Approved!

Yeay! LOA approved until end of the year. But my manager asked me to go back to work as soon as i have settled my maid issue. I'm very excited now... Life is not so bad afterall :)

I can plan andrea's 3rd birthday in June & Ben's 1st birthday in October!!

I can experience SAHM lifestyle, i know it's not easy. Right now i'm working from home afternoon i already feel conflict, working mum and house wife really different, in terms of expectation & attitude needs adjustment. Need to set my mental expectation right. Hope my maid will come before my 6 months holiday ends. I need time for myself too :(

My Oh Andrea

Andrea is very rebellious lately & she likes to speak in a certain slang that i think she picked up from school. It's quite annoying to hear it at times & sometimes she will answer you in a rude way. Many times when i talk to her, she doesn't want to look at me. I have to ask her to look at me when I'm talking to her & has to answer me when i ask her a question. I don't know why my girl has become like that.

At dinner time is the worst, she will not want to eat & I will be screaming after her. After 2 days of screaming i feel very sick of doing it, i just feel very tired to even talk to her. I tried so many methods like asking her to stand at the corner, not bringing her out if she does not finish her dinner, cannot play with my iphone games if she does not finish her dinner. She just do not understand the reasoning although i thought she does. I guess, how smart a 3 years old can be, their understanding of reasoning has to be short & simple. I will be moving back to my own house in June, i just home her bad attitude will change when we are not living with grandparents.

Drinking Improvement

Benjamin has slight improvement in his milk intake. After changing the teats - NUK 6-12 months teats, he drank more. At one go he can take at least 1.5oz to 2.5oz. At times he can finish 3oz in half an hour. I have stop solid for him now because his cough is not improving, there is alot of phlegm today. I guess i need to bring him to see doctor by next week if his condition is not improving. Andrea too needs to see doctor as her cough also last for 2 weeks now. I don't know why my kids has weak lungs.

Cross-Crawling

Ben is way ahead of his crawling milestone, that makes me alittle worry if this is normal. Tomorrow he will be full six months but he already did cross-crawling. According to GD method that i have attended few years back by Dr. Laila, all children must go thru physical milestone in order to tell the brain is developing properly, skipping milestone is not a good sign, although some parents are happy that their baby did not crawl & start walking instead, the impact will be seen when the child gets older. One of the physical milestone is crawling. All babies should crawl in this sequence 1.commando crawling 2.crawling on same side (left hand & left leg) 3.cross-crawling (left hand & right leg), then only can start walking. 

Andrea did the cross-crawling only when she was 8 months old, ben merely touch 6 months he already did this!! However he had 1 & 2 above for a very short while and did not do it all the time, he always wants to get on his knees and always did 'downward dog' pose which is very scary to look at. 2 above is very short (less than a week), after he learns to sit on his own unassisted (on his knees to sitting position on his own), he go straight to cross crawling. I notice he did the cross crawling on last friday. Oh BOY.. that's really FAST!

The only thing that i can think of to stimulate the brain is the brain supplement recommended by Shichida. I did not do flash cards or whatsoever or eat omega pills or do special exercise to ben (I am too too busy without a maid). So i just eat! haha .... Or it is inborn? I've no idea.. the brain supplement is actually concentration of fruits & vege. I don't know if this helps either. I just hope ben is normal.

Ben is down with flu & cough... the cough is getting bad... today is the 3rd day... if tonight he doesn't get any better, i would need to bring him to see dr. Poor Boy... now i just use the physio method to pat his lungs & vibrate. Hope his own body will fight over the virus & heal himself.

Want to add another thing, i fed him sweet potato & he had diarrhea. Poor Boy, Mummy is so sorry to make you sick. I fed him rice cereal for almost 2 weeks & was OK, Dr. even asked me to feed him porridge, chicken & fish... so i thought sweet potato is OK. I think Ben's internal organ is not mature enough to take sweet potato, so i guess i will wait for another 2 weeks to try again.

