Just in case I have to give birth suddenly, just to inform that I've decided to consolidate all the blogs into one. http://tanfamily.4ever-in-love.com

But in the meanwhile I will still update #2's status in her own blog, http://kjunior02.blogspot.com

Kristy turns 2 years old today. :) Time passes very fast. It just feels like I was just preparing for her 1st birthday party yesterday and today she is already 2 years old. Gosh!

Did not plan any celebrations for her. Only decided to have small family event just among us. Got a cake that is not too sweet from Four Leaves as recommended by Melissa. Just small enough for the few of us. In the evening we brought her out to Swensens to treat her to the Firehouse ice cream. We got it free when we showed the waitress the birth certificate. Thanks to Melissa for informing me. :p

Basically it's just a normal day, nothing special. My brother got her a Barney that sings the "I Love You" song. She liked it very much and kept hugging it and even when sleeping. :)

Will post the photos soon when I get them transferred to my PC.

Kristy has fever again. Felt her body was quite warm when she woke up on Saturday morning. Checked her temperature and it was close to 38°C. Quickly fed her paracetemol. Throughout the day, the temperature dropped to normal upon consumption of the medicine but once the medicine effect was over, the temperature went up again.

It went up till above 39°C at night and I decided to insert the suppository. Couldn't get to sleep as I kept monitoring her temperature and checked that she did not fall off the bed.

This morning when she woke up, the temperature was back to 38°C. So fed her paracetemol again after her milk feed. Hopefully the fever will go off by today. Will brew some barley water for her too as I guessed it's due to heatiness as she cried out in pain yesterday while pooing.

As my father used to have a beer tummy last time, my mother would always call him 肥佬 (a.k.a. fatty) even till now.

So Kristy caught it and also called my father that once a while.

Kristy: 公公
Kristy: 公公
Kristy: 公公
(stll no response from my father)
Kristy: 肥佬

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Upon hearing that, all of us burst into laughter. Don't know to scold her or to just laugh it off. :p

Mother had been teaching Kristy how to say our names all the while. And recently she finally gets it and is able to say out our name although the pronounciation is not that 100% correct yet. The conversation below are all in cantonese. :p

Mother: 公公叫什麽名？
Kristy: shh-thong
Mother: 媽咪叫什麽名？
Kristy: yan-ming (it should be yan-ping)
Mother: 爸爸叫什麽名？
Kristy: kenny
Mother: 舅父叫什麽名？
Kristy: ah-yong
Mother: 婆婆叫什麽名？
Kristy: ah-har
Mother: 你叫什麽名？
Kristy: kis-sti

Thanks for everybody's concerns. She had recovered already. Bonjela really does do wonders. :)

But she is still quite "deh" even after she had recovered. Initially she would keep requesting to be carried. But after many rounds of talking, she now understands why I can't carry her due to the big tummy. She will cry a bit but still will hold my hands and walk willingly.

Hope she will still be as understanding for the next few months or forever. :p

First of all, the Tan family would like to wish all readers a Happy Lunar New Year! 恭喜發財!
Now let me explain the title of this post.

16th Feb 2007 1+am
Kristy suddenly cried and awoke from her sleep. I went to carry her to let her sleep in between us. Then I realised that her body was feeling very warm. I thought to myself, maybe because she was hot, thus the high temperature. After a while, I touched her again. It got warmer. I got the thermometer and checked. The temperature was at 38+°C. I fed her paracetemol immediately. Next morning, the temperature was still quite high. So I brought her to see the PD. And bad thing was that she had to miss the first party organised by the playgroup for CNY. Sigh.

The PD did the normal routine check. And as usual, when it came to asking Kristy to open her mouth, she refused. So Dr Lieu had to force open her mouth and said that her throat was quite red. She prescribed paracetemol, nurofen and a running nose/cough syrup for Kristy. Her weight was 13.3kg and 88.5cm tall. Brought Kristy back to mother's place and I left for work.

At 1+pm, mother called and said Kristy's temperature shot up till 40.4°C. I started to panic and waited till 2pm to call up the clinic again. They asked me to bring Kristy down again if her temperature was still so high by 2.30pm. I called up mother to update me. The temperature came down a bit but scaredy cat me decided to bring Kristy down to the clinic to check again. I also asked for the suppository, Veron.

We went ahead with the reunion dinner since her temperature was down. But she was very cranky throughout. She kept asking for me or my mother to carry her. And sticked to us like a koala bear.

Throughout the night, I kept waking up every hour to check her temperature and also to wake her up to eat the medicine.

17th Feb 2007
Her temperature went up to 39+°C in the morning. I then asked for my hubby's help to insert the Veron. It was quite an ordeal as Kristy kept struggling. Soon within half an hour, her temperature went down very fast and she was back to few percentage of her usual self. But by evening time, her temperature went up again but was around 38+°C. So I just fed her paracetemol.

