Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? Ah-hem... Phoebe.

Dear Phoebe, mummy caught you looking at the mirror in the walk-in closet. I hope you loved what you saw. You will grow up to be a person full of confidence and self-worth. Mummy and Daddy will give you all the support and encouragement, and you will have to learn that there's no task in life that will be too difficult if you look up to God and try your very best. You are a winner.

Dresses

She admires her dresses. I hang her dresses in the closet upstairs. I will only bring them downstairs when I want her to wear the dress. She will exclaim with "Wow" when she sees me holding her dress on the hanger and she will take it from me. Drags it everywhere for quite sometime before letting us take it away from her.

There was one night, I took out the dress and told her that she will wear it the next day. She refused to let go of her dress, held on to that dress until she goes to bed. I had learn the lesson, will not take out any dress until the moment I want to let her wear.

First Barbie Doll

Bought two Barbie dolls for her from Tesco. This Barbie has a handbag, sunglasses and a comb. I spoil the sunnies when I un-packaged it. I accidentally cut the wire that holds the glasses together thinking they were just packing materials. :) Anyway, the handbag is still there. She can't wait to set her hands on it.

Sometimes I had to take away the doll and told her that "Barbie koon (sleeping)". Last night, she was playing with it until I had to confiscate it again. And say "Barbie koon".

I guess I have to be prepared to play make-believe games with her in the future. Maybe a kitchen set or a bedroom set for Barbie soon. :)

(Trying to comb Barbie's hair)

DIY Activity Table

I didn't have a special activity/writing table for Phoebe. I just let her draw on A4 size paper, but most of the time she can't control her pen to only draw within the paper. She will drag on until it is drawn on the table. In order not to have marks on my table, I covered my coffee table with big sheets of paper. And hold them together with masking tape.

Now, I can safely let her draw and stamp wherever she wants. :)

Flying..

We bought another laundry basket for Phoebe's toys. My maid had been putting her soft toys on the bouncy net. Whenever Phoebe wanted to sleep, those toys will be moved to the sofa or put on the floor. So this laundry basket will be for that purpose.

On a lazy Saturday morning, for the fun of it, daddy put Phoebe inside the basket and see what her reaction will be. She loved it. Later Daddy asked her if she wants to fly like a bird, and she of course say "Ai (want)".

So, the video is for you to enjoy. She didn't have enough after the 1st round. At the end, they went for at least 5 rounds and tire Daddy out. Simple fun.

Cathy Craze

Cathy is the name we gave her soft caterpillar. This particular caterpillar was give by my co-worker, Erika, as Phoebe's birthday present last year. She will call her "Cathy ya, Cathy". She calls on Cathy more than she calls Daddy. So happened that Cathy sounds like Daddy. Daddy always mistaken when she calls on Cathy.

She had been holding on to Cathy whenever she had a chance. Holding her to sleep like a bolster. We brought Cathy when she was hospitalized to comfort her. Took Cathy along when we go to unfamiliar places.

Now, Cathy had become her comfort toy that she can't do without. She also had been kissing her, biting her, throwing her around etc. The beads in Cathy had become lesser and Cathy turned to be thinner.

Cathy won't live long with the way Phoebe is handling her. Hence, I asked Erika to buy another 2 more as back up for me before they run out of stock.

She was having so much fun playing with the multiple Cathy(s) when I brought them home.

16 Months Update

At 16 months, coincidentally, I took Phoebe for her last Pneumococcal jab with Dr Tan. He did a development assessment of Phoebe. He asked me when was the last time one was done, I told him, "Err.. never". It was really never done while Phoebe had all her required jabs at Island Hospital. So, I got to know what she should be/able to do at 16 months.

Motor Skills

• Grab on things when it is passed to her
• Take smaller objects out from a container
• Put in smaller objects into the container
• Pull out clips
• Relating to previous action. When 2 cubes are stacked up, she knows how to stack the 3rd one.
• Insert rings into a stacker
• Bend down to pick things up
• Write using a pen. Doctor gave her the multi-colored pen. She attempted to write, then later, she was trying to switch to other colors.. Doctor said.. No, write Phoebe. I said she attempted, but that color you gave, there was no ink. She was trying to switch to another color then write. :)
• Flip pages of a book. She could do this since she was younger than 10 months.
  

