14 mths - didi walks! 40 mths - count from 100 to 1

A great milestone - didi can walk already! He's actually very steady when he walks. He has been walking while we hold his hand for the past 1-2 months but hasnt gained enough confidence to let go of our hands. Now, he can do it already sob sob. He's growing up so quickly! Another milestone is also that he has transited to 1 nap already. He already started sleeping 1 nap at 13 months, but it is sometimes not good naps. It has become stable at 14 months where he now can sleep more than 1 hour. Waa, naps were previously a struggle for Zeth as he always sleeps 30min. Those days were gone and i can do some work when he naps now. Didi loves his milk and can be left alone in his cot to drink his milk. If he has it outside, chances are he will be distracted and not want to drink it. So mil could also have some time to do her things when she puts him alone to drink his milk in the cot.

He also likes to knock on korkor's door when he wakes up. Then korkor will be disturbed and cry waking up cos he hasnt had enough sleep >_< Zeth knows how to imitate us combing our hair (even though he has no hair XD), keep his toys when we ask him to and open his own water bottle cap to drink his water. He can understand many things already - routine things like wearing his shoes, going out/ home, sleeping time, eating time, playground, giving things, throwing away rubbish (he's at the phase where he loves doing this now, so you can ask him to throw rubbish if you are lazy too hahaha). Zeth also likes watching cartoon when Keath watches it. But can tell that zeth has a longer attention span as compared to Keath at this age. He's also more independent, where he can sit and play by himself for a period of time and more sociable where he can play with other babies. He can communicate with you when he poops by patting his diaper and making the uhmm sound.

Keath likes to randomly say i like mummy, and randomly wants a hug and kiss from me. Zeth also likes to kiss me, he will open his mouth and force his mouth on my face hahaha. So afraid that he will bite. An achievement by Keath this month is that he has mastered the skill of counting from 100 to 1! He was a really fast learner. One day he just randomly wanted to count backwards from 100 and i taught him how to. I didnt realise that it would be a challenge to count at transitional points like 90 to 89, 81 to 80 etc at my age. But yea, seeing how Keath learnt, these are not straightforward. But Keath is smart, i just taught him once and counted 100 to 1 with him once and he knew how to do it the next time by himself already! Sooo proud of you Keath :)

39 mth - Focused 13 mth - Loves walking while we hold his hand, press button, give, imitate

Kor kor has a performance for deepavali in school this month. The teacher taught them the dance steps and Keath was so attentive throughout! He was the only one who followed the teacher's dance steps from start to the end. The rest of his friends were either overdoing things or just standing around looking restless. That's why his teacher put him in the first row in the middle. Good job Keath!

Didi is getting more playful and cheeky now that he has past 1 year old. He loves bullying korkor and doing things that are wrong and then specially look to see what our reactions are. The more korkor complain, the more he will do. Jialat. He is also getting more active. Zeth likes us to hold his hand and walk about. Can see that he likes walking now. Instead of crawling, he will tend to cruise along furniture or wall to walk about. When we hold his hand, his weight is not on our hand anymore. He is obviously able to balance but just lacks the confidence to do so. When we let go of our hand, he will sit down. But I think by next month, he should be able to walk already :) One thing about him is that he loves his shoes, didnt try to remove them even from the first time we put it on for him.

Zeth is also more playful now. He is able to properly play with a toy car now. Instead of just throwing the toys or putting it inside his mouth, he will push and crawl alongside the toy car now. WHen he sees an obstacle on the floor which impede movement of the car, e.g. carpet, he will lift up the car and move elsewhere instead of trying hard to move the car on the carpet. Seems flexible and street smart. Zeth also knows how to press lift buttons and switches now. Luckily we still do not have to mediate between who should press the lift buttons now.

Zeth understands many things already. He knows when we say give, take, go out, leave and simple instructions like drink water, throw ball, no more food etc. He can say a few words now - mama, mum mum, gai gai, bao, and makes the sound effect uhm whenever he put food into this mouth. He is a snacker, really loves the snacks, who doesnt =p He shares though, will put food into my mouth. Didi loves water, he drinks a lot of water everyday and we are constantly changing diapers for him. Approximately once every 3 hours! Didi is also into imitation nowadays. He loves to imitate people coughing, effect from korkor saying woahhh, our actions etc.

Didi is a brave boy! We brought him to the hairdresser 12 months from his first month shave. Haha, you must be thinking what is there to cut when he has no hair. Well, since his hair grew at an uneven speed, we decided to cut away the longer strands of hair to make it look more even. Zeth was amazing, he was ok sitting on the seat himself, did not fuss when they put on the hairdressing cloth on him, when they cut his hair with the scissors or the shaver. He basically just sat independently throughout the session without crying. Granted that he was moving here and there, turning his head here and there, it was a totally different experience from korkor cutting his hair when he was younger! Could still remb myself to be filled with hair last time cos i would be carrying Keath standing up while the hairdresser cuts Keath's hair while he is crying from start to end. Didnt help that Keath has lots of hair and we had to go once every 3 months. Thanks didi for helping us save money on hairdressing hahaha.

