(Feb 17) Tong's gum infection and learning to cycle

a cute photo of xun and her classmates as we jauntily took the bus home

Tong's brush with the hospital

Tong had this mysterious gum infection on his left cheek one day. It was so swollen, Mum brought him to the GP at Rail Mall and he had to take a course of antibiotics. Then Aunt Grace came over to examine him and said there seemed to be no major decays. She suggested for tong to take an X-Ray. We went to the dentist at Junction 10 and the covering dentist did not seem too competent...hmmm took an $90 general x ray...did not find anything

the next day, tong woke up early and we managed to secure a slot at Clementi Polyclinic. Mama wanted a referral to National Dental Centre where there were oral surgeons so they could assess why tong always complained about hurting gums...eh...the polyclinic doctor saw tong and insisted for him to go to NUH's A&E as he said the infection might be spreading, if it spread to his brain, that would be disastrous...oh my

a mad rush down to NUH...the PD said to increase the dosage and to come back again on Saturday...

Tong went to see the doctor at NUH at Saturday...luckily, the swelling had subsided...it was worries over nothing...if mama had not been so prompt in wanting a referral letter to the dental centre, we would have avoided all the needless frantic trips to the  hospital...a simple case of gum infection and it cost us a couple of hundreds and lots of anxiety...indeed, we thanked God for divine health

Learning to cycle

We paid Uncle Edmund $80 per hour on an weekday to learn how to cycle. Well, papa was the sort who would willingly pay for problems to be solved...he hardly had time to teach the kids...to save him the effort and frustration...here we were. Uncle Edmund lived in the block above his shop, what a convenient arrangement. He was a jovial man and obviously a cycling and teaching enthusiast.

Imagined earning a pretty decent amount doing something you truly delight in. What a cool idea. So, mama always felt the two of you should have a skill instead of merely cramming knowledge and spending endless hours in tuition centers... indeed, jie and tong did seem to have grasped the basics of cycling after an hour of lesson. Boy, were you both filled with fatigue after the lesson! You slept early and soundly that night...

Xun and tong alternated, each would take half an hour of lesson and then rest. Was a great idea, one hour at one go would have been grueling. While jie was on her rounds, tong noticed this flapping shirt and exclaimed that it was a manta ray!

How droll and observant he was. Indeed, he liked to look out for animals in our surroundings. That day, when we drove to MBS for church, he saw towering cranes in the horizon and gushed that they were giraffes.

well, we did not want to spend another $160 on lessons again, so papa took up the task of teaching the kids. heh, ono a Sat when mama was working, papa brought the two of you to the park at Kembangan...and yes, jie jie mastered it.

Tong would need more practice, but hey, he was doing well for someone who just turned 5. cool dude...how nice it would be when we could all cycle down East Coast Park and feel the wind in our hair...that would be such fun

Down memory Lane

 

Many reminders from the past...jie enthused what an adorable baby this was...hmmm I wondered if she realized it was her...hahaa

Little tong, perhaps barely a month old?

Aunt Shirley and Ben came to visit then, oh my, Ben was a wee primary school going boy but had transformed into a lanky pimply adolescent now.

An amusing video about how jun would shake his head vehemently when asked if he would share his food. Well, this was not the funniest version as we started playing this game while we were walking back from the pool...still, this was a sweet endearing shot of our little sweetheart...who had such favour wherever he went...and we prayed God's favour would always be upon him

Would you believe it? CNY was over. Well...next big thing to look forward to? March holidays!

(29 Jan 16) CNY Day 2 & 3

The second day of Chinese New Year

We deviated from our usual practice, instead of going to mama's 3rd uncle's house at Jurong West to visit wai gong, we went to mama's 4th Uncle's house instead. Ha, he rounded up the boys for a gambling session and boy, did he have lucky hands! He was winning most of the time as the dealer. 

