Water Babies

My sis-in-law in Perth bought swimwear for both Kieran and Raeyen from Target. Thanks Connie!!!

A 2-piece Spiderman for Kieran and a 1-piece Cars for Raeyen. The moment they opened the package from mail, they were thrilled and wanted to try them on.

Raeyen was particularly happy, dancing around with his new swimwear.



To-date, Kieran is improving in his weekly swimming lesson. He could swim in breadth without help. He has been quite reluctant to swim that far even with much coaxing from his coach. I had to tell him to believe in himself and, with confidence he could make anything possible.

Letting Go

My best friend's hubby who was suffering from brain tumor is now with God. He ended his ordeal on 29 August 2008 at 12.42am.

I remember one Pastor said, "We are not here to pray for Brother Yin, for he is home and with God." It was very appropriate. I like the verse the family chose for his obituary:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

On the 29th when I returned to his home to collect his suit, I discovered 2 pieces of folded papers in the pocket. As I retrieved and opened them, I realised they were the script to my wedding 9 years ago when Yin was our Master of Ceremony. It brought so much memories... the times we spent Christmas together, exchanging couple gifts, went Paris and London together till when our kiddos were born.

Outing on 22 August

As hubby couldn't apply leave to celebrate Kieran's actual birthday, together with Yani, we took both boys for lunch at The Central by taking MRT to Clarke Quay.

Knowing that Kieran loves Japanese food and having read a good review in Urban, I decided to scout for Ramen Santouka for its succulent pork cheek at $8 a serving. We were there during the office lunch hours and had to wait for about 15 minutes to be seated. We ordered 2 set meals and pork cheek. Boy, they were so good that we ordered another serving of pork cheek.

Then we took the MRT to Vivocity (the kids and my fav haunt). As usual, we went to the pet shop to see some cute puppies and hamsters. Kieran was pestering me to get him a pair of hamsters but I relented, I told him that he is too young to mind them. We saw a gleaming red Ferrari race car on display and the boys were very excited.

Then we went to Marks & Spencer for some cookies and Gloria Jeans for a cuppa (hot chocolate for my boys) before heading home early to beat the after-office hours office crowd.

It was a fun day with the kids.

I am looking forward to our day out (this time with hubby) on 1 September.

Kieran's celebration part 2

Celebrated at my mom's place on Saturday with his favourite tiramisu cake from Bakerzin. He was a happy boy because he received presents that he has also wanted ...

1. Lego Ferrari truck & car (8153)
2. Lego 3-in-1 Racers
3. Read & Write LeapPad
4. LeapPad Books
5. 3-in-1 Binoculars
6. Red packets
7. Spiderman swimsuit from his Sar-Gu, Sar-Kim & Jamus gor-gor

It was also a special day for Kieran as we managed to catch glimpses of fireworks near my mom's place. Every year, we get to celebrate his birthday accompanied by some fireworks!

Nowadays, Kieran is very much into Lego and I am happy for that. We would pester me to open the box and guide him fix the items. I must say he is pretty good at it now. Whenever there is a promotion for Lego, I would buy him an item or two. But whatever he is playing with, Raeyen will want to get his hands onto it. Yesterday, Raeyen lost Kieran's Lego police car (Kieran was very upset) and we were searching for it high and low. This morning, Yani managed to help us find it, phew!

Kieran is 6!

We celebrated in his Kindy this morning with his classmates.

The vanilla Transformer Bumble Bee was baked by Aunty Dora and the kids (even the teachers) were amazed with the creation. It was a quick and easy celebration with song, cake cutting and the ceremonial goodie bags for all the children.

P1 registration frenzy

We have no affiliation to any schools or clans or churches, we did no volunteer work, we have no "connections", as such we can only register Kieran under Phase 2C (whatever this means).

Maybe we did not do enough... Nevertheless, it's an emotionally tiring exercise as all parents only want the best for their kids within their means. I don't know if our current registration system is the right one but it's %&$#*&!

