You know, ever since I started this religious regime of blogging everyday, I’ve not disappointed my readers much. There were only one or two occasions when I could not blog because my kids were sick, and I was late for once because I couldn’t connect to internet and the entry got posted only at 9am. Still, 95% of the time, I managed to keep to my promise to blog at 830am every morning.

And I’m glad I decided to do something like that because it motivated me to take more interest in my kids and in everything that do – big or small. I have to think of something to write about them everyday, and because my blog is a photo-intensive blog, I also have to be disciplined to take photographs as much as I can, so that I have materials to publish.

I have to admit, there were days I didn’t know what to write about. There were days when I was so exhausted from a day’s work, and was about to head towards the bedroom when I realized I had forgotten to write the next day’s blog. And usually that happens after 12 midnight. Still, I managed to persevere most of the time!

I love blogging because in writing, I become clearer about my thoughts, and sometimes I get revelations out of my own thought and feelings! Some things I wrote just came out naturally and I was at times shocked at why I wrote certain things. Haha!

Having said that though, I’ve decided to give myself an off day once a week and that’d be SUNDAY! :)

A big thank-you to all of you who read my blog everyday and follow me on this amazing journey of raising 2 genius beauties! It’s been a joy to share my life with you! =D

Before you gasp and think I would be so kiasu to send Baby Jayne to a school at 9 months, you’re jumping ahead of yourself! haha!

One of the days last week, I brought Baby Jayne to Joey’s school, and this is going to be her school as well in 2 years’ time and she will be schoolmates with her sister for a year. =)

Baby Jayne likes the school very much, I can tell.

The reason why I went was because I wanted to peek at Joey’s music appreciation class. I signed her up for the class with Kindermusik (which has an affiliation with the school and sends teachers to the school once a week to teach the kids), and was told that it is a very reputable music school. I wanted to see if she enjoys the class and whether it’s worthwhile to continue the class. Joey seemed to have a talent in the musical arena, which was the reason why we signed her up for it.

Knowing my daughter, I dare not step into the classroom and let her see me, so all I did was peek in from one of the windows blocked by the displays, allowing only a small hole for me to see.

There she was!

The teacher knew I was spying outside, so she made several attempts to make Joey play the drums facing me so that I can get good shots. Haha, it was too difficult carrying Baby Jayne in one hand, and holding the camera in the other! 

Quite frankly, the music class looked very boring to me. The teacher spent 10 minutes demonstrating that drums make sound when hit and waited for the kids to go ‘wow’' – Oh please, our kids are smarter than that.

Abrupt jump to another topic.

That day I was just thinking to myself that I ought to make more effort at being amazed at Baby Jayne’s milestone-conquering journey. I think it’s a pitfall of all parents with multiple children. We were all very super amazed and excited when our FIRST kid flipped or started to crawl forward. It was always, “OH MY GOODNESS! SHE JUST FLIPPED!!! DEAR!! SHE JUST FLIPPED OVER!!!!!! DID YOU SEE THAT?? DID YOU??? OH MY!!!!”

When it comes to the 2nd or 3rd child, we go, “Oh look, she just flipped. Great. Oh yes, dear, what’re we having for dinner tonight?”

You get my point.

So the 2nd kid onwards gets a lousy deal, I must say. Conquering a milestone is major in their development and definitely deserves more recognition and praise. Therefore, I am proud to say that I have managed to captured the important moment of…

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BABY JAYNE’S 1ST RIDE IN THE SUPERMARKET TROLLEY!!!!

Way to go, Jayne! Jie Jie’s got your back covered. Literally. :)

Ever since Baby Jayne was born, I had been very aware of the thing called favoritism.

Babies are cute and adorable and inevitably attract lots of attention, and kids are especially sensitive when it comes to stuffs like these. Joey used to be the only child in the family, doted upon by everyone. But when Baby Jayne came along, the attention and focus naturally got shared. It was no short of a miracle that Joey still adores Baby Jayne so much.

 

But Joey’s adoration for Baby Jayne cannot be taken for granted. It does not thus mean that she will let her little sister have everything. She guards her identity as the elder sister fiercely, and we have to tread carefully in order not to make her feel that her position is threatened.

For example, when Isaiah comes home from work and carries Baby Jayne first, she will go, ‘Why you never carry me first?’ and sulk. To her, she is the first child and the elder sister and therefore should enjoy all the benefits. So now, Isaiah will make a conscious effort to always greet and carry Joey first when he comes home.

It is scary how sensitive kids are nowadays. Seriously, we were nothing like that when we were kids. All I cared about were my Barbie dolls.

