islandhippy

tiny treehugger

islandhippy — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:44:51 +0000

Our tiny treehugger always wants to explore the forest around the house. "Livvy wants go jungle see baby tiger" is the usual request. We haven't seen any tigers yet but we did find a discarded snake skin this afternoon:

Jumping Livvy

islandhippy — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:12:33 +0000

Odds and sods

islandhippy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:09:09 +0000

It’s a boy!

islandhippy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:19:37 +0000

At last night's Chinese New Year steamboat party at Adora and Max's house, Liz dangled Sandy's wedding ring over Sandy's belly to predict the gender of our baby. The ring swung from left to right like a pendulum meaning it's a boy! Well done Liz, you're right, it is a boy! (We could have saved a lot of money on the scan, we'll try this method next time.)

How exciting! Olive will have a baby brother to boss around. We're so happy.

Sunday morning treetop walk

islandhippy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:40:00 +0000

Wedding Anniversary spent mopping up vomit

islandhippy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:58:28 +0000

Sandy: I spent my 7th wedding anniversary mopping up vomit! Both my babies are ill: the fat hairy one ("Don't talk about Olive like that!" Phil) cannot control his bowels and has locked himself in the bathroom. The slightly less chubby whiny one is projectile vomiting. So far she's only vomited over Phil, which is good. I was supposed to be dining on braised beef cheeks and rosemary-laced rack of lamb with garlicky, truffled purée at Les Artistes Bistro. Instead I'm mopping up vomit

I didn't have the energy to cook Phil soup but I found an old tin of Waitrose tomato soup at the back of a cupboard. Expiry date: August 2009. Phil already has diarrhoea, how worse can it get? ("Gee, thanks!" Phil) For Olive, I prepared a fresh carrot and coriander soup so I hope she can keep that down.

It’s official: I’m overweight

islandhippy — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:25:31 +0000

This morning I walked to Alexandra Hospital (taking a shortcut through the morgue, which is rather appropriate) to pick up my health screening report. Two weeks ago I'd spent a morning at the hospital doing blood tests (two rounds because the first nurse couldn't find a vein), urine and stool tests ("please don't go there" Sandy), blood pressure, ECG and eyesight tests.

When I arrived at the "Health for Life Centre" this morning the doctor sat me down and explained that I'm carrying around a lot of extra baggage! Apparently I need to lose at least 5kg (11lb) although I quickly pointed out that the nurses had weighed me with all my clothes on! (During the weigh-in I offered to strip for the cute Malay nurses but they turned me down.)

My cholesterol levels are as follows:

Total cholesterol: 5.56 mmol/L (215 mg/dl) = borderline high
Triglycerides: 1.96 mmol/L (174 mg/dl) = borderline high
HDL (good cholesterol): 1.11 mmol/L (43 mg/dl) = desirable
LDL (bad cholesterol): 3.70 mmol/L (143 mg/dl) = borderline high
HDL ratio: 5.01 = not good!

My BMI is a bit too high and needs to come down. My body fat is way too high (no more processed pizza and hot dogs for me). My phosphate levels are too low (processed pizza and hot dogs here I come). And if that wasn't enough, the doctor really had to stick the knife in by claiming I have a build-up of ear wax!

Luckily my ECG, chest x-ray and blood glucose results were fine and my eyesight is perfect.

The doctor suggested I cut down on red meat and was not impressed when I told her I'd barbecued a massive steak the night before. She also asked me to cut down on intestines and fish roe, which should be easier to follow. She was a little confused to learn the monthly alcohol consumption figures on her report were in fact my weekly alcohol consumption figures and she didn't appear to be familiar with binge drinking so obviously didn't train in the UK.

I'm devising a fitness plan now and will share it with you if it ever comes into being. I did poke my head round the door of the gym at work this afternoon but it made me rather queasy.

UPDATE: I bought a healthy salad for lunch yesterday (costing me twice as much as local fare) and I now have food poisoning! I've had to take the morning off and work from home.

UPDATE#2: Both Olive and I are unwell, it's probably a stomach bug. Sandy and I have had to cancel our 7th wedding anniversary dinner tonight. I'm on soup until further notice. "That should help you lose weight!" Sandy

cheeky monkey

islandhippy — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:17:10 +0000

Olive is such a cheeky monkey. Recent examples:

Olive farted, looked around for a scapegoat and said "Daddy fart"!
Olive showed Sandy the Lego car that Daddy built. When Sandy asked her who built it, Olive replied "Olive build, Daddy help"!
Point to Olive's big tummy and ask "Who has a big tummy?" and she'll reply "Mummy big nummy".

More one-liners from Olive:

Ask Olive where her hair is and she points to her head. Ask her where Daddy's hair is and she opens her palms to the heavens and replies "Daddy hair no more". Thanks kid.
While walking past a particularly dense patch of foliage, Olive pointed to the leaves and said "Po Po [Granny] pluck tree" in reference to her grandmother plucking and eating the neighbour's hedge

Olive looking for the magical land of Narnia

islandhippy — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:19:27 +0000

or just looking for a good place to hide

Welcome baby Ethan!

islandhippy — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:48:28 +0000

Congratulations Karen and Aik on the birth of Ethan. The whole family looks surprisingly calm and Karen seems to be coping very well. Ethan's so tiny, at one week he's smaller than Olive when she was born!

As well as meeting baby Ethan, Olive also met lots of baby penguins this morning at Jurong Bird Park.