12th May is my birthday!

It's my birthday on 12th May 2010! :) I had a fantaburrific day! :) Let me tell you all about it...

First we brought Isaac in to school... then hubbs and I went for breakfast at West Coast Macs ;p We bumped into hubbs' students from the school he used to teach in and he had a nice time chatting with them... meeting his students never fails to brighten his day :)

Then we rushed home, and brought Asher & Shawna out to the paediatrician for their jabs. Guess what?! Asher weighed in at 7.15kg and Shawna at 6.2kg!!! Wooohooo!!! So they're both officially more than twice their birth weight! What a great birthday gift from the twins! :)

Date	Asher	Shawna
12May10 (18 wks)	7.15kg,61.5cm	6.2kg, 58cm
15Apr10 (14 wks)	6.7kg, 61cm	5.5kg, 58cm
8Mar10 (9 wks)	5.6kg, 58.5cm	4.7kg, 55cm
18Feb10 (6 wks)	5.1 kg	4.6 kg
6Jan10 (at birth)	2.770 kg, 48cm	2.815 kg, 49cm

Pd says they're both doing well physically. Asher's at 75th percentile for his weight, and Shawna at 50th percentile. So both are good. We're still on 100% breastmilk at the moment, so that's cause for celebration! I'm hoping to stay on 100% till the twins are at least 6 months old. If I can do 2 years like I did with Isaac, that'd be best. We'd see how it goes.

But the weight gain by Asher & Shawna's great, and developmentally they're doing everything they should be doing - I think! Dr Agnes Tay is not exactly very vocal when it comes to such things - she just goes "Good, good! Clever boy, Asher! Clever girl, Shawna!" Even when I ask her "Why you say he/she clever?" in a bid to try to get her to elaborate, she doesn't say much. Maybe I ask the question wrongly. Perhaps I should just say "Can you please elaborate?" Hmmm... mental note to ask questions point blank in future.

We brought the twins home, and I did a quick pump before we went to Jurong Point for lunch - not before we checked out the movie timing for Ironman 2. Managed to get in a decent lunch (ang mo jiak at my request! ;p) before we went for the movie at 2pm. It's been like more than 2 years since we last went to a movie theatre for a movie!

Not bad, the movie, but we thought Ironman 1 was better. The sound quality sucked though - too loud too loud and sharp - hurt our cultured ears kekeke... Guess we were too pampered by our sound system at home. Plus we couldn't prop up our legs and were constrained by the seats. We really prefer watching movies in our home theatre - and this trip to the theatre reminded us why!

The only downside to watching movies at home is that we have to wait for the shows to come out on dvd before we can watch them. But that doesn't bother us very much. We're not hung up on being trendy and IN with the times. ;p

After the movie, we went to have a neck & shoulder massage... wooo shiok shiok... though in the beginning, I was like in throes of pain. But I gradually got used to the kneading, and soon I was in dreamland - took a nap! :)

We upped, refreshed! And realise it was getting late. Quickly skipped home for a pump again, before we went to pick Isaac from school. Then we went to West Coast Plaza for dinner at Sushi Tei :) and topped off the night with 2 slices of cake at Starbucks and Isaac & hubbs singing Happy Birthday to me in English and Chinese :) shall upload the vids I took of that.

I was a great day! I got to spend time with Asher & Shawna, with hubbs, and then Isaac too. Perhaps it sounded like an ordinary day to you. But with a toddler and 2 infants in our lives, this day is certainly not the 'norm' nowadays! We usually eat at home now that my in laws are staying with us and coz it's easier to settle the kids that way. So eating out is a treat.

hubbs and I also made it a point to take leave on this day and spend the day together. This is a luxury thanks to hubbs' position with MOE HQ, coz when he was teaching - he couldn't take leave. We had initially wanted to do something more out of the ordinary, like some sporting activity. hubbs suggested the adventure rope course and flying fox at Sentosa. I was thinking of canoeing, cable skiiing or wakeboarding.

But in the end, we decided on movie & massage. Coz I can't help but think back to when I fractured my elbow 2 years ago while rollerblading when Isaac was about 9 months old. Here are the old posts on my arm: pam's arm update; breastfeeding with cast on. I thought I had a post telling you guys on how I broke my arm... can't seem to find it though...

Anyway, like I said, I was thinking back to that time and how inconvenient it was for me to have my arm injured, with a baby to care for. Now, I have a todd and 2 babies! It'd be hell if I broke my arm or any other part of my body this time again. And given that my body ain't in too good a shape lately... we decided that some sedentary activity is probably best.

