Dinosaurs at the National Science Centre!

I'm a HUGE fan of dinosaurs. When we found out that there was a dinosaur exhibition at the National Science Centre, we decided to bring the kids there to have a look. Apparently some of the exhibits could move, so it certainly sounded very promising!

We went there around lunchtime and the place was packed! Not surprising, due to the school holidays.

The resident T-Rex; it moves and roars! Cool...

No.1 seemed only mildly interested in the dinosaurs- he wasn't as excited as I hoped he would be. I was a bit worried that he would be frightened by the scary-looking beasts, as well as their roars, but he wasn't disturbed at all.

Rather disturbing exhibit of a Megalosaurus devouring its prey

The infamous Velociraptor- star of the Jurassic Park movie

The T-Rex and the Apatosaurus

The exhibit is on until May 2011, I think. Do check it out if you can!

Christmas Decorations at MidValley

It's the time of the year where malls are decked to the nines with all things 'Christmas-sy'. I wonder if there is some kind of competition going on each year, considering how much effort is put into the whole affair.

The decorations in MidValley are usually very nice; and this year's was just superb. The entire Centre Court was transformed into a magical toyland- with HUGE teddy bears, toy soldiers, a carousel, jacks-in-the-box and other cute stuff!

We made a trip there for the children, and took the opportunity to take some photos. It wasn't easy- with 2 strollers, trying to pose, handle the camera and run after No.1. Thankfully we went really early and left before the crowd came pouring in. Would have been impossible otherwise. At the end of all that photo-taking, both of us were exhausted and sweating!

Well worth it though- No.1 really seemed to enjoy himself....

Notes on No.2

No.2 is growing very well indeed. 6.25 kg at the 2-month mark! Amazing. Our cute little fat girl with her triple chin, haha!

A couple of things to pen down:

• When I feed her direct, she likes to keep one eye open and the other one closed, which is quite funny.
• She makes a whole array of funny noises when she sleeps- including some that make her sound like a trumpeting baby elephant! Hilarious. Sometimes it feels like we’re sleeping in some sort of zoo…
• She loves to be carried, especially when we’re seated in the rocking sofa. Good buy; that piece of furniture…
• She has the habit of crying / whining with her eyes still closed; we gathered she’s struggling to fully wake up from her sleep.
• She can follow objects with her eyes very well, and can turn towards the source of sound that she hears.
• She’s recently learnt to put her little hands into her month, which leaves her with very damp mittens! Yuck.
• When she’s in the car, she whimpers/cries when the car is stationary, and stops crying when the car starts moving again. The start-and-stop crying makes us laugh everytime. :)
• Oh, and she just learnt to suck her thumb; which is so fun to watch!

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Hubby and I managed to take an afternoon off away from the children to have a quiet lunch and catch a movie. I can't remember the last time we went to the cinema or had a proper meal, so this was a really nice break.

We had a nice buffet lunch at 'The Living Room' in The Westin Hotel, where I finally got to eat sashimi after a loooong time! It was incredibly yummy; I must have had about 7 slices or so. Should have had some more; darn. Haha :p The buffet spread wasn't really THAT spectacular, but then again, one can't really eat much for lunch...

We then made our way to catch the latest Harry Potter movie; something that I was dying to do for ages. Overall, I found the book much better than the movie; parts of the latter seemed a bit slow. Plus, the exciting bits in the book were not given enough screen time. Also, somehow those felt a whole lot more exciting in the book!

Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to Part 2 of the movie, especially the final battle scene. That was seriously heart-stopping in the book; wonder how that will turn out in the movie.... Guess we'll find out next year!

Going nuts!

I knew having 2 young children would not be easy; but frankly speaking, this is really really hard. Maybe it's my hormones, but I am really finding it exceptionally difficult to cope. No.2 seems to be always feeding, feeding, and feeding; leaving me so incredibly exhausted and having no time or energy to spend time with No.1. At least I have some help (my mum/hubby, etc) with the older boy, but I do feel sad that the situation seems to have resulted in him distancing himself from me (not that he was really close to me in the first place). Sigh.

The past few weeks have been hard; filled with tears and screams. It's tough being a mum; and I really do think I'm hopeless at it. My capacity for patience is really low, and admittedly, I don't do so well at keeping my temper in check.

Dear God, please help me to do better...

Words, words, words!

It's been really fun watching our little boy learn to 'talk'. He's got quite a decent vocabulary now; in fact for the 2 days when we were away (in the hospital, delivering No.2), it seemed like he added a lot more words to his word bank!

He's progressed from his favourite word- 'Star' to also include 'Moon', heh.

Other random words:

• Up, Down (he says 'Up' and raises his arms when he asks to be carried)
• More (e.g. if he wants more biscuits), Gone, No More
• Don't Want
• One, Two, Three
• Hair, Knee, Toes
• Elmo, Einstein (as in his Baby Einstein DVDs)
• Clock, Pear, Hole, Cut, Book, Hot, Cold, Wet, etc
• Spoil (we use this since he isn't exactly gentle with his toys.. :p)
• Por (maternal grandma), Kong (maternal grandpa), Mama (paternal grandma). But he can't say Mummy! He uses 'Mama' for both me and his paternal grandma. He can manage 'Papa' or 'Daddy' fine though. Hmmph.

