Days of our lives...

Too fast too furious 3

2009-08-21T23:29:00.002+08:00

Time flies... very fast when you are very busy. Been 1 year and 2 months since the last post where we announced the arrival of Cadence Chong.

Now, Cadence is 1 year and 2 months old. Chloe is 4 years and 8 months old and Jasper is 6 years and 2 months old.

Jasper is going to start Primary 1 next year and we had a nervous time registering for the choice of school. Not that we are kiasu and aimed for the best, in terms of academic achievements but it's actually an unproven one yet with a unique approach that is suitable for Jasper.

We have since discovered that Jasper is at mild risk of dyslexia - learning difficulties in words. He can read a simple sentence yet. Childcare recommended him a specialist for 1-to-1 tuition twice a week and it's costing us a bomb, about $600 monthly to be exact.

Put him into a swimming class as well when I suddenly realized that at age 5 last year, he is still playing in the waddling pool and doesn't know how to swim or know the danger of a deeper pool! 1 lesson he didn't realized the danger and swallowed a big mouth of water. After that, the next few lessons, I have to literally forced him to attend. Luckily managed to get him to conquer that phobia after 2 months and now half-a-year later he is enjoying swimming lessons alot.

And we went through a big scare during his birthday celebration at a condo swimming pool. He happily swam to the middle of a big pool with just his little Styrofoam water gun while i was on the way with his swimming board. When I arrived, i saw him panicking and started shouting for help! Without a moment hesitation, I jumped into the pool and carry him to the side. With my wallet, car remote control and relatively new Nokia E71...

And we also highly suspect that he has ADD where short attention span, difficulties in focusing and IMPULSIVENESS are common behavioural problems.

Started him on Mandarin classes too just to make sure he as a Chinese is at least able to understand and speak basic mandarin.

As for Chloe, started her on ballet since she is too young to go for swimming lessons in a group. Next year, she most probably start swimming lessons too.

Cadence has started to stand on 2 legs and may very soon want to learn to walk as well...

Realized that there is a lot developments on Jasper but quite little on Chloe & Cadence? Yes, we have been focusing too much on Jasper on 2 reasons - firstly, he is at the appropriate age to start learning more skills & knowledge and secondly, he has ADD and dyslexia...

From now on, have to pay more attention to Chloe on developing her interests and start teaching Cadence the correct values...

Till the next update...

The hand

2009-07-27T08:00:00.001+08:00

Jasper art of work. The hand full of germs bugs.

Announcing the arrival of Cadence Chong!

2008-06-30T22:01:00.004+08:00

Been 8 months since the last post.

Busy making baby, LITERALLY...

Announcing the arrival of Cadence Chong, born on 28 June 2008 7.16 pm, the new addition to the Chong family.

GVJCC - Gary, Veron, Jasper, Chloe & Cadence Chong

Jasper just celebrated his 5th birthday and Chloe is 3 years and 6 months old. Fights, Hugs, Sharing, holding hands, playing together and having fun together. Well, most of the time is fighting with each other and normally Chloe would resort to hair pulling and her elder brother would be at her mercy cos she just wouldn't let go easily. And Jasper just loves teasing and bullying his younger sister.

As for Cadence, back to hourly feeding and nappy changing!

Differences between a boy & a girl

2007-10-06T13:07:00.000+08:00

Girls are born to be more demure and gentle.

Boys are born to be more rough and active.

Girls are born to be sweet to Daddy.

Boys are born to be naughty to Mommy.

Girls are a punishment to Daddy for tackling her mommy away from grand-daddy.

Boys are a punishment to Mommy for choosing to be with his Daddy.

Kids Talk - 2

2007-10-06T13:01:00.000+08:00

Just after dropping off Master C with Mrs C at the bus-stop opposite their workplace & childcare. He ran back to my car and signaled that he has something to say. I winded down the window and this is what he ~~said to~~ lectured me.

"Daddy, you must work so hard so that your boss can give you lots of air to make the ballons float up, ok?"

Air that can make ballons float up are more fun than having lots of money

Master C - 3 years 9 months old & Miss C - 2 years 2 months old

2007-04-01T16:31:00.000+08:00

Time flies, from the last time I blogged about the 2 rascals, they have crossed many milestones in their developments.

Master C is quite a big boy now. He is way passed the terrible two & troublesome three stage. Now he understand when we tried to explain why he can't do certain things and why he can't always has he way.

But he still can't quit his reliance on his pacifier, however, he is not using it as often as before. So hopefully, but this year he can stop using it totally. And when he need to poot-poot, he still can't get used to doing it on the toilet bowl. The reason? The water will splash on his bottom when the poot-poot drop down... So he is still using the diapers to poot-poot.

Recently, Master C has graduated from the tricycle to the bicycle. MIL bought him a bicycle with those small training wheels at the back, and he doesn't need any conversion course to handle the bicycle.

