Taka baby fair again...

It's Taka baby fair again and after 2 years, I went back again. I bought lots of stuff for RaeAnne from Taka baby fair last time cos there were good bundled deals esp Pigeon steriliser, bottles, NB starter kit etc. I actually didn't have much to buy for Raelynn but since I managed to succesfully deposit Filamie at ILs place on Fri afternoon (unfortunately, it's because my HP laptop is spoilt, keeps giving me the black screen of 'death' so I had to run around to back up data before sending it in for repair), I decided to go to town to collect my Amara Sanctuary voucher and pop by Taka fair.

Was quite tempted to buy the Fisher Price portable rocker/bouncer that was on offer at $139cos it was quite compact when folded and can be use as a armchair or rocking chair for toddlers. But it was out of stock. In the end, only got a pair of NB padded booties, 2 sets of mittens/booties, a cloth squishy pig squeaker, a car back seat organiser. Initially wanted to buy the Bumbo seat tray but changed my mind cos the quality was lousy, plastic edge was either rough or the white plastic was dirty. Thought of stocking up on maternity pads but the Kotex ones they were selling had no wings. :P Spent only $30+ altogether. A far cry from how much I spent at the 2007 Taka Fair. But saving money is good. More $ for travel fund with the 2 gals, hopefully next year. ;)

Filamie is her usual self these few days. Blur and always coming up with excuses instead of admitting her mistake and saying sorry. I'm losing my patience with her. Think will most likely change maid liao unless a miracle happens. :P

Visit to the gynae

Went for gynae appt today, raelynn is about 700g now n i gained 1.7kg since last check up. Saw her yawning during the scan. Ü There's a lot of fluid n my placenta has moved up, not low lying anymore. Got cough syrup from dr wong cos my cough's still not ok after 1 week. Seems worse in fact. :p

Today, we parked at hdb parking so paid less than $2 for parking. Complained about tmc's steep parking n Dr wong gave me special concession to come after 6pm since we always end up seeing her at 6+, 7pm anyway. After 6pm, tmc has flat parking charge of $3. Thanks, doc.

Pleased to know that Dr wong read my blog cos i invited her to see raelynn's 3d scan photos (forgot to bring the siemens cd during last gynae visit). Conclusion: raelynn's face looks like daddy cos it's round from the 3d scans. Sigh, 2 gals n both will inherit daddy's round face. :p but as dr wong always say never mind, healthy more important. ;)

Carine finally came for the maid counselling session tonight. Actually, it's more of a scolding session. Told her to disguise it as a routine visit but she started the scolding straightaway. Even raeanne got a bit frightened. Anyway, she told filamie off for all the mistakes n her numerous excuses.

As usual, filamie just break down n cry. She said she's homesick n wants to go back to philippines to her family but she changed her mind after carine told her she can't go back unless she got money to pay back $2k plus. She still got to work for other employer even if i dun want her. She got filamie to promise me to change n improve n i said i'll give her one last chance. Asked carine to bring her to optician for eye check to make sure that she is not short sighted n to start looking for biodata for me in case she still cannot make it. I need to confirm a good maid by oct latest since i think i'll be due in end nov. :p

RaeAnne is 19 months today! :)

RaeAnne is 19 months today. She's 10.5kg and 81 cm tall. She started to prefer rice with dishes or porridge with dishes 2-3 weeks ago. Cannot mix everything together in porridge and feed her anymore. Her lower molars are partially erupted whereas her upper molars are just emerging. Her incisors are not out though, just starting to see the whites only. :P Motor skills - she can drink better from cup but will deliberately spill or spit out the water. She likes to use fork and spoon (19 month milestone) She loves washing her hands with soap (learnt from playgroup) and drying them on a towel (19 month advance skills). She can do winding movement with her hands (also learn from playgroup ;) She enjoys helping in the house (19 mth milestone) can kick a ball forward (22 month milestone). http://www.babycenter.com/0_milestone-chart-19-to-24-months_1496591.bc

