A List Of Happy Vs. Stress

Happy

Our new place has rooms for everyone, including guests, and the kitchen is big enough for us to take our meals in.

Our place is nicely furnished and we didn't need to buy a stick of furniture, except for a couple of fans as the boys can't take the air-con blowing through the night.

I really like our neighbourhood. Not too busy, and everything necessary is within an easy walk.

We have a home.

We have a car!! It's really a piece of peace-of-mind for moving about with 3 boys everyday. I drive them and my sister and her kids Mon-Fri, to school and back, and Gadget-daddy does all the other night and weekend outings.

I am renewing my cooking skills which were left asleep in some lost shelves of high-school days.

I can hang out with my older sister Mon-Fri while the older kids are in school.

Stress

The kids are left on their own while I'm cooking (and I only do breakfast and dinner). Sometimes I get Myron to sit on the highchair with a few biscuits while I cook dinner, but that means spoiling some of his dinner.

I really feel the loss of my quality time spent with the boys, now being crowded by chores and more chores.

I can tell my boys are bored/ lack of adult attention, because they love coming into the kitchen and driving me crazy there with their constant opening and closing of doors (fridge, microwave oven, cupboards), and fighting over everything (who's first, whose more, I-can-you-cannot), and baby Myron seems to have so little of my time compared to the two older ones when they were his age. :(

Doing Chinese homework. It especially drives Micah and I crazy.

Not stress... but I miss the old familiarities of hanging out with my other sister, having our morning routines in KL and also staking out at my mom's place whenever I needed a safe place for the boys to play while I chat with my mom.

All In Good Shape

We are OK.

Sorry for the long silence.

Mil is here for a couple of weeks, so while everyone is a sleep, I am blogging in the study*.

It's like we were just thrown into a mixer and then pressed into a mold and now being baked in an oven... Considering the weather, these days, it literally does feel like an oven.

We only had a few days of rest when we got here on 29 December 2009, and then the boys started school on 3 January 2010. The first 2 weeks was tough moving around in public transport with 3 kids in tow, getting to know what's where in our neighbourhood and trying to work out caring for 3 young boys (and a big one) and keeping them happy, while doing the cooking and keeping the place clean (notice I didn't say 'neat') and safe.

BUT I am so so thankful for my older sis who is here. She is really my life-saver, a float, whole being thrown into the deep blue sea. She had already helped earlier in getting my boys into the same kindy as her girl, so registration and adjusting to their system (for me) has been fairly painless. Also, she is always reminding me of new things to look out for, i.e. Water play on certain Fridays means we must remember to put in the slippers and a towel for the kids, apart from their usual change of PE clothes.

Now we have a car, about 3 weeks ago, and so moving around is fairly less stressful. It's now Myron's turn to adjust. You see, while we were moving about in cabs, busses and trains, Myron had been safe and snug in a baby carrier, always snug close to Mommy. Now he is being strapped into a car seat and Mommy's not within his reach. So poor baby is in "carseat-bootcamp".

Where we stay is a rather new but very nice community area. There are lots of open fields and almost everyday there are some people flying kites, even night kites with blinking lights. On weekends there could easily be about a 100 of them in a field that is across the community center alone. There are quite a few more wide open fields surrounding our apartment.

Our place is actually at a pretty good locale: 10 minutes' walk to the public pool, 10 minutes' walk to the shopping mall/train station and 8 minutes' walk to the market. We are just 10 minutes drive from my sister's place which is an older and more established community area, so it's also pretty convenient when wanting more choices of eateries and shopping for household needs.

We are also glad to announce that we have a guest room that is available at any time, so if you are ever coming over to Singapore, please don't hesitate to ask, if you need a place to stay. Having said that, let me say that Availability is, of course, on a first-come-first-serve basis, unless you don't mind crashing in our living room, which has a nice couch in front of a huge plasma TV. :D

More stories to come...

