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!

Another fainting incident

The first and previous last time I had this vasavagal syncope was 31 Jan 2007, almost exactly 15 years ago from yesterday.

We hosted reunion dinner with Mother yesterday coz we couldn't all go to her place due to COVID-19 SMMs. I started preparing for dinner in the morning - cutting up stuff etc so that I would only have to cook later in the afternoon. 

So there I was, in the kitchen, slicing Chinese sausages which were the last thing to do. (Later, I remembered that I forgot the garlic...) As I made the last cut for the last sausage, I sliced into the tip of my left little finger with the tip of the knife. It felt like a bad cut coz I could feel the slicing, like slicing meat *.*

Btw, this was the third time I cut this finger since helper left - first two times were slight cuts when cutting dragonfruit. There was another instance when I accidentally poked this finger with the tip of the knife. Nothing cut but still hurt for a few days.

The blood kept flowing this time as I washed so I held a piece of tissue on it and sat down at the dining table near the fridge, facing the clock. I thought I might have to press on it for 5-10 min to stop the blood. Then it happened.

I felt a bit dizzy and cold. I thought I might faint. Should I move to the sofa then? Maybe not, better not stand, and I was seated. Right?

50-50. 

The next moment, I was waking up from an upsetting dream coz I wanted to cry. Can't remember the dream at all. I was surprised to see white - it was my ceiling. And Yang was the first face I saw, I think. I think he asked what happened. I realised I fainted and fell, and got him to call for Sito. Later, he told me he saw me in midair as I fell. 

I was lying on the floor between the dining table and the dry pantry cabinet. My head was right next to the right door of the freezer. I wondered if the floor was clean - I mean, our pet lizards live around the fridge... Then I remembered I mopped that morning. The clock said - I can't remember now but it was not past 10 am. And I saw the chair I was sitting on; it was overturned. How did I fall? I was leaning towards the table rather than on the chair...

There was a huge baluku on the back of my head on the right. It was like a peach was half buried in my head. There was a bit of loose skin on the inside of my lower lip - please don't let it become an ulcer... And my upper teeth hurt on the right side.

Then Sito arrived. He was in the bathroom and thought Yang was disturbing him as usual until Yang said Mama fell and there was blood! Later, I saw a bit of blood on the floor, probably from my lip coz my head did not bleed.

I lay there for a while. Finally, I got up to change - Sito was bringing me to the clinic. But first, I sat down with the kids who were watching TV. Can't remember what we talked about. Sito quickly cleaned up the kitchen first else the ants would have a party in our absence.

Then, we instructed Kai to watch over his brothers and made sure he knew Sito's number as well before we went to the GP. Waited quite some time, during which Sito bought pizza for the kids' lunch. The bump on my head went down a little by the time it was our turn. As the bump was still big, GP suggested an X-ray at the hospital; polyclinics are closed on Sundays.

I wasn't comfortable leaving the kids alone for too long and with us far away so Sito stayed with them while I went to NUH A&E myself. Reached there about 1 pm. There were fewer people at A&E than at the clinic. Didn't wait too long to see the doctor. By then, my bump had gone down further. She didn't recommend a CT scan (ah, that should be more apt than X-ray!) based on my risk factors. I said I would do it anyway and was told to pee in a cup - must do pregnancy test first.

Sito didn't see my text before I saw the doctor again. Her consultant also didn't recommend a CT scan as it was unlikely for me to have a brain bleed. Um, ok. Then I should save time and go home... But I was out of A&E when Sito replied saying I should just do it. Actually, yes, why not?! So I went back.

Had an ECG done and waited one hour or more before I was wheeled up. Apparently they had some emergency cases to do first. This elective one had to wait... 

While waiting, I downloaded instructions to Sito on cooking dinner! :p But I forgot certain things, like how to turn on the oven, which frying pan to use... My dear hub is not so familiar with the kitchen apart from his stash of instant noodles and related :)

The scan took less than five minutes and I was back at A&E by 4.30 pm. I wasn't sure if I should open my eyes so I didn't. Now I'm so curious what's inside the tube, haha!

