3 kids in the house!

Yesterday was a public holiday and Daddy was home with us. We decided to be real nice (and brave and adventurous!) and offered to babysit Nicole Jiejie and Nat Meimei for the day. It was the first time that we (Mummy and Daddy) are handling 3 kids on our own but I thought that since Daddy wants 4 kids, this is the best time to test him out to see if he can really handle it. Well, Daddy thinks that the test is not realistic coz there's no way he'll have 3 kids who are all a year apart!
Anyway, Yeeyee dropped Nic and Nat at our place just before lunch and left us with clothes and lots of milk for Meimei as ammunition. We started the afternoon well. We put Caleb and Nic in front of the TV to watch Barney and eat their lunch. I fed Caleb and supervised Nic in eating her lunch while Daddy watched over Meimei. Meimei was good at the beginning and fell asleep for a while on the sofa. Me and Daddy were quite happy that so far so good, things are under control. With Barney's help, Daddy and me could eat our lunch too and wash up the dishes.
Once we were all done with lunch, we took out all the toys for Caleb and Nic to play. At times, they played on their own but more often than not, they would fight over the same toy. Apparently toys that either one of them is playing with always looks more interesting than those that's lying on the floor.
I must say that all in all, the STAR performer was Daddy! To distract Caleb and Nic from snatching each other's toys, he would play games with them that enabled both of them to participate at the same time and he got them to expand their energies by marching and running round the house. And when Meimei woke up from her extremely short nap, Daddy was the one who carried her.

Here's Nic and Caleb showing their affections for each other! (Or more of Nic grabbing Caleb)



More of Nic and Caleb. Aren't they cute. They have a love-hate relationship. When they don't see each other, they'll ask for each other. They'll wave and smile brightly when they meet. Then the toys snatching will start and they'll cry, fight and scream at each other. And before you know it, they'll be running and laughing together. And the whole cycle starts again.



Well, when 3pm came, we decided to try our luck at putting all 3 kids to sleep. We had no idea whether that can possibly be done coz Nic and Caleb typically have to be carried and patted to sleep. And there's also Meimei who wants to be carried ALL the time and there's just me and Daddy. Where got so many hands to carry all of them!
Well, we gave Caleb his milk, apparently he was so tired, he fell asleep on his own whilst drinking his milk. (This is not something I like him to do but at a time like this, I just let him be). I carried Nic for a while and managed to convince her to lie in bed and be patted to sleep. Meanwhile, Daddy was feeding Meimei milk. Once Nat fell asleep, I took Nat over from Daddy and sent him to the room to watch over the two kids and make sure that if either one wakes up, they don't wake the other kid up.
I tried to pat Nat to sleep but for some reason she just kept crying. Nat likes to be in the sling so I tried to sling her with my sling but each time I tried to put her in, she'll struggle and cry. After like 10min, Daddy came out of the room. He said "Eh, she's very loud lah! She's going to wake the two kids up with her crying!" He took over Nat and sent me into the room instead and guess what? He managed to pacify her and she stopped crying! (See what I mean, when I said he's the star performer!) Meimei was super wide awake the whole time the two older kids were sleeping but it was a big achievement for us already coz the two older kids slept for almost one and a half hours and that gave me time to cook their dinner whilst Daddy continued to carry Meimei who refused to be put down.
In between, Nic woke up once and Caleb woke up once. But Daddy was like the watchdog, once he sees either Nic or Caleb stir, he'll quickly signal me and I'll quickly run in to pat them back to sleep. Well, at 4.30pm, it was game over for us when Caleb woke up and insisted on staying in the room. Nic opened her eyes and both kids, now recharged with energy started jumping around on the bed.

Here's super star Daddy with the 3 kids on the bed



When dinner time came, Daddy said "Yeah! One more hour to go!" We were by now quite exhausted. Daddy especially, coz he was still carrying Meimei who would cry whenever we put here down and she refused to sleep. Oh, and Daddy managed to feed her a full bottle of milk. Meimei likes to drink direct from her Mummy but some how, our super star Daddy managed to feed her.
When Yeeyee and Jior Jior (the children can't pronounce Ah Teor which means Auntie's husband in Hokkien, so they call Daddy and Bro-in-law "Jior Jior" which means "Itchy Itchy" in Hokkien) came, we were really glad to return the kids. We were totally exhausted and Daddy claims that he has increased his biceps size from carrying Meimei the whole afternoon.
Taking care of the 3 kids the whole afternoon was really a full time job and it totally zapped out our energy. We really couldn't do anything except watch them, play, feed, change and carry them. It was ok for a day but I don't think we would have survived if it was longer with the 3 children at this age.
But whatever it is, I must say, "Daddy! You Passed the test with FLYING COLOURS!"

