Japan Trip Nov 2009 - A video says a thousand words

Instead of writing about the trip - we thought - why not let the pictures do the talking. A little loss in picture quality when converted to video, but still, I think you get the picture - we will remember this trip for some time to come - we hope Faith does! Enjoy...

Faith's Magic Trick

Faith and her daddy have been rehearsing and playing at performing magic, dancing and singing shows.

She discovered her beanie while we were in Japan, cos I brought it along in case the weather gets really cold.

The portion about hiding the mikan in her beanie was something that she did all on her own, without any coaching or hinting from us. Louis played the contributing role in teaching her how to say "Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to Faith & Daddy's magic show...." from their many rounds of performances at home.

I really love this video. I rarely ever take videos but this is a treasure :)

Baby @ 21 Weeks

Its a girl! We are going to have another girl.

We had our detailed scan this morning and the gynae pronounced that baby will be a girl.

Sure... we don't mind either ways, although it would indeed be nice to have a pair of kids with mix gender.

This way, there are several pros immediately. Firstly, the name has long been decided. Way before we planned for #2, we kinda decided on another name for a girl. To date, we are still clueless about a name for a boy.

Secondly, there's economies of scale - I've got lots of Faith's clothes neatly packed away in wardrobes. Clothes that are mostly in good condition. We might not need to buy too many, although we still need to buy a few new pieces e.g. for the home trip from the hospital and for the 1-month baby shower.

Thirdly, girls are sweet. Faith is... so we hope #2 would be too.

The detailed scan indicated that all is fine with the little one. I'm a little jittery myself though. I'm nearly 5 months along and my total weight gain so far is a miserable 2 kilos. Jittery becos I only ply on 8 kg the last time with Faith and she came out so small at birth.

Most certainly, the tummy looks a lot bigger this time around. I think the size of it is closer to how big I was with Faith at about 6-7 months. As much as I hate to admit it, I think some of that 2 kg weight gain might have gone the way of my hips and butt cos my maternity jeans feel snug when I put them on.

So, if I've put on weight, my tummy is bigger this time around (I'm sure its becos the tummy's less elastic this time) and I've only gained a miserable 2 kg, I'm wondering if its going to be another low birth weight baby despite best efforts and measures to work around it.

Oh well... as always, the key is as long as mum and baby have a safe and uneventful delivery. There's really not much I want to ask for at this stage :)

Deepavali Treats

Louis and I are fortunate to have known and count many Indians among our network as great friends. Even though we have always enjoyed the local Indian fare, it is through our Indian friends that we'd learnt to understand and appreciate the culture a little better, along with the great curries, dals and myriad creativity of the cuisine.

And becos a number of them are vegetarians, I've learnt to make a few vegetarian dishes along the way and picked up other dishes from my own little limited collection of Indian cookbooks to create my own favourite home-cooked Indian dishes.

We really dig the diverse and tantalising Indian cuisine and on the occasions that I do make some of these dishes at home, Louis would be happily mopping up the curries with roti/naan or covering the top of his basmati rice with it.

Today's Deepavali, as it is known in Singapore. For many of our friends who are of Northern Indian origins, it is called Diwali. I guess they mean the same thing, just that its called differently depending on whether its in Tamil or Hindi.

Our neighbour right across from our units are Indians. Other than the nodding of heads and the occasional smiles when we see each other on our way home or in the estate, we have not really built much rapport or talked much to.

However, in recent months especially, they have been particularly friendly towards our little girl, smiling and talking to her when they see her at the lift lobby. Maybe its becos Faith smiles a lot even to strangers or kids just have this knack to break the ice even among the most reticent of adults.

This morning, the door-bell rang at lunchtime. When we opened the door, it was to find our neighbours with 2 big bulging plastic bags, filled with containers of briyani, chicken and mutton curries, prawn masala dishes and Indian sweets.

We were absolutely surprised and touched by their gesture. In fact, when I was reading early this morning in the living room at 4-ish am (I've become an insomniac ever since I'm conceiving #2), I could already smell the tantalising aroma of curries wafting through the corridors and into our unit.

They must have been hard at work, chopping, cutting and preparing to cook all the curries and great food fresh for the festive season.

It was a lot of food for the 2 of us and Louis brought most of the food for our in-laws. The great thing about curries is that they keep well and taste even better a day or more after cooking.

So, Louis and I are going to have us a great lunch today, compliments of our neighbours.

To all our Indian friends out there, Happy Deepavali or Diwali!

#2

Most friends that we know of who have had 2nd kids professed that they adopt a less hands-on approach towards their offspring for a number of reasons. Or rather, they display lesser anxiety and are generally more laid-back compared to being first-time parents.

That might well be true for us too going by the number of posts we have posted on our #2 so far.

Zilch, nada, zero, none.

After reaching the milestone of the 3rd month, which we could publicly inform all and sundry that we are expecting #2, I had merely updated our profile to indicated that there's a bun in the oven.

So now, I'm about 19 weeks along, or think I'm about 19 weeks cos I keep losing count of how many weeks along am I, and other than close friends, I've not really made any announcement on this blog.

So there you go. Now you know. We are expecting #2 in a matter of months.

Do we know the gender yet, do we have a preference for which and when am I due?

For the first question, we'd probably would be able to find out at the end of this month when I go for my detailed scan around the 20th week. Do we want a boy this time since we already have a girl. Well... I'm not sure. All we are hoping for, given our last experience, is that mum and baby would have a safe and uneventful delivery.

Technically, I'm due on 12 Mar 2010. Owing to my placenta abruptio from the previous time, the gynae is pre-empting that it might happen again. So, we are targeting for me to go for a scheduled c-sect around the 37th week. That would put it around end Feb 2010.

I do hope that with this post, we would be a bit more diligent about our posting. After all, we do not want our #2 to feel neglected.

Toddler toilet seat

The verdict on Faith's potty training is that it is a veritable success.

So successful that in the day, she no longer pees in her diapers even when we put it on for her for those "just-in-case" moments. Like when the public toilet isn't of desirable hygiene, or when we can't rush her to a toilet quick enough.

This week, I left her in our master bedroom for a moment to grab a towel for her shower. When I got back in just a matter of seconds, I found her balanced on our adult toilet bowl, peeing.

She was rather steady on it. She had managed to balance herself quite well on it, with her 2 hands holding on to the sides for support.

What scared me was how did she managed to scramble up onto the toilet without assistance. And the toilet seat was rather large. Large enough to potentially be a hazard as she could fall into it and hurt herself if she wasn't careful.

I told Louis that we needed to get a toddler trainer seat for her pronto. And we did it in a great big hurry.

It wasn't the most ideal but there weren't a lot of choices for trainer toilet seats. The trainer seat was merely placed onto the existing toilet seat, although its got 2 little handles by the side for little hands to grab onto. It wasn't totally stable and could shift as Faith tries to position herself onto it.

Thankfully, the little one wised up rather quickly and manages to employ a fairly effective method of getting herself up onto the toilet seat with the least precarious movements -- by stepping up onto the little stool that we placed in front of the toilet bowl with her backside facing the toilet set before inching herself up slowly.

Faith now has two options - use the potty that we placed outside the common bathroom or the trainer seat in the master bedroom if she wants to do her business like the adults.

Our new toy

There's a stronger impetus to blog more often.

We have a new toy in the house ever since the start of Comex '09. After more than 5 years of pinning, I've finally managed to justify the purchase of a DSLR. Our favourite test subject needs no second guessing. She's the key reason and most often blogged about person in this online "diary".

Dinner was at Hard Rock Cafe tonight, at the request of my elder BIL, who's recently back from a one and a half month overseas working stint.

