Gong Gong is...

We were in the car and Terelle was commenting that Baby was a good boy cos he didnt want to nurse for once and sat quietly in his car seat.

T: Baby is a good boy!

Me: And what about you?

T: Me? Im a good girl

M: And mummy?

T: Mummy is a good girl

M: Daddy?

T: Daddy is a good boy

M: What about YiYi?

T: Yiyi is a good girl

M: And Gong Gong?

T: *slight pause* Gong Gong is a good old man!

Current fav pics

These are my current favourite pics of the sibs.

Taken at Ikea, he was trying out a kiddy rattan chair. When asked to smile, he gave a wonky little smirk. He looks so grown up now!

Terelle is now fixated on using chopsticks. Here she is having noodles and using her training pair. I know im biased, but with her coy smile, she looks oh so sweet!

Our "romantic" getaway

We are jinxed - by our kids.

What was supposed to be a romantic hotel stay to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary in June got postphoned 3 times cos all of us took turns to fall sick.

Finally the room was booked over the past weekend and hubby and i were looking forward to spending some quality time together - at last...

And then....

The morning we were supposed to leave for our staycation, Terelle woke up with red, itchy and watery eyes.

Alarm bells rang in my head.

That's it, I thought, there goes our weekend plans. AGAIN!

As she had no other symptoms, Hubby dropped her off at school as usual, only to have her form teacher call me an hour later ordering us to take her home, cos her itchy eyes were bothering her.

We quickly brought her to the gp who diagnosed conjunctivitis and prescribed eye drops.

Time check 1145am.

We still had time to get her sorted out before we set off to check in at 2pm.

Optimistic, we brought her home, administered the eye drops, put her down for her nap and waited for Sis to arrive so we could scram.

To our dismay, she woke up screaming half an hour later, complaining that both her ears were painful. I figured it might be an ear infection so we rushed to the pd immediately cos the gp was by now closed.

Sure enough, pd diagnosed it to be an ear and eye nfection and we were sent home with one eye drop, one eye lotion, ear drops and an anti viral medicine.

By now, our friend was getting increasingly whiny and clingy, it was as if she knew we were going to sneak off!

We were only able to extricate ourselves at 6pm, and checked in at the hotel downtown at 645pm. The idyllic afternoon of shopping, movie and eating that i envisioned just went up in smoke.

We felt uneasy leaving the poor sick gal at home so after a hurried dinner, we drove home again to check on her. Went through the bedtime routines, administered the truckload of meds, gave instructions to helper, sis and dad to call us if her condition worsens in the middle of the night; we finally went back to our supposed "sanctuary" at close to midnight.

Luckily there was a 24 hr TCC nearby to offer some grub and comfort to 2 weary souls.

Comfort food at 2am

It was pretty fun sitting by the sidewalk and gawking at the trannies doing their rounds near Shaw Towers - some of these man chicks were really hot!

The next day, we were determined to enjoy ourselves for a bit.

After repeated phonecalls home, we were satisfied that the kids were still alive without us, so we headed out for a nice dimsum brunch and a leisurely look see at the new ION orchard.

It was EXTREMELY liberating traipsing around town without having to negotiate escalators, staircases and throngs of people with 2 strollers and 2 demanding kids!

That night we had a nice peaceful dinner with the Liews and caught up with old friends over supper.

It was bliss - no schedules to follow, no whiny, demanding kids, no frazzled nerves. It was just us back to pre-kids days, having fun and hanging out with our friends.

Us as we were in the past, not us as parents, as we have inadvertently become.

And although the kids were fine without us at home,

(Thane actually slept through the night without waking up to nurse!

He went without breastmilk for 1.5 days!

Terelle's condition didnt worsen!

Both ate well, slept well and didnt miss us one bit!)

we came back the next morning to fetch them back to the hotel.

Having dinner on the toilet while keeping an eye on the kids in the bath

Can parenthood be more diligent than this?

So there you are, our so called romantic getaway.

We firmly believe we are jinxed. Cos everytime we set up something fun for ourselves or just go out for a couple of hours' break, we'll come back to some calamity involving the kids. Or are we such bad parents that we do not deserve breaks at all?

Hubby thinks this is what transpires between the kids whenever they sense we are going off somewhere without them.

Terelle: Hey pipsqueak! Mummy and Daddy are sneaking off tomorrow.

Thane: Har...does it mean we have to make ourselves sick again?

Terelle: Ya lah, of cos! So isit ur turn or my turn this time?

