suspects that it is because the phlegm is causing her discomfort since there is no inflammation in her throat. Another note of concern: Contrary to what I think, she has not been putting on weight. From the time she turned one year old, she has stopped gaining weight - lost some, in fact. Family doctor voiced out her concern when I told her that she refuses meat almost all the time. Gonna supplement her with gummy vitamins hereon. For the record, doctor was amused when I told her Anya has never eaten sweets before. So those Mr. Tumee gummies will be heavenly goodies to her.

Just as I was typing the above, she woke up from her nap. A big hairy meltdown followed. The nose congestion and lethargy was making her really grumpy.

Still, it is not entirely a dreary picture. There were many cuddly snuggly moments that I am more than happy to have, especially since I am counting down to the days when it will no longer be just she and I. Also, I get to capture many pictures (as you can see here) that warms my heart whenever I look at them. :)

Kissing her fursister

The Furkid can vouch for the cold weather too.

A cry in the supermarket

At the supermarket last night:

The Helper and I were selecting fresh produce while The Husband went off with Anya in the trolley to pick up dried goods and dairy products. Just like any other typical weekend evening, the isles are packed with families, many with small children and toddlers like Anya.

I was browsing through the meat selection with The Helper when I heard a shrill wailing cutting through the bustling of the crowd. Immediately, I recognised the voice as my daughter's. "Anya!", I said as The Helper and I pricked our ears, trying to ascertain the direction of her cries.

Even though I knew that The Husband was with her, I was worried. The cry was different from the usual ones. There was extra urgency (or God forbid, pain) to it. A flurry of ominous thoughts were running through my mind. Did she fall off the trolley? Is she badly hurt? Is there blood?

A nano-second later, The Helper pointed out, "Next isle, mdm."

Both of us rushed toward the next isle. There they were, The Husband had Anya in his arms, comforting her while she continued bawling. But there was something that was not right with the picture. Something that threw me into slight confusion. - The expression on The Husband's face conveyed both sympathy and exasperation.

"What happened?", I asked as I rushed up to The Husband's side.

Hearing my voice, Anya's bawl turned into a piteous sob as she threw herself upon me.

The Husband: "I knew she would cry lah! But I had to do it. I let her hold the Yakult. I didn't notice she bit through one bottle. Had to take it away from her."

I scanned through the contents of our trolley, and sure enough, lying on top of the pile was a string of Yakult and the grape-flavoured one had a puncture on the foil. Phew! I heaved a sigh of relief knowing that she was not physically hurt. Slowly, it dawned upon me how funny the situation was.

As I comforted my tod in my arms, I could not help but start giggling. The Huband added, with a sour note in his voice, "And she had to taste the best flavour one somemore!".

Yeah, no wonder she had to cry her eyes out.

Never underestimate the lure of Yakult.

Tribal dance

The Tod has the funniest groove in town.

Well, actually she has two moves. The first is the swaying from side to side to a slower melodious beat. Where a more upbeat song or tune comes along, she quickens her pace, spread her legs outwards and starts stamping around, resembling one of the members of an African tribe doing their rain dance.

Every time she does her fast beat moves, it set us smiling. It is a funny sight to behold. I think I will miss it when she grow out of these cute moves to more sophisticated ones.

Baby, not Anya

Yesterday, I was going through our bookshelves for my antenatal class textbook when I chanced upon this. It is an album of pictures taken of Anya when she was around 4 months old.

I showed her the booklet and asked, "Who is that?"
Her: "Baby!"
Me: "Yes honey, it is a baby. And who is that baby?"
Her: *Pauses for a while* "Baby!"
ME: "Anya, do you know this baby?"
Her: *Another pause then points to The Husband in the background* "Daddee!"

Funny how she does not recognise herself in there when she always points out to me and shouts "Anya!" when she sees the below picture of herself on the TV console.

Maybe her self-image of baby version is only limited to colored ones. Black and whites images are not included.

Another sticker and "Mah-meh"

Last night, Anya wielded her magic wand and created some wondrous moments for us at bedtime again.

She wanted to paste more stickers after her milk feed, so I went to fetch the last of my sticker stash. This time round, she peeled off the biggest of the flamingo from the bird-themed booklet and pasted it right smack in the center of my belly covering my belly button. Again, kisses followed when we asked if she meant it for her little sister.

