You can call me AUNTIE, really

Update 12 Nov 2024

Well, busy me neglected this "new" blog within a few months... So I transferred all my posts over here and deleted that blog! Check out my auntie page for details.

But not deleting this post la... 

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That ☝ is the name of my new blog. Not that I'm too free... But I can finally write about my job leh, haha! And I have itchy fingers. Must type. One day, I'll also find a way to maintain MS Excel skills too :p

I'll still continue with mf-ism to document our daily life and random stuff. One day, maybe the kids will be interested to read about, say, their birth stories? Hoho!

Anyway, check out:

You can call me AUNTIE

auntie-says.blogspot.com

for auntie trivials and tips on the five Cs of child care, coaching, cleaning and cooking, home improvement, household management and product reviews.

This is me doing one auntie thing, on the day I was exposed to COVID - most of these muffins were dumped! :(

Surviving COVID-19 home recovery

 I came down with COVID-19 :(

As Sito was out of town, I was the only adult at home. Luckily, the kids are old enough to do some things independently and even help me during my home recovery. Two KPIs were met: (1) The kids stay alive; and (2) they did not catch COVID from me. 

Here are some tips to help others in similar shoes, i.e. single parents of (semi-)independent school-going children and with mild symptoms on home recovery.

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Put up safety barriers

To be honest, if you get COVID from the kids, most likely you are all going down coz they would be infectious before showing symptoms. But if you're the first and you know about your exposure to COVID early like me, there is a very good chance that your family won't get it from you if you do this first step right. Even if you don't know about any exposure, it's best to barrier up at the first symptom and hope for the best!

• Mask up: While a surgical mask would do well for those who can stay put in one room the whole time, take it from healthcare personnel and wear N95 mask if you need to step out, e.g. toilet run. When sleeping, switch to a surgical mask for comfort. Yes, mask up even when sleeping, especially if you cough and especially if the kids may find you in the middle of the night! If the kids are willing, have them mask up as well.
• Wash hands often: After touching face, especially nose and mouth. I washed hands after wiping tears too (I tear easily and I was watching drama, i.e. can get emo). Use soap if possible; if you don't have hand soap, shower soap should work too! 

Download instructions to kids

This could be done using the phone if the kids are able to pay attention. Minimise face-to-face interaction. For reference, my three kids are aged five to nine.

Sample instructions:

• Do not go into my bedroom, my bathroom at any time
• Stay on the sofa when I need to come out of my room; do not run to hug me!! Double hugs when I get well 💕
• If you feel unwell (sore throat, cough, body ache), tell me immediately - may need someone else to bring them to the doctor
• Take ART every day to make sure you are negative before going to school - may need to help them transfer stick to the solution; just stay at arm's length with proper barriers in place

Pass money to kids

They will need cash - even if you grab food all the time, they need cash for recess. Or tell them where to get the money. No cash on hand? See next point.

Inform family and/or friends

When you need help, you need help. Get cash, get ART kits etc, for emergencies. Better to alert them early so it's easier to activate support.

At the minimal, let frequent visitors that they can't visit lest they get exposed!

Identify essential activities you need to do

Remember - the more you do (i.e. touch), the more you have to sanitise later! 

Examples:

• Laundry is an essential housework for me. I have never taught the kids how to use the washing machine or iron clothes so I had to do laundry or they would run out of uniforms.
• Toilets are not essential. Poop stains can wait. The exception is if you as a C+ patient shares a toilet with them - must sanitise after every use!
• Cooking is not essential. Order tingkat or grab food. Distribution of food may be essential if the kids can't, in which case, safety barriers are crucial.
• Even engaging kids is not essential. One week of TV and no learning won't hurt anyone but COVID will.

Demarcate activity areas

Obviously, I could not shut myself in my room the whole time since there is essential things that the kids can't do. 

Besides my ensuite bedroom which became out of bounds, I forbade them from entering the study where I had my meals. I also did not enter the living room area where they self-entertained on the TV.

Let the kids help where they can, with safety in mind

It's amazing what they can do if we let them :)

• Go to school: If the kids can go to school safely on their own, great. If not, engage help or just keep them home. My older kids have been going to school on their own but they crossed the road on their own for the first time when I had COVID. I had to remind and nag at them to wait, wait and wait for the green man, and not be gan cheong to cross if they saw their bus coming!
• Self-entertain: Yu is too young to go to school on his own. I did not get the grandparents to help send him as there were many cases in his school as well. And he can really self-entertain. I just needed to check on him once in a while - I peeked at him instead of calling him so he wouldn't rush over. These kids cannot do emergency brake!
• Buy and collect food: This is possible if it is safe to get to the food. After all, they buy food for recess. My kids can buy pizza, bakery buns and their must-have milk. Not all pants have pockets so a wallet on a lanyard or wrist band etc would be useful. Remember to pack TraceTogether tokens for places where they might be needed, e.g. supermarkets. For other food, I had them delivered or got the kids to collect them. 
• Collect ART kits: We were running very low as two kids had to take ART daily before going to school and I also had to test after 72 hours. It was easy to do and there's a video on this on YouTube. But remember to check for stocks first!
• Top up EZ Link card: Unfortunately, I forgot to top up one card when I was supposed to. Luckily, Yang was observant when I topped up a card with him so he managed to get it done. 

Sanitise after COVID

Remember to sanitise everything you've touched and everything that droplets from a cough may have landed on when you're recovered! Water, household disinfectants and alcohol wipes are my friends.

