Tribute to a flowergirl

Has it already been a week since Weylin & Ignatius' wedding?

Well, Weylin wrote a sweet little note to En on her blog and she kindly allowed me to link to the note here.

On a separate note, said gentleman in my wedding blog whom I thought was single and available? Turns out he's now single but NOT available. Sorry ladies out there!

Movie afternoon

Seeing that our girls were all just recovering from illnesses, we couldn't really do anything outdoorish today. So the original plan was to take them to a movie. Maybe Disney's latest offering, Princess & the Frog or Planet 51. But I really wasn't too keen on Princess & the Frog because I know it has some scary elements, and I know my friends Daphne & Martin had brought their girls to watch it and they had only lasted halfway.

So after breakfast at Spruce, we decided to stop by Popular Bookshop and pick up some new DVDs, go home, pop some corn, and watch them like we would a movie at a cinema, and at half the cost too! We picked up Sh-Sh-Shark from the Word World series and Catch the Stars from Dora the Explorer.

Word World is a clever series by PBS where words are the stars of the show. If you see from the poster above, the animals and almost everything else, including the barn, are made out of their letters! The WordFriends go on comic adventures and face challenges that can only be resolved with the right word. That word is built letter by letter, sound by sound, during the funky “Build a Word” song at the end of every episode. Once the word is built, it “morphs”–comes alive–into the thing it is! Word building reinforces the pre-reading concept that letters (and their sounds) make words, and that words have real meaning…and power. The series also introduces literacy concepts that preschoolers will encounter as they become readers, such as sounding out letters and rhyming.

While we occasionally watched this back in Evanston, the kids weren't really interested. Then for Min's birthday this year, Linda bought her the DVD "Dog's Camping Adventure" from the Word World Series as a present, and in the last month or so, my girls, all three of them, have really started to appreciate this show.

here are the girls with their popcorn, hot out of the microwave, low fat and much healthier than cinema popcorn!

and just as well we were at home because it was pouring with rain outside and we were snug as a bug in a rug! (that's one of the episodes that we have from Word World!)

ah, the delightful simple pleasures in life!

Struck by the bug!

After the surprise party on Fri evening, I had a particularly bad night. I kept going to the toilet after midnite. In my sleepy state, I initially thought it could be due to the excessive amount of chilli padi I had with my mum's porridge that evening, but after about the third time, and the strange tightness and cramping in my tummy, I began to realise that this could be something more serious, like stomach flu or food poisoning. By morning, Min too, was complaining of a painful stomach and had thrown up as well. Thankfully, my mum wasn't working yesterday, so she took En & Wen and I took Min to the doc. Before we left the doctor's office, the nurse gave Min a dose of vomit medicine. Well, I didn't realise that the medicine could cause drowsiness, cos whaddya know, the kid fell asleep in the stroller on the way home.

so Friday became another "time alone with Min" day.

this is her in her play house in the afternoon, feeling poorly, but not wanting to sleep on her bed. So she went into her house to rest.

My mum also reported the same stomach pains as us in the afternoon and was feeling poorly as well, and by evening time, I was informed that En had vomitted too. So yes, we all seem to be down with the same thing. My dad reported symptoms this morning. But thankfully, it seems to be quite mild, whatever it is that we got, cos we are all better today (if you don't count the vomit En did at Spruce right after breakfast!) And the man also came home early this morning from Japan so we have another set of hands on board to help, which is useful cos my in-laws are now in HK attending their nephew's wedding and much of my extended family are holidaying in Thailand now. This sort of reminded me of when we were sick in Evanston, without much help. How did we manage then?!!!! Well, we did, somehow. But this is so much better!

playing house

Thursday afternoon, I entered the study to find that En had ingeniously created a "house" for herself and Min by tying one end of her vintage apron to the chair and the other wedged at the computer pull out table. They then proceeded to drape other pieces of cloths over the apron string. Pretty clever, I thought.

