Our 5 Month-Old

Fast is usually not the word I use to describe the growth of Brayden. As he is a more attention seeking baby, I always thought his growth is very slow.

Now, moving on the his fifth month, i can no longer say he is growing slowly, but he is thriving well and more "heavy-duty" for my arms to withstand his weight.

His ever hearty appetite, his ever charming mega-watt smile, his coo-ings, all the goo-goo-ga-gas and whatsoever. They are so unique. That is him, our boy, Brayden.

He is ever so curious of the environment, curious of things happening around him and so responsive to our calls and his chuckles and smiles all so contagious. He brightens up our lives. Like Ethyl, he is so unique and special.

Brayden is very attached to Hubby. This is not normal! Hahaha...Hubby spent more time with him compared to Ethyl's time. As Hubby is the one who feeds him milk when he wakes up in the middle of the night, while I will be holding the pump and busy producing milk for our boy.

Hubby asked if I was really jealous when Brayden boy smiles more to him and wanted him to carry when we both appeared in front of him at the same time. To be frank, I am not. For I know I had attention from Ethyl, giving Hubby the priviledge to be loved by our second born is not too much to forsake.

Time flies...waiting for my little double cheese burger to grow up, reach 6mo, 9mo and preparing for his 1st birthday!

Ethyl is 46mo!

Ethyl is growing too fast, and I lost track of my last update on her.

Still a very lovely girl to me, though the seemingly sensible girl receives quite a bit of scolding of late, but am hoping that things will improve as we goes by.

Her unconditional love for our little man surpasses our expectations. She loves the brother too much (am not complaining), and is making extra effort to entertain our attention seeking little boy so that we can catch our breath. I am really glad to see the love she has for her brother. Likewise, the brother enjoys his jiejie’s company…

Everything she does now will involve her brother. Take for example when she plays her Nintendo DS, her ever so curious brother will be excited and she’ll assure him that she’ll share with him when he’s older. I love the fact that they love one another.

She never forgets to kiss her brother and tells him she loves him to bits!

Being the big sister to both her brother and her cousins (including Kenji though they seldom meet), she loves the boys equally.

When I asked who does she loves, she will say she loves Brayden, Lleroy and also Kenji. She loves all the babies. She loves watching the 9pm show now that shows the little girl, Nicole. She says she loves the girl too!

Last but not least, she is still very much a mommy’s girl. She is a sweet, loving little girl. Ethyl, mommy heart you!

Dream...

Received an sms from Ann yesterday morning, it says "jie, i dream you preggy again...u so happy when you test and know you are preggy".

My jaw dropped for a while...

Well, this is not an entirely bad news afterall. For the time being, we have no plans for any addition for sure and who knows...

At 3.30am when Brayden wakes up for milk...he feeds, I pump.

"dear, Hui (Ann) told me she dreamt that I am preggy again..."

"HUH?!" Hubby exclaimed.

"Just now, I dreamt that I deliver our third baby (never seen him so awake in the middle of the night). But hor...I did not deliver in Mount Alvernia..." "Then where?" He probed. "At Mount E lor...".

He was speechless for a good five at least. "So, is the baby a boy or a girl?" he asked. "A boy, he looks like Brayden.".

"Ok...(looking at Brayden), cannot...now cannot...having kids here is very taxing both on the pocket and education...no no...not now".

He missed out on me. I am the one carrying the baby and delivering...how can he not ask if I am willing? Hmm...to me, at this point in time, I have no wish for more kids. Maybe future? Who knows right?

Having said that, I do find it amusing...how come we dreamt of such a thing at this point in time? *baffled*

Loving Siblings...

They co-exist cordially.

Ethyl loves her bro and is very protective. When we say Brayden's anughty, she'd rebuke and say..."baby still young, he don't know...".

When we disturb the boy...she'd frown and say "Hey, don't do that to my baby ok?!"

Brayden on the other hand, is a faithful audience to her super-dee-duper chatty sis. He is always smiley and interactive when Ethyl plays and interacts with him and is all smiles when the jiejie calls out to him.

Hope they remain this way...

Comfort and Challenge

"Mommy, I love you...you are a good Mommy"

My 4yo-to-be said this to me about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, she said this again! I asked, "Am I still good when I scold you? Do you still think I am good when I beat you?"

