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!

House hunting continues

So... House 5 rejected us (am really getting used to rejection!) and wants to wait on the other offer that may be 7% higher. House 8 is now the main house and can only view on monday, House 6 is our backup and while all that is going on, a few of our other choices seem to be back on the market... House 9 is willing to go on cheaper rent and do major renovations... will retake a look at that one tomorrow.

In the last two days I have expanded my pool of agents from 3 to 6. I have a spreadsheet to organise all this information.

Tomorrow is another day of me zipping around looking at houses from the outside and a treat, meeting with someone who knows about permaculture.

On monday we will have to book the service apartment for another month... its not bad living. Though I feel like I am refilling gas alot! the tank is definitely not the 180 litre Prado tank, needing a fill every 2 weeks, this one needs a fill every 5 to 6 days. Need to figure out where the Shell stations are too as I get a 5% rebate.

Ike's first week at CNIS

We had prepped Ike the whole of last week by going there for about 30 mins a day, over the weekend he started talking about "my class". The teachers were concerned he is a bit too young as the youngest in the class had already turned 3 and was a mature 3, that he could be disruptive and not yet fully toilet trained. So last week was a crash course in toilet training (ie mommy had to be more consistent with ike and no diapers, thank god olivia is here!). Agreed with the teacher that Olivia will be there to help with the potty process.

Monday : mommy leaves, olivia stays in school. Ike cries for 15 minutes but eventually joins the class and even finishes a project (dr's bag and the stuff inside). He only wears the uniform bottom but agrees to top the next day. Teacher's comment... rough beginning but good progress. Ike by the way is more advanced than the other kids in scooping food into his own mouth and eating faster than anyone else.

Tuesday: olivia stays and in the corner of the classroom... Ike stuck to her alot, did not want to participate, sat on her knee. Teacher's comment... will try something different the next day. But again, number 1 for eating, the other kids are either fed or helped along or are not good food scoopers. Ike started telling olivia he is hungry at 11am, starvation is the way to go.

Wednesday: olivia stays outside the classroom and comes in to check if he needs to go wee... also not great, he gets upset that she isn't close by. He also does not participate and the other kids are wondering how come he gets to play by himself in the corner but they have to do songs and work... he is still the champion eater.

Thursday: olivia leaves with me but actually does stay outside incase they need her. All goes well until Ike see's Nate at the gym and wants to go with Nate... cry cry cry, Nate is quite sweet and holds his hand and brings him back to his own class and tells him that he must stay there as he has "work" to do. Olivia is trying to duck away so that Ike does not see her but nate spots her.

Ike really likes the Chinese teacher Miss Jenny and allows her to hug and kiss him and calls him affectionately, mingming or more like miiiing ming. When his english teacher, Ms. Jackie tries that, he says, "i'm ike, IKE". He also was able to tell Zuzu (the burmese helper in the class, yes there are 3 people there for 12 children) that he needs to go wee. In the last 4 days, no poo in the morning nor even accidents!

Here are pics of us on the double decker bus ride. 10 mins into the ride, ike falls asleep! I later take them to the toy store. I had promised nate his bat cave (in the container) when we get to singapore and if he does not whine about going to school and does his homework and the umbrella covenant of being good, he had filled all that so I said he could get another toy while our container awaits a home. Ike seems to not be bribable yet... he vehemently refused olivia helping him with dinner (mom helped him in the past but now has another job as a real estate agent, calling up leads myself), but for a Thomas DVD, he fed himself.

On the housing front... will post our house 7, house 8, house 9.... you guys must think we are too fussy but there is a shortage of houses in our budget category, lots of demand so everyone elbowing each other. A good potential one popped up today, the tenant got his budget slashed by half so we will be paying 50% more than the poor chap's slashed budget. We can have the place if we don't demand too much and move in as soon as they move out. Nice area, right next to the botanical gardens and in Tanglin. I do not have any more than my 10 toes to cross.

Still no house...

Well... its time to take a philosophical view on house hunting? this is what I enjoyed today... while checking out the three potential houses, I got to also do the following around the neighbourhoods... (1) Walked some trails on the nature reserve at Mac Ritchie, (2) Checked out a HDB area called Ghim Moh and found a nice community center with activities for the kids and yoga and cooking for olivia. (3) Found Saddle Club, a children's horsey riding place and free manure!! the essential bit to my organic garden and worm farm, I am already receiving orders to build vege gardens and plan to charge an arm and leg.

