December 2, 2008 ~

Yesteday our Christmas tree was delivered and Sophia helped us decorate it the last 2 days. Sophia really got into hanging the ornaments but she insisted on hanging all of them on the same branch. Which resulted in them eventually ending up on the floor in a heap & Sophia starting the whole hanging process again. Overnight we helped space them out for her a bit.

We also introduced her to Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer through classics on DVD. She picked up on them well and we even caught her singing ones of the tunes today, with her own interpretation of the words of course, "Off the nose reindeer had a very runny nose" ... too cute. Today Sophia helped Daddy put the angel on top of the tree. She finished the excercise with a very excited clapping of hands and a loud exclaimation of "I did it !".

The other picture on the right side is a typical scene at our house, Sophia stealing Ariane's milk. Sophia is a little milk monster, you can't leave milk anywhere around the house or it goes missing. Ariane is learning quickly how to fight back though.

Ariane has just started teething with her bottom right tooth already coming in and we are sure more are on the way judging by how fussy she has been lately. We're hoping she's through the worst of this round before Christmas.

November 2008 ~

November was such an exciting month. I took the first week of November off work to tour around Singapore with my family and we kicked off the month with a wonderful trip to Bali.

As both my father & my uncle have knees that get sore quickly, we decided to pick Bali as our side trip destination as it has a lot of culture and the last time we were there (in 2007 when Sophia was 3 mths old) we essentially did a driving tour of Bali, not a lot of walking, and really enjoyed it. We chose to stay in Ubud again as most of us are not beach people and Ubud is more central to the scenic & cultural center of Bali. We rented a lovely 3/4 bedroom Villa with a swimming pool in the middle. It was very exotic with some of the bedroom adjoined bathrooms with baths & showers outdoors.

Everyone seemed to really love Bali with regular, very inexpensive, massages, interesting temples, beautiful rice paddies, and lots of swimming. It is hard to describe the beauty of this country & it's people so you will just have to look at our photo album. We also learned that Sophia is very flexible. At nap time, she would nap wherever we were so unfortunately that meant that Paul spent a couple days walking around or eating lunch with a sleeping toddler on his shoulder.

After my family left, we moved Sophia to a single bed in her room and moved Ariane to Sophia's cot and into Sophia's room, so both babies are finally out of our room ! It took just a few weeks to get Sophia adjusted to her new bed but the princess sheets helped. Unfortunately if she does not want to sleep, Sophia can get out of her bed and open her bedroom door so that is a bit of a worry, but for the most part she does not get out once we put her in bed. Both girls seem to be sleeping much better now that they are out of our room and Paul and I are SOOO happy to finally have our room back. Yea ! The only bad part is anytime after 6 am, if one wakes up, they wake up the other. If it is Ariane up first, we quickly bring her into our room but if it is Sophia up first, no point, if Sophia is up, EVERYONE is up. Both girls sleep through the night but do get up between 6 & 6:30 am ... a bit too early for us but better than getting up at night.

October 2008 ~

Okay, it has been so long since my last update, I've decided to do just a quick October update, then a November update.

October was a busy month full of birthday parties as all Sophia's little baby group friends turned 2. We had birthdays to attend every week and in some cases, 2 a week ! But each one was a lot of fun and Sophia & Ariane had a great time at them all.

Towards the end of the month my parent's and my aunt Gloria & Uncle Ron arrived for a 3 week visit. It was the first time my parent's had seen Ariane & they had not seen Sophia since Christmas so it was so wonderful to have them here to meet my baby & my very chatty 2 year old.

For Sophia's 2nd Birthday this year, we decided to have her party on Friday, October 31st and have it as a Fancy Dress party so all the little ones could come dressed in their Halloween outfits. The theme of the party was "princess" but I ended up making a Flower cake this year as the Crown I wanted to make was all sold out. Fortunately I remembered the decorating instructions my mum-in-law gave me for decorating Sophia's cake from last year. Our house was a little small for all the party guests but we recruited my Dad to be the official birthday party photographer so Paul & I could just enjoy the party & direct traffic. Sophia loved singing "Happy Birthday" and was even able to blow out her candle all by herself. She really also took to the idea of opening presents, didn't care so much what was inside. Christmas ought to be great fun this year.

