My Venus and Mars

I see distinct difference between my little ones. Whether it's because they are of different gender or if it's just because they are unique in their very own ways, I can't help but appreciate them in that special way.

Sleeping Alone
AN is a dependant sleeping partner. She has to sleep extremely near me even till now (unless someone is unwell and she has to sleep with daddy). When she was younger, if she woke up without me in sight, she would sit right there on the bed and cry till I appeared. She wakes up to look for me if I'm not with her during sleeping time now but there are that few rare occasions when she still wakes up crying for me.

ER is independent. He sleeps apart from me even though I sleep right beside him. He flips all over and often ends up resting on a higher pillow. He always sleeps better when he ends up elevated. When he doesn't find me in the room, he'll usually get up and sleep walk his way to where I may be. He has his way of locating me with his eyes almost closed. The cute thing is, he doesn't forget to close the door to his room after he walks out in search for mummy.

Character
AN had never commanded me to do anything for her. She's not always will mannered but she would never tell me to do anything "now!", or sound dictative in any ways. She obeys when I'm firm with her. And she can tell when I'm ok with waiting so she takes some advantage of the situation assuming that I'm flexible with my expectation.

She comforts me when I cry. She's what Baileys and Maen used to be. I can cry into her and she pats me as I break down. She's been a very caring girl since she was a toddler. I remembered how she didn't understand why I cried one day but hugged me and told me something funny. She smiled when she saw her how made me smile. She was about 22 months then (I rmb coz it was a week before my parents came to visit us in Tucson).

Even when she's being punished or reprimanded, she wouldn't retaliate harshly. If she is not in agreement with being punished, she would at most stomp her feet and cry. And accept her punishment.

ER allows me to cry on him too. Blankly. He jokes and makes me laugh when I'm visibly upset at something he did. That's bravery coz when I'm not easily pacified when I'm angry (especially so this past year).

He loudly talks back at me when he doesn't agree with his punishment. He is vocal with his likes and dislikes. His intentions and preferences are usually clear. I can reason with him and trick him a little but being firm hardly works at getting him to listen up.

He crumbles when I announce "Do I have to be angry all the time?" recently. He's a tough one to crack. If he says no, he means it.

Thankfully he's at this age when he does things to cheer me up. He likes to make me laugh. He's a funny boy. And he has tons of cheeky behavior and expressions that he specifically stores up to use on angry mummy so that mummy isn't angry anymore. If mummy is in a TERRIBLE temper, he speaks the most useful sentence to calm me: "Mummy, I love you." Or "Mummy, Ethan's wants to hug."

There are more but I'm sleepy. I'll try to note more later on. It'll be nice to read about them and reminisce when they grow older.

:)

AN, ER's Security?

ER just woke up screaming and after about half hour of coaxing, we realized he wanted cold water to drink. He calmed down after we understood his request, drank and little and then agreed to return to the room to sleep.

Once back, he laid beside me for a while before finding his way to AN, snuggled beside her and hugged her from behind.

Almost instinctively, AN turned towards him and hugged him. I thought he woke her up but saw that AN was still fast asleep (she even made the 'tsk tsk' sound with her throat, something she used to do when she nursed to sleep. She still does that when fast asleep.)

Now they both of them are hugging and sleeping together.

Omg....

That's a such a precious sight...

Random Solid Toys to Bed

Kids love to hug soft, cushy toys to bed. Even AN does, although she doesn't have a particular favourite.

ER, my funny boy, has a penchant for solid, hard items that he enjoys holding before he falls asleep.

He has held cars, big bulky books, a box, balls and his favourite is his water bottle.

So Unglam

She was so tired she fell asleep in less than 5 seconds of silence and remained fast asleep as the little tiger walked all over and around her.

And she was so tired that her body made a flip but her limbs couldn't follow suit.

So unglam! Lol!

So Tired

Little boy was so tired he stood up in the car and fell asleep. Funny boy!

Nursing Mums

http://crappypictures.com/2011/06/what-it-is-like-to-not-sleep-at-night-illustrated-with-crappy-pictures.html

This is so funny, and exactly what I'm going through, except that we don't sleep with Mr Liow.

Sleeping Posture

Almost every night after I return to the room, I see them sleeping the same way.

:)

Synchronised Sleeping

They always end up sleeping the same way at night.

My very very precious ones....

