joel is three

24 Dec 2010 was Joel's third birthday but his FIRST real birthday celebration. Before this, we never "really celebrated" his birthday with this many friends. His friends. I'm glad he started school 4 months ago and has friends whom he can name. ;)


We headed to Joel's school in the morning with 3 cake boxes! Joel doesnt know what's inside the boxes (nor that we're going to celebrate his bday in class), so he was very happy when we took out the CAR cakes! That's Cakes #1. As expected, he LOVED the blue car the most. (I was told by the seller that the smallest cake is only good for 4 person. 1 size up is good for 6 person, so i ordered 3 of this cake size becoz Joel's class has 3 teachers & 15 students on a day with full attendance. But after cutting up the first cake, we realised that it was enough for all the kids and the teachers. So we gave the 2 other cakes to the other classes to enjoy)

We had another lunch appointment with friends at Paulaner but since Joel was enjoying himself so much in school, we decided to leave him there till before his nap time. Meanwhile, we went to collect the cake from Awfully Chocolate and home to decorate it with M&Ms! That's Cake #2.

Daddy Elvis had made reservations at Paulaner becoz of their outdoor playground (although we dont have any child guests). But the temperature dropped soooo much on this day that it was freezing and not suitable to be playing outdoors. Nevertheless, Joel had a good time and a great meal with some of our closer friends in Shanghai - the people he sees regularly. After the lunch celebration, we also allowed Joel to about 15mins at the playground. (Becoz of the bad weather, we also decided last minute to leave Emma at home. We're so sorry, Little Emma.)

In the evening, we headed to Taiwanese friends' house for dinner. (Last Christmas Day, we also had dinner at their house) We didnt expect them to buy a cake for Joel! Usually, everywhere is selling only Christmas-themed cakes and logcakes...so Joel had a Santa Claus cake! That's Cake #3!

I'm sure Joel had a truly memorable birthday celebration which made up for all the smaller birthday celebrations he has had in the past.

Joel, Mommy & Daddy love you very much.

- I havent been updating my blog for the longest time...and i decided back-date it during our trip in Singapore now for CNY 2011. Wanted to take the pictures from my Facebook... only to realise that the network is soooo slow and doesnt work too well. Hence, i will post more of the pictures after i'm back in Shanghai using the VPN which is also slow... FYI, both blogspot AND facebook are banned in China. :/

emma is 2 months

Emma is 2 months old. She is 57.5cm and weighs 5.35kg. She looks quite chubby too - just like brother Joel. ;)

Emma is awake more in the day/evenings and she likes to smile especially with Daddy Elvis.

Emma's skin developed eczema when she was about 1 month old. It is a very stubborn cycle (of eczema) which clears after applying the steroid cream prescribed by the paediatrician...but it comes back again in a few days. And with her bedroom heated 24/7, it is drying out her baby skin even more. It is heart-wrenching for us to see her face so red, dry, patchy, peeling, painful... (Even Joel's baby-soft cheeks becomes so dry and rough in winter)

We have tried switching her Enfamil formula milk to a special Meiji (水解蛋白 formula recommended by the PD) but it's not helping much. Hope her skin condition improves soon...

P.S. Paediatrician advised to postpone the vaccination until her skin condition improves a little. Emma was also having slight flu when we went to the doctor's for her 2nd month vaccination.

35 months

Joel is 35 months! Only 1 more month till his 3rd birthday! Joel is 92cm tall and weighs 13.4kg. He's looking like a "big boy" too (no more baby face). But when he stands next to other kids (the same age), he still looks like a small boy. Most of the time, he's also the shortest. ;p

He seems to love his sister Emma very much (from photos) but... Although we spend more time looking after Joel, he is still jealous of Emma. We love both of you! ;)

we lookalike

emma 1 month

Baby Emma is 1 month old! 

She weighs 4.25kg and is 54cm tall. That's an increase of 1.2kg and 7cm in her first month.

15 Nov 2010

emma turns 1 month. the dinner.