I saw some red spots at the top of her feet. Worrying if it was HFMD, I called up Kat to enquire more. She said that blisters-like bumps should appear at the palm of hands and soles. But Kristy did not have such symptons. But nonetheless, I still brought her to a 24-hour clinic to confirm. But the doctor said as he had no idea on how to coax Kristy to open up her mouth, he couldn't confirm if it was a case of HFMD. *shake head* He only prescribed a tube of ointment for the uclers. He even asked me what else could he help. If I know, I would not have gone to see a doctor right? Stupid.

8+pm, we left for my in-laws' house for reunion dinner. Kristy just sticked to me like a koala bear throughout. And seeing her in this state, I did not have appetite for any food at all though the ma-la steamboat smelt nice. We quickly finished and went back home.

Kristy started to refuse her milk, complaining about some pain in her mouth and just want to sleep. So I poured away the milk and patted her to sleep. She awoke quite a few times in the night and cried.

18th Feb 2007 初一
She refused her milk again. She only sipped once and cried. I checked the lips and realised she had an ucler in the middle of her lower lips. So the milk was poured away again. She even refused her porridge and even water. She could only take in few sips of water and would then start crying again. But at least she managed to drink the cooling herbal tea my mother brewed for her. My mother then discovered another ucler at the right side of the mouth.

So the whole day, she did not eat much nor drink much. She just spent most of her time sleeping away.

We ended the day early and went back home for Kristy to rest while hubby went ahead with his family for one house visit. I still couldn't get Kristy to eat anything. My parents came over with my dinner and helped me to handle her. They even bought ice-cream for Kristy but she did not even want it too! I got worried. Scared that she might get dehydrated or she might have some other problems, I asked my parents to drive me down to KKH. The doctor here was very much better than the 24-hour clinic doctor. At least he could slowly open up Kristy's mouth and discovered that other than the 2 uclers, she had a few more at the back of her throat. Thus that explained the pain she was undergoing. The doctor prescribed another tube of ointment for the ucler and also some glucose water just in case she still reject water. We applied bonjela on the uclers instead as I felt it would be more effective.

She refused the night milk feed too and just went to sleep. She woke up at around 5+am and said she wanted to pass urine and also wanted some water. She managed to finish up 1 cup of water, which I felt happy on seeing.

19th Feb 2007 初二
We did not do any house visting today since Kristy was unwell. Milk and porridge was rejected once again. She only ate 2 spoonfuls of porridge. But she ate 3/4 piece of the white bread. At least there was some food intake, better than zero.

In the afternoon, we went over to my parents' place. She asked for sweets and no complaints of any pain! So she should be recovering. My mother managed to coax her to finish up the porridge meant for 2 meals. I was very happy, comparing to morning when I saw her flat flat stomach, like a 皮包骨。

But she was still rejected her milk. I continued to apply bonjela for her.

20th Feb 2007 初三
Thinking she might be feeling better since she woke up with a smiling face, I prepared 120ml of milk for her. But she refused it. I started to talk to her in a stern voice initially. I scolded her. After a while, I talked to her slowly, explaining to her why she should take her milk. It took quite a while of coaxing and talking before she managed to finish up 120ml. And an optimistic and ambitious me prepared another 120ml, thinking she might finish it too. But failed!

But porrdige intake was a success, she managed to finish up in her usual speed but with the help of the MagicColor hand paint. At least she's now eating and drinking well.

But due to the event of falling sick, she had become very "deh". And she made use of this to get around us, refusing this and that. And also kept asking to be carried. If she did not get what she wanted, she would cry and cry and cry.

And just now when I tried to ask her to drink another 120ml of milk before she slept, she refused again. I scolded her again and did one drastic move. I left her in the living room to cry and pulled my hubby in together with me to the study room and closed the door. She cried till very pitifully outside. A while later, I opened up the door. I carried her and coaxed her. I told her if she still didn't finish her milk, I would do the same act again. This time, she gave in and finished up. I praised her after she finished the milk. Sayang her back. After wiping her body, she fell asleep the moment she touched the bed.

I hope her "dehness" would go away soon. And that I would not have to do the same act again from tomorrow onwards. Hope that she will regain her usual milk intake of 240ml.

Today is the 5th day.

I was worried when I brought her to the playgroup. The moment the door opened, Kristy started to cling onto me and asked me to carry her. She would not let go. So I followed her into the room and played with her for a while on the playmat. While playing, I kept talking to her. Asking her to play with the brothers and sisters there, as well as the teacher.

I also talked to the teacher regarding her behaviour yesterday. She told me that Kristy did not cry continously for 2 hours which I thought. It was on and off. She assured me that they would take extra care for younger kids like her.

Teacher carried Kristy away from me, with Kristy crying terribly and calling out for me again. I said bye to her and quickly left the room.

My heart pained again. :(

Today is the 4th day of her playgroup session. Had been wondering if she would cry in the class as teacher said she was quite ok last Friday. But things could be different after a weekend rest. Maybe she could have forgotten about it.

