Satay, Fever and Teething

Poor little girl is suffering from teething! The molar has finally invaded her once calm and peacful gum-land!

She started by having a mild fever on sunday afternoon....quite an odd timing cos usually when she is having fever right, it will come around the evening time about 6 plus onwards. Thats why I couldnt quite believe hubby when he told me about it. He was the one who discovered her forehead was feverish.

Well, we didnt expect that her fever was due to teething at first as she has had a "heaty base" as what MIL always say due to DNA from FIL's side, so we hought she could be heaty again. Satay then was the most obvious culprit as that was the only heaty food she had consumed recently, in fact it was just about 2 days ago at my mother's place. I dont quite agree with hubby that satay was the culprit loh becos its quite unlikely that the little satay could be so mighty and result in heatiness wihtin 2 days? I really doubt so. But then there was no other evidence to prove that she had consumed other heaty food. Well, never mind...I know the satay is innocent....

The fever persisted for 3 days. During these 3 days, I was on standby mode. I would wake up about 3 times in the middle of the night to monitor her fever so as to sponge her if necessary. (I really worried whenever she has a fever and couldnt sleep well.) The nights passed by peacfully, no fever spotted. Thank goodness! (but quite unusual loh.)

PIL monitored her condition during the daytme but no fever came until late evening about the time when hubby and myself returned from work (the usual 6plus timing). We gave her the panadol drop before she sleep and gave her short sleeve tees to wear so that she will be more "cooling". It was only until the 3rd day, which was yesterday, then FIL announced that he suspected Trenyce was teething. We pondered for a while and realised that he could be right! The few pointers:

- She keeps on pointing a specific area of her gum and complains to us "pain pain"
- She refuses to take any "hard" food including her favourite drumstick
- She doesnt want to join us at the dinning table during dinnertime and seems to lose interest in eating
- She doesnt even want to finish her milk by herself (using milk bottle) and we have to spoon feed her
- She is more fussy and grouchy
- She cries at the slightest things that irritate her
- She loves the cool jelly I made for her
- She doesnt complain pain pain anymore when we apply the cool teething gel
- She has really BAD bad breathe (this I cant really confirm its due to teething, I am going to brew more herbal tea for her. Hopefully it helps. cross my fingers!)

See, I told you the satay is innocent :)

Post-dated Post 2: 29th Nov 2006

Monetising my blog?

Recently, I have been to several mothering blogs talking about monetized their blogs. In fact, some of them had started doing that and earning US$ already. To be honest, I am really tempted to do that for my blog too. I have been thinking of ways to earn some small bucks so that when I eventually exit the working society in a couple of years time to be a full time SAHM, I still have some income. Just to earn some pocket money for myself lah. However, I am contemplating whether to monetized my blog as

Reason#1: I am not a frequent blogger. I probably blog thrice a week the most. Part of the excuse is becos my job requires me to face the computer for the entire day so I don’t really switch on my pc at home unless… I have insomnia that night.

Reason#2: I only blog when I have something interesting happening in my life which I like to share about (I suppose most bloggers started for the same reason but I am still at this infant stage loh) otherwise I could be missing for a couple of weeks. Did you watch “I do I do” by Jack Neo, if you do right – they were talking about “feeeeling” for love, whereas I am talking about “feeeeling” for blogging. Sometimes, you just need to have that feeling to be able to sit down and pen down your thoughts and that’s me.

Reason#3: For health reasons. My blogging time is usually past midnight as that’s when my girl and hubby are asleep. I tried to spend as much time with them when I came back from work and only have my personal time after they have slept. The problem is the moment I am hooked to the pc, I could be at the pc for hours and ended sleeping less than 5 hours when I have to work the next day. This is bad as I will be a walking zombie for the rest of the day and needs to rely on coffee to perk me up.

