Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

His sleep routines used to 1-1.5 hours long. He would have his supper and come in  9pm. We would try to have him sleep by 10pm but sometimes it would drag to 10.30pm.  Recently in the last 2 weeks, the routine changed a little. I allowed him to come sleep on my bed as I was wondering if his constant coughing/phlegm was due to him sleeping on the mattress on the floor near the clothes.  Then, I tried to bring him down to the pool to swim, cycle or play after school for another 30-45minutes to further burn his energy.  Also, we would start his routine at 8-8.30pm before his supper. He would come out at 9-9.30pm in between but that's still fine.  Then, I let him help me turn on the humidifier / night light. And I turned off the other usual bedside light and made the room a lot darker. Lastly, I would ask him to go sleep after 3 books after his supper. Even though I could see that he couldn't really get to sleep, as he was changing positions every 30 seconds, I clos...

As I'm going back to work soon, I decided to accelerate my room spring cleaning process over the last few days. Today, I put on some finishing touches by hanging some photoes using some pretty paper frames and clips. Then, I went to pick Cayen up as usual. Brought him downstairs to ride his bicycle as we were early today. I tried to teach him to use momentum to go up a slope and how to use the brakes while coming down. After we stopped playing for a while, he suddenly told me that he had meetings with Janelle,Alix and some other girls in school. I was quite amused. I decided this was a teaching moment and decided to teach him on how to conduct a meeting. Here's a summary: - we need a chairperson and attendees.  - people who arrive late lose their voting rights  - we need to have an agenda and stick to the timing else people will get bored - we need to minute down stuff in case we forget  - if we are unclear of what we heard, we need to clarify  Wit...

We had a basketballer mummy gathering at Art Museum last Sat. The kids were given instructions to create an artwork of their family with parental guidance. However, Cayen as usual didn't want my help , he wanted to do it his way. Hence, his piece was quite different.  Thereafter, we had lunch at Dome before some of us proceeded to the National Museum for the indoor playground. However, as luck would have it, it was closed for renovation ! We have been so many times but they had to be close when I was trying to show Don Don. Anyway, we chanced upon another exhibition which had a room full of big balloons! The kids were so excited and played in there for so long - they didn't want to leave. Then, we came across another exhibit where one could bring a piece home as well.. And so we did. The pictures were so cute ! All art should be so fun! And boy did we have a good time colouring it at home too. Next day was another good day as we went to Huber's for breakfast as suggested by...

When Ah Zang Alan stuck out his tongue and made a face, Cayson cried. When he shook his face another time , Cayson cried again. He hadn't seen Ah Zang for a few weeks and we suspect he's having stranger anxiety.  Ah Gong was down with flu the last two days so he hadn't been carrying Cayson. When he said hello from afar earlier, Cayson pouted his lips and gave a  very helpless and upset cry (很委屈!) Ah Gong was wondering why Cayson didn't react to his hellos - he used to laugh every morning when Ah Gong waved his very big hello. Then Ah Pa tried a few more times and Cayson  repeated his pout and cries .. And then we realised the root cause - he's very upset that Ah Gong hadn't been carrying him and didn't want to carry him!  Whoa, we were all quite surprised by how early he is able to recognise familiar faces and form preferences ! Cayen was quite open to all people until one year old. 

For the entire third month, Cayson could only take short naps during the day time , only 10-15 minutes each time and only a few times a day. It didn't help that the occasional times he slept was always interrupted by the renovation right above us.  Then, on Cayen's birthday on the 9th , as he was doing tummy time on the sofa, I gave him a hand when I saw him trying to rollover. I didn't realise that innocent flip was the start of a whole new era.  Since that night, he had been rolling over to sleep on his tummy. For the first two to three days, he was waking up every 15-30 minutes throughout the night. Then suddenly, for the next few days, his sleeping time suddenly increased in the day and at night while he slept on his tummy. Then, for the last few nights, he had been sleeping from 8pm to 3am and drifting back to sleep easily from 3am to 7am+. And he could take 1-4 hour daytime naps too.  So my light sleeper wasn't so light a sleeper after all - he just hasn't fou...

From what I've gathered so far, apart from having lots of hand-me-downs, being a second child usually comes with some privileges , for instance more relaxed parents (due to them having more experience with kids or simply less time to micromanage). Well, in my case, I think it's quite the contrary as I've decided from my learning thus far that Cayson shall : - eat excessive amounts of vegetable purée at six months (so he nurtures a palate for vegetables) - have no or super limited access to phones, iPads and cartoons  - swim in the cold pool water from young - let him sweat it out instead of putting him in air con all day long  - no pacifier (so he won't wake up in the middle of the night when his pacifier drops out of his mouth)  Anyway, while his standing hair does resemble Cayen, the similarity kind of ends there as he's quite a different kid from what I see. His skin is a bit darker, his flesh is much tougher, he doesn't squirm in cold water, and he has just ...

The past year has been quite an eventful year for Cayen - having to cope with a preggy mother, change of school and finally the arrival of a new baby brother. While I was initially worried about whether we made the wrong choice in changing his school, I also took comfort in the fact that the school have nurtured him in the following aspects - he has become more confident with higher slides in playgrounds, he's fine with playing sand and overall become more athletic. Guess having outdoor play does make a real difference. Having his Ah Pa bring him swimming also meant that his water confidence has increased and he's no longer so scared of water on his face. While he still can't swim unassisted, he's at least able to do a few laps with his floatation jacket and have a good workout. Also, while he has earlier been very picky about his clothings , we've also seen an improvement over recent months where he's more open to different clothing. In the past year, he's ...

It has been 9 months since he changed school. And with the recent incident we saw in school, I was naturally concerned if he's happy in this new school. Hence, I tried to litter some questions every now and then to check his happiness quotient.   Me: do you like your friends in Pat's schoolhouse or Mindchamps? C: Pats  Me: how about the playground? Which one is nicer ?  C: there's no playground in Mindchamps Me: how about the music lessons? C: Mindchamps don't have the piano, pats has.  Me: how about gymnastics? C: Mindchamps don't have that lesson, only have the indoor gym  Me: how about arts and crafts ? C: oh, there's no lessons on that, but can do a lot of arts and craft in Pats.  Overall, Pat's the winner. I'm just quite surprised he remembered all the details about Mindchamps.  That night when he was taking a shower a little later than usual , I was concerned about his wet hair ... So I decided to ask him about his school  Me: hey, in school...