What's the problem?

Kids say the darnest things and increasingly, it is getting to be true with Faith. These days, the little one picks up words and phrases very easily from her environment -- home, school, friends, TV programmes etc. Her conversations are usually a reflection of things she mostly picks up from us at home, in school or TV programmes. Sometimes, watching her speak is like a mirror effect. It makes us more mindful of the words/phrases we use in front of her. Other times, I don't have the vaguest clues where she picks things up from.

Like all things, there are always the good and the bad. Sometimes, whatever that she's saying seems beyond her age and astounds us. She would sometimes asks Louis when he returns home, "Daddy, how was your day at work?". A few weeks ago, when Louis was travelling quite often, she one day told him, "Daddy, you don't work so late. Come back and spend more time with us."

Louis, the ever dotting father, tells me that his little girl says things that melts his heart.

Most recently, she sometimes would ask me "What's the problem?". That's when my internal antenna starts to twirl and I'm strike by anxiety. Call us annal retentive, but Louis and I are particular about how she speaks and the phrases she uses.

Kids at this age are pretty innocent. They say what's on their mind. They have not much idea about the nuances of words and intonations or how simple words/phrases could mean so many things when spoken in different tones. Hence, we are zealous in reminding her like a broken recorder to keep using words like may I, could I, would I. And telling her not to start a sentence with Give-mes and I-wants.

Does it work? Not all the time, which is why I say we are constantly reminding her like a broken recorder.

Increasingly, I have to remind Louis or my mom and even myself to be mindful of what we say in front of her, no matter how innocent it may be. Most recently, I had to catch myself mid-sentence when I was so irritated by her whiny behaviour and actually raised my voice at her to ask her "What's your pr(oblem)...?". I had to swallow my words and rephrase it to "What is the matter with you?" instead :)

Thankfully, she's not using that much Singlish. For now. Some friends, who knew that I was anxious about it told me stop worrying. Its a matter of time that she picks it up in school sooner or later.

That may well be true, but nonetheless, hope springs eternal. Louis and I are still of the opinion that if we continue to be mindful in how we speak around and to her, the grammars and correct sentence structures would be instilled in her mind. She might lapsed into Singlish - as we tend to do and enjoy doing so - but at least, she knows to use proper English and to phrase her words politely in the right situations.

Saige at 2 months and 3 weeks old

Is it just Louis and me that think it, but the 2 sisters do bear resemblances to each other? Its not that all babies look alike, right?

Sure, they might not have been carbon copies of each other, but there are similiarities. Here and there, now and then.

Saige is just a week short of turning 3 months old. She is growing and gaining weight at a nice and steady pace. She has not turned out to be one of those Michelin babies, with fat chubby thighs and arms that I had so fervently hoped for. Then again, she was only 2.7kg at birth. Comparatively, she's much bigger than Faith was at that same age.

She gurgles, babbles and coos even more now. To me and whoever that is willing to sit and talk to her. You can hear her laughter too if you swing her up and down - gently of course. Her neck is also getting a little firmer. Still not very steady, but strong enough that she can hold it up steady for a few minutes, without flopping.

I've managed to capture the picture of her smiling, and looking rather like one of my favourite pictures of Faith at around the same age. I was trying to take a picture of Saige for the application of her passport. Yes, we want to be prepared to be able to travel if the opportunity crops up.

Not sure when that would be but we'll see :)

Music Time

Faith has always enjoyed music and her lessons at Kindermusik.

Last week, I put on one of her Kindermusik CDs and the 3 of us were listening to the music in the living room. Faith was inspired to take out her bell shakers and maracas to dance, prance and wriggle to the tunes. She particularly enjoy bending her knees and doing a little jiggling and wriggling of her tush :)

Meanwhile, Saige was on her playmat, observing and just looking around at the house.

Updates on Faith & Saige

Saige is now 9 weeks old. I can't wait for the 3rd and 4th month to go by quickly, cos that's when the little one will (hopefully) be more settled into her routine and life gets a bit easier for everyone with an older baby.

Unfortunately, the nights haven't been great for this week since Saige started sniffling and sneezing over the weekend. Finally, what we have been dreading for the longest time has happened. Saige is down with a stuffed nose.

Since Saige was discharged from the hospital, Faith has been sick virtually every single week - I've been told by many the tendency to fall sick on a frequent basis for the first six months of school. In all the excitement of having a new sister that she can finally see and hold, Faith's been clamouring to kiss, hug, touch and play with Saige. We tried our best to let Faith do some of these when she wasn't too sick. We didn't want her to resent the baby after all.

