Ho Ho HO!

Merry Christmas!!!

Well we decided to celebrate our little Family Singapore Christmas yesterday, as we are off to the UK this week and didn't want to carry all the presents there.

You can see that I was getting into the spirit. Lara wanted to get in on the cooking action so she was in the Baby Bjorn so she could see Mummy at her culinary best. We had roast chicken (as in the UK we'll be having roast goose/turkey), roast spuds, roast sweet potatoes, surprise mash cauliflower and of course, a salad. Can't have a roast in Singapore without a cooling salad.

My sister and her two boys came up from KL, they didn't come up for Christmas as they don't celebrate it, but we had planned on this Sunday as being our Christmas day. But it was really nice to have family sitting around our table tucking into the grub. Mira and her two cousins, who are 8 and 3.5 (same age as Mira) had a blast. They don't get to see each other very much but it was great to see that when they do, that they get on very well. I didn't witness any snatching/kicking/ biting/not sharing which meant it was a great day!

Mira at the tree with Leia.

Yes, you'll er, have to tilt your head in the beginning to watch this. Oops.

Singapore Chainsaw Massacre!

The other day while I was out (I always seem to be out when these exciting events occur), there were some snake incidents. Next door's maid was busy battering a snake to it's doom, when she noticed that there was a black cobra in our garden. Being the great multi tasker that these Filipina ladies are, she hollered over to Jeane to let her know about the unwanted visitor in our garden, while not missing a beat on the snake's head.

So Jeane, armed with her "snake stick" was assuming the position (picture a woman, eyes not wavering from her victim, lightly running toward it, holding onto a long pole like a javelin thrower), when she thought she saw what the snake was heading to. A mouse. But a dead one. So if you're keeping count, we have one dead snake next door, and one dead mouse. Jeane was keen to add the cobra to the massacre count. But before she could get to the snake, it disappeared - slippery little buggers they are.

But oh yes, we got our 3rd victim. Not a snake. But, the baby mouse... Jeane, in her first rule of snake hunting (never take your eyes off the serpent), didn't notice the baby mouse next to the dead mummy mouse, and stepped on it. Not pretty is it. Poor little thing. Well the snake would probably have gotten it anyway.

Tacky or Tactful?

One thing that I'm very ashamed of is that I've ballooned since having kids. If I want to get to my pre-Mira weight then I have some 10kg (22lbs) to lose. That's a lot. It doesn't help that I've been sick and so when I was getting into a great rhythm with my exercise, that has now gone on the back burner as I recover.

I know I've put on weight. I only have to try to squeeze into my old clothes and the seams on the clothes groan and seem to say "you have GOT to be kidding me woman". I don't quite need any more reminders.

So it rather upset me today when I bumped into an ex client's wife at the doctors, and she didn't recognise me at first. She said "oh your hair's different, and you've put on weight on your face".

No way. Really? I honestly hadn't noticed.

And she's not Singaporean which any asian person will tell you, asians are not shy about commenting your weight. "Wah you so fat one ah" is a favourite line. Oh yes, they are in the tactless camp.

I get it. I need to shift this weight. But please don't tell me to my face. I'm breastfeeding a darling baby and I know I will lose it, but it will take me a bit longer than anticipated, because hey, I'm 37 and that's life.

Now - I wonder if this Natural Therapist can help....................................

Rockstar and Rockettes show cancelled due to illness

So about 3-4 weeks ago, Mira and I fell sick. Nothing major and not the H1N1 bug, but it was more like bronchitis for both of us. And as of today, Mira isn't back to 100% yet. Lara caught the bug but has bounced back faster than you can say "poor baby" and the Backer, well he hasn't caught a darn thing.

We went for the traditional western medicine, went on antibiotics but that hardly did a thing. More medicine and still, not much progress - for Mira anyway. I am 99% there. In the end, yesterday I went to a Natural Therapist. She combines Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which works on the meridiens of your body and essential oils. The TCM is the same thing that Lara has been too for her baby massages. It was fascinating. I grew up in a household where western medicine was the only thing we believed in, but now as a mother, I try to look for other cures that complement, or where western medicine seems to fail, to be the only method.

Today, 24 hours after Mira saw the natural therapist, her cough is no longer "wet" or "phlegmy" (that may not be an actual word but you know what I mean). That was the symptom that was lingering. Coincidence? I don't think so. My job is to give her daily massages that the therapist showed me, and hopefully by the time we leave for the UK next week Mira will be right as rain.

Backer - sleep shush/patting

Had to share this story with you. The other night, when Lara woke, I started to feed her as normal. But the Backer, immediately started to "shush". It was clear he was fast asleep. I watched... and I was rewarded!
He started to pat his pillow.... then, he started doing an action that I can only guess was him trying to put the "dummy" back in the "babies" mouth!!! At this stage, I was trying so hard not to laugh out loud as didn't want to wake the baby. But then it got better. he was propped up on his elbow.. and suddenly started looking around. And then he stared at his pillow. And lifted it up... to look underneath...
Right then the tears started to flow from my eyes. I was laughing so hard. He then turned toward me, now awake and asked me why I was laughing. I couldn't talk, I was snorting and crying and laughing (miraculously the baby didn't wake up) and when he realised, he too started to laugh. later on he told me when he woke he looked at the pillow and thought "where's the baby".

Maybe you had to be there. But it was hilarious.

Lara 3 months and happy!

(viewers please be prepared to turn your head sideways as the inexperienced videographer - see note below - turned the camera on "potrait" and not "landscape". Sorry!)

