Furious Rash

This started about 10 days ago, a slight rash last weekend. On Monday, I took the boys in for green snot and the GP said its probably contact with some tree as it was only on Nate's right arm. Light antihistamine and some cream later it did not clear. On weds, I bring him to the second doctor, a dermatologist, said to continue the dosage of antihistamine and gave some moisturiser (i found it strange that it had a high level of perfume) and more creams. By Friday it was spreading, more spots on the right arm, some on the left. By saturday, I take him to my friend's dermatologist, he starts having spots on his face.

The dr thinks its part of his genetic make up as he had atopic dermatitis as a child and it can manifest itself in 3 ways, (1) runny nose (which he has), (2) skin (which he now has) and (3) in the lungs and as asthma (which he has never had). The rash seemed consistent except it had an "sinister" bump like quality. hmmm... so she wanted to take a skin sample for the lab (results in a week) but it involves a numbing injection, taking 3mm of skin and stitching up. This is the pic of the stitch up. Nate was very brave, we watched videos on the nokia phone and he got away with a Ben 10 toy. The dr said she wished all her children patients were like him.

On sat afternoon, his eyes seemed to swell and I called the dr, she suggested I give him oral steroids and have them as standby. By night time his right eyelid swells up and we decide to give it to him by morning today the rash was red and furious and his eyes were almost swell shut. The second round of steroids seemed to have done the trick. Swimming and ice cold wipe downs help, exercise and heat makes it worse.

So he is now on the path of recovery (I hope), am tempted to bring him to a chinese dr as well. The dr we have is very responsive and has called and given me her mobile number.

A side story that is worse that this rash... someone we know was held up at gun point leaving her son's school and then they almost break her finger trying to take her ring off.

Water water everywhere!

Ike is alot more cautious a kid than nate. This water park has a big huge bucket that tips over when its full, nate runs to join the others under it, ike is upset when it tips. The park has great water learning principals of gravity, water as energy source and best of all water to shoot others!

Zoo water park

So the zoo is greater and better than I remember it, now it has this really nice water park for the kids and again its really nice! I must bring my swim suit and join in the fun next time! Also Ben and Jerry's are everywhere here...

Today we headed down after school, there are also boat rides and if we come over school holiday, we'll somehow plan for staying the day.

Am debating whether or not to take the kids to Hangzhou over their first april break. Give them a taste of China or maybe let them settle in a bit more.

What goes on???

Here are two mangoes from our mango tree, we are a very popular household with the domestic help and gardeners in the neighborhood as we have 3 old mango trees with lots of fruit and they all like it raw. Wendy has promised to pickle some for me (she took 20!). The Bangladeshi guy from next door also took 20 and helped me pick my ciku's.

We built our trampoline and we realise we didn't pay for the one with the net!!! argh, now to find a safety net. Its now our alternate clothes line or maybe bedsheet drying area. Bullet with his new RED collar and with all the builders and people with tools, nate is donned in his bob outfit down to showing off his chest. He has some strange eczema/rash on his hand... dr thinks he is allergic to some plant??

I took nate to little gym on weds and he likes it alot, I need to sign him up before I lose that one slot! and also get cracking on other activities... can't believe another week has gone by like that!

Dilemma...

for those who have an opinion on this, email me!

So both Nate and Ike are doing well at school, Nate is coping well as he came in mid year and can make it to next year BUT he is lagging behind the others, also I have them in half day school whereas the bulk of the kids are in full day so he does kind of miss out on stuff learnt in the afternoon.

Should I extend his hours from 1230 to 3? He is still only 4.5 years old... I thought maybe extend till 3 when school restarts in September... If I extended him, should I extend Ike or maybe pick Ike up and go do something else? Ike anyway will have to retain a year as they accept kids at 3 and made an exception for him or... as he is skipping naps, maybe to extend his hours too?

Today they had assembly, this is different from what I know as assembly in school... they do little performances, Ike's class had their module of the community and he was the postman! he even said postman in chinese!!! :) Nate... well what prompted me to think about extending his hours is that he seemed a bit lost and didn't participate whereas in SA he loved being on stage.

Maybe I should be patient?

I did look into extra curricular activities as well and I think for nate, we''l try karate, swim and language, will expose him to a musical instrument but not sure if he would really like it, as for ike, he asked for music and art... he is a leftie by the way.

here's a painting by nate in chinese ink and brush of autumn chrysanthemums (I think) as they are doing seasons...

Some photos of 14 mount echo

Here are some photo's... the huge toy room, wonder how I will rotate toys?

Loren's throne chair, which i attempted to put at the side of the room till we need it... but he placed it back at the head of the table. Behind the big chair is a small patio area where we have our dinner, its quite nice over looking the huge pine trees and its a lot less formal.

