All About Your Child

Last night I was blog-hopping at 1am in my sister’s room after sending my kids to dreamland. After the weekend break over at the Chalet, I’ve got lots of posts to read and lots of catching up to do with some bloggers….

But before I was through to the 2nd blog post, my 4-year-old started coughing badly. I’m used to it (more or less) already ever since he was diagnosed with bronchitis almost 2 years ago. So I ignored his cough and continued my reading…..then…

I heard whining…

I heard small quick footsteps…

I turned my head towards the sounds…

I saw a small tiny figure in yellow t-shirt dashed into the dark living room….

then “#$%&&%$^&”….the sound of vomit.

I dashed out of my sis’s room and switched on the lights to see where is my little Keatkeat…

He was standing just next to the dustbin. But he couldn’t find it in the darkness and the vomits were all over the floor. He was still coughing hard when I move towards him.

I was so proud of him. He did it! Finally! He did it! He no longer lay lying on his mattress and cough till he vomits. He knows himself so well now.

He knows he’s gonna vomit, so he ran out to look for the dustbin, he knows the trouble that dear Papa and Mommy got to go through in the washing his mattress whenever he vomited on it due to extreme coughing; he understands, he loves his new mattress too much to hurt it like the way he did to his previous one….

I stepped on the vomit (I didn’t care), I knelt (prefer to kneel than to squat) there holding the dustbin just below his chin to signal him that he can go ahead and throw up whatever till he feels it was enough.

I kept saying, “I am so proud of you…Good boy, you didn’t vomit on your bed…I am so proud of you…”

I went on and on till he coughed onto my face once, that’s when I changed my sentence to, “Please cough and vomit into the dustbin and not on my face!” He listened and he followed my instructions. That’s when I carried on with the encouraging words.

It’s really difficult for a kid to be asleep and yet in the nick of time, be able to react so fast, so well, so clear-minded, I am truly proud of my boy’s reaction last night. With so much commotion, my hubby’s sleep was disrupted too. He woke up to help to clean up my boy, changed him and gave him a cup of warm water, while I mopped the floor….and because of the sudden wake-up call, my hubby couldn’t get back to sleep till 5am!

My boy was alright after the throw-up, its usual, we are so used to it, he is so used to it. After a 5min rest, he said, “Good Night Papa. Good Night Mommy.” And off he went to his clean mattress, hugged his 2 bolsters and fell asleep in less than 10mins on his own.

Sometimes Keatkeat displays his level of maturity in areas that we least expect, he is always giving us surprises with his growing intelligence in more areas than one.

I remember melting under the hot sun on Monday and then I am cold like ice yesterday and today. With the unpredictable weather these days, Keatkeat is coughing harder than usual, he is showing signs that his bronchitis may be coming over for a visit again…let’s hope he sleeps well tonight. *Sweet Dreams*

Its so easy to complain when the kid did it wrong…but how often do parents say “good job” when it was done the right way….I don’t see many parents around me who do that…but several does it among my blog friends…*smile*

Today is the MunYee’s 4th birthday! We celebrated it almost the same way as we did for Weidong’s Birthday - A Chalet Celebration -pretty much the same.

Please allow me to introduce this miracle kid.

When my eldest Sis-in-law was pregnant with her, she bleeds frequently to the extend of being hospitalized for observations and for just-in-case situations. In and out of the hospital she went ever since she was 5 months pregnant and each stay lasted 1 week.

MunYee was born almost-dead. Yes, she was as white as a sheet of paper when she came out from the womb.

Bags of blood and lots of other equipments were poked into the tiny prematured baby like a string-puppet, in order to sustain her life.

For 3 full-months, she went through phototherapy to deal with her jaundice, which was the cause of her unusually dark skin now. The phototherapy not only darken her skin, her TEETH ARE BLACK TOO!

Poor girl started school this year and her classmates LAUGHED at her Black Teeth…*sigh* But that did not stop the like-to-go-to-school-MunYee from having phobia of stepping into her class. She was as determined to go to school as she was determined to live when she came into this world.

Yup! That’s little MunYee, a very stubborn strong girl whose character is very much her icon now. Once she set her mind on doing something, she must get it done even if my Parents-in-law or Bro-in-law chase her with a cane.

