Penultimate Chapter of the Infant Adventures!

Hello Troublemakers,

It has been months since the last note. I am not sure where to begin as much has happened since the last note. You guys are growing so quickly! I think your Papa should be the one writing it, since you guys clearly prefer your Papa, always clinging on to him like koalas (hmph), but your Papa has turfed the job to me.

The two of you are 9 months old now. Thankfully, both of you seem to be hitting your milestones currently, and have finally done your developmental assessment. It is rather late to be having your first DA, but we skipped the doctor’s appointment during your last few vaccinations because of COVID (and partly because we were lazy, and partly because you guys do not take well to being outside). Rudimentary finger thumb grip is there but you guys were so shy when offered the raisin by the nurse. Gross motor skills seem to be in order since you two sit up and snatch things from each other. A toy is only interesting when the other has it.

Sharing? Psych!

In big family news, we have moved from your first home in Punggol to your Popo's house. This is because my maternity leave ended and I have to go back to work.

Honestly, the two of you individually are quite the handful, and more than double the trouble when combined, hence we need all the help that we can get. In fact we had to rope in your Yi Po for help as well.

There were some teething issues - we had to figure out where to put you guys for your nap time, where to put you guys to sleep, but thankfully we managed to work out a semblance of a routine (which the two of you rebel against quite frequently).

Initially we put both of you on the same mattress to nap on, and you have another mattress for nighttime sleep. However, this frequently results in night time squabbles and turf wars. Though the mattress is huge in relation to both you babies, you guys love rolling around with no sense of danger. Sometimes you may roll onto each other (waking the other in the process), other times you roll off the floor.

Meimei being more dexterous and mobile would frequently, and purposely crawl up to Gorgor and snatch his pacifier from his mouth. As you can imagine, night time shenanigans by one person would wake the other, ensuing in chaos for the hapless adults. 

Hold up, she took my what?!

We finally bit the bullet and moved your cots over, one in Popo's room one in our room.

When will I be free from the confines of the cot

Pasir Ris is a swamp compared to Punggol, resulting in numerous mosquito bites on your pretty faces. Gorgor usually gets it worse, with huge wheals on the feet, causing so much discomfort you wake up screaming and rubbing your little feet in vain.

Bite marks like Mike Tyson

You two are eating alot more solids now, but feeding you two is such a chore. Like your Papa, you two are picky eaters, and have to be coaxed and cajoled to even sit in your chairs for meals.

Pumpkin carrot porridge, bleagh

Meimei especially will spit out the food she doesn't like, and your Popo would attempt to bribe you with peach and apple flavoured cracker stars, much to your Papa's chagrin. He thinks your Popo is spoiling you too much.

Feeding you Gorgor is always a tense experience due to your frequent regurgitation, especially when accompanied with your crying resulting in gags. Your poor Auntie Margie changes your clothes and washes your clothes and the chair covers multiple times a day.

We've also introduced you two to the pool at Nai Nai and Ye Ye's. Scared at first, now you've become accustomed and even enjoy splashing around. You two love being lifted out of the water and then to come splashing back down! Gorgor, you have to stop drinking the pool water! The both of you are getting more tan these days.

You two now have a bad case of stranger anxiety, just 2 months ago, you could still let Lao Ma carry you, but now you two start screaming when we enter her flat. Such a shame because you two munchkins are at peak cuteness but you won't let anyone carry you.

Just happy to be carried

3 short months ago

Now you're just somebody that I used to know :(

As you two grow bigger, Papa grows bolder and like to bring you two out, whether you two like it or not. And you two frequently do not. The stroller has become an expensive decorative piece. You guys last at most 20 mins in the stroller before wanting to be carried. We've given up, we just bring the carriers when we go out now.

We could pretend they're not ours and leave... HA HA, Ha, no, we wouldn't. We wouldn't do that... Uhum.

Gorgor, you are growing very well physically - still chubby, and a hefty weight when we carry you. Your height (50th percentile) is slowly catching up to your weight (90th percentile). You were the first to babble with consonants. You become especially fluent when you are upset - you were in fact crying for attention the first time when you said “mamama”, and catch my attention it did!

You can stand pretty long while holding on to a support, so far you are still working on pulling yourself up with support. It is harder for you to reach for the things that you want - you will stretch as much as you can, but are not really able to crawl to it - yet. Hence you have developed a way to get what you want - you will stiffen your body and straighten your legs and let out a loud commanding cry - so that someone will come scurrying to help you get whatever it is you want. This works especially well for Ye Ye.

At night Gorgor, you would be sleeping with Mama and Papa. You tend to wake up early at 5.30am. We would know because we can hear you kicking at the cot, but we'll just keep our eyes closed hoping you would go back to sleep. That is until you start singing, and we know one of us has to bring you downstairs to play and wait for Auntie Margie to wake and take over your care.

It's 4 am! Rise and shine! Wake up Mama! Wake up Papa!

Gorgor you are super fond of your grandfathers, I think it's because they usually bring you out of the house and you just absolutely adore being out. Guess the Circuit Breaker got to you too.

Like ordering a Grab

You still have a weak constitution, always threatening to throw up and regurgitating. In the wee hours we would feed you when you wake and try to put you to bed, but you would always struggle and cry, gasping. All that air gets swallowed and comes back up with the milk. Your poor Papa has had to change you and wipe the floor at 4 am, and post regurgitation, you're super cheeky and cheerful, especially when we've given up putting you back to sleep.

Meimei you are miles ahead for motor milestones. Just like how you flipped first, you are also the first to crawl, and the first to pull to stand and now even crawling up stairs.

You are a determined little Meimei - you first crawled because your papa use the tissue box (your favourite toy) to bait you with, and you leopard crawl till you could reach it.

Now, you like the adults to hold your hand as you cruise around, with an affinity towards the charging cables on the floor.Your acrobatic feats leave us in awe but also have us rather worried, because you have totally no sense of danger. You roll around and crawl around with abandon, not caring if you may be rolling off a height. Reaching for our handphones, you may choose to go head first off the sofa! You also love to sit on your Papa's shoulder and reaching for the leaves overhead when we walk in your Popo's garden.

With her fancy timbs

Meimei, you're the opposite of Gorgor, you have a strong preferrence for your grandmothers, clinging to them especially when there are strangers, resulting in less grandma loving for Gorgor.

As you two grow older, we've also started the process of putting you in infant care next year, it's gonna be another big transition for you guys. We hope you two will learn to play with other kids, also it would give your Popo some breathing room.

Looking forward to your first birthday!

Love, Mama

Sept 2020

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