Holding His Own

Yay! Joram can finally hold his own bottle! *clap clap* Because of his reflux, I had reservations letting him do so for fear of regurgitation. However, he recently seems to be getting very good at burping by himself after drinking milk without spitting up, so I thought it safe to let him have a go at it.

This is a great relief for me as, now, there is one less thing in my hectic routine that I have to do for him. Yet, I'm really letting my last baby to take his own sweet time to grow up. (The rest of the kids held their own bottles very early, with the eldest one being able to do so at 5 months old.) My hungry hippo is actually taking his first tiny baby step towards self-feeding... *teary*

First Salon Trip

I have trimmed Joram's hair five times so far since his birth. His hair really grows very fast. Given that I do not have a working hair trimmer, it is all the more difficult to cut his thick hair with his fidgeting. The clean-up afterwards is also a nightmare. 

Now that he is coming to a year old, I decided that he is ready for an attempt at the baby salon. I'm so glad I did that. It was quick and fuss-free with toys and cartoons to distract him. The hairdresser was also very experienced and could make the whole haircut as unthreatening as possible for him. I'm happy with the result. It was indeed money well-spent. *grin*

Distracted by the new toy

Distracted by the cartoon

This Auntie seems nice...

This is fun and comfortable.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are the pictures of the brothers' first salon haircut. Joash had his when he was half a year older though.

All about Joram

Shhh... I'm praying for everybody...

Cuteness overload!!!

My favourite stunt

Our eldest boy used to have this tomato face when he pooped. (click here to view) It's probably a boy thing cos the little brother is doing it too. Hilarious!

Moisturise vs Scratch

Only parents with children who suffers from eczema can understand the agony of watching your child, in mere minutes of scratching, undo weeks of hard work on the parent's part to protect the said child from all potential triggers and the all consuming, obsessive efforts to keep his/her skin properly moisturised. 

The creams are made available in all conceivable accessible places: in her bedroom, in my bedroom, in her school bag, in her weekend bag, in her pockets and in ALL my bags, just so that she can moisturise and relieve her discomfort whenever she itches. All those patches of red, bleeding rashes never fully heals because of the continuous choice the girl makes to scratch instead of applying the cream which soothes the skin almost immediately. 

At the end of the day, not just the victim/culprit suffers, everyone else in the family suffers too. Each family member has to endure the incessant whining, the crying, the screaming during bath-times and the seemingly cruel man-handling that takes place to bring about healing once again... 

I used to scream my head off at each episode of going back to square one all over again just when it looked like the skin has almost completely healed. The disappointment, the crushing defeat and the anger at the child's wilfulness are all familiar demons to wrestle with.

Despite constant, careful and patient teaching that our bodies are the temples of God and we are worshipping God when we take good care of ourselves, the child still succumbs to the temptation of relying on her own strength instead of drawing upon the power of God to resist the devil. Isn't that the story of many of us, children of God?

Since I'd taken up the Orange Rhino Challenge not to yell at the children, what should I do with the pent up frustration threatening to explode each time I see the flaring up of the eczema due to my daughter's stark disobedience? 

I sing.

God inspired me at the spur of the moment to come up with a song which will remind her for the millionth time what she should be doing instead of scratching. It's simple but it worked. Not for her. But for me. The simmering tension within me dissipated. She smiled and giggled at the song. 

I can only pray that some day she would take greater responsibility over her own skin and depend on God to carry her through the pain and itch, making the correct choices, moment by moment, to moisturise instead of scratch. Perhaps one day, the Lord will have mercy upon her and heal her of this ailment completely.

MOISTURISE

(Verse 1)

Moisturise in the morning

Moisturise before you go out

Moisturise when you come home

Moisturise before bedtime

(Chorus)

Moisturise, moisturise

Please don't scratch, go moisturise

Moisturise, moisturise

If it's itchy, moisturise

(Verse 2)

Moisturise around your mouth

Moisturise your knees and wrists

Moisturise both your elbows

Moisturise anywhere that's itchy

Let It Go!

We bought the movie "Frozen" for the kids to watch. Jaide kept singing the line "Let it go" after that... LOL Watch the video to hear her. She even knew to transpose towards the end. Haha... 

I glad to have the chance to discuss the ending with the kids. I managed to link the moral of the story "only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart" to Jesus' act of true love for us, dying on the cross for our sin. Praise the Lord!

A Cartload of Kids!

Bento Picnic

(Singing) For the first time since forever.... that I've made a bento box. 

