The Napalms Strike Again

i know not too long ago i wrote about metaphorical napalm bombs that turned our quiet family life upside down, and when the dust settled down, how i hoped that the air would stay clear for a long long time. However, in our case, hope and reality seem to be two very different animals. And reality just happened to rear its ugly head, shown us its humongous fangs and bit us hard in the bum. Ouch!

What i'm trying to say is that the air only stayed clear for a short while before the napalms struck again. Remember I wrote about our replacement maid that was suppose to arrive by late august. She did arrive as promised and she was a good worker and the kids seemed to warm up to her too. We actually thought she was the one. But reality had a different view. Before we can say "hey let's go catch a movie while bibik looks after the kids", she's already on a plane back to surabaya. You might be asking why is our perfect bibik gone so soon. Yeah it sounds surreal i know, but she failed her bloody medical test here. She passed with flying colour there but when Fomema did it again here, she kantoi to the max. What the freakin hell i thought. Please please please let her stay i pleaded. No no no they answered. Come on lah! I begged. Dei, no means no lah! They rebuff. What else could we do? off we sent her home on the jet plane never to be seen again. It was a sad day for me and supermama. It was sadder than watching that "Million Dollar Baby" movie. And let me tell you, that movie can really make macho men shed manly tears.

So, there we were, no maid again, but still stuck with a preschooler and two babies to care for. We couldn't let our mothers babysit the kids even if they wanted to do it. It wouldn't be fair on them. In fact it would be called cruelty to grandmothers if we let that happen. One year old twins are not meant to be looked after by the grandmothers by themselves. It's like unleashing double-hell-tsunami on an old lady with a tiny umbrella expecting only a drizzle. After much thought and with heavy hearts we decided to put the twins at a nursery that we found to be acceptable. Kakak Nuha would go to her kindie and stay at supermama's office in the afternoon. Mind you, this would the first time for us sending any of our kids to a nursery, so it was understandable that we were feeling heebie-jeebies over the whole thing.

We looked at quite a few places and finally picked this one nursery in ukay perdana. The place was decent enough that we hoped the twins will be okay. But again, reality had a different view in mind. The first day they were crying almost the whole day. The second day they came home with runny noses. The third day they started coughing. The fourth day we had to take them to the paed for nebulizer treatment. The fifth day, into the hospital they went for 7 days this time around. Our first foray into the nursery realm was quite nerve-wrecking and didn't turn out so well for the twins. It was hell time at the hospital too with coughing, nebulizer every 3 hour, chest physio, purging, IV drip and nasty foul-tasting smecta. Alhamdulillah the twins got better. It was good to be home after a week at the hospital. So, it was with a heavier heart that we had to send them again to the nursery last week. We felt so guilty but we had to do it. We prayed, we hoped with all our hearts that the twins won’t fall sick again. Alhamdulillah they went through the week much better than expected. They were crying less and less. They have found back their lost appetites. They were not coughing anymore and no runny noses too. Raina and Raisa ara back! Now they fight over who gets more share of the food again, they fight over who has more bubbles in the bathtub again, they even poke each other’s eyes while they’re sleeping again. Ahh such joy! It’s good to be back..

Raina and Raisa before the got coughy and snotty

Raisa on the nebulizer

Raina on the nebulizer

  

Notice the freelodger in pink tshirt

Better than synchronised swimming

Hello! Hello, is this the Sychronised Swaying Academy? I'd like to enrol my daughters in one of your advance classes please. What do you mean this is not the swaying academy? What does this academy do then? What? Synchronised what? You sure or not it's swimming not swaying? I want to talk to the principal please. Oh you are the principal. How come you've never heard of synchronised swaying before? No, no it has nothing to do with swimming or even water. It's actually very close to wiggling, only that the bums part dont move as much. Are you sure you've never heard of it? It takes a lot of skills to perform and not many can actually do this swaying thing. And my kids are really good you know. So can I enrol them in your school or not? Oh you dont have special trainers for this thing eh. And you dont really know what swaying is. I can send you a video if you want. What! You dont accept videos and you're not interested in swaying. You're going to miss out big time man!. Let me tell you, this is the next big thing. Before you know it, it'll be the main event in the Olympics and the World Games. This is definitely better than synchronised swimming I'm telling you! Hello! Hello! Helllooo!