These were what Dr Tan asked her to do. However, some of the things, she told doctor "no". Doctor was stunned, "huh? You tell me No?" I then have to relay the message and she did it. Before we went into the clinic, we had to wait for like 20 minutes. I took the chance to prep her that doctor will inject (told her ''took'' in hokkien) on her and it will not be painful and she shouldn't cry. She said ok. At the end of the visit, injection was given, she still cry and say "pain-pain". Now, if I ask her while pointing to the injection scar on her thigh, "Doctor do what?", she answered "took". LOL. When we were home, her Ah-Mah asked her what did doctor say, Phoebe answered "pain-pain". Some of her other progress.

Answer to questions

• Phoebe go where? Kai-kai
• Aeroplane go where? Airport
• Mummy go where? Mummy work
• (While in the car) Mummy drive what? Car
  
• (While passing Hannah's house) Whose house is this? Anna
  
• Do you want nen-nen? Ai (Want in Hokkien)
  
• Do you want mum-mum? No
• Do you want mummy kiss? Ai (Want in Hokkien)

Combining 2 words

• Mummy come. Come.
  
• Phoebe cry
• Daddy work
• Mummy sit down
• Cathy (her soft caterpillar) yang-yang (sayang)
• Mummy kiss (she says this 1st thing in the morning when she wakes up, or when she's jealous of daddy)
• See kite
• See moon
• and many more. Can't remember

Flipping book while lying on her tummy. She seldom do this now. This was a rare moment.

Enjoying her book.

Another tummy time.

Playing with a ribbon during Easter Sunday service, saying she's going kai-kai

With Mummy at EHC 10th Anniversary Celebration. We now have the same hairstyle.

New Addition to the Family

We adopted a 6-year old Golden Retriever, Lady, some weeks back. When she first came, we could not accept her size. My maid made a comment that Lady looks like a sheep. Yes, she is as huge and even bigger than a sheep. Our reference was of course our little Miniature Pincher, Ebony.

She came with an unkempt fur. With the thick fur, she always like to play with water to cool herself down in this hot weather. It also took forever to dry when she had her bath. We had to do some grooming. We tried using the shaver, like the one we use for hair, it didn't work. At the end, it was the scissors.

She originally relate quite well to Ebony, but recently we found some holes on Ebony's hind leg. We suspect Lady bit her. Since then, they had been separated. Lady in the front yard, and Ebony behind. Hope we can put them together soon.

Sheering Lady

Celebrating Ee-Po's Birthday

Phoebe's Ee-Po, my aunt, had her birthday end of last month. We were out celebrating at TGIF.

Phoebe was literally stuck to her Ee-Po during dinner and after dinner. We needed to get her distracted in order to leave the venue. She had a chance to play on the mobile animals that needed an older child's company. Kelvin was there with her. With only us around, she can only play on those that doesn't rise high.

With Ee-Po during her birthday

With Kelvin on the coin-operated mobile animal

All of us. For the album

Thank you Dr Tan Eng Guan

Created a little card to thank Dr Tan for his care for Phoebe. Brought the card to him during one of the visits and he was surprised to see his photo in the card. Most of the thank you cards he received only had the photo of the child he cared for. :)

Very attached

Since Phoebe was admitted for UTI and later HFM, she had been really attached to me. My friend did warn me and it really happened. And for the last 3 days, while my mom was away in a retreat, I was home with her all the time, that took it to the extreme.

She had been developed jealousy when I hugged her soft toy or when H was near to me. She will come and snatch away the toy or push away the person. Especially at night, when she is all ready for bed.

Yesterday itself, I think she called "Mummy" for more than 100 times. Wants to be carried all the time, refused to walk while with me, whine like a hyena, cries for attention etc.

