my cheeky boo

my little boo is so neglected these days. whilst he still goes to daycare four days a week and Jim tries to spend as much time as he can with him, he is often left on his own to play with his Legos and his cars. he watches too much TV and spend too much time with the iPad. my Instagram used to be all about him but there less and less posts about him and more and more posts about his little sister. even this blog has been taken over by his little sister. so today i thought i'd write a post about some of the things he's saying these days because they are quite funny and i have no idea where he learnt these lines from. 

so far, he's proven to us that he is quite a caring and protective brother. when Charlotte cries, he will get up to her, give her a pat and say to her, 'Charlotte don't cry, gor gor (big brother) is here' or sometimes he would say 'calm down Charlotte, it's ok Charlotte' and before he goes to bed, he would give her a cuddle and say to her 'good night Charlotte my little sister'. i like how he has accepted Charlotte into the family and he has not shown any signs of jealousy. i hope i haven't spoken too soon.  

when he sees me having a cookie and he would like some too, he would say to me 'i don't have something in my mouth' and open his mouth wide to hint to me that he would like some cookies too.

he has been very understanding of the fact that when i'm busy with Charlotte, i won't be able to play with him and he needs to play by himself but every now and then, he would come up to me and tell me 'mummy i need you, come with me, come play car/Lego with me'. and when we are playing, he would put on his thinking face with his index finger on his chin and he would say 'i have an idea' or 'let me think about it'. it's hilarious.  

as he's been spending so much time watching tv, he has watched all three Toy's Story movies including the shorts which he found on youtube. he knows the name of most of the characters and his favourite character is Buzz lightyear. when he's playing with his buzz lightyear toy, he would say 'to infinity and beyond' and he also like to say to Jim and i, 'i'm buzz lightyear, daddy is woody and mummy is Jessie'. and whenever he wants to watch the shorts, he would say, 'i wanna watch shortcut'. the grandparents don't understand him but lucky we do. 

this boo is too funny. his cheeky little personality is coming through more and sometimes i wish he would be less shy and be his cheeky little self in front of others too. 

weekend baking \\ spinach and feta scones

scones is one of my favourite choice of food for morning/afternoon tea. the baker's delight at Carlingford Court has a huge variety from good old traditional plain scones to date scones to chocolate ones too. they used to make savoury ones too and the spinach and feta is my favourite. 15 seconds in the microwave and a smear of butter. yum. it's a shame they don't make it anymore. i've been thinking about making it myself. after checking out the many recipes on pinterest, i combined a few recipes and came up with my own version. 

whilst they didn't rise as high as the ones from baker's delight, they taste pretty close to the real deal and i'll definitely make them again. 

ingredients //

400g self raising flour
50g butter (at room temperature, cut into cubes) 
150g danish feta (broken into small pieces)
125g frozen spinach (thawed)
250ml milk 

method //

pre heat oven to 180c. line a baking tray with non stick baking paper

using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine sand.

add spinach and feta into the flour mixture and mix lightly with a fork.

make a well in the centre, add milk and mix together to form a dough and turn out onto a floured surface.

press the dough into a big square with your hands to 5cm thickness. using a knife lightly coated with flour, cut out 9 scones.

brush the tops with milk. arrange the scones on the baking tray in a way that they are touching each other slightly and bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 - 25 mins or until the top is golden.

to my little miss // 6 weeks

6 weeks is when i have to stop spoiling you with cuddles and start working towards shaping a routine. it also means you are no longer a newborn.

at 6 weeks,

_ you love it when we talk to you and would react with a smile
_ sometimes when we talk to you, you would respond with "ah goo"
_ your sleep routine is still very unpredictable. some days you will do proper naps but some days you will do 20 minutes cat naps. some nights you will sleep more than 3 hours at a time but some nights you would only sleep 2 hours or less.  you slept 5 hours on two nights (not in a row) last week and 7.5 hours last night.
_ you are starting to enjoy the bath. you no longer scream your head off during bath time and you are a little bit more relaxed
_ you still need help falling asleep especially during the day but you are getting better. it's time we start teaching you how to fall asleep by yourself before it's too late
_ just like your brother,  you're developing the milk rash on your face. poor little boo boo with your pimply face. i'm not too concerned because it cleared up for your brother in a matter of weeks. soon your skin will be nice and smooth again

i'm looking forward to the next few weeks where you start to be more interactive and have more play time and most importantly, a routine. 