I had to bring Saige in to the PD and for a young infant, there's really not much medication that she can be given, except for some nasal drops, to be used sparingly. And so, Saige has been a little fussy, especially at night. Just at the time when I thought that she was settling down nicely into a routine of only waking up once a night for feeds. Now, we are back to her stirring or nursing at least 2-3 times. Oh well....

As for Faith, she's been a great little sister to Saige. She loves her sister so much. She would talk to her a lot, try to play with her and elicit the social smiles since Saige was capable of giving at since she turned 6 weeks old. Of course, she has her moments of temper throwing, seeing that she's still a 3-year old who has been depraved of what has been heretofore been the sole focus of Louis and my attentions.

Louis copes a lot better with her and she's almost her normal self when Louis is at home on the weekends. At least then, she gets all the attention from him, while I am gratefully able to spent whatever amount of time needed to nurse Saige, change her and put her to sleep without feeling guilty. It is on weekdays and days when Faith is sick and at home that proves to be bit of a challenge.

On her sick days, the tempers come flaring easily. She insists on having things or doing things her way or purely, wanting me to spend time with her playing, feeding, sleeping, reading, regardless that I have to put Saige to sleep or nurse her.

To Faith's credit, she has never once transferred any of her frustrations or temper at not gaining my attention onto Saige. There's no worry that she would hurt Saige by hitting or pinching her. She still plays, coos and talks to her sister lovingly.

It is a period of adjustment for Faith and everyone at home too and there are many moments of ups and downs for me, having to spread my time and attention with 2 kids. While my mom is thankfully around to help on weekdays, especially with the chores, it is still very much my attention that she wants, rather than that of my mom.

I am sure with a little bit more time, Faith would adjust and cope much better, knowing that I can never give her that same amount of attention I did, pre-Saige. I only hope that as Saige gets older and can respond better to her sister, they would be great companions and playmates to each other.

And finally at 9 weeks, I've managed to capture a single picture of Saige smiling on camera. Here's another picture of the sisters together. Faith is pretending to read while Saige is all comfy in her swaddle sleepsack.

Sisters

Have been wanting to take pictures of the 2 sisters together and put them up. That way, folks can comment if the sisters look alike or not at all. Sometimes, when we go through some of Faith's old pictures, there are some resemblances here and there between them, depending on the angles the pictures were taken.

Faith doing "monkey faces" whenever I try to take pictures of them together

At 6 weeks, Saige is starting to respond and smile at me this week. I'd tried to "induce" her to smile for the camera, but to no avail :) She's still waking up twice a night for feeds. I don't know how long she's going to keep at it, but I hope she would be kind to me. Soon.

Saige @ 6 weeks

Faith has been great so far as a sister. She shares her favourite bolster and isn't too upset at having her sarong being utilised by Saige most of the time. By and large, she is loving towards Saige, wanting to kiss and hug her all the time. These days, when she returns from school, she would tell her little sister, "Hello, Saige. Jie jie is back from school" :)

There's not much response from Saige so far. Hopefully in a month or two, she would be excited to hear the sound of her sister's voice, as I've read and also been told that babies of about 4 months are capable of doing.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Faith!

It was her 3rd birthday and the first time that we are letting her celebrate it with her friends in class.

Faith was excited. When asked, she immediately said she wanted a Mickey Mouse cake -- fresh from receiving Mickey's stickers and her pictures being shown in the March Playhouse Disney Birthday Book. She also firmly decided that she wanted party hats and some noise makers to be included in the goodie bags for her friends.

We made plans to get the cake and put together the goodie bags. Unfortunately, she's been sick pretty much the entire month of Mar. In fact, she's out of school more than half the time. Faith first came down with runny nose and cough a week after Saige's birth. Since that time, as soon as she more or less recovered and we sent her back to school, she would came back 2 days later with something else or the same symptoms, but conditions aggravated. The week of her birthday, we decided not to let her go to school at all until she recovered.

On the day of her birthday, we had to bring her in to see her PD for the 3rd time in a row within a period of 3 weeks. I do not know whether to be consoled when her PD sang her a birthday song when she noted that it was Faith's birthday while looking at her record sheet. She had to be put on the nebuliser and becos the cake was already pre-ordered, we decided to head to school after the doctor's visit to celebrate in class.

And so it was, our little darling girl celebrated her 3rd birthday with her friends in class, runny nose and cough in all. I brought her home after she had lunch.

At night, the daddy bought another slice of cake home and we sang her a birthday song and cut the little cake since Louis was busy at work and couldn't make time to be there when she celebrated it in class.

I've been forewarned that Faith's going to fall sick very often during the first 6 months of school. I only hope that next year, she would be hale and healthy on her birthday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Faith!

Daddy's girl(s)

I think Louis is going to be dead meat. In about a week’s time, the ratio of male: female in our little family is going to be 1:3.

