Bye Bye to Dyllis's 2nd baby tooth !

Dyllis little baby tooth - lower right front tooth - had been shaky at the same time as the first one that had dropped off on 27th August 2007.

This stubborn little one seemed to be having a "marathon", refusing to come off for the last 4 weeks !

And...finally it had decided that enough is enough...it's time to give way for the next "better player" - the little adult tooth that had sprouted up (since Dyllis's dental appointment on 15th August) and waiting eagerly to take it's place !

Of course, it required some courage from Dyllis to give it a little pull this morning(while in school) to help it out of her mouth :) Good Job girl girl !

Yet another major milestone for my little darling girl !

Evan's & Dyllis' Recent Milestones

Evan's Milestones

• No diaper while in School (from 8am till 1pm);
• Goes to Toilet by himself more often (able to tell);

Dyllis's Milestones

• Baby tooth dropped off on 27th August - lower left front tooth (wanted to keep it as sovenair, but it dropped off while Dyllis was in class & she was unaware of it! By the time she realised, it was gone!)

Impact of THE BITE on Evan

This is the conversation I had with Evan on the way to school this morning.

Mama Carol : " Evan, who pushed that little girl in class yesterday?"

Evan : "Megan, Megan fight"

Mama Carol : " Evan, can you tell Megan that she is a girl and girls do not fight?"

Evan: "No, later Megan eat my hand!"

Mama Carol broke out in laughter :)

Mama Carol : "No Evan, Megan did not eat your hand, she just Bite your hand!"

Poor Evan, I thought he would have gotten over that incident by now, but obviously he'd viewed Megan as "Carnivorous"! Hm..wonder if this had changed his impression of Girls ! hahaha.


p.s. 謝老师 told me later this morning that Evan was patiently telling Megan not to fight in class, am so happy to know that part of my message to him DID get across!

Evan was biten in class !

This morning, as I picked Evan up from class, 謝老师 told me that Evan has a bite mark on his left hand, a little up the wrist.

It was his classmate, Megan, who had bit him.

What happened? Well, both Megan & Evan was fighting over a toy, and both wanted to have a go at it 1st. And Evan had his hands on it, refusing to let go. Hence, Megan decided to bite Evan's hand, maybe in a bid to make him release the toy?

It was the consequence of Not Sharing.

Hey, that rings a bell ! A few years back, Dyllis had to bear the consequence of not sharing too!

Dyllis was playing with a kitchen set outside the classroom (of GUG playgroup), and she refused to play together with Seth. As a result, Seth gave Dyllis a slap on the face !
My little girl had the 1st slap in her life ! I was shocked, and that sent tears to my eyes.

Well, such incidents do happen in kids' play, and no one is to be blamed. I just find it interesting that both my kids had similar experiences as a result of Not Sharing. Sorry darlings, you have to learn to share through the 'hard way' :)

Dyllis's major milestone in Swimming!

On Wednesday (18/04/2007), Dyllis went for her regular swimming lesson downstairs - at the pool on the ground floor of our apartment.

As usual, I'll bring Evan down to hang around in the pool while Dyllis has her lesson.

Dyllis has been taking swimming lesson since late last year.
It started with both Dyllis and Evan taking lessons together, however, Evan decided to 'drop-out' after a few lessons. (dunno why, but suddenly he says he dun wanna swim with teacher !)

Anyway, Dyllis has made progress since. At the beginning...
-- she was swimming with floats at the arms, and head sticking out of water; then...
-- she was swimming with floats at the arms, and head in the water, but fingers pinching her nose; then...
-- she was swimming without floats at the arms, but fingers still pinching her nose; until...
-- mama bought her a goggle that covers the nose as well (like those used for snorkelling); and...
-- she was swimming without floats at the arms, and doing head stands or somersaults in water; then...on Wednesday...

Dyllis was swimming without floats, the whole length of the pool !!!

It's not a full size (competitive pool) lap, but it is good enough for mama to feel extremely proud of her ! Well done, dd gal !