A picture of double happiness

This morning after sahur, when we entered the room where Raina and Raisa were sleeping, we were presented with a picture perfect view.

Imagine looking at your baby sleeping. Everything so quiet. Her face angelic. Her closed eyes hide unbridled love for you. Her breathing, soft like a whisper. She's your miracle, a priceless gift bestowed on you that you say "Syukur Alhamdulillah" in every prayer. She's your joy, your happiness, the reason for your being. The one that melts your heart with every uttered word. The treasure that you promised to cherish and protect with every breath that you have. And she's sleeping, at peace with everything around her.

Now, times that by two. That's how we felt.

Eyes Wide Shut

Me and Supermama have not missed sahur so far this Ramadhan. And since last week we have been joined for Sahur by Nuha our 5 year old. Every night before she goes to bed she would remind us to wake her up in time for Sahur because she wants to fast tomorrow. I know it sounds so sweet. Yes I agree it does sound sweet when she said that at bedtime but come sahur time it doesn’t always look pretty anymore.. eyes wide shut, limped legs, angry half-awaked brain, grumpy to the max.

Abah: Nuha nak sahur tak?
Nuha: {nodding.. eyes closed}
Abah: If you want to sahur then you have to get up now. We have to hurry.
Nuha: {no answer.. eyes closed}
Abah: Ok you go back to sleep. Tak payah sahur.
Nuha: Abaaaaaaaah!!! {at the top of her lungs}

Nuha inherits this trait from me, which I’m not proud to admit. We may be awake during sahur but our taste buds are still sleeping like a log. Nothing looks delicious to us at this hour. When Supermama asked Nuha what she wanted to have with her rice, she just grunted “egg”. When Supermama suggested that she has chicken instead, she just grunted “egg” again and gave Supermama the evil-eye look. The evil-eyes are just the start. “Kenapa egg Nuha ni tak potong?” “Mana air Nuha?” “Kenapa Mama duduk jauh sangat?” All these would last for like five to ten minutes before sahur can be eaten in peace. We would expect her to run back to bed as soon as she has finished eating judging by her grumpy mood and half-closed eyes.

Finally, sahur is done. As we were walking back to the room, to the waiting bed, Nuha turned and asked “Nuha nak tengok cartoon boleh tak Abah?” Chirpy like a mother hen in the morning, when not 20 minutes back she was giving everyone the evil eye.