So now we are unsuccessful at Phase 2C balloting for kids who stay within 1km from school, what is our next "best" alternative? We have to register him at any school that still has vacancies.

I hate to say this... but I DON'T LIKE THE SYSTEM! Period.

To add to my dismay, I wasn't even in town during registration and had to rely on hubby to update me of yesterday's disappointing result. Perhaps GOD has better plans for Kieran. At least I'll be home on National Day morning.

I'm now 17 hours away from the opening of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing.

My Germany trip

Sunday 27 July

Before my taxi arrived to send me to the airport for my trip to Germany at 9pm, I accompanied hubby to buy his Samsung Omnia from the M1 Shop, which took forever to process his purchase and blah blah... in the end, I had to zoom home to finish packing my luggage at 8pm!

My Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt departed before midnight. It was my first on LH flight and yeah, it's service pales in comparison with SQ.

Headsets, welcome drinks, papers/magazines were not offered (who cares even if it's business class). When I asked for English reads, only TIME or Forbes were available, EVERYTHING else is in German. So, sprechen Sie Deutsch? Nein! So I chose to sleep with ear plugs after washing up.

Monday 28 July

The 45-minute connecting flight from Frankfurt to Nuremberg was worse than Tiger Airways. The seats were small and narrow, service is near non-existent.

Our taxi arrived to pick us to our 13-century old Colmberg castle in Rothenberg, which is another 1 hour ride. The castle is old, nice... because it was a castle, I had to climb the stairs to my tiny room on the 3rd floor. There were old stuff around, animals, treasure chests, even some baby cots with life-like dolls in them, if you asked me, they were freaking me out. Yes, there were also 2 sets of armoured soldiers!!!






We had a medieval dinner in the castle one night and it was very interesting as in the olden days, they only used knife to eat, which we used just that... imagine having only knife for soup?



After a few days' meeting, we went to Rothenburg for a tour. It was a nice place with old architecture (13-15th centuries) and streets.












Friday 1 August

I bought some gummy bears and chocolates from Rothenburg during the tour and on 1 August, we had to take the ICE train (2.5 hours journey) from Nuremburg to Frankfurt as our domestic flight (45 minutes journey) was cancelled due to the strike at Lufthansa. Then onboard my flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, we were told that our meals would be restricted due to the strike, look how "yummy" my breakfast was. The only thing I could finish was the corn bar, the rest (except water) was revolting.


Saturday 2 August

Reached Singapore past 4pm. The moment I got home, I was greeted with warm hugs by my 2 angels. They were curious of what's inside my luggage and were happy they found gummy bears and chocolates.

More photos can be found here.

Nice little touches II

Kieran was eating apple yesterday, Raeyen came and wanted a bite. Kieran said to him, "OK, let gor-gor bite off the skin for you first." because Raeyen doesn't like to eat apple with skin. After skimming off the skin, he let Raeyen bite off one big chunk.

Whenever I was about to get out from the car, Kieran would run out to open my door.... hmm, wonder if that's a gentleman in the making?

Nice little touches

I was about to have dinner when I saw a little piece of tissue paper tucked under my plate. Kieran beamed and said to me, "I place the tissue under your plate and papa's plate so that you can clean your mouth after eating."

My best friend, May told me what her girl Megan did to her when she was carrying loads of grocery while Meg held on to her pants as they were crossing the road to their car. May was telling Meg that they had to hurry as her hands hurt so much by carrying the groceries. Guess what Meg did? She immediately massaged May's forearm furiously trying to alleviate her mommy's aches.

When I complained about pain, Raeyen would say, "I sayang." Whenever I walked Raeyen into his school compound, he would happily tell his friends and teacher, "That's my mommy!"

My little angel

Thank You...

Flowers courtesy from Carol, Ivy & Wendy

... to those who

cared for me
concerned about me
showered me with love
texted me
called me
visited me ... and more.

Falling sick...

