Week 111 and Week 24.5 - These are the times that try Ho's soul

T minus two weeks till my self imposed 6 month time of exclusive breastfeeding/breastmilk.  Of course things are going well and now I am ill.  As is Charlotte and she has it tons worse than me.  And yesterday was a very difficult day to be a parent.  I admit I am a pretty pathetic sick person and Charlotte has inherited this (ahem) unfine quality in me.  I took her to the doctor today where she was mostly compliant (pretty noncompliant by her standards) and she was whining in the waiting room to have Yakult.  Not a pretty sight.  And this whiny sick thing went on all day whereas I too was also feeling whiny sick, which of course makes for a horrendous synergy of pathetic whiny sickliness.  As the day progresses Charlotte emerges from her nap with a sweaty and  alarming 103 degree temperature and we pull out the extra high fever meds we got today, aka ibruprofen (extra high fever is not a good time for anyone involved).  I did get a nap in (and pawned Sophia off on Imee as she did not want in on my nap) and we went out to dinner at the Soup Spoon and we got back and I wanted to take a bath with Charlotte and for a good thirty minutes she is whining for Yaya (aka Imee).  So my head is about to explode from the general stuffiness of the flu-like bug I have and I am trying to will some sense into Charlotte that indeed I am a sufficient caregiver and we can have a bath together.  It takes every iota of energy and steeled will to not just collapse into a pile of sickly mush and to proceed with the whiny bedtime routine.  Eventually Charlotte forgets to mention Yaya.  We make it to sleep before she is up coughing and wanting to watch Elmo 3 hours later.

Aside from this - I am doing cry it out with Sophia to get her to nap during the day.  She still seems to not hate me when the hour of crying (if she does not fall asleep) is over.  The first day was 45-55 minutes of crying and then 30 minutes of napping.  The second day was 20 minutes of crying and 45 minutes of napping.  I have realized that she can be transferred to her bed after she falls asleep elsewhere so this is progress (perhaps) or just an epiphany of sorts (e.g. maybe she could always do this all along and I just didn't know, but I doubt it).

As of Saturday we also started solids for Sophia - and she has been a good sport about it.  She likes her rice cereal and still appears to be pooping - all good metrics in the vein of infant progress.  Except for an anomalous day this week where she slept 11 hours at night Sophia is getting up at 12, 3, and 5 AM.  O how I miss those days of 8 hours of sleep!

I will try to get a picture of her two little bottom teeth soon...

I also sort of celebrated my birthday at the Tanjong Beach Club on Sunday - as I love their brunches and the lighting is good for pictures.  We were lucky to have Auntie Deanna visiting us from Macau as well.

We also spent a nice dinner with the Margolin-Beckwiths at Smokey's Barbeque where Uncle Matt (Beckwith) read stories to Char and TT while Matt, Susie and I kvatched.

On a totally bizarre note - I went in yesterday to the doctor who delivered Sophia to get some breastfeeding friendly meds (and the hospital two blocks from our house has no sort of general doctor - though I guess the ER type system is).  Anyway - I meet the doctor and he was very confused, asking me -

'who are you?' 

'did I deliver your baby?'

'when?'

'was it a natural birth?'

Um, this man stitched my privates and he has no recollection of me whatsoever.  I guess when you've delivered thousands of babies it is hard to remember them all (caveat - I did not meet him before the day of the delivery and he was there for all of thirty seconds of Sophia's delivery, but I was still disheartened to feel like such a number).

Also - OB/GYN's know nothing about ear infections.  He wouldn't even look into my ears but I did get some antibiotics and sleep inducing cough syrup - all breastfeeding friendly.

Matt has been in Macau for the last 3 days and I am happy for his return tonight!

On a final note - a rather lovely mom gave me a huge stash of frozen breastmilk that I am very grateful for.  Love the mommy community of Singapore!

Here is Charlotte invoking Auntie Deanna and us to dance!

And Sophia trying solids:

Luggage tags are cheap and easy toys:

With Auntie Deanna outside Tanjong Beach Club:

Bucky is difficult to photograph in light spaces:

The melancholy of Char's illness:

A new way of lifting weights!

Week 110 and Week 23.5 - Seoul Train

My apologies for the late post this week.  I was in Seoul for a few days and had intermittent internet and was traveling on Wednesday (a long flight filled with a crying Sophia, a trigger happy 'fasten seatbelt sign' Captain, and very nice Korean Air flight attendants who walked Sophia up and down the aisles.  She was eventually comforted by the human pacifier).

Back to Korea - my 3rd trip in 9 years was a small sojourn to visit my parents who were there for my dad's high school alumni reunion.  A good opportunity to return to the motherland and for the folks to meet Sophia.  She was remarkable in general to travel with - portable and compliant.  For my next trip I need to somehow teach her how to sleep in a bassinet.  Speaking of sleep, she did not sleep well at night - waking every 2-3 hours to feed was exhausting.  Luckily I think she is back to her night sleeping in our few days back in Singapore.

Did not see much of Korea - but did get to Myongdong (where there is a Face Shop at every corner) and the Shilla buffet which was nothing short of fantastic!  The Shilla buffet was where I spent my birthday.  My parents lovely friends rented us a private room which was nice as Sophia got to spread out and do tummy time while we ate.

