Blessings from Above

As we enter the final weeks of what is possibly my last pregnancy (since I really don't know if I have the energy to have another one), it's easy to understand why most people enjoy the 2nd trimester the most. In the 1st trimester, most are busy purging out what they are trying to put into their bodies. Fortunately, I've never had very serious morning sickness - with all 3 pregnancies, the most pronounced symptom that indicated I was carrying a new life was how tired I felt all the time. With Claire, I also clearly remembered that I couldn't bear the taste of normal toothpaste and had to switch to natural herbal ones. With the two boys, life was mostly normal - other than constantly needing to indulge in a siesta every now and then, though this time round, I was quite frequently looking for sour things in my diet. I drank lots of tom yum talay in the initial weeks and that definitely contributed to my weight gain (all that coconut milk!). Up to this point (roughly into

Someone told me that if I should start to have maid problems again, I should test if I am pregnant because pregnant ladies always have issues with their maid. In this case, you would already know by now that I am indeed pregnant (and in fact, already in my final trimester) and I am starting to be less tolerant of the maid. The truth is, the problems were always there but I chose to close BOTH eyes for the past one year. I kept this maid for so long only because she didn't show any signs that she would abuse my children when I am not around. Not that she does now... but her lack of initiative and cleanliness is getting on my nerves right now, ESP when we are going to welcome a newborn into the family pretty soon. I guess that means the hunt for a new maid will begin soon (at some point...). Once I have sorted out Claire's party this weekend, completed the sale of our property (so that i have one less thing in my mind) and tying up the loose ends at work... another one bites the

Every year, without fail, Claire will throw me the toughest of challenge for her birthday (last year she asked for a rainbow theme) and this year, because we bought her the movie 'Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" last year when we were travelling, she decided that she wants a Tinkerbell theme. She won't settle for anything else. I suggested Disney Princess, Hello Kitty, Dora, etc etc but all got rejected. And since the movie was not actually shown in Singapore (I don't recall ever seeing any promotional materials on it), it was practically impossible to find merchandise on the theme. Fortunately, I have this GOOD habit of being prepared so I did ask her way in advance (probably like in Jan or something), I had plenty of time to source for things related to the theme. My only gripe - there was NOTHING that boys can have with a theme like this! Nope, nothing - not Peter Pan (not even remotely popular), not Captain Hook, not even 'Jake and the Neverland Pirate&

This is Claire's drawing done on LOTS. She told me that this is the 'boomerang bird' in angry bird. Don't ask me why she wrote Chace's name below though. :)

I realised over the past couple of days the reasons why I blogged so infrequently in the last two years...  1) I barely turned on the computer since I got my hands on the ipad since it practically does everything I need to do. The only times I had the turn on the computer was because some pages did not load properly on the ipad (namely those that were running adobe flash content though there ARE ways to get around that problem). 2) I suffer from insomnia only when I am pregnant and my creative juices only flow in the middle of the night when all is quiet (like now!) 3) Facebook has made it much easier to share updates and photos with iPhones/iPads So that explains why I have blogged more in the past two months than the entire of last year! :P and I suppose that means you will be reading more frequent updates on us for the next four months at least! Another reason would also be that I've downloaded the blogger app on my iphone and ipad and that allows me to upload a photo and

Claire getting her two front teeth fixed by the dentist last week - but the filling on one of her tooth came off the same night coz she kept playing with it. Anyway, the dentist said that the 'cavity' is too small (to do the filling and) to be of a concern as long as we pay attention and brush them clean daily.

Claire has been doing spelling since the start of this year - are there specific methods to learn to spell? I teach her to recite the letters and then the word as she writes them so that they 'register' in her brain. Is this a good method?

I always know its trouble - when the OTHER family falls ill. Though we do not meet often (once every two weeks, maybe - even that is too much), there is a 'carrier' who will bring the germs and viruses over to my household. It normally starts with the children and then DH... and I'm usually the last to get hit. But since I am pregnant now (there are many articles explaining why pregnant women get sick more easily - just google it), I got infected before DH and I'm glad to say *touch wood* that the children got a much milder version. It started last week - with a horrible feeling in the throat and before I knew it, I lost my voice *almost completely* - conversations were reduced to whispers and I bet the children were glad that I couldn't SHOUT at them when they did something dangerous! I started off with laryngitis and then, drippy nose - I've got my voice back now but now the throat is always itchy, the nose is stuffy and the phlegm is greenish. *YUCKS*

Recently, there has been a furore among parents with young children over plans by the education ministry to 'review' the current primary school registration process as the current system gives priority to certain groups of people, much to the chagrin of others. I belong to a group who has some 'slight advantage' over others as I graduated from one of the local top schools - that 'automatically' qualifies Claire for a place for the school. Never mind that we stay a good 30 - 40 mins drive away from the school. However, being a single gender school, we will need to seek alternative schools for the boys, adding to our logistics woe in the future. Our current residence is in a private estate and the nearest school is 1.3km away. We have started looking at properties nearer to school for Claire, which means that we will have to move out of our comfort zone in the east. To make matters worse, property prices have escalated to ridiculous levels with suburban prop

I guess its pretty obvious that I'm not able to blog as often as I'd like to even though its what I set out to do. Between shuttling the children to and fro school, catching up with work in the office and occasionally cooking a meal or two, I can barely find time to do anything else. It doesn't help that I need more sleep than normal now or that I'm not very good at managing my time. :| Just for the record, Chace at 30 months, only has 19 teeth and is still not potty trained. I'm a believer that the child will achieve a milestone when he/she is ready and thus I'm not worried. The grandmas, on the other hand, have been bugging me to toilet train him particularly because Claire was off diapers in the day when she was about 18 months. However, he is way before schedule for other milestones e.g. speech and motor skills so that, in itself, really isn't a cause for concern. As for Claire, she is starting to realize that school is not all fun and play. Oth

Another 6 months has gone by and I've barely blogged - I shall attempt to blog more often this year with my reshuffled schedule. Both children will go to school from 11am - 3pm for the first six months, though Chace will only go in 3 times a week (since Claire only went 3 times a week the whole of last year). On the days that he doesn't go to school, he will get to spend some quality time with his grandma when Claire is in school. On Sat mornings, grandma has decided that they need to spend some time with God so she will take them to attend the kids programme in her church. This schedule will allow me to do lunch appointments on weekdays in an attempt to clear my production for the year in 6 months since I'm due end June/early July and most likely will have to take the rest of the year off to care for the newborn. 2011 wasn't very significant - but we did manage to take our first vacation alone without the kids since Claire first came into our lives in 2007. I