Exhausting and worrying week!

Last week was 1 of the most exhausting week we had ever experienced since the kids arrived...

It all began 2 weeks ago when Timmy had a slight running nose...He's always very good at sharing...so he shared the germs & nasties with Joan & Joen and both gals came down with a cold. A few days went by and their cold got worse and they started having fever. Joan's temperature was still manageable but Joen's temperature kept going up and down...till the 4th day, we brought her to the doc. Doc said it's just a viral infection and to just monitor her...but to bring her back if she doesn't get better. True enough, that very night on Monday, Joen's was so unsettled that she kept crying the whole night...nothing we did could sooth her...When we cuddled her, she will be wriggling about and when we put her down on her bed, she will cry her lungs out...she cried and coughed so much till she lost her voice...

So the next day, we brought her back to the doc and this time time he heard some crackling in her lungs...so he ordered an x-ray immediately for her...
The report showed that there were some traces in her right lungs and diagnose her with early signs of Broncho-Pneumonia. We had to admit her to the hospital that very day.

Terence brought her to the Emergency Dept (ED) after lunch and they had to stay in ED till the night before going to the Paediatric Ward. Reason being that the ward was closed and they had to get a nurse to start the duty at night.
In the ED, Joen had to start on her antibiotics as well as rehydrating her with glucose via IV. Because she is so small, the nurse/doc took a long time to find her vein...it was so painful for her. Due to being in a foreign environment and seeing lots of new faces, she refused to sleep on the bed and Terence had to carry her the whole time in ED..i.e. from 2-9pm. It was 1 of the most exhausting night he had as he was nursing a sore wrist but still had to carry her to sleep.

For the next 3 nights, Terence & I took turns to stay with her...When 1 of us was there with her, the other would be shuttling up and down to bring food and rice water for Joen while managing between Joan & Timmy's nap times...It was really tiring...

During that period, Joan still had slight temperature and started coughing too...so we brought her to the doc and she was diagnosed with ear infection. Shortly after, Timmy also developed a persistent cough but thankfully both of them didnt develop pneumonia.

Joen was finally discharged on Good Friday as she didnt need to be on IV anymore but she will take up to 6 weeks to recover completely. The same goes for Joan & Timmy. Till today, they are still coughing and having running nose...but they are recovering.

That week, we really saw how God has blessed us with many helpful friends..they offered their help to look after Joan & Timmy and also cooked for us.

A BIG Thank You to all who have kept us in prayers...God Bless to all!

Church Hunting

We enjoyed worshipping in our Canberra church so much that we were looking for a similar one in Melbourne...but have yet to find one...

So we continued to pray for God to lead us to one that He wants us to be in and ultimately serve in it....

We started to try out churches on our very 1st week...the 1st church that we went to is a very big church..we tried both the English & Mandarin Services (in 2 weeks) but didn't like it...too big for us..

I found out I have an uncle (mum's cousin) and he invited us to his church, i.e. the 2nd church we visited...we liked it there except that the timing is really early at 9am...

The 3rd church we visited was a charismatic church so we weren't used to it at all...

We visited the 4th church, which is a presbyterian church and so far, we were comfortable there and have been doing so for the past weeks... Terence has even joined in the choir and will be singing on Easter.

In between, we visited the 5th church....we were comfortable with the service and praise & worship...but again, the timing didn't suit us...it's at 2pm...clashes with the kids' nap times...

I guess we will be settling in this church and we are very happy to have Chai's family to worship with us...:)

Relocation to Melbourne

Sorry for MIA! Time for update now....enjoy!

Since the beginning of Jan 2009, we have relocated from Canberra to Melbourne.

It was a big move and we have made it with 3 kids in tow. In Nov 08, we left for Singapore and stayed there for 2 months and in the midst of it, Terence went to Canberra and Melbourne to search for a house and set the house up before we flew over in Jan 09.

We came over to Melbourne all on our own and I'm proud to say we are still surviving and enjoying our time here. When we stepped down in Tullamarine Airport, we had 2 trolleys full of luggages and carseats and still had a double pram and Timmy's stroller in tow...so imagine Terence & myself pushing a trolley and pulling 1 pram/stroller behind...

