Here, or there?

I told mum that I prefer to have confinement done at my own place last Fri and even though she didn't like the idea, she said she'll leave it to me to decide. Last night, she came home and insisted that I should be doing it here at her place instead. -______-"

I know it's more convenient for her to get groceries from their place than ours. Transportation is limited to only 1 bus sevice at my plc. And she said she sleeps better on her own bed. She also gives reasons like how my brother and dad will be able to help out when baby comes and my dad will nt need to travel to my plc each day.

She said we could bring baby's things over. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the things we need to bring over but she doesn't understand...so much clothes & diapers, and baby cot where there seriously is no room at their place for. She can't even suggest where we can place baby...and all our clothes? We hv been getting clothes from the luggages for the past 2 mths but when I'm stitched up down there, the last thing i want to feel is the stitches tearing while I squat to get clothes to change out of..and where to put baby clothes? And it'll b inconvenient when I nurse baby coz there are my bro and dad at hm...

And there is AN. Her 'entertainment' materials have been brought out of the boxes and she is dying to lay her hands on her playdoh and art supplies buy we had to tell her we couldn't bring so much stuf to popo's place coz there's no place to put them. She was cranky and didn't wanna compromise last evening when we told her that, but we really couldn't bring them over.

If confinement ia done at our own place, chances of her feeling left out should be minimized when she has so much things to do, from more book choices (rather than her only 3 books here now), to playdoh, to painting, to exercise books, to toys...and she can put them back by herself after she's done using them like she did back in Tucson. Since we came back, there had been no structure. Things are all over the place coz there's no place to store them, and she is starting to leave things where she last played with them. She remembered to put things away yesterday after she was done (pushed her stuffed toys into a random drawer coz there's no designated place for them yet). I don't want her to lose this habit of putting away he own toys. Mum said we could bring all these over for her, but how??? Where do we put them?? And with hardly any distractions here, AN will hv all the time to feel the rivalry from Ethan.

My bro had been sleeping in the living room for as long as we had been back. He's nt complaining but I don't want to take him for granted too. With a newborn who cries every other minute, he'll have to lose sleep as well. It is unfair to him to have to go through this. Fine if he's in his own room coz he has 2 doors to hide behind (our closed door and his) but we are separated only by ONE door. How will he go to work in the mornings after every nights' disturbance? He'll get his turn to suffer but it just doesn't feel right he's suffering now when he's still in the honeymoon mode with Krislyn.

Also, my mum gets headaches very easily and is a super light sleeper. Make her one night's rest an interrupted one and she will wake up with headaches in the morning. Since I'm nursing, it's chicken feet now for me to nurse bb to slp in the night. There's no need for her to help me at nights but she's welcome to stay at my pl of course, so that she doesn't need to travel to my plc each day. If confinement is done here at their place, she's going to wake up each time Ethan whines (and at this point, I don't even know where Ethan can sleep. Seriously no space unless we put the cot in the living room but bro sleeps there and it makes no sense he has to listen to Ethan's screams every other min at night....). Whether or not she will need to help me, she will definitely be woken. Give her 2 days and she will fall sick...

All these reasons seem to outweigh her reasons for us to remain at her plc for confinement. Grocery can be done once a week if it's troublesome. Mr Liow can go pick her up before he goes to work and send her back in the evenings if she doesn't want to stay.

We are going to have a dryer so she doesn't really need much help from my dad with laundry, plus I will be able to help fold the clothes too. AN is a good helper now.

How to get the mesasage across to convince her?

I wish Mil didnt make the move of making mum agree to helping us with confinement without asking us first...now, how? Doesn't it seem to make more sense confinement is done at our own place? Sigh...

Oh! And BM! we can hv them at hm this time. If we hv confinement at my parents' plc, we'll hv to send them away. My parents r irked by how their pee seeps through the newspapers sigh... but then we can't let them pee in the toilet coz their toilet is constantly wet. Our place is made for BM and they can pee right where we can easily rinse the floor.

