Sorry for the late entry today.. I had no idea that my entry didn’t get published and was even deleted! =X

Anyway, it’s a joyous day because it’s Papa Isaiah’s birthday!!!!! =D And we’ve been having a wonderful week of celebrations with different groups of friends celebrating for him. Thank God for friends who care. =)

From us,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

You’ll always be our hero.

One of the Christmas gifts I got during one of the gift exchange sessions is a self-assembled Smurf house set! It was given by a colleague who knew I was very into Smurf Village game on my IPAD. =) I was very thrilled when I saw it. Mainly because I knew my Joey would be super happy to see it!

It was a pink Smurfette house which I had to assemble myself. Comes also with a Smurfette figurine and a clothes line with clothes hanging on it. Very adorable. =)

This was definitely more an adult toy than a kid’s one. It took me a while to understand the assembling instructions. Pretty similar to Lego, where there’re brick pieces to put together to form objects.

Joey was as pleased with it as I was. There’re different houses in the whole series, and if you want to build a Smurf Village, you can purchase the different sets. Pretty cute!

Joey and I make a formidable team. I put together the house, and she, the clothes line.

Our little Smurfette!

And the adorable clothes line..

Funny Joey asked me if her Minnie could live in Smurfette’s house! Minnie’s a giant compared to Smurfette!!! =D

Never in my wildest dream, would I imagine that my daughter and I would fall in love with the same cartoon one day. =P

I pity my kids. Since Jayne got chicken pox, both kids haven’t really been out of the house much. And that was nearly 3 weeks ago already. I can totally understand when Joey kept whining that she’s very bored. If I were her, I would be too.

Now that Joey is right smack in the middle of her chicken pox episode, she can’t even go out and play along the corridor, or ride her bicycle downstairs, for fear of spreading to other kids. Being down with chicken pox during this time also meant that she missed all the Christmas gatherings, parties and even Christmas services! =(

Thank God for many presents from Christmas that kept the kids occupied. You have to admit that even though they may already have many toys at home, they get sick facing them everyday. The new gifts were really useful at this time.

So, we tried playing with this new bubbles gun in our toilet and it made the otherwise boring day somewhat more interesting. =)

This was taken on Day 4 of Joey’s chicken pox episode, and you can see that actually, her case is not as serious as Jayne’s. At least, they have pox on different parts of their bodies. Jayne’s were mainly on her face, scalp and tongue, though she had lots of pox all over her body as well. For Joey, she didn’t have that many on her face, and we didn’t even find any on her scalp or tongue. Hers are mostly on the body.

Joey has always been a very strong & resilient child. She only whined slightly on Night 1 & 2 of the chicken pox episode, then after that, she was back to normal. The pox didn’t seem to affect her that much, and during the day, she’s as active as can be, if not more so!

Like what I’ve been consoling myself: “Get it over & done with!!!!!!”

I miss the days where I can bring my kids for shopping and dinner, or just hang out at the playgrounds! Pray that Joey will be fully recovered so quickly!

As per past years, the kids received super a lot of presents for Christmas this year.

You might not believe it, but this is the first year we actually made the kids wait till Christmas Day before she can open the presents. In the past many years, she’d open the presents every time we brought them home! This year, Papa Isaiah wanted them, especially Joey, to learn how to anticipate and wait patiently for the good things. Even though Boxing Day is 26 Dec, they opened the presents on Christmas Day itself. =)

Funnily though, a lot more presents came after Christmas Day and what you saw in the photo was probably 50% of what they received in total. So Boxing Day became Boxing Dayssssss.

I must say my kids are super duper blessed. Every year, they get loads and loads of presents that even I get envious of them. Baby Jayne doesn’t really understand what the big deal is yet, so most of the time, she’s just walking here and there touching the presents. Joey, the elder sister, gets to open ALL the presents, including Mei-Mei’s! You can imagine how exciting that is for her.

