Just before the music lesson ended, the teacher reminded the whole class,”Next week we will be having a term break. So remember not to come for class, ok?!”
A little voice piped up,”Hahaha! Yes! My Daddy always forgets! So many times!”
To the hub’s horror, the voice came from the 宝贝, who was sitting beside him.
Honesty should be rewarded. I allowed her to eat an extra biscuit – her favourite.
Whilst it is pleasant to see the masterpieces she churns out in art class under instructions (like where to draw a square, triangle etc so that they finally look like a giraffe), I love to see the ones she draws from her own imagination.
A fine drawing, using Pointillism. Well fat dots then… As big as her fingers. Hehe. On the top right corner dangles a purplish pink spider, complete with a smiley face. She’s quite adapt with smileys now. On the left is a massive, sticky spider web. “That’s the spider’s home where he catches his food.” Hmm… Not bad, she has been paying attention in school.
I was working on my computer in the study room while she occupied herself with drawing. When I turned my chair around, she was concentrating on adding the fine details, to the drawing on the bottom corner of my white board. It was pretty amusing to see her look of concentration.
There were so much details that I thought I should record it before I forget what they were…
This is a …. Ta da..!!! Laundry basket!!
A laundry line to hang clothes. The story seems quite congruent so far.
Her little brother. I don’t understand what he’s doing there… Maybe she wants to make him do her laundry in future….
That’s a bed.
I kind of thought that it looks like the Sydney Opera House. But it’s not. Apparently none of her friends has been to Sydney yet. She knows about the Eiffel Tower though. The picture shows…. Pieces of clothing!!!!
Hand in hand, sibling bonding. A peaceful sight.
Before long… The mind starts to wander…
Hmmm… Jie jie’s fingers… Sausages…. Fingers… Sausages….
I wonder what they taste like…. Wonder wonder….
Why bother with wondering?? I’m a man of ACTION! *pops them into my mouth to savour….*
Extremely loud shriek from Jie Jie “Di Di is eating my fingers!!!”
It’s the once a term teacher-parent session. I don’t think my parents had ever stepped foot into my schools in the entirety of my studying career. Because during my time, only parents of naughty children were summoned to school. I certainly weren’t an angel but didn’t justify for parent summoning.
Now, parents want to see the teachers, to keep track of their children’s progress. Even pre schools are doing it now! Once every term. Parenting has indeed evolved. From the hands off parents of the past to over zealous ones of the present.
For 宝贝, it’s the usual stuff. No red flag. Good enough for me. No news is good news! No more weird feedback like her lining up for 3-4 helpings of food when she was in nursery 1. (Her n1 teacher must think that I starve her at home…)
Something caught my eye as I was leaving.
I almost burst out laughing. It’s so “her”. I call her Silly Sally whenever she does silly things at home. The rest of her friends were using the normal textbook adjectives. Maybe I should tone down on the “Silly Sally” usage… Hmmm…
This is her BFF’s. It really looks like the child, right down to her cute bangs.
Children’s art – a reflection of reality.
The raging war against eczema started way back when she was a wee baby. The symptoms were all there.
At 6 months old, due to my dwindling breast milk supply, I started her on formula milk. Her over reactive immune system triggered an instant reaction of severe hives on every single part of her skin, that included her face. Panicked, we rushed her to the hospital’s a&e. It went away with the administering of anti histamine. That’s the first sign of her brush with allergy.
She was on and off allergic to various food. Luckily I was diligent on the 3 day food introduction exercise and managed to identify the cause. She was on an unprocessed, no condiment food diet until 3 years old. Fortunately she was an easy going child who loves food.
Her relationship with atopic eczema started when she was 8 months old. Berries triggered a mild reaction which quickly ceased when she stopped the intake and with external application of the Sebamed baby cream, religiously, every 2 hours.
Whenever she had a flare up, the sebamed baby cream ritual started. It all went well and suddenly, one fine day, it stopped working. No matter how much and how frequently we applied the cream, the redness spread. We switched to the California Baby Calendula Baby Cream. It ko-ed the eczema.
We had a 1.5 years relationship with the CB calendula cream until it stopped working as well. I switched to the Weleda Calendula Ointment. It pushed the eczema wave back a little, the redness spread, pushed it back a little and then it came back. It went on like a daily tidal cycle. It started from the right crook, then the left crook, her right wrist, right elbow, the back of her left knee, her neck.
