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My Challenge

The defination for Challenge is difficult task. If the task is difficult to you, it is a challenge to you. I think life is full of challenge. Since birth, we start to take challenge, adapting to new environment, attaining new skills.
I think I am not a challenging person. Since school I dont always take challenge. Being the top in class is so difficult, so I always take the bottom few :p. At work though I met most of my boss expectation but none are remarkable accomplishment. In life I am a happy go lucky person. I am content as long as my family are all around, healthy & happy. But life after marriage is different, I have no choice but to take up alots of challenge, one after another...
My main challenge:
1. Maintaining a happy marriage
2. Handling grief & loss
3. Up bringing my children
4. Start a career
5. Be happy...

Take Public Transport

Yesterday was the 2nd day of my 2 day MC. I got acute gastric attacked on tuesday 4am. I am a person with quite high threshold but this one almost murdered me man! I was rolling over my bed in great pain and my hubby could not believed gastric can be so lethal. Anyway I am feeling much better after medication and one day resting so yesterday I thought of bringing my girls out for a walk. I am bored shopping at my neighbourhood already and thought of going other places. But the thought of bringing my girls to take public transports, meaning bus and LRT really intimidating. Luckily my mother is very encouraging, we minimized the stuff to bring along and this lighten our bags. So bringing only the essential ie 4pcs diapers, wet tissue,2 milk bottle, 2 water bottle, milk powder & biscult, we are ready to set off to CCK Lot1.
My planned route: Departing - We will take bus 190 from downstair bustop to CCK bus interchange.
Home - We will take the LRT from CCK station.
Hee.. hee.. well plot! This is the shortest walking route I can think of. Imagine we have to take turns carry two bags of 10kg rice and we are not bringing the twin pram as
Firstly, twin pram is not user friendly when taking public transport (very heavy & bulky) and
secondly, my girls refused to sit in it already.

1st obstacle- Taking the bus
I was quite worried the bus will be crowded and we had no seats and the girls were trying to struggle free our arms.
Luckily,
We boared a long bus, abundant empty seats. The girls were well behaved too, enjoying the window moving scenary and keep reciting bird bird, hua(flower) and but-tee (butterfly).

2nd obstacle- At the shopping center
I will describe my girls as "The Twin Tornado". Whenever they passes by a place they will sure left with a ruin state.
As expected,
They pulled down neatly folded apparel on the shelf, messed up the merchandise on the reck... I have to quickly pay my stuff and grap them out with many apologies.

3rd obstacle- Dining at the restaurant
Previously I had an bad experience at MacDonald where Clarabelle refused to sit on the baby chair, wanted to come down and making alots of noise. I had tried many way to distract her but in dismay we had to quickly left the place to prevent screening " Mother beat children" action pack!
No so bad...
They sit happily in the baby chair eating their happy meal and asking for ba-ball...

lastly- Taking LRT home... Peaceful! They must be tire already. Sitting quietly on our lap watching the evening sunset, though their diaper have burst and stained urine on my dress due to expire (mummy forgotten to change), I feel so peaceful... home sweet home...

Vaccination Graduation

Abella & Clarabelle have received their 1st Certificate of Vaccination!

This certificate is require to present upon their registration of Singapore primary school education.
What are the immunisation?

BCG (Bacille Calmette-Gerin)
- against Tuberculosis
BCG vaccination is one of the strategies in the national TB Control Programme. Since 1957, BCG vaccination has been given to all newborns. In addition, a second BCG vaccination has been given to children at 12 years or 16 years depending on their reaction to the tuberculin or Mantoux skin test. BCG vaccination at birth has been shown to be highly effective in preventing the serious forms BCG REVACCINATION of childhood TB such as TB meningitis and disseminated TB. However, despite numerous studies done worldwide over the years, there is no scientific evidence to show that repeated BCG vaccination is effective in protecting against TB. Based on the absence of evidence to support the effectiveness of repeated BCG vaccination, the World Health Organisation (WHO) no longer recommends repeated BCG vaccination. Repeated BCG vaccination is not practised in many developed countries including Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America. Hong Kong, which has an incidence of TB that is about five times that of Singapore’s, discontinued the practice of repeated BCG vaccination last year. The Ministry of Health, together with the Ministry’s expert advisory committees, namely the International Advisory Panel to the STEP, the STEP Committee and the expert Committee on Immunisation, have carefully reviewed the practice of a second BCG vaccination and have decided to discontinue the practice of a second BCG vaccination from 1 July 2001. However, all newborns will continue to receive BCG vaccination at birth. The Ministry will continue its efforts to eliminate TB in Singapore and seeks the support and cooperation of all medical practitioners towards this goal.

