Zoe at School!

Zoe has settled in to her new preschool thee mornings per week, and is thriving there. It's called Cambridge - at least I'll be able to say one of my children has attended Cambridge! ;)

Zoe has great concentration span, and is apparently very well behaved during the 2 hour sessions. (Which is why she's probably so tired afterwards, and 'loses it' when she gets home!)

Here are some pics that the teachers gave us at our parent-teacher conference yesterday.

An UP time!

Last Friday night, Nigel and I had our first 'night out' since Tessa was born. This school year at BSM is nearly over, and the senior school students had put on a graduation dinner/dance.

IT WAS FLASH!

A real black tie event. (We felt under-dressed, as many had ball gowns...)

It was held at the Shangri-La here in Manila, and the students had secured quite a bit of sponsorship, as WELL as charging an arm and a leg per ticket. I was incredibly impressed with the decor in the ball room - fresh flowers everywhere, including hanging some 10 feet from the ceiling, ending in a big ball of flowers just over the table, with fairy lights interspersed! All the women got a 3-foot long red rose upon entry. The dinner was no less than 6 courses, and every single morsel was delicious, including a lobster bisque, and the best eye fillet steak I've ever tasted, which is something, as I usually don't like steak! The waiting staff were even dressed better than us, and showed off their waiting talents, as the food was 'presented' at the beginning of the evening.

The students had organised a formal ceremony to acknowledge those who were leaving and several of the teachers took part, including Nigel, who was roped in to play the piano for a newly-written version of the school song performed by two other staff members.

Here's a picture of us at the end of the night - looking a bit jaded. It's almost midnight, WELL past our bedtime!

Three kids under four!!!

Tessa is now 8 weeks old, and the novelty of having a new baby has worn off. Lots of people ask us how we're going with our three kids under four. The answer?

So far, it's been a wild roller-coaster ride!

We've had some "down" times.

The worst time was 2 weeks after returning to Manila. Our household helper, Jenalyn (aka "Superwoman") suddenly had to leave to visit her dying grandfather in her home province. She wasn't able to say when she'd be back. After the initial "Oh my goodness, how am I going to cope with a new baby and the whole household by myself", I actually enjoyed the novelty of doing everything myself again.

Then I got exhausted!

Here in the Philippines, we have no labour-saving devices. No dishwasher or drier, or vacuum cleaner. Labour is cheap enough, there's no need to 'save' it! So the work of an ordinary day just doesn't stop! Emily up, fed, dressed, coiffed, packed & out of the house by 7am with Nigel. Zoe (ditto) and to her new preschool by 9 (walking with Tessa in pram in mid-30s degree heat!) and home again at 11. Lunch cooked in the sweltering kitchen by midday. Four + loads of washing per day, keeping kids happy in the afternoon, preparing dinner, baths, etc. Oh, and of course fitting in 8+ feeding/burping/changing/settling sessions with my newborn all throughout the day & night! Oh, and washing myself 3 times daily, and changing the dressing on my c-section wound, as it had become infected.

After two days of this, I rang up a friend, and pleaded with her to borrow her housekeeper for a few days per week. The lady came the next day, and gave me a break! She cooked the main meal, did our day's laundry for us, and did a much-needed clean of the bathrooms & floors.

We were probably going to cope just fine with some borrowed help a few days per week, but then, acute gastroenteritis came & swept through our entire family! It hit Zoe first on the Monday, and as she's just too little to know when she was going to vomit, she did so all over the house. Our 4 loads of washing per day became 6. It hit me on the Wednesday morning, and as I'm breastfeeding, and it's so hot, I quickly became dehydrated, not being able to take any fluids, and had to go to the hospital. Thankfully, Nigel had taken the day off, so he could take me, and look after Tessa (who had to be bottle-fed) in the waiting room. We had to leave the two older girls in the care of our new borrowed helper, whom they hardly knew. I lay in the E.R. bed, watching the slow 'drip...drip...drip', wishing I could skull that litre and 3 more besides, as I was just SOOOO thirsty. I hoped the older girls would be okay with their care-giver, I hoped Tessa would take a bottle, and I wondered how long I'd have to be in the hospital for.

That was my lowest point of all.

Thankfully, my hospital stay was over late that afternoon, I was able to return home, and all 3 of my girls were okay. Then, later that night, Emily got the bug, and the following day, lucky last, Nigel got it.

Since then, things have got better! Jenalyn (superwoman) returned, to pick up the pieces, and we've even hired another lady part-time, to ease Jenalyn's load, whom we caught ironing well past midnight on several occasions.

We've also had some "up" times.

Tessa, still being in the newborn stage, is pretty portable, really, so as a family we've still been able to enjoy outings, such as to a restaurant after church on a Sunday. Our current favourite place is 'Pancake House' (which sells more than pancakes) where we all have a nice meal for about the equivalent of $NZ 20. And even 'round two' of the tummy bug, which prompted Emily to 'grace' the lunch table on Mother's Day, still couldn't dampen our spirits. Luckily our fellow-kiwi friends and we had all just about finished our fish & chips before the ungraceful event.

Now that my c-section wound is completely healed, we've also enjoyed whole-family outings to the pool again. It's lovely this time of year - almost as warm as bath water - no 'chill factor' at all when you get in. Tessa even joins us, asleep in her pram in the shade by the pool.

Night-times are still pretty harsh. Tessa sleeps a regular 7 solid hours now, which is just fabulous, but her 'night' starts at 7:30pm! She's then up at 2:30 for her midnight snack, and then she sleeps till 5:30, which is the start of our day. One wake up per night like this would be just great, actually, but unfortunately, the older two have been pretty unsettled. They've had a lot to cope with, so they still wake up a lot. There are bad dreams, drinks of water, toilet stops (if we're lucky), bed-wets (if we're not), Emily even fell out of bed once!!! Last night, after a very busy day, Nigel and I crawled into bed at 7:45pm. We would have had nearly 7 hours' sleep (by Tessa), but by 10:30, Nigel still hadn't slept one wink, as the older 2 girls were very demanding.

So that's how we're going!

If you're waiting for an email reply or something, bear with us - we'll get to it sooner or later...