Ms Answer Back

I thought Lucas is already so advance in answering back but apparently Chloe is better. At her age, she talks like a teenager at times.

Me: Chloe, it's way passed your bed time. Go to sleep now.
Chloe: I'm not sleepy.
Me: It's late or else you won't wake up on time to go to school.
Chloe: But I'm not tired.
Me: Go now before I punish you.
Dominic walks into the room.
Chloe: Dad, I want to sleep with you.
Dom: Ok...you go sleep first and I'll come in 5 mins.
Chloe: Mummy, you don't sleep here. I'm sleeping with Dad!

Chloe: I don't want to eat.
Me: You have to eat your dinner.
Chloe: But I don't want to eat.
Me: Better go eat before I embarrass you by smacking you in front of everyone.
Chloe: You always smack me anyway!

Elmo, Elmo

Don't know when the fascination starts, but Chloe is so over Elmo.
We get the kids an iPad a few months ago and now they have been You-tubing more than me in my whole life!

Chloe knows where to tab for You-Tube. The screen will be usually be at the History. She then chooses her Elmo clip. She even knows how to pause/play, go back to History page. She will only get lost when she accidentally tabs on 'Featured', 'Most Viewed' etc. Then she will bring the iPad to me and say 'Elmo, Elmo'. Once I tab on the History page again for her, she will carry her iPad to wherever she was sitting and continue You-tubing.

Very often, Lucas and Chloe will fight for the iPad. They wanted to play and You-Tube at the same time. I have to set a time limit for each of them.

Gadgets, oh gadgets!

Loud and Tough

Chloe is just the opposite of Lucas in terms of character. Chloe talks loud that the neighbours can hear her. She is not shy of trying to say the words out loud. That's why she is blah blahing all the time. She walks when she is still not very steady.
Lucas is just the opposite. He is soft spoken and gentle. He doesn't talk loud and will only say the word when he is very confident. When he is 1, he doesn't say much. He only started after he turned 2, and his words were very accurate. Less blah blahing. When he walked, he is already very steady, no falling down. That tells us their characters.

Chloe is tough. She makes her displeasure known. No doubt about that. There is no wrong or right character, or better and worse, it is just them. We always joked that next time in school, Lucas will get bully and Chloe will come to his rescue. She will tell the bullies 'Hands off my brother'. We have no doubt about that too!

Walking & Chatting Away

Chloe started walking a week before she turned one, and Lucas started walking a week after he turned one.

Now, the girl is half running when she walks. Her walking is still not very steady and she balances herself by raising both her arms up. That means she moves a lot faster. The stairs gate has to be closed at all times. With her new found mobility, she wants to go out all the time. She will say 'ka-i ka-i' (go for a walk) and then point to her shoes and the door. She can get quite persistent.

She is also learning to talk. Blah blah blah all the time. She can says a few word if we listen carefully.

One day, she did something that annoyed Lucas. I can't remembered what it was. They get into each others nerve rather often now. Lucas smacked her and walked away. Chloe followed him and then smacked him back! Things are not going to get easier from now on.

Van Gogh or Dilbert?

This is how Lucas drew himself! Very good for his age, I must said... His handwriting is clear and neat too.

His logic reasoning is getting better too. Here are some example:

Me: Lucas, hurry up. Brush your teeth. What are your ears for if you are not listening.
Lucas: I pretend not to have any ears.
Me: Let me pull your ears then you remembered you have ears.
Seconds later - he was asking for his body lotion and I was not listening.
Lucas: Mommy, let me pull your ears. You are not listening to me.

Lucas: Mommy, you, me and Chloe go shopping to buy Mr Day Dream (he is crazy about Mr Men books now).
Me: It is still early. The shop is closed. The shop will only open when you are in school.
Lucas: I don't want to go to school.
Me: You have to go to school. We will buy after your school.
Lucas: No, we go buy now.
Me: I don't know the way to the shopping.
After a few minutes of pestering,
Me: OK, I will go and buy while you are in school. I will give you the book when I pick you up.
Lucas: But, you don't know the way to shopping!.
Me: Urg..I call Daddy and ask him.