While it is flattering on this attachment, I hope that this will be for a short time and she will learn how to be independent.

Hospital Episodes

10 days after I stopped breastfeeding, Phoebe was purging badly. >10 times in a day. Took her to see the pediatrician at Lam Wah Ee, took medicine but didn't see any improvement the next day. She was all lethargic when I returned home at lunch one day. Took her back to the clinic again. We decided to run some tests on her. Paed said it could be caused by different thing and the treatment would be different. We had been speculating that she took the wrong food at the Japanese restaurant and took too much fruits that day. She was warded that day itself.

Paed needed to draw blood through an IV line and maintain that line to inject antibiotics later. She cried her lungs out and kept screaming for "Mummy" and "Bao-bao". Heartbroken, but that was the right thing to do.

We were initially given a 4-beded because they ran out of single beded. Praise God that we were given single beded by evening that day. It would have been a nightmare for other patients if we were left at the 4-beded since Phoebe cried a whole lot that night due to a new place for her.

Blood & Urine report was out and it turned out to be non-food poisoning. She had Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). UTI in babies had diarrhoea as a symptom. That was why Phoebe didn't vomit. She could still eat normally and drink her milk at half strength. No drip needed, not dehydrated.

She was discharged at Day 4. We were home happily. Took her for her hair cut that afternoon since she was all well and active.

However, the next day (Sunday), she developed a fever at 10-ish in the morning. Called the doctor and he said feed paracetamol and monitor her temperature. He said it could not have caused by UTI again. It must be something new. We fed Paracetamol 2x over 8 hours, fever didn't subside.

Sent H to airport for his short business trip to Singapore in the afternoon. My mom came over and stayed with me.

Called the doctor again at 7PM, and he said he will meet me at the LWE A&E at 8.30PM.

At this point, I think I have to introduce you to this exceptional pediatrician we have had. He is Dr. Tan Eng Guan from Lam Wah Ee.

We were at LWE A&E at 8.30PM, her fever was 38.8. Dr Tan was there shortly. Looked at Phoebe, no ear infection, next thing he checked was the throat. He discovered 2 big ulcers on her throat. He said it was Hand Foot Mouth Disease. This was another form which was not obvious on the surface of the mouth, hand or foot. He prescribed a mouth wash, oral aid and a course of antibiotics. We went home.

Phoebe fell asleep on our way home and still with a fever. We had to keep on sponging her to cool her down. Changed her to a short sleeve t-shirt and have the air-con switched on. She was still running a fever. She refused her milk and medicine. When I checked her around 12midnight, her fever was 39.4. I didn't have suppository to insert into Phoebe to lower the fever. I called Dr Tan at 12.30AM. He didn't pick up the phone and my mom said, let's get changed and drive down to LWE again. And when we were there at around 1.30AM, we saw Dr Tan walking in. I asked him why was he there, he said he saw my call, tried calling back but I didn't pick up the phone, he figured I would be at the hospital and so he came.

He checked Phoebe's throat again, and it was definitely red. He inserted the suppository and we went home. Fever dropped for the next 6 hours to 36.x. Was good.

When morning came, suppository effect over, fever came back. It was around 38ish. She refused milk and water. I figured it would have been the pain on her throat. Fed her some yogurt, she refused ice cream, and no water intake for more than 6 hours. Fever cannot subside instead went up to 39.4. I called Dr Tan again and said that I will be going to see him at his clinic. I inserted one suppository and I drove down to LWE with my maid. I told Dr Tan I would prefer for Phoebe to go on drips because I am worried about dehydration and the high fever. And so Phoebe was admitted for the 2nd time in 5 days.

This time, she knew what she had gone through while Dr Tan inserted the IV line, she screamed and fought back once we brought her into the treatment room. It took 2 nurses to hold her down. She was traumatized. She won't leave my arms for that night. I put her down to sit on the bed, she sat there for 2 minutes, she started crying. From then onwards, she cried when she saw Dr Tan, she cried when she saw the nurses, and later she cried when the room door was opened. Poor girl.

