A sick month - Part Two

Well, who normally takes care of the children when they are sick?  Mothers do.  Of course, I have no complain on that since I'm a stay-at-home mom and hubby needs to go to work.  But I did not fall sick right after Erwyn.  Not so fragile, am I?

The ordeal started when Elyse woke up twice every night for the first week of school.  Perhaps it was the new School.  Perhaps it was the stress and pressure.  While my heart goes out to her for all that she needs to endured, I was not very happy with the waking in the wee hours.  Second week kicked in and Elyse's waking time was reduced to once every night.  By then, nights of deprieved sleep has its damaged done and I had a terrible sore throat.  Yes, I lost my voice.

I was very concerned as I was scheduled to lead worship at the children church on Sunday, followed by the main service the following week.  I pampered myself with lots of nap whenever I can.  I finished almost two bottles of Manuka honey in a single week.  All these efforts bear little fruit and finally I apologised to the children church leader for unable to worship lead that very Sunday.  Thank God that she was so gracious to take over my place.

Days passed by with my voice still no where to be found.  Finally, the "run-away-voice" came back but not whole.  I still couldn't reach the high pitch during the worship practice on Saturday.  Thank God again for the two wonderful back-up singers and a congregation that sings so well despite my set-back.  Nevertheless, I do feel a bit discouraged with me having sore throat or coughing every time I lead worship.  This has never occured to me last time in my former church.

With these two events over, I let my guard down and just allowed my body to recover slowly .... until my children started falling sick again .... one after another...

Just when I thought the worst is over, Elyse showed symptoms of falling ill.  She has running nose and slight cough.  Her condition is under controlled though, and it did not aggravate.  However, the house is full of viruses and germs now, eventually my boy also shows similar symptom the past few days.

My cough took a turn and whenever I am feeling tired it intensifies.  It has been 3 weeks now.  It drains up my energy and I'm beginning to feel a little worried.  I have to continue my exercise routine to prepare for my big adventure (I will DEFINITELY blog on this!!!).

As for hubby, his cough has been improving but whenever he's worn-out, it worsen.  In fact he, too, caught the virus and has slight running nose.

So, we are a sick family living in a sick house.  Praying that this sick month will be over soon and we will all be healthy and strong again in no time.

A sick month - Part One

Yup, I am sick.  And that's not all.  Elyse is sick, so does Erwyn.  And the superman of this house has been sick (coughing) from last year till now.  Hmm...

It all started with one Saturday night.  I do noticed Erwyn has not been sleeping well for the last couple of nights.  I didn't expect him to fall sick as he seldom does.  And there's no symptom of running nose or cough or even loss of appetite.  He's the happy-go-lucky little man in the house.

Then that Saturday night, about 2am, he has been turning and twisting for awhile.  Suddenly, he sat up and vomitted.  No warning sign at all!  I jumped up from the bed, consoled him and got him to wash up and changed.  My dear husband finally noticed the commotion and woke up to helped changed the bedsheet.  So, after settling down, we lied down again about to continue in our dreamland.  Just then, Erwyn vomitted again and there goes another round of washing and changing.

On Sunday morning, Erwyn was down with fever.  He clinged on to me like a koala bear.  We administered paracetomol to keep the temperature down.  We suspected he had food poisoning as the night before we went out to a new restaurant for dinner.  The children, as usual, already had their portion before we went to the restaurant.  But Erwyn was munching keropok and other stuff while we fellowshipped with the church members.

On Monday, Erwyn's fever has gone down yet he's still cranky and all.  Since it was the first day of school our attention turned to Elyse and Ah Gong helped us to keep an eye on Erwyn.  Finally, we brough him to the paediatrician for a thorough check-up.  The doctor suspected he had stomach virus and a few types of medicine was prescribed including a bottle of antibiotic.

Feeding medicine is the worst nightmare we ever had.  After all the kicking, screaming and crying,  he vomited all the medicine that was given.  We gave up administering the antibiotic.  To our surprised, the next day, my boy was back to normal again!  No more fussing around.  So off he go, we send him to kindy and finally my morning is free again.  Well, after almost two months of chaos with the two kids at home 24/7, can you imagine how happy I am? 

