Do you understand?

Last Thursday was our 7th year wedding anniversary, and my mum has kindly agreed to take Mayenne that night so that Ches and I can try recall what happened over the last 7 years over a nice dinner by the river.

So starting from last Monday, I explained to Mayenne on our way to Popo's house in the morning, that she'll have to stay at Popo's house on Thursday. I did the same on Tuesday, explaining that one day has pass and it's 2 more days before the sleepover. She looked like she was listening to me but I was quite sure she didn't understand me cos there are so many new words and concepts, like Monday, Tuesday..., staying over etc.

On Monday to Wednesday, just like any other morning, she will eagerly want to get out of the car and into Popo's arms. On Thursday, I told her one last time in the car that the day we spoke about has arrived. After the car stopped, she simply refused to get out of her car seat and turned away from Popo and resisted her attempts to carry her. We had no choice but to force carry her and that led to some degree of wailing, but she cooled down after a while.

Looks like she did understand me after all.

GPS - Good Position for Sleeping

When Mayenne was born, we placed her cot against the wall which is nearest to the door, for the ease of attending to her promptly for those night feeds and soils, so as to save those few extra steps walking to the cot should it be placed further into the room. In case you are wondering, those savings may have saved my sanity.

After Mayenne turned one, we shifted her cot to be against another wall in the room furthest away from the door, so as to avoid disturbing her sleep when we watch TV, and besides, it makes her room look more spacious.

As she got older, it got more and more challenging for her to go to sleep. Gone were the days where she will just turn to her side and doze off. Now, she has to go through this routine of making these "AAAAAAAAAHH!!" loud sounds repeatedly, toss and turn, flip pillows all over, sit up and whimper, crash her face onto the bed with a pillow in front of her face a couple of times, before her eyelids get heavy and she finally sleeps.

It's not as though she is not sleepy: I put her to bed at about 9.30pm cos she will be yawning non-stop. I don't let her sleep in aircon, but I do cool the room down (with aircon) and switching it off (and on the fan) once she's asleep. And I stay in the room with her till she slept.

The situation is very different at my Mum's, on nights when Mum takes her. Apparently after her night feed, she will just turn to her side and remain rather motionless, even though she's not sleeping, and before you know it, she's conked out!

The only logical reason I can think of is that she sleeps with my Mum on her queen-sized bed. Perhaps it's more comfortable. May be she wants someone to lie next to her, which are all not possible when she's home when her bed is a cot.

Then I remembered how well she slept before she turned 1...... and the next thing I found myself do was shifting her bed to the previous position. May be I need to consider the fengshui aspects, you know, harmonising with your surroundings and environment, having balance stuff.

So Mayenne came into her room this evening, looked around and realised that her room is not the same as before, but she didn't say anything and subsequentlywalked out. When it was bedtime, I laid her down and gave her her milk. She continued lying there, still did some tossing and turning, but she didn't make much noise this time. Within 5-7 mins, she's in dreamland.

Believe it.

No talk, all action

I have been monitoring Mayenne's progress in terms of her linguistic skills. After all, studies have shown that girls tend to be stronger in that area compared to boys.

When she uttered her first proper word "Papa"at a tender age of 9 months or so, we were getting all geared up for the endless chattering and noise to come. However, that was not the case. To date, Mayenne can say less than 20 words, some of the clearer ones include Papa (no 'Mummy' yet), bye bye, nen nen (for milk), and less clear ones like 'aam' (for 'same'), 'geen' (for 'green') and 'zzzzzz' (for the letter 'Z').

She can fully understand us, but she refuses to speak when asked. May be Mummy talks too much, stifling her chances to speak. Or perhaps Mummy doesn't give her enough time to put her answer together before offering our answer. Why I say that is because sometimes when she's alone, she will babble some sounds, perhaps in an attempt to say something.

When it comes to this kind of things, you can't really rush it. I will continue to introduce her to more words and let her take her time to be ready to speak single words, then 2-syllabic phrases, then in sentences. While that may take a while, Mummy will always to here to guide Mayenne.

