Training Session

Sophie must be the toughest baby I have ever known... despite her health, she could still play as per normal (even more energetic than before). Ah Gong bought her 3 little rubber balls and attempted to teach his little granddaughter soccer and basketball. Well, at least she got the basics now...

Exhausted, Ah Gong took a nap while Ah Mah took over the training session. Sophie made Ah Mah so proud and happy when she demonstrated her new skills(plus a little entertainment as well).

Sophie - The Satay

Sophie is like satay over the flames. She turns and tosses when she is sleepy, cranky or hungry for freedom. Now that she is sick, she is probably a hundred times worse... For every half an hour of sleep (rudely interrupted by a "phlegm-choking-me" cough), she would need an hour of turning and tossing either in my arms or on the bed... if not both. Both my lifelines, milk and water, is failing me now as her throat still hurts too much to drink anything - Day 4.

We did visit the PD this morning. My aim was to get the antibiotics and nasal drop for backup. I still want Sophie to recover on TCM... but over the festive season (no doctors), I am a little concerned so better safe than sorry. We are holding back on the medication until she finishes her TCM tomorrow. She seemed a little better, coughing much less although her muscus has turned thicker and green in colour. She also quit eating altogether... only nibbled a few bits of bread every now and then. Soon, she will not be my bag of rice anymore... sob sob...

Hopefully, she would be able to sleep better tonight. I had to sleep with her in my arms last night and it almost killed me... my whole body ached like hell. I desperately need some sleep... zzzzzzz...

Sophie - The Mucus Machine

Day 3 of Sophie's flu and it has escalated into one with runny nose, diarrhoea and chesty cough - stomach flu. Sophie was super cranky and she wailed EVERY SINGLE TIME I made her do something she did not want. She refused to eat, drink, sleep and even rejected me (I am cranky too!). She preferred my parents, I guess they could comfort her better than me. I just wanted to force her TCM into her throat... and make her sleep. Her nose has become a muscus tap... "runny amok". I had to wipe for her very often and she hated it. I also had to spray water into her mouth since she refused to open her mouth for the bottle. Tomorrow, we will see the PD. Sigh... damned it!

Drink Up, Elmo!

I always have to "force" Sophie to eat and drink. It is much worse now when she is sick. Never quite realised how much it has affected her... er... Poor Elmo! Well, at least she is doing pretend play which is pretty early for her age...

Sophie - The Miserable

Day 2 of Sophie's impending flu and she is coughing a little more. So far, I have wasted 3 packets of her TCM medication. She simply refused to drink up despite the fact that she used to like it in her milk. Maybe it was the peppermint I smelt in her medication or maybe her throat hurts too much. Whichever, I felt really discouraged as she might have to see a PD after all. It did not help that all hell broke loose all in one day...

When I bathed Sophie in the mid-day, I found a huge dark red patch on her outer ear. After digging at it, I concluded that it must be a blood clot. She could have scratched herself and bled. She does that when she felt extremely hot, itchy or frustrated. In this case, it must be all of the above. She did not get her bath the night before (usually I bathe her in the morning and evening) due to her flu.

Feeling quite sympathetic and all, I tried not to upset her for the rest of the afternoon. However, the inevitable happened, I had to put her in the cot bed to get myself ready for Elly's wedding dinner. Sophie whined and occasionally wailed for me even though we could see each other fairly well when I showered. Suddenly, she wailed... but it seemed a little different from her "usual" wailing. Fearing the worst, I dashed out of the shower, all wet and wrapped in my towel, to pick her up from her cot bed. To my horror, I saw a few drops of blood at the corner of her mouth. After that was an hour of coaxing and fussing to check how she had injured herself. I managed to tease her tongue out and it looked alright so I concluded that she must have hit her jaw against the bar and caused her tooth to cut the inside of her mouth. Poor thing!

It took me a while to regain my composure and resume the task of getting myself ready (back to the showers...). What else could possibly go wrong??? Well, apart from the usual stuff (Sophie rejecting her food... throwing tantrum during diaper change etc), everything went smoothly for the rest of the night. My parents came over to babysit while Papa and Mama enjoyed our "no-longer-exist-alone" quality time together. Well... I had a bad feeling on the way back though, especially as we approached Seasons Park.

