Potty Learning Second Time Over

Just when we thought we were all through with Kieona's potty learning, now is Kierra's turn. Although we have conditioned Kierra since birth to be able to regard the potty as somewhere she can put her pee and poop in other than her diapers, it has been rather tough getting her to sit on the potty at times when she wants to do something else.

The past few weeks were sometimes fun, but sometimes heart-wrenching. It seems that Kierra's refusal to sit at the potty were very much determined by who sits down beside her. Recently her appreciation for Mommy's time has become more pronounced with the fact that she is more aware of what she wants, and not. Often when Mommy is either busy with work or Kieona, Kierra refuses to sit on the potty when the maid asks her to. In fact, she screams a lot and insists that "Mommy help me!".

It's been tough especially when Mommy is exhausted with all the cooking and housekeeping as well as the auctions part of the business in the day and having to sacrifice sleep at night to start on the ecommerce business. Having to sit with her patiently at the potty when she asks for Mommy to is no joke, as she can take a while with it. Afterall, she's learning and Mommy cannot really ask for more.

Just a few moments ago, Mommy was trying to get Kierra to pee into the potty but she refused and actually kept away the potty each time. However a little while later, Kierra did the most amazing thing since we started her on panties - she actually brought the potty to Mommy and sat down to pee within seconds when Mommy asked. Oh my! She does understand and could control her pee to bring the potty and get her panties pulled down. What a pleasant surprise. A little later, she could not control and let go a little urine in the kitchen, and started crying. Mommy said it's ok, we'll continue to pee in the potty. Brought her there and she could continue with passing her urine.

Hmm, now Mommy is convinced that she can quickly get over the diapers phase - at least at home. That made Mommy's day! :)

Kieona's Second Portfolio Shots

These were taken in March and it took Daddy and Mommy some time to put up. This time round, as Kieona was tired, the photographer took a lot of effort before we got her to smile for the camera. Shrinking violet? Looking at the photos, we can't tell.....

Kieona Draws Faces

In the past few weeks, Kieona has started to get better with her drawing. What used to be simple scribbles, dots, lines and circles has started to take shape as funny faces, sun, etc. It's a wonder when Mommy suddenly saw that there were longish faces on the drawing board which we got for the girls last year. It was sudden, and when I found out that no one else drew them, I knew it had to be her. Boy, am I proud of my girl.

Given a few days of practising after that, she became better and better. Sometimes she still scribbles as she tries to write the number 1 (or so I think), but generally her favourite drawings center around funny faces - be it long, round, squarish or leaning towards triangle. Overall, her style is mainly a round face with 2 dots for eyes, with the corner of the lips moving upwards. She must be a happy girl. :)

Day Out at Sentosa

It was Vesak Day and the next day will be a school holiday. It's been a long time since we had gone to the beach, so the family had planned to go to Sentosa for an early morning picnic. We invited Wai Gong, Wai Po, Yee Yee's family and Clara Yee Yee's family for the picnic. We reached there early, about 9am, thinking we will beat the crowd in getting a good spot. Boy! Were we surprised to see that there were already hordes of people there at Palawan Beach, but we still managed to get a shady spot under the trees and very near to the foodcourt. The rest arrived later.

Eugene Di Di slept through the morning we were there. Both Belle and Jingle were probably scared stiff when their parents made them go into the sea. Hmm, Mommy thought it was pretty scary for them.....

Both Kieona and Kierra had lots of fun playing at the beach, building sandcastles with the new beach toys and jumping the waves at sea. Although Kierra was a little hesitant when we just got there, she gradually got used to it and started playing. It was a good hour when we packed up and had lunch at the foodcourt and missed the storm that came while we were having lunch.

Overall, everyone seem to have had their fair share of fun at the beach. It was just a little unfortunate that our car got into it's first accident being sandwiched while we were on the way home, and Mommy suffered a whiplash injury.

