All About H

I wrote almost all of this in the middle of November but didn't do anything about it til today. So if you are particular about the exact dates of the incidents, then, um, well, too bad.

 

H is an extremely interesting person. She is very, very creative when it comes to, umm, well, anything. Except the drawing kind. Let me share some of her stories here. Some I may have written about earlier so forgive me for sounding so typically like your mother when you were growing up - perpetually on repeat telecast.

 

1. Ever since she went off diapers, whenever we scolded her and put her in the naughty corner, she'd cry and wail and tell us that she needed to pee. So, we had to pull her out of the naughty corner and into the toilet.

A few weeks ago, I scolded her. For what, I can't recall. I held both her hands in front of me and stared at her and spoke in a very firm voice about what she had done wrong and how upset I was. Of course she used her tried-and-tested 'I need to pass urine.'

So I scolded her some more. Told her that she had better hold her pee in for the next 3 minutes when she'll be languishing in the naughty corner. 

Remember I was holding both her hands while scolding her?

She then said, "Huda nak korek hidung."  (I want to dig my nose.)

 

2. We don't allow her to say 'I don't friend you'. Two reasons. One, it is grammatically incorrect. Two, she needs to learn to work out her issues with her friends and not just use abandonment as a technique to resolve issues. Of course, we are very sure that she's still using this with her friends and we accept that we don't have complete control over her. (Sigh)

However, sometimes, when she's angry with us, she will mutter under her breath 'I don't friend you'. And what follows will be a string of nonsense words which sound suspiciously German/Italian/Greek/Thai/(insert random foreign language here).

I shudder at the thought of all the things she'll be muttering under her breath when she's in her teens.

 

 

3. A few months ago, she kept on waking up in the middle of the night and would be screaming for me to sleep with her. It will start off as a simple case of crying and when she's fully aware of her surroundings, she will start screaming for me. And she will CRY OUT, REALLY LOUDLY, at whatever time of the night/morning it is. And she will do it syllable by syllable. NAK MAK TI DOR KAN x 1 000 000. (Want Mak to sleep with me)

When she's done about a gajimillion of that and cannot get my response because I was hell-bent on the supernanny technique (ie, just ignore it), she will change her 'song'.

(By the way, she did all these while sitting on her bed because I, erm, moved my hand quickly and my hand would land on her with great force whenever she tried to get out of bed. Anyway, when this episode happened, after my, erm, hand movements, I did not take any chances and locked our bedroom door so she would not be able to creep into our bed when we were sleeping.)

Next was NAK SU SU. NAK MAK BU AT KAN SU SU. TA NAK AYAH BU AT KAN SU SU. (Want milk. Want Mak to make milk. Don't want Ayah to make the milk.) Multiply that by another gajimillion times.

Then it was, NAK KEN CING. TAK BO LEH TUNG GU. (Want to pee. Cannot wait.)

Immediately after she said this, she realised her mistake because she wears diapers to sleep. So, she added NAK KEN CING DA LAM TOI LET. (Want to pee in the toilet.) 

What followed was A DA LION. (There's a lion.)

(There were a few more but I can't remember what they were but they had TheHusband and I in stitches inside our room.)

After about close to 45 minutes of this nonsense, she grew tired and went back to sleep.

I am so grateful that my neighbours didn't call the police because of the noise.

 

 

4. She absolutely hates sleep and making her take her naps has been a problem since she was an infant of just a few months old.

Now, she's aware that she must sleep otherwise I'll become MonsterMak but that doesn't mean that she goes to sleep without a fight.

Most of the time, either TheHusband or I will lie down beside her for about ten minutes or so.

After we've read stories and recited prayers, we'll tell her to sleep. Her response will be, "Huda tak tahu tidur." (I don't know how to sleep)

Close your eyes, we'll tell her. And she'll say, "Huda tak boleh tutup mata." (I can't close my eyes.)

Once, I had almost fallen asleep beside her when I suddenly woke up because I heard voices (or rather, a voice). The little girl was sitting beside me, talking away, reenacting scenes from school. I scolded her and told her I don't want to hear her voice. I almost fell asleep again but when I woke up, she was sitting up again, her mouth was moving but not a single sound escaped and her hands were moving about very animatedly.

Now, the instruction is not go and sleep. It is, close your eyes (otherwise I'll shut it for you using scotch tape), your arms must remain very still and your mouth must be closed. Of course, just before this afternoon's nap time, her legs were high up in the air.

 

5. When it really matters, she refuses to say sorry.

Sometime in March/April, it was her friend's birthday in school. The boy had a Thomas the Toy Train cake and all the kids were crowding around the cake. The teacher gave very specific instructions to the kids not to touch the cake. Of course, they hear it as, "The first person to bury his/her face in the cake is a brilliant child."

One boy touched just a teeny eeny weeny part of the cake. He was forgiven. Our dear girl? Her entire arm came into contact with the side of the cake.

The teacher insisted that she said sorry to the boy, Ashraf.

What came out from her mouth? "Sorry, Thomas."

Another time (trust me, this is one of many) she did something to my sister and we insisted that she apologised by saying sorry. A fierce scolding session (from the father) and tearful cries (from the daughter) followed. She kept on saying in between her cries, "Huda tak boleh cakap sorry." (I cannot say sorry.)

 

6. Neither can she say please (until last week)

Last week, we went to Burger King and bought a cup of Milo with our burgers. We soon finished our burgers and the cup of Milo and left BK. When she realised that the Milo was gone, she wanted us to buy another cup.

But the queue was very long and we thought of getting it elsewhere or perhaps getting another drink altogether from somewhere with no queue. The little girl, however, insisted on The Milo and nothing else. We went to McDs to get it.

So we bought it. Simple. End of story, right? Wrong.

I asked her to say, "May I have some Milo, please?"

Then it began. "Huda tak boleh cakap please!" (I cannot say please)

I told her that she wasn't getting any Milo without the word please. Of course, she insisted on not saying please. All the way home, theHusband and I took sips and after each sip, we gushed dramatically about how wonderful the Milo tasted. All the way home, the little girl kept on saying that she couldn't say please.

By the time we reached our block, she started sucking her index finger and thumb and said that that was her Milo and it was very delicious. Between her cries, she offered her 'Milo' and when I told her that my Milo was more delicious, she cried even more and said that hers was a lot better.

No, she didn't have any Milo at all that night.

Miraculously, the next morning, it was please this, please that, please for every single thing.

 

7. You know the emergency button in the MRT? No, she didn't press it. Thank goodness!

We were in the carriage for the wheelchair-bound and the emergency button is quite low in such carriages.

Her finger was roaming dangerously close to the button and so I told her that the button was to be pressed in a real emergency. I then tried to explain what an emergency was.

I wanted to talk about people getting very bad asthma attacks. So, I said, sometimes people cough and they may turn blue in the face.

"Cough cough. Mak, Huda batuk." (Fake coughs. Mak, I'm coughing)

No, I said, it's for people who cannot breathe and it's so bad that the person's face turns blue.

Or, if a fight breaks out in the train, I added.

Immediately, she hit Farah's leg.

"Huda gaduh dengan Farah. Boleh picit?" (I fought with Farah. Can I press the button?)

Thankfully, the journey was a short one.

 

8. But of course, despite everything, we love her and she loves us and her sister.

One night/early morning last week, Farah was very fussy - thanks to a blocked nose. She kept on waking up in the middle of the night crying and as they now share a room, so did her sister.

Frustrated, I told Farah that I would put her in the playpen in the living room where she could cry as much as she wanted to. I would close the bedroom doors so that the rest of us who wanted to sleep could sleep.

Guess who jumped to her defence?

Huda immediately started crying and begged me not to put Farah outside.

 

 

PS: Apparently, 3-year-olds are inclined towards turning their lives into a soap opera so there is never a dull moment for parents of 3-year-olds.

 

 

 

 

So Kind!!

Yesterday, I went to the library and borrowed 3 books.

I've been going to the library very frequently, about 3-4 times a week. I'll borrow 2-3 books each time.

In the past I would know exactly what I want to read because my reading time and library visits are extremely limited. So, before I went to the library, I would have a list of books/authors that I want to read.

Now, with more free time in my hands (because I don't have to spend my nights doing lesson plans, marking blood-curdling compositions, writing work review etc), I don't need a list. I just pick and choose any book whose cover I fancy, read the first few paragraphs and if engaging enough, I'll borrow the book.

If the book turns out crappy after the first few chapters, I'll just skip the entire middle part and head straight towards the last few chapters (because I need to know how it ends).

So that's me digressing, as always.

Anyway, I borrowed 3 books from the library yesterday.

Then, I boarded the bus, picked up Huda, talked to her teacher (it was Parent-Teacher's Conference; that's another story), then took a cab back because it was going to rain and I didn't have an umbrella (why on earth am I justifying my cab ride to everyone; in any case, most of the time, my cab rides are never justifiable).

I went home, attended to the kids, cooked the vege dish for dinner, bathed the kids, fed the kids, played with the kids, welcomed TheHusband, had dinner, played some more with the kids, changed diapers, brushed the older kids' teeth, breastfed the little kid and then, it was ME-time.

I took my books from my bag and, horrors, there were only 2! Checked the receipt and I did borrow 3 books. Gaaaaaaah!

