Simply Happy!

Feeling simply happy today as I will be seeing my hubby very soon. Just checked his flight details and get to know it is delayed by 2 hrs. Yea... I am planning to fetch him with my girl later.

Take school bus or drive her

A short snippet on school bus.

Near her grandparents' place

Faith: School bus... (She saw a school bus outside a pre-school near her grandparents' place.)

Me: Yea.. School bus that sends children to school. Do you want to sit on school bus?

Faith: Yes.

Me: Next time you will sit on school bus to school okie.

Faith: Yes.

Me: Mummy will not drive you .. School bus will send you to school.

Faith: *silent

Me: Do you want to school bus send you to school or Mummy send?

Faith: I want Mummy send me to school.

Me. Hmm...

"I want to show Teacher my bag..."

Our little Faith brought her new minnie mouse trolley bag to her grandparents' place this morning. When I picked her up from grandparents' place, she was happily pushing and pulling her trolley bag.

Here is a snippet of our conversation..

At her school's carpark

Faith: I want to bring my minnie bag to school.

Me: No.. this bag is too big and might not fit into the cabinet so don't bring to school.

Faith: I just want to show it to my teacher.

Me: Ok... so you just show to your teacher and Mummy will bring your bag home okie.

She then happily walk into her school compound. From far, she saw the teacher, who always check her temperature, walked into teachers' room. She exclaimed "wait wait.... see my bag..". But that teacher didn't hear her. Another teacher came out and checked her temperature. She was dumbfounded and didn't tell that teacher her new bag.

We then walked to her classroom. She was very excited and knocked her classroom's door herself. Her favorite teacher opened the door. She was too excited and only proudly said "see my bag...".

Teacher: Oh.. Is this your bag?

Faith: *keep nodding and smiling

Teacher: Wow...

Faith: This can push...

Teacher: Oh...you can push..

Me: She just wants to show you her trolley bag.

Teacher: Haha. I thought she want to bring to school.

Me: Haha.. No.. She just want to show you.

That is Faith's first showoff.

Mummy's Day

Faith sort of know that today is Sunday and there is no school and woke up later than usual. After having shower, we went to a coffee shop @ Bedok Reservoir Road for our breakfast. She had roti prata and I had prawn noodle soup.

Right after breakfast, we went straight to downtown east. I decided to bring her to eXplorerkids today although she has just went a couple of days ago with her school. She has been asking eversince when her teacher will bring her there again. I told her to ask her teachers and if they don't bring her there again, I will bring her there.

I signed Faith as a member of eXplorerkids since it is more worthwhile to be a member even only 1 visit. She got her first membership card with her photo on it. Photo is taken on the spot and card can be collected when we leave the place.

Going to a huge indoor playground with a toddler can be a lot of fun but be prepared to get exhausted. You got to climb up and down in the build-in structure with them. And squeezing through the small hole and climb up high steps and go down the slide with them.

Never expect there were so many children on this day. Forgetting it is a school holiday and is a Sunday. Faith did not enjoy the structure as there were too many children. She played in ball pool for a while and we went to a ball shooting structure (an extension play area in eXplorerkid that charge extra). We both enjoyed ball shooting.

Only after we entered eXplorerkid, I realized my digital camera has no more battery. I only took a photo of this.

As it is pretty dim in the playground, I could not take any photo using my iPhone. No photo this time round. I will make sure my camera battery is fully charged next time.

After 2 hours of play, we decided to leave the place. Faith wanted to get a lollipop at the store outside and she chose a x'mas lollipop (green and white in colors). We then collected her membership card and went downstairs to go for indoor ferris wheel ride. During the ride, she had her lollipop and she truly enjoyed her ride. Remembering around a year ago, we had this ride with her daddy and grandpa and grandma but she can't wait to get out the cabin. Now she enjoyed so much. Guess she has grown up a lot.

Our outing ended with a trip to library. I had got her a minnie mouse trolley bag sometimes ago for her to put her library books and let her push to library so as to relieve my load in carrying her and her books.

Guess what happened...

At the carpark

Me: Faith, could you help Mummy by pushing your bag? (Faith has put some (not all) library books in her bag before we get out of house.)

Faith: No. Mee mee carry my bag.. (I were already carrying another bag of books).. and carry me..

Me: *jaw dropped

You could imagine I carried 3 bags (1 sling bag, 1 shoulder tote, 1 trolley bag) and faith to take lift.

On our way back home, Faith is tired and slept in the car... I hope she has enjoyed her day with mee.

Faith's first school excursion - eXplorerkid

Today is Faith's first excursion. School is bringing them to eXplorerkid @ Downtown East.