The girls waiting at the gate...
Building sandcastles...
Kierra having fun by herself
The whole gang....

Mommy, Kieona, Kierra - parting shot

Eugene Dee Dee sleeping through...

Giant Strawberries

We bought some giant US strawberries from Cold Storage. It was Daddy's treat for the girls. They simply love strawberies! Look at them! :)

The girls enjoying the first bites of the large strawberries

This is so YUMMY!!!!

Mommy joins in

So did Daddy....

Kieona's Big Nose Bleed

Kieona fell down on May 5th while playing wildly with the maid. The maid definitely got a good scolding, as Kierra had a huge bump just the day before while playing with her. The two girls were both extremely traumatized by their individual experiences. While Kierra only had a big bump on her head from hitting her head on the potty, Kieona had a bleeding nose. Mommy was so worried her nose was broken that I told the maid never to play so roughly with them. Poor kids. Mama's heart was broken.....

Kieona nursing her bleeding nose

Mommy's 31st Birthday

Mommy went out the night before - it was the first dinner date with a friend, without the kids and supposedly my off-day to enjoy a few hours off as Daddy stayed home with the kids. Look at what they were up to while I was out...

Birthday Card for Mommy

The XL size cardLooking greedily at the cake

Kierra's First Baking Day

It was only the first week at school for Kierra and she had already had a chance to bake some cookies together with Kieona. Incidentally, we believe due to a shortage of teachers in the school, Kierra and Kieona somehow ended up in the same class. As a result, the two sisters had become a lot closer over the few days at school.

Mommy remembered it was Kierra's first Thursday in school when the two girls each brought back a cookie. As Mommy was busy in the kitchen, Mommy didn't know that the sizes of the cookies were different (Ms Sonia was teaching them big and small and they both baked different sized cookies). When I came out to be with the girls, I noticed that the cookie sizes were different and Kieona had a real big cookie while Kierra had a normal sized one. Kieona told Mommy she has a big one. I didn't think much of it after but at night when I read their communication books, I realised that Kieona had chosen to bake a small cookie and Kierra chose to make a large one. Apparently, Kieona got her cookie exchanged with Kierra when they got back. Ah well......

Kieona enjoying her BIG cookie

Kierra enjoying the first cookie she baked

Kierra's First Day At School

Time really passes. Kierra had just turned 18 months and because she is born on the first day of the month, she starts going to the Little Skool House In-The-Spring on the day she turned 18 months.

Kierra looked real small in Kieona's uniform - we were told not to purchase any new uniforms as they were changing the uniforms very soon. It was only recently that we found out their school will not be a Little Skool House Franchisee for long. Look at the picture below. Doesn't Kierra look like she can swim within the uniform?

Kierra looking on as Kieona had her hair done

The first day was pretty fuss-free. Kierra looked a little shocked when she realised she had to be in school and away from Mommy for a little while. Separation anxiety was expected and we dealt with it as it came. Although Kierra was really happy with putting on the uniform like her big jie-jie, she screamed a litte when she was torn from Mommy. We can't expect otherwise, since this is the first time she is somewhere unfamiliar and the first time away from Mommy. Although the first day in school was only for an hour or two, everything went well and we were told she stopped crying once we left. Brave girl, Kierra!

Kierra peeping at Daddy before she went in to school

More than Two Months!

Gosh! It has been more than two months since Mommy had the chance to update this blog. It's a pity... so much had happened during this period and Mommy probably have to post based on her lousy memory. Alright, Mommy will organise them by topics. Friends who are waiting patiently for the new posts.... be prepared to be bombarded. :)

It was a heartbreaking day

Mommy is really disappointed with Kieona. For the past 2 days, she has been really insistent on getting her way, not listening, whining and throwing tantrums.

