Love needs to be around...

It's been a long time since hubby and I spend time alone together. Since the arrival of Min 6 months ago, our life has once again been disrupted and a lot of routines and things have to change to cater to the little fella, and that includes any ME/US time we used to enjoy. I can't remember the last time we went out alone without min, and can't even remember the last time when we sat together for a meal without having to fuss around the kids or gobbling down our food just before the kids start screaming or fidget in boredom. Ah...really miss the days!!! I guess it will be another few months/years till we get to enjoy our own time again. Had been feeling a little neglected and taken for granted lately, but I can't really blame hubby as he's really tired (so am I) from our day to day routines and he's been travelling on business quite frequently too. Perhaps when we move to our new house things will be better. Min will be 8 months then.

Min has been growing up quite a lot lately. I haven't got the chance to upload any pictures but he's looking more or less the same, except with longer legs and less chubby thighs. This is probably due to his frequent exercise workouts on his walker, cruising in the house trying to touch/grab every single object that appears in front of his face :P Now that he's using more energy to move around, he'll need more energy by eating more. For a 6 month old, he's quite a big eater taking half bowl of cereal for breakfast a day and half a bowl of porridge twice a day for lunch and dinner. On top of that, he's still nursing on demand throughout the day (and night) plus an occassional snack in between the meals LOL Hope he maintains his chubby thighs for as long as he could!

Our wedding anniversary is approaching. It seems that with each year passing by, there's less and less enthusiasm in celebrating this supposedly meaningful day. Firstly we've both given up on cracking our brains on what to give to each other. Secondly we really have no chance to go out alone for meals with the kids (or at least min) so attached to us (esp me!). Finally with our expenses tighter since I am no longer working, we'd rather save the money for the kids or other necessary expenses versus going out for meals. Not easy for hubby to earn money these days. Despite saying that, I still hope hubby will remember this day, and the vows we made on this day 8 years ago...

United we stand...Together we fall!!

The whole family got bugged!! The bug I am talking about is the gastricitis bug that is being passed around in the family recently. First it started with Ee throwing up his breakfast in school last Tuesday and I had to bring him back to rest. Throughout whole of Thursday, he couldn't stomach much food and was throwing up most of the food he was consuming. Luckily he recovered after a good night sleep but was kept home on Friday to rest just to make sure he was fine.

Just when we thought all was fine, Hao starting throwing up on Saturday morning. We let him skipped his swimming lessons and hubby brought him to see the doctor who couldn't found any other problem with him and thus diagnosed him with irritable tummyache. Hao had the worse share of the bug and threw up everything that went into his stomach, even water. He could not even drink a single sip of water despite the medication we gave him and on top of that, even had to attend a family gathering with us. Poor boy broke down and cried when he saw the food that reminded him of his hunger and begged us to let him eat. We had to harden our heart and refused him all the food till he was better. Luckily he stopped throwing up just slightly before midnight and relinquished 2 bottles of milk before going to sleep in content.

Hao recovered by Sunday morning and followed my in laws for their market walk and hubby and I decided that since both Hao and Ee was with my in laws, we could go out and window shop for some furniture and do some grocery shopping. In the morning we did notice Min was throwing up some milk after feeding, but thought the less of it since it was quite common for him to do that. We were all in the car travelling along PIE Eunos when Min threw up quite a lot of milk all over me! I quickly told hubby to head back home again to clean up and brought Min to see the doctor. The doctor confirmed my worst fear that Min caught the gastric bug and had to be put on medication. On top of all that throwing up, Min also developed slight fever and his cranky side surfaced...I was dead tired from looking after him and didn't have any sleep on Sunday night as I had to carry him most of the time during his sleep to make him feel more comfortable.

By monday he was feeling a bit better but was still on medication as he seemed to be recovering a bit slower than his brothers, most probably due to his age and the lack of immunity to the bug. It was on the same morning that I felt nauseas and feverish on top of the fatique due to lack of sleep throughout the night. Despite being sick, I still had to look after Min and make sure he's ok and taking his medication, as well as making the routine rounds of fetching Hao and Ee from school and spending time with them. It was only when Min was napping that I was able to catch some sleep in between for a few minutes. Monday night we all stayed over at my parents' place as hubby had to catch an early morning ride to KL for a business meeting and will only be back Tuesday midnight. I rested as much as I could and crossed my fingers hoping that I'll recover on Tuesday.

The finger crossing worked and I could feel my energy coming back on Tuesday and was not feeling as tired as the day before. Near noon, hubby smsed me from KL and told me that he caught the bug too and his stomach was feeling queasy plus his body was a little feverish to touch. I panicked and quickly replied to his sms that probably he should pop over to the pharmacy to get some medication to tide over the day as well as avoid spicy and oily food. Sigh poor hubby was all alone in KL and had to attending meetings and will need to travel 4 hours back to Singapore later that evening. Luckily he wasn't throwing up anything and was experiencing spasms in the stomach. I meant to wait up for him on Tuesday night but fell asleep while putting the kids to bed and only woke up when he reached home at 12.30am. Luckily he was alright and only felt tired after the journey. He slept in late this morning and had a good rest and recovered just in time for his other scheduled meetings today.

