Decorating Kate's room

The husband has a vision for our home. In his words, every woman has her "dream wedding" and every man has his "dream home". I'm more than happy to let him take charge of the home and so most (hmm, probably all, actually!) of it is conceptualised by him. The home is mostly clutter-free and clean, and it’s fine by me – though I do think more can be done to Kate’s room. Not that I made any extra effort to do more for her room – but thanks to the sis-in-law, we have some wall stickers that I took out last night to have fun with Kate.

I showed her the sample pictures that were on the packaging and off she went!

"I want to put this here"

Happy girl with the finished product

And a cheeky one, just for fun. I didn't tell her to pose this way, she just decided to play monkey.

Though the stickers are very random and not exactly well-placed, I'm leaving them there as they are because she put them up on her own. I still have 2 more things for her room, hope to get around to putting them up with the princess soon.

Beautiful moonlight

When the moon is at its prettiest, it casts a very bright light into my bedroom. Moon, 8 Feb 2012

Late afternoon with Kate

The husband went to pick Kate up from school after lunch. We had an appointment so off we went.

Matching red converse - too cute! Kate's also dressed in a personalised tee that reads "Kate" across (though you can't see it from this pic)

After our appointment, it was still bright and we headed to the park for Kate to run amok.

My view of the sky and tree from the bench

Heading to the swings

WHEE! (very high, right! My girl knows no fear - ok that's not entirely true but she is rather daring in these aspects...)

Smiley Kate. Am really so happy that she is adjusting better to all around her now. No more nightmares, less struggle to head to school. I'm reminded that it's a treat to hear her tinkly laughter and I wish for her to be a happy child.

Playing scissors-paper-stone with Papa at dinner

The night ended with dinner with the ah gong and ah ma, and her going to sleep after asking me to tell her the "rainbow story" a million times.

Morning with Kate

I'm off work today (yay!!) and I managed to spend a leisurely, rather nice morning with Kate.

I let her sleep in. She woke up an hour later than usual. No time rush because I don't have to rush to work! Watching her peaceful face never fails to melt my heart. I love you so much, my darling Kate.

Managed to get her washed up & into her uniform and here she is enjoying her breakfast. OK, not very healthy I know but she loves it so and just look at that happy face!

YUM. Don't-mess-with-me-face.

We strolled to school (ok, I did) within half an hour. Quite a good experiment on timing and great exercise for me. So she reached school half hour late but it's ok. Little princess cried when I left but I'm happy enough that she's beginning to cope with the whole process much, much better.

I'm home alone now and enjoying the sunshine (laundry time!) while trying to get my ass off to do some cleaning about the house. Looking forward to picking princess up later!

CNY outfits

Today marks the last day of the 15-day Lunar New Year celebrations. We haven't really been celebrating it all through these 15 days, but it is the official last day according to the lunar calendar. We haven't really done that much visiting either, but I'm taking this opportunity to feature Kate in all her new celebratory gear for this 2012 (besides what I'd already shared for Day 1).

In her polka dotted Minnie dress on day 2 of CNY

A modern-cheongsam with ruffle skirt. No pic, but there's a red bow at the back

Pink floral cheongsam (a post-nap shot, which explains the sleepy-face!)

Release

I’m stressed.

It took me weeks of build-up, some bursts of breakdown and finally, a single moment of frustration & anger that resulted in an hour of crying and nearly-nonsensical blabbering to the husband that I admitted to myself that I. Am. Very. Stressed.

The large contributing factor to my stress levels is Kate. It’s been very tough dealing with her erratic moods and tantrums. I feel that I’m tormenting her, making her do what she doesn’t wish to (going to school, taking a shower, eating off a plate – anything, really. When her mood sucks, everything goes downhill together). But at the same time, I’m left with no choice, because we have to do what we have to do. But when she cries, rejecting me, I feel so hurt and sad that she’s so unhappy. I try to be strong, surging ahead with what needs to be done and getting the tasks done. But I’m so drained afterwards, because it takes me every ounce of will and emotional detachment to get through it. The days that she is a happy child makes us so happy because that is the Kate that we miss and we want her to be. It gets worse when she’s ill. I know, I know that it’s “normal” for a child to fall sick often once they start school. But it’s still a pain to deal with and it’s so terrible to keep feeding my child meds. She’s been sick since she’s started school – with the smallest ailment being sniffly cold or cough, to very high fever. That’s 6 weeks of non-stop meds since January 2012 and it’s not exactly the most fun thing to have to deal with. We’ve started bringing the thermometer with us everywhere we go because we never know when her temperature will spike.

Dealing with this last stage of pregnancy is also taking its toll on me. I’m getting heavier and much more uncomfortable. I’m unable to eat much, I get heartburn, my pelvis aches and my calves are crampy. I also have difficulty sleeping well which doesn’t help as I get tired more easily now. And more than ever, my hormones are raging causing me to be more emotional. Which is why when I breakdown, I break down. I’m at a loss at how to cope with the days ahead, I worry that everything is falling apart, that I’m unable to deal with it all. And when I begin worrying incessantly, it manifests and my world starts to shatter.

Ok, so it seems dramatic but when I’m feeling down, I really feel awful. And yesterday, when the husband and I had yet another bicker – he, who is my pillar of strength and support – made me lose it. I couldn’t deal with not being ok with my team player. That’s really the last straw. And so I cried. And cried. And cried. And I blurted out all that was on my mind. My worries and fears, my stress spilling out of my mouth in semi-coherent words as quickly as the tears flowed. At the end of the hour, my eyes hurt so much and were so puffy that I developed a headache.

But in this very unglam and emotional manner, I realized that I was very stressed. And I feel better that I had let it out.

Today, I continue to soldier on. I can do it.

A lucky woman

That's what I am.

Today, the husband prepared dinner and fed Kate and I, as well as my Mom, Dad & sister.

Today, when the family came over, they played with Kate and made her laugh.

Today, Kate's so tired she is already asleep now.

I pray that she will have restful sleep tonight.