As requested... how I look in the Espirit dress

We entered the house and Sophie was still awake. Apparently, she refused her milk and my parents could not get her to sleep. Okay, that bothered me, but only a little... only because I saw a deep cut across her nose and she stank. Yup, she poo-ed. Sophie was tugging her pants and whining when she saw me (trying to tell me...). Well, pretty much like a mad woman, I picked her up and headed for the changing room. She was quite a mess and judging from the state of her poo... she must be very uncomfortable for a very long time. It took a bit of scrubbing to clean her even though the smell lingered. As quickly as I could, I changed her clothes and wiped her body all over (very sticky)

I reckoned she must have scratched herself with her nails (darn... I should have cut her nails earlier). Sigh... I quickly put her to bed with some milk (not even 10 ml) while Papa sent my parents home. While Sophie slept, I cut her nails and put some cream on her wound and nappy rash. I think my parents felt really bad about it but accidents happen. I am just thankful for their help... how could I ever cope without them?

Sophie - The Screamer

Sophie is sick. She has caught some flu bug (probably from me... or dunno who from dunno where during our Christmas shopping spree) and now she cannot eat, sleep or poo. Poor girl! Her throat must be hurting so much that she just wants to drink water. She screams at everything and refuses to be carried, even by me. Like mad, Papa and Mama had to grab and restrain her the whole night in between her sleep. In the morning, we took her to see the TCM at Sengkang. My new challenge.. how to get her to drink her medication???? Super stress!

Sophie - The Climber

Sophie has become very good at climbing down the sofa. We did not really teach her how to do it (No, never!), she just picked it up from somewhere and now she is unstoppable...

Since she has already conquered the lower end of the sofa, she is now going for the higher end and the bed as well...

Endless worry...

Pick Up, Drop & Wait For Mama and Papa

Sophie lately has been trying to get our attention by throwing things out of her play-yard. She quickly learnt that only the ball can get us to respond immediately (We can't hear the other things drop!). So, now she can pick up and drop a ball very well...

Eating Disorder - Gastro-NOT-ME

This is how my lovely Sophie looks like when I feed her EVERYDAY... EVERY MEAL!!!

Occasionally, she would give me a break... but that's only because I was giving her yogurt aka "miracle food"!

Live Well Baby - Results

To our disappointment, Sophie's picture failed to impress the judges further and we lost the free Huggies diapers...Darn! However, we still find our Sophie very photogenic and lovely. I mean, not that I am bias or anything (actually I am... hahaha... who cares?!), she looks really adorable and beautiful to us and we cannot quite understand the judges...

... free Huggies diapers...

Sophie's Laughter (Pop)

It has been a while since Sophie laughed at that... Amazing how Papa never fails to make her laugh like that.

First Day Of Christmas...

As scary as it might sound, Mama is fast becoming a kiasu shopper... For the sake of getting a Leapfrog Touchpad for Sophie at $59 (UP $99), I dragged Papa and Sophie to Robinson (Raffles City) around noon on Christmas Day. Apparently, many people shared my enthusiasm.

Well, glad that the rush was over and we had bought what we always wanted... we then headed for Naenae's Christmas Party. Sophie loved to play around with Auntie Adeline and her three children. Even though they are much older than Sophie, they seem to get along very well.

As usual, it was hard to say "goodbye" for Sophie, Ah Boh and Naenae. Naenae was waving upstairs while Ah Boh sent Sophie to the car. I think Sophie is growing attached to Naenae and Ah Boh. Once, she started to cry in the car as we drove off... watching her beloved Ah Boh wave "byebye" at the void deck...

How Papa met Mama... 4 years ago.

How time flies... 'tis been four years since Papa and Mama met during a Christmas party.

Mama - The Green Monster

I usually try to be polite towards others, but sometimes I feel like wringing people’s little necks and smashing their heads against the wall. I regard these people as "toxic lowlife" because they seem to derive cynic pleasure from making others feel insecure, inferior and foolish. They are so fond of using clever deceptions and elaborate disguises to put up a "superior" front. To me. they have an aura of negativity around them and they stink of blatant ignorance and childish egocentrism. I would try to be civilized and tolerate their miserable existence (with fists clenched and jaws locked) but when they attempt to invade my personal space… I go insane… not too different from THE HULK.