For the parents though, the Christmas season is actually a pretty stressful period. Every year, we tell ourselves that we will NEVER do last-minute Christmas shopping anymore in our lives, and the next year, we’ll start so early that all our presents will be wrapped and ready before everyone else’s. Then the following year, we rush through all the shopping again 3 days before Christmas. But of course, the shopping gets easier and easier as each year passes by, because we kind of get into a SOP. We first draft out the list of friends with kids, then we draft out the list of all their names with age, then if I have more time, I decide the budget for each category of friends. Otherwise, it’s a mad dash to the shopping malls and check off whoever’s been bought and who else left outstanding. I don’t even dare to think of those additional gifts I have to dash out to buy because someone I didn’t expect gave gifts for my kids! Nowadays, clever me would buy a few more gifts just to standby.

For me personally, the gift wrapping part is my favourite. I love wrapping presents! And if I can have my way, I would tie everything with pretty ribbons and use lovely stickers! But of course, the reality is that I usually don’t have that much time. And I console myself that the kids just tear off everything immediately anyway.

Anyway, BIG THANKS to everyone who gave my kids presents. I really appreciate your love for them and for making them so happy this season! =)

I have a confession to make.

Joey was bigger at birth, bigger and taller than most of her peers in her 4 years of life so far, and so I’ve always thought, consciously or subconsciously, that she is a big girl who can take care of herself. The moment she hit 1 year old, I brought her to the dustbin and dropped her pacifier in, telling her as a matter-of-fact that big girls don’t take pacifiers. I also let her start eating her porridge and drinking soups by herself, because I felt she was big enough to feed herself.

But when it’s Baby Jayne’s turn, I reacted to her differently. She was much smaller at birth, and even at more than 18 months, looks smaller than many of my friends’ babies who’re barely one year old. She’s very petite and in my eyes, always a very small baby. In my mind, I keep thinking that she’s still so small that she cannot understand what I’m saying, or handle the pressures of life (like giving up the pacifier), which is why she is still super obsessed with her pacifier even now. At every mealtime, I faithfully feed her spoonful by spoonful, and the thought of letting her feed herself didn’t even remotely pass through my mind.

But didn’t I let Joey feed herself when she was one year old? Why do it so differently with Baby Jayne? Why was I acting over protective?!

I think the small size deluded me. I have to shake away this wrong thinking that she is still a baby. The truth is, she will be reaching 2 years old in 5 months’ time!! No longer a baby, if you ask me!

That truth suddenly hit me when during one mealtime, Baby Jayne kept trying to snatch her spoon away from me, wanting to feed herself. I got so frustrated grabbing the spoon back from her that I just let her feed herself. I was prepared to wipe off all the porridge from the floor, high-chair and her clothes. I thought no harm letting her play for a while.

Surprisingly, Baby Jayne did not spill that much porridge on the floor, or the high-chair, or anywhere else. In fact, even though the angle at which she puts the spoon into her mouth needs to get better, she managed to put most of the porridge into her mouth and almost finished the whole bowl of porridge! I have to say, she was very pleased with herself, and so was I!

Then, it hit me that yes, she was ready to feed herself, and I should stop acting like a silly mum, fussing over her constantly. Looks like…. my younger girl… is… is… is.. growing up too!!!

I observed how she actually put the spoon of porridge into her mouth, and although she could do it much better (as in get more porridge into her mouth each time), I think she can figure it out herself. Plus, that’s a motor skill that will improve with every try.

Although I wish my kid will grow up slowly so that I can enjoy their childhood more, but I am also reminded that whether I like it or not, they grow up anyway. Even though I have not taught her how to feed herself, her desire to be independent will propel her to make that move herself!

My mum-in-law has always been an amazing woman. I knew her before my hubby became my boyfriend, and since young, she’s always been a spiritual mentor and leader to me in many ways.

She was a full-time babysitter for 10 years, then went into full-time church ministry before taking a break from work for about five years before she started babysitting again, this time round, her grandchildren. If you know my kids, I’m sure you’d agree with me that she’s one superwoman. She can take good care of both kids alone, feed them well, play with them and still have a great smile on her face at the end of each day. I can do all of those too, except that I’m usually grouchy and grumpy after one full day of babysitting.

