Charm

I love to complain.

Each time 911 is late, I'll complain. Sometimes to my husband, sometimes to my sister, sometimes I'll just call the SMRT hotline. How can I not complain? LTA says that 80% of buses come every 10 minutes (or some statistics like that). But a feeder bus service like 911? It's just not right that I have to wait 40 minutes for the bus! 911E comes instead. 911E that terminates at the interchange. I need that 911 to fetch my daughter, okay? So I end up taking a taxi sometimes. I get real agitated when the bus that I want doesn't come within 15 minutes.

But that is what life is like in Singapore, isn't it? Things function like clockwork. Or almost like one. We are so used to things happening when it's supposed to happen that we get all riled up when it doesn't. We are just not used to waiting - perhaps for a short while, it's okay; even then, during our short wait, we'll be fiddling with the gadgets that we surround ourselves with. 

My friend Suraya lives in India. She's there because her husband works there. I've always thought that she's making the mother of all sacrifices by leaving Singapore. I sound so jingoistic. But reading a recent blog entry from her made me see why people don't necessarily want to uproot themselves from India. And it is also no wonder that there are so many great writers that hail from India.

Yes, she had to wait more than, a whole lot more than my 40 minutes to get her train. But there's something about the long wait, the uncertain arrival time and the train journey that is so lyrical and poetic. It's charming. And the experiences that her boys go through are things that no born-and-bred-in-Singapore-kid can ever get. Charming.

Oil

1. Once again, I missed a meet-up with friends.

It's becoming too much of a habit.

For weeks, I look forward to the day of the meeting. Then, the little one will fall ill. Not just a little cough or a bit of the sniffles. No, oh no. A full-blown something, it has to be.

Today, I'm supposed to have some dear, dear friends over.

Three days ago, Farah developed a fever. No problem, I hoped. Saturday would be the third day and she would be okay by then. Maybe it was just a low-grade fever related to her teething. But of course that wasn't the case.

On Friday night, her temperature soared to 40.9 degrees. We gave her the suppository medicine and her temperature went down to 38.5.

In the morning, it shot up to 40.1 and we packed her off to the clinic. At the clinic, we were referred to the hospital. After blood and urine tests were conducted at the hospital, she was allowed to go back.

The reason for her fever? Possibly viral fever.

She's been having fever almost every month and she does not even go to school (where she can easily pick up all these bugs). The doctors said that although it is rather frequent, it is not a cause for alarm. As it is, she's seeing a doctor at KK for regular check-ups after her bout of bronchiolitis.

The blood tests done today and another one done last month (when she had fever) showed that the haemoglobin levels in her blood is rather low. Her red blood cells look paler and there are more ovalocytes. (I think that's what the doctors said. I'm really quite lousy in all these science things. Ask me about cation and anion if you don't believe me.) Anyway those things point to two possibilities: thalassaemia or iron deficiency. If it's thalassaaemia, I hope it's just the minor one and no further treatment needed. If it's iron deficiency, then, there are supplements to help her. I just hope that there's a cure to her monthly fever.

Aaaaaanyway, coming back to the main point, last month, I was supposed to meet another group of friends. You know how difficult it is to plan meet-ups when you get to this age and everyone is busy with their own lives. So, when a window of possibility opens, you grab at it and make yourself available. I was sooooo looking forward to seeing my friends from uni days but Farah was sick and as one of my friends had given birth to a preemie (29-weeker!), I would not want my kids going anywhere near that girl and sharing all their germs with her.

Two months ago, it was a gathering of my friends from primary school that I had to miss. See the pattern?

TheHusband told me not to talk about future meetings and gatherings in front of the kids. We will just whisper to each other and we won't even write it down on the calendar at home lest the kids look at it and decide to fall ill on that very day.

Random picture of a girl at a hospital today. Picture inserted to give your eyes a break from all the text.

2. Since I'm talking about my dearest Farah, I will continue talking about her.

She is now 1 year and 2 months old.

I am quite sure I have done more than my share of worrying during Huda's era so now with Farah, I am a lot more relaxed.

At 1 year 2 months, Farah is just learning how to walk. She would take two or three steps before tumbling down. Sometimes, I think she just enjoys crawling around. That way, she can inspect every square inch of the floor for dust and bugs and other strange stuff found on my floor and eat them up. She thinks she's a vacuum cleaner.

And only now, at the grand old age of 14 months, her teeth made their appearance. 4 of them decided to pop out of her gums at the same time. She's been a toothless baby for the past 14 months. No complaints there because I'm still breastfeeding her and a toothless baby is much easier on the, erm, on the, erm, on the body parts which it involves. :p

Speech? Hur hur. She can call out for me. She does not seem to have a name for Ayah although sometimes she seems to call out Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa for Huda. Besides that, bird is buh. Cat is buh. Bus is buh. Tree is buh. MRT is buh.

But, I'm not worried. Huda was a late developer too but she is all fine now. So, take your time, Farah.

3. Huda is 4 years old now and she has an insatiable curiosity for everything. The Whys are coming very very frequently. Why does it rain, Mak? Initially, I would tell her the story of the water cycle but it's much too boring for her and she didn't understand my explanation so she'll ask again and again. I've since learnt to tell her that it rains so that the trees can drink water.

She's into pretend play now and she often pretends to be a teacher to her roomful of students. Sometimes it's a cashier. She's going to visit a farm next week with her classmates so I bet she's gonna be a farmer next.

She has finally, finally (!!!) started sleeping through the night and her toilet training is complete. She's off diapers for good.

4. I've signed the girls up for Kids Run at the end of May PROVIDED none of them falls ill on that day. (Sigh. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?) Anyway, to prepare for the 800 kmm race, we have been doing some practice rounds ourselves. We are very sure that Huda can cover the 800m but I'm not all that confident about me. I am just lousy at PE. I confess that throughout my entire life from primary school to junior college, I have never run the entire distance of 2.4 km. I am one of those people who always always stop to walk. And worse, when I was in JC2, each time we had to do practice runs for the 2.4 km event, I will fake all sorts of illnesses and so the only time I covered the distance was during the actual test date. (Funny how I ended up conducting PE classes.) So, you see, fitness is never my thing. And that is not how I want my girls to be. That's why I signed them up for Kids Run, hoping that they'll have an early start to a healthy lifestyle.

5. This entry has taken me a long time to write. I've been here since 8.30pm and now it's 10pm. Goodness.

Gonna stop now and hopefully, the next time I update won't be such a long time from now.

When allowed to make her own choices, she'll end up wearing a red T-shirt with an orange skirt and turquoise pants.