You don't want me angry... trust me.

PS: Raffles City

Our zoo trip has been once again postponed... The weather for the past few days was fantastic so we were all extremely disappointed that it drizzled in the late morning. We decided to spend the day "indoors" at Plaza Singapura... Oh no, I meant Raffles City. At first, Auntie KK suggested PS, but I felt that there are very few shops there so we decided to go to Raffles City instead. Somehow, my mind did not register the new location... so I took a cab with Sophie to PS. I think my mind was very preoccupied with pacifying Sophie - deliberately calming myself before we head off so that she would not feel my anxiety and act out, trying my best to anticipate her needs and not leave out anything etc. I even called Papa and told him that we could go back together in the evening...In the end, Papa came over to meet us at PS so that we could take the train to City Hall. By then, the crowd was slowly building up and I was no longer calm and collect, so Sophie also started wailing for me to carry her. She must have sensed my anxiety and lost her sense of security as well. I felt much better when Papa finally appeared and gave me a hand with Sophie.

The mummies wanted to have lunch at Shokundo so we parked ourselves there (next to the play area). This is the first time Sophie ate fish and porridge outside (she used to reject fish and porridge...) so I was a little apprehensive but given all the distractions and all, she did alright. She ate more than I thought possible... plus plenty of tidbits. She even took a nap in the restaurant and that felt like hitting jackpot to me. It also gave me a window of opportunity to chat with the mummies and it was great! We gossiped and complained about... #%*@$ (sworn secrecy ... sorry folks!).

Pretty tough to gather and pose for picture taking...

The end product... not too bad I must say!

After our long lunch, we shopped around for a while... I BOUGHT A DRESS!!! WOW! I cannot believe it! I actually push Sophie in a stroller into a fitting room and tried on a dress! Thanks mummies, for encouraging me into doing it. I would not have done it normally... too bothersome... too many excuses! All in all, I had a great day. I even had a decent chat with a complete stranger (65-yr-old paranakan lady) while waiting for Papa to knock off. We had our dinner before calling it a day and head for home.

Papa walking Sophie...

X'mas Party

Papa took us to his good friend, CT's place, for an early Christmas party. I did not really want to stress Sophie (we are going to the zoo tomorrow) but I know it would mean a lot to Papa so we went anyway. Papa felt really good about spending time with his friends and their families. Ever since Sophie was born, he has been very devoted in taking care of us. He has no time to meet up with his friends or socialise anymore. Fortunately, the atmosphere was rather relaxing and Sophie was immediately attracted by the colourful tiles in the swimming pool.

The buffet was great as well, good food and even wine (we don't drink though...). I noticed that Sophie was the youngest child there and the only one who was not eating the food from the buffet. I have a bit of mixed feelings about that, to be honest. On one hand, I am glad to consciously prevent Sophie from eating "normal adult food"; on the other hand, I am super envious that even their about 2-yr-olds at the party were eating the heavily salted and sugared food and slurping packet drinks happily. But hey, that was a selfish thought really... I just wished I did not need to rush home to feed her.

Child Labour

Sophie is now able to walk with her push cart... finally! Papa can no longer tease me about my choice in toys. He calls it "child labour" because Sophie looks like she is mowing the lawn and it tires her out easily.

The amazing thing is that Sophie knew how to move it aside when she hit the wall. She could even asked for help when she could not do it right. Very cool!

Papa Back From Korea...

Papa finally came back from his Korea business trip! It had been agonizing even though it was much shorter than those he used to take. He reached home around 4pm, tired and aching from economic flight. Instead of resting, he took Sophie down to the pool and playground... he missed her sooooooooo much!

Sophie must have missed Papa too! She seemed very excited about walking and she let Papa carry her longer than usual. How I wish she prefers her papa when I am tired...

"...Er..Mama.. you got to be joking..."

"Hello... CAT CAT CAT"

My relief was short-lived... Sophie was her usual "cling-on" self again when we returned home. She wanted me to carry her but I refused (cooking dinner mah!)... so she wailed.