I really think it makes more sense to go back, does it not?

All in a matter of Tucson...once upone a time..

AN formed a letter "t" with her fridge magnets, got a little defensive and realised she was shouting, then became the sweet little thing that she is again..I enjoy chatting with her like that :)

AN during one of her drawing sessions after dinner. She drew us (papa, me and herself), and then Emma, a 'boy' (did she knew Ethan then??) and then Christian!


AN wanted a video taken of her jeans.

Unpacking

We would usually bring AN to SIL's plc for her to play with her cousins while we get busy with things at home during weekends but coz it's exam period, they were not free to entertain her. My mum wanted to bring AN to play with my cousin's kids too but then decided not to disturb them for the same reasons.

So, we brought AN with us to Fernvale to do some unpacking.

So far so good. Mr Liow has unpacked the cartons filled with books and our bookshelves in the study is now full! With mostly AN's books. I loved to read when I was younger and had lots of books but as we shifted from house to house, as I got married, and then temporarily relocated to Tucson, I had to dump or give away most of them. It's wierd staring at the bookshelf filled with AN's books instead of mine after 2 yrs now.

Mr Liow did most of the unpacking while I did some cleaning and wiping. 5 boxes was an achievement today given that Mr Liow was the only one doing the job.

AN was a good girl, entertaining herself by playing with her stuffed toys and imagining storylines that her toys acted out to. It's nice that she's at this age now. When we were packing to leave for Tucson 2 yrs ago, she was only a yr old and I couldn't do any packing in peace! Each thing I put into the boxes, she would take them out.

But also because we spent too much time packing, she missed her nap and started to get impatient over some things that she usually would agree to after we explain situations to her. I'd say she's quite an understanding 3 yr old.

She fell into a deep sleep by 7pm and still is. I hope she doesn't wake up in the middle of tonight!

Here's her keeping herself occupied today before her 'play-acting' sessions. 

Dining area (left)

Dining area (right)

Common toilet

Master toilet

Home Appliances

The parquet floorings have been ground and varnished. It looked much more decent now. The last time, I think our contractor simply varnished over unpolished wood and there were either holes or particles under the varnish, or both! It was very shiny varnish before this but the parquet looked so poorly done. This time, they even filled up holes in the parquet, cleared up every piece of debris on the floor and made sure the wood had been sanded down well BEFORE they varnished it. All 3 room has Matt varnish now but we love them!!

That was Fri and Mr Liow spent the whole day there with the parquet guys. We can't leave them to work alone anymore coz our TV and all the boxes are already in.

Yesterday was repair day. We wanted to fix the washer and fridge. Mum washed the fridge for us and it looks as good as it can be now. She even sliced lemons and pandang leaves to store in the fridge to dispel the mouldy foul scent.

The techs came and saw our washer was not worth a repair. The suspension was gone, glass door doesn't shut properly anymore and due to poor suspension, the glass door on the washer had been pounded against the frame during each wash and at the rate this is happening, it will break any time. He advised us to get a new washer coz the repair will cost at least a third of a washer of an even larger load.

As for our fridge, he recommended we chAnge only the fan. The first time we powered the fridge, it felt burning hot all around, like boiled water! He found nonother faults with it and said the lemon did a good job at dispelling the mouldy scent and no other parts need to be replaced. So we need not get a new fridge (Mr Liow was looking for reasons to change the fridge as well. Hehe. But too bad, it's back to norm now dear!)

the thing about LG is, they charges for service even without repairs. For the washer, we had to pay $45 just to have it checked even though nothing had been done to it. It was $75 to have the fridge inspected but the fan didn't cost much.

So we had to get a new washer which was just as well. 5kg may not be good enough now with 2 more kids than when we first got the washer. We got a 7kg washer this time. I hope to be able to save more time with more a higher wash load instead of having to split them and wait. Time is precious now with 2 kiddos.

