The Abode of Tan Family

Photos Only

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:17:00 +0000

So.......

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:58:00 +0000

So what have the kids been doing these few months?

Kristy
She is still in childcare and has settled well. She has been promoted to N1 this January. And her best friend is Emily. Haha. She is always asking for Emily. She has started on her LetterLand.

I told hubby, we should also start to learn LetterLand so that we can teach her too at home.

There were many cases of HFMD during February. It started at the end of January. Thus, for the whole of Feb, Kristy only attended school for a week. I would prefer to play safe and keep her at home to eliminate any risks of contracting the virus.

Kristy is starting to be more vocal. She will just blabber and blabber non-stop. But her jealousy is still as serious. This is one big headache for us. She will always fight for attention when we played with Kylie. She will purposely do things that we ask her not to. The rebellious side of her is getting serious due to this. She is currently weighing 16.1kg and standing at a height of 99.1 cm. Tall tall gal.

She will be coming to 3 soon. Another 25 days. I really hope she will slowly begin to accept her sister totally and share everything with her, including our care and love.

Kylie
This little snow white is growing well. At a age of 9 months and 3 weeks, she is weighing 9.1kg and a length of 73.3cm. She now has 2 little lower central teeth. She is currently taking 2 meals of porridge.

A very naughty little piglet. Haha. She has started to cruise around. She now even knows how to climb onto my bed, sofa and tv console. She even tries to climb out of her cot. Faintz!

And she keeps wanting people to carry her. She would not want to play inside the playpen or sit in her walker. My mother had a hard time trying to juggle between looking after her and preparing for dinner. Kylie will pretend to cry and shout out loud to "demand" you to carry her. And when you carry her, she will treat you like a tree. Climbing up on your body. Faintz faintz!

And if you snatch away her toys, she will scream at you and even cry! Triple faintz!

Meanwhile, a family photo for you all to see. Taken during this CNY. :)

MIA

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:50:00 +0000

Everybody has been asking me why haven't I been blogging nowadays. Main reason is I'm lazy.
I would rather make use of the time to sleep or play with my kids or watch tv or Wii. :p

Another reason is that I had difficulty blogging in office. It just couldn't get published to my server. But today I tried with a post that was in my draft folder since 15th Jan 2008. It finally managed to go through.

So maybe...I would be able to blog again.....
We shall see. :)

Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:50:00 +0000

Hello, been a long while since I posted anything.
Just a recent photo of the 2 gals. :)

Kylie flipped at 5 months and 5 days old!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:55:00 +0000

After waiting for so long, Kylie finally started her flipping stunts yesterday afternoon, at 5 months and 5 days old. Mother called me around 2+pm to inform me of her newly acquired skill. Hee

Currently she can only flipped over to her tummy from her right side. But she still cannot flip back yet, only occasionally. And when she cannot flip back, she will cry for help. Haha

Brother managed to capture a video of her flipping with his mobile phone. Will upload when I have the time. :)

Weight and Height update

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:49:00 +0000

Just want to record this down.

Kristy @ 30 months
Weight: 15.2kg
Height: 95.5cm

Kylie @ 4 months and 1 week
Weight: 7.2kg
Length: 67.5cm

Scary!!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:41:00 +0000

Scary....the amount of hair I'm dropping per hair wash session.....
I'm already washing my hair alternate days. Imagine everyday......*shudder*

My Gei Kiang Gal

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:06:00 +0000

This little gal of mine, has not learn how to flip yet but now want to get up from sleeping position. -_-"

Mass Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:41:00 +0000

Hello friends, it has been a while (close to 2 months) since I've updated this blog. Pardon me for my laziness.

Time passes. Kristy is coming to 30 months in another 4 more days. Kylie is now 4 months and 1 week old.

Let me update about Kristy first.
Many things had happened during my absence from this blog. We had sent back the helper back to the agent. Things happened..blah blah blah. I'm lazy to elaborate over here. So without the helper, my mother was not able to handle both kids by herself. So I had to take leave and also worked from home while thinking of a solution.

