Colicky baby + sick preschooler = Lots of drama

Plenty of drama happening at home last week. Josh had viral infection and was down with high fever, sore throat, cough and flu...so super cranky. He had very poor appetite and barely ate or drank. Even when the high fever subsided, he still refused to eat or drink except a bit of milk. I was pretty worried he would get dehydrated, so brought him to KK hospital to check if there was a need to put him on drip, but he finally drank some glucose water otw there. For the next few days, the fever was gone but he threw lots of tantrums and continued his food and water strike. Worst was he would cough till he vomited. So we had 2 merlions at home n lots of cleaning up to do :(

On Sun, we left Josh at MIL's place as he wanted to stay and didn't want to go home with us. Good thing is he is willing to eat over there, so hope it will help him to recover fast. 

Now is my turn to be sick.... must be virus from Josh... trying to rest more before he returns home tomorrow.

Feeling tired :'(

Jaxton has a bad case of colic. It got worst the past week and he vomits after each feed....had to keep changing my clothes and his after each puke. It's tough to keep your cool and nerves trying to calm down a screaming and kicking baby....think our neighbors must hate us by now, especially when he cries so often in the middle of the night. I barely slept for the past month, only interrupted 3-4 hours sleep every night. Jax feeds every 2 hours and takes 45mins to finish each feed, so before long, he will be crying for milk again. Apart from lack of sleep, I am also suffering from aching back and arms as he wants to be carried all the time. Then at 6.30am, Joshton will wake up and pull me out of bed. In between caring for both kids, I have to squeeze in time for washing bottles and pumping milk. That leaves barely time even for a toilet break and meals are gulped down as fast as I can. On a bad weekend morning, I only managed to go pee and brush my teeth at 11am. On top of everything, there is still our house reno stuff to coordinate. 

I am physically, mentally and emotionally tired. Trying hard to fight the dreaded post natal depression, which took me a year to snap out the last time. I hate the dark side...extreme negative thoughts are always on your mind....although I was functioning on the outside, inside I was a total wreak. At times it's hard to keep my sanity and control my emotions, and the only thing that keeps me going now is a mother's love for her 2 babies.

Bitten!

Poor Joshton came back with a bruise on his right cheek today from school. Apparently he tried to snatch a toy from a little girl in class and the angry girl bit him on his cheek. Hope Josh learns his lesson not to snatch things from others. Seems like biting is a common problem among kids nowadays...too much dinosaur cartoons?

A family of 4 'Js'

40 weeks of pregnancy, 3 months of morning sickness, 6 months of chronic insomnia, suffered bad migraines, backaches and leg cramps, a nerve racking fright when my blood test results during the 4th month came back with a high risk of birth defects, plus being cut up for the 2nd time and the painful recovery....all these were worth it when I see and cradle this beautiful baby boy in my arms.

After 1.5 wks of calling him "Baby", we finally settled on a name for #2 - Jaxton. We almost went for 'Javier', but hubby found it a common name with kids nowadays and it didn't sound close to 'Joshton'. Some people had problems pronouncing 'Joshton', so I am also expecting some folks to mispronounce #2's name as 'Jackson'.

Only just 2 weeks old, Jaxton seems to have a strong character....calm on the outside but actually very feisty inside. When nicely settled (not hungry n in mummy's arms), he's very calm n zen like with his favourite 'Sleeping Buddha' pose. But when he's hungry or wants to be carried, he will cry the house down with high pitched cries till his voice is sore.

Sleeping Buddha pose

The main difference between first born and 2nd child is that we spent lots of attention fussing over #1, like bathing him twice a day, putting massage oil, sing lullaby to make him sleep; now time is split between #1 & #2, so barely enough time to do anything more than feeding and changing diapers. And of course, #2 does not have the luxury of new things but using old stuff from #1... but thanks to our nice friends n colleagues for the baby gift sets, Jaxton has some new clothes. (funny that most of the gift sets are sesame street!)

Joshton is giving me a big headache with his behavior, following me like a shadow, always shouting for mummy and ends up disturbing Jaxton from sleeping. Will tell more in another post if I can find the time :( hands full n tied n extremely tired!

Di Di has arrived on 30 Sep!

