Reyes' in the hospital again

Reyes' post:

This is my 2nd hospital stay and it's for pneumonia this time. Mummy is guessing it's probably cos of the bad haze 2 weeks ago. I had a persistent cough which escalate to lungs infection coupled with fever and ended up in pneumonia.

I had 6 cycles of ventolin puffs at the A&E but my airway was still tight and with heavy breathing thus the adminssion. The time round Mummy didn't stay with me, Daddy did. Mummy had to go home to look after Nee and express milk. Daddy said I'm already a big gal so I need to be sensible.

Some of Mummy's friends visited me during my stay and brought me lots of stuff. We appreciate their kind thoughts. Nainai and Dua Pek came too. Though I didn't have to go school, could watch TV the whole day and there were lots of toys/ballooons for me, I still wish I was back home. I miss Reyden and Nee Nee.


I went home with a lung function test booked in Sep. PD had wanted to check if this is just a one time thing and nothing to do with my lungs. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Reyes can do it too!

Mummy's post:

Just shortly after Reyden learnt to cycle the 2 wheeler, she mastered it too! I must I say I'm pretty proud of her. Reyden learnt it with Daddy's help. Daddy had been pushing and holding his bicycle from behind and eventually he managed on his own. Daddy had done the same with Reyes but she was just too afraid to do it so Daddy said will teach her again another time.

However this little gal didnt give up. Everytime Reyden goes down to cycle, she tags along and has a go at his bicycle. All on her own ...
And one fine day (which is today), she got it! She even managed to figure out going round turns herself. We can go for cycling outings at parks soon!

Reyes' white pearlies are out and out!

Reyes had a tooth dropped and half a tooth growing out. Mummy was all excited and worried about it, worried if Reyes will be afraid of teeth dropping, worried if she can cope with the "change", worried about this and that.

However Reyes has been a brave gal. She didn't cry or get a scare when her tooth dropped and bled. Mummy's little gal has grown up!

Big gal thing

Mummy's post:

I wonder if it's a trend for young gals nowadays to be in the ballet craze. More than half the gals around me are doing ballet and that includes the young lady at home. I had thought she was probably more into the princessy costume, the dreamy dance steps initially. However as she moves on in this area, I do see the "talent" in her. She has good music sense, definitely better than her brother. And she's vv flexible too. The teacher has also feedback about her potential. So as much as I'm lazy to send her for her classes and some reluctance to pay, I still let her go ahead.

The primary school we are aiming for classified ballet as a niche CCA, I certainly hope this enrichment will help her in some ways or another by then.

Princess (& Prince) Party and Reyes' scare

We had a princess (and prince) party this evening, a big scale one. The aunties each have their individual stations doing hair, manicure, makeup and phototaking for us. We were all dressed up in princess gowns and there were dances, cat walks and etc ... Everyone enjoyed the party.

Mummy's note:
However a mishap happened when we were about to head home. The kids were playing catching when Reyes fell and cut her chin. It was a deep cut with blood flowing non-stop. I got a scare and started crying. Luckily Kent was around, he was pretty calm and tried stopping the blood. Reyden isn't too bad either. He helped to pack up our bags, carried the umbrellas as we rushed off to the hospital. Reyes had been pretty brave, stopped crying and could still give me a smile at the hospital. She took 10 stitches, didn't cry, didnt struggle.

11 days later ... We went back for the removal of stitches. That's the tricky part. The pulling out of the stitches seem to be painful. Reyes couldnt stop crying and struggling. The whole process took more than an hr and finally DONE.

Party time at friend's place

Reyes:

Mummy brought me to Cheyanne's place for a mini kids' party. Gorgor was stuck at home with Papa due to a flu and sore throat.

I kind of miss Reyden, felt lost and was playing on my own the whole time. Mummy said won't bring me along if Gorgor is not going next time.

Reyes' 1st set of gold jewellery

Reyes' post:

It's actually just a little pair of gold earrings that Mummy and Waipo went out to get for me but I love the little rings. However they took half an hour to change me out of my studs though. It was painful and bleeding. Nevertheless my ears turned out fine after awhile and I was happy (& pretty) again.

Reyes' bling bling

Reyes finally got her "blings"! But looking at the pix, you know it wasn't an easy job. Nevertheless Mummy wants to praise her for enduring the pain and continued with the other ear's piercing. She was up and chirpy mins after that.

Reyes' new milestone

She could tie her own hair!! Mummy & Waipo were pretty surprised to see her tying her own hair for the 1st time as no one had taught her how to do it.

Reyes' almost there ...

Mummy's post:

Finally after almost a year off diapers in the day, Reyes woke up with dry diapers for 2 nights in a row!!