I was reflecting on how I really made it a point to want to take time out to celebrate my birthday this year... Not that we didn't celebrate it in the past. Sure we did. But it was the usual dinner with family, cut cake, etc. I usually didn't bother taking leave. It was usually quite a 'normal' day for me. But this year... I wanted to celebrate it... and I wondered why...

Maybe it's because I feel very mortal nowadays. I mean, not like when I was younger (defined as: before having kids? ;p ) and feel kinda invincible. Well not invincible, but like, ya know everything is like "won't die one lah" kinda feeling... or "die die, so what?" ... I dunno how to say this.

Oh did I tell you that I thought I was going to die? There was this period during this twins pregnancy of mine, that I thought I was going to die in childbirth. Guess it was the hormones acting up, mood swings, coupled with the knowledge that there tends to be complications in giving birth to multiples.

I'd cry and ask hubbs "What if I die? Who's going to take care of Isaac and my 2 babies?". So drama, right? Yeah someone would probably take care of the kidzes, but I wanted to be the one to take care of them! Not someone else!!! I didn't even ask hubbs if he'd remarry - I didn't want to hear the answer - coz either way, it'd make me feel bad.

But yeah, guess motherhood changes you that way. I used to be a daredevil. Well, kinda. Used to cycle down slopes and round corners without braking, drive up to 140km/hr at times, enjoyed watching my collection of sadistic slasher/serial killer movies and reading serial killer books.

Now, the serial killer stuff sends chills down my spine when I imagine that it could have been my own kids who were kidnapped and killed by these serial killers. I think, thrice (okay maybe twice) before I run an amber light or when I intend to jaywalk. I think of all the risks and consequences of doing something, and weighing these carefully, before I do it...

I'm SO glad that we went to New Zealand for our honeymoon and did all those stuff: sky diving, canyoning, cave exploring, climbing atop big rocks... I'd always thought that, given the chance, I'd do all those things again. But I'm not so sure now. I regret that I didn't decide to shell out more money to do a longer skydive. At that time, we thought it was too expensive to pay more to jump from a higher height - for extra time in freefalling - we figured that we shouldn't spend too much where we could help it, and that we can always come back next time to do it, when we presumeably can better afford it. Now, I'm not so sure I would go skydiving again!

So chicken, right? Like the trip to Perth last June, when we went to Pemberton, Perth to see the tree and climb it. Well hubbs climbed, but I didn't. It was just out of the question. I did not even consider climbing it. It was a straight no. I had Isaac for an excuse, like "Oh, Isaac would cry if I climbed up coz he'd want to be with me." But I didn't even need to say it. No one needled me for not climbing, so I didn't need to utter any excuse. But it struck me how I absolutely refused to climb it, when I know I'd have been one of the first to climb that tree if I didn't have kids.

So... I think, it's a celebration of life. It amazes me that I have come this far in life and I have a lot of things to be thankful for. For the first time ever, I thanked my parents for bringing me up. Hehehe... not in person, of course. I said it over sms. They wish me happy birthday over sms, so I replied and said "Thank you for bringing me up this past 31 years." Who says technology makes communication impersonal?! ;p

I also thanked my sister for "tolerating" me this past 31 years. Our relationship when we were younger wasn't exactly very peaceful, if you know what I mean. Typical, lah I guess. But when we look at Rebecca and Isabelle quarelling now, we understand exactly kind of grief we brought our parents. HAHAHA... Retribution, we say. Though I am still praying that Isaac, Asher & Shawna would get along very well and not fight and quarrel as much as my sister and I did! :p

This year, I also made it a point to reply every sms and every facebook message I received wishing me Happy Birthday. I figured since people take the trouble to message me on my birthday, so I should take the trouble to reply, right? In the past, I thought it was a waste of time (facebook) and money (sms) to do so ;p

Sigh. I feel so old, thinking of all this. Oh but you know what?! Just the day before my birthday, I was talking to a new friend, and she was guessing my age to be... 25!!! WOOHOO!!! hahahahahhahahahahahahahahaa!!! It was an educated guess too, coz she knew I had three kids and that I was a uni grad. She thought I married early, had kids early. (Hey you, stop pretending to choke ok. And don't be mean and say people cannot count, ok. Just accept the fact that I look young ;p) hahahaa... then I thought - or maybe I very immature, childish. hmmm... then suddenly, I thought "If she'd seen my tummy pix, she probably wouldn't think I'm so young!" Hahaha what a random thought that was!

Hmmm... kekeke... you want tummy update??? ;p Gross you out, again! Ah!!! I just got a great idea for more blog posts - the GROSS YOU OUT Series!!! wooohooo!!! wait till you see the Pamela's Incredible Twisting Arm!!!