Asher & Isaac kor kor

The last time I wrote about how Isaac was reacting to the twins, he was mildly jealous of the babies. Soon after that blog post, the situation degenerated pretty badly. Isaac was increasingly hitting the babies, or he would 'crush' them by leaning his body onto them towards me, when I am carrying/feeding the babies.

I realised that he would hit the babies if and when he is made to wait. For example, if I am feeding a baby, and he wants me to go play with him, or take something for him, or read to him, whatever... and I say "Can you hang on awhile, Isaac? Wait a little while" He'd know it's coz I am feeding the baby, and he would sometimes hit the baby. Sometimes? Yah, depends on his mood. Good mood: "Mummy, I wait awhile. You feeding Asher/Shawna, right?" Bad mood: *smack* quick as Lightning McQueen, faster than you can say "kachow!"These pix are actually from the anecdote I mentioned in the previous post on this topic - about how Isaac heard Asher crying, and he went to lie down beside Asher, holding his hand to comfort him. So sweet, right? :p Generally Isaac is very sweet with the babies, just that sometimes... his temper gets the better of him.
When we decided to start Isaac on childcare, I also thought it'd be good for him as it gets him out of the house most of the day. So he doesn't get to spend as much time with the babies - and thus doesn't see/feel that attention is being robbed from him and given to the babies. I thought this might lend a hand to lessen his bouts of jealousy.

Turns out that I was right. Since Isaac started childcare, he hardly ever hits the babies anymore. Well, yeah there's the occasional smack or two, or he'd use his foot to nudge the babies - we usually stop him before he launches into a full kick :p But yeah generally, number of incidents fall, and severity of incidents also drop.

pix taken on 20th February 2010
Isaac @ 2 years 6 months plus
Asher @ 6 weeks

In fact Isaac's picking up very quickly on how we deal with the babies... the other day, when he saw Asher cry, he said "Why Asher? Why you cry? Hungry is it?" He promptly turned to me and said "Mummy! can you please feed Asher? He hungry!" Another time, when Shawna was crying... "Mummy! Shawna is crying! Feed Shawna! She is hungry!"

Geez, he's fallen into the fallacy of thinking that everytime a baby cries - baby's hungry!!! hahaha... well, what do you expect?! He's a first time big brother, you know! :)

Breastfeeding my kidzes!

Sighz. Once again, I am behind in my blog posts. February pictures in April - 2 months behind. Gosh. I'd better hurry up, if not I'd lag behind again... ;p
Yes yes me obsessed with breastfeeding and all this taking pictures of me tandem feeding the kidzes. How often do you get to see this, right?! kekeke... Well, this is one of the FAQ: "Do you feed both at the same time?" My answer is "Yes it can be done. But usually, I feed one at a time."

Why? Coz the kids do not necessarily get hungry at the same time. Same answer for another FAQ: "Do the babies cry at the same time?" Well the customised answer to that is "No, they don't usually cry at the same time, unless they're both hungry at the same time."

If they are, I am able to feed them both at the same time. I'd need help from someone to hand me the second baby, though. But yes, it is technically possible to breastfeed both at the same time. After all, I do have two breasts ;p (don't ask me 'What if triplets how?' coz I don't have triplets ;p)
I must admit I'm kinda 'addicted' to breastfeeding the kidzes. I enjoy latching them onto me directly. I enjoy it immensely, despite all the pain and inconvenience it brings me.

Ben & Lena asked before "What is it that you enjoy about breastfeeding?" I think this is the first time anyone has asked me this question, since I started my eventful and fantastic breastfeeding journey with Isaac almost 3 years ago, back in August 2007.

pictures taken on 17th February 2010

Asher & Shawna @ 6 weeks old

I had to pause and think for awhile, before I could reply them. Even so, I had to think of how I could phrase into words, what I felt in my heart... Now, let me attempt to say this right...

I love holding the kids in my arms, letting them drink directly from me. I love the fact that I am the only one who is able to do this for them. I love the feeling of being able to satisfy their needs for nourishment and intimacy.