We are proud parents again to a lovely little boy, who arrived on 30 Sep morning weighing 2.98kg. Had wanted to try for natural this time, so I waited and waited till baby was 3 days overdue. However my cervix was still closed and the amniotic fluid level was getting low, which is a sign of an aging placenta, so we had to go for a c-sec again. I was feeling rather emo on the way to the hospital and had almost wanted to back out, as this was probably my last chance to try for the birth experience. Anyway it was more traumatizing this time compared to the first one, maybe partly because of my emotions, but the most important thing was that baby was delivered safely :) And yes, we have not decided on a name yet, so it's still "Baby" at this moment! 

Joshton has upgraded to a big brother status, so hope he will be a caring kor kor to his di di. When he first came to visit mummy and baby at the hospital, he was very quiet and was trying to comprehend what was happening. Even though we had been telling him that Di Di was coming, I guess it is a different thing when he finally sees the baby. We have prepared presents for Josh to give to Di Di and from Di Di to Josh when we get back home tomorrow, so hope that helps Josh to bond to Di Di better!

"Baby" has a slight resemblance to Josh when he was born 

but think he takes after more of mummy than daddy. Josh was a "mini-me" of daddy!

Countries of the world

Mummy is too lazy to rotate the video :P Joshton got very interested in maps a few months ago and kept asking about country names, so I got him this world map for him to learn the countries.

Josh writing his name

Reading a book

Cute video of Josh reading his caterpillar story book which I took a few weeks ago...

33 months

Our dear boy has turned 33 months, just 3 more months from his 3rd birthday. I haven't thought of what to do for his birthday, other than doing a celebration at his school. And it will be just after the full month of his baby brother, who is arriving in Sep. Guess I will have my hands full in the coming months - new baby, confinement, getting keys to new house, renovation, full month party and Josh's birthday...phew!

At 33 months
Weight: 15 kg
Height: 95 cm
Milestone: Can read quite well. His favourite book for the moment is the Little Einstein Picture Dictionary, which he will bring to me every night to read together. At first we were wondering if he was just memorizing the sentences or really can read, so we tried new books and he could read them as well.
Every morning he will also take the Today's papers and look at the TV listings for the day or pretend to read.

He's now learning the names of the countries and loves to look at the world map. It's tough to teach him at times as I can't pronounce many country names, esp the Middle East and African countries are quite a mouthful. Surprisingly he has no problems rattling off long names like Azerbaijan, and can remember the countries names well by the starting alphabet, eg A for America, B for Brazil, C for Canada etc.

I am planning to set up a new blog when our 2nd baby is born and blog about our boys there instead on continuing on Joshton's Little World. This blog will be kept for Josh, so that he can read about his younger years next time.

Babe Magnet?

We were pretty amused by the attention that Josh has been getting from some little girls recently. Few weeks back, we attended my colleague's baby full month at Starbucks. My colleague's niece seemed to take a liking to Josh, even thou she is older and much taller, and kept trying hard to get him to play with her. She might have better luck with another colleague's boy who is 5 years old, but didn't seem interested in him. Josh as usual, preferred to play with adults and totally ignored the poor girl, who was very persistent and tried to hug and carry him but he just refused to go along. As a last resort, she grabbed his hand and dragged him away, and poor Josh had to go along as she was much stronger than him! He was finally 'released' after the girl's daddy scolded her.

 Josh rejecting the 'advances' of the little girl

 Never-give-up attitude!

Cheeky boy relaxing on the couch

At school, Grandma said she saw one of his classmates touching his face and following him around. Haha heart breaker next time when he grows up? 

New school

2 weeks into the start of the new semester, I changed school for Josh from Little Wings to Creative Thinkers, where he attended holiday classes. I was quite upset with Josh's developmental assessment rated by the teachers at Little Wings. It was a long list of assessment in 6 categories like Self & Social Awareness, Creative Arts & Expressions, Discovery, Listening & verbal skills, Fine motor skills and Gross motor skills. Poor Josh was rated 1-2 in all, with 1 being inadequate and 5 is advanced. The problem was that he did not participate in class, except for storytelling time, and the teachers would leave him alone to play at a corner. Without engaging him, I wonder how did the teachers rate him, even saying that he can't recognize his name or count 2-3 things.

