Month 18: 18 Things I Love About Xuan

To commemorate Xuan turning 18 months, I decided to write a post on 18 quirky things I love about Xuan that just shows her character and personality:

(1) Little Monica – Can obsessive-compulsive disorder be inherited? H would say yes. He insists that Xuan takes after me in Monica-ness. When she eats, sometimes she would drop something on the table, and she would insist on cleaning or get me to clean it before she resumes eating. She hates black marks whether they are on her highchair or her hands, as a result of her scribbling with a pen.  Xuan loves to wipe tables, chairs, toys with hankies or a wet wipe. She has a serious hanky fetish.  One night, she wanted the hanky I was using for her wipedown, but I wouldn't give it to her.  She went to her laundry basket to look for a used hanky, but couldn't find one.  The next thing we knew, she was shaking the laundry rack and we couldn't figure out why, until H looked up and saw a hanky hanging there.  We think she was trying to shake to rack to get the hanky to drop down, so she could get it!

(2) Gadget Chick – Xuan loves handphones, cordless phones, remote controls, electronic keys, blackberries, cameras, camcorders, etc. When Xuan was 16 months old, we went to my in-laws place for a visit. While she was there, she discovered that they have a remote controlled fan and she could turn the fan on/off with the control. A week later, we took Xuan to my mother’s house and she found a little remote control similar to her one at my in-laws house. She picked it up and pointed the remote control at the fan and pressed the buttons. When nothing happened, she looked at me and said “oh” while gesturing at the fan and twisting her hand. I think she remembered she could turn off the fan at my in-laws’ house and was wondering why she could not do the same at my mom’s place.

(3) Playful Baby – Xuan is a very playful and enthusiastic baby. She loves to play peakaboo. She would hide behind curtains or chairs and yell out “tak!”, which is her baby version of “chak!” When one of us carries her and the other hides behind doors and walls to play peakaboo, she pumps her body and legs up and down in excitement and squeals with laughter. Xuan likes to bounce enthusiastically on pillows, bolsters, mummy and daddy. Recently, she accidentally knocked her head against mine and I let out a loud “ouch”. For some reason, she finds this really funny and would lean forward and gently knock her head against ours, just for fun. She is also extremely ticklish, the slightest tickle in her ear, neck, ribs and legs would send her into peals of laughter.

(4) Scaredy-Cat – Xuan has a little green vein on the bridge of her nose that is just visible when you look carefully. My mother-in-law says that babies with this vein tend to scare easily. True enough, Xuan is scared of insects, lifts, thunder, the blinking lights on the alarm panel, etc. When Xuan turned 12 months, she could tell us whenever she was scared, by patting herself on her chest.  Once, Xuan was hogging the Sudoku puzzle that H was trying to do, when she suddenly realised that her hands were covered with black ink squiggles, and she had a major freakout moment. This was all nicely captured on video:

(5) Bookworm – Xuan loves to look at books, magazines, newspapers, letters, brochures, pamphlets, company annual reports and even receipts! When she was 4 months old, I gave her a magazine to amuse herself with while I was doing some housework, the next time I checked on her, a corner of a page was missing and I had to dig out the remnants from her mouth!

(6) Songbird – Since young, Xuan loves to listen to songs. She would sway and dance in time to music. She can recognise songs and have favourites songs which she made us sing over and over again. If we tried to sing another song, she would complain to us. I used songs to teach her about things. For example, in her bedtime storybook, if there was a story and picture about a bridge, I would sing the “London Bridge is Falling Down” song to her. This helped her identify items/pictures in the books. This is a video clip of Xuan pointing out a Christmas Tree in the book when she was 13 months old:

(7) Small Baby with Tiny Appetite but Boundless Energy – When Xuan was born, she was below the average newborn weight of 3kg. In the first 6 months, she became quite a chubby baby and was comfortably above the 50th percentile in the Weight Graph. Since she turned 9 months old, her weight gain has been excruciatingly slow and now she hovers just above the 3rd percentile! Her paediatrician has been urging us to feed her more, but Xuan just doesn’t eat much. The amount of food she eats can be measured in teaspoons! Thank goodness, her appetite has improved recently, although she still doesn’t eat much, she certainly wants to eat almost everything!

(8) Small Baby with Big Ego – Xuan has no problem with her self-esteem. When she began feeding herself at 14 months, she would stop after each mouthful, look expectantly at us and clap her hands to show us what a clever girl she was. She would also expect us to clap our hands along with her!

(9) Generous Baby – Xuan loves to share her food and drinks, after she takes a sip from a drink, she would point at H or me and ask us to take a sip too. When we ask her if we can have some of her food, she will nod her head most of the time. Aside from feeding herself, she also wants to feed H and me her food. The problem is, sometimes she wants to feed us her leftover food...from her mouth! Well, it may sound disgusting, but she is our baby! The only food she refuses to share with us is watermelon. Watermelon is her favourite food by fair, and when we ask her “Xuan, can Mummy/Papa eat your watermelon?” She would shake her head vehemently and start shoving the watermelon pieces into her mouth.

(10) Sudoku Fan – Xuan loves to do Sudoku with H. Whenever she sees him laying the newspaper on the floor with the Sudoku page, she will park herself in between him and the paper, sometimes sitting on the newspaper. She will ask for a pen and scribble all over the Sudoku puzzle. Half the time H can’t finish his Sudoku puzzle because it’s all covered with Xuan’s scribbles! This is a picture of Xuan doing Sudoku with her Daddy:

(11) Hot Babe – Xuan is sensitive to heat. She doesn’t like hot food and if we tell her to be careful because her food is hot, she would not eat it, or blow on it before she puts it in her mouth. She would sign “hot” by waving her hand in front of her face and blowing. She also doesn’t like to go out in the hot sun. If we go out in the afternoon, she would cover her face, wave her hand in front of her face and pull on the collar of her shirt to tell us that it was hot.

She also doesn’t like spicy food. A couple of months ago, Xuan wanted to drink the tom yam soup I was drinking although I told her that it was “lat lat” (spicy) while waving my hand in front of my face. She still insisted on having the soup, so I gave her a little taste and she burst out crying and rubbing her lips. A month later, I was eating some Korean noodles, which were also spicy and Xuan again wanted to have some. My mom told her that the noodles were “lat lat”. Immediately, Xuan waved her hand in front of her face and shook her head when I offered her some. She remembered what “lat lat” meant and didn’t want to eat the noodles anymore.

