Happy holidays.. Christmas weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ).