Asher's & Charlotte's Mum

Siblings - love 'em, hate 'em

2008-04-11T12:45:00.006+08:00

It has been such a long time since I last posted and the kids have grown so much that it's tough trying to keep up with their developments.

People have told me that we're "brave" to have our kids so close in age -and I can see the rationale for having a few years gap between kids - but when I see them together, especially when they're playing with each other, pointing things out to one another and (my favourite) holding hands as they explore together, it makes me glad that they have each other for life.

That's not to say there aren't moments when it seems like neither will make it past their pre-school years. They fight daily and it seems like I morph into "crazy mom" every afternoon - shouting at Asher to stop pushing Charlotte/snatching her toys and keeping Charlotte from hitting (yes, she does know how to defend herself) him. But when one's taking a nap, the other does feel kinda lost, and they don't really like going out without the other so I know they love each other despite all the fighting.

And soon, they'll have another sibling joining the happy throng ... goodness knows what this crazy mom will be like then!

Best Buds - Asher & Ethan

2007-10-30T11:17:00.000+08:00

For the longest time, Hubby and I were concerned that Asher wouldn't have anyone to play with. Everyone we knew was having girls (Charlotte has a ready playmate in Liana, who's just a month older), and as he got older, it seemed more and more necessary that he should have another boy to do boy-stuff with.

Honestly, for what all those feminists say, boys and girls are fundamentally different. These gender traits are apparent so very early on - at 1, Charlotte is alerady in love with babies, wanting to touch them, play with them, and anywhere and everywhere we go, she's on the lookout for them - and you just can't ignore them.

So imagine our delight when we got reacquainted with Ethan (Kelly & Ailin's darling) - a cheeky little fella who's 2 months older than Asher. Ethan is incredibly mature for his age, full of boisterous fun and a great actor to boot (always making funny faces and being really dramatic)! It's great for Asher since he now has someone to run, throw, jump and just about do anything with! And Hubby is loving that he can spend time with Asher while still continuing an adult conversation with Kelly.

And they've taken to each other like ducks to water, mainly 'cos they have very similar personalities. But they are also completely different in that Ethan loves action things like superheros, while Asher's has a more academic side and sometimes just wants to do the alphabet or count. And it's really funny when they start quarelling - they are both so stubborn and refuse to give way to the other, it's just hilarious to see them!

Charlotte's first birthday

2007-10-25T12:23:00.000+08:00

Charlotte's first birthday party was a surprisingly stress-free event as I got my act together rather early. I'd already seen lovely pink decorations when I was shopping for Asher's party earlier in the year, and had my mind set on having an extremely pink and feminine do for my little girl.

Of course, the hubby nearly had a heart attack when he found out how much it cost us, but then again, Charlotte's got him wrapped around her perfect little finger, so he wasn't quite as upset as if I'd gone out and bought an entry-level designer handbag (which I could've done if I hadn't spent the money on her party).

I absolutely love these photos (taken by mike) - the only pity was that we didn't have more photos of the kids as both of them were very tired and went upstairs for their nap soon after we cut the cake.

Here's the cake by perfectfairycakes - isn't it gorgeous?

Cheeky boy

2007-08-22T12:37:00.000+08:00

I just had to note this down:

Asher was being rather difficult last night, refusing to wash up after dinner and just running around and not paying me much heed. So when he threw one of his books across the room, I stared at him sternly and told him to pick it up in no uncertain terms.

He looked at me for a few seconds, as if contemplating whether to disobey me, and then picked up a cushion, walked over to the book and said, "My hands are full, I can't pick up the book!"

I half wanted to throttle him - this is what you get when your husband's irritating genes get passed on to the next generation!

Asher's Birthday Party - Part One

2007-03-13T11:57:00.000+08:00

My perfect baby

2007-02-13T11:46:00.000+08:00

As Tin said to me recently, you really don't know that you have a difficult baby until an easy baby comes along. Asher, I can now say with absolute conviction, was a difficult baby. He could not be easily soothed, had to be carried lots, and is still, at almost 2 years of age, waking up at night.

Charlotte, on the other hand, is just the sweetest baby ever. She's quite content to look around on her own, can be put down for naps fairly easily, and started sleeping for longer stretches at night (anywhere from 5 to 7 hours) rather early on at about 8 weeks.

She is also not much of a crier and often looks at Asher in wonderment when he starts acting up (as is frequently the case these days) or just being his usual loud self, almost like she's thinking, "Who is this boy and why does he always make so much noise?"

