Reliving the baby days

Aaron has inspired Nadine to want to be a baby again. Maybe it's her way of seeking attention. She wants to sleep in Di-Di's cot, and loves wearing his mittens. But to her credit, she does not bully Di-Di in order to get attention, and has been quite a good helper. She plays with Di-Di, and helps Mummy to throw Di-Di's soiled diaper into the bin, and clothes into the laundry bin. Perhaps it's really a girl thing - that the eldest girl will really help to look after her younger siblings.

Slithering baby

Aaron moves a lot when he's sleeping. And we think he'll start crawling very soon.

This afternoon, Mummy laid him in bed perpendicular to the pillows. Half an hour later, he's parallel to the pillows!

In this photo, he's doing his mini push-ups and looking for someone to play with him, at 1am.

Graffiti

Nadine was left alone in her room for 5 min this morning, and she decided to express herself by drawing on the windows.

There was no time for cleaning up nor punishment as we were rushing off to church. But we told her she'll have to clean up the windows when we come back. And we made sure she did that when we got home in the afternoon.

She actually enjoyed cleaning up! So it wasn't much of a punishment. But hopefully she got the point that she has to be responsible for her actions!

Aaron - 2 months 2nd week

Aaron is now 6 kg. He can sometime sleep from feed to feed, but when he's awake, he's really alert and fidgety. He has a very powerful kick and actually, moves a lot in his sleep too. We now often find him in a different position and angle than the one we've put him in when we put him in his cot to sleep, very much like his restless sister.

The best development to-date: for the last 3 nights, Aaron has slept through the night, after his midnight dream feed. Friday, he woke up at 5.30 am, Saturday, he woke up at 6 am, and this morning, he woke up at 5 am. Crossing fingers, toes and eyes .........

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.