(12) Addictive Personality – Xuan starting to show that she has quite an addictive personality. Aside from being addicted to the TV, she is also addicted to juice and jam. Once, I gave Xuan some mango juice as I was using the juice to disguise her cold medicine. This worked like a charm and she would down the medicine with no complains, compared to 2 adults struggling to hold her down and syringe the medicine down her throat (which only caused her to choke and throw everything back up). The problem was, she really loved the mango juice and kept walking to the fridge and crying until we gave her more juice. After she recovered, I decided not to have any more juice in the house. Xuan behaved like a recovering drug addict suffering withdrawal syndrome characterised by temper tantrums and uncontrollable crying. I told H that I felt like I was weaning Xuan all over again, after weaning her from breastmilk, I had to wean her from juice!

(13) Stubborn Xuan – Xuan has a stubborn streak a mile wide. H says that she got it from me, but of course I think she got it from her. I just hope she didn’t get it from both of us, that would spell trouble. It gets tiresome when she whines and whines for things that she wants, like the TV or H’s blackberry or some food that she’s not suppose to eat. A week ago, we had to let Xuan sleep in the buff when she insisted on taking off her clothes and refused when we tried to make her wear her pajamas. After 15 minutes, we gave up and just let her run around stark naked, and she settled down to sleep by herself within 5 minutes.

(14) Baby Babble – For the past month, Xuan’s talking has increased 100 fold. She doesn’t say many actual words, words that we understand. But she chatters and talks almost non-stop making so many different sounds and sound combinations that actually, I am surprised she’s not talking much yet. She sounds like she is speaking several foreign languages, she started with Tamil, then spoke French for a while and occasionally speaks Japanese. When we talk to her, she would respond to us, just like she was having a conversation, but we don’t understand what she is saying. She loves to grab any handphone or cordless phone, hold it up to her ear and “talk”, even when there is no one on the other side. The funny thing is, she doesn’t talk when there is someone on the other side, she would just hold the phone and listen. She loves to listen to H’s voice on the phone when he calls home, and almost always cries when he hangs up. Before bedtime, she would babble on and on, perfectly happy to carry a one sided conversation peppered with H or me saying “Xuan, go to sleep!”

(15) Expressive Baby – Xuan still doesn’t talk much as 18 months. However, she understands a lot of things we say and is very good at communicating what she wants. For instance, she has always been sensitive to the gravity force when we go into the lifts. Even when she was a few months old, she would grimace until her face turned red. When Xuan was around 16 months old, we went into a lift and she gestured to us that she was scared by patting herself on the chest. We asked her, why are you scared?” and she responded by showing a falling motion with her hand. H and I were so surprised, we think she was trying to explain to us the falling motion of the lift that she doesn’t like.

(16) Affectionate Baby – Xuan didn’t use to be affectionate at all. For months, we would be spurned by her whenever we asked for hugs and kisses. Recently, she seems to have gotten in touch with her inner self. Now, she spontaneously lavishes us with hugs and kisses. She would run towards us and suddenly hug our legs. Or she would come and kiss us, without being asked. Actually, that only happens when she is trying to get us to turn on the TV for her. Usually, H would ask Xuan for a kiss if she wanted him to turn on the TV. One day, I told her no when she asked me to turn on the TV, she turned towards me and kissed me, then pointed at the TV. I was so shocked (my heart experienced spontaneous combustion) that I turned on the TV for her! The other day, H got a nice surprise when he was walking up the stairs. She pointed at our decorative couple kissing statues and turned up her face to him for a kiss. Wow, that must have melted daddy’s heart!

(17) Naughty Baby – Xuan is a naughty girl sometimes. And she knows it too. When she drops/throws something from the highchair on purpose, or has done something wrong, she would look at us in the eye, and swat herself on her arm while say “thump!” Maybe she is hoping that by swatting herself first, we would not swat her ourselves. It is hard not to laugh sometimes, when she does this. I wish I could get this on video camera, but I have not been successful so far.

(18) Strange Sleep Habits – Since Xuan was weaned, she has developed some strange sleeping habits. She has always been a restless sleeper, easily covering all four corners of her queen size mattress in one night. Often, we would find her partly on the floor. Sometimes she would want me to pat her to sleep, or rub her feet, or massage her legs, or stroke her cheek, or just hold her hand. When H was on leave for a week, Xuan grew attached to him, and would only want him to massage and rub her feet. Sometimes, H and I both have to rub one foot at the same time. Once, she actually slept naked because she didn’t want to wear any pajamas. Yesterday, she fell asleep with half her body under the dresser. The whole of today, for her nap and bedtime, she insisted on sleeping on the floor instead of on her mattress. I wouldn’t be surprised, if one day I would find her snoring in the bathtub or hanging upside down sleeping like a bat!


18 Months Milestones:
Weight – 9.0 kg
Height - 74 cm


Xuan can walk very well, run, climb up and down the sofa, climb up and down the stairs by herself. She can feed herself very well. She can complete a 20 piece jigsaw puzzle by herself. She knows her left from her right. She will let me know once she has done a poo in her diaper.


She can say “papa”, “mama”, “star”, “bath”, “there”, “mum mum”, “nah” and her all time favourite is “no no no no” while shaking her head or pointing her finger at you! When we ask her where certain items are (umbrella, bear, car, etc), she will say “there” and point to the item. When I ask her what happened to a bracelet of mine which she once broke, she would say “prak!” and fling her arms open to show how she broke it. A couple of days ago, she started saying “pou pou” while holding up her arms when she wants us to carry her.


Although Xuan doesn’t really say many actual words, she seems to understand us quite well. She can follow simple instructions such as “keep your blocks”, “park your truck”, “go sit on the sofa”, etc. When we ask her “where is the ball/book?”, she would fling herself flat on the ground and peer under the sofa. When we ask her questions like “where is your milk” – she walks and points to the fridge, “where do you go bathe?” – she walks to the bathroom and says “bath bath” while patting herself on the chest with both arms. When I ask her to “close your eyes and go to sleep”, she will cover her eyes with her hands. She also loves to nod her head or shake her head while saying “nah” or “no” when we ask her questions, although her answers are not always consistent. Her yes/no answers are more consistent when we ask her what she wants to eat “Banana? Bread? Cheese? Banana cookie? Cranberries?” Xuan loves to go out, so whenever we ask her if she wants to go “kai kai”, she will clap her hands and walk to the door.