We managed to capture Faith at one of her happiest moments -- being together with her two cousins. Her expressions in these few pictures are those of unadulterated joy and pure delight...

Faith at 2 and a half

It has been a while since I blogged. During this time, Faith has grown to be a fountain of endless surprises. At 2 and a half, I thought it is timely to recap the milestones that our little girl has reached....

Potty-Trained (fingers-crossed)

If you would recall, in one of our earlier posts in Dec 2008, we described how we had unsuccessfully "tried" to potty-train Faith. Back then, we had bought two types of potties - a modern-looking one from IKEA and a traditional "trophy" cup that mum-in-law purchased from a provision store at Toa Payoh.

In any case, after close to 9 months, as our little girl would say - "I did it!!" - all thanks to mum-in-law's perserverence. And as you might have guessed, tradition triumped over modernity and the "blue pot" proved more functional than the IKEA one.

It all happened quite quickly last week. Last Wednesday, when I picked mum-in-law and Faith from JG, mum-in-law proudly recounted how Faith was now able to pull down her pants and pee into the potty on her own. It seems Faith had also pooped into the potty - however, when she did it that afternoon, she had cried when she actually "did the deed". However, that evening, just to show that her daddy could really be proud of her, she actually, on her own accord, ran to the potty, pulled down her pants, and popped one more time into the potty and this time round, not only were there no tears, our little girl proudly said to me, "I did it, papa!" (of course :)).

All this has been really timely as Eve and I have not been able to find Pampers Dry Large for sometime now!

Drawing and Painting

Faith has been playing with her Magna Doodle for some time now. Where she was first largely fascinated with using the Magna Doodle to trace her hand and footprints, she has since graduated to scribbling things on the board on her own. Recently, she picked up drawing a bunch of grapes, using the circular magnets provided. And she now does it quite deftly - first imprinting the circles, and then drawing the "stalks" of the grapes. Given the amount of practise that she gets at Bishan, practically every weekend, doing colour painting with my parents, we are all secretly harbouring hopes that our little girl would at least be a little more "artistic" than her mummy and daddy.

Finger Dexterity

One thing I learn as a parent of a precocious baby girl is how kids tend to "rotate" their toys with seemingly no predictability. Perhaps they get bored easily. And perhaps, they never tire at challenging themselves. Faith recently rekindled her interest with the "bead-maze". Just some context to how this toy came about: When Faith was still at the Little Gym, Eve had chanced upon this toy at a store next to the LG. This was about a year back - and she was quite convinced this was a good investment for Faith, to help her develop her finger dexterity. When she brought it home, I recall that Faith got bored with it pretty quickly as she was unable to really manipulate the beads.

Things have changed. Faith has recently been keen to experiment with the bead-maze. Just this evening, she pulled the toy down (it is pretty heavy) from the console. And she proudly demonstrated how she could "transfer" a bead from one end to the other, through the most difficult maze. Imaginably, Eve and I were so proud of her :)

Piggy-bank

It just occured to me that Faith's milestones in this blog all revolve around something that Eve invested in :) Ditto for the piggy-bank. Eve had bought this nice piggy bank that gave a "oink oink" sound whenever a coin is deposited into the bank. Since then, whenever Faith sees any stray coins lying around, she will duitfully deposit them into her piggy bank. Our little girl somehow figured that there must be a way to take the coins out and she had kept pestering us to show her how. But so far we've managed to keep that a secret. Hopefully the day she finds out how to take the coins out, she would also be sensible enough to put all the cash into a savings account and not have it scattered around as toys :)

Happy Birthday to me

I didn't want any celebrations of any sort.

Absolutely not in the mood for any kind of celebration since healthwise, I haven't exactly been feeling dandy for the last few weeks. The family agreed to just doing a normal weekend dinner like we always did.

The concession was that we adjourned to Prive for desserts thereafter. Younger BIL wore jeans for the night and paid for desserts at Prive, both of which were in honour of my birthday :) Its a big deal when any of the 3 brothers in the family wear jeans cos they are perpetually clad in bermudas.

HM & E proposed to have dinner too on a weekday, which we usually do whenever one of our birthdays are around the corner. I begged off.

They gave me a great surprised on the actual day, which was Monday.

They sent a cake and a basket of flowers. Faith immediately lay claim to the teddy bear that came with the flowers, declaring that "I love my present! I love my bear!" and put words to action by smoothering the bear with wet kisses :)

We cut the cake that night. Faith lapped up the cake and the strawberries decorating the top of the cake.

Thanks, guys! I loved it!

Bean sprouts

The theme for the week was "Zhong Zi" (seedlings).

So, the little kids planted green beans to grow sprouts. Much like a science project.

Not that Faith has any concept of seedlings. Probably to her, the art & craft session ended as soon as she dumps the handful of beans into the container with the soaked cotton pads.

On the contrary, I couldn't bear to dump the contents. I left it on the kitchen counter and watched it sprout over the next few days. I would have continued to leave it alone and see what happens. Louis was of the opinion that we should not cos it would start to smell really bad after.

Nonetheless, it was a nice little art & craft...although I feel its more of a science project :)

Hong Kong (15th - 19th Jun 09)

This post has been waaaay overdue. I'm just too lazy and a little busy these days. If we have spare time, I would rather spend as much of my remaining SAHM-time with Faith, in anticipation of my part-time work arrangement in Jul.

Since its been a while ago, I shall forgo the usual post-holiday recounts and focus on some of the key highlights of the trip instead.

1) Trip itinerary - It was a 5D4N trip; the first 2N were spent in HK, specifically in Harbour View Renaissance Hotel in HK Island and the remaining 2N were spent in Disneyland, staying at the Disneyland HK Hotel. We had some Marriott vouchers which we used to redeem for the 2N stay in HK, as well as a dine-in lunch on the afternoon before we checked out for Disneyland.

HK hotels are small, and we didn't want to splurge that much for a room with a King-sized bed. So, we had rooms with Queen beds, plus a free foldaway for Faith. She spent her time in the hotel room jumping up and down from the queen beds onto her foldable beds.

2) Dining is more expensive in Hong Kong - We had dinners with friends the first two nights in HK Island. One was at the touristy cum local hotspot, Yung Kee, and the other at Ches, a typical smallish Chinese restaurant located right in the red-light district. Belying its somewhat dubious and eye-popping location, food was impeccable. These dinners for 3 adults cost nearly S$200 each night for just 1 soup (to share) and about 3-4 other dishes, one of which was meat. Nothing extravagant though, which makes it the cost unbelievable.

However, soups was consistently good in all the restaurants, including the Crystal Lotus Chinese restaurant located in HK Disneyland Hotel. In fact, we were pleasantly surprised that Crystal Lotus served impeccable and fine Chinese cuisine, similar to standards of Hua Ting @ Orchard Hotel.

3) HK Disneyland is more suited for younger children - Its probably the smallest Disneyland amongst all the others overseas. Most of the rides aren't that thrilling, except for Space Mountain. It was sufficient for Faith though cos she was rather overwhelmed by the larger-than-life characters there. She was frightened of the Main Street afternoon parade and parts of the Golden Key show too. She only acquiesced to picture taking with Mickey (her absolute favourite), Minnie (2nd favourite), Sleeping Beauty (at lobby of hotel) and Goofy (very reluctantly).

Two days was a good time for us at Disneyland. Taking on Disneyland with a toddler isn't quite the same and you can't hurry a toddler along too much.

Her absolute favourite rides there has got to be Small Small World. Well... not unexpected :)

4) Hong Kong, the shopping paradise - Not if you're there with a spouse that's not into shopping and a bored 2-year old. My only shopping was done at the H&M outlet at Central and Sogo Foodhall for the Hang Heung Lao Po Bing (old wives biscuits, literally translate). Oh... not forgetting the Disney stores at Disneyland, where Faith turned into a shopaholic cum Santarina.

