Laugh Of My Life

Sophie has found a way to make Alfee laugh. Although I do not really approve of her loud “bear”, I do find it amusing as well.

Laugh Of My Life

Sophie has found a way to make Alfee laugh. Although I do not really approve of her loud “bear”, I do find it amusing as well.

Laugh Of My Life

Sophie has found a way to make Alfee laugh. Although I do not really approve of her loud “bear”, I do find it amusing as well.

Confession Of A Not-Too-Capable Mum

I have not been actively blogging for the past 4 months and for a good reason - Alfee. He is really a bundle of joy and pain, quite literally. The last time we weighed him, about two weeks ago, he was 7.5 kg. My whole body aches from just holding and rocking him. Like Sophie, he loves to be held and rocked... all the time! And of course, he sleeps very often in the day, but for very short span of 15 to 30 minutes usually. Fortunately, he sleeps quite well at night although he wakes up a few times for some milk and suckling. While I find the nights more manageable, the days are quite challenging. Because of his demanding nature and bouts of insane wailing, I am unable to do much of anything with Sophie.

Sophie has not been responding well to such unstructured lifestyle as well. I would be reading to her one minute and pacifying Alfee the next. That drives her crazy. After a while, she just gives up trying to do anything with me! I have to choose really short and easy activities to do with her or pick a golden moment when Alfee is asleep. And I also get my helper to carry him so that I can complete a drawing or read a book to Sophie. It is a hate-hate situation for sure. I hate leaving Alfee to my helper and I hate neglecting Sophie.

I hope when school starts in January, Sophie will be well and happy at school in the morning. That will give me the mornings with Alfee while she is away. After school, I will get my helper to coax him to sleep or entertain him while I do some work with Sophie. We have put aside our original intention of enrichment programmes in her school. She gets really cranky without her nap. Besides, we have I Can Read, Act 3 and Berries in the weekends. And we are still considering Little Notes from Yamaha. The rest will have to wait, I guess. My fingers are crossed that she would cope and learn well.

Creative Sophie

On 12 December (Sunday), we were having dinner at Sushi Teh (Thomson Plaza). Sophie got so bored at waiting that she started playing with her bowl and cutlery. She turned the bowl upside down and used the spoon and fork as escalators. Very creative play… She probably could do more if not for Alfee’s sudden but one hour long outburst which we now refer to fondly as “Thomson Terror”.



On 14 December (Tuesday), Sophie took the inflated sofa Ah Gong gave her and started fooling around with it. Again, she showed her creativity and imagination. At first she called it “banana” then she rode it like a “rocket”.

On 16 December (Thursday), Sophie pestered me to make her little figurines to use as the driver in her toy cars. I made her one driver but soon she was asking for more. She called the driver “Papa” and the second figurine “Sophie”. Then I made “Mama” carrying “Alfee”. That was how our Loy family was created out of purple jumping clay.






Sophie was very happy and played with them for a long time. She even brought them to the dining table and created a min story with them. She used her fingers to act as “Dora” and “Boots” on a stage while the “Loy Family” sat to watch. It was an re-enactment of the Dora Show at Raffles City.



And yesterday, she showed me how she turned the same inflatable sofa into a tuba. Sophie is such an amazing girl even though I find her rather silly at times.

Creative Sophie

On 12 December (Sunday), we were having dinner at Sushi Teh (Thomson Plaza). Sophie got so bored at waiting that she started playing with her bowl and cutlery. She turned the bowl upside down and used the spoon and fork as escalators. Very creative play… She probably could do more if not for Alfee’s sudden but one hour long outburst which we now refer to fondly as “Thomson Terror”.

On 14 December (Tuesday), Sophie took the inflated sofa Ah Gong gave her and started fooling around with it. Again, she showed her creativity and imagination. At first she called it “banana” then she rode it like a “rocket”.

On 16 December (Thursday), Sophie pestered me to make her little figurines to use as the driver in her toy cars. I made her one driver but soon she was asking for more. She called the driver “Papa” and the second figurine “Sophie”. Then I made “Mama” carrying “Alfee”. That was how our Loy family was created out of purple jumping clay.

Sophie was very happy and played with them for a long time. She even brought them to the dining table and created a min story with them. She used her fingers to act as “Dora” and “Boots” on a stage while the “Loy Family” sat to watch. It was an re-enactment of the Dora Show at Raffles City.

And yesterday, she showed me how she turned the same inflatable sofa into a tuba. Sophie is such an amazing girl even though I find her rather silly at times.

Papa's New Audience

Papa has found a new audience. He is polite, attentive and faithful. He does not criticise Papa's music, gets distracted or walks away. He is Alfee.

