Pleasantly surprised

I was pleasantly surprised by a SMS from my daughter today. She told me that she got back her prelims results and apparently she scored 14 points, 1 point better than what she had promised and we would have to get her that white iPhone 4 that she has been eyeing on. I really don't mind getting her the iPhone. She has surpasssed my expectations when she passed the interview for Direct Poly Admission and tentatively secured a place with Ngee Ann Polytechnic for a Diploma course on Mass Communications. I just hope that she will get at least a B3 for her English O levels exams which is the criteria for a confirmed admission. And then I hope that she will continue to surprise me by getting admitted to NUS later on after she graduates from Ngee Ann Poly. I will be a very proud mum. :)

Baby J playing with balls

I bought some DVDs for baby J to watch during the day when hubby and I are both at work. They are educational DVDs that suppose to help train babes' right and left brains. I have yet to view those DVDs myself but I believe that babies can be trained from a very young age and the right kind of brain stimulations will do wonders for their developments. I am kind of regretting that I have not spent much time and efforts on N and D when they were younger. Thank God they both turned out fine. Not that I will be joining the "kiasu" mama club but I think we should spend a little more efforts on baby J, especially when he's already quite a smart baby to start with. We are amazed by his physical developments everyday! 

Working on my body

Spa & Wellness Package at The Sentosa

I have just booked a spa package at The Sentosa this weekend with hubby. It's his 31st birthday and we are long overdue for a romantic getaway. The plan we had was for me to have baby J in March, use 12 weeks of my maternity leave for breast-feeding, bonding and taking care of baby, then use the rest of the 4 weeks for going on a trip and doing some reconstructive works on my body or something. In the end, I enjoyed breast-feeding baby J so much that I persisted on for 6 months even though I had to go back to work and even go on business trips. I cried when I finally stopped...it was almost impossible to keep the milk flowing with my work schedule and I was also loosing too much hair.

The hair fall is more or less controlled now that I have stopped breast-feeding for about a month but I am still overweight and having this huge post-pregnancy pooch. I need to do some reconstructive works on my body, especially on my tummy. Working out at Contour Express has not helped much mainly because I am not dieting and the fats on my tummy are too stubborn. But I have found this Cool Sculpting technology that may help me loose the fats fast! There are about 18 centers in Singapore that are providing this service and I am comtemplating which one to go to...Actually, other than my tummy, I would also like to get rid of my eyebags and maybe also enhance my breasts...I know, the list will never end...*sigh*
  

Exciting October!

October is going to be an exciting month for us. Hubby will be 31 and is embarking on his new job. I will finally be graduating with a MBA and fulfilling my longtime ambition. Mum will be 69 end of the month and N will be having her O levels examinations end month too! D is having his final term exams and baby J is learning to crawl with tummy off the ground and getting back into sitting position on his own. He's growing so fast! I miss him as a little baby!

Things are finally falling into places since relocating back to Singapore. My career is not really moving towards the direction that have been communicated to me though and I am getting impatient. I have been thinking if I should look for another job, one that will allow me to utilize the knowledge and skills acquired from my MBA course...One that will allow me to work with people of higher calibre instead some opinionated idiots whose only strong point is having been with the company since its incorporation.

There is another event that I am looking forward to this October and that is a fun bowl event organized by the Taiwan warehouse that I will be visiting next week. I am looking forward to bowling with all the staff there and building up better rapport with them. It will be my 1st time bowling without my personal coach! LOL

Counting my Blessings

Hubby has found a job at last and he is starting work from today. I am really relieved. I wasn't worried so much about the money but more for his emotional health as he was getting really depressed not receiving any replies from the many applications that he sent out. For several weeks, he was not even contacted for any interviews and then one fine day, he received 2 calls from 2 separate headhunters and he went for 2 job interviews in a week. Then both the jobs came back positive. Hubby chose the job that will presumably require less working hours and less time away from family. But of course the pay package is lower, we don't know exactly how much lower though. The other company is a Japanese company and will probably require him to put in much longer hours and also travel. Until last night we were still discussing if he had made the right choice....

How do we mortals know if we have made the right choice at each juncture of our lives anyway? Most of the time, we can only depend on that much information we have on hand and then just  go with our guts. I am excited for hubby. The CIO whom he will be reporting to seems to like him a lot and I hope that he will have better prospects here than with the other company which is Japanese and knowing Japanese, they will never entrust senior management posts to non-Japanese. And not to mention the number of working hours that the Japanese expect you to put in!! Anyway, we don't know for sure if this job that he has chosen is the right choice, we are just assuming and hoping that we are right. And we will never know, we will probably just look back a couple of years later of things don't move as we have hoped and then wonder to ourselves "what if...?" I have learnt not to look back but just move forward. What done cannot be undone, no point whining in self-pity. I have made many mistakes in my life and with my life, and I have had my share of miseries and hardships. But whatever I have been through is not even a fraction of what worse situations that many other people are facing. As you grow older and see more happenings around, you will learn to appreciate whatever you have and count your blessings.