She nodded, "Because you want me to be good, that's why you scold me, beat me and we cry together..."

Awfully sensible to me!

This is the comfort. Am so glad that I am very much appreciated and she assured me of my efforts are not wasted.

Brayden brings me comfort too! Though he seems closer to Hubby, he still needs me to coax him when he is cranky. He'd feel more calm when i carried him to sleep.

My challenge these days were to keep up with my milk monster's appetite. He now drink 170ml to 180ml. A drop less and he'll not sleep.

My supply dwindled quite a fair bit these days. Probably due to stress and hormonal changes, I really am working very hard to keep up with the pump and his sudden growth spurt.

Adding brown rice cereals to his milk is also not enough to kwwp him full for at least 3 hrs. He'd be asking for more. Mom was saying she wanted to try and cook some porridge for him to try since he is very very enthusiastic in the food we eat.

Am contemplative. He is just 4.5 months and isn't this too early? But he is constantly hungry! To make things worse, this little monster DOES NOT take formula milk. Give him formula and he'll rather not drink his milk. He is one tough cookie!

Anyways, I am working doubly hard to keep up with his demand. Not easy, but I'll continue to try...

Mid-Autumn Festival

This year is another special year for our family. It is many of Brayden's first and mid-autumn is one of them.

Unlike Ethyl's he does not have lots of lanterns. In fact, his were bought by his grand aunty and ah yi.

One similiar thing is, he gets to go to Chinese Garden as well.

Lots of pictures taken, but I have trimmed down the list and decided to post these instead. Sad to say, I was pretty disappointed by the theme this year. Besides this, the arrangement from the organiser is just as bad. No signages, no directions when the carparks are full etc.

We caught the fireworks in the car while waiting for the carpark. Quite a simple one, but am glad Ethyl enjoyed.

Brayden seemed fascinated by the colourful lightings, the crowd and the sanrio theme.

He was knocked out by the end of the jouney...see how blissfully sleeping he was! He is such a sweet baby!

Ethyl on the other hand saw a picture of the clown and was so scared and worried and kept asking to leave. SIGH...despite the slight disappointment, I do enjoy myself as you can see...we finally took our very first family portrait!

Hug-and-Cry Session

After whacking my precious girl on Sunday night, she didn't want to come back home on Monday.

I weeped silently on my bed after Bray had slept...it never happened before and never occurred to me the hurt could be so great on her. I love her too much and with her refusing to come back home is quite a blow to me as well.

Hubby consoled me and we turned in early. NExt thing I knew was she calling us around 10pm (we were snoozing already) saying she wants to come back. I slept better after that call.

I really miss her around...

Yesterday, she kept calling me to ask me to fetch her home from Mom's. She said she missed me.

At least I know I am not forgotten. We talked about the incident and I teared. She was too shocked of my reaction and used her little hand to wipe my tears. After a while, she cried too.

We talked it out and we both hugged together and there were too many "I love you" exchanged. I am glad things turn out well and she can explain why she was being punished.

At the same time, I am also glad that I show Ethyl that I care and I bother to explain...no shy in telling her and showing her my emo, I need her to understand where I am coming from as well. Mom said she was very well-behaved yesterday and I am glad to see the change.

Soupy Experience

Just like Ethyl, Brayden boy gets to enjoy Mom's nourishing soup.

This little boy drinks fish soup, ABC soup, corn soup etc. He enjoys savouring the soup, but of course, we do not give him alot.

He now can swallow when we feed him water and soup. Am looking forward to spoon feed him cereals.

He is growing fast...and I love him as he is really a very smiley and cheerful baby!

My Kids...

are my laughter, my joy and my heartache.

Before I update, I used the rod on Ethyl. She binged on tidbits before dinner, and was rude to Hubby and raised her voice so loud when we were back home and startled Brayden.

She kept pestering and kept repeating the same words to me when I was busy...Already lack of sleep and was drained because Hubby had to work and was only back home this morning. Struggling with them both and challenged my limits...

Today, I lost it with her...meant to update on something sweet, but am feeling so guilty for doing this to her. I am lousy, not a good Momma...