Chicken poxed out

So we spent the better part of March battling with onsets of chicken pox. It all started on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year when we found out that 3 of our relatives were having chicken pox when we went to visit! It was a bit too late then by the time we found out so we decided it was no big deal since the kids had all been vaccinated.

Fast forward 2 weeks later, and one morning I noticed some red spots on Heidi's back as I was showering her. It didn't look like watery blisters which are consistent with chicken pox spots, but we kept her back from school, just in case. After we confirmed those were chicken pox spots, she didn't go to school for the next 2 weeks; it was a good thing that there was a week school holiday during that time. Helene dutifully brought back her homework for her to do every day, and I would hand it over to her teacher the next morning when sending Helene to school.

Heidi's case was very mild - she had hardly any spots (maybe around 10 only) and none appeared on her face. You can see that she doesn't look like she's having chicken pox from the photos below. I dressed them up one Saturday in matching dresses and shoes, just for the fun of it :)

Fast forward 2 weeks later, and I saw 2 watery blisters on Helene's hand one night. Uh-oh I thought to myself, here we go again. True enough, more watery blisters started to appear over the next few days and poor girl even had it on her face. Her case was definitely worse than Heidi's, even thought both of them had been vaccinated for chicken pox. She also had a mild fever for the first couple of days.

We put calamine lotion on her to prevent too much itching, and little girl behaved like a champ. She was still cheerful despite having the itchy blisters all over her body.

She's almost all better now - no longer contagious but she is still not going to school until all her scabs have fallen off. After being house-bound for the last couple of weeks, we took her to Gurney Plaza last weekend.

Oh, and someone also lost her 3rd tooth! She lost her first 2 teeth last year just before her birthday as well :)

Now one of Hubby's nieces is having chicken pox - her spots appeared just a few days after Helene's, and the poor girl got it really bad all over her face neck and body. Really a teenager's nightmare. Let's hope this is the last case! 

Update (7/4/2018) - Hannah is now having chicken pox too! So she's really the last one in our family to get it. 

Hello 2018!

We are already halfway into January 2018! I suppose the most exciting that happened this month is that little Helene is now officially a school-goer!

But let me detract a bit and blog about what we did during New Year's. So it has usually been the custom for us to check into a hotel or Airbnb to celebrate New Year's with our friends, and this year it was no different. We booked an Airbnb (our friend refers to it as "someone else's house" lol) at 68PG Sunrise Gurney which was a duplex apartment with 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms, kitchen and living. It was quite nice, I must say.

We had dinner at Gurney Paragon but we didn't stay for the countdown as the place was quite crowded. So we walked back to the apartment and at the stroke of midnight, we could see the fireworks from Straits Quay. However nothing beat the spectacular fireworks show we witnessed 2 years ago when we stayed at the Maritime Hotel.

Come the first week of January, it was back to school for the girls. Hannah is in Standard 3 this year and Heidi is in her last year of kindy. So Helene and Heidi can go to school together, just for this year. Helene was definitely very excited on her first day, despite months of protest that she didn't want to go to school.

I was expecting a lot of tears, as she is quite attached to me, but surprisingly she was fine, and still seems to be fine even now. On her first week, she even told me that she told another child (her classmate) not to cry. Okkaayy :)

She wasn't too happy however when I took her to take a photo for school as requested by her teacher. It took a lot of promises and negotiation (not bribery lol) for us to finally get this photo. She wanted Kinderjoy, which I bought for her as she co-operated to give us an acceptable photo haha. At least there was a hint of a smile :)

So my littlest baby is finally going to school. I posted on my social media that it was so exciting and so sad at the same time! I'm going to enjoy the last few years of her childhood while I still can :)

Helene @ 2 years 10 months

Helene will be 3 next month! I don't know how many times I've said this, but time indeed flies. The biggest achievement which happened maybe around a month ago is that she is now completely potty trained during the day time for both No. 1 and No. 2, way earlier than any of her sisters. We still wear diapers for her at night so that she doesn't have any "accidents" but slowly we are trying to go off that too. When that happens, we can finally be free of buying disposable diapers! Yay!

The older she gets, the cheekier she gets. She thought about doing this all by herself :p

Always a fan of kiddy rides - Tesco is associated with kiddy rides and not with grocery shopping!

She always likes to play with her uncle's ukulele, so we bought her a cheap one from Mr DIY. With those boots, she looks like a country singer in the making :)

And the girls have some new pets! In addition to the breeding guppies we have at home, we now have 2 bunnies - Tony and Sunny. Tony came to us about a month ago and Sunny has been with us almost 2 weeks now. The girls simply adore them, and I must say that they are quite cute :) Now Hubby got his 5 kids which he initially wanted - 3 human kids and 2 furkids!

Exciting times ahead :)

Our trip to Australia

Happy new year! This blog has been rather quiet over the last few weeks as we have been away, and now back to the usual routine of work and school.