Just this evening, Daddy was home early and after dinner we decided to bring her and Kierra down to let her practise cycling with her new bicycle. She somehow rode down a gentle slope and because she only uses her right foot to paddle forward, Daddy told her to that she has to learn how to paddle properly so that she doesn't roll backward when she tries to rider back uphill. She screamed and told Daddy she doesn't want him and don't want to paddle that way. So she ended up rolling backwards her way of riding just wasn't going to work. After several failed attempts and rejecting Daddy's help for a few times, she wanted to give up and said that she doesn't want the bicycle anymore.

Daddy was furious, so took away the bicycle and said he'll give to someone else. She said ok. After that she told Mommy that she wanted the bicycle back, so I taught her to say sorry to Daddy and asked for it back. She did, but when we were on our way back home, she got on the bicycle and rode using her old technique again, so both Daddy and Mommy tried to teach her by guding her. She gave up and refused to co-operate, so we were both very disappointed and told her that she will sleep on her own tonight. She said ok and after a while started screaming and throwing tantrums after we went in with Mei Mei into our bedroom.

We decided to let her cry it out and taste for herself what it felt like to be rejected like that, so Mommy told Daddy to let her be until at least Mei Mei slept. Daddy fell asleep, so in the end Mommy had a talk with her in the maid's room, and later again in the hall. (She had gone to the maid's room, but in the end told the maid she wanted to sleep outside after I left the maid's room.) There she waited for me at the door to the study, and Mommy tried to ignore her until she made the first move. After a long talk with her did I let her back into the room.

Mommy sure hope that it has been a lesson to Kieona to respect and be grateful for other people's help. What at the end of the day we parents hope to achieve is that Kieona can change her attitude and try out (or learn) about things she does not know, instead of saying don't know and throwing in the towel without even trying. And worse still, tell us that she doesn't want us.

Kieona is 3 years old!

It has been a hectic few weeks, with the usual shopping spree with Chinese New Year just close to two weeks past and the preparation for Kieona's thrid birthday. Yes! Can you imagine that Kieona is now three years old? Just not too lond ago, we remember celebrating her birth and getting all confused on how to change, feed and bathe her.

Apart from having to get busy with business and shopping for the Chinese New Year, visiting relatives and so on, Mommy really was also rather stressed out with answering Kieona's constant questions about preparation of her goodies bags for her birthday. Now that she is bigger and having been through so many of her friends' parties in school, she definitely knows what she wants for her birthday - from the kind of cake (she wants chocolate with "Friends of the Zoo" cake) to the bags we use to put the goodies for her friends in school. The list is just endless and Mommy ran around town, the market and also searched the web before getting ready all her goodies.

All the hard work was worth it, as we could see how happy she was yesterday when she woke up to see her birthday present from daddy and mommy (a bright pink bicycle), and the mini celebration in school she had with her friends where our family attended as well. Below are some pictures of Kieona's third birthday (mostly taken courtesy of daddy).

Mei Mei has a Terrible Temper

Oh dear, this really does not bode very well. Today, Mei Mei flared up simply because Aeni took away her bowl as she was using her hands to play with her food. She screamed and after repeated failed attempts to get the bowl back, she stormed off to the toy box and got a hard toy out which she threw at the television. I was shocked, but kept my calm and told her she should not be doing that. Guess what? She ran into Aeni's room, screaming all the way and refused to come out. When Aeni when to look in on her, she ran towards the door and screamed again at her. After I told everyone else to ignore her, she came out after realising that no one will be checking on her again.

I certainly hope this is a passing phase and that she will outgrow it very soon.

Kieona, on the other hand has been a real darling. The past two weeks have been the best times of my life with her. She seems more confident of herself, happier, more sociable and independent than I have ever seen her. My, am I really proud of her.

Keep it up Kieona!

First signs of Vanity - Nail Jobs

Two tiny feet with nails painted pink

These two girls at the age of barely three and more than one respectively seems to have started their journey into the vanity world - by having their first nail jobs done, courtesy of Mommy.

