Visit from Fang and Bb V & Day's events

It's been a long time I caught up with friends, especially individually. The last one was lunch with Lishi about a month ago!

It was a good afternoon of catching up. And more to come!  Yeah because ER's playmates are mostly girl. Will be good for him to have some masculine company.

This new mummy has been managing mummyhood really well. And she's got quite a few recipe ideas for V that I'm going to secretly try for ER (till she reads this, it will be a secret).

At this age, we see the boys getting attracted to the same toy and they try to get their hands on what they like at the same time. In no time, they will learn to snatch and that will be the time we start exposing them to the idea of taking turns and sharing although it's going to be much later that they understand.

With all the playing, both boys didn't want to nap. ER fell into a deep sleep after party was over and woke up in time for us to go over to my parents' place for dinner. He was actually half awake and that explains his moodiness during the drive to Rivervale.

Andy got activated for the explosion at the oil rigg in Bukong (I don't know where that is and am not sure if I got the spelling right) and even before he got home in time for dinner, he had to call to inform us not to wait for him to come back.

Seriously, our firemen are busier than we ever thought they are. I'm sure Singaporeans reading this have wondered at some point, what our fire department does with seemingly so 'little' happenings, and 'small scaled' ones at that. I have, but now we know how most actually went unreported, even when firemen sacrificed in fires. We don't hear of firemen dying in the big fires from news reports, do we? But there had been.

So there, no 舅舅 and Krislyn with us during dinner. It's been a while since we ate together.

Final update: ER had a very restless sleep last night. He kept fidgeting and whining, escalating to loud cries at.times throughout the whole night.

Then I saw rashes on his limbs. Big patches of tiny bumps. I'm suspecting the Amoxicilin which AN is allergic to. Let's see if the rashes go away now that I've stopped giving him that.

This means he'll probably have to take other antibiotics that taste yucky instead of Amoxicilin the next time.

Oh no..

Staying Together

ER has on, a US army camo printed set of pjs and I commented that if I put him in the Arizona desert, no one will be able to spot him.

AN was defensive and asked me not to do it because "I like Ethan", she says.

"Then I'll put you in the desert to keep him company?"

AN smartly replied: "I like Daddy too.", and as if she knew how I would reply to that, added: "and I like mummy too."

I could have said that I'll send daddy to be with them in the desert because she "likes daddy" but she got me when she said she likes me too. She didn't think I'd send myself to the desert.

Quite a smart little lady she is.

What's this?

ER had been baby-talking a lot for the past couple of months. These recent weeks, we sort of make out words like "mum", "dad", "papa" and "mum mum".

How do we tell "mum" and "mum mum" apart? This boy, when he's calling out to me (mum), either points at me, stretches out his arms towards me, or stares straight at me. When he's talking about food (mum mum), he goes chomp chomp chomp, opening and shutting his mouth. And he smiles (how I love his smiles. awww...)

This morning, my brother connected his ipad to the TV and when ER saw a big logo appear right in front of him on the TV, he pointed at it and sounded like he was asking: "What this?"

I thought it was cute that he sounded as if he knew what he was asking and didn't think Andy heard his blabbering the way I heard it but he did and asked if ER is talking already. He said he heard ER asking what that was.

2nd time ER said those words today, I was playing peekaboo with him using my finger. I stuck my finger out from under a chair and he stared seriously at it before letting out the "what this?"

Told my mum and again, we agreed it was coincidental. It had to be similar sounds he was making that sounded like those words.

And then, while mum was playing with him (he was messing up a pack of diapers), he found something hiding among the diapers that didn't look like a diaper. He held it up and asked my mum: "what this?"

It was freaky how he spoke those words 3 times today. Did he really say them? Or were they just sounds?

Was adorable though, and we answered him as though he really asked. One step nearer to being able to speak. Our boy is growing.

Baby, please slow down. I've not had enough of you and AN but your jie jie is already thinking of who she wants to marry...please don't grow up so fast.

Sleeping Arrangement

Baby boy, you park yourself in mummy's lot, mummy park where?

Feeding Medicines

Ok, after more than 4 years and 2 kids, I've come to realize that kids prefer medicine given from a spoon.

AN only started receiving medicines from a spoon last year, because .... I don't know why, maybe because I expected her to hate medicines and it's easier to forcefeed her with a syringe? The 1st time she got her medicines from a spoon, she started enjoying medicines. And that's also when I realized the medicines kids get these days taste like concentrated juices. Yummy!