• Start with high-frequency things and areas: For me, it's my bathroom coz during emergencies, the kids couldn't wait for their brothers to finish with their toilet...
• Wash with hot water: Linen including the mattress protector and soft toys are thrown into the machine and washed at 60 degrees. 
• Wipe down with disinfectant or alcohol: Bed frame, bedside table, toilet, table, laptops and the grossest of them all - the mobile phone. Don't forget the things you use on auto-pilot mode, like moisturiser and lip balm. For lip balm, as it came into contact with my lips, and there would be nothing left after wiping off a couple of layers off all 3mm of this stick, I dumped it.
• Sun things that can't be washed: Pillows, cushions, soft toys which are too big to wash, etc
• Dump: I threw out the muffins I made and froze the day I was exposed. If you didn't finish a pack of chips while you were positive, I highly suggest you dump it.

I just found guidelines on cleaning for households on home recovery - check them out too! I didn't use gloves but I did continue to wear my mask. Don't risk reinfecting yourself...

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I also wondered... What if my symptoms weren't mild? What if I had to be hospitalised? What if the kids are too young and need constant attention? What if the kids cannot help around the house? What if I passed COVID to the kids?

There is only one solution, i.e. outsource, be it ordering everything - MSG and all - and/or activating help from family and friends. Close one eye and ride out the storm!

On the other hand, what if Sito was home? Need to do some preparation like bringing his stuff out of our room, let the kids sleep together, have him sleep on the extra bed. But after that, I could have self isolated in peace haha!

We gotta be negative

?? What has happened to Ms Positivity?!

COVID-19 happened to me, sighs...

Met DL last Wednesday, 9 Feb. She was back from Denmark for a visit. We chatted at my place from 8 plus to 1 plus. 

Yes, many many hours together. So when she told me early Thursday morning that she tested positive after having sore throat, my heart sank. My only hope was that I wasn't infectious yet coz I was still snuggling with the kids on Wednesday night!

Did ART after sending off Kai and Yang. Negative. But I started wearing a mask anyway. Still negative that afternoon. 

Before this, I had been having a sore throat in the morning for many days due to snacking on LNY goodies at night, oops. A sip of water and I would be fine. But the sore throat persisted on Friday. ART was still negative. When I was preparing fruits for the kids on Friday evening, I ate the orange pieces with seeds coz Kai didn't like it *.* Then I had a glimmer of hope - I had orange on Thursday too, which could cause sore throat for me!

Unfortunately, I started developing a bad body ache on Friday night. I was also coughing a little. No fever though temperature was higher than usual. I just took my booster shot the morning of the previous Friday and suffered similarly that night too. Sighs...

Day 1 - Saturday

The double line showed up within seconds on Saturday morning. I was relieved for the confirmation though. Took paracetamol for my body ache and sat the boys down to download instructions:

• Do not go into my bedroom, my bathroom, and Papa/Yu's room where I would have my meals
• If you feel unwell (sore throat, cough, body ache), tell me immediately
• Kai and Yang will take the ART every day before going to school
• Yu will not go to school coz I cannot bring him, but I will not be able to play with him - he has to 自己搞定

But this Yu still went to jump on my bed at one point!! Got him to wash up and dumped the toy cat he was holding then into the laundry basket. Have to wash my monkey as well but maybe later coz I want to hug sthg cute since I can't hug my boys :p

Isolating in my room with my monkey

JY reminded me about N95 masks so I started using that instead of the usual medical masks. The N95 was surprisingly easy to breath in but my ears were dying in a matter of hours. So I tied my hair in a high ponytail to hold the top band away from my ears - then my scalp suffered... By the end of Day 1, I had a bruise on my nose bridge! 

By Day 2, I started wearing two masks - regular when I was alone or sleeping, and N95

Yang also received a Health Risk Warning (HRW) - his second one already! - on Friday night just before I slept. Saturday morning when I told him about it and got him to do ART, he asked if it was XXX who was absent and whose whole family got COVID *.*

I opened up a new pack of ART kits on Saturday. So much easier on the nose! Even Yang agreed.

Sito has gone to KL but lucky for me, TV is a good nanny. Left them with the TV while I went to the clinic. Ran out of paracetamol and did not have enough ART kits to last the coming week.

Did another ART at the clinic. Same brand but somehow negative?! So the doctor asked to see my own ART. He said it was likely positive then but they needed a confirmation so put me through a PCR :(

And then I was back with my babies. All on the sofa - good. I just walked away to my room. Shooed the kids away whenever I needed to pass through the dining area. They have a habit of following me around during advertisements coz I'm 广告妈妈 - nope, sorry, stay away from me!

Let the kids play Nintendo the whole Saturday afternoon. Less risk for fights that would need my intervention.

But there are challenging time when the only adult in the house is down with COVID. Food should be easy - just order in, distribute, eat separately. The rest, still must do! 

E.g. Yu spilled his Vitagen so I had to wipe down the table, affected chairs and pretty much the equivalent area of the dining area. Mopped three times by hand and the floor was still oily! There were oily spots everywhere the next day coz they were walking around so much. Finally use dish detergent to remove the oil :( Lucky my symptoms were ok. In fact, I coughed more when I was watching drama :p

And I wrote the above before dinner on Saturday - we had dinner at 7.30 pm instead of 5.30 pm coz our McDelivery did not happened! Driver went MIA after telling me he was waiting for the food. Called the restaurant and was told that the manager would check and call back - twice. The third time, I had to cry to make them escalate! Finally got a call to say that order was already completed but they were preparing again since I didn't received. Should have used Grab instead as I had trouble logging onto the McDelivery app so couldn't track.