Oh, and not to forget Meimei. Here's photos of her. She has an enormous appetite and has grown so much in the past two months. At two months plus, she's wearing clothes that Caleb wore at 4 months!
But isn't she pretty with her big eyes?

Sentence construction

Nowadays, other than picking up new words, Caleb is also attempting to string the words together into short sentences. The last month or so, he had been exploring with the words that he learnt and matching them with other words. Like he'll say "sit there, see there, take that, the ball, the bear etc". Over the last few days, he started to develop short sentences on his own. He started by saying "Take that bottle", then he said "play the ball", yesterday he said "I wear shoes". And today he started exploring with other items like "take the bear". Oh and since we stopped going out with Yee Yee coz she's back at work, he has been asking me like 15 times a day "Where yeeyee?" (I told Yeeyee that the time she spent with Caleb has paid off. For some strange reason, Caleb refused to let Yeeyee touch him during the time that she was pregnant. She couldn't even hold his hand without him flinging it away or getting upset. And she was the only one whom he reacted to in this way. But now, he keeps asking for her after she has delivered. I told her that maybe he got scared of her big stomach when she got pregnant. Yeeyee thinks that Caleb is just out to bully her!)

Anyway, back to Caleb and his speech. He really doesn't cease to amaze us. The previous night, Daddy was sitting down with Caleb at his little table looking at pictures of animals and after 10min, Daddy was telling me that he's amazed at the number of new words that the boy is picking up. He said he must have at least 100 words in his vocab now! I thought about it and did a quick scan on the words that he knows in my head and I thought, yah, I have lost track coz I talk to him all day long, but I do think he has about 100 words in his vocab now. I must say it's really much more interactive with Caleb now. We can hold mini coversations of our own and understand each other well.

Of course there are days when I don't understand Caleb at all. That's when his pronounciation goes off and I can't guess what he wants and he gets really frustracted that I can't understand him. He walked to the carpet the other day and started hitting it and saying "breeks... breeks". That's what it sounded to me but I had no clue what he wanted. I tried to guess and ask him "Is it this? or you want that? you want Mummy to do this??? He kept saying "NO! No! with each question and started wailing and hitting the carpet and repeating "breeks! breeks!" in a very frustrated tone and he gave me the "Mummy! Why aren't you getting what I'm saying???!!!" look. In the end, I had to stop his wailing by distracting him. And I had to try really hard coz he's much more focussed in what he wants nowadays and no longer that easily distracted.

Handsome Boy

Recently Yee Yee claimed that when she asked Caleb who's the handsome boy, he promptly lifted his hand and patted his own head.And she said, "wah, your son can tell him that he's the handsome boy ah!". I was quite puzzled for a moment because I don't recall teaching him that. I didn't quite believe that he would claim that he was handsome on his own accord unless he was taught to. Yee Yee got him on video to show me how he responded to her question. I had been cracking my brains on who had taught him that and concluded that maybe it's one of the grandparents.
Yesterday, after I bathed Caleb, I combed his hair and said my usual line "Caleb, Mummy comb your hair so that you will look handsome ok?" He looked up at me and promptly patted himself on his head. That's when it stuck me that I was the one who had thought him that! I had said it so often to him whenever I comb his hair that he would pat his hair whenever we mention the words "handsome boy"!

Here's Caleb doing his "handsome boy" acknowledgement.

Hazy Days, a Sick Toddler and the doctor

Now that Yee Yee's maternity leave is over, we have less excuses for going out Everyday and are staying indoors a bit more. And it certainly doesn't help much that there is the haze, and that Caleb has fallen sick. So now, Mummy has to think of more activities to entertain and expand Caleb's energy indoors instead of outdoors. There are days where I run out of ideas of what to do with Caleb and there are days where I feel more spontaneous and creative and have more fun activities with Caleb. And there are days when Caleb is plonked in front of the TV for a short while, watching Hi-5 or Barney or Baby Enstein. Or sometimes, Caleb will entertain himself by riding on his scooter round the house.

