My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

Let us welcome KAYLEEN into our world!  =)  KAYLEEN was born on 30 Jan 2009, after YEN was told that the baby has to be induced because there is not enough fluid in her womb, which became dangerous for the baby.  So she was admitted on that morning and gave birth in the afternoon.

I have not been updating much in this space recently because I have been having trouble with the saving of posts here, as well as having a lot of problems with ’spam’ comments.  These, coupled with quite a bit of work on my end, jsut put me off some times.  There were a few times that I wrote and saved blogs on this space, only to discover that my written blog vanish, meaning that I had to rewrite if I wanted to…

I have felt a little strain already since KAYLEEN came home for one night.  This was because RACHEL fell ill the night KAYLEEN was born, getting temperature as high as 39 degrees at a point.  She woke intermittenly that night, not allowing me to have too much of a sleep…  hope that this does not happen too often…

Just a little while ago, I was involved in a shouting match with an Indian man who came ringing our doorbell. He seemed “nice” at first, but got louder along the way and even challenged me out of my home to ‘talk to him’…

It started like this. It was another lazy Sunday. I was lamenting on the amount of work I had to accomplish and was doing them until I heard some loud screams outside. It went on for a couple of minutes and I got out of the house to see where it was coming from. I saw that they came from Indian children just upstairs, running along the corridor and screaming while doing so. I went upstairs and informed the adults that the children were too loud. I went back downstairs after that.

A while later, someone rang our doorbell. A seemingly drunk Indian man said I had disturbed his family function with my “complaint”. He started out saying he “appreciated” my informing them they were too loud, but grew more and more aggressive as our conversation grew. He even challenged me to go out and talk to him. I was enraged and wanted to do that, only stopped by YEN and my mother. RACHEL and FELIX were with me at the door at that time, and I was not sure if they understood what was going on. But I think they did not, as they did not seem afraid…

It was later that his relatives came downstairs and pulled him away, saying that he had a bit of a drink. It turned out that that man wasn’t even staying upstairs. He was just a relative invited to the function. The neighbours staying upstairs were apologetic and understanding, apologising profusely for the scene the man created.

Me? I wondered if I had been too impulsive by going upstairs in the first place. YEN said I may have a problem managing my anger. Was it true?? I’m not sure. Think it wasn’t like this in the past…

If I hadn’t said this, then let me say it now - this December holiday break has turned out to be one full of illness for my family.  It started off with RACHEL getting HFMD during my remaining weeks I was required back in school after students went on holidays, followed by FELIX and myself.

When that was over, I had a couple of days’ rest to catch RACHEL in her concert performance for her play-school, then it came to RACHEL, and then FELIX and my mum, contracting the viral flu.  I thought it was all over and we can have a good Christmas until I experienced pain when I put weight on my right foot on Christmas eve.

I thought I could sleep it off that night but I woke up on Christmas with the same, if not more, pain on my right foot, near the ankle area.  YEN had me go to see a doctor - a General Practitioner near home - and he thought I had this condition called ‘gout’.  According to him, gout in men is akin to menstrual cramp to women.  He couldn’t confirm it with a blood test as it was the holiday period and blood samples taken could be contaminated by the time they are tested after that.

YEN did not think it was, and forbade me to take medicine for it.  I took only painkillers over the past two days and it seems to be getting better.  According to YEN, it could just be inflammation.  Just a couple of days more to the end of this year - I hope the buck (or bug!) stops here and we embrace a new year of health and wealth!

The play-school RACHEL attends held a graduation concert for their children, where the eldest children going to primary one next year were the highlights, and everyone else moved up to the next class.

With her contracting HFMD earlier, I was quite afraid that she would not have learnt enough to perform during the concert, but luckily, her dance was taught and rehearsed in time.  I was also afraid of her getting stage-fright on seeing so many people viewing their concert, but she was not too affected (probably didn’t understand what was happening at first) until the finale, where she had to appear in front of the audience for a second time.

I think because the play-school was not exactly sure if she was participating in the concert, so they slot her in a corner during the performance.  But she easily caught the neutrals’ attention as she was lively and energetic during her dance.  Atta girl!

The next day, however, she vomited a few times and had diarrhoea.  Sigh.  Think she caught viral flu.  The illness has, somehow, found its way to FELIX as well and our poor boy is now still sick.  They are both on the way to recovery, but I wish it could be sooner…  My mother is also down with something like that too.  Sigh, this December holidays is a short enough one for me already, but to be ragged by these illnesses coming one after another?

