We had such a long day yesterday. After church, the 3rd SIL with the kids, K and I trooped over to Jeremy's for lunch. The hubs who was having a lunch do, an invitation by his CEO who is leaving the club, only came to pick us up at 4ish. 

K who had her cousins with her fought the sleep demon until about 20 minutes before the hubs arrived and by the time I carried her down, she woke. I told the hubs that this was a bad idea. In future, I will go straight home and K can take her nap without any distraction.

K, who is still a little off the weather, did not have any appetite yesterday. All she had were 2 slices of fruits at Jeremy's and in the evening, seeing that she was tempted by M's offer of grapes, the hubs and I decided to bring her to the hawker centre where she had some porridge.

Again, at home today. she didn't have an appetite for dinner. Even in school, she's taking 1/2 bowl, 1/3 bowl and so on according to her routine book. This is unlike how she can ask for 3 or 4 pieces for tea. I hope the loss of appetite is because she is not feeling well and not that she's on a food strike. M tried feeding her much later which she finished and that's because I suspect due to the bovril that M added to the potato and carrot. 

I told the hubs that we should start adding seasoning to her food already. At 2, I think her body is ready.

We brought K to the Doctor's again this morning. This time for running nose and cough. She threw up last night again and although she looked a lot better when she woke up this morning, she had thick and clear mucus so we decided better to get her some medication to clear the nose and cough. 

Good thing I have the company health insurance covered for her, which unfortunately will end when I join the new company. Lol. 

While waiting for our turn, which was advised to us at about 45 mins, we went to the supermarket and before we were done, the clinic staff called us and say we can make our way back. After the visit, I had wanted to return to the supermarket but K was so tired and sleepy. When we reached home, she slept for 2 hours and didn't have any appetite for food. 

She's been sleeping a lot today, which is a good thing. Hopefully she gets a lot better towards the end of the day.

Anyhow, here's what I cook for lunch today. The first was meant for K, which she didn't have the appetite for and the second, for the hubs and me. I think I've finally achieved it. Lol..I made use of the balance of the sun dried pesto sauce and it finally didn't taste so bland. I'm going to buy the basil pesto next. Love it!

While we were alseep, K woke up coughing and threw up on the bed. I thought it could be indigestion, since the puke was slightly lesser than palm size and after cleaning her hands and letting her drink some water, I merely wiped away the puke and put our pillows to the other end of the bed. Sure, I'll change the sheets when I'm home later.

Then this morning, after her first milk feed and while I was carrying her to our room, she threw up again, this time on me. I put her down and told her to stand still as there was milk on the floor and the last thing I would want is to have her slip and hit her head. She stood there crying, calling for her daddy, who was in the shower and didn't hear us. Anyway, M removed her pjs and I brought her for a wash down while the hubs came out and took over from me, the cleaning of the floor.

When the hubs sent K to school, he found out from K's favourite young teacher that there are 2-3 cases of stomach flu at the centre and K's good friend, Lucas, threw up the day before yesterday too. Thankfully, it's Friday and hopefully the school doesn't call me later. Which would mean all is well.

I still have the smell of vomit on my hair. :(

The hubs and myself are on 1/2 day shifts today, at home that is. While he has taken the morning half to watch over K, I'll be taking the afternoon 1/2 to do so.

I noticed and felt her body getting very hot early Monday morning and while she was still asleep, quickly changed her out of her sleep suit into a pair of shorts and tee. In the morning, she seemed ok and we sent her to school. The day passed and she was fine but yesterday, she had a slight temperature of 37.2 but we sent her to school anyway. 

Just as I opened my lunch box at my desk, the childcare centre called. Thankfully, the hubs was able to pick her up and as soon I finished my lunch, I met them at the clinic. Back home, she took her medicine and napped, albeit a very short one! Her temperature comes and goes and so I brought her down to the playground at about 4ish, when the sun was not so strong anymore, to let her play and run and take in the fresh air.