This time, I decided to be inspired by the kawaii Japanese bentos that I have seen. I got all that I needed from Daiso yesterday and used two hours in the morning to prepare them. Cooking the normal meals in 30-45 min daily is difficult enough with young kids. Making something which requires precision and artistic arrangement under the same conditions is a performance at a totally different level. 

Jaide kept talking to me while I was doing the egg omelette which was supposed to be cut, using cookie cutters, into various designs. As you can see from the picture below, it didn't turn out very well.

Can you spot the airplane?

I also over-boiled the hotdog octopuses, causing their heads to burst open. Gruesome... (0_o)

A friend from BSF taught me the trick of putting preserved sweet plums into cherry tomatoes to bring out the flavors. However, nobody else could appreciate the taste and so I ended up eating them all by myself. *sobz*

I saw this rice seasoning with 5 different colours in Daiso and I thought that it would be perfect for the rice balls that I would be making. Sadly, there was no blue coloured seasoning so I used green for Joash. Yellow was for Jaide, of course, and pink for Jayna. I used the purple to make little hats for the smiley faces too. The eyes were made of raisins and the mouths were cranberries. The girls didn't fancy either of them though. Oh well...

Here's the completed work! I tried to follow the Japanese cuisine concept of goshiki, or five colors: red (tomato), yellow (omelette), green (cucumber), white (rice, although it was coloured) and brown/black (hotdog). The adorable picks and food dividers also added to the design.

Jaide's Bento

Joash's Bento

Jayna's Bento

All packed and ready!

I actually bought these really cute sauce containers with animal caps but the lunch box is flavourful enough not to need further seasoning so I'll keep them for another occasion.

We took the kids down to a nice scenic place next to our block and spread out a comforter on the ground for the picnic. It was nice and sunny and strangely peaceful on a school holiday. Even then, the kids were rather disturbed by the presence of insects and complained that it was hot out there. Granted, they were all very impressed with the presentation of the food but the ingredients used did not appeal to the girls' taste buds. Jaide hardly ate anything while Jayna only ate the omelette and hotdogs. Only Joash seemed to appreciate the food and ambience sufficiently. Perhaps my kids are only ready for such things when they start going primary school.

The girls especially enjoyed carrying
their own lunch box around.

Westgate Wonderland

To kick-start the March school holidays, I brought the kids to the Westgate Wonderland which opened recently. Knowing the crowd that we most likely would encounter, I decided to be there at their opening time. Even then, there were many who thought alike and the place was already half-filled by the time we arrived. Any later, we might not have been able to get in at all for there was a long queue forming an hour later at the entrance. 

Soon, it started to drizzle. I managed to find a nice corner which was partially sheltered and the fun continued for another half an hour. Joram was taking a nap so I could rest on a flower stool with the children's water bottles on a tiny tree stump. 

My rest spot

Nearing lunchtime, it began to pour and I quickly exited the playground with the children. Without further ado, we headed for lunch to avoid the crowd. However, the kids saw the animal rides at ZooMoov and asked to play there after lunch. With the rain coming down hard, I guessed that many would come indoors very soon to seek alternative entertainment, so I decided that lunch could wait. 

We were the first there so we had many animals rides to choose from and I could take my time to load the kids on the vehicle and take pictures. As I expected, the other people came in just a few minutes later and all the other rides were snatched up in an instant. 

Watch the kids zip around on the blue rabbit!

Thankfully, it was still not too late to beat the lunch time crowd. I realised that Joram could be occupied for a long time by my bracelet watch after feeding him his lunch. Yeah! I then could eat in relative peace.

This is sooooo interesting!

Having our Jap-Korean cuisine

Gor Gor feeding Xiao Mei his curry rice

On the way back, I noticed that Joram is equally drawn to the grab pole of the MRT train as his older siblings. There are simply some things that run in the family! Haha...

Why don't we have this at home???

Newfound freedom

Joram is happy and ready now to explore
new territories on all fours! 

Short Hair

Jaide hair was the victim of her older brother's experimental pretend-play to be a hairstylist with a real pair of scissors. Her originally shoulder-length hair was in shambles. I had no choice but to crop her hair short, bob style. It was a blessing in disguise as it turns out that short hair looks great on her. It brings out the mischievous cuteness in her a lot better. Tying up her hair into 2 little pony-tails makes it even more adorable. 

At the very least, her hair does not look as thin as before and she no longer looks half-bald. :P

Let me count. 1, 2, 3....