Our very own pool

I borrowed the Carl Zeiss – Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80 F3.5-4.5 lens from my friend last week. And with a new lense, I need to find photo opportunities. Since I don’t have time to go out to find photo opportunities, I have to create one at home.

So I bought Bryan a pool!

Actually he already have one for his birthday present last year. But it was HUGE! 6ft diameter. It is way too big for him & Dylan, and will use a LOT of water. So I got him a smaller one, conserve water a bit la…

Bryan was very excited about the pool and patiently waits for me to fill up the pool. But what does he do when the water is ready?

Play teh-tarik… BORING-NYA.

Coincidentally, I had made a huge bottle of yogurt for my friend. She bought a new milk powder for her daughter WX which WX absolutely refused to drink. So I offered to make yogurt for her using the “rejected” milk powder, and she’ll come to my house to collect the yogurt.

I was back at the kitchen cooking lunch when I could hear my husband yelling for me. I peeked outside and I saw WX jumping up and down outside my gate. Surprise surprise, she came at the right time. I had smsed my fren earlier telling her that I will have the pool out in the morning, but did not get any reply if she is coming or not.

And see how happy Bryan is to see WX.

Both of them are classmates, so they have no problem playing with each other.

You may wonder where Dylan is the entire time. Well, he doesn’t really like the pool.

I think he is really uncomfortable in the pool. So not long after WX arrived, hubb took Dylan out and took him upstairs for a bath.

And the 2 schoolmates continued to have a splashing good time.

I am really proud of both of them. They played really well together. No fighting. And they took turns to play with the giant teapot (my watering can la).

Now, I can’t wait for Dylan to be old enough to join his ge-ge for some good & fun splashing around.

Reading

I love reading, and I would like my boys to love reading as well. Initially Bryan doesn’t like to read. Well, he does like flipping through the pages but he does not have the patience for me to read from cover to cover.

So I introduced him to a Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book. It was a huge book with very colorful graphics. He loved that book, and would randomly flip through the pages and asking me to read them to him. Since it was a rhymes book, it does not matter where I start or end.

Now he has much better attention span. And I have no problem completing 1, 2, 3 or even more books at one sitting. For the books that he like, he’ll ask me to read them over and over again. It is a routine before he goes to sleep and would happily goes upstairs every night when we told him that it is “reading time”!

And sometimes he would read or “pretend” to read as well. I use the word “pretend” because he is not good at reading sentences yet. He is pretty good at reading single or 2 words at one time, but struggles when it is a sentence.

And Dylan => He is at the stage where he wants to imitate what his brother does as well. So if his brother holds a book, he wants one too.

Oops dear, you are reading the book upside down.

Big baby

Bryan sees the things we do for Dylan and he wants to do the same too.

He wants to wear diaper.

He wants to wear a bib

And he wants to poo poo & wee wee into the potty.

That’s not all. He wants to apply diaper cream. He wants to play with the baby rattles. He wants to crawl like his didi.

He thinks he’s cute. But I think sometimes, he really is.

P/S: Usually we let him do what he wants just to satisfy him. After he gets what he wants, usually he doesn’t ask for it again. And I don’t know where he learn to post for photo liddat.

Baby Iron Chef

These are the chefs from the famous Japanese Iron Chef  TV show.

And this is our very own baby iron chef

Bryan – 3 year old

I didn’t realize how much my baby has grown until I gave birth to Dylan earlier this year.

Suddenly he seemed so big compared to his little brother.

In fact, without me realizing it, he has really grown and learnt so much in the last 1 year. I have not been as diligent as I wanted in keeping track of his accomplishments. But some of the ones that I am most proud of are:-

• Fully potty trained (including nights) not long after he turned 2!
• Able to drinks his milk from the cup by himself. Actually he can make his own milk. I will measure the milk & water for him and he will pour them into the cup & stir-stir himself.
• Able to take off and put on his shoes & sandals.
• Can take off & put on his underwear and pants.
• Learning to put on his shirt.
• Am able to read words. In fact I think he has reading vocabulary of more than 200 words. We have opened 5 sets of 32 pcs flash cards and he knows the words of all of them. I have also made my own set flash cards and he knows how to read most of what I have shown him. I did not keep track of the number though.
• I am slowly training him to read sentences. Reading sentences is a bit more difficult than reading as there are more distractions. But he enjoys reading, and thus we will try our best to fuel his passion
• Reads simple mandarin words as well.