We thought she'll probably take longer than this cos she will always wake up with wet diapers and not able to control her bladder as well as Reyden. So while Reyden had been fully toilet-trained since 1-2 months ago, we didn't expect too much from Reyes.

However there were signs of indication since few days ago when she wakes up with lighter diapers and finally dry diapers! We shall monitor for another month before I dare to take the risk (to let go sleep without diapers/pull ups). Let's hope she'll be totally off them by her birthday. Keeping my fingers crossed ...

Reyes & big big bus

Reyes' post:

I was found to be slightly feverish this morning therefore Mummy decided to keep me at home to monitor. Daddy saw that I was well and active by afternoon, thought that they shall bring me on a "big big bus" ride. In case you wonder what's a big big bus ... It's just a normal double decker bus. As Reyden had been on one before and he had always been telling me about it so I bugged Daddy to bring me on one as well.


My 1st paid public transport.

Reyes' eczema ...

Mummy's post:

This is a little update on Reyes' eczema. I believe most of you had read about her visit to the 'miracle doctor" that cost us a bomb. Though her eczema hasn't been fully cured but at least we don't see her scratching as badly and no more open wounds. We also find out thru trial and error that she's allergic to eggs as well, therefore she's totally off all milk, milk products & eggs. I certainly hope she'll outgrow it cos egg is one of her favourite food.

The assuring thing is probably she hasn't lose much weight after cutting off her milk intake. In fact she had been putting on more weight than Reyden. That was my biggest concern initially. Apparently she's eating more now after we took milk out from her diet. Thank you God ...

A side note, this little gal sure loves to sing. She picks up songs easily, regardless Mandarin, English or even Hokkien songs. Listen to this and you'll agree.

A day at Vivocity

Reyes' post:
I followed Mummy, Yiyis and Yipo on a shopping trip again. Waipo came to join us after work. We were at Vivocity for the whole day with great lunch at Hongkong Kim Gary Restaurant and a wonderful dinner at Dian Xiao Er (店小二）. We ended the day with some shots at the Christmas lightings area.


Lunch at Kim Gary

Christmas lightings

Ladies and gals


Me with Yiyis and Jiujiu

Me alone!!

Punishment for Reyes or Daddy & Mummy?

Mummy's post:

All the while I've been complaining more about Reyden's mischievious acts and naughty behaviours. However recently Reyes' behaviour had been a concern too. She started to get upset with us, sob in silence or refuse to talk to us if we scold or even raise our voice slightly at her. This is especially so after Kent scolds her each time. She'll sulk and refuse to talk to him, let him touch her, bath/feed her and even tell him "我生爸爸的气,因为他骂我。"

There was once when I found her sobbing in the room for almost an hour. When asked what happened, she told me "我不喜欢你大大声骂我". In summary, she had us "manipulated" with her words and reactions to our scoldings and disciplining. This put us in a very difficult position whenever we want to discipline her.

For this I can still handle it fine. Perhaps cos I have more patience with her and she's more willing to listen to me so I'll talk to her nicely most of the time. However there will still be time when Kent needs to step in to teach and things turn nasty sometimes ... That was the case for last night.

The cause of scolding for both kids was a trivial one but Reyes had to throw tantrums at Kent and bang on the mattress while I was in the washroom. The cane was already whipped out when I came out of the washroom. She got 3 strokes of it, 2 on her thighs and 1 on her backside. This is the 1st time I've seen her so scared and she cried till she started to shiver. Though we agreed not to intervene when the other party is disciplining the kids but I had to put a stop and hold her away. She couldn't stop crying and eventually vomitted ...

As I was bathing her, she was more or less calmed down. I asked her "你知道为什么爸爸打你吗？" and she could answer me "因为我坏蛋,不乖" before starting to sob again. My tears rolled down with hers. It hurt me so badly. I knew that she understood what she did was wrong but she just didn't expect Daddy to really cane her. So it came as a shock to her.

She promised me not to be naughty or throw tantrums at Daddy again and went to bed with teary eyes. And that was after saying sorry to Daddy ... The episode ended with Kent having to wash the soiled bedsheets and me very much affected by the flashbacks of her being caned. Kent didn't feel good for the night either.

This morning she woke up recalling the incident and told us the cane marks still hurt and she won't be naughty again. However by the later half of the day she was back to her normal cheerful self again whereas Kent and I are still feeling 心疼 each time we see the cane marks.

我问自己这样的管教方式到底是在惩罚孩子还是我们呢？或许体罚对他们带来的影响还不及于对我们的精神惩罚来的重。以下的这张照片是要提醒自己和Kent以后不要再这样“折磨”自己了 ...