It was interesting to be in Korea with my parents - they were tourists as much as I was!  My dad grew up in Myongdong and rendered it virtually unrecognizable except for an old theater.  The city is large and sprawling - exhausting to navigate like Hong Kong (but bigger and sprawlier) and stroller unfriendly (well at least the train appeared to be).

Charlotte was a l'enfant terrible while I was gone apparently.  Phone calls to dad to tell her to behave were made.  She seems better now that I am back.  Well, except for the pink eye and the fever.

Oh - we have whipped out our double stroller too!

Char and daddy at the airport:

Mom buying me hodduk in Myongdong:

Parents in Myongdong:

The remaining theater in Myongdong:

My dad eating some green tea/vanilla ice cream like concoction.  It was good!

Sophia and Granddad:

Sophia and Grandma at this yummy buckwheat noodle restaurant:

The family on a mountain with cool carved statues:

My dad and Dr. Yoon:

Mrs. Yoon, the back of Sophia's head and I:

Grandpa and Sophia do tummy time together:

Yummy foot snack at the airport:

Bucky suffers through Charlotte's fashion whims:

Pre-Conjunctivitis winking:

Double stroller!

Week 109 and Week 22.5 - An unusually busy week

Seven of our good friends have come through over the past week.  Seven!  We are not popular but international travel did converge on us over one week. 

Uncle Pete took us to the SkyPark pool at MBS which was such a treat!  Charlotte loved it and has gotten over her fear of pools from Bali.  That is one spectacular pool.

Abby and Ben came and made us their last stop before heading back to the US on an amazing whirlwind trip.  It was great to spend an all-too-short day with them before their long flight home.

We play dated with Luis and Rafael and Sabine on Sunday at our house and at the park.

And Sunday was also Mother's Day!   Matt got me lovely flowers and we went to TGIFridays (where I wanted to go instead of dim sum this week).  Char only ate French fries again....

While grabbing a glass in the kitchen, Charlotte warned me to 'be careful Mommy, it's dangerous!' (I always say this to her as she loafs around the hot stove).

Charlotte is now saying "O Shoot" when she drops something which makes me laugh. Imee takes the blame for this.

Imee says she also says "sucks" modeled after my incredibly appropriate language skills.

Charlotte is getting a hold of the concept of 'mine' and 'yours' - which is cool except for everything is hers.

Sophia holds her own bottle (have I said that before?) and takes off her diaper.  She also has started this recreational screaming, kind of a 'hey, I am bored' scream.

We have moved Sophia to her own room and she is still getting hit by mosquitoes (thanks to Mom's sweet skin she inherited).  Her head looks like there are two horns coming up!

Over a week ago Sophia's teeth started coming in!  She now has two emerging on the bottom and the top right one.

The last two nights have been a round of teething at 2:30 (ok this could really be the dog waking up Sophia) and 1:20 last night.  She does not fall asleep quickly after feeding so there were some marathon eating sessions which caused me some weird dreams.  She did pass out around 6:30 on both days.

Let's start with some long overdue videos this week.

Pete and Charlotte in the SkyPark Pool (the SkyPool?):

Sophia is the model of mellow play:

I love this pic of Sophia - tres St. Tropez!

Uncle Ben and a pen:

Auntie Abby tests Char's color knowledge:

Auntie Joy:

Uncle Pete:

Red House Dinner:

 

 A Mother's Day photo:

Sophia Zen in her Bob stroller:

Luis has awesome hair!

And an awesome smile!

Nice one of Rafael:

Luis and family:

Skypark pool with Char and Uncle Pete!

 

Photo of the week:

Week 108 and Week 21.5

Hard to believe I am still breastfeeding!  I will make it to 5 months tomorrow which is nothing short of miraculous.  I feel like I am an accidental role model for baby wearing as I take Sophia EVERYWHERE.  Nary a place in Singapore that I have not breastfed her (generally discreetly for the record).  Sophia is pooping almost every day.  So I finally have the hang of breastfeeding I think - it only took 20 weeks!  LOL

Charlotte has gotten into the habit of saying "yeth."  This is a throwback to when I used to say "thocks" for socks.

We went to Build-A-Bear to celebrate our friend Ellie's 3rd birthday.  What a fun and cute place!  Charlotte was hanging onto daddy the whole time as she does not go to school and I think finds the whole 'sitting in a circle' thing to be a bit intimidating.  Char made a stuffed dog she named "Dave."  She, like many of the other kids, did not like the unstuffed version of her stuffed friend.

Sophia may be crawling soon as she can lift her behind and go around in a circle on her belly.  All at 4 months - wowzers.

We visited our friends the Briggs and celebrated Cinco de Mayo with them.  I never thought to make my own enchilada sauce - thanks for the suggestion Maura!

Uncle Pete is visiting from the US and it has been a fun few days so far.

Charlotte is getting over a cold which I think I am getting.

Oh, and I have sorted out that weird fat border thing.

Here is the birthday girl Ellie!

Daddy trying to convince Charlotte that deflated Dave will be normal after being stuffed:

Cute Char:

A uniform group photo among the toddler set is not an easy undertaking:

Cutie Chris:

Char could do advertising for Build-A-Bear:

Brothers orange:

Little Charlotte:

Adam and Ila:

Sophia gets the hang of the exersaucer:

 

My favorite picture this week!