When I sent Faith to school, all her classmates were already waiting at the door. Guess all of them were very excited on this trip. As for Faith, she asked me to go with her. I guess she feels a bit apprehensive since this is her first outing without us around. As this time no parents are invited, I can't join her then. I re-assured her again and again that she will has a lot of fun.

When I fetched her after school, she came out of her classroom with a blue sword balloon.

Here is a short snippet of our conversations:

Outside her classroom, our conversation...

Mee Mee: Wow... what is that?

Faith: (*smiling happily)

Mee Mee: Do you have fun?

Teacher (at background): Yes she did. She has a lot of fun. (*smile happily)

While walking out of school, our conversation continue...

Mee Mee: Faith, is that a sword?

Faith: No.. Is a balloon.

Mee Mee: Yea.. Is a balloon sword.

After this, she called her balloon as sword. :)

She truly enjoyed her day. When I asked her what did she play in her excursion. She replied she played balls. Usually when we asked her what she do in school, she replied dunno.

Let's me see whether I could get some photos from school and update here.

"I want to tell Daddy I stomach pain"

"I want to tell Daddy I stomach pain" is what Faith said this morning and looked for her daddy again in the house. She went around the house with her hand on her stomach.

She then remembers her daddy has went overseas to work. ...

First night of just me and Faith

Right after school, I brought Faith to Siglap coffee shop and have dinner. She had fish ball bee hoon soup and her fav. soya bean drink. We headed home after dinner.

I was expecting some excitement from her when she sees her X'mas Part II but she didn't. She looked at her new toy calmly and said she want to open it. She is still not in her usual self. I guess she misses her daddy a lot. So am I.

This is my first time staying in the house with just Faith. Since her daddy is not in town, I took over his playmate role. Faith did not request to play her usual games (fire-fire, hide-n-seek) that she played with her daddy.

These are the activities covered for the night:

- Watching her fav. hi5 show (twice)

- Pretend play "Cooking"

- Jumping on the bed

- Flashcards

- Storybook reading

We skipped showering as it was raining and weather is cold. She slept at around 9pm after some nursery rhymes and patting.

Unusual Quiet

Hubby has departed early in the morning to Costa Rica for a business trip. This trip will bring him away from us for a month.

When Faith wake up in the morning, she did not look for her daddy immediately. I thought she is sort of aware that her daddy has went overseas for work. After a while, she starts to look for her daddy. Asking "Where is papa?". When I told her that her papa has went overseas. She do not believe and attempted to open bedroom's door to go out (to living room and study room) to look for him. She then realized that her daddy is really not at home and left oversea. I could see her teary eyes and she was trying hard to hold her tears back. From then, she is unusual quiet and not in her chatty cheerful mood. Since then till I sent her to school, she has not smile.

She didn't cry today although she said she don't want to go to school. Now is raining heavily with thunder. Hope she is doing fine in school.

I took out her X'mas Pressie Part II. (I got her three X'mas pressies this year.)

I hope this will bring her smile later.

Nice Dinner At Mookata

We had a great dinner at Mookata Thai BBQ Restaurant, which is located along East Coast Road. ("Moo" stands for pork and "Kata" stands for barbeque plate in Thai.) This is our first experience with mookata. Few things worth to remember on this interesting BBQ cuisine.

1st- Using Charcoal

2nd- Pork Lard

Pork lard (in white color) is placed in the centre and oil from the pork lard will flow down the metal dome pan. Meat is placed at the side (above soup of coz) to BBQ. Vegetables and food that meant for boiling are put in the soup, which is brewed using pork rib. Soup tastes very sweet after a while. Remember to savour the soup in the middle of your meal. As towards the end of our dinner, the soup is spoilt after much BBQ as the BBQ burnt oil flowed down into the soup.

3rd- Different types of chilli sauce

Top: Thai chilli. More towards sour than spicy.

Bottom: Spicy chilli sauce. Nice...

For those who love chilli padi, request from the waiter for the super spicy chilli sauce.

I love both chilli sauce where my hubby prefer the spicy chilli sauce.

4th- Pork Collar (Sorry that I forgot to take photos as too busy eating)

Taste a bit like chinese BBQ pork slice. Delicious but fattening. :P

Price is quite reasonable. We ordered quite a lot and cost us approximately S$50. Final verdict is we will recommend to others and we will definitely go back to this restaurant again.

Feeling better

I am feeling better as day goes by. No longer feeling giddy all day long. Able to walk straight line. Able to control my limbs. But my eye sight has not recovered but is getting better. This illness has taken me nearly a month to recover. More than 50% of the time is totally down (i.e. not able to do anything other than lying on bed). Not able to read books for very long and not able to watch TV programs for long too. All I could do during that period is to sleep and resultedinsomnia at night. Recovering process is not easy. Lying on bed all day long makes me feel weak. I have to force myself out of bed and try to walk and do some house chores. I feel this makes me recover faster.