Winning in Weaning

It's official - Mayenne is completely weaned from her pacifier, in her 17th month.

Actually it happened much earlier cos she doesn't look for it or fuss when she was trying to sleep. But she still had that sucking action with her lips and mouth when she has her eyes closed, as though she's sucking on an imaginary dummy. But this evening, I noticed she doesn't do that anymore -- hence I mark today as the milestone.

The process hasn't been too long, less than a month. I didn't use the methods some of friends used, eg snip the head of the pacifier off such that the kid doesn't feel shiok sucking on a headless dummy (cos it keeps dropping out of his mouth).

I went cold turkey, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results and I achieved my silent goal of weaning her off the dummy before 18 months . Good job Mayenne! Mummy is so proud of you!

Nonetheless I'm not gonna risk it by accidentally leaving a pacifier on her table or bed!

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!*

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 Mum, Bad Mum

Mayenne just had her MMR vaccination yesterday. The doctor told us that usually, should the baby spot a fever, it will come after 7 days of the jab. Before Mayenne could reach back home, she was already feverish.

I went back to the office after the PD's appointment, so it was my mum who told me about it and she was a little flustered cos she doesn't have the thermometer with her (it was at my place) and she wasn't sure how high Mayenne's temperature was. Good thing we brought back a bottle of Neurofen from the PD which helps bring higher temperatures down. My mum tried to feed Mayenne the medicine with a syringe, only to welcome a huge gush of puke.

After a while, Mum fed her some milk as Mayenne is not suppose to eat porridge or rice related products (old wives' tale that we have abided for generations). She then slept and Mum called me later to tell me that her temperature has gone down somewhat.

A quick check on the thermometer showed 38.8 degrees in the evening, after I went home to grab the digital thermometer. It has risen again, and she looked so pitiful: listless eyes, also red from crying, blocked nose from crying. Mum offered (or more like instructed) to keep Mayenne overnight with her, so that she can take care of her (with the maid's help) and that I can have the energy for work the next day.

Mayenne looked better the next morning, even laughed a bit and waved goodbye when Papa and Mummy left for work. I called up the PD to check whether if there is any cause for concern that Mayenne started her fever so immediately after the jab. He advised that the fever was likely not due to the jab but something else, so asked me to monitor her fever and if it's still high, I would need to make a trip to his clinic to follow up. That didn't settle me a bit.

Then I suddenly remembered that she was having a flu just about 1.5 weeks before the jab. Being the bad mum I am, I have totally forgotten that this could be important and we should have delayed the MMR jab for another 2 weeks or so. May be the fever was some "leftovers" from the previous flu bout which was 'reactivated' after the invasive injection.

When I checked on the net to find out more about the symptoms for fever after MMR jabs, to my horror, I found so many websites, forums, discussions that suggest MMR may cause autism and some mental impairment. How come I never check on this before sending Mayenne for the MMR? Will Mayenne suffer due to my ignorance? I am blaming myself for such stupidity and if anything happens to Mayenne, I will never forgive myself.

Then again, will I still have proceeded with the vaccination if I knew, cos these allegations are all not proven? And risk her contracting measles, mumps or rubella which have medically proven to be fatal?

I don't know, I really don't know.... but like what Chester said, it's already administered, and the benefits certainly outweigh the risks.

I can only pray that Mayenne will get well soon and back to her old self again. Please.

Mayenne Played a Little Tune

Mayenne definitely has Papa's genes.

This evening, after we reached home after picking Mayenne from my mum's, my little darling headed straight for her song-cum-piano book (a book with a little electronic piano attached), and played the first 7 notes to the song: Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Slowly, not exactly to the beat, but steadily she played...... mi-re-do-re-mi-mi-mi.

Fluke or not, that was the best piece of music I've ever heard.

Shhhhoooo Shhhickkkk

I have finally succumbed to it.

I thought the flu jab I took years ago was the ultimate vaccine, cos I din fall sick (well, at least not to flu) for almost 2 years, even when I was pregnant.