38 mth - Build lego 12 mth - Happy Birthday Didi!

Happy birthday Didi!! Just like that, one year has past. The baby is growing up day by day to a bigger baby who I hope will always remain a baby. It has always been a joy to have Zeth around us. He is a happy baby and he makes everyone around him happy. And whenever you carry him, you would want to kiss him, you want to smell him, hug him close to you. He is also getting very sticky to me now, which I am enjoying (minus the times when Keath wants to stick to me at the same time). And then you watch the 2 brothers play and interact together. You feel blessed that they enjoy each other's presence and that you are really blessed to have 2 kids. At 1 year old, Zeth can do many things already:
- Purposely pulls tissue from the tissue box and then smile at you
- Will shake his head when he is about to do smth wrong, but still look at you to see your reaction
- Independently go up and down the sofa himself! Must watch. Last time didn't have this issue with Keath.
- Call mama whenever he cries haha
- Leopard crawl! He leopard crawls under the bed, coffee table, anywhere. Will be good for the army next time.
- Holds a colour pencil and colour when he sees his brother doing it!
- Clap, finally. We realise that actually all along he might have known how to clap, just that he responds to clapping with a different command! Instead of pai pai shou, he claps when he hears tata.
- He is really attached to tag of his beansprout pillow when he needs to sleep. He will touch the tag and slowly fall asleep. So cute!
- Can understand when you ask him to give you things. He will pass it to you.
- Can say mum mum in addition to mama
- Will stretch his arms when you are putting on the shirt for him
- Can flip pages of the storybook
- Can roar when you say lion. ROAR!

37mth - Count to 100 11mth - Shakes head, points, waves

Keath can count to 100! He recognizes 1000 and also know that 1 million has 6 zeros. Because of this, he also knows how to read digital clock. But of cos, he still doesn't know the meaning and implications behind the time he is reading yet. This month, he is able to read a storybook to me after having heard me read it many times. Of cos, the story wouldn't be coherent yet, but he does very well if it is a repetitive one, with the same format and all. Keath has also learnt how to put on his own socks.

Keath is generally a good brother to Zeth. He talks to him gently as if Zeth is a precious delicate toy. But he is also a possessive brother! Haha, like when he sees other kids talking to or touching Zeth, Keath will go forward and hug his brother, like telling others that Zeth is his. Sweet when you see it, but oh my, would this be how Keath would behave with his future girlfriend? XD The scary possessive boyfriend.

Zeth suddenly knows how to do many things this month! He can shake his head, point to the direction where he wants to go and wave goodbye! Cant clap yet. So now, whatever you ask him, he will shake his head. It's such an adorable phase. He also start to recognize many things. He could have known a long time ago, but because he only learnt how to point now, we then realise that he knows his things. For eg, he knows what is a ball, who we are from his pointing.

With knowledge comes the protest. He will now start to protest and whine when we take away his things or things that he wants. But of cos at this age, it is still easy to distract him with other things. Zeth has also learnt how to blow a recorder! Yea, so he knows the act of blowing out air.

The 2 brothers are close. One will always want another the things that the other one is playing. Or be involved in what the other one is busy with. Even when there is the same set of something, they will still only want the same thing. Right now, Keath still has the upperhand. Zeth isn't too fussy when his brother doesn't give in to him. I think he generally has a big hearted personality. They also influence each other, will imitate one another. Like you can see Keath crawling on the floor, putting his fingers or toys into his mouth (he doesn't do that when he was a baby) with his brother. And when Zeth sees Keath climbing up to me, he would also want a pie of me. So young and they already know jealousy :) I'm glad they have each other in their lives.

Genting Dreams second time round

We went onboard Genting Dreams again 4 months later! Haha, yea cos of the ship delay the last time, we were each given a $200 voucher for use the next time, valid until end Nov. After checking the price, it is only about $1,200 for 2 rooms for the 6 of us after the discount for a 3D2N cruise to Bintan. Since they have also not been to Bintan and that it is affordable, we decided to go to Dreams again.

This time round, we didn't have to explore the ship cos we still know where is everything located. I also didn't have to spend that much time in the cabin cos Zeth naps only twice now as compared to three times 4 months back. But still, with the naps and with kids, the things you can do are limited. Eg, we still have not managed to watch a single show onboard (but they are fully booked really early). Meals are still a rush because they cannot sit still for a long time. Keath still didn't manage to sign up for most of the activities meant for the kids.

