A Double Celebration - Again!

For the 2nd year, we celebrated both Mother's Day as well as my birthday together.

On Sunday morning, my Mom cooked mee sua with kidney and eggs for my lunar birthday. I had already forgotten about it, until she called to ask me to go over and eat it. But because of our young master, we were running late (after cooking his porridge and feeding him). We had a rushed lunch before dashing to his LNT class.

After Ian's lesson at LNT ended, hubby mysteriously brought us out and refused to say where he was heading to. He had planned to buy me a bag on this day - he had wanted to give me last year as my push cum birthday presents, but we did not manage to choose anything then.

After spending some time choosing and deciding, we picked my first epi leather...



After shopping, we headed to the Korean ginseng Crystal Jade for dinner, as I was craving for kimchi recently. As usual, Hubby refused to tell me where we were going, until the last moments. He decided to do something extraordinary this year, so we did not cut any cake when the clock stroke 12 at night.

No thanks to his hectic project, he was unable to take leave on the actual day, and hence for the first time in recent years, I spent the day alone. I indulged in a facial and a pedicure, before going back to pick up Ian from the babysitter.

Unfortunately, Ian was having a pretty bad rash, and hence I quickly rushed to my Mom's place for a quick dinner before bringing him to see a PD. Hubby also did his best to rush home so that we could go together. I was not too worried about the rashes, because a friend had told me that it could be due to his recent fever. As she had predicted correctly, it was false measles and we did not need to do anything about it.

When we finally settled down at home, Hubby took out the cake that he had hurriedly collected from Northpoint after work, went home to hide it in the fridge, before coming out again to join Ian and me. This year, there was no customised birthday message, because he thought that it was boring to have the same message every year.

Anyway, here is my favourite Black Forest Cake from Four Leaves...*slurp*


See you next year, delicious cake!

Fever, Fever, Go Away

Since Wednesday (6 May), Ian has been down with a fever. It began as a mild one on Wednesday, but nevertheless, we brought him to Kidslink clinic immediately for medical advice. Dr Goh was not too worried about his condition as he was still very active and happy. She prescribed panacetamol suspension to be taken at 6-hourly intervals and advised us to monitor for 3 days. I took leave to take care of him personally.

He seemed to have gotten better in the day as he was still at his bubbly self. However, he went to sleep pretty early before 10pm. When hubby woke him up at almost midnight for another dose of the medicine, he found Ian to be very hot. His temperature had rose to almost 40 degrees in his sleep. We quickly brought him to the TMC 24-hour clinic. The nurse gave him a suppository and we also took a bottle of Neurofen home, just in case.

The nurse also taught us how to manage fever:
1. To give panadol every 4 hourly.
2. If the temperature rose to above 38.5 degrees, to give a dose of Neurofen and do the following 4 things:

• Sponge
• Bathe in lukewarm water
• Wear light clothings
• Switch on the aircon or fan

On Thursday morning (our wedding anniversary!), Ian's temperature was back to normal at 37 degrees. However, when we brought him back from the babysitter, his condition was worrying. His temperature went up to almost 40 degrees and he was lethargic. According to the babysitter, he slept throughout the day, which was very unusual. We brought him back to TMC at 8 plus and the doctor ordered for a blood test and a urine test. The nurse inserted a suppository and put on the urine bag, then we brought him up to the 4th floor for the blood test.

After a long wait, Ian still did not urine. The blood test result was out at around 12.30am and the doctor said it was a virus "from the air". Since we still failed to collect his urine, doctor said we could go home and observe. If his illness got worse by Saturday, we had to return for a urine test. He also prescribed suppositories for us to do the insertion on our own in case the temperature rose again.

This morning, his temperature measured at 38.2 degrees. He is back to his normal, active self now, save that his temper is still as bad as ever, if not worse. We are still continuing with the 4-hourly dose of panadol until tomorrow.

Get well soon, baby.

Stack These Rings

Another of his stacking activities...