AN once asked me: "Mummy, do u know why I like to fall sick?". She used to tell me it's because she gets to nurse when she's sick, so she wants to be sick frequent enough.

Not anymore. Her latest answer to why she likes to fall sick now is because she likes to take medicines.

With ER, feeding medicines requires skills as well. Syringes used to work but he has learned to spit stuff out.

He has to complete his 7-days course of Amoxicilin but he pushes everything out when fed with a syringe.

The measuring spoon waved at me and I wondered why I haven't thought of using it instead. AN started enjoying medicines since we started taking a spoon, no?

I tried. And I regretted..........not using it earlier. Wasted the earlier doses of Amoxicilin and poor ER appeared so tortured. With a spoon, he slowly sips and swallows. He even takes time to taste the medicine.

Goodbye syringes....or maybe not yet. AN is back to using the syringes for medications, just for the fun of it.

Seriously, medicines taste so good these days. Lucky kids. We used to have to take crushed panadols, so bitter I thought I would never be able to taste anything else after I recovered.

Music Appreciation

The Bonding Kids

Ethan getting off bed

Toad Invasion

I live on 16th floor and can still hear the hundreds of croaking toads in the field right opposite my kitchen. There was a heavy downpour last night.

Every weekend, rain or shine, this group of men dressed in white will play cricket in that big field. Imagine stepping on any of the singing creatures.

AN will go "ewwwwwwwww" if i ask her to imagine how that will be like. Hahahaha! I'll freak her out with this scenario when she gets back from school later.

September Gathering

The girls, missing the Ongs, Lims and Jingz, came over for this month's gathering. It's a blessing the girls are still in my life!

Had a little personal time with Shirl before the rest of the gang reached. Your words "永杰和你是幸福的" reached me. Thanks girl! I am not a very positive person to begin with and where I am now, it's hard to maintain minimum positivity. Thanks for reminding me to let go of what is hindering my relationship with my man and sanity for what it's NOT worth. You are right, these negative thoughts really paralyze me and at its worst, life really does seem meaningless. Negativity rubs off. The kids feel it too, and it's not healthy. Things are not as bad as I see it. I'll try to fight off negative thoughts. Please keep me in prayers ya?

The mummy to be, Auntie Zhu, will be popping anytime. Josh will be 10 next year (what?? 10??) Booboo is turning 3 in 4 month's time, the tiger boys are taking turns to be one year old and Torres will be 2 in Feb. Cailyn will turn 4 in 2 months and Shauna in May. Then AN will be FIVE YEARS OLD! That's how old Ronald's Danielle was when we were in Tucson and the girls enjoyed each others' company. AN was only 2 years old then....goodness .... With kids in tow, time awaits no men and women.

AN had waited since morning for Genevieve to come and was so excited to see her. It's good that during gatherings like these, the kids get the opportunity to learn to share and play together. AN has to, now that ER is starting to want what she has in her hands.

At some point, ER started crying and stretched his arms toward AN who gave him a hug to pacify him. That was a very precious moment but my camera was nowhere near for me to digitally eternalise it. Shirl analysed that ER enjoys physical closeness and he actually cried because he didn't get the reaction he was looking for when he reached out to touch Booboo. So my ti ko pek cried. Hahahaha!

AN, as usual, had a blasting good time dashing around with Josh. He's still the only boy she doesn't speak negatively about. But she still wants to marry Isaac (from the Tay family) or ER (she wonders why she can't marry ER and all the more insists she will marry no one but him when i said no one marries their siblings).

Very funny. She's talking about marriage at 4. Can't wait to run away?

And Valen ... He's another little darling... Is it just me or are little tigers all so irresistible? I hear him giggling when Shirl tried to make him. Super cute..

I enjoy meeting the girls. Im starting to lose friends i have. Messages that friends send me or those that i send out almost always end when i had to go do something, and then i totally forget to reply  after that.

To all my buddies, thanks for constantly dropping me notes of encouragement, tips, information that i need and such. I so so so very appreciate. Please know tat my lack of reply is really something i hope to grow out of as the kids grow and i get back some flexibility of time. Thanks for bearing with me.

Not to forget, Mr Liow, thanks for sacrificing your rest time to help me out with some housework each day. I don't want to shut myself up too. If you will listen, i will speak. Every fight weighs very heavy on me and now, there are battles i have to fight everyday: battle AN's bad behaviour, ER's dying interest in food, the never-leaving virus that keeps making us sick, struggles with my parents and your mum etc. I could have come home after work in the past and forget work related struggles but i have nowhere to go to escape family related ones to recuperate and recover. Thanks for holding me up when i have no more energy to go on.

