Blessings from Above

we have been getting this a lot lately - li'l gal just refuses to sleep (whether its naptime or bedtime); she will happily battle with the 'zzz' monster until she can fight him no more and then conk out. that would be fine except that on some occasions, she is so exhausted that she will just whine and cry on and on... unable to fall asleep! it happened again today - her normal nap time if we stay home is around 11am but she requested early in the morning to go over to my parents' place and i obliged her... and over there, her 'normal' nap time is closer to 1pm (since her cousins go to school at 12plus). however, up to 3pm today, she was still not willing to lie down for her nap (both her cousins were home since it was school holidays) so i did the next logical thing - i brought her home. she played by herself for a while, while i sorted out my emails and correspondence... and she came to me asking to watch telly - in order to get some peace (to complete my wor...

if i've been quiet the past couple of weeks, its largely because i dun have time to post - the hired help is hardly any help - you can't imagine how glad i am that today will be her last day with us. i really pray and hope that the next one will be a genuine help instead of a burden like this one! some of her nonsense that i had to put up for the past few weeks: - her 'attempts to get lost' - she was day-dreaming and did not get off the train when i did. i had to get the help of the station control staff to locate her (i was late for my meeting as a result!). they sent a message to all the stations to look out for her and fortunately, we found her! apparently, it did not scare her at all as she happily 'shopped' when i shopped - she was busy looking at the items on display and price tags instead of following me closely at the crowded malls. in a similar incident, she took an hour to get home from my mom's place when it should only take 30 mins max because...

our cheeky li'l boy covered his face the whole time during scanning and this was the only time he 'removed' his hands from his face... so we'll have to wait for the next visit to try the 4D scan! for the record, i've put on about 5kg+ to date and based on estimate, our li'l one weighs in at 1916g - i'm very glad that most of the weight gain goes to him, instead of me!

some of u will probably think i'm very elitist for writing such an entry... i apologise... but i can't help it. to me, people like my current domestic helper (imbeciles, i'd call them), are total waste of space, air, water, food and whatever else you can think of (resources, if i have to choose one word). seriously, why do such people exist in the world to compete with the rest of us with the limited resources that's available? like a robot, she moves (i'd hardly consider her working) non-stop, from the moment she wakes till the time she goes to sleep at night. to the average person, she would appear to be very hardworking, cleaning all the time but is she really? my floors - still sticky after she finishes mopping... the crockery in the kitchen - still stained and dirty after she washes them... there is still dust in my room after she has finished sweeping and mopping! i seriously feel that she is wasting my water and detergent since she is unable to perform h...

warning: extremely long entry I bought the local papers this afternoon and read the article "My Maids of Horror – The New Paper” with great interest as it was definitely a topic that I can relate to (while mine is not as dramatic as the story reported). It has been two years since we employed our first domestic helper and we are already on our search for the fourth one. Before you ‘accuse’ us of being fastidious employers, please read on. The Job Scope for our domestic helper: - Cleaning/up-keeping our slightly-bigger-than-1,000 sq ft apartment - minimal cooking (mainly for herself) - caring for our 2 year old when we are busy (i.e. a couple of hours per day when I am at work); feeding, changing diapers/toileting and playing with her. - caring for our small house dog (walking him once a day, ensuring he has his meals & water and bathing him twice a week) - laundry and ironing - washing the car once or twice a week (depending on her workload for the week) She...

... 6 years today (counting from the customary date)! over here, many people have 2 wedding dates - one whereby they are legally married and another whereby they are 'recognised' as married by the older folks. we normally celebrate the 2nd date since the 1st date falls in our birthday month and there's just too many celebrations in that month... (just to satisfy your curiousity, with that date in july - we would been married for 7 years this year) so this was us 6 years ago at The Fullerton Singapore (where our wedding banquet was held), sans kid(s)... Happy Anniversary Laogong... looking forward to many more happy years being married to you!

can u count the # of candles on his birthday cake? Dad was very happy to celebrate his birthday with his 3 grandchildren... :) happy birthday dad! may you always be happy and healthy!

first up, is there an avenue i can complain about maid agencies to?? pls email me if there is. forgive my ranting, just have to get these off my chest (you can ignore this post if u don't want to read abt my complains) there has always been a lot of press about employers who treat their maids unfairly/unkindly... but how come i hardly read any about unfair practices to employers? unfair practices include those by the maid agencies and insurance companies - i'm sure i am not the only one putting up with such nonsense. we 'collected' the maid on saturday afternoon so effectively, she has been with us for 2 days. for the first time in my life, i met a filipino with sub-standard english. the agency INSISTED that that was the english standard of ALL filipinos. are you kidding me? my parents have hired filipino domestic helpers for more than 20 years and i have NEVER met one who has such lousy understanding of english (my previous one was also from philippines and sh...

my li'l princess went down for her nap at the right time today - she must know we'll be heading out; going for a complimentary ' positive tots ' trial class with one of her mates later. i expect her to be up in another half hour or so and i'll have plenty of time to give her lunch + get her ready to go out. i even managed to complete filing my taxes (the hard part, i.e. consolidating the receipts for claims, was done early in the week) and had my own lunch. so what else were we up to y'day?? i gave her her first 2-year old haircut! :P how does she look? she has been 'complaining' that she feels hot but refuses to let me tie up her hair. i'd love for her to grow her hair out so she can tie her hair into a nice bun when she starts ballet classes (next year when she turns three) but obviously, this gal thinks otherwise. oh well, anything to make her happy! i also made a call to the agency to get updates on our n...

