The Ah Lees Band

Punggol Waterway

Yesterday evening, Daddy brought for a leisurely stroll at Punggol Waterway before heading to Lao Ma's house for dinner. The weather's cool as the rain has just stopped.

Little Dylan in school!

Woohoo!!!

We are on our way to Legoland! Hip hip horray!

My Royal Highnesses

Ah Mah came back with these two crowns for us. We are now officially Princess Tessa and Prince Dylan. Please bow when you see us.

恭喜发财、新年快乐！

祝贺大家：
恭喜发财、新年快乐、身体健康、万事如意、快快乐乐！

这是我，李雨桐今年的贺词。妈妈说我讲得头头是道，华语有明显的进步！

大年初一竟是个下雨天，还好我们不需要到处去拜年。吃过妈妈特别精心准备的早餐之后，爸爸让我们梳洗打扮，因为他准备带我们去看鱼尾狮和到国家博物馆去！晚上，我们要去公公家拜年和吃晚餐。

我和弟弟换上新衣、新袜、新鞋，快快乐乐地和爸爸妈妈一起出门去。

看！这是我的新裙子，漂亮吧？我非常喜欢爸爸买的这条裙子，因为穿起来像个小公主。

Reunion Dinner

As with previous years, we had our reunion dinner on Chinese New Year eve at Lao Ma's house. It was a joyous affair and we had alot of fun eating as one big family. I like to eat dinner with Shihan.

Lao Ma prepared a lot of food for steamboat and this year, Georgie Yeye ordered a huge claypot of Peng Cai. It was yummylicious!

I'm pretending to prepare reunion dinner for the whole family!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Gong xi fa cai!

We are on our way to school for the Lunar New Year celebrations! There's going to be lion dance performance at our school! We are so excited, we can't wait!

Blessed

That day, I was deeply saddened and affected by the news of a tragic accident that took away two young lives. Two brothers aged 13 and seven were killed by a cement mixer truck. In a day, the parents lost both sons.

I was weeping as I read the news on my phone in the MRT.

If it had been me, I would have been crushed. The pain from such a loss which have ripped me apart. I'm not sure if I'll survive. I think I'll probably not be able to live, with that kind of tormenting pain.

So I'm going to tell myself to count my blessings every single day. My two babies who bring me joy, hope and faith since they arrived. They make me want to become a better person for their sake.

Princess Lynn

My colleagues adore Tessa and Dylan. One day, as Daddy was away for business in China, I was going to fetch the kids as I had the car. I offered my colleague Lynn a lift.

She suggested following me to the childcare centre so that she can see the kids.

After picking the kids I dropped Lynn off at a nearby MRT station.  After Lynn alighted, Tessa told me, "Mommy, Auntie Lynn is so pretty. She looks like a princess! Can Auntie Lynn come pick us up again tomorrow?"

The whole night she kept talking about Lynn and how she wished to see her again.

I told Lynn and it made her day. So to make up for not being able to pick them up, Princess Lynn bought them goodies. (:

Once bitten twice shy??

That day Teacher Cheryl called me when I'm at work. Her purpose was to inform me that Dylan was bitten by his friend at the playground. The two boys apparently fought over the steering wheel. She assured me that she has applied cold compress at the site. She also informed that he was actually a brave boy and did not cry at first until a teacher approached him to see his wound.

When I got home, I asked him where's the pain. He showed me his hand with an obvious bite mark. It must have been painful. I asked him what happened. He told me Asher bit him. I told him he should not fight with his friends; and more importantly he cannot beat, bite or push his friends even if they are to do those to him. I told him to tell Asher that it's not nice to bite his friends.

All these, he listened to attentively and replied, "OK Mommy."

Asher is his good friend, so I asked if he's forgiven Asher and if they are still best friends. He promptly answered, "Yes Asher is my best friend."

Forgive and forget. Good work my dear boy!

The many faces of Dylan

The little one has learnt many cheeky expressions. He's full of them. So adorable.

I like PINK!!!

Daddy asked Dylan: What's your favourite colour?
Dylan: Pink!!!
Daddy: Ah! Why pink?!
Dylan: (casually) because it's happy!

I wish that my son will continue to like whatever colours, for the simple reasons that they make him happy.

