My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

I felt so guilty that I dropped FELIX the last weekend at my mother-in-law’s.  How did it happen?

I went to fetch my her from work with my wife and children at Plaza Hotel, where she works as a cashier at a restaurant there.  We proceeded to get lunch in Bedok Central before going over to her place.  I wanted to let her carry FELIX at first after carry him off the car, but she was occupied with RACHEL, so I carried him instead.

We approached the void deck of her block of flats together, with me walking slightly behind them.  I was occupied with playing with FELIX and also the fact that I had noticed that there was some notice pasted at the lift area.  That was one of the reasons why I had missed seeing the stone stool jutting out the middle of no where beside the stone table at the void deck.

The stool was short and in ‘no-man’s land’.  That was the second time I walked into it, injuring my right shin in the process while carrying my baby.  The first time was when I carried RACHEL but luckily, I managed to hang on to her and did not drop her.  FELIX was not so lucky this time, as I lost him from my arms.  As a result, he wailed after hitting the back of his head on the floor.

My mother-in-law and my wife was quite worried about me when all I was worried about was how FELIX was.  I am really scared that it would injure him big time.  Luckily for us, he had not shown any adverse effect from the fall this past week and has been continuing in his learning to walk.  He is more steady walking now, though he still suffers from the occasional fall on his bums after a few steps.

RACHEL, on the other hand, was kept at home last week due to her illness and was back this week.  It was difficult for her to settle in again after the week’s absence.  Luckily for us, she had gradually improved over the week and is nearly back to her old self at the play-school by Friday.  A teacher from the play-school said that they plan to toilet-train a couple of children, RACHEL included, who are moving on to the ‘Nursery’ group from the ‘Junior Toddlers’.  YEN and I have deliberated for a few months how best to do that and hope that this training will work.

RACHEL is still slowly ‘finding her feet’ at speaking, surprising me with new phrases she had learnt every once in a while.  The latest one was ‘Daddy, where are you?’.  I was elated when I heard that!

YEN and I were lying on the bed last night with RACHEL, teaching her things and reading to her.  She noticed that we totally ignored little FELIX as we were telling RACHEL that mummy is having another baby, a sister.  This left FELIX walking around the edges of our bed on his own.  To his credit, he did not make any noise about being left out.

YEN remarked that we could be starting to have the “middle child syndrome” running in our family already, where we leave the middle child out on a lot of things, forgetting him when we tend to the oldest and youngest children.  No, it isn’t done on purpose, really.  Well, I must make an effort not to leave him out of things we do.

I bade goodbye to my class today, hoping that they would really study heard in the next few days that they needn’t attend school due to the PSLE Marking.  The year’s finally drawing to a close, and memories with this class - being my first ever since I started teaching - will probably remain etched in my heart.  There are points to learn from and things where I could have done better at, but I’m quietly glad that the year is drawing to an end, finally, while feeling sad about not going to have them under my wings anymore.

I was thinking about what I can do in the coming days after their examination with them.  Hopefully, I can do meaningful and fun things with them in the remaining days!

We were very happy yesterday when FELIX finally took his first baby steps - standing and walking a few steps on his own.  It was about time, before he turned fourteen months old!  It could have come sooner, but it had finally happened!

On the other hand, RACHEL fell ill again.  It was a continuation from her diarrhoea in the past weekend, and it just went on to her fever these couple of days.  Medication had helped bring down the temperature, but it seemed only for a couple of hours as her temperature would rise again, after the effect of the medicine wears off.  Her fever has not completely been cured, and we are keeping her away from play-school these couple of days…

My own fever is peaking.  No, not my illness, I mean the climax of the shool year - the examinations have began with their composition writings today.  I have began marking some of the P4 students’ work and will be going to mark some of my class’ students’ work later.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

The recent Children’s Day turned out to be a not very happy one for us at home when RACHEL had a bout of bad cough and some difficulties in breathing.  That gave us a scare as the hopital wanted to admit her.  This is what happened…

Thinking that it would be a good rest for me and that we could take a much needed one, we were glad when the holiday came.  But at night, RACHEL was coughing quite badly and we sent her to NUH’s Children’s Emergency Department to have a look by the doctor.

It turned out that they gave her some treatment on the spot - letting RACHEL breathe in some medication via a gas mask.  Our princess was, of course, not receptive to it and cried big time whenever the mask was to be put in front of her face for the medication to be administered.

It went on for a few times (the mask-thing) and when the doctor checked on her again, found that she was breathing very fast and there was a ‘wheezing’ sound in her lungs when she breathed.  He recommended that we admit her for the night, possibly longer if she was not going to be well enough soon.

At this point, like any parent would normally, I was very reluctant to let her stay.  Though I wanted my girl to recover, I could just anticipate the tantrum she would be throwing and that it would take a struggle for her to get settled down.  As parents, we would need to be by her side (though only one is needed) and I could just see the inconvenience as YEN is pregnant and needs rest; I could ill-afford to take leave as the examinations are nearing.

While we were waiting for them to settle the administrative portion of admitting her, we played with RACHEL, who was by then more settled into the place (of course she was oblivious of her impending admission), and started to play with us.  She somehow just didn’t feel tired at three in the morning though she did not sleep at all on the way to the hospital.

Luckily for us, her running around and playing with us actually improved her condition that when the doctor listened to her, her breathing seemed fine and there was no more ‘wheezing’ sound in her lungs.  The doctor then cancelled the instruction for admission and told us that we could go, giving RACHEL a review in a week.  It was nearing half-an-hour past four when we reached home, and RACHEL fell asleep only at five-plus…