Vocab skills - she's getting quite accurate at imitating sounds and can say Ma ma, ma me, da do or da da(Daddy), mei mei, nai nai, ye ye, grandma, black, bird, mao (猫), up, na (拿), boh (don't have), take, throw, bed, there, baby, bye bye, A, door, wet, ma (抹), 舅舅，家，伯伯, book, elmo, duck, walk, zou (走). I like 走 best cos she'll hold my hand and walk with me to show me what it is she wants. Bought her a set of Peter Rabbit books from The Book Depository today (present?) since there's free shipping and Mummy's a PR fan. Let's see when the books arrive. ;P

We brought her to Japanese Association of Singapore Summer Festival at Japanese School (Changi branch) in the evening because my cousin's kids and 2nd uncle's family had been going there every year. My cousin even especially bought a 'Gimbei' for RaeAnne when she went to Japan in August. RaeAnne was cranky at nap time today though. She knocked out fast enough around 2pm after drinking milk but woke up 3 times after just half an hour of continuous sleep. She was inconsolable, crying with her eyes closed, fussing until she woke herself up. Even touching my tummy didn't work so hubby had to put her back to sleep by carrying her to the living room. Everytime when I was about to fall asleep, she'll make noise so I ended up delaying my nap time and overslept till 515pm. So, end up we reached only at 6pm when we got to Japanese school, decided to take a cab so that it'll be faster then driving to expo then taking their shuttle bus (parking was not allowed at the school).

Some of us went to the swimming pool to feed the kids first whilst the rest went to buy food. Tried to take a group photo of the kids but it was difficult cos my cousin's kids were too engrossed in their barley water. By the time, they looked up, RaeAnne lost her smile and concentration. ;P

Luckily, RaeAnne ate the hastily prepared dinner that we brought along (steamed threadfin with chopped pumpkin, carrot slices & baby corn) together with rice (tried to steam it but it was taking up too much time so last minute dumped into rice cooker) Luckily made it in time. RaeAnne was very fascinated by the swimming pool and even walked towards it. Hubby pulled her back and she cried so I allowed her to touch the water and told her nobody's swimming, the pool is closed so cannot swim there. After we fed the kids, it was time for the adults to eat. Hubby and I had the sliced pork don and grilled fish bento respectively. There were hot dogs, BBQ Japanese rice cake, grilled chicken balls, konnyaku jelly too.

My cousin rushed off after dinner with her kids as she had a relative's birthday party to attend at Tampines. My cousin Catherine bought game tickets and gave us two so we tried our hand at the yo-yo game and ball game. Bought a face mask for RaeAnne too. She chose the Daisy duck versus the princess and gal gal designs. She refused to put it on though but kept saying 'duck' 'duck', she refused to take her eyes off her 'duck duck' even when Mummy wanted to take a photo. ;)

Overall, a successful trip and she looked so cute in the gimbei. Almost like a Japanese with her small eyes and long side bangs. If only, she had let me put on a hair clip and tie up her hair in a ponytail. Hope to bring her to the real thing at Japan one day with Mei Mei. hee hee. :)

RaeAnne with ponytails

Today, finally managed to tie 2 pony tails for RaeAnne. Me and MIL've tried many times to tie up RaeAnne's hair but she always pull them down or keep moving her head when we try to tie her hair.

Recently, she's been more 'willing' to be our guinea pig. Allow us to put a hair clip on her hair before going to playgroup and she will not pull it down. Not sure if it's because she attends playgroup and see other 'cheh cheh' with pony tails or because the weather is so hot that I've been tying up my hair at ILs place, (intend to keep my hair long so that I can tie all of it during confinement). Shortly after the photo was taken, I wanted to retie her hair to make the right ponytail more obvious but she pulled both rubber bands down. Enough is enough, Mummy, she must be trying to tell me that. Hee. ;P

Here's another pix of her with her clippie at playgroup this morning. Too bad she was giving me such a sunny smile that I can't see her eyes. Also because of my HP camera flash. :P

