2-fingers Part two

So despite our attempts to curb this habit, Jo Ern still frequently sucks her two fingers.

Remember, it's the 3rd and 4th fingers

Now it looks like Su Ern might have developed a taste for fingers also! But she likes a different set of fingers...

I think the 2nd and 3rd fingers are better

Crazy schedule

Just want to pen down my weekday schedule to remind my future self how hectic life with 2 young kids is and that yes, I did it. :)

JE: Want to chit in stroller!

SE: That's my stroller and my blanket... but I'm ok coz Mummy pao-pao me

7.15am Alarm rings. Wake up, toilet and wash up.
7.30 Go downstairs. Sterilise breastpump + bottles for SE, cut fruit and prepare breakfast for JE. Pre-dinner prep if necessary. Have my own breakfast, usually coffee and bread. Aahhhh...
8.15 Go upstairs to wake JE. Cuddle SE (this baby is a light sleeper and would be awake), dig JE from sleep and chat with her a bit so as not to appear to be rushing her
8.30 JE eats her fruit
8.40-9.00 Spoon-feed JE her breakfast, time taken depends on whether she cooperates
9am+ Rush like mad to shower, change, wear contact lenses and get myself to work in KL city centre

Hubby bathes SE. Maid would clean the house/car, water the plants, feed the fish/dog and then bathe JE. Hubby, maid and kids go off to my parents' place.

Mon, Tue and Thurs
6pm+ Work's done! Shut down, pack up, wait for the lift, walk to the carpark, pay for parking, drive home
7pm (If traffic's ok) Arrive home and put rice to cook
7.10 Pump milk for SE
7.30 Rush like mad to cut vegetables, cook, take out plates n cutlery
7.45 Rush like mad to shower, take out contacts and change
7.50 Hubby arrives home with kids and maid
7.55 Rush like mad to cook vegetables, dish out meat and rice (no, the maid can't help coz will be feeding/carrying SE)
8pm Cut JE's food into tiny pieces, feed her and eat dinner myself

Actually it is impossible for me to express milk (even shortcut to 20min approx from the usual 30mins), cook, shower and have dinner on the table within an hour. I RUN and not walk, do different things with each hand and even so... Often dinner is ready when the gang arrives only because hubby is caught in traffic and arrives home late.

The pace after dinner slows down a tad...
8.30 Finish dinner and cut fruit - bigger pieces for adults and bite-sized ones for JE
8.45 Serve fruit and prepare baby food for SE.
8.55 Feed SE. Spend time with both kids and relax, 'talking' to hubby while he watches TV
10pm Milk time for JE, followed by brush teeth time, then change to PJs
10pm+ Upstairs to bed. Breastfeed SE, unwind with JE a while and then zzzzzz. Yes, for me too. :)
3am, 5am SE wakes up for milk

Hubby watches TV. Maid has dinner, washes up, takes her shower and carries SE when done.

Wed, Fri - Hubby's drinking nights
6pm+ Work's done! Drive to parents' place to have dinner and pick up the kids
9pm+ Drive home
10pm Arrive home. Rush to wash up, take out food for next day's meal, take out frozen baby food for SE, collect laundry, JE's milk, brush teeth, PJs

Maid and me take turns carrying SE and doing other tasks. Hubby doesn't return till late.

I have absolutely no books/TV time. I AM looking forward to when SE is bigger and doesn't need to be carried all the time. Then I can also stop breastfeeding and pumping, which does take time. For now, I'm surviving. And having Jo Ern and Su Ern, I am happy. :)

JE: Jo Ern take care Chu Ern

SE: Helppp

Eating out

Now that JE enjoys going out and actually EATS food (history here), we are going out out for meals on weekends.

Fish n chips at TGIF... quite nice!

Ice-cream at Suki-ya shabu2... Yummy!

SE is a problem though. Sometimes she sleeps during the meal but more often than not, she screams wanting to be carried. OK... she's a little bigger now and can be held with one hand. Not the best of situations but can be done.

What's on Mummy's plate? Want eat

Shrimp at Bubba gump...JE: Must smile for camera

SE: What's on the chair? Want play

Last weekend we went to Sushi King and JE had a blast picking things off the moving kaiten belt. I'm looking forward to eating out more with my lil girls!

Smiling for the camera

Mummy want to take photo? OK I will smile nicely.

Smiling!

Smiling a lot a lot!

Quite nice eh? Even the 'over-smile until cannot see eyes' has its charm. OK now the big girl's turn. 

JE: OK I smile nicely also.

  

Smiling!

*aiyo always this forced smile*

With the big girl, I prefer candid shots.

What a big mouth you have, Oscar!