Praise the Lord that she could start drinking milk and had some food the next day. Fever subsided and never came back. Her drips was only for 24 hours. And once the drip was off, Dr Tan discharged her. She recovered from HFM in 3 days. We continued with the mouth wash and oral aid at home.

It's going to be a week she was discharged and she is now all active and running about. This was definitely an experience for Phoebe and for us having to take care of a sick child the first time. We were very glad we met Dr Tan. He's been patient, responsive, responsible, humourous and kind. Thank you..

She could still be distracted by a video on the doctor's handphone. But the distraction wasn't for too long.

She started crying and calling for "mummy" when the needle went into her.

Hand all wrapped in bandage to secure the IV line.

2nd stay: eyes swollen after too much crying. This time her left hand was bandaged to fix the drip.

2nd stay: trying to find comfort in the Minnie Mouse Daddy bought from Singapore.

Stopped

At 15 months, I decided to stop breastfeeding Phoebe entirely. No more night comfort feeding for her. We realized that she needed to learn how to go to sleep on her own.

It wasn't easy for Phoebe. She kept searching for it. Rolling all over me and ask me to 'open'. Sometimes it took her 1.5 hours to get herself to sleep. We sang, rocked, pat.. Did everything we can. Hope it will get better soon.

Prayerfully, I will be able to feed for a longer time if God blessed me with another child.

15 months update

I haven't been updating Phoebe's progress by the month. Here's a consolidated one for 15 months.

Very picky on the food she eats. She wants tasty food and a variety. Didn't like porridge at all. Started taking rice at 10 months. Now she's taking also mee suah, bee hoon, tang hoon as staple food. I had ran out of idea on what to feed her daily. Loves Japanese food, especially Chawanmushi and Ramen.

She sleeps lesser now. She can go without her morning nap and only have her afternoon nap. She measures 78cm and 10kg.

She had definitely progressed a lot in terms of her speech. Talks proper words knowing the meaning. Only 2 syllable words at the moment. I had lost count on the words she knows.

• Bao-bao
• No (she had definitely overused this word)
• Ang pow
• Fan
• Car
• Yaya (papaya & mango [maybe they are the same color, either green or yellow, or they are put on the same table])
• Ai (want)
• Nen-nen (refering to milk and referring to bottles, tubes)
• Walk-walk
• Upstairs
• Up (wanting us to carry her onto our lap or let her see what's on the table, or let her climb up to the bed)
• Down (when she wants to get down when she says up)
• Bag
• Handbag (she loves to hold bags on her elbow like me and say kai-kai)
• Kai-kai
• Open (Can also mean un-zip, undo, take out, switch on etc)
• Close
• Nose
• Mouth
• Eyes
• Hair
• Eyebrow
• Ears
• Hand
• Book
• Sit down
• Air-con
• Phak-phak - beating
• Meh-meh - scolding
• Cry
• Hi..
  

People's names

• Ah Mah
• Ah Kong
• Papa
• Mummy
• Ah Erm
• Pek-pek
• Koko
• Cheh cheh
• Ku-ku
• Tneoh Kong
• Po-po
• A-tie (auntie)
• A-cle (Uncle)
  
• Kakak (maid)

Soft toys - all toys have a name

• Kitty
• Cathy
• Octo
• Wa-wa
• Na-na
• Wow-wow
• Bear
• Arm (lion)
• Bug - ladybird
• Bird
• Or-or (Eeyore)
• Pooh-pooh (Winnie the Pooh)
  

Interestingly, she can't pronounce "L"

• Yake - leg
• Yike - light
• Fry - butterfly

She can understand sentences
E.g. Where is mummy's hair? Daddy's hair
Bring this to kakak.
Hold with 2 hands.
Pick up the ball and give to mummy.

Interesting expressions or gestures

• She will blink her eyes when you ask her to show where her eyes are. We picked this up from a cartoon animation where the teddy bear blinked his eyes
• She will ask for our watches, the wear it until her elbow and say kai-kai
• She will run through the words she knows when she wakes up in the morning. She will go on like Ah Mah, papa, mummy, nose, Ah Kong, etc in no particular order.