Just now, I checked my library account and am extremely relieved to see that there were only 2 books in my account. Which means that an extremely good and kind-hearted samaritan had returned one of my books which must have fallen out of my bag somewhere along the way yesterday.

Oh you kind, kind person who returned my book, I wish you all the goodness that life may bring. Thank you, oh nice person!

(My digressing is getting worse. I intended this to be a super short entry with only the first and last 3 paragraphs in it. This is what staying at home does to you, I suppose..)

9 + 44

I wrote this almost a month ago and hopefully I'll finish it today.

 

Farah & Huda

1. Farah. Farah is now 9 months old. She's a crawler and has begun to pull herself to a standing position. I don't think she's gonna start walking anytime soon because her sister was about 14/15 months when she started walking. I suppose she will start walking when she's about that age but then again, siblings can be very different.

She has also had her fall-off-the-bed-rite-of-passage. Boohooohoooooo.. I know that practically all children fall off beds at one time or another but I thought I could protect her from it. But, of course, I thought wrong.

It happened one evening when I was in the toilet and TheHusband was attending to Huda. Farah was supposed to be sleeping in her cot which was pushed against my bed. (She was sleeping in our room instead of her own room because she was sick and whiny and we didn't want Huda to wake up.)

She climbed out of her cot, crawled all over our bed and just when I peeked out of the toilet, she was at the edge of the bed, looking down, about to take one more step forward. I raced to her and of course, even though it was a distance of about 2-3 metres, I failed miserably to catch her in mid-fall. She landed on the floor. :( 

(Therefore, must exercise more and work on the sprint.)

2. Weight. Farah isnow about 6.5kg. Definitely petite but it's okay lah. I am coming to terms with the fact that my children are all in the featherweight category. They are pretty much like what TheHusband and I were decades ago when we were kids. Yes. TheHusband used to be a scrawny little kid. There *are* photos of him as a scrawny little kid. And I used to be thin too. Stick-thin. But, those are days which will never come back. I am now the poster girl for Michelin tyres.

3. Food. It is fun cooking for Farah. I like knowing that I'm giving her healthy food with absolutely no salt added. Someone asked me why I bothered because they would all be sodium junkies when they grow up. And that's exactly why I bother now. When I still have full control of their diet, let me give them the best and healthiest of food. At least, I make sure that they will not cause harm to their insides so early in their lives. And, hopefully, they will have a low tolerance for salt and additives as they grow up. (They will most likely be chocoholics like me.)

But feeding her is another story. While she is eating a lot more than Huda used to, she is still not an easy baby to feed. Sometimes, she enjoys making those sputtering buh buh noises (bilabial trills, if you are into phonetics) and she especially likes doing this during mealtimes so mealtime is a messy messy affair.

4.  TV. I still have control over their TV intake for now. The TV is hardly switched on when they are awake. When I first started my maternity leave, I was bored beyond belief so I did watch quite a bit of TV. Farah was sleeping most of the time then anyway. But, slowly I got back to the no-TV groove and hardly switched on the TV in the daytime. (And I guess that's also because of the ridiculous facebook games; the computer is switched on instead.)

5. Me & FB. Sidetrack a bit about myself and facebook games: I've got rid of Barn Buddy and Mafia Wars out of my system. Now I'm hooked on Cafe World and Scrabble. I think Scrabble is something I would play again and again and again but Cafe World is not something I'll play for long. Give it a few more weeks and I'll delete it from my facebook account. Really, facebook is a time-waster. :p

I know I'm hopelessly addicted to Scrabble because when I'm on the throne, picking up a call from Nature, I'll suddenly think of EIOPMNS. Then I'll shuffle the letters about in my head and I'll get words like POEMS, MOPES, MONIES etc. Of course, the target is to get a 7-letter word so I'll shuffle the letters in my head some more. I'll think of the ending -ISM. Then I shuffle the rest of the letters about and then I think of NEPOISM (no such word but if there's a T somewhere on the board, I can get NEPOTISM), NEOPISM (rubbish word), PEONISM (sounds like a nonsense word but I just checked against the scrabble dictionary and found that it exists). Such is my life now. :p

Back to Huda & Farah...

6. Huda's formal education. Huda is still in a childcare centre and will still be goin there next year although I'm still on unpaid leave then. I'm very pleased with the school she goes to. Perhaps my expectations are low or perhaps other people's expectations are too high but I'm happy with her school. One of my neighbours whose grandson goes to a $1000plus-a-month childcare centre talked about how everybody there spoke good English with no hor meh lah.

Well, my daughter barely speaks English herself so this is no issue to me. Hur hur. She does pick up crappy English from her friends like, 'I don't friend you' but that's why she has parents who know how to string a few words together in a grammatically coherent sentence. We correct the nonsense she picks up. Well, we try to lah. And when we fail, we'll tell her teacher so that she may find it in her to forgive us if our daughter were to use foul words in class. ;p

Talking about teachers - one of the main reasons I chose this childcare centre is because of the teachers. I hate to use the word 'passion' because it's been terribly misused when it comes to teaching but you can tell that the teachers and principal there are passionate about what they are doing. They should be the poster girls (err, women) for early childhood education.

I've actually digressed quite far from what I wanted to say. Initially, when I started going on my leave, I wanted to send Huda to school only 4 times a week and on Fridays we'll do something together. A trip to the Science Centre, Botanical Gardens etc. That has yet to happen because other than taking both girls around Woodlands, I can't imagine going out on my own with the both of them to the far ends of Singapore. What I fear most is, what do I do should I need to go to the toilet?

7. What my neighbour said. Two weeks ago, I bumped into the neighbour who lives one floor below me.

I was with Farah and she said that she hardly hears Farah's voice. I thought she was deaf because my neighbour 2 doors away often hears Farah's cries. Then she added, "But I hear you very stress with your older girl."

Ah.

She's not deaf. She so politely phrased her words, this woman. What she meant to say was, I always hear you screaming like a wild banshee at your older girl after which I hear her cry so miserably.

There are times when my patience really runs thin with my Huda. She's still afflicted by the Terrible Twos (doesn't matter that she turned 3 more than half a year ago - I heard this Terrible Twos stage only goes away when they are 25 years old).

Being Miss Contrarian, she tries to do everything differently. If I tell her to put my phone back where she found it, she will then put my phone in 17 different places before reluctantly returning the phone back where she found it. Of course, by then, I would be a mad raving lunatic. 

Her bath time also gives rise to the loony in me. I'll tell her not to run in the bathroom and she'll be hopping and jumping all over the slippery floor. When I mop the floor and tell her to stay in one room, I'll soon find her in the kitchen or somewhere else.

And the result is - my neighbour hearing that I "very stress with my older girl". *insert nervous laughter*

As a result of that chance meeting, I did a bit of reflection and I might have been a little hysterical with Huda at times *insert more nervous laughter here*. And so, I've decided to try my mighty best to rein it in. I hope for the past two weeks, my neighbour hasn't noticed my stress levels. I've been trying to not raise my voice and to take short breaks should I notice that I'm going bonkers. (Short break = going to the toilet to sit on the throne and breathe deeply - and after breathing in the foul air in there, I'll start scrubbing the toilet from top to bottom.) 

8. Farah's health. Just now, we had a follow-up appointment at KK for Farah. After she recovered from her bout of bronchialitis in the first week of Hari Raya, she got another round of cough and phlegm and mucus just 3 weeks later. It's still going on now. Obviously, I do not like that she's falling ill so frequently. But, what medication can be given to a child who's only 9 month old?

The doctor suspected that she is allergic to something, most likely common allergens like dust mites and pollens. So, she's given a dose of medicine. The side effect? Possible increased appetite! Hooray! She's gonna be cured (hopefully) and she'll become a chubby baby in the process. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

9. Conclusion and AOBs. Yesterday I did ten little sit-ups and today, my stomach is still screaming out in agony. I am getting sleepy. I know this entry feels disjointed but that's what happens when you write one entry over a period of a month. I shall just post this one, warts and all, so thank you so much if you have actually reached this final full stop. :)

S Education

From one of her friends (or so Huda claims), she has learnt this vile Malay word for vagina - p/e/p/e/k. It sounds so vulgar that I can't even say it out loud. When she first picked up this word, she would just say it out of the blue. She would be playing with utensils in the kitchen, humming to herself and suddenly she'd say it. Initially, I tried to distract her hoping that she would forget the word soon enough. Then the word appears more and more frequently and I simply told her not to say it again and that it means vagina. Now, vagina is a word I use because it sounds a lot less crass.

(Sidetrack some more: Sex education begins with the correct naming of body parts. So, we tell her (in English - because I can't do this in Malay with all the crass-sounding words for the male and female privates) that boys have penis and girls have vagina. And of course, we also told her that no one should see or touch hers and neither should she go round looking and touching other people's.)

So, one day, she was sitting down, and talking to herself and suddenly she said p*p*k. See? I can't even write the word down the second time because it does sound very crass, doesn't it? Sigh. I had to tell her off. I said in my no-nonsense tone which is essentially nagging: 'Why did you say that word? Didn't I tell you what that word means? What does it mean? Right. It means vagina. Why must you say vagina? Do you see vaginas flying around?"

