Leaving behind a place full of memories

We put up our current flat for sale a couple of weeks ago. Within a week, we loaded off our place.

In that course of three days, we had around ten different groups of people who came to view our flat. On the first day, we made a point to be out of the way during viewing time. Partially because we thought viewing will not be conducive with two noisy toddlers around. Another part was because we were afraid we might feel funny to have people scrutinizing and sizing up the place we call home in the last six years.

By the second day though, we decided we would stick around. Too much hassle disrupting the girls nap times. For them to miss naps two days in a row is likely to cause unthinkable detriments. And so, we hung around. It was not so bad. It did, however, enlighten us one thing - While the potential buyers move from one room to another sizing up our nest, unbeknownst to them, we find ourselves sort of sizing them up too.

You see, this place is filled with so much of our memories that we will fondly remember. On top of that, we have wonderful neighbors. Therefore, we (very much prefer) hope to find a buyer whom we will like, and we think will make good replacements for our neighbors too. Thankfully, of that handful of viewers that we got to meet; only a particular family left us feeling discomfited (let's call them "not-so-nice" family). The rest were either "okay" or "nice".

BUT. To our dismay, the "not-so-nice" family requested for second viewing, together with another two groups of "nice" families.

That very night, the Husband and I discussed at length if we should accept their offer in the event they made one that matches what we have in mind during their second viewing. Truth be told, after some contemplation, we decided that we were likely to reject the offer if that happens. We trusted that The Lord knows our hearts' desires, given all good intentions. So if we are not comfortable with them, we did not think it is right to go ahead. The only tough part is, how do we explain ourselves if they asked why? So imagine our relief when they told our agent that they decided not to proceed with the second viewing. Phew!

Eventually, both "nice" families turned up for second viewing and we closed with one of them. We like them, we think they will make nice neighbors and we feel peace leaving our very first matrimony home in their hands.

P.S. I haven't been doing my Week in Pictures post because my new laptop has been giving me problems. Right now, the kind IT whizz Brother-in-law is helping me to do whatever he does to make it right. Until then, there is not much I can do. Oh, I am on Instagram though. So if you are on it too, do drop me a message, and I will be glad to exchange our usernames. :) meanwhile, I am hoping the new laptop gets up and running quickly as I have loads of pics on Arielle's birthday celebrations in my Olympus that I'll love to share.

P.P.S. Renovation for our new place commences this week so it means I am likely to be mad busy. So this space might be a little neglected... ...

Turning ONE

Tomorrow is Arielle's first birthday. Being the second child, you might think the significance of first birthday might fade a little. But no, not in this case.

The past one year, I felt like I struggled really hard. And got stressed up a lot. The general success in the short 18 months of parenthood we had with Anya right up till Arielle's birth boosted our confidence. We thought raising children was our thing. And then, God gave us Arielle to humble us. The early days of her drinking woes, the persistent crying, her heightened sensitivity to light, sound (and her elder sister), her inconsolable bawling every time she falls sick gave me twofold of grey hair within a year, as well as constant fretting and panic attacks. And that is just me. I have yet to start on the Husband.

Seeing how much difficulties I had dealing with Arielle, the Husband had to spend more time at home with Anya while I focus on Arielle. It was not easy for him - to be constantly torn between work and family, worrying over Arielle, and to continue win favors from people at work when you are not there as much as people would like you to be.

Therefore, having braved through 365 days (after tomorrow), we think it marks great significance to us. We like to think that the worse part of what we call Project: Desensitising Arielle is over. We trust that in the coming year, things will only get better and better. Especially when she starts to talk and is able to articulate her thoughts, surely she will improve by leaps and bounds. It calls for celebration and thanksgiving because we don't think we could come this far without drawing strength, wisdom and joy from our Father day after day. My junior college years was the last time I was this fretful. Then, I was grappling with the loss of a relationship that did not work out and studies that went downhill. I was on the verge of depression (doctor's words, not mine).This time round, I know that if not for the presence of The Lord in our lives, I might have lost it.

