Joseph’s Arrival

Another addition to the lil’ dahling klan. My beloved Joseph Yap Zhen Wei was born on 2nd July 2009 at 6.45AM and weighs 3.42kg. Yep, he’s been feeding on my food very well. It’s the beginning of more sleepless nights from now on. But since he’s so adorable, you are forgiven, Joseph..:)

The story of a very sick mother

I have been having flu for 2 weeks already. It was very bad and never seem to get better even after medication. It gets even worst when I go to work due to the central air conditioning. My nose will get all blocked and I can't breathe. I can't even blow out my phelgm. It was all stuck in my nose. Imagine when I have my food, I have to quickly chow down the food to take a breath before chowing down again. Like a fish gasping for air. LOL.

I felt a little better at home because I don't switch on the air conditioner. So at least I get to breathe a little bit. But still the flu didn't leave me. My medicines all finished even. Anyway, imagine going through this during pregnancy. I felt like giving up on life. LOL.

Last Thursday, to make matters worst, I was woken up in the middle of the night because of my 'dear' sister in-law, who I really don't understand up till this day why did she left the TV on with the volume quite high, lights on and also the fan was on. But she was already nicely sleeping in her room. The noise woke me up and I had to go out and check what was going on. After that, I couldn't fall back to sleep. I tossed and turned for more than 2 hours on my bed. So I had a pounding headache the next day at work. My husband told me not to go to work but I still went ahead because I had a talk to attend and my boss won't be around that day. I had to standby in the office as her assistant la. I really couldn't take it anymore come noon with the pounding headache and blocked nose. So I asked permission to leave early that day.

But being a mummy, I still had to get the bedsheets from Aussino since they're having Mid Year Sales at good bargains. I got it also because for Eliza's new bed. Her bedroom is furnished now with a white single bed that comes with a pull out trundle and a cupboard. So the mattresses needs bedsheet since I don't have single bedsheet already for years. LOL. Moreover, my little princess was getting excited exclaiming everyday, "Iyer, Elizabeth's new bed..wow...nice er." "Elizabeth's new cupboard..so nice." So I thought I had to get the sheets and let her sleep on it by that weekend and before the new baby comes.

So when I reached home I fell flat on the bed and slept until it was time to pick Eliza up from the babysitter. That's when I knew I had to see the doctor again because my eyes were all sticky and I felt like a gremlin. I went to see the mirror and was shocked that my eyes were all red and sticky with some yellowish pus. So I went to see the doctor and he said I need to be on antibiotics since my flu never recovered for so long and it has become a bacterial infection. So he thinks it has infected my eyes. He tested whether I had fever or not incase I have H1N1. Hahah. Over protective Eliza thought he was going to do something to my ear, she let out a short "ahh!" to show her disapproval. LOL.

It didn't get better the next day. I still went to Gymboree with Eliza where there's air condition. I didn't go in but I waited at the waiting area. Don't want to scare the teachers and the children with my very red eyes. I was already getting so impatient to leave when the classes ended. Went back and had a long nap. That night, Eliza got to try out her new bed with the new sheets. She likes it although she still wants me to sleep on the mattress with her. But as soon as she fell asleep, I left the room and my husband has to sleep on the trundle to accompany her. The next morning she woke up first but saw her father and cried asking for me. LOL. I had to rush in the room as soon as I can. And then the crying stops.

The flu was slightly better on Sunday. Didn't go to anywhere except send my car for repair. Rested at home but still decided not to work the next day. I really wanted to get better. My eyes were not so red already. Oh ya, when we went to see doctor on Friday, my eyes was really watery and red. So Eliza said to me, " See doctor don't cry ah?" LOL. My sister in-law went back to hometown that weekend and it was like pure heaven to me. Without her I finally can feel like I have freedom and privacy again. But she came back on Sunday night so everything was back to normal...The dinner she brought back home that my MIL prepared didn't lighten me up even.

As planned, I didn't go to work on Monday. I sent Eliza to the babysitter so that I could have a good rest at home. I slept like 4 times that day. LOL. But still managed to do some housework like doing the laundry and mopping the floor. Hehe. But still the rest was much needed and it really helped a lot I guess. I felt much better. Today I come to work without having both nose block, I could breathe while eating and I didn't feel like dying. LOL. Thank God.

Yesterday Eliza fell down the bed and onto the floor. Poor thing. My husband slept quite roughly until he left a gap between the trundle and the bed. She got a shocked and cried for me. So I had to come in the room and accompany her until she sleeps before I return back to my room. My husband didn't want me sleeping on the trundle. More uncomfortable for me as a pregnant woman.

So I must get well before Joseph comes. I must, I must! 16 more days to go!

Drama Queen

36 weeks already. Gosh, it's nearing. LOL. Getting excited and anxious. Hopefully my flu will be ok by then. It's really bad and I can't breathe. Head feels so heavy now. And I spoke too soon about my pregnancy. Now I'm having the itchiness again! So itchy! I feel like scraping the skin off at my belly. I have rashes all over it and the itchiness is killing me. It even spread to my buttocks. Arghh!