5) Faith's take on HK & Disneyland - It was apparent from Day 1 that Faith is more of a homebody and she missed everyone at home.

Her favourite phrase there on a daily basis was "I go home" and "I find Ye-ye/Nai-nai/Mama/Dua Peh/Dua Erm/Jie-jie/Gor-gor" etc etc. The first phrase was always uttered when she was out of her elements and/or was frightened and the second phrase when she was tired and cranky.

At Disneyland, her 3rd fav phrase was "I buy for [insert name of family members]". She would look at a t-shirt, a toy, sunglasses, mugs, pens etc and wanted to buy them for someone at home. If she could have her way, she would bring home the bulk of the items from Disney for everyone.

Faith ate well in HK. In fact, she was mostly able to sit in her chair and finish her food for all her lunches and dinners. My best take-along on the trip was the nori sheets that I brought along. She must be a Japanese in her previous life cos she obviously likes her rice wrapped in nori sheets. With the nori sheets, she could just eat it with plain rice and no soup.

6. Overall trip rating - It was a fairly good trip. This was meant to be an "incentive" trip for me since I was going back to work -- no more taking off on impromptu trips at short notice, and a trip for Faith.

Hopefully, we'll be able to take another trip again somewhere towards end of the year. For now, we've decided not to jinx it by doing too much planning or building up any expectations, ala our cancelled Australian trip.

Till then....

Rainforest Kidzworld

Would you believe it... today is Faith's first visit to the zoo.

Yep! First time. Ever.

Well... there's lots of reasons for it, but the single most deterrent is due to my phobia of snakes. My memory of snakes and zoo were that there were always a few of them on display at common zones within the zoo, not just the enclosure that they are kept in.

In my younger school days, visits to the zoo were dreaded and I spent my entire time at the zoo looking left, right, front and back, in fear of chancing upon any sighting of snakes; pictures or those in the flesh.

Its hard to explain this phobia and people who do not have phobias will never fully comprehend the level of fear. Its irrational, unexplainable and I had never had any frightening experiences with them to be so deeply petrified of them.

But after checking and double-checking with Jaz and a few other friends that these days, the snakes and their keepers don't lurk anywhere except in their enclosures and during show times, I decided to brave going to the zoo with Faith.

Becos, what has been so irresistible to me and that I think would be loads of fun for Faith was the Rainforest Kidzworld with the water play area. With the searing heat that has been zinging its wave right down on our little island, its no wonder that its a haven for most parents with kids. A rather expensive one at that if one's not a Friends Of the Zoo member - S$18 for an adult ticket. Anyways, it was my own entry fee that I had to pay cos Faith goes in free for under 3 years old.

We met at 10 am at the zoo entrance. Thankfully, Jaz had told me to bring along a stroller, swim wear for Faith and a change of clothes for myself. It was a lot of stuff to bring so Louis had to give up the car for our day of outing :)

Needless to say, the heat was sweltering at usual and the walk to the Rainforest Kidzworld took about 10 mins, with intermittent stops to look and point out animals like the zebra, ostrich, flamingos along the way.

It could have been worse if I had to carry Faith all the way without a stroller. It had been 1 year since we last used the stroller - we stopped using it around the time that Faith started to walk independently. Thankfully, the little girl sat in her stroller and did not fuss at all. She kept calling out for Lecia as we walked just to check that her little friend was still with her on the walk there.

The long and short of it was that we had a blast at the Kidzworld. It wasn't too crowded when we reached there. The crowd really started coming in with bigger, rowdier and older kids around 11-ish am.

Faith was initially hesitant about the water play area and getting herself drenched. Lecia was the total opposite. She was like the proverbial bird set free from the cage. She jumped right into the play area, darted in, out and around the different play zones and essentially went all around with lots of exuberance and glee.

Meanwhile, Faith was slowly warming up, and trying at times to frantically call out for Lecia, who was zapping all around the place. I should have bought my swimming costume and wore it under a shorts or something. Jaz and I were totally drenched, following the kids around. Frankly, we were all for getting wet. It was a great respite from the oppressive heat.

The most exciting part of the water play area was the huge water can that was hanging atop a structure. It would be filled with water and at certain intervals, there would be a bell whistle to alert the kids that the water can was about to brim over with water and send it splashing down below. At which point, all the kids would run to the middle and wait excitedly for the water to come rushing down.

We initially started with the 2 girls sitting on the outermost perimeter. With each time, we would sit a little closer to the action and as Jaz warned, the splatter of water from that huge can was rather impactful and hard. Faith was a little dazed after that particular hard drenching that we stuck to sitting out at the perimeters for the rest of the time.

Lecia? Well.. that girl is such a tyke and a little dynamo. She giggled and laughed through it all, got up after each drenching and ran off in whatever directions.

We played for about 45 minutes and took a break to eat some muffins, biscuits, cheese dippers and fruits. By the time we headed back to the play area after our little picnic, the water play area had gotten more crowded. We played for another half an hour before we had to haul the protesting kids for a shower and lunch.

We agreed to drive to Causeway Point for lunch and had Japanese. Faith had her usual of chawanmushi, some of my handroll (which I ordered so that she could have the nori that wraps the handroll) and shared some items of my bento. The kids also shared a kids meal of fish and chips.

We headed home around 3 pm and Faith fell asleep in the car, all tuckered out from the day's activity. It was an early night for both of us as I was equally tired. Louis came into the room at 10 pm to find the two of us deep in sleep :)

It was the most fun that we both had for such a long time. I hope we have the chance to visit a few more times with Lecia before the next school term and I start my part-time stint.

Nokia E75 at $0

I've been itching to upgrade my handset for a while now, especially since my 2-year contract was coming up in a few months. Now and then, I'd pop into the myriad shops selling mobile phones near my home just to scout around and see what new models were upcoming.

At the end of the day, I decided to stick with a Nokia phone instead of something else, like an iPhone, cos I know I'm just not the kid of person who would use the phone for much other than calling, SMSing and surfing the Internet using WIFI.

The 2 phones that I narrowed down were the E71 and E75 models. I love the sleek and slim E71 phone. My only grouse was that it came with a QWERTY keyboard with very tiny buttons. SMSing would be a chore cos you would need both hands and frankly, a teeny QWERTY keyboard doesn't make for fast SMSing. At least not for me.

The E75 is a newer model. Its a slider phone that slides out from the left panel to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. Traditional method of SMSing is still available using the numerical keypad. Even though its a little thicker cos of the QWERTY slider, its still a tad slimmer than my existing E65. All in all, it sounded like a better fit for me.

What tilted the scales of the balance was a favourable review of the E75 on ST's Digital Life last week.

During one of my recce trips to the shops, I also found out that I could upgrade my handset even though my 2-year contract wasn't up yet. Hence, I started to pay more attention to the ongoing promotions and today, I finally bought my phone at $0. Here's how it all worked out for me:

• Best Price - M1 has a week-long roadshow at Bugis Junction this week and E75 was going at $168 based on my current subscription plan,
• Trade-in - My existing E65 had a trade-in value of $100
• Handset upgrade voucher - I called and enquired about handset upgrade vouchers and was given one valued at $70.

So now, I'm happily listening to the FM radio using my E75 while I'm writing this post.

What a sweet deal!

Cold Storage Kids Run - 24 May 2009

Two months back, I signed Faith up for the Cold Storage Kids Run 09, under the non-competitive, 700m Blue Sky Chase category for kids aged between 2-4 years old.

