Reading

I have told myself that this year, I will read 12 books. All fiction. None of that parenting stuff that I have been reading lately. I need some form of escape. Reading fiction provides me that. I miss reading beautifully constructed sentences, they delight me endlessly and puts me in a very very romantic place.

This year, I have so far read a grand total of 3 pages!

I will want to put the blame on my two children. Truth is, that is the truth! Well partially.. I was hooked on pinterest for a while. That site is bad and unproductive! Not really... I found plenty of things and ideas that I love. Like ideas to keep a toddler busy and how to peel a  whole bunch of garlic in 30 seconds.

I need to get back my reading groove.

Sisters

Happiness is seeing my 2 daughters having a good time together.

They seem to have a genuine liking each other. Violet will shower Saffron with plenty of hugs and kisses. She will tell Saffron not to cry in the most tender way. Saffron will always turn her head towards Violet's voice and she always always have a ready smile for Violet.

Violet is 26 months old

V has grown up a lot in the last few months. She is coping very well with all the changes. From having a helper in the house, to a new baby sister. She absolutely adores her baby sister, hugging her and kissing her all the time. We are so relieved!

She finally learn to jump a little before she turned 2. And boy, after mastering that, she wants to walk run, skip and jump everywhere. She always wanted us to carry her around, walking and running only in places that are not too crowded. Where to find such places in Singapore you tell me! She is also singing and dancing a bit more now, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, her ABCs and If You are Happy.

She likes hiding in my closet these days. She will open the doors and tells me that she is going home, walks into the closet, closes the door and stays in there for a little while before coming out and repeat the whole process again.

She knows her 123s, her colours and her shapes. we didn't really teach her all that on purpose. We just point things out to her when she is interested and she picks it up just like that. She doesn't know all her letters in the alphabet yet. She knows M (for MacDonald's, hahahahahahaha!) V for her name. She knows a few more, I am not too sure what exactly. Sometimes I wonder if I am not giving her enough to learn or do. I am a lazy mother.

 She talks really well now and we are able to have conversations with her. She is filling up her sentences with pronouns, adjectives and prepostitions, making her sentences complete. She is refering herself more with  I, me, self, mine and my. She still refers herself as a third person but not all the time now. She tells jokes and expresses her own opinions. She says the darnest things too!

Her apetite is pretty good recently. Eating more than she was a month ago. Maybe it has something to do with her running around a lot more recently. One fine day about 2 weeks ago she told me that she wanted to self feed herself. And she did and she is doing a pretty fine job at that. She does feed herself a bit before, things like fruits, bread and other finger food and little pots of yoghurt.  Not rice or noodles.I find it too messy and besides, she doesn't seem all that interested to want to do it, so I didn't push it. Now, she eats faster and isn't as picky. I hope this isn't just a phase! CROSSING FINGERS!

My little toddler is now a little girl. They do grow up so fast!

Saffron is 3.5 months old

She is 3.5 months already. How time flies! She is a really smiley baby. She smiled early, since she was 2 weeks old. Of course I put it down to gas the first few times she smiled. Every time we smiled and talk to her, she would smile back. It can't be coincidence right! She smiles when she just wake up, smiles when she is tired, smiles when her sister is playing near her, smiles when I change her diaper in the early hours of the day. As much as she is smiley, she was a cry baby too. She has some powerful lungs and she wouldn't hesitate to remind me on a daily basis.

Unlike her elder sis who allowed just about anyone to carry her when she was a baby, as long as she was being carried, she didn't care who the carrier was. Not this girl. Nope, she is pretty much the baby koala and I am the mama koala. She is fine with her father, but not all the time. Good news is, she is slowly warming up to her extended family. Yay for me!

She sleeps pretty well. Sleeps at least 6 hours at night without waking up since she was a month old. After 2 years, I was able to get a good length of uninterrupted sleep! Can't say that she naps well now.