By night time, I was left with mostly the cough. Turned out the body ache didn't return fully after the 7 am paracetamol wore off. This was better than the booster shot ache which lasted until Sunday morning!

Day 2 - Sunday

The SMSes from MOH kept coming... The isolation days are counted from the day I tested positive. So 72 hours would end by end of Monday.

Didn't get HRW for the kids until Monday but social responsibility - I tested Kai and Yang anyway so that they could rise to the occasion...

So proud of my boys!

It happened that on Friday, we were reading a book about a P2 kid packing food for her sick mum and watching an episode of CNA's Old Enough. Then I brought them to NTUC, orientated them and got them to buy something on their own. They were very keen to try out and well, here's your chance, first of many!

Sent them out with a wrist purse and the access card on a lanyard. They came back with two pepperoni and one meat galore for lunch, and three hotdog buns for breakfast/recess tomorrow. Good job! :)

When Mum called after their pizza lunch, I heard Yang tell her, "We completed our first mission - buy pizza and three hotdog buns on our own!" :)

Yang volunteered for the second mission - to collect our dinner order from Hainan Story

Sent all kids to bed with only my eyes - I stopped at the door :p And they let me coz COVID!

Anyway, still coughing.

Day 3 - Monday

Kai and Yang tested negative and went to school. For the first time, they crossed the road to the bus stop on their own. I leaned on the invisible grille at the living room balcony and saw them cross. Very anxious. I might have looked like I was going to jump off...!

Yu had to stay home - I couldn't bring him to school and I didn't want to poke his nose until I got the HRW or unless he felt ill. Just as well coz his whole class was sent home for ART due to a positive case!

Received HRWs for all three after lunch. Time to do the inevitable... Took a long time - and two candies and plenty of leg kicking - to convince Yu to let me do it. The third attempt was successful and he felt ok with it. Phew!

When he was trying to do it on his own

Couldn't engage this boy myself so I gave him TV in the morning, some YouTube Kids during my lunch and then phonics on Reading Eggs after his ART.

Can't see from here but he was shaking his legs :p

Asked Kai and Yang to go collect ART kits at blk 180 but they said there was an error on the machine. They picked up hotdog buns for recess and dinner after that. Including the test kits in the care pack from MOH/PA/MP (?), we had enough until Friday - hope to be negative by then so I could collect the test kits to complete their HRW.

Surprise evening delivery

Dinner was Dian Xiao Er - ordered noodles and duck for them - and a lot of drama coz Kai was scolding Yang very badly for small things so I also scolded Kai. But a shower was all it took for them to be friends again. And they were having so much fun that Yang and Yu decided not to watch "funny video"; Kai was banned due to the dinner saga. So I'm happy, yeah!

These kids are so naughty but gosh, I miss hugging them! :(

The cough continued. Felt like a regular cough except that I felt a sense of breathlessness when breathing, even without the mask. But my oxygen levels were ok so I wasn't concerned about the breathlessness.

Day 4 - Tuesday

Various recent accounts told me that I wasn't going to get a negative ART after 72 hours. But I must try right? If I'm the lucky one, I can get some "normal activities" in.

Of course not lucky... But the line was very faint.

Kai and Yang tested negative and went to school. I was a bit worried coz Kai mentioned "something here" the night before, pointing to the bottom of his throat. This boy was also concerned about getting COVID as he wasn't vaccinated - so conscientious, good! But thankfully, his "something" wasn't worse this morning even though it was still there.

Yu received a HRW from school. Quite pissed coz the case was last in school on Friday but this HRW will end one day after that from me. Poor boy has to do additional ART next Monday.

Lunch was fishball noodles and bah chor mee. Was surprised to find three packs of soup but only two packs of noodles. Both driver and Grab were responsive. I eventually got my third pack of noodles. This Ding Ji gives a lot of noodles! Next time just order two and add ingredients.

Dinner was cai fan. I was wondering how they would pack it - bento boxes for all the dishes :) So good to have cai fan! Came with a big pack of curry which I didn't order, yum!

Kai's EZ Link card didn't have enough money so got him and Yang to go top up, collect my cheong sam from the drycleaner, and buy food for recess the next day. Gave Yang his card as well as they would have to go via exemption route to return home. They did this very well :)

The cough was much better. Way fewer coughing episodes and the sense of breathlessness was mostly gone. Took my last cough tablet at night. Only 枇杷膏 and lozenges left.

Day 5 - Wednesday

I was hoping to be negative but got a super faint line. So faint I need to magnify and see with glasses. Save my hope for tmr.. Kai said I should only hug him after I had tested negative the second time, in case of a false negative. So safe, I like!

But I miss hugging my babies!!! 😭

Yu nua-ing in front of the TV

Kai and Yang were negative and went to school. I was counting the days. I was exposed on Wednesday, with clear symptoms on Friday and tested positive on Saturday. If the kids were exposed before I put on the mask, they would have tested positive already. To be safe, I'll count again from the last day I test positive. Hope they don't catch it at all!

Still coughing here and there...

Day 6 - Thursday

I'm negative, yeah!!!!