The latest victim today is my mum, who threw up quite a few times and run to toilet a couple of times too. She has been resting since this morning and I hope she recovers soon. Just now in laws came for a short visit (to see if the kids have recovered) and I was told my mother in law too caught the bug and also recovered within a day.

It seems like the bug is getting stronger and spreading more viciously these days. I wonder if it's our body and immunity system getting weaker or the virus out there is mutating and getting stronger and is able to attack our immunity system with new strain of viruses. The HFMD is also getting worse and the news reported that in the past few days, it has gone up five hundred over cases. The figure is astonishing!! I think it might also be due to the weather that the germs are growing faster and easier and you can't really control all the kids in school from grabbing and eating stuff infected with the virus. Parents are also unable to find appropriate childcare for kids who are infected and thus are sending them to school once they have recovered without any second thought that whether they are still infectious. If our kids get infected, I think it's hard to blame any single person really.

That reminds me that I should start giving the kids vitamins again...least they get sick again!!

Refreshed!

I have been feeling very guilty for being lazy to update my blog lately. Tonight I finally said to myself that it's been too long and I should start updating the blog with what's happening in my life.

First of all, I got tired of the blog's outlook and decided that I was in the mood to get it refreshed (or rather freshen it up) as its looking too dark and dull. Browsed through the various templates and finally picked something brighter and cheerful to start off with. Then I went on to add more colors in the fonts and updated the header.

Indeed, many things have changed since the last couple of months. From a full time working mum, I finally quitted and became a stay at home mum, taking care of the family while hubby is working hard to provide for the family. It was so different then and now...too many that I didn't know where to start with, but all in all, I am very blissfully contented now with my life although I am more tired out with caring for the family than compared to working. Quality time is spent with the kids and everyday I see what's going on in their lives and I can be there every step of the way be it good or bad, and the best thing, I can see my baby growing up day by day under my tender loving care. It'll be hard on hubby but we think everything is worth it (or at least I hope he think it's worth it LOL).

Back to what's happening. Nic has been back for 1.5 weeks now. Time really really flew by. She came back quietly to surprise parents and will be going back this Sunday. Really miss this sister in law of mine..even the kids are happy to see her (and her presents haha). It's going to be back to msn chat again next week when she's back in SD. Hope that I will be able to bring the kids to visit her when they are older...they will sure love SD.

The kids are generally all well and active. Hao has shown lotsa improvements in his schoolwork and is more disciplined now with me at home breathing down his neck. I try not to stress him too much and hope I am striking a balance between pushing him to building his foundation knowledge well and enjoy his childhood as much as he can. Ee seemed to have grown up a little, but people are still dazzled by his babyface looks and petite size. He's a little grouchy there and then with his terrible twos, but the most amazing thing about him is his huge appetite despite his small size. Min is now able to flip over and back, sit on his walker and wander around the house with his curious eyes (and hands). He has started on porridge now and is feeding half a bowl of porridge 2 meals a day. They are all growing so fast and I am starting to want to reach out to them and beg for them not to grow up so fast *sob*

Today is April Fools' Day, and it's been 3 weeks since my last post. During these 3 weeks, we managed to sell our flat, then the buyer defaulted and withdrawed his offer, and we had to remarket the flat again and finally today we settled another offer, which is a little lower than the first offer but still a good price. Finally I've got one item off my list and saving me trips to and fro home to entertain the agents and potential buyers coming to view our flat.

As for the interior designer for our new flat, we've managed to narrow down to 2 of them and will be working with them for a final quotation for comparison and deciding who to award the project to. It's like a dream finally coming true, and with us closer and closer to our dream haven finally materializing. How very exciting and i can't wait to see how our dream home will become!

Money is tight nowadays and we really need to do a lot of planning with the reno coming on. We've really gotta tighten our belts and get ourselves to be prepared for rainy days and carefully work out our expenses. Hubby hasn't been really happy at work with his increasing work responsibilities as well as frequent travelling. He's been travelling almost every other week and it's taking a toll on his health. I'm really glad I made the decision to stay home and look after the kids, allowing him to focus on his work with the assuarance that I'll be here to take care of things, but also on the other hand, it really makes me feel bad to burden him financially. Sometimes, you just cannot have your cake and eat it too. I guess certain sacrifices will have to be made if you wanna achieve your goal in life. It's really not easy for me too as the job of a SAHM is really many many times more tiring mentally and physically than working. At least you can keep your sanity at work versus pulling your hair out trying to teach your preschooler mathematics at home while the baby is on your lap and toddler crying in the background. I am so looking forward to the day they'll be independent and I can sit down and take a breather to drink a cuppa tea without interactions!