Complacency

I've learnt never to underestimate the importance of praying for God's protection and journey mercies on the road, especially if you're driving with a child in the car. It's something that comes quite automatically for me when I get behind the wheel. But on Tuesday, I didn't. Maybe it was the fact that I was late (we were heading to Forum for John's JG class) or I was complacent. Whatever the reason was, it resulted in an accident on Nichol Highway right smack in the centre of morning traffic.

I was slightly distracted and within a couple of seconds, my car had made contact with an almost brand new Mazda CX7 in front of me. I was on second gear and possible driving at about 40km/h so the impact wasn't too bad. I looked back and John was ok, so I got out to assess the damage to the cars.

The car in front was waaay bigger than my little swift, so the damage on his car was rather superficial with a few little scratches and probably a couple of small dents. BUT the same was not to be said of my little swift. It was like its nose was bashed in. :( The bonnet was bent and the engine exposed. We couldn't even open it to see if anything inside was damaged.


At least the driver of the Mazda was nice and didn't badger me there for ruining his new car. I think he saw how shaken I was from my handwriting which looked like a symphony of worms. I guess he was empathetic since he has a 3 year old child himself (not in the car at the time - thank God). So we exchanged numbers, took pictures and headed off. I still brought John to class since I figured nothing could be done within the next 2 hours.

I sent my car to the workshop that evening and was told that the repairs would take 10 days and estimated cost was about $5K! Thank God we're required to buy car insurance. The driver of the Mazda had to send his car to the Mazda workshop because of his warranty and his estimated cost was at least $1.3k.

Whatever it is, I'm glad that all of us - John, myself, the Mazda driver and his wife are safe and the only 2 casualties were the cars. I have to remind myself to always pray for God's protection everyday without fail. We never know when the "thief" decides to pull a fast one on us.

Eczema no more!

For a large part of John's first year, he had quite a bad case of eczema. The rash appeared as red spots in the usual areas like behind his knee, elbow etc. But the one area most affected was his face. He had red patches on both sides of his cheeks and they definitely caused him some discomfort coz he used to rub his face against our clothes when we carried him. It seriously broke my heart to see him like that.

We tried steroid creams and that helped here and there. But the patches kept reoccuring. I hated using steoids on John. I heard that if you use steroids, it would be hard to stop using them cos the skin would get so used to them that the moment you stopped, the eczema would come back. I also found out from a friend that steroids thin the skin and that's no good as well.

Before: Two patched on his face.

I prayed and asked God to give us wisdom to help the bub. Only He knew what was going on. And once again, I must say God answers prayers. When John was about 10 months, I started to notice that the eczema was particularly bad days after I ate squid or prawns. And John was having the same through my breastmilk. So I decided to cut seafood (except fish) out of my diet completely. And voila! John's skin cleared! So for about 2 over months now, he's been dawning silky smooth baby skin... FINALLY! :)

After: Eczema no more! :)

If you stood with us in prayer for John's recovery, we would like to thank you. God is good and every prayer counted!

The Big O-N-E!

John's O-N-E and boy did we have a celebration! There were just too many people we wanted to share our joy with, so we had to have a total of FOUR celebrations: 2 at home with friends, one in church and one with the relatives. And 4 cakes, 3 parties, an Old Chang Kee spread and one prata man later, I can say with absolute certainty that we're all partied out. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend.

Two of our cakes were creations by our good friend Chris the Baker. The first was a no. 1 cake. Made with rich chocolate fudge and decorated with hand-made marzipan animals. The second cake was a black forest fresh cream cake decorated as a book with (you guessed it) hand-made marzipan animals. I'm sure you can tell John loves animals. :) Both cakes were absolutely delish and I'm glad we ordered hefty cakes so we had leftovers for the rest of the week. Thanks again Chris! The other 2 cakes were bought commercially - one from Polar and one from Swensens.

Our no. 1 cake!