The Morning After

The effect of the curls. Nice, but princess doesn't like how those curls shrunk her long hair.

What Warms My Heart

The sight that greets me when I enter their room after they have fallen asleep recharges me. Bad things come, bad things go.

I'm thankful too for u girls who have always loved me. Thanks for asking and advising, or simply just reading and wishing me well silently. I run out of battery sometimes but I'll find some means to get myself up and running again.

:)

Curling the Princess' Hair

Bought these curling wraps from Tucson since loooooong time ago but never had time to do these on myself. Now that my girl is growing up, my beauty tools come back handy again.

Such is the joy of having a girl, that I can make her over and dress her up. Such is the exasperation as well, that my girl, when she likes what she sees, asks for the same style (regardless of how tedious the makeover process can be).

Now she asks for hairstyles by codes: Rapunzel (halfup), Cinderella (all pinned up), Jasmine (pinned fringe only), ponytails (single/pair), braids (single/pair), Rainbow (sectioned ponytail), Fishtail, and this latest "curls", if she likes how it turns out tomorrow.

p.s: nothing related, but she commented that ER smells like strawberry a while ago when she gave him his goodnight kiss. I didn't realize that but she was right. He did smell sweet. I think it was the Amoxicilin he had. Hee.

Stomach Flu Again?

Woke up this morning feeling queasy and had diarrhea thrice in 45mins while preparing AN for school.

We waited at the pickup point for Mr Liow to get his car and the more I waited, the more nauseous I felt, along with the urge to poop a 4th time.

Guess what? Mr Liow actually forgot that we were waiting for him at the pickup point! I saw him drive away and started breaking out in cold sweat, because I felt like shitting, throwing up and fainting all at the same time and the kids were with me. I CANNOT FAINT!

My keys, along with my cellphone were with Mr Liow. I couldn't call him.

Thank God for the 7-11 right under my block. I managed to borrow a phone to call Mr Liow from. He was on his way back.

-______-"

After sending AN to school, Mr Liow brought me to the clinic. Again, Dr suspected stomach flu. This wasn't as bad as previous times. I was actually faint coz my blood pressure was very low.

Went back to my parents' place, popped pills and slept. Was alright the whole day after taking the medicines.

For a minute, we wondered if it was morning sickness. Not a good news.

I should probably go for a body checkup. This is a second stomach flu in a couple of months, if it is stomach flu. Everyone else appears fine, and I'm an avid fan of handwashing. Why only me?

It feels terrible to keep passing water and throwing up. Thank God I didn't throw up today!!!

I pray the Lord will keep the rest of my family safe, especially the kids!

Baby's Signing

I'm more consistent with signing this time and ER its picking some commonly ones up gradually.

Only very few, but here's his progress nonetheless:

More (by hitting his fists against each other)

Eat (he does this well, mostly when he wants to 'feed' me)

No more/ enough/ finish

Nothing more that I can think of.

On the other hand, AN is learning to sign faster than I am! We watch ASL signing programs together and she sometimes signs things to me that I realized I forgot.

I found a good use for signing lately when AN was behaving rather possessive over her stuff. She didn't want to share. After repeatedly reminding her to, I got tired of it. I signed to her without saying anything and surprisingly, she knew what I was signing (we don't use sign language much even though we learn to), whispered: "ok I'll share" and pushed a toy to ER.

Let the fingers do the talking. Hehe.

This Little Pig

This little pig lives in a house of colorful foam which she built on her own.

AN Chats

Daddy: "I feel so sleepy."

Minutes later....

Daddy: "I feel like shitting."

AN: "Daddy, you go sleep in the toilet la."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were listening to Michael Bubles' "Put Your Head on My Shoulders".

AN innocently asked: "How to put your legs on my shoulders??"

1st Year Checkup

ER got his measurements taken at Kinderclinic this morning.

He's 75cm tall, weighs 8kg and has a head circumference of 42cm.

The scale showed 7.2kg when he first sat on it and that gave me a terrible scare, because he was 7kg at 9mths!

His growth slowed down a lot, from being at 75 percentile to now 10 percentile. What can we do when he has adopted a new habit of spitting his food out while eating now? He's not a keen eater, so whenever I see mummies feeding their hungry babies at top speed, I mentally photoshop my face onto the mummies' and I fantasize feeding ER as effortlessly.

