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!

It has been a while since my last post. The past few weeks had been really hectic. Being a full time stay home mum is really a challenge. For one, my kids stuck to me like bees to honey...everywhere I go without them, I had to report to them or I'll get calls on my mobile like at least 5 times continuously! The good thing is that I really get to spend quality time with them :)

We have more or less settled down on the design of our new house. After going through designs and quotations with 6-7 interior designers and got more or less the final designs for our house after listening to so many suggestions and ideas. Now we will just have to shortlist the final designer to do the project, which will start on 15th May and end 15th July. 2 months to complete the reno. Hope everything goes well as we have to shift latest by 15th July to handover our existing flat to the new owner. We sold our current place for quite a good price which can be used to subsidize the reno for the new place. Timing is very critical now as the tenant at the new place keeps delaying and we are so worried we might not be in time to move!

Sigh with all these things going on, I'm really up to my neck! Good thing the house is now sold and we have finalised the design for the new house, we will start to pick out the theme and materials for the new house and plenty of shopping and spending money for the new house which is pretty exciting!

I had some time yesterday night and managed to download all my pictures into my PC :) Had latest pics of my kids and looking at it, I suddenly feel that they are all growing up so fast! Of course at times I'll complain that looking after them is rather physically tiring, but then again when they all start to grow up, I sort of miss them clinging onto me when they were little.

Time really flies and Min is already 4 months plus! He's really a bundle of joy and his personality is something we didn't really expect. Bubbly and cheerful is what he is everyday, and he'll so ready to give you a big big smile when you talk to him or simply call out his name. He'll definitely be a charmer when he grows up!

We have already spoken to a few ID for our new house and had more or less know what we want for our new house. Will be finalising some details soon and of course short list the IDs that we prefer and talk about dollars and cents soon. It's getting so exciting looking at our new house design and visualising how it will look like when it's finished :)

The valuation of our current flat is also out. Surprisingly, the valuator gave us a good valuation of $218k, which is rather high compared in the market now. We have decided to try out selling on our own and avoid paying agent fees and hopefully can fetch a good price to raise more money for the reno of our new flat. Will see how things goes from here!!

The new year frenzy is finally over!!! It's already into the middle of Feb and in another 2 weeks, March will be creeping in! Time really flies when I'm busy being a SAHM. Am enjoying the time at home, and Hao's learning curve has been improving since. I am glad to say that when I see him able to read and write better, acquiring new knowledge everyday, I feel very satisfied and feel that my little sacrifice is worth it!

Finally we will be settling our paperwork for the new flat today. Officially the new flat will be under our name today. However, the ex owners will need to stay in the flat till April/May and thus our reno works can only start middle of May. Was telling hubby that I hope things will move faster so we can move asap. The current flat is getting a bit small for our family of 6 now and privacy is a luxury to us with the maid around...sigh!

Life had been pretty hectic for the past few weeks. Well, I've officially stopped work and spending more time at home. A lot of people think I am having a good time being a tai tai at home, but the fact is that being a stay at home mum is definitely more stressful and busy than a full time working mum. For one, being at work means you are away from the chaos at home for at least 10 hours a day and that 1-2 hour travelling journey and 1 hour lunch time is always a good period of personal time for you to interact with REAL people (not screaming little people at home..) and of course you've have time for shopping around etc. Staying home means you'll have to be with screaming little people 24/7 and there's nothing called personal time, or even bathroom time, or annual leave, or sick leave etc. Basically I work like a maid at home. Well, I think the maid has a better life than me, considering that she has at least 9 hours of sleep a day while I still have to look after the baby and wake up to express milk at night. Tough life!

Ok I've finished complaining...there's always the good side and the bad side of a situation right? I felt for the first time I am spending quality time with the kids. I've been teaching Hao to study since I've stopped work and at least I know and can monitor his progress in his studies. I've no need to express milk in the day time and feel less stressful trying to meet supply with demand when I was pumping at work. Now feeding on demand is so relaxing for me. Am looking forward to starting semi solids with Min. Ee is starting to stick to me too, as I'm always around to play with him :P I'm more inclined to think that the kids are happier with me around, although I scold them more hahaha

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, just 2 days away. This year the kids are more excited about this festive season as they are starting to understand that during CNY they can have a lot of new year goodies and new clothes and most importantly, ANG POW!!! It actually feels more fun to celebrate CNY when there's kids around as they will bug me to get decorative stuff and more goodies at home. Although expenses are climbing at home with the boys growing up and eating more and more each day, I am very happy to see them growing well and healthy under our care. Oh, with me not working, I am starting to read more cookery books and trying to experiment more dishes for the weekends and really hope that they'll enjoy my cooking LOL