Nadine ... Nadal???

Our living room faces the tennis court. So Nadine sees people playing tennis all the time, and she always tries to imitate. She'll use whatever longish apparatus she can find as racket, and try to hit the ball around.

Mummy decided to ask Uncle Andy, a certified tennis coach, to come and teach her how to play tennis. Of course she's too young to be really learning how to play tennis. But it was a good session for her to develop some ball sense, play with the racket, and expend her boundless energy! And Nadine really enjoyed herself. Thank you Uncle Andy!

Pseudosquint

Recently, Nadine's Pseudosquint seems to be worse. It's a lot more frequent, so much so that a few people have pointed it out to Daddy and Mummy. So we sent an email to Dr Julian Theng, the eye specialist whom we consulted about a year ago, with a couple of recent photos of Nadine.

Dr Theng replied promptly to say he still thinks it's just a Pseudosquint and nothing to be concerned with. But of course we can bring Nadine to him for another consultation if we want to.

Daddy then went online to do some research, and this is what he found out:

Pseudosquint (pseudostrabismus) is the appearance of a squint when the eyes are actually straight.

When you look at your child, it may look as if one of his/her eyes is turning inwards or outwards, but the eyes may in fact be straight.

What causes Pseudosquint?

Pseudosquint is caused by a child’s facial appearance.

This may be due to the width of the bridge of the nose, excess skin around the nose or the distance between the eyes.

Sometimes the shape of the face/eyes may add to this appearance.

Will my child always look like this?

No. Usually, this appearance improves with age, as the bridge of the nose narrows and the folds of the eyelid skin disappear.

How can I tell the difference?

If you shine a light on your child’s eyes, you will be able to see a reflection on the front surface of the pupils (black part in the middle of each eye).

If the eyes are straight, the light reflection will be in the same place in each eye. A child with pseudosquint will have these normal reflections.

If there is a squint, the reflections will be in a different place in each eye.

It is a good idea to look for the reflections on photographs of your child.

He then examined a number of Nadine's photos, and found that the reflections are always in the same place. Heng ah! So it is a Pseudosquint!

Aaron - 2 months old

At 2 months old, Aaron is 5.5 kg, and about 57 cm long. He's growing really fast. He's a smiley boy, and can be quite talkative, constantly gurgling and cooing when he's awake. Yes, he still sleeps a lot. When he's on his tummy, he'll turn his head from one side to the other a lot, and do a lot of mini push-ups. He enjoys watching the mobile, and talking to the "insects" on the mobile.

Here's Aaron "playing" with Mummy and Cheh-Cheh.

Air Jordans

Daddy bought a pair of Air Jordan for Aaron during his recent work trip to the US - similar to the pair he has. Last Sunday, father and son dressed alike, and wore their matching Air Jordans to church. Daddy was beaming with pride and joy.

He bought Nadine a pair of Nike shoes from the same trip too. Mummy kept thinking that it's too big, but when Daddy tried it on Nadine last Sunday, it fitted nicely! Would have wasted the shoes if we kept it any longer!

Lantern Festival

After Friday equipping last week, the kids played with lanterns. The original idea is for them to walk round the church with their lanterns. But the parents made a mistake by starting the walk near the playground - the kids didn't want to leave the playground after that.

Amidst all the excitement and tiring efforts of getting all the kids to assemble, hold their lanterns properly, and walk together, Mummy forgot to set the camera to a "dark" setting. So most of the photos turned out blur. :-(

Getting the kids ready

Luanne and her little fish lantern

Ethan and Nadine posing

And the best photo of the night - of Aunty Lydia and Uncle Ben, carrying their kids' lanterns while the kids are happily playing at the playground.

Nadine - 32 months old

Nadine is showing more and more of her athletic self as she grows. When she was younger, we could already see that aspect of hers from her running and climbing around. At 32 months, it's even more apparent from the way she plays at the playground. She's very fast, nimble and agile, and importantly, very gungho - willing and daring to try.

Here's Nadine walking across a 'net bridge'.

Climbing up a 'loopy' ladder

Attempting the monkey bars, with Daddy's help.

Look-alike

Some people have commented that Aaron looks like Nadine when Nadine was young. Daddy and Mummy think so too. But when Mummy was trying to find photos of the two of them to match their looks, they don't seem to look so alike afterall!

Aaron - 6 weeks old

Aaron could lift his head up while lying on his tummy at less than 2 weeks, breaking Cheh-Cheh's record of 2 weeks. But Mummy has not been able to take any photos of him lifting his head until today.

A week ago, when we brought him to Dr Loy to check on his nasal congestion and for his 1-month check-up, he was 4.1 kg and 53 cm long. Today, he's 5 kg! Cheh-Cheh was also 5 kg at 6 weeks. If Aaron continues to grow at the same rate as Cheh-Cheh had, then he'll be a little Michelin Man soon!

Sleeping with Hopkins

Kids really say and do the darnest things.

Last week, while Mummy was checking her work emails on her office laptop, Nadine decided that she wanted to imitate Mummy. So Mummy opened up a blank Word document, and showed her how to type. Nadine was obviously amused that as she hits the keyboard, letters actually appear on the screen. Then when Bibi asked her if she still wanted to follow her downstairs, she replied, "No, I'm working!"!!!!

And on Saturday, she decided to jump into this frog laundry bin and take her nap in it. She said "Hopkins also wanna sleep."

Hopkins is the name of the frog in Baby Signing Time, and Nadine calls all frog toys and anything with a frog logo Hopkins.

SingKids

Last Monday, Daddy and Mummy brought the kids to SingKids at VivoCity. Nadine had great fun playing in the various sections of this indoor playground.

She chased after the balloons ....

stacked the cubes ...

rode the caterpillar-lookalike merry-go-round ... and just enjoyed running around, in general.

And while Mummy was chasing after Nadine, trying to capture some decent photos, Daddy and Aaron will snoozing at one corner, oblivious of the screaming kids.