31 Aug 2009 - Javier is 5 months old

Time flies and Javier is 5 months old today. The last I checked on his weight one week ago was 7.8kg. He has been growing well so far. After he started flipping over about one month back, recently he kept wanting to stand up when we carry him. His leg is very strong and sometimes it's very difficult to handle him as he keeps stretching his leg. Btw, he started wearing clothes that are meant for 1 year old liao.

Anyway, Happy 5 months old, Javier!

30 Aug 2009 - You call that "smart" or what

Jerlene has started picking up multiple skills very fast recently. Firstly her language skill has improved tremendously over the past few months. I can now have a proper dialogue with her. And her vocabulary is expanding day by day whereby she will surprise me with some new words every other day. Her sentences are more complete now as well.

Secondly, her singing skill is also getting better. Her pitch is almost flawless for a two year old kid. Comparing her with some of the 5-6 years old kids who sometimes go out of tune or are pitchless in those TV singing competition, I personally feel that she can sing better. This is probably one of the area that I will start to groom her. I've failed to pursue my dream in this area and hopefully she can fulfil my dream one day......just thinking......hehe...... :P

Last but not the least, and one of the most important skill in life, is the analytical skill. Jerlene starts to analyse situation before taking certain actions. However I've not sure whether you call that smart or what. For example, she broke a puzzle piece into two pieces few days back and I said she will definitely get scolding from mommy for that. I purposely turned away but still kept my sight on her. Next moment, she looked at me, walked slowly to her bunch of soft toys, and quickly hide the broken puzzle pieces among them. Not just that, when I took it out and asked her who did it, she said "Jie Jie (my maid) made spoil"!

Here is another example. We were having dinner and there was a bowl of little silver fish which Jerlene likes. I poured some into her bowl of rice but she kept wanting more. So I said she had to finish those in her bowl first before I give her more. And you know what she did? She actually used the rice to cover those fish in her bowl and tell me "no more".

Chinese calls this 小聪明 but I hope she will only use it at the appropriate time and appropriate place. :)

25 Aug 2009 - The care, the love continues...

Jerlene so far has been a caring sister. She will share toys with Javier, sing songs for him and also pat him to sleep. Although Javier still does not know how to show appreciation now and always gives 姐姐 the blur look, I believe deep within him, he can feel it. Just hope that such love and care between them will continue..... :)

20 Aug 2009 - Javier is getting talkative

Javier has been talking quite a lot nowadays. I was told that he is especially talkative when my dad carries him. And when I sing to him, he will look at me very attentively. I finally managed to capture another shot of him smiling at the camera.
I weighed him again today and without fail, he gain another 200g after one week. He's now about 7.6kg. Btw, he can flip easily now. The moment you place him down on a flat mattress, he will flip over the next second.

16 Aug 2009 - Trip to Marina Barrage

The last time we went to Marina Barrage was last year's November (Read that blog here) when Javier was still in mama's tummy. So today was Javier's first trip there but he's still too young to appreciate the place. This time, we were able to park our car just outside the barrage. The moment we stepped out from our car, Jerlene started running around the big open space.

We then went to the indoor exhibit which showcase Singapore's effort towards environmental sustainability. No much changes from the previous visit but it's still quite enjoyable for Jerlene.
After having several hours of fun, something unfortunate happened to Jerlene. As we were walking back to our car, Jerlene's right leg got trapped in a hole on the drain cover. I immediately pulled her up carefully and consoled her. Luckily, it was just some abrasion and nothing serious. Before I pulled her up, I thought it would have been quite serious. Anyway, before we went home, Tracy went to a nearby pharmacy to buy an anticeptive lotion for abrasion. Jerlene cried for a while when we bathed her.

Be strong, Jerlene! Hope you have learnt from this incident and pay attention on where you walk in future.

12 Aug 2009 - Javier having diarrhea

Since few days back, Javier seemed to be having diarrhea. He will pass motion at least once after every feed. So in total, it's about 7-8 times a day, as compared to 2-4 times in a normal days. Also the stool is quite watery and sometimes, the output is very little. We tried giving Soy milk to Javier but he kept refusing. As such, we decided to bring him to a PD for a check.

At first, we went to KK hospital as we thought the clinic there should be quite empty. However, the nurse told us that the wait could be 2-3 hours and suggest for our case, we should proceed to the emergency clinic. As advised, we went there but my goodness, the crowd there is ridiculous! I think there were close to a hundred people cramping there. And there was a small area partitioned out as fever zone where people with fever were all squeezed inside. After seeing that, I immediately decided to quickly leave that horrible place. We then drove to Mt Alvernia where we used to go for Jerlene's vaccination previously. To our surprise, the clinic was not crowded and Dr Tan was able to see us just before he left for some appointment. He advised us to do a stool test for Javier and at the same time, he prescribed some good bacteria for Javier. Without waiting for too long, we managed to collect a bit of Javier's stool and sent it to the laboratory. Results will be out in 48 hours.