Flag-off time for the race category was at 9.25 am but we needed to report in at 8.55 am. The only little tricky issue was waking Faith up, feeding her breakfast and making it out of the house before 8.30 am if we were to get there in time -- she usually wakes around 9-ish am.

With all the noise that Louis and I were making, Faith roused out of sleep by 7.45 am. Even though she was still groggy, we changed her out of her PJs, fed her a light breakfast and were ready to leave by 8.15 am. My MIL called to say that she would join us for the trip to the race. My dad, meanwhile, would rendezvous with us at the Padang.

Having decided to park at Raffles City Shopping Centre, we went up the carpark basement escalator to find scores of parents and kids geared up in their exercise togs and the race t-shirts. All of us were going in the same direction to the Padang.

The parent t-shirt reads "I'm a proud parent" at the back while the kid t-shirt reads, "I'm a proud runner". Faith's t-shirt hung a little big and loose for her, but since this wasn't meant to be a kids' pageant and we weren't out to make any fashion statement, it was totally fine. I forgo the standard-issue (or rather the race t-shirt that we were forced to buy - there wasn't any option not to buy a parent t-shirt during the online registration) and wore my own exercise gear.

Scorching was the word out at the Padang. Even though it was a short distance from RCSS to the Padang, I was perspiring profusely by the time. Faith's hair was totally drenched even before she started the race.

Faith and I headed to the holding area before we were shepherded to the start of the race line at 9.20 am. My dad, MIL and Louis continued to wait at the Padang while we were racing becos there was a supposed parent to kid ratio of 1:1. In actual fact, during the race, there were lots of family exceeding the 1:1 ratio but neither the organisers nor the race contestants really minded cos it was meant to be good fun anyways.

There were lots of young kids around Faith's age. I presumed young becos they were all being carried by their parents. One Caucasian mother was jokingly remarking to me that she hope we wouldn't have to carry our little ones for the entire 700m.

I knew I would be carrying Faith for part of the race becos I expected that she wouldn't want to run all 700m on her own. However, I figured that seeing other kids running on their own would inspire her to want to get down and race a little too.

Thankfully, Faith was a good sport and was gamed to hold my hand and run for more than half of the race. I only carried her midway through the race becos I was afraid she would be too tired out or would over exert herself. I put her down again to race for the last leg of the run.

When we crossed the finishing line, we were given a goodie-bag/plastic bag with water, a race completion certificate and two wrist-bands amongst other things. Even though it was not a competitive race, there were people distributing a star-shaped medal for every kid.

We met up with Louis, my MIL and dad after the race. We spend some time cooling down at the field and also collected some more goodies -- bananas and Dettol hand soaps.

By 10 am, we headed towards to the carpark while my dad headed off to walk around at Suntec City.

Even though it was a short 700m run, we were all tuckered out. Faith slept early at my MIL's place. Louis and I too catch a good 2-hour nap ourselves at home.

Its Faith's first ever race and Louis and I are PROUD Parents!

Role of a SAHM

Faith's JG Mandarin class used to have only a handful of kids. In the last few weeks, there are more and more new faces joining the class. Now, there are about 12-13 students. For most kids, they are almost always accompanied by the moms, with the exception of some who come with their helpers or grandparents. In such cases, both parents are typically working and cannot take time off to accompany their kids.

I was talking to the mom of one of the newer kids this afternoon. I had previously chatted with her very shortly on a variety of things. Usual stuff like how far along is she expecting (she's 35 weeks along now) and my impending "re-entry" into the workforce after a 2-year hiatus. Yep, yours truly is finally going back to work, although as a part-timer, come 1 Jul 09.

This mom comes along with her helper, the latter of whom is the one that participates with the son in class, while the mom who is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, sits or stands at the sidelines most times.

Our conversation today started with her asking about my part-time arrangements and whether I was glad to be going back to work. I said that I did have some slight apprehension about going back to work after being away for so long, and also that I would miss Faith on days that I work cos I enjoy spending time with her. She looked at me with a slightly surprised expression and said, "Really?".

I was a little surprised myself by her reaction, although I didn't think much about it at that time. When she asked who would mind Faith while I was at work, I told her that my mom comes in daily and would have to turn up earlier on days that I have to go to work. That was when she started to ask if I had a helper on hand to help me manage.

Notwithstanding the fact that we did not have the luxury of having a hired help back during my grandma's and parents' days, we also did not cotton to the idea of having to be responsible and supervise a non-family member in the house. I kind of "inherit" that mindset and becos I had the good fortune of having my mom to come in daily and a part-time helper, it had never cross my mind to get ourselves a helper.

Quite naturally, my response to her was that Louis and I personally do not like the responsibility of managing a full-time 24x7 helper. To which, this mother pressed on and tried to sell the idea of how much help a good maid can be. She said too that if I could find an intelligent helper, especially those from the Philippines, they can be really beneficial for everyone in the household.
She quoted me two examples to illustrate her point.

Firstly, the helper of another mother in the class, who I know quite well, was either trained or aspiring to be trained as a teacher back in the Philippines. So, she is very patient and good with Faith's classmate. Personally, I can attest to that cos I've seen the helper come in on days when the mother couldn't bring her daughter for class herself and saw how she helps to coach and correct the girl in both English and Mandarin.

The second example she quoted me was of her own maid, who she trains to teach her son to run through flashcards every morning. And she reiterated the last bit to me rather proudly - every morning without fail!

Finally, I felt compelled to tell her that I really did not like the idea of having another person in my house and that I was perfectly pleased with my current arrangements and that a part-time helper is about all that I could cope in terms of external help.

However, the conversation with this mom left me a little uncomfortable with her, or more likely, her mindset. While I do not have any problems with anyone getting a helper for whatever reasons, I think most parents I know would take a hands-on approach about teaching their kids or spending time with their kids, leaving the helpers to deal with mundane stuff like cleaning or feeding etc.

In fact, there are two other moms in the class who always bring their helpers. However, the helpers always stay outside the classroom and only steps in to mind the kids when they are playing outdoors. One of the 2 moms is expecting too.

Which also makes me wonder if she lets her helper accompany her son throughout the class not becos she could be due anytime but becos she's not a hands-on mother herself? Not to be judgemental, but I can't help wondering what kind of mom does she see herself? A SAHM that leaves her helper to teach her son every morning with flashcards (is that all or she does even more?) and participates with her son in class?

Maybe there's a reasonable explanation for all these, but I'm not courageous enough to ask her. So, I merely assume and wonder aloud on my own here. Well... as long as it doesn't make an ASS of U and ME :)

Did you know?

If you subscribe to SCV Cable and have Playhouse Disney (Channel 34) available as part of your package, did you know that you could get to view quite a number of the programmes in Mandarin?

I think its probably something that not a lot of people know about. Or at least I certainly didn't up until last week when an American Chinese colleague of Louis enlightened me. I was sharing about my desperate search to hunt for more Mandarin DVDs of the usual programmes that Faith watches e.g. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger & Pooh and the likes.

Turns out that like the Dual Sound Mode available for Korean dramas, you can similarly use the same switch on your SCV cable remote control to turn to Mandarin mode for Playhouse Disney - it might work with other channels too?!

The best programmes are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger & Pooh cos the shows are fully in Mandarin, including the songs they sing. For the rest of the programmes like Dibo the Gift Dinosaur, Barney, Word World, Higgly Town Heroes, the dialogues are in Mandarin. However, the songs sung continue to be in English.

In our bid to make attending her JG Mandarin lessons less painful, we have tried to expose her to as much of the language as we could, in addition to listening to Mandarin nursery rhymes and trying to speak as much Mandarin to her whenever we remember.

Watching all the programmes in Mandarin has certainly improved her understanding of the language. And mine too for that matter!

