Maid woes - part 2

I just scolded the maid again this afternoon cos I caught her pouring my ebm into the pot to heat up with the blended avocado. Already told her so many times that ebm must be heated up separately in bottle warmer and not more than 40 deg. And she tried to boil my ebm !?! Wth! When I confronted, she still argue and keep saying she add a bit only. Told her a bit also cannot, what does the ebm come from? I got to squeeze it out drop by drop leh. U think it is tap water, just open the tap got ebm flowing out? Refuse to say sorry until I tell her to do it. Even then, she refuse to look at me when she mumbled her sorry. How not to scold like that?

I am so pek chek that in the end I pass her a holy bible and ask her to talk to Jesus Christ and reflect whether what she did (never concentrate on her work, keep making the same mistakes again and again, refuse to admit mistake, argue, refuse to say sorry) is right since she is a catholic. No offence to the christians and catholics but i really dun know what else to do with her to wake up her idea, I am sure her God will do a much better job to 'kai dao' her than me.

Maid woes

I read Sharon's blog about the mistakes that her one month old maid makes (It's a new day! Amen) and I can't help smiling cos her reactions are exactly like mine. Her post and exasperation sounded so much like me. It takes another maid employer to understand the woes that we go through.

I've been screaming like a mad woman to the maid these few days. What can I say, things that she should have been 'auto pilot' mode by now (IT'S BEEN ONE YEAR FOR GOODNESS SAKE), she is still making mistakes. And when I tell her off for the mistakes she make, she will either lower her head and refuse to acknowledge me or come up with all kinds of excuses. Yup, 'sorry' is a billion dollar word that she will never use. Looks like it's a common problem among all Philly maids. :P

At least Sharon and Qingling's maids smile when they are scolded for mistakes. Mine is plain defiant by refusing to look up nor acknowledge me. Which makes me want to shout even louder at her so that she will look up at me. Sigh, my temper has gotten worse since I have a maid. :P RaeAnne was so sweet, after I scolded the maid (for adding so much salt and not stiring the salt properly into the beaten egg before frying), she came to hug me and pat me on my shoulder. Later, she even told hubby that she likes the 'salty' egg. Aw... so sweet, my anger melted away a bit cos RaeAnne reminded me who are the important people in my life, definitely not the maid cos they come and go (though she has been naughty most of the day. She napped for only 1 hr again and sent the art easel crashing to the floor, breaking it into a few parts. But that's another story altogether...).

Filamie has been behaving so distracted cos she spoke to her agent (my gal's classmate's Daddy) on the sly on wanting to take home leave in Dec even though her contract is not up till Aug 2012. No news from the agent must have driven her nuts. Little did she know that the agent's staff has already spoken to me and I told her that I am not letting her go on home leave until June 2012. What if she never comes back after going in Dec. You don't know how these people think no matter how much salary you withhold from her. Raelynn is only 1 year old, too young to even go to CC and I'm quite sure ILs can't cope with 2 kids and I'm not keen to train a new maid nor go to ILs house to look after the 2 gals in the day.

In the meantime, the Filipino agent is on her way to Sg, arriving Sg tomorrow. Hope she and the local agent can come to my house soon to 'wake up her idea' and her head so that she can start working properly again.

Birthday celebrations for Raelynn

Duh, RaeAnne's birthday is on 22 Jan and Raelynn's birthday is on 2 Dec. Was wondering whether to celebrate together so that I can get a nice cake and catering. Furthermore, RaeAnne will be going to a new school in Jan 2011 so I don't think it'll be very fun for her to celebrate her birthday in a class of very new friends of 21 days. But how to settle the cake? Who gets to cut it? Will I be stealing the limelight from Raelynn's 1st birthday bash if I do a combined one? After all, cheh Cheh's had her own show with 'birth to twelve months montage' and I even rented toys and got helium balloons for the special occasion. Dilemma, dilemma. :P

Miss long winded...

Call me superstitious but I knew once I talk about the partial success we have with RaeAnne's sleep training, things will happen. True enough, tonight she came out more than 10 times from her room to look for me.