And because she's such a good baby, we've dubbed her our reward from God for the trials that our firstborn put us through!

More of the two

2007-02-13T11:35:00.000+08:00

Now a mother-of-two

2006-12-07T14:57:00.000+08:00

Busy, busy, busy ... no time to update my blog but thought I'd post this pix of the 2 babes as a quick update on just what I've been doing these past 2 months!

As an update, Charlotte was born on 13 October 2006 (coincidentally, Asher was also born on the 13th - of March 2005). The Singaporean in me is still wondering if I should go buy 4D ...

A wedding to remember

2006-07-10T17:13:00.000+08:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted, and for good reason. Work, as usual, was piling up and I really didn't feel like spending more time in front of the computer than necessary, and of course, this second pregnancy was making me a lot more uncomfortable than when I was carrying Asher.

June was a hectic month for us as well as the entire family geared up for my sister's wedding in July. Quite apart from the fact that I was 5(?) months pregnant, I had volunteered to co-ordinate the logistics, be pianist for the church ceremony and manage Asher's debut runway performance down the aisle.

Everyone warned me that it would be too much to expect a 15 and a half-month-old to walk down the aisle perfectly - we had in fact arranged for 3-year-old Rosemary to hold his hand while 5-year-old Jeremy would hold the ring pillow - but we thought, in our naivety that he could handle it. After all, this is a boy who goes up to strangers to ask for their balloons, and who wanders off during gym class with nary a backward glance at mummy.

And in fact, Asher did do quite well, managing to make it past the first 5 rows before he got scared by the crowd of photographers clogging up the front of the aisle and ran back towards the rest of the bridal party. Poor boy! Daddy and por por were too far in front to get to him, and I was at the piano so there were no familiar faces to guide him down. In the end, Aunty Karin had to carry him down the aisle, just so he could still be a part of the procession. Loyal Rosemary had waited for him because she took her responsibility of having to hold his hand very seriously, so it was nice that she got to go down the aisle too and show off her outfit.

Despite that, it was a lovely wedding and we are all very happy for ah yee and uncle kok hoong - although Asher does wonder why his ah yee is no longer at home to play with him everyday!

I'm One!

2006-03-21T11:49:00.000+08:00

We celebrated Asher's first birthday two weeks ago with a poolside party at the club. I had spent much of the (2) weeks leading up to the party stressing about the location (great), food (not so good) and of course, the goodie bags for the kids (more on that later).

Asher had a great time at his party and although we hadn't intended for him to swim (we had already brought him swimming that morning), he just couldn't resist going in when he saw the other kids splashing about. Ethan (pictured just behind Asher, held by his daddy) kindly gave him a pair of swim diapers and in he went!

Of course we had the requisite candle-blowing, cake-cutting, song-singing (in English and Chinese thanks to 5-year-old Giovanni who really wanted to sing the Mandarin version) but Hubby forgot to pass the camera to someone to capture these shots, so we don't have any sadly.

And it was so nice to hear that the goodie bags (forgot to take a picture of them - prepared 18 in total! - so am stealing this pix from awn) were well received by 3-year-old Ethan Tang who loved the animals I had packed for him, and who wants to give me cupcakes the next time he sees me (I'm holding him to that promise, awn!).

All in, I think it was a great party but I'm just grateful I only have to do this once a year!

Definitely my eyes

2006-03-08T12:08:00.000+08:00

Asher's right double eyelid has finally made a permanent appearance, just in time for his birthday! For the past 4 days, I have been keeping close watch of his right eye, making sure that the double eyelid is still there when he wakes up in the morning, after his nap, despite him rubbing his eyes vigorously when he's sleepy and I am finally confident that it is here to stay. yay!

While his features are still mostly hubby's, there is now unmistakeable proof that Asher is my son, so much so that some people have taken to asking me if he's a boy or girl when I take him for walks in the evening (yes, he walks! he took his first unaided steps at 10 and a half months old) and am too lazy to put his pants on.

I especially love these photos of him 'cos I think they give a hint of how he'll look in the future - I can just see those teenage girls scribbling Mrs Asher Seng all over their textbooks!

Asher's first Christmas

2006-02-10T11:31:00.000+08:00

I love reading the comic strip Baby Blues. The creators have families of their own and they capture life with children so accurately that I often find myself laughing in agreement at the situations that are being portrayed.