Looking for a Home Boarder again

It's time to hunt for someone to take Baileys and Maen in during confinement again.

Very very tiring...

Can't help lamenting that although ER's arrival is planned for and we are thankful to have him, somehow it seems it would have been even better if he came AFTER our house is ready.

It's a long day today with delivery of the TV, Barang Barang and Bellari stuff. I did not realise that we would be meeting the TP gang in the afternoon and arranged for a dinner for my whole family including my brother's girlfriend whom we've only met twice thus far. I thought it would be nice to dine out during one weekend and I do not have many weekends left before freedom leaves me for at least a few months after ER arrives.

So the solid surface people were not able to come on time and we had to leave to meet TP gang. Thank God for my mum who helped me wash up my disgustingly mouldy fridge and it's almost back to it's former glory. Almost. We then had to rush to bring AN back from my SIL's plc, reach TP by 5pm, spent less than an hr with them and then rush home to bath and get ready for dinner. Had I known we were meeting the gang earlier, it would be a better idea to fix the dinner plans next week instead.

While mum and I were cleaning up (I was doing minimum cleaning and already am aching all over now...), Mr Liow was shifting all our 90 over boxes out of the rooms all by himself. He's done with probably abt half coz while he was shifting, our stuff arrived and he had to attend to them. At the same time, he would also be on the phone with our contractor to check about things that did seem to look right.

For what was left undone today, we had to get it done tomorrow. I am of almost no help to Mr Liow in shifting boxes of the rooms and I'm really worried all these carrying of such heavy stuff will cause his slipdisc to relapse :( if only I'm not pregnant now, I could at least carry the lighter cartons out. It worries me to see him move so many boxes all by himself :(

Those boxes have to be out of the rooms by tmr coz varnishing will be done on Friday and Mr Liow may not have time to shift them out after work.

He's already knocked out by now, and complaining of an aching back (Thank God he's not complaining of PAIN!! Slipdisc is scary...). There are more to be done tomorrow. Praying that the old ailment will not come back to torture him.

I wish I can help more... Guess tomorrow, I'll try to get things out of boxes and store them away in cabinets as much as I can so that there will be lesser heavy boxes for him to shift..

We're nt the only tired ones. Thank God for my mum's help too. For all the scrubbing, we know for sure Our fridge is clean now. It's only the exterior that irks but that's fine, as long as we have a clean and hygenic place to store fresh produce. Else Mr Liow will also have to clean the fridge up after all the physically challenging work...

Again, if only ER's nt arriving this soon, I can be of much more help... :(

"I will learn to be good"

Dad was amused while listening to AN yak to herself (and him) while I was having a shower in the afternoon.

He told me what AN told him. My baby said: "Sometimes I'm a good girl, sometimes I'm naughty. But I will learn to be a good girl."

Both of my parents started teasing her, saying that she knows she has to be good but she will not remember and will misbehave again.

AN's 'self-reflection' meant a lot to me. I gave her a hug and told her that mummy will also learn to be patient with her while she learns to be a good girl. My parents were right in that she does forget, and start misbehaving. Don't we all? I know I do. I always tell myself to be patient but patience runs thin after some provocation.

I am quite impressed by AN's ability to reject offers that she knows I will not allow her to take up if I were around. My brother tried tempting her countless times with chocolates and sweets, to which AN will say 'no' (like she told my mum and MIL how she has to avoid sweets when she was sick in May/June). When she feels the temptation kicking in, instead of accepting the offer rightaway, she will come running to me for permission.

We were with the TP gang for coffee when Pam brought all the kiddos to 7-11 nearby. Pam asked AN to choose what she wanted to get and asked if she wanted some sweets. AN said no bEcause she said she wanted cheesecake and Mr Liow went to get it for her. Pam complimented AN for being well trained. I would say it does amaze me beyond my expectation of AN at this age to be able to remember what I tell her.

