Happy 5th Anniversary, hubbs!!!

23rd May 2010!!! Happy 5th year wedding anniversary, hubbs!!! Time flies so fast! It's been 5 years since 23rd May 2005 - and now we have 3 babies already! 3 babies in 5 years - that's like less than 2 years average - we outperform our target!!! kekeke...

This will be an extremely long post... you have been warned :)
These are some of the pix we took pre-wedding. There are many more nice ones too, but in this post, I shall concentrate more on the actual day pix, 5 years ago today. These few... are just to whet your appetite hahahaha... if you wanna see all the pix, I'd be more than happy to pass you the CD I made of all our pictures - you can slip it into your dvd player and view on tv.
It's been a great run, this past 5 years. And we're still having a great time. Sure, hubbs is balding more than ever, and my tummy's flabby and body falling apart - but we believe we're young at heart - and we believe at working together to have a happy family.

This below is my favourite picture :)
Our pre-wedding pictures were taken in Malacca, Malaysia. Nah, we're neither Malaysians, nor have any special attachment to Malacca. It's just that our photographer Triston wanted to make a trip up there to take pictures for 2 other couples, and asked if we wanted our pix taken there as well. Sure, why not?! :)
I was much slimmer then, wasn't I. Slimmer than now, at any rate. hahahhaa... So slim you can see the vein in my forehead and my jawline was very distinctive. And hubbs had more hair then. Haha just on Friday night, my mum saw hubbs' diminishing island of hair above his forehead, and started telling me which hair tonics to buy for him... ;p
Chinese toggs! Marry a cheena-man so must take cheena-pix, ya know! :) This Chinese suit is hubbs' own suit. And he's very proud of it. The kuah (traditional dress) provided by my bridal place was very nice, with lots of embroidery. I look properly domesticated in it too ;p Think the above picture is my mother-in-law's favourite.
We managed to buy this cheong sam in Malacca. Cool huh. hubbs looks like a businessman like that, and me sitting on his lap with the slit so high... look like Shanghai tan? hahaha...
People who know us personally will all know how cheena (chinese sort) hubbs is, and how angmo-fied (english sort), I am. Our volunteer friends who knew both of us before we got together, would have never guessed that we'd get together. Well neither did we, really. That story another time.

But when we did get together, our common friends were most surprised. For we were very different in that sense - me so english, hubbs so chinese! In fact, one question we often get asked is - what language do we converse in? ;p

My good friends from school, and family, sometimes would laugh and comment, that me of all people, would marry such a cheena man - me, who at 15 years old, wanted to marry an ang mo (caucasian) in future - so that I'd have pretty and goodlooking kids. Me, who had to take O'Level Chinese 3 times in order to scrape a pass. Me, who can't speak proper Mandarin...

All I shall about this for now, for this post, is... God works in mysterious ways. He sent me what I needed. So I just took what He gave me, and I've not regretted it one bit, since. My hubbs, my Matthew - do you know what Matthew means? It means "Gift of God". I chose this baptism name for hubbs, my gift from God :)
These are our wedding rings. They're the best rings ever. When I set my eyes on them, we knew these were the perfect rings for us. You see... I wanted white gold, whereas he wanted yellow gold (so obiang?!)... voila! Our perfect rings - both white and yellow gold! :)

Here we go! In celebration of our 5th year wedding anniversary, I present you a summary of this day, 5 years ago! :)

My parents putting on the veil for me. Very soon, I flipped it back. Everyone was like "Pamela! Why you flip back the veil so soon?! Supposed to be done by Eng Wee!" Sorry hubbs, but it was irritating my mascaraed eyelids and I couldn't see properly, so I'd flipped up the veil long before you came! :p
Look! My bevy of beautiful 'sisters'!!! My best friends from university, and volunteer group - which consists of friends from uni and JC as well. Circles of friends overlapping! Six degrees of separation - sometimes it feels like three degrees of separation!
Here comes the groom! My knight in a yellow Jeep!
The sisters laugh and grin sheepishly in anticipation of the torture they'd be putting the guys to. Seems like Zanne and Minjie were the chief negotiators that day. Peishi looks formidable with her bamboo pole.
Here's hubbs, shouting for help from my parents, I think. Sorry - tough luck, you'd have to gain entry the usual way - the hard way! :)

Hubbs and his gang of men in blue. I asked him why blue? He said he didn't know what else to ask the guys to wear. And besides, every guy would probably have a blue shirt. So blue lor.

