Finally Down...

When you kid raise his/her thumb to signal good on the medication he/she took, this is not a good sign...Yes, Ching Ern is down with mild fever and vomit. When we gave her PCM just now, she showed us her 'good sign' and my heart sanked. She has not been taking any food/milk since 6pm last night. All she can take now is water and very diluted milk. That's why when we gave her the PCM, she signal good as the medicine is sweet to her. *sigh*

Ching Ern vomited all her milk out at 10+pm last night after her night feed. It was pretty bad that we need to shower her again and change our bed sheet. After then, we put her to sleep and she went into her sleep unusually quick. We knew she was tired and not feeling well.

Then at 4am this morning, she woke up asking for water. Even just 1+ oz of water, she vomited it out again. This time, she cried out loud because her vomit had frightened her. We quickly changed her to a new suit of pyjamas and rushed her to hospital.

Waited for 10mins before the PD arrived. It wasn't her usual PD but another PD on call. While waiting, she felt asleep and it was rather easy to us to let the PD to handle her. The first question he asked after we told him Ern's symptoms - Did she have diarrhea? When we told him none, he nodded his head and continue to examine her stomach via his stethoscope and hand pressing.

Immediately, Ern was given suppository to stop her vomit and we were told to feed her fluid via spoon instead of bottle. This is to avoid great amount of fluid goes into her stomach since her tummy is full of gas/air. Only when we were about to insert the suppository, Ching Ern woke up but she didn't cry or make any fuss. One of the nurses commented Ern was quiet. I don't know what she meant - quiet as in a "good girl" or "she is really sick!".

PD also pre-alert us to watch out not to let Ching Ern goes into dehydration. If she continues to vomit, we will need to bring her back to hospital as she needs to be on drip.

While waiting for daddy to collect medicine and make payment, a Sister on duty told us lately a lot of children had vomit + diarrhea cases. We were asked to be more hygiene in handling Ching Ern as the virus/bacteria can pass around and we, the adult may get it from our child.

This morning, she nap twice and each nap lasted more than 1 hour. She was crying and crying (with big tears flowing down type) and wanted us to carry her. She only stopped crying when she rested her head on our shoulder and hugged us tightly. When she did that, we knew she is REALLY sick! For those of you who have been following Ern's blog, you know Ern doesn't nap long and hardly cry when she is sick. Also, she is not active and want us to carry her all time.

Get well soon, Princess...

A Little Warm

Ching Ern woke up with a little warmer body this morning. Though only at 37.3 degrees, daddy decided to give PCM before fever really kicked in.

Ever since Ern had the throat infection, she dislikes drinking water. *sigh* We have to coax her either by rotating several her drinking water cup, spoon feeding and sometimes, even using the syringe (after feeding medicine). Only then, she drank willingly.

While typing this, Ching Ern is sleeping soundly for her morning nap. She slept unusually long because she never sleep more than 90 mins. But this time, it's already 2 hours.

I hope the long nap would enable her to recover faster. Poor baby, not sure if she is teething or the virus from her throat infecting still remain in her body.

I am thankful she has no problem taking the medicine. We were telling her it's ice-cream, in fact she actually welcome it by opening her mouth wide. Of coz, the medicine needs to be served in cold so that she can get the 'consistent' message as "Cold = Ice Cream"!

PS: Her throat is getting better as she didn't choke middle of the night. However, she needs to take Singulair for 30 days in preventing her to develop Asthma.

Celebrating Mooncake Festival at A&E

We celebrated this special occasion in a special way too.

1. Instead of holding a lantern, Ching Ern was holding the nabulizer as her 'lantern'.

2. Instead of "fire smoke", she gets to smell the "medicine smoke".

3. Instead of carrying the lantern at open space, she carries her 'lantern' inside a super bright "Accident & Emergency" (A&E) room.

After a long battle fighting of 1+ week, Ching Ern was down with mild flu and throat infection. She must have get it from me as I had a terrible flu 2 Sundays ago, which lasted almost ~ 1 week before I was fully recovered.

