Arielle's first haircut

Arielle's hair grew real quickly. At six months, the sides were already covering her ear while the back part was covering her neck. This, despite having receiving an amateur haircut from me a couple of months back. 

Given a few factors that included the recent sweltering heat and the fact that I have never seen any other six-month-old with hair this long (which made her seem too un-babyish for my comfort), we decided to chop off her lion mane in exchange for a boy cut instead. 

Quite a transformation, we thought. 

Before: 

During:

After:

What do you think? :)

Turned six months

Baby girl turned six months this week. Happy belated six months, my mini bun!

Both my girls are constant droolers.

For some one who have lived for only six months so far, we thought she is already quite the conqueror. First and foremost, she has overcome her biggest challenge - her milk woes. This alone, in my opinion, already won her the title of a conqueror hands down. 

Since we are on the topic of her milk woes - I always suspected that her moods and disposition were more or less affected by her drinking problem. I mean, imagine having to feel hungry all the time and yet could not take in much food. And also, to have someone shoving a bottle down your throat two-third of your waking hours. It has to be quite frustrating right? Now that she is drinking milk and eating normally (oh, and pooping normally too), it is as if the grey clouds have cleared. Most of the time these days, we have a baby who is alert, interested in her surroundings, and always ready to play and  smile. So yes, beneath that grouchy front is really a baby girl with a sunny disposition!

Back to the being a conqueror part. Yes, and other than milk woes, she has also conquer her constipation problems. Since that fateful (and faithful, come to think of it) prayer, she has been pooping every day. Twice a day, in fact, on most days. Much to our relief. I never knew to clean up others' poop with so much cheer - until I became a parent. 

Last but not least, I'd say she has also conquer our hearts. Not just The Husband and mine. Also her big sister.  The Tod is always asking for her meimei. If we tell her (Anya) that we are bringing her out, she would want to know if Arielle is coming along. When she wakes up, she would ask where is meimei if she is not in sight. She is always cuddling her and bringing her her baby toys and teether. 

Seeing how the baby girl's face lights up every time big sister comes within a radius of 50cm, I can safely say that the sisterly adoration is mutual.

I am really glad that at this six months milestone, we have plenty of good progresses to update. It has been quite a stressful and frenzied period for The Husband and I. For instance, so occupied am I that I failed to look at myself at the mirror properly for weeks these days. And when I do, I always get startled by some minor transformation - hair visibly longer, eye bags, receding hairline (post-natal hair loss still ongoing..) etc.. But really, with the good progresses, I'll say it is all worth it. I am just thankful to have The Husband with me going through thick and thin. 

P.S. The last post, I said that I am back, but then I went on to disappear for another two weeks again. In my defence, The Husband was away for a work trip for one week, and then fell sick after he got back. Plus, I was hot on heels watching a Korean drama series (something which I have not done in ages).. Heh.. 

He who  lugged all the way from UK bags of presents for the girls & I.

Back!

Hi there! I know, I disappeared. Stress continued to build up in the last few weeks. I was overwhelmed and felt the need for a respite from blogging. So what has been up in our little household? Here's a quick update on the two girls whose name bored the title of this blog:

On Arielle:

We have begun feeding her solids. So far, she has eaten rice cereal (Bellamy's), papayas and prune puree. Milk feeds continue to be a challenge. On top of that, a visit to the pediatrician's office also made us recognize that constipation is another issue.

Things we do to get her to drink milk.

More importantly, after been stressed out for weeks by her feeding issues, I have learned to take things in my stride. So, yes, she may jolly well always have problems drinking milk and removing bowels.. Heck, even when these issues are resolved, there will be other challenges coming. The gist is, I learned to move by faith.

Food adventure begins!

Nom nom! Prunes are good stuff!

Today, we suddenly see remarkable improvements. I choose to believe it is by divine intervention because, last night, for once, my soul was still when I prayed faithfully for my baby girl. On hindsight, I didn't even realize that I was so unsettled. As I prayed, I was drawn to a vision of a soiled diaper with..(skip this part if you are eating while reading this).. oily poop. And so, I was led to pray for her digestive system to be oiled so that her poop will be able to slip out with ease.

After prayers, I did a bit of reading up in the Internet for viable home remedies for babies constipation. The first thing that caught my attention was this blog where a mother was sharing how she uses Q-tip dipped in Vaseline to do a swipe and swirl around baby's anus. The result was impressive immediate toothpaste-like projectile poop flying through the air. Highly inspired but slightly disturbed by the possible dangers of poking into my baby's hiney, I did a search on "q-tip Vaseline baby constipation". I could not believe the sheer amount of results yielded. I felt like I must be some mountain turtle ignorant of the use of such a seemingly vastly used method.

This morning, I sent the Husband to go in search for a bottle of Vaseline while I bring Anya for her music class. Full of hope, I tried it on Arielle the moment i walked in through our door with the bottle of magic stuff. Though half expecting poop to come flying out like what that mother described on her blog, I was not surprise when nothing happen after I performed the swipe and swirl. You see, i really learned to take things in my stride.

So, after two hours where nothing came out of Arielle (except for lots of grunting as she continued to push her bowels to no avail), we decided to bring her to our family doctor. Given today is the fifth day that she went without and second day that she has been heaving and grunting; must be quite uncomfortable by now right, we reckoned. To cut the story of the visit short: the biggest piece of advice we went home with was to (you might have guessed it) apply Vaseline on her hiney!