Progress...

I admit I am one of those C-section mothers who could not fall in love with their babies immediately after birth. I was not governed by much maternal instinct then so I had to rely on whatever research or knowledge I had gathered to cope with new motherhood. My favourite self-talk phrases were "mind over matter", "no choice" and "bite the bullet" when negativity lingered too long around me. I never spoke of my post-natal depression to anyone (only a brief discussion with my GP), but I have been very carefully monitoring my condition. After being plagued by constant and intense dose of fear, guilt, unexplained anger and bouts of crying spells for almost a year, I am happy to say that I am alright now (not 100% but almost) and I am ready to move on.

So Sophie...

I love the intense look of focus and determination on Sophie's face when she has got a new challenge at hand. She seems to be really processing all the information available to figure out the solution to the problem. And she learns really fast (or maybe I am just bias... who cares!). She "talks" endlessly now and sometimes, she can understand what I say (in very deliberate manner with lots of encouragment).

Sophie is trying to stand up without support and even before she has mastered walking, we "caught" her (literally) climbing up and down the sofa. Once, I buried my face in my drawn knees to have some shut eye while Sophie roamed about. She must have thought I was upset or something, she came over, put her arms around my shoulders and patted me gently... smiling. I could have easily dreamt that happening, but Papa was there to witness the whole thing... he exclaimed, "Eh! She thinks you are crying... she goes over to sayang you!" Wish I could document all those moments but they were too candid to capture.

Sophie sometimes awes me, she is everything I have hoped for and even more... She is so bright and cheery like the warmth from the morning sun. I am also glad that she is not perfect as well, I have grown to love her "character" and idiosyncrasies. With my given track record, I must have done something really right along the way to make up for everything else. Thank God for making my little daughter so Sophie!

Papa leh?

Sophie appeared very bored this morning (around 7.30am). Usually, Papa would say "Good morning, Sunshine!" to her and play with her a little before heading for work. We would also stand at the door to wave 'bye-bye' at him. When Papa is finally out of sight, Sophie would sit in her highchair for her breakfast. Today, her routine was rudely disrupted because Papa has left for Korea for a business trip last night (after putting Sophie to bed). Poor Sophie!

A Day @ Vivo City

The blogger-mummies and Auntie Serene gathered at Vivo City today for our wet weather programme. We had intended to visit the Singapore Zoo, but it was drizzling and we did not really want any of our kiddos to catch a cold. We spent quite a while at Marche, feeding our children and ourselves.

One Moment in Time (for mama to eat)...

... and the moment no more...

... as I was saying...

... good thing Auntie Serene could feed Sophie her dessert (while mama eat)!

Then we shopped around... hmm... we ended up buying things for our children. I think we also attracted a lot of attention, with 5 children and 4 strollers. As usual I did not take any pictures, but I managed to bluetooth some from Auntie KK's handphone. We called it a day around 6 pm. Tired and hungry, mama decided to take a cab (despite the cost) home. We picked papa up at Plaza By The Park (so that he won't scold me for spending $25 on cab)... hahaha...

Sophie - the musician

I love arts and one of the regrets in my life is my failure to pursue it for pragmatic reasons. Thus, I am determined to inculcate the love for art and music in Sophie. Imagine how happy I am when I see Sophie all excited about musical instruments (yet to see her artistic side). We are definitely giving her piano lessons as soon as she can start.

Sophie's 1st Birthday Bash

We hosted Sophie's 1st Birthday Party today, 3 days earlier than the actual date, on Hari Raya Haji. We were not ambitious (as advised by many mummies) so our guest list was limited to around 10 families. This was the first time I had to organize a baby/toddler-friendly party (not like I have ever organised a birthday party of any sort before). In order not to embarrass or stress out myself during the party, I did a fair bit of homework, researching on how others actually do it. Unfortunately, I was not really able to do a lot due to budget and labour constraint. Still, we tried our best to do a decent one for Sophie's 1st Birthday Bash.