RaeAnne is not with me most of the times while I'm training her to cook and do housechores. Even on weekends, my gal doesn't want her so she can't help with my gal. Still got to take care of her ourselves eg. bring her to toilet, change her clothes, diaper, feed her, bathe her, put her to sleep etc. My maid's so free that she goes around with a piece of rag trying to clean anything in my place. Even got time for afternoon coffee. :P Hubby said this morning, she's even trying to clean every single hole of the holely hook basket where I hang my clothes peg. Faint :P

Today I took cold med so slept in the afternoon. Demonstrated and showed her how to clean the windows before I went to sleep. When I woke up close to 4pm, she was in the kitchen writing in her notebook. She said she already cleaned the windows and she said she accidentally sprayed the window cleaner into her eyes. Ask me for eyemo. I told her I don't have (which is true). Ask her to use water to flush it out. She said she already did that. Her eyes were not red nor tearing when I saw her. Checked the windows, all had water marks on the glass cos of the rain and all the corners were dirty with dust. Obviously, she didn't clean properly. So I made her clean those parts again.

Then at night, hubby asked me to see GP again since my cough was still not ok and the cold and phelgm was making me lethargic. While we were sneaking out of ILs house, she asked hubby to buy eye mo when he was locking the gate. My goodness, more than 6 hours later, she still wants Eye Mo. And she 敢敢 ask hubby who don't know head or tail to buy eye mo for her. Checked 7-11 and the bottle of eye mo costs $4.90and once open can only last 1 month. Call Carine for advise and she said tell her if she wants to use her own money to buy. Hubby thinks her eyes got problem and spraying window cleaner is probably just an excuse. Anyway, he didn't buy it for her and she didn't ask. Checked with Carine again and she said she can come down on Monday night to 'counsel' her since she's back to work on Monday (her daughter kenna H1N1 so she couldn't come on Tues/Wed night as arranged previously. :P

No crying at Playgroup

Finally, RaeAnne didn't cry when I left her at playgroup today. She looks a bit sad sad and her lips quivered but she didn't cry. Teacher said she adapted very fast. Another gal, Myra who's already been here 3 months is still crying on and off.

Teacher Chris said she has 3 dummy phones which she got from her friend. She brought to school to 'pacify and distract' crying kids. So, she told RaeAnne that she can use the HP to call Mummy. She said very strange that RaeAnne insisted on a particular HP, when she was given other models, she went to another classmate to exchange. I saw the HP teacher was referring to and told her 'eh, looks like my phone leh'. Mine is a Nokia N85. Large screen with slide out number panel. Same as the dummy phone that RaeAnne insisted on. Haha, she must have mistaken the dummy phone for Mummy's phone. :)

Oh and when someone ask RaeAnne in school, your house got Mummy, Daddy and Aunty is it? She nodded her head. Looks like she already accepted Filamie's presence though she still doesn't really want her to do things for her. :P

At home with RaeAnne :) New words: Throw & Bed

Didn't bring RaeAnne to ILs house today since MIL got singing lessons and will be rushing off at 7.15pm. Got Filamie to prepare fried bee hoon ingredients at 10am so that she can start frying when RaeAnne is home. She's so 'blur' that she forgot to fry the minced pork even though it's in the same bowl as the pork loin strips. She even burnt her hand and dropped food all over the floor. So, I did the cooking for the last part but RaeAnne refused to let me cook and let Filamie carry.

Sigh. Anyway, RaeAnne's lunch was ready around 1130am. I have already cut her beehoon up but it was still a mess. Give up on bee hoon cos she'll keep picking out the longer strands of bee hoon out. Throw the bee hoon all over the place too. Had to ask Filamie to clean the table and the floor at least twice. She said a new word today. "Thow' for Throw when I stopped her from picking up food from the table and floor to eat. Told her it's dirty, must throw and she said 'thow', 'thow'. :)

By the time, I had my lunch and showered her. It was 12+. I had to shower cos I was all sticky and hot. Thought I could let her hair dry naturally while I showered. By the time I finished, she was very cranky. Probably tired cos when I fed her milk around 1pm and she knocked off immediately, finished all 220ml of milk too. :P

