Bye Bye Astro

Finally, I have canceled the Astro subscription, after subscribing to it for more than 4 years. AXN and AEC used to be my favorite channel, before AFC was added to the Family package about 2 years ago (if I remember correctly is 2 years). But then, we started to watch TV less. We spend most of the time on the internet rather on TV. Internet become part of our live. :) Our children do not glued to the idiot box too. They watch only if we are watching with them together. Even if I put on their favorite Baby Einstein and then go to do cooking in the kitchen, it won't work. They will follow me to kitchen too. In the past, Lynn will ask us to turn
on the Disney Playhouse Channel. But nowadays most of the time she asks for the Baby Einstein DVD instead. I can calculate how many times in a month, we are watching the Astro program by using one hand. :) Since we are not watching, with the price of the subscription is increasing, we have decided to cancel the subscription to save the money for something else. :)

Will you hate your own children?

Sorry for my long absentees. I'm still around. Just that some things happened in real life and made me thinking a lot recently.

A friend of mine told me he is depressed. He lost count of how many times; his parents mentioned that they hate him. I'm shock to hear this from him. He's just 14 years old. An American. If not mistaken, his father works for the army. Not quite sure what his mom is doing. He has an elder brother, 1 year older than him. I'm not sure what made his parents say that to him. To me, he's a smart kid. I get to know him from online games. I know his elder brother too. Both are helpful, generous kind of people. I know another guy (from online game too), 27 years old, Australian, having depression too. Same reason - due to parents. He has depression since quite a number of years back, at early twenties. His parents did something that made him have to hide from the people around him. He moved to another town eventually. Due to depression, he can't work. He has no much friend in real life too. He wishes to have accompaniment. But he thinks girls won't want to go out with him. I'm not too sure how he can survive living without going to work. He's helpful. But he's moody and sensitive too.

Well, I really cannot imagine, what can the child have done to make the parents hate them? No matter how naughty are Lynn and Hao, the angry I am, but I'm just getting angry. I don't hate them. Alright, maybe sometimes I will feel like strangulate them to death. Lol. But it is relating to the actions that they have done, not the emotion side that I hate them. To me,
"Hate" is a very strong word. And we should not simply use it. I believe, if you don't want a child, then should not make them come to this world. Whether it is being intended or accident, once you have decided to bring them into this world, you have to responsible for their well being. We should raise them well, educate them, teach them, guide them, protect them, and not hurt them, hate them. That is not something a parent should do. Lots of time, because of them, I have to reconsider my decision and my actions.

Well, this is just my two cents. I'm not the parents of my two friends above. Obviously I don't know what has happened and why their parents are doing so, and I definitely not in the position to judge them. I just wish my two friends there, able to let go, move forward and be happy for the remaining of their life. They are stil very young, aren't they?

The soft side of him

Every night, I will wake up Lynn in the middle of the night to go toilet. If not, there is high chance that she will wet the bed. Last night, as usual, I woke up Lynn in the middle of the night. Lynn depends on her mood, sometimes she will make complain when I wake her up. And last night, I woke her up a bit later than usual. And she had wet the bed. So I get
her to go down to change the wet pain. We accidentally woke up Hao, who is a light sleeper. Hao was crying there, hoping me will go pick him up. But I was tired, and hoping that he will stop crying after a while and go back to sleep.

After 5-10 minutes, Hao was still crying there on his crib. Hubby got up, went to pick up the boy. He carried Hao to the window, explained to him that it was late at night and everyone was sleeping. After that, he took him for a tour of the house, telling him that everyone was sleeping. Since Hao had been crying for some time, Hubby thought Hao should be feeling thirsty. He gave him some water to drink, and pat him to sleep. I feel relief seeing Hao stopped crying after being picked up by hubby. I feel so warm seeing hubby went to attend the kids so that I can rest. Well, this is not the first time hubby has done so. But if I were the one pick up Hao, I would just bring him to our bed and nurse him to sleep, so that I can just lie down also. I don't think I will have such patient to take him tour around the house, some more thought of he maybe thirsty and get some water for him. :D

Normally when the kids make noise, if one of us getting out of patience, the other one will come "rescue", take over the role and be nice to the kids to stop them from making fuss. Doing so the kids won't feel being rejected by both of us. And the frustrated papa or mama get to breath some fresh air too. We never talk about this before nor have any discussion on this matter. But when things happen, we will automatic react in this way. Of course, there is occasion where both of us get annoyed and act strict to the kids too.

