A week with the kids

I spent last week on my own with both kids. The son's school was closed for the school holidays and my mum had plans of her own, so I had to look after them. At first, I thought it would be really difficult to manage the two on my own and I was afraid they would be bored and truthfully, I wasn't really looking forward to it. But as it turns out, we had loads of fun and laughter, we all got fed and dressed, and we all got entertained too, all thanks to YouTube and Hi5.

off to do some marketing and as it was a sunny day,
 he insisted we wear our sunglasses.

my 7 month old is not very impressed with the sunnies.

off to Sheng Shiong!

icook.

rite of initiation.
smelling the big brother's backside.

date at the airport.

this 2 has got to be the most non-conversing playmates of all time.
one conversed in English and the other in Mandarin.
the only language they understood  together was
PLAY.

playgound fun.

super fast.

little buddy friend.

little gymnast.

he sneakily drank most of the bubble tea on the
pretext of offering to hold it for me.

and this boy? just refused to nap.

took some mug shots for his passport!

And this my friend, is how 3 year old dances and a 7 month old scooting his bum.

Zumba apparently is not a place, its an exercise

When I was in my teens and early twenties, I used to gobble down junk food like potato chips, chocolates, sweets as if they were my main meals. I could wolf down large portions of fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, eat instant noodles for fun, have sugar loaded drinks to quench my thirst and it seems like my stomach was trying to catch up with my metabolism rate.

Now that I've grown ahem a little more mature in my age, its the total opposite. My metabolism rate is no longer chugging along like the express train and my stomach has finally caught up by compensating it with a wider girth. And the flabby tummy after 2 child birth does not help at all.

Although I do not indulge myself with junk food or sugary drinks that much anymore, any main meals I eat now makes me full very fast. I do try to choose a wide variety of healthy options like soup, noodles, vegetables, fish, fruits and I drink lots of water too. So why oh why?

I am starting to exercise by swimming once a week, climbing stairs whenever possible and walking whenever possible too. Baby steps ya.

So to conclude, do I really have to Zumba now?

Hook, line and no more sinker

The son has been waking up WAY too early in the mornings like around 6am and this is usually the time I wake up to get ready for work. Usually I'll try to make him to go back to sleep by offering him a bottle of milk. He'll will usually take the bait, drink the milk and go off to sleep. But usually does not cut it anymore.

What he does now is, take the milk, drink it and hand back the bottle back to me in a flourish as if to say,"Ta-dah! I've finished the milk and I am not going back to sleep Mama! This milk baiting is not working anymore! So there lady!"

So I'll offer the next best thing. Water in a bottle. Doesn't cut it anymore too.

You know the battle is over when he starts to talk and sing and gets more and more excited and starts to get louder and louder.

So I ask him one last time, "Darling, don't you want to go back to sleep? Everyone is sleeping and you should too. Its too early for you to wake up."

He stopped, looked at me and said, "I want to *pang sai."

Son: 1 Sleep: 0

*pang sai=poop in local dialect terms

I AM MOTHER BLOGGER, HEAR ME BLOG!

They may have come from the same production house, but their sleeping habits highly differ from one another.

i have to show you as it is

trying to gnaw his way out

The son has been sleeping very well since birth. Give him milk and its total zonked for him. The kid? He sleeps like he is on high alert anytime.

A slight rustling and he stirs. I hold my breath. A hushed whisper and he stirs. I hold my breath. A tiny weeny little creak of the door and he stirs. I hold my breath. A sudden shout from the big bro and he awakens! I let out my breath and spew all sorts of vulgarities.

And the poor son has also never been more shushed at. And I've never really been more colourful in my language of vulgarities after I've become a mother. Do you? Or it's just me?

And also, nothing irks me more when I have to smell filthy second hand cigarettes' smoke of people puffing in front of me. I WANT MY FRESH AIR AND I WANT IT FRESH!!

And also also, what is it with people who went trigger happy with their perfume bottles in the mornings too? I WANT MY FRESH AIR AND I WANT IT CLEAN!!

And also also also, I meant for this post to be about my children's sleeping habits, and not about my angry rant.

I am ashamed of myself.

What to wear: 1 Weekend, 3 ways to wear the Vintage Floral Print Zipped skirt

via Polyvore
1,2,3

Polyvore is my dream closet. Any time I want to get inspirations on what to wear, how to wear, its my go-to website. I feel so awed seeing so many other people mixing and matching all those wonderful clothes in so many combinations that its mind boggling. Other people get their minds boggled by rocket science, I get mine boggled by clothes.

So anyway, if you have a floral skirt and am not sure what to pair it with other than the basics, this was what I came up with. Above.

Look 1: A lace cropped top and ribbon bow sandals. I like the interesting contrast of the patterns and texture. This is a casual look but if you like to dress it up a bit, you can swap the sandals with a pair of heels and throw a blazer over it. 

