Spending National Day at home and hospital

I love to spend National Day at home. We were out the past two years so this year, I'm very happy! Even though we were "forced" to stay in, due to COVID restrictions...

This year, National Day was on Monday so the celebrations in school took place on Thursday for Yu and Friday for his brothers, which meant we managed to wash their red SG tops in time for the actual day, woohoo!

Before his party with pandan cake and satay

With matching shoes!

Happy to have a short day!

Kai's class won with this creation! :)

Getting ready for the parade

When I sat down, this boy came to sit on me

The only boy to stand for the Anthem, with a flag no less!

Also the only boy to stand for the Pledge (ignore his timely need for his bolster!)

This year, Kai was curious about the marching and the commands. I have limited knowledge from my time as a Girl Guide. I even forgot that what I was in drills until I asked Sito later that day - right marker!!

Then we listened out for the chinooks and the jets. Finally, we spotted both from the bedroom balcony - happy!

A few days ago, I saw a random video on Facebook of youngsters dancing to a remix version of this year's NDP song. On Sunday, I realised that there really was an official dance! We listened to old NDP songs over dinner and ended with the latest one complete with dance moves and narrated by August the Merlion. Seriously, August...

Anyway, we danced a bit after dinner and it was quite fun! We agreed that we would take a video the next day. We also agreed to say the pledge in three languages - Kai to try Malay if possible, Yang in English and Yu in Mandarin. Yu already did a super cute one in Mandarin with his mouth full :p

The next day came... And only Yu did his part for the Pledge and only Mama danced to the song! Bah... Later in the evening, Sito recited the Pledge in Malay for us - I don't know about the kids but I was very impressed with my husband, hoho!

This was just before we sat Yu in the middle to lead the Pledge in Mandarin

I would never want to spend any day in hospital apart from giving birth, but we spent some time at the hospital on National Day...

After an easy fried rice dinner, Yang went to poop. I saw him head for the shower. He said his tummy was painful but did not need to poop again. I told him to go shower, and I went for mine. 

Just before I came out of the shower, I heard Kai say something like, something is happening to Yang. I came out to find him in the same position as just now - he was holding his tummy with one hand, and the door knob with the other. And he was crying!

He said he was in pain, and it hurt especially when he coughed. It took a bit of persuading for him to let me give him a quick shower. We decided to send him to A&E. I didn't say it in front of him but I was afraid if anything raptured inside, given his big, infrequent poops. His last poop was Friday, so it was still some time before his usual 7-10 days' gap between poops and I had not seen him like this even at 10 days post poop.

By the time we cabbed down to the hospital, he had a 2-minute nap and could walk straight again. From what he told me, it sounded like he had cramps. He had his oxygen level, blood pressure and weight measured at the triage. Then we waited and was seen quickly enough. The doctor suggested an enema and an aggressive dose of Forlax which he had before at way lower dosage. 

Yang had an enema as a toddler when he had difficulty pooping. We have quite a number of photos of him straining to poop in diapers! Come to think of it, he had always had smelly poop too even when fully breastfed. Maybe his digestive system is just like that... 

It was during circuit breaker last year that we realised he had constipation. Before that, I didn't think about it even if he didn't poop at home at all coz he could have done it in school. But when there was no school, it became very clear that he didn't poop much... When he goes, his poop is so huge that we have difficulty flushing it. Now that I think about it, I think this problem might have been there for ages coz we had difficult flushing his poop even before circuit breaker :(

He had his second enema on 25 Jan - oh yes, I tracked his pooping dates and some details! So this was his third and it was successful - I heard, smelled and saw everything as I was in the toilet with him. There was no potty seat so hopefully he could be convinced to give up the potty seat at home too!

It was about 10.30 pm when he went to bed. Poor boy must have been quite tired... He wasn't up and energetic when I went in at 7.30 am this morning.

He started his medicine this morning. Took him maybe 30 min to finish it *.* Lucky it was a school holiday today so we had time. But by the time we got to Hillview, it was 9 am and hot!

Yes, we hit the rail corridor today!

Yu had school today but I took him out of school, oops..

Kai thought walking was boring. I gave him the option to stay home but of course he wanted to go out :p Think they all got excited seeing the tracks! We walked to the end which was boarded up, and back down to continue our way south.

Trying for a selfie but my eldest was near so wefie! :)

13 km to Tanjong Pagar

There was this little stream along the track

Counting gravel...

Another bit of tracks near Beauty World, where we made our U turn

12.5 km to Woodlands

Saw a huge snail!