And at this point, I simply could not keep a straight face anymore. But I can't laugh while scolding, can I?

So I stopped and hid behind a laptop and laughed.

How do other parents do this?

---

Normally, my blog posts are for everyone but because of some words used here, I'm afraid that unsavoury characters might do a google for such words and find those words here and somehow associate my blog and pictures in my blog with such vile stuff. I know I'm being overly cautious bordering on paranoia but the world is a scary place and I'm not taking any chances. By the way, this was supposed to appear in a super-long (read: rambling) blog entry that I'm still in the middle of but because of my strict censorship rules, this short prose found itself here, all by its lonely self.

Hawt

1. The weather is unbearably hot. The birds living in the tree just outside my window are complaining non-stop.

2. A few blog entries ago, I was extremely gung-ho about what I want to do now that I'm not working (til 2011, that is). But of course, me being me, all those are just talk only. I have yet to go for my second driving lesson. :p

3. But, I have a very good reason for not going for that lesson. Farah was hospitalised. Again. This time round, it was for bronchialitis. She was breathing rapidly at night and was whiny and barely slept and and it didn't improve the next day so I took her to the doctor who sent us to the hospital. And there we were. One night at Hotel KK.

The annoying thing about this stay is, her insurance was approved (which means we won't have to pay for the stay) BUT, there were no single-bedded rooms that day. Other than that, she was okay. Her breathing stabilised after a few rounds of the adrenaline thing. She had a box-like thing over her head and the gas was pumped in through a tube from an opening on top of the box.

4. And that's our trusty laptop that kept me company.

 

5. I suppose Farah falls ill a lot more frequently than Huda did because:

i. Farah has a lovely older sister who insists on lying down beside her even when she (the older sister) is sick.

ii. She's secretly envious of her sister's long hospital stay so she wants to feel the joy of being hospitalised (and having all the attention to herself).

 

But as long as the reason for the hospital stay is minor and not life-threatening and can be fixed during the hospital stay itself, I don't mind her being hospitalised.

 

 

6. Back to my gung-ho plans. Hur hur hur. (That's me laughing at myself.) I think I've fallen into a very comfortable (lazy) routine. The one thing which I can say I'm doing is *drumrolls* cooking. I am cooking at least 4 meals a week. And nowadays, the dishes I come up with is actually mildly edible!! It's a miracle! I try to cook from scratch, which means - I try not resort to the instant packs of just-add-water curry or asam pedas or ayam masak merah etc. I will use those things when I start working again and have no time to pound the chillies and onions. But, for now, I will try to do everything from scratch (but it doesn't mean I'm going to plant my own wheat to get flour). Anyway, with me cooking, TheHusband finally has a chance to lose weight. Hohohohoooo!! So, expect to see a scrawny, emaciated TheHusband in months to come.

 

 

 

7. Huda and Farah - They like to wrestle. *rolls eyes*

 

7.1 In the morning, they wake each other up.

 

 

7.2 One smile before the wrestling begins

 

 

7.3 That's a typical wrestling session. Normally, no one is injured and I pray it remains that way. But that look of terror on Farah's face in the third picture...Sigh... I should stop these wrestling matches.

8. I have pictures of Huda and Farah and other kids (mostly their cousins) but I have to put that up later cos Farah has just woken upp from her 30-minute morning nap. But before I go, I just have to share this picture of Hazim. He's a handsome boy!

Cute, huh?

Budak Sekolah Berhariraya

This morning, at Huda's school...

Raya 2009 v.1

You can generally figure out who belongs to which family based on the colours of their outfits. But, occasionally, that may not be the case as Adib has shown. And the little boy in maroon in front of me is not my son, hor?

Pictures from Day 1 and Day 2. We took loads but I don't have the patience to upload all the pictures.
This is only the beginning of the Raya season. It will be a loooooooooooooong month filled with visiting and returning visits. It's great meeting up with friends and family.
(But I do not look forward to the ironing of bajukurungs and tudungs and the special delicate washes they require..)

Raya Ready?

1. Hari Raya is a few days away. Unlike previous years, I am almost ready with my Hari Raya preparations. There are still a few things to be done. Like putting up curtains and cleaning the windows and grilles and window sills.

I cleaned one window + grilles & sills just now and the main culprit who goes around dirtying the area is, of course, the lizard. I sprayed the entire area liberally with lizard repellant. Hopefully, it will keep away the lizards and their excrement for a few weeks, at least.

I also intend to move all of Huda's toys from the living room to her bedroom. I'm not too sure if this is a brilliant move because her toys will then be accessible when she's supposed to sleep. Hmm..

2. Hari Raya cooking - I've always thought of the massive cooking session on Hari Raya eve a bit wasteful if I were to do it. The Husband and I will be out visiting the elders and feasting at their houses on the first day so what's the point of cooking all those food for Hari Raya, right? The fact that my culinary skills is desperately wanting doesn't help either. All this while, I would just help out my mother on the eve of Hari Raya.

But this year, I have this great desire to prepare something. Only one dish, though. Not a banquet, hor. Anyway, we'll see. ;p

3. I still have no bajukurung to wear on the first day of Hari Raya. I dunno when I'm going to Geylang to hunt for bajukurung.

4. Now, I'm waiting for Farah to take her afternoon nap so that I can iron and put up the curtains.

/end of boring stuff

Added on September 18 2009: Getting baju kurung at the last last minute is a bad idea. The ones I like are not available in my size. Never will I do this again.

Everything..

Wah leow eh. After I posted this, I just realised that this entry is very long. I write as a way to get a snapshot of my life (and that of my children) at this point in time. In a few months, things change and I would have forgotten. So, I write. I write for me. (So you shouldn't feel obliged to read. Really.) And I also write because if I don't, I wont know how to speak write in English anymore. Staying at home for so long and not having to speak in proper English, I oredi dunno how to speak English liao. When I try, everything sounds strange. So, I write lor. At least, if cannot speak, can write, good oredi.

 

Farah

1. Farah is such a good eater! She's really unlike *someone we know* who absolutely detests food (other than her mummy's milk) for the first two years of her life. Farah has porridge for lunch and dinner. It is a simple porridge of rice + vegetable + fish. I'm glad I don't have to pore through baby recipe books to figure out what to serve her. It's such a joy to have a child who readily eats what you prepare!

I'm not giving her breakfast yet because she normally does not wake up for milk at night and so I'm terribly engorged in the morning and I want her to finish up the supplies first. But honestly, the other reason is, morning is a rush hour for the household and by the time I'm ready for breakfast with her, it's too close to lunchtime.

2. Farah is getting ready for the crawling stage of her life. She's beginning to lift her body up and she will be on all fours but not covering any distance yet.

3. Unlike in the past when I would read up everything on baby's milestones and when they should achieve what, I am now only vaguely aware of the milestones. I'm only a bit concerned about Farah's weight because she is small-ish. But, she seems healthy (other than the frequent bouts of coughs which doctors have ruled out as just that - coughs) so no cause for concern there. As a mother the second time round, I think I've read up a bit too much during Huda's time and there should be some residual information lying around in me somewhere to carry me through Farah's progress.

 

Huda

4. To be fair, if I talk about Farah, I must talk about Huda also. Even though I've talked about her a lot in the past.  ;p  

The thing about older siblings is, they love their new sibling.

If they have been in the centre of attention for (far) too long, I think, the love they have for their new sibling is like loving a toy: they want the toy; no one else can have the toy. But, if the parents happen to spend too much time with the new toy, they'll do something (not necessarily positive) to divert the attention back at them.

Well, at least that's what I observe about Huda. Heh.

5. Huda is getting extremely creative in getting us (me, mostly) to sleep with her. She is a prime example of what-not-to-do-when-putting-your child-to-sleep. Worry not. We have learnt. And we're not repeating what we did with her with Farah.

For far too long, we have developed a bedtime routine which is unhealthy. To make her sleep, one of us must lie down with her until she falls asleep. By the time we realise that this was no good, more than 3 years have passed. Heh. So, now we are trying to make her fall asleep on her own. But, she keeps on coming up with better excuses.

The most recent one is, 'I'm afraid of helicopters and aeroplanes.' (She's not afraid of ghosts because the only ghosts she knows of is either her uncle or aunty covered in sheets in a dark room - something they do to frighten the kids on Sundays at my mom's.) Anyway, up to 9-ish at night, there are still helicopters flying overhead. Must complain to Mindef liao. Why on earth are there so many helicopters flying over Woodlands? And so, she keeps on coming out of her room to complain about the helicopters. *rolls eyes*

Some of her other interesting stories are - there are lions in the bedroom. To that, her father would just command in an authoritative voice, 'Go away, Lion.' Then the lions were replaced by an assortment of zoo animals - tigers, hippopotamus, elephants.. Her father sent all the animals away. Then, she became a hypochondriac. She complains of aches and pains everywhere. Stomach, foot, arm, head, hair. Yes, hair. How fake an illness can you conjure?

Well, I'm sure she won't run out of ideas anytime soon when it comes to avoiding sleep. I really don't know why she hates sleep so much.

6. Having said all those, I must also add that she's so lovely. She's so helpful when it comes to picking out clothes for Farah. I just have to ask her and she'll start to rummage through the neatly-folded clothes ;p for something for Farah to wear.