Shichida 2010 Term 1 update

We did not stop andrea from going to shichida, although i have a strong urge to do so. I was so frustrated that she does not want to concentrate in class & got everything wrong! Luckily hubby is patient enough, he bring andrea to class every weekend without miss & practice linking memory with her at home. Luckly i bought the linking memory set the other day when i felt that andrea is hopeless, this set helps her alot now & i can see hubby is always so proud of her when the class ended every week.

Here is what i heard from hubby about her improvement in class. She always has her ESP almost perfect some class were 100% correct, always finish ahead of her classmates (blocks, tracing, weekly different activities), confident enough to sing in front of her class & her speech is very clear, last but not least - linking memory is perfect (well of course, because we did home practice. However other kids were still struggling). Linking memory for 3 years old is to memorize 50 pictures, they have done this for 1 term, but i heard that they are still continue to use this for term 2.

Personally i felt that home environment is very important for the child. If they feel loved & secure at home, they can learn & absorb information very fast. I'm so sorry that I've hurt my girl last time, I hope she will continue to be a cheerful girl. I have also play alpha wave CD to her every night, her behavior seems to have improve after 2-3 months. She did not cry when i drop her off to school now, and did not cry when i pick her up (she sees me she will cry, i think she missed me alot at school last time), she did not cry when i ask her to take her nap, most importantly she score very well in schichida class. I'm very proud of her!

Down with Flu

This is the 1st time ben is sick (fever & flu). Gosh... it's hard to handle, i did not sleep for 2 nights now. I only had cat nap for not more than 1 hour & has to wake up thru out the night. I hope tonight will be better.

Ben had running nose yesterday & had high fever today. we fed him medicine & it's killing.. he would scream and spit out everything & get himself choke! very dramatic ... after the medicine he felt so tired and sleep, but not more than 1 hour. I do not know if he has enough rest as well. Sigh...

I think he got the virus from his sister. Andrea had sorethroat & fever for the past few days & had high fever on last saturday but had recover by sunday. Monday ben start running nose already :(

LOA Plans

My Manager told me that our BUE verbally approve on my LOA, now needs to go thru the formal HR process.. hope everything goes smoothly... the best thing is i still get my medical benefit!

When not working, i definitely need to make good use of my time:
1. Dig up recipes for Andrea & Ben. Start cooking for them
2. Organize house expenses once again
3. Draw up interior design for our new house & estimate cost for furniture/ fittings

Good enough for 6 months. Make sure i achieve it!

Back at work

It's feels good to be back at work after 1 week holiday. At least i have 3 hours away from ben, the demanding creature! He's terrible, he will cry when see you walk away... i need to put him on my lap when i do things & carry him everywhere i go. Likes to make me crazy by not drinking his milk, i need to breastfeed him to make him drink! yi wood day master is very manipulative!

I've talked to my manager about resigning end of may. She suggest that i take LOA (leave of absence), well i said if can then i will take if not then i will just resign. Now i wonder if my Husband has been praying to GOD that i will become a bunny instead of a fierce tiger at home! Until today i cannot believe i have to end up not working. I always have plans for my future hoping that i won't end up in a situation like now, So STUCK. I feel like being forced by the universe to stay at home. Staying at home and has no income meaning i have to treat my hubby better, have to obey everything he says .. to ensure he is happy so that he will bring me out & spend on me. Come to think of it, i think it's good for me to let go of my egoistic behavior, my 2010 resolution gave me chance to improve my shortcoming.

Hope they will give me LOA, so i can resume to work next year! I still cannot let go of my $$! haha... tsk tsk.... if it's yours, it's yours ....

Solid

Today marked the 1st day of ben swallowing his rice cereal. I've started to let him try the rice cereal yesterday. Yesterday he open his mouth once but close like a clam after that. Today he open his mouth and spit out the cereal for a few mouth, after talking to him he get the idea of chewing & swallow. How amazing. This is the 1st time I'm experiencing it. Andrea time was done by my mum & maid. 

