Early this morning…

Hubby told me “Your son has rashes on his bum,” a few seconds later, “Dear! Come and see! Do they look like chicken pox to you?!” He exclaimed.

Chicken pox?! “Cannot be lah, he’s already had chicken pox!” I bellowed in reply but headed over to take a look anyway.

“See! This rash looks just like chicken pox,” hubby pointing to a small bubble like thingy.

“I don’t know lah. I think it’s just rashes. I honestly can’t tell what’s chicken pox and what’s not but he’s already had chicken pox so it can’t be. Just put some cream lah,” was my abrupt reply as I left the scene. Yup, I was grouchy. It was morning and although I had my cuppa, caffeine hadn’t kicked into my system yet.

Then just as I was cleaning up the usual breakfast aftermath, I had an epiphany. I rushed back to my son, made him sit down and checked the bottom of his feet, the palm of his hands and his tongue. Yup, yup, yup, I was right. My son has Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD). It fits (Dr. House would’ve been proud). He was running a low grade fever the evening before and was complaining of a sore throat.

Since bringing Hubby-jr to the doc’s and confirming the diagnosis, Hubby has whisked Little Missy to his mom’s to minimise contact. I’ll only see her nights. Sniff.

As for me, I’ll be under house arrest together with my son for the next 7 days, after which (fingers crossed that no one else catches it) I’ll be heading back to my parents’ in Malaysia for a week. So dear all, I’ll be taking a short break (about 2 weeks) during this time.

Till then… I hope things are and will be on a healthier front for you.

After talking about me and wanting unwanted stuff, I felt compelled to highlight this wonderful initiative called Blessings in a Bag.

Basically they collect new or used (but in good condition) stuff and channel them to where they are needed across Asia. They seek to partner existing communities, orphanages, schools, homes as well as initiatives to provide for the needs of underprivileged, abused and medically-ill children across Asia. Currently they have links with agencies working with or for less fortunate children amongst a few other type of agencies.

I do not know them personally nor have I met them. I just stumbled across their website and think that they are doing a very good thing. Quite recently they launched a drop off point at *Scape Youth Park located right at the heart of town. Details are below.

*SCAPE YOUTH PARK (Opposite Orchard Cineleisure)
113 Somerset Road
The bin is located in the lobby, inside the building.
Tuesday-Sunday 10am to 10pm

I was excited to have discovered them as I have quite some stuff to “unload”. We have more crayons, colour pencils and stationary than we need. All thanks to the countless goodie bags my kids bring home from school because so and so celebrated his/her birthday! There are also clothes and shoes we’ve outgrown or gotten bored with. Not to mention the countless soft toys.

See, I don’t just collect stuff, I give them away too.

Besides feeling good knowing that the stuff are meeting someones’ needs, it is great to de-clutter (read: more room in my teeny flat/apartment for me to collect more junk… hahahaha).

It is called recycle my friends, RECYCLE!

on this day eight years ago…

Eight years and counting! I am blessed.

I can’t help it. To me, finding and picking up other people’s (good condition) castaways is unexplainably exhilirating! I get a high out of it. Seriously.

But instead of selling the “goodies” (ahem, one man’s junk may possibly be this woman’s find) I keep the stuff or pass it on. In this day and age, I’d like to call it recycling. Doesn’t that just make me sound so socially responsible? (lol) Then again, I am recycling even though that wasn’t (isn’t) quite the spirit of my actions.

What can I say? I’ve always loved a bargain and picking a free item just brings it to a whole new level. It sends me to the moon!

And my friends, Singapore is a junk collector’s heaven. Just see what I’ve picked up so far and you’ll know what I mean.

Remember this? Yes! I picked this up AND another one that is red!

How could I not bring this cute doggy home?

A cute stool for my little girl and a side table that's serving me well.

And this was my first find that started it all…

This lightweight stroller has served me so well and is still in good condition.

Hubby was a little embarassed and a little aghast when I lugged the stroller home but he got over it when I told friends/family I picked it up and they cooed over how new it looked. I felt so good. Yes, I even show off my finds! (Think I need help?) These days hubby assists me in going through junk! But he just helps carry the stuff, he doesn’t get high.

No, no, no! Before you jump to any conclusions, no, I am NOT having another baby. I am, however, posting about babies. Again. Sorry (why am I apologizing?! I’ve no idea!) It is still one of Hubby-jr’s obsession. As such the topic has is brought up again and again. And again. And that folks, is why I’m writing another post on babies.

I’d like to think that this will be the last of it but I seriously doubt it. Hubby-jr curiosity about babies has not waned a single bit. On the contrary it seems to be growing. I showed him a photo album of his baby photos and he drove me bonkers with his endless questions!

One fine weekend hubby came in the line of fire questions instead. I must say hubby handled it wonderfully. He sought help.  (No, not from me, he’s smart enough to avoid a life threatening situation.) He went to the internet!

And he found some lovely gems. Really cute, kids friendly very short videos on babies, courtesy of HowStuffWorks. Click on the link below to check them out. To find the videos for a very young audience, you’ll have to scroll down the page until you see cartoony illustrations of babies.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/adam-roundup.htm

If that’s too big a challenge for you, here’s a list of links to each of the kids friendly videos.

• Where do babies come from?
• How does the baby eat and breathe in the uterus?
• Will the baby be a girl or a boy?
• How does the baby come out?

