Speaking up

All of a sudden, mb was able to vocalize a couple more words. It was on the first day of our arrival in Helsinki, when he first shouted, "Go go go!", ran to the door and pointed excitedly at it :D It was obvious what he wanted.

"Moooore" was another. Rounded lips and all. Also blatantly clear what he wanted especially when added after a treat of strawberries/blueberries/chocolates/cake.

"NOOooo" finally, a typical toddler word. We were wondering when it would come. And now it has. And when the mood strikes, everything is in the negative.

And his first Chinese word, "谢谢 / "shie shie"!" :D He must have picked it up during our short trip to Beijing.

It is apparent he wants to form words with his tongue but lacks the ability to do so yet. We 'sing' to the ABC song and he looks at my mouth so intently but could only say repeat a few letters and when he does, he breaks out in applause :D


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old
microbeanie is 28weeks in utero

Pre-birth pains

I was awoken this morning by a sharp pain that felt like a bad contraction. It was different from the dull ache that accompanies my sleep these days. My thought sequence ran from contraction-preterm labour-Chengdu-gasp*. The conclusion of that jolted me wide awake at 5am. The pain subsided but I felt a sort of mild cramping every now and then. Sleep evaded me at that point so I thought I'd sit up and read up on contractions, false labour & preterm labour from my trusty pregnancy bible, What to Expect during Pregnancy. The pain and cramping went away either because I was distracted when I was reading or due to the change in position. It was Braxton Hicks after all.

Braxton Hicks, a sort of practice labour, are more common in subsequent pregnancies. Well, the fact that they didn't intensify was proof enough that they weren't the real thing :) If I'm paranoid now, it is probably because the first time round with mb, I mistook the real thing for Braxton ;) That, and the fact that at the back of my mind, I've a fear of the delivery unexpectedly happening in Chengdu.

Another sign of the pregnancy advancing is the dreaded leg cramps! The first time for this pregnancy happened a few days ago at the cottage. And just like before, it came on the minute I woke up. Stretched my legs as a reflex and the calf muscles tensed up in a knot refusing to let up for minutes. They get so horribly painful that sometimes I'd to wake DH up to massage my calf muscles and I got them so frequently with minibeanie that I've developed another 'reflex' to counteract these rude awakenings - flex my feet upwards to stretch those muscles whose circulation has been blocked by the uterus during the night.

And my final grouse is that my tailbone is aching now. Lying on my back (accidentally) in my sleep makes it worse than sitting for long periods. Again, I think it's the simple fact that I've now got a basketball-sized belly that isn't just pressing on the nerves, blood vessels, organs, bones and what have you. Little wonder why women can't wait to get their babies out by the 40th week ;)


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months & 4 weeks old
microbeanie is 27 weeks 6 days in utero

'Grandparenting'

Many mothers I know who have to place their children in the care of caregivers face the same tussle - that of differing disciplinary doctrines and child-rearing philosophies from the caregivers'. Worse, if those caregivers are of family. Too lax discipline, too strict, when and how much ice-cream/candies/tv, mealtime philosophy yada yada....... From what I gather and from personal episodes, there are enough examples to fill a book.

It's probably one of the laws of nature that grandparents spoil their grandkids. After all, there's little consequence. At the end of the day, kids go home to their parents who must unfortunately provide some balance or worse, undo the damage of over-indulgence.

In the one week we've been here in Finland, I'm facing this issue for the first time. While my MIL who is really sweet and kind has taken over most of the job of playing and taking care of minibeanie, I am beginning to wonder if the luxury of sleeping in is a double-edged sword. In this one week, minibeanie has become much more vocal (which is a good thing undeniably) but in a wilful way. Now, I don't know if it's just the start of the 'Terrible Twos' phase but it feels more of a struggle getting him to end his playtime. Or I suspect, it could be my doting MIL who has real difficulty in saying no to a toddler. Oh well, it's only for 2 weeks and our MIL does respect the boundaries that we set.

I suppose I'm thankful that I'm in a position that where it comes to domestic governance, I don't have other vested parties other than my husband. It will be awful if I've to deal with a conflicting parenting doctrine on a daily basis. It's also a law of nature that there's always only one queen bee in the hive.


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old
microbeanie is 26 weeks 4 days in utero

Updates

Update 1: We have enrolled minibeanie in EtonHouse! We were eligible for a 4% discount on the school fees because we attended the Open House but I managed to wiggle for a 10% 'scholarship' because we were the first Nokia family and we would be paying for the fees ourselves. For that, we had to sign a confidentiality agreement. SHHHHH......!