She itched, she scratched and she cried.
Every bath was a crying affair. She screamed when the water and soap trickled down the open lesions. I asked her,”Do you want pretty arms?” She tearfully nodded. “Well, then, you can’t scratch them.”
I would start applying cream on the areas without open wounds then the 2 crooks would be the last to be treated. After I massaged cream into her left arm crook, she would chant,”not pain not pain”, although tears started to well in her eyes. She’d bent her arm so that she could resist scratching. After the application on her right crook, she would bend her arm and whimper, “Mama please hug me…” I’d hug the poor girl who still had both arms bent. She’s my brave little soldier.
The external application seemed to be helping but it wasn’t good enough. It seemed like a never ending battle, back and forth, every day. I decided to bring her to the TCM.
He’s a renowned TCM who used to be a Professor at our local university. He prescribed some medicine for her at a reduced dosage for her age. It looked brown and unappetizing. And he recommended her diet to be free of prawns and shellfish. She agreed and henceforth, whenever she is offered the taboo food (even when I am not with her), she will politely reject it.
It helped. The back of her knee healed, the ones on the neck too. But as you can see from her expression, it looked like I was the evil stepmother who was trying to poison her! =.=”
It took 30 mins just for her to down a few ml of brown medicine, amidst lots of coaxing, coercion, intermittent licks of honey. And I had to administer it to her twice a day!!! It was just too much a mental stress for me!
I seeked help on Facebook. Ah! It’s a useful thing. Many people left me messages on various medication, alkaline water etc. Thank you to all these kind souls out there! I’ve written down everything and I’m going to try them all one-by-one.
I’m now trying LactoGG.
LactoGG is a probiotic. It is a special, unique good bacterium, which has been proven to promote health in the human being.
Well, in short, it is an army of good guys introduced into your body to fight the bad guys!
She’s had it for about 1 month. The patch on her wrist looks somewhat better. The patches on her arm crooks too. But they still have a long way to go to being totally gone.
I’m still administering the Chinese medicine to her, when both of us are in good moods. I may change her external application cream when it runs out, to another one on my list to see if it can help push the tidal wave back.
I’m determined to win this eczema war with her! Eczema, we will triumph over you!!
My 2nd Mother’s Day present from 宝贝. She made a purse for me last year. I’ll have to get around to document it.
She loves to draw stick figures which have thin long legs, round black eyes, L shaped nose and a crooked smile. This is one of them. All her drawings are very colourful, perhaps it’s a reflection of her sunny disposition.
Anyway, that’s me she’s drawn. I must be a really colourful character in her heart. >.<
I love this photo. It took a while to arrange everyone to fit into the frame nicely. It’s a self taken shot, so the size is limited by the length of my arm. :p
宝贝’s knowing sideways smile. 小小宝贝’s clueless look. To me, it’s a gem of a photo.
That one moment, captured in eternity.
I love my short get-together time before bed with 宝贝. She’ll lie on her bed and recount her activities in the day to me.
宝贝: Mama, it’s your birthday today but papa didn’t buy you flowers. (With a very serious frown)
Me : *sigh*
宝贝: (she sat up on bed and patted my head gently) Never mind, never mind. Tomorrow I’ll draw many flowers for you. Ok? (Big eyed empathetic look)
Me : That’s real sweet of you!
宝贝 : But I don’t know how to draw flowers!! (Thinking hard, brows furrowed) Fish ok?? I know how to draw fish!
Me : (*bo he hair ma Ho! in this case, it’s bo huay, he ma Ho!) Erm fish?
宝贝 : (sensing my hesitation) I’ll draw many many fishes!! And a pond! And a duck!! Ok ok?!
Me : ok! (How can I reject her sincere offer?!) <3 <3
*bo he hair ma Ho = hokkien dialect. Literal translation : no fish, prawn works as well.
“She doesn’t know how to take the bus.”
“You must be kidding!! Isn’t she in Sec 2 this year?! I went around on buses when I was in Primary 5!!”
“Well, she’s always been ferried around by her mother…”
Oh my goodness…
Overprotective parents. Are we helping or harming our children?? Sure, these youngsters are academically brilliant but completely inept in handling normal day to day stuff.