Come to think of which, I think I didn't know what to ask the gals to wear as well. Then someone suggested whitish, off white, pastel colours. *shrug* sure! knock yourself out!
Not sure why there're mini-umbrellas behind hubbs' and Jeff's ear, looks cute though. hubbs was also getting hot and started to take off his jacket. He was wise to do so... he had a long way to go!
Then obviously, the gals demanded that the guys strip. 5 guys I think. Wenbin, Jeff, Yenn Wah, Kin Loong and Ronnie. Look at Jeff's shy shy look hahaha. Must get Wenbin to see this too. hummmphh laugh at my flabby tummy, lets see how yours now compares to that 5 years ago :p
Guys who didn't strip got to do some pumping. The gals are having a great time, aren't they?!
Well the guys got tired of the proceedings and decided to storm the fort! Ahhhhh!!!!
Mayhem mayhem!!! Bamboos apoking, water hose aflying! The gals scrambled into the house before the guys could sneak in!
Safely in the house, the gals continued their haggling with the men - through the window.
Acknowledging that hubbs is getting on in years, they decided not to physically torture him and his friends anymore. They wanted more entertainment, though...
Singing...
And dancing...
hubbs knows I'd be in my bedroom which faces the back - so he decided to go to the back of the house and seranade me from there. How considerate - I only caught a bit of the action from here onwards. Before that, I couldn't see anything from where I was.

