The Chrimsters

Week 3 SGH.. and life goes on

2012-02-13T15:28:00.002+08:00

Last Friday was the 3rd week of work at SGH.

Surprisingly things went quite well!

Of course I had been rostered to a different theatre from the previous week, so it took me a while to orientate myself.

I proceeded with the usual machine check.. and OMG.. it wasn't even possible to do a manual check! Thank goodness I can READ and sort of follow instructions off a ventilator!

I had a nice but quiet consultant for the day, and she liked to send me off for breaks so that she could also do the same.. but I kind of wanted to stay in the theatre. I guess when you don't have to do this everyday you get the feeling of missing stuff being 'on break'. Besides there was hardly anyone I knew to 'have a break' with. The orthopaedic surgeon was pretty cool too, played funky music during the entire 9 hours we were there.

But, at the end of the day, I was really happy to go home, and go back to my simple life! Missed the kids so much!

When I got home, the 2 girls were playing happily, no one was missing anyone, and life went on as per normal. Friday night Chris' friend from Malaysia was down visiting, so we took him and the girls out to the Botanic Gardens to feed fish and have dinner.

Saturday was maniacal as well. Clinic was busy busy.. then home to see the girls, then we had lunch with M.Han at his restaurant 53. We were supposed to start at 130pm, but it was closer to 2 when we finally did start. It was worth the wait though. The menu has improved and the food was inspiring. Our 'simple lunch' turned out to be a 6 course degustation meal!

We also got to meet his new love, C, who is an entrepreneur doing internet based restaurant booking systems. She was chatty and friendly, so the 3.5h lunch went by quite fast.

Of course by the time lunch ended it was almost time to go to dinner at NUSS Guild house at Bukit Timah to celebrate Geok's birthday! Again, another 5 course set dinner. With dessert and a birthday cake. Death by chocolate cake.

Sunday was meant to be a nice quiet day, since Warni had the day off. BUT.. as things would have it, our neighbour suggested an afternoon out at the Bird Park....uuhhhh... alright.. Madison was so keen. Even though WE were exhausted from the week.

Turned out... the kids had a really long afternoon nap, followed by bad weather in Jurong ( thank goodness we didn't make it there!). So that turned into an afternoon at the ECP flying kites and playing with sand. Followed by a dip in the pool at the Swimming club and dinner. It was fun! I just wish the club renovations would proceed at a faster pace so that we can start going there regularly again to swim and eat.

So.. another week has passed, and I am happy that this anaesthesia thing happened to me. Happy that I have supportive family that allow me to do this. Happy that the kids coped well with the change. And of course happy that I now know what I want to do with my life! That's for now.. Things do change...

Oh.. the only thing bugging me now is our rental property. IT'S becoming A PITA. The tenant defaulted on rent AGAIN, and when I sent the agent on her, turns out she doesn't want to continue with the lease! Gee, thanks.. just NOT pay instead of nicely telling us that you don't want to continue? So now we've got to start tenant hunting again. I hope we find one soon enough. She wasn't even paying as much as G's unit which is 4 floors down!

Working at SGH, Annika's first day of school

2012-02-04T11:06:00.002+08:00

Everything went surprisingly well!

First, me..

I had an enjoyable 2nd session doing anaesthesia at SGH.

I got there early this time, (but STILL forgot something-my stethoscope!). Since the kids spent the night with my parents I didn't have to rush around dropping anyone off in the morning.

I was again sent to the orthopaedic theatre, surprise, surprise, the same theatre that MH was working in for the day! The anaesthetist I was working with for the day was really nice, relaxed and she gave me the chance to intubate. She was amazingly cool about everything, didn't get stressed or tell me off when things went wrong. (not seriously, but like minor inconveniences like when I somehow managed to disable the contraption that dispenses propofol/remifentanil to keep the guy asleep!!) The freaking alarms were going off and I was freaking out... of course the surgeons were all like..'haha, that sounds like a car reverse sensor man!)

It's nice to go back this time, sans stress of sitting and studying for exams, with little expectations of the job. I think retrospectively now, that if I had not sat the exams so early in my career the last time I might still have been doing this job. Of course having done GP work also makes a difference... I have more empathy for patients now and also more confidence in dealing with people. So.. no losses.

As for Annika, she went to 'school' for the first time. So sad that I wasn't the one to take her there.. but

Apparently she had FUN!

I was told, she was running around abit, but could sit and participate in some of the activities.

When snacks were served at 1030am, Warni took the opportunity to give her a meal, and apparently she enjoyed the group eating!

By 1130 or so (as I expected) she started getting tired and Warni took her home...

I hope that the school will allow Warni to stay as long as Annika needs... I'm happy she had fun at school.

School for Annika

2012-02-01T15:41:00.002+08:00

I have been rather stressed about sending Annika to school this year.

It was already organised last year, so as Febuary drew closer I kept asking myself if it was the right time to send her to school... for some reason Annika seems like such a baby to me! ( Madison was already attending drop off classes 3 times a week at 18 months! )

So I emailed the principal at Joy Little, just to check that she was indeed supposed to start.

They didn't reply to the email, but a teacher gave me a call instead.

So it's confirmed, she's to start Friday, 3rd Febuary.

Now that I've started this new thing with SGH on Fridays, this means the kids sleep over at Novena Thursday night. My parents willingly volunteered to help with transport to and from school for Madison, so that leaves Warni with Annika.

I feel guilty and a little sad that I'm not going to be accompanying Annika to school for the first 2 weeks, but it's probably better for her that it happens this way. Warni is to stay with her for the first 2 weeks, then depending on how she copes, just to bring her lunch in early subsequently and take her home whenever she got tired. I think she'd be more clingy and fussy if I were there and then tried to leave. Or worse still, dropped her off. It's like the naps. When I put her down she fusses and cries and it just seems so stressful, but when Warni does it all is well.

Yesterday Annika was looking for Warni all afternoon! She actually didn't "want" me and specifically looked for Warni. And cried at night when we were about to go home! Of course I felt a little sad, BUT, again, hindsight is really useful. Madison did something similar at the same age, and of course, it was a phase.

Anyway.. I made sure to spend more time with her this morning. She does spend quite alot of time with Warni, and I'm happy that she is loved and well cared for. Her speech is developing at a phenomenal pace, which is also why she would benefit from a Mandarin playgroup.

When I googled "preschool for 18 month old", I was taken to a Berkeley parents network forum discussion on the topic. Looks like this is a universal concern amongst parents(specifically, MOTHERS). I wonder why fathers don't seem to have the same concerns! Or have this type of discussions on forums!

Back at SGH

2012-01-30T14:20:00.003+08:00

I did it!

Took some planning to get the logistics right, but the stars were aligned so I got to go back to SGH to work for the day.

1. Music class got postponed
2. Madison fell sick --so no school anyway!

So Thursday night Madison stayed over at Novena while Annika came home.

Friday morning was a mad rush! I had to meet WS at 0750h, but at 0720 Annika was still asleep. Of all days! Then I realized I probably needed to bring my stethoscope along, so made a quick dash to the clinic to pick it up while Chris was still home.

Got home and she was still sleeping! ACK! Running late, so I made Chris drop her off at Novena instead. Drove like mad to make it to SGH, ended up being only 3 minutes late!

At SGH, had to figure everything out again. Managed to get changed, gowned and then met up with the consultant in charge of the roster. She sent us off to the tea room to wait while she went to sort stuff out.

Fortunately by 9 we were then dispatched to L2(me) and L8(WS). I was so thankful I was paired off with a really nice consultant. IT was like being thrown into the deep end. Everything looked familiar yet foreign.

But... it's kind of like riding a bike. Or skiing. You just stumble around like an idiot for a few hours, then it slowly gets familiar again. I managed to only botch 1 iv plug up(amazing!). Didn't get to do anything fancy( phew!) and we managed to finish by 5!

A few things:

1. It's SOOO COLD! I was literally shivering the entire time I was there. Especially just prior to lunch.
2. I forgot to bring socks, or theatre shoes. YUCK.

So, looks like I'll probably stick this one out for now, not sure how long they'd need us anyway. It was good to have this sensory overload for the day,it sure went by really quickly. But I'm glad I don't have to do this everyday. I really missed the kids, since I didn't get to see either of them since Thursday night.

IT also made me appreciate my life as is now, and the time I have for everything since I'm not in the rat race. But getting out to do this ALSO gives me the patience with the kids, because it tires my brain out and gives me intellectual stimulation.

Let's see how long this lasts!

Revisiting old work, CNY

2012-01-25T14:32:00.002+08:00

Last week, an old friend from Anaesthesia/ GDFM days emailed me regarding going back to SGH to locum for the anaesthesia department.

I was torn.

Part of me was definitely interested, to see if I could still do the stuff I used to do. Maybe even (horrors..) consider a change in career (again!)

Of course the other part immediately quashed all that. What about the clinic! what about the kids!

and the first part started thinking, why is it my problem again? How come I can't be the one to leave for work everyday at 7, 7.30am, and let other people feed/change/ferry my kids around and plan their schedules every day?

So initially I thought I could just ignore it and hope that I didn't have to decide so quickly if I wanted to do it.

Then another message: he was going to start Friday 27th! So soon! So I said, no thanks, Madison has music that day, can't make it!

Then guess what? Just at that very moment, after I replied his message, I got one from the music teacher, saying she was away Friday 27th, no music class!

So I took that as A SIGN. Guess I should give it a shot. The universe has aligned for me to do this.

Once I made that decision, things happened really quickly. Emails, phone calls and text messages fired away from various directions. Finally my BCLS recertification was organised, and we were booked to come in on Friday morning at 8am!

I'm not really sure what to expect or what to think, but I guess after having 2 kids, I've learnt to let go a little and just go with the flow. See where and if it'll take me anywhere.

CNY 2012

Our first Chinese New Year in Singapore. Turned out pretty good actually. Since all the family was away, we didn't have to do anything special. We did have dinner at home and the kids got to toss Yusheng(twice!). We were also kindly invited to New years' lunch at our neighbour's place.

And was it a good thing we opted out of travelling this year. Apparently it was a nightmare getting to KL!

School for Annika, HMDP

2012-01-13T16:10:00.002+08:00

Last year I started thinking about school for Annika.

My initial plan was to accompany her for a few months in some form of Mandarin based programme, starting with an hour or so once a week, then gradually progressing to a drop off class, 3 times a week, max.

My preference was also Joy Little, which is a stone's throw away from us, rather than the one Madison attended at Serene Centre.

But, as it turned out.. Joy little didn't have any of those things I wanted. So I hesitantly signed up for drop off classes twice a week starting Feb.

I was(am) still quite nervous so today I took Annika down to the centre to have a second look.

Turns out, Annika went right in, started playing with the stuff at the school! She's really quite a sociable person with an endless amount of energy. No wonder she stays skinny.

And I got to talk to the teacher/principal, and was quite reassured:

1. They allow the kid to be accompanied for up to 2 weeks at the start
2. They are rather flexible in pick up times: so this means Annika can start with a shorter class and be picked up earlier if I so wished.

That really took a big load off my mind. So looks like Annika will be starting next month at the school, and depending on how she copes she might end up going between 3 to 5 times a week.

HMDP: Human Manpower Development Programme

That's the fancy name for the fellowship year.

After all this time, FINALLY Chris will (hopefully, fingers crossed) be exiting this year and become his profession.

After that, he has to consider taking 6-12 months off to work overseas.

Most times the family accompanies the husband.

Should I do that too?

What would happen to the clinic?
What would happen to Warni?
What about school?

But 6-12months seems rather long to be apart too... although my parents did it for a year each.

And it would be time well spent with the kids.

I really don't know what to do.

I know in 5 years time it probably won't matter whatever we do, but for now there is a decision waiting to be made.

Hopefully the answer will come by itself.

Injections, injections

2012-01-11T16:43:00.002+08:00

I'm so glad the final round of vaccinations is finally OVER!

Yesterday Annika went for her last round of immunisations. My plan : for her to receive the last round of diptheria/tetanus/pertussis shots and then I would follow up with her last round of measles/mumps/rubella and chickenpox shots.

What she ended up with? ALL OF THEM. I was slightly nervous about giving them all at once, was it an overkill of antigens??

But her paediatrician said:" how many antigens are we exposed to on a daily basis?" Which is true, I guess. And of course, that would make it her FINAL round of routine shots. Which was probably the best selling point.

And while we were there, she also asked me if Madison has had her booster dose of the MMR. Of course she hadn't, I was "saving" that for next year. And of course I was sold on the idea of having BOTH their shots done once and for all.

Madison heard the news and she immediately protested. But she was really logical. When I asked her if she would rather get measles and have fever/rash/abdominal pain blah blah she agreed on having the shots. Then she told me she wanted the shots at home! How amazing was that!

Annika was first up to receive the shots. She wasn't too bad. Yelled for a split second and then stopped when she was distracted.

Madison was next. She knew what she was up for, so gave me instructions specifically as to how she wanted it done. 1. Sitting on my lap. 2. Left thigh. 3. ASAP! She kept telling the nurses to do it NOW ! while they were busy checking her name, her allergy status etc etc.

But, she was fantastic. Not a tear, not a scream. Took it bravely. I was so proud of her. And she didn't even ask for compensation!

So they both have their vaccination certificates all printed out ready for school, and they were "discharged" from the paediatrician! Hooray! (makes me think really hard if I could do this all over again another time!)

New school year

2012-01-05T11:26:00.002+08:00

After a 2 week school holiday, Madison is finally back at preschool.

I cannot imagine what kids her age do at home if they didn't go to school! 2 weeks seemed like a really long time when she was home everyday! I had to think really hard of things to occupy her everyday. It is great that Anthony is here with us at the moment so he's around to referee the kids fights. If it wasn't Madison vs Annika, it would be Annika vs Elizabeth, or in the worse case scenario Madison vs Annika vs Elizabeth and all 3 would be screaming/crying .

Anyway, drop off on Day 1 wasn't too bad. I went into the school with her because we had to find her new classroom. It was great that her Chinese teacher was the same so not everything was new. I think class numbers went up so she had more classmates.

When I picked her up she seemed ok but she did tell me she didn't really talk to anyone. Over the next day or so she seemed a little more emotional than usual, so I figured it must be due to the "new class" effect.

Today, I checked the shoe boxes carefully and then I realized: her best friend was no longer in the school! Most of the other kids were from her previous class but her closest friend didn't seem to be there anymore.

Anyway, I talked to Madison and encouraged her to socialize and talk to her other friends. I think today must have been better because she seemed to be more cheerful and back to her usual self.

Next year Annika will start school with Madison. Already I've been bringing Annika along with me to pick Madison up, so she gets to walk around the classrooms. She seems to like the place, but I guess it will be different once she realizes that I'm leaving her there! But it will be quite different to have both of them occupied the entire morning! I can't imagine starting again with another kid by that stage...

New Year 2012, sleep training kid 2

2012-01-04T17:14:00.002+08:00

Another weekend flew past.

New Year's eve celebration was held at Novena as usual. The grandparents had organised a countdown party, complete with catered food and alcohol.

Turned out pretty good. Not all of the invited guests came, which made for a cozier group of people.

We catered from Chilli Api, which serves Peranakan food. It was surprisingly good for catered food. There was a good selection of seafood and the spice level was tempered so nothing was excessively hot.

By midnight, we were down to a few closer friends and family. MH's family were visiting as well, but they were sound asleep at champagne toast! The kids were sound asleep upstairs too. We took them home afterwards.

Sleep training:

I think we are at it again, but this time with Annika. She used to be such a good sleeper till the past few months! I really don't know what happened. Maybe just teething, being sick etc. Now she goes down really well, but then starts to whine and cry in the middle of the night. Most times she would settle but then do it again at least once more before dawn. Exhausting, to say the least.

The other night she was inconsolable! Chris wound up sleeping in Madison's room, and she slept on the bed with me. She slept amazingly well that night.

So Chris decided to be firm with her. For 2 nights he has been putting her to bed, ignoring her cries and just simply shushing her to sleep. Apparently she doesn't want him to pat her down or to be carried. After a bout of screaming, she went down. And stayed asleep till the next day! The second night she started crying again in the middle of the night, but Chris went in and repeated his actions. Seemed to work till morning. Hopefully we are on to something? Why can't kids just SLEEP already!! That is all WE want to do!

Happy holidays.. Christmas weekend

2011-12-27T14:49:00.003+08:00

I am happy that we had a successful Christmas weekend.

1. Both kids were finally better from HFMD, eating better, sleeping somewhat better

2. LONG WEEKEND! We had Saturday, Sunday and Monday off. For a change!

3. Social events lined up...

Friday: Lunch out with clinic staff. Dinner with Joan, Adrian and Su. We were meant to go out but it was pouring and we figured Christmas eve would be booked out so we got takeout and ate at home. The kids had a ball and Annika was so excited she refused to go to bed till close to 10pm! My fault.. I got her really excited about going to the airport to pick her Uncle Anthony up on Saturday.

Saturday:

Hung out at home, swimming, then lunch. Evening was AIRPORT excursion for the kids. Mission: Pick Anthony up. The kids were so excited! We took Madison, Annika and Elizabeth together with Warni and Maria. Good thing we brought the team. Took a while before Anthony came out from immigration and picked his bags up. The kids were running amok! Playing tag at the empty taxi queue area. It was exhausting keeping an eye on them. When we got back from the airport, turned out Geok and Munhon hadn't had dinner yet so they brought food over and we ate together at the poolside. Finished in time for torrential rains to start. That was Christmas eve dinner.

Sunday:

RAINING. ENDLESSLY. We had breakfast with the family at Dempsey, followed by PRESENTS, presents and more presents. Of course the kids had a ball ripping gifts open. This year everyone was more prudent, so the kids didn't wind up with a whole bunch of useless plastic.

Afterward, I got to watch my 2nd movie since Annika was born! Mission impossible 2. Met up with Su at Golden Village at Great World City. It was a pretty good show to watch at a cinema since it has so many dramatic effects. Some parts were pretty lame, to the point that it was probably implausible. Still... that's what movies are for.

The evening was spent with ALL the kids. Madison, Annika, Elizabeth and Lynn. Took them all swimming, then dinner at Great World City (again). It was pretty stressful, trying to manage all of them, but we did pretty well.

Monday:

It was supposed to be a BORING chill out day, but wound up to be another "kids" day. Caroline brought her boys over to swim. Now we had Joshua, Matthew, Madison, Annika and Lynn. They were screaming the place down, running round and round the pool, jumping in, getting out. The energy! Endless! We were supposed to go out for lunch, but by the time we got everyone showered and settled I think the adults were pooped.

So? PIZZA! KFC! I whipped up a batch of dino pasta with sundried tomato pesto ( just so we could be a little bit 'healthy' ). Took everything down to the 14th floor deck to eat. Fantastic. Annika was down for a nap, the older kids entertained themselves and we ate in peace. Caroline went home after lunch to nap her kids, and we took Madison out for a drive while we got Starbucks frapps.

After naps we met up yet again, this time at Bishan park. It's great when the kids are together. They are able to play together quite independently now. The adults got to sit in the sand while eyeballing the kids, then when they were worn out we got dinner at the Canopy cafe. The cafe did pretty well to keep us happy, considering there were 7 adults and 5 kids. It started to drizzle just as we got there so we had to eat indoors. We took up a big corner and were rather messy, but they were so good to accomodate us and service was prompt. I will definetely go back there again. With or without kids.

Tuesday was ZOO outing day.

Met up with Caroline and her kids at the zoo, saw a bunch of animals and then made our way to the waterplay area right at the end. The zoo visit is not complete for the kids without the de riguer visit to the water play area. It is the perfect place to tire the kids out and ensure a healthy appetite for lunch. By the time they were done for, we had no choice but to have KFC (again!) for lunch. My only grouse with that place is the lack of food choice. You either eat KFC or Ben & Jerry's for lunch. Or pack your own.

That ended the Christmas weekend, but we still had the New Year Weekend to look forward to! I love this time of the year!

HFMD part 2

2011-12-23T14:43:00.002+08:00

Almost 1 week has passed since HFMD struck our household.

Thankfully, the worst seems to have passed and we are all on the mend.

Unfortunately Elizabeth seems to have caught the bug despite being kept apart from the other 2 for the past week. She joined them just yesterday..

Annika is on a picky eating phase at the moment. It's really ANNOYING. I don't know what to give her for breakfast anymore. I hope it's a phase and not an enduring trait. It drives me insane having to face food refusal FIRST thing in the morning. EVERYDAY. Thankfully Madison is quite good, she's not really fussy and takes most things I give her nowadays.

I wouldn't be so fazed with her food refusal, except that she is and looks so much thinner than Madison at the same age. It makes me feel sad and bad, like there is/was something that I could have done to prevent it.

So for now, I let Warni do the meals for her, since I have lost confidence and patience with trying to get her to eat her meal.I'm hoping when she turns 2? she will get better? I rationalise that it is better for a patient person to do that and everyone be happy than for me to get worked up every meal time with her. I was like that with Madison and it wasn't a pleasant time at all.

Too quickly the holiday season is upon us and too quickly it'll end as well. Anthony is coming to visit from tomorrow till mid January so that's really nice. Despite our differences I really appreciate him now more so than ever. He's fantastic with the kids and has alot of patience with them. It would be nice if he were living here too.

It's bittersweet that 2011 is coming to an end. So quick. My 2nd baby is growing up, and already she's losing her babyness. Madison is more than half my height and getting smarter everyday. Annika is still small but thinks big thoughts. Our parents are getting older and I get a new sense of appreciation for them everyday.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Illness of the month

2011-12-19T15:11:00.003+08:00

IS ... (drumroll)... my most dreaded HAND FOOT AND MOUTH disease..Sigh..

It is unbelieveable!

Madison returns to school for ONE week after our holiday and manages to catch HFMD in time for the school holidays! How do kids do that?

Unfortunately there is an outbreak at her school at the moment, and even though the school did try their best to contain it Madison managed to catch it. I have to say it's probably about time, since she managed to escape the past few times.

The funny thing is that Annika was the first to come down with symptoms. She was perfectly fine when she woke Saturday morning, then when I came back from work Warni was asking me why she had some weird rash on her butt. She wasn't doing too badly but I had my suspicions already.

By Sunday the mouth ulcers appeared and boy WAS SHE GROUCHY. I think Madison had similar symptoms but she's been very good.

Today has been the worst so far, and I'm hoping it'll not get any worse. It was a really BAD screamy crying tantrumy morning. I'm stressed.Of course Annika didn't want to eat today so that made it worse. And of course there's some trouble at work with an unhappy patient. And to top it off my sister calls me in the middle of clinic just to confirm that my kids have HFMD and so do the maids need to repeatedly wipe the toys after my kids have been through them!!! I lost it at her.. so we had an argument.

Sigh.. of course now I probably have to apologize and work it out with her..

Melbourne trip 2011

2011-12-14T16:54:00.002+08:00

We survived the trip!

It was pretty good actually.. despite being quite tired when we got back I felt somewhat rejuvenated. Like a good break from the monotony of life at home.

We left on Wednesday night for a midnight flight. I was sneaky.. I doped Annika prior to the flight so she slept like a log throughout most of the flight. Unfortunately I had to carry her for most of it so by the end I was a little numb and sore. BUT.. worth it.

We arrived Thursday morning and checkout at the immigration department was horrible. Snaking long queues. Well, Annika yelled her head off and I think that got us to the front pretty quickly. Once we cleared that the rest was amazingly breezy. Chris' mum and Anthony were waiting outside so we drove straight home.

The first few days we spent just chilling out. Went to the playground next door, took the kids to the fantastic Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and did a little shopping. The kids really loved the warm swimming pool at MSAC. And of course the playground, which perpetually had kids around. It was nice having a home there so the kids didn't have to eat out every meal.

On Saturday our travelling companions arrived. They kept themselves occupied during the day so we only met for dinner. The next day we picked up our 12 seater Commuter bus and drove down to Phillip Island to see the penguins.

Despite being summer it was chilly and downright FREEZING at the penguin parade. We had to be seated at a platform 1 hour before the birds came out and it felt really long. When the sun set the penguins FINALLY started waddling out of the water and they were quite cute. The kids had a ball watching them, but thank goodness that's done. I don't fancy doing that one again.

We stayed at the Silverwater resort at San Remo, just across the bridge from Phillip island. It was a pretty nice place. We had a 3 bedroom apartment and a studio. Chris' mum and Anthony came as well so we took the 3 bedroom unit. The resort had an indoor heated pool as well, which we used the next morning.

The second day at Phillip Island we spent checking out the various attractions. There was the Amaze and things ( crap ), Koala conservatory ( not bad, got to see quite a few koalas ), and the chocolate factory ( crap, crap and waste of $$! We paid $24 a head expecting to sample heaps of chocolate but there were a grand total of 2 samples!!)

We headed back to Melbourne after the chocolate factory because my parents had arrived that morning and were making us dinner. And an impressive dinner it was! Chai made his signature beef rendang with coconut rice, sambal kangkong, Pa made his chicken soup, we had some steak that we bought from Phillip island and there was chocolate fondue for dessert.

The next few days were spent shopping, eating, drinking coffee and more playground time. Chai's graduation ceremony was on Thursday the 8th of December. That took 2 hours and we had our celebratory dinner at Number 8 at Crown Casino afterward. That dinner took 2 hours. It was midnight by the time we were home.

Friday was exciting.. we were off to the Mornington Peninsula. This time with an even bigger group. There were 9 adults and 3 kids in the first group that left on Friday morning. Then 4 more joined in the next day, Saturday. We stayed at a rental house fairly near the beach. It had 3 main rooms, 2 with queen beds and 1 with bunkers. There was also a "guest room" which was more like an outside shack with bunkers. For all that many people it only had 1 bathroom!

The first day we went cherry and strawberry picking. Since we didn't want to spend over $100 picking fruit at each location we sent in 3 adult representatives to accompany the 3 kids each time. The others waited outside and ate fruit that had been pre picked. Everyone was famished and tired by the time dinner rolled around so we ate charcoal chicken and fried noodles for dinner.

The second day we had grand plans to go to the farmer's market, and after the hassle of getting everyone ready turns out it wasn't even on. Anyway... it was fortunate that a party shop opened next door so the kids got free face painting and balloons. We wound up going to Sorrento for lunch and then it started to POUR the rest of the day. So that ended the plans for going to the spa in the afternoon. We did have our steamboat dinner though, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed that.

We finally did go to the spa on Sunday, on the way back to Melbourne. We managed to get into a small argument with the reception staff. They were RUDE. Actually one was RUDE. The spa itself wasn't too bad. All the kids got to go into the kiddy version of hotsprings, one pool that was heated to 36C.

