Since we arrived in Singapore ...

It has felt terribly strange not having a computer as well as having no internet connection at home. I'm currently at my mom's place using her computer and hoping to get as many photos on the blog as possible. So I apologise for our absence over Christmas and New Year's but the wait was worth it because I'll give you all a good recap of our last few weeks. Enjoy!

So I shall skip the details of our exhausting flight from Doha to Singapore. Just know that Sera hardly slept so that meant a pair of totally wiped out parents by the time we landed in Singapore. Thank goodness, grandma was around to help out. Our new apartment! We were all excited to see our newly done up apartment and my mom really put in so much effort to see that everything was ready so that we would be comfortable. Nice! We had to do some shopping for the apartment so we were at Ikea for many days.

Needless to say, we have been very busy since we arrived and actually, have only starting to relax these last few days. Oh miraculously, my morning sickness has improved a lot. Johan was pretty convinced it would end once in Singapore, just because I was in Singapore. Well ... in a way he was right, but also because I'm already 13 weeks along. So that has been a relief for both myself and Johan. Phew!

Sera has been having a blast here, as expected with so many new impressions on a daily basis. She loves the apartment and most especially the pool and the playground, which she frequents very often. We eat out practically everyday so that means Sera's having her meals with the hundreds of people at the hawker centres or foodcourts. She LOVES it! Roaming around and checking out all the different people, all in one place. Truly paradise for her.


Sera on her own rattan chair (from Ikea, of course) in our apartment

Johan and Sera posing with children's caps that were about to be wrapped as presents


Having a cupcake for tea

And some strawberries too

Sera, tired from shopping at Ikea

Another day at Ikea, she's taking a rest at the collection warehouse of Ikea

Somehow, she still managed to enjoy herself with all the shopping and the walking ...

Our one trip to the East Coast Beach so far. She joined these brothers in their sand play.

Sera and Johan taking a stroll on the beach

We had dinner at Shore Restaurant, the very place we got married at ... memories ... ha ha

On her face ...

Sera's face has become a map of the injuries that has somehow occurred within these two days .. the two days since school has been closed. I don't find this amusing at all but I thought why not share it with the rest of you lovely people ...

Right side of her face

Left side of her face

Christmas dinner

We had a an early Christmas dinner with some friends last Saturday, just before a few of us went back for the holidays. We had a strange fusion of Agrentinian BBQ of beef ribs and kidney, French foie gras (liver of a duck or goose) and Singaporean seafood fried rice. As usual, food always brings people together and we had a very good time, including the children who got very excited about the presents after dinner.

The husbands posing by the grill

Gaston and Sera hit the dance floor

Calling out for the rest to join them

Manuela dances with the children

Dinner ... Johan gnaws on the bone of the beef ribs

Her love for music and dancing ...

Johan has NEVER seen me dance before, well if you consider the dance we did at our wedding party, yah that was the one time. I've seen Johan dance and well ... it was interesting. He doesn't believe I can dance, well I'm not a dancer but I can move to the music without making a fool of myself. So anyway, I doubt I'll ever prove him wrong or feel that I have to ... just because it has become a little awkward. Anyway ... Sera has another great love and that is dancing! Ha ha. She has her own unique style, which never fails to make Johan and I laugh. Her dancing is free-spirited and she's not fussy with the music. She can be in the car, strapped in her car seat and dancing to a tune on the radio. She dances to the advertisements on the TV. She dances to Indian and even Arab music. And if I say, "Sera, let's dance!", she'll dance on cue. Hmm, I wonder where and from whom she got this dancing bug from?

Sera loves this dress because it swishes when she moves ...

Here she is dancing and singing to 'Wheels on the Bus'

The harmonica, one of the instruments that came in the musical box from Sinterklaas. She tried to play it for a few days but wasn't successful ...

But one evening, she succeeded ...


She went on and on, blowing into the harmonica and eventually dancing to her own music

She was happy ... and even applauded herself

The harmonica has been taken from her for a while, left to dry because she hasn't mastered the art of blowing into it without her saliva.

These days

Nowadays, Sera would climb into our bed just after Johan leaves for work at about 5.15am. I really don't mind because I'm usually too tired to protest or to carry her back to her bedroom. So she and I would sleep in for another hour or two before we finally have to start our days. Usually, I'm up before she wakes so I would spend a few minutes just looking at her. It's just amazing how big and fast she has grown ... next week, she turns 18 months! That's 1.5 years! And everyday, she lets out some 'tricks from her bag', just to surprise Johan and myself.