Today, the hubs decided that we should not send her to school as it's an air-conditioned environment and it's better we isolate her and let her recover fully. So after lunch today, it's back home again. Hopefully, she takes a long nap today. :(

The bestie is back in town for a short trip and I had lunch with her today. I'll be lunching with her again next Thursday and then spend 1/2 the afternoon with her on the 31st before she goes back to Dubai. 

And in the evening, a few of us from work had dinner at an Italian restaurant using the staff activity fund. Unfortunately, my wagyu beef wasn't up to par and my appetite was spoilt when I had 2 rounds of cold cuts before the main dish came.

So the hubs took care of K fully in the evening and when I reached home, he was washing her up. It was already 9pm and late by my standards to put her in the shower but nevertheless, he did a great job taking care of her. I believe M helped as well.

While the hubs was attending to K, I quickly put the laundry to wash so that she can have a fresh set of uniform for school tomorrow. By the time she drifted off to dreamland, I was able to put the laundry up to dry. And then the hubs showed me something that K had made for me!

She made this in school and told her daddy that she wants to give it to mummy. Awwhhh...how sweet. :) If you can't see it, it's actually bread cut out in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

The hubs and I had a scare early this evening.

K was seated on her training seat on top of the toilet bowl, finishing up her business while I was in the bathroom, removing my make-up and washing my face. After her deed was done, she began tugging at my shorts. She does the same to the hubs to the extend of pulling his shorts down. It is quite irritating having your shorts being tugged at while you are bent over washing your face.

So after I wiped my face, I made a turn, wanting to wash her up but I did not realise that she was either still tugging my shorts or reaching out to me when she fell face down. I was definitely the cause of it, no doubt. She landed in an awkward position with her face on the ground and of course, cries from her ensued.  I squatted down immediately to carry her and checked her face. The hubs rushed in and started getting panicky.

I still had to wash her bum as she had just cleared her bowels and after that, layed her down on our bed. Thankfully, we managed to calm her down and she was back to her normal self within 15 minutes while watching a music video. Phew...that was so close. The hubs was so worried that she may have fractured her cheek bone but I doubt it because if she really did, she would have been in greater pain and will not fail to let us know.

The redness on her right cheek subsided after a while, after the hubs had to distract K while icing the area. When it was bedtime, she made me get up so that she can pass urine in the toilet bowl and while seated, she told me she fell on the mat. Which on hindsight, probably soften the fall and of course, we thanked God that he was in control and prevented something even more serious from happening. I was too worried and anxious to notice if she landed on the mat or the tiled floor so it was heartening to hear from her that she landed on the mat. And thankfully, the fall did not give her a phobia towards the toilet bowl!

When she was younger, she fell off our low bed and had such a bad bruise on her forehead. Again she scared the hell out of us and it happened twice! Thankfully, the bruise wasn't as obvious on her second fall. Sigh...much as I love the fact that she needs me, sometimes I wish she'll not have to through all these painful knocks and bumps.

I made this for lunch on Saturday. Personally, I like it but I guess I need to be a bit more generous with the pesto sauce.

And yes, if you think you see pasta alphabets, you did! We ran out of spaghetti and I had to pinch a little of K's alphabet pasta for 3 adults and 1 tod in the house. 

I am going to try this again this Saturday to perfect the dish cos I like it! Lol.

Jerry treated us and Jeremy's family for dinner at a fancy restaurant at Hotel Michael in Sentosa yesterday evening. Although only Ivy joined us, I think she enjoyed herself, a break from monotony. K was so knackered because straight after church, we went tracting before the 2 families proceeded to Jeremy's for dinner and K had so many people around that she didn't take in a nap.

By the time the first meal was served, she was fast asleep on the hub's shoulders. She woke up towards the end of dinner and didn't take in a proper meal. In fact, she didn't take in a proper lunch either as she had a small box of raisins and a small slice of pizza in church and when we all had lunch at Jeremy's, she didn't want any. Some time around 4pm, she had 3 slices of plain wholemeal bread. I suppose as long as this doesn't happen all the time and she doesn't get too cranky, it's fine.