I think the best part of the trip would've been our last dinner with our friends. We left the kids at home to be babysat and just the 2 of us drove out to a friend's home for pizza dinner. I guess it felt like a relief the entire trip went without a hitch and we could call it a success.

All too soon the trip was over and we were on the flight back home on Monday. Again.. not too bad really... Annika complained at the start with the bad immigration queue, during parts of the flight, BUT she did sleep ( sans antihistamine) so I actually got to watch part of a movie ( then I fell asleep so can't blame her for not finishing the movie!) The service on Singapore Airlines was EXCELLENT. So nice, compared to the below average service that we received from the Aussies during the trip.

I think as the kids get older the Melbourne trip should get easier, and I'm actually looking forward to next years' trip already! We were harbouring thoughts of moving back to live there, but I think it'll probably not happen right now... I'm quite spoilt by the help and ease of life here in Singapore!

Food battles

2011-11-21T10:26:00.002+08:00

Why do kids engage in food battles with their parents!!

Annika is now stressing me out majorly with her stubborn refusal to eat properly.

She was born a good sized 3.5kg, but by 1 year old managed to be lighter than her sister by over 1 kg!!

I remember food battles with Madison as well, but somehow they were not AS BAD.

Elizabeth, on the other hand seems to eat really well! She can down an entire bottle of milk, then go on to eat her full meal immediately afterwards! Amazing. And the irony? Geok doesn't particularly like to cook. While I would go on dreaming up various meal for my 2 and they would then proceed to p*** me off by making the meal seem like poison.

This morning Annika wouldn't eat her breakfast. Then I had to rush Madison with hers because today is a school day. Between the 2 of them I nearly lost it. Eventually I took Annika out of her high chair because she.just.wouldn't. eat. And I GAVE UP.

On the bright side though, last night was the first night in a week that Annika finally slept through. Maybe it was the antihistamine I gave her before bed but WHATEVER! I feel so much better with the sleep.

Of course I know as a doctor that kids eat when they are hungry, but somehow when it's YOUR OWN refusing food and looking somewhat skinny it makes me panic. Like it makes me a lousy parent who couldn't stay home and make my child healthier/eat better. Seriously, my heart actually twinges when I look at Annika and remember what Madison looked like at the same age.

I hope this is just a stage and she will eventually eat better, but there are some kids that never go on to be great eaters. My fear is of course her growth, that it will be stunted by the relative lack of nutrition, but WHAT CAN WE DO! I'm not very patient with this kind of thing.

Visitors from Down Under

2011-11-20T21:24:00.002+08:00

This was supposed to be our fun weekend.

Our good friend, A, from med school was enroute to the Maldives with his partner so we were meeting them for dinner.

OF COURSE one of the kids had to make sure they had SOMETHING just so we could be super tired.

Friday night we took the couple to Prive for dinner. Unfortunately we weren't aware that our friend's partner suffers from severe vertigo/motion sickness and we JUST had to take them on a rushed drive winding through Friday night traffic ALL THE WAY to Keppel Island for a "romantic double date" dinner. Just enough to make the poor gal sick the WHOLE TIME. Otherwise we had a great meal, great conversation and a good time.(the rest of us)

Saturday went rather well. Chris was supposed to "operate" on some animals for his research project but fortunately(for me) they died on Friday so he was free(hooray!!). That gave him the ENTIRE morning with the kids because I had work.

Speaking of which... argh... had a run in with a patient this weekend. She had a known complication which I had warned her about, but I guess she became anxious and defensive about it. Which of course made me MAD...

Madison had her tennis lesson, which according to Chris went pretty well. He took the 2 girls swimming afterwards and apparently Madison can swim a short distance without floats!! Hooray.. the first step towards water safety!!

We met the couple again for dinner, and this time we WALKED to get dinner. Turned out pretty well! Satay and prata at Makansutra by the bay, then dessert at Marina bay Sands. The night skyline at the Marina Bay is really pretty! The new additions to the area have perked the place up.

Saturday night was TERRIBLE. Thank goodness we let Madison sleep over with my mom. Annika went to sleep ok, but within 30 minutes was up crying. At first we let her "CIO"then she must have walked to the door and shut herself in. I felt really bad so I went in and she was trying to put herself back to sleep but she seemed to be really uncomfortable. Eventually I turned the lights back on and OMG.

She was covered in hives! WTH??! Insects? I felt so guilty and bad for even trying to let her cry it out. The poor girl was suffering.. .screaming and trying to scratch..

Eventually I managed to settle her with antihistamines and topical steroids... and she wound up in our bed because SHE WOULD NOT SLEEP.

She had some more hives today and was really miserable. And had no appetite. I really don't know what it's due to. The MMR vaccine? The flu shot?

Turns out Elizabeth and Madison had some hives too, but much less. ?flu shot? some viral thing?

Argh.. I'm hoping this thing blows over soon... does this count towards November's illness? Am I done for this month?

Flu Shots, sleeping badly

2011-11-16T11:15:00.002+08:00

After the last BAD round of illnesses, I am still waiting for this month's round. An average of 12 illnesses per year for pre-schoolers .. makes it roughly one per month.

And of course to start it off, one of Madison's classmates came down with INFLUENZA. As in the REAL stuff, confirmed with an oropharyngeal swab. ARGH! 4 days of 40 degree fevers, coughing and refusing to eat or drink. She was admitted to hospital. Her mother ALSO came down with the same thing. Horrendous.

Of course my germ phobia and panic set in. I cursed myself for not giving the kids the flu shot already. Of course it had to be Saturday night that I hear about this so I had to patiently wait till Monday to order the vaccines in.

Now I feel a little bit better that the shots have been given to EVERYONE at home. Quite amazing that the family alone required 15 vaccines!

As for the sleeping badly.. it's now Annika's turn to do it!

Now that she's sleeping on the single mattress on the floor, I think she's discovered she can actually LEAVE the room whenever she wants and come get me. In the middle of the night.

She was sleeping quite well through the night for awhile, but since she had the MMR I don't know why her sleep is so disrupted. She goes down quite well, then around 11 or midnight she starts getting distressed. She was crying on and off from 10Pm to 11Pm last night, then settled till 1am. At which point she got up from bed and came to get me. I took her back to bed and she went to sleep pretty quickly. Then at 4am she walked over AGAIN! This time she kept asking to feed but I didn't let her. Figured I didn't want her to get into the habit of night feeds again. She complained for awhile. It was so funny. When she whined, Madison would wake momentarily and say :'What! What! " or "ok, ok" and then fall right back asleep. IF it weren't for the fact that it was 4 am it would be hilarious.

Anyway, eventually she did go back to sleep, at which point Madison woke up! Of course the day started.

Maybe it's the injection? Pain? Hunger? Teething?

I just tell myself, she'll get there one day. One day the 2 of them will finally sleep past 7am.

MMR, school for Annika

2011-11-11T16:47:00.002+08:00

I finally did it..
Annika got her MMR yesterday. She was a champ! Took the shot without protest! Granted, it was her grandfather that gave it to her, with me carrying and distracting her. It was over so quickly no one believed she just had her shot!

Actually the reason why I finally did it was because I had to sign her up for playgroup next year. I'm still not sure if I really want to send her to a drop off class at 18 months but I was a little pressured.

The school is the same one that Elizabeth is currently attending, it's a purely Mandarin based classroom. I looked up their website and was actually interested in their weekly accompanied classes, but when I called them up I was told that it was discontinued.

Then when I enquired about starting playgroup for Annika next year I was told there were only 5 spots left! Crap. It's the only Mandarin based preschool that is logistically good for me. So I panicked ( as usual ) and went down stat to look at the school. It looked ok and I guess E is doing ok in that school so I signed her up. I only want her to go maybe twice a week? to start with, and three times a week at most. BUT.. the teacher/?principal was quite insistent that she should go everyday once she was settled down ( in 1 month!) ... hm... I'm not so sure... and I don't take being pressurised very well...

So we shall see how it goes.. on one hand it's useful for Annika to be exposed to the Mandarin environment, but it goes along with BUGS BUGS BUGS... in the worst case scenario I can go back to good ol' Bibinogs. Bibinogs would actually still be my first choice, if not for the distance. It feels CLEANER. And smells BETTER.

Anyway.. it was a non refundable $100 registration fee and a $320 deposit(supposedly refundable). I booked her to start in February, for Tuesdays and Fridays.

I can't believe my baby is growing up so quickly!

Back to normal

2011-11-04T10:50:00.003+08:00

I'm really glad that Chris is back from his trip to Taiwan.

I took the 2 girls and Elizabeth to the airport to pick him up and boy, did they have fun! Madison and Elizabeth sat right at the back of the Stream, Annika and Warni sat in the 2nd row. Of course I did dole out the lollipops to keep them occupied during the 20minute ride. At the airport they went mad running around, it was quite difficult to keep them reined in!

Chris went back to work the next day, but the good thing is that he's now at KKH, so that means a slightly later start! Yeah! He gets to entertain the kids while I'm getting breakfast ready in the morning, and when he leaves Warni gets in. It's getting hard leaving them unsupervised; takes 5 minutes before they start fighting over something.

Madison is thankfully back at school again after last week's protracted home stay from illness. Her school is pretty fun! They've organised a zoo trip on the 15th so I think she's pretty excited about it. They get to go in this huge school bus, see the sights and then have lunch there.

Annika is starting to talk. Her babbles actually make sense now. It's quite strange, to realize that she can understand and respond appropriately. ( of course she could have probably understood a while back but still.. she's a baby!!) I still feel guilty that she gets less one on one time than her sister, but on the upside she does learn quickly just by observing the older one. I'm also not sure when to start her in class. Madison was 15 months when we started her on hourly accompanied Mandarin classes. I'm not really sure if it made a difference or not. She seems to have picked up more Mandarin being at her current bilingual school than at her previous Mandarin only school.

I'm thinking that I might just wait till Annika is closer to 2 then start her directly in a drop off Mandarin speaking playgroup? Although when I ask her if she wants to go to school she actually nods her head.

The clinic has been really quite quiet recently.. sigh.. nothing really new.. There's been the issue of an enbloc being raised for the clinic property... part of me hopes it will go through, then I would have the option of quitting? But I would feel bad towards the few loyal patients that I have. Maybe be part time employed and see my patients by appointment? But I suppose that would defeat the purpose of starting out on my own anyway.. to have time for the kids... it's really quite frustrating. I wish someone could tell me what to do.

One last thing.. Annika is due for her measles/rubella/mumps vaccine. We missed the appointment last month because of the never ending series of illness... but now I have to give it to her myself ( because the silly paeds clinic at KKH is FULLY booked till the end of the year! how silly is that! ). ARGH... she won't get autism from that, right... I know it's not true but still... it's a fear..

Recovering from illness; skype

2011-10-27T10:48:00.002+08:00

Yes.. I hope everyone is finally on the mend.

Madison went to school this morning for the FIRST time this week. Thank goodness it is waterplay day today so she didn't put up a fuss going there. (but to be fair to her, she's usually pretty good with going to school)

The night before was still horrible. Annika woke up crying with diarrhoea and Madison followed suit with coughing paroxysms so bad she puked (AGAIN) on the final clean duvet.

Yesterday was a public holiday ( Deepavali ) so no one had to go anywhere. We spent the morning at home, and girls were playing with the neighbour's daughter. Annika had a few more yucky diapers, but then was better by the evening. Celine is back in town for a month so I went over to see her and her kids at lunch.

Last night was better... it was heavenly to have the kids sleep through without event!!

Of course I medicated them both with antihistamines and Vicks, and it worked. So silly not to have thought of the Vicks earlier on.

Chris is away this week for a conference in Taiwan, and so far we're coping ok. Actually it's pretty much like usual since he's working during the day anyway, but it feels like an endless call because he's not around in the evenings and night. We've been skyping the past few days so we won't be strangers when he gets back. I think he's enjoying himself.

We all miss him quite a bit and this morning Madison asked me where he was. When I asked the question back she said "at work". But she did say she missed him. Then I told her we were going to the airport to pick him up on Monday she then added that she wanted to go INSIDE the airport. ( when we dropped him we didn't go in and I guess she was disappointed since I promised her we were going to the airport)

As for me, this 1 week away makes me rather nervous about Chris going away for his fellowship. We were contemplating the options, and considering him going by himself. But 1 year! I'm not sure if I could take that. 1 year of being responsible for the kids. But the alternative of being overseas without support for 1 year isn't quite palatable either. And what would happen to the clinic?

This month's sickness

2011-10-24T19:33:00.002+08:00

And the winner of this month's childhood ailment is : Gastroenteritis!

It has been horrible. At least I'm getting desensitised to paediatric secretions the rate this is going.

Last night was a nightmare.

The 2 girls were already in the throes of another upper respiratory tract infection with the endless sniffles, coughing and sneezing. Annika went from sleeping well through the night to repeatedly waking and crying EVERY night the past week. Terrible.

Then last night, right smack at 11PM Annika started crying. I thought it was her usual crying for no particular reason so I let her fuss for a little while. Chris was on call so Warni stayed over ( thank goodness for that! ). Then she went quiet so I thought she settled. I crept over to her room to check and actually Warni had gone in to rock her back. I think Warni must have tried to put her down because she started crying again. Then I heard the bedroom light come on and knew something was up. She had thrown up.

Ok. So maybe she coughed till she puked? We changed her, changed the sheets and I gave her a dose of cough mixture to try to settle her runny nose. I brought her to my room to put to sleep and she went back to sleep right away. Just as she hit the bed, next thing I knew Madison was up and when I went to check she too had puked. OK... alarm bells going off. Must be a bad cough bug? She got a dose of antihistamines too and some nasal spray. Her sheets were then changed and I got Warni to sleep in her room.

By the time we settled Madison, Annika was up AGAIN and had puked AGAIN! On my bed! OMG! On my new Sheridan sheets/ duvet cover! She was soaked. Again, she had to be soothed, changed and right then Madison started puking again.

By then I had given up hopes of sleeping. I realised it must in fact be a different beast I was dealing with. Weighing up my options, I decided to drive over to the clinic to pick up some anti emetics. Suppositories and injectables.

So then both kids got their suppositories, then puked AGAIN afterward... we were changing linen non stop! The pile of dirty smelly laundry was a small mountain in the balcony. I couldn't decide whether to just give them the injectable. Finally I did. And decided if that didn't work we were going to the emergency department.

After the injection Madison puked once more, but I think that was it. We were sitting in the lounge room floor watching nursery rhymes on the iPad at 2 am.. then the kids basically K.Oed on the floor. We put what remaining clean pillows and blankets out for them and they slept the rest of the night there.

The next day we all just stayed home for the most part. The kids had no appetite and were grumpy but at least the puking stopped and they were drinking.We drove Chris to the airport, and then made a detour to the beach to get some fresh air.

They spent most of the afternoon sleeping. It was amazingly QUIET. By evening things were looking better and they tolerated some soup. Of course at first no one wanted to sleep at night. Eventually they all did though, and it was a sweet relief that everyone slept peacefully till almost 7am!

Swimming weekend

2011-10-18T10:49:00.002+08:00

Swimming!

We were invited to the Singapore Island Country Club over the weekend to go swimming. It was great! To confess, it's the 'A' club in my books because of it's proximity to town, it has 2 beautiful golf courses ( which Chris likes ) and has a decent swimming pool. Not sure about it's gym. Of course the 50m pool cannot compete with the one at the Singapore Swimming Club, but the SSC is primarily a swimming club rather than a golf club.

We were there earlier than my friend so we went straight to the poolside to wait. Of course the 2 kids couldn't wait to get into the water. The kids pool is fanstatic! There were 2 little water slides just perfect for toddlers/preschooler ( ie not steep AT ALL), water fountains and a bubble area. The water was amazingly warm too! The kids had a ball. Annika was in the water for an hour!

When the kids had their fill of baby pool water, we had dinner at the poolside cafe. As expected club food was good, the kids enjoyed their dinner, then dessert of ice kachang. Madison didn't want to go home after that. She thought Jiaen ( my friend's kid) was going to be staying at the club overnight and wanted to do the same!

Madison can now swim with the aid of arm floaties! It was amazing. She just 'got' it one day and could put her head in water, put her arms out and kick! I couldn't believe my eyes. After all this time, trying to coax her, dunk her etc and she can do it on her own. Annika is so cute, trying to copy her. So she too can put her mouth and nose underwater while blowing bubbles, and on the occasion that she slips and ends up dunking herself she is ok with it. And can obviously hold her breath underwater because she isn't spluttering or choking/coughing when we get her up.

In other news, I have decided to halt art class for now. It's getting to be too much of a hassle trying to get out of work in time to take her there every Wednesday. The owner of the studio mentioned that she might consider moving nearer to Newton, so I told her that I would go back once they moved. Phew. Finally did it. It's a pity because Madison was pretty good at it.

In family related news, G and MH are in the process of moving. They're renovating their new LANDED property so it's a work in progress, and have rented their 2nd apartment out. So they've moved back semi permanently until their new place is ready. I don't know how they do it! 3 properties with the last being a house! MH seems to work way less than Chris; he's always at the Novena house instead of working. G gets her entire 4 months of maternity off and then does part time for the rest of the year, while I get 1 month off for maternity! Chris is perpetually at work operating or having to travel to conferences/meetings.

Sigh. Chris is off at the end of the month to Taiwan for a conference/meeting. For an entire week. And he's on call the weekend prior. IE this weekend. So 2 weekends without him being at home. Argh... HAVE TO MAKE PLANS... I don't think I could stand being at Novena the ENTIRE time for 2 weekends in a row. I'd go crazy. The kids would be fighting endlessly.

Finally... G is having another party to celebrate Victoria's first month this weekend. I promised her I'd make a cake and so I think I'd better get started on it this week. Probably Wednesday... it'll be the first time I'm trying to use sugarpaste to decorate so I'm not sure how that'll turn out. Doesn't matter. Practice before I do it again for Madison's 4th.

Wedding weekend

2011-10-10T10:18:00.003+08:00

Two of the last few single people that we know finally tied the knot yesterday.

(I think times are hard for the singles of my age... the pressure must be quite bad..)

The wedding ceremony and reception was held at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. We weren't invited to the solemnization ceremony because it was largely a family affair, but we attended the reception lunch.

It was held at The Gallery at the hotel. A very interesting concept. The ballroom was completely unconventional. One-third of it was devoted to an open kitchen and buffet table, so guests were mingling around the kitchen while chefs prepared canapes and drinks for us. The groom is Muslim so no alcohol was served, but we had the most delicious lychee iced teas. As for the buffet tables, instead of traditional food warmers the food was kept warm in woks sitting above induction cookers.

Once past the open kitchen area, there was a red carpet leading into another area were tables were laid out. There was a small stage as well. It was all very tasteful. I think there were about 20 tables or so, so it felt quite nice and cosy.

Lunch started at 130pm after the couple made their entrance. The good thing about a buffet lunch is that the event gets started quickly and we all get to eat pretty much straight away. I feel too old to be attending wedding dinners that take 4 hours. It's much too tiring. ( although I am aware I probably may have to do this all over again for our kids! )

We got to actually eat the wedding cake ( unlike traditional Chinese weddings where the cake is usually fake ), and each took a box of macaroons home. Nice.

The rest of the weekend was fun too. We got invited to a friends' house Saturday night for barbecue chicken quesadillas/tacos since she was craving Mexican food (pregnant). We brought a neighbours' kid along with us so there were 5 kids at the house. Not bad! They played quite well together. Only Annika got left out because she was the littlest. Not happy.

Sunday was the wedding lunch, then dinner at home with the neighbour and her daughter. She wanted me to roast a chicken so I did. Not that well BUT her finicky eater loved it! So that saved the day. She and Madison spent the ENTIRE day together! Swimming in the morning, drawing on Madison's room wall after that (GAH!), lunch, watching Finding Nemo then dinner together! Madison didn't nap the entire day and then she was SUPER grumpy at 6. Fell asleep eating a cookie.. it was funny.

All too soon... Monday already... back to the grind... HAVE TO HAVE TO plan this weekend...!

Making friends

2011-10-05T14:20:00.002+08:00

I am really pleased with Madison's progress since she started school!

My initial intention for Madison was for her to become more sociable, meet other kids her age and generally have fun.

This weekend past she was really good! We had some friends over and she was quick to befriend the kids. They were running in and out of the pool, to the playground and then subsequently playing in her room! I was really surprised to see that she was confident enough to get into the bigger pool by herself with arm floaties.

Later we had dinner together, and she wanted to eat with the kids.. no feeding or helping her thank you!

In other news... we finally did it.. moved Annika's cot into Madison's room. Actually Madison was the one who initiated it.. We asked her previously and it had always been a flat NO. So when she asked I thought.. why not?

That was 2 nights ago.. and now I am exhausted!

Getting Annika to sleep wasn't too bad... she would occasionally look up to see Madison but then would settle because she is usually quite tired.. but then she would wake at some unearthly hour like 430Am and of course.. wake Madison up in the process!

And then Madison would try and shush her.. resulting in fully waking Annika up.. OMG.. 2 awake kids at 430!

Last night was a little better.. Annika slept till 6am.. and then they were BOTH up for the day! ARGh... not sure whether to persist or to revert back to 2 separate rooms!

Annika is fast approaching 15 months... when Madison was the same age, I started her in accompanied Mandarin classes. Now I am not sure whether I should do the same or just wait till she's older. I'm thinking maybe next year would be better? Annika wanders alot more than Madison.. not sure she'd be able to sit down for the sessions... but then would that get better next year? Transport/timing is a little tricky too.. maybe Wednesday afternoons when Madison has art, I could take Annika to Mandarin, then get Warni to wait with Madison after art till we're done to go home? Madison would have a 25-30 minute wait though...

As for Madison, she finally finished her group music classes for the year. She had a concert last weekend and it was quite funny. The teacher lined all the kids up to play and when it was finally her turn she was so distracted by the cameras that she forgot to play!! After the concert the teacher treated all the kids to Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the parlour just outside the music school.

She starts individual lessons this Friday evening. I'm not sure she's ready but there aren't any more group sessions for this year. I've paid the teacher for 1 term so we'll see how she copes. This teacher is pretty strict too and I'm not sure if that's good for now. We'll see...

Zoo Weekend

2011-09-26T11:20:00.002+08:00

We finally made it to the Zoo and actually enjoyed the outing!

The event was organised by the Novena Neighbourhood committee( which my dad is involved in hence the trip... )

I didn't feel like going initially, but on second thoughts I felt Annika should have a chance at going to the zoo ( Madison has been several times during her first year when we had the FOZ membership ).

So we did! It didn't help that it was BLAZING HOT, but the kids took it well... we got and we were lucky the crowds were just starting to arrive. Took a mandatory group picture, then we were off!

I managed to hustle everyone straight to the Rainforest Kidz world without stopping at every exhibit along the way. Which was good too.. took us 20 minutes just to get there. The crowd was starting to build up. The kids changed into their swim stuff, and we took them into the waterplay area.

Annika was the first into the water area. She had fun. She's quite fearless by nature and gamely went down the waterslides, walked through the fountains etc.

Elizabeth was next. She was a little more timid but she still gamely went down the slides first with me, then she got the courage and started going by herself.

Madison was THE WORST! She refused to get into the water ( which is like 10cm deep! ) refused to get close to the water fountains etc! In the end, I kind of made her go down the water slide with me. Desensitization therapy. I think it's the combination of insufficient outdoor time coupled with too much "i" time. Iphone, Ipad. The grandfather likes to give it to them when they ask for it. Sigh.

That was on Sunday. Saturday was a pretty usual day. Madison didn't have tennis so she stayed over with the grandparents Friday night. I was working in the morning and was pretty busy. Chris took Annika for a swim in the morning. We went out for lunch and then went over to novena after Annika's nap.

Saturday evening EVERYONE went out for some event or other. We asked Madison where she wanted to go and she said "Sentosa". ( I was planning more on Botanic Gardens and was dressed as such.. oops ). At first I thought, why not park at Vivocity, walk across the boardwalk, grab dinner and take the monorail back?

Right. Luckily there was NO parking at Vivocity, so we were forced to pay for EXORBITANT parking at Resorts World Sentosa. Why luckily? Because after the girls wandered around the bayfront they BOTH wanted to be carried. And we didn't bring a stroller.

It was pretty fun though. We walked around the grounds just outside Universal Studio, took some photos and went to Candylicious ( which was just psychedelic but the girls LOVED it). We ended up having dinner at Coffee Bean. It was the nearest place we could duck into to grab a quick dinner with a toddler and a preschooler in tow.

This weekend Warni is on leave. Hm... time for swim date with friends?

Post Hong Kong blues

2011-09-16T10:42:00.004+08:00

I'm not sure what's happening but the rest of this week post Hong Kong seems really tiring.

Annika is actually sleeping better since we got home and physically she is recovering from her illness. Yet everyday when I wake up it feels like I got hit by a truck. So tired! Of course it doesn't help that I think I'm also coming down with whatever everyone had so maybe it's the cold/headflu type thing?

I'm not sure why Annika refuses to eat when I try to feed her. Seems to do ok when Warni does it. Anyhow.. I'm quite traumatized by her 4 day fast in Hong Kong and so yesterday when Warni had to go to the embassy for the morning I was stressed again. And yup.. she refused breakfast and her morning milk for me. I really had no more will to fight her so I just left it until the afternoon when Warni came back. Her passport will be expiring soon and we needed to renew it for the trip to Melbourne.

I really don't think I can do this mothering thing full time. I love spending time with the kids and of course they are the loves of my life but I CANNOT do this feeding/crying/whining kid thing. It makes me grumpy and stressed and that in turn affects the way I treat them. So I think it's not all that bad that I let someone else do that. Of course I feel inept being like that but I can't really help it.

In other news... Geok has delivered ! A new baby girl, Victoria Low Hui Wen born on 13th September 2011. Her birth weight was 3.18kg. Really cute! We visited her in hospital right and Madison was thrilled to see the new baby. She should be coming home today so I think we're all excited. I think Elizabeth has not been sleeping well though. She usually sleeps with Geok so it's been a sleepless few nights for my parents the past few days.

Hong Kong trip 2011

2011-09-13T14:57:00.002+08:00

OMG... I think I would call it a challenging trip.

Before we left, on Wednesday night, I had this deep dread that I couldn't explain. I call it my "ESP", and it's usually accurate.

Anyway... Madison had been sick for the week and STILL coughing, my MIL had caught the bug from her and COUGHING EVERYWHERE. Before we left Annika was still doing ok.

