Weekends are supposed to be for rejuvenating oneself but yet I felt so drained now. In contrast to most people's Monday blue syndrome, I usually welcome Monday with open arms. Strange, ain't I ? Well, you'll be like me if you are in my shoes.

My past weekend started early on Friday afternoon. I had taken half day leave to bring Jayden for his dental review. All is well, said the dentist, but we have to brush his teeth properly because plaque is forming again. After the dentist, we went to the pediatrician for Jayden's diaper rash that had been there for days. The ped diagnosed it as a fungus infection, and prescribed us a purple solution (I forgot to ask its name) and a powder. My facial appointment came next. When I reached home in the evening, Jayden was crying his lungs off, and I learnt that my poor boy fell (again!) and hurt his lower lips. Fortunately, his lips had cushioned the fall and his new teeth escaped unscathed.

My Saturdays are usually filled with activities similar to a typical Singaporean mother : grocery-shopping, enrichment classes for the kids, library-visiting, homework and housework, etc. But since last week was school holidays, Jolyne's art and music classes took a break too. We decided to do something different and brought the children to the Singapore Bird Park. It had been a long time since we visited the place and it was Jayden's first. We used to be a friend of Bird Park and frequented the place numerous time during the one year of our membership, but since the membership expired, we felt less inclined to go there. I was pleasantly surprised by the new children playground that includes a water-play zone. Other than that, there hadn't been much changes to the place, except that there were noticeably fewer visitors (due to the bird flu, perhaps?), and the amenities were not well maintained. But we did have an enjoyable morning there.

Yesterday, we got up early to send Venus, our helper, off to the airport. She had gone for her 3-week home leave. I have arranged a temporary replacement, Liza, to help out in her absence. Legally, that is. I've explored various alternatives for someone to work for us, and came to realize that most of the so-called part-time/contractual helpers are actually illegal as they do not have proper work permit. I decided that it is not worth the risk and forked out over a thousand bucks (including legal documents, agency fees, levy, salary) to get a full-time helper for a month. Expensive to be law-abiding, huh?

Sunday afternoon was spent at my mom's place as usual. At home in the evening, Jayden was exceptionally clingy to me and hostile to Liza. It had been a week since Liza was here (we had arranged her to come a week ago so that Venus can guide her on the work), yet Jayden screams whenever she comes near. My shoulders are still aching from carrying a 11.5 kg toddler for a whole day.

On the record, last week was a breakdown week. First, our modem router died during a thunderstorm. Then my old camera had a 'write failure' when I tried to snap some shots. Jayden the monster half-killed my handphone after soaking it in his salivary mouth, and destroyed my one-and-only alarm clock by smashing it on the floor.

So, this had been my weekend.