Dearest Sophie,

Here’s you in Christchurch, NZ enjoying a fluffy (babycino - a cup of hot milk that is fluffed up and looks all grown up n fancy) at Robert Harris, living the life!

We really enjoy travelling and exploring with you little one. During this trip, we’ve really stretched your ability to just go with the flow - breakfast at 10, lunch at 3, nap at 6pm, dinner at 9pm…….. and to top it, bedtime at 12midnite after a movie in bed. Arghs!

Thank you for entertaining us with all your funny ideas and being the life of the family. We love you so much and we pray that joy will always bubble in you.

Love
Mummy

P/s: Sophie’s dropped her day nap a few weeks ago and is now sleeping 7.30pm - 7.30am. Instead of a nap, she has some quiet time on the bed. She finds that super exciting coz it’s something different. I take that opportunity to take a nap and she’s not allowed to disturb me! Ha! She tries lah, maybe for like 30 mins. However, we find that once a week or so, she still needs a day nap to get thru the day.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on Sophie’s schedule. It has changed a little since we got back frm HK.

I got used to waking up late when we were in HK. Sophie would sleep at the same time as us e.g. 10, 11pm or 12am and wake up at the same time as us, at 10am, 11am or 12pm. Yes, she still mastered the 12 hrs even when travelling! Super! Anyways, I got so used to it, I couldn’t go back to waking up at 7am so we shifted her bedtime to 7.30/8pm. Now she wakes up at about 8am or later everyday. NICE!

Her schedule goes like this:

8am Wakey Wakey, drink 180ml of milk frm a cup, eat breakfast with Mummy, brush teeth

9am Park

10am Play

11am Watch TV

1130/12pm Lunch with Mummy & Daddy

12.30pm Bathe

1pm Nap

2.30pm Play/Meet Friends/Run Errands

5.30pm Watch TV

6pm Dinner

6.30pm Bathe, turn down lights, prepare for bed

7.30pm Sleep

Since coming back frm HK, she’s more accustomed to sleeping late so if we have functions e.g she’ll pretty much party with us till late esp if there are other kids around without much fuss. She only starts fussing once we get into the car /cab and if we do not have the pacifier with us, that’s it! She’ll be wailing on and off and I’ll have to count her to sleep OR sing the entire journey.

For her meals, Sophie’s eating adult food at least once, if not twice a day. I’ve stopped cooking separately for her as much as I can. She eats what we eat and all the more if we are out. Although I do keep up the fruits and vegs and minimise the salt and sugar intake for all of us at home, I’m not so uptight about it when we’re out. It really makes things a lot easier since we are out and travel so much. Sophie’s pretty open to eating anything, although not a lot and she has her moods. Her fav sure win meal anytime is MAC & CHEESE. No brainer. She can be sick and still eat a whole meal of it.

Sophie’s pretty much off diapers at home now (SAVING ME LOTS OF $$!!!). She hardly tells me if she needs to go so we just go every hour or so and it works. I haven’t got the guts to try doing it outside yet. Only once so far.

My little one is growing up so fast!!!

I have finally tweaked Sophie’s schedule into something comfy for the both of us. Plus i’ve incorporated some toddler "homeschooling" schedule too. Here’s how it goes:

7.30am

Rise & Shine, Breakfast together

8am

Brush Teeth

This is something that I started recently with her. We brush our teeth together to get Sophie used to the idea of brushing her teeth. She’s so familiar with this routine that she’ll say brush teeth once she’s done with her breakfast. She doesn’t really brush her teeth. She just gets a kick out of standing on a stool and playing with her tooth brush. She’ll ask for tooth paste but she doesn’t like it. Strange. Once I’m done, I’ll take a towel glove and give her teeth a swipe and rub. She hates that btw. But I still do it anyway.

After that she’ll just go around doing her own stuff while I wait for her to poo. She always poos after breakfast. At some point when I’m brave enough, i’m going to toilet train her. Lazy me. Now once she poos, I’ll change her diaper and her pjs.

8.30am

Chinese and English Reading

I’m trying to incorporate this into her schedule for 10-15mins a day. So far we’ve been doing her Chinese Flash Cards. Knowing me, if I don’t schedule it in, we’ll just not do it and more and more I feel that giving her that 5-10 mins of Chinese will help. But she’s not always cooperative so if she’s not up to it, we’ll just read other books.

9am

Playground/Outing/Marketing

This varies from day to day.

10.30/11am

Snack + 120ml Milk

Instead of giving her lunch before her nap, I now give her lunch after her nap. Works out much better for us because she used to get cranky by lunch and ate very little.

11.30/12pm

Nap

She now naps for 1 - 2hrs. This gives me time to have a shower/meetings/do some work/cook etc.

1.30pm

Lunch

This way, we can all have lunch together and she’s more awake to eat properly.

2pm

Bathe

I use the shower to bath her now coz she doesn’t want to even sit in the tub to play with water anymore. But she’ll cling onto my legs like a little koala bear coz she hates shampooing and washing hair.