I love looking at the baby when I am feeding him/her. Examining every square inch of their face, seeing if the face is symmetrical, looking out for anything and everything from moles and wrinkles to pores and facial hair - everything is interesting. Looking at their ears, behind them, inside them ;p the shape of the ears, the angle it sticks out from their heads...

Look at how much or how little hair my baby has... the hairstyle... thinking of how I should cut their hair, and when... Smelling their hands, looking at their hands, the lines on their palms, the shape of their nails, how long the nails are... and oh! I cut their nails while they drink milk from me. It's the only time they'd keep still :)

One might say that you don't have to breastfeed to look at your baby. Which is true. But do you? Do you spend time really looking at your baby? Often, when I am not feeding them, I'd be busy doing something else. Chores, cooking, cleaning, (Isaac's time) on the internet, checking mails, reading books etc (twins' time) - you won't really spend the time actually looking at your baby. Maybe for awhile, but not for long.

When you breastfeed, you have all that time, with nothing much to do... so you look at them. Slowly savour the smell of them, the feel of their soft skin... the delicate (almost said delicacy) beings that they are...

You let the idea sink in, that you're a mother now, and this is your child. Your very own flesh & blood. That they're causing you a lot of work and inconvenience - but it's all worth it... I think, in other words, you get to spend a lot of time with your child. Doing something that only you can provide for. That's something I cherish very much.

That is also why I enjoy latching, rather than just pump and let someone else bottle feed. If I am at home, I always insist on latching them on. Only when I am not at home, do I let someone else bottle feed. For somehow, if I let someone else feed them while I am around, it feels like I've been robbed of time with my baby.

I can go on and on and on, but I think you know what I mean.

More on breastfeeding another time... Isaac just popped his head in the door way and said:"Mummy, can you close the computer? Let me go swimming first." :)

Chew on this!

A year ago, these threads were too long and big for Isaac. Today, they're too short! Haha! But it looks kinda cute on him, still. yah? :) reminds me a bit of like Nezha ;p Wanted to update on Isaac and his school (childcare). He's doing fine. Settling in pretty well. Nowadays, he usually doesn't cry when I drop him off at school before I go to work. Unless he's in a cranky mood or something, then he'd be extra clingy to me that day and cry. But even then, the teachers tell me that he usually doesn't cry for long after I leave.

Also, everyday when I come and pick him up from school, he's usually playing and having a fun time. I'd ask him if he'd enjoy his day at school, and he'd always say yes. And when asked if he wanted to go to school the next day again, he'd always say Yes in a very firm and sure voice.
Remember I was telling you about the incident that a classmate of his bit Isaac? Well, he remembered it for a long time, and at home, would often point to his chin and say "Chewey bite me." (name changed to... er, protect identity? ;p kekeke the moniker is so appropriate, ain't it? kekeke...) So since he often remembered it, I kinda assumed maybe Isaac wouldn't wanna play with Chewey since Chewey bit him, right?

But one day, when I went to pick Isaac, he was in a particularly good mood that evening. He was playing with his friends, and very cheery when I arrived. After speaking with Teacher Foong Ling for awhile, I said to Isaac "Okay, come let's go."

"Okay!" he said "oh, wait! Let me say 'Bye' to Chewey first." then he ran into the music room to look for Chewey to say bye to him. This reminded me of something I wanted to ask the teacher. "Oh so Isaac plays with Chewey now?" I asked Teacher Foong Ling. "Yes" she said "He plays with all his friends."

pix taken on 17th February 2010
Isaac @ 2 years 6 months plus

Now this was news to me as hubbs had often told me that at Isaac's previous school (the 2 hour, Monday to Friday one), Isaac was apparently pretty aloof and wouldn't play with the other kids, but he'd consent to play alongside them. I said so as much to Teacher FL.

She gave me this "Huh? sure or not!?" look and said "No, no, he plays with ALL his friends." I must have had doubt written all over my face, coz she added "Everyday, he'd even choose who he wanted to hold hands with that day."

"Really?!" I exclaimed, laughing. I could imagine Isaac doing just that. Yet, I couldn't quite imagine it - coz I'd never seen him doing that before. At that moment, I felt this stab of envy in my heart, that the teachers in school could spend more time with my son in a day, than I could. That they could see him growing up in a way that I couldn't. That they could witness all the cute cute things he does and says! sighz!

