March 3rd, 2010 | Personal | No comments
I’m sick. It started with a sore throat three days ago. Then came the coughing and slightly runny nose.
Unlike most people, I really hate coughing because it can get very serious and takes a long time to go away. Having coughed for two days, my chest hurts and I feel exhausted by the end of the day. I could barely talk out loud whenever Clarisse turn a deaf ear to my instructions. And I dread coughing the entire night I may not be able to sleep well and get enough rest.
My mood is terrible. Baby Edward is still crying now refusing to sleep. My god, its nearly 1am and Clarisse is already asleep but baby Edward is still being fussy.
My sorethroat has healed. Runny nose wasn’t bad enough to irritate me much. As for the cough, I’m taking cough syrup and I hope it helps. I pray my cough won’t take a turn for the worst like taking several months to stop. Oh yes, it did happen to me a few times. Enough to make me cough phobic.
March 2nd, 2010 | Personal | No comments
Parenting is a 24/7 non-stop responsibility. Ever since my mother-in-law’s maid, who stayed and helped in my house from the first month baby Edward was born, ran away two months ago, I’ve been extremely busy around the house all the day long. Caring for baby Edward takes up a huge chunk of my time and energy. Everything the maid does before she left, is now my husband’s duties.
My mom-in-law rang us about 3 days ago informing us that she has hired a new maid and asked if we would need a maid’s help around the house. She offered to let the maid stay at our house 3 or 4 days at a strech per week to help us out. But we declined such arrangement and told her we would be grateful if the maid comes around once every week or fortnightly to clean the house thoroughly. That would be enough.
We would be lying if we tell you we didn’t jump with joy when my mom-in-law offered her maid to help us. There are two reasons why we declined. First, my father-in-law didn’t like what she was doing. Of course who would want to hire a maid, have his wife sent her to another house and spend half the time helping out there. We can’t blame him. Secondly, it took us a while to adapt to life without a maid’s help. Mind you, I didn’t need a maid before baby Edward was born. But with a new baby in the house, busy took on another level of intensity and having a maid around is so tempting. Like I said, we adapted after suddenly left without a maid. And now somehow, we wish to stay that way and get used to it, no matter how tough. Having an extra pair of helping hand is great no doubt, a luxury I would say. But until we can afford such luxury in our life, it’s best not to spoil ourselves.
February 22nd, 2010 | Personal | No comments
The long hot and dry spell hitting us before CNY is really a drag. Save for an hour of rain two days ago, my area hasn’t seen rain for more than a week.
Our air-cons are running throughout the night and whenever the kids nap during the day. The utility bill is going to skyrocket this month. But I imagine everyone in the neighbourhood will have to pay extra for electricity this month. During Chinese New Year, our home experienced short blackouts due to shortage of electricity I presume. I bet everyone in the neighbourhood is sleeping with air-cons blowing at full blast.
House chores seem extra miserable under the sweltering heat. My husband showers no less than five times a day. The moment we step out of the shower, we sweat. Considering we have no luxury of relaxing under the fan, or even sitting still for more than 15 minutes, we are literally sweating the entire day.
The worst thing is our house faces west, where we face the sun everyday from 2pm to 7pm. You do not want to buy a house facing west, period. We are renting one now, but never would we be buying one. Even if being offered 20% below market value.
February 7th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
Baby Edward has pretty much establish a stabler night sleeping routine where he would sleep for at least 5-6 hours in a row. Unless woken up very uncomfortably by wind in her tummy.
Clarisse too has made pleasant progress when it comes to sleeping time. It has always been mommy who tucks her in for the past 2 and a half years. She needs me by her side to doze off every night. But for the past two to three weeks, Clarisse doesn’t need me to sleep next to her. This free up some time for me to tend to baby Edward instead of relying on daddy to take care of him until Clarisse sleeps.
It took us a couple of weeks to be sure Clarisse has finally adapted to sleeping alone. Not just a fluke.
February 5th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
Baby Edward achieved a milestone recently. Baby Edward can roll over without much of a struggle now. He can also pull his hand out from under his tummy the moment he roll over. He’s been practising for about two weeks so he’s pretty good at it. Baby Edward enjoys his tummy time. Whenever I put him lying down on his back, he’d roll over nine out of ten times.
