Where is MeiMei 妹妹?

It is a question which we like to ask the boys :)

Wei and Kang : They know Mummy's round-belly nurtures our baby, but they have different opinions on where baby will come out from @@@ hee hee.

Yi : When we ask the Q, he will follow his brothers, and poke/sayang Mummy's stomach..so sweet.


Another favourite Q :
Who can help Daddy/Mummy take care of 妹妹? and share your toys?

1.Wei has a Big heart, and we can count on him to take care of his siblings. Always helpful and patient. (just don't meddle with his cars!! as Kang/Yi has got scoldings from Wei before..ouch)


2. Kang is mischievous by nature, and is always breaking the rules. Only when we have Yi, did we see the gentle side of him :) Kang "volunteers" his service, although his attention span is short. Well, some help is better than no help haha.

As Kang is middle child, he is the bridge between Wei and Yi, and he bonds easily with both. (we do notice Yi likes to mingle more with 二哥, that includes playing and fighting. ) Yi is smallest, but he is smart enough to hit and run !! When his brothers retaliate, this baby guerrilla will cry for mummy/daddy and act pitiful.

3. Yi might be too young to understand what it means to be promoted to 三哥. But he is already clinging ever so closely to Mummy. He is worried once 妹妹comes out, Mummy/Daddy might pay less attention to him :(


Mummy's due date is 08June, but we are expecting our baby to come earlier.
Wei - earlier by 3 weeks
Kang - 2 weeks
Yi - 3 weeks
妹 - Mummy is already complaining that she feels more Pregnant with this baby than the boys :) and wants to reduce food intake (Daddy will say Mummy is crazy, just eat normal, and leave the rest to nature)


Anticipation
Even though she is our 4th baby, Daddy is still feeling nervous.

We really miss the baby-smell from the boys, now they are
sweating more often yucks :p

Looking back, when Daddy/Mummy first knew that our Baby has no "birdie" during our routine Gynae visits, the feeling was better than striking lottery :o
It is a blessing to have a healthy baby, but if baby is a Girl, a Bonus :)

Every outing is precious, and fun

At times, we do not know what to expect, so we let the kids lead us, just bring them out and see what they can do.

A patch of green..
.. stretch of sandy beach..
.. puddle of water..
.. ants and butterflies..
.. flower and tree ..

All simple things, which adults are likely to miss.
But from a kid's points of view, it means endless fun, and creativity !!

I would never know about our abundant gardens, beaches, parks, and even farms, if not for the kids. If I run out of ideas to go, just google and search through other parent's blogs :p
And most of this places of interests are free ...

Now, Daddy used to think Shopping centres and movies are cool.
What have I been missing :)

Cheers, to more excursions with our kids.

Jacob Ballas Children's garden

We heard a lot about Jacob Ballas Garden. However we actually pop into Botanic garden first. Luckily, we saw the directional signs.

Along the way, we saw some Swans.

This Tree figurine was interesting, as it depicts children as branches. We also saw a lot of old folks who just finished their morning walk.

Daddy was playing hide and seek in this maze, and Kang was running very close to Wei, as he was worried about being left behind.

Kang :Who want to buy my Ka-Chiang puTeh?

Kids had fun learning about water, photosynthesis. They had more fun playing with the mist and looking at the durian glow.

We drop by the waterfall. Short respite from the merciless Sun.

We survive the suspension bridge (Kang begs to differ)

Kang's face was tense. He was afraid to let go of his hands, and froze whenever his brothers jumps and shakes the bridge.
Yi did not show any hesitation. (Hokkien phase --> little calf knows no tiger !!)

When the children saw this tree house, no need any instructions, their instinct took over !!

Wei and Kang was up the ladder and stairs in a jiffy.
..coming down through the slide was fast.. no inhibition.. just do it.

Daddy has to hug Yi up the house, as he was exclaiming and gesturing wildly below :p
Wei to Yi : look at Daddy camera.

Next stop, human evolution (homosapians transformation) hee hee


This garden is packed with fun at every corner. Wei will say "Cool".

Highlight of the day. Waterplay. What better way to cool down in this Hot weather? The kids were totally drenched, but nobody mind.


All the children making merry. Yi just has to follow his brothers.

Breakdancing brothers !!

Whenever Yi goes to the center, and water starts spurting again, he will run back to daddy. Act cute?

Video : Water and laughter

We were hungry after all the fun. Our mini picnic.

Yi drinking milk and sweating at the same time.

Will definitely come back again. We spent only 2 hours here, but the Sun and perspiration were overbearing . Botanic garden is hugh, and Daddy thought it was just a garden in Orchard. (Mountain tortoise)

Car Grooming service..will work for food

It was amazing how much dirt and rubbish can be found in our car. Kids would be having their breakfast, munching cookies in the afternoon, and sometimes spilled milk. Roaches has been sighted before !! Anyway, Daddy drag us to vacumn the car today. Daddy say we need to know how to keep a car clean.