She can respond to questions. Ai (in hokkien) = Yes. 90% accuracy on her Yes & No.

• Do you want mum-mum/nen-nen? Ai
  
• Do you want to walk? No

CNY 2010

Backdated Post

This is Phoebe's 2nd CNY. She was nearly 2 months when we celebrated CNY last year. Obviously this year she knows more than she did last year. still, she did not understand the meaning yet.

She knew how to say "Ang Pow", but gave back to the person after she had touched it. She was definitely amused by the lights and lantern put up at the neighborhood. She would exclaimed "Wow" when she sees those lights.

She got to wear her many new outfit during CNY. Everytime she's in one, she will say "Sui oh" (Very pretty).

With my mom, my god-mom and her grandson

With my god-mom's grandsons

Chilling out at Coffee Bean, Queensbay

Walk walk walk walk in the light

Backdated post to end February.

Phoebe walked unassisted 2 weeks short of 15 months. She had been walking with us holding on her 2 little hands. She was really stable but just refused to let go of her hands.

One fine day, she started walking around 8 steps before hugging someone. Shortly after that, she was walking around the whole house. Now, she can run.

"It's a great thing to know the Lord" is her favourite song. Whenever she says "Walk-walk" means she wants to listen to that song or she would mean she really wants to walk. :)

My Vain Pot

Few months ago, I though I wouldn't have a chance to dress up my girl's hair. She just didn't want anything on her head. She will pull it off in no time. Not even let it there long enough for me to take a photo...

Things had definitely changed. She knows what is pretty and how to be pretty. She wants to wear nice clothes, nice shoes, put on nice hair clips and hair bands.

Me: Is Phoebe sui (pretty)?
Phoebe: Sui-ya (Pretty).

I took out her red cheong-sam from the drawer and showed it to her.. She exclaimed "Wow".. (Too funny).

(Posing in her red cheong-sam. It was a pity it is still too big and too long for her this year. After trying on, she refused to let me take that dress off, she cried)

Back Date: CNY Bakes

I haven't been baking that much since a few years back. Phoebe is slightly bigger this year, more predictable, and I have a domestic help now, hence all these baking starts...

This year, I had Peanut cookies, Pineapple Cookies, Chiku, Ribbon biscuits, & fruit cakes.

I am blessed with a capable maid. I could outsource many things for her to do while I was away. She could slice and fry chiku, cut, fold & fry ribbon biscuits, mould & bake peanut cookies.

(Pineapple cookies in the oven)

(Closed up Peanut Cookies)

(Wrapped up Fruit Cake package)

(Everything!!)

By the time I was done distributing, only 5 cans was left at home. Yay!!

First day at BSF

My mom registered Phoebe for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) Under 2 program. This week was the 1st class for her.

Since I was on leave this whole week, I drove my mom and Phoebe to Madras Lane Methodist Church for the class. We were told to pack a mattress/comforter (anything for her to sleep on), comfort toys, snack, drink, diapers, just anything that we think she will need for that 2 hours.

Upon reaching the 3rd floor of the church building, we were greeted by the Children's Leader. They are very organized with name tags prepared, sign-in/out form for parents to fill out.

I later discovered that the "Under 2" Toddler program, there are 3 helpers to 3 toddlers. She's got 1-1 attention. I pray that Phoebe will learn about God and his Word through this program.

(The big tag is for the diaper bag, the small tag is to pin at the back of the child)
Blogspot auto rotate this picture :(

(Getting ready to go to her class)

While waiting for them to finish, I found myself at McDonald's Gurney Drive enjoying seaview, coffee, a copy of The Star and an interior magazine. It wasn't bad at all.

I will have a chance to do this again next week.

(McDonald's Gurney Drive)

(That's how tired my girl was when she missed her morning nap and had an active morning in BSF. She slept for 3 hours)