An Eventful Month

Never thought that we could be this busy in November. Somehow or rather, we had scheduled event week after week.

First it was Charlotte's 6th birthday! We first had a small celebration among family members. It is always the case, that Charlotte will celebrate her birthday at least 2x, sometimes 3x. The highlight was the birthday party we did for her and her friends. It was kind of tricky to plan for her birthday party this year. We wanted an outdoor play but it was raining season. Pat and I hesitated for quite a bit and we only sent out birthday party invitation at the very last minute.

We organized a park-&-pool session at our new home, only few friends are invited, they are obviously the special someone named by Charlotte. The kids enjoyed themselves in the water before we adjourned to a restaurant nearby. Let the pictures speak for itself...

Follow up by Charlotte's Graduation Ceremony. The ceremony was a very organized and solemn event that I ever seen of any children's event. The message sent out from this ceremony wasn't much about concert and performance but it carried a very meaningful reminder to all, to be grateful and respectful to parents. I hope Charlotte builds her foundation with these good values and carries them with her through her growing.    

Then it was school holidays! Since Abby is still too young to travel with us, we had to leave her behind and we just embarked on the nearest adventure - Universal Studio Singapore!

我的第一个见证

我从小就在基督教家庭环境中长大, 受的不只是基督教的教导 而且也听了很多人与人之间以基督教教育为中心的教导, 参与了很多生活营, 宣传活动, 见证会等等 但是本身却没作过或体会过什么惊人的见证. 又或许我的生活一直都很顺利, 也没经过什么大风大浪, 所以也不怎么会有特别的体会. 可是唯一根基扎的很稳的就是"凡是都要祷告". 小时候的我无论遇到什么事, 或什么危险, 总是"主啊! 主啊! 帮助我.."的在祷告, 祈求.

不知道什么开始, 生活的脚步快了, 责任多了, 肩上的负担重了, 时间少了, 忘了凡是都要祷告, 信靠主必然得胜有余的教导. 虽然妈妈时时都在提醒不要忘了祷告的力量, 不要忘了上帝是真神. 可是, 我总是左耳听右耳出的, 没真正的把它听进去.

在可宥(Abigail) 四个月大的时候, 我发现她的头部长了许多一粒一粒的"红疹". 当时, 我们并没有怎么得别着急, 就等了每个月要打育苗针的时候才问了可宥的儿科医生. 那儿科医生初步的诊断也只不过是一般的皮肤敏感. 他给了一瓶药, 约四到五天内就没事啦. 我们也没多顾虑, 就离开了. 过了大约两个星期, 我才发现本来的"四到五天"还没进展反而有点严重了. 我也开始焦急了, 又带了可宥马上去看了她的儿科医生. 这次, 医生的诊断还是相当简单. 他写了个字条给我们, 说"没事的, 等她在长大些割了吧". 听到"割"我们就急了起来, 毕竟头部手术 还是不简单, 更和况是对一个一岁不足的婴儿来说. 可是, 那个儿科医生也不多说, 只叫我们依照字条上写的去网上翻阅有关的资料.

回到家之后 我们马上翻阅网上所有关于"sebaceous naevus" 的资料. 我们是越翻阅, 越着急, 又忧虑. 虽然资料显示没什么大不了的问题, 可是我们对那必须面对的手术和那几个少数危机总是耿耿于怀. 网上的资料显示有少部分的病例会导致恶性肿瘤和影响发育的进展度. 虽然并没有统一的病例数字, 试问哪个作父母遇到这样的事会不担心的? 我们接二连三的寻找儿科医生, 皮肤专科医生, 我们就希望会有不一样诊断结果, 可是最后判断是一致的. 我们的希望也跌到最低.

从一开始, 妈妈对我们的鼓励和劝慰都离不开"祷告". 每一次都要我们向上帝祈求. 有一次, 大哥大嫂刚好来拜访, 妈妈也就向他们提到了这件事. 我们一家人当中大哥的信心最大, 所以妈妈也请大哥帮忙代祷. 大哥也给了我一个很合适的金句, 他说"在人不可能, 在神凡事都能!". 那天过后, 我每一个夜里在抱着可宥, 喂着奶的时候我都不断的在祷告. 我祈求上帝怜悯可宥, 让她小小的生命可以逃过开刀动手术的必要. 我祈求上帝亲自为可宥作医生, 为她医治. 我恳求上帝显神迹, 让在人不可能的, 在神凡事都能...就这样, 每一天有很多人都在为可宥不停的祷告.