I've got a feeling Mini Bun is gonna get many more stickers to come.

Then, as every other night, The Husband and I have incorporated teach-Anya-to-call-Mommy into her bedtime routine. While she goes around tinkering with her toys for the last bit before calling it a night, we will keep encouraging her to call 'Daddy' and 'Mommy'. Sometimes, 'Anya', 'Muffin' and 'Auntie' get roped in too thought we try to avoid 'Ah gong' and 'Ah ma' as we suspect she tends to call me 'Ah ma' as well as her paternal grandmother. Yes, disassociation strategy.

Finally! Last night, we reaped! Instead of saying 'Ah ma' or 'Da-meh', the latter refers to her dummy/pacifier, she said something slightly different. "Mah-meh", she said. We got her to repeat a few more times, all the while my heart seemingly skipped a few beats, as I fear that the moment will pass and she would stop saying it. Well, she repeated again and again, upon gentle prompting.

Then, just to be doubly sure, I asked, "Anya, can you point out where is Mommy?"
She: *Points her index finger at me*
Me: "Can you call 'Mommy'?"
She: "Mah-meh."


\(^ o ^)/~
A lot of cuddling and kisses ensued. :)

Furkid turns 5

Today is The Furkid's birthday. It is an easy- o remember date for a dog's birthday (9th Sept), given that in Hokkien/Teochew, 'dog' and the number 'nine' sounds the same.

In human age, The Furkid has officially surpassed us. It is apparent that she has mellowed with age. Friends who have known her since she was a puppy all pointed out that she has become less jumpy and hyper in the recent one year. Oh, that and also she has become fatter over the years. But some things about her remain the same - she is as affectionate, as sweet nature, and as greedy as we have always known her to be. While we are set on the stance that pets and children can co-exist together (as opposed to giving the dog away after we go in the family way), we are also relieved that we have unwittingly gotten a hardy and sweet-tempered breed. Now that Anya is an active, inquisitive toddler, there are occasional manhandling situations that we could not prevent in time. Never has The Furkid ever bite back nor snared at Anya. The most she did was to yelp and run away from The Tod. This, in time, gives us plenty of opportunities to inculcate gentleness in Anya when it comes to handling animals. 

From the time when Anya first arrived in our house till date, The Furkid has grown from mere disdain towards this little intruder to being affectionate and protective  towards her. How do we tell? She licks Anya's face when they are playing, she reciprocates when Anya throws a toy for her to catch, she brings a toy as a gesture of greeting to Anya when the latter wakes up, and (this one warms my hearts especially) she would lie down outside Anya's room when she is playing inside as if guarding over her. You know how I wrote about love only multiplies two entries ago? This is what I meant. If anything, The Husband and I feel all the more blessed to have The Furkid around with our children. 

Anyway, celebration for her birthday took place yesterday evening instead as  we are having a Mooncake Festival celebration with some church friends tonight. As per tradition, a doggy cake was bought. We invited The In-laws over where we had some pizzas and mooncakes. All in all, we had a jolly good time and I think we made The Furkid a very happy dog. 

Third trimester

I was counting down to the third trimester. No. Scratch that. I have been counting down to D-day. Truthfully, I cannot wait for Mini Bun to be born.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about third trimester second time round. Back to the rightful topic.

So.. as I was saying, I was counting down the days to third trimester. To me, it meant another milestone that brings me nearer to D-day. Little did I know that there really wasn't a need for me to keep track of the dates. As a matter of fact, the body has sent me many signs to inform me of the arrival of third tri.

Here are the signs that I have been experiencing in the past one week (I am now officially 28 weeks):

1. Carrying Anya for more than 30 seconds when standing/walking will set me off panting as if I just did a 100m sprint.
2. I feel full easily. A small bowl porridge is enough to make me full. Anything more than that will make me feel uncomfortably tight around my belly and pelvic area. 
3. 15 minutes into grocery-shopping and I start to go breathless and a dull ache will slowly creep up from my lower back.
4. I get tired out more easily. Usually, I am still alert when tucking Anya to bed at night. For a few nights in the past one week, my eyelids were drooping  by the time Anya was ready for her last milk feed.
5. I am beginning to have mild heartburn. They usually kick in from the second half of the day onwards. Am praying hard that they will remain mild so long I watch what I eat. First time round, heartburn was so bad during the third tri that it would keep me awake and I would throw up.