And lately, he looks ready to forgo his afternoon nap. It takes him longer to fall asleep in the noon and even longer to fall asleep at night. And today, I have decided to let him skip his afternoon nap and see how long he can last till his night sleep. In the past, his eyes will closed automatically at about 5 - 6 pm when he skipped his nap time...

Finally, after 1 year plus, Master C had also fully adapted to his childcare environment and routine. And for the first time, during his childcare year end concert last Dec, he didn't get stage fright having to perform in front of a crowd. Well, seeing that your son able to dance and sing in front of a crowd is really something that would make you feel damn proud of. The worst thing, he still want to play with the toys & friends in the childcare and refused to leave with me when I reached the childcare to pick him up. Sometimes, we ended up being the last to leave!

Now Miss C is starting her terrible two stage. Full of nonsense, crying bouts and throwing of temper. Her language skill is much better than her brother, who can't speak well until 6 - 9 months in the childcare centre. Her vocabs is much better than her brother at this age and she can easily count from 1 - 10...

She is getting fiercer too, her brother mainly the victim of her ferocious hair-pulling and face-scratching tantrums... Yesterday, her brother kenna from her when she wanted to stop him from lying down on the kids sofa. She gave her a fierce scratch at his face and Master C ended up with big red scratches on the eyelid, nose and cheek.

And with this 2 rascals growing up, 1 fully self-reliance and another being less reliance on us for daily routines and care, now we are less tortured and able to eat, drink, bathe, go toilet without having to wait till their nap time!!!

Master C Development - 3½ years old

2006-12-11T15:08:00.000+08:00

Master C has grown up and his favourite colour is still yellow although elephant was less mentioned nowadays as he preferred to be a tiger, lion, leopard or cheetah - Fierce animals.

His favourite sentence now is "Why, daddy?". Why does the sun goes down? Why is there rain? Why the cat can jump very high? Why we will grow up?

I hope he does not get too traumatized by my attempts to explain those things...

Kid's Talk 1

2006-12-11T15:04:00.000+08:00

"Daddy, you must work hard, ok!" - so that I can earn many many many money to buy many many many toys...

Miss C development - 2 years old

2006-12-11T14:53:00.000+08:00

Now I know why daddies love their daughters so dearly. Miss C has become so cute-sy and "teh" that it was impossible to get angry at her.

我注定会栽在她的手上! I am destined to be mesmerized by her!

Low platelet counts

2006-10-04T14:06:00.000+08:00

After Master C experience in KKH, it's Miss C turn now. She was not suffering from low haemoglobin count but low platelet count...

It started very suddenly while Miss C was still recovering from a cold. She was on some medications like antibiotics and brufen for fever. However, all of a sudden she started having little red spots on both her legs. And those red spots turned into nasty blue-black bruises the next day. It didn't go away after a few days and she was getting more irritated easily so we had to bring her the A&E at KKH.

The doctor admitted her for observations and blood test as bruises looked suspicious. This time round it was Mrs C's turn to stay at the hospital as I was unable to take leave. My only advice for her was beware of the evil SNORER at night. And true to my prediction, there was an orchestrate of snorers in the 6-bedded ward.

Miss C had it worst than Master C as she was put on the drip plug and she had to be restrained to prevent her from pulling it out. She was brought to another room for the doctor and nurses to poked in the plug and she came back with red puffy eyes. The blood test result confirmed that she had low platelet count and hence the bruises did not go away easily. Usually, the main cause was dengue fever but she did not have any fever accompanying the low platelet count so they suspect it was due to a viral infection. She had to stay for 1 - 2 more days until the platelet count recovered to normal level. Fortunately, after 2 days, the platelet count went up, not fully but near to the minimum level so she was discharged. And 2 days after that, another blood test at polyclinic shown that the platelet level is in the normal range.

Thank god, it was nothing sinister!

The Hand, The Foot and The Mouth Disease - Kena-ed!

2006-10-04T14:02:00.000+08:00

Last time, we only heard of it, but now Master C and Miss C kena it.

Master C caught the dreadful HFMD disease from Childcare and passed it to Miss C. It was ~~quite~~ a horrible experience.

Master C got it from his childcare and a visit to A&E at KKH confirmed it. He had to stay at home for 1 week! Our next immediate concern was Miss C and we had to immediately evacuate her and MIL to Mrs C's sister home. But alas, she had ulcers and blisters showing up a few day later too.

Mrs C cannot take leave from work as it was the peak period then so it was left with me and Master C for the whole of the week. 2 of us staying home most of the time and I was down with flu as well. Master C was not eating well as the ulcers in his mouth hurts even when he drinks. But we need not resort to ice or ice-cream treats as he is still feeding well with soup noodles or rice.