We caught the 6am flight on Jetstar, which meant we had to be up at 330AM and out of the house at 4am to get to the airport. The kids didn't stay asleep so they were pretty tired by the time we got on the plane.

FIRST EVENT:

LEFT a bag on the overhead compartment ON the plane!! Of course I realize this when we left the train that took us to the city. So Chris had to take the train BACK to the airport while the rest of us went ahead to the serviced apartment to check in. After we checked in, settled in they still hadn't retrieved the bag so I made some pasta for the kids' lunch. By the time he came back it was past 3pm.

SECOND EVENT:

When Annika woke from her nap ( Day 1), she had a raging fever. AND she was CRANKY. ARGH.

The first night I stayed home with her while the others went out to dinner with the relatives at the Peak.

THIRD EVENT:

Annika was sick the entire trip. But on top of that she also managed to get her entire right hand stuck in the lift door. It was a nightmare. We were all screaming and panicking. It was a miracle Chris got her hand out and she escaped with bruised and swollen fingers without broken bones or ripped nails. Of course she was screaming and crying the rest of the afternoon. We dosed her with ibuprofen and let her sleep after that.

The entire 4 days that Annika was in Hong Kong she refused to eat. I was at my wits' end. Anyway... she survived on breastmilk the entire time we were in Hong Kong.

FOURTH EVENT:

After 4 days of high fevers, she started to develop the characteristic croupy cough. OF COURSE the vial of dexamethasone that I brought just for her BROKE. Great. And we ran out of paracetamol suppositories. We threw the towel in and took her to Cannosia Private hospital, just a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

The hospital was small but service was prompt and efficient.It was great that we were the only patients there at the time so we were seen immediately. Such a relief to have another medical professional see your child and reassure you. And get the treatment that you want. She got her shot ( and was thus traumatized yet another time! ) and we picked up the supps.

THE REST OF THE TRIP:

Friday we went to Ocean Park. From forums that I had read we were expecting crowds and unruly people but there were NONE! Why? The cable car was undergoing a scheduled maintenance! How did we NOT know about this?! The cable car was the reason why we were at Ocean Park to start with!

Regardless, I think Madison had fun at the park. She even went on a ride down the Raging River! It was a pity we weren't able to stay longer... Annika was still febrile and unwell.

On Saturday, we attended a dinner hosted by Chris' aunt at the China club, a private dining club obviously for the elite in Hong Kong. For some reason dinner starts really late (closer to 9 ) in Hong kong. Madison did really well with the late nights, Annika not so well. Understandably she was grouchy and whiney by 930 but Chris managed to rock her to sleep. She slept in the stroller till we finished, which was close to 11Pm.

Sunday was the actual wedding. Annika went to the hospital in the morning, then we spent the rest of the morning at the neighbouring Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and zoo. At midday we went to the Conrad for the tea ceremony, and once again Annika was grouchy and tired. Once again Chris had to rock her to sleep. We survived the ceremony. We were supposed to take the chartered bus to Stanley for the church wedding but decided against it. 2 grumpy tired whiney kids at a quiet church ceremony?? No thanks. We would probably be spending the entire ceremony outside!

Instead, Chris and I took the MTR to Causeway bay in search of FOOD! We had travelled all this distance to at least eat some street food! Both kids were napping in their strollers so it was the perfect time to go. We actually managed to find a famous wontan noodle shop ( Mak's Noodles ) and got to eat their soup AND dry noodles as well as their congee. It was delicious. Didn't matter that both kids were up and squirming away so we had to eat really quickly.

We also got to try their dessert drinks-- sago, red bean and mango in a cup ( mine ) and Chris had some version of a mango drink in his.

Sunday night was the wedding banquet at the Conrad. Their banquets go on for way too long. Drinks started at 6pm, followed by the first cake cutting at 630pm. After that the guests were mingling till 8pm when they started seating people. They then had the entrance of the wedding couple, speeches and ANOTHER cake cutting. Dinner was served at 9Pm. Both kids were bone tired. We waited for a few dishes to try, then called it quits and caught a taxi back to the apartment.

Was I ever so glad to go home on Monday... Pa came and picked us up from the airport.

FINAL EVENT:

LEFT THE BLOODY STROLLERS at the baggage carousel!!ARGH!! That took another hour or so to sort out. Thank goodness Pa came and so the kids and I got to go home first for Annika's FIRST proper meal in 4 days...

I don't think I'm EVER going to bring my kids to Hong Kong again. If I ever go back it'll be to shop and eat and it will be sans kids. Hong Kong is fairly similar to Singapore although the shopping is probably interesting at the streetside. Not kid friendly AT ALL.

The final conclusion: I think I will have to bring Warni along to Melbourne for our annual trip. And I don't think Annika is quite ready for a ski trip JUST yet.

Holiday plans..

2011-09-06T15:01:00.002+08:00

We are booked to go to Hong Kong this weekend for a cousin's wedding.

On Friday last week, I had this sneaking suspicion that I had to keep Madison out of school this week so that she'd be WELL for the trip.

OF COURSE. Saturday she comes down with croup AGAIN. She didn't seem too bad on Saturday but then the high fevers and barking cough started up really badly on Sunday. By Sunday night she wasn't sleeping and was crying, coughing and puking. That did it. I drove back to the clinic and picked up the dexamethasone. Gave her a shot with around 7.5mg of it.

Now my next problem. To keep Annika WELL! No way am I going to take a 4.5hour flight and suffer the next 4 nights in a foreign place with a grumpy, coughing, stridorous toddler.

So for the past 2 days we've been TRYING really hard to keep them apart, albeit easier said than done. Of course it doesn't help that my mother in law comes down with a cold either. It's a losing battle. Sigh.

1 more sleep till our trip. My breath is bated. Maybe I'll come down with it with all this stress!

Guy Savoy dinner

2011-08-29T10:31:00.003+08:00

We went to Guy Savoy for my birthday!

We booked Guy Savoy at the Marina Bay Sands for dinner. Chris' and my treat to the family. Very expensive treat(almost $2K)! But it was a great experience. The wine list alone had bottles of wine that cost $30k to drink!! For food, you could get either a la carte, a basic 3 course meal or a choice between 2 degustation menus. A La carte was pricey. Some dishes were over $100 already. The basic 3 course meal was $90, but didn't seem very interesting. The 2 degustation menus were $280 or $480 +++. We chose the first one.

Besides the stuff on the menu, they had a guy pushing around a leg of Iberico ham. He went around the tables promoting it. $50 for 40g of ham. We thought... oh well, since we're here, BITE THE bullet! ... and it was not bad. Smooth and buttery flavour but a little chewy?!

Ma chose a bottle of rose to accompany dinner ( obviously didn't pick a $30K bottle!!) The meal started with warm freshly baked bread and FRENCH butter ( which WAS nice ), and an amuse bouche. The service was impeccable. After each dish was served our waiter came over to describe it and advise us on how best to enjoy it.

We had 3 different appetisers; followed by the "mains" which was pan fried scampi and poussin done 2 ways. The portions were not big but you do get pretty full by the time dessert comes around! Not forgetting the CHEESE trolley that came BEFORE dessert! There were over 10 different french cheeses to try, so we did! We asked them to just plate the cheese out for us to share, and I didn't expect them to be so generous with portions. We couldn't finish the cheese. There were 4 different goat cheeses, 3 or 4 soft cow milk ones, another 3 different hard ones and then a blue cheese. The goat cheese is definitely an acquired taste. You could literally taste and SMELL the goat.

Dessert was amazing. I think desserts were better than the mains. We started off with a fruit based one, with granita and some ?mandarins ? passion fruit, followed by 2 thin chocolate slices: thick chocolate ?mousse sitting on a caramel biscuit layer. AFTER that they gave me my birthday cake ( which was made of the same chocolate slice ) and let us bring THAT home. Just when we thought we were stuffed to the brim, they then trundled the DESSERT TROLLEY over!! 3 levels of pastry, ice cream, mousse, sweets, cookies/ maccarons and tarts!

How could we refuse that! We all had a little selection of pastry to try, and it was of course, delectable. 3 different freshly made ice-cream: caramel salt, vanilla and fromage.

I think when we were finally done, it was close to midnight and we just about rolled off the table! Actually, for what we had, it was worth the money we paid. The effort put into creating the menu, delivering it to us and the quality of the food really showed.

It was fun sharing the meal with company; I don't think Chris and I would've wanted to sit there all night having dinner just by ourselves. After having been to a few of these meals it definitely something better enjoyed with friends/ family. And of course not something you would do every weekend!

Playdate At Jacob Ballas

2011-08-22T09:28:00.002+08:00

Madison went to a playdate all by herself over the weekend!

A neighbour had organised a group outing to Jacob Ballas Children's gardens on Saturday, but unfortunately Chris was post-call ( hence STILL working! ) and I had appointments lined up in the morning.

BUT! A kind friend who was going volunteered to take Madison there with her daughter, and initially I wasn't sure. Then I thought, why not? Would be great exposure for Madison, and confidence building to be able to cope on her own.

She did great! Because it was so last minute, I didn't have time to prepare anything for Madison to take along because I was already at work. It turned out that it was a group picnic/playdate and I think most parents there brought some kind of food. The kids got to play in the sand pit and splash around in the waterplay area. Madison had a ball! There were 2 other girls of the same age that she really gets along with. The friend who took Madison there was really nice. She brought snacks and drinks for her, and helped to get her in and out of her wet swimsuit.

Saturday evening we were invited to another friend's place for her daughter's first birthday party. She lives in a condominium near the airport.

IT was an amazing place! The recreation area was HUGE, to say the least. There was a dedicated 25/50metre lap pool, several tennis courts, a basketball net, 2 or 3 free form pools with the works ( waterslides, fountains etc ) and a decent gym with several cardio machines and free weights. There was a cafe(!), dry cleaner, convenience store, video shop and beauty salon within the compound too! There were 5 or 6 apartment blocks, each probably at least 30 floors high. Maybe more. Felt really like a holiday resort. People EVERYWHERE.

Sunday we spent mostly at home. Took the kids to have a hit with the golf clubs on a grassy patch just outside the apartment, then shopping at Vivocity with Madison. I let her 'skip' her afternoon nap since it was a Sunday, but while we were driving to Vivocity I told her she could have a short sleep until we got there and she did! It was quite amazing. At home it could take an hour tossing in bed till she fell asleep! Anyway, she was quite out. So much so that she was literally HORIZONTAL while still strapped in her child booster seat. It was quite funny. I don't know how kids can sleep in such strange positions.

When we got to Vivocity, we decided to go to Starbucks for a seat and drink since Madison was still sleeping. Of course once our frappucinos arrived she promptly woke. And wanted to share, of course.

Was really quite fun shopping with Madison. She was well behaved in the shop, managed to pick out several outfits that she agreed upon, then go over to the supermarket for some groceries. She didn't ask to be carried, or throw any tantrums.

And the best part was she actually went to bed at a decent time! 930pm and she was OUT! Unlike the usual days when she gets a proper nap and then wouldn't fall asleep till closer to 10...

Annika's photo shoot

2011-08-15T14:24:00.002+08:00

We finally had the photoshoot on Friday.

It went pretty well, except that she ended up with abrasions on her nose!

The shoot started at 5Pm, and we were there right on time. They however, were not really ready!

The studio was small, but the worst thing it was up a horrendously steep flight of stairs. Of course we just had to arrive with 2 strollers and 2 kids with 2 bags of stuff that comes along with the kids. Thankfully Madison was all excited about the shoot so she scaled the stairs herself, that left Chris to deal with 2 strollers while I carried Annika and the bags.

The photographer himself was not particularly great. He had some of his work hanging around the studio and they were quite nice, but when it came to actually taking the photos I thought he could have been better.

For some reason he couldn't engage Annika. The studio wasn't child friendly either, you know, with colourful toys, stickers, balloons etc, stuff that kids would go for. He kept insisting that she sit with these 2 huge teddy bears that he brought out, and when she finally did he WASN'T ready with the camera! Annika did well, considering it was an hour long shoot.

Then, at the end, she started getting antsy, and was wanting to leave. Of course at the same time we get a call about car parking charges at our rental unit and while we were distracted Annika managed to pull the stroller and fall with it on top of her. Of course she ends up bleeding from scratches on her nose from the stroller. Sigh.

Anyhow.. we did go out for dinner at Prive after the shoot and that went great. Prive JUST put up a little kiddy house complete with picnic table and a small slide. The girls LOVED it. Kept them busy until dinner arrived.

We had a quiet weekend. Stayed at home and went to the pool both days, then I went shopping Sunday afternoon while everyone napped ( including the daddy ). Went over to the Novena house as late as possible; it's usually quite bad on weekends because the sis and BIL are home. Of course then E acts up and is completely whiny and crying for attention, gets into fights constantly with Madison and then of course Madison gets in trouble. Within 5 minutes of arriving at the house, Madison gets told off by G for taking something from E, then she gets put in naughty chair for something else.

Sigh, sigh sigh.... story of the kids and my life. Is it an age thing? All this snatching and pushing and shoving! It's like survival of the fittest ! Annika is pretty tough though... she doesn't really get very upset by Madison's bullying unless she is tired herself. Madison head butted her and she didn't even blink an eye! It was Madison that admitted her head hurt after head butting her sister!

Chicken pox outbreak

2011-08-08T11:28:00.003+08:00

Now it's chickenpox!

If it's not Hand Foot Mouth disease it's something else! I got an SMS from Madison's school teacher today informing me that 2 kids in her school were down with chickenpox.

Madison has had her first dose of the chickenpox vaccine, but for better efficacy she needs a booster dose. I've been putting it off but it must be ESP or something that I recently ordered the vaccine in, meaning to give it to her. So now I've got the kick in the butt to DO IT.

Which leads me on to Annika. I suppose she should get a dose of it too so when she goes for her MMR in October she can get her booster dose then. Sigh. Should I do the injection? Or ask the grandfather/daddy to do it? IF they are even home to get it done. I've got the Prevnar 13 vaccine in the fridge for Annika too, but I think I'll give it to her AFTER the baby photo shoot and TOGETHER with the varilix when it arrives. I don't think many mothers are THIS ALL-IN-ONE. doctor cum driver cum disciplinarian cum everything else. (it's handy though.. otherwise I'd have to take her to a paediatrician to get it done!)

The 2 girls are getting to be a real handful! I think it's the age that they're in... Annika wants to participate in Madison's activities already and she is frustrated that she cannot/gets pushed away etc and then of course expresses it by crying or whining. Madison, on the other hand intentionally bullies her sometimes by pushing and snatching from her, or excludes her from HER activities/room etc. What results is an endless bout of crying/squealing/tantrums ARGH. It's even worse when Elizabeth is in the picture! 3 kids 1 year apart each!! It's crazy. I can't imagine next year when there are 4 of them 1 year apart! It's madness. Add to that 2 sets of parents and 1 set of grandparents. All in the same house.

Another bee in my bonnet... my sis and BIL. I know that my parents will always try and make things easier for them... they practically GAVE them their first apartment ( helped out with ALOT of the mortgage), probably the same with their 2nd apartment and now they are ALREADY into their 3rd HOUSE. Now they are expecting their 2nd kid and they are getting my parent's car while they sell THEIR car ( and of course get to keep the $$). And they never go on holiday without my parents! ( Guess who sponsors the trip??) Why do they always get the easy way out of things? I know I shouldn't compare because I suppose I would help either of my kids if they needed it. But still...how come they are so comfortable taking the help?

My brother is also coming back for good!! So exciting. He's finished with medical school finally so will come back next year to work! I think my mum is esctatic. Oh.. and my parents are also going to renovate the Novena house, and of course my BIL and sis offer to have my parents stay over at their house. And guess who will be contributing to household expenditures?? AGAIN! Enough said.

THINK OF THE BIG PICTURE. I keep telling myself that.

Momxiety

2011-08-06T10:39:00.004+08:00

That's what I call it.

Why do mothers all subject themselves to it? And constantly compare what they do with other mothers?
It turns good friends into foes.

For example.

I choose to send Madison to specific classes now because I think in the long term she will benefit from it. Take tennis. It's so much easier for her to develop eye-hand co-ordination and racquet skills now than at adulthood. Art class because it encourages expression and art specific knowledge and skills. All without pressure. No homework, no pre-class preparation.

Yet a friend of mine criticizes the fact that I pay to send her to art when she can buy supplies at less and do it herself. Repeatedly commenting about it when we meet. And the fact that I have to shuttle her to the class. Even her friend made the comment :" oh, you spent the money on the ( art supply ) rather than art class, haha..etc.. " I think she didn't realize that I was RIGHT there. The ONE who actually PAID for the art class.

I mean, initially I let it slide but come ON! It's getting OLD. And it's MY CHOICE. We'll see the difference later in life. Then we can talk.

I get it that we all want the best for less but we can do it differently. I choose to let a professional show her the technical details of art, the techniques for tennis and if (my friend) doesn't believe that's important THAT'S up to her!

I think maybe she feels insecure that she isn't providing the same for her children so she feels the need to criticize? It's really starting to affect the way I feel and makes me not want to spend more time with her.

Oh... and we had a get together with some of her other friends and one of them brought her 2 kids without any help. I thought she was going home on a bus with a stroller, 1 preschooler, 1 baby and a carrier so I asked :" how is she getting home by herself?!" And my friend went:" we ALL did it, without help!" YES. I know. I have help. BUT I work. They all STAY HOME. And again, MY CHOICE. I choose to do it this way. It's easier. I get time out. They can choose to do it ALL BY THEMSELVES but it's UP TO THEM. They choose NOT TO WORK. Maybe they all have rich husbands anyway. ARGH! WHY is there a need to make me feel guilty about CHOOSING to go to work instead of being a SAHM who does EVERYTHING For the KID? Being the type who will stroller 1 kid and ergo carry the second everywhere. I don't want my life to be just ABOUT the kids.

ok. Rant over. It's ok.

KKH Healthy breastfed baby competition

2011-08-01T11:05:00.002+08:00

Annika won first prize at the KKH healthy breastfed baby competition 2011!!

It's incredible!

The initial judging was over a month ago, and we hadn't heard from them for a really long time.

Then, 2 weeks ago I got the letter telling me she made it to the finals!
So yesterday we dressed her up, I got dressed up and after much commotion managed to get us all to United Square by 10am for the initial judging. Of course after we get there I realize all the finalists were told to be there AT 10 so we ended up waiting for our turn anyway! In the meantime we had to entertain 1 energetic preschooler( Madison ) and an even more precocious toddler( Annika ).

Of course I was checking the competition out.... and I decided.. if Annika didn't win I wasn't going to do this kind of thing ever again. There was NO FIGHT. ( NB not being biased! I am an objective doctor as a first... I would admit defeat if there were a cuter, smarter baby around )

Finally we were called into the judging room. Annika sat on their table and was playing with one of the judges while the other one interviewed me. Mostly developmental assessment type questions. Of course she passed them all... was she crawling? She is almost RUNNING after her 2 older sister/cousin!

From judging to the announcement of the winners was a huge time gap of almost 4 hours. So I decided we should go home, let the girls have lunch and nap first, then Chris and I would return to see if we won. The programme given to us said that the announcement of winners would be at 130Pm with prize giving at 2. If we did by any chance WIN, then the plan was to go back and grab Annika for the prize giving. If we didn't then we could go out for lunch and let her continue with her afternoon nap.

And of course they didn't go according to plan. We returned at 130, only to find out that the prize giving AND announcement were all happening at 2! Oh well...

And of course Annika won the FIRST prize in her category. I was really quite embarrassed because
1. no baby for prize collection from the Minister of Health Dr Amy Khor HERSELF
2. I changed out of my nice clothes and shoes into Tshirt and slippers
2. No baby for official photos

Still... it was so nice to win. Like a vindication of the hard work it has taken to nurture Annika. We got cash vouchers, a V bike, diaper bag and apparently a cash cheque (which we didn't collect because we rushed off after the prize giving)

And today I got a call from the KKH people telling me that Annika had to go for a photo shoot so that she can be featured in their newsletter! Very flattering. I'm certainly not used to all this attention!

I think Chris is hooked. He's looking for another contest to enrol our kids into.

What a great end to a weekend!

July

2011-07-29T11:20:00.003+08:00

July is almost over.

Another year is passing us by again. Sometimes I really don't know where the time goes, but I suppose it's the daily grind that IS time.

Quite a few friends have recently had kids. It's pretty cool to see them as parents. They live in Melbourne so have extended time off to be with their kids. Some of them give up jobs to stay home too.

I still wonder if I should be doing that too.. but then we would have a loss of an income. And of course, I'm not sure I'm SAHM material. An entire weekend without help is plenty enough. Sigh. Then of course there is the guilt that she is not getting THE best care... but of course that is silly. Warni and the other 2 helpers love the kids and honestly are great for them. They have this endless amount of energy and enthusiasm that the kids love. Better than grumpy old mama.

This month was a little tough. The kids were sick twice(!), there was a party to plan, the clinic was quiet ( so that stressed me ). Chris was working late many days too so I felt quite alone parenting the 2 kids. Some days he left before they were up and came back after they were asleep. I had some help when my MIL came but of course there were times when we didn't see eye to eye. But I'm grateful for her help and the fact that she came all the way for Annika's first.

Geok will be delivering her 2nd in September. I can't imagine the chaos then. They are planning to move back to Novena, and I imagine MH will be on leave too. Elizabeth will be at the house full time as well... and whiny because of the 2nd kid, possibly fighting with Madison (& Annika?) and then the adults would get stressed and the fighting will START again!! ARGH! But we'll deal with it when we get there.

And of course... Chai... he's at a quandry at the moment regarding internships for next year... if things don't go his way he might be back for good too!! Of course we are all excited at that prospect but I think he wants to stay in Melbourne for another year or so.

That's all I can think of for now...

Annika is one!

2011-07-26T16:42:00.002+08:00

Annika turned one on Friday 22nd July 2011.

We had a small family celebration on the actual date. I got her a Baskin Robbins cake that had a lion's face and we ordered pizza from Pepperoni's for the family. The kids got to eat together with us after their dinner( they eat much too early for the rest of us) and I think they had a blast. Madison and Elizabeth helped to blow her single candle out and the cake was a huge hit.

The next day we had a party to celebrate. The theme was Cookie monster-since she has one that she likes. My cookie monster cake turned out pretty well! The 2 weeks worth of thinking and planning was worth it. I chose a chocolate cake as the base, and used a white chocolate ganache for the middle. It was covered with a buttercream frosting. The cake was baked 3 days in advanced, then we decorated and iced it the day before the party. We managed to get the eyes popping out too! The blue fur turned out quite realistic too with the piping tip that I got. The base was covered in the base buttercream then decorated with candy sprinkles, marshmellows and M&Ms. Which were obviously a hit with the kids. They all wanted a slice with M&ms on it.

I packed choc chip cookies into little favour bags for the guests to take home. Kids got a little goody bag too. The house was decorated with blue and white streamers, and balloons that were blue, white and gold. Since they were helium balloons the kids got to take them home.

I was surprised that the guests actually started arriving pretty early! We had a good turnout, but quite a few of our close friends didn't come. Mostly because their kids were down with colds. Annika was a little overwhelmed with all the people though. I think she was also starting to fall sick too so she was quite grumpy towards the end. But it's ok. One month and 1 year old are momentous. Surviving the first month and year.

Madison is looking forward to her own birthday. She is already making plans for her birthday party!

Of course, right after the party the kids are down with colds AGAIN. Argh. More sleepless nights.

Happy kids

2011-07-14T16:06:00.003+08:00

Finally the bug seems to be settling. But of course I had to come down with it too.. But of course I cannot afford to be ILL. Pop half a dozen pills and soldier on!

Anyhow.. Madison is still coughing half her lung up ( although she IS better ). I am keeping my fingers crossed that Annika stays well... because

Her first birthday is in a week's time!! My little baby is a toddler. We're having a celebration at the Novena house to mark her "transition"..

Chris' mother is coming to help us with the preparations ( but mostly to participate in the party ) and of course to spend time with the kids. Since we've moved I thought it would only be right for her to stay with us rather than at the Novena house. So she has to bunk in with Madison. I brought it up with Madison early to give her plenty of warning!

In other news.. Annika actually made it to the finals of the KKH breastfed baby contest! We received a letter in the mail informing us of it. Just when I had given up all hope because we hadn't heard from them for ages. Exciting. She has the allocated time of 10am for her judging. Not sure what they are going to do exactly. She desperately needs a haircut! Her fringe is outgrowing her face. Not sure how we are going to achieve that. The grandma is going to oppose this though.

I think I made a bigger fuss of Madison's first so to be fair I think we are going to attempt to make Annika's birthday cake. Madison had an Elmo party. Annika will have a Cookie Monster themed one. I've already bought the cake tin and colouring for the icing. I probably should start baking the cake so that if it's a monumental flop at least there's still time to BUY one. Madison's cake was from Bakerzin, but they've stopped making kids cakes now.

And.. to top it off, Warni will be on her 'off' day this Sunday. Should make for an interesting weekend.

Never ending SICKNESS!!

2011-07-08T14:41:00.002+08:00

It is frustrating to say the least!

Finally when I thought things had settled and the kids were on the mend.. Madison goes to school for 2 days and comes down with ANOTHER fever! Unbelieveable.

I know the statistics are that preschoolers have like 12 illnesses per year on average, but it's practically very hard when it DOES happen. Annika is better ( touch wood ) so I am hoping she will escape this bout of illness. Sigh... just when I thought I could sleep again at night.

Speaking of which, I just had yet another accident. Car related. Quite silly, really. Yesterday, after I dropped the kids off at Novena, put Annika down for her nap, I came back to the clinic. After lunch. Must have been post-prandial confusion and brain fog. While TRYING to park the car at the DARK basement carpark I misjudged the wall and rammed right into a pillar. Which had a FIRE EXTINGUISHER mounted on the front.

The damage? Smashed the rear windscreen, cracked the left rear lights, dislodged the rear bumper and probably took out the left rear parking sensor. Haha. I actually HAVE a rear parking sensor.

At least no one/no other CAR was involved. Just my car and the car park pillar. Which FORTUNATELY doesn't require compensation. I had to drive real slow to the mechanic, fill out insurance forms and pay for a replacement car to use in the meantime.

I really don't know why I keep getting into these little mishaps. It's so annoying. And expensive. Maybe I should just pop Madison into the schoolbus! And stop driving altogether. (not going to happen)

I think I really need a rubberized bumper. And silicone lights. So when I hit anything nothing gets damaged. It's all low speed type mishaps anyway.