With that, we went home and religiously (A pun!) performed the swipe and swirl. An hour and some more grunting later, we had our first lightly soiled diaper in days. Praise God! By the time it was bedtime, we already have a total of three soiled diapers - the last one with good considerable amount of output. Yippee! 

Oh, and the divine intervention that we experienced today did not just stop there. Today, for the first time in months, she could drink her milk cheerfully at every milk feeds and wide awake! As I'm typing this, I've kinda gone teary-eyed. My heart is so full of thankfulness. Be it even for one day, just today only, that we get go experience such normalcy in feeding her, it is good enough. For I get to see God's intervention in our lives.

On Anya: 

These days, the toddler is picking up words and skills faster than we realize. As a result, we are often surprised by her (thankfully, more often, the surprises are pleasant ones!).

In addition, she is big on helping lately. I suspect it has to do a lot with increasing her sense of self-worth and feeling independent enough to help out. With that, whenever we are caught in a tricky situation with her, all we need to is conveniently drop in the word "help" in a sentence to get her to do something and she would gladly oblige. Woots! Catastrophe diverted.

"Anya, can you help to fetch Arielle's sippy cup?" / "Anya, do you want to help make your own milk?" / "do you want to help mommy as I bathe Arielle?" etc... 

Making her own milk

She is always so willing to help. So happy to be of help. So proud to be useful around the house. Likewise, our (the Husband's and my) hearts are brimming with pride and love, seeing our firstborn transforming to be this little person of her own.

Oh, and also, we continue to have some really enjoyable and funny conversations with her. Here is just two that I can remember offhand.

First scenario - we were eating a lunch made of McDonald's take-out. I asked, "Anya, what are we eating?". She gave my question some thought then sang,"E-I-E-I-Oooo...!"

Second scenario - Th Husband was bathing her in the shower room. He instructed, "Anya, turn around and face me please.". She wheeled round then repeated after the Husband, "Turn around.. Face Daddy.. " then, with her arms outstretched, she cupped the Husband's face and said "There.. Daddy's face.. Daddy's mouth, eyes, nose.. Ears!" .

Thanks to our little girl, there are so much needed laughter in the house. :)

Making us laugh even when she is asleep.

Despite the trials of parenthood, we are thankful to have y'all in our lives. The joy and love that came with you are immeasurable.

With that,i shall end off with a bible verse that has encouraged me greatly during this period of struggle. Maybe, just maybe you are needing some encouragement too. :)

Romans 12:12 (NIV)

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer."

Thankful Thursday: hitting a rough patch

Hello there! Right now, things are not going so well in my little household. We are experiencing some difficulties feeding Arielle again. 

While the new bottle teats are helping; the problem is not entirely resolved. Most feeds are taking one hour and we feel as if we are treading on thin ice every few hours. Feeding her, I will say, requires a great deal of observation as to what makes her tick, fine-tuning along the way and an enormous amount of patience. I imagine that if patience is a rubber band; my rubber band is presently stretched till nearing it's elasticity limit. Breaking point is not too far off. I reckon this is when i have to, all the more, put on the armour of praise. And I have so so thankful for the support that I get from the Husband and my cell members. 

The Husband, who sits me down and probes gently to get me talking, to listen and to advice, to support and to encourage, to reassure that we are one body doing this parenting thing together. The cell members present at meeting tonight are all ahead of me in terms of parenthood experiences, lending a listening ears and sharing little anecdotes of how they lost it too, at some point or another. Knowing from the more experienced mothers that they had their moments of feeling at their worse makes me feel, well, not so bad about myself. 

Most of all, it is especially comforting to know that God is at work, not to make things easier but rather, to make me feel better and to equip me to better handle the challenge. 

I think I am in the midst of picking myself  up. Now, what are you thankful for today? I love to hear from you.

Thankful Thursdays: Seeing through the eyes of the Helper

Recently, something happened to the Helper. Something to do with her children. Something to do with deception among family members. Something that caused her to weep through one whole night till dawn, and then broke down again in fresh bouts of tears time and again as she went about her chores the next day.

The Helper is a timid, emotional and gullible woman with a kind heart. In a bid to provide for her children with a better life and the promise of a better future, she plucked up her courage and hardened her heart to leave them to come and work for us. Her way of coping with homesickness was to not bring any photographs of her  children, and not calling home as much as she would like to, just so she could keep her emotions in check. 

Aunty M, her little boy and little girl - according to Anya

In some ways, I relate to her. After all, we are of the same age, and we both have young children. I, too, is one emotional woman who tends to feel too much and cry too easily. 

Upon hearing of her current plight, I find myself looking at my own life through her eyes. And a hundred and one things that I ought to be thankful for came into my mind. 

I am thankful that I get to be with my children every single day since they were born. I am thankful that my family is complete. I am thankful for the food placed on our table at every mealtime - that we get to have a balanced nourishment from all the different food groups. I am thankful for the clothes that we don, and the footwear that protect our feet. I am thankful that we are sufficient in our finances; so much so that we get to have choices - choosing to stay at home, choosing what to fill our stomach, what to wear etc. I am thankful that we are born into a nation so safe that most of us are shielded from poverty, from crimes, from corruption, drugs and many other vices. 

The Helper is a good person. As an employee, she has a great working attitude, is diligent, and has good initiative in anticipating our needs. So far, she has been a great help and we are thankful for her transparency with us about her life, what she does during her off-days and generally, what is on her mind. We pray that a solution to her current problems will be in place. That her children would never second guess her intentions for going away. That she would, one day, go home to her children with enough savings to live her dream of a better future.

What are you thankful for today?