How Many Years Older?

I told Isaac that Sarah was fifteen years older than him.

He asked me how many years older than he was Sophie.

I told him that Sarah was three years older Sophie.

He thought for a while and said, "Then Sophie is twelve years older than me". 

Isaac is six.

Tens & Ones

Isaac asked me how many tens and ones make one hundred.

I didn't quite understand what he meant, so he clarified, "Nine tens and ten ones!"

Catching on, I asked him, "So if it is eight tens, then how many ones?"

He thought for a while and shouted, "Twenty ones!"

Algae?

Isaac just said that if there's too much water in a bottle you get algae just like if there's too much mucus then you get booger.

Why We Can't See Heaven

Isaac asked me which country heaven is in. While explaining to him that it's not in a specific country, I mentioned that heaven is a place you cannot see.

He asked, "Is it camouflaged?"

谢谢大家

Das DD is a local Indian celebrity who hosts Mandarin TV shows. I showed Isaac a video of Das DD giving a thank you speech in Mandarin when he won a media award. 

When the video ended, Isaac asked, "Was that his Show and Tell?"

I laughed and said no, but Isaac persisted, "Why did he say 谢谢大家?" 

Wash It

I was leaving Isaac's room at bedtime and he asked if I was going to shower. I said I was going to wash my hair.

He said, 'Only wash your hair, not your body?'

I replied, 'I'll wash everything.'

'Your eyes?'

Old MacDonald

Among the things that Isaac likes me to do at bedtime is to sing 'Old MacDonald Had A Farm' to him. He gets to choose the animals and the noises they make. 

Some of the "animals" he has chosen include plants, with a 'here grow there grow everywhere grow grow', and curtains that go 'here swish there swish everywhere swish swish'. 

He has also asked for 'nothing' with a 'go away here and a go away there', and 'painting' which goes 'colour colour here and colour colour there' or 'beautiful here and beautiful there'.

God's Children

Andrew came into the study where Sean and I were working. He asked, "Are we God's children?"

We answered, "Yes, we are all God's children."

Andrew replied, "So you two are fake parents!"

Pretty Wife

Andrew said, "I need to get a pretty wife. Then my children will be pretty and handsome. If they are not pretty and handsome, then I will blame..."

"Yourself?" I suggestd.

"Yes, I will blame myself," said Andrew, "for getting the wrong wife."

All Together, From The Top

Eleven in the house! I am very thankful that it is a large house. Finding it was a miracle. We had thought of having my parents live with us as they were getting on in years, and my dad was starting to get cranky although we never saw him that way when he was with us. It occured to me to wonder, "then why are they not with us?"

So we sounded out my mother on the idea, she was open to it, we did some homework on practical feasibilities, and agreed with my mother on a day to visit and raise the question with my father. I didn't have a feel on how he would take it at all. The morning before we went over, my mother called to say that my father had dreamt that we were going to ask them to live with us! And he was happy about it! I got goosebumps all over. When we actually went over that evening, my dad opened the door and when he saw us, he said, "Oh, have you come to ask us to live with you?" I looked at my mom and she said she hadn't told him that we were going over to discuss the matter. More goosebumps!! Happily, they both agreed after we talked about it, and we set to work to sell our flat and buy the house.

Our flat sold suprisingly quickly. We had been warned that it might take up to half a year or more after putting it on the market. This was because our estate had reached the point where many first owners were now eligible to sell, while more new units were being released at lower cost, so there was  a surplus of units compared to when we sold our previous flat about five years earlier. Our buyer was  good enough to give us additional time to get the house renovated before we moved out. We topped up a little on the selling price for this, which was well worth it as it would have been a lot more costly and strenuous to have to move to a temporary place while waiting for the house to be completed.

On the buying front, the owners of the house we had identified suddenly decided not to sell to us, after we had effectively sold our flat! This meant that we faced possible homelessness unless we could find another place in time. We were told on a Friday evening that that house was no longer for sale to us, so on Saturday morning we scrambled to find other houses on the propertyguru website (I recall trawling through over four hundred listings) and managed to line up five to be viewed in a span of two and a half hours on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday morning it occured to us that we should get our contractor's opinion if possible, as we would have lots to ask about regarding renovating the place to accomodate all eleven of us, including my parents on a ground floor bedroom with attached bath which we knew would not exist in any of the five houses we would be viewing. He graciously agreed to view the houses with us.