She could now count from 1-10 correctly when she's in the mood to do so herself without much prompting. I figured that if she's going to spend so much time glued to the tube, she might as well learn something useful from it. So, I've been toggling back and forth between both languages since I've discovered this little nugget of information.

Hoorays to Dual Sound Modes!

Papa's not home

Nearly 5 months since that fateful event last year that left Louis with a dislocated knee and 4 months since his surgery to reconstruct his torn ligaments, Louis is now doing well.

In fact, well enough to travel to London for a short trip this week.

Looking back at what seemed to be a long and arduous journey for him to reach this stage where he is able to walk somewhat normally without the support of any crutches feels like a miracle. Holding hands, walking together as a family with Faith in between us, whenever we are out never fails to bring a great sense of relief and wonderment for the both of us.

It was a painful experience for everyone in the family, especially for Louis. Yet, it has made us truly appreciate the simple things in life a great deal better.

Since about 3-4 weeks ago, Louis started walking without his crutches. It was all very delicate and cautious, of course. He started walking without crutches at home. Gaining sufficient confidence after, he went out for short distances without it. Starting with small, tentative steps, his gait now is more normal. He hardly hobbles. He looks more like one who is a slow, unhurried stroller. Going down stairs that are long or steep, he needs to hold onto something for support. However, its only a matter of time before he's back to walking normally, in his long, purposeful strides.

In fact, he started swimming in the last couple of weeks, swimming only free-style. The water definitely helps strengthen the leg muscles and the gentle pressure of the water actually helps to cushion any major impact on the legs.

After having him at home 24x7 for so many months, it feels a little different now that he's back at work full-time and even as I write this, hasn't been home for the last 2 nights. Its a short trip and I thought he would be back before I even had the chance to miss him. Yet, barely 12 hours after he left in the morning, I started to miss him. Similarly, he misses us at home too.

Before he left, he told Faith that he was going to go away and wouldn't be home at night for a few days and to look after mummy. Faith nodded sagely at him, seemingly understanding everything that he said.

It would be too much, I think, for a 2 year-old to fully grasp the concept of him going away on a business trip.

Ever since his marked progress in walking independently without any aid, one of Faith's final act among her slew of bedtime rituals would be to walk round to Louis' side of the bed. Lightly tugging his hand, she would pull him to sit up and say, "C'mon... sleep [with] Faith", meaning for Louis to follow and sleep next to her on the mattresses beside our bed.

Last night, she did her usual only to find that his side of the bed was empty. I told her again that Louis was not home and wouldn't be home for the next few nights. She would have to be a big girl in the meantime and learn to sleep on her own without her Papa lying next to her.

Obviously, Faith wasn't about to take what I said at face value and go sleep quietly on her own. There were lots of protest, begging, coaxing and the use of the magic word, "please", many times over to get me to go sleep with her. Unfortunately, I take a stronger stance on getting her to sleep independently :)

Actually, its sweet to see father and daughter lying next to each other and having Faith fall asleep like that. Louis certainly feels so and he being the putty that he is in his daughter's hands, would drag himself to the mattress on the floor when she comes along every night no matter how tired he was.

Come home soon, darling!

Pre-nursery registration

The rat race has begun... where parents, like it or not, get caught up about when and where to register and place their kids in some quasi formal education. From then onwards, the rat race never stops.

Technically, I think kindergarten is the start of pre-school. In Singapore's context, pre-school starts as early as the year kids turn 3 years old. We did our little "homework" late last year, recce-ing possible places for Faith's pre-nursery registration.

In the end, our very short shortlist was whittled down to Pat Schoolhouse and Chiltern House, in that order of preference. Even though we had set our sights on Pat Schoolhouse, like any KS Singaporean, we submitted our application for Chiltern house at the start of the year.

Couple of weeks ago, I had gotten a call from Chiltern. Faith was being offered the afternoon session at its Turf Club branch, meaning that lessons start from 2-5 pm daily. It was a no-brainer for us to reject the initial offer and asked to be placed on the waitlist.

Faith takes her afternoon nap daily anywhere from that time since she wakes up at about 9 am or thereabouts.

The afternoon session would mean that she would have to forego her sleep or sleep after she comes back from class. A kid without sleep equates a grouchy one and its bound to make dinner and the time before bedtime a trying one for everyone in the household. The other alternative of letting her sleep so late in the afternoon will yield either a night owl or again, a trying time for us to get her to sleep at her normal sleeping time.

Since we were still holding out for Pat schoolhouse's registration to start in Jun, Louis and I weren't too concerned about putting her on the waiting list. Chiltern was meant to be our fallback plan if she didn't get into Pat Schoolhouse.

On Tuesday, I received a call from Chiltern that they have now managed to place Faith for the morning session at Turf Club. Its the ideal time slot and branch that we wanted. IF we intended to put her at Chiltern. I asked for extra time to consider and haul butt in calling Pat Schoolhouse to check her chances.

If we were to give up on this prime slot at Chiltern, we wanted be a hundred percent certain that she is getting into Pat Schoolhouse. So, I called the school and spoke to the principal. The last time I spoke with her, she said they would call me in Jun when the registration starts.

I'm not sure if it was becos I sounded so keen on enrolling her for Pat Schoolhouse or the fact that I told them I had an offer from Chiltern, the principal said that if we are willing to register her now and make an initial deposit equivalent to a one month's school fees, then, Faith's got a confirmed place at Pat Schoolhouse.

I called Louis and we both decided that we'll go ahead with the payment to confirm her registration at Pat Schoolhouse. However, with the Influenza A alert, the school is also cautious about the number of parents dropping by its place without appointment. So, the principal and I agreed to contact each other via email for the submission of all necessary documents and to follow up with a cheque payment.

At least, we can now give up that space in Chiltern for someone else.

Truthfully, there's a part of me that can't quite bear the thought of sending my little one to pre-school. I know its a natural part of childhood and every kid's got to go through it. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one crying when I drop her off at the school gate next time.

Hmmm.... that's a sobering thought indeed! Eve, the clingy mom??!!!

Geez!

1st professional haircut

Two years, 4 weeks and 1 day.

That's how long it took before we finally give Faith a break from her horrible home-trimmings to get her hair cut professionally. It didn't make much sense before cos her hair was so pathetically thin and for lack of a better word, sparse. What I used to do was to trim her fringe whenever it got long enough to stick into her eyes.

Lately, the back of it started to grow to reach her shoulders. Plus, it was curling every which way. After the last trimming of her fringe, in which her jerking movements caused my fingers to jerk in tandem and cut a "lobang" in the middle of it, I decided that the next time we'll bring her for a professional haircut.

We chose Little League, located at the exit of the Toys 'R Us @ Forum. When we used to go for Little Gym classes, we would head up to Toys 'R Us for a walk if we have some spare time. I wouldn't have noticed the little saloon at the corner if Faith hadn't been intrigued by the sounds of Barney show playing on the little TV screens attached the base of each mirror.

She dragged me there to watch Barney and while we were standing there, the lady at Little League generously gave a balloon for Faith even though we weren't there for a haircut.

I thought reminding Faith of that little shop corner would illicit good memories of it. Indeed it did. Maybe it was becos I recounted to her, or she did remember it on her own. Faith nodded her head solemnly when I told her that I'm planning to bring her for the haircut @ Little League. She even mimicked me, make snipping gestures with her fingers to her hair, saying: "Cut hair. Balloon."

Worried that she would fuss at having her hair cut the first time, I was all prepared to sit and hold her in my lap. When we reached the hair dresser, she again nodded her head when I asked her if she's okay to sit up on the chair on her own. She allowed the hairdresser to cover her with the cloth and pretty much sat through the entire hair cut without moving or twitching.