Then I had to wait for the radiologist to interpret the scans, pass the result to the doctor and see the doctor. I dozed off while waiting. When I woke, it was 5.10 pm!! Gosh.. I deided not to wait. Took me two tries to finally talk to the doctor. It was a different one now. She tried to persuade me to stay for the results else I might have to return if the results showed anything nasty. I told her I was an elective case so she could call me later. 

Took me a few tries and eventually a lot of money to get a taxi home... On the way, the doctor called - everything was fine, woohoo! And I hadn't been so happy to be home for a while!! 

Mother they all had arrived by then. She was with Yu who was crying coz Yang took the little stool away from him and amid the quarrelling, Sito removed all the little stools. Yu decided to hide until the adults were done with dinner.

The rest were with Kai, playing / watching Nintendo. No one had started eating. So yes, time to eat! I hadn't eaten anything since the leftover pizza from Yu during lunch!

It wasn't much due to the unexpected one-man show but I realised it was our joint effort :)

Apart from the spring rolls which Mother brought upon my request; I hadn't had those in years!!! The soup was seafood soup with prawns, fish, tomatoes and tofu. Char siew was homemade and so good... But next time I would use another cut; pork belly is too fat! And line the baking tray a lot more... Sito deviated from my recipe for the vege - he panfried the scallops instead of blanching them. Rice was flavoured with mushroom and those darn Chinese sausages. Had wanted to fry guotie and put out some bah kwa but didn't manage to...

They continued with Nintendo after dinner while I cleaned up. Dessert was mini Magnum, yum! The kids went to bed late. I only managed to talk to Yang and Yu after showering, as Kai had slept already.

I explained why I was away for so long - need to check that there was no internal bleeding. Yang and Yu said they were scared. Yang was afraid I might die *.* Yu didn't want me to die *.* This afternoon, Kai said he wasn't scared; he was watching TV/playing Nintendo. Wa liao, 没良心的！

The bump hurt a lot when I was washing my hair last night. The mark on my right temple felt like an abrasion with a bruise. My neck especially the right side and my back hurt but my back has been hurting for a while. After standing for a few hours in the kitchen, Sito said it should be due to prolonged standing... Anyway, the bump is hardly there anymore though the pain remains. My teeth still hurt. Hope they feel better soon - I have nightmares about teeth ever since I had braces...  And hope to be able to wash my hair better tonight! 

Apparently, the next lunar year is very good for me, so 明年会更好！

End of week 2!

The first two weeks of school were too happening.

1) For the first time, I let them come home on their own. We bought a GPS watch to keep tabs of them. It's in Kai's schoolbag coz it's quite big to wear and he lost his first watch in the first week of P1 :p It takes 20 seconds to retrieve location info. I thought I would be chill but I was quite anxious the first day... Also went through various scenarios with them, e.g. if the bus breaks down etc...

2) The first week coincided with my last week at work. It was chaotic as I was trying to sort out my laptop and ensure all important stuff had been filed and/or sent to people. Also went to office on Friday to de-kit and pack but didn't manage to do the latter coz was still doing handover stuff!

3) After just one week three days of school, Yang was issued a health risk warning. Saw the SMS on my birthday, no less. Thankfully it was past 11 pm when I saw it so still had a happy birthday :p But if he had contracted COVID-19, the damage was done coz we had gone to JEM that evening...!

So (a) we cancelled birthday lunch the next day, and (b) he didn't go to school on Monday. According to the advisories, he could have gone to school if he had a negative ART that day but I hadn't figured out how to get him to do ART early in the morning so let him skip school.

Kai: What?! I wish my friend had COVID-19!

😱 Terrible...

It was the day I intended to really clean the toilets properly - they saw purposefully wet floors just once after helper left on 20 Dec :p So I let Yang play Nintendo etc while I did work. Even cooked lunch for him. Then we settled down to play Scrabble. Kai joined us after his lunch but he left shortly coz he was upset when he couldn't form a word, gosh...

