But before I was through to the 2nd blog post, my 4-year-old started coughing badly. I’m used to it (more or less) already ever since he was diagnosed with bronchitis almost 2 years ago. So I ignored his cough and continued my reading…..then…

I heard whining…

I heard small quick footsteps…

I turned my head towards the sounds…

I saw a small tiny figure in yellow t-shirt dashed into the dark living room….

then “#$%&&%$^&”….the sound of vomit.

I dashed out of my sis’s room and switched on the lights to see where is my little Keatkeat…

He was standing just next to the dustbin. But he couldn’t find it in the darkness and the vomits were all over the floor. He was still coughing hard when I move towards him.

I was so proud of him. He did it! Finally! He did it! He no longer lay lying on his mattress and cough till he vomits. He knows himself so well now.

He knows he’s gonna vomit, so he ran out to look for the dustbin, he knows the trouble that dear Papa and Mommy got to go through in the washing his mattress whenever he vomited on it due to extreme coughing; he understands, he loves his new mattress too much to hurt it like the way he did to his previous one….

I stepped on the vomit (I didn’t care), I knelt (prefer to kneel than to squat) there holding the dustbin just below his chin to signal him that he can go ahead and throw up whatever till he feels it was enough.

I kept saying, “I am so proud of you…Good boy, you didn’t vomit on your bed…I am so proud of you…”

I went on and on till he coughed onto my face once, that’s when I changed my sentence to, “Please cough and vomit into the dustbin and not on my face!” He listened and he followed my instructions. That’s when I carried on with the encouraging words.

It’s really difficult for a kid to be asleep and yet in the nick of time, be able to react so fast, so well, so clear-minded, I am truly proud of my boy’s reaction last night. With so much commotion, my hubby’s sleep was disrupted too. He woke up to help to clean up my boy, changed him and gave him a cup of warm water, while I mopped the floor….and because of the sudden wake-up call, my hubby couldn’t get back to sleep till 5am!

My boy was alright after the throw-up, its usual, we are so used to it, he is so used to it. After a 5min rest, he said, “Good Night Papa. Good Night Mommy.” And off he went to his clean mattress, hugged his 2 bolsters and fell asleep in less than 10mins on his own.

Sometimes Keatkeat displays his level of maturity in areas that we least expect, he is always giving us surprises with his growing intelligence in more areas than one.

I remember melting under the hot sun on Monday and then I am cold like ice yesterday and today. With the unpredictable weather these days, Keatkeat is coughing harder than usual, he is showing signs that his bronchitis may be coming over for a visit again…let’s hope he sleeps well tonight. *Sweet Dreams*

Its so easy to complain when the kid did it wrong…but how often do parents say “good job” when it was done the right way….I don’t see many parents around me who do that…but several does it among my blog friends…*smile*

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My look-like-me niece, ZengYee and my 2 boys woke up earlier than the rest. So with me, the big kid around, no time should be no-fun time. So got them washed up and brought the 3 of them for a McDonald Breakfast and then went straight to bowling! Not for me, its for them!

Orchid Bowl @ E!Hub.

Located at Downtown East, the nerve-centre of bustling activities. This 32-lane bowling centre comes with the first-in-Singapore Miniature Bowling for the Kids!

Here the kids were observing how the adults do it while I was changing my S$10 note into S$1.00 coins.

Each game of 6 frames cost S$2.00. I know how addictive bowling can be so my idea was for them to have just 5 games.

They took turns, not on each game, that would be too long for them to wait. So they took turns on each throw. Super fun for them to play and for me to watch! *laugh*

The lanes are about 3/4 the length of the normal adult bowling alley. So even if your kid is as young as mine, their small push should be strong enough to roll the ball to the end of the lane.

The GOOD thing about these 2 mini-bowling alleys is the Gutter-Preventer (that’s what I call it).

There is a lower chance of having a disappointed kid, whose bowling ball kept going into the gutter.

The Gutter-Preventer (see the luminous yellow strips at the sides) will help the ball to stay in lane to at least hit a pin or two.

It stretches over 9/10 of the lane, so there is still a chance that the ball will drop into the gutter at the very last minute before it touches the pins.

If you have a kid who is pretty good at bowling, you could PUSH DOWN the Gutter-Preventer to make it more challenging for him/her too. Yes, it’s optional to pull-up the Gutter-Preventer.