Every excuse equal to 1 visit to my room and I got to accompany her back to her room/bed, kiss her goodnight, say 'Bye Bye' to her, walk back to my room but before I know it, she's back again with yet another excuse. Got to commend her for coming up with so many excuses to make her visit to my room sound more genuine.

It started at 1040pm
"Mummy, I want to shh shh (yes, she did pee)."
"Mummy, off the fan"
"Mummy, I want to ng ng in mummy's toilet bowl (yes, she did poo in my toilet)"
"Mummy, I don't want this already (returns me my hp)"
"Mummy, I don't want this already (hands me her soft toy squirrel"
"Mummy, where Daddy? I want Daddy to sleep with me."
"Mummy, hen3 re4, I want to change shirt" (of course hot lar, since you asked me to switch off the fan)
"Mummy, cut my nail (shows me her partially chewed on finger nail)"
"Mummy, my leg itchy (shows me the sole of her foot with a red mark, wants me to scratch it but refuses mopiko)
"Mummy, I want to hi5 Mummy"
"Mummy, I don't want to sleep"
This dragged on until 11.05pm when I cannot take it anymore cos it's delaying Mei Mei's dreamfeed. While I tried to BF Mei Mei, RaeAnne came into the room again. Got hubby to deal with her. She screamed and throw tantrum and woke poor mei mei up. Arghh! Fed up and slammed the door to shut out the ruckus. Luckily, Mei Mei suckled and went back to sleep.

Sigh, in hindsight, I think we brought her back from MIL house too late. We left at 850pm after my shower. But she was already tired and rubbing her eyes. Told hubby we need to bring her back by 830pm next time. Got to factor in wind down time for her. Want her to start rubbing her eyes on her bed not elsewhere. :P

Also, I am still sick (down with cold), slept the whole day so she spent the day at MIL house. MIL fetched her after school. Maybe RaeAnne is glad to be home and wants to spend more time with me. That's why she keeps saying she doesn't want to sleep.

Fed Raelynn avocado puree (mixed with EBM) and she likes it. :) Cheh Cheh hated it but then I wasn't smart enought to add milk then. This time round, I checked the Annabel Karmel book and realised that need to add milk. Hee Hee.

My poor brother just found out that he has HFMD. And he said he did carry Raelynn last Sunday when we went over for dinner. Eeks! Poor RaeAnne already got that last year. Keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that Mei Mei will escape this infectious disease. Cos HFMD causes mouth ulcers, the poor baby cannot suck milk and will lose weight really fast. :(

Sleep chart - part 2

We started using the sleep chart for RaeAnne since 8 July, today is 25 July so it has been 17 days so far. It helps to establish a sleeping routine so that she knows what to expect and what she is expected to do (aka sleep on her own in her room after all the 'before sleeping tasks ie drink milk, brush teeth, read her a story, sing her a song, go to potty' have been completed).

There was an article on sleep training that I read on young parents. So I decided to incorporate the tips together with the sleep chart. I started out with sitting beside her cot bed then 1 day later, I started to sit closer to the door, then sat outside the room facing the door, then sat outside my own room. Of course, she protested in the beginning and keep insisting that I sleep on the toddler bed with her. Something which I started doing to get her to nap since late Feb this year. But in a way she had no choice cos if I told her if she doesn't want to let me sit where I choose and I will close her door and just leave her to sleep.

Well, the verdict is that all these helped. She is now able to sleep on her own bed in her own room. Although she still runs in and out of her room a few times before settling down, at least we don't need to squeeze ourselves on her tiny bed anymore and wait until she falls asleep. Still need to give her a cuddle and good night kiss but I'm ok with that. She's still our darling little gal after all and I want to let her know that she is loved especially at bedtime when we forgive all her naughtiness for the day. She still wakes up at night on most nights to pee or because she had a bad dream but usually putting her to potty and a hug/kiss works to let her go back to sleep. :)

Raelynn is able to climb off the bumbo chair and stand with its support. Looks quite cute when she does that. Machiam like model posing for photo beside the bumbo chair. But it also means that we can no longer use the bumbo chair to restrain her. :P

Arghh!!! I am falling sick, scratchy throat, phelgmy and sneezy. Hate to fall sick cos I always end up spreading the virus to the 2 gals. :(

Bo gey no more!