What was different this time round was that we bought the premium wifi cos the normal one was too slow the last round. Though premium isn't as fast as your regular wifi on land, it is still considered acceptable. I also went to the pool with the 2 kids alone! Though Zeth loves to play with the water when he is in the bath tub, it isn't the same when he is in the pool. He's pretty much clinged onto me in the water. I could also spend more time outside walking at night after Zeth sleeps cos he no longer wakes up that frequently at night. But I didn't go to the casino cos it was too crowded and smoky. Had no feel to play at all, only ended up shopping around and buying supper back (yea man, why don't they serve supper, so lousy).

A super fuss free vacation onboard again. Give us a one year break, don't think we will go for another cruise within this year. So perhaps I can start thinking of where we can go with the 2 kids on the plane next!

3 years old - diaperless in the day 10 mths - stop bf, sttn, becoming jealous

Happy birthday Keath! My elder son has turned 3! He has really grown up - as compared to one year ago, you are constantly amazed by the way he expresses himself, the way he tries to push boundaries, the way he loves his brother, the way he is without diapers in the day! For a month before his birthday, i kept telling him that once he turns 3, he shouldnt wear diapers anymore and have to tell us when he wants to poo or pee. So after his birthday, i took him off diapers when he was at home and surprisingly, there were no accidents on the first day. On the second day, he forgot once and basically, that sort of taught him to be conscious of being diaperless! When he is in school, he doesnt voice out when he wants to go to the toilet. The teachers have to ask him to go or when his friends go, he go too. But yup there are no accidents in school. It was pretty easy. Looks like it was us who were too afraid that he wouldnt be able to adapt. But once we took the first step, things just proceeded naturally! Night time would be a challenge i suppose. We tried once being diaperless during a nap and oops! Will try diaperless for nap and bedtime at a later time.

We celebrated his birthday in school with a beautiful 2kg cake. But would say that he was happy and awkward at the same time. Keath is someone who doesnt like to be in the center of attention ever since he was born. Whenever he was, he would start to cry and turn away from the source of attention. So yea, we didnt celebrate his 1yo birthday with a party. But now, you cant really not celebrate his birthday in school because everyone does that! There is peer pressure and some sort of an expectation that you need to fulfil silently. So yes, during the celebration, he looked really awkward when his friends say the birthday song for him, when he dished out the cake and goodie bag and generally when he was in the centre of attention. He also stuck to us all the time. Hahah  but yet when you ask him whether he enjoyed himself and like all the things prepared, he said yes. We know we definitely cannot not celebrate for him cos he will definitely feel disappointed. It's the dont want but want thing. Hahah so young and the feelings are already so complex.

Terrible 2 - ok the tantrums at 2 yo were bad. Any signs of becoming better? Hahah, welcome to terrible 3. He still throws tantrums on and off, especially when he is tired. There is no way you can predict when he will explode. He's a really whiny and insistent kid. But the difference in being 3 yo is that he can stop crying more quickly now. He also knows it when we give him the black face. Hopefully this is a sign that will regularise his temperaments more, and we also have to stand more firm in our grounds. Oh ya, and pick the battles we want to fight, we do give in to him also, it's too tiring to be fighting all the time, giving in is our quick fix and to regain some form of sanity because everyday, there are battles to fight. Dealing with him is like dealing with politics at work.

Zeth has turned 10 mo, double digits now our happy pill. So i was talking about the failed sleep training last month right. Ok so that went on for one month until i fell sick one day - fever and just couldnt deal with his waking up of 8 times at night anymore. So i decided to re-sleep train him and just let him cry it out. And again i would say that sometimes we think too much and belittle them. I thought that he would cry for a long time cos he did when i first sleep trained him. But to my surprise, Zeth fell asleep by himself after 10 min of crying only! At that point in time, i felt a little cheated. Hahaha, meaning that he actually can fall asleep by himself and has not forgotten how to, but as parents, we were too overprotective. So the first night i did this, he woke up 5 times instead of 8. Second night, decreased to 3 times. Third night, once. All these time when he woke, he slept back himself with decreased duration of crying, like less than a min. Fourth night onwards, he actually slept through the night! Omg, i should have done this earlier. I have belittled him and loved him the wrong way. Now, he is able to get more restful sleep and doesnt have to rely on me to connect sleep cycles anymore. (day time nap remains short, still cant find a good pattern to fix, but nvm) And i really appreciate the continuous sleep i get at night now. A new found level of sanity after 10 months. It is simply no easy feat.

