EJ goes to Nursery 1

It has been long since my last update about my son, EJ. Really hope to be more active in blogging. But whenever I have my "me time" I just want to relax and lay down on bed. Mmm... I'm a tired mama of 2!

EJ started his nursery or playgroup at 2 years 8 months old and he has started pre nursery aka Nursery 1 in early January this year. And here's his experience going to school. Btw, he's going to 2 hourly playgroup, Monday to Friday, 9-11am

P/s: I won't be revealing here which school he's going for privacy reason, no uniform picture too ~ mama is a little paranoid hearing stories about the consequences revealing too much info on social media :p

1st month/January 2016

Week 1:
The first one week, EJ's nursery allowed one parent to accompany his/her child. Not too bad! The first day, EJ was so excited! He woke up early and asked our helper to change him. He was really happy and he thought he was going to play! So we reached school for his first day, he played, he participated, he danced, he clapped his hands, he made LOTS of noises, he jumped around the class, he participated in artwork and did well. He also listened to simple instruction pretty well. Like when teacher asked him to sit down, he sat without hesitation! I thought, Mmm.. Not bad, good beginning!

But I was wrong hahaa...

The following day, he was still excited going to school, asked to get changed and happily going to school ~ perhaps because mommy was still with him! BUT, the second day onwards, he was a bit lazy & clingy in the class, he would just stick to me and sat on my lap in almost every class activity including playing toys with friends (he would prefer mommy stay beside him and play), he was sitting down instead of standing up to participate in morning exercise, etc. he wasn't feeling that excited in the class although he didn't cry or throw temper. He was bored I guess! I was a bit worried about him not wanting to participate in his first week at nursery but I was wrong again!

Week 2:

Week 2 is a little heart wrenching week because that's the week, parents had to leave their children ~ no more accompanying kids to the class. As I expected, EJ cried a big time ~ crying & screaming, throwing temper & refusing to enter his class. According to his teacher, it's really normal for kids this young to behave this way. It would take 2-4 weeks for them to settle down & what we can do as parents is to let it go, let them cry & scream and eventually they will settle in. The more worried we are, the longer time those little kids would take to settle in. So yeah, I listened to teacher's advice, although my heart was breaking seeing him cry so much, I had to let him go! Teacher had to force-carry him to the class together with other crying kids. Most of them were crying BADLY in the second week!

I waited outside the class for 2 hours ~ just in case teacher would call me in.

The first day of second week was a heartbreaking day with lots of crying & tears but guess what? The third day onwards, although most of the children were still crying when they were about to enter their class but they did settle down after half an hour to one hour of non stop crying. I heard less crying after the first one hour. And lesser & lesser crying from one day to another day. By end of second week, I heard no crying at all 10 minutes after all kids entered their class. Teacher was right, it took 2 weeks for those little kids to adjust into their new nursery with new friends & teachers :)

Overall, EJ was fine inside the class, according to his teacher. He did well, he participated well & he didn't fight with other kids ~ something I should be proud of him :) but most of the days, he would cry and throw temper in the morning, refusing to enter his class ~ crying & rolling on the floor outside his class and I had to force him! He would sob & sob waving good bye to me but didn't struggle when teacher checked on him (temperature, hands, mouth for hands, foot, mouth disease) and he was okay & playing with toys when he was inside the class. Separation anxiety at the beginning I believe!

Week 3 & 4:

EJ was getting better and better. Once a while, he would refuse to go inside his class and would cry requesting me to carry him in but he was pretty much settling in well in the new nursery environment!

2nd month/February 2016

He's no longer crying going to nursery and he's pretty much getting excited to meet & play with his friends. Every morning, he is waving "bye-bye" to grandma, auntie (our helper) and his little sister excitedly . As much as he's getting "too comfortable" with his new environment, he's misbehaving at times too and teacher has complained to me that EJ:

1) screamed & talked loudly
2) pushed his friends (I asked him why did he do that and he answered me a long "noooo, play play...") so he thought he was just playing, not intentionally pushing his friends but he's the biggest toddler in his class, so a gentle push could potentially cause injury to his little friends 
3) scattered & threw toys. I didn't know why and he didn't give me a reason either.