We are so thankful for our cell group members and close friends who rallied around us, constantly praying for us and Arielle, sussing words of wisdom and always so encouraging. Our apologies though, that we could not hold a celebration together with all you for this occasion so dear to us because with the preparation for the new house and such, we are up to our neck and organizing one is simply beyond us.

And for the birthday girl. We think it is quite a feat for her that she has come this far.

Our darling little Arielle, Daddy and Mommy are so proud of you. For every child, it takes a degree of effort to cross milestones. With your heightened sensitivity, your intense disposition, you seem to require more crying, more fussing, more getting used to before you grow to accept to a new idea / new ways of doing things.

In retrospect, perhaps it was also why you took six months just to get use to the idea to drinking milk. What came naturally to other babies (hunger = drink milk) was beyond comprehension for you. Or rather, you would not even seek to comprehend. You were so upset every time we stuck a boob / bottle to you that you were more concerned with crying and making your displeasure known than to register your own hunger.

And so, our little mushroom head, we think you are a real trooper! Although there is no big party to mark your special day, Daddy has especially taken a day off tomorrow just so we can spend some quality time. Your Jiejie has also prepared a nice present waiting for you to rip it open tomorrow. No worries though, I'm sure she will help. And then there's also your Ah Gong, Ah Ma, Gonggong, Porpor, and your uncles, aunties and cousins who are looking forwards to celebrate with you this weekend. together. Even Aunt M is looking forward to celebrating with you and has choose not to go for her leave on Sunday. We hope you will have a blast and keep on growing. We love you lots and sweetheart, in case you think otherwise - no, it was no trouble at all.

WIP: Good times together

This week, we got to spend some good quality times with those who are the closest and dearest to us.With our parents, with our siblings, our nieces and nephews, and then the usual sweet moments with our own girls. On top of that, there was also some catching up done with a pair of couple friends as they celebrated their firstborn's full month. Last but not least, over the public holiday, the Husband and I also got to sneak out for a movie & dinner date (first in months!). No wonder my love cup is so full this week!

The girls with their cousins. In case you are wondering what's with the fascination over that teddy bear; well.. it is not. Their fascination is over what is showing on an iPhone that was propped up by the poor teddy.

The Nephew showed off his driving skills (reverse parking in a single smooth attempt!) while we watched with jaws dropped.

Baby girl's first 1st birthday present. :) The Brother & SIL brought her to a toy departmental store and she picked this. :)

The little neighbours dropped by for a spot of "cooking".

Kai and Ude, thanks for sharing this happy occasion with us. We all had a blast and hope little J likes the presents. (Or did the present float off with those balloons?)

A sight that made the adults went "awwww....".

Some lovin' moments captured during a walk with Ah Gong and Ah Ma. :)

Hmmm... Little Mushroom Head does not seem to fancy her own kind very much. :P

The Husband and I think we have the cutest dog alive.

Yep. Definitely the cutest.

The girls with their cuddly besties.

Anya with her M&M teacher. Though squirming in teacher D's embrace here; my girl actually adores her.

Make-believe snack time.

"Sweetheart, how is mommy going to feed you lunch with Rabbit in your face like that?"

Our (almost) weekly bread errand. Thank God for those bread dispensing machine.

As you can see, baby girl is getting quite good at standing, cruising..

And even walking..! Since over the weekend, she has started taking a few steps at a time without any help.

Sweet sweet sleep

I have gone without a nice uninterrupted restful sleep for a couple of months. It was something that did not occur to me until it came up when I was chatting with the girlfriends at the hen party.

Interestingly, it is not that the girls are not sleeping through the night. Technically, they are. Except that Arielle is quite a noisy sleeper. In between sleep cycles, she would stir and cry in her sleep. In the course of it, she wakes herself up sometimes. Whenever she cries, either the Husband or myself will pop over to the girls' room to check on her. This usually happens 2 - 3 times a night.