There. Mummy satisfied now. :)

Maidless

My maid Annie went off last week. She was sick and asked to recover at her cousin's house, promising to come back.  Well, she's not answering our calls. We're waiting for a replacement maid now. Hubby and I are more used to being maid-less since Annie would go off every two weeks. I have taken leave one day - to clean, tidy, do the laundry and prepare baby food.

Don't wanna sit and play.. want carry!

But it's been tough on little Su Ern. Annie carried and played with her a lot. So the kid screams when put down, expecting someone to come carry her. With just hubby and me, we have more tasks to do and can't carry a baby around. I carried her once when making JE's milk and almost dropped her. It was back to the playpen where she immediately started screaming. Lil kid is now hoarse from all the screaming. :(

Don't wanna sit and eat... want carry!

Oh well, maybe after this transition period, she'll get used to being by herself more. Poor kiddo.

Sleep first. Maybe when I wake up, someone will carry me

Breakfasts for JE

Had a conversation with my sis recently on what we give our kids for breakfast. For breakfast, Jo Ern has a fruit and a main, followed by a spoonful of cod liver oil. Getting her to eat the fruit is no problem, the main however, is. The main was oats with Marmite for many months before she got tired of it. I tried to replace with bread but it's VERY hard to feed her bread. She holds it in her mouth for the longest time until it's a soggy mess and then she spits it out. Sigh.  After say, 20 mins of earnest feeding, you have a few horrible-looking spat-out blobs and very little in her tummy.

Then the breakthrough came. Hubby started making super-nutritious soups (using more meat than I do for weekly meals!) and I just add some carbo to make a balanced breakfast. Noodle soups are easy to push into JE's mouth and easy for her to swallow. Now, that's what she usually gets.

Some recent breakfasts:

Starfruit with blueberries, a slice of wheat bread (she only ate half)

Grapefruit segments (sacs only, no pith) with pasta soup

Golden kiwi with mee-sua soup

Grapes with pasta soup

The fruit is also often grapes (peeled if skin is hard), dragonfruit, orange, maybe melon.  Anything that doesn't turn brown which I can prepare a bit earlier. These are for weekdays only... weekends we go out for breakfasts!

Synchronised sleeping

The small one and the smaller one fast asleep. To me, both cutie-pies. :)

And we turn to the left...

Genting trip 15

Up we were in Genting last weekend. Our room happened to be a corner unit and therefore quite big.

JE: Stand here can watch TV

SE: Right leg up!

JE: But sit here watch TV is nicer

SE: Left leg up! 

Can sit inside the cupboard also

JE went multiple times on the theme park rides.

After this I want black horse. Then yellow horse. Then...

The discovery this trip was the kiddie 'funland' in the theme park. This area is only accessible via staircase and we had no place to park the stroller. This time we climbed up the stairs to check it out and it turned out to be the largest playground I've ever seen! Only one playground 'set' is visible from ground level, but go up and you see set after set!

Now take this slide. Then next one. Then...

Now this horse. Then the lion. Then...

Feet must not touch the floor... oh-oh!

JE had a swell time. Little SE snoozed in the stroller (with hubby watching of course) at the base of the stairs and was no trouble.

Zzzz with my bolster

The other discovery was good pizza/pasta at BubblesnBits. Only problem was, with all the time spent in the theme park, we only reached home at midnight. But I'm rather looking forward to our next Genting trip!

Aunty's leaving

Aunty is LEAVING??

Aunty, don't go!!

We had good times together!

My maid Annie has decided to move on. She wanted 2 Sundays off a month instead of the usual 1 Sunday, and got it. Then she asked to leave on Saturday nights for her Sundays off, and got it. But when she asked for 4 Sundays off, plus a whole week off in December, I said cannot lah. Hubby and me find it tough dealing with two young kids by ourselves. So now Annie has found another job with higher pay and shorter hours.

I was happy enough with Annie, she is efficient and good with the kids. Especially little SE, who has been living quite the pampered life!  OK one thing I hope the new maid WON'T do is take so long to get ready. Annie takes almost half an hour to bathe/change/apply makeup, once in the morning and another time in the evening. We can hardly afford this time on weekday mornings. On weekends when we want to go out, quite often all of us will have to wait for her. Hubby hates waiting and here he is always waiting for our maid!

Annie says she won't leave until a new maid comes, and hopefully the agent WILL send someone soon. Sigh.

Papa's back

We missed you, Papa!

Hubby's back from Italy! With 5 bags for me - Dior, LV, Gucci, Prada and Brics. *smacks head* I asked him (many times!) not to buy me any coz after surfing the net, I'd concluded I didn't like most of the branded bags. He went and bought me bags anyway. And... I DON'T like them! Poor hubby unveiled bag after bag only to meet with headshakes from me. Luckily I thought the Prada was nice. Gotta try to sell off the rest, sigh.

