EL's Piano Lesson via Whatsapp Video

It has been 7 months AL (since 01 Oct 2018)  is having her weekly piano lesson via whatsapp video with Teacher Isabel.

Few months ago, EL said she wanted to learn piano and insisted only Teacher Isabel 🙄. It will be pretty challenging because Teacher Isabel is not 100% familiar to guide her unlike AL whom she had some years face to face teaching before relocating.

So we decided to try out with AL helping up to teach. It has been 4 lessons EL having her lesson via whatsapp video with JieJie as Teacher Isabel's assistant onsite.

A few of my friends were like 😳.

Sisters..

EL: Jiejie tie two pony tail for me ok?
AL: ok. Jiejie change your clothes first. Then tie hair for you.
EL:ok...
AL Jiejie got herself and EL ready for church.

EL – Clearing the Frozen EBM

Yesterday 18Oct2014, I was clearing the freezer slowly and found 3 expired EBM. Our freezer is slowly clearing and somehow I was sad because it seemed that my breastfeeding journey with EL would be ending soon.  I had already stopped pumping for few months and still direct feed her at night.  She also was taking the fresh milk and oat milk well without any fuss.

It would be hard for both of us when I plan to wean her off by end of this year. It was an amazing journey with EL having to go through painful initial experience.

EL in playschool

Being the youngest, EL is rather spoilt. She is very tough and determine like girl. She would climb up the chair and then table just to see what her KorKor and JieJie are doing. However, she is still not able to go to Church Toddler by herself yet. We decided to send her to a playschool to keep her occupy.

Her first few weeks at playschool were tough screaming and crying when PohPoh was out of sight. Later she would make the teacher to carry her throughout the class while she does her screaming drama.  A few times when I sent her, upon turning to the road of her playschool, tears started to roll down from her eyes. Eventually, she found it was fun going to playschool. Now it was a brisk sending her to playschool. She would wave bye bye and follow the teacher into the playschool.

She would only be 2 in Dec2014 however she seems to grow up faster than her age

Girls’ Room

We decided to move EL to zzz with AL few months ago. Similar way as the older two, we place the baby cot mattress on the floor and EL was able to zzz without falling from the bed. However, I would still need to go to the bed with her every night. She would turn everywhere before she eventually zzzz… When she awake, instead of crying, she would slowly walk to our room and pat my hand. She would zzz in between us and conquering most of the bed pushing both of us to corner of the bed. It would be something we would treasure as EL is growing soo fast

No more pumping for EL

It has been more than one week that both my breast pumps are slowly collecting dust.  I started by cutting the early morning pump, followed by the late evening pumping and last but not least, the noon pump has been slowly delay hour by hour till late evening. It is an emotional journey but the decision to stop was due to EL who hardly consumes any EBM during daytime. The maximum consumption is only 5oz.

Today, I will pack all the pumps and storage bottles/bags to be kept in a high cabinet until the day I am able to have the heart to depart with all these…

I am still direct feed her at night and in between she is taking fresh milk and also oat milk….

 It was indeed a journey of ups and downs…but I will still treasure the night feed for time being until she is completely wean off 100%...

Cutting down on pumping session – EL’s

Has been busy and my blog has been abandoned…. Going through the old post I miss those days when I made time to update about the elder two kids…feeling that I am neglecting the youngest…

This week, I started to cut my morning pumping and once in a while evening session. EL is already 17+months old and this week I let her taste Oatmilk. It was a slow and at least she didn’t reject.  She cut down her direct latch at night by munching other food as replacement. It was a sad moment knowing my baby has grown up and the breastfeeding journey would end soon. I will need to slowly adjust this feeling…

Coincidently my storage bags were finishing too…I have been using bottles to store....

EL is still an ‘owl’

EL being our youngest is getting a lot of attention from PaPa, Mummy, KorKor and JieJie… She brings so much joy to all of us. She is a very curious girl and explorer. Yes, she is more daring than her JieJie in trying out new things. The only thing which she is very unique is she sleeps very late. Many times, I will end up sleeping on the floor rug and with her who will zzz after tired of playing. EL…EL…when will you zzz early?

EL on 12-12-13

Yes this is way overdue post. Our baby EL turned 1 on 12-12-13. We had a simple brunch on 14-12-13 at KFC near home – just open in Tesco. Initially we wanted to have it at Jalan Universiti where we had both JL and AL first birthday. However due to logistic and time plus since the KFC near home was new, we decided to have it there.

