A Total Flat

I've just experienced a tyre puncture recently in December and never expected one to happen so soon. Especially not when we were on the expressway with Meimei and OO.

It came out of the blue, we were on our way home from the zoo. I had taken the SLE and turned into CTE when we started hearing a loud rattling sound on the left front tyre. I stopped to check at the filter lane to PIE but couldn't find the puncture.

I thought it was going to be the same as the last one where it punctured the tyre but the pressure was held in by the screw. I told Meimei that it's just the sound and we can make our way home. I'll go down to the workshop again the next day to get it fixed.

Atlas ... we travelled for another couple of kilometres when there was a sudden bang ... like metal hitting against the under-carriage of the car. The rattling sound was gone but my steering started feeling heavy and the vehicle was veering left.

I quickly turn on the hazard and got off the bridge at Paya Lebar and entered the safety area on the left. It was a total flat ... there was no way we could continue with this tyre. We were out on the expressway and had to call the EMAS to rescue us.

As it turned out, the EMAS crew were very nice chaps. The driver saw that we had a baby and offered to help us change the tyre (yes, I don't know how to ...) when we were tolled to a nearby carpark. Phew ... it was very kind of the driver to help us. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

A Short Trip To The Zoo

OO's first trip to the Zoo. We went early as we had planned to only stay there half a day. Although she liked to see the animals, it didn't excite her as much as we expected. Her eyes didn't lit up when she saw the tigers, monkeys, hippo etc. The one thing that made an unforgettable impression though was the water playground at the children's area of the park.

It took us a while to coax her to change into her thermal swim wear. And she was also apprehensive about getting wet. But once she touched the water sprouts she got all excited.

It wasn't long before OO and I were running around the water fountains and getting wet from head to toe. You can tell from her glee that she is truly loving it. This has to be the highlight of the trip. I'm sure before long she'll be pestering us to come back to the Zoo ... not for the animals but to run amok in the water playground.

Paying Our Respect

The annual ritual to pay our respect at our ancestor's graves.

Attack of the Mosquitoes

Like all kids, Meimei loves going to a playground. So as her devoted daddy, I'm always keeping a lookout for fun playgrounds to bring her to. I think I've pretty much brought her to all the playground around our block.

And today I brought OO to the last one we've never been before, which has a twirling slide like the one she loved at our old Tampines home. There wasn't any kids around and we had the whole place to ourselves. This is a good thing except for the horde of mosquitoes. I didn't noticed it at first but when I started to, I kept hitting them. I'm pretty sure I killed 6-8 of them ... and that's no exaggeration.

Once the mosquitoes started attacking we made it out of there pretty quick. I was shielding OO through it all but she still got bitten twice. I, on the other hand, counted 14 bites when we returned home .... We are never going there again!!

Recollections: Afternoon Snack At Hillview

There is very little I remember of my youth. It is one of the biggest regret of my life ... to not have kept a diary of sorts. My mama always tried to encourage us to write but we never took to it. So I treasure very much the little bits of memories I still keep. Most of it are just tiny 1-3 seconds flashes of memories.

One vivid scene from my early days was of this scene where I was watching Mickey Mouse on TV while munching on fries with ketchup. Mama had placed the plates on the coffee table so bro and I just stood there gobbling down the snack with our eyes were glued to the TV. Mama was never good at frying stuff though, she think frying is oily. So she tries to 'control' the oil by not having the fries fry for too long in the wok. Atlas ... this actually made it worse. The final product is this semi-fried version, more like baked fries, which was coated in thick cooking oil. Very greasy, very unhealthy ... the perfect food for a 4-5 year old. 

I think I recall this scene as I felt an immense sense of satisfaction having a snack with TV. You always remember the happiest, saddest or most embarrassing things.

White Hair!!

First sights of white hair .... *sobz .... getting old!!

OO @School - 爸爸妈妈

This semester's curriculum is about family. Judging from the photo, the children were asked to role play with puppets of family members.

I'm not sure if OO is aware what a family is. But whenever we go out she will keep taps on where everyone is. If one of us is out of sight she will sound out a roll call, Papi, Mami, Nyama, etc. I like that she will make sure everyone is safe and around, kinda like a big sister mentality.

Tipping Cupboard

I never thought it would happen to us. I am aware of the dangers of cupboards tipping but never really see it through that we child-proof the tall furnitures. The cupboard that tipped was one which we bought with the explicit intention of keeping OO's clothes when she was born. Right now, I am just thankful it happen when we were around. I cannot imagine the horror we would face otherwise.

OO have been playing in the room with the maid and kept opening the drawers to check out the contents. The drawers were out in a step formation prior to the tipping. Thank goodness Meimei and I were right by it when OO decided to step on the lowest drawer in an attempt to scale the cupboard.