I was lucky. She slept from 1.10pm but stirred and fussed close to 3pm. I ignored her and let her touch my tummy and she went back to sleep until 3.40pm. So she slept total of 2.5 hours today. Record nap time. Never had one so long before. Thanks to playgroup for tiring her out. :)

After she woke up, I fed her half a kiwi fruit as a snack. And got Filamie to prepare ingredients for dinner. At 5pm, I brought her to the playground downstairs but it was too hot. Decided to bring her to the farther playground near Cherie Hearts. There were a family of 4 (1 boy and 1 gal both studying at Acorn kindergarten) at the playground. The little gal was very curious in RaeAnne especially RaeAnne's Mickey mouse squeaky shoes. :) Sidetrack, talking about shoes, yesterday, RaeAnne wanted to wear her white Clarks leather shoes so I let her cos I'm afraid she's going to outgrow her most expensive pair of shoes soon ($40+ after discount if I remember correctly). Teacher Chris noticed her shoes and said "wa, everyday new shoes. Teacher got problems remembering leh." Told Chris bo bian, she's going to outgrow them soon must quickly wear. She said never mind, you are having another gal mah. Hee hee. ;)

Brought her to the provision shop after the playground and let her choose one of the motorised rides. She chose the duck and it was only 20 cents so I didn't mind spending the money. Told her to hold on tight cos the duck is going to move. She was startled and immediately wanted to get down. Even Filamie holding onto her didn't help. Bo bian, wasted my 20 cents lor. Maybe the ride was too vigorous for her? Strange cos she was ok with the Barney ride at TM leh. Maybe, that's the difference between expensive rides and cheap HDB ones? :P

Today, her dinner is rice with steamed threadfin (steamed carrots, corn and cauliflower on top of the fish as taught by MIL), fried french bean with minced meat. Gave her a bit of my dou miao soup with fishball and fish dumplings too. She didn't eat a lot though. The first helping was easy to feed, she ate very fast. Then when I topped up a bit more rice, she started to play liao. Got Filamie to continue feeding rice and soup and I had my own dinner. Feel that nowadays I always eat 'mixed veg rice' at home cos Filamie and I don't sit down to eat together and hubby is not around. So always pile the food on top of the rice and eat. Easier to defend my food when RaeAnne tries to pull down my bowl and help herself to my food though. Somehow, food never tastes nice when you are rushing through it. :P

Showered her at 730pm. Then read books to her. As usual, her attention span only around 10 seconds. Can point to new book when I have not even finished reading page 3 of the first book. Faint! :P I showered at 8+pm and let her drink milk at 9pm. Didn't dare to give too early cos scared she won't be hungry.

Wrong move! She finished all her 220ml milk (really drink until no more milk left for her to suck) was still happily talking and flipping. She wanted to push down the pillow at her leg (barricade) and whine and fake cry when I said no, no. Then I tried a different tack. Told her that's Daddy pillow. If you throw it down, when Daddy come back, how? Daddy got no pillow to sleep leh. Then she kept quiet and let me put the pillow back in place. She was still playing with my jade pendant (she insisted that I let her wear) when hubby came back at 950pm. I gave up and removed the necklace cos she keeps telling me 'boh' 'boh' 'boh' when she can't find the pendant on her chest (it had slipped to her neck or behind her neck when she moved). Took the necklace off before it becomes a gameWhen I find it for her and put her finger to it. She'll go 'There!' triumphantly. Decided to call hubby and let him see her since she's not asleep. He didn't came back on Mon night from reservist and last night, he came back late only after she fell asleep. So technically, he has not seen her awake since Sun night. How many hours is that? I'm lazy to even count. :P

Asked hubby to make more milk, guess maybe she's still hungry, that's why cannot sleep. When she saw him, she quickly pointed to his pillow, ask him to sleep. Hubby ask her to go to bed and she said 'bed'. Clever gal! She knocked out immediately after drinking the second dose of milk when I was telling hubby about my day. Good gal! :)

