Twinsies Turn Six!

They are big girls now. Sharing stories, jokes, arguing and picking up new skills and enjoying life!

The initial plan was to order cupcakes for them. No, the first initial plan was to have a party but things got caught up and there wasn't enough time to plan and we were slightly overwhelmed when we thought of entertaining two classes of children and parents and siblings at the same time.

So it ended up as a simple in-school celebration. Since cupcakes were costing $4 a piece, I decided to make my own. Got some good advice from my pro baker friend, Mich, and off I went gathering the ingredients. 

The Twins' choice? Rainbow cupcakes. There were these ( below) or those with rainbow icing. Six years ago, I did a rainbow cake for Aidan. Thrilled as I am about 'delivering' a rainbow cake, I'm utterly disgusted with the amount of coloring and sugar used. That's also why I seldom bake nowadays. Kids don't want plain cakes, they want the icing in fanciful 3D images and I feel like Satan, overdosing kids with sugar.

Total baking effort took one evening and three trips to the supermarket! Ran out of icing, plus the helper misread the instructions so I had to increase the baking mix and since I used ready mix from Good Ol Betty Crocker, I had to get more of the same stuff. .

The marshmallow toppings turned out to be more popular. Don't think I will have a chance to celebrate school parties again but next round, I know what I will use as foolproof toppings! Marshallows!

This second cake was an ice cream cake bought by Yiyi. Lovely size which gave no leftovers. 

Gotta mention that the self-lighting candles were cool. No need to worry about fans and missed photo moments. The fire keeps lighting up until the candles burnt off. 

Ammi had a mysterious headache that morning so she got the chance to celebrate in school with us. Then it was off to Omakase Burger for lunch (twins' request), topped with cheese fries and fresh orange juice. 

That's it. Simple, heartwarming birthday celebration. The twins even went for Yamaha at night and have out more goodie bags. Looking forward to next year's birthday, it will be the eve of CNY! 

The World According to - Ally (III)

Hello, it's me, Ally. Coincidentally, I am the one on the right in all the pictures above - the one with the smoother skin. You can tell, right? This is because Anya is still recovering from her eczema. Mummy has tried moisturising, putting different types of cream and lotion, even breastmilk and what finally worked? A tube of cortisone (i.e. with steroid, in other words) cream made her skin better but I heard from the adults that it can't be applied too often and too much. Poor Anya.

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We are 10 days short of turning 8 months old.

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Are we good girls? Hmmm...... I think we are, but I hear Mummy grumbling and lamenting how tired she is, how she doesn't understand why we are behaving the way we are behaving. Hey, I think we are great babies! We eat well, play well, we are not afraid of water when bathing (unlike Korkor who would cry when water gets into his eyes) and we are smiley babies.

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However, I do have a few complaints. Firstly, I am getting disturbed by Anya every night. We go to bed by 8p.m. and Anya has been waking up for nearly 3 weeks, every night, within 2 hours after we have fallen asleep. She wails for Mummy, and does not want to get back to sleep, nor does she want to drink milk. I don't know why she wakes up. If Mummy leaves her in the room, she twists and cries until she chokes and Papa sometimes come in to carry but Anya screams even louder.

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I also am not liking the milk bottle very much. The adults just don't understand. Each time Mummy decides not to feed me direct, but through a bottle, I kick up a big fuss. It is just not the same! I jerk my backside up and down, I stiffen my body and lean my head backwards but they still try to coax me into drinking my milk. Kakak and Mummy even try to sing songs and walk me around while feeding me the bottle. For 3 days now, I have proven that I am Queen because I'd rather not drink my milk and take my naps without it.

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These are small problems, right? The adults say "it's just a phase". I think that means they expect our peculiar behaviour to stop after awhile - fat hope! I need to find a chance to speak to Anya, we have not decide how long we should test their patience for. Did I mention I used to sleep for longer hours than Anya, but I have discovered and hence, decided that waking up often at night can be quite a fun thing to do! 2 nights ago I even did a big poo job at 1.30a.m. and the leak was so dramatic that Papa had to change me out of my pyjamas and let me sleep elsewhere because the bedsheet caught it too?

