Random Thoughts

A tad busy these few days, wanted to write something but could never get a stretch of time long enough for me to sit down and write. Besides that, mind's always somewhere else, like on caring for Young, dealing with Hsiang, helping out wifey, and on work.

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Tze Young

Young's been frequenting the hospital almost every other day, and two days consecutive yesterday and today. Jaundice, under weight, rashes. Be healthy little one, papa and mama are worried.

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Personality from Blogging

A few days ago I was thinking while taking shower about writing an entry, my thought process went like this:

Let me write something funny.

Hmm...

Okay, let me write something nice.

Hmm...

Let me write something evil then. Oooh, there is that...

Then I realised the implication: me is evil!

I feel so proud of myself, muahahahaha! =P

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Busy Cat Walking

The unexpected early arrival of Young threw my work schedule off course as I took many days off. I am now rushing to complete a cat walk modelling job by the end of October.

Me is so out of time. >.<

Good thing is, I am throwing myself back into work with enthusiasm again and the negative bout seemed to be over, hoorah!

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How Far in Advance?

Received two birthday wishes today, talk about greetings in advance!

It is nice to know that there are people more blur than me, hehehe.

I thanked them, though I am still going to hang on to my last week of being 31 years old, thank you very much.

Me still 31 years old, really! =)

Humbling Experience

When Chin Chin handed me a red packet saying it's a gift from the colleagues for the newborn Young Young, I thanked her and thought nothing of it.

She commented that I seemed to be rather popular, for many had contributed to the gift. I think I probably laughed at that, "popular" and "CK" do not go together, okay? So, I asked for the list of names and Chin Chin informed me it's within the ang pao, I thanked her again for being so thorough and thought nothing of it.

As I was heading to a meeting then, and was keeping my stuff in the cabinet, Chin Chin advised me to keep the ang pao safe, "there's a lot of money in it," she said. I locked it in my cabinet and thought nothing of it.

You have to understand, I honestly cannot link myself with popular. I am a boring person (really one!), while I understand networking is important, I am no good at it. I was thinking around 10 being my circle of friends among my colleagues, so when Chin Chin said "many" I was thinking around 15 to 20.

I was in for a surprise when I finally opened the red packet when I got home. I am not here to brag so I will not disclose the actual number of colleagues that had contributed to the gift. I can only tell you it honestly exceeded my expectation and I am truely shocked.

I know I am a nice person, well, generally... Okay okay, I am evil in a nice way. But I honestly do not think so many would care or bother with me having a second child, since our department is having a productive year with many babies popping left and right.

I think it must have been Chin Chin pulling strings, maybe she point a gun to people's head or something. No matter how she did it, this is really a humbling experience for me.

Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

You know, Young has more money now than my whole childhood years combined, he is just one week's old! Good grief.

I owe you one Chin Chin, in fact, I owe you two since there's that lab stuff as well. =)

Young

Many have asked about Tze Young's name in Mandarin, truth is I wanted to include that in the previous entry but Microsoft Pinyin IME doesn't have the Chinese character in its vocabulary. So here it is, photo from the good old hardcopy dictionary.

Oh, before that, in case there are people who are uncertain with the pronunciation of the baby's name, well, it's young as in: "I am old but you are young". Not 'yong'.

Surname. A "mouth" on top of a "sky", not sure if it means we Goh talk so loud the whole world can hear or we are so hungry we eat everything under the sky? =P

This is the Mandarin character designated for male children of Young's generation in my Goh family. So Hsiang also has this character in his name. It means wisdom, intelligence.

This is the character for which the Mandarin pronunciation is 'young', it means flying, gliding. And this is Young's name. =) In fact, it has similar meaning to Hsiang's name in Mandarin, so I guess our sons will fly away from us as soon as they are old enough. =P

Worries and Woes

Due to jaundice, His Royal Highness King Baby Young readmitted to the hospital two days after being discharged from birth. We were told that newborn from mother who is of O+ blood type has a higher chance of getting jaundice.

Initially we thought Young would be discharged today since his bilirubin level (actually I am not sure what stuff they test, I just assume it's bilirubin) dropped dramatically yesterday, but it raised slightly today. Doctor said perhaps he has reached the limit of UV light treatment and will have to depend on his lever function now. We will wait another day and see how's the level.

The thing with Young being hospitalised is that I have to chauffeur wifey to and fro hospital every few hours since we insist on breast feeding. We saved all the expressed milk for the night to cut down on the night time hospital trips.

Even so, I think the parking cashers of all shifts are probably saying "this guy again" whenever they see me. I have honestly lost count of the number of times I have been to GMC these few days.

Being a light sleeper and a worrier, with only an hour or two of peace and quiet in bewteen stuff like drive to hospital, store expressed milk in the fridge, attend to wifey's need, et cetera, pretty much means I don't get any quality sleep at all. I am a walking zombie, I believe it's the Red Bull that kept me going. Good thing the confinement lady has arrived today, hopefully I will be able to ditch most of the work to her.

I burned another day of my annual leave quota for tomorrow, since the chauffer duty remains. It's either I drive or my wifey drives herself to and fro the hospital. Not really a choice given it hasn't been a week since she delivered Young.