I feel gratitude that hubby did not leave the responsibilities of the kids solely to me. Without his help, I don't think I can handle between kids and housework during weekend. Not to mention I can have some personal time for myself.

My dear, thank you so much!

Extended breastfeeding

This is my first experience in extended breastfeeding. Lynn was breastfed till she was 10 months old. Though the weaning was initiated by me, I was regretted after that as I missed the bonding moments. Now with Hao, I'm aiming to breastfeed him until he self wean. But I'm not sure how long I can supply without introducing the formula into his meal. My next target is 18 months. Hope to delay formula until he's at older age.

If you ask me any different breastfeeding a toddler compared with breastfeeding a baby? I would say no much, except shorter duration and less frequent. And whether Hao bite me when I nurse him? He did. But not anymore. Just have to teach him not to bite.

What is other family reactions to me still breastfeeding Hao? Well, they are just asking am I still breastfeeding him and that's all. :) And really glad no problem with the people from child care too. The teacher even encourage me when I wean Hao later, switch him to fresh milk instead of formula as fresh milk is better than formula.

I have readjusted his milk time after he has reached 1 years old. Now Hao is on 3 milk servings per day - first time right after he wakes up in the morning, one time in the afternoon around 3pm, and one time right before he goes to bed at night. He will take cereal in the morning tea time around 10am. Then porridge for lunch and dinner. When we are having our dinner, I will give him some of our food too, like rice, soup, fish etc. Whenever we are having food, for sure he will come over and ask for us. He likes cheese and bread, or anything that is soft. Since whenever we are eating, he will get some share too, I seldom need to nurse him outside of the house nowadays.

My favourite position is actually the lying down position. I love to see his facial expression while nursing him. Sometimes after he has stopped, he will look up at me. And when I smile to him, he will either smile back to me, or or give me a big laugh, made me feel so warm and melt my heart. I want to remember this feeling forever. This is the only thing that actually keep me continue nursing him till now, despite still have to express milk during lunch hour. It makes me feel so close to him, makes me feel I'm so important to him. Whenever me and hubby go to pick up the kids, both Lynn and Hao will shout loudly when they see us, as if they are so excited to see us. This is their way of welcoming us. And we are excited to see them too. Nothing is better than seeing a smiling and happy face from your children. :)

Minnie Mouse Sticker Book

To reward Lynn for her great effort on staying dry at night, I have bought this Minnie Mouse Sticker book for her.

Lynn was so happy to get this from me. Within 15 minutes, she filled up the book with her favourite Mickey mouse and friends, and the Winnie Pooh and friends stickers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She even wanted to hold the sticker book to sleep.

I’m glad she likes it so much. Hope this will continue motivate her to stay dry at night. Sometimes if she drinks more water or has her milk right before she sleeps, she tends to wet the bed if I did not manage to wake her up earlier to go to the toilet. Some people asking me won’t I feel stressful because whether Lynn is able to stay dry at night, very much depending on me able to wake her to go toilet before she wets the bed. I think it’s worth it. Since she’s the one requested not to wear diaper anymore, I don’t think I should force her to wear it. She just have to learn and I think this is a good chance. I have started telling her to go toilet before mama wake her up. Would like not to depend on me. At the same time I’m also marking down on the calendar when she stays dry at night, and when she wets her bed. She will get a star if she did not wet the bed for the night. Told her that if she can stay dry for at least 5 days a week, I will buy her a new sheet of sticker to her.