Because Madison is sick again, she will miss out on her school's sports day which was supposed to happen this Saturday. And tennis too. And since Chris is attending a course this weekend, and I'm working too looks like the kids have to be dropped off at Novena on Saturday.

Here's hoping things get back to normal soon!

Sick kids weekend

2011-07-04T11:44:00.003+08:00

Blah.. it was a sleepless weekend. Counting last night I haven't slept properly in 3 nights.

Well.. Annika turned out to have croup. Of course the characteristic cough and respiratory troubles ALWAYS start AT NIGHT. I don't think any of us slept Friday or Saturday night. She was miserable with high fevers, barking cough and inspiratory stridor. We sponged her like twice that night, because the paracetamol and ibuprofen weren't doing anything to her temps. Poor baby, shivering through the tepid bath.

Then finally it struck me. I was thinking of taking her to the ED at KKH, then I thought.. what would they do? Then it struck me that she probably had croup, and MIGHT need a shot of dexamethasone.. I wasn't entirely sure. Looked it up and seems like it was the best treatment for mild to moderate croup. Apparently oral or injectable worked fine.

Chris happened to have gone to work to do his round so I called him to find some dexamethasone for me. When he finally got home he produced a vial of dexa! Initially I was hoping for oral stuff but in retrospect the injectable is better.. the kid CAN'T SPIT IT OUT!

Anyway.. I am sold. It is a magic drug. In around 6 hours the improvement was obvious. The fever went away, her cough was still there but the stridor was almost all gone.

But of course, just as Annika was improving, guess who started being ill... argh... Madison. She stayed overnight at Novena as usual on Saturday night, and Sunday was supposed to be a treat for her.. the grandparents took her and Elizabeth to Sentosa via cable car, then lunch at Rasa Sentosa. She was so excited about the trip that she kept insisting that she didn't have a cough ( which I suspected Saturday evening! )

BUT.. I already anticipated that Madison would come down with the same thing too, so Sunday afternoon we drove back down to the hospital to get more dexa. Good move too. Before bed last night I dosed her with a cocktail of paracet, brufen, and durotuss. But by 5 am she had a raging fever and a similar cough.

So, Madison too received her dexa shot. And was I ever so proud of her. She coped with the shot all by herself in bed. I got her to hold the ice pack on her thigh and she cried out when I stabbed her with the needle, but that was about it all! Then I got her a Pedialyte ice pop to suck while I read her a book and she was already able to crack jokes with me! Then she went back to sleep after that. So it does get easier as they get older. Sigh.

Today, I really needed to rest. So I dropped the kids off at Novena bright and early and I CAME TO WORK! Much easier to sit and work than to deal with sick, teary and whiny kids! No wonder my mom worked FULL TIME when we were growing up. And we didn't do too badly. 2 doctors and 1 accountant/manager. All happily married/attached with grandchildren to boot. She must have done something right.

Honestly, I think the kids are in better hands if the caregivers are happy and cheerful doing their thing ( ie school etc ) than if I had to do it with a bad, tired mood. I know because on weekends I sometimes get impatient and cranky with them after a bad night. This way they get lots of enthusiasm from all their caregivers and we all get a break in between.

I hope they stay well for awhile after this... Annika's first is coming up and she HAS TO BE WELL!

Sick Annika

2011-07-02T09:40:00.002+08:00

Argh... I hate it when kids get sick.

I think this round probably started with Geok coming down with an influenza-like illness over the past week.

My mistake. I should have kept Annika away from her but I was LAZY. And she was having fun.

So now I pay.

Last night was NEVERENDING. The night before she vomitted once and I had a feeling she was down with SOMETHING. Then the fever started up yesterday. Wasn't too bad during the day, nothing paracetamol suppositories couldn't keep up with. She was still in a pretty jovial mood throughout the day so I thought it wasn't too bad.

Then the illness reared it's ugly head last night. By bedtime Annika was grouchy and then the fever really spiked. Nothing worked. She had 2 paracetamol suppositories, oral ibuprofen, sponging ( which she hated and was shivering throughout ) and ice-chips. She didn't want to BF partly probably because she was starting to get congested as well. The entire night was a nightmare! Crying, whining, and moaning. We brought her to our bedroom and she napped on and off in a sitting position. Of course I ended up with a pretty crook neck. It was surreal when 7 am finally arrived.

And of course today was meant to be busy. Tennis for Madison at 9, work for me, birthday party at 11 for everyone to attend, CME event at 2pm for me, then my long-awaited Peranakan degustation dinner at 645pm.

The revised plan: Tennis at 9 for Madison, work for me, birthday party for Madison and Chris while I stay back with Annika, probably CME at 2Pm ( apparently it's full and the organisers called me 2 days ago to reconfirm--yikes!) I cancelled dinner ( sob ) . Don't know if I have to pay for it anyway because it's a pre-arranged event.

Sigh. My only wish is that tonight is better. The poor baby is really suffering. With Annika you can really tell she is UNWELL. None of her babbling, toddling and cute antics. It's really sad.

But... it's 1 less illness to contend with in school for her then.. silver lining in the clouds!

Fun weekend

2011-06-27T15:30:00.003+08:00

Twas a busy but FUN FUN FUN weekend.

I know I get stressed when I pack the weekend but I ADMIT I get a kick out of it.

I had to work this Saturday so that made it more stressful. To top it off the clinic decided to be busy.

In any case, I did my best and did make it home just when Madison finished her lunch. (thank goodness for forward planning-- I already told Warni to get her lunch ready that morning before she came over!)

We were expecting Celine's kids as she had to go to her brother's wedding lunch banquet. She decided not to drop them off the hotel daycare but to leave them in my ( ahem ) capable hands. (of course she left her mother's helper as well!!)

I was actually a little apprehensive because her children have not been away from her before.

BUT.. surprisingly they did very well. Aaron and Madison are merely 2 weeks apart so they got on well. We took them out for lunch and ice-cream at Novena Square. Aaron is alot BIGGER than Madison so there were times when a friendly hug became more like a WWF tackle.

After lunch Madison was definetely tired since she'd already had her tennis lesson in the morning, so I figured the easiest way to make them nap would be a car ride. Maddy fell asleep quite easily; Aaron was a whole different story! We drove around for almost an hour and he was WIDE awake. But I suppose he wakes at 9am so maybe he just wasn't tired.

We spent another hour or two entertaining the other 2 kids at home, then I started dinner. What was supposed to be just Caroline and her family grew into a mini pool party. Suyin came along, so then I invited Benjamin along. Then Celine decided to stay on as well. In all 6 kids and 9 adults ( including 2 helpers )! Most of us went in the pool for awhile, then had dinner at the condo 14th floor ( like an outdoor sky terrace) . It was great! All that was missing was ALCOHOL.

Sunday was quiet but we spent the day just US. Took Madison for lunch at Prive ( which she really enjoys ). In the afternoon, kids went swimming AGAIN, then to Marble Slab ice creamery after their dinner. The ice cream parlour is right next to the Botanic Gardens and we walked over after the ice-cream. It was fantastic! The weather wasn't too hot, and the black swans were out in full force. There were families flying kites, playing ?football and just chilling out on the lawn.

But... all too soon, Monday has come around and it's back to the grind. Madison's holidays are over too so it's back to usual for us all... a little sad...

School report

2011-06-25T09:40:00.002+08:00

Today I had to go to Madison's school for a parent-teacher-conference.

It's my first at Pat's so I was a little apprehensive.

But I really didn't need to be! My appointment was for 9 am and I was right on time. Both her teachers were present, and they were really nice. They took me through her progress in class ( which seems quite good ), and her ability to socialise ( which was also ok! ) So overall a pretty satisfactory report. At the end there is a report card that I get to go through and that I have to sign and return. Just like in primary school! It feels strange, now that I'm not the ONE to get the card, but the one to SIGN the card! Getting OLD.

I'm glad that I sent her to Pat's. Disguised beneath the play that she does everyday in school are mini continual assessments and teaching. Quite genius. I can't imagine doing all that at home with her. I would go CRAZY. They actually teach the kids to count meaningfully, recognize the alphabet, lay down the foundation for reading in BOTH languages. And it gets harder with each semester.

But I think what happens at home makes a difference too. I think being surrounded by natural teachers at home also help her progress more quickly in school.

Madison's school holidays

2011-06-24T15:39:00.003+08:00

It's been crazy busy!

This week Madison has her holidays from school. Really NOT easy trying to figure out what to do with an energetic preschooler EVERY DAY.

The weekend that passed was pretty good. Madison had her tennis and music lessons on Saturday, then we met up with friends for tennis and dinner Sunday. Nice.

Celine is back for a visit too so we managed to see her and her kids early this week. Her son Aaron tagged along to Madison's art class on Wednesday so we got to have coffee and cake at Pepperoni's while we waited the hour for them to be done.

What else? Took the 2 girls to Jacob Ballas garden on Tuesday since I took the morning off work. Annika had a blast! She really liked the water play area! Madison used too but has since developed an AVERSION to the wet-but-not-swimming-pool-wet type of feel. So sad. She spent the time climbing up the ladders at the treehouse though. We also visited the ecopond nearby in the Botanic Gardens and managed to feed the black swans and fish. That was a nice way to spend the morning!

Yesterday I took Madison swimming in the morning in our pool. That was it. Then we basically hung out until I went to work in the afternoon.

Today, I took her to the Asian Civilisation Museum at Empress place. I read that they were showcasing the Terracotta Warriors brought ALL THE WAY from China. It was actually pretty cool! The exhibit wasn't very big, only 8 warriors and a horse, but the rest of the museum had lots of stuff to look at. Madison was really good. She walked around the museum with me, all 3 floors of it! Took us about 2 hours to go through it all. Of course we didn't spend hours gawking at the exhibits.

We ended the trip with a bus ride home. I decided not to drive ( good choice! ) because the area is highly guarded by ERP gantries and expensive parking. We took a cab there and on the way back I gave her the choice of bus or taxi. I guess riding in a bus is a novelty for her. Took us 10 minutes to get there and 45minutes to get back!

Annika's first birthday plans

2011-06-06T14:56:00.003+08:00

My baby is turning one in July.

I cannot believe time has passed so quickly, in a blink of an eye she is becoming a toddler.

Annika is now walking with aid, and cruises easily. Her fine motor skills are pretty good too and she can feed herself quite well with her fingers. She copies her sister alot, and tries to do the things that Madison does, like colouring with texters or playing with stickers.

Her communication and social skills are well developed too, and she babbles endlessly. She is pointing with purpose now and clearly indicates her wants either by pointing or babbling. Of course she has the advantage of competition with older kids, unlike Madison, who was the only child at the same age.

Chris entered Annika in a baby competition over the weekend. It was the KKH best breastfed baby contest. We had to go over to the hospital at our scheduled time of 1030am, and it felt like I was taking a med school exam! We registered, then were taken past a lecture room into a smaller room where we had to wait outside for our turn. Inside the judging room there were 3 women who were "assessing" us. 1 examiner, 1 interrogator and 1 observer. Just like an OSCE.

Madison came along for the ride and they were really smart to play a Barney video ( obviously for the accompanying siblings!) in the lecture room. She sat out there waiting for us.

Not sure what happens next. They let us go after we cleared the neccessary hurdles.

As for Madison, she had her first proper tennis lesson on Saturday morning. We were really lucky, she finished the class just before it started to pour! I think she enjoyed the class, the rest of the day she was parroting what the teacher told her. I think she's forgotten it now though.

We had a quiet Sunday. It was raining cats and dogs the entire day and flooding in many parts of Singapore. Not easy trying to entertain 2 kids indoors the entire day. We went shopping in the late afternoon trying to find tennis gear for Madison. Not easy at all! I still cannot find a kiddy sized cap which she needs.

This weekend Chris is on call. NOT looking forward to it. I am giving Warni her monthly day off then too so that we can do stuff on the other weekends. It'll be my first time with 2 kids sans help ( hubby OR helper OR grandparents! )

Party weekend

2011-05-23T15:19:00.003+08:00

Busy weekend...again! Which I like, of course..

Friday night: we got lucky and were invited to a free movie screening of the Pirates of the Caribean! In 3D too! Boxed dinner, free popcorn. We went with our neighbours ( who invited us ). It was a bit of a rush trying to get there (had to feed the baby, bring her back home then get dressed after work-- all before 6 PM!) BUT I did it. Left Madison with my parents for a sleepover Friday night. She loved it, of course!

Saturday morning my parents flew off to KL for the weekend so we were on our own. I had to work Saturday morning but the afternoon and evening we were free! Madison had her music class as usual, then we invited Elizabeth over for swim/dinner playdate. Her parents were out for dinner as well, and we were ALSO going to meet our neighbours for a wine dinner. Our dinner was late so I put Annika down first before going out.

Dinner was great! We went to De Luca at United Square. It's a small Italian bistro with great food and drinks. Usually quite busy so you do need to book on the weekends. It was quiet Saturday night though. Anyway, we had a great dinner. Shared a bottle of French Merlot (2009), had a few different starters to share. There was thinly sliced Parma ham with melon, rocket salad and a beef carpaccio. We shared 2 pizzas between us too. Was nice getting to know them better, and we chatted till past 10Pm! Unfortunately we didn't get to have dessert, it was getting late and we were the last ones there already.

Sunday came WAY too soon. For some really strange reason Annika slept quite poorly Saturday night. She was up at 3AM for almost 2 hours, so when we all FINALLY went back to sleep ALL of us were bushed. We slept in till 8 ( first time EVER! )

After breakfast we went down to swim. It was such a hot and sunny day! After the swim Annika had her nap, Madison and Chris settled down to watch Kung Fu Panda( which Madison enjoyed) and of course I was the dedicated errand runner. Who else? Car wash, buy fruit, buy lunch. Wanton noodle lunch for everyone. Anyway, my treat for the day was an appointment with my hairdresser at Shunji Matsuo. Finally... I didn't realize my last visit was in October LAST YEAR! I think he was really shocked. I also made another appointment in June for a colour and straightening treatment.

Directly after the hair appointment was Elizabeth's 2nd birthday party. Geok had planned a BBQ tea/dinner at her place so we walked over to help them get ready. I also baked some brownies and cupcakes for dessert. Madison went for another swim with some kids in the pool. Overall a pretty good party. It was swelteringly HOT though, and I was so trying not to get my nicely done hair all messed up. E had a huge Barney cake.

We left the party early because we had ANOTHER function. Bernie and Adriana's wedding dinner. Madison stayed behind since my parents volunteered to take her home later. OF COURSE that meant ALOT later. We left the wedding dinner early and when we got home at 1030 so had JUST gone to bed! Of course she had to get up early for school on Monday...but ANYWAY.. she had heaps of fun and that's what counts.

So... this weekend we have friends coming over for tennis and swim on Saturday planned so far. Sunday Warni has a day off so we're pretty much on our own. Pa and Ma are leaving for their trip this weekend too, so it should be interesting! I love weekends.

Repairing relationships

2011-05-16T10:33:00.002+08:00

I admit defeat.

It's been a not so nice 5 months at Novena with the ongoing 'battle' with the BIL. I don't like the protracted strained relationships and awkward mealtimes. I hate the feeling of dread when I have to come into contact with him and the denial of each other's presence.

So when the BIL birthday came up over the weekend, it was with much trepidation that I tried to work around it.

Of course I felt I had to get a birthday gift but of course he would not want it. So I got a present for the new baby instead. A little bouncinette.

Then the issue of the birthday dinner. It's the family tradition that we all get a nice dinner of our choice on the night. So were we going to be attending?

Chris told me to check with Geok and not ASSUME that we were invited. Of course we weren't. Then of course I felt slighted, and decided that it was time to end this feud.

Well, eventually after much discussion Pa set up a meeting between us on Friday evening.

It was good actually. To have the catharsis and end the argument. It's been WAY too long. I apologized, he accepted and we had our turns to speak our minds without killing each other.

So... we ended up having dinner with the family at Jaan on Saturday night. The restaurant is located at Swissotel at Stamford and is right at the top where Equinox is. It started at 730PM and by the time we finished it was closer to 11Pm. We actually had a decent conversation for the first time in 5 months!

In other news... Madison's preschool has been struck with mass food poisoning! 8 out of 14 centres were affected, and I am eternally grateful that hers was the one of the 6 that was spared. Over 20 were admitted to hospital for IV hydration. Teachers were not spared either. Apparently the school catered food on a contract from a company called Mum's Kitchen. I'm quite upset that this happened. Kids don't have a choice when it comes to meals at school. And the kids that were affected were aged 2-6. I hope it doesn't happen again. Already I worry enough about hand, foot and mouth disease that seems to be ubiquitous at all preschools here.

As for Annika, I think she is close to walking. She has started to cruise and is perpetually trying to stand everywhere she is. And she is babbling a whole lot too. It's really cute. Today she didn't have much of an appetite. I hope she's not coming down with something.

But the best of all... tomorrow is a PUBLIC HOLIDAY! I love PH.

Mc D birthday party

2011-05-11T10:28:00.003+08:00

Madison was invited to a McDonald's birthday party over the weekend.

Till today, she never really knew of Mc D because I haven't taken her there for food yet. I have on the occasion, passed her the remnants of my Diet Coke ( just the ice !) so she sometimes asks for my drink from "that shop"( when we walked passed it the other day) So I know she doesn't know OF McD.

Well... so Lucas from school invited some of the classmates for his 3rd and of course I accepted the invitation. I didn't get to go since I had to attend a BORING CME event. Chris went with her.

Turns out, apart from the french fries she didn't want to try any of the other fast foods!

The party was quite good overall, and I think she had fun. So now when she refuses to go to school in the morning, I always play the birthday party card. IE If you don't go to school to meet your friends you won't get invited to parties. For now it works. She can't wait till her birthday again.

Annika can stand by herself for a few seconds now! I think she's been doing that for the past week. It's amazing, but bittersweet because my baby is becoming another toddler. Already I'm missing her babyness a little bit. She's so mobile now, and is constantly trying to get her sister and cousin's attention. She is also babbling a whole lot now, shakes her head "no" ( and sometimes means it! ).

I still feel bad that I have so much less time with Annika than I had with Madison. I try to tell myself that she is still learning through play and Warni is a good caregiver too. She is, however, so much more active and vocal than Madison was at the same age. I try to read to her but she's not terribly interested in that at the moment.

At least now Madison and Annika are playing with each other more these days. It's great to see them together ( for now ).

karma

2011-05-03T11:32:00.001+08:00

A thought.

Maybe I shouldn't rant so much about the BIL?

Will I get it back in BAD KARMA? I'm a Buddhist so I believe in it.

Hmm.... but the human in me cannot help it. I HAVE to complain about it.

What should I do?

LONG weekend

2011-05-02T21:39:00.003+08:00

I love long weekends.... it feels like a holiday!

Long because Sunday was May day, so that made Monday a holiday too!
Madison had an even LONGER holiday.. Friday being a Pat's Schoolhouse holiday, and with 2 cases of HFMD in school, I kept her home on Thursday too.

Madison spent the 2 days from school mostly at Novena, since I had to work those days. She got to sleepover on Friday night too, which she enjoyed.

Saturday morning I had to work, but it was a short day... Chris took Madison to ride the motorised bikes at United Square.. he showed me a video that he took. She is such a big girl now! She could actually navigate the 'mini motorbike'. They had lunch at Bakerzin afterward. When they came back she was fast asleep. At noon, which is rare. Probably either woke early or didn't sleep that well at Novena.

We had a tennis date with some neighbours in the afternoon. I was a little anxious since I don't play it well AT ALL. But, turns out we had FUN! I guess playing doubles isn't as difficult as singles and they weren't serious players.

My uncle and Aunt were back from their trip to Macau and enroute back to Sydney so we planned to have dinner together ( and celebrate Pa's birthday at the same time ) that night. Dinner was seafood at Jumbo Seafood ( East Coast Park ). They were then supposed to go straight to the airport to catch the 10Pm flight.

Long story short, they MISSED the flight ( it was 1950h = 750PM not 1050PM! ). Fortunately they were able to catch the next one the following morning!

I was so happy to wake up Sunday morning and know that the weekend was not over yet! We went swimming at home in the morning; Annika got to go into the pool too which SHE absolutely LOVED. Of course she was trashed and fell right asleep for her nap afterwards. She is amazing. Even though the water was cold she didn't even complain.

Didn't do much the rest of the afternoon... went over to Novena and the mall nearby. Of course had the BIL incident that evening.. see previous entry.. PITA.

Too soon, Monday came around. Spent the day with the kids, pool in the morning, got takeaway for lunch then went to a fabulous playground in the afternoon. It's at Ang Mo Kio, and has the works.. sand, slides, swings, safari bus and a McD's next door! Of course it was crowded and the slides were quite sandy. Madison was quite cautious of the slides. I don't think I have a daredevil on my hands. Not sure how she's going to like skiing either.

We had steaks at home for dinner, followed by ice- cream cones. Which brings me to the issue of ice-cream. She wants it EVERYDAY! More specifically, she wants the soybean soft serve that I bought several times for us at Novena Square. I'm not sure she should take so much of that soft serve( ? gastro with soft serve ? Too much sugar in soft serve ) so I figured if she wants ice cream maybe she should have premium stuff? Kind of like getting Pediasure except as ice-cream? Can kids eat ice-cream everyday? I sometimes do, myself but that's just me. She's not getting it instead of her meals but more like dessert, which she is happy with.

I had fun hanging out at home over this weekend. Tennis too! Maybe I should seriously pick it up.. get coaching?

Blog rant

2011-05-02T21:28:00.002+08:00

We had a wonderful weekend, which was tainted by a "small" incident with the BIL.

So annoying. As usual.

I don't even know what happened or why but BIL was probably just being his "usual" %!kj self.

My parents were busy with their choir camp this entire weekend, and although they told us they were having dinner together with us yesterday they changed their minds at the 6pm and went out instead.

Dinner was already prepared so we decided to stay in.

We started dinner and between Geok, Chris, me and the maids we helped to get dinner on the table. What was the BIL doing? Lazying on the sofa "reading" the papers.

Never mind that. We started dinner and instead of joining the table he continues to "read" and ignore us. He then "plays" with Elizabeth-who is being bathed ( when usually he has no interest in her bathing activity )

Finally when WE are done he then has HIS dinner. What an idiot. Is he too above us to join us for dinner? If so, why not go OUT for HIS own meal? CHEAP.

What REALLY gets me is his COMPLETE lack of integrity. To parents/relatives he is Mr Goody two shoes and is all chatty, but to us then does he really reveal his true colours. Lazy, rude and immature.

Rant over. Wasted a blog entry but I HAD to do it.

Hand Foot Mouth Disease

2011-04-28T10:59:00.003+08:00

Argh.. there is a HFMD "outbreak" at Madison's preschool.

I like it that the school actually texts us ( the parents ) information regarding disease outbreaks. I got a text last week about a case in a N1 class, and yesterday received another regarding a second case in K1. I think there are guidelines about this, something like ?10 cases without a week's break can get the school closed.

Anyway, I kept Madison away from school today, since tomorrow is a schoolhouse holiday. I figured a short break away would be good to see if there is a chain of transmission. It's really fingers crossed that she hasn't already picked it up. It's a horrible bug, kids wind up with painful mouth ulcers, high fevers and skin rash. I can't even imagine if Annika catches it too. The kids are JUST over the last round of fevers/colds so I would like at least a short period of sickness free bliss.

The only trouble I have with Madison being at home is the ipad/laptop trap! She wants to watch videos off Youtube the ENTIRE day. So the next best thing is to drop her off at Novena with instructions for her to be outdoors doing ANYTHING. Bathing the dogs, watering plants, I don't care if she has to wash the cars! Maria is good at that and so I'm confident she'll be well looked after. ( in fact, when left with the grandpa she is more likely to be watching youtube!! )

Sigh. It's going to be A LONG weekend. Everyone is in and MONDAY is a PUBLIC HOLIDAY.

Potty training breakthrough

2011-04-27T11:17:00.003+08:00

We finally have headway with potty training!

It has been a frustrating and long road with the potty and I am glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel ( I think? )

The main obstacle that we faced with the potty was with number 2! Madison was actually able to pee quite well in the potty/toilet but she faced a seemingly insurmountable mental block with number 2. We had a debacle with severe constipation the first time we tried to go diaper free, and so since then I gave up completely.

When Madison started school the teacher was confident she could try going diaperless while in class during the day. Initially she ended up with wet undies, but within a week she managed to stay dry. In the afternoons we would put her back in the diaper so that she would poo, and I was wondering how we were going to solve that one.

Then Annika started using the toilet to poo! That credit goes to Warni. Her friend across the road ( at Novena ) told her to start Annika on the toilet so that she gets used to pooing on the loo. I then showed Madison that her baby sister was already pooing on the loo. ( No pressure of course...)

I think that did it. Magically she was suddenly able to use the toilet for number 2! It was weird. A real breakthrough!

Oh.. and guess what ? Chris FOR SOME STRANGE reason decided to take her night diaper off JUST before bed and FORGOT to put it back on. Guess what happened? At least her duvet got washed for a change!

Anyway.. lesson learned. Hopefully with Annika we will be mindful and keep her using the loo for poo. Who knew potty training would be such a chore!

Hitting new milestones.

2011-04-26T11:23:00.003+08:00

Before I forget I should get Annika's milestones down.

She is really developing FAST these days.

She crawled at 8months 1 week.
She pull to standing not long after that, around 8 months 3 weeks
She is able to wave bye-bye, I think that happened soon after 8 months?
Her pincer grip is good, she did that at 8 months 2 weeks. Now she can feed herself small finger foods already.

Solids are a real HEADACHE. I started out with great enthusiasm and excitement but it has deteriorated since then... She is not a big fan of purees and it is driving me insane trying to work out a meal for her! I have tried the "western" Annabel Karmel style with ice cubes, various cereals and congees. I can't remember what I did with Madison, but I think she had the traditional Asian congees. I can't remember if she liked them either. Lucky her... being number 2 I am definetely more relaxed and so as long as she gets her milk in that's ok.

Which reminds me of the debacle just the past week. Annika's night diapers have been dry to say the least ( one night was COMPLETELY dry!) and that really worried me. To go over 12 hours without a single pee seemed rather abnormal. Anyhow, we decided to test her renal function, just to be safe. So she ended up with a needle and blood taking. The results were ok. Thank goodness. I think my supply must have been dwindling. Now I try to make an effort to feed her properly before bed. It's hard. If she is wide awake she refuses and FIGHTS me trying to give her a proper feed. Then if she gets too sleepy she also refuses to feed. Sometimes I feel so over breastfeeding and her being dependant on me to supply her enough calories and fluids! 3 more months to 1 year... then she is going to get more fluids from the cup! And she can have flavoured milk...ie MILO..