Mei Mei has been sucking on her lower gum, she looks like an old lady n sometimes a little goldfish. So cute! Checked her gum n yes her bottom left tooth had finally cut through the gum. Going to miss her gummy smiles after this. But hey maybe she can start eating soupy rice by dec? :)

Decided to buy tickets to the Barney show at expo on 11 sept since there is a promotion for Friso customers, 20% off all cat of tickets. Tickets range from $28 to $75 but we only bought $38 ones. It is a 65 mins prog. No point spending too much on stage shows until I am sure she will enjoy.

Raeanne is 2.5 years old!

She is 92cm tall n 13.2 kg when I measured her today. But I wonder if she is really 92cm cos when I measured her the second time, she was only 90.5cm. Duh... But she is definitely in her terrible twos now. I hope this is already the peak cos she spends so much time throwing tantrums n doing things that she should not. I just spanked her cos she cut up the pooh loves you leapfrog book. And use ball point ink to draw all over mei mei's bumbo chair. There goes my hope to sell the seat n tray next time. Arghhh!!!

Came back at 125am from cgh a&e cos of a painful bump inside my nose. A&e dr could not do much for me cos I am already taking antibiotics given by the GP. Oh well, at least I know it is celluitis n not something really dangerous. Hubby was worried that the kids will miss us when we were away but luckily the house seems quiet when we came back.

Me want to follow Nai Nai

After being woken up 3 times from her afternoon nap, RaeAnne was understandably grouchy. Mei Mei was practising her vocals in the living room. It was so loud that even though I asked Filamie to bring Mei Mei to the balcony and close the sliding door, I could still hear her clearly from my bedroom. I told her to close her room door so that Mei Mei won't disturb her but she refused. I told her she can either learn to sleep on her own (don't keep coming to disturb Mummy), or she can go and sleep at Nai Nai house next time. She seemed to understand and tried to lie down again.

But after Mei Mei quietened down, RaeAnne came to my room again. This time, she threw tantrum and said she wants to follow Nai Nai. Told her Nai Nai is not here today, she can follow Nai Nai tomorrow. She continued to kick up a fuss so I tried calling MIL and she is more than happy to come over to get her. So, off she went at 5pm to Nai Nai house. She even said she wants to sleep at Nai Nai house so MIL helped to bring her school bag and school uniform. Oh well, maybe it's a phase. Since I'm now a SAHM, I'm not too worried about the lack of bonding. If she wants to follow Nai Nai then I get a chance to spend more time with Mei Mei. :)

Canapes

Remember the salmon roe that I bought during Hokkaido fair a few weeks ago? I finally defrosted the 2nd batch. I decided to make salmon roe canapes to savour them fully. Wanted to spread tuna mayo on the Jap cucumber but the only one in my pantry is the healthy tuna flakes in olive oil. Luckily had some leftover mayo in the fridge.

Hubby said they are not bad but asked me what are canapes? Duh... Okie, I know I married a man with simple tastes. But I should be thankful, if he's really into fine dining. He'll probably start criticising my 'homely' canapes. ;)

P.S. A canapé (Spanish/French for couch[1] and known in Italy as tartina) is a small, prepared and usually decorative food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite.

Home grilled shishamo

Oh ya, last Fri when RaeAnne was at ILs place for dinner, we cooked a sumptuous dinner for ourselves. I fried basil minced meat again with thai chilli and we grilled shishamo over our gas cooker. haha. I love the shishamo most though a bit 'chao ta' but it took a long time to grill. Wish I have a charcoal grill then. Oops, I threw away the charcoal stove after more than 5 years since we moved in. :P



Also made chicken stew this week (added celery too though personally I don't like it) but disappointed with the result cos the chicken is very tough. Not sure if it's because I didn't stew it long enough or is it because I added the wrong seasoning or simply because Filamie cut it too small? :/ Luckily, RaeAnne likes the gravy. :)

A peaceful night

Today, MIL brought home cooked yam rice over for lunch cos she cooked a pot. She came over at 11+am and stayed till almost 1pm cos it was raining. When she was about to leave, RaeAnne said 'I want to follow Nai Nai.' Maybe it's because they have been here quite often (they started visiting more often since last week when they found out that their precious grandaughter had been slapped :P), maybe it's because I scolded RaeAnne for running into the room, opening the door and screaming at Mei Mei trying to wake her up from her nap (it was deliberate not an accident) or maybe it's because she is bored at home and wants to go out.