The BALL comes in one weight with NO finger-holes, which I think is good, to prevent finger-fracture for the small-fingers. So its really pick up and throw, oops! I mean roll! There are 5 balls shared by the 2 lanes.

But there was something that kept spoiling the fun. If you bring kids that are young like my boys, 3 and 4 years old, you may encounter this :

Sometimes when their ball’s motion is too zig-zag and it dropped into the gutter just before it touches the pins…there is a high chance that it may stopped rolling and stay in the gutter. (See photo on left)

In this case, you got to either throw another ball by the gutter to push down the ’stuck’ ball, which result in a foul, because 2 balls are sensed by the sensor; or you got to throw another ball at the pins, in this case, the ball that is ’stuck’ remained ’stuck’ there, till you use a long umbrella to push it down, which was what we kept doing towards the end, where the kids’ strength was decreasing significantly after so many throws. *Laugh*

The mini-bowling alley doesn’t have a ’sweeper’ like the ones in the adult’s alley, so there is no way the ’stucked’ bowling ball could be swept away.

The pins are on strings. After every throw, all the pins, be it dropped or not, will be raised and then the sensor will put down the un-dropped pins captured from the previous throw.

Though there are imperfection, I still think its a great idea to have the kids in mind when the bowling alley was built for the adults.

Oh, there’s another good thing, the toilet is just beside the mini-alley, so if you’ve got a kid who is half-way through his bowling game and needed the toilet, Never Fear - ‘cos the Toilet is Near! *Laugh*

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Please allow me to introduce this miracle kid.

When my eldest Sis-in-law was pregnant with her, she bleeds frequently to the extend of being hospitalized for observations and for just-in-case situations. In and out of the hospital she went ever since she was 5 months pregnant and each stay lasted 1 week.

MunYee was born almost-dead. Yes, she was as white as a sheet of paper when she came out from the womb.

Bags of blood and lots of other equipments were poked into the tiny prematured baby like a string-puppet, in order to sustain her life.

For 3 full-months, she went through phototherapy to deal with her jaundice, which was the cause of her unusually dark skin now. The phototherapy not only darken her skin, her TEETH ARE BLACK TOO!

Poor girl started school this year and her classmates LAUGHED at her Black Teeth…*sigh* But that did not stop the like-to-go-to-school-MunYee from having phobia of stepping into her class. She was as determined to go to school as she was determined to live when she came into this world.

Yup! That’s little MunYee, a very stubborn strong girl whose character is very much her icon now. Once she set her mind on doing something, she must get it done even if my Parents-in-law or Bro-in-law chase her with a cane.

See the naughty Binbin licking the cream off his fingers after ’stealing’ it uncaught.

Look at the stare from the birthday girl’s face. *Laugh*

There are very limited photos this time because I FORGOT TO BRING THE CAMERA and my phone-camera is terrible, so all shots were contributed by MunYee’s dad, my eldest Bro-in-law.

I bought 5 presents for MunYee, but BIL only took a shot on the Minnie Bag. The ribbon on Minnie’s Head is a pop-up cushion - Really nice!

On top of that I bought her 2 Mickey-Minnie mouse folders, a Mickey-Minnie mouse coin box and a Mickey-Minnie sticker to past on her ezlink card.

And so I did it again - Won the heart of the birthday child - she was carrying it the whole time and hugging it to sleep too….LOL simply because I bought gifts which have her favorite characters on them….kids are just so easy to please. *wink*

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Well, my kid is back in school in one piece. No ulcers and obviously no signs of HFMD! The only unhappy thing was - the ‘idiots‘ were not there to witness the grand entrance of my son! LOL because Mommy-me woke up late today and my dear boy was 15mins late for school.

When we reached there the door was closed, which was the sign to ‘chase‘ all those ‘blockers‘ away.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll probably lay a red carpet with an orchestra right behind my boy as he march in with his head held high, chest up, tummy in and a big smile on his face.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll hold up a banner that says “My son is NOT HFMD positive! So keep your mouth shut!”

IF ONLY…..*Humph!*

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I had been wondering all along, when, just when will Keatkeat’s teacher Mdm Normah snap, how long can I stretched her ‘rubber-band’ of keeping an-eye-closed about Keatkeat’s tongue. ‘cos she was doubtful over my explanation all along….but still she kept her eyes closed and let Keatkeat get into class…

Ever since the hand-foot-mouth disease started 4 months back, the school have been doing regular check-ups BEFORE the kids are allowed to step into the class.

