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a BIG *WAVERING* hello to all my dear readers,
im finally back! expecting my return for the longest time ever? i guess or rather im hoping i will be back for good!

it's been a few months since i last posted. i was almost in living hell for the past few months! initially, i thought having a live-in maid would be ideal since i needed help badly but never did i expect to have so much problems being met. i changed 3 maids in 3months, and mind you, each maid did not even last for a week and i had to send them back already. here's goes the long whiny story;

the first maid - Indonesian, 24, married, 2 kids
since i had heard many horror maid stories, i decided to get a totally fresh new maid to avoid all the unnecessary problems like already have friends/ boyfriends in singapore. i was quite mentally prepared to train the new maid since i thought the chores needed to be done over in my home are pretty chicken feet, so i was very confident that my first ever maid would work out right from the start. the thought of getting a young maid because i guess they might be more energetic and more enthusiastic in handling the children and the chores. 

alright, she arrived. appearance wise is quite petite. language wise is super poor (her bio-data wrote fair ie should be able to comprehend basic/ simple english but on the contrary). mentality wise is quite bad too, perhaps it's her first time being out her country. she misses home and probably her kids i guess. she cant accustom to the food here. she dont speak at all or maybe a few words a day only. she dont really smile, i cant recall i had seen her teeth? i definitely understand how one would have felt to leave hometown and work/ live with another family in a foreign country, dont understand our language and worst of all, cant accustom to the lifestyle and food. 

i put up with it and woke up in the morning together with her so i could tell/ train and teach her what to do and what are supposed to be done. she doesn't speak or reply to me when i gave her instructions. i think partly was she doesnt even understand the language im speaking in the first place. she cant cook at all. i had to cook for her instead. she cant take care and handle the children, i had to take over. i knew the cooking would take some time to learn plus her comprehension of language is super poor so i knew it's going to take a real long time. but that was not my main concern yet at the point of time. i also expected it would take some time for the children to take to her, but sadly she cant even keep them engaged and entertained, even daryl who was only 3months old at that time which only required cradling. since the main tasks would take some time to be able to be fulfilled, i expects the chores to be done well ie the house have to well-kept, neat, clean and tidy. however, she still could not do that. i had to worry for her meals and still taking care of the children all by myself. i felt it was more a burden than anything at that point of time. i spoke to daland and we decided to send her back. 

before i had the chance to tell her, she came crying to me and told me on her own that she wanted to go back. she does not want to work for us anymore. it was only the fifth day then. the reasons she given me were she missed home and her children and little C does not like her. 


the second maid - Philipino, 30, divorced, 3 kids
this was the worst one of all the 3 maids i had. i only knew she was a divorcee when i already fetched her back to my home. her bio-data wrote she was married with 3 kids. i decided for a Philipino maid this time because i knew language was a barrier since the first maid's episode. i could spare no time to waste, so i thought i needed to get one who is more mature and understand english. but this second maid is also a fresh maid, first time coming to singapore to work. i thought that if i could get one that is able to comprehend english, nothing else should matters that much since other things could be trained off slowly.

she arrived then. she was full of smiles when we went to fetch her, but the smiles subsequently died off by the 3rd day. to cut the story short, she sleeps in the noon when the children napped instead of doing the other chores. she eats at the same time as us and had not even finish feeding little C. she laid on her back on the floor while looking after the children and does not respond when little C called out to her. she sat on the sofa to watch tv while she pretends to be taking care of the children. she talked to me about sentosa and orchard road, WTF! she watched tv and waited to be serve for dinner at my mom's place. she ate our food without asking and opened our unopened food without permission. and she broke our tap! 

she absolutely had no interest in taking care of the children and not good in cooking too. she's from Manila so i think she did not come from a poor family and in fact when i went to Giant for grocery shopping, she could sing those oldies love songs that they are playing. we sent her back on the sixth day after she had broke the tap. she was even quite black hearted. when we are leaving the house and she went into the lift, the moment she saw little C was about to step in, she pressed the 'Close Door' button. I shouted and luckily daland managed to dodged the door. and when we reached the shopping mall where the agency was located, she alighted from the cab without waiting for us and ran up to the agency, wanting to complain to the consultants ahead of us. 