He was supposed to be vaccinated today but he's sick (yes, again...they are sick more often well. Now,I'm having blocked nose as well). Dr Tan said we can choose to come back next week for the jab. No consultation needed, just jab and go.

ER was spared the needle today.

P.s: I'm feeling better by now. Fights are energy suckers... They are not uncommon in relationships but when you realise the common disagreements are increasingly heated up, you wonder if this marks the beginning of an end.

Anyway.

ER, Remember...

You had 2 canine buddies. This is Baileys and he loves kids.

Blessed Big ONE

To my dear little tiger,

How time flies! Not too long ago, you were just an 8-lettered word on the test kit. That word made your daddy and jie jie jump for joy but I wasn't sure how life was going to be with another.

We wanted a girl because boys are too active. Your jie jie started talking to you and calling you her "mei mei" as you grew in me. She loved you right from the start and we all waited to find out your true identity. Seeing your boy part and learning that you weren't a girl was quite a disappointment then. Your jie jie was most horrified!

But that didn't matter because all human started off cute. And you inherited your daddy's funny face, smiling sooooo much it didn't take much to fall in love with you.

You are indeed more active than your jie jie used to be. Moving around with you just to make sure you do not get into trouble is tiring. I'm lighter now than before I had you. In fact, I was my weight before I was pregnant with your jie jie. You are my most effective workout!

Even though you, being extraordinarily clingy to me, cut me off any possibilities of accepting assignments I so regretfully had to, you reward me with your super cute smiles and hugs and that special gaze that says "yeah! Back to Mummy!" whenever you stretch out your hands to come back to me after being carried by others. I like how you appreciate making friends and remember me at the same time.

I enjoyed nursing jie jie and I'm thankful I got to nurse you too. In my 4 years as a mummy, that's the best part of this job. No matter how upset I ever got with your jie jie, the moment she latched on, every bit of anger dissipated. I'm thankful that your jie jie taught me to nurse so I could enjoy her more and you too, for enjoying nursing as much as jie jie did so that my mummyhood is further laced with these wonderful memories.

I am loving things you have learnt to do, how you sway from side to side now when you hear music, sometimes nodding to the beat as well. That irresistible smile you give in return when you notice us admiring your moves....so cute...I love how you clap at "yeah!" (giving your signature grin at the same time), how you crawl/cruise to get around, how you point and smile...You sign off every action you make with a smile.

Blessed life ahead, baby boy! You have blessed the family for this past year. I hope you enjoy being my child as much as I enjoy every moment with you (yes, even when you ALMOST always manage to break free whenever I change your diapers).

Happy 1st Birthday Baby...

Love,

Mum, Adrielle (Baileys and Maen whom I guarantee with my limbs, would have loved you just as much if they were still here...)

The Only Thing that Dies over and again

The heart.

No room for discussion, a demand for apology. I refuse to, so what? You think you are right, I think I am. I said I didn't hear. Why must I apologise when you interpret it as me blaming you for not saying it? Have I no right to even point out anything I noticed? So I'm supposed to shut up and not bring it up. Now that I did, you felt accused and I should be sorry.

You have the rights to feel angry and accused. You have the rights to allow your body language to reflect the emotions. I don't, huh? I should apologize because my face turned black. But you didn't think you behaved angry although you felt accused and even demanded an apology for something I brought up that we did not see eye to eye with.

You said I always think I'm right. Doesn't everyone who get into a fight think they are right? If you didn't think you were right, would you have retaliated? I should be apologising for not seeing eye to eye with you? You didn't have to apologise for anything because by now you should have realised, those apologies mean nothing.

Face the fact, all good things come to an end. Apologies are just noises...

I'll hang on for the kids. Yes they will grow up. And then we'll realise the thing about "Happy Ever After" is just a pack of miserable lies....

Guess what am I waiting for? I'm just living each day, waiting for life to end, wondering when I'll breath for the last time. I can't wait.

Bun on my head

This was drawn at Disney World last year. I pinned my bangs up coz it was too long.

It gathered no more response from the then-3 years old AN than "is this daddy and mummy?"

Now at 4 years old, she questions further: "mummy, why is there a bun on your head? So funny!"

-______-"

I wonder what she's going to ask about that drawing of us next year.

Love my kids

Every night during bedtime, the kids take a while to go to sleep. ER constantly gets up to look for AN and the jie jie keeps trying to get his attention. They just can't stop playing.

