My Boy...

5 days before he turns 4 months, my big boy has flipped over unassisted! To the right side that is...The next day, he's trying to flip towards the left side, but his arm keeps getting stuck... That's for leaving him to entertain himself on the floor!!! haha. Bad mum takes advantage of his easy nature to leave him on his own till he cries for attention... so what does he do? learn new skills of course! 

Will upload the video when I get a chance...

3 days more, and we're off down under again! WA this time! yippee! I can't wait!!

2kg to pre-D weight.... phew. this is hard work...

phew...

We've just crossed one major hurdle... now, we're looking forward to the next lap!!!

God has really been gracious to us. Since we'd returned from NZ at the beginning of the year, the issue of space constraints in our house had been on our minds. The in-laws has moved in, and the little one has come along. 5 adults and 3 growing children in an average sized 3 bedroom apartment... something we could make do with for now, but not ideal in the long run. However, around chinese new year, having seen property prices falling, we had made the decision to stay put in this house, for a few more years so that we can try and get a higher price for this property. So, we parted with some money to do up the house a little, adding window grilles, painting the walls, moving some power points, and touching up the cracks in the walls, changing the kitchen cabinet doors, and adding a water heater to the kitchen sink.

As the Lord may have it, we got an offer for our house which we thought was reasonable, and seeing that the prices of landed property had come down considerably, we felt we were ready to make the move. However, in our search for the home of our dreams, for which we had lots of criteria to fulfill, we met with a dead end at each turn... a perfect house which met all our needs in terms of location, and needing minimal work, was either priced too high or was a leasehold property. Others which fell more within our budget just fell short of our criteria. Location was such an important factor as we were reluctant to move the girls out of their current school, and we didn't want to be too far from my parents who are our main support for the kids when I go back to work. 

The buyers of our house were God-given, we believe, as they allowed us to stay till the end of october in order for us to find a house to move to. However, our house hunting experience was far from pleasant, particularly with the owners and the agent from the property we finally settled with... but that's a story for another time.

3 agonising days after the 2nd viewing of the house K and I both liked, we can now heave a sigh of relief. We now wait in eager anticipation for the day we get the keys, and hand over our place, to set up a home in our new house. I pray that it'll be a place of happiness for all of us, particularly for the kids who will have more room to run around, hopefully still have a little pool to dip into daily, friends in the neighbourhood, a perfect running route for us, and a place of rest and relaxation for the in-laws. The night we sold our current house, I felt sad for a few days after that. It's a house we have hardly lived in, having spent most of our weekends in the east with the in-laws. Our kitchen was hardly used up till this year when we shifted home. We settled into this house so comfortably, I was reluctant to give up the convenience of the location, the lovely surroundings of the swimming pool etc. I learned a real lesson. I can truly understand why the Lord says not to make our home here on earth, or to make treasures of our possessions... 

We now look forward to the next lap in our lives, living in a landed property. It is only by God's grace, His blessings, as well as help from my in-laws that we'll be able to make this new transition. For us living in Singapore, this move is truly a big step for a young family. 

Thank you Lord...

Bitten by the bug...

The running one that is...:) Since 6 weeks post-partum, I've been running almost every day since. On the days I don't get to run, I try to swim or play tennis. On the days I don't do anything at all, I feel a little bit edgy! It's like I can't sit still, or I'm just looking at the clock, thinking if I can squeeze in a quickie... of course, I also foolishly (under peer pressure) paid to run a half marathon in august (8 weeks away!) So I really need to get up my mileage.

the good thing is... I'm 3kg away from pre-D! Woot! but still a long way to pre-baby no 1!! boo hoo...  BUT, I still struggle to fit into my pre-pregnancy pants. sigh... The bad thing... my knees are aching bad! It's probably still adjusting to my new weight, or possibly being destroyed under my body weight. While the pains have subsided (no more pain while running), I really walk around like I'm 20 years older. My legs take so long to recover, even with rest days(ie non impact exercise) in between. 

