A year of Fatherhood and turning 34

Not too long ago, I was still posting about entering fatherhood. And now it's already been more than a year.

Little Amber is now capable of running around and getting herself hurt, not to mention the start of endless ramblings and tantrums. 

Both Yanli and myself are feeling the fatigue of parenthood. There much lesser us times and me times. Every night it's just tiring and rest is never enough when we wake up. Such is the norm of living in Singapore. 

It still feels awesome to be able to be home with Yanli and Amber every evening. Amber's just TOO CUTE!! 

Babies are such bullies, she knows exactly when to annoy you, and push ur limits. And when u think that all hope is lost, she gives you the cutest smile ever

In all this chaos, I'm fortunate to have a superwoman wife who does so much on her own. She wakes early, works super hard, sleeps late, and does so much in between. Life would be tough without her around us. 

Recently I just turned 34. Birthdays after being a father is not the same anymore.  It's no longer just about me.

It's now about the kid. Hahaha. My wonderful wife planned a surprise staycation for me. I got another cake. But Amber will not be forgotten, we stayed at an ultra-kids-friendly hotel and there's so much to do for her. 

So much that we were so drained after the weekend. Lesson learnt is that we need a recovery day after such programs. We are so not young anymore.

New Experiences @ TCM

It's been years since my last visit to A Chinese physician. In my opinion, TCM is best used for muscular injuries. Basically issues that done require an x-Ray. 

This time my visit was due to pain in my left ankle. Started yesterday morning for no rhyme or reason. This morning it's just worst. Couldn't exert any weight on it without pain.

So I tried this TCM at City Sq, since Yanli is going there to meet her friends. Firstly, the place is staffed entirely by Chinese nationals, which is expected. There's only one physician on duty and there's only one patient ahead of me. My wait was brief and I got to see the physician in a jiffy.

She looked at my feet and asked a few questions and diagnosed that the pain was due to poor blood circulation causing a blockage pressing on the nerves. Which sounded about right, when I compared the symptoms to the pain area.

So treatment started immediately, it's acupuncture. The last time I had acupuncture I had a few needles in my right ankle, the time before that was a few needles in my right shoulder. This time was a few near my right knee, a few on the calf, a few at the ankle, a few on top of the feet and few on my right knee too. Pricks here and there but one at the left ankle particularly hurt more. Doc said I have a high tolerance of pain hence she can hit a few more on me. 

The needles were in place for some to means a weak current was actually passed through my left knee to my feet. That caused my entire leg to twitch uncontrollably. It was ticklish and painful at the same time, it's basically torturous!!!

At the same time there's also infrared lap used at my tummy area to help with the blood circulation around the body. What is etched into my mind is her deductions of my body conditions. She said I may look strong, but internally I'm quite weak. My digestive systems will work up quite often and my 气 is insufficient. In summary, it's 外强中干. I think she's about right too....

After in ridiculous amount of twitching in my left feet (I counted over 300 times). The treatment was over and she applied Chinese plasters on my feet. Chinese plasters are always covered in a heap of herb concoction. I have to keep it ok for the next day and a half. This version felt cooling, maybe it's just the AirCon.

Finally was the medication for the next few days. It's now in tablets form, I was expecting to gulp a bottle a day or something, but it's still 8 pills at one go and 3 times a day.