My Thoughts on Parenthood

Today I suddenly feel a lot of 感触。(erm dunno is it the right word to use, my mandarin cannot make it. Daddy is always laughing at the words I "invent")

I feel that our lives revolve around baby ashlynn. Tomorrow is a public holiday, we ask each other "where are we bringing ashlynn?" instead of "where you wanna go?". We decided to bring her cycling after seeing how fun it can be from the blogs of our forum friends. Before we embarked on the adventure, lots of preparation and planning was done. I quickly bought a tube of California Baby sunblock to prevent the harmful UV rays. And we are going down to Tampines Mall to shop for a hat/cap for her to block off the glaring sun. Too bad I can't buy a pair of sunglasses for her in time.

In the past, I consider myself a shopping queen. Now, we realised that we only shop for ashlynn's stuffs. Even daddy asked me how come I have stopped buying shoes for myself. I actually find more pleasure in shopping for our bao bei's clothes. We are always coming up with reasons to spend on her. Sometimes, I even thought that we should hold back on no. 2 plan as I don't want our love for her to be shared.

Tomorrow is also our 3rd ROM anniversary. Daddy is being secretive about where he is bringing me for dinner tomorrow. I reckon it should be somewhere quite nice as he asked me to dress up. keke... After months of being so auntie, perhaps he feels that mummy should doll up for a change. Oh yes, ashlynn is tagging along.

Instead of giving myself a break on a public holiday, I just popped by at NTUC to do some grocery shopping. At the cashier, I realised that all the things I bought are for ashlynn. I bought some Heinz jar foods and bottled juice (to ease her constipation), spinach, carrot and tofu. I am going to make porridge with these tomorrow. Hopefully she will enjoy eating her porridge more. By the way, there is an ongoing promotion at NTUC. Spend $5 worth of Heinz Baby products and get a 125ml bottle of apple and prune juice free. Jut nice! That was what I intend to get.

Looking forward to our activities tomorrow.

P/S: Daddy, can I get some new clothes for the occasion tomorrow?

Mummy

Renise's Full Month Celebration - 27 Sep '08

We brought ashlynn to attend one of our kaki's daugther's full month celebration at Amici Italian Restaurant at Holland Village yesterday. When I carried baby Renise, I realised that can't remember Ashlynn being that tiny. Actually I can't even remember exactly how ashlynn looks like when she was one month old.

At a point, Renise was hungry and Wendi had to breastfeed her, I suddenly felt that I missed those days of latching Ashlynn. In fact, I stopped breastfeeding when ashlynn was about 2 months old? I relied on exclusive pumping to maintain my supply and provide ashlynn with the goodness of breastmilk. I remembered about a month back, i tried latching on ashlynn again. She totally refused to take my nipple and even spit it out. I found it saddening and funny at the same time. The reason why I stopped latching ashlynn was because she dis not seemed to take in enough as she was forever falling asleep on my breast. She was not able to drain my breast and I was too lazy to pump after latching, hence the decision to pump totally. But I made up my mind, I am going to be hardworking when I have my no. 2. Latch and pump. I want to enjoy and not dread the feeling of breastfeeding as I will most likely close shop after no. 2.

Ashlynn refused to look at the camera. This is Amici Italian Restaurant. Nice ambience.
Jovi is very handsome, so we requested to take picture with him. Haiz.. Ashlynn looked away again.
This is baby Renise! Very cute sleeping position. She was very well behaved. I remembered ashlynn was so cranky during her full month celebration. Kept on demanding to be carried.
This is Wendi, Robin and their older daughter Rheanne. Look, Wendi is so slim like she never give birth before. I think I was not as slim during ashlynn's full month. The power of breastfeeding!
Mummy

Ashlynn's First Tooth - 24 Sep '08

Yes, it's out! We all felt it last night. Grandma told me she felt it when cleaning her mouth in the morning. I stuck my fingers onto her lower gum and squealed in excitment when I felt it too. Daddy smiled with delight when he felt it too. The whole family was excited.

Erm... Actually we didn't see it. But it is definitely out. We all felt it.

Going to miss our bao bei's toothless grin...

What an irony right? I have been waiting for her teeth to sprout out. Now I say I will miss her toothless grin. Well, that's what life is about.

Mummy

Ashlynn Can Stand! 21 Sep '08

We had nothing better to do. So we made ashlynn stand up in her cot and started taking pictures of her. She co-orporated with us and stood there for quite long while we were snapping away.

Mummy

Westside Gathering Pictures

Some picture to share...

Babies all over. Mummies and daddies controlling the crowd.

Busy babies. Gwendolyn and ashlynn sharing a toy.

What happened to Heidi? Who pushed her?

Arielle got the treasure! The yellow box!Emma and Gwendolyn engaged in their own activities.
Cat fight! What can be more delicious than this blue star?Oh oh... Blue star is confiscated.