And on Saturday, we brought K back to my hairdresser to have her hair trimmed. She looked so different at the end of it that the hubs and I can't quite get used to it. Lol. Unfortunately, this time round, she cried throughout the haircut. Again, she didn't want to nap at home and only fell alseep in the car. She was still sleeping when the hubs carried her into the salon. I did see her a little shocked when she woke up and before she could orientate herself properly, the hubs put her down on the booster seat on the salon chair. 

After the deed was done, I carried her and accompanied the hubs to buy their dinner from the nearby coffee shop and they then left for the 2nd BIL's home, while I went back to the salon for my hair trim. I had some time to myself at home and appreciate every minute of it as I could do my own thing. 

My hair stylist commented that I should make use of the time to go shopping and all. I guess one will never understand the joy of one's solitude until such a time when 'your' time is really never yours.

I was supposed to pick K up form the childcare centre today as the hubs has an evening meeting. But he called in the afternoon to say that he could pick her up before going back to the office for the meeting. As we left the house earlier this morning, I could leave the office earlier too and by the time I reached our estate, the hubs was yet to arrive with the princess.

So, I text him to say I'll wait for them at the car park so the hubs could drive off back to work. But when I saw him approaching, I noticed that he was causally dressed. And I was so happy that his meeting was cancelled. Not only that, he managed to leave work slightly earlier and cooked dinner for us! :)

So with everything ready, we ate and had time so I suggested going window shopping, especially since it is a Friday. It's been a while since we went to the malls and I really wanted to take a look and walk around.With nowhere in mind and since K was due for a hair trim, we decided to go by my hair-dresser's and see if she was available to cut K's hair. Unfortunately, she had a few customers on hand and so we decided to take a walk around the area.

And guess what we found at Cash Converters'! Something that I've been hoping to get for K! In fact, the price for a brand new one is quite steep and I was scouting around for a pre-loved one but couldn't find any. The hubs tried his luck and what do you know, they have a brand new one and in red! A shiny red pedal-less toddler bicycle!

K is so happy but for now, we're only going to let her ride on it at home as the hubs wants to get a helmet as well as knee pads for her before we let her ride on it at the park. We also bought a 3 piece bamboo chopping board from there. There are quite a few good buys and brand new too. The last place we would have thought of which turned out to be possibly a place we might want to include in future. Lol.

The air was so polluted last night, that we had to switch on the aircon. When K drifted off to dreamland, the hubs and I went out to the living room, with me trying to start on the cover and back of the scrapbook album and realising that I had pasted the construction paper on the wrong side of the hard board (bummer), while the hubs watched television as usual. But K started coughing and I suspected it was the haze that's choking her so as soon I packed up the scrapbooking stuff, I switched on the aircon and joined her in bed.

And we had a good night's sleep. 

But yesterday was a different story altogether. We woke up 3 times, to her cries. Any sound is amplified in the dark of the night. She first cried at about 11ish and for what, we have no idea. Probably a nightmare? Then at 2ish, she woke up because she was coughing and couldn't sleep properly. I had to carry her out to the living room and she finally slept on my shoulders like 1/2 hour later. When I put her down on the bed, she cried again in less than 1/2 hour. It was so trying, I tell ya.

Thankfully, I wasn't zombified at work yesterday. 

Now, there is not just the rain that we have to pray for but also for a change in the wind direction so we won't suffer the effects of all that burning. Because of the dry weather, forest fires have started in Johor but not due to intentional burning like what's happening in Indonesia. I've since ordered a box of N95 masks in preparation of another round of high PSI reading. :(

After our usual Saturday morning breakfast and marketing, we made our way back home and took the route which passes by the playground as K has requested to go. We give in to her almost every Saturday as that is usually the only day of the week that she does play at the playground. The rest of the days, I think she's too famished from school to want to go or she just wants to go home because the hubs always asks her if she would like to go to the playground and K would say no. 

So anyway, before I digress any further, I want to share an incident that we saw at the playground today. A mother with 3 daughters were there too and 1 little girl was playing on the monkey bar, which she managed to cross successfully. When the 3 sisters saw it, the oldest one tried but failed miserably. She then helped her 2 sisters by carrying them up but at one point, I think one of her sisters hit the pole. Then started the tirade by the mother. She was scolding them and saying things like if you can't, don't try! Don't be a kaypoh blah blah blah. She was making the girls miserable, in my opinion and I later commented to the hubs that she shouldn't bring the girls down to the playground then. I think the parent of the other little girl and a couple seated on the bench at the playground were surprised too by what she said. 