After her birthday party we took Sophia & Ariane out trick-or-treating around our complex with a few of Sophia's young friends. Poor Sophia, she worked so hard & the only thing she got to keep from her stash was a few lollipops & some jellies.

On milestones, Ariane is sitting up on her own now but we still put a few pillows behind her just in case. Sophia's verbal skills and her swimming skills continue to progress. She is able to have full conversations now. Basically she talks all the time which can occasionally drive us nuts. Even her pre-nursery teachers commented on her constant chatting. Her swimming is also going well and she can now take a breath in the middle & continue swimming. She is also able to dog paddle on the spot for a couple of minutes. On the other hand, not much progress on potty training. She still can't be bothered to give us advanced notice but will stay dry if we take her every hour (which rarely ever happens as we are not around enough to be so disciplined).

September 3, 2008 ~

At the beginning of August, I had my first business trip since Ariane was born. Fortunately it was to Sydney so a place I am familiar with, but I missed both the girls terribly as I was gone the whole week. While there I had the opportunity to catch up with a few friends, including my best friend since I was 5 years old, Marilee (hi Mar!). Marilee's husband Scott is in the Canadian Navy and is on a 3 year assignment to Sydney... how nice! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to catch up with all my friends there so hopefully Paul and I can plan a personal trip back soon.

Sophia's doing great in pre-nursery. She absolutely loves her teachers, Miss Jody & Miss Catrina. She had her first school trip to the zoo last week. Paul had the privilege of going with her. We drew straws, he won .. ha. Actually I had a lot of work meetings on the day she was going that I really couldn't miss so it worked out well. Unfortunately it rained a lot of the day but they had fun anyway. We both feel like she is growing up so fast ... school trips already !

One thing we have noticed she has been doing since she started school is singing. At home I sing her a song before bed and she has started to sing along. I think this is because they sing songs at school but could all just be part of her growing up. She is speaking in full sentences now and she still amazes us with her vocabulary & comprehension. We were in the pool the other day and I had said that I could not touch the bottom. Then when she saw me standing on the bottom a little while later and she asked me "Mommy, can you touch?".

We are going through the joys of potty training now. Sophia is excellent with "naked" potty training, she goes every time on her own, no accidents. But as soon as she has panties, trainers, or pull ups on, she doesn't bother going in the potty. So we are working on that. My goal is to have her trained by Christmas so I don't have to change toddler nappies in those tiny airplane toilets.

Ariane is doing great, cute as a button. She is not quite sitting yet but making progress. She is such a happy baby, always smiling.

We changed helpers this month. Flora's previous employers asked for her to come back so we hired someone new, Rose, and had a month of transition. We've been so fortunate as Rose is working out really well. Both the girls absolutely love her and our house is spotless. A real answer to prayer as I was worried about finding someone that could handle both a busy toddler and a young baby but Rose is managing no problem.

And finally, another one of Paul's close friends has had a baby. Paul LeRoy and his wife Clare had a baby boy, Caleb Christopher, on August 15th, 4 lbs. We had a little smile when we found out their sons name as it was exactly the name we had picked for a boy, if we had had one. (And in case you are wondering, no chance of a boy now, we are done at two. We are very happy with our two gorgeous girls.)

Oh I should also mention most of my baby group are starting to have their 2nd baby now as well. Renee, who already had a boy, just had twin girls. More to come as I have at least one or two friends due each month from now until January.

