Euan at 8 weeks old

He smiles more now. Unlike Tobey who as as a baby was more generous with smiles, Euan is more mysterious and always looks as if he's pondering about the meaning of life, hence making his smiles more golden ;) He gurgles alot though.

At his six weeks check he weighed 5.8kgs, at 90th percentile and height at 75th percentile. So now, 2 weeks later he should weight more than a kg more. He takes a few naps a day and starts his night sleep at around 8pm. Will wake up every 2 hours for feed. However, from 12 midnight to7/8 am, he wakes up only once (on most nights).That's the saving grace for me. He is still exclusively breastfed.

We woke up to 5cm depth of snow this November morning. We walked to school today, so that Tobey can make snowballs and footprints on the snow on the way there. Today was his dress rehearsal for his nativity play (on the 9th Dec).. We ended getting him TWO sheep costumes (long story). SK took leave just to attend his firstborn very first play :)

He's enjoying pre-school alot. Few weeks back, SK went for his development meeting with his key worker. The only concern the teachers have is how he's not intrested in playing games on the school's computer. Here's why;

I've also been lugging the kids to do school visits , in preparation of choosing the most suitable school for Tobey's reception in 2011.

More pics

Euan at 7 weeks old

Tobey practicing his school play

Almost 3 1/2 years old Tobey

Family picture

Euan at 5 weeks old

He's rounder now with all the breastmilk he's been getting...hehehe.. He's currently having a growth spurt , where he wants milk, alot of milk almost every hour at times. He has very strong neck and can turn his head left and right to look at things. He's attracted to anything red and will stare at that item for a long time. He's aware of his brother Tobey alot. When Tobey is playing near him, Euan will gaze at him and his eyes will follow him wherever he goes. Tobey on the other hand is becoming very protective of his little brother. Whenever Euan cries he will say "Don't worry Euan, Big Brother Tobey is here!". He will always be very happy to see Euan after school. It's very heartwarming for me to see that they are starting to bond a little. Euan is also more aware of daddy now...probably wondering who is this man that looks so much like him ;P

Life for me after my parents went home (thank you papa and mummy for all the help and putting up with my hormonal mood swings )has been HECTIC! Basically, from the time I wake up at around 8 am it's go go go! Bath Euan and myself, feed Euan, eat breakfast with Tobey, house chores, feed Euan again, send Tobey to pre-school (he eats lunch at school), grocery shopping, feed Euan, put him down for a nap, cook dinner, pick Tobey up from pre-school, give Tobey his snack, finishing up preparing dinner and somemore housework, bath Tobey and give him his dinner....and on and on. After the initial hormonal weeks, now things are more settled, and admidst all the tiredness, I am actually very happy to look after this little family of mine :)

Updates on Tobey: (this is typed up very fast as Euan is currently tugging on SK's t-shirt, looking for a feed)

Tobey is growing up into a very boyish boy. His current favourite cartoon hero is no longer Firemand Sam, but Sportacus from the show Lazytown. He will do his Sportacus moves and can be persuaded to eat something that he doesn't want to eat just by saying "Sportacus eats this too". He loves school and is known as the one that gives the biggest smiles to the teachers. I love hearing about his school day on our walk back from school. He tells me that his favourite teacher are Mrs. Robot (Roberts) and Mrs. Garrrrrick (Garrick) and how he played "chasing" and "fighting" with Mitchell and Asher for example. He also pretends to be Luke skywalker from Star Wars alot (as he plays Lego Star Wars on Wii everynight with daddy-which is Darth Vader). He has light sabers (which actually lights up in different colours) and would spar like his character from the game. Tobey can recite his A-Z but can't recognise all the characters on paper yet. He still loves us to read to him and is learning to write his name. He loves playing Lego and stickle bricks, constructing bridges, buildings, cars, birthday cakes, etc., making up scenarios as he plays with them. So much more to update on my big boy, will do so when I find more time. Just want to say that I am very proud of him.

Got to go now.Bye.