She is the only person I’d feel at ease, leaving the kids with. I know I don’t have to worry a bit, because she takes very good care of them. And I am so appreciative that she is willing to take care of my kids, so that I can concentrate on my work and ministry. God is truly good to me!

Today is my mum-in-law’s birthday and I just wanna say, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUMMY. I LOVE YOU!!!” =D

To celebrate her birthday, we brought her for a dinner at Buckaroo, an outback restaurant near to Sembawang Beach, and one of our most fav restaurants.

Baby Jayne was super excited & happy, because this was her 1st trip out of the house after 3 weeks of home quarantine! (Before she got chicken pox, she was at home for about one week with my MIL, then when it happened, she couldn’t go out anymore..)

It’s been so long since we last brought the girls to dinner together, haha!

Buckaroo is a fabulous place for dining at night! I love its decor..

The girls adore their grandmother so much.

And we had a great time having dinner together as a family. =)

Talking about Joey, she started having fever and small spots have appeared on her back. Her chicken pox episode is finally starting, but looks like she’s going to miss the 1st week of school when kindergarten starts in Jan 2011! =( I pray that it’ll be easy for her to go through this!

Life has inevitably changed ever since Baby Jayne is being taken care by my MIL now rather than the office nursery. Most of it is good, and the only not-so-good thing is I get to spend lesser time with my kids.

It used to be that we spend one hour together in the car travelling to town every morning and another hour back home in the evening. Even though we may not do meaningful or educational stuffs like reading storybooks or learning phonics together, at least that was time spent with them. Kids generally still value quantity time more than quality time. Our presence means a lot to them.

Now with both kids staying at home, Isaiah and I travel to work in the morning by ourselves. Admittedly, it’s a lot more relaxed. I don’t have to entertain the kids, scream at tell them to sit down and stop monkeying around, or stop them from snatching things from each other. Instead, I stone, or have a leisure chat with my hubby. It’s been very carefree, and we spend a lot more time talking to each other and having couple time together. =)

The kids rest better at home too, of course. While it used to be that Baby Jayne would be down with flu or cough every other week, it’s been one month since she was down with any of those. Granted she was down with chicken pox, but being in a non air-conditioned environment during the day helps a lot. She looks stronger and less exhausted, and therefore happier.

Joey, on the other hand, has been spending more time at home because it’s the year end, and we thought it’s alright for her to spend more time playing with her sister now, before she starts kindergarten soon. When that happens in January next year, she’ll be taking school bus to a three-hour class everyday, and I hear that curriculum gets a lot more intense from K1 onwards.

Anyway, like I said, the only thing about this whole arrangement is that I get to spend lesser time with the kids during weekdays. I’ll either see them at night when I go home, or in the morning if they wake up early enough. Then again, because of that, I treasure the time I get to spend with them during the weekends. A wonderful spin-off from that is that I don’t get so easily frustrated with them because I know how little time I have with them. I think that’s a great consequence. =)

The thing about having more than one girl in the household means they will play girly games together. It’s actually a sweet sight IF they are playing together peacefully. But of course, every good thing comes to an end, and the peaceful sight usually disappear when both of them decide to grab the same thing, and they get into a cat fight. OK, maybe not exactly a cat fight, but you know what I’m driving at.

It’s therefore a challenging task for the Mummy to snap photos during those precious peaceful moments before it disappears into thin air altogether. My girls have an interesting way of co-existence.

The girls have lots of dollhouses, kitchens, babies etc, and they never run out of girly games to play. The only thing is Joey, as the elder sister, often has her own idea of what to cook or build, and if Baby Jayne happened to be in one of those moods, she would just snatch whatever her sister is playing with. And that, of course, would trigger World War IV.

Otherwise, they can play together for a while and do what good sisters do together. =)

Sometimes I think it’s also good that I only have girls in my household. At least I won’t need to have different sets of toys to cater to the interests of different genders. =)