Unexpected

Just had an unexpected double date with a dear old friend and her husband just now. We had a nice dinner at a Padang restaurant and had yummy gelato ice cream.

the journey so far

I was working on some blog posts for my shop items, when I accidentally saw the link to this blog. And I re-read some of my old writings. Whew. It has been a journey, from a single girl to a wife and a mother of four!

Now the first boy is almost 13 years old, a full-fledged teenager who loves gaming and drawing/painting. My second is also a teen, 10.5 yo independent crafty girl. The sweet third baby is now a 7.5 yo sweet girl. And the never-never-mentioned-in-this-blog fourth kid is now a 4.5 yo cheeky girl. Oh and for two years now, we have a dog. Lexi, the Miniature Schnauzer who doesn't like small kids and their noises.

I had my own time now, to do some thinking and to work on my shop. My girls usually play together and my husband can bring all the kids to go out with him. Since last year, I increasingly have my own time with my laptop and journal. Just today, they went with the entire in-law's family for lunch, swimming, and dinner.

We're also in the middle of renovating our house next door.

leaking milk after surgery removing breast abscess

I had the surgery on Tuesday evening, left the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Went back to the surgeon to check the wound on Friday night. And on Saturday morning I realized that breast milk was leaking from the wound! It was mixed with blood.

I was totally horrified. But these articles calm me down greatly! :) Thank you for those wonderful writers. :)

http://archive.blisstree.com/live/leaking-breast-milk-after-surgery-for-breast-abscess-or-lumpectomy/
http://www.breastfeeding-problems.com/breast-abcess-even-with-milk-leaking-from-wound-you-can-continue-to-feed.html

There are several more, but those two are the most applicable to my situation.

My wound are still dripping with reddish pink milk, after changing the dressing for several times a day, I gave up and just wear breast-pad. Easier to just change the pad, and the wound is not plastered with the wet blood-milk-soaked gauze. I still took antibiotics and will see the surgeon again this coming Tuesday.

The surgeon told me not to nurse with the affected breast... but I did that twice in these two days out of desperation with the engorged breast. The incision was made very close to the areola, so I didn't want to do it more often too.

It's been a long time since I posted. I wanted to post this to add encouragement for those breastfeeding mothers with the same problems. :)

Update:
The wound was fully healed reaching the two months mark after the surgery! Oh yeah! :D I did use a product of Bee Propolis (from my cousin) on the wound. After weeks and weeks of wet open wound, the wound dried up in days and closed, leaving only a tiny hole where the breastmilk still leaks for another two weeks before closing up completely. :)

I'm still breastfeeding with one breast. :)

time capsule

Two days ago, dad brought down three bottles of hongjiu (alcoholic drink made of fermented black glutinous rice) that his mother made when my mom just delivered my youngest sister in 1988. Yesterday and today, I've been eating chicken cooked in that. It has sweetened as it aged over the past 23 years. My grandma died in 1998. So those bottles has been a time capsule, preserving her handmade love for all those years.

For me, having a newborn always bring wonderful things from the past. Some of the baby's clothes are the clothes that were worn by my sisters and me when we were newborns. Some of the clothes and the blankets were handmade by mom. And I even have the baby belts (something to wrap over baby's tummy) that my maternal grandma made, evenly hand stitched along the sides.

So I just write it down here to remember the goodness and the warmth that those love from the past bring into the present. And I really would love to learn making those handmade things/food that can be passed down to the next generations. :)

five

So you turned five today, our sweet little boy.

Those five years seemed to pass in a blink.

You introduced me us to parenthood so sweetly. With your gentle soul and generous smile, we thread the unknown path together. You are gentle and sweet and never cease to amaze us with your wonderfulness. You are cheeky and always surprise us with your pranks. You are creative and very often blow us away with your 3D paper creations or your sophisticated drawing. You are caring to your parents and sisters and your other loved ones, you touched us so deeply with your affections. You are helpful. You are willing to wait patiently for your mommy to take her afternoon nap for an hour or two (while you toss and turn or draw next to mommy, you are so sweet that way).

