Our Heartache...

Yesterday while hubby and I were having breakfast, I received a call from the school's nurse telling me that Jovan has broke his leg. She was quite vague about what really happened and kept asking me if I could go to school then or maybe I would like to meet her in the hospital instead. I could feel my heart sank into my stomach and I felt so light-headed I thought I was gonna faint. So I passed the phone to hubby who immediately rushed to school to accompany Jovan in the ambulance.

Tears was falling off my cheeks when hubby left. And I do have the tendency to think about the worst stuff. The waiting was killing me and I couldn't sit still to do anything! After what felt like a long time, Angel came home and couldn't wait to update me about what actually happened. She was there when Jovan fell. Jovan was running towards her when he tripped on a skipping rope and fell. He felt pain instantaneously and started crying. Angel tried to comfort him, luckily there were a few teachers there as well and someone went to fetch the school nurse. She came and decided that they have to call for an ambulance. By then hubby has already arrived. Jovan was already panicking then and he calmed down when he saw daddy. Angel was so worried for Jovan she started crying as well. Her teacher had to console her and tried to assure her that Jovan will be taken care of and that he'll be ok. She told me that when one of the teacher helped to carry Jovan to sit on a bench, she saw that the middle part of his lower left leg was sunk in... She almost started crying again when she was telling me this. She said that she could feel the pain in her leg as well... *oooouuuucchhhh*

At that point, nobody knew what was wrong (but I think the teachers could already guess). When the ambulance arrived and the medics were checking his leg, hubby saw that when they moved his left leg, the lower part of the leg could be bent in a very unnatural way. He told me that when he saw that, he realised that his leg was broken and he was filled with so much worry, he thought he was going to throw up. I think I would have fainted if I was there... :'(

They spent the whole day in the A&E department (from 8 something in the morning to 5 plus in the evening!!!). Jovan was in pain for the whole day. They gave him morphine which helped a lot with the pain. Then they had to wait to do xray. The xray showed that both his bones were snapped quite cleanly into 2. So the doctor realigned the bone as straight as he could and put a soft cast (only hard behind the leg and just bandage at the front) and did another xray.

It showed that the bones are about 1 degree off, which is a good sign because then the body can take over to heal properly without any problem. If the misalignment was off more, he would need to do an operation to put in metal parts to realign the bones, which he was reluctant to do because he wanted to avoid any intrusive surgery.

At home, Angel was feeling really sorry for Jovan. She wrote him a card...It says "Jovan I feel sorry for you turn"....

"Many Many Many HUGS"!! ^.^

And she tied the card to Jovan's best buddy...

She also made his bed and added more pillows, big and small, since Jovan will be spending more time in his bed now...

When Jovan finally came home, he looked completely exhausted. He hadn't eaten anything the whole day and the morphine and gas he got in the hospital really drained him.
Daddy asked him what he'd like for dinner and he said pizza. So off daddy went to buy pizza while we stayed home to talk to Jovan a little. He didn't eat any pizza when daddy got home coz he fell asleep.

He had a rough night last night, crying in pain and then later in the early morning, he had gastric pain since he hadn't eaten anything for one whole day. So hubby woke up to give him some pizza and he went back to sleep after that.

He woke up this morning feeling much better. He practised working on the crutches in the morning. But every time when the effect of the painkiller starts to wear off, his pain starts going up.... :(

Angel brought some things back from school to cheer him up. His teacher, together with the rest of the class, made a booklet for him filled with kind words and good wishes.
"We miss you when you're not here"...



Watching him sobbing because it was hurting so bad, makes me feel absolutely helpless and I could feel my tear welling up looking at him suffering. I was staring at the xray pictures this morning, wishing I have super healing power to just fix them back to how they were...

This boy is a real trouper.

Although he has become a little bit of a mommy's boy since he got injured, I'm really happy that he's able to find comfort and security in both hubby and me.

My darling little fighter, healing is going to take some time. You are surrounded by plenty of love from family, friends, classmates and teachers, we will help to make this healing process a little easier to go through!

Another Milestone for Angel!

Angel turns 10 today! After my previous post, Angel was sent home by her teacher because she has spots breaking out all over.... yup, she had the chicken pox as well! ^.^

She had been very disappointed as was asking me why was she so unlucky? She missed going to the movie with her class, the last swimming lesson and the Easter Hat Parade in school during her stay at home. And after Angel, hubby also fell victim to the chicken pox virus. Angel wanted to ask our dear friends Mavis and Fredrik to come over the day before her birthday because she wanted Fredrik to make his oh-so-awesome! panna cotta, now we have to shelve the plan because it was a chicken pox party at our home! And if her pox didn't heal on time, we wouldn't be able to go to the movie as well! And then, yesterday when hubby and I were on our way to buy groceries and to buy her big present, the car wouldn't start! Turned out the battery was dead and we had to ask hubby's friend to help start the car! =.="

Luckily, today was a good day! Except that Angel "sneaked" into our room early in the morning to check if hubby and I have any headache.... :D We served her breakfast in bed, followed by some presents to kick start her birthday.

