The gentle breeze caresses the faces while the scent of fresh morning air fills the senses. And the wind whistle through the leaves while the birds sing their serenade.

A pair of butterfly fluttering carefreely against the backdrop of a pond filled with white water lilies.

 A beautiful Sunday morning.

 Another slice of breakfast for the soul

to share amongst treasured company

on the dew wet grass.

   

*****

 Photo Album : Breakfast at Botanic Gardens

Yihang’s poor appetite has been a concern since he was a baby. However, his appetite improved significantly after consultations with Chinese physicians from the Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic (SBFC). What struck us during the first visit was medical services provided were completely FREE! Since SBFC obtains its fund mainly from donations, we decided to do our bit by signing up as volunteers for their Flag day.

Armed with stickers and a tin can, Yihang and I stationed ourselves outside Bishan MRT. While I approach the steady stream of commuters emerging from the train station towards Junction 8, Yihang helped to distribute the stickers.  He was really enthusiastic – not taking a single moment of break, merely squatted for a few minutes to rest his tired legs and pulling me in this and that directions so that prospective donors could not slipped past us.

It began to drizzle nearing noon. Tian How took over and donations began to pour in as he held our chubby little baby in a sling, with the can in hand and toddler on tow!

But nothing beats Yihang’s solo performance. All he had to do was shake the coin laden can to attract attention and donors would crowd around him.

- Yihang returned donation tin to KongKong (公公) who’s stationed at collection centre -

When Yihang returned the coin-filled can to the collection centre, exhausted but proud of his own achievement, he announced:

  ‘Next time, I shall bring my piggy bank along for people to put money in also!’

My sis, wrote an update about her favourite nephews in an email to her relatives-to-be in NZ. It is amusing and heartwarming to see the ‘little devils’ from the eyes of their aunt.

 *****

Entry by YiYi （姨姨）

   

Yihang is having his one month holiday (horror horror). His boundless energy can be quite tiring for all of us. And he craves attention as much as his fat little brother. He was very excited about the ‘publicity’ and perhaps the new found fame. Just one day before SPH published the article, they ran a small teaser ‘Find out why Yihang needs dentures’ next to his photo. My shameless nephew asked his mummy “How come my picture so small?” Kids these days are very vocal, aren’t they?

Yixiang just learnt to clap wit his small fists. And he’s always hungry. When he doesn’t get enough food, he will cry till his face turns red and starts kicking. This little emperor is very hard to please. He hasn’t started walking yet but can crawl very very fast, although he looks a bit clumsy. He doesn’t like to play with his own toys and takes pleasure fighting for the same toys with his brother. And he likes to sit on Yihang.

Well, you can guess who wins the fight. :)

     - The Straits Times, Mind Your Body, Wednesday July 27, 2005 (coverpage) -Talking about Yihang’s condition openly to friends and relatives was initially difficult, sharing about parenting our special child was a milestone but having him appear in front of the whole nation was a challenge, which after much deliberation, we took up. We hope that our experience will be an inspiration to others, especially parents of children with special needs. With love and patience, we will be able to help them reach their potential and live lives to the fullest.Lets’ celebrate parenting.

- The Straits Times, Mind Your Body, Wednesday July 27, 2005 (p6) -

No Sweat (.pdf 315KB)

Puzzles, crayons, books and toys were strewn all over the home, yet Yihang was bored. If this sounds all too familiar, having some fun with play dough might just be a good idea.

Playing with dough offers great learning experience. It stimulates their senses of touch and smell and sometimes rather unfortunately, taste too in the case of my nine-month old YiXiang.

As they roll, squeeze, squashed, knead, poke, pinch and shape the dough into all sorts of things, they learn about co ordination, practice their vital motor skills and strengthen their muscles.

It is also a good activity for bonding, as we sat around, chatting and help each other along with our models.

The kids creative masterpieces are real gem! Their imagination are stretched  to the fullest as they bake cookies, design jewelries and create animal, which sometimes happen to resemble Extra-Terrestrials!

Look at our masterpieces!         

And I’ve found this great site which offers step-by-step instructions on numerous interesting clay modeling projects for kids. I’ve tried some. 

Why this blog?

Many had asked.

And were amused to learn that it stemmed from my fear of death.

In December 2003, I was sent to China for a school collaboration exploratory trip;  so called ‘business trip’. Let me say that it was a trip of great bearing as I was just promoted and needed to set new directions for my department. Not wanting me to feel miserable spending Christmas alone, my supportive husband traveled with me.

