Little Miracles · Our Blessings from God…

Sunday at Hannah’s Sports Day 2015

August 3, 2015 in Exercise, Growing Up, Hannah, Milestones | No comments

Last Sunday morning, Hannah had her Sports Day event in school. I was especially glad (as was she) that she could make it, because my little girl had been ill the whole of the previous week and had missed 5 whole days of school. She had been down with a very high fever (caused by bacterial infection) which had gone up and down, with a high of 40.2°C, and had rendered her weak and also made her lose her appetite.

Anyway, that’s all in the past and I am very proud of my little fighter as she battled her illness with a steel front.

Hannah is in K2, and as is tradition, the K2 kids would set up food stalls for a bake sale with proceeds going to their class fund. Hannah made the poster for her stall at home, because she was still recuperating at home when her friends made theirs in school. On the day before Sports Day, I made some wholesome and healthy chocolate beetroot and pumpkin muffins to pack for sale.

Hannah with her friend running the food stall…

It was an overcast Sports Day, so it wasn’t too hot, to the relief of “people who fear the heat” like me. The event started with the march past… just look how happy Hannah is!

…followed by a warm-up exercise session

Hannah was aiming to get her first gold medal from Sports Day…

…and she successfully did!!!

Hannah continued her entrepreneurial stint selling her muffins, but I think at the end of the day the highlight was winning that coveted gold medal.

Emma at 28 Months

July 27, 2015 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Emma-28months Scrap Credits
Things I ♥ About You QP Freebie from Blagovesta Gosheva

Weight

9.0 kilos

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

I think she has 19. 9 bottom teeth (3 incisors, 2 canines, 4 molars) and (maybe) 10 upper teeth (4 incisors, 2 canines and 4 molars). I will make that call to the dentist soon.

Motor Skills

She’s started to wear more “regular” clothes nowadays. Most of her early months, Emma was wearing her sleep-n-plays, which provided protection against her scratching her legs and arms, but now that she is bigger, and healing well from her eczema, I’ve started taking out more and more of Hannah’s lovely clothes for her to wear. Emma will ask for “pants”, “shorts” and “tights”, and to “wear shirt”, while tugging at her attire indicating she wants to change out of them. Time for Mommy to start snapping more and more pictures!
Can tiptoe and trying her best to jump

Communication and Social Skills

Emma’s stringing together more sentences now.
Mommy: Okay, do you want me to take off your shoes?
Emma: No take off shoes!
*****
Mommy: Emma, you can drink your milk and go to sleep, all right?
Emma: No sleep.
*****
“Emma eat biscuit!”
“Watch Bar-yee circle music book!” (her current favorite video: Barney’s Musical Scrapbook)
Terrible twos have taken off with more screaming (like a banshee sometimes), so we have had to introduce the naughty stool on some occasions.

Food and Feeding

Emma has been doing really well with self-feeding using a spoon, and can eat quite a fair amount of rice in restaurants when we go out. Her favorite food at home is of course, still, rice/porridge with chicken or pork, and vegetables such as carrot (purple or orange) or pumpkin. She loves soup and “char-siew” rice too.

mysister

Amen!

July 6, 2015 in Christianity, Emma, Growing Up, Parenting | No comments

Emma sprang another pleasant surprise on us all last week when she suddenly said, “Amen!” at the end of our bedtime prayer. We were so surprised and just to make doubly sure, I suggested we say another prayer, after which she clearly said, “Amen!” again. 🙂

Ah, life’s little surprises are most definitely sweet!

The Block Stacking Game

July 4, 2015 in Emma, Entertainment | No comments

stack1

This is one of the activities that keeps Emma occupied these days. I noticed she was very amused by the Junior Boggle alphabet blocks and kept asking for “blocks”, so I dug out these gorgeous (and well-used) wooden blocks from way back when. Remember the first time I showed you these blocks on my blog? My, how time has flown!!

stack2

Anyway, these are super sturdy and fit into her hands so well. I’ve taught her how to stack too, as well as how to say “stack”.