So have now looked at over 30 houses...

House 1: Experience is to no trust landlords that tarik harga or buy time or take their time as they hold us up and then dump us for a better offer. Nice house, nice garden and trees, not so nice was the one strange room and the PMs residence with the Gurkhas nearby.

House 2: Someone outbid us. Actually am glad we didn't get it, its too big to maintain, unfortunately another one has come up but the bidding etc process will take us to end march.

House 3: is quite perfect... nice older house, nice land, nice pool, near a nice club... nice wife landlord but husband wants 20% more than our budget. House not rented for a year but I guess they are rich enough.

House 4: Got snapped up before we could try and bid as we failed on house 3.

House 5: Near Holland Village and our favourite restaurant (where loren took me on first date and proposed a year later), bid with them now... has big big park outside for the kids, not so much land but decent, near Ghim Moh so I have a chinese dr, wet market, chinese dispensary, hawker food, Ulu Pandan Community Center, all close by.

House 6: considering.... its like a merge of our taiwan house (big basement for billard table, wine cellar, nature reserve just behind) and SA (large toilets...), nice owner but in Upper Thomson. Weekdays will still take me 30mins to get the kids to school and its huge, like 10,000 sq ft (who needs so much space?). The guests have their own outhouse with living room and small kitchen (and will never leave). There is rooms we will never use? First time I have seen a dining room that will make our dining table look tiny and even loren's throne chair! Oh and the top floor has a laundry chute down to the laundry room (huge). Kitchen is huge, everything is huge, wonder if I"ll lose the kids? Apparently we may have snakes and monkeys as visitors too but nothing our dogs can't take care of...

House 7: Not bad but should not be the budget we pay, could be lower, small park nearby, Bukit Timah living.

So... lets see what tomorrow brings, there is another older house like a black and white to view, Maybe news on House 5 will also be positive?

Cable car

Well looks like we found a house, no more dilly dally, am giving the landlord a check asap! Wish us luck and send us lots of good positive house vibes! Strangely the market is picking up, prices are going up again and many houses are disappearing from the market. I guess people are trading up with their budgets and the lower rents. Hmm maybe I rented out my place too low?? Such is durkha?

So I won't describe our first choice house yet, in case we jinx it. But we have two choince, I do hope to get our choice 1.

This is us this am on the cable car, they start at 830... a round trip takes about 30 mins, i think I am too old for these things... I could feel a twinge in my bladder, its quite scary... esp since I know there was an accident some 30 years ago, but since then I guess they have made sure it never happens again. I sure don't feel as fearless like I did 25 years ago when my parents took me on this... They boys? they loved it.

Nate got more "handsome" compliments... maybe I should sign him up with a talent agency.

More KL photos

The chinese dispensary...

A strange fruit, very tart... originally from South America

Nate and his dinosaurs

Ike and his facial expression

Photo's from KL

The water park at KLCC, the river we took the boys to... dada when he visited...

Their School

Nate has adjusted nicely to school, has friends and I have been elevated to the rank of mommy's that have kids that have homework to do!!! He was quite keen to do his homework except that we do not have crayons in the service apartment... got to go buy some on the weekend.

They have assembly on Fridays and a little performance, am not sure what stage they are at but it sure lacked the organisation of Broadacres, they do however have fancier gadgets like microphones... the PTA has and overhead projector linked to ones computer... I do miss that farm school where everything is basic and slapped together! At this place, the administrators do not seem to speak to the teachers and the offices are so far!

Ike will start school next week. He will be the youngest, as he is not fully toilet trained (nearly there), olivia will be there with him to ask if he needs to pee or poo and then we can be quite consistent, he only wears diapers to sleep now and has improved alot in the 3 days but when he is playing he doesn't remember. I debated for a long time whether to keep him home and train or to send him and olivia, well olivia doesn't have too much to do at the service apartment and Ike already calls his class, "his class".

We got his uniforms too...

Nate is learning chinese at a rate of a word a day now... waiting for the exponential factor to kick in! so mommy has to do homework and speak chinese maybe even get a chinese GPS! wow I can't imagine homework already...