Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a blessed new year! Cheers to mommyhood (and daddyhood if there are any daddy readers out there)!! May the new year be a great one for all of us. Happy 2011! :-)

In Time for New Year!

The stomach virus hit hard, but good thing about it is, it passes fast with medication. Matthew was prescribed motilium suspension (domperidone) which stops him from throwing up, and was given a suppository of the same substance on standby in case the vomiting worsens. Thankfully, we did not have to use it.

We found Hydralyte to be especially good in restoring energy and to keep him hydrated.

I was not aware of how contagious stomach virus is despite warning from a friend who is a "seasoned" daddy until I started having shivers, severe body ache, nausea and up down temperature reaching highs of 38.5C for 1.5 days. I did not throw up since I had zero appetite and hardly ate but I sure felt miserable. Caring for a sick child (or rather, the inability to effectively do so) while being sick must count as one of the most miserable things in a mommy's life!

This morning, we both woke up feeling much much better, so I hope we are well on the road to complete recovery, all in time for the New Year weekend!

Never Before

Even with fevers hovering around 39C, he is usually still fairly active. Not with this round of stomach virus .. :(

Stomach Virus

It seems that there is some serious stomach virus going on, according to the pediatrician. She saw many cases yesterday and today. This is Matthew's second time in a month!

Received a call at work today from my father-in-law that Matt looked pale after his nap, and more importantly, was somewhat lifeless and weak, which is very atypical of the little boy. He looked perfectly well this morning when I dropped him off at the childcare, so I thought I'd wait and see. Shortly after, one more phone call came in informing me that Matt didn't want any dinner. By then, I was already on my way home. When I got into the car, they told me he threw up just before they came to pick me up.

When I reached home, I carried him and he just slumped over my shoulder. Then, everything happened so quickly. I stepped into the house, and he threw up. Wave after wave after wave after wave. My whole back was soaked through, and the floor was literally filled with his vomit. The whole entrance to the house. My heart just broke into pieces seeing him in such discomfort, and at the same time trying to be brave and making sense of what was happening to him. He clung on to me as I held him tight and carried him upstairs to clean up before we headed to the doctor at my father-in-law's insistence. The poor man was also worried sick to see his grandson this way.

Hope his stomach settles down, and he will get well again soon. Sigh.

Christmas 2010

The festivities started weekend before. We had 2 parties, small and cosy ones with close friends. One of them we "opened ceremony" hub's Christmas pressie from me - a kick-ass Weber barbeque pit. At first, I thought it was akin to buying me a vacuum cleaner, but hey, the man likes his barbeque, and there's the element of fire, smoke and danger - all to make him excited like a little boy!

A warm welcome to our home

Christmas eve we had a nice dinner, just the small little family of ours. Very nice and joyful. Christmas slipped by quickly with church service, lunch with extended family and yet another Christmas party where we also celebrated a close friend's engagement!

We didn't have time to open Christmas presents till Boxing Day. I decided to let the little tyke open all his presents at one go although I initially thought I would slowly pace it, then I decided, what the heck, it's once a year!

Opening the first present

Can I please open more pressies?

My toy store

Trust that all of you had good celebration with loved ones. Cheers!

Who's That Boy?!

I usually visit the library on my own when he's at school - makes it easier for me to choose books. Yesterday, we spent the afternoon in the library together - this was probably only his third visit to the place. I left him at a row of shelves nearby, went to the computer terminal searching for a book title, turned around and was surprised to find my little boy sitting quietly on one of those colourful stools with his chosen book and reading all by himself.

Me Time

Once a week, I have about 3 hours of real me time, all to myself. Every Wednesday, after dropping hubs at the train station, then Matthew off at school, the 3 hours are all mine to do whatever I want. In theory, that is.

In practice, I usually find myself buying groceries for the week, organizing bills, teaching the helper this and that, going to the library to return and borrow books, preparing Matt's lunch, leaving enough time to do a quick log-in to kaypoh on other peoples' lives on FB, then it's time to head to school to fetch the little tyke. My Dan Brown book is still sitting on the bookshelf, untouched.

Sometimes, when I get lucky, hubs can afford to go in to office a little later, and we get to spend some time at our favourite haunt - Toast Box at Bishan. They recently upgraded their premise, and it's a really nice place to hangout for a quick morning coffee.



Yesterday was an anomaly. I had nothing to do. Zilch. I was at a loss for a bit. A bit not used to it. I mean, there is always something to do!

I quickly made myself a cuppa, found some butter roll that still looked good enough to eat, and read the newspaper from cover to cover, with time to spare for Her World. It was quite nice really.

More Clothes?

I cleared my wardrobe over the weekend.

Out went the clothes that I could fit into when I was breastfeeding but now seemed somewhat tight cos I continued eating like a pig after I stopped breastfeeding. Also out were some items I love so much I wore for ... 7 years or more maybe? They grew larger with each year of washing and aging :) Of course, there were also lovely pre-pregnancy clothes that I had high hopes of being able to fit into them again post-pregnancy and never came anywhere near. I had to harden my heart and not get sentimental over anything. Some, I really couldn't bring myself to part with, so I packed them into space bags for archive. Who knows? Maybe I can fit into them again one day .... :)

The shirt/blouse department after the clean-up. 19 items. Considering I go to work, it's just enough, although hubs strongly disagrees.

Conversations with Matthew

Matthew is one of those with slower development in the speech department, but of late, has amused me with some of his cute replies.

We pass by the playground in a car on a rainy day.
Me: It's raining, Matthew, the playground is wet!
M: Mama can clean it!

At the table having breakfast before school.
Me: Mama has to go to work today, baby.
M: I want to follow mama to work.
Me: Cannot Matthew, cos if I bring you, I won't be able to work properly because I will have to take care of you, feed you and play with you.
M: Don't be scared!

I was trying my luck to see if I can wing a vacation without him.
Me: Matthew, can mama take a holiday and go far far away?
M: Matthew come with mama .. holiday.
Me: No, this holiday is for mama only.
M: Don't say that!

I love my little conversations with him.

Sharing

It is sad how my best efforts, and success, at teaching Matthew good values get destructed in mere few hours by outside influences.

I am not sure if his recent bout of not wanting to share has anything to do with natural development stages. Maybe. But I suspect it has also to do the 'monkey see monkey do' in a classmate who brings his matchbox cars to school and not wanting to lend it to him. I witnessed it twice how Matt would look longingly at the boy's toys, and the boy would just play by himself and not sharing them with the other kids.

Well, I guess there is nothing really wrong with that. I think it is okay not to share at this age, I mean, it's only instinctive to protect what they like. As long as they do not go around snatching things belonging to others.

I am just somewhat bothered because a few days later, Matthew came home and told me he doesn't want to share his toys. He used to have no problem with sharing, but now has issues with the concept. It really irks me, cos I find it hard to explain to him why he has to share when his friend doesn't have to do the same.

I guess there will more and more of such instances as he increasingly gets integrated into his little society of friends. And the things will get harder and harder to explain, too, I am certain. For now, as long as he doesn't snatch, I will be happy. Until he is capable of greater reasoning capabilities and can understand all that I tell him.

Time With Family

They came. And before we knew it, it was time for them to leave. Time really flies, especially when you have fun. Mom and I had our usual bickering (it is almost like a must that we fight and make up every trip!), but mostly, we spent some quality family time together. We visited their favourite zoo, ate their favourite foods, flew kite at Marina Barrage, explored the Universal Studios, caught up with relatives, and can even boast of having attended a wedding (my cousin's) at the very posh Capella Singapore. Matthew had a great time through and through, although I was stressed every day trying to get him to nap and sleep as he was seriously short on it, and was getting crankier by the day!

The highlight of the trip for my brother's kids was, naturally, Universal Studios. Initially, I was hesitant to bring my parents to Universal Studios because both my parents can't walk too much. Plus they were not likely to take any rides due to health reasons, which seemed like such a waste of the $66/pax tickets. But I decided it was worth the dough to just let them experience first-hand the atmosphere of joy and play that theme parks are known for.

So we headed out after a hearty breakfast, and actually stayed almost the whole day there, with some incessant complaning on my mom's part. She is the least adventurous of the lot. Still, I think she largely tolerated whatever it was that made her uncomfortable for the sake of the kids! Thankfully, the weather was great the day we went, sunny but cloudy. I concluded that Singapore weather just isn't great for theme parks! No matter how fit, you get punctured within 3 hours tops under that hot sun and humidity!


kungfu panda that my brother chased after to take photo with!

It always warms my heart that the kids adore each other so much. My brother's two kids are 10 and 8, yet they would patiently play and care for little Matthew so much so that I think my boy feels somewhat suffocated by his lack of space haha!

Looking forward to the next time we can be together.

He Wants to Work

This morning, as I was getting Matthew ready for school, he turned to me and said,

"I don't want to go to school."

I asked him why.

"I don't want to go to school anymore. I want to go work work."

Ho Ho Ho!

Dear Santa, we are ready for Christmas.



Matt has been bugging us a lot about wanting a 'kwismers twee' at home.

Indeed, it is that time of the year. Go to the nursery to pick a tree. Our tradition.



There is nothing more inviting and comforting than the smell of pine tree at Christmas. We love, love, love the smell of pine which adds that additional touch to the holiday mood, almost as if transporting us somewhere far away to the mountains. I know real pine trees are cruel, and environmentally unfriendly. But it's just this one indulgence ... :p

This year, our little boy is able to help us put up our tree, which is really sweet and nice.

Time with Folks

My parents are visiting. They've been here since Friday, and it has been great!

It takes little to make them happy. All they need is good good food, and ample rest, plus some time walking off those calories in the outdoors. Hubs and I have been feeding them lots. Mummy dearest is already worried that she might not be able to fit into her cheongsam for my cousin's wedding on Sunday :-)

I think Matt likes having them around, although he is giving my mom attitude because she fondly teases and nags at him all the time. Although she does it in Mandarin which he doesn't understand much of, he naturally gravitates towards my dad who is the 'strong and silent' type.