I had not imagined, when I purchased these vintage aprons for En & Min from a second hand shop in Evanston, just how many uses the girls could have for them. At first, they were superhero cloaks which they tied around their shoulders and flew around in. Other times, they became tube dresses. Lately, these aprons have become the doors to houses, like in this case, or when they think that the doors of their actual play houses are not good enough to keep out the big bad wolf, and they need another door. If you look carefully at the pictures, you'll see that there is a piece of pink paper pasted onto the apron. En announced that the paper said, "No wolves allowed!" Yes, fairytales, especially the 3 Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, are much a staple of their reading diet right now, as you can see!

I am always happy to watch them entertain themselves with pretend play! I like to see how their imagination is fired up, and what they pretend to be (I think in this case, En was the mummy and Min the papa) and what they say!

Wen: Month No. 23

dearest Wen,

You're 23 months today!

For me, I will remember this as the month you got super sick, so sick I had to send you to the emergency room. Of all my kids, you are the most prone to falling sick, but never before have I seen you shiver the way you did this last week, when you were burning up with fever. But what I will also remember, amidst the decision at 3am to activate the grandparents and send you to ER, is how you giggled at me, while lying on my bed, bundled up in a blanket and with my comforter covering you, as I changed and you viewed my naked torso, and thought that it was the funniest thing you had seen in a while. That's when I felt slight relief, and thought to myself, 'ok, she can laugh at me, she's ok, she's ok!"

You were so good in the ER and as the doctors were examining you and explaining to me certain results, I would say things like, "Sure" or "alright" and you would be parroting after me, "SURE!", "ALRIGHT!" You are also very good about taking your medicines, despite how many you have to get thru! We got to spend a lot of time together, just you and I, when you were sick because your sisters would be with kind friends of dear grandparents. And it was nice to hang out with you. I don't get that many opportunities to spend so much time alone with you.

You are beginning to discover the joys of markers and crayons and other art materials. More specifically, the joy of drawing with them on 1)yourself 2) the floor 3) the wall. I have to watch you closely whenever you're close to your sisters' art materials. The ability to uncap a marker, and the quick movement to move that marker to a surface is scary! You also like to do naughty things, thing like throwing things off high surfaces, or peeling the alphabet magnets off the fridge and flinging them to the floor, just cos! I also thought that you had reached the age where you would leave the Christmas tree decorations alone, but I have been proven wrong. While not entirely destructive, you do like trying to pull some of them off for fun. Yesterday, you pulled off about 5-6 of the balls and icicles and threw them into a pail of water that grandma was using to clean the floor. You've also succeeded in breaking jie jie En's personalised Christmas ornament into 3 by dropping it onto the floor. thankfully we managed to glue that together again.

You like to watch Youtube on my i phone when we are out. And one of you have a couple of favorite videos, but the one thing they have in common is that they all sing variations of the alphabet song and you love to sing along with them! In fact, you even know how to operate youtube! Not the searching of videos, but the choosing of them! You really are quite the i phone expert, navigating your way around it with much ease. With other electronic things tho, like our DVD player/flat screen, I have to look out for the things you sometimes try to do. You like taking out DVDs from their cases, and sometimes, after you've chosen one that you like, you'll try and shove it into the DVD player regardless of whether there's actually another DVD in the machine still.

You do talk an awful lot now. The other day, we were at tampines mall and when I was done parking the car,you announced, "Let's go!" Something else that you are fond of asking this month is "Why?" yes, you've reached the "WHY" phase and at first, it was quite a shock to tell you stuff and have you look at me quizzically, cock your head to the side and ask me, "why?" Our interaction with all our friends like Auntie Linda and her family has increased the list of important people in your world. You will sometimes randomly talk about Auntie Linda, or jie jie Jolene, or Jon Jon. Sometimes, you will also ask about jie jie Jiexin. The other day, we were driving on the expressway when your sisters pointed out a car that looked like Auntie Linda's car. Not to lose out to them, you then began to point to cars as well and proclaimed, "Auntie Linda's car!" and you still do that from time to time! or sometimes, you'll ask to go to "Auntie Linda's house". But the one time I thought I would try and let you ride in Auntie Linda's car without me, you were fine until the car door closed, and then you started bawling, and Auntie Linda had to turn back to return you to me.