'If you know you can't, don't try.' Really? I was always told if cannot, try, try and try again. When K does something for the first time, especially when it involves play, I let her try the first few times before I ask if she needs my help. If she has to fall, I'll try to make the fall less painful but I want her to have a go at everything first unless she's too afraid to do so.

Maybe the lady has only daughters and tend to be a bit over-protective? I don't know but play does involve a bit of fall, scratches and all. Let's not bubble wrap our children and when they grow up and have to face the world on their own, all they know is to run back to daddy or mummy when they face any obstruction.

The 5.30pm meeting that the hubs was supposed to attend yesterday evening was cancelled and he picked K up from childcare at 4.30pm. He brought her to Tampines Mall while waiting for me to knock off work and we sprung a surprise on Jeremy and the folks.

The hubs had bought a birthday cake and when we knocked on their door, they were surprised and so happy to see K. We had dinner there and while waiting for Bev to return home, Jeremy, Ivy and Tim played with K and were just so happy to see her. She 'celebrated' her 1st brithday at their home too and since they missed her so much, the hubs decided to spring them a pleasant surprise.

She enjoyed the 2nd round of the birthday song and ate such a big slice of cake, which the hubs allowed her to choose from 3 confectioneries. We left about early 8 and she still have space for her milk when we reached home! Thankfully, she doesn't look fat! Lol.

Today will be my turn to pick her up as the hubs has an official opening event for the new guild house. Another day of eating out which I try to cut down but do not have much of a choice as I do not want her to be famished by the time we reach home.

My sweetheart turns 2 today. She's no longer a baby although I had wished that she stopped growing at 18 months. God has been great to us indeed. K has been an easy baby except for the reflux episode during her first month and my dreadful confinement month followed by M's long term stay at our home.

As she turns 2, I continue to pray to God for his continuous watchful care over her. We have been blest with Ivy and the family's care and love to her during her first 21 months. The husband and I really had it easy when we only brought K back on Friday nights to Sunday evening. Jeremy and the family misses her so much that they ask for us to bring her over on any Saturday, to spend a day there. 

Ivy called yesterday evening, while K was having her dinner. And when she finished her meal, the hubs made the call back so that the family could speak to her. The scrapbook album project has been stalled although I have only left the front and back covers and it's done. Yes, yes, I'll have to put some priority in this.

Anyway, we're keeping it simple and I'll buy a small cake this evening so that K can relive the birthday song and candle blowing that we had, in advance, for her on Saturday. I'm sure that's all that matters to her for now. Maybe next year, we might do a little party for her. :)

We checked into the Shangrila for a weekend staycation on Friday. I was 'lucky' to receive a complimentary 2 night stay from Anna. 'Lucky' because I had been loaning her money for the past few months, at least $1k for each loan. And it's such a challenge to have her return me the loan each time until I decided no more and she dangled the voucher, which I couldn't resist. Anyway, I hope that sum of money that I lent her, which she returned a week late, will be the last.

Anyway, back to the staycation. I'm glad I did a google search on the hotel and there were so many blog entries about it but mainly for a different wing of the hotel. With the information, we could occupy baby K with feeding the kois, which she thoroughly enjoyed and knowing that the hotel provided free shuttle services to Orchard. Of course, the pool was the main draw and she did make use of it from the day we checked in.

The Victors and Salahudeens dropped by yesterday and the dads and kids had about 2 hours of fun time in the pool while the moms were sitting by the lounge chairs chatting away. In the evening, we went to the guild house near Botanic Gardens and enjoyed dinner as well as an early surprise birthday cake for baby K. 

When we checked out this afternoon, we were so knackered that baby K fell asleep less than 15 minutes into the car ride home and I joined her when we reached home. It's nice to have a short break especially before I join the new company.