The only thing I asked for was a bottle of truffle oil. Hubby came back with FIVE (at about RM50 each, not cheap). He's obviously the shopaholic in our family! He brought back a selection of olive oils, dried mushrooms, herbs, paprika, herbs etc. Now those I like! Only a fraction of the cost of the bags too, heh.

SOME of the edibles hubby brought back

Best thing is to have hubby home again. Now I have a backup resource when both SE and JE needs attention. Heheheeee.

Colours ok

Jo Ern knows her colours now! After months of trying to teach her.

Me: Jo Ern's shirt is red colour! Like Jo Ern's snake. And this book also.
JE: RED colour!

5 mins later..
Me: This snake is what colour?
JE: (beaming) GEEN colour!

*aiyo*

And now...

This one RED colour

At dinner time:
JE: Jo Ern soup is what colour?
Me: Brown colour

In the toilet:
JE: Jo Ern's nggh-nggh is what colour?  (nggh-nggh = big business)
Me: Brown colour
JE: Like Jo Ern soup!
Me: .....

Not quite the association I'd have chosen, but correct nevertheless. :)

What colour?

BROWN colour!

Papa's on holiday

Hubby is holidaying in Italy while I stay home with the kids.  So far he has been to Nepal, Myanmar, HK/Macau and Singapore without me.  :(  Oh well, guess it won't be long before they're grown enough. And we can all go holiday together. :)

When Jo Ern Papa coming back?

Took JE for a roti canai breakfast this morning, leaving SE home with Annie the maid. And was rather relieved when I got home and found Annie hadn't left and kidnapped SE. Heh. I can be slightly paranoid when it comes to my kiddos! Didn't want JE to stay home the whole time though.

6 months old

Hello there! I'm half a year old today.

Su Ern is 6 months old today! And yes, it does seem as though the time has flown by.

Latest skills
Her latest trick is pursing her lips to say 'pbbbttthh' and she does that very often. She turns onto her belly and kicks her legs trying to move. So far not too successful.

She started on solids couple of weeks back. So far she has had avocado, pumpkin, banana, peas and spinach. She loves her food! She cries if fed too slowly and when the food is finished. I'm not giving her too much in case she gets too full for milk.

I'm a hungry baby and I need more food!

Daily routine
She wakes up early. Sometimes she goes over to 'visit' her big sis, moving using a combination of turning over and kicking. She gets left alone when hubby, myself and JE go downstairs for breakfast. Poor girl will start crying after a while. Eventually hubby goes upstairs to bathe her and I go upstairs to feed her. The rest of her day is spent napping, playing and crying. :)

What is my jie-jie doing? Hmm I think still sleeping

What else... her skin colour is rather dark. JE started out dark and turned fairer so I'm hoping SE will too.

Her hair looks ok from the front but it's actually very thin at the back heh.

What?! Am I balding??

And she's still a cutie pie and smiles a lot!

Make cheeky face ok?

Genting trip 14

The 14th trip for JE, 2nd one for SE.  I've been wanting to make use of my theme park annual pass but Genting hasn't been giving free weekend rooms recently. So for once, hubby actually PAID for our room in Genting!

Upon reaching the room, SE smiled and lay happily on the bed for ages. Unusual for her as recently she always demands loudly to be carried.

Happy Su Ern 

Su Ern in Astro boy pose

There, this Astro boy

JE enjoying the bathtub... didn't dare let her play long as it was cold there. Of  course she cried when forced to come out.

Jo Ern pour and pour

At the theme park, all of us went on the antique car and ferris wheel rides. I went on the haunted house ride with JE. Scaredy cat me wanted to close eyes until I realised it was mostly dark with nothing to see. Then took JE for the elephant ride. Aiyo the elephant goes quite high leh. Err and why so long one the ride... OK confirmed I'm pretty useless on theme park rides!

JE wanted to sit at the BACK of the elephant but I couldn't take a decent photo there. Asked her come to the front and Miss Sourpuss eventually did.

No wan to come to front. No wan to take photo

We discovered a section of the theme park with kiddie rides. A max height applies so we couldn't accompany JE for the ride. I was worried she'd be scared but noooo, she was fine! Chose the green bug and didn't want to get off. I guess my little girl is ready to do some things by herself!

Woo-hoo! This geen colour bug is the best!

Next up was the bumper car. She didn't know how to step on the pedal thus couldn't move. Haha she isn't THAT independent after all, yet.

Jo Ern car cannot moos be-coz no petrol

There are more rides we haven't gone on, keep for next time. :)