24 weeks today! :)

Raelynn is 24 weeks today so I'm left with one more month to the end of second trimester. Time flies, remember I was counting down to start of 2nd trimester cos really wanted MS to end quickly. According to internet updates, linea nigra, a dark line of pigmentation, may appear down the centre of my abdomen. I had it for RaeAnne but strangely it did not reappear for Raelynn. Anyway, I'm not complaining. Just hope that those irritating stretch marks won't reappear. :P

RaeAnne has been wearing her clippies to school for the last 2 days. She's definitely more 'gu niang' these days. Occasionally, she'll let me tie up her hair at ILs place. Maybe due to 'positive' influence from her classmates. Today when I went to pick her up, again she didn't cry. And teacher Chris said she said bye bye to all the kids who are leaving. She also tried to paste the colour paper onto the A4 paper (shape of the boat) with 1 finger. Of course, teacher helped. It's been 2 weeks since she first started playgroup and she has adapted well. Atta girl! Much to my relief. :) Looks like I got to pay the teacher the 1 month deposit at the end of Aug.

Tomorrow, decided to bring RaeAnne home after playgroup instead of going to ILs place cos MIL got karaoke lessons at 715pm so she won't have time to bathe RaeAnne. Instead of having to help bathe her with a big tub of water at FIL's house, somemore, got to wait for ye ye to boil water. I think it's neater if I just bring her home and look after her with Filamie's help. We trial run last Fri, she's not keen on porridge at all. So, tomorrow, will try to fry bee hoon for lunch and steam the threadfin fish for her dinner to go with rice.

This morning, got morning sun so ask Filamie to wash clothes. My clothes, hubby's clothes and RaeAnne's clothes so that can use the water to mop floor in the afternoon. Let her use some of the second rinse water to wash her clothes. Then later when I check the bamboo poles, I see RaeAnne's romper being put on top of her towel to dry. Ask her why, she said no space. She used 1 bamboo pole to hang her own clothes. I told her if got no space, then why you use 1 bamboo pole for your own clothes. Take down your clothes then. Bamboo pole belongs to Mdm not you. How can RaeAnne's clothes take second priority to yours? Somemore, I gave her quite a few pieces of my own clothes cos she doesn't have enough. Tell her to hang her clothes (those that have no space on the one bamboo pole) inside to dry. Wait till our clothes are dry then she can hang outside.

Nowadays, I don't get any afternoon nap cos I got to keep checking on her work. Just now, ask her to mop floor. I saw that the living room floor is wet so I deliberately checked under tv cabinet and the floor is dry. I asked her if she mopped under the tv cabinet. She said yes she did. I put my hand under the tv cabinet and swipe to show her. My hand is dry. I swiped my hand on the living room floor and it's wet. I told her if she mopped under the tv cabinet. How can the floor there be dry whereas the floor is still wet? I caught her red handed still want to try and bluff me. Duh. Really believe those mummies who say that you must be very strict with the maid in the beginning. So fast, trying to cut corners and take advantage liao. :P

P.s. Duh, I was applying stretchmark cream then realised that there is a faint linea nigra line after all, how come I never noticed it before? Too busy with RaeAnne and the maid? :P

Playgroup update

Today, I had to see the GP cos of scratchy throat and dry cough, rush back to pick RaeAnne up from playgroup (without collecting my med cos no time to wait). Thought she'll be wailing there cos I was there close to 11am and 1 or 2 kids had already left.

But I'm very happy. Instead, I saw her standing guai guai near the door with the other kids. Her favourite teacher told me she adjusted well, nowadays, when I leave, she cries for less than 5mins. Also when the teachers brought her to playground (they do that on Mondays), she sang songs happily (teacher say don't know what's she's singing though) and will hold teacher's hand to ask her to play slide with her. Teacher also said she can recognise her own water bottle and bag and even waved bye bye to the kids when they were going home. So glad to have my sunshine gal back. :)

Maid issues

Didn't blog last few days cos of maid issues. Filamie made me angry early in the morning last Friday. Told her on Thurs night that we'll cook fried rice for lunch today. When I woke up, I found her frying garlic with all the ingredients for fried rice beside her. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was frying rice. I asked her why is she frying it now? I already told her it's for lunch. Then she said she's hungry. So angry because there is bread and instant noodles and a tin of biscuits in the house which I told her she can always take and eat but she don't want to eat.