Meanwhile, as Chloe grows older, she can express her expression, she is getting more assertive. If Lucas snatched a toy from her, she will answered with 'urgggg', clearly showing her displeasure. When Lucas shouted at her, she will give the same answer. Not a person to be bullied.

My weekend starts today and it's a long weekend. Taking the kids to Singapore. It is going to be Chloe's first trip outside Malaysia.

I just realised I have lost my credit card. Must have dropped out of my wallet when I last used it last Friday, and only realised it now! There is already a RM1500 fraud on the card. Sigh...have to file a fraud report and don't know if I will be seeing that money again. These few weeks have been really lousy - lose unnecessary money like this fraud and buying so darn lousy unit trusts. I need to 'change' fate (chiun wan)

Chloe's Teeth are Out

Oh....after months of false alarm about her tooth coming out, it did finally make its grand entrance. She has 2 teeth on her lower gum. But that doesn't stop her from sucking her fingers all the time.

She is crawling fast, climbing stairs, cruising like a pro and bringing everything her hand can reach down with her.

Mobile Chloe

Chloe is so mobile now and she is not even walking. Can't leave her for seconds. She is crawling and cruising everywhere and her new favourite discovery is toilet. Have to close all the toilet doors now. She also likes to open up the mosquitoes net on the door. She likes the 'click' sound when the magnetic mosquitoes net hit the grill door. When we are upstairs, I always have to close the stairs gate. She can get to the stairs in seconds. Oh...she also figured out how to open and close drawers..and in the process had her tiny fingers squashed now and then. But that doesn't stop her.
At 9 months, she still does not have any tooth. She has been drooling and having itchy gum for months but still no sign. When I applied Bonjela for her today, I do not feel any bump on her gum but she is behaving like her tooth is going to pop up anytime.
We took her for swimming yesterday and she drank some dirty pool water. Now, she has slight fever, running nose and coughing. Sigh..it is going to be a long weekend.

Chloe is 8 months old

Today, Chloe is 8 months old. Lucas said she is zero year old. He cannot compute in months yet. Again, Chloe celebrated with a visit to the doctor. She had the same celebration last month. There is this strong bug that has been going around. Lucas caught the bug first. Started with running nose but luckily no fever. Then I got the bug. I got bad sore throat for days. Then the maid got it. She was down with fever. Then Chloe got it. She has running nose, coughing and slight fever. And now....Dominic got it. He was just complaining about fever. What a stubborn bug!

Chloe weighs 7.7 kg and her length is 70cm. She has been making very good progress on her movement. When I put her on her back in her babycot, in seconds, she will sit up, and then push herself standing up by holding the bed railing. Now comes the problem. She does not know how to sit down. She will either fallback and hit her head on the bed railing, or slid down with her leg caught between the railing. Of course, she will cry. Can get tiring for me at times. I put her down to sleep, walk out of her room to wash her bottles. Before I get to the kitchen, she has already started crying. This can repeat for many times. Now, after I put her on her bed, I will hide near her babycot and wait for a while. If I think she is going to fall asleep, I will walk out quietly. If she is going to sit up and stand up and get stuck, at least I do not have to do so much walking.

She is also learning to crawl. She has all these stunts where she is trying to position her legs correctly. Sometimes, her legs crossed and she fall on her face. When she gets it right, she will be crawling backwards. She is definitely getting handful.

Her skin is a bit yellowish. When I asked the paed, the paed said it is too much beta carotene yellow, not jaundice. It will not do any harm. Too much vitamin A and her liver cannot process fast enough. Now, I'm cutting down on her carrots and papaya.