the maid's gone home - nope, i didn't send her back; she wanted to go back - she SAYS her mom is terribly ill and so she wants to go back and see her. she told us on sunday after she came back from her rest-day, we booked her a ticket on monday and she was off y'day - just like that. that leaves me without a domestic helper until the new one arrives (we went to the agency to pick a new one on tuesday). i've not done the household chores for a while now (since last july when this one arrived) so it took me a while to locate the necessary 'equipment'. i'm glad that li'l one was co-operative and 'allowed' me to go about doing my chores while she 'entertained' herself... i managed to do the laundry, mop the house, change the bedsheets, bathe the dog (i couldn't locate his towels and had to use the rag instead to dry him) and cooked lunch for us (li'l one & me) and dessert for everyone - not bad for someone who is 6 months'...

i had thought long and hard how to celebrate Claire's 2nd birthday : - a small, intimate home party with some close friends? -> then i'll need to prepare food (not sure if i'm up to it in my current state) - book the function room and invite the whole kampong? -> not sure if its a good weekend to have a function since its close to Easter and most pple will probably need to be in church. in the end, i decided to just invite Claire's regular play-date kahkis and some of my colleagues. for the children, i organised for them to spend some time playing at Frisk 'n' Romp (indoor playground with scheduled hourly programme). my next headache - the food! as the party room for Frisk 'n' Romp is only available between 3.30 - 5.30pm (and the food provided is only for the kids), i had to think of alternatives. i enquired at all the food outlets within the complex and finally decided on Starbucks since they had an outdoor dining area on the ...

My li'l baby (yes, she'll always be my baby!) turns TWO today! Happy Birthday sweetheart! May you always be healthy and happy.... Mummy & Daddy LOVES you! party photos coming up soon!

- Opening of Tampines One (3rd shopping mall in Tampines Town) - my wishes came true : i had hoped for a cold storage for groceries & a HSBC bank branch to do my banking! no need to travel to parkway parade anymore! - Screening of 'The Sniper' starts today - starring the 'Nude Photo Scandal' Edison : i think many young gals swooned over THE photos (and wished that they were the ones frolicking with him) - Screening of 'Fast & Furious 4' - once upon a time... I love fast cars and quick action - now that I've become a mother, I have to value my life and consider the risks that I can take! (wished I had sky jumped in uni. days! doubt i'll ever have a chance to do that in this lifetime) Most importantly... my baby turns TWO today!

she loves the barney cake (actually she chose it) with her two cheeky cousins with my sis aka her godma family photo (incomplete) serving cake to her godma since Barney cannot be the main lead in the main party, I decided to order a small cake featuring him and his friends for our family celebration - my sis' two boys are in afternoon session so they all cannot join us on the actual day and thus a separate celebration. it was nothing fanciful, just a simple cake cutting and present opening session at my parents' place... (in case you are wondering, two 'men' are missing - my BIL has evening classes and dh was away for reservist training) anyway, i think kids enjoy their birthdays tremendously since they are in the limelight (okay, maybe not all kids - some are shy by nature and only like to be surrounded by familiar faces) - Claire is definitely one of them. :) she keeps chanting... birthday cake, happy birthday to me, open presents... etc.

preview of our studio photos...

I’m awoken again – this time, by bad stomach cramps. As my eyes slowly get used to the darkness, I search for the numbers on the clock – its 1 am. This is the 2nd time this week that I’m getting the stomach cramps. Is it something I ate today (and that day) that didn’t quite agree with my stomach or that steep flight of stairs I was forced to take during today’s seminar (I felt cramps too while climbing up those steps)? Or worse, a sign of something unfortunate impending? I don’t know. I popped a couple of bismac (hoping that its because of something I ate) but just can’t get back to sleep… so here I am again. Our friend’s 1st IVF procedure was unsuccessful and they are going to try again. Yesterday, another good friend shared about her ‘missed miscarriage'. I feel deeply for them, even though I have never been on such a roller-coaster ride. You and I cannot possibly understand the pain and heartache they are going through because we have simply never been there before (unless yo...

since li'l one's birthday is just over a week away, she has started receiving birthday presents... first one was from dear daddy (kitchen set from toys'r'us) & the 2nd one is from aunty audrey who flew the present all the way from OZ, together with some supplies of rafferty garden! thank you aunty audrey! have a safe & fun trip to africa!

what a busy weekend it was! we started off with JK's early birthday celebration on fri - a small, cozy home party which we feel honoured to be invited to! it was such a heartwarming sight when mummy L and daddy BK took photos with the 7 toddlers that were present - it almost felt like mummy L gave birth to all 7 of them! on sat, we attended Glady's big birthday part held " with a pinch of salt " - what a cute name for a cafe! dh and i passed by this cafe previously as we frequently visit the marine fish shop located in the vicinity for our supplies and we have always wanted to try it. mummy G and daddy E booked the whole place and we enjoyed an afternoon of good (junk) food - definitely a place to visit again! we ended off the weekend with yummy lunch @ one of our family's usual haunts - keppel club's chinese restuarant: peony jade with the in-laws and another small, cozy BBQ party at dinner time held in the bungalow at our club to celebrate Jesse...