Reason#4: I am not a fantastic writer. I preferred to use singlish as my writing style. That way, I feel more “natural” as I poured my feelings and thoughts on my blog. Well, I only get a B3 for English for my ‘O’ levels :p

But then again, Reason#1 and #2 could be resolved by monetized my blog. It would ‘force’ me to blog more often and gave me ideas on what to write. As for #4, well, practice makes perfect as I will be ‘forced’ to write more frequent. The only headache is #3, surely get scolded by hubby for always staying late….hmmm…am considering to get a new handphone cos the current one is not working well (used for 4yrs already leh), if I get a smart phone or pda phone, that would solve my problem right? :p

Papa (aka hubby), may I have one for my Christmas present, pls? hehe:p

Post-dated Post 1: 29th Nov 2006

2005 Wedding Anniversary

Was chatting with hubby in the car this morning while on the way to the nearest MRT stn near my place. We were on the topic of our anniversary night dashing around to send my friend to catch her train. Then I recalled we had another exciting celebration last year too when my brother met an accident with sister’s 6months old Toyota Altis. Thank goodness he was alright but I cant say much for the car.

I vividly remembered I was on leave on that fateful day, again not purposely on leave to celebrate my anniversary but to bring Trenyce to KK hospital for her routine medical appointment. While I was about to enter the CTE, my phone rang. As I didn’t have my earpiece with me, I didn’t answer the call but just scanned the phone quickly to see whose calling. I saw my brother’s number appearing on the screen, which was quite a rare sight (he don’t normally call me on weekdays). Wondering what it could be (as my mother and sister are away on holiday at that time, I am the only sibling he could contact if anything happens), I asked my FIL to answer the call for me. What came out from the conversation was alarming - he had an accident somewhere near his office! Not wanting to worry my mother and sister, we decided to solve the problem ourselves. I went to fetch hubby from his office (he wasn’t on leave) before going down to see how extensive the damage was. There I saw the brand new Altis, quite badly in shape. It cant even move at all. According to bro, there were smoke coming out from the front. Odear. We followed the tow truck to the workshop to do all the necessary paperwork and left the place.

The toughest part of all was to break the news to my sister. We (me and bro) were hesitating on how to go about it. Initially, we wanted to wait for them to return from their trip as we were afraid that we will spoil their holidays but hubby said if we waited so long then inform them, they were surely get very mad. Afterall, sister is the car owner and she has every right to know what’s happening to her car. Of course, we understand hubby’s intention. In the end, we decided to call my auntie, who was with them for the holiday for her advice, to check on the situation. You know lah, bringing kids along for holiday may sometimes result in some small squabbles. We just want to make sure everything is in order before we release the news. of course, auntie advised us to tell them, so....Well, the rest as it says are history....

My little girl getting girlie

I was looking at some photos taken not too long ago, on one of the weekends to Suntec City for our bi-weekly marketing. We love the Carrefour there as there are plenty of items housed under one place so you dont have to run from place to place to get the items you need. I brought along the camera, hoping to snap some nice pics of Trenyce.

Looking at the pics, I started to realise my gal getting more and more girlie as she grows. Thats a good sign heh:) I was so much like a tomboy when I was young as told by my mum so I always wanted my girl to be girlie by introducing stuff toys to her etc. It was rare that she allowed me to put the hair clips for her. Normally, the hair clip will not last more than 10 mins becos the moment we praised her pretty, she will become very self conscious and pulled the clips away. Its the same if I were to put on a hair band for her, so I seldom get a chance to really doll her up.

She is quite a serious shopper, aint she? :p

Fresh, big pumpkin for you, mdm? Allow me to choose for you. Guaranteed freshness....

Lucky Charm

Have you ever heard of the 4 Leaves lucky clover pendant? Do you know that this was a proven lucky charm? I have first heard about it from some magazines and as a non-believer in this kind of lucky charm thingy, I didnt really believe much in its "effectiveness". So I didnt pay much attention on it until 2 mths ago, a colle in the office told us that she has struck 4D a couple of times after she bought the 4Leaves kaychain. Another friend of mine, whom I met up recently also told me the same thing that her sister had bought one for her mother and her mother ahd struck 4D a few times after that. Well, quite unbelievable, right?