She can understand and sign the following words / actions: kiss, hug, pain (pat side of head), sleep (put hand at side of neck), star (open and close both palms held up), elephant (pat ear), clap hands, friend (pat someone on the shoulder), wash hands (rub hands together), rub tummy with oil (rub hands together), scared (pat chest with hand), socks, shoes (point at feet), close eyes (cover eyes with hands), giraffe (point at neck), “kai kai” (means going out, she will clap her hands), clever girl (clap her hands in self praise), spectacles / sunglasses (put thumb and fingers together in front of her eyes), hat (pat hands on head), dress (pat her chest), “lat lat” (means spicy, wave hand in front of mouth), hot (for food, wave hand in front of mouth), hot (for weather, pull on collar of shirt), “pou pou” (means full, she pats her tummy), put lotion (rub hands on legs), bracelet (pat her wrist), watch (pat wrist), rubiks cube (put hands close together and twists them), mum mum (means hungry / eat, she points at her mouth and says “mum mum”), and drink milk / water (put her hands by the side of her mouth, tilts her head up and slurps!).


When we say the following words, she can identify or point at the corresponding pictures:
-  Anatomy: head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, stomach, hands, legs, knees, feet, toes
-  Clothes: spectacles / sunglasses, hat, dress, watch, socks, shoes, slippers
-  Items in the House: light, fan, bathtub, bed, window, door, sofa, vase, television, telephone, table, chair, dustbin, ball, comb, balloon, candles, umbrella, teddy bear, clock, rubiks cube
-  Items in the Kitchen: teapot, sink, spoon, straw, cup
-  Items in the Garden: flowers, bird, fountain
-  Nature / Weather: rainbow, rain, stars
-  Fruits: watermelon, apple, orange, papaya, banana,orange
-  Food: carrot, broccoli, pumpkin, fruit juice, bread, cake, biscuit, Cheerios, cheese, jam, milk
-  Animals: elephant, lion, tiger, giraffe, panda, orang-utan, monkey, butterfly, dragonfly, spider, ladybird, fish, bird
-  Musical Instruments: drum, piano, guitar
-  Vehicles: car, bus, train, motorcycle, van, bicycle, ambulance, aeroplane, oil tanker
-  Verbs: clap, cook, cry, dance, drink, eat, draw, kiss, laugh

Month 17: Weaning War...Conclusion

Finally, I am writing about how I weaned Xuan. This has been a long journey (therefore this would be a loooooooong post), beginning when Xuan was 7 months old and thwarted all our efforts to get her to drink from a bottle. The Bottle Battle resulted in a score of Xuan 1: Mummy 0. And again, when Xuan was 13 months she refused all the various formulas we tried to introduce. The Formula Fight score was Xuan 2: Mummy 0. The outcome of weaning Xuan did not bode well for me. Luckily, over the past couple of months, Xuan has started drinking cow’s milk from her sippy cup. She has slowly increased her milk intake from 2 oz/day to between 12 to 15oz/day. Current score is Xuan 2: Mummy 1.



Ultimately though, what I really want to win is the Weaning War. And this is definitely the hardest challenge so far. You see, Xuan only knows how to go to sleep by breastfeeding to sleep. As she doesn’t know how to fall asleep by herself, every time she wakes up in the middle of the night, which happens 2 – 4 times a night, the only way I can get her to go back to sleep is by breastfeeding her. The main reason I want to wean is because I think she can benefit from a better night of sleep, and who am I kidding, I could certainly benefit from a better night of sleep, after being sleep deprived for more than a year. So before I can even wean Xuan, what I really need to do, is to teach her to fall asleep by herself.


The good thing was, since Xuan turned one, I had noticed that there were a few times when she actually fell asleep by herself after she stopped breastfeeding. This did not happen often, maybe only two nights a month, but it was definitely an improvement. There were also a few nights when she slept 7 – 9 hours without waking up. Maybe weaning Xuan before she goes to college will not be impossible afterall!


After obsessing and thinking about this for a long time, I finally decided to set a target of mid-June to wean X. From end of April to mid-June, I would try various methods to teach Xuan to fall asleep without breastfeeding. If all else fails, I asked H to take one week of leave in mid-June, in anticipation that we would need to sleep train Xuan and let her cry-it-out, as a last resort. I doubt that any of us would get much sleep during the first few nights, and we would need to help each other out to get through the days.


I also decided to email Nicole from The Baby Sleep Site (https://www.babysleepsite.com/) for help. I had been reading the sleep articles from this website for a few months now, and I like the philosophy of how she tailors sleep training to suit each individual baby, parent and situation without any judgements. Nicole reverted to me with a Sleep Plan.


Summary of Sleep Plan:
Nights 1-3: Work on bedtime for her to fall asleep on her own. Can nurse to sleep but not all the way to sleep. If she cries, try to soothe her to sleep by patting, shushing, to stop crying.
Nights 4-7: Work on night-wakings with just one feeding. She goes back to sleep on her own for all others.
Nights 8-14: Start moving the one feeding later and later by 30 minutes until she is no longer eating at night at all.
Nights 15-21: Start working on naps, first focusing on going to sleep at nap time and then going back to sleep and napping her full time.
Day 22+: Start weaning completely starting with one feeding every 3-4 days or so.


Nicole’s plan was quite long, but it was something that I was comfortable with as I felt it was achievable. More importantly, she took into consideration my uneasiness of letting Xuan cry at night due to my low tolerance for her crying . We also live in a townhouse and I vary of keeping the neighbours up all night with Xuan’s crying.


Once I started, this was how things actually turned out:


29 Apr to 4 May: I did Xuan’s bedtime routine of yoghurt, diaper change, wipe down, pajamas and breastfeed. I stopped breastfeeding her before she fell asleep. She tossed and turned with periodic bouts of crying and fell asleep herself within 10 minutes. Xuan still woke up 2 – 4 times in the middle of the night, and I would breastfeed her to put her back to sleep. I was surprised that it was not that difficult to get Xuan to fall sleep off the breast, but I was beginning to think that the really difficult part would be getting her to go back to sleep in the middle of the night.