July 26, 2008 ~

First month back at work. So far it hasn't been too bad. I am actually enjoying being back at work but I am missing the girls. I usually try to finish by 6 pm which gives me 1/2 hour with the girls until bath time (6:30 pm) and bed time (7 pm). So really no time at all during the week. Now that the girls are both going to bed at the same time, they are both asleep by the time Paul gets home at 7:30/8 pm. Paul does usually get up with Sophia when she gets up though (between 6-7 am) and spends some quality time with her before he goes to work at 8 am. We do try to make up for it on the weekend and spend lots of time as a family doing things like zoo, picnic, parks, swimming, etc.

Fortunately Sophia is absolutely loving school! She walks right in and occasionally gets so distracted I barely get a wave good-bye. She knows all her classmates names and shoulds so cute when she calls them by name when she wants their attention or asks for something. The teachers were asking us what she calls her dollys at home because she was talking to the dollys at school and calling them something they couldn't understand. Sure enough, she was calling them all "Ariane". Too cute. Every other week the school sends home a newsletter with pictures of the kids interacting at school. It is so nice to see how much fun she is having. After school she comes home and takes a 2 (sometimes 3!) hour nap. Then "Auntie" Flora usually takes both the kids swimming or to our neighbours house where Sophia's friends live.

Sophia's verbal skills continue to be growing in leaps & bounds .. she is a girl afterall. She is starting to talk in short sentences and is learning possession as in mine (oh joy), it's daddy's camera, that's mommy's tea, ariane's dummy. She can also understand everything we say. Which is good and bad. If you ask her to do something and she does it, that's great, but because we know she understands, it does get frustrating to ask her to do something and she ignores us or says 'no'. Boy the terrible two's are going to be fun.

Ariane is getting big fast. Seems like time goes much quicker with the 2nd. She can already hold her head steady so we have her playing in the Bumbo. She enjoys sitting there watching Sophia play. Unfortunately she has occasionally been the victim of too much love from her older sister and even got a bruise on the cheek, the result of an affectionate pinch from her loving sister. Sophia got a time-out for her efforts while I tried to comfort a screaming baby.

Both the kids got really sick this month for over 10 days each and in succession so we did not get much sleep this month. It was just a really, really bad cold/virus but it made both of them miserable. Sophia had quite a high fever with it but fortunately Ariane did not get the fever. Finally both girls are sleeping through the night again and Paul and I can get rid of those bags under our eyes. On a normal night, Ariane usually wakes up once sometime between 3 and 5 pm. She is a much better sleeper than Sophia was at her age.

In other news, our friends Ben & Suzy had their second one on July 14th, Thomas William, 9 lbs 1 oz. So they now have two boys and both their boys are approx. 3 mths younger than our girls. We will see them again at Christmas so looking forward to seeing the kids together.

June 23, 2008 ~

Well so much for updating regularly while I was off work. I am back to work Monday and this is only my 2nd update while off.

My maternity leave has been busy but great. Sophia and I have had the opportunity to do a lot more activities with her baby group friends during the day so I will miss that bonding time when I return to work. Ariane had a rough start with lots of digestive problems for the first 6 weeks but once we got past those, she has been a great, really smiley baby. She normally only wakes once a night which has been nice. Now if only Sophia would sleep through the night again *sigh*. Sophia has been up a lot at night in June as all 4 of her eye teeth came in at once. Fortunately that should be the last of her teeth until her 2 year molars.

Our most recent holiday was a trip to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia in May. The highlands are about a 7 hr drive and as they are higher above sea level than Singapore, it is also a bit cooler. Our friends Kate and Andrew and their 3 kids were going so we joined them. Due to the distance, we decided to break up our trip by stopping in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (about 3 1/2 hrs drive) for a night. This was the first time Paul or I had been to KL so we stayed at a very central hotel. There was a fantastic park just beside the hotel with a HUGE children's water play park and a HUGE playground. So Sophia had a great time. Paul and I enjoyed the roof top pool. We then went on to spend 3 nights in Cameron Highlands touring tea plantations, picking strawberries, hiking, enjoying high tea, and the lovely cool weather (17 to 24 degrees). The highlands are famous for their tea so of course I had to drink lots of tea while there. We did the drive back only stopping once so it was a bit hard on the girls but they both did really well despite the fact that neither slept much during the 8 hr trip. The best part about the trip was that we learned that the girls can sleep in the same room as they do not wake each other up. At the moment Ariane is still in our room at home but we will eventually move her into Sophia's room.