It happened in an instant. I turned my head to the cupboard and saw the fan and upper drawers falling. I immediately lunged myself against the cupboard in an instinctively reaction, holding up the fan and upper drawers. I couldn't catch the clock nor the other stuff on the top of the cupboard. Meimei was right by me but with her back against the cupboard. She didn't see the tipping cupboard and could only rescue OO after the lower drawers had hit her. Meimei had managed to push the drawers away and yanked OO to safety.

We were pretty shocked after the incident. We didn't dare to discuss what would have happened if we weren't there at that moment. My knee jerk reaction was to give the cupboard away but Mama offered a wise comment: "It is more important to educate OO on the dangers. The same could happen outside home and we can't be there always to protect her." True, this can happen anywhere. I suppose the challenge is getting OO to understand the dangers at her tender age.

Show Daniel

"Show Daniel" .... !!!!!! What?? Who is this Daniel??!!!

That moment I hear those words, an indescribable jealously and protective instinct kicked in ... Good grief ... who is this boy? Why does Emily want to show him the pretty dress?!! I must know!!

Gosh ... so this is what Daddies go through when their little baby girl starts noticing boys. In OO's case, it's clearly just someone who is just a friend who she gets along better at school. After all she is only 2. If she had quip "Show Lora" or any other girl's name I wouldn't bother. But instinctively I jump when a boy's name is mentioned.

I suspect I may be one of those helicopter parent, protective and always hovering by the little one. I mean how can you not when you have a daughter so cute and adorable. The boys will be all over her! Gaahh~!! No no, she will not have a boyfriend till she graduates from University! ... Haha I wish ... *sense of defeat. Kids these days do what they want. Haiz we can only educate them the right values in life and hope for the best.

OO @School - A Different Girl

Today's our very first parent-teachers session. We were dreading it - "Haiz, the teachers are going to complain about OO." I hope they don't paint too bad a picture ... or suggest that OO's not ready for school. We don't really have a choice, Mama can't always be in Singapore so we need to put OO in school.

And when we came to it, the conversation way off of what we expected. "Emily has been adapting well in school, she eats her breakfast and lunch, and she can understand a lot of what we say." "Huh? Does she throw tantrums at other children or the teachers?" "?? no, she is very obedient ... she maybe gets angry when she wants a toy to herself but other than that she is attentive to our instructions."

"Hold on, are we taking about the same Emily? We are talking our Emily yeah? Not another Emily yes?" ... For reason I will never figure out, Emily seems to be an angel in school. The teachers even praise her for following instructions and getting her classmates to follow too.

The question of "How can this be?" was ringing through my head the whole time. How is it that our little brat is a terror at home and yet a well behaved child in school?? Arrgghhhh she is bullying everyone at home!!!

Civilization Revolution 2

I've played many of Sid Meier's Civilization series. Even though each instalment is primarily the same as the previous, I've always found every one engaging and fully justifying the $$ investment in the game.

When it comes to the mobile version of Civilization, the Revolution series seems like a lite version of the original. It's more fast paced where you can finish a game in a couple of hours. Is it the limitations of the mobile device hardware that they make watered down versions of classic games?

Oh and for those who like to play multiplayer, you'll be disappointed. The app has not been updated since 2014 and the multiplayer events are no longer supported. For $15, you would expect more from the developers. Nonetheless if you need a quicky fix on Civilization, this certainly fits the bill.

Happy 2nd Birthday 妹妹

OO has grown a lot over the last year ... faster than anyone would have let her if we had a choice. Already she is coming into her own ... stubborn, bossy, opinionated, 古灵精怪, that million dollar smile. She has filled a void I never really give any concern on but ever so often feel.

March - Starting to walk

April - Attracted to rides

May - 手牵手大家一起走

June - Falling Sick

July - Slipper Thief

August - Helping clock steps :-P

September - A rare outing with Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma

October - Playpen can no longer keep her in

November - Getting used to new home

December - Shining pearly whites

January - Starting School

February - Falling Sick

The past month has been very trying for everyone, especially OO. I'm glad she is home now and hope she doesn't fall sick so soon again. When she's healthy she is amazing fun.

回家了！

You can't have my ball ball~!

I can self play now

着么又生病了～ *Cry

Making friends

Having a treat with Papi

Building creativity with Crayons

Now that she is a big girl, I guess I'm gonna slowly limit the posts on 11th. I'll still post pictures of our little cutie, just not a regular thing on her monthly anniversary. This was always the plan and I think it would be good to blog about us as a family rather than focusing on OO.

Happy 2nd Birthday our little princess *Love from Papi & Mami

OO @School - Birthday Cake

Meimei and I deliberated quite a while on whether we should get OO a cake at school to celebrate her birthday. I doubt she knows what a birthday is about other than having cake to eat. But given the recent illness we decided we might as well liven things up.

Initially OO was placed at the table alone with the rest of her class mates in PG1 & PG2 staring at her. She looked lost and awkward, unsure of what's happening. She only relaxed when the rest of playgroup mates, Lora, Daniel, Javier joined her for a class photo.