In Madison news, she too is growing up so fast! She is already 3! She is into dinosaurs, dragon dances and watching all manner of media... TV. Iphone. Ipad. Laptop. Youtube. Barney videos. It's endless. It's started. Thank goodness for school. I dread sick days.. all she wants to do is watch stuff! I am keen on starting swim lessons but she FAILED the swim assessment at the Pine tree club. IE NOT READY. Right now Madison goes to school 5 half days, art class at CANVASS on Wednesdays, music at Mandeville on Saturdays. Chris can't wait till she picks up golf. I want her to be able to swim. Gymnastics looks promising too! What about tennis? How do kids fit it all in?

Geok is expecting her 2nd in September. She has also bought her 3rd home, this time a house near my parents'. She has it all! 3 homes, 2 kids.. good job, all she needs are dogs! Good for her...

1 year old is bittersweet... my little one is no more a baby... I will be glad for the baby work to be OVER... night wakings, feedings, etc... BUT I will miss her babyness, the cuteness .. she is so huggable right now!

Easter break

2011-04-26T10:43:00.002+08:00

It's been a busy busy 2 weeks!

I had a fantastic Easter break just over the last weekend. The extended family were ALL away in Melbourne so we had the whole place to ourselves!

My second uncle( Dad's side ) was visiting from Sydney so we spent Thursday night with him and 6th Uncle. We had dinner at a Penang restaurant near us. It was great spending time catching up on the family in Australia.

Friday was BUSY! We were crazy enough to agree to go with our friends to the zoo ... on Good Friday ( public holiday! ), in the afternoon and in the BLAZING hot sun. It was so crowded and HOT. I didn't want to take Annika along initially but then the guilt was overwhelming and she refused to nap so she came along. BAD IDEA. Of course she didn't sleep EVEN in the car ride there, refused to sleep in the stroller ( too hot ) and was grouchy the entire trip. THEN it started to POUR. OMG. We had barely made it halfway. The other 2 families on the trip had gone ahead so we were split up during the downpour. Thank goodness we were stuck at the main F&B area. It was still crowded and there weren't any seats,so we waited by the strollers but at least we had access to drinks and shelter. And airconditioning from the main cafeteria. Of course after waiting 45 minutes I caved in and spent $20 on rain coats, and just as we put them on the rain STOPPED. Of course.

By that time it was 5 in the evening so I was ready to call it quits and go home but Madison had been patiently waiting to see her animals. She still wanted to see leopards, tigers and cheetahs.(She specified this!) So Chris and I made a rapid tour de zoo checking out the various animals. We were lucky cat country was a stone's throw away from where we were!

It was EXHAUSTING! Finally we managed to drop the kids off at Novena for their dinner while we went home to shower and recharge. Because we had dinner plans and we needed to be upright!

We had dinner with 2 couples at DB bistro moderne at the Marina Bay Sands. It is Daniel Boulud's first restaurant here and it was supposed to do great burgers. The food was great but better still was the company. We shared a nice bottle of burgundy and the conversation flowed the entire evening! It was a 3 course meal and by the time dessert was done it was past 11pm. The guys all ended up with the signature burger ( it came with foie gras), I had the coq au vin ( which was so tender! ) and the other 2 ladies had the fish and steak. Service was quick and attentive so no complaints there. The only trouble we had was PARKING! That was a nightmare on the Friday night! We ended up at the Ritz Carlton across the river.

Saturday morning we attended Joshua's ( Caroline's eldest son ) pool party at the Pine tree club. Again ANOTHER HOT day. It was fun! The kids loved the pool, I got in a short swim and then we had so much food at the restaurant by the pool. This time I didn't bring Annika so we had a much more relaxed morning. Caroline made an indestructible pinata that the adults had to break so the kids could get the goodies. Met some an old friend at the party so that was nice. Madison was bushed by the time the party ended. In the afternoon I went shopping! We had to buy a few birthday gifts for MORE birthday parties, and I got to get some new shoes! 3 pairs to be accurate. In my defence, they are good shoes and they were on a bit of a sale. Orchard Road was of course, by default, CROWDED. But we were sans kids so it was bearable.

Dinner was a simple affair. We bought food back from our Whampoa market, which seems to have more than it's fair share of famous hawker stalls. Nasi Lemak, Wanton noodles and Mee goreng. All from newsworthy stores. It was good though.

Sunday came around WAYYY too quickly.. It felt like the Sunday blues to me already. The family was due back in the evening. We didn't do much on Sunday... it was chill out time. We did go down to the pool in the morning, then DROVE over to the neighbourhood shopping mall( how lazy was that? IT WAS TOO HOT TO WALK!) to drop off a sofa cover ( that Madison peed on), buy lunch and wrapping paper ( for the presents bought the day before). Skyped the grandma in the afternoon then over to Novena house to await their return.

Much too soon, Monday came around and BACK TO THE GRIND... except that Geok is STILL on leave and Ma had the extra day off. I find it amazing that she is able to take so much time off work and still make so much $$!She has been on more holidays than I have and then usually AFTER the holiday is on medical leave or personal leave! Not forgetting her FULL maternity leave with more annual leave on top of that! Incredible. I must have made a career choice boo-boo... sigh.

New milestones

2011-04-09T10:48:00.002+08:00

Before I forget, I think I better get this down.

Annika started crawling at 8 months plus 1 week. It was amazing. One day she was immobile, the next day she figured it out and started moving! I got it on video so I'm happy. She doesn't have alot of photos, unlike Madison but she's got quite a bit down on video.

We took her for her 2nd Prevnar shot yesterday and I was really dismayed to find out that she hasn't gained ANY weight for the past 2 months! How can that be? She grew taller though. Madison was 9.1 kg at 6 months, and Annika barely made 8.8 at 8.5 months! That really worried me. Plus she's not wetting her overnight diaper much. Is she not getting enough? I thought she was but this lack of weight gain is stressing me out. The paediatrician didn't think she really needed more feeds but wanted me to make sure my supply was ok. Maybe I don't feed her properly at night when she does wake because I kind of doze off but surely she'd wake more if she was hungry? This is annoying. She is sleeping better these nights though and it's SO nice to sleep 6 hours in a row. ARGH. She is difficult to feed during the day. She doesn't want the bottle if she is wide awake ( at her 3Pm feed she barely takes 50ml! ) and I can't be home to feed her everyday! She doesn't mind bits of food like small bits of bread and fruit but isn't really a big fan of my purees. I'm going Western this time round... Madison had the porridge with liver/meat thing but she gets more pasta/chicken or pork or fish/carrot/avocado type puree. And she gets them in cubes.

What to do? I know I probably shouldn't stress over it; if a patient came in with the same concerns, I'd probably reassure them anyway. She's developing fine otherwise, she's so sociable, happy and ACTIVE! Annika's really into EVERYTHING these days and it's really hard to keep her still!

Now I have to keep an eye on her weight and probably make an effort to try and feed her properly whenever I do. Sigh... so hard to get everything right. The poor 2nd kid.. always has to suffer the 'lack of time' thing.

House warming and PS gathering

2011-04-09T10:13:00.003+08:00

I love having friends over!

Last night we had a successful BBQ party.

It started off being Chris' department gathering, but as the weeks passed it slowly snowballed and 10 people finally ended up being 35! Apart from his work mates, Joan, Adrian, Suyin, our neighbours Fanny and Russell, Po Meng and Bernice turned up as well! It was great!

The food took some planning, but I admit, I enjoy the process. Keeps me busy, busy! On the menu: steak, chicken wings ( which we marinated 3 days prior ), gourmet sausages, saba fish, corn on the cob, garlic bread and mushroom pockets. Oh, and fresh satay courtesy of Eva. Fanny was also kind enough to bring along salad and 2 Hong Kong desserts. Buying the food took some co-ordination and timing, but we did it! Quantity was just sufficient too, with only small amounts of leftovers.

The guests were gracious too! So many bottles of wine! We opened 2 bottles (only!) and were left with 6 really nice ones. A few Bordeaux ones, some Aussie wines. But all clearly good wines. We provided some beer and spirits, which were the right drinks! I chose a mixture of Hoegarden, Tsingtao, Chang and Heineken which were all drunk. Makes me HAPPY!

BUT ! the piece de resistance was the CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! We had so much trouble finding the pre-packaged chocolate melts for the fountain, so after going to Tangs AND Carrefour and WASTING time looking for the silly things, I decided to go couveture. We went to the BIY shop and bought 55% Valhorna chocolate and some cream, then melted the chocolate over a water bath( the RIGHT way ). Of course I didn't realize that the cream had to be heated too and I mixed it in COLD. And then the chocolate got THICKER AND THICKER! Argh! So I added milk and still it wasn't right. AFTER I poured it into the fountain, THEN Chris tells me the cream has to be HEATED. Oh well. Fortunately he fixed it. I think by melting some cream then adding it to the fountain? It was a HIT with everyone! I went to the market a few days ago to buy strawberries, pineapple, watermelon and grapes for the fountain too.

It was great that the guests were quite handy and a few of them took charge of the cooking. The food turned out great! We had some trouble with the pit though.. the BBQ beads that Chris bought apparently didn't create enough heat? Strange. So we brought our modified induction cooker down to finish off some of the steak and sausages.

I think everything wrapped up close to 10. Again a few guests were kind enough to stay back and help with the tidying up. I am grateful to them.

Hm... when should we have the next one??

Lion King musical weekend

2011-03-28T14:05:00.002+08:00

This past weekend was pretty busy.

It started early on Friday, with the Lion King musical at the Marina Bay Sands. It was a logistical headache for me: get dinner for the girls sorted out, feed Annika then bring them both home with Maria and Warni. I had to pump before going too. Chris was also at the gym till slightly past 6 so I ended up picking him up from the MRT station before going to the Sands. The show was slated to start at 8Pm and we had to be there 30 minutes prior to be seated. Which left 30 minutes for dinner! That was the end of our plans for a fancy pre-theater dinner.

But.. the show was worth the rush. The music was quite African-themed, and the dialogue quick and witty. I think it was great how they threw in some local humour in it too, cracked the audience up. The show was 2 hours long with a 20 minute interval in the middle. For some reason, the second half felt shorter than the first, maybe because the plot moved more? The costumes and set were incredible! There were 'flying' tropical birds, life sized elephants and giraffes and the herds of antelopes and other horses were mounted on tricycle like contraptions so it seemed they were actually running together as a herd!

The theater was also full! And so many kids! The row directly in front of us had at least 4 kids from the same family. They were probably Indonesian Chinese tourists and were obviously well off. The mother doled out $50 to each kid at the start for them to buy snacks at the intermission, and their domestic helper was in tow as well. But.. they were generally well behaved although they had difficulty sitting through 2 hours!

Saturday I was busy at the clinic in the morning, then the usual rush to get the kids fed and napped at noon. By the time they were all down it was closer to 2 than 1pm and we were BUSHED. Then it was basically lunch, home, Madison to music class then over to the grandparent's home to have dinner ( kids ) and BABYSITTING services! Chris and I wandered down to check out this enormous queue at Novena Square that we spied driving back from LUNCH, only to find that IT WAS STILL THERE AT 6!

Turned out it was the line to pick up the race pack for a 2XU run in April. Registration was already closed ( we checked online using the istudio store's Mac!). I sneaked a look at the bags and NO WONDER THERE WAS A LINE! Technical 2XU running shirt, cool shoe laces, compression calf stockings among some smaller stuff!

BUT the best part of the night was yet to be! Madison stayed over at the grandparent's so WE HAD THE NIGHT TO OURSELVES! Well, kind of. Annika came home with us and went down quickly so we got to watch a movie at home!

Turned out to be perfect planning but COINCIDENTALLY I booked us in for a massage on Sunday... I still have a few more sessions left over from when I went with Chai and Han Ting in January. The massage was not as good as the first time, partly since we were LATE and partly because it was a different massuese this time. Still... sooo relaxing.

We picked Madison up after the massage and went back to our place. Our upstairs neighbours came down to visit us and then Chris played a round of tennis with them. I felt a little embarrassed about playing so I didn't; but anyway I've got this irritating stye that is PAINFUL. And both kids needed DINNER..argh.. guess who had to organise it.

Now.. weekend's over.. back to the daily grind... Madison went back to school after a week's hiatus, and pleasantly did not make too much of a fuss. Guess she's older now and actually REMEMBERS going to school! Which reminds me. School fees need paying soon. And taxes need filing too! Bleh...

Sick sick sick...groan

2011-03-25T17:06:00.003+08:00

Madison is down with ANOTHER respiratory tract thing!

This one is pretty bad. I've not seen her quite this till for a long time. Initially I thought it would just be another snotty nose, but she actually ran a temperature for 3 days, lost her appetite completely and vomitted a few times.

Then the cough started. Really croupy sounding. She puked a few times too, usually after a coughing spat. When the fever came back after subsiding, I caved in and started oral antibiotics. I'm thinking, either parainfluenza/RSV or maybe a mycoplasma sp?

Anyway.. it has been tedious trying to keep Annika away from the bug. Hence, we've ended up at Novena for the past week since Madison obviously can't attend school.

I must say. Maria and Warni have the patience to do this mothering thing which I seriously lack. I have this hate of "germs" in general, and because Annika is not yet 1 I really don't want her to get bronchiolitis or pneumonia. I'm glad that they do a good job of looking after the kids during the day. I don't know if I would have the patience to do it after being up at night with Annika, then having to face Madison's whining and being upset during the day.

Anyway.... just a rant. I hope this bug will bugger off quickly, so that things can go back to normal. It would be nice to have a happy child and better nights for a change! Of course, and to have Annika well too...

Enbloc woes?

2011-03-21T15:32:00.003+08:00

We just received a letter in the mail informing us that there was interest in a joint sale of the building that the clinic is in.

Our neighbours aren't happy about it; they currently rent 3 units next to each other selling interior finishes. They said they would have difficulty finding another place that would replicate what they have presently.

What about us?

2 ways.. we are starting to build our clientele after being here for over a year, and to move might mean a drop in business again.

But... if we DO move to a better location that would be better for business anyway. And we get to have newer finishes, nicer clinic etc. Thank goodness we haven't really renovated the current clinic too much. That would really SUCK.

In any case.. I would like to continue in the vicinity... the proximity to home is a big PLUS. Of course if we DO MOVE across the road nearer the Shaw Plaza would be a BIG BONUS. I would literally live directly above the clinic!

Anyway... joint sales take forever to go through.. the one at Asimont took more than 5 years to complete.

Or do I give up and join somebody?

Hmm... food for thought.

Playdate Sunday

2011-03-21T10:54:00.002+08:00

We had a great Sunday this weekend.

Warni had the day off so it was kind of nice having a relaxed start to the day. In other words: no one got dressed, fed or changed in a hurry.

Madison helped me make buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, which I then tried to make into shapes on the griddle. Not very good at that!

Getting the kids ready to go out is an activity all by itself; we decided to have a picnic lunch at the Gardens so after Annika's nap it was an event getting everyone decent to go and buy stuff to take to the picnic. We ended up at Jones the Grocer ( Dempsey), got some nice ham, cheese, bread and muscatels then drove over to the gardens. Spent a small fortune on the cheese: seriously, I think we could've had a proper meal with what we paid!

Thank goodness it wasn't too hot. There were quite a few families already picnicking on the grounds, and several other people playing soccer. I think the kids had a great lunch. Madison really loves ham! Of course I HAD to forget the bring along the picnic bag which had the cutlery and plates. So it was literally HANDS on eating. Only Annika had a spoon which I used to cut up the cheese.

After the kids' naps, we met up with a neighbour ( that we just met !) and went on to Bottle Tree park in Yishun. The plan was "longkang"fishing, but when we got there it was crowded. And too many FEET in the little pond stomping around. Gross. There was a small playground though, and a bigger pond where apparently you could REALLY fish. So Chris and Ken forked out $25 bucks each (gasp!) for the hour to hire 2 rods. Of course after 15 minutes the kids had enough of "fishing" and promptly went to the playground instead!

It was great fun for them though, after a sweaty hour or so we were ready for dinner. At that point the neighbours and Caroline's friend left us so it was just us and Caroline's family. We drove over to Jack's Place at Ang Mo Kio and had our meal there. Of course we made a huge mess and made a lot of noise. After dinner we had dessert at the ice kachang stall and everyone had something sweet to end the meal.

So.. that was the day well spent.. the kids were all tired at the end and went to bed almost immediately when we got home. GREAT..!

Then today started with Madison having ??diarrhoea?? Boo... so no school for her today... I hope she gets over it quickly....

New Friends

2011-03-18T17:04:00.002+08:00

It's funny how we get to meet new people.

Having children has certainly opened the doors to new acquaintances; I suppose it gives people something in common.

For example.

I was minding my own business on the 14th floor of my apartment block, where there is a sky terrace, reading the papers and just enjoying my lunch hour.

Along comes a mother-son team, the boy is squealing and running around, and the mother looks apologetically at me. I smile at her, and viola! We make eye contact. After a little small chatter we find out a little about each other, that we both have things in common like husbands who lived in Australia ( she Sydney and me Melbourne ). Her only son is younger than Madison.

So then we part ways after exchanging mobile numbers. That very same afternoon my friend Caroline texts me about a playdate on Sunday to Bottletree park in Yishun. I immediately think of inviting this new friend along. She agrees and hey presto! We have an outing scheduled this weekend! "longkang"fishing and dinner !

We just have to see how this inaugural trip turns out.

Another instance: We keep meeting this other neighbour who turns out to have 2 boys: 2 year old and a 3 month old. The older kid goes to Eton house preschool, which is 1 street away from Madison's school. The dad turns out to be a (must be well to do) SAHD ( stay at home dad). Pretty unusual, and pretty cool! Their house is a perpetual open house, and I went over once with the kids to visit. I invited them to Madison's 3rd but they didn't come. I think they must have felt a little shy about coming over since there were quite alot of other people there.

In other news... I'm quite excited... a good friend is due to deliver ANYTIME! I can't wait to welcome her to the world of multiple kids! ( ie, more than 1 kid ). Wishing her all the best this weekend.

Grumble, grumble..

2011-03-15T11:14:00.002+08:00

Ok. I have to be honest. I am still mad with the BIL.

It really sucks that he is such a d+ck and my parents put up with his selfishness and inconsideration.

He parks the car in the driveway, blocking up 2 perfectly good carpark lots. Then the rest of us have to park on the street, risking traffic fines ( which I did get in January..argh..that is still not sorted out yet!)It's obvious but my parents live with it.

He takes the newspapers from my parents' home, and doesn't return it. My mum gets mad with the maid because the papers can't be found. Cheapskate. Newspapers cost all of 90c. My parents know but don't say anything to him.

He has no respect for anyone but himself and thinks his opinions are the only one that count. And of course he has no basis for that, seeing that he does not read much or have a really good background grasp of most things. I don't even think he is really respected professionally. ( that's SAD )

And now... I think what p*sses me off is that he does not make an effort to think through the issue before simply brushing off my management plan. Does he really think I would choose to poison his wife? My sister? With opthalmic drops? And the risk /benefit ratio: not to treat a contact lens related infection? Does he have an alternative? No! The first thing he could think of was just that it was a BAD choice of treatment. UNBELIEVABLE. It's INSULTING. Does he think I am unable to look these things up ? Did he consider the complications of her condition? Did he ensure she had a more thorough clinical examination before treatment? Or even offer to take her to another doctor? NO NO NO. WHAT AN IDIOT. POINT MADE.

I am still p*ssed. I don't let other people push me around but I have to let this go BECAUSE he is RELATED? What a curse.

Maybe it's a lesson in patience? Training in the ways of wisdom? Business training? Please, someone show me the light! Please give me the STRENGTH to survive another few decades of having to associate with him. SUCH A JUVENILE. Why am I still p*ssed?

Birthday parties!!

2011-03-14T21:03:00.002+08:00

In my opinion we had a great weekend.

Madison's party went off without a hitch on Saturday. Everything went almost according to plan. The weather was fantastic too... that's how lucky we were. It was excruciatingly hot most of the week, then Friday it rained almost the entire day. Saturday started off a little sunny, then the clouds came and it stayed quite nice the rest of the day.

I was really lucky to have help from my cousin Kay Shin, who stayed over Friday night at my mom's just to help us get the food ready. By Saturday, we had most of the stuff prepared and spent the morning decorating the room, putting the final touches to the cupcakes and getting the finger foods ready.

Kids started arriving a little past 11, and then suddenly everyone was here. My plan was to start off with colouring dinosaur pictures first, but it ended up with FOOD FIRST. So, ok... but I have a suspicion that the kids ate before they came... none of them had a great appetite. Or maybe it's just kids?

After they had something to eat, we started off with PASS THE PARCEL (or POISON PARCEL in local terms!!?) It was soo funny... I was joking with Angela ( one of the mums present and a friend) that the parents would be the ones passing it and the prize should have been more along the lines of "2 night stay at Capella Singapore with spa/golf " ! Then everyone would be snatching at it! In the end the kids did need help with passing the parcel and ripping the wrapping off. Was a good thing that Chris thought of putting a packet of dino candy in between layers so the kids were thrilled when they found it.

The next game was a dino egg hunt which went down really well. Of course then it meant they were all busy eating chocolate eggs to pay attention to the last game!! So funny.

We ended off with pin-the- tail on the T-rex. I had to go give Annika a nap then so I missed the action.

The cake was pretty cool too.. we ordered a 2kg choc banana cake without any decorations, then made a dark chocolate toblerone frosting and decorated with plastic dinos. Chris also painstakingly made a chocolate volcano with a foil mould. Quite impressive. It was topped off with 3 dino candles that I got at the BIY store. ( that I bought because I couldn't find the rack to return it too!!! also the girl that found it for me was nice...)

After cake cutting.. it was FREE AND EASY. IE I could sit back, eat, and relax. The kids decided they wanted to go into the pool THEN... so off they went. No one wanted to go at the start! So I got my pool party after all!

So... I'm stoked that everything went so well... it was worth all the painstaking preparation and thinking that went into it!

BIL woes AGAIN...GROAN...

2011-03-14T20:40:00.002+08:00

Ok.... this is my blog so I am entitled to b1tch about this and then FORGIVE AND FORGET. RIGHT?

Things have been somewhat calmer the past few weeks on the BIL front... I just ignore his pig face and live AROUND him.. somehow..

TODAY... UNBELIEVABLE.

I get home AFTER work. Find out that my sister has had a red eye from an infection after using contact lenses for the past 2 days. She sees a doctor who gives her SALINE eyedrops! Just because she is preggers so he doesn't treat her eye infection! And didn't even perform a proper eye examination or refer her on?

So I offered to check her eye out and treat it. She agrees. We drive over in horrendous traffic to the clinic, I get it checked and look up our medical MIMS before deciding on the best topical antibiotic that I have before giving it to her.

Then what happens? We get home, Mr PIGFACE (TMI?) looks up his IPHONE and declares "oh!! don't use the medicine! " Doesn't offer an alternative ( because OBVIOUSLY THERE IS NONE BETTER! IDIOT!)

IT's a pregnancy CAT B drug you FOOL! THERE will NEVER be a CAT A drug in pregnancy BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY NO ONE will be allowed to do randomized controlled trials on PREGNANT women... such an IDIOT. I tried explaining it to him but he was completely INCAPABLE of understanding such simple logic. His BRAIN would not allow access past his ears for information processing.

So... CORNEAL ulcer v using a CAT B drug? GO figure. PITA.

He chooses then to demonstrate his CHILDISHNESS by slamming his cutlery down at dinner and stalking off loudly to the sink where he continued to slam his plate down. RUDE A$$. Absolutely NO RESPECT for the other members of the family at the dinner table. And says " I will not speak to non humans!Shut up!" WTH??? NON HUMAN? IS that the best he could come up with? COME ON MUNHON. Such poor vocabulary and command of the spoken language. tsk tsk tsk.... poor thing...

Anyway... I chose to remain CALM and at the dinner table, where the rest of the civilized people finished our meal and didn't let the barbarian wreck it for us.

Ok. Rant over.

Madison's 3rd, Annika crawling backwards!

2011-03-10T11:27:00.005+08:00

My baby is turning 3 this Saturday! It's cliched but I cannot remember her as a little baby already.

We had a party at Novena for her first with balloons and a photographer, her 2nd was in Melbourne so this one will be a smaller event with MORE kids at our new place. I guess it'll be a housewarming as well.

It's going to be DINOSAUR themed, since she is crazy about them at the moment. I trawled the internet for ideas and so she's getting a cake with dinos on them, there's to be a dino egg hunt, pin the dino tail and poison parcel. Not to forget dino goody bags. I'm a little stuck about cupcakes at the moment... not exactly the most artistic person around... I found a cool baking shop nearby called BIY ( Bake it yourself!) and got some things to make chocolate shapes but didn't realize they were meant to fit muffin sized cupcakes! Not my teeny tiny cupcakes... argh.

Since she's going to school now, I figured instead of inviting her classmates ( and their parents whom we don't know!) over, I would bring the cake to class. So she gets 2 cakes this year. This is the first time I'm going to be doing this. Have to remember to bring the camera too.

I really have to thank the supportive people that surround me. Dorothy who works at my clinic offered her fabulous curry chicken and another friend volunteered to be the balloon folding guy at the party! Am really grateful.

In other news, I took Madison to an art school started by a contact. It's CANVASS, at Binjai park and it's pretty cool. We were slightly late since I had to rush from work so the other kids had started, but Madison fitted right in. They get to work with lots of materials, and she started off with paints. Later on she got to pick the other bits like sparkles and beads to stick onto her painting. We're probably going to try and stick with this for awhile to see. She enjoyed herself and wanted to go back again.

Annika, poor girl... she's a little in her sister's shadow at the moment. The good thing about it is that she is definitely a stronger character... she has the quickest fingers when it comes to grabbing Madison's things, whether it's food or toys. And yes, they have started squabbling... if Madison snatches something away from her she actually complains quite loudly! She is vocalizing a whole lot now, and is at the stage where she needs to be occupied or accompanied. But it's great that the 2 of them are good companions for each other.

Annika is now mobile. Yes.. she can kind of crawl. Backwards and in various directions. It's amazing how far she can get scooting around backwards! Of course she's always getting under the table, under the sofa and under the bed. I finally bought her a Sophie that everyone's been raving about... and nearly lost it after 24 hours. Of course she seems to prefer cereal containers, empty Berocca containers, spoons and remote controls. No more toys!