to my little miss // one month

my little miss,  you are one month old today. how time flies when we run on a three hourly (or two and a half sometimes) schedule. three hours go by just like that with feeding,  changing,  settling and some sleeping. and before you know it, you're old month old. but one thing for sure is, everyday i just love you more.

i've enjoyed the endless cuddles we have. the health nurse told me it is absolutely fine to give you as much cuddles as i like as you cannot be spoilt in the first month so i did exactly that, gave you lots of cuddles. 

so, what happened last month?  we met you for the first time and we fell in love with you instantly.  there's been highs and lows. there were nights where try as i may, you just would not go to sleep and i would be up for five hours. but i'm glad we haven't had one of those nights for awhile and most of the time you wake up like a clock work for your three hourly feed. 

we are still getting to know each other and your personality is slowly coming through. one thing for sure is you are one strong willed child, just like your brother. some of the other things i've learnt about you:

_ your cheeks are getting chubbier and i just want to eat them. 
_ you are one feisty little thing and your cries can bring the house down. i wonder who you got that from.
_ your current favourite past time is checking out the room and the person holding you. i love it when you do tummy time on me where you would stare at me with your eyes wide open. sometimes you would give me a smile.
_ you hate bath time. as the weather gets a little bit warmer, we try to give you a bath more often and boy do you hate it. poor daddy had to bath you really quickly. we hope you'll get used to it soon because when the weather warms up in the coming weeks, bath time will be part of your bed time routine.
_ you hate car rides in the capsule. even though we haven't been out much, every time we put you in the capsule in the car, you get very distressed and would cry for most of the way. i hope you would get used to the capsule soon because i'm planning to go out a bit more in the coming months. 

my baby girl, i love you more and more each day. i look forward to what's in store for us next month,  as you become more awake and aware, i look forward to more play time with you, and as the weather warms up, i look forward to putting you in the stroller and going out for walks around the neighbourhood. most importantly, i hope we can get into some sort of routine soon and if it's not too much to ask, that you would start sleeping through the night soon too?  

one of those days

we have one of those days today. you were a little more unsettled than usual i don't know why. maybe it's because you reached your one month milestone today? 

you were pretty easy to look after the first two weeks sleeping most of the day (not so much at night) and you nursed well too. in the third week, your night sleeps improved (you mainly wake for your three hourly feed like clock work) but you became more awake during the day and your day naps got worse. we probably had the worst day today. well, i hope it's the worst.  it took me longer and longer to put you down for a nap even though i start the routine as soon as you've been up for an hour or an hour and a half or as soon as you start to show signs of tiredness. i tried giving you the dummy,  i tried nursing you and i also tried singing to you but nothing seems to work today.  it's days like these that make me doubt myself. it makes me (over)think and (over)analyse everything i do to find out why you are not sleeping during the day because all i want to do is to make sure you have enough sleep during the day.

when your brother was a newborn,  he was a challenge too,  especially to a new mum like me. your grandma told me this old wives' tale where most babies will settle down and become easier to look after when they are one month old so i was hopeful when he was three weeks old and hoped that he would be one of them babies. but no,  he didn't. he was the same high maintenance baby when he got to one month old. it could be that we were having some challenge with breastfeeding. so grandma said to me,  i didn't stop crying until i was three months old so maybe my own child would be the same. so i waited again and sure enough once we settle into our routine,  your brother was easier to manage. 

so you are one month old today.  it looks like you're following your brother's (and mine) footsteps. now i shall keep my fingers and toes crossed that you will settle down when you're three months old.

ps: i was planning on taking a nice photo of you to remember this day when you turn one month old but i was too busy coaxing you to sleep and nursing you. so, no photos today.