For example, early this week she picked up our clothes from the floor and dropped them into the laundry basket. Ha ha. I really laughed because Johan and I sometimes choose to ignore the laundry basket outside our room and simply throw our clothes on the floor. Opps! Thanks Sera. And she loves to imitate me ... everything I do (I know, I have to be very careful!). Every morning, she would stand and watch while I put my contact lens on. I would give her the disposable plastic containers as she likes to drop them into the bin. But nowadays, she would pretend to put 'contact lens' on her eyes as well, just like me. Ok, this mama here finds it funny ... I do!



Sera and her love affair with shoes! It's a girl thing, right? All girls love shoes. I may have cultivated her shoe fetish from early on, I admit, ha ha. But to give you an idea just how much she loves her shoes ...

- she wants to wear her shoes even before she wears her clothes
- she tries on different pairs of shoes (including mine) during the day and prances around the house in them
- she understands the word shoe-rack and if I ask her to put her shoes back on the shoe rack, she'll very carefully
return her shoes on the top tier of the shoe rack
- her shoes occupy half the top tier of the shoe-rack, while Johan takes the other half. I have the second tier.
- she'd try on the shoes of visitors that come to our house or if we visit our neighbours, she'd try on their shoes!
- and finally and not surprisingly, she knows how to say the word 'shoes'

And just to change the topic (because I can see a lot of accusing fingers pointing at me), Sera also has picked up other words like - bye bye, hello, nice, bird, night, yummy, cat, stop it, mole, poo-pah, fish, ball, smile, nose, eye ...

Sinterklaas

Last Saturday, we celebrated Sinterklaas with the rest of the children from the joint venture. Sinterklaas, which usually falls on 5 December, is a typical Dutch tradition that, from my understanding, similar to the Santa Claus tradition that I'm a little more familiar with, not that I believed in him as a child. The whimsical tale of Santa Claus, with his team of of flying reindeer, sneaking into the chimneys of houses didn't make much sense to me, growing up in tropical Singapore and our high-rise buildings? Johan thinks I was a little deprived ... ha ha. Oh well.

So anyway, the Sinterklaas celebration which took the entire afternoon was I assumed very enjoyable for the children. Just like Santa Claus, Sinterklaas also had 'records' of all the children and their conduct during the year. I think the only child that wasn't addressed was Sera, since her parents failed to submit her 'story' to Sinterklaas prior to the party. So while the other children had their one-on-one sessions with Sinterklaas, Sera was checking out the party scene, enjoying the music, food and the drinks.

For more information on Sinterklaas, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas traditionally arrives in a boat, but being in Qatar, he arrives in a desert quad bike. Those black faced guys with him are his helpers.

There's Sera, participating in her own usual way

Her present from Sinterklaas - a box of musical instruments.

Having fun with her egg shakers, one of the instruments from her presents

Missing

Yes, I fell off the face of this earth for a few weeks ... sorry! And in case you guys are wondering what happened .. well ... this happened.



Positive! We're pregnant again. Yipee! But unfortunately it was a very short celebration for me because I've been overwhelmed by 'morning sickness' (tell me again why they call it that when I'm sick ALL DAY?) for the past few weeks. I'm dealing with it, very badly, but Johan has been very supportive and helpful so I'm very, very grateful for that. Sera is, I think, unaware of the pregnancy but she has been sick for as long as I've not been writing on this blog. It has been a series of flu and cough, most probably from the change in weather these few weeks. It's cool and even cold lately. The temperature has dropped to just below 20-degrees at night.

So yah, we've been around, trying to cope with the changes within the family ... well, it's mostly me being sick most of the time thus a slight upheaval in the household. We'll survive. So this is just an explanation, a prelude to the coming posts (I hope) to come ... Enjoy!

Doei oma and opa

Tonight, we say goodbye to Oma after spending 4 weeks with us and to Opa, while he goes on his leave. We spent the day together at a beach. Ha ha. Yes, we love hanging out at the beach and preferably far away from the maddening crowd. This morning, we drove into a little town called Zikreet, in the west. A very isolated and a forgotten town that may have been bustling and thriving in the past. The sea was, as usual, never disappointing but the landscape behind us was quite amazing, with distinctive rock formations and herds of camels roaming leisurely and freely.