Reyes and her eczema

Mummy's post:

It had been bothering us for a long long time especially so now cos of the hot weather lately. I'll wake up every night to the scratching sounds, blood stains on her pyjamas and bedsheets and her complaints of itchiness. She has open wounds on the back of hands, elbows, knees, back, neck and almost everywhere. We've tried almost every creams, medication, moisturisers & etc but it still didn't help much.

I was near desperation when a stranger came up to us one day and told me about a clinic near our place after seeing the wounds on her hands. I don't know what made me listened to him but the clinic's name caught my attention - 恩典. Is God answering my prayers? I decided to bring her for a try anyway.

We were told that she's allergic to milk and we were to cut off all her milk intake. Come to think of it, that might be true. Her eczema came up only after I stopped breastfeeding her and it worsened after we started her on fresh milk. This shouldn't be too much of a problem cos she was only drinking milk once or twice daily. As for the other thing of her diet we need to note is seafood which I'm not giving anyway. We were given cream, tea tree bath oil and some oral medication to ease the itch and inflammation.

And guess what? All these for the price of $230 and the doctor is not even a specialist! Ok, I know good things come with a price so I'm not complaining ... yet. Well, at least it seems to be better for these 2 days or is it my own imagination? We shall see how it can aid in her condition. I keep my fingers crossed.

Side-track abit ... Reyes said her very own 1st prayer when I brought her to the clinic! We were waiting quite long for a carpark lot when I told her "Ok, shall we pray for a lot? You need to see the doc and there's no lot for us to park the car." And she went ahead with "Dear Jesus, I want a lot. I need to see doctor. Amen." I was so amused by her innocence. I certainly pray that God will help with her recovery. Amen.

Reyes' visit to KKH

Reyes' post:

Mummy decided to bring me to KKH after my temperature stayed above 38 degree celsius for the 3rd day despite all the fever medications given. I was found to be wheezing and showing some signs of flu symptoms therefore was given ventolin puffs and prescribed Tamiflu. As told by the doctor, Tamiflu is now given to all flu patients regardless whether it is H1N1 or not. The number is getting too big therefore they were instructed to treat just all flu cases as H1N1.

However we were cautioned against the side effects of Tamiflu. It includes diarrhea, nausea, vomitting, developing illusions, headaches, serious skin allergies & etc ... Mummy don't understand why should they put someone who might not even have H1N1 thru all those scary-sounding side-effects. The logic behind sound warped but anyway Mummy was too lost and tired to reason with them on this so we just paid $45 for the Tamiflu and went home with it.

Oh, did I mention about the struggling and screaming saga we had when I was given the 2 doses of puffs? The people at the treatment area were all giving us stares. Mummy had to hold me down tight between her legs and arms. It made her teared to see me crying so helplessly.

Upon reaching home, Mummy was hesitant to give me the Tamiflu but she went ahead for fear that I might really be down with H1N1. However the immediate reaction seemed bad. I vomitted big time within half an hr and I fell asleep soon after that.

Mummy got pretty worried and decided to stop the Tamiflu medication. I seem to get better thru the night though still having low grade fever but at the very least, I stopped vomitting and was more lively this morning. We were told to go back KKH for a blood test if my fever still stay around 38 degree celsius. Mummy is praying hard that I won't have to go thru that. Pls keep me in all your prayers. Thanks ...


Mask given at hospital entrance


Disney mask given by the children's A&E nurses

Child Labour

Reyes is down with fever therefore stuck at home with Mummy. And to keep her occupied while Mummy's doing the laundry ... she was asked to hang up her panties and Reyden's underwears. Poor child ...

Another chinese song that Reyes sings

Mummy's post:

Reyes had given me a pleasant surprise as they were playing last night. She went singing the birthday song in chinese out of the blue.


生日快乐 song

Mummy trimmed Reyes' fringe for the 1st time

Reyes' post:

Many had been commenting that my fringe looks messy at that length. And Mummy too had noticed it's been irritating my eyes therefore she decided she shall do something to it today.

She had gotten a pair of hair cutting scissors from Daiso long ago but had not had the courage to do it till this afternoon. It was a breeze cos I sat still thru it. I was as excited as Mummy. After the haircut, I ran happily to Daddy and told him "Daddy, 你看! Mummy cut meimei's hair. Meimei pretty gal!"

Mummy was proud that it was pretty neat job done. And more importantly, she had saved $21.40 instead of bringing me to Supercuts for the fringe trim.


Before


After (This silly gal gave such a silly look cos Mummy had asked her to smile for the camera)


A better shot. Neat, isn't it??

Mummy, Teacher Mylene, Reyes and her hair

Mummy tied Reyes' hair this way yesterday morning.



She came back with this.


Mummy thought she shall tie Reyes' hair the way Teacher Mylene did.



And she came back with this!!

Wah, Mummy was impressed by Teacher Mylene's hair tying skills.