Home leave

Warni's 2 week home leave.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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