Not only did the videos save me from bonkersville, I found them very entertaining too. Thank you so much hubby!

I’m IN another a little more-crazy-than-usual period right now. Thus the delay (in the already sparse) posts. Eeps! But still, I’ll continue to keep this blog going.

Why? Simply because I love to. It’s a great hobby for me. My outlet. Note the I, me, my. Yes!! That’s the whole point. A “I-Me-My” space.

Anyhow, I’m running out of time to write more… so I’ll cut to the chase. Here’s an article I came across recently on the old topic of children’s bedtimes. Enforcing them is good for their health (and ours!)! It’s not new and it’s not rocket science but, it is a useful read if you’ve not read one of these and, if you have it’s a good revisit. So go ahead and click on the link below.

Enforcing bedtimes improves kids’ health by Madison Park, CNN

P/S: I keep a very strict bedtime routine in for my kids. That’s what keeps me not-lunatic-yet.

There’s brotherhood and sisterhood but what about a brother-sister relationship? What term should we use? I couldn’t think of one and so I’m just calling it siblinghood here.

One of my greatest joys these days is watching the relationship between my two children grow. Yes, yes, they fight, quarrel and compete (all of which drives me nuts). But now that Hubby-jr’s speech is much improved and Little Missy is getting chattier by the second, they have rather interesting conversations too (besides the negotiations and arguments!) And, thankfully, every now and then I catch them sharing with, watching out for, and caring for each other. For me those are simply the sweetest moments where I just feel all warm inside and smiling both on my face and in my heart.

Here’s some photos of the sweet moments…

It started here when Little Missy was a newborn. He was 3 years old and she 3 weeks.

Then… remember this? I posted this in August 2007. He was 4 and she almost 1 and half.

And now we have this. My 6 year old and my 3 year old.

I am so glad and grateful it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. And I pray it always will be.

Hubby and I are fans of the christian artistes, Phillips, Craig and Dean but somehow we missed their rendition of this song – When God Ran. It was not until just a few days ago when hubby stumbled on it on the internet that we heard it for the first time.

And. We. Just. LOVE. it!

It is a very powerful song of God’s faithfulness, grace and unfailing love even when we are unfaithful. The Father and the prodigal son from the son’s point of view. Watch the video below for a live performance.

You can find the lyrics to the song here.

Have a blessed week ahead.

Guess what? I’m in September’s issue of Mother & Baby.

No, they didn’t feature my blog. I’m now one of their freelance contributors to the “Mummies’ Diaries” column of the magazine.  And my first article, titled Roar & Order, is out in this month’s issue.

In it I shared some of our (Hubby-jr and I) past encounters with bullies at playgrounds. To be precise,

“Mum-of-two comes clean on how she has to resist the impulse to fight her man cub’s battles for him“

Hubby-jr’s obsession with Baby M jogged to memory a conversation we had a few months ago.

One fateful night during their (my kiddos) nightly prayer, I asked Hubby-jr to pray that God would bless someone close to us with a baby.

Never in a million years would I have thought such a request would take an unexpected turn.

“How about you mommy? Do you want to have another baby?” asked Hubby-jr earnestly.

Holy smokes, where did that come from?! After blinking for seconds, I just had to clarify,

“You want mommy to have another baby?”

Hubby-jr nodded somewhat too eagerly for my liking, and looked at me with such hopeful eyes too. I looked to hubby hoping he’d interject right then to save me but dear ol’ daddy-o was just sitting there with ‘I-can’t-wait-to-see-what-she-says’ look on his face! Plus I was half suspecting that he hoped my son would nudge me into a certain direction.

“Would you want a di-di (little brother) or mei-mei (little sister)?”

I asked just to check if he really understood the implication of me having another baby. Hoping that he’d realise he wouldn’t want another sibling in the family.

BUT I was wrong,

“Di-di!” he replied enthusiastically.

Sigh. I had to let him down gently. So I said,

“I’m sorry darling but mommy is not going to have anymore babies.”

I We I We decided that we’d stop at two, children, having children that is. Well it was more of, I decided and hubby went along with my decision but he’d be more than happy if I decided otherwise.

I thought that would end the discussion but no. Hubby-jr then asked,

“Mommy, is it because you have no more eggs inside of you?”

What?! My dear son stumped me for the second time that night. Eggs in me? How did he know? Was it from our previous conversations? I could only remember this episode. Anyway, I said,

“No, I still have eggs but I’m not going to have another baby. The egg will only become a seed or baby when…, when…”

“Mommy and I decided we’re not having anymore babies. So we are just not going to have another baby, ok? But we are very blessed to have you and mei-mei and we love you both very much. Now can you please say pray?” Hubby finally saved me. Phew! That was close. Way too close.

But just so you know, I’ve since revisited the baby making thingy with my son. I just read him the book “Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts”, again and realised that was where he learnt about eggs. Here’s an excerpt from the book.

When a man and a woman love each other (I added, “they get married”) and decide that they want to have a baby, a man’s sperm joins with a woman’s egg. From the egg and sperm, a baby will grow.

And that is that. And somehow that was (is?) enough to satisfy Hubby-jr’s curiousity (actually he was more curious about the other stuff in the book). AND (last but not least) he has NOT asked me for another baby since. PHEW!