On top of that, the past one month also saw Anya having night terrors. She is at the phase where suddenly, darkness scares her and there are always imaginary monsters lurking around. She had also screamed and cried in her sleep on a few occasions. When we went to her, she would sob in our arms and tell us she had a bad dream. As to the size and shape of her bad dreams - only God knows for now for she is always stumped when she asked her about them.

Now, all of the above sleep-interruption scenarios are not that bad, really. Usually, a few pats or cuddles will soothe the girls back to sleep and we can drift back to our own slumber. In Arielle's case, she did not even need our help sometimes. She would cry a little, roll over to her other side and go back to sleep.

The problem is: I am generally a light sleeper and has trouble going back to lala-land after checking on them half the time. Half the time, after I checked on them, I would spend the next few hours rolling in bed, reading books and dreading the coming of first dawn.

The situation, has however, turned around since I came back from the hen party. Except for praying with more conviction, I didn't think we did much. Something must have changed in the spiritual realm because everyone has been sleeping very well so far this week.

Oh my! A whole night of undisturbed sleep is so blissfully good. I swear the first two nights when I woke up to the morning light, I could literally taste the sweetness of restfulness in my mouth.

May the season of sweet sweet sleep carry on and on and on... ...

Mission exterminating buggers

One of the downsides of having a dog in the house is the guests that it unwittingly invites into our house. Specifically, I'm referring to ticks.

Over the years, we have, while rubbing our furkid's belly, came across ticks happily sucking away her blood a handful of times. Initially, I was appalled and totally grossed out. In order to extract the bugger, I would put on gloves (if any in the house),use a pair of tweezers and to kill it, I would use a lighter to flame it up. Later, when the killing was done, i would scrub my hands with soap for a good five minutes. All these done while the Husband rolled his eyes. After all, having growing up in a kampung with packs of dogs, he was used to coming into contact ticks.

I have since desensitized when it comes to being sterile in tick-killing. Too much hassle.

Gone are the tweezers, gloves and lighter. In replacement are bare hands, a tissue paper that I use to wrap up the bugger before my nails dig into it. Too much info? My apologies. The religious routine of scrubbing my hands thoroughly is, however, observed up till this day.

Recently, the tick situation at my little household has taken a worsening. The bloodsuckers have found their way into our beds. The first one was hunted down underneath my blanket at 3am in the morning after it went on a supper buffet with the courtesy of the Husband and I. Given that we were roused from our sleep the wee hours, itchy as hell; you can imagine that the bugger did not die pretty.

Then on one fateful night where Arielle caught the sniffles, my entire little household (less off the dog) crammed ourselves into the girls' bedroom as Arielle is always a handful on the first night of falling sick. Up till 2am, Arielle was waking up every hour, crying for a good ten minutes before falling back asleep, only to wake up 45minutes - 1 hour later. In between, the Husband complained that his feet was itchy but we were both too exhausted to care. The next few days, we found several red spots on Arielle's thighs, abdomen and arm. That broke the straw. How dare they mess with my babies! I went into my killer mode once again, stripping the mattress off its beddings that Arielle uses for nap (same mattress that the Husband slept on the night we crammed into the girls' room) and pored over every surface of the bedclothes and mattress until I tracked down that bugger.

At the rate that I am killing ticks, I might just consider joining the pest control industry should I decide to go back to the workforce one day.

WIP: Super hectic and then a little respite

The past week was even more hectic than usual for me. There were loads of coordination work pertaining to the new flat to be done. Then, the girls and I had a bout of nose - which typically is not a big deal except that Arielle get really cranky in the night whenever she has the sniffles. That got me very nervous because I was going away over the weekend (for the first time since Arielle was born!) for a girlfriend's hen party and was unsure how the Husband was going to handle her alone. 