在不停的祷告的同时, 我们也式这找了我小时候常看的医生. 他不是什么专科医生, 可是他是我们小时候一有皮破血流就找的医生. 记忆里他是比皮肤专科还棒的呢! 他肯定了一部分是 sebaceous naevus 没错, 但他却说另一部分并不是. 他配两种吃的药, 还有一罐涂的. 我们问了那 sebaceous naevus 的一部分是要怎么解决, 他也没清楚的解释, 只是说那个没要紧, 以后在弄. 妈妈也说可宥爱流汗, 建议把她的头发剪了, 我也照这做了. 总之, 可以式的我们都不会放过. 一个星期过去了, 也不见有特别的进展. 我们也接受了这个事实. 就也不再服药了. 唯一没有停止的就只是祷告. 

过了大楷三个月, 有一天要去接可宥回家的时候她的babysitter忽然对我说"我跟你说她的头..." 还没听她说完我心里就冷了一下, 又不知道发生什么事了. "她的头好像好了!". 当时的我又急又兴奋, 马上看了一下, 真的, 那些凸出来的变平了, 头皮也没以前的红肿了! 观察了差不多一个礼拜, 情况真的有改善!!! 我马上的把这个好消息告诉妈妈和大哥. 大哥作了一个 thumbs-up 的动作, 点了点头笑笑的说"我每晚都在为她祷告"!!!

现在的我在一次的找回祷告的力量, 再一次的体会到是神的应许与祝福. 其实, 上帝并没有离开过我们, 是我们离开了上帝.

这是我小的时候最爱唱的一首诗歌, 当中的意义, 我到现在才真正的体会到.

野地的花，穿着美丽的衣裳，

天空的鸟儿，从来不为生活忙。

慈爱的天父，天天都看顾，

他更爱世上人，为他们预备永生的路。

一切需要，天父已经都知道，

若心中烦恼，让他为你除掉。

慈爱的天父，天天都看顾，

他是全能的主，信靠他的人真是有福。

Our First Letter Exchange

About a month ago, I received a notice from Charlotte’s school that they are introducing post office, stamps, letter and etc in the coming week and we were asked to write a letter to our child and mail it the conventional way to the school address. I was excited as I think the kids will be excited too when they received the letter from their parents this way.

We were asked to keep the letter short, but take this opportunity to express our feelings, expectations, hopes and wishes through this letter. I think this is good as being an Asian, we are not as open and direct when confronting with our feelings and emotion with our loved ones. And I needed this opportunity share my feelings with Charlotte and how things have changed with Abigail’s arrival.

My letter to Charlotte:

亲爱的宣宥,

你知道吗 你是妈妈最宝贝的宝贝? 你是一个很乖, 也很贴心的孩子. 妈妈很欣慰, 也很疼你. 我都会把最好的给你, 用的, 吃的, 穿的, 包括时间和精神. 希望你能健康和快乐的成长.

妹妹出世之后, 家里大大小小的事多了不少. 妈妈也因为要照顾妹妹而很可能有多少忽略了你. 对不起! 但是妈妈还是很爱你的, 希望你会懂事. 你和妹妹都是妈妈的宝贝, 妈妈两个都爱, 两个都疼.

你今年六岁了! 明年你就要升上小学一年纪了. 妈妈最担心的是在学校功课, 饮食, 样样都必须自己负责. 妈妈希望你能学得更自立, 至少在家里能开始学习吃饭和喝奶都不需要再喂就好了! 宣宥 要加油哦!

妈妈爱你!  

Few weeks later, they have an expedition, going to the post office! And I knew what’s coming although nothing was announced by the school. However, Charlotte was very cute and she can’t keep the secret (or maybe she was not told that it suppose to be a secret). She told me that I should expect her letter, in green color envelope J .

One day, I was late from work and she called. She said “Mommy, can you please quickly come home? My letter is here!” J Of course I made my way home at the soonest and she eagerly passed me the letter and asked me to read it!

She wrote:

亲爱的爸爸妈妈
我爱你们
我也爱可宥
可宥是我的好可宥
宣宥上

There was no punctuation on each sentence, and I don't know why the paper was so broken. I think she must be trying to decorate it using a shaped scissors (see the edge of the paper) and that's how it turned out. 可宥 is Abigail's chinese name but she wrote it wrongly (oops!) and the characters on the letter were she and Abigail. The envolope was nicely decorated (I didn't know that it is allowed, haha!), Mr Postman must be amuzed when he delivered it.