Also goes to show that everything can be bargained ;)

Update 2: We would be heading to Helsinki on Monday. Just 2 weeks. It would be an extremely short trip compared to my Finnish friends here who usually stayed for 4 weeks or more. We have booked the same cottage, a 150km away from Helsinki, that we used for our wedding reception nearly 4 years ago. I'm looking forward to the trip but bracing myself for the jetlag and the fact that the sun rises at 3am which would mean...... we ALL get up at 3am! :#

Early personality traits?

A question that has been preying on mind a lot these days is, can you tell the personality of your baby even when he's in the womb?

First, an anecdote from a friend. She recalled her son, then a fetus, awake and active at 1am whenever she was trying to fall asleep. Forward a few months later when he was out of his watery habitat, true to form, he was keeping her up at 1am :D My friend described her son as a "screamer" and now the toddler had been described as temperamental.

By contrast, I felt nothing like violent punches or kicks from minibeanie and certainly none of those almost 'Alien' -like movements that visibly move from the east to west end of the belly. The nurses at the hospital actually noted that he was a "calm" baby on the hospital records. His cries usually never rattled our nerves (ok, only once or twice ;) and it always sounded more like a complaint than a full out bawling-his-lungs-out cry. We had been lucky.

Hmm. microbeanie. This little guy has been doing such somersaults, stretches, kicks and other stunts that I'm thinking either I've got a Michael Flately Jr. in me or a would-be Cirque du Soleil performer. Sometimes, he moved so forcefully that I gasped from the force and literally saw my tummy jump. And yes, he IS beginning to keep me up at night because he refuses to go to sleep when I am trying to ;)

I'm laying bets now that microbeanie will be quite different from his calm and cautious big brother. What do you mummies think?

minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 1 week & 4 days old
microbeanie is 25 weeks 3 days in utero

Beijing Trip

The trip to Beijing was a really nice getaway. We stayed at a boutique hotel that was within walking distance to Tiananmen located in a quiet street amidst hutongs and local eateries. With only 3 full days in the city, all we could really do was the mandatory tourist sights - Forbidden City, Great Wall & Temple of Heaven.

Having an ice cream break in the Imperial Garden, Forbidden City

Then, there were of course the evenings where we hunted down Beijing's famous ducks. The first evening, we went to the almost obligatory QuanJuDe (全聚德) where the dish is supposed to originate in the late 1800s. We even headed to the original shop (there are now several branches ;) where the old shopfront was preserved. Despite the wait of 50min, even though we got there at 5:30pm, it was well worth it as the Peking Duck was the best I'd ever eaten. There was none of that heavy layer of fat that I'd come to associate with Peking Ducks eaten in Singapore or Chengdu. Instead, its skin was crispy and the chef had nicely included a sliver of meat. All in, I could eat a whole lot of it without feeling guilty! :D

minibeanie's favourite dish of the house was its liver (盐水鸭肝). It was tasty & soft... quite unlike the overboiled chicken liver pieces sold in Singapore's chicken rice stalls. Again, I could finish off the whole plate if it wasn't for the nagging voice in my head that tells me preggies shouldn't be eating too much liver for their Vitamin A :P

Other dishes we tried were their deboned webbed feet dipped in a wasabi-like radish sauce (芥末鸭掌) as well as fried duck hearts (火燎鸭心). Both were good but weren't in the same league as their Peking Duck or liver.

The other duck restaurant we tried was Da Dong (大董), a new-age restaurant that married tradition with avant garde blending of flavours & serving. The tradition I was referring to was what they're famous for - Peking Ducks roasted in a good old fashioned wood-fired oven. The new age twist in their menu was in the way they served some of their appetizers or dishes - 3 little mouthfuls of appetizers on a long plate, soup in a martini glass... u get the idea. Well, we stuck to their Peking Duck and liver since that was our first visit. Again, the food did not disappoint :)

So, if anyone wants to try the best Peking Ducks in Beijing, here's an article written in Chinese on the Best 5 places to have the duck in Beijing. Otherwise, print out the addresses at the bottom and show it to your concierge to make the reservations 3 days ahead.

全聚德 (no reservation taken; dinner queue starts at 4:30pm -no kidding!)
崇文区前门大街32号

大董
东城区东四十条甲22号南新仓国际大厦1-2楼(东四十条桥西南)
Tel: 010-51690329 51690328


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 1 week & 2 days old
microbeanie is 25 weeks 1 day in utero