Night sleeping time was the worst part. Master C has been sleeping with MIL since he was a baby, and suddenly MIL was not there at night sleeping beside him. I had to explain that MIL was sick (she was also suffering from exhaustion as Miss C could not adapt to SIL place and cling on to MIL for 24 hours) and had to be away. He woke up almost every 1 - 2 hours crying for her and so he woke up for 4 - 5 times every night. Other than that, surprisingly, he was quite well behaved and would obediently follow my instructions.

Miss C, on the other hand, was torturing MIL at SIL place. She was unable to adapt to the new place and would cling onto MIL all the time - even at night. There was no way SIL or her husband could trick her away for MIL to rest. On the 3rd day there, MIL almost fainted and she had to push herself while sitting on the floor to the phone to call Mrs. C and SIL for help!

And just about that time, Miss C had ulcers and blisters popping out and thus she came back home on the 5th day too. It took almost 10 days for them to recover fully. The childcare was mandate to close as well as there are more than 7 cases of HFM, most of them in Master C age-group. Miss C had it worst, she keep saying: "pain-pain" while pointing to her mouth. The blisters on their hands and feet was not those very big but just little red dots that looked more like rashes.

The only consolation from this ordeal was that they would now have immunity to this strain of HFM disease.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word to say

2006-09-14T14:45:00.000+08:00

Many weeks ago, 1 evening, Master C got into his usual unreasonable self. He did not want to listen to our instructions, despite several reasoning and pleading by MIL (she always plead with the children to follow her instructions). As usual, I lashed out at Master C and he started crying and seek out MIL pampering/protection. MIL will tried to talk some sense into him but he will still refused to admit his mistakes and apologize.

And this time, considering that he was 3 years old and there is no way we can continue to tolerate his such unreasonable behaviours, I refused to let him go away without realizing his wrong doings. I wanted him to apologies to MIL as he has been hitting her back for rejecting his "demands". And then he was crying for a good 15 - 20 mins while in MIL laps and suddenly he uttered "I want Daddy to go down". And this had got my blood boiling. Master C has just ordered me to get out of the house and go downstairs.

After thinking of a way to discipline him, I immediately went up to Master C at MIL laps and let go of Miss C who were carried by me all the while. I carry him up, and despite his louder wailing, walk straight into his bedroom. I flicked on the lights, slammed the door shut and let him down on his mattress. He came straight up back at me, wailing to be let out. But I told him that he will stay in the room with me until he is willing to apologies to MIL. So he promised to do so and I led him out and went to the kitchen to look for MIL who went hiding there as she can't bear to hear Master C cry.

Unexpectedly, Master C upon seeing MIL, still refused to say sorry to her. I immediately grabbed him up, went straight back into his room, slam the door shut and put him on his mattress again. This time, Master C immediately came up to me and said that he wants to say sorry to MIL.

For many weeks after that, Master would listen to our instructions. But I guess kids are forgetful lots cos recently he has started to display some of his unreasonable and demanding self again...

I guess he needs another round of "lock me in the room" discipline again.

A typical day of Mr. C (without a maid)

2006-09-14T13:57:00.000+08:00

6.30 am - ~~Wakes up~~ Supposed to wake up

7.00 am - Still trying to wake up

7.15 am - Wakes up (if not disturbed by Miss C at 2 am or 3 am or 4 am)

7.30 am - Normal wake up time

7.45 am - Rushes to get out of the flat, usually involve ~~hurrying~~ pacifying a grouchy Master C to hurry up.

8.00 am - Will reach Mrs. C's workplace & Master C's childcare centre if we can succeed in waking up at 7.00 am and leaving the house at 7.30 am

8.30 am - Reach Mrs. C's workplace & Master C's childcare centre

8.45 am - Reach my office ~~(official start work time is 8.00 am)~~ late again

8.45 am - 5.30 pm - Work, smoke-break, work, lunch (includes shopping for biscuits, milk powder, diapers, baby wipes), work, smoke-break, work

6.00 pm - Pick up Master C (& sometimes Mrs. C) from the childcare centre

6.15 pm - Still trying to get Master C to stop playing and get out of the childcare centre

7.00 pm - Reach home

7.15 pm - Feeding Master C (& sometimes Miss C together) dinner packed from foodcourt/hawker centre

8.00 pm - Finish feeding. Master C will have his daily routine "poot-poot"ritual, not before he request to put on diapers. He still can't shit into a potty yet.

8.15 pm - Shout at Master C to go and have his backside wash

8.30 pm - Bath myself and eat dinner

9.00 pm - Play with Master C and Miss C/Carry Miss C around and occasionally shout at Master C to stop jumping up and down. Tried to sneak some time to read the newspaper or watch some TV programmes in between

10.00 pm - Pack them off to bed

10.30 pm - Still trying to get Master C to go to bed

11.00 pm - Finally Master C is asleep. Now got to pat Miss C to sleep.