I was also upset by the grammatical errors in the remarks written by the teacher:
- ...has adapted classroom setting....??!!
- ...needs to develop his independent skills and learns.....??!!
I would expect proper English even from a nursery teacher!

So now Josh is attending Creative Thinkers, which has a 3-hour curriculum. Although Josh still does not join in for sing & dance, there will be a teacher sitting with him to encourage him. And Josh seems to like the painting sessions during art & craft. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will adapt to this new school well.

Doodles by Josh

Drawings done by Josh....guess that he's trying to draw :)



TV with buttons

 Josh was trying to draw a fish :) Looks more like a whale!

 Probably hard to tell that he was trying to draw a sun!

Snail drawing by mummy, words written by Josh

Words by mummy, cos he kept spelling it as "BAD"

Holiday School

Josh has been attending holiday classes at this place called Creative Thinkers, which is a 10 mins walk from home. They have different story themes each week, like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears in Week 1 and Gingerbread man for Week 2, and the kids will do learn stories, songs and do crafts related to the theme. Josh came back with gingerbread cookies decorated by him, and many crafts done in the classes. He seems to be enjoying the classes, except the feedback from the teachers that he does not participate in song and dance. Yet at home, he will be singing and hopping around all day. 

Last Friday, our notty boy created some trouble at school. He sneaked into the office area and started playing with the number codes of the safe. And guess what, he managed to crack the 4-digit code and reset the pin number! And the teachers can't open up the safe! Hope he won't be a hacker next time :P

So it will be back to Little Wings next week. I'm thinking of starting him of some music classes when he turns 3, so will source around if there is a music school near our new home.

New Home!

After months of spending weekends going for viewings, we finally settled down on a new house! Although it's a downgrade in size from our spacious 5-rm to a 93 sqm 4-rm, and one level closer to earth, it still boasts a fantastic view just like our old place. It's not as convenient as having a mall and mrt / bus interchange next door, but there is a coffee shop and small NTUC downstairs with all the ATMs, and 10-15 mins walk to the mall. Timing wise it's quite ideal as the sale completion will be end Sep and we can renovate and move in after our number 2 is born.

We have been hesitant to pay for a premium price with high COV all these months, but prices just keep creeping up, in spite of all the talks about them softening soon. But this house meets all our various conditions (high floor, good view, good condition, amenities) and hard to come by, so we decided to bite the bullet. Almost didn't get this unit as we were facing off and having a price war with a Chinese PR couple, but thanks to our lucky baby (being pregnant has its advantage!), the seller's agent helped us to secure the unit with the seller.

Now it's settling the loans stuff and thinking about renovations to keep me busy before baby 2 (haven't decided a name for him yet) arrives!

 View from our new home :)

Funny moments

2 funny moments to share :)

At night when Josh is trying to sleep, he will always toss and turn around, flipping his pillows and bolster for a good 30 mins before finally settling down into sleep. Once he accidentally tossed his leg and hit Daddy sleeping beside him, who very roughly brushed his leg aside. And when I asked Josh to say good nite....
Josh: I don't want to say good nite to daddy
Mummy: Why not?
Josh: I'm not feeling very happy
It's the first time he's being so expressive!

Another time, Ah Gong tried to sing a lullaby to Josh and...
Josh: Sing the lullaby to baby next time (his baby brother). Joshton is no longer a baby.
Talking like a big brother now!

Family trip to the zoo

2 weeks ago, we had a family outing with grandma & ah yi to the zoo. We went on a weekday and took leave as it was difficult for Daddy to get a weekend corporate pass. Except for an hour of heavy rain when we were at the elephant show, the weather was cloudy and cool for the whole day, which was absolutely perfect for strolling outdoors. We also took a boat ride on the river, which was quite a pleasant journey.

Here are some nice animal photos taken by Daddy and the funny faces of our mischievous boy.

  

Super hero Josh

Daddy just came back from US after attending a conference and he brought back a face mask souvenir from a baseball game that he attended. Here's our son pretending to be a super hero with the mask that's too big for him! 

Flash Card Game

Since Josh could read all of his flash cards, we had some fun playing a game yesterday. I asked him to place each flash card at the corresponding thing or to do the action eg, run, walk, jump as listed on the flash card. Here are some photos of what he did...