Euan Wong

Delivered naturally on the 5th October 2010, weighing 8lbs 2oz. Our hearts are bursting with immense joy. Tobey is over the moon too :))

The waiting game

A few more weeks before my due date. I have been feeling really heavy and 'pressed down' whenever I move about. My bladder is the size of a teabag, so each glass of water I consume equals to three loo trips..haha! In the day time, I still carry on as usual as possible. Grocery shopping, play dates, birthday parties, getting the house ready for the arrival of our second one, etc. In the evenings, I would spend my time researching on the pros and cons of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC), which I am leaning towards now.

I just want to be able to deliver naturally, and be in and out of the hospital without having to stay in the hospital for 3 nights all on my own with a newborn after another Cesarean. After all the intensive head pounding research, I've decided to wait till 41 weeks. If I go into natural delivery by then, then good. Let's just hope the integrity of my stitches from 3 years back is good enough. Statistically, there's 0.35% chance of a rupture happening. There's also a chance of things going awfully wrong in a Cesarean or even a natural birth. Child birth is a risky business, period. If this is another late baby and exceeds the 41 weeks mark, I will go for another section. Under no circumstances I will be artificially induced again. No to epidural too during a VBAC (who knows, I might just turn around and beg the doctor for one when the time comes, we'll see..haha!).

Tobey has been behaving rather weird lately. Most of the time, he's the good boy he is. But, there are times when he shouts at us when he doesn't get his ways. At times he would resort to crying. Just a few minutes ago, he spat at me when I told him not to disturb his daddy who's taking a much needed nap.I noticed that these unacceptable behaviours happen more when his daddy is around. Maybe because he felt that daddy will always be on his side when he's up to no good. Me and SK (although we have slightly different method in disciplining), we try to discuss about it and stand united when confronting him. Our method is to 'nip it in the bud' each time firmly. I know it's called the 'Terrible Three' and all that, but apart of me wonder whether it's anything to do with the impending arrival of his baby brother. We do talk to him about his brother off and on. Telling him that we'll need to carry his brother because he won't know how to walk yet when he's out, about how his brother would cry alot as he won't know how to speak yet as he's not a big boy like him and so on. He's quite careful in not to jump on my tummy, sings to the baby and whenever I bump myself he would asked "Is baby brother alright?". Sometimes he would ask questions like "Does my baby brother like dark? It must be dark in mummy's tummy." Which is quite sweet :)

Anyhow, I am quite calm and prepared for the delivery (being the second time around). All I can do now is just to pray that everything to be alright.

Several pics I forgot to include in the previous post.

These are the sweetest plums ever! They are from our plum tree in the back garden. Tobey and I polished the whole plate off. SK just get to see the picture as he's adamant that he does not like plums. Tobey even ate the skin. He never liked fruit skin. Now we are waiting for the apples to get bigger and ripen. Hopefully, they are just as juicy and sweet :)
This is an indoor beach in a mall. They just poured huge quantity of soft sand onto floor and threw in a whole bunch of beach toys for the kids and set up beach loungers for parents to sit on. It was fab !
Father and son with their Legos. This is their favourite after dinner game (other than Star Wars in Wii). They would conjure up different scenarios which makes me laugh. For example, SK would build a private car park with gates. Tobey will have to pay SK some money to park his fire engine in SK's exclusive car park for a few minutes. Or there will be fire in the FIRE STATION, and the driver of the cement mixer truck would put out the flame with his mini fire extinguisher..hehehe.

Double rainbow seen outside, from Tobey's bedroom.

Pic updates

It's been a summer of

...funfair

...ice-cream

...baking

...fun days with friends

...first fruits from the garden trees

We are hosting two language students from China for 3 weeks. It's been an amazing experience learning about their culture. Tobey is getting used to all the attention and like them to bits.


Also, today was my lucky day. I finally found THE poster for the empty wall in my living room. I've considered many options when we first moved in, but nothing really stood out, so this has been put on hold for a looooong time. For this one, once I saw it, I knew it's the right one. It's a subtle oil painting of a landscape with colours which both me and SK found so soothing.

