A postdated post

Wrote this post such a long time back that I nearly forgot all abt posting it. :p

Here goes:

By the time this post sees the light of day, I should at least be 2 months along if not more. How soon this post gets posted will depend on how observant my friends are and how good my acting skills are.

Today is the 19 Apr. I am seated in a familiar clinic, getting myself weighed and blood pressure taken. We found out last night that I am pregnant. :) Truth be told, it was a piece of news that was received with mixed feelings. While we have not been actively preventing this, Doppy and I did agree that we will dicuss it and make a decision during our ME weekend. Now that it is here, we are left with no choice.

In a way, I am rather glad that the decision has been taken out of my hands. I have always wanted 2 kids but I know that doppy was inclined towards one due to financial consideration. He is a worry wart by nature and short of handing the world on a plate to his children, he thinks that we are short changing them and we are not giving them the best that they deserve. Topmost of his considerations is of course an overseas college education. He is adamant that by hook or by crook he will send his kids abroad and because he doesn't want to choose between them, he very much rather have just one kid and strive to provide for sonny.

I actually came out of the bathroom with trepediation cos I know that he will receive the news of No.2 v differently from the way we received news of no.1. While he was not crestfallen per se, I cd also tell that he was not as ecstatic abt the news 2 yrs 9mo ago. When I sat down on the bed next to him, my first question was, "Wd u want me to consider an abortion?" Thankfully his answer was a resounding no and he proceeded to chide me for my silliness. His mental gears did kick into overdrive rather immediately and he started thinking abt the logistical problems (where to place the new cot) and changes to our lives ahead (oh sex drought and sleep deprivation gonna start again. Endless diaper changing and wailing sessions again).

Yet by the end of the conversation, he told me that he loved me and for the first time in a long while, he hugged me to sleep. And this morning, he kept reminding me to go get myself checked out at the gynae even tho we both knew exactly what she wd say (Congrats. Don't worry. Whatever will be will be.) While he has to be at work and not be able to see the doc w me, he kept messaging to ask me to update him on e visit. And while he said that he doesn't think he can love no.2 e way he loves sonny, he kept insisting that no.2 must get whatever no.1 got (and that includes a new cot even if we do not have the space for it). And al these things assure me that no2 will come to know his/her dad's love just as sonny did.

And u know something? If all goes well, no2 shall be a dec baby. I cannot help but remember the first one that I lost 4 yrs ago. That was supposed to be a dec baby and our
Xmas gift too. God has not forgotten all these years and now he is choosing to bless us w ano Xmas child.

Life is good. While the days ahead will def be harder ones with an additional kiddo in the mix, I know that we will be happy as a family with god's grace and blessings. Thank you Lord for your blessings and we remain grateful for your precious gift always. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Little XT has left the nest. - Lovebell

This morning we took XT to the childcare centre as usual. Along the way, he didn't behave the way he used to do. Beyond the usual self-entertaining antics in the car, such as the singing of his favorite "twinkle ah", he was quite the normal self. There was no crying, no screaming, no clinging on to anyone.

"Blue car! Double-decker bus! Red train! Motorcycle zoom zoom!"

When we got to the centre, XT promptly went and sat down and took off his shoes, while demanding that we "take off other shoe ah!" (i.e. I would take off one and he would take off one). This was swiftly followed by him picking up his shoes and going "where's cubby hole?". He then pointed at his own photo and put his shoes neatly into the cubby hole.

(Yes, XT is prone to dictating to himself and talking about himself in the third person)

Zhao LaoShi was not there to take his temperature today, so he was a bit disoriented then. But when another teacher came out to greet him, he sat down at once and obediently opened his mouth and showed her his hands for the health screening.

After that, he stood up, turned around, looked at us as we said "Bye bye!" and then turned and walked inside without a word or tear.

Our XT has grown up.

And so it came to pass ...

the long weekend we have both been waiting for.

So what did we accomplish?

• Sat morning - mmf brunch @ MacDonald's and shopping @ Vivocity
• Sat evening - mummy mm met up with friends for a great (the food and company lah .. not the occasion itself) farewell dinner at The Marriot Cafe and the adult mm went for a round of drinks at Paulaner.
• Sun afternoon - took Popo out for lunch and made her real happy with her great grandson holding her hands and playing in her lap.
• Sun evening - went groceries shopping @ West Coast Plaza and caught 21 on dvd till wee hours of the morning
• Mon - went to Ubi Avenue 4 to (finally!) get the water filter for our F&P fridge (we bought 3 at one go and had to empty our pockets as payment had to be made in cash and each filter costs $66) and went for an adult-only lunch at Tampines Central. Day off and we ended eating gong-zai-min at Central but hey .. it was what I felt like eating and doppy gamely ate with me.
• Mon afternoon - finally lowered XP's bed (in which he's sleeping soundly in now) and have arching backs to show for our efforts
  
• Mon evening - cooked seared cod-fish, chicken soup with radish and carrots, heibi hiam with four-season's bean, spinach with 2 eggs in chicken stock, steamed prime-rib with black-bean sauce and stewed chicken wings for good friends who came to our place for dinner. Opened a bottle of Muscat and finished it along with the gelato ice-cream that friends brought.
  