Clash of the Titans

Every weekday mornings from 7-9am, its warzone at home, what I would call the "Clash of the Titans", in a battle of will and lungs power between my dear son and my mum. Grandma has to handle the screaming boy who refuses to brush his teeth or eat his breakfast or bathe without putting up a struggle. Only on rare days when Josh wakes up in a super good mood then he will be cooperative. For most other days, it's screams of "MUMMY, MUMMY" versus "DON'T BE NOTTY" from the house.

Honestly, Josh's terrible behaviour is getting out of hand. From demanding things, whining, refusing to eat his meals without snacks or a toy, throwing his temper or crying over the smallest things....it's getting a bit hard to control. The more you tell him not to do something, the more he will do it. He is also behind on his life skills, which is a result of his laziness plus being too pampered. At 2.5 years, he can't feed himself well without making a big mess, most of the time just playing with his food. He refuses to say when he wants to pee or poo, and always says no if we ask him if he needs to relieve himself, so diapers are still a must. Only a few months more to train him to be more independent before his baby brother arrives!

Going to 30 months....

Josh will be turning 30 months in about a week's time, so here's a little update of his current development...

Physical development
Height - 94cm, which puts him in the 75-90% for his age
Weight - no increase for the last few months, still about 13kg....he's a fussy eater, so got to try to make him eat more!

Language
Reading - he knows most of his English flashcards, so by estimate he can read about 100 words
Singing - this strange little boy no longer sings his songs with the right lyrics, but will replace the lyrics with his own or sings in some weird language but with the same tunes. Like this morning, in the tune of "This Old Man", he sang "Number 1, go to school..." how i missed the past times when he sang the songs properly.
Talking - although he can speak quite a lot of words, he's not very good at holding a proper conversation or expressing his thoughts and feelings verbally like some other kids his age.

Fine Motor Skills
Writing -  he can write from A-Z, 1-10, though not very nicely, but at least we can still make out the letters and numbers

Gross Motor Skills
Glad to say it's improving...he loves to kick a ball and can do it quite well....but we still need to work on it

Social Skills

One day at Little Wings, my mum overheard one little ger saying this to her mummy:

Little ger: I don't like Joshton

Her mummy: Why don't you like him?

Little ger: I said goodbye to him and he ignored me

Her mummy: Oh he's younger than you, so he doesn't know how to

Hmm...little kids can get pretty petty I guess :P But I am glad to say that recently he starts playing and interacting with some of his classmates!! So happy to hear that :)

Terrible Twos going to Horrible Threes Antics
- Yak yak non-stop very loudly from the moment he wakes up...only peaceful moments are when he is asleep
- Broken recorder, everything has to repeat at least 10 times (eg, See, a dragonfly, It's a dragonfly, Oh it's a dragonfly, Where's the dragonfly, See there is the dragonfly...and repeat from start again)
- SUPER DUPER whiny, getting on our nerves at times
- Fickle minded, one moment will say he wants this, next moment he doesn't want it n starts to throw tantrums if you don't give it to him even thou he says he doesn't want it
....but then with a cheeky face like his, it's hard to stay mad at him for long!

Bouncing bunny boy joining our family

Josh is going to be a big brother soon to a baby brother :) yes, i'm expecting a bunny baby and the EDD is end Sept. Being a 2nd time parent, I am much more relaxed this time, and since it's a boy, there isn't much things for us to get as we still have lots of Josh's old clothes n toys. Josh knows that there is a baby growing in mummy's tummy, and I keep telling him he will be a big brother and must sayang the baby. He's so pampered and used to 100% attention from everyone in the family, so hope he will take it well when the baby arrives.

Thou this time round the morning sickness is much better than the first time, I suffer from bad insomnia and migraine almost everyday. Hence most days I am feeling tired and listless, and it's quite hard to keep up with Josh's endless energy and chattiness. Also feeling guilty that I could no longer carry him, but he seems quite understanding most of the time and will turn to his daddy instead to carry him or just give me a big big hug. Now I must prepare myself mentally and physically to handle two boys (the one inside also seems to be an active one, we can see him bouncing around during the scan).....and it sounds like challenging days ahead!

Looking for a new place to call home....

