Isabelle @ 2 Days to 16 Months

Discovered a rooftop garden at myVillage!  Isabelle seemed to enjoy running around the open space.  Best of all, we had the whole roof to ourselves!  

Here is one of my favourite photos of her:

Isabelle's Smile

Today, she surprised me by flipping from her tummy back onto her back!  She has also been trying to move around on her tummy, by kicking the floor with her toes.  Like Ian, she is now at the stage of drooling, drooling, and drooling!  We have endless loads of laundry to do for the two of them!

I also noticed that a pearly white line is sprouting from her lower gum.  Will try to take a picture of it soon!

Isabelle @ ~ 5 Months Old

Isabelle had been having a low grade fever since Friday.  On Saturday morning, we decided to bring her to get checked by the PD.  She was diagnosed to be having a viral fever.  The PD also assessed that her neck support was strong enough, and we could her on solids.

Her weight as of today - 7.03kg. 

It seemed a bit slow as it was slightly below a 1kg gain from last month.  However, when I checked the growth chart in the health booklet, her weight still fell around the 75th percentile.

Isabelle had also been able to rotate 360 degrees, when on her tummy.  She had not been able to flip from tummy to back yet, but was already proficient in flipping from the back to the tummy.  She loved to sit up and look around her as well.  Her naps were getting shorter too, and that meant I had to pay more attention to her.  Just recently, I had found, on different occasions, the swaddle blanket and pillow over her face.  Or else, she would be flipping to her tummy in her sleep, and once, face down.  I had to remind myself to be constantly checking on her, even at night.  It was a good thing that she would make noise if something was over her head.

I finished flashing the GD outline cards to her about a month ago, and had started on the words cards and also the Math dots cards.  Pretty slow here, but I am trying!

Our girl also loved to make "ah" and "uhm" sounds when she was playing.  Perhaps she had found her voice, and enjoyed hearing her own voice! 

She also loved to clasp her hands together, and appeared to be studying her own fingers and hands.

One thing that set her apart from her brother, was that she loved to smile!  And she was a lot more responsive than Ian when someone played or smiled to her.  One funny thing that I noticed was how excited she would react whenever she spotted her Daddy.  She would fix her eyes on him and kick wildly. 

Our girl simply melted our hearts when she smiled sweetly at us!  I guessed that girls were inborn with an ability to be very sweet!

Isabelle - 1 Week to 4 Months Old

We brought our little girl to have her 2nd doses of the 6-in-1 and Pneumoccocal vaccines today.  We were glad that she did not cry, and had no fever.

Her stats:
- Weight = 6.35kg
- Height = 64.5cm
- Head circumference = 41.5cm

Her weight gain was on good track, about 1kg gain from a month ago.  Now, her weight and height were around the 75th percentile.  We were glad because her weight had been a worry for us since she was admitted to the hospital during her full month.

Ian's Progress In School

We had a review session with Ian's childcare teachers this afternoon.  It was a short 30 minutes chat with the teachers and they showed us his "report book".

Generally, his "grades" in all aspects had improved, with mostly 3s (1 being the lowest, 3 being the highest).  I wonder if the teachers had been a tad too generous with the scores?  However, as expected, the language development sections had many 2s, but there were no more 1s unlike the mid-year review.

The teachers also showed us a stick figure sketch that he had drawn in the beginning of December.  It was a self-portrait, with eyes, nose, mouth, hair, body, hands, and legs.  I was a bit surprised at the sketch, and the teachers said that they were a bit surprised too because it was probably something that a 3.5 year old would draw.  They noticed that he was strong at sorting shapes and colours.  They also commented that he was a curious child, and always tore off bits of paper from the crafts pasted on the wall. 

It was a pity that I only had a quick look at the comments written in the report book, which would follow him until he completed K2 in this school.

On this day, I also noticed the big difference in his behaviour, upon the appearance of his English teacher.  He was running wildly along the corridor while we waited for our turn, and immediately turned into a "demure" sheep when she walked out of the classroom.  It was good to know that there was someone in school who could control him from misbehaving.

Surprises Today

Our little boy gave me many surprises today!

1. When he came back from school, he unbuttoned his uniform without any help from me.  We have been teaching him how to handle buttons for about 2 months, and finally, he did it on his clothes.  Hopefully, this will not turn out to be a one-off event, and he can continue to do that tomorrow and so forth.

2. After his shower, he went to the first-aid box to take a plaster to paste over the little cut on his leg.  Although he has been able to put on a plaster properly (he has even helped to paste one over a mosquito bite on me before), it was a pleasant surprise still when he came to the kitchen with the empty box to throw it away.

3. While I was changing the bedsheets, Ian has become my little helper.  He helped me pull the bedsheet at the other corner of the bed, and took the dirty linens to the laundry basket in the kitchen.  He even helped to place the pillows at their usual places.

4.  Voila!  That is a portrait that he drew while I was not looking.  When I asked who it was, he said "Mommy!".  It was a surprise to me, because it did not look as weird as his previous sketches of our family members.