More good days ahead with mommy and daddy. More fun to come when my brother's family joins us towards end of the week. We will probably head to Universal Studios one of the days. Also hope for good weather in the evenings so we can go take evening walks in the many gardens, or go fly a kite somewhere. Would be really nice.

Don't Fancy the Fattest Worm

More on the topic of sleep.

When I tell people Matt falls asleep at 11-ish every night, the typical response is a slight look of horror on their face.

Well, understandably. Cause I am horrified myself, really.

I mean, what toddler sleeps at such unearthly hours?

He used to be asleep by 10pm when he was a baby while keeping a nap or two in the day. Then as he grew older, more aware and needed less sleep, he naturally adjusted his naps and sleep timings. Maybe it's instinctive that he changed what he wanted, i.e. sleep later at night so he has more time with mom and pop (then I was still holding a full-time job).

And since he had enough sleep in totality, I tried not to let this disturbing late night trend bother me too much, although I must admit something constantly nagged me at the back of my mind to change his sleep schedule. But there is always one excuse or another. But really, it all comes back to me.

I am not ready.

Of breaking this comfy routine of having more time with him at night and sleeping in till 830 every morning. I mean, why rock the boat when it is a win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win situation? (sleep in = many wins)

But the time has come that I must stop procrastinating and move my big fat lazy ass and tweak his sleeping hours to turn in earlier and rise to catch the fattest worm.



He will be attending school which starts at 8am next year. This school is a school school, unlike the one which he is attending currently, a childcare with flexible drop-off time. 8am start time means Matt has to wake up at 7am, latest 7:15am. Ideally, he should be in bed by 9 or 9:30pm latest.

It requires a whole change in lifestyle. Early family dinner, which probably means I eat with Matt at 6pm so we can start bedtime routine at 7:30pm to achieve lights out at 8:30pm and a snoring baby by 9-ish. It probably also means hubs eats dinner alone. He will probably have lesser time with his boy. It also means we get in to work 8-ish, ahead of official working hours (especially for me - I start at 10am). On a less significant note, it also means we fight with the crowd on CTE and pay the highest ERP to get into town.

Oh well, something good will come out of this I am sure. It always does. For now, I just hope Matthew will adjust well to these changes. Me thinks he will. It is probably me who needs to brace myself for what is to come!

Fix My Sleep

I used to sleep like a log. The worst thunderstorm may have happened and I would sleep right through it.

Motherhood has changed me. I don't sleep very well anymore.

I wake up on average 3 - 4 times a night.

While people complain that they do not have enough sleep hours, I actually do, I think. I go to sleep together with Matt between 10:30 to 11:00pm. And get up at 8:30am.

Yes, you heard right. 8:30am. That's like ... 10 hours of sleep.

But. I wake at 11:30pm, sometimes 2:30am, 3:30am, 6:30am, and finally 8:30am. Usually, it's easy to fall back to sleep. Sometimes not. More often than not, it is easy. I am so darn tired.

Mostly, I get up to check on Matt, although there is really nothing to check. He is usually sleeping soundly. I cover him with his blankie, check if the room's temperature is okay. Then I fall right back to sleep. Maybe this is a result of Matt's early years when he used to sleep badly, and I woke up at those frequency to tend to him.

When I can't sleep, it is because there's so much in my head. I wake up from dreams sometimes. Then I will think about things that I need to do. Errands I have to run. Things I must remember to tell my helper. Things I need to bring to work. Things I have to do at work. Groceries I have to absolutely buy.

I don't know how to kick this bad sleeping pattern. Once in a long long while, I crash big time. Usually when I am ill and am on medication. Sometimes, I banish hubby to Matt's room, and have the whole bed to myself in our room, and sleep in assurance that hubs is there with Matt. Even then, I would stir at those hours.

I am really in need of fixing my bad sleep habit. I want to have restful, uninterrupted sleep.

He Likes School

Matt's school/childcare is closed today for some teachers' meeting thingie. So my little boy need not go to school.

I thought he'd be happy.

When we set off from home and stopped the car at my in-laws instead, he looked bewildered and started crying, saying, "I want to go to school, I don't want yeye's house ... !"

I never thought this day would ever come, but here it is, and as always, when I least expect it :)

A letter from Mom and Dad

Hubs and I often go way way out of the way to get or do little things that we know will make our little boy happy. Sometimes, we would shake our head in disbelief, and one of us would say, "Matthew, you better be good to us when we are old man!"

The beauty of it is, we never really do anything in anticipation that Matt would care for us in our old age, although deep in our heart of hearts, we hope for Matt and our future kids to be close to us till the day we are old and toothless.

But for now, I am reminded to be there for my parents and my in-laws best I can, always.


Something that moved me to tears today. Wordings aren't exactly
the best, but comes across sincere and real. The music accompaniment is amazing.