Being a mommy.

Is like being a contortionist. Feeding the daughter on one side and holding the son's hand on the other side. And the son was sleeping on his mattress on the floor. Next to my bed. I guess having done yoga twists come in handy.

The good news is that I'm starting to get the hang of bringing both of them out. By myself! This morning, after Em woke from her morning nap, I bundled both of them out. Em went into the pram, and I held on to Len's hand tightly. Together we took a stroll to the nearest LRT, then mrted all the way to Central, where I met my mom for lunch. Still too cowardy to do it without mom. Already Em was wanting to be carried by the time we reached our destination. Otherwise if she could stay quietly in her pram, it would be No Problem, Yay.

I must say that the son is getting more and more angelic day by day. He held his sister's hand and helped push the pram. When she got bored, he whipped out his Tomy cars and passed her one (so that she can start banging on the windows in the train! Duh). He smacked the chair for meimei's sake when she hit her head on the seat. heh. My darling son, already protecting his little meimei. And he alawys gets so excited when we take the train. It's becoming very nice and fun to go out with my little boy nowadays. Wanted to bring him out all by himself one of these days, but haven't got the chance to do so yet. Something nice to look forward to. :)

And just in case some pple says I'm neglecting the daughter, everyday when the son goes to school, the few hours I spend with Em all by ourselves. Sometimes we'll go wander around, sometimes I get to stay at home and play with her. Nowadays we try not to let the kids hang around at the clinic, so I've been spending too much money. Arrgh.

We've been thinking of having a third one. I think it's nice to have three. Hubby agrees too. But I really really can't get the idea of living the nine months again. And I've only just got my life back. I can somewhat fit into my nice clothes again, I'm starting to exercise, I'm starting to enjoy the time with my kids, I'm able to run and play with them, and help the hubby with his work. I might even be going back to work in one year's time. Would I be neglecting the two of them if I have one more? *sigh*

Some pple might envy the life we have. But it's not easy, having the hubby working 7 days and working till ten plus at night everyday. When I have to work, the kids will not sleep till I get home. When I'm home, I have to take care of both kids by myself. If my parents help, they will leave by eight. It's starting to get a little easier now, since both kids are getting bigger, but it would be back to square one if we have another one huh. :P

Ah well ...

Little Em sleeps like a ... boy. With her arms thrown wide open. At least bringing them out means they'll both be tired by night. Heh. The son has finally stopped coughing. I guess the pred does the trick, but everytime I have to give him pred, I feel extremely apprehensive. I hope he will be stronger. No more phelgmy coughs! Not sure if he got this one from his school or from swimming in the rain. *sigh* Let's see, on Sat, he swam in the rain. He was fine after that and on Sun he got a bit, just a tiny little bit, of runny nose. On Monday he was fine. He went to school, and when I came back from work that night, Mom told me he was coughing like crazy the whole afternoon. And it went from bad to worse, until we started him on pred on Tues. On Wed, the pred made him super hyper and jumpy. I told hubby that can we just give him a three-day course and lower the dosage? He's also on Flumicil for his phelgm. He's really much better now, almost no cough. Should I let him go to school tomorrow? They're having an excursion. *sigh* Decisions, decisions decisions. Why are kids so vulnerable?

Hubby is also slightly sick. He thinks he might have caught the H1N1 bug too. Except that it must be extremely mild. Just a bit of bodyache and chest tightness. Could also be chronic fatique, or the haze. Am getting the hubby to exercise more often and eat healthier. Sometimes it's just so worrying.

Me and my girl? Both perfectly fine! Heh heh. No bugs to worry us. I hope I don't speak too soon. Had a bad headache today, but it went away after medicated plasters, medicated oil, some massage and a nice dinner. I hope everyone in the family will remain in good health.

Eventful day

Last night's dinner was delicious. We had grilled squid from my book: Harumi's Japanese Cooking, chilli clams with celery (my style), Stir-fry caixin, and braised fish with soybeans. The last dish was cooked by my father. Soup was pork ribs with lotus shoot. Hubby was very happy with what I've cooked, and he said that I've improved since we moved in. But hey, it's only this year that I've really stopped working! And I've been looking at the cookbooks more often now. It's not easy to work full time, come home and prepare dinner and do housework! I'm still wonder how I did that all last time!