Thane: Your turn lah! The last time u made me lick the raw meat and i had gastroenteritis for a week!

Terelle: OK OK...so what shall i come down withthis time? Flu? Fever? Baluku on head?

*Out comes a spinner on which is written a myriad of illnesses and injuries. They spin it*

Terelle: Awww man! Conjunctivitis?? Damn its uncomfortable you know!

*Proceeds to touch the toilet and rub her eyes*

Thane: *sniggering* And u think having diarrhea for a week is comfortable??

Plausible, dont you think?

As i write this, im so missing my lazy, hazy saturday already. I really wonder when we can have another break...a proper, guilt free, incident free one...

Sigh...

Kids if you are able to read this now, its payback time!!

Mafia Boss

My daughter is a mafia boss.


Her form teacher took me aside today and commented that she has incited her friends, on many occasions, to create mischief.

She will come up will silly antics when everyone is doing serious work and divert her classmates' attention from their tasks at hand.

She will entice her friends to join her in a splashing good time at the sinks in the toilet, only running back to class in fits of giggles when the teacher detects their absence and comes to look for them 10min later.

She will say silly things and contort her face and leave everyone in hysterics every opportunity she gets.


As a result, her teacher tells me that many a time, she has been made to stay back to complete her work. She would grudgingly sit at her desk and do her coloring/phonics/chinese strokes/craft while her friends play with toys or troop off to the playground.

Her teacher says she is beginning to disregard her authority and I am concerned.



I have noticed that my daughter has a natural ability to influence the kids around her.

Whenever she is playing with a toy or doing something, the other kids invariably end up being drawn towards her and they will all crowd around to see what she is doing.

She will say something ridiculous and all her cronies will repeat it after her and all of them will collapse in fits of laughter.

She takes a sticker and places it on her forehead and everyone else does the same. She proclaims that she's an "Ah-neh!" and everyone else chants it after her.

She entices her friends in games of police and thief, with her invariably being the flight footed thief that no one ever manages to catch.


And yet, despite all the tomfoolery she creates, she is amazingly protective of her friends.

She makes it her responsibility to watch over her quieter and meeker classmates, making sure they have their snack, that their water bottle is in the right place, that their name tag is pinned properly.

When they report to school everyday, all the kids' temperature are taken and their mouths and hands are checked for spots before they are allowed into class. A teacher is always on hand to record their temperatures beside their names on the class register.
And mafia boss is always there telling the teacher exactly who's who in the queue of kids waiting to get their temperature recorded.

After everyone is checked, she will wait at the staircase and round everyone up before holding the meeker kids' hands and ushering them up to class.

Anyone and everyone seems to know Terelle.
Hubby has witnessed her giving permission to some kids (not from her class!) to go to the playground after school.

I have seen her playing with the older K1 and K2 kids while waiting for me to arrive to fetch her home.

And the clincher:
I didnt send and fetch her to school for the whole week that i was sick. When hubby went to fetch her, he overheard a kid running up to her and asking her if her mummy was still sick.
It was akin to you showing concern over the wellbeing of your boss' family and scoring points at the same time.

To which came her flippant reply," Yes yes she is ok now" before dismissing the minion with a wave of her hand.

*gasp* The entire school seems to know i was sick, through her...

Surreal...totally surreal...

We had better steer her in the right direction before she leads everyone astray. I dont want to be responsible for other kids' errant behavior.

Ugh.

The stubborn bug saga

As i write this post, i really hope im seeing the end of this particularly feisty bug that has been plaguing my family for the past month and a half.

It all started with Thane.

He came down with a fever on the day of our wedding anniversary, which was 15th June, a Monday.

Having a nice buffet lunch, oblivious to the "battle" we had to fight soon

After a nice day out together, we came home to my mum in law's house to find him burning up. We gave him paracetamol and a cool bath and thought nothing much of it, cos her house is a furnace and we concluded he was probably suffering from mild heat stroke and dehydration.

We started to get worried when his fever yo-yoed up and down, registering highs of 38.5degrees over the next 2 days. To make matters worse, he had 6 teeth erupting at the same time and his appetite was almost zilch.

As there were no other symptoms, i was beginning to worry it could be a urinary tract infection so I brought him to the pd on Wednesday just to get him checked out.

Turned out it was a throat infection and after 3 doses of her prescribed antibiotic, his fever subsided.

Here they are, full of energy, despite being sick

By the way, the toddler bed will always be put in the living room for us to nurse whichever kid that is sick. One, for isolation purposes and two, temperature taking and sponging throughout the nite is less disruptive to those who are sleeping, if it were to be done downstairs.