When my colleague Alice reported to work one day with a pretty serious flu, I withstood any contagions and survived the week without a sniffle.

I guess the last straw was when my boss caught the flu bug, cos I was hanging around him quite a bit, for customer meetings and discussions. And Tamiflu had to expire on one of those days....

Here I am, trying to type with tissue paper in one hand and the other holding my head.

Not wanting Mayenne to catch it from me, I've "deposited" her with my mum for an overnight stay yesterday, but today I feel worse (just took the medicine from the doctor's - takes time to kick in). So Mum asked me to keep Mayenne with her for another night. You're the greatest, Mum!!!

I refrained from carrying Mayenne, afraid that the she will catch the bug from me. But she needed Mummy's comfort and warmth, so she cried and cried, arms outstretched, wanting me to carry her. Breaks my heart.

Mum had to carry her into the bedroom and asked us to quickly leave the house, or else she will keep looking for us and refuse to sleep. We had to quietly and quickly make my exit, and my mum told me the next morning that Mayenne actually slept well last night, which was great.

*aaaaaahhh-choooooo!*

Excuse me, gotta go and rest.

Happy Birthday Gramps!

Celebrated Chester's Dad's birthday over the weekend. Here she is trying to sing the birthday song.....

Once our Baby, Always our Baby

Over the last month, Mayenne has grown so much: she's taller and stronger now; she can walk rather steadily and even master stair climbing; has teeth to bite and chew food; and she can identify more than half of the alphabets and at least 40-50 things, from body parts to animals, and household items to people.

As her Mummy, I must admit I'm very happy and proud that Mayenne has completed her first milestone, from baby to toddler. But most importantly, she is a happy kid with loads of ideas and "patterns" up her sleeves, and she never fails to put a smile on our faces.

So fast she's grown, I've actually forgotten how fragile she can be.

This evening we went over to my Mum's for dinner as usual, and Mayenne would watch her a bit of TV while we quickly finish our dinner and get her ready to go home. While she was watching, she got excited and found herself lying down on her tummy, but her left hand and a part of her lower arm were caught between her body and the floor. Not knowing how to release her trapped hand, she tried tugging and jerking it out, and before we can stop her, she twisted her wrist and some fingers.

That was followed by a loud painful wail and she was inconsolable. What almost killed me was when I saw her arm: all limp, red and swollen. And when we tried to rub her hand, she let out another shriek in pain. I thought to myself: why did I left my Baby suffer!

We tried to soothe her down: tried to give her some water as I think she must be feeling so afraid, but she refused. Fortunately, her favourite TV program called "Danny & Daddy" came on, and she started to calm down a little and then she smiled.

Then gently we tried to rub her fingers and wrist again and this time she didn't resist (was probably distracted by the TV). Shortly after, we gave her her favourite toy to hold in her left hand. Slowly she reached out and curl her fingers round the toy.

She's gonna be alright. Thank God for that.

I guess this is the dilemma for all parents -- learning to let go so that the baby can explore with her new found mobility, but at the same time is constantly worried about safety and accidents.

But I guess that's part and parcel of parenting, but such worries would seem so minute and negligible, as they are nothing compared to the joys to derive from our kids - it's immeasurable.

From Crawling to Walking

Mayenne is officially walking! She is so thrilled with her new found skill that she just keeps walking and walking and walking - in a straight line, in a circle (eg round some furniture), sideways (actually she's trying to get her balance and walking at the same time) etc. Sometimes, she can get so confident that she'll even do some running instead!

Mummy will be getting her long overdue exercises - cos she has to run after Mayenne now!

Mayenne - Monet

We bought Mayenne a magnetic drawing board for her a couple of months ago, and the only thing she was keen to do with it then was to pick up the little 'stampers' (which came in various shapes like star and heart) and throw them to see them fly.

Gradually, Popo managed to teach her how the stylus and stampers are used but she was still not interested.