Our book cake. See how it says "Little John had a farm.":)

The birthday boy was all smiles when we sang him his birthday song - all 4 times. He would smile and even clap. Very cute. The only thing is he doesn't know how to blow out his candle yet but the other kids didn't mind at all. Some even blew the flame out before we sang the song. Fun tho. :)

I really wanted to create a fun atmosphere in the house for the birthday boy and other kids that were coming for the party on Saturday so I ordered balloons! It's amazing how the simple balloon could elicit sooo much interest. Kids and babies alike were mesmerised by the blue, green and yellow concoction that lined our ceiling. At $1 a pop, it was well worth it! John had a lot of fun just trying to grab the hanging string.

Having some fun with grandma.

We had out most of John's toys which we painstakingly sterilised the night before. We had a baby gym cum ball pit (present from Grandma & a hit with most of the kids, even though it was for babies), a gym set and trampoline which i rented, an exersaucer for the younger babies, and a slide/swing. It must have been soo enticing that even some adults had a go!

Oh and the whole weekend we just ate and ate and ate. For the first party on Saturday, we engaged the services of BBQ men from BBQ Wholesale. Slighly disappointing. For the second party, we got the Prata man from the famous casuarina prata to make prata on the spot. That was fantastic! He made everything from tissue prata to customised banana-caramel-chocolate-cheese pratas. Fab. I would recommend them in a heartbeat. On Sunday, we celebrated with the church with a spread from Old Chang Kee. We found out they had a catering arm and decided to try them out. And I must say they were very professional and the food was wonderful. Each curry puff, each yam pie, each sotong ball was as good, if not better than what we'd get at the OCK stalls. Absolutely Fab.


On the day of John's birthday itself, we spent a quiet half day with the bub. Just daddy, mummy and baby. We had breakfast at the club and brought him to the play room for some early morning fun. I think John was just happy to have daddy spend time with him in the day, especially in the morning. Daddy's usually on his way to work when John wakes up so it's always a treat to have daddy around on a monday morning! We had lunch at Parkway and then headed home to prepare for party no. 4 with the relatives.

Having breakfast with daddy. On the menu: Cherrios!

We were so early on the monday morning the cleaner was still there!

It was a milestone not only for the bub, but for us as parents. It's been one entire year of having a little person in our lives and he's made these 364 days the most memorable ever. Every coo, every laugh, every smile, every milestone reached has been amazing. John's life has been a real showcase of God's creation and a reminder that we've been chosen to have the privilege of nurturing this gift He's given us. We pray that as John enters his second year, we will be the parents that God had intended for us to be.

To the next 364 days I say... BRING IT ON!!!

Sick again

John's been sick the last few days and mummy and daddy have been trying their very best to keep him happy and comfortable. It started with a light cough on Thursday and on Thursday night, it developed into a fever, runny nose and nasty cough.

I must say that it is a blessing that my in laws are doctors and when we need some 'consultation', we get an almost instant diagnosis. Our home is also a sort of mini pharmacy. And because we have not one, but three doctors in our household, we even have a second and third opinion.

Having said that, this time, John's cough has been bad and we have been giving him antibiotics to preempt the possibility of any secondary bacterial infection to what we believe to be a viral infection. We also give him baby paracetamol whenever the fever strikes (it comes on and off and at its peak it was a whopping 39 degrees!) and a cough mixture to soothe the throat.

Though John's not been as cranky as the last time he was sick, and he still has half his appetite, his sleep has been disrupted again. On Friday night i literally had to carry him to sleep for a good part of the night. Very tiring.

We're just praying now that the worst is over and that God will give him a speedy recovery.

10 months on...

One of John's favourite things - tags!

15 June 2008... the day my little bubba arrived kicking and screaming, greeting the world with gusto. 10 months on today, some things have not changed. :) He's still kicking, especially when he's refusing to have his diaper changed; and he's started to exercise his vocal cords a lot more recently.

Apart from that, he's changing in almost every other way. His personality is really coming through now. Though he's still quite sociable, he's developed a mild case of stranger anxiety, which i think came about after getting sick. He's more clingy now and would show his displeasure (vocally) when i walk out of the room. Now i've literally got to sneak out if i've need to do something. But he loves meeting new people and warms up easily, as long as mummy/daddy's still around.

