对不起

Zq was playing with chests of drawers this morning while i was expressing milk. He opened and closed the drawers so hard till the cabinet gonna fall onto him. I shouted and scolded him for being so naughty and not to play that anymore (one of his favourite to-do-thing).

To my surprise, he said 对不起 to me. Clear and sincere. He had never apologised to me "automatically" without me requesting so. Not only then, he walked over to me and said 对不起 again and kissed my cheek.. I was so touched, he behaved so sensibly and at that instant i was feeling abit guilty for raising my voice so loud at him.

Just a week at school, i notice there are some changes in him. Now he thanks us without prompting and more vocal in expressing his wants and needs also.

I hope these virtues of his continue. Keep it up my dear boy! :)

An An is 7 month old!

My little baobei is turning 7 month old today. Oh boy, time just sped by and you are a big baby now!

Okay, some updates on your growth and milestones:

- weighing 9.5kg (about 5.6kg increment of birth-weight)
- having 3 bottom teeth
- able to sit unsupported very steadily
- crawl backwards, though your aim is to crawl forward to take the toys. haa.
- blabbering alot. and your favourite word is "da da da"
- able to recognise your own name and response to it
- starts to have separation anxiety
- your favourite past time: biting everything that within sight and you can reach, blowing saliva, dancing & move along with music (which mama and papa seriously think you are so musically-inclinced as you move on the beat & rhythm!). I gonna bring you to Kindermusik soon and i bet you will enjoy it to bits! :)

You are always so happy and easily contented... Flashing your big and mimiyan smile to everyone near you... Mummy is so blessed to have you, you are a god-send to me..

An an, sorry for many "wait until".. Mama seems to have endless chores to do, taking care of gor gor and you, daily routines and schedules, preparing for gor gor's new school, preparing for shifting house in a month time, doing online grocery and marketing for gor gor and your stuff... And i have used too many "wait until..." on you, always wanting to get my things done to have more play time and chit chatting time with you.. I am learning to be a better mum for you, i promise no more "wait until" and i shall cherish my every minutes with you alone.. As time just flies by and you are growing up too fast, mama don't want to miss out any of these stages and moments.. You are too precious for me.. I love you An An.. Forever...

Zq's 1st day at The Family Learning House

Before going to school.. Gonna run late, still wana pose for pics :p

21.12.2009:

1st day of school. We reached school at 9am, usual parent's drop off time is from 830am to 9am, his lead teacher Yuan Yuan laoshi told me to let Zq reach school around 9am for the 1st day so she can have more attention and time with him after the rest of the kids settle down. Zq was quite okay when Teacher received him from me. He was abit shy initially but very soon he bid farewell to me happily, i was happy to see that he has made the 1st step of his school life bravely!

As i was not allowed in the class even on his 1st day, so i rest in the library, browsing through those parenting books though i was not really "reading" them, my mind was still on Zq, hope that he coped well... At 1030am, Yuan Yuan laoshi came out from the class and met me at the corridor. She gave me a great piece of news, telling me that Zq was doing very well, he have yet to show signs of separation anxiety, adapting well and extremely curious of the surroundings and other little friends. I was so relieved to hear this! Teacher told me that i could go home now and fetch him later on, but silly mummy couldnt bear to be too far away from my dear boy, so i decided to hang around the school.

Back to school on 1145am, waiting outside the classroom to pick him up, i peeked into the room and saw him sitting together with the rest and self feed himself his lunch, i was so touched till teary, he seemed like a big boy now and im so proud of him! The school has nutritionist to plan their meals everyday, and there isn't any repetition throughout the whole month! Wow, was impressed with this.. Zq gonna be bored with my cookings very soon, repeat the same stuff every other day, oops! Rice, tomato with egg, asparagus, pudding and home made soy bean was his lunch today.. When Teacher passed Zq to me, he was beaming with a sunny smile, im so proud of him! When Teacher asked him 喜欢学校吗，明天还要来学校吗？ He shouted "喜欢" loudly and i found him so cute :) We bid farewell to Teacher and headed home..

Teacher called me 130pm to update me his behaviour and progress in the class, and also to ask for feedbacks from me on how Zq reacted when back home from school. Teacher told me that he was highly adaptive and a clever boy. Teacher showed him once how to set up table for lunch and he knew how to do it correctly and help Teacher to complete the task. And he even cleaned up the mess "automatically" after the meal. Zq was very clingy towards me when we back home though, not allowed my helper to wash his hand, to bath him etc, everything also MAMA.. but im more than willing to help also coz i want to cuddle him so much also.. I want to replenish him with my 母爱 during the 4 hours he spent at school, i might sound very obsess here but it's true, he seldom away from me for such a long period, we missed each other so much.. However, both Teacher and me agreed that his separation anxiety may kick in on the 2nd day.. Keep my fingers crossed that he will be fine! :)

YA's 3rd pearlie

is coming out, but strangely it's the bottom tooth again!