5 May to 7 May: Since Xuan was learning to fall asleep after I stop breastfeeding her to sleep at bedtime, I decided to try the same for naps, just to see how she would take it. I remember the first day I did it, she played a little after I stopped and then she started to cry. I pretended to sleep and lay down next to her, but facing away from her. Poor Xuan cried for 10 minutes and when I finally relented, I turned my face towards her, and she immediately quiet down. While I softly stroked her face, she just closed her eyes and fell asleep within seconds. This reinforced my belief that cry-it-out would not work for Xuan, If I leave her to fall asleep in the room by herself, she would go berserk and cry non-stop. When I stay in the room with her, I can help her fall asleep by soothing her in other ways.


8 May to 13 May: On 8 May, Xuan gave me the best Mother’s Day gift present. She fell asleep at night without breastfeeding AT ALL, and she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for 10 hours without waking up! I was so proud of her! After this, Xuan would fall asleep by herself at night without breastfeeding.


14 May to 17 May: Xuan had a 2 hour long tantrum on 14 May. When her naptime came, I was so exhausted from dealing with her tantrum, I fell asleep before Xuan did. When I woke up, Xuan had fallen asleep on my legs. This was the first time she fell asleep by herself at naptime without breastfeeding. The next day, Xuan’s tantrum terror continued during a trip back to H’s hometown to visit his parents. Xuan had so much fun the whole day with her grandparents and aunt that she refused to take her nap. At bedtime, she kept crying and crying in the room until I relented and decided to breastfeed her. She didn’t want to feed and kept crying. I was afraid she was ill. Finally, H figured out that our devious little girl wanted to go outside where all the action was. By that time, everyone had gone to bed. So I took Xuan out to the living room to show her that there was nobody there and it was all dark. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she pointed back to the bedroom. Finally, she fell asleep after that. The next couple of nights were also challenging as Xuan threw tantrums during bedtime lasting up to an hour. One night she didn’t want to wear her pajamas, and another night she just didn’t want to stop playing.


18 May to 31 May: By now, Xuan can fall asleep herself for naps and bedtime without breastfeeding. A couple of times, she even fell asleep in her highchair. I knew she was tired and I was trying to finish washing the lunch dishes. In the short 5 minutes it took me to wash the dishes, I turned around and Xuan had fallen asleep in her highchair! The sleep quality of her naps also improved as she can consistently sleep for 1.5 to 2.5 hours by herself. Previously, she would wake up 1 – 2 times within a 1 to 2 hour nap and need me to breastfeed her back to sleep.


Previously, Xuan would wake up 2 – 4 times a night and I needed to breastfeed her back to sleep. Nicole’s Sleep Plan had included a part where I was to delay breastfeeding Xuan by 30 minutes every night, when she woke up at night so that she would eventually learn to fall back asleep herself and sleep through the night. Fortunately, I didn’t have to consciously do this as once Xuan figured out how to fall asleep herself, she naturally began to sleep longer and longer and woke up less often. Soon she was only waking up once around 5am, and this gradually became later and later in the morning.


Towards the end of May, I had reduced the number of breastfeeds down to just the morning feed when Xuan wakes up. I still fed her, partly due to her frantic cries of “mama, mama!” At the very end, I also wanted to savour her closeness, touch her silky smooth cheeks and soft curls. Afterall, I also wanted to remember some good memories of breastfeeding Xuan.


31 May was the last day I breastfed Xuan. Xuan is finally weaned! I am so proud of my baby for weaning so well. I did not ever imagine that I could wean her with the minimum of tears, both hers and mine. I am also proud of myself, for being so disciplined and for sticking to the plan. In truth, I was afraid I would crumble and give up if it turned out to be too hard on Xuan. In fact, I had managed to wean Xuan earlier than the plan Nicole laid out for us. I would attribute this success to knowing Xuan’s temperament well, recognising that she was starting the self-soothe and building on that, and also Nicole’s Sleep Plan and encouragement. I need to add, that I am so, so happy, to be reacquainted with my long lost friend called “Sleep”! Now that I manage a decent 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night, I feel like a brand new mother.


Luckily for H, Xuan was weaned well before his week long holiday in mid-June. He did not have to suffer nights of sleep deprivation listening to Xuan cry (which would have been the worst holiday ever, in my books). Instead, we had a lovely holiday just chilling at home, enjoying some outings, catching up with friends, attended a couple of weddings, and even took Xuan to the Zoo.


As you have probably figured out, breastfeeding has been a constant source of struggle for me since the beginning. In the beginning, I was told not to have formula in the house and that colostrums was enough for the baby. Poor Xuan spent her first night at home crying from hunger. When Xuan was on formula, I tried all sorts of things (papaya soup, fenugreek, lots of pumping) to increase my milk supply so that she would be exclusively on breastmilk. I also delayed introducing the bottle to her as I was afraid she would get nipple confusion. Although I did not have common breastfeeding problems such as mastitis, sore nipples, I had another problem, a baby who only wanted my boob 24 hours, 7 days and nights a week.


By the time Xuan was one year old, I was desperate to wean but she refused to drink from the bottle and refused to drink formula. I was seriously sleep-deprived from existing on 3-4 hour stretches of sleep for more than a year. I was also resenting breastfeeding and dreading weaning (and the accompanying crying) at the same time. I even told H that I would not breastfeed our next child (if we have another child, currently Xuan is four handfuls).


In the end, weaning was not as bad as the nightmare I had built it up to be. But now that I have gone through this breastfeeding and weaning experience, there are some things that I would definitely do differently next time:


(1) Feed the poor hungry newborn baby formula if my milk has not come in
(2) Feed the baby from a bottle at least once a day (to ensure baby doesn’t reject the bottle and so that someone else can feed the baby)
(3) Be open to feeding the baby formula once a day, preferably at night (to help the baby become accustomed to drinking formula and also help baby sleep longer at night)
(4) Get someone else to help put baby to sleep
(5) Help baby to fall asleep herself/himself without relying on feeding


Thank goodness, this would be my last post on breastfeeding and weaning!  And I will end this post World Cup style, our final score is Xuan 2:  Mummy 2, both baby and mummy win!

Month 17: The Best Workout in The World, Weightloss Guaranteed

I have the secret to the best workout in the world. It doesn’t involve dieting, fasting, drinking foul concoctions or powdered “whole” meals, counting calories, popping pills, or exclusive gym membership with a personal trainer. On this workout, I lost 10kg in 5 months, my jeans that I’ve had before my wedding (when I was last the thinnest) are just about managing not to slide off my hips to the floor. In fact, I have had to buy a new pair of jeans, as I did not fancy flashing innocent passerbys in the shopping mall when I bent over to pick up my daughter.