SIGHS! i was utterly disappointed and totally lost faith in live-in maids, but ...

im not sure what came over me on that day, i decided to choose a third maid. this time, i chose back indonesian maid because afterall they are much more humble and obedient. i chose this one who had experiences with taking care of children, cooking and worked in singapore before. after the two maids' episodes, i realised i dont have the time to train at all actually so i needed one whom is experienced. this thrid one came recommended by the agency. 


the third maid - Indonesian, 28, married, 1 kid
she arrived pretty fast after the agency filed the application to MOM for us. but when she had arrived, we delayed for a week before fetching her partly because daland was too tied up with work and army. on the day that we were supposed to fetch her, i actually chickened out again, telling daland why not let's do without a maid, anyway we had survived this long without one. but he insisted because he thinks i needed help badly plus he finds that house is dusty. *rolls eyes*

she arrived. i had zero expectations for her because i fear the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. however, this third maid speaks better english than the first two and even able to speak and comprehend mandarin. she knows how to cook and handle the children. when she had finished what i had asked her to do, she would come to me to check if i still had anything for her to do. she knew her boundaries and what's required of her. and the most important thing is she likes cooking and playing with the children. quite pro-active in fact. maybe this is the BIG difference between experienced and inexperienced maids. today is only her 2nd day of work while im doing this post. im keeping my fingers crossed tightly that she would be the ONE that we have been searching for. 

i will continue posting subsequently and about the kids! and now im off to play my fb games then to lala land.
 

hello everybody!

im finally back! but gradually because i felt a sudden surge to post this afternoon. actually im already pretty tired by the time im doing up this post but since i promised i would do a posting so here i come. if not lp would go to my facebook and write 'SAY ONLY' on my wall. :p

daland and i had a tough 7weeks since we brought our little cheryl back home. both of us ended up with insufficient sleep, getting ill and no time for ourselves at all, and worst ending up having a few quarrels too. it's really never easy to handle both kids without any help which i used to thought i could manage on my own and perhaps only daland is needed once in a while. however, reality hits hard (REAL HARD some more) and so we finally resorted to hire a domestic helper which never came across to us as a final decision. we went to look for the domestic helper when little cheryl was back by the 2nd week, because the 1st week was enough to kill so finally Dewi (our domestic helper) is arriving tomorrow. im not sure how things would turn out to be after she arrives but of course im hoping on the brighter side. i really hope i dont find her unsuitable and end up need to look for another one again.

this is how my day is spent the minute i woke up;

7am-8am; baby daryl would wake up for his 1st morning feed. after feeding him, i would get up and start to wash the bottles and sterlise them, boil water and wipe the kitchen counters. sweep the floor and tidies the living room. baby daryl would be in his rocker looking at me while im doing the above or sometimes i leave him on the playmat in the playroom.

8am-9am; little cheryl wakes up and i accompany her for awhile before her bath and while waiting for the water to be boiled.

9am-9.30am; bathe little cheryl and give her her milk feed.

9.30am-10am; bathe baby daryl and cleans up the bathroom.

10am-10.30am; give little cheryl her breakfast; bread or biscuits. and i usually take my breakfast with her.

10.30am-11.30am; time for baby daryl's milk feed and his nap after the feed.

11.30am-12.30pm; play/ spend time with little cheryl with baby daryl in my arms (hard to put him down unless he's very deep asleep else it's carrying all the way) till little cheryl signs to me for her nap. gets daland to wake up to continue carrying baby daryl while i put little cheryl for her nap.

12.30pm-2.30pm; little cheryl's napping during this 2hours and i would be carrying baby daryl all the while. would be having his feed too. i would be surfing the net during this time because i cant do other chores. he would cry the minute i put him down and this would wake the jiejie up. however, if im heng, i could be able to sweep the floor and grab something to eat.

2.30pm-3pm; little cheryl wakes up and give her her milk feed. finally can put baby daryl down.

3pm-4.30pm; wash bottles and sterlise them again. plays and spend time with little cheryl in the playroom. if baby daryl fusses, i would be carrying him and watch tv with little cheryl, or would read to her by my side. sometimes i would wake daland up so he would be looking after/ playing with little cheryl in the playroom while i tend to baby daryl.

4.30pm-5pm; baby daryl's milk feed

5pm-6pm; take turns to shower the 2kids and cleans the bathroom after that

6pm-7pm; looking after the 2kids and do ad-hoc stuffs. i used to cook for little cheryl during this time but stopped recently because she is on food strike and has poor appetite so now she's taking whatever we are taking. sometimes i would bring her out to the 10min-walk-away coffeeshop to pack dinner and buy the next day's breakfast.

7pm-7.30pm; feed little cheryl her dinner and put the kids laundry into the WM.

7.30pm-8.30pm; baby daryl's last feed for the day and carried him to deep asleep before putting him on his bed.

8.30pm-9.30pm; finish up all the left-over chores in the kitchen and take my dinner while daland is playing with little cheryl during this time EVERY NIGHT.

9.30pm-10pm; changed little cheryl into her pyjamas and give her her last milk feed. finally she also sleep.

10pm-11pm; tidies up the house, hang/fold the laundry, wash bottles and sterlises them. take my shower after all is done!

11pm; somtimes i take my dinner at this time if im unable to take it earlier and surf the net.

12am; BEAUTY SLEEP!

3.30am-4am; baby daryl's dream feed.

then the cycle goes on.

*****

the cycle is already hectic enough. on top of it, i was terribly ill but did not manage to get any good rest to recuperate and end up little cheryl got infected by me and in the later part, it developed into bronchitis after attending childcare for 4days. all i can say is ' going through all these hardships/ obstacles just makes me stronger'.

im going to sleep now. actually im not very exhausted yet but if i continue being online, it's going to be a hard day for me tomorrow. however, i find this post a little boring. im having mental blocks and feels kind of weird while writing this post. perhaps it's because i has not post for a long time and it just feels weird. but im sure with more and continuous posting, i will get back to my crappy and long winded self ! haha. i will post again and update with the pictures.

goodnight !

dear readers,

sorry for the super lack of updates. i really have no time to do any updating nor posting of pictures as compared to previously. neither taking pictures daily is as frequent as before. handling a super attention-seeking toddler and a demanding infant really tires me out to the max. everyday is just like a battle against time. the everyday activities of theirs like the feeding, nap times, play-times are always back to back, so i hardly could grasp a breather. needless to say, i could no longer prepare meals for daland and myself.

today marks the 3rd week that both of us manages them since we brought baby cheryl back home. the first 2 weeks were quite disastrous and we were all extremely tied up to the necks. however, i would say i have somehow gotten hold of their routines so from today onwards as im writing this post, im much more better in coping with the 2 little ones compared to 2weeks ago which i was almost shouting frantically everyday? LOL.

we are in the midst of waiting for our new helper to come and baby cheryl would be starting cc on 17August, so i believe things would turn for the better by then.

meanwhile, im pretty active on facebook. so if you are a personal friend, or if you wish to add me as a friend on Facebook, please email me or leave a comment.

I'LL BE BACK WITH MORE UPDATES, once the new helper arrives, baby cheryl gotten used to cc and when everything falls in place nicely. take care everyone :)

these pictures were taken by winston when they went back to mom's for dinner last week. just received it in my email so i anxiously wanted to upload them though my eyes are giving way already but because they were so beautiful.


her usual fake smile. LOL


pianist in the making. i like this pic alot.


she wants to eat that?


her 'xiao xi xi' pose


her thrilled expression!


her-wanting-to-reach-pose


her excited expression


her cheeky look


she's signing she wants to eat expression


another cheeky look of hers


abit-shocked/shy expression with jasmine yiyi


another shot with jasmine yiyi


the-feminine-sitting-position-with-thrilled-expression


with winston yi-zhang, looking gentle


my beautiful girl

thanks winston! very very nice pictures of baby cheryl taken by you.

i was craving for salmon sashimi and instead of going to the usual sun plaza's outlet, dad and i decided to go somewhere slightly further for my salmon craze. hence, we decided on causeway point's sakae outlet and also decided to go to the library at woodlands civic plaza, just opposite causeway point.

we skipped baby cheryl's 4pm milk feed because we fed her chawanmushi and rice at sakae. before we left home, she had her puree with cereal feed too so we do not want to overfed her by giving her the milk.
she is able to finish the whole serving of chawanmushi by herself now.

some pics taken at home before we left;



loves all the 6pics we took together


also like this pic too!




getting frustrated that why am i still snapping away instead of getting ready to go.


super close up



reading this book for the last time before we return it later on.


a-very-focused-baby-cheryl


1st shot with gong gong on the bus


2nd shot

some pics taken at woodlands library's kids section;

found an available multimedia kiosk


having her fill of typing


checking if anyone is monitoring her


curious with the red light in the optical mouse


exploring the 'red light'


further explorations on the 'red light'


waiting for cab, going home already

it's baby cheryl and my first time to the woodlands library. it's so much more bigger than sembawang and yishun's ones. collections of books are wide and place is spacious. it's a good facility in HDB estates. would love to come to this library more often in the future instead of sbw and yishun's ones if convenience permits.

nonetheless, we had a great time again! think baby daryl did enjoyed too, sight-seeing in the stroller while we walked past the shops in the mall.

in case you are wondering, what does P-D-C-C-S stands for? it's put-down-cry-carry-sleep.

the good days have not come yet but i would say better days had came. baby daryl had made some slight improvements. sometimes i could put him down to sleep for awhile before he starts his wailing. this short while is about 10-15minutes. though it's not very long but it's a good start. however, there are still times that the minute i put him down, he would wail within the next 2-3minutes. i shall continue to perservere and wait for the good days to come soon.


one of the better times. taken this afternoon.

baby cheryl's childcare center called me 2days ago to confirm her placement. they will get back to me on when exactly she would be starting her full day programme, either at the start of august or 17th august as scheduled previously. actually if they had offered her to start from 1st august, i would probably (most likely confirmed) request for her to start on 17th august instead. firstly, she would be coming home next week so it's abit too fast for her to start the programme once she came back. i dont want her to feel that coming home = sending her to cc full day immediately. i would want to spend more time with her at home, wants her to enjoy playing/staying home first, at least for the 3weeks. secondly, she has got her last 5-in-1 booster vaccination when she turns 18months old on 14 august so i would also want her to take this vaccine before she starts the programme. most importantly, i really want to spend more time with her before she officially starts school.

on one hand, im feeling quite excited for her to start school because it marks another huge milestone in her growing years but on the other hand, i felt a surge of unwillingness and worrying for her too. i worry that she might be bullied in cc, cant adhere to their routine and im even wondering if she would feel helpless and lonely that im sending her there. i believe it's inevitable to feel this way. i need to be stronger and more firm in this decision else i could not be a role model/support for her.

the arrangments at home are more or less quite done, only left with some pieces to pick up. i had cleared most of those unwanted items, now only left with some so probably would lower the prices even more to clear them asap. cant wait to bring her back home! i felt the thrill/horror of taking care of 2kids alone and the thought of the siblings mingling together (though cheryl would still hits her didi and i might go crazy without any help) just made me feel so blessed. whatever the outcome is, i must maintain the positive energy to keep on going and take it in my stride!

i was a little crazy to whip up a 4-dishes-1-soup meal for only daland and myself tonight. abit too much for just the 2 of us but luckily the portions were not very big and because i also wanted to use up whatever stash i had in the refridgerator before they turns bad.


steamed threadfin


stir fried pork fillet with ginger in sesame oil


the greens; stir fried dou miao in oyster sauce


button mushrooms, wantons and xiao bai cai clear soup
this is the last batch of wantons i made previously. still tasted very good. i shall make a few more batches next week again.

i only posted 3 dishes because the last dish was quite horrible-looking. what's the last dish? it's actually plain steamed egg. i was trying to achieve the chawanmushi-alike texture but however it turned out to be tau-pok-alike. i guessed must be the timing to steam the egg went wrong, i think i had over-steamed the egg as i put it in the rice cooker to cook with the rice together. previously the minced meat steamed egg was good and did achieved the chawanmushi-alike texture because i steamed using a steamer and once i saw the nice texture forming, i turned off the stove. will try again next time. :)