Had a scare though. I waved Kai and Yang bye bye after my alarm for 15 min went off and the tests read negative. Then I took pictures of the results - in case of queries. When I zoomed into Yang's result, I thought I saw a super faint line *.* 

Took many photos with and without zoom to enlarge and see, with and without glasses. More obvious here, less obvious there. Could it be the light? Also got a message about a positive case in Yang's class - Yang interacts with this boy :( Anyway, there was no way I could call the kids back! 

When they came back, I separated Yang from the rest and got him to do another test immediately. So happy to see that it's negative!

They were also pleased to know that I tested negative. Kai said earlier that I could not hug him yet but the cute thing is that he hugged me today :) I was so happy! I reminded him about what he said and he went, "Oh, yes... Oh well, it's ok!" :)

Yang was very sweet and asked me a few times whether I was really negative, or whether I still had COVID-19. He looked so happy for me! :)

After the first mandatory ART, Yu refused to take ART until the end of his HRW. I just have to take his brothers' daily negative as a proxy... He was happy to stay home for a short while when I went to grab eggs for his lunch. He was happier to be able to play chess with me. 

Yu could arrange the whole thing

But I won both games, yeah! Haha, cheap thrill :p Then I made a new board with paper coz the plastic was falling apart.

When the kids were all settled down with Nintendo, I went to collect ART kits. They were out of stock when I checked in the early morning. Then the stock started coming in, and eventually the machine nearest us was in stock! 

Then I keyed in my negative result :p By right, I should receive a recovery memo on day 7 but I got it on day 6 even before I submitted my negative result *shrug*

Received two surprise deliveries in the morning from RI and RT. So nice of them! I had sugar overdose - one regular Lao Ban and one almond Lao Ban, one almond soy milk, three doughnuts. Took us three days to finish 12 doughnuts but in the end, I couldn't finish the Lao Ban coz kids didn't help.

The kids had a lot to eat in mid afternoon - late lunch plus doughnuts for Kai and Yang, and doughnut for Yu. I was surprised they managed to finish dinner by 6 pm. Bought char siew noodles - the only food they like despite the vege! Only Yu had a bit of noodles left over. 

Despite the negative result, I was still coughing here and there. So mask remains on, even when sleeping. Never know when a kid would run to me in the middle of the night!

Day 7 - Friday

We were all negative; Yu by proxy. Received notice of yet another case in K2 class so was glad Yu stayed home!

Decided not to cook yet so that I could finished up cleaning and sanitising. Didn't dare to clean much in the past few days else I had to sanitise more things when recovered! Grabbed dinner with 20% off self-pickup by yours truly coz I could - happy!

Even happier that I could finally hug my babies and lie down with them at bedtime!! :)

The cough kind of disappeared so the mask came off. Kai said he could finally see my real face, hoho! Weirdly, I started coughing when I laid down to sleep so I pulled a mask on. It fell off in the middle of the night though *.*

Day 8 - Saturday

Received notice of the fifth and sixth case in K2 class and that "K2 classroom" would be closed on Monday. Super vague phrasing - not sure if kids could still go. In any case, it's pretty clear there's transmission in school with a case every two days! Though the sixth case was likely from elsewhere coz kid wasn't in school. So I'm keeping Yu home first. Don't risk it.

No ART done on Saturday so we stayed in. Cooked standard porridge for lunch and my usual pasta for dinner.

Strangely, I had a sore throat and slight cough. No breathlessness. I put it down to the one third tub of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream the night before. If it was COVID again, then we were all infected already!

And I realised that while I had COVID, my nose allergy didn't happen. Great coz I didn't have to keep removing my mask to blow my nose. Now, sniffling again *.*

Day 9 - Sunday

End of HRW! All three tested negative. I took a test too coz of symptoms - negative. I put it down to the pineapple tarts last night :p But here I am, snacking on almond cookies as I type, oops...

Yang got another HRW health risk notice (HRN) last night. Saw the SMS only when I woke. So more poking until Wednesday... At this rate, how to vaccinate the boys?! So I decided to just bring them for vaccination tmr anyway!

Refreshing my ironing board

There were many things to replenish when our helper left. Took two trips to Ikea in one week - first to Alexander for the big stuff as I'm familiar with the place and it's easy to just pop my boxes from the trolley to the taxi; second to Jurong for the small stuff not available at Alexander.

In between the two trips, I bought an ironing board cover from NTUC. I knew that I would have to get a new iron because helper scratched burnt fibres off the ceramic soleplate with a knife!! That was some time ago but I didn't bother changing it since it was still working and I knew I wouldn't keep her long. But I didn't realise until after my second trip to Ikea that I had to get a new ironing board too! 

The army towel acted as a dust cover but also prevented me from seeing the truth about the board whenever I went into the yard

Some weird stained on the iron rest

The cover under the polka dot cover was disintegrating

I didn't remember why I had two ironing board covers, haha! Probably coz I thought one was not thick enough so I pulled the new one over instead of replacing the old scorched one.

A quick search showed that the cheapest ironing board is from Ikea. But it doesn't have a stand for the iron. The one with a stand is double the price. As a would-be SAHM then, I didn't want to spend that much. I also didn't feel like a third trip to Ikea after going there twice that week already...

So I checked the board again and turned to Google for advice. Finally, I decided not to buy a new board at all since the frame was quite sturdy and usable. Instead, I embarked on a messy project.