Now at the upstairs windows, the gals continued their duties very well...
Pole dancing!!!
See where Isaac got his drama genes from... not only from mama, also from papa okay... :p
Finally, the gals take pity on hubbs and gives him the go ahead to enter the house!
They cheer on the valiant man as he mounts the steps in search of his beautiful bride in the aircon bedroom :)
Down on his knees, singing at my bedroom door... with the sisters pleading on his behalf too...
He sweeps into the room and plants a kiss on his bride to be!!! Wooohoo!!! Mission completion!!!
We proceeded with the tea ceremony for my side of the family, starting with my parents. Due to time constraint (we were to have the traditional ceremony, church, and wedding dinner all in one day) - we decided to have the tea ceremony for the bride's side over and done with immediately after hubbs gets to me.
My father's side of the family - the Tan Family! :) Not in full force here. We have 9 families, and 23 cousins (my generation) in all. As of 2010, we have 11 grandkids (Isaac's generation) already! :) Grow grow growing!!!
Just the crazy cuzzies! :)
The sisters! Peishi, Daphne, Pey Yng, Weiping, Minjie, Baofen, Weiqin, Cecilia, Suzanne, Ing Shan, Junhui, Huijun and Irene! Thank you gals so much!
At the point in time when when this picture was taken, only Irene is already married. Now, five years later, 11 out of the 14 of us in this picture, have all gotten married. As of today, between us 11, we have 6 kids and one on the way!
As for the men... if I am not wrong... At the time of this picture, 7 out of 14 are married, kid count: one. Now, as of today, All the men are married (except James - soon to be!) - kid count 16 + 1 on the way! Not bad, eh!
Spyderz, this should be the picture in facebook, ok ;) Hmmm... we should collate all these pix :)
Beautiful pix of the girls - I actually look like I'm almost as tall as Peishi! Thanks to the heels I'm wearing and the rest all barefooted! :p
Our wedding car! I had wanted a Hummer or something like that for a wedding car. We tried renting one but it was too expensive, like $5k for that few hours. No way we were going to pay for that. I was sad, and kind of resigned myself to not having a big and fierce vehicle (I like!!!) for our wedding day car.
Hubbs, seeing how sad I was, started smsing all his friends to ask if anyone had any lobang for something like that. He just "smsed blindly" so to speak - for he didn't know if anyone would reply. By chance, one of hubbs' secondary school friends, had business dealings with Daimler Chrysler - and apparently they have a yellow Jeep that they loan out for events such as weddings!
It was a wish come true! Ask, and you shall be given!!! Indeed!!! They did not even charge a fee for it. We wanted to give an ang pow, but the lady refused to accept it either. In the end, we just gave her some oranges, I think. hahaha... We were really most fortunate. Blessed!!!
The only thing about the Jeep was that I had trouble getting on and off it coz it was quite high, and I was in my wedding gown, you see. But no matter, hubbs swept me off my feet into and out of the car with ease! kekeke... helped that I wasn't too fat at that time.
Here we are at our own home, for the groom side tea ceremony. That's our master bedroom. Looks different without the cots, isn't it? :D
Then off to our church The St Mary's of the Angels Church for our church solemnisation wedding mass.
Father John Paul conducted our wedding mass. Here he is talking to hubbs and his two best men: Wan Seng & Zhonghui - hubbs' secondary school best friends.
Here comes the flower girl - Rebecca! my sister's oldest daughter. She was just one and half years old at that time, so we got Yew Ling my cousin, and Junhui my best friend from uni, to walk Becca down the aisle.
See Wenbin behind the girls, carrying Jarrod? Jarrod's my cousin Joel's oldest son. Jarrod was just one and a half too (a month older than Becca), so we got Wenbin (Junhui's then bf, now hubby) to 'walk' him down the aisle too. But... apparently Jarrod was on the floor and refused to walk. So Wenbin picked him up and scuttled down the aisle with Jarrod in his arms.
And here comes the bride, all dressed in white...
I was actually almost tripping over my gown. I'd forgotten to bring my shoes when I went for my final fitting, you see. Coupled with the few kgs that I had lost just days before the wedding (from extreme stress!!!), my gown had gotten looser and so was slightly too long for me!

I literally had to kick my gown as I took each step, to make sure I didn't step on the gown and trip. I was terrified that I'd trip down the aisle, so I took my time walking. So long, in fact, that the music (Pachelbel's Canon in D) ended before I reached the altar!
But reach the altar I finally did, and my Daddy smiled happily as he gave me away ;p
We had a good crowd in church. At least 500 strong, we estimate. That's coz we invisted all friends and family and hubbs' students from school, to the church. We were going to have a 30 table (maximum already) wedding dinner that night, out of which 24 was family and 6 were friends. We both had big families. So, the only other way in which we can invite all our other friends, was to invite them to the church.

Both hubbs and I had a lot of friends each. We joked that if we really wanted to get a venue which could contain all our friends and relatives, it'd have to be the Singapore Indoor Stadium. hahaha...
Our church is beautiful. I've been attending this church since young, and we continued to do so even after we got married and shifted to Jurong West.
Rebuilt in 2004, the building architecture is modern and sleek looking. The architecture has also won a number of design awards.

It is only the wedding couple who would get to sit in the middle of the church like that. It was exhilarating to be there at that moment in time.
We got to do a full wedding mass, complete with communion, because hubbs was baptised by then. I was born Catholic. But hubbs wasn't even a Christian. He did attend some churches before he met me, but wasn't consistently going to one. After he proposed to me, he decided also to be catholic and get baptised :) Of his own free will, ok. I did not force him, I didn't even ask him to do so.