We want to thank you for making this journey a wonderful one. Having you home with us now (for who knows how long), living, learning and growing together, is a privilege for us. We love you, dear Jove. We are forever thankful for this chance to be your parents and knowing and loving you.

Happy 5th Birthday. Thank you for being the person you are.

Love,

Pa and Ma

reading

"Spiderman." Jove suddenly read the words on the notebook. He even read it upside down. I was surprised and asked him to identify 'spider' and he actually knew!

A week ago, he read 'city'. Then this morning, when I did some illustrator work of a lion family and type 'Roar!', he asked me what it was. "What do you think?" I asked him. He paused for a while, took a good look at the word, and answered, "Roar?"

My son is learning to read!!! Okay, this might not be a big news for most of you and I might sound a little stupid in feeling happy of his progress. I know one of his friend has learned to read at two year old and his same-age cousin has started to read months ago. But it's not the speed of his learning, but the wonderful process of his self-learning that I joyfully celebrate here. I've hardly initiate teaching how to read to him. He did not like flash card and he only played the phonic games when he felt like it (which was just once in every few months). Sometimes I did feel like a failure/lazy mom who was too lazy to enforce any learning to her kids (so and so has started to read and write and he is the same age as Jove, my mind would say). But when the learning spurt came back, I would stood there amazed at the whole process.

He learned reading by writing, mostly. He loves to draw line art, so naturally he started to write titles for his drawings, labels for certain things, write numbers on the race cars... and these few weeks, he started to write on dialogue balloons like comics! He would ask me how to write Indiana Jones, Lego, Spongebob Squarepants, Toy Story, Cars Toon, Madgascars, Buzz, Woody, and the like (you get the idea). I would spell the letters and he would write them. As time goes by, the spelling and the writing goes faster and he even can spell them out by himself. He started recognizing familiar words everywhere (games, the, play, etc) and started reading them. He gets really excited when he found out that he can really read those words... and so do I.

So I'm going to write it down here as a reminder for myself. I will keep on trusting my children's ability and eagerness to learn things. It's really a wonderful journey to watch them blooming and growing on their own. I'll be walking along as their helper, assistant, guide, companion, cheerleader, comforter, mommy, and whatever role they will need me to be.

Jove will start going to school in July. I'm still not very sure on how he (and all of us) will fit into the system. I guess I need to trust him more and know that he will do just fine. :P

the third one

So life has been busy and wonderful. I've missed writing about lots of precious moments that has happened this year. It's a quiet morning now, Kay has gone back to sleep, Jove is still sleeping... and I think it's time to write about the third one in the blog.

We found out at the end of January that I'm pregnant (again!). It was quite a surprise. We never thought of welcoming another baby in 2011! The first trimester was quite nauseous and tiring (I craved sleeping all the time). But entering this second trimester, my energy came back and I feel really good. :)

We had an ultrasound check last Saturday and confirmed my suspicion that I'm carrying another girl! I had a dark linea nigra when I was carrying Jove. But none when I was pregnant with Kay and I did not have it this time too. It was the first and the strongest clue that made me thought I was having another girl. Miss Kay had guessed that she would have a sister all along. Jove is excited in having two sisters. My sweet boy, he's a fabulous big brother. I really would kill to have a big brother like him. :)

This year will be a wonderful year. We've been counting the weeks together with the developed little baby in the womb, and the journey will be more exciting when the little one has come out. Her estimated due date is the first of October (our wedding anniversary!). :)

late afternoon walk with the kids

carving pumpkin

 

our first jack-o-lantern

daddy came home with a pumpkin. :D

steaming hot sup!

it has been raining since late morning. well, these past few days were rainy days. we were down with cold (only kay is well now, recovered from cough last week and managed to stay healthy).

today is the first day of hubby's holiday. he will be at home with us till next wednesday! yeah! we stayed at home all day. cycling through the housing area in the morning, then welcoming old friends (with their 10 mo son) in the late afternoon.

