Cold Turkey - Day V

After a nice seafood dinner at Sin Hoi San (Tiong Bahru) in celebration of my mum's birthday, we headed home.

Mayenne was fussing a bit after her milk feed, and wanting me to carry her. Ches tried to help out as I was busy washing up her bottles and dinner containers, but she was giving him a hard time as nothing he did seems to give her comfort.

After I was done, I brought her into my room (the weather tonight was tremendously stuffy), and I think the cooler temperature (aircon was on) may have calmed her somewhat. She began flipping some mags and gave some baby hugs [she does it by bringing her face to the thing she likes in the magazine (sometimes a little too fast and too hard) - like giving them a kiss].

I was pretty tired myself, so I was just lying on the bed and watching her go through the mags. Then I realised I was dozing off, so I brought her to lie next to me. Sometimes she will just get up and fuss again, but tonight, she laid very still on the pillow we share, but her eyes were roving. At that point it felt like Mum and Daughter were sharing some ESP messages cos our heads were so close to each other.

I dozed off again, then I jumped up, startled at the fact that I have fallen asleep and not watching Mayenne. But there she was, lying asleep right next to me.

May be Mummy's zzzzz bugs did reach Mayenne via ESP afterall.

Cold Turkey - Day Three (Day of heartaches)

Mum said Mayenne couldn't really nap well this afternoon -- was irritable and started redecorating her bed by repositioning her pillows, continuously. But soon after, she did fall asleep due to tiredness and slept almost 3.5 hours thereafter. Mum had to wake her up for her milk so that it will not affect her dinner schedule.

Night time was worse. As usual we fed her her last feed of the day (milk) at 9.30pm and started to coax her to sleep. But tonight, she was not just fussing - she was clearly upset, irritated, agitated, as she cried for non-stop for almost half an hour. During that time, she choked on her saliva, coughed really hard, and had a blocked nose from all the crying.

I walked, talked, sang, rocked, carried, ignored, but nothing worked. My arms ached from carrying Mayenne, but my heart ached more to see her feeling so terrible. She then started to cool down after I walked to my kitchen window, where some cars parking downstairs distracted her. Shortly after, I brought her back to my room (cos I have the air con on, and doors closed, to avoid disturbing the neighbours with her cries). Although she started to cry again, but this time it was more muted, and then she fell asleep with her head on my lap.

This was Day 3.

Cold Turkey - Day One

Today, we have stopped giving Mayenne the pacifier, dummy, jid jid, tuu tuu..... or whatever you call it.

According to my mum, Mayenne fell asleep rather quickly during her afternoon nap without the pacifier. I then decided to kickstart the weaning process by not giving it to her tonight.

She fussed quite a bit, not the crying sort, but "EHHH.... EHHH!" sort. I refused to give in, and it took her almost an hour to fall asleep (I thought it was pretty fast already). But she looked so cute when she was trying to pretend to suck and she was pouting her lips and making the sucking sounds, without the pacifier.

Tomorrow, Day Two. *ding ding!*

Pine Gardens - I'll be back for more!

I was really happy with the positive comments and good feedback I've received on Mayenne's birthday cakes, both from Pine Gardens (AMK Ave 10).

So good, I've recommended my friends to order cakes from Pine Gardens for their own kids 1st birthdays and the results were the same.... all their guests enjoyed the cakes too. I will also be ordering a 3-tier wedding cake from them as a gift to a couple getting married soon.

So when my colleagues talked about Pine Gardens having the CMK durian cakes, I was really excited -- CMK stands for Cat Mountain King aka Mao Shan Wang, the creme de la creme of all types of durians (which I love), and Pine Gardens (I love their cakes too). The perfect combi.

I was assigned the task of ordering/buying the cake as the shop is near my place. The cake would also form part of the mini birthday celebrations for the birthday boy and girl in my work team born in September.