Then one day, Mayenne placed the board on her lap, took the stylus in her right hand and started drawing. At first she couldn't get much on the board as the angle at which she was holding the stylus was too low, ie about parallel to the board. Hence the nib was not on the board. Slowly she figured it out and she started to draw more confidently, so much so that she even reached for her favourite star stamper with her left hand (her right hand was still holding the stylus), and starting stamping.

Draw a bit, stamp a bit. She looked like she knew exactly what she wanted to draw. I have videoed the process but the clip was relatively long. So I've just enclosed the masterpiece here instead, which we named Shooting Stars.

Mayenne's First Artwork

Mayenne's 1st Haircut

After Mayenne was born, I refused to shave her head despite many "advices" from relatives and friends that a shaven head would yield a fuller set of crowning glory. I stood my ground as I have seen some of the babies whose parents have done that, and they (the babies) certainly don't look nice at all. Some of the parents even shave the baby's eyebrows (why would anyone want bushy eyebrows?), and the baby end up looking really sickly, like someone who has gone through chemo and lost their hair.

As the months went by, I began to wonder if my decision was wise. Yes, she was growing some hair, 'some' being the operative word. Thankfully, the gaps were filled (albeit slowly), and some wisps of hair (especially the fringe area) began to grow faster that the rest, and it started to irritate her forehead and eyes.

Popo has been bugging me to bring her to the hairdresser for a trim, but I still don't feel like cutting her hair, as I felt it will change Mayenne the Baby, and lose some part of the babyness in her.

On Wednesday, I had my 2nd driving refresher lesson, and by the time I reached my mum's place, the house was empty. I thought Popo brought Mayenne out to the market. When they returned and I opened the door, I saw Mayenne but didn't quite sure what was different about her. Then Popo said she brought her for a haircut. Ah.... so that was it!

Apparently, they had a hard time holding her down to have her hair cut - she was crying and squirming on my mum's lap. My mum was so afraid that Mayenne might be injured by the scissors, she stopped the hairdresser before she could finish, and they left the salon after paying $5.

I thought the haircut was badly done, may becos Mayenne was moving so much that it is impossible to have it done properly. Due to the abrupt termination of the hair cut session, some parts were not trimmed. And I think it's too short - in one morning, my daughter has become a son (see transformation below) - sigh.....

before:

after:

Mayenne's 1st (uh... 2nd?) Birthday

Again I was waiting for Chester to upload all the pictures before I can put up this post.

The party was great. Other than the usual birthday fanfare, I think the highlight of the party was for Mayenne to meet her new friends. Some of them whom she may have already met earlier on, but I guess she's too young to understand then.

Mayenne is certainly not the shy kind - she will reach out to touch her newfound friends, as if to say "Good to meet you!" In one instance, 2-year-old Jonesy (Soo Poh's son) had to leave the party early. So both mummies carried our babies so that they can say goodbye. Soo Poh then asked Jones to give Mayenne a kiss on the cheek (the side without the ant bite), but instead of doing that, he leaned forward so that Mayenne could kiss him!! Haha!


We can never take a perfect picture if the picture has more than 1 kid:
One for the album:


Please go to Chester's blog for more photos.

Mayenne's 1st Birthday

We celebrated Mayenne's 1st Birthday last Sunday (1st birthday as in 1 years old and the order number one - she will have her second party this coming Sunday). Chester did a great writeup on the happenings that day, so I am not going to duplicate that. Please see his blog for more details and photos.

Just want to say a few things here:


Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for organising this party (I just needed to order the cake). Mayenne was clearly happy and at her best and cutest behaviour throughout the party - she din even complain about the endless queue of people wanting to carry the birthday girl, a heavy diaper (Mummy forgot to change her in all the excitement) and a late milk feed (again Mummy was overwhelmed).


The cake was a winner as I have never seen people asking for second servings and 3kg birthday cakes being eaten till it ran out - I had to make sure that I've saved a slice for myself or else there wouldn't be any left! So it is a no brainer for me to order from the cake shop for the 2nd party.


Looking forward to the BIG DAY this coming Sunday!!!