Dry night?

Tobey has been going to the loo to wee since 2 years and 1 month old. But poo-poo is a different story altogether. He refused to poo in the loo and only goes in the diaper. So his days were diaperless until after dinner, then he will ask for a diaper to do his business. After that he will have his shower and stay diaperless until sleep time. We tried to persuade him to deposit in the toilet a few times but failed miserably. He rather hold his poo in until his night time diaper comes along. This went on until June this year, a few days after his 3rd birthday. SK decided to get him to poo in the toilet again..this time he was promised 3 tic-tac sweets if he succeeded. He was also given 1 or 2 whilst trying to tide him along. Suddenly, it happened. SK witnessed it. I was so upset that I didn't get to see that magic moment. Nevertheless, I was overjoyed. The following day, he told us he wants to poo but was a bit too late and pooed in his trousers instead. He was very apologetic after that. It was as if he was embarrassed to have done that. From then till now, he's been telling us whenever he wants to poo (except for a few times when he pooed in his night diaper in the morning. When we asked him why? He said because mummy was sleeping and daddy was bathing, so he had "no choice"). I was really afraid of a relapse, but thankfully he didn't. So now we can confidently say that he's potty trained.

The only diaper he wears now is when he sleeps. A few nights ago, I forgot to put on his night diaper for him. But he was dry when I gave him his morning milk. I truly think it is most likely just a one-off because from what I read, they will still need a night diaper till 4 years old. So I didn't purposely leave him diaperless after that. Should I? Hmmm ..I better get a mattress protector first before finding out.

Hunstanton Beach

We and our cool "peaces"..hahahaha

Last Saturday, we finally ventured to a UK beach. I've never been to a beach to a UK before...hehe.. Southampton port is not counted. Anyhoo, we wanted a beach that is not too commercialised in hope that it's not too crowded and polluted over a summer weekend. A friend who used to live in the Norfolk area recommended Hunstanton. Whilst we were packing for the trip, Tobey reminded me to bring his favourite snack and toy. Of course, his "seaside cream" as well (Sunblock). Of course, I also packed spades, pails, towels, beach ball, float, slippers, wellington boot, change of clothes, shower gel, wipes, picnic mat, snacks, plastic cutleries and cups, and 6 bottles of 2L mineral water (it was a smart move by SK actually, because they don't have a shower facility there, so we actually used these bottles to bath Tobey before changing him into clean clothes so that he can sleep comfortably on the way back. If there's sand on him, he'll probably complain till there's no tomorrow. He's fussy that way ;P)

The journey there was mostly single carriage roads sandwiched by countryside for 1 hr 30 mins. YAWN. Tobey was very patient and too excited to sleep on the way there...Once we found a spot on the beach, he quickly requested for his spade and pail and immediately started building his sandcastles.

After one successful castle, he asked me " Mummy, where's the FLAG!?" Huh??? And I thought I have packed everything he could ever wanted for a beach outing. Anyways, I tied a ribbon on a plastic spoon and tell him that's his flag.

Then SK went to the sea with him. He wants to bring his spade and pail into the sea, plus wear his cap too.
I went to get lunch from those street vendors and a parasol for us as it was getting too sunny. After lunch, I just sat myself like a whale under the parasol, kept slapping suncream on myself and people watched. For us, it's not crowded at all, as there's lots of space between our picnic spot to another. The beach is sandy with big stones mixed in. Sigh, how I miss the sandy white sand of Malaysian beaches. The water was abit murky too.