My new secret workout is called Xuan. Mmm...perhaps this is a workout with a personal trainer, the personal trainer being a miniature trainer called Xuan! First off, I must warn you that this workout is not for the faint-hearted. Secondly, I must mention that this workout is very intense, it’s an all day marathon, sometimes all night too. Typically my workout starts at 9am and lasts until 6pm, when H comes home. When H comes home, we tag team until 10pm.


My programme is a comprehensive all rounder workout. It’s a marathon because it lasts at least 8 hours daily. It involves weight lifting an 8.5kg baby around the house. This does wonders for my bicep building. Even though our paediatrician laments that Xuan is too light at 8.5kg, it is still no small feat to heft 1/5 of your own weight up and down the stairs for naps, diaper changes and baths. I also do laps, and typically clock...oh...about 50 laps each time I prepare and cleanup after breakfast and lunch, running from the kitchen to the living room to check that Xuan is playing nicely (as oppose to climbing the grills), and back into the kitchen to get utensils / chop carrots / stir the pot / check the fire / wash dishes, before running back into the living room for a another peak.


I work all the major group muscles when I climb the stairs together with Xuan for the 238th time that day. Xuan does it for fun, I do it because I have no choice. I even target problem areas by doing deep knee bends and squats while picking Cheerios, rice, pieces of meat and the odd bit of vegetable off the floor, after each of Xuan’s meals.


Several times a day, I play a variety of sports such as chasing and diving to catch the ball before it rolls into the far reaches of the TV cabinet. I think my flexibility has improved after contorting my body in various positions, to reach the said ball lodged in the far reaches of the TV cabinet. Oh, don’t forget wrestling during diaper changes and wardrobe malfunctions, those are often rousing. This workout also improves my speed and responsiveness as I jump over hurdles of discarded toys while sprinting across the living room to prevent Xuan from diving off the end of our sofa, at split second notice.


Needless to say, all this exercise does have some hazardous side effects. Mainly, I am not sure how much more pounding and heart-stopping moments my heart can take trying to keep Xuan from flying, falling, knocking her head, etc. Not to mention the aches and pains from my neck, to my shoulders and down my back. Sometimes, I get cramps in my right palm and wrist from carrying her for too long. I’m pretty sure my left shoulder is partly dislocated. Actual war scars you can see are a couple of bit marks and a slew of bruises across my body.


At one point, I had numerous bruises appearing all over my body and I had no idea where they were coming from. I actually went to a clinic and did a blood test to rule out anaemia. Turns out I was not anaemic, I just needed to improve my coordination and be less klutzy!


When H is come during the weekend, our shared workout is a relay team event. See, this workout even teaches you the importance of team work! From the time we wake up, I change her diaper and prepare her breakfast while H...mmm...does his morning thing. Then we eat breakfast together and H washes our breakfast things while I enjoy my coffee. Then H watches Xuan while I do my morning thing. Then I watch her while he does the laundry and hangs the clothes outside. When he’s done, he will watch her while I prepare lunch, you get the idea.


By the time her bedtime comes around, we are so often more tired than she is. We will lie down and often fall asleep before she does, while Xuan runs circles around us, bounces on our stomach or climbs on our back. Please don’t ask me where Xuan gets her energy from. For someone who hardly eats, she has enough energy to power the world, that is how energy efficient she is. In fact, if we could find a way to market her energy conversion ( 1 unit of food to 1 trillion energy units) and efficiency, we could be millionaires and save the world from global warming too.


H and I think that we should market Xuan to people who want to lose weight. After looking after her daily for one month, her carer(s) would definitely drop a couple of kgs. One of H’s cousins is keen to try this out during her college break. I wanted to charge, but H thinks we should do it for free, since it’s so much work!


Aside from the weight loss though, there is another benefit to this workout that is unquantifiable and immeasurable. I think the best thing about this workout is the generous dose of feel good endorphins throughout the day, when I see Xuan’s cheeky face, her impish grin and delighted giggles. These moments definitely soothe away the aches and pains at the end of the day!

Month 16: Mothers Should Not be "Monicas"

Those of my generation grew up watching the sitcom “Friends” throughout our teens and twenties. My sister and I, in particular, never tire of this series, just ask my husband. Sometimes we watch for fun, when we do not have anything to watch, when we feel down, etc, we will just put on a couple of episodes of “Friends”. In fact, when I used to travel for work to different places like Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, etc, I can almost always count on satellite TV showing reruns of “Friends” to help me de-stress and feel less homesick. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous as I am not even America, but it does make me feel less homesick!


One of the things my family tease me about is to nickname me “Monica”. They think that I am almost as anal retentive as Monica when it comes to tidiness and cleanliness, even more so after the baby came. But I want to be very clear, that taking care of a baby is as far away from being tidy and clean as you can get. Having a baby means you have all manners of dried food stuck to the high chair, splattered all over the floor, and hanging off the walls. Having a baby means you have to always deal with bodily fluids, like pee, poop and puke. All I can say, is that I have been pooped on, puked on and peed on. In fact, just the other night, all of those things happened to me, just within seconds of each other.

On this Tuesday night, I had already put Xuan to sleep. 2 hours later, around 1am when H and I were creeping into our room, she started to fuss. I tried to calm her and help her to fall back asleep, but she kept crying out in her sleep. Some instinct told me to check her diaper and true enough, she had done a massive poop. So off we went to change her diaper, except that the poor girl really wanted to sleep, and she staged a major protest at having her diaper changed. She kept crying and crying as I was wrestling with cleaning her bottom. H was holding her down, and then I heard him say “uh huh” and when I looked up, Xuan had cried so much that she puked all over her own face!

As she was lying down, the puke ran down her face into her neck and some went into her nose! Poor baby! I immediately propped her up, as the puke in her nose and down her throat was making her gag. As I sat her up, she puked all over the changing mat. Being a rather fastidious baby, she was horrified by the smell and she kept fussing with the puke on the sleeve on her pajamas. She was so freaked out by the experience that she kept crying and crying, and I knew I had to pick her up to calm her down, so I picked her up, unclean bottom, puke and all. She was still crying and gagging while I carried her. Then she puked all over me...and peed on me. After a while, she calmed down, and then H had to clean the changing mat and her pajamas. I had to bathe Xuan and take a bath myself. It was a while before everyone settled down and went back to sleep. What a long night.

