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.