In case you picture them only playing together peacefully all the time, they don't. ER hurts AN accidentally quite a fair bit, sometimes so much that AN refuses to continue playing. It's usually least fun when jie jie is not very tolerant because she's cranky from lack of sleep.

It's cute wAtching them and frankly, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't stop them from playing. They get to disturb each other to their hearts' content during weekends when AN has no school.

ER has been really fascinated with my belly button lately. Just a while ago, this cheeky boy happened to sneeze into my belly and that produced a "fart" sound which activated AN's internal laughing gas. She couldn't stop giggling and her giggling made ER laugh. She wanted to blow into my belly like ER did. Although it was way past bedtime, I couldn't reject her. She started giggling after making that disgusting yet funny sound, and ER got so tickled by her that he laughed hard too. That was therapeutic. Hee. Their laughters were contagious.

I had to stop the 'game' and separated them coz AN had to wake early tomorrow. ER wasn't able to go to sleep and kept getting up to smile at AN who would entertain him anytime. I frowned at ER to show displeasure (but given a choice, I'd let them continue laughing). The super cute thing was, he would be smiling WIDELY when his eyes were on his giggling sister but frowned when he saw the fierce front I put up. He looked at AN, then me, then AN, and then me again, and his expression changed accordingly. Sooooo cute......

Finally, I had to do what I had to. I warned AN that if she still couldn't control her laughter, she'd have to sleep with Mr Liow. With the silence, ER fell asleep in minutes. She was fast asleep too, by the time I turned to look at her.

They will laugh till dawn if allowed to.

can't imagine I'm mum to 2 now. Being a mum is like riding on a rollercoaster. I'm laughing with them one minute and frowning the next.

Regardless, they are my flesh, my blood. I pray I'll be spared the torture of losing any before my time is up.

Selfish

Her: "Keep the bread away in case the children see and wants to eat."

Mr Liow: "Huh? If they want to eat, let them eat la. It's just bread and those are just kids."

Her, raising her voice and upset: "No la! I want to eat! I didn't buy these for them!"

Mr Liow: "I'll buy you more if there are no more."

Her, flatly insisting: "No."

Selfish isn't it?

It's ER's birthday celebration this afternoon. A very small one for only our two families and the ministry because it's fellowship Saturday today.

But...

The nai nai will not be around. She is attending a concert and wonders why we fix the party on this day. when else can the party be? AN has music every Sun and this is the closest Sat to his actual day.

What would I do if my kids or grandkid's birthday falls on a concert day? I'll either give or sell my ticket away. Wouldn't you?

No. Selfish. Her concert more important. Last year for ER'S baby shower, same thing. Go church, then get Mr Liow to fetch her home while everyone at home rushes. AN's birthday this year, same. Unreasonably scolded Mr Liow for a broken pipe AT HIS SISTER'S HOME, got upset and refused to pick up his call, then suddenly appear so that Mr Liow can drive her to the chalet. During the USA trips, same. Before we went to USA, same selfish behavior when she SCOLDED us for bringing things to her house (only things she want ok???).

She will not be home till late evening today and that means the more than 10 kinds of bread she bought will be sitting there till then. She threw a fit and insisted she's not going to share them with the kids.

It's all about herself, for herself.

Ugly. Utterly hideous.

Updated 19 Sept (Mon):
There were more bread left than she could finish and when I asked her to bring them home, she said she doesn't eat much bread and insisted Mr Liow liked those bread she bought （2 days ago with added risk of having gone bad by now...)

She doesn't eat much bread but didn't want to share with others. And even after I specifically warned that the char siew (roasted pork) in the bun is likely to have gone bad after 2 days, she insisted it will not and repeated that Mr Liow will surely eat them because he likes them...

They are dumped now because Mr Liow is not keen to suffer from food poisoning. I'm not keen to have food bought by selfish people, whether or not they are any of my favorites.

She even wanted to bring the fried rice from the Saturday lunch back for the helper's lunch today (Monday). That is after 48hours and the food wasn't stored to keep to begin with... I refused to allow her to poison her 'lower class of human kind' helper and dumped everything.

Can't be bothered to talk to the......

....hypocritically selfish 'high class thing'.

2 more teeth

ER's right front tooth cut through last week. And I just saw the tooth beside his left front tooth has also cut through!

He has 5 teeth now!

No wonder why he's been grinding his teeth.

So cute, his lopsided smile!

AN and I

Just the both of us

:)

ER's Second Haircut

From puffy hair to clean cut, my little tiger looks no less adorable. That's beauty in the eyes of his beholder for you.