His bottom incisor had cut through his gum and im expecting his upper incisor coming out soon. So i have been rubbing the Bonjela on his upper gum to ease his teething pain. But strangely that the 3rd tooth is also the bottom one... Oh dear, i have been applying the teething gel on the wrong place!

His appetite for cereal & puree is not very well these few days, must be the teething pain as he keep making the "click click" sound with his tongue & lips. But glad that he still loves his milk :)

Cheeky boy in uniform

Some cheeky shots of him before we off to school to buy his uniform and pay the balance of the school fee.

Bought 3 sets of uniform that costs me RMB 300. As now is winter season, so the administrator advised me not to get the 唐装 uniform 1st as he only get to wear it on spring, and kids grow fast so i can buy it then.

And pay the balance of the school fee. I would say it's hard for me to part with that big sum of money, school fee of RMB 46500 p.a. (est S$9300)! Oh well, since Dear and me decided to let Zq starts to have this new schooling experience and hope he will learn more and enjoy himself in the school, we believe this money is well-spent as we really like the school.

Oh my, he looked so grown up in the uniform. He looks like a big boy but forever a baby in my heart... :)

Most men seems to have unexplainable infatuation towards ladies in uniform, and i must admit i have a crash with my uniform boy. Wahaha!

Ang Ku Kueh？

Zq NOW

Mummy THEN...

Ang Ku Kueh? Photocopy of me?

Many ppl commented so and im more than happy to agree :)

But my lovely boy has bigger eyes and nicer complexion than mummy for sure!

KISS!

My darling boys decided to get affectionate early in the morning, while mummy still having breakfast...

"An an, can i kissss u?"

"Come on gor gor, let me kisss u too!"

I love my boys so much!!! MUACKS! :)

Sentences

Zq is more vocal and talkative eversince he turns 2 year old. This changes of him is rather obvious, even my mother and helper commented so. He has been mummbling phrases and words for long, finally he starts to form sentences!

Some of his favourite sentences are:
- 爸爸回来了
- 阿姨帮子骞干活儿 （should be the other way round instead, but this boy keep thinking doing houseworks are his duties :p)
- 妈妈喂安安， 爸爸去上班

He said something funny today. When he ran and accidentally stepped on a toy, he said "袜子痛痛， 脚没有痛痛” haa! :)

My negligences

Rather affected by these 2 incidents today:

- While me and my helper were bathing An An, Zq was sitting at a corner of the bathroom playing with some plastic containers. Then he came to us and told us "pain pain", we didn't realise what was his "pain" about on the 1st glance. But i saw Dear's shaver on his hand! And to my horror i saw his upper lip was red with blood! Gosh! He must be playing the shaver as if he was shaving, that's how the shaver blade cut his mouth! He saw Dear shaving his moustache and he followed suit. Lucky it was just a minor cut and after we pressed on the cold hanky on his lip, the blood stopped. He didn't cry at all maybe he knew that it was his mischievous to cause this. Though i reminded him sternly never play with the shaver again, but deep down in my heart, i was feeling guilty, i should have pay more attention to him while he was in the bathroom, i should have reminded Dear to keep his shaver better and not so accessible for Zq.

- Evenings are usually hectic time for us. My helper and me have to cook Zq's dinner, feed him, cook our dinner, prepare An An's puree & cereal. While my helper was feeding Zq's dinner and i was busy at kitchen cooking, i left An An in his jumperoo all these while. Hoping that i can faster get my work done so i can play with him for a while before his cereal time. My helper made a mistake in the ingredients that i want to prepare so i got to do the cuttings again and it sure took me longer time. After a while, my helper came to the kitchen and asked me to go and have a look at An An, i got a shock and thought must be something bad happening! My eyes were red when i saw what happened, he was not jumping in his jumperoo but he had fall asleep with his head fall frontway and a puddle of saliva on the seat.. My poor boy, he was tired to jump about and nobody has time for him so he just dozed off himself in his toy. He is always so complacent, very easy baby. Fall asleep without patting, carrying and rocking eversince birth, seldom cries and fuss about. And i am guilty to take his easiness for granted at times.

I am feeling lousy. Though i try to be a good mother for my boys but i didn't do a good job. I am a home-maker and i have all my time with them, but still, i always find that i don't have enough time with both & each of them. Time flies... and i always have a little bit of guilt at the end of the day when i recap what had happened during the day. I am still learning to be a better mum, i hope i can do it better.. I sincerely hope so...

YA's 6mth check up & vaccination

It was overdue for 2 weeks as we just back from Singapore. An An gonna take 3 jabs - 3rd dose of 5-in-1, 3rd dose of prevanar & Hep B vaccine. We decided to space it out for him as couldn't bear to let him have all the 3 vaccines at once.