After being too comfortable in the class and created troubles, we kept talking to him what can and what can't do in the class and he was always better in the class the next morning but a toddler under 3 is still a toddler after all. He often forgets and repeats the naughty things again. EJ oh EJ!
I can tell he's improving so much better in terms of communication and vocabulary and he talks more now! He's progressing well and I couldn't be more proud of him :) my boy has grown up so much!

p/s: he even has 1 secret admirer at nursery telling me EJ is her boyfriend and he's handsome! hahaha

artworks he did at nursery!

EJ at 2 years 9 months old

 

Week 34 + Baby Calysta's Nursery

Hello

I'm a little over 34 weeks pregnant now and yesterday was my 34th week scan.. Baby girl is finally 2.3 kg & 29 cm from top to bottom. Baby girl gained a good 600 grams in 3 weeks time. And she's also taller by 3 cm. Compared with my now 18 month old boy, he was 2.7 kg & 31 cm at 34 weeks.. Baby boy is bigger & taller, right?

Doctor told me my placenta position is not low, so I can pretty much deliver normally. Baby's head is also already fully engaged. Baby's head is low, thus I was asked to rest more.. Talking about rest, I'm so tired of resting! I have been resting since I was 28 weeks, following doctor's advise and seriously I feel so bored & I feel like going out! But I'm paranoid something could happen if I don't follow doctor's instruction which is to rest, so yeah yeah yeah, I'm resting on my bed while typing this.. One more month to go, rest & sleep more as much as possible is also a good thing, right? Because I can't be slacking that much once baby Cal is out..

I didn't even realize my baby's head engaged earlier because I didn't feel any lightening. That means I should feel lighter, my belly should have dropped lower. I knew my boy's head was engaged in my first pregnancy because I felt my belly was lighter and lower and I felt walking was much easier & less tiring but this pregnancy, I still feel my tummy is heavy and I feel so tired to walk far. So it's kind of funny how first and second pregnancy can be so different

Other than I was asked to rest more, I think this pregnancy is a total blessing. (Touchwood) so far, no itchy skin, no stretch marks on belly or thighs (except on my buttocks), no painful wrists, joints or knees. I had all the symptoms I just mentioned, in my first pregnancy except the stretch marks.

I have so far gained 15 kg at 34 weeks. I feel so fat & swollen everywhere ~ my puffy cheeks, double chin, fat arms & elephant legs ~ so unattractive! I put some make up yesterday when I went out for my doctor's appointment and realized make up could only fix eyes, eyebrows and complexion but there's no way I could hide my chubby cheeks & puffy chin =.=' The only trick I could do to make my face a little slimmer is to tie up my hair.

I would never thought I could gain that much weight because I gained super little weight during my second trimester. I only gained 1-1.5 kg per month during second trimester, so I thought I wouldn't gain that much in my third trimester too. I expected to gain 12 kg only for my whole pregnancy but you see, things can be quite different than you expected, right? I mean, as long as baby is healthy, I think it's fine to look like a hippo mama once in the life time (I hope so!)

Pregnancy makes me feel so hot (not looking hot of course!) but physically so hot & sweaty. I need to take cold shower more than twice a day! Even after a cold shower, I will sweat like mad again!

I also think it's really weird that baby Cal always do her kung-fu kicks & movements on my right tummy ~ literally my right waist. Yes only my right side & waist! I never felt her on my left tummy or anything on the left side. But funnily, I can feel her hiccups on my lower left tummy, totally the opposite! Unlike my first born, I felt him all over me!

And finally, her little nursery is set, organized and done! I have washed all her clothes as well.

Well, her nursery is nothing fancy since she will be sharing a room with us. Her baby cot is just a meter away from the king sized bed I share with my husband. We live in a 3 bedroom apartment. One room for me & husband, one room for my son & helper and another room for my mum in law who is staying together with us. So it's not possible for the little princess to have her own luxury nursery room. And also I will get worried if she sleeps by herself. So although she will be sharing with us, I will try to make her little nest as cozy as possible. And of course, I can't paint everything in pink or decorate every corner so girly since my husband is sleeping with us too. So I decorated a little for her in her own corner. The decorations I did (pom pom & butterflies) were all DIY from papers. And so her floral baby cot bumper, all DIY from mommy's proud hand works!