11.30 pm - Finally Miss C is asleep too. Now got to wash their plates/cutlery/pacifiers/milk bottles/cups. After washing, got to pack away their toys that are lying around all over the house

12.00 midnight - Sleep

2.00 am - Wakes up to pacify a crying Miss C and feed her milk

3.00 am - Wakes up to pacify a crying Miss C and feed her milk, if she has not already wakes up at 2.00 am

4.00 am - Wakes up to pacify a crying Miss C and feed her milk, if she have not already wakes up at 2.00 am or 3.00 am

6.30 am - Supposed to wake up again

Siblings' Rivalry

2006-07-25T14:00:00.000+08:00

Long time since I update this blog. But was super-duper busy with

1) Master C 3rd birthday party in childcare and at home.
2) Master C kena flu bug and was unwell for 2 weeks followed by Miss C for 2 weeks and then followed by myself for another 2 weeks...
3) Maid's performance getting sloppier as time passes. Mrs C reprimanded her one evening and at the end of the scolding, the maid said she want to quit and go home. Mrs C told her Ok but give her 1 night to consider and will ask her again tomorrow morning. The next day, the maid confirmed that she wished to go home. So now we are fully occupied again.

Master C is now 91 cm tall, take bus, MRT, see movie, all must pay already, luckily Miss C is only 75.5 cm tall. Both grew 1 cm taller.

This 2 rascal have started to demonstrate intense sibling's rivalry. Most of the time, Master C would be bullying Miss C, snatching toys from her, pushing her away and scolding her - "No-No!" which he learned from us. But Miss C did not go away quietly without a fight too. If she was not crying, she would show her displeasure to Master C. Mostly, she would give a loud "Hmph", with her hands by the side of her waist and sometimes further emphasize her displeasure by sticking out her tummy towards Master C.

But her ultimate revenge would come much later especially when Master C was at his most vulnerable state - tired and drowsy. Miss C would sneak up to Master C, when he was lying down hugging his bolster being pat to sleep. She would grabbed a bunch of his hair and PULLED HARD! Don't know where she learned it from cos no one does this to Master C or her, even Master C himself doesn't inflict such pain to her. So I concluded that it's actually due to natural inborn female instinct that when they fight, they must include the painful act of pulling hairs.

99% of the time, they are fighting. Of the 1% of the time that they are not fighting each other, Master C and Miss C would sit quietly munching biscuits or Master C would call Miss C softly "Mei-mei, you want to play with me?" or Miss C upon hearing the loud noise from airplane flying by, would quickly seek out Master C for the comforting hug and Master C would gladly and brotherly hugged her and comfort her until the loud noise subsided...

Must protect the family jewel

2006-05-31T11:50:00.000+08:00

Went to pick up Mrs. C and Master C after work from the childcare center.

First thing Mrs. C did when they got into the car, was to tell me that Master C is not wearing any diapers. And then she again reminded Master C that he must inform us when he has the urged to she-she, lest he dirtied the car seat. The childcare teachers have suddenly decided that he is now able to control his she-she and hence started to let him go without any diapers AND ALSO WITHOUT PREPARING US IN ADVANCE.

My first thought was, can he really control his urge to she-she and forewarn us so we can hurrily bring him to a toilet to she-she? How about to poot-poot? Can he also control the poot-poot from passing out and forewarn us so we can rush him to the toilet?

Then another thought striked me, this little fellow is not wearing any briefs/underwears beneath his pants!!! Aiyoyo, what happen if his ku-ku-jiao kena kiap by something or knocked against the furnitures???

So we went a shopping for some boy briefs for him straight after dinner.

Must protect the family jewel, right?

You beat gor-gor/mei-mei, I beat you...

2006-05-29T11:59:00.000+08:00

When we planned for these 2 rascals, we deliberately want them to be born within 2 years gap so the 2 of them can grow up together. I have a big age gap with my elder brother and younger sister - 4 years between me and my brother and 7 years between me and my sister, making it a big 11 years gap between my elder bro and youngest sis. So its natural that we did not share the same childhood as our developments lag behind each other far too much. We have no shared moments of playing together, getting punished together (more like the elder one getting punished for not taking care/teaching or bullying the younger one), no going through so-called "thin and thick".

But Mrs. C and her younger sister was born 19 months apart and they shared close sibling's ties as they literally grew up together. They were very close siblings till now, always thinking for each other and will go to great lengths to help each other. And this is what we wish our children to experience as well.

At first, it was Master C bullying mei-mei, snatching toys from her, deliberately pushing her, sometimes wrestle her to the floor (no joke). Miss C would have her share of fighting for toys with Master C, "beat-beat" her gor-gor when he angers her, but mostly "kuai-kuai bo bian" stared at her gor-gor snatching her toys from her hands. But recently, whenever we fiercely reprimanded gor-gor, the mei-mei would come "beat-beat" us. And whenever we scold mei-mei harshly, the gor-gor would raise his hand and come and hit us (physically and in fact, quite very the fiercely). It doesn't matter that they were fighting for toys just minutes ago.