Just last weekend when I brought my kids home to visit my parents, my father saw Baby Jayne at the door and immediately called her lovingly, ‘Yixin ah……’ and went on to carry her with a huge grin without looking once at Joey. Joey, saw everything, and just stepped into the house mumbling something. There and then, my heart almost broke. I quickly went to carry Joey and entertain her so that she won’t dwell on the issue. I could almost feel her disappointment – Before Baby Jayne came along, my dad would do the same kind of welcome for her! Now, it’s only for mei mei! =X

I can’t blame my dad of course.. Baby Jayne is really adorable and super smiley. She doesn’t scream for attention and as long as you’re carrying her, she’ll be obedient and still. Joey, on the other hand, is at the age where she’s very attention-seeking, loud and hyperactive. He is from the older generation and has almost no awareness of this thing called ‘playing favoritism’ although he has subtly started showing it.

Later when Joey wasn’t looking, I told my dad how Joey reacted and he was amused! He seriously didn’t think children would be so sensitive. The truth is, even though they may not say it out, they have lots of thoughts within them. And most of the time, their understanding is very superficial – It’s determined simply by what they see. Then I made my dad promise me that he will always greet Joey first in future. It’s important to me!! I want my kids to grow up feeling secure and loved, not worrying that they will lose the love of their family to anything in this world!

So my friends, if you’re reading this and guilty of paying attention only to Baby Jayne and neglects Joey’s presence, PLEASE STOP IT. In my eyes, both are equally adorable, smart and beautiful! Both of them deserves the best. =)

I remembered when Joey was about 2 years old, there was a period of time I got a little concerned over her preference for cars over dolls. Things have since taken a change for the better after repeated brainwashing by yours truly that cars are for boys and as a girl, she should love dolls instead. I also felt better when I heard from my colleague that his son loves dolls and pink stuffs. Haha! It made me feel that mine was a less severe case.

Yet, the love for cars in her never died. It just got buried. And so whenever some kid whips out a car collection, she can’t help herself. She drools over them and looks upon each one with such great interest, it’s amazing.

Last Sunday in church, Joey met Julian and had a great time playing his cars with him. And trust me, he has ALOT of cars. He probably brought only 1/100 of his collection to church.

A pile of cars. Cool.

You might be able to tell that Julian was not 100% willing to share with Joey. Haha!

 

After service, we brought Joey to the Changi Airport and was thrilled to find that they converted one part of its Basement Carpark in Terminal 3 into some kind of racing tracks for kiddo rides. Joey loves cars, doesn’t she? She HAD to get into one.

Check out our kitty car!

The cars were going S-U-P-E-R slow though. I got bored after the 3rd round.

Still, to Joey, it’s fun!

We cramped many, many programs into our last day in KL. Early in the morning, we visited my mum’s mother’s grave, visited 3 aunties and went to the Malaysian Zoo! It was a full & packed day!

My kids have never met my Grandmother. She passed away about 6 years ago.

We cleared the weeds, put in fresh flowers and got my girls to greet my Grandma. She was such a wonderful lady.

Then we went to my mum’s eldest sister’s place to visit her. I brought the kids’ swimsuits along, but too bad we didn’t have time for them to swim.

 

  Adjourned to my Dad’s sister’s house and we had lots of fun there because she had a mini fruit plantation in the big field behind her house! She planted papayas, pineapples, passion fruits, sugar canes and lots of flowers. For the lunch she cooked for us, she used papayas in one of her dishes and made us real cooling passion fruit drink! How nice to have a personal garden full of goodies!

This is chili padi before it’s ripe.

It was like a botanical lesson for Joey!

Pineapples!

Sugar canes!

This is the Aunt… she even cut down a sugar cane for us to bring back home! =)

 

We also had fresh pineapples! Really sweet!

Not far from the house, we spotted a playground, and it was Joey’s first time seeing a see-saw!!

I was super excited to see a see-saw too because many of the new playgrounds in Singapore no longer has it! And this one was made from a whole wooden plank!

So fun, you know?!! =D

I had so much fun, I refused to let her get down. Haha…

 

Thank God many people helped me carry Baby Jayne here and there. This is another of my dad’s sister! :)

After a heartwarming home-cooked lunch, we left for the zoo! You must be wondering what we were thinking about, visiting the zoo under a 38 degrees scorching hot weather?? The thing is because my cousin runs the mini-tram and titbit store business within the zoo, and she could bring us all into the zoo free of charge and bring us around. Malaysia’s zoo is MASSIVE.

Every visitor must wear a band around the wrist as their entrance ticket.

We made it for the 3pm animal show and Joey was immediately treated to ice-cream & soft drinks (Don’t forget my cousin is the boss of all the shops in the zoo!).

   After the animal show, my cousin came driving a mini-tram and drove us around the zoo wherever we wanted to go! Seriously, I felt like I was the owner of the zoo! Everywhere we went, we were chauffeured in a private mini-tram and every shop we passed by, we could just pick up any drink or titbit we wanted without paying! Haha!

Joey had so much fun!! =D Me too!