So... life is pretty full on at the moment... the clinic has it's days too.. some are sooo slow I think we're not going to survive; and other days people keep walking in... I don't know what to think! It would be nice if it could eventually become consistently BUSY! My life would be COMPLETE!

Home leave

2011-02-16T14:53:00.002+08:00

Warni's 2 week home leave.

Since Warni decided that she would like to keep working with us, we discussed and decided that her home leave should coincide with the CNY break so that it would minimize the time off we would need to take to care for the kids.

She left us on the 3rd of Febuary and was scheduled to return on the 17th. We left for KL on the 2nd and came back early on the 5th. So that left 12 days that we would have to survive on our own without any help.

We did alright by any measure... Chris took his 2 weeks leave and I told the clinic to avoid scheduling appointments during this time. It was fortunate too that being CNY the clinic was quiet anyway.

In the end, I really salute SAHM who have the utmost patience to do this EVERYDAY! Endless cleaning, tidying and getting kids ready for something or other. And listening to whining, crying and demanding... I don't think I have the mettle to do this EVERYDAY. On the flip side, we did get to spend ALOT of time with the kids just doing everyday things, and the kids coped alright too. We did, however, spend a huge amount of time AT HOME. When the kids were napping we had to stay home and babysit so many lunches were had AT HOME. It was nice that Madison had school everyday so that gave us some respite in the mornings.

Warni came back yesterday evening and so Madison and I went to pick her up from the airport. That was a little tricky logistically as Chris had to go back to work, there was evening traffic to negotiate and Annika's evening nap to sort out ALL AT THE SAME TIME! And Madison's dinner AS WELL.

In the end, I left Annika with Maria after a quick nursing session ( she wasn't hungry THEN), and packed a sandwich for Madison's dinner ( which she ate enroute to the airport). Warni's flight was slightly delayed getting in to start with, then we hit peak hour traffic on the way back. We left the house at 5 PM and only reached home at 7 PM.

Madison had no trouble recognising Warni and accepting her again, but Annika screamed her head off when Warni picked her up! It was quite funny really, but thank goodness all was good again this morning.

The apartment also looks neater already after Warni went through it this morning! I am so glad that she is back, but also realize that she has a family back home that must miss her terribly while she is here. I am grateful for her help while we have young children. I think the kids are happy to see her back too!

CNY 2011

2011-02-16T14:37:00.002+08:00

This year we spent Chinese New Year in Kuala Lumpur with the relatives. It was decided last year that we would do each side in turns. Last year was spent in Kota Bahru with the in laws, so this year we would see my side of the family.

Not a bad trip in all. The flight up to KL was so short and quick, it was over before we even knew what hit us! Madison was great this time round, take off and landing she either chewed on ice cubes or had her malteasers. Annika was a little more challenging. She was so distracted and took a while to nurse on taking off. Thank goodness she fell asleep both times and woke up when we landed.

When we got to KL we caught the VIP limousines service. Basically you catch the train from the airport to the city, then a cab takes you directly to your hotel. There is a portering service for the luggage so all we had to do was to look after the kids and get ourselves onto the train. It took us just over an hour to get to to the Ascott near the KLCC.

We got the same 3 room apartment at the Ascott that we had when we stayed there together the last time 2 years ago. Really nice large sitting area, a small kitchen and 3 decent sized bedrooms. Ensuites in every room too. Perfect since there were 3 sets of families staying together.

It was nice for the kids to meet with their cousins, and the same for us too. Of course we aren't very close anymore, since everyone is busy with their lives and we are physically apart. The first night was the reunion dinner night and we had that at a Chinese restaurant close to my aunt's house. Both girls did very well, considering that dinner finished late and it was really quite noisy and chaotic at the restaurant.

The rest of the time we were either at KLCC shopping/eating or chilling out at the apartment or my aunt's place. We did spend an afternoon visiting Jeremy at home. And is it a palatial home! Swimming pool, countless living and dining areas, bedrooms half the size of our apartment and his brother's private 3 room apartment on the top floor!

The flight home was super early on Saturday morning. We had to get up at 5 am to reach the airport by 8 and fly off at 9. Of course the trade-off was that we got home early and could still get stuff done back home. Of course, for Chris and I, it was the continuation of our 2 week helper's home leave.... and the start of the laundry run...argh....

Settling in

2011-01-28T15:43:00.003+08:00

Finally it is DONE!

We've completed the move, the Papillon apartment is looking all sad and forlorn..

Now for the settling in... Chris and I settled RIGHT in... simply LOVE the new place! It's great having a room to ourselves again, this time complete with a TV, walk in robe (small one though) and a bigger bathroom.( which leaked but that is another story!)

Madison has had a harder time. I didn't realize a kid so small could actually form an attachment to her old room. The first few nights were tough. Madison was crying and refusing to go to sleep, then during the night would wander around the apartment. Thank goodness Anthony is staying with us and he helps us deal with her when she comes into the living room (since he's bunking on the sofa bed there!). Because she doesn't get enough sleep she is fussy and clingy going to school and has been refusing to go to school. Initially I was worried something bad was happening at school but her teachers have said that she is GREAT during school hours! ( Well, she IS happy after school when I pick her up!) Then she kept saying she wanted to go back to the OLD apartment, to her OLD room...argh...

BUT... we had ONE good night last night. We came back early to the apartment, let BOTH girls go for a dip in our freezing COLD pool ( surprisingly Annika tolerated the cold for awhile! ), then when I put Annika down for the night Chris took Madison out to pick some pizza up for dinner ( for the adults! ). She got her small scoop of Tillamook ice-cream, then went to bed without too much fuss. AND SLEPT ALL NIGHT WITHOUT TEARS!! HOORAY! I'm hoping this signals a turn for the better?!!

Annika took a few nights to settle in too, but being younger I think she tolerated the move better. It's just that her room seems a bit of a hike from mine now, when previously we were practically 'next door'. Unfortunately she seems to have lost her ability to settle and go to sleep on her own!! Partly my fault... she has had to go to bed later ( at nap and night time ) because of Madison.. so she falls right asleep when nursing. Previously she would be up for a little while after a feed then I would put her to bed WITHOUT nursing. Oh well... I figure it's temporary... she won't nurse forever and she will drop all naps except for post-lunch in another few months! And I'm hoping somehow as she grows older she'll just follow her sister and go to bed on her own!

It's CNY next week already! The girls have all their New Year stuff but I have yet to get anything new to wear... probably shopping time this weekend?

Moving house

2011-01-24T15:04:00.004+08:00

We finally did it!

The moving company was available only on the 20th January, so that's when we moved. Took it in a few steps; once the packing boxes were given to us we started packing up some of the kids' stuff and moved it across to the new apartment so that the kids would have their stuff available.

Once that was done, the real packing began and took close to a week! It was horrible, living next to dust and boxes for the week. Everyone was sneezing.

When the big day arrived, we were all pretty excited. And it was quite amazing. There was a team of guys that came in, swooped into every room and glad-wrapped, taped and dismantled furniture. It was really quite organized. And so QUICK! In less than 2 hours they managed to pack up our lives and load it into a 24 footer truck ( it occupied less than 1 truck!) In contrast to us packing for the best of the last week!!

I then drove my MIL and myself over to the new apartment to let the movers in. In another half an hour or so everything was unpacked and there must have been over 30 boxes sitting in the living room. Unpacking was ( and still is!) a nightmare. It's incredible how much STUFF we accumulate with time. And SO hard to throw anything out.

But still, by sheer grit and sweat most things were unpacked and stacked in various nooks and crannies. We're still slowly sorting things out but it definetly is in living condition now.

How did the kids take it so far? Daytime is great. Madison loves the new place, she likes the extra space and we've helped her decorate her room with wall stickers and new linen. But come nightfall....OMG. The first 2 nights she went wandering in the apartment at 2 am, then had 1 good night, and then has been crying for us AGAIN a few times in the night. Annika is doing the usual night waking, so between the 2 of them neither of us is getting that much sleep! But like everything else, it's TEMPORARY, right?

We've still had odds and ends to sort out. First the audio-visual stuff had to be mounted, and cables organized, then we found out that the bath tub was leaking so that had to be sorted out. Finally we're getting the phone line and internet come in, and the packing boxes removed today.

The MIL has been great in helping us with the move, bugging the movers and nagging various service people for us. It was a little stressful but we've all coped.

Annika had her 6 month birthday too! My little baby is halfway to 1! She's super cute and cuddly right now, and so fun. She hardly cries unless she needs something, and charms the pants off anyone who looks at her. I've started some solids for her, and so far she's quite good with egg yolk, avocado and banana. I was giving her some cereal, but then I'm a little skeptical about the nutritional benefits of cereal, so if she can take proper food I think I'll probably just give her that. Today I managed to make chicken puree and I'm freezing some to see how they do. Found the recipe off wholesomebaby food's website.

Anyhow... it's all good... I am so happy to have a proper room and bed to sleep in again! It's been 5 months since we've had a decent sleep. And now the plasma screen is in our bedroom too!

Next up... CNY.... groan... we're supposed to go visit relatives...

Bad luck day?

2011-01-13T13:38:00.002+08:00

Yesterday certainly felt like a bad luck day.

It started off innocuously enough like any other day. Madison to school in the morning, then back to the clinic to see a patient.

I then got called about a patient with complications from a treatment I had administered. Spoke to her over the phone and she seemed fine. Still, I had my misgivings so drove over to TTSH to see her personally. After a short consult, we were both reassured. Driving back to the clinic I was then interrupted by the movers who wanted to turn up early to drop empty boxes off. Maybe that disturbed my train of thought?

Lunch time I picked Madison up from school, put Annika down for her afternoon nap, then had to find lunch before going back to work. I couldn't decide: walk across the road or drive to Whampoa market. For some strange reason I had a bad feeling about driving out but I still proceeded to do so. Bad choice.

After a quick meal I drove back LEISURELY, thinking I would go back to the clinic for awhile then head home to start doing some packing. Halfway there, I got hit by a delivery van trying to do a right turn from the left lane! AAAH! It wasn't even his vehicle so he had to call his boss about it. I spoke to his boss and we initially agreed to go over to the mechanic and see how much it would cost to repair. So then I had to drive over to the mechanics' with him tailing me. Of course it had to start to rain just then.

When the mechanic came up with the quote, the delivery man's boss decided that it was too costly and wanted to let insurance settle the claim. SO THEN I had to drive over to ANOTHER location to report the accident. IN the rain, in the BAD TRAFFIC! And I hadn't pumped yet. Of course to top it off I get a call from the clinic informing me that there were patients waiting to be seen! ARRGHHH!!!! Well... I had to send them off.

I'm really hoping the claim will go through... it's always a case of 'he said, she said' so it's up to the assessors to decide. And now I have a rental car that has an excess of $3000!!!! OMG. I think I should seriously minimize travel this week.

Is this a case of bad Karma?

Sleep needs

2011-01-07T15:47:00.002+08:00

I find it amazing that some kids can sleep from 7 pm to 7 am the next day!

For some reason, I think my kids must have lower sleep needs or something. I used to put Annika to bed for the night at 630 pm, but over the past few months it has gradually been pushed past 7 pm. She refuses to feed or go down before that, unless she has not been given any more naps after her afternoon one. And even then, she would wake up to feed early if put down before 7.

Now we try to put her down before 8pm, and she would wake at 7. Recently though, she's been waking for the day at 630am! Even though I try and feed her quietly in the hope that she would go back to sleep, she protests and refuses to fall back asleep! Argh! I only hope she doesn't wake at 6 am!

BUT! Annika is super cute right now. She babbles so much, we think she is actually talking already! I stopped giving her solids regularly now, since I think she was getting indigestion and waking at 3am from it. Poor baby though, she looks so frustrated when she watches us all have breakfast every morning. Sometimes I give her scrapings of banana and she gobbles it up so quickly!

I still cannot believe Madison was heavier than Annika at the same age. Guess all kids eat differently. Annika is slightly longer though.

Well, we are off to Bintan tomorrow. We still haven't sorted out the mess with MH yet, so I don't know how things are going to be. Sigh.

First day at preschool

2011-01-05T21:02:00.004+08:00

5th January 2011:

1. Our 10th year wedding anniversary
2. Madison's first day at Pat's Schoolhouse

10 years makes us sound like an old couple! But yes, it's really been 10 years since we've been married. It's weird though, doesn't feel like a single day has passed. Yes, even though we've got 2 kids!

We didn't really do anything special today, being a work day and all. Chris did present me with his gift though.. a beautiful sparkly diamond pendant from TIFFANY'S!!! Right up my alley. His gift? 2 kids!

Today I did take his mum to the spa though. I wanted to go to SpaBotanica at Sentosa resort but it was fully booked. So the next best was the Aramsa spa at Bishan Park. Am I glad we went there instead! It was really quite nice! I think the most important aspect of the spa experience is the staff and environment, and Aramsa spa scored on both counts. I invited Chai and HanTing along as well, so I had 2 couple suites booked. We opted to have the Aramsa touch massage.

It turned out to be 60 minutes of bliss! No wonder people do these things regularly! We had a nice cup of ginger tea to start, then a short foot soak before undressing for the actual massage. The masseurs were very professional and private. I actually fell asleep during the massage, even though parts of it were a little ?ticklish!

When the massage was done, we got to sit in the lounge and have more tea and biscuits. After that we went over to their cafe for a small bite before we all headed home. Even the cafe served pretty good food!

Madison had her first day at preschool today. This week is orientation week. Classes start at half time (11 am) and end at 1pm. She gets to be accompanied for this week. Madison was quite anxious and hesitant at the start, but towards the end she warmed up and for a moment didn't even want to go home! We were brought around the school for a tour, given a briefing on their daily activity. It's really quite good. She gets to do different things everyday, and there are 2 teachers to the 11 kids in the class. It's bilingual so 1 teacher in English and another in Mandarin. The music teacher is a different person and she conducts the sessions in a dedicated music room. Breakfast and lunch is provided, although breakfast is optional.

I'm just a little worried about drop off and pick up; would it be crowded and jammed full of cars? I guess I'll be finding out soon enough. I also have to work out the sequence of events; what time I actually want to drop Madison off, and then come back to Annika, or feed Annika first then drop Madison off?

Hopefully Madison will settle into her new school with as little tears as possible next week. It's a good bridge to primary school. I cannot imagine how kids who don't go to preschool cope with real school!

Discipline war part 2

2011-01-04T14:52:00.003+08:00

So.... my sister came back from work last night and sat down to discuss the issues at hand.

I think we had already decided on time out/naughty chair as an impartial way of refereeing the kids when they play together, and we were merely waiting for MH to sit down with us all and agree on it.

After yesterday afternoon, Geok told us that it was almost impossible that he would be able to do that ( ? Pride/ego ) --what a child! So... he basically left it to her to thrash it out with us ( which was what I anticipated ANYWAY! ) So... we decided that the kids would be given time-outs if they attacked the other kid, bit/shoved/clobbered the other child. 1 minute per year of age, they had to sit there the entire time and then apologise when it was over. They would then get a hug and it would end the timeout.

THE CAVEAT??!! MH expects to be CONSULTED when Elizabeth was the one getting the timeout! How ridiculous is that? Especially since he refuses to partake in the discussion relating to it! Why should we CONSULT him if he did not witness the event?

Anyway, I don't trust his ability to administer the timeout appropriately. My solution? I will keep my kids away from his. Until he goes back to work properly. Right now he is in a temporary rotation away from his usual orthopaedic training so he spends inordinate amounts of time AT NOVENA.

It was great having an adult conversation with Geok though. She's a more temperate person, and seems quite even minded when it comes to these issues.

It's a pity that things had to deteroriate to this level, but if MH had the simple courtesy and frame of mind to be respectful when dealing with people other than himself it wouldn't have happened at all! I did what had to be done and I really don't care if I seem like the nasty one.

Anyhow, Madison starts school tomorrow so things will be different. Hopefully our new apartment will be ready to move into SOON. It would be nice to have more space for the kids and for US!

Show down with the BIL

2011-01-03T14:59:00.004+08:00

I'm sorry but I really need to vent...!

It's been 5 days since the start of this cold war and apart from the first showdown, I've also approached Geok about resolving this issue of discipline for the kids. Geok has been unable to resolve it, stating that she is waiting for MUNHON to decide.

So... the answer for the moment is to keep the kids relatively separate so that they DON'T get into any serious fights.Not ideal or easy but we have no choice until they get off their butt and sit down for a discussion. ( WHICH MUNHON REFUSES TO!)

Today, I took Madison and Annika over to the Novena house at lunch time. Munhon drove Elizabeth over after school. Elizabeth was whiny and throwing tantrums at the lunch table as usual, but I just ignored it. Told Madison to leave Elizabeth alone. I made sure my kids were well away from Elizabeth. Gave Madison several warnings to stay away.

After Elizabeth finished her lunch, she wandered over to where Annika was playing. Madison came over, and said something like "don't do that " or something. Didn't even touch or come close to her. Elizabeth went over to Madison and whacked a little bowl right out of Madison's hands. Of course Madison started crying. Munhon, was slouched in front of the TV as usual, doing nothing amidst the crying.

So then, I told Munhon to come and resolve this. His action? Carried Elizabeth up and said it was "ok"!!!! ?? OK? To hit another child?? The GALL! OMG! I took a deep breath, tried hard to stay calm, and asked him what we were going to do to resolve this issue of kids fighting. And what did he do? Like a child, he ignored me and WALKED AWAY! HOW RUDE WAS THAT!

I refused to be treated rudely and disrespectfully like that. I walked up to him, and told him flat out that I would not be treated as such. Then I asked if, that if he wasn't going to discipline his child, did he expect me to do it? He just gawked at me, and kind of waited to see what I would do!! I asked him TWICE.. and since his answer was the same, I took it as affirmative. So I told Elizabeth NOT TO HIT MADISON. She of course, responded by crying.

Anyway, it ended with him leaving and me telling him to get lost. He deserves it. MEGA PISSED ME OFF. Never had to invoke my powers of being first child EVER, but I did it then.

Still, the good thing was that it finally got him off his butt and before I knew it, the phones were ringing off the hook for Pa and Chai! It was quite funny really. At least I have the satisfaction of being EFFECTIVE. If I have to be the BAD GUY, I DON'T CARE. I WILL DO IT. Especially since he CROSSED my lines and my CHILDREN were attacked. Seems like his answer is to leave it to his wife to resolve it!! WHAT AN ASS. He really has no gumption and conviction. No courage to face dispute and resolve it head on. I pity him.

I still don't think he'd be able to effectively carry out any form of discipline that we decide anyway. But hopefully we get to sort this out. Let's see what happens tonight.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-03T10:30:00.005+08:00

Another fantastic weekend!

New Year's eve :

The weekend started off with a half day at work( woo hoo!). In the afternoon we attended a 2 year old birthday party. The birthday girl incidentally will be starting school with Madison this year. The evening was spent at Novena with the grandparents, who organised a small house party to countdown to the new year.

We didn't make it to midnight though. Chris was on call. Madison, had ice cream at lunch, ice cream and chocolate cake at the party. Guess what ? Post party sugar slump. She fell asleep in the car on the 10 minute ride home, then woke up grumpy and whiny. She finally recovered late in the evening when the guests started arriving, and then was revved up for the night. I think she overate, and ended up spewing a little at the end. Gross.

Just in time to end the year, we've had a minor tiff in the family. Of course it's partly because of the kids. Madison and Elizabeth swing between being best friends and worst enemies, but lately Elizabeth has taken to biting. Madison has had several bite marks to show for that, and Elizabeth does not get disciplined for it. In our opinion Geok and Munhon have chosen a rather lackadaisical attitude towards rules and discipline when it comes to their offspring; she is frequently whiny, throwing tantrums and crying whenever she doesn't get what she wants.It is so annoying. Madison's behaviour deteroriates whenever she is with Elizabeth; to be fair, she sees how much Elizabeth gets away with so she tries her luck too.

Anyway, it started because Elizabeth bit Madison AGAIN. Chris took it upon himself to tell her off, but I don't think Elizabeth even understood. She smiled throughout it, thinking it was all a joke. The very next day I left Madison behind while I took Annika home to sleep, and as usual the 2 girls got into a tiff. Geok then took it upon herself to give Madison a shelling, and that's where it started. We thought it would be best to sit down calmly and discuss the issue of discipline, but then within a minute of starting, Munhon was up in arms, left the table and was saying he refused to participate in the discussion. But even though he said he wanted to leave the discussion, he continued to make remarks and comments across the room to us. That really pissed Chris off and he basically told Mun hon to either come and sit down and talk to us civilly or else shut his trap. Mun Hon then got angry and I think if it weren't for Pa's intervention we might have had a fist fight on hand???!!!

Argh... since then it's been semi cold war, I think the kids shouldn't play together until some resolution has been acheived. Since Mun Hon was the one who refused to partake in the discussion, I'm not initiating another one. He can do it.

New Year's Day:

We didn't join them for breakfast so we had a nice break. Usually we end up whittling the day away after breakfast when we're there but this time we managed to skype Anthony in Melbourne, then pop over to the shop next door to do curtain shopping for our new apartment. It rained cats and dogs in the afternoon so we were stuck indoors for the rest of the day. In the end we did wind up in the Novena house for dinner, but it was a quick one and we came home again early in the night. Dinner was civil, but you could tell things weren't right.

Yesterday we spent completely away from them, instead we had a field trip to the Sky tower at Marina Bay Sands. It was pretty cool! Of course we had to pay the silly entry fee, but we got to go up and check out the bikini babes ( and non babes ) hanging out by the infinity pool on the sky deck. Took plenty of pictures too. We had lunch at the food court after perusing the various restaurants at Sands. Mostly too posh to bring a toddler and an infant. In any case, the restaurants were empty. Ended the meal with dessert at a cafe called Darcis.

In the evening we left the 2 kids at home and took Chris' mum out to dinner at Prive. We were lucky that we arrived when we did; soon after we were seated people suddenly started appearing and the cafe was FULL! Had a relaxing dinner then back to reality.... the start of a new working year....groan....

Happy 2011!

Christmas weekend

2010-12-27T14:59:00.002+08:00

Phew... the Christmas weekend is over!

Actually, it was a pretty good weekend. It started early since Christmas eve was a half day at work. Chris was home early too. We had dinner at home with the family, then everyone decided to come and check out our new apartment. It's almost ready, just some carpentry work that needs to be completed. We need to get curtains measured and fitted too.

On Christmas day the entire family met up for breakfast at the Botanic Gardens. We were reasonably early so managed to get seats. The family is growing! We needed a table for 10 just for the immediate family! After breakfast the kids got to feed some overfed and stuffed fish at the lake, before heading home to raid the gift pile.

Now that Madison is getting older, it's quite fun to see her get excited over the presents. Madison and Elizabeth were swimming in gift wrap and endless amounts of toys, clothing and other paraphernalia. The rest of us did our gift swaps and I think we were all quite happy with each other's selection this year.

Instead of an eve dinner we planned a Christmas day dinner with turkey. A few relatives were invited and it was perfect with Han Ting around.( That made Chai very happy!) We bought the turkey 4 days earlier and started thawing it out 2 days prior. The day before it was soaked in a brining solution and then I started to prepare it for baking 6 hours before dinner. The entire baking time was 4 hours at 160 Celcius. I did it from a vague memory of this recipe that I'd tried a few years ago and the turkey turned out great. This time round was the same! The breast was tender while the legs were juicy, and the meat had the fragrance of the herbs that I covered it in during brining AND baking. Pa also made roast pork and a braised version that we turned into a prawn and pork salad. For dessert we had 2 log cakes. And of course, lots of bubbly. By the end, we were stuffed but happy. The kids got to eat their fill of sugar too.

Boxing day was a day sans helpers. All 3 of them were off for the holiday. The morning was kind of nice, Chris and I got to laze about with the kids for all of 15minutes in our pjs, then I got breakfast started. After brekky we went over to the pool at our new apartment for a dip. After THAT we headed over to the swimming club. The plan was lunch there but since we were early we had our second dip at the club pool. Annika got to go in for a swim too! Her first! She took it remarkably well, considering the water was actually quite cold. I didn't let her stay in too long, since the midday sun was on the way up. After lunch we drove around for an hour while Madison had her nap. Learnt my lesson from the last time I had to do an afternoon nap... I got the nap and not the kid!

So, we got to see the massive house on Nassim Road that had the biggest Christmas tree ever, with an amazing light up to boot. The house had 2 huge dragons on its' formidable front gates.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the apartment, I was beyond paying attention and managed to dent the back bumper bar on the left reversing into the carpark...(sob).

Dinner was out at Pudong, a Shanghainese restaurant at Balmoral Plaza. We had our favourite braised pork, dumplings, noodles in sauce and cold toufu. The restaurant has good food, although service leaves much to be desired. The restaurant itself looks a little dingy and aged but oh well... the foods' good.

This week feels weird... hopefully it'll be a good one to end the year off!

CRAZY busy...!

2010-12-23T14:30:00.004+08:00

It's been rather busy and stressful these past few days...

Yesterday was a good example. The kids had to be dropped off at school, after which the service man was supposed to come and check on my Delphin vacum cleaner( AND HE DIDN'T TURN UP!). Then, for some reason the clinic decided to get busy and it was a mad rush to see them before pick up time at 12noon.

Of course, by this time Annika was grouchy and hungry so I was driving like a mad woman to get everyone home for lunch and naps.

When Annika was finally settled I had to grab a quick bite, pump and then go back to work. Again, another mad rush to see patients, then it was off to the airport to pick up my mother-in-law. Thank goodness traffic was smooth flowing. When I got to the airport, thinking I would be late, it was a pleasant surprise that she had not picked her bags up yet. So, a quick toilet break and a nice cool drink. She finally checked out close to an hour after the plane touched down. We went straight back to Novena, where the kids were all up and playing already.

By this time, Annika was tired and hungry for her last nap so off we went for a short rest. Being an evening nap, she was up 30 minutes later and then it was time for Madison's dinner! So, I handed Annika over to Warni, kept Madison company while she had dinner. When dinner was done, Pa came home and of course we headed out shopping.

Thank goodness United Square was busy but still had reasonably short queues at the supermarket. We picked up a few items and headed home. OF COURSE we forgot about the traffic home. Even though the shops are a 5 minute drive we took close to 15 minutes to get home. BY WHICH TIME our dear Annika was grumbling AGAIN! ( BEDTIME )

So... quick bath for Annika, quick feed and then lights out and down for the night. We finally had dinner, then it was time to go home to put Madison down for the night. Of course when we get home I STILL have to pop out to get some milk from the convenience store, wash and sterilize my pump, prepare Annika's bottles for the next day THEN finally shower and RELAX.