It will be nice if he has 'mohawk' type of hair like AN used to have at his age. I had to apply baby oil to keep her hair from reaching for the sky so she looked less boyish. ER has hair that will be nice to grow out and keep long.




Saw how the hairdresser shaved and cut his hair. I'll try to do it myself the next time. Not very different from how I used to shave Mr Liow's hair for the past 2 years.

Time for AN to get a trim too. Her hair is reaching her butt and she's loving it because she wants to be like Rapunzel.

Moody

I'm constantly moody.

Hardly anything cheers me up now. Some of the stuff the kids do or (AN) says do make me smile but I hardly feel happy anymore.

I struggle to remain patient with AN, sometimes because of bad behaviours and habits but very often now because of my own negativity. I feel upset over little differences. One example: AN wanted to spread her blanket on her bed to lie on, and use her bedspread as blanket instead. After the switch, she decided her bedspread wasn't big enough to cover her from shoulder to toes, and asked me what to do. I asked her to let it be because she chose to do this. She asked to make changes between blanket and bedspread again, to which I got really frustrated (because it was almost 11pm and she wasn't done requesting for things!).

She could tell I was upset and asked me not to be angry. She then decided to live with her 'mistake'.

Time now is 11.20pm and she's still tossing around on her bed, whining and scratching because the bedspread wasn't comfy as a blanket and blanket not as comfy to lie on.

I tried my best to swallow the urge to scream the thousandth "SLEEP NOW ADRIELLE!" and allowed her to make herself comfortable. She appreciated by informing: "Mummy, I'm trying my best not to make you angry."

Sigh...

Why am I so negative about everything?

:(

Lantern!

AN had a good time last evening, not with holding her lantern but playing with bubbles and lighting candles. A mummy left a lantern on the seat and that lantern continually produced bubbles. The kids got attracted to the bubbles and started running, jumping, popping bubbles! That was really sweet of that mummy to share the lantern with everyone else.

AN spent a long time playing with those bubbles. Her penchant for bubbles started since gymboree and she had been pleading for me to bring out those bubbles guns we used to have, but I didn't have much time to bring her downstairs to pop bubbles.

Mr Liow then suggested making a row of lighted candles so that AN could blow. That successfully took her away from those bubbles.

It was lighting candles, and blowing out candles next. She sang the birthday song for us and in that half hour or so, I was 5 years older. She got burnt by candle wax at some point but soon forgot about it.

She didn't carry her lanterns though. Hmmm. We thought she'd enjoy carrying one of it around. As kids, we used to!

Times are different?

Chaos

It happens when the kids are sick: chaos.

Poor AN coughed so badly the phlegm got coughed out but she held it in her mouth and waited for us to bring her out from the dark bedroom to the toilet to spit the mouthful of phlegm out. She coughed and threw up twice more after that and then it was time for pillowcase changing again.

ER kept crying while these were going on. And then he started coughing as well. The next thing we know, he was choking because his nose was badly stuffed up. He was coughing, nose was blocked, and he was very very upset at not being able to breathe.

sigh.....

Everything happened so suddenly: ER's sudden fever, AN's sudden cough which started this afternoon without warning and it was bad right from beginning, ER's sudden phlegm and blocked airway, AN's sudden fever.

We're sleeping without aircon now. The kids couldn't sleep the first time I used the fan with them when they had blocked nose. After a few 'trainings' they have gotten a little more used to it. It could be the dry cool air that made AN cough and blocked ER's nose. It could be anything. I'm just hoping to find a solution, anything to help them rest better.

I have totally no idea what else I can do to prevent them from falling sick.  Sheets were only changed last week, everywhere else given a dettol wipedown, Delphine used to supposedly clean the air. But they still fall sick sooooo often.

Poor babies.

Something Precious

Me feeling guilty after scratching AN on her leg while bringing her out of the car earlier on and getting upset at her because she started screaming in pain :(  : "I'm sorry I wasn't careful just now. Does your leg still hurt?"

AN: "Not anymore. Mummy I'm sorry."

Me: "Why? You don't have to be sorry. I scratched you and hurt you. Mummy should be sorry. You don't have to be."

AN: "I'm sorry because I shouted at you just now when I feel the pain.”

An update on ER's fever: he's back to normal now. Fed him medicine before dinner with my family for mum's birthday so that he'd feel better when we were outside. It's been 9 hours and his temperature is art 36.9°c which is his normal temperature. Let's hope this is it. The body heat killed the virus. Yeah.