Just two weeks ago, Mommy decided that it is time to beautify herself again and bought some nail colours. Kieona came home and started to ask about it, so Mommy had her toe nails painted. After it was cleaned away a few days ago, Kieona asked more about painting them again, and Kierra when she saw it asked to have hers painted too. Kieona told her she was too little, but Mommy seeing Kierra's disappointment and pleas, decided to paint just the big toe nails. After painting Kierra's big toe nails, she pointed to her other toes and also her finger nails and kept saying "want, want". The fun part was that they both never touched the nails because Mommy told them that they should not if they don't want to smudge the painted nails.

The two girls are definitely into looking good, Mommy have no qualms about it. These, are truly the joys a full-time Mommy - watching them grow and sharing with them these special moments.

Kieona's reasoning power is getting stronger

It's been such a joy to hear Kieona speak these days. In the past, it was usually gibberish but these days her conversations really make sense. Here's a sampling of what she said last Friday morning at breakfast when Daddy's out for BNI breaskfast meeting and Mommy was still stressed out about rushing them in time to send her to school.

"Mommy, this chocolate chip cookie I buy for you. Present for Christmas. It's your present, Mommy. I buy for you one. But Na Na don't have money. Mei Mei you know?"

Haha, isn't this really funny? Mommy was drinking water and at some distance away and couldn't help but burst out laughing because Kieona connected money with buying items. Isn't that very smart of her?

Kierra is learning how to use the Potty

As all toddlerhood stories go, there always come a time for potty training/ learning. We put Kierra on panties beginning last Monday, and it has been a series of protests, mishaps (or should I say accidents?) and a few hits where she told me "Mama, mmg mmg." and really pass motion into the potty.

Funny how it all started out pretty well, when she will willingly sit on the potty in the first few days, then start to protest and scream the next few days. Then came the period of insecurity, where she only wanted Mama to sit with her at the potty. If Mama can't do it, she won't do it with anyone else. (Can you hear Mommy hitting her head already?) Most times, Kierra will pee right after we put on her panties and say "mmg mmg" when we're out of her sight.

As Mommy goes about this potty learning journey with Kierra, Mommy recalls going through it with Kieona. The insecurity stage may probably be part and parcel of potty learning, since they start getting aware and maybe slightly afraid of something falling out of themselves. Mommy is no longer a toddler, so Mommy can only guess.

Whatever it is, Mommy is prepared for a long journey and many stops along the way to assure Kierra (and at this point even Kieona who still sometimes have accidents mainly with her motion) that this is part and parcel of growing up, and there's really nothing to be afraid or ashamed about. At the point, Mommy is just keeping her fingers crossed that she can continue to be patient and is just glad that Kak Kak Aeni is here to help clean up the unpleasant mess.

You Walk Walk, I Knock Knock

These were the exact words Kieona said when we were getting out of the car while at the car park at our place. We had just been back from lunch at Great-Grandma's place. Mommy had already got out of the car, and while waiting for Mommy to open Kieona's side of the door to get her out of her car seat (Mommy was still talking to Daddy), Kieona suddenly knocked on the window.

When Mommy realised that Kieona was probably getting too bored from waiting and opened the door, Kieona said out loud, "Mommy, you walk walk, I knock knock". Wow! Doesn't that rhyme?

Yeap, it may not make a lot of sense, but don't you agree it's a good rhyme afterall? This is also the first time Kieona tried to string together words into a poem. Yes, Kieona's first poem. :)

Post Christmas 2006

The past weeks were wet, wet, and wet. And the fact that both Kieona and Kierra fell ill during this period of time didn't up the Christmas cheer one bit. The day after we went for the Tree Top Walk, in fact on that evening itself, Kieona came down with fever. It wasn't high, so Daddy and Mommy really did not think much about it except to give her some fever medication and sent the two kids plus us adults to bed early. Afterall, it had been a really tiring weekend for us.