This toy is a hand-me-down from his Ken gor-gor, but he really, really loves the blue ring as it is one of the first things that he reaches for when he gets home. It had been his walking 'stabilizer' as he used to hold it when he made his first steps around the house. It has been his bath mate, and recently, his teething pal. When we feel silly, we will put it on our head and drop it to make him laugh. Who says you need expensive or branded toys?

Chosen By Daddy!

Almost all of Ian's toys were purchased by me, or chosen by me and paid by hubby. However, while shopping at Metro over last weekend, hubby gave me a surprise when he walked out of the toys section with Ian and a toy piano.

The first toy chosen by Daddy!

Ian loves this toy and walks around the house with it when we got home.

My First Sewing Project

My sewing machine has been used mainly for mending clothes, but finally, it has been used to make something useful for our car.

The seat pockets in our cars have consistently been bursting with our barang barang - correction - Ian's barang barang. We keep a couple of his toys in the car to keep him entertained, the sunshades that we no longer use, a bottle of Dettol hand sanitizer, the car remote control, and occasionally, his milk bottle or a bottle of soft drink. Hence, I thought of making a huge pouch to keep all our things without bursting the pockets.

Now, Ian can reach his toys easily from the top pocket. But the bad thing is, when he throws a tantrum, we cannot keep anything within his reach or else he will take them out and throw them onto the floor. :( Any solution for a toddler with a bad temper?

Dairy Goodness

Since Ian turned one, we have gradually introduced him to other varieties of dairy products besides his good old yoghurt.

• Using full-fat fresh milk (brands tried: Pura, Farmhouse) to make his cereal and avocado puree. We have let him drink fresh milk from his Magmag cup, but he does not seem to accept the taste of pure fresh milk yet.
• Upgrade his yoghurt to Yoplait Petit Miam. Now he has more variety to choose from!
• Butter
• Cheese

Pasta Failure

Sadly, this is a blog entry about my pasta ventures and failures. I have wanted to take Dr Ong's suggestion to let Ian eat pasta once in a while, instead of porridge and porridge and porridge.

Hence, I have bought the organic animal pasta shapes to try out. You can't see the shapes in the picture any more, because I have already broken them into smaller pieces for Ian. However, Ian did not like this because it is too dry and chunky.


Next, I chanced upon the Bellamy pasta stars at Cold Storage one day, while waiting for Hubby to finish his work. I bought this to let Ian try, hoping that he would like it better since they are much smaller pieces. I roughly followed the AK book, by adding carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and cheese. Unfortunately, Ian did not like it either for the same reason as above. Hubby added some plain water to make it easier for him to eat. He took a few more mouthful and refused to eat any more.



We shall have a wait a little while more before slowly introducing Ian to such food texture.

His New Squeaky Shoes

We bought this pair of squeaky shoes for Ian during last weekend's Metro sale, as he is starting to show interest to walk around on his own when we are outside.

He tried it on for the first time today, and thoroughly enjoyed the squeaky sounds that he made while walking. He was giggling and walking around the house the whole morning, as if he was addicted to walking.

Milestones Reached By 13 Months

These are the milestones on the BabyCenter's guide that Ian has reached by 13 months.

• Words used frequently: "Boh", "Mum", "More"
• Squat down to pick up an object
• Enjoys gazing at his reflection
• Holds up his arms while getting dressed/undressed
• Able to sign for "more" and say the word at the same time
• Eats with finger
• Empties container with contents, and also to put back the contents
• Imitates others (he loves to imitate "The Eentsy Weensy Spider", and also started to imitate the signs for "bike" and "pain")
• Toddles well
• Points to head when we say "head"
• Responds to our instruction to "clap"
• Pushes toys while walking
• Turns the pages of a book
• Learns the correct way to hold a telephone to his ears
• Takes only a nap a day
• Dances to music (his fave of faves is Mozart's Sonata N0. 11 in A Major, K. 331-Alla Turca: Allegrato, aka Turkish Rondo)
• Stacks/nests 2-3 cups/rings
• Enjoys climbing
• Able to climb down our bed on his own by swinging one leg down while using his hands to grap the bedsheets