Our second son, YiXiang was conceived right after the trip :)

I was extremely reluctant to go. My high anxiety was caused by the sudden illogical fear of death, which I’ve never felt before. It wasn’t death per se, but the fear of leaving behind my precious son, all alone, without knowing the love of his parents.  

A couple of days before we left, I wrote a letter (not published) – the first in a series of letters to Yihang. It wasn’t until late last year I was acquainted with weblogs.

Since then, I’ve been writing regularly.

Apart from serving as a record of snippets of our sons childhood and our parenting journey, I believe these entries will helps the children know us better as we share about our friends, our likings, our dreams and our stories.

Above all we want these entries to reiterate our love for them, explain the fears we encounter, tell the tears we shed, convey the hope we have for them and thank them for the joy they brought to us.

And if anything untoward were to happen to me tomorrow, I will rest in peace, for I’ve updated my blog!

This afternoon we brought Yihang to an alopecia support group meeting initiated by Tess. Alopecia is a Greek term meaning “hair loss”. Yihang did not ‘lose his hair’; rather, he was simply born without hair in some areas on his head. Since existing hair will not cover the bald patches, his Kong Kong (公公) diligently shaves him every week, hence his much prided botak head!  We decided to join the support group because we want him to meet others like him and we want him to know that he’s not alone in this journey.

We got acquainted with Tess after reading her story published in Mind Your Body, Straits Times (.pdf 436KB) about two weeks ago. We applaud her courage for appearing as her ‘true’ self in front of the nation. We saw a bald lady but perceived a courageous and strong person. I believe her self confidence and acceptance which led to her successes is an inspiration to many, like us. She is indeed an amicable and beautiful lady in every sense.

The meeting started off with an introduction and some alopecians shared their experiences. Listening to their stories, prompted me to think about the stages of death and dying defined by Elizabeth Kubler Rose –first disbelief and denial, then, anger followed by depression and finally acceptance. All of us are in different stages of the same journey, with some desperately seeking a cure and trying to come to terms with their conditions, while others long accepted their condition, not allowing it to get in the way of their fulfilling lives.

For Tess, she took a step beyond acceptance. She has made it her mission to share her story and motivate people who have the same medical condition as her. She gave hope and courage to others in the same plight.

Life goes on, and can be very fulfilling if you can face the world with your true self.  

We hope that our son will follow in her footsteps but we will first lead by example.

*****

 William, Tess supportive husband shaves himself bald.

 Way before we met this couple, Tian How decided that he will shave bald to give support to Yihang, if the there is such need one day.

Though I have never told anyone before this, I will gladly do the same, for my beloved son.

 He will never have to journey alone.

 *****

 

Kids are like alarm clocks that work seven days a week – Yes, even on weekends!

It was a nice Saturday morning to laze a little in bed, but as usual, the kids were already making a racket with horns and rattles.

I dragged myself out of bed, threw a loaf of bread, some biscuits, peanut butter and jam into the picnic basket and headed for Botanic Gardens.

Sitting on the dew wet grass, sipping  my coffee while capturing the early morning sun as it filters through the trees and watching the kids play with their father. That was the most nourishing breakfast for the soul.

 

Yihang sprawled on the cold stone bench to ‘cool’ himself

 

If

you’ve read under the blanket using a torch

If

 you’ve hidden a book under your desk in school

If

 you’ve soaked a book trying to read in the showers

 

You will understand why my life came to a standstill

as

I have a date with Harry.

It’s infuriating, annoying, exasperating and simply torturing. Waking up once, twice or three times during the night to ‘eat’ is not uncommon for breastfed babies but for the past week, Yih Xiang has been keeping me up all night with his insatiable appetite!

Foggy brained and blurry eyed with the immense urge to strangle someone, I decided not to decipher if the widespread belief that babies will sleep better with just a bit of cereal before bedtime a fact or a fiction.

Yi Xiang enjoying his supper consisting of milk and biscuits.

I’ve been having the luxury of good five hours undisrupted chunk of sleep! Keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed!

I am beginning to love Wednesdays. The bunz will be with their grandparents and I get to enjoy the day on my own.

This week, I had the privileged company of my sis.