So the toddler bed was a permanent fixture in our living room for close to 2 weeks when the kids took turns to use it.

Thinking that the worst was over, we went for Thane's weekly LNT class on Friday and even met up with the entire family on Saturday to celebrate Fathers' Day.

To our dismay, his fever came back on Sunday and by evening, it even reached a high of 39.5 degrees. He also had 4 bouts of diarrhea that day.

By then hubby was starting to get frantic cos he was so afraid of witnessing a replay of Terelle's fit when she had high fever 2 years ago. So we inserted a suppository and quickly rushed to kkh to get him checked out.

At the hospital, his fever began to subside and the doctor diagnosed him to be having viral gastroenteritis. She said it was a different bug from the one in his throat and all we had to do was manage the fever and watch for dehydration from the diarrhea.

Thankfully, everything cleared after another 2 days.

But then Terelle was next.

She started to develop a fever of 38degrees on Tuesday and similarly, it yo-yoed up and down over the next 2 days.

Having an ice popsicle treat to bring down her fever

Surprisingly that was about it.

She had no other symptoms and was hale and hearty again in just 2 days. And through it all she was her usual self, bouncing off the walls and inciting Baby Bone to mischief even though she was burning up.

Here she is, teaching him to do something cheeky as usual

He hero worships her and will copy whatever she does

So it was time to celebrate!

The kids were happy and healthy once more!

Time to head out again cos they had been stuck at home the past 2 weeks!

Modelling Yiyi's sunglasses at a dessert shop just before heading to the indoor playground

And here we are enjoying a nice steamboat dinner sans kids, to replenish all the lost energy during those sleepless nights taking care of the kids

How wrong we were!

That night, it was my turn to succumb to the bug. I started to feel lousy right after the steamboat and woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and chills. My throat also felt as though there were bits of glass in it and swallowing was pure torture.

That was Sunday.

My fever only hovered around 38degrees but i felt like i had been hit by a truck. I marvelled at how the kids could still prance around the house when they registered higher temperatures than I did.

Went to the doc the next day but could only take mild med cos i am still breastfeeding Thane. By Wednesday, my fever still had not subsided, my throat was killing me and i had frequent bouts of diarrhea too. I felt so nauseous and bloated and could hardly sleep, i was feeling that uncomfortable. I couldnt take it any more and went back to the doc to beg for stronger med and some antibiotics.

Thursday came and went and i wasnt any better. Thankfully, the mum of one of Terelle's classmates volunteered to help me send and fetch her to school. I was so weak i could hardly stand. All i could manage to do was drag myself from the bed to the toilet and back again.

Hubby had to leave for a business trip on Friday and i was still burning. I was also getting frustrated and helpless that i couldnt shake the darn bug. This was one of the rare times i was so sick!

My fever only finally subsided on Saturday and by Sunday, i was 80% back to normal. 7 feverish, comatosa days! Well i lost some weight in the process...only good thing that came out of it. *grin*

But that wasnt the end.
Hubby left for his business trip already nursing a sore throat. He came back on Sunday and by Monday, it was his turn to burn up. The doc only gave him a 3 day course of antibiotics but after the 3rd day, all his symptoms abated so he thought he had fully recovered.

Alas the nasty bug fought back with a vengeance and by that sunday, he had chills and a fever again, in addition to a chesty cough which left him breathless.

A 2nd visit to a different doc, some new med and 3 days later, still no improvement. In fact he seemed to have deteriorated, with his phlegm showing streaks of blood.*gasp*

A 3rd visit to the original doc returned a dire prognosis - bronchitis, the bug was now ravaging his lungs. She prescribed a stronger antibiotic and warned him that if he got any worse, he would have to go to the hospital to be treated for pneumonia.

And so, as i write this, he has already been on the new course of antibiotics for a week and is due for a review tomorrow. Hopefully he is finally on the mend.

Conclusion: Same bug, different manifestation...and Terelle is the strongest of us all?

One day in Your Life

Yes this is gonna be another eulogy and no prizes for guessing who is it about.

Just finished watching the encore telecast of Michael Jackson's Memorial. I must say that it evoked a myriad of emotions in me.


Happiness.

Im happy that he is finally free of all the people who constantly found fault with him, who sniggered at him as he underwent his dramatic facial reconstructions, who watched and waited for a chance to hurl abuse at him if and when he slipped up.

These same detractors pinned child molestation charges on him and gloated when he fell from grace in the pubic's eyes.

