Time not enough

Time just flew that I missed writing for the last 2 months again. I stopped playing my Pokemon Go and Boom Beach at an above average level a few weeks ago. It was a very difficult decision as I love playing these games and am such high level. I decided that I have to stop all these things that are taking away my time at work, in family and with God. This is an example that I must set for my boys. It is necessary for me to demostrate what is important and what is not and show them with my real action. They are too young to understand this but this post will serve as a future lesson that I want to tell them.

There are so many things to update over the past weeks. I always wanted to write it down but failed miserably. There are always things that seems more urgent to do but when I did not pen it down, I ended up forgetting what I wanted to say the very next moment.

The boys are very active at this stage. They fight almost all the time and I'm somehow worried if they will be good brothers in future. Its tiring to care for them because we always have to monitor their behaviours and to stop in time if they fight. Eg, they can jump up the bay window and throw all the toys to the floor at one moment and next moment climb up the sofa or bed and start jumping around which we afraid they may fall and injured themselves. When they are playing, they will snatch for the same toy and start fighting using the toys or even biting each other.
Sometimes when I'm out, I always see toddlers able to sit quietly on the chair playing their own toys or even reading but for my boys, it seems a bit difficult. I felt a bit envious but my parents always say, "

Their appetite improved over the last few weeks. Joshua was down with some virus last month and his appetite dropped very badly that his weight goes below 10kg again. Josiah is defnitely heavier and he is taller too. We are trying to feed Joshua more but he seems to be the more picky eater.

Joshua is getting noiser and like to imitate what we talk. Its quite irritating when he repeat over what we say when we are scolding him. When we asked him a question, he will repeat the question as if nothing goes into him. He also talk quite a lot when he sleeps and he can even sing now.

Josiah is still the cheerful boy who can laugh over anything but he seems to be the type who wants to finish something fast. This is shown on how he eat and drink milk. He did it so fast and will be happy to drop the milk bottle and start doing his things again. Joshua prefer to take his time and drink slowly instead. When playing, he is very insistent whenever he wants something but he will fight over it if he fails to get it. We really have a problem whenever we go church as he did scratch and bite other children when it comes to play with other kids. This is another big headache.

Now they also like to spit saliva and I assume that its part of their growing process as they just learned a new skill. Felin and I are so irritated that we have to scold them and put them in high chair whenever they do it. We feel that its really rude and we have to teach them fast. Too bad that Felin and I are not home all the time to teach them and we depended a fair bit on my parents and helper which they are not strict enough on their misbehaviors. When we are around, they tends to be more careful on what they do.

Overall, we are surely loving our time with them and I value my weekend a lot. Its time consuming playing with them and I bascially can't do much of my own work during weekends. After pacifying them to bed, we are already dead tired. Its a bitter sweet feeling which I think only parents will know.

Pokemon Go

I had missed blogging for nearly 2 months because of work and Games. I started playing Pokemon Go on its first Day Debut of 6th August 2016 and been playing daily since then. My work time are still my work time but my spare time became my game time. I have also been playing Boom Beach since October 2015 which actually slightly eats into my time with family and with this Pokemon Go, it is made worst. Daddy really have to set a better example to the boys on how we should better utitlise our time for more important things. Mummy is definitely better than Daddy in this area of time management. I'm setting a exit plan for the 2 games in weeks ahead.

The boys are getting more difficult nowadays. Their favourite word is still "No...!!!" Both still love to fight and bite each other which make the caregivers very tiring as we need to watch out on them almost all the time. They are still not too good on the feeding part and often refuse food after 4-5 spoonful of food. Its pretty frustrating especially if we spent much time cooking for them and they ate only that few mouthful. If we force them on the food, they will cry and be more resistant to the food.

They can speak 2 syllabus words quite well now like Lorry, Reach Home, sorry, thank you, etc... and seems to understand when we reprimand them. They can look down as if they are guilty of doing something wrong when we scold them. The conversation seems to be more meaningful though Josiah just love repeating what we say. I suppose we are still at the fun part of parenting and we just have to continue enjoy the moments.

Taking the MRT together during one of the weekend. Its our 2nd MRT trip together and they seems to like it.

The 2 biggest love of the boys. Balloons and Bubbles right now. See how they will insist on holding on to the balloons while having meal.

Had a enjoyable day last weekend at the Marina Barrage. They were wearing the same shirt as the first time while they are just 11 months old. How time flies and the same shirt still fits them. We played bubble, exposed them to waterplay before having dinner at Satay by the Bay.

Their first time carrying lantern during the Mid-Autumn Festival organised by Livia NC. They were not very stable while carrying the lanterns and we were careful as its the candel type of lantern. They are simply so cute while walking with the lantern.

