Thanks to all concerned friends, we survived 2 weeks without helper. I've started Jayden on childcare, earlier than my intended 2 1/2 year-old, as faced with such circumstance, it seemed to be the only choice. I won't say he's taking it well, but he's slowly settling in.

Juggling a full-time job and the household chores was no joke, but somehow KA and I pulled through. We decided to do just the bare essentials and leave the more tedious tasks till weekend. Even that, it would keep us occupied till late hours, given that we only came back from work at 7:30pm earliest. Fortunately, mom-in-law cooked dinner most of the time, so that's one less thing to worry about. KA held a differing view though, he'd grouse endlessly on the time and effort spent on cleaning up after every meal, so we ate out sometimes.

I'm really blessed to have a spouse like KA, who doesn't mind working around the house and doesn't take for granted chores will be done magically. In fact, for the past days, he did most of the cleaning, washing, mopping and ironing while I took care of the kids' wellbeing - bathing them, packing their bags for the next day, putting them to bed. Jolyne had been a good girl too, helping us to keep an eye on Jayden if both of us were busy.

It's strange but each of us seems to have changed after this period. Mom-in-law, seeing how difficult things were without a helper and being forbidden to help out due to her health condition, seemed to be more understanding and acceptable to the fact that having a helper will relieve us. Workaholic KA spent more time at home than in the past, and didn't turn on his laptop even once at home in the past 2 weeks. Jolyne had grown to be more independent, reading her books when mommy and daddy weren't free to attend to her, helping us to do little things like folding the clothes and keeping Jayden occupied, and doing her homework without supervision. As for me, I now appreciate more that housework is no easy job and am thankful for the efforts V had put in attending the nitty-gritties around the house for us. But more importantly, our bonds have strengthen and we know that there's nothing that we cannot handle if our next helper walks out again, as long as we work together as one family.

So that was what happened to us the past two weeks. Tomorrow, our new helper will be here. It took us a long time to look for an experience, Chinese indon helper and I do hope indeed that she's someone reliable and will at least stay with us for the contracted 2 years. Mom-in-law had gone for a trip to Shanghai, so we are alone to show the new helper the ropes. Hopefully, she will be familiarised by the time mom-in-law is back and history does not repeat itself again.

This will be one of the last few posts here, as I'm moving to a new site (soon, I hope). Testing is underway and it will be jointly shared with my brother and sister. My brother is doing it in his spare time, so no promise when it will be up.

Today is Jayden's two years-old birthday. He would love your wishes and e-hugs. :)