I bought 1 for my hubby sometime in end-Sept06. Hubby didnt seem to progress well in the company as promotion opportunity was given to someone who had worked in the organisation many years earlier than him. You see, he and the other person were put on the promotion list together but only one of them would get it due to some reasons. At that time, he seems to be rather depressed so when I heard about the 4leaves thingy from my colle, I didnt heistate much to get one for him hoping that it will help to bring him some luck. Hey, if the husband did well in his career, me, the wife would get to benefit too right? hehe :p

Within a month after my hubby got the 4leaves keychain, his boss told him that they were relooking into his promotion and chances of him getting it was quite firm. But then not until he got the letter, would he get a peace of mind so he waited anxiously for the letter to arrive. Day after day, the letter finally arrived yesterday! Finally, I see him smiling :)

Subconsciously, I couldnt help but believe that this 4leaves thingy really brings luck to whoever is holding it!

Here is the one I got for my hubby. He keeps it together with his precious carkeys. He claims that it is the most important thing he will never leave home without it :p


For those who are interested to "wang fu", there is a few places in SG selling it:
1. Juliet Roberts
2. Pacing Luck

Good Luck! Cheers!

A friend's Visit + Exciting Wedding Anniversary

Thursday was my 3rd year wedding anniversay. I had an unusual celebration that day. No, it wasnt the conventional candle-light dinner. It was hmm....an exciting adventure!

Anyway, I took half a day leave from work, most would think its for celebration for my anniversary hehe...but it wasnt as a fren from Msia came to town, so I decided to take leave to bring her around. Hers was a short 2 day 1 night stay so I hope to grab the little time we had to catch up. She was working in Singapore for about 5years before she decided to marry her then Pahang boyfren, now hubby of her BB boy, Zhongxuan (Hope I got the name spelled right! :p). I havnt really seen her after she left Singapore 2 years ago. The last time I saw her was 2005CNY when she was about 4months preggy.

I brought her and Trenyce to the newly opened shopping mall, Vivocity. We shopped barely for 2hrs and had to leave for home at 5pm as my MIL had prepared dinner. We intended to send her to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station after the dinner. As I was afraid that we would hit the peak hour traffice jam, I suggest to take a cab home instead of MRT. Well, being new to the shopping mall, we had to search for the taxi stand and ended up at Harbourfront Taxi stand instead and oh my, it was such a queue! I decided to call for cab and the cab finally arrived 10minutes later (quite punctual). However, we were still caught in very heavy traffic due to some car accident and the taxi was practically crawling from CTE to our place. Back in the cab, I was so worried and kept praying that we would be able to rush home in time to dash to the Railway Stn. We finally reached home at 6pm, that was like almost an hour journey for a usual 20-minute ride home! We had a quick dinner and hubby and myself quickly rushed her to the station. Well, this time we were really caught in the normal peak hour traffic. My heart was beating so fast, soso worried that we would miss the train. Hubby was really calm. He assured me that we would be able to catch the train as the train would not be so punctual as it normally would delay a while and would not leave on time. But still, I was feeling very uneasy. I would nag at every traffic light, mumbling why the traffic light was so slow, praying that it would turn green soon. Guess what, we reach the Railway Stn exactly at 6.55pm, 5 minutes late and I was praying hard that the train would still be there as I ran as fast as I could to the gate. Well, the worst fear came true. The station master was closing the gate when we arrived and told us that the train had departed! OMG!

There was no other train stopping at Mentakab that night and the earliest train would be tmr morn 6am. Hubby then decided to sent her to JB to catch the train and if we really couldnt (becos SG-JB checkpoints would be very jammed at this hr), we still could send her to Larkin Bus Terminal to catch a bus back. So we quickly rushed back home to collect our passports and JB here we come! As we expected, the checkpoints were terribly jammed and by the time we crossed over to JB, it was already 8.30pm. The train had already gone far and so we were left with choice 2 - Larkin. We managed to get a 11pm ticket for her to Mentakab. Honestly, I was quite worried to leave her alone to take the bus but I supposed most msians are quite used to this kind of travelling. I told hubby I wouldnt dare to travel by myself and it was mainly becos I couldnt speak their national language, Bahasa Melayu.