I also saw that SK and Tobey ventured further and further away. This daddy was trying to encourage his son to go further into the sea, by throwing the ball further off and encouraged him to go get it. Tobey was in his round float and was ok floating around for as long as his feet can touch the ground when he stands in the water. I wasn't too worried also knowing that SK is quite a good swimmer :)
After about 3 1/2 hours, we cleaned-up, packed up and went home. The boy slept all the way home. He enjoyed it alot, kept saying " My love my seaside, please go seaside again please"...that equals to a successful trip in SK's and my books ;)

30th Week pregnant

I am spending my remainder pregnancy weeks nowadays doing as much as I can with my 3 year old and hubby...before the arrival of the second one. We are trying to go places that we've always wanted to go with Tobey (the beach this weekend, hopefully) and do leisure things like sleeping late, sleeping-in and just laze around doing nothing. With a newborn, means alot of home stay, sleepless nights and DVDs if I am lucky enough to have the time.

In September, Tobey will also be starting Pre-School 3 hours a day for 5 days a week. When I told him that mummy can't go to 'school with him', he asked me "where will mummy be?"..."In the car at the car park in front of your school waiting for you, of course!". He's happy with that, although deep down he knows I'll be snoozing at home....hahaha. I will miss him though. We'll be paying for him to have lunch at school too. Saves me from cooking for him when I am busy with the baby, plus he can learn to eat together with other kids and hopefully pick-up all the good table manners on the way...hehe.

Changes, changes, changes..bring it on!

Disneyland Paris 2010

Ok. Actually this trip is for Tobey, before the new baby comes along. He has been watching alot of Disney movies (favourite being Toy Story) and programmes on TV, so he's pretty familiar with the characters and at a ripe age/tall enough to start enjoying most of the rides in the parks. Since we won't be throwing him a 3rd birthday party, this is also to make it up.

We were there for 4days/3nights. This Disneyland is made up of Disneyland Park and Walk Disney Studio Park. Disneyland park is subdivided into 5 other areas with different themes (Discoveryland, Fantasyland,Adventureland,Frontierland and Mainstreet, USA). Walt Disney studios is much smaller with live show studios, stadium for stunt show and also cinemas for animation shows.Both parks were really well-maintained. Roses in front of castles, beautiful waterfalls, no rubbish on the ground, well manicured lawns...the dedication put into making the whole disney experience alive for kids was amazing. We stayed in New York Disney Hotel. Old deco but spacious and only 5 minutes walk to the parks. Too many pictures to post, too many rides and adventures to write about. So I'll just post a few to summarise things up.

First 2 days were sunny and hot! We slapped on tonnes of sun cream and ventured into the Disneyland Park until the closing time. Hehe :)

We went on like 20 rides. This Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast ride was Tobey's favourite. We went on it for 4 times! Thank God for fast passes.The Le carrousel De Lancelot ride

Here's a 6 months pregnant woman on a horse :p

Autopia- Where Tobey gets to drive daddy around for a change (daddy pressed on the accelerator, whilst Tobey steered the wheels)

Lunch break entertainment. Tobey was dancing on the bench to the music whilst munching on his lunch

"It's a small world" ride. My favourite. It was beautiful and so well presented.

Here is Tobey with his favourite Disney characters. He called them his "friends". Starting with Minnie,

With Mickey

With Woody and Jessie

With Goofy. He was leaning his head on Goofy's palm, as in to sayang him. My sweet boy :)

I think this is Simba Timon not sure.

with unidentified monkey character

and the piece de resistance- a meeting with Buzz lightyear himself. His current favourite cartoon hero.

In the studios, Tobey's favourite was not Playhouse Disney live show nor Stitch Live...

...it was the Motor Stunt Show Spectacular! We watched it on the last day and it was pouring cats and dogs, but still they managed to do all those dangerous stunts without accidents.

It was SK's favourite too. SK rode on several other more thrilling rides (such as Space Mountain: Mission 2 which is a gravity defying roller-coaster in the dark ) which are not suitable for kids and preggy woman.

Of course, we took sometime off to visit Paris. It's more for me, as I have not been there before. It's just like another big city. Not as pretty as London. Dirty metros and people are not that friendly.

Happy 3rd Birthday my darling boy. Mummy and daddy loves you around the universe and back ..then more :)