See the naughty Binbin licking the cream off his fingers after ’stealing’ it uncaught.

Look at the stare from the birthday girl’s face. *Laugh*

There are very limited photos this time because I FORGOT TO BRING THE CAMERA and my phone-camera is terrible, so all shots were contributed by MunYee’s dad, my eldest Bro-in-law.

I bought 5 presents for MunYee, but BIL only took a shot on the Minnie Bag. The ribbon on Minnie’s Head is a pop-up cushion - Really nice!

On top of that I bought her 2 Mickey-Minnie mouse folders, a Mickey-Minnie mouse coin box and a Mickey-Minnie sticker to past on her ezlink card.

And so I did it again - Won the heart of the birthday child - she was carrying it the whole time and hugging it to sleep too….LOL simply because I bought gifts which have her favorite characters on them….kids are just so easy to please. *wink*

Remember my post about my son was being ‘forced‘ to go home because the teacher refuse to accept my explanation?

Well, my kid is back in school in one piece. No ulcers and obviously no signs of HFMD! The only unhappy thing was - the ‘idiots‘ were not there to witness the grand entrance of my son! LOL because Mommy-me woke up late today and my dear boy was 15mins late for school.

When we reached there the door was closed, which was the sign to ‘chase‘ all those ‘blockers‘ away.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll probably lay a red carpet with an orchestra right behind my boy as he march in with his head held high, chest up, tummy in and a big smile on his face.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll hold up a banner that says “My son is NOT HFMD positive! So keep your mouth shut!”

IF ONLY…..*Humph!*

(I want to thank all of you for your kind words and encouragements to my Heavy Heart yesterday, you guys are really a wonderful bunch! May your life be filled with blessings!)

I had been wondering all along, when, just when will Keatkeat’s teacher Mdm Normah snap, how long can I stretched her ‘rubber-band’ of keeping an-eye-closed about Keatkeat’s tongue. ‘cos she was doubtful over my explanation all along….but still she kept her eyes closed and let Keatkeat get into class…

Ever since the hand-foot-mouth disease started 4 months back, the school have been doing regular check-ups BEFORE the kids are allowed to step into the class.

Just last week, a student was down with the illness after the school had a clean record for 5 full weeks. Hence the check-ups were more thorough than before, first they would (prefer the parents to measure the kids’ temperature and record down on the given notebook before the come to school) check the temperature, then the palm of the hands to look out for blisters and finally shine a torchlight into the kids’ mouth to spot ulcers.

You see, my dear Keatkeat have a conditioned since he was a baby - whenever his water intake is too little, he would have ulcers on his tongue. I HAVE mentioned this to Mdm Normah almost every time she spots an ulcer or two in my 4-year-old’s mouth.

But today she was firm, very firm. She spotted 3 ulcers on Keatkeat’s tongue (*Humph* must be the Fried Spring Chicken he ate for dinner last night). She INSISTs that I bring Keatkeat home.

Let me say this first before anything else, I CAN UNDERSTAND, I DO. Even when I was a Child Care Centre teacher, I would not risk the other students’ health, just to please one eager-to-get-his-butt-in-the-class kid, who shows such signs of danger.

But as me, a HUMAN, a Mommy, I can’t stop having thoughts like:

“Damn! It was so difficult to get my little boy out of his bed and yet he is not accepted.”

“Damn! I could have slept for another hour before I head down to my 1-day bazaar later on. Pacifying one kid is easy while setting up the stall, but keeping 2 kids entertained and preventing them from quarrelling / fighting while setting up the stall is *Urrrrgghhh*”"

What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. Seriously, may I ask ALL Parents reading this, “Do you stay at the door of the school and look at your kids after they are in the class and STAY there till the teacher closes all windows and door?!”

I do, BUT ONLY FOR THE FIRST WEEK when my kid is in school FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE. But I won’t do that when he is already in school for almost 2 years now! But there are still sooooooooo mannnnny parents who do!

They would stand AT the door, and blocked other kids who need to get into the class. Making hand-gestures to their kids who were obviously not even looking back. Or Shouting commands like, “K, sit down!….K, don’t do that!….K, that’s wrong Stop It!…..”