We accompanied her till she boarded the bus around 10.40pm. By the time we reached SG, it was almost 12 midnight. What a way to "celebrate" my wedding anniversary haha!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

One of our favourite activity over the weekend is to drive up to Upper Pierce Reservoir to watch the little monkeys (Trenyce's favourite!) and also to enjoy a nice nature walk around the place. We have brought Trenyce there to cycle and fishing as well and she enjoyed it tremendously.

Ermm, we do not really fish like the way the professional does lah, all we use was a simple fish net and a DIY "fish-tank". See picture on left, this photo was taken somewhere in May06 when we first took Trenyce to fish. See how excited she was! Well, being young and inexperienced, she didnt catch anything lor. It ended up with the mummy busy catching fishes for her and I managed to get 2 tiny little fishes for her (haha!).

On our recent visit to the reservoir (just last week), the timing was pretty bad as Trenyce fell asleep when we were just about to turn in to the road leading to the reservoir. I was like "O-oh". Usually it was quite difficult to wake her up so I was like trying my luck to wake her up when the car parked near the location where we could see the monkeys. Mission failed the first time, she vividly opened her eyes and closed them again, hanging her head in the air ( I thought she was awake and let her sit up, so can imagine how her sleepy head hanging in the air). Hubby then drove up to this location where there were several more monkeys than the previous location and I tried to wake her up again, telling her there were many monkeys outside the window.Just when I was about to declare the failure of mission 2 and was going to tell hubby to turn out as Trenyce was too simply too sleepy to even ioen her eyes. Then all of a sudden, she became very alert and shouted excitedly, pointing at the windows "See, so many monkeys, so cute! monkeys so cute!" Her reaction changed so fast that I was totally amused by it :)

Updates of Trenyce's Progress

Checklists:

1. Potty training: Accomplished!
Period of Training: 5 weeksIt took a while more than my original target (was to complete within 2 weeks) to potty train her as in-between the training, she fell sick and then the weather was turning cold so it was not a good period to train her. Hence, the training went on-and-off for the first 3 weeks and finally, she completed her training roughly about 2 weeks after her 2nd birthday. (Horray! Finally some $aving$ on my diaper co$t$!) However, she still cant identify the difference between urinating and passing motion. She will say "umh umh" for both.

2. Sleeping without Pacifier: Accomplished!
Period of Training: 5 days
I was on leave during the week-long holi due to Deevapali and Hari Raya to take care of Trenyce as PILs were away for their China holi. I took this opportunity to help Trenyce gets rid of her Pacifier habit. There is pros and cons of getting rid this habit of hers. You would probably be wondering why. Well, let me xplain. When she has the pacifier in her mouth, she will just go to sleep quietly, no sound, just munching her pacifier and falls asleep on her own. But when she doesnt have any in her mouth, she talks alot before she falls asleep and I am "forced" (in a way, otherwise she wont sleep lah) to sleep together with her and I meant together on her bed! The most comical part is she sings in her sleep. We usually play a cd for her when she naps in the afternoon, MIL spotted her singing "Jingle Bell" in her sleep when the cd is at the "Jingle Bell" song :p

3. Eating on her own: On-going
Period of Training: On-going
The moment Trenyce was able to sit on her own, we allowed her to join us on the dinning table. We will give her a bowl and a spoon with some food (rice or noodles, vege, egg or whichever is avavilable) usually small chewable chunks so that she wont get choked accidentally. Normally, more than 70% of the food will be "shared" with her high chair and the floor. Recently, I noticed that she is able to eat on her own without dropping more than 50% of her food on the floor. She is also able to eat drumstick by herself. (Just a note: This is merely causal eating not the "formal" eating. We still feed her for lunch and dinner.)