Thank God though, it all went very well - the Husband holding the fort, the hen party, the girls' sniffles. Without further ado, I shall let the photos do the talking. The highlight of the week, being the hen party, of course. 

The "G" party because it's all about our bride-to-be, G.

The party spread that we put together. Two words: TOO MUCH.

Here comes the Hen!

Grunge girl . Miss. Green . Garbage girl . Miss. Grey . Miss Glitter. We did not bring any tripod stand so we did not get a proper picture that included everyone.

The photographer for the above pic. And our guitar girl for the night.

The surprise we (or rather, HE) had in store for her the following morning post-breakfast.

Groom-to-be and his guitarist for the day.

The Couple :)

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Things we do to entertain the kids when the weather forbade us to go out.

The Furkid watched on (woefully) while we dug into our fruit salad for dessert.

A breakfast the Tod particularly enjoyed.

Sisters who fall sick together, bathe together.

The Tod is going to be a flowergirl for a girlfriend's wedding later this month. Here, she was surveying her pretty dress.

She put it on but refused to pose for me.

The Tod was dismayed to know that there is a Princess Ariel (but not Princess Anya) among the Disney princesses. Here, she has gotten over her initial disappointment and put Ariel into close scrutiny for the first time. "Princess Ariel got wear bra!", she commented. When I gave a non-commital "Uhmm.." She reiteirated, "Just like Mommy!".

WIP: Feline Frenzy

Lately, sitting down to write a blog entry seems to be an impossible task more often than not. I have lost count of the number of times when I was bursting with thoughts that I wish to pen down but circumstances simply do not allow me to sit down to do a proper entry. Now that Arielle's first year is around the corner, I find myself hyperventilating whenever I think about it because I have failed to pen down her growth, her progress, and she is growing so fast!

So, I thought I will change tack when it comes to filling up this space with their progress. I shall do a weekly (Hopefully.) photo blog. So instead of having a verbal diarhhea, I shall let photos do (most of) the talking. That should make updating easier right? And it shall be called, "WIP" - meaning, (our/my) week in photos.

So, this is the first WIP entry. Here goes!

Look what the postman brought us!

Crossing path with a pretty ginger tabby. The Tod scrambled behind me immediately after I took this picture.

One of our playground jaunts at noon time.

The girls are very serious when it comes to watching sing-a-long videos on YouTube.

All decked out in their new PJs. They totally dig the matchy outfit. Only problem was it turned out to be really warm night leading to a major meltdown from baby girl

These days, baby girl sleeps on mattresses lay on floor. She hates the cot.

And so, we have sold off the cot. Does that mean we are closing my oven? Well, let's just say: at least for the foreseeable future.

The first time Arielle get to participate at the playground.

My baby gone black and white.

This kittyt is a lean and mean cockroach-killing machine.

The girls watched on as the cat manhandled a cockroach. This beats NatGeo any day.

Incidentally, we also picked up some library books that centered around cats. And they are a hit with every one in our little household! Looks like we have added Rob Scotton to our list of favourite children's authors.

Moving

Yes, we are moving. To a few streets down from where we currently live.

We came a long long way to finalize this decision, three years,to be exact - with many twists and turns in between. Reason being, we kept changing our minds. About the type of housing, the district etc. But one thing we were certain of after the children came along: We will definitely move; it is a question of where and what.

"Why so bent on moving?" So people asked us. "Especially when the children are already so close to their grandparents." Well, the biggest push factor, we'd say is the fact that grocery-shopping and amenities are not exactly in the vicinity of where we live. And because I am a stay-home mom (and this is likely to stay in the long run) who cooks almost everyday, it is a huge deal. I always joke to friends that because we do our grocery-shopping once a week on weekends; we always end up eating yellowed vegetables on Fridays. Light-hearted as it might sound; it is also a fact.

"Mommy drive the kids around! Then it doesn't matter where you stay," is usually the suggestion friends gave. The Husband's work requires him to move around the island a fair bit on a day-to-day basis and having a second car in the household is something we prefer not to think about.