A Quick Update



It is time for me to post about Abigail's growth progress; it has been 4+ months! How time flies. Sometimes I really wish for the 25th hour. My days are much occupied since I return to work, no time to slack!

Abigail is growing very well; she hits every growth milestone quite timely (Charlotte was always behind by 1-2 months as far as I could remember). She is a very cheerful and friendly baby. She smiles whenever she’s called and she loves Charlotte. She responds to Charlotte very well, sometimes she coos the loudest when Charlotte interacts with her. It is very funny to see the “chicken-duck” talk between the 2 of them.

So far, she wakes up once at night for feeding and she sleeps very well when she is swaddled. However, this has ended last week since she masters her new skill to roll over! She kept rolling over and woke up on her tummy and smiling at me in the middle of the night L  I had to keep waking up, put her back to sleep and that equal to no sleep!! Help!! But she has this cute and innocent face that you won’t get mad at her. Instead, I can’t help but kiss her a few times on her cheek before putting her back to sleep.  

Introducing Abigail

It has been a month and I still don't have much pictures of Abigail to share. My SLR is only operated by me, and since I'm being requested to bed rest most of the time no one has been taking Abigail's picture.

This is the picture I took during the first few days, at the hospital. She was sleeping soundly after breastfeed. I took this picture with my phone camera.



This is the picture that I took 2 days ago, still with my phone camera. I think I need to take out my camera from the bag and standby all the time in order to capture a very nice moment of Abigail.

She has a rather boyish look and most people said if I give birth another child, it will be a son! Crazy!! I was satisfied with just Charlotte, and now I am very contented with Charlotte and Abigail...another one??? Don't even think about it!

What's In The Mail?

I came home from work last Monday and saw a sweet pink color envolope, with very nice handwritting addressing to Charlotte Chan. I flipped to the back of the envolope trying to find who that was but it wasn't written. So I guess it must be a nice surprise to Charlotte. 

I went to pick her up from school and showed her her first (real) letter that came in the mailbox today. She eagerly tearing the envolope apart (first timer, don't know how to open an envolope) and it side it was a beautiful birthday card!   

It was a birthday card from Auntie Cheah Wei and her daughter Yan. I had invited them for the party but unfortunately Auntie Cheah Wei was travelling that time.

The card was a very authentic idea, every single words was hand written by Yan and that includes the address on the envelope (very nice job) and there is also a McD voucher. What a wonderful idea, thanks CW and Yan!!!

Charlotte's 5th Birthday Party

We celebrated all Charlotte's previous birthdays with just close family members. This year Charlotte started to request to invite her friends and she started counting down many months back. Pat and I agreed that we will organize a birthday party for her since she has established her own circle of friends now.

We made this party all by ourselves, invitation, decorations, cooking, kids activity and etc. Both Pat and I took a day off and started the preparation since 8.30am. We first went to the market and get all the fresh ingredient and my busy kitchen only got settled down shortly before 6.00pm, just right before the guests arrival.

Charlotte came back from school and her first reaction was "wah!!" and she exclaimed "Thank you mommy and daddy!" as she noticed all the decoration we had put up.

She especially excited with the children's table setting, she chose the party hat herself and I think it was a perfect choice!

In my kitchen, I have:
1. Hokkien mee (typical Penang prawn noodle)
2. Seafood Marinara
3. Roast quarter chicken
4. Mash potatos
5. Tang yuen (glutinous rice ball in pandan and ginger soup)
6. Cranberries orange cupcakes
7. Horlicks doggie cookies
8. Ice cream
9. Party give aways

From other kitchen supply:
1. Birthday cake
2. Mini fruit tarts
3. Sweet tapioca kuih

Too bad I didn't manage to take the pictrures of those food that I prepared, but that's not the highlight of the party. I think the highlight of the party was the cupcake decoration activity.

I baked the cranberries cupcakes, and prepared some colorful butter cream, fondant cutouts and sprinklers for the kids to experience cake decoration, and they can bring back their own creation :) I had a lot of help from all the mommies to make that session successful...

And the results...

I prepared boxes for the kids to bring home to share with their love ones. I think that was a lot of fun!

This year, the birthday song was sang very loudly and very warmly, and there was a lot of happy smiles we noticed. The birthday girl was definitely thrilled to have her friends around her.

