Sibling love

Isaac loves football and looks like Caitlin loves watching her koko play.  This is the first time I have heard her laugh out loud like this for so long.  The whole scene really melted my heart and makes motherhood so worthwhile.  I pray that this will be the beginning of years of sibling love. 

What Isaac's been up to

Isaac's social life is much better than us, with birthday parties nearly every other weekend :)  This means buying lots of cards and presents.  The good thing is this is the only way to get you to practice writing as you love writing on cards for your friends.  You somehow dislike holding a pen/pencil and has no confidence in writing.  So any amount of practice is good :)

At 'M's party in Farmer Teds

School has ended for him, and in the last week was Sports Day!  We were all invited to attend.  Out of all the games, he liked relay running the best.

 

He also got his first bike, dinosaur themed again (his fascination for it past few months).  He did struggle initially to cycle but learnt how to within a few minutes in the toy shop itself (with the little support wheels of course).  Since then, he has been wanting us to move out the car so he can drive in the driveway.  Unfortunately he still doesn't know how to brake so he still needs constant supervision for now.

  

 We made a day trip to Manchester and unknowingly chose the hottest day to go.  Thankfully you both tolerated the heat quite well :)

More funny comments:

When Sai Yi visited recently
Sai yi: How old are you Isaac?
Isaac (with a HUGH Sigh):  I'm STILL 3.  I will be 4 in September
(He asks if it's september every week!!)

After buying the bike,
Me: Isaac, can you fetch Caitlin and go out and about?
Isaac: But there's no basket Mummy!!

We watched lots of Wimbledon and one day I was using his toy racquet to play 'tennis' with him.  I have always taught him to serve the badminton way but this time he threw the ball upwards and attempted to hit it. 
Me:  Isaac, that is not the way to serve
Isaac:  But this is tennis and this is how you start the game.  I saw it on TV.

He loves counting from 1-100 recently.  On a journey back home from Farmer Ted's (obviously very tired), he started counting and we were all joining in the counting.  It stopped at 99 and when I looked in the mirror, he was sound asleep. 

While trying to wake him up from a nap
Me:  Get up.. I think you're recharged now. 
Isaac:  No I'm not.  I want to be very much fully recharged

Caitlin - 12 weeks

It's nearly 3 months now.  We had to say bye bye to popo few weeks ago.  Never mind, she and gong gong will be visiting again and yeh yeh and mah mah have just arrived :)

People keep asking 'Is there a difference between both kids?'  There is definitely some similarities where the both of you look so much like each other, and are very chilled out, cheerful babies that hardly cry.  But, Caitlin, you are much more fussy then your koko and have had difficulties with feeding from day 1, and is making me work much harder to continue breastfeeding you. 

In terms of developments, you smiled genuinely at about 7 weeks, and started cooing shortly, which made your popo so happy to have had conversations with you before she left.  Now, you are really quite chatty and very active, always moving your hands and legs when awake.  You even attempt to sit up and hate to be in a reclining position.  You also sleep better, up to 5 hours sometimes, although it's mostly 3-4 hours.  What else can I say, a girl and hence more 'madam-like' overall compared to Isaac?  Still, I love you to bits and really looking forward to you growing up and able to play with your koko

Still a cheeky boy

Posting a post can take up to a week sometimes as it has to be done in chunks :)

As cheeky as ever

'Mummy, why don't you feed Caitlin on my bed and put me to sleep?  That's a good idea!!'
'We all need to work hard so that we have everything at home.  We can't work softly'
'I'm very good at this, I'm the champion'
'Popo, your hair is getting longer.  Mummy can cut it for you but you need to be brave' (I cut Isaac's hair and he keeps saying he was brave through it)

We do teach him that winning is not everything as long as he's tried his best.  So to make him eat, we 'race' to see who finishes the food first.  This was one evening
Ric: 'I'm finishing my food and I'm going to win'
Isaac: 'Never mind, I tried my best' 

He's been having a good social life with attending a birthday party nearly every other week (making us bankrupt by buying so many presents ;)).  So, this comes up time and time again
Isaac: 'When will I be 4?'
Me: 'Your birthday is in September'
Isaac: 'It's taking a long time for September' or 'Its taking a long time for me to be 4'

He has an obsession with having muscles this period and being strong, and wants to 'show off' his muscles all the time.

