Both my girls love to take care of their skin.

Of course, they don’t know the real meaning behind it all yet, but I guess as little girls, they are inclined towards pampering themselves and making themselves smell nice all the time.

Starting as young as one year plus, the girls have been applying Johnson’s Baby Lotion on their faces, hands and bodies on a daily basis. To them, it’s more fun than anything I suppose. See how Baby Jayne does it in the photo above? She sometimes uses a cotton bud to apply it on her face. Sometimes, she uses cotton pads or her palms. A true blue beauty addict.

Joey has also been religiously applying those lotions on herself everyday. Her skin is really, really good and of course, she’s still a kid, so that’s a given. But if you ask me, I think that her complexion is much better than Baby Jayne’s. Maybe it’s the effect of applying the baby lotion for a longer period of time as compared to Baby Jayne??!

Too bad for me, I hate applying oily or creamy stuffs onto my face. So whenever the girls tried to approach me with their ‘oily’ hands, I’d run away! Haha… The girls mostly think it’s very funny.

A consistent beauty regime is a good habit to keep, so I’m hoping my girls will grow up with great skin and complexion! =D Stay pretty, my babies!!

For those of us who have experienced the Terrible Two stage would more or less know what to expect.

It is as if all babies had gone through an Orientation course of some sort entitled, “How to (mis)behave during the Terrible Two” – They all behave in the same way!

And so, like the title goes, Baby Jayne has started exhibiting the very first standard behaviour of the Terrible Two stage, and that’s SCREAMING. As long as something doesn’t go her way or the way she wants it to, she screams. Sometimes it’s an emotional kind of scream. Other times, it’s more of a reflex – Her face remains motionless as she screams.

And thus begins the ‘I-refuse-to-share-my-toy’ stage as well. When we are in the church nursery nowadays, I’ve got to watch her very carefully lest she sees a toy she likes and attempts to snatch it away from the poor innocent baby who’s fiddling with it.

When she’s in a good mood, she might offer to share her toy with another kid nearby. But when she’s in one of those moods, she would hoard the toy she’s playing with. Anyone who tries to take it away from her will invite the screaming immediately.

But thankfully, even though she may be in this kind of state now, she is not beyond reason. I saw how she saw a kid playing with a toy she wants, so she brought another toy to trade with that kid in order to get the toy she wanted. (Not that she gave that kid a choice =P)

Now that I’ve got a kid who’s out of the Terrible Two, I really anticipate the day when Baby Jayne is out of it too! I know that life will be a lot better by then! Haha!

Sadly, myopia has hit my household.

Both Isaiah and I are myopic, so according to studies, my kids would generally develop myopia earlier in life compared to kids whose parents have perfect eyesight. It’s just that I didn’t expect it to be this early.

Joey had been complaining that she could not see what the teacher was writing on the whiteboard in school, and we initially wanted to wait for the Health Sciences Authority (HSA)’s Student Health Services Divison to conduct their free checks in Joey’s school, but the situation seemed to be quite bad, so we took her straight to HSA directly. Thanks to Dawn for the contact!

And so, we brought Joey to see the eye doctor some 3 weeks back.

During the first visit, the doctor did a preliminary check on her eyesight and informed us that her condition is pretty serious. For a kid her age, her level of myopia is a cause for concern. :( Plus, she seemed to have lazy eye syndrome on one of her eyes, and that would call for a referral to the eye specialist. My heart sank when I heard how short-sighted she was. It was way more serious than I had expected. We were told to go back again one week later to administer special eye drops on her eyes so as to dilate the pupils to get a more accurate reading of her short-sightedness. The results were the same, that she had a very serious case of myopia. The doctor said she could have been born with myopia at birth but we won’t really know for sure as infants’ eyes are usually not checked for myopia. Typically, a kid’s myopia is found out when he/she starts going to school because that’s when the kid becomes more articulate.

It was really unbelievable because she didn’t seem to have difficulties getting around and she’s always jumping, running and hopping around. Sigh, we really need to pray that God do a miracle on Joey’s eyes and that her short-sightedness would improve. God, You’re our Healer!! With great care and proper diet, it is definitely possible to improve the condition of myopia.

In any case, we have been scheduled for an appointment with the eye specialist at TTSH in June. The doctor would be able to better ascertain if there were other factors causing her eyesight to fail so quickly and also to treat the lazy eye condition. Of course, spectacles would be prescribed and she would need to wear them everyday until she’s old enough to go for lasik?! Please say a prayer for my Joey, that everything would be fine with her eyes and that her condition would improve speedily!

Only in parenthood can you find ironies and oxy morons happening on a daily basis. My little angel has quietly entered the Terrible Two stage with no warning at all, and it’s a little daunting sometimes when I think about what lies ahead of me now as a mum.

Baby Jayne is everything like Joey and also nothing like her. Both are just as hyperactive and very playful, but at least Joey has respect for scolding and stern warnings. Baby Jayne on the other hand, prefers to challenge the law more than anything. Most of the time, she thinks it’s some fun experiments of hers. By doing things that obviously will make her dad and mum jump up with fury, she takes joy in observing our reactions and facial expressions (spasms more like it) and devise her future behaviours accordingly. This 2nd daughter of mine obviously is smarter than what we imagined - It’s amazing how her brain works!

The scary thing is that even though she may be exhibiting behaviours that test our patience limit boundaries all the time, I cannot deny that she is the cutest thing on earth. Everything about her, in my opinion, is ULTIMATE CUTE. I often stop short in my tracks, stare at her and wonder to myself what I did to deserve such an adorable girl??