Anyway, I'm not complaining cos it's Friday and I was already tired after one week. Hubby needed to concentrate on writing his new book today so we decided to call MIL to see if RaeAnne is keen to stay over. If she is, she will help Nai Nai to 'tui1 chuang2' ie. move the queen size bed to the wardrobe so that she can sleep there with Nai Nai tonight. When hubby called, Nai Nai said she was waiting for us (Aw...) but after she asked if RaeAnne wants to help her 'tui chuang'. She said no, then changed her mind and said yes. Normally, this time, we will be dealing with RaeAnne's walking into our room many times cos she doesn't want to sleep alone. No way, hubby can be working on his laptop while I update our blog. :P

Oh well, think it's good for her to spend some time with ye ye and Nai nai. Poor Mei Mei has been sleep deprived cos Cheh Cheh always 'disturbs' and wakes her up (either by loud shouting or throwing tantrums in the room). Many times, she has KO on her bumbo seat at evening times. See pics for proof. Today, I went out around 5pm to have dinner with hubby (steamboat buffet at Crystal jade, we had a diastrous one with RaeAnne the last time). Mei Mei was sleeping when we came back at 740pm, she woke up at 8pm, I bfed her and she KO again. Still sleeping now. Poor gal, she must be trying to catch up on sleep while Cheh Cheh is not at home.




Noticed that Mei Mei is getting more and more attached to Filamie. For the last 2 nights, when the maid brings her over to me to BF, she will turn over from the football hold position and look at the closing door and start crying. Sigh. Can't be helped cos she is always handled by the maid. Looks like hubby and I got to start bonding more with her liao. Not fair to always neglect her just because Cheh Cheh is always demanding for our attention. Hubby suggests bringing Mei Mei over to Ye Ye, Nai Nai house more often to 'break' the bond. From bonding with the maid to bonding with grandparents. Duh... Shouldn't we be trying to strengthen the bond with her instead? :P

My Spirited RaeAnne

A Jan08 mummy shared this excerpt at the forum. And yes, RaeAnne is definitely a spirited child cos she fulfils all 9 traits. Duh...

An excerpt from the article I read called "Raising Your Spirited Child".

You've seen us at the market: we're the ones whose kids are screaming, climbing on shopping carts, begging for candy or a toy. You've seen us at restaurants: our kids hardly eat. Instead, they run around or pop up and stare at other diners. You've seen us at the playground: our kids run, jump, climb, slide, and change activities with blinding speed. You've heard about us: our kids are described as "handfuls." We're the ones who are often asked, "Are you sure he's not hyperactive?" We're the parents everyone has advice for: take a parenting class; be stricter; be more lenient; spank; have tested. But despite all your experience with us, you don't really know us. We are the parents of "spirited" kids. And through Postpartum Education for Parent's Spirited Children Support Group we are learning more about our special kids and how to manage them. Our children are normal but hard-to-raise. Difficult. Challenging. And certainly a handful.

In 1956, Drs. Alexander Thomas, Stella Chess and Herbert Birch began the ground-breaking New York Longitudinal Study, following 133 people from infancy to adulthood. Their goal was to define temperamental characteristics of children as they matured. Nine traits were defined, which we all have in some degree. It's that degree which determines whether a child will be mellow or spirited. The work done by these researchers has been expanded by two authors, Stanley Turecki, M.D. in "The Difficult Child," and Mary Sheedy Kurcinka in "Raising Your Spirited Child."

Using Kurcinka's terms, the nine traits are:
Intensity -- strength of emotional reactions. People often remark how "alert" an intense baby is or how much "personality" she has. While average kids will giggle at something funny, intense children burst into peals of laughter. When they are happy, they are always smiling, laughing, singing. When sad or upset, they are desolate, inconsolable. Intense children are very easily overstimulated. When too wound up they lose their impulse control and often hit, bite, pinch or kick for no apparent reason.