Before she caught the flu, her body temperature had been a little warmer than usual for 1-2 days. We didn't feed any medicine but just constantly gave her water and fruits, hoping in mind the vitamin C and additional fluid intake can prevent the virus outbreak. We already predicted the likelihood of Ern winning the battle is low because the flu I had was terribly bad.

The throat infection caused some breathing difficulty on Ern, especially after her sleep. She choked (not that real choke but trying to catch air type) and coughed a few times while she was asleep for several nights. Can't recall what is the medical term shared by her PD but basically, something had blocked the upper airway passages when the throat muscles relax at night and thus, prevent air from getting to her lungs. That's how Ern get choked middle of the night.

However, after a few coughs, she was ok and get continue to sleep. It didn't happen during day time at all. So day time, she is like healthy baby, night time choked once and coughed for few times to clear the throat. Of cause she didn't sleep well like usual, she turned her body here and there even she was in the sleep mode.

She has been giving medicine and nasal drop to smooth her nose and throat, while also need to go through nabulizer for 2 evenings. Yesterday was her last nab and she was able to sleep through the night without choking or coughing.

I was a little worried whether Ern can cope with the nab, with the sound and air coming from the cap. Thank god my lil girl had no problem with it. In fact, she thought the nab is a toy and wanted to play with it.



Guess she is almost there on her recovery journey. Although she was sick, I was very grateful to see the strong immune foundation I have set on her via breastfeeding. If it wasn't that, she could have been down with a terrible flu like her mummy.

The "hard work" of breastfeeding paid off!!! :-)

四面"婧"娃 - Ern in Four Faces

I happened to capture 4 expressions of Ern within one evening. So, I thought I just want to blog about it...:-)


1) Anger




2) Cry




3) The "Just Me"...

4) Laugh

Scrap Credit:
1) "Laugh":
- Frame: Valgouveia
- Paper: Eva Kipler
- Color Patches: Mspimptress
- Wording: Scarletheel

2) "Anger":
- Paper, doodle & framce: Kim B
- Shadow Doodle: Lively

3) " Just Me":
- Overlay: Doreen Stolz
- Frame & Paper: Kim B

4) "Cry":
- Paper: Amelie Scrap
- Frame: Kim B
- Doodle: Karkalellum
- Line: Lively

Happy Birthday Brenda Che Che

On the day before her actual birthday, I told Brenda Che Che I have bought a cake for her. She was SO delighted and happy. From the moment I told her about the cake thing, I can hear her singing birthday song real loud even we are staying 1 floor below her unit (yeah, we stayed at the same apartment).

It wasn't a big party that we threw for her. We just ordered a small Snoopy butter cake, US Pizza delivery and Poh Poh prepare her signature Fried Thai Noodle (yummy!). Obviously, Brenda wasn't keen on the pizza or the noodle. She was waiting for the cake throughout the night and ate just to 'give face' to us. We sang birthday song for her, while her cousin sister Jia Yee joined us too.

Oh yeah, Ching Ern was as excited as the birthday girl. She clapped and grinned while we sang the birthday song, as if she knew it's a birthday occasion.

Scrap Credit:
Paper, Star: Angela Sharrow
Journal & Frame: Chris M. Stone
Birthday Wordart: ShannonFahrnbach
Angelic Wordart: Scarletheel

"Tennis Skirt"...

Kong Kong came home from his Shanghai trip with new clothes for Ching Ern. I think easily 10 suits, all dresses except 2 peejays. Yeah, Kong Kong likes to see Ching Ern in dress. He said little girl looks prettier when they wear dresses..LOL

All off, this is the one where all the family members like the most. It's a light blue 'tennis skirt' (if there is such a term) in polo shirt material. Now that Ern walks, it's really cute to see her walking with the pleated area swinging left and right. :-)

A note to Ern: Mummy wants you to remember Kong Kong bought most of your dresses since birth.

Scrap Credit:
Frame with ribbons & flowers: Lindsay Jane
Plain Frame, Paper, Buttons, Staple & Bubble: Miss Mint

Lantern

We didn't get Ern any lantern last year as she was merely just a 2+ months old infant. No celebration or what, just ate mooncake at home.

However, it would be different this year as Ern is now a walking toddler. She is not ready for the traditional lantern where I used to carry when I was a little girl. So, I bought her a battery operated + modern lantern - Pooh Bear !