I wished I could be there but I'm practically out of leave days at work. Luckily Mama and Meimei were able to join in the celebration at school and capture all the lovely moments. 

Falling Sick Is Expensive

Falling sick is expensive ... and especially so when you do not have adequate insurance coverage. We had taken the free basic hospitalisation plan from Great Eastern for OO but stupidly never looked into getting more coverage for her. And regardless it's fair or not, I put some of blame for that oversight on the agent. Another part of the blame goes to myself for trusting that he is giving us the best simply because he is Meimei's agent.

Since the first febrile seizure last June, we approached him to see if we could get more cover. He seemed nonchalant about it, commenting that it will be difficult to get more because of the hospitalisation. The best part of it was my utter dumbness to sign up for an accident policy with him for OO. I wasn't thinking right at the time. He's only interested in signing up the easy ones and leaving us dry on the critical ones. Meimei's close friend or not, he is not ever getting my business again ... no matter which insurer he works for.

We also tried getting OO a life policy with early critical illness at the same time. But because of the hospitalisation, we were again rejected. The underwriter deferred it till June 2017 to see if OO will go into hospital again. What the ... and this recent hospitalisation stay has practically closed all possible avenues of getting any coverage from Great Eastern.

Sigh ... Her stay costed about $5.8k and we weren't even in a single bedder. About a thousand was paid through Medisave and basic hospitalisation covered another thousand. We had to pay the balance $3.8k in cash ... It practically burned through any holiday plans for the year. Aaarrrrghhhh!!!

So now I'm trying to get coverage with my AIA agent of 25 years. He has 5 kid of his own so he knows the type of coverage a parent should have. If he delivers the hospitalisation plan, I'm gonna change all of OO's insurance and mine to AIA. Already we were able to sign up for a life plan through him ... hopefully he can push this through too.

40 Degrees

It's painful to blog about this but I suppose it serves as a gentle reminder of how fragile OO can be. After close to 2 months battling the flu and cold, her tiny body finally couldn't take it and the fever came on Saturday night. It went up as high as 39.2 degrees at one point and it was a scary sight to see her dazed and listless.

She was feverish throughout Sunday and right after her nap in the evening she started twitching. We had learned to recognise the signs of her seizures and immediately took drastic actions. We took her for a bath to try to lower her temperature. She was about 39.5 and was flushing red on her cheeks. Dr Ang had given us what we thought was the rectal insert of Ibuprofen and we administered it right after the bath. Afraid that her fever might continue to escalate (the bath only brought it down 0.5 degrees), we took the opportunity after the bath and medication to send her to Thomson.

Thank God (this has to be the first time I ever wrote this) we took her to the hospital ...

It turns out that the rectal medication we gave OO wasn't Ibuprofen. It was a medication meant for her seizure, and was to be given only after a seizure episode. Wow ... what a relief that we came to the hospital. I cannot imagine the anguish we would be going through thinking we had given Ibuprofen and yet her temperature was constantly rising. We would be out of options to bring her temperature down till the next doze 6 hours later.

So we admitted her on Sunday evening and she was given Ibuprofen through the rectal  to bring her temperature down quickly once we got to the room. Before that I had taken her for a blood test while Meimei worked on the admissions. Dr Ang came down at around 8-9pm when the blood test results were out and ordered two courses of antibiotics. OO is very very sick.

Because one of the antibiotics was through a drip, Dr Ang and the Nurses took OO to a room to insert a needle on her right hand. They also had to bind her left so she wouldn't be able to pull out the needle. She was screaming at the top of her voice while they did the procedure. Meimei and I wasn't allowed in and we could only stand helplessly outside the room while we hear OO's cries for help *Cries >.<

Again like at KK, I stayed to accompany her. Meimei had wanted very much to stay but she had to pick up the new maid on Tuesday. That night I was up every hour and didn't get much sleep. After the Ibuprofen wore off close to midnight her temperature started to climb again. The 2am temperature check put her at 40.2 degrees. She was given another dose of Ibuprofen immediately and I tried my best to sponge her. Thankfully it slowly went down after that.

Monday was trying too. The fever kept coming back and went as high as 38.8 on one of the checks. OO was on a constant course of paracetamol, antibiotics and also an inhaler of sorts to help with the phlegm and breathing. It was only till Tuesday morning that the fever was finally under control.

Seeing that OO was looking better, I took her for a treat at the Delifrance cafe. She loves the cinnamon pastry. Sadly she wasn't well enough for Dr Ang to clear her and she has to stay another day. I let Mama and Meimei fuss over her through the day :-)

As I had an important presentation I couldn't accompany OO for her discharge today. I could only watch for the regular updates from the messages.

Even though she is allowed to go home, OO is still sick and on antibiotics. Nonetheless we were all glad she is back home where everyone can watch over her. I was especially happy when Meimei sent over a picture of her taking an afternoon nap at home. Phew ... the worst is pass but we still have to keep our vigilance up for the week.