Just last week, a student was down with the illness after the school had a clean record for 5 full weeks. Hence the check-ups were more thorough than before, first they would (prefer the parents to measure the kids’ temperature and record down on the given notebook before the come to school) check the temperature, then the palm of the hands to look out for blisters and finally shine a torchlight into the kids’ mouth to spot ulcers.

You see, my dear Keatkeat have a conditioned since he was a baby - whenever his water intake is too little, he would have ulcers on his tongue. I HAVE mentioned this to Mdm Normah almost every time she spots an ulcer or two in my 4-year-old’s mouth.

But today she was firm, very firm. She spotted 3 ulcers on Keatkeat’s tongue (*Humph* must be the Fried Spring Chicken he ate for dinner last night). She INSISTs that I bring Keatkeat home.

Let me say this first before anything else, I CAN UNDERSTAND, I DO. Even when I was a Child Care Centre teacher, I would not risk the other students’ health, just to please one eager-to-get-his-butt-in-the-class kid, who shows such signs of danger.

But as me, a HUMAN, a Mommy, I can’t stop having thoughts like:

“Damn! It was so difficult to get my little boy out of his bed and yet he is not accepted.”

“Damn! I could have slept for another hour before I head down to my 1-day bazaar later on. Pacifying one kid is easy while setting up the stall, but keeping 2 kids entertained and preventing them from quarrelling / fighting while setting up the stall is *Urrrrgghhh*”"

What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. Seriously, may I ask ALL Parents reading this, “Do you stay at the door of the school and look at your kids after they are in the class and STAY there till the teacher closes all windows and door?!”

I do, BUT ONLY FOR THE FIRST WEEK when my kid is in school FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE. But I won’t do that when he is already in school for almost 2 years now! But there are still sooooooooo mannnnny parents who do!

They would stand AT the door, and blocked other kids who need to get into the class. Making hand-gestures to their kids who were obviously not even looking back. Or Shouting commands like, “K, sit down!….K, don’t do that!….K, that’s wrong Stop It!…..”

If you are one of such parents, can you tell me why do you do that? I know you love your kids but he/she is not in playgroup or nursery already! They are not THAT small! Aren’t you supposed to feel free-to-do-whatever, since you’ve got 3 hours of no-kid time? Wouldn’t you want to make full use of the time and do what you couldn’t do when the kid is around?

Ok, like I was saying, What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. THEY WERE POINTING FINGERS AT US as we were forced to go out of the class and head back home! Then irritating words like,

“Oh dear, my child plays with this boy (referring to my dear still-didn’t-know-what’s-going-on Keatkeat) often….that means my child is in danger now of Hand Foot Mouth Disease!….”

“Oh oh….another one rejected again, this boy must have played with the child who was sick last week.”

“Oh please…parents shouldn’t bring the kid to school if he’s got HFMD…so irresponsible…”

I soooooo wanted to turn my head and give that parent the stare of the devil and scream into her head, “Mdm Normah DID NOT SAY MY CHILD GOT HFMD!!! He got ulcers BECAUSE HE DID NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER, That’s All!!!

Keatkeat: “Mommy what happened?”

Me: “Mdm Normah didn’t allow you in, because of your mouth ulcers….please drink more water dear…”

Keatkeat: “Mommy, so are we going home now?”

Me: “Yes!”

Keatkeat: “Yeah!!! Then can I go play the Car game since I got nothing to do now?”

Me: *faint!*

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Story 1: A young man wanted to change his face completely because every time he looks at the mirror, he sees his abusive dad’s image.

Dad broke this young man’s toe while hitting him with a broom, smashing his dream of being a ballet dancer. He even cut his ballet shoes into half infront of him.

(these scenes reminded me of the punches from my dad….)

Story 2: A psychiatrist refused to forgive her dad for leaving her and her mom when she was a kid. Now that her dad is dead, she still refused to forgive him. Even though her mom wanted her to go to his grave on his death anniversary, she rejected.

(have I REALLY forgiven my mom….even though now she is dead….)

Throughout the story, questions like….

(with respect to Story 1) “…are you sure even though after a ‘face-off’ plastic surgery, you’ll truly forgive your dad….?”

“….after so many years of lost contact, finally your dad found you and sewed backed the broken ballet shoes….he even humbled himself to say “I’m Sorry” to you….won’t you forgive him?”

The young man’s reply was, “I don’t know….but I know I don’t hate him anymore….”