Come to think of it, although we had cartoon characters (like Transformer, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc) back in my childhood days, I don't think I had ever seen a cartoon lantern. All the lanterns were in animal shape, like dragon (most popular), rabbit, rooster, etc. More importantly, it's candle lit, which means it's dangerous but exciting to play with.

Luckily I still see some old Chinese restaurant and bakery house selling the traditional lantern. I hope Ern is ready to carry one in her next moon cake festival celebration.

Oh ya, I have a clip to share, in which I find it funny. Lantern is suppose to be a Chinese culture thingy but look at this - a Pooh Bear lantern with Lambada music.....apa ini??!!!!

Teddy Bear

Whenever we pass by a gift shop, Ern would shout in joy whenever she sees the teddy bears or soft toys displayed. She would point at them and 'tell' us to go there.

Last week, we brought Ern to Queensbay Mall, thought it would be a good place for Ern to walk. While trying to take a video clip on how she walked (for my own record keeping), I captured this moment. I didn't know there was a gift shop behind me as I was concentrating and focusing the camera on her. You can see she was pointing towards the bear as she walked near it.

Studio Photo - Part # 2

Few weeks after we brought Ern to Shalom for the studio shots, there was a free shot + 1 piece of 8"x12" photo at France Taipei Bridal Studio. Ok...no such thing as FREE. They lure you in by giving you 1 free photo but expect you to develop more from the shots taken.

Unfortunately, France Taipei didn't ern any $ from me even I was prepared to spend. One simple reason - they didn't do a good job in taking Ern's photos. Or rather I should say, I didn't like the photographer.

Can you imagine a so called professional photographer kept on viewing his photos (from his camera) after he took 4-5 shots instead of continuing taking photos??!! I can understand he may not take perfect picture on every shot but at least view the photos at the end of the session lah!!!!! He would stop every 1-2 minutes, look into his camera, press here and press there. Then, take photos for 1-2 minutes, view photos again.

Until I was so fed up with his professionalism, I called off the session. He took 20+ photos and he dared to ask me " are you sure you have enough to choose?"!!

To my surprise, most of the photos are 'cacat', in which the angle he took was totally OUT!!! Common, I am not a skilled photographer also can tell the some photos 'cacat'.

In the end, I choose this, which is the NICEST of all. Even then, I wasn't happy with it anyway.

Do you think I would go back? I am sure you know my answer!! :-)

PS: Actually Ern smiled even more compared to the day when we took the photos at Shalom. Too bad we can't get any nice one...

Studio Photos - Part # 1

< Back-dated Post >

We brought Ching Ern to Shalom Bridal House (same studio we took our wedding photos) when she was 10+ months. It was her 1st Portrait photos taken by professional photographer.

They took ~ 55 pictures on Ern & some family photos in 45 mins. Very fast right??!! That was one of the reasons why I preferred to stay with the same photographer because we knew Ching Ern would not be able to cope anything longer than that. In fact, towards the last 20 shots, we can tell Ching Ern get cranky a bit.

14 photos were chosen and make into an album. Back then, she doesn't know how to stand nor walk. So, the pose you see here it's either sit or crawling positions.

Then, we went to another studio for another shot...to be continued in Part # 2.

PS: No soft copy were given, so I had to snap these photos from the album. Apology on the blur quality of photos.

14-Months-Old

It was as if I just wrote the 13-months development yesterday, now I am typing the 14-months!

Vital Stats:
Height: 9cm
Weight: 9.6kg
Teeth: 7 in total - 4 top 3 bottoms

Dietary:
Solid: 2 times per day (1 porridge & 1 rice cereal/wheat)
Milk: 3-4 times of 7oz per day
Ice-cream: 2 spoonful (adult size) of Baskin Robbins per day
Cheese & Egg: Alternate day
Fruit: 1-2 times per day.
Snack: Anything we need - non spicy and not too oily

Development:
- She walks pretty stable now, still with her hand up to balance herself.
- Able to squat up and down unsupported
- She will pat her knee when Little Einstein is shown.
- She knows where we kept the diaper and take one for us whenever we asked her.
- Whenever we say "mei mei' (beautiful in Mandarin), she will touch her hair, as if we put a hair clip on it. Oh ya, if you give her one, she will put the clip on her hair even she doesn't know how to open and clip the hair.
- We have seen great improvement on her motor skill. She can play the Mula by moving the beads from one end to another, but only on the simple rail. She is still exploring on the 'complicated' rails.
- She starts to look for playmate during play group. Or maybe she is a KPC.
- We have successfully make her understand she must sit on a high chair before she get to eat any food. So when we asked her if she wants 'mum mum', she will walk to the high chair automatically, waiting for us to carry her to sit.

Vocab:
- She calls "Papa" very clearly.
- Our dog died (old age) few weeks back. So she doesn't have the chance to call "Thor Thor" anymore.
- She can point to the food and say "mum mum'.
- She can say the word "Mama" but she has yet to relate this to MIL ( My MIL is a Cantonese. So we have taught Ern to call my MIL as Mah Mah, meaning paternal grandma in Cantonese)
- She called Poh Poh as "Pok Pok" (something like that).

Scrap Credit: Redju

Pillow Smelling..

I blogged about Ern smelling on her pillow when she was 11-months-old. Over the months, she had 'upgraded' to a 'advance' level in the pillow smelling thingy.

Not only she smells, she will turn and turn on the corner of the pillow until she found THE ONE, must be the one that has the strongest saliva smell ! LOL

She will place the corner pillow right on her nose and rub against it. Oh ya, she did all these with her eyes close as she is about to doze off.

For us who put her to nap/sleep, it's so funny to see a small pillow turning round and round...

Scrap credit:
Paper, journal, wording: Ronna Penner
Paper Clip: Sarah Möllerfastener
Doodle & Stem: Carola

Coincidence??

On Monday night, Ern went to her at her usual time - 10+pm. Daddy and I were working/blogging from our room while also whispering to each other in updating our day time activities (normally we only talk funny topics or KPC gossip).

Just right before 12 midnight, out of sudden Ching Ern cried out loud from her sleep. I can tell the cry is "unusual" and immediately, she opened her eye and look for us. Normally, she will cry with her eyes close when she had nightmare. We just need to pat her back/butt and give her pacifier to soothe her. Within minutes, she will normally go back to sleep.

However, on that night, we knew Ern cried in fear and when we saw her opened her eyes, I knew 'something' is not right. I quickly carried her in my arm but it didn't sooth her down ever we gave her the pacifier.

Immediately, I chant (which I have been doing since pregnancy) in the language where our Burmish Buddhist Monk had taught us. The moment I started the chanting, Ching Ern quiet down and before I finished the whole thing, she went back to sleep peacefully in my arm.

Btw, Monday night is the last day of 7th Month of Lunar calender.

So tell me if this is 'coincidence' or "something" else??

PS: At least to me and my mum, we think it's the later one. We believe kids are sensitive to 'these'...

Tag: 8 Random Facts About My Mum

This is a long overdue tag received from Just My Tots: 8 Random Facts About My Mum

I guess for my mum's age, majority of the mothers are SAHM. Hence, you can find many similarities among the SAHM at her age. :-)

1. Look at the body size of my family members, can tell how good my mum's cooking is. We love her Yam Cake, Lor Bak, Salty Vege Soup, Bang Kuang Char, if I were to name of few of her (or my favourite dish) 'famous' dishes.

2. Most of my pyjamas were handmade from her when I was a little girl. She can sew simple design clothing, not only for us, but also for herself.

3. Being a mother, my brother and I are her 'top priority' since small, and even till now.

4. Although her education level was until primary school (need to stop schooling due financial problem), she can speak and write Mandarin well. In fact, we speak Mandarin at home.

5. Being a hard core Hakka Girl, my mum is a hard working person.

6. She woke up 3.30am 3 times a week to prepare breakfast (fried egg + ham sandwiches) and get me ready for 5am training lesson at the pool. Back then, we stayed at Bukit Mertajam (BM) but travel all the way to Tanjung Bunga (Chinese Swimming Club) . My dad (together with my mum) drove me all the way for 2 hrs training and back to school in BM again. Oh ya, I swim competitively back then.