Thanks to hubbs wanting to attend RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults - you had to, before you can get baptised), my father decided to join him and attend RCIA too! Thus, after approx 20 years of attending mass with my mother every Sunday, my father was finally getting baptised!!! hurrah!!!
The flesh and blood of Christ - was like 30% of all the things I ate that day. There was simply no time to eat. Thankfully I had the flesh of Christ to keep me going, eh ;) Almost got drunk on His blood though - coz drank it on an empty stomach!
This is the Unity Candle we're lighting... some symbolic significance :)
Here we go! Signing the wedding registry and wedding certificate. Did you know we forgot to provide a pen? kekeke... Luckily my father-in-law had one on him. So all of you out there who have yet to get married, please remember to prepare a pen to sign your wedding cert with!
Yay! Mission completion!!! On to the church reception!!!
I didn't like wedding buffets coz everyone would feel kinda lost and scattered. Thus, I thought of an idea. I'd have tables at my church reception buffet. Like huge 10 men, wedding dinner sized tables. And I'd assign each different cliques to each table. One clique per table, didn't matter if there were more than 10 pax, some could stand. At least people will have a gathering point.

It worked fantastically well. Everyone had somewhere to be, and it was organised groups for us to go walk about and talk with. We could go table to table to yam seng, like a normal wedding dinner. Was great fun. Very proud of my bright idea ;p
See above, my JJC odac group. Again, at that time, only Baoling & Leslie were married before us. After we got married, Jeff & Pey Yng in the same year as us. As of today, 5 years from then, everyone in the clique has gotten married (including Ian who is getting married in Sept this year), except for Raymond. Kid count: 7 + 1 on the way!
hubbs' Raleigh group! Forced us to kiss for as long as they could hold the 'yam' in the 'yam seng' . Paul, can see your hand on my head, incriminating evidence right here. Oh and look! Chan Peng with long hair! hahaha... Let's just count, between 5 couples: Paul & Swee Ching, Chee Beng & Mui Hong, Joe & Joyce, Chan Peng & Xiaofeng and us... from kid count of 2 at that time, the kid count today is a grand total of 14 !!!
The Crescent table!!! Wooohooo!!! With majority of the gals that day being band girls, our Crescent yam seng was the loudest and sharpest and bestest of the day!!! :)

Wedding dinner!!! We initially did not plan to have a wedding dinner. Seeked the permission from both sides parents and all said ok. Only in January 2005, like 4 months prior to the wedding date, did we decide to have a wedding dinner. hubbs' parents and family felt that there should be one. Ah well, alright. Ask and you shall be given!!!
It was too late to book any decent hotel ballroom for the dinner. These were usually booked a year in advance. So, it was suggested that we have the dinner in a Teochew Chinese restaurant smack in the heart of Chinatown, People's Park Complex.
Onz lah! Since I had my angmoh-fied church wedding, I was open to letting hubbs have his ultimate ching chong dinner. Complete with me in a red cheong sam, and 3 roses in my hair. Mei gui ah mei gui, wo ai ni...

That's me and the ang pow box hahaha
See, sweet Becca, how much she's grown since then. What a difference 5 years makes! Oh and if you think my sister's face looks a bit bloated - that's coz she was heavily pregnant at that point in time. She was pregnant with Isabelle who was born the very next day after my wedding! So, it's Isabelle's birthday tomorrow, 24th May!
That makes 3 birthdays in May! Mine on 12, my mum's on 14th and Isabelle's on 24th. I wanted to have a May baby as well. But it's tough enough getting pregnant, to dictate their month of birth is defnitely not easy!
See, super cheena ching chong venue. I'd also decided not to have any gown changes like one normally does at hotel ballrooms. This is largely because I would need to change in the public toilets in People's Park Complex, which would be quite gross, I think. So we decided that I would wear my cheong sam all the way. This way, we'd also have more time to spend with our guests. Good!!!
Look at the 3 roses in my hair. Hahaha... I love this hairdo. So ching chong, cannot stand it! hahahaha...

Oh oh, look below - side view of my sister - huge huh?!?! But do you know she only put on 5kg for this pregnancy with Isabelle?! *faint*faint*
Look! We danced during the dinner! hahaha... actually, I can't dance for nuts. hubbs can, a bit. He actually took ballroom dancing lessons before!? So I was basically just moving along with him guiding. Fun fun.