(what a child wants is only a word of apology….to smoothen the rough feelings in his heart…but that’s something hard for a parent, to swallow his pride to say he’s sorry….)

(with respect to Story 2) “…what’s done can’t be undone…and now that the creator of the hurt is already down to ashes, how then will you forgive him….do you want him to rise up from the grave and say, “I’m Sorry?”…..

….these are questions that’s hard to answer….

I HATE to watch shows that remind me of my family violence, gambling and strained parent-child relationships. I usually switched off the TV or looked away. Because I HATE to be reminded.

For this aspect of my life, I choose to ran away and avoid, I choose NOT to face the tough questions, I choose to bury my messed-up emotions as deep as possible….call me a coward, whatever!

The thought of coming home (a place that’s supposed to be warm and secure) is always heavy hearted. Coming back to a cold steel cage. Coming back to four chilling walls that’s built upon hurt, bruises, blood, screams, tears, fear, anger, hatred…..

My home IS a place I hate to come back to…and ironically I’m still staying in the same four walls, though the colour of the paint is different, the furnitures have changed or rearranged, the members are different, but every corner still reminds me of what happened more than 14 years ago…

A house where ZERO communication is always welcomed. 4 Members in the household, kids hardly talk to parents, and parents hardly talk to each other, sometimes for days, sometimes even weeks….but it’s all good, it’s always preferred.

When there’s communication, there’s a high chance of arguements, then there’ll be a possibility of blows again from my body-builder dad…..and then the peace is broken again…

I saw a book in the bookstores recently, it’s called “A Child Called “it”, and suddenly a thought jumped into me that maybe I could write a book about my childhood, maybe my book could help children to handle better if there’s a gambler in the family, if there’s family violence, broken marriages…..just a sudden thought, just maybe…..

There were so many things, I could have done, but I didn’t know such help was available for my mom, the spark which burned away my family happiness (blame it on my age, blame it on my choice to avoid than to dig deeper into the problem), till the police were involved….till counseling sessions began all too late…

I remember I wrote a letter to both my parents about how I felt, about how I wish it could have been better, about how I thought “peaceful communication” could bring them closer….I wrote, I wrote it all down on 2 pieces of A4 size papers…. did it work? A BIG FAT NO!!!

I could really go on and on about this extreme-childhood….but I would like to stop here…

The lucky part was, my horrible family did not result in me having a phobia towards being someone’s wife  and some kids’ mommy. Thank God!

Many of my friends asked why do I still bother about this issue, now that both my parents are dead, everything is over, isn’t it? My answer is “no”, it’s just the beginning….

Keatkeat started to ask about my parents. He insisted on seeing their pictures, I did show it to him without any hesitation and without any elaboration too. I just passed him the photo album and walked away.

But the time will come…and I can feel it coming really soon…he will ask,

“Do you love your papa and mommy?”

“Do they love you?”

“What do they work as?”

“Did you cry when they die?”

You see,  in my ‘current-happy-almost-perfect’ family, we tell each other we love each other everyday, we hug and kiss each other everyday, we sing, we laugh, we joke, we play as a family everyday.

I CREATED this ‘dream family’ that I am in right now. Whatever that I’ve dreamt of having during my childhood, I MADE IT HAPPENED to this family, to my current family! I wanted to get back all that I’ve lost! It was revenge time for me when my first child was born!

Allan found it hard to adapt to it at first, only during last 2 years, did I see that he has grown to love this kind of family….. Allan didn’t grow up in such a family, in fact, Allan told me that his parents has never mentioned the word ‘Love‘ to any of their children before, but they show their love through their actions; obviously I didn’t grow up in such a family too.

I’ve always wanted my parents to say they love me….but…..(sorry I need a moment…)

So the day will come, when Keatkeat or Binbin decides to ask me all those questions, when I have to face the ‘little-me’ that I’ve hidden in the basement of my heart, completely shut with a thousand stainless steel locks right now….till then I will probably blog about how they reacted to the ugly truth….till then….

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Today, he asked me if I knew what’s the Real name of the plant. I remembered asking his teacher that very day Keatkeat held that small pot in his hands, but Mdm Normah had no idea.

Any plant experts out there? I haven’t got a clue how to search through Google on such matters, whereby I have nothing but photos. Does Google have a search engine that searches based on photos? *wink*

This is the bud before the flower blooms.

The leaves are pointy but not poky.