My Eliza is turning into a real drama queen. When she's in a good mood, she will be so sweet and smiley and everything won't tick her off. But once she's in a bad mood. The drama starts. LOL. Last Sunday, I had a dinner appointment with friends. The appointment was at 6.30PM. But at 5.45PM, Eliza was still sleeping. It took me some time to wake her up. This drama queen was whining on the bed, refusing to get up. After much persuasion coz I told her we are going out then she got up. But after that another drama. She saw her books and wanted to read book first. I told her we have no time for reading. I had to drag her to the potty even. She refused to urinate. After she got dressed, she wanted to read again. We told her we are going out already without her. Then she started to cry and run to us quickly. LOL.

My friend called her drama queen when they met and she started to cry. Maybe she seldom see my friends so she was a bit shy. She was so manja during dinner. Saying she was tired, sleepy, want to go home. Don't know what's keeping her away from that restaurant. She didn't even play with my friend's daughter who's the same age as her. They just said hello and goodbye to each other. LOL. Oh and even hug that's all. She didn't even want to sit in the baby chair. Sat on our laps the whole time. Asked to go to a water feature in the restaurant numerous times. She has a thing for water. LOL. But at least she went to the restroom twice with me and managed to pee. I was relieved! Didn't want any embarrassing moment in the restaurant. Although I took an extra pant just in case.

She is really my little drama queen. Everyday there's some sort of drama, big or small. Maybe girls just really wanna have fun. It's fun for her to be dramatic..hehe.

The princess and the pea

When Eliza wanted to drink water, she came to me while I was ironing and said, "I want drink water". Then I went out to the living room and told my husband, "your daughter wants to drink water but I don't know why she won't ask you but ask from me instead."

Before that she came in asking for cheese and I had to go out and tell my husband to get her cheese.

There are times when she wanted to urinate and wanted me to bring her to the potty. So when my husband heard her request, he wanted to ease my burden by offerring to take her to the potty instead. Eliza said this to him, "qu kan xi"! (go watch your show) She chased him away to continue watching his tv show instead of bringing her to the potty. Which also meant that I couldn't get away with it. Sigh.

One day she took her favourite toy dog and bear and placed them on two mug coasters. Then she told the toys, "kuai tian mm mm, yau chu qi" which translates to faster pooh pooh, want to go out. I was surprised.

One day in the middle of the night, she woke up and cried for milk. So I went to make a bottle of milk for her but when I came in the room, she started crying and said she doesn't want that bottle. Why? Because the bottle was blue, she wanted the pink bottle. So she said, "I don't want blue colour nen nen, I want pink colour nen nen!" Grrr...I had to go back to the kitchen to pour the milk into the pink coloured milk bottle for the little princess. So demanding!

This got me thinking are we spoiling her? If we don't follow her demands, she will bring the whole house down. Sometimes we really don't have a choice.

Lately, she started to have a fear of the ticking noise from my table clock in the bedroom. She demanded it to be taken away. So to bring peace to the whole world, I had to bring the clock out. And the world was at peace again. Then the next morning, I sneaked the clock back into the room but by bedtime she remembered and make a fuss by crying. So out the clock went again. Very inconvenient for us when we want to look at the time. The next day my husband brought the clock back in again and she said, "No!" So we waited for her to fall asleep and sneaked the clock back in again. But guess what? The princess and the pea woke up in the middle of the night and said, "don't want clock!" And out the clock went again. Man, I'm gonna be late for work if this goes on. I think I have to get a wall clock. One that doesn't tick loudly. But is there such a clock?

Eliza's progress

Eliza is already 2 1/2 years old. And she's gonna be a big sister soon. I hope she will take everything well and make it easier for me.

She can be extra whiny nowadays and have temper tantrums. Maybe she knows she has to share the attention with a brother in the future. So better make full use of her chances now right? One thing I'm proud of her is that she has mastered potty training already. Much earlier than my nephews. She knows how to tell when she wants to urinate and poo poo. My babysitter already gave me back all the diapers and said she doesn't need to use them even at nap time. Some nights her diaper is all dry. Maybe I can start not using diaper for her at night soon. During weekends when we go out, her diapers are also dry. Maybe I can start using training pants soon. Save a lot on diapers right?

She can also talk more although sometimes it's still hard to understand. But there is definitely an improvement. She speaks both languages english and mandarin. So her sentences can sometimes be rojak. LOL. She talks a lot but when there is strangers around, she'll talk less. Why are most children like that? Hmmm...

She still love her gymboree classes. And last Saturday, I was so proud of her because she was the only one who really participated and stood right in front of the teacher. As if waiting for praises. I can see that her face was gleaming with happiness. The joy of attending a gymboree class. LOL. And at the end of the class, when the teacher asked them to say,"bye bye to gymbo the clown", she was the only who said it. I really should have brought my camera. Of all the day to forget. Sigh. Now, I'm worried that when I'm doing my confinement, she won't have gymboree classes anymore. She will definitely miss it and asked for it. She cried buckets when we didn't take her for gymboree class one weekend. Maybe I should sign her up for kindy when I come back to work after my maternity leave.

Here are two latest pictures of Eliza.