Drama queen, drama king. We're as animated as can be. Whadya expect, we're having fun! kekeke...
See here, hubbs is singing and making actions along with the ching chong songs that's being played. Think the one above is hubbs showing me how the moon is representing his heart to me. Something like that.
This must be about a big house that he wants to buy for me next time *giggle*
Karaoke on stage! Gosh, so cheena ching chong, I can't believe it. Our guests had a whale of a time though. Even my mother-in-law went on stage to sing!
For weeks after the wedding, hubbs relatives were still calling my mother-in-law to say how much they enjoyed our wedding dinner. They said it was the best wedding dinner they've attended in ages. I can't read much chinese, so after having some fun, I gave hubbs a kiss, and let him have the stage to himself to do some serious singing...
Our Happy Friends Club volunteer group! :) They were so high after our wedding dinner that they adjourned to Fong Seng to have prata and hang out some more.
Hey, you can see the ringlets in my hair in the pic above hehehee...
So, this day five years ago, in one fell swoop... I went from Miss Tan to being Mrs Tan or Mdm Tan. Hehehe... great difference, you know... for there was born another Tan Family! :)

actual day pix taken on 23rd May 2005

Isaac's sick! :(

Yes, my Isaac is sick! :( I was in a meeting yesterday afternoon when the school/childcare called to say that he is listless and feverish, about 37.4 degrees. Luckily I took the call... I have the school's number saved in my phone, you see... so when I saw it was a call from the school, I thought:"Better answer. They don't usually call for trivial matters."

(pix below taken on 5th March 2010... when Isaac's not sick!)Teacher Lina called, said that Isaac was listless after his nap and didn't want to go to the playground and play; took his temperature and it was 37.4 degrees. Something like that. Some times when you hear disturbing news, you can't remember the exact content. Just roughly roughly.

I was disturbed coz I was stuck in a meeting, and had another at 5pm - when I'd rather run to school to see Isaac. hummphh. Plus hubbs had the car. hummphh. plus MY BABY's SICK?!?! sob sob.

Also, there was no reason for Isaac to be sick :( I mean, it's not like he was caught in the rain, or slept without clothes on, or went without his dinner last night... hubbs had the same reaction as me - he was like "Huh? sick? How come ah?" - which were my first questions as well. Oh yah, we react like that coz... Isaac is seldom sick. Well, seldom sick without reason...
Well luckily hubbs could go pick him up immediately... He then brought Isaac to see our family doctor, who gave him a generous prescription of fever medicine (more generous than the pd usually does...) and an antibiotic too. hubbs was like "huh, isn't he too young for antibiotics?" Which the doctor replied "Rubbish! No such thing lah!"Well, okay, if that's what you say... We weren't inclined to disagree with him - coz he's my Duah Pek. So typical of him. hahaha...
It was about 6pm, so hubbs thought they could come pick me up since my official knock off time was 5.45pm. So they came round to my office. But guess what, I was still in the meeting! It went on and on, round and round. So frustrating! And then suddenly hubbs called me on my mobile - Isaac puked in my office recept! :( oh dear.

I dashed out to the recept to find a huge pool of vomit at the recept area, hubbs with a huge patch of vomit on his pants, and Isaac, stripped down to his diapers only. The poor thing. He's very particular and hates to be in his clothes even for a moment longer if they have vomit on them. He'd request to change out of them immediately. Well, who wouldn't, yah?

But bad mummy here couldn't leave yet. Coz I was taking minutes and was sorta coordinating this meeting. Damn, if I wasn't taking minutes, I think I'd have dropped and go. SIGH. I could only point them in the direction of the toilet... and took off my jacket for Isaac to wear.
Meeting went on insufferably long till it was almost 7 by the time we were done. I quickly ran, got my stuff, and went to meet hubbs and Isaac at the car. Poor Isaac was quiet and listless all the way home. He even fell asleep halfway home, whilst munching on a biscuit.