That's only the first part of the sick spell...

A little drama

It was only the second week of January 2015...

After sending my sister to work, I detour to Italy Bakery at Gajah Berang to buy some buns and cakes for my children.  Unfortunately, I had a flat tyre.  I quickly pulled over to the side of the road and parked neatly in a parking lot (another surprise as it is not easy to find one at that hour in this busy road).  Just when I felt a bit loss at what to do there was a tyre repair shop right opposite the road.  Together with Elyse, we crossed over to the other side and requested the mechanic to get my tyre changed.

While we were waiting for our turn, I saw a traffic police stopped next to my car.  Oh no!  Who on earth would think of putting a parking coupon at this point of time?!?  And Malacca traffic police is super efficient!  I've received two summons in my first year of Malacca.  Once I parked at the back alley of the ballet school.  I didn't expect the traffic police to check the back alley.  To my surprised, they do!!!  The second time I parked at Melaka Raya on a Sunday for only 10 mins or so.  Little did I know that a coupon is required even on a Sunday!  Since then, I diligently put parking coupon everywhere I go without fail.  Learned my lesson, ya!

So, seeing that the traffic police was about to issue a summon, I tried to cross the road again to explain to him.  But there were rolls of cars streming down the road.  Just when I was feeling frustrated, I saw the owner of the famous Nasi Lemak shop talking to the police officer, explaining to him my predicament and the police left without giving me a summon!  Phew!!!  What a drama!

Well, a little drama like this do spice up our lives, don't you think so?

Primary One

Entering into the year of 2015.  This is a much anticipated year as my little girl is reaching another milestone in her life - Primary One.  Although Elyse has been working hard on her Mandarin, and I'm quite certain that she is not too bad in her writing, reading and spelling, yet she's still quite poor in her conversation/communication.

We sent her to school and stayed with her the very first day for a couple of hours.  Honestly, it has been years since I'm surrounded by pure Chinese-speaking crowd.  Although I may understand the teachers completely well, the mental adjustment was still needed in this case.  Needless to say, my daughter was totally blank.  However, she was able to follow the instruction pretty well.  That I am proud of her. I left even before the recess.  She told me she's ok.

The second day, we were advised to leave after the assembly.  Since then, we only sent her to the classroom in the morning and left as soon as the assembly started.  Elyse seems to be doing fine with all her homework and spelling.  In fact, the spelling is way too easy for her.  However, she couldn't understand very well whenever teacher announces something.  And she still have a hard time making friends.  Although she made a few attempts to find out which student could speak English in her class, it has not been very successful.

Elyse goes to the canteen alone during recess.  She even buy food from the canteen, her very favourite - french fries.  She likes English lesson (although the teacher teaches English in Mandarin), Computer  and Music class.

Two interesting incidents happened during the past 3 weeks:-

1.  After the first day of school, my girl was complaining to us the classroom is a bit warm the second half of the day.  Casually, Daddy asked Elyse why didn't the teacher turn on the air-cond since we paid extra $$ for it.  The second day of school, Elyse asked the teacher the same question that was posted by Daddy the day before.  The teacher switched it on for awhile.

2.  One morning, Daddy sent her to school.  Apparently my little girl forgot to do her Mathematic homework.  However, everything was written in Mandarin so Daddy was just as blur as her.  So what did that smart alec do?  Daddy look at a few students' book, compared the answers, and told Elyse what to write in her book.  Neither she nor Daddy knew what the question was.  Was that a lesson in cheating???


Seriously, I have been living in fear for the past couple of weeks.  Those months of crying when Elyse entered kindergarten is deeply engraved in my heart.  I fear for the worst to happen when she starts Primary One.  But thank God that my girl did not cry or lament on the fact that she's in a Chinese School.  In fact, she expressed her liking in the teachers as they are all very nice.  It is my continous prayer that Elyse could adapt quickly and to make friends.  Would you do so for my little girl?

