October Update

chloe looks so uncomfortable it is funny!

she is now able to stand up and even walk while holding on to some support.  she not only says "mama", "baba", but also "gege" (brother) now!  and she even waves "good-bye" occasionally.

alan put on chloe's top here and finding it funny, so he started dancing in front of a big mirror!

sit up

at 7.5 months, chloe is able to sit up by herself.  she can even pull herself into a standing position by pulling and holding on to... well... my cloth or my bra... lol

here she's chewing bryan's eye cream.

no empty promises from mom

alan cried so badly last night, and this morning, he told me it was because he was scared that i would leave him.

dear baby alan, i wanted so much to tell you that i would never leave you, but i couldn't.  i couldn't give you empty promises that i was unable to fulfil.

you will grow up and leave me to lead your own life, and mom will one day leave you in this world to pass to the one beyond.

but please always know this, my baby, that my love will always be with you.

poor alan, poor chloe

alan had a slight fever at 37.9C degree on monday morning.  i took him to see the doctor but it didn't help.  his temperature kept rising.  we went to the hospital every day, and had three transfusions on wednesday, thursday and friday.

we had his finger pricked on thursday, and white blood cell count was normal.  so the doctor said it wasn't a virus.

on friday night, when his temperature went as high as 39.6c degree, the doctor made him had a chest scan and suspected it was a pneumonia because the image of some parts of the lung was a bit blurry.  bryan took alan to another hospital the next morning and had his blood drawn for tests.  initial test of white blood cell count was normal but they needed to grow the specimen to confirm if there's any other bacteria.  i'm going to pick up the result tomorrow afternoon.

his temperature had come down and back to a normal range (albeit slightly higher at the lower 37c range) since saturday afternoon, and appetite improved, too.  he barely ate anything during the last few days.

chloe has been coughing, too, and had a temperature of 38.5c on thursday night.  i took her to see a doctor on friday morning, who prescribed some anti-virus and antibiotics.  she didn't like taking medicine and threw up quite a few times, but she seems to be fine now.  still a bit of cough, but temperate is normal and her appetite seems to be fine.

here i want to thank the people from the "angels in my studio" facebook group.  i wrote a brief post about my children being sick and asked if they would advice how to call upon a healing angel.  we received beautiful beautiful support there.  so a huge thank you to everyone who offer their support, prayer, advice etc...

baby chloe in bath

baby chloe in bath, having a bit of fun...

alan's bed time stories

alan demands to have his bed time stories every night.  sometimes you can keep telling stories and he won't fall asleep.  our stories nowadays, after the lights are off, are what baby lion, baba lion, mama lion and meimei lion are doing.  we substitute elephants for lions sometimes.  basically it's just what we did during the day.

or i would ask him questions like, what's the colour of the lion, what is he doing, where is he going, why, and then etc.

the other night, i was so tired and when alan asked me to tell him a story, i replied that it was his turn to tell me a story instead.  so he started, once upon a time, there was a ...

i don't even remember what he said, for i fell asleep too soon...

chloe's 5 months milestones

• chloe is able to army crawl at 5 months
• chloe is able to roll to her back and back to her tummy at 5 months
• chloe is able to say "mom mom" at 5 months
• and she smiles a LOT

the family's first hand-made mug

alan's school organised an outdoor activity on one weekend last month, and we went to a pottery workshop in the city.  we made a mug and a bear during a short 1.5 hours.   they were then taken by the staff to colour in and made dry for us.  it wasn't until almost a month later, that we received them back today.

chloe's new hair style

it's getting so hot and chloe's long hair was making her very uncomfortable, so i shaved her head yesterday.  does she look more like a boy like this?  em... i think she still looks very much a little girl.

she sleeps much better during the day after the hair cut.  i probably should have cut it earlier, but her hair was so beautiful!  i saved her hair in a red pocket.

tummy time for chloe

at 3.5 months, chloe is already able to roll on to her tummy.  here's chloe watching one of jane davenport's  videos on iPad.

since she learnt to roll on to her tummy yesterday, it's been the first thing she does when she wakes up every time today.  but as she's unable to roll back, she cries in frustration when she's tired.  so funny!

all babies

this is alan of less than 2 months all wrapped up.

the other night, at 2 years of age, he asked to be wrapped as a baby again.

look how much bigger he was than his 2 months old sister!

chloe is now 3 months old and is a sweet smily baby!