And as if not to be outdone, Evan joined in the fun ! After hearing mama cheering jie jie Dyllis so enthusiastically, Evan swam (with floats at the arms, and head sticking out of water) three quarter the length of the pool ! Good job, Evan !

I am so glad that I was there to "witness" this major milestone ! And this, I must say, is the priviledge & reward of being a stay at home mum :)

Today, I'm the super mummy!

Today is yet another hectic day. Just did a count with my fingers, can't imagine that I've achieved soooo much !

This is the itinery of the day so far:

--> Drove to NTUC (exchg diaper from XL to XXL, bought the wrong size yesterday)
--> Drove to Waterloo Street to pray to Goddess of Mercy
--> Walked over to Rochor Complex to get Tissue Wrapper (for packing of clothes into boxes)
--> Walked over to Burlington to redeem a free gift (from purchase of microsoft vista), but shop NOT opened!
--> Drove to Singtel Comcentre to return the IPTV trial system set, but missed out the remote control !!
--> Fetched kids from school
--> Had Lunch

Note: the following activities are done with my 2 little darlings in tow, and it's Raining !

--> Took bus back to Burlington to redeem the free gift
--> Took taxi to Singtel Comcentre to return the remote control for the IPTV trial system set
--> Took train to Novena MRT
--> Had snacks at Novena (while Evan was asleep on pram)
--> Shopped a little at Novena (bought some books at MPH)
--> Walked back home

What makes it interesting, especially for the kids is that we took bus, taxi, then train, all in one afternoon ! It was definitely a test of my 'stamina' ! Imagine having a backpack on my back, 3 wet umbrellas & a pram, going up & down, in & out of the various mode of transport !

I am totally exhaused now, and as I'm typing this, my 2 happy kids are both snoring away on my bed :)

No sleep + no sleep + no sleep = Sick !

No sleep because of kids not in my room;
No sleep because kids were sick;
No sleep because of too many thoughts in my head regarding the move to Shanghai....

Consequence : Fever with bodyaches everywhere !

How can I catch a viral bug again when I've just finished 4 boxes of Klacid antibiotic? Doesn't sound right, but it's true.

These few months of being weak & sickly reminds me of the time when Bruce & I were preparing for our Wedding in 1999.

My friend once told me, to-be brides usually fall ill easily during the months leading to the Big Wedding Day. This is because of the tight schedules (having to juggle work & personal stuff), many logistics (like the gown, photo shoots, invitations), pressures from close relatives on the Dos and Don'ts, setting up the new home; planning for honeymoon, etc etc...

As a result, I was sick quite often, almost having M.C. once a month !

So here I am...having the "pre-marital" blues again ? ha ha ha...

Really really hope that I can be up and running soon...so many things not done ! And only 5 weeks away from the packing for shipment to Shanghai ! Oh dear ! Oh dear !

Hasn't gotten much sleep yet :(

Sigh...just as I was trying to 'train' myself to sleep without my babies...
Dyllis fell ill on Sunday (11/03/2007). As a result, I slept next to her, just to make sure that her temperature is not sky high and I'll be the 1st to know when that happens and give her the appropriate medication, or to give her a sponge bath.

Dyllis's fever lasted for 2 days, no major virus attacks, seems like its those kind of fever that old folks say the child will get when they are 'trying to grow taller'...that's what I told Dyllis, and she asked me to check if she is taller indeed ! Haha...my cutie pie.

Anyway, my sleepless woos do not end there. And usually, I always 'kana' double trouble.

It's Evan's turn to catch some virus. He started with a very mild cough, then soon I can hear his voice changed, he has a stuffed up nose ! I started giving my own presciption - I am so "seasoned" that I know what to give for each symptom ! Hence I started a doze of Mucosolvan for the phelgm, Prospan for the cough, and Otrivin for the nose. All seem to go well, until Evan came down with a fever on Saturday (17/03/2007) night. He has what I call a "roller coaster" fever, it'll go up as high as 39.5, and will come down to 37, and then back up again throughout the day. Not many clinic is open on the following day, so had to go to the only GP that is opened (in Balestier).