Showing you her little nest! Nothing fancy here of course!

DIY Pom Pom from tissue papers. I got these tissue papers at (I think) $0.90 cents each. Super cheap! Pom Pom is generally easy to make too.. Just cut into many square pieces equally (the more pieces, the fluffier), fold like you are folding origami hand fan, tie it with a string or ribbon in the middle & open up folded tissue papers piece by piece. Trim a bit, that's it! I think it took me 10 minutes to make 1 pom pom.. Cutting the super big tissue paper into many smaller pieces is taking so much time! Other than that, pom pom is super easy to make if you wanna try DIY! You can learn from YouTube videos too on how to make pom pom. Watching video will give you a better illustration than a picture here :)

Paper butterflies.. This is seriously super super easy to make. I think it took me only 2 minutes to make 1 butterfly. It's pretty much like folding colorful origami paper. You can learn that from YouTube too :) but of course, if you really want to know how I folded this, you can write me and I will do a blog post on how to make DIY paper butterfly next time! :)

I made pom pom from 3 colors, baby pink, hot pink and light purple :)

Here it is :)

 

Final touch with the musical mobile

This is how I made my floral DIY baby cot bumper Actually her baby cot/playpen is left over from my son, since he's now sleeping in a big mattress, so I'm passing this special cot to my baby girl :) This baby bed was once a cozy nest for my son and I hope it's a cozy corner for my little princess too :)

 

Nursery organizing is done! I have my baby bottles & a small can of formula ready (I hope I won't need it but who knows?) and an UV baby bottle sterilizer too. Never used UV sterilizer before. I hope it's good! I normally use steam sterilizer! I have my breast pump & accessories ready in a container. This $2 container from Daiso is really good, not only it comes with a secure cover but I can use hot water to soak my breast pump parts in this container too.

I love those $2 each floral cloth/plastic boxes from Daiso.. I can keep all baby care essentials I need to use daily like lotion, diaper cream, baby wipes, etc into one pretty box. I have 1 pretty big drawer to put all newborn stuff too

On top of my baby drawer, I have night light that came along with some soothing music. This night light is a projector kind of light.. It makes my ceiling looks prettier like little stars. I hope baby Cal will be entertained by this :)

Inside my baby drawer: 1st drawer: is my baby essentials (breast pads, diaper creams I bought a lot for both EJ & baby Cal, some sample stuff, baby wipes, disposable bibs, nose aspirator, fever patch, baby comb & brush, nail cutter, cotton bud, baby oil, anti bacterial wipes, etc)

2nd drawer: newborn clothing ~ mostly for home wear : swaddle (both instant swaddle and traditional cloth swaddle). I have many of Aden & Anais muslin swaddles, newborn shirts (button down type, both short & long sleeves), rompers, both long & short pants, small wash cloths (a lot), bibs, hats, mittens, socks & booties and pajamas rompers

3rd drawer: towels, cloth diapers & inserts, blankets, bed sheets, mattress protector, changing mat, receiving blankets and a lot of white cloths my mum bought me when I had EJ ~ turned out to be very useful ~ can be used as blanket, swaddle, bed sheet, changing cloth, etc..

4th drawer: random stuff I want to dump inside. Normally the last drawer is a little messy hahahaa...

And here are her dresses. The bottom part of her closet ~ I use $2 cloth boxes from Daiso to store her other clothes for future use :) Btw, check out her dresses collection here

 

 Baby bump at 34 weeks ~ swollen everywhere! ha..

Hospital bag packed at 34 weeks but I'm not sure if I packed everything completely ~ will double check & write again what I have packed when I'm really sure everything is inside ~ nothing missing!

Finally ~ my pregnant face and my 18 month old boy!

 

 

Until next post ~ Week 35 + Hospital Bag!

~Netty~