Two down

This week two houses have been taken down.

You see here the hole it created. 

They started from the other end of the street, and slowly are making their way to us. 

And yes, it's getting noisy :(

School bus weird feeling

Oskar has been taking the bus to school for a week now. 

First day, Monday, I ended up in the bus with him. As much as he was excited to take the bus, the moment he realized I was not coming, there were tears.

Same story in day two and Wolfram rode the minivan with Oskar.

Wednesday, Wolfram was strong and put a crying Oskar in the bus alone. Teacher confirmed he had stopped crying by the time he reached school. We were relieved. 

Thursday and Friday, Oskar went in the bus without any drama. Just looking sad.

This morning, Oskar eagerly climbed in the van barely kissing me goodbye. While I'm proud that he takes the bus by himself and adjusted to it in less than a week, inside it breaks my heart. My baby is not a baby anymore. I was told that the first two years kids really depend on you and after two they need you less. In the stressful moments of the first months I was looking forward to having Oskar more independent. Now that it is happening, I understand why people say that you miss those first two years when they are over. Better enjoy the time with Thomas before it's over too.

What's this?

Maman's phone?

Better smile then?

Second day back to work

And a surprise was waiting for me at home. 

Thank you Wolfram!

First day back at work

And I did not do much work :)

I spent quality time reconnecting the computer to the printer and getting my access back to different systems. 

I nicely chatted with colleagues all asking about Thomas.

I did sit down with my boss to get an update and she offered me Kit Kat.

Tomorrow I will have to do some actual work. But for now I will enjoy the evening with my boys. 

Un train peut en cacher un autre

(A train can hide another one)

Today I took Oskar to the pediatrician as a follow up. Objective was to get the green light for returning to school.

Our plan was compromised by fever during the night. Apparently now Oskar has a sore throat and needs antibiotics. His lungs are clear but not the throat.

Will this ever end? 

I know that the first year at school is usually filled with child diseases. I heard the stories of others back in Europe going from one cold to the other when their child started day care especially in the winter. But with the warm weather in Singapore I was hoping we would escape from this. Apparently I was wrong. 

Destruction

A year after it was originally planned, the destruction of the houses on Marymount terrace has started. Today the digger arrived and started to take down the lower roofs of the houses.

The "quiet" days are over. Let's hope the noise level will stay acceptable with open windows. 

Faux départ

Monday I was supposed to go back to work. Sunday morning when Oskar and Wolfram went to the swimming pool, I prepared my bag, selected my outfit, washed my mug, etc. Everything was ready for me to start working the following morning.

After the swimming lesson, I was playing with Oskar while Wolfram was showering. Oskar was coughing again - as he did for a few days now, especially at night - and I noticed a wheezing sound when he was breathing. I thought that maybe it was from the walk from the bus stop. The wheezing did not stop and after checking the working hours of our pediatrician I decided to take Oskar to her. He sounded like an asthmatic person and I was pretty sure the doctor would tell me that it is a cold and there is nothing we can do. Just wait. That's the answer we get in majority of the visits. I just did not like the sound I was hearing. And better be safe than sorry...

It was 11:25. Doctor's hours were until 12pm. I left Thomas with Wolfram still wet from the shower, called a taxi and Oskar and I rushed to the doctor. We arrived there at 11:50 and were lucky enough to be accepted. Of course we were the last ones or as good as and had to wait one and a half hour until we saw the doctor. By then the wheezing sound from Oskar could be heard from a meter away.

It did not take long for the pediatrician to decide that this was bad enough to justify hospitalization. She spoke of 3-4 days and while I was trying to recover from the shock, we were rushed into a treatment room for nebulization. In no time the nurse had the nebulizer ready and I had to figure out how to get Oskar to sit still for 10-15min. Once again, Tchoupi came in handy and we watched two episodes.

As I calmed down I wondered why Oskar would need to be hospitalized for so long. If it's about doing nebulization every so often, we can do it at home. If anything it's less traumatizing than in a hospital environment. I asked the nurse but she did not know. She called the pediatrician back so I could talk to her. I think she was surprised by my reluctance to get Oskar hospitalized. I explained that in Europe people tend to stay away from hospitals and in winter time nebulization share done in almost every house with a child going to day care. She insisted for at least one day and pending how Oskar reacts to the treatment we would go home or stay longer. End of negotiation.

The rest of the day was basically getting admitted, explaining to the nurses that Oskar does not sleep in a cot anymore, negotiating a single room so we are not disturbed, calling Aggie on her day off so she could watch Thomas and save us from taking him back and forth between home and hospital, getting nebulizations every 1-2 hours, getting a blood test, rushing back and forth between home and hospital with what Oskar and Wolfram would need for the night. In my memory it is one big stretch and it's only around 8pm once I was home and had put Thomas down that I sat down, realized I had no food yet since morning pretty much, and was trying to process that my son was spending the night in the hospital.

Luckily Oskar reacted very well to the treatment and pediatrician released him at lunch time the next day. We went home with a nebulizer to continue nebulizations, medication and directive for tapping his back to get the flegm to go.

24 hours after this nightmare started, we were home, relieved. Now let's hope that Oskar does fully recover and can go back to school soon.

We survived the first hospitalization. It was an easy one with no major procedures or surgery, but still it was hospital. 

And it only costed us 3000$... A five stars resort would have been cheaper and nicer to stay at. 

4 months

Today Thomas is 4-month old. 

It's incredible how much he has changed and how much he is developing every week. He is now 6.9kg, 64cm (in case you wonder, Thomas is 2cm bigger than Oskar at the same age) and babbling non stop. Since last week he is grabbing objects and of course putting them immediately in his mouth. He is drooling a lot as well so first teeth might be showing up soon (interrupting our very well appreciated long nights).

It's also time for me to go back to work. As with Oskar, it's with mixed feelings that I see the end of my maternity leave. I'm looking forward to working again and challenge my brain yet I know I will not have the chance to see all the progress of Thomas when they occur. And it kills me :(

It also means we need to figure out the new family evening routine so everybody gets to eat, bath and see the others. I can only dream about a scenario allowing the parents to go to the gym on a weekday... Ideally before midnight :)

Thomas' room is ready

One of the things we wanted to do this week before going back to work was setting up the room of Thomas. 

We removed the bed of the guest room. Wolfram found a way to keep the mattress vertical so we can use it in the future when we have visitors. 

We moved the cot and the changing table from our room to Thomas's room. We reorganized things a bit and voilà!

Thomas already slept in his room since two nights ago but only today have we achieved a status that Is not only functional but also agreeable. Still some fine tuning to do but we are nearly there. 

It feels good to have the room in order as the new year starts. 

Toys toys toys

After a very generous Christmas, we managed to pack every gift and bring all of them home.

Now we are facing the next challenge: where to store them. The only places with more toys than us are toys stores and child care places (maybe also Akex and Silke's and my brother's).

Of course this took us to ikea where we bought boxes, lots of boxes in which Wolfram and I patiently organized all the toys, leaving even empty space for the future.

It took only a few minutes for Oskar to mess the whole system... As to be expected, his sorting criteria are not the same than ours. 

Although Thomas is not even 4-month old, his box is overloaded. Not bad for a kid who can barely hold his head or grab something.