It was an afternoon planned for window shopping but we ended up with an item each from Zara! (Need I mention – my sister has expensive taste!! I’ve never shop at Zara.) We relived the good old ‘clothes hunting’ days. We browsed through the shop, picked the items that caught our attention, headed towards the fitting rooms for a mini fashion parade and got each other’s opinions before deciding to part with the precious few dollars in our pocket.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the world go by while sipping our ice late and indulging in a deliciously sinful piece of chocolate cake.

Can’t help but to feel like a tai tai, or by Gracie’s definition, fai fai (fake Tai Tai)

I ‘google’ a prespective employer to better prepare myself for an upcomming interview. The ultimate narcissist in me, I ended up doing a search on myself using several key words and search engines.  

**********

 

by Google Logo Maker

Mediacorp TV: Episodic Synopsis – Ladies First

‘How many hats can a woman wear before she is worn out? Watch as Janice Chuah shows us how dedication, commitment and a whole lot of love can go a long way!’

[Didn’t know they have a website on this. Ancient. The programme was aired way back in 2002 though it was just repeated *again* two Saturdays ago! Din't manage to catch it? Here's the transcript]

 

National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasia (NFED) : Families Pitch in To Raise Awareness of Ectodermal Dysplasia

‘Janice Chuah wrote the story of her family’s experience in having a child diagnosed with HED in Today’s Parents Magazine, February 2005’

[Though I do not mind NFED mentioning this in their website, I’ve never inform them about the article. They did not inform me that they link me up either. I intend to follow up and probably email them the article to benefit other families affected by Ectodermal Dysplasia] 
 

Institution for Knowledge Innovation and Technology (IKIT) : Fostering Knowledge Building Communities – Potentials and Challenges December 11, 2003: video conference minutes

[I was listed as participant from Yio Chu Kang Public School. Obviously a mistake, should be ‘Primary School’]

Ministry of Education : MOE ExCEL Fest

‘Learning Science Through Theatre, Music and Art. This session allows participants to experience how pupils are engaged in a ‘mini production’ to learn science concepts in an environment that encourages the spirit of I&E to take root and flourish through research, oral presentations, writing and use of Information Technology (IT)’

 [Listed as participant representing Yio Chu Kang Primary School]

Guangyang Secondary School : Feature on Arts

‘A modern art-piece on the tyranny of time’ by Chuah Geok Lin.

[This is super classic! I left the school more than 15 years ago!!. The art piece was was my O’levels project work. I since presented it to my art teacher, Mr Chua as a token of appreciation for his guidance. It’s hanging in one of the walls in his home and he proudly shows them to his guests!]

Ministry of Education Press Releases : Singapore Thinkquest Junior Awards Event 2002 Cum Launch For 2003

[I was the registered coach for Yio Chu Kang Primary School for the national  web design competition and our entry Singapore Heritage tour bagged a silver]

Ministry of Education Press Releases : Singapore Thinkquest Junior Event 2001 Cum Launch For 2002 

[Again the same competition as mentioned above. That was the first year our school entered the competition and my team won a GOLD]!

********** 

 Geeze, this is scary! See how much information has been revealed about me – from which secondary school I attended to where I’ve taught and what activities I’ve participated in.

 And yeah, you’re rite… I am so full of myself! Din’t the title serves as a warning!?

 

Yihang showed a sudden interest in singing Chinese song. Really tickled our funny bone!

Use Apple Quicktime to view this 0.85 MB clip

 

About two years back, we redeemed Morton’s of Chicago dining vouchers using our credit card reward points.

From the moment we walked in, we were impressed by wonderful ambience, the attention from the staff and great presentation. However, we were shocked when we saw the menu – everything was a la carte and extremely pricey. Appetizers were at over S$20 and entrees were around S$80. Two steak dinners with one appetizer and side item each, including dessert but without wine rang in at almost $300.00! However, the steaks were superb and the deserts were heaven. We agreed that Morton’s was a fabulous place and we would love to go back again.

Last Saturday, we went back to Morton’s to celebrate our ‘belated’ wedding anniversary. Called us cheapos! From the soup to the entrees and all the way to the side dishes– we shared! The servings were huge anyway! Well, the good thing about sharing in such a posh restaurant is we didn’t have to dig both noses into the same plate since they split the portion for us. My favorite part of dinner, as always, is dessert and that was the only item we ordered one for each. Their desserts were so special that we have to decide when we were ordering our entrees because they make them fresh.