I even see it in 宝贝. She’s been ferried around so much that taking mrt and bus are treats. I recall that it was the other way round for me. Buses (mrts were only operational very much later) were the norms. Car rides were the treats!!
When I gossiped with my friends about these “lucky” kids, it made me more mindful that I need to stop mollycoddling my children. Sometimes, for the sake of convenience, we “help” them with their tasks. Are we really helping or over helping??
We sometimes underestimate the abilities of our children. They are in fact, very capable of performing many tasks. We, parents, should have confidence in them and let them do it.
宝贝 was able to feed herself at a very young age. Of course, we went through lots of cleaning up and soiled clothes before we reached that stage. It was so tempting to just take over the spoon and shovel the food into her mouth so that I could save myself the task of cleaning up the entire mess!! I shudder at seeing grown up children (even the ones in primary schools) being fed by their parents and maids at the restaurants or even at family functions. Ok, I’d rather go for the mess at home during training than to be caught dead with an academically brilliant imbecile who still requires feeding at an advanced age.
Sure, she wants me to help her with everything, if she has the choice. It’s the easy way out. i usually let her choose – either she does it herself or everything remains status quo. No coercion or begging. Her choice.
Definitely, if the tasks are dangerous to perform at her age, I’d definitely take over. Her grandmas and some friends of mine think I’m too brave. Their idea of “safe” differs from mine at times. :p
There’s no better time than now to let go and let them learn. In fact, I have to constantly remind myself to let go for I can’t take care of her forever.
At the age of 3.5, she can do the following things (which I think all children of her age should be able to do) :
– Use the toilet on her own with the help of the handy ikea stool. That stool is worth every single cent and a hundred times more!!
– Dress herself.
– Prepare her own breakfast. Simple one of course.
– Feed herself.
– Pack her schoolbag.
– Walk home after she alights from her school bus
– Set the table (cutlery and plates) for the whole family at mealtimes.
– Bring her own dirty plate and cutlery back to the kitchen.
– Return her toys and books back to their original places after use.
– Do her own laundry. (Just putting them into the laundry basket and then into the washing machine, turn on the washing machine at the right setting).
– Use the phone, dial the correct numbers and “buy” groceries, (She places her grocery orders with my Dad. Haha.) or simply chit chat. She remembers a few people’s numbers for this purpose.
– Send whatsapp messages with single words.
Quite a long list! Next one on the list – bathe herself adequately.
Of course she gets treats when she does her chores. I just have to take the risk of cleaning up the mess if she fouls up. But hey! It’s for the long term benefit. Think of the amount of time and money you can save when she can help out with the household chores??
Meanwhile… Here’s my little housemaid in her Hello Kitty apron. That’s extra incentive. She likes to look good when she’s performing household chores. :p
This post should have preceded the chess play post.
We taught her how to play UNO just before our Gold Coast Trip in Aug last year, before her 3rd birthday. The game box stated that it’s suitable for ages 7 and above. But since this game has been around for decades (I remember playing it when I was a wee kid and I’m not young), they probably should have revised the age recommendation as children are becoming smarter these days!!
We taught her that because we ran out of games to play with her. Haha! Ok ok, it’s actually to train her matching skills for colours and numbers. We were not expecting her to know how to use the special cards like reverse, draw 2, skip, wild, draw 4. But she picked it up easily like a fish in water and actually understood when to deal them out.
She started off holding the cards in one hand and she had to pick them up one by one to see them. Now she’s able to fan them out nicely – see! Improve fine motor skills!! She’s also able to deal the cards out to everyone, 7 for each player by counting out loud.
The only thing she needs to be trained is to develop a poker face when she plays. It’s so obviously written on her face when she receives special cards. It’s pretty amusing to see her giggle to herself when she gets good cards. No hurry for her to lose her childish innocence. There are enough years for her to ease into the masked society, hopefully, not too disillusioned along the way.
*Contemplating which card to throw out. Hmmm….
*The evil laugh just before dealing a draw 4 card.
*Watching Godma Eds closely to make sure that she’s dealing the cards properly.
*A snapshot during the game.
*A snapshot of the 4 players @ sakae sushi at Changi Airport. You simply must have self taken photos at an all girls’ outing. No girly outing is complete without this!!!