She enjoys playing with her friends in school and it's so funny the things she picks up from them. Two weeks ago, she started making shapes with her Lego blocks and then, she'd pick up a sword-like shape and point it at you and she'd go, 'Ben Ten Ali Fork!' I had no idea what she was talking about. I could only guess it had something to do with Ben Ten. When I met my Ben-Ten-loving nephew on Sunday, I asked him whether there's such a command in Ben Ten. He was just as perplexed as I was. Then, I explained to him what Huda did, and enlightenment dawned on him. It's supposed to be, 'Ben Ten, Alien Force!'

 

Weather and Everything Else

6. Don't you think the weather has been extremely cool of late? So cold that my toes are almost frozen. Soon, my ears will get frostbitten if I don't start wearing earmuffs.

Because I'm so free, I checked out the normal weather pattern in Singapore and August is supposed to be similar to June and July - which means hot hot hot.

But, really, I'm not complaining. I hardly need to switch on the fan these days. Saving electricity there means I can spend more time on the computer without leaving a bigger carbon footprint. (Oh sure.)

7. Talking about computer, the games on facebook are really vile. They are always developing new things to pull you deeper and deeper into facebook. I think I'm going to be addicted to Scrabble for a long, long time. When I first played it, I didn't really enjoy it because I prefer having the tiles in my hands to move around so I can see what words I can form. But the electronic version grows on you, I guess.

8. I was sick yesterday with a terrible migraine. Haven't had one in years and it was the only time in a long time when I actually wanted medicated oil. I blame it on a lack of sleep. The lack of sleep was due to my mind being too active even though the body desperately wants to shut down. I had the same problem when I was on my first round of unpaid leave in 2007. And now I'm facing the same problem again. Sigh. The solution is really not that difficult. Find something which I'm just so lousy at and then study that topic like crazy. Chemistry comes to mind. Then, sign up to take Chemistry at O Level. I'm about to break into crazy laughter. Chemistry? Oh, stop joking! (Wait til I tell my story of cation and anion..)

The point of this point is, because I was terribly sick, I didn't use the computer for the entire day yesterday. My Mafia Wars energy bar was up to almost 400. Not that anyone but Dianah would know what I'm talking about. :p

9. Hari Raya is coming and this time round, I'm actually getting the major cleaning done slowly but surely!! The thing which I'm extremely lazy about is the windows. I hate hate hate cleaning windows. More than I hate ironing.

I plan to bake only one type of cookie - chocolate chip, of course. And in all likeliness, I'll eat everything myself. Way before the first guests come.

10. Talking about eating - I knew that the fasting month will do something to my tummy. Reducing the waistline is not a problem for me. Simply cutting out the rubbish food is enough. And it's not all that difficult for me because I crave for junk food mostly in the day. At night, I hardly get chocolate cravings.

But, the problem is the bottoms and thighs. Big big sigh. No matter how much junk food I cut out, once they have expanded, they don't shrink. Never. They just remain that way. Forever. Despite all the thigh-slimming pants I wear. Maybe liposuction is what I need. Kidding lah. Well, for now, at least.

Okay. Sleepy oredi.

If you've read up to here and you are still awake, congratulations. You are an insomniac. Nothing will make you fall asleep. Not even long, rambling entries about nothing.

Quick and Short

Huda found a pair of scissors in her aunt's room and decided to give herself a new hairstyle. The damage has not been inspected yet as she's taking her nap now. But, clumps of hair, measuring about 3 inches each, were found at the scene of the crime. Sigh.

Huda, when you grow up and read this, I want you to know that I am not responsible for what seems like a helicopter landing patch on the right side of your head. And if your hair chooses to grow slowly, dear God, please help her find a way to go through Hari Raya looking like her two uncles. 

Farah is 6 Months Young

Farah is 6 months old now. She's laughing and smiling a lot. She's such a sweety-pie. She's still small. You won't go 'Oooooooh, what chubby cheeks!' when you see her but she's still cute. (And I will continue doing all these self-praises so get used to it. Ha!)

She's still on breastmilk. Hooray! She's had at least 6 months of something truly organic. Hopefully there's some magic in the milk which will enhance her immunity which hasn't been all that great.

She had her first taste of cereal last week. Heinz Organic Rice Cereal + breastmilk. The first time, I prepared half a bowl of it and she had all of half a teaspoon worth of the mixture. She pushed the rest out of her mouth with her tongue. I'm going organic with her cereal because she's had enough chemicals in her already. She's had lots of paracetamol, tamiflu (yes, that hallucination-inducing stuff), salbutamol and a variety of nose drops.

Her sleeping pattern is impressive! Being the darling that she is, she falls asleep by 8pm and does not wake up til 7am. This is an angel, I tell you. Lest you think I'm boasting, I'd like to remind you that my beloved firstborn woke up for her night feeds up to 6 times a night. Now, that same person is still waking up at least once a night. Not for milk but, I suppose, just out of (really bad) habit.

Back to Farah. She can soothe herself - because she's a thumbsucker. Well, more like fingers-sucker. She sucks her index and middle fingers at the same time. The older one was never a thumbsucker but I'm beginning to see the beauty in this. Thumbsucking allows her to soothe herself while waiting for the milk-provider to be ready. I was worried that the practice makes her not want milk but such thoughts show that I have underestimated babies. If they are hungry, they will cry for milk.

She's moving about a lot now. She's never at the same spot for a long time. I always put her on a small mattress which is placed on top of a mat in the living room but she always wiggles her way to the floor. If I'm not careful and leave the main door open, I'll most probably find her along the corridor cos she's small enough to wiggle her way through the grille.

I think that is all I have to say about Farah for now. I am sure I'll think of eight more things to say about her moments after I've switched off the computer later.

Just added:  This is a scary picture of Farah. She's trying to impersonate me. Sigh. That's how I look when I try to dance (all in the name of entertaining them). The nerve of that girl...

Pass!

1. I passed my FTT!!! Yippppeeee!

(Thank you, everybody for the good luck wishes and prayers!)

2. I decided to take up driving lessons with BBDC. Signed up and paid for it. Wah leow. Must pay about $70 for the theory lessons which I don't need but must still sit through. Otherwise, I will not be able to take the driving test. $^*%#!

But no choice because my former instructor no longer picks up his students from Woodlands. Everyone has to go to Bukit Gombak. If I have to go to Bt Gombak, might as well go BBDC lor.

3. I left Farah behind at my mom's. My younger sis took care of her and the little girl gulped down all 5 oz of milk I left for her. Hooray! No problems with the bottle for her!!

4. I pumped out my milk last night and managed a miserable 1.5 oz. Nehmind, I thought. Just starting to pump after months of direct latching so, the Bs not ready to respond to a machine lor. This morning I managed to pump out another 3.5 oz. Not that great an amount but not so bad lah. The total amount should be enough for one feed.

But, what bothers me is that the morning milk was not thick and creamy. It was watery which means that it's mostly foremilk. How to make my milk creamier? What do I need to eat more of? (Looks at my round tummy and wonders what else could I possibly lack.. *shudders*)

5. I'll be pumping my milk more frequently from now on. Maybe at around 11pm. Cos Farah's last feed is around 8pm and her next feed would be around 4am.

6. I plan to go for driving lessons at least twice a week as long as there are slots in session 3. And as long as my pumping sessions yield enough milk to cover my absence.

Hopefully, I'll be able to sit for the test soon and pass the test soon. Then, I'll volunteer to be my dad's driver - if he has faith in me, that is.

7. 2010 will see 14, 15 and 16!!!! YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Rumble Jumble

1. I am now supposed to be studying for my Final Theory test which is happening this Friday. I am supposed to be studying online because I've lost my book. But, as long as I have something else more important to do, the less likely I am to do it and the more likely I am to write in my multiply.

I intend to use this round of NPL to do lots of self-improvement works - becoming a better cook, getting my driving license, taking a few courses with British Council on the English Language and well, read read read.

I was about to sign up for driving classes with BBDC instead of private instructors this time round but when I wanted to do so, I was greeted with a screen that says my FTT has expired. So must take again lor. Which means I must study again. Which is not what I'm doing now.

My twin sister (so says taxi drivers but *ahem* this twin sister is a good 12 years younger than me *ahem ahem*) is also taking her FTT and she has the book but each time I go to my mom's place to study (supposedly), I simply don't. There are too many distractions - chocolate bars in the fridge, for one.  

GAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! I just realised that Friday is the day after tomorrow!!! Oh. My. God.

(After a moment of panic, I'm back to my procrastinating self.)

2. Rohana, you were saying that we should screen our calls? Yes, perhaps we should. Huda's starting a bit too early.

Still, I think it's so cure how the boy is glaring at Huda like that, as if telling her, don't pick your teeth in public!

3. For me to go off for 2 hours weekly to learn driving, I've got to go get my breast pump fixed. (So that Farah can have an emergency stash of milk should she want some.)

