Swimming

Dylan's name, in Old Celtic, means "ocean", or "the sea".

Ironically, he's not quite the water-baby his name might bill him to be. At least, if the way he screamed and thrashed about everytime we wanted him to sit still in the bath-tub during bath time was anything to go by.

So we decided that it was time to bring Dylan to the pool. First, we needed to get him a swimming costume - preferably the bodysuit type that would keep him warm. His grandparents already got him an inflatable swimming pool to break him into the idea of splashing around.

The price tag that came with his Arena brand bodysuit is not to be sniffed at too - $59!! - yet another reminder to us why the kiddy market is so very lucrative!

The first time we put him in the inflateable tub, he was obviously tense and took a fair bit of cajoling just to sit down, even though the water was only up to his knees.


Slowly, with grandma throwing in some floatable toys, he eased into a cautious pattern of splashing a little here and there.


And before you know it, he's really into the deal!


So we graduated him to the big pool at Park Green to test his water legs further. Uncle Sean and Aunty Mag's gift of a mushroom float came into good use here.

Still, at the end of the day, our baby is still quite the "land-lubber". At least now, when I bath him (which used to be Daddy's job before he flew down under), he's quite happy to sit down, and even ventures to hold the showerhead and examine how it makes the soapy water bubble up.

Power of ONE - A belated 1st birthday post.

Dylan turned one on Boxing Day three weeks ago.


Weight = 9.3kg
Height = 74cm

First thing we did after getting over the jet lag from the 25 hour BOS-LON-SIN flight was call up the caterers, invite friends and family to share the celebration with us. I wanted his first birthday to be special, although E and I agreed that not all of Dylan's birthdays need to be celebrated this way.

I guess we're both driven not just by excitement that our firstborn is a whole year old, but also a panging guilt that we won't be spending a whole lot of time with him into his second year. The daddy just flew down under yesterday evening, and is starting grad medical school in a couple of weeks' time. Me, the mommy, is heading back to Boston for another gruelling 4 months to complete the programme.

So there you have it - the strangest year for poor Dylan, with Mommy and Daddy at different ends of the world, and him being taken care of by grandma and grandpa.

So this party is a special one for us. On the actual day, we had a little celebration just to 5 of us.

He loves cheese, so it's no wonder he relished every bite of his cheesecake!


The birthday boy dons his party cap -


ready, set, and blow!


the cousins want to join in the fun ...


I love this photo because my best friends Lisa and Becky are in it (my bridesmaids), together with my niece Sophia (my flower girl). Together, the bridal party is complete!


The grandma and grandaunt took lotsa pains to do up the place beautifully. Here's the birthday boy in front of his wall of fame...

First Snow.

The snow started last night. 

This morning, we awoke to a totally different world. One in which the trees are emptied of their leaves. And the green of grass blanketed in white. 

We went downstairs, right out into the open patch in front of the river for Dylan to experience standing on the snow. It wasn't soft and fluffy as I expected. Kinda felt like stepping on ice-kachang spilt on some foodcourt floor - sticky to my boots and crunchy. 

A scene from riverbank - just a solitary bench looking out into the Charles, which ordinarily would be teeming with scullers. Feels a little desolate, doesn't it. I guess that's the mood that winter brings.

Another scene, this time from the other side of the river.

Looking out at Lady Liberty

PB120070
Originally uploaded by elroykoh.

Just got back on Monday from 4 days in New York. Wonderful short holiday with just the 3 of us. Here, Dylan and I are looking out from the free Staten Island Ferry at lady liberty herself.

Of Phlegm, Dead-ends and Wild Goose Chases

Yay, another post from the Daddy:

You know, I've always said that the beauty of travelling is that you get to appreciate the things that other countries have that Singapore doesn't (eg. beautiful fall colours, cool weather and low humidity, online shopping at your fingertips, tons of cable channels to surf, etc.), and the things that Singapore have that these other countries do not.

I was reminded of the latter just this past weekend whilst trying to find a doctor to see Dylan for his cough and runny nose.

You see, the low humidity, temperature and rainy weather we have been experiencing of late that herald the start of winter here in New England, have all conspired to make conditions ripe for the cold and flu bugs to rear their ugly head.

And poor Dylan was not spared.

With a persistent cough lasting about 4-5 days, and adding to that, the onset of phlegm in his throat that was starting to make Dylan's coughs sound more like he was gargling, we finally decided that the best way to deal with it once and for all was to bring him to see a doctor. Afterall, with a health centre just a stone's throw away from our home, how difficult could the process be?

