Christmas 2007!

It’s Aloysius’ second Christmas. On Christmas eve, we went to Borders for the whole afternoon and bought lots of books. Apart from getting more books for Aloysius, I have decided that I must get some books for myself. Hahaha… More books for me... I got two books on parenting :). One book is about what to expect for twins from pregnancy till their school years. It’s quite an easy book to read. Since it’s in English, I can read it faster. Hahaha… The other book is “The rules of parenting” by Richard Templar. I think it’s a new book cos it’s the first time I saw it in Borders :). I haven’t really read it, only browsed through it once. It seems interesting and will be a book that will be able to calm my souls during challenging times as a mother. There are days when I get very frustrated and angry with Aloysius too. I also bought a box of Spanish flashcards. One side is Spanish word and illustration, and the other side is the translation in English :). That’s for Aloysius. I haven’t opened that up though. I also bought two boxes of interesting cards from “Brain Quest” for Aloysius. I wish I had more time at Borders. I wanna buy some books on juices for health. Maybe next time when Borders have sale again… After all the buying at Borders, we went home for a nice and cosy dinner :) Luckily, we did not plan to eat out. It was very crowded at Orchard Road.

On Christmas day, we went for a small Christmas party. It’s a party with 4 boys! Hahaha… All of them love to ride on the car. When one wanted to ride on the car, the rest also want. It’s Aloysius’ first time tasting some cakes and cookies. So far, I haven’t given him food with sugar nor eggs.

After the party, we went to Orchard Road for some shopping :). It was indeed a tiring day for me. My legs have never hurt that much…

Falling in love with Aloysius again.

Aloysius is getting very adorable lately. He knows how to follow instructions and is starting to speak more words, depending on his mood. He can pronounce his name, Yang Zheng Yu, very accurately. My dad showed him his photo on the mobile phone, and he went “Yang Zheng Yu”. He knows how to address everyone in the family now, but that gotta highly depend on his mood.

He enjoys pointing at the pictures of his books for me to tell him what it’s called. He has “upgraded” his “I love you, Little Mouse” book to “Thank you, Little Mouse”, and “Good night, Little Mouse”. Sometimes I will ask him where is butterfly, spider, snail, bee, cherry, strawberry, blackberry, apple, pumpkin, etc, etc. He will point them to me :). These are the outputs I am getting from him. He prefers me to read them in English. Sometimes, when I read in Mandarin, he will “protest”.

For his language development, there’s some improvement. He’s getting less frustrated now as compared to last month. He used to cry and whine when he wanted something last month. I constantly told him that he gotta say it out what he wanted, and crying will not make mommy understand him. He can express what he want better, or rather I can understand him. Hahaha… I am hoping to increase his language ability before he turns 2. Anybody has any suggestion what I can do? I revised Shichida’s book <<零岁教育基础>> that the “terrible two” stage can be avoided or a breeze when the child has good linguistic and motor skills. From 2 to 2 and half years old, they are at the stage when they have strong sense of what they want and exploration. They will become frustrated and have a feeling of failure if their need for exploration and understanding are not satisfied. According to Jane, his teacher at Shichida Method, to improve language skills, we gotta do more flashcards and speed reading. Hmm… I thought I have been doing lots of them. Maybe it’s time to review what improvements I need to make.

A few days ago, he threw everything on the coffee table to the floor, and climbed up the coffee table. Then he started to “talk” for quite a while. Hahaha… dunno where did he learn that from. The night before, I brought him for a seminar. I wonder if he’s imitating the speaker speaking. Sometimes, he will be making some noises while playing with his toys or reading his books. I still haven’t decipher whether he’s reading or he’s singing. Sometimes, it can get quite high pitch.

Sometimes, dunno whether to get angry with him with the things Aloysius explores. A few days ago, he climbed up the toilet bowl, cleared the shelves for me. I wonder when he’s going to stop the test of gravity. Hahaha…

Nowadays, I will give him some fruits in the morning. He will sit in his high chair and self feed the fruits with a fork. For now, he loves pear, dragonfruit, mango, jackfruit. He still loves his oatmeal. I usually add black sesame seeds and lecithin, and sometimes wheatgerm into his oatmeal. He loves carrot and apple juice too. He prefers to eat plain white rice with sweet potato too. Because of his love for just plain white rice, I have started to give him vegetable juices. I have started with adding broccoli, celery, beetroot so far. Hmm… maybe cabbage juice next. And also for myself :).

