Happy 3rd Birthday, Faith!

It was her 3rd birthday and the first time that we are letting her celebrate it with her friends in class.

Faith was excited. When asked, she immediately said she wanted a Mickey Mouse cake -- fresh from receiving Mickey's stickers and her pictures being shown in the March Playhouse Disney Birthday Book. She also firmly decided that she wanted party hats and some noise makers to be included in the goodie bags for her friends.

We made plans to get the cake and put together the goodie bags. Unfortunately, she's been sick pretty much the entire month of Mar. In fact, she's out of school more than half the time. Faith first came down with runny nose and cough a week after Saige's birth. Since that time, as soon as she more or less recovered and we sent her back to school, she would came back 2 days later with something else or the same symptoms, but conditions aggravated. The week of her birthday, we decided not to let her go to school at all until she recovered.

On the day of her birthday, we had to bring her in to see her PD for the 3rd time in a row within a period of 3 weeks. I do not know whether to be consoled when her PD sang her a birthday song when she noted that it was Faith's birthday while looking at her record sheet. She had to be put on the nebuliser and becos the cake was already pre-ordered, we decided to head to school after the doctor's visit to celebrate in class.

And so it was, our little darling girl celebrated her 3rd birthday with her friends in class, runny nose and cough in all. I brought her home after she had lunch.

At night, the daddy bought another slice of cake home and we sang her a birthday song and cut the little cake since Louis was busy at work and couldn't make time to be there when she celebrated it in class.

I've been forewarned that Faith's going to fall sick very often during the first 6 months of school. I only hope that next year, she would be hale and healthy on her birthday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Faith!

Saige's Full Month Celebration

The little family of 3 has expanded to 4

On hindsight, its much easier coping with 1 baby than 2 kids, although Louis and I seemed very busy and flustered when we were first-time parents with Faith :)

Nonetheless, the one month had passed pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were celebrating Saige's Full Month.

While I would have liked to blog more about our #2, a lack of time, energy and pure sleep deprivation have led to tardy and greatly reduced posts about Saige. We are ever apologetic. However, even as we cut down on the number of posts, at least, we make effort to put up some pictures of her.

The first two weeks of her birth was relatively relaxing in that she mainly nurses, poops and sleeps a lot. You can dump her in the cot right after burping her for a feed and she drops back to sleep with nary a care or fuss. As the 3rd week came along, she started to fuss, wanting to be carried and cuddled. That's where the challenge started and how accidental parenting arise.

I'm sure we would still have our fair share of accidental parenting in the months to come. Only this time, we are resigned to it and have better managed our expectations -- i.e not to have any expectations. We know things would work out eventually and we will get a full night's sleep. We just don't know when. With Faith, it took us 18 months :)

On the flip side, Saige latches and nurses very well, right from birth. Its tiring when you have to do an all-nighter of 2-hourly feeds, plus those in the day, all of it while recovering from a c-sect. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It beats being an on-demand cow for 24x7 with no fixed timings and trying to rouse a sleepy baby from her sleep to take more than 5 minutes of nursing each time.

For now, its another milestone that we have reached and there would be more to come.

Happy Full Month, Saige!

陈 姿 颖

As with most traditional parents, we took to choosing a good Chinese name for Saige, with the help of a geomancer. For those of us who are uninitiated, it is believed that each child is born with what is known as a 'ba zi' which tells us his or her fortune/luck when born. As with all fortunes, there are ups and downs with all future paths. However, with the right name, one can give the child a good chance of "counteracting" the negatives post-birth, without going against the nature of the child at birth.

Which parent wouldn't want to give his child the best?

Before we go to Saige's Chinese name, it is worth mentioning how Eve and I thought of Saige's English name. It had first started with "Paige" as both of us liked the name. As it turns out, when Eve Googled further, she came across Saige - which meant "to be healthy and have "wisdom" in doing the right things". We both liked that so much since we always wanted these for our kids, that we settled on it very quickly. btw, this was before we knew that our number 2 is a girl - and even before we had number 2 :)

Anyway, back to the Chinese name, we had been advised, based on Saige's time of birth, that she would be better off using not the same middle name that Faith (陈诗 颖) had. When we told our family this, Terence, my younger brother suggested then to make the third character the same. This was something new to me. But according to Eve, it is actually quite common to have folks having the same third name. As such, I asked again for advise, now based on having the same third character. This time round, we were given the option of 陈 姿 颖.

姿 beauty; disposition; looks; appearance

颖 clever; gifted

When I saw the name, I thought the name was meaningful not only in that it would emphasise the feminity and beauty of Saige, but also fitting since she was our second daughter (次 女).

For our friends who are non-Mandarin speakers, here are other words with 姿...


姿
zī
beauty / disposition / looks / appearance


姿貌
zī mào
( n. )
a woman's looks

姿媚
zī mèi
( adj. )
charming, enchanting

姿容
zī róng
looks / appearance


姿色
zī sè
good looking


姿势
zī shì
posture / position


姿首
zī shǒu
( n. )
(of women) a pretty face and beautiful hair

姿态
zī tài
attitude / posture / stance

Faith receives a letter from Mickey!

It has been a practice now for Faith to open our letter box. To her surprise today, she received a letter from Mickey (well, actually it was from Playhouse Disney). In it, she found a set of stickers of Pooh and Mickey, and a note wishing her "Happy Birthday".

Faith was so excited and happy to receive her first letter that she was all smiles the entire day. She kept asking who sent her the letter and when she learnt it was from Mickey, she even insisted that she write a letter to thank Mickey! As I type this blog, Faith is reminding me that we have not sent the letter to thank Mickey (as daddy hasn't bought the envelope).

To all parents, in case you were wondering what this is all about - just check out ..http://www.disneychannel-asia.com/DisneyChannel/playhouse/friends/birthday_babies/ (we'd be monitoring the site to see when Faith's pictures appear! :))

Saige Week 1

It's been a week and we still have not dared to try to get a picture of Saige and Faith together. Unfortunately, Faith has been down with flu and is currently on a bout of antibiotics. For now, thus, the two sisters will have to contend with taking seperate pictures.

Faith meanwhile has been the adoring sister, and she comes running to us whenever Saige cries - to remind us that "Saige is hungry, mummy, daddy!!". She also never fails to coo "Saige is so cute" whenever she sees Saige.

Feeding-wise, Saige is so far so good on the nursing front. Without wanting to jinx it, I shan't elaborate any further, but Eve and I are keeping our fingers crossed.

Apart from us having to balance between keeping the sick Faith away from Saige, while letting the two sistes develop a bond, all is well at Week 0.

Saige at home

The verdict seems to be - Saige looks like me (Louis)!

Oh dear, not sure if this is a good or bad sign, but her hair pattern/parting, shape of forehead suggests that she is closer in appearance to daddy at least for now. Well, if there is any consolation, Eve and I are convinced that Saige also has her mum's double eyelids.

Here's some more pics of the little one in the hospital and at home - and Faith jie jie holding some flowers in anticipation of her return.

Saige! :)

Saige is here!! :)

After a nail-biting 15 min procedure, Saige arrived safely in the evening of 24 Feb 2010 (Wed). With a loud hail, she announced the extension of our little family in the OT and you can imagine my relief when our PD gave me the thumbs up to let me know that all was fine with our Number 2.

The perenial question now is - who does Saige look like? Does she look like Faith?

(Top: Saige; Bottom: Faith)

More pictures to follow :)