The one thing she kept pestering was to present tea to us. I had wanted her to do that after the party but I think she wanted to show to everyone this special practise that her school had taught her. So we gave in and this was how she did it, in front of every guest...that was priceless!

Another priceless showoff - All these happy faces!

At night Pat asked Charlotte if she was happy and enjoyed the party, her response?

"Yes, and when is the next party?"  *mommy fainted*

A Big thank you to all for attending the party, and all the best wishes from friends and relatives!

A Letter To Baby

Charlotte wrote a letter to baby last week, I can't believe that baby's 1st letter was from her sister...

I love mommy because I like mommy. I oso love you baby so I like you baby. I love baby when baby come out. I will take care, I will not fight with baby. Baby is my friend, I love you baby. This is for you baby.
I am Charlotte. I oso your friend.

妈妈的味道

Charlotte likes to snuggle up with me whenever possible. It is very funny that even we are sitting on a 3 seater couch, two of us usually only occupied 1 seat. I felt suffocated when I needed a space of my own, especially when I had a long day at work, or not feeling too well. But most of the time we both enjoy the cuddling and being close to each other.

One night she was sleeping very close to me and held my hand. She asked: "mommy why you always smell so good?". I thought it was a very funny question, so I gave a simple answer: "because I just had a shower" and brushed it off.

This morning she came to me and put a little handkerchief of her on my face before we left home. I didn't know what she was doing but I let her. Later I overheard the conversation of her and my mother: "外婆, you smell" and hand out the handkerchief, and she continued: "妈妈的味道, 很香! 我要带去学校"

Then & Now

This is picture was taken when Charlotte was 7 months old. She loved running her fingers on the keys when we put her in front of a piano. She had never bang her palms on the key like most kids do even at that young age. I don't know how she got the idea of using her fingers since then. After 5 years...

she is almost finishing book 1.

I started my piano lesson at age of 13, and it was never a challenge coordinating left and right hand when you are that "old". Charlotte is now starting to play with both hands and coordinating different finger on different hand at different note could be a challenge. I see her determination, I see her concentration in getting it right and I am very pleased. I taught her a song last night and she asked to be left practising while I attend my evening meeting. And I did get a very pleasing result after 1 hour! A very good girl isn't she?  

She's A Great Kid!

While most parents had some sort of getaway with their children during the 2 weeks school holiday, Charlotte was with my parents, and at home at all time. I was very busy at work and practically did not see daylight (except during lunch), and Pat was on business travel. Everyday, Charlotte woke up without me, and she waited for me to come home to tell me what she did and what happened during the day. Sometimes I was way too tired and fell asleep while she was telling the story and she would tell me "妈妈, 昨天你已经睡了可是我还没有说完" then she continued "没关系, 因为我知道你累了". That made me feel even worse and I promised that I will listen until she finishes the story that day but then I fell asleep again without me knowing it.

I felt very sorry and the guilt kicks in everyday. However, I was glad that she was very well taken care of, she ate well, learnt many things that I was not expecting her to know or pick up, and most importantly she was happy when I got home every night.

She is a great kid and I am very proud of her. She carries good manners, show respect to people, thoughtful and very kind hearted. One night, when she was telling the story, she asked me if I noticed grandma's hand. I said no and asked why? She said grandma burnt her hand when she was cooking and she asked me to buy cream for grandma tomorrow.

Last Wednesday night, I told her that the next day will be grandma's birthday and I asked her what she want to prepare for that occasion. She suggested that we give grandma a surprise, and get her a cake! Well, to me that's very easy to do. I got the cake after work (I left office early that day) and when I was home my mom showed me the birthday card that Charlotte made for her, from scratch! My mom said she asked for a piece of white paper and color pencils in the morning and my mom had no idea what she was up to. Charlotte drew a wonderful picture, and she wrote "I LUV U AMA", "I GIF U PRASEN", "HAPPY BUFDAY AMA". My mom had no idea what she wrote but I was laughing with my tears running in my eyes when I read it (forgot to take a picture of that card). It was a very colorful card and she even made an colorful envelope to put the card inside! She told my mom to put the card under the Christmas tree, I think she got confused with Christmas somehow *LOL* My mom was very happy with a small celebration we had at home, and a small gift that I bought for her but I couldn't take her out for a treat because I had to attend a night conference call.