Sophia is continuing to talk a lot and repeats everything! She will say "Bless You" to anyone that sneezes, say "excuse me" to get people out of her way at the grocery store, and say "darn it" when she drops something. Ooops, yes unfortunately she got that last one from me. She knows that something is "mommy's chocolate" or "daddy's cup" or "Ariane's milk". Unfortunately she also steals Ariane's milk if you put the bottle down. She keeps us rather amused.

Sophia's new passion is Elephants (since she saw the marching Elephants on a Jungle Book DVD). So this past weekend we went to the Zoo to show her the Elephants. Unfortunately we arrived just as the Elephant show was ending but at the end of the show you can feed the elephants small bananas so Paul took Sophia down and she actually was brave enough to feed the elephant a banana (which she would not do a few months ago in Bintan). She now walks around the house telling us all about Elephants eating bananas. Too cute.

Tomorrow Sophia starts pre-nursery, 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. We're not sure we will send her everyday yet, we'll see how she goes her first day and then maybe work her in slowly.

April 14, 2008 ~

It's another GIRL! Ariane Grace Abrey was born on Thursday, April 3rd at 9:15 pm. She weighed 3.19kg and was 51cm long. Labour and delivery was a very rapid 3 hrs and recovery has been fantastic. I felt great after just a few days.

So far Ariane has been such a good baby and generally squeaks rather than cries when she needs some attention. Sophia has been handling the arrival of the new baby exceptionally well. She gets excited to see her baby sister every day.

Paul's parents arrived on April 5th and Paul had the week off so the 6 of us had a wonderful week together. We went to the Zoo, on the Singapore Flyer, and hung out at home going swimming every day with Sophia. Sophia really enjoyed having her grandparents and daddy around all week.

Sophia is growing up before our eyes. She talks a lot and her vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. The other day we caught her singing "up and down" and "round and round", clear as bell along to the tune of Wheels on the Bus. She was even doing actions to "round and round". Apparently Auntie Flora taught her the song and actions. The only down side is when she starts singing it, she sings it over and over and over. She also has a favourite video of Fisher Price's Little People so will walk around chanting "people, people" when she wants to watch it. So now we have to spell "people" and "swimming" around her unless we are prepared to watch/do either. She can also tell us what she would like to eat and will just walk up to us and say "nana" (banana) or "racker" (cracker) or "eese" (cheese) depending on what she wants to eat. She understands virtually everything we say so it has been really easy to communicate with her. Unfortunately that doesn't stop the temper tantrums when she doesn't get her own way. Some days I think we've hit the terrible twos early. She is a really fun, silly girl though and we are enjoying her immensely.

I am now off work for a few months so I will try to keep this website updated more often.

March 23 , 2008 ~

So far my pregnancy is going really well. Far less aches and pains than the first time around but I am starting to feel very tired and heavy. Only 3 more days of work and then I will be able to take it easy for a few days until the baby comes.

Our car finally arrived and we are absolutely loving the new found freedom. On Friday we drove to the Zoo without having to worry about the long taxi drive with a wiggly toddler. Surprisingly Sophia doesn't mind the car seat at all and really enjoys riding in the car. We are still getting used to the roads around Singapore though as there are a lot of one way streets. Our next step is to do the test so we can get our drivers licenses converted to Singapore.

Sophia unfortunately is teething again. All 4 molars and two more front teeth are on their way in. She has been great during the day but seems to have insomnia at night keeping us up for 2 - 3 hrs in the middle of the night some times. Guess she is just preparing us for having a new baby in the house ... hehe. Hopefully she will be past this stage before the new baby comes.

