beloved bel

Dear Isabelle Woohoo you are a year old!!  One year!!  12 months!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!! What a roller coaster ride it has been would you agree? A very happy birthday girl When we first held you in our arms on 25th December 2017, it felt foreign to start with.  After such a traumatic labour, all I felt was exhaustion after the c section.  Then came the constant and inconsolable crying which really drove us to our wits end.  We had no idea what to do with you and the first six weeks was a blur.  Me trying to recover from the wound, and also trying to process that my baby was now here and it was our responsibility to, first and foremost, keep you alive.  But how do I do that when I barely had any sleep?  It was super on the job learning: we learnt how to change nappies, feed you, rock you to sleep, and then all over again.  We learnt how to cope with poonamis (as in tsunamis) and clean you up without freaking...

One of the things I wanted to bring Isabelle to was to visit Santa's Grotto and see Father Christmas.  Of course I know the real reason for the season, which is the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, but like every (new) parent who wants a bit of festive novelty, I started looking into where I could bring Isabelle to.  Hever Castle kept popping up in the mummy forum I'm part of, and since I am an annual member, I thought I'll book her a ticket and bravely drive us there.  It is extremely popular, plus weekends would be really busy, and hence I opted for a weekday ticket.  Daddy Ong wasn't too interested either, so I thought I'll keep it as one of the last few adventures Isabelle and I could do together before I start work full time. Like every driving journey, I always check the route and choose the most straightforward one, as opposed to the fastest route.  Typically the different choices are merely minutes apart anyway.  For my drive to Hever Castle...

Dear Isabelle Mummy missed writing a letter to you at 11 months.  That's because there has been lots going on. My little penguin What's happening? Our household was down and we have all been battling the usual winter related cold and fever.  You did a settling in session at the nursery two weeks ago, and you came back with an eye infection which became a full blown high fever.  Your cheeks were so flushed and red, and we had to bring you to the GP twice.  Your temperature went to 39.8deg at the clinic and even the doctor was concerned.  She gave you a 10 day course of antibiotics and it had been really tough, trying to get you to take the medicine every 6h.  We can't trick you either; whenever you see the mere box of the antibiotics you start screaming; whenever you see us approaching you with a syringe, you start screaming too.  We thought by waking you up in the middle of the night you would be sleepy and be okay to take the meds, but ...