The first house we saw had pig-nosed turtle in a pillar aquarim, lots of fish, and toucans in an aviary that took up their entire front garden! The fourth house we saw was ideal except that the living and dining areas were on split levels on the ground floor, posing a fall hazard for my father who was  already having a little difficulty moving around due to knee problems. I told my contractor this, wishing it could be leveled, and he said, "Why cannot?" The second floor was also only half the size of the ground floor indoors, providing a double height living room. I asked my contractor if there was any possibility of extending the second floor over the living area to meet the front wall, greatly increasing the usable floor area of the second floor. He didn't immediately say "Why cannot?" this time, but figured it should be possible but would need a professional engineer's certification that tihs would be safe. So we had that done, bought the house, levelled the ground floor by raising the living area to match the dining area and sloping the long driveway down to the gate, and extended the usable area of the second floor. The new floor area was partitioned to form a a quiet closed-off study and an open work area, each lit by a large window on the front wall at the height of the second floor. This also halved the volume of the living area, making it much more efficient to air-condition.

The seller of the house was also very kind to let us have the house early, so we eventually had about three months to complete the largish renovation job:

On the ground floor we extended the back wall on one side to create a good-sized bedroom for my parents with attached bath, put in a powder room, extended the kitchen backwards, tiled up the backyard to the level of the back wall of my parents' room and put a glass canopy over that to create the laundry yard, created a split level front porch next to the driveway and put a glass canopy over that and the driveway so that the car is now fully sheltered in the driveway. The back white picket fence was replaced with black welded wire fencing that is now grown over with a light blue thunbergia vine, leaving a centrally located gate that gives onto a broad common walkway between our backyard and the main road.

On the second floor the jack-and-jill bathroom was moved out from between the two bedrooms so that it could be accessed without entering the bedrooms.

On the third floor an attic was created over the jack-and-jill bathrom between the two back-facing bedrooms.

Every existing fixture was torn out and replaced as the house was already 25 years old and had not been renovated. We only kept the stairs which were in excellent condition and only needed to be sanded and varnished. In all, it was a large job! We got the keys in the middle of September and moved in on the second of January 2018. That was the day school reopened for the new year. On that day, the children went to school from the flat, the movers came and brought everything over to the house, and the children came home from school to the "new" house. Things were still being completed here and there so it felt a little like we were living in a construction site of sorts for some time.

My parents moved in three and a half weeks later, the same day that Isaac was born.  

Unspoken Pun

Isaac just turned two about a month ago, and still isn't saying any real words. But he understands very well what we're saying and knows the meaning of many words. I've been told to make him "work" for things by holding back until he asks for them verbally.

Since he enjoys sipping from my cup of sweetened tea at breakfast, I tried getting him to say "tea" before giving him any.
When he pointed to the tea and said, "Ack!", I told him, "Say, tea!"
He smiled at me.
"Say, tea, Isaac!"
He grinned even more widely, and then pointed at his teeth.

Kid Six

Contractions became regular at ten minute intervals on Wednesday 24 January 2018. I was at work and went to an important client meeting to handover the work to colleagues. When I got home the mucus plug was seen to be shedding, and I thought birth would likely happen early morning the next day.

Come Thursday, contractions were still very tolerable at the same ten minute intervals. I didn't think it was a good idea to go to the office so I stayed home waiting, until nearly noon. As the contractions were not getting any more intense or closer, I decided to go for my eyelash extension appointment at Devonshire Eye Design, the branch at Tras Street. After that, the contractions were still the same, so I went for a pedicure at the usual Tanjong Pagar Nail Palace.

Things finally started to heat up at around 3am on Friday morning. The intervals became six minutes apart as the day wore on, and by noontime the contractions were intense enough that I had to stop to get through them. Sean had gone over to my parents' place to help them with the final packing for the movers coming that afternoon, and I had him come back after lunch to take me to hospital.

We got there a little after 2pm and I was found to be already 5cm dilated. They called Dr Yvonne Lim to put in the epidural, which she did very quickly. Dr Paul Tseng came at about 3pm to check on me and asked if I wanted to burst the water bag to speed things up. After Matthew's experience, which ended in a c-section for "failure to progress" despite breaking the water bag, I declined.

Sean and I were napping when Dr Paul came by again after 5pm, presumably when his clinic had ended. He asked again if we wanted to break the water bag. Then he checked and realised that the baby had already descended and was just waiting to be pushed out! I didn't feel any urge to push, and wasn't in any pain although I could still move my legs. These were put up in stirrups while Dr Paul and two nurses, one on each side, guided me to push when the monitor showed a contraction. I was asked to hold my breath and then push. The first push would do something but the second failed to deliver. We tried this a few times until the nurse on my right noticed that I was releasing my breath as I pushed. They told me to hold my breath in so that the air in my lungs would push down on the diaphragm to help push baby out. So I did that instead and this time the second push continued to have enough force and the head was delivered. After that Dr Paul said to just relax and with the next contractions the body was gently eased out and I had no tears at all.