I bought this Medela pump the day I was discharged from the hospital. (The post-pregnancy hormones must have wreaked havoc in my mind because I had problems with my first 2 Medela mini electric yet I still went on to buy a third one) And soon, the pump decided to act up. I will inherit an Ameda double pump in September from my sister (the older one) but 'til then, I have to make do with my Medela. Can people who are breastfeeding or intending to do so not buy the Medela mini electric, please? Spend more money and get either the huge Medela double pump (the one that costs some $600) or the Ameda Lactaline double pump (best value for your money) or the Avent manual pump.

4. The ants are back in the kitchen. The small reddish-brown ones. And they are getting more desperate. Yesterday, I saw them carrying a small piece of dried egg white which was stuck to the stove after it spilled out of the bowl in which I was stirring it. I'm feeling a bit more adventurous these days so I will look for their home and it will be goodbye ants soon! *evil laughter*

5. There's the eclipse today. If Huda were bigger, I would have wanted to take her to the Science Centre and observe this phenomenon over there. But, I don't think she would appreciate it for now.

This makes me wonder - when she's in primary or secondary school and when special events like this take place, will I dare to pull her out of school for a little while to observe such phenomena? This is what learning is about, isn't it? Wouldn't it be great to be able to watch things unfolding as they are happening and not through the TV screen? Reminds me of Twilight - I hate that movie; must state that for the record - the absence of the vampire kids on sunny days were attributed to the parents who take them out for trekking and educational stuff whenever the weather is good.

If parents were to do that here, will teachers frown? As a member (a non-active one, though) of the possibly-frowning-group, I think I will have issues if the students are weak and no amount of sun-gazing will help them do better in their studies. But, if the students are above-average ones, the teachers may not mind so much but to just roll their eyes.

What will be written in the official record to explain their absence? Absent without valid reason?

Hmm.

Okay. Must study for my FTT. Friday is not so far away. Sigh.

The Other Stuff...

Now that I've written one entry exclusively about Farah, I shall write one jumbled-up entry about everything else.

1. My Royal Fatness

Please don't try to placate me or roll your eyes when I talk about this. You don't see what my mirror sees. *wails*

My tummy, my bottom and my thighs have been expanding rapidly. Those packs of Kinder Bueno are not helping. I'll soon have an hourglass figure - if you take into account only my tummy and my bottom.

I am trying - well, not very hard - to get rid of the excess weight, or at least, to redistribute the fats. I've tried the concealment method - corsets, tummy-flattening-butt-firming-thigh-constricting knickers from Marks and Spencers which don't come cheap, abdominal binders. They don't really work. Once those things come off, all the flabby parts jump out for joy from all their hiding places.

Then I tried walking very, very fast. I walked Huda to school and back home again. But, I had to go through throngs of Republic Poly students so when RP became an H1N1 cluster, I figured it was not a wise idea to expose Farah to the RP students. So we went back to the tried-and-tested TheGrandfather-drives-Huda-to-school-while-TheMother's-bottom-expands-at-home method.

I was also supposed to take my grandmother for walks in the evening but that did not burn any calories because she needed to stop at every bench available.

2. My SAHM-ship

Now I'm back to being a Stay-At-Home-Mother. Not drawing any salary, I'm trying to curb my expenses on taxi. So, instead of taking the taxi to my mom's place, I walk there. Which would be respectable if my mother's house was very far away. But, it's not. So, there's nothing to shout about there. But, I always delude myself into thinking that I'm saving money each time I walk there and all the extra savings go into my chocolate fund which, you guessed it, is for tummy-expansion purposes. *rolls eyes* (Insert prayer: Oh God, please help me have some self-control in the chocolate department.)

It's not too bad, the life of this SAHM. Because I'm an inept one, Huda still goes to full day childcare. We feel that she has much to learn from going to school. She picks up nonsense too from her peers but that is to be expected. More on this later.

When both of them are home together, both of them will fight for my attention. Yes, both of them. So, when Huda goes to school, I get to play with Farah exclusively. Otherwise, Farah would be deprived of the attention that Huda received when she was Farah's age.

And as Farah takes her morning naps like the good girl that she is, I manage to cook and clean the house, well, on most days lah. So, home-cooked food is a more frequent occurrence now than the last time I went on my unpaid leave.

But, in the cooking department, I'm still very, very much a novice. There's much to learn and I still don't enjoy cooking Malay food (though I like eating it) because Malay food is just so leceh to cook. There are lots of spices needed and pounding to be done. Then, the cooking process is also complicated. "Stir fry over medium heat until the paste is fragrant.." Define fragrant - ck1? Gucci Envy? Sorry Malay cooking connoisseurs; that's why I prefer cooking western and other non-Malay dishes.

3. Hunting for A Home

We found something we both like. BUT, the owner seems to be dragging his feet. I'll keep you posted on this as the situation unfolds. We'll be disappointed if we don't get this because this is the best there is in the area we're looking at.

4. Huda

Huda enjoys school. As always. She learns lotsa good stuff from the school but when you interact with your peers, it's inevitable that you pick up a couple of things from them. For example, she would say, "I don't friend you!" whenever she's frustrated with someone or something. We're, of course, aghast at the ungrammaticality of "I don't friend you." The thing is, she has no idea what it means. She knows that it's said in a frustrating situation. So, when a recalcitrant plastic bowl refused to stay in its place, she threw the bowl onto the floor and shouted, "I don't friend you!"

5. Rambutans

See those red rambutans? I see them so tantalisingly close every time I look out of my window. But even with my 8-foot-long bamboo pole, I can't reach them. Darn.

Gotta stop now. Must feed the little one. Til next time!!

 

It's Been Very Long...

.. since I last wrote anything here.

I'm trying to not use facebook to replace the functions that multiply has because I don't like the messiness involved in having everything everywhere. So, facebook is, to describe its function so succinctly, a time-waster. I'm addicted to one inane game after another on facebook. First it was Word Challenge and Scramble. Then it was Pet Society, Bejeweled Blitz and Desktop Towers and now it's Mafia Wars and Scrabble (played against my brother who beats me miserably practically all the time). I'm sure there will be more games for me to get hooked on once I overcome my Mafia Wars addiction.

Let me talk about Farah before she grows up.

1. She is now 5 months old. She smiles and laughs when you talk to her. She has smiled and laughed countless of times but we have not been able to capture her laughter and smiles on camera!

This is the closest we got to getting her to smile.

2. She's rolling over - from her front to her back to the front to her back to her front etc etc etc - a lot now. The strange thing about her rolling over is - the day she turned 4 months, she managed to roll over 5 times. The next day, she rolled over twice. Then we went to KL where she was either in her stroller, in the baby carrier or if we were in the hotel room, she was swaddled. The rolling over stopped after that. But, happily enough, it started again 2 days ago. She seems to be making up for lost time and it seems like she's never in the same position for long.

If she's not rolling over, she'll be moving just about everywhere. Too often, I find her stuck under the armchairs or the sofa.

3. Her weight gain, which was very promising in the beginning, has begun tapering somewhat. It is now not as great as before but I've come to the realisation that my children are in the featherweight category so I should not worry too much. (Oh sure.) For Farah, I just must make sure that she gives me the desired number of pees and poos daily. That's how you see if a baby is well-fed.

4. And the amazing little thing this baby is - she does not wake up at night for her night feeds as often as her sister used to. My lovely little Farah wakes up around 3am and again around 6am. Sometimes, she'll even forgo the 3am feed. Isn't she great? :D (Of course, she's just as great even if she wakes up every 2 hours.

5. Talking about sleeping - between 6 and 8 in the evening, she would want to have milk all the time. And by 8 in the evening, I'll put her down in her cot, switch on the fan (cos she perspires all the time), kiss her goodnight and to slumberland she goes.

6. Farah sleeps on her tummy. She's been doing that for about 2 months already ever since she developed greater control over her neck muscles. The Husband was worried for her initially but she enjoys her tummy time, both sleeping and awake.

7. I think, things are easier this time round not because Farah is an easy baby. I think being a mother the second time around helps. I've learnt from mistakes made the first time (such as playing with the baby when she wakes up at 11pm, 2am, 3am, 3.30am, 4am, 5am or diligently changing her diapers every 3 hours even when she is sleeping).

(I realised that I ended the entry rather abruptly. So I'm adding one more picture to end this Farah-centric entry. Not that it will help with the abrupt ending.)

 

Cut Out The Agent!

We've been looking for a new place for more than a year now. But, our plans were thwarted when we realised that we were not eligible for the HDB loan. Now that I'm on unpaid leave (and therefore eligible for the HDB loan), we have started house-hunting again.

We do not wish to pay an unnecessary amount to the housing agent. Especially when the agents insist that we, as agent-less buyers, must pay 1% commission to the seller's agent. We are doing practically everything ourselves. Why must we give them our hard-earned money?

There's a huge conflict of interest here. The agent is supposed to represent the seller's interest. If there are two interested buyers, one with an agent and one without, who do you think the agent will 'promote' to the seller? The one from whom they can easily earn $3000+ or the one whose $3000+ will go to his own agent? We encountered this situation last year when the agent wanted us to be the buyers even though we offered lower than the cash amount stated. The other buyer had his own agent. Thankfully, the plan fell through because we were not eligible for HDB home loan then; otherwise I will always feel a bit guilty. 

So, here's what we are doing to buy and sell our flats ourselves. We hope it will be of use to anyone who wants to avoid paying the housing agent's fee.