The leaves are spread-ed out nicely in the day but gathers together at night, as if they have fallen asleep.

This is the flower, looks a little like carnation.

So far, it’s just pink. Oh silly me, which plant would produce different colored flowers in the same pot.

Just like the leaves, it blooms in the day and closes up at night.

The flower is short-lived, usually less than 36 hours.

Any idea, anyone? Keatkeat would definitely send you his hugs and kisses over to you.

Answer: MOSS ROSE.

Tammy, Keatkeat sent his hugs and kisses to you on a Jet Plane! Thank you! *smile*

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He is back home resting well now, but will be back in the hospital 4-6weeks later to remove the tube which was inserted to enlarge the gall and remove the stone in it as well.

Throughout the hospitalization, Allan has been taking the 30mins drive from our house to my MIL’s house to bring her to the hospital every morning and evening. Because Allan is a property agent, he has control over his ‘work-timing’, so all these doesn’t really disrupt any of his plans.

However when it comes to being discharged, for ‘unknown’ reasons, both my FIL and my MIL insisted on having their favorite son, my 2nd BIL, to fetch them. My 2nd BIL could not take leave today, but because they were so persistent, my 2nd BIL needed to take an urgent 1hr leave just to please his parents.

It’s an open secret that my 2nd BIL IS my parents-in-law’s apple of the eye. He was the only one whom my MIL cried over when he decided to get married and moved out. She was crying her eyes out that previous night, saying how much she’ll miss him and all of that….but neither my 1st BIL nor Allan could even get close to stir up such emotions in her.

Humans are still humans, made from flesh and blood, a creature full of feelings. Unexplainable feelings.

Why does some people ‘click‘ the moment they see each other?

Why others just can’t see eye-to-eye even though they are family members?

There are just so much into people-people relationships, other than horoscope, zodiac, Ba Zi, up-bringing, experiences….there are also alot of mystery behind it all…That’s the beauty of how all of us are MADE different from the one sitting right next to us, ya?

Though (by right) parents should love all their children equally, but somehow, (by left) in real life that’s not true.

Like my own family, my sis is always the favoured one, maybe because I don’t feel close to my parents at all…. after-all I WASN’T part of their lives till I was 5 years old….

In YOUR family, do you love one kid more than the other(s)?

In YOUR own family, are you the favoured one?

Or are you in the perfect family, where your parents love you and your siblings equally?

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Thank you girl! *muack*

Show of hands, who blogs with a purpose?

Good I see your hands, so come on and take it away!

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When I heard that from my FIL, I was shocked. Tuberculosis is a highly variable communicable disease, how could the hospital allow him to stay in such ‘normal’ wards?! Anyhow, the moment we knew about this, my eldest BIL and SIL brought all the kids down to get some tibits, and kept them entertained with the nibbles for as long as they could.

I’m really unhappy with the ‘way’ this hospital handled certain things, especially towards my FIL. He can eat solids on his own without vomiting or getting choked, but they still put drips on him, causing him to have terrible water retention. His hands are like boxing gloves and legs are like baby elephants. Over the last 8 days in hospital, he has gained 10kg!!! - ALL WATER, as he hardly get to eat solid food till yesterday afternoon.

My frustrated MIL requested to get the drip off my FIL but was rejected. Their reasons were: “we still need to give him the antibiotics every 6 hourly, and we could only get it into the body through the drips…”NOW THAT’S SOMETHING NEW to me (at least).

We were all concerned, so we stayed longer than usual, but the 6 kids were getting impatient at the lobby. So I (the usual kids’ nanny for every Sunday’s family gathering at my parents-in-law house) went down and played quiet games with them, while the others continued to stay with my FIL.

We played the guess-which-finger-tapped-on-head game, count the number of cars passed by the drop-off point, count how many people wore a-particular-coloured top (this kept them entertained the longest, ‘cos all I need to do is just change the colour), count how many people carry a basket of flowers get into the lift and the usual scissors-paper-stone.

Of cos’ the un-unison toilet visits helped to kill much time off too. Before long, the adults were down and ready to leave. Keeping kids entertained is easy, but keeping kids entertained with their voices down is tough, when they are such easily-excitable-creatures….

What do you do to keep the kids’ volume down but at the same time making sure they are not bored? One rule to this question - no electronic hand-held games please….

So I guess, I’ll not be bringing my boys there till my FIL’s ‘new neighbour’ is discharged or relocated.