We finally signed Sophia up for pre-nursery at Eatonhouse, an English curriculum pre-school not far from where we live. She will start the next term on June 23rd so will be almost 20 mths. Unfortunately at this school you have to pay for 5 days a week even if we decide to send her fewer days. The hours are from 9 to 12 am so at first I thought 5 days would be too much. But actually she is such a busy, social little girl I am now thinking she may be okay with the 5 days.

March 1, 2008 ~

February was a great month. We finally bought a car !! Yep, after living here almost 7 years (6 for Paul) we will finally have a car again. Although it is extremely expensive to buy/own a car in Singapore, with two kids, we decided it would be much safer than taking a taxi everywhere. We bought a Honda Odyssey, what they call an MPV here, a 7 seater car. It looks a lot like a fancy station wagon. The great thing about having the extra seats, which fold down for storage in back when not in use, is that we will be able to take our parents in our car as well when they visit. The car should be available mid-March, just in time for the new baby.

Although we didn't go away for Chinese New Year, we did have a 4 day long weekend which we spent visiting parks around Singapore with Sophia. They have a new Children's garden here with a sandbox, treehouse, and waterplay area. Sophia loves playing in the sand and the water.

Sophia's absolute favourite thing to do these days is to go swimming. She is doing really well at kicking and can even swim a short distance under water propelling forward by moving her arms & kicking. We are at the point where we have to spell swimming if we use it in a sentence or she will walk around the house chanting "wimming, wimming" and head for the door or bring us her swim suit. If the weather is good she goes swimming everyday or sometimes twice a day.

Mid-February Paul's immediate family came to visit to celebrate Paul's dad, Chris's, 60th birthday. As I am not able to fly, they kindly all come to visit us. We had a wonderful time visiting Sentosa and taking a few days out to vacation on Bintan Island. Also Paul's mum and sister were able to be here for my baby shower. It was so nice to actually have family here for special events. Paul's brother Dave who wasn't able to make it earlier showed up as a surprise on Thursday night for a very emotional reunion -- the whole family together for Chris's 60th! Then of course the finale of their visit was the Friday Birthday BBQ for Chris's 60th and Paul's brother, Steve's, 33rd birthday. On Sunday we celebrated Paul's Mum's birthday before they left to go home that evening. We'll see them again in a month !

My pregnancy is going well. I have far less aches & pains than I did the first time for some reason. I am getting regular strong Braxton Hicks contractions which I don't remember getting at all the first time but I am still hoping to be on time (not early) as I have a lot to finish at work before going on leave again.

January 2008 ~

We celebrated Christmas in Singapore on the 24th because Paul was unable to get time of work to travel to Canada. Sophia and I left for Canada on the 25th with a plan to celebrate Christmas with my family on the 26th. Christmas in Canada is always wonderful, especially when there is snow, however, a 30 hr flight on my own with an active 14 mth old was NOT fun. Sophia was very good but there is only so much a child can sleep during a 30 hr trip and when she did sleep it was on my lap. We spent most of the trip running up and down the aisles making friends with everyone and running around the Hong Kong airport during the 6 hr delay.

Sophia loved getting to know her cousins during our visit. We had a great time visiting with all my family and my friend April. Unfortunately Paul could not make it so we Skyped with him on Dec 26th, the day we celebrated Christmas, so he could see Sophia opening her presents.

Sophia absolutely LOVED the snow. For a tropical baby, I was surprised but she actually cried when I brought her in out of the snow. Let's hope she also likes skiing in a couple of years : ).

December 8 , 2007 ~

Once again it has been ages between updates so we have a lot of news to catch up on.

October was busy month full of birthday parties as most of Sophia's little baby group friends were having their 1st birthday in October. We had a party to attend every weekend but each one was a lot of fun. Near the end of the month Sophia came down with a very bad gastro infection and ended up in the hospital for dehydration. Poor little thing was in there for two nights. Paul had to stay with her in the hospital because I happened to be travelling in a remote part of China for work when she was admitted and couldn't get a flight home. Fortunately all worked out okay and she was good as new within a week.