These are what I can recall at the moment.. it's so fun to see him learn and grow! :)

One of my favourites- he can answer to A is for 'Apple', B is for 'Boy'/'Ball', C is for 'Car' / 'Cow'; and for D? His answer- 'wowow' (i.e. dog barking). Simply precious.

Also, he's really into tennis! We can see the tennis court from our unit, and he loves watching people play. Hubby got him a small plastic tennis racquet, and he loves swinging it to and fro, or hitting some small balls- going 'pok', 'pok' (that's the sound a tennis ball makes when it hits the ground). He's nuts about 'pok', 'pok' alright...

No.2 is here!

Our little darling arrived on 7th October 2010!

After an examination on the 6th, the doctor remarked that the baby's head was so so so low that I could probably feel it myself. Yikes. And so she suggested that I check myself in the next morning, get induced and get things going, in order to better manage the labour.

I was only at 2 cm the next morning, and the epidural was administered soon after. Strangely, the epidural administration seemed rather traumatic for me; maybe it was because I was wide awake and not drowsy like the last time. I was very concerned that the nasty side-effects that I had the last time would occur again; thank God it was much more manageable this time round. I only threw up a couple of times- no fever nor shivering; praise the Lord!

I was hopeful that the labour would not be long, but I was still stuck in the bed for almost 12 hours. Nothing 'exciting' really happened until about 4 pm or so; up till then nothing much was going on and the contractions were not really that strong. It felt like a really loooong day and I kept looking at the clock, hoping that time would go by faster...

My doctor helped to 'manually' speed things up by increasing the dilation, and soon it was time to push. Yikes. I did better this time round, and the baby came out after what seemed like an eternity of pushing. The part where she was actually coming out was a tad scary for me; I could see and feel (a bit, despite the epidural) it as she emerged, and I remember letting out a scream!

Overall, I really thank the Lord that the delivery went smoothly. The post-delivery healing seems to be taking a bit longer, but apparently that happens- it gets harder every pregnancy. Hmmm.

Wow- it's so amazing to say that we have children (instead of a child) now. What blessings from God indeed!

Waiting for No.2 to arrive...

I rushed to see the doctor last Thursday (30th Sept) because I was feeling a bit weird. Contractions were quite strong and I was unusually short of breath. A brief examination showed that the baby's head is very low; and I should expect her to arrive early to mid this week.

There were a few instances when I thought the time to go to the labour ward was near; but those instances came and went. And now it's already Wednesday....

My little darling- can you tell Mummy when you would like to come out and see us? :)

Weekend at Le Meridien Hotel

We stayed a night at Le Meridien Hotel recently, with baby in tow, and it turned out to be quite fun! Tiring, but fun.

We checked in around 2 pm, and the little one was so excited checking out the new environment (looking out the window, bouncing around the bed and fluffy pillows, poking the reading lights, etc), that he refused to settle down for his afternoon nap until about 3:30 pm. We took a walk around the poolside when he woke up (it was a bit too cold to swim), gave him a bath and then fed him his dinner before we headed out for ours.

We had dinner at Prime, which was a pricey affair, even after a 50% discount with my Starwood Privilege Member card. Hubby tried a ‘combo’ main course, which featured the following:

4 oz / 110 g Australian Black Angus
200 day’s grain fed center cut filet mignon
Grain mustard sauce, grilled tomato and warm porcini salad

4 oz / 110 g Australian Black Angus gourmet pasture fed beef ribeye
Chimichurri sauce, sea salt and green asparagus tips

4 oz / 110 g Wagyu sirloin
Béarnaise sauce, roasted baby potato

Sounds really yummy right? Sadly, the Wagyu sirloin was really disappointing as most of that particular cut of meat was virtually inedible (you know how it is when the meat is so chewy, filled with the tendons or whatever it is, and you can’t bite through it?) Terrible- I had a half a mind to complain, but we were too busy rushing through dinner while minding a fidgety toddler, to bother.

I had the Prime Surf and Turf, which was quite nice. I also had a side order- Truffles Mashed Potatoes, which were simply delicious!

We tried the Venetian Seafood Buffet Lunch at Favola the next day, and that was quite nice, although I had expected a wider selection for the main courses (which they freshly prepare and dish out to diners instead of us taking it from the buffet table). The pasta was lovely and the dessert (cassata) was refreshing and not too sweet. We ate our fill, but I suppose we didn’t really enjoy it as much (how to when the little one just can’t sit still?)

Gosh, these days it’s getting really hard to take him out for meals when it’s just the two of us… How will we manage when our little girl comes along? I think we’ll probably never see the inside of a nice restaurant for a long, long time. SIGH.

Anyway, overall I think the stay was a nice experience- mainly for the little one! :)

A stranger in our home..