So it was on (last) Friday morning that I brought Dylan over to the Riverside Health Centre, only to discover that the centre did not take walk-in patients and that we had to first make an appointment to see the doctor.

The earlist date available: 4 December 2007.

Almost a month away.

Goodness..... by the time Dylan gets to see the doc, he would have either coughed his lungs out or have gotten better by then.

What's the point?!!

Not to be discouraged, we then tried the Harvard Health Services Centre, where we were told that they too did not take walk-ins, and even then, they only entertained patients who were on Harvard Insurance plans.

Notwithstanding that Danielle had Harvard Insurance, Dylan too had to be similarly insured before they would attend to him.

So OK, the first two were strikes.... surely people here in the US of A self-medicate and we should be able to buy some cough mixture of the pharmacy shelves, right? Wrong!

Pharmacies in the US do not stock drugs over the counter for kids below the age of 2 years, and in order to get medicines from the pharmacist, a doctors prescription is required.

Is it just me do you also get the feeling that I've been going round in circles? Strike Three and back to Square One.

Found out after talking to people that here in the US, most people have a 'Primary Care Doctor' which means to say that he is the guy you go to for all your visits.... kinda like the family doctor at home. But unlike the family doctor at home, people here don't walk-in to the clinic whenever they have a fever or cold.... nope, what they do is to call ahead to book an appointment that could be 1-2 days later (or three if its over the weekend) to see the doctor and in the meantime, self-medicate. For urgent needs, people would then go to the hospital's A&E. Hmmmm.... A&E for a high fever, just doesn't sound right to me. In any case, that was what I was told, bring Dylan to the A&E or wait a month for the next appointment.

Most clinics (at least the ones we tried) close over the weekend, so we had to wait till Monday.

Dylan's cough seemed worse on Monday, so we decided to get him over to the hospital A&E.

Thankfully there was one about 30 mins walk away. So I walked him over.... only to be told that (surprise surprise) the A&E dept did not take infants under the age of 2 years and that I had to go to a pediatric clinic instead. WAH LIAO! Got the numbers of two other hospitals from the receptionist and fortunately, one of them did take walk-ins and even had a free slot for Tuesday morning. FINALLY!

Fast forward to Tuesday morning......Rainy weather......Not the cats and dogs type, but the type that was heavy enough to make any trip outdoors a bother..... Had to manoeuvre stroller over kerbs and sidewalks with one hand whilst holding onto umbrella with the other..... Shoes getting wet.... dreadfully wet..... thank God this doc quest will be settled once and for all.... today....

After an hour wait, finally got to see the doc, who also happened to be (I was told) the hospital's Head of Pediatrics. The check-up went pretty smoothly and I was given a prescription for some cough mixture for Dylan.

However, my joy was short-lived when I found out that the hospital did not stock drugs and that I had to bring the prescription to a pharmacy instead, the closest of which was 20 min walk away (in the rain) as the hospital did not have a pharmacy within its premises.

Got to the pharmacy only to be told that the drug prescribed by the pediatrician had since been taken off the shelves.

Somehow the drug companies, pharmacies and hospitals are not talking to one another.

When asked, the pharmacist was not willing to recommend a substitute drug, and advised that with Dylan being an infant and all (below 2 years..... what is it with this magic number??!!!), the best was for me to go back to get another prescription from the doctor. DOUBLE WAH LIAO!

Rather than walk back, I called the pediatric clinic and was told that the next earliest slot to see the doctor was a week away, and in the meantime (and this is where I really think that this is all a joke), the nurse advised that I take the following steps:
a) humidify the room,
b) give him lots of fluids and
c) keep him in the bath a little longer so that the steam would soothe his nasal passages.

And so with that all-to-valuable piece of advice, this experience for me had truly returned to Square One.

After walking back and forth across Cambridge between health centres, calling up clinics trying to make appointments, and trodding between the hospital and pharmacy in the rain, this rather ridiculous attempt to treat Dylan's cough ended with a simple advice over the phone of a home remedy that we knew of in the first place!!!

And so, the thing I appreciate Singapore has that other countries (read: USA) does not have: A user-friendly, efficient and relatively responsive health care system. No bullshit like what they have here in the US.

Elroy

Apple-Picking and Expensive Bubble-Tea

Yippee! Daddy's first-ever contribution to this blog, reproduced here with permission, of course:

"I guess I will take it upon myself to do a kinda email-blog of our latest outing."

So here goes:

Question: What do picking apples at an orchard and drinking a cup of bubble milk tea at the asian food court have in common?

