Super Dad, our comic hero

Credit: SuperDad Father's Day printable from IHeartNapTime

To celebrate Father's Day and thank daddy for all his love, the kids made a comic book for daddy this year. Well, Wayne and myself did most of the work and Amanda helped by adding a few crumples here and there. Hope you loved it daddy, Happy Father's Day!

The kids in action:

Loving daddy you, always : Wayne & Amanda

Rochester playhouse - fun and not-so-fun

Somewhere along the past few months, I realised how independent Amanda has grown to be. No longer the baby requiring our attention 24/7, she is now capable of playing by herself and doing many other things herself for that matter. This afternoon, as we spent our time with the kids at Rochester Playhouse, watching her play independently with her kor-kor Wayne while we took a back seat further made me realise so. She is just growing up so fast! Wayne was still a baby even at three! But this little girl, she's slowly losing that baby-ness for sure, and I think its half attributed to gender and half being the second child, having kor-kor as a model for all things good and bad.

Rochester Playhouse was pretty much heaven for the kids. Wayne exclaimed it was awesome before he stepped in, and said the same even after we left the place. For us adults though... it was a whole different story which I'll come to in a minute. There was an indoor playground for the younger kids, which because we didn't bring our socks along and they didn't sell socks on-site, we didn't explore. The kids in any case, had their eye on the outdoor area the moment they stepped in. There were various water play equipments, a trampoline, and lots of slides, see saws, swings, cars and motorcycles for the younger ones. 

We practically had the whole area to ourselves, which after one visit, knew why. There was just so many mosquitoes there! I think among the 4 adults and 4 kids that day, we had at least a 100 bites. Grrrr. I was so bothered by the itch, I just couldn't wait to leave. Even Gabe was so bothered by the bite on his neck, that he couldn't enjoy himself. And, second reason why there was hardly anyone there - the food and coffee was terrible. We ordered pizza and some drinks, and they were all bad. I read online that the food wasn't good, and it sure wasn't. 

So, sadly, I don't think I'd be back even though the kids enjoyed themselves much. The mosquitoes alone are enough to keep away.  I very much prefer the indoor playgrounds.

Here are some of the colourful photos of the kids at play:

And I can't end this post without mentioning a proud big brother moment, which made mommy extremely proud of my little five year old son. See this photo above? The three kids were playing together in this area when this young boy snatched the doll Amanda was playing with and told her "You can't play with this here". Wayne saw and without any hesitation, firmly marched to him and told him "Don't be mean to my sister!".  Proud mommy silently cheered him on for being the wonderful protective brother he is! Way to go, Wayne! 

Lego love

After receiving a few Lego sets over the last birthday & christmas, he has been enjoying every minute building his little creations independently. 

HFMD. Update.

Day 3, the extent of her rash. Can someone tell me if this is normal? Isn't it supposed to be on the hands and feet?

Mommy's heart can't take this.

HFMD. Again.

It was not by coincidence that all four kids came down with fever in the same week. 

One by one, each ran a temperature followed by rashes on their hands and feet. Despite me trying my best to hope against hope that it wasn't the HFMD (again!), the telltale signs were just too obvious to ignore. Our visit to the doctors this morning confirmed it, and when Dr Chan told me that Amanda had it pretty bad with many ulcers at the back of her mouth, my heart just sank.  Sigh, my little baby girl. 

Wayne barely recovered two weeks ago, and now again? I feel so upset. Wayne thankfully seem to have it mild, with just a couple of spots. But Amanda's.. just looking at her hands and legs makes me wince, and I haven't even seen the ulcers in her mouth. It must be so painful for my food-loving girl to have to struggle to swallow her food each time, and her food intake has been reduced to half. A bite into the very food which used to make her break into her happy dance in the past, now causes her to break into tears, giving up after the first few mouthfuls.  

I did however realise that she is able to eat more after having her medication, presumably from the effects of paracetamol, which is a pain killer, so we have been trying that. 

Gabe and Lucas haven't been spared this terrible virus too, and hopefully they are on the road to recovery. Especially with Gabe's birthday celebration planned for the next weekend. All our outings this weekend have been postponed, including celebrating da-yi's birthday, which have been really disappointing especially knowing that we are only left with a few more weekends together before they head back to Japan.

We suspect the kids contracted the virus from our weekend of fun at Westgate Wonderland, as the very next day Gabe was down with fever. We should have known better, how frequent would a mall sanitise and disinfect a play area? Especially a FREE play area - unlike indoor playgrounds where at least the sustainability of their business is dependent on a clean, healthy playground. Sigh, don't we all know how playgrounds are magnets for all kinds of bacteria and viruses that passes on from one tiny hand to another tiny hand and into their mouths?

Not surprisingly, the past two days have been tough, for both the kids and us. The kids have been extra whiny, mealtimes difficult and our patience wearing thin, from the lack of sleep at nights. Given the pain, I know it could have been much worse. 

I think about how awful it must feel to have fireballs down their throats and I think the best I can do  during these painful times is to shower them with extra doses of mommy's love and hugs. 