We sent our domestic helper back to the agency today. After a year of relatively good work, things starting to turn a bit funny 1-2 months ago. We were so thankful when she first arrived- the best bit being that she spoke decent English- enough to understand us and make herself understood. She was also doing ok in her work and generally had a reasonable attitude. She was also fairly smart, and from what I could gather, she was saving up to further her studies when she got home, and hoped to hold an office job someday.

Of course, she wasn't perfect. There were times when she seemed to take ages getting one thing done, and she could sometimes be a tad rude when she spoke to us. But all in all, it was ok- we kept one eye open and the other eye closed most of the time. We were even hoping that we could convince her to extend her contract with us for another year.

I would like to think that we treated her well. We took her out for nice meals, bought things for her, allowed her to call home regularly (FOC), brought her along for short family trips, etc. We also gave her a bonus at the end of her 1st year; I still remember the surprised look on her face when she thanked me and gave me a hug...

When she wanted to send money home, we bent over backwards trying to find out the best way of getting it done, so that it would not have to cost her an arm and a leg. We spent quite a bit of money calling her family and also banks in Cambodia to try and sort things out.

Anyway, one fine day she came up to me to say that she wanted to go home. The reason? Apparently her mother 'found' her a boyfriend back home, and she was supposed to go home to get married. After talking to her a bit more, I realised that this guy was willing to wait until she 'finished studying' before getting married. I explained that she should stay focused on her goal of furthering her education so that she could have a better life, and if this guy could wait a few years, what's a further few months (until she finishes her contract here and goes home)? And so, after giving it some thought- she agreed that it made sense for her to stay on. And guess what, she later confessed that the reason she gave me about the guy was a lie!! Nevermind, I thought- I put it down to her missing her family and not being able to tell me just that- the simple truth.

And so, life went on. Things were still ok until we helped her to send some money to her parents, and then she came up to me and said she still wanted to go home. The reason this time? A whole lot scarier. She said she 'liked one of my relatives' (whom I shall not name in this blog posting); and she felt she had to go home before 'something happened'. That seriously freaked us out. So we told her fine we'll send her home via the agency, and then she got a bit scared and said she didn't want to go home after all, and that the story about her 'crush' was a lie. I told her I was tired of her nonsense; I'd already spent hours trying to talk things through with her, trying to help her sort out her obviously cluttered mind, and that there was little point in asking her to stay if her heart was not in the job anymore. I cannot afford to deal with her 'see-saw' behaviour, especially not when I'm due to have another baby soon.

There were other things that happened of course. She got progressively distracted while doing her routine work, one day she didn't eat anything- saying she wasn't hungry, she cut her hair one day using the kitchen scissors (and mind you, she previously gave me a long face when I took her for a haircut months ago, since she wanted to grow her hair out), and the very next day she cut her hair even shorter, looking like she had been bitten by a dog. The scary part was that we're 80% sure she cut her hair- the 2nd time- in the dark (since her room light was off, while the previous night it was on till about midnight where we later found out she was cutting her hair- the 1st time). On top of that, she previously confronted me and demanded to know if we were spying on her via CCTV (which we were not); and that was the one time when I ticked her off for hurling accusations, for being rude, and spending her time entertaining bizarre thoughts as if the whole world was against her. Later I found out that she accused my dad of the same thing, and even after explaining to her that none of us have CCTV, she still harboured the thought (we deduced that from her passing remarks/mumblings which she thought we did not hear). Everything that happened really got all of us thinking whether she was emotionally or mentally stable...

It was really unsettling living with the thought of a potential danger in our home. After all this time, we were like family- we treated her like she was part of the family, trusted her with our child.. and she suddenly morphs into this stranger that we did not recognise. We were worried and afraid; locking our bedroom door at night (which we have not done since we moved to this place), and did not dare to ask her to mind the little one anymore, not even for 5 minutes.

We sat her down once and for all this morning, and asked what her final decision was. She said she wanted to go home, so we told her to pack her bags immediately and we sent her off to the agency to sort the paperwork out.

With the benefit of hindsight (all 10 hours of it :p); we have a sneaky suspicion that all this could have been a ploy to get us to agree to let her go home. Guess we made the mistake of helping her send money home (the agent told us today that we allowed her to send too much); it could be the case that her parents saw all that cash and asked her to come on home instead. If this whole 'behaving-a-bit-crazy' thing was just an act, then I must have to say she is quite an actress. We probably would have held out if we didn't have a small child, with another one on the way, and opt for her to attend counselling sessions at the agency (which apparently is quite effective). Given the circumstances though, we thought it best not to take any chances. Well, sneaky ploy or not, we will never know. Perhaps being away from her family for so long (depression maybe?) caused all this to surface.

Personally, I am disappointed and really upset with her; having taken a lot of time, effort and financial resources to extend our care and friendship, and to demonstrate kindness to her, only to be sadly reminded that kindness does not always beget kindness. And so, we are now without domestic help; it'll take some getting used to, but I'm sure we'll manage. Hopefully we can get a replacement before our baby girl arrives...

Sigh.