When he got home, he laid down on the playmat and didn't utter a word. He was so quiet, it was painful to see him like that. Yet when I ask him "Isaac, are you okay?" He'd look me in the eye, nod, and say "Yes."

pix above taken on 5th March 2010
Isaac @ a day to 2 years 7 months

He managed to eat half a bowl of porridge for dinner, and we then got him to bed early. We tried to use a wet towel to 'sponge' his forehead, but he didn't like it. Kept swatting our hands away or moving his head away from us. He didn't seem to mind if I just wet my hands and put it on his forehead - so I just did that for the whole night.

At one point, hubbs felt his head, which didn't seem that hot at that point in time (due to my constantly wetting his forehead) and took his temperature - 38.2! Gosh! And that's after all the 'wetting' I've been doing?! Isaac's never had a temperature this high before :(

Isaac was in pretty good spirits though. Considering. The down end, he'd be quiet. The uppity end, which happened intermittently throughout the night, he'd be cheery and he'd sing and talk to us cheerfully. So cheerfully that hubbs and I would look at each other and give each other an incredulous look.

He's a very good boy lah, Isaac. hiaz.

Get well soon, k, Isaac? Mummy loves you.

Sarong MerBabies!!!

Remember the Sarong MerBoy from 3 years ago? Hahaha... now we have the Sarong MerBabies resurfacing!!! wooohoo!!! :) that was a fun post - I enjoyed re-reading it again ;p (shameless self-promotion of my own writing).
I realised, upon reading that old post, that I never really explained why we started using the sarong. Isaac was a big baby you see. Well, I mean, he grew to be pretty big for his age when he was just a few months old. By the 2nd month, he had already more than doubled his birth weight of 3.22kg. I was breastfeeding him "on demand" you see - i.e. whenever he made so much of a sound or fussed, I'd give him the breast.

Not the best methodology - on hindsight. But at that time, it'd work and breastfeeding-on-demand was promoted by breastfeeding authorities and enthusiasts... so... *shrug* it well put me on the slippery path to being Isaac's pacifier for 2 and a half years... but, no regrets lah. It was an experience :)

So anyway, Isaac, being big as he was... by the time he was slightly more than a month old - he couldn't be 'wrapped' by those 'baby wrappers' cloth already! So we didn't wrap him like most babies are wrapped - coz the wrappers couldn't contain him!

But Isaac sorta had colic when he was 2 and 3 months old - he would cry at 7pm every night, unconsolably, till about 10pm at least. Nothing we do could pacify him, not hubbs carrying him and walking around, not music, not aircon, not even the breast. He caused us much grief indeed ;p (It's funny now, thinking back. But at that time, was quite hellish.)

We have a Malay neighbour, the auntie, she's really really nice. She started to come over in the evening to see Isaac when he starts his crying. She'd offer to take him from us for awhile, just so I can rest, and we can have our dinner in peace. It was a much needed for me as I'd been taking care of Isaac all day, alone, without help.

But the amazing thing was - Auntie had this uncanny ability to settle Isaac! She'd manage to get him to stop crying! It was very amazing. Well, it was experienced Auntie vs First Time Parents Us, but still... very steady, I tell you! (Actually, we later found out, that what really prompted Auntie to come over and takeover Isaac, is coz she couldn't bear to hear him crying and crying every evening... hahahaha... must sound like we're torturing him - when actually HE is the one torturing US!!! ;p ;p)

So it turns out that her main method of calming him down, was to wrap him. But coz all his wrappers were too small... She gave us one of her brand new sarongs - the one Asher is in (picture above). The sarong is huge, and so was perfect for wrapping Isaac in. And so the Sarong MerBoy was born. After that, we constantly wrapped Isaac during bedtime and when he fussed, and it'd almost always work in calming him down.