The next day Kieona's fever went real high, hovering around the region of 39 degrees. Panadol did not really help and we brought her to see our family GP. We didn't realise anything amiss, and thought the little cough she had plus the fever was a cold she probably caught during the rain while at the Tree Top Walk, as well as the nosebleed she had the night before. It was only when we got home, while Daddy went to get lunch for us all that Kieona complained to Mommy that her leg "pain, pain". Mommy discovered to her horror that her big darling's left thigh was swollen at least 1 & half times and it was burning hot and looks purplish.

Mommy then didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Probably just a little relieved that she had finally found out what caused the persistent high fever. Kieona was sent down to the same GP again to examine her thigh so that we can pinpoint why she had the fever. Good thing we discovered the swell, as it was a bad infection from two insect bites and that probably caused the persistent fever. Was given another dose of antibiotics as a result, which incidentally is the one and only one medication that she resisted throughout.

As if this was not enough, Kieona's cough got worse (while her fever just hovered around 38 to 40 degrees) and she started having a runny nose, so Mommy insisted that Daddy take her to see either the Nam Seng Clinic at Beauty World Centre, a TCM practitioner at Thomson Road or some other doctors that can help. Mommy kept having this bad feeling that something is not right but Daddy had kept reassuring that it needs time for the antibiotics as well as the cough mixture to work. Good thing Mommy insisted and Daddy said to go to Nam Seng Clinic. Probably like they all say, Mommies just have this uncanny ability to know if their kids are alright.

True enough, she was diagnosed with mycoplasma infection - which is caused by a very serious airborne virus that can be fatal. When she went in to see the doctor, her fever had reached almost 40 degrees. The doctor said that it has to be brought down immediately to prevent any chance of her having fits and put in a suppository for her. The fever did not come as a surprise, as Mommy had expected the fever to go beyond 39 degrees once it is past 4-5 hours after taking Brufen plus Panadol. That morning itself, Kierra also started to run a slight fever and was coughing rather badly, so wehad the doctor examine her as well. It turned out that she has a mild illness only but boy, up till this moment that Mommy is typing this entry, Kierra is still having a phlegmy cough, although it is already much better that before.

Kieona was finally completely off painkillers since 22 Dec.

Our original plans were a little disrupted for the small party to be held for some friends on 23 Dec, but decided to go on for the party on Christmas eve (a Sunday) for family. Everything went well, and Mommy managed to share her special recipe for Chicken Stew and Spicy Seafood Golden Rice by cooking for the special occasion. Most of the guests love the homemade dishes, which Mommy will be sharing very soon in a separate blog.

That afternoon after everyone left, we realised that Kieona had some white ulcers on the corner of her lips and on her tongue as well. Another illness??? My goodness, Daddy and Mommy thought it was HFMD, which was why we had to drop the idea of attending the Christmas party held annually at Grandaunt Stella and Granduncle Steve's place at Thomson 800. As the GP's clinic will only be open day after Christmas, we had to wait till that day to bring Kieona for a checkup and to certify if she really caught HFMD as well.

Thank goodness it wasn't. And Mommy is really glad that the girls are finally on the way to recovery. At last, Mommy can sleep without waking up to every cough and staying awake at night so that she can be alert to any signs of fever, be it for Kieona or Kierra. Finally, yes... we can all start to have a good night's rest.

A Sunday Morning Walk on HSBC TreeTop Walk

After a full day of hooha yesterday over Kieona's concert, we woke up real early this morning as well. Hock Kee had organized a morning walk for his division at the TreeTop Walk around MacRitchie and we had to meet at 8am at the Venus Drive Carpark.

We were all tired as both Kieona and Kierra didn't sleep well in the night before. We wonder if it was due to too much activities the day before, but it looked more like Kierra may be sprouting more new teeth (she's only had six so far) and Kieona may not be feeling well. True enough, this morning Mommy discovered some dried blood on her wrist while waiting for her turn to brush her teeth. If it isn't from Mommy, Mommy guess it must have been from Kieona and it should have something to do with her nose since she complained in the middle of the night that she has runny nose. As she didn't cry much once Mommy wiped her nose in the dark, we all went to sleep without suspecting anything.

