Today, after expressing my breastmilk, I was at the "pantry" as usual, washing all the parts of the hand pump. Our pantry is actually just a big sink with a water dispenser at a corner of the staffroom. So whenever I wash the parts (am using the Ameda pump), people walking past tend to stop and "stare" coz it's at such a strategic location.

So, today while washing the pumps, a pretty old adjunct teacher (note: 'pretty' as in 'quite', not 'beautiful') whose table is near the sink, observed what I was doing. The conversation began (I tried to recall the exact words, but some may differ).

Tr: Oh, what are you washing? They're so small and cute-looking.
Me: Milk bottles.
Tr: Ooh, so you reuse the bottles that came with the milk?
Me: No, er.. well I'm lactating. So I use these to express my milk to give to my baby.
Tr (nodded her head): Oh, the bottles are so cute and small. Did you empty the milk and reuse the bottle?
Me: No, these are for me to express my milk.

She appeared to understand what I said. But after a pause...

Tr: Did you say the name was "Express"??
Me (thinking that she wanted to know what I use the bottles for): Yes.
Tr: Hmm.......... I must try.

I tried so hard to contain my laughter while washing the rest of the pump. But when I walked to my table, I burst out laughing and told other colleagues about it. Everyone had a good laugh. This poor old adjunct teacher must have thought that the brand of milk I bought is called "Express" and that it comes in this small cute plastic bottle!!!!!!!

Now, the board next to my table in the staffroom looks like this. See all the photos I have?

10 Dec 2008 - Ch participated in her dance centre's performance held at Victoria Concert Hall. This was her virgin performance, and she was supposed to be one of the red apples of Snow White. Through this performance, she experienced many firsts:

1. first time being alone without mommy and daddy for two whole days 
2. first time taking a school bus 
3. first time dozing off on a friend's shoulder (her dance teacher took a video of the whole process- from the nodding of head to the soft landing on her friend's shoulder) 
4. first time tying her hair into a little bun

Initially, I was rather worried that she would be overtired, or that she would miss us and start crying. Or that she would not be able to tell an adult that she needed to relieve herself (The management of the dance centre did not allow all parents to accompany their children during the rehearsals at VCH, except for parent volunteers.). After the full dress rehearsal which took 8 hours, I thought that she would ask to withdraw from the performance. But though she was a little unwilling to leave us to board the bus to VCH for the performance on the 10th, she rose to the occasion and persevered to the end.

My helper even commented that Ch was very brave, considering that she has not even gone to playschool or nursery. 

Mommy loves you, Ch!

L has finally joined our family at 1308hrs today...... He IS heavy! 

ZY has loaded some photos of him at http://littlebucket.smugmug.com.

In about 23 hrs' time, I'll most probably be in the delivery ward, waiting to be induced. Having mixed feelings now, relieved that everything will be over soon and that we can finally see L. But also, nervous about what is to come and after delivery.

It's now 4:57am. I've been awake since 3am. It's just too hot and humid to sleep nowadays. Probably because of the extra heat generated by Lucas. Decided to forgo my sleep and do something more constructive. There's this thing about working late at night (or you can say, early in the morning) for me. I always feel so at peace with the serenity and darkness. It feels like I'm the only one in the universe! Of course, the few flats that are brightly lit opposite where I stay does not bother me much.

I've been thinking about my students. About the incidents that happened recently. Two discipline cases. In both cases, I feel so much for the boys involved. In one case, 5 boys were asked to meet my P in the conference room for being disruptive and disengaged during lessons. When my P asked for 2 of their school bags to be emptied and checked, I was so amused and surprised to see Chem textbooks in them! Haha! The funny thing was... they didn't even have Chem lessons with me today! Of course, they must have been prepared by their form teacher. Nevertheless, of all their textbooks, they chose to bring the Chem textbook! Though I was happy, this thought still lingers in my mind. Of the 5 boys, 4 seemed to be repentant. They agreed to the 3 terms set by P, and apologised to the subject teachers present for the meeting. However, can they sustain their determination to change their behaviour and attitude? Or will it be forgotten and lost after... 2 weeks? Worse still, will they feel that the teachers are ganging up against them and being very biased even though this is not our intention?