He’s badly outnumbered... especially when Faith is getting to be quite good with emotional blackmails, despite her not even being 3 years old yet. Perhaps calling it emotional blackmail makes it appears that she’s cunning and sly for one so young, but kids these days sure know how to turn on the charm and twist their parents tightly around their cute little fingers.

Last night, we had our usual nightly “battle” of her trying to stretch and lengthen her bedtime routine. Faith was trying to get Louis to sit next to her until she falls asleep; a situation which Louis really doesn’t mind but one that I strictly vetoed against him doing, when she surprised us both by saying, “Daddy, sit with Faith for a little while. Pleeeeease!!! I miss you so much. Daddy, you are my best friend!”

All the above were uttered in a convincingly earnest and pleading tone, well aimed to weaken and melt even hardest of hearts.

Call it feminine wiles, genuine affections, innocent love or whatever. There’s no fighting chance that any honest-to-goodness daddy can withstand the onslaught of their little girl’s affections, especially a softie like Louis.

I’m just waiting to see how the family dynamics would unfold when #2 is out. For now, Louis is luxuriating in all the kisses and affections that his little girl is pouring his way.

Japan Trip Nov 2009 - A video says a thousand words

Instead of writing about the trip - we thought - why not let the pictures do the talking. A little loss in picture quality when converted to video, but still, I think you get the picture - we will remember this trip for some time to come - we hope Faith does! Enjoy...

Faith's Magic Trick

Faith and her daddy have been rehearsing and playing at performing magic, dancing and singing shows.

She discovered her beanie while we were in Japan, cos I brought it along in case the weather gets really cold.

The portion about hiding the mikan in her beanie was something that she did all on her own, without any coaching or hinting from us. Louis played the contributing role in teaching her how to say "Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to Faith & Daddy's magic show...." from their many rounds of performances at home.

I really love this video. I rarely ever take videos but this is a treasure :)

Toddler toilet seat

The verdict on Faith's potty training is that it is a veritable success.

So successful that in the day, she no longer pees in her diapers even when we put it on for her for those "just-in-case" moments. Like when the public toilet isn't of desirable hygiene, or when we can't rush her to a toilet quick enough.

This week, I left her in our master bedroom for a moment to grab a towel for her shower. When I got back in just a matter of seconds, I found her balanced on our adult toilet bowl, peeing.

She was rather steady on it. She had managed to balance herself quite well on it, with her 2 hands holding on to the sides for support.

What scared me was how did she managed to scramble up onto the toilet without assistance. And the toilet seat was rather large. Large enough to potentially be a hazard as she could fall into it and hurt herself if she wasn't careful.

I told Louis that we needed to get a toddler trainer seat for her pronto. And we did it in a great big hurry.

It wasn't the most ideal but there weren't a lot of choices for trainer toilet seats. The trainer seat was merely placed onto the existing toilet seat, although its got 2 little handles by the side for little hands to grab onto. It wasn't totally stable and could shift as Faith tries to position herself onto it.

Thankfully, the little one wised up rather quickly and manages to employ a fairly effective method of getting herself up onto the toilet seat with the least precarious movements -- by stepping up onto the little stool that we placed in front of the toilet bowl with her backside facing the toilet set before inching herself up slowly.

Faith now has two options - use the potty that we placed outside the common bathroom or the trainer seat in the master bedroom if she wants to do her business like the adults.

Our new toy

There's a stronger impetus to blog more often.

We have a new toy in the house ever since the start of Comex '09. After more than 5 years of pinning, I've finally managed to justify the purchase of a DSLR. Our favourite test subject needs no second guessing. She's the key reason and most often blogged about person in this online "diary".

Dinner was at Hard Rock Cafe tonight, at the request of my elder BIL, who's recently back from a one and a half month overseas working stint.

We managed to capture Faith at one of her happiest moments -- being together with her two cousins. Her expressions in these few pictures are those of unadulterated joy and pure delight...

Bean sprouts

The theme for the week was "Zhong Zi" (seedlings).

So, the little kids planted green beans to grow sprouts. Much like a science project.

Not that Faith has any concept of seedlings. Probably to her, the art & craft session ended as soon as she dumps the handful of beans into the container with the soaked cotton pads.

On the contrary, I couldn't bear to dump the contents. I left it on the kitchen counter and watched it sprout over the next few days. I would have continued to leave it alone and see what happens. Louis was of the opinion that we should not cos it would start to smell really bad after.

Nonetheless, it was a nice little art & craft...although I feel its more of a science project :)

Rainforest Kidzworld

Would you believe it... today is Faith's first visit to the zoo.

Yep! First time. Ever.