I am hoping to cultivate his love for reading. He will sit on the floor and flip his favourite books. When he needs me to read to him, he will bring the book to where I am and sit on the floor with the book. Sometimes, I felt that I do not have enough time to read to him. I am trying to sit with him and play his toys with him whenever I can.

He still loves his flashcards sessions. He will clap whenever I asked him to clap when I am changing the categories of cards. However, after the flashcards sessions, he always wants to play with my stack of cards. He will take a few cards and flip them and speak in his “language”, as if flashing the cards to me. Hahaha…

When I am typing this, Aloysius is wiping the floor! Hahaha… He took a cloth to wipe the floor on all fours. Then wipe the coffee table with the cloth. Then “dry” the cloth on the table after wiping.

My twins.

Last Friday, I went for a detailed scan at Gleneagles X-ray department. Both of them are growing very well. One is 495g and the other one is 540g. The difference is not too far :). The scan took 1.5 hours. It was a pretty long one. The sonographer scanned the first one, then went on to the second one after she finished the first baby. I could see them during the scan. They seem to have high noses. Both of them are girls :). Exciting, eh? I am growing pretty fast and big already. Sometimes, can feel very breathless. Doc asked me to start lying on bed to rest! So fast!? Hahaha…. Dun think I can just sleep the whole day long. My girls have been kicking me actively inside.

I really gotta try to do more for both of them. I have to watch my diet more, and drink more fresh juices. And do the "tai jiao". I haven't thought of a dream for them though. So far, whenever I have the chance, I will try to imagine to make energy balls and send to them :)

An amazing baby and mommy!

Last Friday, when I was on my way to Orchard to meet my hubby for lunch and then to Gleneagles to see my gynae, I met an amazing mother with her son on the MRT :). The mother has quit her job just to look after her son. The boy was 13 months old and was rather big size. The mother told me that her son is a vegan. Wow! She has also changed her diet due to her health and pregnancy. She’s a very determined and disciplined woman. She ate only raw vegetables and fruits during her pregnancy, and drank a lot of fresh juices too. I did that for breakfast and lunch when I was pregnant with Aloysius. When my weight got a bit too high, I took 2 cups of carrots and green apple juice in the morning, sometimes added with beetroot and lemon, and my weight was in check. I did not drink as much as she did. She drank the juices 3 to 4 times a day! The juice base is carrot too. Her son was very healthy at birth, and was not jaundiced at all. Aloysius was slightly jaundiced for a few days. She had a lot of breastmilk too. She also read that people with a vegetarian diet will have lots of milk. When I say vegetarian diet, I mean diet with lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, not those deep fried vegetarian stuffs nor the highly processed food. I really admire her that she can eat all the vegetables raw. Her son, is eating raw vegetables and fruits now too. When I read Dr. Bernard Jensen’s book, he also recommended eating raw vegetables because of the nutrients and minerals. The best is to eat the vegetables and fruits plucked from the trees immediately. But that’s not possible in Singapore. She spends $200 a week on vegetables and fruits alone for a family of 3. That’s indeed a lot to me, cos I dun spend that much on vegetables and fruits per week. Oh yes, her son haven’t taken anything with salt and sugar too. Aloysius too :)

As we walked and chatted, she’s also like me, suffered from two miscarriages before she decided to change her and her hubby’s diet. The meet-up is kind of like God-send to remind me to watch I eat! We have several similarities. She’s also an engineer. And she’s my hubby’s schoolmate, same year, same batch, next class only. What a coincidence! She’s also facing pressure and criticism about her son’s diet, and the upbringing. She believes in it’s fine to shower her son with water at our room temperature. Sometimes, I did that for Aloysius too :). The basis for having shower in “cold” water is so that the kid will not fall sick easily. It’s kinda true for me, and it’s true for her too. Oh yes, I think she’s well read cos she was reading while on the MRT, and had a few books in her Quinny.

We had a very nice chat and walk to Tanglin Mall. After chatting with her, I am inspired again to start all my juices and be stricter with my vegetarian diet again. It’s time to review my diet so far. It’s not as good as when I was pregnant with Aloysius. Sometimes, I had cravings for meat and I succumbed to it this time :(. I had some deep fried food here and there too, which I did not take any when pregnant with Aloysius. I wonder if it’s because I did not do a proper detox before the pregnancy, which I did before having Aloysius. I gotta be more disciplined for the health of my twins from now. I will take the effort to buy the carrots and green apples for my juices, and make the juice daily.