At the end of the month was Halloween. Sophia dressed up as a bumblebee and went out "trick or treating" around our complex with her little friends Luc & Jacques. Very cute.

November was Sophia's birthday. We had a little family party on November 2nd but waited until Paul's parents were here to have the big party. Sophia was a bit overwhelmed by all the people taking over her space but I think she enjoyed herself. I even made & decorated my first birthday cake for her ... a pink & purple butterfly ! After everyone went home we opened the mound of presents. I had to clean out her toy box so we had room for all the new toys. Not sure where we are going to put future gifts in our tiny townhouse as we are already overflowing with toys.

Sophia started swimming lessions for the first time in November. Paul takes her on Saturday morning for some father/daughter bonding time.

Paul's parents came to visit mid-november for about 10 days over 2 weekends. It was so great to spend some time with family. Unfortunately I had to travel to Korea on business the week they were here but I was around for the weekends and they got to spend quality time with Paul and Sophia.

The beginning of December brought more family, with Paul's cousins from South Africa, Sharon, Karl, and their kids, Courtney (5), & Maddy (19 mths). They were only in Singapore for the weekend but we had a nice time with them. Sophia really liked Maddy & followed her around when they visited our house.

Sophia started walking around 11 1/2 months but has only just started walking everywhere now at 13 mths. Occasionally when she is tired her legs are still a little bit wobbly but very cute. We're really getting our exercise chasing her around the house.

In baby news, our newest little on is growing well. I am now 23 wks. She is extemely active, moving heaps everyday. Not a lot of belly pictures this time around but I'd say my belly is about the same size as first time although it did seem to grow a little faster.

Paul is doing well at work although it is really busy. Unfortunately he will not be able to get time off at Christmas this year so Sophia and I will be going to Canada alone for about 10 days, leaving on December 25th. We plan to celebrate Christmas in Singapore as a family on December 24th. We'll have friends over for Christmas dinner that evening. Our first Christmas in the tropics : ).

September 23, 2007 ~

Wow !! It has been such a long time since I've written an update, this could be a very long entry.

First our exciting news. Just before heading out to Vancouver on our August holidays, we found out that I am pregnant again ! Very unexpected but very relieved that it was so easy the second time around. I am 12 1/2 weeks now, due April 2nd so Sophia will be 17 months when the new baby is born. We are going to have our hands full !

The beginning of August we headed off to Vancouver to meet up with my parents and brothers and sister and their families. After a family reunion on my father's mother's side, we all headed off to tour B.C. We first went over to Vancouver Island, Victoria and Tofino, where we went on some fantastic hiking tours, then we came back to the mainland and drove out to Banff for some more outdoor adventures. One of the highlights for Paul and I was canoeing on Emerald Lake. Just stunning. While we were in the Rockies we saw mountain goats, a black bear, and deer. But Paul's favourite wildlife viewing were the little chipmunks that were everywhere during our Johnsons Canyon hike.

Sophia is doing well. She is such a little doll. She is now 10 1/2 months and crawling everywhere! She is cruising all over the furniture, standing, and climbing up stairs, but no walking yet. When she gets excited and let's go to walk towards you her feet freeze & she just falls face forward. She started with a lot of stranger anxiety at 8 months which has been a bit of a challenge. It is getting better so we are hopeful this stage will pass soon. At the beginning of 10 months her teeth finally popped through.. yea! 3 came in at once though so that was quite painful for her. She now has 2 on top and one on the bottom and you can just see her eye teeth on top starting to come in as well. They look really cute. She also has a very full head of hair, getting thicker by the day. It is almost time for her 2nd haircut.

Sophia still attends a playgroup once a week with babies she's known since birth. Sophia is the youngest in the group so the other's are all turning 1 year over the next month. We have birthday parties at least every other week for the next month. We're not quite sure what to do for Sophia's 1st birthday yet ... hmmm.....

Attending a Birthday party
of a playgroup friend

Showing off her new teeth

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