Yang agreed that it was fascinating :) We also saw butterflies, dragonflies, an ant with a red bum, wild fruits, remnants of rambutan skin and many counts of "somebody mask" by Yu. That last bit wasn't nice at all *.*

While Yang just kept walking and walking, Yu started complaining he was tired on the way back. He was the sweatiest boy even though most of the trail was not sunny! Kai complained here and there - how long more, walking is boring etc... But we - Kai and I - also had a nice chat along the way. While Yang and Yu were checking out gravel, I told Kai about my hikes in Norway and my trip up Europe's highest peak. Of course that led to Mt Everest - every kid must know that as the world's highest peak right? :p - and I told him how you must train to climb that and mountain sickness etc.

Time for an early lunch!

Love how this boy eats prata with curry

The entire walk from Hillview MRT exit down the tracks and back to Springleaf took maybe 70 minutes. We waited a while for our food but it was still a rather early lunch at 10.40 am. Fed them yakitori at 3 pm for a protein boost!

Oh yes, dining in resumes today, woohoo! We're looking forward to eating out this weekend! So happy it was earlier than 18 Aug coz I want to stay in on Saturday 21 Aug for the NDP show!

The beginning of the end

We're in the second half of the year now. Think we came out of the circuit breaker just about a year ago. Can't believe that we have lived with COVID-19 for over a year. Yu's 名言：It's already 21, why is there still COVID-19?

Yes, why?!

And recently the KTV cluster really irritated me. Irresponsible owners and patrons. Then the fish cluster happened so I decided not to bring the kids to the hawker centre for prata when we could finally dine out together. Even that was short-lived coz we're now back to dining for two no dining out! 

Meals at home are long affairs, even if we pack food, unless it's Macs or KFC. The same wantan noodles are eaten at different rates at home and outside *.* Sighs...

But we did have quite a bit of fun this month, with Yu's play date, Kai's birthday, new swimming lesson (one and then suspended!), and a bunk bed! 

And not to forget - the REAL PIGEONS...

Not referring to these two boys; it's the book they're reading. I bought one book, left it on the bookshelf without saying a word. Kai discovered it within a couple of days, tried it and liked it! He finished it quickly so I bought two more. Yang also started reading it. I read chapter after chapters to Yang (who likes me to read coz I'm faster than him) and Yu until my throat went dry!

So I said, 世界变了 coz Kai and Yang are reading on their own, without me asking them to! Woohoo!

The boy who can read some words still clings on to Mama :)

Egg sandwich - egg on the outside, ham and cheese inside (he had this first in school :p)

He also inherited that Iron Man PJs from Yang, just the top coz the bottom was long torn. Every evening, he'll try to find it in his drawer when he sees that his laid out PJs are of other design. I discovered later that my helper had kept it away in the "cannot wear already" shelf. Probably coz it's sian to have him dig through other PJs to find a pair of bottoms for this *.*

Lego for Yu every day!

Browsing at Popular 😍

It was that one weekend when five of us could dine out. We had Yakun for breakfast and Ichiban for dinner. Then Kai suggested finding the eighth REAL PIGEONS book. I was so happy that they wanted to go to the bookshop! Oh yes, I bought all seven books by then. We found that there was no eighth book yet - to be released at the end of the year. They can't wait..

Yu can ride escalators on his own

Earlier, when we were going up, he turned around and gave me a thumbs up :p I still forbid him from walking on escalators though. 

Selfie while I was in the shower; that's Papa's belt behind him

I woke up to this on Hari Raya Haji

And this

I decided on salmon rice balls for rice. Finally got to use my Daiso gadgets bought years ago! Think I only used one of them once to make meatballs but little bits of meat kept flying out. This time, they worked very well for the rice balls and even salmon balls when I realised I couldn't get much salmon into the rice balls.

The seemingly empty bowls had water and salt for onigiri but my rice was too dry to make onigiri :(

Cute little rice balls!

Yang made rice balls with me; Yu took mine to shake :p

Think they each had at least five rice balls and three salmon balls; Yang had the most for once! I think this can be a staple in future, to get them to eat rice with meat and vegetables... Will try again another day..

Stuffed his mouth, as usual!

Oops, I succumbed to durians :p

Also succumbed to one last dining out the day before dining in ceased :p

But most of all, I succumbed to a bunk bed. Headed out to the market to buy after Yakun breakfast. Walked the whole market looking for the furniture shop; turned out it was right next to the hawker centre... Hope the walk didn't expose me to any fishy COVID cases!

Anyway, we decided to get a bunk bed. I wasn't too sure about it coz I know the kids would love the top bunk a bit too much... The alternative was to get a third single bed - the third mattress was on the floor, "owned" by Yu then Yang when Yang went to primary school. Key consideration was, and is, to separate primary school and child care kids due to different waking times. On weekends, two boys would squeeze into the mattress. But they're getting big.