Week 1

Sunday 4 July: Saw a flat we really like. The valuation isn't out yet but we know we gotta start working towards the flat if we really want it.

Sunday 4 July: Submitted an online application for HLE using HDB's website. We want to get a loan from HDB. We don't want to take up a bank loan.

Monday 5 July: Posted supporting documents needed for HLE.

Thursday 9 July: The flat's value is out. $348k. A bit pricey for an almost 20-year-old Woodlands unit but this one is on the highest floor and it has a good view in front and no blocks blocking its view at the back, ie, a very rare unit in the area we are looking at.

 

Week 2

Monday 13 July: Submitted online request for our home to be valued.

Tuesday 14 July: Received a call from HDB regarding our HLE application. I need to make a Statutory Declaration that I am not drawing any salary during my period of unpaid leave.

Wednesday 15 July: Went to HDB office at Woodlands Civic Centre to make the declaration. It's free but cost about 2 hours of my time waiting in line. Went to HDB Hub at Toa Payoh to drop off the declaration.

Wednesday 15 July: Received call from valuers. They can come tomorrow. Massive cleaning expected tonight!

Thursday 16 July: We are getting a loan from HDB!! Yayy! Now, all we have to do is wait for the seller to get back to us. We have not made an offer yet because he cannot decide how much cash over the valuation amount he wants. It all depends on his bank loan.

 

Week 3

Tuesday 21 July: TheHusband has been calling the seller's agent almost every day to find out how much COV the seller is thinking of. But, the seller is running into some problems, it seems. The seller of the condominium unit he's buying has now decided not to sell the unit although he has already paid a deposit. The condo-seller thinks his unit will fetch a higher price in the next few months. So, our seller cannot sell his flat otherwise he'll end up sleeping at the void deck.

I'm disappointed but I'm not crushed. We are not in desperate need of a flat so not getting one is okay, It'll be nice to have a bigger place but if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be.

 We'll see if we'll find something else. It won't be as nice as this one, I'm sure. But, it'll be better for us.

Attack of The Crocs

Once upon a time, there was a Crocs sale. Prior to that, I've heard of lots of Crocs accidents and so, I did not want to get Crocs for the kids. But prices were slashed and a pair of Crocs were so cheap and so I ended up with 5 pairs, 2 of which were for Huda. She wore her first 2 pairs of Crocs without accident; it helps that whenever she's wearing her Crocs, I would not allow her on the escalator. We'll either go out of our way to take the lift or we'll carry her whenever we're on an escalator. She soon outgrew her Crocs. Another sale came by and I bought her another pair.

Yesterday evening, we decided to go for a jog/walk/crawl along the new Park Connectors and as usual, Uncle Tutumat was called upon for assistance. Farah was placed in the stroller while Huda sat behind Uncle Tutumat's bicycle.

We have done this a number of times before without any accident and so why should we worry, right? Wrong.

As usual, the bicycle would be far far ahead and Uncle Tutumat would wait for us before major crossings.

But this time round, it was a wailing Huda I heard first. What did I see?

The strap of her right Crocs was caught in the bicycle chain and the strap broke. But before the strap broke, her foot was dragged this way and that causing those massive abrasions.

So, Huda was brought to a nearby clinic, where the doctor told us to renounce our belief in Crocs. He sent us to KK for an X-ray to ensure no fractures where the doctor also told us to abandon our Crocs.

For us old fogeys, we are still wearing our Crocs but for the little ones, if they do wear it, it will be with extreme caution. They will not be wearing it anywhere near moving machines like escalators and bicycles. It will most likely be for a trip to the swimming pool which is a short walk away or at the beach after which she'll change into sensible sandals or shoes.

In the meantime, the little girl herself is very fine. Other than not having the guts to walk, she is still the happy, bubbly kid she has always been.

(I see this as an opportunity for her to fatten up. She won't be jumping or running for the next few days so hopefully, all the food she'll be eating will not be burnt off.)

The Past Few Months...

That's Huda's watch. Yes, she chose Batman over Hello Kitty and other girly designs because Batman's watch has a purple strap.

I've been neglecting my multiply account in favour of facebook games (which is the main reason I joined facebook).

I intended to upload more photos of Farah but I realise that my excellent photography skills resulted in Farah having that deer-in-headlights look in almost all her shots. So, it's the same-old-same-old pictures of the stuff we did in the past few months.

Things

Huda has been sleeping in her own room for more than two weeks.

We bought a bed (with a pull-out bed for Farah in future) and ever since then, she has been going to sleep in her room at night. However, in the middle of the night, The Husband and I would sometimes find a foreign particle sprawled in our bed and we would have to take the foreign object back to her own room.

However, her move wasn't complete until yesterday.

Yesterday, the wardrobe in her room was installed. Yipppeeee!

And finally, her clothes (and Farah's) moved to the next room.

Now if only everything was that simple.

----

The movement of belongings from Room 1 to Room 2 means that some things from Room 2 must go to Room 1. Excess stuff from Room 1 and Room 2 go to Room 3 which no longer has floor space. So, Room 3 must be cleaned out and stuff from Room 3 should be junked. Five huge plastic bags, two big boxes & more small plastic bags later, Room 1 and 2 look decent enough. Room 3 is still a work in progress.

----

The point of writing this is to say that I have no idea how we managed to amass so much stuff in our 5++ years together. The cleaning process has revealed that we have too many things we don't need. (So from now on, we shall no longer have trips to shopping centres. Those places are dangerous.)

I have more stuff to junk but I so sayang to throw them all away. I want to pass them to whoever who will find them useful. So if you are interested in any of these, please email me at b o o s h o o k   at    g m a i l    dot    c o m. (Get rid of the spaces, of course.)

1. 8 Days magazines - from 2007/8

2. Women's Weekly magazines - from 2004/5

3. Readers Digest magazines

4. Wooden clogs from Holland (not Holland Village but Holland the country with windmills, cows and cheese) - I don't know what possessed me to buy the clogs at that time. The clogs are big enough to fit my size 6 feet. The moment I came home, I put on the clogs and two minutes later, my neighbour living downstairs came up and complained about the incessant tok-tok-tok noise she heard. I haven't worn them since. (That was in 2005)

5. Osim iPamper - this, I'm not giving away. I'm selling it for $30? Any takers? (Or if you can beg really well, I'll just give it to you.)

6. And any chance anyone needs school uniforms from Crescent Girs' School and Jurong Junior College? (these will fit anyone who has a 23-inch waist *ahem* - but now the skirt will not even get past my knees)

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To get all these things, you have to come to my house. The good news is, the lift will soon be ready!!

 

Lizard and My Girls

1. Last night, in the wee hours of the morning, I sat up against the headboard of my bed and fed Farah. The little lamp beside the bed was turned on and I was just staring at the wall in front of the bed when I noticed a movement near the door.

A lizard.

Or rather, a baby crocodile. (Because it was THAT huge.)

This approximately-15-centimetre creature danced on the wall this way and that before finally disappearing behind the curtain on the other side of the wall.

I couldn't run after if because of Farah and so sent The Husband to do the killing but it had disappeared.

Of course, this meant that more lizard traps are needed.

Speaking of lizard traps, The Husband removed one which had been stuck to one corner of a room for many months and there were 5 dead lizards there. There would have been more but there was no space for anymore lizards to glue themselves onto the sticky pads.

------------ end of lizard story ------------

2. Huda is incredibly shy among people she's not familiar with. She wouldn't even answer if they were to ask her for her name. But, I'm happily ruling out selective mutism because once she's familiar with someone, she will never stop talking.

3. Huda's potty ways - Finally, yesterday, she poo-ed in the toilet. It wasn't much of a problem making her pee in the toilet and she's been doing that since early this year but she couldn't poo in the toilet at all. There were two times when she poo-ed in the toilet but I wouldn't count those times because they involved pretty embarrassing details which shouldn't be repeated in public. All other times, she would do her business in her diaper which she still wears to sleep. (Not removing diapers at bedtime just yet. I do not wish to interrupt my sleep just to change bedsheets.) Hopefully, yesterday wasn't a fluke and she would continue pooing in the toilet.

I promised her that we would go to the supermarket after she'd had her dinner and she could get anything she wanted (errrr, confined to foodstuff and within a reasonable budget). So she chose a pack of M&Ms. We were going to meet up with her daddy, who would be on the way back from work, at the supermarket. And Huda, excitable little child she is, squealed in delight when she saw her father and screamed out, "Ayah! Mak belikan Huda coklat sebab Huda pandai. Huda berak dalam toilet!" (Ayah! Mak bought chocolates for me because I'm clever! I poo-ed in the toilet!) She screamed that out. In a crowded NTUC supermarket at Woodlands Civics Centre. And then she went on to say (very loudly) who she would share her pack of M&Ms with. According to Huda, Farah cannot have any because Farah doesn't have any teeth. (That's what I taught her so as to prevent her from feeding Farah anything.)

4. Farah is almost three months now. She can smile on occasions but once I whip out the camera, the smile fades away. She has been an easy baby to take care of and hopefully it remains this way. A few times a week, she would sleep through the night. Her last feed would be around 11pm and she would only wake up around 7-ish for milk. It is almost unbelievable because til today, Huda hardly ever sleeps through the night. 

