We had three fairly significant issues we had to decide for Hannah this year:
Putting Hannah into Infant care (Bad): This was initially a pretty clear decision even if it was not easy to make because of compounding factors. We thought she’d have adjustment issues with other babies and/or difficulties getting along with them, and while aware of Infant Cares being potential virus pickup-points, thought we weren’t going to be that unlucky. Boy, were we totally off the mark in this. Hannah got on great with her caregivers and other babies at Infant care, but fell sick with alarmingly regularity. And each time it happened, we were left scrambling to make work and leave adjustments, especially Ling.
Fortunately Lentor was on hand to provide assistance, but we really wanted to try to manage it ourselves without assuming grandparent assistance as a safety net that would always be there for us. By late April, we were just about fed up with poor Hannah picking up all kinds of viruses and falling sick like no tomorrow, so started making alternative plans, and…
Going with the Nanny (Win!!!): … has turned out to be one of the best and most right decisions in 2010. Our nanny adores Hannah, and even her husband and daughter enjoys Hannah too. Helps as well that our baby girl has a winsome personality and seems to be developing the right character traits – or maybe that’s just parental bias talking now haha.:) But it doesn’t take much to see that the nanny has really pulled out all stops to give her best to our baby girl – Hannah is putting on weight, is a happy baby, and adjusts well between the three places she spends the most time in relatively; at the nanny, at home, and on the occasion at Lentor with Grandparents on selected weekends.
Baby Play Yard (Mixed): We bought this as a way of helping keep Hannah within a safe play area when she’s at home. It’s easy to set up, and – for a while at least – Hannah seemed to adjust well to it too, learning to play with herself, develop a good degree of independency, and also learn how to take her first baby walking steps. Why is this a ‘Mixed’ verdict though? Well… Hannah outgrew the Play Yard a lot faster than we’d anticipated! In fact, we used it for just 2 months, after which Hannah increasingly displayed signs of restlessness when she was kept in the Yard. Still, we were able to resell the Yard at very low asking price (Ling had a long queue of persons who all wanted the yard at our asking price when she posted up the sale), and we hope it helps the new Mommy as much if not more than it did for us.
Other decisions made this year:
Ceramic Knives (Bad): This was an impulsive buy, sadly. We were at NTUC Fairprice @ Hougang Point and there was this display booth with a PRC salesman showing the use of ceramic knives. Long story short, Ling believed the sales pitch, and the NTUC Fairprice aunities endorsed the amazing quality of those knives. The two ceramic knives we bought were indeed very sharp… however, the kind of care and maintenance required of them meant that the only way it would remain sharp for us was… to never use it to begin with! Within a fortnight, our ceramic knives were chipping, even with Ling’s best attempts to care for it. Wasted money. We hope the Shigeharu knives we’ve picked up last week will fare better.
Boston trip (Win!!!): OK, so this was a work-trip that I didn’t actually have a choice in LOL. Still, I’m glad that I was at this 24 day trip. Saw Boston, Niagara Falls, Harvard University, the amazing Butterfly Garden, and whales! To say nothing of the amazing experience of working with Singapore’s best and brightest tertiary student interns, and with the staff from MIT in our Singapore-MIT collaborative research project.
Japan trip (Win): Visually, this trip was less interesting for me than the Boston one. But I’m glad that Ling enjoyed it nonetheless, especially since she was with me in Boston and thus didn’t have to go through the same comparisons. I keep telling her that the New England Aquarium is much better than Kaiyukan, but she doesn’t believe me LOL.
Well, that’s a wrap for 2010. Same post again, one year from now.:)
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