Sito said let them sleep together if they wish to. So I went ahead to get it. This means we have four beds for three kids. On school nights, Kai takes the single bed, Yang the lower bunk and Yu in Kai's room; other nights, Kai takes the top bunk, Yang the single bed and Yu the lower bunk. Very fair - all boys get to sleep in the bunk bed. And for rule number 1, i.e. safety, only the eldest boy gets to sleep on top. (Don't care even when the younger ones turn nine!)

The bed arrived on a tiring Thursday. I received a call from school at 7.45 am that Yang had a running nose and I had to pick him up. I thought of asking helper to go but I went in the end so that I could send him to the doctor immediately. I knew it wasn't a cold. He started having to sneeze and wipe his nose every morning ever since he started primary school. I think it is because he wakes too early. True enough, when I got him, he was perfectly fine and I was the one with a dripping nose!

The doctor was understanding, and gave us a letter stating Yang has nose allergy and even listing all the symptoms! So helpful! I emailed his teacher and sent Yang to school the next day. But I was kind of worried that we might have caught something in the clinic - there was a guy with a hacking cough before us, and when we came out of the consultation room, some five persons came in for swab tests!

I started work after that but paused when the bed arrived. When the assembly was done, Yang and I wiped the whole frame. So hot. I worked until almost 5 pm, and when I got back from fetching Yu, I brought the third mattress over and had a hard time pushing it on the lower bunk! Then the new lighter one went on top. And I put on sheets. So hot. I couldn't do anything much after that.

That night, the three of them had fun climbing up and down the bunk bed *.* But only Yang got to sleep there that night as it was a school night. They finally got to sleep there together on Friday night! But Yang and Yu were asking why they couldn't sleep on the lower bunk together. Um, coz you're getting big?!

To remember this first night on beds together

Don't know when they will want to have their own space. But it's sweet that they want to sleep together :) Btw, Yang and Yu were holding vehicles from Lego City sets - I put them together over a few nights while they were sleeping :)

Finally constructed the roller coaster!

It was mostly me this time. Kai helped a bit when he felt like it. Yu was there every time but his helping kept getting distracted by the discovery of a special piece or a cute one or something he recognised from another set :p Still short of some decoration but I think we will get there. Let them run the roller coaster on it first. No Legoland, just this :)

Painting or playing with paint?

Yu doing some work in the morning before school :)

I realised that after many weeks of HBL/school holiday, I spent a lot of time with Yu in the morning this month. Usually, he would still be sleeping when I get back from sending Kai and Yang to the bus stop. On Friday, I even managed a supermarket run before he got up. He usually gets up between 7.00 am and 7.15 am. Then he would have breakfast while I have coffee. And we have a random chit chat! After washing up, I set an alarm for 5-10 min, and we play Lego or do some work. It was really nice :)

We don't see each other for the whole day until evening time when I pick him up. Sometimes, he looks out the door and says "Mama!" happily before getting his stuff. Sometimes, the first thing he says is "I have something to show you!" Super sweet boy :) I think his brothers were probably very sweet to me at the end of the day as well but I was busy handling two or three to notice this much with just one, oops...

Last last week, we were chatting randomly on our way back when we passed by two young teenagers sitting on the ground at the open area between the bus stop and Hillion Mall. Yu suddenly went, "Cool shoes!" He then turned to me and said, "Cool, right? The shoes are so cool, right?" So he missed the boy turning to us and saying, "Thanks!" before turning back to his friend. I don't know who was funnier!

Anyway, speaking of HBL, the final week of July started with a scare on Sunday evening. Saw a message from a parent with a boy in secondary that they had a COVID case and the school would go on HBL for Monday. Within hours, Parents Gateway notified us that a boy in primary (not our levels) had a COVID case and we had to go on HBL too on Monday. 

Quickly turned our 6 am alarm to gain 45 min more sleep. Kai was still awake then so I told him. Yang discovered it at night when he woke (?) and saw no phone. Also informed helper. Ended up she was still sleeping when it was time for breakfast - the boys must be ready by 7.30 am for assembly! Had to rush them through breakfast, clearing up table for HBL, washing up and setting up the devices, and we barely managed to log in on time, lucky!

Also last week, Kai somehow took out his dominos to play. He hadn't touched them for a long time. We had a mini contest to see who could build the highest tower with just four tiles per layer. He was also playing more with his Rubik's cube. We even had two rounds of Chinese chess - we each won once :) 

Yu doing his homework

Wanted a photo memory of him writing with the milk pack in front coz he went by the initial consonants and read “full cream milk” as “fresh cow milk”! This homework was on food expiry date. Our selection included a packet of instant noodles. When I introduced that, he paused. Then:

"Oh, instant noodles? I learnt instant noodles before. When you have no food at home and you have no money, you can cook instant noodles. But not every day because it’s not quite healthy…"

I'm not so sure about the no money part, but yes, it isn't quite healthy!!