5. While her sleeping pattern leaves much to be desired, her eating habits have improved significantly. Huda's eating A LOT these days. For dinner, she can finish off 2 bowls of rice but I would not give her any more than that because she wouldn't be able to keep all the food down.

But she is still skinny and weighs a mere 11.2kg as of yesterday

Where does all the food go?

She jumps. And jumps and jumps and jumps. We reach the last step of a flight of stairs - she jumps. There's a line on the floor - she jumps. There's a small puddle of water. She jumps. You get the picture. I tried to jump over a line. I can feel all my bones rattling and all my insides were busily rearranging themselves for many, many minutes after the jump.

Okay. Gotta stop now and attend to Farah even though I still have a whole lot of nothings to say. Bye for now!

Season of Sickness

One day, there were 2 sick daughters at home.

After a trip to the polyclinic, we were told to take the Little One to KKH cos little ones under 3 months are not supposed to get fever and if they do, the fever should be managed by KKH.

So, there we were, Farah and I, enjoying our 2-day-1-night stay at KK Hotel. Honestly, it was a blissful stay because Farah is easy to take care of and it helped that her fever was gone by the time we got to KK (but she got admitted anyway because the letter from the polyclinic stated that her fever was 38.5 degrees).

So, that's it, Farah. You've got yourself a vacation at the hospital and there will be no more of these, okay?

Epilogue: Both Farah and Huda are no longer having fever. But the dreadful cough is still there. Sigh. If I ever have a #3, I'll put him/her in a bubble for the first three months away from the germ-friendly sisters.

 

Breastfeeding Revisited

 

This is a completely irrelevant picture of a little baldy.

 

Once when I was pregnant, I entered a mosque and saw a woman breastfeeding. At that point, the image stirred up a lot of emotions and I couldn't wait for Farah to be out so that we can start the breastfeeding journey all over again.

But, somehow, the first few weeks didn't turn out the way I imagined it to be. Farah was not drinking that much and I was engorged all the time. I pumped out the excess milk twice a day but that created a false demand for milk and so I was even more engorged and in pain.

Then the medela pump which I just bought became lousier and lousier. That was the third mini electric pump I had bought in my short breastfeeding career. The first two were during Huda's time. And after the second one, I swore I'll never buy medela again. My sister and I bought an ameda double pump but she unexpectedly got pregnant ahead of schedule and was still using the pump. I then planned to buy the avent manual pump after I heard lots of good stuff about it.

But, for whatever strange reasons, on the day I was discharged from the hospital, I went and got a medela mini electric instead. This pump disappointed me from the third week onwards. It simply could not draw out all that much milk anymore. I knew the breasts were not emptied and lumps of various sizes started appearing especially on the right side. Three quarters of the right breast was lumpy and each time I pumped from that side, I managed only a measly 10-20ml, as opposed to the 50-90ml I got from the other side (which also had lumps but not as bad as the right side).

I was going to see my gynae and the last thing I want is to be referred to a breast specialist (and subject myself to another biopsy). So, I started looking up the net for solutions to clogged ducts. I tried the hot towel treatment, ice pack treatment, cabbage treatment but none worked for me. I looked up more solutions and one, which seemed like a hair-brained idea when I first read it, suggested using a wide-tooth comb to comb the blocked ducts away.

And that's what I did. There was nothing to lose, anyway. So, I started combing the breasts each time I fed Farah. (Sounds crazy, doesn't it?)

Amazingly, by the next day, there were no more lumps! Even the super-stubborn lump that was around from Huda's breasfeeding days (the one that necessitated a biopsy) was gone!!

A comb! That's the answer to blocked ducts!

So, I'm now a happier breastfeeding mother.

There are some inconveniences, of course. The number one headache I'm facing is starting my driving lessons again. I would need to introduce Farah to the bottle if I have to be away from her for a few hours. And I am just too l-a-z-y to do that. But it has to be done because my target is to get my license by Hari Raya (then I can drive off with my father's car because I got no money to buy one myself).

Another inconvenience is, I cannot eat less. As I want to make sure that my milk has lots of good stuff for Farah, I have to eat and eat and eat. The way I control the size of my tummy is by eating less but if this option is not available, am I supposed to exercise the fats away? *gulps*

Back to breastfeeding - Unlike the first time, this time round, I'm not setting a long target. I am going to go on unpaid leave til the end of 2010 but that does not mean I'll be breastfeeding til then. If I can, I will. If for whatever reasons, I cannot, then, there's always formula milk. Absolutely no pressure on myself. (But, I think I'll breastfeed for a minimum of 6 months to a year because infant formula is very expensive.)

So this marks the beginning my second breastfeeding journey. I hope I'll enjoy it as much as I did the first time round.

Farah at 7 weeks

 

Farah's almost 2 months now.

She is gaining weight very well, 1.7kg has been added to her since birth. She's now slightly more than 4kg. Yipppeee!! Last week, she had an appointment with the doctor who saw her at birth and she passed everything with flying colours. (What does that mean - flying colours?)

She drinks lots of milk very frequently in the day, especially in the afternoon, all the way to about 10pm. I try to space out the milking session to at least 1.5hours apart. At night, she sleeps longer between feeds. There were 2 nights when she allowed me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. But, there's only been two of such nights. Normally, she would give me 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night before crying for milk again.

I think she's able to distinguish between night and day because in the day, she sleeps in the playpen placed in the living room and at night, she sleeps in the cot in our bedroom. Or perhaps, the cot is a lot more comfortable than the playpen. In any case, the arrangement works out fine.

Her poo is mustard-yellow and unlike Huda's which looked more like pellets, hers is of the stringy variety. Hahaa! Is that a lot of information? I'm typing everything I could recall because my memory's been even lousier of late.

On some days, she looks a lot like Huda but at other times, she's her own person. She likes to be held upright and then she'll look up at me with the most nonchalant expression on her face. Which makes me want to bite her cheeks cos she seems to be saying - I'm too cute and even when I look so dao, you still can't resist me.

But of course, I can resist her when she cries. Heh. Cos, there are days when she just wants to show who's boss and demands to be carried every ten minutes or so. When there are many people around, I'll let her think she can boss us around and will pick her up. (Well, not me, normally. It will be all the other people whom she has managed to hoodwink.) But when it's just the both of us, she knows that I'm da boss and she better not cry.

We have not done anything about the Baby Bonus the good government will give us as soon as we hand in the forms. That's the problem - the forms. Ordinarily, I enjoy filling in forms and surveys and contests etc... but each time I look at the thick envelope, I just feel a strong urge to procrastinate a bit longer. (I've also been procrastinating a lot of things - going back to my workplace to clear my table, calling up KK and the polyclinic to make and change appointments, updating my multiply, posting Farah's photos and other similar non-routine stuff.)

 

Farah at 2 weeks with a head full of hair and cousins, Farouq and Haziq.

 

"Why is Kakak Huda always in the picture?"  - Farah, 7 weeks old, no hair

 

Cleaning Up Mish Mash

1. We didn't get that flat. So now I'm looking for carpenters for the girls' wardrobe. Recommendations, anyone? Must be cheap and good.

2. I have also been cleaning out our third bedroom which is, honestly, our huge store room. And I have now banned myself from buying books, toys and clothes (for the girls). I finally managed to squeeze all the books into the bookshelf when I turned around and saw one stack of books. So, I stacked and squeezed the books in the shelf again. Just as I was admiring my organisational skills, I saw another stack of books which escaped the first two rounds of shelving! How on earth did I manage to amass so many books? And where do they come from?

There's absolutely no space for kids' books anymore. No space for assessment books also (not for the girls to do but they were useful when I was working and I keep them because they may be useful when I do some moonlighting later in the year). And in the adults' section, there's only enough space for maybe one or two more novels. 

I wrote the above on 13 March and saved it for updating later but never got round to it.

3. Farah was so well-behaved in her early days. In those first few weeks, I fed her, put her in the cot, fed her, back to cot. It was so easy taking care of her that I actually felt guilty because I was so free. She still is all good now. Except that she wants to be carried all the time. All. The. Time. That's why my pet Hufafa in Pet Society (in Facebook, if you are wondering what Pet Society is - no relation to Pet Semetery) has been neglected. I'm busy carrying my little pet. I should put up her photos soon.

4. The lift at my mom's place is ready and I had loads of fun going up and down the lift. (Yes, I'm deprived.) I'm making lots of plans for the day when the lift here is finally up and running. Like, I will use the stroller to send Huda to school because I plan to walk there and back and that will be my daily exercise. (HAHAHAAA!) I'm just saying that because the lift is not ready yet. I'll be singing a different tune when it's ready, I'm sure.

5. I think Huda looks like an ah lian in this photo. But she's a cute lian.

6. It's a super-duper humid day today and I am melting.

7. Edward Cullen is soooooo good looking (even though I really hate the Twilight movie - where do I even begin?).

8. My search for professional-sofa-cleaner-people has ended. Two different companies have told me that the spots on my sofa are meant to stay there forever. Those are things which occur naturally in leather and nothing can remove them. Nothing. My heart sank all the way to the ground floor when I heard that. Whey did I insist on buying a white sofa?! (Oh, I remember - so that lizards can't camouflage their shit on it.) So now I'm looking for nice throws to use over the sofa. Anyone seen any nice ones? 