We have moved! Last few weeks were hectic ones... busy packing, moving and final cleaning up before we handed over the apartment to the new owners. Honestly, I felt rather sad to leave the place which has been my cosy home for the past 7-8 years...it was the first place I owned, with many beautiful memories. I will miss the fantastic "million $" view, the fresh air high up there, the convenience right beside the mall, mrt and interchange, the playground downstairs which Josh loved to go, the club nearby with a great swimming pool for kids, and so much more. The past months we have been actively looking for a new dream home, but other than one that we just missed out buying, all the other viewings were just not the ideal home we are searching for. And so our long search continues on....

The advantage of camping at my mum's place is that we get to see Josh everyday and I get a report of the things that he did for the day. Here are some things that we did.....

Bringing him to school for the first time...

Josh proudly showing the word "Apple" that he has written

Josh's drawing of "Under the sea" - bubbles & seaweed

In the last 2 weeks staying together, we witnessed many funny moments with Josh too....

Incident 1: Shows that he has been watching too much tv ads

At the coffee shop having lunch last Sun, I ordered a glass of barley..

Josh: (Pointing to glass) I want Tiger Beer

Everyone: ............

Mummy: Eh what did you say?

Josh: I WANT TIGER BEER

At a closer look, the glass containing the barley had a tiger beer logo!

Incident 2: Confirm chop he is a left brain child

Mummy: Look at the blue sky, what do you see?

Josh: Clouds

Mummy: Yes, lots of clouds in the sky. If you look carefully you might spot some animals and different shapes in the clouds (trying to inspire his creativity n imagination)

Josh: THERE IS NOTHING IN THE CLOUDS

Mummy: ....................

Incident 3: Trying to keep him off the floor when ah gong was mopping

Mummy: Imagine you are on a boat (he was on the sofa and struggling to come down) and the floor is the sea, full of water. So you can't step off the boat as there are a lot of sharks in the sea

Josh: Joshton step on the shark

Mummy: .....................

 I can definitely count on my dear boy to surprise me with something everyday :D

Another child assessment...

About 2 weeks ago, we brought Josh for a complimentary child developing assessment at a commercial brain development centre. Starting with a few simple games, the coordinator was able to zoom in on his weak points in learning - short attention/focus and not attentive in listening or observing visually to instructions given. Basically he will just pay attention and follow the first 1-2 instructions for each game and then ignore the rest and do his own things or start to grab something else. The coordinator commented that he is good in language and memory but we need to build on his weak points as those would hinder his learning. Next was to the gym to check out his gross motor skills....which as expected, Josh was very hesitant and clinging on to the coordinator for dear life when he tried to put him up on a walking board above the ground (about my waist level). I have to admit Hubby and I were very bad, giggling behind while watching them struggling with each other. We knew it won't be easy. 2 other kids there (one was a 2-yr old ger) were happily monkeying around, climbing the ladders and jumping up and down, without any sense of fear. Hence the coordinator concluded that Josh has a lot of fear and poor judgement of height and danger.

So I'm planning to sign Josh up for gym classes to build up his gross motor skills, which has been a great concern on my mind for a long time...this month we are busy with packing and moving house (oh dear we are finally moving out soon...gonna miss this place), so will probably start next month. Anyone has good recommendations for gym classes?

Hives Attack!

Josh is down with hives, better known as "feng mo"! This is the first time that he got it, and it's likely triggered by an allergy, which unfortunately the cause is hard to identify. It could be an allergy to food, or insect bite or contact allergy. The poor boy's face is covered with huge nasty red bumps, with some on his arms too. Almost looked he suffered an attack from a bunch of bees. He started having the breakouts on Friday morning, but my mum assumed they were just mosquito bites and sprayed the rooms with insecticide. But the "mosquito bites" kept getting more and more, so she called to inform me and we brought him to the GP immediately.

Just a little funny thing that happened at the doctor's. When we sat down in the doc's room, Josh immediately opened his mouth widely without prompting, cos he thinks it's a standard procedure for the doctor to check his mouth, even though the doc was looking at his arms and face. How I wished he would open his mouth on his own whenever I try to brush his teeth! I have to let him play with brushing my teeth then he would allow me to brush his.

Although hives is not contagious, he will be staying at home tomorrow.. under the close supervision of grandma to stop him from scratching his skin.