If you are one of such parents, can you tell me why do you do that? I know you love your kids but he/she is not in playgroup or nursery already! They are not THAT small! Aren’t you supposed to feel free-to-do-whatever, since you’ve got 3 hours of no-kid time? Wouldn’t you want to make full use of the time and do what you couldn’t do when the kid is around?

Ok, like I was saying, What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. THEY WERE POINTING FINGERS AT US as we were forced to go out of the class and head back home! Then irritating words like,

“Oh dear, my child plays with this boy (referring to my dear still-didn’t-know-what’s-going-on Keatkeat) often….that means my child is in danger now of Hand Foot Mouth Disease!….”

“Oh oh….another one rejected again, this boy must have played with the child who was sick last week.”

“Oh please…parents shouldn’t bring the kid to school if he’s got HFMD…so irresponsible…”

I soooooo wanted to turn my head and give that parent the stare of the devil and scream into her head, “Mdm Normah DID NOT SAY MY CHILD GOT HFMD!!! He got ulcers BECAUSE HE DID NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER, That’s All!!!

Keatkeat: “Mommy what happened?”

Me: “Mdm Normah didn’t allow you in, because of your mouth ulcers….please drink more water dear…”

Keatkeat: “Mommy, so are we going home now?”

Me: “Yes!”

Keatkeat: “Yeah!!! Then can I go play the Car game since I got nothing to do now?”

Me: *faint!*

I was curious yesterday to know how you guys feel about bringing kids for hospital visits….Totally agree on the germs and virus part…today there was a new ‘neighbour’ beside my FIL, he had tuberculosis before and it seems that he is back to the hospital to check if the illness came back to re-visit him again.

When I heard that from my FIL, I was shocked. Tuberculosis is a highly variable communicable disease, how could the hospital allow him to stay in such ‘normal’ wards?! Anyhow, the moment we knew about this, my eldest BIL and SIL brought all the kids down to get some tibits, and kept them entertained with the nibbles for as long as they could.

I’m really unhappy with the ‘way’ this hospital handled certain things, especially towards my FIL. He can eat solids on his own without vomiting or getting choked, but they still put drips on him, causing him to have terrible water retention. His hands are like boxing gloves and legs are like baby elephants. Over the last 8 days in hospital, he has gained 10kg!!! - ALL WATER, as he hardly get to eat solid food till yesterday afternoon.

My frustrated MIL requested to get the drip off my FIL but was rejected. Their reasons were: “we still need to give him the antibiotics every 6 hourly, and we could only get it into the body through the drips…”NOW THAT’S SOMETHING NEW to me (at least).

We were all concerned, so we stayed longer than usual, but the 6 kids were getting impatient at the lobby. So I (the usual kids’ nanny for every Sunday’s family gathering at my parents-in-law house) went down and played quiet games with them, while the others continued to stay with my FIL.

We played the guess-which-finger-tapped-on-head game, count the number of cars passed by the drop-off point, count how many people wore a-particular-coloured top (this kept them entertained the longest, ‘cos all I need to do is just change the colour), count how many people carry a basket of flowers get into the lift and the usual scissors-paper-stone.

Of cos’ the un-unison toilet visits helped to kill much time off too. Before long, the adults were down and ready to leave. Keeping kids entertained is easy, but keeping kids entertained with their voices down is tough, when they are such easily-excitable-creatures….

What do you do to keep the kids’ volume down but at the same time making sure they are not bored? One rule to this question - no electronic hand-held games please….

So I guess, I’ll not be bringing my boys there till my FIL’s ‘new neighbour’ is discharged or relocated.

(Thank you all of your concerns, well-wishes and prayers, especially imbeingheldhostage, thank you for keeping my FIL in your prayers still)

As you know, I’m a SAHM. So no matter where I am, my children will be. Even when I’m bathing, they will come over every other minute and ask…..

“Mommy, are you bathing?…..Mommy, are you done?…..Mommy, are you putting shampoo on your hair?….Mommy, I don’t hear water-sound, so are you wiping yourself now….are you coming out now?”

So when I went to the hospital to visit my FIL, naturally they will go along. Everyone knows how ‘natural loud-speakers’ kids are, and being active 90% of the time, you could hardly get them to sit still for more than 5mins.