And so .. I am now in bed with my work lappie intending to check my work emails but ended up IM-ing, FB-ing and blogging.

But the long weekend that we were both looking forward to so much is coming to an end. Of course I still have tomorrow to take brunch with my girls, get some shopping done and hopefully squeeze in a haircut as it's Teachers' Day tomorrow and I still get a day off.

But I don't want my long weekend to end. I don't want to go back to work. I don't want to open up my work emails and see the sea of red.

Oh well .. the next weekend will come again soon. And tomorrow I shall still see the 2 great guys in my life after I hang out some with my friends. :)

Nite all .. esp. to a dear friend in London who has been religiously checking this site for updates. :)

A beachy holiday

Yes, yes, ... this blog post is long overdue and for those of you who are doppy's friends on fb, you have already probably seen some photos of our trip. However, even if a picture paints a thousand words, nothing beats reading my ramblings, right? :) At least, if you are bored out of your mind at work, this is one post that you can read to keep yourself awake. :P

To cut to the chase, it has been 2 years since doppy and I last had a holiday. Doppy has been trying to get me to go for a holiday since eons ago and since we both had some leave to clear, we decided to do a short weekend getaway. After polling all our friends, it appeared that (1) 3D2N was way too short for us to go to Australia, (2) Bangkok and KL are kinda out of the picture cos doppy is not that into shopping, (3) Sentosa isn't quite far enough and so it seemed like we were left with (4) Bintan Beach Resort. Of course the other competing beach resort would be Bali but since I was al cheapo and didn't want to take a flight for such a short holiday, Bintan was the default choice.

All who know doppy (and me) kinda predicted that we are not really 'beachy' people. And thus it should come as no surprise to all that our 3D2N trip was essentially more of a 2D2N trip. :P We did originally intend to leave on late Sunday evening and I even asked the resort for a late checkout. I even booked the last ferry out from Bintan and doppy was going to make alternative arrangements for his bread delivery programme. However, by the end of the first day, we were running out of things to do. There was only that much food and beer we can consume and as for 'happy happy times', there was also a limit to our stamina. :P So the loser-us came back early on Sunday morning instead and ended up catching "Angels and Demons" in Singapore.

Now that we have gotten the loserish part of the trip out of the way, let's move on the good things! :) We both had a most enjoyable time and really, this trip has also made it to one of our memorable trips together (and no, it is not because we do not go away enough together!). Besides the most delicious food, cheap beer and fantastic scenery, what we enjoyed most was each other's undivided attention and kindness towards each other. Yes, kindness. It might seem like a strange word to use but that was truly how I felt. When we were there, time did not matter and there no chores to be done. There was no schedule to keep (except dinner reservations and even that was really to catch the sunset), no errands to run, no families to entertain, no little rascal to run after and yelled at (though we did miss him like crazy! and saw him in every little boy on the beach), no work to bug us, no nothing! Just the sun, the sea, the beach, the food, the beer and us. And we were so kind to each to other, not just in our words (not that I was counting but doppy did not make a single sacarstic remark to me on the entire trip!) but also in our acts of service and love to each other. We discussed what we would like to do amicably, we decided on things to do in an unrushed, unhurried, most compromising manner, we held hands as we walked on the beach (nope, didn't swim in the sea cos doppy said that the red flag was up and he did not want our child to be orphaned by jellyfishes), we reaffirmed our love for each other and we shared our thoughts and dreams over good food and beer. These things might not seem like much but somehow when we are in Singapore, our lives always seemed to be spent in such a rush, with one person or the other being so easily irritated by some action of the other, with our words being short and curt and our manners left much to be desired. Truly, those two days and two nights were such great ones (kinda reminded us how we got from dating to marriage) that nowadays when we catch the other party not exactly being loving, we will say, "Can we please go back to the Bintan days?"

If you had begun reading this post thinking that you were going to read all about Bintan, so so sorry to have disappointed you. :P Since I believe that all readers of our blog have been to Bintan earlier than us (twas both our first trip there), and are much more outdoorsy and seasporty people than us, there is no point in my writing about Bintan since your first-hand experience is most probably more exciting than ours. Nevertheless, we took a couple of shots for all of you here, just to share with you some snippets of our trip. For a more complete pictorial rendition, check out doppy's fb or better still, wait for me to share my Picasa album. :) Till then, enjoy the ones below.

Our little hut at Mayang Sari.

This is our room (duh!). I think doppy was 'pleasantly' surprised by it. The only time he had stayed in a beach resort was in Bali and he stayed in a five-star resort. Suffice to say, Mayang Sari was not quite what he expected it to be. :O I loved the bath tub though and had a splashing good time soaking all my tiredness and anxieties away.

A shot captured while we lazed outside on the beach.