Physical skills

• Able to stand on his head. (gotta take a photo of this)
• Can climb up the slide (not stairs)
• Can jump and land sitting down on his bum-bum, with his legs stretched out. On the mattress la. He enjoys doing this.

Food

• Besides leafy green vegetables, he eats everything if they are non-spicy. Not exactly a picky eater but a playful eater. Although he eats by himself at school, at home, he still expects us (actually ME) to feed him. Especially now that I am feeding Dylan, he wants to be fed too.
• Milk – Up to 4 times a day on a school day. During the weekends…sometimes none. We will give him if he asked for it. But if he don’t want, then it is fine also.
• Earlier this year, he rejected most fruits & vege. But now he is slowly taking them back. So far he is ok with carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, long beans and cooked onions.

Honestly, he can do a LOT of things if he wants to. But at home, esp with a baby around, he likes to get us to do things for him. So for the record, he can do the things above, but whether does he do it, is another issue altogether. J

But anyway, I am taking things easy. He grows up so fast, and eventually he will be able to do everything himself. So if he wants to be a baby a little longer…and if it is within my limits, I will let him be one.

YAY! Dylan is fine

Dylan had urinary tract infection when he was a newborn. After he was cleared, he did a kidney ultrasound which thankfully showed that his kidneys were normal and healthy. But nevertheless, he was recommended to go through the MCU a couple of months later.

Dylan’s PD gave us an option. To do the MCU at a private hospital or he can arrange to have it done at GH. His wife is a PD at GH and she could help us arrange for the necessary tests. He does not recommend that we perform the tests under insurance as,

1. Dylan contracted UTI as a newborn, when he was not under coverage.
2. He can always write the report in a way so that Dylan is eligible for the coverage, but that would leave a record in his insurance file which may impact his coverage later on. And he think that this is not a good idea as Dylan could be normal.

Thus, he recommended that we perform the tests at GH.

1. It is cheap, and will cost almost nothing to us.
2. If the tests proved to be something more severe, his wife can arrange for consultation with the nephrologist. Subsequent tests & treatment at GH will be very inexpensive also.
3. If the tests proved to be normal, then Dylan would have a completely clean insurance record.

So after months of waiting, we finally went for the MCU at GH.

What is an MCU?
An MCU is an x-ray test of the bladder as it fills and empties. An ultrasound of your childs kidneys and bladder may be performed immediately before or after the MCU.

The MCU allows us to look for ‘reflux’. This medical term describes the abnormal passage of some urine back up the tubes (ureter) to the kidneys when a child urinates (wees). Normally when a child passes urine all the urine drains down from the bladder through the urethra.

Reflux is important because when present it can potentially damage the kidneys. In the long term this damage if severe may cause high blood pressure and renal failure.

Source

It is actually a very simple tests. But because i chose to have it done at GH. It became a very painful procedure – FOR ME!

The GH PD said that I will need to admit Dylan the day before the exam. BUT I would be allowed to go home to sleep at night. I just need to make sure that I arrived back at GH really early in the morning.

However on the actual date, the nurse refused to let me go home. Later I learned that GH is going through ISO certification. So everything is following PROCESS. And I have to stay overnight at GH. And I have prepared NOTHING for the stay.

But I think the main problem was, I was mentally not prepared for the stay. I am not used to staying in open wards. Going to shared toilets & bathrooms. Really shared bathrooms – Men & Women. I am not used to sleeping in a non aircon room, with almost no fan. I am not used to seeing suffering, really suffering children. I am not used to hearing children crying all the time complaining of pain.

The section that Dylan was saying is the nephrology ward. And next to it is the leukemia children’s ward. But this is GH. The only thing separating the wards is just some board – Not even a wall.