(Thank you all of your concerns, well-wishes and prayers, especially imbeingheldhostage, thank you for keeping my FIL in your prayers still)

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“Mommy, are you bathing?…..Mommy, are you done?…..Mommy, are you putting shampoo on your hair?….Mommy, I don’t hear water-sound, so are you wiping yourself now….are you coming out now?”

So when I went to the hospital to visit my FIL, naturally they will go along. Everyone knows how ‘natural loud-speakers’ kids are, and being active 90% of the time, you could hardly get them to sit still for more than 5mins.

When my boys see their cousins, it’s party time! All of them would laugh and speak louder than usual. Even though every adult would go, “Shhhhh…..this is the hospital, the patients are sick, they need to rest, so you need to talk softly…” a thousand times, they would still forget this golden rule the next minute.

I’m glad that my boys obeyed the “NOT TO RUN ABOUT” commandment, but not my nieces and my little 1year old nephew.

My second sis-in-law had not brought her only daughter to see my FIL for the past 1 week since his hospitalisation, in order to prevent the need to discipline her in public.

My eldest sis-in-law’s kids, who stay with my parents-in-law, would naturally follow my MIL on every visit.

Being active is usually ‘acceptable‘ but sometimes being kids, they would say whatever that comes to mind and THAT may be ‘unacceptable’ to the ears of the patients or the patients’ families at time….

“Mommy, why the uncle got that thing stuck in his mouth?”

“Mommy, why that uncle make so much noise?”

“Mommy, why that uncle sleep like that?”

“Mommy, why that uncle poo-poo on his bed?”

“Mommy, why that uncle vomit?”

“Mommy, why that uncle’s leg got that big white thing?”

“MOMMY, that uncle not moving, IS HE DEAD??!”

and the ‘why’ questions continues….(my FIL stays in a male ward, so they saw male patients only)

Even if I wasn’t a SAHM, I believe I’ll still bring my kids along whenever I visit a family member or relative who is hospitalised. It’s vital to let them know the importance of being healthy. Actually, these few days, my elder one has started to eat slightly more vegetables, he used to eat only ONE vege per meal….

“Mommy vegetables are good for my body right? I want to be healthy, don’t want to be sick. If I am sick, I have to stay in the hospital and cannot go home….I don’t want that.”

I think there’s some kind of effect after seeing how people suffer in hospital…he doesn’t want to see himself in that state….

So are you like my 2nd sis-in-law, who prefers not to bring her kid to the hospital to prevent unnecessary noise pollution?

Or are you like my eldest sis-in-law who doesn’t have a preference if the kids went there or not?

Or are you like me, who thinks that hospital is another educational centre, where kids can learn alot from there too?

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My account was suspended for 3 days because there was An increase in users, or a large surge of people at the same time. - That’s the bottomline. Sounds rather ironic, being penalised for such an issue.

Anyhow for those of you who are IT savy, you may want to read the following email sent to me by my hosting company support group, if not, you can skip all the italics and scroll right down to see my posts during my MIA from this site.

“Hello,

“There are multiple things that can create an increase in CPU usage.
Popularity is one aspect, and the cache plugin will reduce the amount of
load created by people visiting the site. Another would be ineffective
plugins, some bad search engine crawlers, spam bots, cron (scheduled)
wp or unix jobs, and many other variables.”

keeping my fingers crossed….’cos some of the stuff mentioned here are beyond my control….wish me luck, won’t you? *wink*

Before I started this blog, I was using Google Blogger. So for the past 2-3 days, I was blogging over there - http://allaboutyourchild.blogspot.com. The following were the 2 posts over there when my (this) site was inaccessible.

Today’s Post: Can I have some good news, please?

Thursday’s Post: What a lousy excuse!

So, in future “Touch Wood” if my site is not accessible again, you could pop by over there to see if I’m still alive. *laugh*

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Even when I was awake, I couldn’t get my tired body out of bed. With the travelling to and fro from the hospital, staying there to look after my FIL did tire my aging body. Sorry Keatkeat!

My FIL had an operation yesterday. The doctor inserted a tube to enlarge his shrunk gall. The tube will be remove only 4-6weeks later together with the couple of stones found in his gall as well.

Because my FIL’s platelets count is still not increasing and worse, it’s not reacting to the antibiotics (which is supposed to help increase the growth of it), so the doctor doesn’t want to do a ‘long’ surgery in fear of pro-fused bleeding.