... is a terrible thing, especially when the GP tells you it's life-threatening.

It began when I felt very cold while in a meeting on Monday afternoon, my left hand was numb followed by the right fingertips. Left office at 6pm for home...

Waited an hour to see a GP after I reached my station. My temperatire was 39.8C, neck stiffness, bodyache, headache and he suspected meningitis. He wanted me to go to A&E within Monday as it's life-threatening. I was worried sick. My mind was filled with questions:

1. What will happen to Kieran & Raeyen?
2. How is hubby going to cope?
3. What if it is REALLY meningitis?
4. Will I be warded?
5. How long will I stay in the hospital?
6. What sort of tests I will go through?
7. Will my head be shaven?

It was awful. Hubby came to fetch me and my tears started to stream.

Got home, bathed, had soup, bade the kids a teary farewell and went to the hospital. Kieran was crying; Raeyen was clueless.

At the A&E, a resident doc saw me and blood was drawn for tests. Antibiotic drip was given and then I was warded for further observation till a specialist in internal medicine came to see me past midnight. He said the blood tests were OK and ruled out meningitis, I was relieved (but not for long). However, my throat infection was bad and it could be the one that triggered all the aches, pains and fever. Hubby told me Kieran couldn't sleep, called him at around midnight that he was worried about Mommy, I was so touched by my angel.

I was supposed to go Mumbai on Wednesday evening, but had to be cancelled.

Friends came to see me wishing me well with a nice bouquet of flowers. I was in such an unglam state that I told many not to come. My department sent a nice fruit basket with chirpy sunflowers too.

On Wednesday, I was sent to Radiology department for a MRI scan on my head due to prolonged headache. It was a 30-minute scan with lots of mechanical beeps and sounds. I could only hope my head is fine with no tumor or something found.

On Thursday morning, the specialist said the MRI scan detected nothing abnormal and since my throat has recovered I could be discharged the same day.

And here I am, recuperating at home...

Kieran & Raeyen at 3

See the similarity?

1. Both wore the same shirt from Zara!

2. Both celebrated in the same Kindy.

3. Both had chocolate cake.

Raeyen's 3rd birthday at school

As promised, we brought the Thomas the Engine cake to Raeyen's kindy on his actual birthday, 10 July. When we were there, the kids were washing their hands, ready for their morning tea break. Raeyen was so happy to see us that he introduced his friends to me, such Ethan, Jeremy, Sean, Cheyanne, etc... I was surprised and amused.

I let him place the candles on his cake, and he actally had 2 candles stuck on the trains' faces! Their teacher cajoled them to do a "train" clap before singing the birthday song in English and Chinese. While the kids were eating the cake, Raeyen handed each of them a goodie bag.

He was happy and excited that day, but I fell ill after with headache and backache.

Raeyen's 3rd Birthday Party

It was a fun-filled day for Raeyen and the kids; while the adults chatted, the kids played with one another in the playroom.

Aunty Dora baked the themed cake to a T as everyone wowed her awesome creation. Mind the missing "N" in Kieran's name.

The kids als enjoyed the tattoo session as they had Thomas the Engine, Sesame Street, Spiderman and other girly designs on their hands, wrists and ankles.

Thanks to Ah-Kong, Ah-Mah, Dua-Yi, Jenric, Jenard, Di-Yi, Dua-Gu, Dua-Kim, Eugene, Eric, Rachel, Sar-Gu, Sar-Kim, Jamus, Aunty Jenny, Megan, Aunty Adeline's Mom, Aunty Adeline, Uncle Chong, Paul, Mark, Aunty Angeline, Uncle Sam, Ethan, Jayden, Aunty Ivy, Uncle Kian Hwee, Favian, Dillon, Zayden, Aunty Wendy, Juno, Aunty Janice, Janessa, Zanette for making Raeyen's 3rd birthday so special and happy.

The second celebration will be in his Kindy on the actual birthday - 10 July.

More pictures: