Once A Poner Time.....

Below is a "Scary Story" that Emma wrote in her own time. When I read it, I laughed till I cried, then I just wanted to cry.... Hope she is going to be able to cope in Primary 1!....

For those who just can't get it, here's a translation (or at least the gist of it):

"Once upon a time, a monster passed my house and saw a strange thing when I was sleeping and I heard a noisy sound coming out from my door. Then I walked up and peeked outside and saw 10 monsters waiting for me. The monster became bigger and fatter. Some of them were very scary and bigger than the others and stronger than all of the dads and mums and God. It was so scary that I called mummy and daddy and my biggest brother and my biggest sister, then all the sisters."

Garang Guni Bike

I’m not sure if anyone has ever seen this guy but I know I have definitely caught glimpse of him more than once. It is just a motorbike with all sorts of rubbish you can think of. Stuffed toys, bottles, old tyres, plastic things,…. You name it.

The trademark item is Elmo stuck to a pole.

My Little Companion - Part II

Cate is really my little companion while I shower. Here she is in my own bathroom this time.

She climbs into the bathtub that is next to my shower and plays with her selected toy.


My Little Companion - Part I

Sophie - Back to NUH :(

Yesterday morning, Sophie suddenly came down with a temperature of 39C. I rushed her to Dr Ong's where he told me that at her age, I should just take her to the hospital cos they needed to run a host of tests to eliminate all sorts of horrible diseases... Dr Ong mentioned things ranging from UTI to water in her brain (WTF!).

Since we previously had quite a positive experience at NUH with Emma's split head, I decided to go back there again.



Sophie was a real trooper. She was all smiles despite her fever. Charming the doctors, nurses, reception, other patients,..cleaners... you name it! The only time she cried bitterly was when they squeezed 2.5ml of blood from her teeny little thumb DROP BY DROP for a blood test. (Nurse said that it was less traumatising than simply drawing blood with a needle and syringe. I am not too sure about that but anyway...)

NUH was a winner again. There was hardly any wait, the waiting area was small and cosy with comfortable chairs. I got the same nice doctor who attended to Emma last time. Definitely a positive experience. Note that this positive experience was with “Children’s Emergency” which is not the same as the normal A&E for adults. When I walked past the A&E area (for adults), it looked a right mess and saw a sign that said that the waiting time was 4hrs! Everyone just looked miserable!

Anyway, all the tests on Sophie came up negative and they have put it down to something “viral” (the catch all if you can’t find anything else wrong). Sophie seems all brand new again today with no fever. Maybe a little farty but that’s just cute. :P

And we go Gingerbread-Housing...

Cate and I went to my old friend, Wanli's, to do some Gingerbread House decorating!

It was a little harder than we expected cos the Gingerbread House pieces (that came in a flat box) needed to be "glued" together with melted sugar. Obviously, hot melted sugar wasn't exactly suitable for the kids so the mummies ended up putting together the 5 gingerbread houses assembly line style in the kitchen!

Cate and I deocrating our very own Gingerbread House!

Truth of the matter was, the mummies were having far more fun than the kids! The kids just wanted to stuff as many chocolates, sweets, gummies, marshmellows into their little mouths as possible! I told Cate that she could only eat a few of the sweeties after we were done with the deccrating. She rapidly stuck all the M&Ms on and said, "Ok, done mummy,... can I eat now?"

Proud Home Owners

Thanks Wanli for having us over!

My Longest Run To Date - 15.1km *pant pant*

As some of you might already know, I have foolishly signed up to do the 1/2 Marathon in Dec. I downloaded a simple beginners 10 week training program. Unfortunately I have failed miserably in following it. I guess I am even worse than "a beginner". These are probably just excuses but with the baby and all, I am perpetually tired from working, running after Emma & Cate, and also feeding Sophie pretty much round the clock.

Anyway with many missed / failed runs, and what have you, I decided that I have to really get my long runs in quickly before I have to taper*! How can I taper when I haven't even increased my training!

I mapped out a 14km route on gmap and worked out a simple pacing table with estimated goal timings at certain landmarks. Armed with this teeny piece of paper (left - all mucky after the run), a choc gel and a small bottle of water, I was off. Morale was low,.... I wasn't looking forward to it.

I referred to the little piece of paper the whole way. It burned a hole in my hand as I ran... I went slow most of the way cos I was just too worried about not being able to finish. The pacing table did help me a lot. I was slower by some minutes in the end, but it helped me all the same. As I approached the end of the 14km route, I decided to make a minor detour to do a 15.1km route. I figured another 7 min of agony to make a 15km run is better than having to do another whole 15km run on another day from scratch. Managed to finish the 15.1km in about 1hr 47 min. Quite a terrible time at 7min pace but boy am I glad I finished!!!! YAY!

Long run done for this week.... I was in a great mood all evening with the long-run-burden lifted off my shoulder. :) Oh, why can't I love running....

Next week I am supposed to do 18km according to the stupid beginner training plan. Bah!...

* Taper is when you have to slowly decrease the amount of training you do as you approach race day so that your body isn't too tired for the race.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Emma & Cate, Martin & Charlotte, Taila & Layla

I personally don't know anything about Halloween, nor believe in any of this witchcraft business but how can one resist dressing the kids up in cute little costumes!

Here are the kids at The Changs for a quick Halloween walkabout the houses to "trick-or-treat".

Emma was a princess which was easy enough. Cate was a little mouse! She was just ADORABLE...