A quick check with a few other mummies who have more than one child (including my own mom) confirms my suspicion. Subsequent pregnancies tends to be more taxing on the body. The belly gets bigger (I'm still sore from the bad joke some friends made about me gonna give birth when I was only 5 months pregs *hmph*), killing backaches, fatigues, more weight gains etc.

Looks like I got to take it easy hereon. No more elaborate cooking that requires extensive and lengthy preparation. No more one-on-one walks with Anya in case she acts up and wants to be carried. Nap whenever possible.

In retrospect, I am so thankful that The Helper came in much earlier. Now, other than taking things easy, I just want to treasure the times my times with Anya. Am feeling sappy about this when it suddenly occurred to me that with D-day being less than 3 months away, it also means that Anya will no longer be the only child. Oh, what mixed feelings!

Gift from the sister

Right from the time we knew we are pregs with No. 2, we've been prepping Anya about a younger sibling.

We tell her that Mommy has a Mini Bun in her tummy, and Anya has got to be gentle. We brought her to the pivotal gynae check where we would know the gender of the baby. Once we decided on Mini Bun's name (will keep it a suspense here for now), we taught her how to say it. We tell her that in our household, love only multiplies. So when Mini Bun arrives, Daddy & Mommy will only love Anya & Mini Bun (& Furkid) even more. We encourage her to hug and kiss Mini Bun. These days, she voluntarily hugs and kisses my belly now and then.

All in the hope that she knows there will be a little sister to come, and that she will love her.

Then last night, there was a melt-our-hearts moment.

Here's the setting: We were prepping Anya for bedtime. We have just said our prayers. Anya was peeling more stickers to paste onto her bed-frame. So The Husband was sitting on the floor besides the bed while Anya was on his lap, peeling stickers. I was lying on my sides on Anya's bed, looking at them, my over-sized tee has ride up, semi-exposing my belly.

Suddenly, Anya stood up with a sticker in her hand, inched over the bed frame and pasted the teeny weeny sticker onto my belly.

I asked: "Why, Anya.. Is this sticker for Mini Bun?"
Her: *nods head vigorously then plants a kiss onto my belly*

Well, it is just a mere tiny sticker of a patch of grass. In any case, it is going into their memory box.

Powdered face

From being an sideline observer, Anya now wants to get involved in the action whenever I am prepping myself to go out.

She knows where I keep all my cosmetics and is now tall enough to reach for some of them. On one occasion, we had to change her going-out outfit at the last minute because she had splattered my liquid foundation onto her dress. On the second occasion, she discovered to use of the blusher brush and goes "chu chu chu" as she brushes her face lightly with her eyes closed tentatively. Then on the third occasion, she took off with my blusher without my knowledge Moments later, when she came back into the wardrobe to find me, this was how she looked.. ...

Can you tell that the right side of her face is smeared with patches of sparkly pink? Heh. Too cute.

Goods Delivery

We do online shopping a lot. Apparels, books, toys, diapers, milk powder and dog food are just some of them.

Over the weekend, we had a bulk order of diapers and milk powder that came delivered. The delivery guy arrived with two cardboard boxes of stuff. The Furkid and The Tod excitedly tottered behind The Husband to receive the goods.

"Mommy, are these all mine?"

 These days, Anya likes to help out around the house. Here, she was pleased as punch when The Husband asked her to carry the newborn diapers (for Mini Bun) to The Helper who would stacked it away nicely on top of the children's wardrobe. We were all tickled to see her earnest little face while she concentrated hard on wedging one of the packets of diapers using her chin.

After all the hard work's done, it was time for a little bit of fun. As most young parents will agree, toddlers always have a thing for cardboard boxes. And that was exactly what we used for a bit of entertainment. And some snapshots too! :)

Secretly pleased to be confined within a tiny area with the fur-sister

Conversing with Anya

I am getting more and more fun derived from conversing with Anya these days. At coming to 17 months old, her vocabulary is still limited to a handful. Most of the times, communication from her is still non-verbal or one-word answer. Interestingly, it is sufficed (at least for now) for me to have an insight at what goes on in her little head.

