Happy 2nd Month, Precious Baby Skyler!

How you’ve grown and charmed the socks off your Papa and Mama! =D

Today, we had a little family celebration of your 2nd Month. Just Papa, Mama and you. We bought a little kaya pandan cake from Bengawan Solo. This is one of Mama’s favourite cakes. You were so sleepy, though, and fell asleep while we were cutting your cake!

Baby Skyler, as you approached your 2nd Month birthday, you started expanding your vocabulary rapidly. From the most sweet-sounding coos that resonate with such warmth and quiet joy, you’ve begun to articulate other wonderful little sounds that sound like “hi”, “why”, “no” and “ah”. Papa and Mama are SO impressed by your expressiveness! We are also very pleasantly delighted by your attempts to communicate with us. Thank you, Sweet Baby Girl!

We simply can’t wait for you to speak your first word. What would it be? “Papa”? “Mama”? Or something surprising, like “Duck”?

You’re probably so verbally expressive because Papa and Mama have been talking to you and singing to you a lot since you were born. Well, actually, we have been talking to you and singing to you even before you were born, while you were still in Mama’s tummy.

These are some of the songs we sang to you after you were born:

· “Close To You”
· “Amazing Grace”
· “He’s Able”
· “Jesus Loves Skyler”
· “Those Magic Moments”

There were also some songs which you seemed to like to sleep too. Whenever we sang these songs to you, you would fall asleep in our arms:

· “Hickory Dickory Dock”
· “Six Little Ducklings”
· “Go To Sleep, My Dear Love”

It’s always surprising to Papa and Mama that you fall asleep to such chirpy, fast-paced songs like “Hickory Dickory Dock” and “Six Little Ducklings”.

With “Six Little Ducklings”, we’ve changed the song to suit our little family:

“Three little duckies I once knew –
Fat ones, skinny ones, just like you.
But the one little duck with a feather on her back,
She ruled her Papa and Mama with her ‘Ack, ack, ack!’”

Before you expanded your vocabulary, you used to call for your Papa and Mama with an “Ack!” So Papa and Mama like to joke about how you “rule” us with your “Ack, ack, ack!” =D

Papa has also started creating songs just for you. When Papa was trying to soothe you to sleep in your first month, he created the following “song” just for you:

“Sleep, Baby Skyler, sleep.
Sleep, Baby Skyler, sleep sleep sleep.”

It won’t be long before you speak your first word, Baby Skyler. While Papa and Mama look forward to that, we will enjoy all the sweetest, loveliest, most wonderful sounds you make now as you “talk” with us.

We love you, our little 2-month-old Baby Daughter. Continue to grow strong and healthy each day!

Papa and Mama

Dear Sweet Baby Skyler,

Today, your “Kow-Fu” (aka Uncle Victor) and “Kow-Moh” (aka Auntie Li San) pledged their love and commitment to each other before God and their families, and what a day it was!

We started the day with a traditional tea ceremony at your Gong-Gong and Po-Po’s (aka your maternal grandparents) house. This is where your Mama and Kow-Fu grew up. Though the place looks a little different now, with all the recent renovations, Mama can still remember all the silly things your Kow-Fu and I did there while we were growing up.

In the afternoon, we attended Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh’s Wedding Service in St. Andrew’s Cathedral. We had front-row seats and you were very good throughout, crying only once in the middle of the service, when you woke up and didn’t know where you were. Papa had to carry you to the back of the church to comfort you, and you kept very quiet after that. Thank you for being such a good girl, Baby Skyler!

Though the whole day was very long for us all, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at this joyous occasion. How did Papa and Mama know you enjoyed yourself too? Well, despite this being your Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh’s big day, you were frequently the star of the day, attracting lots and love and attention from all your doting grandparents, relatives, and even your Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh!

And look how happy you were with the balloon Papa got for you from Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh’s wedding reception!! =D

Tomorrow evening, we will be attending your Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh’s wedding dinner at Marina Mandarin Hotel. The dinner will be held in the exact same ballroom which Papa and Mama had their wedding dinner in, back in June 1999. Of course, the hotel has just completed some major refurbishment, so the place looks a little different now.

Keep smiling, our little Princess! Papa and Mama, and your happily married Kow-Fu and Kow-Moh, love you very, very, very much!

Papa and Mama

To Our Dearest Skyler,

(who is now soundly asleep, dreaming baby dreams)

This morning, we read in the Straits Times about a baby who is ill with a genetic disorder – “Maple Syrup Urine Disorder”. Baby Sage, born last Christmas, is only 3 days older than you. Seeing his picture in the papers, with tubes sticking out of him, made us feel so sad.

Two evenings after your birth last year, a pediatrician came into our room and asked if you could be part of a medical survey. She explained to us that this test, using “tandem mass spectrometry”, was already a regular screening test done in the US for newborns, and that Singapore would begin testing all newborns for genetic disorders using this test from 2006 onwards. If we allowed you to be part of the survey, they would need a few drops of your blood, and the results from your screening test would help them determine what the normal range of readings ought to be.

We were hesitant about allowing you to have this test initially, but after assurances from the doctor that the test was safe and that it was going to be implemented in Singapore in 2006, we agreed to let you participate in this medical survey. After reading about Baby Sage in today’s papers, we’re glad we let you have this test. You were 1 of about 3000 newborns who took part in this survey so that our doctors can determine what the normal range of different types of proteins ought to be in the blood of newborn babies. With these results, doctors would be able to better screen newborns for genetic disorders come September this year, and babies like Baby Sage would have a better chance of survival and recovery.

Skyler, since you came into our lives, Papa and I have had a heightened sensitivity to anything concerning newborns, babies and children in general. Of course, we had always been saddened by stories of poor children all over the world. Now, however, it really hits home. When I hold you in my arms and you look at me and study my features closely, my heart aches for the many babies who, for one reason or another, do not have someone to hold them, feed them, clothe them and love them. It has become incomprehensible why people would abandon their babies after birth, and the thought of the many children in Third World countries who have to fend for themselves is too much to bear.

You have given us new understanding of just how precious a newborn baby is, Skyler. Your small and delicate frame cries out for all the love and attention we can give you, yet God created you strong and hardy enough to survive all our bungling blunders as first-time parents. The warmth of your body when we hold you in our arms gives us an incredibly warm fuzzy feeling in our hearts that we never knew we could have before.

You don’t know it now, Skyler, but you’re a miracle and a joy to have, a true blessing and gift from God. When you’re a little older, we shall pray together for all the little children in the world who, for reasons too sad to dwell upon, do not have papas and mamas to love them, hold them and kiss them. For now, though, we shall cherish every moment you look us in the eyes, smile and coo so sweetly our hearts melt.

We love you, our Darling Skyler, more than you know now and much more than you can ever imagine.

Papa and Mama