Home

1. I am back at home.

I should have called one of those part-time cleaners to clean the house before our homecoming 'cos I spent the first 2 hours at home vacuuming and mopping and wiping. The house was just sooo dusty what with the lift upgrading project that somehow has not seen much progress since I last saw it one month ago. Now I'm having back pains. Lovely.

2. Today, we saw an ad for a flat in the area we've been looking for and for the first time since our search began, both of us like the unit we saw. Should we get it? We would have to go into debt all over again to service the loan for the house. We would have to take a bank loan. However, the loan amount that we need is not too big so will banks bother to lend a small amount to us? Is it better to be cash-rich or asset-rich (especially if the asset is your home meant for you to die in and not an investment piece)?

3. I was planning to start on the girls' room this week - looking for contractors for the wardrobe, think about the furniture and perhaps a coat of paint. But with this latest development, the plan is shelved again. If we get the flat (and we may very well know about it by the end of this week), I shall just get a cheap cheap chest of drawers for the girls' clothes as a stop-gap measure. If we don't get the flat, the girls will get their room by end of next month.

4. Not related to the topic at all - how do you make your children sleep? I find myself having to scold Huda to make her sleep. She would prefer to talk (to herself if I refuse to entertain her) or play with whatever she could get her hands on or pretend to need to drink water etc when she's supposed to sleep. The Husband is normally the one on Sleep Duty but occasionally, I have to make her sleep if The Husband is busy with something else. I really dread this because no matter how pleasantly I start it off, I will end up barking at her and scolding her. I'm quite sure that I don't have the tenacity to do the supernanny thing.

5. Farah. She has some phlegm problems, all thanks to the generosity of her older sister. But, she's way too young to be put on medication so I can only hope that there's something magical in breastmilk that will drive the phlegm away. And I need something to boost Huda's immunity. She's getting phlegmy coughs way too frequently. It has something to do with her going to school, I know. Small kids who just start school tend to fall ill frequently but she also is more susceptible than most other kids because of her prematurity. Are there any effective supplements which are delicious, taste like sweets, highly appealing to kids and, most importantly, can boost a child's immunity?

6. It's now 11pm and I am so sleepy. I missed breastfeeding when I stopped doing so but now that I've started again, I wonder what I missed. The interrupted nights? The engorged breasts? The blocked ducts? The $%&# pain from the blocked ducts? The leaky milk?

Sigh. I must remind myself that this is the best food for Farah and I should be so grateful that I have some milk to offer my daughter.

 

A.Z.

 

Just this morning, I was telling The Husband that if Anuar Zain were to have a concert in Singapore again, I will buy the front-row seats the moment the tickets are released.

A few moments ago, my sister called. She heard on the radio that he's having a concert on the 7th of March. 7th of March??! I'm still very, very breastfeeding leh!!!! How to run off to a concert?

Then, the cogs in my brain started whirring real fast. I'll get a room at the Hyatt (where the concert is), beg my kind sister to babysit the 2 kids there, then off to the concert and should Farah cry for milk, I'll just have to disappear for 30 minutes, feed her and come back to my front-row seat. Heheeeee...

Now, I'll check if the front row seats are available. If they are not, then, well.. it's just not meant to be.

All I Want Are Rain and Patience

Slightly more than a week into motherhood-round-two, life has changed very much and at the same time, not changed at all. :perplexed:

(I realise that by the time I finish this, it would already be 2 weeks of motherhound-round-two.)

1. I Turned Mad

My 4-day stay at the hospital coincided with Huda experiencing a terrible bout of cough. She would have a long coughing fits in the middle of the night which would leave her all tired and cranky the next day because of a lack of sleep. Her naps were also similarly interrupted so she never could make up for the lack of sleep at night with a longer nap in the day. She was always asking for me. Her appetite was affected, of course.

When I finally came home, she was still suffering from her cough.

I'm not *that* particular about many things but I will turn into quite a monster if she refuses to eat. It doesn't help that I was feeling all hot and bothered after childbirth - what with the pain from the c-section, the abdominal binder which made my stomach too warm, the perpetual smell of stale milk, the extra heat gained from having to use breast pads to soak up the leaky milk and to top it off so perfectly, the unbearably hot weather - my patience with her was at its thinnest. And she refused her dinner completely. Not once, but twice. And I lost it with her. Not once, but twice.

That was not a moment (or rather, moments) I was proud of. I was really raging mad. As in, raging mad. If I could have looked at myself from a distance, I would definitely have seen steam coming out from my ears.

Besides not eating, she simply wanted to be Miss Contrary. If you tell her to do something, she will do something else. I took her to the polyclinic with me for Farah's check-up and all she wanted to do there was lift up her shirt and show the entire world her stomach and chest. My sister and I tried to stop her but she refused, of course. She also removed her shoes and put them between her knees. She refused her baths but when she's finally in the toilet, refused to get out. Her cousin wanted the gate to be opened while she insisted that it should be closed. When I tried to bait her away from the gate with her princess-themed dress that she loved so much, she suddenly refused the dress (which she had been talking about non-stop the entire day). You get the idea, don't you?

I'm not sure whether Huda being difficult was due to her cough alone or a combination of her cough + the presence of Farah + my absence for 4 days... but I know that my reaction (to her not eating) was not normal by my standards. I am normally a lot more patient and do not turn into a raving mad lunatic so easily.

Anyway, I have since become a lot saner and got some of my patience back. She's also getting better and her coughing fits have ended after a trip to KK and being put on the Ventolin puff. It's great that I'm putting up at my parents' place for now where there are more people around to help me with the two girls since The Husband's job is keeping him in the office til late on some days.

2. Huda

Huda does not show signs of violence towards Farah. Maybe, not yet. YC has told me plenty of stories about how her firstborn treats the younger one. One of the stories involves the older one kicking the younger one off the parents' bed. Scary, or what? So, everyone is observing Huda closely when she gets near Farah and so far, so good. However, there was that one day when Huda had a purple pen and she wanted to draw on Farah's head. And, that same day, she tried to push Farah's head away while I was feeding Farah. That was frightening. So, close monitoring still necessary. YC also told me that sibling rivalry takes many forms, not just violence towards the little kiddo. I have a lot of reading up to do.

3. Feeding

Farah is on breastmilk for now. But she did have a bit of formula milk on the night of her birth. I was supposed to feed Farah a second time. The nurse came with Farah and she raised my bed. The bed was almost 90 degrees. Then I felt a wave of nausea bubbling up my throat. I started to vomit the lunch I had in school. After that, I still wanted to feed Farah but another round of vomiting ensued. So, in the end, I consented to Farah drinking formula milk while I tried to sleep through the night. (Which I couldn't because I kept on having dreams which involved me doing some physically-exhausting activities like running up and down the staircases in school, running across a wide open field etc etc etc.. )

The next morning, I tried again and with no vomiting, I was allowed to feed her. I would only say I was successful at feeding her after the lactation consultant came and taught me how to feed Farah using the football-hold position.

However, Farah, like her sister, does not seem to have a voracious appetite. She stayed on either side for no longer than 10 minutes and refused the other side after unlatching herself. At the hospital, she was forced to drink milk every 3 hours. The nurses would un-swaddle her, change her diapers and basically disturb her until she wakes up and cry. When her mouth was wide open, I'd just pop her source of milk into her mouth and she'd suckle away.

But, at home, she got even more comfortable. Even after changing her diapers and removing the swaddler, she would continue to sleep. I've tried everything I can think of but if she refuses to open her mouth, how can I feed her? In the end, I am engorged and I have to pump out my milk. Thankfully, Huda will unknowingly drink the milk I pumped out; she doesn't know what she's drinking.  

Still, I don't think I should worry about Farah's drinking habit. She produces the required minimum of 3 poos and 6 pees a day so that means she's getting enough milk. It's also great to know that she has gained almost 500g in one week.

4. Confinement Rituals

Errrr... almost none? I know that some people swear by it and say that observing the confinement rituals will ensure good health in future. But, I can't possibly wrap myself up llike it's winter when the weather is this unbearable. And, ultimately, my sanity is a thousand times more important. However, I do try to eat food which is suitable for a woman in confinement - less spicy food, avoid that chilli crab and the like. I have not gone out other than to the polyclinic for Farah's jaundice. Not so much because I am really observing the confinement rules but because I get so tired so easily.

I hope all this tiredness will go away after I've had my massage. I don't know when that is because I'm still shortlisting the makcik urut. I think I will do it after my check-up with my gynae next Wednesday. Or maybe, I'll start next Monday and not have it on Wednesday when I have my check-up.

5. My Physical Self

I still have my double chin. Wobbly wobbly. My tummy is still there too. Wobbly wobbly. And well, you can just call me Ms Wobbles.

6. The Big Move

I am preparing myself to move back to my place by the beginning of next month. The one thing which I have to seriously prepare myself for is the cooking. So, now I am writing down a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least 3 weeks. (Writing down the menu is one thing; cooking it is another story...)

Oh, and, of course, there's the issue with the lift. WHEN WILL IT EVER BE READY?! The Husband has been making trips back home to pick up stuff and he does not have an optimistic outlook on the lift situation. Argh!