She is serious when she says she will learn to be a good girl. Mummy also has so much to learn, even more than this little girl who tries so hard. I pray that the Lord will continue to mould me to be a loving mum to my babies and that non of my disciplinary methods will crush her (and ER's) child-likeness. I pray that I will learn to teach Godly values that will stay with them for life.

My greatest prayers is for them to grow up bringing blessings to everyone around and if the Lord calls any of them to do His work, they will have all the heart to serve Him.

Ethan Ryence - 32nd week

It was a half day visit at The Women Specialist Centre today. I had a glucose test (1 prick each hourly for 3 hrs from 9.30am) and had to fast from midnight. Had no food this morning too and was given a 'controlled glucose' drink so that test results over the next 3 hrs will be accurate.

Conclusion was, I am not diabetic. It was good to have this done. Dr Henry mentioned that the results of an infant born of a diabetic mother, if born alive, is usually exceptionally heavy weight, above 3.5kg (but he is not saying all big babies are born of diabetic mothers). Worst cases are of infants who do not live past 36th weeks in the womb. He said there had been many cases of doctors claiming cause of death in stillborn foetuses to be strangulation by the umbilical cord but according to him, the cord is so super stretchable like a telephone wire, and soft. Strangulation is very unlikely. Many tests done AFTER the foetuses had lost their lives show most of the mums to be diabetic and by the time they know it, their babies were gone. That was too high a price to pay for finding out.

And guess who we bumped into at the clinic? We saw Lishi! Hehe.

AN loves Lishi. We met only twice prior to today's coincidental meeting and AN was already excited to see her. We chatted while waiting and after my appointment, we said goodbye and intended to go or separate ways. AN wouldn't allow us to leave and insisted we return to the clinic so that she could say goodbye to Lishi.

So, we went back and waited.

The moment LS came out, AN ran to hug and kiss her. LS was taken by surprise, as was I! The staff at the counter told LS how AN came back teary-eyed after we stepped out because she wanted to say bye to LS that badly.

We went for lunch and while walking, AN actually took LS by her hands and shook mine away. My cheeky bum bum loves LS that much!

I love LS too. Hehe! She either has something that attracts AN, or some bond that pre-exists somehow. Maybe AN hears LS' voice a lot when she was in my tummy and for her first year before we left Singapore. Hehe.

Back to Ethan, he's at 2.1 kg now (me at 52.4kg. I hv not put on much for the past month myself!! Yeah!!). Dr says he's of a very good weight. We are sure he's going to be bigger than AN at birth. AN was only 2.3kg at 37th weeks when she was born, ER at 2.1kg now (32nd wk).

And to prevent him from coming out too early, I was given ventolin to take twice daily, in addition to my vitamins. This is going to help keep him inside till at least 36th weeks before it should be safe for him to pop.

There were supposed to be side effects on the mummy, like twitching of the muscles and either extreme tiredness or energy. My body should get used to it in a week. I don't remember feeling these when I took ventolin the last time. Hopefully there won't be any of these effects on me this time too.

With Ventolin, I feel much safer now. At least I can almost be sure for the next 4 weeks, I will not have to constantly worry about labour when out.

So, baby boy, u can safely continue to grow well inside me till you are properly developed, alright? No need to rush, your big sister will wait for you to pop. She will wait for you!

Aches and my sweet baby girl

I had some cramp-like aches in the middle of last night and it worried me so much I couldn't really go back to sleep. I'm barely into my 32nd week and keeping my fingers crossed, I hope Ethan is not THAT eager to come out to play with his sister yet. I went to the toilet to check and found no signs of spotting *phew* It's probably a simple case of tummyache.

This reminds me, when I had AN, I had several cases of spotting, right from the beginning of my pregnancy. I thought I was but when I saw those brown spots, first thing that came to mind was: "ok, the monthly visits are here so I can't be pregnant.", till the spotting stopped the next day and 2 tests shown positive results. And I had more spotting in my 34th week with her. That got me hospitalised, and her almost popping 6 weeks early!