We ordered Jelly Cake no#1 for her birthday and bought her a pink dress from H & M.

The week before, we had a BBQ to celebrate her early birthday with Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong in Adelaide. Sam Yee baked a nice chocolate cake and it was decorated by JL and AL with Sam Yee Cheong’s help.

Being the youngest, she is a baby to everyone. We love you a lot….even though I may not be updating regularly about EL…she has been the apple in our eyes bringing joy to the home…

By next year she will be in nursery even though she will only be 2+…

Breastfeeding journey with EL

BF with EL was not a very smooth journey especially having bad cut on the nipple which took ages to recover. It was an extreme painful recovery. For this time, I didn’t pump a lot as I did during AL’s time. Thus, the freezer supply was not as much as during AL’s time.

I managed to get into 1^st year of full breastfeeding EL. As I embarked into 2^nd year, it would be challenging because I would need to go for station audit which would take up to 2 weeks. I had a few challenges which I need to plan well:

   -  Will my freezer storage be sufficient? Should I start introducing FM to her in case during the 2 weeks period the EBM finished?
- To train her to drink from bottle during night time
- Pumping and freezing milk at overseas and carrying back 2 weeks of pumping milk

It would be major challenge because doing station audit is a new experience me and having to juggle with pumping session would be a great test.

Currently I am waiting for my boss to let me know the date and which station before I can start all my planning… wish me all the best…

EL is 8.5 months

I am very very bad in keeping update with my kids, milestone. Being the youngest, she is such a joy to all of us. Knowing she will be my last one, I must make sure I enjoy every moment.

She is able to sit and crawl. Recently, she claps with smile and joy in her face, making us soo happy. At times, I feel quite bad unable to spend more time with her unlike during her KorKor and JieJie time. Most probably, she is being smart to stay up late in order to have all our time to her while the elder two is sleeping.

She is currently taking some solid as up to this week besides potatoes, asparagus and spinach; she is taking millet+oats+quinoa+buckwheat+pearl barley. I will be adding one more grain and most probably cauliflower. She loves to chew Puffs and Blueberries. 

EL is 8 months old

Today, EL is 8 months old. How time flies and I survive with all the limited sleep.

EL is an owl who will take short nap till midnight. She will only sleep after midnight and so far the latest is up to 2am. I will leave her on the floor while I will be taking my fast nap on the beanbag. I am not complaining because being the last baby, I enjoy every moment and she will smile all the time.

Whenever she is in her short nap, I will quickly go to AL’s bed and hug her.

In term of solid, she is still taking solid as supplement and her main meal is still breastmilk. Her favorite is all type of potato, puff biscuits, peach and blueberries.

She has the least hair compared with her KorKor and JieJie…

She is a very contented and cheerful baby. The only thing is she doesn’t like to be alone in the living room. It will be either one of the elder siblings accompanying her or I will use Boba to carry her while I do my chores. One of the best investment we did was to buy Boba even thought EL will be my last baby.

Both JL and AL adore her a lot…

04Aug2013 – EL’s 1st wedding

On 04Aug2013, my ex-colleague at last got married. Yes, we joined the previous company on the same time which was Dec1999. We became close friend that even PaPa also knew him. Why at last? Yes, at last and finally after so long we were waiting for him to tie knot. It was also an honor that we were being selected to attend his small banquet.

The week before, he had a wedding in Ipoh. As for this week, it would be a small reception at Bankers’ Club with only 15 tables. Since the place was limited, we were trying to find solution. Coincidently Sam Yee was back for holiday. It was a win win situation where JL and AL would have dinner and ‘jalan-jalan’ with Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong. Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong took them to One Utama to have dinner and also shopping. PaPa and me attended wedding with EL. It was EL’s first wedding and I had a great time catching up with old friends.

Congratulations to you Ben…

EL’s Baby Dedication – 25May2013

Long overdue post…

EL had her baby dedication on 25 May 2013 in church. On the actual day, both JL and AL went to Kids’ Service later so that they could join with the baby dedication ceremony. The church staff reserved 4 seats for us. Coincidently, Papa was on duty on the same day. After the worship, PaPa walked down from the stage to join us with the baby dedication ceremony. Our cell leader (both husband and wife) came to pray for us and gave EL a gift. Our district leader too came and join with his wife to pray for us. We felt so bless…

Yes, I had to send him early to church and home with kids. Besides that, since it was EL’s big day, I had to make sure all of them look good and presentable. We went to Kids’ Service to get both kids to mark their attendance and get their name tag first before going to the main service. After the baby dedication ceremony, I sent both of them to their service and carried EL in Boba to Infant room. It was a similar routine as ‘Going to church alone with 3 kids’.