He can only consume fluid now and constantly vomiting phlegm so it’s really quite a heart-breaking sight. He is bed bound till his platelets starts to reproduce by itself to the ’safe-level’ and provided his ‘yellow-ness’ disappears….

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. Thank you, thank you!

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She came by way before I was married, way before I worked in the Child Care Centre, way before I started giving tuition and way before my menstruation came the very first time. Did I hear you say “Huh?”

I started taking care of her when I was only 7 years old. I changed her diapers, bathed her, prepared milk-milk for her, played with her…..she is my one and only sis, I call her Meimei. This picture was taken when I was 8 and Meimei was 1.

My Mom took care of her most of the time, but when it comes to school holidays or weekends, she would disappear to the mahjong table and leave little baby Meimei to me and lo-and-behold, she would be back in time before Papa comes home from work.

Papa had 3 jobs at that time, to support my Mom’s medical bills, my education and the family expenses. My Mom had her 2nd relapse (Cancer) when she was pregnant with my little sis. Her doctor persuaded her to abort my sis, but she insisted on having her. Luckily, my sis was born healthy, much healthier than me, that’s what all the adults said.

You can say my Mom trusted me alot, or you can say she is ONE IRRESPONSIBLE MOMMY, two-sides to a coin. I accept both thoughts whole-heartedly.

While my friends were playing at the playground, I was wiping the bum of my sis. That was my very first job (unpaid) - Nanny.

As little Meimei grows, usual siblings fight came along, jealousy grew in my heart as my Papa (unmistakably) shower more love towards my sis. It was an obvious fact that even the neighbors could tell.

Our relationship took a big step forward when our parents start fighting (go read My Story for the reason). Since then it has only been my sis and I, the only 2 sane people in the four-walls, till I got married.

Oh dear, this is suppose to be a happy post, now it seems like a sad one.

This was the durian cake (as she requested) we bought for her birthday from Angie The Choice. This cake has a pretty name called Charlotte, too bad, that’s not my sis’s name….

Her name is very close to mine. I’m Angeline and she is Angela. *wink*

Bottom-line, I love my sis in a very unusual way, its a mixture of siblings love, motherly love, teacher love and friendship love. Probably that’s why when she was younger, all her friends say we don’t behave like what other siblings do….right Meimei?

Happy Birthday Girl!

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The doctors from Tan Tock Seng Hospital decided to do an ultra sonic scan for him and will be transferring him to the ICU.

Yet after waiting for 6 hours, the doctors came back and said they couldn’t fulfill whatever they had promised earlier because there isn’t a ’spare’ bed for my FIL in the ICU. *Urrrrrgggghhhh*

And because they do not have sufficient supply of the Platelets, they could not put the scope into my FIL. They were worried that any rupture internally may cause profuse bleeding. So they are waiting for more supply of the Platelets from Singapore General Hospital. *Double Urrrrrgggghhhh*

Anyhow, my FIL is having oxygen assistance right now. He seems better when we left at 6pm but he is definitely getting more yellowish…..*sigh*

Many DIL may not feel much for their FIL but for someone like me, who hardly had father’s love, my FIL is like my ‘real‘ dad and to see him lying there, breathing heavily is really an unbearable sight….*heart sank*

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My father-in-law, who is hardly ill, has been vomiting, having high fever and feeling breathless since Friday. When we were there, he turned slightly yellowish. My mom-in-law was worried that this sudden attack may have been the result of not going for the quarterly check-up after the removal of his gall stones 3 years ago.

I realized people of that generation dislike to go to the doctor till things really become out-of-hand. My dad was like that too. Either because of pride or refuse to spend that kind of money or they simply hate the faces of doctors, I have no idea….

My 2nd Bro-in-law brought my parents-in-law to the hospital around 3pm. 3 hours later, my FIL was admitted because of a possible liver failure and his low Platelets count. Platelets (also called thrombocytes) are tiny oval-shaped cells made in the bone marrow. They help in the clotting process, read here to know more.

The doctors will be doing a thorough check with X-rays and Scans tomorrow morning. So we’ll be visiting him again tomorrow at Tan Tock Seng Hospital to know the outcome….as children, what could be worse than seeing their parents lying on the sick-bed….*sigh*

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Thank you (the majority) for your votes for today’s post. *Muack*

Here goes…..