Yesterday, Daddy Elvis made a pretty last minute decision to invite a few of his friends over for dinner - in celebration of Baby Emma's First Month! Before that, we didnt exactly plan to "celebrate". (FYI, Elvis thinks it's silly/boring/tiring to have a "big celebration" for kids. He dislikes attending kids' birthday parties although he himself LOVES TO PARTY at clubs, karaoke etc.)

He flipped some cookbooks and decided to attempt to cook pasta - Seafood Marinara. Fortunately, Awfully Chocolate could make an actual-day delivery. Then, Elvis rushed to the supermarket in the afternoon to get the ingredients. He came back an hour later (!!!) and wanted to go to the Sogo supermarket to get more (or rather "better" and fresher) seafood. Since time was not on our side, i told him to go to the wet market nearby to take a look instead. He came home happy and started cooking...

The Menu:

Appetizer - Grilled Chicken Wings

Main Course - Seafood Marinara

Dessert - Awfully Chocolate choc/banana Cake

served with free flow of White Wine

The guests stared pouring in at 7pm... Actually, it's only 4 people lah - Ann, Pick, Raymond & his girlfriend LiuQing. We always cannot invite more people over for dinner becoz we dont have enough plates and cutlery. Haha! As it turns out, everyone LOVED the Seafood Marinara! Phew~

Like all babies first month celebration, The Baby is always sleeping away... So, brother Joel had fun playing with his beloved friends, including blowing the candle on Emma's cake! ;)

Happy First Month, Baby Emma.

We love you.

emma turns 1 month

Emma had her second photo shoot 2 days before she turned 1 month. Mommy Jo likes the naked Hawaiian girl best!





This was a complimentary shoot that came with the super expensive birth package. Technically, there's 2 FREE 10-inch framed photo (selected from the shots that they take). The first shoot was done on Day-2 at the hospital and the second shoot during the baby's first month (when they deliver the first framed photo).

Baby Emma was sleeping when they arrived but she woke up shortly when they changed her into the clothes they had brought along for the shoot. There were also lots of props - teddy bears, giraffe, hats, colourful rompers... There was little fussing and Emma seems to like the plump girl who cooed "ooo-ahh"s with her.

Mommy Jo and the confinement nanny looked on and thought that Emma looks quite professional! Truth is, she looked pretty helpless as they manipulated her body, arms and legs.


Daddy Elvis and brother Joel were sound asleep in the other room after their day out (and Joel also went to see the doctor). I was quite disappointed that Daddy Elvis couldnt wake up to watch Emma's shoot and/or to help me select the photos. Especially after the experience i had at Joel's 2nd birthday photo shoot, i was afraid i'll make the "wrong selection". (I guess it's difficult for any parent to "delete" the nice-nice photos of their child.) As expected, i was asked to choose the "free" photo immediately. To delete the ones i dont want. To pay for the ones that i want to keep (the files). I have to be decisive in deleting! HAHA! So i made it a pretty quick one. The confinement nanny thought that every picture was nice and i shouldnt have deleted them so quickly. In the end, i'm left with only 5 photos including the "free" photo. When Daddy Elvis finally woke up, i showed him these photos and he thought they were OK (although he didnt get to see the ones i didnt choose). It was then that i realized i shouldnt have paid for the picture of Emma in the stripes romper becoz i have a similar one in my own camera! Oops!

Anyway, all in all, i was glad Emma has a professionally-taken baby photo! She will also get a "free" photo shoot on her birthday till she is 2 years old. ;)

the perfect smile

We bought Baby Emma's airticket to Singapore even before we gave birth to her. Now, it's time to apply for her Singapore citizenship & passport! It might take up to 2 months. But first, we need to take her passport photo when she's alert and happy. Sunlight has to be good too (which is quite rare in Shanghai). We had wanted to wait till after her first month before we try snapping the passport photos.

Last weekend, upon seeing that she's pretty alert, i decided to take some test shots first (w/o changing her out of her polka-dots top into something more "ideal"). We took about a hundred continuous shots because Emma mostly has a very serious pensive look (in 90% of it), with very few of her smiling... When we took similar test shots for Joel, he was a lot cheekier and kept sticking out his tongue. He has this habit up till today. Fortunately, Baby Emma is not like Joel - especially that tongue!

