our most busy and exciting sickness bout thus far!

Sam had bad stomach pains on Tue afternoon followed by vomitting and diarrhoea on Wed so thankfully Carlsen managed to cancel CCA to make it home earlier to help me with the kids. Especially since I started coming down with a stuffed nose and bad headache that Wed morning, possibly because of the haze. The last time she came down with gastric flu was exactly a year ago when Annette was a month old. But thank God after getting medicine from the doctor on Thur, she recovered just after 1 dose of medication.

Unfortunately, Annette and I vomitted a few times on Thur night. So Carlsen had to take leave again on Fri (as he took leave on Thur too). Thank God we could use the same medicine as Sam for Annette and it helped me a bit too. But on Fri evening, she had her first fever. We gave her a dose of paracetamol at 6 pm, sponged her and gave her as much fluids as possible but she was still very fretful.

We had a real scare because her lips turned bluish (our first time encountering this) so we rushed to children's emergency at 7 pm (thank God gong gong and por por were around to send us there so Carlsen could stay home to put Sam to bed). They checked that her blood pressure and heart rate were ok, and they gave hydration fluid. Thank God her temperature went down so they didn't have to give brufen. We still stayed on till 830 pm because they wanted to collect her urine but it was difficult to stay on because she hadn't slept since 230 pm and we hadn't eaten our dinner (I only managed to give her a snack at the hospital). So we went home first and thankfully we managed to catch her urine around 9 pm then I put her to bed, while thankfully por por was around to send the sample back to the hospital.

But by 10 pm, the doctor called to tell me that there were a lot of white blood cells in her urine so they needed to get a more accurate test from her bladder in case she had urinary tract infection which would damage her kidneys if not properly treated. But she had just fallen asleep! And the doctors changed shift at midnight. I was hoping that we could go down the next day but the doctor advised not to.

So at 1130 pm, I had to just wake her up from her sleep and went down again to the hospital with por por. The consultant was to insert a catheter through the urinary tract opening into the bladder to get the urine sample. But soon after they had wrapped Annette up (to prevent her from moving about) and removed her diaper, she passed urine and they were unable to catch it in time! So I had feed Annette again and waited till 1 plus am when they got urine sample. And thank God the results showed that there was no urinary tract infection.

Thank God too for strength to recover quickly once I had to take Annette to the hospital as I was still feeling very lethargic. What a night! Thank God Carlsen was well throughout to be the caregiver of our girls! :)

tired out...

It has been a roller coaster since the end of December, with so many celebrations and the kids falling ill, as well as myself (yes, unfortunately, Annette at only 3 months, came down with her first cough). Then came January and Sammie started out at her new preschool. I stayed with her at school even with Annette in tow for 2 tiring days so thankfully she took to the teacher even on the 1st day and settled rather easily with hardly any crying. Unfortunately she came down with stomach-flu-like symptoms of fever, vomitting and diarrhoea in the 2nd week so that was a tiring week at home.

Sammie in her previous preschool's uniform

Then when Sammie went back to school (still nursing a cough and runny nose), she took a few days to adjust again especially since her 'favourite' classmate was absent from school, and her sleeping patterns even at night became a mess. And quite often both sisters would disturb each other's sleep from their loud sounds... and I've to shuttle between them and try to settle them either one after another or at the same time....

And while it's good that my body has adjusted to the little sleep (especially since I don't even get my afternoon nap now because there's just so much to do), I've read that less sleep doesn't help my trying to lose weight... (another problem because I'm a size bigger than I was after I had Sammie which means I'm 2 sizes bigger than I was when I got married!) Finding time (or even energy) to exercise is a difficult task because I'm busy the whole day....

Annette smiles whenever anyone talks to her

Because my day starts with.... going to the toilet/diaper change, getting breakfast prepared, boiling water, feeding kids, brushing teeth, getting ready for school and walking to/back from school, putting baby to bed, eating breakfast, laundry, washing dishes, keeping clothes, feeding baby, playing with baby, folding clothes, putting baby to bed, washing and cooking, hanging laundry, lunch, feeding baby, playing with baby, picking Sam up from school, bath time, snack time, putting baby to bed, spending time with Sam, getting dinner prepared, feeding Sam, bathing baby, having my bath, feeding baby, eating dinner, putting kids to bed, time to rest, feeding baby and putting baby to bed, sleep.... each activity happening one after another or simultaneously, even with the help of my mother-in-law feeding Sam and playing with her and Carlsen's help in buying dinner and putting Sam to bed.... a pity my mum used to do more of the cooking for Sam till she started having very dry hands so I had one more thing-to-do...