But I know it can't be helped. Well, which is why I enjoy picking Isaac up from school. I enjoy lingering around to see his friends, looking at the artwork he'd done that day, and mostly, talking to his teachers... just so that I get to know of little nuggets of info like this. Isaac has yet to reach the stage where he can tell me about his day at school. Thus, any info that I get would have to come from the teachers.

I was so tempted to tell Teacher FL, to ask her if she could do me a favour, and write down in the communication booklet whenever Isaac did or said something cute, to describe it and record it. But I didn't. I couldn't - she'd be so busy! My son so cute, you know!!! ;p Though seriously, I know it wasn't something that I could reasonably ask of the teachers to do, so I didn't say it... I guess I was just glad she was even sharing this info with me.

So, everyday, I'd just linger awhile, talk to the teachers... and try to find out more about Isaac's behaviour and quirks. I'd try my best to remember everything little incident the teachers tell me about Isaac, and I'd go back and tell them to hubbs. He loves hearing these little stories about Isaac too. So... you know the Chronic Chronicler (just came up with that! woohoo!) in me - you'd get to read as much as I can remember to blog about :)

Oh, another thing I wanted to say about this... I was surprised that Isaac bore no grudges nor resentment against Chewey. After all, Chewey did bite him pretty hard (now, approx 3 weeks after the incident, the wound is still healing and visible), and Isaac obviously remembers this incident coz he often points at his chin and says "Chewey bite me." or "My owwie".

So I'd have thought that he would not want to play with Chewey, right? Which is common and normal behaviour after someone tries to take a chunk out of you. But no, my darling Isaac apparently bears no such grudges nor resentment against the chewing one ;p

My first thought was:"Wow! My Isaac is so forgiving! Good boy!" Then as I thought about it more... I had another theory. Maybe Isaac simply did not know how to bear a grudge, he didn't know what resentment was. Perhaps bearing grudges is a learned behaviour.

As I thought about it more, I am quite certain that that's it. It was a learned behaviour. And, it is something we shouldn't learn! But inevitably, in life, one often learns to bear grudges, or be resentful about something. Or for self-preservation, we learn to distance ourselves from things/people that hurt us...

But it is another important learned behaviour that we should learn - to forgive! :) So... it's not that I bore any grudges nor resentment against Chewey for biting Isaac... but I certainly forgive him now :) for this is the important lesson that these two lovely little boys have taught us!

Just like Mummy?!

Can you guess what these three pictures show? Can you see someone's legs sticking out from below??? They're actually pictures of our dear Isaac, in the car seat - he's holding the sunscreen to shield himself from the sun.
It was hilarious the way he covered his whole head so I quickly whipped out my camera... :) Don't know if I'd actually mention this before, but Isaac had always been pretty sensitive about the sun getting in his eyes, hence his sunglasses and all this shielding business.

Usually, in the car, he'd go "Mummy/Papa, the sun! Urrgghh!" Then hubbs or I, whoever's driving, would hand him a CD cover, or a book or a brochure or whatever - to let him cover his eyes. On this occasion, think we couldn't find anything else, and just gave him the sunscreen.

above three pix taken on 12th December 2009

At home, in the bedroom, if it's generally dark and suddenly there's light, like we switch on the light or something, Isaac would exclaim and ask us to switch off the light. Recently, he'd even started saying "Mummy! My eyes spoil already! Spoil already!" while shielding his eyes. So drama, you know. "Nonsense!" I'd say "Your eyes not spoil lah, you silly boy!".

Incidentally, he's behaving like how I used to when I was young. When I wake up in the morning in the dark (like how we used to when we had to go to school early in the morning last time), I'd use the toilet (brush teeth, bathe etc) in the dark, without turning on the lights. I've been doing this since when I was in primary school.