All things considered, with two young children having a long long way to grow before they become independent and a shared mindset between the Husband and I that we want to raise them as hands-on as possible, we believe it is best that we move to a place where supermarket/wet market, libraries, eateries and MRTs etc are nearby.

That said, if the biggest pro of moving is to be a stone's throw away from amenities; the biggest con is to move away from the In-laws. After all, we are used to that proximity. Which is why, we eventually chose to move to another location within the same town, just nearer to the heartland central. Big love to the In-laws whom, despite having to bear with the pain of the distance it will create, are being so supportive of the move.

At this moment, I dare say we are very happy with our choice and are thankful that God led us to this decision.

So, if nothing goes wrong, we will be celebrating the next Lunar New Year at the new place. Meanwhile, the Husband and I are consciously basking in the final few months of our stay to say our goodbyes to our very first matrimony home.

Girly time

Yesterday, Anya and I got to spend some alone time together - Arielle was at the grandparents' while the Husband had an evening work engagement. Left to our own device, i settled for Causeway Point because a) we have a bus right below our flat that can bring us straight there and back, b) there is a huge library there that Anya has never been to, and c) the mall offers a indoor playground that i can keep her occupied.

But alas! Things did not turn out as well as i thought in the beginning. Heavy rain came pouring while we were waiting for our bus (i did not bother bringing a brolly as I did not have hands for one anyway) and there was not a taxi in sight. And then, because it was still raining (though not as heavily) when we reached woodlands, we could not go to the library since it was at a separate building behind Causeway Point. So, I thought we'd while time away at the playground but it was closed for maintenance.

The last failed part of the itinerary did not go well with my daughter - given we were right in front of the playground, only to be separated by a locked up glass door. It took some coaxing and then a promise of ice-cream for dessert if she put on a good behavior for her to bounce back to her cheerful self. So, instead, we wandered around the mall a bit and together, we picked up a tee shirt for the man of our lives. Thankfully, by then, the rain subsided and we could resume our plans. We spent a good hour at the library and then adjourned to Swensen's in search for dinner and the promised treat.

Anya's kids' meal came with a drink - choice of soft drinks / apple juice / orange juice. Generally, I disallow soft drinks for her and asked her instead, "Do you want apple juice or orange juice?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "Both."

The food arrived. Hers was fish with corn kernels and potato smiley faces (of stars and a crescent moon) served on an impressive-looking cardboard pirate ship that she could bring home. Mine was some chicken cutlet served with cut fries and coleslaw.

Obviously digging her food, she suddenly bemoaned, "Poor Daddy!"

Slightly puzzled, I asked, "Why 'poor Daddy'?"

She explained, "Because Daddy has to work late then cannot eat dinner. Poor Daddy.." gesturing to her savory spread and shaking her head as she said so.

A little while later, she tapped her finger on my plate and asked, "Mommy, can I have your fries?"

I reasoned, "But Anya, your stars and moon potato are kind of the same as my fries."

In her most prefect-like voice, she countered, "Barney (yes, the purple dinosaur) said must share right?"

Feeling somewhat being caught on the wrong foot, I replied, "Sure, you can have my fries. I'm just saying that they taste the same as your potatoes."

With that, the toddler reached for one of my fries. I thought that ended our whole potato-ey conversation. But no, my child had a point to prove.

"Mommy, you can have my moon (her fried potato shaped of a crescent)." She offered.

"Sweetheart, you only have one moon. It's okay, you can have it. Thanks." I replied.

"No-o-Ooo.. Mommy, you have my moon..!" She said in a huffy tone.

In view that this has somehow turned into a delicate situation, I changed tact. "Okay. Mommy eat your moon then. Thanks for sharing." I took a bite of that potato and then exclaimed, "Mmmmmmm... This is very nice!"

Assuming a worldly-wise air, she replied, "I know!".

With that, our conversation on potatoes finally came to an end.