I am counting my blessings and I am grateful for everything that I have and for everyday that I am alive. Nevertheless, I will continue to work hard and strive for a better life for myself and my family. It would be wonderful if all of us can move into a bigger house with enough rooms for everyone and also ample running space for the dogs. It would be wonderful if we can have the extra cash for one family trip and one romantic trip for hubby and I every year. That's the lifestyle I am working towards. Gambette!

Baby J is 200 days old!

I have weaned baby J off breast milk for more than 4 days now but I still miss the wonderful feeling of having him suckle at my breasts. So last night I tried to breast feed him again and he was very eager to latch on, smiling and kicking excitedly. My hearted melted and I was overwhelmed with love for that couple of minutes. If I had more milk, he would have suckled much longer but unfortunately, I couldn't get my milk flowing as before. I read somewhere that if I persisted and continue to let him suckle or take some supplements, I would probably be able to breast feed him again even though I have stopped for a week or more. But I have to start travelling overseas on business trips more frequently again and it would be really hard for me, especially when my breasts get painfully engorged. Baby J doesn't seem to mind taking formula milk anyway and he has started taking solids as well. He is enjoying all sorts of food being fed to him and he is growing up very fast.

Baby J has just passed his 200 days old mark mid-week and he is sitting up rather steadily by himself and also started crawling. He can flip and turn very fast when lying down and we really have to keep a close eye on him, especially when he is on the bed, sofa or the changing table. He is also giggling a lot and making everyone at home so happy, especially the old folks.

The overwhelming maternal love I have for baby J surprised even myself and I have to be careful not to show too much of it in front of my older children. N is still alright, but I think D is rather jealous of baby J. Perhaps it's because they are both boys and D is still young? Or perhaps he is just feeling insecure as baby J is his step-father's baby. I am not sure if he is doing it on purpose or he is just plain not interested in arts but I received a call from his art teacher yesterday complaining that he is very late in submitting 2 art projects. Hubby went to help him do his project and he seemed rather happy that we were there even though I was scolding him and criticising his CA results. I think we should have a good family time this weekend.

Random thoughts

The haze is back and I am having running nose and watery eyes again...or have I caught a cold? I really can't tell the difference but I am feeling terrible...Baby J is still waking up in the middle of the night (around 2am~3am) for feeds and I don't have enough breast milk to fill him up, so hubby has to wake up to make formula milk for him. After that baby J usually sleeps until 8am or 9am before fully waking up to begin his day. By that time, I will be at work but grandpa and grandma will be home attending to him and doting on him. Relocating back to Singapore for baby J is a good decision, no doubt about it. I just need to take control of my desires and ego. Be humble, be contented.

Sometimes, I wonder to myself if coming back to Singapore and staying with our extended family members is a good idea. I wonder how will it be like when it's just hubby, me and baby J. My friend V who is living in Germany with her hubby and 2 kids were telling me that she cannot imagine relocating back to Singapore where they will not be able to afford a big house like the one they are living in and the lifestyle that they are enjoying in Germany. I cannot imagine. Houses in Singapore are getting too expensive...We would have to sell off both our private apartments in exchange for 1 house and still have to deal with the fact that we will be staying further away from the city. But then again, how big is Singapore anyway? How far is far? I bet my friend V and her family have to deal with travelling further distances on a daily basis. And then, we have to convince my MIL to move, which is the most difficult task as she thinks that the apartment that we are living in has the best feng shui and all...Unlike most couples, we do not have the final say as to whether we move or not...Anyway, getting a house is not top priority for us at the moment, hubby getting a job to keep him occupied and sane is...So I am praying hard that he will get an offer soon.

House-viewing and wedding dinner

We went house-viewing over the weekend and we particularly liked one of the inter-terraces with 6 bedrooms which fit our needs and wants. The price is reasonable at this point of time too. The only problem is getting my MIL to agree to move there...Unlike most couples, hubby and I do not have the final say in whether we move house or not, we need to obtain agreements from our parents who are staying with us. The kids will just follow us but the old folks will have plenty of opinions. It's good to have dreams though.

I miss the days in HK when it was only just the 2 of us and the dogs. I miss the work environment in HK and I think it will be much easier for hubby to get a well-paying job in HK than here. But I have baby J now and it will be tough for us if we are still in HK...but then again, we will be able to bring him up entirely on our terms. There is really no best situation, is there? I guess we'll just need to balance off with occasional escapades to somewhere quiet and relaxing. A spa retreat at Bintan or Sentosa will be good enough for me.

And we went to hubby's cousin's wedding dinner on Saturday. It was the same old wedding dinner as the ones I have been to since I was a little girl and I really wonder why can't there be anything new? Oh well, it was nice to see MIL and ah pa so happy showing off baby J to relatives. And I notice that MIL takes every opportunity to take a family photo together, especially when big brother-in-law and his wife are around. Maybe we should all go to take a family portrait at some studio someday.