Look At Those Melons!

Get your mind out of the gutter! 

Singapore is known for being expensive. It was actually listed at the most expensive place to live this year. I believe it. These melons were found at a grocery store. They are imported from Japan and are supposed to be the most delicious things you have ever tasted. Fortunately for Jason, there is no way I would spend this kind of money on fruit. There is no way it could taste THAT good. Drumroll... 

Crown Melon- $119.00

Japanese square melon- $338.00

Yes you read that right- they cost $119 and $338. Pure craziness! 

If you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I've gone to Japan to become a melon farmer. ;)

Sayōnara

xx

Woah!!

I haven't logged onto blogger since March. How is that even possible? And better yet, why?

Truth be told, being the perfectionist I am, I was so stressed out by the thought of catching up. Catching up in chronological order now is pretty much impossible and I am quite relieved. Now there is no pressure. I am disappointed that I haven't blogged for so long of Olivia's life but this is a perfect opportunity for a fresh new start. And I am going to do things a bit differently now. I may not post as frequently as I previously did (or maybe I will). The posts may not be in chronological order (but that's ok). I will post when I can. Sometimes I may have a long story or sometimes it may be short and sweet. I'll just see where the wind takes me... and as always, thanks for following.

Stay tuned... xx

Livi is 9 Months!

I can hardly believe it! Where does the time go? It is weird to think that she has been out as long as she was in while she was cooking. This little girl has brought me more joy than I have ever known. Each day with her has been a new adventure and it is crazy to see her grow physically and mentally right before my eyes. I am so blessed to be her Mom. I just love my little baby girl!

Some of her favorite things include:
-Eating yogurt, pears and crunchies (and anything on the floor she isn't supposed to).
-Walking with her walker and riding her princess car. She is cruising everywhere and will be walking soon I'm sure!
-Playing with her toys and the neighbors dogs.
-Sleeping with her teddy.
-Playing with all of her little friends during our playdates each week.
-Swimming! She loves when she has swim lessons every Thursday or when Mommy and Daddy take her.
-Books. The kid loves to read and I hope that never changes.

Happy 9 months Livi! Hard to believe that 1 is right around the corner!! Love you sweet girl!! xx

My Little Foodie

I never thought I would say this but Olivia has become quite the little foodie. For a while there Olivia didn't like solids, or so I thought. At around 6 months old she just wouldn't eat jarred food anymore (she started eating some solids at 4 months) to the point where I got worried and asked her doctor. At one point I thought we would have to see a feeding specialist. Later that week, I tried everything and lo and behold, Olivia is just little Miss Independent and wanted to feed herself. Thus, baby led weaning began.  Ever since, she has eaten pretty much anything we give her as long as she can feed herself. Her favorites include yogurt, pears, pasta, carrots, corn and sweet potatoes. The only way I can get Olivia to allow me to feed her is if she is feeding herself in between bites. She will let me feed her yogurt whether there is food in front of her or not though. It is always my go-to when I want to make sure she eats. This morning was a different story. She didn't eat as much as she normally does and after many, many attempts I gave up and put the rest of the yogurt back in the fridge and took her out of the high chair. As I was cleaning her high chair I looked over and noticed that Olivia was trying to open the fridge. It was hilarious! She was banging on the fridge and trying to pull the door open with little grunts and all. I guess she wasn't done with her yogurt after all. I just love this kid.

xx

Adjustments

After moving to Singapore (for the 2nd time), there have been major adjustments we've gone through while we've been here. From adjusting to the hot climate, being a little homesick, Jason's busy travel schedule to making new friends, things around here are a lot different than they used to be.