Something else I observed in both discipline cases bothers me. Do we have the right to shout at/ physically hurt another person just because we are angry or provoked? One of the boys commented that it was alright to do that. After all, they are only school children. Who doesn't make mistakes when we are angry anyway? 

Such comments really scare me. So, if one is too frustrated at work/ school, is it understandable that he behaves rashly and goes around bashing up his girlfriend/ wife/ friends in an argument? Will you be able to accept it if you were the victim being hurt?

Then again, is it our responsibility to calm the provoked and to be nice to him even though he commits something wrong?

If everyone of us learns some self-control and anger management skills, the world will definitely be a happier place to live in. 

Regardless of age.

I left my university Biology textbook (Starr and Taggart) on my dining table last Sat and Ch asked to read it. So, I took the opportunity to explain about the components of the human blood. Wonder what my Bio students will say if they see this???

I'm sitting on my couch, waiting for dinner to be served. No, not by ZY but by a new addition to my family- my domestic helper. I've more or less become a typical Singaporean working mum- first comes the baby, then comes the car, and when second baby comes, domestic help also arrives. Been resisting or rather, delaying this idea of employing a helper for quite a long while. But as baby no. 2 is coming (in about 3 months time!), we thought maybe a helper would be useful for my MIL. Our helper has been here for exactly 2 weeks now, and the house has never been SO clean before!! The floor squeaks when we walk, the toilet floors and kitchen tops are stainless, everywhere is dust-free, and even our plastic bags collected over the years are neatly folded and stacked! Even after cooking, I don't have to wash the dishes!! I'm hoping and praying that this helper can be as enthusiastic and responsible as she is now until she leaves us. 

On the 10th of Dec last year, I received a very interesting sms from my colleague, EW. It read "I dreamt that you brought your child to school and I play with HIM! It's a sign! Haha..." At that time, I thought that it was funny as I wasn't even pregnant yet. 

Now that I'm pregnant, there has been so many guesses about Baby's gender. The usual questions I hear are "Is baby a boy or girl?", "Do you prefer a boy or girl?" etc. Personally, both genders are fine for me and ZY. Another girl will be good because Ch and the baby can share all the clothes and toys. And I would think that they'll be closer when older too. But a boy is also fine. People say that a boy and a girl makes the 好[hao] Chinese word. But then, looking at my friends, this combination would probably mean that the siblings will not be as close when they are older.

So, when I knew that I was pregnant, I casually asked Ch about Baby's gender. She said "Baby is a boy". Haha! Is a child's intuition really true? In school, there are so many speculations too. People look at the size and shape of my bump, my complexion, my pregnancy symptoms and give their opinions. Some will say... my face looks so radiant.. this must be a girl. On the other hand, some will say... my face does not have a glow... must be a boy. Contradicting words based on the same feature. Hmm... I suppose these are subjective.

I once told ZY that if Baby were to be a girl, I'll stop at two. Don't want to be in that situation where people start asking if I am trying for a boy for the 3rd child (if I were to be pregnant again). It'll be worse if the 3rd child turns out to be a girl again. Can imagine people will start saying sympathetically "Oh.. it's ok. 3 girls are good too. Closer to the mom." 

So, yesterday after the detailed scan at KKH... I told ZY- "Haha... you have a chance of having three children in the future!!"

Get it?? *wink*

Was reading through my previous blogs and laughing at all the cute and funny things Ch has done or said. I decided to post an entry since it's been a long while since I update on her development.

Meet Baby No. 2, the new addition to my life.

Baby No. 2... lives in me, taking my nutrients and oxygen (my colleague, YZ, refers to it as a parasite).