This month, suddenly Zeth is becoming more wary of strangers. Yes while he loves interacting with strangers and all, sometimes he does not want to be carried by them anymore. But still a lot better than Keath. They are poles apart. A good analogy is that when we enter a lift together with a stranger the other day. The uncle looked at Keath and smiled - Keath immediately turned away and avoided eye contact. On the other hand, all these while, Zeth was looking intensely at the uncle and smiling. Hahaha, yea these are my kids. He is at the point where he will start to feel jealous already! When Keath comes over to hug me, Zeth will also crawl over and climb all over me. I do enjoy these panda moments with the kids, being their bamboo. Zeth is also becoming stickier already. When we are out, he only wants me to carry him. When i go out without him (eg in the morning to office), i have to do it secretly cos he will cry when he sees me out. Oh ya, same thing for Keath. He is generally naughtier when i am around. They all say that whenever i am not around, the house is quite peaceful. Mil can take care of 2 kids at once with no problems and Keath doesnt throw tantrums. So yea, sometimes Keath hasnt woke up at the time i go to office and i could easily leave the house secretly. If he wakes, you need to deal with the mummy dont go to work cries, from BOTH kids. >_> This month, Zeth has also learnt how to give high fives and wave byebye - his version is not waving, but opening and closing his fingers =D

And i also have to mention, i have stopped breastfeeding already. Thinking back, i was quite sad the last time i stopped feeding Keath at 13+ month. I did it only for 9+ months for Zeth this time round but it was actually more difficult! I had an episode of mastitis, like 5 times of blister that kept resurfacing which led to blocked ducts. Then there was a lot of managing Keath who was jealous with the time i spent alone with Zeth when feeding. And there was the lack of sleep i had every night which led to me falling sick (with fever) every month. Breastfeeding was just soooo tiring this time round. So when menses came at the 9th month, supply dropped drastically, i also stopped pumping at work and naturally, i just stopped bf. Ok la, not feeling that emo this time round because with 2 kids, there are more things to worry about and measure your duty as a mum. Breastfeeding is definitely not one. Glad that i can go back to wearing pretty clothes and bra. Nursing clothes and bra are bad.

35 mth - moody boy 9 mth - walk in cot and sleep training failed

I have returned to work already. Having to juggle both work and kids is really a struggle! From my 4th day of work, i need to bring my laptop home already. And then just when i thought Zeth was sleep trained, he decided to undo all those efforts. When i come home from a long day, tired from the lack of sleep everyday and then see Keath's tantrums, i am so exhausted.

Keath is a very moody, emotional and needy boy. He has a lot of emotions in him and he doesnt know and want to express himself, thereby causing all those built up of emotions and ta-dah, tantrums come. Everyday at mil house, we will see this. We used to pacify him to stop him from exploding, but now, we think that the only cure is to let him explode. If he doesnt explode, he will still find some other ways or things to cry, eventually. So might as well get the tantrums over and done with quickly first. Plus, we are too tired to pacify anyway. When will this end, he is turning three soon, i am actually quite sure terrible three will continue. Zeth used to cry when he sees his brother crying, but now, Zeth dont care about the crybaby big brother anymore. He will just continue playing his own things, sometimes even laughing at the brother oops!

We ask him to say thank you, please, sorry, he doesnt say sigh. Then teacher is also saying that he has been quite rough in school. There were incidents where he bullied his friends in school. Why Keath, what happened? You dont bully your brother, why do it in school? It's also an irony that such a timid boy would do such thing in school. This month, the school wants to cut off milk from school. Somehow after this, he also drinks less milk at home already. Seems like he is becoming less interested in milk gradually already.

Then Zeth - why did the sleep training fail? He has learnt how to pull himself to stand up in the cot already. So when he does that, he doesnt know how to sit down on the bed himself. Turns out that when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will stand up and cry for us to come in. We come in, put him down on the bed to sleep and this becomes a habit. He will just keep standing until we go in. So after a while, he forgot how to sleep by himself already. Now, we will have to keep carrying him until he falls asleep before putting down. And then at night, cos he doesnt know how to connect sleep cycles and fall asleep by himself, he wakes up very often again! It's back to the 7-8 times night wakings. Can you imagine how panda i am..... They also say that night wakings is due to poor day naps. Yes it's true. It's so hard to get him to sleep in the day and instead of 3 naps, mil only manages to let him sleep 2 times of 20-30min nap. So he is severely overtired in the day and this led to poor night sleep. It's a vicious cycle, poor night sleep gives poor day sleep and it goes on and on. I dont know how i am going to survive man. Not like i have the weekends to sleep in or something. Everyday to them, it's the same thing. They wake up early every single day. I dont remb this during Keath's time leh, Zeth whyyyy.

This month, Zeth has learnt how to drink from his straw cup! He can crawl proficiently and can walk in his cot while holding on to the rails. He loves driving the car like his brother and we have to buy 2 cars already. Zeth is starting to snatch Keath's things, esp the car! Can see him grinning widely when we put him on the car. Both of them love the steering wheel so much, like the father. Zeth has 6 teeth now and loves brushing his teeth, good!