Keatkeat was barely 2 years old, still wearing his diapers and haven’t given up his pacifier yet. Binbin was just a chubby little baby lying comfortably in the Baby-Sling across my shoulder. (THE LADY IN THE PICTURE IS NOT ME.) I showed the photo so that you’ve got a better picture of how I carried Binbin.

I was having a day off from my stall. I missed my kids too much. So I brought them out to the supermarket. We bought a pack of toilet rolls, the kids’ diapers, a 1.5 litres of detergent, Allan and my shampoo (we use different brands).

Could you imagine how full my hands were? I could hardly walk properly with one hand completely belonged to my wobbly 2-year-old, Keatkeat, holding his small hand tightly. The other arm was full of the shopping stuff. The back of my shirt was completely soaked with perspiration.

I was well-known for perspiring freely since young. So when I was in the Chinese Dance Group for my extra-curriculum activities during Secondary School, I had to put on double-layer of cosmetic, or they will be washed off (probably) even before I’m up on the stage for the performance.

It was really terrible then. All my friends would be wearing make-up when we go shopping, but I’ll only put on my lipstick, or else I’ll look like I’m going for a Halloween party, especially if I had my mascara on.

Ok, so we were done with our shopping and were waiting for the feeder bus to bring us home. While we were in the queue at the bus terminal, I felt some warm stuff splashing on my feet. I looked down and saw a thick greenish substance on the floor, just below Keatkeat’s feet.

I thought he accidentally stepped onto the gross slime on the floor and pulled him away. But I was wrong. COMPLETELY WRONG. The gooey slime was flowing down his legs.

Everyone in the queue backed off, the smell was really appalling! I’ve never smelled something that bad before, it’s like a 2 day-old-vomit, kept in an air-tight container that’s splashed onto your face!

In less than 1 minute, the houseflies came and devoured the green pool and started to hovered around Keatkeat’s bum.

I was puzzled. Keatkeat had his diapers on right? Then how could the diarrhea come out? Could it have over-flowed?

Everyone was looking at us, it was extremely embarrassing. I wished I could be as silly as an ostrich, to dig a hole in the ground, bury my head in and think that no one could see me.

I scooped up the still-haven’t-got-a-clue-what’s-going-on Keatkeat, together with all the other heavy stuff from the supermarket, and went behind the 2 storey shop-houses nearby.

As we moved away, aunties, girls and boys in school uniforms were whispering and mumbling away….I shut my ears so as not to hear some unpleasant comments, or I’ll probably turn back and give them the deadly stare.

Luckily Binbin was super cooperative. Wasn’t cranky at all even though the shopping bags were fighting for space with him against my chest.

Finally I found a quiet place behind one of the shops. I was ready to discard everything that’s on my 2-year-old. Even his new shoes which we bought 1 month ago. As I put him down, I realised he had stained some of the plastic shopping bags and my T-shirt!

When the diaper was off, I noticed that the gooey greenish shit was too thick to be absorbed by the diapers, resulted it to over-flow. And when I was half-way removing his terribly smelly shoes, houseflies from no-where came and join in the fun. They irritated the puzzled Keatkeat, “why is Mommy taking off my pants here?” Keatkeat started to whine and refused to cooperate.

As if the day was determined to make it the ‘Ultimate Unlucky Day of My Life’, it started to rain!!! Singapore’s weather is really so unpredictable! It was sunny a while ago, you know!!!

I plucked out his dirty shoes and socks. In super fast-forward speed, I transferred the 2 bottle of shampoo into the plastic bag holding the detergent, trusting the strength of the bag, but prepared for the worst. The rain was getting heavier…..we were getting our hair washed now….

With the empty plastic bag, I threw in the stinky shoes, socks, pants and soiled diaper; threw that pack of junk into the dustbin, which was conveniently standing beside me and head back into the shelter; frantically looking for another quiet place to continue my dirty job. But there isn’t a quiet place. With the sudden downpour, everyone was taking shelter too.

By this time, everyone was staring at the 3 of us like as if we were filming a drama. I was trying to juggle the bulky stuff together with the half-naked and shoeless Keatkeat, at the same time controlling my pressure on Binbin who was still very cooperative lying in the sling.

Finally, there was this stairway that leads up to the second floor of the shop houses. It was less crowded but still, there were spectators. Come to think of it, there wasn’t a single kind soul who came forward and asked if I needed help, which I terribly NEEDED an extra pair of hands.

I cleaned Keatkeat’s legs with care. Fully utilizing every inch of each tissue paper, &