She cook the fried rice early instead because she is hungry. Told her that taking food without asking is equal to stealing. Does that mean if next time I buy pork chop or beef chop, she can take and cook for herself. In the first place, her breakfast is supposed to be between 6-615am so that she can do housechores and prepare bf for my hubby. Told her I treat stealing very seriously and called the agent to 'counsel' her. Then she changed her excuse, she said she was cooking for me, the fried rice is for me, she only drink coffee in morning. Then my hubby happen to come back cos he forgot something so told him to reinforce the message and then she told him that she was only frying the garlic. She was not going to fry the fried rice. First 'steal', then lie after lie.

Sigh, hubby thinks she can't cope (don't know how to use washing machine even after teaching and demonstrating to her 4 times and she already copied into her notebook, cannot remember simple instructions and come up with all kinds of excuses when we point out her mistakes) and wants to send her back. He think that she has very limited memory capacity and does her own thing, he's scared she break down and commit suicide if we pointing out her mistakes (her reaction so far is to look away or cry). Today, she poured hot water to scald RaeAnne's pork and fish (taken out from freezer) without letting it thaw even though there is still ice inside. :P

Had a stern one to one conversation with her and told her that I'm giving her one more chance. If she continues to make this kind of mistakes, then I'll ask the agent to bring her back.

My throat has been scratchy since Fri morning and now it's developed into an itchy dry cough. All the cough syrup in the house can't be used. So, I only took 'pi pa gao'. :P

New words - Star & More

Trying to teach Filamie how to cook but it's not easy cos I'm not a good cook. Eg. I can't really fry rice. This afternoon, FIL going to fry rice cos yesterday left a lot of rice. Want to keep her there to learn, but he also not willing. With my big tummy and no car, I can't be dropping RaeAnne off at ILs place and sending my maid somewhere else to learn cooking right? But as long as the maid is not independent (can't cook without supervision, can't feed RaeAnne alone), I can't bring RaeAnne back home after playgroup cos I can't manage cooking for RaeAnne, feeding her, bathing her and still have time to cook my own lunch and eat lunch mah. Vicious cycle.

Today, my friend who was in the east wanted to meet me for a belated birthday treat also cannot go out to enjoy. End up he tapow chicken rice for me. All 3 of us ended going to NTUC together so I bought cucumbers and ask Filamie to stir fry cucumber with dried shrimps. Tastes not bad but if cooking for RaeAnne will try frying without oyster sauce so that less seasoning.

Went over to ILs late this evening since hubby will be late and ILs seemed to find it inconvenient to have Filamie at their house anyway. RaeAnne had a cute princessbowbow clip which I bought long ago before she was born. It was clipped in the middle part of her fringe and she wore it the whole way until before her bath when MIL took it off. MIL said RaeAnne asked her to clip on for her then she immediately went to look in the mirror and was happy.

Hehe, is my girl finally displaying some 'gu niang' traits? Her new crocs shoes finally arrived by post today and she immediately wanted to put it on. MIL said must wash first so I told RaeAnne that I'll do it later. She actually put her arms on my shoulder and insisted that I go wash now. :)

When we came back home, she glimpsed upon her Gerber sweet potato star snacks on the kitchen counter and told me 'star' 'star'. I told her you already had 'stars' for snack at school today and you are going to drink milk soon, cannot eat star. Then she said 'more' 'more' 'more'. Haha, I was so pleasantly surprised by the new words that I gave her 2 stars lor. Wondering if she learnt to say 'more' from playgroup. Nowadays, always have no chance to get updates from the teacher on how she's doing in class and what she's learning cos when I pick her up close to 11am, the 11am kids are already waiting to go into the classroom so the teachers are busy. :P