Then of course there's other cleaning, ironing and clearing up to do.... which I don't know how I'm going to manage in future as my part-time cleaner who used to come once a week is going back to Myanmar! and I just don't seem to have any luck with part-time cleaners as I've had 6 changes since I started having one since last Apr (8 months ago!)

I'm tired out... but I still love being a stay-home mum! :)

would very much like to be more disciplined to read and study the Bible though... so tired that my brain finds it hard to concentrate.... and so 'bored' that I would like to do my own things though tv just makes me more lazy... I'm just so glad that Carlsen's back from his overseas school camp after 3 days 2 nights...

Sam's first school concert

We were really excited to see Sam performing for the first time in front of a large crowd. (Though she had stood before in front of our small church congregation to sing some songs.) Her teacher mentioned to us a few weeks back that when the school had their first combined practice, Sam stood stiff when she saw so many of the kids and teachers looking at her. (Sam was also very shy during her 2nd birthday when everyone was singing the birthday song for her.) Sam had practised a lot at home on her own, always very excited about it. So we hoped she would have fun at her first concert.



We were so proud of her! (She's the red flower.) Though the insect probably confused her by standing still in the middle of the stage, she finally made her way to form the circle with the other kids following behind her and she didn't get distracted by the boys playing behind her. (There was 1 owl, 1 insect and 4 flowers.) Though it would have been wonderful to see her smiling and having fun, she was still very cute looking very serious and focused. A pity the school only gave us 2 tickets and our camera's resolution ain't that high.

Here's another video of her at the finale, having fun swinging arms with kids from another class. Glad she moved to the front during the 2nd song though it would have best if she had not been blocked during the 1st song because the 1st song had more actions than the 2nd song.

Sam the amazing architect

Heh heh... yet another post from me within the span of the last 2 days... :) sorry... but thought I'd better make good use of this opportunity that I have now.

Well, the other day Sam wanted to play with her Lego set. Bought the small bricks type as I thought it to be more worthwhile rather than the Duplo ones. She had trouble fixing the bricks in the past and used to get me to build stuff for her. Then last week, she surprised us with her very first new structure! Although she did not have enough strength to press the brick fully in, she amazed us for she could finally do it and not only that, she taught us adults how to play with Lego in a new way - that we could make the leaning tower of Pisa! Take a look at the alpha version...

Well, here was the final product of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Sam's version).... She even has that 'magician wave the hand' look.... haha....

Sam's first Dance routine (When You Wish Upon A Star)

Sam hasn't been going to school for weeks and well, she decided to have indoor music and dance lessons with her Paps one day... :) well, after some practice and rehearsing, here is Sam's first ever dance routine that she came up with!! (with some suggestions from the sidelines :) She loves listening to songs especially from the electronic keyboard.
It's amazing... reminds me when I went through the Gymnastics module during my PE training days under Mrs Leong. Sam did the things which we learnt then (symmetry, asymmetry, stop, tall, crouch into shape...)



Sam is growing up real fast as she is able to carry out conversations more, cook up her own stories, recall things that she did the other day (although she keeps saying yesterday), break into song or dance... :) really enjoying the days of being a dad... especially when we sleep together at night for when I get into bed there she is lying next to me... so cute and adorable... just wanna squeeze and hold her close... (though she would probably want her mummy more...ahhahah)

Tribute to MJ by Sam??

Alot has been said about MJ since he passed away. Well, one thing is for certain, death is the worst penalty that man has faced since the beginning of time. Was watching his early videos the other day when he was with the Jackson 5 (even before I was born), and it was brilliant seeing that little boy burst with energy. Well, Sam somehow reminded me of Michael too one day when she started to sing one of his songs...well, just the famous 1 liner.... (Try to make it out..)

June Holiday Excursions

During the June Holidays, we didn't get to travel overseas due to the H1N1 scare... too bad as we wanted to get away before the next little one popped. But no worries, as we came up with creative ideas to spend our time in little Singapore going to places of interest as if we were touring the country... :)

We decided to go to Singapore Discovery Centre one day and brought Sammie on a really 'brainwashing' experience walking through the exhibits. Sigh... but we had fun taking photos on the fake helicopter used in WWII and watching 'Dolphins and Whales" in 3D (explains the geeky googles). Sam really looked forward to it... but when the movie started, she started crying out for Mammieeeeee..... the whale is coming at me (or something like that).... She finally gave up and fell asleep in mummy's safe and secure arms.... I too kinda fell asleep with her as it was so nice and soothing to hear the ocean... :)

*Notice that Daddy is doing most of the posting now as Janice is quite tired out at work esp with the little one getting heavier... :) But not to worry, Janice will be back once she starts on her 'holiday'...