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I think Mummy will let Anya speak for us next. Can't wait for her to tell you her side of the stories. I am pretty sure she is quite upset about her face. You may hear her complain about it. But hey, I didn't have it easy either. After the neighbour sprayed their garden last Saturday, I ended up with 5 mosquito bites on my face! Thank God you can't see them from these photos.

Guess who is who?

Here are the Princesses at 6 months old!

We are 6 months old!

Before you read on - guess who's who first?

Answers are in the photos below.

These 2 pictures were taken on their first day of taking solids 4 days ago (24th Jul) - rice cereals. Thanks Auntie Claret for the pretty personalised bibs!

The babies enjoy their food, although it is a little bit hard to get them to drink their water from the bottle. By now, there are little traits of each little girl that are unique to each of them:

• Ally pinches you - she feels your skin and digs her fingers, nails and grabs your skin really tight.
• Anya loves to thump - she kicks her right leg and swings both of her hands when she is excited. While falling asleep, she would thump her own leg on the mattress until she passes out.
• Ally is Miss Sociable - 1 smile at her and she grins. She engages in a conversation with you; while our Miss Anya is more solemn and she checks you out for a good while before she thinks it is safe to be friends with you.
• Anya is Miss Mega Appetite. She takes in more milk than her elder sister, but so far on every checkup we go, Ally wins by 100g in weight and 1cm by height. Amazing!
• Ally smiles more and she cries more too. Disturbed, annoyed, sleepy, hungry - she screams at the top of her voice. Anya is more mellow, she gives soft cries to let you know in advance before things become urgent (especially hunger) where she would cry out loud (but still not as loud as her sister)
• Anya loves bedtime - her smiles come on mostly in the evenings, when the cue of 'going upstairs' comes and she smiles, chats and giggles while we give the babies their massage.
  
  
  

My best playmate

I have tried a few times previously to let the the twins play with each other but they didn't seem interested.

Today they had fun getting into each other's faces literally.

Yummy Hands

Ally eating her own fingers

"Wait a minute, Anya's fingers smell more delicious."

"That's it! Give me the whole thing!"

The World According to - Ally (I)

Hi, I am Ally. Anya and I are 5 months today.

Our grandma (Popo) has been here with us for 2 weeks, since Daddy started his MBA school. We love the attention we get when she is around. She takes pictures of us, talks to us and carries us around the house. We even got a nickname each from her. I'm 'Newspaper girl' and Anya is 'Catalog girl' because we get excited respectively when Popo reads her papers/ puts Toys R Us catalog in front of us.


On Thursday, Mummy took us to the zoo, with Korkor and Jiejie and Kakaks and Popo. I think the zoo must be a place that keeps lots of children, because that was what we saw most of the time. Occasionally, I hear Popo or Mummy point out: "There! There's the polar bear!", "That's the lion!" so I think the zoo must have animals as well. In fact, when Mummy said "Let's take a picture with the Rhinoceros", I think she means there are some animals behind us... but I could only smell something funny and smelly, worse than my own poo-poo.




Mummy mentioned it was school holidays and it was the wrong day to visit the zoo. We walked from the entrance to Kidzworld, where Korkor and Am Jiejie changed and we sat in the stroller. It was noisy and there were many people but anyhow, I managed to take my nap.

When I woke up, Mummy was nowhere in sight. I cried. And Anya cried too. Only Popo was alone with us and she carried Anya. Looks like I have to cry louder next time, because I overheard Popo relate the story to everyone at home and she said she looked at us who started crying at the same time, and decided to pick up the one who was crying louder.

Some auntie with blond hair carried me, and Popo said she was sitting behind us and heard my cries. Mummy took a long time to come back, and when she was back, she wasn't looking very happy. She complained that the cashiers were spoilt at KFC and the queue was very long and very slow. Anyway, who cares? I started crying again so that she knows she is not the only hungry one around.