Towards the end of the 100 shots...Viola! It seems we've got our perfect smile in the last picture below! Pretty, isnt it? ;)

Our Dots...

and our Stripes.

34 months

Joel is 34 months and weighs about 13.5kg.

He's extremely "sticky" this month, fusses and cries at the slightest thing that upsets him. Perhaps it's becoz of little Emma's arrival. But Joel seems to love his baby sister. When Emma is crying, Joel will say "Meimei, dont cry". Before he goes to school or goes to bed, he will say Goodbye & Goodnight to Emma.

This month, Elvis took 2 weeks leave from work (after Emma's birth) and he noticed that Joel seems a little moody when he's playing in his room, and he's also a lot naughtier than before. On this day, Joel came home from school and he seems upset (again). So, i brought him to my room and we sat by the window to read a new book 'Elmo's Guessing Game About Colours'. When Joel guessed the colour correctly, i held his face with my hands to sayang him...and he repeated the action every time we got to that part. Joel is such a sweet boy - well, most of the time. ;)


Joel, Daddy & Mommy still love you just as much even though we have Emma meimei now.

2 big heads

Daddy Elvis took some photos of Emma one afternoon and he realized that Baby Emma looks even more like Baby Joel! Here's it...

We also found out that Joel's head circumference is SMALLER than Emma's! Haha! Joel was born 7 days before EDD. Emma was born 8 days before EDD.
Baby Joel: 33cm, 2.655kg
Baby Emma: 34cm, 3.035kg

That makes 3 big heads in the family! ;)

emma

Here's our lovely little girl, Emma.

Born on 15 October 2010, 1146 hours
3.035kg, 47cm

Day 5
Baby Emma we are home

elvis' emma

Thanks to Elvis' colleagues who took these photos of the Coffee Bean cupcakes. All of them said it's so nice!!! I'm assuming the taste, THE LOOK, especially THE FLAGS!

But i'm quite disappointed becoz they look completely different from the ones shown inside the menu/catalogue. I feel quite "cheated"! These "creamed toppings" (or whatever it's called) look quite ugly to me...and the flags are not placed at an angle, about two-thirds to the right of the cupcake! Hahahaha... ;p But at least they remembered to stick in the flags for us. (Thank you, Coffee Bean)

this is it!

Baby Emma will be arriving tomorrow morning.

In preparation for her arrival, we've ordered 200 cupcakes from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves for Daddy Elvis' colleagues, to be delivered on Monday for their tea-break.

Here in Shanghai, people give away pre-packed preserved egg ("lor"-egg) or egg-shaped chocolates when they have given birth to a baby boy. And if it's a baby girl, they dont have to give anything. So unfair!!! We decided to get the cupcakes anyway. And becoz Elvis says he always doesnt know who has given birth AND he doesnt eat the "lor"-egg, Mommy Jo made these mini flags so that people will know that Elvis has a little baby girl! ;)

Hope Coffee Bean remembers to stick them in. (I was quite disappointed we couldnt get to see the actual/sample cupcake before ordering)

joel counting 1-to-100

33 months

Joel is 33 months and weighs about 13kg. He's starting to love going to school! His teacher said that in the past, he didnt like it when she wanted to paste the 五角星 star sticker on his forehead or even on his hand (whenever the kids do something good) but now, he's ok with it. So he's been coming home almost everyday with a tiny star on his forehead. ;)

Joel will have a little sister this month. Hope he'll be a loving big brother.

Before & After school.

more videos

Joel at 33 months, 10 October 2010.

Days & Months...


One, Two buckle my shoe...
(I heard Joel recited this last week, so he must have learnt it in school. Sometimes, he will also recite something in Mandarin but i cannot really figure out what he's saying! Haha!)