I can see how sensitive and thoughtful Charlotte is, and I am very proud of her for having good manners, gentle and very understanding. I want to encourage her good behaviour and also to keep her happy while I am trying to get my busy work schedule worked out.

Yup, we took her for her 3rd movie! We know Charlotte could relate Toy Story Part 3 very well as she watched part 1 and part 2 since 2 years old, and still watching! I personally like part 3 more than the 2 episodes before because it has a very good story line and moral value too. I also got her...

A talking Jessie! you should see her big grin when I bring the box home today. She was thrilled!!

It is tough to be a working mom, isn't it? Trying to keep everybody happy, both at work and at home. My turn? Soon! ;)

Food

I blogged about how picky Charlotte was as a young eater, it took a lot of creativity and patience to make her eat and drink (milk). Good food, healthy food, junk food, snacks, deserts almost nothing attracted her back then. I know many parents have to stop or restrain their kids when comes to the famous McD french fries, but Charlotte would just stop after couple of bites. Same goes for ice-cream, what do you think when you talk about vege, protein and bla bla bla...?

But, she is a much much better eater now. Her school serves vegetarian food everyday, and she is eating like a pro but of course she still tells me "I don't want vege" at home sometimes. Well, I think that's normal for kids. Her school is campaigning vegetarian month for the month of May. The idea is to educate people about "no meat, no slaughtering". They are having various program teaching the students about vegetarian food, bringing to them to the wet market, show & tell, and offering food packs. We were told to feel free to order dinner packs for our family for the entire month of May, and it is FOC! They are also offering lunch packs for weekends. This is the extra miles they go to encourage people to believe in no meat, no slaughtering.

I order 2 dinner packs for weekdays (I don't have to cook dinner for the entire month, yay!). It has been 2+ weeks and I have to say the dinner packs are very good. Everyone in the family loves it!

Without us realizing it, we have been doing something quite routinely lately. When Pat is home early and I don't have night meeting we usually head out to Baskin Robbins for some sweet treats. Last night we did it again. Charlotte and I usually share a 2-scoop sundae and Pat has one to himself. Last night, Charlotte chose Orange Sherbet and I chose Manga Tango. She told me "Mommy, you eat yours and I eat mine". I didn't quite understand what she was trying to say and so she went on "you cannot eat mine la!" *LOL*

Amazing!

A couple of weeks back, while I was busy doing ironing and laundry Charlotte found "new" treasures in her "old" toy storage boxes and she was actually quite fascinated with some of those (make mental note: to save money, maybe I should just dig out the old toys once in awhile).

I didn't really pay attention to what she was doing but I knew she was playing on this learning board and it was actually very noisy initially but the noise went unnoticed as I tried to get the laundry done. When I was finally sat down at night, she brought out the learning board and said "mommy, listen..."



This is a replay that I took yesterday. WOW! How amazing was that! I never taught her to play like this before and to be honest I had never touch my piano myself for ages! I also did not teach her the "Do Re Mi" and I have no idea how she could play that all by her "trial & error" in such a short time. She then sang the tune with the Do Re Mi too.

Another treasure she found was the harmonica. It was the one from attending the Kindermusik earlier. She insisted to bring it along when we went out for dinner over the weekend. I thought it was a bad idea because it was going to be very noisy and probably disturbing other guests at the restaurant. But I was wrong!! The harmonica has only 1 octive and as we were at the restaurant I taught her the same song just to avoid her making other people feeling annoyed. This is the result...



This is also a replay, she was trying to be funny when I told her that I want to capture that in a video. I never thought she could figure out the blow & suck sequence of a harmonica over a meal!

Whether it was just a coincidence or she has that little bit more than just interest, I am signing her up at Yamaha officially. Hopefully this goes a long way.

A Promise Is To Keep

It has been a long and busy 2.5 weeks. Actually, I was only away from home for 1 week but it takes longer than I expected it to be to clear the work backlogs.

While I was away, daddy made a promise to Charlotte that he would take her to horse riding one day. I don't know where and how this idea came about until one night Charlotte was reading her bedtime story book. There it was!

The same evening I touched down the airport, we headed to the north side of the island and daddy kept his promise!

However, come next Monday I had trouble getting Charlotte to school. She felt like she didn't have enough time with me and that separation anxiety kicked in again. It was a difficult week, every morning I had to deal with a crying pre-schooler. I tried to distract her with treats and play after school but it just didn't go very far.