Ben weight 6.4kg, thank god he put on weight despite only drinking 2oz 2 hour. He is very tall now, above average according to the chart = 68cm. He just had his 5 in 1 jap on last Friday. 

Ben is also crawling now (can move to the place he wants to go, but take longer time). 

TW - 10 Apr 2010

This new term, ben has 2 more new friends. All of them are boys!! No pretty girls to see....

Anyway, the class was OK... many inputs ... like ppl teaching you from an encyclopedia, the amount of information is fantastic, alot of things i myself do not know too. All i can say, TW is on information input, very much like GD. 

I bought bumbo to class, due to the pain on my shoulder blade. I have been carrying ben too much... I just hope my hands will be stronger, pls grow stronger for this period of time. No one is helping me!!! Ben can sit longer in his bumbo but once in a while still want to fall out from the chair. He just like to do that & made me scared! I think i need to sell my bumbo away, only used 1 month +!! 

What i like: - Country for today: india, large vehicle, animals in africa, mosaic 

Pangkor Laut III

We have just came back from Pangkor laut again, yes we went there the third time. The 1st impression of my friend would be "har going there again? no other place to go?" Well, i think really no other place that can compare to this place, especially with 2 young kids.

What we like:
(1) Hassle free trip. Once arrive at jetty office, staff will bring our luggage from our car, basically we do not need to touch our luggage until it is placed in our room. When check out, we just leave the bag in our room and collect it at the jetty office. We have 4 bags for 3D2N trip! We definitely need this service.
(2) Value for money. The food is so expensive & the rooms are clean (cleaner clean the room twice a day, change the towel twice a day!) The package include all these. However i must say that the food are not as nice as previously now. However, on our second night, the food was OK abit, cos the chef is back. 1st night the chef with tall hat was not there.
(3) comfortable service. As it is a private island, hence the beach has less people. The staff will put on chair towel for you & give u a towel for body. One thing i like, they give u mineral water & it is placed into an ice bucket! of course, all these are FOC. To me water is important so that we will not be dehydrated when we are on holiday.
(4) Big bath tub. Andrea loves bath tub, hence this is perfect for her. Ben also likes bath tub, it can fit 4 of us! hahaa....
(5) Comfortable speed boat. No one feels nausea after the ride, and never seen anyone puking after the ride. luxury speed boat, very clean & white. 3 times we went, still in very good condition.

(6) Lastly, Room upgrades! We get the beach villa this time. It's so convenient! 

Going out with the kids is fun, despite constantly carrying ben & talk sense into andrea, both of them makes my heart melt. I love them too much. Hubby is a great helper lately, I feel less stressful now. The unfortunate thing happened was, my old maid text me and inform me that she will not be coming back to help us. Well, that means i need to find a new maid all over again & i think i need to resign from work now. Work boss is not supportive, house is in a mess.... if not me, who else can help me & my home? Only one thing i feel reluctant to let go... my monthly $$ :( I don't think i can ever earn this much if i completely stop working :( 

Kids + hubby... I hope you will appreciate me more because I've sacrifice my work for you ... I don't know why no one can help me with my home ... ;( being a SAHM is not my dream ..... 

TW - 20 Mar 2010

Ben is now put in a one to one class. I don't know to be happy or not because i know i should be. I'm paying for a class that should have other kids but now im getting a one to one class. Im not so comfortable because ben is still small sometimes he needs to take time off (like walking or looking elsewhere or talking to me), i feel bad if i don't make ben look at the teacher & i feel bad if ben doesn't pay attention. I feel very stressful to make sure ben is always there to look at the teacher.

I've wasted 2 classes, they offer to replace it but i just don't feel like going plus i do not have time for replacement class right now. Tomorrow have to go again! sigh.. I hope ben can really benefit from it. If not it's really waste of time & energy & money.