With Ethan this time, I had no spotting at all. But I had very regular tummyaches. Again, this started right from the beginning and I had to constantly check for spotting, just in case this was due to an unstable pregnancy. I had more tummyaches into my second trimester but less regular, and less worriesome by then.

2 more weeks before we are expecting history to likely repeat itself: history of Ethan showing signs of readiness like AN did back then (and I had a memorable 28th birthday in the hospital strapped to machines because of that).

And because I feel sharp pains somewhere near my left butt without any warning very often, I have to move very slowly, especially if I were to get up from sitting or lying down. AN, my very sweet baby will be really attentive and if I have to get up to get her something (be it milk, bread or to help her to the toilet), she will remind me to get up slowly, not to rush, watch my steps, and then hold my arms tightly while bringing me near to the side of the bed.

More on how sweet she's becoming lately in another post. Just want to remember how blessed I am that even with the tanthrums that she throws at times (understandably so because she is afterall only 3 years old, and she's human. Even adults throw tanthrums..), she has a very sensitive spirit! 

I won't be surprised it's going to take a while for her to get used to sharing our attention with Ethan and I will not be surprised my posts at that point after delivery, will be of how temperamental AN has become. That's a process we have to go through but at this point, I just want to remember how sweet my baby girl is.

I love you Adrielle...

Some Old Photos

Found these pictures from my phone's old folders and I've not even remembered taking most of them!! Some dated as far back as when AN was only few months old. hehe. Pictures are dated in order from earliest to latest.

Our Wedding Anniversary in 2007 (AN was only 8 months old then)

Mr Liow's special arrangement! Muackz dear!

The 8 month old and her daddy

The 8 month old and me in 2007

The 2.5 yr old in 2009 and me!

AN taking order from her baby food book

I don't remember her ever being so chubby!

 

AN the super cute at 10 months old when Mr Liow was away at Wallaby in 2007

AN at about a year old and loving Baileys' company tremendously then. We were already in Tucson then..

2 yr 5 months old AN drawing people with VERY round faces

AN's people with round faces with the help of a stencil

Have a break! Have some sweetcorn!

AN signing I love you (the not very accurate sign of I love you)

Another attempt at signing I love you, before bedtime, to me ;p

Emma and AN at the zoo

Emma and Christian, her very much missed buddies! She remembers them when she saw this picture as I uploaded them a while ago!

AN and the handsome gor gor Xavier (awww....so sweet...hehe!)

Tian mi mi part 1

Tian mi mi part 2

2 months to becoming 3 years old and relaxing with daddy on a nice morning

Monkey Adrielle

Singapore Idol

Another monkey

AN with her favourite jie jie Kimberly and gor gor Issac whom she recalls, enjoyed disturbing her and Kimberly

AN one day, came running to me and said: "Mummy! Baileys and Maen wrote your name in the toilet! They wrote a letter J!" Should I feel loved?

Back in Singapore while preparing for her afternoon nap. This cheeky bum bum didn't want to sleep and kept yakking for the next hour, falling asleep after I did..

My 3 babies! The poor furkids had been sleeping on our luggages for this period while our boxes were away (and still sealed at this point)

AN during Sunday School. She asked to have Mr Liow with her on this day.

This is interesting. Can anyone tell me what sort of bug this can be? It looked exactly like a speck of cotton or something furry (like part of the lalang) BUT IT'S GOT 2 FURRY LEGS! AN and I watched it walk on both legs while I fumbled in my bag for my camera and I only managed to get 2 shots of it (the other one was out of focus) :(

AN and jie jie Hannah 2 Saturdays ago. The daddies were playing basketball and then soccer. The girls had fun with frisbee, and AN went jogging with Mercia. She got tired after about 150m and ran back across the soccer field while Mercia walked the remaining of the 250m.