Chloe is Long

We took Chloe for her 6 months check-up today. She had 2 jabs and an oral medication. The first thing the paed said was 'Her hair is standing. She has curly hair.' She cried hard during and after the jabs. Lucas was like no feeling when he had his jab at Chloe's age. How different.

The little girl weighs 7.3 kg (5.8 kg when she was 3 1/2 months old), and is 69 cm (61 cm when she was 3 1/2 months old). Then the paed commented on Chloe's flat tummy! Chloe tried to sit up very often and her position is like doing crunches. That gives her the flat tummy.

Now that she has passed her 6 months milestone, we are taking Chloe to swimming tomorrow - if the weather allowed.

Chloe is 6 months old

Chloe is 6 months old. I'm not sure if time flies too fast or too slow anymore. One of my former colleague just sent her son to study overseas. Then I started thinking if it is me who is sending Lucas to study overseas, will I be filled with joy that I finally get my freedom or will I be so upset that I 'lose' him for good? After much deliberation, I think I will prefer to have Lucas as now. Everything 'mommy this' and 'mommy that'. I prefer him being dependent on me. It is such an adorable phase. Another friend also commented that she 'lost' her teenage daughter. The daughter is grown up and doesn't stick to my friend anymore. So, I am making a mental note to myself to enjoy them now. Yes, the kids are now very dependent and suck all the 24 hours a day of my time, but hey, it is only a phase. Soon, there will be no more 'mommy this' and 'mommy that' and I can't reverse the time.

Chloe is able to turn from the back to her chest and then back to her back. She eats solid but I must say it takes her a while to get used to new food. When I introduced sweet potatoes to her, she rejected the food the first time. The second time, she had a few spoons and then rejected the food. She only enjoys it the third time. The same goes with banana. So far, she is eating rice cereal, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, banana, papaya and apple. I will be trying pumpkins soon. She is going for her 6 months check-up and jabs this Tuesday. Will know her weight and length then. Sleeping wise, she is good. I just need to put her on her baby cot and she will go to sleep without a fuss as long as her stomach is full. She is sitting but not very steady. She reacts to her name. So far I must say she has been an easy-going baby :)

Lucas is building his fondness for Chloe. Every morning when Lucas wakes up, he will go to Chloe's room and give her a pillow or pat her or hold her leg. This is very sweet of him but of course will wake Chloe up as well. Lucas quite often asked to carry his sister. Meanwhile, when Chloe sees Lucas dancing, she laughs out loud. She thinks her brother is playing with her.

Chloe is 5 months old

We started Chloe on solid the day she turned 5 months old. So far, she has tasted cereal, carrots and broccoli. Tomorrow, I will introduce apple to her. The first time she had solid, she played the food on her lips and the tip of her tongue. She does not quite know what to do. Now, on her third day, she knows how to take the food from the spoon. The solid still is not able to help her sleep through the night. She still wakes up at 2+ am. I am contemplating waking her up and feed her at 10+ pm before I go to sleep. Hmm....better to let her sleep or eat??

I let her sit on the bouncer initially as she still cannot sit well. But she grows restless after 5 mins. Now, I strapped her on the high chair.

She weighs 6.3 kg. She can spin on her bed and turn halfway, not fully on her tummy. With her development pattern, I think she might just skip crawling and go straight to walking.

Food, oh glorious food.

Look, I can sit unassisted.....for seconds.

Starting Solid

Since we came back form Sydney, Chloe has not been sleeping thru the night. She woke up at 2+ am asking for milk. Previously, she needs her milk at 5+ am. During daytime, she is drinking more often than usual. That must be a sign saying she is ready for solid. So, when I get a chance to go to supermarket, I will need to get her the cereal and other food as well. Need to recall all the puree recipes.

She is not turning just yet but can spin 180 degrees on her bed. Can't put her on Lucas's bed. She is capable of falling off now. This morning, one of her feet was on top of the lower railing. Need to lower her bed by 2 notches. Oh...she is going to be mobile very soon and that means need to keep my eye closer on her.

Look, I have changed my position...