a spot of singapore

Feelin’ a little Festive

March 1, 2012

So we were at Resorts World’s Festive Hotel for the last 2 days thanks to my mom and my sis who’s back in Singapore for 2 weeks. She wanted to spend some time with the kids and bring them to Universal Studios before she heads back to Melbourne tonight.

While we were driving down to check in on Tuesday, Truett turned to me and said “It’s an AWESOME day today, mommy!”

The boy’s got enthusiasm – I like.

He was right too, because the room was nice and the pool area was even nicer. There was a kid’s play area, a decently-sized pool and a row of gazebos with cushioned sofas for the non-swimming, pregnant people like me to sit and surf the net while the kids went crazy. And for 2 days, their diet consisted of 80% potato chips and 15% sodas and 5% actual food.

We spent the day at Universal Studios yesterday but it was sort of a bummer because it started to pour just as we got to the Shrek World. We took shelter at one of the food places hoping the rain would stop but it didn’t so we did the next best thing and got ponchos.

Here’s one with all the girls suited up. Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous it looks, but we were dry and happy.

Unfortunately, the husband came down with a massive food poisoning and he spent the day curled up and groaning at one of the tables at Jurassic Park while Tru went for the big boy rides with my sister.

Kirsten, who’s too short for anything other than the baby rides, made me go on the carousel 10 times. Which is not an exaggeration because I counted and by the tenth round, I was ready to fall out of my giraffe from boredom. She refused to admit it but I think she was bored too because towards the end, this was how she looked.

We didn’t manage to see any mascots except for this um, I honestly don’t know what to call it. The costume was bizarre but it was at least colorful, I guess, so points for that.

All in all, Tru was right, it was an awesome time.

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coolest kids ever

Darla and the Dog Whisperer

February 28, 2012

We’re heading off to Resorts World Sentosa for a 2-day getaway sort of thing so this will be quick.

This is Kirsten and Mickey. They look like they’re best friends but the poor dog is like Nemo and my little girl is like Darla, the Little Terror from Finding Nemo.

Everyday, she chases him around the house shouting “Mickey I just want to hug you” and most of the time, he’s quick enough to escape her clutches but once in a while, he gets caught by a sneak attack and cornered. She grabs him and pins him down and hugs him and kisses him all over while he struggles to escape. It’s only fortunate that my mom’s poor dog is hardy enough to withstand being man(girl)-handled by her.

And when he does manage to squirm out of her grasp, she’s all “MICKEY COME HERE NOW! YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME YOU NAUGHTY BOY!”

Which is the point he runs to Tru and looks at him with those doggy eyes that say “HELP SAVE ME FROM THIS MONSTROSITY.”

Truett is the resident dog whisperer around here, in that he speaks to Mickey so gently it’s like whispering. Whenever we scold Mickey for doing something bad like rummaging the trash, he’ll run to his rescue and say “Mickey is a good boy, don’t scold him.” So it’s no surprise that Mickey loves him to bits and follows him around willingly.

Kirsten says it’s because they’re both boys and I should get her a ‘girl dog’ but I didn’t want to break her little heart by telling her that it’s really because she’s a terror to animals and if I were a ‘girl dog’, I’d also be running away from her as fast as I could.

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getting ready for baby, pregnancy

First Trimester Wrap Up

February 27, 2012

The first two pregnancies, I spent a lot of time reading the baby guides, browsing the websites and kept up to date every week on exactly how many millimeters the baby has grown.

This time around, I have yet to blow the dust off my trusty What To Expect guidebook. Because I know what to expect. Nausea, bloatedness, heartburn, vomit, swollen feet, incontinence, hemorrhoids, and at the end of it all, a big, fat episiotomy to take home as a present. Fun times.

Well, now that I’m officially out of the first trimester, I thought I’d do a quick round up of all the things you need to know in the first 3 months of pregnancy.

1. Gas, gas, gas

The pregnancy books make it sound so tame – you may experience some bloatedness due to the increase in progesterone. Um, understatement of the year.

The reality is that being pregnant makes you burp and fart like a drunken sailor. The awesomeness of my day is now determined by how much gas I can expel and I’ve never been this happy to pass gas from either end. I certainly don’t enjoy burping and farting in the presence of other people but it’s causing me so much discomfort that I’m past the point of modesty and decorum. Some days, I’m throwing up bile because my gut is so filled with air that something’s got to give. On multiple occasions, I even contemplated sticking a giant needle into my intestines just so I can let out the air.

I’m only glad that I don’t have to sit in an office all day because given the present state of things, let’s just say that I’m not going to be very popular with the colleagues.

2. Sleep all day

Being pregnant is exhausting. It sounds like an excuse pregnant women concoct so they can laze around and be a slug all day but no. I liken it to taking drowsy flu meds – you’re out before you even know it.

Naturally, the husband doesn’t fully understand this concept and he’s all like “you’ve been sleeping a lot lately…what do you do all day?”

“Oh, what do I do all day? Well, on top of taking care of 2 kids, I just spent the day making another human with my uterus. In fact, I made like 2 fingers and half an eyeball today. What did you do all day? Paperwork? Pffffff.”

3. All-day Sickness

Commonly known as morning sickness, this bout of nausea and loss of appetite can in fact happen throughout the day. Smells that you normally wouldn’t mind will suddenly trigger off a gag reflex and next thing you know, you’ve got your face over a toilet bowl. That is if you don’t first throw up in the middle of the street or in the car.

The good news is that this general feeling of discomfort usually disappears after the first trimester, so yay!

4. Baby wants food

Closely related to the morning sickness is the pregnancy cravings. This heightened sense of smell makes you extra picky about what you want to put in your mouth, so you end up craving for food you might not typically want to eat. In a way, it’s not really you craving for stuff, it’s the baby craving for stuff, and we all know that when it comes to making the husband go out on midnight supper runs, using the baby is a far more convincing argument.

However, in an unfortunate turn of events, I find myself averse to meat this pregnancy. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love meat. I eat all kinds of meat, including pork, beef, lamb, crocodile, squirrel, turtle and any form of poultry. And the meatier, the better.

But of late, the thought of meat makes me want to vomit in my mouth so I’ve been loading up on fruits, veggies and carbs. My mom is thrilled because she’s been telling me to eat my vegetables for 29 years and I’m finally doing it out of my own volition. Actually, it’s the baby that’s making me do it.

5. What Libido?

Most doctors will say that it’s ok to do the naughty naughty during the entire pregnancy but the truth is, the first trimester is not a good time to be getting any action in at all. There’s the exhaustion, which means that I’m literally too tired to make the sexy-time because any time I spend in my bed is going to be the sleeping-time. And then there’s the gas, which not only makes me bloatey and uncomfortable, it makes me pass gas at the most inopportune times. Let’s not even go there.

What all this means is that my libido has packed her bags and is somewhere in the region of Inner Mongolia by now.

PS. Oh, and the baby is doing great.

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