Sitting Assisted

Alfee can sit assisted now. He is able to do so much earlier than Sophie.

Adorable Alfee

Alfee is a very adorable baby when he laughs. In fact, he started cooing and grinning at us as early as 2 months old. He loves to interact with people and we are starting to attract crowds.

Sophie's 3!!! (...finally)

The Preparation

Sophie has been a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan for as long as we can remember. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a couple of months back, she faithfully declared, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!". Now, I truly only intended to get her a Mickey Mouse cake, but maybe a simple round one with his face on it. However, I made the gravest mistake by researching into designer cakes. From there, I found Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake toppers and other party "essentials". Before I knew it, we were having a birthday party with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and ordering a huge cake from Pine Gardens.

Soon I was wrecking my brains for a suitable location and activities for the party. I toyed with the idea of doing it at McDonald's, KFC or some other exotic venues for a while before almost deciding on ExplorerKid at Downtown East. Then the gang fight happened and we cancelled our booking. So in the end, we decided to hold the birthday party at our own function room. For entertainment, we thought of clowning ourselves but it would never work out so we hired a professional magician cum balloonist from Fun Engineerz. We catered our food from Four Seasons as well since I cannot possible cook without causing some sort of food poisoning.

After all that was done, I went hunting for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse goodies. Too expensive! So I tried my best to make the loot bags as close to the theme as possible. It was then Sophie told me she prefers Dora now. My heart sank as I prayed hard that she would still like Mickey Mouse a wee bit longer because it was too late for me to change the cake now. Fortunately, she was still very excited and looking forward to her big day. We even created a calendar to do a countdown with her. And every day, she would diligently cross out the day and look longingly at "Saturday 11 December".

For decorations, I drew "bubble letters" and stuck them on the wall. Initially, I wanted to make a banner with Sophie but it was out of stock so we had to make do with my work instead. This morning, I inflated some balloons to decorate the function room but I gave up because they were quite difficult to manage. Especially since Papa was away with Sophie in the morning. She had to attend I Can Read at Bukit Timah Plaza so I had only my helper to rely on for the party.

Actual Day

It was a challenge to get Sophie ready for I Can Read in the morning because she was so thrilled about her birthday party. We put up the decorations before she headed off with Papa. After her lesson, Papa called me and said that she was too excited to take a nap in the car. Fortunately, she soon fell asleep anyway. While she was blissfully in dreamland, Ah Boh and Naenae came over to help with the logistics and Uncle Simon collected her birthday cake.

Our magician was supposed to come at 1 pm but there was some miscommunication so we had 30 minutes more of "nothing to do" for the kids. I was quite worried that they would get bored. And indeed, some of the kids started asking when the magician was coming. Luckily, we were able to buy some time with our bubble machine.

The birthday girl was so tired of playing, at one point, that she just rested on the floor. Usually I would scream at her but I decided not to... just for today. Not even when she jumped on the sofa with the boys in attempt to "capture" the bubbles.

I wanted Sophie to learn how to give and be a good host so I got her to give out party hats and loot bags to the guests as they arrived. Surprisingly, she did not mind being interrupted in the middle of her play for this.

Initially, I was not confident that the magician would be entertaining enough for the crowd of restless children. However, it seemed like they actually enjoyed it. It was quite a sight to see how they obediently sit in a nice row and watched the show. They were also willing participants in the show, not shy at all. Even the adults had a good time.

Meanwhile, Alfee was enjoying some attention as well. I had to take him home during the magic show to feed him so I missed most of it. Still, I was thankful Alfee was very well behaved today.

Initially, I had wanted the magician to play party games with the children. It would have cost $50 more. But I changed my mind last minute because I thought Sophie would appreciate balloon sculptures more and most of them were too young to play games. I was right. In fact, I think all children love balloons shows somehow. They watched in amazement as the magician whipped up different sculptures on demand.

As the birthday girl, Sophie got a special balloon sculpture - Mickey Mouse. It took a lot longer than I thought for the magician to make, but it was great. Sophie waited quite patiently as well. Too bad the cheek burst the moment we reached home.

And the highlight of the party - the birthday cake! I ordered the Mickey Mouse and friends figurines from amazon and got my friend to ship them in for me. I thought the cake looked really attractive, enough to make the children crowd around it and fight for the first slice. Sophie seemed very pleased with her cake, especially the toys she got to take back. I also received postive feedbacks from the adults as well.