When my boys see their cousins, it’s party time! All of them would laugh and speak louder than usual. Even though every adult would go, “Shhhhh…..this is the hospital, the patients are sick, they need to rest, so you need to talk softly…” a thousand times, they would still forget this golden rule the next minute.

I’m glad that my boys obeyed the “NOT TO RUN ABOUT” commandment, but not my nieces and my little 1year old nephew.

My second sis-in-law had not brought her only daughter to see my FIL for the past 1 week since his hospitalisation, in order to prevent the need to discipline her in public.

My eldest sis-in-law’s kids, who stay with my parents-in-law, would naturally follow my MIL on every visit.

Being active is usually ‘acceptable‘ but sometimes being kids, they would say whatever that comes to mind and THAT may be ‘unacceptable’ to the ears of the patients or the patients’ families at time….

“Mommy, why the uncle got that thing stuck in his mouth?”

“Mommy, why that uncle make so much noise?”

“Mommy, why that uncle sleep like that?”

“Mommy, why that uncle poo-poo on his bed?”

“Mommy, why that uncle vomit?”

“Mommy, why that uncle’s leg got that big white thing?”

“MOMMY, that uncle not moving, IS HE DEAD??!”

and the ‘why’ questions continues….(my FIL stays in a male ward, so they saw male patients only)

Even if I wasn’t a SAHM, I believe I’ll still bring my kids along whenever I visit a family member or relative who is hospitalised. It’s vital to let them know the importance of being healthy. Actually, these few days, my elder one has started to eat slightly more vegetables, he used to eat only ONE vege per meal….

“Mommy vegetables are good for my body right? I want to be healthy, don’t want to be sick. If I am sick, I have to stay in the hospital and cannot go home….I don’t want that.”

I think there’s some kind of effect after seeing how people suffer in hospital…he doesn’t want to see himself in that state….

So are you like my 2nd sis-in-law, who prefers not to bring her kid to the hospital to prevent unnecessary noise pollution?

Or are you like my eldest sis-in-law who doesn’t have a preference if the kids went there or not?

Or are you like me, who thinks that hospital is another educational centre, where kids can learn alot from there too?

I over-slept this morning. Keatkeat was supposed to be in school by 8am, but that was the time I woke up. He usually needs about 30-45mins to get ready, laze around, whine a little, brush his teeth, wear his shirt, wear his shoes….in sllllloooowwwww motion.

Even when I was awake, I couldn’t get my tired body out of bed. With the travelling to and fro from the hospital, staying there to look after my FIL did tire my aging body. Sorry Keatkeat!

My FIL had an operation yesterday. The doctor inserted a tube to enlarge his shrunk gall. The tube will be remove only 4-6weeks later together with the couple of stones found in his gall as well.

Because my FIL’s platelets count is still not increasing and worse, it’s not reacting to the antibiotics (which is supposed to help increase the growth of it), so the doctor doesn’t want to do a ‘long’ surgery in fear of pro-fused bleeding.

He can only consume fluid now and constantly vomiting phlegm so it’s really quite a heart-breaking sight. He is bed bound till his platelets starts to reproduce by itself to the ’safe-level’ and provided his ‘yellow-ness’ disappears….

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. Thank you, thank you!

This morning at 10.30am, my FIL was shivering very badly, almost into a fit.

The doctors from Tan Tock Seng Hospital decided to do an ultra sonic scan for him and will be transferring him to the ICU.

Yet after waiting for 6 hours, the doctors came back and said they couldn’t fulfill whatever they had promised earlier because there isn’t a ’spare’ bed for my FIL in the ICU. *Urrrrrgggghhhh*

And because they do not have sufficient supply of the Platelets, they could not put the scope into my FIL. They were worried that any rupture internally may cause profuse bleeding. So they are waiting for more supply of the Platelets from Singapore General Hospital. *Double Urrrrrgggghhhh*

Anyhow, my FIL is having oxygen assistance right now. He seems better when we left at 6pm but he is definitely getting more yellowish…..*sigh*

Many DIL may not feel much for their FIL but for someone like me, who hardly had father’s love, my FIL is like my ‘real‘ dad and to see him lying there, breathing heavily is really an unbearable sight….*heart sank*