My kids are at the ages where hugs are still abundant — they love being hugged and getting hugs. Eric would come to me for his big boy hug at random times, especially when he’s tired. Joel demands one every morning, noon, and night with such gusto that sometimes I would almost fall back as he run towards me and jumped, expecting me to catch him every time (do I have a choice not to?). When he’s not too excited, he’ll just calmly sit on my lap, grab my arms around him, and he’ll hum “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Ezra… well, he’s still a baby, but what baby doesn’t like to be hugged? Ezra will either put his head on my shoulder, or be most alert, smiling and babbling himself away.

There will come the day when giving a hug to Mommy and Daddy becomes more and more sporadic, somewhat of an embarrassment, not to be given publicly. But that’s a long time away. I hope. I’ll take things one day at a time.

(For more stories on gallstone symptoms, visit My Gallstones Symptoms)

I got a scare during the checkup with my OBGYN a few days ago when I found out that I had gallbladder stones. My ultrasound scan the next day confirmed its existence; it filled a quarter of my gallbladder. My OBGYN doc told me that it’s most probably cholesterol stones due to unhealthy eating. Big surprise there. He also told me that a surgery is required if the condition is serious.

What he didn’t tell me is that with every surgery, they will remove the gallbladder altogether, instead of just blasting the stones away like I’d imagined. There is almost literally no other choice than removal. No way am I going to have a missing organ in me. Whatever organs I have, will stay with me till my soul is gone from this world. (more…)

I’m not sure if I’ve done anything productive this week with my kids. Their dad went for a business trip to Bogor, Indonesia, and getting stuck indoors were our daily routine as it has been pouring non-stop this week, so most of the time we just hung around the house playing with each other.

I did have fun bringing the kids out to eat a couple of times at this kopitiam-styled restaurant on the ground floor of Asia City Complex. Not only was the food good, but it was cheap, too.

And there was the kids’ cousin Aidyl’s birthday this afternoon. The party was the longest two hours of my life this week. Heavy rain was as expected; Joel escaped my clutches too many times to play with the droplets flowing from the yard shades, so after a while I was too tired to chase him off the open yard and just let him jump around and glorify in the rain. Eric didn’t have a nice time, which was all his undoing. He was out after the second round of the musical chair, and being a sore loser, sulked and yelled a couple of times out of anger. When I failed to coax him out of his temper, I just rolled my eyes and left to care for my other two boys while Eric sat crying in front of everyone. Yeesh. By the time we left, I was too tired to do anything and had to skip my cousin’s party for her kid Gabriel in the evening.

So much for being in the Merdeka mood.

I’m not sure about other moms out there, but have you ever experienced having an overwhelming sense of anxiety or periods of light-headed confusion so severe that you sometimes can’t get your brain to focus at all? I’ve noticed for the past three weeks that my brain has been functioning that way, and it frightens me. That’s what you get when you’re sleep deprived. The road is starting to get dangerous with me behind the wheels. I’m just glad I have my in-laws still staying over this past week before they return to Sandakan. Otherwise, I’m not sure what I’ll do without enough rest.

Now I am in my kampung Tuaran Labuaya. I have a cousin. His name is also Eric Ribuan and Eric noel is my name. He is 11 years old. I have my PS2 in the kampung. He doesn’t have a video game. His daddy doesn’t buy for him.