Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces

i would have updated you last night at 2.30am, but i was holding jasper in my arms.

not good here. bags under my eyes competing with vuitton's steamer cases.

i took jasper into bed with me because he was screaming and waking the other three up. he was coughing and wailing. and that burbling sound was so deep in his chest, it sounded like a cyclone filled with chairs, pieces of fences and the occasional livestock fighting to break out of a closet.

so i propped him up on charles' side of the bed, and he was restless. cough cough cough he went, pat pat pat when my hand on his thomas the tank engine flannel jammies. i would start dozing off, and he would jerk awake with a coughing fit. at one point, i lost my grip on him and caught his thigh as he was readying to slide off the bed.

but there was a really bright spot in my day. sebastian and some of his friends were together talking about movies, toy story, peter pan and then someone mentioned the incredibles. they were talking who they would be in the movies. buzz, mr incredible, nemo, and what they would call their movies. and sebastian looked up and declared said, "my movie would be called the best mummy ever." and then he grinned one of those side to side sebbie smiles, and put his little hand in mine.

i felt like an idiot using the edge of a pizza box to wipe my eyes, but i did it anyway. must be the lack of sleep making me emotional.

someone's coughing and i have to go.

in sickness and yukky health

despite the constant cough cough cough of the THREE sickies interrupting my creative flow last night and this morning, i have finished one of my four stories. i feel pretty good about that but am paranoid about its quality.

it's a sick household. all three have bronchialitis. jasper is throwing up the little he is eating. looks like he'll need to start on nebuliser drugs soon. i'm sick after paying the $500 canadian doctors bill for the visit and the drugs.

on the bright side, yesterday sebastian rode a pony for the first time. said "i love horses, but they are bumpy."

i have cancelled attendance at one party this afternoon, one tomorrow morning and church on sunday.

ai-ya.

no surprise - i'm getting sick also, and am looking longingly at the bed. problem is, when i finally GET to bed, i am taking my work with me.

charles, we miss you.

TESS THE MISTRESS OF DRESS?

jasper update: still not eating, refusing milk. won't walk, only crawls and just wants to be held. falls asleep without dinner at 6pm, even when in the playroom with noisy sisters racing round him. a little concerned.

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i had a very interesting experience today.

i braved the COLD front courtesy of china that is blasting through hong kong and was walking through an area of central known as "the lanes". central, a district in hong kong is a delightful anachronism in itself. not two blocks away from tiffany, cartier, three blocks from prada and versace, are the lanes. the lanes are basically two street lanes about one metre wide, with stalls or walk in shops containing discounted, made in china goods alongside it. this time of year, pashminas, gloves, scarves, north face jackets and jumpers are accompanying the typical wares: purses, watches and children's outfits.

i slid into one shop, looking for jumpers for the girls. it was past lunchhour, and because of the cold there weren't many tourists around, so it was basically me and the locals. i am in this one shop, trying to find warm jumpers for the girls, when i notice that i am basically the centre of attention. whatever i pick up, my fellow shoppers root round the bins searching for the identical ones. it was very odd.

please do not think i was a fashion maven people would WANT to imitate. no no no no no no no. over my black t-shirt i was wearing a black cashmere turtleneck, over which i was sporting a jumper, and then a 3/4 length coat. i was wearing a long pair of black yoga pants, the warmest outfit i could conjure up. i was even wearing two pair of socks with my jp tod's. there was nothing "best dressed" about tess today....but plenty of warmth, which soothed my thyroid influenced bod.

is the fact that i am caucasian (and not even a preferred caucasian because i have dark hair and hazel eyes, although they are "round") make me an instant fashion dictator? was not my own decidedly bulky ensemble not enough to deter them? was the fact that my clothing selections were not adorned with the perennially popular hello kitty, powerpuff girls or disney characters not enough to deter my fellow lanes shoppers?it was a very odd feeling. i had never noticed when shopping for myself a similar situation, possibly because my body type is so different from the average asian woman's, but with all the pressure from parents for their children to be western, do they think that dressing them as a "typical" north american child will help improve their English?

i shudder to think. or maybe that's just the cold.

do you know jacob and his family?

i would like to introduce you to jacob and his family. jacob is one of four brothers, and also a triplet.

at the age of three jacob was diagnosed with a cancer so rare that it affects only 15-20 children per year.

their parents started a website to chronicle jacob's journey and the family's life, not knowing how long jacob would be with them for. there have been days when i dash to the website, and hold my breath as i click on it, hoping to read that jacob has been released from hospital, or his fever is gone, his appetite is back, or even that he is still alive.

this family is amazing. i cannot fathom what it is like trying to raise four children when one of them has such special circumstances, but this family works together. no one is left out, they all join together and live each day.

if you click on the link, as well as the update, read the history. it is amazing. this family is amazing. God is indeed the great physician.

http://www2.caringbridge.org/fl/jacob/

as you read about jacob's life, you might get tired of the song looping in the background. i did, and as i was turning down the volume on the speaker i thought, "what a blessing. he's alive and the updates are plentiful enough to tire me of this song."

check it out.

deja vu day

today has been a deja vu day. back in full force is all the insecurity i felt when the babies were first home, all the self doubt and concern. and nothing too monumnetal happened...it was the sounds and emotions, rather than the incidents, that were too familiar.

carys had a check up appointment at the duchess of kent physio therapy centre. i had lulled myself into thinking they would be so blown over by the fact that my little morsel was running that they would give her the huge seal of approval and tell her that she was a fine specimen indeed.