Then we went to mama's god ah ma's new house at Keat Hong. Wow, it was really near to our house. God ah ma bought a unit next to her son's unit and rented out her unit. What a clever arrangement. We were knocking on god ah ma's unit when god ah gong popped out from the other unit to call us over. Ha, it was really funny.

The kids got on so amazingly well, they were running all over and even went down to the playground together.

Little jun was getting cheekier with each day. The tiny tyke was not one to be bullied. He would screech fiercely should anyone threaten his well-being, for example, taking away something he was playing with, or denying him something that he should not be touching. Insistent on wanting his way, he was getting into quite a bit of trouble. 

ha, there was once when I remarked that I would punish jun by putting him in the kids' room to sleep by his own. The doting brother usually ended the night by reminding mama not to do that, stating that he was just being a little baby.

papa took these shots so that he could post your outfits on Facebook

The tiny one was making himself comfortable on the kids' couch

the two of you loved it when xiaoyi came home from her work early so that you could watch pokemon cartoons on her laptop in her room. She also coached jie in her homework and spelling. Nice.

The playground was fun...

Tong was scared initially by this towering climb but he made it and proudly demonstrated to daddy.

Ha, having a whale of a time with her "uncles" as they were actually my cousins...hahaha

Checked out the dudes in matching wear

I told Jun to freeze and he gave me this cute little look

Went back to Wai po's house for a sumptuous home-cooked meal, amazing how she could cook so well despite not being able to sample them? Yes, I was thinking of buying a rice cooker and cooking one pot dishes for dinner in future...time to whip up some easy and more nutritious fares...

3rd day of CNY

Uncle Yongsheng and Aunt Caifeng invited us to their house for lunch.

Their house was brightly lit and spacious, very tastefully done with many wooden fixtures...something we would love for our next house...if we did ever move down Bukit Timah Road to have a 4-bedder

Jun was so taken by the vacuum cleaner, he was hoarding it the entire time

Uncle YS invited his boss over and the 16 month old girl was trying to play with jun...eh...but she ended up hitting his face with the broom

well, they were very handy workers in the house, these two...

No prize for guessing which team they supported..haha. papa posted this on his facebook and his friends responded with hilarious answers to poke fun at him...

Went to Aunt Angelynn's house after that. The kids were very chummy and familiar with one another now, they started playing right away...then chilled in front of the TV

Sarah enjoyed Xun's company so much that she was rather upset when it was time to leave...so we invited her to our house!

ah gong, ah ma, xiaoshu, patsy yiyi, 4 kor po and xiao biao gu came over for dinner. Yumm..KFC and pizza hut!

Ah gong brought jun to play with the car and took these adorable pictures.

Ha, Facebook memory. Jie looked like a doll...wow, she liked making her own hairbands even when she was young...ha...at 7 years old, she would staple pieces of paper and drew on them, paste stickers and make her own hairbands...i did not know it started when she was a wee young one...ha

So 3 days were gone in a flash. One of day of school holiday...and it was back to routine life again! We went to tickle tickle with Biao Jiu Mu and JJ...then on wed, when jie went back to school, tong went to wai po's house. He developed a fever and swollen cheek on wed night...and...sigh...after seeing the GP and dentist...they both did not see major decays...just hoped the swelling would go down after the antibiotics and there was no major problem with his teeth.

Sign...Feb was upon us again...before we knew it, it would be Christmas once again. Utterly exhausting holiday..but yes...very thankful for family...very grateful for traditions...very blissful to be celebrating this together...Thank you, Jesus, for blessing us, our hearts were so full...

(28 Jan 17 Sat) Lunar New Year Day 1

Yes, the first day of the Lunar New Year. This year, it came rather early, it was only the end of January and coincidentally Tong's birthday!