Another one about AN: it's her turn now. Last taken temperature when we got home was 37.7°c. Mum thought she felt feverish when we were having coffee at  the airport, but Mr Liow and I were in denial, insisting she felt normal. Since my last post about them falling sick some time early Aug, they have never fully recovered before something hits them again. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that she did feel like she was having low grade fever.

And she started to cough non stop again after her nap. It just hit her all of a sudden without warning.

Anyway, she had her cough relief medicine. Praying that her fever will not get any higher, and thank God I've not heard her cough at all while updating this post.

Children Learn as They Live

Partners in Crime

The little boy exploring my parents' players and the big sister's assisting him.

Hair

It is Mr Liow's RSAF day and we had tickets to the zoo. We had been looking forward tbuto this outing...but ER had fever last evening without any signs of discomfort. So I'm stranded at home with the poor baby.

The little girl was excited nonetheless and I gave her rainbow hair (not 'rainbow' enough) to match her rainbow mood this morning.

Pray that ER will feel better later. We still have Mickey Mouse Festival this evening!

Mooncakes!

I LOVE mooncakes but have not had any since we went to Tucson in 2008. Out of desperation then, we bravely bought from the oriental supermarket there (at Las Vegas during one of our trip there) and had the worst mooncake in our lives! The skin was thick and tough like biscuit, fillings rough and dry, and it was super sweet! There was a wierd smell, like leftover oil. That kept us from craving mooncakes for the next year.

And then we came back to Singapore, but ER chose to pop 2 days before Mooncake Festival and I wasn't allowed to have mooncakes during confinement.

I could only drool...

This year, I'm back with vengeance! This will not be all I'm having. I should have taken pictures of the mooncakes before I savoured them but ...... it didn't cross my mind till they're gone.

Soooooo satisfying!

Baked (all lotus paste, the one from Eu Ren Seng had Ginseng but it didn't taste much of Ginseng)


Snowskin (Durian, Black Sesame, Pandan, Green Tea. Black Sesame was BEST!)

Praying for Love

Came across a quote that tickled:

"I pray that I will love you more each day.........

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Because if I prayed for strength, I will kill you."

I know this doesn't sound very inspiring, at least only the first part does.

Hehe. I'm glad I didn't pray for strength in handling the kids...or did I?

Fever

ER is having fever without any symptoms. The kids had cough and stuffy nose 2 weeks ago (I've not posted.about that latest one) but no fever. Thank God!

This one, just fever, and no other symptoms. Worse thing is, we actually had plans to go to zoo tomorrow and has the Mickey Mouse Festival tomorrow. I'll have to stay home with ER and hopefully he'll be well enough for the evening show.

Time

Some time ago, I asked AN to play by herself because I needed to wash my face. I've lost proper skincare routines and mostly just wash my face now, either with water or body shower. On this day, I thought I better give some care to my deteriorating complexion.

AN was disappointed that I had to leave her alone again and started pouting. I pleaded: "Adrielle, mummy hasn't wash my face for a long time already....please...mummy's hardly free to do this."

She happily asked me to go do it and asked me to go wash my face and she wanted to watch me. I manged to wash, scrub and apply moisturiser while answering her "what's this?", "why that?" questions.

After I was done, she asked if I felt happy. Hehe. I was, and she went: "hurray!"

Weeks later....

Me: "Baby, you wait for me ok? I go wash my face."

AN looked at me, surprised: "Mummy, I thought you just washed your face yesterday?" (to her, everyday that's not 'today' is 'yesterday').

I said I washed my face few weeks ago, and that got her asking innocently: "Mummy, you have a lot of time now???"

Sigh.... I just need a face wash and I don't have a lot of time.

At least I could go poop whenever the urge comes now. In the past, I could only do it when someone was with me, helping with baby HER. But I no longer hv time to makeup before we go out now. No more :(

Wrong Worship

Who do we worship?

Training in Progress

ER learns to drink from a cup on his own, starting with a toy one.

Adrielle Reading to Ethan

She's recognising words but not reading yet. Here, she's merely making up her own story to tell her little brother.

Baby Fats

He's not a big baby but he's got baby fats.

The Future

At this stage in both AN's and ER's lives, I wouldn't want another baby, yet.

With AN, I was fearful as a new mum and trying to grapple with new challenges as well as my loss of freedom, sleep and time. Babies scared me, till AN started to get increasingly independent, and ready to have a sibling to love. The amazement of life and growth made us decide to try for another.