Other than the diarrhea, everything else seems to be normal for Javier. He was still quite active and feeding well. Furthermore, his weight is also constantly gaining. We took his weight earlier in the clinic and he weighed about 7.4kg currently. So far, he has been gaining about 200g every week.

Javier, do get well soon!

11 Aug 2009 - Superbaby!

Cannot resist not to post this photo which I took few days back, that is.......before the hair cut..... :)

10 Aug 2009 - Jerlene and Javier finally got their haircut

For the past few weeks, my parents have been complaining about Jerlene's and Javier's hair being too long. Even the childcare centre teacher also reminded me to cut Jerlene's hair. Since today is a public holiday, I decided to bring them for a haircut at Bishan. We went to the same salon where Tracy used to do her hair.

Jerlene started first and the moment she went in, all the attention in the salon was on her. She just sat quietly and allowed the hairdresser to trim her hair. So far, Jerlene did not pose any problem during all her haircut. Next is Javier's turn. Similarly, once I carried Javier into the salon, everyone there began to focus their attention on him. The whole haircut went on quite smoothly except when finishing, he started crying. Considering this is his first time doing haircut, it's considered quite smooth.

Here are how my angels look like after the haircut. :)
After the haircut, I drove down to old upper thomson road where there are always lots of wild monkeys roaming around. Jerlene was excited seeing those monkeys.

9 Aug 2009 - Majulah Singapura

Today is our nation's 44th birthday. We spent the day at home as we were expecting some friends in the afternoon. The National Day Parade started at around 6:30pm and at 8:22pm, the whole nation is supposed to say the pledge. Below is how Javier join in the pledge.

8 Aug 2009 - National Day Eve

Before we went out for lunch today, I took a picture of my little angels. The princess is very cheerful most of the time but the prince somehow keep frowning in front of the camera. It's so difficult to capture a shot whereby both of them are smiling naturally. I'm still waiting for that opportunity.

7 Aug 2009 - National Day celebration in childcare

Today Jerlene's childcare centre was having a national day celebration. We were told to let Jerlene wear red and white for today. There seems to be a lot of fun activities lined up for the day. When we brought Jerlene home in the evening, there were a few packs of titbits in her school bag.

6 Aug 2009 - Javier sleeps with tummy down

Ever since Javier is able to flip, he prefers to sleep with his tummy down. So every night, we have to regularly check on him to make sure his face is not buried in his mattress. We tried turning him over many times but after a while, he will flip over and back to his tummy down position. If he's unable to flip due to blockage, he will start to cry for help.

4 Aug 2009 - Jerlene's July Artworks

The theme of the month is Wonders of the World. Of all the above artworks, I wonder how much is actually done by Jerlene. I suspect all that Jerlene did is to paste paste paste because sometimes when I play with her, she will demonstrate to me how she paste. We heard comments from her teacher that Jerlene is quite creative.

3 Aug 2009 - Javier FLIPS for the first time!

In the past few days, Javier had been trying very hard to flip but failed. Today without giving up, he finally managed to flip over all by himself. Good work Javier, my clever boy!
Now that he's able to flip, we need to be extra careful when taking care of him. Never leave him alone unless he's on the floor mattress. Javier's development follows the similar pattern as Jerlene. Both of them flipped for the first time at month 4. Let's see if Javier is able to tripod sit at month 6 or earlier..........

1 Aug 2009 - Javier's second 5 in 1 jab

We brought Javier to KK's children private clinic for his second 5 in 1 jab this morning. Just like the last time, the clinic was pretty empty and we only waited for about 15mins before it's our turn. All visitors to the hospital were given a mask to be worn in the hospital. Jerlene had one too.
Javier weighed 7.2kg today. Based on his weight, length and head circumference, which is the most accurate measurement, Javier was around the 50 percentile. We thought he would probably be at a higher percentile because he seems so much bigger than Jerlene at the same age. Anyway, everything was normal after the PD checked on him. Next was the vaccination. I held tight onto Javier's hand while the nurse poked on his thigh. He cried for a few seconds and stopped. Great job, Javier! You are as brave as your 姐姐. Did you notice he's wearing an army outfit today? :-) The nurses commended Javier as there were many kids who cried all the way till they left according to her.

While Javier was in the room, Jerlene was in a playing corner reading books with my helper. When we came out, my helper was a bit surprise that she did not even heard a sound from Javier. The whole appointment lasted in less than an hour, as compared to KinderClinic previously when we had to wait for at least 2-3 hours.
Before we went home, we made a trip down to my Grandma's place. Most of my aunties were there and they were so excited to see Javier. Javier's gag made everyone there so happy. Somehow after the jab, he seemed to be in a even happier mood.