One major change that we have here though is that we have a live-in helper (maid). Here in Singapore, most expats have them, as labor is so cheap here. I had gone back and forth debating whether or not we wanted one but we both agreed that it would be beneficial to our quality of life here. Most helpers are nannies too but I decided that I want to be Olivia's main caregiver (shocking, I know). Besides watching Olivia nap while I go to the gym and babysitting after she goes to sleep so Jason and I can have date nights every now and then, N's primary job is to do all the housework and cooking. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning because I wasn't sure how it would go having someone else in our house and in our space. I must say that I am very thankful that we live in a 4 story townhouse. N has her own room and bathroom in the basement and doesn't come up to levels 2 and 3 until we are up. She is also very good at being a ninja and sometimes I don't even realize she is around. I am very thankful to have her, especially when Jason is away. Now it is much less likely that I will call 911 (or 999… whatever) because I think someone is breaking into the house (which may or may not have happened a couple of times when we were back in the US…haha) and I just feel much more secure while he is away… which seems to happen more and more frequently. N has been working with us for over a month now and I must say it is an absolute dream. I am enjoying it way more than I thought I would (or should). I guess I never noticed how much time went into keeping up a house because I had to do it. Now instead of having to cook or clean, I spend that time playing with Olivia and I get to be the hands-on Mom I've always dreamed of. Also, I find that I actually enjoy cooking more because I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to. Spoiled? Probably but I consider it a perk from being so far away from my family and friends back home. It's not like my Mom can just pop by anytime to watch Livi for us like the good ol' days. And let's be honest, every mom needs a break every now and then. I must also mention that Livi LOVES her, to the point where I have actually become jealous a time or two. I have to remind myself that I want Olivia to feel as loved and happy as humanly possible. And it helps that when she falls down, she calls for me. ;)

I originally wasn't going to mention that we had help in my blog (in fact a couple of women I know actually advised me against it) but to me it would be lying by omission and as I've said time and time again, I want this blog to be real. Plus, now you will know where Olivia is while we are scuba diving. ;) 

P.S. The whole helper thing is hard to comprehend unless you live here and realize how common it really is. In fact when we lived here the first time, no one could understand why we didn't have one even though back then it was just the two of us. 

Hiatus

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I took a bit of a hiatus from my blog. I could easily say it is because I've been busy with the baby, or that we've been away on holiday or that we are just beginning to settle into our new home in Singapore. But since day one I have always said that this blog is an honest representation of my (our) lives and I fully intend to keep it that way. It is the REAL life of an expat wife, after all. So this is really why I have really taken a break…

I have come to a bit of a crossroads while writing this blog. I have come to the realization that it is way more public than I thought it would become. Several people have googled my name and this blog has come up on the search. Although flattering, it also makes me realize that what I write has an impact on all those around me who are apart of my life. That is a lot of pressure, especially because I don't want to sugarcoat things or hurt anyones feelings with any of my opinions in the process. And this blog is just that, my opinion and my take on my life and experiences. This blog is a representation of my feelings and life in the moment, not what others "think" I should say or feel. I guess maybe I need to write a fine print on my home page because it is never my intention to hurt anyones feelings with my writings (or lack thereof). Nothing in particular happened to come to this epiphany. I just feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility because I am friends with people from all over the world, in all different cultures, and don't want anyone to have hurt feelings. So why don't I just keep this blog private? Well, I believe that some of our experiences would be beneficial to more people than just my friends- to the common traveler.

I have also found that I miss my writing. It is so hard for people to stay caught up with our lives back "home" because I don't have the luxury to call my friends or family for a quick chat to catch them up with what is going on in our lives. And I also miss how much a stress reliever it had become.

So here I am, back at the drawing board. I have so much to say and I'm not sure where to start so please bear with me. The next few posts may not be in order but I am going to try to stop being a perfectionist and just write.

More to come soon…

xx

Livi's First Trip To The ER, Aussie Style

Well, Livi decided that we didn't quite see ALL of Sydney while we've been here. We can now cross off the Sydney Children's Hospital, which never did make my list in the first place. My poor little bug caught a bug and off to the ER we went last night. And of course Jason is in China for work so it was just the two of us.