You've also had many opportunities this month to play with Hannah yee yee's students. You got to go for the class chalet this month, and you will tell grandma "I want to play with kor kor and jie jies", which is what you call them. In fact, you are very comfortable with these two particular boys, kor kor Yong and kor kor Chung, and you will let them carry you, and smile for them, and sit on their laps. They think you cute too! Another funny thing you've been doing this month is to draw notice to your accomplishments by loudly proclaiming "TA DA!!" I think this is something that you learnt in My Gym. You've also developed a pouty mouth this month, which you'll show us when you are being rebellious or defiant. Nai Nai calls it your "bian zui" and she tries to stop you from doing it. It's not a pout like a sulk. Rather, it's a pout where you purse your lips together like an orang utan, when you are being naughty.

Despite the fact that you're still super clingy to me, and therefore, hard to live with sometimes, you are such a darling! You are our one kid who, at this age, is willing to hold a coherent conversation over the telephone. This month, papa was away a lot in Japan, and so you and your sisters kept in touch with him over the phone. And sometimes, after handing the phone back to me, I would speak to him and he would ask, "who was that?" because you are actually saying things, things like, "love you" or "drink corn soup" and he is always amazed when I tell him that it's you!

Blessed 23rd month my resilient child! I can't believe you are going to be 2 soon!

Love, Mummy!

SURPRISE!!!

A few days ago, I received a message in my Facebook inbox account from my sister's student, asking if they could pls hold a surprise birthday party for Hannah at my house tonight, which is her actual birthday, right after she arrives from Prague. Sure, I replied, this could be fun. And so began Operation Surprise Hannah.

I really didn't do much apart from host the party, provide some drinks and snacks and cook up an excuse for Hannah to come to my place straight after dinner ("Eh, your nieces insist on "cooking" you dinner for your birthday. Pls come over from the airport to celebrate your birthday ok?") Hannah's students did everything else, from the guest list, to the presents and cake

and cards

and pizza.

they came early to decorate the card and let my older girls help cos they know how much En & Min like drawing and colouring.

They had even bought party hats and decorations for my place.

This is my dad - the lookout, who told us when he saw the car pulling in downstairs. My mum had gone to the airport to get Hannah, and she was the one who called me when they were close so we could get ready. The whole family was in on this surprise you see!

This was the scene before my dad told us that they had parked the car. Then it was all hands on deck, everyone heading to the front door with their noisemakers and confetti.

And then - SURPRISE! My sister got shot in the face with confetti as she opened the door!

She was surprised, though, as she told me later, not really that that surprised becos none of her kids had SMSed her to wish her happy birthday today, which was unusual, so she guessed already that they were up to something. Plus they've had surprise parties for everyone in the class this year, so she expected no less!

But she was very touched nonetheless!

5A (that's her class), made a cushion for Hannah with their class picture on it, which was cute and thoughtful!

My sister has been form teacher of this class for the last 4 years. They graduated this year, but the ties are very strong. This is virtually her second family. My kids, too, have come to have a whole other extended family in these kor kors and jie jies.

Blessed birthday, Hannah! We're glad to be able to celebrate this day with you!

Check out this album for more pictures!

Hannah's surprise birthday party

Alone time with Min

This morning, En & Wen went to my mum-in-law's place, and Min asked to stay home with me, so I got to spend the morning with her. We started by making some playdough using this recipe I blogged about before. Left to her choice, Min chose to make blue playdough, naturally, blue being her favorite colour.

She industriously helped me to measure out the ingredients, and stir them together, and mix the food colouring in.

We divided our recipe into 2 pots, so we were able cook up one lot of green and one lot of blue playdough. After that, Min was able to play with the playdough in the kitchen, which I have realised is the best place for playdough to be played in.

Later, we headed to do some grocery shopping together in the nearby supermarket. Among the things I bought was a 10kg sack of rice! I am so thankful for Min, because she volunteered to hold the sack of rice on her lap. I don't know how we would have made it home otherwise! Of course, it was quite a sight, this little girl holding a sack of rice that's as large and heavy as she is! I can't tell you just how many passerbys and stallholders at the wet market had something to say about it to me!

Hurray for a lovely morning with Min!