It’s stack and crash over and over again now!

stack3

Emma at 27 Months

June 23, 2015 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Daydream QP Freebie from Blagovesta Gosheva
Awesome Alphas from Allison Pennington

Weight

8.7 – 8.8 kilos (yes, she thrived and grew much more since Daddy returned from the States!)

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

I think she has 19. Hopefully I will be able to check in more detail soon…or perhaps when we take her for her first dental checkup soon. Meanwhile, this is what I think she has: 9 bottom teeth (3 incisors, 2 canines, 4 molars) and (maybe) 10 upper teeth (4 incisors, 2 canines and 4 molars).

Motor Skills

Likes carrying things around: stools, chairs, toys, bags. In fact, when I tell her we are going out, she will grab her “handbag” and sling it over her shoulder, announcing to everyone that she is taking her “bag”.
Very good progress hopping and jumping. Getting there…almost.
Runs quite fast and follows me most of the time at home.
Will choose the clothes she wants to wear and sometimes refuses what I have set out for her.
Love flipping through books and “reading” them.
Loves doodling on the doodle pad and at times, I use it as a makeshift “babysitter”.

Communication and Social Skills

She can address all of us in the family by name now, including “E-thin!!”
She can point to her diaper and say “pee pee” and “poo poo”, asking me to undress her and take her to the potty, but unfortunately we have not had any “output” thus far. I’m using the potty seat on a adult toilet, so it’s easier to clean up.
Emma can string together short sentences now:
- “Watch Bar-yee!!”
- “Watch choo-choo train!
- “Uh-oh…Bar-yee fall down!”
Screams REALLY loudly when she doesn’t get her way. The start of the terrible twos, perhaps?
She can state her opinion by shaking her head and say “No!” very distinctly.
She loves to dance to music and will even attempt to sing the songs. She loves “Uptown Funk”, by the way.
She will look at the alphabet magnets on our refrigerator door and say “A B A B” as if she is singing the alphabet song.
She knows a few shapes and can identify them when we draw it out for her:
- Circle
- Heart
- Square
- Star
- Flower
- Fish
- Apple
- House
- Cat
- Dog

Food and Feeding

Still loving her fruits and vegetables and will grab my spoon whenever I am feeding her or even when I am eating. She is quite okay handling the spoon on her own but it can get quite messy. We will probably let her try feeding herself in a restaurant one of these days (so we don’t need to clean up!)

We had a Hard Rockin’ Weekend!

June 16, 2015 in Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting, Vacation | 1 comment

We are Stage Pass Members of the Hard Rock Hotel, and although our primary reason for becoming members was to utilize the pool, we are also given a complimentary night’s stay in the hotel, as one of the benefits of membership. Our deadline for redemption is in July, so we finally decided to “move” to the hotel for a night last weekend, before the benefit expires.

We only told the kids about it the day before we were to check in, and boy, were they excited! I was worried they would not be able to sleep that night!

Ethan still had school activities until 4:00p.m., so when we checked in, it was already 5:00p.m.!

Dinner Shots

We spent our morning at the pool after a scrumptious buffet breakfast (which included chocolate milk for the kids!!).

It was a fun and enjoyable holiday away from home, although a short one and not really that far from home… LOL! Ethan left a little thank you souvenir for the housekeeping staff too!

I still have a back rub to redeem as part of the membership benefits though…need to make an appointment soon!

Emma at 26 Months

May 19, 2015 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Scrap Credits
Spring Awakening QP Freebie from Blagovesta Gosheva
Acrylic alphas from A work in progress
Boxed words from Chantal

Weight

8.3 – 8.4 kilos

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

I think she has 19. Hopefully I will be able to check in more detail soon…or perhaps when we take her for her first dental checkup soon. Meanwhile, this is what I think she has: 9 bottom teeth (3 incisors, 2 canines, 4 molars) and (maybe) 10 upper teeth (4 incisors, 2 canines and 4 molars).