He weighed 9.2kg, 74cm and head circumference of 45cm at 6.5 mth old. Doc was happy with his growth as he finally drinking his milk after the prolong milk strike, which lasted for about 1.5month. He's gaining weight and with good height, Dr said he took after daddy's gene and i certainly hope so.

I love to chat with Dr Pauline, she is always so jovial and she remembers all the little details that i shared with her. She made a funny remark today "Benjamin & you must be very loving couple". I was surprised with this, and she explained to me that because she heard some saying that if the baby resembles daddy it means that mummy very in love with daddy and vice versa. So she said that Zq resembles me so much whereas An An resembles Ben, so this derived her conclusion. Haa, interesting :p

Doc kept praising An An is a very good boy as he never fussed when Doc checked on him, still flashed his bright smile towards her.

Meet-up with Yuan Yuan Laoshi

Zq gonna starts school on 21st Dec 09. After rounds and rounds of school visitings, browsing through many school programmes, looking through their school philosophy, the schools timetable, campus environment, we finally decided on The Family Learning House 家育苑。

We love the school belief and emphasis on virtue building. And the fact that all the students and even teachers are wearing uniforms. (This is the only international school here at Beijing that it's a must to wear uniform to school everyday). I am pleased with my decision and hope Zq will enjoy his school also :)

He is being assigned to Nursery 2 class. There are a total of 12 kids with 3 teachers. His lead teacher - Yuan Yuan Laoshi called me few days back to arrange a meet-up session today, it is the standard practice of the school to have one-to-one meet up of teacher and the new student, so the teacher able to have some upclose observations of her new student prior to the 1st day of school, and i like this arrangement so much, i think it's a great effort of the school and the teacher.

We reached the school around 430pm. The class was empty except the 3 teachers staying back to receive us and get to know Zq. This is the 1st time i stepped into the classroom. When we visited the school last time round we were not allow to visit the classroom as there was class conducted and the kids were in the room, the school is very strict on this that no visitors allowed during class so as not to disturb the class and avoid contact of the students with visitors for health issue. I certainly pleased with such policy.

I fall in love with the classroom... As everything was WHITE in colour and custom-made according to their size and convenience, little table & chairs, little sofa, little fishtank & birdcage etc.. There is a white piano in the classroom also, beautiful!

There were 2 parts of the sessions today:
1) 30 mins of just Teacher & Zq alone in the classroom - She observed how Zq works on the montessori stuff, how they communicate and his adaptability to the new environment.
She commented that Zq is clever and with good memory, the classroom is big but he remembered where he took the stuff and returned it to the correct place. He was polite and thoughtful also as he pulled in Teacher's chair when she stood up. And he was affectionate as he always hold the Teacher's hand where they moved on from one place to another. Teacher thought there shouldn't be a big problem for him to adapt to the school and i certainly hope so!

2) 30 mins of just Teacher & Mummy time - She asked me tonnes of questions in order to understand Zq and our family more. Ques like: What's Zq's liking & preference? His motor skill & speech development? Anything that he fear of? Our expectation towards the school? And many many more.. Im glad that she noted all down and even prompted me for more details though it was way past her knock-off time. Really appreciate her effort on this.

Before we back home, Teacher gave us a little booklet with photographs of the school, the garden, the classroom, the 3 teachers of N2. She told me to read to him often so he will get familiarise with his new school and i thought it's a very good preparation for the big day! Thumbs up for the effort! Zq was so cute that he flipped the booklet and saw Yuan Yuan's Laoshi photo on one page, he placed the book beside Teacher's face and said "same same" Wahaha!!!

Little kitten

Had started Yan An on semi-solid food about a month but he is still not taking it well. The foods that he tried so far:

- Gerber single grain rice cereal

- Healthy Times brown rice cereal

- Holle organic rice cereal

- Carrot

- Pumpkin

- Spinach (hate most!)

- Avocado

- Apple

- Peas

- Sweet potato

- Banana

- Corn (prefer most!)

Most of the time he uses his tongue to push out the food or clamps his lips tight to indicate his unwillingness to eat any further. Well, i do not force him and let him be though it will definately make me happier if he eats abit more coz i prepare his fresh puree on every feed. Baby, give yourself some times to get used to this new experience & learning of food-tasting and eating, but pls don't let mummy wait too long :p

Look at the little kitten. So cheeky despite all the mess he made.

Yes, here i come my blog!

Miss my blog so much! !!

Can finally access to my blog and i sure have lots to update... Im gonna backdate all my posts slowly, coz i dun wan to loss this blog of mine, it gonna record all the memorable meaningful moments and mama's loves & woes... :) For Zi Qian & Yan An, hope you will enjoy reading these when you grown up!

Oh well, this access comes with a price! I paid for a VPN programme so i can access Facebook & my blog. It costs me USD60 a year but i think the money is well spent coz i can update my lil stories here and keep in touch wi my friends at FB! :)

Biker!

He has strong interest in motorbike and helmet, must be inherited this from Dear.

Papa, can we go racing when i grow up? :)