Yang posing sweetly next to Kai

Yang can't spell many words so I always have to wait looooong long time for him. Suffice to say it's a very slow game for me.... But it's still nice to play with him :)

At this point, I think I had originally wanted to write about the end of my first week as a SAHM, haha! No choice, too tired. Haven't done this much physical work for a while!

Nope, haven't managed to kick the second cup of coffee yet!

Managed to negotiate a deal with Yang for the remaining four days. Since school reopened, he wanted cereals in addition to his usual warm milo so that he could stomach the vitamins - last month, I changed from liquid to chewables which he doesn't like. So I stopped the vitamins so that instead of eating cereals, he would spend the time doing ART. He hated it but no choice...

4) And then on Wednesday, he couldn't find his wallet as before boarding the bus. We had to retrace our steps to find it but nope, couldn't find. I handed the wallet to him along with his mask, and saw him reach for a piece of tissue. He said he put it in his pocket by the time we got into the lift. I suspect it dropped through the gap of the lift... 

With Sito away and Yu alone at home, and it was getting late by the time we went home to search, I could only call a taxi for them and waved bye bye!! Gave Yang money for the way home. It cost 85 cents by cash by the way.

Took a photo of him for his replacement card when they got home. Then found that our printer doesn't print photos clearly so the counter was unlikely to accept - I asked in the morning. Tried to reduce the photo to do online instead though it would take five days for the card to arrive in the mail. But on whim, I tried the app - there was an option to use the original photo! Ok, done. And best part was that I could print the card at a kiosk downstairs, woohoo!

The next day, I called the helpline to cancel the old card to get the money back, on the advice of the lady at the counter. Due to high call volume, I left my number. But I got an sms to go get my money back after that. So automatic, yeah!

I have been cleaning a lot since helper left. This second week saw massive laundry - washed the curtains in the two bedrooms the kids sleep in, i.e. four loads; changed their bedsheets and mattress protectors. Seriously, laundry has been ruling me, haha! Also wiped down the windows while they were bare, and wiped all the bed frames which were super dusty!!!

Rare to see bare windows

Much brighter without curtains but good to block out sun in the afternoon for them

Apart from children and clothes which I must be hands on, cleaning - of the floors at least - has been taken care of my our new friend, Xiaomi 1C, aka Robot-kun :) Our grouts aren't very even with the tiles so after a while, some grouts start to catch dirt from the robot mop. So today I steamed the floors and cleaned off the dirt, yeah!

Ok, going into week 3 now... But no, there won't be a post on week 3 :p

A brand new start from my 43rd year

Birthdays these days are occasions for the kids to blow out candles. And it doesn't matter whose birthday it is! It's quite nice to see them happy with cake and candles - they can blow out all my candles every year!

This year, they didn't get to blow out my candles though we had cake thrice:

Cake 1: A surprise from some colleagues on Thursday! It's got a tail, hoho!

I was so happy at the tail! And I was hungry so I had it for tea without waiting for them to sing song blow candle cut cake with me :p All tried/ate this cake except Kai of course. So much cream, I love it, haha!

Cake 2: Chocolate mousse and mango mousse at Jack's Place on Saturday - no candles

Actually we ordered black forest, not chocolate mousse :p Anyway, we went there coz of a one-for-one birthday meal. Kai and Yang weren't very keen coz they went recently with their grands and one didn't like the steak and the other found the spaghetti too little. Kai still didn't like the steak - he had spaghetti this time. Yang had that too and found it huge! Of course - we got the regular one, not kiddy meal. Even Yu had the big one :p

These two enjoyed the cakes! Kai had the chocolate decor and a bit of mango jelly

Ikea time saw Kai struggling in the kiddy toy - too big already! *.*

Cake 3: I totally dig cakes of local flavours - this one has pulut hitam!

We were supposed to head out for lunch on Sunday - can't remember the last time the extended family ate out! But late on Saturday night, I got an SMS on Yang's health risk warning! So we had to cancel lunch. Mum brought mee tai mak and the cake which Ah Yee already bought. I was busy with setting up lunch etc so didn't do the birthday cake thing before cutting out two slices for us to keep. Sito and I finished them all that night :)

And my PJs in photo above were from Sito! With bag and comb pouch as free gifts :)

And the key reason it's a brand new start is that, I ended my 42nd year by wrapping up my paid work - on Friday, 7 Jan, I returned my laptop and PS card. I was going to write more but figured that it deserves a post on its own...