What can I say ... we love the beach!

This was the rocky landscape that was behind us ...

Camels, unperturbed by our presence

Such a sweet moment seeing a baby camel with its mother ...

As usual, Sera goes looking for food. This time, she shares a cup cake with opa

I washed Sera with a bottle of mineral water and she happy and relieved to rid herself of the sand and saltiness, thereafter refusing to step on the sand again

Accident report

Just over 2 months in school and Sera came back with an 'Accident Report' yesterday. Well, it was a little dramatized in my opinion but I thought it was hilarious. Not only was it formally typed out, it was signed by three witnesses - the principal, the nurse and Sera's school teacher. And I even have to sign it and return it to the receptionist for proper documentation. Needless to say, Johan's mom and I had a very good laugh when we read the report together, and Sera ... she was very nonchalant about the whole accident. Read the report below and have a good laugh!

Click on report to get a better read

Into the desert

The desert trip actually did happen despite Johan staying in bed for an entire day on Thursday. He woke up Friday morning without a trace of any sickness in his body, all fired up and raring to go. Johan's mom, unfortunately, was still unwell so we left her behind to rest. Sorry mom, I still feel lousy for going ahead without you!

This desert trip was a very long awaited one for me, since the day I arrived in Doha. Back then, we didn't venture to the desert because I was five months pregnant. And after Sera was born, we didn't want to go until we were sure it was safe enough for her, since we heard the drive was a little bumpy. So, finally, nearly 2 years after we landed in Doha and 17 months after Sera was born, we made it to the desert. Ha ha. What's the big deal? Well, I guess it's not such a big deal but you know, I just wanted to see it for myself ... and decide if it was as good as it was so hyped up about.

The drive to the Inland Sea in the desert took us over 2 hours. The ride was bumpy, as expected. I was only worried for Sera but she had a great time, especially when the car got bumpy. She was raising her arms and going "Ya-ahhh ... ya-ahhh ... ya-ahhhh". And she didn't mind that her head was swaying from right to left, it just tickled her even more. Johan, the designated and very capable (ahem!) driver, did very well ... going up and down the dunes with no hiccups. So once again, we spent another leisurely day by the beach. Sera had a good time, the sand didn't upset her as much and by the end of the day, she was at peace and feeling very comfortable walking around the bare feet on the beach.

Johan took us safely into and out of the desert.

The two cars in front of us were part of the convoy ... here we are, going down one of the dunes

Here's Sera enjoying the bumpy ride, the bumpier it got, the more excited she became

We're checking out the Saudi Arabia border just across the sea

A different week, a different beach ...

Opa resting and watching while the others slide or run down the dune

Sera and Indy playing inside the boat

End of the day, a little tired but very contented ...

A sick family

Be warned. This post starts off a little gross, and then there is an anti-climax, followed by a depressing ending. And there are no photos, just text!

It started with Sera, Monday night, after we put her to bed. She woke up a few minutes later, threw up her entire dinner on her mattress. Incredible gross because I could see all the ingredients of my lovely quiche I had made for dinner. Sera was so drowsy and sleepy, she simply crouched over her pillow and carried on sleeping. I cleaned up, as best as I could, the sheets and the mattress. Sera was fast asleep when I left her room. Johan was going to sleep with her that night because I was running a low grade fever and my throat was swelling up. I popped two panadols and went to bed.

Next morning, Tuesday. Sera wakes me up, wearing only a diaper that was practically falling to her knees. I carried her up unto our bed and we sleep in for another 5 minutes, until I got a strong, stale smell coming from her. The gross part begins here on. Pieces of her dinner were stuck on her hair and dried smudges of most likely vomit were on her face. I quickly got out of bed, with her in my arms and walked to her room. Poof! Her room smelt bad ... rotten. I quickly inspected her bathroom, and it was painful to all the senses. A pile of soiled pyjamas and Johan's own clothes thrown into the bath-tub over all her bath toys. Yucks! Apparently, Sera had kept Johan up all night. The strange thing was that Sera was looking very okay. She was her normal spirited self and even finished her bowl of cereal and a kiwi for her breakfast. So that is why I decided she was fit enough to go to school, in case anyone is wondering why she didn't just stay home.