Instead of hiring a clown (Stephen King’s IT) or balloon sculptor (actually I can learn to do it myself…) or magician (to ‘con’ our children?!), I decided to cut cost by renting a swing/slide, an activity table and a rocking horse. On top of that, I threw in Sophie’s favourite toys such as her stacking bowls and cups, and her musical drum. The designated play area for babies and toddlers was marked out with our puzzle floor mat on the platform. The sofa there was the “changing table” with waterproof changing mat, tissue paper, wet wipes and diapers provided.

Sophie showed everyone that she could walk a little bit...

The children, who arrived earlier, started exploring and fiddling with the toys in the play area, seemingly uninterested in the swing/slide at all. Opps! Did I make a bad choice? Fortunately, the older children ventured out of the play area and very soon, they were having great fun around the swing/slide. In fact, they were running around so ‘fast-and-furiously’ that I got worried for their safety. Yes, I am a paranoid...

I was even happier when I saw my friends blowing bubbles with their daughters. We had tried to include an assorted range of toys and snacks in the goodie bags so that everyone would find something they like in there. I guess children (sometimes adults) are always fascinated by bubbles… Too bad I forgot to provide entertainment for the adults though. Next time I would think of something. Papa actually wanted to create a video but it took too long to download so we sort of gave up.

We actually targeted to cut the cake at 3.30pm and slowly wind down after that. However, Sophie had other plans. She fell asleep around 3pm and did not wake up until around 4pm. Meanwhile, I gave some of the blogger-families a quick tour around our humble abode (quite messy actually). By the time we came back to the function room, Sophie was wide awake.

Finally, we could cut the cake, which was a huge lovely chocolate cake (we would have cake for breakfast for the next few days) from Polar and a gift from Naenae, Ah Boh, Uncle Simon and Auntie Adeline. I put Sophie on her highchair and everyone crowded around to sing her birthday songs. She probably had no clue to what we were doing but she seemed to enjoy the limelight, singing and clapping. I must confess that cake-cutting is never my forte, I have this unexplained dislike for messing up the cream and stuff. Maybe that was why I actually forgot about paper plates! Sorry!

After the party, everyone helped us clear the function room and move the stuff back home. We were very grateful because it would have taken us forever to do it and Papa had a wedding dinner to attend at 7pm. All in all, I think the party was quite alright. Hope that everyone had enjoyed themselves as well.

West Coast Park

Auntie texted Mama yesterday about Borders weekend sale at Expo and we decided to head there for a shopping spree. Of course Papa was not too thrilled about spending money (again!) in bulk buying spree. Usually, people end up buying a lot of things because their consumption needs are artificially magnified by those companies. And, they will never put the best stuff on sale. In this case, I have to agree with Papa even though I still went ahead and bought 9 books for Sophie at the sale. I was disappointed that they did not carry any of the books that I would like to buy. I suppose they are too costly and popular to be put on sale.

Sophie likes touchy-feely books so we bought her one with her favourite My Friends Tigger and Pooh characters.

After that, we had our favourite beef noodles (no... Sophie ate her cereal and organic fruit puree) for lunch. Papa then suggested West Coast Park for a late afternoon stroll. It is actaully quite a cool place, with a 24-hr McDonalds (drive-through as well) conveniently located next to the carpark.

Papa and Sophie waiting for Mama (nature's calling)

It was a little too hot for us to linger long but I was quite impressed by the extensive "outward bound" setup for kids over varied ages. Not too good for young toddlers unless they play with the sand at the playground... I checked, quite clean. The seaview is so-so due to the commercial activities and industries.

Maybe we should organise an outing there for the blogger-mummies, we can do McDonalds for lunch after a couple of hours at the playground. Interested anyone?

Order!!!

There are 12 pictures of Sophie (A - L) shown below. Match the picture with the month it was taken and win sweet prizes at her 1st Birthday party, so post your answers NOW!. Answers will be revealed during the party. (Hint: Watch "Faces Of Sophie Loy")

Answers (AS REVEALED)

December 2007 : H
January 2008 : L
February 2008 : K
March 2008 : A
April 2008 : I
May 2008 : F
June 2008 : J
July 2008 : E
August 2008 : D
September 2008 : C
October 2008 : G
November 2008 : B