So after a long day of photoshoot with Chester last Sunday, we rushed back to pick up the cake before the shop closes. Next morning, I brought it to the office and stored it in the pantry's fridge. When the time came for the birthday celebration, we took the cake out, sang the birthday song and distributed the cake all round.

"Hmmm..???"
"The cake....."
"It's um...."
"SOUR!!!"

Yup, although the cake tastes fresh, the layers of durian flesh between the sponge cakes, were indeed sour.

How can this be? I've only collected it yesterday and stored it as recommended. Feeling disappointed, confused, angry, betrayed (cos I had so much faith in Pine's cakes), I called Pine Gardens up for an explanation (and hopefully, compensation).

The person at the end of the line was very polite and carefully asked about my storage conditions. Then she made a statement "... but we never had any complaints about our durian cakes before". I thought "that's it... she's gonna blame me on not storing properly and shrug away from all responsibilities". Then she offered to send someone to pick up the spoilt cake from my office and they will look into the matter and decide the next course of action.

The delivery guy came within 10mins (should be in the vicinity) and took the cake away. Then, about half an hour later, Pine Garden called. While holding my breath, they explained that they suspect it's the durian that has gone into the cake, was bad (ie durian supplier ought to be shot), and since it is rather unlikely for them to taste every single durian before making the cake, it was unfortunate that we got that bad one.

They promptly then offered to replace the durian cake and send it back to my office, and even asked if I needed the same wordings on the cake plus number of candles required. When I collected the package from the same delivery guy who came earlier, I saw 2 boxes in the plastic bag. Out of goodwill, Pine Gardens threw in 20 complimentary pieces of bite-sized brownies and cheesecakes. And the replacement durian cake was fantastic.

I applaud Pine Garden for their speed in handling the situation, their gesture to replace and send the cake back to me (usually they charge at least $15 for delivery), and giving some complimentary confectionery.

Perhaps they still do think that it's my (the customer's) fault in not storing the cake properly, but everything they have done has made me feel that they treasure their customers; and they have definitely retained this customer (me), and I will definitely continue to buy cakes from them.

Moral of the story? Never buy your own birthday cake. =P

Roseola - ola - ola

In one of my earlier blogs a couple of weeks ago, I reported how Mayenne came down with high fever after her MMR jab, and I was certain then that it was her reaction to the vaccine.

She had high fever >38.5 degrees over about 4 days (with her temperature occasionally easing to the 37 degrees range before shooting up to > 38 degrees again). On Day 4, I couldn't allow my baby to suffer anymore, we rushed to KK Child A&E even before the dawn breaks, as she was very hot to the touch and her throat was so sore that she couldn't even drink her milk.

Fortunately, the A&E was not crowded and Mayenne was attended by the doctor on duty. They took some blood from Mayenne for testing and the results were all negative except for a hint of viral infection. So the doctor sent us home and asked us to continue to give her the medication we got from the GPs we saw a few days before.

It was as though the trip to the A&E has zapped all her viruses away, cos by the end of the day, Mayenne was less lethargic and her appetite got better. I thank God for that and was relieved to see her recover from her sore throat and runny nose.

Before I could even say "She's okay now!", my mum called me to tell me that Mayenne started having tiny red spots on her back, legs, sole and face. Without any delay, I told Mum to bring her to the GP for a quick check. They came back with the diagnosis: heat rash and gave us calamine lotion.

What heat rash??!?! Those few days leading to the day the rashes were spotted were filled with rain and more rain, so the weather was extremely cool. And given a layman like me, I was very sure those are not heat rashes.

Good thing was the rashes were not itchy and they don't seem to bother Mayenne at all (no fever, diarrhoea, nausea etc). So then I inferred that it could be measles as some literature explained that some babies catch it, as the MMR vaccine is putting small doses of live viruses into the body so that the body can build its immunity against these viruses.

In view that Mayenne was behaving normally, I didn't worry that much. Slowly the rashes faded and totally cleared within 3 days.