Motor Skills

Is attempting to walk up and down the stairs on her own, while holding on to the balustrade. Scary!!
Can imitate action songs very well. e.g. If You’re Happy and You Know It.
Climbs on anything and everything.
Will carry her stool over to the sink and climb on it to wash hands.
She will try her best to wriggle out of her onesie jammies

Communication and Social Skills

My favorite part of her development this month was when she distinctly and clearly called in a sweet voice, “Mommy!!” It has been very consistent now and errr…quite hard for me to say no to.
She knows most of her animal sounds, but somehow according to Emma, the cow is quite a “scary” animal!

Every day she adds more and more words to her vocabulary. I just know that I will soon lose track of what she can say.
- Milk (pronounced correctly as “Merlk”)
- Sit couch
- Sit car
- Car
- Slides
- “Deh-yee” (Daddy)
- Mommy
- Hannah (…and Hannah is SO SO SO delighted!)
- Emma (yes she can say her name!)
- Cat and “meow meow”
- Dog and “woof woof”
- Cow
- Bear
- Nose
- Mouth
- Ear
- Eye
- Hair
- Feet
- Foot
- Stuck!
- Rice
- Spoon
- “Wear this!” when she wants to tell me what she would like to wear
- Sun
- Star
- Says “Wheeee!!!!” when going down the slide (and also when Daddy or Mommy is driving along winding roads)
- Balloon
- “Kitty” (Hello Kitty)
- “Bar-yee” (Barney)
- “Eh-fern” (Elephant), with trunk action and sound effects
- Roars like a lion/tiger
- Happy
- Sad
- Kite
- House
- Glasses (referring to my sunglassses)
- Dance
- Flash (not sure how she picked this up, but she said it when I accidentally left the flash on when I took her picture)
- Shower
- Hug
- “Ah-puh” (Apple)
- “Barsh-tif” (Brush teeth)
- “Brera” (Umbrella)
- “Mar” (More)
Loves the “I Love You” song from Barney and can hug and kiss at the correct point in the song. On that note, she is now very into Barney and watches Barney almost every day. She says “Watch Bar-yee!!”

Food and Feeding

Loves rice, especially chicken rice and barbecued pork rice. She appears to be slightly allergic to grapes though…it’s odd, because I have fed her grapes before and she was fine. I will try again in a few weeks’ time.

Battling Bronchitis

May 19, 2015 in Emma, Growing Up, Parenting | No comments

About 2 weeks ago, Emma suddenly developed a fever. She registered a temperature of 38.2ºC despite being her usual self the whole day. To be fair, she had a sore throat and slight cough a few days earlier, but she had looked on the way to recovery, so the fever actually took me by surprise.

Anyway, she was very listless because of the fever and I had to quickly give her a suppository to bring the fever down. She fell asleep but woke up at 3:00a.m. and when I changed her, I noticed her breathing was slightly wheezy. I promptly took her downstairs because she was fussing a lot probably due to breathlessness, and I gave her small sips of Izumio hydrogen water. After about half a pack, she fell asleep, and almost instantly all wheezing gone.

The next morning, I decided to take her in to see the doctor. He confirmed that her lungs were quite congested and she would have to undergo some nebuliser sessions. She had one done right away, and after that the doctor said her lungs sounded better. Had her lungs still sounded congested, he would have to order an x-ray immediately, in case it’s pneumonia.

I strongly believe that Izumio had helped Emma healed somewhat and prevented her from getting pneumonia. What she had was bronchitis, and resulted in shortness of breath, wheezing and some cough. She had to go on a course of oral antibiotics unfortunately, and nebuliser sessions twice a day for about 3 days (morning and night). The doctor told us that her fever would go up and down during the next few days while she recovered and we were to bring her in again if the fever still persisted after 3 days. The doctor also said her appetite might be affected if she was still short of breath.

The fever never went up again. And she ate like a champion. (Must have been the Izumio again) 🙂

Emma continued to heal and get better, and while the first few days of feeding medicine was stressful, I finally found out that all it took to feed her medicine was that she wanted was to sit up on the chair and fed straight with the syringe….just like a big girl. So no need to hold her or cradle her….well, so much for all the stress and worrying!