We took a set lunch at this Japanese restaurant on the first day. It was a very good lunch and the presentation of the food was impeccable. The set lunch came in a 3-tier bucket/barrel? and the layout of the food was exquisite. It also tasted very good and all in all, it only cost us $25. Where to find such good deals in Singapore?

Satu ...

Dua ...
Tiga ...

and the full spread for both of us!

Al fresco dining ...

... for obvious reasons.

Dinner on the first night at the kelong.
Facing the huge sea, you cannot help but feel calm and serene.

汪洋中的一条船。

Another al fresco dining experience. This was at the Thai restaurant, Baan Aarya, where the setting and ambience was unbelievably romantic and the food was good too. Unfortunately, there were only two of us and after we went crazy with the crabs on the first night out at the kelong, we had to be more prudent with the amount of food we ordered here.

Our tour guide for our 'adventure' out at the mangrove swamp.
His English is very good! See? I too am guilty of assuming that non-native speakers could not speak good English. Sigh.

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream ...

Great shots by doppy on our mangrove eco-tour.

Lunch by the poolside. The pizza was great and the Bintang beer just made it purrrfect. :) We had two more drinks when we hit the pool cos there was a pool bar!

And so all the sandfly bites (why am I always the only one cursed with that? The last time I went on a dive trip with my friends to Redang, I am the only person who got the sandfly bites too!) and the intense missing of our uber-cute son were worth it. For it is only with a strong marriage built upon lots of love and affection between the adult meowmes that the little one would have a warm and safe litter to come home to.

Look out for my Picasa invite to see more of our pictures (those with us in them lah!).

Our Dream Home In Its Most Naked Form

Most of you would know that we have collected our keys to our little home and our own little toy story (To Infiniti and beyond!) is slowly taking shape.

Thanks to all our dear friends who have given very useful pieces of advice and/or contacts for us to piece this our own little litter together.

Some of you have actually trudged to the showflat with us 2 years back when we were deciding on getting this place.

We are most happy with the view of our new home, though we would appreciate more ideas on how we can reduce the noise from the AYE traffic when we decide to open the balcony doors (forgive us if we tend to shout at you in our home when you pop by if the balcony doors are open .. we can't hear you very well .. so we assume that you can't hear us either! :P).

So while I am sitting here waiting for the electricians who were supposed to have arrived 45min ago ... here are (finally!) some photos to share with all and for us to log the process of setting up our dream home. :)

One small corner of our present study. All the plastic bags you see ... are xp's toys and books. Please do not ask why he has so many toys and books. He's got toys that are only are only appropriate from age 3 onwards and books that are age appropriate from 0 months to 8 years old.

Now, this is the packing nightmare. It is probably nothing compared to Olie and Raistlin's library but hey .. it was still hellish packing the books and trying not to damage them, k? Borders Book Sales and Kinokuniya Discounts are bad for house-moving!

This is taken from the perspective once you enter our litter. The living room is not much in terms of space but I do love the balcony doors and the half glass-wall? of the kitchen. F, of course, was not that excited at the prospect of cleaning the glass panes. :P

Reverse perspective of the living room with a sneaky peek into my kitchen. Pictures really lie, don't they? You would think from this shot that my living room is damn big but I assure you that's very far from the truth. My ceilings are high though (1.9m) which does add to the illusion / sense of space.

The fantastic view from my balcony aka the reward of AYE traffic noise. We love the view from our balcony and so despite the roaring traffic outside, we are going to set up a nice and cosy corner for ourselves. And yes, we will take good care to ensure that xp does not run out to the balcony, climb on the chair and table and jump down from there (this was a pertinent point raised by doppy's colleagues when he asked around for contacts for cheap balcony furniture).

The kitchen! Of all the condo showflats I have been, this is the most pleasing layout to me. I am a most boring and traditional person. I like squarish kitchen and though there is limited working space compared to my present kitchen (which has an additional island counter-top no less), I appreciate the space that it gives me to move around.

Our MB (master bedroom lah .. not menstrual blood!). Again, it's small compared to our present flat but the next picture will show you why this new place wins hands down. :)

That's right! My dream bathroom! F asked why we need such big a big bathroom (she thinks it a waste of space) but she has no idea how difficult it is for doppy and I to fit into one small tiny bathroom for showers. Yes, we do shower together. It's one of those things we do to get couple time and build bonds (similar to the time we spend talking during car rides). Once he's out in the open, I lose him to the TV (how can I be more interesting than Myth Busters or be palatable than exotic foods?), and computer (how can real-life-singular updates compared to virtual-multiple updates Facebook offers or the numerous sex-citing lives led by hao-siao people in Sammyboy's forums?). So yes, a big bathroom is important to me.

Alrighty, that's all for now. Time for me to go check on the CMI workers who have been buffing my window bay tiles for THREE freaking days and my dismissive electricians who told me in no uncertain terms that my presence is not required except for clarification (aka get out of our way while we work).

More updates to come in the coming week of mad packing and moving. :)