First, I stripped the board cover by cover. And I found black dust on the cover below. Turned out that the polka dot cover was also disintegrating. I should have expected that?!

As I removed the second cover, I wrapped up the black dust. But the wind started to work against me - some 80% of the lining underneath came off; the rest got stuck in the metal grooves and dropped off one by one with the wind!

Brought the naked metal frame into the bathroom to wash and all the rust started to come off. I had to hurry to wash the rusty water away in case it stained my bathroom tiles.

Then it was drying time. Came back some hours later to invert it and more rusty water came out :(

I had two ideas about the iron stand. Cloth + silicon pad, or aluminium foil? In the end, I couldn't bear to (a) do more sewing, and (b) sacrifice a silicon pad for the oven so I went for foil. I crushed the foil before opening it up to wrap so as to minimise tearing. Not very pretty but it works and is easy to clean and replace :)

After putting on the board cover, my ironing board is good as new, yeah!

I have been using it three times a week for the past month odd. The foil is keeping up well. A couple of connecting parts tend to peel off so I just press them back on. I reckon I would only need to replace this once or twice a year.

Valentine's Day and 元宵节

Monday night at 10.35 pm, I was scrolling Facebook and was reminded that it was Valentine's Day.

Sito and I were on a video call - he was working a few metres away from his phone as it was charging; I was watching drama. I called out to him and he came over.

mf: 情人节快乐！

Sito: 情人节快乐！... I had lunch with a man!

mf: ... I had lunch on my own! Cannot eat with my 小情人 :(

I'm on home recovery for COVID-19 - more on that another day. Yu was home with me as I couldn't send him to school. He did very well on his own.

Knowing Sito would be away, I had planned to date my three 小情人 - vaccination followed by dinner outside. Then I tested positive *.* So all plans fell apart.

Yesterday was 元宵节 aka Chinese Valentine's Day. Wanted to eat dumplings but neither of us did :p Didn't manage to chat much coz I was very sleepy... 

Shall wait for next blue-skies date!

Throwback to our recent lunch date

♪ 我等着你回来！♪

Talk about losing weight..

Found a draft on losing weight dated 9 Apr 2013 - 2013!!! Read through and agree with one line: 

Losing weight is not simply about exercise or about reducing intake. It's about discipline - to eat moderately.

I was only in primary school when I realised I was fat. My first memory about this was with my cousins. It was something about how my wrists were so thick I couldn't loop one with the other hand, unlike the others. This thought of me being fat stayed with me since then.

In JC, a friend who knew I wanted to be thin told me frankly that I would never be thin. At most slim. I agreed. It was my built. I continued to feel fat even though I weighed 52kg in August 1998 - yup, NAPFA period. (I remember this coz I exclaimed out loud and the darn PE teacher mimicked me *.*)

After JC, I gained weight from all the eating out after temp work etc. Before university, I think I was about 58kg. Think that's heavy? College food and kebabs pushed me up to 65kg-67kg. I felt very fat and tried to jog but that did not help. 

When I returned to Singapore for good, I lost weight without doing anything. Somehow, I came down to 58kg and stayed there. I continued to feel fat and tried exercising and cutting down on food. I took up classes at Amore but couldn't go more than a couple of times a week. I danced once or twice a week. I tried to jog in AMK / Bishan park but at snail speed. I also came up with my own diets - cashew nuts and yogurt for dinner, 1L of soy milk for whole Saturday, etc. Nothing worked.

I ate two dinners daily in 2008 due to work - first from Amoy or Maxwell at about 6 pm, and Macs or sthg when I went home which could be any time between 11 pm and 3 am (!). With our wedding coming up in end 2009, I joined a gym near office. Again, I couldn't go more than a couple of times a week due to work. Anyway, it didn't work :p

I lost weight breastfeeding Kai and dropped to 56kg at one point. I was 60kg after Yang. And with Yu, I think it was similar until we moved to BP - had too much accessible fast food for supper with Sito! The scales tipped over at 65kg-67kg again *.*

Along the way, I tried vegetarian dinner, no rice at dinner, and in the couple of years before the Circuit Breaker in 2020, a heavy breakfast plus coffee/tea through the day with no dinner. The heavy breakfast wasn't a dieting attempt - I didn't want to get hungry at lunch and waste time buying lunch so I stuffed myself and worked through lunch! So when I went on part-time work, I didn't need lunch hour.

When Circuit Breaker hit, I changed my eating habits. With food easily accessible at home, I didn't need to stuff myself to last the day. I just started my day with a cup of coffee. If I got hungry mid morning, I just turned around to grab a slice of Gardenia bread and eat it kosong while I worked. If I needed more, I would add peanut butter or even had helper cook noodles etc. After a second cup of coffee in the afternoon, I would have a light dinner with the kids.

Amazingly, I dropped to 62kg by end of 2020. And it didn't stop there - I went below 60kg for the first time in a long while by mid 2021. Since Sep 2021, I have been at about 56kg-58kg.

Sito: Did you lose bone?

TSK! Haha!

So, what did I do? NOTHING! I only removed my big breakfast. I tried to jog just before Circuit Breaker which put a stop to that so no exercise too. I had come to realise back in 2013 that exercising wouldn't help unless it's pretty extreme, like 10km every day. I can't even manage 3km *.* 

Controlling food works better, at least in my experience. By that, I don't mean extreme dieting. Still must be healthy! So I eat only when I'm hungry in the day, and not overeat. If I'm hungry at night, sleep is the best thing to do!