We were in Australia over Christmas and we all had a great time. It was Hubby, Heidi and Helene's first trip Down Under. Hannah had been twice before so she was able to tell her Daddy and sisters all about what to expect :)

Before bombarding you with the many many pictures of what we did there, let me digress. We achieved 2 milestones during this trip. The first is that Heidi is now fully toilet-trained. We were getting quite worried because even though she was toilet-trained for No. 1 (she doesn't even wear diapers at night), she still insists on wearing diapers for doing No. 2. There were no incidents in school last year, but we were coaxing her to do it in the toilet and she absolutely flat out refused to do it. Until on our way back to Malaysia, we transited in Changi airport, and she suddenly needed to go. We did have spare diapers in our carry-on luggage but it would be difficult to clean her up. So her daddy convinced her to do it in the toilet. Surprisingly she did it without a fuss, and from then on, she no longer needs to wear diapers.

Secondly, Helene is now fully weaned. I told her that she would be a big girl going to school soon and she cannot have nen-nen anymore. Surprisingly, she took it quite well, and said she will be like Hannah and Heidi going to school and no more nen-nen. So those are 2 big achievements unlocked!

Okay, now for our trip. There are too many photos to post, so here are some of the highlights of our trip, most of them taken from my Instagram feed, cos there is where I post some of the nicer photos haha.

We took a night flight from Singapore direct to Adelaide and the kids managed to sleep for most of the way, especially Helene who knocked off almost immediately upon boarding the flight. We arrived early in the morning, and after freshening up, we went to buy cherries! The cherries were big and sweet and much cheaper than what we can find here. Just yesterday I was at a fruit wholesaler here in Penang and the cherries were being sold at RM80 per kg!

Next, we paid a visit to The Big Rocking Horse. Hannah had been here the past 2 times but she never made it all the way to the top! This time she was determined to try and she did! It's not an easy feat as the way up is by a series of ladders (not steps or stairs) so going up is hard, and coming down is even harder! But even Heidi did it with some help from Daddy. So they were all pretty pleased with themselves and they got a certificate for their achievements. Next time Helene can try - for now she can hold Daddy's certificate :)

There was a small wildlife park just next to the Rocking Horse so we saw some wallabies and kangaroos, amongst some other animals, and we could feed them too. Heidi and Helene were pretty excited to see the kangaroos!

The next day we took a drive to the highest peak in Adelaide, Mount Lofty. Beautiful view of the city from the top.

And then it was time to pick strawberries! The strawberries here are nothing like what we can get in Malaysia. They were big and sweet and juicy. Access fee for adults is $4 and children have free access. Eat as much as you like and pay $9.95 per kg for whatever you bring home. Helene couldn't stop munching away - she loved the sweet strawberries, and so did Heidi. Hannah didn't really fancy eating the strawberries, she just wanted to pick them!

We bought ice cream to eat with the strawberries at home - perfect!

My parents have a home out in the Riverland, in a small town called Waikerie, which is about 2 hours drive away from Adelaide city. So we spent most of the time there. There is nothing much to do but to enjoy the beauty of nature. The weather was really good most of the time that we were there - sunny but with a cool breeze. These photos were taken on our way back from church - we walked to and fro since the weather was so nice. See how green the grass and how blue the sky is!

The town is one of many by the Murray River, so we took lots of nice photos of the river in the background. These were taken at sunset. Now is daylight saving, so the days are really long. Sunset is almost at 9 pm and sunrise is around 6 am everyday.

These are more scenery from another town along the river. They look like they belong on a postcard. Incidentally, all these photos are taken from my mobile phone and the ones below have not been filtered.

We took a few days to visit the city as well. The girls found the famous pigs at Rundle Mall.

  And they enjoyed a ride on the carousel.

Helene especially enjoyed the buskers all along the street. She even sat down and clapped her hands for one performance :)

On the 21st of December, it was the winter solstice festival. Usually back in Malaysia, the girls will help their Amah to make the glutinous rice balls. Since we were in Australia, my mum made them also and the girls helped her instead. They had great fun, but don't judge the look of our rice balls - they tasted better than they looked haha.

Since it was Christmas, Waikerie had set up their town hall to resemble "Santa's Cave". Look how pretty it is.

The girls even got to meet Santa and take a photo. Daddy seems to be pretty excited too haha :)

 On Christmas eve, my mum made a roast leg of ham for dinner. It was yummy!

The girls also got to open some of their presents on Christmas eve,

And the rest on Christmas morning! We grabbed them for a photo before they started with their mass destruction haha.

After church, it was time for Christmas lunch! Look at the spread. We had guests over and everyone brought something for the table.

Here are some more scenery we explored and took lots of photos. Hubby found his property:

These were vineyards growing grapes to make wine.

Oranges! It wasn't in season so not that many fruits on the trees. 

Love this one of the girls:

More photos by the river:

And this was a lookout point of the Barossa Valley, which is a renowned wine-producing region in South Australia. As none of us are wine drinkers, we didn't go for any wine tastings, so we just enjoyed the beautiful view instead :)

On the second last day before leaving, my brother-in-law took Hubby and the girls to Cleland Wildlife Park while my sister and I had a girls' day out in the city. I think this was one of the highlights of their trip because they got to see and touch a koala! They also got to feed so many kangaroos, much more than during the time at the first wildlife park.

There are so many more places and photos that we took, and you can see them on my Facebook page. But for now, we will have fond memories of our holiday, and we hope to be back!