It was only after sharing Mayenne's symptoms to a close friend of mine that what Mayenne had could be Roseola. Symptons include high fever for a couple of days, coupled with sore throat and runny nose. After the fever has subsided, the spots will appear, usually non-itchy. If you need more information on Roseola, you can refer to this website: http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/commoninfections/a/roseola.htm

Everything that Mayenne went through fit the description - she had Roseola. This is probably what the old folks refer to as "fake measles".

Mystery solved.

Lost in Translation

We subscribed to the Disney Channel (CH34) on Cable TV as we wanted Mayenne to watch programs that are specially designed for children.

She has many favourite programs - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, Pocoyo and Thomas and Friends just to name a few, and she also likes short clips like Danny & Daddy and Ooh & Aah (the red and blue monkeys that bring in the next show).

Recently we swopped our old cable box to the new digital recordable one (and of course signed up a new package for the recording capability). It is rather useful as we can set timings to record her favourite programs, and playback whenever we want to, like the repeat of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. I'm probably one of the very few who has missed the live telecast, and I'm glad that I've recorded the 4-hr long event as I was able to catch it and it was indeed as grand and spectacular as reported.

Anyway, coming back to Disney Channel, Chester was fiddling with some of the clips he recorded on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and it was only then I realised Mickey and his gang can actually speak Mandarin - with the press of the dual sound button.

I have used that button before, for Japan Hour, and some other programs which were filmed in foreign languages but Starhub offers the show in say, English or Mandarin. The Mickey Mouse I grew up with spoke English, so it never occurred to me to use that button at all.

So for Mums and Dads out there who may have missed this point like me, do try it out.

One thing to note though: the lyrics of some of the songs may not be a direct translation of the original English version. But one word of caution, the Mandarin version can be quite bizarre.

Example, for those who are familiar with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show, there is this HotDog Dance at the end of every show -- you may not want your kid learn the first stanza of the song, cos it's not such a great idea if he repeats that the first thing in the morning or when Grandma is playing Mahjong.

Go check it out.

Mayenne

Many friends have been asking, "How come there isn't any photos of Mayenne on your blog lately?"

Guilty. Din have the time to configure the photos we've taken of her. Here's some captured over the last 2 months or so.

"Where are the rest of my classmates?"

(Mayenne sitting quietly for Shichida class to start; that's my Mum and maid behind)

"Cool-ness Highness...."

The MCC (Mong Cha Cha) look
(just woke up mah)

"Hey, give back Mummy's straw!"

Mayenne has been toilet trained since she was 11 months old
(we have upgraded her from potty to WC; and it really helps that she makes 2 distinct sounds to differentiate between "big" and "small" business)

Good Intentions

"Eat your vegetables! They are good for you!"

All mums would have said the above to their kid(s) some point in their lives. Being a kid before (hard to believe, but yes have been one), I remember asking myself how can something that tastes so strange be ever good for you? But we trust our parents to know best and they are there to protect us.

As we grow up, through our life paths, we experience new things, face new challenges and we learn to know what is good and bad (or at least what we think is good and bad).

Sometimes our judgment can be clouded, like how some people don't apologise even when they know they are in the wrong, because it involves pride; or when people are so determined to do something that they are passionate about or love, and don't consider the severity of consequences of their actions.

So sometimes, when we think a person cannot make any logical and rational decisions because of this cloudiness, we make the decision that overrides all decisions, for what we think is for the good of all (again can be subjective). The overruled party will inevitable be disappointed, angry, and may even ignore the advices and stick to their own plans.

It is scarily fascinating to note how two persons can have completely different views on the same situation, how one can take things so lightly when the other thinks it is a matter of life and death.

Call me a paranoid, over-reacting, pessimistic, selfish party pooper, but when it comes to protecting people and things I love, I can't be more selfish, can I?

I just hope for understanding and trust, and I still eat my vegetables today.