After my turn, Mummy had to feed Anya. Anya did not behave. She cried while Mummy fed her, and didn't drink. Mummy tried to change her diaper and she screamed even louder. I am glad I wasn't the one she changed. She put Anya on a wooden bench, so hard, like the floor and I could understand why Anya didn't like it. Everyone around us looked at Mummy and Anya. Anya choked, and Mummy had to carry her up without wearing any diaper. The world saw her naked backside. Shame-shame, Ya-ya!

The adults took forever to finish their lunch. Korkor and Jiejie ate very fast and I heard it is the first time Korkor tried chilli sauce with his chicken. The zoo was swarmed with children by then, it was so hot and so noisy. I had to change my clothes because it was wet and I screamed. I wished we could go home immediately.

We did leave the place soon, once Mummy finished her lunch. We went on something that moved, called the tram, and it was better as I was carried by Kakak and I could see more of the things around me. Anya had her lunch then, Mummy fed her and muttered that 'half the world must have seen her breast at Kidzworld because Ya-Ya didn't latch on and cried so loud'. I don't know who is more poor thing - us or Mummy.

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In the end, I ended up in the Baby Bjorn carrier because Am Jiejie was tired. It was nice too, because I get to see more sights again, compared to being in the stroller.

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At home, I overheard that the adults have a plan to start bringing me and Ya-ya out more often. They are calling us 'country pumpkins' because we cry the moment we get into the car. Hmmm... I wonder what other things are out there for us to see?

And the Mother Did It!

It finally happened.

I had the 'honour' of causing it.

Hubby was out for a wedding dinner. I had to tuck the older kids in bed, hence I asked the helper to help me give the night feed to Anya since she fed earlier than Ally, in the evening. 30 minutes later, I went to my room to feed the 2nd twin.

I unswaddled the baby, rubbed her body gently to wake her up, carried her over to my bed, and proceeded to feed. Since it was in the dark, I stared at the only light which came from the toilet, and thought about the day's events - I did the 4M craft kits with the kids, talked to the babies, covered some Math, brought the older kids to swimming classes and that I finally got to finish 'New Moon' (crappy movie, compared to the novel) and able to catch up with other movies like 'The Taking of Pelham 123', thanks to the App 'W.Tv'! Quite a fulfilling day.... and then, I glanced at the baby and noticed she has flat hair, no hair standing upright!

I stared a little bit harder at the face and saw the many mozzie bites on her face (thanks to the vicious mosquitoes in Bintan) and realised I was feeding Anya - again!!! Ally has only 2 mozzie bites on her face.

I looked at the pyjamas and confirmed it wasn't Ally because I had changed Ally into a striped suit and the baby in my arms has a blue suit on. I was half laughing, while apologising to Anya for waking her up and feeding her again. She, of course, was in dream state and she could still drink only because she did not finish her earlier bottle. I quickly burped her and put her back, and then woke Ally up.

Oh my, didn't think this could actually happen but it did! Sorry, my dear babies.

Anyway, time flies. My babies turn 4 months in 5 days' time and Ammi would be 3 and a half on the dot!

Am feeds twins

We know Ammi would know how to imitate me feeding the twins, but we have never asked her to do so. After Daddy bought her a new doll (probably her 5th or 6th, sigh), she showed us how 'Mummy feeds the twins'.

The position she uses IS possible, but not quite what I do now. I don't criss-cross the gals, but put them sort of facing each other - 1 on each side, 1 on each of my lap. Try to imagine. Sorry, would love to upload 'educational' photos of me nursing twins but don't want to freak my male readers out.

By the way, see if you can spot our son in the background playing with his Dad's new toy - the iPad. *groan* Men/boys and their technology. I don't know what is the attraction and obsession but Apple products are such magnets to men, like shopping is to ladies.

Twins at 7 weeks

Ally

Anya

So it's us versus the twins now that 'Auntie' has left on Sunday.