* Yes, we have a study, pretty nice one, here at our new place, but I like to be close to my sleeping boys in the middle of the night, so the computer being in another room was also keeping me away from blogging, apart from the fact that my days usually ends after midnight with chores (laundry and mopping floors) and by then I'm just too tired to want to sit in front of the computer. Today, Mil had done the laundry and the dishes while I spent quality 'bedtime' time with Micah and Myron (Max had crashed in front of the TV while watching Speed Racer). I really appreciate her care and thoughtfulness.

Fish Out of Water

So, I had attempted to blog, but got interrupted and then forgot all about it. So here is a belated publication. - Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 0046am.

Everything seems surreal.

We are running like clockworks - getting to school, cleaning the kids, the house, doing laundry, breath.

My bearings are not in order here. I cannot comprehend time and space when my sister says a certain place is quite near with the measure of "5 bus stops away", or that it is "just behind my place" because I don't know to which direction and if it's behind or between some apartment blocks.

We are at the mall everyday: Grocery shopping! and having our lunch.

Grocery shopping and cooking.... I can't believe how there's always something I need to buy everyday: milk or bread, or eggs or noodles ... Seems we are always short of one thing or another.

Still adjusting to the new house. Eek!! it's not as children friendly as I want it to be. I want to put the water-feature (indoor fountain) outside, left by the owner. Thanks but no thanks.

Surprise: Miracle Hysterical

On Christmas morning I got a message that wished me a Miracle for this Christmas.

I went to the bathroom, took out the test kit, did a little tinkle and saw our Miracle:






Happy. Very happy...
But...
I am not ready for this....
EEeeps!!

Anyway, Happy New Year.

Thank You, and A String of...

Thank you, my faithful readers and blog buddies for still coming in and commenting when I have been slacking so much. You really made my day. :)

So my string of excuses for not blogging, and to apologise profusely for not visiting your blogs,
(not that long a string) is that...

I am usually exhausted by the time night comes, having to give all my energy and attention to 3 boys throughout the day.
Honestly, having 2 is really comfortable and 3 is stretching your body and brain. But I am glad for the stretch.
I suppose it's just that some time is needed to adjust to the extra demands... like 3 years?!! Hahaha...

I think part of my coping mechanism to all the stress of change and emotional turmoil is to be quiet and curl up like a snail in its shell. I tend to want to sleep more, or maybe I feel the need more for my time. So in between attending to the boys, when I need a toilet break or before I shower, I actually sneak some time to tweet, or read other people's tweets (confession of how twitter is pinching time from my blogging). Of course I am actually looking out for Gadget-daddy's tweets. ;D

I also just realised why I blog less even though I wake up more often to feed Myron in the nights. It's because feeding Myron in the night requires me to make milk and feed him from a cup, now that he has refuse to nurse directly. That's actually really more tiring.

Also, he is a snuggle bunny boy. After a feed, he will roll about in bed whimpering until he is snug right beside me. So I have to lie down with him until he is in deep sleep. Usually, by that time I too would be in deep sleep. somehow, today I managed to be pretty awake.
:D

So without any more delays, Let me come "visit" you.
:)

Have a good weekend.

Myron is 9.5 Months

Myron is now nine and a half months.

He is showing his true character, which proves to be a persistent and insistent boy.

Of the three boys, I think he is the fiercest.

Maybe it's because his brothers are at this stage of development too, so Myron is fast learning to demand for his share of the toys and Mommy's attention.

When Mommy is around, he is a happy baby. When mommy is not around, he is a quiet baby, who will willingly take his naps. When Mommy comes home, he will usually greet mommy with a wail when she gets home because she seemed to have abandoned him.

But when he gets into her arms, he actually gives her a pat on her back, as she pat him on his back. It's like a secret language saying, "I love you so much".

Myron now has 6 teeth, four on top and two on the bottom. He is still very drooly and puts everything into his mouth. Sometimes when he is very sleepy he would want to bite on something, usually Mommy's finger, for some kind of comfort and then falls asleep.