No one taught them to ~~fight~~ stand up for each other. No one taught gor-gor that he must stand up for his mei-mei if someone bully her (cos at the moment we are the only ones who are bullying Miss C).

I think this is the bonding that we all hope for and hopefully they will stay this way and be there for one another whenever one of them is in need.

Must begin paying for bus, MRT & LRT fares

2006-05-17T16:48:00.000+08:00

Master C now stands at a few millimeters above 90 cm... so technically speaking, he must pay the concessionary fare rates when taking the bus or Light Rapid Transit or Mass Rapid Transit, as stated in their websites.

Free Travel
For children up to 0.9 m in height and accompanied by a fare-paying
passenger.

Concessionary travel without Concession Card
For children between 0.9 - 1.2m in height.

http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/transport/trpt_bus_fares_child.aspx

And must purchase a movie ticket for him if we are bringing him to watch a movie.

No more free rides or free movies and he is NOT YET 3 years old.

Actually, for bus, MRT & LRT rides, they don't really bother to verify that his height is only up to 90 cm, as so far we have not being stop at the gates/door for verification.

However, to ensure that Master C will not suffer any indignities of being stop from boarding the bus without paying or entering the MRT/LRT gates without a ticket, I think we should be getting him a child concessionary card.

Miss C's development - 17 months old

2006-05-17T16:15:00.000+08:00

Miss C is walking all over the house now, and often tried to break into a run as and when she saw Master C running around the house. She has grown taller too but she is not as healthy weighing as we hope she will be. Update of her height and weight will be done once I measured the markings indicating her height on our wall. - height is measured at 74.5 cm

Her lexicon has increased tremendously too, able to articulate her intention well. Asking us to "open" for her the doors, bottles and boxes, "take" to indicate she wants to take the toys that she has "dropped", and especially good in "Don't want" and "I want tu-tu (pacifier)". Other words like airplane, elephant, dog, wov-wov, tiger, duck, bird, lion, car, shoes, uncle, milk... She will also respond to music by breaking into a ~~dance~~ er... bending forward and backwards with strong emphasis on the stomach movements and nodding of her head. If she heard a dog balking in the park below our flat, she will point to the window and asked to be carried up to have a look at the dog downstairs. If she heard footsteps on the corridors or ding-dongs of the lift beside our flat, she will walk straight to the metal gate and call out "Hello" and wave to the "uncles" & "tis" (aunties)...

But hor, she is still waking up at least once, sometimes twice, at night and nowadays she needs to be carried and walk around for a longer time. Cannot stop walking or sit down or she would cry out in protest and it takes at least 10 - 20 tries before I got lucky in placing her back into her crib. When then can we enjoy ~~a good night sleep~~ 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep???

Everything must be YELLOW

2006-05-17T15:44:00.000+08:00

Since Master C favourite colour is YELLOW, ~~given a choice~~ everything he uses must be yellow in colour. If it is not available in yellow colour, he will either sulk and slowly start to tears or he will brawl out loud, depending on his moods.

When we attended the Mother's Day celebration in his childcare, we realize that Yellow also very much rules his arts and craft works. A portrait of a man, with strings pasted on as hair, was yellow and all the animals drawings done by him were also painted yellow.

I hope his obsession with Yellow doesn't last long or else our whole house will be full of Yellow stuff. Imagine him demanding all my fonts in the blogs must be YELLOW in colour. I'll go blind with all these striking yellow fonts! YELL _ OW!

Right is right & Left is wrong or Left is right & Right is wrong?

2006-04-20T16:56:00.000+08:00

Master C is primarily left-handed. When he first learned to grab hold of things, it wasn't so obvious. But now we confirmed that he is a left-hander when we realized he has difficulties learning which is the right hand and which is the left hand. When we asked him: "Where is your right hand?" He raised his left hand. Not correcting him instantly, I proceed to asked him the follow-up question:"Then which is your left hand?" Up came his right hand... Actually we have suspected that he will be a left-hander since he was a crawling baby as he would use his left-hand to take things offered by us to him. And now he draws using his left-hand and tackles more difficult tasks with his left hand if his right hand is not able to complete the task.

On the other hand, Miss C is showing strong signs to be a right-hander. She is very comfortable using her right-hand in everything she does, picking up toys, receiving things from us, playing, even when she is digging her nose (no joke, its true)!

I is very worried about Master C when he starts to learn to read and write. Teaching how to write each letters are based on the right-handed way. And many things in the world is invented based on the right-hander way. Normal daily used things that a right-hander will not notice the differences if it were to be used by a left-hander. Example: telephone - you pick up the handset with you left-hand and dial with your right hand index finger, computer mouse - right click left click, camera - press button to take photos is always on the right and many many more.