I dropped her off at school. She was, as usual, happy to be at school. Johan's mom and I went for a painting class, about 30 minutes from Sera's school. Everything was going well until I get a call from Sera's school.

Woman: "I'm calling from Creative Child. Is this Sera's mother?" (in a really chirpy tone)

Me: "Yes ... " (Anxiety is fast setting in)

Woman: "Miss Kathleen has asked me to call you because Sera has been crying all morning and is very sick. Please come and collect her." (Still in a very upbeat tone)

I don't even remember what I replied, maybe something like "Ok!" but so many thoughts were running through my head as I told Johan's mom we had to go, packed up my stuff and said a hasty goodbye to everyone. Firstly, I thought "What an absolutely horrible mother I was for bringing Sera to school, knowing she threw up the night before!" But she was so fine in the morning? What happened? As I drove as safe as I could towards her school, I thought of Johan. He was going to be soooooooooooooooooo mad at me for bringing Sera to school. GULP! I looked at Johan's mom on my right and she looked worried and was very quiet. I just prayed all the way to her school that she wasn't feeling as bad as the woman on the phone made it sound.

I ran all the way to her classroom, opened the door and frantically looked for Sera. I found her running around with Kelyan, smiling ... looking very pink and healthy and not at all sick! Huh????!!!! Miss Kathleen walked up to me, a little puzzled and then realised what had happened. "Oh no, she called the wrong mother!" It took me a while to realise the mistake. I was holding on to Sera by then, still a little shaky and my breathing was much calmer. Miss Kathleen goes out to the reception and tersely informed 'Miss Sunshine' that she had called the wrong mother. "Sara's mother, not Sera's mother!"

Miss Kathleen apologises repeatedly but I told her it was all right. As long as Sera was fine, nothing else mattered. So I walked out of her classroom, managed a smile at the apologetic but still ridiculously happy receptionist, sighed a huge relief together with Johan's mom in the car, and drove back home. Now how crazy was that?

Moving on from Tuesday to this morning, Thursday. Sera missed school this morning just because she hasn't been eating well since last Tuesday afternoon. I think she may be battling a stomach virus. She's still active but her appetite has dropped to nothing much. Thus I decided no school for her. Anyway, I came back from yoga class and I saw Johan's car parked, not even at his usual spot, outside our house. Something was definitely wrong here! I walked into the house, no Johan in sight but a very messy house courtesy of Sera and a very tired- looking oma. Johan's mom informs me that Johan is very sick, threw up and was in bed, asleep. Oh no! And she also saidthat she wasn't feeling too well herself. Something was wrong with her tummy, that was making her feel ill. I forced her to her bedroom to rest while I looked after Sera. I popped in to check on Johan, took his temperature (yup, he has a fever) and gave him one panadol.

So currently, Sera is asleep, so are Johan and his mom. The house is very quiet. I'm sitting here, a little baffled by all the sickness and viruses going on? Sigh ... one of those days. Hopefully, I'll be back with happier news.

A day at the beach

The weather was too good to stay indoors yesterday, so we spent the day at Sealine beach soaking in the sun and cool breeze. Perfect! We didn't hang out by the pool this time but headed to the sandy beach. Sera has yet to discover the joy of sand. Ha ha. She was completely and utterly distressed that the sand was getting into her sandals and then realised that the sand stays on her feet ... and hands. She was literally standing in the sand, complaining loudly for all to hear on the beach, like a little 'princess'. She only stopped complaining when we finally cross the stretch of sand, and into the cool water. Once in the water, she forgot all about the sand, happily floating at the shoreline, picking up little pebbles and rocks.

After lunch, we found a nice shady spot under a palm tree, laid on the grass while Sera went wild chasing the birds or cheekily sneaking up on other beach-goers. We had an absolutely lazy but wonderful day.

Sera and oma playing by the seashore

Sera sat at the same spot on the sand for the longest time, until I finally took her in for a dip. She just did not want her feet to touch the sand.


She loved the extra buoyancy that the salt water gave her

A very unhappy Sera who was upset with so many things - sand on her feet, on her hands, her cookie and on her face.

After she stuck out her hands for me to brush off the sand, she was a little happier, leaned on Johan and nibbled on her cookie

The look of hunger

She had the most fun on the grass, running around with not a care in the world

After a short nap, he played a little football

Sera imitating us drinking water from the plastic bottle ... the cap is on so she's really just pretending