大海啊故乡

Alan是一个很敏感（sensitive）的小孩，感受力很强的。

这是小时候，妈妈和我在傍晚散步时教我唱的歌。也许时因为后来没多久她就出国离开了我们，所以当我每次唱起《大海啊故乡》，心里就会莫名地伤感。这感觉我从来没对任何人讲过，一直放在心里深处。

前几天晚上睡觉时，我对Alan唱起这首歌。唱完一段，他说：“不唱啦。”

我问他：“为什么不唱呢？”

他回答：“唱大海会哭的。”

昨晚我故意问他：“妈妈唱大海好不好？”

“好。”

唱完一段以后，Alan说：“妈妈唱大海。唱大海会哭的。”说完就睡着了。

他能感受到我心里的东西。

wish us luck

alan's and my chinese visas will expire on 21st march, which is next wednesday.  i'll have to go to hong kong to renew my visa and the fastest processing time is 1 day.  but little chloe is still waiting for her passport.  And once we have our passport, we'll have to go to the exit and entry administration of guangdong to apply for an exit permit before i can take chloe with me to hong kong.  

if we can't get these done in time, chloe will have to stay with dad for 2 days and 1 night.  i'll squeeze some breast milk and store them in bottles, but that's still going to be pretty tough for the little baby girl...  wish wish we can get the passport and permit done in time.

one-month-old chloe & two-year-old alan

here're a few pictures of baby chloe being one month old, taken just a few days ago.

she has beautiful big eyes, doesn't she?

have i mentioned before that she had both of her eyes wide open when she was born?  and that she came out with just one push (although the whole birth thing took 10+ hours)?

i still find it strange that my second labor took so long.  it was supposed to be very quick, wasn't it?  but i  started having contraction at about 4 or 5am and chloe was born just before 8pm.

alan loves his "mei mei".  he kisses her and hugs her everyday.  but he's also jealous, which creates some behavioral problems - he's being quite rebellious sometimes in school, and at home, he cries a lot more.  poor thing says "没有妈妈” （no more mama) when he cries...  when i'm holding chloe, alan sometimes would come asking me to hold him instead, and would cry his heart out when i tell him later.

but he's learning to be a good big brother, learning to share, not just material things, but mum's and dad's love as well.  i'm sure he'll grow up a better person from this experience.

alan sings a song

alan can sing the whole song of "twinkle twinkle little star" and sings pretty well.

twinkle, twinkle, little star

how i wonder what you are

up above the world so high

like a diamond in the sky

twinkle, twinkle, little star

how i wonder what you are

i drew a portrait of him from this photo.  see it here.

her name is chloe

we named her "chloe", and according to wikipedia:

"Chloe (also Chloë, Cloe, Chlöe, Chloé, Clowy, Kloe, Khloe, Khloë, Khloé, Kloé or Kloë) is a first or given name for girls, especially popular in England. The name comes from the Greek χλόη(khlóē), meaning "young green shoot" and is one of the many names of the Greek goddess Demeter.^[1] The name appears once in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 1:11 in the context of "the house of Chloe". The French equivalent is spelled Chloé."


Demeter is the goddess of harvest, and according to wikipedia again: "Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, thesacred law, and the cycle of life and death."

alan's 2nd lunar birthday

i should have posted about this earlier.  it was alan's 2nd lunar birthday last wednesday (lunar calendar 3rd of january), and here's alan enjoying his little creamy cake.

A New Baby is Born

i started feeling some contractions at about 5am 17th January 2012, and we went to the hospital at 7.30am.  baby girl didn't want to come out until just before 8pm.  so although it was my 2nd time giving birth, it wasn't as fast as i expected.

baby girl weighted 3.1kg, 49cm and head measured 33cm.  she came out very clean, with eyes wide open and looking very calm.

this blog has to have a new name now!

a few things about school

we got a few comments on facebook after i posted the photos and my last blog post link, which made me see that there were quite a few things that i should record.  so here it is:

• the school is an early education centre called "new oriental", and this class is especially tailored to young toddlers aged 1.5 to 3 years of age.  it is the first time they're running this full time class in guangzhou, but they've had a few years experience doing so in beijing and shanghai, and they're a reputable early education centre which runs weekly classes that runs for a hour or so.

• because it's only less than a month to the chinese new year, there're only 5 students this month, and 2 teachers and a baby sitter.  after the new year, there'll be about 10 students.

• alan had chosen the spiderman school bag for himself, his other options were a few different micky mouse bags (photo of spiderman bag here);

• we bought him this new pair of shoes especially for going to school.  alan had wanted a black pair, but ended up with the green ones as there weren't his size in black.

i should write more about his first school day experience once i receive the photos from his teacher - he's been the best boy.

alan's first school day

today was alan's first school day, and we took this photo in the morning before we head out.  he was happy about going to school and he kept on saying "qu shang xue" ("go to school" in mandarin).

this is our spiderman school bag, which alan had picked for himself.

we've just returned home as i'm writing.  teachers said that alan had been a very very good boy!  he was the first to finish lunch, ate double servings; and the first to sleep and slept for 1.5 hours, the longest among 4 other kids.  he didn't cry at all.  and when we went to pick him up, he didn't want to leave!

more photos to follow once i received them from the teacher.