Here is two snippets that are replaying (fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it) almost every day in our lives:

She refuses to call me! - And sometimes her daddy too!
Background: She has been able to call her grandparents, her Daddy and Muffin for sometime now. While she knows "Mommy" means me, she simply refuses to address me.

Me: "Anya, can you say "Mommy"?
Her: "Ahh-ma!" (meaning paternal grandma)
Me: "Anya, who is Mommy?
Her: *points at me*
Me: "Okay, then can you call Mommy?"
Her: "Ahh-ma!"
Me: (Decides to change tact) "Anya, how about Daddy? Can you say Daddy?"
Her: "Deh-ddi!"
(The Husband comes along and join in the conversation)
Me: "Anya, can you call Daddy?"
Her: "Ah-Gong!" (meaning paternal grandfather)
Me: "No, no, no.. You know how to say 'Daddy' right? Can you please call Daddy?"
Her: *a short pause* "Dee.."
The Husband: "Yes, Anya!" (The Husband believes that tonality will help based on our experience on how she could mimick us in callingThe Furkid in high-pitch voice) *In similar dog-calling voice* "Anya, can you call 'MAHHH-MEE'?
Her: "Ar-Fin!" (meaning "Muffin"-Furkid's name)
Me: ( -____-``)
The Husband: "No, Anya. You know Mommy right? *nods in my direction* "Can you say Mahmee?"
Her: "Arrrr-Finn!! Ah-Ma! Ah-gong! Ah-ma!"


She recognises a deal when she sees one
Me: "Honey, it's bath-time. Shall we go take your bath?"
Her: *shakes head vehemently*
Me: "Okay... Or how about we have some orange juice then we go and take your bath?"
Her: *nods her head happily and skippity-hop to her sofa to sit down and await her OJ*
(And yes, most of the time, she will willingly wait outside the bathroom for me to undress her after she finishes her OJ)


This third one, is a one-time off that happened yesterday.
 She is a budding fashionista
Me: *reaching for The Straits' Time's Urban and in exclaimation* "Woohoo! H&M is here!"
Her: "Woohoo~!" *does a little dance*


My baby, this is why I love my job so much. :)

New Toy

I have gotten a new toy for myself. (^o^)

Some time ago, I had decided that it is time to be upgraded from a auto digital camera. The question was upgraded to what? After talking to a few friends who are into photography (ladies only, when it comes to techie stuff, talking to guys may open up my floodgate of inadequacies), I settled for an Olympus PEN E-P3 micro four-thirds camera.

Woots! Quoting the model name makes me feel so techie and grown-up! But I guess this is as much techie kick I can get at this point. Owning the camera for barely 24 hours, I have yet to venture beyond the auto and art filter modes. Adjusting the settings for aperture and shutter speed baffles me.

In spite of my amateurish use of the camera so far, I am already blown away by some of the shots (of my two favourite subjects, of course!) taken.

Ahh.. Yep, we were all still in our pjs.

I love how the colors pop in the diorama mode.

Can you spot my little tod's bum?

The bed frame is her sticker 'book' for now.

Despite the perpetual glum expression, she is really a happy dog.

P.S. Thanks YX, for the recommendation! And congrats to the birth of ZY. Looking forward to seeing her! :)

Up onto the Flyer

On Hari Raya evening, we celebrated the MIL's birthday. Dinner was at Seafood Paradise (it was bleah! The only thumbs-up dish was the fried mee sua) before the entire clan embarked onto our landmark Singapore Flyer.

This is the first for all of us. The men marveled at the engineer of the Flyer, the women exchanged our other Ferris wheels experiences. Collectively, we all ooh-ed and aah-ed at the transformed evening skyline while the Nephew and Anya went round and round the capsule countless times. Thankfully, there were only another two Indonesian-Chinese (who were pretty cool by the occasionally toe-stepping by the two children) other than us.

Here are some of the snapshots of the evening:

Behave like tourists when at touristy spot

What if labour kicks in when you are on the flyer?

Father-daughter moment