Of course, I plied her with some sweets to sweeten the deal. Everything was done within 10 minutes and she was rewarded with more sweets and allowed to choose a sticker from the stacks that saloon had.

It took a little getting used to on my part about her new hairstyle. My mom and Louis thought she looked very nice. More girly too.

Today, I stuck a hair clip on her hair before she went for lessons at JG. Voila, Faith looks like a boy no more.

What does the current hot weather got to do with fears?

Its on everybody's lips. The weather is scorching, hot, humid, blasting, beyond bearable, blah blah blah....

A few friends that I know have recently delivered babies and are probably in the midst of their confinement at home. If one truly believes in all the rituals and list of to-dos when they are in confinement, then, it is going to be a month long of sweltering heat they have to endure.

The reason why I'm writing a post about it is becos it brings back fearful memories of my own confinement, exactly 2 years ago during this period. What my mom calls the period of Qing Ming, where the weather is exactly like what it has been for the last few weeks.

Seriously, I absolutely hate the heat. Other than trips to beach resorts, I much prefer to travel to most holiday destinations in the winter months. There's the rather tedious task of having to slather on lots of moisturisers and hand cream, but its a fair trade-off, I think.

Of course, I'm a most rebellious person. I rolled up eyes at lots of these old wives tales and rituals that I'm supposed to follow. In fact, I was quite certain long before I was expecting that I'm not going to be following lots of these must-dos when my time came. So, here are some memories and also rituals that I boldly flout in my 28 days of confinement :)

#1 - No showers/bathes
One of those big no-nos that all new mothers aren't supposed to do is to shower/bathe. Thankfully, I had a modern and forward-thinking confinement lady. I'm allowed one shower a day, using some herbal stuff that she would boil for me to help dispel any wind or to catch a cold.

Pre-confinement, I would take at least 2 showers a day, even during the winter months I spent in France (which thankfully had mild winters). What more during confinement when your body temperature rises, when the weather was unbelievably hot and the nourishing food you eat helping to up your body temperature some more?

So, once a day, I dutifully and "legally" shower in the mornings. At night, after Auntie retires for the night with Faith, and with Louis' encouragement, I "illegally" shower before I myself turn in for the night.

Lo and behold, my big secret was exposed one night when Auntie unexpectedly came in after she was supposed to sleep, only to be told by a sheepish Louis that I was taking a shower :)

#2 - Wearing of warm clothes
Now this I absolutely had not heard of. The day after I returned from the hospital and right after I had my shower, my mom turned up in the house. And there I was, gratefully fresh and chirpy from the invigorating shower wearing my shorts and t-shirt and my mom was looking at me in aghast. She asked what was I thinking to wear shorts and t-shirt?

Apparently, one must at least wear long pants (gasp!) and cover up to keep warm so as not to catch a chill. Geez, but its the end of Mar and the temperature was soaring! In the end, I took to wearing longer shorts -- those that end slightly above the knees -- or my breast-feeding dresses. I agree upon the prompting of Louis, to wear track pants only before I go to sleep, in the comforts of the air-conditioned bedroom.

#3 - Blow-drying of hair
I'm just not one of those who blow-dry my hair. The only time I'm subjected to it is when I'm at the hair saloon. Otherwise, I would leave it to air-dry. Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to cut my hair before delivery and it was the few times in my life that I had long tresses.

On the same day that my mom discovered me in my shorts, she was also appalled to note that I had my hair damp and wasn't about to do anything to it. It took many nagging on her part and a little from Auntie for me to eventually blow my hair semi-dry after my morning showers.

#4 - Cold soups
One of my idiosyncrasies about eating is that I hate to drink soup that isn't piping hot. Yes yes, I know its bad for the throat and one might get throat cancer, but like I said, its an idiosyncrasy. In fact, its a pet-peeve when I'm served a less than piping hot soup either at home or outside.

However, with sweat pouring out of every single pore of my body, I ingeniously decided to drink all my soups cold that month. At least, when they cool to room temperature.

#5 - No stepping out of the house
You know, its silly that one can step out of the house to bring the child to the PD or to see your gynae (I had to cos I had an emergency c-sect). Otherwise, one must absolutely not step foot out of the door during the confinement period.

Needless to say, I can boldly admit to going out before the full 28 days were up. There was that night when Louis and I went for Japanese food, and trips to the hair saloon and the spa for a badly needed facial.

#6 - No drinking of water
No, they don't mean for you to die of thirst during that period. Its just that new moms aren't supposed to drink any boiled or god-forbid, tap water. Instead, a nice tea brewed with red dates and dried longans would be made in huge quantities at the start of every day. All new moms are supposed to drink only this red dates & longan tea throughout the day.

I'm not opposed to the tea cos really, its a lovely drink. However, again the heat and the perpetual thirst that I had could only be quenched with good old plain water. As a compromise, I would fill my tumbler with about 1/5 of the tea and the remaining with water. As a further testament of my "accommodating nature", I would dutifully ensure that the water is slightly warm*.

*Note: Theoretically, one's supposed to drink the tea hot, not warm, much less at room temperature.

#7 - Vinegar is good for you
One of the hallmarks of confinement food is the vinegared pig trotters soup. The vinegar, not just any vinegar, but a special type (don't ask me what cos I don't know), is supposed to help dispel any trapped wind in the body.

Literally translated, the phrase "I eat vinegar" in Mandarin is a double-entre that means one is jealous. So, I do not get jealous simply becos I don't eat vinegar. My poor mom slaved for many hours to peel lots of ginger to make me a huge pot of vegetarian vinegared pig trotters. I really did my best to at least take small portions of the soup each time. I don't eat pig trotters either.

So the "spoils" go to other family members, especially my elder BIL and SIL, who loved the dish.

In all honesty, it wasn't a totally horrible month, in spite of the challenges of breast-feeding, hormonal changes, battling of some post-natal blues, post-surgical pain from c-sect and all the challenges new moms face. Its nice to be pampered and treated like a queen from the hubby and family members.

Yet, I always tell Louis that the one single fear that makes me break out in cold sweat each time is that I would have to do my confinement all over again during the same period if and when we have number 2.

Now now, before anyone gets excited about my last statement, please reread the above again carefully, especially the words in bold and italics.

Mummy's little helper? Or not?

I mop. I know. I read. I buy. I busy. I paint. I bathe. I eat. I see. I do. I dance.

Faith's into saying "I <add verb>" these days.

I could be showing my mom something and a little voice pipes in next to me saying, "I see", meaning she would like to see whatever I'm showing my mom.

The three of us and my mom would in the car and the adults would be conducting a conversation. From nowhere, her voice would interject midway into our conversation, proclaiming, "I know...", sounding as if indeed she did know whatever we were talking about.

Or, she would be in her car seat and I would be trying to help her put on her seat belt. Faith would impatiently brush my hands away and say, "I do, I do...".

A few days ago, she was having her bath in the morning and her papa came by the bathroom, asking inquiringly what his little girl was doing. She quipped with a cheeky smile: "I busy! I bathe!".

Yesterday, I was mopping the floor as we were having friends over for tea. She was running circles around me and my pail of mop, frantically begging me, "I mop! I mop! I mop too!"

Some days, she can be hysterically comical, making us laugh, driving us mad or both. Despite all her antics and the throwing of some terrible two tantrums, we can't get enough of her :)

Eczema & anemia

Eczema has always been something that Faith has to content with since young. Her skin requires daily moisturising and I can't get lazy with the application of it or else it would recur. With constant moisturiser after every bath time and at night before she sleeps, we've been able to keep eczema at bay for quite a while until about the time that we brought her out for frequent morning swims.