Happy birthday, Elyse!

Seriously, I have been working very hard on my blog.  I'm quite satisfied to have written 41 blogs the past one year.  Nevertheless, there are still some backlogs I'm yet to clear.  One of them is my sweetie's birthday.  I have never forgotten that!! 


My dear darling,

Today marks the day you turned 6.  I couldn't imagine how you have been enriching our lives for the past 6 years!  The last 2,190 days was like a blink of an eye.

I will never forget the day that I found out I was going to have a little baby growing inside me.  Daddy and I have been planning to have a baby 6 months prior to this.  Both of us were so overwhelmed when we realised God has given you to us.  We know that being a parent is not easy, the responsibility is heavy.  But we promise to give our very best to nurture, guide and assist you growing into a God-centered person.

A newborn babe... how sweet and gentle, how small and fragile

Six months later

You are One!!!

Growing up real fast! (2yrs old)

Cheeky and mischievous (3yrs old)

A four-year-old princess

You brought colours into our lives (5 yrs old)

A beautiful young lady (6 yrs old)

Six years later, I am humble to admit that I have become the student and not the teacher that I thought I would be.  You have taught me so much ever since.  I've learned and am still learning to be patient, to be forgiving, and to let go.  I've realised my weaknesses and the need to improve on my character.  Above all, I've learned what is unconditional love, the kind of love that God has for each one of us.  No matter how far we have gone astray, how much we have hurt and disappointed God, He loves us and accepts us unconditionally.

My dear darling, I wish I could captured every moment of your lives.  Here is just a little write up on who you are at six.  

At six, you get frustrated when you make mistakes.  It worries me because I know exactly where you learned to be a perfectionist. You don't need to be perfect, my darling, you already are, even with your faults and mistakes.

At six, you still love daddy and mommy the most-est and think that we are totally awesome... most of the time.  Hold that thought for as long as you can, ok? 

At six, you are reading like an adult.  You surprised us with the power of your vocabulary and your comprehension.  Books written by Enid Blyton is just one of your collection.

At six, you’ve realised your weaknesses and make decisions to improve on them.  You know that we have enrolled you in a Chinese primary school and you’ve decided to go for tuition to progress in it.

At six, you still dream of becoming a princess and even queen at times.  And yes, you are!  My precious princess.  You will always be our princess.

As we watch you blossom into a backpack-toting, homework-doing, independent kid; my dear sweetie, you will always be our little baby.  And we love you with all our heart.

Happy birthday, Elyse!

Celebrating your Big Day with your classmates

At six, you still get really torqued up when you make mistakes, which simultaneously worries me and makes me ashamed because I know exactly where you learned to be a perfectionist. You don't need to be perfect, my darling, you already are, even with your faults and mistakes. Go easy on yourself—this is what being human is all about. I hope that lesson comes sooner and easier for you than it has for me.  - See more at: http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/jackie-gillard-conceived-in-my-heart/20140408/a-birthday-letter-to-my-six-year-old-daughter#sthash.TSXeBxM9.dpuf

At six, you still get really torqued up when you make mistakes, which simultaneously worries me and makes me ashamed because I know exactly where you learned to be a perfectionist. You don't need to be perfect, my darling, you already are, even with your faults and mistakes. Go easy on yourself—this is what being human is all about. I hope that lesson comes sooner and easier for you than it has for me.  - See more at: http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/jackie-gillard-conceived-in-my-heart/20140408/a-birthday-letter-to-my-six-year-old-daughter#sthash.TSXeBxM9.dpuf

At six, you still get really torqued up when you make mistakes, which simultaneously worries me and makes me ashamed because I know exactly where you learned to be a perfectionist. You don't need to be perfect, my darling, you already are, even with your faults and mistakes. Go easy on yourself—this is what being human is all about. I hope that lesson comes sooner and easier for you than it has for me.  - See more at: http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/jackie-gillard-conceived-in-my-heart/20140408/a-birthday-letter-to-my-six-year-old-daughter#sthash.TSXeBxM9.dpuf