The Christmas Day 2005 strip for example shows Daddy trying to assemble one of the kids' toys - Step One of the Assembly Instruction reads "Obtain a master's degree in mechanical engineering from M.I.T.", which was my hubby's & Asher's) reaction as well when they saw the instructions for his tricycle. :-)

Still, they got it fixed in the end (see tricycle in background?), and Asher now loves pushing it around - yes, somehow they never quite use the toy in the way it's intended to be used!

Chinese New Year

2006-02-02T14:08:00.000+08:00

Much to the delight of everyone we've visited this Chinese New Year, and especially trainers por por and ah yee, Asher has been showing off his gong xi hand actions with aplomb. It is really cute to watch him, and I only wish I could show a video of it, but basically he clasps his hands together tightly (fingers interlocking) before moving them up and down when we say the cue words "gong xi, gong xi".

It has reaped him enormous economic rewards as well - suffice to say that he has more than doubled his daddy's then-annual takings (last collection was in 2000), which in turn was double mine. I'm just happy that Asher's college fund has been boosted, since we kinda used the first payment of his Baby Bonus for some other household expense.

I had meant to look for those Chinese-y outfits to dress him up in for the New Year but had to give up due to work commitments and sheer laziness (if it's not at Great World City, I'm not going). As it turns out though, the outfit I bought him matched his kong kong's perfectly (see photo - Asher and kong kong having a good laugh), which was great!

Mr Type-A Personality

2006-01-03T11:28:00.000+08:00

Asher's definitely got Hubby's Type-A personality. We visited lots of friends and their babies over the holiday period, and we're really beginning to see clearly Asher's personality as he interacts with other children. He is extremely sociable and always tries to reach out to touch other babies (although he seems less interested in older children).

We had dinner one Saturday night with the parents of 11-month-old Ethan and every time Ethan's mom took out a toy for him, Asher would reach for it and grab it before Ethan could. I really didn't know whether to be pleased with him and praise him for his skills, or to 'reprimand' him and tell him that it's rude to take other people's toys!

Another day, we had lunch at our friends' place (themselves the parents of a 4-month-old so it's amazing that they still managed to cook a delicious, restaurant-style meal for us!) where we met with 1-year-old James for the first time. Asher was really excited and tried to 'communicate' (using his one-word vocab 'Oy') with James but I think James was a little wary.

When Asher crawled after James, and they knocked heads, poor James was a little stunned and cried out. Asher just looked at him, and kept saying 'oy' as if to say, "why are you crying, let's play lah!"

Hubby used to tell me that while playing with his cousins as a child, he was always the last man standing, wanting to play some more even as the other children started to get tired and left to take their naps. He also remembers that whenever a particular cousin cried, he'd always be wondering why and asking him to stop crying and to come play!

And while it's really interesting for me to see a mini-Hubby in Asher, I really don't want to be one of those mothers who gets called up by the principal so I will really have to watch him quite carefully!

Our favourite dining companion

2005-12-07T11:16:00.000+08:00

Asher has been going to bed slightly later (about 9.30pm) for the past couple of weeks, which means that he has recently been able to join us when we have dinner at about 8pm.

It's great since Hubby doesn't get to spend that much time with him on weekdays and this allows for some interaction between them, and helps Asher's social development/conversation skills (so the books say).

He usually has his porridge beforehand but to keep him in his chair, we give him some bread to chew on so that he can participate more fully in dinner. Unfortunately for us though, our new dining companion has not yet learnt to eat tidily so we invariably find lots of half-eaten pieces of bread all over his chair and on the floor at the end of dinner!

For the Melbournites

2005-11-24T16:49:00.000+08:00

As you had a hand in choosing these lovely clothes, thought I'd post these photos to show you that they are very much appreciated - we desperately needed new shorts and a hat for him to wear while swimming and these are really nice! Thanks!

The one that keeps getting away

2005-11-22T16:31:00.000+08:00

Guess who's under the yellow hood? "Come back here, Asher!" seems to be my constant refrain nowadays. Asher hasn't looked back (literally - my baby books and newsletters say that babies will look back after a while to check that mummy/safety is there but he can go on for a long, long time before it occurs to him to do so) since he started crawling, revelling in his newfound freedom and the opportunity to explore beyond the confines of his play areas.

And because of that, it makes changing his diaper, bathing him or powdering him after a bath extremely challenging - he sees any kind of restraint as an invitation to test his skills at getting away! And he crawls extremely fast nowadays, so it really take a lot of effort on our part to keep ahead of him and make sure he doesn't get into places that he's not supposed to.