Nuha being grumpy during sahur

Nuha giving Supermama the evil-eye look

A Month of Chaos

It has been one hectic month for all of us, the twins included. some things happened as planned while other events seemed to drop like napalm bombs and made our lives go helter skelter all of a sudden. We were like mice trapped in the pesticide corner of the supermarket... rushing to find a way out while trying not to get asphyxiated in the process. A mouse in this situation only thinks about survival and wouldnt normally care so much about his blog or the blogging world in general. In fact, blogging was very far from his mind eventhough mrs.mouse despite her career-impeding predicaments (she's also trapped remember) did ask a few times when the next blog entry was going to be updated. Well, now that the air is clearer and easier to breathe, maybe a new blog entry is just the dose needed to let the world know that the family of mouses survived quite intact afterall.
The napalm bombs that i mentioned came in different forms. First, our maid decided to quit and become a dangdut singer in Johor. I maybe exagerating the dangdut part but the quitting part was real. i have to admit that we depended on the maid to look after the twins during the day. To make matters worse, the supposed replacement maid would only arrive towards end of august. We tried to find temporary ones to fill the gap but all our attempts never seemed to work out. The twins are not that difficult to look after, they just needed someone to "buai" them to sleep and to stop them from yanking the whiskers off Bee our fat cat. Whenever these temps decided not to show up, we had to take leave from work. So some days, the twins would have their Abah at home but most days they would see Supermama. Well, Supermama had to stay off work more because Zombiedaddy had to go outstations and also had meetings to attend. Thank God her boss was also a mother and could understand our predicament.
The second napalm came when the twins had to be admitted to the hospital for acute bronchiolitis. This is the second time they had a spell at the hospital. The first was when they were 3 months old caused by the same RSV virus. This time they spent a week at Tawakal Hospital. Supermama had to take leave again to look after Raina and Raisa. Nuha the kakak didnt want to stay behind so we bundled her along to the hospital. Even Zombiedaddy had to spend the nights at the hospital because Supermama wanted to sleep and someone had to take over the night shift. The twins even had to celebrate their birthdays at the hospital.. With nebulizers instead of cakes and prezzies. Kesian! I'm sure there'll be an entry about our little exhausting hospital adventure.
Despite the overall chaos that dictated our lives for the last 30 over days, there were also some bright memorable spots that also took place. First, we had visitors from Perth coming back for a short break. The girls were over the moon to see and play with their cousins. It was really great to see my nieces had grown to become beautiful, polite and charming girls while their mother stayed slim and pretty (no, i wasn't bribed with any heavenly chocolate crowned Arnotts biscuit to come out with
that statement). Ok Ok maybe I should have said 'nice' and not use the word 'slim' at all hehehe. Oh there will also be an entry on this later. Anyways, the only sad thing about the Aussie's visit was that we couldnt spend more time with them except the weekends due to the napalm bombs i mentioned earlier. We really hope to make up for it when they're here again in December.
Ok, so that has more or less summed up our cluttered month that explains the drought in this blog. Hopefully the air will stay clear so that I can continue updating the philosophical outlook on life by a preschooler and twin infants, or in other words the funny things that Nuha, Raina and Raisa do on a daily basis.
Oh, to those of you who are reading this... Thank you for stopping by.

Spot the Difference

 

 

Honestly, I couldn’t tell them apart myself for the first 3 months. Had to rely on Supermama’s powerful motherly instinct. Only now can I confidently say that I know for certain which one is Raina and which one is Raisa. Hooray for Zombiedaddy.

Fever

I believe one of the most important thing every parent cannot do without is a digital infrared thermometer.. You know, those little gadget that only takes 2 seconds to read your child's temperature. How else do you know that your child is having a 40degree high fever and needs to be rushed to the hospital or just a low-grade fever that can be remedied with a few doses of paracetamol. Especially now with the swine flu already on our shores, you can never treat a fever lightly. And forget about those older thermometers that need to be put in the mouth or under the armpit and requires a full minute to read the temperature. Don't think the twins can sit still for a minute with the thermometer under their armpits. Imagine this scenario, let's say we manage to sit Raisa still with the thermometer sticking out from under her arm. Before you can say "50 seconds to go", Miss KayPoChee Raina will crawl over from across the room with sudden interest on her sister's new toy. What we would end up in getting after a full minute, is the temperature of the floor with a thermometer covered in saliva and the twins wailing. Definitely not very effective.
Supermama called earlier today to tell me Raisa had a fever.. it was quite high almost touching 39degrees. With Nuha last time we would have panicked but we are much more calm with the twins. With experience comes wisdom i would say. Either that or we are just too tired to go panicky over every cough, sneeze and fever. Supermama gave Raisa a cold bath and a dose of progesic. She's hovering at just below 38degrees right now. She also still has all her appetites so we are not too worried. But at the same time, having fever equates to crankiness.. cranky babies cry and make alot of noises. When one baby cries the other baby cant sleep too. Before you know it, you have two cranky babies. Aahh gotta go, Zombiedaddy on double duty tonight.