Ending this with photo evidence - the same dress in 2022 and 2019:

2022

2019

Empty womb syndrome

A couple of weeks ago, Yang decided that he didn't want his monkey anymore. 

Kai had one already. I offered it to Yu but he didn't want it. He used to love it but Yang wouldn't lend him. I got him a different monkey coz the zoo didn't carry this anymore. Anyway, he has new favourites now.

So I took it. And the moment I carried the monkey in my arms, I realised I had empty womb syndrome... 

My latest baby!!!

Hahahaha! 

Sito looked at me, eyes half rolling - you want a fourth one? Heh, no la. Don't want to chase babies at this age!

But I can't help carrying this monkey to bed every day! Even if it means I have to go steal it from Yu after he's down - this boy wants the monkey now, but keeps it in his toy hammock, bahhhh!

Fancy a toy hammock?

"A toy hammock is where toys get their rest after accompanying you the whole night..."

I grew up among mostly girls, and I remember a dear cousin with many soft toys. So I always thought soft toys are a girly thing. Then a male classmate in JC said he liked soft toys. Thanks to that, I didn't find it strange to see how my little boys love their soft toys! But they love them too much - we have too many of them...

They were all over the beds. At one point, the kids threw them everywhere at bedtime so we wasted precious time picking them up before they could settle down to sleep. In the middle of the night, these plushies inevitably got pushed to the floor.

The next morning, my helper would pick them up and place them on the beds. But somehow, she would put one or two on the wrong bed and at bedtime: MAMA! Where is my Ninja turtle?! MAMA! This is not mine!

I needed a storage solution. Was googling and saw toy hammocks - too many to link here; just google it yourself. I was pretty taken with this idea - storage off the floor and bed! But I wasn't about to splurge on these or find some cute cloth to sew.

One fine day mid last year when I was packing stuff at home, I found a stack of bolster covers - they came with our bedsheet sets but we never used them; our one and only big bolster was gone over 10 years ago. I didn't know why I kept them but I was glad I did! They became our toy hammocks!

The first attempt took some three hours over many days coz I’m such a noob at sewing. Still remember that I damaged my mother’s sewing machine back in home economics class.. This time, I stitched all six toy hammocks by hand. Such a nightmare, haha!

So I'm putting together a mini tutorial which can hopefully help you:

• keep soft toys nicely
• make use of otherwise unused bolster covers
• 借前车之鉴 and spend less time on this little project!

PS: This is not a sewing blog so don't focus on the ugly stitches :p

Here we go!

*** *** ***

Going from this:

To this:

Tidy bed and toys, and minimal dust on the toys they hug to sleep, woohoo!

Step 1: See if this suits your bed

I'm not sure if bolster size is standard. The length of my bolster cover is just nice for our super single beds so this might sit lower for single beds. For even wider beds, you'd need a longer bolster case or use longer drawstrings.

My beds also happen to have a tall "headboard". Not sure if you call that a board when it has holes! So see if there is space to tie the toy hammock to the bed.

Important note: I wouldn't recommend placing this in a baby cot as there is a risk of suffocation! Or in a bed with a young child or a child with neuro disorders etc. You get the idea. Be safe.

An alternative is the foot of the bed so that the toy hammock rests on the outside of the bed.

Once you've ascertained that this would work for your bed, read on!

Step 2: Remove most stitches on the bolster cover

Keyword is MOST. 

There is at least one seam along the length of the bolster cover. It probably has both interlock and running stitches. We want to remove all the interlock but most of the running stitch, leaving the two sides intact.

I was lazy and removed both the overlock and the running stitch at first. The overlock needed quite a bit of plucking by hand after that. So many short threads flew around!

Then I removed the running stitch before removing the interlock. I found that easier. For the running stitch, just rip it like in the above picture at intervals and pull out lengths as you go along. The back will drop off on its own.

For the interlock, I did this - which was messy again!! But more manageable.

Later, which was unfortunate for me, I realised there are many videos on YouTube showing efficient ways to remove interlock stitch :(

Anyway, the opened seam will be the opening of the toy hammock. Trim off loose fabric threads from the raw edge if necessary.

Step 3: Hem the opening

There are two sides to hem. Remember we left the seam at the sides intact? Choose one side to start. You will need to fold the raw edge such that the folded side aligns nicely with the intact seam. Then, hem the edge all the way from one end of the bolster to the other.

When I was in secondary school, we had to fold and iron the hem before sewing it. I'm no longer in school :p so I just folded the edge - twice, so as to hide the raw edge - and used my nail to "iron" it by scratching across the folded part. Learnt this nail trick from school and loved it! But note that it does not work for all fabrics; cotton is fine.

The tiny holes are a good guide to follow when folding. The cloth may also be quite folded after removing the stitches - see picture just above.

I used a lazy blind stitch - you can still see a bit of the thread on the right side, hence lazy :p Ugly, but it works! You can use a machine too. Done in two minutes!

When you reach the other side, merge the hem with the original seam like at the beginning.

Step 4: Secure the sides

You know kids can be very rough. Who cares that the mama has spent hours on it?!

So I stitched a few times over the part where the seam meets the hems like this to strengthen it - see the tiny white vertical line below. I used to do this for the pleat of my skirt back in JC.