Month 16: Potential Shopaholic in the Making

I have a theory, that most women fall into one of three categories. The categories being (1) crazy about handbags (2) crazy about shoes or (3) crazy about handbags AND shoes.

I myself have more pairs of shoes compared to the number of handbags. Most of the time, I am too lazy to transfer all the things from the current bag I am using into the new bag. Inevitably, I would leave something in the old bag, so I usually don’t bother to change handbags. You will often see me carrying the same handbag for mo nths, even if the pink bag doesn’t go with my blue dress. Anyway, this hardly matters now, as the only bag I have been using for the past 15 months, is Xuan’s diaper bag.

My daughter, on the other hand, is definitely category (3). She covettes bags, paper bags, shoes, shoes in bags, things she thinks are bags. She loves to play with her diaper bag, and despite it being twice her size (the bag is not that big, Xuan is rather small size), she insists on carrying it around and amuses herself for long minutes taking things out and putting things in her bag. Every time my sister comes to visit, Xuan will make a beeline for my sister’s bag. Xuan will also insist on carrying my sister’s handbag around, although it easily weighs as much as she does.

Here are some pictures to prove what a bagaholic Xuan is:

Xuan with one of her bags

Xuan with her ginourmous diaper bag

Xuan trying her darnest to carry around her Yee Yee's bag (probably weighs more than her)

Xuan with a paper bag (not very discerning, my girl)

Oh dear, that's not a bag Xuan, that's Po Po's thermo pot!

Finally, Papa relented and bought Xuan her very own handbag (pretty in pink with a bow)

Yesterday, she found her old Pelican toy, which has a beak you can open to drop little fishs, prawns, crabs, etc in, and a hole where the stomach should be to retrieve the toys. She got really excited and started toting it around the house. She even insisted on taking it with her upstairs when I had to change her diapers. It then occurred to me, that she thought the Pelican was a handbag!

Month 15: Weaning War...Looming Ahead

These days, I keep thinking about a mountainous task that I have to attack. Weaning Xuan. This is something that I am dreading, but something that I really want to, no, I really need to do, to preserve some of my sanity.


Weaning Xuan, this would be a major problem. In this area, you can hardly find 2 pages on weaning in the breastfeeding books compared to the 300 plus pages on breastfeeding. In fact, I can just tell you here that when it comes to weaning, most book would just tell you (1) drop one feed at a time slowly over a couple of weeks per feed (2) replace the feed with a bottle of formula or cow’s milk if the baby more than 1 year old (3) give the baby lots of comfort in other ways (4) the mother should not feel pressured by others to wean and should continue this wonderful relationship until the baby is ready to wean.

Please tell me, what happens when it’s the mother who is ready to wean? Afterall, the breastfeeding relationship involves two parties, the mother and the baby. What happens when the mother is desperate to wean, but the baby is not? In cases where the mother is taking care of the baby day and night, it is very difficult to reduce the feeds slowly. The baby will always want to breastfeed when the mother is around. In Xuan’s case, I can imagine how confused she would be, why is it that I cannot breastfeed to sleep at 12pm, but I can breastfeed her to sleep at 5pm, 10pm and throughout the night?

Knowing that my problem with weaning Xuan is tied up with her not knowing how to fall asleep by herself, I armed myself with many, many sleep books by the various experts – Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, The Sleepeasy Solution, The Baby Sleep Book by Drs. Sears, and The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. In fact, these books are all sitting prettily in a row on my bookshelf.

These books mainly follow 2 schools of thought:

(1) Various Cry-It-Out methods: These methods teach parents to leave their babies in their cots alone to teach the babies how to fall asleep themselves. Some methods allow parents to go in intervals (every 5 minutes, then gradually increase the intervals to give the baby time to learn how to self-soothe) to reassure the baby. Of course crying is involved as the babies are not used to this new method of going to sleep. Eventually, the babies do fall asleep, either because they learn how to do this, or because they are just exhausted, I am not sure. Most experts mention that this method works faster for adaptable, easy-going babies compared to difficult, intense babies, who tend to cry harder and longer.

I was trying to find a less extreme method as I suspect Xuan would have a hard time with the cry-it-out method. She seems like an intense baby to me, when it comes to breastfeeding to sleep. For example, when she wakes up in the middle of the night and I try to soothe her in other ways, such as carrying her, she would still cry and arch her back until I breastfeed her back to sleep.

Just thinking about Xuan crying for me to breastfeed her so that she can go back to sleep tears me up inside. I can’t bear to see and hear Xuan cry. And thinking about weaning, which will definitely involve her crying and screaming in rage fills me with dread and despair. My fear is that I would just give in and breastfeed her once she starts crying.

Which leads me to the second school of thought:

(2) Attachment parenting style sleep methods: These methods are mainly baby-friendly and focus more on mechanisms to help mothers cope with late night feedings. There is a section where they advise the fathers to help put the baby to sleep by carrying (Cry-In-Daddy’s-Arms) instead of letting the baby cry-it-out alone. I was not sure how effective this would be as H has never put Xuan to sleep since she was 2 months old. If she wakes up at night after I have put her to bed and I am in the shower, even if H carries her, Xuan would cry and cry until I come into the room before she calms down. Aside from this, I think H might cave in even before I do and beg me to breastfeed Xuan just so that she would stop crying!

Some well-meaning friends have told me to just let Xuan wean naturally. These super mothers are still breastfeeding their 2 – 3 year old toddlers. Unfortunately, I do not wish to emulate them, I only initially planned to breastfeed for 6 months, and I’ve lasted for over a year now. Some books say that it’s better to stop breastfeeding early in the second year, before the toddler turns two as they can become more demanding and fixed in their ways by the time they turn two. So...that is why I am having this major headache, I really need to wean Xuan before she turns two!

The doctor has advised us that the best way to wean Xuan would be for me to go away for a week. At the end of that week, she would have forgotten all about breastfeeding. Mmm...who will take care of Xuan for that one week? H perhaps? If he would do this for me, I would love him all the more for it. However, knowing his love for his daughter, I do not think this is a likely scenario. I must be honest and face the facts, the only way Xuan will be weaned is if (1) I runaway for a week (2) I have to be hospitalised for a week (surely they won’t let the baby stay at the hospital with me?) (3) my untimely demise.