Persistence -- we value persistence in our society, and spirited kids have it -- they will stick to something for a long time. But they also have the negative kind, stubbornness. They "lock in" to ideas and have trouble unlocking. They can never take "no" for an answer; they'll ask for the same thing 20 times in a row if allowed.

Sensitivity -- low sensory threshold for noise, lights, emotions, temperatures, tastes, smells, clothing. Spirited kids are physically sensitive to environmental factors. Lights can't be too bright, noises too loud, clothing too tight or scratchy. Dressing a sensitive child is a special challenge: shirts have itchy tags, pants have elastic waistbands, and socks are full of lint and other booby traps (Kurcinka asks, "How do you deal with a child who can feel the 'seams' in tube socks...?").

Perceptiveness -- Perceptive kids notice everything around them. The smallest detail seldom escapes them. However, these details provide distractions which make completing other tasks difficult. Perceptive kids are often accused of not listening, when in reality, their attention is simply focused elsewhere. Adults have learned to screen out stimuli which are not important -- for example, we often drive on "auto pilot," not paying attention to anything around us except the other cars. Yet, we complete our task without mishap. Perceptive children have not learned to screen out extraneous stimuli, nor have they learned which stimuli are more important to attend to than others.

Adaptability -- to transitions, surprises, changes in schedule or routine. This is the trait that causes a child to melt down about a sandwich. She can't handle getting rectangles when she was expecting triangles. She's not being picky or demanding, she just doesn't adjust well to changes or surprises.

Regularity -- of eating, sleeping and bowel habits. Spirited kids often have irregular body rhythms. As new parents we are told that we will soon learn to distinguish between our baby's various cries. But for the parents of spirited kids, this is not always the case, since the child's eating, sleeping and elimination patterns are not regular. My own daughter, now 4-1/2, still has some problems sleeping through the night, and usually gets up before the sun. Nothing we have tried improves her sleeping patterns -- that's just how she is, and we have learned to adjust.

Energy -- activity level. Most (but not all) spirited kids have limitless energy. From morning until night they are moving. My daughter tap danced all through my pregnancy. When I had an ultrasound at 17 weeks the technician said, "I'm having trouble getting a good picture because the fetus keeps moving too much." Nothing has changed since then!

First Reaction -- to new people, places or experiences. Take a spirited kid into a new situation and they will turn shy and clingy. They need a few minutes to warm up. Ask a spirited kid a "yes/no" question and the first answer will most certainly be a resounding "no!" With a little encouragement and patience, these kids will try something new -- we just have to wait until they're ready.

Mood -- While some spirited kids have generally happy or sunny personalities, others tend to be serious, analytical and cranky. They are not trying to be difficult, this is their disposition, which is directly linked to brain patterns. These kids tend to see what's wrong with things instead of what's right. They don't display their emotions easily, so determining when they are happy is hard. There are no management techniques for moody kids; parents learn to cope by realizing that their kids can't help how they view the world.

These nine traits do not each exist in a vacuum. They also interact. An energetic, intense child may turn into a whirling dervish in an exciting situation, as she becomes more and more overstimulated. An irregular child who is starting to lose it due to hunger may reject offers of food, because of his automatic first reaction, then may continue the rejection due to persistence (persistence seems to interact with all the traits).

Solids

Raelynn seem to prefer solids to bm nowadays. I usually feed BF close to 9am so that I can pump and rest after RaeAnne goes to school. But nowadays she hardly wants to suckle (previous feed is usually 5-6am), but at 930am when the maid feeds her cereals, she can finish 4 small soup spoons (dry cereals before mixing with EBM). For porridge, she finishes almost 1 big FM scoop of uncooked rice every night. No extras for Cheh cheh. Haha. Oh well, I'm glad she has a good appetite. If she really prefers solids, it will be even easier for me to reduce my supply and go on holiday with hubby alone since MIL doesn't want to go.