Myron has also learnt to blow sloppy raspberries on us. The thing is, when he puts his mouth on you, it's really scary, because you don't know if it's gonna be a tickley sloppy raspberry or a painful nip between his teeth.

Myron is now crawling like crazy. He loves to be on the ground and he can climb up the stairs all the way from downstairs to our room. He can craw over barriers, and seems to love going through an obstacle course on the bed/sofa, so he cannot be left alone at all. He easily pulls himself up to a standing position and can cruise a little. He is still in the process of mastering climbing off the bed legs first.

His favourite foods is rice with fish. And he actually knows if it's good fish or not. He also gets some chicken and mince meat occasionally. He takes his rice cereals in the morning and on the road he needs his Baby Bites. He actually loves going out, but he really does not like the confine spaces of a car. In fact, if the car is rather crowded, he would be the first to scream out.

Although he can't quite talk yet, he can move you to the direction he wants you to go by pushing his body forward "that way". This is especially "effective" when you're carrying him.

His favourite colour is still yellow.

He loves toys with wheels.

He loves his bath books and cloth books.

He loves the nursery rhymes sung by Gracie Lou (a filler every Monday to Friday at 4.25, after Little Einsteins on Playhouse Disney).

He loves snuggling his sleeping brother in the morning to wake them up.

I took him out for a stroll today, and noticed that he loves looking out cats and birds. He also loves ladybugs, and loves the "Ladybug" rhyme. He loves watching a butterfly flutter by and would want to catch a spider with his tiny fingers if he was allowed.

He is still very much a social bug and would watch people and respond when they say hello. He loves watching older children play and will get really excited, waving all hands and legs, to want to be part of any excitement.

This little darling is growing.

This little darling is growing well.

This little darling is growing so fast.

Everybody loves you, Myron.

Deep Roots

I am so no good at change.
I am so happy with my happy routines of hanging out with my kids and my family, doing the same ole, same ole.
My kind of happy unhappening day....

Now I am struggling.
Mental preoccupation would be scenes of all sorts of what-if's:

How to get to school with 3 boys, baby in tow, before we get our car?
What to cook for breakfast everyday? Dinner? Lunch could be simple...
How much time should I spend with my sister and her kids before we hit "familiarity breeds contempt"?
How much mess can I cope with on a daily basis if the boys are left with less adult supervision (while I attend to the baby)?
How often can I take them out on my own... will I be brave enough even just to go down to the park near our block without yelling at them to stay close to me...and have no accidents.
Will I still have time and energy left to blog?
Doctor for the kids and ourselves?

Then there's the packing...
(I'll spare you...)

Then there are certain issues with the government, i.e. getting a change/transfer of driving license, green card, etc.

I am afraid to start packing because I feel like if I were to start putting things in boxes, I will still have to fish some things out before the move...
making a list mentally...
But will be more certain after we check out the place for real this coming trip.

Official move, when gadget-daddy rents a car/van to transport the stuff:
After Christmas.

Mean time we'll be doing a bit of a shuttling up and down the highway, and across the Causeway.

Penang Holiday

We went up to Penang to see my brother's baby and to celebrate his fullmoon...

But this Jee-kor, second aunty on the father's side, is so terrible:
She forgot to bring the camera along with her the 2 times she visited over the weekend, so no cute baby photo yet.

But here are the shots I managed to get of our journey going up...


(I assure you, I took the shots when we were not moving.)
Mom sat in front with me to keep me company and keep me awake as I was yawning some parts of the journey.
She bought me sweet potato chips and 100plus!
Thank you, Ah Ma.


And the day we were at the sea.
It was Myron's first time at the sea side.




And the best thing I ate in the whole trip was the Duck mee-shua at Pulau Tikus' morning market. It's at the corner coffee shop opposite the police station.


They must have gotten some publicity before and welcomed my snapping of their stall.
They double boil the soup before it goes into the noodle!


It was a great trip with the mpv like this.



(We rented from Hertz and they really gave us a good deal.)

So glad all went well.