The party officially came to an end after the cake cutting ceremony. We were all exhausted and quite ready to just call it a day. But Sophie was clearly not ready to rest. She protested when Ah Boh, Uncle Simon and Naenae wanted to leave. So we opened the presents with her, in hope to use that as a closure for her birthday celebrations. Sophie was super happy to have received so many gifts. Thank you everyone for making her birthday such a wonderful experience for her!

Last Note

My Sophie has turned 3, finally. It was as though “3” is some sort of magic number and she would miraculously become stable, coherent and capable of regulating her emotions and impulses after today. Everyone has assured us that kids become much better when they are 3. So we have been looking forward to this promised change in her. But has there been any real difference in her today, compared to yesterday? I am afraid not. In fact, she was very much her usual, overly excited self during the party. Now people are telling me ... they get better when they enter primary school... that is another 3 years!

Sophie's 3!!! (...finally)

The Preparation

Sophie has been a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan for as long as we can remember. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a couple of months back, she faithfully declared, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!". Now, I truly only intended to get her a Mickey Mouse cake, but maybe a simple round one with his face on it. However, I made the gravest mistake by researching into designer cakes. From there, I found Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake toppers and other party "essentials". Before I knew it, we were having a birthday party with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and ordering a huge cake from Pine Gardens.

Soon I was wrecking my brains for a suitable location and activities for the party. I toyed with the idea of doing it at McDonald's, KFC or some other exotic venues for a while before almost deciding on ExplorerKid at Downtown East. Then the gang fight happened and we cancelled our booking. So in the end, we decided to hold the birthday party at our own function room. For entertainment, we thought of clowning ourselves but it would never work out so we hired a professional magician cum balloonist from Fun Engineerz. We catered our food from Four Seasons as well since I cannot possible cook without causing some sort of food poisoning.

After all that was done, I went hunting for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse goodies. Too expensive! So I tried my best to make the loot bags as close to the theme as possible. It was then Sophie told me she prefers Dora now. My heart sank as I prayed hard that she would still like Mickey Mouse a wee bit longer because it was too late for me to change the cake now. Fortunately, she was still very excited and looking forward to her big day. We even created a calendar to do a countdown with her. And every day, she would diligently cross out the day and look longingly at "Saturday 11 December".

For decorations, I drew "bubble letters" and stuck them on the wall. Initially, I wanted to make a banner with Sophie but it was out of stock so we had to make do with my work instead. This morning, I inflated some balloons to decorate the function room but I gave up because they were quite difficult to manage. Especially since Papa was away with Sophie in the morning. She had to attend I Can Read at Bukit Timah Plaza so I had only my helper to rely on for the party.

Actual Day

It was a challenge to get Sophie ready for I Can Read in the morning because she was so thrilled about her birthday party. We put up the decorations before she headed off with Papa. After her lesson, Papa called me and said that she was too excited to take a nap in the car. Fortunately, she soon fell asleep anyway. While she was blissfully in dreamland, Ah Boh and Naenae came over to help with the logistics and Uncle Simon collected her birthday cake.

Our magician was supposed to come at 1 pm but there was some miscommunication so we had 30 minutes more of "nothing to do" for the kids. I was quite worried that they would get bored. And indeed, some of the kids started asking when the magician was coming. Luckily, we were able to buy some time with our bubble machine.

The birthday girl was so tired of playing, at one point, that she just rested on the floor. Usually I would scream at her but I decided not to... just for today. Not even when she jumped on the sofa with the boys in attempt to "capture" the bubbles.

I wanted Sophie to learn how to give and be a good host so I got her to give out party hats and loot bags to the guests as they arrived. Surprisingly, she did not mind being interrupted in the middle of her play for this.

Initially, I was not confident that the magician would be entertaining enough for the crowd of restless children. However, it seemed like they actually enjoyed it. It was quite a sight to see how they obediently sit in a nice row and watched the show. They were also willing participants in the show, not shy at all. Even the adults had a good time.

Meanwhile, Alfee was enjoying some attention as well. I had to take him home during the magic show to feed him so I missed most of it. Still, I was thankful Alfee was very well behaved today.

Initially, I had wanted the magician to play party games with the children. It would have cost $50 more. But I changed my mind last minute because I thought Sophie would appreciate balloon sculptures more and most of them were too young to play games. I was right. In fact, I think all children love balloons shows somehow. They watched in amazement as the magician whipped up different sculptures on demand.

As the birthday girl, Sophie got a special balloon sculpture - Mickey Mouse. It took a lot longer than I thought for the magician to make, but it was great. Sophie waited quite patiently as well. Too bad the cheek burst the moment we reached home.