Also, her lower gums are getting taller and I can see the shapes of her two lower teeth. Think they will be cutting through the gum soon. These days, she will keep sucking in her gums like an old lady. She screams a lot too. So much that she woke Cheh Cheh up yesterday when she was having her afternoon nap. Needless to say, cheh cheh was in a foul mood. She ended up peeling off the skin tag of her index finger and it bled quite a lot. She was having a meltdown when ILs came over to visit. MIL commented when she was leaving that "With these two, you will be kept very busy." I tried to make light of it and tell her I'm used to it. After all, this is what I signed up for when I decided to be a SAHM. :P They are probably relieved that they don't have to witness such chaos everyday. Haha.

Oh yes, today Raelynn stood in front of the FP piano for a long time. She was like in 'zhan ma' position cos her knees are slightly bent. She keeps turning behind to look at hubby. I thought she will fall but she didn't. Everytime, she was about to lose balance, she'll quickly grab the grand piano. Clever gal! :)

Standing unsupported

Last weekend, hubby told me excitedly that Raelynn was able to stand unsupported for 4-5 seconds. Yesterday, I put her near RaeAnne's FP grand piano so that she can pull herself up to stand. But I was surprised that she was standing without touching the piano. It lasted for almost 10 seconds though she was still a bit wobbly. :)

7 months - sit, 8 months - crawl, 9 months - sprout teeth. Hmm... our dear baby seems to be doing 5 months - crawl, 6 months - pull to stand, 7 months - sit unsupported, maybe by 8 months she can stand???

Music trial at Juzmusic

We first brought RaeAnne to music trial at Seimpi Music in Jan but MIL accompanied RaeAnne into the class and said she was too young and not ready. Timing was also not good and she was grouchy in her car ride back from Parkway. Since then I have been looking out for a morning weekend class for her. I waitlisted at Whitesands Seimpi branch for a long time but their class time is no good. Finally decided to go for trial at Juzmusic, which was recommended by my cousin. Trial is only $25 for 45mins for this promotion period.

RaeAnne joined this existing class of 5 kids. The teacher taught them to sing, then make sounds with musical instruments, throw a bean bag at the right beat, roll a ball while listening for music cues, recognise notes and play a few simple notes. But RaeAnne can't quite follow cos her attention span is not there and she does not listen. Decided to sign her for 1 term to try but hubby is not free on 24 Jul and we are going to Genting on 7 Aug. So decided to wait till we come back from Genting before enrolling her cos there is no make up lesson. :P

Raelynn's first taste of porridge

Raelynn tried porridge today at ILs house. FIL made very watery porridge with pork broth. Raelynn likes it but it was too little so she continued to make 'um' 'um' sounds after he fed her about 4 tablespoons. End up, I buay tahan and fed her a bit more after I finished my dinner. Got the ingredients from ILs so I can make porridge for Raelynn liao. :)

Amt of solids for Mei mei

I've been wondering how much to feed Raelynn. Last night for the first time in a long while, she slept through. Maybe we have not been feeding her enough in the day. Today, I find a useful link http://www.superbabyfood.com/chap7mon.htm. Looks like for a 7 month old baby, it should be 2 times solids at least and each time, 120ml ie. 2-4 dry tablespoons of cereal. Milk feeds at least 5 times. Duh, looks like I can't cut down on BF frequency yet. We can start adding meat, tofu, vegetables into the cereal and introduce fruit juices too. Oh well, good thing I asked MIL to help prepare pork broth porridge for Raelynn tomorrow. Too bad, I won't be able to capture it on camera, hope she likes it. :)

Disciplining

RaeAnne napped very late again at 3pm today despite taking cough syrup, cold med and phelgm med. I think the med are losing their magic effect. It was a lousy day for her as well as us. First, she bite the maid in the afternoon when she was trying to shower her, (I was in the room with Mei Mei but rushed out, I beat on her mouth when she does that). I locked her outside in the balcony at dinner time when she used the pair of nail scissors to 'cut' Filamie pants when she tried to take away her scissors(she had a red mark on the skin). She even got slapped by Daddy for first spitting water than pouring water out of her water bottle (when Daddy told her not to spit out the water). I was showering then and when I came out, I saw the red mark on her right cheek. Sigh, corporal punishment is wrong, all the parenting books say that. But what can we do? Reading the positive discipline book again. It said to remove the child from the situation firmly and gently and allow her to play again only when she is able to play nice.