Oh.. and Annika turned 5 months yesterday! I wanted to get her a little cupcake or muffin to celebrate but in the craziness of the day, FORGOT. As usual. I am suffering without my iphone's calender.

I also have started giving Annika a little bit of solids just because she seems so terribly interested in our food. Everytime I eat something she actually brings my hand to her mouth and try to 'eat' it as well! Yesterday she got steamed sweet potato with spinach. Which she took fairly well although she gagged a few times. She doesn't gag with banana. Tonight I am going to try cereal with banana. I've got an avocado that I'm waiting to ripen. I think the solids help a little. She managed to go a longer time without a night feed last night. It was so nice to get that extra sleep.

The other thing that really took up quite a bit of time was Christmas shopping. Finally completed it all this afternoon. Quite a headache thinking and buying presents for so many people!

Today I brought Madison down with me to the clinic. I thought it would be a quick one, then I could take the kids over to Novena, but the patient TURNED UP LATE! ARGH! Madison was really good though. She sat quietly in my room, covering my desk with stickers while I attended to the patient. She also pooed while she was at it, and when I asked her after I was done, her reply was:" No toilet in the clinic?" (!!!) As if she would poo in the toilet anyway! But it was funny. We were late so I had to take her over to Novena in her stinky poo diaper. Boy.. was the car stinky all the way there!

Maybe I should go get Annika her cupcake/muffin today? Hm...

December...

2010-12-17T14:47:00.003+08:00

I just love the month of December!

The weather is so much cooler, people are in the holiday mood and it's just a generally more relaxed month.

We're having a Christmas day dinner for the family, and probably going to exchange gifts. Buying gifts is a real pain though, since it's getting harder every year to come up with new ideas! My shopping is almost done, after 2 mad days of combing the stores at Takashimaya and at Vivocity.

Chai is back for the holidays. It's amazing, he's already headed into the final year of medical school and will be done by next year! His girlfriend is already done with her Masters degree and started work. I am getting old! It's nice when he's back, feels like our family is complete again. We're all looking forward to when he's back for good.

Madison is finishing up her time with Bibinogs. It's a little sad that's she's ready to move on, and I'm grateful for the skills that they have imparted to her. She's developed so much over the year, and become more confident and articulate since she started school. Next year she starts at Pat's Schoolhouse at Buckley and I'm hoping she doesn't have too much trouble adjusting. I think she'll like it there eventually.

Annika is also growing up much too quickly. She's rolling all the time now and is generally a happy person. It's great how I feel so much more relaxed and confident handling her compared with Madison! She's also lucky to have 2 older kids to entertain her and keep her company. Elizabeth and Madison sway between protective love and jealous snatching! It's funny how the 3 of them occupy themselves the entire day.

Chris is going away AGAIN, this time with Pa for a medical mission trip to Padang, Indonesia. They leave tonight and will be back on Sunday NIGHT. Argh.. I will have to survive another 2 nights with the kids. He's working so much these days that he hardly has time for the kids, and with all the travelling he's been doing recently, it's been a little tough. But I do understand that he needs to train now so that he can be good at what he does.

The saga with Warni is also resolved. She is (hopefully) coming back to work with us for another 2 years starting next March. She leaves for a holiday in February. We negotiated her working terms and so she gets a pay rise and regular time off starting next year. I think she's happy and already I feel a positive change in her work attitude. I want to thank her for her efforts over the past 2 years, and so I will give her a Christmas bonus as well. I think I want to do the same for Maria and Siti( Geok's helper) as well. I am grateful for their help over the past 5 months with Annika and Madison.

Finally.. on the apartment front... yay! Work has finally begun and things are looking GOOD! I'm hoping we'll be able to move in before next year, but we're not rushing things. I'm rather sick of sleeping in the lounge and having our things all over the apartment. It's only a slight increase in space, but since we're having things built in it feels like a significant upgrade.

Oh.. and Chris' mum is coming for the Christmas break. And staying till Chinese New Year. That should be fun. She'll get plenty of time with her 2 granddaughters.

That's it for now...

Gap Casting Call

2010-12-06T10:57:00.004+08:00

We entered Madison and Annika in a baby competition!

Actually, it was Chris' idea to do so, if it were me, I'd be too lazy to do anything. He heard about the Gap Casting Call from a friend, and turned out that it was happening over the past weekend. We had to spend $80 per child in baby Gap to qualify for a photoshoot.

It was lucky I was free this Saturday. We drove over to Gap at Wisma Atria and there were parents there shopping already at 11am. After checking with the sales people that the competition was actually on, we went berserk trying to quickly find $160 worth of Gap clothes to buy for the 2 girls. Then I had to join the queue to pay. It was annoying that the check out register took quite a while.

Of course, by this time Annika was getting cranky because she was getting hungry and it was close to nap time. But bless the little girl, she behaved really well, didn't even cry or complain that much.

After we finally registered the 2 girls, we had to join ANOTHER queue to wait our turn to take the photos. By which time, it was definitely Annika's feeding and napping time. Still, she did brilliantly, allowing the photographer to take her pictures without any fuss. It was a pity she wasn't at her best but it was the best we could do at that time.

Madison was up next after Annika. She suddenly became so shy; she was unable to smile or pose for the camera. Chris asked her to smile and she tried her best...

When the photos were finally done, it was a mad rush to feed Annika then Madison. The Gap staff was really nice, when I asked her if there was a nursing room somewhere in Wisma Atria, she said there wasn't one, and offered a dressing room for me to use. I managed to give Annika a quick feed before people started knocking at the door( rude! I never knock at the dressing room door to hurry other people up!) We ended up at the Marriot Singapore for lunch.

Hopefully the girls get some votes, but I'm not holding my breath about us winning this competition...it was just something different to do and good exposure for Madison. Some of the other kids were quite natural in front of the camera. And they definitely have aggressive parents marketing their photos for votes.

BTW, voting is through Facebook on the Gap Singapore site!

More gastro!

2010-12-03T14:48:00.002+08:00

This is unbelievable!

The gastro bug that Elizabeth has and Madison HAD WILL NOT GO AWAY!

Elizabeth has been having diarrhoea from Monday till today, Madison vomitted Sunday but has been well till today, when she succumbed to diarrhoea too. ARGH.

I am praying Annika doesn't get the bug. I really don't want to see her sick and admitted to hospital. This diarrhoea bug must either be a rotavirus or an adenovirus. It's quite bad.

Today I was so pissed off that Madison started having diarrhoea that when I drove the kids over to the Novena house I got the helpers to strip the play area down and wash just about everything. I've got this germ phobia too, and I'm convinced the play area must be swarming with bugs of all sorts. I stripped down Annika's car seat and playthings that the 2 older girls like to get into and got them washed too.

It's days like that I feel absolutely crap. Surviving on disrupted sleep night on night, then having to deal with toddlers who fight, whine and scream all day is seriously exhausting. I'm glad that I do work though, so at least I have an outlet and time out everyday. And I get to interact with people other than the kids and the helpers everyday.

But for now, WILL THE GASTRO BUG PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE???!!!

Gastroenteritis..! Blowing bubbles...

2010-12-01T15:18:00.005+08:00

Madison came down with a bad case of the stomach flu over the weekend. Just in time for Chris' arrival back from Japan.

I think she must have caught it after going swimming at the NUSS club with Elizabeth, Geok and Munhon on Saturday. She was well Sunday morning, but then all of a sudden started crying, fussing and saying she wanted to poo. Then, without warning, she projectile puked onto Warni and then several times thereafter. Needless to say we were all shocked.

Poor thing, she wouldn't stop throwing up, so I ended up giving her a shot and a suppository to stop the retching. Drove out to get some Freezer pops for her as well. She spent most of the afternoon sleeping on the couch in front of the television with Chris.

Thank goodness, by the evening, she seemed to suddenly improve and could tolerate ICE CREAM. Unfortunately she started running a fever. I was waiting for explosive diarrhea to start, but thankfully it didn't.

I was super paranoid that one of us would catch her bug too, and especially worried for Annika. Bleach was my best friend that day. I'm sorry to admit that I have a bit of vomit phobia; gastroenteritis is my greatest fear. I honestly tried very hard to be there and comfort Madison, but am thankful that Chris had already come home. He did an excellent job keeping Madison company.

Elizabeth started having diarrhea on Monday, so it's confirmed that the pool must have been contaminated with someone's poo.

On the Annika front, she's staying awake for longer periods now, and like Madison, is starting to refuse feeds when wide awake. She tries to sit up, squeal, and blows bubbles when either Warni tries to bottle feed or I try to breastfeed her! It's kind of cute ( although somewhat annoying as well ) when she is blowing bubbles at 5 am instead of going back to sleep after a feed. Her nights are still somewhat variable, which is tiring too. I am still hoping we don't have to do CIO with her eventually.

We finally have some progress with Warni. Her contract is up next March and I've been asking if she wants to continue working with us. Up till now she has not been forthcoming with her reply, but when I paid her over the weekend she finally gave me her reply.

Initially I was surprised that she would bargain on her terms of employment. I was hesitant to renew her contract, but after discussion with the family and thinking it through, I decided to negotiate with her and have an honest discussion with her. I am glad we came to a happy settlement, so at this point of time she will be continuing to work with us. She will go home for a 2 week vacation then return to us. I am quite happy with the decision and am thinking of bettering her employment terms if she does perform well over the next year. In fact, if she could DRIVE a car and chauffeur the kids around, she'd get paid VERY WELL.

Chris' birthday is coming up in 2 weeks! I think I might get him an Agnes B Voyage lap top bag? I was thinking a new laptop, but I did ask him and he declined. A nice watch would be good too, but they are too EXPENSIVE. Clothes a little too cliched. Maybe a nice suit? ( expensive too ) Maybe I should just get him some running stuff. And get him into running? ( doubt he'd like that! )

Vaccinations, holidays

2010-11-26T11:00:00.002+08:00

I can't believe it's almost December already! How time flies! Just a year ago Annika was not born yet and Madison was such a little toddler.

Yesterday Annika had her 4 month shots. Managed to time it so that we headed down to the clinic just after she woke from her afternoon nap. I wasn't planning to take Madison along but it so happened that all of them awoke from their respective naps AT THE SAME TIME.

So both Madison and Elizabeth came along. Munhon was off work and Elizabeth ended up getting her shots too. (18 month ones). Madison was worrying throughout that she'd end up getting some too.

At her weigh in Annika was 7.8kg and 65.6cm tall. She's lighter than Madison at the same age but taller. Madison was 8.1Kg and 64cm at 4 months. I think that was the heaviest for height Madison ever was. She's now plateaued at 13+kg for the past year.

Annika was such a champ! She was so bubbly and cheerful the entire time, cooing and smiling at the paediatrician, and only cried for a little while during the needle. It was easy to pacify her afterwards and then she was off entertaining the parents outside! It was really funny. We were waiting for Elizabeth to finish her time with the paediatrician and Annika was cooing endlessly to the parents waiting outside!

I just found out that Warni has been feeding Annika with the bottle teat facing the WRONG direction. The NUK teat is specially designed to resemble the nipple so it looks a little strange. I realised this when I was feeding Annika myself at the clinic using the NUK teat yesterday. When I asked Warni which direction she pointed the teat she showed me the WRONG way. Not sure if that's the cause of her not being able to finish her milk at 3 PM. She takes only 60 to 70mls of expressed milk each time and I'm pretty sure that's hardly enough for her at this stage. We'll see.

On another note... holidays.

Chris is AWAY for a blissful holiday/conference in Tokyo for 4 days. He left on Wednesday afternoon and will be back Sunday morning. LUCKY guy. Would I LOVE to go on a spa holiday right now. I love going to Japan. We've been 3 times, skiing, shopping and eating. Niseko twice and Nagano once. It's the BEST for powder snow. Our skis must be rusty by now. I think I deserve new boots by the time we can take the kids skiiing!

We are trying to plan for a major family getaway in January, but as far no one can decide where to go. I'm a little half hearted because

1. taking 2 kids on holiday ISN'T really a holiday ( although Madison is quite good these days)
2. Madison will miss the FIRST day of her new music class ( not good! they don't repeat it and it's EXPENSIVE!)
3. Chris has to attend a course on the Friday of that weekend.. making HIS holiday really short and he'd have to travel separately from us. Blah. I'd have to take the 2 kids by myself without him.

Anyway... I'm NOT going to be the one planning OR organising this trip so I'll wait and see what my parents/Munhon/Geok can come up with. I'm sick of being the one who always has to organise/sort/plan things out. I've got 2 kids.. that's enough planning for one person!

Regression, TIRED!

2010-11-16T13:36:00.002+08:00

Argh... what is with potty training?

Finally we have resolved Madison's fear of no 2 ( pooing ) only to have her regress back to using diapers full time!

We changed her back to diapers because she had such psychological difficulty with doing no 2 in the potty and then ended up constipated. Took over 2 weeks for her to resolve her thing with pooing. She is better now, but for some reason 'lost' her ability to use the potty for pee! I think she will be able to do it consistently if we lost the diapers and used normal underwear, but then how would we solve the pooing issue?

Anyway... I thought maybe I should give the reward system a go. So today I drew up some columns on a piece of paper and prepared some shiny star stickers. I also offered her M & Ms for every star that she got. Let's see if it works.

As for Annika, I think that sleep that I got a few weeks ago was a fluke. She's back to 2 night wakings regularly, and even 3 wakings, but I only feed her at the first 2. I tried NOT feeding her but she created such a fuss it was easier to just feed her. And boy, did she seem hungry!But am I TIRED...

Otherwise, she's a happy baby, all squeals and conversation recently. She's got the cutest smile and the most expressive face ever! Add on the baby curls piled on top of her head, she is a magnet for attention. People keep asking if she's Korean or Japanese. So far no one has mistaken her for a boy.

Where does all the time go? It's already mid November! Before long Christmas will be upon us. We are expecting some visitors come December. Chai is back for his holidays on the 4th of December, and then Chris' mum will visit for a month starting Christmas eve. Should be fun....

Night wakings

2010-11-09T10:54:00.002+08:00

I think I am less patient with night wakings with Annika than I was with Madison.

I guess in a way, I'm looking forward to being able to sleep uninterrupted again... but then she's only 3.5 months now...

It's just that a few weeks ago she seemed to be able to consistently make it to close to 3 am before requiring a feed, but recently it seems to have regressed. Last night she didn't even make it to midnight before she started fussing. I tried not to feed her but she would have none of that. We persisted in trying to settle her without a feed but she refused to settle. In the end I caved in and boy! Was she hungry!

I'm cracking my brains over this. Is it something wrong that I'm doing so she isn't getting enough? Although, I must say that she seems to be eating less in the day now. She completely refuses to feed even though I offer. Can't force her since she'd protest. I'm thinking maybe that's why she needs more at night recently. It's driving me mad. Not sure if I can really do anything about it either.

That aside, Annika is becoming more of a little person now. It's amusing how she gets obsessed with checking her right hand to see if it's still there. She is really into sucking both her fists now, and sometimes( quite frequently!) tries to suck them WHILE feeding! She also seems to be more attached to me than Madison was, and protests if I don't carry her when she wants. She's also quite taken with her sister and cousin. I have a short video of Madison playing with Annika.

I know this baby stage doesn't last very long, so I'm trying to relax and enjoy her as much as possible. When I look at Madison now, I cannot imagine how quickly she's grown. Some time between Annika's birth and now she suddenly became a little girl. It's a bittersweet feeling.

Men are from Mars??

2010-11-03T14:45:00.002+08:00

I just had lunch with my parents, and this came up in a conversation.

My sister is away in Bali for a business trip (lucky gal!!! would I LOVE to be in a spa in Bali right now!!) so her daughter is bunking in with my parents for 2 nights.

Apparently she was up a few times last night, and my dad got up to pat her back to sleep, and eventually she ended up sleeping with him. Dad fell asleep immediately as soon as she settled. Mum was a different story. She just could not go back to sleep after each waking!

Which brings me to my point.

What is it with men? Chris is the same. When he has to get up for any reason (eg Madison crying ) he can deal with it and plonk back down to sleep in no time. Even better, the baby could be crying and he could sleep right through it!

My theory is that with the first kid, the husband would TRY and wake for the first month. For the second, that would last all of 2 weeks. By the third kid, he probably would sleep through the entire crying session right from the start! I found it really amazing ( not to mention ANNOYING ) that he could do that, but I have come to realize that apparently it's a talent of ALL men!

I think many mums would have the same complaint. WHY,oh WHY... is it up to the mother to attend to ALL the night wakings of a newborn/infant!!! And then why is it the husband that looks worse off in the daytime??

Multitasking.. another gift that women seem to possess and men seem to sorely lack. Why?

Of course it is NEVER any use actually trying to tell the husband any of this. First it inevitably ends up in an argument. Second, NOTHING changes. Third, the woman ends up PISSED off and remains so for a VERY LONG TIME. ARGH.

Fantastic weekend

2010-10-26T15:41:00.002+08:00

Staying at my parents' place over the weekend turned out to be a great thing!

Of course it was nice that there was no one else around, so the house was pretty quiet.

Usually we have to transfer Annika from the cot at Novena over to our place at night after dinner, and I get stressed worrying that she'd wake and then refuse to settle. So it was such a relief to not have to do that on Saturday night after dinner.

And it was nice that Annika got a room of her own while I got to sleep in a separate room in peace! Madison camped over with grandma and boy, was she happy!

The night turned out to be great! Annika slept soundly till 1 am, waking for her usual feed. She settled quickly after that. At 2, I heard noise coming from downstairs, and then Madison crying. Followed quickly by my mom running back upstairs and comforting her. Turned out that Madison had peed in her diaper and it had leaked so needed a change.

The funniest thing happened to me though. I downloaded an alarm clock app for my iPad and though I'd try it out. I set it for 3 AM to pump ( if Annika didn't wake by then ) and of course forgot about it. Fell asleep and then was rudely jolted awake by the sounds of church bells chiming. I panicked and started cursing the bells, and quickly turned the baby monitor on to check if Annika had been disturbed by it. She moved once and then settled by herself. Took me awhile to finally realize that only I was hearing the stupid bells! And to turn it off!

The rest of the night was peaceful... Annika didn't even wake at 5 as per normal! It was also nice that I didn't have to juggle 2 kids by myself early in the morning since my mom was looking after Madison. We went to the Botanic Gardens for breakfast when my dad came back from the airport. In the afternoon Madison had a haircut, and when I turned up with Annika the stylist took it upon herself to cut Annika's hair too. Pretty weird.

Yesterday it was back to the grind. Monday blues all around. I had to take Madison to school and got caught in horrendous Monday traffic. It didn't help that it was also drizzling. On the way there Madison decided to unclip the safety belt that was holding her car seat down. And of course soon after I had to brake suddenly and guess what? The entire seat with Madison came forwards onto the front seat! Was a good thing it was at low speed. OMG. I couldn't believe my eyes when she did that.

Am hoping for a good week this week!

Juggling 2

2010-10-23T10:42:00.003+08:00

It feels like I'm playing tag team with Warni most days.

In the past there was only Madison to worry about; now there are 2 of them.

I don't know why but Annika has been waking more frequently the past week or so. Prior to that she was so good, going to bed at 730Pm and not waking till at least 230AM for her first night feed! It was great, and I had to pump once before that so that I wouldn't be too engorged and make her choke when she ate.

Now she's waking close to midnight, then another 1 or 2 times before waking for the day! Last night she was up close to 1 am, then again at 3 and then refused to go to sleep after that! She didn't want to nurse, and she started to fuss when I tried to rock her. So I put her back in the crib and waited. She started to fuss and squirm so I undid the swaddle to let one arm out. She squirmed some more and the other arm was free. She settled and was pretty happy with her 2 drumsticks, and funnily enough, fell asleep by herself some time later ( I fell asleep first waiting for her!) And strangely,stayed asleep till past 7am!

Other than the sleep, she's incredibly cute, cuter than Madison ( if I may say so!) She's getting more aware of her surroundings therefore is distracted during her feeds. It's especially annoying when I'm trying to get her fed so that I can go to work, since she refuses the bottle at any time other than at 3Pm ( fingers crossed at this stage!Madison started refusing all bottles after 3 months!). Otherwise, it's quite funny. She will yank and pull off repeatedly until I give up and then she flashes this gummy grin at me. Makes my heart melt. I tell myself, it's all TEMPORARY... in the end the only feeds that are left are the pre brekky, pre bed feeds... even night feeds END. And finally, it all ENDS. My only concern is that she is not getting enough during the day so makes up for it at night! Grr...

On the Madison front, the poo saga is almost over ( I hope! ). She is back in diapers although she is able to pee in the toilet with the child seat. I'm trying to get her to poo normally again first before we attempt any further training ( or not ). Of course now she has to catch another cold and is running around with a snotty nose. Thank goodness Elizabeth is away this weekend so she's not around to pick it up too and pass it along to the baby!

I'm quite short of patience with Madison these days. She's getting fussier with her meals and I need to BREATHE while trying to give her meals ( thank goodness I don't have to deal with LUNCH!) This morning I was so close to the edge with her... after spending 30minutes trying to get Annika down for her morning nap and she walks in JUST as the baby fell asleep and of course wakes the baby up ( who of course responds by screaming her head off!) I know it's not fair but I feel like my patience tank has run dry by the time I'm done with one child!

We are staying the night with my mum tonight... everyone is away.. Pa is away in Sri Lanka; Geok and gang are in HK, and Chris is on call the entire weekend. Should be fun....

Fed up!

2010-10-19T14:05:00.002+08:00

This potty training thing is driving me nuts!

First of all it wasn't even a planned event. She got trained overnight because she had bad diarrhoea and severe diaper rash that required her to go diaperless for 2 days. Then after that she was able to pee in the potty without issue. Initially pooing seemed to be fine too, but for some reason she started to withold and became super constipated.

Now I don't know what to do about it all. She is still not pooing again on her own, and she screams when we try to potty her regularly for poo. Chris and I had an argument last night about this and I'm still pretty mad about it.

Today she developed this weird rash on her cheek and upper lip. Now I'm paranoid it's an allergic reaction to the lactulose or liquid paraffin that I've been giving her. And to top it off, Mun Hon is disapproving of my dispensing habits and frightened me with things like Madison's gut becoming lax, addiction to laxatives etc. But my reasoning is that until she is able to go naturally again, her poo should ideally be soft and easy to pass so that she does not have pain.

Anyway.. now I have to stop all medication because of this weird rash. Not worth risking an anaphylactic reaction just because of poo. Urgh.

On a different note... Annika has been really good to me the past few afternoons.. I've been successful at putting her down in her cot AWAKE for her afternoon nap, and after singing for 15-20 minutes she went to sleep! It's great! I could never do that for Madison. And she's been taking the bottle daily for the past 2 months as well.

Although I have fewer pictures of Annika compared to Madison, I feel a whole lot more relaxed looking after Annika. I don't stress so much with her feeding schedule, it's ok if she screams a little here and there. And she's so cute at the moment, it's irresistable! I think I was quite nervous with Madison, and still am when it comes to unnavigated territory ( like potty training!)

Maybe I should just relax and let things sort themselves out. I seriously GIVE up already!

Madison made me proud!

2010-10-18T15:57:00.002+08:00

Today marks Elizabeth's first day at Mandarin school at Bibinogs.

I told Madison over the weekend that Elizabeth would be starting school with her on Monday, but she didn't respond so I assumed she didn't really understand me.

This morning, Elizabeth came over to my place with Siti ( her carer ). Madison perked up immediately ( she was a little grouchy before that ). On the way to the car, Madison started to hold Elizabeth's hand and they walked together to the car. Madison was really quite cheerful (unlike her usual Monday self) and was chatting to Elizabeth all the way there.

When we got to the school, Madison did the usual thing: get temperature checked, rubbed her hands with disinfectant etc. When it came to Elizabeth, she suddenly refused and wanted to leave. Madison took Elizabeth by her hand and led her back to the teacher. Each time Elizabeth tried to escape, Madison would drag her back to the classroom!

At 12, I went to pick the kids up and Madison was all chirpy. When I asked her how their day went, Madison giggled and said " Elizabeth was crying!" So I asked her what she did. And she replied:" I wiped her face!" I was so proud of my girl! And touched that she could be so thoughtful towards her little cousin! This is despite the awful battles they have at the grandparents' place regularly.

In other Madison related news, we are having a horrible time with potty training the no 2. She is peeing well and can even hold her bladder for short periods of time for us to find her a toilet. But the pooing is posing a serious problem.

After the horrible evacuation that I had to subject her to, I started her on regular stool softeners. She still refuses to go when she has the urge. It ends with an awful screaming session on the toilet. According to parenting sites that I looked up regarding potty training, apparently behaviour training is quite important. She is supposed to get used to sitting on the potty after meals to poo. So, I've been trying to sit her on the loo twice a day after breakfast and dinner. I hope it gets better soon.

In Annika related news, she is getting so cute! Her neck strength is improving by the day; she is able to lift her head up 45 degrees and look around ( although not long ). For the first time ever, she giggled at me on Saturday! Nights are still somewhat erratic, she wakes up between one and three times a night. I sometimes feel bad towards her, she has to play second fiddle to Madison because I need to get her breakfast, dress her for school etc then get round to feeding her in the morning.

I think Annika is going to be one chatty person. Already she babbles and coos endlessly to people ( when she is not fussing or grouchy ). She loves going out, and is the best when we are out shopping -- she loves the lights, the noise and the people.

I just wish there were more time in the day to fit everything in!

Constipated!

2010-10-14T13:30:00.002+08:00

Madison is constipated. I think she will probably hate me in another 5 or so years for blogging about it, but I am quite traumatised by the whole thing!

She's normally a once- a - day type of gal. If she skips a day, we know we're heading for trouble already. 2 days? uh-oh... So I'm super OCD about her diet and fluid intake normally.

I guess with 2 kids it gets harder to keep track and we're less patient with coaxing her to drink. And I just don't get why toddlers don't want to drink water! It's so frustrating, trying to run after her with a sippy cup of liquid that she literally SIPS.

So... coupled with this potty training thing, Madison is officially constipated. Jammed up.

Yesterday was Day 4 of the absent BO. I took her down to the pool side to splash in the water before dinner, and she suddenly said she felt like pooing. So off I dash to the toilet downstairs with her, stripped her of her swimsuit and sat her on the toilet. Then all hell broke loose. Long story short, there was screaming, there was a manual evacuation and then there was more screaming ( by me..!)

