Pink!!

I remembered a couple of months ago when I had dim sum with my bro, Mike and our wives, a waitress asked if Kaitlin (their daughter) is a boy or a girl. While they politely told her that she is in fact a girl, Mike was a little "upset" once she walked away. He asked why is it that people can't tell especially when Kaitlin is dressed in pink from head to toe and sitting in a pink pram.

I laughed it off then and told him that it is normal because with some babies you really can't tell especially when they are younger. I related to him the many occasions that we were asked if Isaac is a boy or a girl when he was younger even though he was dressed in shorts with polo shirts or shirts.

There is a Chinese saying that you wont know the pain until you have pricked by the needle yourself. Well I guessed I was pricked by the needle and I should apologise to my bro for dismissing it as a small deal when in fact it is anything but!!

About 2 weeks ago while we were out having high tea with Mike and our wives, a waitress looked at the twins in their stroller and asked are they both boys. While the Mrs clarifies with her politely, I was thinking can it be anymore obvious? I mean one of them is in blue while the other in pink so you should be able to tell right away right?

What do you think? Does she still look like a boy in all pink? You be the judge.

Speaking of pink, the Mrs is going on a rampage buying anything that is nice and in pink. She has caught on the online shopping craze and the mothers at SMH is not helping also. I have to admit many of the stuffs that they put up for sale are very nice indeed. Most importantly they are very cheap too! Now before you go on and accuse us of showing favouritism towards Hayley, you should know that she buys things for Luke as well.

I think the twins may be taller than Isaac because they are in this in-between stage now where Isaac's old rompers and pajamas at the same stage are a little small for them while those at the next stage are too big. As a result we went out and bought about 6 to 8 new pajamas from Gap for them. We felt their growth should not be restricted by the length of the clothes they wear. Luckily there was a 30% discount so the damage was under control.

Not sure about the height but there are surely distinctive differences between all 3 of them. Hayley has the nicest and longest eye lashes and did I mention it curled upwards? Isaac's eyelashes are nice and long for a boy as well whereas Luke doesn't seem to have any. They are just too short.

Luke is round like Isaac was at about the same stage and he weighs in at about 5kg now. Not bad right considering he is about a month premature and he has not even hit 3 months yet. Hayley on the other hand is still lagging behind but we're not exactly complaining yet until our next visit to their PD.

When it comes to drinking habits (not referring to beer here in case you AA members are mistaken) the 3 of them are rather unique in their own way as well. Isaac was the best as he did not give us any problem and he drinks very fast. Even now he finishes 270ml of milk in under 5 minutes. He likes to drink plain water as well. Luke on the other hand was a messy drinker when younger. He will occasionally squirt out milk from the corner of his mouth. Milk will also flow out from both corners of his mouth. However he has since learnt his manners and is much neater and cleaner now. His speed while not as fast as Isaac but he has shown a glimpse of the same potential as his big brother. Hayley is a typical girly girl. She will take her time with her meals and do not like to be disturbed. When you are feeding her she will really much prefer if you give her your full concentration and not talk to anyone. Otherwise she will let you know exactly how she feels. It could be due her speed because she is extremely clean. If we were to tug a piece of tissue under her neck it will come out completely dry after her feed.

The only other thing we can compare is probably their sleeping habit. I do not think we can attain a fair comparison because Isaac may appear to be the easier one but then again he did not have a sibling making noise and waking him up all the time. Luke is probably the clear winner in this category because he simply loves to sleep. He goes to sleep very easily after each feed and up until recently he will wake up like clockwork every 3 hours demanding to be fed again. Hayley on the other hand takes a lot of swaying and carrying before she will doze off but the good thing here is her sleep usually lasts much longer. Some of you may have noticed from my Facebook message that Hayley managed to sleep throughout when she turned 2 months old. While this is not 100% of the time but it is at least a good 80%.

For the past few days Luke is showing signs of joining Hayley in the STC - Sleep Throughout Club. The night before he slept after his feed at about 10 ish and only woke up around 6 the next morning. Last night both of them slept from about 11 plus and woke up this morning at about 6 ish for their milk. It certainly looks like they might just join Isaac who became a member of the STC on a permanent basis from when he was 3 months old.

One concern that we have is Luke generally likes to sleep on his tummy. The past few nights of him sleeping throughout, he was on his tummy. Earlier we were worried so he was put on his tummy only for short spells and under regulation supervisions but recently he has grown so much stronger that he can lift his head up and turn it from left to right so we feel a little safer. He likes to crawl forward while sleeping too so we are sacrificing our pillows to pad the surroundings. If this is anything to go by he will be crawling in no time.

Disadvantage?

Some of you may remember that Isaac was our Christmas present when he came to this world on 26th Dec 2007. Being born so late at the end of the year makes him much smaller in size when compared to his peers born in the same year.

Take his cousin for example. Chad was born in January so he is almost a year older than Isaac and one could never have guessed they are of the same age just from looking at their sizes. However size is not really the issue here cause given time Isaac can surely catch up. It is only prominent now when they are this young.

What concerned me most is the disadvantage in terms of time given to him for his development. Honestly I never thought much of it until last week when the Mrs brought (more like dragged) me along for her nursery (as in school) shopping.

Most if not all the nurseries are already taking in students who were born in 2007. My initial reaction was nonchalant because to me Isaac is still very much a baby so the idea of sending him to Nursery 1 class seems so distant.