This was how tong looked when he was a wee 1-year-old toddler

fast forward 4 years, the 5 year-old cheeky one

Often dubbed as the handsome one who would surely break many girls' hearts

As usual, we went to Ah ma's house in the morning and had a sumptuous meal of longevity noodles

Catching them all looking at the camera was surely a tedious task

Jie looked so resplendent in that lovely bright red cheongsam...

while the two boys looked simply adorable in matching dragon traditional costumes

Ha, ah ma wanted to have a photo with her xin gwai-s but they were not very cooperative

tong requested for a photo with just his little brother

and jie definitely wanted one with just his little one

A family shot before we went out to papa's uncle's house at Serangoon

At Serangoon where the kids were totally engrossed in the gaming

Then we went to mama's ah gong's house at Ang Mo Kio...This had been our CNY day 1's routine for all these while

Back at home, we played the piñata game. papa was like the human sacrifice, the over zealous tong jumped and struck the piñata with the stick and hit papa's hand!

It was very orderly, the children had to line up behind the chair and take turns. Each could strike at the piñata for three times.

It took really long, the cardboard was surely hardy

Tong with the finishing touches...and all the goodies came flying out and the children scurried to fill up their envelopes...awesome game

Lau Yu Shen time...ha, this was the third time we were doing it

After dinner, we brought out this doodle house for the kids...ha, they were at it for a while, and xun complained that it would take a long long time to colour every empty space

What a cute sight!

Time for the ice cream cake

Jun now understood that we had to sing the birthday song before blowing out the candles

he could clap along and was totally enthralled

and when we said, "time to blow out the candles", he was there in a jiffy

and spewed saliva all over the cake

Scrumptious indeed - cookies & cream and milo ice cream cake. What a delectable treat!

While the small ones were wrecking havoc in the room....

The grown-ups were having a whale of a time playing with poker cards

Xiaoshu - the banker. He took out his secret stash of coins

Hoped jun gave papa good luck!

the annual photo-taking time, according to height

according to age

with all the spouses

There should be 10 of them, we were missing Kaysen and Shernice as they had gone to Malaysia

 

Da Biaogu always did up these nifty stylish collages...ha

The customary family portrait, all prim and proper 

Crazy family portraits, wondering when Xiaoshu and Patsy yiyi would have their own bundles of joy too...could not wait! The Tay household would be bustling with life, joy and noise!

The siblings had a shot too

Our favourite cousins...I always wished we stayed nearer to one another, then we could reap economies of scale in things like coaching the kids in their studies, preparing for meals, buying household necessities...if only they would move to Linear or the hillview area

Yes, once mama hit 30s, it was like a blur...I could not quite recall how old I was when people asked...but this year, I was so absolutely sure of my age as it was the year of my animal! 

With the fellow roosters and hen hahaha...er biao gu was doing the money sigh, while papa and I were in denial about our age...and er biao jiu...hmmm...doing the 0 year old sign?!

The children played till the "wee" hours, eh, 10 plus 11 pm, considering now that they had started primary school, all of them went to bed at 9, so this was considered quite late. All went to bathe dutifully...this photo was of them trying to look for tong's pokemon's missing arm. Well...the room was in chaos...the arm could be anywhere...tong lamented about the loss for a few days and made ah ma promise to find it when she cleaned the room...ah gong actually rummaged through the entire basket of toys for the arm...sigh...ah gong and his infallible love for tong tong..nope...still missing it

bei kor po and grand uncle brian were going for a short holiday in Hong Kong. The NKC, eh NO kids' club, went to the airport to send them off and reached home at 4 plus. Gosh...when was the last time I did that? My goodness...well...mama and papa used to lead happening lives, we would go pubbing with friends when we were in our early 20s, in our late 20s, we hung out for overnight mahjongs...eh...with the kids, my siblings still came over to play and stay over...but once they all got married and had kids, our gatherings would start and end really early.

ha...papa still occasionally had friends coming over to our house for gambling sessions...

We were talking about going for a holiday by ourselves when Jun turned 7...oh my...that sounded like a long long way ahead...

hardly believe that the CNY public holiday was gone in a blink!