A solution was concluded after many days of pondering. We decided to enrol Kristy into a full-day childcare. So we (Kenny and I) started to visit the shortlisted centres and decided on Learning Vision @ Biopolis. Although the centre is not that spacious as compared to the other 2 (Agape @ NTU Alumni and Sherwood @ Ayer Rajah Crescent), but I am comfortable with the teachers and place.

We started Kristy in the childcare on 3rd September. Things did not start as smoothly as I hoped. She had a very serious separation anxiety for the first 2 weeks. She would not take lunch and did not napped much during the noon nap. She slimmed down quite a bit during these 2 weeks. But things started to turn better this week (3rd week). The morning goodbyes were not as bad although Kristy is still crying a bit. But her teachers said she only cried for a while and she is ok after we left. She has started to take her lunch and also finished everything. Nap during noon time is also satisfactory. She would sleep for 2 to 2.5 hours.

Things seem to be improving but we might have to withdraw her from the centre at the end of the year and enroll her either in the PAP 豆豆班 or a childcare centre nearer to my mother's place so that my parents or the new helper can help to fetch her home earlier. It would be better than having to wake her up so early in the morning (7am) and having to reach home around 7+pm, thus resulting in a late dinner.

It is really a dilemma. Having to see her go through everything all over again. It's really very sad for her. I pity her. I feel that I'm not a good mother, having to make her go through so much. Would I be able to come up with a good solution by then? Haiz. We shall see.

Now updates on Kylie. This little gal has been growing well. Brought her for her 2nd dose of DPT/PT. She is currently weighing 7.2kg and a length of 67.5cm (not sure if I heard this correctly as it seems quite long. :p). She is currently running a fever. It shot up to as high as 38.6ºC but it is currently hovering around 37.4ºC to 37.6ºC. Hope it will subside by morning.

A naughty gal as she would not finish her milk at times, thus wasting the precious EBM. Some people would think that it might not be wasteful as I have a good supply of BM. But the hardwork to express the BM out and the rocky journey I had been going through made me treasure every single drop of the BM. So I hope Kylie would try to minimise the amount of wastage. :)

Already 4 months+ but Kylie is still not able to flip. Lazy fellow. But she is able to lift up herself to sitting position if we rested her in a 45 degrees position. Gei kiang leh! Don't know how to flip but wants to sit up. -_-"

Sick

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:20:00 +0000

Kylie has her first experience of flu. She had caught the virus either from my mother or me. But luckily, it's a mild one. The stuffy nose has caused much disturbances to her sleep and milk intake.

PD prescribed saline to wet her nostrils to clear the harden mucous and also nose drop for her stuffy nose. I will hold on to these 2 drops. Hope she will recover soon by herself.

Weight @ 11 weeks: 6.31kg
Height @ 11 weeks: 64cm

Back to work

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:41:00 +0000

Just 2 words.....SIAN! SLEEPY!!!!!

Ang Guuuuu

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:31:00 +0000

Kylie has started to "talk" recently. Yesterday I heard her reply back to me with a "Ang Guuuu". Very cute and pleasing to my ears. Haha.

Sometimes when you leave her lying on her cot or the playpen, she will "talk" and look for people. When someone walks to her and responds to her, she will smile happily and "say a few words".

I really like her smile. And I will miss the amount of time I have spent with her during these 2 months plus of maternity leave. Will be back to the workforce this friday. I will miss her dearly.

Pneumococcal Jab

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:15:00 +0000

Finally decided to bring Kristy to have her delayed pneumococcal jab. I have been procrastinating for too long. I worried about her having fever or rashes after the jab. But for her own sake, I decided to bring her to have the jab today before I go back to work this friday.

We told her yesterday that I would be bringing her for an injection. She was agreeable to it. I told her she would miss school today as I would be bringing her for the jab in the morning 9am.

We were late for the 9am appointment, thus we had to wait for a while before our turn. When we reached the clinic, Kristy was well behaved as compared to the previous visits. She sat at the play corner and played with the toys there.