You'd think that we would have babyproof-ed our apartment by now given his penchant for exploration but we're opting for the tried-and-tested "Daisy, can you watch Asher please" method when we need a break. For those not in the know, Daisy's our domestic helper, and a godsend according to hubby :-)

Tagged!

2005-11-16T10:25:00.000+08:00

I've been tagged by Stella to "post 5 weird and random facts about yourself, then at the end, list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this."

Since this blog's focus is on Asher, my 5 weird and random facts are related (somewhat) to him:

1) Hubby spent most of my 13-hour labour NOT by my side, but shopping, going to the gym, having lunch, looking at a car and having dinner. If he didn't make it back in time for the final pushes, I would've killed him!

2) I'm the only new mom I know whose husband went home to sleep both nights that I was in hospital.

3) Asher has really big hands for a baby - my mom first pointed it out when he was a newborn (what do I know? this is my first baby right) but I thought nothing of it until he was older and we started bringing him out more. Sometimes in church, we compare his hands with those of the kids around us and his are nearly as big as the one-year-olds! Well, you know what they say about men with big hands :-)

4) You know that dark line down the middle of your tummy that a pregnant woman develops midway through pregnancy? Well, mine hasn't disappeared yet and it's been 8 months since I gave birth! I don't think it's ever going to go away, but on the upside, I don't have any stretch marks :-)

And finally,
5) Despite hubby's 'beng' appearance and fashion sense in JC, I actually made the first move (i.e. 'chased' him). He was my first boyfriend, I his first girlfriend, and it's been 13 years since we got together!

er, don't have many blogging friends so Mommy Tales, Peekabooboo, Deng and Toothless Monster, consider yourselves tagged!

The bee's knees

2005-11-15T10:27:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I discovered that Asher has learnt how to get sit down by bending his knees! He has so far proven very adept at pulling himself up, cruising and climbing but always had a problem getting back down - his preferred method was to just let go, hope the ground isn't too far away, and plop down on the floor trusting in the padding of his diaper.

Well, not anymore! My little boy has learnt that his knees are there for a reason and while he doesn't remember to do it every time, most of the time he gets to the ground slowly and softly.

He has been getting harder and harder to entertain and it seems like he's only ever interested in physical activity - crawling, climbing, cruising, standing. I keep trying to read stories to him, something all the experts advocate, but he's more interested in reaching for the book to try and crush the pages than in listening to the story.

Maybe it's a boy thing? We had lunch with some friends recently, including the parents of cute little Kiera (pictured next to Asher). Kiera was extremely well-behaved during lunch, content to sit in her high chair, eat her porridge and play with some toys that I had brought. Asher, on the other hand, hated having to sit in his chair and wanted to climb, climb, climb!

My golden week

2005-11-10T15:33:00.000+08:00

Half of my office was on leave last week (with public holidays on Tues and Thurs, it was a week-long leave begging to be taken), me included. In fact, with the new government policy of extending 2 days of childcare leave to parents of children under the age of 7, I didn't even have to use my annual leave for it!

Having been back at work for some 5 months now (albeit part-time), I'd forgotten how tiring it is to be a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM). I now understand why my colleagues told me that sometimes it's actually more relaxing to go to work since you have scheduled breaks for lunch etc. Being a mommy/caregiver is really a full-time job and not something that the uninitiated will truly understand, so I really admire all my SAHM friends - they're doing a great job!

Asher and I had a great time last week just playing games with each other (he loves a variation of "peekaboo" cum "Marco Polo" where I pretend to look for him under pillows/blankets/carpets and call out his name before finding him) and visiting some friends and their babies.

Babies grow so quickly and as my mom says, very soon he's going to be a little boy and not want us to hug/cuddle him so much so I'm making the most of this time when I can squeeze my chunky baby as much as possible!

Water baby

2005-10-27T12:49:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, we took Asher to the club to swim. This is only his second time at the pool, and while he hated the cold water at first (which gave his daddy some cause for concern since his daddy is so into water sports), he soon got used to it and had great fun splashing in the very shallow end (see pix) of the baby pool.

I think he looks absolutely adorable in his fisherman's hat and board shorts, which are just like the ones his daddy wear! (Hubby has been cut out of this pix as he does not want to be shown).