The very mask crowded entrance way with the african shoe chair from Christine. Now to look for a table maker to convert the african door into a table.... marcia... h e l p...

First birthday party here!

Nate went to his friend, Catriona's birthday party... unfortunately it was raining so the kids could not hit the pool or the outdoor jungle gym but had to stay indoors with one tiny jumping castle, worse they had access to the switch so they kept switching the motor on and off making the castle deflate and reflate and were all on top of one another. The room was quite small so alot of kids, noise and parents squished in.

The food was alot of kiddie favourites, pizza and sausages... but a good thing here is that all the party packs to date has small toys and minimal sweets. I did notice though alot of the moms here seem more matronly. My friends all also seem to have aged, many of the guys have braved the grey and not dyed their hair black anymore, the girl friends have tiny crow feet. I met a friend for dinner last night and found an area in singapore that looked like NY Soho, chic little tiny stores.

I also read a pamphlet on housing here, so there are only 2,400 plots of land that are designated GCBs (good class bungalows) and thats why there is a "shortage" of them and why it was a bit of a challenge to get one as most are owner occupied and owners who rent also have "holding power" and can choose not to rent if they do not want to.

Which reminds me, near our home is a house that is so huge it looks like an apartment, it has a big eagle outside (must be indonesians), the eagle is bigger than the eagle at Christine's Eagle Canyon roundabout and the owner has like 6 ferraris parked outside (almost resembling a sports car show room). Mom and I just had to burst out laughing, it was hard to figure out if it was an apartment, a house, a showroom or eagle canyon entrance!

The boys at school

Here is Ike taking his big bag to school... I didn't get the smaller bag because we pack his lunch to school. Plus with homework files and spare clothes the small bag would have been too small. Guess he will have to grow into this one.

Nate and his buddies trying to pry open my car.... found a kid that is even more active him. Apparently as a child, his friend pasquale would not be able to be still in a mom child wrap around thing and was attempting to climb out of his crib before 1. I think Nate did that before 2 and Ike is still happily in his crib. Pasquale is a big strong guy with a big strong will at 22kg.

5 days of packing...

Why do we have so much stuff???? and we now have a bigger house than the last one (why??), anyway we have been unpacking for the last 5 days and are about 80% done now. We have large rooms here and even a meditation room. A huge pool and I have ordered a pool net from South Africa. The options here (only 2) is to leave the pool open or with a wooden gate and that is not safe enough and triple the price. Well contractors are cheap here, am sure the installation will not cost me a hand and leg.

I spent saturday hanging up loren's masks. It took a long time to put it all up, here is a picture of how the handy men here work, one hand vacuum other hand drill, he did 90% of all our hanging stuff in a day. Won't take him an hour to hang our remaining 12 paintings.

The house is built on slope so the master bedroom is on the bottom layer. My inner thighs feel like I have been on the stair master for 5 days. The dogs will get loads of exercise! I hung the boys paintings to their eye level, they seem to be enjoying the paintings

The house is older but the rooms are big, so our furniture looks tiny in the rooms... and we have bought more stuff. :(

The guest room is ready....

IKE A SHUSTER

I can't remember if I ever posted this but yes we named our child IKEA Shuster well its actually Ike A. Shuster but did not realise it at that time. Today i went to Ikea and am so glad they have one here! Th kids rooms and so many other things are sorted! I think its alot better than Mr. Price home, wonder why they have not hit SA yet.

So we have found a home... the agent had to nag, cajole, beg(?) the landlord, its about 30% less than his asking price and a month ago he turned down someone paying S$24k more per year. Well the landlord turns out to be the same as the one renting out the humoungous 10k sq ft place in Upper thomson and has several properties on Sentosa, all available at the same time - NOW.

They are very nice people though, seemed down to earth, when we went to visit their home to sign the Tenancy Agreement, they were at their mom's and all lived in a few terrace houses in the same neighbourhood tho they plan to move in together somewhere on Holland Grove are to a big 9,800 sq ft place. We'll invite them to shabbat.

So the house? its in a really nice area, easy for the kids and loren and the city access, all the other agents said we got a really good deal, the house is not fancy or anything (both our neighbours are) but we have a pool, ample space for playroom, guest room, our trampoline etc. Am so glad this process is over and I took this morning to reconnect with some of my friends in the city and walk thru IKEA to check out what we can get there.

Next week.... the move...

The tide may be turning...

It feels like the tide may be turning on the housing situation or is it that we have many balls in the air and now may get one?

The service apartment is starting to get quite small... with the boys waking each other up!