Busy, busy!

I have been really busy the last few weeks, so no time to update my blog! Heidi has been growing really rapidly these past few weeks, and her latest milestone is being able to stand on her own unaided for a few seconds, before she drops back down on her knees. Hannah took her first few steps just days after her first birthday, so we'll see pretty soon if Heidi will follow in her Jie-Jie's footsteps, literally! :)

Hannah is enjoying school and she won an award recently for having the most stickers at the end of the month. The stickers were given out to the kids based on how well they emulated the character lesson taught for that month. So Hannah won the award for "attentiveness". We were all proud of our little girl and she was pretty pleased with herself too! :)

Heidi is now quite demanding, and she knows exactly what she wants, and will protest loudly if she doesn't get it! She can point using her index finger, so now she points to everything she wants, and it's mostly food! A few weeks ago, we also discovered that she can now drink from a straw, so we bought her her own sippy cup and now she loves drinking water. For this, she is more advanced than Hannah as Hannah could only drink from a straw when she was one plus

We took the girls to Gurney Plaza the other day, and got a picture of them side by side. We didn't use to think that Heidi looked like Hannah, but now we can see similar features in the both of them.

Now that Heidi is older, both of them are also able to "communicate" better, so this was one of the rare moments that we got to see "sisterly love". I said it was probably because they were united in their liking for gigantic stuffed bears! :)

Chinese New Year 2013

Chinese New Year was almost a month ago, but I am only getting around to blogging about it now :) This was Heidi's first Chinese New Year, and she received her very first ang pows from us early in the morning on the first day.

Okay, rewind a bit to the reunion dinner the night before. As usual, we had steamboat at my in-laws' place.

We also had some extra special dishes this year - Hubby's brother bought "Lap Mei Fan" (waxed meats rice) and Hubby bought "Yee Sang" from Sushi King. So it was definitely quite a spread.

Coincidentally, my birthday this year also fell on the first day of Chinese New Year, so at the reunion dinner, Hubby bought me an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins :) The kids sure enjoyed it, especially Hannah! :)

Heidi was asleep by the time we cut the cake, so we took family pictures with just the 3 of us.

Okay, so back to the first day of Chinese New Year. As usual, we went over to Hubby's parents' place early in the morning and Hannah and Heidi got ang pows from Ah Mah and Ah Gong.

Later we all headed up to Hubby's uncle's place in Batu Maung, and there we finally got some photos of the 4 of us.

This is a photo of all Hannah and Heidi's girl cousins on Hubby's side. Heidi was happy as usual!

Hubby with all his siblings.

The next few days were also filled with visiting, and lots of eating! Before we left the house each day, we took a family photo at home.

2nd day:

3rd day:

4th day:

5th day:

6th day:

On the 7th day, we went to Armenian Street to join in the celebrations there. All these years I have not been so it was quite a fun experience with the kids, even though there was a slight drizzle.

Have a happy and prosperous year ahead everyone!

Hannah's homework

Hannah had homework to do for the first time yesterday - writing "1, 2, 3" in Chinese characters. She seemed quite into it and was happy to do her homework, hopefully this positive attitude will last long! :)

Overall, she enjoys going to school and asks us to fetch her to school everyday, even Saturday! She is also looking forward to going for a school excursion next week and told me to make sure to send her to school on that day!

Heidi is much better now after her hospital ordeal, and is back to her happy self. She only hates the inhaler which she still needs to have once a day for another month before her next Dr's appointment. She was dancing around in her playpen the other day and laughing away.

She was a miserable little one in the hospital so I'm glad to have my happy baby back! Thanks to all who sent their prayers and well wishes :)

Heidi in hospital

Little Heidi has been admitted to hospital for Influenza A but thankfully it's not H1N1. She has been having fever on and off since Monday, runny nose and a very chesty cough with lots of phlegm so her paed thought it best to admit her so they can monitor and keep an eye on her. They are also giving her the nebulizer every 4 hours.

Despite all that, she can still smile even though it's considerably less these few days with all the medicines and procedures.

She is also enjoying the playroom in the paediatric ward so at least it's something to do to pass the time. Hopefully we can both go home very soon!

A morning at the park

On Saturday morning, the weather was nice and sunny, but not too hot. As the girls woke up early, we decided to take them to Youth Park since the last time we were there it was raining.

Hannah enjoyed the swings as usual, and she also liked the see saw.

We put Heidi in the little bucket swings for babies, but she was not too sure and didn't seem to like it that much. Probably still a bit young. She enjoyed the slide though! :)

I asked Hannah to give me a nice pose, and I got this:

Picture of my two little girls, and also another one of my 3 favourite people :)

Hannah also brought her ball, so they had a good time kicking it around in the field. Even Heidi wanted to get in on the action!

Heidi was also very curious about the grass as she had never felt or stepped on grass before. Even when I wanted to take another picture of the 3 of them, she couldn't stop looking at the grass.

So it was fun morning out and I also had my exercise - brisk walking around the field whilst carrying Heidi. Try brisk walking, carrying about 9 kg and singing lullabies at the same time! (It was her nap time and she was getting cranky cos she wanted to sleep). Definitely a calorie burning routine :)

Updates on Hannah and Heidi

The first month of 2013 has gone by really quickly, and it is already February - which means Chinese New Year is coming soon! :) Heidi will be 10 months old in another week and Hannah just turned 3 years and 8 months.

Heidi can now babble away in baby talk, and it's quite amusing at times! She can also now crawl on her knees instead of wriggling on her tummy and pull herself up on furniture. She loves to stand and "cruise" around, and is happiest when she is holding on and walking around our round coffee table at home. She will take the TV remote controls and aim it at the TV, imitating what she has seen her jie-jie and other people do :)

She is still a pretty routine baby, eating and sleeping times are a must, otherwise she will get cranky. Other than that, she is a happy little baby, never running out of smiles.

She can also recognise people and will look at the person when we ask her "Where is Ah Mah/Ah Gong/Hannah/Mummy/Daddy" She can also point to where she wants to go when we are carrying her and despite her smiles, she can also throw quite a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants! I suppose she can express herself better now that she is bigger.

Hannah and Heidi can now also play together (sort of), but I guess it's what we call "parallel play", playing side by side but not really together.

Hannah generally gives in to her little sister, but not when it comes to her favourite toys or when Heidi is pulling her hair - something she likes to do very often! But of course, Heidi's (and Hannah's!) favourite play time is with Daddy! He never fails to make them laugh :)

Hannah is adjusting well to kindy, and she enjoys going every morning with no fuss or tears, except when it comes to choosing her clothes! This morning in the car she told me "Mummy, 'ular' is snake, elephant is 'gajah' and 'zirafah' is giraffe!" So at least I know she's learning something ;) Also when I pick her up from school on most days, she will give a daily report on what she ate, who cried in school that day etc.

We took her the other day to Gurney Paragon because she really likes to look at the dancing water fountain there and also the small fountains surrounding it. She even posed and asked her Daddy to take pictures of her :)

Our little princesses are sure growing up!

Ais krim potong

Yesterday I had my first taste of "ais krim potong". As can be expected, I really liked it as I have a sweet tooth just like my Jie Jie Hannah.

I kept making "chupping" noises and was flashing big grins at Mummy and Daddy. Mummy got out her camera phone a bit too late, but she managed to get one funny grin from me.

Mummy and Daddy say once in a while is okay, not to be repeated too often! :)