Luckily, Dylan is oblivious to all these. In fact he seemed to be enjoying his crib. He sleeps in a playpen and he found the crib exciting. He was busy climbing up and down the crib. Cruising along the rails, and waving and saying hi to his neighbors. He hardly slept at all that night. He slept about 11pm ++ and was up before 5am! Oh ya, I have no place to sleep as well. I have to share his crib or sleep on a chair.

This is not the blog for me to rant about my sufferings. So I will not drag on here.

The most important thing is – Dylan did the MCU and it showed no reflux. Everything seems normal! YAY! He had been on daily antibiotics since he was 10 days old. Now I can say bye-bye to the nightly antibiotics feed.

He have a DMSA scan scheduled end of this month. I am going to cancel it! No need for that anymore.

Finally after months of uncertainty, I finally know that my child is fine.

Please always be well, my baby.

Nicknames

Most parents have sweet nicknames for their kiddos. Lil prince, princess, cutie pie..etc.

I am no different. When Bryan was small, i used to call him cute-cute baby boy. And I would call him in a sing song tone.

But his daddy probably think that that name is too sweet for his son. So he modified it.

To: Kuk kuk baby boy – an exaggeration of the word cute

Then, Bryan have always been a mischievous baby. In hokkien, we say “kuai ku.” So after some time, hubb changed the kuk-kuk to mean the “ku” in “kuai ku”

As he got older, the word baby was dropped. And soon it became “kuk kuk boy.”

But the nicknames evolved over time again. Hubb started to call Bryan, “Ah Ping.” (Self translated mandarin version of the Hong Kong phrase “siu peng” = wanna get beaten) Why? Coz Bryan gets more mischievous as he grows.

Soon, the name becomes Ping Ping (cuter mah). “Ping” is pronounced as like the sound of biscuit in Mandarin

Then hubb would ask Bryan, “Suei si ping ping ren?” (Who is Ping Ping person?)

And Bryan would reply, “Bryan!”

Then Dylan came along. And he is also another mischievous little kiddo. So hubb starts calling Dylan Ah Ping also. In fact, Bryan also followed suit, and said that Dylan is “ping ping ren” and not him.

Aiyo, so many ping ping people, how to differentiate. Thus,

Bryan = The official “ping ping”
Dylan = Siau Ping Ping (small ping)

And who is Da Ping (Big Ping)?

Hubb of course! The person who started it all…Hahahahahahaha

Happy 3rd Birthday – Pt2

Just like what we have been doing the last few years, we normally go out for dinner on Bryan’s actual birthday.

With paternal grandparents

With maternal grandparents

Another birthday celebration means another birthday cake. And yes, it’s Barney again.

Since many people are into cupcakes lately, I ordered cupcakes for Bryan too.

Initially, I wanted to order from my blogging friend, but she was out of town that week. So I ordered from the other cupcakes maker that I know of in Penang.

And I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up the cake. I had ordered the regular cupcakes set with just 1 extra sugar paste figure. So the nice lady told me that she will try to mould a Barney for me. But surprise, surprise. When I saw the cake, there was BJ and Baby Bop as well.

In fact the cake got quite a lot of attention at the restaurant. The table next to us even asked me for the number of the cupcakes maker.

Of course Bryan loved the cake. We told him that he can only eat the cake after he had finished his meals. So getting him to finish his food was not a problem at all.

Bryan had lots of fun picking out the candy and cake decorations from the cake, taking his time to nibble slowly at the pretty deco. Well, it’s his cake and he can do whatever he wants with it.

While Bryan was nibbling happily at the deco, Dylan was fighting for a piece as well. Of course he was not allowed to have a bite. He was quite upset about it that my dad had to carry him elsewhere to distract him.

We thought he would be possessive of the cake since he loved it so much. But no, he was more than willing to share it with us. He happily picked out a unique cupcake for each one of us.

Overall it was a great evening. Bryan gave it his 2 thumbs up!

Happy Birthday cute-cute boy!