Well... there's lots of reasons for it, but the single most deterrent is due to my phobia of snakes. My memory of snakes and zoo were that there were always a few of them on display at common zones within the zoo, not just the enclosure that they are kept in.

In my younger school days, visits to the zoo were dreaded and I spent my entire time at the zoo looking left, right, front and back, in fear of chancing upon any sighting of snakes; pictures or those in the flesh.

Its hard to explain this phobia and people who do not have phobias will never fully comprehend the level of fear. Its irrational, unexplainable and I had never had any frightening experiences with them to be so deeply petrified of them.

But after checking and double-checking with Jaz and a few other friends that these days, the snakes and their keepers don't lurk anywhere except in their enclosures and during show times, I decided to brave going to the zoo with Faith.

Becos, what has been so irresistible to me and that I think would be loads of fun for Faith was the Rainforest Kidzworld with the water play area. With the searing heat that has been zinging its wave right down on our little island, its no wonder that its a haven for most parents with kids. A rather expensive one at that if one's not a Friends Of the Zoo member - S$18 for an adult ticket. Anyways, it was my own entry fee that I had to pay cos Faith goes in free for under 3 years old.

We met at 10 am at the zoo entrance. Thankfully, Jaz had told me to bring along a stroller, swim wear for Faith and a change of clothes for myself. It was a lot of stuff to bring so Louis had to give up the car for our day of outing :)

Needless to say, the heat was sweltering at usual and the walk to the Rainforest Kidzworld took about 10 mins, with intermittent stops to look and point out animals like the zebra, ostrich, flamingos along the way.

It could have been worse if I had to carry Faith all the way without a stroller. It had been 1 year since we last used the stroller - we stopped using it around the time that Faith started to walk independently. Thankfully, the little girl sat in her stroller and did not fuss at all. She kept calling out for Lecia as we walked just to check that her little friend was still with her on the walk there.

The long and short of it was that we had a blast at the Kidzworld. It wasn't too crowded when we reached there. The crowd really started coming in with bigger, rowdier and older kids around 11-ish am.

Faith was initially hesitant about the water play area and getting herself drenched. Lecia was the total opposite. She was like the proverbial bird set free from the cage. She jumped right into the play area, darted in, out and around the different play zones and essentially went all around with lots of exuberance and glee.

Meanwhile, Faith was slowly warming up, and trying at times to frantically call out for Lecia, who was zapping all around the place. I should have bought my swimming costume and wore it under a shorts or something. Jaz and I were totally drenched, following the kids around. Frankly, we were all for getting wet. It was a great respite from the oppressive heat.

The most exciting part of the water play area was the huge water can that was hanging atop a structure. It would be filled with water and at certain intervals, there would be a bell whistle to alert the kids that the water can was about to brim over with water and send it splashing down below. At which point, all the kids would run to the middle and wait excitedly for the water to come rushing down.

We initially started with the 2 girls sitting on the outermost perimeter. With each time, we would sit a little closer to the action and as Jaz warned, the splatter of water from that huge can was rather impactful and hard. Faith was a little dazed after that particular hard drenching that we stuck to sitting out at the perimeters for the rest of the time.

Lecia? Well.. that girl is such a tyke and a little dynamo. She giggled and laughed through it all, got up after each drenching and ran off in whatever directions.

We played for about 45 minutes and took a break to eat some muffins, biscuits, cheese dippers and fruits. By the time we headed back to the play area after our little picnic, the water play area had gotten more crowded. We played for another half an hour before we had to haul the protesting kids for a shower and lunch.

We agreed to drive to Causeway Point for lunch and had Japanese. Faith had her usual of chawanmushi, some of my handroll (which I ordered so that she could have the nori that wraps the handroll) and shared some items of my bento. The kids also shared a kids meal of fish and chips.

We headed home around 3 pm and Faith fell asleep in the car, all tuckered out from the day's activity. It was an early night for both of us as I was equally tired. Louis came into the room at 10 pm to find the two of us deep in sleep :)

It was the most fun that we both had for such a long time. I hope we have the chance to visit a few more times with Lecia before the next school term and I start my part-time stint.

Cold Storage Kids Run - 24 May 2009

Two months back, I signed Faith up for the Cold Storage Kids Run 09, under the non-competitive, 700m Blue Sky Chase category for kids aged between 2-4 years old.

Flag-off time for the race category was at 9.25 am but we needed to report in at 8.55 am. The only little tricky issue was waking Faith up, feeding her breakfast and making it out of the house before 8.30 am if we were to get there in time -- she usually wakes around 9-ish am.

With all the noise that Louis and I were making, Faith roused out of sleep by 7.45 am. Even though she was still groggy, we changed her out of her PJs, fed her a light breakfast and were ready to leave by 8.15 am. My MIL called to say that she would join us for the trip to the race. My dad, meanwhile, would rendezvous with us at the Padang.