This post is just so long overdue. It's just so much easier to read other people's blogs, than to write on your own...

Oh well, perhaps I should just put up some pictures...

D - week 7

7 weeks old, and D already has had 1 road trip under his belt. Just across the border that is. Over the long May Day weekend, we took the opportunity to go on our first family trip for the year. With 1 recovering jie K in tow, we spent 2 nights at Sofitel Palm Resort. Not the most flash place to be at, but our first choice Pulai Springs was fully booked, as we really made the decision to go quite last minute. Nevertheless, we had a great family time just bonding. The girls were so thrilled just to be at a hotel, and on a holiday. Of course, as on most holidays, swimming, eating, shopping and watching movies on tv were the main items on our itinerary.

Well, in the last 7 weeks, D has proven that he is a really baby, drinking and sleeping like all babies should. He has started to be a little more awake these last weeks, but he's still a quiet guy, staring at the things going by, occasionally crying out for attention when he has been left alone for too long. We feel so blessed for such a good baby. He's really piled on the pounds... at 6+ weeks, he weighed about 4.8kg; the heaviest of the 3... but of course he is a boy. Only thing is that amidst the whole flu bug thingy going around the house, baby D also caught the bug, and has had a runny nose for over a week. Poor boy gets his nose blocked at night, that it wakes him up, and sometimes causes him to unlatch when he is breastfeeding, gasping for air. Praying that he'll be well soon.

Dylan day 3

Dylan week 5

week 7 

A new journey...

I've started on my journey to get back in shape. Pre- baby no 1 shape, that is. After 2 long weeks of recovering from the worst bout of flu ever, I finally managed to hit the gym, and the road, a swim and my static exercises daily since last monday! I can feel myself getting back into it, though my knees have been complaining from the extra weight it has to bear now. I've got 5 kg more to pre-D weight, but 14kg to pre-K1 weight!!! :( Need to keep up the daily thing, or I will start to slack and find excuses to wiggle myself out of the workout for the day.

My regular tennis sessions also need to be re-scheduled again. With my rackets that have been stored away in the store room for over a year, I think it's time to wipe off the dust. I suddenly miss playing tennis! Hopefully I'll experience that new passion for tennis again like I did when I left off 1 year ago...

Scrapblogging...

weee.... i've found something new to do, thanks to mama D! It's creating your own scrapblog! All done with no extra costs, exercising your creativity, at the same time getting tips and help when you run out of ideas! It's great! Only thing is I can't print it out yet... so I'm just going to post it here for the first time, till I figure out my blogger username(???) I can't seem to be able to share it straight onto my blog!

Here goes!

One month on....

Dylan is now 5 weeks old. On the 23rd of April, when he turned 1 month, the whole household was struck by a deadly flu virus which had first affected mei K the day before, then baby D, mummy, MIL, and the helper! It was the worse infection I've had in a long while, and was just flat on my back with a fever for the whole day! I even lost my voice completely. Poor baby D was gurgling, coughing... I felt so pained for such a young baby to be sick... so we tripped off to the PD. While he has grown a whole 4 cm in the last one month, he is now also 4.26kg. wow... think that's the biggest increase any of the kids have had in the first month. So he now looks like a solid fella.

Anyway while everyone is now recovering, jie K, who was recovering from her bout just a month before, has gotten worse, and is today recovering at home as she too woke up with a fever. sigh... 

Praying this will all end soon.

Last week, I had the biggest scare since becoming a mother. In the middle of the night, I heard D coughing, and he suddenly unleashed the loudest, most terrifying screech I've ever heard. I rushed to look at him, and found him struggling to breathe! I picked him up, and had to thump him on his back a few times before he was able to recover normal breathing. He was a little shaken, and it took a while for him to settle down... phew... What would I do if anything serious had happened to him? That night, I prayed for baby D, and for the girls... something that I have not been doing, and really taken for granted... This is probably a timely reminder that these children have been entrusted into my care, I really need the Lord's anointing to bring them up, His protection to keep them safe and healthy, and not to forget the power of prayer...