My mother figured that there MUST be something wrong with me for wanting to do things in the dark. So the next time we were at the doctors, she took the chance to ask if there was something wrong with me, be it my eyes or my mental abilities :p Turns out that I'm normal afterall, coz one needs to adjust when going from darkness to bright. Doc told my mum to let me be :p

As time passed, I've come to notice some other quirks of mine that Isaac is now exhibiting. But I swear I am not TEACHING him these stuff! He just started doing it, without me even showing him how to or anything like that... Here's the list...

Rub eyes in circular motion
When I was young, I used to rub my eyes in a circular motion when crying. Apparently, it was a trademark of mine that all my cousins, uncles and aunties all know. And guess who's doing that now?! Even my mum pointed out to me how similar Isaac's crying/rubbing eyes is similar to mine...

Picking up stuff with toes & feet
I'd always been using my toes and feet to pick up stuff, since young. But it's also been a very useful skill especially during my pregnancies when I have greater difficulty bending down, so I can use my toes & feet to pick up stuff. It's also very good for pinching hubbs' calf under the table kekeke... ;p
I've never demonstrated this particular skill of mine to Isaac though... so I'm really not sure where he picked up this skill (kekeke pun intended!) One day, while keeping his toy cars, Isaac started to use his toes and feet to keep the toys in the box. I was kinda amused by it, so I started to join him in using my toes and feet to keep the cars as well.

above two pix taken on 16th February 2010 Isaac @ 2 years 6 months plus

Hubbs was attracted by the fun and laughter we were having - when he realised what we were doing. "Huh?! What are you all doing?!" he went, amused yet bewildered by our antics - not sure if it is something he wants Isaac to do. "Why don't you use your hands, Isaac?" he said. "No! No! use feet!" said Isaac! and I was laughing my head off.

Hubbs turned to me and gave me the "You're encouraging this???" look ;p I grinned at him and said "Good mah, train his toes and feet to be flexible" kekeke... think it was only at a later point in time that I confessed to hubbs that this was the very sort of thing I'd do when I was young.

pic above taken in church on 28th February 2010

Bringing cars to bathe together...
Speaking of cars... I love cars. Yes, it's me actually, that loves the toy cars, and not hubbs. So I've been the one feeding Isaac's collection... actually, it's MY collection that I allow him to play with. Just that I've been expanding this collection of ours (oh alright, I'd share it with him ;p) that I have more reason to expand now that I've a son... or two ;p

When I say that they're my cars, I mean it, literally. For most of the cars that Isaac is playing with are more than 20 years old - they're my collection from when I was a kid. You can tell what a hoarder I am :p

For a period of time, Isaac started to bring his cars to bathe with him. He just started it out of the blue one day. I certainly didn't 'teach' him to do it. When we tell him it's bath time, he'd say "Wait! I take cars!" then he'd take some with him into the bathroom.

One day, hubbs was quite exasperated coz Isaac was taking so many, like 20 cars into the bath with him... and so hubbs said "You ah... dunno where you learn to do such things..." I turned to hubbs and said "Didn't you do this when you were young?" "Nope." he said, as he gave me a suspicious look. "Erm... I did!" I said sheepishly... "But I only took 3 cars at most, and later I stopped doing it when the paint fell off my cars!!!"

Well... all I can say is... The cars nowadays not too bad the quality - the paint never fall off leh :p

Blowing bubbles in drink
Now, surely this is quite common, right?! My parents didn't cook much when we were young, so our meals on weekends were inevitably had at the town central coffeeshops. One of my favourite activities then was blowing bubbles in my drink...

which Isaac started doing recently. So I wasn't entirely surprised. What surprised me was that hubbs claimed that he didn't do this when he was young! REALLY?! sure or not?! He insisted he didn't... while giving me dirty looks and looking at Isaac and his bubble blowing...

Now, I wonder when Isaac will start mixing the soya sauce with the chilli sauce together, and throw in the green chilli... kekeke... ;p

Spit out vege!
Hehehe... when I was young, I hated vegetables, any kind of vegetables. And I didn't take stuff like spring onions, ginger, onions, garlic etc the whole works. I'd have this uncanny ability of sensing anything I didn't fancy that was sneaked into my mouth... and spit it out!

Well, Isaac seems to have this ability as well! Same as me, he's not into vegetables either... sigh. Well, the good news is, when I grew older, I started eating vege and now, I'm a big vege eater! :) so there's hope yet! kekekeke...