7. I learnt most of my parenting tips from her, especially when it comes to patience.

8. She is my role model when it comes to multi-tasking.

Not going to tag anyone I think most of you had done this tag.

Nice Matters Award

Wow..such an honor to receive the same award TWICE from Just My Tots & Charlotte's Mummy. *wink*

This award originated from here and it was meant for "those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world".

People believe good things must be shared with others, right?! So, I would like to award this to:

1. Jie Yan's Mummy
2. Vernon's Mummy
3. Wei Yan's Mummy

She Is Obviously A Daddy's Girl...

Since birth, everyone had been commeting Ching Ern looks like her daddy. So far I only heard 1-2 people said Ching Ern looked like me..Honestly, even myself also think Ching Ern resemblance more from her daddy than me...haha

Finally I found a more 'scientific' (don't know how accurate) way to prove Ern is a daddy's girl when I read from Charlotte's blog about this Look-A-Like Meter thing.

Needless to say more...

Play School @ Learning Garden

Last Sat, we took Ching Ern to Learning Garden, a play school for a trial class on "Parent-Toddler Program". It is a whole language and thematic approach to help stimulate children's development while also provide an avenue for the parent to better interaction with their child. The class is meant for 1 to 3-year olds

We took the earliest class, which start at 9am and last for 90 mins. We chose this class because it fit well into Ern's morning nap schedule, which is usually around 10.30 - 11am. We were the first few to arrive and the teacher already expecting Ching Ern.

We were ushered to the "Toy Room" where there were lots of toys for children to play, like tent, bears (in all sizes), chairs, kitchen, sewing machine, etc. The theme for the day was Bear, so you can see many bears hang and place around the room, be it paper cutting bears, small to big bears. According to the teacher, the first 15-20 mins is to enable the kids to familiarize/warm up with the environment and their friends. The teacher complimented Ern because being the first timer, she didn't cry or show any puzzle/afraid look. In fact, she blend in pretty fast, I would say. Well, Ern turned out to be the youngest toddler in the class. :-) Most of toddlers are around 18-24 months range and they are regular attendees as they know their friend's name well.

After then, the kids were moved to another open space room (with shelter) where they get to experience and play on sand, water, painting, art & craft work. The children was given an apron to wear and Ching Ern looked so cute on it although it was a little big for her.

1st Activity: Paste Bear paper cuts on a paper bag
There were 3 different colors of bear - 2 to stick on the front & back of the paper bag & the other 1 to put inside the bag. Of cause Ching Ern didn't know how & what to do since this is her art work. She didn't show much expression when she first touched the glue (the sticky type) but she kept on rubbing her sticky fingers. LOL "Mission" complete with daddy's help.




2nd Activity: Color Painting
Freestyle of painting. If you see from the 'masterpiece', the long lines were painted with daddy holding Ern's hand. The small & messy spots were Ching Ern's work & her hand print.



3rd Activity: Necklace Making
The teacher cut out different colors of big straw into smaller piece. The task was to join the small pieces of straw by using a string. Then, slot in a bear picture in between (like a pendant) the straws before tieing the knot. Maybe Ern's motor coordination is still at the early stage, she didn't put in the piece correctly into the string. She missed it all the time! LOL...After a while, she get bored and lost the interest.

4th Activity: Fish Pond

Of all the activities, Ching Ern liked this activity the most. I think she may reckoned the fish pond look similar like her bath tub because I normally placed the shower duck (to keep her occupied). The school prepared ladle for the kids to scoop and play with various types of sea creatures inside the pond.

5th Activity: Bear Hunt
The teacher had placed different bears at the playground for the kids to hunt the bear. Of cause Ching Ern knew nothing but just walked around happily. We let Ching Ern to try to slide, the kiddy house, etc. She doesn't know how to slide because she lifted her leg up!!



Last Activity: Picnic & Sing Song
All the toddlers & parents sited on the ground for picnic. The school prepared light snack and there was one parent brought sausages and egg sandwiches. We didn't let Ching Ern to eat by herself as she doesn't really know how to bite and chew. I gave her some bread and she drank her own water. After a short break, the teacher sang sons and ask the kid to follow her instruction along the way. All the kids were given a bear and did some simple act like 'up', 'back', 'hug'. My little girl puzzled at the beginning but after a few repeats on the song, Ching Ern started to catch the meaning and she followed along. That was because she knows what is 'up' and we helped her to place the bear on top of her head.