Boat in a Storm

Because En attends Kinderart at Holy Grace, she gets to attend a day of their holiday classes for free. So last Friday, she attended art camp at the Tanjong Pagar Community Centre from 9.30am to 5.30pm. She brought this home. A reproduction of the famous painting below.

Now since I wasn't there, I can't tell you just how much of it was done by her, but when I asked her, she said she followed the instructions of the teacher and that they helped a little bit, but that it was mostly done by her. whatever the case, we are very proud of her Boat in a Storm, and we decided that the best place for it would be in the toilet! So now, if you ever come visit and sit on the royal throne in the kitchen toilet, you can admire En's artwork!

Henri Rousseau - The Boat in the Storm

On the mend!

Well folks, Wen & I got our first full night of sleep in about a week! I am feeling much better of course, and so is she. She woke up this morning about 7.45, and demanded to come out of her pack & play. So I took her out and put her on the bed next to me and rolled back to sleep. She protested, whining and crying and wailing, till I turned to her and said sternly, "No whining. Talk to me. Tell me what you want", at which point she tells me, "Outside!" Yes, she's better when she won't lie languidly on the bed after waking up but demands to get out. She heads to the kitchen, points to the fridge, and is pleased to receive yoghurt.

Started feeding herself right away!

here's cheerful Wen.

Her sister, Min, was not pleased to discover that we had awakened before she had! But it was a nice riotous sister reunion/breakfast in the kitchen this morning! We haven't had that in a while.

I think she's really turned the corner! phew!

Update on Wen

Here's an update on Miss Wen. I know many of you have been praying for her, and we are thankful for your prayers! Well, Tuesday was not a significant improvement on the other days. Her fever was still high, and we had to keep giving her panadol & ibuprofen to bring it down. She was also very grouchy. See video.

At dinner time, she ate relatively well, compared to the previous days, and then I decided that it would be saner if I let En & Min stay with the grandparents and just look after Wen at home. Well, this was a good decision. I had bathed her and put her to bed, and she was already asleep in my bedroom when I snuck in to get my pyjamas, and she suddenly started crying, sat up, and began vomitting copious amounts of stuff, all the while just upset as could be. Fortuitously, my mother arrived with some stuff for me just at the point where I had finished bathing Wen and was putting on her clothes. So she was able to help me change her bedding and wash out the vomit.

Soon after, I put her back to bed, and ten minute after, I hear her crying again, and I rush in to find her vomitting once more. Another bath and bedding change later, I put her down to sleep, and then about twenty minutes after, I hear her cry and go in to the room to find her retching, her chest heaving as she tried to vomit. She didn't really have much stuff to vomit out by this time, just some yellowish liquid coming out from her mouth and nose! Each time she'd be clutching her stomach and telling me "pain pain". And for the rest of the night, it was just like this, I would maybe give her one sip of water, which she would drink, and the moment she swallowed it, she'd start retching again and I'd have to carry her to the toilet bowl, where she'd scream as she retched. It was awful. I contemplated sending her to A&E again at one am, but decided to wait it out and see how. Still, I did pack an emergency bag, based on my previous day's experience, as well as a change of clothes for myself just in case there was a need to rush out.

She slept fairly ok till 5am, where she would keep waking to cry and then go back to sleep again. But thankfully, she was able to retain fluids at that point. I was exhausted, as you can well imagine. The both of us slept, fitfully till about noon. My older kids had gone to skate camp and then to dear Linda's home. When she woke up late this morning, she was hungry and told me she wanted her favorite soup. So after a bath, we headed to MOS burger at Tampines Mall, to have her favorite corn soup and bread to dip in it. She had very little appetite, and threw up a little at the start of the meal, thankfully, mostly into her bib. She also had diarrhoea when she was there, a side effect of the antibiotics. This is her after lunch, in the car, on the way home.

So tired and weak. But still she managed a smile for me.

She spent the rest of the afternoon at my mum-in-law's place so I could take a break, and managed to sleep a bit more. The good thing is that her fever has been absent all today, and she was able to eat a little at dinner time and retain it all. And so far, she's been asleep peacefully so I'm hopeful that tonight, I will have uninterrupted sleep. I think she's on the mend! Nonetheless, still covet prayers for my little girl! Thank you!