Month 15: Hazards of Being a Mother

This morning when Xuan woke up, she did a poo. So as I was preparing to change her diaper, I gave her one of her shoes to play with. I was laying out the wet cotton pads to wipe her butt, when she suddenly called my attention and held out her right hand towards me, with her index finger and thumb pinched together.



Lately, she has been taking great pleasure in snatching the cotton pads from me when I want to change her diaper and tearing off bits of fluff, and holding the teeny, weeny pieces of fluff between her fingers for me to take and throw away. She would keep holding out her hand and say “mmm...mmm...MMMM!!” until I take the piece of fluff away from her, then she would happily go back to tearing off another piece and repeating this whole interesting activity.


Thinking that there was no fluff in her hand, as she had been playing with her shoes, and not with the cotton, I just pretended to take the “thing” from her fingers, and was about to pretend to discard it in the air...when I noticed that there was actually something, now between my fingers....something brown...a little speck...*sniff*...something smelly....UH OH!!! Too late, I remember that lately Xuan had also been putting her hand down her diaper in her sleep to scratch her butt...YIKES! She had put her hand down her dirty diaper and took out a piece of shit! And passed it to me!!


AIEEEEEEEEE...wipe my hands , wipe Xuan’s hands, look at shoes...AIEEEEEEE...wipe shoes, change diaper, wash my hands, wash Xuan’s hands...try to wipe everything I thought she had touched after that....sigh...the hazards of being a mother...

Month 14: TV Addict

Just 2 weeks ago, my friend visiting from London asked me if Xuan likes to watch TV. “Mmm...not so much, she can’t even sit for the duration of one song...and we’re talking short nursery rhymes here.”



Fast forward 2 weeks, and my little girl is turning into one serious TV addict.


“Like mother, like daughter” my husband would say. I tend to agree, I’ve been bugging him for ages to get satellite TV, currently we only have normal TV which only has 6 channels. If I had satellite TV, the TV would be on most of the time.


Now, Xuan can point towards the TV to ask it to be turned on. There is a DVD of nursery rhymes that my sister bought for her when she was 2 months old, and we’ve been playing it for her almost everyday...she loves to watch this. She will sway and dance along to the music. There are 2 parts during the DVD when there are sounds of children laughing, and Xuan can actually recognise the parts and laugh out loud before or along together with the DVD!


Aside from it being wildly amusing watching her laugh, sway and dance along to the music, it’s a bit of a relief as well. Because now I can leave her in the living room while I go wash stuff or cook in the kitchen. Although I still pop in and out to check on her, the frequency is much less compared to last time when she would start making a fuss once I walk away.


The danger in this convenience is overusing the TV as a babysitter so that I can do my own stuff without her clamouring for my attention every 2 minutes. So...I really have to limit Xuan and myself to no more than 1/2 hour of TV watching, twice a day...just enough time for me to wash the breakfast stuff, prepare her lunch and then again to wash the lunch stuff, and maybe do a bit of surfing or blogging. Still...it is tempting...just as well we don’t have satellite TV afterall.

Month 14: Calling "Papa"

At 14 months, Xuan started to say “Papa”. This would have sent H over the moon...except that she calls herself, me, her grandmother, her aunt and everyone else “papa” as well! Scrap that, both H and I are over the moon anyways. It cracks us up when this happens:



Xuan     : Papa! (points at H)
H & Me : Yes (smiling)
Xuan     : Papa! (points at me)
H & Me : No, that’s Mama!
Xuan     : Papa! (pats herself on the chest)
H & Me : No, you are Xuan Xuan!


*Repeat x number of times throughout the whole day. And this cracks us up EVERY time, even when it’s going on 13, 821.


H says that Xuan is trying to steal his title, I think she has an identity crisis. Even more so now, when she has added “Mama” to the mix and uses “papa” and “mama” indiscriminately for everything! Although she does seem to call out “Mama!” for cases of emergency...such as when I am walking away or she when she is looking for me.

Month 13: Formula Fight

As part of my long, drawn out attempt to wean Xuan (refer to Month 7: Bottle Battle) to some form of liquid nourishment other than directly from my breast, we are now trying to give her formula in a sippy cup. We started giving her a sippy cup a couple of months ago after giving up on making her drink from the bottle. It took her a couple of months, but she has accustomed herself to drinking from the sippy cup quite well. Drinking water from the sippy cup, that is. Drinking formula from the sippy cup, not so much.



The first formula we gave her was Dumex, which she didn’t like at all. I did not expect this, but after referring to the internet, I found that many mothers who breastfed exclusively and especially those who had breastfed directly, had problems trying to get their babies to drink formula/milk. Overseas, once a baby turns 1 years old, they switch from breastmilk or formula to drinking cow’s milk. Only babies below the age of one drank formula, if breastmilk was not available. In Asia, majority of babies are given formula, even after they turn one. I read about parents trying many different types of formula to find one that their baby liked. Many babies had to be tricked into drinking formula/milk, through various methods such as mixing the breastmilk with the formula/milk and slowing increasing the portion of formula, adding flavour to the formula/milk, ie. chocolate, giving vanilla or strawberry or honey or chocolate flavoured formula/milk and slowly replacing the flavoured formula/milk with regular formula/milk. Another advice was to let the baby drink from mummy’s cup, something that was a novelty for the baby, so that the baby would drink the formula/milk. This was starting to sound like a lot of work, just like trying to get Xuan to drink from the bottle!


The next formula brand we tried was Mamex, which was kindly supplied to us by our neighbour. Our neighbour’s daughter is 3 months older than Xuan, and she was formula fed with a bottle since birth. I think our neighbours were pretty stumped when they hear about our bottle refusing, formula hating little baby! Xuan didn’t like Mames either. After one sip, she would purse her lips, refuse to open her mouth and turn her head away. I tried diluting the formula with more water, but she still didn’t like the taste. We did make milk pudding from the leftover formula and this Xuan loved to eat. But we can’t be feeding her milk pudding all day!


The third formula we tried was Dutch Lady. I tried giving her this is my mug, which she actually drank from. After the first sip though, she would push the cup away once she got a whiff of the formula inside the mug. I think she really didn’t like the smell and taste of formula.


Another friend of ours gave us some vanilla flavoured formula, but Xuan didn’t like this either. She only drank it the first time I gave her some, with a straw and at a cooler temperature. But she wouldn’t drink more than 2 ounces, and would drink any after that.