The clothes drawers are left half closed, there are dirty diapers around the rubbish bin (not IN the bin) & milk bottles and dirty clothes on tabletops, the bed and on the floor. Now I know how much other 'work' there is besides caring for the twins. We literally need someone just for housekeeping services!

Twins at 6 weeks

Here are our babies at 6 weeks old.

Pictures taken by TT with her Canon DSLR. Thanks for dropping by, dear friend!

Ahem, my heart and fingers are itchy again. But nope, doubt I'll have the time to shoot and assemble the lenses especially when the confinement nanny is due to leave anytime. Hell is approaching... I can smell it.

Going Out Solo

Our 1st day out solo as a family of 6 happened a week ago, on the last day of Feb, 28th Feb 2010.

We decided to venture out for a short drive to the club, for the elder ones to play at the playground; for me to get some fresh air and some grocery top-ups and the twins to throw us some challenges (hungry babies/ dirty diapers, etc) along the way - also we needed to try out what space was left after the baby car seats went in and if it was possible to nurse one of them if I had to sit between the car seat.



It was quite an experience, some logistics planning required and Aidan wasn't very happy that he was the last to get out of the car (really, who has hands to grab him should he shoot off on his own!) - but both him and Ammi were thrilled they did not have to use the side doors but they could use the boot door to get out of the car.

I also found out that one really needs to be ready to chat with strangers when you go out with the twins. You'll get those friendly, curious looks in your way and once both your eyes make contact, the first question: "Are they twins?" shoot out.

"Girls ah?/ So cute! How old? Your family has genes? C-section or Natural?" (this last question came mostly from people who already know me), followed by a really stupid question - "Natural? Can, meh? Possible, meh?" Well, if it's not possible, WHY BOTHER ASKING ME THAT?!

I also realised that becoming a Mummy of 4 more or less propels you (so awkwardly) into the center of any conversation, like a topic/ ice-breaker. One example: after meeting Aidan's classmates' Mummies, I saw 2 of them outside school. One mother introduced me to the other, starting with: "This is Aidan's Mummy. She has 4 kids!" The other Mummy's eyes started to widen, and the way to distract and stop those dilation of the pupils is to smile and reply: "Last 2 are a pair of twins." That usually works, which was then returned with a smile and a reply: "Oh, I see!" ... and see above paragraph for samples of questions that follow afterwards.

One amusing experience I had was on Thursday when I brought the gals to collect their passports. I went up to the counter with the twins, while Daddy parked the car with Ammi. Handed the lady 3 collection slips and told her: "Please wait, 1 more daughter on the way up." Her eyebrows rose, and I was wondering what's so surprising about the family not arriving together at the collection center. She asked me: "You have triplets?!", which got me laughing. Can't blame her since she had not looked into the new passports, and with 3 passports to be collected at the same time, it's not hard to assume they would all be newly issued passports for 3 new babies!

Confinement - My Last, Anyway

Well, to start, that's Ally below who was having her daily sun-tan session to rid her jaundice. Anya was spared because she was convincingly more 'pink' than her older sister from the time she was discharged. Ally was on the 'yellow' side of which she was diagnosed by the people at home as having slight jaundice.

So, the confinement lady, aptly addressed by all of us as 'Auntie' sunned Ally and herself at the porch every morning before 9 a.m. I was spared the chore and I am grateful for that because for the two times I had to do it (Auntie went to market), I had to make sure I slap on sunblock before stepping out and that was too much work - every single second counts nowadays!

The twins turn 4 weeks old exactly yesterday; and I have spent nearly this time period with the confinement lady as my roommate. I only realised how daunting it could have been if I had thought more about sharing a room for 45 days (that's the arrangement this time) with a stranger.

It was pretty hard to adjust in the 1st 2 weeks having a new 'roommate', especially one who is sleeping on a spare mattress next to your bed and also shares the toilet with you. But the reason why I'm dedicating a post to my roommate is because she is by far the best of the confinement ladies we have experienced!