One night, it was just me and her as daddy was still busy at work. I had a very close heart to heart talk with her. I told her that she made me very sad that every morning I had to leave her crying and drag myself to work. She didn't understand why initially but I pointed out to her with some examples and she finally agrees that she would feel the same way too if it is mommy that cries. I then told her that I kept all my promises to her, she asked for early picked up and I did, she asked for Crayola Finger Paint Book and I got her one from my trip, she asked for a new princess crown (I broke the previous one) and I bought her a very nice from from my trip too, plus many extras but I told her that she didn't keep her only promise to me. She kept quiet.

The next morning, she whined but not as much and I thought oh well, all that talk last night didn't work out. As I was dropping her off in front of the school, she said "mommy, I don't want to cry but please come pick me up at 4pm!". I thought that was an improvement alright. I wasn't plan to pick her up at 4pm because she asks for that everyday anyway. But then I considered it again, maybe I should because we talked about promises the night before and she was trying to keep her promise! So I took 2nd half off from work and went to pick her up at 4pm. When she saw me coming, she was really really happy. I pointed at the clock to her and told that I am keeping my promise again. I also told her that there will not be any more 4pm pick up after today and she has to keep her promise and do her part.

So far, the "promise" episode works out well. Let's hope for it to go far as I will have a very busy work schedule starting end Apr :(

Self Entertained...

I was very busy with work related stuff this evening and I did not have time to keep Charlotte companied. So I gave her a piece of paper and she started to "work" on it. It was a rather long and quiet moment. When I finally finished with my work I walked over to her desk and saw this...




She did the spelling on her own, I corrected her on "abang" which she wrote "BANG". I recognize the flowers that she drew but I asked her what is that little mountain thingy, she said those are crowns, and the 2 objects right on top of her name are "birds" (LOL)!

Every Girl Must Have

This is one of my favorites from my recent US shopping...

When I walked into that store, it was the first thing that I saw and I absolutely loved it! Someone once told me "a pair of red shoes is what every girl must have", I wasn't too fancy about red myself and I don't buy many red stuff for Charlotte either, but this is definitely an exception. I wonder if I had a pair of red shoes when I was little, gotta ask my mom when I see her this week.


I should have kept it for Chinese New Year but I was too excited and I let Charlotte put it on during Christmas through new year! Yes, boring but couldn't help it :)

Puppy

Remember this post? We met some puppies at the beach and after that we had to "justify" to Charlotte why can't we keep another dog. Back then I was thinking far to sustain a SAHM status, even then I wasn't very keen to own another dog.

The "I want a puppy" idea was out of mind until yesterday. We stopped by a pet shop to get Simba's food and other necessity and there Charlotte met her "friends" and the idea came back once again! We had to deal with the "I want a puppy" talk for almost the whole of last weekend. She was the one justifying why she wants a puppy, and how she would take care of one.

Of course I am not ready to own another dog no matter what Charlotte promises, I know it would ended up just like her fish and tortoise which the maid has to take over. Owning a dog is a big responsibility. It is not like fish, or tortoise, or even strays that you can feed him one day and ignore or assume it would survive on itself on other days.

For now, Charlotte is holding on to her toy puppy and we will get her one when she realizes the responsibility and ready to take that role.

Yup, that's the sad face I had to deal with every time we talk about this topic.

Away From Home

I haven't been traveling on business since July 2007 and now I am writing this from 10K miles away from home. I still remember how difficult it was for both Charlotte and myself back then, mostly after the trip. She was practically all over me and glued to me 24x7. She was only 20months old back then, but she is now 4 year old and I had a lot of talking to do before I leave just to make sure she understands.

I took last Friday off and our family spent a weekend in KL. I broke the news to Charlotte when she was really happy and enjoying the shopping trip. I didn't tell her the whole story in one try, but only adding more facts after each day. She slowly accepted the fact that I won't be home during that period of time, but mommy has all the back-up plans arranged for her.

I reminded her everyday before I left, and I was glad that she gave me all positive responses every time. I didn't have her to send me to the airport but she gave me a big hug before I left and said "媽媽﹐ 路上小心, I love you!". It was the best assurance I could ever get, don't you agree with me?

I know she will be ok as I have Patrick, my mom and my sister in law all lined up and ready to take care of her when I'm away. I also prepared small treats and presents and Patrick will only give to her if she is acting way too difficult to convince. Will see how many left when I go home.