And look what I found - 13 August is The International Left Handers Day

Oh and Mrs. C said it is inborn that Master C is a left-hander as she remember seeing him sucking his left hand thumb during one of the gynae visit ultra-sound scan...

Favourite colour and animal

2006-04-01T22:36:00.000+08:00

Master C's favourite colour is YELLOW and his favourite animal is the ELEPHANT.

child abuse?

2006-03-07T15:05:00.000+08:00

Last month, poor Miss C sprained/dislocated her left arm. It all happened while Mrs.. C and MIL brought Master C to the pediatrician one afternoon, as Master C was suffering from bronchitis.

After the consultation, they adjourned to a coffeeshop to have their dinner. And as usual, the 2 rascal active ones cannot sit still and the maid had to bring them to broadway to play.

However, it was not until the very night we discovered Miss C was not feeling well. She refused to "walk" even though it's her favourite activity at that time. She would wake up crying many times throughout the night. Only in the morning, while the maid was feeding Miss C, she discovered that Miss C was not using her left hand at all. Not even raising it up abit. We all thought that Miss C has sprained her arm while falling but upon question the maid, then she told us that while the 2 of them was playing at the broadway, Master C pulled Miss C by her arm.

To us, it was all too familiar a scenario again. When Master C was about 1 year old, he also sprained his ~~left~~ ~~right~~ one of his arms before. He was in the baby cot and fell while one of his arms was caught in between the slits. MIL later discovered that it was quite serious as he did not use his hand and not even able to lift it up at all. We brought him to KKH A&E and the male doctor very skillfully twisted (literally and in one single twisting action) his arm back into its original position.

This time Mrs. C and MIL brought Miss C to KKH A&E again. But the female doctor upon examining Miss C left arm, was very shocked. And after questioning Mrs. C on how did it happened, she sternly told Mrs. C that "it is very rough, you know". And the doctor proceed to get Mrs. C to hug Miss C tight while she twisted and turned Miss C arm back into position. I was not there but Mrs. C describes the twisting and turning to be unimaginable position. Miss C was giving the loudest and sharpest screams and cries that make every nurse in the A&E to peep at what's happening there.

What happen next was even more unimaginable. After healing Miss C, she immediately took Miss C from Mrs. C arms without a word and proceeds straight to a weighing machine to weigh her. But the doctor returned Miss C after that and told them to wait outside for 15 mins so she can assess her arm again. After that, they were discharged from there. Mrs. C said that the doctor attitude showed that she suspected that this was a CHILD ABUSE case.

Actually, even though we got a bit pissed that we got suspected of child abuse, we were glad that that doctor at KKH was alert to such possible child abuse signs and take action against such cases.

Miss C's development

2006-03-07T14:28:00.000+08:00

Miss C has started to walk unassisted just last week.

This little lady has been trying to learn how to walk even before she knows how to crawl. Must be too eager to join her brother - Master C, after watching him running round the house. So since she was about 10 months old, we have being holding her up while she tries to "walk". She was not being given the baby-walker and we believe that what's prompt her master the art of walking at an earlier age than her brother.

As a girl, her speech development is also more advance. Her lexicon now includes Daddy, mummy, ah-ma, walk-walk, drop, pick, I wan, tu-tu (for pacific), ti (for auntie), shoes. Whereas Master C only knows how to call Ah-ma from 15 months till about 2 years old then he starts picking up other words.

Comments from Mrs C. - added on 10 March 06
"The other words Ms C knows include: dog, cat, lion, giraffe, pig, rabbit (bit), thank you(kut), etc..."

the $15 hair-cut

2005-12-28T15:22:00.000+08:00

The last time Master C had his haircut was when Miss C was about 4 months old. During that time, I literally had to forcefully held Master C still while he brawls out loud and resisting the poor aunty (aunty salon shop at my MIL place) from trying to shave and cut his hair.

That was 6 months ago. And up till 1 - 2 months ago, Master C hair grew too long and started irritating ~~the hell out of~~ him as it was poking him at his ears. It sure was irritating the hell out of me and Mrs. C and MIL as Chinese New Year (CNY) is approaching and being in a traditional family, we must spot neat haircuts and new clothes during CNY. Not only was his hair long, it was getting more messy as the days go by. But now Master C is already 2 years and 6 months old and he ain't gonna let us forced him still anymore. So every visits to the barber/hairstylist would end up in vain as Master C simply refuses to even step inside the shop.

It took us numerous visits to barber/hairstylist shop until I was almost ready to declare that we shall use the very last resort! That is, to cut his hair ourselves when Master C is sleeping! I have been resisting to do so as it is actually very dangerous to do so cause he might stir around while I cut and partly I still ~~wish to avoid the traditional~~ pantang of not to draw on a person face or cut hair while sleeping as the soul would not be able to recognize his own face upon returning to wake up...