Random photos

Haven't had much new photos of Josh recently, cos it's so hard to snap him as he will try to snatch my iphone or the camera whenever they are in his sight. Managed to find some random shots taken in the last few months......

 Goofy smile

Looks cool?

Being mommy's slave

 In his playland

From Childcare to Pre-N

Josh has been attending childcare when he turned 18 months. Even though my mum is looking after Josh, we put him there at such a young age to let him learn to socialize and pick up some life skills, since he's an only child. Sad to say, after 9 months, he still plays on his own at childcare. And he doesn't mention anything about his friends or what he learns or do over there. We were wondering if he really enjoyed going to childcare, and felt that it might be a good time to make a change as he's turning 2.5 yrs soon.

Starting from this month, we transferred Josh from Cherie Hearts to Pre-N class at Little Wings. Little Wings is under PCF, but managed by NTUC, and it's newly renovated about 6 months ago. Last week was his first week at Pre-N, attending a 2-hour "Minnie Class" in the morning. Seems like so far so good.....we asked him if he likes going to school and he gave a loud "YES".  Maybe with a smaller class and lesser kids than at the childcare, Josh gets more attention from the teachers, who will not be busy with changing diapers, toilet breaks, bathing and feeding. He likes to play with adults, but doesn't know how to interact with other kids, like somehow he can't communicate in "kids language". Once he starts settling down at the pre-n, I am thinking of enrolling him for weekend play classes at Julia Gabriel, which came highly recommended by most friends. 

Have a great bunny year ahead!

Happy bunny year to all! Sad to say it hasn't been a superb start to the bunny year as I have been down with a very bad bout of flu....been falling sick frequently the past few months, so hope that my health would get better (hence haven't been posting recently :P). Daddy has been very sweet during this period, taking care of the spring cleaning while I rested in bed. Not to mention taking care of Josh when he wakes up at 7plus am in the morning, so that I could get a few more winks. Thank you Daddy!! :)

Overall, it's been a hectic and busy new year....starting with rushing for 2 reunion dinners of CNY's eve (from west to east and east back to west), first day of new year again travelling to and fro to visit relatives followed by family dinner with Daddy's family at our place. 2nd day we had our friends n kids over at our place for steamboat, so lots of preparation and cleaning as well. The kids had much fun playing with sparklers at the playground after dinner. 3rd & 4th day went house visiting plus a round of MJ at our friends' place. 

We hope to teach Josh from young the values of kindness and empathy, especially during times of celebration to share our blessings with the less fortunate. So 10% of his angbao money will be donated to a charity....and we will do this for him till he is old enough to choose his own preferred charity.

Meantime, our family is looking forward to an exciting and eventful bunny year ahead....new place, new beginnings, new changes!

Josh kept chasing n hugging Uncle Jeff's doggie, CoCo. Poor CoCo was traumatized by the overzealous boy!

Building sandcastles

It's been quite a while since we last brought Josh to the park playground to play with sand, as he & mummy were pretty much sick for most of the month of Dec. One Sunday morning Josh took his bucket & spade and said he wanted to play with sand. So off we went to make sandcastles, followed by a nice cold melon milk drink from the vending machine.

Photos from Jaycus Birthday Party

We went to attend the 3rd birthday party of Jaycus 2 weekends ago and here are some photos taken by Daddy:

 Making a cheeky face!

 Having fun with Kitlyn

 Micky Mouse Pinata: Kitlyn kept asking her mummy "Why they hit Mickey?"

 Pretty gal with Minnie ears

 Birthday boy with his mummy

 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake. Nice!

Happily munching his stash from the pinata

Online child development test

New year, new beginning....Josh has been falling sick pretty often in the past year, so my simple wish is for my dear boy to be blessed with good health and be a happy little boy (if I can stretch the wish, I hope he will be a polite and considerate boy too :P).

Did an online child developmental test when Josh turned 24 months and below are the test results:

 

The assessment shows that Josh is well ahead in speech development but behind schedule for problem solving and social skills. Problem solving came as a surprise, as I was expecting gross motor and personal-social to be the major concerns. Guess I have to work on more for these problem areas and also to check on his feet. His tip toe habit has reduced considerably, but he still doesn't dare to jump and refuses to walk much when we are outside. Hmm wonder if he has a flat foot problem :(