June Holiday Excursions Part II

We also went out with other parents with kiddos so that Sam could have some nice playtime with her friends. We met up with Amy and Elijah and we headed over to the National Museum hoping to catch some exhibits for children (which was free). Unfortunately we went there a bit too late.

They had taken down most of the exhibits and only 2 'interactive' ones were left. Nonetheless, this did not affect the kids as they still had much fun chasing and playing with each other. It's nice to be young and so carefree... :)

Sam's favourite food joint

Sen and I love bringing Sam out to different places to eat because she LOVES food :) One of her favourite food joints is IKEA (she likes the play area too, and walking around, but she loves the food the most! That even when her friend Jaime asked her to play with her, she said she wanted to eat!). Even when we are just driving along Commonwealth Avenue (which is perpendicular to Alexandra Road where IKEA is), she'll say "IKEA is over there!" We're quite amazed at how she recognizes roads too :)

About a year ago, she used to share half a chicken leg with me (which was quite a lot for her age). Now, she takes half a chicken leg, half of the pasta (children's meal), all 5 meatballs in the children's meal and a whole hotdog!

Eating daintily and enjoying her food

This is just an example of what she can eat. She has a good appetite most of the time even at home, so after she finishes a whole bowl of rice/meat/veg and fruits, we'll top it up with bread/cereal/more fruits/milk till she's full :) Not sure where the food goes cos she's still rather small (both height and weight wise) so we guess she's got Sen's genes with a high metabolic rate.

We're thankful she eats well. Though sometimes we get worried because there are times that she seems to eat too much that we're afraid she'll get a tummy ache or she'll find it hard to go to sleep. So we pray she'll learn to be contented and know her limits... :)

Half-month school

Since the start of school in April, Sammie actually has been only attending school for half a month while she stays home for the other half because she's ill (and of course we still have to pay for a whole month worth of school fees).

Naturally it is common for children to fall ill once they start going to school and they'll build up their immune system after a while. After all, as much as the childcare centres try to maintain a high standard of hygiene, kids being kids will somehow still not be as hygienic and it's difficult for the teachers to attend to so many kids.

But I think this is one area that needs to be worked on - children who are sick but not running a fever are still sent to school. The germs would definitely be passed on to the other children. Of course I understand how difficult it can be for childcare arrangements but it's still better for in the long run for everyone if the kids stay at home till they recover, isn't it?

Thankfully her school revised the health policy after receiving feedback from parents (although they said some parents used to shout at the teachers when they were told to bring back their kids!) so hopefully the kids will return when they fully recover. Thus I need to do my part as well, hence Sammie has not been attending school the past 2 weeks. Hopefully she doesn't fall ill again next week! Still wondering whether to give her vitamins for extra boost.... or whether to just allow her body to build up her own immune system without reliance on other sources.... decisions, decisions....

Time to relax...

So now that Sam's back in school, I have more time to relax and do my own stuff (like blogging) :) and catch up with the housework that needs to be done...

I'm thankful that Sam's adjusting well to school. Though yesterday was her first day back in school, she only cried when I went off and then she settled quickly. She told me excitedly about what she ate for lunch (carrots are her favourite!) This morning, she also woke up rather eager to go to school! :) And happily said, "And mummy will pick me up later!" She speaks rather fondly of her 2 teachers so I'm really happy for her! :)

In school... without mummy...

After I stayed with her in school for the first 3 days (Wed-Fri), she had to learn to be more independent the next week. So with her teacher carrying her (of course with her crying), I left her in the classroom and went off. The next day (Tue), her teacher said she cried much less once I went off and taught her how to do a thumbs-up, which Sam proudly showed me (but I forgot to take a photo of!).

walking home with a raisin treat for being braver in school

However, it was so difficult getting her to leave the house on the 3rd day (Wed) as she kept crying out that she didn't want to go to school! (Argh... just when I thought things were getting easier!!) Finally left the house because she was keen on taking the bus(we usually just walk to school) And she kept asking me where we were going! (which I replied, "to the bus stop", "to the community centre"....) till she recognised the building and then didn't want to go in! So I had to just carry her (which I hardly do now since knowing I was pregnant). But thankfully at the end of the day, her teacher gave her good feedback so things seemed to be looking up! :)

But the same thing happened the next day (Thur)!
Me: "Would you like to take the bus?"
Sam: "Are we going to school?"
Me:(Argh! She won't be so easily fooled!)
Thankfully she was happy to wear her new Princess Ariel outfit, bought by her uncle, and we took the bus to school. :)
BUT! when we got to school, her temperature was 37.2 so they advised me to bring her home especially since the school had HFMD cases.