John's got a slight problem with eczema. He's got 2 crusty spots on his face that come and go quite often. We were recommended a-derma, a cream that uses an oat as the active ingredient rather than a steroid, and i think it's helping somewhat. I'm also washing his face more often to keep the area clean. I also read and hear that very often such eczema associated with babies disappear when they're about a year old... which is just TWO months away! (I can't believe my baby's turning one!!!) *fingers & toes crossed!*

Physically he's really grown. I can seriously feel it in my arms when we go out and I carry him. He's aso grown taller and is now as tall as our dining table! He's now completely mobile and can crawl the whole length of our house in seconds. He's also taken to climbing stairs and can do a whole flight at a time. He's so mobile on all fours that I think he might take some time to walk. We've bought him a push cart type walker to encourage him to walk, but after a few steps, he decides he's faster crawling, gets down on all fours and nips off. He's also learnt to climb down backwards... today he climbed on our coffee table, crawled across it, made a 180 degree turn and 'gostan-ed' down. Mummy was so proud that she forgot to tell'im he wasn't supposed to be climbing the coffee table in the first place. :p

Food wise, John's doing better with lumpier foods. He's now eating rice again, but commercial rice porridge. He didn't take to mummy's home-made one - much to my disappointment. But whatever makes him happy and as long as he's getting good sized meals, i'm happy. I've also started giving him bread... home-made bread, and he loves it. Other new foods include honey dew, grapes, tahini and pumpkin seeds.

All in all, everything's going great except for one or two bits and i'm just thankful for the chance to watch my baby grow. I thank God everyday that I have the privilege to be his momma and I pray I'll be the parent God intended me to be.

the zzzzzs again...

So, at the beginning of this year, I had posted about how John's been sleeping through the night. I am so sad to say that all that sleep training has unfortunately undone itself and we're back to frequent night wakings and mummy being the only one able to put the bub back to sleep. It became especially bad when he was sick recently and we had to comfort him to sleep every half hour (an experience I NEVER want to relive again!).

This is highly highly disappointing for me cos it's been taking a toll on me and i'm once again really really tired. And it doesn't help that John's so much more active now. It seems my boy has grown up significantly over the last few days and he's showing his independent spirited side. It's espeically so during nap times. He's now standing in his cot and it takes a lot longer for him to go to sleep.

At night, I sometimes have to spend a long time nursing him and carrying him till he's in a deep slumber before putting him down. I guess the good thing is that John sleeps in his own room and has done so since we first sleep trained him.

John's sleep has been the biggest challenge for me. I've just not been able to have sustained success in this area and it's something I know I have to fix sooner rather than later; which of course means I'm putting all this stress on myself tring to find solutions. We're thinking of sleep training him again soon and we hope this time, it'll last longer than just a couple of months.

So if you're reading this, please pray for us. For God to lead us to the right solution, to grant us the wisdom to know how to implement it, for the strength to go through with it and for the patience to stick it through.

Praying...

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other. Amen.

My "New Birth" Day - 7 Feb 2009

The 7th of Feb 2009 was a very special day for me. It was the day I got baptised again. I was baptised as a child but had walked away from God for a few years of my life. 2002 was a turning point for me and I decided to live my life for Jesus from then on. Though I have wanted to get baptised again for a while now, I never really had the opportunity until our church had its very first baptism service last Saturday. It was held at the swimming pool of Garden Hotel and I got the chance to share my testimony (see below). It was nice to see some of the hotel guests joining in the festivities. James, John, my father-in-law, my mum, my dad and my brother were all there to witness the moment and their presence made it that bit more special. Also present were good friends like Ps Henson & his tribe, Ps Andrew, Ps George & Belinda and the rest of the Covenant Vision family. I'm still reeling from the excitement of the day and it is my prayer that everyone I know who hasn't come to know God will one day have that experience as well.

Here are some photos of the baptism:

Praying before the baptism.

Giving my testimony.

Hallelujah!!!

The bub looking on.

After lunch with part of the Lim Tribe.

Sarah (far left) and David (far right) were also baptised on Sat.

And here is the testimony I shared during the service:

"I stand here today to testify of God’s goodness in my life.

I was baptised as a child and grew up in a Christian family. I attended Sunday school and as a teenager, I was also involved in church.

When I left JC, however, everything went downhill. I started hanging with people who led very worldly lives and by the time I was in my second year at Uni, my life had taken a 180 degree turn for the worse. I smoked, I drank, and I partied a lot. I stayed in the hostel where playing hard was a way of life. I battled an eating disorder which involved me taking laxatives every single day. At the peak of the problem, I was taking 3 pills a day to purge everything I was eating.

