Bali

It is without a doubt indeed, tiring to be travelling with a toddler and a baby. It is made worse when the toddler is sick. I asked myself why I even bother travelling at all. I came back more tired than I was before the trip!

Violet was feeling fine until 3 hours before the flight to Bali. She vomited twice. Once in the morning and again before lunch. We had to rush her to a clinic and found out that she probably had stomach flu. ARGH! 3 hours before the flight and we are told that she has stomach flu. Needless to say she was whiny on the plane and whiny on the first few days. She whined during meal times, she whined when I asked her to take her showers. Whined when I tried to get her out of the villa pool. She whined when I asked her to sleep. It didn't help that it was really hot and humid everywhere we went in Bali. I tried to keep my cool and gave her a little more leeway since she was not feeling too well.

Finally on the 3rd day I gave her a huge dressing down. Frankly I was very pissed off with the way she treats her father sometimes. She bullies him all the bleeding time! She goes to him when she needs a play mate and when she doesn't, she rejects him totally! I hate that! I blew my top and gave her her biggest dressing down ever. That worked. She was less whiny on the last 2 days.

The younger one did better than expected. She slept through the entire flight. She was fine and happy, if a little bothered by the weather. She seems to be more of a homebody, a creature of comfort who craves familiarity. I was worried that she would miss her cot or home. Much to my surprise she was fine and happy! I am glad I plonked down $80 for the foldable tub and lug it with me to Bali. She loved her baths and it is good that she was able to enjoy her favourite soaks in her tub even in Bali. I can't imagine trying to bathe her in the bath tub. Not only are babies slippery little things, I am paranoid about the cleanliness of the tub!

As for us, we didn't get to really relax and do nothing. I was pretty much going back and forth attending to my 2 children. I did get about 20 minutes by the pool reading and basking in the warm late afternoon sun while they were napping. Wished it happened more often though.

Travelling with young kids is very tiring. Would I do it again? As it is, I am planning our next couple of trips already. Am I nuts? Yes!( And I never learn )  But nothing, absolutely nothing is more satisfying to see than seeing your kids taking in all the new experiences with such dewy eyed innocence and unjadedness that I wish I possess. Besides I am a glutton for punishment.

Ultimate Comfort Food

is a bowl of mum's pork porridge. No fuss, nothing pretentious. Simple, honest home cooked porridge.

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.