Our Newest A&E Experience

Ok, I'm guilty. Of being lazy. That's why this blog has been dead quiet for so long.

But the workload as an academic staff is more than I've imagined. Life as a lecturer and a mother and a wife and a daughter can be so overwhelming that I just want to crash on my bed every night.

I felt compelled to write this entry because of our experience last night. A scary one no doubt, but it sure has its element of fun as well.

At around 9pm last night, Tessa and Dylan were playing with their Daddy in the room. The room was all set for bed-time with mattresses laid out nicely. Daddy was almost ready to go home and I was just thinking that I can get the kids to drink milk and go to sleep.

I was lying in bed replying emails on my phone. Dylan apparently want to come and tell me something, he either lost his balance or tripped and knocked his nose on my elbow. The next thing I know, he was bawling, he turned around to face his Daddy and the Daddy gasped! Blood was flowing down furiously from his right nostril.

That sent the whole household into a frenzy. Tessa screamed at the sight of the blood and started crying because she was worried about "her baby". Daddy was trying to get help to stop the bleeding, but dozens of tissue papers didn't manage to soak up the blood. Blood was all over Dylan's clothes and on the floor and mattresses. He was hysterical (probably due to all the fuss) and was struggling against anyone wanting to touch his nose. Grandma and Grandpa were trying to calm him down, wanted to pat some water on his forehead and in the process, got him to lie down and blood was flowing into his mouth. It was a bloody, scary sight - blood in his nose and mouth.

As he would like allow anyone of us to examine his injuries, Daddy suggested that we better bring him to NUH A&E. And so we did.

I packed a new set of clothes, diaper, his health booklet, water bottle and off we go.

At the door, Dylan can still tell his Grandpa, "We don't take bus OK? We take Daddy's car."

He was all chatty and energetic on the journey to A&E while we prepared him that we are heading to the hospital where he will be examined by a doctor.

"Dr Chong?" he asked.
"No, another doctor, probably a pretty one," Grandpa assured him.

At NUH Children's A&E, I registered for Dylan and we sat down to wait for our turn to be called. He was somewhat cooperative when the nurse at the triage took his weight, pulse and blood pressure.

However, inside the doctor's room, he refused to let the lady doctor examine his nose or eyes; but was able to answer all questions directed at him all by himself.

Doctor: Dylan, where pain?
Dylan: Nose
Doctor: Point to me where is the pain.
Dylan: (pointing to his right nostril) Here
Doctor: How old are you?
Dylan: 2 years old
Doctor: Do you know where you are?
Dylan: Hospital

When the doctor walked off to fetch something, he exclaimed, "Where did the doctor go?"

The doctor tested his reflex and all seemed fine. To play safe, the doctor suggested doing an X-ray to make sure that he hasn't broken any bones in the nose.

The X-ray ordeal was that Dylan refused to keep still. The radiographer tried three times and had to finally pin his head and neck down. The experience was a traumatic one for the little boy.

Fortunately, X-ray showed no bones broken. The doctor declared that he is able to go home, but we may want to consider seeing the PD just to make sure that all is well with his frequent nose bleeding. Doctor advised that we monitor him through the night for fever, vomitting and/or clear discharge from his nose which would be indicative of a brain injury.

I was however not too worried about that as he did not fall and hurt his head.

Nevertheless, it was a sleepless night for me.

Luckily, the little one woke up in the morning, alert, lively and his usual self. All's well. :)

Another Happy Saturday!

Today at Shichida class, I pretended to make gyoza - Japanese dumpling. Mommy and I had fun doing it.

First, we need to fry the fillings, then we put the fillings to the skin.

Junior Master Chef at work

Satisfied with her masterpiece

As usual, after Shichida, we went home because Auntie will be here to clean our house.

In the evening, Daddy brought the whole family to Nex for dinner and some shopping.

We had dinner at Grandma's Kitchen

Silly face!

Scared face!

Look at us goofing around while waiting for our food to be served.

After dinner, we went around the mall where Mommy and Ah Mah bought themselves shoes. We also went grocery shopping at NTUC.

Every Saturday, although our day went through a rather similar routine each week, we always have a lot of fun as a family! I love Saturdays!