If she loves to bite, hang an object on her body and let her bite that instead. So that she knows it is not ok to bite people, if she wants to bite, she can bite the object (teething ring perhaps?) Most kids bite according to the book cos they are not able to express themselves and they are testing the reaction of the bitee. Raeanne can talk very well but I noticed she always does that when she is frustrated. After saying no to something for 2 or 3 times but the person still keep asking her to shh shh or eat or go n shower etc, she will start beating or kicking. Told the maid to use distraction n pian her but she still have not learned the trick. An ex colleague smsed me today, her baby was born in early Jan and she told me her gal also beat and pull the maid's hair. Terrible how kids learn who they can bully. She has also tried both beating and scolding the child but it didn't work. Sigh.

Anyway, we'll try to solve one problem at a time. Asked hubby to draw a sleep chart of what RaeAnne must do before she sleeps eg. drink milk, use potty, mummy read 1 book and sing 1 song, mummy off the light and she sleeps alone on her bed. All went well until the last part as expected. Asked hubby to sit outside the door but she was not placated and he still had to go in until she fell asleep. First night, mission failed. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

We are all tired and frustrated today. Tomorrow, I've got a dental appt at NDC so will be leaving both kids at MIL's house. Glad to have a break. Don't want to keep losing my temper on RaeAnne too but she's not making it easy. Sigh.

On education...

Got a place for raeanne at pcf prenursery since April but really not happy with their curriculum. The teacher said pre nursery don't do worksheets or any writing cos they are too young. And she is not keen to show me the children's work (they have individual arch files). I just know that they have different themes every term. Raeanne had been attending playgroup since 18 mths so I do have higher expectations about her academic progression.

Went to visit Elfa CC with hubby on Monday again. The teacher showed me their worksheets and I quite like it. Besides the usual artwork, they have worksheet of a tree with flowers, fruits, roots, leave etc. Their theme for July is Nature. Besides the english descriptions, they also have it in Chinese. I even saw the K1 chinese teacher teaching the kids about Earth, moon and the sun and how the Earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the Earth.

So I prefer to put her at cc, at least half a day cos they got more worksheets n they teach Chinese whereas PCF, she will only be there for 2 hours everyday (830am - 1030am). Timing is not here not there so I can't even find ad hoc or part time job. Besides no worksheets, they don't start mandarin lessons until 4 years old (only when she enters Nursery). I am particular about Chinese lessons cos both Poi Ching and Ngee Ann Pri are SAP primary schools so Higher Chinese is compulsory from Pri 1.

But the cost is an issue. At $470 per month (after $150 subsidy for SAHM/part time mummies), Elfa is almost 3 times more exp than pcf so I am still deliberating. :p Actually if I remain as SAHM, I can bridge the gap that PCF misses by doing flashcards, activity books, reading chinese storybooks (which we already do). But as Raelynn grows up, I need to spend more time with her to stimulate her as well. I don't have the confidence that I have the energy to 'coach' both kids and look after them at the same time. So, it's better if I can outsource RaeAnne's learning for half a day to concentrate on Raelynn.

But if RaeAnne goes to CC, I'll definitely feel the pressure to re-enter workforce cos the CC fees are too exp for hubby to bear it alone on top of maid costs. We can use Raelynn's CDA account but the $12k (including our own $6k top up) will run out in 2 years. Plus CDA account's interest rate is 1% so it makes more sense to keep the money there to grow than to withdraw it to pay for CC. :P

On a brighter note, if RaeAnne adjusts well to CC and if I find a suitable job, I can convert RaeAnne to full day CC while getting ILs to watch over Raelynn while I work. By then CC will be cheaper cos I will be entitled to the full $300 subsidy. Also by then, Raelynn will be 18 mths so she will also qualify for CC and maybe if finances permit, she can start going to Cheh Cheh's school too. If not, then she can start CC when she is 2 years old ie. in year 2012. :) The catch is to find a job that pays well but with flexi hours so that should I decide to have no. 3 (yes, I have't given up hope yet), I'll get to enjoy 4 months of paid ML this time and can BF no. 3. Seems like a tall order? :P