2.30pm

Play/Outing

3 hrs is a long long time to be with a toddler. For a period of time, she just wants to hang out with me but nowadays she’ll play on her own and even pretend to read. Very cute. Time seem to past quite fast. Sometimes we have visitors so that keeps her occupied and she loves visitors.

5.30pm

Dinner and Bathe

Before dinner, she gets about 10-15 mins of TV time while I get dinner ready. After dinner and a quick bathe, we norm turn down the lights and start to get her ready for bed. Daddy normally comes home at about 6 and he’ll play and read to her. It’s their special time together while I wash the dishes, get our dinner ready and tidy up the house.

7pm

Milk, Clean Teeth, Reading, Prayer and Off to Bed

Now with only 1 nap, she’s always very ready to sleep by 7ish. She’s been really good at bedtime. We do a lot of reading at bedtime, going through a few books at a time on her request. She knows most of her books by name so if she’s trying to delay bedtime, she’ll just keep calling out the book names. Super funny. We always end with reading the bible and then prayer. If she’s in a hurry to sleep, she’ll quickly say Amen before we finish praying. She’s funny like that.

Schedules are extremely important to a choleric pretending to be a sanguine person like me. Even more so now that I am a stayhome mum. Schedules keep me sane and things predictable.

Since coming back from Shanghai, I tried to change Sophie’s schedule to this

8am Wake up and Breakfast

9am Play

11am Lunch and Bath

12pm Nap

2pm Play

3pm Tea

530pm Dinner and Bath

7pm Sleep

because one day she slept for 2 hrs for her nap and the next day she slept for 1 1/2 hrs so I thought, wow!, maybe it’s time to change her nap schedules to allow for more time to go out in the morning and afternoon. It was great while it lasted coz one morning we went to Borders in the morning and had breakfast and all without any hurry to come home for her nap.

But duh, it didn’t occur to me she was just adjusting to being back home from all the travelling. The next day, she woke up after 1/2 hr. !?!?!

After that, she refused to sleep longer than 1 hour for her nap so we’re back to

7am Wake up and Breakfast

8am Play

11am Nap

12pm Lunch and Bath

1pm Play

2.30pm Tea

3pm Nap

4pm Play

530pm Dinner

7pm Sleep

She struggles more to sleep now coz she’s so ACTIVE! There’s just so much to see and do! But it’s just a season coz she’s back to sleeping comfortably at 7pm again. For a week or so since coming back, she has been crying to sleep, sometimes even up till an hour. Sigh… I thought we were done with sleep training but nay, apparently they’ll keep challenging it up till 21 years of age. HAHAH… beyond that, it’s not within my control anymore i’m afraid.

The thing about having kids is that they keep on changing. Esp babies. So the schedules keep changing. That drives highly choleric (schedule conscious) mums absolutely crazy. I think that’s why a lot of highly driven women i know go nuts when they have babies. Like we are in absolute control of our workplace and subordinates but have absolutely no control over our lil one. I mean they don’t really tell you when they wanna eat, pee or puke right?

But I thank God coz I’m learning to relinquish control. Hopefully and prayerfully.

Here’s our lives as of now….

730 Awake, milk, read and hang out in the bedroom

I love this morning time… She’s great! She’s been so good and waking up later. But I’m still struggling to wake up, even at 730, so those few minutes that she’s suckling gives me time to wake up. Once she’s done, we hang out a bit reading and sometimes i take this opportunity to cut her nails since she’s still quite blur. Hiak hiak!

8 Breakfast

Normally she has cereal (either oats or multigrain) with milk and fruit. I will grate apples/pears or mash papaya/bananas and add it into the cereal. Sometimes when I’m really lazy I’ll give her a piece of bread and a tub of yogurt.

830 Clean up (norm she’ll poo at this time) and change into day clothes.

9 Playtime

I’ve started going walking with a friend and her baby twice a week around Chip Bee gardens. If we’re not walking, this is normally the time that Sophie will play on her own on the floor while I run around the house washing dishes, clothes etc…

10 Watch Your Baby Can Read

She’s onto CD 3 already. She loves this one coz it has Old Macdonald and Insy Weensy Spider. She’ll look at me and smile with her mouth wide open when the songs come on.

1030 Morning Nap

She’ll go down for an hour to two depending. It’s getting longer these days, not sure if it’s coz she’s sick.

1130 Lunch

Norm I serve porridge and 2 veggies and 1 meat at lunch time.

12 Bathtime

I used to bath her in the morning BUT ever since she’s self feeding, lunch time is more messy than breakfast so I’ve changed her bathe time to after lunch. I norm wait for her to poo first. Hee… saves me 1 diaper. She’s quite standard, poos after every meal.

1230 Playtime

Normally we play together or go out during this playtime. We’ll read, dance, play instruments. Sometimes i set up stations around the house for her to crawl to and fro.  On Mondays we go for mothers group, tues/wednesdays we go out with friends and on thurdays we go to the library.

230 Afternoon Nap

Another 1 hr nap here.

330 Tea Time

Sophie gets her regular tub of yogurt after her milk feed. Sometimes if she wakes up too late, I’ll skip the yogurt and serve dinner slightly earlier.