After then, it was followed by the "Good Bye Song". All the kids went to hug the teacher before they went off. Ching Ern didn't hug but just gave teacher a 'sayang'. :-)

Luckily the distance from the school to Poh Poh's house is only 10 mins. We gave Ching Ern a quick bath and right after that, she went into her lala land (her morning nap).

Do we plan to sign up for Ching Ern? Not now...Ern is still young for these activities.

More Teeth

While I blogged about 2 additional upper front incisors sprouting out on Merdeka eve, 3 more teeth coming up within a week! 2 upper & 1 lower lateral incisors. We can see whitish on the 2 upper incisors but can feel a sharp edge of the lower lateral incisor.

With 5 teeth sprouting out almost simultaneously, our little princess can't really cope with that. Nothing major but she had warm body (temperature less than 37 degree Celsius) for the past few days.

Play Group

After a long break, we resumed the usual play group at Charlotte's house last Sunday. This time round, we added in a makan session ( pot luck).

Since it's a children's play group, obviously the food we prepared was 'baby food'. We had egg tarts, french toast, sandwiches & fresh banana & orange smoothies. Ching Ern get to taste bits of all the food and I think she liked the smoothies. She gulped down half the cup of paper cup. It was also right timing since she had not had her fruit for the day.

I can see the kids (including Ching Ern) interacted with each other better compared with the last few sessions. They started to look for play mate (or trying to grab the toy for themselves??) and get along well easily. What's more, they started to share toys!!!

I was so happy to see them playing together, which was actually the objective of the playgroup.

The mothers had many great ideas to make the play group more fun. The line up events are: playing lantern in conjuction with Moon Cake Festival, outdoor park & pool activity, etc....stay tuned..

More Walking...

Ern walks more and more now although she walks like a Donald Duck. Walk with leg 'kang kang' (wide in Hokkien) and raise both her hands in the "I Surrender" way to better balance herself.

Oh ya, she is able to squad up and down unaided as well. She has not master the skill to 'look around' while walking. She is very much still at the stage of 'look front and walk'. As a result, she fell down many times stumbled on things below her 'eye sight'. Unless she really hit on something real hard and painful, many times she will get up by herself and walk again. Luckily, she knows to switch to 'butt down' when there is step.

Talking about painful fall, just last week, she hit on the corner of the coffee table and immediately developed blue black on her left cheek. She cried for sure, but luckily we managed to sooth her in < 10 seconds. *Phew*

Papa

Daddy is the lucky one..Ching Ern 'chooses' to call her papa first among the family members just this evening. Needless to say, daddy is so happy and smile till "see teeth and can't see the eye" type.

She can pronouces 'papa' very clearly although she paused for a while before she said the second 'pa'. Maybe like 2 seconds.

She is able to relate 'papa' as daddy now. However, she gave me a 'blur" look when I asked her 'where is mama?"...

Poh Poh said most kids started to call Daddy first instead of Mummy...What about your child?

Chou Chou (臭臭)

She does this when you ask her how to do:

1. Chou Chou 臭臭 (smelly in Mandarin)
2. Tiger roar

She didn't get the complete thing we taught her. Both are suppose to come with a hand movement:

1. Chou Chou: Move the hand up and down near to the nose. The usual way of signaling smelly.

2. Tiger roar: Place both hands near the cheek and show the 'twinkle twinkle little star' finger movement.

Scrap credit: Cheznaninette

Kung Fu ??

Is Ern doing the kung fu's "chat mar" (the 1/4 squad)??

No, no, she just did it for no reason. So, Kau Fu just name this stunt after his name. Now, whenever you ask her "How to do Kau Fu?", she will show you this. She will bend her palm inward facing her body while lifting the elbow up. Most of the time, she will stick her tongue out as well.

We don't know how she pick it up. Must be from TV, I suppose!! :-) We just find it very funny and entertaining. :-)


Scrap Credit: Amelie Scrap