And we ended up not going to school for a whole week after that because there was Good Friday and Easter, and Sam came down with high fever from Sun to Wed! And had a bad cough on top of that. Most kids fall ill when they start school... I just hope Sam's resistance builds up quickly.... It's very worrying when kids fall ill...

School for Sam

Apr 1 marked the first day of school for Sammie. She usually takes quite some time to warm up to new environments so she didn't interact much with the other kids/teachers or join in their play.

Me: "Hey it's play dough! You love play dough, don't you?"
Sam: "I have my own play dough at home."
Me:(Sigh... how would I be able to encourage her to enjoy school when she seems to have more fun at home? After all, she gets to play with lots of different colours and even has a barbeque set to make barbequed food - given as a birthday present. But in school, she only gets to play with 1 colour and 1 cutter and perhaps if she's lucky, a rolling pin!! I'm going to have a headache encouraging her...)

By the 2nd day, I decided to enquire if there were any vacancies for the half-day programme (though they told me at the open house they only had vacancies for the full day programme). Especially since I saw that the half-day class was so much smaller than the full day class! At first I thought the full day programme was easier for Sam to get used to the same teacher making her nap, rather than including the 2 grandmas for help. But on seeing how big the class was, I decided asking the 2 grandmas to make her nap would be easier on her.

Thankfully they were agreeable! :) So even though her 3rd day in school was her 1st day in a new class, she adapted really quickly and finally enjoyed herself that day! Think she's like us her parents... much more comfortable in smaller groups... and much quieter in bigger groups.

March school holidays

We were real busy during the March holidays as we were glad to have Sen around (especially when his school trip was cancelled!). We looked around T3 (Sam's and Jan's first time!) while sending off relatives. We also went to the zoo and caught 3 animal shows!(only looked at animals and went to the water park at other times) And attended birthday parties over the weekend.

One of the parties was especially fun! The kids had a lot of fun shooting each other with water guns in a wave pool! Yes there are waves at every hourly interval! We're thinking of having Sammie's birthday party there. :) Fun for kids but a bit more troublesome for the parents though... heh...

For the first time, Sammie didn't get upset or 'choke' when she fell into the water because she must have been having so much fun. This daughter just can't stand water getting into her eyes or streaming down her face. But this was quite an eye-opener and she didn't mind falling even a few times! :)

Music to our ears...

It's such a joy to hear Sammie praying on her own when she thanks God for food, sleep, her bed, family members (naming them) etc. And wonderfully she has applied this heart of thankfulness even to us. For eg, she asks, "who bought this?", pointing to a toy. And after I tell her who bought it, she would say 'thank you (mummy/papa/whoever else) for the toy'. Or after cleaning up after she used the potty, she would thank me too. Such music to our ears.... :) Hope she'll always be a thankful and appreciative girl.

She enjoys playing doctor too. But more than just pretend play, when she sees that we're tired, she'll tell us to go and rest. And then she'll ask, "are you ok?" or "are you better?" She really knows how to make my day when I'm trying to endure the tiredness or evening sickness. :)

Pretend play

For the past few months, Sammie enjoys pretending to be a bride. (most of the time inspired by our wedding photos) And she sings the song 'here comes the bride, all dressed in white, here comes the bride, what a lovely sight' (yes, I changed the last line cos I thought it was more appropriate for a little girl). And she loves to do this especially after her bath in her hooded towels and when she hears the song on our electronic keyboard.

She's taking less interest in cooking now which she used to enjoy very much about half a year back. Found it rather innovative when she used Sen's recent Wii balance board as a book scanner just like at the library. She still likes pretend shopping to the supermarket and particulary the real thing when we go to Jelita cos they have mini trolleys for her to use.

She also likes talking on the phone though she speaks much less when there's an actual person on the line. When she was much younger, she played this 'hide the mouse' game with Uncle Stephen. So when he visited today, we asked her where the mouse was. Later she picked up the phone and spoke into it, saying, "Mouse, where are you?"

The most useful pretend play for us is pretend feeding/eating. Sammie has been having quite a big appetite in the recent months and wants to eat more after meals. I still prefer not to give her certain food like those that have salt or too much sugar so thankfully she's quite contented when we tell her she can't eat the food but we can pretend to feed it to her. :) and she enjoys pretending to feed it to us too. :)

The funny English language...