Having decided to park at Raffles City Shopping Centre, we went up the carpark basement escalator to find scores of parents and kids geared up in their exercise togs and the race t-shirts. All of us were going in the same direction to the Padang.

The parent t-shirt reads "I'm a proud parent" at the back while the kid t-shirt reads, "I'm a proud runner". Faith's t-shirt hung a little big and loose for her, but since this wasn't meant to be a kids' pageant and we weren't out to make any fashion statement, it was totally fine. I forgo the standard-issue (or rather the race t-shirt that we were forced to buy - there wasn't any option not to buy a parent t-shirt during the online registration) and wore my own exercise gear.

Scorching was the word out at the Padang. Even though it was a short distance from RCSS to the Padang, I was perspiring profusely by the time. Faith's hair was totally drenched even before she started the race.

Faith and I headed to the holding area before we were shepherded to the start of the race line at 9.20 am. My dad, MIL and Louis continued to wait at the Padang while we were racing becos there was a supposed parent to kid ratio of 1:1. In actual fact, during the race, there were lots of family exceeding the 1:1 ratio but neither the organisers nor the race contestants really minded cos it was meant to be good fun anyways.

There were lots of young kids around Faith's age. I presumed young becos they were all being carried by their parents. One Caucasian mother was jokingly remarking to me that she hope we wouldn't have to carry our little ones for the entire 700m.

I knew I would be carrying Faith for part of the race becos I expected that she wouldn't want to run all 700m on her own. However, I figured that seeing other kids running on their own would inspire her to want to get down and race a little too.

Thankfully, Faith was a good sport and was gamed to hold my hand and run for more than half of the race. I only carried her midway through the race becos I was afraid she would be too tired out or would over exert herself. I put her down again to race for the last leg of the run.

When we crossed the finishing line, we were given a goodie-bag/plastic bag with water, a race completion certificate and two wrist-bands amongst other things. Even though it was not a competitive race, there were people distributing a star-shaped medal for every kid.

We met up with Louis, my MIL and dad after the race. We spend some time cooling down at the field and also collected some more goodies -- bananas and Dettol hand soaps.

By 10 am, we headed towards to the carpark while my dad headed off to walk around at Suntec City.

Even though it was a short 700m run, we were all tuckered out. Faith slept early at my MIL's place. Louis and I too catch a good 2-hour nap ourselves at home.

Its Faith's first ever race and Louis and I are PROUD Parents!

Papa's not home

Nearly 5 months since that fateful event last year that left Louis with a dislocated knee and 4 months since his surgery to reconstruct his torn ligaments, Louis is now doing well.

In fact, well enough to travel to London for a short trip this week.

Looking back at what seemed to be a long and arduous journey for him to reach this stage where he is able to walk somewhat normally without the support of any crutches feels like a miracle. Holding hands, walking together as a family with Faith in between us, whenever we are out never fails to bring a great sense of relief and wonderment for the both of us.

It was a painful experience for everyone in the family, especially for Louis. Yet, it has made us truly appreciate the simple things in life a great deal better.

Since about 3-4 weeks ago, Louis started walking without his crutches. It was all very delicate and cautious, of course. He started walking without crutches at home. Gaining sufficient confidence after, he went out for short distances without it. Starting with small, tentative steps, his gait now is more normal. He hardly hobbles. He looks more like one who is a slow, unhurried stroller. Going down stairs that are long or steep, he needs to hold onto something for support. However, its only a matter of time before he's back to walking normally, in his long, purposeful strides.

In fact, he started swimming in the last couple of weeks, swimming only free-style. The water definitely helps strengthen the leg muscles and the gentle pressure of the water actually helps to cushion any major impact on the legs.

After having him at home 24x7 for so many months, it feels a little different now that he's back at work full-time and even as I write this, hasn't been home for the last 2 nights. Its a short trip and I thought he would be back before I even had the chance to miss him. Yet, barely 12 hours after he left in the morning, I started to miss him. Similarly, he misses us at home too.

Before he left, he told Faith that he was going to go away and wouldn't be home at night for a few days and to look after mummy. Faith nodded sagely at him, seemingly understanding everything that he said.

It would be too much, I think, for a 2 year-old to fully grasp the concept of him going away on a business trip.

Ever since his marked progress in walking independently without any aid, one of Faith's final act among her slew of bedtime rituals would be to walk round to Louis' side of the bed. Lightly tugging his hand, she would pull him to sit up and say, "C'mon... sleep [with] Faith", meaning for Louis to follow and sleep next to her on the mattresses beside our bed.