You see. Oxymoron TTM.

Anyway, last weekend was glorious. I spent Friday to Sunday in church. Jayne went for all three days with me as well, and Joey went on Sat & Sun. On Good Friday, we went around taking photos of Baby Jayne. This is her playground. Look at these photos, I’m sure you understand how much turmoil goes on inside of me every single day. She gets naughty and I want to discipline her, but GOD, how come she’s still so cute??!! (Photos taken with nostalgic mode)

Climbing is her forte

With Uncle Simon

Her latest pose

A little gek-sai face. =P

Her signature smile

Oh my cute terrible two!

It’s crazy, I know. We’ve been going to Haji Lane way too frequently. But that place’s really cool and you HAVE to visit it if you have not (even after reading SO MANY posts here about that lane!!!).

Last weekend after one of the service, we brought our dear friend and the kids’ god-mother, Serene, to visit Haji Lane. I’m glad to say we’ve yet converted another person to be a Haji Lane supporter! =D If we’re in the game of Monopoly, we would have owned the place by now. Haha!

Only Jayne was with us that day, and we went to have dinner at our favourite kebab place. As always, their kebabs were delicious!!

A very hungry Serene who’s happy that we brought her to a place with nice food! Hehe..

Jayne was soooo cute. She was being hyperactive as usual (trying to climb onto the tables actually, ahem), and one of the waitresses asked her jokingly, ‘Are you a boy???’

She straightened up and told her seriously, ‘No, I’m Ah-Jayne!’ Muahahahahahaha. That made the lady laugh out loud. Then in the same tone, Jayne went on to introduce the rest of us by pointing to us, ‘Mummy.’, ‘Papa’, ‘Ah-ma’ (her version of Gan-ma). Haha, it was hilarious.

I ordered my usual – Chicken kebab with french fries and Moroccan Tea!

Funnily, although I’ve been to Haji Lane many times, this was the first time I actually walked the place in the evening. Turned out to be a much better experience because the air was cool and some of the shops that were usually closed during the day were opened! I found several interesting shops with merchandises I really liked and promised myself to go back again. =)

Put these two photos side-by-side and you can see the full view of Haji Lane!

Jayne was just pouncing here and there enjoying the place as much as we did. =D In some of the shops, the owners would play with her while we browsed around. Awwwww, I love the carefree and very friendly shop culture in this place. =D

Some time back, there was a loan shark debt collection incident at my block of flat. The worst thing was that it happened on my level. The unit at the extreme end of my level had red paint splashed all over their gate and door, it was so scary. There were red wordings on the wall as well inciting that the family owed the loan sharks money. So, we’ve not been letting the girls play on the corridor for quite some time. They’ve been bugging us to let them go out, and so we relented.

They really love to play on the corridor. It’s of course better than being cooped up at home all day long. They would bring out their bicycles and scooter and take turns to ride them. Even though it’s just a short straight pathway, they still have fun every time we let them play there.

Baby Jayne can’t cycle yet, so we have to push her along every time. Otherwise, she would use their leg to push the bicycle along.

Sometimes Joey will push her around too – It’s something they enjoy doing together. =)

Like all mummies, I love it when the siblings play well together. They ought to be best friends, isn’t it? =)

Hopefully no more loan shark incidents. I need a very peaceful and safe neighbourhood, please.

We had some time to spare before heading for church service last Saturday, so we decided to visit Haji Lane with the kids. Frankly, my impression of Haji Lane has always been that it’s an interesting place with lots of fashion shops, vintage finds and colourful walls with graffiti. I didn’t think it would be a place that’s interesting for my kids. Turned out I was wrong! They had a great time exploring Haji Lane! =)

We first had lunch at the famous prawn noodle shop there. The soup was very flavourful, but for $4 per bowl, I thought the portion was very little.

Walking into Haji Lane after lunch, Joey was all excited when she saw all the pretty graffiti on the walls. =) She kept asking me why all the walls and windows were painted so prettily!

Then we decided to try the ice-cream at the only ice-cream stall along Haji Lane. Turned out to be a really nice surprise!

It was a very small shop space, but pretty kawaii-looking.

There were outdoor seats. Pink!

The inside of the ice-cream stall was cosy and very thoughtful. There were retro games like Snap, Donkey, Old Maid card games, Snakes & Ladder board game, which we used to play as kids, available at every table.

They even had five stones, OMG!!!

Jenga should be quite fun if a group of friends came together. =)

The displays on their counters were colourful and interesting. I love it when shops make special effort to ‘dress up’ their shop space and make it interesting. =)

Coloured chalks were provided for customers to doodle on their chalkboard on the wall. Nice idea.

They do not have super a lot of flavours, but they do offer pretty unique flavours. But we stuck to our original love – Chocolate!

Our ice-cream looked & tasted great!

$4 for a single scoop & an additional rainbow sprinkles topping.

We took the seats right inside the store (There were only a total of 3 seating areas inside the store) and it was a lovely cosy corner with sofa & warm lighting. =) I really love the space here.

It was a nice place to have some family time. Ice-cream always works wonders for kids, isn’t it true?? =)

Plus, the ice-cream was really yummy!

Most importantly, the kids enjoyed themselves and had a great time hanging out with their old folks. =P

We’ll bring the kids back to Haji Lane again, I’m sure. It’s a really neat place with lots of little surprises! =)