Now, I will not want a third one yet (maybe not at all anymore for practical reasons), because I'm enjoying ER so much I am not ready to give up enjoying him further.

I don't have much time and attention left for AN (which probably explains why she sometimes does weird things to get my attention, or out of boredom). If no.3 comes now.......I dread more sacrifices I have to make at the expense of the little ones. I had already let Baileys and Maen down...

Will we have another one? We're still on the fence about this.

We have yet to settle her Primary One issues (join the alumni). In fact, I was wondering if she should attend the primary school just next to our block. That is so she doesn't have to wake up so early each day and waste extra time travelling.

But we hope the school she attends will teach Godly values, besides just academic. Nowhere in Sengkang is there a Christian school. Not that I know of. And even if there is, chances of getting in is minimum coz doing volunteer work with the clingy little tiger is near impossible, even if I'm not too late.

We entertained the thought of shifting nearer to Tampines. But we'll be financially stretched. Extremely.

Scary education system in Singapore isn't it?

I'd like to take the kids and run away. Hehe. We'll wait to see if Mr Liow's next posting is an overseas one.

AN Dancing at 4.5yrs old

The Best Way to Boil Someone Else's Blood

By refusing to comply. Just simply refuse to cooperate. Best if you start stomping and continue to insist on doing it your way. That's how the 4 year old gets into trouble most days now. And it's frustrating when coaxing hardly works. I stopped coaxing. Really, pointless. She'll only snap out of it when I blow up. Since it only works when I blow up, I will. Skip tyre time consuming steps of coaxing which almost always fails. Just get directly into the "ferocious mummy" mode.

Let's see how she will be at 5 years old. Does kids really behave better as they grow?

"Bad Girl"

Brought AN to the playground this morning coz the weather was good. There were 2 other little girls there with their guardians (one of the girl's grandma was chatting with another lady). Those girls were about AN's age, or maybe a year younger. No dashing kids and toddlers, so AN can play safely.

AN climbed around as I kept watch over her from the ground. Since young, she had this habit of waiting for kids at the bottom of the slide to move away before she slides off.

I was watching her wait for one little girl at the bottom of the slide AN was seated at when I heard an old lady scolding someone. I didn't think much of it till I noticed she was scolding AN! She was waving her finger at my girl saying: "You are so naughty! You cannot bully the little children!"

I looked at AN, AN looked back at me. I think AN didn't know she was being reprimanded. I then looked at the old lady again and she turned my direction asking: "Is that your daughter? She was looking at my grand daughter with eyes wide opened and wanted to kick her!" (眼睛大大粒地看着我的孙女)

Huh?

AN was at the top of the slope. The little girl was at the ground end. I hadn't once lost sight of AN and she definitely didn't attempt to kick the girl!

I defended her of course, and told that grandma that I had my eyes on her all the time and she did not behave as accused! She didn't even appear impatient, having to wait for the little girl. AN is not perfect but she will not hurt someone else...

And that accusation that AN was looking at her grandkid with big eyes made me almost burst out laughing.



AN has big eyes since birth, for goodness sake........!! She looks at everyone with eyes wide opened. What is so wrong with that?

My guess is, she was busy chatting and the moment she turned to look at her grandchild, she saw AN waiting at the top and assumed AN was going to slide down just to kick the little girl because AN has big eyes.

Does that make sense?

I couldn't stop feeling the injustice towards my little girl. How rude is that? You don't tell others' kids off, not when nothing happened and you aren't even sure what was going on. Maybe if she had kept her eyes on the girl and AN, she wouldn't have wronged someone else's child.

Then it started to make sense after that:
She put the little girl into the stroller and proceeded to leave the playground after she finished chatting with the other lady. They came my direction, near enough for me to catch her complaining to herself: "We can't go from here. It's too smoky." Then she directed the stroller to the right and angrily told herself again: "There's a big dog there! How can people bring dogs here?!" She frowned and stomped off the opposite direction.

I looked around and saw no smoke. The dog was on leash and was well behaved. And it was so far away from the playground. Why, can't people bring their dogs for walks?

I think she had a bad start to the morning and was grumpy.

Still, AN enjoyed herself. I'm glad she doesn't seem to realise she was getting a earful from a stranger for no reasons at all.

AN Playing With Her Little ER

 Watch "AN teaching ER" on YouTube 

I can't find the code to embed video from youtube so for the time being, all I can do its post links.