When we entered the Dr Lieu's room, Kristy went to the play corner straight away and put 1 pail of toys up on Dr Lieu's table. Carried her up to sit on the cushion designated for babies/toddlers to lie/sit down. I had to hug Kristy tight before Dr Lieu could jab her. When the needle went in, everything was ok. But few seconds later, Kristy let out a big cry when the needle was been pulled out. She cried very loud and was screaming. Big drops of tears roll down her cheeks. I continued to hug her and tried to pacify her, sayang her. I said I would give her a box of raisins.

Dr Lieu tried to pacify her too. She gave Kristy some stickers and pasted them on her right hand. Soon all was well. I asked Kristy to say bye bye to Dr Lieu and we left the room. Once we left the room, I gave her the box of raisins as promised. Paid for the jab and we took 171 back to my mother's place. She was extra well behaved on the bus too. Instead of standing on the seat as was previously, she sat there quietly, eating her raisins. I wondered was it because of the raisins that could make her sit down quietly.

The cost of the today's visit cost $235. The jab costs $180, and the rest of the cost is the doctor's consultation and the bottle of paracetamol.

Will have to monitor for fever and rashes. Hope none of these appear. *Pray*

Weight @ 28+ weeks: 14.9kg
Height @ 28+ weeks: 94cm

2 months old

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:30:00 +0000

Time passes. Kylie is 2 months old today. She has grown from much during these 2 months. She is getting chubbier, very cute.

She has started to follow the movements of items and people. When she's lying in her cot, she will follow the person's movements. If someone walked from her left side to her back, she will tilt her head back to look at the person. Such a kaypoh little girl.

When we called her name, 纬恩, she will respond back by smiling cheerfully. I like to see her smile. It really brightens up your day and make you fall in love with her all over again. She is a happy child. Smiling most of the times. She will also "look" for people to chat with her. Whenever anyone responds back to her "ahhhh", she will smile back.

Kristy dotes on her a lot. She will plant kisses on Kylie's face, forehead, hair. She will request to carry Kylie, feed Kylie, place back the pacifier into Kylie's mouth when it dropped. But her fight for attention is still very fierce. I really wonder when will she get over it.

I hope both sisters will be able to love and care for each other always.

Smile....

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:11:00 +0000

I had always wanted to take photos of a smiling Kylie but the camera was always not near me whenever she smiled. And so one night, I decided to play with her to smile for me. Everytime I see her smile, my heart melts. I like to see her smiles. I hope to see her smile everyday. And I hope she will grow up to be a smiley gal, an optimistic gal.

Had not been updating much recently due to lack of time and laziness. But partly because I do not know what to blog about.

I remembered I told Melissa the other day. The number of photos I had taken of Kylie were very few. Not as many as the photos I took of Kristy. I took photos of Kristy everyday but not for Kylie. Seems to be very unfair. It's funny that I do not have that kind of enthusiasm of taking photos. No wonder people always say that #2 (or subsequent children) will not have as many photos as the eldest.

But I put in more effort in taking care of Kylie. During Kristy's time, I let my mother took care of Kristy more while I did my stuff like chatting with friends on MSN, watching TV or even playing games. So this time, I could tell why is she crying; for milk, for companion or others.

I'm also more hardworking in breastfeeding this time round. Supply is good. And till now, Kylie is still on total breast milk. I hope to continue on even when I'm back at work. Hope to last for at least 6 months. Best is 1 year. :)

P.S. This post seems to be quite rojak and each paragraph does not really link. I'm just trying to put my thoughts for the past few weeks up.

Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 02:14:00 +0000

Started Kristy on rice yesterday. Decided to stop letting her have porridge as the main diet. She's already coming to 27 months.

Mother cooked steamed egg, vege and steamed fish. It was a difficult task to feed her. Guessed she was still not used to having rice as her meals. Normally she would take a bit of rice from us when we were having our dinner. She also spitted out the fish. Haiz.