When I said goodbye to her this morning, she started to cry. She kept calling for me, "Mummy, mummy". I carried her for a while and later let her teacher carried her. She was still crying. Even when I left the room and had the door closed behind me, I could still hear her cries and her calling me.

My heart pained...

When I reached office, I kept waiting for 11am to approach so that mother would fetch Kristy home and then would give me a call. Mother said Kristy's eyes were red and teary, nose was runny when she fetched her. When the door opened, Kristy was the first one to run out, calling for me. Teacher said she pooed twice and suspect her tummy might be unwell. But she was okay at home, so maybe it could be the separation anxiety that made her poo? She did not even touch a single bit of the snack from her food container and she only drank half of the amount of water. Last Friday, she would finish all the snacks and finished the whole bottle of water.

I wonder how would tomorrow be like.

After idling for a long time, I decided to register Kristy for the playgroup session. The playgroup is organised by Talent Plus Educare. They have classes near my mother's house which is quite convenient. The monthly fee is $135, materials fee which is to be paid on a half yearly basis is $75 and the school uniform set which consists of 2 sets of uniforms and a bag is $40. Each session lasts 2 hours and it's daily from Monday to Friday. There are 2 timeslots, 9am - 11am and 11.15am - 1.15pm. I chose the earlier timeslot as it suits Kristy's routine schedule better.

She had her first session on 3rd Jan. She wore her home clothes because they only distributed the uniforms that day. Parents were allowed to accompany their children. So hubby and I took half day leave to accompany Kristy. The first session was more of an orientation day whereby the teacher would talk to the parents about procedures, their routine and what they would do. We were told to bring a box of tissue and 2 packets of wet wipes with name written the next day. And in the school bag, we were to put in a set of home clothes, a diaper, a food container and the water bottle. There were a total of 15 children under the care of 2 teachers. Kristy was playing with the toys laid on the mat. She was also curious when some kids cried and she would walk in front of them and look at them. There was no sign of anxiety from her as she just did her own playing while hubby and I looked on. The session ended at 10+am.

On her second day, a new teacher was there. So there were 3 teachers looking after the children. Parents were supposed to be there for like 30 minutes before leaving their children in the care of the teachers but we were there throughout till 10.10am before the children were dismissed. It was not such a havoc day as the first day. The children had singing sessions as well as story-telling session. In between, they had a snack break from their own food containers. Before eating, each child would be brought to wash his/her hands. After eating, they would have their hands wiped. Before leaving, the teacher sang the Goodbye song and the children were slowly led out to meet their parents. I had to leave the room first before I could retrieve Kristy. The teachers would keep the children in the room if their parents/guardians were not here yet. As least, I felt safer knowing that Kristy would not roam out by herself.

Today is the third day. I am not allowed to stay in the room at all. I went into the room with Kristy. She walked to the playmat straight away and started playing. I stood there for a while to see her settle down. Soon, she walked to me and I told her that I had to go. And that she would stay back and played with all the other kids and teahers. Upon hearing that I was going to leave, she clinged onto me, asking me to carry her. As I knew I couldn't do that, I brought her back to the playmat and played a while with her. And with one of the teacher's help, I said bye to Kristy again while the teacher continued to play with her. I was able to leave. After the door was closed, my heart felt heavy. My tears nearly rolled down. I was worried. I wondered if Kristy would look for me and when she couldn't find me, would she cry? Maybe I just couldn't let go yet and it would take time. Now, I just hope that she's fine in the class. Awaiting for 11am to come and I will see her again.

Her incisors are all out at the same time. So now her teeth strength is 16! :p

It had been rather tough taking care of Kristy recently. Tough for me and hubby, as well as my mother and father.

Not sure if it was due to jealously of the arrival of #2 that brought on this naughty behaviour from her. Her tantrums are getting more and more unreasonable and uncontrollable. Nowadays she likes to climb up the dining chairs and explore the dining table or want to sit down with us during dinner. Not that she can't sit with us, but she cannot sit still! She will keep standing up and we will have to look after her while also eating our dinner to prevent her from falling off the chair. And she tends to prefer to bully her "dehness" on hubby and my father.

If she's alone with my mother or me, she can obediently do her things by herself. Play with her toys, sit down on the floor and watch barney. But once hubby or my father is back, she will start to misbehave. Climb chairs or want you to carry her. If you never agree to her demands, she will jump up and down, stamping her feet or sit on the floor and kick her legs around. She would even hit the bystander nearby or just scream like a siao char bor.

I'm really out of my wits as to how to handle this behaviour. We are tired too. :(
Just hope that this is part of the phase of trying to accept #2.

Yesterday I was playing around with Kristy and had this little numbering conversation with her that shocked me.

Me: 1
Kristy: 2
Me: 3
Kristy: 4
Me: 5
Kristy: 6 (it sounds like six but not sure if it's six she's trying to say)
Me:

I was wondering to myself, when did she learn all these numbers from. I asked my mother this morning, she said maybe we had been saying these in front of her and she had picked it up but never say them out. Haha. It was really a surprise for me lor. :p