DPT/Polio (Diphtheria, Pertussis & Tetanus/Poliomyelitis)
Diphtheria starts as a throat infection, but can cause obstruction to breathing and death.

Pertussis, also know as whooping cough cause prolonged attacks of coughing and can result in pneumonia (lung infection) or brain damage.

Tetanus cause severe muscle contraction, including those muscles that control swallowing and breathing. It often leads to death.

Poliomyelitis starts with mild fever but can result in paralysed and deformed arms or legs.

MMR (Measles/ Mumps/ Rubella)
Measles starts with high fever and a rash, lung infection, deafness and brain damage can occur.

Mumps is an infection od salivary glands, it can leads to brain infection, deafness or sterility.

Rubella, also know as German Measles complication in children are rare. Women infected during early pregnancy may give birth to deaf, blind or mentally retarted babies.

Hepatitis B
An infection of the liver that may have no systoms. It can leads to liver failure or liver cancer in adulthood.

Scarry Huh?? Virus everywhere, you cant see them, you cant feel them, you cant taste them. So prevention is the best! Especially now when we even have mutated virus and married virus ! ! !
Anyway I got them chickenpox vaccinated too.

Who am I ?

Everyday is a milestone to my girls. I like to play " identify " with them. I will always ask them " Who is daddy? " and they will either show the " dont have " hand action when daddy is not at home or point to our wedding collage and daddy if he is at home. They can acknowledge mah mah (my mother), gong gong, mummy, ye ye, ma ma (my in-law), ah yi and ka ka (my maid). One day I asked Clarabelle " Who is Clarabelle? " and to my surprised, she pointed herself. Then " Who is Abella? " and she pointed Abella. I tried on Abella and when asked " Where is Clarabelle? ", she pointed to Clarabelle and said " Bel ". When I asked her " Abella lei? ", her petit index was pointing her chest.
Now, I am still very puzzle why they are not oblige to call mummy? They will walk to my hubby out of no reason and call "daddy" or my mother " mah ". When see my maid they will call " ka ka ". I hardly see them approach me and call mummy, not even when they need my attention where I am at the upper hand. When I prompt them to call mummy, Clara still say "daddy" and Abella sometime " ma ni" sound like barney...
Mummy feel very jealous...mummy is always accompany you both yet mummy dont have the privilege from you both :(
Must be they always see me, sien already... Babies, cannot take mummy for granted hor!

Little Shadow

Last night as usual I was patting my girls to sleep. Clarabelle was in deep sleep already. Abella though eyes still open but had engaged in sleeping mode so I thought I can dress down myself. When I turned around to get my towel after washing my face, I realised a petit shadow in the bathroom. Abella standing quietly behind me and watching me. " Oh sweetie, why arent you sleeping? " she raised up her arm prompting me to carry her. How can I reject such a sweetie offer? So I carried her back to the bed. She kept yawning and rubbing her eyes. I thought she should be able to sleep already so I walked off to the walk-in wardrobe. Then dono since when this little girl was already behind the door when I was about to close it. I had no choice but to stop doing my stuff. I picked up this little fellow again and tucked her in bed, massaged her forehead, hummed lullaby. We gazed at each other and finally her tired eyes can closed... I like this bonding very much though sometime it can be impediment.

Babies Name

I had so many things to ponder when day 1 I knew I was pregnant. Which gynae to engage? Which hospital to deliver? Caretaker for baby... etc. Finding a suitable name for my babies was another tough task too, especially when my princesses are TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome). We wanted an meaningful name for them. To us, they are our warrior. They had been fighting since the day I conceived. Fighting to survive... fighting to come into this world. We wanted name meaning brave or strong but most of them sound masculine. Finally we decided this and Abella seem to agreed too because when I read aloud the name, I can feel her kicking in my tummy reckoning.

Calista Abella Ang - meaning " most beautiful, girl "
翁 (weng)
绮 (qi) - meaning " elegant, beautiful "
蔚 (wei) - meaning " ornamental "

and

Valeda Clarabelle Ang - meaning " warrior, beautiful "
翁 (weng)
绮 - meaning " elegant, beautiful "
璟 - meaning " luster of gems "

Silly thought of 好好

I have twin girls already and in chinese character is two 女 女.
How nice if I have twin son next time 子子 and when combine together become 好好!
WOW ! Wonder twin Power Up ! ! !