I didn’t go to church and I’d lie to my parents that I did. I had almost completely forgotten about God.

At this point I want to thank God again for praying parents and thank them for never giving up on me. Although they knew I had backslided, they never pushed me nor pressured me. They just prayed for me.

Then in my third year, I almost had a breakdown. And at my lowest point, God used them to remind me that He was still in control of my life… That I was still His child. The whole story is very drama and it included one phone call and me crying my eyes out at the NUSS coffee house at NUS. But that was the turning point in my life. I knew I had to turn back to God.

And when I did, everything started to fall into place. In my final year, I was surrounded by Christian classmates. My non-Christian boyfriend broke up with me because suddenly we had very different values. I did exceptionally well in my studies as well and even got onto the dean’s list. I also decided to stop taking the pills cold turkey and within a week, I was free from that addiction.

Since then, I have experienced the goodness of God in all aspects of my life. I have a loving husband, a beautiful son, and loving family and a job serving God.

I had wanted to get baptized again for a while now. When I was in England, a baptism service at the church I was attending had such an impact on me. I cried as each person came out from the water. I just bore witness to how they wanted to declare publicly their faith and symbolically die and rise again with Christ. In fact, I almost signed up to get baptized again there.

But I’m glad I didn’t get a chance to do it and I believe God had a purpose in delaying it for me. Because I now have the chance to not only to give my testimony here today, to boast of God’s goodness, to stand here and say that if not for my praying parents, it may have taken a lot longer for me to come back to God. I also get to be baptized in the very first baptism service of the church my own dad started and get baptized by two pastors that I love and respect very much and witnessed by my husband and my son, whom I hope to be an example to, and also witnessed by all of you, my spiritual family.

This is indeed a special day for me. As I get baptized and die and rise with Christ, I declare that I am a new creation, the old has passed, behold all things have become new. I declare in the heavenlies that I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."

Dedication Service

Today's a very very special day. We dedicated John in church and it was extra special because it was John's very own grandpa who was the minister. Also there to stand with us were grandma and gong gong (mah mah was working and couldn't be there). John was exceptionally good. He didn't flinch nor struggle during the prayers and he was taking in everything that was happening around him. Mummy was very very proud, and I am sure our Father in heaven was also beaming with joy. Our prayer is that we will be godly parents and bring John up in the ways of the Lord.

Here are some photos from this morning...

All set and ready to begin.

Grandpa praying over John.

John looking intently at Grandpa.

After the dedication... playing with Uncle Aaron.

We're dedicating John!

We'll be dedicating our little bub to God in church this Sunday. Woohoo! So if you'd like to come stand with us as we proclaim our intention to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, please feel free to join us at:

Covenant Vision Christian Church

154 Tyrwhitt Road S(207567)

Service time: 10am

If you need map, click here.

Hope to see you there! :)

Pray with us.

We believe in prayer and that our God is a God who answers prayers. So I've added a list of prayer items on the right so that anyone who wants to pray alongside us can do so. At the same time, if you would like us to pray for you, you can also send me an email. :)

Pain pain go away...

For about a month now, I've been having a pain at the base of my thumb which my mil diagnosed as tendonitis. This pain is the result of excessive use of my thumb, particularly from carrying the bub. I didn't bother much about it until yesterday...

When I woke up, the pain was absolutely excruciating. I literally had to grab my wrist for a minute to ease the pain. Then when I went to the next room to pick the bub up, it literally felt like I had a knife pierced in my left wrist. Since then I couldn't go about my daily activities without pain. It's been especially hard not being able to pick up the bub to give him a cuddle without grimacing inside.

When I googled tendonitis, I realised I specifically had DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis. According to about.com, it's commonly seen in new mothers as the motion of picking up the baby can cause irritation to the wrist tendons.

SO NEW MUMMIES PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!

Typical treatments include immobilisation, icing, oral medication and injection. At the moment, I'm using ice and a wrist guard whenever I need to carry or handle the bub. And I'm adding a big dose of prayer. So i'm really hoping this get better very soon.