Porridge

Raelynn has been waking up more often in the night since she turned 6 months old. Mostly to stand but she will cry when no one tends to her after a while. Last night, she woke up once at 3+am but I told Filamie that now that she is more than 6 months old, I am not going to feed until after 5am. So after BFing Raelynn at 5.15am this morning, I decided to check my blog to see when RaeAnne started porridge. Conclusion, Cheh cheh started porridge at 6 months plus. ILs just decided to feed her porridge when I was away at work. Maybe poor Raelynn is hungry and cereal cannot satisfy her, that's why she kept waking up at night when she used to sleep through. :P

Fed her scraped apple this afternoon around 3pm today and she likes it. Guess she is ready for it now. Previously when I tried, she didn't like steamed apple puree. This evening, Filamie fed her cereal at 530pm (2.5 small tablespoons mixed with EBM), I BF her at 6+pm, but she started crying pitifully at 7+pm. Asked Filamie to feed her cereal again and she finished everything so I gave her scraped apple again at 8pm. See her so kelian like always want to chew and bite so I went to buy teething biscuits at NTUC tonight. She loves that too. :)

Got dental appt on Fri so will need to put the kids at Ils place. Decided to shun bian ask ILs to help buy 'new rice, lean pork and other ingredients' and start cooking porridge for Raelynn that day. Will ask Filamie to observe and learn how to cook. I still remember how to cook porridge for RaeAnne using the small slow cooker. But I forgot how watery the porridge must be for 7 months plus baby. :P

Cooking... Thai basil minced meat & mentaiko spagetti

Keep forgetting to post but I bought some thai sweet basil during june hols when I was shopping at NTUC cos there were 3-4 packs of minced pork at home. Followed the recipe and ended up making a not very spicy version cos I had no thai chilli at home. I made do with chili oil from my bottle of spicy bean sauce (la dou ban jiang) instead. It was a good move cos RaeAnne liked it and ate it though she was it was 'a bit la'. I cooked it again at my mum's place on Sunday, this time with 5 cut thai chilli and pounded coriander roots. it was nicer, more fragant. But this time, RaeAnne refused to touch it cos she can see the chilli. I would make this dish again since it is easy to whip up but will just add a bit of Japanese 'la yu' for the benefit of RaeAnne. Cos the chilli oil from the spicy bean sauce took away some of the heady fragance of the basil. :)

Went to hokkaido fair at TM last Fri. Most women go to Hokkaido fair and go crazy over the Hokkaido ice cream and the Shiroi white chocolate (there was a super duper long queue at the 2nd floor stall). Me? I always eat their special eat-in ramen then spend a bomb buying chinmi (seasoned seafood) by weight and this time, I bought salmon roe and mentaiko (spicy cod roe) too. Spent $77 on that, no joke. What to do, I've got savoury taste buds, sweet stuff doesn't really excite me. :P

Anyway, was so tired tonight after putting Raeanne to sleep, she slept at 11pm even though we fed her drowsy formula cough syrup at 830pm. Hubby was equally tired and KO so I decided to cook mentaiko spagetti instead of getting him to buy supper though he offered.

I got the recipe from here http://foodmakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2008/01/mentaiko-spaghetti.html. It was really fast to cook. I don't have 'half and half sauce'. Don't even know what on earth is that so I substituted with 1 tablespoon of butter(or rather margarine). I cut down on the lemon, just 1 thick slice instead of half a lemon cos hubby doesn't like sour unless it's bolognaise (tomato) sauce. It was not bad, the home made cream sauce was quite 'si mo si yang' but wish I had added more lemon juice and some dried seaweed cos that will make it less 'jelat'. I debated whether to take a photo cos without the seaweed, the spagetti does not look appetising. But I don't know when I'll ever pay $6.95 for 100g of mentaiko and make mentaiko spagetti again. So here's a pic for the record. ;)

Raelynn is 7 months old!!!

She is 7.5 kg when I weighed her today and still only 63cm long. Sigh. :P

Sometimes, she can stand unsupported for a few seconds before swaying and falling down. She is learning to walk. When we hold her by her arms, she will move one foot forward followed by the other one. No teeth yet and no signs of teeth.