In the 1st 3 weeks, Terence was with us to help us to settle down before he started on his job. We went around exploring the malls, going to IKEA to get stuffs to do up the house and at the same time getting the kids used to the place. Timmy got used to the place pretty quickly as I think he's quite used to moving around and staying in different places...The gals were pretty good too since this was their 4th move since birth...(1st move: move from canberra's apt to a service apt; 2nd move: canberra to singapore; 3rd move: tert's parent's place to my parent's plc)
They adapted to the house quite easily but the only problem was putting them to bed. At that time, they still needed their dummies and needed to be patted to sleep so it was taking the toil out of us! Every time their dummies dropped (while sleeping), they would cry and we will have to run over to their room and put it in before they wake...and if they do wake, we have to pat till they fall asleep again...really tiring!!!!
So after 3 weeks, we decided we cannot continue...we decided to start them on a sleep program....
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Since then, we have not looked back. We managed to get our sleep back though I still have to wake at night to feed but it's DEFINITELY much better... Now, they can go to sleep on their own, dummies dumped and no need for any patting! And they can sleep for longer period and I can get my chores done as well as spending time with Timmy.

After the initial 3 weeks, Terence started on his new job in the beginning of Feb. He feels very blessed to have gotten this job during the recession and he has a very good boss too.
He travels to work by the train and takes about an hr each way. Everyday, we have to be very disciplined and follow the routine closely...(will tell u about our typical day later...) except on weekends...We always look forwards to the weekends as that meant we get to spend time together as a family...

We've been here for 2 months and we are still very new to the place. But God has been very very good to us...We were very blessed to have found this house with very helpful neighbours. At the front of our house, there's a retired couple and the lady helps me to babysit the gals every Thurs while I send Timmy to kinder in the morning...and next door lives and Asian family with 4 gals...and Timmy loves to play with the 2 younger gals...
As well as nice neighbours, we have Chai (my ex-colleague from WVPS) and family in the same suburb. She helped us out alot too...by having Timmy over so I can have some time out from him...and brought me around to get groceries...

THANKS CHAI!

& Timmy loves to play with her gal, Tricia. :)

Here's what our typical day is like:

630am: Wakey time...
7am: Washing up
745am:Breakky time
830am: playtime
9am: timmy's TV time; gals' sleep; mum cooks lunch & do laundry
12pm: Lunch
1pm: Tim's nap
2pm: gals' nap; mum cooks dinner
4pm: Afternoon tea
530pm: Kid's Dinner
630pm: Kids's wash up; Papa's home
730pm: Gals sleep; mummy & papa 's dinner
830pm: Timmy sleeps
10pm: zzz....

How does that sound? it's like that everyday and just some changes on Tue & Thur when Timmy goes to kinder...:P

Battle of the twins

Battle of the Cheng Twins!!!!

Contestant No. 1 - Joan Cheng

Contestant No. 2 - Joen Cheng


Joan: Can we start yet?

Ready, Get set, Go!

Joan: Yea, I got the upper hand

Joan: Yea, I'm almost winning

Joan: Take my Sumo UpperCut!

Joan: I am the winner!

My Birthday - 25 Sep

I was so happy to have celebrated my birthday with all my loved ones...Terence, Timmy, Joan, Joen and my parents (didnt take pic with them)
I am indeed blessed to have a blissful marriage, a loving husband and wonderful and cute 3 little kids....and all before 30! Thank you God!

Finally found u...

My hopes were not dashed afterall... Remember in one of the previous post, i said that the SD card of my camera was spoilt...well, it was the card reader that was faulty and not the SD card...Phew!
Luckily we brought it back and Tert's bro, Kelvyn, managed to retrieve our precious photos for us...and here you are...

Babies @ 3 months old

Happy Joen

Cheerful Joan

Joen & Joan

Here's our big ge-ge, Timmy!

He just got Thomas painted on his face when we went to the mall...he loved it to bits...

so proud of it that he didn't want to wash his face that night.

2 weeks in Singapore....

It has been 2 weeks since we arrived in Singapore. It's been great meeting up with families and a couple of friends and we have lots more meeting up to do. Food has been yummy but not the weather! Its just hot hot hot everyday!

During the 1st week, we were just getting the kids used to the place, the time and of course the weather. The 2 little gals have pretty much adjusted to the place and halfway thru for the time cuz sometimes they still do wake up at 3-4am (i.e. 6-7am Canberra waketime) to play and refuse to go back to sleep till an hr later. Timmy is doing fine. But none of us is used to the weather. Till now, we still have the aircon on everytime we sleep and even when the gals are taking their naps in the day.