We are still at crossroads in deciding about a couple of things, mostly due to YEN’s hectic schedule at work and our needing to tend to the children.  We have not decided on our third child’s name, and whether we want for sure to employ a domestic helper.  I will be beginning my stint with a tuition agency to try my hand at it for the first time this Friday to gain some experience in it, while making some extra dough in the meantime.  Cash will come in handy during a global economic crisis like this!

Thankfully, I am cleared of HFMD since Sunday.  Though we suspect FELIX has had the disease too, he hasn’t been too difficult other than on the two days he had fever.  He had not have a lot of blisters on the hands / legs as well as his face too.

RACHEL went back to school without too many glitches and is fitting back in time for her play-school’s concert this Friday night.  We await with baited breath how she will be “performing”, our little princess.  =)

YEN’s on leave at home this week.  She urged me to go for Lasik, and I went for the pre-Lasik evaluation today.  The process took a couple of hours, but it was not long before the doctor at Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) told me that I was not recommended to undergo the operation, due to the thinness of my cornea.  It made it dangerous.  Nevertheless, I was put through the other tests too and she uncovered another possible problem I might have.  I shall be going for a follow-up consult next week to see if it is a big deal.

Tomorrow, on Wednesday - 10 December 2008, YEN and I are bringing the children on their second trip to the zoological gardens.  They have been there once but I guess they hardly understood / remembered too much of it.  I think this trip tomorrow will make more sense, at least to RACHEL - she had been able to tell some animals and their sounds made.  I hope we will enjoy ourselves tomorrow…  =)

I had fever on the last day of our staff meetings on Friday last week, and have discovered some growth of blisters on my fingers and feet, especially my toes.  I suspect that I’m havign HFMD too!

So I took RACHEL to a General Practitioner (GP) near our home on Monday.  I was worried that I would, too, spread the disease around to our children and to people I meet later this week as I have a couple of activities I needed to see to.  The activities include a pre-briefing for a Community Involvement Project and the first session of tuition at a tuition agency for me.

This GP that I saw was really patient to hear me out and was clear in his explanation of the situation to me.  He confrmed my fears that I was indeed carrying HFMD and cleared RACHEL to be able to go back to play-school.  He corrected my misconception that HFMD will be a vicious cycle for us now that I am carrying it and told me that since I got it from RACHEL, it is the same strain of the disease I am carrying and RACHEL is now resistent to it.

YEN and I are not sure if FELIX has HFMD too, but we have decided against bringing him to a GP for consultation since there is little they can do for him too.  We will just keep our fingers crossed that he will be well soonest…

We’re officially four days and almost halfway into RACHEL’s episode of HFMD (Day 1 was the night of discovery, according to her medical certificate).  She has been an angel of a child in this period, really.  It just pains me further to have her couped up in our room and send FELIX into my mother’s to prevent contact among them.  We hope that this will reduce the chance of the spread of the virus to FELIX…

She has been generally lethargic these couple of days and been very cooperative to our instructions.  She hasn’t cried too much about wanting to run out of the room, but it does pain me to have to just ‘force’ her to stay inside…

We were told that the last few days of her carrying the virus was a little more contagious and people (children) around her will be more susceptible to getting it.  I hope that the virus will just die from there.  Anyway, I’ll be around then as this week is my last week that I’m officially needed back in school.  Have been on leave on Monday and today.  Will be popping in tomorrow for a while for my department’s presentation for some project and be in school for Friday.

I do feel somewhat stressed by the many events that take place around me since getting married.  I am trying my hardest to cope with things that happen while not neglecting and disappointing my wife and children, who need me most…  =(

Sigh - the feared disease must become inevitable.  RACHEL had fever since Saturday and we discovered a blister on her right thumb (the one that she always sucked to sleep).  Alarm bells rang and we immediately brought her to the pediatricians at NUH. 

There, my worse fear was confirmed.  Sure, it really isn’t a big deal, some might say.  But considering the fact that YEN can hardly stay away from work, that I still have this week to go before I declare the start of my December holidays, and that I have one more child (FELIX) at home to separate from RACHEL…  things were gloomy for me.

Really think we should get extra help henceforth.  Taking into consideration that YEN will be delivering another one come February next year…  yes, I do think we need another adult around the house when we cannot tear ourselves away from work.

Have been successful at keeping RACHEL in the room this morning until now, about 3 in the afternoon.  She isn’t showing too many ill effects of the disease, and she isn’t whining.  Have to keep her hydrated, YEN told me.  I managed to do that, thanks to the Hi-5 CDs - pausing it to coax her to drink some water and playing only after she does.