This 3rd pregnancy has been so different from the 2nd (for those who didn't know, my 1st pregnancy was an ectopic case). I have a stronger nauseating feel, more vomiting scenes, more tiredness, a bigger bump, more bloatedness, more breathlessness, but less appetite. I'm so sensitive to smells now. Any kind of smell. Like the smell of perspiration, the smell from the toilet, the smell of food on my clothes. All these make me wanna puke. I felt so terrible and so weak last weekend that I ended breaking down and I cried. Ch was very nice, and she kept asking me "Mommy, why are you crying? Are you feeling better?" And she kept wanting to sing to Baby. Oh, it was so comforting to hear that from my girl. 

Something to confess (in case any of my students are reading this right now), I've not been marking much. In fact, I think I've only managed to mark one set of worksheets so far this year! I've been so tired after school ends, so all I can manage is to drive myself home without puking along the way, then plop my heavy body on the sofa or bed and snooze until ZY comes back. After having dinner and picking Ch up from my MIL's place, I'll engage in my usual activity- lying down and resting... until Ch sleeps. That's when I sleep too. Looking at the piles and piles of worksheets on my table in the staffroom, I think if this goes on, I'll probably be able to stack enough paper to hide myself from the rest!

So now, all I want for Chinese New Year is to be able to finish marking 50% of my stuff, and not to puke on the way when we go for New Year visitations.

To celebrate the close of year 2007 and to welcome 2008, our enthusiastic youth organised a bbq for our congregation. There was a lot of good food and barbequed stuff. I loved the bbq chicken and so did Ch! When I set her down on a chair to feed her porridge, she asked "Mommy, where's the barbeque chicken wing?" 


Other food I enjoyed were the kim-chi rice cooked by Jessica, the delicious porridge by Sharon, and of course, the unforgettable "dao-pok" prepared by Lawrence.

Because I took a long time to feed Ch, I was also lavished with lots of bbq food from various people. This must be the advantage of a mom with a young kid! 

After the sumptuous dinner, it was treasure-hunting time. Ch, behaving like one of the youth, wanted to participate too. So, I had to carry her while hunting for clues! We had to climb up and down the stairs, run around etc. I got so tired that it felt like I had burnt off all the calories taken during the dinner! But it was great fun, and I must admit that if Ch had not said that she wants to join in, I would have probably just sat around. Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I joined in such games too.

Ch used ZY's handphone to take some pictures. Don't you agree with me that they look well taken? At least, all the subjects are in the photos.


It is really nice to see everyone so at ease with one another, and to be able to chat together. We even tried to connect to our dear friends, SJ and Anna who are in Utah, through Skype! Though not very successful in video conferencing, we enjoyed ourselves singing with SJ. He even showed us snow! 

See the video here Singspiration_1_Jan_08

Today's the first time we allow Ch to sleep so late. She played so much, that in the end around 1+ am, she decided that it was enough. Came to me and told me that she wanted to go home and read her storybook. True enough, she knocked out in the car on the way home.

Thinking back, 2007 has been a blessed year for me. I hope that with God's blessings, 2008 will be as good, if not, better. I'll probably not set resolutions for myself, as I usually forget about them after a while. Maybe I'll just remind myself to do the best I can for each task or challenge that comes my way. And to be a better example to people around me.

Also, special thanks to the following people (not in order of importance hor...)
Timothy and Lawrence: for playing and entertaining Ch during her dinner so that she can finish most of the porridge

Lai Mui: for loading my plate with food

Sharon: for helping me to find a suitable container to put the dessert my mom prepared

Shan Shan: for entertaining Ch

Eunice: for feeding (and sacrificing her chicken wing to Ch) and entertaining Ch. And for helping to buy Coke for me!

Dorcas: for helping to take care of Ch and for washing her milk bottle!

Peter: for getting the dao-pok and fork for Ch.

And to everyone who played a part in entertaining Ch throughout the night! Without you, I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself too!

This video was taken shortly after our countdown. We had so much problem trying to connect to my dear friends, SJ and Anna who are currently in Utah, through Skype. Perhaps the connection at our church building is not too good, thus either we couldn't see them, or they only saw a still image of us.

Fortunately, we could hear each other quite well, so ended up singing instead. What a magical moment... to be able to sing together despite being apart in two different continents and across different time zones!!! The power of technology indeed!