Hope she will get used to it soon and there would be no more trouble having to prepare the porridge and bring it out when we had to go out.

Hepatitis B 2nd Dose

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:59:00 +0000

Brought Kylie to CCK Polyclinic for her Hep B 2nd dose jab. Made an appointment earlier and had it set at 2.45pm. I forgot the time actually. I thought it was 2.30pm so I reached the clinic at 2pm and realised that I was way too early and so the system could not register Kylie. So we waited till 2.15pm before I registered her again at the counter.

Nurse took her weight (4.8kg), height (57.8cm) and head circumference (37cm) before I was told to bring Kylie to see a doctor for assessment before the jab. Docter was amazed with Kylie's blond hair and grey iris. :p She was declared healthy and good to go for the jab.

Walked back to the immunization room and waited for the nurse to call us in. I had to wake up Kylie before the nurse could jab on her. But she just wouldn't want to wake up. So the nurse did not wait and jab onto her right thigh. Kylie gave out a big cry. I stood up immediately and she stopped and fell back into dreamland. -_-"

Next visit would be 21st August 9.30am. I would then have to decide to take the 5-in-1 ($28*) or 6-in-1 ($320). The difference between 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 is that for 6-in-1, the Hep B 3rd dose will be taken together whereas for 5-in-1, it will be taken separately, meaning an additional jab.

She cried...

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:56:00 +0000

Kristy talked to my mother on the phone last night. I was sitting besides her, looking at her and listening to her conversation.

Halfway through the phone conversation, she replied "want" and I could suddenly see some changes in her eyes, turning watery. After that she suddenly cried out pitifully.

I took over the phone and asked mother what did they talk about. Mother said she asked if Kristy wants to go to her house. I guessed Kristy misses her grandmother very much as she had not seen her since Sunday due to the demise of my grandmother.

Poor girl.

My Confinement Lady

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:51:00 +0000

I've prepared this post for quite a long time but waited till the CL had left before I published it. Overall she can be consider passable if 1 eye is closed but there are certain things that I'm not happy with even if 1 eye closed.

She can leave the used milk bottles lying around near the sink. She would do stuff like mopping the floor first before washing the bottles. This is not my practice and is never something that I would agree on. I always believe in washing the bottles after each feed (that is after putting the baby down to sleep).

As for bath and evening sponge after the feeds, she would also go and do some housework before attending to Kylie. By then Kylie would already be sound asleep. And after the bath or sponge, Kylie would be totally woken up and refused to sleep on her own. In such, we had to carry her to sleep.

Not sure if it's due to laziness or out of concern, she would ask if I can feed Kylie the breastmilk I had just expressed out (even though I'm still expressing halfway) instead of getting from the fridge.

She increased Kylie's milk intake without informing me. I had to find it out myself one day and asked her when did she increase it. And I found out that she increased the milk intake every time by 20ml instead of 10ml which we would normally do for Kristy. I was shocked when I realised Kylie was taking 100ml even before she was 2 weeks old. I was afraid it might be too much for her.

Initially she would only wash the baby clothes in the late afternoon when the sun is about to set. I asked her to wash the clothes after Kylie's bath so that the clothes can be "sunned" by the sun. But currently, she would still leave the clothes there after bath and proceed to do housework first. Sigh.

When Kristy is around, she would chuck her chores aside and play with Kristy. I had to ask her not to bother about Kristy and continue with her tasks. If not she would not have the time to do so when Kylie is awake again.

My mother bought pig liver for me to eat not knowing that it will cause milk supply to decrease. My CL knows about it but never tell her and just kept the liver in the fridge. One day my mother had to ask her about the liver and only then the CL told her about it. She could have said it on the day my mother passed it to her. Then my mother can let Kristy have the liver instead of wasting it. I also had to ask her to take out the liver and cook for my hubby to eat instead since I can't take it.