Hubby has grand plans for Asher to take up swimming lessons as soon as he is able to but I just know that I'll be the one taking him to his 6am training sessions after the first couple of times, since Hubby is such a sleepyhead. In fact, in my baby book, my mum records that while she sent me to nursery school the first few times (after having convinced my dad that I would benefit greatly from the interaction), my dad ended up sending me to school from week 2, and continues to do so til this day!

Energiser Baby

2005-10-26T10:43:00.000+08:00

Here is a rare sight - Asher sleeping!

Babies this age (7 months), says my baby newsletter, need about 14 hours of sleep every day, plus or minus 2 hours depending on the individual baby.

Well, someone obviously forgot to tell Asher this important fact. He is incredibly energetic and extremely disinclined to taking naps, even when he's tired.

And it's a nightmare putting him down for the night. He fell asleep at about 7.30pm while we were at kong kong's house last night but I unfortunately had to wake him when we left for home at 9pm.

That was a huge mistake as it then took me more than an hour after we got home to put him to bed. Despite being really sleepy (kept rubbing his eyes), he refused to lie down and instead kept pulling himself up in his cot and trying to cruise (move round his cot by grabbing onto the railings). Finally, had to move him to my bed and watch him toss, turn, sit up, try to stand, over and over again for an hour before his batteries finally ran out and he lay down to sleep.

For someone like me (who really enjoys my naps), having a super-active, hyper-energetic baby is a killer! I can't wait til he's older and I can get his equally-energetic daddy to take him out and wear him out.

Baldy

2005-10-21T09:53:00.000+08:00

Anyone who's met me knows that I have really thick hair (a legacy from my mum's family - all the girls on that side have really thick and wavy hair). Hubby himself has a full head of thick hair.

So the surprise really is that Asher does not have a lot of (much less thick) hair. Here's a photo of him taken in June (3 months old):

It was almost embarassing to take him along when I visited newborns as these younger babies would invariably have lots more hair than him!

Still, the situation has improved since then. Now, he has just enough on top to create a "pseudo-fin" hairstyle similar to his dad's!

Surfer boy

2005-10-20T10:52:00.000+08:00

Sigh ... obviously the previous post didn't work since yet another person has commented that Asher looks a lot like his daddy. To date, I think only ONE person has said that Asher looks like me, and probably because he first met Asher last week, when his left double eyelid had already re-appeared.

Still, I have to admit that Asher is lot like his daddy. Physically, he is incredibly strong and energetic, surviving on very little sleep (more of that another time). He also definitely has his daddy's hands, which are surprisingly big for a baby. Character-wise, we've noticed since he was very young that he has the ability to concentrate intensely on things that he's interested in (absolutely unlike me but very like his mugger-toad dad), and is generally very curious about things (will crane his neck to look at new faces and places).

It's probably a good thing that Asher takes after his father since I've often said that it was his father's intelligence that attracted me to him. Coupled with his natural athleticism, Asher should be making many girls' knees go weak in 15 years' time!

The case of the missing double eyelids

2005-10-19T09:14:00.000+08:00

One of the first things we checked when Asher was born, was to see if he had double eyelids or not (hubby doesn't but I have very distinct ones). In fact, almost all our visitors (at the hospital) asked, perhaps because it's quite a big deal amongst Asians(?) or perhaps because it's one way of determining if baby looks like daddy or mummy.

Anyway, we were really pleased to see that he did indeed have double eyelids - here's a photo of him as a newborn.
Strangely, as he got older (and fatter), the double eyelids disappeared! Here's one taken in July (about 4 months old).

Then even stranger, the double eyelid on his left eye started appearing again when he was about 5 months old!

Now, I keep a close look at his right eye every day, hoping that that double eyelid will re-appear once more!

My little hercules

2005-10-18T02:57:00.000+08:00

According to my weekly baby newsletter (this is week 31), "your baby is probably very close to sitting all on her own. This is a major achievement!"

Ha! Asher has been pulling himself from a sitting to a standing position (in his crib) for the past two weeks, and is trying his darnest to stand on his own, without support. For the past couple of nights, I've woken up to find a sleepy baby hanging on to his crib railing - goodness knows what he was trying to do in the middle of the night!

Everyone who has seen him has commented that he's very strong. What they don't realise is that this makes for a very tired mom as it also means that he's super-active. He's not very interested in his toys or having me read to him - all he wants to do is crawl, stand, jump, climb, basically little boy activities.

My parents (who are tired out as well) have been asking me what I ate during pregnancy - I say it's a combination of his father's genes and the one-egg-a-day diet I was on in my last trimester!