Vainpot in her new sunnies and shoes from Auntie Alexia.

Vainpot in another new shoes from Auntie Alexia.

The picture below is not a latest picture of her. It's just a photo effect I tried on photofunia.com. You can try it too.

Welcoming Joseph's Arrival

34 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Only 37 days to go. That's what it says on my desktop ticker. Can't believe time flies so fast. And soon I'll be a mother of two. This pregnancy has been a lot easier compared to the first. Although I have morning sickness and it lasted a little longer than the first. But still I must say it was more bearable. I don't vomit everyday like the first pregnancy. My face, hands and legs are not swelling yet. Well at least not yet I hope. My first pregnancy, I looked like an elephant. LOL. I don't have bad breakouts all over my body. My bloated tummy doesn't itch. I remember I used to scratch until I resemble a monkey. I still have the same aches and pains though. But still a whole lot better and I hope this also means that the baby will be easier to handle. :)

I went for my regular check up last Saturday and my gynae told me that my baby is already 2.4kg. I was quite shocked because he was 1.9kg two weeks before. That means he went up half a kg in two weeks time. My gynae also said that he is expecting a bigger baby than the first. He tried to do a 3D scan to see the baby's face but we couldn't see much. It was hard to make out also. I could only see like somewhat a side profile of the baby's nose and his left eye. I forgot to bring my thumb drive today so I'll just post a picture of the previous scan.

Joseph at 22 weeks already showing his asset.

I can't wait to see you, Joseph but please give me an easy delivery..hehe and also please be born in July and not later than 9th July. :D

Here's the 3D scans

If you can make out this scan, you will notice part of the thigh, knee and calf on the left and the arm on the right. Very flexible baby.

Can't see the face clearly but can actually see the baby's head, left eye closed, nose and mouth. Can you see it?

This one should be easy. It's his foot.

This last scan is also part of the face if you can make out the left eye and nose.

Innocent sweetums

Last Saturday, as usual we took Eliza for her Gymboree classes. Her first class was Music class. We were late for the class and so my hubby decided to drop me first at the car park while he went around looking for a parking space. So that I can enter the class first and not wait for him. But I forgot that my socks were in the baby bag. I left the bag for my hubby to carry. You see parents need to wear socks in Gymboree. That's their rule. So I had to wait for my hubby to arrive. Eliza was already getting impatient and one of the teachers saw that we were waiting. So she brought Eliza in first. And I was so relieved and proud to see that she went in without me happily. That's a good sign she might be ready for kindergarten.

There's a girl by the name of Marissa who is turning 3 this June in her class. She's taller and bigger size than Eliza. She likes to be in the limelight and has the "cannot lose" attitude. So if someone does better than her she shows a face. Anyway, during the last session in music class, children are allowed to explore with some musical instruments which mainly consists of percussions like drums, castanets, xylophone, cymbals, triangles and etc.

So Eliza was happily playing with a xylophone when Marissa suddenly came up to her and snatch the xylophone away from her instead of sharing. Eliza followed her and wanted to play together. But she shouted "NO!" to Eliza and I felt bad for Eliza. I wanted to smack that girl real hard but I was trying to contain myself. I was telling myself if she say it another time I'm going to say something to her. Eliza wasn't frightened but she came to me saying,"wait a while ah, ok?" Isn't she so sweet? Instead of getting angry with Marissa, she decided to wait for her turn. I knew that it's no use waiting for Marissa so I distracted Eliza with other percussions.

That gave me a thought. What if Eliza gets bullied in kindergarten next time? And I won't be there to defend her? Will she be afraid to make friends ever?

Over the weekend

Over the weekend...

On Friday night, I told Lil' dahling that I'm going to take her to Gymboree just to get her to get things done. It really got her to change her pjs, brush her teeth, drink her milk but she got all excited and couldn't fall asleep. So she was terrorizing the bed and got me annoyed. I have to scold her many times until she finally co-operate.

On Saturday, she still remembers the Gymboree thingy and reminded us many times. I wonder if she would still be as enthusiastic as this come primary school. Took her for a swim in the morning and she was all excited. Took out her favourite Pooh bear swimming suit by herself and squealed all the way to the pool. When I wanted to take her out of the pool she said "go swimming!" So had to remind her about Gymboree again and then only she co-operate. She wanted to walk straight to the car in her swimming suit and float but I told her she can't go to Gymboree like that! LOL.

At Gymboree she didn't want to go back. Crying and screaming when we had to carry her out of that place. Really embarassing. I think the only child that does that. Others don't want to leave but they don't cry and scream. After a tiring day, she fell asleep while holding my hand at night on our beds.

On Easter Sunday morning, lil' dahling said "change clothes already!" This girl really is a 'kaki jalan' and my husband said she took it after me. So we went to church and she somehow knows that we are going to church because she said this in the car. "In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit..Amen!" I was impressed.

At home before the afternoon nap, I pretended to sleep hoping that she would fall asleep soon too. I was wearing a singlet and was sleeping on my side. So I guess part of my breasts were exposed. She said "nen nen" and then poked my breast with added sound effects, "toing toing". I was trying hard not to laugh but where did she learn all this? *shaking my head*