And the highlight of the party - the birthday cake! I ordered the Mickey Mouse and friends figurines from amazon and got my friend to ship them in for me. I thought the cake looked really attractive, enough to make the children crowd around it and fight for the first slice. Sophie seemed very pleased with her cake, especially the toys she got to take back. I also received postive feedbacks from the adults as well.

The party officially came to an end after the cake cutting ceremony. We were all exhausted and quite ready to just call it a day. But Sophie was clearly not ready to rest. She protested when Ah Boh, Uncle Simon and Naenae wanted to leave. So we opened the presents with her, in hope to use that as a closure for her birthday celebrations. Sophie was super happy to have received so many gifts. Thank you everyone for making her birthday such a wonderful experience for her!

Last Note

My Sophie has turned 3, finally. It was as though “3” is some sort of magic number and she would miraculously become stable, coherent and capable of regulating her emotions and impulses after today. Everyone has assured us that kids become much better when they are 3. So we have been looking forward to this promised change in her. But has there been any real difference in her today, compared to yesterday? I am afraid not. In fact, she was very much her usual, overly excited self during the party. Now people are telling me ... they get better when they enter primary school... that is another 3 years!

Already Gone

Papa taught her the song, complete with actions and gestures. Inevitably, she would soon become an Eagles fan as well (she is already a Beatles fan) I think.

Already Gone

Papa taught her the song, complete with actions and gestures. Inevitably, she would soon become an Eagles fan as well (she is already a Beatles fan) I think.

Alfee Today

Alfee does not have many first hand possession although we have been splurging a little on clothes. Besides necessities, we hardly buy anything for the little fella. That makes me feel a little guilty. After all, we are still buying his sister lots of toys, books and whatever she wants. However, this has hardly dampened his spirits and determination to make his mark in our hearts. He seems to have quite remarkably won all of us over with his coy smile, friendly disposition and adorable antics. I must say, he is not a cute and handsome baby from start. Yet, he compensates that with his quite unique personality.

Unlike his sister, Alfee has been on breast milk since day one. Tis a blessing because I could not produce enough milk for Sophie then. With the help of the hospital staff, my gynecologist and motilium, I am able to feed him until today. I am not sure how long I can sustain breastfeeding, but I will try my best. I have not got used to breastfeeding him in public yet although I do it every weekend. It does not help at all that he drinks like a monster. He snorts, grunts and moans. He struggles to find a comfortable position and also hammers, kicks and cries when he is unhappy about the flow. At three months, he has learnt to bite me just to get me to look at him during breastfeeding. He would then give me a smile and resume his feeding.

I never thought I could possibly love another baby, but apparently it was not too difficult. In fact, Alfee is much more manageable compared to Sophie when she was little. Hope he stays this way...

My Family

I have always been a very pessimistic and melancholic person despite whatever people around me think of me. However, I truly believe I am very blessed to have my family. We are not perfect, in fact, we are quite far from that. Such imperfections constantly challenge our faith and love for one another. At times, we drove one another to the brink of insanity. Yet without such fights, we would never learn acceptance and forgiveness. And I think love is all about affection, acceptance, devotion and forgiveness.

It is my wish that Sophie and Alfee love and take care of each other, especially after we are gone. I hope they would sit and talk about their childhood days for hours when they are all grown up with children of their own. Perhaps they would read my blogs and remember how much we so very love them.

A Moment Of Sanity

Gosh... my last entry was two months ago. It is not because I have nothing to blog about, definitely. I just have not got the time or energy to playback the events of each day in my mind and come up with the words to retell them. Each day passes by quickly and leaves a fuzzy mark behind... I seem to have lost track of time or maybe time has lost its meaning. I just know I have to manage a colicky baby who chokes at my breasts and a jealous big sister who regresses for attention. Not to forget, a domestic helper with a rebellious nature.

Well, not everything is bad. I still have my sanity and sense of humour although there were times I thought they no longer existed. Alfee's colic is now more manageable and Sophie... well, she is still Sophie. Her teachers at Cherrybrook said she is "wilful" and "socially needy". I agree. Of course, they also say loads of good stuff about her. She has an eye for details, good memory, sense of order and cheery deposition. She is bold andinquistive. She is very helpful towards others as well. But I am more concerned about her weaknesses. She can be very difficult to manage if she chooses to. And she always needs someone around to interact with. She is not a clingy child, on the contrary, she can be quite independent if I allow her to be. She just cannot bear to be alone. I need to come up with some strategy to make those character traits become her assets.