The doctor told me that Evan doesn't seem like he is having a phelgmy cough, it's more like a dry cough. Doc wants to prescribe an antibiotic for Evan, and I told him that Evan's "regular" antibiotic is Klacid. Doc says that is too strong an antibiotic, gave a different one.

And Evan had suffered since. The fever did not go away, it was still going strong this morning! Something is not right, his fever has persisted for four nights now, hence, I decided to bring him to the regular paedi.

Guess what's the verdict? Evan is very "chesty", aka lots of phelgm ! What the GP had given him is not helping to fight his bug! Aiyoh !!! mailto:$?@$#%@$&@$

I left the clinic with these medications for Evan : Klacid antibiotic (good for fighting microplasma bacteria for fear of lung infection), Rhiniramine for clearing the nose, Otrivin nose drop, Mucosolvan for the phelgm, Prospan for the cough, and Nebuliser medicines.

Hm....looks like my "mother's instinct" was right at the beginning !

Anyway, the road to recovery for Evan has just begun, poor boy, has to bear with it for a few more days before all the bugs can be cleared.

Frankly, I do not know where did he catch the bug, but blame it on the school holiday last week !

The kids had such a fun filled week...going to the zoo, to the Nemo on Ice show, eating out, taking MRT, swimming, cycling out in the sun - around Gong Gong's house, etc etc.

Am I wrong in letting them do all these? Should I lock them in the house in fear of them falling sick? Nah....that's not my style. I can't bear to let my kids become a dull kid at home.

They'll definitely run the risk of catching bugs here and there, but I'm sure the bitter memories of lying sick in bed will soon be replaced by happy recollections of going places with mummy and trying out new adventures when daddy is out of town!

Sleepless in my own bedroom ?

I have been suffering from inability to go to sleep...is this considered insomnia? I'm not sure, because the root cause of this problem is a bit 'strange'...

I all started 3 nights ago when my little girl tells me that she wants to sleep in her playroom, and as a result, the little brother also wants to follow 'jie jie' to sleep in the playroom...this feels really really strange !

Since Dyllis's birth, she has been an item on either our King size bed, or on the mattress next to our bed. Later on, upon Evan's birth, the four of us has been sleeping in the same room. There are occasional times where Dyllis will go over to the playroom to sleep, but she'll always ask mummy to sleep with her in the playroom, and daddy to 'settle didi'.

Hence, having either one or both of the children in our room has become the default.

Suddenly, on Tuesday, this changed. Our room feels empty. No mattresses lying next to our bed. No need to talk softly in our room. We can switch on the light, and do our work on our laptop at 11pm ! This seems great !

But I do not feel easy. What if Dyllis wants to go toilet in the middle of the sleep? What if Evan cries when his diaper is full? Lots of what if....so I switched on the baby monitor. I listened out closely for any 'abnormality' from the baby monitor, I just couldn't fall asleep !

Evan did cry. 3 times in fact, so I had to go into the room and change his diaper or pat him to sleep. At 5plus in the morning, I simply slept next to Evan !

On Wednesday, not too bad...Evan & Dyllis were sound asleep, but mummy? Still find it difficult to fall asleep, played computer games on laptop till 2am !

On Thursday, Evan had loose bowel in the evening. So I kept going into the room to 'smell' his diaper, just in case he soiled himself and will get rashes if I did not change him promptly. Dyllis was sound asleep because she had played hard that day! When it was time for me to go to sleep, I jumped off the bed when Evan made a turn and knocked on something; I jumped off the bed when Evan made a grunt; I jumped off the bed at the slightest sound from next door; at the end...I went into their room when there was no noise, I slept next to Evan from 2am :)

Funny isn't it? Seems like mummy is the one having 'separation anxiety' ! I am losing sleep because my babies are not in the same room as me !

Anyway, tonight is the 4th night...it has been a very hectic day, I am supposed to be very very tired...let see how it goes for rest of this night !