So.... I was told by Jeane today that Lara had laughed. Twice. And I missed it. Not to be outdone, I decided to try every trick in the book to get Lara to laugh with me. Finally success!!! So grabbed the camera for the video function and asked Babar (Grandad Bates) to take a shot of me trying to capture her laugh again.

The start of the video is of Babar who had turned the camera on himself when he started filming. Now, I didn't think he'd be this clueless with the camera, after all it's a normal digital camera, not a camcorder, and he's very good at taking photos with his digital camera, and actually has used this same camera to take digital photos. But mention a new word "video" and it's like asking someone to march. You know how when you walk your arms swing by your sides alternately to your legs? So right leg left arm, left leg right arm? But when you ask someone to March... then they do the whole comedy "right leg right arm, left leg left arm" walk? Yea it's like this. Sort of.

So anyway, managed to capture some of Lara attempting to laugh, and honest, the first time she laughed it was not captured on this video. But she did - honest!

Happy Diwali!

Yesterday Mira and I were invited by our neighbour to their house to celebrate Diwali. We went at 6.30pm, and as you probably know, Mira's normally in bed by 8pm. So this was a special treat for her! She had her first play with sparklers, and was obsessed about getting water for everyone. Only because she could help herself to this water ... I want to say "tank"? But not quite. You know, it has a little tap at the bottom. Yea, that one.

All in all a very nice night, she was in bed by 8.15 and she was wired - going nuts at this stage. See, that's why we have her in bed early because she needs it! The photo here was taken just before we went.

Lara was in bed asleep, and the Backer was in the pub celebrating Diwali in his special way :)

May as well just jump on and write about what's current

Lara - I had hoped when I was carrying her in utero that she would be an "angel" baby as in, Easy and not hard to cope with. I thought, after having my first born rather... er.. difficult, I thought God at least owed me one that was easy! But I must have been very bad in my past life because God had other plans.

First of all - the fact that she was born via cesarean section wasn't great. That's because, when a baby goes through the birth canal that's the normal order of things. How it's supposed to be. The skull plates overlap to allow the head to go through but then they open up again, making everything "just right". And, the contractions help expel all liquid from the lungs. So Lara was born with "wet lung" and had to spend the first 24 hours of her life in Neo-natal intensive care. As did Mira, but she was there for 8 days.

As I had a confinement nanny, who stayed for 6 weeks, she looked after Lara allowing me the time to recuperate from the operation, and also to ensure Mira wasn't neglected. So all was well. But when she left, it all went to pot.

I dislike the term "colic", it's rather negative. Lara had a very bad gassy tummy, it caused her so much pain, and was very difficult for us parents to cope with. When you baby is screaming so hard, and there's nothing you can do for her, well, it's awful. The other problem she had was acid reflux - still, it wasn't severe so that was good. And, her naps. Oh man, that was the big problem. Anything from 20-45 mins. The poor baby was exhausted.

I wasn't about to sit there and shrug my shoulders and go oh well. I shan't go into minute detail but here's what I tried :

1. Osteopathy - they work on helping to mature her gut. Also helped to figure out what food Lara was intolerant to. As a result dairy and wheat are banned from my diet. They also discovered that Lara had an inflamed gut, so any work they wanted to do on her was impossible until this healed.
2. Pranic healing - you can google this. I'd add the link but I'm still new at this blogging lark, sorry! A Pranic Healer, who knows my step mum, came to the house and waved his crystal wand and cleansed her energy. I didn't want to be a sceptic, it was all very strange for me, especially when he didn't touch her at all. I do believe that an individual's energy is very powerful, but it was still hard to digest seeing it first hand! Will find out tomorrow if her gut is healed, when we visit the osteo.
3. Peadiatrician prescribed Zantac and Gaviscon for her reflux - I wanted to eliminate pain from that to see if it helped with her naps.
4. Chinese Baby massage - as the video shows, they work on back, abdomen, hand and face. We had 3 sessions of this.
5. Catnip & Fennel drops - organic and natural, fennel supposed to be an excellent natural medicine for gassy babies.

I had all given up hope on Sunday and said to the Backer, we'll just have to live with this and hope that when she gets a bit older, things will work out by themselves. Well.. today, Monday 12th October - Lara slept like a trooper! I mean, her daytime naps. Her nightime sleep has (I'm gripping tightly to a wooden table as I type this with one hand) have always been good.

I shan't write any more as I'm tired and the Backer and I are about to have Chicken Stew for dinner. Yummy! Yes you probably think we're weird having hot stew in the tropics but one can't live on salad leaves forever now, can one?

Bandwagon here I come!

Well. I never thought I would, but here I am. I've started a blog. It only hit me today, it makes perfect sense to start a blog. Why? Because, not a single member of our family lives in Singapore. And they would be the perfect audience because all six of the grandparents would love to know what Rockette Mira and Rockette Lara are up to. Maybe even they'd be interested in what I and our Backer are up to as well.

A bit on the blogger name I've chosen. Rockstar Mama - c'mon you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Yes, yes, I'm a mama to two lovely girls (more on them later), and I'm also a Rockstar. In my mind I am anyway, to those I hear sniggering via the www. And, the Backer, well, he's my fabulous husband. Why backer? Because he makes the money which I and the rockettes spend.

I'm not entirely sure what this blog will focus on. But it will evolve and all I hope is that you continue reading, and feel free to comment. Er, I think so anyway. If I don't approve I'm sure I can zap you right out back to cyberspace or wherever it is you came from. I'm still new at this blog malarky so we'll see how it goes shall we?