Birthday Celebration for Grandma

The kids celebrated grandma's birthday recently. They enjoyed the dinner, and blowing the candles out.

Thaddeus Baptism

Found a few pictures of Thaddeus's baptism in Xmas 2008.

What happens when you feed grapes to a baby?

Grape juice. Freshly squeezed, straight from the mouth, onto my shirt (and his) !!!


Don't blame me for it, he says......

Thaddeus 1st Birthday Party

Celebrated on 15 Aug 2009 with family and some colleagues.

Sophie and her 2 favourite men!

Daddy and Grandpa!

Lunching at Bollywood Veggies' Poison Ivy Bistro on 2 August 2009

Thad and his Favourite Gadget

Yup, Thaddeus has a favourite gadget and it is a TV remote control.

He finds it fascinating that by pointing the control at the TV, the screen can change. So, whenever he gets a hold of it, besides attempting to nimble it around to pacify his teething gums (which I react by freaking out everytime), he would point and aim it at the TV. Sometimes he succeeds in changing the channels. Sometimes, he just wants to hold it.

Thaddeus is Scribbling

A first attempt to hold a 'pen' and scribble with the Magna Doodle board.

Thaddeus can now walk around the house with hand support, and even managed to climb up our sofa and our bed all by himself! It's getting dangerous to leave him alone to wander.

He also learnt to shake his head (when we say 'No'), and nod his head (when we say 'Yes'), though it takes a lot of coaxing and the right mood for him to do these on your command!

Sophie's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Sophie's 3rd Birthday in school recently, and her cake was a Winx Club one, with fairies on it. She insisted on eating a cake that is with the 'fairy face', so we had to cut out many portions for other kids and teachers first, before we could get to hers.

Well, she gets the privilege since she is the birthday girl.

2 more cases of Chicken Pox

Ethan and Thaddeus got the chicken pox - exactly 2 weeks after Sophie got hers. The doc says it's about 2 weeks incubation and it was just about right.

Interesting thing is, Ethan actually had his vaccination, so we were surprised he got it. He has no fever, and has fewer spots (though not little, but fewer compared to Sophie). I was told that those who had the vac are not guaranteed 100% immunity, so if they did get it, it is not so bad.

Sigh.

Sophie has the Chicken Pox!

I can't bear to take a picture of Sophie. She went to school on Monday with a pimple just above her lips, and teacher Margaret saw it (in her routine check), and asked me about it. I told her it was a pimple and that it was healing, and nothing to it. There was only 1.

On Tuesday, I was about to send Sophie to school, and when I got out of the car outside her school and removed her seat-belt, I saw that she had a few more spots on her neck, and on a hunch, I checked her body and found out that she had more spots! It was chicken pox!

I brought her to the doctor, and by the time we saw the doctor (no. 16 on the queue), she had more spots popping out which I had not seen earlier the same morning. It was terrible. Today is day 5, and she seems to be at maximum 'pop'. It was only today that I realised that she didn't have any chickenpox vaccination taken (I thought all along that I had given her the vaccine!!!). Well, I checked her health booklet and she hadn't. I felt so bad for her. The doc said that if she had taken the vaccine, it wouldn't be that bad, and that she would only get some spots. She has it everywhere - literally.....even her tongue and lips! The anti-itch medicine doesn't seem to be working much......

My only consolation is that she is getting it now than later. I hear that kids have less chance of scaring if they get it very young...not sure how true that is......

Crossing my fingers now, and wondering if the boys will get the pox - doc says it takes 1 week to incubate. Infectious period is 5 days before pox appears and 5 days from onset (until pox dries up). Thaddeus is most susceptible since he has no vaccine...the big boys had theirs.

Zachary's 5th Birthday

I bought him a cake to celebrate Zack's birthday in his school. It was a 2kg "Lightning McQueen" vanilla sponge with fresh cream cake. Yummy!

Ethan is Assistant Monitor

It is Term 2 in ACS (P), and Ethan has been appointed to be the Asst Monitor in his Pri 1B class. Last term, he was Locker Monitor - so cute. He is the person that ensures that all the kids get help when they are at the lockers - either opening the lock, or putting things in or taking things out, etc etc.