This trip to a very popular nursery really woke me up! It was in the administrator’s office that I realized that Issac is due to go for Nursery 1 next January!!! My baby is going to school (ok, a little drama here since it is not really school school but you know what I mean) next year!! Picturing him in his little school uniform brings a smile to my face because he will look so cute! At the same time I have this sour feeling deep inside also because it sort of mark his growing up.

While touring the school and their many facilities, we saw students in the current Nursery 1 classes walking down the corridor hand in hand. They are of various shapes and sizes but all of them look so cute in their uniforms. We could tell that some were born in the beginning of the year while others at the end. I can already visualize Isaac being bullied by the big fat kid who was born in January.

When it finally dawned on me that Isaac will be big enough to go to Nursery 1 next year I suddenly got confused. I always thought that we will be sending him to play school first before nursery but in this case it does not quite add up.

Later I realized it was due to the fact that Isaac was born in December. As far as I know typically the Play Schools will take in children when they turn 18 to 20 months old. I always wanted to put off sending him to school, Play School or otherwise, until he turns 24 months but I just realized that by the time he turns 24 months, he is also 3 years old and can be enrolled into nursery 1.

Confused? Let me explain. We look at the actual month that Isaac is born so he will turn 24 months end of this year but according to the government Isaac is 3 by January so he can go for his Nursery 1 class already. This means he will be attending nursery when he is really just 24 months and 2 weeks old.

Now it suddenly looks like Isaac will miss attending Play School unless of course we enroll him when he turns 18 months instead of the original 24 months. He will get a taste of Play School for 4 to 6 months before being promoted to Nursery 1.

Not too long ago I have a friend who warned me that children born at the end of the year may be a little slower in terms of absorbing what is taught in school. He would know since 2 of his 3 children are born in December. It seems their academic results are not that ideal. I believe this may be true to a certain extend especially when they are younger.

To think I was originally hoping that Isaac could wait till 1st January before coming to this world and I will enroll him together with those born ‘a year’ before him. This way I thought I could save him a year in his life. Now I understand why when shared with Dr N, he too felt that it was not such a good idea after all.

Of course if the Mrs is a SAHM then maybe we can consider skipping Play School all the way up to Kindergarden and let her play and educate him herself. But for now it looks like we will just have to see if he is able to fend off the big bully on his own.

Record!!

I told myself I must try to make it a point to blog at least once a week and so far I was able to stick to it but that was until last week! Not sure if any of you noticed but there was no update from me.

Oh before I go into this week’s topic I need to clarify one thing. A few of your readers expressed your concerns after seeing the picture from my last post featuring Ani carrying all 3 babies. I believe it is in my best interest to clear the air before Ministry of Manpower comes knocking on my door.

The only reason Ani was carrying all 3 babies was because she requested to take a picture with all of them so she can show her family back home. She was the one who wanted to take a picture with her carrying all of them. Under no other circumstances will she be asked to repeat that stunt especially in a normal working environment. When the picture was taken it was in a controlled environment and extreme care and preventive measures were taken to ensure the safety of not only the babies but Ani too. Please do not try this at home and definitely not when you have to borrow someone else's kids for the stunt.

I remembered some tourists were giving us a funny look when we were handing all 3 babies to Ani. One even offered to take the picture for us probably thinking that he is saving Ani.

Anyway since the last outing to Carousel and Isetan Scotts we have gotten a little more used to the attention. I am happy to say that we are still going out on a weekly basis with all the kids in tow and the twin stroller of course.

We actually went to Gymboree last weekend for Isaac to have some fun climbing and crawling around and learn to interact with other children. We went for a trial lesson once but decided that he is not ready to be following the group in their activities. Most of the time he just sat there and observed what the older kids were doing with the facilitator. He only managed to warm up his engine after about half an hour before he started to crawl around chased after the balls. He had such a good time that he did not want to leave when the hour was up. Since they do offer playtime where kids can just go into the gym and do their own things we decided Isaac is probably happier that way hence we headed back there last Saturday. Ani, the Mrs and I took turn rotating between playing with Isaac and standing outside handling the twins, stares and questions from the other parents, grandparents and maids there.

Speaking of last Saturday we set a record for the longest number of hours out with the entire family minus Dino. We were out for a total of just under 8 hours and only returned home after 9pm. The best part was we were not even bothered with the fact that we had to lug along this huge diaper bag that contains milk, water, diapers, snacks, toys and change of clothes for all 3 babies and the twin stroller. Although the twins were cranky at times demanding to be fed but we were mostly unfazed. We just went about our business as if we were the only ones at the mall not paying much attention to all the stares and smiles.

We were even bold enough to take on a steamboat buffet dinner in the evening. Although the spread and food was nothing to rave about but we still managed to enjoy ourselves and dinner lasted for close to 2 hours. During dinner we had to stop and feed the twins and pacify Isaac as well.

After dinner we still had energy to carry on shopping at Gap for a bit more where we managed to buy some clothes for Isaac and another bag for the Mrs which she felt is good for another diaper bag. I found something I like too but that is for another day.

Overall I am very pleased with the whole experience although I had to miss my Spurs playing live on TV. They lost 2 - 1 incidentally if anyone is interested. This little experience will hopefully go a long way to reinforce into the Mrs's mind that even though we have 3 babies now but with a little bit of planning we can still enjoy our weekend outside as a family. Who says we have to stay cooped up at home now that we are parents of 3 babies?