Look at us, do we look professional?
We clean the carpet, followed by a vacumn.
Sweet wrappers, bread crumbs, even sweet was found.
Who is the culprit?








Looking at the last picture, Daddy is happy that we did a good job. He promised ice cream.

## We are so going to Swenson ##

brought Yi to Jab

Yi is due for his Jab. We brought him to our regular Doc at Thomson Medical.
He was strong and did not cry.

Yi did look back to see what had bitten his buttock, then proceed to munch on his cookie.
He is a commando.

Looking back, Wei and Kang also never cry during their regular injections.


Anyway, once we were home, Daddy found the two plasters on Yi's buttock comical. Yi was running around half-naked.

Airport

We went to the airport for some planes sighting, and lunch.

Everybody pose next to the egg-like sculpture.

Wei waiting for the the next sky train.


Naughty Kang posing cheeky picture. Photo taken by Wei.

After lunch, it did not took long for Yi to fall into his dreamworld again.

Kang: See, I can box myself.

A380, getting ready to depart.

Big flower at the lobby.


Airport is still one of our favourite place to visit. There is ample space for everybody to run.
And endless airplanes taking off or landing.

who is minding the children?Childcare?Maid?Inlaws?

Every parent has to find a caretaker. We face the same dilemma few years back.

1)Maid - no way. Too many horror stories.
2) Parents and InLaws-they want to enjoy their afternoon teas/ Taiji, rather than change nappies..
3) Childcare Agencies- All our kids started from 2 months except for Wei, 5 months plus.

Why do we place our kids in childcare?
4. for Wei, we did not have an option. So chuck him into an Infant school.
Initially it was tough for me and wifey to leave him "alone".
- How will our baby survive?
- Can we trust the teachers to dote on our little darlings?

5. Seeing how Wei adapted in school, it gives us confidence to drop Kang/Yi into early Infant care :)

Advantage of Childcare
- kids more sociable and likely more independent, eat/sleep/bath/toiletTrain themselves
- adapt faster to new environment
- knows how to Share, Cooperate and live in a community
- set the foundation to prepare kiddos for primary schools

Negative points of Childcare
- contagious disease (HFMD, ChickenPox, flu, infection). Sure to raise every parent's anxiety :p
- school teachers are poached regularly. Impact is worse for smaller schools, as they do not have "standby" staffs. Children can be traumatised by new faces every so often.

Point Of View (if parents are interested to go the childcare path)
- manage our own expectations. We started with high expectations, but got a lot of disappointments. I am not saying Parents should settle for less, but reality today is we have to pay higher premium to get top-notch services.

- child development is shared responsibility between parents /teachers/management.But we do encounter a lot of parents who "delegate" teachers for everything.

Sadly, our childcare industry is still working in an environment whereby profitability/bottomline, has higher weightage over passion :)
** will this change as the society becomes more affluent?
* we do hope MCYS' vision to overhaul childcare industry (bring in more teachers, raise service standards) will have a positive impact on the industry

- Babybonus is a great help for parents, and the money can be used for school curriculum, medication etc. It certainly makes our baby-making decision easier :)

Taking of care of a kid is never easy, we shall face the challenge together and take it one step at a time :)


Edited 04Oct2009
If you should wish to hire a maid, this website alerts you to potential pitfalls
-->http://singaporemaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/about-my-maids.html

Joley Birthday

We celebrated Joley mei mei's 1 year old birthday.
There was so much food..yum yum.

The boys went around the condo, and decided Tennis was interesting.

Then they engage in satay-football.

Ready for the cake?

Patrick TuaKoo, and Sharon TuaKim are happy mummy/daddy.
Jie Jie Kara is happy to bask in limelight :)

1,2,3 blow.

Our beloved/prized trophy !!

Come, now who wants to have the first slice...All children Fall in.

Durian craving

Choo was craving for durian.

Daddy brought some from NTUC, sorry Geylang too far away :p

Is that Yi chomping on Durian?
Mind you, this is 猫山王, bitter, and this boy just came back for more, and more.

Look at his tummy. Impressive.


Final tally :
Daddy - 6
Mummy - 2 , but very satisfied
Yi - 1
Wei - 1, but he commented yucks.
Kang - 0, not feeling well, too bad.

No April fool's week

This week was tiring.

Sat/Sun - Yi was still drooling massively, as we can see his molar appearing.
He got fever, and diarrhoea intermittently.

Mon - Yi recovers and goes back to school, only to find out his girlfriend got infected with HFMD !!

Oh no, we fear for the worst.
Not only is Yi at risk, he can also pass the germs to his elder brothers :(
Luckily he has remain strong thus far, and not fallen sick yet.
.... keeping our fingers cross.

Wed - Kang got high fever, and Mummy has to isolate him from his schoolmates. After taking medication, his condition stabilise. Bought him to see Doctor in the evening. Infection, green nose discharge, more antibiotic for him. When we see Kang running and perspiring (instead of getting listless), we felt relieve.

Thu - Kang got high fever again. Hope he will recover before the weekend.