His form teacher mentioned to the parents during our orientation, that all the children in class will have a turn to be a leader in some way.

So, it is a privilege to be an Asst Monitor, because only 4 students will get this chance (1 per term).

Thaddeus has Roseola

We had a scare recently when Thaddeus had 3 days of high fever, then followed by very big patches of red rashes. The doctor who saw him when he had the fever said that we should expect rashes to appear, and true enough, it did! It was Roseola, and the other siblings have had it before. But Thaddeus had the biggest patches of rashes, which kind-a scared me too.

The version of rashes you see here on his face is already in its 2nd day, so it was toned down already. You can imagine what it looked like when it first appeared on his face and body - really big ones!

Oh well, we were glad that the fever went away, and the rashes subsided after about 3 days. It was a relief!

More Studio Pics of the Family

It was a rare occasion that the 'Ho' family is in the same place at the same time. So, we went about to get professional pictures taken of the 'HO' family on 21 Feb, and it turned out really well.

The family and kids pictures are the mostly challenging, needless to say. How do you 'control' the movements of 6 children under the age of 7, plus 8 adults?

The pictures were taken in the span of 2 hours, and I must say the photographer did a good job capturing the moments too.

The Siblings (& Cousins) are in Town

When the siblings (and cousins) are in town at the same time in a year, and you have 6 kids below the age of 7, you do intensive and mind-boggling activities in short bursts of time. Here's a list (so far)......(not in order 'cos I'm still reeling from the effects)...

1) You eat in expensive restaurants and have peking duck 2 days in a row,

2) The kids are usually crying or screaming at the same time,

3) You try to take professional family photographs in a nice studio, and the children end up snacking a lot on each other's food, and/or running around in the studio chasing each other,

4) You learn that it is best to reserve your dinner (or lunch) reservation in a private room, equipped with a TV that must have the Okto channel,

5) You realise that kids enjoy jumping on the bed, no matter what the age and whose bed it is

6) You realise that kids like novelty - give them a new toy, someone else's food.....

7) You try to limit the number of prams and baby seats travelling in the cars 'cos you need room for adults

8) You want to keep your outings (and conversations) short and sharp 'cos you never know when you have to stop them

....and this is only the 1st week we were together.....and we are none the wiser...

Thaddeus Can Stand!

Pictures speak louder than words. He could lift himself up from sitting position to standing position in his baby crib, about 1.5 weeks before he reached 6 months. It is marvelous!

Studio Pics of the Family

We went to a professional photographer to have our family pics taken in Jan 2008 (last year).

Our photographer is the same photographer who took our wedding photos, and he is a really talented guy. We love the way the photos turned out!

Thaddeus Can Sit!

Some milestones for the record.

Today, SG and I witnessed Thaddeus pulling himself up from the lying face-down position, to a sitting up position. It was so wonderful to see it for ourselves.

Thaddeus has been able to lift his body up on all fours since a month ago, and move his body to and fro as if he is preparing to crawl. We believe he will crawl soon.

It is really difficult to catch him on camera smiling, so we are happy to have caught this shot. Such a joy to see him smile after a tired day at work.

Face/Hand Painting

We had a Xmas Party for my ex-colleagues and invited a magician and a face/handpainter over to keep the children busy. The kids enjoyed themselves very much, as they were treated to balloon scupltures and face/hand paintings.

The painter could paint pictures on demand - dragons, flowers, rainbows, etc etc! It was fantastic how quickly she could paint them with her fine brushes.

I would recommend this activity for children below the age of 10 if you are hosting a party.

Ethan is in Pri 1

Ethan doesn't seem to know it, but it is a big milestone to crossover from childcare to Primary One. Soon after we left him in his classroom, we went off.

Apparently, after he came back from his schoolbus, the first thing he told me was that he had lost some of his coins into the Eco-pond. He said he was trying to feed the fishes with Pocky, but dropped the coins instead while trying to handle too many things in his hands. Fifteen cents he said he had lost, to the fishes.

Well, well...wonder what other stories I will hear next time.