More words...

Just finished conversation with my mum and the content:

" ...did u see how she (my maid) divide the fish? Sunday just bought, very big piece leh now she say finish already! "
" ...maybe she divide bigger portion loh, for 3 days, 6 meals, ok lah... "
" ...ka ka lou jia liao...(in teochew meaning no matter how much also very fast can finish) "

My mum is actually suspecting my maid stealing our girls' fish for own consumption. Treadfin leh, very expensive one, for the size of my palm can easily cost $20! My mum has ground to suspect her because when she asked her " finish already hah? Nice or not? " without much thought, she say " nice... (Oops! ) " .... No solution...

" ...your girls are playing with those goodies you left on the tv console... "
" ...yah i give them the little box to play with, their Ye Ye buy for them masak... "
" ...they are shattering the cookies...keep asking me to open open say yummy yummy... "
" What? You mean my girl girl know how to say OPEN & YUMMY ? ? ! "
" Yah loh, both also, you dono meh? "

Fun Time with Daddy

This is fun! The children definately looking forward to have fun with Daddy again.

Who has stolen Clarabelle's " mummy" ?

Whenever Clara pester me to carry her, I'll always take this opportunity to make her call mummy. What puzzle me is instead of calling me mummy which she already can, she always call me " daddy ". I thought she might need some recap " Im not daddy, Im your mummy, call ma-mi " but still " daddy " spill out from her mouth. I try to inspire her with her favourite hand-kiss action and mm..ma sound but still she refuse to say mummy and start her "Ah bi, Ah bi" (whenever she is angry she always say " Ah bi ").
This morning I got another good chance when offering this hungry little girl milk. I make her call "mummy" first before giving her the milk. Still the same, she called me "daddy". I tried very hard refreshing her "ma-mi" with emphasized lip but she seem very impatient and hungry and finally she said " barney "! ! ! As I wouldnt wish to starve her further, she has her reward and leaving me with a perplexing question ? ? ?

Ah Bi

Though Clara's vocab bank is suffice for her daily interactive activities but this word "AH Bi" is always coming out of her mouth. Especially when she is angry, she will Ah Bi ! Ah Bi ! I just cannot relate where this Ah Bi derive from.

I know the origination of ba-ball is balloon. Initially they associate all round things as ball. When they first saw a balloon, they kept calling it ball ball. After I corrected them " Yes, my dear it is as round as a ball but this is a balloon." and made them repeated with me ba-lloon. However they had came out with their own formulae... ba-ball for balloon.

Vocab Bank & Cognitive Development

Abella & Clarabelle will be 18mths old tomorrow. Their vocab bank have exceeded 20!
1.bear bear
2.ball
3.ba-ball (balloon)
4.hua (flower in mandarin)
5.bird bird
6.dog dog
7.mi (cat meow)
8.fish
9.apple
10.bus-c
11.bu bu (car)
12.milk
13.Barney
14.daddy
15.mummy
16.ma (my mother. As for gong gong not yet but they can acknowledge)
17.ah yi
18.ka ka (my maid)
19.bye bye
20.Yi (one in mandarin)
21.good good
22.star star
23.Eee! dirty dirty new
24.Pss (please) new
25.wait new
26.pear new

other cognitive development which are notable like:
scenario 1
One day they were enjoying the scenery outside the window. Clara's head accidentally knock against the glass. She started to weep. When Abella saw this, she extended her hand and sayang Clara's head...

scenario 2
When they see somebody still asleep, they will place their petite little finger on the lip making ss- ss- sound signal to keep quite.

scenario 3
Abella & Clarabelle will hug and kiss each other when prompt. Last night we went out for a stroll, we prompt them to hold hand and Clara extended her palm to Abella and happily they walk around the neighbourhood with their hand firmly griped.

scenario 4
Abella & Clarabelle will play pretend to sleep game and cover themself with the blanket.

scenario 5
When any of them cough, they will pat for each other.

scenario 6
This morning the daddy was mixing their milk. I show them a stop hand asking them to lie down and repeating the word "wait". However Abella refuse to stop her activity and wanted to sit up. The word "wait" then spilled out of Clarabelle's mouth signal Abella to lie down and wait!