i had forgotten how carys' spidy senses perk up the minute we enter the duchess of kent. today she was very apprehensive as we entered into the building, although she relaxed as i veered to the right to the rehabilitation play area instead of straight ahead where the pt tables are.

i took off our shoes and socks and we played a bit while we waited for annie, our pt to arrive. carys was liking throwing the ball, and grabbing kiddie utensils out of the toy bucket, when annie arrived. she looked at annie, at me, and trotted over to where my shoes were lying, grabbed my shoes and dropped them at my feet. then she waved goodbye to annie.

nice try, kitten.

carys then threw herself on the ground and threw a tantrum. legs kicking, arms flailing. i talked to annie about the fair we had both been to that weekend, and we agreed the quality had gone downhill. by the time we had discussed the lack of chicco toys at the fair, carys had stopped crying and had crawled over to me.

really she does walk.

i grabbed one of carys' shoes (you know they call her marie, because carys is too tough to pronounce), and threw it. rex the labrador couldn't have done a better job, except she didn't catch the shoe between her teeth, she ran over to it and brought it back to me. annie got her thoughtful look, and carys and i kept running together, or i threw things for her.

annie brought out her measuring tape and i held carys while she measured her calves.

and announced 20 minutes and some exercises later, that carys, although doing wonderfully, is asymmetrical.

say what?

one calf is bigger than the other, she runs with one had tucked up under her arm, she bends her knees too much when she walks, she falls all the time. and you know, i could live with all of this, because from what i understand, plenty of exercise (and she gets that) and teaching her sports that rely on balance can help this. but the worst bit was...

the left side of her face still has tense muscles that need to be, yes, you got it stretched.

as in the same exercises we used to do?

yes, those ones. we can start now. if we want to cure her we have to cure her while she is young. bring her over to the tables.

i had forgotten how the tears started to push out between her eyelids like round beads when the exercises began. how she would cling to my arm and wail. how we had to stop between exercises because she was choking on her tears and snot. how the session seems to last forever but is really only five minutes.

i have three weeks to forget...her next session is 29 december.

oy.

and then i get home and jasper,who has been running a fever for the last 24 hours, yet again doesn't want to eat. jasper, not eat? you ask incredulously. yes, it's true. i picked him up and said

he just wants to go to bed.

i put him in some soft clothes that weren't so warm and held him while i talked to my mum...and he fell asleep while i played with his hair. i laid him down on his bed and besides breathing a little heavily, he seemed fine. not too hot.

yet 20 minutes later when lita walked into the nursery to put sela and carys down for their naps, jasper was standing up in his crib, very quiet and with BLUE LIPS.

what is this all about?

plenty to drink, some more medicine, testing his hands and feet to see if he was too cold. he seemed to be fine. tired.....

so we laid him down again.

i was supposed to go shopping but i couldn't, because i was so scared that he might go blue again. my rationale was that he wouldn't if i was in the flat with him. so i stayed at home until he woke up.

deja vu day, are you almost done with me?

oh she's finally back...but it's boring

i have been remiss in blogging this past week, much has been going on. lots of stuff.

the "big daddy" of charles' company was in hong kong, so there was much entertaining. you'd be impressed...at the dinner i laid down the rules, "NO TALKING BUSINESS UNTIL I LEAVE". and for the most part, they were very good. and i try to leave a little early, so they can get down to business and dissect the day.

three of charles' colleagues came to visit us on sebastian's birthday, and they gamely sat down and played school with us. "you are students, i am the teatsah!" dictated sebastian. like the three wise men, the colleagues turned students came bearing gifts, and sebastian "my name is michelle" was HUGELY impressed. the babies, "too young for school!" observed the adults sitting in the circle and were very vocal in their wish that they could join in.

maybe next year.

i have done the round of fairs this weekend. last night was kennedy school fair, where i picked up a great bunch of books and gently used toys for great prices. i bought our helpers kids and grandkids presents as well. and today was the italian women's fair. both fairs deserve high praise for the food. no prizes for guessing the food served at the italian women's fair...but my goodness it is delicious. and at the kennedy school night market, they have a "food court" of sorts, where different stalls offer: thai food, indian food, malaysian food, indian food, english (fruitcake) food, filipino food... and you have to stand there with all the delicious odors wafting your way and decide which one you want. the food is all freshly prepared and made by the parents of the school. it was an international heaven, but choosing was he!!.

friday i saw an endocrinologist. he observed, "did anyone ever tell you that when you blink, your right eye doesn't blink sometimes?" this apparently is a symptom of hypothyroidism. great, so does this mean that i have been seemingly winking at people for years without my knowledge? charming.

i am now on a small low dose of thyroxin, they are starting me out small because as luck would have it, thyroxin is a drug that can render anticonvulsants useless. hmm, weigh it out tess...i would rather be cold with brittle hair than having seizures all over the place. definitely, let's start out small. i've lasted this long.

we're meant to be putting up our Christmas tree today, but a few things have gotten in the way. i feel pretty badly, but this is life. charles leaves tonight for 12 days in aussie, india and the us, so sebastian and i will probably have to finish the decorating without him. i could get all melancholy about that, but i'd rather not. suck it up...at least he'll be here Christmas day.

all babies had appointments this week, jasper and sela saw the PT and carys saw an endocrinologist. all news cautiously good. i am sorry, but i can't think of how the pt could find anything negative to say about sela, but they managed. apparently she walks on the balls of her feet too much. ARE YOU KIDDING? she's a kid. and jasper...if the pt spent a little more time with him she would realise, he is lazy. not abnormally slow to develop, HE JUST DOESN"T WANT TO.

this is more of an update than anything else, sorry it is so boring but i owed you something.

ciao for niao