The biggest headache and heartache remains with His Royal Highness King Toddler Hsiang. He is getting ridiculously difficult and disobedient. If he kept this up I would be bursting a blood vessel or two pretty soon. So unreasonable he is and frustrated I am that I am starting to think about stuff in the line of cage, lock, sound proof, instant sleep zapper, human remote control that can pause and mute...

Family matters aside, I am also worried about my work. Last week was supposed to be my solid week of numerical simulations, I have insufficient time to properly sleep as it is, let alone work. So I have done nothing and I have no idea what to write in this month's report.

Bummer.

Life's a Blur

Only when everyone has gone to sleep will I have a stretch of time to get some of my own things done. Like work, and writing blog.

It has been a flurry of activities from the moment I wake up till late at night for the past few days, there are just so many things to do. I find myself thinking of the next task while doing the current one, not very good since I suck at multitasking and mind "phasing out" while driving to the hospital is not funny.

This will likely be a jumbled up entry where I just jot down whatever flows through my mind.

The numerous drives to and fro hospital. Cook for and feed Hsiang. Cook for self. Wash the dishes. Laundry, well, the washing machine does the washing, I only do the loading, unloading, hanging and unhanging. Interesting now that I think of it, I don't remember folding the dried clothes. Bath and cloth Hsiang. Signed numerous bills. Liaison with the confinement lady. Chauffeuring people around. Grocery shopping. Special confinement food ingredient shopping. Adjusted the cot for Young. Car seat for Young. Prepare and cook the drink for wifey. Fetching and carrying stuff around, the number of times I go up and down the stairs, good grief. Clean and wash Hsiang's potty. Clean and change Hsiang when he wet his pants instead of using the potty. Comforting Young when he cries. Making sure the house has boiled drinking water. Sort out Young's birth certificate and MyKid card. Entertain Hsiang. Answering the many phone calls. IT support so wifey's netbook has the softwares she wants, to be used when she is hospitalised. Unblock the sink. Clean and wash the flooded wet kitchen. Prepare milk for Hsiang and wash his bottle when he is done drinking.

Things had started out fairly well with regards to Young's arrival, the smooth and swift delivery, the next day discharge, wifey in relatively better condition compared to the first delivery, the relatively cheaper medical cost. Too good to be true so things are starting to go downhill. Couldn't reach the confinement lady whole day today, her phone was unreachable. Young being diagnosed to have high level of jaundice and is hospitalised two days after being discharged, wifey staying in the hospital with him. Medical bills mounting up.

The arrival of mother and mother-in-law sure is a relief, especially on taking care of Hsiang. Hsiang is showing signs of insecurity and jealousy with the arrival of his younger brother. While I understand his feelings, the irony is that his misbehaviours and attention seeking are not endearing him to me but having the opposite effect. If only he could listen to me and behave himself and know that we love him just the same. I have to be more patience with him.

Will the society ever realise the need for a meaningful length of paternity leave? Will people think of the father please, not just the mother and baby in regards to birth.

I shaved my beard and moustache, for trimming them requires effort and time, and time is something I am rather lacking. Besides, I don't want to irritate the delicate skin of my baby Young when I kiss him. Forget it ladies, no amount of SK-II will give you the tenderness and softness of baby skin. My wifey didn't notice my lack of facial hair, I wasn't surprised.

I am tired. Really tired. But restless.

Number 2 has Landed

Tze Young decided to leave the comfort of his mama's womb 13 days early so he can boss his father around, like what his brother Tze Hsiang is doing.

Contraction started around 04:30 hours, became frequent around 06:30 hours, and labour was in full swing by the time we reached the hospital. On the dot 08:00 hours, 3.5 hours after the contraction started, dear wifey has, through much pain and effort, pushed the 49cm, 3.6kg Tze Young out through natural birth.

papa holding king number 2

Much as I wanted to, I wasn't in the labour room with my dear wifey, lending my hand to be crushed by her whenever she needed to push. The arrival of number 2 was so unexpectedly early, we had no one to look after His Royal Highness King Toddler Hsiang, so I had to hold on to the ever so energetic Hsiang outside the labour room throughout the whole episode. I felt guilty for not being there for my wifey.

behold! His Royal Highness King Baby Young

Thank goodness I wasn't at work, else I would never have made it since my wifey inform me two hours after the contraction has started. I am going to say my prayers and thanks to the higher beings before I hit the bed tonight, thanking them for the timing.

proud mama holding Hsiang holding Young

13 days early and still 3.6kg, I am guessing that if Young had been born on his due date instead of being early, he would be like the hefty 4.2kg Hsiang on birth. Good grief.

Hsiang gave his younger brother a kiss

So, as of 08:00 hours on 13th of October 2009, I am no longer a slave to a king, I am now slave to TWO kings! =)

my sincere thanks to all who sent in congratulations and well wishes through call, SMS, e-mail, et cetera.

Craving for McD

Before the move to ulu place, having lunch at McDonald's was an at least once per week occurance, sometimes more than once per week until we got sicked of McD and had to make ourselves break the once weekly routine.

After a month at ulu place, I was craving for McDonald's last weekend.

This is sad.

yea, ulu place hasn't even got a McD!