She made her own "birthday" poster! :D Hello Kitty watch from daddy Eric in Singapore. Money from farmor to buy herself something nice. And the little baby was drinking milk on Jovan's bed and rubbing his tummy at the same time...

Jovan gave her the autograph of Martin Widmark, author of a very popular detective series for kids, which Angel loves!
Angel's best friend, Sanica, came by on Friday to bring her the birthday present! She sent a thousand hugs in the letter...

And made a small pillow for Angel! How sweet is that? ^.^
Jovan also made 2 friendship bands for the birthday girl.
After breakfast, she got another surprise! She's clear to go to the cinema to watch "Rio" in 3D!
So off we went to the movie, leaving hubby home with the 2 small babies. I think I enjoyed the movie more than Jovan and Angel did! :P And while we were waiting for the bus to go home, we talked about the movie and Jovan said,"It was ok, a little childish." =.=" When we got back, I started making the strawberry tarts which Angel requested and dinner. She asked to have curry with chicken, carrot and lotsa zucchini and stir fried egg noodle. And while I was making food, daddy started them on the treasure hunt for her "big" presents.
Behind the picture...?
Behind the painting...?
Here in the rice cooker!
And the clue led them to daddy's car, where they had to push the "big" present back...
And they were happy doing that!
And the final clue led them back to the apartment and into one of mommy's pot!
It was an iPod Shuffle from farfar!
These are the strawberry tarts in replacement for a birthday cake.
After dinner, Angel started putting her new bicycle together with a LOT of help from Jovan. ^.^
Finally it was completed and both Jovan and Angel went down with their new bicycles for a spin, daddy tagged along as well to see if any further adjustment to the bikes is needed.
When they were back from the short rides, it was time to enjoy some strawberry tarts and continue with the final round of presents for the day! A shirt....
A book showing how to draw manga...
Yet another designing book! (she received 2 already in the morning!)
And Jovan found out that "Angel" can be rearranged to spell "Galen", which means "crazy" in Swedish! Now we know why! :D
Being 10 years old is another new milestone for Angel. We feel so privileged to have her as part of the family. She has brought us a lot of laughter, joy and sweetness which you can only get from having a daughter. ^.^ We hope that she'll continue to develop into the fine lady whom we know she can be, one who knows what she wants to do, what she needs to do to get there and work hard to be there. And we will do all that we can to help her achieve that.

Happy 1oth birthday Angel!

Jackpot!

Hubby has got an important teleconference today at 11am. I have been feeling kind of sick since yesterday and today feels worse. I asked if it'll be ok for him to come home earlier after he was done with the necessary in the office. And as always, he replied that it was ok and that he'll be back after the conference call.

He came home a couple of hours later carrying some groceries, ice cream and pastries. "Do you have good news? Are we celebrating?" I asked hopefully. Yeah! Rotosub is now officially in business having secured a contract with the first customer, who happens to be the largest company in that particular business. After years of research, projects, long working hours and endless frustration and hard work, finally it is happening! I feel very very happy for hubby, I think it must feel like sunshine pouring down after a long period of gloomy dark clouds!

We also noticed blisters popping up on both Ivan and Chris today. They have both been having fever since yesterday. It's good that they all have chicken pox now, so we don't have to worry about this anymore. Now it's just down to Angel... hmmm... maybe that dot on her back IS a chicken pox blister.... or maybe I'm just getting paranoid! :D

And since I'm not feeling well, hubby also picked up 2 packs of M&Ms on his way home for me... ^.^ I know! He's always so sweet to me!

It's a good day today! And the future can only be better! ^.^

Our Little Sunshine, Ivan

About 9 months ago, hubby and I were slightly worried about Ivan's speech and limited vocabulary. This changed 2 months after he started going to school. And now, he's talking too much.... From the minute he woke up, he has opinions and comments about everything and anything, like a chirpy little bird!

At the age of 3, Ivan is a happy-go-lucky, friendly, goofy, polite... most of the time, and unrelenting boy. He is happy most of the time, singing, breaking into some sort of crazy dance whenever he feels like it.