Last night, she did her usual only to find that his side of the bed was empty. I told her again that Louis was not home and wouldn't be home for the next few nights. She would have to be a big girl in the meantime and learn to sleep on her own without her Papa lying next to her.

Obviously, Faith wasn't about to take what I said at face value and go sleep quietly on her own. There were lots of protest, begging, coaxing and the use of the magic word, "please", many times over to get me to go sleep with her. Unfortunately, I take a stronger stance on getting her to sleep independently :)

Actually, its sweet to see father and daughter lying next to each other and having Faith fall asleep like that. Louis certainly feels so and he being the putty that he is in his daughter's hands, would drag himself to the mattress on the floor when she comes along every night no matter how tired he was.

Come home soon, darling!

Pre-nursery registration

The rat race has begun... where parents, like it or not, get caught up about when and where to register and place their kids in some quasi formal education. From then onwards, the rat race never stops.

Technically, I think kindergarten is the start of pre-school. In Singapore's context, pre-school starts as early as the year kids turn 3 years old. We did our little "homework" late last year, recce-ing possible places for Faith's pre-nursery registration.

In the end, our very short shortlist was whittled down to Pat Schoolhouse and Chiltern House, in that order of preference. Even though we had set our sights on Pat Schoolhouse, like any KS Singaporean, we submitted our application for Chiltern house at the start of the year.

Couple of weeks ago, I had gotten a call from Chiltern. Faith was being offered the afternoon session at its Turf Club branch, meaning that lessons start from 2-5 pm daily. It was a no-brainer for us to reject the initial offer and asked to be placed on the waitlist.

Faith takes her afternoon nap daily anywhere from that time since she wakes up at about 9 am or thereabouts.

The afternoon session would mean that she would have to forego her sleep or sleep after she comes back from class. A kid without sleep equates a grouchy one and its bound to make dinner and the time before bedtime a trying one for everyone in the household. The other alternative of letting her sleep so late in the afternoon will yield either a night owl or again, a trying time for us to get her to sleep at her normal sleeping time.

Since we were still holding out for Pat schoolhouse's registration to start in Jun, Louis and I weren't too concerned about putting her on the waiting list. Chiltern was meant to be our fallback plan if she didn't get into Pat Schoolhouse.

On Tuesday, I received a call from Chiltern that they have now managed to place Faith for the morning session at Turf Club. Its the ideal time slot and branch that we wanted. IF we intended to put her at Chiltern. I asked for extra time to consider and haul butt in calling Pat Schoolhouse to check her chances.

If we were to give up on this prime slot at Chiltern, we wanted be a hundred percent certain that she is getting into Pat Schoolhouse. So, I called the school and spoke to the principal. The last time I spoke with her, she said they would call me in Jun when the registration starts.

I'm not sure if it was becos I sounded so keen on enrolling her for Pat Schoolhouse or the fact that I told them I had an offer from Chiltern, the principal said that if we are willing to register her now and make an initial deposit equivalent to a one month's school fees, then, Faith's got a confirmed place at Pat Schoolhouse.

I called Louis and we both decided that we'll go ahead with the payment to confirm her registration at Pat Schoolhouse. However, with the Influenza A alert, the school is also cautious about the number of parents dropping by its place without appointment. So, the principal and I agreed to contact each other via email for the submission of all necessary documents and to follow up with a cheque payment.

At least, we can now give up that space in Chiltern for someone else.

Truthfully, there's a part of me that can't quite bear the thought of sending my little one to pre-school. I know its a natural part of childhood and every kid's got to go through it. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one crying when I drop her off at the school gate next time.

Hmmm.... that's a sobering thought indeed! Eve, the clingy mom??!!!

Geez!

1st professional haircut

Two years, 4 weeks and 1 day.

That's how long it took before we finally give Faith a break from her horrible home-trimmings to get her hair cut professionally. It didn't make much sense before cos her hair was so pathetically thin and for lack of a better word, sparse. What I used to do was to trim her fringe whenever it got long enough to stick into her eyes.

Lately, the back of it started to grow to reach her shoulders. Plus, it was curling every which way. After the last trimming of her fringe, in which her jerking movements caused my fingers to jerk in tandem and cut a "lobang" in the middle of it, I decided that the next time we'll bring her for a professional haircut.

We chose Little League, located at the exit of the Toys 'R Us @ Forum. When we used to go for Little Gym classes, we would head up to Toys 'R Us for a walk if we have some spare time. I wouldn't have noticed the little saloon at the corner if Faith hadn't been intrigued by the sounds of Barney show playing on the little TV screens attached the base of each mirror.

She dragged me there to watch Barney and while we were standing there, the lady at Little League generously gave a balloon for Faith even though we weren't there for a haircut.

