naughty ally

Right now I am ignoring Ally to teach her a lesson. But she seems defiant and wouldn't give in. This trait must have come from Daddy! I've always been a nice and obedient child, so obviously she didn't get it from me.

Lately she seems to be asserting her independence and individuality a lot more than usual. Now I totally get the 'terrible twos' thing. She says NO to everything I want her to do. Like tonight, for example, she just refuses to put on her shirt. I even had to force her nappy on, I wouldn't want her to soil my bed or the rest of the house if an 'accident' should happen.

Now she's happily playing with her toys without her shirt on. And oblivious to the fact that Mummy is mad and is ignoring her.

Arghhh!! Tension.

22nd week

Went to my 22nd week's doctor’s appointment last week. It was alright, generally, but I find the meeting itself to be quite dissappointing and uneventful. The reasons being :-

a) Decided to see Dr. D at the Hospital instead of her external private clinic as I usually do – I thought it would be more convenient as I wanted to bring Ally in for her jab as well. Turned out there was a looong queue and we had to wait until almost 2.00 p.m for our turn (we were there since morning – luckily Ally did not make too much of a fuss).

b) Had earlier called Dr. D’s clinic and told the nurse to inform Dr. D that I’ll be seeing her at the Hospital, so please let her have a copy of my records with her by the time I see her. This must have slipped her mind because Dr. D seemed quite blur when we went to see her (she’s usually quite friendly and give long explanations – but then again maybe she was just too tired by the time we saw her - we were one of her last patients for the day).

c) The highlight of my appointments are usually the ultrascan sessions – when I get to see my babies and Dr. D gives detailed explanations on the babies’ development and reassurances that nothing seems to be wrong. Turned out that the machine at the Hospital was a little bit outdated compared to hers at her clinic, so the visions were not as clear and certain information such as the weight of the babies could not be picked up. Major letdown!

d) The meeting ended almost as soon as it began. Dissappointing after waiting for hours.

e) The total charge came up to approximately RM300! These include blood testing, pharmacy and double consultation charges because there are two babies!

So that’s it, no more seeing her at the Hospital. Maybe she’s more relaxed in her own private clinic. As for the double consultation charges, although it could be a cause for complaint, to be honest I don’t really mind that much. I do think she’s taking advantage of the whole situation, but I’m not sure if I should fight it. I love her – she’s nice, gentle and always patiently gives detailed explanations – so I don’t want to lose her. I mean, it’s not easy to get doctors like that these days. Sure, the charges burn a hole in my pocket every month, but I think they’re worth it. I’ll just stop shopping for myself from now on (I have to start getting used to it anyway).

My next appointment’s supposed to be on the 18th of March. But I’m postponing it to 24th (Pay Day!!).

out with the old, in with the new

I bought my first car – Inokom Atos, in 2003, just barely a year after I started working. And now, the demands of a growing family is forcing us to part ways. Despite the ridicules that I often have to take in about it (tiny, slow pick-up, etc, etc), I can’t help feeling a bit sad about letting it go. It was my very first car, and it has reliably served me for almost four years. It has never given me any problems (except for the time I banged into a rock just weeks after I got it – which was, technically, my fault). Its small size allows me to squeeze in and out of parking spaces with ease, zig-zagging on busy roads, zoom here and there in a hurry, and a lot more. I am soo gonna miss it when I start driving our new [used], HUGE Toyota Estima soon.

Yes, we got ourselves an MPV - a 1995/97 Toyota Estima. I’d always thought we had at least a couple more years before we would need one, that is, maybe when we have had three children. Well, with the twins arriving soon, we are going to have three children!

Honestly, it wasn’t love at first sight for me and the Estima. I thought it was too big and looked too much like a van. And, with my zero knowledge about car mechanics, I thought new was always better. So, based on what we can afford, I was more keen on maybe a Kia Carnival or a Hyundai Trajet. But Daddy managed to convince me on how much better the Estima was, about it being a Toyota, Japanese instead of Korean, yada, yada, so I gave in. (He can be very, very convincing and arguing with him just takes off too much of my energy right now).

Right now, after I’ve had a feel of it, I absolutely love it!! The interior is so spacious and ultra-comfortable. The middle row consists of two seats with an aisle in the middle, so the baby seats for the twins can be put there and I can easily move back and forth to attend to them. The backseats are fully reclinable to a bed-like position, the trunk space is huge (majorly practical as we have to lug around a lot of baby items), and, there’s a VCD player (a great distraction tool for the kids). Driving it is also not as difficult as I’d thought. Parking may be a problem, though. Well, I’m sure I’ll get better with practice, and in the meantime, I’ll just have to avoid side parkings and small parking spaces wherever possible.

Having the MPV just makes me feel so grown-up! Haha.

little einstein?

I tried to update this blog last night, but Ally made me watch Sesame Street with her. It’s her favourite show now, apart from Barney. Urghh. I never liked that big purple dinosaur before, but I have to admit, after watching it repeatedly, I find it to be o-kay la. The songs are quite nice, and Ally (and mummy) always looks forward to the end for the ‘I Love You’ song. She can even sing it! Her interest in Barney has also prompted me to do something I thought was unimaginable before – I bought her a set of Barney books! In my defense, the books are not all that bad, in fact they’re quite educational.

Sometimes I wonder if she’s a genius. I know, every parent would think that their child is the greatest, but I really believe in Ally’s case, it’s true! She just turned two, and she already knows her ABCs and 123s, correctly identifies most animals and body parts, remembers names, and even sings. She also has quite an extensive vocabulary (for her age, at least that’s what I think). One thing that I notice about her is that she’s got great memory, you only need to teach her something once or twice, and she’ll remember them.

I am one proud mummy! She’s going to be a great sister to the twins (I hope).

nature calls

Nature has a cruel way of training me to prepare me for the twins.

For the past week, I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night, at least every two hours, to pee. And I don’t fall back to sleep so easily, so I’ve only been getting minimal amount of sleep. Needless to say, most of the days, I don’t function really well at the office. Today’s an exception though. An issue that requires my immediate attention has surfaced, so it kinds of wakes me up a little. I’m still too sleepy to give it my 100%, but then again, when did I ever gave 100% when it comes to work?

Heheh. I’m a lazy bum. I know. That’s why some people are still sceptical about my ability to handle the twins. Maybe God is teaching me a lesson, for being lazy and dependant on other people all my life.

And I’ll take it as a challenge!

But I’m not declining any offers of help.

forward looking

Isn't life great when you have something to look forward to? You go through life with a purpose, and as each day ends, you get the sense of satisfaction that you are one day closer to that purpose. And as each new day begins, you feel recharged knowing that by the end of that day, you are closer still to that purpose.

That's kind of how I'm feeling right now. So what am I looking forward to? Take a wild guess.

Yup. The arrival of the twins.

Though a little bit scared, I'm filled with anticipation of what my life would be like once they arrive. There will surely be some changes, no doubt. And life won't get any easier. But wouldn't it be fun to see how I cope?

Some people may not think I can do it, but I get a weird feeling that I just might.