 

Life after Caitlin

 

Since the arrival of Caitlin, life is not the same.  Different challenges but there are still lots of fun times.  Isaac has been AMAZING with the arrival of a sister who takes away all his mummy's time.  So, we try and do something each week.

Tried gardening since we were given seeds from a party.  The sunflowers seem to be growing really well

We went up Liverpool wheel and he asked 'Do we have the money now?' He was super happy to go on it

Ric bought him a camera, which costs more than a standard adult camera

Helping out with getting Caitlin's hand and foot prints

Celebrated my birthday - whole month of May is still a blur to me

It was actually time for my parents to leave at 5 weeks but as I found it still a struggle juggling 2 and managing things at home, papa graciously allowed mummy to extend her stay here :)  Thank you so much ma and pa for your sacrifices!! So it was bye bye to 'gong gong' first.

Introducing Caitlin Kia Yi Shwen

Born on 9th April 2013 at 5am, weighing 2.7kg

 

I can't believe my little princess is already 8 weeks old.  This is also how long I have not blogged for.  It has definitely been eventful - mixed feelings of excitement, love, anxiety, and I can say it isn't necessary easier the 2nd time round.

Labour was perfect and couldn't have asked for anything more.  She literally shot out :) The first week was bliss.  I thought everything was going smoothly and wondered what the difficulty or fuss of a 2nd child was about.  I was adrenalin driven!!  Then it all came crashing down in the 2nd week when events included massive weight loss, hospital admission, realising that most of the milk from me was not getting transferred to her and I was making her run a marathon to get food.  Naturally, floodgates opened and there was lots of tears, feelings of guilt, anxiety and the hormones certainly didn't help.  It mainly surrounded the issue of feeding (me wanting to breastfeed and she wouldn't latch properly - same problem I had with Isaac).  So there started the cycle of feeding, topping up and then pumping.  Along with this came stress and sleep deprivation and I also had to devote some time to Isaac, who has been the most amazing, understanding and loving 'koko'.  Seeing how good he is brings me to tears and I just thank God for his maturity.  Yes, I am really happy to be blessed by all that I have. 

We had lots of visitors.  Of course my parents were already here.  All my sisters came for your full moon/thanksgiving tea party.  We had it in Dobbie's cafe (our favourite breakfast place).  Isaac was ecstatic to see everyone and we all had a great time.  Thank you to all for the gifts.

It's now 8 weeks into being a mummy of 2 gorgeous babies (of course I am bias) and there's still lots to learn.  Thank you and forever grateful to all who have been so patient and supportive over the last few weeks (you know who you are).  I suppose there will always be some form of anxiety and worry over the little one, but I need to trust that God will take care of things.

Time with Isaac

I've been advised to spend as much time with Isaac before the arrival of the little one as it will never be the same again.  Coincidentally it was also his school holidays so we have had lots of time together this whole week - Him, my parents and me.  I've really enjoyed it and think he has grown a lot more 'manja' with me.  Ooopppss.. hopefully he'll adjust after the baby comes. 

Some funny/cheeky conversations:

We were driving past 'Liverpool Eye' (big ferris wheel) one day
Me: Look Isaac, its the big wheel!!  Do you want to go on it?
Isaac:  Mummy, we can only go on it when we have the money.
I was stunned for a while until I remembered why he said it and burst out laughing.  He wanted to go on it after the 'Disney on Ice' show (same place) and I said we can't coz we had no money.  Amazing he remembered!!

My mom saw Isaac took 'his' iphone (our old iphone 3) to play
Popo: Isaac, you didn't ask mummy permission to play on the phone
Isaac:  This phone is mine.  I don't need to ask myself
Me *pengsan* 

Isaac:  Popo, you are handsome
Popo:  No, handsome is for boys and beautiful is for girls
Isaac:  But popo, you are handsome like a boy
Popo chuckled as she realised that she was wearing a shirt and a jumper over it and just had a haircut