I thought reminding Faith of that little shop corner would illicit good memories of it. Indeed it did. Maybe it was becos I recounted to her, or she did remember it on her own. Faith nodded her head solemnly when I told her that I'm planning to bring her for the haircut @ Little League. She even mimicked me, make snipping gestures with her fingers to her hair, saying: "Cut hair. Balloon."

Worried that she would fuss at having her hair cut the first time, I was all prepared to sit and hold her in my lap. When we reached the hair dresser, she again nodded her head when I asked her if she's okay to sit up on the chair on her own. She allowed the hairdresser to cover her with the cloth and pretty much sat through the entire hair cut without moving or twitching.

Of course, I plied her with some sweets to sweeten the deal. Everything was done within 10 minutes and she was rewarded with more sweets and allowed to choose a sticker from the stacks that saloon had.

It took a little getting used to on my part about her new hairstyle. My mom and Louis thought she looked very nice. More girly too.

Today, I stuck a hair clip on her hair before she went for lessons at JG. Voila, Faith looks like a boy no more.

Mummy's little helper? Or not?

I mop. I know. I read. I buy. I busy. I paint. I bathe. I eat. I see. I do. I dance.

Faith's into saying "I <add verb>" these days.

I could be showing my mom something and a little voice pipes in next to me saying, "I see", meaning she would like to see whatever I'm showing my mom.

The three of us and my mom would in the car and the adults would be conducting a conversation. From nowhere, her voice would interject midway into our conversation, proclaiming, "I know...", sounding as if indeed she did know whatever we were talking about.

Or, she would be in her car seat and I would be trying to help her put on her seat belt. Faith would impatiently brush my hands away and say, "I do, I do...".

A few days ago, she was having her bath in the morning and her papa came by the bathroom, asking inquiringly what his little girl was doing. She quipped with a cheeky smile: "I busy! I bathe!".

Yesterday, I was mopping the floor as we were having friends over for tea. She was running circles around me and my pail of mop, frantically begging me, "I mop! I mop! I mop too!"

Some days, she can be hysterically comical, making us laugh, driving us mad or both. Despite all her antics and the throwing of some terrible two tantrums, we can't get enough of her :)

Eczema & anemia

Eczema has always been something that Faith has to content with since young. Her skin requires daily moisturising and I can't get lazy with the application of it or else it would recur. With constant moisturiser after every bath time and at night before she sleeps, we've been able to keep eczema at bay for quite a while until about the time that we brought her out for frequent morning swims.

It was during that period that it flared up in full force, spreading to her usual places like her ears and back of the knees and extending to nearly every part of her body from her arms to her upper thighs. It was so bad that her arms, legs, abdominal and back areas were filled with scratch marks from her incessant scratchings.

Usually for small spots of eczema, we treat it with Desowen for a few days and stop as soon as the eczema is gone due to the steroid content. With the spread of the eczema all over her body, it wasn't feasible to use Desowen, especially for extended usage. I had put her on oral antihistamine as well to aid with the itch.

We went to her PD and she prescribed Physiogel AI, a form of moisturiser that is steroid free. She agreed with me that it wasn't good to apply too much cream with steroid nor give her too much antihistamine.

As we weren't a hundred percent certain that it was just the swimming that was causing her eczema to act up, we decided to also eliminate nuts totally from her diet and watched what she ate.

The Physiogel AI worked wonders. I applied it whenever she started scratching herself. However, it small (50ml) and expensive ($$36/tube). We used it all over her body each and every time she takes a bath and a tube lasts us only slightly more than a week.

I'm not sure if the scratching becomes a habit after a while -- becos she usually doesn't scratch herself unless its really itchy. When I saw that her eczema's gone, I stopped applying Physiogel but continued with her regular moisturiser, applying it as religiously at least 3 times a day. Yet, she started scratching herself again and we had to apply Physiogel on her again. I only apply it to her arms and legs this time, which seemed to be the persistent problem areas.

It is rather distressing to see her scratching herself all the time, seeing her scratch marks marring her baby skin. I felt that there must be a better way to prevent her eczema from recurring over and over again. That got me to start looking at organic and/or natural products, ones without chemicals. I've read that a combination of lavender and chamomile essential oils is good for treating eczema.

For the last week, I've put 2 drops of lavender essential oil (other than eucalyptus, which are the 2 oils I have at home) into her daily bath water. I've also purchased an Avado nappy lotion, which contains mostly plant-derived ingredients and oil. I've used the nappy lotion in place of Physiogel for one application, sometimes, for the entire day, not using the Physiogel at all.