Of course she covers the usual services such as cooking all 3 meals, feed and burp the babies, washes their clothes but for her passions in life and enthusiasm (she loves to cook and sew), she has been cooking up desserts for me and the family, and other dishes upon family members' requests, such as 'salted veg with duck' (mom's request), 'black sauce chicken feet' (my request), and Hubby's favourite 'Intestines soup' and 'honeydew sago' (sister's request). She also sewn up pillow cases for the twins, to fill up with bean sprouts and 1 to act as a bolster (good idea - she stuffed it with unused blankets) for each baby. There are even a change of fabric, she made 4 sets out of 2 different fabric design.

Nevertheless, there are the down sides - for she loves to talk. My ears have been ringing non-stop with her voice. The experience of sharing a room with her reminds me of sharing a room with girlfriends during a trip, where all of us laid down in the dark but we yakked and yakked till the conversations simply died down as each one of us gradually knocked out. In this case, it is more of Auntie's voice ringing in the dark while I'm trying to sleep. So I've learnt to just shut up, and without responses, the dialogues have to end.

An extreme advantage is that this Auntie is very awake during the night. I did not re-hire my previous confinement lady during Am's time, mainly because she could not wake up. I would call out loud: "Auntie, oi!" a few times before she could wake up to help me with the baby. This lady here, she's up the moment 1 of the twin cry but together with it, she chats non-stop. Even though she isn't shouting, her volume of her shrill voice sounds like loudspeakers blasting inside my room in the wee hours of the morning.

Well, in short, kudos to these ladies who help to 'bridge the gap' for the mummies after returning from the hospital. I have heard horror stories, from confinement ladies discouraging breastfeeding, to not preparing breakfast and using the mobile phone non-stop and I thank my lucky stars we have not met anyone so 'challenging'.

The confinement lady will be around for another 2 weeks plus, before she leaves for her next assignment. I'm sure going to cherish every living minute during the time she is here, at least I get a chance to log on, go out to run errands and also to take naps.

Lastly, I'm so looking forward to taking regular showers this weekend when confinement ends! Woohoo!

At 3 weeks old

These 2 ladies turned 3 weeks yesterday but things had been rather hectic so I did not manage to take a photo of them together, wide awake.

It'd better be the growth spurt stage that is causing all the frequent nursing and broken naps. I'm almost topless during the day and even at night in bed, I am so tired and lazy that I can't be bothered to button up my nightgown - why waste that few seconds buttoning up, only having to undo in an hour's time? Might as well use those seconds to catch up on sleep!

It feels all worth it when you carry them and smell their little heads and hair, but honestly, I am like a walking zombie. I have things I want to write about, pictures I want to post but it's almost impossible to find a decent slot of even 5 minutes (well, that's about the time it takes for my lousy laptop to start up and launch all the programs) and either due to lack of sleep, or post-pregnancy effects, I can't remember things very well and so I spend my free minutes either fetching bottles up and down the staircase, or reading up on 'parenting on twins' helpbook because the facts just don't stay inside my head!

Ok, all 'twin books' say Mummy should ignore all urges to watch the TV or surf the Internet, and catch up on sleep. So that's what I'm going to do now. How unfortunate, got to postpone my 1 other story for the next time again...

Meet The Little Oxen

1 little girl was hungry and she tried to suck on her sleeping sister's arm and fingers.


That got the sister awake and she started to get upset because she realised it was also passed her mealtime.

This is Ally (below) while the sexy, semi-naked one with her right arm sticking out is Anya. Anya was brought for sun-tanning in the morning and when it got to Ally's turn, there was no more sun so Ally got to keep her clothes on.

I started with my massage sessions with this 81 year old lady call Madam Fam. She is an ex-midwife and has been in the post-natal massage trade for the past 41 years. With these sessions come along lots of advice... and old wives' tales.