We're eternally grateful, Auntie!!! THANK YOU!!! ;p

pix taken on 5th March 2010
Asher & Shawna @ a day to 2 months old

So I happily took out my collection of sarongs to use for Isaac :) My precious collection of sarongs. These sarongs (you can see a variety in the Sarong MerBoy post) belonged to my Popo, my maternal grandma :)

She was a Peranakan, you see. And so she was always dressed in kebayas & sarongs. After she passed away, my aunties split up her collection of the traditional clothing amongst them. I managed to procure some pieces for myself too - being one of her favourite grandchildren helped ;p

Thus, my Popo's sarongs are put to great use here! :) The kids love them, and I love seeing them in her sarongs. And I'm sure she'd agree with me :)

The kidzes' smiley first names!

Once again, I'm behind in my posts. Behind being defined as photos in post being posted long after they were taken... In this case now... about 2 months. Pictures here were taken on dated 4th March 2010.

I always know I am behind in my posts when friends/colleagues/family see any of the kids and go "Oh! They look so different!" or more tellingly "Eh??? This is Isaac? He looks so different!" They don't even recognise him. HAHAHA.
Initially, I used to internally react like "Huh, of course different lah, you last saw them weeks/months ago!" Then later I realised that they were comparing what they see now, to what they see on my blog ;p For despite me religiously stating the the dates which the pictures are being taken, I guess it's natural that people tend to think that that is the 'current state' of how the kids look like. Well, all I have to say is... where kids are concerned: Change is constant!!!

Look at my Shawna :) smiley ain't she? Hehehe... yes, Cin, the two small ones are as smiley as Smiley. I love these pix of Shawna, but they look kinda grainy. I've been griping about the picture quality of my pictures lately... which caused hubbs to say to Asher last night:"You see, Mummy is trying to justify buying a new camera..." ;p bleeeaaauughhh - hummph, buy already don't let you use, then you know.
I started this post thinking that I should quickly just post it, to get the posting going to try to keep up... and then I started talking. hiaz. you see lah.

Oh did I tell you that Asher & Shawna both have very long and sharp tongues? We realised this even during confinement month, when they stick out their tongues, it's like very long and sharp. Confinement nanny said they'd grow up to be "very good at talking." hubbs says:"yah, just like Mummy. Mummy, retribution coming..." ;p
I love putting Asher & Shawna together and see how they interact. They don't seem to mind each others' flailing arms and legs and would not cry even if one kicked the other or their arms hit each other. Instinctively, they tend to link arms, or even to hold each others' hands. Even when they topple over and 'crush' each other - they don't mind, and won't cry.

I'm so glad the twins are as smiley as Isaac. Oh that reminds me, I haven't told you how I named them, did I? You all know what "Isaac" means, right? It's a biblical name (name from the bible) that means "He who laughs". And laugh and smile Isaac did. Which is why Cin calls Isaac "Smiley" (I love it! :p).

 And so when I was naming the twins, I wanted something in a similar vein. I found Asher! Asher, one of the 12 sons of Jacob, means "Happy". So long before I even conceived Asher, he had a name already :) My second son was always to be named Asher.

I had a tougher time looking for a girl's name though. I wanted a biblical name, with a good meaning, 2 syllables... I wanted the meaning to be along the lines of Laugh/Happy like Isaac's and Asher's... but then it was like 'Abigail' which is like no-no for naming your daughter with...
The biblical criteria was also very tough - coz there're very few female names in the bible. The obvious ones were far too common, and were almost all associated with people we know. None really caught my eye. So I decided that I'd relax my 'biblical' criteria to include variants of biblical names - this widened up possibilities quite a bit, especially since I may now consider female variants of male biblical names.