She is now completely healed, praise God…and her cough and phlegm were gone within 5 days, which is remarkably fast, judging from past experience.

We’ve Been Busy…

May 12, 2015 in Emma, Ethan, Growing Up, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

Oh yes, we have….when our kids have activities, it follows that the whole family will participate along too…so here’s a brief run-through of what we have been up to.

Easter Celebration

During the Easter weekend’s catechism class, Hannah and her classmates in preschool participated in the meaningful “washing of feet” ritual.

Family Day

We like to spend our weekends lazing around, enjoying family time together. But a few Sundays ago, our family time was a different kind of family time, when we attended Hannah’s school’s Family Day event at Times Square Penang. It was our very first time at Times Square.. LOL There were fun activities like Treasure Hunt, Minute to Win It, arts and crafts and a few stations for toddlers too.

Needless to say, it was a fun-filled Sunday afternoon full of running and bouncing for the kids.

Ukulele Performance Evening

The following week’s Saturday saw us attending an informal performance of Ethan on the ukulele together with a few others. He sang and played two songs: Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Rhythm of the Rain. We are ever so proud of him…now I’m wondering if I will be allowed to sing with him on the uke next time… haha…

Ethan’s Sports Day

Since Ethan’s Sports Day fell on a Monday morning, Emma and I were the only ones attending it. The kids moved from station to station throughout the day and participated in various events, like the obstacle course, sprints, relays, ball dribble and team sports like Captain’s Ball and Tug-of-War. Ethan proudly showed off his silver medal for the ball dribble event and a gold medal for Captain’s Ball. Well done Ethan!

(I think he’s trying to bulk up on some muscles now, cos I told him he has good potential as a sprinter. He ran quite fast but was outrun by the bigger boys)

Beautiful Friendships

Last but not least, here’s a rare gem of a photo of Emma with perhaps her first friend ever, Izayah. This was taken during one of Ethan’s and Hannah’s soccer coaching sessions.

We’re looking forward to an exciting rest of the year, with more and more interesting activities coming up such as Ethan’s school concert (in which he landed the role as one of the main pirate characters!), Hannah’s school sports day (which includes a fund raising event), a short vacation for the kids (hopefully), and of course, Hannah’s school concert at the end of the year.

Watch this space!!

Emma at 25 Months

April 26, 2015 in Emma, Milestones | No comments

Emma-25months Scrap Credits
So Grateful Add-on freebie from Sahlin Studio

Weight

8.2 – 8.3 kilos

Height/Length

Not measured.

Teeth

Still 15 teeth (I think), maybe 17 or 19. She won’t open up for me to check : 7 bottom teeth (3 incisors, 2 canines, 2 molars) and (maybe) 8 upper teeth (4 incisors, 2 canines and 2 molars).

Motor Skills

Loves to climb up on chairs and can do so quite well now.
Will run in little small steps.
Attempting to jump, even to the extent of bending her knees in preparation of jumping. She’s almost there!
Likes to pretend to slide down from the arm rest of the couch, and loves it when we prep her by saying “Ready, Set, Go!!”

Communication and Social Skills

Adding more words to her vocabulary:
- Couch
- Push
- Egg
- Hat
- Fog (for “frog”)
- Sit
- Car
- No!!
- Oh No!!!!
- Once or twice, she says “Mommy!” but it is still inconsistent
Can point to herself when we ask “Where’s Emma?”
Can point to Mommy, Daddy, Ethan and Hannah when we ask who’s who.

Food and Feeding

Loves homecooked rice and porridge. She has already started rejecting some foods by shaking her head and saying “No no no!”

Sunday at Hannah’s Sports Day 2015

Emma at 28 Months

Amen!

The Block Stacking Game

Emma at 27 Months

We had a Hard Rockin’ Weekend!

Emma at 26 Months

Battling Bronchitis

We’ve Been Busy…

Emma at 25 Months

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