She loves her baths just like her sister. :)

She coos and giggles quite a lot these days, especially when someone is talking to her. Oh and she is in her cot looking at her mobile.

New Year Resolution

I don't understand why I am making one this year. I didn't much kept to the last one. This year I will attempt to read at least 12 novels. Quite a feat for a barely-have-enough-time-to-breathe full time mum. I suppose gives me some sort of motivation to attempt to read.

You see, I bought a Kindle.

So much for saying that I will never buy one, but it is getting cheap now! I had it for a little more than half a year already and it is wonderful! I read mostly parenting stuff, but I do have a few fiction books in there that I have been meaning to read. Let's see how many books on the 2011 Booker Prize short list I can read before the long list for 2012 is out!

Don't get me wrong, I will still my paper books. Nothing beats a paper book. In fact I just bought 1Q84! After reading just a page, I realised just how much I really really miss reading novels. I think I am pretty done reading about parenting already. It is time to get back to reading fiction! I just need to get that list of 12 books done.

Birth Story

The second birth was pretty uneventful. No pains and just as fast. I was in at about 7am and I delivered at 1pm.

I went for a routine check up with my OBGYN when I was 38 weeks pregnant and found out that I had dilated 3cm. Yes, 3cm. I was like, then how now? How the hell did that happen? Her take was to induce on that day itself or the next. We could not really and rather not induce on the same day because V was with us and I hadn't packed yet! So the next day it will be! Damn, and I thought I can meet my friends for dinner before popping....

Then I spent the rest of the day being paranoid that the baby might just pop out any time, because my doctor said that since I have dilated 3cm, when I start to feel any pains might be a late. I would had like to wait another day so that the birth date would be the same as my grandma's, then I started seeing images of me giving birth in the car. Yikes! No Epidural!

The next day after admission, my doctor came over and burst my water bag. Before bursting, she checked and announced that I have dilated 4cm. Almost halfway there! I promptly ask for the epidural after that. The first time, I had labour pains for an entire night for The Husband slept and snored. This time, I didn't want any pain. The anaesthetist who was about to administer the epidural, noted some spots on my body and said that I might had something (for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.) that might pose a risk if I had epidural. So they drew some blood and got it send for testing. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I didn't have what he said I had. Fortunately, I didn't have what he suspected what I had and so I got my epidural. The long needle that went into my spine was the most pain I felt for the entire birth. The last time I didn't feel it as much, probably because I was already in quite a bit of pain.This time, I used up pretty much of the epidural. I had itches on my tummy, a side effect of the epidural and close to the birth, I started to have shivers.

The nurse checked me a few times, and just after 12 noon, the nurse checked again and I had dilated 9cm, she started to prepare the stuff needed, got me to do a push to see if I was ready and called my doctor. All along, I didn't have any pains, just shivers that were getting worse. This time, it was all calm. Just my doctor, a nurse, my husband and me. Pushed a few times, and the baby was out! That left me wondering why was it so different the last time where I had like an army in there with me. Was it because I was too close to pushing and nothing was prepared??? I didn't remember much the last time since all the auntie nurses were so kan cheong.

But man oh man, if everything before the baby arrived was all nice and zen, it ended after the baby arrived. That little girl of mine sure has some fine lungs! She cried and cried and cried she did! They put her on me the moment she came out and didn't stop crying til I put her to my breast! I didn't know newborns are that hungry. V was mewing away like a little kitten and was contented to just be held. Not this one, this one came out really hungry. But I am happy, at least I didn't feel any pain at all!

The New Boo

The newest Boo!
Obviously she looks quite different from the photo posted above. After all she is already 3 months old!

That is how long I have not written an entry. So much had changed, I don't really know how to navigate the new Blogger site. Which is a pain in the arse. Can I have the more straight forward site back please? I am a mother of 2 now, no time to waste navigating the site.

So much for 2011's new year resolution about having more ME time. I will write more soon(ish)