February 3rd, 2010 | Personal | No comments
One of the biggest headaches of raising baby Edward was lack of sleep. Although Clarisse too woke up crying for milk often during the night when she was still an infant, I would put her down on my bed, breastfeed her and she would nurse herself to sleep again. But baby Edward was different. Instead of dozing off, he’d nurse a little and cry. So the first three months with him was terrible. Many nights were spent breastfeeding, bottlefeeding and getting him to sleep again. Several times a night. I could barely get to sleep for 3 or 4 hours straight.
To make things worst, Clarisse would wake up crying for mommy. She sleeps in another room with her dad. But when she wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, she will cry and insist on being carried into my room to sleep with me. When she’s on my bed, she would annoy the hell out of me because the sound of her talking and crying would most likely wake baby Edward up.
Baby Edward will be 4 months old in 4 days. For the past two to three weeks, he slept through the night. After a late night bottle feed at about 12am, baby Edward now sleeps about 6 hours straight. Most probably longer if I didn’t wake him up at 7am for breastfeeding.
This also means I’m able to sleep through the night as well. After more than a month of sleep deprivation, I’m so glad baby Edward has adjusted into a healthy sleeping routine. I wake up feeling much more refreshed every morning now.
January 25th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
I woke up this morning, went downstairs, took the laundry out of the dryer, put them clothes on hangers and opened the door to hang the clothes outdoors. I was greeted by dead rat, shredded to pieces, with guts spreaded all over the front door. Damn cats. Lucky I didn’t just open the door and step into my slippers without looking. I can’t imagine how disgusting I would feel stepping onto dead rat guts. So I woke up my husband and had him clean the front door. And all the shoes and slippers.
The neighbourhood is predominantly Malays so there’s not a dog within these few kilometres radius. But there are lots of cats and my god they are a nuisance. Every morning, we have cat’s paw prints all over the car. Sometimes even their pee.
January 16th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
Things are starting to return to normal.
Clarisse’s flu took slightly more than a week to heal. She had low to medium grade fever the entire week. We took her to the doctor thrice. Had her blood, stool and urine tested to find the cause of her fever but those returned normal. The doctor ruled out any serious infections. She has had no fever for the past two days. Only a slight runny nose and cough remains. I hope she completely recovers by Monday.
With her flu nearing recovery, Clarisse isn’t as cranky and irritable anymore. We are so relieved the worst is over. It has been a stressful week for my husband and I. Damn the flu bug which got Clarisse, baby Edward and my husband sick.
January 16th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
One of this year’s new year resolution both my husband and I made is to eat healthy. We have never been very careful over what we eat. The tastier the food, the more we indulge. But the tastier they get, the less healthy they usually are. I found out last year my classmate, a year older than me, was prescribed cholesterol medications by her doctor. More and more younger people are getting sick because of unhealthy eating habits.
January 15th, 2010 | Personal | No comments
I rarely have time to read the papers or news online being busy with a toddler, a baby and household chores these days. I merely glance through headlines now to see what’s going on in our country and international news. One of today’s local headlines – “Allah is ok for Sabah and Sarawak Christians” – left me dumbstruck for a second. Lost for words to describe how our government, UMNO to be precise, can be so stupid.
So I take it peninsular Christians can’t call god Allah. Only Christians in Sabah and Sarawak are allowed to. We can only interpret UMNO’s decision to do so is a politically one. UMNO wants to appease East Malaysian voters and no amount of reasoning or spin is going to make us believe otherwise. Sabah and Sarawak after all, proved to be UMNO’s saviour in the last general election.
UMNO first banned Christian calling their god “Allah” as this is seen as a threat to Islamic faith among the Muslims. And UMNO consistently opposed the ruling overturning the ban. Why the sudden flip-flop? And doing it in such a ridiculous way having two sets of law within Malaysia. There can, here cannot.
Today’s dumb decision proves there is truth in accusations of UMNO using this “Allah” issue for political gains. Using religion and race to hold on to power, there is no depth too low for UMNO. Just don’t drag us right minded Malaysians along on your way down. As government, you bring shame and humiliation to the country. And you make Malaysians the most fragile and insecure Muslims in the eyes of the world.
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