Think the first time Sammie made us laugh (at a joke) was when we asked her what's Bruce Lee's favourite drink and after Sen gave the answer (because Sammie was only like 7 months or so) "wah....tah (meaning 'water')!", Sammie repeated after him with the exactly the same kind of sound! (seriously! both of us were shocked and burst out laughing!)

Now that she's so much more verbal, she makes us laugh in other ways:
1. When she wants my attention when I'm busy, I usually ask her to count. Once I said "count 1 to 15" and she replied, "1, 2, 15, some more?" (translated "what about the other numbers?")

2. She saw a stain on one of those coin-slot toy vehicles and asked me what it was. I replied "it's a mark" (cos I thought it was an easier word than stain) and she followed "Uncle Marc!" and continued this joke whenever I used the word 'mark' for stains or ticks.

3. Sen wanted her to stop playing with the computer mouse so he said "stop playing with the mouse!" and she replied "huh? where's the mouse?", looking around puzzled...

4. She received more plastic food toys for Christmas and one of it was a chicken drumstick. When I told her what it was, she used it to hit her drums!

5. Once when she awoke in the morning, she asked where papa was. I replied "papa's at work". And she said cheekily, "papa edward" a few times (cos she met a kor kor edward at the Larkhill camp).

I've wanted to be more diligent in recording these funny moments down on the spot so that we wouldn't forget them. But procrastinator me.... Oh well, there are some that I have forgotten... Thought I had better post these before I forget them too.

Going to school....

Come July, I'll have to go back to school so that I can qualify for maternity leave when I'm due to deliver by end Sep. So thankful for the revised parenthood package so I just need to work in Term 3 and enjoy paid maternity leave. So thankful too that our 2nd is due end Sep so it means that we have maximised my no-pay leave to spend as much time with Sammie (they gave up to 3 years no-pay leave) and have another kid by then.

So now we really have to look for a school for Sammie. I know it's rather late to do so, especially when parents usually register their kids more than a year in advance. But we weren't sure about our plans as it was dependent on whether we would have a kid by the time I was expected to return to school.

she loves to carry her cute little pink Tinkerbell bag which Aunty Grace bought for her 1st birthday

Best option so far is a school just a short walk away from our place. It's always had vacancies (since I started enquiring last year hence I wasn't too anxious to book a place) and it's so convenient. The only thing we're not too sure about is that they're not taking in any more kids for flexi-hours so if we want to just start Sammie off a few hours a day, we'll have to end up paying more for half-day instead of flexi-care. Quite expensive... Good thing this is just temporary cos once our 2nd is delivered, I'll be a stay-home mum for a long time again! Other thing is that it seems to have HFMD cases once in a while... Hmmm...

The only other choice is probably another school that is quite a long walk away but is opening up a new class in Apr. But the former school is having an open house in Mar so I'd prob register Sammie by then already... Hmmm... decisions decisions... please pray we'll make a wise decision.

Learning about God

Now that Sammie has turned 2, she can join the toddlers' Sunday School class but I sit in with her so that she doesn't disrupt the class too much as she still hasn't learnt to listen to instructions in a big group setting and doesn't sit still for long. We're glad she's learning more about God and learning together with friends.

Since she started Sunday School, we've ventured on to more parts of the Bible like Jesus's miracle in feeding the 5000 men (she loves the song 5 loaves and 2 fish!), Jesus's miracle in walking on water, Joshua and the walls of Jericho, Daniel in the lions' den and King Solomon.

She also breaks out in many more songs like God is so good (especially when she sees the flower craft she made during Sunday School class), Jesus loves me, 5 loaves & 2 fish, Away in a manger, Jesus loves the little children. She has also learnt other songs from the music CDs we play like Go, Go Joshua (about the walls of Jericho) and In the Beginning.

We hope she'll continue loving to hear about Jesus and more importantly, to know Jesus. Please pray we'll continue to teach her about God and bring her up in the fear of the Lord.

More celebrations... but much simpler...

Thought I'd take Sammie out on her actual birthday for a special outing but we took some time to leave the house as Por Por had called all the way from London to wish her happy birthday. But the timing was just nice as Aunty M. called before we were leaving the house and she thought of bringing us out! Yay! So we could go somewhere further since we could get a ride instead of taking public transport to somewhere real near as lunch time was approaching. So we went to Chinese Swimming Club! Hadn't been there in a long while...

Sammie enjoyed looking at the koi in the pond and ate the Asian set lunch, though she got a shock towards the end of her meal when she ate some chilli found in the omelette. There was a really nice swim play area - 'The Great Bubble Reef'! But the midday sun was out so we didn't plan on swimming. Shall go there another time! :) To swim!