Here's Caleb riding around on his scooter. Recently he likes to verbalise his actions so when he hits something, he will make the sound "bong" and when he turns around, he'll say "back".


As for him falling sick, Nicole jiejie caught some virus at school. We visited meimei while Nicole jiejie was away from home but Caleb still caught the bug. (Yeeyee claims that the bug did not come from Nicole but the haze. We beg to differ coz now Meimei is also sick and all 3 kids have got the same symptoms!) Anyway for the last three days, Caleb has been down with fever and a bad throat. Thankfully he's still active and eating well and only gets cranky when it's time for him to rest or at night when he can't sleep well coz of his bad throat. We saw the doc today and she said that his throat is very red and sore and warned us that it may get worse. And depending on the virus, sometimes it may travel down to the lungs and develop into Bronchitis. Obviously we're praying that he'll get better and Mummy's trying really hard to give him lots of water to drink!

One thing we realised is that Caleb still doesn't understand what it means to be sick. We tried explaining to him that he's sick and should rest more and eat medicine but he doesn't seem to understand and will just stare or knit his eye brows in deep thought. And the other thing is that he Hates letting the doctor examine. The minute the doctor tries to examine him, he'll start screaming and wailing and it'll take many pairs of hands to try to hold him down. He probably scared all the children outside thinking there's one nasty doc in the room. And the doc that we went to today was very patient with him and tried to humour him with toys and sweets but he would have none of that and kept screaming "NO!NO!NO!".

The last time that I "bravely" brought him to the doc on my own, he refused to let the doc examine him and was wailing and pointing to the door and screaming "OUT! OUT! OUT!" for at least 5min. The poor doc had to raise his voice to try to explain to me what was wrong with him and how I should care for him amidst all his screaming. The minute I said ok, we're done and leaving, his tears automatically stopped and he cheerfully waved and said bye bye to the doc as though nothing happened.

Oh, and if you ask him about the doctor, he'll say "poke, poke" and poke himself. We brought him for his MMR jab two weeks ago. The last time he had a jab was about half a year ago and he was less aware of what was happening and a much, more pleasant kid in front of the doc. So I thought that I should prepare him by talking to him about it. Two days before the jab, I told him that we're going to the doc's and the doc is going to give him an injection, which means poking him at his backside. I reinforced by asking him "when we go to the doctor, what is the doctor going to do?". He'll say "poke, poke" and poke himself with his finger. And I'll ask him "poke where?" he'll laugh and point to his backside. Well, the that visit was not too bad coz Daddy was there to help hold him down. I distracted him by pretending to play "superman" with him on the doctor's bench! (yah, the things parents do!) He wailed when the needle went in but only for 5seconds and said "No! No!" once the injection was done, he was ok and smiling again.

Well, but me and Daddy today were thinking how can we get him to be more cooperative for future doctor visits and we thought maybe we should get him a doctor playset for him to get used to the idea. Or maybe Godpa should come over and play "doctor" with him (Ha! and maybe risk Caleb not wanting to go near him after that!)

Caleb's inheritance

Whilst people inherit huge fortunes in the form of $$$ and estates, Caleb has been blessed with his own unique inheritance! Clothes and toys from Daddy! Grandpa and Grandma have been surprising us with clothes, toys, sweaters, blanket that used to belong to Daddy. Yup, and I must say that the clothes and toys, though they're about 30 years old already but they're still in very good condition. Check them out!

T-shirts that Daddy used to wear. They're from Buster Brown which is supposed to be branded during Daddy's time.


Daddy's sweaters and hangers that he used!


Daddy's blanket. This is one of Caleb's favourite. Very nice and warm. Caleb enjoys covering himself with it when he wants to go to sleep.


Clothes that were meant for Daddy but he never did wear them. They come complete with price tag. Check out the Isetan tag. The logo's green and not blue like it is now.


Daddy's figurine toys. When Daddy saw them, he was like "Hey! I remember them. I used to play a lot with them and gave them names!" And the toys come complete with a schoolhouse!

Outings! Outings! Outings!