now hubby is playing with the kids on the bed (jumping, swinging on the hammock, etc) and i am writing this while waiting for the bubbling pork soup on the stove ready for dinner. yum.

thank you lord. for everything. :)

sweet brother

the kids were playing jump-from-headboard-to-bed game last night. they took turn climbing the headboard then jumping onto the bed. sometimes they hugged each other or hold hands and jumped together.

at one jump, their heads bumped together. while still hugging his sister, laying on the bed, jove cringed and asked, "are you okay, sis?"

the sister, who was okay, was not paying attention. she stood up and continued to climb the bed's headboard again. but mommy (who stood there watching) was so touched. that boy felt hurt yet he cared more about the sister!

i really need to learn a loooot from that boy.

parenting

parenting is a path of maturation and growth if we dare to learn more and teach less.
-naomi aldort in her book, raising our children, raising ourselves

the only thing you can change

wonderfully put here.

grandpa baptized!

oh wow. another surprise.

my grandpa was baptized yesterday in the hospital. he will turn 90 this july. we just visited him the saturday before last. i want to write more... but no time at the moment. so leaving this note here first... ^_^

oh wow!

surrounded by beauty

beautiful sunset sky just from the front porch

These two days, the sunset turned the sky a glorious orange-pink color. Oh well, I'm not capable enough to describe the beauty (nor the camera is good enough to capture the real coolness of the sky). Just writing it here to remind myself that we are indeed surrounded by beauty. :)

planting green beans

we just planted green beans (or more correctly, mung beans) yesterday. they have been sprouting significantly today. :)this started because jove was fascinated with boowa and kwala planting green beans. check it out here. the instructions to plant green beans from boowa and kwala can be found here.

then this morning, i found this interesing site: ecoliteracy, which has this activity of making mini greenhouse from a recycled cd case.

exciting project for mother and son. :)

eight years

this date eight years ago, hubby asked me to be his girlfriend. :)

it has been a meaningful journey. and i thank God for the first day we start this journey together.

baptized!

we were late when we entered the church that wednesday night. five minutes past seven. the four of us, my husband, and the two kids. the mass has already started, the first reading was being read.

i could see papa and mama sitting in one of the front pews together with their catechism classmates, wearing white tops and black bottoms.

andi and i hovered around the back of the church with the restless kids.

then when the baptism started, there was a blackout! the lights went off with a loud sound (coming from the sound system that went off). so the baptism was done with candle lights in darkness. no microphone, sound system, nor any musical instrument. the choir just sang with their own voices. i thought that was how the first christians were baptized, and that was beautiful.

i remembered my prayers when i was younger and was pretty awed that God remembered my prayers even after i forgotten it. when my parents started going to catechism class, i was pretty surprised but still a bit skeptical. the realization hit full blast in the dark during the baptism. and i felt so grateful and loved and happy. :)

the lights went on after the baptism. so the anointing of the chrism oil was done in the light.

thank you, Lord.

one of those weeks...

some weeks, you just can't do any other thing than being with your kids and the people around you.

i am currently working on a personal exciting project and i take every available time to do it. i used to sneak up on my kids, forced poor husband to take care of the kids (while i ran off to the computer), and being grumpy whenever i could not have the time to do it... then husband and i had a talk. and what he said to me made a lot of sense.

this week, i had very little time to do the project. there was always something coming up. but instead of being grumpy, i am accepting the fact that all these flurry of activities actually show how rich my life is. and i am thankful for that.

we went to bogor last sunday, visiting engkong & emak's grave with my in-laws. tiring but a lot of fun. then my parents got baptized on wednesday night (deserve a full blog post on its own later). our dear old friend from singapore, donny, came visiting us today. and we had to wake up at about three or three thirty a.m. soon for our flight to semarang at six a.m. to visit grandpa.

i still have a little disappointment in not having enough time to do the project (that's why i'm writing this post, i think), but i count my blessings and i am truly thankful for this blessed week.

schools kill creativity

I find this talk by Sir Ken Robinson interesting. :)