Mummy's Girl

This is what happens when I walk by Kayla and don't pick her up.

When I emerge from the room and cross her line of vision, she watches intently, arms outstretched, chubby legs kicking furiously in anticipation and if I exit from her sight without a cuddle, she launches wholeheartedly into a full blown wail.

I know this is the cause because as soon as I come running back to pick her up, she reverts back to her usual cherubic self, bestowing me with her generous gummy smiles again.

Not that I don't appreciate the affection but what puzzles me is the level of attachment she has. With Alicia, it was understandable as I was a SAHM for a year, which meant 24/7 interaction.

With Kayla, it was pretty much back to work after maternity leave and even the breastfeeding bond was truncated as I relied more on the pump this time round.

I think this is one bub with a pretty high EQ - she instinctly knows who her mummy is (despite the maid being with her for most of the day). Either that or she's a big copycat, after observing how her jie jie interacts with me, she felt justified in getting her fair share of hugs too.

Either way, I'm not complaining. It's indescribably gratifying to have two people love you so unconditionally.

Milestones

Experiencing Kayla's milestones is kind of like watching your favourite TV re-runs. The second time round is slightly different - you love the show so much you would gladly watch it again but this time round you know how it turns out and sometimes, you can't wait to fast forward the boring bits to get to the good part.


Which explains why this entry should have been done three weeks ago when Kayla FIRST started sitting up by herself. There was an initial "Hey look what she can do!" excitement but that fizzled out way before the video camera was whipped out.


We're still really proud that she can do this just before her 6 months mark but we're more interested in the walking and talking stage this time round.


In some ways, she's quicker than Alicia in terms of development but in others, she's a little behind (alicia had two teeth at 7 months; Kayla's got none at 6.5 months). I'm attributing the lag to the fact that I evicted her three weeks early which I'm using as an excuse for any delay in her milestones.


Here's Kayla trying to sit up by herself. She's not totally stable yet so it usually tends to be resting on her arms....

or leaning precariously to one side.

Smiley Baby

Here's a layout I just completed last night that really shows Kayla's regular repertoire of expressions. She's just such a happy baby, so generous with her smiles. My aunt jokingly said to me yesterday:

"I think the second child is generally more calm and happy so that you'll be enticed into having a third!"

Tempting at times but when I think back to the 9 l-o-n-g months of pregnancy and the first three colicky months, that door in my mind slams shut pretty quickly.

Interactions

The best part about having two children (besides the very generous 2nd child rebate from the government) is watching how they interact with each other. It like they exist separately in their own Lilliputan world and adapt their activities to suit the audience.

Because Kayla still doesn't have a voice of her own, she pretty much caters to Alicia's demands on how their 5 minute play periods should run. I say 5 minutes because that's how long it takes before Kayla gets annoyed at being man (or rather girl) handled like a ragdoll by her older sister and that's pretty much how quickly Alicia gets bored as well.

So this is how the 5 minutes evolved today.....


Alicia: I want to carry mei-mei. Mummy can you put her on me and take a picture?

I quickly obliged because it's not often I get Alicia to willingly agree to have her picture taken. Start of the 5 minutes - Kayla is thrilled to get some attention and Alicia is giggly from Kayla lying on her.

I take Kayla off and put her on the bed and Alicia goes "I want to lie down like mei-mei too".

Doesn't take long for this trick to tire so Alicia, being the brains of the operation, decides she's going to tell mei-mei a "secret".

This goes on for a while as Alicia thinks up three or four sweet nothings to whisper into Kayla's ear. As you can imagine, the monologue got tiresome and she decided "Let's make a T" ...

This heralded the end of the 5 minute play for Kayla as she started fussing and writhing on the bed. So I got one last shot in and called it a day.

Offspring Update

It's been a while (to put it lightly!) since my last blog so much so that now I have two subjects to blog about instead of one.

I was wondering what would be an appropriate point to start the updates but too much has happened and to fill in all the details would probably cause a minor overload on the Blogger server so I guess the short version will have to do.

Alicia

She's almost three and a half now and sometimes acts more like a little adult than a kid. She goes to Pat's Schoolhouse (just across the street from where we live) everyday in the mornings from 9-12pm. She seems to be settling down quite well and the teachers tell me she's a quick learner prone to mood swing and very stubborn. Not surprising considering her gene pool.

She's at the "Why?Why? Why?" stage now which drives me nuts sometimes and other times, leaves me in hysterics.

Fortunately, she loves her little sister and her regular after school routine would be to march through the front door, kick her purple crocs off as far across the living room as she can, announce "I'm Home!" at the top of her voice and then rush over to give her mei-mei (who by this time, would be wide awake after that entrance) big kisses all over.

Here's a pretty recent pic of her over Easter when we went to Bintan for the long weekend.

Kayla

This baby is a godsent! The first three months looked like she was going to follow in her sister's footsteps and be a "needy" baby but once the colic settled and the magical fourth month came around, she decided that her poor parents needed a break and switched on the charm and left it there ever since.

Every day though, I wonder if this is a fluke and this lucky streak will run out soon. She's such an amazing textbook baby who smiles all the time, goes to sleep by herself and knows how to soothe herself when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

These are her typical expressions:

She thinks the world of her sister as well and never ceases to laugh out loud at her silly antics.

Watching the two of them now, I hope they grow up to be close and be able to depend on each other as mummy has decided that they will be the only sibling for each other!

Blog Resurrection

Since the demise of my last blog , I’ve been thinking about starting up a new one for a while now especially with the addition of a new blogable subject and trying to keep friends and family around the world updated on our lives. The final kick in the pants came from two sources: a truly inspirational book (“Life Art”) by famed scrapbooker, Ali Edwards and a straight to the point text message from a friend that read “Action! Woman!”

So voila! Unveiling “Sisterhood” – my new blog chronicling the lives and antics of my two little girls, Alicia and Kayla.

Let’s see how long I can keep this one going.