Again, hubbs was muttering under his breath about this newly discovered ability of Isaac's when I turned and asked him the same question "Didn't you do this when you were young???" He gave me this frown cum disgusted cum bewildered look "No, of course not." Well, I thought it over, I guess not. This is Mr Bottomless Pit we're talking about - hubbs eats anything and everything almost - and he never gets fat!!! Sigh! So gooood!!!

Just like Mummy?
So the thing is... other than those listed above, it seems like Isaac's temperament is very much like mine... Sometimes, I'd be so exasperated with him and be "complaining" about Isaac to hubbs, and hubbs would stifle a laugh, and grin... and then I'd realise... sh*t, Isaac's behaving like me!!! hahaha...

But seriously, not everything Isaac is exhibiting is coz he "learned it from me" by observation etc - it's inherited! It's heriditary! So uncanny, you know!!! Well, the good side of it is... It'd be like dealing with myself - I'd know what works and what doesn't... so far, we're doing alright with that ;)

Oh and if you think that Isaac's not like hubbs in any way... you're wrong too... hmmm what are the things he inherited from hubbs? For one... nose digging - that's so not me and so very hubbs... Liking rice - that's so hubbs. But oh Isaac loves pizza too, which is so me.

Oh and something that pleased hubbs so much over the weekend... hubbs was watching some concert dvd, old chinese songs sung by some old ladies (I dunno who ;p) - Isaac joined him, and started to hum along with the singing... and then he said this to hubbs "This is a good song!!!" FAINT... sighz also good lah, maybe next time he can accompany hubbs to see Cai Qin concert ;p

FAQ: You're back to work ALREADY?!

You must be wondering how come these few weeks the posting has slowed down again... Well, simply put, I went back to work! So fast?! Yeah! After 12 weeks of maternity leave, I am back at work.

Wanted to take 14 weeks straight, but then due to staff movements in my department, we're kinda shorthanded, so bosses asked if I could go back after 12 weeks. So back I am. Managed to strike an agreement with boss that I'd be able to clear 2 half days or 1 full day of leave every week though. Coz if I don't I'd never be able to clear all the leave I am entitled to.

So on 1st April 2010, the start of a brand new fiscal year, and a blissfully peaceful April Fools' Day that no one screamed "April Fools!" to me... I went back to work... Not before preparing a stockpile of milk for my kidzes!!! :) Pamela Milk Industries has been revived and very busy!!! :)

Here below is the fresh (expressed breast) milk I had in fridge for them to drink...And here below is the result of 12 weeks of storage of surplus milk...
Actually there was more, but I had to give away some to make space for new milk coz this time round, we could only spare one freezer drawer for my milk storage (anyone wants to sponsor me a freezer? kekeke)
And here, is the milk that I expressed on my first day back at work! About 260ml in total per pump. So across 3 pumps, there's about 780ml of milk there :)

pix taken on 1st April 2010

Okay okay... in another post, I'd let you in on how I became a Super Cow! Step right up! step right up! Feed a baby or two?! No problem at all! Come, come, and I'd show you how!!! :) akan datang!

Cel's wedding on 26th Dec 2009 - backpost

Yeah! Forgot to make this backpost of Cel & Alan's wedding on 26th December 2009! Click here to see the post!

Here're some pix off our camera from that night!

pix taken on 26th December 2009
Cecilia & Alan's wedding!
Isaac @ 2 years and a week to 5 months

December 2009 posts

I'd have liked to say that I managed to clear all the 2009 backposts before I went back to work on 1st April 2010 - but I didn't! I missed just by a few days! Dang!!! But no matter! This is cause for celebration! I actually finished the 2009 posts! Woohoo!!!

Click this link http://tanfamilychronicles.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html to go to 31 December 2009 PM posts for the December 2009 posts, or use the links below...

Fast Friends?!
It's Christmas time again!
Isaac's last day of school
Dinosaurs!
Isaac's school Christmas party
Hubbs playing with the kids
A day of fun!

Now to catch up on 1Q2010 posts... gua gua gua... :p