4. Health: On-going
Period of Training: None
As of today, Trenyce has fallen sick 3 times for this year.
Fever: 2 times
Cough: 4 times
Flu: 3 times

Fanily Gathering at Labis

3rd - 5th Nov 06
We havnt seen little Matt since the full month celebration in July06 and we will not be seeing him for Christmas either as the family will be going back to Perth next month so we will only be seeing them, hmm...in Feb 2007, during CNY. Oohh...this will be a long seven months.....so everyone decided to meetup at Labis over the weekend, just to catchup and well, for the children to...ermm fight over toys. Well, not for little Matt as yet :p

Here is an update of little Matt. He is turning 5 months old this 13th :D

We had some fun with our camera, trying to "auto-take" some family pictures with the family's new addition. Hubby is the busiest as he has to run to-and-fro to control the camera whereas rest of us just wait for him to signal when we should smilezz haha....

Its really difficult trying to get all the children's attention especially when there really isnt a cameraman around to tell them to "look in front", "smile" etc..hahaha You could see that the expressions and positions of the adults have remained more or less about the same but for the kids (including the baby!) have changed for all the shots! Gee,it was but the fun that counts, right? :)

Finally, me and the 3 kids!hehe...

Oct 2006 KaiKai Trips II - Malacca

Malacca (22nd - 24th Oct 2006)

We took the opportunity to go over Malacca so-called famous resort, A'Famosa over the Deevapali & Hari Raya long weekend. My overall impression with the holiday resort:

1. Fun
=> was quite interesting and exciting, especially the animal sarfari. We enjoyed the visit to its chicken farms most as we got to play with the little chicks!
=> The carnival at the Cow Boy Town was not so bad, fireworks were beautiful. But we missed the Indians performance as Trenyce was scared of the darkness at its performance area.
=> The 4D movie was okay but Trenyce got scared when the seat was rocking to-and-fro with the water spilled at her, so I had to bring her out of the theatre to stop her crying.
=> Waterworld
We were a little bit disappointed with the Waterworld though. Seems like part of it is undergoing some construction so its a little messy with the sands around and the flooring of the pool is quite slippery. I fell down the moment my foot stepped into the water *scare scare*.

Some of the pics taken at Animal Safari

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

2. Food
=> Expensive and short of variety. Just imagine I cant even find a packet of full-cream milk or vitagen for my gal. As for taste *ahem*, dont wanna comment much! Was told by friends & colles that I could find similar standards at Genting. OMG! Spoilt my plan to go Genting for holiday liao. Think I will have to bring a carload of food if I were to go Genting.

Our 1st night's Dinner (what do you think of the size of the portion?) Btw, that is Trenyce's little finger.
Lunch before we catch our coach back to S'pore.

3. Accomodation
=> Generally clean and well kept. I will advise you not to use the rooms at the ground level. Initially, we were given that ground level room but were later change to 3rd floor upon request for change of room. All I could say it was quite a sight when I entered the room!

4 Transport
=> We didnt drive as we thought of giving hubby a good break, so saves him the tedious driving and oh my, he regretted very much bcos we could have reached home much faster :p Within the resort itself, they have transport provided as well. They called it the "Banana Shuttle Service". Quite exciting when sitting in it, but do remember to grab the handles bars as tight as you can cos you might be "blown" away by the strong wind :p

Oct 2006 KaiKai Trips I - Jurong Bird Park

Jurong Bird Park - 15th Oct 2006

We had wanted to bring Trenyce to Jurong Bird Park for quite some time already. However, whenever we plan to go, we will chance upon either the bird flu or the hazy haze...so finally when all's over, we set the date to JBP. We almost couldnt make it on the day cos its hazy haze again! The PSI (In Spore, this helps us to monitor how 'safe' our air is) reads between 60-90...hmm..

Hubby, not wanting to disappoint Trenyce and mummy (that's me! :p) gave the green light at around 1pm and so happily we went to JBP! hehehe....

This is the entrance.
This is the stage. I personally prefer the animal performance at JBP than the Zoo. I find the performance more interesting and fun, and most importantly the performance is much longer than the 15mins at Zoo :p

The performance...

See, Trenyce is so engrossed with the birds' performance!

The most fascinating part of this visit is this Bird Viewing Gallery where we got to feed the birds at close proximity.