In just a matter of 3 years, this is how our family (and friends) have grown :)

Once upon a time in Tucson

Reminiscing the days we spent in Tucson and AN remembers every of those videos we took (but of course. That had been her home for as long as she remembered and she would declare to anyone watching these movie clips with us that that was her home!)

These were taken some time in Dec last year and early Jan this year.

This is new...how did ice freeze like this?

Ethan Ryence Liow Zu An

We've finally found a name for our boy. It's been many weeks of shortlisting names that sound nice, means something, and 'matches' AN's name to a certain extent. As much as we do not want to be calling him something that we know another friend's son is already called (so that we do not have both kids wondering who we are calling out to during gatherings), we ended up with one. Good thing is, he's going to have 2 names to go by, like his sister. So, he's going to know when we're calling him, one way or another.

It's a coincidence that AN and ER (initials of Ethan Ryence)'s initials are in each other's Chinese name (AN Liow Zu Er and ER Liow Zu An) but we thought it would be nice if this pair of siblings are as closely knitted as their names are.

We told AN her brother will be called Ethan Ryence from now on but being the 3 yr old with lots of reasons, she prefers to call him Adrielle, too. She says that because she is our baby and her name is Adrielle, he should be also called Adrielle coz he is her baby brother. She thinks that neither Ethan nor Ryence sound nice but giggles when I said he's going to become a girl if we call him Adrielle. My silly baby...

So, my boy, you now have a name! You will be our Ethan Ryence Liow Zu An. May the Lord bring peace through you.

My Baileys

He's turning 6 in 2 months' time. How time flies.... Once upon a time, he was a puppy so small and fragile. Now he's bigger but still feels as fragile.

He's been having dirty ears since we came back, especially his right ear. I'm cleaning them every alternate days to keep them as dry as possible. The inside of his ears seem to always feel damp and there are brown ear wax everytime I clean him. It's not normal because that's about the amoun of wax buildup in a month...

Nowadays whenever I call his name, only Maen responds. Baileys doesn't seem to be able to hear me. I tried speaking in a high pitch voice and in the past, both would cock their heads to the side. Only Maen does that now. Baileys doesn't seem interested, and I wonder if it's coz he's short of hearing.

And he's been very thirsty, lapping up as much water in the bowl as I fill each time. And needless to say, he pees a lot and his pee is clear. Under normal circumstances, I would be happy they drink but he's drinking so much everyday for the past couple of weeks, not just a few days at a time.

I went online to check up symptoms of kidney failure and Baileys seems to be showing signs .... :(

He's also less agile than before. Maen can still leap onto higher places but Baileys climbs his way up. When we were travelling in LA for the last time, Maen learnt to hop onto the car by herself. We used to carry them up the car and then off (to avoid putting them at risks of sprains) but Maen was agile at both going up the car on her own and off, so we allowed her.

Baileys, on the other hand, was cautious and used his hind legs, one after another, to push his front torso up. That was how he tried to get into the car and of course, we carried him up upon seeing his difficulty. It was only towards the last couple of days when he did hop onto the car by himself. We felt more assured at that point that he was not already old or suffering from bad back legs.

He's also becoming my mum's dog. He waits for her when she does housework and follows her around the house like he used to follow me. His attention is constantly on her. Mum came telling me how attentive he was to her when she was standing high up on a chair to retrieve something from top cabinets. He kept close to her, as if he was worried she would fall. Mum said Maen didn't even seem bothered by what she's doing. Mum is not showing affection towards them, besides feeding them every morning without fail and clearing up their papers. But it is amazing how mum will talk to me about them.

Baileys even scratches on her door some mornings now instead of mine! Mum said he is trying to make sure she's still alive after the night's rest. I said he misses her (and breakfast). Hehe.