Thinking back. The whole process is really terrifying especially days when I was having giddiness whole day and not able to see properly and not able to walk properly and worst is when I lost control of my limbs.

Lessons learnt:

- Never underestimate what a seasonal flu could get you. My PD and specialist suspect flu virus has caused the viral infection.

- Always take good care of our body. I have been neglecting my health. During this period, I have been taking royal jelly and vitamin C daily to boost my immune system and also hope I could recover faster. I guess they do some help.

- Treasure your family. Thanks a lot to my hubby. Without him, I don't know what will happen to me. Thanks God that he is with me during this period. (He is always traveling due to work)

- Good to have hospitalization insurance. (I am not an insurance agent) Go for full coverage if you can afford. My hospitalization bill costs me $3k plus. Luckily we have purchased hospitalization insurance two years back for entire family and this bill is covered.

- Good to have religion belief. I was very worried when I went for MRI scan. Worried what will happen during the scan. Worried what will happen to the result. Worried what will happen to my family if I couldn't make it. Then I have a few seconds wonder what will happen to me if I couldn't make it. Where will I be?

ME. FEELING TERRIBLE AND VERY SICK.

Feeling unwell and was admitted to hospital for a couple of days and discharged without feeling any better. This is the worst sickness I ever encountered and what makes me very worried (b'cos no concrete diagnoses). VERTIGO is the illness I am suffering. Yes. I am still having it now when I am penning this blog.

Thursday 28/10: Feeling very tired after came back from East Coast Park.

Friday 29/10 : Wake up with a giddy head but still manage to send my hubby to MRT station and my girl to her granny place. Struggle for quite a while but still able to pick my girl from her granny place and send her to school. Struggle badly for even longer time to go MRT station to meet my hubby. My hubby took over the wheel after that.

Saturday 30/10 : Worst day of all. I felt no strength for my limbs. My hubby took me to a nearby clinic and GP diagnosed is a flu virus infected my ear's balancing. GP said it should recover within 3 days.

Sunday 31/10 : Getting slightly better as I could feel my limbs regain some strength. Decided to go hospital and do a detailed checkup. I was put 45 degree to let the blood flow to my brain but does not get any better. I then met neurologist and he suspected is a flu virus affecting my brain balancing and nervous system. I was then admitted since I was unable to take care of myself.

Monday 01/11 : Took blood test for blood count.

Tuesday 02/11 : Vomited for the first time. Suspect is due to the in-digestible mee siam I had for b'fast. I felt worst than the day before. My neurologist suggested I go for MRI scan and in the afternoon, I went for the scan.

Wednesday 03/11 : My neurologist said MRI scan result is normal and he do not know why my condition get worst. He then suggested I go back and rest as it should improve as day passes. Took blood test for cholesterol. I was discharged with condition the same. Thanks to my hubby that I have a nice spicy burger from MCDONALDS as dinner.

Thursday 04/11 : Forced myself to walk more and open eyes wide to look at still objects. I guess I have forced myself so hard that I felt nausea and vomited again. I can look at still objects for a while before I feel giddiness. (if not I will not able to write this blog)

Friday 05/11 : No improvement.

Really hope I can get well before Monday comes.

Faith starts preschool - Day 3

Hope today is a great day for her. After my yesterday prep talk and this morning Daddy E prep talk, we hope she will be more willing to go school herself without any crying and separation anxiety.

I will be picking her up from her grandparents' place shortly. Will update more later.

Faith starts preschool - Day 2 - Afternote

Faith looked very happy when I picked her up from school yesterday. I could hear her telling her Teacher happily that "Mee mee is outside. Mee mee is outside." This ease my thoughts of her disliking school. I then spoke to Teacher B and she said she only cried for a short while. After her milk and short nap, she is fine. I guess she is just tired. Since her afternoon nap has cut from 2-3hrs to 45-30mins. We are trying to re-adjust her sleeping time earlier to make up her lost beauty sleep hours.

Faith starts preschool - Day 2

Yesterday was Faith's first day at preschool. Daddy E took a day off so that we could send Faith to school together. I was delighted that we could do this together. Due to E's work commitment, I nearly have to handle this whole process alone.

When we sent Faith to school, she went into the classroom and turned back and waved us "Good Bye". According to School Principal and her Teacher, she handled her first day very well. No crying at all and participated at all activities given to her. When we went to pick her, she looked very happy and played at the school's playground for quite a while. We are so proud of her. Daddy E treated Faith and I ice cream at Ice Cream Chef.

A smooth sailing First day does not mean an easy Second day.