Longing for the blue star...
Photo time! Daddies busy snapping pictures. We were like movie stars for that moment.
It's a pity that daddy didn't managed to take more pictures of other babies. Next gathering mummy will ask him to be more hardworking!

Mummy

Westside Gathering - 20 Sep '08

We joined in the Feb Mummies westside gathering hosted by Aunt Jeannie though we are actually east-siders. Since we are visiting ah ma, so it's actually convenient for us.

We brought our bumper mat along as we are expecting 10 babies and 20 adults. People who turned up are me+daddy+ashlynn, tubao+hubby+emma, isobellies+ethan, jass+hubby+matthew, cheryl+hubby+vernon, lezy+hubby+ruth, garfield+hubby+arielle, qingling+heidi and not forgetting jeannie+hubby+gwendolyn. The babies were all over the place, looking for toys to chew on. The adults were busy chatting, pacifying babies, taking pictures abd pulling toys out from the babies mouth.

Some awards which I want to present to the babies:
Most independent baby award - Heidi
Most talkative award - Gwendolyn
Most well-behaved baby award - Emma
Most sunshine/sporty award - Matthew
Biggest baby award - Vernon
Longest hair award - Ruth
Best psychomotor skills award - Arielle
Coolest baby award - Ethan
and the Smallest baby award, needless to say, goes to Ashlynn Wong Jing Jie!

Ok, going for lunch now. Will write more when I come back.

Mummy

Ashlynn's First Fall - 19 Sep '08

Ashlynn fell down from the granny's bed yesterday. It was early in the morning, granny got up from bed to prepare ashlynn's breakfast. Thinking that grandpa was beside her and the other side of the bed has been well cushioned with a bolster and pillow, granny thought it was safe to leave the room for awhile. As soon as she finished putting the milk into the warmer, she heard a loud thump. She thought something fell. Following that was ashlynn's cries. Her said her heart fell. Grandpa woke up asking what happened. Granny said "ashlynn 掉下来!" Alamak, I think granny must have felt so worried and guilty. Ashlynn fell from the front of the bed. Omigod! She said if ashlynn showed symptoms of vomitting or any signs of unwell, she was going to send her to the hospital.

Well, I guess it's a learning experience for all of us. Never underestimate what a baby can do.

Mummy

Mooncake Festival - 14 Sep '08

Didn't do much on mooncake festival. It was drizzling, so we didn't bring ashlynn out to carry lantern. We popped by granny's place to have dinner and spent the evening there.

Ashlynn has a new toy. Grandpa bought it for her from Toy'R'Us.
Ashlynn also received some form of training on standing. We had a good laugh on how silly she looked standing in the laundry basket. Grandpa was the one who started putting ashlynn in it.

Mummy

Photoshoot

Some pretty pictures of Ashlynn before we set off for the gym class yesterday!

Love Daddy

JWT Gym Trial Class - 13 Sep '08

Due to change of plans, we decided to bring ashlynn to join caden in the JWT Gym trial class. It was located at East Coast, pretty close to our place. We reached there to be received by the friendly staff. I will say that the place looks impressive. Very well equipped with activity stations that were colourful. There were 4 babies there for the trial class, including ashlynn and caden.

I can't really remember the sequence of activities, as there were too many and very fast. The class began with introduction of the babies. The trainer demonstrated some massage techniques. There was singing of songs and rattling of toys. The babies got to sit on a rocking toy, swayed on a gym ball, sat on a swing and even got to go on the "flying fox". They were also rolled on a huge cylindrical cushioned thingy. They got some hands on activities like playing with colourful balls and cloths.

Some differences between BJG and JWT Gym:
JWT Gym focused on physical activities while BJG had more mental activities.
JWT Gym definitely invested in more infrastructure.
BJG was more structured with the trainer leading the activities, while in JWT Gym, many activites were carried out on our own.

We went for lunch together after that and bid farewell from there.

Dinner was with ah ma and ah gong to celebrate ah gong's birthday. Ah ma and ah gong must be delighted to see that ashlynn does not cry now when carried by them.

Before the class. keke... mummy is actually a vainpot who likes to take photos. So I find all opportunities to pose with ashlynn.
The class started with some simple stretching exercises.

That's daddy's hands massaging ashlynn
Ashlynn on the rocking animal. Dunno what it is.

Mummy again! keke...

Daddy's turn to pose
Ashlynn wants to pose too!
Ashlynn wants to be a dancer. She can sit quite well. But can suddenly flop down without warning.
Ashlynn on "flying fox"

Caden on "flying fox". He definitely enjoy it more than ashlynn.
Ashlynn on swing


Timeout! Match-Making session with in-laws to-be. haha...

Erm... ashlynn seems more captivated by caden daddy?
Caden sayang ashlynn
Is that the way you reciprocate by pulling caden's hair?
All babies amused with colourful balls

Ashlynn's favourite rattles
Engrossed in shaking

Ashlynn doesn't really seem to enjoy the class. Maybe she was sleepy as she fell asleep during lunch. Or maybe she is not so much a "physical" baby?

Mummy