I am thankful for my parents who have been tolerating with Baileys and Maen. I'm so thankful they haven't been very destructive when the whole family is out. They have only been chewing on plastic bags with things in them, but they leave those things inside, alone. It's still messy when we return home though. Instead of feeling upset, mum actually laughed about it. Dad just picks up those pieces of chewed bags silently.

Once, the furkids actually ate up a pack of Mr Liow's prawn crackers when we were out. My folks were more worried they would die than feel upset that the floor got sticky from their feasting. Mum said they went to disturb both of them constantly to make sure they were sleeping or resting, and not dead. She kept asking if they would die from eating a pack of crackers.

Maen has promoted herself to watchdog status and is proudly performing her duties each day. She barks when some strangers stand at the common stairways to chat on the phone (everyday without fail, these people will talk over the phone loudly and it's kind of a nuisance. Why can't they make calls inside their house? And they do not stay at our level. What are they doing here?)

Mum appreciates Maen's barking at times like these, hoping that these people will go somewhere else to talk because they either can't hear, or fears the dogs in our house, if they happen to be up to no good (not as if 2 cavaliers can protect us much. Hehe)

Dogs do change people. My parents used to dislike them a lot. Mum used to fear dogs. Now they become part of my parents conversations some times. I know my parents still appreciate a clean home, something that's not possible with dogs in the house (there's constantly fur and pee stains on the floor). They have never complained about it and silently clean the house up.

Appreciate everything they have been helping us with. And I pray Baileys will be healthy and strong.

Re-registration of IC (Identity Card)

It's done!! Yeah! This should be the end of pending 'official' matters that I've owed over 2 years.

AN was extremely sweet today. She sang and huGged me tight as she did, smiled a lot, was very obedient and said sorry immediately when something she did got on my nerves (and it was nothing serious, she was just taking a little too long like most days during meals when she kept forgetting to chew and swallow).

Moments like these are precious (and even those of her tanthrums, as unbearable as they may be) because when she grows up, I'd probably miss these tanthrums more than other issues..? Hehe.

I've also received my driving license last week. Hehe.

HPS is still being processed (after so long...)

I think in comparison, ICA Is way way more efficient than many others government departments that we've had to contact for whatever purpose lately. Everything was done with proper procedures, and even though we had to wait, there were hardly any confusions. Instructions given were clear and there were no contradictions even though I exceeded my 30th birthday by 1 yr and 4 mths (unlike some where each different officer we speak to gives different instructions or strictly refuse to help even though we had been away for valid reasons..)

So, yeah! All done!

My tummy at 29th Week

Taken 2 weeks ago

I feel so heavy!

We are blessed

Our place is almost done (YEAH YEA YEAH!) leaving only some minor works and repairs. The cartons will be arriving this Saturday and hopefully by then, we can clean up some parts of the house to receive them.

Am so excited. We're very happy how the house is turning out to look like. We had no confidence it will look nice when we first started because there were no drawings, no measurements, no proper documents like we had the very first time we renovated it. This time, all we relied on was the general contractor to take measurements right on the spot (thank God that for the lack of an ID, we found a very very reliable, responsive and responsible contractor!!), let them know what we have in mind and pray hard they know exactly what we are trying to tell them. None of us can draw professionally (neither the contractor, nor us, nor the carpenters or whoever is involved) so we are all relying on the best of our imagination. Our ID friend has really been too busy to get involved so Mr Liow has been doing most of the coordination, if not all. I must say, my hubby makes a very good Puah Chu Kang!

I should have taken some pictures of the house when they first hacked away all the tiles some weeks back. All these are memories to keep and it's a pity that we've not been doing so, for a long time(especially since AN has started showing interest in cameras from many months back and hers is inside one of our boxes, so she shows interest in OURS). Will take pictures when we get the chance to.