Look 2: Polka dot sweater and lace loafers. I like polka dots. I like florals. I like lace. So I pair all three together, ha! But to avoid looking too messy, I tamed it down by matching the loafers and sweater in the same colour tone. This way, it still looks put together, but with all my favourite elements in it.

Look 3: Plaid button down shirt and high top Chucks. Well, I wasn't sure if this will work but somehow, when I play around with the options of tucking it out, it just clicked. I guess plaid also goes well with Chucks. 

And since its the Spring season, bring your florals and colours out for some fun! Experiment with it and tell me what other combination you have come up with too!

Double fun but time is sometimes halved

It was quite abrupt but the change was noticeable. I came home from work and was just chatting with the son on how his day had been when I noticed he had grown a little taller. And not just that, his face had changed too, changed into a more grown-up-boy kind of look? If there's such a term.

While he previously could not make the number three with his fingers, somehow, he got it all figured out when he told me Henry (one of the trains from Thomas and Friends) is number three. I was surprised and thought whoa, who taught him how to finally made his fingers to show the number three? Impressive.

And just like that, the son has grown up by a little more. And I lament.

As it is, I'm away from my kids for most of the day, and usually when I reached home, it would be dinner time, followed by a shower for them and myself, and all too soon it will be time for milk and sleep. That little awake time to talk and play with them seems so little. And add to the fact that I had to divide whatever precious time between the two kids and with so much distractions going on, it is always either one of the kids that I can fully give my attention to.

Which leads me to reflect. 

If I am truly going to shower them with my utmost attention, then I'll have to try and minimise all distractions. I'll try to switched off the television, put my phone away and purely just focus my all on the kids. To truly listen to the son talk about his day, what he learnt in school, what he played with his friends, to enjoy his cheekiness, to laugh at his silliness and play with him.

With the kid? To celebrate his every development milestone, to make funny faces to make him laugh, to smell his sweetness, to marvel at his growth, to be patient with him and to kiss and hold him so very tightly.

A toddler, an infant and a stroller

I brought my two kids out yesterday and survived. ALONE.

Well not entirely alone as my mum went out together with us but she parted ways later on, which left me alone. And technically not truly alone as I was on my way to meet my sister-in-law, so if you really want to get technical with the term ALONE, then you've not really been a mother of two or three or a mother at all.

Because at any point when its just you and the kids, you're ALONE. Especially if you have to use the public transport, use the public walkways, the elevators, the escalators, the restroom, the staircase, the number of obstacles you have to cross to get from point A to point B to point C, you get the drift, it's simply a logistic nightmare. And coupled with a big ass stroller, the diaper bag and the son's bag pack, I looked like I'm ready for battle anytime soon.

This little boy deserves a shout out. He was tired out from
all the excitement and so when it was time to alight at our stop, I had to woke him up
and yet he gamely walked all the way home to boot too. For a treat, we
had Macs and also partly I was too tired to think about dinner.

And this little guy? He was happy to be out and about and
missed all his nap times, only cat napping here and there.
Consolation?
He promptly zonked out at 8pm when we've reached home.

In any case, people have been quite kind to us in giving way to us or maybe they're just avoiding us altogether, haha.

Will I do it again? For sure! Because we mothers are always up for a challenge.

A new word for awesome, chocolate bar

There was once during a night feeding, that I thought to myself, "Just what am I doing?! Why didn't anyone said that having a baby is such tiring work and how on earth do those mothers look so good with a baby on their arm?! I look terrible! I feel horrible! I just want to sleep! I want to run away! I don't want a baby anymore!"

Back then, I just had my first kid and being a newbie to mothering, EVERYTHING felt so overwhelming to me. And to add icing to my red velvet cupcake, I didn't managed to breastfed him and I truly felt I was a let-down (no pun intended) to the epitome of motherhood.

Fast forward two years later, I had my second kid and this time round, breastfeeding was sort of a success. Well, the initial stage was tough, with cracked and bleeding nipples, blocked ducts, a hungry baby who just wants to latch all the time, manual expressing, a few scares with a wonky pump motor that threatened to give up on me and severe after birth cramps that made me bleed all over my toilet that it looked like a murder scene. I can safely say, or hope to say, I am done.

Even though I have two boys and people kept commenting on how I should try for a girl, I say, "No thank you very much." True, I'll never know how much fun dressing them up can be, how girls will always be the ones looking after their parents etc, but to me right now, they are what I've always wanted.

From the get go, I knew I wanted a boy. A son that I can play rough with, a son that will splash into rain puddles, a son that plays trucks and trains, a son that gets all muddied up after a football game, a son that climbs and crawls and shouts, a son with a cheeky smile and that twinkle in his eye when he does something mischievous. Plus, its double the fun now.

Right now I feel complete, a place where I'm more at ease with myself, a comfortable peace from within. There are still challenges, but I'm not so inclined to worry that much nor fret too much about it. I have two little ones to care for, to love and to enjoy. And I believe, they are the ones whom have given me more love than I have to them that has brought this completeness to me.

And having them love me back unconditionally, chocolate bar.