He says thank you when others give him something. He gives praises when he thinks that you're doing something good, even though he may be the one who "force" you to do it in the first place. Like today when we found a stick on the way home from school, and when I told him that we can't bring the stick home, he left the stick "standing" outside the main door, made me said bye to the stick (he refused to move unless I say bye, mind your manners mom!)and then told me,"Jättebra mamma, duktigt mamma." ("Very good mummy, clever mummy") *rolling my eyes*

We were also worried about his eating. He wasn't eating good and was underweight before he started school. Now, he's eating well. Though he is not putting on enough weight yet, but we're relieved that he has found his appetite. He favorite food are cucumber, iceberg salad, most kind of fruits, pancakes, muffins and egg tarts.


He LOVES Lego and can spend a long time making and building planes, bicycles, boats, etc.

He has also taken a liking to drawing and I must admit that at 3 years old, he's pretty good! A monster!

Some dude... (He said it's "en gubbe".)

This is his impression of Jovan! "Korkor (big brother in teochew) är stor!" He said. "Stick-man" Jovan is stretched almost across the paper! I guess to Ivan, Jovan must be a really big and reliable big brother.

Kids grow out of the toddler phase quite fast and Ivan is already growing into the next phase now. We hope that his charming personality will continue as he grows older. I mean, just look at this goofy face! I sure don't want him to lose that! ^.^

Polka Dotted Jovan

Last night, Jovan came to me, asking me to check his back. He said it was really itchy on his back and he thought he felt something. I was thinking to myself,"Oh no, don't tell my it's tick again!" On the other hand, isn't it kind of early for ticks to be making appearance now? He had 2 ticks attached to him last summer, while he and his friends were out in the forest playing. He came home then, asking me to check on the back of his neck, saying that he had a "bump". I looked and yeeewwww.... it was a tick! I had to fight my running instinct and disgust and pulled it out! Then I gave him a thorough check all over and found another one on his back! Yuck! It still makes my hair stands thinking about that!

Anyway, I checked his back last night and there were about 4 to 5 marks which looks kind of like insect bites. And since the only time when he's not wearing any clothes is when he's sleeping, I made him and Angel changed their bedsheets immediately. Half way through changing, I noticed that there were more dots on his face as well, and more on his arms, his stomach... and I saw one which was actually filled with water! Chicken pox!!!! Then I remembered that he had fever and was very tired about 2 days ago. I told him that he has chicken pox and will need to stay home for the next week or so. He was worried about scratching and leaving scars, we talked about that for awhile and Angel said,"And we have changed the bedsheets for nothing!" *sigh* Lazy girl...

Today, there are more dots popping out, even on his palms and in his hair!

And he is ITCHY all right! Just looking at him scratching makes me itchy all over!

Hopefully all 4 of them will get it this time round and be done with it. Maybe chaos in this household if that happens but well, then we know that we're done! Hubby told Jovan to hug Angel when she comes home later from school... and if she has got it as well, we know that we're in for a whinny and naggy time with lots of drama! :D

Birthday Boy!

Jovan...is 11 today! As usual, he woke up before us, so we had to "chase" him back into bed to serve him breakfast in bed! :D

This was what we prepared...

He started with some presents from Angel...

She spent 3 days making this puzzle for her big brother!

Present from his father, Eric. A watch which comes with notebook, compass and a tiny flashlight!

And a small one from mommy and daddy, the one thing that he always have on his Christmas/birthday list! ^.^

And once he was done with breakfast, the hunt for his big presents began!

After many clues and head scratching, they finally found the right place! Our storage area in the basement!

A Yamaha C45 guitar with a bag!

And a 24" Hawk bicycle in super cool black and orange! And of course, daddy took the opportunity to get the kids to put it together, good training for logical thinking and following instruction manual! Even Ivan helped to hold the wheel and passing the tools!

Jovan also wanted to go to the movie. So they picked the 3D "Gnomeo and Juliet". On the way to the carpark, they ran into farmor (grandma) who made a surprise visit! So farmor ended up following Jovan, Angel and daddy to the movie! Talk about perfect timing!

They picked up a cake after the movie and Jovan get to pick one. And this was what he picked - an almond cake with Daim chocolate topping! Yummy!

And Jovan wasn't allowed to blow the candle coz Ivan wanted to blew it instead...

The birthday dinner that he wished for was schnitzel with mash potatoes and salad, which mommy gladly prepared!

11 years flew by at the blink of an eye! I can still vividly remember holding him in my arms in the hospital and feeling excited, happy, scared and worrying if I could be the mother that he deserves.

He is growing up fast and is growing up to be a polite and responsible boy. I hope and wish that he'll continue to be the good person we want him to be, hmmm... hopefully the teenage phase will be an interesting one with no heartaches! :D