We're thankful for the right timing! We had been praying for the boxes to come in AFTER renovations have completed and the house cleaned and 'stayable' but the Lord knows better! We are going to have things everything we need (AN's toys, books, clothes, sunblock, bath essentials etc) soon. We didn't know whether to have the parquet floors polished before or after the cartons return but now we are sure this is good timing because we can take our time to unpack after clearing up the living room (there's probably only the stucco board left in the living room to be completed and the living room can be cleaned up in anticipation for our 92 boxes!), while waiting for the newly polished parquets to dry up slowly before we pack things for the rooms, in the rooms! Trust in the Lord and He will make our paths straight. This is something we have to be constantly reminded about and is so easily forgotten..

And as we looked back, we see how blessed we have been the first time we renovated our place. We spent a total of less than $18K for our home reno the first time (with all the glass, mirrors, big and small cabinets etc) but every of those people in the renovation line who stepped into our home this time round (from the ID, to the contractor, to the carpenters etc) expected us to have spent at least $40k. We were on a tight budget when we got married. $40K was to something we couldn't have afforded but we got all we hoped to have to make our brand new niche then, at the price we could afford!

The Lord has blessed us so much!

And even though we got minimum help from the main source we relied on, we were given help in other forms (and amazingly, Mr Liow was able to find time at this supposedly busiest period of his 2 year at a new place). It was not easy, but things are slowly falling in place by His grace!

Being forgetful, 'blur' and fickle-minded that I have always been, worse now that I am pregnant, I have been adding to Mr Liow's stress over home renovations. I would think a lot during the day whenever AN is playing with my mum (when I have my brains to work for me instead of her during times like these), recall something and tell him what I have in mind. Sometimes these ideas or reminders come too late (I forgot to remind him to let the hackers know that we have intentions to keep the mixers and shower stuff. By the time I asked him, the hackers have thrown them all away). So each time now whenever I make a suggestion to Mr Liow, I can feel an overwhelming sense of fear filling up the room (hehe. Fears that it is going to be a job that's either too tough, or had been completed to the point of it being irreversible.

It's going to be another tough period for him from Saturday onwards. I sure pray that I will be allowed to help him out with unpacking (the 2 mothers, my father and Mr Liow himself will do whatever they can to ensure I do not overexert). I want to at least know where things are so that I do not need to stress him further by constantly asking him for them. It's no big deal being pregnant. If I'm tired, I will rest. If it's time for my boy to come, he will wriggle his way out, whether I'm climbing up and down, or simply resting on the bed, won't he?

Anyways...we are excited. AN is too. She loves her room (she insisted she wants a blue room!!) and is a little disappointed that we gave her pastel blue for most parts of the room. Thus when she saw the particular wall that's painted in a darker shade of blue, she was so happy! This girl went: "I love this blue!! How come the rest of the walls are not this blue?" And because the room is blue, she decided she will sleep in her own room, by herself, and little brother with share a room with daddy and mummy. I hope she means it.

Baileys and Maen have their own bed coming too! Where shall we put their bed? hehee..Will let them find their favourite spot when it's time to bring them back.

We're excited (my parents are not. Mum's already dreading the day AN will leave her...hehe)

Less Myopic

I had been using glasses and spectacles of 275 degrees since long long time ago and even throughout my pregnancy with AN.

And it's only today have I found out that pregnancy hormones changes eyesights, among many other things!

If not because I broke my own glasses out of my own clumsiness (I returned to the bed half asleep after visiting the toilet and elbowed my right lens into ten over pieces...), I would probably have never known.

At the optician's today, I was tested to be 175 degrees in my left eye and 200 degrees in my right. It was a 75 - 100 degrees difference! Since it costs only $28 more to get new spectacles (I had wanted to only change the lens), I got a new pair of glasses. Yeah!

We decided to have my original lens degree fixed instead of the readings taken during this pregnancy. It's only 2 more months to the end anyway and if anything bad is to happen to my eyes, the damage will not be any lesser at this point even if I look through lens of 175 & 200.

Am excitedly waiting for my new pair of glasses. AN broke my previous when she was younger and I am getting tired of this current one. Time for a change. Hehe.