Get well soon, babies.

Finally, happy pre-schooler

My happy little chub at the entrance of her school, one evening picking her up.

It has been about one and a half months since Amanda started pre-school and she has settled in well. She no longer cries when daddy drops her off in the morning, and she is able to nap well too. Laoshi told me that Amanda was very well liked by the teachers in school, which made me feel both happy and thankful. The teachers from other classes love dropping by to say hi to her, and she'd happily wave back from inside her classroom. Laoshi explained that the teachers can't resist her chubby cheeks and especially love to see her dance when they sing to her. I so love my little girl.

Always my precious, precious

Mommy and son - in cartoon effect, chosen by Wayne.

My precious little one since 5 years ago, whom I love so very much. Our dearest Wayne, you are such a happy cheery boy who never fails to warm our hearts, lift our moods and brighten our days. You are indeed my precious precious.

The magic word, "Phish"....

After more than a week of absence from preschool (on quarantine for as long as korkor was away due to his HFMD virus), the first day back turned out pretty well with her crying for a mere few minutes when daddy dropped her off. A quick update from her teachers mid day provided much assurance, amidst my busy work day interrupted by worried thoughts on how she was coping. It was much to my delight when I saw her running out from her classroom laughing away, a clear sign of her settling in well in school. 

Instead of rushing through routine like I normally do, I paused to chat with her teachers this evening  and was glad I did so as I heard stories of how very cute she was in class. Often, these stories revolved around her appetite, and today was no different. Laoshi shared how at snack time after she finished all her blueberries, she sat quietly eyeing all the remaining blueberries in her friend's bowl. When she could resist no longer, she started saying phish phish ("please") to the poor boy beside her, called James, and must have been elated when James shared one of his blueberries with her. Each time she finished one, she'd go phish phish at him again and well.... before poor James knew it, she ended up having all of his blueberries. 

I was so amused because this little girl.. not even knowing how to speak, could still manage to kapok all her friend's blueberries just with her one word phish.  Well, I guess there must have been a reason why the word please is known as the magic word.

Our brush with HFMD

Wayne seems to have been infected with the HFMD virus. Sigh.

It is day two since he came down with fever, and our visit to the doctor's have not been able to confirm if its indeed the dreaded HFMD or the usual virus (too early to tell). We had kept him away from school on Friday as currently there are 7 cases there, one of which was from his class, but looks like it was a bit too late. Is he the eighth? We are pretty sure it is HFMD, with the rashes on his feet and ulcer in his mouth. And, he has been complaining his mouth hurts when he eats, drinks and swallows his saliva. Last night, our little boy woke up from his sleep and came sobbing to us as his mouth hurts, which broke my heart.

Bad enough that he is down, the timing couldn't have been worse - we were supposed to go away on a short trip to Penang on Saturday. It was a much looked forward trip with the family with Mich back from Japan. Unfortunately, we had to stay home. We will have to make up for it another time, sorry guys.

Hoping Wayne will recover soon, and praying Amanda would not be affected.

On a happier note, this was Wayne during times when he didn't seem affected by the horrible ulcers. Lots of happy family time... and yes, more blog updates!

And one of baby girl, making a mess with her yoghurt!

Wayne's art, he titled it "City"

One of my favorites to date.

Bath time special

A baby step towards loving to read

From young, Amanda has had a short attention span, unable to sit down for long. Not surprisingly, reading to her has not been much of a success, much to my dismay. Most times, she doesn't seem to be interested and would walk off as quickly as she sat down. Perhaps, we didn't start early enough. Being the second child, we didn't have the luxury of time to read to her as much as we would have wanted to, especially when she was younger with her and Wayne needing more attention then. For that, I do feel some guilt and wish I had pushed myself that bit more. We all know how important it is to cultivate the interest in reading from young. We see Wayne's love for reading and how that has translated in his vocabulary and language development, and can't help but worry that this interest is lacking in Amanda. And needless to say, the hours she spent on the way-too-interactive phone and iPad certainly has had some part to play in this as well. That's another whole problem to think about as well.

Anyway... it was much to my delight, when I gave reading another attempt this morning and noticed a slight increase in enthusiasm from her. This short 20 minute session gives me some encouragement to persist in helping her build her love for reading.

We engaged in some simple reading of words and spotting-the-object which she enjoyed. We came to the page on animals, and it was obvious animals excited her curiosity more than the rest. She gleefully pointed out the animals I mentioned and clapped her hands in delight each time she got it right. It was extremely amusing when it came to the lion - she pointed it out to me, made a roar and came running to me saying 'scared', burying her head in my lap. At 22 months, she is at the stage of saying single words and its just so endearing hearing a new word pronounced so cutely by her. Aren't they cutest at this age? Her favorite words at the moment - me, mine and i want! (Kind of gives you an indication of her character).

And this was her, having breakfast with a big smile on her face, which made our day too just watching our little sweet chub growing day by day. 

Amanda at 22 months old