We can fix up

In this photo they are playing with one of their favourite "virtual toy", cordless phone. I have realise that now my girls prefer to play stuff like phones and all sort of remote control than those toys that are designated for them. Initially I will always tell them : " No, this is not a toy, you cant play with this, you will spoilt it..." but they just love to play with it. So I given up stopping them, thinking why deprive them from exploring? Afterall this is real life thing and they will have to manage them one day.
Now they can manipulate which button is intercom and which button is redial and enjoy putting back the phone on the charger as it will give a " tu-tu " sound. They enjoy on & off the TV with the remote too and seeing the TV screen keep changing when pressing different buttons. The only remote I dont allow them to play is the aircon remote. I have paid too high to let them explore " real life "... so far my fan remote had spoilt, the TV remote have loose parts, luckily still functioning and my cordless phone giving way very soon. All this are because beside pressing the buttons, they also enjoy throwing them plus sometime accidentally drop it. * sign * (The father always say I have spoilt the children, he has never agreed in this.)

I remember seeing an milk power advertisement. The 1st scene was showing a cozy living room where a father was checking the instruction manual on how to fix up the newly bought remote car. 2nd scene was showing a baby fixing up the battery into the remote car. 3rd scene was showing the baby manipulating the car charging to the father direction and last scene shown the amazed father looking at his baby wondering how he do it?

Today this scene is happening in my house . . .

Friday Fright Night

This happened on 19 aug, a Friday night when I reached home from work . . .

My domestic helper then informed me that in the afternoon Clarabelle had tripped and falled and knocked onto the edge of my cupboard!!! I was so fumed that she should had informed me immediately, not wait till I am home! If clara had any internal injury and was not reacted promptly, it will be too late!

However she told me : " I see Clarabelle ok lah, she play play, talk talk but the face swollen... I clean the wound with water, she ok already, mdm working I dont want to disturb you" and keep saying sorry.

Blar! Is a school of different thoughts! I dont buy her explaination! Who is she to judge for me,huh?!! The mother should be first informed of anything happen to their children and she will have to bear all the responsibility.

Anyway what can I do when accident already had happened? Sometime I really thought of sending her back. I cant really harsh on her as I am at her mercy. My two children are under her care most of the time. If she is ok, she actually can handle my two children well but sometime she like to daze. I do agreed is inevitable for children to have knocks and bruises but we must always practise extra caution to minimize accident.
See the deep cut on my pitiful Clara's face... she is always my brave girl. As per my mum relate, she actually cried for a while only.
Pain on my heart... is my flesh afterall...

My mum dont advise ointment as worry she may rub into her eye. But I still have to apply to disperse the clogged blood and relieve the swell. When I apply for her prior to her sleep, she is very coorperative knowing this is for her wellness and didnt resist me about the pain...further pain on my heart...

I always tell their daddy our two girls should deserve more than what we are giving now.


2nd day after her fall . . .
Can see her nose bridge more swollen. Beside applying ointment, I also rolled hard boiled egg on the wound to relieve the swelling.










Today is already more than one month and I still can see the pinkish scar...
Clara, mummy wishes you fastest healing. Mumm..muack!

Thinking back... last saturday I had another scary morning! I woke up with a fright seeing clara's face, hand, pyjamas and mattress covered with dried blood stain! Initially I thought her poo poo had dropped out of her pamper and she had picked it up and play. Huh? Eat Da Pian ?!! Then I look closer and is actually blood stain!

Panic daddy & mummy but still composed, our brains are storming what should we do? Bring her to emergercy? Dr Ho? Who to call for advise? and we tried all...

Msg Dr Ho, my family doc but no reply...call his clinic and no respond...most prob out station.
Called the children aunties (hubby's sister) and they posted a few questions... any fall recently? Not that we know of... except last month...heaty??? 9th aunt advised...better consult doctor...

Lastly we surf KK Woman's and Children's Hospital and our finding:

" Nose bleeds are common in children. They are usually not serious conditions & result from irritation to the normally fragile surface of the nasal lining. "

and also Babycenter and our finding:

" Nosebleeds are common in children, especially in winter when sinus infections, colds, and dry air all contribute to them. Your child may make matters worse by rubbing or picking his nose. If he gets a nosebleed at night, you may find dried blood on the pillowcase in the morning. Again, there's no reason to worry. "

At least we are not so worried now as that night Clara was sleeping in our chilling room. We just service the aircon so even we set at 37dec and one fan, is still freezing cold. Hopfully the bleed is also not due to last month big fall and since her bleed had stop by itself, we just have to monitor her and hope her nose bleed is not frequent.