Here's how it all started:

Yesterday Olivia wasn't quite acting herself. I have been feeding her solids little by little and yesterday I gave her pears. She loved them! She ate a lot. Later that afternoon, Livi didn't drink much formula but I chucked it up to the fact that she must be full from the pears. Late in the afternoon, I decided to go for a run with my new City Jogger stroller (we got a new one since Delta damaged our Maxi Cosi). While running, Olivia was whining so I pulled to the side and just as I bent down to see what was wrong, my poor baby threw up EVERYWHERE. I didn't even attempt to clean it because it was all over her, the stroller, her stroller seat pad and her toy. I did what any wonderful mother would do and I covered it all with a blanket so no one would notice and hightailed it back to the hotel.

By the time we got back I figured she was feeling better because she fell asleep on the way home. Once we got to our room, I stripped and bathed Olivia and let her play. Then I cleaned the stroller and toy and threw her seat pad in the wash. After I was done cleaning everything up, I went to feed Olivia her afternoon bottle. Poor thing immediately puked what little formula she did take down. At this point I still figured she was full from earlier today and thought that maybe she was bounced around while I was running and it upset her tummy. That lead to bath number 2 for my sweet girl. After bathing her, I took a shower. I started to play with Olivia and an hour later I decided to try a bottle again. You guessed it… puke everywhere and bath number 3 for my baby. Now I really started to become concerned. I know babies can dehydrate easily and at this point it had been several hours since she kept anything down. I waited a couple more hours and decided to try once more. She drank maybe 2 ounces and then threw it up EVERYWHERE, which lead to bath number 4 for Livi and shower number 2 for me (and a whole lot of laundry and cleaning). After a minor freakout (sorry Jason!), I went to the reception desk and asked about an after hours doctor. I called the number and was referred to an advice line. When I told the nurse what had happened and about the lack of wet diapers the whole day, she told me to go to the ER- so off we went.

We arrived at the ER at 10:30pm and it was packed. The nurse told me that it could be a couple of hours. There were 10 people ahead of me. Had I known that it would actually take 6 hours (just in the waiting room!), I probably would have just gone home. While waiting, I did manage to feed Olivia 4 ounces over a 3 hr period (which is better than nothing). When we finally got taken back, they basically told me that she wasn't dehydrated yet and that they thought it was the flu but that they wanted to take a urine sample to be sure it wasn't a urinary tract infection. We were given a room and I was told I had to catch Olivia's pee in a cup. Mind you, it was now 4:30am, this poor kid hardly drank anything since early afternoon and didn't have any wet diapers since then. I was thinking "fat chance" but held my tongue. I started to feed Olivia while waiting for her to pee. After about 45 minutes, I finally caught some. I was so proud! The doctor (who by the way looked like Doogie Howser) came back and said that the urinalysis came back with white blood cells and that they wanted to get another sample using a catheter to make sure the urine wasn't contaminated by skin cells or anything, which they say happens frequently with little girls. Why they didn't just do that from the beginning, I'm not sure. It would have saved over an hour but oh well. Anyhow, the second urinalysis came back negative and after all that waiting, they told us that we needed to come back at 2pm for a regular doctor appointment. We left at 6:30am. Ridiculous!!

We got home at 7am and I put my PJs on and we both slept until 12pm, thank goodness. We went to the doctor at 2pm and she told us that Livi did in fact have the flu but that it was probably just the 24 hour bug. By that time, it had already been 24 hours and Olivia was on the mend and had already held down a couple of bottles. So basically we went to the ER for 8 hours for nothing and then to the doctor for 1 hour just for them to tell us she should start feeling better.

Needless to say, it was quite an exhausting adventure. And one expensive hospital bracelet for her memory book. ;) I'm not exactly sure why I am not sleeping right now. The good news out of all of this is that Olivia is starting to feel better and still went to sleep in her crib tonight without hardly crying at all. I just hope my sweet baby is back to her usual self tomorrow.

And now I'm off to bed. G'night. xx