But luckily, we decided to try out the KIDS FRIENDLY Junior League at Suntec which is a Children's Specialty Salon. We brought Master C there during evening time and there was only 1 hairstylist/barber. They have this little DVD/VCD player for every chair and the rest of the settings are just like those Express 10 mins $10 haircuts shops. Initially, upon reaching I was told to disappear until it is done as Master C is most mischievous whenever I am around. But I managed to hang around secretly to see how Master C was tricked into letting them cut his hair. At first, the sole hairstylist was cutting the hair for another girl so Master C played with some toys. But when it was his turn, he refuses to sit on the chair, still have phobia. So Mrs. C decided to leave him alone to play and let another kid go first. Then when that kid has finished and it's Master C turn again, he quietly agreed to be placed on the chair for his haircut! The hairstylist brought out a bunch of cartoons vcds for him to choose the one he wants to view during the haircut.

$15 is abit too expensive if you compared to those neighbourhood barber/salon but as long as the hairstylist is able to get my kid to sit still and cut his hair nicely, I think it is still worth it. Actually, there is one shop in Hougang that charges $3 for small kid/babies as stated in their price chart. I immediately tried to bring Master C in but he cried the moment he recognized that it is a barber shop...

I hope we will be able to afford these $15 haircuts for Master C, and also Miss C since her elder brother has set such precedent, until they are old enough to let a cheaper barber/hairstylist cut their hair for them.

Low Haemoglobin Count = Iron Deficiency = Anaemia

2005-11-15T13:54:00.000+08:00

Been 2 months since I last updated the blog.

Much has happened. So much that I do not know how to start...

Master C - 28 months old, 0.89m tall (ha! no need to pay for MRT, bus and movie tickets!), 11.3 kg

Master C suddenly became very talkative and experienced a tremendous increase in his lexicon - now I understand the impact of "what not to say in front of your son if you dun want him to learn", still he managed to pick up the term - KU KU JIAO, give the hell of a shock to MIL & Mrs. C because we never used explicit term for his pee-pee but they were more amused than furious, must be from the older children in childcare. Actually I don't think that at his age he shouldn't know what his little brother is called, but I prefer him to learn the correct term - penis.

Out of the blue, Master C refused to attend school. So young and start to pontang school already. Blame the genes? Once he was sick so we told him we were bringing him to see a doctor instead of going to school, and he quickly learned to use this excuse. And since then, whenever I asked him "Do you want to go to school?" After a dead pause and realising I am not going away without an answer from him, he answered "I cough, I want to go see doctor".

One thing about this little rascal is that he is very cooperative with the doctors, doesn't kick a fuss at all during consultation. The last time we visited the doctor was another adventure again, and this time it involved BLOOD & URINE TESTS.

Over a weekend, he suddenly refused to eat and drink until he became lethargic and listless. We brought him to see a doctor on the following Monday and the doctor was very worried as he did not detect any problems from his standard checks. He quickly ordered a blood and urine tests to eliminate the possibility of more sinister problems within (that's the way he put it across to us)... So off we go to Mount Alvenia hospital to get Master C to give his blood and urine samples for testing. You must have thought that the biggest challenge was poking in the needle to drip some blood out, so do we. We thought that the urine collection should be easier than the blood collection. And damn wrong were we.

The blood test was a teeny bit messy and a tiny bit of struggle but it was over in less than 30 secs. All I have to do was to sit him on my lap and hold tight to his body with my left arm and immobilise his right hand with my right arm for the nurse to poke a needle into his forehand to drip out a few ml of blood. Of course he struggles and cried during the poking and dripping of his blood but once the needle is taken out, he resumed back to his normal self almost immediately. No fuss, no drama-mama continuing of crying too.

And the real challenge was to GET THE LITTLE RASCAL TO FORGET THATTHERE IS A PIECE OF PLASTIC BAG COVERING HIS PENIS and pee into his diaper just as he normally does. We keep feeding him water, ribena, ice cold milo, watever we ~~can think of~~ forced down his throat. But it took him 5 hours to give us that much waited pool of urine. The nurse sticked the plastic bag over his penis at about 10 am and we waited and waited, checked and checked, until he fell asleep at 1 pm, so we decided to bring him home and he finally pee'd at 3 pm after he woke up from his afternoon nap AT HOME. To make thing worst, the urine must not be contaminated so we had to carefully remove the plastic bag sticked to the surrounding of his penis and cautiously pour the urine into another plastic container for delivery to the hospital test centre. Phew...

The blood test results were out fast, so we popped over to the clinic after delivering the urine sample to the hospital for a review with the doctor. Thank god, the blood test results shown nothing sinister or serious but his haemoglobin concentration count is at the lowest normal acceptable range for his age. 11.5 g/dL. And the doctor says that he is suffering from iron deficiency and prescribed some iron supplements and Vitamin C (this is to aid the absorption of iron by the body, I have to check this out from the internet myself, the doctor didn't emphasize the important of the connection between the 2 supplements to us). Apparantly, iron deficiency can also leads to poor brain development, weaker immune system etc...