I chose to ignore those reports that he allegedly molested kids. In my eyes, MJ was a soft spoken and kind guy, a symbol of love and peace who loved children above everything else. When he settled those lawsuits out of court, i wanted to believe it was because he'd rather an amicable resolution than a lengthy public court case, and not an admission of his guit.

As MJ's brother so aptly put when he gave his eulogy,"Just how much pain can one take?"

The tabloids were splashed with all the sensational reports on how frail and sickly he looked and the immense pain he was in both physically and mentally just before he died.

Im glad that he is finally in a place where nothing and no one can hurt him anymore.
God must have been pained that he had to endure so much suffering in his life and so called him back home early.


Sadness.

I grew up listening to MJ's songs.

I vividly remember rewinding and playing the song "Ben" over and over again on my little cassette tape recorder, to try and figure out the chords so i could sing and play it on the guitar at the same time.

I remember valiantly trying to do the moonwalk with my cousins, but failing miserably yet having a good laugh in the process.

MJ is the ONLY pop star whom EVERYONE knows. Ask any coffeeshop uncle who MJ is and chances are, he might start singing in a falsetto, do the moonwalk and grab his crotch. But ask him again who is Justin Timberlake and he'll go "Har? Justin Si Siang?"

No other pop star will EVER be immortalised the way MJ has become.



Gratitude and Pride

When i watched the choir sing "We are the World" and "Heal the World", it dawned on me that these 2 songs have become anthems which the whole world sings. For the duration of the songs, just a couple of minutes, the whole world is truly united as everyone sings along to the all familiar lyrics.

You dont need a lyric sheet to sing these songs, unless you've been living under a rock the past 20 years. MJ's influence on you was just so strong that these lyrics have been ingrained in your mind. He has truly found a way to unite the world, if only for awhile, through his music, for only his music transcends all races and all religions.


And i am grateful to have been in this era when he was alive, where i had a chance to be touched by his music.

Hubby and I have been playing a couple of his earlier hits from youtube, for the kids to watch. We have been showing them Michael Jackson as we know him, in his earlier days, when he was untouched by garish makeup and plastic surgery, when he was untainted by scandals.
We want to expose them to the King of Pop, whom sadly they will not get a chance to know as intimately as us.


I could write so much more on MJ but so many tributes have already been written to him. So i shall be laconic for once.
In the words of his eerily prophetic song which is coincidently one of my favourites


"One day in your life

You'll remember the love you found here

You'll remember me somehow, though you dont need me now

I will stay in your heart

And when things fall apart

You'll remember one day"





Enjoy the King of Pop at his best.

What now, What next?

I am going through a phase in which im constantly questioning my role as a stay-at-home-mum. Day after day passes, some in meaningless drudgery, some with satisfying results.


I find myself dwelling too long and too often on whether it is all worthwhile.

What would i have become if i had chosen a different path with my life?

What could i have achieved?


A doctor? Perhaps.
I have the constitution of an ox; i fall sick only like once every 2 years, am good with kids and think i have much better bedside manner than alot of other doctors ive seen.
I would have been a great paediatrician, i know it.

A principal? Most of my ex colleagues in school have gone on with their careers and have achieved success climbing up the education hierarchy. I could have been among their circles right now, but would it be something i enjoy doing?

A journalist? A business woman? A hot shot in some big company?


Well, all these are just wishful thinking on my part right now. I cannot turn back time nor can i ever hope to become any of these for the rest of my life.

And all because i chose this path - to become a sahm.


Yet I realise that im starting to take my children's lives too personally.

When they get injured under my watch, i beat myself up to no end cos i was responsible for their pain.

They cant read while their peers can; i berate myself for not having read to them more often.

They utter something hurting; i wonder why and get very upset cos i dont understand why they hate me so when ive tried so hard for them.

My children's every failure has made me bombard myself with countless thoughts of "I should have done that instead".

I care too much about everything and when things dont go as i have planned or envisioned them to be, i get frustrated and upset.

I would imagine this being akin to going for a performance review at work and having your boss tell you that you suck in many areas. It can sometimes be depressing and debilitating.



True, the rewards come in other forms.

My daughter proudly telling her friends that store bought snacks are no match to my home baked cookies.

Her eyes wide with joy when i present a pair of hand painted shoes of her favourite little mermaid (which i spent an entire night working on), to her.

A paper bracelet painstakingly strung together by little fingers, which now sits proudly on my nightstand.

A picture of me messily colored in by the both of them, but which i treasure greatly cos it was their 1st joint effort at drawing my portrait.