Step 5: Check the drawstrings

Four of my six had drawstrings with two endings. The other two had drawstrings in one loop. For those two, I had to cut the drawstrings so that I could tie them to the bed later. Simple job to cut and hem the edges.

And we're almost done! You should have a rectangular thing with three holes - two existing ones and one made by above steps - held together only at the sides as circled below.

Step 6: Tie to the bed

If your bolster case has never been washed, it may be wise to wash it first before bringing it to kiddy space!

How to tie depends on your bed. Ultimately, make sure it is secured to the bed with no chance of it falling on the kid. Show you how I do it:

1. Tie a half knot first - this is important if you don't want your toy hammock to tear! Not kidding, happened years back when Sito was changing bedsheets 😅
2. Loop each end of the drawstring horizontally, in opposite directions
3. Loop each end under the horizontal loop and bring them up vertically to tie above

Step 7: Introduce it to your kids + bonus

Tell them this: "A toy hammock is where toys get their rest after accompanying you the whole night..."

See if it encourages them to keep the toys themselves too! :)

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Hope this is useful! :)

Fresh beginnings

I just realised it's 10 days into February and my January post is still a draft!

I always like the new year - restart from January, nice weather, new class, new books etc. Oh gosh, I love new textbooks haha!

With school starting on Wednesday, 5 Jan, we had time to go for a haircut only on Monday. Yu took a while to decide he would have a haircut too. With no helper, I decided I won't bother with shaving him else I would have to clear the whole house of stray hair! And I dumped the vacuum cleaner which was gross.

Chicken rice at Five Star + char siew, yummy and the first time I saw Yu using fork and spoon to eat rice!

My son packs for school in a different way from me...

Sito left for KL in the second week of January. The plan was to be back for LNY. Thankfully, VTL + no COVID allowed that. He's working in the room as I type away...

One week after haircut - really?!

Kai solved the 6x6x6 woohoo!

A game of Scrabble with Yu and me teaming up

Shared my steak with the boys so I had mostly carbs :p

Only noticed his shirt was partially tucked in on our way home...

Egg experiment - what happens after immersing an egg in vinegar for a few days?

I did this back in secondary school and was excited to share with the kids. They wanted to "open" the egg after a couple of days but I waited until there were no more bubbles. As expected, the membrane burst open with a sharp poke of a pair of scissors, to many surprised squeals from the kids! I didn't recall the egg looking partially cooked though! I invited them to touch before and after the membrane broke :p

Yang informed me that he had "funny eyes" after I took the photo, silly boy!

Don't know when it would be the last time that the kids wear PJs downstairs so must take photos! It was a lastminute decision to go to Yakun and we got the last table for four. I left them to watch TV while I went grocery shopping. Spent the whole morning and early afternoon preparing for reunion dinner #2 and lunch, and unpacking for Sito when he got back :)

His PCR came back in time for us to head out for dinner that Saturday. Must use up Ichiban vouchers by this month :p Somehow, Ichiban fills up pretty early these days - we arrived at 515 pm and had to wait. Sito brought Kai to Popular where they got two more Dogman books. After dinner, Kai went home with Sito while the two younger ones went to watch people play Pokemon, coz he wanted to read the books.

Lucky boys got some cards from two players!

Found this one sleeping late one morning :)

I love to take photos of my sleeping boys. This time, Yu was in his new blanket. He was asking for a big blanket like his brothers' for some time. I finally got him one and set it up this month. He was so pleased! I'm very happy now coz I can snuggle with him at bedtime without wearing my jacket :p

That is Yang in Papa's arms :)

I love to see Sito with the kids :) Recently, he introduced the kids to anime - demon slayer. Kai and Yang love it; maybe Yu couldn't read the subtitles? :p He is off to KL again after LNY and I refused to find the anime for the kids coz it must be a Papa thing :) Hope he will have more time to spend with the kids soon!

虎at ah!

The start of my journey as a SAHM, with helper leaving, coincided with LNY spring cleaning. So I cleaned A LOT. And suddenly, my fave festival is over and we're officially in the Year of the Water Tiger. Still remember we were hoping for a tiger baby 12 years ago :p And now, look, our dragon, horse and monkey are talking back to us!!

Yu had an early celebration in school on Friday - he looks so tall!

Due to my accident, I forgot to prepare celebration clothes for Kai and Yang. Kai raised it as he was wearing shoes. I immediately went to fetch the clothes but Kai didn't want to change into his pineapple shirt anymore :(

Yang decided to wear this top over his shirt but skipped the matching pants

Yang made this in school :)

Kai made the red one; green was from his friend - I pasted them on the TV wall :)

From the time I could remember, we always had reunion dinner at home on the eve. It started with steamboat - it was an electric one made to look like it had coal inside. Can't remember if it broke but it was really slow to boil. At some point, we used a rice cooker instead. Eventually, we switched to dishes. 

We didn't have reunion dinners with the grands. I don't recall my paternal grandmother cooking much during LNY. My maternal grandma cooked a lot but some 30 plus (!) of us would gather on day one.

Now, our tradition is to have reunion dinner with the kids' paternal grands on the eve. Most years, that would be our only reunion dinner coz of work. But this year, the eve was a Monday so we had the weekend before for more reunion dinners, woohoo! Cannot do both lunch and dinner on the same day - cannot eat so much!

Reunion dinner #1 was on Saturday at home with just the five of us - our standard steamboat with tomato soup base! I didn't prepare too much so we finished everything without overeating, yeah!