That is my plan for her next year. To cultivate patience, perseverance and self discipline in her and nurture her social skills. By now, I have come to terms with her character traits or flaws although it is not always easy for me to manage our interaction. After all, I am not a patient person myself. I never really got to work on this particular character flaw. I guess this is the perfect chance for me to do so. In order to help Sophie, I need to work on my own issues. Besides all the social-emotional stuff, I am exposing her to more preschool sort of activities, like dot-to-dot, colouring, tracing, mazes and what not. I hope our home learning can resume, yet I am taking it slow. With Alfee around, I am not sure how to work out a schedule that works for us. So far, it has been chaos and all the activities I did with Sophie were spontaneous.

The most significant change for Sophie would be her school life. Next year se would be in the morning from 8 am to 1 pm. This means no naptime in the morning. Longer hours also means she must feed herself and go diaperless. I intend to let her attend the enrichment programmes in her school as well. Very exciting. She gets to do speech and drama in Mandarin and English, soccer, dance and partipate in activities conducted in Mandarin. Outside school, she would be doing I Can Read, Little Notes and Berries. I hope I can come up with some art curriculum for her, since I cannot find an art school suitable for her.

Singapore Science Centre

Papa took us to the Singapore Science Centre in the afternoon. He has always wanted to show Sophie all the "chim chim" stuff that I have problem understanding and explaining to her. We became members almost the moment we arrived there. Now we could go there as often as we like, although I wonder if we would like that that much.

Frankly, I doubt Sophie could understand much although she most certainly played a lot with the exhibits. Even so, early exposure is good for her, I suppose. However, I must admit the Science Centre is now much more impressive than before. I only I could appreciate the exhibits more.

Sophie likes dinosaurs but she was not too excited about the remains unfortunately. In fact, we were a little disappointed that she was not thrilled to see the skeletons.

Deepavali is round the corner, so there is a special rangoli exhibition and free workshop for children. The artist and her assistants were helping children complete a simple sand art with rangoli design. Sophie seemed very keen so we let her try. Usually I would not let her do commercially made sand art kit because it kills creativity. However, the rangoli kit was unique and there was some cultural significance.

It was hard to peel off the paper to expose the adhesive side, thus Papa tried to help Sophie to do it. After a while, Sophie lost interest. She just wanted to play with the glittery sand. She must have found it boring to just peel and sprinkle sand on it, layer after layer.

When we realised we were running a little late for the IMAX movie "Sea Rex", I stepped in to speed up the process. The end product was impressive by nature. I intend to buy more of the rangoli kits from the artist herself for Sophie. I think it cost around $5 per kit that comes with everything you need. But I need to go to her place to buy them because she does not sell them in the market.

At the Omni-Theatre, I could not watch the show with Sophie and Papa because Alfee did not like the noise. I must admit the wait could dampen anybody's spirit. There was nothing I could do with Alfee sleeping in my arms. In any case, I was happy Sophie enjoyed herself though. We probably would go again. Next time, we would try the waterplay station... if the weather is good.

Singapore Science Centre

Papa took us to the Singapore Science Centre in the afternoon. He has always wanted to show Sophie all the "chim chim" stuff that I have problem understanding and explaining to her. We became members almost the moment we arrived there. Now we could go there as often as we like, although I wonder if we would like that that much.

Frankly, I doubt Sophie could understand much although she most certainly played a lot with the exhibits. Even so, early exposure is good for her, I suppose. However, I must admit the Science Centre is now much more impressive than before. I only I could appreciate the exhibits more.

Sophie likes dinosaurs but she was not too excited about the remains unfortunately. In fact, we were a little disappointed that she was not thrilled to see the skeletons.

Deepavali is round the corner, so there is a special rangoli exhibition and free workshop for children. The artist and her assistants were helping children complete a simple sand art with rangoli design. Sophie seemed very keen so we let her try. Usually I would not let her do commercially made sand art kit because it kills creativity. However, the rangoli kit was unique and there was some cultural significance.

It was hard to peel off the paper to expose the adhesive side, thus Papa tried to help Sophie to do it. After a while, Sophie lost interest. She just wanted to play with the glittery sand. She must have found it boring to just peel and sprinkle sand on it, layer after layer.

When we realised we were running a little late for the IMAX movie "Sea Rex", I stepped in to speed up the process. The end product was impressive by nature. I intend to buy more of the rangoli kits from the artist herself for Sophie. I think it cost around $5 per kit that comes with everything you need. But I need to go to her place to buy them because she does not sell them in the market.

At the Omni-Theatre, I could not watch the show with Sophie and Papa because Alfee did not like the noise. I must admit the wait could dampen anybody's spirit. There was nothing I could do with Alfee sleeping in my arms. In any case, I was happy Sophie enjoyed herself though. We probably would go again. Next time, we would try the waterplay station... if the weather is good.