A tower of blocks carefully constructed and proudly declared to be "Mummy's castle", and that ill get a real one when she grows up and builds a real one for me.

Everyday occurences and snippets of conversation about everything and anything, all etched vividly in my mind.


But the children are starting to become my life's entire purpose.

After all ive poured out blood, sweat and tears just for them and they are supposed to be living proof that im not wasting my time at home.


My son's precociousness, his milestones...my daughter's excellent memory, powers of observation and speech. I take pride in them and it is through them that i find self validation.

And that scares me.



For in just a few years time, when they are all packed off to school, what's going to happen to me then? How will i find alternative forms of self validation?

Mine is a 24/7 job that pays no salary, makes no cpf contributions, let alone hand out performance bonuses. Ive left the job market for so long now, i dont think i can ever go back and accept starting right from the bottom again.


And so right now, i have to look for some pittance of an alternative income - its my way to self validate and to safeguard my mind for when the kids are grown.

Im not the kind to sit around and do nothing for the rest of my days. But when the time comes and ive all the time in the world again, will my few tuition and writing assigments be sufficient to keep me occupied, and most importantly keep my mind challenged?

Im seriously afraid.

At 18 months

Thane has finally progressed beyond unintelligible babbling!

He can call us all by name:
Pa Pa
Mare Mee (Mummy)
Che Che (Jie Jie, it used to be "chee chee" but now he has gotten the hang of it)
Ko Ko (Gong Gong)
Per Per (Por Por, it sounds like "per" as in the sound the letter P makes, but we know what he means)
Yee Yee (He does this best, with lots of glee and a great deal of panache. Arent you proud, sis?)
Yeh Yeh
Ma Ma
Ah Tee (Aunty, our helper)
Bay Bee (baby-himself)

He can indicate his intentions:
Go (when he wants go out)
There (when we ask where does he wanna go)
Hey Oh (Hello)

Ball (His favourite toy right now is a yellow soccer ball)
Bear Bear
Egg Bird (Big Bird from Sesame Street)
Eh Mo (Elmo)
Car

He has a distinct preference for the color yellow.
When in the ball pit of any indoor playground, he will seek out all the yellow balls and try to hoard them all, screaming murder if anyone tries to take them away.
At dinner time, he will always choose the yellow plastic spoon over all the others.
He has 3 pairs of shoes, one yellow and 2 blue. Whenever we go out, he will always go for the yellow pair.
Similarly for toys, stickers, markers, crayons, you name it...he will always zoom in on the yellow colored one and not let go.

Loves the song "C is for Cookie" by Cookie Monster
He will clap and bob along to the rhythm of the song whenever any of us sings it. Terelle will usually trash the lyrics by purposely singing some rubbish to the same tune but he seems to find this even more amusing and will laugh hysterically at her version.

Loves books
He will come running to anyone who has a book in hand, sit down quietly and listen while we tell him the story. And i am glad to notice that because of this, Terelle has begun to want to read more, cos she sees her baby brother always totally absorbed in their books.

He can sing the alphabet song!
Well not exactly...but he can make almost the right sound for each particular letter, and follow exactly in tune and rhythm!
He can also pick out several letters correctly when we ask him to.

When asked "What's your name?"
He will answer "Teen!"

When we point to pictures of him and ask who is that, he will go "Me Me Me!"

Can make correct animal sounds...
Dog: Woof Woof
Cat: Meeeeiow
Cow: Mooooooo
...and point out all the different animals whenever we ask where they are, even atypical ones like dinosaur, ostrich, koala, mole and lemur!

Although Terelle was way more advanced in speech at the same age (she could string together short sentences by 18mths), im proud that he has made such progress so far!

Keep it up baby!

On an entirely different note, at 18mths we brought Terelle to France. When Thane turned 18mths, we brought him to Sentosa.
Talk about sidelining no2? hahahah...

Ear Wax!

The answer to my previous post is EAR WAX!

But it aint mine, its Terelle's!

Ive been trying my darndest to get rid of this huge chunk of the icky stuff from her ears for the longest time. And since we saw these ear candles on sale at the car boot sale, we decided to give them a try.

Im still amazed that they actually work!
Think she must be hearing us loud and clear now. Hahaha...

Mandy and Sharon, u girls share the prize? haha...

Its a...?

Im offering a $10 prize for anyone who can guess what this is.

Family members who know exactly what it is, you are not eligible. Pls refrain from commenting.

Anyone? Contest open for a week!

Hahaha...