The season for Flu, Runny Nose, Cough and Fever again

The virus is back again and its getting strong. Josiah started falling sick on 28th July with fever running as high as 40.1 Degree Celsius at one point. We took turns to sponge him with water throughout the day and night. His runny nose is quite bad that he couldn't sleep and cried the night through. Its pretty tough over that 1 week until Joshua fell sick as well the following week and just reocevered only on 9th August. That was a long and super sleepy period as we still brought ourselves to work in the morning. Always feel that the tough part of parenting is when the kiddos are sick, yet it hurts to see them ill. Something that a non parent may not fully comprehend.

When they are finally much better with no fever, we brought them out again for family time. Its so much easier to be out with them than to be with 2 sick boys all day at home. Its the National Day weekend and we sang National Songs and attended the National Day Observation Ceremony. Hope they will be proud to be Singaporeans and serve the Army happily in future.

Their weight dropped quite a fair bit over the past 2 weeks with Josiah dropping from 9.9kg to 9.2kg and Joshua to only 9.0kg. Haiz... They are still so thin and need to feed them to grow more fats. Their baby fats are like gone already when I looked back at old photographs. So many babies at 12 months already more than 10kg and ours seems so hard to hit the mark.

Feeding is still an issue as they always don't seems to enjoy food. They are more selective with food now with this age and will reject strongly if they don't want to eat. The case is worse for Joshua lately maybe because he just recovered. Hope their appetite comes back soon...

Slow and Steady Growth

Weekends are the most enjoyable part of the week. Felin and I are able to spend quality time with the boys which I sensed that they enjoy our presence and companionship. We will always have a nice Breakfast and walk around the park or shopping centre and go for class at Genius League in the evening. In between, while they sleep, we will just rest or do our work.

They are able to react quite well when we talk or read to them. Joshua is pretty noisy at time and keep making funny sounds which are not longer as simple as Bababa or mamama. The baby language had upgraded to sounds like Ah Buloo... Yoloyolo...., etc... He is now able to sit independently at the car seat without another Adult around with him. But he will cry when the sun shine on him in the car. As he woke up earlier, I will sometimes take him along as I drive Felin to MRT station in the morning. I will bring him to the park for a short 5-10 minutes walk thereafter. I will try bringing Josiah the next time. Hope he can be as independent as well.

Biting is still a problem and they can bite each other without much warning. Their teeth are really sharp. A simple bite can really leave the mark on their hands. Josiah is still not eating much and we always have to think of creative ways to feed him. He is a more picky eater and have a preference towards sweet things. Josiah always offer us his sweetest smile and never fails to melt our hearts.

There are still so much more to explore about them and they are really getting fun to play with passing day...

 

The boys who will ask for my morning Yakult which I will ask for kisses before giving them one or two sips.

Our usual morning breakfast. This one is at Downtown East Coffee Bean.

 

The common sight whenever I returned home from work early. The milk before their sleep.

The joys and woes

I went through the flashcards as usual with the boys this morning and when I took out the Apple Card, Joshua suddenly says "Ap-ple". I was so excited and shouted for mum and told her that he can say a 2 syllabus word. I asked him again and he repeated "Ap-ple". I asked him to say Banana next and he repeated "nana". He can't say other 2 syllabus words yet but I'm nevertheless excited.

They are now at the age where its pretty difficult to control. When they like to get something, they can really insist for it and cry excessively. Joshua now likes to go toliet bowl to play with the water in the bowl. I kept telling him that its for peeing for pooing but he will still go to the toliet when we are not aware to play with the water. As for Josiah, I was shocked yesterday when he threw his pacificer downstairs and have a tendency of picking up things in the living room and throwing things down. Both of them also like to climb on chairs or tables or going to the study room to touch the fan, etc... All these are making the caregivers a very hard time as we have to be attentive to them every single moment. Its really very tiring. All thanks for Mum and my helper so that we can go out to work in peace.

Felin and I signed the boys up for the classes under Genius League Academy at a cost of approximately $50 each for every 70 minutes session. We signed for a term of 12 lessons after attending their free trial lesson. The class will be held every Saturday 5:40pm which means I'll have to bring them to Novena area for class every week for the next 12 weeks.

During the trial, they went through a series of exercises, including the possibility of opening up their right brain to see things we normally can't see. The pace of the class is rather fast and I'm quite skeptical about the ESP part. I was told that they are already much slower already compared to other schools such as Heguru and Shichida. The boys are not that bad in term of focusing for this first lesson and hope they are able to continue this for the next 12 lessons. Hopefully what we spent is able to help them learn something useful and we as parents can also learn how to teach them better. The objective is for them to enjoy and to improve their ability to focus in a classroom setting.