Pierced ears for En!

I know I previously said that I wasn't going to let En pierce her ears till she was 14 or something, but she's been wanting them and I really had no good reason to object. So Grandma decided this would be her Christmas present to En this year! Min was going to get hers done too, but the doc that I brought them to yesterday morning was such a kill joy. He kept going on and on and on about how painful it was going to be (and I was thinking in my brain, "Bite your tongue! bite your tongue! not helpful! Just do it!"). He went on in such great length that my Min was scared off.

En looked like she was going to back out as well, but I assured her that it would be fine, and in the end she decided to do it. Up to the point where he was going to pierce her ears, he was still going on about how she could cry if she wanted. Bite your tongue, Doc!!!! Here's a video of her getting the first ear pierced.

she was so brave! No crying! In fact, she boasted to grandma over the phone later that "An ant bite is more painful than piercing your ears!" silly doctor.

she's pleased as punch over her earrings, and very conscientious about cleaning out the area around her earrings after each bathtime! she was convinced that she couldn't take a nap yesterday because she had just pierced her ears!

an early morning visit to a&e!

Wen's been sick for a few days now. It started with diarrhoea on Wed and then the fever started on Thursday. Generally, my style is to just let the body fight it out but after a particularly bad night on Friday where Wen's fever had spiked and neither she nor I had slept very well, I had to ask my mum to take her to to the doctor on Sat morning since we were rushing to Weylin's wedding. Doc said it was stomach flu, a virus, and gave the appropriate medicine. But she did caution that if by Monday, her fever wasn't better, we should bring her in again to check for a urinary tract infection.

so the fever continued. Saturday night was another bad night and then Sunday night, the man left for Japan, and Wen was in the room with me. I went to bed at 2am on Monday morning, and then at 3-ish, I began hearing her stirring and crying in her sleep. So I got up to check on her and she was burning up. Her temperature was about 39.3 deg cel. I rushed to get her Ibuprofen and when I came back into the room, I saw that she was shivering violently, almost like there was a giant vibrator inside her. She was gnashing her teeth and her lips and toes were blue. I think she was super cold from the fever. I wrapped her in her blanket and then tucked her under my comforter, and still she continued shivering. None of my kids had ever been sick like this before. I wasn't taking any chances, for once, and called my mum, in tears, to ask if I should take her into the hospital. She agreed and said she would come over right away. I decided it might be a good idea if I woke my in-laws as well and got my dad in law to send us to hospital and then have my mum-in-law stay with the girls. My in laws and mum rushed over in like 5 minutes and then my dad-in-law drove, fast as the wind, and got us to KKH in no time at all.

we were attended to immediately, and as far as doc could tell, there was nothing wrong with her throat or ears, so not H1N1 and not throat or ear infection. so they took a blood sample and then they stuck this plastic thing at her private parts to get a pee sample. except that my kid hated it. and it made her very uncomfortable.

she kept crying and saying that it was "pain pain" and "itchy"!
I pumped her with water but she just refused to pee till about 2 hours later, by which time my mum and dad in law had left to go home and change for work, so I was alone with her.

Let's just say I'm grateful for my fully charged i phone. It was a huge lifesaver in the 6 hours we were there. After we finally got out that pee sample, we had to wait an hour for the results. Then doc comes back and says he thinks its urinary tract infection (UTI) but need a better pee sample as the other one, taken in that way, could be contaminated. so they wanted a pee sample in a container! I wanted to faint. so hard to get one in that pee bag, now they want me to actually collect pee in a cup from my no potty trained kid! this meant another round of pumping her with water, and then being diaperless. I couldn't even like do my own thing while waiting cos I had to be vigilantly monitoring my kid for signs that she was going to pee so I could swoop in with the cup and collect the pee. Plus it had to be midstream pee, not right away! BAH!

to keep her busy, we did, among other things, draw on the disposable bed sheets with our blue marker, and make hand shaped balloons with the disposable gloves. I gave her so much water but she was still not pee-ing. So I decided to let her sit on top of me while playing with the i phone, to improve my chances of getting the pee. And after one and a half hours, the pee finally came, enough to fill a full cup and also, to wet mummy between her legs so that my jeans were wet too and it looked like I had pee-ed in my pants. sigh.

