Dad and Mom headed off to Europe on 22 Dec 22, and Huaihao is off to ah yi’s house for a staycay..

I must thank ah yi and grandpa for taking care of qinzhi and huaihao and in return, Huaihao did raindrop for grandpa and qinzhi

And had a wonderful meal at Summer Pavilion to celebrate Karyn jiejie’s birthday

I sent these to Qinzhi and Huaihao and hope they receive this little message from me during Xmas

And planted little notes of “I love you ” in their wardrobe to let them feel that Mommy’s heart is always with them no matter how far—and writing this made me aware of my mom’s heart too. How far away can that be?

Whenever i called, huaihao would exclaim and in those few moments, i could feel his longing and how much he missed me.

We finally got home on 11 Jan and huaihao woke up midnight to hug me—- half asleep. he kind of caught the flu virus in a little way and had been sneezing and coughing over the last weekend.

And since then, huaihao lost some weight. while he still looked rosy and blushy, he shed off some 2 kgs and told me he has no appetite and his tummy felt painful. As the rashes on his skin is there still and fading, I finally took him to Dr Ngiam. And what a great decision this was!

Dr Ngiam saw Qinzhi 14 years ago when she was born and then Huaihao when he was born. Every time in need, he was the angel the godsend who shared advice on what to do

This time, I shared with Dr Ngiam Huaihao’s skin rashes and pictures of what went wrong. And also, the GP who diagnosed it as herpes and gave us a cream and antibiotic.

Dr Ngiam saw the photos and at one sight said that this is not herpes, but a skin infection! That was why the medication did not work ! I told him about Huaihao’s lack of appetite and he said, “never force a child to eat, and don’t give him this and that, we chinese families like to do this. But just because a fish is more expensive doesn’t mean it’s good! Then are you saying a certain type of people is better than the others?”

And he ended his advice always with his signature “understand or not?understand or not?”

I shared that Huaihao kept complaining about tummy discomfort. And asked me, “so does he have stomach pain on weekends?holidays? If he doesn’t, then this is situational and psychological and if he doesn’t disturb him, you don’t have to treat it, Understand or not? “

I asked Huaihao if he has tummy aches on weekends and Dr Ngiam retorted, “No, I am asking you!”

He turned to Huaihao and asked him gently about certain conditions, pretty different from how he spoke to me, And his love for children is obvious.

I went on to ask him about Huaihao’s nose bleeds, and he says if it’s bad and disturbs him, then we use a nasal spray to help treat it. I told him we used that before and that did not work.

To which Dr Ngiam remarked, “Doesn’t mean that you don’t get it again right. It doesn’t mean the treatment is not effective. You see if you get Covid and recovered, get well, you can still get Covid right. Understand or not?”

I do not know why I always go soft and feel like tearing up each time I see him and get advice from him, But the feeling is like I am just immensely thankful and grateful he is there when we needed him.

Even Huaihao says, “I feel so relieved now after seeing Dr Ngiam.”

Yes yes and more than that. Thankful for this godsend this angel who gave us help we needed. He is such an inspiration, always reminding me to not get carried away by hearsay, customs, cultures and to go down to the basics and to be logical. I always remember him saying, “cow drink cows milk and humans drink humans milk!”

He has aged quite a bit but still spritely and speaking with gusto and that is the best thing I am grateful for for this angel. Thank you Dr Ngiam, may you be well and happy always and your love for children and passion for child care always light and warm up another.

And before long, it’s eve of CNY eve, Huaihao is very excited about it because this year his birthday fails on the first day of CNY. HE really is looking forward to presents and CNY.

So we went shopping for CNY goodies at NTUC and he and Qinzhi helped carry the things back, hoping this would give the kids some sentiments about how CNY is like. Then at home, he helped me arrange the goodies into the snack box. And indeed had lots of good time checking out the goodies himself

And Gengyan jiujiu’s friend passed us a very nice mandarin orange and pineapple pie and the foodie had it of course.

We had a chance to pop by gengyan jiujiu’s new house!And Qinzhi and Huaihao found the best seat in the house!

And before long, CNY is here. As i get older , I learn to celebrate each and every reunion. Togetherness is a blessing. And to have the same food every year is slowly becoming a tradition.

And it happens that Huaihao’s birthday falls on the first day of CNY and Gengyan jiujiu got him a cake that he requested for.

And Huaihao stayed up really late to fix an elmo lego on CNY eve, he declared he was going to sleep at 12 midnight because tradition goes that if the young stays up on CNY eve, then the parents in the tribe enjoys longevity.

On the first day of CNY, Huaihao woke up early and he was so happy because its his birthday. He really looked forward to the day and the presents he was going to get.

But he got really upset when he heard that his daddy did not get him a present. His dad always did. On every year. And Huaihao was looking forward to it. And when he knew that daddy didn’t, he cried really hard. There were lots of emotions choking him. And I felt him.

But he recovered after some crying. And then Gengyan jiujiu came along and Huaihao and Qinzhi said good wishes, then we went over to ah mei ah yi’s. Then to ah yi popo’s at Pasir Ris.

At night, we had another celebration with everyone and so blessed it is to have everyone at the table singing along.

Dear Huaihao, may you be well and happy always. Thank you for you.