My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

The last weekend was busy but fulfilling.  My bunch of buddies (less CEYU) and I turned up in full force to support WILSON as he geared up for his impending marriage in June with a traditional handing over of some gifts.

We’re happy for him - the fourth to tie the knot in our group after JIANWEI, WENQIANG and me.  This adds some pressure to ZHAOHONG (no, he doesn’t seem too affected by the pressure), CEYU (well at least he is happily in love currently) and SHIYONG (still on the way to finding love).

The past weekend also saw us bringing RACHEL back to play-school on Saturday.  It got a little getting used to again for her, and the usual crying in the morning resumed.  However, the situation is actually better now as she kind of stopped crying when we pick her up in the evenings.

We have been putting FELIX on his stomach, in a bid to entice him to crawl.  Instead of doing so, he is moving backwards and making 180 or 360 degree turns well.  He turned 8 months old recently.  Hope that is normal…

For as long as RACHEL is ill, she has been crying almost whenever she sees me and when I want to hug or carry her.  YEN says it’s just her illness that’s causing her to feel irritable; I don’t know so much…

I do pity my poor princess - she has had the flu, fever, diarrhoea and the likes the past couple of weeks that stopped her going to the play-school.  Almost the whole time, I kept away from her as she would cry almost everytime I showed her concern…  The doctors at KK Hospital diagnosed her with "viral gastritis"; YEN suspects there might be something more and until yesterday, she was still seeking alternatives to help our girl be well.

FELIX has kind of recovered from diarrhoea and flu.  YEN’s illness reached its height last week when she coughed throughout the night, unable to sleep well that she had to apply leave for most of the past week.  She hasn’t fully recovered yet, but said she could not be away from work for too long as she needs to be back to attend to matters at hand in her department.  Even when she was on leave, she received so many calls that hindered her rest.  =(

I have been sick for a few weeks - at least since two weeks ago - as far as I can remember. Inadvently, I had passed on the bugs of the illnesses to my children and possibily my wife. Now, RACHEL and FELIX have been ill for more than a week. At the height of all these, I felt RACHEL’s fever took too long and hadn’t really shown any sign of improvement and bundled her to the hospital. My mum insisted that FELIX should visit the doctors there too as he has been having influenza too for a little more than a week.

We did visit KK Hospital on Wednesday after I returned from school. Since RACHEL fell ill last Saturday, she cries almost everytime I go near her. Even now as she is recovering, she continues to cry everytime I how her concern and wants to hug or carry her. I am completely saddened by this… sigh…

I am not sure if things at home had a ny bearing of what happened on Thursday in school. A fire drill was conducted and I reacted to a student whom I thought was very disrespectful to a fellow teacher. I just had to address that, but perhaps I over-reacted in in the words of my Vice Principal, “went overboard” with the way I approached the student. He spoke to me for a little close to two hours that late afternoon, and insisted at some point of time that I had a problem handling my “rage”.

During the teachers’ meeting yesterday, he asked me before the meeting if I mind sharing the incident with the rest of the teachers as an incident we “could all learn from”. Of course, I said I didn’t and did as he requested. The rest of the meeting concluded without too many incidents. After the meeting, I stayed to mark some books until the school closed at about seven o’clock, and in this time, a few teachers approached me to share that they felt there was nothing too wrong with what I did during the fire drill and they appreciated my being vocal to give my input when the staff was asked what we hoped the school could do so that all teachers would be happy coming to work. Perhaps my value system and being vocal was appreciated; but it could land me in hot soup sooner or later if I am not being careful… =(

Feedback from the teachers was that RACHEL was settling in a little in the play-school.  We would send her there by 7am or so in the morning and YEN would stay with her until she would leave for work too.  It was only on Thursday that we had to leave immediately due to the recent outbreak of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease.

They say that our princess would bawl usually when we left her, but she would be consolable as she would be distracted to something (most times, it would be bubbles she would love to chase!) and stick to a teacher from then to the rest of the day there.

She is eating the food there, and in bigger amounts, though the teacher she sticks to will have to feed her.  We are allowing her to experience with utensils at home when there is time, but the amount she takes in on her own just makes us feel sorry for her as she must go hungry if we do not intervene after some considerable amount of time.

We left her in the play-school for the longest amount of time yesterday - and it was not our choice!  I have to attend staff meetings on Fridays and it usually drags until five in the evening or so.  By the time I picked YEN up to rendevous with RACHEL, it was after six.  YEN witnessed what I have seen over the past feel days - RACHEL being bundled out to the entrance and wailing when she saw me there to pick her up.  Little princess was so tired yesterday that she fell asleep in YEN’s arms on the car…