Morton’s gets our vote - its a fabulous place. It has the atmosphere and the food. And this time round our bill shrunk by a third. 

As a teacher, I enjoy talking to kids – I love to listen to their honest and innocent observations and their attempts to explain the world around them.

As a parent, listening to Yihang  and sharing ideas and observations with him has helped his language development. It strengthens our relationship and creates wonderful memories.

We delight in the funny and heart-warming things our four-years old toddler say hence I’ve made an effort to write them down and created a little collection.

Here’s the latest.

**********

Hubby and I were discussing our housing plans. I made a causal remark that we could consider upgrading to a condominium.

 

 

Yihang : That’s a good idea! How about Savannah CondoPark!?

 

 

(Yihang has been fascinated by Savannah CondoPark since he saw the advertisement on the newspaper last week. He has been urging us to buy a unit there because the place is fun, got hippopotamus and elephants and a big pool with bridge. Can swim swim swim around the whole day!) 

**********

Tian How was asking me to sell our old camera, Cannon G1 on-line.

 

 

Yihang : That’s a good idea! I can sell my paintings too. Last time tried to sell it outside the house but nobody buys. You can put my drawings on the blog and see who wants to buy!

It was an evening out with my sis and the bunz

  A treat to Swenson’s never fail to elicit squeals of delight

Yihang.

 

  

The afternoon was spent enjoying a luxurious spa manicure and pedicure and a euphoric facial massage followed by a relaxing afternoon tea.

 

 

Pure Indulgence.

All by myself.

No kids.

 

 

It was my day out to give myself the well deserved break.

 

   

I’ve been busy all week preparing for the MOE ExCEL Fest and going for some interviews, as well as entertaining my cousin, Haoyi (now better known as Carmen) who came to visit from KL. Besides recounting all the naughty and embarrassing things she did as a kid, we brought her shopping, swimming and picnic at the beach.

Time flies. I could still remember the excitement and joy when we met her for the first time in hospital. She was but a scrawny, little thing and all that she wanted was a pacifier! We watched her grow from a mischievous toddler to a voluptuous and attractive young lady. And like any teenagers her age, she’s currently lost in the labyrinth of love. But with her intelligence (she won a full scholarship to do her engineering degree in Monash), I am sure she will find her way out.

 

(The Holy Family on our home alter) 

We believe that we were appointed by Someone above to parent Yihang, our special child. Whenever my boss throws me a task that I am not too confident in, I will tell her to let me mull over it before deciding whether to embark on it.

Unfortunately, our BOSS from above did not ask if we were up to taking this mammoth responsibility of parenting this special child, for HE must have knew our answer would be “Please look for someone else!”

That was why Yihang came into our lives barely three weeks after our customary wedding, despite us taking precautions. Accident!? Well, if accidents were to happen, it could have happened anytime. The timing was just right. Yihang was God’s wedding gift to us.

To begin with, I am not a pious Catholic. I drag my feet to church every week, and half the time not even making it there! But there were many incidences that made me crawl back to church and humbly kneel down to pray. And this is one of them …

Before I turned in yesterday, I told Tian How, I do not dare to look at Yihang for I do not want him to see the tears and the fears in my eyes. I do not know what the future holds for him. I worry that he will be teased mercilessly in school, I could anticipate his disappointments when he is rejected for a part in a play, for competitive sports or even entry to medical school simply because he has a genetic condition. I could feel his hurt way before the day he is being rejected by the girl he sets his heart on, simply because he has a genetic condition.

Times like these, God never fails to reassure me that He understands my fears and He is with us in parenting Yihang and helping to bring the best out of this special child.

This morning, the first thing that stared at me was the photograph of a lady completely bald, featured in Mind Your Body, Straits Times. Ms Tess Lim suffers from a condition known as alopecia areata – she is completely hairless from the top of her head to the tip of her toes! She battled with teasing, rejection but finally regained self esteem and confidence.  She has a successful career and a doting husband who looked beyond her physical appearance and medical condition.  Tess’s Story, published in Mind Your Body, Straits Times (.pdf 426KB) moved me to tears and gave me hope.

I am assured that Yihang will be able to battle whatever that comes his way with the love of God, with the love of his family, with our love. 

All these years for laughing at my sis for turning up at her Kindergarten to find the place in pitch darkness because she was one day too late for the lantern festival celebration, I was one week too early for an interview today!

Totally embarrassing!

Bad Karma!