No photos. Was too hungry and tucked in immediately when the dishes were on the table. :P

Finally installed messenger on this laptop. One week without messenger makes me feel a bit wierd. Ha, one day without facebook makes me feel like I'm out of touch with the world!

Ion shopping - still exploring. Today we tried the Hokkaido ramen. Nice! But maybe that was because mom and I shared one bowl of noodles. Just in case it wasn't nice. :P More exploration next week! Is with all malls, we aren't too keen with the shops. Nothing really exciting, if you ask me. Are there anything interesting in there anyway?

A few thoughts.

30 minutes of exercise: 12 minutes on the stationary bicycle, 10 minutes on the strider, and the rest of time on the treadmill.

One packet of chili potato chips, one cup of full cream fresh milk.

I don't think I'm getting anywhere. Nope.

Am going to call in the contractor to do up some reno. Let's hope the quote isn't too much.

The son made the grandma climb up and down eleven flights of stairs the other day. All fine for the son, but the grandma has to carry the granddaughter ... ouch.

Everyone's cholesterol is high. Mine is still good. Heh. So have to cook healthier food for everyone else. Tried mushroom soup, tasted okay, but too mushroomy. And buttons are quite strong smelling. Tried celery soup. Yum!

Son went to bed without dinner tonight. He told me he was very tired and very hungry. I underestimated him, thought he would just sleep for a couple of hours and wake up for dinner. Still snoozing away ...

Too many mangoes equal one super painful tongue.

One super painful tongue can still eat chilli hot potato chips. Am I cool or what? Ouch ouch ouch ...

That's why the one cup of cold fresh milk.

Daughter's vocab has expended: dark dark when it's dark. And a lot more words which sound like what they are, but somehow still a bit off.

Nope, she isn't into Hermes. And I'm avoiding the evil duo and their Hermes. Heh. Waaaayyy to ex. Am not going back to work yet. But I will get a wallet when I go back to work!

BTW, did anyone catch the news one channel newsasia a while ago? They actually showed a penis on national television! A naked one! Dangling on a scope. For a few long seconds!

Feeling overwhelmed

Sometimes when I see all those SAHM doing so much for their kids, I feel really overwhelmed. What have I been doing for mine?

I don't know how to play with the daughter. I smile and tickle her and feed her. That's about all I know.

I don't really know how to teach my son. I'm not a preschool teacher! So stressful to teach him actually! I wonder how some people can have so much patience! So impressive! The most I do is read to him, but I should be teaching him ... teaching him to read, not just reading to him! The neighbour says if I read to them too often they may get lazy to read themselves. How true is that?

Arrgh.

Working vs not working

My brain feels like it's going mash. Don't get to gossip as much as I would like. Topics mostly centered around the kids. Don't get to dress nicely and put on make up. Listens only to children's songs and reads only children's books. Gah, when was the last time I picked up a proper book? How many times was 'The ants go marching one by one' on repeat?

The plus side is that I get to cuddle with my two kids, see them smile and laugh, play and swim with them. I don't have to wake up so early (seven is not early!), and get to take afternoon naps with them. I get to watch J and K dramas, and I must say, I still prefer J dramas! No animes for now, since nothing nice nowadays. I get to bring my girl out shopping at 10am, and there's hardly a crowd at the malls at that time!

So I packed some of the things back, I guess they don't expect me to return to work anymore. It was rather shocking to see the head looking so ... old and worn out, and I guess I don't miss the office politics and all. It's nice to be free!

Things I really ought to do: Play the piano and organise the mess at home. Things I'm starting to do: exercise more and teach the son.

In the end, maybe it's still worth it.

Shopping! So fun.