Thus far, results have been small but encouraging. She doesn't scratch as much and the nappy gel seems to work just as well as a replacement for Physiogel. Now, I'm waiting for friends or family to make a trip to Australia. Then, I'll get them to help me top up my essential oils from Jurlique, which is a whole lot cheaper than buying it from CK Tangs :)

Even though the title heading for this post is about eczema and anemia, thank goodness for small favours that Faith is not the one with anemia.

Her papa is the one who always had a little low blood count and is anemic. All his blood tests would invariably show that he's anemic. His latest blood test showed a lower blood count of haemoglobin's. When his doctor was showing us his blood test report, he jokingly remarked that I've not been feeding him well enough.

It may be a joke and he's got a long standing history with anemia, however, he's also recovering from his knee surgery and his health is not quite what it used to be. Even though the doctor prescribed him Sangobion to help with his iron deficiency, my personal preference is to ensure that he gets as much of his dietary requirements through food sources wherever possible.

Hence, I've gone to the chinese medical hall and asked about herbs and soups that are beneficial for him. Two nights ago, I steamed a slice of cod fish (its about the few types of fish that Louis is willing to eat cos he's no fan of fish) and he liked that. Yesterday night, I made "dang gui chicken". I loved it and it reminded me of the dish I used to love during my confinement period. Unfortunately, Louis wasn't a fan of it. He found the smell of herbs too overpowering. Meanwhile, he would be eating lots of spinach and sweet potato leaves as these are high in iron.

I've got some "Ba Zhen Tang" too which I'm planning to boil for him next. It is typically consumed by women to replenish the lost of blood after menstruation, however, the lady at the medical hall said it is alright for him to take that becos of his anemia.

Let's hope my two babies' conditions would improve greatly with my "experiments"!

Faith turns 2

We celebrated Faith's birthday with the extended family on Saturday. There's more to celebrate other than the fact that she turns all of 2 years old.

I have successfully breastfed her for 2 years and would still continue with it until a time where either she or myself decides not to. I still recall how I was so tempted to give up on breastfeeding during the first couple of weeks after she was born due to the difficulties and challenges. I'm glad I persevered. Even now, there's still some people who feel that I should have stopped breastfeeding her long ago, but I try to tell myself (and sometimes tell them too) its becos they do not know the benefits of extended breastfeeding.

Her daddy is progressively improving slowly but steadily by the day. He walks around the house without any crutches, but when he goes out, he still continues to use one -- partly for support and also for those just-in-case moments when its crowded or he's tired.

The only little glitch was that he was having a fever on the day that we celebrated her birthday. A fever that came on on Thur and did not abate even with medication until Sunday. However, nothing was going to keep him away from helping his girl celebrate yet another milestone.

We decided to hold a simple affair at home with the food catered in. Our little extravagance was a 2-tier birthday cake with a Sesame Street theme from Pine Gardens, featuring some of her favourite characters like Elmo, Bert, Ernie and Cookie Monster. The top tier was a black forest cake targeted at the kids (though its not quite a kid's treat given that the cherries were liberally laced with kirsch) and the bottom tier was lychee martini to satisfy the adults.

She had gotten a little bicycle (the ones with a handle at the back for the adults to push) from her grandparents, a Leapfrog Phonics Fridge Magnet from the ACE family, 2 sets of Barbie doll from the grand-aunts and grand-uncles and a Playdoh set from us. Apart from that, Eileen had also given her another Little Miss Sunshine soft toy on Monday to add to her mini Little Miss collection, as well as an Elmo hand-puppet. Given the amount of toys she received, we wisely decided to hold back from opening our present to her and one of the Barbie doll sets.

This year, she was all smiles when everybody sang her her birthday song. Louis had been prepping her for it by singing it to her the few days leading to Saturday. This year, she knew to blow the candles all by herself.

Faith's Dua Peh was filled with pride when she finally acquiesced to allowing him to carry her just before her birthday song was sung. He was absolutely reluctant to give up his perch on the chair with her even though Faith's Dua Erm was shooing him away so that the little family could take a family picture :)

She loved all her presents and she had great fun. We know so becos she said to us while we were turning in for bed, "FUN!" We knew she was referring to the celebration that evening. Even though Faith's not speaking full sentences yet, we absolutely know what she means :)

On Monday, which was her actual birthday, my mom brought a vegetarian fruit cake. We put a symbolic candle on it, sang her another birthday song and let her blow the candle again. She seemed rather thrilled to have us sing her so many birthday songs.

Certainly, our lifestyles have changed drastically since Faith was born. Yet, she's given us so much joy, pride and have taught us so many valuable lessons in life that we just cannot imagine what we would do without her. Like every proud parent, we think our little girl is the best in the world. Or as a friend and I used to say jokingly, "The Bestest"!

Happy Birthday, Little One!