Blow Wind Blow

Went out, came back, and saw this:


Now, where should mummy sleep?

Difference

AN wakes up crying since she was a baby. She still doesn't wake up happy. If not for ER sleeping beside her, she will still be sobbing on her bed when she wakes up. At least half the time. It's different at mum's place though. She's independent there, according to mum. She wakes up, brings out her writing tools and starts practising her chinese characters. ER does cry for me when he wakes up but he's also starting to exit the room to look for me when he wakes up. For the past week, I had been hearing his tiny footsteps as I did my work, turn and see the funny grin on his face. And just a while ago, he came out with eyes almost still shut, dreamily requesting: "Mama, sip (sleep)" and the moment I picked him up, he dropped back into sleep. I laid him on his bed and he's not even stirring. He's getting increasingly difficult outside home too. I excused his crankiness as a sign of sleepiness but Mr Liow pointed out that that was really an excuse. He warned ER that daddy will have to start punishing bad behaviour soon. I'm still waiting for age 2. Because once I start discipling, I'm afraid I can't control myself. Like how it is with AN. So I'm trying to relax on discipling. I really am. If I can, I want to be happy and unfazed by the worries that accompany having kids. It seems that is beyond me. I can never stop my abundance of emotions and trains of thought from activating at every piece of info I receive or behaviour I notice, or minute details to stuff I have to start or complete each day. hmmmmm...what was I trying to express? Time to continue from where I left off when ER came out just bow. Hehe.

FUN FRIDAY

TGIF! Fridays are almost always happy and to make it even more fun for the kids, we decided to all sleep in the living room! Yeah! The kids get to leap off the couch right onto their bed (something they do not get to do during any other days. In fact, this is probably the first time they get to do that at home)

 

 And then they get to stare at the TV till 11pm.

 The sleep in the living room would have been fun but something wasn't right:

ER, as with every other nights, had to walked around before he slept. Instead of being confined in the room, he had the whole big living room to roam and he happily did. I had to catch him back so many times I was totally shagged out but he wasn't. I had to keep bringing him back to the bed to lay him down and that made him rather unhappy. Not quite our intention. Supposed to be Fun Friday.

He had a good time imitating his sister, rolling and jumping off the couch and on the mattress. Lots of giggles and he did look happy (before I had to terminate the fun at 11.30pm, way way way past bed time. For the sake of Fun Friday). I think he was over simulated. Plus, because we didn't have curtains put up, it was bright. Not ideal in inducing sleep.

AN, on the other hand, was able to lie down. BUT she took a long time to fall asleep as well!

She talked and talked and giggled happily. I know, very happy. But if she doesn't sleep, the little one will not. He LOVES to play with her and will attempt to wake her up even if she's already asleep. AN being awake meant ER will be too.

She finally fell asleep (before ER did). But the whole night, she kept kicking me! OMG. I couldn't sleep the whole night! The moment I drifted off, she would kick me. And she kept on kicking! I pushed her closer to Mr Liow (haha! Sorry dear!). Mr Liow had fallen alseep LONG before the kids did. He was tired. hehe. So I thought he probably wouldn't feel AN kicking him. For some reasons, AN continued to kick me. *sob* And each time she kicked me, I would turn to her and try to wake her up. Then I realised she didn't seem to be sleeping well. Her dreamy eyes were open occassionally when I turned to check on her. Couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep, but her eyes were opened, just dreamy.

Conclusion: Fun Friday can be fun in other ways. Sleeping out will be fun in the future when ER is older and no longer walks around before sleeping. Either that, or NO TV BEFORE BEDTIME!! OH MY GOODNESS...THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAD A TASTE OF OVERSIMULATION TO THE MAX!!!

How Should I Bore a Toddler?

It's more than an hour past bedtime. AN is asleep but ER is still walking around. I'm pretending to sleep, hoping that will bored him enough to feel sleepy.

It worked: he is so bored he played peekaboo with his shadow on the wall and now, my knee by pulling the bottom of my pants down and then up to my knee with a "boo" and giggle.

Baby, do you ever feel bored?

AN Night Potty Trained

I haven't been bringing AN to toilet at night since I fell sick and Mr Liow only managed to bring her the first couple of nights because he couldn't get up. Lol!

For the whole month with the exception of a few days when she would wake me up, even with milk right before bedtime and no waking up to pee, she didn't wet herself.