When Daddy and Mommy checked her after brushing our teeth, we saw one side of her face covered with dried blood and one side of her nostril was stucked with dried blood as well. Blood stains were all over her pyjama top as well. It was not a beautiful sight.

We proceeded with plans for the TreeTop Walk and left the house after a quick breakfast and Kieona's poo-poo since she looked well and there were no signs of her being sick or anything.

The walk lasted about two and half hours and it was a really long walk for us - around 7km. The bridge was not really long, but the trail up to the bridge and back to the carpark sure was.

Kierra trying to get Mommy to carry her while on the bridge

Around the World with the Little Skool House In The Spring

It has certainly been one amazing weekend for us! Saturday (16 December 2006) was awaited with much excitement, as it marks the first time Kieona performs on stage. The school she attends - Little Skool House In the Spring - has been preparing her for the Hawaiian Hula Dance since June this year. All this time, she kept telling Mommy that she danced so well, but each time Mommy asked to see the dance movements, she doesn' t demonstrate much.

Daddy and Mommy were told to send Kieona to school before 7.45am that day, and to be honest we were really worried that she will be cranky since she will not get any chance to rest before her performance at around 2pm at the Furama Riverfront Hotel. Ms Izan (the principal) had assured us that it will be alright and from their experience the younger kids usually fall asleep backstage before their performance, and our worries were unfounded. Mommy was not really convinced, but since we had been waiting so anxiously for this day, we just went along hoping that things will work themselves out and Kieona will be fine.

As Mommy had agreed to volunteer as an usher, we tried to get there early - except that we ended up at the wrong hotel and got there a little later than expected. It was really a godsend that Mommy agreed to help out, as otherwise we would have been late for the performance.

The concert started right on time, as the other parents, grandparents & relatives were all very early. Bet they (like us) were waiting with much anxiety for their respective darlings' performances. Some kids even had big extended families sitting in the audience cheering for them, and it was a really touching sight. Guess Kieona would have been real touched if there were more of her loved ones cheering for her too.

Kieona's dance was the first item. We suppose that's also because the Junior Ones (between 2-3yrs old) were the youngest of the lot. When Kieona, together with the rest of her classmates got on stage, the audience cheered as they looked extremely cute in their costumes.

Kieona doing her Hawaiian Hula Dance

The first thing she did when she got on stage was to look around for us, and she found us almost instantly since we were sitting in the front row. And she wouldn't have missed Kierra as her meimei was already running around in front and dancing away. When she just got one stage, we thought she looked a little nervous, but she smiled wryly and seem to instantly get a boost of confidence when she saw us sitting there to cheer her on. Mommy guess this must be one of her happiest day in her life so far.

Kierra wowing the audience in front of the stage

The dance went without much of a hitch and we thought she danced so well..... just like she said. Suddenly, Mommy felt that the effort of bringing her home from school each day braving the hot sun and heavy rains and even getting her ankle badly sprained once all worth it just to see her displaying her confidence on stage. The moment was so touching that Mommy couldn't hold back her tears. At the finale, we were rather surprised that she was able to sing "The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Housten as well, while shaking her bonbons to the tune.
Kieona has indeed grown up and we are so proud to be her parents.

All this time, Kierra was also snatching the limelight from the performances with her dancing and prancing at the foot of the stage. She was so funny and danced to every tune, while trying to learn the dance moves of the various dances. She even went to make eye contact with the audience that she wanted attention from, and chased the cameraman, as if to get him to notice her so that she gets her photos shot. My, it was a busy period chasing after her. Of course, her liveliness got her to be part of the finale item in the end, as Ms Irene carried her up the the stage when all the staff and children went up to sing "The Greatest Love of All".

All in all, this was one amazing day our family had.

A proud Mommy with the two darlings