Last Saturday was Tert's bro's wedding and Sunday was used for recuperating from the long day before. This weekend is jam packed with meeting ups with families and friends. Time is especially tight for Terence as he has only 1.5 weeks more before he flies back to Melbourne & Canberra for 3 weeks and will only be back on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who have been trying to contact us thru our mobile no. 97677595 & 97635760, you won't be able to as both were terminated. I'm now on a prepaid number so email me and I'll let u know our contact no.

So far, we are already 1/2 to 3/4 satisfied with the food we have eaten. We have had our share of roti prata, wanton mee, chicken rice, nasi lemak, economical noodles, fishball noodles.... now only waiting to have an international buffet, a Japanese buffet and prob Thai food. Please recommend nice places for the buffets...cuz I dunwanna waste our stomachs on non-yummy buffets....

The Move

We are going to leave Canberra tomorrow and heading back to Singapore. Terence has been offered a job in Melbourne so we will be heading there next year. It's really sad to be leaving Canberra for good...We really enjoyed ourselves alot during our 3 years here...

At the moment, we are living in a service apartment as we had to vacate our rented apartment a week ago. It was quite a feat to pack up and move with 3 kids - 1 preschooler and 2 babies - in tow. We started to pack a few days before and it was quite a logistical nightmare as we had to decide which stuffs to go to Melbourne and what to bring to Singapore. Given it's still cold now in Canberra, I had to dig out and pack the summer clothings and some warm clothings for this week in the service apartment. Thankfully, Terence had moving allowance so we got the removalist to help us pack and move our stuffs to Melbourne.

After packing, we realise we had 4 huge luggages, 2 small luggages and loads of small little bags!!! When we checked in last Sunday, Terence had to make 2 trips to bring all our stuffs here. And it's not the end. Just before we leave Canberra, we still have to move all the stuff that we are not going to bring to Singapore to store in his office as well as in our car.

Besides the moving, we still had to deal with the kids. Thankfully, Timmy is pretty adaptive at 3.5 yrs old and is quite independent wrt playing on his own and using the toilet etc...It's the gals who could not really adapt to the new environment in the beginning of the week. They were not settled during their sleep and were catnapping alot - which meant sheer fatigue for us...
Now after a week, they seem to have adapted to this place but...we have to move again tomorrow...

I really don't know what to expect when they take the plane tomorrow...I'm just going to pray hard that they will adapt well on the plane and sleep if they can. Even if they can't sleep, I hope they wouldn't be crying...I'm prepared to carry them as much as possible...

It's been a tiring week and I don't think it would be any easier when we get to Singapore next week as it will start all over again - i.e. them getting used to the environment and not to mention the hot weather, the time difference and lots of new faces... I'm not looking forward to that.

As much as we are looking forward to go back to visit our families and friends, we are also not looking forward to it...it's just like a temporary time standstill and we are not settled down into any routine. We are most looking forward for this 2 months to pass and go to Melbourne to finally settle down and get into a routine again.

We always joke that after this move, there is no move that will be any tougher for us anymore!

What happened?

It's been a long long time since the last post...

There are alot of things that I had wanted to update and lots of pictures to show since September but... the SD card from my camera could not be read....and all the photos are stuck in there! (Anyone knows how to recover the pictures?)

I shall update in words -

Joan & Joen are 4.5 months old now - time flies... there were lots of pictures about them...from 3 mths to 4 mths...from serious looks to smiles and laughs...

September 25 was my birthday and Terence & I finally had a night out on our own. We went to watch a movie finally...we had not watched a movie since 2004! It was also the 2nd time we took a family photo together...

Next Feb, we will be relocating to Melbourne so in the beginning of October, we took a recee trip there. Coincidentally, on the day of arrival at Melbourne, it was Singapore Day. We went and enjoyed some Singapore food and jostled with the SIngaporean crowd. We met up with Chai Hong and family and the kids had a fun time rolling down the grassy slope...

Last Friday was Timmy's last day in his childcare centre. We held a mini farewell party for him and his friends. They had cakes and lollies and had some fun time eating together.

I can't remember if there were more...will update if there is..
I really hope that Terence will be able to recover the photos from the card...

Almost 3 months old

Joen & Joan

SUMO JOAN

SUMO JOEN

Timmy Ge Ge with Joen & Joan

Do you know who is who?

We are 2 months old

We were on our way to a church friend's wedding.

Tim with Joen

Tim with Joan

Joan & Joen

We are 2 weeks old!