We spent an hour plus at NTUC Fairprice Xtra at Changi Biz Park for grocery shopping during the weekend. I as usual went through all the fruits and items in the supermarket as I pushed them along on the trolley. They enjoyed the ride on the trolley and everyone walking pass me will look at this Daddy who kept talking non stop to the boys as if they are in a childcare centre.

As for sleep, they refused to let me pat them to sleep nowaday. They will cry for mummy or my helper during bedtime. As a result, I am now able to sleep on the bed as Felin sleep on the floor now. Maybe I should thanks for boys for choosing Mummy. Lol... Anyway I hope they are able to sleep independently without crying whenever they wake up in the middle of the night soon or better still if they can simply sleep through the night consistently. So that Felin and I can have the bed together again.

Sleep - Swim - Sea

Joshua and Josiah are growing so fast that I always forgot what I want to write in my blog. I am really eager to record their new skills, new words spoken, new expressions, etc... Felin and I will laugh over some of their things they do and things that they surprises us with but I always forgot what are the things that make me laugh the very next day. This journey is getting really amazing and I'm loving it somehow. (minus the sleepless nights)

Felin tried to let the brothers to sleep together in the same room last weekend and its really killing us. For the first night, the 4 of us slept in the children's room. They are not in mood of sleeping when we are around and kept running around the room. When they finally settled down, they woke up like 3-4 times in the night. Josiah like to turn and twist around the whole room and it wakes Joshua up. Joshua likewise wakes up once or twice a night and when he does, he will wake Josiah up. In short, we don't have a good night sleep. On the second night, we tried it in our room and we suffered too. When Josiah realised that Joshua is sleeping on the bed, he shouted for us to carry him onto the bed too and when he is on the bed, he will turn and twist until Joshua can't sleep and we can't sleep too. We were so tired the next morning and decided to try again only on weekends.

We brought the boys for a swim 2 Saturdays ago and they really love it. They were so excited throughout the 1 hour water play and Joshua cried when we tried to bring them up from the pool. They were really funny and was already so fascinated with the floats at home even before going down the pool itself.

We also brought them to the Punggol Jetty Point to enjoy the seabreeze and to see the horses at the Gallop Stable. They really enjoyed watching the horses and rabbits feeding session. They also enjoyed the sunset and seeing the boats at the jetty as well as the people fishing and playing by the beach. It was an enjoyable evening.

The Father's guilt

Joshua usually wake up at 6:45am and as he slept with us, he will mingle with me in the master room when Felin gets herself ready for work. We will wait for Josiah to wake up before we open the door for him to join in. They will drink their morning milk and I will play with both of them for a while after that. By 7:35am, I'll drive Felin to MRT station and be back around 8am. I'll then wash up and get into my work attire. By 8:30am, I'll then go through the flashcards or books and spend some time playing with them till 9am when my parents arrive. Once the play room is opened, they will start roaming around the house while I have breakfast. After breakfast, they will go down for their daily walk with my parents and I'll be off to work.

The only time I spent with them are the short half an hour before I drive Felin to work and the half an hour before my parents arrive. If I am required to go office early, I'll not have that precious half an hour to go through the flashcards or books with them. By the time I finished work and reached home at 9:30pm or 10pm, the boys will already be in bed. I have no idea what they are doing from the time I left house to the time they sleep.

The guilt is always I failed to spend enough quality time with them especially when I have early meetings or trainings to attend. By evening, I always struggled between having to complete my work, to arrange for appointments or just go home and play with the boys. I alway chose the first 2 but try to do the 3rd at least once a week. However when I'm busy, I can't even come back home early for even 1 weekday night. This makes me somehow unhappy at times. Felin slept early at times with the boys and hence when I'm home, the house can be dead quiet.

Weekends seems to be the only time I can spend time but Saturdays morning and afternoon are always lined up with appointments as some clients can only meet me on weekends. I'll then arrange to go shopping in the evening and dinner with the boys at some nearby shopping centres. On Sunday, it will be church in the morning, lunch somewhere before they go for their afternoon nap. After nap, its feeding time and off we go somewhere again in the evening till after dinner. Its like a full day with them and I'm always happy for Sundays.

Thereafter, the routine of weekdays repeat again. Felin sometimes described me as a weekend husband and I felt its quite true. Well, I think such Father's Guilt happens to a lot of fathers out there who have to manage their work and family. I always feel that I am not managing my time well and are not productive at work.

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Over the weekend, we went back Malaysia to spend time with Felin's family. They also had their haircut at one of the salon. They surprised me that they did not cry or struggled but sat on the plank quietly throughout around 5-6 minutes. Good job, boys... Loving both of you more daily... Both of you are really growing so fast and I know I'll miss this period very soon...