I had some bigger clothes for Kylie to wear when she's older kept in the cupboard. One fine day, she just opened up that cupboard and rummaged through. She found the packets of clothes and took out some clothes and said Kylie could wear it. I told her these clothes were only wore by Kristy when she was 1 year old. But she kept insisting can wear and proceeded on. Of course can wear since it's so big. But don't you find it an eyesore to see so many extra cloth when the baby wears it? To me, I find it an eyesore. Another problem is she never ask for permission before rummaging through the cupboard!

She would use a cloth to wipe Kylie's tongue. And this cloth is never washed. When I asked her if she washes it, she said yes. She washed with hot water and salt. I was stunned. Is this consider wash? My hubby and I had to tell her not to do so and wash it properly before she heeded our advice. And we had to say like 4 times before she did so.

The agreement for this confinement is supposed to be 28 days. SO theoretically, since she started on 20th May, the last day should be 16th June. But her way of counting is so different and it only resulted in 27 days. She counted 2 days together on 2nd June. The date that she went to re-stamp her passport to extend another 14 days stay. How can it be calculated this way? I initially wanted to deduct the "salary" but decided to let it go but only gave her $8 as ang pow.

Diaperless

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:16:00 +0000

Kristy has finally gone diaperless during daytime at home. Mother started her to go diaperless since last week due to a very serious nappy rash due to the hot weather.

So when she is back home, we also just let her wear shorts. We only let her wear diaper during noon nap and at night.

1 week has passed and she's doing well. She will pre-empt us before each urine and we will bring her to the toilet. Don't know if this will work when we go out. :p But it's already a good step ahead. :)

婆婆

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:39:00 +0000

It's sad to lose someone who is close to you.
It's even sadder when you aren't allowed to see her for one last time.

婆婆,
我会记得你对我的好
我会记得你给我的爱护
我会记得你给我的教导
我会永远记得你。

无法见你最后一面
是我今生的遗憾。

Domestic Helper

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:09:00 +0000

After waiting for about 2 months or so, and due to some hiccups, we finally picked up our helper yesterday from the agency.

She looks younger than the one we saw from the photo. She is of the same age as me, only 2 days younger than me. :p

Once we brought her back home, I asked her to unpack her stuff and she soon started to work after that. She wiped our doors and the windows. The windows were very cleanly wiped but also with advice from Kenny to use newspaper instead of cloth to wipe the glass panels. When dinner time was up, I had to ask her to have her dinner 3 times. She kept saying she was still full. I wondered what did she have for lunch earlier on. Haha.

Kristy reacted okay to the helper. In actual fact, she even played with the helper. So the worry of Kristy not able to accept the helper is redundant.

Told the helper to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 6am daily. But last night, due to a cranky Kylie, she could only get to sleep around 11+pm.

Today is the 2nd day and she is still okay. Has been doing work non-stop the whole day today. Only rested when she needs to take a bath, go toilet or for meals.

Overall as of now, she's quite okay. No language barrier as yet. She can speak simple English and can also understand me but I have to speak slowly as requested by her. Hope she will maintain in this way for the rest of the 2 years and if possible extend for a few more years.

Milk Intake

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:23:00 +0000

My CL had increased Kylie's milk intake to 100ml days ago (before Kylie was 2 weeks old). I was shocked when I found out about the amount myself. She did not inform me at all.

I might sound like a first time mother but I couldn't remember what was the amount Kristy was taking during this age. And I thought 100ml was too much. I asked my friends and they said it should be ok since Kylie could finish it.

I am just afraid that Kylie would be over-fed. But since my friends said it's ok if she could finish it, I guess I would have to accept it. But I would still prefer CL to inform me if she intends to increase the amount.

Gallery is up!

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:16:00 +0000

The Tan Family's gallery is up. You may find the link over at the right column under Tan Family's Links.

Blonde Hair

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 29 May 2007 06:47:00 +0000

As of the title, we were surprised to see a blonde hair baby when Kylie was born. Her hair and eyebrows are blonde in color which is very different from us. I wonder what did I eat to give her blonde hair.

Will it remain as blonde when the baby hair drops? I would hope so then she can save money on highlighting. Haha.