El’s 1st Solid --08June13

EL was just a few days before she turned 6 months old. Since 12June13 would be on weekday, I decided to start her solid on Saturday 08June13. Her first solid was mashed avocado. It was a messy first time but it was fun seeing her trying out her first solid. She kept pushing her tongue in and out.

After few days with mashed avocado, we introduced her with mashed Japanese sweet potato, steamed mashed pear and steamed mashed pumpkin. She is getting better in her solid intake. However, BM is still her main food and solid food is just her supplement at this moment. She needs time to adjust especially her body digestion as her stool is getting harder.

We also introduced water in between feeding her solid to clean her mouth.

This weekend I am thinking to try out steamed mashed apple for her. I am still reading Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Once her intake increases, we will try her on millets and other grain slowly. During that time, our small thermal pot will be working hard…

A milestone with Eli…

Baby wearing with EL

The first time I did baby wearing was with AL using a ring sling presented as gift by Ita and Anggie. It was a short while. During our Hong Kong trip in 2011, Chin Nee lent us Ergo to carry AL in Hong Kong town. AL was about 3+ years old and I was surprised that it was comfortable carrying her with Ergo except of the sweaty experience.

When I was pregnant with EL, we decided to get Boba 3G which was cheaper than Ergo. Using my Fabulousmom VIP Card, I managed to get extra discount.

Boba 3G has been our great helper so that both my hands are free to hold JL and AL when I am alone. Besides that, it helps to ease aching of carrying EL who is heavy. We use Boba a lot in shopping malls and crowded places. EL will usually sleep in Boba. I realized that EL is a contented baby and always smile. She loves hugging in the Boba giving her the sense of security.

Even though EL is our last baby and getting the Boba is a great investment. No regret…

EL’s 1st Time on Bumbo Seat

Few weeks back, we tried EL on Bumbo. A friend let us have it on loan. She enjoyed the upright position so much that she kept smiling and staring her toes. We didn’t let her sit there too long because tummy time would still be more important at this stage. We even tried bringing Bumbo out during last weekend dinner. She enjoyed herself looking around while all of us had our dinner. I would like to thanks to this friend CQ who let us have her Bumbo on loan as I would not have bought it myself.

It would be nice if there is another Bumbo on loan so that we can put in KongKong and PohPoh’s apartment for her to use.

More fitted diapers for EL

EL had quite a number of cloth diapers from her JieJie. We had a few favourites one. Many friends gave us cloth diapers either new or preloved. We had quite sufficient to last us for some days without having to rush on the laundry. We also used napkins during her first few weeks when she poo often.

Aunty Sharine surprised us with a box of lovely preloved fitted diapers and more inserts… Thank you Aunty Sharine…

We had been using cloth diapers at home and also during outing. EL never had any bad rash on her skin and we were glad that we used cloth diapers even though we need to do more laundry. However, it was all worth it…

EL is 3 months old

EL is 3 months old today and we will be bringing her for her 3^rd month check-up soon. During her 2^nd month check-up, her weight was 6.31kg. JL and AL love their baby so much that EL will look excited upon hearing her KorKor and JieJie’s voice. EL is very responsive when we talk to her. She is also drinking a lot of EBM which I hope my daily office pumping can meet to her demand. All in all, she is very adorable and everyone loves her a lot.

EBM Storage Experience with EL

With previous experience with AL’s EBM conquering the freezer here and here, I was a bit careful for this time. I hardly pump and by the end of the 1st month, I had only about 60oz of frozen EBM in the freezer. I would only pump to ease engorged breast. Due to this, for this time, I didn’t face fever due to bad engorgement like AL’s time and also I managed to avoid over stimulation of milk which I had to get SOS from Dr Koe last time.

It was a nice having a lot of EBM during AL's time but due to space constaint, I had no choice. There was a few times which I had slight engorgement but I just 'tahan' myself from pumping. Sad...

I hope once I started work, I would have sufficient EBM for EL and my department would not send me for a long outstation audit work for at least the first 6 months or best would be during the first year.