Now that Yee Yee is on maternity leave, we have been maximising Yee Yee's time away from work and going out Everyday! Ya, everyday, we will lug the kids out of the house and just go somewhere... anywhere actually. Well, the outings that Caleb enjoy more were visits to Ikea and this restaurant called Globetrotters. They are more child friendly and have got play areas for children.

Here's Caleb at Ikea. He was extremely fascinated with the kids section where there were children furniture that he could get easy access to, and soft toys which he could play with.



And here's Caleb at the dining section of Ikea where there's a section partitioned out for children to sit at, watch TV and play with the Ikea toys.



And here's our outing at Globetrotters. There's actually a playroom with a glass panel separating the dining area. Kinda like a mini playground with a "babysitter" watching over the children. Caleb loved this place coz there's a mini slide with a watch tower, kitchen set where he can play make believe, and they play children songs in the room. It was really nice for Caleb coz we went on a weekday afternoon and there weren't many children so he practically got the playroom all to himself.

Helpful Caleb

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping with Caleb. When we reached our doorstep, I dropped all the groceries and opened the door, leaving Caleb amongst the groceries. I then turned around and asked Caleb to go into the house. He looked at me, started to grab the grocery bags and said "Help...help". That's when I realised that he wanted to help me carry all the groceries into the house. That made Mummy's heart melt lah... isn't he a sweet boy! He's really at a very lovable age now.

Specially for Godpa

Last month, Caleb's Godpa, who's a medical student, came to YAM with a container filled with small square blocks (about 2cm by 2cm). He came to me and asked me whether he can observe Caleb and see whether he can stack up 5 square blocks on his own. According to Godpa, it is a developmental milestone. A 18 month old toddler should be able to do 5 blocks and a two year old should do 6 blocks and so on.
Well, I stared at the sizes of the blocks and told him, "Sorry, there's NO WAY Caleb can do 5 blocks that's this size!". The only blocks that we have at home are the soft rattle blocks and they are huge! And Caleb can barely stack 3 of the soft blocks up. I told Godpa that he's overestimated his godson. He may seem fast in his development but not that fast! Well, nevertheless, we did let Caleb try to stack the blocks but he couldn't really stack up the blocks coz they were very small and slippery.
Our enthusiastic Godpa wasn't deterred by Caleb's reaction and shortly after that incident, he appeared at our doorstep one day with a pack of Megablocks for Caleb. So that he can practise his stacking skills! And Mummy was thinking "ok... we better work harder now... no pressures!"
Well Godpa, thanks for having so much faith in Caleb. Caleb has been playing with your megablocks and also Nicole Jiejie's wooden blocks (which is the same size as the ones which you use for assessment). Last week, he was playing with Nicole Jiejie's wooden blocks and he was stacking so well. I just had to video it down for you so that you can see for yourself. Your efforts have paid off coz at 16 months, your Godson can stack up to 7 blocks by himself!

Mid Autumn Festival

Since this is the season of the Mid Autumn Festival, Mummy and Yee Yee decided to bring the children to the Chinese Garden to look at lanterns and carry their own lanterns around the garden. It has been more than 15 years since any of us has been to the Chinese Garden. Well, for Mummy, the last time that I remember going to the Chinese Garden was when I was 5! From our adult perspective, the garden was not very impressive and other than looking at the lanterns there really isn't much to see and do. Plus there was an entrance fee of $8 per person. In Mummy's opinion, it's not quite a place which we will frequent.
However, from Caleb's perspective, I think he really liked the place. When we arrived, he got sooooo excited when he saw the bright and colourful lanterns and there was this bridge at the entrance that he just loved climbing. For the first hour, he was dragging me around, running and squealing away. And when he climbed the bridge over looking the lake, he said "Wah! Nice... nice"

Here's the lantern that Mummy bought for Caleb


Mummy and Caleb at the entrance of the garden.


Caleb taking a break and admiring lanterns with Daddy by the road


The row of lanterns lining the walkway


Mummy with Nicole and Caleb


Caleb and Nicole holding hands and staring at a big lantern. The garden was featuring the 7 wonders of the world and this is supposed to be the great wall of China


A rare family photo


We ended the outing with an ice cream treat for the children. Well, actually the kids got to eat ice cream coz Nicole fell and grazed her knee.


And here's Caleb when he first arrived. Full of energy and very animated. We were really tickled by his reaction towards the butterfly lanterns.