It was during that period that it flared up in full force, spreading to her usual places like her ears and back of the knees and extending to nearly every part of her body from her arms to her upper thighs. It was so bad that her arms, legs, abdominal and back areas were filled with scratch marks from her incessant scratchings.

Usually for small spots of eczema, we treat it with Desowen for a few days and stop as soon as the eczema is gone due to the steroid content. With the spread of the eczema all over her body, it wasn't feasible to use Desowen, especially for extended usage. I had put her on oral antihistamine as well to aid with the itch.

We went to her PD and she prescribed Physiogel AI, a form of moisturiser that is steroid free. She agreed with me that it wasn't good to apply too much cream with steroid nor give her too much antihistamine.

As we weren't a hundred percent certain that it was just the swimming that was causing her eczema to act up, we decided to also eliminate nuts totally from her diet and watched what she ate.

The Physiogel AI worked wonders. I applied it whenever she started scratching herself. However, it small (50ml) and expensive ($$36/tube). We used it all over her body each and every time she takes a bath and a tube lasts us only slightly more than a week.

I'm not sure if the scratching becomes a habit after a while -- becos she usually doesn't scratch herself unless its really itchy. When I saw that her eczema's gone, I stopped applying Physiogel but continued with her regular moisturiser, applying it as religiously at least 3 times a day. Yet, she started scratching herself again and we had to apply Physiogel on her again. I only apply it to her arms and legs this time, which seemed to be the persistent problem areas.

It is rather distressing to see her scratching herself all the time, seeing her scratch marks marring her baby skin. I felt that there must be a better way to prevent her eczema from recurring over and over again. That got me to start looking at organic and/or natural products, ones without chemicals. I've read that a combination of lavender and chamomile essential oils is good for treating eczema.

For the last week, I've put 2 drops of lavender essential oil (other than eucalyptus, which are the 2 oils I have at home) into her daily bath water. I've also purchased an Avado nappy lotion, which contains mostly plant-derived ingredients and oil. I've used the nappy lotion in place of Physiogel for one application, sometimes, for the entire day, not using the Physiogel at all.

Thus far, results have been small but encouraging. She doesn't scratch as much and the nappy gel seems to work just as well as a replacement for Physiogel. Now, I'm waiting for friends or family to make a trip to Australia. Then, I'll get them to help me top up my essential oils from Jurlique, which is a whole lot cheaper than buying it from CK Tangs :)

Even though the title heading for this post is about eczema and anemia, thank goodness for small favours that Faith is not the one with anemia.

Her papa is the one who always had a little low blood count and is anemic. All his blood tests would invariably show that he's anemic. His latest blood test showed a lower blood count of haemoglobin's. When his doctor was showing us his blood test report, he jokingly remarked that I've not been feeding him well enough.

It may be a joke and he's got a long standing history with anemia, however, he's also recovering from his knee surgery and his health is not quite what it used to be. Even though the doctor prescribed him Sangobion to help with his iron deficiency, my personal preference is to ensure that he gets as much of his dietary requirements through food sources wherever possible.

Hence, I've gone to the chinese medical hall and asked about herbs and soups that are beneficial for him. Two nights ago, I steamed a slice of cod fish (its about the few types of fish that Louis is willing to eat cos he's no fan of fish) and he liked that. Yesterday night, I made "dang gui chicken". I loved it and it reminded me of the dish I used to love during my confinement period. Unfortunately, Louis wasn't a fan of it. He found the smell of herbs too overpowering. Meanwhile, he would be eating lots of spinach and sweet potato leaves as these are high in iron.

I've got some "Ba Zhen Tang" too which I'm planning to boil for him next. It is typically consumed by women to replenish the lost of blood after menstruation, however, the lady at the medical hall said it is alright for him to take that becos of his anemia.

Let's hope my two babies' conditions would improve greatly with my "experiments"!

The scare

Fever. Two weekends in a row.

Louis had some low-grade fever the previous weekend when we celebrated Faith's birthday. We saw the doctor and the latter was not concerned as his injured knee looked alright.

The last weekend, he again had fever. This time around, the fever was much higher - the highest at 38.8C. Again, it didn't abate much even with medications. His left knee swelled quite considerably, looking like a little round ball, giving us cause for concern.

We made an appointment to see his doctor again yesterday. The doctor said that there was some fluid that might caused the swelling. He drew a vial of liquid from the knee -- which was yellowish looking -- and also another small vial of blood. Both vials of fluid were sent for analysis.

The doctor was certain that there was no pus in the fluid that he drew out from the knee. A lab analysis was ordered to determine if there were any micro-organisms found in the fluid from the knee. If there was, Louis would knee to go for another minor surgery to clean the knee.

In the meantime, he was prescribed antibiotics, paracetamol and arcoxial to bring down the swell and we were told to return the next day for a review based on the lab results. The medicine helped considerably. After 2 dosage of it yesterday, the fever went down. This morning, the swelling on his knee went down slightly.

The results this morning when we saw the doctor was a big relief. There wasn't any bacterial or micro-organisms found in the liquid. The blood test result came out alright too, other than the fact that Louis is a little anemic, which he has always been.

He now has to complete the cause of antibiotics and arcoxial. Hopefully, that would help to bring the swelling of the knee back to what it was previously. If there is still any swelling, I gather the doctor will draw out any excess fluid through the syringe.

Whatever it is, this is definitely a much better option than if there were micro-organisms found in his knee, which would require another surgery. Needless to say, after going through all the pain, current ongoing physiotherapy and exercise regime in order to be able to walk with one crutch, Louis is concerned that any surgery would put him back to the state where he was after the knee surgery.

It has been a rather long, arduous, slow and somewhat draining period for him since late December last year. There's a lot of hard work that he needs to put in consistently just to yield a modicum of progress. I guess he's got a lot of self-inflicted pressure to recover as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for the case of a knee injury, my personal sense is that a lot of time and patience is required, especially with the extent of injury he had sustained.

For the last 2 days, the fever and his swollen knee had pretty much zapped him of his energy that he had to rely on using 2 crutches to get around. Thankfully after the start of the antibiotics course, he's now back to using one crutch.

We'll be seeing the doctor again next week for a review. Keeping our fingers crossed that everything will be alright from now on.

Faith turns 2

We celebrated Faith's birthday with the extended family on Saturday. There's more to celebrate other than the fact that she turns all of 2 years old.

I have successfully breastfed her for 2 years and would still continue with it until a time where either she or myself decides not to. I still recall how I was so tempted to give up on breastfeeding during the first couple of weeks after she was born due to the difficulties and challenges. I'm glad I persevered. Even now, there's still some people who feel that I should have stopped breastfeeding her long ago, but I try to tell myself (and sometimes tell them too) its becos they do not know the benefits of extended breastfeeding.

Her daddy is progressively improving slowly but steadily by the day. He walks around the house without any crutches, but when he goes out, he still continues to use one -- partly for support and also for those just-in-case moments when its crowded or he's tired.

The only little glitch was that he was having a fever on the day that we celebrated her birthday. A fever that came on on Thur and did not abate even with medication until Sunday. However, nothing was going to keep him away from helping his girl celebrate yet another milestone.

We decided to hold a simple affair at home with the food catered in. Our little extravagance was a 2-tier birthday cake with a Sesame Street theme from Pine Gardens, featuring some of her favourite characters like Elmo, Bert, Ernie and Cookie Monster. The top tier was a black forest cake targeted at the kids (though its not quite a kid's treat given that the cherries were liberally laced with kirsch) and the bottom tier was lychee martini to satisfy the adults.