Today when I picked up Faith from her grandparents' place. She gave a sense of unwillingness to go preschool. She said she just want to go Shichida (her Sat. enrichment class). She pleaded and sobbed during the car journey. I consoled her and told her that we will bring her to shopping after school and Daddy E will treat her ice cream again if she is a good girl. But she just refuse to listen. She continued cry even after E spoke to her over the phone. No choice. I just bring her into her classroom and leave her with her teacher. ... Hearing her loud cry and "I want Mee mee" behind the door... Making me heartache.

Why this happen on Day Two? Is there any better way to handle this? Will this cause her dislike schooling? Will this happen again tomorrow? I hope everything turns out well.

Now, she should be taking her afternoon nap. And I can only wait for her finish school and pick her up.

I am missing him a lot a lot. Having strong urge to pack Faith's and my luggage and take a flight to the other part of the word just to see him.

For the past months, I refuse to count number of days left before seeing him again as I know this will make the wait more unbearable. Today (after almost 2 months), I counted. It is 66 more days. :(

Faith, coconut & bird

Faith was standing on headboard and looking out of the window from eleven storey. (No worries as window grill is in placed).

Faith: Bird eat what?
Me: Birds eat fruits, nuts and worms.
Faith: Bird eats coconut?
Me: Yea. Some birds do eat coconut.

Few days later... Same place.. Same timing.

Faith: Faith cuts coconut. Bird eats coconut... with spoon.

I was impressed and surprised by what she said. Not knowing how to response and just repeated what she has said. Haha..

Then, a few days later.... Yea.. Same place and same timing..

Faith: Faith cuts coconut. Bird eats coconut with fork.
Me: Oh.. Bird don't use spoon today?
Faith: No... Bird uses fork.
Me: *Laugh out loud*

Above is from a kiddo of 2 years 2.5 months old.

"Faith go where?"

Eversince, we moved to my parents' place (temporary stay till our new place is renovated), Faith asked the same question almost every morning. That is, "Faith go where?".

A snippet of our today conversation that caught me in surprise.

Faith: Faith go where?
Me: Where is Faith going? (repeated her question as to teach her correct way of asking question)
Me: Faith is going to Shichida class today.
Faith: Where is Shichida?
Me: Shichida is at Toa Payoh.
Faith: Shichida is at Toa Payoh. Faith is going to Shichida.

This is the first time Faith said "Shichida". She now knows what she is expecting in school and more participative in class activities.

Touches my heart

Today I received a lovely surprise (named Rosy Love) from my hubby.

What touches me is the message from him as follows:

Dearest wife,

With 100 days left to seeing you, it's still a day too many.Hope you both are missing me as crazily as me.

Loving you from a faraway place, Edwin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Me to Him

Dearest hubby,

We are missing you more than what you can magine.

Days without you is just photo with no color.

Hoping, wishing and craving to see you, Me and Her

The fourth Saturday without him around

Today, I make it a point to wake up on time (no lazing on bed) to bring little Faith to Shichida lesson at 0845. As we were very late last Saturday due to I took the wrong expressway exit, I told myself to start driving earlier to give myself ample time. I didnt expect I took the wrong exit again!! Ya. The wrong same exit. That's me ... Direction hopeless.. Even with my GPS, I also can lose my way. Luckily I managed to make a U-turn and go back to the expressway and reach school on time.

Faith is quite well-behaved as compared to many previous lessons.
- She sat and plays the materials given to her.
- She still said "no keep no keep" but she gave the learning materials back to me after a short while.
- She is 75% attentive to flashcards.
- She is very excited of basketball games. She loves ball a lot and always ask her Gong-Gong and uncle to play with her.

After lesson, I brought her for breakfast.. A snippet of me and Faith conversation.

Me: What would you like to have? Fried bee hoon or Bee hoon soup?
Faith: Fried bee hoon (very clearly)
I repeated myself again and same answer from her.
Me: What would you like to have? Fried bee hoon or Rice?
Faith: Rice
I repeated myself again and same answer from her. Wonder will she get irritated by me.. Hee.
Me: I think you better have fried bee hoon since you are going to have porridge at your Ma-ma's (grandma) place later.

She is very cooperative and allow me to put her on the floor and she even took metal fork and spoon from the utensils tray.

After breakfast, I got her a cup of watermelon juice (with just 1 cube of ice). She is very contented and sit on car seat quietly while i drive.

I then dropped Faith with her Ma-Ma and Ye-Ye for a couple of hours. Mainly is to take care of her neccessarities like lunch and nap. For the past few weekend (esp. Saturday), she does not take much of my cooked porridge and also didnt take much nap.

With this arrangement, I then have the time to iron Faith's clothes and also set up this blog to pen down Faith and my everyday life, specially for my hubby as he will be working overseas for next 3+ months. I will try my best to update as and when I can.