37 weeks pregnant

During the last few prenatal visits, it's always the "measuring-tape-on-belly" checkup. When we asked the gynae if we will be doing the ultrasound scan this time, she said we could do it the next time (which is also the last time) or today. She says it's meaningless to do it every time since the growth is about the same. (We havent been doing any scan for a month) So, we decided to do the scan that day since Joel was with us. He was happy to be able to see his little sister on screen. ;)


Baby sis weighs about 2.6kg now and might probably be about 3kg when she's out in exactly 1 week.

Last prenatal checkup will be 3 days before the delivery...

15 Oct 2010...

loving school

WEEK 3: 
Joel made huge improvement. He's started to mingle with other children. Very cute.

WEEK 5: 
Joel made huge improvement this week. He learned many new Chinese words. In the beginning, he did not want to talk. Then he started to talk only in English. Now, he can talk to the other children in Mandarin. He has made such great improvement within a month! I'm happy for him!

WEEK 5 (from a Progress File):
 Joel is a great kid! He improved a lot. From crying and not wanting to enter the school to greeting me happily every day "Good Morning, Teacher" I think this is our greatest comfort.

chinese songs

delayed again

As expected, the bottom pullout bed is NOT going to be delivered tomorrow. Mommy Jo is angry!

joel's new bed

Joel's room is almost complete. The pull-out bed we ordered 25 days ago finally arrived today. BUT, the bottom pull-out bed is still not ready. I was told a few days ago that it's Out of Stock. I was pretty angry becoz they did not inform me beforehand. I was only told when i called them 2 days ago to check since the scheduled delivery date falls within the 3-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. They said that it's also becoz we wanted the pine wood bed painted in white and it needs a longer time (to order & dry). So, i made them deliver the pull-out bottom in the original pine wood colour (from their showroom). They will replace it when my white bed is ready.

So now, i can "close" the sofabed the Ahyi(s) have been sleeping on and get Joel's room looking more like his bedroom! Joel was excited when they delivered and fixed up the bed. I told him that it's his New Bed! After that, he climbed onto it and tested it. Hmmm...not bad! (Mommy Jo also searched high and low and found another shop that sells the mattress that i like. The mattresses were delivered yesterday.)

About an hour later when Joel was about to take his nap, i made him get onto the bed and he fell asleep shortly. Not bad after all! ;)

The new bed looks shorter than what it really is becoz we bought the bedframes as well, leaving only a small section for Joel to climb up. It's actually a standard 2m x 1m adult single-bed.

organizing

Everyday after the Ahyi keep the washed-and-dried laundry, i have to pack my wardrobe again... It's been 3 weeks and she still doesnt know how to put back the clothes accordingly.

So, i resorted to writing post-it last night... Thanks to this online Translator!

I did this for 3 of our wardrobes and the washing machine (instructions). Up next will be Joel & little sis' wardrobes, followed by the super headache Monday to Friday Menu-Of-The-Day!

happier at school

Starting from the eighth day of school, Joel didnt cry when we leave him with the teacher. He still fusses a little in the morning when we're preparing to go to school. Hope he'll adjust better in time to come. ;)

After 1 week of school, here's the good/bad things about attending school:
THE GOOD
1. Joel goes to bed much earlier at about 8+pm and he wakes up automatically at about 7+am. He used to sleep too late - anytime from 10pm to midnight.
2. Joel doesnt scratch our elbows as much when he's trying to fall asleep.

THE BAD
1. Mosquito bites!!!
2. Joel fusses more when at home, always wanting Mommy to be with him.
3. Joel sometimes cries for Mommy in his sleep and needs to be assured that we're beside him.
4. Joel gets REALLY HUNGRY and eats lots of biscuits before his meals.
5. Joel wakes up too early on weekends. *yawn*

trolley bag

Joel loves pulling trolley bags around the house. So, on the following day after Daddy came home from Bangkok, we gave him this trolley bag and said that Daddy had bought it. Keke... Actually, Daddy only shopped for his own stuffs - on his only 1 free day. Mommy had bought this for Joel - in Shanghai. ;p

13 Sep 2010, before Joel left for school.

with mommy

...on a rainy Saturday.

progress booklet

Almost everyday, Joel's teacher will write something inside his booklet. This is how he performed this week.
6 - 11 September 2010, Week 2.