after said pee sample was procured, we had to wait, another hour or so for tests to return. So yes, it does appear to be UTI, though it's kinda borderline based on the results. But they are running more tests on the sample, and doing a culture, which will be done in about 2-3 days. Meantime, she's on antibiotics, and still likely to be feverish cos the anti-biotics won't take effect till about 2-3 days. We paid ($80 for everything, quite cheap I thought) and collected medicine from the pharmacy, and Wen was still in very good spirits. She was saying hi and bye to the pharmacists and laughing with me and singing songs. But once we entered the cab, she snuggled into me, found a comfortable position and knocked out immediately. she was soooo tired, poor girl!

I am so glad that En & Min are healthy. Am thankful for both our sets of parents that rallied around us yesterday as well as dear friends like Linda, who took my older girls so I could concentrate on Wen yesterday and catch up on sleep! Thanks also to my other friends like Angela & Hwee Ling for offering to take my older girls! I am blessed by all your generosity and love! Keep praying for Wen!

The Wedding of Uncle Iggy & Auntie Weylin!

Dear everyone,

Saturday was the wedding of Uncle Iggy & Auntie Weylin. Mei Mei Wen was sick so mummy didn't sleep well and papa had just arrived from Japan at 2am that morning so we left the house late but we still got to the church before the bride did! phew!

This is me and Ari. Our dresses are from Life Baby and Auntie Weylin sewed on the leftover pieces of lace from her dress on the shoulders of our dresses. Pretty? She also weaved our baskets herself when she was in Thailand. She's amazing isn't she?

The wedding was at the White Rabbit. There are these heavy wooden double doors there and on each door hung these wreaths. No prizes for guessing who made them!

Here is the wedding cake, which, no, Auntie Weylin didn't make. But she did make the cupcakes and macaroons and lemon curd tarts with some help from her friends on Thur!

She also bought me this pretty flower headband and Ari has a silver starfish one.

I really enjoyed walking down the aisle. On Friday night, mummy practiced with me at home. I walked from the kitchen to the living room and I practiced walking SLOWLY and throwing lots of flowers. It was lots of fun! So I did a pretty good job on Saturday!

There were 4 bridesmaid and one maid of honour. They all looked very pretty!

But prettiest of all was Auntie Weylin! She had both her papa and her mummy walk in with her down the aisle! Isn't that special? I think her mummy was very proud to walk in with her!

The ceremony was short and simple and sweet.

Time for Uncle Iggy to kiss the bride!

After the ceremony was over, we got to throw rice all over the happy couple!

Auntie Weylin looked so beautiful!

we also met many of papa's friends like Uncle Joel. He's single and very eligible by the way. Is anyone interested? He's too old for me!

(By the way Uncle J, you're not fat. your face just looks big in these pictures because it's next to our small faces!)

There was a special area set up for the kids with craft material, stickers, markers, and lots of fun stuff.

All of us got to take home a bath buddy.

Papa was watching me being a flowergirl and thinking about how he'll have to walk down the aisle three times with me and mei mei Min and mei mei Wen! Don't worry, papa, you're still da man! I love you! MUACKS!

Did I mention that I LOVE my dress and had a great time dancing around in it?

all the adults were given a box containing the yummiest fruit cake that was home made in Ipoh. Grandma loves fruit cake and when she tasted this, she approved of it!

the adults had a wonderful lunch! The first appetiser of lobster.

the second appetiser of Truffle Mac & Cheese, so yummy, tho I personally didn't think very highly of the truffle thing. Don't understand why papa and mummy like it so much. I like my mac & cheese without truffle. Papa and mummy also had the main of beef which was tender and flavourful.

For dessert, there was wedding cake, which I think was lemon curd and raspberry, but absolutely the yummiest wedding cake mummy has ever had!

Thank you for inviting us to be a part of your celebrations Uncle Iggy & Auntie Weylin!

Mummy is very sorry she didn't take better or more pictures, but you can see what we've got in this album.

Love, En

Wedding of Weylin & Ignatius