4 Playtime

More playtime! Hee… the life of a little one… sometimes we go out for a walk or run errands.

445 Watch Your Baby Can Read

I norm let her watch it twice a day esp at this time because I’ll get down to cooking her dinner and preparing ours.

530 Dinner Time

It’s pasta/potato plus veggies. Norm I try to vary this meal, most of the time western.

6 Bathtime

Once again it’s bathtime coz she would have dirtied herself from all the eating. Right after this, we begin Sophie’s bedtime ritual… start winding down in her room… we play, read…

7 Bedtime

Then it’s milk time and then off to sleep…. till the next morning…

Maybe this is why I’m so tired!!!!

5:30am - 7:30am - Sophie can get up anytime. If she gets up earlier than 7, I normally feed her and put her back to sleep.

7:30am - I feed Sophie milk. We cuddle a bit and then I put her down to play on her own while I wash up and prepare her breakfast (Rice/Wheat Cereal + Apple/Pear/Papaya).

8:00am - I feed Sophie breakfast and wash up the dishes.

8:30am - We sing songs and play together for a bit and then I bathe Sophie.

9:00am - Sophie watches Your Baby Can Read while I eat my breakfast and read.

9.30am - I put Sophie down for a nap while i surf the net and read. After that I put the clothes to wash and I prepare her lunch and our lunch.

10.30am - Sophie wakes up (sometimes she wakes up earlier). She plays on her own for a bit.

11:00am - I prepare Sophie’s lunch while she watches me in the kitchen. James gets up.

11:30am - I feed Sophie and wash her up. Then I put her down to play on her own while I wash the dishes and prepare our lunch.

12:00pm - I play with Sophie if she’s tired of playing on her own.

12:30pm - Sophie goes down for another nap while James and I have our lunch. I wash up the dishes. Hang out the clothes. Or whatever I can before she wakes up. James goes to work.

1:30pm - Sophie wakes up (yep she only sleeps abt an hr each nap these days). Sometimes we go out for Mothers grp or meet up with friends.

2:30pm - I feed Sophie tea, most of the time still milk.

3:00pm - By about this time, I run out of things to do with her. Normally we play on the sofa/tatami mat/on our bed coz I’m sleepy. I’ll lie there and let her play. Hee…

3:30pm - Naptime again! Sometimes I take a nap, sometimes I catch up with people online. Most times I prepare her dinner and our dinner.

4:30pm - Sophie wakes up. We play together.

5:00pm - I let Sophie watch Your Baby Can Read again. She watches it twice a day. She loves it. While I get her dinner ready.

5:30pm - Sophie eats dinner. I wash up the dishes. She plays on her own.

6:00pm - James comes home and plays with Sophie.

7:00pm - We clean Sophie up, feed her and put her to bed. She sleeps! I cook dinner.

8:00pm - We have dinner. I wash the dishes. Take in the clothes, fold the clothes. Tidy the house. Etc etc…. sometimes I prepare Sophie’s food to freeze.

11:00pm - James n I hang out.

12am - We sleep….

This is Sophie’s regular schedule at this 7mth point.

AM
6/7 - 8 Arise & Shine, Change & Breakfast
Milk Feed + 4tsp cereal + 2tbs apple/pear puree
Songs&Devotion w Little Visits 1-2-3 book
8 - 10 Morning Nap
10 - 11 Play/Watch Baby Einstein
11 - 1130 Lunch
Milk Feed + 4-5tbs of veggie puree
1130 - 12 Bathe

PM
12 - 130 Afternoon Nap
130 - 230 Play/Watch Baby Einstein
230 - 3 Tea
Milk Feed + occasional treat (Baby Bites)
3 - 330 Play w Mummy
330 - 430 Evening Nap
430 - 530 Play
530 - 6 Dinner
Milk Feed + 6tsp cereal + 2tbs apple/pear puree
6 - 7 Play w Daddy, Wash Up, Song
7 - 7 - Milk Feed and Sleep

We’ve stopped catering dinner 3x a week and I’ve been cooking almost Mon - Fri except those times when my PILs take us out for dinner. But on Sophie cranky days, we ta bao. Heh. Or Ailing cranky days, we also ta bao.

I’m really enjoying staying home coz I get a lot more freedom to commit or not commit to things. So far helping out w Seasons of Life mag, preaching at youth service, helping out w Daytime (our company) plus hanging out w the youths/mummy friends here and there have really kept me busy. Oh…….. and did i forget about all the housework??? Wah…. washing clothes, packing the hse, cooking and feeding sophie REALLY takes up the whole day.

I’m really keen to start doing sth for myself once a week e.g go for a bible/singing/pilates class, exercise, roam the streets, SUPPER (hee BM/B, yep yep), etc BUT i just haven’t been able to do this…. I hope to get down to this when we return from Aus.

Btw…….. we’re leaving in a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m seriously excited until i can’t sleep. I’ve been hanging out w James till late talking rubbish past few nites coz i’ve been so hyper! Wah hahah….