She had gotten a little bicycle (the ones with a handle at the back for the adults to push) from her grandparents, a Leapfrog Phonics Fridge Magnet from the ACE family, 2 sets of Barbie doll from the grand-aunts and grand-uncles and a Playdoh set from us. Apart from that, Eileen had also given her another Little Miss Sunshine soft toy on Monday to add to her mini Little Miss collection, as well as an Elmo hand-puppet. Given the amount of toys she received, we wisely decided to hold back from opening our present to her and one of the Barbie doll sets.

This year, she was all smiles when everybody sang her her birthday song. Louis had been prepping her for it by singing it to her the few days leading to Saturday. This year, she knew to blow the candles all by herself.

Faith's Dua Peh was filled with pride when she finally acquiesced to allowing him to carry her just before her birthday song was sung. He was absolutely reluctant to give up his perch on the chair with her even though Faith's Dua Erm was shooing him away so that the little family could take a family picture :)

She loved all her presents and she had great fun. We know so becos she said to us while we were turning in for bed, "FUN!" We knew she was referring to the celebration that evening. Even though Faith's not speaking full sentences yet, we absolutely know what she means :)

On Monday, which was her actual birthday, my mom brought a vegetarian fruit cake. We put a symbolic candle on it, sang her another birthday song and let her blow the candle again. She seemed rather thrilled to have us sing her so many birthday songs.

Certainly, our lifestyles have changed drastically since Faith was born. Yet, she's given us so much joy, pride and have taught us so many valuable lessons in life that we just cannot imagine what we would do without her. Like every proud parent, we think our little girl is the best in the world. Or as a friend and I used to say jokingly, "The Bestest"!

Happy Birthday, Little One!

Family dinner and last day of JG semester

Another fulfilling and happy week...:)

1) Faith's JG Mandarin Playclub's 1st semester party

2) Family dinner at Hua Ting

Faith's classes

Two weeks of silence without any post. I'm just plain lazy and procrastinating about putting up a post -- lying in bed with a book feels great most nights. There's quite a bit of stuff about Faith that has happened for the last few weeks, mostly about how much she has grown and her classes.

In about 12 days time, she would officially turn 2 years old. Louis and I still can't believe how fast it has been. Truthfully, the first quarter of her life seemed to crawl by, becoming slightly more interesting when she turned 6 months onwards. The fun really begins around the time she reached 1 year old. That's when time seems to fly, especially when we ramped up the number of classes she attended.

On her classes, there's absolutely no regrets about putting her back into Kindermusik. Every week after class, she happily tells me, "fun", meaning she's had fun and enjoyed her class. Its great that she has a friend to look forward to seeing in class too; Lecia, who's younger than her by about 3 months or so, previously from the same JG Playnest class.

Maybe I'm biased becos I know many kids enjoy music, dancing and singing. However, I felt that for Faith, she's shown much more than the usual interest that other kids display. And becos of her interest in song and dance, its also our strategy to use that to interest her in Mandarin classes.

Its a shame that Louis and I don't speak much Mandarin to her at home. I'm terrible at it and Louis, well... it just doesn't come naturally for us. Following her JG Mandarin classes, I do make an effort to try to speak Mandarin to her. Again, its not automatic, more like we sometimes translate certain words from English to Mandarin, or one or two sentences here and there, whenever we remember.

If anything gets her juice going, its singing and dancing. So, we decided to play children's songs in Mandarin in the car instead of English. Obviously, I'm equally clueless and can't read what are the titles of the songs on the CDs.

Thankfully, its friends to the rescue. Eileen helped me to source and obtained some Mandarin nursery songs and VCDs in Mandarin. So far, we've played one of the music CD in the car and she's kind of enjoying it, learning to sing in bits and pieces for some songs.

Just today, I've finally caved in and bought the from JG the Mandarin CD comprising of songs that they sing in class. Its ridiculously expensive at $19.20 for a CD of just 30 short songs. But its got songs that they sing all the time in class. I figured that the more familiar she is with the songs, the more enjoyable and interest she would show in her classes.

A few incidences had gotten me worried. Perhaps, I'm not being fair becos of the circumstances that preceded her going to class. Nonetheless, its gotten both Louis and I worried enough that we figured we needed to do more to pique her interest in the language and not to let both our own misgivings about Mandarin when we were younger taint her interest in the subject.

We've been regularly going to Safra in the morning, twice a week. Louis would go to the gym while I head to the pool with Faith. As the only service elevator is located nearer to the front entrance of the club, I would usually let Louis off at the front porch, then turn around and park the car before we head to the pool.

Couple of weeks ago, Louis decided to up his visits to the gym, especially after he's been given the go-ahead by his doctor to start bearing as much weight as he could on his recovering knee. To work around Faith's classes, we decided to drop Louis off at the club before I bring Faith for her Mandarin classes on Wednesdays and Fridays. As that's about the time for Faith's afternoon nap, she usually falls asleep in the car after Louis alights.

Lo and behold, when she wakes up from her nap and realises that she's at the JG carpark, she started crying. When I asked her if she's crying becos she doesn't want to go to class, she said "Yes!". Initially, I thought she didn't like the class, but as it happened a few times and we noticed its usually becos I drop Louis off, we figured that she might have thought we were doing the morning drop-daddy-off-and-we-go-for-a-swim routine. Between swimming and Mandarin class, its very clear which is her preference.

The incidence has gotten Louis and myself to start asking ourselves the question, what if she really, truly hates Mandarin? Unfortunately, even if she really hates it, we would still continue to send her for classes becos we are fearful that with the limited exposure to Mandarin she has at home, she might hate it as much as we did in our youth when she finally has to learn it formally in school.

I was talking to a Caucasian mom in Faith's Little Gym class and she was telling me about how she's ensuring that both her kids are being sent for Mandarin classes, despite the fact that her elder son hates it. Thankfully, her daughter, who is Faith's age, enjoys the class.

She's an American who's been in Singapore for the last 8 years and she said to me that she wants her kids to learn a 2nd language and hopes that someday, they would thank her for it. It drives home the point that by Faith's time, it wouldn't be enough for her to command the bad level of Mandarin that we speak and be able to get by, especially not at the rate that China's fast becoming an important player in the global economy. Not when even the non-Chinese are trying to learn Mandarin.

Like it or not, Mandarin classes are not gym or music classes that we would stop if she isn't enjoying herself in class. As parents, it falls on us to make the subject more palatable and interesting to her. So, I'm hoping that music and reading to her would be a good start.

On that same thread, I am regrettably stopping her Little Gym classes and Faith had her final lesson yesterday. We didn't stop it becos she didn't enjoy it. However, her crying incidences at JG's carpark, as well as my reading of the book "Einstein never used flashcards" has made me even more conscious not to subscribe to the Kiasu-parent syndrome and to ensure she has enough time for unstructured play.

Of the three different classes she attends, Little Gym was the most expandable of the lot. With 3 lessons per week, I'm striving to have more free time to bring her to the park, arrange play-dates with other kids or just let her potter around at home doing whatever she likes.

As I'm writing this, I realised that I've not even started about the changes in Faith, e.g. her vocabulary and speech, her antics, behaviour and how she's systematically destroying our once spick-and-span house. I think I'll save that for another day, seeing that my post has winded up being a long one. Not unusual :)

Here's a photo of her taken about one and a half weeks ago. That was the day when I met up with Eileen to pass her some Mr Men books and she in turn gave me the Mandarin CDs/VCDs, Mr Men water bottle and Mr Men t-shirts that she had bought for Faith. Rachel and Faith are both crazy about Mr Men now. She insists on bringing her 3 Mr Men soft-toys to bed nightly and for me to read one of the 46 Mr Men book titles she now own to read to her.

I just couldn't resist having a picture of her posing with all her Mr Men paraphernalia.