Anyway, take my word for it - it's a brand new start!

No more helper!!

I remember we started considering a helper around the time of our second miscarriage in 2013. That was a factor. Also, I thought Kai should graduate from cereals, bread and bites of my cai png to a more proper dinner *.*

Y left after just under two years, I think right after Yang turned one. She wanted to come back later as her then employer's house was too big *.* But I didn't want to change. Later, she texted me again, as I had mentioned previously that I might get two helpers in future with more kids. But this helper room is even smaller than before! In any case, I didn't need a second one after all. What I didn't say was, my boys were older and I didn't wish them to see her dressing on her day off! 

N stayed with us until Dec 2019. I would have let her stay but for her off day request after getting married. She later had issues with her new employer and left. No sound from her for two years until the Tik Tok incident. 

I was planning to tell A about not renewing contract towards the end of November. But I saw on MOM's website that I could only extend her work permit for four weeks; it was eight weeks when I checked a few months back! This meant she needed to start looking for transfer earlier. So I decided to tell her in mid November, after I finished a key item at work instead she just upped and left! Just nice she also commented that her work permit was expiring that Saturday morning when I was baking; I told her we would speak later.

While the kids were playing Nintendo, I told her I wouldn't be renewing her contract as I wouldn't be working the next year, and asked her if she wanted to go back or transfer. She decided to transfer directly to a new employer. I extended her work permit for four weeks and went to a Facebook page and linked a few employers to her directly for interviews. All settled within two hours!

The next morning over Yakun breakfast, when we were cuddled around the small tables, I told them we wouldn't have a helper anymore, and sought their cooperation to help out in housework and eating well. They were so nice about it - Kai said he would help with housework, Yang said he would mop, and Yu said he would fold clothes! :)

I liaised with the new employer on the transfer. Took two weeks before we sorted out the consent coz she did it wrongly the first time round. In these two weeks, A came to ask me why she could not continue working here. Um, coz we could not communicate??! Nah, I didn't say that but I told her - again - that I wouldn't be working from next year so I wouldn't need a helper.

The MOM approval took a while but it arrived. I had already started preparing for the day - bought replacements for various household things (e.g. frying pans which got damaged very easily over here) and also new items that I want to use (e.g. steam cleaner). Also sorted out my daily, weekly and monthly tasks, and decided on a new laundry routine.

A left 5 pm on Monday, 20 Dec 2021. For the first time in over eight years, we had only family in the house :)

And then for the first time in over eight years too, I ironed clothes and washed toilets :p

But it was quite tiring the first few days - had to clean the yard room, paint the walls (why were they brown and grey?!) and shift things into the yard room, on top of regular cleaning and feeding the family. Two days of leave were not enough. I had to go back to work but I managed to settle more household stuff as I was on half-day leave mostly - clearing leave!

For some strange reason, my hamstrings hurt madly. I mean, I painted with my arms leh :p Got better with massage from my four boys. And then Robot-kun came to help! Failed to map it on Christmas eve coz it got stuck in the toilet etc - turned out that it must start and end at the dock in order to create a map. Finally did it on Christmas day!

Map of our house, excluding toilets, kitchen, yard and balconies

So far, I've used it to vacuum all floors and mop only the tiled floors, and even let it run to the kitchen - just have to watch it a bit as the cabinet height is such that the robot could get stuck! Maybe I'll wring out the cloth more and try mopping the parquet floors on low water setting...

So that's one C - cleaning... Children - still the same, haha! Cooking - totally outsourced except for our Saturday porridge. Clothes are the worst - laundry every day! And somehow, I automatically wake at 6-ish every morning to hang up the clothes *.* Good thing is they dry very quickly if it doesn't rain; I don't have to wait for more sun in the afternoon!

I now need a fifth C - chill! Seriously salute full-time working parents with no help! I'm looking forward to settling into a new routine with work out of the way :)