Other than her reluctance in going to bath, drinking water and going to bed, the only other time she cried this morning was when I heard FELIX cry loudly after a seemingly loud ‘bang’.  It was apparent that he got his head knocked onto something in my mother’s room.  I brought RACHEL out of our hideout to see if he was okay.  RACHEL wanted to go to the ground from my grasp, like she wanted to go to FELIX to see if he was alright.  Had to deny her the opportunity of playing ‘good elder sister’ and brought her back into the room, amidst her cries…  =(

I called my school and found out from my administrator that I had only one more day of childcare leave for this calendar year, expanded today.  Hope I can get a couple more days of leave from my Principal over other avenues…

It age thirty, I discovered I actually had wisdom teeth in my mouth all these years.  This is probably due to my not remembering what had been taught - that I had to visit a dentist once every six months.  Now that I’m advocating this in school, I thought I better go for a check-up in June.

I had an x-ray done and discovered I had four wisdom teeth in my mouth.  I was told that I did not have to extract any if they were not giving me any problem, but in the end, the dentist, who happen to be an ex-secondary school classmate, told me that I had to get at least one extracted as it affected one of my other molars.

I had a bad toothache recently and was on painkillers until I was able to go for my appointment.  It was done a little over half-an-hour.  I was shown the wisdom tooth and the molar by its side during my visit,  I found out for the first time that stained teeth and cavity, shown in Health Education textbooks and dental clinics, was possible in me!

At the end of the visit, she also told me that the wisdom tooth that caused my toothache was not the same one that she told me I had to get extracted!  I have to get another one extracted a couple of weeks later, and this time, the surgery will be longer and more difficult based on the place of the wisdom tooth.

I went to look for a little extra income in the form of an tuition agency.  This one in Jurong West, called MindStretchers, had no problems in giving me a class to teach, starting December.  But due to my timing available and the number of teachers that they already have, they can only give me one class at the moment on Friday evenings.  I’ll start out with them and see what it brings.

Also, YEN made a call on my behalf to ask about a LASIK surgery.  I was deliberating over one for a couple of months now.  I felt it was probably helpful as I teach Physical Education and glasses do sometimes hinder my teaching.  Moreover, it will save me some money in the long run if I were to change glasses every couple of years or if I wanted to go for contact lenses.

My sister-in-law, Huijun, had hers done recently and is coping fine with her new found eyesight.  And YEN just made an appointment for me after finding this one from SNEC that cost a little cheaper than the rest.  I think there will be hidden charges and the cost will swell upward, but since she is so supportive of me getting the operation done, perhaps I should put my worries aside and just go for it…

I wanted to try count the number of words RACHEL can say (and mean them!).  Perhaps I shall try…  Let’s see:

These are words to address people around her - Daddy, Ma ma and mummy, Di di, Ah ma, Po po (my mum-in-law), shu shu (EDDIE) and shen shen, jiu jiu (JASON, my brother-in-law).  Not forgetting RACHELand YI ZE.  That’s eleven words.  She has recently been able to name some of her schoolmates in the play-school, but I’m not going to count those…

She can say the letters of the alphabet and zero, count one to ten.  She is able to name some animals - dog, cat, butterfly, elephant, frog, bear, duck, rabbit, bird, monkey, pig, donkey and horse.  Some fruits - apple, orange and banana.  That’s another twenty-seven.

The colour that she can say readily is blue.  She knows book.  When she is watching TV, she says Hi-five, Pooh Bear, Mickey Mouse and Minnie, Dibo, Johnny (of Johnny and The Sprites), Danny (of Danny and Daddy), Barney, Strawberry (of Strawberry Shortcake), Manny (of Handy Manny).  She can name shapes - square, circle, triangle, star.

Some random words will include yes, no, hi, hello and bye, see you later, nose, sit, stand, clap, kick, sleep, carry, balloon, no more, car, bus, quack, eye, hug, cold, flower, shi shi (urinate), cake, milk, ball, baby, pain, bless you, tissue, shoe, etc.  Think I’m missing out quite a bit but these are those that come to mind now, looking at her sitting in front of me.  The total is about eighty-eight.  Though it may be a little slow for a two-and-a-half year-old, I feel, I’m just quietly anticipating the time when she will able to talk to us a lot.  Perhaps I will feel that she talks too much later.  But that’s later…