Yep, certainly is. Went to the newly opened Ion. So crowded on a weekday afternoon. So many new places to eat, but because it was so crowded, and we have two hungry kids, in the end we packed from Isetan supermarket. Ah well, gotta check out Ion again. Seems interesting. Still got the new shopping mall smell. Ahhh.

Mum and I went shopping for clothes. Heh. So fun shopping with my mother. I hope when my daugther is bigger I can shop with her like that too. Actually my girl was shopping with us too, but she was asleep in the pram. :P Son was at school. Heh.

First word

Just a quick and short post.

The daugther's first serious word was her brother's name.

Can't quite remember when she started calling him, but it should be around or after her 1 year-old birthday.

Photos when I'm less busy.

Wathcing J and K dramas. heh.

Being pleased

I'm so pleased with myself. Heh. Okie, so sometimes I whine a lot in my posts, so here's something encouraging for me. Hahaha.

1. Bought a total of four pairs of shoes during the GSS. One from Stuart Weisman, a nice orangy one, one from Tods, open-toed; then I just must walk over to Hogan, and they were having a 50% sale. How can anyone resist? Veron: quick go there too! Got a gold sandals there (was thinking of the white one, and the saleslady was soooo helpful: why don't you get both?). And the final pair was a sports running shoes from Nike.

All because the shoes I broke within the month were:
1. my pair of old Nike sports running shoes from like 10 years ago. The bottom came off while I was running, and I had to throw them in the bin.
2. My birkies (damn, not to be confused with the Birkin!). Very nice denim material. I suspect it broke because ... well, maybe because hubby liked to wear them sometimes when he was too lazy to take out his slippers! Nah .. probably because I twist my feet once too often.
3. My very well-worn white pair of sandals from ColeHann, the one I liked so much that I was actually thinking of ordering from the states when I found that they didn't have my size anymore. GOod thing they restocked. Stupid salesgirl, lousy service though.

3 pairs of shoes within a month. So I'll need to get some to replace them ya? :P

Unfortunately no more pretty red and black ballerina. *sigh* The colour was really pretty! Veron really got a good bargain for that!

Another reason for being pleased:

Finally managed to restore the password for hubby's webpage. TOok me long enough. ANd managed to fix the air-con remote controls! Thought we were going to have to throw two away, but yay! THanks to the daughter's ithcy fingers. She loves pressing on the remote controls because she likes the sound it makes. No more remote controls for her!

Other things to be pleased about:

Finally fix window grills for all the windows. Colour a bit suspect, but it's okay, curtains will cover them. Next improvement? MAybe solar film for all the rest of the windows? Or change the living room and stairs curtains? Looks like we won't be selling this lovely place for a while yet.

The daughter had a lovely one year old bday party. Was a bit disappointed as lots of my 'so-called' close friends couldn't make it, but I guess it can't be help, since it's a working day. But others turned up and it was a nice party I guess. I wished I could have had taken some nicer photos with the daughter, but as I was the one cooking the beehoon, I ended up having an oily and shiny forehead! Dear hubby also never tell me. Grrrr.

In fact, I thought it was going to be a disaster, since at the last minute, hubby needed me to work. We closed slightly earlier, went to get the fishballs and sotong balls, collect the cake, bought the chicken wings, rushed home (reached at 6pm) and I started cooking the beehoon. First guest came around 7.20pm, we actually thought no one was going to come! Started our dinner first. heh heh.

The kids had fun in the son's playroom. SO many toys to play with. I should have warned all of them that the violin is not a toy! Now have to get it tuned, and so many hair fell out of the bow! Duh. Was watching some videos for the party earlier, and it made me laughed when I saw the neighbour's kid stealing all the mushmallows from the cake right under my nose! haha. NExt time I'll have to buy him a bag of mushmallows!

I hope the goody bags were nice. Forgot to get input from my friends. Oh well. Prob the next day the kids will have thrown them somewhere. I know my son has. For all the goody bags he got in the past, and even the one I gave him. In my haste, I actually forgot to buy drinks for the kids. Last year I bought packet milo. THis year I truely forgot. Good thing some kids like green tea. hahahaha.

Been busy. PHotos next time!