After talking to our paediatrician, she told us that it was fairly common for exclusively breastfed babies to refuse formula. She advised us to try cow’s milk since Xuan has turned one. I was so afraid that Xuan wouldn’t drink cow’s milk either. How would I be able to wean her if she didn’t drink any kind of milk, aside from breastmilk? I would have to continue breastfeeding her until she turned 3! Thankfully, she did drink cow’s milk, although in minute amounts. Over the months, she slowly increased her total daily milk intake from 2oz a day to an average of 12 to 20 oz a day. Maybe we can consider weaning after all!

8 January 2010 - Xuan's 1st Birthday

Today Xuan turns 1! I can’t believe our darling baby is already 1 years old. Time flies, I remember holding a tiny delicate newborn in my arms (oh, so carefully as she was so fragile I was afraid I would hurt her). And now, look at our adorable, energetic girl with her head of black curls and impish grin and that mischievous sparkle in her eyes! This still tiny girl who makes my heart stop with a spontaneous hug or kiss, or when she flings her whole body onto the bed for fun!

We had a simple family dinner at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Xuan’s first birthday. H’s mom and dad came, and so did my mom and sister. Xuan behaved very well during dinner, she entertained us by playing peakaboo with her hanky and posed for photos. She ate all her porridge and a good bit of our dinner too. She gobbled up some of my rice, with steam fice and soft white tofu. After sitting in her highchair for more than an hour, she got bored entertaining us and decided she wanted to get down for a walk. Luckily we managed to book our own room at the restaurant so Xuan could walk around and around our table, hanging on to my hands.

Back home, she opened her presents, and as predicted by H, Xuan showed more interest in the box the truck came in, instead of the actual truck from her Po Po and Yee Yee! As it was well past her bedtime, we quickly took some pictures of her lovely birthday cake, sang Xuan’s first birthday song and cut the cake.


Oh, Xuan’s birthday cake was a beautiful one layer carrot cake with 6 banana muffins (Xuan loves banana) prettily decorated with flowers, and of course the “No. 1” candle for her 1st year.


Here are some pictures from Xuan’s first birthday:
 

Xuan's 1st Birthday Cake

"Happy Birthday Baby!"

Xuan opening presents

Month 12 Milestones:

Weight – 8.0 kg

Height - 73 cm

Xuan can pull herself to standing, stand by herself and walk by cruising. Xuan loves to wear shoes, she even wants to wear her shoes in the house. She will fake cough when she hears my mom cough. She used to say “Om Ma” when she was 9 months, but has since stopped saying that. She can say “nana” when she sees banana, and occasionally says “Buh-NA-NA”.

She can understand and sign the following words / actions: pain (pat side of head), sleep (put hand at side of neck), star (open and close both palms held up), elephant (pat ear), clap hand, friend (pat someone on the shoulder), wash hands (rub hands together), rub tummy with oil (rub hands together), socks, shoes (point at feet), and clap hands.

Birthday girl in her pretty dress

Month 11: First Vacation!

We went to Fraser’s Hill for our first holiday since Xuan. It was a family holiday of course. We went with Xuan. And my mom. And my sis...as said, it was a family holiday.

Fraser’s Hill is a highland area about 2.5 hours away. The temperature in the highlands was about 25 degrees Celsius, colder compared to where we live, where temperatures are usually a scorching 33 degrees Celsius. 33 degrees Celsius is sweltering when you are running after an active baby without air-conditioning. Almost everyday, I think wistfully of my office, which I used to think was a freezer. We only use the air-con for her naps and at night when we sleep.

Anyway, the holidays! At the highlands! At last, I get to dress Xuan in all her “winter” outfits (this is the closest we’d ever get to winter in Malaysia). These winter outfits are gifts from our lovely friends, even though they know how hot the weather in Malaysia is! Knowing that Xuan would probably not get another chance to wear these warmer outfits before she outgrows them, I planned her outfit changes for the holiday like she was a model working the runway. At least 3 outfit changes a day...for the 3 days we were there...and lots of photos too!

Our journey there took more than 2.5 hours. It took longer than we expected, especially with a baby who would NOT nap! Aren’t babies supposed to be automatically lulled to sleep in a moving car? Not Xuan! Once we checked into the bungalow we had booked, my mom and sis took a nap. Xuan took her usual 30 – 45 minute power nap and was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after that. I changed her into Outfit #2, then H and I took her for a leisurely stroll around Fraser’s Hill town, and that took all of 10 minutes, including numerous stops for photo shoots. The tiny town only had a small roundabout in the center, 3 streets leading off the roundabout, a clubhouse, 2 shops, a police station, a post office and a hotel.


Thank goodness, there are some activities to do in this sleepy town. The next morning, we thought about taking a 30 minute hike to a waterfall, but it was raining in the morning, so we abandoned this idea, afraid that Xuan would catch a chill. We went to check out a horseback riding and archery center. We didn’t do any horseback riding ourselves thought, just wanted to point out some horses to Xuan! We went to the boating lake, but unfortunately it was closed, that would have been fun though. We managed to find a miniscule strawberry farm (a far cry from the strawberry farms at Cameron Highlands) but it was so tiny, we didn’t bother to go in afterall. And that took us the whole morning, after a late wakeup and a leisurely breakfast. In the afternoon, we took a long nap and my sister was pretty thankful we were leaving the next day as she was bored to tears. I think she said, and I quote “This is the most boring destination holiday I have EVER been too!”


H and I rather enjoyed our holiday though. It was leisurely and relaxing. We didn’t have to get stressed about Xuan missing her naps, there were hardly any activities to do and the place is so small, it was not a problem going back to the bungalow anytime for Xuan’s naps. I guess after you have a baby, this is the type of family holiday you enjoy.


Here are some pictures of Xuan modelling her Autumn/Winter 2009 wardrobe:

Xuan posing

"Point Xuan, point!"

"OK, I'm pointing now, but what happened to you two?"

"Wow, look at me, I am so tall!"

"What now?"

Here are some pictures taken in our room, the photos (taken by my talented sister) look like they were taken in a studio by a professional:

"And when Daddy carried me, I was THIS tall!"

Xuan always leans her head to the side when we say "Xuan, you're so cute!"

Xuan looking cheeky, just like her Yee Yee

Daddy, Mummy and Xuan

"Look Mummy, only one hand!"

Her Royal Cheekiness

"Hug hug please..."