I think I might have post traumatic stress syndrome from it all.

Pumped up from it all, I drove the kids to the pharmacy and bought an array of laxatives. A microfleet enema, glycerin suppositories and paraffin liquid. I wanted to give the enema straight up, but changed my mind and she wound up with 2 glycerin suppositories. Which didn't seem to really work but she ended up with tummy ache the whole evening. And skipped dinner.

Somehow, amidst the chaos, it emerged that Warni( probably me as well ) is not coping with 2 kids and housework. Although she refuses to acknowledge it or to bring it up ( Why? Why ? ) Anyhow, with a crying baby that wants to be carried all day and an energetic toddler to mind she cannot get all the housework done in the few hours that she has at our apartment.

So after some pow- wow with the hubby, we came to the conclusion that she has to 'bring work home to do' ie take the laundry back to finish up in the evening when we are all at my parents' place. So we drove out to buy another ironing board, iron and laundry baskets for my parents place for her to use.

Hopefully the new system will work. I guess this is an evolving situation, and we are all trying to cope. There is just no winning. Unless I stop work and help look after the 2 kids and Warni can do more housework, or else she needs help with the kids. The former is not really an option so trying to get more help might work.

Sigh. I just hope the liquid paraffin works. Apparently in Australia they have parachoc, which is liquid paraffin for kids. Chocolate flavoured! How come we don't get it here?

New place

2010-10-11T14:03:00.003+08:00

It's been pretty fun getting the new apartment!

On Friday, we had a bbq dinner for the family. It was a bit of a mad rush, since I finished work a little late and then had to run around getting the bits for the bbq. It turned out to be pretty fun though! Even though it cost me more to do this than to just go out for dinner!! Mun Hon took Elizabeth for a dip in the pool. Poor Madison missed out because I was too stressed with getting dinner cooked and pacifying a tired baby at the same time.

Still, she was more than happy with her mini Magnum ice cream... clever little girl even wanted more-- she told me to follow her, and I did, only to have her take me to the lift lobby.. when I asked her where we were going, she told me solemnly... "mama, I want to get more ice cream". So we get to the lifts, and I thought to myself, "well.. if she actually figures out how to get back to our apartment, I certainly will give her another one!" But she gets to the lift and and is stumped by whether to go up or down! Good try though...

On Saturday.. I had the 'brilliant' idea of going over AGAIN to the apartment for a dip before Madison's lunch. That wasn't the silly part. To decide to COOK her lunch at the apartment was the silly part. We ended up with shattered pyrex all over the floor, baked beans and rice all over the cook top , one screaming baby and a toddler who was refusing to don her slippers even though there were glass shards all over the place!

Even so, I managed to salvage the event; her lunch did get cooked, we did go to the pool for all of 10 minutes! And she had lunch by the poolside. And got another mini Magnum while I tried to clean up the mess. At the very least I got to try the awesome jacuzzi at the pool! They were really strong jets of water! Fabulous... great for post exercise massage/water therapy!

The contractor came over on Sunday to measure the apartment up and to draw up additions to the place. Being a small apartment, we need build- to- measure furniture so as to maximise the use of space. I am looking forward to seeing his plans for our new abode!

The grandparents came back from Tokyo on Sunday. We were all glad to see them, and they bore bags of goodies for us all. Of course the kids were the most excited... to see packets of chocolate, biscuits and the like spill out of their bags... they were literally swimming in the stuff! But, I must admit, the Japanese snacks are actually quite something... giant sized Pocky sticks, smooth as silk Royce chocolate, and delicate butter cookies.

Well.. all too soon the weekend came to an end... it was dinner together, then home for everyone to their respective places..

Happy Children's Day!

2010-10-01T14:28:00.002+08:00

Today being Children's Day in Singapore and Anthony's last day with us, I thought I'd do something nice for a change.

Initially the plan was a simple lunch with the kids and maids in tow at Casa Verde at the Botanic Gardens. Then I thought: " OMG it's Children's day... probably going to be terribly crowded ..! " So.. after some consideration, I decided that a picnic at the Gardens would be a nice alternative.

Of course this change in plans just had to be made at the eleventh hour... so as usual I was thrown into a mad rush to gather picnic material. Madison is just recovering from her bout of gastroenteritis so I was a little paranoid about what to get for lunch. I wanted to cook some chicken but in the end, I realized it was either cook the chicken and be too late for a picnic, or make do with store bought roast chicken. So, I settled for the roast chicken, but microwaved it again for safety's sake. It also helped that being mid morning, the chicken had just been freshly cooked.

It turned out to be a great afternoon! The weather held, nice and sunny, and we managed to get a little pavilion all to ourselves.

We layed the picnic sheet out, trotted the food out and when the kids saw the spread they wanted to eat immediately. We had the roast chicken, sliced cheddar cheese, bagels and foccacia, salad and fruit.

After lunch the kids ran off to feed the black swans in the pond, while I fed the baby. Was great that Chris managed to come out to meet us too for awhile.

The reason why I decided to write this post is that I was just thinking... life would be so simple if I decided instead, to leave the kids at home and let the maids do their usual routine with them, and then take Anthony out for lunch. Instead it was a mad rush and stressful event trying to pack up 2 toddlers and a baby and 4 adults to go to a picnic. But... that's what having kids is all about, isn't it? Children are not "convenient" to say the least, but it is when we do the "troublesome" things that gives us the fufillment, isn't it?

Poor Madison...

2010-09-29T14:22:00.003+08:00

This morning was terrible.

Chris left the house early so I was alone with the 2 kids. Normally this isn't much of a problem but today Madison suddenly got up at 6. I couldn't figure out why, but before I could do anything the baby woke too and started crying.

I kind of panicked, and went in to feed the baby first. Watching Madison through the baby monitor throughout... she stood in her cot for awhile, and I had this sinking feeling that she had done something nasty in her diaper. When I had finally settled the baby, Madison had fallen back asleep.

At 730, Warni arrived for the day and Madison woke again. I immediately went in and OMG... the smell was terrible. I took her to the bathroom to wash and the poo was all over her diaper. After that she refused to wear a diaper, and I couldn't understand why.So she went diaperless for breakfast, then afterward she said she wanted to pee so I took her to the potty. Nothing. I decided to give her a wash and that's where she started to howl in pain.

Her perineum was excoriated and macerated. It was BAD diaper dermatitis. Poor baby. There was still some poo inside the vulva so I had to gently use wipes to clean again. Then used Desitin ( 40% zinc oxide ) to cover the affected area. The rest of the morning she went without any diaper/underwear.

The ironic thing is that she FINALLY voluntarily used the potty consistently the entire morning, apart from the first poop that landed on the floor! But poor Madison, had diarrhoea 5 times this morning. I don't know what caused it... was it left over banana cake that her grandparents gave her( even though i was against it! ) Or dirty swimming pool water? Or too much dried fruit?

Now I feel bad that I had to choose between the 2 kids as to who to attend to, and Madison had to suffer from bad dermatitis as a result. I know she doesn't blame me, but if I had cleaned her up earlier she would not have had to suffer the pain of excoriated skin.

I'm not sure what we're going to do tonight, because she most certainly should not be sleeping in a wet diaper ( not that she'd agree anyway ) .. I have to see if one of us works something out.

As for Annika, I'm still trying to work out a regular schedule for her so that she's less grumpy and settles better at her afternoon nap. Yesterday things were slightly more settled, she slept in the morning for an hour, then settled beautifully in the afternoon for a decent 2 1/2 hour nap, and one more later in the afternoon for another hour or so. I figured that should be roughly what she needs at the moment during the day. Night time is a different ballgame! It's still variable as to when she wakes, so I take it one night at a time. The only thing I have learnt is that I do need to pump a little just before she nurses at night so that she that she doesn't choke, gulp huge amounts of air and then fuss over gas and then refuse to settle.

Sigh... that's motherhood for you, I guess...

Back to night wakings!

2010-09-20T15:22:00.003+08:00

So.. it must have been a fluke.

Annika is back to waking 3 times a night, which is what she has been doing the past few nights. Sigh... I blame Chris! He must have jinxed it! The day he commented that Annika is a good sleeper was the day she reverted back to multiple night wakings...

It's funny how quickly you forget what it's like to have to stay up all night! 2 nights of tasting sleep and I start getting grumpy over having to stay up again! I've already forgotten the nights where she wouldn't even settle, and I had to stay up 2 hours trying to get her to go back to sleep.. shudder..

Maybe it's a growth spurt? Sigh.. the only hope I have is that IT IS TEMPORARY. She WILL NOT be doing this at 1 year old. At least we will have sleep trained by then. I am still wondering about the technicalities of sleep training this time. Do we let her cry it out when Madison is sleeping over at the grandparents' place? Or just do it even though Madison will be next door to her? Sleep training takes a few days to a week, so technically Madison will have to endure some of this crying too. I'm still hoping Annika will somehow magically sleep train herself painlessly!

Anthony is visiting for 2 weeks. It's nice to know there's another pair of hands to entertain Madison.

Speaking of which. We had a great weekend that just passed. Friday Chris finished work early so it was nice that he was home and we had lunch out together. Saturday I got to go to Joan's wedding gown fitting while Chris and the grandparents took Madison out to see kite flying. There was a kite festival at the Marina Bay promenade over the weekend. After dinner, the kids were then taken to Kranji to attend a Lantern Festival event, and they got to walk around with their lanterns and try mooncakes. After the event, Madison stayed over with the grandparents, while we took Annika home. It felt really weird having only 1 kid to look after, and boy! It felt EASY! It's all in the retrospect!

Sunday morning felt so nice and calm. Only 1 baby between the 2 of us. Fed and changed her, then went to the club where Chris managed a swim. We then had a leisurely brunch at Vivocity, went shopping and then frappucinos at Starbucks. Something we usually cannot do because of logistics/ toddler running around/ nap time issues. Also since Madison isn't really allowed to drink frappucinos as a general rule.

Anyway... Monday came around way too soon. The usual mad rush starts again.. me and the 2 kids. Sigh. But I really should embrace the time I have with my 2 darlings... funny thing is, I grumble when I have to stress over all this but then when I get time out I stress over getting back quickly to my darlings!

Potty training and sleeping

2010-09-17T04:08:00.002+08:00

Yesterday Madison finally voluntarily went potty by herself for the first time.

So many people have been either asking me whether she is potty trained already or nagging me about it, but after a few failed attempts I've decided thus far to leave the issue alone. After all, like the books say, it'll happen eventually.

Anyway, yesterday morning she didn't want to wear her diaper. Which has been happening for awhile. It's just that she refuses to go anywhere near the potty or the adult toilet. So, as usual I warned her not to pee on my bed or the couch. She agreed. After breakfast, I took the 2 kids out alone for a short jaunt to the petrol kiosk then we were fiddling downstairs by the pool, where she promptly splashed the water onto her clothes. When we got home I wasn't sure if she'd peed or it was the pool water. She denied having peed. So I took the opportunity to ask her to use the potty. Initialy she sat on it and I tried the usual tricks, reading, encouragement etc. Then she insisted on taking the potty to the living room, to my chagrin. I caved in in the end. Told her that if she did pee she'd get a reward. That worked instantly. So she got her pack of M&m's. Sigh. So much for trying NOT to use rewards to potty train.

The other thing was that for the very first time, Annika slept through for a really long time! I hope I don't jinx it by blogging about it, but I really should document it this time. She was fussing in the evening at about six, so I fed her and she went down by about seven. I was expecting her to wake earlier since she usually goes down closer to eight. To my great surprise she stayed asleep till midnight, then managed to continue till 6 the next day after a quick feed! I still had to get up to pump though, since I got engorged anyway but it was great not having to settle her in the middle of the night after feeding! I made the mistake with Madison of routinely waking her up in the hope that I could get a regular night time schedule. In the end I'd spend over an hour trying to resettle an woke baby after feeding! That drove me nuts. This time round I'm going to let Annika lead the way. Until closer to 8 months or so, then we'll have to sleep train if she doesn't do it herself.

The 2 girls ended up having vaccinations yesterday too. It was a mad rush getting everyone ready and packed up to go to Kkh but between us all we did it. Madison, being older had to have bribes and promises of treats, but she was a champ at the paediatrician's ! Willingly let herself get examined on the table, just like a pro! I was so proud of her. She cried a little during the jab, but proudly announced she'd had the injection later on. She got her prize at 7-11 afterwards.

Finally, it's really funny the things that she says these days. I keep telling her not to use crying or tantrums to express herself, since only babies do that,a nd babies don't get special treats or outings. She understands but occasionally forgets. Yesterday after her lunch she grouped back into the house and seeing me there, quickly announced :" I no cry!!" of course I immediately become suspicious and ask her if she did cry! She did not admit and then of course the next person I ask is Warni. Who tells me that she did throw a tantrum. Why? She got mad that Elizabeth was faling asleep at the table while they were eating lunch together! Kids..

Relections

2010-09-15T14:06:00.002+08:00

I admit it, I'm addicted to the blogosphere.

Since I've got the iPad I've been spending more time on the Internet and I've found so many blogs that are quite interesting-- at least to me. There's one that I've been following for quite a while now, she's a teacher in the US who initially was blogging about her first pregnancy and running through it, then how she coped during the child's first year. And then, surprise surprise, she became pregnant again and delivered just a few days earlier than me! It's unreal how we get glimpses into these strangers' lives and if you keep up with the blogs it's as if you get to know them personally!

Anyway, I found it really intriguing how she manages 2 kids and trains for races without much help... I couldn't imagine doing what she does!

Another blog that I found via a parenting magazine is called " impersonating normal". She's a therapist of some sort that wrote extensively about her struggle with infertility and infertility treatments. She subsequently became pregnant with twins but the male twin died in utero at 24 weeks. That was quite a shock. She writes very well and is really expressive. I was hooked for a few days while I plowed through all her archived blog entries. Thank goodness she only started her blog last year. Reading her blog left me thinking about how lucky I am to have 2 healthy kids without any of her struggle, and to be more patient with them.

Anyway, that aside, things are settling somewhat with the baby. I am still trying to get her on some form of a sleeping schedule, but it's still not there yet. But, the power of hindsight. I know now that in the end all the naps are dropped except for the afternoon one, so i' m really not as stressed about it this time round as compared to Madison. So, I am routinely putting her down for her 1 pm nap in the hope that she gets the hang of sleeping well at this time.

Also, this time round I'm a lot more disciplined with the bottle feeding. Annika gets a bottle of expressed milk every afternoon. Thank goodness for the lactation consultant Yen Ping, who kindly advised me to try the Pigeon latex teat. So far so good. Am thinking of introducing a second bottle feed, perhaps mid morning.

Work is starting to pick up too. The past week has been rather busy. Sometimes it feels like there is hardly time to breathe, yet it all passes
so quickly. Tomorrow Annika turns 8 weeks! 8 weeks since I was pregnant, had that horrible C section and survived the recovery period! We are going to Kkh for the first of her vaccinations tomorrow. Madison will get the chickenpox vaccine too this time. I am feeling rather nervous about it, although I know it's rather silly and these jabs are really quite routine.

One final thing, Chris received an award for being an exemplary registrar at work! Am so proud of him! He attended a dinner last night to collect the prize. Mun Hon was there with him, since I had to stay home with the kids. Way to go!

Hari Raya break

2010-09-11T06:54:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was the Hari Raya holiday.

It's like the new year celebration for Muslims and a fairly important day, so I gave Warni the day off. Thankfully Chris was not on call so he was home the entire day to manage the kids.

My goodness ... Chaos would be a good description of the morning!

Everyone was up by 730 am for the day. it was a tag team effort between the 2 of us to get breakfast sorted put, then the 2 kids reasonably dressed for the day. Madison insisted on wearing her undies without her diaper or anything else first thing in the morning. Hence she was naked save for the above said undies for the better part of the morning!

Lunch was picnic at the beach. The sky looked threatening initially,covered with dark clouds,but we persisted and it didn't rain till we were done! We made it simple, with store bought food and drink. There was roast chicken, 2 types of ribs, ham and cheese, croissants and egg tarts. Talk about a gourmet lunch! Madison was starving and she tucked right into the food. No trouble with eating there...ended the meal with a tub of Ben and Jerry ice cream..

We brought along Madison's little push bike and she was peddling it for a little while. Then the wind picked up and Mun Hon finally got to fly the kite ...he and Chris were the most enthusiastic kite flyers in the family.. Although it was pretty cool at the end when the kite actually stayed air borne without much effort..

The baby was great outside actually. After her screamfest earlier that morning she was quite calm and settled at the beach..she even allowed me to put her in the stroller while I had lunch. Then when she started fussing I latched her on and she fell asleep while I continued eating! It was all great until we got home and then she couldn't stay asleep! Then the crying started again..

Well... I don't know if it was the screaming, or the good sleep she got after that when we took her shopping with Madison, or the full bottle feed that she took but the night was great! She settled really well by 7 pm, allowing Chris and I to grab a nice dinner at Casa Verde (at the Gardens ) then staying asleep till 1 am! She settled easily after a quick diaper change and feed till 5 am then again till past 7! It was great... Worth the screamfest entirely.

Am super glad that there is still the weekend to look forward too!

Goodbye to Grandma

2010-09-05T05:47:00.005+08:00

Chris' mum went back to Melbourne last night after a one month visit here.

Yesterday was busy as usual in the morning: Chris had to go to do the round at work, I had appointments at the clinic and Madison had music school. Poor Annika was the only one left out! Lunch time things fell apart: the clinic ran late so at 12 I was still working. Chris was late for his training at the gym because he had to watch the baby while Warni gave Madison her lunch. And of course the baby by then was starving AND tired!

The afternoon in contrast was peaceful. We took his mum to the Botanic Gardens to take some photos ( her favourite activity!) with the kids. Unfortunately the weather was just too humid and hot. We were all sweating buckets by the time we left, which wasn't very long after we arrived!

After the baby was settled in the evening we had to go to the airport. Madison came along. I promised her ice cream after our dinner at the airport as a treat. She was understandably excited the entire day about this.

It was nuts at the airport! There were so many people hanging around and queues were massive at all the dining options! We rushed from one restaurant to another, only to be faced with wait lists ! Crazy! We were about to give up and just say goodbye when I chanced upon Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which happened to have seats. So we had a quick bite and Madison, got her molten chocolate cake ( instead of ice cream ). She was happy. There was a Grand Prix exhibition by model car maker Tamiya next to us and after watching the model cars zoom by I got Madison a simple remote controlled car.

Sigh.. alas the night was BAD. Annika woke earlier than she'd been doing recently for a feed, then after that it was downhill. Whenever I have a bad night I feel my temper rising if she cannot settle. Then I think.. not doing this ever again! So unfair that men get the easy end of the stick when it comes to kids! It takes me close to an hour to settle her each time she wakes and then I have to do it all over again after an hour! Meanwhile everyone else gets to sleep. It sucks.

I know it'll pass eventually.. in about a year or so...but right now that seems really far away.. yawn...

Work!

2010-09-02T13:46:00.004+08:00

This has been a rather crazy week!

Initially when I planned to return to work, I meant for it to be half days in the afternoon only. But, the minute the week started, patients appeared in the morning, and I couldn't turn them down.

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays Madison has school. Usually I'll drop her off, and by the time I'm back and settled the baby it'll be closer to 1030 am. Thankfully patients at the clinic don't seem to come round too early. In any case, I'd have to turn them down or get them to return later. So then, Annika is left in the good hands of Warni and I rush down to see the patients. On Monday this week, it was too late to go back home after I'd finished so I had to go straight back to pick Madison up from school.

Between 12 and 2PM it's definitely a no go zone. Warni needs to give Madison her lunch, bath and settle her for her nap of the day. Which means I have to stay at home until Madison goes down, usually by 130Pm. Hopefully during that time I am successful in settling Annika, which kinda depends on how much she has slept during the morning.

It's quite hard to keep her up and happy! She's peaceful when she's sleeping, but then she refuses to go down for her afternoon nap. If we try and keep her up she's crying and fussy! So usually it's a delicate balance between the two states. Warni seems to be better at keeping her up and slightly more pacified than me. It takes me close to an hour or 1.5 h before she finally settles in the afternoon ( usually ).

So, then by 145PM or 2 PM I can usually go back down to the clinic. I can't even imagine if the clinic was truly busy! I like it that I don't have too many patients at the moment... and my patients are mostly happy to go by appointments ( rare in Singapore!)

Today the morning appointment ran over time. It was a mad rush to go home and by the time I got there the baby was wailing, Madison had turned the house upside down but the good Warni was cool and collected! I really think Warni is better at this mothering thing than I am... she's got the personality for it.

I'm starting to feel really guilty towards Madison; the days she is at home she winds up spending quite a bit of time with Warni or by herself. I guess I should be happy that she is able to entertain herself, which probably is developmentally appropriate. Just that in the past I'd be able to spend more time with her. Hopefully as Annika grows older it'll get better. Then maybe the 2 of them can play together and entertain each other! Annika also gets the short end of the stick.. she can never get the amount of time that I had with Madison at the same age.. the only difference is that she'll never know.. which is sad. Why does it feel like anything I do is never enough?

Finally... I LOVE the iPad! Only problem? It needs a Mac OSx 10.5 and above to work! So the iMac and this laptop is obsolete... apparently the software for the new operating system software is not even compatible with them! But, Chris got the iPad working for me, and it keeps me company through the long nights and when breastfeeding! Just wish I could download some ebooks off iBook or Amazon for kindle.

I guess we all just have to press on...

Another week

2010-09-01T12:50:00.005+08:00

This week marks Annika's 6 th week....

To start the week off, the rear right tyre on my car punctured. Fortunately I saw the deflated tyre.. I would've been driving all week on it.. the car didn't feel any different. I took the car to the nearest workshop ( which happens to be at the SPC station downstairs) and the bad news was that all 4 tyres needed to be replaced! That cost me $900.

The refrigerator at home also decided to call it quits.
The repair guys came to check it, and declared that the compressor was kaput. Argh... so close to moving house and the fridge has to give up on us! So we ended up buying a smaller fridge to replace our current double door. And this is after the renovation to the kitchen just to fit our huge double door fridge!!! Now there'll be a huge gap from the fridge to the wall!

I've also started work as of this week. I think I will do afternoons to start, when the kids have ( hopefully ) settled down for their afternoon naps. Annika is getting difficult to nap... she is sleepy the entire morning, then when 12pm comes and I need her to sleep she is fussing and refusing to nap. Yesterday she ended up catnapping on and off the entire time from 12 to 3, then finally falling asleep after her milk feed at 3!

Today she was battling with me again at 12, but I finally won and she settled at 130PM. I hope she stays asleep though. She seems to not want to nap in her cot during the day. But I'm not complaining as long as she sleeps in it during the night! Madison was pretty much the same, and the only thing that changed was that she required less sleep as she grew up! So I'm banking on the same for Annika too!

Ooh... on the personal front, I finally received my iPad courtesy of Pa! There was a mix up in the online ordering so Chris had to re-order the iPad last week. No regrets getting it. The only thing is that I can't seem to order books! I don't know why they don't allow non US residents to buy the e-books.

Chris' mum is away for these few days visiting her parents in Kota Bahru. She'll be back for another 2 nights then home to Melbourne on Saturday. After that things should really settle down and life should begin.. .the excitement of a newborn is dying down and Annika is growing up quickly.. at the PD appointment on the 25th August she was already 58 cm and 5.3 kg. I was quite surprised but am happy she is doing well. Considering the amount of milk she pukes after each feed. Her next visit is on the 16th September where she'll get the first lot of vaccinations.

The days that Madison goes to school are great because then there is 1 child less to entertain. Today I took Madison to school as usual, only to find out that it was a school holiday and the school was closed because it was TEACHER"S DAY!! Unbelievable! how come I'm the only parent who didn't know that!!!?? The only saving grace was that traffic was light BECAUSE there was no one else had school!

Birthdays!

2010-08-26T14:56:00.002+08:00

We have 2 birthdays to celebrate this month!

The first is Annika's full month celebration, which we held on the 22nd of August. It really is a milestone, surviving the toughest month of the baby's life. I'm so grateful that she didn't have any major problems the first month, unlike Madison, who had the groin abcess, bad jaundice and then URTI at the end of the month.

We held the party at the Novena house. Catered with Gustos-- they catered for Pa's opening at Healthway at 111 Somerset, so I figured they must be reasonably good since Healthway has an entire marketing team to source for caterers.

The party was a success. I'm glad we opened it to my parents' choir friends, they made up half the guests and contributed quite a bit to the atmosphere. The entire event lasted over 4 hours and the guests came at just the right time throughout the event. Am also grateful to my mother-in-law for helping in the preparation of the party. And of course, my parents who shopped endlessly to get stuff ready for the party. There were plenty of kids to entertain each other and of course, they had fun with all the toys at home.

Today, is the other birthday! Mine! Turned 33 .. I was thinking, 33 years ago I was a tiny baby, not unlike Annika and my mother was the one carrying me. 33 years later and the roles have changed... I'm the one carrying the baby. 33 and 2 kids. Am happy with my job. Hopefully the kids turn out ok. Good hubby... supportive families on either side. That's not bad. Of course I could do with Heidi Klum's body, drive a Porsche Cayenne or Panamera and live in 4,000 sq feet of land, but really I shouldn't complain.

To celebrate my birthday, Pa cooked an elaborate Japanese dinner yesterday. He started planning the minute I told him I'd rather have dinner at home than to go out to a fancy restaurant. We had sashimi, home made chawanmushi, wagyu steak, tempura and ramen noodles. There wasn't time to make the california rolls so they became a DIY course. For dessert we had the birthday cake from Cedele and lots of mooncakes. Of course there was the mandatory picture taking, candle blowing ( this time Madison actually blew the candles out for me! ) It was a really nice family affair. Pa spent over 3 hours slaving away in the kitchen. That is better than any restaurant meal.

Today, we had dinner at Marriot with Chris' mum, Neil, Tim Hui and Brenda. Tim and Brenda were visiting from Hong Kong. They were really thoughtful and brought gifts for the kids too. Madison absolutely loved her soft toy bumblebee backpack. Smart choice. We had the buffet dinner and of course Madison had her fill of dessert.

I'm still eagerly awaiting my present from Pa and Ma! I know what it is already.. but am not going to jinx it until I receive it. I'm really excited. I also had a few messages from close friends wishing me Happy Birthday. It's so touching to know that people actually remember and care.

The day is over... my final wish is for a good night's sleep.. that'll be a great gift from both my children.. if they can possibly grant it for tonight! ( wishful thinking! Maybe in another year's time..)