Answer: They are both unbelieveably EXPENSIVE!

Just thought I'd send over some pictures that we took last Sunday when the whole family took a drive out of Cambridge to a fruit orchard about an hour's drive west of Boston. Yes, that's right, this is the fall fruit picking seasons and from September to end-Oct every year, apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins and strawberries are ripe for the picking. And a popular family day-out that urbanites do around this parts is to pack the entire family into a car and drive out to the country for a morning of fruit picking. Fortunately, whilst strawberry and peach were picked out, apples were still in season.




So it was that we drove out of Cambridge last Sunday, and thank God that we had beautiful clear blue skies to boot. The orchard was called the 'Belkin Family Lookout Farm' and in many ways was more of a family theme park than it was a pure fruit orchard.

If one were to look past the rather exhorbitant entrance fee of USD12 per adult (kids below 2 years are free), the place was actually quite a kiddy wonderland. 180 acres of fruit orchards - which according to the guide was equal to 180 (American) football fields - yielded row upon row of fruit shrubs.

I say shrubs because I'd always thought that apples grew on trees but as you will see in some of the photos, they are more like shrubs. And I didn't realise that there were so many varieties of apples too... just to name a few: JonaGold, Golden Delicious, Asian Pear (a variety of apple) and MacIntosh (That's right, the popular brand of computer was named after an actual variety of apple).




There was a little train (kinda like the one they have at the night safari) where you can hop on and off anytime you like at any of the five stops along the orchard.... each stop was at a different part of the orchard that grew different varieties of fruit. I must admit too that the experience brought out the child in me.... I mean, honestly, this was the first time in all my 32 years that I have ever eaten an apple directly off the tree/shrub. Literally, pluck, wipe and bite!


And they were delicious and oh so juicy!!! Each of us were given a bag that we could fill with apples and at the end of the picking, this bag would be weighed and we would have to pay accordingly for what we picked.


Apart from fruit picking, the farm had a sizeable kids play area that also come with a petting zoo. I think that was Dylan's first time up close and personal with a goat and he looked like he was both intrigued and enjoying himself.


In all, our fruit foray yielded a rich picking (80% of which could be credited to MIL), and at USD2 per pound, the apples we not cheap at all! Apples in the supermarket cost a whole lot less, but I console myself with the fact that the apples in the orchard were huge and the experience of picking one's own apples was something that was difficult to put a monetary value to.



Needless to say that I have been having apples everyday so far, and I swear that at end of the week, I will be sweating apple juice out of my pores. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I think we will not be visiting the doc for the next year or so!!!

OK, will sign off here, till the next time that we have things to update. Halloween is coming in a couple of weeks soon and though it does not seem to be a huge thing here in Cambridge, we were thinking of taking a train to Salem over the weekend. Salem was the location of the witch trials in the 1600s and I guess is the Halloween central of New England.

But before I end off, one quick comment about the bubble tea here in Cambridge -

We were delighted to find us a stall at the asian food court that sold bubble milk tea.... I mean, c'mon, bubble tea here in New England leh!! But we were quickly reminded how fortunate we are to have things so cheap in Singapore. Two cups of bubble milk tea with pearl cost us USD8!!! That's like S$6 per cup!! I made sure that I ate every single pearl.

Watching leaves turn color, I mean colour

Almost one month since hubby and dad came up to join us trio.

It's also almost a month worth of academic work that has been intensifying to a degree that is bordering on intellectual meltdown - at 4 written assignments a week, field experience at a local middle school, and designing research proposals.
My poor brain! It's not worked this hard in such a long, long time.

The first weekend E. and Dad were up, we took a drive up to the White Mountain region in New Hampshire, a part of New England famed for its beautiful fall colors, I mean colours (you can tell my spelling's going American too). This region, in the thick of winter, is also pretty popular with skiers.

Here are some pretty colours:



We stayed at a quaint B&B called Whitney's Inn, and that's where Dylan (and me too!) saw horses racing down a still-green ski slope for the first time in our lives. Here's Dylan marvelling at pumpkins twice his size


Wonderful time with gong gong, ah-ma, mummy and daddy -


Winding our way up Flume's Gorge's narrow pathways -

The drive up to the Kamcamagus highway and to the region took us 4 hours, but boy when we took in the sights was it worth it! Tonight, I'm reminded of how it felt - in Hitch, Will Smith tells a client that "It's not the number of breaths that make up our moments in life, but the number of moments that take our breath away".

That's a close approximation of how it was like to be so close to nature, and to God's awesome creation.