Joel is a clever boy. His English is the best in class. When he first came to school, he will sometimes think of Mommy and cry. However, from Thursday he started to play with the other children. He started to laugh. Hope that he will continue improving.

1 week of school

On the seventh day of school, Mommy brought Joel to school. Daddy is away in Bangkok till Sunday night. I was worried that without Daddy's reminder not to cry at school, Joel will fuss when we reach.

When i pushed his stroller past the school gate, he saw his teachers standing in a row (to welcome the students) and he waved and said a big HELLO! Then he got out and hugged his teacher! WOW~

We continued inside to help him change into his indoor shoes. At that point, Joel knew i was going to leave (soon) and his eyes were teary. But he didnt cry or sob. He held his teacher's hand and walked in. Just as i thought he's not going to look back at Mommy, he DID! And he said ByeBye. It made Mommy very happy.

This day, i went out shopping (again) and reached Joel's school slightly later than 4pm. When i reached, Ahyi, Joel & his teacher were waiting at the school gate for me. His teacher said that Joel showed BIG improvement today! So she had to tell me about it! She said that Joel was completely different today. He laughed happily (and loudly) and played with the children today. Joel's appetite was also very good. She said it must have been the Mr Happy tshirt he's wearing. ;)

Back at home, Joel is showing Mommy how he takes his nap in school. (We have to bring his quilt and pillow home every Friday to sun/wash. I dont know why they made the bedsheets PINK!!!)

sixth day of school

On the sixth day of school, Daddy Elvis & Mommy Jo walked Joel to school. Daddy still had time to have breakfast with Mommy - something we did everyday since Joel started school. As usual, Joel fussed and whined when he was at home...but i think he knows he doesnt have a choice. Keke... ;p

And as usual, Daddy carried Joel before we reach the school and told him not to cry. He was a brave boy yet again! We're so proud of him! ;)

After our breakfast, we walked home and Daddy Elvis left for the airport while Mommy Jo went shopping for Joel & little sis. (Spent too much again) Daddy Elvis will be back on Sunday night.

When Mommy picked Joel up from school, his teacher told me that Joel showed great improvement today! He played with the children and sang very loudly in music class. I think the 'very loudly' is an understatement becoz i know how Joel can be when he's happy & singing something he likes. I hope Joel will continue to enjoy school as much tomorrow. Mommy is also quite "relieved" that tomorrow is Friday and we can both take a break from school. ;)

8 Sep 2010

My hungry boy back from school.

fifth day of school

On the fifth day of school, Joel started fussing at home from the time he took his bath. He also didnt want us to get dressed. When we were about to reach his school, Daddy Elvis carried him and told him not to cry. When we reached the school gate, we could see that Joel was trying to hold back his tears again (just like yesterday)...

His teacher said Joel was much better after he entered the classroom. Maybe he felt less lonely with the rest of the children in class.

Tomorrow & Friday, Daddy Elvis will be away in Bangkok and wont be able to send Joel to school. He'll also be away for a week in Hong Kong 2 weeks later. (It's the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and Ahyi will also take the day off) So, Mommy Jo will have to coax Joel into not crying and being brave when he's preparing to go to school.

His school is located inside another condo, about 10 minutes walk away from our apartment. Here's how his school looks like from the outside...

Little Knight's Kindergarten

(I also found another website here with the same logo as Joel's school but the address is different. Hmmm....)

fourth day of school

On the fourth day of school, Daddy Elvis had to rush to the airport but he still walked Joel to school first. On the way there, Joel wanted to be carried instead of sitting inside the stroller. When we reached the school, he knew that we were going to leave him and he wanted to cry. Daddy told him not to cry... and we could tell that he was holding back his tears and said goodbye to us when the teacher carried him in. Even if he DID cry after we left, i'm still so proud of him. ;)

Back home from school...