Reunion dinner #2 after the accident on Sunday - I prepared and Sito cooked, plus spring rolls from Mother. Even without the planned guo tie and bah kwa, we had some leftover vege and soup. Kai, Yang and I had leftover soup with noodles the next day. The kids had fun playing Nintendo with JiuJiu; Kai even asked if he (no mention of the rest!!) could come again to play :)

Can spot the rice with mushroom and Chinese sausages? Dessert was Magnum

Reunion dinner #3 on the eve started with yusheng!

Kai and Yang joined in the lohei but didn't eat *.*

Part homemade and part store-bought - we ate too many meatballs, burp...

Kids read a bit before eating

After food, they were given some iPad time coz LNY

Free flow snacks after Rocher ice cream

We left later than usual since we were going to stay up anyway. The kids had been looking forward to this annual thing - stay up to watch TV and snack! And Yu was especially excited to finally be able to wear the Pokemon pyjamas!

Our bed is getting too small :)

Yu couldn't have enough of my mango drink topped with cheese foam!

We started with some snacks but the cleaning was terrible coz of the crumbs. But the kids were quite full so we just watched TV. There was a monster show on TV - The Great Wall. 

We were telling Kai that he was the first to doze off the past two years. Then, Papa would carry him to bed. This time, we would wake him up coz he had to go up the bunk bed himself. He claimed he would keep himself awake. But history repeated itself, haha!

Yu was the next to go. I think he was asking for us all to go to bed. FOMO :p Yang was the last one down - expected!

Monkey baby sleeping with baby monkey

Kai woke on his own somehow and we shooed the older ones to bed while I carried Yu to bed. Then Sito and I finished the movie :p

Happy Lunar New Year!

First bainian to Papa

Then it was bainian at the grands, complete with lunch and dinner! Sito and I took naps along the way.. The kids remained energetic! Also ate a lot of snacks. Let them - it's LNY!

Game during lunch - ok, let them do so coz LNY :p

Yu was shy to say hi to his great grandmother!

My baby entertained me I entertained my baby 

Hub too :p

Hmm, my imagination or my front teeth are protruding more?? The right part hurt from the fall... That said, I couldn't fit into my retainers for years now!

Steamboat for dinner, yummy!

The satay sticks were actually beef shabu - too thin to shabu! The prawns on sticks were also convenient to cook. My fave should be the homemade yong tau foo, yum!

Kai has such a lovely smile!

Eating rocher by separating the parts? Ok, let him coz LNY and coz Sito and I used to do that as kids, hoho!

The next day, the boys were arguing about whether to drive or to take the train. In the end, we decided to take the train coz it was always difficult to find parking at TPY.

Took the Choa Chu Kang route which is longer but quieter

Yang decided to use the small oranges from AhMa house to bainian with WaiPo, hoho!

This one likes to grab a box for himself

Yang brought his small oranges to WaiPo-YeePo's house

Two of them spent much time trying to stack oranges

Lunch was 盆菜 - I think I shall make this next year!

Hiding in plain sight during hide-and-seek!!!

Of course must play at the playground downstairs - this one looks snug in the tunnel :p

Opening up their hongbao!

Our sofa is falling apart, haha!

I ran the robot on time so that we came back to a clean home - the mop pad was really dirty, gosh! After settling them, I did some chores here and there. Finally sat down for KFC dinner - that seems to be our choice for festive seasons? Hoho! Anyway, we were all very tired that day! The kids dropped off very quickly so we got to rest early too.

Sito found that his assistant cleared his calendar the next day so he took leave, yeah! He jogged in the morning and we went for lunch at Beng Hiang at Jurong East. Managed to get a foot massage in too - I could still feel my toes tingling at night, shiok! Also grabbed bubble teas and kids' lunch before coming home - happy day :)

Our dates would be in the day time from now onwards :)

Had a video call with Yan on Sunday. Ironically, they caught a lion dance in Durham while we saw none in Singapore :(

And now, the reason for posting this late - LNY fashion parade which concluded on Sunday!

New tops from AhMa on the eve - tiger prints, i.e. must wear this year

New set from AhMa too on day 1 - zodiac prints, can reuse next year :p

I commented that Kai had a lovely smile and Yang stole a look; Yu kept his unwarranted pout!

Parents' contribution for day 2 and tees only - space theme for Kai and Yang; no third design so Yu got Pokemon

New set from AhMa-YeePo on day 6 which is our usual Sunday at the grands - saved this from a few months back for LNY actually...

Parents also had fashion show, ok... Except that we didn't buy a single thing. Sito said he didn't need new clothes for LNY but all these years, I always got him at least a top. 

Nowadays, I changed laundry habits - instead of washing adults and kids' clothes separately on specific days of the week, I wash all our clothes together on a daily basis. So clothes go back to the wardrobe in two days after ironing and there is less need to have more clothes! 

So ok, no need to buy. I also didn't get new clothes for the first time in my life in Singapore. No need more clothes and also, I have no need for nice dresses now, while I have enough tees to last a while. 

But I want to keep the LNY tradition on clothes going! Just nice, Sito's office issued a LNY shirt! And I brought out my cheong sam from 2015, going for traditional outfit in lieu of new clothes. But the dry cleaning cost $21.40, more than my $15 dress last year *.*

Got tiger!

Old shirt with tiger!

Big one behind - roar!

I could fit into this, yeah!

That's all, folks! Keep the roar going!