Was flipping one of my many name books (started collecting them when I was 16 - when I was searching for a confirmation name for myself)... when I came across 'Shawna'. It is a female variant of Shawn - alternative spellings are Shaun & Sean - which are essentially the Irish version of the biblical name 'John'.
Thus the name Shawna shares the same meaning as the name John - which means "God is gracious". Which is a good meaning, and biblical, and pretty unique and has 2 syllables. Perfect! And so that's how Shawna came to be called Shawna.
To tell the truth, the only misgiving I had about the name was that it didn't have a meaning along the lines of 'laughter/happy' - I was afraid that Shawna wouldn't be as smiley as Isaac was. But it was the best name I could find... so I went with it... perhaps, I thought, the gracious Lord would be a smiley one as well? :)
Looks like I needn't have worried! Shawna's plenty of smiles! :) In fact, she started smiling and laughing before Asher did. She did so from 1 month plus onwards, Asher, from 2 months onwards. Isaac started smiling in his first weeks! Look at my Isaac below :)

pix taken on 4th March 2010
Isaac @ two days to 2 yrs 7 months
Asher & Shawna @ two days to 2 months

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!!!

Our current room layout

Yep, this is it. Our current room layout. Luckily our master bedroom's pretty big. After the confinement nanny left, we rearranged the room and managed to fit in both cots, in addition to our King sized bed.

You know how hospitals have the nurses' station in a ward? Well, I have a mini nursing station between my two cots. This is where I sit on the edge of the bed, and feed the babies. I have on the table everything I need - the hand pump (to pump the other breast), bottle of water (breastfeeding is thirsty business), tissue paper (messy business too), vitamins (must maintain my milk to be chockful of goodness), nailclippers (I usually cut the babies' nails when I am feeding them) etc...

I have a chair there, but I sit on the edge of the bed more often than I do on the chair. Primarily coz it's a kind of a squeeze to sit on the chair... The babies are growing longer (taller) by the day and so if I am sitting on the chair to feed them, once they kick, they will hit the cot. Quite difficult to manage, so I usually sit on the bed.

Bad thing about sitting on the bed is that my back has no support, and also, it's quite a strain for me to stand up and down carrying the babies who are getting heavier by the day. As a result, my knees have been having it very bad, and are now constantly screaming in pain :( I have problem coming down stairs now, and squatting is a big issue.

Everyday I go toilet and thank technology advancement that we no longer really use squat toilets now ;p Only thing that bothers me, is that it hurts when I have to squat to get down to Isaac's level to talk to him. So at home, I simply end up sitting on the floor. But it'd be so wierd if I just sat on the floor everytime I want to talk to Isaac when I'm at his school. Thankfully, they've many mini chairs about, which I'd quickly drag one to sit on, whenever I need to get down to his level to talk to him in school.

Speaking of physical pain... my ankles were hurting too, did I mention? Thanks to my flatter than pancakes flat footed feet (is there even such a term?!) The pain got very bad after spending 12 weeks of maternity leave at home walking about without footwear - no support = pain. Now, back at work for more than a month already, wearing my trusty boots and $300 pair of customised orthopaedic insoles - my ankles are much much better and my feet no longer feel like they're dropping off anytime soon. Best investment I ever made buying that pair of insoles. Should have bought it when I was a teenager or something.

Did I tell you about my wrists? Yeah pain also. Beginning to sound like an old woman, right? Pain pain pain. Not so strong as before, and there's a cracking sound, and sometimes the wrist gets stuck in a certain angle and must be 'clucked back'. Dunno how to say lah. Don't know how it came about either. Maybe it was all that rough play with Isaac. Dunno. But now, if I hold the babies too long in one position with my hands, the wrists would act up.

Pain pain pain. Sigh. Feel like my body's falling apart sometimes. See what pregnancy does to you. Labour pain is nothing man - at least you can take an epidural for that. It's the after-pains that kill you. Oh yeah and for awhile, when I breastfed, the womb would contract you see (due to breastfeeding) - the PAIN of the contraction is the same as labour pain contraction lor - faint - without the epidural, mind you. And without the gradual increment of pain so that it's easier to withstand. No no, this one just hits you. PAINPAINPAIN.

Okay, enough of my pain. Dunno how this post about the room layout became a post on pain ;p Here's a look at one of my JOYs!!! :) So cute and tiny on the bed, isn't he. Ahhh... with kids like that, a bit of pain nevermind lah :)

pix taken on 3rd March 2010
Asher @ three days to 2 months old