I didn't know that Low Haemoglobin Count = Iron Deficiency = Anaemia, is hereditary. Actually, I first came to know of my low haemoglobin count in 2001 when I had this pre-employment checkup for my then new job. The doctor told me that my blood test revealed that I had a lower than normal haemoglobin count - 11.4 g/dL (i think). Then the doctor said that it should be nothing serious but if I want, he can write a referral for me to check it out with a haemotologist at the hospital. But at that time, I have just started working not long and had zero savings so I declined cos I thought I am feeling very ok all the years. Hmmm... makes me wonder whether now should I really go for further checks to determine the real cause of the lower haemoglobin count. Not that I have massive amount of savings now, in fact, I have massive amount of debts now, but things are getting complicated as i seems to have pass whatever-it-is, to my son.

And when we gather with my parents and siblings for dinner the week after, I discovered that my elder brother, who went for a full medical checkup recently, also has a low haemoglobin count at 11.something range too. KAN. And then my mom or my SIL said my younger sister has a low haemoglobin count too, she was not there and I forget to verify with my sis separately. But it doesn't take too much of an effort to convince us, since she also is of the same breed right? KAN - to the power of 2!

I think we got it from our mother. Because one of the bad habits or strange behaviours Master C, me, my sister and my brother all shared is that we all would still feel lightheaded and dizziness (like not enough sleep like that) after we wake up, no matter how many hours of sleep we have, be it 7, 8, 10 or 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Of course, the less sleep we have the more grouchy we are, magnified by our lightheadedness. I remembered my dad not being like that cause he is always able to spring right up after waking from his sleep - most of the time only a few hours and immediately go for his bath and he will be ready to start his day.

sigh... so sorry lah, son. I not purposely one.

And nowadays, Master C favourite reply is "I donch want".

Miss C - 10 months old

Miss C had catch up with her motor development and she is now able to roll-over at will and sit well without support. She is able to crawl abit but not in the correct position and techniques yet. But she doesn't seems interested in practising more and refining her crawling techniques, she actually wants to learn how to ~~WALK~~ RUN like her elder brother, Master C. Especially after Master C urged her on every now and then by insisting on holding Miss C hand to walk together or bring her to here and there in the house. Dun know how to crawl want to learn how to fly already...

Miss C had her encounter with the viral bacteria infection few weeks ago... This virus that was attacking her stomach damn blooddy evil and strong, gave her a high fever (highest we measured was 39.7 degree celsius!) and persistent diarrhea that lasted for 10 days straight. KAN. On the sunday before DeepaRaya, the whole jink gang went a visit to one of the ~~most~~ few famous tourist location in Singapore - Mandai Zoo.

On the next morning at about 4 am, we found her running a high fever and diarrhea, we brought her to a kid's clinic and were told that its a viral infection and the fever and diarrehoea may last more 5 days. We went home with paracetomol and anti-diarrhea medication but at night-time, her fever shot up to 39.7 degree celsius plus about 10 times diarreahoe and we decided to bring her to KK hospital to ask the doctor to give her the miracle "bullet" to shove it up her ass literally to bring down the high fever... Over there we get the same diagnosis but the way the doctor put it was that the viral infection in her stomach is caused by FOOD POISIONING since no one else in the family is having it. So we naturally suspect the maid cause she is the one taking care of her most of the time during the zoo trip...

Actually, I had been getting slight stomach discomfort every now and then after meals at home, something that had doesn't happen before. Sigh... no choice since there is no one to supervise her meal preparation and cooking closely. But now MIL has taken over the preparation of Miss C meals personally after this ordeal.

Poor girl, literally ass splitting from all that diarrhea. 10 days of diarrhea, you know.

Oh ya, another ordeal we had with Miss C at KKH was that the doctor put Miss C under observation for an hour or 2 and we are supposed to feed her at least 2 ounce of liquid to ensure that she will not suffer from dehydration, else a drip will be needed. And so we were so worried about Miss C having to go through being on drip at such a young age, we tried all ways and means to coax her to drink but she refused. We even resort to dripping 1 or 2 drops of water into her mouth in hope that we can managed to drip at least 2 ounce over an hour. 2 hour passed but we did not even managed to get her to ~~drink~~ swallow 5 ml. So we gave up and I decide to reject the doctor if she order for Miss C to be admitted and on drip. And a while after we gave up, Mrs. C tried to feed her one last time her formula milk and Miss C finally decided to drink up her milk - up to 100 ml! Phew... so afraid of her suffering from being put on drip and also dehydration.

The past 2 months had been so happening for us! We were feeling so drained that we were hoping for more peace and less adventures for many many years to come.

Oh ya, forget to mention the medical fees that we incurred. About $350. Damn expensive loh!