She had woken me up probably twice in this 1 month to tell me she was urgent.

I think she has crossed this milestone.

Next up is to train her to sleep back in the dark... Since MIL came to start during weekends, she started asking me why I allow ourselves to sleep in the dark. She repeatedly without fail, emphasized that the kids would be scared.

Thanks to her, AN finally got convinced that there has to be monsters in a dark room because nai nai says it's scary without lights. Since a year ago, I had to have lights on for her...

AN had slept 4 years without lights at night and would have continued because we never made her wonder if the dark is fearful..

Now, I just have to undo it...I wonder if it makes her happy now, knowing that AN finally fears the dark, just like her.

Suddenly Asleep

This little boy refused to sleep and I couldn't make him, so I allowed him to explore.

AN was already asleep. ER, with my little pillow in hand, trotted to his sleeping sister and laid his head comfortably right next to hers.

Then he started making his way to the abandoned baby cot and flipped around on it.

In less than a minute, he became still. I didn't want to disturb him and started playing THE drawing game. After one round, I went to check on him. He was fast asleep!

How I wish he can go to sleep on his own every night!

AN had been wishing too. Every once in a while, she will tell me she wished ER wouldn't need me to sleep with him soon. Then he can go sleep with daddy and she can have me back again.

"Girls sleep with girls and boys sleep with boys." AN's theory.

I have to constantly update her that the very day ER starts being able to sleep by himself, that will be the day I go back to sleep on my own big and comfy bed with daddy.

She goes "huh" in disappointment everytime we talk about this but she's not giving up trying to talk me into her ideal "girls with girls and boys with boys" sleeping arrangement.

AN's First

AN reached another 'First'! Two of them in fact.

She was hungry and when she heard Mr Liow (who had no dinner and came home near 10pm last night) was going to make some (spicy) noodles for his 'dinner', she couldn't sleep.

I allowed her to go have some but didn't realize she had quite a lot of water too, because the noodles was spicy.

And she woke me up at 1.15am. She wet herself.

I wake her at 1.30am every night and occasionally at 4.30am too if she had milk or water before sleep (sometimes I let her sleep through because she seems to be holding her bladder well enough now!). The routine worked for us and for 3 weeks (before this), she stayed totally dry.

I was actually pleased that she woke up last night to tell me she wet herself. When we first started, she could continue sleeping without realizing the plastic mat was wet.

At 3.30am, she woke me up again. This time, she told me she needed to 'pass urine' (she's been using that instead of 'pee' since months back. Teachers probably taught her to label her this need in a more 'adult' way. I miss her telling me she needed to 'pee'...... But anyways....).

I brought her to the restroom. Lots of pee.

This post marks 2 new achievements:

1) Her improving intolerance towards a wet bed

2) The even more important ability to wake up on her own accord to 'pass urine'.

That's so cool. My daughter is so cool. Hehe!

Live on water, air and BM

ER is surviving on air, water and breastmilk alone.

These past few days were pure nightmare. I had given him all the usual stuff but he didn't want to eat them. I resorted to feeding him his favourite which usually worked but now, he didn't even want his favourite!

He literally had nothing yesterday and from the looks of it, today as well.

That is soooooooo like those days with AN!

Good gracious....here we are again. I really was hoping a boy will make my feeding experience a little more different but I have 2 non eaters, regardless of gender.

Not just that, he cries when it's nap time too. Now he not only needs no food, he decides not to sleep as well, no matter how tired he looks.

Hmm...

It will pass. Press on.

New Arrangement

We managed to get a refund for the bed. The boss was reluctant and he didn't have to refund us coz we have already paid up, plus we are in a way contractually responsible for the order. He did anyway, and we were extremely grateful!

That wakes us up to see that we need to get the kids something off the ground to sleep on. Meanwhile, I'm trying out new sleeping arrangements to see which works better.

If ER sleeps on his cot, that'll be best. AN decided to not sleep in the cot since a while ago. She kicked the sides in her sleep and frustrated herself so much she couldn't sleep properly.

Let's see how things work out.

Blow Wind Blow, again

Left room for an hour to catch a movie with Mr Liow and I return to an invaded sleeping space by the juniors...

Cute Sleeper

So cute....even in his sleep

One More Flip

Just one more flip and he's out.