16 February 2016

This update will be all about Ihsan. (To be fair. Cos the girls had frequent updates when they were babies.)

1. He had a rough week last week. Vomiting on Monday. Followed by 2 days of diarrhoea: watery poo et al. And 4 more days of twice daily wet poo. Thank God, it was all over by the following Monday. Whew! He hadn't pooped since yesterday but it's okay, boy. You did more than your fair share last week so it's okay if there's no poo today. 

(We all (except TheHusband) got some form of vomiting/diarrhoea over the weekend which left us completely pooped.)

2. He is becoming a lot more chatty. He will talk a mile a minute if he feels like it. He can string 2 concepts together. For example: kakak, duduk. 

Words that he can articulate include:

mak

ayah

kakak

atuk

nenek

amiya (favourite cousin, nabilah)

cititi (fearsome aunty, cik jiji)

duduk 

lari

bola (pronounced buah)

burung (but pronounced as boooo)

dog (i kept on teaching him the malay word, anjing. he was using it for quite sometime. then someone taught him the english version. and he's been calling it dog ever since. tsk.)

gajah (pronounced ajah)

fish (sigh. tried to teach him ikan. but failed)

aying (favourite neighbour, miaoying)

and various body parts and a couple more verbs

Considering that the minimum number of words he's supposed to know at age 18 months is 6, i think this is fine. I don't have to worry about language development. 

3. He has a preference for healthy food. Like, oats, wholemeal bread and mee sua in clear broth. Rich, creamy sauce does not tickle his tastebuds. Perhaps too rich for his young tongue. 

4. He refuses to tell people who he is. I tried so hard to make him repeat his name. But, he refuses. If you point to him and ask him, "Ini siapa?", he will gleefully answer, "Ini mak."

5. His clinginess has reached a new level. When there are only the two of us at home, I cannot disappear from view. He will go on a merciless hunt. "Makmakmakmakmakmakmakmak," he will call out. He has no qualms breaking toilet doors to get his mother. Yesterday, I was in front of a hot wok, preparing lunch. He wailed miserably, asking to be carried. (To call it mere wailing, is an understatement.) Today and tomorrow, I have revised my cooking schedule so I don't have to deal with both wok and tot simultaneously. 

I think that should be all. Cant risk little boy waking up now. Still more housework to be done before he wakes up from his nap.

3 February 2016

1. It's 8.05am and Ihsan is still asleep! He is normally up by 6.45am but today, he is possibly going through the effect of a sedative he had yesterday. He had his heart scan yesterday. It was supposed to be his last heart scan before he is discharged. Last August's scan showed good signs so this scan was supposed to confirm that all is good and off you go, lil boy. Unfortunately, no. His left coronary artery is at the borderline of normal/dilatation. So, no discharge. We will come back in 6 months for another scan.

That sedative? He had to be given a dose of sleeping meds to make him sleep during the scan. Prior to the sedative, he was an active little boy, running all over the waiting area. Then, the sedative kicked in and he fell asleep for 3 hours. His regular naps are 2 hours long. When he woke up, he had to be accompanied everywhere because he was still feeling woozy from the sedative. But an hour later, he was bouncing off walls again. 

Additional medical info: The sedative was chloral hydrate. I was concerned about the side effects and read about them while waiting for his turn to be scanned. But the doctor assured me that the only one time when there was a side effect was when an overdose was given. Before the child can leave the hospital, he has to be roused from his sleep and has to open his eyes. Close monitoring by parents/caregivers for 4 hours after the sedative is given. Throughout the night when he is asleep, I check on him periodically. He still wakes up for milk, anyway. So, other than extra sleepiness this morning (which I dont mind; it makes up for all those times when he slept less than he should), I don't foresee any further issues with the sedative.

(I love you, Ihsan.)

2. Farah. Farah has shown that every child is different. Farah hardly ever buys proper food during recess. She buys snacks. Particularly, a snack called Corn Toes. Not exactly that spelling, but it sure sounds like that. (Insert angry mom emoticon) If it's not Corn Toes, it will be some other snacks. (Insert another angry mom emoticon)

She does this because:

a. She loves junk food.

b. Recess is at 9am, too soon after a hearty breakfast.

Besides spending her allowance at the snacks stall, she also spends her money at the bookshop. (Insert a gajimillion angry mom emoticons).

Her life goal is to be able to read storybooks all day and all night. This includes her time in the classroom. One day, I checked her schoolbag and found 4 storybooks in it. 4. Four. Empat. Hardcover books, mind you. 

And her papers often come back kiam chye. Ronyok. Crumpled and dog-eared. 

Does she organise and sort her things neatly? No. 

I have a looooooooong way to go with this girl. 

I lectured her once and asked her, "Do you think you will ever be selected to be a prefect if you cannot even be responsible for your own things?"

Her reply? "No. I don't want to be a prefect. I don't want to be responsible for other people."

Hati manyak sakit. Heart very pain. 

(But then again, she only wanted to be a prefect so she could hold the mic and lead the school in pledge taking. So, that's not saying much about her prefectorial ambitions.)

(I love you, Farah.)

3. Huda has become more and more responsible and dependable lately. There are still many areas of improvement  - toothbrushing and washing hair, for example. But she will pick up the slack if she has to. 

She is still obsessed about reading but I intend to add more value to her reading. Quizzing her on the books she reads and more importantly, I will make her write down a paragraph that she enjoys from the book. I want her to not just pick up story ideas from her reading but for her to improve in her language abilities, there must be some higher order thinking/activity that goes on after she is done with each book.

(I love you, Huda.)

Must stop now. Boy is awake.