Born on Friday 26 January 2018 at 5.27pm, 2.93kg, 48cm long, head circumference 33 (or something like that).

Inviting Waters

As we drove past the clean, high water of the container terminal at Keppel, I couldn't help saying, "Look, kids! The water is so green and beautiful! I feel like jumping in!"

We went on our way and eventually passed by the container terminal at Pasir Panjang. Andrew said, "Look, mommy, the water is so green and beautiful! You can go and jump there!"

One hundred dollars

Going to Waterway Point, Rachel announced, "I have one hundred dollars."

I exclaimed, "You brought one hundred dollars?"

Her reply, "No, more!"

Who's not sleeping?

At 10:30 pm one night, Andrew started shouting "Aunty! Aunty!" from his room.

S went to check on him, telling him, "Aunty is sleeping! Go to sleep! Everyone is sleeping!"

Andrew retorted, "Except you!"

Sunday 13 November 2016

The day began well with Matthew receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation at the 11am Mass at St. Anne's Church. All the grandparents were there, as well as my brother and his family. Everyone came to our place for a pizza lunch. The kids watched tv, played games, and some of the girls went to the playground, including Rachel. She came home crying, saying she had felt dizzy and had hit her head against the wall on her way home. She went in for a nap, as had Andrew who was surprisingly amenable to it. He must have been well tired out!

When our guests had left and it neared dinner time, Sophie and I went to the coffeeshop to get food for the kids, while Sean and I would go out for dinner as we usually did of a Sunday night. When we stepped back into the house, I heard Sean calling out, "Rachel is not well! Rachel is not well!"

I wondered what it could be as I went to the bedroom. Sean was carrying her and she was convulsing, her head and limbs twisted leftwards. She had also vomited and it was altogether frightening to see her like that. We quickly had Matthew call for the ambulance while we washed her down in the bathroom, Sean carrying her the whole time and the convlusions not stopping. She continued to be unresponsive to our calls, although at one time while dressing her they stopped briefly and I was afraid that she had choked on the vomit and was oxygen deprived and slowly fading away. I desperately called out to her to stay with me while frantically dressing her, and carried her down to wait for the ambulance which had drawn up and was just unloading the stretcher. They loaded it right back and Sean laid Rachel down in the back while I went and sat in front with the driver.

The ambulance made its way quickly to KKH through the rain and darkening sky. Cars tried their best to move aside as we bore down on them, our sirens blaring and wipers beating frantically from side to side. They gave Rachel a dose of anti-seizure medication in the ambulance and she finally calmed down after about ten minutes. The rest of the way she was completely knocked out and we prayed silently, for her to be well again, and for us to be able to accept whatever would come.

At the hospital they found that her lungs were clear and vital signs seemed normal. She was moved to the high dependency ward for monitoring and we eventually went home to get some sleep as we couldn't do anything more for her that night as she was already sedated from the seizure medication, and even after the sedation wore off, she would have gone into her normal night time sleep.

The next morning we went back to the hospital to find her sitting up in bed! I rushed over and held her close, and she was completely unfazed by the whole incident. It was like nothing had happened. She was cheerful and chatty, telling us that she was surprised to wake up and find herself in hospital. She couldn't remember anything beyond having gone to the playground.

They let her go home after observing her over another night. No follow-up medication, although they did give us some stand-by seizure medication which we have thankfully not ever had to use.

What a scare.

One Person

S took Rachel and Andrew to wash the car with him, and the two started fighting over who would put the coin into the water dispensing machine at the washing bay.

S told them that only one person could put in the coin, and they would have to sort it out.

Andrew immediately put up his hand and said, "I am one person!"

Drewby

I asked Andrew what he would like to be called when he grows up. Andy? Drew? Drewby? (that's my pet name for him)

"Drewby!"

I couldn't resist asking, "Who calls you that?"

"You la!"

Smelly

Andrew wanted me to wind down the car windows on the way home from his Chinese class.

I told him it wasn't a good thing to do as the road was full of exhaust fumes, the exhaust was unhealthy, and also smelly.

He said, "When you smell smelly things, when you smell my toes, you'll be smelly right?"

Dino Drinker

Reading his dinosaur picturebook with his daddy, Andrew asked, "Why the coelophysis drink from the swimming pool?" It was depicted drinking from a pond.

Sean asked him, "How should it drink?"

Andrew replied, "From a cup!"