Some amusing advice she gave me:

1. Birth Time for Ox Babies - Ox babies should be born later in the day, rather than early in the morning because it relates to how hard the Ox has to work in its life. A 'morning' Ox is busy in the fields and it only gets to rest later in the evening. Well, this is a good thing for us - our babies were born in the evening around 5 p.m.
2. Diet affects the gender of the baby - this was something she has told me years ago when I first had her after Aidan. I brushed it off but then after that regretted that I should have tried to remember the entire list so that I can share with my friends (no harm trying to switch diet to get your ideal gender for your next child, right?). Mdm Fam says she has 3 grandsons to prove her advice is accurate. So if you want boys, the husband has got to keep to a 4-months diet made up mainly of seafood and red wine. If you want girls, ask the Hubby to eat more meat (beef and chicken) and drink more beer.
3. Celebration of Full Month - being Chinese, we know it's always better to celebrate auspicious occassions earlier than later, such as birthdays. Our twins turn 1 full month on the 26th of February (a Friday). We had planned to celebrate on the 27th Feb but Mdm Fam highlighted that it is advisable to celebrate earlier, especially if the babies are girls because this gives them an early marriage as compared to having a late one if we celebrate later. So, we are having it the weekend before; better be safe than sorry.
4. Animals under 1 Roof - You can't put 2 snakes under 1 roof, snakes cannot co-live in a same nest in the real world. So for harmony, if your life partner is another snake, the way to go is to take a step back and be conscious of possible clashes if both sides refuse to give way. Er, that's what she said of me and Hubby. A monkey (Aidan) and tiger do not get along well - so I should be glad our babies are born in the year of Ox then Tiger, I guess?

2 Weeks Old @ 9th Feb 2010

The girls are 2 weeks old today!

We have been asked often how do we differentiate both of them.

Here are some differences:

• Ally has a slightly longer face while Anya has rounder cheeks with rounder eyes.
• Ally has a birthmark ring around her right ankle, even though both girls have birthmarks also on their left ankles.
• 1 lady's hair is starting to stand, while the other lady's hair is still lying flat.
• Temperament-wise: Anya is less fussy and a better drinker. She drinks non-stop even if she is sleepy. Ally led the way for the 1st 3 days, now she lags behind as she tends to fall asleep while drinking and has a smaller appetite compared to her younger sister. Ally has to be positioned properly, and presented the 'preferred' breast or else she'll fuss a little.

So, can you tell from the pictures above - who is who?

The Grand Arrival

Found this graphic from twobubs.com many weeks ago - really cute! I saved it just for this post.

Most of you would have known about the twins' arrival already.

Some birth statistics to share - since I was asked that question many times after sending the 1st announcement out.

Twin 1 - Ally Ang
Weight: 2.75kg
Length: 50cm
Birth time: 4.54 p.m.

Twin 2 - Anya Ang
Weight: 2.76kg
Length: 49cm (heavier but shorter, haha)
Birth time: 4.59 p.m.

Thankfully, the delivery was easy (except for a good 20 minutes when the epidural leaked - my fault for trying to shift positions on the bed) and definitely eventful; something different from delivering a singleton, just to count how many nurses and also the paeditrician was around this time to witness the birth!

They turned 1 week old yesterday, which happens to be our 8th wedding anniversary (2nd Feb). Ally is the one in green while Anya is in blue stripes.


The older siblings are very curious and loving to the babies, although Aidan gets very concerned when they cry. He always ask 'why', thinking they must be hurt - and if Ammi happens to be close to them, she gets the brunt of it as he would assume she was the one who hurt one of them. Poor girl...

One very touching incident happened yesterday - Hubby and Ammi walked towards the car to head for school. Big Brother Aidan walked back into the house with his shoes on. We stared at him, wondering what did he want from the house? A toy? Toilet break?

Turned out, he headed towards the playpen where the babies were sleeping, and bent his head over and said: "Goodbye, babies!" and then went to the car. So loving and so mature of him. :)

So here are our brood of 4, never expected but I guess achievable - or rather, achieved. Long journey ahead, and yes, there will be NOISE for the many years to come!