Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Happy Chinese New Year!!

The lunar new year is hugely celebrated here in Singapore, but as a Chinese Indonesian, we don’t celebrate it as much. Not as much as we should, I guess. Of course we make international calls to our families and send sms greetings to friends. But that’s about it really.

We don’t go to relatives’ houses (we don’t have any in Singapore anyway). We don’t give or receive any angpaos (read: red packets filled with money … hmmm). We don’t clean up our houses the day before chinese new year (simply because it is believed that you’re not supposed to do these on the day itself).

So what do we do on Chinese New Year then?

This year we went to Singapore Botanic Gardens in the morning. Other than us, 95% of the gardens’ visitors were non-chinese. They’re either expats, tourists, malays or indians. Orchard Road was considerably quiet, with most of its shops (even its huge shopping centres) closed for the whole day. It was Anya’s first ever visit to a public park, and she enthusiastically went, ‘Ooo! Ooo!’ everytime she saw a dog. Haha.

In the afternoon, we had a cosy get-together at a friend’s house.

Nice.

It’s nearly 11 months since Anya was born and I still haven’t shed ALL the extra kilos. *sigh*

They say you shouldn’t lose all the kilos anyway if you’re still breastfeeding, but I’m starting to think if I’m using it as an excuse not to exercise at all!

Us women want the yummy tidbits, but not the calories; the slim figure and well-toned tummy, without the sweaty exercise. Aaah, if only that’s possible …

Woke up this morning and aaa… it’s great to see the twinkles in Anya’s eyes were back! The fever was gone and her body temperature’s stable throughout the day. After her ‘3-day-battle’ against the virus, Anya came out as a winner! Yipeee…

And of course, this automatically means we are back to:

> tidying up messy DVD stacks
> returning chairs after being pushed around
> saying ‘No … ngga boleh ya’ whenever she tries to touch the stuff below our sink

The list would go on and on. But then again … who’d mind doing all this? We don’t.

Anya’s fever shot up to 40.5 deg that Monday night! To be exact, it was 1am on Tuesday. Fearing for any possible ‘unknown’ cause, we took her to KK Children’s hospital immediately. To our surprise and as if it’s pre-arranged for us, there’s a taxi waiting below our flat. The driver just finished his shift for the day and was about to go home, but he’s willing to drive us to the hospital (FYI, the street was dead quiet and it’s nearly impossible for us to get a taxi that night unless we called for one. And that means we have to wait by the roadside for some time). We really thank God for this.

It’s our first ever visit to the hospital and the staff was – again, to our surprise – friendly and professional. We just somehow didn’t expect this kind of service. AND considering that we went there in the wee hours, we only paid for $65 for consulting the doctor, a blood test and 4 bottles of medicine! To our relief, the doctor said it was a viral infection and there’s nothing ‘serious’. No antibiotics were necessary, too. We reached home at 3.45am. Anya’s a happy little baby in the afternoon, and her body temperature is normal then. Well, her appetite is definitely down by 50% (if not more!). Refusing to chew her food or drink her milk. But she’s still alright overall. When the sun starts to set, that’s when her temperature rises again and her energy slowly vanishes into thin air. She hit 40.6 deg last night.

We know lots of our friends’ kids are also unwell at the moment. The flu bug and whatever other viruses are really going around. I just hope and pray that it’ll be over soon for everyone.

Good health is something we enjoy everyday and often take granted. Sometimes, it’s only when we lose it, even for a little while, that we are reminded of the countless blessings we actually receive everyday.

Anya’s not quite as bubbly as usual when her body temperature got as high as 39.3 deg at 7pm today. Her runny nose started early last week; her ‘phlegmy’ cough, 4 days ago; and her fever, just last night. She gagged and vomited a few times too when the mucus seems to build up in her throat. Instead of bouncing and smiling away like she’d normally do, she now prefers to cuddle up quietly on my lap. Took her to the doctors last week and we’re going there again tomorrow.

Other than getting advice from the doctor, I usually go and read my ‘handbook’: What to expect the First Year. This book is really really good and I personally recommend it to all moms and dads out there. The website babycenter.com is also another great source of info and tips.

Anyway, here’re a few extra reminders on fever matters:
> Avoid dehydration. Drink lots and lots of fluid
> Don’t overdress the kid, it’ll only bring her body temperature even higher
> Sponge them with cool, damp cloth. I personally place it on her forehead when Anya’s asleep so she’s less resistant then
> And of course, give heaps and heaps of hugs and kisses

Anya can finally drink from her straw cup by herself!She does it with ‘style’ though.

She’d put her legs up, pull her pants and tug on her shoes at the same time.

Just making a simple act of drinking a little more interesting, I guess *smile*

Ta daaa…! The web is finally up!

A brand new year and a brand new website!I’m soo happy with it! (considering I’m a complete beginner in website stuff and can only work on it in between Anya’s naps, meal preparation, housework and following-up on clients!)

This is sooo much better too, compared to freewebs.com‘s services I used before where I can only upload a max. of 70 images there!